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

Judges chapter 17, we're in the third aspect of the book of Judges here. Now if you remember, just let me give you a concise synopsis of the book of Judges, what we've seen so far. In Judges chapter number 1 to 3, we basically see Israel's failure to overcome the land. That's basically what it highlights in chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapters 3 all the way up until 16, spends the majority of the time explaining and detailing the lives of the judges. This is where the majority of the action is in the book of Judges, talking about every single judge there. And of course it finishes off with the judge by the name of Samson. We highlighted him last week, his death, his failures, his shortcomings, and then chapter 17 all the way to 21 is basically showing you the depravity of the nation of Israel and what is the result, what is the outcome when a nation gives itself over to idolatry. And the reason we're able to see that is because it shows it from an individual basis. So it doesn't look at it as a whole as a nation, but rather it starts looking into individuals and what these people are doing on an individual basis. Now what is the result of idolatry? Faggotry. That is the result of idolatry because the Bible tells us in Romans chapter number 1 that when someone is given over to idolatry, when they worship a false god, which means that they rejected the true God, the Bible says that God gives them over to a reprobate mind. This is true as an individual, but it's also true as a nation as well. And we see that fleshed out in the book of Judges, idolatry over and over and over again. Often we say, well if a person is constantly rejecting the gospel, constantly rejecting Christ, eventually they will become a reprobate, right? Well what do we see in the book of Judges? We see the nation of Israel constantly going back to Baal, constantly going to these false gods, which means that they're constantly rejecting the true God. And eventually what happens, reprobation is what happens, okay? Now these last couple of chapters are very odd, very strange chapters in the sense of the events and the things that take place within them. Because you read chapter 17 and 18 and it's just like, this story just pops up out of nowhere. You know, who is Micah, who is this Levi, why are the Danites doing this? You know in chapter 18 they're burning Laish, but it's really showing you where the condition of the nation at this time because of their idolatry. And then it climaxes to chapter 19 when it highlights the sons of Belial, the reprobates, the fags that we see in Judges chapter 19, and then the civil war that is the result of that in chapters 20 and 21, the destruction of Israel and how that comes to a head, okay? So we end off with the story of Samson and then we just segue into this random story with Micah. Why is that? Well, I think basically what God is doing, and he probably could have just done it with anybody, he's just picking an individual in Israel, your average Joe Schmo and what they're doing. Because you read it and it's just like, why is this guy doing this? This is so ridiculous, this is so stupid, this is so anti-bible, why is this happening? Well, I think what he's doing is he's allowing us to see what most individuals were probably doing during that time, okay? How they thought, how they operated, what was their view of God, how do they worship God, right? Let's start in verse number one. It says, and there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah, by the way, this is not to be confused with the prophet Micah that we see later on in the Bible. And he said unto his mother, the 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from thee about which thou cursest, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me, I took it. Okay, now, first off, this is weird. He's like, hey, you know that money you're looking for, the one you're cursing and stuff? I took it. What does that mean? You stole it. Very strange. Now, by the way, God is not making these people say these things, he's simply recording what they're saying, right? Because I took it. But what's stranger than that? Her response, and his mother said, blessed be thou of the Lord, my son. What in the world? Now, look, pay attention when you read the Bible. Pay attention when you read the book of Judges. Don't just breeze over the conversations, because when you read it, you're like, what's going on here? God is allowing you to peer through the mind of your average Israelite during this time when they've rejected God, okay? And when he had restored the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord for my son. He's like, look, this is supposed to be dedicated unto the Lord to make a graven image and a molten image, now, therefore, a restored entity. Did you catch that? She's basically saying, look, I was supposed to use this money to dedicate unto the Lord by giving it to you, so that you can take it and go make idols. Weird. Now, notice no one's freaking out about this stuff. Notice no one is batting an eye. No one is panicking. This is all normal behavior, okay? Verse four, yet he restored the money unto his mother, you know, because he's such a good kid, and his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the founder who made thereof a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a house of gods and made an ephod and a terephim and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. So he takes the silver, they give it to the founder, which is the guy who's making these molten images, and he creates gods in his houses and ephod, terephim, which is basically an idol, and he consecrates, he sets apart one of his sons to be a priest, okay? This should show you how much of the Bible they know, because no one of Ephraim is supposed to be a priest, and let alone a priest in one man's house. They're from Mount Ephraim, and he just like, oh, okay, I'm