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Amen. All right. Well, last week we covered the first part of this chapter. There's just so much in it that I wanted to break it into two sermons. And really the thought behind this sermon tonight is really the main focus is about vexing and oppressing people in vulnerable situations. Vexing and oppressing people in vulnerable situations. So God really does care about the people that are vulnerable, people that are poor, people that are oppressed. And when people oppress those types of people, it really angers God a lot. And so He has laws and rules about that. And the Bible is given by inspiration of God. And so you're like, well, these don't apply to us. It's the Old Testament. Look, anything that's not changed in the New Testament is still in effect. So does God still get angry when people lend money by usury to their own brothers and sisters in Christ? Absolutely, He does. So does He get upset about vexing a stranger or oppressing him still? Yes. So these are all still in application today. And we need to understand what the will of the Lord is concerning our behavior towards each other, and how we should treat people that are maybe less fortunate, maybe even physically or mentally handicapped in some way, or that they've lost their spouse, or they're a fatherless child. These are things that we need to really make sure that we're not vexing people like this, and that we're treating people the way God wants us to treat them. So look at verse number 21. The Bible says, Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. So they were strangers to the land, not just in the fact that they're a different people, but they were also... We got some baby drawing on the walls over there. But anyway, she's vexing the walls of our church. No, I'm just kidding. So yeah, vex a stranger nor oppress him. And they were strangers in the land of Egypt. So obviously, people immigrate from different places to other different countries. And there's rules about oppressing them, and not taking advantage of them, and treating them right. So just because someone's an immigrant doesn't give us the right to mistreat them. But the Jews, they did start to treat people like this. And they actually started to treat people in a racist way. And when Jesus came on the scene, they would cross the road and stay away from people that there were Samaritans, or from other nations, because they thought it was the bloodline that mattered. But it's not the bloodline that matters. What matters is what religion you actually are. And when someone's a stranger, they might not believe in the same God as you. But I'll just tell you this. If someone immigrated to Israel, they couldn't just break all of Israel's rules coming there. They still had to abide by the laws that God had set forth, regardless of what... So they weren't treated special, also, above other people, because they were strangers. But they weren't also supposed to vex those strangers, and take advantage of them, and oppress them. So again, the caveat would be that people that joined the nation of Israel had to agree to their laws. They couldn't just do whatever they wanted. The law still applied to them. If they killed someone, they'd get the same punishment as someone that was born in the land. But this isn't talking about just allowing the heathen to come into your country, and change your way of living, and to having the government just simp out to them all the time, and just not having to abide by the laws of the land. So there's a big controversy in our country about immigration right now. There's 11,000 people came across the border illegally just a couple days ago, and I'm sure it's happening on record levels right now. Now, here's the thing. I'm not against... If I was from Mexico, I probably would try to get into the United States too. I mean, they live in a corrupted place where these gangs basically rule the country, and the government is run basically by these different cartels, and things like that. It's terrible. It's hard to live there and make a living, and I could understand people wanting to come here. But if there is rules for immigrating into a country, people should probably abide by those rules, just like they had to abide by the rules of Israel. And look, we've had, and might even have, possibly even right now, people that are not from this country that maybe are not supposed to be here. And I'm not trying to say, you need to go back, or all this other stuff, but we do have to have law and order. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And look at what's coming over from other nations. The Muslim hordes are coming over here and then trying to change the way of life that has been here for hundreds of years, and that should not be allowed to happen. People that come here should learn to speak the language of the country that they're in. English is the language that we speak in this country, and you should learn the language. I mean, you're like, oh, you're a racist, Pastor Thompson. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with just, I mean, look at how bad America is now compared to what it used to be. And part of the problem is just allowing all these strange gods to come in and infest themselves into our country, and now we're a nation that's not a Christian. If you thought we were a Christian nation before, we're definitely not a Christian nation now. In England, 4% of people go to church. You know how many people went to church back in the 1600s? Everybody. Everybody was supposed to go to church, I mean, and they had laws that you had to go to church. We don't even have those laws, but I'm sure some people just didn't go to church. Some people skipped out, but you had to go to church. It was just like one of those things that I don't believe necessarily enforced going to church or anything like that. I mean, it would be kind of nice so I could make you come to church. If it was the law, I'd just be like, where were you last week? You were supposed to be in church. I'm turning you in. No, I'm just kidding. But you know what I'm saying? Our country has changed and not for the better. And I'm not saying that immigration is the only thing that's done that. There's a lot of things that have done that. But when you allow a bunch of people from a strange god to come in and promote their strange religion in our nation, they weren't allowed to do that in the nation of Israel. If they came in bringing their false gods, they were supposed to be killed. Period. So, and again, I don't believe that the United States was necessarily set up as a Christian nation, but there were a lot of Christians here. A lot of people fled the tyranny of other places that were forcing people to go to their specific kind of church. Now, obviously, I'm not for the Catholic Church. I'm not for the Church of England. But there was Baptists that came over here. There was other types of Christians that came over here. And I believe that any stranger, no matter what country it is, you should come in and abide by the rules of that nation. That's what I believe the Bible teaches. But also, we're not supposed to vex someone that doesn't necessarily believe like we do. But again, they weren't allowed to promote strange gods there. So, look at verse 22. It says, you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. Afflict. What is afflicting? Well, it's, you know, you're giving them problems. You're giving them hassles. And, you know, maybe probably trying to drain their bank accounts because you're taking advantage