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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 Good evening everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you can all find your seats, go ahead and get this evening started. Good evening, songs off. Song number 309, Dare to be a Daniel. Song number 309, Dare to be a Daniel. Song 309, Dare to be a Daniel. Sing it all out together. Standing on a purpose, true, heeding God's command. Honor them, the faithful few, all hail to Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Many mighty men are lost, daring not to stand. Who forgot, had been a host by joining Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Many giants, great and tall, stalking through the land. Headlocked to the earth would fall if met by Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Hold the gospel banner high, on to victory grand. Satan and his host defy and shout for Daniel's band. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Great singing, everybody. Let's go ahead and just go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this church. We thank you for Pastor Shelley and his family and everyone that's gathered here today. Please fill him with your Holy Spirit, Lord God, and help us to all leave the service, better Christians, for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, next up we have song number 314, just a couple pages over. More Love to Thee. Song 314, More Love to Thee. Song 314, sing it all together. More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee. Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. Once earthly joy I crave sought peace and rest. Now Thee alone I see give what is best. This all my prayer shall be. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. Best sorrow to its worth, send grief and pain. Sweet are Thy messengers, sweet their refrain. When they can sing with me, more love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. This shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise. This be thy parting cry, my heart shall raise. This still its prayer shall be. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. Thanks for coming to Setvast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high. One of our ushers come by and get you one. We're working on Psalm 59, verse number 8. Any kids 18 and under can quote the verse of the week. You can get an ice cream treat on the inside. We have our service. Soul winning times as well as our church stats. On the right is a list of expecting ladies. We have several who are there on the list. Please make sure you're praying for all of our expecting ladies. Also, before I get to our prayer list, our upcoming events. July 6th, which is not that far away, there's a soul winning marathon in San Antonio, Texas. It's going to be led by evangelist Salvador Alvarez at Pure Words Baptist Church and a group that's going out there. So if you'd like to support them, you can. Make sure to indicate on our sign up sheet if you are planning on trying to carpool, you need a ride or something like that. And we'll try to make sure that we have all of those accommodations. But you probably need to sign up by Sunday if you want to do church transportation of any means. That way we can make sure that we're going to accommodate all those who are planning on attending. Also, we're going to go through our prayer list. We've been continuing to pray for the name's grandmother for her vision, health, and salvation. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother, Ms. Rebecca, for her health. We've been praying for Ms. Miller's friend, Tamara, for cancer. We've been praying for the Scott's nephew, Mark, for his heart trouble. We've been praying for the Garcia's daughter, who's also pregnant. And we've been praying for Brother Oz. And we've been praying for Brother Foley for his fiancé's visa. So that's exciting as well. That's pretty much all I have as far as the prayer requests that are here in the bulletin. We'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church and this evening. Thank you so much for all these ladies that go to our church who are expecting. I pray that you please be with them during this pregnancy. Please help their children's development. I pray, if possible, just give them the easiest delivery. And I pray that you would also just help our church family that's struggling with illness or with sickness. Please help them have a speedy recovery and bring them back into the church. I pray also that you would help give favor and blessing and health to our loved ones and our family members and our friends who are also struggling with health concerns that we're praying for. Please also give us opportunity to preach the gospel to them and to give them an opportunity to be saved. And I pray that you would also just give favor and blessing to our church family where they need it. And I pray that you would just help use our church to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to go ahead and sing our special song of the week, Where the Spirit Blows. If you can get out your handouts, it makes it a lot easier. Where the Spirit Blows. If you know it, sing it out nice and loud. All right. Where the Spirit Blows. Let's sing it all nice and loud all together. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. Go, go, go. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. Yellow and brown to every town. Not just the Jews. Let's go in twos. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. Go, go, go. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. Father, Spirit, Son, these three are one. Holy Trinity, always with me. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. Go, go, go. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. We rise and fell. Stand, rise to hell. But He arose, thrashing our foes. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. Go, go, go. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. He heals the lame. Crawl on His name. Faith on his face. And He's the grace. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. Go, go, go. Where the Spirit Blows. We will go. Great singing, everybody. If you could turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter number nine. Zechariah chapter number nine. Zechariah chapter number nine. Zechariah chapter number nine. The Bible reads, The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrak and Damascus shall be the rest thereof, when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. And Hamath also shall border thereby, Tyrus and Zidon, though it be very wise, and Tyrus did build herself as stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust and find gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and He will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire. Ashkelon shall see it and fear. Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful, and Ekron for her expectation shall be ashamed. And the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth and his abominations from between his teeth. But he that remaineth, even he shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah and Ekron as a Jebusite. And I will camp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth, and no oppressor shall pass through them any more. For now have I seen with mine eyes. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ekron, and the horse from Jerusalem. And the battle-bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace unto the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee, when I have bent Judah for me, filled with the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning, and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts shall defend them, and they shall devour and subdue the slings with slings stones, and they shall drink and make a noise as through wine, and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of their altar. And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people, for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Corn shall make the young man cheerful, and you wine the maids. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this church. Thank you for the King James Bible. Thank you for Pastor Shelley. And I just pray that you'd bless him and fill him with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preached unto us, and soften our hearts to hear your word, and apply it to our lives. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Zechariah chapter 9 is an interesting chapter, and if we kind of think about chapter number 8, where we kind of left off, it kind of left off with the idea of people seeking the Lord, coming back to him, grabbing the skirt of him that is a Jew, and coming back to the land. And I kind of talked about that a little bit being a picture of just the next several hundred years of history, and a fulfillment of that being in the book of Acts, where we see certain men coming from all over the world with all kinds of different tongues, and they were gathering together in Jerusalem, and many of them were proselytes. So we see that a lot of people, if they were seeking God during this time in history, they were going to Jerusalem. That's where the true God of the Bible, and the true faith, and the true religion was at that time. Additionally, there's very likely a millennial reign aspect of that as well, where we see during the millennial reign, the children of Israel are all going to be saved, and so all Israel shall be saved, as Romans chapter 11 famously says, and those who are seeking the God of the Bible will again once need to travel to the Promised Land, travel to Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ will be literally ruling and reigning from for a thousand years. Now that's under attack today. There's a lot of different views out there that attack what we know as a pre-millennial position. Pre-millennial viewpoint that we hold to is the fact that the millennial reign of Christ has not begun yet, and that there will be a thousand year reign. There's a few