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Man, Jeremiah chapter 46, we're in a phase in the book of Jeremiah where different geographic areas are receiving judgments from God. It's a section of the book that just has a lot to do with God's wrath that's coming upon various groups. In this chapter, we're reading about God's wrath upon the Gentiles and upon the land of Egypt, and then in the next few chapters, we have God's wrath against the Philistines in chapter 47, the Moabites and the Ammonites in chapters 48 and 49, and then Jeremiah 50 and 51 are God's wrath upon Babylon itself, and then chapter 52 kind of just goes back and tells the story again about God punishing the land of Judah, and that's it for the book of Jeremiah. Now, in this chapter, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, the word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles, against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates and Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah. So again, let me just point out that chapters 45 and onward in the book of Jeremiah are not in chronological order whatsoever. This is going way back in time. Verses 45 through 52 are tagged on to the end of Jeremiah and they leave the normal chronology and storyline. The Bible says in verse 3, order ye the buckler and shield and draw near to battle. Harness the horses and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets, furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines. He's basically telling them, you better get ready for battle because war is coming. Nebuchadnezzar is going to come and fight against you. So the small shield, the shield listed there would be a larger shield. He talks about harnessing up the horses, getting ready for battle, putting on your helmet and so forth. It says in verse 5, wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back, and their mighty ones are beaten down and are fled apace, and look not back, for fear was round about, saith the Lord. Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape. They shall stumble and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates. Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers? Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers. And he saith, I will go up and will cover the earth. I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof. Come up, ye horses, and rage, ye chariots. Let the mighty men come forth, the Ethiopians and the Libyans that handle the shield, and the Lydians that handle and bend the bow. Now the reason that he's bringing up the Ethiopians is because Ethiopia is geographically pretty close to Egypt. It's south of Egypt in Africa. Also Libya and Lydia are other countries in Africa. Egypt is located in northeast Africa, so these would be countries and armies that would be allied with Egypt and going to battle with Egypt at their head. It says in verse 10, for this is the day of the Lord God of Hosts, a day of vengeance that he may avenge him of his adversaries, and the sword shall devour and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood, for the Lord God of Hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates. So this chapter is prophesying of a great war, a great battle, and this war is a punishment from God. This is God revenging himself, taking vengeance upon wicked people by bringing warfare. Warfare is never a good thing. It's always something bad. People die, people are harmed, children are left fatherless, wives are left widows, and warfare is the judgment of God, because when you look at the good kings throughout history in the Bible, it was often said of them that God gave them peace in their days, and he put the fear of the Lord on all their enemies so that no enemies would attack them, and they were able to dwell in peace. That's always the best case scenario, when you can live at peace with all men. The Bible says that as much as lieth within us, we should try to live at peace with all men. Of course, David said, I'm for peace, but when I speak, they're for war. Sometimes people are going to pick a fight with you, but we should try to be peaceful and live at peace, and warfare should be a last resort. It shouldn't be something that we would seek after for financial gain, or just to improve the economy, or something like that, as many people do, believe it or not. But the Bible here uses this term, the day of the Lord. This is a term that's used a lot in the Bible. The day of the Lord God of hosts. And in the Old Testament, the term day of the Lord, or day of the Lord God of hosts, is used about various judgments that he's going to bring upon different groups of people. Whenever God's going to pour out his wrath on a group of people, sometimes he'll call that the day of the Lord, the day when that judgment takes place. So there are a lot of minor days of the Lord in the Old Testament, and then there's one great big day of the Lord that's coming in the New Testament. And the Old Testament days of the Lord are foreshadowings of the great day of the Lord in the New Testament. Now if you would flip over to 1 Thessalonians, chapter number 5. What I want to point out is that here in Jeremiah, chapter 46, the day of the Lord is called a day of vengeance, a day of vengeance that the Lord God may avenge him of his adversaries. What's