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The title of my sermon tonight is it's not about the grapes. It's kind of a strange title but and we'll get to what that means but I first want to kind of study this story of Naboth because I think this is one of those stories that really nobody ever preaches on. I know I've never heard a sermon on Naboth specifically, never heard anybody preach it and I think there's a reason why but let's go to verse one. Let's read the first four verses again. It says and it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria and Ahab spake unto Naboth saying give me thy vineyard that I may have it for a garden of herbs because it is near unto my house and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than that or if it seemed good to thee I will give thee the worth of it and money and Ahab said to Ahab the Lord forbid me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee and Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the words Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him for he had said I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers and he laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face and would eat no bread. So we're introduced to a character named Naboth. He has this vineyard which is next to the king Ahab. He wants this vineyard and when you think about the modern day this is what we call imminent domain. I don't know if anybody's ever heard this term before but it's basically a term where it just means the government can at their will decide that they just want to take any of your goods or possessions and then you know to make it fair they just pay you what's fair market value for it or just kind of give you some kind of price for the goods that they take but you know even in America today the government could just walk up to your house and say hey we're gonna take your house here's the money that we think your house is worth and then they can just take it and it's kind of this same idea that Ahab's trying to come on down and saying look I just want your goods I'll either give you another vineyard or I'll give you some kind of money. It's kind of interesting how most everything we have in the world today you could find a story in the Bible that tells you what that was like but we see what does Naboth say? He says the Lord forbid it me. So why was it that Naboth is saying he's not going to give him the vineyard? It was because the Lord had forbid him but we see that there's this temptation brought by King Ahab to do what? To violate God's word. To go against God's word because he's saying the Lord said I shouldn't give my vineyard to you. That would be against his commandments. So he's being tempted by Ahab with what? With money or with a vineyard. Now it doesn't necessarily say this but he may have given him a really good price or he may have given him a better vineyard. We don't know exactly but we see there was a temptation there was pressure given on him by the king to sell his goods and you know there's always going to be a temptation in our lives to violate God's word. Even from somebody of great power maybe we see that there was a great you know a man Ahab the king of Israel I mean this guy is asking to do something most of the time people want to comply with authority they want to comply with the main ruler or whoever's in charge you wouldn't want to really go against them if they really want something from you but we see hey God's word is more important to me than what you're telling me or whatever you could offer me or any kind of goods. Go to Matthew chapter 4. You know the thing that I like about Naboth which I think is really interesting is he pictures Jesus Christ in so many different ways. If you read this story it's interesting how Naboth is really a picture of Jesus Christ in a lot of different ways. Now obviously when we look at Old Testament references they're not always going to be a perfect example of Jesus Christ or everything that he went through but we can see a lot of similarities that Jesus went through the same with Naboth. So if you look at Matthew 4 let's start there in verse 1. Then was Jesus led up of the spirit in the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights he was afterward and hungered and when the tempter came to him he said if thou be the Son of God command these stones be made bread. But he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. So in the same way that Naboth was tempted we see Jesus Christ himself is tempted. Someone comes along and is trying to tempt Jesus Christ to violate God's word. And what does Jesus Christ respond with? He says you know you got to live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And I think that's a good way to word it because when we think of this commandment that Naboth is going to observe it's not really one of those that most people would know or most people would think of or one of the maybe greatest commandments. I mean you could maybe categorize it in one of the lesser commandments if you were going to you know kind of categorize the different commandments. But we see Naboth thought it was important to follow all of God's commandments too. He says look I'm not going to sell my inheritance God commanded me I'm going to live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. We see his attitude there implied through the story. So we see that he was tempted kind of in the same way. Christ was tempted in the same way that Naboth was or vice versa. So let's go back to Numbers 36. Let's see if what Naboth said was true because not necessarily just because he said that is it true that God commanded him to do that. But let's go back in the law and see if Naboth is justified in what he said. Is what he said accurate that God was saying hey you're not supposed to be giving your inheritance to this guy you're not supposed to be selling it. Numbers 36 look at verse 5 and Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord saying the tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well this is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad saying let them marry to whom they think best only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry. So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers and every daughter that possesses an inheritance and any tribe of the children of Israel shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance even as the Lord commanded Moses so did the daughters of Zelophehad. So we see here in this that God's saying look the inheritance that was given under the twelve tribes of the children of Israel was not to ever be traded hands between the tribes they were always supposed to keep that within the tribe and to be passed down we see there's another place where it said it would be passed down into the sons and if there was no son to be passed down into the daughters and if there was no daughters to be passed under the next of kin and we see there was this there was type of order that God had given for the inheritance but it wasn't just supposed to be lightly just discarded or lightly given away because when people just start giving away their inheritance and selling it maybe they might be like the prodigal son and just go spoil all the goods and then the next generation has nothing to inherit they can't they don't have any goods and then they're sold into slavery and