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Well, if you look at Matthew 23 and verse number 25, we're just looking at one verse in the whole chapter there Okay, Matthew 23 verse 25 now if you have not if you're not familiar with the jesus of the bible This is a great chapter for you to get familiar with the fact that he is just criticizing These religious leaders for the entire chapter, you know, most people have this idea of jesus being this soft You know totally humble he lets himself be kicked around but actually there are times when jesus will stand up There are certain sins that anger jesus christ so much and he would often go face to face against many Of the religious leaders. This is the true jesus of the bible and look at verse number 25 He says woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you make the outside of the cup and of the platter Sorry, but you may cling the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion And excess okay within they are full of extortion the title for the sermon tonight is full of extortion full of extortion In other words, this is another way another title for this sermon is sins. That'll get you kicked out of church part six Okay. Now I feel like i've been on this series the whole year Okay, because I know I started this series early in the year and then you know I wasn't coming down every week and then we had the coronavirus thing and it's still going on I guess and you know We're trying to work our way through this but I was trying to show you that in first corinthians chapter five and in fact Please turn there. You can turn away from matthew 23. Now, please go to first corinthians chapter five Let's remind ourselves, uh that there are certain sins that if you commit As a church member that you are to be kicked out of the church Okay. Now a lot of people think ah, that's not right church is for everybody No, it's not there are certain sins that if you're known for this sin if this is public knowledge within the church Okay, you ought to be kicked out because otherwise a little leaven will leaven the whole lump. Okay, it'll corrupt the entire church Now look at first corinthians chapter five and verse number nine First corinthians chapter five and verse number nine. It says I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators Yet now now notice this it says in verse number 10 yet not all together with the fornicators of this world Or with the curvatures or extortioners so there's that type that word extortion there or with idolaters For then must he needs go out of the world. So what are Paul is teaching the church here? He says look i've told you not to keep company with the fornicators, but maybe you misunderstood what I was saying the first time He's saying look i'm not talking about uh, you know, the the unsaved world I'm not talking about your your work colleagues. I'm not talking about the people you come across in your daily life I'm, not talking about people that you come across that are fornicators curvatures extortioners or idolaters Because if you were to avoid everybody in this world that had these sins It says for then must you needs go out of the world He's saying look you cannot actually operate in the world if you were to avoid all these people all together Since that's not what i'm talking to you about. He says look at verse number 11 He says but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother A brother, okay, he's writing this letter to the corinthian church He says these are the people that you are to separate from This is the people that you ought to have nothing to do with or kick them out of the church If they're a brother in the church and they're caught up with these sins He's not talking about the entire world. Otherwise, you need to leave this planet Okay, because that is the that is the nature of the unsaved world, but let's keep going there Is called a brother be a fornicator That's number one or covetous number two or an idolater number three or a railer number four or a drunk at number five And now we're up to part six or an extortioner With such and one know not to eat Okay, don't go and hang out with them if someone gets kicked out of church Don't go and hang out with them and say hey, don't worry about it. I You know i'll eat with you brother. I'll fellowship with you brother No, when someone gets kicked out of the church, that's part of the punishment for their sins That's part of the consequence and the hope is that they would get this right with god The hope is they would get you know, they would go back to church You know ask for forgiveness and that will receive them back into the church We forgive and forget and we move on from that period. Okay, but that this is the way we keep the church cleansed. All right Now the word extortion or extortioner is kind of similar to the word railing You're not going to find it all that often in the bible I looked this up and I could only find eight references in the whole bible that have to do with extortion So what we're going to do for this sermon, it's going to be a bit of a bible study We're going to look at all the references We've already seen some you saw in Matthew 23 about the pharisees We've seen here that if a brother in the church is an extortioner that you are not to eat with them Okay, they're not to fellowship with us in the church And so we want to understand what this means I mean, i'm not sure if in your mind right now, you even know what extortion is. Maybe you do. Maybe you don't But if you can go to the next chapter go to first corinthians chapter six and verse number ten first corinthians chapter six and verse number ten now I haven't got time to go through the context of what we're about to read. But if you're familiar with this passage Paul is criticizing the church because they are taking trivial matters Of disagreement trivial matters of problems between brethren to the authorities Okay, just you know, there is a time to go to the authorities. Okay, the government has been set up to punish evil doers There is a time for that. Okay. So if someone were to do something very awful if there was some type of abuse You know some type of sexual abuse in the church. Hey, I would report that to the authorities. Okay? This is not the catholic church where we sweep it under the rug It's not like pedophilia takes place and you just move that priest to another church so nobody knows about it No things like that needs to be taken to the proper authorities But when you read the context of first chapter six You'll see these are about minor matters trivial matters that people in church should just be working out between themselves Okay, and paul is criticizing them for taking it to the authorities Why are you going to go into the authorities? And then he explains that these authorities that you go to and he gives a list of the type of people you go to He says in verse number 10 nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners Shall inherit the kingdom of god and you can read it in your own time But he says look if you go to these judges if you go to the to the government for trivial matters You're going to the unbelieving world and they're full of these sins. They're extortioners. You're going to them