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All right, I seem to be getting my names, numbers, and dates mixed up today, and so if I continue to do that throughout the sermon, just ignore it and insert the right number, the right name, the right book into that, all right? This is a joke. You're supposed to laugh at that. All right, here we go. All right, Judges Chapter Number 12, we're continuing with the book of Judges, and last week, let me just give you a recap of what we studied last week. Last week, we were highlighting the judge by the name of Jephthah, and Jephthah is a Gileadite. Just give you an overview of his life there. He was a Gileadite, and where we find ourselves in Chapter Number 11 is that the king of the children of Ammon came and inhabited and camped in Gilead, and the Gileadites basically panicked. They took Jephthah to be their captain and the ruler, even though previously, they had rejected him as being the leader. They asked him if he could help. He was not only a mighty man of valor, but the Bible also tells us that he was a son of a whore, a son of a harlot, okay? So he comes, he leads the people, and he leads them to great victory over the king of Ammon. Now a couple things that we learned from that story there is that God can use anybody, amen? Because of the fact that Jephthah is not necessarily the most noble fighter. He's a son of a harlot, he's rejected by his brethren, but God used the basings of this world to basically confound Ammon. He used them to judge Israel and overcome and deliver them out of the hand of the oppressors there. But the unfortunate thing that we also learned from Jephthah is this matter of making vows. He makes this foolish vow to God that if God delivers Ammon into his hands, what Jephthah was going to do is basically sacrifice whatever came through his tent doors. Of course, in his mind, he's thinking a bullock or some sort of sheep is going to come through, and he's going to be able to sacrifice that. Unfortunately, it was his daughter, and he had to sacrifice his daughter. So the things that we learned from Judges 11 is, number one, God can use anybody, but number two, we need to abstain from making foolish oaths or vows unto the Lord. Let your yay be yay and your nay be nay. That's exactly what we learned from chapter number 11. Now chapter 12, we're beginning to finish up the story of Jephthah, and this is after the victory that he has over Ammon, and chapter 12 is a little different. Chapter 12 doesn't necessarily, it does talk about other judges towards the end of the chapter. It doesn't give a lot of description or details about them. The majority of the chapter highlights the many civil war that we see there between Ephraim and the Gileadites, okay? And it's over a really foolish reason, but there's a lot of things that we can learn from this chapter and from that story in particular. Now look at verse number one, it says, and the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together and went northward and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore, passest thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? You will burn thine house upon thee with fire. Now this is stupid, okay? I mean, they're literally gonna burn his house down, they're gonna attack him, they're threatening his life only because Jephthah did not call them to go and fight against Ammon. Now this is very interesting because if you remember in previous chapters, Ephraim was involved with the same dialogue with another judge. How many of you remember that, okay? It was actually Gideon, if you remember, Gideon had an army of about 30,000 that was dwindled by God to 300, and this is why he's a great man of faith, this is one of the reasons I believe he is in the hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. He turned to fight the armies of the aliens with only 300 people, right? And he overcomes the Medianites and then he calls Ephraim and he says, Hey, get the waters of Medianites, you know, grab that before, you know, as they're fleeing so we can own that. And these 300 men, which God chose, are fleeing after these Medianites, faint yet pursuing, that's what the Bible says. So they're tired, they're faint, they're weary, and what does Ephraim do? Ephraim comes and basically says the same thing. In fact, go to Judges chapter number 8, let's look at that briefly so we can compare here. It says in verse number 1 of Judges chapter number 8, And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou callest us not? When thou wentest to fight with the Medianites? And they did chide with him sharply. Now the difference between Gideon and Jephthah is that Gideon's more of a politician, okay? What do I mean by that? He's just, he, you know, Jephthah is just like, well, I'm going to kill you, you know? You want to fight? We can fight. Gideon, on the other hand, says in verse number 2, And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? It is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezor. God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian or of Zeb, and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that. So basically, he gave a soft answer that turned away wrath, right? And he's probably thinking, look, I don't have time to deal with this. I'm faint. I'm tired. I'm just going to go ahead and appease them, let them hear what they want to hear so we can get the job done. And really the answer to that was this, God didn't choose you, buddy. God did not choose anybody from the tribe of Ephraim to be a part of this elite group of 300 to overcome the Midianites. That's really what he should have said, but he's just probably tired. They don't want to say anything. But here's the ironic thing is that we see this later on in chapter 12. So the same tribe that gave getting the hard time is the same tribe that's giving Jeph the hard time regarding the same exact thing. And they said, look, why didn't you call us to go fight? And verse 2 says, And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon, and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands. And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Wherefore then are you come up unto me this day to fight against me? Now here's the thing you have to understand, okay? Let me give you a bit of a background regarding these tribes. Now where is or who is the tribe of Gilead? Well there is no tribe of Gilead, okay? Gilead is a region on the east side of the Jordan River. And in fact if you study Gilead and its relation to any of the tribes of Israel, it's simply like an offspring or an extension from the tribe of Manasseh. Now Manasseh and Ephraim are half tribes that make up what? The house