of the situation that they're in. Because it says widow. And obviously, widower would probably also fit in there too. But, you know, widows, when they lost their husbands back in these times, that's who supported them. So whatever money was left to them or whatever advantage they had, people would try to come in and take advantage of them. So it says or fatherless child. And fatherless children could be in a situation where they're teased. Now, maybe not so much in this country anymore would somebody do that. But I'm sure in times past when, you know, someone didn't have a father, they would be teased at school. Because kids will tease you about anything. You know, anything that they think that they can get an advantage over you with in a school situation, they'll tease you about it. But the Bible says we're not to afflict them. And it mentions this several times in scriptures. But listen what it says. Look how serious God is about this. It says, if thou afflict them in any wise, that means in any way, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry. So if they're being oppressed, if a widow's being oppressed by somebody, if a child, a fatherless child is being oppressed by somebody, and they cry at all unto the Lord, it says he will hear. And then it says in verse 24, and my wrath shall wax hot. And I will kill you with the sword. So he's pretty serious about it, isn't he? He's like, I'll kill you if you do this. So this should be a really stern warning unto anybody that's saved or going to this church that, you know, if you afflict people like this, God, you know, he kind of makes a little bit of a promise here, doesn't he? I will kill you with the sword and your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless. So whatever, you know, when you're vexing these people, just think about, you know, and obviously I don't think anybody in our church would do that, but you might do it and just not realize it. Well, you better repent of that really quickly because God's coming for you in that case. You're like, I can't believe God would talk like that. That's not the God that I grew up in church listening to or listening to about. God isn't, this is, that's the problem. People don't want, you know, people don't preach through Exodus anymore. Exodus is like low on the end of books that people in modern churches would preach about, and do you think that they're actually going to talk about witches being put to death right now in today's, I mean, look at the nation we live in where witchcraft is just, you know, just rampant in this country, and if you don't stop these things from happening, they are going to come. God's going to have his wrath poured out upon you, but specifically what this is talking about is when you would oppress a child, a fatherless child or a widow. It says, I'll kill you, and it says, and your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless. So when I think about taking advantage of widows, the Bible mentions this in the New Testament a few times. It talks about how Jesus railed on, not railed, but he ripped on the Pharisees about how they would devour widows' houses, and so why is this law written? Well, God knew that this was going to happen. He knew that this is how people will take, people will take advantage of elderly people, too. You know, they'll, they do these phone scams, and at first it used to be just really geared towards the little old lady that was sitting there, hello. They're like, hey, you know, give us your bank account information, and you know, there's a mess up, and we need your account information to reverse the problem. They're like, oh, okay, you know, and trusting them, but now people are doing these kind of scams to people all the time, not just little old ladies or little old men. It's, they do it to everybody, and we just live in a nation where people are just always trying to get you and steal from you in some way, shape, or form, but when you do it to widows and devour their houses, I mean, Jesus Christ specifically brought this charge against the Pharisees. So it's something that religious charlatans will do, and it says, and take advantage of, you know, and also they'll take advantage of children. So they'll molest children, they'll mock children, they'll mistreat children. You know, these religious people, like these popes and these, you know, these Catholic priests, I mean, the Catholic priests were just shuffled around all these different places after they would get all these charges against them. That's what they did with Boy Scout leaders, too, by the way, but, you know, they'll do this and take advantage of people and children that, you know, they're like, oh, we want to help them. You know, they'll put them in the Big Brothers program, and if you remember Brother Travis, he was in jail, and there was a guy that was in the Big Brothers program, and he molested, like, an 11-year-old boy that he was supposed to be being a big brother to. Who's ever heard of the Big Brothers program? Okay, so this is what predators do. They wait and try to take advantage of people that can't fight back or that are low in the society in a way that they just can't fight back, you know. And you're like, well, why would you say that about the father of children? Look, God doesn't just kill you for anything. You know, if you're taking advantage, I think that this goes to as far as people will take it, and people traffic children today. They traffic women today, and, you know, you get the pimps in our society that just, you know, think it's okay to just traffic all these people, and someone's paying for this stuff to happen. You know, there wouldn't be a commodity if there wasn't sick people to take advantage of it. So, look, there's going to be a reckoning. People that sow to the wind will reap the whirlwind, and, you know, God is not going to just let this kind of stuff slide. There will be a reckoning. Look at verse 25. It says, if thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shall not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. What is this talking about? Well, he's saying specifically my people, so he's talking about, you know, the children of Israel, but, you know, apply this to modern day times. Well, we are the children of Israel by faith. We are the children of Abraham by faith, and so I believe this transcends just the nation of Israel, and that today it's wrong for us to lend. So, if I, if Bill said, hey, can I borrow 20 bucks, and I was like, yeah, but the juice is running, you know, that's me saying 10% vig, you know, if you don't pay me, I'm going to come break your legs, that kind of stuff, right? This is what the Mafia made their bread and butter off as just usury, and, you know, they would do just these exorbitant amounts of money to, and collect them, and things like that, but we are not supposed to do that to each other. You shouldn't do that to anybody, predatory lending, but you also shouldn't, especially, it's forbidden by God, it's a commandment of God that you don't make someone pay you back and pay extra on top of it. If you say, hey, I'm going to lend you some money, I realize you're having a hard time, don't say the juice is running, okay? And what that means is you don't add anything on top of the amount that you lent them. You're like, well, then what's my advantage? To help somebody out. That's what. To help somebody. It's not so you can just make money off of people, right? I mean, that's just a bizarre way to try to make money, and God just says, just don't do it. If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee. But