for these little matters That's not the right place for those kinds of things Okay, so if you upset me if we get into a bit of a quarrel about something You know that isn't criminal, you know We shouldn't be running to the authorities and trying to sue one another which will be trying to figure that out Between brothers and sisters in the lord. Okay, but of course when it comes to major criminal offenses Hey those things should be reported to your authority But I want to show you that paul is saying look don't fellowship with people in your church that are extortioners But at the same time you need to understand that our government our governing authorities are full of people that are full of extortioners And this is why we say, you know I'll say things like our government is corrupt and yet you know what our australian government is not as corrupt as some of the south american Governments, you know like southeast asian governments. They're very corrupt I mean you basically live your life knowing that you've got to bribe your way through life I mean that's that's how corrupt some of those places are and paul is just reminding us look even Judges even authorities are full of you know, dr full of drunkards covetous people revilers and extortioners All right, so that's that's the reference there of being an extortioner now I looked up in the dictionary What does it mean to be an extortioner or what does extortion mean and this is what it means it means to obtain? That's like money or information etc from a person by violence intimidation or abuse of authority obtained by force torture threats or the like Now the term that we would most often use is blackmail Okay, extortion and blackmail are two terms that can be used You know You can exchange between those two terms, you know blackmail and if you've ever been blackmailed before, you know And basically this is what it looks like Someone's got someone has something about you. Someone knows something about you Maybe some information or maybe they're threatening you and they say look if you go and do this So if you go and do that i'm going to let people know about x y and z, okay Now sometimes I have seen this even in children All right, let me give you an idea Let me give you a picture of this and maybe you're familiar with this maybe in your childhood Maybe you've seen this with your own children Especially when you've got a household full of children, right? Where one child does something wrong and he doesn't want mom and dad to know about it because he's going to get in trouble All right, but one of the siblings knows about it And he says look if you don't go and do my chores today If you don't make my bed if you don't do the things that you know Then i'm going to tell mom and dad what you did All right, that's blackmail. That's actually extortion. Yeah at a minor level at a very insignificant level, right? But this is something we need to get out of our children because children learn this at a very early age How can I take advantage of someone else? You know and listen as as children it's no big deal But when these children don't learn the lessons they're going to become adults. They're going to learn how to be extortionist They're going to learn how to blackmail and it's going to be much worse. The situation is going to be much much worse in Adulthood One story that I remember in one of my old churches there was this missionary passing through I can't remember his name right now But he was serving as a missionary in papa new guinea Okay, he was serving and I remember, you know, I don't know if you're familiar with some of those missionaries But they would send letters Let's say once a month They'll send a letter and they'll update the churches as to how they're doing it on the missions field Any salvations and anything like that any needs they may have? And I remember a story where the missionary was going through like the jungles of papa new guinea or whatever Trying to get through a tribe and then him and his party were were pulled over By this militia by this local militia with weapons Okay, and basically this militia just pointed their weapons at them, you know threatening to for them to lose their life Listen, I said listen you got to pay us this much Okay, and we'll let you through and if you don't pay us we're going to kill you Okay, and I remember reading that hearing about that in the letter and then the missionaries like we had no choice but to pay You know the money and I remember at that time I didn't fully understand this the explosion But I I thought that was a bribe. I misunderstood I was kind of angry at the missionary. I said, why did you pay a bribe? But that's that's not it's that wasn't bribe Those missionaries now I understand it better. They were being threatened to lose their life Otherwise they'd have to you know, uh, they'd have to cough up the money. Otherwise, they'd lose their lives Basically, that's that's called extortion. That's not a bribe. A bribe is different Okay, so the extortion is being done by the person in authority or the one that holds power Okay, but a bribe would be different It'd be it'll be the one that doesn't hold the power And you're giving money or you're giving some type of favor to somebody in order for you to uh, you know You know pass by a certain barrier or or you know, uh pass a test or or pass something, right? That's where you would maybe bribe someone that is sinful But extortion is kind of the reverse the person holding the power over you not let you go through Unless you pay up unless you do something differently Now another story that I remember about this is um, you know, I grew up, you know, not far from here I grew up in canley bale which is close to cabramatta and if you guys know about cabramatta in the 80s And maybe 70s 80s and early 90s. It was a really it was an area full of crime It was it was a full of gangs full of uh, you know a drug drugs and things like this Okay, and you know, there was a large immigrant that was coming through cabramatta, uh that were from vietnam Okay, and so there's a lot of a lot of vietnamese, uh gangs and I remember hearing these stories Where if you had a shop in cabramatta, okay that you would be visited by these gangs Okay And these gangs would say listen, we're going to protect your shop Okay, we're going to look after your shop we're going to look after you We're going to make sure nothing bad happens to you as long as you pay us x amount of dollars every month Okay Now look they had no interest to look after the shop what they meant by that is if you don't pay us this every month We're going to come and ransack your shop. We're going to burn it down. We're going to hurt you We're going to hurt your family. That's what they meant Hey, that's extortion. That's extortion, right? Hey, we're threatening you to destroy your business unless you pay us up unless you look after us That's extortion. Okay, and this is a sin that we cannot allow in our church We cannot allow one brother to be an extortioner to another brother in this church if someone is operating that way making you feel pressured or You know, uh difficulty because you're afraid of what that person may do unto you If you don't give them what they want that person