going to happen on that day? It says the sword shall devour, it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood. I mean it's a day of horrific judgment and it's a day that there will be a bloodbath. That's what was going on back in the Old Testament. So in the New Testament, the day of the Lord is brought up repeatedly in regard to end times Bible prophecy. And 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 is one of those scriptures. And let me turn there myself, 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5 reads in verse number 1, But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. So notice here that sudden destruction is coming upon a group of people here, the unsaved, the children of darkness, sudden destruction is coming upon them. Doesn't that sound like a day of vengeance? Doesn't that sound like a day when God's wrath would be poured out upon a group of people? And consistently throughout the Bible, when it talks about the day of the Lord, that's the meaning that we have. For example, go to 2 Peter chapter 3, 2 Peter chapter 3, just to the right in your Bible, a few pages. 2 Peter chapter 3, the Bible reads in verse number 9, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise that some men count slackness, but His longsuffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, that's exactly what it said in 1 Thessalonians 5, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. So what do we see happening on the day of the Lord? The heavens will pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt with a fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Now let's flip over to Revelation chapter number 6, Revelation chapter number 6. And I probably don't even need to point out to you, if you've read the Bible a lot, that one thing that the Bible says a lot about the day of the Lord, including in Acts chapter 2, is that the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come, and shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a quote from Joel chapter 2, which says that the sun and moon will be darkened, and then it says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered, and that there will be deliverance at that time. Look at Revelation chapter 6, this is where we see the fulfillment of this prophecy in the book of Revelation where the day of the Lord actually takes place. It says in verse 12, And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. There's our sign from Joel chapter 2 and Acts chapter 2 that says that those things would happen before the day of the Lord. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth around timely figs, when she's shaken of a mighty wind. Watch this next part carefully. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together. That's exactly what 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 10 said would happen on the day of the Lord, that the heavens would pass away with a great noise. Here it's worded as the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together. And it says also that all the mountains and islands, verse 14, were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? So when the Bible talks about the day of the Lord, or the day of the Lord God of hosts, it's talking about the great day of his wrath. Sun and moon are darkened. God's wrath is there. The heaven departs as a scroll when it is rolled together. This is referred to in Job, chapter 14, 12, as the time when the dead would be resurrected when the heavens would be no more at the same time. So very consistent throughout scripture. Now if you would go to chapter 8 of Revelation, chapter 8. In chapter 7, a great multitude appears in heaven that no man can number of all nationalities, all kindreds, all tongues. Perhaps obviously the rapture has taken place when that great group appears in heaven and John doesn't know where they're from and so forth. But we don't have time to go into that tonight, but let's look at Revelation, chapter 8, and let's see if we can see some of the other elements from 2 Peter 3, 10 about the day of the Lord. It says in verse 1, And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. Jump down to verse 5, And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar and cast it into the earth. So notice that the great day of the Lord's wrath, sun and moon are darkened. A half hour later, the Bible talks about God's wrath beginning to be poured out and the first thing we see is that there is fire cast into the earth. And it says also at the end of verse 5, There were voices and thunderings and lightnings in an earthquake, and the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed. Hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth, and the third part of trees was burnt up. And watch this last phrase. This is important. And all green grass was burnt up. Now this goes to show you right there that this is basically the entire earth being burnt because if all the green grass is burnt up, that means this is fire upon the earth worldwide which means that this fits in perfectly with what the Bible said in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 10 when it said, The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, same wording as 1 Thessalonians 5, when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. So when the