different views out there. Preterism is an idea that everything in the Bible has already happened, and then there's another view that's called amillennialism. Ah, in front of something is basically the lack of belief in something, so like atheist is the lack of belief in a theist or a theism or a God, so that's what atheism is. And when it comes to specifically amillennialism, it's just the rejection of the millennial reign of Christ, and they basically spiritualize it. They just say, well, there's a spiritual millennial reign of Christ, and we go through these things. Then there's another view called post-millennialism, which is really silly, because they'll say we're going through the millennium, or the millennium's already happened, so there's a couple variations there. One's at least honest with the word, because what the word millennial means is a thousand. So if we're post-millennial, well, we're past a thousand years from when Christ went back up into heaven, so it'd be hard to believe that you're currently in the post-millennial, or in the millennial reign of Christ, but there are weirdos out there. There are cult fringe weirdos who believe that we're currently going through the millennial reign of Christ. It's kind of hard to think that Satan is bound in hell right now, right? I mean, you know, according to the millennial reign, the devil is bound in hell, and he's not going out and tempting the nations and deceiving the nations. Right now we're living in a time of prosperity and peace with Christ, and just, you know, every thing is just joy. What a silly viewpoint of the Bible, right? But there are losers out there that believe that, so I say loser because I'm thinking of a specific person, but I'm sure most of them are anyways, all right? Now, I just wanted to at least give you a little bit of that, and help you while we're going through, I'm often going to refer to the millennial reign, and I don't want you to be confused as to what we're talking about. We're talking about a thousand year period of time where Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning on the earth physically, and that is not going to happen until the man of sin is revealed, until there's a great falling away from truth, and until we have that seven year period of time that the book of Revelation details explicitly. Some people say like, oh, Daniel's 70th week's already happened. You don't even need the book of Daniel to believe in a seven year future period of time, because the book of Revelation clearly outlines 42 months, and it outlines all the different events that are going to happen, and it details out all of the sequence of events. Daniel is kind of just telling you all these events in a more cryptic, mysterious way. Revelation is revealing unto us exactly what's going to happen, and it's very clear. But a lot of people, they kind of reject the book of Revelation, and they want to go to cryptic passages in Zechariah and other Old Testament prophecies to basically teach all kinds of shady, weird doctrines, teach things about 1948 being a fulfillment of end times Bible prophecy, and that the Jews have returned back to the land, and they're God's chosen people, and we need to allow them to set up sacrifices. And look, it's important to know these things because I believe that it seems likely that some of these things could happen in our lifetime, or we see even more talk about sacrifices happening in Israel, rebuilding a temple, and just all the different political conflict that's going on in our world. Christians are supposed to be watching. You don't have this excuse of like, well, that's boring to me. Well, you know what? Then you're disregarding what Christ literally told you because Christ told you to watch and to pay attention and to not be asleep and to not just go and party and have fun, but rather pay attention to things of Christ so they won't overtake you as a thief in the night, okay? So you won't be unaware, so you won't be drinking and partying with the wicked and the hypocrites and everything like that. So it's important to know these topics. Now, Zechariah 9, this chapter, I'm just going to throw it out there as a hard chapter, okay? It's a very difficult subject matter, and I can't explain very much of this in a short period of time, so if you really want to, there's so much more that you can research on your own. But I do want to go through a little bit of the history of what's going on in this chapter with the Bible, so maybe you'll have a sense of what's going on. But what I'm going to be talking about is very difficult, very, I don't want to use this word, but it's information that's not necessarily readily available. It's information that you may have to research and study and think about history and all these kind of different things to get a good grasp on. So if you feel like I don't really, I have a hard time understanding everything in this chapter, don't worry, that's everyone, okay? But at the same time, it's a Bible study, we're in this chapter, we might as well talk about what's going on, alright? Now, let's start here in verse 1, it says, The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrak and Damascus shall be the rest thereof, when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. Now, here's something that's already hard, the word Hadrak is only mentioned in the Bible once and we just read it, okay? But I believe that Hadrak is just generally talking about this particular geography that we have in the world. We talk about Damascus. Damascus is part of Syria, the Assyrian Empire, Samaria, that northern part where the northern kingdom of Israel used to be. And then additionally it's going to kind of talk about all the way to the coastline. Now it brings it up here in verse 2, And Hamath also shall border thereby Tyrus and Zidane, though it be very wise. And Tyrus did build herself a stronghold and heaped up silver as the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Now, essentially just talking about this northern portion of Israel above Jerusalem, above Judah, but it's no longer Israel. It was conquered a long time ago and discarded and so it turned into Samaria. We have Damascus. Towards the ocean, or not the ocean, but the Mediterranean Sea, we have specifically a couple port cities, Sidon and Tyre. Now, here's the thing about Tyre. It's mentioned a lot in the Bible, okay? And I just want to kind of give you an overview of what's going on in Tyre, but keep your finger here and go to Ezekiel 26 for a moment. Okay, go to Ezekiel chapter 26. Now, I'm going to teach you two things. Number one, I'm going to teach you history, and then number two, I'm going to teach you my personal interpretation of the book of Ezekiel. So, I can't say like 100% dogmatic this is exactly how to interpret the book of Ezekiel, but I feel confident that what I'm saying is I do believe that this is what literally happened, okay? So, I just want you to take that with a grain of salt, but I do believe this is what the Bible is clearly teaching. Now, Ezekiel 26, 27, and 28 outline a lot of information about Tyre specifically. Let's get an idea of where we are in time, okay? In the book of Ezekiel, the children of Israel have been taken captive into Babylon. Jerusalem has not been destroyed yet, but Nebuchadnezzar has been coming and basically taking over certain parts on some of his conquests. He took some of the children of Israel back with him, and eventually he's going to end up destroying Jerusalem. But he's also going to destroy other areas that have not yet been destroyed. When we look at the book of Zechariah, we're fast forwarding, you know, probably another 80 to 100 years in time from when Ezekiel was written, okay? And essentially this is past the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity. They've already come back and they've started rebuilding the temple. That's important to think about when we think about Tyre, because in this prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 26, this has not happened what we're about to read, but it has happened in the book of Zechariah, okay? Look what it says in verse 1. And it came to pass in the 11th year and the first day of the month that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, because that Tyrus has set against Jerusalem, aha, she is broken. That was the gates of the people. She has turned unto me. I shall be replenished. Now she has laid waste. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causes its waves to come up, and they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil to the nations. So, some people, you know, are excited about the destruction of Jerusalem, and why is Tyre, or Tyrus, excited about the destruction of Jerusalem? Because they're saying, oh, look, when they get destroyed, we're gonna benefit. All the natural resources, all of its goods, a lot of its wealth, some of its people are gonna come to us, and it's gonna make us prosper. Now this makes me think of a scenario that somebody could have this idea of like a nearby church failing, and then a church being excited, thinking like, oh, we might get their members or something. You know, that's a wicked attitude if it was a good church, okay? Obviously, if it was Robert Morris' church, let that thing burn, okay? But, you know, if we're talking about a good Baptist church that loved God, if they got destroyed, it would be a wicked attitude to think positively of that because of what you may benefit from that. And so it's basically tires looking down at Jerusalem and saying, oh, this is great that they're destroyed because we are gonna reap carnally and benefit from their destruction specifically. Now when it comes to this, it may be, of course Ezekiel covers a lot of time, it may be when this is written, Jerusalem had recently been destroyed. It doesn't really matter for the sake of what we're talking about. But it says in verse 6, and her daughters, which are in the field, shall be slain by the sword, and they shall know that I am the Lord. For thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north, with horses and with chariots and with horsemen and companies and much people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field, and he shall make a fort against thee and cast a mount against thee and lift up the buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. And by reason of the abundance of his horses, there dost shall cover thee, thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen and of the wheels and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. Now, for the sake of time, I'm not going to read all of this, but if you read the rest of this chapter, it basically is just continuing this thought of just the terror that Nebuchadrezzar or Nebuchadnezzar is going to pour upon the city of Tyre. Now, Tyre was situated up against the sea, and then they had a great wall that basically protected them. We know this from history, okay? From history, of course, Tyre used to be a port city up against the Mediterranean Sea, had a huge wall, and they were sieged, I believe, if I remember correctly, it was 13 years by Nebuchadnezzar. Forgive me if I got that detail wrong, but essentially Nebuchadnezzar came against the city of Tyre, and they thought they could never be destroyed. They thought no one could breach this wall. They thought they were going to be secure, and they were wrong. Nebuchadnezzar defeated them and destroyed them and threw them in the sea and their whole city and just burned the whole city to the ground and just made it basically a trash heap. So that happened in history, and the city lay desolate for a while. But what happened is, I guess some of the leftovers or other other people decided to rebuild Tyre, but they didn't rebuild Tyre where it was. In fact, there's a little tiny island just right off of their particular coast, and they said, you know what? If we build our city there, no one will be able to get us because essentially they'd had, you know, kind of situated along some topography and geography that was going to make it virtually impossible to get to unless you went by ship. And because you have a disadvantage coming across and ship, they felt like they were basically going to be able to always be fortified. So they rebuilt Tyre on this little island section, and this is where we have Tyre for a long period of time. This is what's interesting. We read Ezekiel 26, and we didn't read the whole chapter, but for the sake of time, it's the same thing. It's destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar is going to just lay it to the ground. It's not going to be inhabited. Now let's read chapter 27, verse number 1. I want to read one of the verse before I get there. Let's read verse 14 of chapter 26. I will make thee like the top of a rock. Thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon. Thou shalt be built no more, for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God. That's an important verse. He's saying, you're going to be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and then once you're destroyed, you'll never be rebuilt ever again. Okay. Then in Ezekiel 27, it says in verse 1, the word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Now thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus, and say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, thus saith the Lord God, O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Thy boarders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty. Now this is what I want to point out. History says that Tyre was a city up against the sea coast and had a big wall, Nebuchadnezzar came, destroyed it, made it desolate, and it's never been rebuilt. History then says that Tyre then rebuilt their city on a small island that was right off of that coast, and we have here in the Bible, we have the exact same story. Nebuchadnezzar came against Tyre, laid it desolate, not rebuilt, but then notice in chapter 27, it says in verse number 4, thy boarders are in the midst of the seas. So we're not talking about something that has one border as the sea and a wall. It's saying all your boarders are in the midst of the sea. That sounds like an island, which to me is referencing some future event, right? Hey, you're going to be destroyed, and then let me tell you, oh yeah, you're going to be destroyed again. And another time when you're built where you have the border as being thy seas. Nebuchadnezzar didn't destroy Tyre when it was in this island, Sittuit essentially as an island with the borders being all the seas. That did not happen, okay? So I believe this is talking about another event that's going to happen in the future, okay? Now, I want to keep reading. Go to Ezekiel 28, though. Ezekiel 27, if we kept reading, it's basically just going to talk about how great Tyre is, just how beautiful it is and how it has all the merchants and how it has all this merchandise and how it has all this money. And honestly, what's really interesting about Tyre is it reminds me of another place called America or Babylon, because they're very similar in the Bible. They're known as being a city that is impenetrable, has the greatest defenses, is the richest area in the entire world that's basically not capable of being destroyed, but then yet God brings these terrible kings to come and destroy it. Now, I'm going to give you a little bit more history here for a second, but think about this. Who destroys Tyre? Nebuchadnezzar, okay? And Nebuchadnezzar is a type or a figure of the Antichrist. Well, a little bit further in the future, someone else is going to destroy Tyre again, and that is Alexander the Great, who is also another type of what? The Antichrist. And both of these men are prophesied in the Book of Daniel as being figures that kind of foreshadow that coming Antichrist and Beast Kingdom, and they both lay Babylon, Tyre, whatever you want to call it, America, they lay it desolate. Now, what was interesting is, again, Tyre thought that it could never be destroyed once it got into the sea, but this is what Alexander the Great got so pissed off that they thought that they couldn't be destroyed that he's like, I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to figure out a way. So what he ended up doing is he started creating a man-made bridge that would literally go from the coastline all the way under this island that they could walk across, and it's called a mole, okay? And so they just took a bunch of just refuse, just like trees and just all kinds of stuff, and they literally just started creating this man-made land bridge that they could walk out across with their armies and just literally march into Tyre because they had the troops to win. It was just the fact that they couldn't get over there with the ships, necessarily. So they started building this mole, and when they got really close to constructing it or being finished with it, Tyre built a huge, I think it's called a barrage or whatever. They basically built this huge boat that they just sent right through the middle of this mole and just kind of destroyed it, and so they basically just kind of stopped the project. Well, then they were like, all right, mole number two. So then they started rebuilding, and I think once they got close to having it completed, they were close enough to send catapults and arrows, but they also had built an entire naval fleet, and then they flanked them, and they sent the ships on simultaneously, and guess what Alexander the Great did? He destroyed Tyre. He just laid it completely desolate, and it was doomed and destroyed by Alexander the Great, and this happened in 332 B.C., okay? Now, I want to read Ezekiel 28. Look at verse one. The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. Notice again, in verse number one, it says that they're sitting in the midst of the seas. This doesn't sound like the first Tyre that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. This sounds like that second Tyre that was literally in the midst of the seas. Verse number three. Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that they can hide from thee. With thy wisdom and with thy understanding, thou has gotten thee riches and has gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God. Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Notice again, he's saying, you're going to die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. I don't know exactly what that means, and I'm not a historical genius or anything like that. I'm not a history buff, but if I were to think about someone dying a death in the midst of the seas, I'd think of someone drowning, basically being thrown into the sea and dying out in the sea. Sounds like it's probably logical that a lot of these Greeks threw a bunch of these, I don't know if you can call them tyrants, I don't know how you call these people, those of Tyre into the sea, and they died a similar death of drowning. They basically just sent them out there, they died, or they just killed them, and then threw their dead bodies into the sea, which definitely happened according to history. Verse 9, Wilt thou yet say before him that slay thee, I am God? But thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hands of strangers. For I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Now again, I'm not going to read the rest of this. He kind of transitions into the devil now, and this being the seat of the devil, and that the devil is kind of in control of this particular part of the world at that time. That's interesting, because it seems like throughout history, if we were to look at the seat of power where the devil is situate in the world, it always seems to be this Babylonian kingdom, or this kingdom that essentially is representing what we would think of as a Babylonian-type kingdom. And similarly, you know, I believe in America, you know, we kind of are ruling over the nations of the world. We're the most prideful. We're the most rich. We have the most money. I don't think that the seat of Satan is in America. I would be open to things like Jerusalem and Israel as well. But