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9, and the reason that I read Judges 8 just now was just to give you a little bit of the

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introduction just so you can kind of get the context of what we're seeing in chapter 9

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because I'm going to preach through the events of chapter 9 about Abimelech, but let me just

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bring you up to speed quickly.

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Of course, Gideon was the famous man who the Bible says was a mighty man of valor and God

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chose him to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites.

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They'd been enslaved by the Midianites.

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The Midianites were coming in and taking all the increase of their harvest.

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They would raise wheat and all kinds of crops.

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The Midianites were taxing them very heavily and taking away all their wealth and if you

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remember Gideon was hiding wheat to try to hoard it and keep it away from the Midianites

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and God's angel comes and speaks to Gideon and tells him, you're going to deliver the

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Israelites.

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You're going to defeat the enemy.

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You're going to fight against Midian.

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And if you remember he assembles an army of 32,000 men and he's going to defeat the Midianites,

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but God tells Gideon that God doesn't want Gideon to get the glory and he doesn't want

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Israel to take the glory for themselves.

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He says you have too many troops.

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You need to whittle down the number of troops a little bit.

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Now they were facing an enemy that was as many as the sandwiches by the sea, the Bible

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says.

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I mean a massive, innumerable enemy.

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They only have 32,000, but God said it's too many.

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And so if you remember, Gideon extends to everyone the invitation to go home if you're

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scared.

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He said if you're scared, go home.

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Of course 22,000 go home.

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Now he's left with 10,000.

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God says it's still too many.

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And so he said have them go down to the river, and we're going to test them down there, and

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if you go down to the river and drink water, all the men who get on their knees and bring

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their hand to their mouth and lap the water out of their hand, those are the ones you're

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going to take with you.

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The ones who put their face down in the water, you're not going to take them.

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So they go down to the river and only 300 men drink the water the way that God had told

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Gideon they should drink if they were going to come with them.

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And so now he's down to 300 troops against an innumerable enemy, and if you remember

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God miraculously steps in, Gideon divides his group of 300 into 3 groups of 100 each,

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and if you remember they have a pitcher with a lamp in it and a trumpet in the other hand.

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They surround the enemy.

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They break their pitchers, shine the lights, blow the trumpet, and they cry out the sword

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of the Lord and of Gideon, and when they do so, the enemy, God performed a miracle where

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the enemy heard the noise of a much greater army than what was really there, 300 men.

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God amplified the sound, and so they thought, we're surrounded by a massive enemy, and there

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was so much confusion and trampling upon one another that that innumerable army flees before

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Gideon and his 300 men.

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Well as Gideon and his 300 men are pursuing this great army, obviously the other children

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of Israel, they hear about the great victory and the great rout that's taking place, and

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so they all join in and they follow Gideon, and then Gideon had a great army at his back,

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and he pursues them, he destroys Midian, he defeats them, and we read a little bit about

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the latter portion of that in Judges chapter 8, what we just read.

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So now let's get to the aftermath.

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Gideon the great hero, the man of faith, the man of God, has defeated the enemies of the

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Lord, he's brought freedom and liberty to his nation.

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Let's start reading in chapter 8 verse 27, the Bible says, And Gideon made an ephod thereof,

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and put it in his city, even in Ophrah.

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And all Israel went thither, a-whoring after it, which thing became a snare unto Gideon

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and to his house.

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And of course that was a mistake that Gideon did make.

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He never stopped worshipping the Lord, he never forsook the Lord and went after other

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ephods, but he did create this golden image of an ephod, and because he made that image,

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it was a stumbling block unto others.

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Even though he never worshipped this golden image, other people did and so forth.

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Look at verse 28, Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they

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lifted up their heads no more.

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And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.

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So after Gideon defeats this enemy, for forty years there's peace and prosperity and quietness

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in the land.

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It says in verse 29, Then Jerubal, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own house.

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You say, who's Jerubal?

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Well Jerubal is a name that Gideon's father named him.

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Because Gideon's name was Gideon, but at one point Gideon, before he defeated the enemy's

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Midian, he destroys the altar of Baal.

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And they're worshipping this false god Baal, and Gideon destroyed that altar, and so they

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changed his name to Jerubal, and that basically means the one that Baal strives against or

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pleads against, or the one who pleads against Baal.

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Basically the man who is at enmity with Baal, the name Jerubal means.

