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You You You You You Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church It's great to see everybody here tonight Once we find a seat, we'll go ahead and get started and for our first song tonight. We'll go to song number 175 Song number 175 it's just like his great love Song number 175 Song number 175 My It's just like Jesus It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day, it's just like Jesus It's just like Sometimes the clouds of trouble be dim the sky I Cannot see my savior's face. I doubt this wondrous love Mercy see beholding my And To keep me day by day, it's just like Jesus Oh It's just like When sorrows clouds or take me and break When life seems worse than useless I Take my grief to Jesus Like sunshine It's just like The clouds away, it's just like Day by day, it's just like Jesus It's just like Singing around the last All his care And when Jesus whispers Cloud It's just like It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day It's just like Great singing everybody. Let's open up the service with a word of prayer Word we love you and thank you again for allowing us to gather here on a Wednesday night and just Hear your word preached and we just thank you again for steadfast Baptist Church And we ask you to fill it with your spirit tonight and help us to sing unto you and it's in Jesus name We pray amen All right for our next song. Let's go to song number 274 Song number two seven four come unto me song number I Sing it out first Here the blessed Savior Calling the oppressed. Oh, we have elated Come to me and rest Come no longer Terry. I hear love will bear Bring me every bird Ah And trust my mind Oh Are you disappointed Wandering here and there dragging chains of doubt loaded down with do unholy feelings struggle in your breast Bring your case to Jesus He will give you rest Come unto me Rest Take my look upon you Hear me and be blessed I am meek and holy Come to me Come and trust my mind, come, my yoke is easy, and my burden's light. Stumbling on the mountains, dark with sin and shame, Stumbling toward the hell's consuming flame, Find the powers of sin deluded and depressed, Hear the tender shepherd come to me and rest, Come unto me, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, hear me and be blessed, I am meek and lowly, come and use my life, Come, my yoke is easy, and my burden's light. Have you by temptation often conquered men, Has a sense of weakness brought distress within, Christ will sanctify you if your claim is best, He will give you rest, come unto me, I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you, Hear me and be blessed, I am meek and lowly, Come and trust my mind, come, my yoke is easy, and my burden's light. Thank you for coming to Zev Pass Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high. Whenever ushers can come by, get you guys a bulletin. On the front, we have our Bible memory passage. Inside, service and soul winning times and stats. Please make sure you're sending those in to your soul winning captains. And also the maps, make sure you're marking them clearly, putting them in our bin over here in the hallway, in the done folder if they're done, or you can put them back. If you have a question, just ask me or brother Oz or one of our soul winning captains, and we can help you with those maps. On the right, we have a list of several expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them. As well as we also have a prayer list, and we like to go over that on Wednesdays. Just for the sake of the bulletin, I'm going to go through the events quickly, and then I'll come back to that. The Red Hot Preaching Conference is going to be this June, it's really this Friday, it's this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's going to be in Sacramento, California, and also there's a soul winning marathon July 6th that is going to be in San Antonio, Texas. Brother, or evangelist, Salvador, down in Pure Words is going to be help leading that, and so I'm sure we'll have a group go out. This is at least to just have it on your calendar. When we get a little closer, we'll probably have a sign up sheet for people that want a carpool, or if you want to, you're planning on going, that way we can accommodate for lunch and everything like that. Oh, I was going to say, I am preaching at the Red Hot Preaching Conference on Friday, but I will still be here on Sunday services, and if you feel like, man, I'm kind of missing out, I decided Sunday night, I'll try to preach a Red Hot sermon for you, okay? So I'll try to do my best, so, but you got to come Sunday night, all right? So, and our prayer list, we are continuing to pray for the Naeem's grandmother, and we've been praying for the Carlson's mother as well for health, Miss Miller, we've been praying for her friend Miss Tamara for cancer treatments, we've been praying for Brother Scott's nephew for heart trouble, been praying for the Garcia's, several requests there, also the Guzman's we've been praying for, his father whose health we've been praying for, Brother Oz we've been praying for, Brother Foley also for his fiance's visa, and then also someone had mentioned that the Hernandez's youngest, Micaiah, had been taken to the hospital, and so we're just praying that he'll be able to release soon as well, so we're praying for them. That's pretty much all I have as far as prayer requests, we'll just say a quick word of prayer right now, thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church, and thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting, I pray they be with them during their pregnancies, please help these members of our church that we've talked about that need health, I pray that you just please bless them, give them favor, please also just give them a speedy recovery, please give them full health and restoration, please give them peace during this difficulty, I pray that you'd also just help any church family that's out sick right now, that you'd help them to also feel better and to be fully recovered so they can get back into church, I pray that you would give favor and just your blessing on several of our church family that needs that for their jobs and for their personal lives, I pray that you'd just be with them, and please just help our church to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. That's all I have for announcements, we're gonna sing our Psalm of the Week, which it looks like, what are we on, Psalm 15? Holy, holy, holy still, okay. Holy, holy, holy. So if you have that in your handouts. All right, that was holy, holy, holy in your special handouts. Holy, holy, holy. Everybody sing it out together on the first. Holy, holy, holy. Lord God almighty. Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy. Merciful and mighty. God in three verses. Blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy. All the saints adore thee. Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. Cherubim and Seraphim falling down before thee. Which word and art, and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy. Though the darkness hide thee. Though the eye of sin open thy glory may not see. Only thou art holy. There is none beside thee. Perfect in power and love and purity. Holy, holy, holy. Lord God almighty. All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy. Merciful and mighty. God in three verses. Blessed Trinity. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 8. It's the book of Zechariah chapter number 8. piano plays softly piano plays softly piano plays softly Zechariah chapter 8, the Bible reads, Again, the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff at his hand for very age, and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, if it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in mine eyes, saith the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and in righteousness. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast, neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction, for I set all men, every one, against his neighbor. But now I will not be under the residue of this people, as in the former days, saith the Lord of hosts. For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heaven shall give their dew, and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of hosts, and I repented not. So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, fear ye not. These are the things that ye shall do. Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor, execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love the truth and peace. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for Zechariah chapter 8. Father in heaven, we thank you for Zechariah chapter 8. Father in heaven, we thank you for Zechariah chapter 8. Father in heaven, we thank you for Zechariah chapter 8. Father in heaven, we thank you for Zechariah chapter 8. Father in heaven, we thank you for Zechariah chapter 8. Father in heaven, we thank you for Zechariah chapter 8. Father in heaven, we thank you for Zechariah chapter 8. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Here in Zechariah chapter 8 in the first few verses, the Bible tells us that God is jealous. And what's interesting about that for me is, and I don't know why, it just always sticks with me, is I remember this TV production with Oprah Winfrey, and she was debating with different people, and she basically explained why she just rejects the Bible and rejects the God of the Bible, and it was specifically because it said that God was jealous. And I remember kind of this clip, obviously maybe not verbatim, but the essence was she thought that the Bible was contradictory, saying that God was sinning or doing something wrong by being jealous. And it's mentioned here, it's also mentioned in a lot of other places in the Bible, but just to give a little bit of context, in the book of Zechariah, God is generally trying to explain to the children of Israel how He's going to restore them, allow them to rebuild the temple, and so this fits in the context of the greater picture here, that God is generally jealous for Israel, jealous for this city, Jerusalem, and He wants it to be rebuilt. What is jealous, though? What does that even mean exactly? Well, let's study this from a couple different passages. Keep your finger, go to Exodus 34. Go to Exodus 34. If you look up jealous in the dictionary, you'll get a few different definitions, a few different explanations, and of course, this is what a lot of people will do to simply throw out the Bible, is they'll just look up a word in the dictionary and they'll just take one of those definitions that doesn't actually fit the scripture and then they'll essentially just discard the Bible because they're being intellectually lazy or purposely deceitful. And some definitions of jealous in the dictionary will allude to someone being envious. Well, here's the thing. Envy is a sin in the Bible. The problem is envy and jealous are not synonyms perfectly. They can be used interchangeably, especially in modern culture, but in the Bible, the Bible doesn't use the word jealous as a synonym to the word envious. It's actually different. But even in our still modern-day dictionary, here's another definition for the word jealous. Fiercely protective or vigilant of one's rights or possessions. Now, that definition fits very closely to what I believe the Bible uses this word as. Fiercely protective of your own possessions. That doesn't sound like a bad thing. And in fact, you know, she was acting as if God being jealous was a bad thing and she was blaspheming God and making him seem to be like a petty woman or a controlling, needy woman or something like that, where that is not what the Bible is saying at all about God being jealous. It's someone that's fiercely protective of their possessions. Someone that wants to defend their possessions, loves their possessions greatly, doesn't want them to be desecrated, harmed, injured, or, you know, simply to turn away from him. He wants his possessions to be his and his only. Now, in Exodus 34, look at verse 14. For thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. Now, the Bible does not skirt around the idea of God being jealous. It literally even says his name is jealous. And, specifically, it defines it here in this chapter as not worshiping another God, meaning that you are his possession. We are God's possession and, therefore, we ought not to worship another God. Go over to Proverbs 6. This is understood to us in a marriage relationship very well, in the sense that when you have a wife, you should be jealous for your wife. When you have a husband, you should be jealous for your husband, meaning that you don't want them to be with another person. You're jealous for them. You're going to be protective of them. They are your possession and not to be shared with another. For some odd reason, our culture and our society is not even being very jealous in marriage anymore. Many people are trying to break the boundaries of marriage and are trying to allow people to enter into other relationships, and they'll even call it a, quote, open marriage. It's disgusting. It's against nature. It doesn't make sense, and it shows that that person is not jealous. It actually shows that the person doesn't really love that person, because anyone who truly loves their spouse would not be okay with sharing them. It hurts them. It makes them feel gross. Now, someone that you don't really care about, someone that you don't have strong feelings towards, you may allow them to be shared or to be with other people, frankly, because you don't care about them. And they'll say this. This is what's so interesting. Open marriage people or these people that are doing these crazy weird things, they'll say, like, I love you so much to allow you to do these things. It's the exact opposite. Someone that ever suggests this or pretends like this is okay is really just illustrating that in their heart they don't truly love you, and they're not truly jealous for you. Now, in Proverbs 6, it brings this concept up a little bit. Look at verse 32. But whoso committed the adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. That's a good verse for Robert Morris, isn't it? A wound in dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. Put that in context of 1 Timothy 3, when it says that a bishop is to be blameless. But then this passage is saying that this specific reproach shall not be wiped away. That tells me that if Robert Morris commits open adultery against his wife, he shouldn't be restored back to pastoring. I mean, that just doesn't make any sense. It violates all the principles of the Bible. It says in verse 34, this is why I brought this passage up, for jealousy is the rage of a man. Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. Meaning a normal person, every normal man, if someone were to steal his possession in this way, were to transgress against him with his wife, he would be so upset, he would be so filled with jealousy towards that individual, that nothing would appease his wrath. And that makes sense. No normal man would put a price tag on his wife's head. No normal man would put any kind of compensation, reward, or gift in exchange for his wife. It is his possession and he's jealous for it. It's only his. He only wants it. And that's what the Bible is teaching. And that's a good thing. That's showing that he loves his wife. He cares for his wife. It's actually a good attribute. It says in verse 35, he will not regard any ransom. Neither will he rest content, though they'll give us many gifts. This is also saying you better be careful, because if you mess with someone else's wife, he may kill you. The only thing stopping him is practical problems. Not so much a desire. The desire is there. And if the opportunity is there, many people have been killed as a result of an affair, of an adulterous event. And so you should understand that jealousy, though, is a good thing. Even though this is obviously a negative thing that we're bringing up, and obviously that jealousy is fueling, arguably, a really bad thing, it's still a good attribute. And frankly, if we had biblical laws, if we lived in a country that was righteous, if a man caught another man with his wife, he would be legally justified to end his life. So there would still even be absolutely nothing wrong with him fulfilling out that righteous indignation, that proper jealousy. I always say I would just kill everyone, because I would just be so mad. And so this is an important thing to understand, and it should be taken seriously. Go over to Nahum Chapter 1. Oprah Winfrey is just a false prophet. And she's not saved. I don't believe she ever will get saved, unfortunately. Obviously, I don't want anyone to go to hell, but she's blasphemed Christ so many times. In fact, she argued with a lady, there's another famous clip, where she's