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Amen. First Chronicles chapter number 24, we're in this section at the very end of First Chronicles where we're describing the layout of David's kingdom, all the different people in their offices. And in this particular chapter, we're going through the priests and the Levites and all their families. So, First Chronicles really centers around one main character which is King David. And everything in the book kind of points to David's reign. The first nine chapters were all those genealogies ultimately culminating in the genealogy of David and his sons and so forth. And then from chapters 10 through 22, we had the story part of First Chronicles which was all about King David and his reign. Well now, we've gotten to the end of David's life and now, these final chapters just explain how David's kingdom is laid out. It starts out in verse number 1, now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron, the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no children, therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest's office. So the Bible is telling us here that Aaron had four sons and Aaron is of course the high priest and so his sons were going to be the hereditary high priest or chief priests after him. But none of those sons got wiped out before they even had any children so there's really only two divisions of the family of Aaron. Let's go back and look at that story. Go to Leviticus chapter number 10. Go back in your Bible to the third book, Leviticus chapter number 10 and we're going to see where two of Aaron's sons were killed before the Lord. So he had four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu were wicked before the Lord, they died, they were killed before they had any children. Let's go back to that story. Look at Leviticus chapter number 10 verse 1. The Bible reads, And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Now if you study the book of Leviticus, the first nine chapters, God is giving these really detailed instructions about exactly how things are supposed to go in the worship of the Lord, all the different sacrifices that are to be offered. And when you read the books of Moses in general, there's a lot of detail that's given about exactly how to worship the Lord, exactly what to do, when to do it, and even the buildings that they're told to build when it comes to the tabernacle and the furniture of the tabernacle. He repeatedly admonishes Moses, See that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed to thee in the mount. And so what we learn right away when we're reading the Bible is that God is a God of order, and he wants things done a certain way, and the house of God is not meant to be a free-for-all where anything goes. Once everybody just kind of shows up and just worships the Lord however they see fit, that has never been God's plan. That's not the way it was in the Old Testament, and that's not the way it is in the New Testament. The Bible tells in the New Testament, let all things be done decently and in order. God has ordained leadership in the local church. God has given us instructions on how to operate in the local church, and he expects us to follow him. He doesn't expect us to just do whatever. And what we see here with Nadab and Abihu is that they're offering strange fire before the Lord. They just get out some censors, light up some incense, man, and we're just going to worship the Lord, and it didn't end well. And right away, God had to nip this in the bud. I mean, this is the very beginning. They just started, and they're already deviating from what he told them, and they're in high positions of leadership here. I mean, these are Aaron's two eldest sons. So if these guys are offering strange fire on the first day, what kind of a message is that going to send to the rest of the congregation? They're just going to be worshiping God however they want. They're going to be in the high places and the groves and the green trees, and pretty soon they're going to be making a bunch of icons and bowing down before stained glass windows and little statues of Mary and Jesus. They're going to burn a little incense to Mary, burn some incense to the saints, go kiss the saints, go make all kinds of symbols like this, and start spritzing holy water everywhere. They're going to do all kinds of dumb things that God told them not to do. And so God says, you know, right away, let's just nip this in the bud right now. These guys are going to die right now just to send a really strong message that church is not a free-for-all. Church is not just anything goes. And a lot of people just think, well, as long as your heart's in the right place, God will accept any offering. Oh, really? How'd that work for Cain? You don't have to get very far in the Bible to figure out that following instructions is extremely important to God. I mean, you don't get far, right? Cain brings an offering unto the Lord, fruits and vegetables. God won't accept that. He gave specific instructions, and he expects them to be followed. And that's the way God is from Genesis to Revelation. And you know, earlier in the book of 1 Chronicles, what happened when they carried the ark the wrong way? They were supposed to carry it on their shoulders. They put it on a cart. Uzzah dies, right? They weren't supposed to look into the ark. They opened the lid, look into it. Thousands of people are killed. I mean, all throughout the Bible, God is telling us over and over again that he has commandments, and he expects us to obey them. But a lot of people today, they just take a very loose interpretation of the commands of God and what God's telling us, and it's completely wrong. And especially when it comes to worshiping the Lord, we better do it the way he told us to do it. You