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Now Baal is a term, and this is going to come up a little bit later in the story, Baal is

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a term for Satan, if you remember in the Bible.

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All throughout the Bible we see terms like Baal, Baal Zebub, Baal Ekron, Beelzebub, Beliel,

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and then in the book of Jeremiah, the Bible, and in Daniel it talks about Bel, B-E-L.

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Same thing, it's just different ways of saying the same thing, Baal, Beelzebub, Baelim, whatever.

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It's all talking about worshipping Satan, because the Bible teaches very clearly that

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these Old Testament nations, when they worshiped, quote, other gods, the Bible is clear they're

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worshipping Satan.

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And that's why the Bible calls Satan Beelzebub and calls him Baal.

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Also in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians, the Bible says that the things which the Gentiles

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offer unto idols, he said they offer unto devils.

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And so these false gods, these idols, these images of Baal Zebub, Baal Ekron, whoever

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the case, the Bible says that these are devils, these are demons that they are actually worshipping.

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So Jerubal means the one who is at enmity with Baal would be one way of putting it.

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And it says in verse 30, and Gideon, and again, Gideon and Jerubal are the same person.

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And Gideon had three score and ten sons of his body begotten, for he had many wives.

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And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son, whose name he called

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Abimelech.

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So get the picture, Gideon has disobeyed the Lord here in one way.

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First of all, he made that image of the Ephod.

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But secondly, he has taken upon him multiple wives.

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Now this is something that the Bible has never taught and never condoned.

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The Bible says, from the beginning it was not so.

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He said that it is written that a man should leave father and mother and cleave unto his

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wife, singular, and they too shall be one flesh.

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Therefore what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

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And so the Bible teaches very clearly that a man should have one wife.

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That is marriage according to the Bible.

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Not two wives, not three wives.

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But yet we see throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, people who multiplied

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wives.

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People who took on a second wife, a third wife, in conformity to the world around them.

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Now that's not a temptation today because the world around us does not accept polygamy

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today.

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But in other parts of the world, polygamy is accepted.

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In America, it's not.

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In America, people just go from one to the next to the next to the next to the next.

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But in the Bible days, you know, they practice polygamy, which is a sin and it's always been

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a sin.

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Now he made the mistake of having multiple wives and the Bible tells us that with his

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multiple wives, he begat 70 children, 7-0, 70 children with these wives.

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And he also begat a child out of wedlock with a concubine or a maidservant and his name

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was Abimelech.

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So Abimelech, what the Bible would call the bastard son of Gideon.

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And then he has 70 sons that he fathered with his wives.

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Let's keep reading.

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That's going to come up later in the story.

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And it says in verse 32, and Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age and was buried

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in the sepulcher of Joash's father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

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Verse 33, and it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead that the children of Israel turned

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again and went ahoring after Balaam.

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Now the word Balaam is plural there.

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It means basically a multiplicity of Baals.

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They're worshipping more than one false god by the name of Baal and it says they made

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Baal-bereth their god.

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Verse 34, and the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God who had delivered them

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out of the hands of all their enemies on every side, neither showed a kindness to the

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house of Jerubel or Gideon, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had

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showed unto Israel.

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So this is the cycle that keeps happening in the book of Judges over and over again.

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God delivers the people from their enemies.

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He sends a savior or a deliverer or a judge that will come in and deliver them from their

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enemies.

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This time it was Gideon.

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But after 40 years of peace and prosperity they begin to get comfortable.

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They begin to forget how the Lord saved them and they are not running scared anymore and

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now they go ahoring after other gods and that happens over and over again for 400 some years

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in the book of Judges.

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It just goes over and over again, the cycle of people when things are going good they

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forget the Lord.

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And we need to make sure that that's not the way our life is.

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You know in times of trouble we seek unto the Lord, don't we?

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I mean when we're in bad shape, when we're in the storms of life, you know when we're

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suffering, boy that's when we're on our knees begging God to step in, oh God help us.

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And then when he helps us we're thankful and we're renewed in our service for him.

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But then as time goes on and things go well we begin to indulge in the cares of this life

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and we begin to forget to read the Bible, we don't have time for prayer and stuff like

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that.

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God has to bring us through more struggle and more trying times in order to get us to

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come back and seek him.

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And honestly we probably wouldn't go through so many crises in our life if we would just

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remember God all the time and just continually be thankful to him, continually praise him,

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continually pray unto him and read our Bibles.

