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Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-road. They say, Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, and put darkness for light and light for darkness. They put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from them. Therefore, if the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them, and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the street. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. And he will lift up and end signs to the nations from far, and will piss unto them from the ends of the earth. Behold, they shall come with speed swiftly. None shall be weary nor stumble among them, none shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latches of their shoes be broken, whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses' hooves shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions. Yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. In that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea, and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened, and the heavens thereof. Pray to God, I just thank you for your word, for this opportunity here, preach, I ask that you be a pastor now, strengthen him, please fill him with your spirit, and please just help us to be attentive, help us to be edified, in the due state of prayer, amen. Amen. Amen. All right, we are in Isaiah chapter number 5 this morning, and look down into the Bibles at verse number 20. It says, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Verse 21, woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. And what I want to preach on this morning is doing right, doing what is right in their own eyes, doing what is right in their own eyes. Now here in Isaiah chapter 5, we basically see that Judah is in a pretty bad spiritual condition, and as a nation, they basically have become so diluted that not only were they incapable of discerning between good and evil, they were actually swapping them. They were appropriating light for darkness, darkness for light, bitter for sweet, sweet for bitter, and we see that they basically became backwards in their religion, they became backwards in their way of thinking, and it tells us that in verse 20, but look at verse 21, why is that? Well it says in verse 21, woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. So these individuals, known as Judah here, what we see is that they began to swap light for darkness, darkness for light, they began to have like a backwards manner of religion because of the fact that they were wise in their own eyes. They were basically doing that which was right in their own eyes, and it's for that reason that they began to live this ungodly life and the nation became ungodly. So putting good for evil and evil for good was a direct result of them being prudent in their own eyes. Let me read to you from Proverbs chapter 3 verse 7, it says, be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. So we look at something like this in the Bible, we look at something like this in the book of Isaiah, and we say to ourselves, well you know, that was then, and people are crazy back then, they were into idolatry back then, and they were turning, you know, swapping good for evil, evil for good, that was something that they did then, but let me just say this is that there's no new thing under the sun. Today you have the same exact thing, and in fact it's called moral relativism, right? What does that mean? It's basically every man doing that which is right in their own eyes. You know, what's right for me is not necessarily right for you, and what's right for you doesn't mean it's necessarily right for me. So there's no absolute truth, there's no standard of moral truth, there's no moral standard, you know, what's right for you, what's wrong for you, it's not necessarily the same for myself. Judah had forsaken God and his word, thereby becoming a nation void of restraint, okay? So because they were wise in their own eyes, because they were prudent in their own sight, therefore they had no restraint. They can commit all types of abominations and sinfulness because they felt that what they were doing is correct, what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Now, why is that? How did they get to that point? Well, they got to that point because of pastors. So the pastors during that time were basically preaching the word of God with sleight of hand, they're preaching the word of God slightly, deceiving the people, not showing them what is right, not showing them what is wrong, not teaching them to discern between good and evil. And in fact, let me read to you from Jeremiah 23 verse 16, it says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not into the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you, they make you vain, they speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. So he's saying, look, these prophets, make sure you close your ears when they speak unto you because of the fact that they're speaking a vision of their own heart, they're making it up. It's their own doctrine. They're not getting it from God, they're not speaking with the mouth of God. They're not God's mouthpiece. They're just speaking a vision, an imagination, a sermon out of their own heart. Now, the equivalent to this would be people saying today, follow your heart. I mean, you see that on social media, movies, Disney, you know, they all have that same message. Just follow your heart as if your heart is like noble, as if your heart is just pure and free of sin. Folks, the Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? You know, unless your heart is being guided and filled with the word of God, unless it's being filled with scripture and righteousness and the knowledge of the Lord and the fear of God, don't follow it. Because if you do that, which is naturally comes to you, what you're naturally inclined to do, you're going to do that, which is right in your own sight. And the result of that is that you're going to swap evil for good, good for evil. You're not going to do that, which is pleasing in his sight. Now turn with me if you went to Judges chapter 17, Judges chapter 17, if you would, Judges chapter 17, doing what is right in their own sight. It's not something that only took place, you know, in the book of Isaiah and not only took place in the book of Judges, it's taking place today. And in fact, you have churches today, you have prophets and pastors today that preach the word of God, or they're claiming to preach the word of God, but they're preaching it deceitfully. You know, they're preaching a sermon out of their own heart. They're claiming to say, Hey, this is okay, drinking is fine, consuming alcohol and fornication is fine. It doesn't matter what the Bible says. We need to be long suffering and patient towards these people, just allow them to commit these wicked abominable acts. Hey, sodomites could come into the church, you know, because we need to love everyone. Folks, that's a vision out of their own heart. These people don't discern what the word of God actually says. They're doing that, which is right in their own sight, not in the sight of God. They're doing that, which is right in their own eyes, not in the eyes of