of Joseph. So these are half tribes that make up the house of Joseph when they went into the promised land. For whatever reason these people enjoyed themselves unto the tribe of Manasseh and they became this like offspring, this shoot off of Manasseh, the Gileadites, okay? Now that's why when you see in chapter number 11 it says now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor and he was the son of a harlot and Gilead begat Jephthah. There is not a man in the Bible, I mean excuse me, in this time period named Gilead. The only time you'll find a man by the name of Gilead was the son of, I forgot his name right now but it's in the book of Numbers, okay? But that was a long time ago. This is not taking place during this time. And so it seems to elude, it seems to insinuate that Gilead is referring just to that region as a whole and this people, the Gileadites. Now here's the interesting thing though because when the king of the children of Ammon come to conquer Israel, they're not necessarily conquering any tribe, they're trying to conquer a section of the house of Joseph which is Manasseh and Ephraim, primarily Manasseh, which Gileadites pertain unto that tribe, does that make sense to everyone? So that's why they weren't fighting with anybody else but the Gileadites, they encamped in the Gileadites, that's why the Gileadites asked Jephthah to help them, he comes, becomes their captain. This is like a fight that's outside of the camp of Israel but it does have some association because of the fact they're an offspring of Manasseh, okay? So you gotta take this into account, you gotta make sure you know the tribes, you understand the history here so when you're reading this you're just like, I don't know what's going on, just give me to the action. You gotta read in between the lines and figure out what's going on here so you can understand what's taking place, okay? Now the question is, why is it that Jephthah did not call Ephraim to go fight? You know, he's basically a part of the house of Joseph, is it because Amnon did not go and try to conquer that section or that region that pertained unto Ephraim? What was the reason? Well, I'm gonna give you two reasons why I believe there's a reason why they're never called to battle because they were not called to battle in Judges chapter 8 and they were not called to battle in Judges chapter 12. Why is that? Well, go to Judges chapter number 1 if you would, Judges chapter number 1, let me give you a first reason here. Now let me give you also just a brief history as far as the book of Joshua is concerned. The book of Joshua primarily deals with the disbursement of the lots, the inheritance to the children of Israel and God has given them these areas to possess, all they have to do is go there, conquer the enemy and claim the land, right? Now Ephraim and Manasseh, they seem to be a little soft, okay, if you study them. They're a little lax, they're a little lazy, you know, they go to Joshua and they're like, how come we only have one? Why we can't, we need more and he's like, get you up to the wood country and go get you some. Go get more land, go fight, oh but they have chariots of iron, just little wusses and he's like, look, you're strong people, God is with you, go do it. So right off the bat, we have this characterization of this tribe or these two tribes as being kind of soft, a little lax, they lack motivation, okay? And in fact, in Judges chapter 1 verse 27, look what it says, neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshein and her towns, nor Tanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Iblium and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns, but the Canaanites would dwell in that land and it came to pass when Israel was strong that they put the Canaanites to tribute and did not utterly drive them out. Now by the way, when it says utterly drive them out, what that's supposed to mean is utterly just destroy them because God commanded them when they go into the promised land to destroy every man, woman, boy, girl, suction, calf, animal, everything, everything needed to be destroyed and they didn't do that, they put them under tribute, they taxed them. And it says there in verse 29, it came to pass, or verse 29, excuse me, neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwell in Gezer, but the Canaanites would dwell in Gezer among them. So what do we see the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh doing even in times past? They weren't fighters, they didn't like to fight, instead of fighting, they just taxed them. Now, that's not what God wanted, okay? This is not God's original intent. God wanted them to go in there, wipe them out, execute, pun intended, right? The will of God. Just do what they're supposed to do, go in there and take care of business. Now here's the interesting thing, okay? Because if you read Psalm 78, Psalm 78, verses 1 through 9, it basically tells us about Ephraim how they were a rebellious and stiff-necked people. The Bible says that the children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. So it's specifically telling us that this tribe, even though they had the resources, even though they had the tools, they had the weaponry, they were armed, they had the bows, they had God, they still turned back in the day of battle. What does that mean? Because this tribe was not dependable, they were not reliable. Even though they were given the resources necessary to succeed in executing the will of God, they were unreliable, not dependable, cowards. Even though God gave them everything that they needed, they still turned back in the day of battle, okay? This is why primarily, I believe, maybe this is what they were characterized by. They're just characterized as being like slack, lazy, or not in the fight. And then they come around and say, after the fight is done, by the way, right? After the fight is done, well, how come you didn't call us to go fight? I was like, well, you picked a dandy time. You picked a dandy, can someone give me some water, please? I forgot, see? You picked a pretty dandy time to come and, you know, volunteer when everything's all said and done. You know, and so this is why I primarily believe that the Ephraimites, twice this took place, that they were not called into battle because they're not dependable people, okay? Now let me give you some basic applications to this because we can apply this in a lot of ways. We can apply this in a lot of ways. You know, we as Christians should not have this Ephraimite mentality, right? You don't want to be an Ephraimite, why? Because Ephraimites are not dependable. Ephraimites are not reliable, they cannot be relied upon. In spite of what resources