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

Now in verse number 1 the Bible reads, It came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now, the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second abion. They were judges of Beersheba, and his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment. Now, if you remember last week in chapter 7, the children of Israel enjoyed that great victory. They got the Ark of the Covenant back a little bit before that, and then they went out to battle. They defeated the Philistines, and they had their freedom now. They were completely independent of the control of the Philistines, and everything was going well. God was blessing them. Well, as Samuel got older, it says that he made his sons judges over Israel, and the name's the two sons, but it says that they were not like Samuel. In fact, they took bribes. So, when people would go to them for judgment, and want them to decide who was right in a particular case, well, it was just whoever was paying off the judge is pretty much going to get what they want. So, they were corrupt judges, and this made people upset, so then they went and demanded a king. And of course, Samuel was upset with that. God says it's the wrong thing. But why did this happen? Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 1, and let me show you what the problem is. Because God had set up this perfect system of the judges that had been in place for approximately 400 years, and anything that God sets up, any system that God sets up, is obviously going to be the best system. And the system of the judges is what God laid out in Genesis through Deuteronomy, in the first five books of Moses. And he never set them up to have a king over them. That was not his intention. His intent was that they would have judges that would rule over them. Look if you would at Deuteronomy chapter 1. This is where God first brings up the fact that there's supposed to be two judges. It says in verse 12, How can I myself alone bear your comfort and your burden and your strife? Take you wise men and understanding, and known among your what? Tribes. Tribes. Is that singular or plural? Plural. Plural. So he says to choose these men from the tribes. Now there were 12 tribes of Israel, right? And he's saying pick men from those 12 tribes. And it says, I will make them rulers over you. And he answered me and said, The thing which thou has spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands and captains over hundreds and captains over fifties and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. Now watch this. And I charged your judges at that time. So he's calling these rulers that he set up. Out of all the tribes, he's calling them judges. He said, I charged your judges at that time, saying, hear the causes between your brethren and judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great. Ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's, and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it. So in the Old Testament, the children of Israel, they already had all their laws laid out. They didn't have like we have a legislative branch, just constantly making new laws every day. More laws, more laws, more laws. You know, it was just done. This was the law. They had the law of Moses, and that's the law that God gave them, and that's what they were living under. So they didn't need a legislative branch. Really, all they had was a one-branch government, just a judicial branch. They just had judges, and these judges were also called rulers. They were authority figures that were chosen by the people out of the different tribes, and people would bring problems to them or strife or disagreements, and they would basically handle that. Now, you notice, there were rulers over thousands, all the way down to rulers of tens, you know, just families, and we don't have time to go through this in depth because I want to get into 1 Samuel chapter 8, but if we read through numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, it's clear that they were broken up by families, and then they were broken up, you know, within the tribe by family. So basically, if there was just a small problem, it could just be dealt with just locally, like Dad could just deal with it or just that town could deal with it, but then there were other higher judges that were higher up that would make other decisions and so forth. But you see, the judges were chosen by the people. Do you see that? He says, you choose, out of your tribes, who you want to be your judges. These men that are, you know, and he gives some other criteria in the book of Exodus where he says that they need to be men who hate covetousness, not men who are motivated by money that would be prone to being bribed. Well, the problem that we see here in 1 Samuel chapter 8, if you want to go back there, is that Samuel just makes his sons judges, and he just sets them up as the top guys in the land. Well, this thing of a hereditary judge, that's never what God laid out. If you look at the book of Judges, obviously there were lots of lower-level judges, and then there was the top judge that God would raise up as a deliverer, like he raised up Samuel, and like he raised up men all throughout the book of Judges, men like Samson, men like Gideon, men like Barak, men like Ehud, you know, Othniel, all these different guys. But notice they all came from different tribes. You know, one of them was from the tribe of Issachar, one of them was from the tribe of Dan, one of them was from this tribe, one of them was from that tribe. It wasn't just one particular family line that was ruling, and they were chosen by the people, okay? Well, you see, the people did not choose Samuel's sons, did they? Because does it look like the people like these guys? They're going to him complaining, saying, we don't want these guys ruling over us. They're not like you, Samuel. They're not walking in your ways. We want to have a king instead. Well, what they should have done is just continued with God's system and just picked better judges. That's what they should have done. They didn't have to throw out the whole system. See, God's system is always perfect, but man is a sinner. So