know, just some examples of weird worship of the Lord. I've heard of these super liberal churches having communion with popcorn and Coca-Cola. Right? I mean, just, hey, man, it's all about your heart, man. It's whatever you want. I mean, look, I've seen a liberal church that opened their service with Bon Jovi living on a prayer as their first congregational sign. I mean, it's got prayer in the name. I mean, and the same church then, because that wasn't enough, about a year later, and by the way, it's a church called New Spring Church in Anderson, South Carolina. They also, about a year later, opened their service with Highway to Hell in church. Oh, man, we're reaching thousands of people. Yeah, so is ACDC reaching thousands of people. For the devil. Okay? And so, you know, how are you going to play a song by a band that their album is called We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll, and they're singing a song called Highway to Hell, and that's where you're going to sing in church? And you're going to sing Bon Jovi, and you're going to do all this weird stuff. You know, that strange fire before the Lord, you know, God's going to torch these people one way or another. I mean, he's going to burn these people up, either now or later. Okay? So we need to read our Bibles and figure out what God wants, and then give it to him. Amen? And when it comes to church, if we want to figure out how the church is to be operated, we better read our Bibles, figure out what he wants us to do, how he wants us to do it, and we better do it. You know, in the last few weeks, as we've been going through 1 Chronicles, one of the things that we emphasized, because it was really relevant to the chapters we were reading, were the qualifications for the pastor. And we emphasized those things. We went to 1 Timothy 3, and there's a whole chapter about the qualifications for the pastor. Titus chapter 1, you know, half the chapter is about the qualifications for the pastor. Is that optional? I mean, look, if God tells us to do things a certain way, we need to follow those instructions. It's important. And when it comes to worshiping the Lord, they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. You've got to worship him in truth. You've got to worship him the way that he wants to be worshipped. A lot of people just think, like God's just up there just so starving for worship, he'll just take anything. That's what a lot of people think. But that's not the case. He won't accept certain offerings. He won't accept certain prayers. He won't accept certain worship, okay? He's looking for those that worship him in spirit and in truth. And the Bible says, the Father seeketh such to worship him. He's looking for the people who are going to worship him the way he said to worship him. That's who he's looking for. He's not just looking for anybody to worship. I'm just looking for anybody that would just be so kind as to name the name of Christ. You know, I'll take him. I'm that desperate. No, he's not desperate, friend. He's up in heaven saying, you know what? I'm the Lord. I kill and I make alive the Lord's my name. And he that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. And so God is a fearsome God. The Bible says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The Bible says that God is high and lifted up and holy. And so we need to have proper respect for God. And the Bible says that in the New Testament, we ought to know how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So we ought to be very careful about how we respect God and his house and his work and so forth. Now in this story, it says there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them. Look at verse three. Then Moses said unto Aaron, this is it that the Lord spake saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me. And before all the people, I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. Yeah, that's a good idea, Aaron. You better just shut up and let God tell you. And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp. And they went near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said. And Moses said unto Aaron and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, those are the two remaining sons, uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses. And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. And they put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean. Now this seems a little random to just all of a sudden pull out this prohibition against alcohol. I think it's very likely that Nadab and Abihu might have been doing a little drinking, and that's what made them do something so stupid. Because otherwise, why does he finish up the story about Nadab and Abihu getting torched, and then just turn around and say, Oh, by the way, Aaron, you and your sons better never drink alcohol when you go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. You need to be able to put a difference between holy, unholy, clean, and unclean. So it's very likely that alcohol could have had something to do with this sin, and that's why it's being brought up. At this time, although the Bible doesn't say that explicitly, it says in verse 10 that you may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken unto them by the hand of Moses. So again, we need to understand that there's a difference between right and wrong, holy and unholy. We better figure out what that difference is. Better get in the Bible, figure out what God wants, figure out what's acceptable, and that that's how we ought to serve him. That's how we ought to worship him. You know what else we should never do? Don't ever show up to church drunk. I mean, God threatens to kill you if you do that. He said don't, now you laugh at that. People have shown up to this church