then they're just constantly in this bondage of being poor and poor and poor God didn't want that God wanted each generation to have the inheritance that was set out for them for them to continually inherit the land that their fathers had given so they'd always have some type of portion they'd always have some type of inheritance physically that was God's plan that's why we didn't see with the year Jubilee it was always supposed to be even reset all the way to the very beginning so that even if there was any kind of shift it was always going to be reset go to Joshua chapter 15 if you live Joshua 15 now it's interesting because when you read about Naboth it says Naboth the Jezreelite Naboth the Jezreelite says that many times so if it was not even lawful for him to sell his inheritance unto Ahab I'm going to suspect that he's probably not of the same tribe but we look at Joshua chapter 15 look at verse 20 it says this is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families now then it gives a long list of the lineage of the family of Judah but look it down skip down to verse 56 if you would it says and Jezreel and Japhethim and Zenoah so we see those that were of Jezreel those that are Jezreelites are what the tribe of Judah so we know that Naboth was of the tribe of Judah so for him to be within God's commandments within God's law he was not to sell his you know land or his inheritance to someone that was not of the tribe of Judah now it gets kind of hairy here go to 1 Kings chapter 16 when we when we look at the lineage of Ahab he's a very unique character because his father his father's name is Omri and now Omri just comes on in the scene just out of nowhere I mean this guy does not we don't see his family lineage we don't see his tree and 1 Kings chapter 16 and verse 23 the Bible says and the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel 12 years sick ears reigned he in Terza and he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver and built on the hill and called the name of the city which he built after the name of Shemer owner of the hill Samaria so the only reason we even have Samaria is because this guy named Omri he bought some kind of land from somebody and he called the hill Samaria so that's where we even get you know the Samaritans and the land of Samaria is from this guy named Omri the interesting thing is Omri he just comes on the scene we don't know who his father is we don't know what tribe he is but just by the implication that he buys this land it seems that he probably didn't own it it wasn't his inheritance he's not you know this isn't part of his portion he's just buying this land and then Omri gives birth unto Ahab who we have the king Ahab coming so I can't say dogmatically that Ahab's not of the king of Judah but it seems implied in the story that that he's not from the kingdom of Judah and that would give us good reason Naboth would probably know that that's why he's saying look it's not lawful for me to sell my land unto you I can't I can't sell this land unto you because he was following God's commandments his clear commandment that he shouldn't be giving this to another tribe I believe that means Naboth probably knew hey this guy's not of my tribe but you know he's coming around trying to buy to buy the land just like his father did Omri right because Omri was buying land now maybe if possible Omri was buying that according to God's word I would suspect you know based on his life he probably wasn't following the commands of God he worked wickedness in the sight of God those of the house of Omri are very wicked in the bible it stands to reason he probably wasn't following that commandment if he wasn't following many of the other ones but let's go back to first kings chapter 21 so I think that's just kind of an interesting you know thing that Naboth is saying he's trying to follow God's word and I would give him the benefit of the doubt I would say he probably knew that Ahab was not of the king that was not of the family or the tribes of Judah and that's why he's not selling it to him he's trying to follow God's law he's trying to follow God's word we see the second way that he's like Christ if we go to verse 9 says and she wrote talking about Jezebel and she wrote in letters saying proclaim a fast and set Naboth on high among the people and set two men sons of Belial before him to bear witness against him saying thou didst blaspheme God and the king and then carried him out and stoned him that he may die so we see here Naboth was going to endure some persecution for following God's word and you know the Bible says yay and all that will of God in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution if you're tempted to follow God's word there's pressure on you to follow God's word and you decide to follow God's word there's going to also become persecution there's going to be affliction there's going to be some kind of negative consequence that comes with following God's word in many ways from a carnal aspect from those that are opposition of God opposition of the things of God those that want to persecute God and we see even with Naboth that's not any different when he decides to follow God's command he probably understood there might be some bad ramifications I mean this is the king he wants my land he has the most wicked wife one of the most wicked whites you can find in the Bible I mean there might be something coming down you know the pipe for me because of this we see of course it happens Jezebel she wants to set two men sons of Belial before him to bear witness against him now that just stands a good reason why should you even have all the murderers and the pedophiles and the sodomites you know destroyed out of land why should they be executed so then you don't have people that are just willingly going to bear false witness against somebody and kill them because you know what the sons of Belial are willing to kill people they want to kill people we don't even see this story necessarily that they were given any money they were promised anything they were threatened she's just like just find two sons of Belial they'll be willing to lie and kill somebody and put them to death how wicked how wicked to just decide I don't even know this person and I'm just gonna lie under oath so that they would be killed but that's what we see the wickedness of the sons of Belial and they're always like that says in Romans 1 that they're full of all wickedness they're full of murder we see in Judges chapter 19 that they abuse the woman all night until they leave her dead we see that the sons of Belial they want to kill they want to murder and sometimes people get the idea of like are they running around with machine guns and you know machetes and wanting to just kill people no I think it's more like this story they're willing to go to law and lie about you they're willing to get somebody involved to go out and kill you they're willing to you know use deceit and trickery and all this this vain stuff to be able to kill people we see these sons of Belial they don't want to get their hands dirty necessarily but they'll stand up and tell any kind of lie because they're full of all you know wickedness and evil and unrighteousness they're willing to lie under oath they're willing to kill you and we see that's not any different today that's not any different from the sons of Belial today