any system of government is going to have problems because men are in charge, and they're human beings, and they're sinners. But instead of fixing the problem by saying, well, we need to get rid of these guys because they're taking a bunch of rides, they're crooked, and throw them out, they just said, well, let's just throw out God's whole system and let's go with a system like all the nations around us where we just have a king over us. So that was the issue here, is that these guys were not chosen by the people. They were chosen by Samuel. The Bible is clear to tell us that Samuel made them judges, obviously just because they're his kids. Now, the other thing that we wonder at here is why in the world did Samuel's children turn out wrong? Because Samuel was a righteous man. He was a godly man. We don't see anything really negative about Samuel as we go through the Bible. So what was the problem here? Why did his sons turn out to be crooked judges? Well, perhaps it was the fact that they were just handed everything because instead of having to climb the ladder and go through life like the rest of us all go through life where we start at the bottom and work hard and if you're going to be a leader or you're going to be a pastor or you're going to be some kind of an important leader in business, you have to get there yourself. But see, Samuel just put his children in the top position in the land even though they had not earned it, even though they didn't deserve it. And so I think that that's what went wrong. He just gave them this power that they were not worthy of and the power probably went to their head and everything was handed to them and that's probably why they turned out wrong. I mean, that's the only thing I can see in the story because Samuel was a great man. I don't know why else his sons would be dishonest, probably just because they were put in a position that they weren't prepared for in which they had no business being in in the first place, which was not God's will. So it says in verse number 5 that it says, It said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. So here they're trying to pattern themselves after the heathen nations around them. Instead of understanding the fact that their nation was unique because they were ruled over by God's laws, the only nation on earth that had God's perfect law instituted across the board, they're trying to pattern themselves after some Baal-worshipping heathen nation. And if you remember when God gave them the law in Numbers and Deuteronomy, He said that people from around the world are going to look at your nation and hear about these righteous laws and they're going to want to come here. He said they're going to want to immigrate to your nation from all over the world when they hear about the righteous laws that you have and the perfect system of government that you have. And basically they're just throwing that away just to be like everybody else and ruining the perfect system. We can learn from this today and the fact that the United States of America, obviously not a perfect nation, obviously not a nation that's ruled by God's laws, but it's ruled by laws that are very different from God's laws, but yet today those who run our country talk about patterning our country after nations that are even worse than we are, like communist China. And they say, well, you know, China's going to pass us up because they're producing everything now and we need to be more like them. No, we do not need to be more like a godless, atheistic country like China. And let me tell you something, China today has a one-child policy, as in it is against the law to have more than one child in China. And if you do get pregnant with that second child, they'll come force you to have an abortion. It's a place with no freedom. It's a place where Christianity is clamped down upon, where preachers are thrown in jail and people have put in concentration camps for being a Christian today. It's a place that where Mao Zedong ruled for decades and literally murdered tens of millions of people. We have now to look at that and say, oh, what can we learn from them so that we can have a little more prosperity in our country? And that's what they're doing. I mean, they're looking at the Philistines. They're looking at these Baal-worshipping, wicked countries around them and saying, oh, maybe things will be better for us if we can be a little more like them. And, you know, we can apply this to our personal lives too. On the individual level, we have now to look around at the heathen and try to learn how to run our lives and say, oh, well, this is what, you know, unsafe people are doing, and this is how they're having a good marriage from this psychologist. No, why don't we go to the Bible and figure out how to have a good marriage? And if you're doing what the Bible says and you're not having a good marriage, you know, it's not the Bible's fault. You must be doing something wrong, you know? And when it comes to childbirth, when it comes to business, when it comes to anything, get your answers from the Bible. The Bible's never wrong. If it doesn't work, you're doing something wrong. Follow the Bible. Or we can look at this as a church. We don't need to pattern ourselves after the Catholic church or after the Presbyterian church or after the Epistemplean church or after the Charismatic church because we want to have more success or maybe bring in more people and so forth. No, we're not going to look around at people who are not God's people and say, oh, what can we pattern after them? No, we need to be patterned after God's Word. And their government was supposed to be patterned after God's Word, but instead they said, you know, make us a king like all the nations. We want to be like everybody. Well, I don't want to be like everybody else. And I don't want to take we're Baptist church to be like every other church. And I don't want my home to be like every other home. And I don't want our country to be like every other country. You know, we're supposed to be unique. We're supposed to be peculiar. We're supposed to be different. We're always going to be in the minority when we're doing what's right because the Bible says, which lead to