generally speaking, I mean, we have to understand that America is a very influential place in this world, and it could be likely that this is literally the devil's seat, and that the devil is using our country to pour out all kinds of evil and filth in this world. And just because America has endless riches and endless money and the greatest military and we're geographically separated from all these other nations does not mean that God can't send someone to destroy us. When we get prideful and we think we can't be touched, that's just when God would love to show us how we're a man and not a god, how we're not these untouchable elites that can't be affected by a foreign military or a foreign government. No, America is just as in much danger as those in the Middle East today. And you know what? We need to be right with God. If our country and nation wanted to be preserved and wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to be destroyed by a foreign entity, we have to make sure that we're right with God, not be, oh, well, we're situated in the seas, or, oh, we have a great military, or we have enough money to buy our way out of this situation. We'll tire out all the money in the world. They couldn't buy anybody off. They couldn't defeat Alexander the Great. And you know what? This is just a testimony of the fact that we need to be right with God, not accumulating wealth, riches, having the best security. You know, I'd rather be right with God and leave the doors unlocked in my house than have all the greatest security you could think of and be sinning grievously against God. Because if God wants you to get you, He can get you. And it's more important to be right with God than think that you've heaped up enough treasure, enough money, enough wealth, enough strength to stave off the enemy because God can bring all kinds of evil that you never even thought about. If we go back to Zechariah, chapter 9, I just want to point out what I just covered quickly. So, notice what it said again in verse number 2. And Hamath also shall border there by Tyrus and Zidane, though it be very wise. That's reminiscent of what we just read in Ezekiel 28, how they're such a wise city. And Tyrus did build herself a stronghold. Well, it did build itself a stronghold in that island that I'm talking about. And heaped up silver as the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Of course, Tyre was an exceedingly wealthy city. Verse 4, behold, the Lord will cast her out and He will smite her power in the sea and she shall be devoured with fire. Now, Alexander the Great wanted to go into Egypt, and so he was sending all of his troops down. Well, you kind of start in the north section, obviously, where you have Tyre and Zidane, and they're marching down. Well, to get to Egypt when you're in Tyre and Zidane, who do you pass through? You pass through Gaza. You pass through that Gaza Strip, and that's what we've known as the Philistines in books of the Bible like the Kings and the Chronicles and the Times of David and all the times prior to. That area was the land of the Philistines, and many of the Philistine cities are being mentioned here. Ashkelon, what is that? Verse 5, Ashkelon shall see it and fear. Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful. And Ekron, for her expectation, shall be ashamed. And the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited, and a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. So after they saw the destruction of Tyre, well, all these other cities are terrified now because they know, like, well, Tyre was way stronger and way better than us, and they just got nuked off of the planet. Well, we have no hope. And, of course, they didn't. Of course, Alexander the Great just went sweeping right through Gaza and destroyed all of these areas. Now, this time period in history would also be known as a Hellenization time period, where essentially the Greek Empire, as it was expanding its reach and going across the world, well, in its trails, those who were left behind would be, quote, Hellenized, and that's where Greek culture started to permeate this entire part of the world. Now, what's interesting about this to me is obviously Alexander the Great was a bad person. History tells us he was a raging sodomite, this very vicious, evil, wicked person. He died in his youth. But at the same time, you know, Greek is a pretty important thing because the Greek language is now going to dominate the entire world, essentially, and become the lingua franca, which is then going to give us what? The New Testament in Greek. So it's almost like God can use these terrible people for His will in many different ways and to accomplish all kinds of different tasks, because even though the Roman Empire comes on the heels of the Greek Empire, the culture had been Greek for so long, and everybody liked the Greek culture, that the Romans just kind of adopted the Greek culture. So even though Rome is going to be in control of Israel at the time of Christ, people are speaking Greek, and only mostly in the context of dealing with Romans, courts, laws, and some legal proceedings were people speaking Roman, most people are speaking Greek, and then, of course, because a lot of these people are Jewish and raised in that area of the world, they also speak Hebrew or a form of Aramaic, okay? So you kind of had, like, three primary languages at the time of Christ, which is evidenced by the fact that the literal sign above Christ's head, King of the Jews, is written in what? Roman, Greek, or it's written in Latin, excuse me, but Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. It's written in all three of those languages, and it's kind of reminiscent of even what we have today, where we have the Old Testament Hebrew, the New Testament Greek, and Latin was the main combination of the Bible for a long time, and, you know, English kind of comes on the heels of Latin a little bit, and so we kind of have those three languages being the primary text of Scripture, what God has really used throughout time and throughout history, and he can even use really wicked people like Alexander the Great to accomplish a greater goal. The Bible says, All things work together for them, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. So according to the Bible, even this, Hellenization and bringing the Greek language and everything can have its benefits. Now, they go through this period, it brings up in verse 6, And a bastard shall dwell in Ashtod. I don't know if that's referring to a person that's going to be their king, or if what it's really kind of referring to is the idea of the nation that's going to be birthed out of this process and how it's not like a normal, natural birthing process, but rather it's kind of a bastardization-type process where the new nation, it's not really a normal nation, it's kind of that Hellenized version of a Philistine leftovers mixed with this Greek culture and it's just kind of like this weird bastard child of a nation and of a country, okay? I think that's kind of what it's bringing up. It says in verse 7, And I will take away his blood out of his mouth and his abominations from between his teeth, but he that remaineth, even he shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah and Ekron as a Jebusite. Of course, the Philistines in this part of the world was very wicked. They did all kinds of rituals and sacrifices. You know, it talks like the blood out of his mouth and the abominations between his teeth. I think it's referencing, of course, like the sacrifices to false gods, how they would eat and drink blood and they're eating swine's flesh and eating these abominable animals and these false god animal sacrifices. And God's very angry at that. God did not want people to worship other gods. God did not want them to worship the pagan gods. God did not want sacrifices under these false gods. God didn't want people to eat blood and to eat the unclean beast. And that's where we have that Levitical system. And so, of course, these people are looked down upon and God's just taking that away from them. He's taking the paganism away from them, destroying them, because they're wicked, ungodly, heathen, false religion. And God will destroy false religion. But it says something specific. It says, He that remaineth, and He shall be for our God. So it's like God swept through this nation, destroyed many adherents of false religion, but there was a leftover, there was a remnant, and notice those remnants are people that are going to actually turn to the God. They're going to turn to the Lord. I want you to keep that in your mind. I'm going to come back to that in a minute. It says in verse number 8, And I will encamp about mine house, because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth, and no oppressor shall pass through them anymore, for now have I seen with my eyes. I think that it's probably alluding to here still again Alexander the Great, because Alexander the Great came through, destroyed Tyre, destroyed that Gaza Strip, went down into Egypt, returned back, but he didn't destroy Jerusalem. He left them alone, albeit I'm sure they had to pay taxes and whatever, you know, as far as just being a part of that region, but he didn't mess with them. And it's almost like God was just kind of protecting that area. Which is significant, because Alexander the Great, everywhere he's going, he's leaving ashes behind him. He's literally just destroying everything, just wiping everything behind him, but then he just leaves Jerusalem intact. Well that's important, because why? Because Jesus Christ is going to have to enter into that literal temple in a few hundred years, you know, obviously we're talking about three hundred years approximately, that Jesus Christ is going to come into the temple, so God is very jealous for the city, he's protecting it, even though there's these armies coming through, wiping out all of its enemies. This tells me this, that even if America were judged, there's always hope for God's people. Like even if a horrible thing happened, God can somehow just keep his people away from all of the destruction and all of the evil, and he can keep a remnant to himself, and so it's always good to just be right with God. Because even in the midst of just complete destruction, complete national overthrow, civil war, or foreign war, or whatever, God's people could be preserved through that. The Bible tells us to not be afraid of sudden fear, that we're not supposed to be afraid when the sudden destruction of the wicked comes upon us, and rather we should just trust God, and keep our heads down, and just do what's right, and allow God to sometimes just walk through and just wipe out the wicked, and just destroy the wicked, and just kind of purge society of many wicked people. And of course, it's not that you want all these people to die or whatever, but they're adhering to a false religion, they don't love God, and they're reaping what they sow, and we have no control over that, so many times we just simply have to trust the Lord, and he can still give us deliverance while he destroys the rest of society. Now, if we look at verse number 9, it's a pretty famous verse here. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. There's a word that the Jews did not pick up on. Lowly. Lowly. They keep talking about their Antichrist, or their Messiah that's going to come, and how he's going to be this triumphant, you know, Savior, and he's going to rescue them, and he's going to come on this white horse. But what does the Bible say about the king coming unto them? In the book of Zechariah, it says that he's coming lowly, and he's not coming on a horse. What is he coming on? It says specifically, riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. So, according to the Bible, he comes on essentially riding two different animals here. Keep your finger here. It's actually mentioned in Matthew chapter 21. But think about even the animal that we're describing. A donkey, or the colt, is a much smaller beast, or much smaller animal than a horse. Especially the colt, because that's a young baby, or kind of an infant, it's an infant in our terminology, but it's kind of more of like a baby donkey. And so its height is going to be much smaller than a full adult. And then specifically we're going to compare animals that people ride on. You know, when we talk about a donkey versus a horse, a horse is much grander, much bigger, much taller. So if you're riding on a horse, you're going to be lifted up higher. If you're riding on a donkey, you're riding what? Lower. And so the Bible's talking about when Christ is riding, he's coming in lowly, meaning he's not coming in high and lifted up. He's coming much lower, like riding on a smaller animal, and just coming in in a more humble fashion. Like literally, he's coming in in a humble fashion. And then of course, metaphorically, he's also coming in lowly in the sense that he's not trying to make his triumph injury. When Jesus makes his triumph injury, we can't even look at it because he's going to be shining as bright as the sun. He's going to be coming with clouds, the clouds of heaven, and the face of him is shining. And people are literally hiding themselves in the dens and in the rocks and crying like, hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and the wrath of the lamb. They're just like, they can't even look at him because he's shining so bright. When people see the Lord Jesus Christ, they're falling down and they can't even stand the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not that picture. It's a picture of someone riding lowly on a smaller animal, and of course, when Christ returns in Revelation chapter 19, he's riding on a white horse. He's riding on a more elevated animal, a more grand animal. It's a more triumphant return back to the earth. Now Matthew 21 brings us up in verse 1. It says, And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethpage, unto the Mount of Olives, they sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied in a colt with her. Loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say, Ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the full of an ass. Now this is a direct quote from the book of Zechariah. I want to notice a couple of things though. It doesn't, it's not verbatim. Did you notice that? What was it missing? Well, if you keep your finger and you look, you just kind of look back and you glance back, it says, Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. It doesn't have that mentioned. And this is what I want to point out, is that many times when the New Testament is kind of, in what we would say, quoting the Old Testament, it's not necessarily quoting it, as much as it is just stating certain sections, right? It's not just like, quote, this is what Zechariah chapter 9 says in this specific verse, and it just puts a verbatim, just like, quote. It's just like, this is what Zechariah 9 generally says, and I'm just saying it, okay? This is what the prophet said, and he said those things. If you, if you splice out, if you take out a section, it's still what he said. You didn't have to have that extra part. So we don't have to necessarily try to make all of these match in some kind of a over-the-top Rachmanite-type view, where everything has to be just an exact word match, word order, you can't miss. I mean, think about how many verses in the Bible talk about, you know, that we're not supposed to add and take away from God's word. I could see some Rachmanite being like, you're adding, you're taking away from God's word, it's like, no. He's just quoting one section, quoting another, and sometimes it may not even be a verbatim quote, they're just simply stating. Just like if I'm talking to somebody and say, hey, the Bible says that God is a Trinity. I didn't quote anything. There's no quote, there's no part in the Bible that I could point to where it literally just says, God is a Trinity. What am I trying to communicate? I'm trying to communicate that's what it teaches, right? And so, you know, lots of times people just simply, when they're talking about the Bible, we just put it in our own words. Hey, the Bible says salvation is by faith alone. But wait a minute, does it literally say that? Or is that us taking what the Bible says and putting it in our own words and communicating the exact same message, okay? So many times when we see mentions in the New Testament of something in the Old Testament, I want to get an over-the-top idea that it has to be this just like exact word, letter, spelling, you know, order, match, or it's just not accurate or something like that. No, no, no, it's just them bringing up this particular portion of Scripture. And again, it changes it a little bit. Did you notice that? What is the word used in Zechariah? Lowly. What is the word used in the New Testament? Meek. Now, for people that are not brain dead, this is what we call a synonym. And let me explain something. Synonyms are okay. They're not evil. They're not attacking the Word of God. In fact, they're really helpful because they help us understand what words mean. We understand that, hey, what does lowly mean? It means meek. What does meek mean? It means lowly. And it helps give us a better understanding. Just like in the Old Testament, it'll use the word congregation. And in the New Testament, it's exclusively using the word church. But it's the same word. It's helping you understand, what is a church? It's a congregation. What's a congregation? It's an assembly. It's like that Spider-Man meme, where he's like pointing at the one Spider-Man and the other one's pointing. It's like assembly is pointing at church and church is pointing at congregation and congregation is pointing at assembly. And then ruckmanites are, you know, killing themselves or whatever, right? Because they can't understand how a word could actually have a synonym. Okay. But, you know, it's okay that the Bible uses synonyms, right? We don't want to be weirdos and we don't want to be mentally retarded people. We want to treat the Bible with wisdom and we want to take the meaning. Meek means lowly. And, of course, when we talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, He came unto them very lowly, riding on these animals. Go over to Philippians, chapter number 2. We'll read that a little bit about the Lord Jesus Christ here. And this is what many people missed about the coming of their Savior. They kind of were looking for someone to restore the kingdom and, you know, they don't want to be under the oppression of the Romans anymore or they don't want to have to split their nation. They want to be that Davidic kingdom. They want to be that Temple of Solomon where they're the rulers of the world and they have all the gold and they have all the wealth. Why? Because they're covetous. The Pharisees were covetous and they wanted to have an earthly kingdom filled with riches. They wanted to be Tyre. They wanted to be Babylon. And the Lord Jesus Christ didn't come to set up that kind of an earthly kingdom. He came to set up a spiritual kingdom which was more important. Now, of course, in the millennial reign, yeah, I'm sure that it'll be a fancy city. Of course, Christ ruling on Jerusalem. It'll have the riches of the world and it'll be a great place. You know, it's not about that. It's about salvation. It's about spiritual things. And when Christ first came, it certainly wasn't about money. It was about reaching people with the gospel. Did we notice when the king came, he had something with him. Having salvation. He has salvation with him. Look at Philippians chapter 2 and look at verse number 5. Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. Boy, I just love the King James Bible because every modern version virtually when it says in verse number 6 he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, they say he thought being equal with God was not something to be grasped. It's like what does that even mean? First of all, that's confusing. Second of all, it just sounds blasphemous that being God or being equal with God is something that he couldn't even grasp. He could grasp it because he was God. And what did the King James say? He didn't think it was robbery to consider himself equal with God even though he's in the form of a man, even though he's put on flesh, even though he's been born of the Virgin Mary, even though he's descended from heaven, even though he's not seated on the throne. He did not think it was robbery to still maintain that he was equal with God. He did not think that it was robbery to forgive men of sins while on the earth, but rather to show that he had the power to forgive sins. He did not think that it was robbery to be equal with God even though he was lowly, even though he came in the form of a servant, even though he had humbled himself. He was still God, he knew he was God, and even though he knew he was God and he deserves all praise and all glory and all knees to bow and all tongues to confess, he came lowly anyways. He came humble anyways. That's the point that it's making. Because if you thought you were nothing, if you thought you were scum, if you thought you weren't worthy of praise, well then you wouldn't have a mindset of demanding praise, would you? Right? Like if you're like, I'm not the king, I'm not special, I'm nobody, why would I then be like, why would I then be like, kneel before me now? Why would someone say, kneel before me? Because they know they're the king, because they know they have power, because they know they have authority, because they know people should bow to them, that would cause them to have an attitude and mentality of saying, you need to bow before me because I'm the king, because I'm in charge, because I have authority. So Jesus Christ, knowing full well that he's God, knowing full well that he's equal to God the Father, knowing full well that he has all power and all authority and all worthiness of being praised. He was still coming in the form of a servant, making himself of no reputation, not seeking for any kind of glory and adoration. When people would even give him this kind of praise, when the demons would give him this praise, he'd tell him to shut up or to be quiet or to not say those type of things. Why? Because he wasn't trying to go around making a name for himself. He wasn't trying to go around bragging about who he was, even though he could have full well done so. Verse 7, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. You know, the Bible says specifically about the Romans and I forgive me which chapter exactly this is. It's in the book of Acts. It's in the book of Acts. It's like maybe five, six, somewhere in there, something like that, probably like five, maybe four. I think it may be four. It basically says like if the rulers had known who Jesus was, they would have not crucified him. They would have not crucified the Lord of glory. Okay? So think about it this way. If Jesus Christ really came to the earth in all of his magnificence and all of his glory and shining so bright and riding on the white horse, no one would have ever crucified him is what the Bible said. He wouldn't have been able to die. Well, here's the thing. That's a problem for you and me because we're sinners deserving of hell. We needed someone to be at sacrifice. So the only way for you and I to receive glory was for Jesus Christ to humble himself, to come of no reputation, to come lowly, to basically just give up all of his riches and all of his money for our benefit. And isn't that what this whole chapter is about? It says specifically in verse number three, three, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Christ didn't come here thinking of him. He came here thinking of you. And then the Bible says this is the mentality, this is the mindset that we should have. We should have the mindset of Christ that we should humble ourselves and lower ourselves in order for the benefit of others. We don't need to go around singing our own praises, worried about our possessions, our things, our money, our fame, our fortune, our status, whatever we have, we should worry about other people and say, you know what, if this person needs in order to succeed me to be lowered a little bit, then so be it. Just like John the Baptist says specifically about himself, he must increase, but I must decrease. Right? In order for Jesus Christ to get all of the disciples that he needed, all the followers he needed, he needed some of the people to abandon John and follow Jesus. Right? Because they were trying to get him envious. Like, hey, some of your disciples are following Jesus and not you anymore. Hey, he's doing more baptizing than you are. And he's just like, well, I must decrease and he must increase. You know, it's not about me, it's about Christ. And you know, when it comes to church, when it comes to Christianity, we need to have a mindset that it's not about us, it's about the cause of Christ. And if we have to lower ourselves or humble ourselves so that others can be successful, you know what? Well, God bless the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless the Father in heaven. Blessed be God, blessed be his name, because all power and all glory and all honor are supposed to go to him, not to us. You know, we're not supposed to sit here and try to build our own temple on earth. You know, a lot of people want to build themselves a magnificent kingdom of a church. And why in the world would we ever send people out to start other churches if we had that mindset? You know, why would we take our best song leader and Dylan and just send them out somewhere else if we're trying to build a good kingdom? Because frankly speaking, you know, our music program could use some extra help, okay? And, you know, he's a great song leader. Why would I want to just, you know, take one of our best song leaders and just say like, yeah, let's get rid of him? You know, he fills in the pulpit sometimes, he does a really good job. Albeit he gets like three or four days to work on a sermon, but, you know, he does a really good job, okay? You know, why would we want to take one of our best, you know, church members, zealous soul winners like Duncan or Bannock, that evangelist, and send him down into Houston to work down there for a while, and then send him into the Philippines to work for a while? You know, we always talk about how it's hard to get someone saved and bring them to church. It's really hard to get someone saved in the Philippines and then bring them here, right? That's very unlikely. Even you guys trying to get wives, it's hard to even bring them here, okay? I mean, we talk about if we're gonna just seek to build a kingdom here, we wouldn't want to just send all of our greatest assets and our best talent. You know, we wouldn't want to take evangelist, you know, Salvador Alvarez, and send him from Oklahoma City down to Houston and plant a church down there and have him become a pastor. We'd be like, hey, come here, right? And look, it's not like we couldn't use him here. It's not like he wouldn't be a huge blessing at this church. I mean, the guy is very talented, great preacher, has memorized tons of scripture. I mean, he is this huge asset to the kingdom of God, and you know, we need to build these men up, send them out to bless other areas. You know, is that gonna help Steadfast Baptist Church specifically? No, it's not. It's gonna hurt Steadfast Baptist Church. But you know what? It's gonna benefit the cause of Christ, and that's what matters. It's not about Steadfast. It's about the cause of Christ. Now, again, we're not gonna make decisions that hurt Steadfast Baptist Church that don't make sense for the kingdom of God, that don't make sense for Christ, and you know what? We still need tons of great people here, and you know, while we're here, all of us, we should try to make this the best church in our area, and hey, I'm not against building a giant church. I'm not against having lots of talent here. You know, we need to take talented people and keep them here, too, you know, because we want to build a great church, and we want to do great works for the God, and you know, sometimes it makes sense to have a powerhouse church in a big area that can keep grooming the next generation, not in that way, obviously, teaching them and educating them, giving them the tools in order to essentially succeed in the future, sending out future pastors, sending out future evangelists as well, and so we want to make sure that we have the right mindset, though, that we don't want to just simply only care about us. We want to care about the cause of Christ, and we kind of have to evaluate what's just gonna be the best for the gospel, what's gonna be the best for the Lord Jesus Christ, and if sometimes we have to humble ourselves, if sometimes we have to lower ourselves, if sometimes we have to think about how that's gonna benefit someone else rather than benefit us, you know, we should be willing to make that kind of decision, you know, and of course, I believe that the job of a pastor specifically is to help people serve Christ better. So every decision that a pastor makes, every sermon, all the advice he gives should only ever be to help that person make a better spiritual decision or improve their spiritual life in general, you know, and when pastors are making decisions that benefit them at the detriment of their church member, well, you know, they've lost sight of the whole goal in the first place because Christ wasn't trying to make decisions that benefited him. He was trying to make decisions that benefited us and benefited the people that were gonna get saved, and so, you know, he bled and died for the church. He gave us this institution. The least we can do is repay him by humbling ourselves as well, lowering ourselves, not thinking too highly of ourselves. Go back to Zechariah. You know, here's another way that you could do that. How about just showing up at church? How about going to church on Wednesday nights? How about going to church on Sunday morning and Sunday night? How about going out and being a soul winner? Because