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Higher ground, for lift me up and let me stand By faith on heaven's table and A higher plain than I have found For plant my feet on higher ground My heart has no desire to stay Higher ground, for lift me up and let me stand By faith on heaven's table and A higher plain than I have found For plant my feet on higher ground I want to live above the world Though Satan's darts at me are hurled For faith has caught the joyful sound The song of saints on higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand By faith on heaven's table and A higher plain than I have found For plant my feet on higher ground I want to sail the utmost heights And catch a gleam of glory bright But still I'll pray till heaven I've found Lord, lead me onto higher ground For lift me up and let me stand By faith on heaven's table and A higher plain than I have found For plant my feet on higher ground Song number 245, the old account was settled Song number 245, the old account was settled On that first verse There was a time on earth within the book of heaven An old account was standing for sins and unforgiving My name was at the top and many things were loaned I went unto the keeper and settled long ago, long ago, long ago Yes, the old account was settled long ago, hallelujah And the rapture stayed today for I washed my sins away And the old account was settled long ago Now, before we sing that second, I know it's later in the day on Sunday night, but I want to hear everybody say hallelujah on that chorus, all right, on that second verse The old account was large and growing every day For I was always sitting and never trying to pay But when I looked ahead and saw such pain and woe I said that I was settled, I settled long ago, long ago, long ago Yes, the old account was settled long ago, hallelujah And the rapture stayed today for I washed my sins away And the old account was settled long ago When in that happy home I'll sing redemption story and praise Him for His love I'll not forget that book with pages wide as snow Because I came and settled, I settled long ago, long ago, long ago Yes, the old account was settled long ago, hallelujah And the rapture stayed today for I washed my sins away And the old account was settled long ago, the last Oh, sin or trust the Lord, be cleansed of all your sin For thus He hath provided for you to enter in And then if you should live a hundred years below Up there you'll not regret it You settled long ago, long ago, long ago Yes, the old account was settled long ago, hallelujah And the rapture stayed today for I washed my sins away And the old account was settled long ago Great singing. Great singing, everyone. Good evening. Welcome to First Words About This Church. Just a few announcements before we sing our next song, which will be Until Then. And I believe that there's a handout for that there. We would like to welcome you to a Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. So when the teams or times are there below, continue to pray for the expecting mothers for some events. Tonight, we'll be having a homeschool craft meetup after the p.m. service. If you have questions, you can reach out to Miss Sarah Mejia. Tijuana's mission trip will be Saturday, March 29th, meeting at the building at 915. If you have any questions or you'd like to participate, please go on and reach out to Brother Hernandez. Ladies prayer breakfast will be Saturday, April 5th at the building at 10 a.m. Our Easter service, we're having a big push to get as many people as we can. Invite your friends, your neighbors, that guy down the alley, anybody. Invite. I'm talking about that. And just invite people to always for our Easter service, it'll be Sunday, April 20th. There is a breakfast that that's going to that we're going to have. It's at nine forty five. There's a sign up sheet in the back. The food drop off will be at nine thirty to nine forty and we'll start eating at nine forty five. Science meetup will be Sunday, April 27th after the evening service. Please silence your phones and not be a disturbance to the service. That's it for the announcements. And please grab your grab your song sheet to until then. Song sheet until then. Until then. Your hand out on the first verse. Is not my final. But until then, my heart will go on singing. Until then, with joy, I'll carry on until the day my eyes behold the city until that day. God calls me home. The things of Earth will dim and lose their value. If we recall, they're borrowed for a while and things of Earth that cause the heart to tremble. Remember. Please bring us. But until then, my heart will go on singing until then, with joy, I'll carry on until the day my eyes behold the city. Until that day. God calls me on the place of city. I know we're all going to be glad to see the Savior. So we're placed down the final chorus. Last verse. But until then, my heart will go on singing. Until then, with joy, I'll carry on until the day my eyes behold the Savior. God calls me home. Great singing. As the ushers come forward for the offering, please turn your Bibles to Judges Chapter 8. Judges Chapter 8. Good evening. Tonight we're in Judges Chapter 8. Judges 8, the Bible reads. And Gideon came to Jordan and passed over, he and the 300 men that were with him faint, yet pursuing them. And he said unto the men of Sukkoth, give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me, for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zeba and Zalmana, kings of Midian. And the princes of Sukkoth said, are the hands of Zeba and Zalmana now in thine hand that we should give bread unto thine army? And Gideon said, therefore, when the Lord hath delivered Zeba and Zalmana into mine hand, then will I tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars. And he went up thence to Penuel, and spake unto them likewise, and the men of Penuel answered him, as the men of Sukkoth had answered him. And he spake also unto the men of Penuel, saying, when I come again in peace, I will break down this tower. Now Zeba and Zalmana were in Karkar, and their hosts with them about 15,000 men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east, for there fell in 120,000 men that drew sword. And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Noba at Jogbeha, and smote the host, for the host was secure. And when Zeba and Zalmana fled, he pursued after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zeba and Zalmana, and discomfited all the hosts. And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle before the sun was up, and caught a young man of the men of Sukkoth, and inquired of him, and he described unto him the princes of Sukkoth, and the elders thereof, even threescore and seventeen men. And he came unto the men of Sukkoth, and said, Behold Zeba and Zalmana, with whom ye did abrade me, saying, Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmana now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary? And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness, and briars, and with them he taught the men of Sukkoth. And he beat down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city. Then said he unto Zeba and Zalmana, What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they. Each one remembered the children of a king. And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother. As the Lord liveth, if ye have saved them alive, I would not slay you. And he said unto Jethur, his firstborn, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword, for he feared because he was yet a youth. Then Zeba and Zalmana said, Rise thou, and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose, and slew Zeba and Zalmana, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks. And the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also, for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you. And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings of his prey, for they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites. They answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey. And the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks. And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah. And all Israel went thither in a whoring after it, which thing became a snare unto Gideon and to his house. Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon. And Jerubel, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own house. And Gideon had three score and ten sons of his body begotten, for he had many wives. And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son whose name he called Abimelech. And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulcher of Joash's father, in Ophrah of the Abiezorites. And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Balaam, and after Baal-bereth their god. And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side. Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubel, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, just thank you for this time we have to come together and hear the preaching of your word, Lord. Please bless Pastor and fill him with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches unto us your word, Lord. And just give us and the congregations ears to hear, and that we take away these truths from your word, Lord, tonight. And we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, we are in Judges chapter 8 this evening. Look down at verse 30. It says, And Gideon had three score and ten sons of his body begotten, for he had many wives. And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son whose name he called Abimelech. And the title of my sermon this evening is The Tyranny of Abimelech. The Tyranny of Abimelech. We're going to talk about the biblical character Abimelech this evening. We're going to go through Chapter 9 and just look at some of the exploits that he did, his tyranny towards the Children of Israel. And tonight I also want to draw some parallels between him and the Antichrist. There's a lot of things that I saw just in Chapter 9 that reflects the coming Antichrist that I want to draw attention to. And if that doesn't interest you, don't worry. We're going to have a bunch of principles that we're going to go over regarding the life of Abimelech that you can apply to yourself. And so you can ignore the other stuff if that doesn't really interest you. Now let me give you a couple of things by way of introduction before we get into Abimelech. And let's just talk about the Book of Judges in general. We have the Book of Judges that essentially refers to the system of the Judges. Now what is that? Well, when the Children of Israel go into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, of course Joshua distributes the inheritance to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, different portions of land that they received. And of course during this time, they're still under what we would call a theocracy, meaning that they didn't have an earthly king reigning over them. God was their king, right? He's the one who's ruling over them. He is the one who's sanctioning and giving permission and protecting them and ruling over them. And that was the system that they were under. Now after Joshua, though, the nation essentially goes into decay. And the reason they go into decay is because of the fact that they start worshipping false gods. So once a leader passes off the scene, the natural course of the nation is that they forsake the Lord their God, and they end up worshipping false gods. This is essentially the vicious cycle that we see in the Book of Judges. And in fact, in Chapter 2, you see that once Joshua dies, they begin to worship Baal, and then God ends up delivering the nation into the hands of the oppressor for decades, depending on who it is or what they did. And after that time, the children of Israel would cry unto the Lord for deliverance. God would raise up a judge who essentially operates as a military general. He would essentially destroy the oppressors, deliver the children of Israel out of the hands of the oppressors, and then they would worship God again. So this would happen over and over again. So you would have, for example, judges such as Ehud, one of my favorite judges, because he's left-handed just as I am. And he essentially destroys, he kills, Eglon, right? He essentially pierces him through with a dagger, and he delivers the children of Israel out of the hands of the Moabites, and they live happily ever after until he dies. And then the children of Israel are like, oh, when the cat's away, the mice come out to play. So once that leader dies, they're like, well, we're going to start worshipping Baal again. And this is essentially the cycle that we see over and over again for literally 12 judges. Because the Book of Judges essentially highlights 12 different judges broken up into minor and major judges. Major being that they're the judges that the Bible really talks extensively about, like Samson. You've got Samuel, who's also a judge. Of course, Gideon, as we see here. And so that is essentially the course of things. Now, what is the Book of Judges really teaching us throughout this time? It's teaching us that no system will ever work this side of eternity. Because at the end of the day, the problem isn't systems. The problem isn't an absent or the presence of a king or of a ruler. The problem is sin. Because even under a theocracy where God is ruling over them, they're in a nation where the statutes of the Lord are being exalted. I mean, they're the nation from which salvation comes from. They're still behaving wickedly. They're still worshipping false gods. They're still doing abominations. And in fact, just read Judges 19 for the proof of that, right? Where there is just grievous crimes of sodomy and rape taking place in Judges 19. And one of the major themes of the Book of Judges is that every man is doing that which is right in their own eyes. In spite of the fact that they have God miraculously delivering them, providing miracles, great leadership. They have the Word of God. But yet, when the authority isn't present, every man does that which is right in their own eyes. And so, what do we learn from that? What we can learn from the Book of Judges is that no system is perfect. And we need to look forward to the millennial reign of Christ, or more specifically, the new heaven and the new earth, where sin is just completely taken out of the picture. Satan is not even in the picture, right? Death is no longer in the picture. You say, are you sure that no system is perfect? Well, think about this, the millennial reign has Jesus Christ ruling and reigning physically on this earth, but people are still sinning against the Lord, right? And even towards the latter end of that millennia, what happens? You have Satan gathering all the people from the ends of the world for the battle of Gog and Magog to fight against God. That's obviously showing you that the problem isn't the leader because you have Jesus Christ who's the greatest leader. And yet, in spite of that, people still do wrong. Why? Because it's a sin problem. So Judges really emphasizes the fact that the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. What does it mean to be desperately wicked? It's like they just can't wait for an opportunity to do wrong, right? Oh, the leader's gone, the judge is gone? All right, let's go back to our old ways, worship Baal, Ashtaroth, all these false gods. Then God has to chastise them, the cycle continues. So here in this particular story, in chapter 8, you have Gideon, right? And, of course, Gideon is the person, the judge, who is essentially the legitimate, original OG of the 300. Okay, we're just talking about it before the service. You know, the Spartan 300 was a fallacy, okay? That's phony, they kind of beef up the numbers a little bit in that story, whereas Gideon actually has only 300. And, of course, they have God before us who could be against us, God ends up fighting on their behalf. And Gideon's a great leader, he's a great judge, he does great exploits. And, in fact, he's so good that once the battle is over and he delivers the children of Israel out of the hand of the oppressor, the people want Gideon to be their king. But there's not supposed to be a king at this time, right? Of course, we know that later on children of Israel ask for a king, they want to be like all the other nations, Saul comes into the picture, but prior to that, God only wants judges under his jurisdiction, he's ruling over the people, but yet they want Gideon to be a king, he refuses. And then, of course, we see what takes place later on and we'll get into it. Look at verse 32. Brother Ruby, you could turn that off. Kick it back on at about 35, 40 minutes, about an hour, depending on how long the sermon is. Look at verse 32. So, literally, as soon as he dies, they start going back to idolatry. And keep in mind that another name for Gideon is what? Jerubel. And it's a nickname essentially that was