destruction and many there be which go in their act because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth them to life and few there be that might. I want to be one of the few. I don't want to be one of the many. He says in verse 6, but the thing displeased Samuel. Of course it displeased him because he knew it was not God's will. He said, when they said, give us a king to judge us and Samuel prayed unto the Lord and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them. Now that's a really key point here. He tells Samuel, they have rejected me from ruling over them by having a king, by having a human leader. Instead of the Lord is our king, as the Bible says, he said they rejected thee. Go to Galatians, I'm sorry, Romans, Romans check number 6 in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Go to Romans chapter 6. I'm going to show you an important principle about freedom here in Romans chapter 6 that's laid out in the Bible. This is a great chapter and there's so much to learn from this chapter, but let's start reading, I'm trying to decide where to start because there's so much good stuff here. But let's just go ahead and start reading in verse number 13, the Bible reads, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Look at verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Now, a lot of people will really twist and misunderstand this scripture right here. And of course the answers are all right in the Bible, but they'll say, well we're under grace, and now does the Bible say, look at the next Bible, does the Bible say in verse 14 that we are not under the law? Is that what it says? That's what it says, right? It says you are not under the law. But see a lot of people misinterpret that and you know what people preach today that that means not under the law? That God's laws don't apply to us. Like we can break them whenever we want. Now isn't that ridiculous? To actually look at that and say, well we're not under the law, we're under grace. And that means that God's laws don't apply anymore. And we don't have to follow God's laws anymore. But here's why that doesn't make any sense. Keep your finger in Romans 6 and go to 1 John chapter number 3. 1 John chapter number 3 and keep your finger in Romans chapter 6. It says in 1 John chapter 3, it says in verse number 4, this is where we get a definition of sin in the Bible. 1 John 3 and 4 says, So what's the definition of sin? Transgressing the law. Breaking God's law. I mean it's pretty simple. A lot of people will try to give you these little cute definitions for sin today. Oh sin is when we miss the mark. It's anything less than the best for our life. No, that's not what the Bible says. Anytime you violate or transgress one of God's commands, that is sin. So with that in mind, look if you would at verse number 15. Let's read 14 again. We're in Romans 6. Romans 6 14 says, 15. What then? Shall we sin? Because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Now, what is the definition of sin according to the Bible? Transgressing the law. Breaking the law. So he's saying, hey, we're not under the law but under grace. What then? Should we break God's law because we're not under the law? God forbid that we would break God's law. When he says we're not under the law, he says we're not under the curse of the law. If we compare scripture with scripture, he goes into the same subject over and over again and says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. We're not under the law but under grace because our salvation is by grace. Our salvation is not by the law. No matter how much we sin, if we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior, we're still saved. And those sins will not be imputed unto us because we're not under the law but under grace. He says at the end of chapter 5 that where sin abounded, grace did much more about it. Then in Romans 6 1, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. So if we do continue in sin, yes, there will just be more grace to cover our sin, but should we do that? No. And Jesus Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And so the Bible here is not telling us throw out God's law. Just go by what the Spirit leads you. Just go by the New Testament only and throw out the entire Old Testament, every part of it. Is that what he's saying here? No. He's saying you're not under the law but under grace in regard to the fact that you're not under the curse of the law, but you're under, which is basically that there's a curse on anyone who commits sin that they'll die. And basically, hell is associated with that. But if we believe on Christ, we're free from that. We're saved. And that's all that that's saying. But let's keep going here. It says in verse number 16, this is where God's going to explain us why we should not sin. Because he says in verse 15, what then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Look at verse 20. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were freed from righteousness. Look at verse 22. But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness at the end of the last night. Now it's very clear from this passage and he says it over and over and over again that you only have two choices. You are going to be a servant. You say, I don't want to be anyone's servant. I'm just a free spirit. I just do what I want to do. No. The Bible says you will be a servant. He said you have two choices. You will be the servant of sin and free from righteousness or you'll be free from sin and a servant to God. Go to John 8. I mean he said it over and over again. He said being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Then he says when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. So you have two choices. Free from sin, servant to righteousness, or free from righteousness, servant to sin. You're going to serve one or the other. That's what the Bible tells us. Look at John 8. It says in verse number 32, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Verse 33 says this, They answered and we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, ye shall be made free? So these people are saying, Oh, you know, I'm not anybody's servant. I'm totally free from everyone. I don't