like, I think there's many ways to heaven. Some Christian stands up, and she's like, there's only one way. And then they were mocking her and ridiculing her. But you know what? Praise God, there was at least someone that was willing to stand up on the show and rebuke that false prophet. Oh, you don't like black people. No, I don't like liars. Oh, you don't like women. Well, I liked the woman that stood up and said there was only one way to heaven. I liked her. Oh, because she's white? No, it's because she preached the truth. It's because she said what the Bible said. You know, I don't care what skin color someone has. I care about, you know what, the word of God says, and someone's saying the word of God correctly. And you know what? It's not my fault that more white people seem to be saved than any other color. Is that my fault? Is it my fault that in America, the vast majority of people that are saved just happen to seem to be white? But you know what? Nowadays, it seems like white people are the least receptive to the gospel. So who knows if that may change? Because frankly speaking, when we go out soul winning, we're all kind of like hoping it's a dark-skinned person at the door. We're kind of all hoping it's, you know, it's like brother, you know, bro or whatever, you know, bra or something. I mean, it's way more receptive. You're hoping for a Hispanic person or a black person or something like that, you know, because they're a lot more receptive. And you know what? I don't care. If all of the black people in America get saved, let's hang out with them. Let's become a black church. You know what? I don't really care. In fact, if it's all Indians, we'll have an Indian church. We won't have any fellowships, okay? But we'll be filled with people, you know. I don't want to smell that kind of food. But you know what? I'm willing to have an Indian church, okay? Because color doesn't matter. You know what matters? It's the truth of God's word. And Oprah Winfrey is a wicked false prophet. Oh, she's not a preacher. Well, you know what? They do the same things. They go on TV and they preach their messages and they explain things about heaven and hell and the afterlife. I might as well count all the people on TV as preachers. They all seem to talk about all these different things. And you know what? They're a bunch of false prophets too. You need to be careful who you're listening to. Oh, but she gives everybody a car. Well, what is a prophet if a man gains the whole world and yet loses his own soul? What does Nahum say in chapter 1, verse 2? God is jealous. Well, if you don't like that word, well, you're really not going to like God because the Bible says literally God is jealous. It says His name is jealous. You know, it's surprising to me there isn't a cult out there called the jealous witnesses or something. I call them Jehovah's false witnesses, so I almost said false there, but jealous false witnesses or something, right? Because in the Bible it says His name alone is Jehovah. It also says His name alone is excellent, so maybe we need an excellent witnesses. And then it says God is jealous. It says whose name is jealous. Well, do we need the jealous witnesses? You know, this is a silly way to interpret the Bible. But we understand, you know, the Bible says God is love. God is a lot of things. He's not limited to one thing, and a lot of people, they want to cherry pick and say He's only love or His only name is Jehovah. You know, but I never see people like His only name is excellent or He's only jealous. But, you know, we have to embrace all of it. We have to understand that God is more complex than us. This is why I really despise this theological term that's out there. It's called divine simplicity, and it's this idea to understand who God is. You have to understand that God is simple, and you have to understand the divine simplicity. I'm thinking, like, I think God's the most complex thing that we have in the universe, you know, not the most simple, the most easily understood thing. He's the most incomprehensible thing to be understood. I mean, the Bible talks about Jesus Christ as being the unspeakable gift. The Bible says that when Paul went up into heaven, he heard words which are not lawful for him to even speak. The Bible talks about Him being above us and above our ways. You know, we can't fully comprehend or understand everything about God, and we have to realize that we need an entire book just to even get a sliver of understanding of who God truly is. I mean, this is just a little bit of understanding of the infinite nature of who God truly is, the omnipotent, omnipresent, you know, creator of all the heavens and the earth. I mean, there's no way we can just boil it down and just, like, I figured it out, divine simplicity. No. He has a lot of different attributes, one of which is jealous. God is jealous, and we see this consistent throughout Genesis to Revelation that God does not ever want us to ever worship anyone but Him. He's not like, well, I know that I created you and I'm your God, but it's okay. Worship other gods. Have some fun. You know, worship some devils here and there. Worship some rocks. Worship some stones. Worship the star of Rembrandt. You know, be a Hindu. Embrace every single god. No, he says, have no other gods before me. That was, in fact, the first commandment. Did you realize the absolute first commandment is tied to exactly what we're talking about, him being jealous. God is a jealous God. He doesn't want to share us with anyone else. He wants us to only be His and to only serve and worship Him, and this is an important aspect of who God is. Going back to our chapter Zechariah, chapter 8. So when he says he's zealous for Jerusalem, when he says he's zealous for these things, what does that mean? Well, if we apply the definition that I provided for you from the dictionary, it was fiercely protective of one's possessions. That's important to understand. What does that mean? That means that specifically Zion is His possession. Jerusalem is His possession. It's not the Jews' possession. It's God's possession. People want to think, like, that land is the Jews' land. It never was their land. It never will be their land. It's God's land. And it's Jesus Christ's inheritance. It's God the Father's land that He gives to Jesus Christ by inheritance, and those who are in Christ also get to be fellow citizens and heirs of that inheritance, and we are joint heirs with Christ. So we get to inherit the kingdom of God as sons of God. But the Jews, which are not God's people and are not in Christ and are not Christ Himself and are not God, they are simply strangers. They are simply squatters, and no one likes squatters, all right? They are squatting on that land. Now, of course, at this point in time, at this point in history, these Jews are God's chosen people. These are people that are saved, many of them. They are trusting in Christ. Many of them even picture Christ. I mean, the high priest is picturing Christ Himself, and of His lineage, are we going to literally, of Zerubbabel's lineage, we are going to get Christ. And so, of course, these people at this time are God's heritage. They're coming back. God's jealous for them. God's rebuilding their city. God's rebuilding this area. And it says in verse 3, Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Now, there's so many clues in this section of Scripture to tell us that we're not talking about modern-day Israel. You want to know what one of those clues is? When it said in verse number 3, it shall be called a city of truth. Modern-day Israel, modern-day Jerusalem, modern-day Tel Aviv is not a city of truth. They are cities of filth. They are cities of debauchery. They are cities of deception and lies and evil and wickedness, and they're some of the most evil places on this planet. They are not cities of truth. It says in verse 4, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff and his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. Now, that's an interesting phrase. It really kind of stuck out to me. I don't feel like I've noticed anything like that in the Bible, but it's just funny to me because it kind of is reminiscent of what a lot of people do. They idealize the 1950s and 60s, even though almost none of us were actually alive in that period in time. But if we can think of what the world thinks of that time period, and especially what my parents and maybe your parents, other people, grandparents