drunk, okay. We've had drunk show up, we've thrown people out that were drunk or, you know, realized halfway through a sermon that some guy who'd stumbled in was drunk or whatever. I mean, people that would do that must just have no fear of the Lord to just get drunk and show up today, you know. I've had some guys show up here before, I don't want to talk to the pastor, and I say I don't talk to drunks, get out of here, you know, and we dragged him out of here. But you say, oh, you should have given the gospel. He's not even coherent enough to get the gospel. And by the way, I have witnessed that same guy because I've seen this guy, he's been around here for the last decade, this homeless drunk, and so I've caught him at some of his more lucid moments, and I have given him the gospel, and he rejected it. But he'll still show up drunk asking for money, asking for free stuff. So we need to understand that in the New Testament, God still cares about his house. He still wants things to be done decently and in order. He still wants us to show up to church sober. God forbid that someone would show up drunk. I remember when I was in Chicago doing soul winning every weekend in South Chicago when I was out there in Bible college. We rented out a space on Sunday afternoons from a Mennonite church, and we would hold services there in the inner city and bring in the people from the neighborhood and preach to them and get them saved and baptized and stuff like that. And there was this deacon that would let us in every time. And he would unlock the door for us around like maybe I don't know if it was 1.30 or something like that. It was sometime in the afternoon. He would open the door for us and let us in because he was with the Mennonite church, and this guy was virtually every time drunk at that time. So I don't know if he just got drunk with lunch or whatever, but he'd show up and we'd ask him, hey, you know, deacon so-and-so, how you doing? I'm blessed by the best is what he would say every time. Totally drunk, you know, no fear of God. So we need to understand that God's house is sacred. God's house is holy. Now, look, just because we're not on some temple mount or some holy place or something like that, you know, any time that we're gathered together as a body here, it becomes a sacred place. It becomes a holy place. It becomes a place that we should respect. And it wouldn't matter right now if our whole congregation were gathered in a park somewhere or in a warehouse somewhere or in somebody's house somewhere. Obviously we couldn't fit in someone's house, but when our church was smaller, you know, wherever we gather, that becomes a holy place. That becomes a sacred place. That becomes the house of God right there. And so we need to treat it with respect. Teach your children to have respect for God's house and not to desecrate this place, you know. And again, it's not because there's anything special about the building, but when we're here gathered, it becomes a sacred assembly. It becomes a sanctuary or a holy place. So have respect for it. That's what happened to the first two sons. Now let's go back to 1 Chronicles chapter 24. So we're left with two sons. And this is a significant theme in the Old Testament, all right. So just to review, Aaron had four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu, they didn't last long. They got wiped out right away. Eleazar and Ithamar, they took heed under what they saw and they straightened up and they flew right. And so their descendants became the priests. And more significantly, they became the high priests or the chief priests. Now in the time of David, the way things worked was they actually had two high priests because they had one from the house of Eleazar and one from the house of Ithamar because you have these two main streams of the priesthood among the tribe of Levi. Look down at your Bible. That's why it says at the end of verse 2, therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priests' office, chapter 24 verse 3. And David distributed them both Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar according to their offices in their service. So we see that the two chief priests are Zadok and Ahimelech. One from each of these two streams of Aaron's descendants. Verse 4, and there were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar and thus were they divided. Among the sons of Eleazar there were 16 chief men of the house of their fathers and 8 among the sons of Ithamar according to the house of their fathers. Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another, for the governors of the sanctuary and governors of the house of God were of the sons of Eleazar and of the sons of Ithamar. Verse 6, and Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe, one of the Levites, wrote them before the king and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and before the chief of the fathers of the priests and Levites, one principal household being taken for Eleazar and one taken for Ithamar. And I'm not going to relist all these names that we already read before the sermon began. Now let's talk about these two families, the family of Eleazar and the family of Ithamar. If you would, flip over to 1 Kings chapter number 2, 1 Kings chapter number 2. And so we see that in the time of David, the priests were Zadok and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and those were the two streams of that house. Go over to 1 Kings chapter 2. Now this is where Solomon takes over, okay? So in the time of David, we know the situation, but David's son is Solomon. So when Solomon takes over, he ends up actually firing one of the high priests and banishing that family from the priesthood, and so then we get down to just having one family of priests. So instead of having this dual