who are the people, where do you see the lending tree in all these different places? You see them on TV, during daytime TV where people aren't working and they're watching the commercials, right? The lending tree. And they have all these sideshow little banks that you can get, check cashing places. Where do you see those places at? The ghetto, right? It's poor people. And then people predatorily lend to them in these areas, and they set up these little bank scamming, check cashing places. And what they're doing is they're just, the poor are just going to them to try to get, because they're so poor they need extra money, and then they have to pay it back with interest. And it's high interest loans is what it is. But a usurer is a person that lends money at unreasonably high rates of interest. That's the definition that I found in the dictionary, but I think that that's kind of a bad definition. It is a person that lends money, but it doesn't have to be unreasonably high. It can just be any amount. So I think it's a bad definition. A user is just someone that charges money for lending money. And they're making them pay it back with interest. So predatory lending is allowed in the United States. And I would submit to you that it is from the Jew-fluence of society. It's something that they're prone to do, the Jews. And it comes from, it's Jewsery, really, really is what it is. But why do I say that? Well, what about the Rothschilds? What are they, the World Bank? I mean, Jews do run the banking system, folks. It's just a fact. And if there's some Gentiles around in it, they just are eating the crumbs from their tables, basically. But otherwise, it wouldn't be so prevalent. And look at what we have in our country, just a nation where Jews are running all different types of financial systems, Hollywood, the music industry. You're like, you're racist. You're saying, Jews are not a race. They're a religion. And whether they practice it or not, they still are saying, when they say they're a Jew, they don't like Jesus. That's what they're saying. That's what they're identifying as. So whether they're religious or secular or not, if they say they're a Jew, it's not because, if they have blonde hair and blue eyes and they came from Poland, they're probably not ethnic Jews, okay, in most cases. Maybe they have 5, 10% or something like that. My wife is Ashkenazi. She's got a marker in her, so she's a Jew. There's this freak online that's like, you're racist. You're just hiding your racism. I'm married to a Mexican Jew. What are you talking about? I'm racist, though? I'm a Nazi? I mean, come on. Just the good percentage, right? She's a Jew. She's Mexican. She's Irish. She's black, too. She's from the Berber people, so she has some black in her. That's just ridiculous to say that I'm racist because I'm not racist. It has nothing to do with that. I love Jews, and I want them to be saved. I mean, I don't know how many times I have to say things like that. They're just like, you're just hiding the fact that you want to kill all the Jews by saying those things. If I wanted to kill them all, I would say it. If I thought that they all should die, I would say that. But I don't believe that. I don't believe that for one second. I do think that freak homos need to die. Not by my hands. Not by the hands of the people in our congregation. But the government should put them to death like it says in the Bible. But there's no scripture that says that the Jews need to be put to death, is there? So that's not real. But you know what is real? The fact that the New Testament sheds a light on the Jews of today. They rejected Christ. They're blinded. They have a veil over their eyes, and they're blind. And unless they believe on Christ, that veil is going to be over their face for their whole life. They're not going to be able to believe. They're not going to be able to get saved. But you know, if someone was a Jew, of course I'd give them the gospel. But somebody, what was it, Brother Bill? Someone said, I'll be fine in my synagogue. What did they say? Yeah, I'll keep going to synagogue. So what's that saying to Bill? You know, I don't want to believe in Jesus. That's what it says. So you know, I'll keep going to synagogue. You mean the synagogue of Satan? Yes, that synagogue. That's what the Bible calls it, folks. Like, how's that racist? God's saying that. And this guy doesn't even realize that Jesus was a Jew. He came to his own, and his own received him not. It's not about him being an ethnic Jew or anything like that. It's a spiritual thing, folks. Salvation is a spiritual thing. It has nothing to do with your skin color or what race or what country you came from. God doesn't care about that, and I don't either. But I do understand that Jews have been kicked out of every nation on the face of the planet for predatory lending, peddling smut. When the Germans burned the books, what they don't tell you in their propaganda is that they're burning porno books. They're burning books that are just wicked, and they're trying to get rid of the scourge of what they were doing to their country. So you know, and I don't think that anybody would have a problem with that. And they were predatory lending. So I looked up, is 200% interest legal? Here's the answer I got. It wasn't Chad GPT or GTP or whatever, but it was just on Google, okay? That's his brother. Google and Chad GTP are both brothers. But it says, there is no federal regulation on the maximum interest rate that your issuer can charge you. Though each state has its own approach to limiting interest rates, there are state usury laws that dictate the highest interest rate on loans, but these often don't apply to credit card loans. So why don't they apply to credit card loans? Well, what I was reading is that if the place that they issue the credit card from is from a state that's different on their, they can use that state, even though it wasn't where the bank was, they can use the state where it was issued from and use those laws instead. So there are different rules and things like that, but I mean, they can pretty much charge what they want. If you just don't pay your credit cards and you just say, I'm going to max them all out, you don't file bankruptcy, they're going to come after you forever. And they're going to charge you. When you don't pay your credit cards on time, what happens? The rate goes up, doesn't it? If you don't pay it back at the end of the month, what happens? 29%. That is predatory lending, folks. 29%? That's 30% on the balance every time that the new balance comes out. It's a lot of money. And it's wrong. It's wrong to predatory lend like that. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 19. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 23 19, thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother. Usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury. Pretty much nails it all down, doesn't it? Like anything that you would say here, you owe me interest, whether it's a car, a boat, a house, money, whatever. Anything. Until a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou set his thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it. So, here we have another scripture. It's just very clear. Don't lend to your brother in usury. Look at Leviticus 25 verse 35. Leviticus chapter 25 verse 35. The Bible covers this quite a bit, actually. It talks about it a lot. I'm not even going to go to all the scriptures, but I'm going to go to some that I wanted to show you tonight. Leviticus 25 35 says, and if thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him. Yea, though he be a stranger or sojourner that he may live with thee, take thou no usury of him. So, what's the Bible saying? Help them. Don't expect more back. It says thou shall take no usury of him or increase, but fear thy God that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury nor lend him thy victuals for increase. So, even if you're just like, here I'm going to buy you some groceries, but you've got to pay me back some extra boxes of Lucky Charms or whatever, you're not supposed to do that. You just lend, and then if they pay you back, then it should be the exact amount, is what it's saying. Now, look at Nehemiah chapter 5. Nehemiah had some interesting ways of motivating people as a Christian. He's pulling people's hair out. He's threatening people that come and try to sell things on the Sabbath, but there came a point where usury was being done to their own people. I mean, it's like Nehemiah is just trying to build things. He's trying to get things back to where they used to be, and he's just running into all these roadblocks, and so he kind of gets a bad temper at some points. I mean, there was people that were marrying heathen, and he's like pulling their hair and making them swear that they, making them divorce their spouses, which is also not right. So he was a little overzealous sometimes, threatening people that came to try to sell stuff on the Sabbath, things like that, but here he moves an assembly to kind of go against the people that are lending to other people in the nation of Israel. It says, and there was in verse 1, Nehemiah 5, it says, there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren who? The Jews, right? This is in the Old Testament, but this is what they do. This is how they operate. It says, for there were that said, we our sons and our daughters are many. Therefore, we take up corn for them that we may eat and live. Some also there were that said, we have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses that we might buy corn because of the dearth. So there's a dearth in the land, and they've mortgaged everything off, and they're basically having to sell their own kids to work for different people. It says, there were also that said, we have borrowed money for the king's tribute and that upon our lands and vineyards. So they can't even pay the tribute to the king. It says, yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children, and though we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already. Neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards. And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. So he found out that the children of Israel were doing the usury thing, and that all these predatory lending were going against them, and he was very angry. It says, then I consulted with myself. I said, self? No, I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said unto them the exact usury every one of his brother, and I set a great assembly against them. So he's like bringing people to just rip them to shreds in an assembly, right? And I said unto them, we after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen, and will you even sell your brethren? Or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace and found nothing to answer. Also I said, it is not good that you do, ought you not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen, our enemies. I likewise and my brethren and my servants might exact of them money and corn. I pray you, leave or let us leave off this usury. Stop doing it. You're doing it. You need to stop doing it. Restore, I pray you, to them even this day their lands, their vineyards, their olivers, and their houses. Also the hundredth part of the money. So how much is a hundredth part? Well how much would that be? One percent, right? So we're talking a one percent usury here. He's saying give that back to them. So there's a big difference between one percent and twenty nine point nine percent interest, isn't there? So we're talking, you know, he's angry about a one percent usury. One out of every hundred dollars. And you know God's, like he doesn't want it to be any percent. He doesn't want it to be point five. He doesn't want it to be point zero zero one. Nothing. It says in verse twelve, then said they, we will restore them and will require nothing of them. So will we do as thou sayest. When I saw, when I called the priest and took an oath of them that they should do according to this promise. Also I shook my lap and said, so God shake out every man from his house and from his labor that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out and emptied. And all the congregations said amen and praise the Lord and the people did according to this promise. So here you see the Jews get right and they have to give back the hundredth. Imagine if we got back all the interest that someone charged us in our lifetime. It'd be a lot of money. I mean I paid a lot of interest. Now here's what I'll say. It's wrong for me as a Christian to enact usury on another Christian. It's wrong for you to do it to me. But I don't believe it's wrong for us to get something and it's from usury because they don't have any stipulations. This is talking about God's people doing it to each other. Now obviously we wouldn't even be able to live in this world really if we didn't have to you know kind of be servants to the lender sometimes. But it's not... did you see where it's where it said that they can't lend to you these outside places? They can do that. You know the best thing is to not owe any percentage on anything. And a lot of people do the... or they set aside cash and then they buy all stuff with cash and that's great. But not everybody is in that situation and you know but the Bible does say the borrower is servant to the lender. And that means that you know you're going to have to pay when it comes to borrowing something. If you can't afford it and we're really kind of in a system now where it used to be where a man could go work a job, his wife could stay home, he could afford to pay for all this stuff for his kids and everything. But now it's like you're kind of forced to have both people work or at least that's what they would make us think. But somehow we've survived all these years where we were able to live and my wife hasn't worked for many many years and we raised families and you know somehow they're still alive and they've had they had food and they had clothing and they had a place to live. It's because people don't want to work for it you know. But you don't... I mean in certain situations yeah it might be where you need to buy a brand new car or something. But obviously you lose a big value of that of how much that car is worth driving off the lot. But then you also have a hundred thousand mile warranty generally where if something goes wrong with it you can get that vehicle fixed and it's like a five-year warranty or whatever. So sometimes it makes sense. Now I like just buying used cars but when you buy used cars you have usury also sometimes unless you just pay cash for everything. But it's probably best to not owe things and to get so buried in debt that you just all you are is just serving some lender that lent you money to buy something. I mean how much do you really want it? You know when you buy a new boat you know it's just that's just a trap. That's a money trap. Avoid boats. I mean every person I know that's bought a boat they like use it for like a summer like yeah it's so great then like then they're like I gotta