Bible talks about the elements melting with a fervent heat and the earth and the works that are therein being burned up, we don't want to misunderstand this that the earth being burned up means burned up to where it's not there anymore. That's not what it's saying. The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. That's fulfilled when fire and brimstone come down and all the green grass is burned up. One third of trees. Why only a third of the trees? Because a tree is a little more robust than grass. So a tree is more likely to be able to withstand fire. And so two thirds of the trees of the earth will survive. All of the green grass will be burned up. And it didn't say all of the dead dry grass, that all the green grass will be burned up. So this is going to be an intense baptism by fire. I mean, the earth is going to be, in a sense, baptized in fire, immersed, surrounded, covered in fire. And so that's the fulfillment of the day of the Lord. Also in 2 Peter 3, just a little further down, it says in verse number 12, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. And then he goes on to talk about the new heavens and the new earth and so forth. Obviously the millennium is there in between, but there is also going to be another judgment by fire at the end of the millennium. So the day of God could be referring to that second pouring out of fire after the millennium. But the day of the Lord in 2 Peter 3, 10, there's no question that it's referring to the day when the sun and moon will be darkened and when those trumpet judgments will begin and the fire will rain from heaven. With that in mind, go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. It's very important. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 with that in mind. So what have we learned so far? We've learned that the day of the Lord, as seen in Jeremiah chapter number 46, is a day of vengeance. It's a day of the wrath of God. It's a day where God punishes his enemies. He punishes his adversaries. In the New Testament, there's a great day prophesied known as the great and terrible day of the Lord, the great and dreadful day of the Lord. It's associated with the sun and moon being darkened with the heavens passing away, referring to sky or atmosphere. And it's referring also to fire being rained from heaven and the earth being burned up. Well, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, the Bible reads in verse 1, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. Now, here's the question. Did the Bible say there, well, that day is not going to overtake you at all because you're going to be gone long before that day? Is that what it says? No, it says that that day will overtake you, but it's not going to overtake you as a thief because you're not in darkness. You're all the children of light and the children of the day, the Bible says in verse 5. We are not of the night nor of darkness, verse 6. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. The Bible's not saying, hey, you're going to be gone, you're going to be gone years before this happens. No, no, no. The Bible says it won't overtake you as a thief because you're going to be watching, you're going to be sober, you're not in the dark on this. You know what's going on. You know what to look for. Now, are we going to be on this earth when fire rains from the sky? Absolutely not. But we will be there on that day because that's the exact day that we will be removed from this earth. Go if you would to Luke chapter 17, I'll show you. Luke chapter number 17, that's why the Bible says in Matthew 24 that immediately after the tribulation of those days, it says the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven. So when the son of man or Jesus Christ appears in heaven, the Bible says then shall the tribes of the earth mourn. Now why would they be mourning? Aren't they happy to see him? Now we're going to be happy to see him. But when you're an unsaved, unbelieving pagan idolater, you're not looking forward to seeing him. They're mourning. Why? Because they're saying to the mountains and rocks, fall on us. The great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand? They know it's a day of vengeance. They know that he's there to punish his adversaries. Many of them will already be looking at their hand and seeing that mark of the beast in their hand and saying, uh-oh. But then it says, all the tribes of the earth shall mourn and they shall see the son of man come in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. So see how it's the same day when the trumpet sounds, Christ comes in the clouds and he gathers us up. It's the same day as that day of the Lord, the day of God's wrath. Go to Luke chapter 17 and we'll see this very clearly. It says in verse 26, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage. Luke says, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Look, until Noah got in the ark, until that day, they thought, they meaning the people who didn't get on the ark, the people who didn't have the faith, they thought everything was fine. I mean, they're eating, drinking, marrying, given to marriage until the day that Noah got in the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also, verse 28, as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the son of man shall be revealed. So