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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🎵 🎵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🎵 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 allowing us to gather here and sing unto you Lord. We just ask you to fill this church with your spirit and bless this church and it's in Jesus name. Amen. All right for our next song let's go to song number 113. Song number 113, Wonderful Peace. 🎵Music🎵 Song number 113. 🎵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🎵 🎵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🎵 Chapter number two. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 In Jeremiah chapter two, the Bible reads, 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 A lot of times we see this when it comes to building something, you have someone go out and survey the land or someone's plotting and basically planning the construction project. They go out and they may mark the dirt or mark the construction site and get it prepared for the building project. And so this is obviously symbolic, this isn't actually happening, but it's symbolic of what God's trying to tell them, that God's getting ready to set up and to build and to reconstruct the city of Jerusalem, which lay desolate for 70 years during the Babylonian captivity. And so we're getting this specific prophecy about it being measured, about it being built. Verse number three, And behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein. For I say the Lord will be under her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her. Now again, if we remember the general context or the broad context of where we find ourselves in the book of Zechariah, the children of Israel have already returned. And the construction project of the Lord, the temple in Jerusalem has already kind of started, but it's been ceased through the hands of wicked men and they basically got it to where it was stopped. And there hasn't been some edict from the government that's overturned that. They kind of are holding a contradictory position here where Cyrus is telling them, yes, you can build this city, you can build the temple of the Lord. And we kind of have on his tail or following him are the Xerxes saying, no, you can't build. And they had stopped it by force previously. And through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, we had read how they strengthened the hands of the Jews and they caused them to start building again anyways. Even though there was no such commandment given as far as politically, legally, the law enforcement of that day, they're simply obeying God rather than men. They're simply being encouraged to rebuild the temple, not based on some political ideology or some political authority, but rather from the authority of God. And that's important to think about is when the Bible brings up in Romans chapter 13 that we have to obey the higher powers, that there is a power above the state of Texas. There's a power above the United States, which is supposed to be the Constitution. I don't even know if it really exists anymore, but there's even a power above the Constitution and that's Almighty God. And he's really in charge. And of course, even within God, you kind of have the Lord Jesus Christ and then you have the Father and the Father has given all of his power and authority unto Jesus Christ. And it even says that specifically in Matthew chapter number 28 that all power has been given unto Jesus Christ. And so whatever Jesus Christ tells us to do, we are given the authority and the right to do it regardless of what the law of the land is. And you say, what is that? To go ye into all the world and preach the gospel of every creature, to teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So we have that authority has been given to us and it's never been revoked. It's never been said you can't do this. No, Jesus has already given us the authority to teach all nations, to baptize them. And here's a really important one, teaching them all things whatsoever commanded you. He didn't say just the nice parts or just the gospel. I see sometimes I try to do something or I go out in the world or I contend for the faith and it's not directly the gospel. This is always the criticism I get. Why don't you just preach the gospel? And it's like, OK, well, if I had that viewpoint of only preaching the gospel, would I ever baptize anybody? It's like, hey, we have a baptism set up. Well, why are you baptizing people? Why don't you just preach the gospel? It's like, that's silly. It's like, hey, we're having a church service this evening and I guarantee everybody in here that's going to get saved is probably saved already. You probably don't need me to give you the gospel again. If you really need me to give you the gospel again, let's go out soul winning before the service and I'll show you exactly how to be saved. OK, but when we come to church, we want to focus on that third part of the Great Commission, which is teaching all things whatsoever Christ commanded at every single aspect of the Bible. You know what? Jesus Christ praised both Old and New Testament. So it's not just even the red letters of the Bible that we believe. We believe every single word from Genesis all the way to Revelation. And we believe it's a timeless truth, timeless commandments that God has given us. And he is the one that's given us this authority. And I like that this instruction given to this angel to talk with Zechariah here, he notices the first word he says is run, run. When you have a message of the Lord, it should be important. You know, sometimes people would criticize fundamental Baptists, their preaching style as being, quote, bombastic. And, you know, that word is kind of a strange word. It's not something you necessarily hear. But to be bombastic is essentially it's where you're trying to emphasize something or be very dramatic about something that perhaps maybe isn't dramatic or isn't necessarily that important. It kind of makes me think of a personality, Alex Jones, okay, where every broadcast is the most important. It's like this is an emergency broadcast. This is the most important message I've ever delivered. And so sometimes he could be accused of being, quote, bombastic. Now here's the thing. I do believe that that applies to Alex Jones at times, where he's probably using a little bit of hyperbole. He may be a little bit too dramatic about certain things. But when it comes to the Bible, I think it's a silly idea to think that any message could ever be bombastic. Because there's not such a thing as a message that's overemphasizing how much importance there really is from the Word of God. The Word of God truly is so important, and the message is really just timeless, that we should never have this attitude like, oh, I think the preacher's making too big a deal about that passage in the Bible. You know, every passage of the Bible, every message, every sermon, in fact, it should be preached with zeal. It should be preached with excitement. It should be preached with energy and effort. And I like this attitude of just, hey, run. You know, let's put some effort, let's put some energy, let's put some urgency to the message, to the Word of God. Hey, let's get it to them as fast as we can. It's an important message. This is something that impacts people's lives. And when it comes to the Word of God, we need to run with the Word of God. What does that mean? We need to take the preaching of God seriously and have a sense of urgency to the message. When we go out soul winning, we should have a sense of urgency of getting the Gospel out there because, frankly speaking, there's eight million plus people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And people are dying every single day. People are dying every single day. And some of them are even people that would have maybe been receptive or younger and had a potential to get saved. And if we don't have a sense of urgency, if we're not trying and pressing hard to get people saved, some people may miss out on their opportunity to get saved. And they may miss out on a good opportunity. I think that we've all had opportunities. I think every person gets opportunities, but not everybody gets all the same opportunities. Not everybody gets great opportunities to be saved. And I know the soul winners in this church give people a great opportunity to be saved. And so when we're going out there giving people a great opportunity, we should run with a sense of urgency. We should take the job that we have as serious. It is important. People's lives are being changed by the Word of God and by the preaching of God's Word. And they're also being changed by not hearing the Word of God. That's why it's important to run. Because time is of the essence. The Bible talks about redeeming the time because the days are evil. We need to take Christianity seriously today. But so many people, they just don't really care. They get jaded, they get burnt out. I think one aspect of running that's also pretty important to think about when it comes to