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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. We go ahead and find our seats. We'll go ahead and get started and once you find a seat go ahead and grab a hymnal and we'll start tonight in song number 15. Song number 15, Lead Me to Calvary. You hear the Wednesday night crowd singing out. Song number 15, everybody sing it with me on the first. 🎵Lest I forget thy nagony, lest I forget thy love for thee, lead me to Calvary. Show me the truth where thou wast laid, tenderly born and bled. Angels and gold of white array, guarded me whilst thou slept. Lest I forget thy nagony, lest I forget thy nagony. Lest I forget thy love for thee, lead me to Calvary. Lest I forget thy love for thee, lead me to Calvary. Show to me now the empty truth, lead me to Calvary. Lest I forget thy nagony, lest I forget thy nagony. Lest I forget thy love for thee, lead me to Calvary. May I be willing, Lord, to bear daily my cross for thee. Even if I come, come free to share, thou hast brought for thee. Lest I forget thy nagony, lest I forget thy nagony. Lest I forget thy love for thee, lead me to Calvary. Great singing, everybody. Let's open up the service with a word of prayer. Lord, we love you and we just thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for giving us voices to sing unto you and just help us to lift them up and fill this room with your spirit and bless this church. And it's in Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 46. Song number 46. My Savior, first of all, song number 46. Everybody sing it out together on your first. When my life work is ended and I cross the spelling tie, When the bright and glorious morning I shall see, I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side, And His smile will be the first to welcome me. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, And redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, My old friend of the nails in His hand. Oh, the soul thrilling rapture when I knew His blessed face, And the luster of His kindly beaming eye, How my whole heart will praise Him for the mercy, love, and grace That bring care for me a mention in the sky. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, And redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, My old friend of the nails in His hand. Oh, the dear ones in glory how they beckon me to come, And are parting at the river I recall, To the sweet hills of Eden's wind, I know my welcome home, But I long to be my Savior first of all. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, And redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, And the wind of the nails in His hand. Through the gates to the city, In a row of spotless white, He will lead me where no tears will ever fall. In the glad song of ages, I shall be the one divine, But I long to be my Savior first of all. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, And redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, And the wind of the nails in His hand. On the left inside there we have our service times, our Spanish service. First service of the day every Sunday at 9 a.m. Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening at 4 30 p.m. And tonight of course we're going through the book of Zechariah. And we have our church wide soul winning times listed there. All of those meet here at the church building. And then we have several regional soul winning times that meet at different locations throughout the DFW area. So if you're interested in any of those you can contact the respective leaders there. As a quick reminder please make sure to return your soul winning maps to the bin. There's two bins on the wall. One is for events, one's for soul winning maps. Make sure you're putting those back in the soul winning maps bin there. We have our steadfast Baptist Church stats year to date there. 1189 salvations for the year. Keep up the great work with soul winning. And as always make sure to report your salvations to your captains throughout the week. We have there our prayer list for our expecting ladies. Make sure to keep those ladies in prayer. That they would have healthy pregnancies. Upcoming events. Something weird on August 4th but we could skip that. Let's do August 15th. The mighty men's conference. Talk to brother Oliver from Verde Baptist Church today. Pastor Jimenez is very excited to be coming out to this. And this is definitely going to be a great time. You don't want to miss hearing him preach. So make sure you are ready to attend that men. And there's a sign up sheet for that in the hallway. On September 8th we have Dr. Phil Stringer coming to guest preach. For us from the King James Preservation Council I believe is his organization. And it's a great organization. October 4th is the Heritage of the Lord Conference. Which is geared towards the youth. Very excited for that coming up. We do have some reminders there you could read through. But we actually have our prayer list. We're going to go ahead and read through those real quick. And we'll pray as a church. The new ones for this week is Carlos Guzman is praying for Pastor Gomez. Who is the one that basically translated the reading of Valera Gomez 2010. He has cancer unfortunately. So we're definitely going to be praying for him. Also for Carlos' mother that she'd be saved. And Jeff Goodwin is asking for prayer for his son's health. So at this time we will go to the Lord in prayer as a church. Heavenly Father thank you for this evening. Thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for just the opportunity to serve you. To sing praises to your name and to gather with God's people. Just pray that you'd be with the individual needs of our church members tonight. Pray that you would bless them. Give them favor Lord. And that you would answer their prayer requests according to your will. We especially want to lift up Pastor Gomez. And pray that you would just heal him of his cancer. And help him to get the best treatment possible. And that you just give him and his family strength through this difficult time. And thank you for the great work for you that he has done in his life. Just pray that you'd bless him Lord. And we pray also for Brother Jeff Goodwin for his son. That he would get better soon. We love you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright that's going to be it for announcements this evening. Let's go ahead and go to our Psalm of the Week. Psalm 139. Alright, that was Psalm 139. Psalm 139. Everybody sing it out on the first. Alright, that was Psalm 139. Psalm 139. Everybody sing it out on the first. Come be therefore ye bloody men. Do not I hate them. Do not I hate them. Do not I hate them. Oh Lord that hate me. In them not I dream. With those that rise against me. Do not I hate them. Oh Lord that hate me. For they speak against me wickedly. For they speak against me wickedly. And thine enemies take thy name in vain. And thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them. Oh Lord that hate me. Do not I hate them. Oh Lord that hate me. In them not I dream. With those that rise against me. Do not I hate them. Oh Lord that hate me. I hate them with perfect hatred. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. I count them my enemies. Do not I hate them. Oh Lord that hate me. Do not I hate them. Oh Lord that hate me. In them not I dream. With those that rise against me. Do not I hate them. Oh Lord that hate me. All right, great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter number 13. That's the book of Zechariah chapter number 13. Zechariah chapter number 13. Zechariah chapter number 13. The Bible reads, In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David. In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered, and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord. And his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophet shall be ashamed every one of his vision. When he hath prophesied, neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman, for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, It is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for another opportunity to be in your house, Lord. Thank you for the souls that were saved. And I just pray that you would be with Pastor Shelley. Bless him. Fill him with your Holy Spirit, Lord, to preach this chapter unto us, and help us to have a soft heart to receive your word. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Here in Zechariah chapter 13, it kind of starts out with a verse that's tying us to chapter 12. Notice what it says in the first verse. In that day, there should be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. So we're not necessarily breaking context from the previous chapter, but rather it's tagging on or staying within that same context that we had just talked about in the end of chapter number 12. And what was it that we were looking at at the end of chapter 12? Go back to verse 10 for a moment, and notice it says, I'll pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. So a really clear passage about the Lord Jesus Christ. We talked about this previously in last week's sermon, about this being referenced even in the New Testament, and it's talking about how he was pierced, and that's fulfilling this specific scripture. Also in Psalm 22, it also indicates that the Lord Jesus Christ was pierced. And then the next few verses talk about how there's all this mourning that's going to be happening in Jerusalem, and we have all these different families mourning apart. And I had tried to explain last week how I believe this is just talking about how at that time, whoever's remaining of the children of Israel in these tribes, that they're going to their houses to perform the Passover, and now they're all mourning. And how that kind of fits with the exact same timeline. We didn't just like zip into a completely different timeline, but rather we're talking about the exact same event. The Lord Jesus Christ dies on the cross. It's just merely hours before the Passover begins, and really it's the exact timing of when the Passover lamb was killed. So many people can't necessarily afford the opportunity to even be mourning here, because they have to be slaughtering a lamb for their household, preparing it, roasting it with fire, and getting it ready to consume at about 6 p.m. Because when the Passover starts, no work is allowed to be performed whatsoever. They have to completely observe a Sabbath. So essentially, while Christ is dying on the cross, everybody else is going home, killing their Passover lambs, roasting with fire, and they're going to eat it, and you would see all these families apart performing what we would call the Passover at that time, and that makes sense. Look at verse 14. All the families that remain, every family apart and their wives apart. Now, again, maybe there's a distinction between who's preparing the meal and who's getting ready for it and different things like that. So maybe the women were gathered and the men are gathered. So that's a reasonable explanation here. What's not a reasonable explanation for these verses is to say this is when Christ is going to return, all the remaining Jews in Jerusalem are going to randomly get saved or something, and they're going to be mourning, like, Oh, we should have believed in Jesus earlier, but now we believe in Him or something. That's just not in view of this chapter whatsoever. And what also helps you understand that we didn't change whatsoever, our context or timeline, is chapter number 13, because notice again, it says, In that day... So we're talking about the exact same day where He was pierced, the exact same day where there's the mourning. This day, what happens? In that day, there should be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Now, what is that picture? That picture is the gospel message. And now the Lord Jesus Christ, His sacrifice is giving us a fountain of life, and that life is coming through His blood. Now, this is mentioned a few different ways in a few different places in Scripture. Keep your finger and go to Psalm 36 for a moment. Go to Psalm 36. Here we get even some great hymns. There is a fountain. Where do you think that's coming from? It's coming from just the general picture of what a fountain is represented as in the Bible. Now, of course, in that great hymn, we sing about the blood from Emmanuel's veins. But the Bible also describes this fountain as being a fountain of water. So it's both. I'm not going to say that it's just one. It's really kind of both. Generally speaking, the Bible describes Jesus Christ and what He did for us as a fountain. What does a fountain represent? It's a place where you get clean, fresh water. And, you know, this is really important, especially in times past when you needed fresh water because, you know, they don't necessarily have all the same technologies that we possess today to be able to sanitize water, to filter it or boil it or go through all the processing treatment plants or other things. What would give them fresh water is a fountain. Also, they'd have dig wells, and they would have different ways where they could capture that fresh water, but they needed fresh water to drink back then just as much as we need today. And that fresh water gives you life, in a sense. It helps sustain your life. And this is the same picture of the Gospel message that it's like a fountain that you drink from and you get life. Just as Jesus describes in John chapter number 6 how essentially you have to drink and you have to eat to get life and that's through his blood, this is kind of the same metaphor and picture here. Look at Psalm 36 verse 9. For with thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light shall we see light. So according to the Bible, with God is the fountain of life. What is that fountain of life? That is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, we use a lot of metaphors to illustrate what the Gospel does, but even in this second half, in thy light shall we see light. When you get saved, it's like your eyes are lightened and you can see for the first time and now everything is clear. You're no longer in darkness, but rather you're in light, just like you got that drink from the fountain. Go to Psalm 68 as well. I want to show you another verse here in Psalm about how the Bible alludes to God and salvation as being a fountain. Look at Psalm 68 verse 26. Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, meaning specifically the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. So that's where we get another reference here of blessing God and specifically we bless the Lord and we're blessing Him from the fountain of Israel. What does that kind of represent? Well, it represents the fact that we should bless God because of our salvation. We should praise God because of our salvation and from the location of salvation. We're doing this from the fountain of Israel, so it's like when I'm at the fountain that's giving me that fresh water, that would be a great place to thank God and to bless God for the fact that He gave me this fountain, He gave me this water. Whenever God blesses you with anything, we should say thanks to the Lord. We should bless the Lord. A lot of times people will even say this when they're going to have their meal. They'll say, say the blessing. What are we doing? We're blessing the food and we're blessing God for giving us this food. When I think about blessing the Lord, it's kind of an interesting concept because when we think about blessing someone, we're hoping for their good. If someone says to you, God bless you, what are you saying? You're hoping good things happen to them. You're hoping that things go well and that the Lord looks favorable upon them, but what does it mean to bless the Lord? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever wondered like, what does that even mean? How am I going to bless God? Isn't He already good? Doesn't He already kind of have all the favor and all the goodness and all the things that are going to happen? He doesn't really need me to bless Him in that sense necessarily, but this is what I believe the Bible really is trying to help us understand is when we're blessing the Lord, what that can look like, practically speaking, is that the name of God is magnified, that the church of God is magnified, and that more people bless God. By me blessing God, what I'm trying to hope for, what I'm wanting to come to pass is that other people will see that and then they also will praise God. And then what will happen is God will be more blessed because more people are praising Him. More people are looking to Him. Or if I go out and preach the gospel and I get someone else saved, well, now there's another person to what? Bless the Lord. And then whenever I get somebody and I encourage them to come to church and we're all singing praises to God, what does that do? It increases how many people are praising God and blessing God. And whenever we have a Christian nation and more people are fearing God, there's just blessing God more. Whenever we have individuals getting up and praising false gods and worshiping idols and doing these other things, that doesn't bless the Lord. When people are sinning and doing wickedly and turning away from God and not reading the Bible and not going to church, that doesn't bless the Lord. What blesses the Lord is people getting into church and singing praises unto God and getting on their knees and praying and going out and preaching the gospel and people getting saved and someone turning from their sins. That's something that blesses the Lord. And so when we say bless the Lord, what we're hoping is that more people will turn to God in righteousness and holiness. What we're hoping is that God will look down and He will judge the wicked and He will redeem the righteous and He'll relieve the widow and the fatherless and that more people will praise God. And that's what we're hoping for and that's what we're looking for. You know, what I'm not doing is I'm not going and saying, Lord, bless the Lord so that I can have a Ferrari. Bless the Lord so that I can be rich. Bless the Lord so that I can have more abundance. No, it's bless the Lord so that more people will praise God. Now look, is there anything wrong with God giving us our daily bread or giving us things that we need or even allowing us to prosper in our jobs and to have more so that we can do things with it that are godly? No, there's nothing wrong with that. But you know what? We should hope for God to be blessed regardless of what happens to us individually or how much prosperity that gives us individually. You know, I'm not blessing the Lord for my prosperity or for my benefit. I'm blessing the Lord for His benefit, for His glory, for His praise. And you know where I should do that? I should do that from the fountain of Israel, okay? And that's a location, but think about it in the same way of like that pictures salvation. And so from the moment of salvation, you know, that's a place to praise God. Here's another place to praise God. When you get someone saved, you're right there at the fountain of Israel in a sense. We should bless the Lord and praise God for someone getting saved. And when we're all together at the house of God, that's another place that we should be blessing the Lord and praising God because He is that fountain. For what? For sin and for uncleanness. And we should constantly be praising God for our salvation. I know that it's a little bit easier when you first get saved or you maybe initially come across that. You know, we need to always praise God and thank God for our salvation and be reminded of what He genuinely saved us from. Go over to Revelation 21, 