the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone. The same day that we are removed from this earth via what's known as the rapture, then that's the same day that God's going to rain fire and brimstone upon this earth. This is what the Bible teaches. It's clear, it makes sense, it all adds up, but unfortunately, people don't want to believe in this and they've gotten sucked into this left behind mentality, the Hollywood version, which involves people disappearing, which the Bible never teaches that anybody disappears at the rapture. The Bible says that the angels, that they were gathered by the angels. And even in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, angels came and took Lot by the hand and dragged him out of Sodom. And so, actually, we'll be gathered by the angels and instead of everybody going, what's going on, where is everybody, they're going to be running for cover. And they're going to see Jesus Christ coming in the clouds. Every eye shall see him, the Bible says, and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, we see that in Matthew 24, even so, amen. Notice the present tense in Revelation chapter 1 verse 7, behold he cometh with clouds. Now why is that significant? Because if there was some other coming in between, you know, that didn't have clouds and that didn't involve every eye seeing him, well then, it wouldn't make any sense to say he cometh with clouds. That's present tense, meaning that that's the next thing involving his coming is when he comes with clouds and every eye shall see him. It didn't say, well, he's going to come with clouds after he first comes in a secret rapture that nobody sees. And the trumpet is actually not going to be a trumpet, it's actually going to be a doggy whistle. And so the thing about a doggy whistle is that only dogs can hear it. So this is what we've been taught our whole lives about the rapture. We've been taught that when the trumpet sounds, it's going to be like a Christian whistle where only Christians can hear it, we're all going to be like, you hear that, if you don't hear that, you're not going, you know, but that's a false doctrine. When that trumpet sounds and when Jesus comes in the clouds, every eye shall see him. It'll be like the lightning that lights up one side of heaven all the way to the other. That's what the Bible says. And so Jesus Christ will come in the clouds, the trumpet will sound, we will be caught up together to meet him in the clouds and then he will pour out his wrath on this earth. You don't see any fire and brimstone falling on Kirk Cameron's head and you don't see him hiding and, and, and by the way, Kirk Cameron, the star of that movie, he doesn't even believe in the preacher rapture anymore. So what's wrong with you if you still believe in it? I mean, even Kirk Cameron, even mr left behind has realized it's a fraud and doesn't believe in it. That's true. Check it out. Not even Kirk Cameron believes in it. He's had a few growing pains, you know, as he grew into this, as he grew into this doctor, I mean, it had to be painful, you know, to be the star of left behind and then, and then to grow in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, the point where you realize that the whole movie was based on a lie. But anyway, everybody got that joke I could tell. So anyway, let's go back to Jeremiah. I just wanted to give you that teaching on the day of the Lord because we live in a day where there's a lot of confusion about Bible prophecy and I want to make sure that we as a church are not dwelling in darkness. You know, we're the children of light, we're the children of the day. Therefore let's not sleep as do others. Let us watch and be sober. Well, we got to know this stuff. If we're going to be able to watch and be sober, we have to understand this and we need teaching on this. Say, well, let's just not talk about it cause it's not that important. Well, if it wasn't important, it wouldn't be brought up so many times in the new Testament. It's pretty important. Jeremiah 46 is talking about a minor day of the Lord, an Old Testament judgment upon a specific geographic group of people. Verse 11, go up into Gilead and take balm. Oh, Virgin, the daughter of Egypt, in vain shalt thou use many medicines for thou shalt not be cured. The nations have heard of thy shame and thy cry hath filled the land for the mighty man had stumbled against the mighty and they are fallen both together. What the Bible is teaching here is that when God's punishing you, when God's bringing his judgment, there's no escape. You can use many medicines and try to take care of it and prevent it, but if God's got it in for you, you're doomed. That's what the Bible is teaching there. It says in verse 13, the word that the Lord spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, should come and smite the land of Egypt. Declare ye in Egypt and publish in Migdal and publish in Noth and in Topanis. These are Egyptian places. Say ye, stand fast and prepare thee for the sword shall devour round about thee. Why are thy valiant men swept away? Valiant means courageous or brave. They stood not because the Lord did drive them. So the Bible is saying, even if you're valiant, even if you're brave, even if you're filled with courage, when you're faced against God almighty and his wrath and