the Christian life is the Bible says to run with patience. Because when we talk about running, all of us can run a certain distance before we get tired. Now for some of us it's a very short distance. Some of us it's a little bit longer distance, right? But there's a certain distance. I don't know what that is. It's different for every single person. But you know, if I were to go out jogging or running, I could probably run for maybe 10, 20 seconds before I'm going to really feel like uncomfortable. But pretty soon you just start feeling really uncomfortable while running. And if you kind of push through the pain, you can maybe go a little bit further, go a little bit longer. But then eventually it's inevitable you're going to start slowing down. Eventually you could even get to the point where you collapse or start walking or whatever. You can't necessarily sprint at the same pace forever. But people that run marathons or run seriously, they understand these things and so they don't run necessarily at a pace that they're going to have to slow down in 20 or 30 seconds. And in fact some people that are marathon runners, they can run for two hours. Now it's not necessarily at a sprint pace, but they are running for an hour, hour and a half, two hours. And so they're running at a pace in which they know they're going to be continually running. And they're not going to backpedal. They're not going to have to slow down. They're not going to have to quit. They're not going to have to give up. And unfortunately sometimes you see people in the Christian life, they are sprinters. They essentially, they get there and then they just start sprinting and then all of a sudden they don't realize how hard it is to do that for a long period of time and then they just quit. Or they give up. Or they start walking. Or they injure themselves. You know they just, they weren't really prepared for the marathon of life and instead of actually running at a pace that they could run at, they were exerting too much effort, too much energy and so they end up kind of destroying themselves by doing so. And so it's important to make sure that you're running at a pace that you can maintain, a pace that you can keep up, a pace that's realistic for your lifestyle. And that's why it's important to try and identify a pattern of life that you feel comfortable, that you're going to keep up and then doing that. Because here's what happens. And this is, it sounds weird I think to some of us like, oh man, Pastor Joe, you want people to slow down or you want people to not run as hard as they can? That is not what I'm saying. But the reality is this is what some people do. They start sprinting and so what does that look like? I'm reading my Bible three hours a day. And I'm going soul winning four times a week. And you know I live three hours away from the church but I'm always there for every service. And that's great. But here's what happens. That lifestyle becomes impossible for a long period of time. And then eventually what ends up happening is they fall off. But you know they don't just fall off like slowly, it's a quick collapse. And then all of a sudden now it's like, well I went from reading the Bible three hours a day and going soul winning four times a week and driving three hours from church and now I'm never going to church, never reading my Bible and not doing any of this. And what happens is psychologically they don't even want to do anything for the Lord. They don't want to serve God. They don't want to get back in the race because they remember them running at a certain pace and they don't want to run at a slower pace. So they end up just doing nothing. It's like, well you know I just, I couldn't maintain that so I just don't even want to try anymore. I just don't want to even do anything and they basically just give up. So it's important to set realistic goals that you know you're not going to give up, that you're not going to walk back, that you're going to maintain. And then also that way when you do fall short you can say hey I need to get back on the horse. Right because if you're just not reading the Bible at all that's just not good. You should say like I should be leading at least 15 minutes or I should be reading you know 30 minutes a day or you know some kind of a realistic minimum goal. Hey if I'm not going, I haven't been going so many weeks I need to be going at least once a week out soul winning and you know challenge yourself to spend maybe one hour a week going out soul winning. You know making sure you're at least going to church. You know you want to have a certain threshold you say hey this is a marathon and I need to pace myself and I also need to set boundaries and say what's more important is that I never drop behind my threshold rather than being able to sprint all the time. And so it's not that we're not running we're running at a pace that we can run for the rest of our lives. Because Christianity, let me explain something to you, it's really important that you run for a long time. When we talk about producing fruit the Bible uses trees as an example. Let me explain something, trees do not produce fruit in a day or a week. It takes a long time for that tree to end up producing the fruit and for it to come. And so with Christianity a lot of times it takes a lot of time in order to see fruit and to have a great benefit out of it. It's not something that's like a microwave meal. Christianity is not a microwave religion where you can simply just I haven't been doing it much Christianity but I just want to pop it in like 30 seconds like on high blast and just kind of fix my life real quick. That's not how Christianity works. That's not how God works. God works with planting seasons. You reap what you sow. And so you can't just be neglecting God for weeks and then just pop in like okay this one day I'll dedicate and then I'm gonna go back to three weeks of neglecting him again. It's like no, no, no. Serving God is something where you have to actually just do it slow and steady and putting in the effort and just doing it right. You're just never going to really reap anything of benefit when you're not taking Christianity seriously. God wanted people in the Old Testament to gather the manna daily even if it was just a little bit. Why? Because Christianity is supposed to be a daily religion not a once a week or when I feel like it or an Easter religion. It's a daily religion and the people that reap the best results from Christianity are people that are making it a daily religion. Not the people that are making it a whenever I feel like it or however I want to. Plus you're gonna say why would you come to church on a Wednesday night? Well here's the thing you reap what you sow. Why wouldn't I want to sow three times a week as opposed to once a week? Because you know what? You will reap great things, spiritual blessings when you're sowing that much more into Christianity. And you say, well what am I gonna reap? I don't know. How much is an obedient child worth? How much is a godly child worth? How much is an obedient wife worth? You can't even buy that. How much is a hardworking husband or a loving husband? How much is a marriage worth? Ask the voice lawyers about that. I mean how much is the crown in heaven worth? I mean there's all these things on the table and you say well going to church this time of the week isn't you know I don't have to do that. You don't technically have to but you know what you reap what you sow. And if you're just putting in a little bit hey maybe you'll reap some of those but you know what I want to reap as many rewards as I can. And when it comes to the field of life you know my dad I love that my dad did a lot of gardening because it taught me a lot of things but I loved it when you'd plan a lot of different things because he pretty much would mostly focus on tomatoes and I just don't really care about that at all. Okay so I would like it when you'd also plant like cucumbers or different like watermelon is the best but it can't really grow in the Amarillo area but he used to plant watermelon here. Watermelon can actually grow here and I really love watermelon I love the cucumbers some of the peppers some of the other things so it's nice to get a great variety. You know the only way to reap those products is to have sown them. When it comes to church you know we kind of have a Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night they're all a little bit different there's some variety there. Hey with Zechariah that's a completely different pepper that we're we're sowing on Wednesday nights but you know I guarantee there's going to be a special fruit or reward that comes out of that particular sowing that you wouldn't necessarily get. And so we have to look at Christianity as a marathon that we need to constantly be running at and taking seriously not taking the breaks not just giving up not quitting you know Christianity is never been more important than today. Churches are declining in attendance in doctrine they're declining in manliness they're declining in almost every way in soul