are placed in their hands, they cannot be dependable. You know, in like manner, God has given to us a slew of resources, has He not? First and foremost, we have salvation, we have the Holy Spirit of God, we have the power of God. You know, He who wrought mightily in Peter was mighty in me also. We have the same Holy Spirit that the prophets had, that the New Testament apostles had. Hey, we have the canonized Bible, the King James Bible. We have a great church, we have great people, we have the truth. These are good resources, but hold on a second. Having good resources doesn't make you a reliable person. What makes you a reliable person, a dependable person, is that if you're a man or a woman of character, and you actually utilize the resources that are given to you. Don't be like the Ephraimites that are not reliable. You know, we as Christians should be the most reliable people on the face of the planet. Because we're armed, we're carrying bows, may it not be said of us that we turn back in the day of battle. You know, the Bible tells us that the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. And when we have all these resources and we're not using them for the Lord, we're not using them to advance, to be a blessing, to profit with all, to work, to serve the Lord, you know what? We're not reliable. And in a church setting, this is true also. We need to make sure that we're reliable Christians, to serve one another, to make sure we're both soul winning. You know, if you are not yet a soul winner in our church, you better jump on that wagon. Because to whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required. Don't be like an Ephraimite who is armed, carrying bows, or in our case, invites. With his great face here, gospel presentation in English, one in Spanish. I mean, you got all the resources that you need, and yet you're not reliable because you don't go. We need to make sure that we as Christians are dependable, that whatever God places in our hands, that we use it. Don't be like the Ephraimites that are not dependable, they're not reliable. You know, I would guess to say that the Ephraimites were more of a liability than an asset. So it's like instead of having extra men come fight, we just won't have them come fight at all, because they suck, they can't fight, you know. You know, it's like you're getting jumped, and then you have a guy there who just watches you get jumped, like you're mad, like, I was there with you, yeah, but you just watched the whole time. Yeah, I was like moving around, you know, trying to see, but you didn't throw one blow. You didn't throw one punch. You're unreliable. It's better that you just weren't there, because now I'm embarrassed that you saw me get my butt whooped, right. So this is what this means, and we don't want to be those kind of Christians, where we're just a bunch of Ephraimites, unreliable, we're not working for the Lord, we're not putting in our effort, we're not being a team, okay. And again, in a church setting, you know, don't be like the Ephraimites, don't be a complainer, be a team player, and the Ephraimites are like, why didn't you invite me, why not, why was I able to go, you know, why couldn't you, you know what they want to do, they wanted the glory without the work. They wanted the glory of being able to say, yeah, we conquered Ephraim, and here's the thing, they were probably embarrassed because they're actually a tribe, and Gilead was not. So Gilead, this offspring, this shoot of Manasseh is over here taking care of business that they were supposed to take care of long ago, but they're not doing it, they're like, oh, how come you didn't call us, we're the big guns, no, you're the super soakers, you're not even pellet guns, you're not even paintball guns, you're the 99 cent super soakers, the ones where you put the water, you put the cap and the water still comes out of the back, you know what I'm talking about, that's what you are, you're unreliable, and look, as a church we need to make sure that we all do our part, right, that we're a team. Now what do I mean by that, well, you know, we didn't recognize that our church throughout its lifespan will experience a lot of victories, we will see a lot of successes, we will see a lot of great exploits done, and you know what, some of those times they're not going to be involved, it's not going to involve you being on the forefront or in the limelight, and no one should ever say, well, how come I didn't get to go to the mega marathon or this marathon or this soul winning trip or this or that, you know, how come I didn't get to be a part of that, well, you know what, if you're holding down the fort and doing the soul winning here, you get the credit for serving God in our church, amen, you get the credit for the overall victory that we see, never have this mentality, well, you guys do the big things and we're over here doing the small things, it doesn't work like that, you know, if you remember the story of David and his mighty men, they came back from battle and I think it was the Malachites who had come and just completely pillaged their land, they took their children and their wives, destroyed their villages there, and the Bible says that the people spake of stoning David, his own guys, and luckily because David is a man of God's own heart, he's a godly man, the Bible tells us that he encouraged himself in the Lord and by doing that he encourages men, he's like we're gonna go retrieve everything, they go into the camp of the Malachites, some of the men were not capable of going to that fight, you know why, because they were previously fighting other battles, they were fatigued, they were tired, so what they did instead is they, they parried by the stuff, they made sure that no one got their stuff jacked, right, that's an important job, the other men went to fight, they came back and these reprobates, what the Bible calls the sons of Belial, did not want to part the spoil with those who were tarried behind with the stuff, so they're like they shouldn't have a part in this, they didn't do anything, and David basically told them, you know, that his part that goeth out to battle and his part that tarried by the stuff, they both shall part alike, in other words, the person who tarries behind and does his job is just as important as the person who goes out to battle, because they're both doing their job and one cannot do one without the other, we can't go to battle unless someone is in the home base taking care of business, right, so both of them are equally important and this is the kind of attitude that we need to have, you know, Ephraim should have been like man good job guys, you know, hey we're here if you guys