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

One, two, three, four, five. So that's just going to make it higher. Does this chord sound right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like 160? 67. What's the first song? Number 10. Welcome to Smith Pass Baptist Church. If you could find your seat and grab a song book. Let's turn in our song books tonight to song 110, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Song 110, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Song 110, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. On the first. Song 110 on the second. All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Cheers each winding path I tread. Gives me grace for every trial. Feeds me with a living bread. Though my weary steps may falter. And my soul a thirst may be. Gushing from the rock before me. Lo, a spring of joy I see. Gushing from the rock before me. Lo, a spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me. Oh, the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised. In my Father's house above. When my spirit glowed immortal. Wings as flying to realms of day. This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. Amen, let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day. And we just thank you so much for salvation. The opportunity to sing praises unto you, Lord. I pray that you fill us all with the Holy Spirit and bless this service. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Let's go to our next song, song number 50. Song number 50, Peace Perfect Peace. Song 5-0, Peace Perfect Peace, on the first. Peace Perfect Peace, in this dark world of sin. The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. Peace Perfect Peace, with sorrow surging round. On Jesus was a nut, but calm is found. Peace Perfect Peace, our future all unknown. Jesus we know when he is on the throne. Peace Perfect Peace, death shadowing us and ours. Jesus hath vanquished death and all its powers. It is enough. Earth's struggle soon shall cease. And Jesus, call us to his perfect peace. Good singing. Good evening, thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin, you can have an usher come by. And just lift your hand up real quick and they can come by and get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage. Any child of 18 or under that can quote Exodus 20-18 can receive either an ice cream or a couple pieces of candy from our dish. Please make sure to quote that to either an usher, myself, or Brother Dylan. And then on the inside we have our service times, our soul winning times. One note is on the Saturday soul winning time, Brother Negara is taking over for Duncan right now. And if you would like to participate, they are having a breakfast at 9 a.m. So just an hour before that time, he just wanted to have some fellowship and provide breakfast. And so if you would like to participate, please let Brother Negara know. And that is just another great time of fellowship you can have before you go out and preach the gospel. He will feed you carnally if you go out and feed somebody spiritually later, right? And then also, I am going to get a count for soul winning for the last few days. Was there anything to report of on Monday? Was there anything on Monday by chance? Okay, what about Tuesday? Anything for Tuesday? Four for Tuesday. What about today? Was there anything from today? Alright, keep up the good work on our soul winning. On the right we have our list of expecting ladies. We have several there. Please make sure to be praying for them. I know that Brother Goodwin, he texted me earlier today and said that they had gone to the hospital. So I do not have an update, but we will just keep praying for them. We may even have another Goodwin on the way already here. I do not know. But we will be praying for them. Hopefully things go well. Could have been a false alarm. You never know with these things, right? And then also we have several lists on our prayer list. Please make sure to continue to send those in via email or you can fill out a communication card. But we have Ms. Rebecca Negara. Please continue to pray for her health. The Hinckley family, if you would be in prayer for Ms. Camelia's health as well. Lana Proctor was asking for salvation for I think some family members and friends. Annalise Wright, Cindy Owens, and Lancee Holmes. The Morgan family was asking for prayer for their cousin's health and surgery. Ms. Lucy's mother's tumors have come back and so they are asking for prayer for that. Brother Cameron Hall is a leg. Brother Paul Weathers just asked him for more peace and discernment for his job. The Helm family for some wisdom and guidance. Matt Ihle's grandmother's health and salvation. Suhail Afzal is traveling for a little bit, so we will be in prayer for him while he is traveling. Brother Naeem, his son John's health. I think he has been doing better. Is that correct? Good. And then Brother Carlos Guzman, he had a prayer request for more labors for the Spanish ministry. So that is definitely a great prayer request. Our Spanish ministry has been going very well, but it is never going to hurt to have even more preachers or song leaders or soul winners or just getting people to come to our Spanish ministry trying to get people plugged in from our community into a good church. It is hard to find an independent fundamental Baptist church that is for Spanish speakers these days. It is very few and far between. Most of the time they have to turn to a Pentecostal church or they have to turn to a Catholic. Those are pretty much the two major Spanish speaking churches. So it is great that we have an opportunity with so much talent to kind of reach that Spanish community. So we really want to try and bring more people in here and try to get them in. Let's go ahead and say, I want to say a quick word of prayer for our list as a church family and then we will go to our events. Thank you Heavenly Father for our church. Thank you for steadfast Baptist church. I pray that you would continue to bless the service, bless the preaching, and please help all those that were mentioned here. Please help all the expecting ladies. Please be with the Goodwins as they are expecting their next child. I pray that you would just help all those that have health concerns in our church, that you would be with those that need wisdom and favor, that you would continue to bless our church with more laborers, not just in English but also in Spanish, and that our ministries could grow to reach more people with the gospel, that we could give you more honor and glory, and we thank you for all you give us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Also we have a coming event, Ardmore, Oklahoma Sewing Marathon. We have a sign-up sheet over here on the cabinet. Please make sure to sign up for that. We are going to be meeting at a local park. I was going to make a video today, but I think we might change the park location, so as soon as I have that I'll update you. We're going to Ardmore. It's not that far. If you're there, you're there, right? We're going to be there from 9 to 10, and we'll have breakfast. We're going to meet at a local park, and then we'll go out sewing from about 10 to 1230, and then we're going to have lunch catered at the same park. You just keep going to the same park, and then we'll have lunch for about an hour and a half. Then we'll go out sewing again from about 2 to 5, and so if you want to go out there with us, we'd love for you to go. If you need a ride, please indicate that on the sheet. I'm really looking forward to this. I think it's going to be a fun event. We'll have lots of people out there, lots of soul winning. Again, we'll feed you carnally if you go out and you're willing to preach. Look, you don't even have to preach. You could just be a silent partner. You could literally just be along for the ride and get fed the whole way. I don't know why you wouldn't sign up for something like that, but I'd really encourage you to go out there and partner with us to preach the gospel. July 3rd, we're going to have Soul Winning Marathon here, and after everything's said and done, we'll have hot dogs and a cookout just hanging out at the evening. Then October 6th through 10th, we have our Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. Really looking forward to that. This month, we're celebrating the anti-pride that the Bible teaches, that we're supposed to be against pride. It's our anti-pride celebration. If you can quote Romans 1 to a non-family member, you will receive a prize. Prizes will be collected towards the end of the month. There's going to be some good prizes out there. I really encourage you to be coming to church in the month of June. Hopefully it'll heat up in the climate, and the preaching will heat up a little bit. I'm really excited that you're here. Let's go to our third song. 154, Blessed be the tie that binds. All right, song 154, Blessed be the tie that binds. Song 154 on the first. Blessed be the tie that binds. Our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our Father's throne, we pour our ardent prayers, our fears, our hopes, our aims, our won, our comforts and our cares. We share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bare, and often for each other flows the sympathizing tear. When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain, but we shall still be joined in heart and hope to meet again. As offering plates are being passed around, please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. Genesis 15, the Bible reads, After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old and a she-goat of three years old and a ram of three years old and a turtledove and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one by one. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and low and horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge. And afterward shall they come out with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Under thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt, under the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Gergashites, and the Jebusites. Let's bow our head for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for Genesis chapter 15. I pray you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now so that he could teach this chapter to us, Lord, and also help us to pay attention so we can learn about the spiritual pictures in this chapter and also the lessons that you're trying to communicate to us here in this portion of scripture. We thank you for our church and all the works you're enabling us to do for the cause of Christ. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. So we've been in a Bible study of Genesis and we're in chapter number 15. And we had just left off with Abram saving Lot out of a disaster. There was a war. And he pays tithes unto Melchizedek in chapter number 14. And so now it's just kind of more time has passed. Abram's still in the land. And we're really honed in and focused on Abram in this chapter. It says in verse number 1, After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Now, I think this is an interesting verse because thinking about the tail end, what kind of happened in chapter number 14? He went and he delivered Lot out of the hand of all these kings, out of Kidolahomer, however you say that. And it doesn't matter anymore. Nobody cares about him. But he saves them out of his hand. He rescues all the goods. And the king of Sodom is kind of offering him a bunch of money. He's offering him a lot of goods. And Abram doesn't want that. Abram doesn't want his money. He wants simply the men that came with him to come back with him. And now in chapter number 15, though, it's bringing up the fact that Abram's still going to have a reward. But what is that reward? Well, it's not money. It's not living in Sodom. It's not necessarily even where he's living right now. Because he's never even going to inherit it. The real reward, according to the Bible, is the Lord. He's saying that I. And notice specifically, he says, thy exceeding great reward. Now, exceed is to go beyond or to go above something. So he's saying, I'm even better than just a reward. I mean, I'm your exceeding great reward. Me myself. That is really the prize that you should be after. And when you understand the Bible and you start realizing who God is and who Christ is, the more you can understand that he really is the greatest treasure. The greatest treasure, the greatest riches that we have is really Christ himself, is really God himself. And that's really what is to be cherished and prized. A lot of people, to them, the greatest reward would be something financial. Getting a certain amount of money, billions of dollars, or trillions of dollars, or something like that. Or having some kind of a house. That would be the great reward. Or having some kind of accolade. Or winning some great trophy. Winning the Super Bowl. Holding up the Lambo trophy. Or holding up the Master's Cup. Or whatever it is, that would be the great reward. Or maybe they may even look at it as a physical reward in the sense of a spouse. Winning that, you finally got that bride. Or you finally got that princess. You finally rescued Princess from the dragon or whatever. And that's your reward. She's your reward. She's your claimed prize. But the Bible teaches that while all those things have their place, and God gave us a lot of things to enjoy, such as a spouse, such as houses, lands, food, and all these things, the real ultimate reward in this life is Christ. Is God himself. Go to Philippians, chapter number three. Philippians, chapter number three, for a moment. And I'll read for you in Psalms, the Bible says, For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous. With favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield. So the Bible makes it clear that God's a shield unto us. Certainly he's going to protect us. Certainly the Lord is there to ensure that nothing bad will happen to us, that he doesn't allow. That essentially he's going to watch over us and provide for us and give us all the things that we need. But he goes beyond just simply being a provider. He goes beyond simply just being one that shields you from evil. He goes beyond just providing all the necessities of your life to actually being a reward on top of that. Because obviously someone could protect you, guard you, shield you, provide for you, and not be much of a reward. I don't know, the government, right? Couldn't the government be one that protects you, guards you, shields you, provides for you? If you're on welfare, right? I mean, hey, you got the military to protect you. You got all these things. But are they really a reward? Are they really a prize to be cherished and to be treasured and really look forward to? No. And so there's lots of people that could provide the shield, and God definitely provides that. But God goes beyond just being a simple shield. He goes on to being the greatest treasure, the greatest riches that we could ever have, that we could ever possess, that we could ever attain unto. And the apostle Paul realizes this, and he's willing to give up everything for God. Everything is just completely second place in every category, in every area of his life. He's willing to give up anything and everything that he's ever had, ever worked for, ever earned, ever achieved, ever been gifted to him. He just says, I want none of that. The only thing I really want is Christ. And this is the ultimate attitude that we really should strive for. But look at Philippians chapter 3, verse 7. It kind of highlights the apostle Paul's feelings. It says in verse 7, But what things are gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless. And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ, and being found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain under the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth under those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So notice he's striving for a prize. You say, what's that prize? It's God. It's the knowledge of God. It's the relationship with God. It's to be conformable to his image. It's to be like unto him. It's to be pleasing unto him, but not just that. It's simply to even just know him. It's the ultimate relationship. It's the ultimate fulfillment. It's the ultimate joy. It's the ultimate in every single way. It's the exceeding great reward, and God's trying to tell Abraham here, look, I am by exceeding great reward. What should we all be striving for is Christ. It's to be like Christ so that we can know him. He says, hey, I'm forsaking all these things that I may know him. I've heard a lot of good preaching, and I think that this verse could be used in this way, but a lot of people will take you to specifically verse number 13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. I've heard a lot of good preaching where they emphasize that this is to forget all your sin and kind of forget all the bad things you've done and just kind of let them go and just kind of move on. But if you really think about the context of what he's saying he's leaving behind, he's not talking about just sin. He's talking about things that are good. Notice what he said in verse number 7, but what things were gain to me, those I accounted for loss. So he's saying even though sins are obviously put behind us and even though obviously we can move on from our past, he's saying even just something that is really a gain to me, something that I really enjoy, something that's really great unto me, hey, I'm forgetting that I even left that in the dust. What could be that? A house, a car, a relationship, things that were gain unto you, things that were good unto you, things that you enjoyed, things that you liked. He's saying, look, I'm leaving those behind. And think about what the apostle Paul really did. Didn't the apostle Paul literally leave everything he knew, everyone he knew, all behind so that what? He could be like Christ. He could know the sufferings of Christ. Who on this earth really could experience the true pains and sufferings that Christ went through more than Paul? Paul, I mean, Paul basically is being killed over, it's like Groundhog's Day for him. He's like thrice trip wrecked and, you know, stolen multiple times. I mean, this guy seems like he's dying every single day, but somehow just keeps going and keeps going. And who really understands what it's like to leave everything behind and suffer and be persecuted and hated and just an off-scoring to the world? More than the apostle Paul. Why did he do that? Because his prize was Christ. It's not a coincidence that Paul probably, arguably, had the greatest understanding of the Bible than any other man. Why? Because he's seeking Christ, he's seeking the knowledge of God. He realizes the treasure that is the word of God, and by forsaking everything and by seeking unto the Lord, God gave him revelation after revelation after revelation. He even says he had to get a thorn in the flesh just to humble him because of all the revelations and all the wisdom and all the knowledge that God had given unto him. And we think about some of the greatest men in the Bible. What are they really striving for? What really separates them? It's their knowledge of God