winning and you know our church isn't our church has been pretty much the exact opposite our church is actually getting better in almost all of these categories. But at the same time you know why it's because people are deciding hey I want to run I'm taking this seriously but as soon as everyone quits as soon as everybody gives up you know we can be just like anybody else you know our church isn't special in the sense that like the same problems that affect every church don't affect ours or something people can still get complacent people can still get carnal people can still be high minded people can get burnt out all of the different problems that people experience happen to every single church and we have to be humble and have the right mindset not be high minded but considering ourselves lest we also stumble or fall lest we also fall victim of the same problems that happen to a lot of other people and to a lot of other churches and I could see a lot of people in our style of church of trying to run a little too hard and trying to do a little bit too much in their lives as opposed to pacing themselves appropriately you know think really hard about what your minimums are and try to make sure that you're maintaining a pace above that all the time just all the time you're just maintaining a pace and if you see hey I've been wanting to read my Bible an hour every day but lately I haven't even been reading it all because I just look at it I'm like I don't have an hour okay well just read it for five minutes then but you know start picking up the pace again to where you're at least running it doesn't have to be sprinting but at least get back in there and start running the race and get in there because it's so important and you don't want to get to the point where you realize you've actually quit or you're walking backwards or you're doing something even worse than that we need to make sure that we're taking the Christian life seriously and I like that when this angel comes to speak to this other angel he's like hey run speak to this young man now it says in verse number four that they're going to be a town without walls for the multitude of men and cattle there it's basically saying that the population is going to extend so far beyond its actual city borders that also sounds like the Dallas-Fort Worth area where boy man we are just exploding with people and they are really just everywhere in fact outside of the city and I mean it's just really just tons and tons of people it's basically just trying to describe that that this is going to be a lively city that they're going to have so many people and cattle and everything it's going to extend beyond their physical city boundaries and city limits they're going to have a lot of people living in the countryside and outside of these particular walls and he says in verse five for I say the Lord will be under her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her so God's saying I'm going to be a wall unto you that's a good thing you know walls are good things and in fact if you don't like walls you're not going to like the new heaven and the new earth because it literally has walls and I don't even know why it has walls entirely because in theory there's no one even bad there but maybe it's symbolic I don't know but simply put walls are a good thing God likes walls okay now not every wall is a good thing but walls can be good things and generally are good things I want to go to another place go to Proverbs chapter 25 for a moment Trump would endorse this part of my sermon okay Trump likes walls okay and you know what's funny about it is what we're talking about though is not even actually a real wall because God said that he would be a wall of fire he's basically just saying like in a spiritual sense he's going to protect them and be some kind of a boundary some kind of a border now what's the point of a wall? it's to keep some things in and it's to keep some things out right I mean that's what walls are why do you have walls on your house? so some things don't come in and so some things don't go out you don't want the bugs and critters and criminals coming in and you don't want the little toddlers and babies going out do you? so it's nice to have walls plus you know there's another thing you don't want coming in heat and you don't want another thing going out you're air conditioning okay so you have walls to keep the air conditioning in and you have walls to keep the heat from coming in right so the wall is basically just providing you a boundary a protection it's keeping some things in it's keeping some things out there's nothing wrong with that it makes sense it's practical it's reasonable and the Bible even likens walls here in a spiritual sense Proverbs 25 look at verse 28 last verse he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls so he likens a city without walls to something what would be a city without walls it's someone that has no rule over his own spirit what is someone that has no rule over his own spirit he's wild uncontrollable and what's the problem with someone being wild or uncontrollable they could they're in danger they could harm themselves they could maybe pick a fight with the wrong individual they can basically be taken advantage of in fact we were talking with brother Jornell and he was saying hey in a fight what you don't want to do is you don't want to get mad you don't want to let the person take over and get under your skin and kind of get you know control of your emotions because they can use that manipulation to take advantage of you and to hurt you and to destroy you so someone that doesn't have rule over their own spirit is in danger just like a city without walls is in danger because if a threat comes if an enemy comes there's no protection there's no border just like you have locks on your doors so that if a criminal or bad person comes you can keep them out you have some layer of protection that is the whole point so there's nothing wrong with walls biblically biblically it makes perfect sense most of the cities have walls in fact Jerusalem had big walls that's what kept them intact for such a long period of time kings would come and besiege them but not be able to breach the wall and of course with a wall in a military situation what you can do is you have the high ground because you can get to the top part of your wall and with the high ground you can shoot arrows you can throw rocks you can pour down oil and burn them with fire there's a lot of strategic advantages in a military battle when you have the high ground in fact that's typically just always the case that whoever is in the high spot almost always wins whether that's a perch whether that's what we talk about in modern warfare aircraft whoever owns the skies is going to basically win the battle is going to overcome the enemy and so that's what you get afforded to with the particular wall plus with the wall they're going to have to come and breach it they're going to have to try and put ladders or break it down or do something and while they're trying to do that you have a chance to attack them while they're more defenseless so the wall provides a certain advantage when it comes to a military situation God is saying even though your city is extended beyond the actual physical walls I will be a wall of fire unto you and you know when you look at America today and you say man we have a border crisis if you don't really recognize we have a border crisis your head is in the sand because according to the statistics it's like somewhere over 8 million maybe even 10 million people have crossed our border illegally since Joe Biden's presidency and again you can look up these numbers I don't even know how you even know that exactly because I don't think they necessarily have the ticker like the attendance ticker and they're like I don't know how they know what those numbers are but it certainly seems like millions it's very likely that it's millions you'd think if they're so good at getting the number they could stop it but you know that's a different conversation and of course what do our politicians think well first of all the brain dead Democrats don't think so we don't really know what they think when it comes to Republicans you know it's kind of led by Donald Trump primarily he specifically wants to rebuild his border wall or essentially increase his border wall and you say is that the solution do you need a physical wall well what about in this situation that is bringing up a city where the city's literally extended beyond its walls that's a problem because you literally can't even fit it and if you think about our country I mean to go all the way from Texas all the way to California with a physical wall all you need is one breach and people can get through all you need is like some tunnel all you need is just some paid off guy at the border crossing and you can still have people just coming and going at will people can come on boats people are traveling to Miami and they have been for a long time and that's how they're entering into the country people