frankly speaking, that is not necessarily gonna advance you, right? What would advance you? Making more money, going out there and networking. You know, hey, going to one of these non-denom fund centers, a lot of times that can help you in the career world because they, you know, these elders and all these people of these churches, they own all these businesses, and they like to network, and there's all this glory. Oh, I go to this big awesome church or whatever. You know, most people are not putting on their resumes I am a member of Steadfast Baptist Church. And I don't wanna, I'm not shaming anybody for not doing that. I don't do that either, okay? So don't hear me wrong. But I'm just saying, like, if you wanna get ahead in the world, it's usually not saying, like, I'm a member of Steadfast Baptist Church. As a reference, Pastor Jonathan Shelley, if you don't know who he is, please Google him. Second reference, Dylan Oz. Please Google him as well. Most people are probably not doing that, and that's okay. I'm not against that at all. But what I'm trying to say is that, you know, going to church is a way of humbling yourself and saying, you know what, it's not about me, it's about Jesus. And it's about me helping this church grow. You know what helps churches grow? People showing up. Because when someone shows up at a church, and I'm just trying to talk about reality and practicality, it shouldn't be this way, but it just is what it is. When someone shows up at church and there's five people there, they a lot of times just leave. In fact, I've had that. I've had church services where it was a handful of people. Someone showed up as a guest, they kinda look around, and they just leave. And it wasn't because I said something spicy, folks, okay? It wasn't that they knew who we were. It was just kinda awkward for them. They didn't like how small the church felt, okay? Or they come and there's 10, 12 people. It's awkward. Or they come and their kids have no other kids to talk to. Or their teenagers have no other teenagers to relate to. Or they themselves. There's no other families that are kind of in their situation. Or there's no older people. You know, people want... An aspect of church that they want is just community. They just want fellowship, they want friends, they want to talk to different people. And when there's no one there, you know, in fact, I'm just trying to be honest, okay? Someone comes to an all-white church and they're black, and they'll usually leave. And, you know, I'm not saying that they should do that, but that's just how they feel. You black people help bring in more black people, okay? And it's the same way that as a white guy, if a white guy came into an all-black church, they usually feel awkward and they leave, right? If an Asian person comes in, there's no Asian people. They might leave. So it's like having all the diversity that we have actually helps us grow as a church. You might say like, well, I'm the one Asian. Well, good, maybe we can get two. You know? Right? I mean, you're like, hey, I'm the older guy. Okay, great, maybe we can get another older guy, right? I mean, you know, you're the one guy that eats McDonald's. Maybe, you know? We don't know if we want any more McDonald's people. I'm just kidding. Right? I mean, but you could be that person. And, you know, people like other people that have common interests or similar to them. I'm not racist. I don't really care about those kind of things. But at the same time, most people are to some degree. Most people have prejudice. You know, just go down to Houston, and it'll prove to you in about five seconds. Because you go into a neighborhood, it's all Jews. You go into another neighborhood, it's all Muslims. You go into another neighborhood, it's the black neighborhood. You go into this neighborhood, it's the white neighborhood, right? I mean, that's just Houston. And no one told them where to live. It's just how people got to, you know, congregate. But, you know, praise God that our church is not the black church, is not the white church, is not the, you know, we live five minutes from this building church. I mean, raise of hands, who lives within five minutes of the church? Okay, yeah, like three percent of the congregation, okay? And, you know what? How many of y'all lived there before I moved here? Oh, none of me. Okay, exactly. So, like, it's not like, hey, we're just planning a church in the bedroom community. We're just going to try and draw out all the local neighbors or whatever. You know, we're coming here for Christ. That's the point of church, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you humble yourself and you say, hey, I'm going to go to the institution that is going to praise God and praise the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to humble myself. I'm not just going to go to the church that's easy, the church that's convenient, the church that's going to tell me I'm such a wonderful person no matter what I'm doing in my life. I'm not going to go to the church that's just going to pat me on the back and the pastor's going to tell me how wonderful I am. No, I'm going to go to the church that honors the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to go every time the doors are open, I'm going to humble myself, and I'm going to recognize I need to go to church for the benefit of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the work of Christ and to build that church. He died and bled for me. The least I can do is drive in a comfortable car to church. Right? I mean, what kind of excuse do you have? Really? I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ got nailed to the cross so that you could go to church and then you just, I don't like church. It sounds like you just don't like Jesus. You know, you need to humble yourself and recognize that it's not about you. This world is not about you. Well, how am I going to do this? I don't like this or whatever. It's not about you. It's about Him. And what He did for you is so much more. The Bible says it's the unspeakable gift. How can you then turn away from such an unspeakable gift? The Bible says in Zechariah chapter 9 verse 10, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace unto the heathen and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea and from the river even to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water. Again, this is a lot of stuff that's happening specifically in this time. It's going to be a peaceful time. They're rebuilding the temple in general. But then he uses this interesting language like, hey, by the blood of thy covenant, have I sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. That is talking about the blood of Jesus Christ being spilt and being shed and placed on the mercy seat so that you and I don't have to go to the pit wherein is no water, which is hell. That's the pit wherein is no water. It's not humid down in hell. There's no water. It's in the center of the earth, the bottomless pit wherein is no water. I mean, what is the one thing, when we talk about somebody going to hell and telling us exactly what it was like, what was the one thing he mentions? Hey, can you just drop water on my tongue? That must be like the main thought permeating the brains of everyone burning in hell right now is how they would love some water, how they miss water. I mean, that's just sad. This is sad to think about. I mean, I don't like just even being thirsty, let alone being burned in hell and getting no rest, no comfort. That's serious. That's why the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is so serious. That's why us living a life for Christ and preaching the gospel is so serious because the vast majority of people are going to go to a pit where it is no water. They're going to burn in hell for all of eternity. How can you be a Christian and not care about people dying and going to hell? Everybody today is so focused on their self today whereas Christ humbled himself and died on the cross and went to hell for us so that we could be delivered and for us to get someone saved. You don't have to go on the cross. You simply have to open your mouth and preach the most easy gospel that's already been laid out for you. You're injured in other men's labors. You're simply just picking up fruit off the ground in many cases and you live in one of the most receptive places on the earth. You should go out and preach the gospel and get people saved. It's sad how there's not much love in our world today. There's not a love for the lost like there used to be. We need to restore that. We need to show the younger generation that true, sincere love for the lost, how we're willing to preach the gospel. Oh, well, you know what? It's hot out there. Well, it's way hotter in hell. And you know what? You can take water with you when you go soul winning. But no one's taken any water with them down into hell. I don't even mind the heat that much, but frankly speaking, that is a bad excuse if you say like, I'm not going to go soul winning because it's hot. You sound like the lazy and the slawful that won't plow by reason of the cold or something, that won't go out there. And look, obviously, if you're highly pregnant or whatever, don't go out there. I'm not trying to give you bad medical advice, but if you're just like, I feel uncomfortable. Well, it's hot. Yeah, of course. I get it. Well, I want to go to San Diego. Well, you know, San Diego's probably not that receptive. I'm sure the soul winning's, you know, temperature's great. It's like 70 every single day, right? But you know, you live in Texas. It's still the promised land. It's a little hot. I get it, okay. But you know what? I would rather it be hot and be able to preach the gospel than it be perfect weather and just every door slam in my face. And you know, we need to go out there and preach the gospel because it's going to be a lot hotter where these people are going. Says in verse number 12, Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee. When I have bent Judah for me, fill