that separates them. What made Moses so special is that he got to see the backside of God and his face shown. What made John so special? He literally went into heaven and he got to see all kinds of wonderful things and got to see, you know, visions. He has the Lord Jesus Christ who he's describing unto us. What was the thing that made Peter, John, and James so special? They got to see the transfigured Lord Jesus Christ, didn't they? Why? Because the real ultimate goal is Christ. People say, who are you excited to see in heaven? Jesus. That's Peter, Paul, John. It's like, it's Jesus. That's who I'm excited to see. That's who we're all anticipating and looking forward to. He's the great prize. I mean, let's imagine we go to heaven and you're stuck talking a lot. And I'm getting to talk to Christ. Like, you know who you're going to be envious of, right? I mean, isn't it kind of similar? Let's say you go to a conference and you go where there's a keynote speaker. There's someone that's just really well-known. They're the great speaker. After that conference, who is it that you want to talk to? You want to talk to the keynote speaker. You want to be buddies with him. You want to ask him questions and be around him. Look, that's what it's like with God is that's the person we want to be around. That's the person we want to ask questions to. That's the person we want to spend time with. He's the real riches. But a lot of people are missing out on that riches that we have, which is called the word of God. You say, well, how do I get that? You read the Bible. You pray. You serve God. And when you serve God, you're going to actually see God. You're going to feel the feelings of God. The Holy Spirit's going to lighten unto you the word of God. God's going to speak to you through his word. And you actually get to have that type of relationship. You get to see the true riches that are there, which is Christ. You're not going to get greater joy than reading your Bible. You're not going to feel the emotions that you feel when reading the Bible. When you see the pain, the suffering that Christ goes through, there's a special emotional feeling that you can get that cannot be replicated by anything else. This is the real deal. And we need to understand that God is our true reward. Go back to Genesis chapter number 15. Don't skip over that verse and not realize the significance because let's relate it back to the story. What is Abram doing? Isn't he doing the same thing we talked about with Paul? Isn't he leaving everything behind? Isn't he leaving his whole family, his whole land, everything that he's known to go travel into sojourn in a foreign land, in a strange land? Why? Because what's his ultimate prize? Does Abram really care or Abraham really care about the land? Is he really doing it for the cattle, for the riches, for the land, for the notoriety? The only thing he's doing is he's just seeking after God. He wants to be pleasing unto the Lord. He realizes the ultimate prize, the ultimate thing that I'm striving for here, the ultimate thing I'm pressing towards right now is God, is Christ, and to know Him and to believe in Him and to be faithful unto Him. That's the whole point of this chapter. It's not about trying to figure out how to get rich and try to figure out how to be blessed and try to figure out how to have all these rewards. Yeah, God's a shield and God's going to bless you and God's going to provide for you and God's going to take care of you and all those things. But at the end of the day, the real motivation, the real thing that you were striving for is to just know Christ. It's the Word of God and you can all have that. We're not promised having great riches or having all the luxuries of this world, but you know what? You can know Christ. The only thing holding you back is you. And we need to realize that true reward we have. Verse 2, the Bible says, And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, to me thou is given no seed, and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now, here's the thing you have to understand about a couple of things in this passage. Obviously Abram, I believe, truly understands the Lord's reward, but he's also kind of thinking of it in a carnal sense, right? Because he's like, Well, what reward am I going to get? Because you keep telling me about this promised seed, but I don't even have a single child. All I have is this steward. All I have is this guy, Eliezer of Damascus. He's going to be the one that inherits all of my wealth. He's going to be the one that gets all these goods. I don't understand how this promise is going to come to fruition. And so God is reiterating to him. God is continuing to give him more promises and more instruction about how he's going to fulfill that reward and those promises about that seed. And he even gives him a challenge. He says, Look, why don't you just look up into the sky? And it says very clearly, tell the stars. Now, the word tell is a little bit older usage than we would normally think of. The word tell can also mean count. Okay, so just synonymous with the word count. The Bible also talks about you can tell all my bones when Christ is talking prophetically, being on the cross, just meaning you can count all of his bones, okay? So here it's just saying, Count the stars. And he's like, If you're capable of numbering the stars, that's how many descendants that the seed is going to end up having. That's how many they're going to end up being. So it's going to be a number that's beyond just reasonable numbers of counting. We could only count to maybe thousands or something in a reasonable sense. Yeah, it's physically possible to count to a million, but I don't think anybody has or ever will do it. I mean, it takes so much dedication. I can't remember, it's like a year or four years or something. If you just counted nonstop, I mean, it would take like a year or four years or something ridiculous like that to count all the way up to a million. No one's going to ever end up doing that. The only way to count to a million is to have modern technology and modern functional, you know, things like calculators and computers and things like that today. So he's saying, you know, you just looking up, you're not going to sit here and be like one, two, skip a few, a couple million. You know, it's like you're not going to be able to get to such a high number. That's what the Lord's kind of impressing unto Abram saying, you're going to have literally millions of descendants. And, you know, it's kind of crazy because he's thinking like, I don't even have a single kid, right? Wouldn't that be kind of like to tell someone has no kids and at his age, you got to think about it. He left when he was 75. OK, now we don't exact I don't know how exactly old he is in Chapter 15. We know later whenever he has Ishmael, he's 86. OK, so some somewhere between 75, 86. He's probably a lot closer to 86 based on all the other events that have happened, giving us a lot more time to pass because he went with lot down into the promised land. They went into Egypt and they came back. Then lot went into Sodom, then eventually rescued. So, I mean, this is probably multiple years have gone by. He's about 80 years old. No kids. And God's saying, like, you're going to have multiple descendants. Now, how could you believe that? Only by faith. There's no carnal. I mean, you could tell a little kid like you're going to have millions of descendants and they could just think like, OK. But when you're an 80-year-old man, it's like that's not even possible. I don't even have a single kid. How is this even going to work? It doesn't even make logical sense. But he can believe it by faith. He can say, well, if God said it, it's going to happen. And you say, how is it going to happen? I have no idea. That's called faith. You know, faith is not sight. Faith is just believing the promise that's made to you. Faith is trusting what God said, even if you don't understand how it will work physically. I don't understand how I'm going to be risen again from the dead physically. I can't explain that to you, but I know it's going to happen. Why? By faith. I don't know exactly how I'm going to be carried into heaven. I don't know how I'm going to escape the flames of hell. I don't know how all those things are going to happen. I don't know how I'm going to be conformed into his image. I don't know how I'm going to be putting on immortality. But you know what? I know it's going to happen. What? By faith. I believe it. And look, you know, we can't explain all the things that happen in this world. We don't understand all the things that are happening in this world. Ultimately, you have to put your faith in something. And here's the most reliable thing you can put your faith in is God. And he's never let anybody down. He's always shown himself to be the righteous God that he is, a truthful God, one that cannot lie. Now, he gives this promise on Abraham, and he says, so shall thy seed be. So he's telling him, like, you're going to have lots and lots of descendants. And the Bible says that Abraham believed the Lord, so obviously he has faith in the Lord. And the Lord is counting his faith specifically as righteousness to him. Now, go if you would to Romans chapter number four. What's interesting is this verse is quoted many times in the Bible. Genesis chapter 15, verse six is quoted in lots of different contexts and lots of different ways. But Romans chapter number four is a very iconic chapter, and it's really predicated on this verse. Now, what you have to understand is that God wants to really illustrate something to us, and it's the fact that Abraham is considered righteous before God, not based on his lifestyle, but only based on his faith, only on his faith. And the Bible brings this up. Look at verse one. What shall we say then that Abraham our father is pertaining to the flesh hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what sayeth the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. So, why is it that Abraham is considered righteous? Anything that he did? No. It's only because of his faith. Only because of his faith is he counted righteous before God. That's the only thing that makes him righteous or justified in the sense of going to heaven. Look what it says. Skip down a few verses. Now, it gives us some understanding about this timeline, because it's important that this was brought up in chapter 15, because later, Abraham is going to be given a promise of circumcision. But we know that he was saved before circumcision. Look at verse number nine. Cometh his blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision. Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised. That he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that the righteousness might be imputed unto them also, and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father, Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. So the Bible makes it clear that Abraham is literally the father of every single person that's saved, whether they be circumcised or uncircumcised. And specifically, God wanted to illustrate something to us, that Abraham was saved before he was circumcised. God considered him righteous before he was ever circumcised, because the circumcision was not making him righteous or had anything to do with being righteous. It was just a confirmation or a seal to ensure that, hey, this guy is righteous. Because the children of Israel get the law, and they have to be circumcised, and they're following these covenants, and circumcision is a picture of being saved. But it's just an outward sign. It's an outward showing that you're saved. You don't have to be literally circumcised to be saved. Now, what would be a New Testament equivalent to this? Our New Testament equivalent to this would be baptism. You don't have to be baptized to be saved. But what's that outward sign, what's that outward showing of a public profession of the fact that you've trusted the Lord, that you've basically put on Christ? It would be baptism. Now, these are obviously different. I'm so glad that the New Testament is baptism. I'm so thankful. And it is an interesting, you know, circumcision and baptism, they try to make it when you're a baby, right? You know, it's all about being a baby. But here's the thing. Being circumcised, if you were going to be a child of Israel and you weren't born into it, in order to join them, you had to get circumcised, and you had to eat the Passover. I mean, you had to do these things in order to basically join in with them, and that was just a picture of the fact that we're circumcised in our hearts, okay? Obviously, the Bible talks about circumcision being a spiritual picture and the fact that our heart has been circumcised as a spiritual operation, and that's what truly makes us saved is the spiritual operation, not a physical operation. But what's important is understanding the fact that Abraham is a man of faith. You know, when we read chapters 12, 13, 14, we see Abraham making mistakes, and we're going to find out he makes other mistakes in the Bible. And, you know, the Bible doesn't say, well, this guy's righteous. Look how righteous he is. It's saying, Abraham's righteous because he believed in the Lord. And when I look at people in this room, I don't think, well, you guys are just literally better than everybody else. That's why you're righteous. I look at you and say you're righteous because you believed in the Lord. Because there could arguably be people that live cleaner lives, have less sin or less problems, but they ended up not getting saved because they didn't believe in the Lord, because they didn't trust in the Lord. You know, I believe whenever we read in the Bible the Pharisee, when he looks at the publican and he's saying, I thank thee that I'm not like this man, it's probably true that he's not as sinful as that publican. It's probably true he hasn't committed as horrible of sins as that publican. You know, the thief on the cross that ends up going to heaven. I guarantee there's probably people that live cleaner lives than the thief on the cross. He said he was worthy of being crucified. And what good thing to do? I mean, look at Lot in the Bible. Lot's not a good example. From a carnal sense, from living a clean life, he's living in Sodom. He knocks up his own daughters. He's getting drunk. I mean, he married his daughters to Sodomites. How would you look at this guy? He's backslidden. I mean, if we looked at a guy who's not in church, married his daughters to Sodomites, is living in San Francisco, I mean, we're not going to be like, this guy's righteous. Yet, what made him righteous is faith. What made the thief on the cross righteous is faith. What made the publican righteous is faith. What made Abraham righteous is faith. Now, obviously, once you get saved, obviously, we need to grow in faith. Obviously, we still need to follow God's commandments. I'm not downplaying God's commandments. I'm not downplaying increasing your faith. I'm not downplaying all those things. And oftentimes, that's also why God chooses people, is because they're not just saved. They're also trying to live a righteous life. They're trying to be separated. And they're going beyond just simple faith for salvation. They have faith in the Lord in all areas of their life. You know, Abraham is not someone that's just only saved at the door. Abraham's someone that left his house. You know, there's a lot of people who get saved at the door, but they're never willing to leave their house, are they? They're not willing to show up to church, are they? And look, coming to church here is way easier than going where Abraham was going and doing all the things that Abraham was doing. Abraham had great faith. He's willing to move across the country for the Lord. He's willing to give up everything for the Lord, give up family, give up all the things he's possessed. I mean, this is not a baby faith here. This is not just the faith, the grain of a mustard seed. This is a lot bigger faith, isn't it? And, you know, the Bible emphasizes this. Go to Romans chapter 1, just flip back, and go to Romans chapter 1 and look at verse number 15. The Bible says, So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The just shall live by faith. So what makes people saved? Faith. And notice the just are living by faith. What makes Abraham someone who's just, or what is he doing? He's living by faith. And again, you know, the Bible talks about Lot. He was just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. What made Lot just? His faith. Not really his lifestyle, is it? Go back to Romans chapter number 4 and look at verse number 18. Because it said, not just the Jew, but also the Greek, didn't it? And it says in verse number 18, Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. Now that was quoted in Genesis chapter number 15, verse number 5. He's saying, God's saying, So shall thy seed be. And then Abraham believed him and it was accounted on him for righteousness. You got to think about this. What's the context of so shall thy seed be that he'd be the father of many nations, not one nation. Now when he talks about in the later parts of this chapter, and he's talking about his seed, he's really kind of focusing and honing in on Israel. He's talking about them going into the land of Egypt and being afflicted and coming out. That's not many nations, that's one nation. So here's the thing, when is it fulfilled that Abraham becomes the father of many nations? It's after the gospel. It's after the death, burial and resurrection that he's now going to become the father of many nations. And so Abraham believing in the Lord, this is something that's not going to happen until after the gospel. That's why I like some of these verses. Look what it says in verse 16. Let's back up. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. So this is the fact that he's the heir of the world. It says to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God who quickened at the dead and called those things which be not as though they were. So he's saying before him whom he believed. Who's the him there? The him there is Christ. So it's saying before Christ, whom Abraham ended up believing in, he told him he was going to be the father of many nations. But what ended up being the fulfillment of that? The fulfillment of that was the fact that afterwards the saved Christians ended up going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature. And then what happens? Then Gentiles of all nations are getting saved. And so then we end up having a seed that's not just the children of Israel, but also of all nations. Now this would have been really hard to understand. Not only is Abraham having a hard time understanding having one nation, because he has no child. Think about saying, look, you are going to literally be the father of many nations. That's hard to conceive or hard to understand because from a physical sense or carnal sense, you would think, am I not always going to be just the one nation? And if I took over other nations, aren't they just my one nation? I mean, how am I going to be the father of many nations? This can only be fulfilled truly in the spiritual sense that we have of the fact that we have people from all