must be kicked out of the church. Okay, this is very dangerous Okay, I think this is one of the most dangerous sins on this list actually Okay, because you're actually really hurting another brother in the lord All right. So now please go to psalm 109 go to psalm 109 Because just as a reminder, we're going to all the references that speak on extortion. Okay, psalm 109 Now some people have a Some people struggle with psalm 109 and other psalms of the like Because this is a psalm now a lot of the psalms are beautiful prayers Beautiful songs from you know from from the psalmist to the lord asking for help asking for guidance Asking for deliverance, but you know, there are some psalms that the psalmist is basically praying that god will destroy his enemies Okay, these are called imprecatory psalms Okay, or imprecatory prayers and a lot of people a lot of churches don't like to teach these things because they think well I don't want to teach something negative I don't want to teach something where you're praying against an enemy because we're trying to get everybody to love one another Okay, and the truth of the bible is yes, you know as the default option We should be striving to love and we are commanded to love our enemies But you know, there is a time when we can pray for the destruction of our enemies. Okay, look at psalm 109 and verse number one Now, I don't know if all your bibles say this but at the beginning it says to the chief musician a psalm of David have you got that a psalm of david now the bible tells me that david was a man after god's own heart Okay, so don't tell me that this psalm is david's opinion or david should not have prayed this David should not have said these words. No, this is david after god's own heart I don't know if god can say that about you or me Okay, but david is a man after god's own heart and he was moved by the holy ghost to write this psalm Okay, so let's read it verse number one Hold not thy peace. Oh god of my praise for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me They have spoken against me with a lion tongue They compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause so you can see how he's going to the lord Because he's got certain enemies that are against him here. Okay now drop down to verse number eight Drop down to verse number eight. It says let his that's the enemies let his days be few And let another take his office now before we keep reading the rest of the psalm What is verse number eight about does anybody know? Raise of hand if you know verse number eight is yes rams Yeah Exactly. So in act chapter one When the twelve disciples eleven disciples chose to replace judas iscariot who had betrayed jesus who was not a believer They referred to this psalm. Okay, that's number eight there Let another take his office and of course methias was the one that took the the position that judas iscariot wanted anyway That's a trivial thing, but I want to show you that this psalm is applicable to someone like a judas iscariot Okay, someone extremely wicked right and now drop down to verse number 11. Look what it says here Speaking about the wicked it says Let the extortioner catch all that he hath and let the strangers spoil his labor So what is that saying? King david is saying look there's this wicked enemy against me lord. He's making my life difficult. I need your help Can you send an extortioner to take everything that he owns? That's what he's saying. So can you send can you make his way difficult? Can you make his way challenging? Can you send some wicked people his way so he has his own enemies instead of being enemy toward me? And he specifically prays and asks for an extortioner to come and catch all that he hath Let the strangers spoil his labor. He says lord make him unproductive Please bring other wicked men into his life to destroy him bring the extortioner to destroy the wicked Okay, so look is is extortion a positive thing in the bible. No, it's always negative Okay, it's even bad to wicked people. It's even a bad thing to to bad people Okay, and so this is the thing about extortion it is uh It is bad for everybody, you know good people get uh, you know face extortion bad people sometimes go for extortion And you know what if you have an enemy it is not wrong for you to pray such a prayer Someone that is trying to hurt you someone that's trying to bring you down to pray and ask god god Can you deal with that person? Can you destroy them? You say but pastor kevin the bible says love your enemies Absolutely, please love your enemies and go to god and say god. Can you take care of my enemy? I'm gonna love them I'm gonna be doing good unto them. Okay, but lord you need to and look vengeance belongs to the to the lord the bible says Is mine sayeth the lord, okay So i'm gonna do good to my enemies i'm going to do good to those that um, you know make my life difficult But i'm counting on god to one day send the extortioner one day for god to send somebody in that person's path to bring them down Okay, so that's the balance. That's the balance we do good to our enemies and we allow god to bring justice Okay to bring judgment upon the wicked Let's keep going in in verse number five because look at verse number five now. Remember he's asking In the same psalm 109 verse number five, so he's asking god to take care of this enemy, right? But look at verse number five it says and they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love So how has david treated his enemy? He's shown him love he's been good toward his enemies Yeah, so you can see Within the same psalm the same psalm that he's asking god take down my enemy destroy my enemies He says look, but i'm going to show him love and i'm going to do a good good unto him Okay, so you can see that that in the bible. It's consistent. We do good and allow god to take care of vengeance on our behalf Now if you can please uh, uh, let's see go to ezekiel 22 go to ezekiel chapter 22 Okay, so my first point was extortion is So bad that it is a curse for the wicked Okay, extortion is a curse even for the wicked. Okay The next point that I have on extortion is that extortion will cause you to forget the lord Okay, if you're someone that is Extorting others you're going to find yourself forgetting the lord. Okay, ezekiel 22 and verse number 12 Ezekiel 22 and verse number 12 And the context of what we're about to read is about jerusalem, you know jerusalem had become so wicked in the eyes of god And it says here and by the way extortion is one of the lists of sins that was happening in jerusalem Okay, look at verse number 12. It says in thee Have they taken gifts to shed blood thou has taken usury and increase? And thou has greedily gained off thy neighbors by extortion And has forgotten me sayeth the lord god So look israel or jerusalem Had become so wicked the people were were not being labeled neighborly toward one another they were greedy They wanted more and more that they would gain things off their neighbors by extortion Okay, and by doing this they had forgotten the lord Okay, so I want you to think about this we're talking about sins that'll get you kicked out of church If somebody in our church is an extortioner Do you think they're going to be in church because they