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

We're in Hosea, chapter number 12, and this chapter, though it's 14 verses long, pretty much the way we see throughout the whole book of Hosea, it's actually a shorter chapter in the sense of there's not a whole lot of content found within the book of Hosea. The verses are a little shorter, but it still packs a lot of doctrine as far as the condition of Israel, and it kind of explains to us, once again, it kind of reiterates the condition that Israel's in. Now, look at verse number one, it says, Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind. He daily increases lies and desolation, and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. Now one thing you'll notice is that when you read in the Old Testament, and of course, we're studying the book of Hosea, that you'll find a lot of poetic type of terms, a lot of different types of phrases and terminologies that are being used, and if we're not careful, you can often circumvent through those phrases and kind of just overlook them. You'll bypass them because it just sounds like beautiful, poetic phrases that God is using to basically explain the condition of Israel, but when you find things like that, pause for a minute and try your best to just study it out. Why is he saying this? Because at the end of the day, everything in the Bible is not, I mean, it's there on purpose. Nothing in the Bible is accidental, and so when you find a phrase that sounds a little cryptic, it sounds a little like a dark saying, don't just overlook it, don't bypass it, don't circumvent it. You need to be able to read it and study it out because at the end of the day, it will be indicative of something that's actually a little more clear in that same passage or chapter, so on and so forth. And this is what we find in verse number one, because he says there, Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind. Now what is that referring to? Well, in the Bible, if you study the word of God in regards to winds, believe it or not, you will soon find out that the east wind is the wind that's actually mentioned the most in the Bible. Now one thing you'll notice throughout the word of God is that the south wind, north and west wind, is often associated with God's blessing. It's associated with produce, it's associated with God's blessing, yeah, it's even associated with restoration, whereas the east wind is often associated with God's judgment. It's often associated with something that's very negative, judgment, desolation, or destruction. Now we don't have time to look through all the verses, we're gonna look through some of them tonight, but you'll notice that throughout the word of God that that's what you'll see there. So what's significant about that? Well, go with me if you would to Ezekiel chapter 17, hold your place there in Hosea, I'm gonna read to you from Song of Solomon, four verse 16, it says, Awake, O north wind, and come thou south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out, let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. So you'll look throughout the word of God, as I mentioned, that many of these winds coming from different portions of the world are often associated with God's blessing. Now this is actually not just a spiritual application, but if you even study the conditions of the weather in this region of the world, you'll see that it holds water in regards to what takes place in that area, because the south wind, the west, and the north wind are often winds that come from the Mediterranean Sea. And when you have winds coming from the Mediterranean Sea inland, you get more moisture in the air, you often get more rain, and what is that good for, for the crops, therefore you get God's blessing. Whereas if you get wind from the east, what do you get? You get the wind from the Arabian desert, which ultimately is just dust and ends up destroying the crops. So look throughout the Bible, do a study on the east wind, you'll find that multiple times, God will use that east wind to judge his own people, but also to apply a spiritual truth that he's actually destroying that place. Therefore he's using a nation, he's comparing it to the east wind that's gonna come and make desolate the nation that he's going to judge. Look at Ezekiel 17 and verse 10. It says here, Behold, being planted shall it prosper, shall it not utterly wither? When the east wind toucheth it, it shall wither in the furrows where it grew. Go to chapter 19 and verse number 12. Look what it says in Ezekiel 19 and verse number 12. It says here, but she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit. Her strong rods were broken and withered, the fire consumed them. Now why does it say there that the east wind has broken it, the strong rods were broken and withered, and the fire consumed it? Well simply for the fact that the east wind can distribute a caustic swarm of dust that could ultimately cause fires within their crops. And this is the exact example that he's giving here, and the east wind's not being used in a positive way, it's very negative, okay? Now you think of, for example, the vision that Pharaoh had, right? In the book of Genesis, when he came to Joseph, he talked about that east wind coming and destroying the crops, the corn, and that was symbolic of the famine that was gonna come into Egypt, the seven years of famine that was gonna come after the seven years of plenty. Go to Exodus chapter number 10 if you would, Exodus chapter number 10. Look at Exodus chapter 10 verse 13, it says here, Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night, and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locust. So what do we see again? This east wind correlating with God's judgment, the locust, these plagues that were here in the land of Egypt. Now, look at verse 19 of chapter 10, it says, and the Lord turned a mighty strong west, excuse me, a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locust and cast them into the Red Sea. There remain not one locust in all the coast of Egypt. Go to Isaiah chapter 27, so again, we see the contrast there, and we see the east wind, it's judgment, but when you see the west wind, you see God removing that, we see restoration being taken place here. Look at Isaiah 27 and verse number eight. It says here in Isaiah 27 verse number eight, in measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it, he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind, by