just gonna make my son, you know, I'm just gonna ordain my son to be the pastor, right? Tyler Baker kind of thing. That's basically what happened, right? Micah is Tyler Baker's father. He said, why is this happening? Well, look at verse six. In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. This is the result of not having any authority, aside from the fact that they're committing idolatry, this is the result when there's not a leader present. And in this case, what was absent? A king. A king was absent in order to put them to shame. And in fact, in chapter 18, we see the city called Laish, which the Danites came and basically burned with fire. The reason they were able to do that was because the people from Laish dwelt carelessly, and they had no magistrate to deliver them, because a judge is also a deliverer. But because they were so far away from the Zidonians, so far away from people that can help them, they basically had no magistrate, no leader, no king, therefore, no one could deliver them in their time of need. Well, in like manner, we see here, the reason people are acting so stupid, the reason people are giving them over to idolatry, the reason why Tyler Baker's dad is ordaining him, even though they're not from the tribe of Levites, they're not Levites, nor are they from the house of Aaron, it's because of the fact there's no king there that can say, hey, this is unbiblical. You're not supposed to do this, this is wrong. So therefore, what happens? Every man does that which is right in their own eyes. It's basically a house church. This is your house church in the Old Testament, literally, or house temple. You know, because house churches today, what is it, they don't have a pastor. Let's all be pastors and be kubayah, and let's just try to figure out what the Bible says, give me your opinion, I'll give you mine. No one is the official pastor, we don't believe in just having one single leader, no, you're a bunch of idiots who have no king, no ruler, no leader over you, therefore, every man is doing that which is right in their own eyes. And every organization that does not have one leader in charge will eventually dissipate, it'll eventually decay, it'll eventually be destroyed. Why? Because you need leaders. A church needs a pastor, a home needs a father, needs a husband, a company needs a boss, they need a CEO to run things. Someone has to be the final decision maker in an organization. Because if not, every man does that which is right in their own eyes. Clock in, clock out whenever they want, make up the rules as they go along, and in this case, worship God how they please, without anybody coming in and bringing them to shame for the things that they're doing, you understand? This is why leadership is important, okay? So Micah consecrates his son to be a priest, worshiping gods in their own image, okay? Now, think about this, because these people are literally worshiping false gods, or excuse me, they're worshiping God himself through these false gods, because they say, oh, yeah, we're consecrating a priest, these are all terms and offices designated for God's people. But they're using a teraphim, ephod, idols, you know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of the Catholic church. That's what it is. Because the Catholic church, people who are Catholics, they'll tell you they believe in God. In fact, they'll tell you they believe in Jesus. And look, let me say this, is that I love Catholics. They're some of the easiest people for me to win, to be honest with you. Because they believe in the Trinity, they believe that Jesus is the son of God, you know, they believe that the Bible is God's word, they don't read it, which is good, because if they were to read a Bible that came from the Catholic church, they would get all kinds of false doctrine, you know. They believe in God, they believe in Jesus, they believe in the Holy Spirit, but here's the thing is that you go into their houses and they're just filled with idols, right? The Virgin Mary, the Mexican one, you know. They have the black Jesus from Central America, they have all these weird saints that they pray to, idols upon idols in their homes. But they'll tell you, oh yeah, we're Catholic Christian, we're worshiping God. No, you're not, you're being idolatrous. You're violating God's command to have no other gods before you. Well, they're not of God. Well, the Bible says that if you bow down to them, that's a god to you. And what is it that you do in the Catholic church? You bow down to them, okay? So this is very reminiscent of that, but how about just Christians also? Where we have this wonderful season coming up called Christmas, and they will literally put the manger scene in their house. That's idolatry. No, it's not. You're placing animals and people, yea, even Christ himself, an image of Jesus Christ. Oh, you're overboard on that, you know, that's, you're just exaggerating. It is idolatry. You're not supposed to make any images of things that are in heaven, nor things under the sea, right? But yet you have a slew of farm animals that they literally put in the middle of their living room and their manger scene, you know? This is idolatry. Look, the United States of America is not necessarily a country that struggles a lot with idolatry, but to a certain extent it does. You go to Washington D.C., you go to the state capitals, you go to any Christian home during the month of December, you'll see idolatry and people don't even bat an eye at it. Just how they didn't bat an eye at this, they're just like going about their day, people are like that today too. Why is that? Because our country is also given over to idolatry. Why? Because of the fact that, well, you say, well, you know, they're not really given over to idolatry. They're not worshiping Baal and Ashtaroth. By simply rejecting Christ, that means they're accepting some other god as their deity. Men shall be lovers of their own selves, the Bible says. Sometimes