given to Gideon that essentially means that he's casting down Baal because he's going, he's taking the statue, the idol of his father, and he's throwing it down, you know, and so they nicknamed him Jerubel. He's the one who's casting down that false god. But yet he passes off the scene, they start worshiping false gods once again. Now, tonight, we're going to specifically highlight one of his sons. He has 70 sons who are one of many wives, should I say. But then he has another son of a concubine, which is Abimelech. And really, Abimelech is what we would and what the Bible would consider to be a byword and a proverb. What's a byword and a proverb? It's like you screw up so bad that you end up being the illustration for generations to come of what not to do. Right? That's just putting it raw. And Abimelech is literally an illustration of what not to do. And in fact, you don't have to turn there. Let me read to you from 2 Samuel 11. This is hundreds of years after the fact. During the reign of King David, it says in verse 21, Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubesheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of millstone upon him from the wall that he died in Thebes? Why went ye nigh to the wall? Then say thou the servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So obviously, Abimelech is being used as a military illustration of what not to do, right? He's like, why are you going to go so close to the wall? Don't you remember what happened to Abimelech and how a woman killed him? Now, the irony in that statement is the fact that Abimelech did not want people to remember him as having a woman kill him. Because when the woman cast a stone upon his head, it broke his skull, but he wasn't dead yet. And so he's just like, hey, come stab me real quick, because lest they should say a woman smote Abimelech. Well, here we are in 2 Samuel 11, and that's what they're saying, Abimelech. In fact, here we are, thousands of years later, and we're still saying in Abimelech, a woman killed you. So he wanted to avoid going down in history as being a victim of a woman, destroying him with a stone, and yet, you know, he's the byword in the proverb, sorry, the Holy Spirit was listening, he was penning all this down for us to remember for thousands of years. Okay, so he's a byword in the proverb. Now, let's look at a couple of things regarding him. Go to chapter 9, if you would. And again, I'm going to give some principles regarding his life and his tyranny, but I'm going to relate some of it to the Antichrist. So first and foremost, let's talk about his name, Abimelech. What does Abimelech actually mean? Well, Abimelech means, my father is king. That's literally what the term, the name Abimelech means, my father is king. Now, if you've read chapter 9, which I'm pretty sure over the last couple of days you went through chapter 9, if you're reading through the Bible reading schedule, you've gone through this particular story, unless, you know, you've fallen behind, and hopefully tomorrow you catch up, or tonight. But if you read through the story in chapter 9, you see that, wait a minute, Abimelech, your name is my father is king, but hold on a second, your father is not a king. Gideon's not a king, Gideon's a judge, right? Look at, actually, I had you go to chapter 9, but go back to chapter 8, look at verse 22. Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also, for thou has delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you. Now, by the way, there's this teaching out there that states that, well, the judges are kind of like kings, though. You know, we can view the judges as kings. Well, not according to verse 23, because he's literally saying, I'm not going to rule over you, my kids are not going to rule over you, but that's not at the exclusion of the fact that he is a judge. But he's specifically telling them, I'm not going to be your monarch, I'm not going to rule over you, God is supposed to rule over you, you don't need a king, God is your king. So for Abimelech to be called my father is king is kind of weird, is it not? Because Gideon was not a king, he was a judge. It's almost as if Abimelech is coming in his own name. And the Bible says in John chapter 5, in verse 43, when talking about the Antichrist, I am come in my father's name, and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. And ironically, when you have Abimelech coming to the men of Shechem to promote himself to being king, they're not asking him to be king, he's putting himself in a position to be king, they receive him because he's of their bone, he's of their flesh, and of course his name is my father is king. So essentially saying that he's claiming the inherited right to rule. He's a fraudulent king of Shechem, okay? And by his own name, he is essentially exalting himself. Go to Daniel chapter 11, Daniel chapter 11, and when you go to Daniel chapter 11, just put a bookmark there, we're going to read from it right now, but we're going to reference it a couple times throughout the sermon. Daniel chapter 11, and look at verse 36. And what's interesting about Abimelech also is the fact that he is the son of one of the concubines of Gideon, showing that he's essentially a what? A bastard, okay? He's not a legitimate child, okay? And of course, a bastard, spiritually speaking, is someone who is not of God, right? They're not saved, and so you see that parallel. Look at verse 36 regarding a prophecy of the coming Antichrist. This is immediately talking about Antiochus Epiphanes, but it's also referring to a future Antichrist that's going to come in the future. Don't allow yourself to be influenced by these nonsensical preterists out there. They try to claim as though, oh, it all took place in 70 AD, right? There's no coming Antichrist, you know, that already happened, and there's no rapture, all that stuff took place in 70 AD. Well, that's funny. The last time I checked, the whole world's now wondering after a beast during 70 AD. Maybe the immediate world was, but even then, the last time I checked, the Antichrist didn't receive a deadly wound to the head back in 70 AD, and died and came back, and everyone worshiped the beast. So there's a lot of things that the Bible talks about that has not yet happened. And what do people do with the descriptions of the rapture in the Bible, if that's already happened? The fact that we are changed in the twinkling of an eye, the fact that it says that the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. I don't know if you know this, but we're not physically with the Lord right now. And none of us have been caught up into the clouds. Well, that's figurative of what? Of what? How about this? And let me just get on this for just a little bit, because preterism is a frustrating doctrine, and unfortunately, a lot of people have been into it because of the fact that their eyes are being opened about the Jews and about Zionism, but it's causing them to go to the extreme opposite, to preterism, because they associate the rapture and the resurrection with the false doctrine of the pre-tribulation, rapture, and dispensationalism. So they're looking at something that is a complete contrast to that, which is preterism. But how about this? You know, the millennial reign of Christ. And that's one thing they can't answer, because everything to the preterist is symbolic. Oh, it's symbolic. It's symbolic. Okay, what is a thousand years symbolic of? I don't know. We haven't figured that out yet. You'll never figure that out. You'll be ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of that truth. Look at Daniel 11, verse 36. It says, And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the god of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honor the god of forces, and a god whom his fathers knew not, shall he honor with gold and silver and precious stones and pleasant things. Now, Abimelech is essentially someone who's exalting himself to place himself in a position of authority. And in fact, we see that he's financed by the gold and the silver from a false god. So he's actually honoring false gods, and he's not honoring the god of his father, Gideon, which is the god of the Bible, right? We see those parallels there. Now, this is literally referring to the Antichrist, who in the end times, according to the Bible, is going to be a fag. Because it says that he's not going to desire women. You know? That means that he's a homo. He's not going to regard the god