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But you know he has to get our attention over and over again with hard times.

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Now let's get into chapter 9.

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This is what I really want to preach about this morning.

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Look at verse 1, and Abimelech the son of Jerubel, and remember this is his illegitimate

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son with the concubine, and Abimelech the son of Jerubel went to Shechem unto his mother's

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brethren and communed with them and with all the family of the house of his mother's father,

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saying speak I pray you in the ears of all the men of Shechem.

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Weather is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubel, which are threescore

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and ten again, that's seventy, threescore and ten persons reign over you, or that one

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reign over you.

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Remember also that I'm your bone and your flesh, and his mother's brethren spake of

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him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words, and their hearts inclined

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to follow Abimelech, for they said he is our brother, and they gave him threescore and

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ten pieces of silver, out of the house of Baalbereth, wherewith Abimelech hired vain

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and light persons which followed him.

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So where is the money coming from to finance Abimelech's kingdom that he's going to set

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up?

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Where's it coming from?

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The house of Baalbereth, which Baalbereth is basically a false god, it's a devil that

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they're worshipping.

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So he gets his money from this false god's religion, and he hires with it vain and light

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persons to follow.

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It's basically not people of character or integrity or people who really believe in

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the battle that they're fighting, mercenaries, soldiers that are just hired to follow after

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him for financial gain.

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They're just willing to fight for him because there's money in it.

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And you know that's always the wrong reason to fight or to go to war, for financial gain.

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Think about that now.

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In the Bible, the Bible teaches that there were to go to battle, and they weren't to

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hire out the heathen to help them fight their battles.

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If you remember, there was a time when the king of Judah, he hired those from the sinful

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northern kingdom of Samaria to come and fight with him, and he hired them with money.

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And God said, don't bring these guys with you.

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These are not godly men.

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These are not right.

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The heathen kingdom, because the northern kingdom had gone after other gods.

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And so the Bible teaches that we should not hire wicked people to fight our battles for

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us, okay?

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And let me tell you something, people who go to war, people who will kill and fight

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for a paycheck just in order to gain financially, they are truly vain and light persons.

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When you have a battle that's fought because people believe in the battle, and they believe

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in the cause, and they believe in what you're fighting for, that's going to be the right

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kind of soldier right there.

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But when it's somebody who just wants the money, they don't care about what's right,

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you're going to get the wrong kind of people.

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And I believe that that's a mistake today that our nation is making in regard to the

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military.

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Today even filthy sodomites, even these reprobate homosexuals today are being welcomed into

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the military for filthy lucre's sake.

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You know, I talked to a lot of people today and they're joining the military and they

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even say, I don't even believe in the wars that we're fighting.

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I don't even believe in any of this.

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But they said it's a paycheck, it's good money.

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That's not the right reason.

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And I'm not against fighting for your country and fighting for what's right, but you better

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decide whether you believe in the fight that's going on and not just be one who just fights

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and kills for money, for financial gain.

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And you know, however you feel about the battle, that's between you and God.

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But let me tell you something, you better not go out and kill and fight for a paycheck.

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It ought to be because you believe in the fight, you believe it's right.

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You believe that our cause is just, and that it's justified in the eyes of God.

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That's what I believe.

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But the Bible says here that he hired these vain and light persons to follow him.

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And you can tell what kind of people these are that are following him based on verse

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5.

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And he went into his father's house at Ophrah and slew his brethren, the sons of Jerubel,

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being three score and ten persons upon one stone.

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Notwithstanding yet Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubel, was left for he hid himself.

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So Abimelech, the bastard son of Gideon, he decides I want to take over this kingdom.

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And if you remember when they offered Gideon to be king, they said rule over us, reign

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over us.

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Gideon said I will not reign over you, the Lord will reign over you.

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Because God never set up the nation of Israel to be under a king, they were supposed to

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have judges, but ultimately God was their king and they did not have a man to rule over

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them.

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And so Gideon refused to rule over them.

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And for 40 years he judged Israel biblically, but he did not rule and reign as a king.

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And so he also said my sons will also not reign over you, I don't want them to reign

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over you.

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We need to keep God's system of government.

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But Abimelech, he decides no, I want all the power for myself.

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I want to reign and rule as a king myself.

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And I don't want any of my brethren to be competition.

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And so I am going to kill, I mean like Cain killed Abel, he's going to murder his own

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half-brothers, he's going to murder his own family, and he hires all these vain and light

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persons to be his soldiers, and he tells them kill these innocent people, and they do it.