people's idols are just themselves. Go to your average gym. All kinds of mirrors and stuff. Wear these, you know, these little spaghetti string muscle shirts and just stare at themselves for like two hours watching their so-called muscles bulge out or whatever. That's a lover of your own self, right? But also our country has embraced religions that are pagan like Buddhism. We got this wicked, vile, idolatrous temple down the street. I pray God burns that place down because it is a disgrace, it is a complete violation of God's word. That temple is a testament of mockery of God and his word, okay? So we see here that they don't bat an eye at the idolatry taking place here, but neither do people today. In fact, go to any Christian during the month of December and talk to them about their manger scene, they will be offended. They will be triggered, guaranteed, you know, because, you know, oh, you know, how are you going to say this? It's Jesus. Do you read the Bible? Yeah. Hello? Anybody home? The Bible specifically tells us, especially not to make an image of God, you know, and look, that also includes your, your so-called Lord's, you know, last supper painting, which are faggot Jesus, while every other disciple looks like a little effeminate queer leaning on him. That came from the Renaissance. You think, you think the Jews of that day looked like Europeans, all white, Pantene Pro-V hair, and blue eyes, you think Jesus had like blue eyes, light skin, but yet people put that in their house. This is wicked. I'm sick and tired of seeing images on Instagram and social media of well-meaning people who put Bible verses and stuff, but they'll put an image of Jesus. You know, Jesus whipping people out of the temple, but it's like an image of Jesus. It's like, dude, the guy has long hair. That's not Jesus. So in order to back up one doctrine, you're completely violating another one by committing idolatry. And look, don't give me this look, okay? I came from a Hispanic home. We had all kinds of idols in our house. I know what that's like. I know what I'm talking about. You know, worshiping Caesar Borgia on the last supper, you know, people put that, you go door knocking, people put that image on their front door. This morbid image of Jesus, where his heart is just protruding out of his chest. For some reason, it has a crown of thorns over the heart. It's bleeding. There's light that is erating from it. And he has these like red and blue robes, these little lotioned hands. And they worship that. That's idolatry, okay? You know, there's a reason why, and look, I can go on and on about that. We'll get into that as we enter the month of December, because this is true, amen? This should not be done. Go to Romans chapter number one, if you will. Romans chapter number one, hold your place there in Judges chapter 17. Judges chapter 17. You know, Christians out there, they won't have Buddha in their house. That fat beast was burning in hell today. They won't have him in his house, because they know that's idolatry. But yet they'll put animal molten images, baby Jesus, Mary, the three wise men. You know, it's wicked. And we want to get closer to the Bible, do we not? You know, as we move forward, as we grow, we want to make sure that we're moving closer to the Bible, not away from the Bible. We want to become far more strict in the Word of God, not loose in the Word of God, right? Now, look at Romans one, verse 21, it says, because that when they knew God, keep this in mind what we saw in Judges chapter 17, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. And their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. So what do we see here? We see that typically people, when they first reject Christ, they start making an image of God in their own mind, you know, their foolish heart is darkened. And I find it interesting that the Book of Romans is written to the Romans, obviously. And this is during a time when the Roman Empire was established. And in fact, if you study Roman history, what the Roman soldiers held dear was their eagles. How many know what I'm talking about? Their legions' eagles, this golden eagle that they would have, they would literally dive, they would pray to it, they would bow down to it, they would die for it, they'd do anything for that eagle. It became a god, you know, like a four-footed beast, creeping things and birds. This is referring to those Romans during that time. And look, this is important because of the fact that people often don't understand they can't put the pieces of the puzzle together when it comes to the reprobate doctrine because they think, well, no, they become reprobates because they're being homos or whatever, you know. They're just, they got so far into immorality that they eventually become sodomites and stuff like that. No, it says right here that they commit idolatry. Well, that's idolatry, you know. Yeah, but idolatry means you reject Christ. That's what idolatry is. It's when you reject God and you accept a false god. What's the result? Verse 24. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. You see, these people in Judges 17, they're worshiping God, but the God in their own image. And this is why I believe Judges 17 exists just to kind of set the platform for what's going to happen in Judges chapter 19 so that you understand this is why people get this way. Not because they watch porn. Not because they are just fornicating. They're committing adultery. They're involved in all this, you know, fornication and uncleanness. This is not the reason why they become reprobates. It's because they reject Christ. Okay. Therefore God gives them a rejected mind, a reprobate mind. Hosea 2 2 says, plead with your mother, plead for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adultries from between her breasts. You see, the Bible here in Hosea is explaining that the children of Israel during this time is also given over to idolatry. And he specifically says that she