would have told you, is that children could literally go and just play in the front yard, in the street, in the neighborhood, just unmolested, just wild and free and just doing whatever they want, and there was no threat, no danger. People weren't locking their doors. There wasn't really any harm. Just lots of fun. And really, I think that what both of those picture, whether we're talking about what it's saying here at this time in Jerusalem, or when we think about maybe times of the past where this was more true, it's just kind of a symbol or a symptom of peace. When you live in a city that has a lot of truth, when you live in an area where there is a lot of righteousness and there's a lot of peace, then what is a result of that? A result of that is children just galloping in the streets and playing out in the front. It's kind of carefree. It's just fun because there's no threat. There's no worry. There's no anxiety. There's no predator. There's no wolf waiting on every single corner, and they can enjoy themselves. And so it's a good thing when it's an area where children can just play in the street. When you feel uncomfortable allowing them to be out there, when it's dangerous and when they're not out in the streets, that is a sign of not having peace, not having safety, not having these good things. And so God is saying you're going to have old people there. You're going to have children playing in the streets. It's just going to be a time of prosperity, a time of peace, a time of safety, which America is not experiencing right now. Of course, why? Because they're a city of truth. The more truth, the more righteousness you have, the more safety and the more peace that you have. And it's kind of frustrating because when we look at our society today, apart from just a few rare exceptions, the vast majority of America, this is not the case. It's not the case where you can just allow your children to just roam free and just play in the streets, and they're just completely safe, no worries, no threats. In fact, most of America today, it's very dangerous. It's not necessarily a wise decision. Why? Well, keep your finger to 2 Timothy 3 for a moment. Go to 2 Timothy 3. The Bible warns in the coming of Christ, when we get closer and approach the end times, that we won't have that luxury of this peace and safety and just there's no danger. What does it say in 1 Timothy 3 verse 1? This know also that in the last days, perilous times will come. That means dangerous, deadly. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. The Bible warns that as we approach the end times, as we get closer and closer to the end, the Bible warns that the culture and the society will be like this. And boy, has American culture not shifted just so much in the last 50, 60 years. And even if we were to dial it in, how about just in the last decade or so? It just seems like it's just been an escalation hyperdrive where things have just become more increasingly dangerous. These things are very evident in our society. Do you remember it was a city of truth? Notice this says truce breakers and false accusers. That's not a city of truth. That's a city of liars. Lots and lots of liars. And in fact, our country is really experiencing another one. Verse 4, traitors. Our country is filled with traitors today. Traitors and treasonous individuals who are betraying the Constitution, betraying our government, betraying the United States citizens, printing money, giving it to all kinds of yahoos, allowing all kinds of criminals to roam free, not bringing any kind of real justice in our country, in our legal system. Many unrighteous wars and military actions are happening all across this world, all across this country. Individuals like Hunter Biden are open traitors to the United States of America, and no one is doing anything about it. I mean, the guy has already been caught red-handed as an obvious and open traitor to America, being bribed by foreign governments and foreign officials, his dad even bragging about getting prosecutors fired from foreign countries for being involved with his son's business affairs. I mean, we just have open treason and open treachery in our country. We have all kinds of illegals just pouring across the border. Border agents assisting and abetting illegal immigration into our country. These people are traitors. I mean, there's no other way to word it. We are just a nation filled with traitors and all kinds of individuals who don't care about our country. Probably the worst and the one that makes me the most mad, though, is verse 5. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. You know what this says? Fake Christians. We have become a nation full of fake Christians, and it has made it where it is dangerous for children to play in the streets. It has made it dangerous for children to be alone with strangers. It has made it dangerous for children to be around ministers. I mean, how sad is it that children are more likely to be molested by a pastor than virtually any other profession in our country? What kind of country have we turned into where the vast majority of our pastors and our preachers are false prophets and are child abusers and child molesters? I mean, it's just everywhere, and they're covering up for one another. It's just sad, and it's just sick, and it just makes me so mad. Obviously, I preached about it already, the stupid Robert Morris thing just evidences again how children are not safe around all these fake Christians and how he was abused and taken advantage of. You know what makes me mad about the whole Robert Morris thing? It's not like the guy has been preaching the right gospel and preaching from a King James Bible and actually doing what the Bible says and had us all fooled and was a complete Judas. Robert Morris preaches a hardcore lordship salvation. He is a charismatic maniac. He preaches on money more than any other subject. The guy doesn't use the King James Bible. The guy is an obvious false prophet. But then we have just hordes of fake Christians filling into this guy's church and propping him up and giving him a ministry, giving him an opportunity to preach. Why? Because we just have so many fake Christians in our nation. And you know why they're fake? Because they don't love the truth. Because if you love the truth, then you would realize how fake all of that garbage is. And you know, I'm not trying to undermine anything. I feel horrible for this victim. This victim did not deserve anything that happened to her by Robert Morris. But at the same time, isn't there a little bit of accountability that her father taking their family to a fake church with fake preachers and surrounding them with a fake gospel? I mean, when you're going to surround yourself with a bunch of fake charlatan weirdos, well, it seems like you're more likely to get taken advantage of. And this is what I would love to know because especially in this specific movement, this Charismaniac movement, what they all love to tell you is how God is constantly talking to them. They're just, God told me this and God told me that and I had a vision about this and I had a vision about that. In fact, in Robert Morris' book that he wrote a while back, he explained how God orchestrated events to cause him to step down from ministry because of how prideful he was. But what actually had happened is he had molested a girl for four years and the dad threatened to turn him into the sheriff unless he stepped down and then he stepped down. So I'm supposed to believe that God orchestrated you to molest a girl to help you with your pride issue? That was a lie. And how many other preachers and how many other pastors and how many other ministers have been affiliated with Robert Morris and they're just getting all these words from God? Wouldn't you think God would have been like, hey, wink, wink, this guy's a pedophile. How can you even claim you have any discernment? I mean if you're getting special messages from God, don't you think he would recognize the pedophiles in the room and he might be able to like, hey, don't endorse this guy because he's a pedophile. In fact, all the elders of Gateway, they said, hey, if we had known this about him, we would have never wanted him to be our pastor or we wouldn't have ordained him and had him be our preacher for all this time or whatever. Well, that's funny because if you go to Gateway's website and you read about James Morris, who is his son, it says, well, Robert