priesthood, we get down to where it's just Zadok. And we're going to see what happens with Abiathar and Ahimelech and that part of the family, okay? It says in 1 Kings chapter 2 verse 26, And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, this is Solomon the king, get thee to Anathoth unto thine own fields, for thou art worthy of death. But I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou bearest the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted, and all wherein my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord, that he might fulfill the word of the Lord, which he spake concerning the house of Eli and Shiloh. We're going to come back to that. Verse 28, Then tidings came to Joab, for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. So let me bring you up to speed here in the story. In chapter 1, Adonijah decided to do a little coup d'etat where he's going to take over and become king instead of Solomon. Now we know that God chose Solomon to be the king. God made that clear, David made that clear. Solomon was the chosen one to be the king, but Adonijah, his elder brother, presumptuously declared himself to be king, self-ordained himself to be the king, and blew a trumpet and gathered together a bunch of people. Well there were certain people that were involved in the conspiracy with him. Joab was one of them. Also Abimelech, or I'm sorry, excuse me, Ahimelech and Abiathar, these two priests of that other stream, they joined forces with Adonijah. In fact he's the one who said, you know, or it was said unto him, by Adonijah, come in for thou art a valiant man and bring his good tidings. That was Adonijah saying that to one of his fellow conspirators, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar. So basically these guys were involved in this sedition or treason where they tried to put Adonijah on the throne. So because of this, they're being punished by King Solomon because of the fact that they were involved in that. And so he lets Abiathar off the hook. He says, you know, you're worthy of death, but I'm not going to kill you because of the fact that you served the Lord under David and, you know, I'm looking at your past good behavior. So just go to your field, get out of my sight. You're not going to be a priest anymore. You're just going to go work in a field. You're going to be a farmer. Just get out of here. I don't want to see you again. So then Joab, he kind of sees what's going on and he's afraid for his life. So he runs into the temple and he, or not the temple, the house of God, the tabernacle, and he grabs onto the horns of the altar. So this is like a symbol for seeking mercy by taking hold of the horns of the altar in the tabernacle. And he figured like, they're not going to kill me in church. You know, they're not going to kill me in the house of God because it's a sacred place. So it says in verse 28, then tidings came to Joab for Joab turned after, had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled into the tabernacle of the Lord and caught hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told King Solomon that Joab was fled into the tabernacle of the Lord. And behold, he's by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada saying, go fall upon him. Meaning go kill him, you know, fall on him. And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the Lord and said to him, thus sayeth the king, come forth. And he said, nay, but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again saying, thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. So basically Benaiah feels a little weird about killing him while he's taking hold of the Lord's altar, while he's in the tabernacle. So he's trying to get him to come out and he's like, nope, I'm going to die here. I'm not going anywhere. So Benaiah comes back to Solomon and says, you know, what do I do? He said, you know, I'll die here. And then it says in verse 31, and the king said unto him, do as he hath said. Yeah, if he wants to die on that hill, then let him die there. So he said, do as he hath said and fall upon him and bury him. That thou mayest take away the innocent blood which Joab shed from me and from the house of my father, and the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Emesa the son of Jethur, captain of the host of Judah. Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab and upon the head of his seed forever, but upon David and upon his seed and upon his house and upon his throne shall there be peace forever from the Lord. So Benaiah the son of Joaiah went up and fell upon him and slew him, and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness, and the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host, and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar. So we see this is where Zadok becomes the chief priest, no more Abiathar, just Zadok. Just the house of Eleazar, no longer the house of Ithamar. Now go back to 1 Samuel chapter 3. The reason we're going to go back to 1 Samuel chapter 3 is because if you remember, it's said in verse 27 of 1 Kings 2, so Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord that he might fulfill the word of the Lord which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. Now listen, I know it's a complicated sermon tonight. I know we're talking about a lot of obscure Bible characters and kind of jumping all over the timeline and all over the place, but it's all going to tie together, I promise, alright? So this is all going to tie together. So try to follow the Bible here, and I'm going to tie this all together because it's very interesting here. And you know, all scripture is profitable for doctrine and for instruction of rights. There's a valuable truth to be learned in this story, and I'm going to tie it all together. But you have