God. You're in Judges chapter 17. I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 30. Before we go to Judges 17, it says in Proverbs 30 verse 11, there is a generation that cursed their father and doth not bless their mother. Now wouldn't you say that we're in that generation, where you have a generation of children who are just not only rebellious, not only disobedient, but even disrespectful towards their parents, and they would even go as far as to curse their parents, raise their fist at their parents, hit their parents, be violent towards their parents. The Bible says this generation curses their father, and they don't bless their mother. Well, you know, obviously, if they're not, you know, if they're cursing their dad, you can sure tell that basically, they're not gonna be a blessing to their parents, right? It says in verse 12, there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes. It is not washed from their filthiness. So the same generation, the same children who are cursing their father, not blessing their mother, they're the same generation that think that they're pure in their own sight. They can raise their fist at their mom, at their dad, and still think nothing's wrong with that. They can curse their dad and say, F you dad, and I hate you and I don't love you, and say all men are evil against the people that have taken care of them since they're babies who brought them into this world and still think that they're pure in their own sight. There is a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men. So they're pure in their own sight. And because they're pure in their own sight, they don't see anything wrong with the crimes of their committee. Right. Okay. Now, what does that mean? But in other words, they're basically justified in their own sight. Okay. And you see this in 2020, 2021, all over the place. Right. I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, we had a bunch of protesters at a church, these young people who were either sodomites themselves or advocates of the sodomites. And they're a bunch of young people. I guarantee you, I guarantee you, they probably act the same exact way at home. I guarantee you, they yell at their parents, they beat their parents, they protest their parents. I guarantee you, they're lazy, they don't have any jobs. You know, I guarantee you that these people are wicked. This is the generation that it's referring to. But if you were to ask them, hey, you know, you think it's right what you did over there? You think it's right to bomb a church? You think it's right to go and protest and just, you know, spread all that filth in front of children? They'll say, yeah, that's right. They're pure in their own eyes. Right. They're prudent in their own sight. They're doing that, which is right in their own eyes, not in the eyes of God. Now, we're in Judges chapter 17, judges, the period of the judges is a very strange and peculiar time in the nation of Israel. I mean, when you read some of the stories that are found in the book of Judges, like what in the world is happening here? Right. Okay. You know, idolatry, sodomies being taking place, murder, just these really peculiar stories where you read and you watch. And once you finish the book of Judges reading it, you're just like, there's no happy ending. Like what happened? It's just like all bad. It's all bad. Look at verse number one of Judges 17. Let's read one of those peculiar stories. And there was a man, a man of Mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said unto his mother, the 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from thee about which thou curses and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it. His mother said, blessed be thou the Lord, my son. So what's going on here? He stole money from his mom. He was like, yeah, and I took it. And one of the moms said, Oh, blessed be thou. You know, basically like, you know, you have this child today, 2021, basically, you know, stealing from their parents or something. Oh, he's so cute. He does that sometimes. He's just, don't do that, Johnny. Don't do that. Verse three. And when he had restored the 1100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver to the Lord from mine, from mine hand, from my son to make a what graven image and a molten image. Now therefore restored unto thee. Yet he restored the money unto his mother and his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the founder, which made thereof a graven image and a molten image. And they were in the house of Micah. So basically we have a home that's just filled with idolatry. Okay. And he even says in verse five in the man, Micah had a house of gods and man in Ephod and a teraphim and a consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. So what, this is the first house church in the Bible. This guy is like, well, let's just make a bunch of images. Hey son, you look like, you know, when you be called the preacher or something, why don't you become one of my priests? And just remember the priest is only, the priesthood was only designated to the house of Aaron and more specifically the Levites. And even then there was requirements for the Levites to be priests, you know, a list of requirements that they had to meet, qualifications that they had to meet in order to be a priest. No, you know, not just anyone can become a priest, right? But what you see here is like, Hey, why don't you come on up, come on down and be a priest. So you read this and you're like, what are you doing? You're just going to ordain your own son. You're just going to like make a house of gods and act like you're worshiping the true God. You're going to make all these molten images, these graven images have a house of gods. And then above that to add, you know, rebellion to your sin, you're going to basically consecrate one of your sons as a priest. Why is this happening? Well, look at verse six, in those days, there was no King in Israel, but every man did that which is right in his own eyes. So basically God has given us a disclaimer. This is the disclaimer because he knows that when we finished reading verse five, you're like, what in the world's going on here? And God's like, well, just keep in mind, there's no King in Israel during this time. And when there's no King in Israel, when there's no magistrate, when there's no governor, every man does that, which is right in their own eyes. Right. Okay. Idolatry consecrating your own sons as a priest, look at verse seven. And there was a young man out of Bethlehem, Judah, the family of Judah, who was a Levite. And he saw sojourned there, and the man departed out of the city of Bethlehem, Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And he came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed. And Micah said unto him, what's comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem, Judah, and I go to sojourn where I might find a place. Micah said unto him, dwell with me, be unto me a father and a priest. And I will give thee 10 shekels of silver by a year and a suit of apparel and thy bittles. So the Levite went in, he says, hey, perfect plan. Look, you're a Levite. I need a Levite. You know, you're supposed to be serving in the house of God. I made a house of God. How about I just pay you 