come in through all kinds of other places you know is it really going to be that effective I'm sure it wouldn't hurt I'm sure it could reduce things I'm sure it would eliminate some of that but you know what America really needs is they need a wall of fire that comes from God to protect them and you say how do you get this wall of fire because I'll tell you right now America could have this exact same situation where we have a literal wall of fire where God is protecting our nation and we would never need the physical wall but you may not like the wall that I'm going to describe to you let me describe to you what the wall is that we need to build in America Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy if you build those four pillars into our country and you have the law of the land literally being Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy we would never need a physical wall if you said hey if you are in our country and you are a murderer we will put you to death if you're a rapist we will put you to death if you're an adulterer we will put you to death you know those celebrities always say if Donald Trump was elected they would leave America we don't need to elect Donald Trump let's just bring in Leviticus, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy because they're all guilty of that stuff for sure I mean every guy in Hollywood would have to leave because they're all faggots and frankly speaking you know the Bible makes it clear in Leviticus 2013 that they should be put to death you know because we've literally rejected God as our firewall as a software term there for you and we basically imported the virus of the demon rats or the Democrats at this point you know we have so much malware we have so much spyware we have just so much virus in and cancer in our country it's literally destroying itself and you know it's so funny to me our country is literally being destroyed it's just obvious our inflation is out of control every government official is bribed and controlled Hollywood is literally worshipping Satan I mean they're openly worshipping Satan there's so much tran, freak, nasty things going on in our country and then I'll get up and say hey the solution is Leviticus 2013 and they'll say you're the problem with America like they'll be mad at me they'll be mad at our church they'll be mad at the documentaries we've made or things I preach and they'll think like I'm the problem with America or I'm the one ruining America and I'm thinking like what are you thinking? like I'm not causing the inflation and hollyweird and all the pedophilia and the human trafficking I mean who do you think is doing that? it's like I already know and I already have the solution you just don't like the solution which really means that you don't really even care about pedophilia which really means you don't care about human trafficking which really means you don't care about the border or inflation or any of these issues because if you really wanted to solve them we could solve them tomorrow by implementing the right criminal justice system the biblical Christian situation here and again that would be a wall of fire all we would need is those laws and to enforce them and you know what? I guarantee there would be a lot of men in our country that would be excited to enforce biblical laws you know being a police officer to me the biggest downside is the fact that you have to enforce unbiblical laws you know I have no problem with the idea of enforcing laws or someone being in the police department but I think a lot of people get jaded because of the hypocrisy the bureaucracy the fact that they'll literally arrest criminals and then the DA will not prosecute or not give them any kind of justice but I think that a lot of men get satisfaction out of catching criminals and then being brought to justice the problem with our justice system is it's not catching criminals and it's not putting them to justice it's arresting people for going to the Capitol to protest an illegal election that's what it's doing in fact now they want to make it illegal for individuals to say something anti-Semitic who wants to enforce that? who wants to be the soldier that has to do that kind of a request you know it makes me think of Saul's army when they're saying like hey slay the priest and they're just like I don't want to do that and then you have to find the reprobate doeg doeg will do it there's always some rep somewhere that'll do it you know in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s back in the 1990s lots of parts of this country no one locked their doors you know even when I grew up which wasn't that long in the 90s when I'm a kid at our house in Canyon, Texas my parents never locked the door and I was thinking about this the other day because it kind of baffled me because I'm so used to locking doors now too is I was like when I was growing up how did I key to our house and I was thinking like how did I ever get in and then I remembered we never locked our doors and in fact in times past nobody even locked their car doors in fact I still even have that bad habit sometimes in my truck I would notice especially in Texas I wouldn't lock my doors and stuff California breaks that habit real fast I went to California in broad daylight and they just smashed through the windows and stole my bag right out of the car in fact it's so bad over there some people literally just leave the doors open with nothing in just so we won't smash their windows because the crime has gotten just so bad why? because they don't have a wall of fire that's coming from God why were they allowed like think about this isn't it seem insane today a little bit to think of people literally not locking anything just having everything open all the doors open the kids are playing in the street kids are playing everywhere nobody really cares and it's not because they're negligent parents at the apartment complex it's just everyone's doing that because it's not even a big deal how could you have such peace and safety it's because you have a righteous society with more biblical laws and they're being enforced and when you have that you could literally have a city without walls you have the wall of God a wall of fire surrounding your city and you don't have to worry about every single person over their shoulder or every single person what they might do because all the bad people have already been caught and dealt with and they do get caught and dealt with but we got relaxed and then you started having serial killers and it was easy for them to get away because everybody was so trusting back then because nobody was bad then you slowly changed the demographics of America kept bringing more people in drugs, the hippie movement the boomer generation and all of a sudden now because we've forgotten God and we said God doesn't need to be a wall of fire to us anymore now everybody has to lock every single door and everything's in danger our country is just in shambles and you know I'd love to fix our country but you know I don't have a lot of control over that I can preach what's right I can tell people how they can fix it but you know this church should be the same way many churches today are being attacked and having all kinds of issues and problems but you know what keeps our church strong is having not these physical walls is having a wall of God of fire and you say how do you get that how about preach 1 Corinthians chapter number 5 and you know what then you don't have to worry about all the drunkenness and all the fornication and all the idolatry and all the covetousness being drug into church today you know actually if you preach Leviticus 2013 you'll never have to deal with sodomites coming in here trying to hang out with the children I talked to some young fellows and they were telling me about their church they're not from here they're just visiting and they said they literally have a a like a child molester section of their church like people that have been caught and on the registry you know what they have a certain section of the church that they sit and I said do you know what section he said no the congregation doesn't know only they know where they're supposed to go and I'm like I would want to know where that section is in fact I'm sure I could probably figure it out yeah but can you imagine can you imagine you're saying like hey I just want to already know there's a certain section here you know where some people are on the child registry but I don't want to tell you where that's at just because we don't want to shame those people what do you mean you don't want to shame those people it's like get the hell out of my church yeah it's like what are you talking about it's because they won't preach the reprobate doctrine they won't even preach biblical topics and so they literally are a city without walls and that's a dangerous place to bring your children and you know the same kind of churches they don't have all their services where all the kids are here all the time they literally have nursery and children's programs and all