to keep assembling the pieces as I give them to you, okay? So just a super quick review, and then we're going to jump into 1 Samuel chapter 3. Aaron has four sons, right? Okay? They get wiped out right away for disobeying the Lord, probably because they've been drinking earlier. That's probably what led to that, okay? Although the Bible's not explicit. Two sons are left, which gives us two different lineages for the priesthood. So when the kingdom of Israel is at its heyday under King David, he's got both priesthoods in full swing, and he's got a representative from each. We've got Ahimelech, son of Abiathar, representing the house of Ithamar, and then we've got Zadok, representing the house of Eleazar, and both of those are in full swing. But what happens? In the end, one of those houses, Ahimelech and Abiathar, they side with Adonijah, the traitor, and so they end up getting fired, banished, and sent away from the priesthood, and we're left with one house left. That's the house of Zadok. Okay. But this event had its roots in a previous event, because the Bible says, even though they're getting fired for following the traitor and going with Adonijah, actually, this was a fulfillment of a prophecy that was given to the house of Eli much earlier, decades earlier. Okay? Let's look at that prophecy. Let's look at 1 Samuel 3.11. And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, as his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. This is reprobate right here. I mean, when he says, look, your sin and iniquity is not going to be purged with sacrifice or offering forever. And by the way, that's why the sons of Eli here that we're talking about, you know what the Bible calls them? Sons of Belial. It says that Eli's sons were sons of Belial, Belial, Beliel, Beelzebub. We're talking about sons of the devil. What does that mean? They are the children of the wicked one. They are the tares among the wheat. They are infiltrators, Judas Iscariots, reprobates, haters of God, wicked, hard-hearted children of the devil. That's what these people were, okay, the sons of Eli. And so because Eli did not train them properly, he did not restrain them, he just allowed them to become vile, God brings this judgment upon the house of Eli that says, your household is going to be punished. And this is that stream of the priesthood that's going to eventually get fired, that's going to eventually be kicked out from being a priest and we're going to be left with Zadok, the righteous priest. That's who's going to be left. Now what did Eli's sons do that was so bad? Well, the Bible tells us they were gluttonous, they stole from the church and they also fornicated with the women that assembled themselves at the door of the tabernacle. They were using church as their own little hunting grounds to commit fornication. I mean, can you imagine anything more wicked? This is like what the Bible talks about in Revelation when it talks about Jezebel seducing God's servants to commit fornication and how they had known the depths of Satan. That's what the Bible called it. When someone would use church to steal or use church to commit fornication or use church to commit adultery, that is what is known as the depths of Satan. You see, the Bible said in Matthew 23, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayer, therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. So why were the Pharisees to receive a greater damnation? Because they prayed as they devoured the widows' houses. See, devouring widows' houses is one thing, but when you for a pretense make long prayer, now you're going to receive a greater damnation. You see, fornication is wicked, but when you use church to commit fornication, that's the depths of Satan. When you're just fornicating with one after another in church, committing adultery with one after another in church, anything that you use church to do, it becomes an aggravated crime in the eyes of God. I mean look, stealing is wicked, amen? If you went down and stole from the liquor store, that's wicked. But what about if you stole from the offering plate? What if you stole from church? Now you've gotten to a super wicked level of sin, right? And when you're talking about committing fornication, it's wicked. But using church to troll for fornication or troll for adultery, now you've known the depths of Satan. So much worse, a greater condemnation for that sin. So these guys are very bad. That's why God's so angry. So how does this all tie together? What's the moral of the story? The moral of the story is that wicked people are eventually going to get what's coming to them and God's going to wipe them out, even though sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes it could even take years or decades for it to catch up to them. But remember with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. He's not impatient to execute judgment. So sometimes there will be a delay there. And what's also interesting that we can learn from all these stories is that God will often use something completely different to punish that person. So the punishment is not always related to the original crime. So here we see that these guys are getting away with fornication, getting away with stealing, getting away with gluttony, drunkenness, whatever, but they're not getting away with it because later on down the road, God orchestrates events with the Philistines and other things in order for them to get killed. So why did they get killed by the Philistines? Well, because of the fact that they were wicked in the sight of the Lord. And then when you see this priestly house that God has a problem with, a Himmelach and a Beiathar, he doesn't want them to be priests. He doesn't want them in that position. He wants the house of Zadok. He wants those descended from