need anything, I know we haven't been reliable in times past, but we're here and we're here to fight, and you know what, you guys are part of our tribe, you guys are an offspring of our tribe, let's just do this, no instead just start complaining, and in fact Jephthah, and there's no record of this but I don't see why he would be lying, he says when I saw that he delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, in other words it's like I came to call you, you didn't want to fight, so basically it was just me and the Gileadites, no other tribe, I put my life in my hands is what he was saying there, so be a team player, don't be a team complainer, okay, and this is not an issue in our church, we don't have this problem within our congregation, this is preventative medicine so that you don't become a murmurer and a complainer, let me say this, nobody likes to hang around a complainer, nobody likes to be around a murmur, someone who just constantly complains about the church, constantly complains about the singing, constantly complains about the preaching, you constantly complain, oh there's a bunch of weirdos in this church, well you know what, then go somewhere else where you think people are normal then, because then you'll go to another church and realize that actually you were actually the weird one, and everyone else was just normal, by the way this is normal Christianity, amen, this is normal, be dependable, don't be a liability, be an asset, you know there's Christians that can often become a liability, where it's like we would do worse to go into battle with you than if you were to not go in battle, we would do worse, and like over the years we've had liability type Christians come to this church, we've had to kick out a few, amen, you know a couple months ago we kicked out a lady, we excommunicated a lady for railing, for just lying, and just being given over after Satan, and look she showed up to all the services, she was faithful, but you know what, she was faithfully damaging our church, what do you call that, a liability, not an asset, she was actually extracting energy and resources from the church, even though she was present, and let me say this, it's important to be faithful to the church, amen, but you know what's more important to being faithful to the church, is being faithful to the church as an asset, you know God wants us to be, what's an asset, something that gives value, something that has value, okay, and look you say well I don't have any value, and I don't know how to sing, and I can't play an instrument, you can do something, don't give me that, don't be an Ephraimite, don't come at me with your chariots of iron sob story, don't be an Ephraimite, and look if you feel like you're not an asset, then make yourself an asset, you have the resources, you just got to put in the work to become that asset, okay, and look every Christian who comes here, every believer is first a liability, are they not, they need someone to take care of them, to answer their questions, to invite them, to continue to remind them about church, they ask questions that are immature sometimes, or they act immature sometimes, and they need us as mature Christians to bring them along, lovingly care for them until they can become an asset, and then they can help others become assets as well, you know, vessels unto honor, sanctified and meet for the masters use, prepared unto every good work, but don't think to yourself well you know, I'm not a part of the battle, no, the hand cannot say to the foot because I am not the hand, or I'm not the foot, then I am not of the body, you know, every body part is important, reference the sermon from Sunday morning, okay, so be an asset, be dependable, be reliable, you know the Bible tells us, you say well how can I first start, how can I first start with just being reliable, well number one is be faithful, which is be consistent, you know what the Bible actually tells us, confidence in an unfaithful man is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint, confidence in an unfaithful man in a time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint, what does that mean, it's painful to just even have, I mean a broken tooth, you think of a broken tooth, your nerves are exposed, how many of you have ever had that before, it's the most excruciating pain you ever feel in your life, you know when the nerves are exposed, that's the same way when you place your confidence in an inconsistent unfaithful man, you know, and a foot out of joint means you're not going anywhere, you know, you're not going anywhere, you can't get anything done because a person is unfaithful, whereas the Bible says that a faithful man should have blind willed blessings, you know, a faithful man who can find, most men, listen to this, will proclaim every man his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find, you know the majority of people would just rather talk about how good they are and how talented and what they're able to do and how they can do this or that and all the merits that they've accomplished in their lifetime, but you know what, to God that means nothing if you're not faithful, because he said look, I can find within a crowd a multitude of people who proclaim every man his own goodness, the thing I have a hard time finding is a faithful man, and a faithful man, regardless of how many talents they have, is far more valuable than a person who proclaims his own goodness, even if he has goodness and talents, talents can only go so far, you know that? Talents can only take you so far before people realize who you really are, because what's valuable to people is character, what's valuable to people is consistency, what's valuable to people is if you're dependable, not if you're good at X, Y, and Z, okay, so that's what we see there with the Ephraimites, you know, let me see if I have anything else that I want to say, that's pretty much it, be an asset, amen, be an asset, don't be a liability, and the way you can avoid being a liability is make sure you're continuously growing, you know, and look, we don't want to do the, we don't want the opposite extreme where, you know, you have these guys, well you didn't call us to battle, you didn't call us for the big victories, and then the opposite extreme is this, well I don't have to do anything because everyone's fighting a battle already, I just have to come to First Works Baptist Church, I don't have to do any soul winning, I don't have to do any great exploit because there's enough people here doing that, that's not the attitude you want to have either, this lazy lax attitude where you feel like, well I'll just, you know, hang on the coattails of the