nations getting saved and then becoming a child of Abraham. Now, I want to prove this in a few other places. Go to Galatians chapter number three for a moment. Go to Galatians. Just flip to the right in your Bible. Go to Galatians chapter number three for a moment. And I don't know, as a child, I always wondered how Abraham was, it was like Father Abraham. Just because I have this idea that he was kind of at the top, because he's called Father Abraham, and I'm like, well, isn't there people before Abraham? And is it like Jesus Christ before him? That's true. It's just that we have many fathers. We have many fathers of the faith. Hey, it's Father Isaac. Hey, it's Father Jacob. But it's also Father Abraham in the sense that what? Every single person that's saved is a child of Abraham. And you say, in what sense? Spiritually. Spiritually, every single person that's saved can point back, and one of their spiritual fathers is Abraham. You know, for Timothy, some of his spiritual heritage goes to his mother, Lois, or Eunice specifically, and then his grandmother, Lois. But if we all trace back our spiritual heritage, if we're tracing back and we're pulling back on all the people that got us saved, eventually we would all get to Abraham on that chain. That's why he's Father Abraham. The blessing of Abraham by what? By faith. Now, if we pulled back physically, it's possible that we're not all physical descendants of Abraham. Most likely we are, but it's possible that they're not. But for sure, if you're saved, you're a spiritual child of Abraham. Look at Galatians chapter 3 verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So notice, the only way the Gentiles were going to get this access was through what? Through Jesus Christ. Without Christ, it was going to continue being the nation of Israel, but through Jesus Christ coming and breaking down that middle wall of partition between us, now both Jew and Gentile have access by faith. Now we're going to be reconciled. We have many nations getting saved. Go to Ephesians chapter 3. Go to the right. In the Old Testament, to get saved, you basically become an Israelite. You're converted into being of the physical nation of Israel, or you're born in that nation and you end up getting saved. We didn't have all these multiple nations of saved people. You had Israel, basically. Then, through the gospel, now you have saved people in every nation, and they make up a spiritual nation, and so the landscape has changed and transformed dramatically. I'm not saying that there weren't people that were technically saved and not living in the nation of Israel in the Old Testament at times. Obviously, there was the diaspora and there were other things, but I'm just saying, generally speaking, this is the pictures that were given, and the true fulfillment of them becoming a father of many nations is after the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at Ephesians chapter 3, verse 1. For this cause I, Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. So notice the Apostle Paul is explaining to you, look, before in the Old Testament, we had no idea how Abraham was going to be the father of many nations. We didn't understand all these truths in the Bible. We didn't understand all these mysteries and all these prophecies and all these revelations. It didn't really make sense. It wasn't very clear. But now it's just crystal clear. Now it's just manifest. Now we see the apostles going out into all the world and they're preaching the gospel and Gentiles are getting saved and all the nations are getting saved. And we see the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham of being a father of many nations. That's a pretty incredible prophecy when you think about it. The fact that he can look at a man that has no child and say, you're going to be the father of many nations, all kinds of nations. Obviously, this is just the prophecy of the Lord because he's able to talk about things as though they were, even though it hasn't happened. He's just like, hey, you're the father of many nations. It hasn't happened yet. Not until Christ comes and then not after that until what the gospel's preached in all the world. Now he is the father of many nations. So God often looks at people and describes them or talks about them in a way that hasn't even happened in a chronological time to us. Why? Because God exists outside of time. He just looks at things as being done already. The word of God, it's the beginning and the end. It's already been declared. God looks at revelation like it's already happened. To us, it hasn't even happened yet. But he's just saying everything has already happened. Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He foreknew us. He foreknew every single one of us before we were even born. How do you know somebody before they even exist? I mean, isn't that kind of crazy to think about? But that's how the word of God works. Now go back to Romans 1 for a moment. So what really separates the saved from the unsaved is faith. What separates Abram from any other man on the planet at that time? The fact that he's saved and he's righteous by his faith and that's the way he lives and the things that he does is a manifestation of that. Because he believes in the Lord and because of what he's doing is a picture of his faith. And obviously, we live by faith. All the things that we do are predicated on things that we've never seen. Think about it. Why come to church and why read the Bible and why go soul winning and why do all these things? We haven't seen any of it. We haven't seen the fulfillment of getting saved. We haven't seen the fulfillment of going to heaven. We haven't seen the fulfillment of putting on immortality and being conformed to his image and being made exactly like him. We haven't seen any of that. None of that has happened. There's so much that we believe and that we're living our whole life based on what? Heaven. None of us have been there. And if you've been there, you might go somewhere else later. I might recommend some kind of psychiatric ward for you or something. You think you've been to heaven. But isn't our whole life? I mean, you think about our church. You think about people that are going to a Baptist church today, people that are saved. I mean, are the decisions you're making right now based on the here and now? Or are they based on the future promises that you haven't even realized yet? We haven't accepted our awards from Christ yet. We haven't gone to heaven yet. We haven't been clothed with immortality yet. But what do the just do? The just live by faith. Everything in my life is essentially based on the faith of what the Bible says. Otherwise, I'd live a very different life. Wouldn't you live a different life if everything that you thought, that you believe currently in the Bible, you didn't believe all of a sudden? There's no God. There's no heaven. There's no hell. There's no judgment. We're not even made in God's image. We're just a result of a chemical explosion. I mean, wouldn't you live a little different? I would. And, you know, being an atheist, I wouldn't tell anybody about it. That's the most dangerous thing you can do is convince everybody that there's no God. That'll just, hey, if you kill me right now and take all my money, there's no recourse. It's like that's a bad thing to tell people, okay? There's no judgment. There's no danger of hell. You know, if you were an atheist, you would want everyone to just be dumbed down by religion. That would be the best goal that you could have in your life. But obviously there is a God, so it's a foolish even errand to try and hypothesize what that would be like. But what I am telling you is this. Think about your lifestyle. It's based on faith. That's the manifestation of faith even existing is the people that believe it. You know, we get to illustrate our faith by our lifestyle, by our choices, by the things that we do, having a fear of God. And when we look at people that aren't saved, that don't have faith, what do we not see? A fear of God. No fear of God. And the Bible talks about these things being manifested. Look what it says in Romans chapter 1, verse number 17 again. So Abraham is such a great example of someone illustrating for us a person living by faith. His decisions make no sense in the carnal. He would be like Lot. Why not go to the well-watered plain? Why not go live in the city? Why not take all of Sodom's goods? Why not, you know, a lot of the decisions that he's making wouldn't make any sense. If he wants to have lots of descendants, why not add more wives or have more women that he could marry or take unto himself? Why be focused only on Sarah? You know, the decisions he's making in his life are a manifestation of the faith that he has. Why is he building altars of the Lord? Why is he calling upon the name of the Lord? You know, it's by faith. Now the opposite is just as true. Look at verse 18. So the Bible is saying just as faith is manifested through the just living by faith, there's another thing that's manifested. What is that? The wrath of God. Now what is that? The punishment of God. The anger of God. God's fury is revealed. And specifically, it's against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Notice this, who hold the truth and are righteous. So they know it's right. They're just choosing not to do it. Wouldn't that almost be the opposite of faith? You have the same information, but instead of embracing it and believing it and living by it, you're rejecting it. You're not having anything to do with it. It says in verse 19, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. Now, God showed