10 shekels of silver. I'll give you a nice little pinstripe suit and I'll feed you, I'll give you vittles and you can just dwell with me. Well the Levite should have been like, you're crazy. I don't do this whole house church thing. You know, we need to get someone who's actually qualified to ordain me to do this and I'm not even qualified. I'm just sojourning here. That's what he should have said. Verse 11, and the Levite was content to dwell with the man and the young man was unto him as one of his sons. He was like, man, that sounds good. You get to eat, get clothing, get paid. And Micah consecrated the Levite and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, now know I that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my priest. He's like, now I know I'll be blessed by God because now I got, you know, first it was my son who was a priest, but now I got a Levite to my priest. This superstitious thing where it's just like, well, you know, he's, uh, you know, he, he grew up in an independent fundamental Baptist church. If I could just get him here, you know, God's going to do me good. Okay. So when the Bible says in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that, which is right in his own eyes, this isn't a good thing, right? When it says every man did that, which is right in his own eyes. No one would look at that and say, Oh yeah, that's a good thing. That's great Liberty. This isn't a good thing. And how do we know it's not a good thing? Because that statement is sandwiched between two really stupid decisions. Just things that are just off the wall, consecrating a Levite, making him, you know, paying him 10 shekels of silver and a suit of apparel, vittles, making a house of gods. You see all this spiritual chaos taking place in this region. It's like, why is this happening? Well, because this is what happens when God's word is not the standard, when there's no king to govern, you know, all the nonsense that's taking place to put these people to shame to say, Hey, you're not allowed to do this. This is not right. But because there's no one there to do that, every man is just doing what is right in their own sight. This isn't men being truly free. Right. Oh, this is, this is the kind of world I would like to live in here. No king, no governor, no magistrate, make a house of gods if I wanted to. Who's going to tell me no, you know, just kind of consecrate whoever I want. No one telling me what to do. This is what's known as what? Anarchy. Yeah. Yup. Now why preach this? Because this week Michael Johnson preached regarding the statement, every man doing that, which is writing their own site. And he literally said, that's a good thing, folks. He said that that doing that he's like, this is like, this is, I know, you know, I've heard so many Shermans about this and people saying that this is really bad. It's not bad. It means that they were truly free because they didn't have a king, you know, cause God originally didn't want a king, but you know, and so, you know, they, they didn't have a king telling them what to do and they can do that with just right in their own site. This crazy interpretation of scripture, you said, why would he teach that? I'll tell you why. Because his folly is being made manifest, that's why. And let me say this, anytime some pastor or some prophet starts taking a left turn in their doctrine, starts doing shady things in their ministry, just mark it down. They're going to teach stupid doctrine eventually. Why? Because God allows them to do that. God allows their, their folly to be made manifest, to become a public spectacle to everyone who listens to that fool and say, Oh yeah, this guy's weird. This guy is a false prophet. You're a pastor and this is what you're preaching. You're saying that every man doing that, which is right in his own site is a good thing. When you have Micah making a house of gods, you have him recruiting a Levi and ordaining him to be a priest and you think that's fine. And look, this is what he said, okay, because you know, he's, he's, he's of the sort, you know, that, Oh, you know, our government is really bad and coronavirus and all this, you know, shutting down the church and you shouldn't do that and mask this and mask that, you know, he's the one who calls me a FEMA pastor. Okay. Because I supposedly closed down my church during the coronavirus. Well, here's the thing, Michael Johnson, even when I supposedly closed down my church, I still had more in attendance at my church than you do on a regular before coronavirus. Think about that. But let me just say this folks. Okay. Obviously the government is wicked. Duh. I mean, we have magistrates in Omani, as you see, who are against your pastor and all the wickedness that they're doing. Obviously we understand that magistrates can be wicked, governors can be wicked and all these things, but just, but you need to don't, don't take that too far. Let me explain to you why. And after this, if you continue to take it far, you got issues. Let me tell you why you can't take that too far because one of the glaring characteristics of a false prophet, according to second Peter chapter two is that they despise governments. Think about that for a second. It says, but chiefly then that walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness and despise governments. What does that mean? They don't want anybody ruling over them. Presumptuous are they self-willed look what it says. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Jude one eight says this, likewise. Also these filthy dreamers to file the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. So hold on a second. Yeah. Obviously there's wicked governments. Obviously there's people in higher in high places that do wrong and do wickedly and they're just completely evil. And they're puppets of Satan, but hold on a second individual who only hates governments and doesn't want anyone ruling over them. According to the Bible is like a false prophet, right? And let me just say this. No matter, listen to me, no matter how wicked the government gets, the alternative is never anarchy. No matter how evil, how nefarious the government can get, the alternative is never anarchy. According to the Bible. It might be for some Republican out there who's not Christian, not us. We as Christians do not despise governments. And in fact, the Bible tells us that the government shall be upon his shoulders and look, Michael Johnson said this. Yeah. They're supposed to have a King. What are you talking about? They weren't supposed to have a King. God was their King prior to the system of the judges. And even prior to the Kings coming in thereafter, God, they're under a theocracy. God was the King. He ordained men to execute righteousness in the land. People who told others what to do. It's not like, Oh, there was just free reign. Every man was just doing that, which is right in their own side in Israel, in the wilderness. Yeah. You know what? If there's an individual who did that, which is right in their own side, that would be punished. Amen. Okay. And look, they didn't, and by the way, they didn't believe in the first amendment then either. Right. There's no freedom of religion back in those days. Amen. If someone blasphemed the name of God, they would be put to death. That's not freedom of speech. That's not the first amendment. Okay. So to say, well, you know, you know, they're better off without a King. You know what he's saying? He's doing that, which is right in his own side. Yeah. You know why he's trying to justify these people doing that, which is right in their own eyes, because that's exactly what he's doing. And he's saying, I don't want a King. Yeah. He's saying, I don't want anyone telling me what to do. But no matter how wicked a government can be, the alternative is never anarchy folks. Amen. Now go to Numbers 15, go to Numbers chapter 15. Doing that, which is right in your own side is never a good thing. It's rebellious. It's anarchy. It's not correct. And look, anybody with two brain cells to rub together, can you listen to that statement made by Michael Johnson and say, this dude's crazy. Amen. He believes this? What's your next move, Johnson? What else are you going to say that's completely stupid and idiotic? Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it interesting? You know, you have this Levi, or you have this guy, Micah, ordaining his son and that's exactly what Michael Johnson is. Yeah. He was sent out by his daddy. He was ordained and sent down by his papa. Look at verse 38. It says Numbers chapter 15 verse 38, speaking to the children of Israel, bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations and that they put upon the fringe of the borders, a ribbon of blue and it shall be unto you for a fringe that you may look upon and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes after which he used to go horny that you may remember and do all the commandments and be holy unto your God. So God told him, make these fringes as a reminder to keep God's word and not do that, which is right in your own eyes. So according to the Bible, doing that, which is right in your own eyes is actually the opposite of what God wants you to do. Right. And in fact, he's sending up a reminder to say, keep my commandments and the opposite of keeping my commandments is doing your own commandments. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 12, Deuteronomy chapter number 12, he says that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes. No, sorry, Michael Johnson, but not sorry. Doing that, which is right in your own eyes is actually wicked. It's actually evil. It's actually the opposite of what the Bible teaches, but folks, should we be surprised? You know, the Bible says that in the latter times, some should depart from the faith, giving heat to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with the hot iron, you know, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from me. You know, one of the glaring characteristics of a false prophet is they'll, they'll literally teach the exact opposite of what the Bible says, Oh, abstain from, from getting married. Marriage is good. What are you talking about? Yeah. Abstain from me. What veganism is of the devil. What do you mean? According to the Bible? No, it's sinful. You know, meat is murder, meat is murder. You might want to read the Old Testament and all the millions of animals that got killed. Well, that's Old Testament. All right. Why don't you read the book of Revelation? See like when God just makes worldwide barbecue, but folks, this is a glaring testimony of a false prophet. They will literally teach the exact opposite of what the Bible says. So they'll take a passage that's found in Judges 17 and 21, where it says that every man did that, which is right in their own sight and they'll teach the exact opposite. So that's a good thing. They put good for evil, evil for good, bitter for sweet, sweet for bitter. Look at Deuteronomy 12 verse five, but unto the place, Deuteronomy 12 verse five, but unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even into his habitation shall you seek and thither shall thou come. And thither you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and heave offerings over your hands and your vows and your free will offerings and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks. And there you shall eat bread, excuse me, there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand unto ye in your household wherein the Lord thy God had blessed thee. Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. I know this is repetitive, but I just want to show you that this is not right. God's constantly telling the children of Israel, don't do that which is right in your own sight. Don't do what you think, what you're naturally inclined to do. Don't do those things because if you do those things, it's going to be the complete opposite of what I'm commanding you to do. And the book of Judges is a testament of that. It's a testament when you allow a group of people, a nation to go unfettered with no government, with no laws of God, with no magistrates to put them to shame, it's a testament of that. When you have zero authority, zero magistrates, zero correction, you know what's going to happen? Sin goes unfettered, you have idolatry, and you know what comes after idolatry, reprobation. Every time in the nation of Israel, folks, for example, Jeremiah chapter six, when they became reprobate silver, you remember that? Why did they become reprobate silver? I'll tell you why, because they got involved in idolatry. Read Romans one for the individual. Before becoming a reprobate, they made an image, you know, they changed the image of incorruptible God into an image made unto a corruptible man, four footed beast and all that. They committed idolatry, and therefore their foolish heart was darkened, they became wise in their own sight. Proclaiming themselves to be wise, they became fools, the Bible says. So you have idolatry, you have reprobation, and then you have a nation filled with sodomites. Oh, what do we find in the book of Judges after Judges 17 and 18? Oh, that's right, the sons of Belial. Seeking to rape a man, raping a woman, all this wickedness taking place in the nation of Israel. So let me ask you this, Michael Johnson, you know, they're doing that, which is right in their own sight. So are you saying that sodomy is okay? Oh, it must be with you because you're standing with them against me. Right? This guy literally made a comment and said, and was like backing up the sodomites and attacking me. What in the world? Folks, Michael Johnson, for your man lip sync, don't stand with the sodomites. Any pastor who stands with the sodomites against me, you're a queerbait, you're a fag hag. Or you're one of them. Period. And I'm not saying that Michael Johnson is a homo, but you know, for sure now he's sealed his fate. He's a fag hag. Because he's defending them against me. So when it says they did that, which is right in their own sight, one of the things that was right in their own sight is raping men, killing them, raping women, committing idolatry, and he thinks that's right. Yeah. Insanity. He thinks that that's okay. Oh, it's just men being free and, you know, just free to just commit the most abominable acts. This is life. This is great. In his sight. The Bible says in Psalm 36, go with me, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter number 12, Psalm 36 verse 1 says, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. He flattereth himself. So what does it mean to flatter someone? It means to deceive them. And you know what these people do? They flatter themselves. So what does it mean? They're deceiving themselves. Look at Proverbs chapter 12 verse 15. Proverbs chapter 12 verse 15 says this, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkened unto them to counsel is wise. Amen. So the fool says, well, I'm right. I don't care what the Bible says. I don't care what the government says. I don't care what pastor says. I don't care what the church says. I'm right. You know what the Bible says? You're a fool. Amen. Yep. So again, folks, look, if you're reading the Bible, you're memorizing the Bible, you are adhering to God's principles and God's word, you're not resting the scriptures, then obviously you're going to do right. Amen. But folks, if you're just completely teaching that, which is opposite of the word of God, don't say that you're doing that, which is right in God's eyes. You're doing that, which is right in your own sight. Amen. First chapter 16 verse two. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. This is why when you go sowing and you go knock on doors and you preach in the gospel, the vast majority of people are like, well, I'm a good person. Even though they just finished smoking a blunt, even though they got a beer can in their hand, even though they're living a wicked lifestyle, they're like, yeah, pretty good. Why? Because all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm going to heaven. I think I'm a good guy. I think I'm going to go to heaven. I think I deserve eternal life. I think I can work my way to heaven. Why? Well, because I'm pure in my own eyes. I believe I'm right. I believe I'm good. I believe I'm righteous. But here's the thing, the Lord weigheth the spirits. Go to chapter 21. Chapter 21. So it seems to me that the individual who follows their heart and does that, which they think is right, and they follow their own natural inclination, God actually condemns that. And God says, you're going to be destroyed. That's not my way. Here's the thing, folks. If we naturally did that, which was good, then we wouldn't need the Bible. If we naturally did that, which was good, we wouldn't need a renewing of the mind. But you know why we need God to renew our minds? To remove all the filth and the junk and all the worldliness and all the worldly philosophies from our mind and to renew it and change it to think the way God thinks. Look at Proverbs 21 verse two. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the hearts. So he's saying, look, you may think you're doing right, but I'm actually searching the hearts to see the motives behind what you're doing. Okay. Go to 1 Peter chapter two, 1 Peter chapter two. Never have this attitude that, well, you know, our government's so wicked. We're just not going to follow any type of government. Folks, wouldn't you say that the Roman government was really wicked in Jesus' day? All the paganism and idolatry and sodomy and slavery and just doing all types of wicked stuff during that time. It was very wicked during that time, right? I mean, it was Babylon and we're Babylon, right? But do you see Jesus just completely bucking their authority? Why didn't he do that? Why, why was he, why did he even pay taxes because Jesus paid taxes. Now obviously we don't have his ability where we can just go to some fish and just pull out money and just pay your taxes that way. But here's the thing. Why did he even do that? I'll tell you why. Because he had a greater purpose. There's a greater fight to battle. There's a greater battle to fight. He's just like, just pay the taxes, just do it. We got other things to do. We got souls to win. We got the word of God to preach and you know what Jesus knew? I'm taking over anyways at the end of all this. So let them kick me out of Omani. I'm going to take over Omani in the millennial ring anyways. I'm going to come back on my white horse, you know, after Jesus just completed. I'm going to say, Hey, I need to make a trip to Omani real quick. I just need to go, go to my old stomping grounds real quick and just go kind of visit that place a little bit. You know, at the end of the day, those, these things don't matter at all. Because we have a higher purpose. That's why look at verse 13, just to show you that we should not despise governments. Look what it says in verse 13, submit yourselves to every ordinance, a man for the Lord's sake. Now are we supposed to just ignore that? Are we supposed to just like cross that out and say, well, not for us in 2021, no way. Submit yourselves to every ordinance, a man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, for the praise of them that do well. Now folks, obviously, if they tell us you can't preach the gospel at that point, then we buck that. Cause we go to the higher powers, according to Romans, Romans 13, Bible tells us in Romans chapter 13, that there are higher powers. Okay. And no, it's not the constitution. The highest power is the word of God, no matter what part of the world you're in. But here's the thing is that if there's an ordinance, like you get a ticket and you felt like you didn't deserve the ticket, but it's going to waste a bunch of your time, get you out of church or something, miss it. Have you missed a service or you can't buy a certain thing. Folks just pay the ticket and move on with your life. Why? Because you have a higher purpose. Right? Right. Okay. Look, and I know this isn't popular. If you want to go into a restaurant and they're making you wear a mask from the time that you step into the doors to the time you sit down, I know that's a really stupid law and I agree, but you know what I do? I wear the mask. You compromise her. You FEMA camp pastor. I can't believe you folks. We had someone in our church one time, so embarrassing. We went to go eat at a restaurant. I invited the orchestra to come eat because they put in a lot of work. We went to this restaurant and all of us put on our stupid little masks because we're submitting ourselves to every ordinance of man and we're like, this is stupid. So are you telling me like, as soon as I sit down, coronavirus is like, Oh dang, we can't get to him now. You know, I was like, I was just stupid folks. The three mass thing is stupid. I know this wearing three men, what in the world? And now like I have one mask on and then people with three minutes, they just like, I'm just like, you should be looking at yourself like that. You look ridiculous. But this guy, we go into this restaurant, we all, we all get our masks and we go sit down and we're like, we're so-and-so and he's outside now does not want to wear a mask. And he's like, I have a car that will exempt me from wearing the mask. I have a medical condition that if I put on a mask, I can't breathe or all this stuff. So they had to go get the manager, get the manager to come out, approve him and then walk him to the table. Oh, you're just a freaking martyr of the faith. You just, you're a hero, dude. You're an inspiration to us all. Why didn't I think of just wasting 20 minutes of my time to do that? No, it's stupid folks. Put the stupid mask on, go sit down and take it off and then go discuss biblical things. Submit yourself. But