church, of those doing the work, and I'll be blessed for that, well you know what, you might be blessed to a certain extent, but not fully if you're not even fully involved, okay, so that's what we see there, don't be eat free of mind, don't be lax, don't be a liability, be dependable, be a reliable Christian, hey join a soul winning team, put a plug in for the soul winning team, amen, be on a soul winning team, learn from one of these men, well I already know how to preach the gospel, I'm pretty much good at that, I know what I'm doing, well you know what, you're more of a liability because I don't know if you're doing it right, we don't know what kind of gospel you're preaching, we don't know how your delivery is, and if you're not open to good criticism, you're a liability, now I'm not going to tell you, hey you're a liability, I'm not going to say that to you obviously, I don't want to offend you, because you're welcome to come, you're still welcome to go soul winning, even if you want to go by yourself, which I don't think we have anybody here who just goes by himself, but if you want to be an asset, you will join a team that will help you refine your soul winning and make you a better soul winner, better preacher of the gospel, let's move on here, enough said on that, verse 3 says, and when I saw that you delivered me not, I put my life on my hands and passed over again against the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hand, wherefore then are you come up unto me this day to fight against me, then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim, so he's not going to take it, he's just like alright you want to fight, I'm going to gather on, but we just got off a good fight right now, we just beat Ammon, you're nothing right? And the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, look what it says, because they said Egileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites, so they're mocking them, they're basically saying, you guys aren't even a tribe, you guys are fugitives, you guys are foreigners, you guys are a bunch of runaways, castaways, you know because Gilead is not necessarily a tribe, it's just a region, and anybody who lives within that region is just referred to as a Gileadite, they're not even telling, he's like you're just a fugitive of Ephraim and among the Manassites, in other words you guys are nothing, I mean that's a huge insult, you know, it's like people, mega churches who would look at our church and be like, you guys are lame, you guys are so small, you guys aren't doing anything, when in reality we can kick their butts, spiritually speaking, you know, in reality we're fighting the big wars, in reality we're probably not the only ones, but one of the only churches in America that are doing the soul wing, that are actually preaching the gospel, that are standing up to these filthy fags, Ephraim and Manasseh aren't doing that, hey, you guys the king of the children of Ammon is not coming to fight with Manasseh or Ephraim, they're coming to fight with the small little Gileadites, right, so this is a huge insult, you know, trying to make themselves look better, trying to insult them, but they're going to pay for it though, verse 5, and the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites and it was so when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, let me go over, that the men of Gilead said unto him, art thou an Ephraimite, if he said nay, let me stop right there, so what did they do, like, alright, so they take these passages, the passages are like a canal over Jordan, so it's basically like a narrow channel, not a canal, a narrow channel where they can filter whoever's coming to their side, so whoever's leaving the battle can come over and they can filter who that person is, okay, and the reason they want to filter them is because they don't want none of the Ephraimites to escape, they want to destroy them, so he said, let me go over that the men of Gilead said unto him, art thou an Ephraimite, if he said nay, then say they unto him, say now shibboleth, and he said, shibboleth, for he could not frame to pronounce it right, then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan, and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty in two thousand, that's a long line, so they said shibboleth forty two thousand times, right, that's a lot, I mean you need ships for that, that's a lot of shibboleth, okay, now what's the significance of this story, well let me explain first of all what's taking place here, so one thing we know for sure is that the Ephraimites, the Gileadites and Manassites, they all look the same, right, because they specifically said are you an Ephraimite, and they would say nay, and they couldn't tell whether they were foreigners or they were part of Gileadites, visually as far as their appearance is concerned, the clothing that they had or whatever it may be, they couldn't really distinguish if they were Gileadites, so what was it based upon, it was based upon what they said, they were able to distinguish if they were the enemy based upon the words that came out of their mouth, by thy words thou shall be justified, by thy words thou shall be condemned, now what is shibboleth, I don't know, you can't really compare it with anything in the bible because there is no definition in the bible that explains what it is, if you were to just look it up on the internet, like on a dictionary, what is shibboleth, you know, it gives a general definition of what it is, but we don't know if it's that for sure, it's basically saying that, you know, it's a phrase or some type of word that would detect if a person is who they say they are, okay, based upon how they pronounce it, right, and some people have different opinions on that, either way this was a linguistic type of a test that they can use to prove that these people were actually Ephraimites or not, and it was simply based on the what, the sh, they could not say the sh part, so the most menial pronunciation they could not pronounce and they gave themselves away simply by using this linguistic test that exposed them of who they really were, pretty interesting is it not, and no one can pronounce it, now why is that, well if you read the book of Nehemiah, you'll see that because the people were intermingled so much, many of the Hebrews were not able to speak the Hebrew language, because they were so intermingled, they were so mixed in with foreigners and those who were of opposite religions and gods, they became so intermingled that they were no longer even able to speak in the Hebrew language, so we see they weren't able to pronounce it, so it could be the Ephraim at this point was becoming so