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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Hey everyone, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and grab your song books. We're going to start off tonight in song number two, Glory to His Name. Song number two, Glory to His Name. Song number two, Glory to His Name. Let's sing it out. Sing it out. There to my heart was the one of mine. Glory to His name. I am so wondrously saved from sin. Jesus so sweetly abides with him. There at the cross where He took me in. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the one of mine. Glory to His name. Oh precious fountain that saves from sin. I am so glad I have entered in. There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the one of mine. Glory to His name. Come to this fountain so rich and sweet. Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's feet. Plunge in today and be made complete. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the one of mine. Glory to His name. All right, let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening's service at Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for all the blessings that you give us in our lives, our friends and family and great church family as well, Lord. I just pray that you bless this time together. Bless this time of singing. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song 36, Christ Arose. Song number 36, Christ Arose. Let's sing it out together, song 36. With a mighty triumph o'er his bones, He arose a victor from the dark domain, And he lives forever with his things to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose! Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus my Savior. Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord. Come from the grave, he arose! With a mighty triumph o'er his bones, He arose a victor from the dark domain, And he lives forever with his things to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose! Death cannot keep his prey, Jesus my Savior. He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord. Come from the grave, he arose! With a mighty triumph o'er his bones, He arose a victor from the dark domain, And he lives forever with his things to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose! 18 and under that can quote it. You can get an ice cream. On the inside we have service and soul winning times. And then we have our church stats down below. Make sure you're turning in all of your stats to our soul winning tribe captains and lieutenants. On the right we have a list of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for those who are expecting. And then I'm going to go over our prayer list in just a moment. We have our upcoming events. July 6 is the Pure Words Baptist Church Soul Winning Marathon. Those that signed up to participate in the church transportation, an email has been sent. Did anybody sign up for the church transportation and not get the email or not notice the email? Okay, you should have gotten that if for whatever reason just contact me. There should be two vehicles and I put the information in the details. It's going to be probably a pretty long day but if you are planning on doing that, we really appreciate it. I think there's almost about 30 of us coming from steadfast so I anticipate it's going to be a pretty good trip and so please if you're not participating just pray that those who travel and everything would go smoothly. And we're really looking forward to going to the San Antonio area for soul winning. Also on the back we have the congratulations to the Conire family on the birth of Zachariah Castilian. He was born on the 22nd, 4.15 a.m. 7 pounds 10 inches and 21 inches long. Very fitting that he would be born during the Zachariah series, you know what I mean? And so you all better be careful what chapter or book of the Bible I pick next. No, I'm just kidding. You expecting ladies. No, I'm just kidding. On the inside we have a prayer list and we've been praying for the name's grandmother. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother also. Miss Miller's friend, Miss Tamara. Brother Elijah, his nephew. Miss Eva, her daughter who's also pregnant which is exciting news. We have brother Oz. We've been praying for him. We've been praying for brother Foley, for his fiancee. We've been praying for the brother Roger. He's also asking for prayer there as well. So we'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer for those who were mentioned. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for Steadfast Baptist Church and thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting. Please help them during their pregnancies and give them a easy delivery. Please help their children's development. I pray that you would also just bless our upcoming soul wedding events, that you'd keep everybody safe and that we could see many people saved. I pray that you would also just bless our church family that needs favor for anything at work or just in their house or just any of their needs. I pray that you would also bless those who are struggling with health. I pray that you would just please give them just favor if possible, just a full recovery and just to give them just peace during this difficulty. I pray anybody that's not able to come to church due to illness, that you would just give them the strength and give them the health so that they could get back into church. We just thank you for all that you give us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We're going to go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 67. So if you have that special handout, you can sing it nice and loud. Psalm 67. All right, let's sing it out together, Psalm 67. O God, let all the people praise Thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For Thou shalt judge the people, righteously and governed. The nations upon earth, the nations upon earth see long. Let the people praise Thee, O God. Let all the people praise Thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Then shall the earth yield her in Greece. And God, even her own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him. Let the people praise Thee, O God. Let all the people praise Thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Great singing. As the offering plates are being passed around, please turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 10. Zechariah chapter number 10. Zechariah chapter 10. Zechariah chapter number 10. The Bible reads, ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, so the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to everyone grass in the field. For the idols have spoken vanity and the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain, therefore they went their way as a flock. They were troubled because there was no shepherd. Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds and I punished the goats. For the Lord of hosts had visited his flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle. Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together. And they shall be as mighty men which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle. And they shall fight because the Lord is with them and the riders on horses shall be confounded. And I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Joseph and I will bring them again to place them. For I have mercy upon them and they shall be as though I had not cast them off. For I am the Lord their God and will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man and their heart shall rejoice as through wine. Yea, their children shall see it and be glad, their heart shall rejoice in the Lord. I will hiss for them and gather them. For I have redeemed them and they shall increase as they have increased. And I will sow them among the people and they shall remember me in far countries and they shall live with their children and turn again. I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon. And place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction and shall smite the waves in the sea and all the deeps of the river shall dry up. And the pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away. And I will strengthen them in the Lord and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this chapter of the Bible, Lord. I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches to us your word that you'd fill in with your Holy Spirit. Help us to have soft hearts to hear your word and make applicable changes to our lives. And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. We are here in Zechariah chapter 10 and as we keep getting further and further in the book of Zechariah, it seems like the narrative changes a little bit where we're kind of getting away from some of the more immediate prophecies that the book of Zechariah is delivering to getting to more future and more end times ideas and concepts that are kind of being brought up. Zechariah chapter 10 I find is kind of a difficult chapter to be understood because there's not a lot just even on the surface that really makes a lot of sense. It seems like a lot of it is just kind of talking in a very poetic way. And I think when you look at it from a big picture, it actually does make a lot of sense. But just kind of on the surface, a lot of these verses are very difficult. So especially if you read this chapter or if you've thought about this chapter and you kind of feel like, man, I don't feel like I'm getting a lot out of it. That should be normal because this is what I would call a harder chapter of the Bible. Zechariah is a harder book of the Bible. And sometimes it takes reading these chapters over and over or thinking about the broader context, looking a lot of things up before you can even kind of get any semblance of what we're talking about. And why I like going through books of the Bible like this is some of this information is still a little bit in your mind from the previous chapters. But I want to kind of revisit something. And I want to give you a context as we go through this to help kind of make sense of things. But in chapters 1 through 3 of Zechariah, it paints this picture of peace and safety. And that's going to be true in the immediate future because they're going to rebuild the temple. They're in a difficult time. They're actually going against the king's commandment to rebuild the