need Jesus to make me free. Verse 34 says this, Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin, and the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. So again we see that basically if you commit sin, if you live a life of sin, you're the servant of sin. If you live a life of righteousness, then you're free from sin, but you're a servant to God now. You're a servant to Christ. So you're going to be someone's servant. So let me put it to you this way, the way that 1 Samuel chapter 8 puts it. Someone's going to rule over you. And in 1 Samuel 8 we see that. The Lord had ruled over them for hundreds of years. He was their leader. They had a very minimalistic government, very little government, virtually no government, just judges, that's all. Just in case there's an issue or a problem between people. When it came to war, they would just sound the trumpet and the people would all gather together and go fight the battle. They did not have a standing army. When they had strife and disagreement, they would go to these judges, but the laws were already laid down. Everything was pretty straightforward. Everything was pretty clear. God was their final authority and the Bible their only law book. God was reigning over them. But then they wanted to switch to having a man reign over them, a king, a physical human king on this earth. And when they said that, God said, They have rejected me. Look down at 1 Samuel chapter 8. It says in verse 7, And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them. So here's the situation. Either God reigns over you or man reigns over you. According to this passage, God was their ruler. Instead, they chose man. Now, here's the thing. Today, most people don't want to be reigned over by God's laws. I mean, your average person today in America, they don't want to follow God's law. They want to be free from righteousness. And when they talk about being free, and everybody, I don't think anybody would say freedom is bad, right? But it's just people have a warped view of freedom. Everybody's got a different definition of freedom. I remember there was a sticker on my aunt's card that said Protect Freedom. And my brother and I used to laugh at that sticker because we were saying like probably everyone agrees with it because when they look at it, they just think of it as the way they want to interpret that, what they think that means. Because there are so many different ways to interpret that. Everybody says they're for freedom. Everybody says they're for liberty. But people have often a warped idea of what freedom is, and not a biblical idea of what freedom is. Now on its face, very simply, freedom, just a basic definition of freedom, and I believe it's biblical and we can show it to be biblical, is just basically doing what you want to do, I mean deciding what you want to do, as opposed to someone else forcing you to do something that you don't want to do, okay? That's pretty much what freedom is. It's when you can make your own decisions and make your own rules and someone isn't dictating them for you. Now, here we see that people wanted man to rule over them and not God. Today we have a lot of people who say that they love freedom, but what they actually want is freedom from righteousness, and they want to be a servant to sin, okay? Now, here's the problem with that. The problem is that when you live a life of sin, you become a servant to sin, number one. We saw that in Romans 6 and John chapter 8. And number two, when you reject the Lord from ruling over you, then man rules over you. And so the reason today why our government rules over us with rigor, and you say, well, I don't believe that. I think our government is wonderful. Well, as we read the rest of the chapter, as we read the rest of the chapter, you'll see that everything that God is warning them is going to happen if they have a king. That's the same stuff that we live with except for triple or quintuple and worse. So if we're living supposedly in a totally free country, why is it that everything that the Bible lists here, why they don't want a king? Don't go down this road of having man rule over you because this is what it's going to be like. Why is it that we have all these things in triplicate and quintuplicate, if that's even a word, okay? Because, you see, people in America today don't want to live by God's laws. That's why. And when you reject God's laws and when you reject righteousness and godliness and holiness, then you end up being enslaved to man because somebody's going to rule over you. Either it's going to be God ruling over you where you're free because you choose every day to take up the cross and follow him and you choose to be his servant, or you're just against your will enslaved unto sin and enslaved unto the use of government. Let's read here the warning about why they don't want to have a king ruling over them. First of all, he says in verse 8, according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now, therefore, hearken unto their voice. So God will give you what you want, in many cases, and he'll give you the government you deserve, apparently. But he says, yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them, verse 10. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked him and the king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his chariots and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots, and he will appoint him captains over thousands and captains over fifties and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots, and he will take your daughters to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers, and he will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants, and he will take the what? Now, does that remind you of someone else who takes a tenth? Who takes a tenth throughout the Bible? God. God. Right? God takes a tenth. You know, the tithe. Now he's saying, Well, guess what? The king, he's going to want a tenth too. Why? Because he's now your substitute for God. He didn't want God ruling over him. Now you've got this guy. Well, guess what? He wants 10% too. And it says he'll take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants, and he will take your men's servants and your maid's servants and your goodliest young men and your asses and put them to his work. He will take the what? The tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his servants. He's saying, You're not going to be free. You're going to be his servants. And he says, And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which he shall have chosen you, and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Okay, but we will have a king over us that we also may be like all the nations, and we'll keep reading in a moment. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 17. You're in chapter 8. Just go forward to chapter 17. Really famous story about David and Goliath. Probably everybody has heard this story if they've been in church at all. And this is the part where David shows up, and he checks to see how his brethren are doing. And when he comes and sees them, he finds Goliath, of course, standing there and taunting and blaspheming God and blaspheming the Israelites. And he basically says, Instead of both of our armies fighting each other, why don't you just send one guy? He says, I'm one man, and he was their champion warrior. He was a huge giant of a man. We don't know. 9 foot 6 is what Brother David's saying. I believe him. So he's like 9 foot 6, huge warrior. And he's just saying, Choose you a man that we may fight together. Send somebody out here to fight with me. Instead of the whole battle, just us two will fight and determine the outcome. And if I win, you'll be our servants. And if he wins, then we'll be your servants. So no one has the guts to face him. So just day after day, he's making the same challenge, and no one will face him. King Saul, who was head and shoulders above everybody else, would not go and face him. Just a young man, just a small youth. We don't know the exact age, but the Bible calls him a lad, a youth, a stripling. He also calls him a man, so he wasn't a little kid, but he was a teenager or whatever. He was just a young man. He shows up, and he just gets angry and says, Who does this guy think he is? Isn't somebody going to do something about this? And basically they extend to him the offer of what's going to be done for the man that defeats Goliath. Let's look at verse 24. It says, And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid. And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that has come up? Surely to defy Israel is he come up. And it shall be that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and look at the last phrase, and make his father's house free in Israel. So, you know, back in 1 Samuel chapter 8, guess what? Everybody's free in Israel, because they had no king in those days. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, the Bible says over and over again. They had no king. They were all free. They weren't paying taxes unto a king whatsoever. Now, you have to go slay some guy that's, you know, more than time and a half your size that no one in the whole nation is willing to fight just to get a break on these taxes. That's the only way to get free. I mean, if you want to be free, okay, go kill this huge warrior and your dad's house can finally be free. But you see, the people didn't even realize back in chapter 8, that's only nine chapters later, you know, people didn't realize what they're giving up, their freedom. They're giving up freedom, and why are they giving up freedom? Well, let's go back to 1 Samuel chapter 8, and it's the same reason why people give up their freedom today, because there's nothing new under the sun, is there? Everything in the Bible is just as applicable today as it's ever been, because the Bible is a timeless book. Look what it says. Verse 19 of 1 Samuel 8, it says, Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us. That's fine. And go out before us and fight our battles. So basically, they want him for safety, you know, to protect them. He's going to go fight our battles. He's going to keep us safe, and we want to have a king for security purposes. Okay, so they're willing to give up all this freedom. They're willing to give up God's perfect system in order to have a man that's going to keep them safe. Well, you know what? God could have kept them safe. The Bible says, Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. And the Bible clearly spelled out in the Mosaic law that whenever they went out to battle against their enemies, that they were supposed to pray, they were going to send out the priests and the Levites, they were going to preach the Bible to them, and they were going to tell everyone who was afraid to go home so there was no involuntary service. Anyone who did not want to go to war, just go home. If you're scared, go home. They would send everyone home. They'd ask everybody, Who's afraid to fight today? Okay, go home. Now, you've heard that story about Gideon, where he told all the people that were afraid to go home and 22,000, I think out of 30,000 went home. But the thing is, God's law commanded them to do that every battle, every time. Send home everybody who's afraid. Anybody who's been married within the last year, go home. Anybody who planted a vineyard and didn't reap it yet, go home. And the Levites and the priests would preach to them and say, God is the one who's going to fight for you. God's going to protect you. God's blessing is going to be upon you. And God promised them that if they would follow His laws and to do things His way and to be righteous, He said, when you go out to battle, no one will be able to stand before you. He said, one of you shall chase a thousand. Two of you shall put 10,000 to fight. God promised them that they'd have perfect safety and perfect battle if they would do it His way, but they didn't have the faith to believe that. And so they rejected that system and said, No, we need a king to keep us safe. Let me explain something to you. When you're wicked as hell and disobey God's law, no king can keep you safe. Because when they had a king, how many times were they defeated with a king? How many times did they lose that battle? How many times did they get invaded? How many times did they get raided and pilfered and their towns turned over to the enemies? Why? Because of