of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god. Why? Because he's going to magnify himself above all. Now, a way to describe this is what we see in 2 Thessalonians 2. When talking about the rapture, the resurrection, it says that that day shall not come, except to come a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself to be God. Okay? And this is what the great falling away in the New Testament is referring to. Falling away means apostasy. Now, obviously we see apostasy today, do we not? You know, we see churches teaching crazy stuff, perverted things about salvation, about Jesus Christ, just nonsensical doctrines. But hold on a second, the great falling away, the greatest example of apostasy is when the entire world rejects the god of the Bible, and they worship a man known as the Antichrist, who is essentially calling himself a god. Now, why is he doing that? Well, one of the things he does to give himself credit, or to give himself, you know, that position, is that he actually dies, and he comes back to life. Okay? And we see that in Revelation chapter 13. Now, go back to Judges chapter 9, if you would. So we see, first and foremost, that Abimelech means my father is king. Well, who's your father? Because it's not Gideon. Gideon's not the king. Well, Gideon, you know, had Abimelech with a woman of Shechem, his concubine, essentially showing that he is a bastard child. That's what the Bible literally teaches about that. So he's an illegitimate child. And it's interesting because Job 41 verse 34, when talking about Satan, says, He beholdeth all high things, he is a king over all the children of pride. Right? Referring to Satan being over all the children of those who are prideful, and we see that Abimelech is definitely prideful. Now, what are some applications we could gather from this, aside from the parallels that we see with the Antichrist? Well, you know, we should never feel entitled to something just because it's in our pedigree. Right? He feels entitled to be a king, he feels entitled to be in a position of authority, just because his name is Abimelech, just because his dad was Gideon, just because his name means my father is king. Folks, let me just say this. You don't deserve anything. I don't deserve anything. We should work for the things that we have and be grateful for what we get and never think to ourselves, Well, I deserve this. You know, I'm built different. This is what I deserve. You know, I think that I deserve all the money. I think I deserve the prestige. I think I deserve the authority. I should be behind that pulpit preaching. I should be the one song leading. I should be the team leader. No, you don't deserve those things. None of us deserve anything that we have. And let's just be honest. Let me give you an exaggerated statement, but it is true. If all we got was salvation this side of eternity, that's enough. If all we got was saving the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, if all we got was eternal life, that actually would be enough. Right? Like, anything on top of that is literally a cherry on top. It's just extra. And quite frankly, we obviously know that the Bible promises us more than just salvation. You know, the Bible talks about the love of God, the passeth all knowledge, to know the height, depth, length, breadth, width, and depth, to know the love of Christ, the passeth all knowledge. We know that he blesses us beyond what we deserve. We know that he's gracious to us. The Bible says that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow to it. But here's the thing. You still don't deserve it. And that's why it's called the grace of God. Because grace is getting what we don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. So we should never feel entitled to a particular position, to finances, to prestige, fame, whatever it is that you might think to yourself, I deserve this. Quite frankly, we don't. We can work hard for things. We can pray for things. But at the end of the day, if we don't get it, never have this victim mentality, this entitlement mentality, well, I deserve this because of X, Y, and Z. You know, my pedigree or something like that, you know, says that this is what I deserve. And you know what? This is a problem in our nation today where we have a bunch of Abimelechs in this nation that feel like they're entitled to certain favors just because either the color of their skin or they didn't grow up with mom and dad or they had it rougher in life or whatever it may be and they feel they're entitled to whatever kind of prosperity and success. It doesn't work that way. You know, the Bible tells us that we should work hard for what we have and be thankful for what we have. And you know what? If you don't like your stage in life economically, then go change that. But don't expect for it to be given to you on a silver platter just because of the color of your skin, just because of the way you grew up, just because of the traumatic things that happened in your life. Folks, we all had traumatic things happen in our lives. There's no one in here who hasn't had a traumatic experience, except for the white people maybe. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. We've all had traumatic experiences. We've all had hardships. We've all gone through afflictions. We've all gone through tribulation. And, you know, we should never have this attitude. And by the way, let's say you've never had a trial tribulation but your previous generation did, that doesn't mean that you're entitled to success just because your previous generation suffered and you didn't. Oh, you know, this is my ancestor's land. Are you the ancestor, though? You didn't suffer for this. You know, it's just like, yeah, but, you know, my ancestor's this and my forefathers, you weren't them, though. I cannot take credit or have anything just because of the successes of my father and my mother. I need to pave my own way, create my own success, work hard for what I have. That's how the world works, my friends. And look, let me tell you what happens when things are handed to you on a silver platter. You become a spoiled brat. Let me give you a biblical example of this Solomon. Solomon's cool, I get it. You know, the wisest man that ever lived. The guy was an awesome king. You know, he wrote the book of Proverbs, you know, the majority of them, the book of Ecclesiastes, the songs of Solomon. I mean, the man was very talented, but let's just be honest, though, the kingdom was kind of just given to him on a silver platter. And in fact, he didn't have to earn anything that he had because in his day there was no wars. David fought all the wars. David was the man of war. David was like, you know, David. But his son Solomon didn't have to fight for that. And what happened when he didn't have to struggle? What happened when he didn't have to go through afflictions and trials and tribulations? He allowed his heart to go after covetousness. He ended up marrying 700 wives. And I can't remember how many concubines. 300 concubines, 700 wives. You got some time on your hands there, Solomon? Got himself a zoo? You got apes? He literally says that everything he set his eyes upon he just took. He's like, what kind of animal is that? I don't know, but I want it. Let me get that. And he's collecting wives like he's collecting beanie babies and stuff. He goes through, and it's not like he's conquering lands either. He's just kind of visiting. He's just like, I'll take five of those. I'll take two of those. Like he's ordering from a menu or something. And you know, guys say they might look at him and be like, well, I don't know, man. That sounds pretty good to me. That's a pretty good deal. Yeah, let's look at how Solomon ended his life, though. And the fact that pagan women ended up driving his heart away from serving the Lord. And after Solomon, the kingdom was split in two. Why? Because he never struggled. He was a little soft. The point that I'm making here is that, you know, Abimelech don't have this Abimelech mentality. Well, you know, my father and by the way, like my kids, for example, they cannot use the fact that I'm a preacher to their advantage and, you know, use it as a means to gain a position in a church or something like that. They need to work hard for it, too. Now, they're given a goodly heritage. Their daddy's a preacher. Their mom is a preacher's daughter. Their uncles are preachers. Their grandfather's a pastor. I mean, they have a rich heritage, right? But that doesn't mean that they are not to work hard for it. We don't want to raise Solomons. OK? We need to make sure that they work for what they have. And you think of, like, the Apostle Paul, and I know we haven't even started on the chapter yet, but you think of the Apostle Paul. You know, Apostle Paul had a pedigree. He was a Benjamin. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisee. He was zealous of the law. But what did he say? He counted it all, but what? Dung. That is Greek for crap. Meaning he's just like, that means nothing to me. Why? Because he's following after Christ. So he wasn't like, hey, by the way, you know, you know I'm a Pharisee, right? Like, you know, I know a lot, right? That was me. He's out there preaching Christ and him crucified. And he's earning his. Why? Because he said, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and I labored more abundantly than they all. He didn't say, you know, because I'm a Pharisee, I labored more abundantly than they all. He said, by the grace of God, I labored more than they all. Look at verse number one. So we see that Abimelech means my father is king. Hold on a second. Your father is not a king. Your father is a judge. You're coming in your own name, exalting yourself to be in that position of king. Look at verse one. We see that he seizes the kingdom. And Abimelech, the son of Jerubel, went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren and communed with them and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying, Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, whether it is better for you either that all the sons of Jerubel, which are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you, remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. So what's going on here? Well, Abimelech is saying he's going to the men of Shechem and he's just like, hey, there's a problem. There's no king. So you gotta choose. You know, do you really want 70 sons of Gideon to rule over you? Or should me just one rule over you? Well, first of all, there was no problem to begin with. What do you mean? This is what's called the Hegelian dialectic, where someone creates a problem in order to be the solution. So he's creating this problem like, hey, there's no leadership. Abimelech, there's not supposed to be a king. We're just waiting for the next judge to come. The God is going to raise up. It's not a judge that's putting himself in a position of authority. God is raising him up. And he's kind of exaggerating here, is he not? Because he's saying like, do you really want 70 people to rule over you? Or one? And by the way, I'm your flesh and your bone too, by the way. What is he doing? He's perverting judgment. He's seizing the kingdom by flatteries. Because he's saying, you know, I'm of Shechem too. I'm your bone and your flesh. So don't let that, you know, help you in your decision of who to choose, but just remember, you know, I'm one of you guys is what he's doing there. What is he doing? He's obtaining the kingdom by flatteries. Look at Daniel 11 and verse 20 regarding the Antichrist. It says in verse 20, Then shall stand up in his estate a razor of taxes and the glory of the kingdom, but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle. And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. So what do we see with the Antichrist? According to this prophecy, he's not going to come and seize the kingdom by force. He's actually coming in peaceably and he's obtaining it by flatteries. This is how he establishes the covenant at the beginning of Daniel's 70th week. Well, what is Abimelech doing? He's obtaining the kingdom peaceably and by flatteries. He says in verse 22, And with the arms of a flood they shall be overflown from before him, and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small people. Well, what is Abimelech doing? He's becoming the king with a very small people, and in fact so small, it's just the men of Shechem that are essentially strengthening Abimelech to become the king. And let me just say this, he's not even the king of Israel. He's just the king of what? Shechem. It's just like a small little portion. So he's becoming strong with a small people. He's coming in peaceably, taking it with flatteries, but he's also using the flood of armies to overtake his opposition. Now, what's an application we gather from this? Abimelech is self-willed. And just as we saw in the first point, he is essentially putting himself in a position of authority. He's making himself be the king. No one's asking him to be king. God didn't put him in a position to be king. He's making himself become king. Now, why is this important? Well, you know, in the New Testament, God speaks against being self-willed. Right? And especially when it comes to pastors. The Bible tells us you don't have to turn there in Titus 1.7, it says, For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. What does it mean to be self-willed? It means that you manipulate situations to essentially put yourself in a position of authority. You're willing yourself to do that. You see, God wants us, God wants pastors to start churches. He wants pastors to preach the word of God. But he wants them to do it the right way. Not through deceit, not through flattery, not by flexing their position in the appropriate manner. And I don't want to discourage anybody from becoming a pastor, by the way. You know, because the Bible says, If any man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. If you have a desire to be a pastor, and you meet the qualifications, just be a servant, be a blessing in your church, and let God magnify you. You don't have to magnify yourself. And we have an issue today with churches where you have people magnifying themselves in order to become pastors. I mean, years ago, this is years ago, many of you probably don't even know this person, there's a situation in a different church where this guy was the evangelist of that church plant, and then another pastor ended up taking over those particular churches, including the one that he was over, and he didn't like that. And he sought to essentially seize position in that church to become the official pastor, and he essentially hijacked that church from the actual official pastor of the church. This is a person who self-willed. Rather than just be like, Hey, you're the new boss, you let me know how I can be a blessing throughout this tumultuous time. Just, I'm here to serve. What do you need me to do? And look, when we started this church back in 2017, I wasn't the one who started it, I was the boots on the ground, but there was another pastor who was in charge. He was the official pastor, and I specifically told him, Look, I want to be a pastor one day, but at the end of the day, I don't really care. I just want to help you. I want to serve here. I'll preach. I'll do whatever it is you want me to do. And if you feel like you don't want me to be the pastor here, I'm fine with that as long as I get to serve. Whatever it is that you want. Why? Because I don't want to be a self-willed person. He said, Why not? I'll tell you why, because then God will judge me. And it goes against God's will to do so. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth. And look, if you want to be a team leader in our church, for example, don't exalt yourself. Let others exalt you. Let God magnify you. Let God recognize your exploits. Let God cause others to recognize the things that you've done to recognize your works in order to promote you to being a leader or something like that. Don't put yourself in a position of authority. Don't be a self-willed person. Let me just say this. Being self-willed is actually an attribute of a reprobate. Because it says in 2 Peter 2.10, But chiefly them that walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness despise government. Presumptuous are they. Self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. So often the self-willed person exalts themselves as they put other people down, as they put the leader down. Why? Because at the end of the day, they despise their own government. They despise their own leaders. Go back to Judges chapter 9 and look at verse number 3. So he obtains the kingdom by flatteries. They end up promoting him. He seizes upon this position of being a king. Look at verse 3. We see also that he ends up murdering the opposition. Verse 3 says, And his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem, all these words, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother. Not