Morris had appointed his son to be his successor and all of the elders interviewed him and then we had three outside people interview him and he went through 39 interviews and he did three different personality tests and then it says this, and every single elder got a special confirmation from God that he was chosen as the next leader. And I'm like, well, did you all get that special word from God that Robert was supposed to be your leader? Because which one's true? Did God tell you that Robert Morris should be your leader for the last 15 years or would you have not picked him if you had had that prior knowledge that he was a pedophile? Which one? And then are you saying God didn't know he was a pedophile or God wanted the pedophile to be there against your will and God's will for those last... I mean, which one is it? But they never want to say that. They never want to say like, oh, yeah, the last 15 years when I've been telling you that God's been talking to me, I was lying the entire time. The last 20 years of me telling you about all this hocus-pocus where God's constantly just giving me all these private, special words of knowledge, they were all lies. They're not going to get up and say that. No, God's still talking to me. Well, it seems like you're not listening very well. And you know why you're not listening? Because this is God talking and you're not listening to this at all. You're listening to this and you're listening to this. What does your belly say? And what does your wallet say? This is the God that was talking to you the whole time. Well, let's pay this lady a bunch of money to not talk bad about our church. That is not the word of God speaking. That is this speaking. You know, let that mountain be cast into the depths of the sea, that mountain that they built of Gateway. I hope the whole church is destroyed. And I'm not talking about the people. I'm just talking about the organization. Let the people that are saved depart from that church and go to a real church instead of continuing to hark. But you know what? There's a problem in our nation of so many people flooding into these fake churches and a bunch of fake Christians. And you know what? It makes our country so dangerous to where our children can't play in the streets. Because being a Christian is meaningless today. In fact, the vast majority of Christians aren't even saved. The vast majority of Christians are some of the weirdest people I've ever met. The vast majority of Christians today are more likely, in my opinion, to be pro-LGBTQ than people that aren't Christian. It seems like when you go online, the non-Christians are like, these people are freaks and weirdos and I would never want them to be with my kids. And then these Christian people are like, oh, they're so lovely. You've got to love them and be merciful and kind and whatever. And it's like, what Bible are you reading? The rainbow one? You know, it's just sick how disgusting. Why? Because they're not people of truth. We're not cities of truth anymore. Because if you were a city of truth, you would recognize this is the only thing that's true anyways. You would filter out all the garbage and all the junk and all the trash that all these people keep spewing. But we have a bunch of people that have itching ears and they've turned away their ears from the knowledge of the truth. They've turned their ears away from the Word of God. They've turned away their ears from sound preaching, from biblical preaching, and they don't want that and they've heaped up to themselves pedophiles. I'm sorry, teachers. And then they get they get all offended at church. This is what they say. Oh, church is bad now. No, you're bad. It's not church that's turning out the pedophiles. It's you going to a bad church that's turning out the pedophiles. Why can't you take responsibility for going to a bad church? It's ridiculous. Go back to Zechariah Chapter 8. I was out soul winning tonight and some person's like, I used to go to Tony Evans Church, which he stepped down like a week or two ago. We don't know exactly what happened. We just know he had to step down. I hope it wasn't molesting a child and we're covering that up. I hope that wasn't the case. And I hope we're not trying to restore him or something or whatever. But again, this lady is not, you know, explaining to me how, you know, I've been going to this false prophet's church for so long. I wonder if I maybe am wrong on some things. It's like, no, no, she's right on everything. And God constantly talks to her. Oh, if God's constantly talking to you, why didn't he tell you not to go to the predator's church? I mean, how does that work? I mean, if God is constantly talking to you and telling you where to go and which car to buy and which clothes to put on, because this is what the person's telling me, it's like he's not going to tell you which church to go to? Which minister to listen to? Maybe you're just wrong, lady. And unfortunately, they are. They are wrong. And why am I preaching that to you? Well, hopefully you never go to these churches. I mean, if you quit our church, do not go to Gateway. I will be mad at you. I probably won't preach against you by name, probably. But, I mean, don't do that. I mean, look, if someone trades our church for another King James-only church, God bless them. I don't care. You don't have to come to this church to serve God. Don't go to a fake, false prophet's church, though. Don't join the Catholic church. Don't join one of these non-denominational fun sinners with Stephen Heretic or Joe Osteen or any of these weirdos and freaks. Don't go to those churches. It's not real church. Don't deceive yourself into thinking that somehow God wants you to ever go there for a second. You know, that's ridiculous. And you're not a person of truth. If you can go to a church that's not King James-only, you don't love the truth. I mean, how can you say that you love the truth when you're going to have a fake manuscript in your hand or you just have lies in your hand and you're just going to listen and harken unto lies? They don't even use the NIV anyways. They just tell stories. The five seconds they read an NIV verse, it still sucked. And that's why our kids can't play in the street because you go to fake churches. Oh, it's all these bad people. You're the bad person. Our country is filled with bad people. And that's why we have so many problems in our nation is because of these fake false prophets. False religion is what makes a place unsafe. What's the worst religion out there? That's going to be the most unsafe place to live. North Korea. So you've got to worship their leader, Kim Jong-un. Go to China where it's almost an atheistic-type country full of communism, evil, horrible. In fact, communism's main goal is to make an atheistic state. Why? Because they have to get rid of God. God brings freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Why do we not have liberty in our nation? Because the Spirit of the Lord has departed. Because we don't have any Christians that actually care about the Spirit of the Lord or what the Bible actually says and having the true Holy Spirit. It got so bad in this conversation. This lady's like, we worship two different gods. And I was like, sounds like it. It's sad. It's sad, but that is the world that we live in. And I would love to say that tomorrow our kids are going to be playing in the streets and it's going to be fun, but the Bible warns that as we get closer, it's going to get more dangerous. People are going to be more lovers of themselves, more evil. It says in verse 6, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts. So God is saying, man, if you guys are enjoying this restoration and playing in the streets and having fun, shouldn't I enjoy it even more than you guys? I'm going to embrace this even more. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. Here's another hint, hint, wink, wink. We're not talking about 1948 because the people that were brought into the nation of modern day Israel are not his people. They don't like the Bible. They're certainly not in truth and in righteousness. Tel Aviv is one of those satanic places in the world filled with debauchery. They are Sodom and Gomorrah. They are not in righteousness and in truth. Verse 9, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Let your hands be strong, even here in these days, these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. For before these days there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast, neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction, for I sent all men, everyone, against his neighbor. So in verse 10, he's making a transition and saying earlier it was just rough. Now it's going to be good. And it's important to understand this specific phrase in verse 9. Notice this, it says, towards the end of this, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid. So he's saying your hands should be strong when? When you hear the word of God in the day when the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. So we're talking about a specific time in history. We're talking about the proclamation of Cyrus and then coming back to the land and they laid that foundation in the first two years. He's saying that's the day when you're strong. That's the day when you're rejoicing. That's the day when it's good. He's not talking about 1948. We're talking about an event that already happened. So this is what's frustrating. Then people take all these verses and they'll just try to like cherry pick them and bring them into like modern day. Like, oh God, he just, see, he's jealous for this city and he's bringing us back and we're being prosperous and whatever. And it's like, no, no, in the day that the foundation was laid, but let me explain something to you. Modern day Israel doesn't even have that foundation literally because no stone was left upon another because it was already torn down. So we can't apply these prophecies that are talking from the time that that foundation was laid to now because that foundation's gone. So something changed. You know what it was? It was 70 AD. The rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ and how they were removed from that land and rejected. But there is, of course, I do believe, another prophetic understanding here. What is the foundation that was laid? None other than Jesus Christ. And what is that? That makes us strong. Hey, you know what gave us strength? It was the gospel of Jesus Christ, that foundation being laid, because we were weak, but then we became strong. And we were strong in that day. What was the day that we became strong? When we believed on Jesus Christ and that's when that foundation was laid. So we get that same picture here of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how when the foundation's laid, that's what gives us gladness, joy, strength, restoration, and that's when God becomes jealous for you because you become His possession. Before you weren't His possession, but then once you believe in Jesus, you become His child, you're His son, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That foundation's been laid. That foundation cannot be removed nor destroyed, you're in His hand and you have strength, you're gonna have gladness. And what? That the temple might be built. And of course that temple of the Lord is all of us being built together and building a habitation of God through the Spirit as Ephesians chapter number two explains. And of course we too add to this in the sense that we're supposed to build upon that foundation of Jesus Christ, not wood, hay, and stubble, but gold, silver, and precious stone. And of course then we'll receive a reward for building on that foundation. So a lot of great prophecies there. Verse 10 he brings up again how in the latter days of the first temple they were in affliction, there was a lot of bad things happening, verse 11. But now, I will not be under the residue of this people as in the former days, said the Lord of hosts. So before they were in constant uncertainty, a lot of negative things, a lot of bad things, and now he's not gonna be like that. I think that also you could look at this as the spiritual picture of once you get saved, no longer are you gonna experience any of the wrath of God. You only have the love of God. Verse 12, for the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heaven shall give their dew, and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. Hey, what happens after the foundation's laid? Fruit. Same with us. Once you get saved, what's the next step? Producing fruit, of course, right? We see in verse number 13, and it shall come to pass, that as you are accursed among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong. Now, I would love to hear Zionists explain at what point in time the children of Israel were accursed. Because that's what the Bible says, doesn't it say? And it's gonna pass that as you were accursed. So there was a point in time when Jews were accursed. When? When they rejected God, and they were scattered into all the parts of the world, and they were accursed wherever they were going. And the only people that weren't accursed were the people that were turned back unto the Lord. They became a blessing. And, of course, this is also reminiscent of the fact that Jews today that are unsaved are accursed wherever they're at. New York City is cursed because of the unsaved Jews that are there. L.A. is cursed because of the unsaved Jews that are there. Israel is cursed because of the unsaved Jews that live there. And you know what? There's unsaved Jews all over the world, and they are accursed unto all the nations and all the areas. And, in fact, they're the enemies of all men, as the Bible describes them. But if any of them got saved, and if anybody gets saved, that person's a blessing. And this is what's so funny to me is because when we talk about blessing and cursing, isn't that what they always love to go to is Genesis chapter number 12 about Abraham? And you've got to bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee. Well, you know who we should be cursing? Those who are cursed. You know who's cursed? The unsaved Jews. And you know who should be blessed? The saved Jews. Now, who's the saved Jews? Well, Romans chapter 2 tells us that he's not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. And that is us. We are the true Jews that are the saved, and we have the blessing of God wherever we go, and the unsaved Jews have the curse of God wherever they go. Sorry if you don't like that. That's what the Bible says. Verse 14. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, as I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of hosts, and I repented not, so again I have thought in these days to do well in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, fear ye not. These are the things that ye shall do. Speak ye every man the truth, to his neighbor, execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. This is the exact same list that we got in chapter 7. I'm not going to re-preach chapter 7. But God wants them to actually turn to the Lord, not just get saved, but actually do the commandments, be a person of truth, not doing evil, loving your neighbor, following all the commandments. God hates lies. God hates the false oath. This is all your fake Christians going to these fake churches, like Robert Morris' church, where he says that salvation is a total commitment. He says it's a total commitment. He says, who's the boss? He says, if God's not the boss in your life, he says, if God's not the boss in your life, he said, if you're still in charge, then you're going to go to hell. Robert Morris said, if you're making the decisions in your life, you're going to go to hell. He said, you have to completely surrender and completely make that commitment. Now here's the thing, Robert Morris explains to everybody, he got saved in 1981, in Jake's Motel, Jake's room number 12. That's when he totally surrendered. That's when he totally committed. And then in 1982, just one year later, he molested a 12-year-old girl. So I'd like to know, I'd like to know this, was that God controlling Robert Morris' life, or was he not saved in 1982? And then if he wasn't saved in 1982, or 1983, or 1984, or 1985, or 1986, while he was continually molesting this person, when did he get saved? Well let me explain something to you. Since salvation is a free gift by faith, he never got saved, and he's not saved. But when are these people going to recognize that? And I would love to know this, if this guy is not saved, then what were all those words of knowledge that all these gateway elders were having for an unsaved person? To be their pastor. Which one is it? Was Robert Morris saved in 1981, and then God was forcing him to do that for those five years? Or was he unsaved, and then still unsaved, and every time you got