intermingled because we are looking in the book of Judges, where idolatry was taking place, where did they learn idolatry from, well I don't know, remember in chapter 1 that they dwell, they allow who, the Canaanites to dwell among them, they were probably influenced, they probably began to talk like them and that's how they gave themselves away, okay, so that's, that's what we see there, now what is the practical application to this, go to Matthew chapter 12, Matthew chapter 12, let me give you a couple of things here, so let me first and foremost say this is that what reveals something about a person, it's the words that come out of their mouth, okay, because the Bible does say out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, and in fact if you remember Peter when he denied the Lord, he denied him thrice, correct, and a woman came to him and said thou art a Galilean and he denied it and she said thou art a Galilean for thy speech beareth thee, in other words what he's saying, hey, the way you talk and what you said is basically revealing who you really are, thou art a Galilean in another portion it said and thy speech agreeeth thereto, so what he said was in direct connection with who he was as far as where he was from, who he followed, they knew he was with Christ because of the words that he said, so we see that words are important and words can often describe who a person really is, you know what comes out of your mouth often determines who you really are down deep inside, what comes out of your mouth, the things that you talk about is often a clear vision, it's like a television into your heart because whatever is in your heart is going to eventually come out of your mouth, you know, let me have one conversation with you and I'll tell you what's important to you, let me have one conversation about spirituality about things of the spiritual about the Bible and I'll tell you how much Bible you know, let me talk to you about just anything and I can determine what is really in your heart, why, because your speech reveals who you are, say shibboleth, say shibboleth and if you say shibboleth, you just reveal who you really are, you're not really a Gileadite, you're not really a Manasseh, who are you, you're an Ephraimite, who can't frame to pronounce it, now this is practical and this is applicable to false prophets, is it not, look at verse 31, it says, wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Now what is he specifically referring to, the fact that the Pharisees were saying that Jesus Christ had Beelzebub as a spirit, they said this, verse 32, and whosoever speaketh the word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come, either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruit, O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, a good man out of good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of evil treasure bringeth forth evil things, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment, for by thy words thou shall be justified, and by thy words thou shall be condemned. Now there's two manners, there's two ways you can spot a false prophet, number one, by the fruit they produce, right? You can spot a false prophet in, behind the pulpit, based upon the fruit that's in the church, correct? But what about infiltrators, false prophets who are not pastors, they're not evangelists, they're not preachers, they're just within the congregation, well one sure way to do it is by the things that they say, by the doctrines they believe. The Bible says try the spirits, and that's often in reference to the words that are coming out of their mouth. Why is that? Well because of the fact that false prophets can't help but preach false doctrine. It'll eventually come out. If they believe in a words-based salvation, it's gonna come out. And I'm not talking about like a slip of a word, okay? I'm talking about they will eventually teach it. If they're a stinking oneness, modulus, heretic, two-fold more child of hell, they will reveal it out of their mouths. It's gonna come out. Their folly shall be made manifest. But what did Paul say? But thou has known me and my doctrine, doctrine is teaching. He's like, you know what I teach, you know my doctrine, you know what I preach, well in like manner these infiltrators, these people who are ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. But the Bible says there are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. You can spot them based upon what they say, the words that come out of their mouth. Because when you tell them, pronounce shibboleth. You talk to a modulus. Well, we believe, you know, we're not oneness or modulus, but the words that are coming out of their mouth is like, yes, you are. Dominique Davis, yes, you are. Tyler Baker, yes, you are. Garrett Kirschway. It doesn't matter what you try to say or how you try to twist it, what comes out of your mouth is that you're oneness, you're a modulus, you're a heretic, regardless, why? Because you can't pronounce shibboleth. You're having a hard time pronouncing shibboleth. Shibboleth. You know, what do you believe, well, I believe it's by faith, but you know what, faith without words is dead being alone, right? I'm saved. Because you can't pronounce shibboleth. You can't pronounce salvation. You can't pronounce salvation by grace through faith alone. You can't seem to pronounce once saved, always saved. You pronounce shibboleth is what you do. So what they say, what people say often gives them away. I mean, we've seen that in our church, have we not? Others that have come in, the way they get spotted is by the things that they say. Obviously we can spot them if they're behind the pulpit and they preach some false gospel or something like that, but I'm talking about people who are within the congregation. Your ears will peek up once you hear what they actually say. Why? Because their speech beareth them. It reveals who they really are. And no man speaking by the Spirit called Jesus the curse is based upon what you say. Go to Acts chapter 20, if you would. Acts chapter 20, you know, these guys, look, here's a good application to this. Because the Ephraimites look just like them, they look just like them. You know, in the New Testament we consider it as wolves in sheep's clothing. There's a reason why God uses that as an illustration because he's basically saying, you can't tell who they are based upon how they look. Now some freaks you can't. Some guys are just like, you don't even need to say Sibyleth. You are a false prophet. You know, these pastors, these faggoty looking pastors out there with their mega church, their skinny jeans, their ripped jeans, their hair, the gold that hits the ceiling. They put like a half bottle of hairspray on it. You know, these queer looking sissy fags of pastors, they don't, I don't even need to listen to a sermon. I don't need to listen to their five minute sermon. You know what I mean? Look, I just, they just show it right there. They're wolves in wolves clothing. They're wolves in wolves clothing. And thank God for that. You know, saves us some work. Amen. They're just like, well, that guy's a false prophet. Well, he already preaches. He looks like a fag. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a stinking duck. But there are others who are wolves in sheep's clothing. And just like the Ephraimites, you couldn't tell who they were until they tried to pronounce Sibyleth and they revealed themselves. Look at Acts chapter 20 and verse, verse number 28 says, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, verse 28, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. So this is not only talking about false prophets, it's also talking about people who will rise up within the congregation. And how will you know? How will they reveal themselves? Have them pronounce Sibyleth. It's the perverse things that come out of their mouth. This is how we know. Now, on another practical level, as far as Christians are concerned, how does this apply to us? Well, this should show us that what comes out of our mouth really reveals who we really are. The apostles said in the book of Acts, we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So we can't help but talk about the things that we've been meditating on, the things that we've been thinking on, the things that we've been watching, the things we've been listening to. It's going to come out of our mouths, okay? And what's the application there? Hey, we need to make sure that we think upon the Bible and we don't think upon evil things. We don't partake. We set no wicked thing before our eyes. We hate the work of them to turn aside. We don't listen to the songs of the fools. You know, and I'm not saying we have to be like these monks who are just constantly reading the Bible, constantly praying, just spiritual all the time. But you know what? We ought to live clean lives and live by the principle, touch not the unclean thing. You say, well, what do I do in my spare time when I'm already done reading the Bible? Find a way to be creative to just make you a better human being. There's these things. They're like square. It's about this size. And it's made of paper. It's called a book. Everyone's like, that's interesting. What is that? I never heard of something like that. You know, read books. I read the Bible. I read the Bible. Good. Read something else too. Why not? Why not become knowledgeable in other areas of life? You know, why not just be, hey, mom, why not be a better teacher for your children to homeschool them? Amen. Hey, teenagers, why don't you just read a book to better your vocabulary, to increase it? Instead of being on social media, playing these stupid video games that are just turning your brain to mush, that are just destroying your brain, making you an idiot, playing Minecraft, playing Call of Duty, why don't you fulfill your duty as a Christian and become useful? The Bible says that when we have done what that which is our duty to do, call us unprofitable servants. So you know what? Your duty is to read the Bible. And if that's all you do, you're unprofitable. Because you need to get outside of that. You need to learn some new skills. You need to be a better person. I'm just all about the only, okay, if you're a brand new Christian, amen. Stick to the Bible for a while. But you know what? If you read the Bible a couple of times, it's time to branch out and learn some new things so you can learn how to be a better asset at your job, in the church, as a husband, as a wife, as a son or a daughter. Don't be a good Instagram taker. Amen. And hey, I love posting pictures. You guys see my grid? My grid is hot. It's fire. Okay. I understand that. That's my hobby. But you know what? I read books on how to make my Instagram fire. I read books on how to just improve myself as a dad, as a husband, as a leader. I try to spend, and look, if you have a hard time reading, then do this. Get Audible. This is gold right here, I'm telling you, okay? Audible. Audible is just books that you can listen to. And while I'm working, while I'm fulfilling just my daily responsibilities, I'm just listening to books. Hours and hours and hours of books, filling my mind with information to just make me a better boss, a better leader, a better husband, a better son, a better everything, trying to cover all grants. This is what we need to do. Okay? I say, well, you know, I don't see that as being a necessary thing. And look, let me say this. Don't read other books if you have not read through the Bible at least once. And if you've been in our church over the last two years and you've not read the Bible once, shame on you. Your arm carrying bowls, but you're turning back in the day of battle. What battle? The battle to get your flesh to read the Bible. Shame on you if you have not read the Bible, because you've gotten enough preaching. We've talked about it enough. We give you Bible reading calendars. We give you everything that you need to read. What you need to do is turn off the stupid TV, turn off the stupid movies. You got two hours to waste on a movie. Why not invest two hours and read in the Bible? Oh, man, I just haven't read through the Bible. Not my fault. We armed you. We gave you the bows. We gave you the sword. We gave you everything necessary to succeed in that area. Read it. Read it. Why? So you can reveal, so people can see who you really are, amen? So it's just like, well, this guy actually, you know, he talks about spiritual. He likes to talk about spiritual things. And look, I'm not saying that at our church, it's like only doctrine, post-trib, replacement theology. One has to always say, don't talk to me about anything else. But you know, the vast majority of the conversations in our church is about doctrine. It's about the Bible. And then we get into some fighting, you know. We get into, Mark gets into killing bears and stuff like that, you know. Then his folly is made manifest, we're like, he's revealing who he really is. No, I'm just kidding. What I'm saying is this, is that put the right things into your heart. Put the right things into your heart. And look, you may be trying to fake it, but you know what? You can only fake it for so long. Before that which is truly in your heart comes out, that's the way it works. Your speech shall be raised. It shall reveal. It shall agree to who you really are. It will show who you really are. And that