this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. So what do we see here? And he uses the east wind to destroy the fruit, to purge it, it says right there. And this could be likened in our spiritual life that when we get into sin, when we get away from God, what does God do? He brings a spiritual east wind to purge us from that sin. He allows a famine to come into our life, he allows judgment to come into our life, chastisement to come into our life, why? So we can receive the west wind. So we can bring in the west wind, take away the locust. So when he destroys our fruit, he allows us to just go bankrupt spiritually, he takes away our finances, our possessions, we go to him, we repent, and he brings in a west wind to basically grow our crops again. He basically comes back and he's able to restore that which the locust hath eaten, the Bible says. Okay? Now, go to Jeremiah chapter 18. This is a common theme throughout the Bible. And it just gives greater meaning to the fact that the Bible says that the winds and the waves obey him, amen? Because he uses the winds to judge, but he also uses the winds to bless as well, okay? So when you leave here tonight, just go, you know, which way is the wind? No, you don't have to do that. But spiritually speaking, we got to basically say, hey, am I being judged? Or am I receiving God's blessing? You say, what if everything is going wrong in my life, and I've examined myself, I have no sin, then you know what, then you're just the victim of life. Because obviously, this doesn't negate the fact that we're going to go through hard times and difficulties, even when we're obeying God. That's called life. You know, when we get saved, you know, our sin nature is not removed, the wickedness of this world is not removed, the ill intentions of other people are not removed. Therefore, if we're going through circumstances that are not benefiting us, but rather damaging us, examine yourself to see if you are, you know, in the Lord, if you're in the Bible. And at that point, if you recognize, hey, I'm right with God, then guess what, it's just life. You know, at that point, you just recognize, hey, God is still good. God's going to still provide for me. God's still there. God still loves me. He has not forsaken me. And you know what? You need to set your affections on things above, not on the things of this earth. Because when you set your affections on things above and not on the things of this earth, you recognize that we're only here for a little time, and this is considered a lightweight in comparison to the weight of glory that we're going to get when we go to heaven, okay? Now we're going to have you turn Jeremiah chapter 18, verse 17, it says, I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity. Now go back to Isaiah chapter one, or excuse me, chapter 12. So we see here, we saw multiple examples of God using an east wind to judge his people, bringing an east wind to bring in the locusts to eat up their crops, bringing in an east wind to destroy and make desolate their livelihood. We see that over and over again. It says there, Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind. So think about that. So the east wind is not only coming to make destroy them, they're going for that east wind. This is similar to what we see in Proverbs 7 when it says, he goeth after her straight way, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks. In other words, Israel has become so brutish, so foolish, that they're actually going to be destroyed. Now why is that? Well, because we see there that they're making a covenant with Assyria, okay? The Bible says you don't have to turn in Hosea 13 verse 15, it says, though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up. He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. Habakkuk 1 verse 9 says, they shall come all for violence. Their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. Now, another application that we see to the east wind is it, at times it's a literal east wind that brings in, you know, just a destroying type of a dust that just ruins the crops. But it's often an application to a foreign enemy that's going to come in like an east wind. Because just as an east wind brings in that bowl of dust that destroys and makes desolate everything, in like manner, when God judges Israel, he brings an army who comes in just like that east wind. Well, what do they do? They come in and they destroy everything. Who is that enemy? The Assyrians. Because if you remember in the previous chapter, he said the Assyrians shall be your king. You won't go back to Egypt, but the Assyrians shall be your king. What does that mean? Well, where's Assyria? It's in the Middle East. So when he talks about that east wind, you know, maybe it's literal in the fact that there is a literal east wind that's going to destroy all the crops, but more so than that, the application that God is trying to drive in there is that the Assyrians are going to come in and they're just going to destroy everyone in Israel. That's what he's talking about there. The Bible says he daily increases lies and desolation, and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. Now what's the application here? Well, the application is this for us today is that, hey, stay away from that east wind. Or don't follow after the east wind. You know, if you sin or if you're involved in something that's wicked, better to repent and get it right, right away, rather than follow the east wind and have that east wind just meet you halfway and just destroy you halfway as well, because that's exactly what Israel is doing. You say, well, how are they following the east wind? By worshiping Baal. You see, it's sinful not to read the word of God. It's sinful not to obey the word of God, but it's even more sinful to actually go and join the enemies of God. It's one thing to backslide. It's another thing to join the enemies of God. And this is exactly what we see here, because the Bible says that they made a covenant. You listening? They made a covenant with the Assyrians, and it says there, and oil is carried into Egypt. Now what is that referring to? It's not talking about the essential oils that are just like bartering and doing business with Egypt. What this is referring to here is the fact that Israel is making a league with the foreign nation. Now what is a league? In other words, they're making affinity, they're joining forces with them. Now when you study the Old Testament in the historical books, you'll