up and said you had a special word from God for him, you were lying. Which one is it? I know which one it is. He's not saved and you're a liar. That's what it is. But are they going to sit here and take accountability for all the times they got up? Or are they just going to be like, yeah he's bad, we moved on. Here's the next guy, God gave me a special word for him too. Liar. His son. Why is it always the son? Have you noticed that? Notice all these Charismaniacs? It's pastor and the wife. They're co-pastors. And then their son is the one that's going to take over the family, the mob family or whatever, the mafia, or church they call it, I'm sorry. I mean, cult compound, whatever you want to call it. Why do we always have these sons following in the footsteps of their father, like Hunter Biden? Maybe we should just stop ordaining sons. I'm not going to say that it's wrong because there's nothing in the Bible that says, thus say the Lord, thou shalt not ordain thy son. And someone that was ordained by their father, I'm not going to say that makes them a bad person, but at this point, we have enough pastors and enough churches. I don't think we should ever have a need to ever ordain your own son again. And you know, if my children want to become a pastor someday, I'm not going to be mad at them. I'm not even going to discourage them. I'll even train them or help them, but I will not ordain them. And if they want to, I'll say, hey, go to someone else's church and serve faithfully there. And if they think you should be ordained, then God bless you. But I want nothing to do with it because it just doesn't make sense. It doesn't look good. We have so much failure. We see so many of these people that are ordained by daddy end up turning out to be some of the worst people that have ever preached and ever pastored. And frankly speaking, show me the great preacher of the past that was ordained by daddy. It's just not a good look. It doesn't make sense. There's too much bias. And the false prophets are just doing this in droves. Why? Because they have a bunch of secrets and it's not sincere and it's fake. There was something else that I had seen. I'll finish this chapter in a second. There's something else I had seen. So I grew up in this circle with Robert Morris and there was another pastor that had been a pastor of mine at some point in this. His name was Steven LeBlanc and he had pastored at Trinity Fellowship Church, the church that I was at temporarily and then he got removed for being prideful, whatever that means. And then he went to the Shady Grove Church where Robert Morris was and then when Robert Morris started Gateway, he followed him to that church too. And this is what... And Steven LeBlanc, he said... He had a public interview where he released it like today or yesterday explaining all this stuff and he was calling Morris a pedophile, which I congratulate him on that. But he was saying this. He said while he was at Gateway, he had caught one of the employees because he's a pastor. There's tons of pastors, tons of employees at Gateway, of course. He caught one of the employees sleeping with multiple women and it was a security guard. And he said this young security guard who was not married was just having constant relationship with all these women and he went to Tom Lane, who was one of the main pastors there and I know him as well. He went to Tom Lane and said, this guy on our staff is doing this. He's having constant relationships that are inappropriate and Tom Lane said, fire the guy. He said, of course. He said he didn't know who it was, though. He just brought up the scenario and he was like, well, fire the guy. So he walks into the security guy's office. I'm just retelling his story. He walks into the security guy's office and he says, hey, sorry, we're going to have to let you go. You're doing these things. It's not appropriate. He said the guy just laughed in his face and he said, I'm not going to be fired. And then he said the next day, Tom Lane came to him and he was like, oh, sorry, I didn't understand who you were talking about. Yeah, we're not going to do that whatsoever. You know, that's not how we're going to handle this. And then he said he quit. He just quit the church. He's just like, but it's like how does a random security guard just get to get away with whatever he wants? You kind of have to ask this question. What kind of tapes does that security guard have? And you got to have to wonder, like, why is it that these churches are so tight-knit and it's like their son, son-in-law, cousin, uncle, and brother are all the directors and elders and pastors and whatever and they have to keep it so close into the family all the time. You kind of wonder, like, what do they got hiding? You know, and of course, think about it, you want that because if someone ends up ratting, their whole life is newt because now all their cousins and their brothers and their sisters and their mom and their dad, like everybody's family is ruined, the whole family is ruined. They've lost their job. They've lost their career. And I mean, if you're the son of Robert Morris, you're probably bringing in a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. You've got a cush job. You can do whatever you want. You get to just travel the world. You're just living it up. So what is it to just keep sweeping things under the rug and pretending like nothing bad is happening? You know, these churches are bad. Bad structure. Nepotism is bad. You know, Greg Locke is no different. You know, Greg Locke was recently ordained as an apostle. I don't know when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ, but he'll see him at some point. But it was so funny to me because not only did he get ordained as an apostle, his wife did too. The wife who, oh, by the way, was the secretary at his previous church that he was committing adultery with. So he commits adultery with the secretary, runs off, starts a non-King James only, non-fundamental, Charismaniac church, and then magically they get ordained both as apostles. God called them from these words of faith. Hey, these Charismaniacs are wicked as hell. They're of the devil. And you know, Greg Locke's hanging out with people like Isaiah Saladbar and all these other weirdos. The Saladbar guy that said when he got saved there was like dirt coming out of his eyes and he was screaming profanity at God. That guy. When's the last time somebody had dirt coming out of their eyes when you got them saved at the door? Or they were screaming profanities at God, saying, I don't want to get saved. That's weird. I would think that would be the common experience. You know, these churches are just so disgusting and so fake and just so frustrating how so many people go to them. You know, I get mad at this, and I will continue getting mad at this, when you knock on someone's door and you're like, where do you go to church, gateway? Do not say, well, I don't want to take you from a good church. Don't say that. Say like, oh, you go to the pedophile's church. I would way rather you say that. Let's finish this chapter, verse 18. And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feast. Therefore, love the truth and peace. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Now, this last section, I think, gets abused a lot, especially by Jews, and they'll kind of pretend like, Oh, yeah, everybody loves us, and everybody wants to follow our lead and follow us to Jerusalem. Well, I want to explain what this is meaning. Go over to Acts, chapter number 2. Here's another thing. It said grab him by the skirt, right? Normally, I'm thinking like grab him by the horns, but it says, shall take hold of the skirt of him. Skirt can mean a couple different things. We almost exclusively use that word to talk about a female garment that's like the lower half of the body, but the skirt is simply the edge of a garment too. So, you know, I'm not wearing a coat right now, but if I was wearing a coat and someone just grabbed the edge of my coat, that would be grabbing me by the skirt. So that's what that is referring to is someone just grabbing the edge of their coat or their cloak, just like, you know, and it's not even necessarily the bottom. It could be just grabbing them by the, you know, just grabbing them by the coat, just being like, hey, grab, let me go with you. And this happens all the time. Someone's just grabbing you by the shirt collar and just being like, hey, I want to go with you. It's just meaning that they're like really zealous, and they just really want to go with this person. Well, I believe that this is fulfilled in those 500 approximate years from this time all the way up until the 70 AD period, where if you wanted to worship God, if you wanted to serve the Lord, what were you going to do? You were going to follow the Jews to Jerusalem, and that's where God is, and that's where God was worshiped. Now, to evidence this, I believe that Acts chapter number two shows you how that was a common practice during this time. Look at verse number five. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now, when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how here we, every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? If you don't speak Hebrew as your native language, that means you weren't born a Hebrew. I don't know if this is rocket science or something, but your first language is where you were raised. Right? So we call people in America ESL, English as a Second Language. That's what that stands for, meaning they weren't born in America with English-speaking parents. They could have potentially been born in America, because there are a few foreigners that don't speak English still, but the vast majority of ESL are born out of the country speaking another language. They're not Americans, okay? These people are not Jews from a regional perspective. They were men that were born in other countries. They were Gentiles that were born with other languages, and they became a Jew, okay? Let me prove that even further. It says in verse number nine, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers at Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews, and notice this word, and proselytes. What's a proselyte? That is a convert to a religion. So when it talks about Jews dwelling here, it's not talking about an ethnic group of people. It is talking about a religious group of people, and what is that religion? It is the true religion of God, and these people were seeking the true God of the Bible and had converted to the true religion of God, but they were not born Jews. They were not of the 12 tribes of Israel. They were from, you know, media, or from Mesopotamia, or from Cappadocia, or from Asia, or from Egypt. They were from all over. It's just like today, where if we looked at this room, we're not all from the same areas. We're from all different parts of the world, and we're Jews, but not ethnically. I don't think anybody here is an ethnic Jew. If you are, Jacob doesn't like, no, I'm just kidding. It wouldn't even matter if you're an ethnic Jew. It's meaningless. God bless you. In fact, you're a rare, you're our token Jew friend, okay? But even if you were, it wouldn't matter, because we're all here as spiritual Jews, and so what is the Bible describing? It was describing that process of how for the next 500 years or so, people that want to worship God, they're going to be grabbing Jews and following them to Jerusalem, and probably what? Converting to the religion of the Jews at that point. So let me further that one more place. Go to John chapter 4. I want to just illustrate that point a little bit further. What we're not talking about today is Christ-rejecting, God-hating Steinbergs and Goldbergs and whatever, Coleman's and Kaufman's and all these other Jews that hate God, Sandler's and whatever, that we're going to all grab their skirts and follow them to Jerusalem. That is not what the Bible is teaching at all. It's talking about this period in time where God's blessing the children of Israel, blessing the Jews, and this is where you find God, this is where you find salvation. You might get mad like, church isn't right next to my house. Well, how about when you lived in a world where you had to go all the way to Jerusalem? What if you lived in Libya and you don't have an air conditioning car to drive you there and you wanted to serve God? You would have to walk, have a lot less obesity in our country. I'll tell you that. John chapter 4, look at verse 21. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Notice He's saying, hey, you guys that are worshiping outside Jerusalem, you don't even know what you're worshiping. The only salvation at this point in time is of the Jews. Now, there's coming a day when it's going to be spread abroad, but right now, where is it? Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jews. So during this point in human history, those who wanted to serve the God of the Bible, what were they doing? They were grabbing hold the skirt of a Jew. They were grabbing by the shirt, hey, take me to Jerusalem with you. I want to worship the God of the Bible. And they were coming from all over. And some of them were saved, I'm sure. Many of them were probably saved. You know, part of the New Testament was not just getting people saved, but it was also taking the people that were saved and just revealing unto them that the Christ that they had believed in was the Jesus that had already come. You know, it wasn't like the disciples needed to get saved. They were recognizing the Savior they already believed in. They said, we have found the Messiahs. You know why you found something? You were looking for it. They were already looking for the Messiah that they had already believed in. It was just connecting the dots of that's the guy that I was believing in. Just like some day in the future, we're going to connect the dots and we're going to see him face to face. And we're going to be like, that's the guy that we believed in. Not all the faggoty pictures of the Catholic Church true. Not the black Jesus, I'm sorry, not to hurt your feelings. Not the Asian Jesus, and probably not the snow white Jesus either, okay? He's going to have eyes aflame of fire, alright? And hair that's white and he's going to be so brilliant it's going to be hard to even look at anyways. But at the end of the day, I think that this passage is clear being fulfilled here. I think there's one other application. It's probably also going to happen in the millennial reign where we're in Jerusalem, we're the true Jews, we're the inhabitants of Jerusalem and we're going to go out into the nations and ruling over the nations and the people that want to serve Jesus are going to grab us by the skirt of our garment and say, hey, I want to follow you to see Jesus and to worship God and that's who's going to follow. It's definitely not 1948. It's definitely not modern day Israel. If you want to worship God, don't drag your buddy to Israel, drag him to Steadfast Baptist Church, okay? Don't drag him to Gateway where they have messianic services. Yes, they have Jews there doing Jew things. I'm shocked. Don't go there, go to Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the New Testament and giving us an opportunity to convert and to be in the right religion and to the religion of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that we wouldn't get tricked by a fake Jewish religion, by false doctrine, by fake Christians and even though we may live in dangerous times, I pray that you would just help give us discernment and wisdom so that we could avoid these people. Please give us protection. Please help us to also be a bright and shining light that we could pull many people away from all of the evils and the wiles of the devil and all the deceivers and all the evil seducers out there and that we could bring more people back into the fold. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, in closing, let's go to song number 261. Song number 261, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Song number 261. Everybody sing it out together on the first. Oh soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. There's a light for a look at the Savior and life for abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, the fool and his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Through death and to life everlasting, he passed and we followed him there. Over us and no more have dominion for more than commerce beyond. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, the fool and his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. His words shall not fail you, he promised. Believe him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying, his perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, the fool and his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Great singing everybody, you are all dismissed.