all things to Abraham. What did Abraham do? He believed it. And God imputed unto him righteous. What about people that have been showed it, and then they don't believe it? They don't like it. They hate it. Verse 20, For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. So I see the main contrast between these two people really could be articulated in another way as this. Humility and pride. They both have the truth. They both have been manifested who God is and what God has for them. The humble person does what? Just believes it. Just accepts it and says, you know right, you know better, I'm going to trust your judgment. And Abraham has a lapse in faith at one point. We'll read in the next chapter. What does he do? He ends up lying with his handmaid Hagar. Because he's trying to figure out how to fulfill God's promise on his own, isn't it? Isn't that a lapse of faith? Isn't that not having faith? Why? Because faith would say, even though I don't understand, I'm just going to trust you. That's humility. Saying I'm depending upon you, I'm depending upon your information, depending on what you're providing for me. What's the opposite of that? I don't need that. I'm good. I'm going to figure it out on my own. Pride. And saying what? Verse number 22, professing themselves to be wise. Pride today. And you know what? The pride of man today is what causes them to destroy themselves. Pride is one of the worst qualities, if not the worst, that you can possibly have. And I'll say this, without any humility, you'll never get saved. You have to, have to, have to have a moment in your life where you're humble to get saved. You have to admit, I'm a sinner deserving of hell and I need a savior. That's a moment of humility in your life. The person that's prideful their whole life will go to hell, period. Hey, there's a lot of bad sins in the Bible, but pride is pretty much the epitome of the worst sin imaginable. When we think about the devil, he's known as, you know, being the most prideful creation that God has ever created. He considers himself to be so wise. He gives you so much information, so much knowledge. But here's the thing, these people that think themselves to be wise, they're really fools. Because the only true wisdom comes from the Bible, comes from the Word of God. Keep your finger here because we're going to come back, go to Psalms 86 for a moment. You know, it is sick that our nation literally has a month celebrating, arguably, the worst sin in the Bible. Think about that. I mean, the absolute worst sin in the Bible, pride, is being exonerated and praised and lifted up. And, you know, we're going to talk about what the manifestation of pride looks like. That's even grosser seeming. But here's the thing, just pride in general is just such a horrible sin. It's a grotesque sin that we should desire to stay away from and get out of our lives as much as humanly possible by humbling ourselves and trusting in the Lord. Psalms 86, look at verse 13. For great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. Now, isn't that person showing that they're humble? They're saying, what, mercy? Now, if you need mercy to escape hell, you know what that tells me? You deserved it. This person's saying, man, great is thy mercy toward me. You delivered me from hell. Verse 14, oh God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them. So notice the opposite is what? The people that are proud, the people that are hunting down God's people, the people that have not set the Lord before them. They want nothing to do with God. They're prideful. Verse number 15, but thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and truth. So we see sandwiched with this guy's humility is the pride layer, isn't it? And this is the contrast between God's people and those that are not saved. Go to Proverbs 28 for a moment. Go to Proverbs 28. I'll read for you in Proverbs 16. The Bible says in verse 5, everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. The Bible says that pride is an abomination. You know, these six things that the Lord hates, a proud look is one of them. Yea, seven are abominations. But he's saying, hey, one of those is a proud look. Just looking with pride is just gross to the Lord. He says in Proverbs 28, look at verse 25. He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife. But he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made flat. So notice it's contrasting two things. One person has pride. What's the other person have? Trusting the Lord. Because these things are complete opposites. Trusting in the Lord is not prideful. It's humility. Having pride is the opposite of trusting the Lord. It's rejecting the Lord. It's rejecting his wisdom. It's rejecting what the Lord has to say. And notice that's where true strife comes from. That's where true evil comes from. The Bible even says this in another place. Go to chapter 13. Look at verse 10. Look at chapter 13, verse number 10. The Bible says this. Only by pride cometh contention, but with the well-advised is wisdom. Let me explain something to you. Any time there's an argument, any time there's contention, any time there's strife, fighting, conflict, someone is prideful. Period. Pride is in that equation somewhere. Now, arguably, it could be both parties. But it's always at least one. It's impossible for there not to be pride in that situation. Two people fighting, pride is somewhere in that mix. And so, obviously, someone could just be mad at someone for attacking them or hurting them or doing wrong and calling them out, and that's causing strife. But at the end of the day, someone's prideful in that situation. And we have to understand that we need to reject pride. If no one is prideful in our church, there will be no strife. So whenever there's a lot of strife in the church, you know what that tells me? There's a lot of pride in the church. When church is going well and people are really pleased with each other, there's a lot of peace, that means that we have a lot less pride in the church. And another thing is true. Arguing and fighting and these contentions are from carnal things, too. So if there's a church that's always fighting and bickering and arguing with each other, you can just mark it down. There's pride and carnality in the church. And it's funny because you come into that situation and the church is just constantly bickering and fighting and there's lots of problems in the church. And you're like, you guys are carnal. And they get more mad about that. And you're just like, well, it's true. Because if you're fighting, if you're bickering, if you're arguing, if you're having strife, it's becoming from pride. Pride is in that equation. Now here's the thing. God's people are for peace. So where is all the contention and the strife coming from? From the prideful people. That's where the real strife is coming from. And it's sick because in our culture today, people lift up the most proud and say that they're the most loving. They're the most peaceful. The Bible teaches the exact opposite. The most prideful people are the most contentious people, the ones that are going to fight the most, the most strife. And you know and I know that faggots are the most controversial people. They cause the most strife, the most angst, the most contention. You know, whenever an employer hires a fag, they're the ones that can file the most complaints and have the most people upset with and they have the most problems and they cause all these issues with every single person. Why? Because they're full of pride, my friend. Pride is where all the problems are coming from. And when you have someone that's filled with pride, that's just the most proud thing ever, what's going to happen? Fighting. What's going to happen? Strife. What's going to happen? Conflict. Oh, I wish the Bible would tell us all about that. Oh, yeah, it does. Let's keep reading Romans chapter 1 for a moment. It says in verse 23, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness of the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause. For what cause? The fact that they hated God, they hate the truth, they're trying to turn God into a lie. It says, For that cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. And you say, What kind of affections? Well, it tells you. For even, meaning specifically, their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Rachel Maddow. Ellen DeGeneres. The Juno girl. What's her name? I can't remember her name. Something. Ellen Page. Ellen Page is a dude now or something like that. All kinds of girls coming out and trying to be a dude. That's gross. I want a woman to try and be as womanly as possible, as feminine as possible, not as manly as possible. And look, it starts with women, but it says in verse 27, And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman to burn in their lusts one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat. Meat means suitable, appropriate. So it's saying this is a suitable and appropriate punishment for what they've done. Because of their hatred towards God, because of their rejection towards God, an appropriate punishment is them being the most disgusting, vile, putrid thing on the planet. Something that hates God and rejects God and wants nothing to do with God should be looked at as what? Being gross, despicable, vile, evil. And so God literally manifests that and shows us, hey, the most gross, disgusting, wicked thing on the planet is a personification of that attitude that hates God. It's gross. It's disgusting. And it's what in verse 18? The wrath of God being revealed. Because there's nothing worse than being a faggot. John Chrysostom said that he would rather be tortured in hell than be a fag. He said he'd rather die 10,000 times. He said he'd rather be a literal dog than a faggot dog. He has more respect for animals than these beasts, these brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed. They're sick, they're disgusting, and our culture lifting up and celebrating them, you know what that tells me? There's going to be a lot of fighting in America. You say, well, I want peace in America. Okay, I'll tell you how. Eliminate the prideful. And let's start with the most prideful, these sodomites. That is the only way to have true peace. That's why you really can't expect peace until Christ is ruling. Because until you start eliminating, I mean, they're like, well, what if we get conservative ones? What if we get Caitlyn Jenner to be governor of California? It's still going to be fighting in pride. I don't care what sodomite. They're trying to pick, like, eight sodomites to run for governor. It's like, I don't care which one it is. It's all bad. They're all liars. They're all wicked. And maybe some are more wicked. They're just being filled for a longer period of time. But look what it says in verse 49. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful. Look at this word, proud. Before any gay pride parade ever existed, you know the Bible said this. The Bible already explained this, didn't it? The Bible already explained that God wasn't going to destroy the earth and he was going to use his bow as a picture. And it's just a coincidence that sodomites happen to wave around a rainbow flag and say it's pride and go around and talk about how proud they are. And then everybody wonders, how did they get that way? Hmm, I wonder. It's like the Bible just plainly spells it out. Yep, people don't want to believe it, do they? Because Christians are so loving. I'm so sick of people saying how loving they are today. I just love everything. I love everybody. Like, no one loves everything. No one loves everyone. If you love everyone and love everything, that means you love nothing. You have no strong feelings. If you tell your wife you love every woman, you know what that means? You don't have strong feelings for her. Because if you have strong feelings for your wife, you despise all other women. If you have strong feelings for the Lord, you despise everything else. Oh, I love everything. That means you hate God. Because the Bible says the only thing you're supposed to love is him. At the end of the day, true love is exclusive. True love is not inclusive to everything. You can't love everything. You can't love everybody. And love is illustrated by what you would reject, what you would toss to the side. You want to talk about truly loving Christ, you would truly give everything else up. Like Abraham did, like Paul did, like Jesus did. That's the picture of love. I mean, is it really an ultimate sacrifice? When we think about John 3.16, what if it just says in the Bible, for God so loved the world that he just lets everybody into heaven no matter what? He didn't sacrifice anything. He just lets them in. Is that really the ultimate picture of love? Or was it sacrificing something? Was it willing to put other things aside, even his own son, even to crucify and sacrifice his own son? That shows how much we are worth. That shows the price tag. What if it says God so loved you that he sacrificed a cockroach? It's like, oh, okay. That's kind of gross. Like, a cockroach? I didn't even think he wanted to keep that. You know, I didn't even want cockroaches. You know, but the fact that he sacrificed his only begotten son illustrates his love, doesn't it? It shows how much he truly loves us. Go back to Genesis chapter 15. And let me say this. People look at us and they'll get mad at us and they'll be like, Oh, you guys think you're so much better than everybody else. Why are you so much better? Let me tell you what. I am better than 95% of people. But you know the only reason why I'm better? Because of faith in Jesus Christ. That's it. You know what makes me better than a sodomite? Faith in Jesus. Not what I've done. Not what they did. It's simply the fact that I believe the Lord and they don't. That's what makes us different. That's what really separates us. And people always want to make it about a sin. A sin is the manifestation. That's what makes it clear what's going on in their heart. But it's not the reason why they're going to hell. The reason why they're going to hell is because they hate God. The reason why they're going to hell is because they're proud. The reason why they're going to hell is because they didn't relieve him. You know, sometimes people look at other places in the Bible where it talks about Sodom and they'll say this is their sin and it talks about them being prideful. And they're like, see, it's because they're prideful, not because they're faggots. And it's like, let me tell you why they're faggots. Because they're prideful. Hey, tell me a city that's full of pride and I'll tell you it's a city full of fags. And full of fighting and contention and strife because where there's smoke there's fire. And pretty soon where there's fags there's going to be fire too. That's why it's called a faggot. But if you really want to be better it's through being humble. And what's the ultimate picture of humble? Just having faith in the Lord. That's the opposite of being prideful. Now, the latter section of this chapter is really interesting. I want to kind of read it in whole and then I'll kind of explain a few parts. Look at verse 7. And he said to them, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, take me in Heifer of three years old and a shego to three years old and a ram of three years old and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge. And afterward shall they come out with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. And the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Under thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt, under the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephams, and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Gerichites and the Jebusites. So Abram's in this land, he doesn't own it, and he's saying, okay, so then what's basically my evidence, or what's the token of the fact that I'm going to take all this land someday? And God basically is explaining to Abraham how he's never going to take it physically, like it's not going to be his. It's going to end up going to his descendants, and in fact it's not even going to go to his initial descendants. He's talking about later generations down, and he brings up the fact that his descendants are going to go into a strange land, they're going to be afflicted. Notice what he says in verse number 13. He says, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger to land that is not theirs, and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years. Now who's that? That's Egypt. So we already see the prophecy of them going into Egypt, and they're going to be afflicted for four hundred years. Essentially you have Joseph, and I think it's like thirty years approximately, it's good for them, and the Pharaoh there has given them favor, but then another Pharaoh rises up that doesn't know Joseph, and the Bible says he afflicted the children of Israel for four hundred years, okay? Basically four generations, as the Bible's kind of describing there. And he's saying the reason why that's happening is the Amorites, their iniquity has not come to the fullest extent for God to kick them all out of the land. So God's doing a couple things. First of all, he's basically building the children of Israel into a great company, into a lot of people, so they can inherit that promised land, and then he's allowing the Amorites and the Canaanites to basically just build up the wealth for the children of Israel to take over, and once their iniquity has reached a point of no return, then God's going to wipe them out, take them out, and bring in the children of Israel. And he says very clearly that Abraham's just going to go to his fathers in peace. Abraham's not going to have any more wars, Abraham's not going to have any more fighting, and we don't see that, he lives to be very old. In fact, he outlives Sarah, he ends up marrying another woman named Keturah, has many children with them, with her. But the children of Israel do go down into Egypt, and he says in verse fourteen, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge. That's another thing that happens, doesn't he judge Egypt very severely, and we see the great punishments that come on Egypt later in the Bible, especially those of you that know the Bible really well. What's interesting is all these pictures, it's like he has all these animal sacrifices, and then he divides them in half, and then there's this weird thing where he's like, he goes to sleep or whatever, it comes to pass when the sun went down, it's like dark, and then it says this smoking furnace and a burning lamp is passing through, and the peace is out. Why is he saying all of this? He's saying all of this as a token, as an evidence of the fact that they're going to, what, inherit the Promised Land. Now go to Exodus chapter thirteen, go to Exodus chapter number thirteen. What is all these pictures? Well, I think it's very clearly the final stage that's happening, what he's talking about. He's saying, hey, they're going into Egypt, then he's going to judge that nation, then they're going to come to the Promised Land. Well, what's one of those stages, what's one of those tokens of that covenant, the fact that they're going to come out? Well, I believe it's very clearly illustrated here in the story. Look at verse number fourteen. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, what is this? That thou shalt say unto him, by strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt from the house of bondage. So, in Exodus chapter twelve, they have the Passover lamb, then they're, you know, basically at the Red Sea, then they part through the Red Sea, they come out on the other side, and the Bible's explaining to us how they were going to set up kind of a token to their children to explain to them what happened, and they were going to offer what? Animal sacrifices as a picture of that firstborn sacrifice, and he's saying, this is what you're going to do to remind yourself of this, and they're taken out, what? From the house of Egypt to go where? To the Promised Land, that's their destination, okay? Well, he says in verse fifteen, it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrificed the Lord all that opened to the matrix, being males, but all the firstborn of my children I redeemed. And it shall be for a token upon thine hand and for frontlets between thine eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said, Let us peradventure the people repent when they see war. And they returned to Egypt. But God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt, and Moses took the bones of Joseph with them, for he had straightly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and he shall carry up my bones away hence with you. And they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Eitham in the edge of the wilderness, and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night. And he took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. So he's saying, hey, there's a token that's going to be the promise that you're going to come and inherit the promised land. What's that token? Well, he has these animals divided in half, and then he has this burning furnace go through the middle of those animals as a picture of what? That they're going to inherit the promised land. Now, what's your token? You're a child of Israel. You're sitting on the shores of the Red Sea, and what happens? The waters part, and then it's night, and you have this pillar of fire leading you through the way, and he's saying, hey, there was another way, but I'm taking you this way is what? To illustrate the promise that I made to Abraham that by this furnace of fire you're going to go through. And you have this dead animal, which pictures what? Death on both sides, doesn't it? Just like the wall of water is a picture of what? Death on both sides, and how he's going to judge the children of Israel with that death on both sides, but he's going to lead them straight through with that burning furnace. And there's so many pictures here, because isn't the Lord a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path? And he's directing the way that I should go, and the Bible even says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. And hey, you can literally walk through the Red Sea. I mean, talk about danger. You don't want to be at the bottom of a river where the water is just like a mountain on both sides to you. I mean, that's terrifying. How could you do that? Because he's just leading you straight through. And just as terrifying as it would be to literally walk through such a dangerous encounter, we have to realize, you know, our world is not going to get safer. The Bible says that in the latter times, perilous times shall come. The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter days, perilous times shall come. Hey, the Bible makes it clear that it's going to be more and more dangerous, and he's like, well, how am I going to walk in such a dangerous life and a dangerous world? By faith. By that burning lamp, by that burning and shining light, which is the word of God. He's leading us and guiding us through. And you say, well, I don't see a literal physical fire, a pillar of fire. Look, God's word is a fire. He's a consuming fire. He's the one that's supposed to guide us and to lead us. And look, this is more trustworthy than literal fire that you see with your eyes. More trustworthy than the things that you see with your eyes are the word of God. It's more trustworthy. You say, well, the world looks scary. It is a scary place. There's fags everywhere. On the left and on the right. There's death on the left hand and on the right hand. And it's a proud world. And it keeps getting, it escalates. It escalates every year. What year in the last 20 years has it gotten less, more prolific with all these fags and all that? It gets worse. It's so crazy right now to believe where we're at. Have you looked at the world that we lived in today? I mean, it used to be just a few years ago they wanted to get married. Now it's just like literally being taught in the schools and they have literal drag queens, you know, reading to children. They literally have to pass legislation in conservative states so that children won't be chemically castrated at like five years old, permanently altering them for life. They have all kinds of weird surgeries and chemicals and sick things that they're doing to children today. There's all kinds of sodomites adopting children today. Poly relationships where it's not even just two dudes, it's multiple dudes adopting children today. Look, it's not even rocket science to realize what their agenda is. It's so evident. It's so clear today. It's manifest. It's manifest that these people hate God today. And, you know, the world that we live in, I believe it's going to get darker. It's going to get more evil. It's going to get more dangerous. There's going to be more death. And us as Christians, what we're supposed to do is we're not supposed to turn to the left or the right. We're just supposed to keep following that cloudy pillar, that fiery pillar. We're just supposed to keep, you know, doing whatever the Lord said. The just shall live by faith. Don't get out of church. Don't stop reading your Bible. Don't stop serving God. Look, don't turn to the left or the right hand. Just as foolish as it would be to literally walk into the ocean, when you're just walking into the Red Sea, whenever you have a chance to walk through, as it is to stop serving God in this world today. And if you never crossed the Red Sea, you were never going to get in the Promised Land. You had to walk there. You know, there's a great prize for a great faith. Staying on the shore, you are going to get trampled by the Egyptians when they went through. And you know, standing with this world today, siding with this world, compromising. I love Egypt. I love the cucumbers and the melons and the garlic. You're going to get trampled by Egypt. You've got to just forsake it all, forgetting all those things which are behind, and just keep pressing towards the mark. And what was that mark? What was the thing that they were all chasing after Christ? He was the one leading them. He was the one guiding them all the way through. You say, why was this written? It was written for our admonition. This is more relatable to us than it was to Abraham or any of those people. And just as real as he's talking about the children of Israel, he's talking about you and I right now, and the struggles and the difficulties that we'll go through, and the importance of serving God today. And you know what? There's nothing greater than hearing the truths of God's Word. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your Word. Thank you for the great revelations and the truth that you give us. Thank you that we have an opportunity to serve you. I pray that we wouldn't look at all the scary waters of today, that we wouldn't look at all the danger that surrounds us, at the left, to the right, behind us, those that are chasing after us, those that want to destroy us, but rather we would just look just straight ahead, that we just look to your Word, that we would look to the lamp, to the light, the Word of God today, and we would let it guide us, that we wouldn't be distracted by all the evils of this world, but rather we would just continue to take each step by faith, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The fight is on, the trumpet sound is ringing out, the cry to arms is heard up far and near. The Lord of hosts is marching on to victory, the triumph of the Christ will soon appear. The fight is on, O Christian soldier, and face to face in stern array, with armor gleaming and colors streaming, the right and wrong engage today. The fight is on, but be not weary, be strong and in His might hold fast, if God before us, His banner o'er us, will sing the victor's song at last. The fight is on, a rousing soldier's bravery, to Jehovah leads, and victory will assure. Go Bob, go on, the armor God has given you, and in His strength forever will endure. The fight is on, O Christian soldier, and face to face in stern array, with armor gleaming and colors streaming, the right and wrong engage today. The fight is on, but be not weary, be strong and in His might hold fast, if God before us, His banner o'er us, will sing the victor's song at last. The fight is leading on to certain victory, the bow upon misspends the eastern sky, His glorious name in every land shall honor be, the Lord will bring the dawn of peace is nigh. The fight is on, O Christian soldier, and face to face in stern array, with armor gleaming and colors streaming, the right and wrong engage today. The fight is on, but be not weary, be strong and in His might hold fast, if God before us, His banner o'er us, will sing the victor's song at last. Good singing, God bless, you are dismissed. . . . . .