temple. But God's reassuring them, no, it's going to be safe. There's going to be peace. And what I think there's this undertone in the book of Zechariah is kind of an end times description or timeline that's kind of unfolding. And in chapters 1 through 3, that peace and safety are kind of reminiscent in my mind of the rapture. Just in the sense that once we're raptured, we have complete peace. The Lord has rescued us. There's safety. There's no more difficulty. There's no more oppression. And so there's kind of that picture. In chapter 4, it then brings up the two witnesses. Which really, their ministry is mostly, if we think about the end times, and we're thinking about that last seven years timeline, well, that rapture point is a little bit beyond the midpoint. But it's kind of the midpoint in general. And so that latter section is mostly, that latter three and a half years is where we're talking about the two witnesses. During that period, you also have chapter 5 describing Babylon, which is kind of there at the end of Daniel's 70th week. Chapter 6 is kind of talking about the return of Christ, but not so much in the rapture sense, more in the sense when he's returning to rebuild the temple in the millennial reign. So you kind of have the rapture, two witnesses, then Babylon being judged, then you have the return of Christ for the millennial reign. In chapter 7, Zechariah kind of gives us a warning about the past, of not making mistakes of the past, and why they even had the judgment. And then chapter 8, it talks about them dwelling in Zion, what that's going to be like. Chapter 9, we kind of talked about how the enemy nations are going to be destroyed. And so we kind of have those elements of all focusing a little bit on the millennial reign. And what I think that chapter 10 is doing is it's staying in that same context of the millennial reign of Christ that we're thinking about. So I want to just kind of give that broad context, and then I'm going to explain how it makes a lot more sense here as we go through this chapter. But notice what it says in verse 1. Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, so that the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to every one grass in the field. Now, that just seems a little bit strange, like why are we just asking for rain, why is it bringing up latter rain. But keep your finger here and go to Deuteronomy chapter number 11. And the Bible brings up latter rain a few different times. I just want to explain what latter rain even means, and then kind of how I think it fits in this particular chapter. But in Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 14, the Bible says that I will give you the rain of your land in its due season. The first rain and the latter rain that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil. So if we think about a year, you have a couple important growing seasons. You kind of have a spring season, and you have a fall season. So the first rain is talking about that first crop harvest that's kind of in that spring time. And then you have a later harvest, which is in that fall harvest. Both need rain, and they're crucial times for rain in order to have that particular harvest. Well, the Bible has this kind of picture, especially when it comes to prophecy. Jesus Christ is the one that came in that first rain. He's that first fruits of that harvest. But the Bible talks about in the end times, it being that final fall type harvest, where it's kind of that end part of the year. And so that's kind of a foreshadowing or an idea of the end times, and kind of that last part of human history and that last season. So what I believe the Bible is kind of alluding to here as we go back to Zechariah chapter 10, is he's saying, you know what, you need to still pray for rain, even in the end times, even in that latter part of human history, and even all the way up to the very end. And specifically, what does it give them? It gives them showers of rain to everyone, grass in the field. So, of course, rain brings harvest, rain brings fruit, rain brings produce, rain brings success, brings blessing. That's what rain is a picture of. And so what I think God is trying to communicate here is that God can still bring a blessing, even all the way up to the very end. And even in the very final stages of human history, there can still be a blessing for God's people during that period of time. So I think that because we live in a very tumultuous time, I mean, arguably, you know, I think that there's a lot of fear in the world today. I feel like there's a lot of anxiety in the world today. There's a lot of doomsday predictions. There's a constant just hashing of just this could be the end of the world, and there's so much uncertainty, and there's so much conflict with the government, who the president is, and, you know, COVID was a pretty extreme thing that a lot of people went through, and there's just all this fear-mongering going on in the world, and a lot of people wondering, is it the end, or are we getting to the end, or when is it going to be the end, and just a lot of people kind of thinking about all these things. And it can cause people to get very upset. It can cause people to be disappointed or feel like, man, I wish we were going through a time when things were good, or I wish we could go back in time, and I wish I got to live during a season of human history where it was just fun and we just got to enjoy. But I think what God is trying to do is He's trying to communicate that there can still be good times for God's people, even all the way up to the bitter end, and that we don't have to sit here and constantly be afraid or disappointed or look down upon the future or think that it's somehow negative. We can still embrace, even if we were or whoever it is that has to go through the end times, that there's still blessing, and we still should pray that God would bless us and give us food, give us, you know, the things that we need, even in that latter rain, even in that final season of human history. And I believe that when we kind of talk about this chapter, I'm really trying to frame it as that last portion of human history. Now, specifically, you also have in verse number 2, it says, For the idols have spoken vanity, and the viners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain, therefore they went their way as a flock. They were troubled because there was no shepherd. So he kind of has some what feels like disjointed thoughts here. Initially, he's saying, hey, ask God for rain. Then the second breath, he says, For the idols have spoken vanity. And he says, And the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. I believe that, you know, this, again, makes sense if we're kind of thinking about the end times picture because the Bible says specifically in the end times that there's going to be a great falling away from truth and how there's going to be what we would call a great apostasy in the world. And just because there's a great apostasy, just because there's a lot of evil in the world doesn't mean that God has forsaken His people or the remnant or those that are loyal under the things of God. But specifically, God can't just allow evil and all these horrible things to go on without them being punished. So God is going to punish the wicked and throughout Jerusalem and throughout the children of Israel's history and even just the world in general, idols were a major thing. Idols were a huge component of false religion. And it's the same today. It's just called the Roman Catholic Church where they have all kinds of idols, but they speak vanity. There's no truth to them. They're completely meaningless and worthless. There are just these giant celebrations of Mary where you'll have all these Catholics just lined up with this giant structure of a Mary and they're parading her up and down the street and they're just bowing and they're crying and they're making a big ceremony of the whole event and it's all meaningless. There is no benefit. It is completely worthless at its best. At its worst, it's demonic. At its best, it's meaningless, it's vanity. And specifically it says, and the diviners have seen a lie. The preachers of these false religions are liars. They lie about everything. It says they have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Now this is what's interesting to me. God already knew, and again there's no new thing under the sun, but God already knew that all the false prophets have one thing in common. They all preach nice things only, don't they? Why didn't it say that they rebuke in vain? Why didn't it say they reprove in vain? Why does it say that they preached hard in vain? It's because the false prophets never preach hard. They never reprove. They never rebuke. They comfort. They comfort in vain. And that's why people heap up to them false teachers is because they want someone to tell them something comfortable. You know, it makes me think of therapists, psychological therapists and counselors and all these different professions. Basically you're just hiring someone to just lie to you and tell you something nice or put you on drugs to feel good. But they're a lot of times worthless and meaningless individuals, and they simply comfort in vain. They simply just tell you lies. They tell you what you want to hear. They try to encourage you in your sin in many cases. Many individuals will go to a counselor or therapist or these individuals, and they're complaining. They say, I feel bad because I got divorced and it's hurting my heart. And they're like, you go, girl. You don't feel bad about that. You made the right decision. And they try to encourage them and comfort them that their bad decision is actually somehow not bad. And that conviction, that guilt that they're feeling in their heart and their mind was the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And it's actually these comforters trying to quench the Holy Spirit or quenching whatever God-given conviction they have from their conscience and cause them to not feel bad about their sin. And so they just comfort them in vain. And there's so many churches today, and there's so many pastors today, they just comfort in vain today by just lying to them and making them feel comfortable in their sin, making them feel comfortable in their transgression, making them feel like they're not upsetting God by their lifestyle