Eleazar to be the chief priests. So how does he go about bringing this to pass? What does he do? Well, he raises up a guy like Adonijah. And Adonijah, if you look at that story in 1 Kings 1, what God is using him for is he's like a magnet for people who God needs to punish but hasn't punished yet. This is really interesting. Think about this. Adonijah is just this magnet for everybody who needs to be punished. Because look, what did Solomon punish Joab for? Solomon punished Joab for doing what? Following Adonijah. But is that really what Joab was getting punished for? No, because what he was really getting punished for was shedding the blood of two innocent people, Abner and Emesa, two men that were better than him. But technically, what did it seem like he was getting punished for when he's gripping the horns of the altar? He's gripping the horns of the altar because he knew he'd been with Adonijah. He gets wiped out. Okay. You know, what's going on with Abiathar and Himalek? Well, they went with Adonijah. Yeah, but why are they really getting punished? Because their family's been messed up for a long time and God has been meaning to fulfill that prophecy for all these decades. It had to happen. So God will use things like Adonijah just to become a lightning rod or a magnet or what's the word? A trash can for people to be thrown into. So basically, God raises up Adonijah to be this great trash can, okay? And then he's got all these people that are trash. And they just throw themselves in the trash. And so they all just flock to Adonijah, Lord, leave Adonijah. But they don't know. It's a trap. God has specifically allowed Adonijah to even exist for what purpose? To punish multiple people that needed punishing, some for many years, some for many decades. And he just kind of does it all in one shot by rallying them all to this guy, Adonijah. Isn't that interesting how that works? And you know what's so funny is that, you know, we had our traitor here, our disgraced Trinity-denying deacon, Tyler Baker, who was going behind our back teaching this Pentecostal oneness garbage, denying the Trinity, teaching that God the Father is the one who died on the cross for us and all this stupid heresy, okay? And he goes out and names his church that he started, Valiant Baptist Church. And here's what's funny about that. Then he puts as the theme verse on the homepage of his website, come in, for thou art a valiant man and bring us good tidings. But he was too stupid to even look up that verse. He probably just did a Google search on the word valiant. He's like, oh, this one sounds good. But he didn't realize what story it's coming from. The person who said come in for thou art a valiant man is Adonijah, the trash man, okay? The spiritual trash collector, Adonijah, who says come on in for thou art a valiant man. Yeah, come in and get killed. Come in and get punished. Come in and get wiped out. Come in and get banished. Come in and get exiled. Come in and get the punishment that you've deserved all along. Come on in, Ahimelech. Come on in, Joab. Come on in, everybody who needs to be punished. And he puts that verse on his website. It's even still there to this day. He's too dumb to realize what it means, okay? Because the Lord is using him as a trash collector. And every bozo, every heretic, every fool just goes to him. This church is literally 100% FWBC rejects. There is not one person in that church who is not a disgruntled former Faithful Word Baptist Church listener. That's it. That's who goes there. That's the only people who listen to his channel or anything. Look, when we fired his sorry rear end, he had like 650 subscribers on YouTube that were all of our people that we basically told, hey, subscribe to that channel and whatever. You know, here he is, what, a year and a half almost after getting fired or whatever the time frame, a year and five months. He's got less than 600 subscribers now. He's gone down, okay? And most of the people that have subscribed to him are just people who just forgot to unsubscribe. One of my channels was still subscribed to him a couple weeks ago, for crying out loud. I just had to hit that unsubscribe button. But the point being, he's got this fan club of just 100% haters of Pastor Anderson, haters of Faithful Word Baptist Church, disgruntled former Faithful Word fans that are just flocking to him to throw themselves in the trash. And you know what? I say, amen. Because you know what? The trash needed to be taken out. And I'm thankful for every piece of trash that he took out of our church. There's not one piece of trash that he took out of our church that I want back. I'm not going to be dumpster diving for a single one of them. Every last one of them, I'm glad that they're gone. You say, well, you know, that's heartless. Look, a little leaven leavens the whole lump, friend. We don't need a bunch of heretics and weirdos and perverts and liars and devils and people stealing from the offering plate in our church. And I'm glad for every last one of them who threw themselves in that trash can. Folks, they denied the Trinity, which is the basis of our Christian faith. It's not the basis of being a Baptist. It's not the basis of being a fundamental Baptist. It's not the basis of being an independent fundamental Baptist. It's the basis of even Christianity in general, okay? Go to a list on Wikipedia, non-Trinitarian. And it lists all the denominations that are non-Trinitarian. It's all cults, all of them. The Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarian, Yahweh this, Yahweh that, and the Iglesia Ni Cristo, and just other cults, the Pentecostal oneness, which is just not even close to being the Bible-believing Christianity. All of evangelical Christianity believes in the Trinity, all of them. Every Baptist church, whether