wash it I gotta put it in storage I gotta store it something and it's just like it just you see them just rot in yards in Portland right. They're just there with mold and a cover over the top of them because they use it for a couple years and they spent like 30 grand trying to get it. So anyway let's look at verse 26. The Bible's back in our text it says if thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down. So a pledge to you know for whatever for whatever reason but you're supposed to give it back to him by the time the sun goes down. It says for that is his covering only it is his raiment for his skin wherein shall he sleep and it shall come to pass when he crieth unto me that I will hear for I am gracious. So I mean if you take someone's clothes as like a pledge to for something that you're supposed to be doing or you know a loan of some sort and you don't give them back and they have to sleep you know with no clothes on or something somewhere in the cold God's gonna hear it and he's gracious and he's gonna make sure that something bad happens to that person I'm sure but anyway it doesn't say he's gonna kill him but you know maybe they'll be sleeping you know out in the woods sometime for what they did to somebody else. Look at verse 28 says thou shalt not revile the gods nor curse the ruler of thy people and there's a lot of a lot of opinions about this but when it's talking about gods not revile gods it's not talking about the false gods it's not talking about demons because that's what they really are it's talking about people that are rulers and God calls them gods now they're not gods in the sense that they are all-knowing or have these special powers but they are anointed by God to carry out leadership tasks and positions and offices so and why do I think that well because that's kind of what the Bible says so gods would equal judges or spiritual leadership or kings of some sort so and Jesus comments on the scriptures when it's concerning the gods look at John chapter 10 verse 30 John chapter 10 verse 30 let's keep your finger there in Exodus 22 verse 28 and just skip over to John chapter 10 and so Jesus says this thing to them he says that he's the son of God I know that wasn't me I didn't do anything it says I and my father are one and so it says then the Jews took up stones again to stone him Jesus answered them many good works have I showed you from my father for which of those works do you now do you stone me why are you trying to kill me for doing good things the Jews answered him saying for a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy because thou being a man makest thyself God Jesus answered them is it not written in in your law I said year gods if he if he called them gods unto whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken say ye of them of him whom the father has sanctified and sent into the world thou blasphemous because I said I'm the son of God so he's like he's using the scriptures to defend his position that even you know him saying that he's the son of God he's not blaspheming by saying that but look how he explains it though he says it says you know it's written in your law I said your gods if he called them gods unto whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken so who's it talking about it's talking about the prophets it's talking about like Moses remember Moses he said you shall be unto Pharaoh as unto God and Aaron will be your like your prophet so it's not that they actually are gods but that is what God is saying that's what God's calling them they're like us you know they're like somebody in authority somebody that's a ruler of the people but Moses you know and the judges that was the system that God set up but the high priest was also a ruler in his own they did have some kind of they had leadership but someone was the ultimate ruler and then they had like the ruler of the priest the ruler over those things so psalm 82 I think is what what he's quoting from it says I have said your gods and all of your children are of the most high so he sees quoting psalm chapter 82 verse 6 when it says your gods it is a small g it's not talking about actually being God it's just saying that word and using that in the word for a ruler now Paul actually addresses this in context when he is captured and they're smacking him around turn to act chapter 23 verse 1 and you know what the point is is that what you know the bible says we're not supposed to despise government we're not you know so if you're just so anti-government that you'll not let anybody rule over you then that's not God's program God did ordain government he did ordain kings he did or ordain spiritual leadership he ordained rule of law so it's not just something that you can just revile you can't just hate all government you can't you know that that's not what God wants of us he wants us to live within the confines that we we find ourselves in today we're not in old testament Israel we have to follow the laws of the land here unless of course those laws are telling us to sin so if the law of our nation is telling us to sin they're saying you can't go soul winning then we break that rule because they don't have the right to tell us that because God is reigning supreme over the government God made the government and whether they realize that or not God did you know ordain government human government he ordained the church he ordained the home and there's certain there's spheres of authority that we have in our lives and one person is over every other sphere and that's God so God is the one that tells us what we're supposed to do and so if anything you know tries to interact with that in a negative way and say we can't do something that God's telling us that we have to do then that's known void to us isn't it so if someone says you can't go so many if someone says you can't go to church we don't have to follow those rules you know and so it's the same thing in the home you know we me as the pastor I don't have the right to tell you what to do in your own home and neither would I now I'm going to get up and preach the word of God and what the word of God says about what to do in your own home but I'm never going to come over and do like a a spiritual test to see how great you're doing right now oh look at this DVD oh look at these CDs oh look at these idols you got in your house I mean that's just I'm not going to do that God is the one that deals with the family on those types of things you know what the Bible says so what is it talking about here well look what Paul says in context Acts 23 1 it says and Paul earnestly beholding the council said men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day and the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth so Paul's just like yeah you know I'm just you know I'm doing all someone just slaps him across the face you know the high priest tells him to slap him and the high priest and so then it says then said Paul unto him God shall smite thee thou whited wall I really like that response actually he's not saying I'm gonna smack you when I get out of these chains he said God's gonna gonna smack you right it says for citizens to judge me after the law and command this me to be smitten contrary to the law so he's standing up for what his right is at under the law of God and then they and they that stood by said revile us thou God's high priest so this is the high priest so he's in he's in spiritual leadership over the things that God has set forth now of course this at this time the old testament is is pretty much dying it