or their decisions, but rather God's not mad at them. God's not mad at you for breaking rules. He just wants a relationship, man. And it's all about relationship, and He's just ready to be buddies, man. You know, this is what's really sad for me, and I was thinking about this today while I was going soul-winning, is how many people are going to be surprised that they went to hell. Because you and I both know if you go soul-winning, almost every single person, you say, hey, have you died today? Are you sure you go to heaven? They all say yes. Well, I'm sorry to tell you, not everyone's going to heaven. In fact, according to the Bible and according to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, there's few that are saved. That means that a lot are going to be surprised. And we're not just talking Christians. I mean Muslims, Hindus, all kinds of different religions out there. They think they're good. They think they're going to the afterlife. They think they're going to heaven. And boy, are they going to be surprised when they go to hell. And you want to know why? It's because some false prophet, some liar, made them feel comfortable on their journey to hell. That's what they did. And people say, like, how dare you confront me about soul-winning? How dare you confront me about how to go to heaven? How dare you confront me on what my beliefs are about going to heaven? And it's like, well, I don't want to make you feel comfortable on your journey to hell. You know what I mean? How many people are just fine and satisfied with their journey to hell, and in fact, you ask them, how do you go to heaven? I don't even know. But you're comfortable getting there on that path, on that journey? I mean, how many times do you drive in the car having absolutely no idea where you're going? I mean, it happens, but generally speaking, we would all feel so uncomfortable that we'd try to figure out where we're going first, wouldn't we? We'd pull over. You know, what if your phone, most of us probably use the GPS. What if your phone just said, sorry, I have no idea where you're going. I have no idea where you're at. I have no idea what's happening. You'd be like, I'm going to get a new phone. I want to know where I'm going, right? But think about how many people, when it comes to their journey to heaven, they're going to a church where their GPS is basically saying, like, you can turn right or left. You're like, what do you mean right or left? You can do whatever you want. Go up, go down, go left, go right. You'd be like, I'm getting a new GPS. I want to know exactly where to go, what street I have to take, and how many people today, they have genuinely no idea how to go to heaven, what it even takes, what it even looks like, but they think that they're really going. Why? Because they've been comforted in vain because of liars. Says this in verse 2, therefore, they went their way as a flock. They were troubled because there was no shepherd, meaning that because the preachers are lying, the flock just has no idea where they're going. They have no idea what to do. They're not making good decisions. If you just have a bunch of sheep out there with literally no shepherd, well, they're going to just all wander wherever and doing whatever, constantly being eaten by wolves, constantly devoured, falling in ditches, destroying themselves, drowning themselves, killing themselves. And look, that is what God's people looks like today in large sections of America today because they have no shepherd. Christians have no idea where they're going in life, no idea what they're doing, no purpose, no vision, no real genuine spirituality. Many Christians are so depressed. People are killing themselves. People are hurting themselves. They're making bad decisions. They're getting out of church. They're not reading their Bible. They're not praying. They're not preaching the gospel. They're not doing the things of God. Why? Because of lying false prophets. And you know what? It's a real battle today. It's a real struggle today for the false prophet against the true prophet because there's so many of them and there's so few of us. And it's important to go to a church where you do have a shepherd that is leading because otherwise you're going to find yourself where, who knows where, troubled, confused, all kinds of problems. You know, it's important what church you go to. And there's a lot of reasons to pick a church. And I'm not saying they're all legit. I'm just saying there's a lot of reasons why people go to a church. It's five minutes from my house, right? That could be a reason why someone goes to church. It's convenient. It's close. Some people go to a church just simply because it's big. Some people go to church because it's small. Some people determine what church they're going to go to based solely on the size of the church. Some people pick church based on the music only. Some people pick the church based on where their family goes. Some people pick the church based on where their friends go or where they can go and meet different people or different friends. Some people go to church exclusively for the kids' programs. And that's a lot of people, in fact. They go because they just, I want to be away from my kid for two hours. And so I've got to go to a church where they're going to literally entertain my kid for a few hours. And so that's where they go to church. There's a lot of reasons to pick a church. But to me, the most important and the one that I've always considered as the one that I am determining at church is the shepherd. Who's the shepherd of the church? Because to me, that's the most important factor is the preaching and the shepherd. That's why I would pick a church. I wouldn't pick it because of the music program. I wouldn't pick it because of my friends. I wouldn't pick it because of how close it is to my church. I wouldn't pick it for a lot of reasons. I'd pick it because of who the shepherd is because that's the most important factor of what's going on with the church. And I always say, go to the best church in the area. You know, if there's someone preaching great, there's a great shepherd, go there. It's not a competition. But at the end of the day, that should be a very important factor into what church you're going to is who is leading the church and who the shepherd is of that particular church. That's a really important aspect of the church itself. Everything rises and falls on leadership. And let's just be honest, not all churches are created equal. Not all churches are created equal. And when I visited a church and I thought, man, this church is really great, you know why? It's usually because they had a great shepherd. You know, it's like, why is it that Verity Baptist Church just happens to be such a fun church to visit and go to and has cool conferences and they're really successful and they're having a lot of fun? It's because they have a great shepherd and pastor in minutes. It's like, why are people moving all over the country to go to the middle of the sun, I'm sorry, the desert in Phoenix and go hear someone preach and yell at them. It's because Pastor Anderson is a great preacher. That's why people, and you know, sometimes people just don't even get it. They don't understand because they have a carnal mind. But you know, the spiritual persons that seek for a good preacher, a good shepherd, that should be a litmus test for what kind of church that you're going to go to. And when the shepherd is Steven Furtick, you run away screaming. When the shepherd is a heretic, you run away screaming. When the shepherd is preaching lies, you go from that church, you leave that church. It doesn't matter, well, but that's where we grew up. That's where our friends are. That's what's close to my church or close to my house. You know, that doesn't matter. As soon as you identify this is a bad shepherd, you got to get out of there. And so many people are sticking in a church where they don't even like the shepherd. And you know what? That's a bad decision. If you recognize that the shepherd's not a good shepherd, you need to get out of that church. You need to go to a church where they have a good shepherd. Verse 3, Now inevitably what happens when you have a bunch of false prophets? Well, you have a lot of false converts and the Bible uses animals to denote spiritual truths. The goat is an animal to represent unsaved Christians or unsaved people in general. I use the word Christian because they're in that religion. They're going to a, quote, Christian church. They call themselves a Christian, but they're not saved, therefore they're a goat. Because when you look in Matthew 25, and we'll actually go there a little bit in the future, but if you look in Matthew chapter 25, the people that are identified as goats were still seeking to please the Lord. They were still wanting to serve, and in fact they were upset. They're like, when did we see Jesus and not minister unto him? You know, it wasn't like, why wasn't it a completely different religion? No, they were in the theory, the right religion, but they weren't actually saved. They didn't actually believe on Jesus. They didn't actually have salvation by faith. They were just Christian religious. And you know, going to a church doesn't make you a Christian, a true Christian. It doesn't make you saved. Getting baptized doesn't make you saved. Doing some church things doesn't make you saved. Reading the Bible doesn't make you saved. Putting your faith in Jesus Christ is what makes you saved. And you're different on the inside and you're no longer a goat, you're a sheep. And my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they will not follow the voice of a stranger. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of unsaved people. They love strangers, and boy, do they follow them. If we were to go and examine some of these mega churches today, if we were to go to Gateway, if we were to go to some other non-denominational church, if we were to visit them and talk to the congregation, a lot of them would not be saved. And in some denominations, it would be virtually everyone. That's not saved. Almost every Catholic is unsaved. Virtually most of the Catholic light versions are unsaved. And unfortunately, even a lot of non-denominational people are even unsaved today. And we see this happening in our culture just like it happened in times past. Just like when Jerusalem was originally destroyed, they had all these preachers, they had all these prophets, but they had all these goats in their city. And you know what? That's what destroyed them is the lack of actually having Christians, people that are saved, people that love the Lord, people that are serving Him. And you know, that's a danger for our country and for every country when you're just filled with goats and you have no sheep. We need to maximize the sheep that are in a particular area to protect it. And of course, God is also concerned with His flock because at times, there's not a good shepherd. And I would say that that's even true today. That there are sheep in this world where they don't have a great church to go to near their area. And in fact, in some places, maybe not even a good church. Or they have to drive really far. And it's very difficult. And even if they do find a saved pastor, a lot of times it's not even necessarily doing that great or doing that hot. He could be that old man that's lying to them a lot, the old prophet. And so God's upset. Notice He says in verse 3 of mine, anger was kindled against the shepherds. God gets mad at preachers. God gets mad at pastors. God gets mad at church leaders when they're not doing the right thing. And you know what? There's a level of accountability that's even a little bit higher for pastors, for shepherds, for spiritual leaders that they're doing the right thing and that they're preaching the truth and that they're ministering unto God's people. And so it's important because God is going to get very mad at them and He wants His flock to be taken care of. And when you're a bad shepherd, God will remove you. God can destroy you. God will take care of that because He wants His flock to be taken care of. And so He's saying, hey, I'm visiting Judah because I want to give them a good shepherd. I want to get back to having good shepherds and good ministers and good leaders and people that are going to take care of them. And He's made specifically Judah as a goodly horse in the battle. Now again, there's always carnal truths and there's always, like, immediate relevancy in the Bible, but a lot of this language seems like it's just kind of talking about generalities and pictures and kind of foreign things. I feel like a lot of this is just kind of generally talking about the ever-going battle because right now at this time, they're not really, if you think about it, they're not really experiencing some of these things directly. You know, it's not like they have a bunch of false prophets and they're constantly battling all these different goats or something like that. It's actually a lot of the saved people have returned and it's mostly like the cream of the crop has actually returned and they're rebuilding the temple. But as time goes on, you always have this issue, you always have this battle between the false prophets and the goats and you have the true prophets of God and you have the sheep and there's always this constant battle and this is the battle that's every age, every century. God's always at war with Amalek and there's always this battle, and of course in the Old Testament, God used a lot of really physical battles and logistical things to help us understand the spiritual battles that are going on in the spiritual realm because we can't see the spiritual realm. We can't necessarily understand all the spiritual battles that are happening every single day, but there's always this constant battle between the liars and the false prophets and those are the true men of God and the sheep and so he's trying to make Judah this goodly horse in this battle again, okay? And Judah has been kind of this un-forsaken tribe, this just limelight spot throughout the entire Old Testament period. Why? Well, because they're important for what they're going to bring into the world is ultimately the Good Shepherd, okay? Now, it says specifically that he's made Judah his goodly horse in the battle. Verse 4, out of him came forth the corner. Now, that's just, again, this verse is just really hard to understand, just isolated, but I think what the context has been bringing up is Judah specifically. So I think in verse 4, we have to maintain the same concept or the same context here that we're talking about Judah. So out of him, I interpret that in verse 4 as Judah every single time. So it could be out of Judah came forth the corner, out of Judah the nail, out of Judah the battle bow, out of Judah every oppressor together. This is really kind of difficult, but I kind of want to focus a lot of the sermon on this particular verse here for a second because I think understanding it kind of helps us with this big picture. But I believe that verse 4 is kind of acting as a prophecy in the same way that Genesis 49 acts as a prophecy. Now, in Genesis 49, you have all these specific prophecies about the 12 tribes of Israel that are coming, and it's not about that immediate time. It's kind of just talking about them from a picture of their entire timeline, like just the entire timeline of the tribe of Judah or the entire timeline of the tribe of Issachar, the entire timeline of Benjamin. If we were to analyze their entire life and their entire cycle as a tribe, what does it look like, just generally speaking? If we were to kind of summarize their entire experience, what is that like? And I think, again, this is kind of what it's trying to do, is it's trying to talk about Judah in general, not like right now, not just only in the future, just like Judah. Like, we think about them from an entire timeline perspective, okay? And specifically things about Judah, I think, that are going to happen. Now, before we get here, keep your finger, go to Genesis 49. I should have just told you to go there already, but go to Genesis 49. Let's just read a little bit of what God said about Judah specifically, okay? And why he's made it such a special tribe, kind of the apple of his eye. But Jacob or Israel is giving a prophecy, a last minute, kind of last moment of his life prophecy to his 12 children and even, technically, the sons of Joseph as well. But in verse 8, he's talking about Judah. Judah, thou art he, whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Now, again, is this really, did this happen for Judah the person? No, it wasn't really about Judah the person. It was about Judah as the tribe, okay? Now, it says specifically that he's going to be praised, and in his hand is going to have the neck of thine enemies. That sounds like this guy has a battle, something to do with battle, something to do with fighting, something to do with war, okay? And it says in verse 8, thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Verse 9, Judah is a lion's whelp. This is talking about, like, his roar, his cry. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up, he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding is full unto the vine, and his ass is cold unto the choice vine, he washes garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. So, of course, Judah is given this great prophecy, and, you know, from studying it in other passages, we can kind of see that this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's reminiscent of a couple things. It's not only Jesus Christ, though, because, of course, where does that lineage start? It starts with David. Because initially, the children of Israel are given a king, King Saul, but he's from the tribe of Benjamin. But then the tribe of Benjamin and Saul is replaced, and his lineage is replaced by Judah specifically, and by David specifically. And then from David, the Bible gives this prophecy of how the scepter's not gonna depart from David. But what does it say? Until Shiloh come. Okay, so basically, the scepter is given, it's kind of handed off from David unto Shiloh, and it's talking about this kind of unbroken kingdom lineage. And specifically, there is a break here. There's a couple breaks. Of course, there's the 70-year Babylonian captivity. We kind of just didn't have anybody on the throne. But then, as soon as we're rebuilding, we're continuing that same thread, and we have Zechariah prophesying, and we have Zerubbabel coming in that same lineage, and we're gonna continue forth with that same lineage. We have Josiah instituting the priesthood. We have Zerubbabel as that governor, as that ruler, as that leader, and we're gonna carry that forth unto the Lord Jesus Christ. He talks about Jesus specifically, binding his foal unto the vine and his ass's colt unto the choice vine. We kind of saw that in the previous chapter, talking about Jesus Christ coming in lowly on that ass's colt. And we also have him being mentioned here as he washed his garments and wine, talking about his death and his clothes and the blood of the grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk. So he's preaching the Word of God, and we see crucifixion being prophesied here. Go back to Zechariah chapter 10 now. So what I believe in verse 4 here is we're kind of getting a look at Judah as a whole again. Just like we kind of got a look at Judah as a whole here in Genesis chapter 49, it's kind of giving the same concept. And it says in verse number 4, out of him came forth the corner. Now to me, that would be reminiscent of the Lord Jesus Christ again, and how Jesus Christ is that cornerstone that's going to come out of Judah specifically. We could look at a lot of different verses on that, but the Bible just says over and over about Jesus Christ being the corner. He's the chief cornerstone. I actually wrote down a few different verses on that, but there's definitely a ton that bring this up. But the Bible says in Job 38, whereupon are the foundations thereof? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? And it talks about when the morning stars sang. Psalm 118 says the stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. In Matthew 21, it brings up that same quote, and it says, Jesus saith unto them, did you 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's marvelous in our eyes. 1 Peter chapter 2 says, wherefore also is contained in the scripture? Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. And in Acts chapter 4, it says this is the stone which was set at naught of you builders which has become the head of the corner. Now again, a cornerstone or a corner is representative of the origin of a foundation, the beginning of a building's construction. And of course, that's what Jesus Christ represents as the beginning, as the origin of what? The New Testament. He's the origin and the beginning of those who are gonna be redeemed. He's the firstborn of every creature. And of course, Colossians 1 makes it abundantly clear that he gets all the preeminence. Well, why does he get the preeminence? Well, think about it. Jesus Christ was the creator. He created Adam. So before Adam was Jesus. Jesus is already the Son of God in heaven before we ever had the first Adam. So Jesus is preeminent. He's the first before the first Adam. Then he's also the first begotten of the dead. So before anybody's begotten of the dead, Jesus is first again. Why? Because in every single situation, Jesus is always the first. And when it comes to the New Testament, he is that cornerstone where we have that beginning building of those who are saved, redeemed. And of course, that's important because out of Judah came the corner. That's where we got the origin. That's where we got the beginning. That's where we got the foundation. That's where we got the most important piece of human history is that cornerstone, which is Jesus Christ. I mean, think about it. The most important thing that's ever happened is Jesus Christ specifically. So consistently throughout the Bible, God already knowing all things with his foreknowledge is constantly reiterating and focusing and highlighting the things that are going to bring us to that point in human history. Just like a movie might realize that there's a particular climax or a scene that's really important. But before we just start with that scene, we build, right? We start building with the story and getting all those elements and you're following these certain people and you're like, why am I following these certain people in the story? It's because they're going to be the main characters in this climatic scene or epic and we want to know who they are. Who is the most central character of human history of the universe? It's Jesus Christ. And so the whole Bible is just following this narrative of bringing us to the birth of Jesus Christ and his death, burial and resurrection. And who's bringing us Jesus is Judah. That's why he's focusing on Judah and out of Judah came the corner. Additionally here it says, out of him the nail. Now this can have a few different actual understandings, but I think initially we kind of think about him being nailed to the cross. But I think there's other deeper meanings here too. Go if you would to, I want to go to Isaiah 22 first, okay? Isaiah 22. Colossians brings up the idea of how things were nailed to his cross. And it was specifically talking about the law and the ordinances that were against us that were contrary to us and how these things were nailed to the cross. And you know really I think it's just generally speaking even the law. The law itself was nailed to the cross and that's why we're dead with Christ and the law no longer has dominion over us. Therefore we are free in Christ and the curse of the law is by being hung on a tree He was hung on the tree by the nails and so that's what basically destroyed the law's power and dominion over us and gave us salvation and gave us freedom. And you know it's talking about out of Judah came the nail. Came what? Came the salvation from the law, okay? But I think that there's another meaning that we can kind of derive from this particular word or understanding as a nail. Because what is a nail itself? A nail is something that is fastened and it's secure. Now in the book of Isaiah it brings up another prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ through a different person because the Bible is you know all the prophets picture Jesus all the different characters of the Bible are constantly foreshadowing different aspects of Jesus and Isaiah 22 it also is bringing up another character that pictures and foreshadows Jesus as Eliakim. Look at verse number 20 and it's come to pass in that day and it's come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle and I will commit thy government into his hand and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Now that's a really important verse honestly because it helps you understand Isaiah 9 6 when the Bible talks about the Lord Jesus Christ being the everlasting father the word father in Isaiah chapter 9 6 is talking about a governor or ruler and here it's using that exact same word in the exact same book of the Bible to help you understand what a father means and there's a difference between Eliakim being a father and Jesus because Eliakim died but Jesus Christ will never die because he's the everlasting father meaning that once he comes to set up his rule and set up his kingdom there'll be no end to his kingdom he will be the everlasting father and of course that's the whole emphasis of Isaiah chapter 9 is the fact that Christ's kingdom will be a permanent everlasting kingdom that's the whole point that's being made here in this chapter some people will falsely say that Isaiah 9 proves that Jesus Christ is God the father and that's just not true those of us that believe in the trinity understand there are three that make one God the father, the son, and the holy ghost these three are all God but they're not each other there is a distinction between the father and the son so I just want to make that point but notice the parallel here of Eliakim and what's being said it says he's going to be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah that's the same as Jesus Jesus is going to be the governor of these specific areas verse 22 and the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open that sounds exactly like Jesus too, doesn't it? Jesus has the key of David and he can open and close and no man I mean that's what he says in Revelation about specifically how he can open and no man can shut and he can close and no man can open and then it says in verse 23 and I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house so what this is a picture of a nail is something that is steadfast it's nailed and now that it's nailed you can't do anything about it and think about it if you've got a nail and you nailed it all the way in a lot of us in a modern day context have that little head so maybe you can kind of squeeze it back out there but imagine if it doesn't have a head I mean once that thing is nailed in there it's done it's secure it's fast it's not going to move it's just it's basically steadfast it's a great way to unmovable okay and it's basically saying like once Jesus Christ is established it's done and isn't that a great thing that when Jesus Christ died on the cross was buried and rose again it was a nail in the coffin to the law in the sense that what it's been established it's been done it's never going to change it's the everlasting gospel Jesus is the once for all sacrifice he's been nailed he's been sealed he's the only redeemer the only savior the only one that will ever cause us to go to heaven everything's been completely accomplished in him he is that nail in a sure place and nothing will undo it nothing can conquer it nothing can defeat it boy out of Judah came the nail meaning that this is the final nail to the coffin you know sometimes we use that language to refer to someone when they're finished or when something's accomplished it's that final nail right and it's just like hey everything needed for salvation was finally accomplished it was that nail to just get it all done that's where we got it because everything else leading up to was just a foreshadow was just a type was just giving us a semblance but this is the nail this is exactly that secure thing and it says in verse 23 and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house well of course doesn't that sound like Jesus too how Jesus is going to be established and he's going to have a glorious throne unto his father and it says in verse 24 and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house the offspring and the issue all vessels of small quantity from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons so again you know I'm just trying to help you understand that while this is talking about Eliakim and specifically his kingdom and his reign it's a foreshadowing type of Jesus Christ and notice how it uses that word nail and I believe that nail is to help us understand the nail in Zechariah chapter number 10 and then we use that great language in Colossians about things being nailed to his cross meaning what? that it's finished because the nail is a picture of something being finished accomplished and it's sure it's steadfast it's never going to change okay now go back if you would to Zechariah chapter 10 so we're just kind of we're trying to peel back the layers here and get a deeper understanding of some of these verses a lot of times what I try to do in these chapters is try to give you a semblance of just like what's happening in that time and what's like just kind of the surface level but it doesn't seem like Zechariah 10 has much surface level like it seems like it's actually just a very deep book in general so that's why we're kind of going a little bit deeper and kind of getting the more nuanced meanings out of some of these texts but it also says out of him the battle bow now again I would just reference this to what we kind of talked about in Genesis 49 where it talks about how his hand is going to be in the throat of the necks of his enemies like his hand's going to be in the neck of his enemies and of course Judah is known for a lot of battles you could even take this in the modern context or the current context of its particular timeframe Judah's obviously going to have to go through certain battles you have the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes and you have different battles and struggles there even so maybe there's a loose reference there but you also have really the more big picture of the constant spiritual battle between the false prophets and the goats and you have the sheep you have God's people and generally speaking the devil consistently throughout the entire scripture is battling to destroy the seed of the woman there's this battle between the serpent and the seed of the woman and the seed of the woman is going to crush the serpent's head and the serpent is going to bite his heel so