6. There's another pretty popular mention, I believe. And again, there's lots more we could probably look at. When we talk about the fountain, the Bible brings up the fountain a lot because it's just a great picture of what Christ has done for us. But look at Revelation 21, verse number 6. Here's another famous verse. And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto Him that is a thirst of the fountain, of the water, of life freely. That's another good word there, freely. How salvation is free. And how He illustrates it in the same way as if you stumbled across a fountain that's just pouring out water. You know, that's kind of in essence free. I'm sure the government will come and try to take water rights away from you. But in this picture, Christ is saying, No, you don't even have to pay. This is a free water fountain. And anyone that's a thirst, anybody that wants it, can have it. And you know, that's a picture of salvation. Now, salvation is just freely offered to all who would be willing to take a drink. And those who are willing to take a drink of water, then they get that free salvation. And it is a fountain, and it cleanses us. Go, if you would, back to Zechariah chapter 13. What does it say in Zechariah 13 about this fountain? That it's for sin and for uncleanness. So Christ redeems us from our sin. He redeems us from our uncleanness through the fountain. And it's saying in that day. What day? The day that Christ died. When Christ dies on the cross, his death, through his death, we receive the forgiveness of sins through his death, burial, and resurrection. And specifically, we're talking about in that day. And when we think about it, what happened when Christ died? The veil was rent. Even the graves and the tombs were open. And there was great earthquakes. And we signify that something has changed. What? We're no longer in the Old Testament. The New Covenant has come, and the New Covenant was in his blood that was shed for us. That's what the Bible says. Christ even said at the Last Supper that in this cup is my blood, and it's the New Testament. So this is how we entered into the New Testament. And it was in that day. That's how we got the forgiveness of sins. That's how we got redemption from uncleanness. And what's kind of interesting is the bittersweet aspect of this day. Right? In the moment, nobody's really thinking about all the positive and all the benefit that's happening. They're very sad, and they're grieving and mourning for the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross. And, you know, even for us and for many Christians, it's a little bit bittersweet of an event. Many Christians sometimes become emotional thinking about what Christ really did for us and how He truly was whipped and He really was pierced and how His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, and He had to have His soul poured out unto death. And even the Father forsook the Son, and there was an altering of their relationship. And so that's a very significant event. Obviously, it's the most significant event of all of history, of all of the universe, of all of eternity. Because think about it. It's the everlasting gospel, meaning that no matter how far back you go into time or no matter how far you go in the future, the most central event is the gospel. That is the most important event. You know, a lot of people speculate about all these different planets and life on all the other planets and all this other stuff. It doesn't exist, folks. And even if it did, the only thing that matters is the gospel of Jesus Christ. But I don't believe it does at all. It's nonsense to believe that there's life on these other planets, in my opinion. It's not scriptural. It doesn't make sense. And it's not even practical if you understood how difficult it would be for anything living to live out there. So as vast as our universe is, and I think that's what God wants you to show is how big He is and how small we are, and yet He still cares about us, and He's still thinking about us. I mean, that's what the Bible really constantly hints at when it's like, when I consider thy heavens, right, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? He's not just like, when I consider the dome that's not very big, what is man? It's like, no, when I consider the heavens, when I consider how vast the universe really is and all the planets and all the stars and all the things that are out there, you know, I am just a nothing, just a little speck of dust moving around on this earth, and yet you care so much for me that you're willing to sacrifice your own son for me and to give that free fountain, that free fountain for sin and for uncleanness, and yet the vast majority of humans are going to reject this. The vast majority of humans don't even care. And think about just how obvious God is and how giant the universe is and how vast our solar system is and how stupid every other religion is and how just clear it is that evil is just permeating society and evil is permeating everything and how obvious death is. Everybody recognizes, hey, we're all going to die. No one really even combats that. And yet they just don't care. They're not interested. They just live however they want, not even thinking about tomorrow, not even concerned about what's going to happen after they die, even though they'll be dead way longer than they've been alive. I mean, even if you just go into our own human history, we know for sure there's been at least 6,000 years of human history. Now, I don't believe there's been more than that, but I'm just saying, even if you were an evolutionist, you could recognize there's been at least 6,000 years of human history. How about the people that died back then? They've been dead for a long time. 6,000 years is a lot longer than they lived. Even the oldest man to ever live, according to the Bible, was under 1,000 years, and he's been dead for five, five times longer than he's been alive, and that's just getting started. We can't even fathom how much eternity truly is, and it's just insane how so many people just don't even care, they're not even interested, and you know, the answers are really obvious. I mean, you can just read Zechariah. I mean, what is this fountain? What is this fountain for sin? What is this fountain for uncleanness? It is Jesus Christ, but why are people not answering this question? Why are people not concerned with these questions? And yet, people go to Zechariah, and they'll try to tell you about, oh, well, all these Christ-rejected Jews are going to randomly get saved. Why can't we focus on what it's actually saying? I mean, think about how many sermons you place on Zechariah 13 about salvation and about the fountain and about Jesus Christ. It's completely ignored. But let's talk about Zionism, right? Because that's the most important thing that we should be concerned with. Who gets a bunch of dirt for the next 70 years? Even if you give them that dirt for the next 70 years, what does it profit a man if he gained the whole world, and yet he loses his own soul? What would it even matter? What if we sent every Palestinian to Antarctica and sent all of Israel to the Jews, but they all die and go to hell? What does it profit anybody? You know, it's just silly how Christians are so concerned with Zionism, and they're so concerned with just giving money to Israel, but they don't even care if those people are going to die and go to hell. They're so concerned to just sit here and pander to and love on Netanyahu, who's standing in our Congress, and we're praising some wicked leader of a false religion because, oh, we've got to bless Israel. You know, we should bless the Lord. We should bless the fountain of Israel. We should bless the fountain of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should bless the gospel message. Yet there's so many Christians today that they only are concerned with Israel and whatever's going on over the Middle East and Zionism and building another temple and just all this anti-Christ propaganda, folks. How does it even make sense for a Christian or a Baptist to care about dirt thousands of miles away and not about the fountain of Israel and not about sin and about uncleanness and about how to get people actually saved? You know, it's just ridiculous. It's ridiculous, and again, a lot of these churches, they preach salvation every single week, but then they preach Zionism for the Jews, right? You know, if you actually love Jews, you'd preach them the gospel, and you'd defend them and tell them that their religion is of the devil. I mean, if you're worshiping the devil, why don't you just tell them? You know, it's like, oh, well, that's mean. What do you think the apostle Paul was doing when he went through the entire heathen nations? I mean, was he saying, like, yeah, Zeus is also God. Yeah, Diana, she's great, too. Yeah, let's worship all these other false gods. Or did he say they were dumb idols? Or did he say that what you're sacrificing unto idols, you're actually sacrificing unto devils? Did the apostle Paul just say, like, you know, it's okay. You can have all the religions. I know you have all these altars, but you're not superstitious. You're good. Just let's add one more god to all the other thousands of gods that you're worshiping now. Or does he say, hey, you've got to reject all these other gods? Paul's message that he's going out, and, you know, no one loves Jews more than Paul. All right? He said he would rather go to hell and be accursed from Christ for his kinsmen. I've never met that person before, okay, that loves the Jews that much, and yet, you know what? He was still getting in their face, telling them that they were wrong, telling them they were condemned to hell, and trying to get them saved instead of worrying about giving them the Middle East, instead of worrying about Rome and their country, instead of being worried