should put away her adultries from between her breasts. What is this referring to? Well, this is talking about the fact that a relationship between a man and a woman, according to the book of Proverbs, is that we should only embrace the breast. The breast of our wives should satisfy us at all times. And what does that mean? It means that we should only embrace our wives because the breasts are on the chest. So when we're satisfied with the breast of our wife, what that means is this, is that we're only embracing our wife. And in here in Hosea, the reason he's saying that to put away the adultries from between her breasts is because Israel at this time had embraced paganism, had embraced Baal, had embraced false gods. And nothing new under the sun. This is what's taking place in Judges chapter 17. They're just embracing it. They have it in their homes. Go back to Judges 17. So as I mentioned, authority is always necessary in order to dissipate confusion and bring order. If you don't have that, you have this nonsense taking place. Verse five says, and the man Micah had a house of gods and made an Ephod and a Teraphim and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which is right in his own eyes. You know, leaders are here to teach you how to worship in the proper manner. Because if not, what happens is if it's just a free for all, you're going to have some lib Christian come walking through the doors and is like, well, why don't we have a little bit of CCM? A little liven up the music, you know? Brother Paul, he doesn't move enough when he sings. Maybe I can get up there and shake my hips a little bit and get in the Spirit. But they're not talking about the Holy Spirit though. They're talking about some other spirits that they're talking about, right? But you know what? If you have a proper leader, the leader says, no. We don't do homo music here. We don't do CCM here. And let me explain to you why, because it's the song of the fool. That's why. That's what the Bible tells us. It's a false way of worshiping God, okay? It's a sensual type of music that feeds the flesh and does not feed the Spirit. By the way, it doesn't feed my flesh, but I know to some Christians it does. Me it just makes me want to throw up. You know? But this is why it's important to have authority. If not, it's a free-for-all and people are like, well, this person has a song, this person has a hymn, this person has a prophecy, and there's no order. The authority is here to say, I'll take opinions, but you know, at the end of the day, this is the way we're going to do it. You know what I mean? And we're not taking a boat, okay? Leaders are needed so that God is worshiped in a proper manner. Now, go to 1 Timothy chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter 1. This is why today strong leadership is needed, amen? We need strong leaders to keep the ship in the direction that it needs to go. Not to be some pastor who allows his people to just walk all over him. You know, pastors today are so scared because they might offend the person that they don't want to leave the church because they're tithing or they're giving to their building fund, their missions fund, so they'll just tell them everything that they want to hear in order not to offend them, and they'll even give in to that person's desires and wants. No. By the way, if you have a way we should do something in our church, bring it to my attention. If I don't like it, we just won't do it. Case closed. Well, what if you offend me? Then go to non-offensive Baptist church because you know what? If you get offended at that, you're going to get offended way more, frequently. You know? Look at 1 Timothy 1. Look at what Paul tells Timothy in verse number 3. It says, As I saw it detailed, by its still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. This is what you're going over there for, Timothy, to make sure that the people in those churches are not teaching any other doctrines, that they stay sound in doctrines. No new doctrines. No vain janglings. No stupidity. You've got to make sure you step in there, be a leader, and make sure they don't teach any other doctrine. Look what it goes on to say, Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith so do. Hey, don't let them bring that Jewish encyclopedia into the church to try to decipher what the Bible says. Don't let them give in to fables and Jewish fables and lies and genealogies. Don't let the Hebrew roots movement come into the church, Israel united in Christ, trying to convince the Mexicans that they're from Issachar. That's what he's talking about, genealogies. That's what Israel united in Christ is all about. Which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do. So he's saying, hey, look, don't let people teach other doctrines. Look, that's one of my responsibilities here, is make sure that people in our church, and i.e. the preachers in our church, are not teaching weird doctrines. I don't care how much you think you're convinced that it's true or not. If I don't agree with it, you're not preaching it from the pulpit. And by the way, if I don't agree with it, and you're not preaching it from the pulpit, and I find out that you're trying to spread things to the church, this is not happening, then something's going to happen. And with that something, I'm going to confront you, withstand you to the face, rebuke you, because I need to make sure that no other doctrines are being preached from this pulpit. And in the church. Teach no other doctrine. No new doctrines. Yeah, but you know, I think I got this corner of truth. I think this is correct. Well, you can think all you want. I don't have any rights over what you think, but while you're in this church, you don't teach new doctrines. I just think that's the problem. Okay. And look, young guys, I know young guys don't like it when I talk to them like this, but it's fact, okay? Young guys, stick to the basics. What's wrong with just sticking to salvation, things that we know, things that you know to be true, being strengthened in the foundational basics of doctrine. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay. Oh, I just want to preach something new, something that's like pisses against the wall. Then what you want is notoriety. You don't want to teach the word of God. What you want is fame. You don't want to edify the brethren. What you want is for people to look at you and say, oh, wow. Oh, look at what he's doing. You want people to be, you want to be wonderful for people to look at you in wonder. The purpose of preaching, aside from ripping your faces off to get you right with God, is to edify the body of Christ, right? And look, what better way to edify than just to teach something basic, to reinforce that which we already believe, because look, that's why churches are dying today is because they stopped reinforcing the basics. They don't think it's important to preach on salvation. They don't think it's important to preach against repent of your sins. They don't think it's important to just preach on soul winning. Therefore, those are the areas that they're dying in, because something like that needs to constantly be reinforced over and over and over again. Teach no other doctrine. A leader is here to say, hey, we're sticking to the basics. Okay. Look, there's times when I teach on end times Bible prophecy, or we'll go through something deep in the Bible, but that's not every sermon, because we have families, wives, children, husbands, members of the church who need to just grow up just in the basics. And here's the problem. Here's the temptation sometimes is that you get so much Bible knowledge, but you have no idea how to be a husband. You have no idea how to be, wives don't even know how to submit to their own husbands. Oh, they hate homos. Oh, they're, they're all about replacement theology, but they can't even follow a man. That's basic. Following is basic. Oh, poster pre-wrath though, I mean, they, they know the timeline and everything. I don't care how, can they follow? No, that's meaningless. Yeah, but they're King James only, they put it on their Instagram and social media. Yeah, but can they wash dishes? Can they cook a meal? Can they cook a keto diet? No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Basics. Oh man, this guy's hardcore. Yeah, but can he work? Does he know how to hold down a job? Can he work hard? Is he discreet? Is he godly? The basics is what's important. Now look, don't get it twisted, we're not saying like if someone's like that in our church that we're just going to come down hard on them, because look what it goes on to say. Now the end of the commandment, what commandment? That they teach no other doctrine. The commandment that he's given to Timothy, that they teach no other doctrine, he says the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of good conscience and of faith on faith. You know, you've got to make sure that you're long suffering, right? Preach the word to be incense and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. We need to be patient with people and not just chew them up and spit them out. Verse 6, from which some having swerved have turned aside into vain jangling, desire to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. You know what that means? This guy doesn't even know what he's talking about. You need to study a little more is what he's saying, okay? Because obviously you don't know what you're talking about. And we've had people come through our church that are like that. You know, when we threw out those reprobates, we had two idiots come to our church on that same day. I mean, these guys swerved. They swerved. They hydroplane right into vain jangling. And they're designed to be teachers of the law. But they didn't know what they were talking about, trying to come at me with Greek. Oh yeah, ecclesia. You know, but they, we obviously understood that they don't even know what they're talking about. Maybe if it was a different day, I would have been, I would have kept the commandment with charity out of a pure heart, but they came on a bad day. Came on a bad day. The Bible says in Hebrews 13, 9, be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied there. And you're in 1 Timothy 1, look at chapter 3. Chapter 3, we're talking about leaders here, right? We see how a lack of leadership caused the nation of Israel to just deteriorate and go into idolatry and just practice foolish things. Look at chapter 3, the qualifications of a pastor. We went through this on Sunday, but look at verse 13, it says, for they that have used the office of a deacon will purchase themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So from verse 1 to verse 13, he's teaching them what a pastor should be like. What are the qualifications? What should it be characterized by? He spends these 13 entire verses talking about that. Verse 14, these things, verses 1 through 13, write unto thee hoping to come into thee shortly, but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. What is he saying? In case I don't come in time, I'm giving you verses 1 through 13 so you know how to operate a church. So you know what kind of leaders should be in the church. So you understand who are the people who are qualified and who are the people who are not. This is how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, verses 1 through 13. Not just for a pastor, but for Christians just in general, right? This is what leadership does, okay? Go back to Judges chapter 17 if you would. But you know, what happens if you don't have that? You have Valley and Baptist Church. That's what you have. You have Jean Kim, Beatles Church. You have Robber Breaker, Baptist Church. The cloud church. Clouds without rain. That's what he calls his church. He calls it the cloud church. Clouds without rain though. This is what happens when you don't have a strong leader who's... This is why it's important that we