you see this battle you see this conflict that's going on in the scripture consistently and think about even at the birth of Christ how the devil is trying to literally destroy all the babies just to kill Jesus so there's this constant battle that's raging when it comes to the children of Israel and Judah specifically and the devil seems like he constantly wants to wipe Judah off the face of the map because he wants to get rid of Jesus he wants to get rid of that coming seed of the woman the last piece here is kind of interesting though because it says out of him every oppressor together now I want to make it clear that I don't believe that necessarily all of this it's not saying like out of Jesus came forth Jesus or something it's saying like out of Judah right? so the picture is Judah well Judah is actually a mixed bag because Judah while it does bring us the Lord Jesus Christ Judah also brings us some of the worst people to ever live the Jews okay? and you know it's consistent theme in the Bible that they are oppressors I want to take you to a few places go back to Zephaniah chapter 3 go to Zephaniah chapter number 3 and in fact if you want to you can look at kind of that first chapter 2 but it's a really short chapter or I'm sorry, book of the Bible but in Zephaniah if you look at chapter 1 and you kind of you kind of notice a few different things in verse 1 itself it's talking about the prophecy happening during the the days of Josiah the son of Ammon king of Judah so that kind of gives you a hint like this is kind of like about Judah and it also says in verse 4 and I will stretch out my hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so it's generally talking about them it does bring up other places and other places God's going to judge but then look at verse 1 of chapter 3 woe to her woe to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city now that's not necessarily clear who we're talking about but if we keep reading it says she obeyed not the voice she received not correction she trusted not in the Lord she drew not near to her God cities that are just these heathen pagan cities are not described as having God as being her God also it says in verse 3 her prince is within her are roaring lions her judges are evening wolves they gnaw not the bones till the morrow her prophets are light and treacherous persons her priests have polluted the sanctuary they have done violence to the law the just Lord is in the midst thereof he will not do iniquity every morning doth he bring his judgment to light he filleth not but the unjust know no shame so again if we take the context it's pretty clear that we're talking about Jerusalem and we're talking about Judah and what are they described as? the oppressing city that's what they're literally described as so it's like Judah kind of has this heritage or this perpetual issue of constantly being a city of oppression and constantly oppressing people through what? their false prophets their false teachers their religious leaders are constantly hurting the people of God and there's not a lot of cities where you can literally say in verse 5 the just Lord is in the midst thereof so that's another evidence clearly but let's go to even clearer passages go back to Ezekiel chapter 22 go all the way back to Ezekiel chapter 22 and I just kind of want to show you this pattern for the sake of time we're not going everywhere we could go through all of Isaiah we could go through Jeremiah and just see consistently how Judah and Jerusalem is being called a city of oppression and how they're oppressing people and how God's telling them not to oppress people just over and over like stop the oppression quit oppressing people then you get into Ezekiel which of course this is in the timeline of the Babylonian captivity and parts of it and he's a contemporary with Daniel but he's kind of explaining why he even destroyed Jerusalem or why he's going to destroy Jerusalem says in Ezekiel 22 verse 19 therefore thus say the Lord God because you're all become dross behold therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem so he's saying I'm going to gather all of Israel into the midst of Jerusalem as they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace to blow the fire upon it to melt it so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury and I will leave you there and melt you yea I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath and you shall be melted in the midst thereof as silver is melted in the midst of the furnace so shall you be melted in the midst thereof and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you and the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man say unto her thou art the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation there is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof like a roaring lion ravening the prey they have devoured souls they have taken the treasure in precious things they have made her many widows in the midst thereof her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things they have put no difference between the holy and profane neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am profaned among them her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood and to destroy souls to get dishonest gain and her prophets have daubed them with untempered more seeing vanity and divining lies unto them saying thus saith the Lord God when the Lord hath not spoken the people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy yea they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully doesn't this sound pretty reminiscent of Zechariah chapter number 10 when it was bringing up hey these idols and these prophets are preaching lies and they're hurting the flock of God and he's going to judge them specifically and then he brings up this idea of oppression and it's exactly the same concept as why he originally destroyed them why there was the Babylonian captivity and notice what it has the most famous verse verse 30 and I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should destroy it not but I found none what a sad phrase to end I just wanted a man to do something about it and I found none therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them sometimes you have to ask this question like why is God not destroyed America yet maybe it's because he's at least found one person but you know what? it gets bad when he says I'm looking for someone to help and I can't even find one then he just destroys it then he just nukes it you know that's why it's important for God's people to stay salty and to be that bright and shining light you know when it came to Sodom and Gomorrah he needed ten couldn't find ten here he just wanted one I mean look how low he went he just wanted one and he couldn't even find it that's very sad that's very disappointing now go over to Matthew 23 I bring this up because I want to at least paint the picture historically historically Judah has gone down a bad path waxed worse and worse gotten to become a very oppressing city God's warning them don't do this path again they're starting over they get a rebirth they're getting to rebuild the temple but what path does he not want them to go down he doesn't want them to go down a path of oppression again but what do we find when the Lord Jesus Christ comes unto his people comes unto Judah comes unto Jerusalem what is the spiritual state of this particular area well look at Matthew 23 and he's going to talk to the religious leaders here look at verse 2 saying this is Jesus saying the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not eat after their works for they say and do not now this is what's so funny to me is people when you preach the word of God if I get up and I preach the Old Testament if I preach the law someone will call me a Pharisee right this is like oh you think women should wear dresses and skirts you're a Pharisee but wait a minute if a Pharisee got up and said women should wear dresses and skirts according to the law what is Jesus' commentary on that he said all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do why was Jesus mad at the Pharisees it's because they didn't do it it wasn't because they weren't saying the right thing it's because they weren't doing the right thing and you know what there's a lot of false prophets today that it's crazy when I listen to them preach because they'll get up and they'll say you need to read your Bible don't just trust what people say check what the Bible says I'm thinking like yeah check what this guy's saying about the Bible right they'll get up and they'll say all kinds of things we need to trust in the Lord Jesus our Savior they'll say all these great things and I'm thinking like wow I wish people would actually apply that you know in their life but you know what was a huge problem with the Pharisees it was that they lied about what they were doing they're saying that they're serving God they're saying that they love God but they themselves didn't love God they didn't trust God they didn't read the Bible they weren't pure they were basically hypocrites and that's what he calls them out for in this chapter repeatedly verse four what did they do? for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers you know what that sounds like? oppression they were oppressing everybody else they're laying grievous burdens on other people what is a problem? a minister is supposed to serve they minister what were the Pharisees doing? laying burdens on people making their lives harder you know the whole point of a minister is to actually minister to people and actually take things off of them to take off burdens to burden themselves whereas what are they doing? they're oppressing people they're putting burdens on other people making their lives harder or more difficult you know that's a good way to judge how good you are of a minister are you taking people's burdens or are you giving people burdens? like are you somebody that people want to be around because you're going to make their lives better or are you making are they making your life better? well you know it comes pretty clear I mean the apostle Paul was so extreme at this that he didn't even take a paycheck because he just didn't want any excuse he wanted to make it clear like I'm laying down everything for you guys, right? now again there's nothing wrong with pastors