that's why nations should get these people out of their country that's why they should put them to death they're worthy of death the kind of person that's willing to just lie under oath and kill somebody is worthy of death but let's go to Matthew 26 and what we see the same thing happened with Jesus Christ we see there's so many different parallels here with Naboth that are the exact same with what happened with Jesus Christ look at Matthew 26 verse 60 but found none yea though many false witnesses came yet found they none at the last came two false witnesses look at verse 61 and said this fellow said I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days and the high priest arose and said unto him answers thou nothing what is it which these witness against thee but Jesus held his peace and the high priest answered and said unto him I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the son of God Jesus saith unto him thou hast said nevertheless I say unto you hereafter shall you see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven then the high priest rent his clothes saying he hath spoken blasphemy what further need have we of witnesses behold now ye have heard his blasphemy what thinking they answered and said he is guilty of death now what did they falsely accuse Jesus Christ of a blaspheming God now Jesus Christ was of course not blaspheming God because he is the son of man he is the son of God he was testifying to the truth and he said look you're going to see me at the right hand of the father and coming in clouds with great glory he wasn't blaspheming but that's what they falsely accused him of what was one of the things they falsely accused Naboth of a blaspheming God that was the first accusation that they brought upon Naboth saying this guy's blaspheming God but we know it was a false witness the second thing they they had uh persecuted him for saying that he had blasphemed the king go be with the book of john go to the book of john you see the same thing happened with Jesus Christ and I think this is just a picture throughout the bible we see a lot of people that kind of live the life that Naboth did or have the ending that Naboth did and I think is just signifying and trying to prepare people to understand what Jesus Christ was going to do because a lot of them have this false idea that Jesus Christ when he came the first time he was going to set up some earthly kingdom and rule and take back the kingdom from the Romans and they were going to set up this heavenly kingdom on earth but that wasn't what Jesus Christ came to do he came to die for sinners he came to give his life unto those and so we see there's a lot of examples in the bible where people are being martyred for the word of God where they're dying we see that Abraham and Isaac is the perfect example I think of of the father giving the son to to die for the sins of the world we see in John chapter 19 look at verse 7 it says then it says the Jews answered him we have a law and by our law you have to die because he has made himself the son of God when Pilate therefore heard that saying he was more than he was the more afraid and went again to the judgment hall and say then to Jesus whence art thou but Jesus gave him no answer then said Pilate unto him speakest thou not unto me knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and I have power to release thee Jesus answered thou couldest have no power at all against me except to have given thee from above therefore he that delivered me unto thee had the greater sin and from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him but the Jews cried out saying if thou let this man go thou art not Caesar's friend whosoever making himself a king speaketh against Caesar when Pilate therefore heard that saying he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement but in the Hebrew gabitha and it was the preparation of the passover about the sixth hour and he said it saith unto the Jews behold your king but they cried out away with them away with them crucify him Pilate saith unto them shall I crucify your king the chief priest answered we have no king but Caesar then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified and they took Jesus and led him away so we see Jesus Christ what was another accusation that they brought against Jesus Christ look at verse 12 whosoever making himself a king speak it against Caesar what was one of the accusations they were bringing Jesus that he was going against the king that he was going against Caesar that he was trying to say he's king and not this king Caesar he's not paying respect and honor unto Caesar sounds just like Naboth they're saying he's blaspheming God and the king perfect examples of pictures of what would happen to Jesus Christ being falsely accused by the Jews and these other false witnesses let's go back to our story first king chapter 21 so again not necessarily is all persecution in the Christian life going to be death I mean there's other persecution that we can have in our life but we see a lot of times the persecution can be a threat of death or it could even lead to death we see this is the case for Naboth this is the case for Jesus Christ they died for for the word of God for what they testified of Jesus Christ testified that he was the son of God make and they said he's making himself God so they crucified him we see that Naboth is not willing to sell the vineyard and what happens about half the kill wants to kill him let's go back at verse kings 21 verse 11 and the men of the city even the elders and the nobles who were in the inhabitants in his city did as Jezebel had sent unto them and it is written and as it is written in the letters which he had sent unto them they proclaimed a fast and sent Naboth on high among the people and there came in two men children of Belial and sat before him and the men of Belial witnessed against him even against Naboth in the presence of the people saying Naboth did blaspheme God and the king then they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones that he died then they said to Jezebel saying Naboth is stoned and is dead so let's go back to Matthew chapter 27 if you will so you see it ends up coming to fruition the plan that Jezebel had devised against Naboth is a success I mean exactly to the words that she wrote in the letter they said Naboth on high they blaspheme they say that he blasphemed God and the king they falsely lie about him and then he's put to death but see there at the end though says they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones that he died another picture of the Lord Jesus Christ look at Matthew 27 verse 31 and after that they had mocked him they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him and as they came out they found a man of sirene signed by name him they compelled to bear its cross and when they were coming to a place called Golgotha that is to say a place of the skull they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and when he tasted thereof he would not drink and they crucified him and parted his garments casting lots that they might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet they parted my garments among them and upon my vesture that they cast lots so they say that they led him away they led him away to be crucified and the bible says that Jesus Christ was you know led outside of the city to be to