this stuff boy I'm just telling you that's just messing with fire folks there's churches today like Andy Stanley who will literally let open homosexuals work in the children's departments there are sometimes the youth ministers I mean that is just so unbiblical and so ungodly I mean they're literally in the fire let alone having a wall of fire around them people get mad at me but you know what I like having the wall of God around our church and we've had a lot of people try to attack us and do stuff but you know what I think God is constantly protecting our church and he's going to continually protect our church as long as we do what preach Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and stay strong in the doctrine of God you know how about in your own house in your own family don't you want there to be a wall of fire around your daughter we need biblical dads to be present in their daughter's lives there's so many daughters who don't have that and it's just so sad let the Lord be a wall in your life go to Job 1 I want to go one more place here before we go back to our chapter because this is an important point and honestly from this chapter this is the main point that I felt like really applied to us is we need to have the Lord be a wall in our lives and he will you know we read this story and it sounds great but it's not only available to them it's available to us God can be a wall to your house to your family, to your church to your state and to your country and we need to take that as a promise of God and apply it to ourselves in every area that we have that control in every area that we have that opportunity and in fact I would even argue that while our city isn't that great just us being godly we actually protect it anyways just like Lot being in Sodom protected it until the bitter end in fact the angels even said like we can't destroy this place until you get out of here they were so excited to destroy it they literally drug Lot out there so they could get started you know what I mean I never thought of it that way but it kind of seems like they were just like get out of here we're sick and tired of looking at these disgusting queers okay we want to burn this place already to the ground and you're making us delay you know just get out of the way Job right and so they're like because the Bible says that Job was Terry I don't know if you remember this it's like he's kept tearing and he's like just like grabs them and he's like get out of here okay and as soon as they got out fire and brimstone was raining down from the Lord of heaven and just burned them up and destroyed them except for Lot's wife you know she left her heart in San Francisco and so she was turned into salt but you know what Jesus said remember Lot's wife we need to remember these things and look at Job chapter 1 verse 9 the Bible says then Satan answered the Lord and said does Job fear God for not hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side thou has blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land notice Job was a godly man and so what God had done is he literally had put a hedge around Job and not just Job every single thing that Job had now we understand in this story that Job temporarily allowed like God temporarily takes us away from Job to test him and to try him but he still had a hedge because you know what God never allowed Satan to kill Job he left that one boundary and he said I'll let all these other horrible things happen just to see what he's like but you can't kill him and then when he restored him I guarantee God put that hedge just back on him just like it was before but what this does prove is that there are hedges out there that God can put in your life where Satan can't mess with you resist the devil and he'll flee from you and you know we need I need the hedge of God in our lives so that the devil can't just run roughshod all over us but you know what you don't get that by not going to church and not reading your Bible and not caring what it says you know Job was a righteous man that look at verse 1 there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God, notice this an eschewed evil he hated evil he wasn't one of these people, oh he sounds like a hateful person, well you know what God likes him this is one of the guys that eschewed evil you can see a consistent theme in the Bible that the people that God likes are the people that hate evil and stand against it and preach against evil, not to be able to acquiesce and tolerate and compromise God doesn't like compromisers go back to Zechariah chapter 2 God will protect you and you know if you're a compromiser why do you need to protect it anyways compromisers don't need to be protected because they'll just do whatever the devil tells them to do anyways, they're a compromiser you know the person that needs to be protected is the person that won't compromise that's the person that needs to be protected because the devil's thinking like I need to get him because he just won't shut up and he just keeps preaching and he just keeps standing on the word of God he just keeps soul winning and it's like the devil just wants to get him but he's like God has to protect that person and you know what in our country, in our world the people that are preaching the hardest those are the ones that need the most protection because of the fact that the devil would love to shut them up God doesn't need to protect the compromisers, they're a compromiser they're not doing anything for God, but you know the reason why someone can preach with boldness is because they have faith in God and they believe and this wall of fire, they believe like Elijah where he says hey there's more with us than there are with them but you know what, you can only see that with spiritual eyes, can't see that with carnal eyes and Zechariah here has spiritual eyes where he's seeing this vision and God's telling him hey I'm going to be a wall of fire unto you and Jerusalem, have the confidence to build you know what, our church has gone through some tough times but we should have the confidence that we're still in a building phase God's going to still allow us to build and he's still going to be a wall of fire unto us and we don't need to say like oh we need to scale down because of the persecution no we're going to ramp things up no we're going to do even more, we're going to keep building because you know what, God is going to be a wall of fire unto us and it's going to extend even beyond physical walls more important than my gun or walls is the wall of God and he does this literally in the book of Exodus he's a wall of fire to the children of Israel as they leave Egypt and you know what, God can do that to us as well in this life, look at verse 6 ho ho, come forth and flee from the land of the north sayeth the Lord for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens sayeth the Lord deliver thyself O Zion that dwells with the daughter of Babylon for thus sayeth the Lord of hosts after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye so he's calling for the children of Israel to return from all parts of the world they've been scattered all four winds and so they're being brought back you know here's another way how about the four corners of the earth sorry flat earthers, it's still a sphere okay you know what those four corners are? north, south, east and west just like the bible talks about the corners of your head I don't know if anybody has a flat disc head okay maybe flat earthers do but you know what you can have corners to a sphere it's the topmost, the bottommost, the eastmost and the westmost and that's the four winds that are being described as well and so what he's talking about here specifically is how they've been scattered into all the earth into all the different parts of the world and they're supposed to come back and he's calling those people that come back the apple of his eye the children of Israel physically here are the apple of his eye and this really happened now this is what happens unfortunately, is people will read this verse and then they'll apply it to 1948 Israel okay, well first of all we have to understand that this verse definitely applied to the context of which it was written at the time of Zechariah some had returned to land, but not everybody so he's making another general call like hey, it's safe, come here I know that Artaxerxes made this decree but hey, we're gonna build, we need more workers the laborers the laborers are few we need more people to get in here and build the house of God and you know, it's 90 different than today how the laborers be few even though the harvest is plenteous and when we're building the house of God we're not building the physical Jerusalem we're building the heavenly Jerusalem which is made up of saved Christians and we need more Christians to get into the fight to get into the right kind of church to get into a soul winning church if you're not going to a soul winning church hear the cry of God ho ho, come forth get into a soul winning Baptist church and start building the house of God