they come in to sing praises to the lord? Do they have a love for god or is it that they're trying to gain from their neighbor? They're trying to gain from their neighbor They're not coming to church to love the lord because the bible tells us here that the extortioner has forgotten the lord Okay, this is why we kick that person out of the church because they're not here to bless us They're not here to worship god they come to our church to take advantage of people Okay, take advantage and listen the the problem the problem with the church or the problem. It's not really a problem It's a good thing people think that the church is made of made up of nice people Made up of good people and sometimes you may fall into the trap of just trusting everybody in church Hey, because we're all brothers and sisters in the lord Yeah, we're all brothers and sisters, but you know, we still have the flesh. We still have the sin nature You know some of us had some some very wicked pasts All right, and some some sins that you know are easy to be tempted toward and listen We're all striving to be more like jesus. We're all striving to live more righteously and thank god Salvation is not based on our works. Otherwise, none of us will go to heaven. Okay. Okay, but you can't just have this You know this uh, yeah ignorant mind and think I can just trust everybody in the church. You can't Okay, you can't trust everybody in the church. We all have a sin nature There might be people in our congregation that wants to take advantage of you that wants to extort you Okay So you've got to have a level of protection and again people come into churches because they know that's where I can take advantage of people Why do you think there are so many wicked? Church leaders so many wicked religious leaders. Why there's so many pedophiles in the catholic church because they think If I go to church and I have a position that I can take advantage of this and that that's why there's so many Wicked people, you know churches bring the best people but it also brings the worst of people as well Okay, that's just the truth of the of the of the of church You know, jesus gave a parable that says we are sown amongst the wheat and that's just the way it's going to be guys You know, we can't you know Judas is scarier the perfect example. Judas is scarier. They all thought he was a great guy, you know Even when jesus basically tells the disciples it's judas that's going to betray me. They're like no like must be it's probably me Jesus tells them black and white. It's going to be judas. They're like can't be You know, you know, jesus tells judas go and do what you're going to do. Go and betray me They're like, oh, yeah judas must be going to buy something They couldn't believe it, you know when there's someone in the church I had done so wickedly All right So the next point that I have here brethren Is that oh by the way, uh full of extortion and you know, this is why because I was talking about church leaders, right? And things like that and if we actually even need to turn that i'll just read it to you once again So from the reading that we had before matthew 23 verse 25 Remember what jesus said to the pharisees the scribes and the pharisees now if you remember the scribes They're the people that would write down the laws. Okay, that's why they're called scribes. They would copy the law of moses They would copy the scriptures These are people that knew their bibles really well because they're writing them out again and again the pharisees It was a sect of religious leaders. Okay, they weren't many of them were not saved some did I believe nicodemus got saved For example another pharisee that got saved was paul if you remember paul the apostle he was a pharisee before he uh became the apostle But jesus says to the scribes and pharisees woe unto you Scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter But within they are full of extortion and excess Okay. So the next point that I have about extortioners is that extortioners have an appearance of good Extortioners have an appearance of good. What did god say about the scribes and pharisees that they're clean on the outside? Okay, the outside of the cup of the platter. They looked like religious leaders. They wore the long robes All right, they they had all the religious Paraphanavia or whatever, you know on their on their clothing. Okay, they looked high and mighty they looked righteous They were you know, people look at them go. Wow. Look at that pharisee walk by there, right? So on the outside they look righteous on the outside that looks great that looks grand but jesus says no You're full of extortion And this is why you have to be careful about the church you attend You have to be careful about the leaders that you put yourself under You know, you need to make sure that that guy is not full of extortion That guy is not trying to blackmail you he's not trying to take advantage of you Right because people again they tend to trust their religious leaders And you say pastor kevin, you're the religious leader here. Yeah, you know be careful Okay, you may not always find you know, you may not always be a part of blessed or baptist church You might find yourself in some other church. And yes, there are extortioners. There are vile predators even amongst independent baptist churches You gotta be careful Okay And look jesus is giving us a lesson here that religious leaders can look great on the outside But on the on the inside they can be full of extortion. You've got to be careful and this is why You know one of the qualifications of being a pastor of being, you know, a bishop is not greedy for filthy luca That's so important because it's so easy for somebody, you know to become greedy of money and then before you know it They're trying to exhort as much from the church as they can financially Okay They say you agree a filthy luca pastor kevin. I don't think so All right. I mean I was earning like four times five times as much as I was than being a pastor All right. I did not become a pastor to make money. I would guarantee you that. Okay, so I know that's definitely not the case But then jesus says this in verse number 26. He says thou blind pharisee cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter And the outside of them may be clean also Woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you're like unto whited sepulchres Which indeed appear beautiful outward but within are full of dead man's bones And full of sorry and of all uncleanness Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity Okay, and so listen, there are religious leaders that will take advantage of your situation They will and look think about and i've already mentioned the catholic church, but think about the catholic priests and think about the you know The confession, you know how church members have to go to the catholic priest I don't know in a booth or whatever and confess their sins Now listen I'm, never going to confess my sins to you guys and I will never ask you to confess your sins to me Okay, there's only one person that you confess your sins to that's the lord jesus christ You take it to god you ask him to forgive you of your sins All right. I'm not interested in knowing your