his power and his awesome strength, then you will fall. No one can stand before the Lord and his wrath. The great day of his wrath is coming, who shall be able to stand? The kings of the earth and the rich men and the mighty men, the great men, the mighty men, the chief captains hid themselves. So even in the last days, even the bravest and mightiest will be hiding themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. The Bible says in verse number 16, he made them to fall, yea, one fell upon another and they said, arise and let us go again to our own people and to the land of our nativity from the oppressing sword. They're basically emigrating to other countries saying, you know, where's our family from again? You know, we're going back there. What's our last name mean? All right, let's head there because this place is doomed. That's what they're basically saying. It says in verse 17, they did cry there, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise. They're saying he's all talk. He's just a bunch of noise. He had passed the time appointed as I live, saith the Lord, whose name is the Lord of hosts. Surely as Tabor is among the mountains and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come, meaning Pharaoh will come. O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity for nough shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant. It's funny, there's a city in California called Carmel. Who's ever been there before? Who knows what I'm talking about in the Bay Area? What's funny is that I always knew of that city to be called Carmel and it's kind of a nice place that people like to go as tourists. I went there on business because I did some fire alarm jobs that were located there. But one thing that was funny is that whenever I typed it into my Tom Tom GPS, back in the days of the Tom Tom, before we had the smartphones, and I typed it in, it would always say Carmel by the sea on the address and I was like, huh, why is it called Carmel by the sea? Because on my paperwork it just said Carmel, but it's kind of funny because that's actually a phrase lifted from the Bible. Isn't that interesting? I just noticed that this week at the end of verse 18 there, it says, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come. It's interesting just how many things around us are named after or make reference to the Bible. The Bible says in verse 19, oh, thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity for nough shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant. Verse 20, Egypt is like a fairy fair heifer, but destruction cometh. It cometh out of the north. So her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks, for they also are turned back and are fled away together. They did not stand because the day of their calamity was come upon them and the time of their visitation. Now this kind of ties in with another illustration that God used back in the book of Genesis. Remember when there was a prophecy about Egypt that they would have the seven years of plenty, seven good years, and those were represented by seven fat heifers or seven fat cows, seven plump, fatted cows. And then there were seven scrawny and skinny and withered and emaciated cows representing seven years of famine. So when the Bible here says Egypt is like a very fair heifer, he's basically saying that they're prospering, they're doing well, they're thriving. You know, the economy's great, but destruction cometh and it cometh out of the north in verse 20. This is a reference to Babylon being from the north because there's going to be a clash between Babylon and Egypt. That's the war that's being prophesied. Says in verse 22, the voice thereof shall go like a serpent, for they shall march with an army and come against her with axes as hewers of wood. They shall cut down her forest, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched because they're more than the grasshoppers and are innumerable. He's basically using a metaphor here that these guys are going to come in with battle axes and they're going to be just chopping you down like they were just chopping down trees, like they're just clear cutting. They're going to just chop you down. It says in verse number 20, and it says they're going to be like grasshoppers and they're going to be innumerable. Just this, this hoard of soldiers wielding battle axes, chopping them down. It says in verse 24, the daughter of Egypt shall be confounded. He shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north. So the Bible basically indicates who's going to win this battle, and it's going to be Nebuchadnezzar. It's going to be the Babylonians. The Lord of hosts, verse 25, the God of Israel saith, behold, I will punish the multitude of no, no or naph. These are places in Egypt. I'll punish the multitude of no and Pharaoh and Egypt with their gods and their kings, even Pharaoh and all them that trust in him. I want to point out that phrase, with their gods. So when the Bible says here that he's going to punish Pharaoh and Egypt with their gods, this is similar to when God brought his judgments upon Egypt back in the book of Exodus with the ten plagues in the days of Moses. And when those plagues were brought, God specifically said that he would also bring judgments upon the gods of Egypt. He said that then, and he's saying