again oh, well there's all this danger oh, what about these decrees oh, I can't go to steadfast Baptist churches, they're anti-Semitic I don't care if they are or not go to the most anti-Semitic, soul winning church but don't go to a church that's not soul winning and I'm not even anti-Semitic, honestly according to their definition I am but everyone is, according to their definition according to the real definition I'm not but even if I was I would rather go to the most anti-Semitic I'd rather go to Jacob Baptist Church and go soul winning I would rather go to the most racist church ever and go soul winning than to not go to a church that goes soul winning that's not an option it's not an option for me to go to the Calvinist church down the street that's never going to reach anybody with a gospel but boy, they just love all nations oh, I'm going to go to this Zionist Baptist church where we're going to literally send all of our tithe dollars to Israel we're not going to send it to a missionary in the Philippines we're not going to send it to do some local missions trips we're not going to actually go out ourselves and knock the local doors no, we're going to send all of our money to rebuild a temple a physical temple in Jerusalem as opposed to building the spiritual temple the people of God that is insane we need Christians to wake up and recognize that we are a spiritual people built on spiritual promises and we are the children of Israel we are the apple of God's eye not a bunch of physical people back then, there was a combination where, yes, back then the physical children of Israel were also the spiritual children of Israel but at the end of the day, they weren't true children of Israel unless they actually believed too now I want to prove these things to you real quick, we're going to just go through a lot of scripture and we'll pretty much be finished this evening but go to Psalm 105 go to Psalm 105 because this apple of your eye is something that they all love to point out oh, this is also talking about the future it is talking about the future but you know what, it's not talking about 1948 it's talking about the thousand year reign of Christ when the children of Israel are going to return back to the land with the Lord now look at Psalm 105 verse 10 the Bible says and confirm the same unto Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant saying unto thee will I give the land of Canaan a lot of your inheritance when they were but a few men in number yea, very few and strangers in it when they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people he suffered no man to do them wrong, yea he reproved kings for their sakes saying touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm this is important because it's kind of the same principle, isn't it? when it's saying touch not mine anointed and specifically it said you don't want to touch the apple of his eye and when it came to the children of Israel when they left Egypt and they wandered through the wilderness God was not allowing Balaam to curse the children of Israel he wasn't allowing the king of Og and Bashan all these wicked kings to destroy the children of Israel rather they lost he didn't allow the Canaanites to destroy them, they conquered the promised land but is this an eternal decree? because let me ask you this what about Nebuchadnezzar? did he touch them? did Nebuchadnezzar destroy them? did Nebuchadnezzar have the ability to do anything to them? yes he did so this was obviously talking about this specific period of time with this group of people, why? because they were beloved of God they were the spiritual group of people and he allowed them to do something he wasn't going to allow these prophets to suffer harm now of course the prophets suffer harm in their own people but not of foreign nations and the same is applied to the context here where it's a spiritual thing for us to recognize that we are the children of God and we shouldn't allow people to think that we can be touched and God won't be mad about it God is going to be mad when people mess with his people but the children of Israel physically were not always his people that's where you see this contradiction but the New Testament explains it in Galatians 4 so how is it like God is saying don't touch my people but then we see all these examples where foreign kings and foreign nations are destroying them it's because they're not always really the people of God even though they were physically that didn't change you have to understand that there is a difference between a physical person of Israel and a spiritual person of Israel now the book of Galatians is an analogy or a metaphor or an allegory for this look at Galatians chapter 4 verse 22 for it is written that Abraham had two sons the one by a bondman and the other by a free woman but he who is of the bondwoman was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise which things are an allegory for these are the two covenants the one from the Mount Sinai which genderth the bondage which is Agar for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all so he's saying the children of Israel that are in Jerusalem today when the book of Galatians is written the physical seed of Abraham they are Agar they are Sinai they are in bondage but he's saying us we are free, we're of the heavenly Jerusalem so we're citizens of Israel but of the spiritual and the heavenly Jerusalem not of the physical Jerusalem and in times past people were both people were the physical nation of Israel and they were the spiritual nation of Israel but there was always a mixed multitude not all of them were of Israel keep your finger here go back to Romans we're just going to go to Ephesians in a minute so I just want to go back to Romans for a second go to Romans chapter number 9 for a second and while you're turning there Romans 2 says this so the apostle Paul describing to the Romans saying being a Jew isn't a physical thing it's a spiritual thing and so when God was wanting to make a covenant with his people Abraham specifically that he called them in uncircumcision to allow people to understand that being of the children of Abraham or the children of Israel was not a physical thing, it was a spiritual thing and then he got circumcision afterwards so that he was the father of both but most specifically he is the father of the spiritual children and we are his spiritual children so you have a contradiction with the Jews at the time of Christ because many of them did not believe in Jesus and they didn't get saved and they were physical Israel but they weren't spiritual Israel and then you had some physical Israel actually believe and they got saved apostle Paul is one of those and he says in chapter 9 verse 1 So he's saying that my brethren physically not my brethren spiritually who are Israelites to pertain to the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises whose are the fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came. Notice this concerning the flesh Christ came unto them you know some people say like oh the Jews have their covenant with God the father and you know we have our covenant with Jesus Jesus came to the Jews he came unto his own and his own received him not how would that verse how would John 1 12 even make sense if Jesus was never supposed to come to the Jews or if the Jews weren't supposed to receive Jesus the reason why that's an important verse is because the Jews were supposed to receive Jesus don't believe John Hagee the liar who said the Jews were never promised a Messiah in defense of Israel you know he's like how can they reject their Messiah when they were never promised a Messiah and then he has some stupid book where he talks about how the Jews didn't reject Jesus because they weren't promised to Jesus you're a liar John Hagee that is false doctrine Jesus was for the Jews and he came unto the Jews according to the flesh and he came unto his own and he received him not but as many as received him to them gave you power to become the sons of God even in them that believe on his name so the few that did believe him Peter, John, the apostle Paul they are the ones that are the sons of God the children of Abraham, the true Jews they are the anointed they are the people that when you touch you're touching the apple of God's eye that's who we're talking about but it's not just limited to them if we keep reading here it says in verse 5 so he's saying not everybody that's physical Israel is spiritual Israel verse 7 these are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called so Isaac is the one that's the child and he's a child of promise go back to Galatians chapter number 4 where we were and you'll notice in verse 26 we read which is the mother of us all now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise you see that connection from Romans chapter number 9 we are the children of promise of Isaac we are the Israel we are the apple of God's eye but what does it say in the next verse in verse number 29 but as then that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now