sins. I'm not interested in knowing your dirty laundry. Okay. Why do you think though? There are some pastors or some religious leaders like or priests or whatever in different churches That want to know your dirty laundry. Why do you think that? I'll tell you why because they're going to become extortionists. They're going to take the information that they know about you and hold you hostage I mean think about it think about it, you know, these catholic priests, right? They're hearing all the all the sins of their members. They're hearing all the dirty secrets all their secret sins that they have I'm gonna think about how much power they've got to know all this information about the members in the church Okay, and before you know it, what do you have they've got access to little children, you know They come in all kinds of wicked acts, you know according to their religion. They're not even allowed to get married So they express it in very vile and filthy ways You know just just the evil that we see in some churches, you know The evil that we see in some religions is because that pharisee that scribe is an extortioner They're filthy on the inside and jesus gave the commandment. Hey get the inside clean first Clean the inside get saved, you know Wash yourself with the word of god, you know live off the commandments of god be more righteous and then the outside You know automatically go clean. You know, they're trying to clean the outside. They don't care about the inside And so if you can now turn to uh, go to luke 18 go to luke chapter 18 Luke 18 Verse 11 luke 18 And verse 11 Now you may be familiar with this story. This is the story that jesus christ speaks About a pharisee and a publican they go to the temple to pray unto god Okay. Now remember what did god say about the pharisees that they're full of extortion, right? And then jesus gives this story about the pharisee look at verse number 11 So the pharisees praying right it says in verse 11 the pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee let's stop there for a minute Now it says here the pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself. Listen when you pray You're praying to god, aren't you not? Okay, we're we're invoking god. We're asking god for help. We're speaking to god Well, this pharisee according to jesus is praying thus with himself He's only really praying to himself and then when he says god is speaking to himself Okay, because this man is full of righteousness. He says god I thank thee look at this that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust Adulters or even as this publican. He says thank you god that i'm not an extortioner What did jesus just finish saying you guys are full of extortion And that's what it is about extortion brethren is that you know extortioners don't even know how bad they are They don't even know how wicked they are They don't even acknowledge how bad it is because these guys are full of it and they're saying thank god i'm not an extortioner Okay, so, you know what? Why did jesus call them hypocrites now, you know, why? Okay, because they they they're they're referring to themselves as righteous and yet they're full of extortion And so you know The thing about it extortioners that that I I think is the situation Because they want to take advantage of other people and because they've got this messed up mindset It's like they think that other people because it says thank god i'm not like an extortioner like this publican Okay, thank god i'm not like these other people They think that others are extortionists They think that others are trying to do them harm. They think others are going to try to take advantage of them So in their mindset, it's like well, I better take advantage of them first. I better do what I can I better have the power and authority of that person before they have power and authority over me before they try to exhort me Okay, because that's how wicked they are. They think because i'm like this everybody else is like this. That's not the case. Okay Now, please go to the book of daniel go to daniel chapter three go to daniel chapter three Extortion so, you know Even though when I gave you the story about that missionary in papa new guinea And I kind of got angry at him like a little bit within myself. I said, why did you pay that money? All right, and because I was thinking of as a bride, but now I understand it was extortion, right? So I got thinking about this a little bit And I was thinking you know, what would be the things that i'm willing to sell? What are the things that i'm willing to give up, you know, if I find myself in a position that i'm being extorted What am I willing to give up, you know, what if and this happens, you know, this happens in the world Where you know a child might be kidnapped Okay, and then the parents are asked to ramson ramson ramson, you know ramson You know pay this much pay, you know a million dollars and we'll give you back your child whatever, you know There are situations like that, you know, what would you be willing to give up, you know? And you know, I kind of thought about let's say one of my child, you know children got kidnapped my wife or something You know, i'd be willing to just give it all up. I don't care I'd be willing to give them all the money I have i'm willing to give them all the possessions I hold You know, i'd be willing to give it all up for for the life of my loved one Okay, I mean I was just thinking about the situation, right? What would I be willing to give i'd give it all I guess These are material things, you know, you can get those material things back one day, you know You can't necessarily get back a life if it gets taken away things like that but then You know, I got thinking well, what if The situation was you know, we'll give you back your child, but you'd have to renounce god You'd have to say that you hate god You know that you don't believe on jesus christ anymore or something like this or someone points a gun at my head and says hey You know give up christianity give up your faith and you know, you can save your life. Would you be willing to do that? And honestly, I would not I would not okay. Now the worst extortion that you can possibly face Is the extortion of worship the extortion of worship and when we look at daniel chapter three We have a situation where Uh, you know shadrach mishak and abednego are being extorted for Worship, okay. Now these are these are jews that have been taken into captivity by the babylonians All right, let's pick up the story there in verse number one. Daniel chapter three in verse number one It says Nebuchadnezzar the king Made an image of gold whose height was three score cubits and the breadth thereof six cubits He set it up in the plain of durah in the province of babylon Then nebbuchadnezzar the king sent together together the princes and the governors and the captains the judges the treasurers the counselors The sheriffs and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which nebbuchadnezzar the king had set up Then the princes the governors the captains the judges the treasurers the counselors the sheriffs and all the rulers of the provinces Were gathered together onto the dedication of the image that nebbuchadnezzar