disobedience to God's work. Because it doesn't matter how much military and horses and chariots and kings you have, when you are wicked in the sight of God, God can bring judgment, and you can have no defenses and be safe if you are being protected by God. Look at David. David wore no armor. I mean, here's the Philistine with his iron helmet, I'm sorry, I think it was a copper helmet, the iron mail shirt. He had all the weapons. He had all the gear. David, they tried to put armor on him, and he said, Well, I cannot go with these for I have not proved them. He said, You know, it just doesn't really fit, and I'm not used to it. You know, because if he's never worn it before, these heavy, you know, mail shirt of chain mail armor and helmet, you know, he's not used to it. And so he went with no armor. He went with no sword. He went with a sling and five stones. He came with a stick in his hand against a man who had a giant sword and shield, and the Philistine's laughing at him, like, Why are you coming to me with a stick? You know, he said, Am I a dog? Did you come at me with a stick? Are you going to spank me like you spanked your dog? But he said, You know what? The battle's the Lord's, and I'm going to take your head off your body, and I'm going to feed your body to the bowels of the air, and you'll know that there's a God in Israel. God can protect us. God can take care of us, but we've got to obey God and serve God and do right by God. And wickedness is what brings a nation into bondage and into slavery. The children of Israel, they continually went into bondage and slavery when they disobeyed God. Why? Because if you reject the Lord for ruling over you, man is going to rule over you. And today we have people who think that they can have a free society and have freedom and not have a big abusive government, but they also want to be queer, you know, and they also want to have abortion, and they also want to have, you know, gay rights, as they call it, which, you know, I believe in the right to being happy, you know, and by the way, listen to me for a second. Gay is a Bible word. Did you know that the word gay is in the Bible? Who knows where it's found? Where's it found? James. James chapter 2. The word gay is in the Bible, and let me tell you something. It's talking about being happy and cheerful. It talks about someone having gay clothing, like the old Christmas song. Don, we now are gay apparel. Fa la la la la la la la. Okay, because gay means cheerful and happy. Now let me explain something to you. If there's a word that's used in the Bible and it has a certain meaning, I'm not going to sit there and pervert that word and use it to mean something else. I won't do it. And you can go around and say the word gay all you want. That is a word that is not in my vocabulary. I will not use that word. That is a Bible word. That is God's word. That is a wholesome word that means something totally wholesome, and I'm not going to use it to describe something that is vile, as the Bible calls it. That's filthy, as the Bible calls it. That's an abomination. That's wicked. I'm not going to use one of God's wholesome, clean words. And that's why I'll call him something a little more derogatory, like a queer, because that's more biblical. The Bible says in two places that they go after strange flesh, and the word queer means strange. That is a more appropriate word. Or I'll call him what the Bible calls him, a sodomite. And that's a word that we need to bring back into the culture today, a sodomite. Maybe then people will remember, hmm, there's a place called Sodom, where God raised fire and brimstone upon men who basically, you know, committed sick acts with other men. And that's what we have today in America, and it's popular, and it's mainstream, and it's on the TV, it's in the music industry, it's everywhere we look. They give it a cute little name, I won't qualify that name. That's not a biblical word. That is not the right word. And words are very important. You know, you try to soften things up. You know, it's not an affair, it's adultery. It's not alcoholism, it's drunkenness. Use Bible words for a change, and it will actually change the way that you think. But people want to control the way you think, so they change words to soften things up a little bit and make things a little easier for you to handle by changing the words. You see, hell is a much scarier place than Hades. You know, when somebody talks about going to hell, that has a little more punch behind it than Sheol. And words are vital, and that's why we need to use biblical words and biblical terms and not be sucked into using a nice word for something that's not nice at all. If it's an ugly act, we need to use an ugly word for it. Vile. Filth. Those are Bible words. Strange. Abomination. Wicked. Reprobate. Those are Bible words, and that's what I'm going to use to describe it. I'm not going to soften up my vocabulary for such a bizarre act that is protected today in our society. Let me tell you something. You can't have freedom with that kind of garbage running rampant. You can't do it. You've got kidnapping running rampant, whether the government's doing it or whether somebody else is doing it. You've got sodomy, you've got abortion, you've got filth everywhere you look. And you say, well, do we need to outlaw all sin? No. The people need to just clean up their lives if they want to live in freedom. Because if the people of America continue to live a wicked life, then they're going to continue to be enslaved. And as our country gets more... I mean, you could graph this mathematically. As our country gets more wicked and as the morals decline, the size of government increases at basically the same rate. As sin increases, the size of government increases. As sin increases, the level of freedom decreases. It's exact. And people don't see it today. And they don't get it. And they look at it and they think, hmm, I wonder why it's happening. Because it's always happened throughout history. It always happened in the Bible. And it always will happen. And they'll take 10%, you know, on a good day. I mean, 10%, they're just getting started. I mean, have you done your taxes lately? It's not 10%. You know, most people