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Kill these 70 men, the sons of Gideon.

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Now remember, Gideon had saved their nation, Gideon had fought their battles for them,

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and this is how they repay Gideon, by killing all of his children?

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I mean how would you like it after you're gone that all your children are slaughtered?

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That's not respectful of you, not to mention the fact that it's cold-blooded murder.

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But they murder these 70 sons, but they didn't get all 70 of them.

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One of them escapes, one of them hides themself, and his name is Jotham, but 69 of Gideon's

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sons are slaughtered.

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Now let me stop and say this.

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In these days, having a lot of children and having a lot of sons was something that people

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aspire to, was considered a great honor, was considered something of status.

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It was something that people wanted, I mean they wanted to have as many children as possible.

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This is before Margaret Sanger in Planned Parenthood brainwashed you into thinking that

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children are a burden.

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The Bible says children are inherited to the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

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According to the Bible, children are a blessing.

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The Bible says as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.

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Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them.

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They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

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The Bible always teaches that multiplying and having a lot of children is a blessed

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thing.

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And when people had a lot of children, especially when they had sons, they looked at it as this

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is somebody who is going to carry on my line.

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And obviously daughters are just as valuable as sons.

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I have both, I have four sons and three daughters, and I love my daughters every bit as much.

18:21.660 --> 18:26.260
In fact, I'd be fine with having daughters all the way from here on out.

18:26.260 --> 18:28.220
I love having daughters.

18:28.220 --> 18:33.220
It's funny because when I first had three sons, I thought, well if I just have only

18:33.220 --> 18:34.220
sons, that's okay.

18:34.220 --> 18:38.420
When I started having daughters, I started realizing what I was missing.

18:38.420 --> 18:42.100
And so now I really love having daughters, I love both.

18:42.100 --> 18:46.760
It's just a different blessing, having sons and having daughters.

18:46.760 --> 18:53.420
But in the world's eyes in those days, man, you have 70 sons, I mean that's prosperity.

18:53.420 --> 18:58.060
And if you remember, even a wicked man like Haman, the son of Amadeth of the Agagite,

18:58.060 --> 19:02.820
in the book of Esther, he bragged about how he had 10 sons, remember he bragged about

19:02.820 --> 19:03.820
it?

19:03.820 --> 19:07.780
Look at my wealth, look at my power, and I have 10 sons.

19:07.780 --> 19:10.100
And it was considered a good thing and a blessing.

19:10.100 --> 19:17.260
Now I'll guarantee you that when Gideon took all these multiple wives unto him, part of

19:17.260 --> 19:19.780
his goal was to have a lot of children.

19:19.780 --> 19:21.940
That was part of his goal.

19:21.940 --> 19:26.100
He's trying to multiply a lot of children unto himself, okay?

19:26.100 --> 19:31.700
And he wants to have a lot of sons, but wait a minute, does God bless that kind of logic

19:31.900 --> 19:37.140
that says I'm going to break God's laws in order to prosper, in order to succeed?

19:37.140 --> 19:38.140
And you know what?

19:38.140 --> 19:42.500
I'm going to, because I want to multiply and have a lot of children, I'm just going to

19:42.500 --> 19:47.180
have a whole bunch of wives and then I can produce more children with all these multiplicity

19:47.180 --> 19:51.980
of wives if I only have one wife, I can only produce so many children, but wait a minute.

19:51.980 --> 19:57.080
The Bible says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

19:57.080 --> 20:03.840
You know, Abraham, he begat one son with his wife, and that son was Isaac, but wait

20:03.840 --> 20:06.520
a minute, does his name live on?

20:06.520 --> 20:12.360
And his sons and his descendants are like the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.

20:12.360 --> 20:18.480
Isaac had two children with his wife, Jacob and Esau, but yet his descendants are like

20:18.480 --> 20:19.980
the sand of the seashore.

20:19.980 --> 20:24.040
Now in their own understanding, they could have said, oh, I need to take on more wives

20:24.040 --> 20:25.640
and then I can have more children.

20:25.640 --> 20:28.780
But that's not a biblical logic right there.

20:28.780 --> 20:33.120
And look how God does not allow Gideon to succeed in that.

20:33.120 --> 20:38.000
He has all these multiple wives so that he can produce all these 70 sons that are going

20:38.000 --> 20:41.440
to carry on his name after him and carry his heritage.