about... I mean, think about it. At the time of the Apostle Paul, the Jews did not have the rightful ownership of that land. It was under Roman occupation. Rome was occupying that part, and in fact, they didn't even have from the river to the sea. They didn't even have all of that area. There was all kinds of other peoples and groups that were in those areas. But was Paul going around evangelizing the churches in Asia about, and give them from the river to the sea? We need to make sure to give them that land. We need to make sure to raise money and give it to the President Netanyahu. I mean, when did you see the Apostle Paul marching around all over Europe and all over Asia Minor and all over the islands, raising money to support the land of Israel? And I mean, back then, it wasn't even contested that these people have that land and they have the temple still. They're coming from the second rebuilt prophesying of Zechariah. I mean, they had Zechariah. I mean, this is living Zechariah. They're living the moments of Zechariah, and he's not advocating for Zionism. But then I'm supposed to believe thousands of years removed, now Zechariah actually comes into play, and now we're supposed to support people to live in the desert out there, right? It's nonsense. It's foolishness. The Apostle Paul did not care or give a rip about some dirt in the Middle East. He cared about men's souls and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's disgusting how many Christians are advocating for Zionism today while people are just dying and going to hell. You know, it's ridiculous. First of all, you're just wrong. You're flat-out wrong, and you're supporting the synagogue of Satan. But even if you weren't, it still doesn't even matter at all. It's a meaningless, ridiculous antichrist argument. You should be caring about people going to heaven. Yet they don't even care about that, do they? Because they've been suckered and bamboozled and lied to and been made a fool. And the younger generations today, maybe some of them can wake up, but I'm telling you that baby boomer generation just loves Israel so much to their own destruction. It makes me think of all the kings of Judah that would go and make affinity with the kings of Israel and go support these people. I heard somebody arguing about Donald Trump, and they were saying, I can't support Donald Trump. I can't even vote for him anymore because he's just too liberal. It's too much of a compromise for me as a Christian. And the person's like, well, but I'm not voting for that. I'm just voting for the lesser of two evils, and I'm just voting for what I think is the better candidate, even if I don't agree with all their positions and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they go, show me a verse in the Bible, show me a verse in the Bible that says that I can't vote for Trump. Show me a verse in the Bible that says anything about voting. And the person they were arguing with doesn't really know the Bible. They're not even saved. I can give you a verse. Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? How about that verse? I mean, at what point are you voting for the lesser of two evils? I'm gonna vote for the Antichrist over the devil because I just view the Antichrist a little bit better than the devil himself. Right? Can't we all empathize with the Antichrist? I mean, if they give me a vote and I get to vote for either the Antichrist or the devil, well, I'm gonna pick for the Antichrist, guys. You know? I mean, doesn't that just make sense? I mean, how dare you not vote for the Antichrist? Right? I mean, who wants to side with the devil? It's like, that's a stupid argument. I can dislike both of them. And why in the world, if I can't even help a king of Israel, why in the world would I think, like, but I should really support Donald Trump, who's gonna make sure that we love Israel, who's gonna support Israel? And, you know, I know a lot of people are just freaking out right now and they're just so afraid of the Democrats ruling, but let me reassure you of something. You don't believe that Joe Biden was running the country. Who in here thinks that Joe Biden was legitimately running the country? Okay, but now you're afraid of Kamala. Let me give you another secret. She won't run the country if she's elected, okay? So it's not like they're gonna change, it's not like, oh, we're changing. Who's leading the nation? It's the same. Have you ever seen the presidential cabinet? It's Jews. You say, when? Just, it's Jews. I don't care, Democrat, Republican, it's Jews that are running the country, buddy. Oh, well, if Donald Trump gets in, then he'll run. He's not gonna do it either. Think about this. The most powerful person in our government went out and just boldly said, like, they're stealing the election, it's completely fraudulent, it's a complete coup, we're filled with traitors and treasonous people, and you know what he did? He complained about it on Twitter and then got banned. How is that leading the nation? How does that even work? I mean, you're just so worried. I mean, what did Donald Trump do for us? Oh, he brought in COVID mandates. Yay. He brought in Operation Warp Speed, which today he still hasn't gone against. He advocates for the abortion pill, which kills two-thirds of the babies through abortion. Like, two-thirds of all abortions are the abortion pill specifically, okay? Donald Trump's pro that. He's pro men using women's bathrooms. He said, which bathroom can Caitlyn Jenner use? He said, whichever one it wants. I mean, what? Oh, we gotta save the country. You know, you're just so brainwashed, you don't even understand that, like, We care about the fountain of Israel, not which pro-Israel president puppet we can elect. And that's even if you believe elections are real. I haven't believed they're real for, like, the longest time, way before Joe Biden. Do you not remember with Al Gore and George Bush? I mean, it was like, it was weird. I think Al Gore might have even won, okay? And I know that probably hair lips a bunch of Bush lovers, but the thing is, is like, there was tons of reports of people, like, eating ballots and stuff like that to try and conceal the vote and stuff like that. And I mean, Al Gore, like, won the first count-off, I'm pretty sure, and then, like, we had to just keep recounting, and then all of a sudden it's like, Bush won, all right, we won. You know, it's like it was probably fake back then, too. And it's like, does that mean you like Al Gore? No, he's a brain-dead idiot, too, okay? He's a liberal. He was like a big proponent of climate change and all this other weird green agenda nonsense, okay? He invented the Internet, right? Whatever. Sorry, I could preach a whole sermon here in a moment, but it's just so infuriating to me how people are just so consumed with things that are fake and not even real and don't even matter when there's something that does matter, it's the Fountain of Israel. And it's like, how many people are going to do a Bible study on Zechariah 13 today? Nope, but we're going to worry about what Kamala Harris said in her most recent presser. I'm sure it was stupid. Well, but then we've got to hear someone else's opinion about what their opinion's about on their opinion and their opinion on this opinion. It's like, it doesn't even matter. It's like, well, but they're trying to kill President Trump. Yeah. I'm sure that they are. Communists are always trying to kill everybody and power and authority, and they want to take over. There is a literal communist takeover in our country right now. I mean, it was, you could go back a long time ago. Communists were trying to take over our country in the 20s. They were trying to take over our country in the 60s. And now it's just like, we've forgotten. There is a person right now that started a new party called the American Communist Party, some guy named Jackson Hinkle, and this guy looks like a Russian spy to me. And I think that he's being paid by Russia specifically just to undermine and weaken our country and just bring in dumb ideas like communism. And if you know anything about Russian history, obviously they were infiltrated by Jews who brought in communism so they could destroy the country. So it'd make perfect sense from that playbook. They're like, hey, let's bring in communism to America and destroy the country if we get enough idiots to fall for it. I'm just hoping Americans aren't stupid enough to ever think that communism is ever good. You know what? My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. And it's just embarrassing today how stupid Americans are. It's embarrassing how dumb Christians are today. It's embarrassing how nobody reads anything anymore and everybody's just so brainwashed and all they care about is TikTok and Instagram and just going online and posting stupid images and videos of themselves so they can become viral and become famous for doing nothing. That's like the new American dream. Being an influencer, just I get paid for existing as a person and then basically just being a billboard and a horror of advertising that whatever products that somebody wants me to sell on my platform, I will. And it's like, do you think that these people genuinely even care about these products? Do you really think that someone called them up and like, hey, we're going to give you a million dollars to advertise Pepsi. They're like, I hate Pepsi, but I'll do it. And then they'll just advertise Pepsi or they'll advertise whatever because they're just getting paid to do these things and you're just sitting here thinking like, oh, I want to be that person. I want to be a horror for Pepsi and just advertise Pepsi and just do nothing with my life as opposed to just like reading something. Reading something in your life, doing something for real, going soul winning, doing something of substance and we're just filled as a nation