often find the children of Israel, they prosper obviously when they obey God, when the king is a righteous king who is doing right in the sight of the Lord, they're executing righteousness, they're doing that which is right in the sight of God. But when a wicked king comes up, or even if he's not a wicked king, he's a good guy who has good motives, but he starts, you know, maybe he gets threatened by a foreign nation. Often what you'll see is that because they're not walking with God, they end up hiring another foreign nation to back them up, to fight that war. So they use basically human reasoning, human understanding to say, man, these people are going to come whoop our butts, so let's go ahead and pour oil into Egypt, let's pay off Egypt, let's pay Assyria so they can come and help us fight this war against whoever. Now does it ever go good for them? No. In fact, they end up getting more destroyed. Why is that? Because it's a complete reproach to God. Or the fact that they would choose man and horses and armor and fighting tools, whatever it may be, over the power of God. So what they're saying is they're completely disregarding God and going to the world. It would be in like manner saying, you know, in the smallest extent that we depend our own strength, our own discipline and character to provide, but we're not praying. We're not depending on the Lord. We're not asking God for our daily bread. In an extreme example, it would be anything to the extent of, you know, not coming to church or whatever it may be, remember the phrase we said in weeks past, it's never right to do wrong to do right. Now is it right they wanted to win so they don't get taken captive? Yeah, but they're doing it in the wrong way, they're not depending on God. What about Isaiah chapter 30? You know, people wonder, and they wonder like, how can you say that, you know, God has forsaken Israel because it says here that they made a covenant with Assyria. Hello? What does that mean? That means they made a breach with the covenant they made with God. They made a covenant with Assyria, that means they completely breached the covenant with God. I mean that hasn't happened, this didn't take place like 50 years ago, this happened a long time ago. They've been doing it for many times, for many years, okay? Look at Isaiah chapter 30 and verse number one, it says, woe to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take counsel, but not of me, that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin. So keep that in mind when he says that they may add sin to sin, because remember, in Hosea he says that they daily increase lies and desolation. What does that mean? It means they are basically treasuring wrath unto the day of wrath. That's what that's referring to, because they're not depending on him, so it's like, you're really ticking me off right now, and you are increasing my wrath, is what he's referring to there. You're adding sin to sin. Verse two, that walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Now this could be likened to something as small as, you know, what does God want us to do? Well, let's look at what the Bible says. Well, I don't really care what the Bible says, I'm going to use human reasoning. You know, I'm going to go to my aunts and unsaved uncles for advice of what I should do in a situation. You know, I'm going to go to the so-called Christians out there with their false doctrine to see what they think about it. No, go to the mouth of God. Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And in this church, that mouth is called the King James Bible. We say, well, you know, what about you? Well, I'm preaching the word of God. And if my preaching matches up with what the Bible says, you should probably listen to that. Yeah, but you're fallible. Right, but I'm preaching from an infallible book. And that's why we encourage everyone to have a Bible in hand, open it up, compare scripture with scripture and see if these things are so. It says they walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked that my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt, your confusion. You see, at the end of the day, the Bible tells us that the horse is prepared against the day about a battle, but safety is of the Lord. That's why God would tell the Kings, Hey, don't number the people. It doesn't matter how many soldiers you have in your camp. It doesn't matter how many people know how to fight. It doesn't matter how many chariots or horses you have because the battles of the Lord. If we have God's favor, we have God's grace upon our lives. We can beat any enemy that comes our way because at the end of the day, if God before us, who can be against us? So it's not about the multitude of horses or soldiers. It's not about the multitude of your finances or how many soul winners we have. It's about having God's favor on our life as a church. And that's one thing we never want to compromise on is the fact that we as a church need to always depend on God, you know, not depend on our own understanding, not dependent on our own, you know, wisdom and our own earthly discernment. We need to make sure that we go with what God says. And you know what? What God says is often contrary to what the culture says, isn't it? So how do you know if it's right? Well, often what's right is the exact opposite of what this world says we should do, okay? Let me say this. The majority is typically always wrong, okay? Go to 2 Kings chapter 18, but when we depend on the world, we depend on the counsels of others that are not of God. What is that going to result into? Your shame and your confusion, you know, it's going to result in desolation because we're not depending on God. And look, this is not something that I'm just like making up. You see examples of this over and over and over in the Old Testament. Look at 2 Kings 18, verse 21, verse 19, excuse me. And Rabsheki said unto them, speak ye now to Hezekiah, thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this wherein thou trustest? Thou sayest, but they are but vain words. I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust that thou rebelest against me? Now behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him. So Rabsheki is a general who's coming to Hezekiah and his people and he's saying, look, I'm going to overcome you. I'm going to overtake you. I'm going to whoop you. You trusted in Egypt, they failed you. Don't trust in God because he's not going to deliver you. He's telling them this. He's reproaching the name of God and we're not going to read the entire chapter, but he's like, he spends an entire chapter just reproaching and blaspheming the name of God. Now what does Hezekiah do? Does he run, tuck tail and go to some other foreign nation to get help? No, actually this was a godly man who said, you know what? I'm going to take everything you just said and I'm going to read it before the Lord. He reads it before the Lord and said, God, help me, help us. And what happens? He just kills a bunch of people, thousands of people in that camp, just completely destroys them all. They run home with their tails tucked between their legs and they win that battle. Now that's a good example of someone who trusted in the Lord. Okay? Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 16. We're going to read this entire chapter because it's not a long chapter here. You know, who cares what anybody else says? Who cares what the world thinks? You know, if the world tells you that your views are weird, they're crooked, they're just not right, you know, nuts to that. You know, the Bible says we're a peculiar people. You know what that means? You're weird. You're strange. You're not of this world, okay? And so obviously the ideologies and the stance and the doctrines and the principles for which we stand are going to be foreign to them. It's going to be weird to them, but don't let that peer pressure cause you to buckle and compromise what the Bible says. Regardless of rap shack, he comes and talks all kinds of trash. Let them say what they got to say. Let them criticize you, but at the end of the day, we're going to spread our hands before the Lord and say, Lord, deliver us. Look in 2 Chronicles 16 verse one, it says in the sixth and 30th year of the reign of Asa, Basha, king of Israel came up against Judah and built Rhema to the intent that he might let none go out or come into Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house and sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria that dwelt at Damascus saying, there is a league between me and thee as there was between my father and my father. Behold, I have sent these silver and gold, go break thy league with Basha, king of Israel that he may depart from me. And Ben-Hadad hearkened unto king Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel and they smote Aijan and Dan and Abel-Mayim and all that store cities of Naphtali. And it came to pass when Basha heard it, that he left off building of Rhema and let his work cease. Then Asa the king took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Rhema and the timber thereof wherewith Basha was building and he built there with Geba and Mizpah and at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah and sent it to him because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host with very much chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand. What is he saying? Look, the Lubims and the Ethiopians, these were a great army. Why can't you trust me now as you trusted me then? It's like when the disciples came to Jesus asking him for bread and he's like, haven't I multiplied bread before? Why reason ye in your hearts? You know, often we need to kind of, it's not good to live in the past, but it's often good to reflect on the past and the good works that God has done in order to catapult us forward to continue to trust God in the future. So we should never live in the past and just be bitter towards things that happened in the past, people that hurt you in the past, people that did you dirty in the past, but you know what? It's always good to look back and remember the works of God so that you remember, hey, if God did it before, he can do it again. Well, he's not doing this right now. He's gathering all the gold and the treasures of the house of the Lord to protect, to hire some outside foreign nation to protect him and he's being rebuked for it. Verse nine, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou has done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shall have wars. That's a crazy statement right there. You know, and that should motivate you to say, man, I want to be that guy who when God's looking to and fro throughout the earth, he sets his eyes on me. Now what does it mean when he says that his heart is perfect toward him? It means this person is depending on God, not depending on his talents, not depending on his abilities, not depending on whatever gifts he may have or money or possessions or any earthly, you know, things that he may have. He's depending on God because God can use, can only use the people that are actually depending upon him, okay? If you have faith in God and you believe he can do it, God can do amazing things through you, but if you don't think God can do it, if you think he's the God of the mountains but not the God of the valleys, you got a problem. You're compartmentalizing God. Oh yeah, God's, you know, for church and for soul winning, but when it comes to my job, that's just a, that's a different category. No, it's the same category. It all intertwines together. It's all together. We ought to depend on God in every aspect of life because his eyes are running to and fro. It may be said that as a church, he looks upon our church with grace to say, man, this church is depending on, you know, this church prays, this church does the work, but they pray and they ask God to help, to help them to basically preach the gospel, see people saved, fix their marriages, you know, do great works, get sin out of their life. They're constantly depending on God. They're not depending on their own intellect and look, I'm not saying being an idiot. Don't be an idiot. Don't be an idiot. Pick up a book and read it. Okay. Get some smarts, but at the end of the day, we're not depending on our smarts to do things for the Lord. We want to make sure because it's not by might nor by power, but by his spirit, the Bible tells us. Okay. Let's say verse 11 or excuse me, verse 10, then Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in prison, in a prison house for he was enraged with him because of this thing and Asa oppressed some of the people that the same time, isn't that ironic? So the preacher comes and tells them the truth and say, Hey, rely on God. And what does Asa do? He puts him in prison, you know, now, fortunately, no congregant here can ever do something like that to the preacher, you know, if they're preaching the truth, but you know what's