the bow with Ephraim and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as a lightning, and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts shall defend them, and they shall devour and subdue with sling stones, and they shall drink and make a noise as through wine, and they shall be filled like bowls and as the corners of the altar. And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people, for they shall be as the stones of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon his land, for how great is his goodness and how great is his beauty. Corn shall make the young men cheerful and new wine the maids. You know, when it comes to this latter section, I'm not real dogmatic on it, but it seems like it could be alluding to a later time in history, not Alexander the Great, but a little bit further when the Grecians are coming against Jerusalem specifically, and you have Antiochus Epiphanes, and then you have the Maccabean revolt, and that was an interesting time in history. They ended up succeeding again, and that's important that they succeeded just again because of the Lord Jesus Christ coming. So I believe it's probably alluding to that. You can kind of see in verse number 13, they raised up thy sons of Zion against thy sons of Greece. So you kind of see this conflict between the children of Israel and the children of Greece, which is most likely, again, Antiochus Epiphanes, because with Alexander the Great, they didn't really go to war. That wasn't really a time of great conflict, but during Antiochus Epiphanes' period of time, this is about 170 B.C. timeline. Forgive me, it's around that era. It's around that decade or so is essentially when you have the Antiochus Epiphanes and a few other generals coming against Jerusalem, and then you have the Maccabean revolt that goes through several different stages, but they ultimately win. Two other points that I just wanted to make quickly is number one, if we kind of look back at verse seven again, and I thought this was interesting, did you notice it said and I will take away his blood out of his mouth and his abomination from between his teeth, but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God. So there's a remnant that's left over that's going to be for God, and specifically, you know, if we look at this, it's coming from Ashdod. Well, keep your finger, go to Acts chapter number eight. Go to Acts chapter number eight. I believe this is alluding to what we affectionately refer to as replacement theology, okay? And think about this. It's the Gentiles that are of the Philistines and of Ashdod that are going to seek God and get saved. It brings up how the king is coming in the next few verses about the Lord Jesus Christ coming and, of course, bringing salvation with him. Well, what's interesting, in Acts chapter number eight, we have the dispersion of the Jews outside of Jerusalem. Persecution comes against the church, and all of these different disciples are being spread out, and specifically, Philip, the evangelist, is thrown out there and he goes into Samaria, and, of course, Acts chapter number eight, he has this great encounter that we're all really familiar with with the Ethiopian eunuch, but look towards the end of this chapter and notice what it says in verse 39. And when they were come up out of the water, yes, baptism, you have to come out of the water, folks, okay? The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing, but Philip was found at Azotus. Now, here's the thing that's difficult. I read Azotus, and I'm like, I don't know what that is, but if you just look up Azotus, what is Azotus? It's Ashdod. So it's saying that Philip, as soon as he baptized this specific Ethiopian eunuch, the Spirit of the Lord literally just picked him up and just drops him off in Ashdod. And it says, And passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. So Philip just gets basically transported directly into Gaza and then just goes up that entire Gaza Strip and goes through all that what? That remnant that was left over, and they get tons and tons of people saved. And so I believe that was a prophecy of the Gentiles, how they were gonna receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and how God left that remnant. And of course, it was not that exact remnant because when Alexander the Great went through that area, that was 330-something BC, like 332 BC. And this is, you know, I don't know, 40, 50 BC, maybe it's 36, I don't know. It's somewhere way farther down the line in the future. But it's the descendants of those people, and it's reminiscent of the idea and the fact that the Gentiles are gonna seek to the Lord and get saved. We also had specifically in Acts 2, Jews and proselytes coming from all over and seeking God in that time. And it's just showing how God is the God of the Jews and the Gentiles, not just in the New Testament but even in the Old Testament, He cared about those people and many people were getting saved as well during that particular time. So, you know, in just kind of a quick summary, if we think about this particular chapter, you know, as just kind of a whole, we have a picture of how God is coming through and judging the wicked and leaving that remnant. And that remnant is who gets saved. And we see this picture consistently throughout the Bible. If we talk about Jerusalem, God judges the wicked, leaves them a remnant. When Jesus Christ came, He saved that remnant. We have the apostle Paul, we have Peter, we have John, and then He destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. And it's always been a remnant that is kind of in society that God favors, preserves, and keeps. You know, the Bible tells us to be salt and light in the world that we're in. And we sometimes have to realize and recognize our role and goal in life is to be that salt and be that light and be that remnant. Even an adulteress in a wicked generation, we're supposed to shine forth as lights, you know, and we're supposed to be that righteous remnant that's showing the works of God and doing the good works. And you know what happens? That preserves that particular area. You say, I want to save America. Well, be salty and be a light-bearer because that is going to preserve America the most. Not voting, not watching the debate tomorrow and thinking like, ooh, which one am I going to pick? The pro-Israel guy or the pro-Israel guy? The pro-Israel old guy or the pro-Israel old guy? The pro-LGBT guy or the pro-LGBT guy? I mean, which one are you going to pick? You know, it's a tough decision of which one. Well, one can speak a little better than the other. Ooh. You know, there's still puppets in the hand of the Jew, okay. So what does that really matter? And you don't say, well, you just sound like you don't want to fix America. No, no, I do want to fix America. You know I'm going to fix America? I'm going to go to church. But there's all these Christians, they won't go to church. They're not preaching the gospel. They're not being salty, but they're going to vote for Trump. Wow, what a great Christian. You're going to vote for a guy that owns casinos, has committed adultery multiple times, is pro-Sodomite, is being influenced by the God-hating, Christ-rejecting Jews, who was asked on national television, publicized, hey, have you ever asked God for forgiveness? And he says, no, I don't think I have. I mean, Catholics are asking God for forgiveness, and they're screwed up. They're not even saved. I mean, the guy that can't even ask God for forgiveness doesn't think he's done anything wrong. The most prideful person on the planet, and the Bible says that pride is an abomination unto God. Who are you really trusting today? Are you going to build your little nest on Tyre with King Trump? Are you going to go to Tyre Island? Trump Island? Epstein Island? Is that where you're going to go hide out at? And think, oh, be safe. You know what you need to do? You need to be salt and light in the area that you're in, and we need Christians to be Christian again, and to stop falling for all these traps and these deceptions. You know, there's nothing in this book that said 1948. In fact, it said there was a remnant that came unto Christ, and you know what? We're that remnant. We're a Christ seed. We're the true children of God, and we need to start acting like children of God and stop being like this world. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us the gift of your son, the unspeakable gift of salvation. Thank you for allowing your son to humble himself and to robe himself in flesh, to disguise his glory. Thank you for being willing to sacrifice him so that we could have inheritance with your son. I pray that we would also, in like manner and in like mind, be willing to humble ourselves and lower ourselves so that other people could be saved, so that we could add more people to that remnant. And I pray that we wouldn't be afraid of the destruction of our area or city or town or country or state or anything. Rather, we would just try to make sure that we're just right with God. And I pray that you would help us to win other people to Christ and also help them to serve you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, for our last song, we're going to turn to song number 270, Just As I Am. Song 270. I know I'm not Dylan, but I'll do my best. Right. Song 270, Just As I Am, singing out together. Just as I am without one leap What death thy blood was shed for me And now this be come To thee, O Lamb of God I come, I come Just as I am and waiting not To rid my soul of wonder fought To thee whose blood can cleanse Each spot, O Lamb of God I come, I come Just as I am though tossed about With many a conflict, many a doubt By things and fears within Without, O Lamb of God I come, I come Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind Sight ranges, healing of the mind May all I need in thee To find, O Lamb of God I come, I come Just as I am thou wilt receive Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve Because thy promise I believe O Lamb of God I come I come