is it's really done but it takes time for it to fizzle out it takes time for the destruction of the temple where they can't serve in the temple anymore and all that stuff but it says and then Paul said I wish not brethren that he was the high priest for it is written thou shall not speak evil of the ruler of thy people and so he's kind of backing off what he said and I don't know that necessarily he really because I mean Paul's an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ the Pharisees are really just you know they're not really in charge of him but I think he's saying that maybe for the benefit of those people thinking that they because they think he is and so Paul I think is just respecting what was being said I don't know that he's actually necessarily right about him being in some kind of leadership over the people but you know I could be wrong about that but you know whatever you think about it Paul uses that verse that we're in in Exodus to say you're not supposed to revile you're not supposed to speak evil of the rule of your people so and speaking evil is what wishing bad things to happen to them what did Paul say God shall smite thee thou whited wall so I mean he's basically saying God's gonna hurt you because you smacked me God's gonna smack you so whether he's right about the fact that he's a legitimate leader of them anymore because in reality the Jews were no longer in leadership they rejected Christ the true leader of our captain of our salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ Paul works directly for the Lord Jesus Christ as an apostle that saw the resurrected Christ and was commissioned to preach the gospel and do all these things so Paul isn't doing anything wrong but I just my personal belief on this verse is that he's just saying you know I shouldn't have said that just because he says I I'll become all things to all people that I might by all means save some and so sometimes Paul would be in these situations where he's not going to just say you know your high priest is a reprobate you know that's that's not really going to help his case out any he's in chains he's being smacked around it's not right but you know the office of the high priest is something to respect and and and you know at least according to the old testament that there's no more kings there's no more judges at this in this point in time so he's a religious leader of the Jews and Paul is using this scripture in context to you know kind of back off of what he said so but this doesn't mean that we can't preach against rulers all right when I get up and I rip on Joe Biden for the policies and the things he's doing that's not reviling him that is reviling what he's doing John the Baptist got his head chopped off because he said something about the marriage of Herod and stole his brother Philip's wife and was just going around with her all you know she had him killed because he was preaching against them and saying it was unlawful to do those things so I mean you see Elijah challenging you see Elijah challenging the leadership when they're doing tyrannical things so but at the same time there was you know there are anointed positions that got annoyance in this in this life and in this world and it's not our job to overthrow them it's not our job to overthrow the presidency what are you doing are you helping me out here okay do you want me to just turn this off all right that's annoying so sorry about that but what was I saying yeah it's not our job to overthrow the government you know and if some loony person comes into this church and starts saying hey we need to you know we need to try to get our own militia and we had some people recruit try to get us to do some training where all the churches help each other out and fight off sodomites when they come and or anybody that's coming like antifa or whatever and like they're like teaching us these thrusts with these like sticks and stuff like that and at the end I mean it was freezing outside by the way and they're like treating us like we're in the military to do this training we just showed up just to check it out and see what's going on and we're like you know just you know they're walking around trying to knock the sticks out of our hands and just being really like they're trying to militarize us or something at the end I just went and sat in the car after a while I was like this is stupid but if we stood outside and hit people with sticks that were trying to come into the church we would go to jail so that's not what that's you know and we're not supposed to overthrow the government whatever you think about January 6 I don't think that they were trying to really overthrow the government I think that that's a little far-fetched but I do know that when you're downtown Portland at the justice center every single night shining cops in the lasers or lasers in the cops eyes throwing molotov cocktails and and you know having bricks delivered and throwing them at the police that is an insurrection that is take trying to take over the government and you know but of course they get probation you know everybody that was January 6 gets the you know 22 years in jail 17 years in jail some of them didn't even step foot in there I mean I know that they took a you know what on Nancy Pelosi's desk or something I think that's the worst thing that they did but that's pretty gross but anyway that was like the worst thing that they did like basically in my mind but I don't think that they touched any of the senators they didn't touch it you know they could have but they didn't so my point is though is that it's not our job as Christians to try to overthrow the government or you know have some kind of insurrection so we're not supposed to revile the rulers and even though they're really wicked they should get preached against I believe that but we're not supposed to be the ones that are just trying to overthrow them that's God's job just like Paul said God will smite thee thou whited wall he you know he's leaving it up to God you know Jesus Christ didn't try to overthrow Herod he didn't try to overthrow Pilate he said if you know if my kingdom was of this world then would my servants fight so you know this isn't a physical thing that we're doing here we're fighting a spiritual battle so so now it says in verse 29 and back in our text it says thou shall not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits and of thy liquors the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me so the the rule of tithing for them was to bring forth the first fruits and it says of liquors now people like oh I thought you said the liquor you know we're not supposed to have liquor you know why did they have liquor Pastor Thompson sounds like they had a liquor store that's not what it means idiots and I'm not talking about you just anybody that says that if you say that then maybe you are an idiot but that's not what it's talking about it's not talking about like hey if you own a liquor store you know bring the first distilled ones to bring the moonshine unto me you know so the firstborn of thy son shall give so you know first in respect of dedicating the firstborn son it is a picture I'm going to cover all this but it is a picture of God's firstborn and Jesus Christ the firstborn of every creature and it says you know and and only and he only the son being dedicated to serve the father so the dedication of the firstborn you know is is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is the firstborn you know the only begotten son of God so you have that picture but then