the king had set up And they stood before the image that nebbuchadnezzar had set up Then and herod cried aloud to you is commanded o people nations and languages That at which time you hear the sound of the cornet flute harp Sakhbat sultry dulcimer and all kinds of music you fall down and worship the golden image That nebbuchadnezzar the king have set up And who so falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery Furnace and so what we see here is the extortion Of worship says look you come and worship this image you come and worship this idol Okay, and if you don't do it when you hear the music play if you don't bow down and worship it Hey, then we're going to cast you into a burning fiery furnace Isn't that blackmail? Absolutely, you lose your life if you don't worship this image. All right Now let's drop down to verse number 14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto sorry and i'll give you the context there Of course shadrach misha can bendigo they worship the true god of the bible They worship the god of abraham isaac and jacob and they were not going to bow down and worship this idol Okay, and this became known by the king that they would not bow down to the idol that was made after his image Nebuchadnezzar spake in verse number 14. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them Is it true or shadrach misha and abednego? That ye do not ye serve my gods nor worship the golden image, which I have set up Now if you be ready and at what time you hear the sound of the cornet flute harpsichord sultry in this dolcima And all kinds of music you fall down and worship the image, which I have made well But if you worship not you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace And who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands? So it says look the king gives him one more chance Listen, if you hear the music i'm going to give you one more chance if you bow down you do well Okay, and you'll be doing what i've asked you to do. Hey, but if you don't worship this image, then we're going to hey Who's going to deliver you out of my hands? He says look i'm going to kill you kill you, right? And I love how they respond here. I love how they respond to king Nebuchadnezzar because they don't sugarcoat the response That they're very blunt in their response to the king here and they say in verse number 17 Oh, sorry verse number 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said unto the king. Oh Nebuchadnezzar We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. Okay. He says look we're not Worried how we're going to answer this. We're going to be blunt with how we respond to you. Okay, we're not being careful We're going to tell you the honest truth verse number 17 if it be so Our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace And he will deliver us out of thine hand o king So king Nebuchadnezzar said who's going to deliver you out of my hand? Well, they said our god the god that we worship will deliver us out of your hand He is the one that is able to do this. All right, so they stand up to the king They don't give in to this extortion of their own lives They said no, we're not going to bow down and worship your idol. We're going to only worship our lord god number 18 but if not So if if god doesn't deliver us, okay If god doesn't save us out of your hand be it known unto thee o king that we will not serve thy gods Nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up He says look we're expecting god to save us It's god that will deliver us out of your hands But if god decides not to deliver us out of your hands, hey, we're still not going to worship your image We're still not going to worship those false gods. All right, we'd rather die than worship a false god All right, so they were willing to lose their lives in light of this situation Look at vestima 19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury and the form of his visage was changed against shadrach mishach and abednego Therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was once to be heated And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind shadrach mishach and abednego and to cast them into a burning fiery furnace Then these men were bound in their coats They're hosen and their hats and their other garments and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace So you think that'd be the end of them right verse number 22? Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent and the furnace exceeding heart The flame of the fire slew those men that took up shadrach mishach and abednego So the guys that have taken and arrested them the guys that are throwing them into the fiery furnace actually lose their lives It's it's that hot that they themselves lose their lose their lives the ones that are throwing these free hebrew men into the furnace And then it says in verse number 23 And these three men shadrach mishach and abednego fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace Then nebecaneza the king was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said with his counselors Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king true. Oh king He answered and said lo. I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt And the form of the fourth is like the son of god It's an amazing story amazing story that these three Jewish men stood up to king nebecaneza at the potential loss of their lives Hey, they were not willing to worship a false god. They were not willing to reject the god of the bible Okay, they stood up and they said look god will deliver us But if he doesn't we're still not going to bow down and worship your false gods They're thrown into the fiery furnace And instead of there being three in the furnace king nebecaneza looks in he sees the fall And of course, he recognizes him as the son of god there. All right the son of god Listen, was there a son of god before bethlehem's manger? Amen, that's what we see right there. Okay Listen, we believe and teach on the eternal sonship of god Jesus christ as the eternal son of god. He did not he did not become the son of god at bethlehem's manager He did not become the son of god at a specific time. Jesus christ has always been the son of god Okay Now that's for another topic But i'm just going to show you here that it's very clear that jesus christ as the son of god was operating Even in the old testament days and he was there helping and delivering these three saved men Shadrach mishak and abednego from losing their lives in the furnace now look at verse number 26 the nebecaneza came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said Shadrach mishak and abednego ye servants of the most high god come forth and come hither Then shadrach mishak and abednego came forth Of the midst of the fire. So obviously a miracle takes place they come out of the fire They're not even burnt and they're not even hurt. They don't lose their lives All right. So, you know, this is an area that we as christians we need to get the courage Of shadrach mishak and abednego if someone you know is extorting me for my wealth for my possession not that I have much Go for it. You know what at the end of the day. I don't care. God is just god will you know It will bring