inwardly that's what they want to do. Get this guy out of the pulpit. You know, I don't like what this guy is saying. Well, you could either like it or lump it and we don't force anybody to stay here. There's a door out there. Don't let it hit you where the Lord split you. Okay. You know, everyone's welcome to be here, but here's the thing. Why? I don't want to be in a place where I don't like the pastor. Well, why are you at Pacific for? Because I like my pastor, but he didn't like you, but I liked him. I did. I love my old pastor, both of my old pastors. I love them both, you know, but if I inwardly, you know, hate the pastor, if I only do not like him, then guess what? I'd go somewhere else. If I disagree with him to the point where I just cannot stand listening to him, go somewhere else. You know, and where? I don't know. I don't have another place for you to go. You know, Arizona. I mean, in California, up north, you can go to Pastor Roger Jimenez's church. You know, the Bible tells us to live peaceably with all men as much as lies within us to live peaceably with all men. That ought to be the goal. But here's the thing. Don't be like an ace, though, where you just, you told me the truth, so I'm just going to throw you into prison. You weakling of a king can't discern? You can't figure out that he's just trying to tell you the truth? Look at verse 12 says, an ace in the third, 30 and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet. Talk about athlete's foot. Until his disease was exceeding great, he needed that tough acton-tenacton, amen? But in his disease, he sought not the Lord, not to the Lord, but to the physicians. Now, look, if you have athlete's foot that's starting to look like rigor mortis, where the color of your feet has changed colors, you know why you're laughing? Because you know what I'm talking about, right? I'm not saying don't go to the physicians, because this is not saying don't go to the physicians, but you know, like anything in life, as a Christian, we ought to pray first, you know? Look, we have physicians in our church, thank God for them, Dr. Rita, you know, she's a doctor and you know, if something's ever wrong with my body, I'm like, hey, why is my elbow sticking out the other way around, you know what I mean? You know what that's all about? Like, it's broken, you know? Go to the doctor. But you know what, go to the Lord first. You know, ask God for his favor and his healing first and obviously go to the physician. I'm not saying, don't be like these weird Amish people, they're like, the child has like 130 temperature fever and they're like, no, God's going to heal him and then they end up dying, you know what I mean? Because they don't believe in any kind of physician. You know, I'm not for that and I'm not advocating that at all. I'm not saying don't go to the physician at all, okay, because obviously someone can clip up this sermon and say, see, he doesn't believe, you know, he's abusing his children or whatever. No, what I'm saying is, pray first. Pray first. Ask God to help you in all areas of life. And look, Asia should be an example because we see that he didn't depend on God for the biggest of things which reflects that he would not depend on God for the smallest of things. So the disease in the land, he didn't depend on God, not even the disease in his feet. You know what that shows us is that if we depend on God for the smallest of things, we will depend on him for the biggest of things as well and vice versa. It ought to be said of us that we depend on God for the big battles, but also for your ingrown toenail. You know what I mean? I'm being facetious here, but I'm not at the same time because if that's a small issue, you know, why not pray? If you think that's weird, then you have a misconstrued perception of what prayer is, depending on God for every single thing in your life, okay? Now, I fail at that, so I'm not perfect in that area, but I try to, the best that I can do, to ask God for help in every area of my life. How about Bible reading? When you crack open the Bible, don't just start reading, say, God, open down my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. You're reading through 1 Chronicles, verse 13 chapters, Lord, help me to get something out of this. Help me to learn something. Teach me, okay? Verse 13 says, And Asa slept with his fathers and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign, and they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed, which was filled with sweet odors, because of those feet, I'm just kidding, and diverse kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries are, and they made a very great burning for him. Go to 2 Chronicles, where are we at? Go to chapter 18. Go to chapter 18. Now chapter 18, we're going to look at a king who everyone's familiar with, because we've heard many sermons preached from this, we've heard a lot of concerts, but this is probably the most famous one in regards to the topic that's at hand, Jehoshaphat, okay? Jehoshaphat, who made an affinity with who? With Ahaz, or Ahab, excuse me. Ahab is a very wicked king. He's wicked. His wife is named Jezebel, and you can do a private study on that on your own, you see how wicked these people are. Now Ahab is the king of the northern kingdom, which is Israel. Jehoshaphat is the king of the southern kingdom, which is referred to as Judah. Now for the most part, Judah has always been pretty steady and right in the eyes of the Lord. They had their moments, especially as we see in the book of Isaiah, that God's saying, hey, I haven't forgot about you, you've sinned against me as well. But for the most part, Judah was pretty spot on, whereas Israel was just always bad. I mean, they always had wicked kings that did evil on the side of the Lord, they always did wrong, and here's a clear example of someone, Ahab, who was a wicked king. Now Jehoshaphat was a good king, so here's a good guy, but guess what he does? He joins affinity with Ahab. Look at verse number one. Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance and joined affinity with Ahab, and after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria, and Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance and for the people that he had with him, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, will thou go with me to Ramoth Gilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people, and we will be with thee in the war. Now don't circumvent that phrase. That's really bad. I am as thou art? Ahab's wicked. Jehoshaphat, you're a good king. What are you doing hanging around with Ahab and saying that you are as he is, your people is his people, and that you will be with him in war? Now here's a righteous king who's joining up with the enemies of God. Go to chapter 19. So what is the conclusion of that story? Well, if you read it, you'll know that, of course, Micaiah the prophet comes, one of my favorite prophets in the Old Testament, tells him what he wants to hear. He's like, didn't I tell you to preach me the truth? And he gives him the truth. He's like, throw him in prison. I don't like what he just said. He's like, couldn't please him. So they both go up to war, and Ahab, though he hates Micaiah, what Micaiah said, he gives heed to what he's saying because he disguises himself, this stinking coward, and he tells Jehoshaphat, hey, you still dress like a king, though. So he says, you make sure you look like a king, but I'm going to disguise myself. Well, that's, I mean, what a great friend. So the opposing army says, hey, captains, only go for the king. Don't mess with anybody else. Go for the kings. They go to Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat's like, ah, you know, screams. They find out, he's like, okay, this isn't the guy we want. We want Ahab. And the Bible tells us that there's a guy from the opposing army who drew a bow at a venture. In other words, he just took a shot, and he smote Ahab. He smote Ahab with the arrow. He killed him. And, of course, the prophecy was fulfilled. He ends up dying in his own chariot. Good story. Jehoshaphat comes back, and he's just like, well, you know, that was a bad time of my investment, you know. Now, look at 2 Chronicles 19, verse 1. And Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. He's like, well, on to the next task, you know. And Jehu the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him and said to the king Jehoshaphat, couldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. See, he wasn't going scot-free. God says, why are you helping those who hate me? And, again, Jehoshaphat, you read later on, he says there's good things about you, but here's one thing that's not. You love them that hate the Lord. You're helping the ungodly. And let me just park you here for just a minute here, because we don't live in candy land. This isn't la-la land, so that means that our church has enemies. We have a lot of friends, thank God, but we have enemies as well. And you know what sickens me to death is when people in our church join affinity and defend and help the ungodly. You know, when they get up and they just, they come to our church, but they completely join affinity with Ahab, who's an enemy of God. You're helping the ungodly and you're loving them who hate the Lord. Now, there's no one in here at this moment, but there's people in our church that are helping the ungodly. They're defending wicked people and they're railing on yours truly, you know, and we'll talk about it on Sunday. So don't miss Sunday. Give you a good reason to come to church on Sunday, huh? I want to learn the word of God. Yeah, you'll learn the word of God on Sunday. You know, this is a wicked mentality right here where people who hate our church, hate what we stand for and hate our beliefs are helped by people in our church, are being defended by people in our church, unsaved wicked reprobates. I'm talking about that stupid oneness crowd, stinking modalist, and people are defending them. Look, I'm telling you something right now. If you are straddling the fence as far as modalism is concerned, you can straddle the fence right outside this church. We'll throw you and your fence out. You don't even have to straddle the fence, we'll just shove you right over. So if modalism is right here and the Trinity is right here and you're straddling the fence, we'll just drop kick you on the other side. I'll help you make that decision. Because it's been over a year and a half already, we've gotten enough preaching on modalism and oneness, no one should be wondering, I don't know, I think they have a good point. If you think they have a good point, then you're a reprobate. And look, I'm sick and tired of people not understanding that when I call someone a reprobate, I'm not just throwing that label out there just flippantly. I'm never gonna call John a reprobate, not even in jest. That's wicked. If I call someone a reprobate, it's because I know he's a reprobate. Well, how do you know if someone is, I mean, how do you know though, if it's some pastor out there and you know, how do you know that Tyler Baker's a reprobate? Because Tyler Baker sat under biblical preaching for years on end and came out believing something completely different. That means they're ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. You know, you can say whatever you want and say, I just think he's a little mixed up. No, he's not a little mixed up. And look, the whole thing with Adam Fannin, he's a reprobate. False teacher infiltrating reprobate. And you better get used to me saying that because I'm gonna say it for a long time. And look, if you don't like that, then come talk to me after the service and I'll explain to you why he's a reprobate. And if you still don't like that afterwards, then you can go somewhere else. If you really don't like it because you're not gonna convince me that he's not. You're not gonna convince me, you say, well, how can you say that? What false doctrine has he taught? Well, let me ask you this. Does anybody question that Judas was a reprobate? No, it'd be stupid to, right? But give me one false doctrine that Judas taught. Oh, you can't find one now, can ya? You know, yet the Bible calls him a son of perdition. Well, what's the only thing that, well, aside from the fact that he turned into the Lord, he was stealing the money. A leader who's with Christ for three years stealing money. We call that a reprobate. You understand? So if a, look, I'm not talking about some just regular congregant in the church who's mixed up a little bit. You know, I understand that. But when a person is day in and day out teaching the word of God, week in and week out, they're studying the Bible, cover to cover, teaching doctrine, and they're doing these things, it's a lot different. Well, what's the difference between him and Romero? Romero's destroying himself, Adam Fenn is seeking to destroy others. They're trying to destroy the flock of God. And look, I'm