here's the thing. This is what I believe sometimes it is with Christians, okay? You know, I think sometimes they don't really want to get involved in the real fight because the real fights can get your church blown up. See what I'm saying? So they kind of move over to like this side and like, well, this kind of looks like a fight. We'll just do this fight right here. It's pretty safe. Nothing really. They're not going to threaten us and all this stuff, you know, all this bad stuff over here. I don't want to get involved in that because at that point we can, it's, our lives are in danger if we do something like that, but the only thing that you're in danger of here is like, you know, being called a, you know, radical Trump person or something like that. That's what it is sometimes. They rather not just get involved in the real fight and they want to fight something that's not really there. Folks, submit yourselves to every ordinance and get in the battle, get in the real fight. Go get your building blown up and then we'll talk. Go to Judges 18, Judges chapter 18. This guy, he's saying, uh, you know, he called me a FEMA pastor because I closed down my church for two weeks and the attendance was like 20 people, probably more than what he has on a regular before coronavirus. Yeah, that's right. You know, I'm a compromised, I'm a FEMA pastor, but, but hold on a second. And then, and then, and then he wants to say that, like, I brought this on myself. I wouldn't stand near pastor Bruce Mejia. I wouldn't stand with them or anywhere near him because God has removed his hedge of protection. Yeah. He, he removed it so we can go out and go into a better hedge of protection. He's just like, yeah, we need to open it up so you can get out and get into a better building. And then our church grows even more. I mean, didn't Joe, didn't, wasn't his ladder end better than his beginning? You know, next week, I mean even now, but next week our ladder end is going to be better than our beginning. And let me just let you in on a little secret, okay? Last year, I was already planning to leave that building. Maybe some of you didn't know that. I was working hard to just not be in that building anymore because I was concerned like even prior to coronavirus, I was concerned because our church was growing at such a rapid pace. I was thinking to myself like, man, I don't think we're going to be able to fit in here. Because you know, when I got ordained, it was like 200 people inside the building and like 20, 25 people of those were standing up. Yeah. It was not comfortable at all. It was very packed and you know how hot that building would get. Even with our new AC and everything, it would still get hot. You know? And I was thinking to myself, man, this is great that we're growing, but I'm kind of concerned if we're continuing to grow, like where are we going to put everyone? Right. It's just that we're going to just shove everyone outside in the patio and just put screen up. Like I was kind of nervous, but then coronavirus came and then obviously the attendance dropped and it started picking up again. So prior to that, when I thought to myself, hey, we're going to outgrow this building like in the next couple of months, you know, I was already planning to leave. Yeah. I was like, should I breach the contract and like just go somewhere else? Because we're growing. Now God had other plans, obviously, and God was like, oh yeah, I'll hook you up with a better building. You're just going to have to wait like about a year, get your building blown up and do all that stuff. And then we'll put you somewhere else. We'll put you in a nicer area. Amen. There you go. So we're not tied to a building and I hope you're not tied to that building. If you're like, oh, I just, I'm just going to miss that building. I'm like, what part I have to, you guys remember the beams, random beams in different places sticking out of the ground. There's like, there's like pipes and like, there's like a gutter inside the building. Yup. You guys remember that when, when Ulysses and I were doing the wiring for the live stream, we're like, I remember we brought Albert in because there was like wires and I was like, I need you to tell me where this wire goes. And he looked at it and he was just like, well, this one, I don't know, he was like, I have no idea where it goes. I don't even know what it's for. And he's a general contractor. He was looking at it. It was just like this, whatever they did. This wall down, cause we want to create a podcast room. Albert goes in there and he's like, this thing's made out of concrete. Like what? He's like, yeah, the wall's made out of concrete. He's like, you still want me to tear it down? I'm like, tear it down. He's tearing it down. There's a window inside of the wall and a person inside of the window, no, I'm just kidding. I'm like, what was this place? What is this? You know, when I, when I was talking to Pastor Anderson, he's like, well, just find anything to move into. I'm like, no, because that's what we did when we moved here. I don't want this again. Anyways, look at Judges 18. So let's, let's just run with that. You know, Oh, you know, Israel was just better off without a king. No king. It was good. Every man was free. You know, just libertarians at its finest. It's just great. Well, look at verse seven, the five men departed, came to Laish and saw the people that were there in how they dwell careless after the manner of the Zydonia. So this is talking about the Danites. The Danites are coming in to inherit the land that basically God had given to them. They're just like, all right, we just need to look for a place where we can dwell in, remove the inhabitants out of that land. So they're going there and they find these group of people that are, they're dwelling carelessly. They're just kind of like eating grapes and just kind of chilling out, quiet and secure, the Bible says, and look what it says, and there was no magistrate in the land. So there's no one there to kind of protect them. And in fact, it even says that there was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in anything. And they were far from the Zydonians and had no business with any man. So the Danites come to this piece of land and what do they see? Careless people, just quiet and secure. And there's no authority. Yeah. Oh, this is right for the picking. Because if we attack this land, who's going to protect them? Who's going to come to their aid? So not only is there no one there to basically, you know, to help them or to aid them if there's an invader, but there's no one there to even put them to shame. So these guys are dwelling carelessly. Who knows what they're doing? Who knows what kind of sins and abominable things they're involved in? Who knows what kind of idolatry they're committing? No one knows because no one's there to put them to shame. Go to verse 27. So the Danites are like, let's get this spot. And they took the things with Micah had made and the priests, which he had and came to Laish unto a people that were quiet and secure, and they smote them with the edge of the sword and burn the city with fire. So within this city, who was there? Micah and the Levite. And they go there and they're like, what are you doing being a priest to this