you have the delaying of the tithe in this verse also so the liquors liquors is liquid in which something has been steeped or cooked that's what it means so we might say oh hey I want some liquor and that's all that means to us is alcohol but back then that's not what that necessarily meant and they would boil down grapes and things like that they would boil them and they'd put them in canning jars and then they would add water to those things and it would be like juice it's like we have concentrate juice right now they had their own way of doing those things so that's what it's talking about so we have stuff that's concentrate even soups you have to add a certain amount of water like you've gotten the campbell soup and then you pour it in and it says add three or four more cups of water or whatever it's kind of like that so but what it's so it's talk it could be liquor but I don't think that that's what it's talking about in this instance obviously and it also is the liquid liquid from which a substance has been crystallized or extracted in middle English from the old French from the Latin liqueur related to lick where liquify or to be fluid so it's just something that's been boiled down or it's been you know it's yeah it's been boiled down in order to be extracted in some other way so that's what it's talking about but now look at verse 30 so I mean obviously the Bible doesn't teach for us to drink liquor it's not saying bring bring liquor he's talking about other stuff any way that you bring your tithe because they were supposed to bring their tithe and if it was too much for them to bring say they have say it was a rich cattle person a rich farmer and they were supposed to bring their ties into the storehouse God allowed them to turn that into money and then come and and give that because they're also supposed to partake of some of the offerings that they gave and if they didn't bring the offerings and they turn it into money then they could spend that money that was supposed to they were supposed to partake of on something that their soul lusted after so when you're and when it says your soul lusts after it's anything that you're that you want anything that you want to drink or eat or whatever it's not necessarily talking about lust in a bad way lust and desire are the same thing so lust in a lot of a lot of ways is a negative thing but it's not always a negative thing if you like hamburgers your soul lusts after them is it wrong for your soul to lust after a hamburger i mean most americans would say no but uh anyway so i mean that's kind of what it's talking about but but think about this so you know it's not right for us to hold back our ties that's what it's saying i mean if you want to bring it into 2023 it's not right if you're just storing up and you're and you keep forgetting to tithe God just wants you to to you know be on a regular schedule when you're doing it you're like well i just want to save it up and do it at the end of the year i mean you can do that but i mean i don't think that that's what should be done but i mean i think that the bible is alluding to that when it says don't don't defer to do this that you should not wait it's actually saying the opposite of that isn't it so look at verse 30 it says likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen and with thy sheep seven days it shall be with it with his dam and on the eighth day thou shall give it me so you have this eighth day thing going on here now what was what was supposed to happen with a male child after the eighth day they were supposed to get what they were supposed to get circumcised okay in the nation of Israel now circumcision availeth nothing to us today as a matter of fact if you think that getting circumcised or getting your children circumcised is something that God requires or it's going to make you more holy or something like that that's not the case that is not true that's not what the bible teaches in fact it goes against the circumcision more in the new testament as far as the circumcision of the flesh so well what is this kind of alluding to well look at first corinthian chapter 15 verse 22 i'm going to go back to this because i think it's kind of important for us to kind of grasp what well why the eighth day well how long did it take god to create the earth six days right and the seventh day he rested when christ died he rested and it was a high holy sabbath day and then what happened on the next day what happened on the day that you know the first day of the week he rose from the dead didn't he so look what it says in first corinthians chapter 15 22 says for as in adam all die even so in christ shall all be made alive but everyone in his own order christ the first fruits see that do you think that's an accident that it's calling him the first fruits and then it's talking about that in the old testament all the time after that they are afterward they that are christ at his coming so what i think is that the eighth day possibly represents the resurrection of christ and the resurrection of the saints because jesus christ is the first fruits right and so he's the first fruits of them that slept he rose again on the uh the first day of the week and so it was after the sabbath you know he fulfilled the sabbath the picture of the sabbath and then you have jesus rising and then if you think about it the old testament switched to the new testament and most people go to church on sunday on the first day of the week because jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week they used to keep the sabbath which was saturday and now we don't keep a sabbath but i would just say that we go to church on sunday the first day of the week because it's kind of it had become a tradition but paul also mentions you know you know doing the offering on the first day of the week and things like that and so we don't have to keep the sabbath we could work seven days a week if we want to because the sabbath was just a picture of christ dying for us and you know doing that and then we don't do any works to be saved and then he's also the first fruits of them that slept so circumcision was supposed to be done on the eighth day representing what what does circumcision represent in in the circumcision of the flesh what what is the purpose of it anybody know this represents salvation because in the new testament he says we're supposed to circumcise our hearts right and so the circumcision on the eighth day represents what salvation so so when a child gets circumcised and i think that you know i could be wrong about this but i think that medically that is that has proven to be the best day to actually do a circumcised uh circumcision on a child i don't know if that's jewish propaganda i can't remember you know it's been a long time but i was against circumcision even before i became a christian i just thought it was what's the point of it you know i just didn't know i just thought well that's mean you know what i mean obviously and god commanded it in the old testament but like if there's no purpose for it now then why would you do that to your child there's just no no reason to do that if it's for you know cosmetic purposes or whatever it's like you're choosing what you know you're kind of making a choice in a child that might not want that later on you know and i know we make a lot of choices for our kids but like that's kind of a that's kind of a big choice isn't it so i don't know maybe i'm wrong about my way of thinking about it but but you know the circumcision of the heart happened when the new testament took