not gonna hash out my sermon on Adam Fenn, but just come on Sunday because I need to teach on this again. Okay? Well, I need help on my marriage. It'll help your marriage somehow. We'll figure it out. I'll put a point in there for you, okay? You know, love your wife. Respect your husband. There you go. I need something deeper. That's as deep as, that's the best thing you can do. I need a five-step program, okay? Love your wife. Love your wife. Love your wife. Love your wife. Love your wife. And I'll give you an extra point. Love your wife. Amen. There you go, man. You gotta have a good marriage. Like, was that five or did I give you six? I don't even remember how many I gave. Five is good and a bonus, okay? Don't be like Jehoshaphat. You know, we all gotta be on the same page here. Look, in, you know, six months, seven months, this church is gonna go independent, okay? I'm gonna be the pastor of the church if that's the Lord's will. And here's the thing, you're gonna have to trust me. You know, you're gonna have to trust my judgment one way or another. And if you feel like you can't trust me, you know, I don't think you're a bad person. I don't think you are wicked. But if you don't feel like you can trust me as a pastor, then it's probably not best for you to stay here. You gotta go somewhere else. To go under leadership that you can't trust, okay? Because you know, I'm not up here just trying to like, make our church look good, to just rail on people. That's not my agenda. My agenda is to protect the flock. And to give intelligence and information to the flock of God so they understand and make wise decisions and have discernment, okay? Because you know, I'm not, I'm not omnipresent. I don't know what you watch on the internet. I'm not, I don't know who you're listening to on the internet. You know, I only know what I know and I have to preach the word of God and warn you of these things. You take it for what it's worth. But look, you have to trust me. You know? I hate to say this, but you kind of have to esteem me a little bit. I'm serious. I don't say like, you know, make, you know, just think I'm all that and a bag of chips. You know? I'm saying you gotta esteem because you gotta, you gotta, you gotta basically believe what I'm telling you. It's true. You gotta know that I have your best interest in mind. Hey, you gotta believe that I actually love you. I know it's Valentine's Day. I didn't get you a card or any little, but I love you, okay? You know, Brother Jose, you know, he Instagrammed a taco truck, I mean this is love, a taco truck of a heart that you can purchase with nothing but tacos on that heart. That's love. I'd give that to you, but they sold out. I tried to get that from my wife today and they sold out, okay? But even though I can't get you that, you gotta know this, that I do love you, okay? And if I didn't love you, I probably wouldn't be here, you know? So I say that to say that you need to trust me sometimes. And by the way, I'm gonna make mistakes, but you know, you could rest assured that when I make a mistake, I'll tell you that I'm wrong. I'll tell you I made a mistake. I'm wrong on that. I'm sorry. But for the most part, you gotta trust me. And look, when we throw people out of our church, if and when we throw people out of our church, you just gotta trust me, okay? Because I'm not trigger-happy to just throw everyone out of our church. I need a congregation to speak to it, man. I'm just kidding. You know, I'm not just like, who can I, who's next, you know? For me, if this was just a perfect world, we fill up the house of God, we learn the Bible, we go so and see people saved and infiltrators don't exist. This isn't a perfect world. And you know, sometimes we got to do that now, you know, the person I'm going to talk about on this Sunday, they may or may not, depending upon what takes place within the next couple of days and get thrown out, I don't know. But either way, I am going to preach on this specific subject that on me, basically claiming if someone's saved or not, if they're a pastor. You know, and this is a biblical doctrine that we can, as God's leaders, can determine if another pastor is saved or not. You understand that? We can determine whether someone is saved or not. And if I say someone's not saved, don't say, oh, you're just being arrogant. What kind of garbage is that? You know, what about Jesus? When he called the Pharisees children, yeah, but that's Jesus. Okay, let's use John the Baptist, who called them a generation of vipers. You know, multiple times in the Bible we see this concept and I'm not going to hash it out because I'm stealing my thunder for Sunday. We need to get back to what we're studying here. And I've already passed my time. Go to, go back to Hosea chapter 12, man, we're not even, we're, this is a short chapter, but there's so much packed into this, okay? So what I'm saying is this, but you know, at the end of the day, when this church goes independent, you do have to trust me. And if not, you just got to move on. You know, I just don't know if you're still, you know, you might be an infiltrator though. Okay. Then go somewhere else where you don't think that the pastor is an infiltrator. You know, I can't convince you of that other than you stay here and find out for yourself. Okay. But we'll hash that out more later. Look at verse number two. The Lord has all, are we only on verse one? Good night. I just noticed that right now. All right. Sorry. Dude. That's right here. One verse and that's it. Man. Oh, and old IFB. The Lord has also a controversy with Judah will punish Jacob according to his ways, according to his doings where he recompense him. He took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength, he had power with God. Yea he had power over the angel prevailed. He wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel and there he spake with us. Now, by the way, this is a reference to Jacob in, in Genesis chapter, I believe it's 32 where he meets with Jesus Christ and look, I want you to notice in verse number four, it says he found him in Bethel and there he spake with us. What is that? That's the Trinity. No, that's him and the angels. No, that's the Godhead. As he says later on verse five, even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his Memorial. Therefore turned out to thy God, keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually. So we see there that there's a reference to the Trinity there and you know, this is