guy? Why don't you come back to the 12 tribes of Israel and you could be a priest unto us? And he was just like, sounds good. So he goes with them and the Micah comes out and he's just like, Hey, what are you doing to my stuff? You're taking all my stuff. And they're like, shut up. We're punking you. It's a sock check, pocket check. They're checking, they're just taking everything that they have and they're just going to run with it. And Micah can't do anything about it. Why? Because there's no magistrate. They can't call the police or don't have any people, any rulers, judges that can come by and say, this is wrong. You can't do this. This is robbery. This is wrong. Look at verse 28. And there was no deliverer because it was far from Zion and they had no business with any man. And it was in the valley that lieth by Bethlehem and they built the city and dwelt therein. So look, no magistrate meant no deliverer. No king means these people were not put to shame. So no one can help them. And look folks, obviously when we study the Bible, we see that police are not in the Bible. That's not an office that God has ordained. But here's the thing is like, they are part of that government. And wouldn't you say you're grateful for the police during the protest? I was. You know, when we were there, it's just like you had all these stuff. What if the police weren't there? They would have been left unrestrained, there would have been no deliverer. You know, and obviously the police are catching the brunt of the criticism because they had literally had a picture of us in church and then five or four police officers in front of our church just standing there just like, yeah, it was a great photo. They're just leaning up against our church like protecting our property, which is exactly what they're supposed to be doing anyways, according to the Bible. They're actually supposed to punish the evildoers and protect us. Those who are doing right. And that's what they did. They would escort us, they protected us. That's exactly what they're supposed to do. Now you say, well, what would have happened if they weren't there? Well then, you know, we would have to kind of take matters into our own hands and protect ourselves. You let your imagination run with that. But obviously that's not our, that's not our desire. We don't want to do that. So you know what? The magistrates that were there in their land were there for a reason and it helped us out in the long run. Okay. Go to, um, let me see here. Go to Isaiah chapter 55. Now look folks, obviously in the new world order, the police are probably going to turn against us. Everyone's going to turn against us. Right, right. The Republicans are going to turn against us. The libertarians are going to be against us. The, the, um, the constitutionalists are going to be against us. The police are going to be, everyone is because Christians are going to be a public enemy number one. Right, right. Cause they're going to seek to put them to death. But until then, obviously this is the system in which we live. And look, there was, there was magistrates in the days of Paul who helped him, who rescued him, delivered him. They're there for a reason. Okay. Now why is it never right to do that, which is right in our own eyes? Well, number one, because humans have a natural inclination to do wrong. Look at Isaiah 55 and verse seven, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him, let him return into the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and tour God for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts and not your thoughts. Neither are your ways. My way saved the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. What is he saying? Look, your ways are not like my ways. We often quote this to say, you know, when God is doing something in our lives, you know, we don't understand because his, his ways are higher than our ways. But in context, what he's actually saying is this, your ways are wicked and your ways are different than my ways. In fact, it's so different. It's like the heavens and the earth. That's how far apart your ways are from my ways. So therefore we need to make sure that our ways line up with God's ways. And this shows us that if we don't have God's ways, we're naturally inclined to do wrong according to the Bible. That's why it's never right to do that, which is right in our own sight. Go to Hebrew chapter five. I didn't mean to rhyme that. It just came out that way. Hebrew chapter five. Why else? Well, because true discernment stems from a proper understanding of God's law. So look, discernment is the ability to see things God's way. Discernment is the ability to look at a situation, to break it down and recognize what is it that God is doing through this or how should I respond biblically? That's called discernment. You know, you want to discern the Bible when you read it and not read Judges 17 and say, Oh, that means when it says doing that, which is right in his own eyes, that means it's a good thing. No, that you don't have, you have zero discernment. You're blind. That's what you are. True discernment stems from proper understanding of God's law. Look at Hebrews five verse 12. It says, for when the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that won't teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as need, such as have need of milk and not a strong me for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe, but strong me belonging to them that are a full age. Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. He says, look, if you want to be able to have discernment, to be able to discern between good and evil, you need to read God's word, which is obviously something that Michael Johnson's not doing, right? You can listen to say, he's like, you're not reading the Bible, huh? You must not be reading the Bible at all. Because this is very elementary, what you're teaching against. And then lastly, true Liberty is found within the boundaries of God's law. Think about this. And I'll finish with this. Go to James chapter one, last verse, think about this, because people think, well, in order for me to be free, I just need to do whatever I want, but that's not true freedom. True freedom is actually subjecting yourself to the laws of God. It's actually allowing yourself to be restricted by the boundaries of God's word. That's actually true freedom. I mean, think about this, who's really free, the individual who escapes prison or the individual who is just a law abiding citizen, you see the individual who escapes prison thinks he's free, but you know what he's going to be doing for the rest of his life? Looking over his shoulder, wondering, Oh man, you know, look in his rear view mirror for every police officer that's behind him, he's not really free, right? He's living in constant fear, constant wondering, am I going to get conned, am I going to do this? Why? Because he's not abiding according to the laws of the land, right? But you know what the person who's really free is the one who's just like living a normal moral law abiding life. No one in here, as far as I know, leaves and just like, man, well, there's a police right there, you know, just looks over there, looks in the rear view mirror, quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet. There's