vengeance upon that god will look after his children But listen when it comes to our worship to god Do not you know be be someone that is not willing to give that up Be someone that is not willing to extort, you know, allow yourself to be extorted to worship some false god Okay, even at the loss of your life They say that sounds pretty extreme. It is extreme You know, you would need to be someone who has great faith to be able to stand up to that now Listen, it wasn't just these three hebrew boys that were That were the only jews there. No All of judah was taken into captivity, you know that was spread out throughout the kingdom you think there was only three jewish boys In this place, there were other jews, you know, there are other even some believers that definitely I mean, these are the only three that stood up there were others that would have bowed down to the image You know, they said look i'm not willing to lose my life. I'm just going to bow down To this image, you know, even if it's not just a heart worship But it's just something in my body that i'm going to do just so I can not lose my life These are not the only three they took an entire nation into captivity So there were other people there and there were other jews willing to you know Bow down to the false gods You know, but we need to learn from shadrach mishaach and abednego. We need to be people like this and look Jesus christ may very well step in and deliver you out of the hand of the enemy Okay, that is a a real possibility that we see in the word of god Now if you can please go to luke 19 go to luke 19 Extortion it's a wicked sin. Okay, it's a wicked sin now, maybe You've extorted somebody in the past okay Maybe you know, i'm not talking about someone in this church and I hope you've not done it to someone in this church, okay? But even if you have done it to somebody in this church, you know, or if you've done it in the past Let me encourage you brethren now listen if you've done in the past that has no reflection on you in church today I'm, not going to kick you out of church because you did in the past i'm talking about here in the within the members Since we study this church if you are someone that is an extortioner then that is someone that gets kicked out of the church Okay, but listen if you've done this in the past Okay, and i'm sure you've done some wicked things in your life. Okay, and I don't know if you've been extortionate or not But if you have you need to deal with it immediately you need to go and fix that You need to go and fix that okay Now the story that we get in luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus who was like a tax collector, okay? Look at verse number one luke 19 in verse number one It says and jesus entered and passed through jericho and behold there was a man named Zacchaeus Who which was the chief among the publicans and he was rich, okay? So the publican tax collector was known as a publican publican is someone that works for the for the government basically Okay, so you're a public. Uh, what do you call them? Public servant. Yeah, so publican is like the same thing a public servant and he was rich How did he get rich though verse number three and he sought to see jesus who he was and could not for the press Because he was literal of stature So he's quite a short guy and he couldn't see jesus over the crowds of the people verse number four And he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him For he was to pass that way And when jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said unto him zacchaeus make haste and come down For today I must abide at thy house and he made haste and came down and received him Joyfully now look if zacchaeus wasn't saved yet I believe this is the point that he got saved because he received jesus joyfully into his house and the bible says in john chapter 1 Verse 12, but as many as received him to them gave you power to become the sons of god Even to them that believe on his name Okay. Now look at verse number seven And when they saw it, they all murmured saying that he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner Okay, so jesus starts to receive a lot of criticism for going and spending time with zacchaeus. All right Because everybody knows he's a sinner. Okay. He didn't get rich being honest and and doing a hard, you know A normal day's work as a taste collector. He got rich because he stole money from others. Okay And look at verse number eight And zacchaeus stood And said unto the lord behold lord the half of my goods I give to the poor And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold now look He's saying I have actually taken more than I need. Okay. Yeah, you know and I may have even taken by false accusation I may have and when he says this he did. All right He's made false accusations toward people and they've paid up. I paid up more taxes than they should have Okay, so what's that's extortion Okay, just look if you don't pay up i'm gonna make these false accusations against you or i've made this false accusation So you pay up? Okay, because that person doesn't want to be thrown in jail that person doesn't want to you know Lose whatever they have so they'll pay up and they're victims of extortion And so jesus goes and spends time with zacchaeus a man who in the past has extorted others That's why people knew he was a sinner. That's why people did not like zacchaeus, right? But notice what he says he says if i've done that by false accusation I restore him fourfold He says look if i've taken from somebody a thousand dollars I'm gonna give him back four thousand dollars Okay, he spent time with jesus. He realizes his sins and he says look i've done wrong I need to go back and fix that now. That's something he's done in the past That's something he's done before he received jesus into his house But now that he has received jesus into his house now that he is a believer now He says look I need to make these things right? And brethren if you've committed extortion you go and make those things right, you know If you've taken something from another person that does not belong to you you go and restore to that person fourfold Okay, you go and do that and listen the reason zacchaeus says fourfold four times as much is because that was the law in the book Of exodus in the book of exodus. You don't need to turn there exodus 22 verse 1 It says if a man shall steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it He shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep All right. So if you stole somebody's ox, you know, which was a an animal of labor You'd have to restore five times as many and if you stole a sheep Which you know does not do the same level of labor as an ox Then if you stole that you restore and go give back four You know if you've ever got something stolen from your house, I don't know Have you ever had your car or my dad got his car stolen once, right? So the thief according to the law of god would have had to give my dad back four cars Right. I mean living under the old testament laws would have been amazing. I would have been like, yeah Go ahead steal whatever you want. I mean you wouldn't be you you wouldn't be saying i'm gonna lock up my bike I've gotta lock up all you