so it's saying physical Jews persecute spiritual Jews boy I wonder if that happens today verse 30 nevertheless what saith the scripture cast out the bond woman and her son for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir to the son of the free one go back to Romans I probably had you turn away but if you stuck in Romans this is what it said in verse 8 that is they which are the children of flesh these are not the children of God oh oh no no no you don't understand pastor Shelley the people in Israel they're the children of God wait a minute what does Romans say Romans says these are not the children of God these are not the children of God oh they're the apple of God's eye how dare you touch the apple of God's eye they're not the children of God folks that's not who we're talking about he said but the children of the promise are counted for the seed we are the children of God go to Ephesians 2 I don't like this kind of a message you just don't like the Bible what do you mean? in fact I love this message because it means that God is not a respecter of persons and he doesn't just say oh your physical parents were Jews you're magically the children of God you got that Jude lottery ticket but you know what's important is not how what your physical structure is it's not important that you have a big nose or something what's important is that you believe in Christ that's what's important Ephesians 2 look at verse 19 now therefore you're no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God if you believe in Christ you are a citizen of Israel you are Israel you are a Jew you are the children of God that is what it's talking about it's a spiritual nation of believers I want to show you a few more verses here go to 1st Corinthians chapter 10 this is an important point because Christianity is screwed up on this point you want to know why it's so screwed up? because Christianity is filled with unsaved people and these unsaved people can only think with the carnal mind and the carnal mind tries to elevate carnal things being carnally a Jew but that's not important what's important is being spiritually a Jew believing in Jesus Christ and being saved 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 18 the Bible says behold Israel after the flesh that's an important phrase I'm not really going to the context I just wanted to show you that phrase because it's pretty unique notice that there is an Israel that is after the flesh that tells me there must be another kind of Israel the spiritual Israel that's what it means in Romans 9 they're not all Israel which are of Israel it's talking about they're not all spiritual Israel which are physical Israel that's what it's saying go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 yet we have today so many people puffing out their chest and thinking they're wonderful or special because they're a physical Jew it doesn't make them special and what they really need to hear is a message like this to say you need to believe in Jesus if you want to be spiritually Israel if you want to be the true Israel you need to believe in Jesus Christ and not trust in your works not trust in your false religion you need to become a Christian you need to become a fundamental Baptist and not this stupid messianic Christian or whatever no just become a Christian you know or I'm sorry messianic Jew that's what they call it right I'm a messianic Jew well messianic Jews can still go to hell because they didn't put all their faith in Jesus and in fact I would say all Jews are messianic it's just their Messiah is the Antichrist okay this this Judaizer that I debated the other day he was saying that Jesus will be the Messiah and I'm thinking like what does that mean will be Jesus won't will be he is Christ is the Messiah he came already too I don't know what Antichrist doctrine that is 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 look at verse 18 the Bible says seeing that many glory after the flesh I will glory also so the apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians 11 he's making fun of false prophets and false teachers and false doctrine and so he goes on this tirade of talking like they do so this is him making fun of and mocking and ridiculing false teachers you know some people say this is an anti-Christian attitude like how dare you make fun of people how dare you mimic them or talk like them in a making fun of manner sorry that's what that's what Paul did Paul the apostle Paul is making fun of people in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 he's saying hey since you guys love carnality so much since you love people in the flesh let me sound like an idiot like the preachers you've been listening to let me tell you what an idiot sounds like and that's the context just to give you a quick rundown verse 19 for you suffer fools gladly seeing you selves are wise he's saying you guys are idiots and since you think you're so smart let me sound like a flat earther just so you understand how stupid that is because apparently you're so smart and you acquiesce to these idiots that's what he's saying this encourages me to say that it's okay to be mean sometimes verse 21 I speak as concerning your approach as though we had been weak how be it whereinsoever any is bold and then notice this I speak foolishly did you see that in parenthesis I speak foolishly that's the apostle Paul trying to give you a hint everything I'm about to say is dumb to say it's stupid to say it has no relevance no one should ever speak like this this is what the apostle Paul is trying to say I'm going to sound like an idiot right now so when he's sounding like an idiot what does he say I am bold also verse 22 are they Hebrews? so am I are they Israelites? so am I are they the seed of Abraham? so am I you know the apostle Paul just said it is stupid to tell people that you're a Jew it is stupid to tell people that you're a Jew did you read the Bible? I'm just telling you what the Bible said the apostle Paul is saying when people brag about being a physical Jew it is stupid it is foolish it is meaningless it is meaningless to brag or pontificate about being a physical Jew but there's so many churches today they'll bring in a Jew behind the pulpit to teach us the Bible because he's a Jew that's stupid and the apostle Paul is saying hey you guys suffer these idiots so much because you're so smart you think you're so smart to get a Jew to tell you what the Bible means well you know what you're actually an idiot because it's stupid to think that that matters you know what matters? it's someone that's filled with the spirit of God it's someone that believes the Bible it's someone that's willing to preach the word of God and reject all of those Judaizing things that the apostle Paul counted as dung literally you know what you do with dung? you flush it down the toilet oh I think being a physical Jew is important well you know what? you're an idiot that's what the apostle Paul said I was just telling you what he said don't get mad at me go back to Zechariah when are we going back to Zechariah? hey it's important to understand because I hear it twisted so much don't get me started there's so much more New Testament on this issue it is super clear that the physical nation of Israel is not the apple of God's eye it is the spiritual Israel but at the time then the spiritual Israel was physical Israel so of course God was blessing those people and bringing them back and wanting to protect them and doing good under them because they were both just like I think that God has blessed America for a long time not because we're America not because of anything about us or our country or our land it's because that's where the saved people were that's why and as soon as there stops being saved people in America did you notice how it's not blessed anymore? and if you want to find the worst country in the world, find the least amount of saved people how about North Korea? how about China? how about parts of the Middle East? where Islam is prevalent those are the worst places to ever live because there's no saved people there what are the best places to live? where there's the most saved people you want to know why Texas is better than some of these other places? because there's a lot more saved people here than there are in other places have you ever noticed that? there's a lot more Christianity going on down here than there is in other places and a lot of these other places wherever Christianity is thriving is going to be the safest and the best place to live and you know, it may not always be the most receptive because everybody's already saved it's funny I was talking to somebody that was moving here and we were saying, the best place to go soloing is like the worst place to live and usually the worst place to go soloing is the best place to live but, a lot of times when you go in those areas a lot of people are saved in those areas, aren't they? they've already been reached, they already kind of know and what we have to understand is that God is going to be a hedge is going to be a wall