that again here in the book of Jeremiah. Now it would be impossible to bring judgment upon someone that does not exist, right? How can you punish someone that's a figment of someone's imagination? How can you punish someone or something that doesn't exist? That doesn't make any sense. You see, the gods of the heathen, the gods of Egypt, the Bible says that they are all false gods because there is only but one true God. There only is one God. If we were to speak of a God in a literal sense, there's only one. There's one God, there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 8 that there be those who are called gods as there be gods many and lords many. And those that are called gods are demons. They are devils. That's why the Bible said in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that the things which the Gentiles offer and sacrifice unto idols, they offer unto devils. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. So the false gods, they're not just figments of people's imaginations. They exist. They're real. Real devils, real demons. And the pagans that worship them are worshiping demons. And I just preached about this on Sunday night in the sermon about having fellowship with devils. Also in Psalm 96, you don't have to turn there, but it talks about how God, the true God, the Lord is to be feared above all gods. And then it says for all the gods of the nations are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. So these false gods, they did not create anything. They did not make the earth or the heaven. They are destructive gods. They're evil gods because they're not even really gods. What are they really? They're demons. They're devils. Now, why is that important? Because every single idol, if you could see it with spiritual glasses on, there's a demon there that they're worshiping that that idol represents. You know, we were just out soul winning just in the hours leading up to the service here. And we were out soul winning. And Brother Kevin and I, he attempted to give the gospel to this lady. And her husband walked up and he didn't want her to hear the gospel at all. And there was a lot of Catholic paraphernalia on the porch. And he just walked over and said, hey, do you see this? You see this? You see this? We're Catholic. And Kevin's like, all right, you know, see you later. But you know what he's showing us is idols. Didn't he have just a multitude of idols on his porch? And let me tell you something. Catholicism is idolatry. It is pagan and it existed before Jesus Christ ever set foot on this earth. It already existed. That religion already existed because that religion goes back to the Tower of Babel. And it was so amazing to me when we were down in Guyana to see people at some of the schools where we preached and just in the course of our day to see them with ashes smeared on their forehead. And then to come home and work on the Hinduism documentary that I'm putting together. And to see what are all the pagan demon-worshipping Hindus doing, but they're all smearing ashes on their forehead, exactly the same. And then you wonder, why are the Catholics smearing ashes on their forehead? Can somebody show me that in the Bible? No, but I can show you that in Hinduism. Why? Because every single teaching of Catholicism, listen to me now. Every teaching of Catholicism that has no basis in scripture where you're just, where did this come from? You can find all of it amongst the Hindus, all of it. All of it. Now you say, well, why is that? Why is all of that doctrine found in Hinduism and in Catholicism? I mean, I don't think that the Catholics were influenced by the Hindus. What in the world? The Hindus are all the way over in India, and the Catholics are over in Europe. How'd that happen? Yeah, but here's what you've got to understand, is that Hinduism doesn't really come from India. That's just a lie that Indians are told so that they'll follow that false religion. They're told, oh, this is your religion. You know, this is your homegrown religion. Be proud to be an Indian because, you know, we have the oldest religion, Hinduism, and it's straight out of India. But it's a lie because Hinduism was brought into India from outside of India. And the proof of that is that all of the Hindu scriptures, all of the Vedas, their oldest hymns and their oldest rituals that make up Hinduism, they're written in the language of Sanskrit. And Sanskrit, you know what kind of language Sanskrit is? Aryan. It's called an Aryan language. And the people who brought that Sanskrit language into India are known as the Aryans. They're a light-skinned people who brought it into India, and then they brought in the Sanskrit language, which is called an Indo-European language. Why? Because it's a European language that was brought into India by light-skinned foreigners that brought it down into India. And then you have the people of southern India known as the Dravidians, which is a darker-skinned group of people. And then basically you put that together and you have Hinduism, you have India. So they took some of the devil worship from the Dravidians and they mixed it with the devil worship of the Aryans, and they put it together and mixed it up a little bit and made Hinduism. But listen, most of Hinduism comes from the Aryans, the Vedas, the Sanskrit language. It's