they're Southern Baptists, Independent Baptists, Calvary Chapel, Chantenam churches, Protestant churches, I mean, look, everybody who is even saved or close to being saved or even considers themselves an evangelical Christian believes in the Trinity. They don't believe in this oneness doctrine that God the Father died on the cross. Look, when that movie, The Shack, came out, and I preached a whole sermon about it. I preached two sermons about it. The Shack exposed part one and part two. One of the things, and this was months before we fired his sorry rear end, you know, I went off on a tangent about how in that book, The Shack, God the Father died on the cross for us, how that's heresy. And guess what? You think I'm the only one who noticed that? There were all kinds of Christian groups freaking out saying, this movie, this book, pervert the Trinity, and they're teaching patripationalism or that God the Father died on the cross. You know, God the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, okay? And just to make it real clear what we believe, you want to know what we believe about the Trinity? We believe in the traditional Orthodox view of the Trinity. The standard Orthodox, just mainstream view of the Trinity, that's what we believe in. Three persons, one God. That's what we believe, okay? The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Ghost. We got three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Not like in The Shack where they say, oh, we all submit to each other. No, no, no. The Son submits to the Father, okay? And the Bible is crystal clear on these things. And by the way, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, existed in the Old Testament. Before Abraham was, or before Abraham was, he already was there, okay? And he was not there just as the Word. He was there as a person named the Word, okay? He was a person when he appeared to Joshua as the captain of the Lord's host. He was a person when he appeared to Abraham in the heat of the day in the plains of Mamre. He was a person when he walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, and when he formed Adam from the dust of the earth with his own hands, he was a person, okay? Not according to our disgraced former deacon who was fired as a heretic. You know what? He says that that person didn't exist because they just believed that the Father became the Son. No, wrong. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And we could go on and on about that, but it's just so ironic how he chose that verse when – or actually it's not ironic at all. Actually it's the perfect verse, you know, that he picked for that. But it's pretty interesting how these stories all kind of come together, and once you kind of get the overview of it and you see how it all comes together, you can see how God raises up a person like Adonijah just to do a trash collection, just to get things out of his kingdom that offend, just to get rid of the wrong kind of people and clean up. So look, don't be discouraged about these type of events when they happen, because it's a purging that needs to happen, you know. When a tree brings forth a lot of good fruit, then God will purge it so that it can bring forth more fruit. That's what the Bible says. And that's why, you know, ever since our tree's been purged, our church is growing, thriving and doing greater works than we've ever done. Good riddance, bad rubbish. And you know what's funny, while I'm on the subject, let me just continue to go off for a little bit. Just indulge me a little bit, all right, here. So this fool, Tyler Baker, he gets up and says, you know, how I'm a wimp, and I'm a little girl, and I'm a sissy, and a baby, and Roger Jimenez is a sissy, and Donny Romero, we're all just these sissies and girls and babies. That's what he says. This is what's called projection, okay. Now he's like, ah, you know, I'm taking a stand. He didn't take a stand. Everybody who was here knows how it went down. You know how it went down? He was sneaking around with this junk. We found out about it. I confronted him and screamed in his face about it, and he cowered before me like a little girl, and he cowered, oh, no, no, and then he made his little video where he's crying about it, the little baby, and you know what, I know Jesus wept, but you know what, Jesus did not weep because people were mean to him or something. You know, look at why Jesus wept. Look at why David wept. Look at why people wept in the Bible. There's a difference between a righteous weeping and just being a crybaby because you got fired because you suck as an employee, and you've been evil, and a Judas Iscariot, so you got fired. He cowered before me. He whined and begged, and you know what, the first thing he did was lie about everyone and throw them all under the bus. Blame everyone else, but he tries to say how valiant he is, he's such a man, he's so valiant. Pastor Anderson is so weak and spineless. That's funny because I confronted him, and he shriveled up and just died before me, and you know what, you know what he said, we said, hey, did you say this, and he said, oh no, that wasn't me, that was Rick Martinez, Rick Martinez did that. Hey, then when I release a video of him saying, oh, it was all Rick, I swear it was Rick, hey, he calls Rick Martinez on the phone and says, hey man, I'm sorry, I got backed into a corner, I had my back up against the wall, and I threw you under the bus, I'm sorry. He admitted that he lied when he threw Rick under the bus. So that's his toughness, yeah, he's so manly, so tough, yeah, yeah, when he's confronted, he's like, hey, it was you, it was Rick, I swear it was Rick, oh man, Rick, I'm so sorry. And then Rick Martinez said like, oh, Tyler, Tyler's so bold, he's so brave because he had the manhood to call me up and