around those who are spiritually saved not physically Jews ok, he's not the Iron Dome there is no guarantee that he's going to protect those individuals just because of who their parents are he only has that supernatural wall around the saved now, we finish this chapter it says in verse 9 for behold, I will shake my hand upon them and they shall be a spoil to their servants and you should know that the Lord of hosts has sent me sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord and many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in the midst of thee and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto thee and the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land and shall choose Jerusalem again be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his holy habitation so it's saying that God is going to dwell with his people that's going to happen in the millennial reign Jesus Christ is going to literally come and I want to point out one last thing and this is what I think is kind of interesting notice what it had said in verse 8 in the first part of it for thus saith the Lord of hosts so who's the person speaking? God right? did you notice that? God speaking this so everything from verses 8 to 13 is the Lord of hosts speaking but did you notice this in verse number 9 that it says at the very end ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent what's this word? me so it's saying the Lord of hosts is saying that the Lord of hosts sent me did you notice that? in verse number 11 it says in many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in the midst of thee and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee so how in the world can you have the Lord of hosts dwelling with them and then saying the Lord of hosts sent me you know why? because we're talking about the Father and the Son and we even see that clear trinity distinction of the Father and the Son and the Lord Jesus Christ talking about when he's going to dwell in the midst of the people in the millennial reign and then they're going to know they're going to know that the Father sent Jesus Christ no one's going to have any kind of doubt oh I don't know who sent Jesus or the trinity or all this no no it'll be made manifest there'll be no more guessing at that point go to Revelation 11 I'll show you one verse here and we'll finish Revelation chapter number 11 the the trinity is an esoteric doctrine no you're just an idiot the Bible teaches the trinity everywhere Old Testament and New Testament yeah when the disciples had Jesus Christ there think about this they kept when Jesus is asking Peter like who art thou he's like saying thou art the Christ thou art the Son of God why would Peter just immediately tell him that he was the Son of God if they believed in a monotheistic like only one person style view of God he already understood that there's the Son of God he was just saying you are that person he already believed in the Son of God he was just connecting the dots of the Son of God is you you are the Son of God you are that person in the trinity they were connecting him with that specific individual of the trinity it wasn't that they were confused and thinking like well who's this father and who's this son what are you talking about no no no they already there's no point where Jesus is like basically trying to explain the finer points of the trinity to him they already accept and agree with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit now again there's some people that weren't educated on the Holy Ghost and some parts of the Bible and we get that and of course the trinity was more revealed in the New Testament and I'm sure only the saved were the ones that really got a lot of that doctrine but I believe the disciples were already saved before Jesus showed up folks they were just recognizing the Messiah and of course when it talks about them believing in him a lot of that is more of the fact that they're recognizing the facts of who Jesus like they're connecting the dots that the person they believed in is that particular person okay it's not necessarily the moment that they got saved or something like that I don't think that Jesus got picked twelve disciples that were unsaved he picked one disciples unsaved was Judas and he was a devil from the beginning think about this only one was a devil from the beginning if they were all unsaved then they would all have issues at the beginning only one was a devil from the beginning and that was Judas okay now Revelation chapter 11 look at verse 15 and the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord notice this and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever so notice we have the Lord and his Christ so we have the Father and we have the Son specifically verse 16 and the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshiped God saying we give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and was and art to come because thou hast taken to thee that great power and hast reign so the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is going to come and literally and physically rule and reign on the earth and that's what it means in Romans chapter number 9 Romans chapter 11 when it says that all Israel shall be saved okay because it's saying that at that time when Christ is ruling and reigning in Jerusalem all of the saved are going to be gathered from the four winds and we're going to all come and we're going to be in Jerusalem and we're going to be ruling and reigning with Christ and all of physical Israel will be spiritual Israel once again and again it never was perfect at any time then times past but in the future there will be a one for one those who are the physical Israel will be the spiritual Israel at that time and we'll have this basically renew it and you say well I'm not physical Israel how's that going to happen you're getting a new body you're going to be resurrected and we're going to be made in his image after his likeness and we're going to be the sons of God and we are going to be physical Israel and we're going to be spiritual Israel okay this old man has already died he's already been crucified I'm getting rid of him we're going to shed him okay and we've been adopted into the family and we're going to be that physical and spiritual seed of Abraham and it's going to be father Abraham he's going to be literally our father in that sense okay but at that time of course you know we have a lot of foreshadowings here but still get confused on who the true Israel is if you're saved you're Israel and as Israel we have to submit to the Lord's will and if we do he will be a wall of fire in our lives and we need that wall of protection more than ever it's a dangerous world that we live in let us be that Israel that God wants us to be so that he is a willing participant in putting a hedge of protection around us let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for this book Zechariah chapter 2 thank you so much for being willing to protect us when we take bold stands for your word I pray that we could see through spiritual eyes the wall of fire that you would like to put around us the angels that you send into our lives to protect us I pray that we would recognize that we are the true apple of your eye and that it's important that we run the race with patience that we dedicate our lives to serving Christ and I pray that you would just help us to all be motivated to think with spiritual understanding and not with carnal understanding in Jesus' name we pray Amen All right In closing let's go to song number 236 Song number 236 No Not One Song number 236 Everybody singing out together on the first 236 There's not a friend like the Lord Jesus No not one No not one None else could heal all our souls diseases No not one No not one Jesus knows all about our struggles He will guide till the day is done There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus No not one No not one No not one No friend like him is so high and holy No not one No not one And yes a friend is so weak and lowly No not one No not one Jesus knows all about our struggles He will guide till the day is done There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus No not one No not one There's not an hour that is not near us No not one No not one No night so dark but his love can cheer us No not one No not one Jesus knows all about our struggles He will guide till the day is done There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus No not one No not one Did ever say find this friend forsake him No not one No not one Or sin or find that he would not take him No not one No not one Jesus knows all about our struggles He will guide till the day is done There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus No not one No not one Was there a gift like the Savior No not one No not one Will he refuse us a home in heaven No not one No not one Jesus knows all about our struggles He will guide till the day is done There's no friend like the lowly Jesus No not one No not one Great singing everybody, you were all dismissed you