be killed now he wasn't stoned so it wasn't exactly a perfect example of what happened to him but he was led away and then he died that was the end of the story for Naboth and Jesus Christ at least in the flesh right obviously they both live on past the flesh but it reminds me of this parable go to matthew 21 now let's go back a couple but we see that sometimes for the christian life even by following the word of god it ends in death you say why is the story of Naboth not preached you know all the time and over and over it's because of positive preaching only it's because pastors don't want to get up and preach the story of Naboth because it's negative because it's not a fun story to hear hey here's a guy did everything right and he died at the end he was lied about and he was taken out of the city and he was stoned to death and you go man that's that's not a very fun story that's not a great story to think about but that's a more realistic picture that the bible paints in a lot of ways there's a lot of characters that this paints the picture of but i think this whole story it really reminds me of matthew chapter 21 let's look at verse 33 let's read this parable here another parable there was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a wine press in it and built a tower and let it out to husband men and went into a far country and when the time of the fruit tree near he sent his servants to the husband men that they might receive the fruits of it and the husband men took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another again he sent them to other servants more than the first and they did unto them likewise but last of all he sent them his son saying they will reverence my son but when the husband men saw the son they said among themselves this is the error come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance and they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him when the lord therefore the vineyard cometh what will they do under those husband men they say in him he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto other husband which shall render him the fruits in their seasons jesus say unto them did he never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected the same has become the head of the corner this is the lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore say unto you the kingdom of god shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and whosoever shall fall on the stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to power and when the chief priests and the Pharisees had heard these parables they perceived that he spake of them but when they sought to lay hands on him they feared the multitude because they took him for a profit isn't this an interesting story when we think of naboth when we think of jesus christ and then we go back to this parable man there's a lot of stuff in here that's pretty similar isn't it we see that there's a husband now i think in this story if we were going to kind of relate it to naboth for just a second right the husband that could be who it could be the it could be god it could be the father right he's given us all things to enjoy he's entrusted naboth with what the vineyard and we see he's the servant he's gonna be he can be resembling of the servant and then what do they do they kill the servants they kill the son so they can do what seize on the inheritance just like jesabel just like ahab they want to kill him so they can seize on his inheritance but there's a lot more there isn't there this is a picture of what the jews were like in their entire you know course of history we see god's constantly sending them profits constantly sending them servants constantly doing what they're preaching the word of god and how do they respond by killing them by stoning them by crucifying the son of god we see they didn't receive him well and we see when these prophets are preaching the word of god what's their ultimate end it's death isn't it a gruesome death in some cases right very very difficult you know thing to even realize or to think about or to to ponder them they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him we see and what is the husband gonna do to them though i mean he's gonna miserably destroy them we see what happens to jesabel and ahab they're miserably destroyed even the dogs lick up their blood is what the bible teaches about those people and of course the sons of belu they're gonna burn in hell for all of eternity because they're children of this of the satan we see in this this parable that there's a lot of resemblances of what the bible teaches throughout i think of this of this story of you know what is the christian life really about what is the the ultimate you know end what is the meaning of the parable what is the meaning of you know naboth's story now obviously you can draw a lot of meanings out of this parable but i think we can see one of the reflections of being a christian one of the things that happens is sometimes you might be martyred to death sometimes your end may not be as glorious as you want it we see many of christ's servants died a very sad death one that none of us would ever you know really in a carnal way want to happen i mean nobody wants to be drug out of the city and just pelted with stones until you die nobody wants to be crucified nobody wants to be beaten to death nobody wants to be lied about and have your life ended of course we see what was the what was the reason that naboth did it was it because he just loved his vineyard so much was it because he just loved those grapes no it wasn't about the grapes he wanted to follow god's word wasn't it look at madly 23 skip over just a couple more chapters now when we think of the people in the bible there's plenty of examples that we could think of stories of victory we could think of shadrach meshach and abednego who are thrown in the fiery furnace and they're delivered by the lord jesus you know by the the angel right which was a picture of the lord jesus christ being in the fire with them we think of daniel alliance being thrown in the lion's den and we have you know the lions are you know going to possibly eat him and kill him and destroy him and he's delivered we see that angel closes the mouth of the lions we think of david and goliath the story of this great giant who could go against him in the flesh we see david pass the stone and hits him i mean these are stories that everybody knows these are stories that everybody's heard of why because there's victory but you know what there's even more stories in the bible of people that that's not how it ended for them that it didn't end in a great way it didn't end with something good happening think about the very beginning let's look at matthew 23 look at verse 35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous able under the blood of zachariah son of barak haitz whom he slew between the temple and the altar so we see jesus christ is rebuking the pharisees and he's saying look you know these guys that are righteous are constantly being slain think of the think of the very beginning we have cain and able now is able doing anything worthy of death is able just being this really wicked guy and going against god's commandments and doing that which is wrong no he's he's doing the righteous sacrifice he's following god's commandments he's trying to live for god and then