that he's qualified. Not that he has good leadership. Not that he's done great exploits. He's our brother. And they gave him three score and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Belbereth, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons which followed him. Now before I get into the actual point, let me just point out the fact that what does Abimelech do with the money that is given to him? He buys his followers. Right? He goes on his Instagram and he gets a bot or whatever and he purchases just a bunch of followers. Right? Why? Because he can't really get followers on his own. He can't really get anybody to follow him. So he has to buy these followers. And what happens when you purchase followers? Those followers end up being vain and light people. Meaning they're not people of substance. Okay? We want to be people of substance. And we want people to follow us to be people of substance. Right? Now it's funny because recently I've been posting a lot on Instagram, making a lot of videos about the Jews. And about Israel and about the Jews and whatnot. And there's a ton of people who are just loving the content. And they're just like, I've never heard this before. This is great. And I'm thinking this is like another day in the office for us at First Works Methodist Church. I'm thinking to myself, my church members don't even follow me on my Instagram because this is just boring to them. They've just already heard it. They don't even like it. They're just like, oh, it's pastor. This is from Sunday sermon. They just share whatever. They just share the video just to be supportive. You know what I mean? And I guarantee you, most of them haven't watched the video all the way through, but they're in there arguing with other people in the comment section. Which, keep at it. But I remember someone messaged me and they're like, oh, yeah, this is what happens when you buy your followers. You just get a ton of followers overnight and you're just purchasing your followers. And I'm thinking to myself, first of all, I don't even know how to buy followers. I know it's possible. But secondly, just look at the comment section. You'll see that a lot of them are not bought, because some of them don't even agree with what I'm talking about. I mean, folks, there's people in my DMs just cursing me out. They're angry. They're upset. You think I'd pay for that? They're just like, bro, I gave you this much money. You're over here cursing me out. Do your job. You had one job and you're attacking. These people are legitimately following because of the content, but let me just be honest with you. The majority of them don't agree with the majority of what we believe here at this church. So don't let the numbers fool you. You can have 100,000 people watch a video, but I guarantee you 99% of those people don't agree with 100% of what we preach here. You say, well, how do you know? Because 99% of them are Catholics. How about that? And Catholics message me and they're just like, brother! I'm just like, whoa. And they're like, we love you. We're praying for you. And I'm thinking to myself, keep scrolling and you won't love me anymore. Because last year I had an entire series against Catholics. And I'm thinking to myself, you don't know what I really truly believe about you. I'm just on the Jews right now. And so the point that I'm making here is that as a leader, we want people of substance to follow. 15,000 on your social media platform doesn't really mean much because you're not really interacting with those people. You know what the substance followers are, are the ones in here. The 170 on Sunday morning, those are people of substance. So how do you know? Because they actually got out of bed on Sunday morning and drove themselves and got dressed, brushed their teeth, brought a Bible, and they came to listen to me scream at them for an entire hour. Sometimes under cold conditions. But why is that? Because the people in our church are people of substance. They believe the word of God. They want to serve the Lord. They esteem the words of God. Whereas vain and light people don't. And let me just say this, is that not every church is filled with people of substance. Folks, there's tons of churches out there, what we would call the liberal fund centers, the football stadiums filled with church members, Joe Olsteen type churches who are filled with vain and light members. Meaning they're there because of the music, the smoke in the mirrors, the purple lights. They're not there for the word of God. And quite frankly, not much of the word of God is being preached there anyways. This is why you could probably go to one of those churches and ask 20 different people what they believe about salvation and you'll get 20 different answers. Whereas I promise you, I promise you, you come on a Sunday morning to our church, talk to 20 different people, ask them what they believe about salvation, you will get consistently the same answer every single time. The only difference would be if you're talking to a visitor who's not even saved. But you talk to me, you talk to the leaders, you talk to the teenagers in our church. They will give you the right answer. Why? Because we don't have vain and light people in our church. We want our people to be saturated with the word of God, with doctrine. We want people to follow who are of substance. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 16, Wherefore, I beseech you, be followers of me. He also says in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1, Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. So we never want to take this attitude of like, Well, you know, I only follow Jesus. I don't follow any man. That's a contradiction. I only follow Jesus. I don't follow man. Well, Jesus said to follow a man. So apparently you don't follow Jesus enough. You didn't follow him to the passages that commands you to follow a man. Because the Bible says that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. So he's literally saying that he gave gifts to all men and who are the gifts? They're the men that you should be following. Now, we don't want blind followers either. Or it's just like, we'll just follow you off the edge of a cliff and don't matter what happens, we're just going to follow you to the ends of the earth. That's not the type of following that we see. God doesn't want you to follow someone into a ditch. Okay? You follow someone as they follow Christ. So as long as the pastor's following Christ, and of course I'm following Jesus, yes. You know, I'm reading the word of God. I'm serving Christ. You know, as long as a person's following Christ, you should follow them. Your team leader's following Christ, you should follow them. Follow their lead. Okay? He says in verse 5, And he went into his father's house at Ophrah, and I want you to notice this extremely wicked deed that he does here, and slew his brethren, the sons of Jerabail, being three score and ten persons upon one stone. Now what's then he had jot them the young son of Jerabail was left, for he hid himself. So what does he do? As soon as he becomes king, as soon as he's sanctioned to be the monarch of Shechem, what does he do? He murders the opposition. His brothers. Seventy brothers upon a stone. Okay? Now, poetic justice, by the way. Think about that for later on. So he's not leading through inspiration, through just effort and, you know, winning wars. What is he doing? He's destroying the opposition so that no one can essentially oppose him, challenge him, so that his brothers don't take his position. He's like, I'll just kill all seventy, and then no one can be the king. Okay? Now what is this, uh, how does this picture the Antichrist? Well, how about the fact that the Antichrist will make war with the saints and overcome them? He goes to war with the remnant, the remnant referring to believers, right? The Bible says that he makes war with the saints, that he overcomes them. Revelation chapter 6 says that he saw unto the altar the souls of them who were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. Why did Abimelech kill the sons? Because they were sons of Gideon. He didn't kill anybody else. I mean, he sought to destroy Jotham. And why was Jotham spared? Why was he able to escape? Well, we'll see in just a little bit. He's actually preaching against Abimelech and against the men of Shechem. Okay? Look at verse 6. So, he slew all these 70 brothers, and then Jotham, the one who escaped, he preaches this parable. And it's actually a pretty funny parable when you think about it. Okay? Because, look what it says in verse 6, it says, And all the men of Shechem gathered together in all the house of Milo, and went and made Abimelech king by the plan of the pillar that was in Shechem. And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice and cried and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. This is the parable. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the olive tree, Rain thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewithby me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the tree said to the fig tree, Come down, rain over us. But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, Come down, rain over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which sheareth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou and rain over us. So what is he saying? He goes to the men of Shechem, and he said, Notice that you didn't get a good leader, you got the bottom of the barrel. Because what is bramble? Bramble are briars and thorns. What is a briar and a thorn figurative in the Bible? A reprobate. The worst possible leader that you can get. It's just like, they couldn't get the fig tree, they couldn't get the one that produced wine, they couldn't get any tree of any substance, you had to go to the worst baser sort type of leader to rain over you, the bramble. Now look what it says in verse 15, And the bramble, signifying who? Abimelech, said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow. And if not, listen to this, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon, the Bible says. Now what do we see in the end times when it comes to the Antichrist? Well, the Bible says that he sets up the abomination of desolation, the false prophet comes and they call fire down from heaven to anybody who doesn't place their trust in the shadow of the bramble, also known as the Antichrist. So we see those parallels there. Look at verse 19. Since if ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerabail, this is Jotham speaking, and with this house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Milo, and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from the house of Milo and devour Abimelech. And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer, and dwelt there for fear of Abimelech his brother. And by the way, of course, Jotham pictures the saint who's in the end times running from the abomination known as Abimelech, the abomination of desolation. And why is he staying alive? Because he's actually preaching. You know, you want to stay alive in the end times, you better make sure you're preaching the Gospel and preaching the Word of God. Don't go into some bunker. Don't escape to the hills. Well, you know, I'm a prepper. You know, I got beans. I got lentils. I got food for weeks. I got water for weeks. Thank you is what I'm going to tell you, because you're going to go off the scene and God's going to provide that for me since I'm preaching the Gospel. And even if he doesn't, he's going to do what he did to Elijah and allow a raven to feed him. You know, we don't want to have this attitude that when the end times come, if it comes in our lifetime, that we just go in a corner and hide ourselves until it all just passes over, until the Lord comes back. You know, the wicked flee when no man pursueth. And you know what? It's going to be the greatest time on the face of the planet. It's a time to preach the Gospel, to get people saved. And you know what? If they kill you and they kill me, well, at least we go out in style. What a great way to go out serving the Lord. But I believe he will keep alive those who are, like Jotham, willing to preach against the bramble. Against Abimelech. OK? Let me read to you from Micah chapter 7 and verse 1 through the lens of Judges 9. It says, Woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the great gleanings of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first striped fruit. The good man has perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother with a net, that they may do evil with both hands earnestly. The prince asketh and the judge asketh for reward, and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire. So they wrap it up, and I want you to notice this. The best of them is as a briar. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of the watchman and thy visitation cometh, now shall be their perplexity. So what is he saying? You know, the best leader you got is a reprobate. It's the best you got. He says the most upright one is as a thorn hedge. And this is why I don't vote. Why? Because the best of them is as a briar. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. I think it works, though. Well, really, because in the end times, they're going to be electing the Antichrist. And he is the biggest thorn. He is the biggest bramble. Look what it goes on to say in verse 22. We're almost done here. So what do we see here? We see that Abimelech takes the kingdom by flatteries. He slaughters his brethren. We see the prophecy of him calling fire down to the consumed who oppose him, as we see in the end times. And then we also see that he ends up turning on Shechem. So the very people that helped him get into power, he actually turns against them. Look at verse 22. When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel, by the way, three years, then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech. So now there's this civil war between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. Now, how does that picture end times in the Antichrist? Well, according to the Bible, the Antichrist becomes powerful with a very small people. And this is why I believe the Antichrist will be a Jew. And that should be a not controversial point at all. And for people to deny that and be like, Oh, sounds kind of weird, sounds kind of blasphemous, you know. Well, here's the thing is the Jews are expecting a Messiah. And by the way, their Messiah is not a divine Messiah. There's nothing divine about their end times Messiah. He's actually a political leader who's going to win wars for them. And if they're waiting for a Messiah, and the major narrative that's being pushed through the Republican Party and fundamental Baptist churches, conservative churches, is that Islam is the Antichrist and the Jews are God's chosen people, then obviously, and by the way, it's being pushed by churches that don't know the Bible. You know, why is that narrative always being pushed? Now look, I'm not for Islam. I'm against Islam. I'm against Mohammed and the Quran. People who believe in Islam will go to hell. They need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And obviously, the religion as a whole is Antichrist, yes. But here's the thing. As a Baptist, though, I've heard this time and time again that the Antichrist is going to be a Muslim, the imam. That's what's going to happen. And it's just like this constant narrative that's being pushed out there, constant narrative. And you know, you can say like, alright, you know, the imam is an Antichrist, for sure. But can we really say he's the Antichrist? Because who is Satan really trying to deceive? Obviously, he's trying to deceive the whole world. But what group of people is he trying to deceive the most? Christians who think that they're saved. Right? And what is the common theme amongst churches regarding the Jews? Is that they're God's chosen people. We ought to bless Israel. Okay? It doesn't matter how many war crimes they've done. Bolshevik, I don't want to hear about it. You know, no matter what took place, they're still God's chosen people. And folks, this is why Zionism and the pre-tribulation rapture go hand in hand. Because the pre-tribulation rapture teaches the immanency of Christ, which means that he can come at any moment. But let me just remind you, according to Bible prophecy, the only one who's coming at any moment is the Antichrist. And according to Revelation chapter 6, he's not coming, per se, from heaven. He's just coming on a white horse just as Jesus Christ comes in Revelation chapter 19. He's an imposter. He's an impersonator. And the Bible says that he's given a crown, like Abimelech, and he's going forth what? Conquering and to conquer. Which is exactly what the Jews want. And so, you know, to think that the Antichrist is not going to be Jewish is outlandish, in my opinion. Now, here's another reason why I believe that the Antichrist is Jewish. And by