not in a Dravidian language. It's from the Sanskrit Aryan language. You say, well, what in the world are you talking about, Pastor Anderson? What does this have to do with India? Well, this is my point. The white people in Europe that embraced Roman Catholicism, okay, they took elements from Greek and Roman pagan mythology. Okay? Is everybody following me? So Roman Catholicism took all this stuff from the Roman pagan religion, which borrowed a lot of stuff from the Greek pagan religion. And my point is that Hinduism and Roman mythology and Greek mythology, they all come from the same source. They're all connected. That's why they're so similar. Now, we don't know as much about the Roman religion or the Greek religion of pagan God worship and so forth as we do about Hinduism because Hinduism today is practiced by a billion people, whereas there aren't that many people still worshiping Poseidon and Neptune and so forth. There's very few people. Those books are more just read as entertainment, the Iliad, the Odyssey, or just read for historical value or literary value. People aren't actually using the Iliad and the Odyssey as a religious text like they are over in India, but it's the same thing. These wild stories about all the gods and goddesses. And so what I'm saying is paganism is worldwide. It's worldwide. It's in Europe. It's in India, Scandinavia. All throughout the world, we can find this same religion, and it's a religion of worshiping demons, worshiping devils. And that's why the Hindus talk about having millions of gods because there's millions of demons that they're worshiping. It's that simple. They're worshiping demons. But if we think about this and use logic and understand what the Bible says about idolatry and about the Gentiles offering things and sacrifice unto idols, what we realize is that if the Hindus are worshiping the devil or if the Hindus are worshiping demons, which is pretty... They make it pretty obvious sometimes that they're worshiping demons. And I'm not even going to go into all the weird things they do for the sake of time, but putting ashes on their forehead is the most normal thing that many of them do. You're going to have to watch my video that I'm putting together to find out the rest. As long as you have the stomach for it. But anyway, the point is, I censored it heavily, so it's not too bad. But the point is that the Catholics are worshiping demons too. That's what you need to understand. When they're bowing down to their little... Look, every Hindu home has this little altar in it and this little shrine in it where they have the puja. And they do a daily worship at their little shrine and they have the flowers and the incense and the food they pour, drinks on top of the idol and stuff. They can't really hold it up to its mouth and make it drink, so they just dump it on its head. It's just like pouring milk and juice and it's all just kind of just... And then they have to wash it when they're done and everything. But tell me what the difference is between that and this little shrine that Catholics have in their house. It's just like the Indian puja. It's the same thing. I remember we had a house that we lived in in California where we walked into the house and it was a brand new house and it had this little enclave near the front door in the entry area. It was a little enclave and we laughed at that as kids. We said, this is the shrine. What are we going to enshrine here? We're supposed to build a little altar here to some kind of a deity or a statue. We kind of just joked about that and we almost felt weird putting any decoration there because you felt like, man, whatever I put here, it's a little bit too enshrined. You know, I put a picture of myself or something, it's like, well, I think I'm God or something. You don't want to put a picture of something that, I don't know. We didn't know what to put there. I think my mom ended up just putting like a clock there or something. We weren't worshiping Father Time or anything. But you'll find a lot of houses built with that architecture in Catholic areas because of the fact that it makes a nice little shrine for them to worship demons at. And you'll find these little shrines and you could look at a picture of the Catholic one and a picture of the Hindu one and you realize that same devil, same demons, just different names. So when God says he's going to punish the gods of Egypt, those are literal entities that he's going to punish, you know, because there are demons that have already been cast down into hell at this time. You know, obviously most of them are on this earth, you know, roaming about seeking whom they may devour with the devil himself. But there are demons that have been cast down to hell already. That's why they were afraid in the book of Mark chapter 5 and said, you know, hey, don't torment us before the time. Don't send us there early. We're, you know, we want to be the last batch to go in, right? So you should understand tonight how serious idolatry is and how seriously demonic and pagan Catholicism is not Christianity. It is not the God. It's not saying to be rude or abrasive with Catholics and obviously we need to speak the truth in love or with Hindus. We need to be gentle and speak the truth in love, but we need to realize they're not saved. They need the