what happens the wicked one comes and slays him he kills him murder i mean what a horrible way to go what a horrible way to die as we think through the bible it's the same story for so many christians over and over go to hebrews 11 if you will in first john chapter three the bible says for this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as cain who is of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore slew him because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous so the bible lifts up able says able was a righteous guy he was doing righteous things he had he had a attained favor because he had a righteous sacrifice he had sacrificed by faith right he was right he had imputed righteousness from the lord upon him and he was slain he was killed by that wicked one by cain and the world today it's not any different the wicked want to slay the righteous the wicked want to kill god's servants the wicked want to slay those that would stand for the word of god they hate the word of god they don't want anything to do with the word of god they don't want to come into the light unless their deeds should be reproved they hate it so much that they just have to get rid of it they want to kill the person that's testifying of their wickedness the word of god that shines the light on their darkness they want to get away from it so much that they're willing to spill blood and we see cain he's envious of his brother he's evil he doesn't like that his brother's righteous he doesn't like that he's doing what that which is right the bible says in romans one that they hold the truth and unrighteousness they know that what you're doing is right they know if you're following god's commandments that you're in favor with god that god's pleased with you and they don't like it because they're not because they because their works are evil because they can see hey this guy is doing that which is right i don't like him i want to murder him i want to kill him and we see this in the story over and over and over in the bible look at hebrews 11 verse 4 it says by faith able offered him to god a more excellent sacrifice than cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous god testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh so again just emphasizing the verses of the bible to talk about able that he was righteous and cain killed him look at uh skip down to verse 32 so this is kind of like what people call the hall of faith where we see all these great men in the bible all these great women in the bible those that live for god look at verse 32 and what shall i more say for the time would fail me to tell of gideon and of barack and of samson and of jephthah of david also and samuel and of the prophets who through face subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises stop the mouths of lions quench the violence of fire escape the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant and fire turned to flight the armies of the aliens this is where most churches stop their preaching they say look at all the victories that people got in the lord jesus christ look at all the victories you can get through god if you serve god it always be good for you everything blessing i mean your best life now i mean you're just going to have victory through jesus christ it's even in this life not the life next that's really what that song's about i mean the songs of victory that jesus is the fact that we'll go to heaven that we can overcome death and hell that we can be uh have eternal life through jesus christ not that you're going to necessarily always victory in this life not that you're always going to win some kind of battle in this life and obviously we don't wrestle against flesh and blood today in the new testament but we wrestle against spiritual wickedness right but are you always going to win are you always going to win that physical battle are you always going to have that that physical victory is it always going to be roses is everything great going to happen for you now i believe the mindset of a christian should be one to have hope on the lord to be trusting in the lord and saying hey i know he can deliver me i know he's powerful i know i can you know rot victory but that may not be the case but you know what i'm going to trust the lord anyways i'm going to stay steadfast in his word let's look at the the rest of this this chapter it says in verse 35 women received their dead raised to life and others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they may obtain a better resurrection and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yay moreover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worth they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and all these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise god having a right in some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect so of course i think a lot of people would say hey i want to be on the winning team hey i want to win the battle hey i want god you know help me defeat goliath and defeat you know the lion's den and go through the fiery furnace but when it comes to being able to go through the rest of this stuff the torture the not accepting deliverance cruel mockings bonds and imprisonment stone sawn asunder this is when people start getting offended head by their offended and they want to you know decide hey i like god's word but not that much hey i thought we were going to get victory i thought nothing bad would ever happen to me if i followed the word of god no we see there's a lot of times that there's going to be great persecution great affliction great distress great things that are very wicked and evil could come upon god's people even though they're in the will of god that could be the will of god for their life right say wow that doesn't sound very exciting but i like verse 35 because it it gives it gives a little bit of hope in the midst of all this you know evil it says that they may might obtain a better resurrection saying look hey if you go through such you know persecution such affliction you if you ended your life in such a horrible way hey you're gonna have a better resurrection and you know what's 60 70 80 years in the light of eternity what is that in the light of you know the eternal glory that comes from the lord jesus christ if you truly have your heart set on things above on the glory that comes from god on pleasing the father on the thing that you know is going to carry with you into eternity you're not going to shy away from whatever could happen in this life of some type of school you know cruel of mocking your scourging in fact and i don't even think this is the wrong attitude you might actually desire it if you really understood what you get for going through the persecution and tribulation and the afflictions you may say hey i don't even think that would be a bad way to go why because in light of eternity you'd rather have the eternal glory and the rewards that comes from heaven so even if you were to go through these persecutions it can strengthen you in your mind to say hey you know what i hope god delivers me because then i can keep preaching the gospel because then i can spend my life but if i don't maybe i'll just get a better resurrection maybe i'll just put that extra crown i'll just have that better i'll shine brighter in heaven so you see you can have the courage