the way, when I say Jewish, I don't really care if I mean Jewish ethnically or religiously. It doesn't really matter to me. If you just claim the Jewish, you know what I mean? Whatever. If he's ethnically Jewish, doesn't really matter. If he's religiously Jewish, doesn't really matter. I just believe he's going to be Jewish, one or the other. But we see that they're waiting for their Messiah. They're going to help him be promoted to become the ruler of this world. But according to Luke chapter 21, he ends up turning on them. Why? Because once he proclaims himself to be God, according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the Jews aren't going to be fine with that. Why? Because they don't want a divine leader. They want a political ruler. Well, once he steps out of the boundaries of being that political leader to becoming deity, they're not cool with that. Now, look at Luke chapter 21, if you would. Luke chapter 21. And by the way, let me just remind you that the Bible tells us who is a liar, but he that denieth the Jesus is the Christ, he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. And you know, there's no group of people more guilty of that than the Jews in Israel. They deny that Jesus is the Christ. And the Bible says that they're liars because of it. And specifically it says that they're Antichrists. And this is why later on it says, little children, it is the last time. As you know that Antichrist shall come, even so now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. So yeah, do Antichrists exist now? Of course. But according to the Bible, there's one that's going to come in the future. And again, he's one that denies the Christ. And by the way, Antichrist, what does Antichrist even mean? Antichrist means in the place of Christ. So he's coming as a Christ. An imam is not going to come claiming to be Jesus. Hello? The imam is not going to say, you know, he's Jesus, he's Jesus Christ. No, the Bible says that whoever comes as the Antichrist will proclaim himself to be like the God of the Bible. Look at Luke 21, verse 20, referring to the tribulation here. It says, When ye shall see Jerusalem come past with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter there into. For these be, I want you to notice this, the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. So according to the Bible, there's going to be a time that's called the times of the Gentiles, where the Antichrist armies will come past Jerusalem for forty and two months. And God specifically calls this the days of vengeance upon this people. Who are this people? The people who are in Jerusalem. So the very people that the Antichrist used to get into power, he's turning on them thereafter. He's going to come past their city, you know, with armies, and he's going to end up destroying them as well. Why? Because at the end of the day, God is going to use the Antichrist to execute vengeance upon a people who have blasphemed the Lord, crucified Jesus Christ, and done horrible atrocities throughout history. Look at, go back to Judges chapter 9, verse 52. So Abimelech, what does he do? He turns on Shechem, he starts going to war with them, and this war ends up extending into different cities, overcoming different people, and he gets a little too big for his britches. He ends up cornering them in a tower to fight against them, and he's trying to burn them with fire, because part of the prophecy is like, I'm going to burn you with fire as Abramble if you don't essentially submit to my leadership. That's essentially what he's talking about. Look at verse 53, it says, And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all, to break his skull. So he got a little too ambitious, he's trying to burn down the tower with fire, and then this lady's just like, like the anvil back in Looney Tunes, you know, and he's like, burn it down, burn it, and boom, breaks his skull. You know, he basically receives a deadly wound to the head. The only difference is, he's not healed, right? He receives a deadly wound to the head. So, verse 54, Then he called hastily unto the young man his armor-bearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me. Then men say, Not of me, a woman slew me, slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died. And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man into his place. Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, and slain his seventy brethren. And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerub Baal. Now, what is the relation with the Antichrist? Well, obviously he receives a deadly wound to the head, but I want you to notice that a stone was dropped upon him. And according to Bible prophecy, the way the New World Order is destroyed is the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is because of the head of the corner. It is that stone in Daniel's vision that essentially destroys the New World Order. That's what the Bible teaches. Go to Proverbs chapter 26, if you would, Proverbs chapter 26. So we see there that he essentially reaped what he sowed. So throughout this sermon, you see a lot of the parallels between him and the Antichrist, but you also see that the principle that's being taught here is that when there's a vacuum of leadership, often some of the worst types of people try to take over. Because they didn't need a king. They were fine with the system of the judges. But yet in spite of that, he sought to seize power to overcome Shechem, and he did not have their best interest in mind. He ended up killing a lot of people, dishonoring God, and God had to punish him for it. Now what, in conclusion, what is the principle, the ultimate principle that we can learn from Abimelech? Well look at Proverbs 26 verse 27. It says here, He killed his seventy brethren upon a stone. And the poetic justice there is that how did he die? With a stone. The principle that we can learn is that you will always reap what you sow. And you know what, we as God's people, we should never have malice towards people, violence towards individuals, and do wrong or evil towards individuals. The Bible says that we should sow to the spirit so we can of the spirit reap life everlasting. But just remember, you know, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Abimelech did not get away with the violent and malicious murder of his brothers, the seizing of power. God not only allowed him to die a horrible death, his worst fear came upon him. Why? Because he's just like, kill me, because I don't want to become a Bible where people are saying that a woman killed me. They're like, yeah, I got you. And then hundreds of years later, yeah, how did Abimelech die? Oh, a woman killed him. You know, I don't know about you, but I want to make sure that I'm constantly sowing good seeds, that I'm sowing to the spirit, that I'm not sowing to the flesh, that I'm not digging a pit for people to fall there in, and I'm not rolling a stone to roll upon people, because at the end of the day, just because I'm a child of God, doesn't mean I'm exempt from punishment from God. Now, I'm saved, I'm going to heaven no matter what, but like we talked about this morning, you know, the Lord says, vengeance is mine, save the Lord, I will repay, and the Lord shall judge his people. And so, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word, thank you for this byword and proverb of Abimelech, and his tyranny, Lord, that came to an end, to teach us the lesson, Lord, that people reap what they sow. And I pray that you'd help us as your people to recognize the importance of raising up godly leadership, lest someone wicked tries to come in place and seize power for their own lust and their own desires and covetous agendas, Lord. I pray that, Lord, you'd help us as your people to take heed to the principles thereof. We love you, we thank you, pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Please turn to song number 129, Rock of Ages. Song number 129. Song number 129, on that first verse. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from my wound inside which would be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever grow, could my zeal, both anger know these were sins could not atone. Thou my sin and thou alone be my hand, no prize I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling while I draw this fleeting breath. When my eye shuffles in death, when I rise to worlds unknown and behold me on my throne, Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Great singing, the artist missed.