with idiots who are just wanting to be famous. That's all they care about, being famous and doing nothing. In fact, most young people, I guarantee if we gave them two options today, we said, hey, option one, you can become a rich and famous influencer. You'll have a hundred million dollar net worth. You don't have to do anything but just make stupid videos and we'll just pay you and you'll be good. Or you can work hard and raise a family and make a good salary. We'll even pay you a couple hundred thousand dollars. You'll make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year owning your own business. You'll build a business from scratch. You can pass it on to your kids. Which one did you pick? They'd pick influencer all day. It's not like there isn't a good option to not do that. It's just they don't want to. Everybody is just lazy. Everybody just cares about riches. Everybody just cares about money. And you know who has unlimited money? Israel. You want to know why our government and our politics is filled with Israeli puppets? It's because they all love money and they've all been bought and paid for by some AIPAC person. And they don't even care about our country, they don't care about our nation, they don't care about anything. And Christians today, they've been following hook, line, and sinker for this same propaganda and they don't care again about the fountain of Israel. They don't care about salvation. They don't care about the gospel message. They just care about money. Because they say, why is it that they want to bless Israel, folks? So that they'll be blessed. What does that mean? Let me interpret this for you. I hope that they do well so that I do well financially. They're doing it for money. They're doing it for the love of money. People are praising Israel for the love of money. Not for a love of God. Not for a love of the truth. Not for a love of the fountain of God or the fountain of Israel or for the gospel message or for any other reason. They're just doing it because they want to be rich. They just want money. And that's the only reason they say that. Zionists are lovers of money today. Every Zionist is a lover of money because the Bible doesn't teach it at all. The Bible is crystal clear that they're the synagogue of Satan. And you show them that verse and they say, I don't know what that means. Oh, but what about Zechariah? Aren't they going to all get saved in Zechariah? No, that's not what it says. In fact, in this chapter, God destroys tons of those people. Look what it says in the latter part in verse 8. And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts there and shall be cut off and die. Hey, you know what's going to happen? Rome's going to come and they're going to just slaughter at least two-thirds of the people. At least two-thirds of the population is going to literally just be slaughtered and destroyed and killed and massacred because why? Because they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the last third that remains, they're going to still be tried. Many of them are going to still die and be purged. But out of that smaller group, that third, some of them are going to get saved. That's where he says here, and I will bring the third part through the fire and refine them as silver is refined and I will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name and I will hear them. I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God. So you can interpret this one of two ways, I think. You could say, let's just be really liberal for a moment and just say all third were saved. That's a possible interpretation here. Even if that was true, the majority are not saved. Now, I'm getting this word saved from what it says here. Do you see in verse 9 where it says, they shall call on my name and I will hear them? That's telling me that they're saved because consistently through the Bible, calling upon the name of the Lord is what gets you saved. That's a picture of people that are saved. It's like, how do I get saved? For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And what kind of salvation are we talking about? Spiritual salvation going to heaven. Now that's a consistent message throughout the Bible. Let's go to a few places here. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I know I'm not taking this chapter in order of verses here, but it's fine. We can come back to it. It's a pretty short chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, look at verse number 2. This also chaps my hide while I'm a little bit mad right now. Is anybody who says that you don't have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved? It's funny to me how when you try to tell people doctrines of the Bible, they always make up these straw man verse arguments. They'll be like, where does the Bible say that I can't vote for Trump? If you don't have a verbatim quote, you can't vote for Trump. I've seen people, they'll say this, they'll say, where in the Bible does it say salvation is by faith alone without works? So I have to have a verbatim quote for this. And they'll be like, okay, where does the Bible say I'm saved by works? It doesn't say that either. We can just sit here and just make up verses that don't exist all day long and say this verse doesn't say this, or the Bible doesn't say God is a trinity. Yeah, you deduced that from the Scriptures. But on this argument, you can't even make up this argument of like, where does the Bible say if you call upon the name of the Lord to be saved? In Romans 10, it literally says it. So if you're going to combat what the Bible just point blank says, you better have a really, really good, clear argument that's in context, which doesn't exist, of course, because that verse is clearly talking about spiritual salvation, I'll prove that in a minute. But in 1 Corinthians 1, it gives us this description for people that are saved. Look at verse 2. Under the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. So you're saying, hey, you want to understand who people are saved? It's people who have called upon the name of Jesus Christ. Those are the people that are saved. And I like it says, our Lord. And then it says this, both theirs and ours. What does that mean? He's saying that he is their Lord and he's our Lord because there's only one Lord and we're all in the same family. And he's our God, right? He's saying it doesn't matter where you're at, all places, every single person on the entire earth that calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is saved and we're all part of that same family that one Lord. That's why we look in heaven in Revelation and see people from all tribes and all nations and all tongues because they're all called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go backwards to Acts chapter number 22. Go to Acts chapter 22. When we see the apostle Paul getting saved and this is a recounting of that particular event, it has the exact same description. Acts 22 verse 16. Notice again it makes it clear how to wash away thy sins. How? Calling on the name of the Lord. Imagine if someone just says to you in action with no way to do it, what would be your logical question? If I just said, wash away thy sins, what would be the logical question? How? Right? So then what is he doing in the next breath? He's explaining how. Calling on the name of the Lord. Now think about it. Why, if the apostle Paul is already saved, would he need to then wash away his sins? Some people say, well, I think the apostle Paul got saved on the road to Damascus when Jesus Christ appeared to him. Now, number one, we don't see any verses that indicate that he then believed or he then called on the name of the Lord or any of those things. He did ask him what he should do, but the Lord didn't even tell him anything to get saved in that moment. He just simply said to go and wait. Just to go. He didn't say, like, believe on me, accept me, call on my name. He didn't say any of those things. And the metaphor of that exchange would be extremely confusing if he had gotten saved because immediately after encountering Jesus, he was blind. Which is like the exact opposite of the metaphor of what salvation is like. The metaphor of salvation is going from being blind to being able to see. When Jesus Christ runs into blind people through his entire ministry, he gives them sight. He doesn't blind them. And in fact, when he's even talking to the Pharisees, he told them that if they saw, then they were going to be blind, and if they were blind, they would have the seed. And the apostle Paul, he has to get blind first, since he's a Pharisee, to then be able to what? Be able to see. Right? And that's kind of the illustration of when we go out door-knocking, there's a lot of Christians who are saved. And you know, a lot of times what we have to do is we have to blind them first. Maybe we blindside them. Hey, you're not saved. Hey, you believe in works. Hey, you're a sinner deserving hell. Hey, you didn't actually get saved. Hey, you don't actually believe in Jesus. We have to get them there for them to then what? Change their mind and actually believe in Jesus Christ. And the apostle Paul is waiting. Then he's explained by Ananias, hey, why are you sitting here doing nothing? Get saved, buddy. Like, why are you just sitting here? Let's get baptized. You know, before you get baptized, what do you have to do? Get saved. So what is he going to do? He's going to wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord, and then he gets baptized. And then what happens when he does that? He immediately has a sight. Illustrating what? The moment of salvation for us from that metaphor. So again, it doesn't say, and wash away their sins, repenting from what you believe. It doesn't say, wash away their sins, believing on Jesus. It says, wash away their sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Now, some people get mad at me for what I just said, but here's the thing. All three of those I believe are equivalent. It's equivalent to say, hey, I repented is the same thing as saying I believed in Jesus Christ. To say I believe in Jesus Christ is the same thing as saying I repented. And calling on the name of the Lord is the same thing. It's the same sandwich. All right? Because if you believed in Jesus, you repented of something. And the Bible tells us the way you believe in Christ is by calling upon the name of the Lord. And here's the thing. If I'm calling on the name of the Lord for salvation, how is that even gonna work? Well, I had to repent of something and I had to believe in him. Right? Because isn't that what the formula is even in Romans chapter 10? Let's go there for a moment. Let's go to Romans chapter number 10. It's equivalent. Just like if I said, pastor, bishop, elder. Three words that mean the exact same thing in the New Testament. A bishop is an elder and an elder is a bishop and a bishop is a pastor and a pastor is a bishop. It's the same word. So we're having three different ways of describing it. There's many ways to describe being saved. It's not even limited to the three I said. Here's another one the Bible uses in John chapter one. But as many as received him. So you could say you received him. You could say you repented like in Acts 2 38 when it says repent ye or Mark chapter 1 verse 16. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Saying believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, don't be Doug Trowbridge. It's believing in and believing on is the same thing too. Okay, folks? I heard some weirdo say like, well, there's a difference between believing in someone and believing on someone. You know, that's like saying there's a difference between Democrats and Republicans. Okay, there's not. All right? They're both wicked and left. You could say trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. I trusted. We saw that in Ephesians chapter number one when I preached on Sunday morning. Okay? There's a lot of ways to word the exact same event. And in Romans chapter 10 verse number nine it's describing in detail that event, right? That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God have raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. And again, what is the context of Romans chapter 10 verse number one? That Israel would be saved. Hey, wouldn't that be nice if Zionists cared about Israel getting saved instead of having the land? If they cared about that fountain that gives them the forgiveness of sin and cleanses them from uncleanness, find what? By confessing the Lord Jesus Christ and believing in the gospel. But you know what? Zionists today, they're happy with Ben Shapiro getting a lakefront for an oceanfront property in Gaza rather than getting saved. I saw, I think it was Dr. Michael Brown online, he was saying like, um, do you think that it's accurate to say that Ben Shapiro's an Antichrist since he denies that Jesus is the Christ in light of this verse that says that in first John 2? And it's like, yes! Absolutely. It's like, really? Well, if it doesn't apply to Ben Shapiro, who does it apply to? And of course, he has to somehow figure out a way to get away from that verse because what? He needs Ben Shapiro to get lots of money because Ben Shapiro's a Jew. And let me tell you a little secret. Dr. Michael Brown's a Jew. And Jews like to be buddies with other Jews. And they like to have a lot of power and influence because they point at each other like my followers should follow him and his followers should follow me and let's put each other on our own shows and let's keep promoting our own products and advertisements and money. It's all about the love of money. Look, Ben Shapiro is an Antichrist. And Dr. Michael Brown believes in work salvation. He believes he can lose his salvation. He's a false prophet. He's a false teacher. Don't listen to either of these Jews. And look, I'm not against someone that's ethnically a Jew. I know people that are ethnically a Jew and are saved. You know what? Praise God for that person. But you know what? We should want more of those people. We shouldn't think like, I hope that you get more of God's land. And here's another stupid idea is thinking that people shouldn't have to call on the name of the Lord to be saved. I don't know what book you're reading because the book I'm reading is real clear on this. And look at verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now this is what's funny to me. I've even had people ask me this recently because there's like some internet bozos that believe stupid things about this chapter. They'll say like, well, this isn't a spiritual salvation. This is a physical salvation. And I'm like, okay, well, let's play a game. All right? Let's play this game. Verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Okay. That doesn't seem to talk about anything physical, does it? What does it say in verse 16? Let's read backwards for a moment. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, the Lord hath believed our report. What do you think that that verse might be talking about? Do you think it's talking about physical salvation or do you think it's talking about spiritual salvation? We're talking about people believing the gospel. I'm pretty sure we're still talking about the gospel. So that would make verse 17 also talking about the gospel since that was the faith, right? So 17 spiritual salvation, 16 spiritual salvation in the gospel. What about verse 15? And also they preach, except they be sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings and good things. What do you think verse 15 is about, rocket scientist? How about the gospel again since it's literally in the verse? What do you think that is? Oh, spiritual salvation again, huh? Boy, we're on a roll. Spiritual salvation in verse 17. Spiritual salvation in verse 16. Spiritual salvation in verse 15. How about verse 14? How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Well, let's do this one phrase at a time, right? What was verse 15 again? What were they preaching? The gospel. They're preaching the gospel, and we already agreed that that was spiritual, right? Verse 14, the last verse, or the last phrase, how shall they hear without a preacher? Hear what? The gospel, right? So that phrase would be the gospel in spiritual salvation. What's the verse before that? It says, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? How are they gonna believe in Jesus? What do you think that phrase is about? How about spiritual salvation and believe in the gospel again, right? What's the verse preceding that? How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? That's physical salvation. I'm not even joking. There are people on the internet that will literally tell you that's physical salvation. So you're gonna tell me that it literally just goes like physical salvation and in the middle of the same verse and the same rhetorical question, line of questioning, it just randomly jumps to spiritual salvation for the rest of the chapter. And the very beginning of the chapter, it's talking about the need for Israel to be saved and specifically in this chapter, it says in verse number three, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God. What is that? Is that physical or spiritual salvation? We're talking about spiritual salvation of the righteousness of God, which you get what? You've got to get cleansed from your sin and your uncleanness from the fountain of Israel, from the fountain of God, and how do you do that? From calling on the name of the Lord. How do you come up with that crazy exotic interpretation? By just reading the passage and not being an idiot. It's like, how does someone come to a different conclusion? This is how someone comes to a different conclusion. Romans 10 cannot be saying that calling upon the name of the Lord is saved. Now let's read it and figure out what it says. That's how people come up with those kind of interpretations. Or they say, well, modern day Jews, God loves them, and they're definitely going to go to heaven. Now let's read Zechariah and figure out how that makes sense. That's how most people are reading their Bible. They're not just reading it and saying, like, what is it saying? They're like, I already know this is true because the internet and Ben Shapiro and Michael Brown told me that. No, you're supposed to actually read the Bible and just let it tell you what it says. That's what it means to even trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Go if you went back to Zechariah chapter 13. I thought this was about Zechariah. We've been talking about Zechariah. But this is important because this chapter starts with verse 1 and ends with verse 9. It's a short chapter. Did you notice that verse 1 is talking about the fountain, which is talking about what? The fountain for sin and for uncleanness, and then verse 9 is talking about people that are calling upon his name. Why? Because we're in the same context. Chapter 13 is about salvation. And how do you get access to that? How do you get access to the forgiveness of sin and this fountain for sin and this fountain for uncleanness? By calling on the name of the Lord. That's how you got it. Just like in Genesis 4, men began to call upon the name of the Lord, and throughout the entire text, Old Testament and New Testament, salvation was by calling on the name of the Lord in faith. It's how it was. It's how it always will be. It's the only way to get saved. And people in the Old Testament were reading the book of Zechariah 500 years before Christ comes and dies on the cross, and they were believing in Jesus Christ. They were reading about him that was going to be pierced. They were reading about him that was going to be the fountain for the forgiveness of sin. And they were calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation in the Old Testament, according to Zechariah 13. And you know what? Zechariah 13 got a lot of Jews saved. But today we're using it to damn them by teaching Zionism instead of teaching what the Bible says about how to go to heaven and how to call upon the name of the Lord. And how the New Testament fits together with the Old Testament like a glove. And how it teaches the exact same gospel. You know, these dispensationalists that teach, oh, in the Old Testament they were saved by works. Never. No one's ever been saved by works. No one will ever be saved by works. Works are filthy rags. We needed that fountain. And it was through his sacrifice. That's where you get the mourning. That's where you get the piercing. That's where you get the bitterness. That's where you get all of these descriptions of who this is. But we also get the joy and the peace and the comfort and the fact that God is our Lord. And even though we're saved, though, verse 9 does describe that we'll still sometimes be brought through the fire. We'll still be tribes. We'll still have tribulations and trials in this life. And we're still going to go through difficulty. And of course, we'll be rewarded for doing such. But salvation itself is free. And it was just by calling on the name of the Lord. Now, in the rest of this chapter, kind of sandwiched in between, it talks about the false prophets. It says in verse number 2, And it shall come to pass in that day. Say, Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered. And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it's going to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord. And his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesy it. Boy, that's a different culture than we have today. I think this is important. And, you know, this passage is really kind of the next few verses. We're just talking about false prophets. And specifically notice that a couple of things are changing here. Idols are changing. So, you know, by the time of Christ, think about this. When Christ comes on the scene, and he's contending with the Pharisees, and he's contending with the Sadducees, there's not really a lot of idolatry. Whereas idolatry has been a plague for the children of Israel, just basically all through the entire Old Testament. But kind of around the time of Christ and post-Christ, that's really not an issue anymore. They don't really struggle with idolatry specifically. There's kind of a changing. Now, of course, the heathen, they struggle with idolatry, and they still do. Obviously, Catholics struggle with idolatry today. But you see more a battle over doctrine. You see more a battle that's a little bit more dialed in, a little bit more specific, post this time period, than in times past, whereas you had a lot of Christians mixed up in idolatry, and having idols, and worshiping idols, and all kinds of crazy stuff. And I believe that this is just kind of a God talking about how he's going to deal with idolatry specifically. He's going to rid the land of idolatry post-Christ, and from that time forward, idolatry is basically not going to be a thing for that area or for those people. But what's interesting is also how I find that these parents are willing to slay their own child. Now, this is actually in the Bible. Keep your finger and go to Deuteronomy chapter 13. The Bible actually commands this. But this is why I think it's interesting about it. It's not like they're going to be probably shocked that their child was a false prophet in times past. That was probably something that they knew, especially considering the context, because it's kind of showing, when we read this whole chapter, that these false prophets were a successful false prophet for a while. But then there was this shift, and now all of a sudden it's not cool to be a false prophet, and all this stuff they said was a lie, and now at this point, they're ashamed, they're embarrassed, they're hiding and concealing who they were in times past, and even specifically the parents are slaying their own children. They're willing to kill their own children over this. Now, this is in the Bible in Deuteronomy chapter 13, look at verse 6. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thy known soul enticed thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, namely of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth, thou should not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him. Thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. So according to the Bible, if your own son tried to draw you away from the God of the Bible, you are supposed to kill him. In fact, you're supposed to be the first person to kill them. And, you know, that takes your religion very seriously. And I want to go to another place. Go to Malachi. It's right where we were. If you just go back to Zechariah, you can just turn, like, one or two pages to the right. I want to look at another verse that's kind of the exact opposite, but then I want to explain something. It says in Malachi chapter 4, look at verse 5, Behold, I will send you alive to the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest they come and smite the earth with curse. This is what I think is interesting about all three of these verses, is this idea of someone who's older or already having adult children actually getting right with God. Because what's interesting is it's like they had a false prophet son and for a while they just kind of went along with it, but now they're willing to literally kill them. Because that's kind of the transition in Zechariah. And in Malachi we see a similar idea of fathers' hearts being turned towards their children, meaning in times past they weren't really that concerned with their kids or loving their kids that much, but now they're actually turning to them. And this is what gives me a little bit of hope, is it's like even though I might rag on the baby boom generation or older people or something like that sometimes, it's mostly in generalities, but it's not to say that there aren't people and there couldn't even be some revival in the older generation that they couldn't wake up and recognize, hey, there's some false prophets out there. Even my own son in these skinny jeans with the purple lights standing by in a clear pulpit preaching in the NIV, he's a false prophet! And you know, all these older people, a lot of them, they complain. They say, like, I wish we could go to a church where they're actually saying the hymns. They're more traditional. It's more normal. And it's like, yes! Get away from your stupid son's gospel that's fake. Quit going to Matt Chandler's church and Robert Morris' church and T.D. Jakes' church and all these non-denominational, do-nothing, fake, false prophet Christian churches and say, hey, you're turning away me from God. I need to go to a real church. We need the older generation, their heart, to be turned back towards the things of God. And whatever children they have, try and turn them back to the things of God. And if they had a false prophet son to just say, like, nuts to you, I don't want anything to do with you. And, you know, if you think that's harsh, if you think it's harsh for me to say that in today, in 2024 America, if you have a false prophet son, you should say I'm having nothing to do with you, the Bible says to kill them. So who's harsh? It's not me. And again, I'm saying that because, you know, we shouldn't kill anybody, all right? And I would never do that. But you know what? If you had a son that's like one of these charismatic, tongue-talking, Pentecostal, denied salvation, preaching, and he's preaching a complete false gospel after being raised in this church for 20, 30 years, yeah, I want nothing to do with him. I don't want to sit here and pretend like he's still saved or something like that. It's like, no. You know, and again, according to the Bible, someone that would try to draw you away, you were supposed to slay them. That's what it actually said. Look what it says in Zechariah chapter 13 if we keep reading here. It says, in the house of my friends. It's interesting how these people, they had a profession where they just lied for a living, and, oh, they repented. No, they still lie, right? They changed their garments. They said, I wasn't a prophet. Oh, yes, you were. What about those wounds in your hand? And they're like, oh, I just, you know, I did it at my friend's house. This is to help you if you ever ask your kids or anybody, like, what happened or where'd you get that? And they're just like, my friend's house? They're lying. All right? The Bible's just trying to help you understand how people just lie. Like, no one just says that. It's like, what happened to your hand, friend's house? What does that mean? You'd be like, I cut it on a knife or, you know, whatever happened. You know, I accidentally fell or whatever. You know, just like this random weird excuse that has nothing to do with the story. I was just at my friend's house. That doesn't tell you how you got a wound. And in fact, it doesn't make sense. It was your friend's house. You'd think like, okay, maybe it's an enemy's house or something, right? But why at your friend's house? Yeah, it's just me and my buddies, we're just idiots and we're just cutting our hands or whatever. But, you know, the Bible indicates that the false prophets would cut themselves. You know, when we have a standoff with Elijah, the prophets of Baal, they couldn't get Baal to answer because he's fake, all right? Or wah-guru or whatever fake god you want to come up with. And so they're like cutting themselves, hoping that he'll somehow respond, and still didn't respond because it was fake. Baal's fake. And so it's kind of an indication here that false prophets are often cutting themselves. Be afraid of people that cut themselves. You know, that's a bad sign. That