and the boldness to stand for the word of god no matter what affliction comes upon you because as we look at the days approaching it looks like jesus christ could come sooner than later it seems that the day is approaching fast we see that the world's getting more wicked as the days go on and we need to set a reality in our minds and in the hearts of the people that look bad things could happen to us you could be persecuted with very hard trials of death of imprisonment of being beaten of things very terrible that you would think i never really want to go through that in the flesh but you see hey that could give me even more rewards in heaven that could give you more glory to god i want to look at a few more examples let's keep going in hebrews chapter 12 though let's keep finishing this thought because we've been kind of building on the hall of faith all these great victories and then we kind of see some you know uh well in the in the flesh some you know not victories you know some persecution affliction look at hebrews 12 verse 1 whereforeseeing we were also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of god for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be wearied and faint in your minds he have not resisted in the blood striving against sin now i want to i like the way this is worded because i want to caveat this i don't think it's wrong to desire to be persecuted or you know or have joy for being persecuted or going through some some kind of tribulation for the word of god but we see even jesus christ he despised the shame meaning he endured the afflictions right he endured the cross meaning he wasn't enjoying the pain he wasn't enjoying getting beaten he wasn't enjoying being mocked he didn't enjoy the fact that people were you know cursing him and he's going through the afflictions for the word of god it wasn't a physical pleasure unto him it was persecution it was affliction but he knew hey i need to do this for a for an end goal he had an end goal purpose what so that the world could be saved so that all those that would believe on him could have everlasting life so that we could you know be resurrected with them he did that he endured that so that we could have that right he endured it so he could save the world so he could die for the sins of the world just like us we may have to endure some type of affliction and persecution and we can have the hope in the future hey i could obtain a better resurrection the word of god will go forth even more freely so we should never shy away from persecution and tribulation if we have eternal mindset if we understand the the purposes and and uh goals that the lord jesus christ has set before us because if you're in god's will i don't believe that he's going to bring upon persecution and tribulation in vain it will be either you know for your betterment of reward in heaven to further the gospel to bring more honor and glory unto him because we see this guy was faithful unto death this guy believes the word of god so much he wants to follow god's word so much that even at the threat of death he's still going to stay with it he's still going to stick with the word of god let's go to acts chapter seven let's look at a couple more people i think it's important to get you know a full-scale view of all these people that suffered great affliction great persecution in the bible look at acts chapter seven verse 57 then they cried out with a loud voice and stomped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witness laid down their clothes at a young man's feet his name was saul and they stoned stephen calling upon god and saying lord jesus receive my spirit and he kneeled down and cried to the loud voice lord lay not this sin to their charge and when he had said this he fell asleep we see stephen a man full of faith full of the holy ghost appointed under the business of the lord he preaches this great sermon he preaches the word of god to the jews trying to get him saved trying to get him to believe on jesus christ and then he's stoned to death wow what a way to go what a way to end your life not a way that many people would say that sounds great that sounds like a good way to go but we see even at the at the point of him dying he still has mercy on the people saying lord lay not this sin of their charge what a mindset what he must have the eternal vision he must be thinking of things above not on things in the earth because if you're thinking of only things on the earth you could never have this mindset you could never desire you know to want to be stoned you may have decided to hold back some of his preaching so as not to be stoned because as he starts out just giving the history of the jews he's not really offending anybody he's not really you know upsetting them by talking about abram and isaac and jacob and all the fathers and all the history it's when he gets to the end and he starts preaching about jesus christ and how they rejected him and then they get then they turn on them then they turn their ears and stop their feet they're in charge after them they take them out of the city they stole them right we see in uh mark chapter six i'll read for you it says immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought and he went and beheaded him in prison who's it talking about john the baddest who's considered one of the greatest men among born among women according to jesus christ right the greatest man how did he end his life by being beheaded in prison what a horrible way to go we think of great men like stephen stoned to death we think of john the baddest his head cut off we think of the lord jesus christ killed at age 30 crucified we think of naboth what just taken out and stoned there's so many people in the bio i don't even have time just like he said the time would fail me to tell of all those that end such a horrible death go to revelation chapter 20 if you would revelation 20 i'll read for you in acts 12 it says now about that time harry the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church and he killed james the brother of john with the sword and because he saw it pleased the jews he proceeded further to take peter also then were the days of 11 bread we see the false religion they loved it when a god's man was killed they loved it when james was killed and the false religions today they want nothing more than the the man of god to be killed to be put to death false religion is one of your enemies the jews the jews religion is the enemy of the gospel he's the enemy of christ we see that james i mean one of the disciples killed with the sword what a horrible way to go we see he's even seeking after peter trying to kill him too look at revelation 20 verse four and i saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them and i saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of jesus and for the word of god and which had not worshiped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with christ a thousand years so there's going to be a great multitude of people that are beheaded for jesus christ not just john the Baptist even other people that would be beheaded for jesus christ would they rule and reign with them but we see that they're given this great mention in the bible and what were they doing they were standing for the word of god they were going to take the mark of the beast which is contrary to scripture which is