as Baptists understand the qualifications of a pastor and we don't just send anybody out. The problem with the old IFB is that who are the people who will send out? Those who met the qualifications? No, those who graduated from Bible college. I know from 1 Timothy chapter 3, we just read it, somewhere in there according to them has Bible college. You have to graduate from Bible college. You got to make sure. But actually Bible college often dumbs these preachers down even more. Dumbs them down, doesn't emphasize that which is important. He said, when they're done with Bible college, what are they able to do? Run a bus route? Really? That's what it is. Run a bus route. Eat a goldfish. I'm not kidding. Goldfish Sunday? How many of you know what I'm talking about? Goldfish Sunday, where you give a goldfish to every bus kid and then the bus captain, the promotion is he'll swallow goldfish right there on the bus. Yeah. Yeah, try that when you're a pastor. Hey, if you come to my church, I'll swallow a goldfish. No, no, no, no. This is for children. Swallow a live salmon. Swallow a shark. These are the things that they learned. Look, we need to go back to just what the Bible says, what the qualifications are. Okay? Look at verse seven, it says, and there was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, the family of Judah, who was a Levite and he sojourned there. And the man departed out of the city from 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 Levi of Bethlehem Judah and I go to sojourn where I may find a place. And Micah said unto him, dwell with me. And be unto me a father and a priest and I will give thee 10 shekels of silver by the year and a suit of apparel and thy vittles so the Levite went in. So he just recruits this guy just to be a priest. And this is where qualifications are important because not every Levite was able to be a priest. They had to meet specific qualifications even in order for them to be a priest. Now who knows, maybe this guy was qualified, I have no idea, it doesn't say, but probably not. And we know that he's probably not qualified, why? Because of the reason why he does it. Does he do it? Because he said, well, no, no, no, you know, I'm a man of God, I'm here to teach the word of God, here to be a blessing. No, he's like, I'll give you some money, I'll give you a pinstripe suit and some food, some vittles it says. He's like, you had me at hello. So why is he doing it? He's doing it for the wrong reasons. It's like people today, you know, I remember when I first got saved and I started going to Bible college because I wanted to be a pastor, that's what we thought we had to do. And I remember going to a restaurant where I used to work at and my family and I were just celebrating. We're just celebrating and I don't remember what it was, I think it was like Easter and I saw one of my friends there who I previously known before I got saved. And he's like, hey, what you been up to? I was like, well, I'm in church now. I told him, I'm going to Bible college, you know, I got saved and I want to be a pastor. He's like, oh yeah, I heard that pays real good money. He's like, that's a good deal, you know, maybe I should get into something like that. I told him, I was like, and I told him, I was like, well, I'm not doing it for the money though. I don't know what you've heard. Pastors are not necessarily rolling in the dough in the ministry, okay. Now some are, okay, but those are the false prophets. But I told him, I was just like, that's not what it's all about and it really bothered me because later on I started realizing that there's people who are saved who were kind of basically doing it for the same thing, you know, or, you know, they want a job security or whatever it may be, you know, that's why they remained or that's why they wanted to be a pastor. But you know, you got to go into it with the right reasons, which is broke, joke, or, you know, if there's finances, I just want to be a pastor because I want to teach the word of God. I want to preach the Bible. I want to lead a people. I want to be able to team up with the people to do a great work for God. We want, I want to expand God's influence in this city by seeing people saved, getting them baptized, discipling them, doing something for eternal values sake, not for money. The Bible says not to be greedy of filthy lucre. We don't, we're not talking about people who are just like, well, we don't want any money. No, I want God to pour like thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars here. Why? So we can further the gospel, so we can take missions trips, so we can see more people saved. There's people who pray that prayer, but it's so they can get themselves, you know, vittles, pinstripe suit, and the 10 shekels. They're doing it for the wrong reasons, you know, and look, most of these guys who do it, they're not even qualified to be the pastor. Go to, go to Leviticus chapter 21, Leviticus 21. Now in Leviticus 21, you see the qualifications for a priest to be able to fulfill that office. These are not the qualifications of a pastor, but let me say this. Here's some spiritual meaning behind these things that we're going to see here, okay? That it would be good for pastors just to follow this, spiritually speaking. Look at verse 17, speaking to Aaron saying, whosoever he be of thy seed and their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach a blind man or lame or he that hath a flat nose or anything superfluous or a man that is broken-footed or broken-handed. Let me stop right there. First of all, it says, if you're blind, you can't be a priest. It doesn't mean God is against handicapped people, okay? It just means you can't be a priest. Does this mean that God hates those who are blind and deaf and dwarfs? No. This means you cannot be a priest during this time. Why is that? Well, because the priest was a representation of the perfection of Christ, the high priest. So he had to be such a person