are paying more like 30% or 50%, depending on once you counted in all the hidden taxes, the sales tax. Because it's not just income tax. Then you got your Social Security tax, your Medicare tax, your property tax, your state tax, your sales tax, your tax upon breathing, you know, how much you breathe, and your tax upon this, tax on your car, tax on your phone. You know, just taxes upon tax upon tax. You know what? I'm going to make a prediction to you. I'm going to shock you. I think taxes are going to go up. No. I'm a prophet. And when I say it, you can say, wow, Pastor Anderson, you predicted the future. I believe that, ah, I just got a word of knowledge, taxes are going up. You know how I know that? Because this country is getting more and more wicked, that's why. And I see these activists for freedom that are queers and weirdos, and they commit all this wicked sin, and they actually think that they're, you know, you're part of the problem. Promoting a lascivious lifestyle. Because this, and by the way, that's what's wrong with a lot of the libertarian movement, by the way. You know, and I agree with, I agree with a lot of it. I probably agree. You know, I agree with it as far as it's biblical. You know, because liberty is biblical. And I would say I probably agree with 90 some percent of it, of libertarianism. You know, just biblically speaking. In fact, I think the Bible even goes further than they go on a lot of political issues. But I'll say this, though. I'll say this. The problem with a lot of libertarians, though, is that they want to have freedom from righteousness. So they want to promote wickedness and filth, and in their mind, they picture a world where everybody has freedom, where we have minimal or no government, everybody has freedom, but everybody can just abort and smoke pot and be a homo and everything like that. And here's the thing, that world will never exist. It cannot exist. That's why the libertarians are just ready to fail. Because of the fact that there's this person that's going to mess it up and his name's God. See, it might work great in their little theory and think tank, but see, God is not going to allow that because God will enslave those who don't obey. God will punish those who disobey, and they'll end up being abused by human government. And God doesn't want us to be that way. Did God want them to have this king over them, taking all their sheep and taking all their seed? Was this God's idea? For a guy to come take their sheep and take their sons and build all these weapons of war and to take all their pastries and take all their vineyards and olive yards? And look, just look at a map sometime of what the government owns versus what individuals own in this country. The government owns a lot more than 10% of land. I mean, they own like 90% of land in this country. I mean, depending on what state. If you're in Arizona, yeah, private property is like, I think, way less than 10% or something like that. I've seen a map, and it's like there's little specks on the map. This is private property. And this is owned by the federal government. This is owned by the state government. You know, this was not God's idea. God's not the author of slavery and high taxes and big government and standing armies. God's the author of liberty. But here's the thing. If you live a wicked and sinful life, you will go into bondage to man. And so by promoting sodomy, by promoting abortion, by promoting drunkenness and dope, and I'm not saying that all these things should be illegal. I do believe abortion should be illegal because it's murder, and murder is, of course, against the law. I do believe that homosexuality should be illegal because the Bible flat out says, stone them with stones, okay? But what I'm saying today, and obviously that's the government's job, not our job to do that, but the bottom line is that even though things are legal, doesn't mean that it's right to do them. The Bible says, all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. And yes, alcohol is legal and there's no law in the Bible against alcohol, but it is a sin to drink alcohol. He didn't command us not to drink it. And he warned us that if we do drink alcohol, that our eyes will behold strange women and our mouth will utter perverse things. So yeah, it's legal to drink, but if you go down and drink and get drunk and look at a bunch of women and say a bunch of perverse things, you're not doing anything to help our freedom in this country because God's not going to bless that and we're going to continue to be enslaved by that kind of behavior. Even humanly speaking, the biggest thing that has taken away our freedom in this country is sin because the more you see us lose our morality, then people say, well we need more police to like control these people. Because think about it, I mean if everybody was controlling themselves, wouldn't there be a lot less crime? I mean if people were following God's law, I mean if everybody was following God's law to the best of their ability, nobody's perfect, but if everybody pretty much had this as their starting point, there'd be so much less crime, that would mean way less police that we would need. That would mean way less laws that we would need. That would mean way less taxes we would need to pay for all that stuff. We wouldn't need to pay for this huge expenditure of billions to keep us safe because we'd be safe. And we wouldn't have all these tons of problems that we have today. And so let me just boil it down in this way. You will be a servant in your life. Don't get this attitude, nobody's going to tell me what to do, I'm my own man. You know, that's great, but you know what, it's just not true. If you really want to be your own man, then you know what, choose to follow Christ. And you know what, you'll be unique. If you choose to follow Jesus Christ, I mean young people, if you want to really stand out, and you know, young people, they always want to be different, right? So sometimes they make their hair really weird colors. Isn't this true? Now look, if you go to work at a factory somewhere, or if you just go down and go somewhere where adults are, do you see as many, you know, crazy hair news and crazy styles of