know, i've gotta keep everything inside guys guys someone steals You just leave things out in the open You don't mind if someone steals because you're gonna get four times or five times as much All right. So You know zacchaeus he he knew the lord of moses and he says look i'm gonna go back in the store fourfold. Okay? I wish we had those laws today, you know, but anyway, you know, the laws of god are good and right look at verse number nine And jesus and said unto him this day is salvation come to this house For so much as he also is a son of abraham for the son of man is come to seek and to save That which was lost Okay. So listen if you've committed extortion in your past I'm, not going to kick you out of the church because we've done it in the past But what I would really encourage you to do is go and fix it now Go and say man i've done wrong to so and so I don't care who it is Go and fix it go and make things right. I tell you why because these things have A way of coming back and biting you They have a way, you know things in the past that you've done wrong to somebody have a way Some it's most likely it's going to pop up its head in the future and make your life a hell You better go and restore that as soon as you have the opportunity You know back in the in the days when you know now everything's live now everything's streaming right back in the days when I was like A teen I I borrowed a few videos from the video You know where you go to a video store you don't get the vhs tape remember that you have to have like a library card Like a card, right? Anyway, I I had I had borrowed some uh, some whatever some movies or whatever And I returned them late. I think it was like it wasn't Video easy. Yeah video easy. That's what it was a video easy in canley heights All right, and I I had returned some some of them very late And so I had late fees remember the late fees you get late fees if you didn't return them on time Well, anyway, I I never went back and paid them In fact, I said, oh man, I don't want to pay them. So I never went back to the to the store All right I was like a teenager and then like several years later. I kind of read this story about tikius and I thought oh man You know, I better go and restore fourfold So I remember just driving to the to the video easy and it had shut down though, you know It wasn't there anymore. But you know to this day. I feel really bad. I have no idea How can I go and fix that now, right? But you know, I tried to make an effort right try to make an effort What i'm trying to say to you brethren is if you've committed extortion you know if you've committed theft or something like this or you go and you you owe and you you know, You know, you you've meant to go back and fix those things, you know, that's what god expects from you You know when the kiss does this jesus is rejoicing rejoicing in this man's salvation Hey Look, look at the effectiveness of the clear salvation to the point that he's willing to go and fix all these past mistakes That he's done in the past You know, praise god for the kiss. Praise god for that story. I think I think it's a great story there all right now Please go to isiah 16 isiah 16 and we're near the end now isiah 16 we're going to uh, one of the final references here on extortion isiah 16 Extortion is a criminal offense Okay, extortion is a criminal offense and I look this up, you know in the law of our land Australian law extortion is also a criminal offense Okay, if you blackmail somebody You take something from somebody else, you know by threat by violence these kinds of things This is a criminal offense not just in the law of our land, but it's also a criminal offense in the bible Okay isiah 16 verse number four The bible says let mine outcasts dwell with thee moab be thou a Be thou I covet To them for the face of the spoiler now look at this for the extortioner is at an end The spoiler ceaseth the oppressors are consumed out of the land Now it's talking about these extortioners. They're at an end What is what is this end that is being spoken about in this chapter? Look at verse number five And in mercy shall the throne be established And he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of david judging and seeking judgment and hasting righteousness So when you look at verse number five and you see the throne shall be established right And he shall sit upon it in truth Who's this? He what's his throne? What period of time are we talking about here? This is talking about jesus christ and his millennial kingdom when jesus christ comes back and rules and reigns on this earth And you know what's going to happen when he rules and reigns or what they were seeing in verse number four It says the extortioner is at an end So when jesus christ comes back, he's going to put an end to extortion Yes, the extortion that goes on in government authorities because he will be the government the government will be upon his shoulders the bible says right But also the extortion on the land Okay, so from from from uh christ's reign in the millennium he sees extortion as a crime He sees it as a major sin and he says we're going to put an end to it to extortion Okay. So listen in the kingdom of jesus. It's a crime and needs to be put at an end in our nation extortion is a crime Okay What are you saying? I'm saying this and and and maybe You haven't fully understood how wicked this sin is, you know And if you're someone that is blackmailing somebody in this church You're taken from that person whatever it is From that person because they're they feel they're they feel threatened by you Okay, not only will you be kicked out of the church, but it's a crime And I will report that crime if I know about it. I will report that crime to the authorities Okay Just like I will report any kind of major crime that happens in this church This is we're not going to cover things up here if something serious happens like extortion then Not only you'll be kicked out, but that crime will be reported to the government. Okay, so the to the governing authorities over that Okay, so remember this is a sin that will get you kicked out of church Okay There are a lot of sins that we commit we commit sins every day, you know Either in our body in our hearts in our minds in our imaginations We're committing sin all the time brethren because none of us are perfect Okay, but there are some sins that are just so wicked Okay sins that may be even natural for you to think about doing and yet in god's eyes These are not just sins, but these are crimes Okay, and it's worthy to kick somebody out of the church about that and also to be reported to The authorities about these things. Okay, so you know it's it's not necessarily a a A beautiful sermon to preach about extortion, you know, you're dealing with very wicked things You know in the bible here But once again, if you have committed these things, please be like sikias, please say, you know what? I'm going to go and restore that fourfold You know what? I did bad to that guy back then two years ago five years ago ten years ago, man I blackmailed that person. I need to go and restore that I need to go and fix that, you know Please do I I truly encourage you as your pastor to do that. All right, let's pray