or people getting paid or taking a paycheck you know if they sow spiritual things they should be willing or capable of reaping carnal things but the net overall should be them pouring out more than they're receiving giving more than they are receiving and what are the Pharisees doing? they're taking what did Eli and Hophni or what does Eli's son Hophni and Phineas do? they just took from everybody they didn't minister on anybody they didn't love anybody they didn't do good on anybody they were oppressing so we see that Judah went down the same road and it's saying like hey out of Judah came every oppressor it's like boy you know you want to know what the worst oppressors were in the world they were coming from Judah the bankers and the money changers and all these people just laying these grievous burdens and just burdening people with the law oh you got to get circumcised to be saved that's a burden oh you got to keep all the law oh you got to tithe on anise and cumin are you making sure you're tithing on all your anise and your cumin? I mean just over the top just burdens and just causing people just all this difficulty robbing widows it's the same thing when Jesus comes back and look what he says in this chapter in verse 37 oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sinned unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathered their chickens under her wings and ye would not behold your house is left unto you desolate for I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord and so the Lord Jesus Christ is rebuking them and he's blaming Jerusalem for being the worst place like think about it he's like basically saying you guys are the worst so it's kind of funny how out of Judah came the corner and it came the oppressor right, go back to Zechariah chapter 10 but you know I think that it's also really important because what does man want to do? man wants to trust in himself, trust in his works, trust in his race trust in his ethnicity like I'm of Judah, I'm special but you know what, there wasn't anything special about Judah except for the Lord Jesus Christ coming out of it because you know what was the opposite? well what does it say? out of him every oppressor together and they all came together and they condemned the Lord Jesus Christ he came unto his own and his own received him not you know what? there wasn't anything special about being part of Judah you know what was special about Judah? Jesus Christ and what he brought us and what he gave us but you know we all have to trust in Jesus to be saved not in being Judah not being a Pharisee not oh I have the works of the law that's going to save me nope that's not going to save you and in fact all those people were some of the worst people to ever live they were the worst oppressors and you know what, there's no new thing under the sun who are the worst oppressors today? it's the Jews the Jews are still the same type of people some of the worst people that there ever has existed now of course they are the false Jews though they are the goat Jews we are the true Jews and we're the greatest people because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed unto us and look at what it says in verse number 5 and they shall be as mighty men which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle and they shall fight because the Lord is with them and the riders on horses shall be confounded so I think what he's kind of doing is he's kind of giving a loose perhaps prophecy of the children of Judah that in the future they may go through some battles and they're going to win but ultimately the spiritual picture is that we are those children of Judah that are going to tread down our enemies and we're supposed to tread on serpents we're supposed to go out there and we have victory constantly we're going out there and we're running into someone that says they go to the Catholic church and in 15 minutes we're getting them to renounce the Catholic church and become a Christian and joining the tribe of Judah the true Jews, those who are the saved we're going out there and we're treading on Father so and so which is blasphemous title anyway and we're treading down on all the non-denominational liars and all these false prophets and teachers that are going out there and we're basically crushing them and we're showing people with the sword of the Spirit how to be saved how do we slay those enemies with the sword of the Spirit today and you know, today we even have that bow which is the internet we're just getting videos and we're just shooting people a video shooting them an email and shooting them a message and shooting them a social media text or whatever a message or DM or whatever you want to call it you know, that they got out there and we're just from our boat we're just sitting here and we're just like, hey Bahamas, have some you know, hey Philippines, have some you know, we're sending our preaching everywhere and you know what, we're supposed to constantly be in battle and we're supposed to use our sword and let's use the bow of the internet the best that we can and let's reach as many people for Jesus as possible because we're in a real battle today people are really dying and going to hell every second and we need to be in this battle and you know what, the Bible says that Jesus Christ and God is going to make us as mighty men mighty today when I look at this world's crop they are not mighty men they are cowards you know why? every single one of them when they get up and they accidentally say the word faggot and try to be mighty as soon as the heat comes they're like, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean that I didn't really, I didn't want to say that I may never work for this network again I'm so sorry you know, that's what they're like you know, we're like, yeah, they are faggots, bring it on here's the DVD watch the sodomite deception get the t-shirt you know, we're not like sitting here crying and cowering and they're like, oh no, aren't you worried about being protested? we weren't even protested this year I feel ashamed, did I not preach hard enough? do I need to preach harder? all faggots are disgusting and going to hell, there our government should execute every faggot I can't even get protested anymore, I don't even know what to do it's not like I want to but you know, at the end of the day we shouldn't be afraid, we should be mighty men that are prepared for the battle that are ready to fight because the Lord will fight with us what does it say in verse 5? and they shall fight because the Lord is with them what gives me confidence to fight is that the Lord is with me and that the Lord is with us and you know what, the riders on horses they're going to be confounded verse 6 and I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Judah and I will bring them again to place them for I have mercy upon them and they shall be as though I had not cast them off for I am the Lord their God and will hear them so he's saying they're going to get such restitution such redemption it's going to be as if they were never even cast off in any way which is important because he's kind of talking about like look, we're going to rebuild the temple, the temple's going to be the same the people are going to come and they're going to populate the city and the city's going to be the same and they're going to just be basically all the way back to where it feels like nothing even happened like when we fast forward a little bit and we looked at that time period and we go all the way back it would be like the same and we'd think like oh, I can't believe that this was actually destroyed and was laid waste for a while they've totally been healed full healing, full redemption, full restitution which is what the Lord Jesus Christ does for us when it comes to salvation, right? it's as if we had never sinned that's what it means to be justified just as if I never sinned it's a full restitution and it's as if I had never sinned I'd never had that breach I'd never had that thing, why? because I get that imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and I get to stand before God just completely redeemed, completely healed no blemish found in me not because of works of righteousness which we have done but by his mercy he saved us by the imputed blood of Jesus Christ he completely redeemed me and I can stand before the throne of God blameless because of what Jesus did for me now in verse 7 it says and they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man and their heart shall rejoice as through wine, yea their children shall see it and be glad their heart shall rejoice in the Lord I will hiss for them and gather them for I have redeemed them and they shall increase as they have increased and I will sow them among the people and they shall remember me in far countries and they shall live with their children and turn again I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon and place shall not be found for them and he shall pass through the sea with affliction and shall smite the waves in the sea and all the deeps of the river shall dry up and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away and I will strengthen them in the Lord and they shall walk up and down and his name sayeth the Lord So, kind of this last section he brings up the idea of Ephraim also returning and them also being redeemed. It says specifically in verse number 9 that he's going to sow them among the people and they're going to remember him in far countries Well, I believe that this is kind of just a picture, again of the replacement theology concept of how the children that are saved are going to be going all over the world and all the different parts they're going to be redeemed out Keep your finger and go to Revelation chapter 5 for just a second and I want to show you kind of an interesting verse in relation to that In Revelation chapter 5 look at verse number 9 and this is about the Lord Jesus Christ the lamb the lamb that's been slain that we're talking about it says in verse 9 So, Jesus redeemed people from everywhere and so again, I think that we kind of see this constant picture of hey, there's being people who are redeemed from all these different areas and they're all coming but another concept was that they're all coming and they're all being redeemed while those nations are literally being destroyed That's what