is the primary application that we see here. Go back to Judges, if you would, back to Judges. You know, the Bible tells us, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. What comes out of our mouth determines who we really are. And again, I'm not saying I'll only talk about the Bible, but you know what? I've been to churches where you will literally be in a church and zero Bible will be mentioned during the fellowship after church. You know, that's garbage. Where the first thing that comes out of someone's mouth after church is the game. I'm not joking. The score. In fact, people don't even wait in church. They leave early during the altar call to go catch the remainder of the game. Look, don't talk to me about sports because I know jack squat about sports. I don't know if the World Cup is going on right now. I have no idea if it's baseball. I don't know if it's basketball. I don't know. And if you do know, that's okay, you know, if that's your hobby, but you know what? I've been to places where that's all they talk about. And you're looked as an oddball if you bring up spiritual things. You're looked at like a weirdo. Like, oh, you're trying to be spiritual? Yeah, that's what we're trying to do here. I thought we were trying to, I thought we had to like put an effort to be spiritual. Oh, are you trying to be like a good Christian? Yeah. Can you help me out? Can you reciprocate that which I'm telling you? You know, is that okay? Is that weird? You know, fellowship is not just hanging out and telling jokes, although I like that. Fellowship is also just speaking spiritual things. That's how we edify. That's how we exhort one another. And look, let me say this, if your eyes are glazing over right now because you're bored of what I'm saying, you're just revealing what's really in your heart, amen, which is either one, food, and that's it, you know, or other things. You know, the Spirit, the Bible says that the inner man delights in the Word of God, right? And we should delight in hearing these things. So what we see here is that they could not pronounce shibboleth, they said sibboleth, and because of that, there fell at that time of the Ephraimites 40 and 2,000 men, simply by what came out of their mouth. And that is a good principle to learn is that what comes out of our mouth often reveals who we really are. Let me say one more thing about that, and I'm done, okay, relax, I'm almost done. You know, often, there's people that fixate on one thing, one doctrine, one topic, and that sometimes reveals who they really are. We don't want to be people who just fixate on one thing, you know, we don't want to be, don't be a Christian who just fixates on the reprobate doctrine. It's just like everywhere you see it just reprobates everything. Everything is a reprobate, you know, just like, and every conversation goes back to if someone's a reprobate. I mean, isn't there other doctrines in the Bible other than that? But you know what that does? That reveals who people really are. And often, this is what it is, this is, listen to this, listen to this, it's the need, finish what I say, to what? Does anybody know the phrase? They have the need to persuade. I shouldn't have. Sorry, man. Oh, you were about to say that too? Hey, you're not alone, man. Paul's about to say it. He revealed himself. Teach? Teach? They have a need to persuade. Does anybody know what that means? Basically what they do is they cake on a certain aspect that they're guilty of, and so they have a need to persuade, so they cake it on to kind of divert your attention away from them. It's called the need to persuade, is that they fixate on one thing, and it's just like, uh, uh. Now, here's the thing. I'm fixating on this doctrine right now because I'm trying to persuade you. But I'm talking about when people talk about specific doctrines or, you know, we had a guy here who just fixated on what? The Jews. Now, look, I'm anti-Zionist. I'm replacement theology as the day is long. If I could, I'd get it tatted on my back. I'm just kidding. I'm all about replacement theology. It's in the Bible. But good night. I mean, do we need to talk about it? Does every conversation need to go back to, it's the Jews. Now, we'll joke about that, but this guy was serious, right? You guys remember that? Everything was about, it's like we had some issue, and he's like, do you think the government is paying the Jews to do this? I'm like, what are you talking about? Look, the Jews are wicked. Okay? But good night. Not everything goes back to the Jews. Now, to a certain extent, yes, it does. Right? I get that. But I'm talking about like, man, I got sick because I ate McDonald's yesterday. It's the Jews. It's like everything went back to the Jews. They're fixated on that, and they have a need to persuade. And let me say this. Anybody who starts fixating on the reprobate doctrine or on fags in our church, and that's all you can talk about, I'm going to mark you. I'm going to keep an eye on you because it seems you have a need to persuade. Let's be balanced in what we talk about. Now, look, if Cameron Giovanelli comes up in the conversation, reprobate doctrine all the way. That's the thing that associates him with that, you know? He's a homo. But it's just like, if we're talking about creation, it's just a need to persuade. You know, when you can only say sibileth, it just shows something. And I'm not going to finish the rest of the chapter. Verses 7 through 15 basically highlights three more judges. Not very prominent, there's not a whole lot of details that's said about them other than their offspring, so we're going to skip them today because there's not much that we can say about that. But hey, verses 1 through 7 was just packed, amen? A lot of good truths there, and let's apply that. Let's be dependable. Let's be reliable. Let's be an asset, and let's fill our hearts with the right type of things so the right type of things come out. Amen? Let's pray our heads in our word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the book of Judges and all the principles filled there in. The Bible's so rich, and I pray that you'd help us, Lord, all to be dependable, to be reliable, help us to be assets in our church, help us to be team players, and not be complainers, not be murmurs. Also help us, Lord, to fill our hearts with the right type of things. And of course, we need to fill our hearts with the word of God, but also fill our hearts with productivity and intelligence and knowledge and things that would just make us better people. And I pray, God, that you'd help us to do so and help us to continue to go forward as a church to see a lot of people saved. May your hand be upon us. In Jesus' name, amen.