gospel. They need Jesus and they are worshiping demons. That's who these gods are. It says in verse 26, and I'll deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives and in the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon and in the hand of his servants and afterward it shall be inhabited as in the days of old, saith the Lord, but fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save thee from afar off in thy seed from the land of their captivity and Jacob shall return and be in rest and at ease and none shall make him afraid. Fear thou not, O Jacob, my servant, saith the Lord, for I'm with thee, for I will make a full end of all the nations, whither I've driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure, yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished. So here we see that God makes a difference between how He deals with His people and how He deals with the heathen. How does He deal with the heathen? He wipes them out and they're doomed and damned. How does He deal with His people here represented by Israel? In the New Testament, God's people are believers, Christians of all nationalities. How does He deal with us? Well, He will not make a full end of us. He's not going to send us to hell. Once we've believed on Jesus Christ, we're eternally saved and secure. We will not be damned. We will not be sent to hell. We're saved, but He will correct us in measure. He won't make a full end of us, but He will correct us in measure. He will not, look at that last phrase, He will not leave us wholly unpunished. He's not just going to just let us do whatever we want. There will be a punishment on this earth, but He will not make a full end of us. He's not going to send us to hell. He's not going to cast us out. We'll still be His children. He's still going to love us. And you know what? That's the way it is with believers. There's always hope to get right with God. You can get right with God. You can come back to the Lord. The prodigal son can come home. But here's what you have to understand though is that we don't want to get this attitude that says, well, because of God's mercy and because of God's grace and forgiveness, let's just never punish anybody. No. We need to understand that just because there's mercy and forgiveness and grace, there's still a punishment. Not a full end, but a punishment. So don't get queasy if I have to punish people in this church and by that, the only type of punishment that we have, obviously we don't, you know, smite you or anything like that, but people that commit certain sins that are listed in 1 Corinthians 5 will be cast out of the church. That's the punishment. And this has been known throughout history as church discipline. Who's ever heard that term before? Church discipline. And people will talk about someone being disciplined out of the church. Church discipline. Straight out of 1 Corinthians 5. But it's like a lost doctrine or something like that. Well, we can't just let anything go. We can't just have a free for all in the church today, can we? No, there's got to be some limit. There's got to be some rule here where we draw the line at what can go on and what can't go on. It doesn't mean that we don't love people. It doesn't mean that we don't want to see people restored. It doesn't mean that we don't want to forgive or move on. But you know what? We must exercise church discipline for the sake of the rest of the body because we need to keep the body healthy and not let it degenerate and become just a free for all where young people think. And this is what most people think in most churches. They think, well, fornication's a sin, but we're all sinners. So hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod. We know it's wrong, but we're going to do it anyway and it's no big deal and everybody's just going to kind of look the other way. Wrong. Wrong. It's not happening. It's going to be dealt with. It's going to be called out and it's going to be disciplined out if necessary. So and the same thing goes for drunkenness. You know, we catch you down at Mill Avenue or whatever getting drunk, you know, stumbling out of a bar or something, you'll be cast out of the church. So God has mercy, forgiveness and grace, but he doesn't just leave us wholly unpunished. He will correct us in measure. We correct our children in measure. We're not going to leave them wholly unpunished, are we? But we're not going to make a full end of them either. Let's bow our heads in our board of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the chance to be in church tonight, Lord, and we love you and we thank you for your word, Lord. And Lord, we thank you for delivering us from all the deception and darkness in this world, Lord. You know, we could have been born in some place where we grew up worshiping demons and we could have, you know, been raised in Hindu India or in some Catholic culture where we were brought up with idolatry, Lord. Please help us to show love and compassion on those that are steeped in idolatry, Lord. Help us to shine the light of the glorious gospel with love in our hearts, Lord, and a tear in the eye. Help us to bring the heathen out of darkness and into the glorious light of the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Song number 212, song number 212, oh, happy day, song number 212.