means that they are deceived at best, at worst potentially even, demon-possessed. And these individuals have cut themselves. They used to wear a rough garment to deceive, meaning they go all out to pretend like there's something that they're not. And you know what? That's what we see in this world today. And think about this. They're ashamed of their prophecy. How many false prophets said in like 2019, Donald Trump will be elected president in 2020? I mean, there was all kinds of Charismaniacs and Pentecostals and YouTube guy, Donald Trump will be elected in 2020. God told me in a vision. It's like, what happened? What happened to that video? Oh, they took that video down because they're ashamed of that vision. They're ashamed of that prophecy. And what you'll notice today is all these false prophets, they'll just say all kinds of crazy, weird stuff. And then when it doesn't happen, they just delete that video. You know, and again, I'm not trying to rag on the guy, but everybody has this idea of like Alex Jones is always right. And it's just like, what about all the times he wasn't? Like, what if we just had a video collage of all the weird stuff he said that never happened? And, you know, people are like, oh, but did you see this? Did you hear this? It's like, yeah, when you say literally everything's going to happen, you're right. Imagine if I go to Vegas and I get on the roulette table and I put a bet on every single number. And then I'm like, I win on every spin. Wow. So impressive. Right? I mean, what if I just go right now and I just go to Vegas and I put a bet on every single presidential candidate option? Kamala, Big Mike, Trump, everybody. And I get a receipt for all of them. And then after the election happens, I'm like, see, I told you I was right. You know, is that really special? What about all the times you were wrong? And in fact, God, you know what God's tolerance level is for being wrong on prophecies? Zero. It's not like, well, I made five prophecies and one of them came true, so come listen to me. It's like as soon as you make one that's wrong, we're going to kill you. As soon as you make one that's wrong, you're a false prophet and we're going to cut you off and you're no longer allowed to speak for God because God doesn't make mistakes and there's zero false prophecies in the Bible. They're all true. They're all accurate. They're all dialed in. They're exactly right. And so, you know, these false prophets, if they ever say anything that's wrong from a prophetic sense, never listen to them ever again. It's so frustrating to me. I'll talk to people I love and care about and they'll listen to one of these false prophets and I'll say, here's this guy telling a false prophecy. Well, he was wrong on that one. So he's just wrong. Never listen to him again then. No, he's just wrong on that one. It's just like, that's a bad ideology. These people, once they get exposed, have nothing to do with them, they're just fake as, you know, Joe Biden's presidency, all right? They're as fake as Obama's wife. We got one more verse here and it fits in our context. It says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow. Say, the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn my hand upon the little one. So again, this really helps us understand that all this has been in the same context. We had in chapter 12, clearly him being pierced was a reference to Christ and the crucifixion. We have here the fountain being opened and the forgiveness of sin. Same timeline, the gospel. Had the morning, same gospel. We have this major shift where all the false prophets and the idolatry is being rid of the land. And then specifically it's talking about smite the shepherd. What are we talking about? We're talking about the moments leading up to Christ's crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane. And for sake of time, I'm not going to have you go here, but you can go to Matthew 26, you can go to these other places, and Christ literally says, this night all of you are going to be offended in me because of the fact that it says smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. And that's what happens. The Romans take Jesus and the disciples flee out of fear. Not initially. I mean, Peter does chop off that one guy's ear, but Jesus restores it and they flee. And hey, I didn't come up with this, but it's still a great point. Peter chopping off that Roman soldier's ear, that's a picture of how we've transgressed and how we sinned. And then when Christ puts the ear back on the guy, that's a picture of as if you'd never sinned. So you get that perfect justification in that moment. So it's like, hey, you transgressed, but then he just puts the ear back on the Roman soldier and it's just as if you'd never done it. And that's how it is with us when we stand before God. It's just as if we had never sinned before, even though we did. Because think about it. What if that Roman soldier's like, hey, this guy cut off my ear. They'd be like, uh, where's the proof? You know? There's no way you can't really do anything about that one. People find old videos of Trump that were posted recently and they're like, his ear looks fine. It must have not happened. But they're just confused on the timeline. But genuinely, if there was nothing wrong with his ear, it'd be kind of weird, right? It'd be kind of weird if they were like, look at his ear, it's perfect. There's no blemish, there's no scar, there's nothing. And supposedly it was shot, you'd be like, that's weird. But with the Roman soldier, it's like, hey, somehow nothing happened. And that's what happens when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But in that moment, of course, the shepherd was smitten. I think, again, the first part of this, oh, sword against my shepherd, that's like God talking about how he's against Christ and he brought the Romans against them. He says, and against the man that is my fellow. I kind of have two ideas here and I'll leave it open to your own interpretation. One option is that we're talking about Judas because Judas is actually referred to as his friend and how his friend betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. Most likely, though, I think it's the second thing and it's just talking about how God had to forsake Christ, who is his fellow, in the sense that he'd forsake his own son. Either way, it fits and that's what the Bible teaches on those points. What is this chapter about? It's just hammering salvation. And it's crazy to me, when you think about a book like Zechariah, how much is it just talking about the gospel? I mean, it's like reading Matthew. It's like reading the moments leading up to the Garden of Gethsemane and we're talking about that fountain, we're talking about salvation, we're talking about calling upon the name of the Lord. And so even in some of these dark and deep passages of the Minor Prophets, we still have a lot of actually pretty clear verses on the gospel message. Why? Because the whole Bible is about Christ, about the gospel, about believing in him, about calling on the name of the Lord. That was what it was really about. It wasn't about giving a bunch of Jews some dirt in the Middle East. When we're looking in the Bible to try and figure out what message is in there, what we should be looking for is the gospel, not some idea of, like, who owns the Middle East or something. You know, that's just not in the Scripture. They've been replaced. All right, let's go to prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us this book of Zechariah. Thank you so much for giving us your Son, who opened up the fountain to give us forgiveness of sin and cleanse us from uncleanness. Thank you for making salvation so simple and so free that all we have to do is just simply call on the name of the Lord and that we're saved. I pray that you would just help wake up a bunch of Christians, that they wouldn't continue to be deceived by all the false prophets and all those that are deceiving individuals and spreading lies and having false visions and wearing false garments and just doing anything and everything to take advantage of people. I pray that you would just open their eyes and wake up the older generation, wake up the younger generation, that we could actually see parents turning back to the Lord and we could see people just stop harkening all these false prophets. And I pray that you could use us to bless you in getting more people saved and praising your name and growing our church for your benefit, not for ours. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 105. Song number 105. Song number 105, All That Thrills My Soul. Everybody sing it out together on the first song, 105. Who can cheer the heart like Jesus By His presence all divine True and tender, pure and precious Oh, how great to fall in line All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than right to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see Love of Christ so freely given Grace of God beyond decree Mercy higher than the heavens Deeper than the deepest sea All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than right to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see What a wonderful redemption Never can a mortal know How my symbol red like crimson Can be whiter than the snow All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than right to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see Every need is hands applying Every good in Him I see On His strength divine relying He is all and all to me All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than right to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see By the crystal flowing river With the ransom I will see And forever and forever Praise and glorify the King All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than right to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see