clothing as you do at like a high school? Isn't that what you're going to see, the most outrageous stuff? Okay, so these young people, they want to be different, they want to stand out from the crowd. You know, so they put their hair all these crazy colors, and they pierce up their face to where they look like they thought of like a fishing tackle box. They basically, you know, sag their pants, and show their underwear. They wear these, or they decide to like starve themself because they're going to show out skinny bird leg, they can put into a pair of jeans that they have to cut off with scissors every night because it's so tight that you can't even get them on and off. It looks like it's painted on their body. And you know, they want to do all this stuff, and you know, they want to really stand out so they get tattoos, you know, to really stand out from the crowd. But have you noticed that so many of them are all doing the exact same things? Getting all the same piercings, all the same tattoos, all, you know, they're all going to wear all black. Well, oh, yeah, nobody ever thought of that before. That's a new one. Oh, paint your fingernails black? Where'd you get that idea? From the other five million people you've seen doing it? And they're going to be different. They're going to stand out. You know what? If you really want to be different, just go to school dressed like me. I mean, go to school looking like me. And I'm not saying to look like me, but I'm saying even if you just went there and just wore like clean clothes, and I'm not saying to dress in a suit. Obviously, it's probably not really the right attire for school. But I'm saying if you just actually put on a nice pair of pants, tucked in your shirt, here's an idea. Wear a belt like Jesus wore while he was on this earth. Okay? Put on a belt. Pull your pants up to your waist. Wear pants that are the right length and that aren't too tight on your body and aren't too baggy and aren't saggy and just tuck in your shirt and get a man's haircut and just walk in with no tattoos, no dyed hair. I mean, every head will... Whoa! Who is this? What in the world? You're probably gonna get called to the office or something. You need to, you know, you need to change that. You need to untuck your shirt or something. I mean, this is ridiculous. Those pants just, they fit you way too well. Because look, you'll be one of the only... I mean, wouldn't you be one of the only ones? You'd stand out right away. But everybody's gonna be different, you know? So they dress just like everybody else. They just fall into, like, you just put them in a few different categories. The emo, you know, isn't that one of them? Am I preaching out of date again? Am I up-to-date? Is the emo still around? When is that stupid style gonna pass? God help us to get through that one. You know, emo, the goth, the punk, the skater, you know, the rocker, the rapper, the, you know, the cowboy or... You know, it's like you can just put them into these categories based on their music or whatever where they just basically are trying to be just like everybody else and copy everybody else. And they think, yeah, I'm free. Do what I want to do, and it just happens to be what everybody else wants to do. Also. But really, they're being conformed onto everybody else. Because look, you're gonna be conformed to some image. Why not be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ? You know, you're gonna be ruled over by somebody. Why not be ruled by this book instead of ruled by your friends at school or ruled by the styles of Hollywood or ruled over by what other people say? Why not just make God's laws your laws? And why not just stand up and say, you know what, I'm gonna be different. I'm gonna be peculiar. I'm not gonna be like all the other nations. I'm not gonna be like all the other students. You know, I'm gonna be different. And today, we have people who think that they're gonna do what they want. Nobody's gonna tell me what to do except that craving is gonna tell you that you have to smoke that cigarette every day. You know, nobody's gonna tell me I can't smoke. You know, but after a few months, you're not gonna be able to stop. And how many people have struggled with quitting smoking and spent months and years trying to quit smoking? Because it's an addiction, because they become a servant to sin. They become addicted to gambling, become addicted to alcohol, whatever it is. Because all sin's addictive. It's a slave master. If you want true freedom in your life, wake up and say, you know what, I'm gonna do what I wanna do today, follow Christ. And I'm gonna follow Him. I'm gonna deny myself and take up my cross daily and follow Him. Well, that makes you a servant. Well, yeah, you're a servant to Christ. But you're free from men. You're free from sin. You're a servant of righteousness. Or you can say, well, I don't wanna serve Christ. I don't wanna be His servant. I don't wanna follow His will. Okay. Well, then you'll end up being a slave to sin and a slave to man around you also. And God will put you into bondage. So it's a clear choice today. Choose freedom, but choose biblical freedom, which is being a servant to God. That's the freest you'll be, according to Bible 1. And if you choose to be free from God's laws, then God will make sure that you get enslaved by everyone and everything else in your life. And you'll end up being a servant. Let's pray our hands and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God. And we thank you for your promises. And God, the people of Israel did not heed those promises. They were scared. Even though you already delivered them in chapter 7, they were still afraid that some enemy was gonna come in and take over and invade the land, even though you promised to protect them as long as they worshiped you and did what was right. Help us not to make the same mistake, dear God. Help us not to relinquish our freedom by living a life contrary to your word. Help us to do right with a clean and godly life and to live a life of freedom. Help us not to try to enslave others around us, dear God, but help us to exemplify freedom in our lives and promote freedom to everyone that we run into. And Jesus' name we pray, amen.