and live in such a way that he was without blemish, basically like Jesus Christ who was without sin, right? But he says, if you're blind, you can't do it. Well, in the New Testament, we can say, hey, if you have no vision, you can't be a leader, you can't be a pastor because if you can't see past tomorrow's lunchtime and you can't see where your church is going to be in 10 years, five years, 20 years, you shouldn't be a pastor because part of being a pastor is being a visionary, seeing what God can do in the future and yet even imagining beyond our potential of what we can do. Why? Because being a pastor is meant to inspire the people to see, well, maybe they may not be able to see, but he can see. That's what the leader's for. Oh, I just want to preach the Bible. Okay, preach the Bible, but don't be a pastor though because then you're not going to inspire anybody. God wants us to infuse people with dreams. And look, as a man, you should have a dream. As a man, you should have a goal, not just for this week, not for this month, not just for this year, but for the years to come. Don't just live for yourself. Don't just live for the here and now and the wine and oil, the pleasures of this world. He's saying, hey, if you're blind, can't be a priest. Look what it goes on to say, or lame. Here's a good spiritual application to that. Don't be lame. Yeah, and look, there's a lot of pastors today that are just lame. Lame sermons, lame churches, lame stance, lame doctrine. They're just lame. They're whack. That's what they are. They're not mobile. They're not capable of just walking circumspectly, being filled with the Spirit. They're lame. Oh, you shouldn't talk like that about other pastors. It's true though. I'm just saying what everyone thinks. Or lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous, things that are just leaking out of them. They just have these open breaches in their own body, because superfluous means they got pus leaking out. The Bible tells us that he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. Perverseness in the tongue is basically a breach in the spirit, the Bible says. That means we're just sealed up, have the armor of God. Or a man that is broken footed, or broken handed. What does this mean? In other words, he can't walk to go preach the gospel because he's too stinking lazy. Broken footed, he can't walk. Or broken handed, he can't help people when they need it. Not just financially, spiritually, giving counsel, he loves people. Not this kind of broken handed, there's these pastors that are like that too. How about this in verse 20, or crooked backed. What does that mean? They're crooked. Crooked pastors. Like this Levite here. Or a dwarf. What does that mean? You know, listen to this. This is true though. Listen. I'm not talking about physically right now, but we're just applying it. A dwarf. A dwarf is a small person. Why couldn't they be a dwarf? I'm not joking. You know in the New Testament, you know why? Because people have to look up to you. It's true. So if you were to apply it spiritually speaking, people have to look up to you. Now look, all the pastors in the New IFB were all short. For YouTube land out there, you know, sorry to burst your bubble. People told me, you know, you're like, I thought you were like six foot five or something like that. I'm like, dang, I should have never came here. You would have kept thinking that. They literally think that all the pastors in our movement are like 6'1", 6'2", 6'3". And places I'll go to go preach, they'll literally say, I love your preaching, but I thought you're a lot taller. You're a lot shorter than I expected. And then I'm like, I'm sorry to disappoint. And I remember when I first started hearing that like two years ago, I told Pastor Anderson, I was like, man, everyone keeps telling me that they thought I was tall. I told him, I was like, they kind of sound disappointed that I'm not tall. And he says, they tell them the same thing all the time. He's like, I just tell them this because on YouTube, I'm larger than life. But you know what? Who cares about our height, obviously. I don't care about my height. You shouldn't care about your height either. Hey, we're fearfully, wonderfully made, amen. Shorter talk. The spiritual application to this is that people have to look up to you. You can be small physically, but be a giant spiritually to the point where people admire you. They look up to you. You become an example unto them. You can't be a dwarf. You can't be a spiritual dwarf where your church members don't look up to you. They don't respect you. They talk crap behind your back because you just don't preach the truth. You have zero integrity. It doesn't matter if you're six foot one, it doesn't matter if you're six foot five, you're a dwarf. No one looks up to you. In fact, what do they do? They look down on you. Or that hath a blemish in his eye. He has a beam in his eye. Or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken. He said, what are the stones? Just look, the Bible's clear. It's not talking about rocks, okay. God, I mean, look, God is very descriptive here and he means business. He says, look, if anybody has their stones broken, they can't be a priest. Why? Because a priest needs to have their stones. Why? Because they're teaching the Bible. Do you know what the spiritual application to that is? Pastors today, this has not changed. They need to have their stones, okay. And why? Because they need to fight against the sodomites, these bunch of fags who want to threaten our lives and try to persecute us and they think by just yelling and screaming and persecuting that we're just gonna, oh, no, no, don't do anything to my church. You're welcome to come in, red carpet. That's a person with no stones. Whereas a person with stones says, bag, bags, homos, all burning in hell. Okay, can you retract that statement? No, let me repeat it. All fags go to hell. That's part two of all dogs go to heaven. The