a police right there. Just smile. And if you're like that, you're just paranoid and you're not involved in any like illegal activity. You're just, you might've been involved in illegal activity in times past and you just built up some bad habits. I know people that when I'm in the car with them, they can spot a police officer like miles away. They're like, Oh, there's a police coming down the street on, on this, you know, five blocks away or something. How do you know that? Like, I just had that radar. True freedom is the person who's not involved in sin, not involved in any crimes. And so they can just live a carefree life. Who's free me or the person who bombed my church building me. Even if they think they got away with it, they're constantly living in fear because now the FBI is on their rear end. They're afraid that they might get caught. That's why they're contacting people in our church. Take down my video. Please take it down. You're going to ruin my life. I'm not content contacting anyone to take down any video. Even from my enemy side. Keep them all up. Why? Because I got nothing to hide. Do you think I go on keep on my friendlies page and just report their post about me and report this and all the slander. I'm just like, just leave it up in fact, print me out a copy. I want to get, I want to post that too. Yeah. Why? Because if I'm not living in sin, if I'm just being a law abiding citizen, I'm not worried about anything. I'm free. I'm actually at Liberty and I lay my head on my pillow at night, not worrying about a darn thing. I'm just like, why worry? But they're not. I guarantee you they're going to sleep worried that someone's going to knock on their door, that they're going to be arrested. And you know what? They should be. And even if no one ever comes after them and arrests them, God's going to punish them. Need I repeat? Oh no, you guys, some of you guys weren't even there on Thursday. Folks. Okay. I'm finished. Let me just finish with this story. Okay. James one. I was just going to talk about the perfect law of Liberty or look folks, just know this. Don't allow yourself to just be an unrest regarding evil doers, Fred, not because of evil. Well, you know, we're just leaving and they're not going to be punished and all these things. No, no, no, no. They will be punished. Not by me. Maybe not even by the FBI or the police, but I guarantee you God will punish them. And let me give you a legitimate example of that. A modern day example, a couple of months ago, what was it in September, October, we had a fundamentalist conference. How many of you guys remember when we had the fundamentalist conference? There's a guy who is just an enemy of God who literally shut us down three times when we're in Ohio. Marcus and I were in Ohio, a hundred people shut down our venue three times, three times, make videos, slandered me and my pastor friends, docs, their children. This individual was just wicked. And I remember being in Ohio, thinking to myself like, man, this person is just like going after us hard. And we literally have to move people like three times, a hundred people I'm talking about. We live streamed, it took us three hours to set up. And then he reports us, the owner or whatever, the manager comes and says, you guys gotta be out in one hour. You guys gotta have all your stuff out in one hour, you guys can't be here because of what you preach. That's what he told me. So needless to say, it was a pain in the neck and you know what, like I was, I was angry. And I remember coming back home and we had our prayer meetings and I told you guys, Hey, we need to pray against this individual. This individual is wicked, pray that God punishes this individual. He hates the Lord. He's trying to stop the work of God. We prayed and we prayed for a while, you know, a couple of weeks or whatever. And then I just kind of forgot about it because you know, you just move on with life, buildings get blown up and you know, just normal stuff of life starts happening. You know what I mean? Just kind of, and I really, I just ended up forgetting about it. And then, you know, all this happens and I'm thinking to myself, man, Lord, are you going to punish these evil people who like bombed our building and protested us and just fought against us? Like Lord, are you going to punish them? And you know, I'm just praying against praying, praying those imprecatory prayers. And then I get a message saying, Hey, you remember so-and-so? They went missing. I'm like, really? Yeah. They went missing. They don't know where they're at. Get the message the next day, Hey, they found their body. This person was brutally murdered. Cause he was involved in some shady business. Yeah. And you know what I thought to myself, Lord, you do a vengeance speedily. Amen. And I thought to myself, like, I rejoice. I rejoiced folks. And I thought to myself, I was thinking like, Lord, forgive me for having such lack of faith. Because it's just like, man, are these people are going to be punished? Well, you know what? He finds faith on the earth when he returns, you know, when he says, I will avenge you speedily. Amen. Amen. And here's the thing. I had already forgotten about him. Yeah. But you know who didn't forget? God. Amen. God didn't forget that. And it's no coincidence that he allowed it to be exposed and allow me and my friends to hear about it. Right. You know what? You know why I think he allowed me to hear about it? Just to kind of remind us like, Hey, I still got your back. And I will avenge you speedily. And at that point, it's just like, dude, don't mess with God's people. Don't mess with his church. Don't mess with his doctrine. Don't mess with his people. And you know what else Tommy? Avenge not yourselves. Don't take matters into your own hands. Don't avenge yourselves. God will repay them. Even when you forget about it, he will never forget about it. So what's the sermon today? You know what? If we do that, which is right in our own eyes, we take matters into our own hands. But God is saying, Hey, don't do that, which is right in your own eyes. I will repay you. Do that, which is right in God's eyes and let God take care of his enemies. And then when that day comes, we rejoice. That's right. Man. And pregatory prayers really do work. Amen. Okay. Father, we thank you so much for your word and Lord, we pray that you would avenge us of our enemies, Lord. Those who hate you, they hate your word. Those who have sought to hinder the work of God. Those who are perverting your word, Lord. These things, they vex our righteous soul, Lord. And I pray God that you would, you bring speedy punishment upon those who have sought to hinder the work of God here and Lord help us never to do that, which is right in our own sight in our own eyes and help us never to be wise in our own eyes and prudent in our own sight. But I mean, we look at the world and the decisions we make to the filter of your word and help us to, to seek you and your word. Help us not to lean upon our own understanding, but in all our ways, acknowledge you and you'll direct our path. Lord, I pray God that you'd help us to do so. We love you so much. We thank you. Praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Leaning on the everlasting arms.