20:41.440 --> 20:42.440
And guess what?

20:42.440 --> 20:45.840
69 of them are wiped out.

20:45.840 --> 20:49.760
And the 70th is going to be wiped out soon too, and guess how many he ends up having?

20:49.760 --> 20:50.760
One.

20:50.960 --> 20:56.200
See I believe that if he would have trusted in the Lord and just had one wife, and just

20:56.200 --> 21:02.760
had however many children with that wife that God gave him, however many that was, whether

21:02.760 --> 21:08.040
it was only one or whether it was five, whether it was seven, you know, whatever.

21:08.040 --> 21:12.880
If he would have just trusted the Lord, obeyed God, married one wife, produced children with

21:12.880 --> 21:17.440
that wife, I don't believe that this would have happened where they're all getting slaughtered.

21:17.440 --> 21:19.640
And who was it that slaughtered them?

21:19.640 --> 21:23.440
The one that he had with the concubine that wasn't even his wife.

21:23.440 --> 21:29.780
So you see how the sins of Gideon are coming back to haunt even after he's gone.

21:29.780 --> 21:32.460
And the thing that I want to drive in with this chapter, and I'm going to get to this

21:32.460 --> 21:36.440
more as we go through the chapter, the thing I really want to drive in with this chapter

21:36.440 --> 21:40.680
is that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

21:40.680 --> 21:41.920
And here's another thing I want to drive in.

21:41.920 --> 21:44.880
Be sure your sins will find you out.

21:44.880 --> 21:51.160
You know, we commit sins and we do it lightly, but we don't realize these sins have repercussions

21:51.160 --> 21:55.760
for many years to come, even after we're gone, even amongst our descendants.

21:55.760 --> 22:01.960
And so this sin that Jerubel committed by going in under this concubine and producing

22:01.960 --> 22:05.480
an illegitimate child, you know, that haunted him.

22:05.480 --> 22:08.160
And basically he ends up losing all of his other children.

22:08.160 --> 22:09.200
They're all killed.

22:09.200 --> 22:17.660
And so 69 of his 71 children are wiped out by this murderous Cain named Abimelech.

22:17.660 --> 22:20.240
Let's keep reading the story.

22:20.240 --> 22:21.240
So he wiped them out.

22:21.240 --> 22:25.920
It says in verse 6, and all the men of Shechem gathered together and all the house of Millo

22:25.920 --> 22:29.120
and went and made Abimelech king.

22:29.120 --> 22:33.240
It's interesting because we always think of Saul as being the first king of Israel, and

22:33.240 --> 22:37.100
in many senses of course he is, and we think of David as being the second king, but really

22:37.100 --> 22:41.420
if you really want to be technical about it, this is the first king of Israel.

22:41.420 --> 22:45.740
He's a king over the whole land of Israel and he only reigns for three years, but he

22:45.740 --> 22:47.660
is still king nonetheless.

22:47.660 --> 22:52.700
So it says they made him king by the plane of the pillar that was in Shechem.

22:52.700 --> 22:57.740
And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted

22:57.740 --> 23:03.140
up his voice and cried and said unto them, Harken unto me you men of Shechem, that God

23:03.140 --> 23:04.140
may hearken unto you.

23:04.180 --> 23:08.620
And he tells this parable, I'm going to skip over the parable for sake of time, but it's

23:08.620 --> 23:14.300
interesting because he gets up into Mount Gerizim to basically preach and to put this

23:14.300 --> 23:18.300
curse upon Abimelech, and when he gets up there, there's a significance there because

23:18.300 --> 23:21.540
Mount Gerizim is a significant mountain in the Bible.

23:21.540 --> 23:29.260
If you remember back in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, God commanded that Moses would put certain

23:29.260 --> 23:35.340
blessings upon those who obey the commandments of the Lord and certain cursings upon those

23:35.340 --> 23:38.780
that disobeyed the commandments of the Lord.

23:38.780 --> 23:42.420
And Deuteronomy 28 is a great chapter on sowing and reaping.

23:42.420 --> 23:46.020
It's a great chapter on the fact that hey, if you obey God with your life, he's going

23:46.020 --> 23:47.460
to bless your life.

23:47.460 --> 23:51.740
And if you disobey God, you're going to be cursed for it.