contrary to the word of god they're standing for the word of god and then they're beheaded we see john the Baptist preaching the word of god and he's beheaded we see steven preaching jesus christ and he's stoned to death we see Naboth standing for the word of god he's drugged out and killed jesus christ preaching the word of god of course everything comes out of the word of god right and then he's what crucified we see in john chapter 21 verse 18 verily verily i send you when thou was young thou girdest thyself and walkest with thou wouldest but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands in another so girdly and carry thee whether thou wouldest not this spake he signifying by what death he should glorify god and we have spoken this he saith unto him follow me when jesus christ was speaking to peter he gives them a kind of this you know vague interpretation of when he's going to die he says look you're going to be carried where you don't want to go speaking of what death just meaning he's not going to die a death that he wants to die he's not going to die in some you know in old age he's going to be drug out somewhere he doesn't want to go signifying what death sounds a lot like you know jesus christ what drug out crucified we see Naboth drug out of the city in stone we see you know paul drug out in stone i think that's you know probably an idea of what maybe has happened to peter i'm not going to get dogmatic the bible gives us a vague description but we see even peter probably died a gruesome death died a death that he didn't want to die we see all these great men of god all these people throughout the bible jesus christ preaching in the parable all these servants all these prophets dying zacharias able all through the old testament men and women being sawed asunder being killed being sawed asunder that sounds horrible for the word of god then we have all the stories of victory right go to daniel chapter three so we talked about shadrach nishak and abednego being a story of victory but i like their attitude and i think this is the attitude that we should always have is the attitude of shadrach nishak and abednego the bible says in james one blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the lord hath promised to them that love him so we even saw before when he's talking about uh john chapter 21 when peter would die it would glorify god so one way if you die for the word of god it brings honor and glory unto the lord jesus christ it gives honor and glory unto the word of god saying this is worthy for me to die there's a lot of ways you could die i mean you could die in vanity you see people today they'll be bodyguards they'll go out and serve in the military they'll die for their country they'll die for some man perhaps why wouldn't you want to die for the word of god that's way better than just dying for some guy or just dying for some country that's wicked as hell like our country i mean what a horrible way to die there's so many ways to die why not die for the lord jesus christ and that would be a good idea to get in her head say hey i'm gonna i'm just gonna live the life that god's gonna give me and i want to not compromise on his word and i'll tell you to die that he's appointed unto me look at daniel chapter three verse 16 shadrach nishak and abednego answered and said to the king oh nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter 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 thy hand o king but if not be it known unto thee o king that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up now even if they have died in the fiery furnace i like their attitude they're saying look we know god's able to deliver us our god is all powerful he's in control you wouldn't have power unless i've been giving you from heaven but you know what if he if he's going to let us burn we're going to burn but we're not going to go against the word of god we're not going to serve the gods that you set up for us we're not going to bow down and worship them i'm not going to go against god's word i'm going to serve it faithfully and i'm going to put my hands in him i'm in his hand i'm going to put my life in his hands i'm going to trust my soul and my life and his hands not just for salvation but my physical flesh i have a lot more let's go to uh ax chapter five for the interest of time but i like their attitude we see that you get glory unto god when you die we see in james chapter one that it says you would be given the crown of life we see that you could obtain a better resurrection it's not to die in vain there's a lot of reward and blessing and good that can come out of suffering for jesus christ the bible says in uh in revelation 2 10 i'll read for you fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that he may be tried and he shall have tribulation 10 days be thou faithful unto death and i will give thee a crown of life jesus christ is saying look y'all are going to be persecuted with the threat of death and you're going to be put to death but be faithful unto death and guess what i'll give you a crown of life i mean what what a promise of god but look is he promising best life now is he promising all the blessings in this life nobody's saying i want you to die for me but guess what i'll give you a crown of life when you get up here in heaven to be asking for the bodies to be present with the lord and you're not gonna ever you know be like man i shouldn't have done it i should i should have followed god's word no you actually suffer loss if you decide not to follow god's word when you get to heaven when you stand in the judgment seat of christ and he's rewarding you according to your works he's like hey i adored these works for you i adored you to be faithful unto death and inherit all these great rewards and the crown of life but you didn't do it now you're going to suffer loss because you didn't follow god's commandments see it's a hard thing to do this isn't an easy thing this isn't the first step of christianity this is a thing that we should work up to but if we're eternally minded if we're thinking on the things of god we say you know what god's word is always going to be the precedent for me i'm always going to follow i'm going to be faithful unto death we see that you can have the boldness to stand for the word of god even at the threat of death or even at the threat of dignities or these powers coming unto you and saying are you really going to follow god's word yes absolutely i know god's able to deliver me but even if he won't i want to follow god's word because it's always going to be the best thing for me go if you would did i have you go to act chapter five go back to chapter five by having me turn there i'll read for you a couple other places says in uh act Romans chapter eight who shall separate us from the love of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or soul as it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter nay and all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for i am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor death nor any creature shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus look you can't be separated from the love of christ tribulation persecution and he says that we're counted for all for thy sake we are killed all the day long christ servants are constantly killed for the word of god it's a it's a more common