he's kind of bringing up in Zechariah chapter 10 is how they're going to be destroyed He says in verse 11 So let's think about this What is the on the surface definition? or understanding? Well, Egypt and Assyria became wasteland kingdoms and they're not important anymore Right? I mean, today, those aren't important kingdoms those have not been important kingdoms Egypt used to literally rule over the world used to be one of the most powerful nations throughout history and pretty much at this point and then into the future, Egypt just becomes a nothing-burger just kind of a lower kingdom a lower nation so does Assyria these places never become powerhouses ever again and most of the power it's coming from the Grecian empire then there's going to be the Roman empire then you pretty much have Europe maybe the Mongolian empire you know, with a little bit of that part of the world you kind of just have the Europe ruling the world for the rest of human history until you kind of have America which we're a daughter of Europe we're a daughter of that Roman empire and the British empire, essentially and so that's pretty much been the world picture that we've had and it's true dried up Egypt, dried up Assyria they're just gone another aspect of this is kind of a bigger spiritual picture is the fact that God is going to constantly judge the wicked and is going to destroy the wicked in general go to Proverbs chapter 3 and it's kind of well, I might go to one other place but we're pretty much wrapping up finishing here Proverbs chapter 3 I want you to understand that throughout history obviously we kind of have cycles repeating you know, you kind of have different cycles that often repeat where you kind of have like a rebirth phase of human history and then people start trusting the Lord and then they have wealth and success and then corruption comes and then they get destroyed and then it's like a rebirth again this kind of like cycle that's constantly going through human history and those cycles can be long periods of time they can be a little bit shorter cycles if we're going to try and probably put ourselves in one of these general cycles it seems like we're kind of in that corrupt, you know, about to be destroyed process like we're heading for this kind of destruction but what we have to notice is constantly whenever we go through those processes God somehow is capable of judging all the wicked and destroying them and then preserving all the remnants out of it so like even though He goes through and just destroys all these people He still kind of like preserves the safe and that's what I want you to have this hope and have this confidence in the Lord because He brings us up in the book of Proverbs specifically, like what He says in verse 21 my son let not them depart from thine eyes, keep sound wisdom and discretion, so He's saying keep wisdom and destruction verse 22 so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck, then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble when thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid yea, thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet be not afraid of sudden fear neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh for the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken now that is a great promise of the Bible where He's saying hey whenever there's all this fear and there's all this worry about what's going to happen you know what, don't allow that to stop you from getting a good night's rest you just go to sleep lay down your head safely and what's your confidence your confidence is that the Lord will sustain thee the Lord will keep thee you know it says that in I believe Psalm I want to see if we can find this go to Psalm 3, I think that's another one that's really kind of similar to this yea, that's what I wanted Psalm 3 verse 1, Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? many are they that rise up against me many there be which say of my soul there is no help for him in God, Selah but thou, O Lord, art a shield for me my glory and the lifter up of mine head I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill, Selah I laid me down and slept I awake for the Lord sustained me you know if you ever feel down if you're ever upset if you're ever worried this has always been my remedy it always will be my remedy read Psalm 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and you might not even just read it until you feel better again and you might not even have to get all the way to chapter 10 they're really short but it really covers this concept of kind of being afraid or being fearful or worry or any of these kind of things you know just read those Psalms and just meditate on them he's like talking about, hey, you're worried about sleeping? read Psalm 3 think about Proverbs chapter 3 that's a great couplet, right? Psalm 3, Proverbs 3 hey, you can go to sleep don't be afraid of sudden fear one last place I'm going to go to Matthew chapter 25 and we'll finish so let's kind of wrap up with a conclusion here how does all this kind of fit together? what is kind of this big picture? well again if we think about this chapter in a sense of like maybe an end times picture we're kind of talking about Christ returning when we think about the book of Zechariah where we've come to the return of Christ, the dwelling of our nations him destroying all the wicked, destroying all the evil nations how they're not going to stand but he brought up in this chapter those goats and his flock, didn't he? and you know what? that's another end times concept that's going to happen when Christ returns he's not only going to destroy all these nations but he's literally going to gather together all the goats and all the sheep and he's going to judge them okay? and we have to live in a world filled with all these false prophets and the goats and we're battling and fighting and we hear this sheep specifically but in Matthew 25 it brings up this concept in verse 31 when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as the shepherd divided his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on the left this is what I think is important about this parable and I'm not going to go through this parable for the sake of time but notice how Jesus can carefully dissect and he can just pull out the sheep and put them over here and just pull out the goats and just put them over here and he can just perfectly separate them and you know he says in other passages of the Bible that he's allowing the tares to grow amongst the wheat so we have to just trust the Lord that he knows what he's doing and even though we have a lot of goats in this world and though we have a lot of tares in this world and even though there's a lot of fear about them being destroyed we should realize that Jesus still knows that we're his sheep and he still cares about us and he's still capable of drawing us out and keeping us safe and rewarding us at the end of the day and recognizing who we are he still cares for us and as much as you could possibly care for a literal sheep, animal God cares about us even more I mean think about it if you literally had a sheep if we went home and you had a little farm and you had a little sheep you'd be thinking about I gotta feed this thing I gotta take care of it, I'd be thinking about a shelter if it fell in a ditch you'd wanna go and pull it out I mean you'd care so much about it you'd care about your children even more than that and you'd think God cares about you even more than you care about your children oh ye of little faith but sometimes we allow the world to scare us and to make us think like oh no it's doomed or be upset God doesn't want us to be like that God wants us to be praying for the rain and the latter rain and he wants us to recognize that yeah he may destroy all those people but he can still bless us in these difficult times he can still give us you know the things that we need and so we just need to trust in the Lord we need to stay faithful to what he's given us and recognize that in the end you'll be appreciative of the fact that you served God and you didn't serve this world let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us these deep truths of the Bible thank you so much for giving us your son, the Lord Jesus Christ to give us that imputed righteousness to be that corner and be that nail, that finish of the Gospel thank you for also just giving us the ability to have rain even all the way up to the end I pray that you would continue to bless Steadfast Baptist Church that you'd bless this congregation, that you'd keep us safe that you would deliver us from evil that you would allow us to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world that we could still get many people saved and we'd recognize the battle that we're in that we'd start using that battle bow that we'd use the sword of the Spirit that you've given us and we would continually just tread down our enemies so that we could rescue as many sheep as possible in Jesus' name we pray Amen Alright for our last song let's go to song number 96 God leads us along song number 96 God leads us along song 9 6 In shady green pastures so rich and so sweet God leads his dear children along where The water's cold flow bathes the weary one's feet. God leads His dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the flood. Some through grace or road, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long. Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright. God leads His dear children along. Sometimes in the valley in darkest of night. God leads His dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the flood. Some through grace or road, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long. Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose. God leads His dear children along. Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes. God leads His dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the flood. Some through grace or road, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long. Away from the mire and away from the clay. God leads His dear children along. Away up in glory, eternity's day. God leads His dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the flood. Some through grace or road, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long. Thank you all for coming. God bless. You are dismissed.