effect jesus christ rose after the sabbath he died and was in hell for three days three nights rose again on the first day and you know that kind of i know that there's only seven days in a week he came back on the first day but it seems like you know there's a week and then you got that next day and that's when jesus rose on the first day of the week so and then we're supposed to have circumcised hearts and we're no longer required to have the circumcision of the flesh so the first fruits do represent christ right christ the first fruits afterward they that are christ at his coming so that's our salvation you know we we're saved currently we actually are in heaven at this point i don't understand how that works but we are saved and when jesus comes back that is you know that is when our full salvation will take place because the redemption of the body means that we are without sin anymore and so that is represented in the salvation and the first the first fruits are what you bring to god first and he's the firstborn of all creation he's the first fruit so and then think about this jesus said that we're supposed to receive the gospel as what a little child so obviously babies can't get saved like that they're already saved basically but they can't choose to be saved but it is kind of a picture you know of that salvation happening and you should receive it as a little child so i don't know i just thought that was kind of interesting so anyway let's look at verse 31 it says and you shall be holy men unto me neither shall you eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field you shall cast it to the dogs now this could have a double meaning too here so obviously it's just gross to eat roadkill it's actually legal i don't know if it's legal in washington but i know it's legal in oregon to to collect roadkill and harvest the carcasses so if a deer gets hit i think i'm pretty sure it's in oregon right but i know that there's some places that are allowing you to do this now but it's just weird so we're not supposed to eat the flesh of anything that's died of itself and when an animal gets hit they're not exactly harvested in the way that we are supposed to harvest animals and if that if you know obviously they're probably trying to get to the freshest kills and you could probably drain the blood out of them things like that but i mean god's saying that you shouldn't eat the flesh of anything that's torn by bees so if you find an animal you're not supposed to eat that animal now i know that the dietary laws and restrictions are you know they're done away in christ and it was a picture of clean and unclean okay i get that but if a bee if it's torn by by the by another beast or it's hit by a car or whatever however it died you're not gonna be able to drain the blood out of it properly in most cases so the bible says you're supposed to cast it to the dogs so that's what's supposed to you know apparently they kept dogs back then i mean they were shepherds so i'm i'm guessing they did keep dogs but if something was torn by a predator you were not supposed to feed it to your family so i think that roadkill is disgusting i don't i would not eat we had some people were going to our church in the uk that were feeding they were bringing roadkill to people at church and presenting it i mean i don't think they were telling people at first but then like oh man i'd be so mad somebody don't ever do that to me i'll freak out i'll rebuke you it just grosses me out but i mean you've seen some animals hit on the road and they're they're in pretty bad shape a lot of them aren't they and the birds are picking at them so i mean it's just it's just an unclean thing right the birds are like fighting over their carcasses and yeah it's gross so but uh you know add dogs eating dead carcasses as just another sick thing that dogs are willing to do i mean they eat dead bodies you know and if you preach against dogs in this country people will get pissed off people are already starting to get mad right now but look they're animals folks they're not your kids and some of them turn into land sharks right michela they throw she's like she's waving the hanky but uh you know dogs also roll in dead animal carcasses did you know that we had hunting dogs that we trained and they would just take off because we lived out in the meadows and our dogs would be gone for like three days at a time and and then like it never failed that our our lab would bring back you know during hunting seasons when they would do this they'd bring back the head of a buck or an elk or some other kind of deer and they just bring it and drop it in the yard you know what they smell like dead animal carcasses they're just you know dogs are kind of disgusting creatures they really are i mean i've loved dogs and i you know i'm i'm nice to dogs and i like i do like dogs i like there's some things about dogs i do like but i'm not gonna i'm not planning on owning another dog for the rest of my life you know i have to replace all my carpets because of them and you know when they get old and they can't really fend for themselves anymore then it's really just kind of you kind of lose the love at some point you know after the 30th time of cleaning up their dog crap that they did in the house and they can't control themselves and it's just like they're too old to beat you know what i mean they're just like it's frustrating okay but it is sad you know but there there's kind of a time it's kind of hard to know when the time is to get rid of an animal but you know but people like their their animals don't worship your dogs okay don't worship cats cats have this worm that they have pastor mahe was telling me about has anybody heard of this before i'm almost done i just this is just kind of an adding on top here cats have a worm that they can pass to human hosts and they can pass to other rodents and things like that in the house and they can't control you or something they can't mind control you or something but you kind of wonder why there's so many crazy cat ladies now but they can make this this worm causes rats to take risks that they normally would not take and they get it from being in this house where the cat has this worm or whatever and so the cats kind of get those worms get the cat that get the rats to do something more daring than they would normally do and then the cats can get them but if humans can get them which they can i forgot what they called it i i didn't write it down but look it up after church i'm not making this up like pastor mahe had told me about the other night and i'd never heard of this before in my life and he's like yeah and so like when you're he said what he's talking about what he's talking about you know cats and people get all triggered about it like people that love cats he's he'll be like that's the worm oh man so everybody's gonna get rid of their cats tomorrow now that's that's all i have for exodus chapter 22 but yeah don't eat roadkill folks it's gross so anyway let's let's pray lord thank you so much for this great chapter of the bible pray lord that you'd help us to apply whatever we can apply in our christian life and lord help us to obviously look at the spiritual side of things everything is not just carnal in the bible it is spiritual application to us pray that you'd help us to apply what we need to apply in our lives pray you'd bless us throughout this week we thank you for the souls that were saved and for the great attendance and fellowship this week and we ask that you just take us all home safely in jesus name we pray amen