apologize. He wouldn't have had to apologize if he didn't lie when he got confronted with his sin. I mean, look, when David was confronted with his sin, you know what David said, I've sinned. What did Saul do when he was confronted with sin, oh, it was the people, oh, no, they made me do it. Aaron, what'd you do here, Aaron, oh, I just threw the gold in and a calf popped out, right? What did Tyler Baker do when he's confronted with going around teaching heresy, oh, no, no, I haven't been going, it was Rick, that was Rick Martinez, yep. Did you say that the Trinity is polytheistic, no, no, I don't believe it, no, that was Rick Martinez. Hey, Rick, man, I'm sorry, man, I threw you under the bus, buddy. And by the way, he didn't call and apologize to Rick the next day, he called and apologized to Rick a year later when the video came out of him lying and saying that stuff. And then it's like, oh, man, I gotta keep my, you know, I don't, look, he's not getting any new church members, he's gotta keep the ones he's got. And then Rick's like, oh, I have so much more respect for Tyler, he's so manly because he called me up to apologize. Well, you know, the reason I never called you up to apologize, Rick, is because I never lied about you and threw you under the bus. I didn't have to call you and apologize, because I wasn't backed into a corner peeing my pants throwing you under the bus, Rick, that's why I had nothing to apologize about. You know, hey, if you hurt somebody, by all means, apologize if you're wrong, but you know what, you know what's even better is to not lie about people in the first place and then you don't have to apologize for lying about them, because you didn't lie about them in the first place. Unbelievable, it's like the Twilight Zone, to sit there and say that Roger Jimenez and myself and Donnie Romero are these little girls, and it's so, and you know what's weird too, we opened a can of worms with this tonight. You know what's weird too, in his sermon he keeps saying like, oh, you are such a woman, you're a woman, and I'm thinking to myself like, that's like the worst insult to call someone is a woman? Like I was thinking, what do the women in his congregation feel like when he lists something bad, you're a woman, you're such a woman, it's like, well, ouch, if you're a woman, I guess that's like the worst thing you could be, according to Tyler Baker. What kind of sense does that make? That's the biggest insult he can call me, is a woman. And he's like, yeah, I was so, you know, what Pastor Jimenez did when he stood up to the sodomites, that was easy. Pastor Jimenez's building was surrounded by 600 angry sodomites, 600, okay, there were like 20 cops, 600 sodomites, five different media outlets, who was there? Yeah. Was it intense? No, no, no, it was easy, no, no, for Tyler it was easy, yeah. So basically, Pastor Anderson gets in his face, he's peeing his pants, throwing Rick under the bus, but Brother Jimenez is surrounded by 600 sodomites, oh, he's a baby, he's a wimp. How could anyone take this seriously? It's a joke. You know what, Brother Jimenez and I have been preaching the same truth, the same word of God, rip in face on the sodomites for over a decade, and we have been persecuted for it and paid the price for it and been attacked over and over and over again and been put in danger many, many times. You know, banned from five countries, that's nothing. I'm standing by my guns of oneness from 3,000 miles away. And he acts like, he's like, yeah, I stood up past, really, because we caught you. You didn't come to me and say, Pastor Anderson, you're wrong on the Trinity, no, you got caught. Think about that, folks. He's Adonijah, he's the trash man. Look, in my flesh, I would love for God to torch him like he torched Nadab and Abihu in my flesh, but in my spirit, I know that that's not God's will, because he needs to continue to function as a trash man. I'm serious. Like in my flesh, I'm just like, God, torch this fool, this Judas, this liar, this false profit. But at the same time, how then would the trash be collected? You know, where were the trash collection, were that to happen, right? You got to have a trash man otherwise. Look, what if you didn't have a garbage can in your house, what's going to happen? Trash will accumulate, stinking up the joint. And you know what, he did a great job cleaning out this church of trash and, you know, hopefully he'll clean out the steadfast church of trash in Jacksonville and on and on. All right, that was all impromptu. None of this was in my notes. I didn't even plan on tying that in, but I'm glad I did. Amen. But anyway, what's the moral of the story? Hey, you're going to get caught eventually. Be sure your sin will find you out, what goes around comes around. And sometimes when you see people getting away with wicked things, it's just because the punishment's coming later. And sometimes God will bring it in a completely unrelated way. And sometimes he'll orchestrate whole events just for the purpose of punishing people. And I think that that whole Adonijah episode is just to get all the trash together so that Solomon could take out the trash at the beginning of his reign and that his kingdom could be established in peace, 40 years of a great reign of peace. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word and for these Bible stories that we can learn so much from, Lord, and being able to see the righteous priesthood of Zadok versus the unrighteous family that the Himalayan and Abiathar are coming from, Lord. And we just pray that you would just help our church to continue to grow and to serve you and to be strong. And Lord, please help any trash that's in our church to be removed by an appropriate trash collection service. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.