occurrence than those that are right in the victory if you really look at the guys standing for the word of god many times they're killed and slain for the word of god we see there's a lot of those same those stories in the bible in act chapter five verse 40 the bible says and to him they agreed and when they called the apostles and beaten them they commanded that they should not speak in the name of jesus and they let them go and they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name and daily in the temple in every house they cease not to teach and preach jesus christ we see the early disciples they were commanded hey don't preach in jesus christ's name and they did it anyways and then they were beaten and you know what they i don't believe they enjoyed the beating okay just like christ endured the cross we see that he despised the shame nobody enjoys getting physically beaten that's horrible but after the fact guess what they were able to rejoice they're like we were counted worthy to suffer for the lord jesus christ the lord jesus christ allowed us to go through tribulation and persecution for his name's sake that must mean i'm doing something right that must mean i'm going out and preaching the gospel i'm doing what he said yay and all that will live godly in christ jesus of persecution you say oh i'm not going to get persecuted well are you living godly are you following all those commandments are you going out and preaching the gospel with boldness because if you go out and preach the gospel with boldness undoubtedly you will suffer persecution you will suffer tribulation now i'm not saying it's always the exact same it's not like if you go soul winning you're going to get drug out and stoned to death every single time or something like that but be sure if you decide hey i'm going to follow god's commandments the enemy's going to come for you and he's going to tempt you and then guess what when you don't you know fall during that temptation there's going to be persecution and it could even lead unto death but we see with naboth it wasn't about the grapes he didn't decide to say i can't sell you my vineyard because he just loved the grapes of his vineyard he didn't do it because of the wine he didn't do it because he just really wanted that piece of land he did it because of the word of god he wasn't going to violate god's word that's why he decided to stand on the word of god that's why he didn't violate the commandments we see when you're rooted and grounded and say i want to follow god's word the circumstances don't really matter you may not have a the vineyard be your temptation it could be something else right but we see that it's for the word of god that he that he stayed faithful first corinthians 15 it says oh death where is thy sting oh great where is thy victory you know for a christian you can actually not fear death you can not fear the physical death which is a hard thing in the carnal mind to experience it's a hard thing for us to really wrap our minds around because most of us want to live you know a long life we want to have a family we want to have kids we want to see a lot of things we travel the world we want to get as many people saved as we can we want to do a lot of things we want to eat we want to eat steak dinner again i mean i'm looking for the next time i get to do something like that right but you cannot fear death if you say hey i'm going to follow god's commandments i'm going to follow his word i'm going to try and be faithful his word and if he appoints me into death especially through persecution oh where's that sting i'm just going to get even more rewards in heaven if i go through the tribulation now i can rejoice even more i bet the bed you know shatter me shaking a bed to go if you'd ask them do you want to be thrown in a fiery furnace hit him like no that sounds horrible but after the fact couldn't you have great rejoicing be like man i was thrown in the fiery furnace and not even says a bit the lord jesus christ delivered me what a great testimony what a great thing to go through and rejoice we see that the apostles they're threatened to be to be killed we see peter's put in prison to be killed and they endured that they go through that so if you survive now you have a great testimony you can rejoice if you don't survive through the persecution what happens you're gonna get a crown of righteousness you're gonna get a crown of life you're gonna have great rewards from the come from god the father it's a win-win but you know it's always a lose when you decide hey i'm not going to follow god's word hey i'm going to go ahead and sell the vineyard hey you know what he's he's the king i might as well just do what he said i'll leave you in this last verse philippians 1 verse 21 for me to live is christ and to die is gain but if i live in the flesh this is the fruit of my labor yet what i shall choose i woke not for i am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to part and to be with christ which is far better nevertheless the bite in the flesh is more needful for you in the christian mind to be with christ is better to the part is far better to be with jesus christ is better we should not fear death we should we should rejoice to follow god's word now of course if you get out of god's will if you're sinning if you're living a wicked life you better fear death because the for the ways of sin is death but for those that are following god's word for those that are trying to be faithful unto his word you can not fear death you can say hey i'm going to obtain a better resurrection i want to be like naboth that's why i think when we think of naboth we should think of the the endurance that he had the desire he had to follow god's word and how he was faithful unto death how so many people in the bible are faithful unto that i think this is something that as a christian we should ponder on and get settled in our heart because if you don't have it settled in your heart now how are you going to do it when the real temptation comes when the real struggle comes there's a lot of men even peter i believe he was sincere when he said that he would lay down his life for christ yeah but guess what when the temptation came he wasn't he wasn't ready in his heart and i think it's realistic to believe in our lifetime the way our world is headed that there could be some rough times there could be some rough persecution and we should we should i hope that this sermon or the story of god's word naboth will come into your mind and say hey you know what if naboth can die for not selling his inheritance how much more can i for the word of god for the commandments that he's given me let's let's close in prayer thank you father so much for your word thank you so much for your example that you gave us an example of so other some so many other men thank you so much that even if we are persecuted or go through tribulation for your namesake that you reward us for that that you're there with us and that even if we were to die a physical death that we would depart and be with you forever and we could rule and reign with you thank you so much for being a loving and merciful god i pray that every one of us would have the faith and the boldness to just put our life in your hands that we would be faithful into death if it ever came to that and that we could continue to serve you in jesus name we pray amen