only difference is it's all dogs go to hell. Put that on a sound bite. Because we need to be people, we need to be leaders of fortitude. Sick and tired of weakling leaders who just buckle under any type of pressure. They're just afraid, scared, stoneless leaders. You know, a couple days ago when we filmed the vaccination documentary, I have a lot of people who are in the anti-vaccine community who are following me. They're promoting my videos. Some of them are Baptist, some are not. And this one person, you know, they've been helping me a lot, like they've just been promoting my video a lot. And then they messaged me, they're like, hey, so I keep promoting your video and people keep sending me this article about you. I'm like, oh, man, I was like, well, there goes my promoter, you know. And I'm like, oh, really? He's like, yeah, and she sent it to me. And it said like, you know, hate preacher, wants homos to die, blah, blah, blah. And then my picture, I'm just like, you know, like. And then she was like, is this true or are they taking you out of context? So I click on the link, I read it, and I messaged back, I was like, no, it's pretty accurate. Oh, yeah, it's all there. They told the truth. She's like, wow. She's like, you believe that? I'm like, yeah. And she's like, you believe that the homos should be put to death? I'm like, well, yeah, that's what the Bible teaches. I'm only saying what the Bible says, you know. She's like, but like, you know, and then she started asking me a word and the Bible doesn't say that. I gave her the verses. And then she said, but you have to say it, like the way you say it, like you call them bags and stuff. And I said this. I said, don't you like it when I rip on vaccines? Doesn't it show you that I'm serious about how much I hate such a wicked practice? I was like, well, I just feel that way about all wickedness. So I don't just yell and scream about vaccines. I do it about everything. I say, you've just been conditioned to want to accept homos and stuff like that. And at the end of the day, you know, she understood. And she was like, okay, I agree. You're right. I'm like, look, and she's like, but these people can't. I was like, well, tell them, tell them to tell their weakling pastors to start preaching on vaccines. And maybe they don't have to listen to me. It's like, tell your pastors then if they don't like me saying fag and saying that they should die and they're disgusting and they're dogs. Well, why don't you have their pastors go actually preach a sermon on vaccines and they don't have to come to Pastor Mejia. They can get their watered down preacher who, you know, screeches about vaccines all day long. But you know what? It's not going to happen because the only people who are willing to stand up for are the ones who hate a lot of sin. A lot of the wickedness of our society. And she agreed. She was like, yeah, you're right. So anyways, no stones broken. Gotta have your stones. We're not saying, we're not using vulgar language here. We're not using vulgar language, not using offensive language. We're using Bible language. Oh, but yeah, but you shouldn't talk about this and there's kids in here. Hey, the words of the Lord are pure words. We're going to teach everything and this is specifically here for a reason. Go back to Judges 17. I'm going to finish up. So this guy's not qualified. He's doing it for the wrong reasons. He's doing it for money. Look at verse 11, and the Levite was content to dwell with the man and the young man was unto him as one of his sons. And Micah consecrated the Levite and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, now I know, or now know I, that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. What is that called? Superstitious. So he thinks, well, if I just can have this spiritual person in my life, I'm just going to automatically by osmosis, get God's favor in his blessing upon me. And this is false. His obedience to God's word will give him God's blessing, not being with someone who's supposedly spiritual. And let me say this, the application to that is this. Hey, being in this church might get you some blessings, but it's being a doer of the word, not a hearer only that will get you the blessings. Okay. Just being in our church is not going to help you none. In fact, being in our church will actually be more detrimental for your spiritual life if you do not do the word, because now you're held accountable for a lot more. You know, Pastor Anderson just put out a video about differences between old IFB and new IFB. And one of the differences was, you know, the old IFB will use like a text verse. They'll use max, minimum, nine verses or something like that. He says, whereas the new IFB, they'll use like 40 to 50 verses, 40 to 60 verses. That's great, but you know what? That's a lot of accountability too, because you're getting a lot of information. Therefore, if you are not a doer of the word, you're just a hearer, and you don't do what you're being taught. You're in big trouble, because to whomsoever much is given of Him shall be much required. You know, we don't get God's blessing just by sitting here and just listening. Okay, we need to make sure that we're doing it as well. And so we'll stop right there, and then we'll get into Chapter 18 next week with the Danites and the destruction of ladies. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the examples that we've seen in the Book of Judges. I pray, God, that you'd help us to always recognize, Lord, that leaders are important. And, Lord, I've seen that in my life and the leaders that have been in my life and how they've helped me and the importance of just a man who just leads the flock, leads the organization. And I pray, God, that you'd help us to esteem that and also to recognize that the qualifications are there for a reason and help us to apply each and every one of those. Bless us as we go on our way. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.