not time for it, but it is important. Go to Genesis chapter 32. We'll go there. Talk about that a little bit. Hey, our church is a Trinitarian church. By the way, I was Trinitarian before I even became a part of the new IFB. Why? Because to be Baptist, excuse me, to be saved, you gotta be Trinitarian. You know, this isn't like a doctrinal, you know, people can just slip into this and, you know, maybe get a little mixed up in this. Nope. Because when you get the gospel, you talk about God, the father sending God, the son. And it's not like, well, God was actually the one. No one explains it like that other than unsafe people. God the father sending God the son. And look, if you're a little more thorough, you'll talk about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who is sealed within you until the day of redemption. There's the Trinity. And you have to believe that. You say, well, you know, if they have a different view of Jesus, but they say they believe, they can still be saved. No. Do you understand why? Because the oneness, modalness crowd, they don't believe in the eternal sonship of Christ. They believe he was begotten at his birth, that he became the son at his birth. Then you have a lot of explaining to do because in Daniel, the Bible talks about Nebuchadnezzar looking into the fiery furnace, and the fourth is like unto the son of God. He was called the son of God even in the Old Testament. This isn't, oh, he just, you know, was just created. You know, at that point, if you think that just because they believe on that type of Jesus that they can be saved, okay, then the Mormons are saved because they'll tell you they believe. But you and I both know that that Jesus is different. Then at that point, you can say the Jehovah's Witnesses are saved, but we know that's not true because their Jesus is different. If you have a different Jesus and you say you believe, you can believe your way all the way to hell. Because if it's not the Jesus of the Bible, the eternal sonship of Christ, you're not saved. All by believing on Christ, yeah, the Christ of the Bible, though, it has to be the Christ of the Bible. Look at Genesis 32 verse 24 says, and Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint. And he wrestled with him, and he said, let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel, for as a prince has thou power with God and with men and has prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said, tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. Guess who that is? That's Jesus. No, that's, you know, it's God, not Jesus. It's Jesus before he actually was begotten. No, because he says there that he has seen God face to face. What's the significance of that? Well, the significance is that the Bible tells us in the New Testament that no man had seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. So let me ask you, was Jesus lying? Was John lying? Because if he said no man hath seen God, that means he's telling the truth. And when Jacob said that he's seeing God face to face, he was telling the truth. And he said the only person who's seeing God, the only person who has declared him is the begotten son, which was declared and is talked about in Genesis 32. This is pretty basic. I mean, let us make man in our image. Do you think the Godhead is just like this bipolar schizophrenic weirdo, where he has just split personalities, three persons, three distinct persons, okay? Go back to Hosea. So you know, this argument that says, well, you know, they can believe in that but still be saved. You're wrong. It's heresy. Heresy. It's damned with heresy, exactly, because at that point, you're playing and you're twisting and you're perverting who Jesus Christ is. It's just by belief, yeah, on the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible. So look, there's this extreme of believing where people will misconstrue that to say, well, you can just believe on Christ, even if it's the Mormons who believe on their Christ. This is this ecumenical movement where you can just believe on what you think to be God and you'll be saved. That's false. False. And let me say this, this church, this church does not validate as oneness people as being saved. We don't consider oneness, modalist, heretics to be saved, okay? And all of God's people said. This is not something that we're going to ever compromise on, change on, or even back off on. This is what we believe. This is what we always believe. This is what I always believe. I never made an in-depth study in it in times past because it wasn't a battle that we had in years past. But when people are bringing this into our church, then it's time to fight it, okay? Now verse seven says, he is a merchant. The balances of deceit are in his hand. He loveth to oppress. And Ephraim said, yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance and all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin. We're just going to stop right there because we're completely out of time. Let me see if I have something else that I want to hit on real quick. No, that's it, all right? So make sure you're here on Sunday. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your goodness. Thank you for your word and thank you for our great church, Lord. Thank you for the faithful members of Faithful Word Baptist Church. Please help us to continue to fight doctrine and Lord, throughout my life, I've had to trust my leaders. Even when I felt I disagreed with them on certain areas, I trusted them because I understood that they were the God-ordained leaders for my life. And obviously, we don't want to have, we don't want to blindly follow leadership. That was the problem with a lot of churches in the old IFB where they would follow them off a cliff. And that's not something we want to do. We want to make sure that we provide good leadership, but good leadership stems from when we expound on the word of God and we make it plain, we ensure that the people understand. And if someone rejects the clear teachings of the Bible, after we explain it, you've told us to deem them a heretic and to reject them because they're resisting the truth. And Lord, help us to do our part as leaders, to explain from the word of God our position, but also to discern when it's time to step away and reject the person if they are undermining the word of God. And I pray, God, that you'd continue to give us discernment, continue to grow us as your people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.