23:51.740 --> 23:56.900
Now Mount Gerizim was the mount where the blessings were proclaimed and Mount Ebal was

23:56.900 --> 24:02.100
the mount where the cursings were proclaimed, and those two mountains signify Gerizim the

24:02.100 --> 24:08.180
blessings of the Lord for those who do right, and Ebal represented the cursings of the Lord

24:08.180 --> 24:10.380
on those who do wrong.

24:10.380 --> 24:12.280
And that's really what we see in this chapter.

24:12.280 --> 24:16.100
We see that those who do wrong are cursed.

24:16.100 --> 24:20.820
And so instead of the blessing that was once pronounced from Mount Gerizim, Jotham is getting

24:20.820 --> 24:25.140
up and proclaiming a curse from that same mountain because they have violated the commandments

24:25.140 --> 24:26.140
of the Lord.

24:26.180 --> 24:30.680
So come down if you would after the parable and look at verse 16.

24:30.680 --> 24:37.500
Now therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye have made a bimilech king, and

24:37.500 --> 24:41.620
if ye have dealt well with Jerubel and his house, and have done unto him according to

24:41.620 --> 24:46.540
the deserving of his hands, again we're talking about Gideon, for my father fought for you

24:46.540 --> 24:51.020
and adventured his life far and delivered you out of the hand of Midian, and ye have

24:51.020 --> 24:55.420
risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, killed his sons,

24:55.940 --> 25:01.900
three score and ten persons upon one stone, and have made a bimilech the son of his maidservant

25:01.900 --> 25:06.200
king over the men of Shechem, because he's your brother, because he's their relative

25:06.200 --> 25:07.980
on the mother's side.

25:07.980 --> 25:12.220
If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubel and with his house this day,

25:12.220 --> 25:16.620
then rejoice ye in a bimilech, and let him also rejoice in you.

25:16.620 --> 25:22.300
But if not, let fire come out from a bimilech, and devour the men of Shechem and the house

25:22.300 --> 25:26.860
of Millo, and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo,

25:26.860 --> 25:27.860
and devour a bimilech.

25:27.860 --> 25:32.500
So he puts this burden upon them and says, if you've done right, hey, God's going to

25:32.500 --> 25:38.060
bless you, because he's in Mount Gerizim, he says if you've done right and truly in

25:38.060 --> 25:43.020
making a bimilech your king and killing seventy innocent people, he said, then rejoice in

25:43.020 --> 25:48.460
your king and let him rejoice in you, but, he puts this curse upon them, he says if not,

25:48.460 --> 25:53.420
he says then let fire come out of a bimilech and destroy you, and let fire come out of

25:53.420 --> 25:55.180
you and destroy a bimilech.

25:55.180 --> 25:59.180
He says let both of you be devoured by fire.

25:59.180 --> 26:03.440
Now of course then he has to go flee away, because remember, if they killed the rest

26:03.440 --> 26:05.880
of them, they'd probably want to kill him too.

26:05.880 --> 26:09.460
And so it says in verse 21, and Jotham ran away.

26:09.460 --> 26:11.580
He made his speech and then he gets out of there.

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That's why he does it from the mountaintop, where he's basically away from anybody that

26:16.120 --> 26:20.280
can grab him and lay hold of him, and his voice can carry.

26:20.280 --> 26:23.460
Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and dwelt there.

26:23.460 --> 26:27.980
He turned to alcohol in his life, no I'm just kidding, this is a place called Beer.

26:27.980 --> 26:33.140
He said he went to Beer and dwelt there for fear of a bimilech, his brother.

26:33.140 --> 26:38.000
Verse 22, when a bimilech had reigned three years over Israel, so we see he is a king

26:38.000 --> 26:46.000
over Israel as a whole, not just Shechem only, then God sent, watch this, then God sent an

26:46.120 --> 26:52.760
evil spirit between a bimilech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously

26:52.760 --> 26:53.760
with a bimilech.

26:53.760 --> 27:01.280
So God's not going to bless this kingdom, God's not going to bless this usurper, a bimilech,

27:01.280 --> 27:05.080
who takes this kingdom and rules over it.

27:05.080 --> 27:06.700
So God sends an evil spirit.

27:06.700 --> 27:11.000
Now notice, three years go by, isn't three years kind of a long time?

27:11.000 --> 27:16.440
I mean 365 days a year, three years, so don't you think that these people for a long time

27:16.440 --> 27:21.800
probably thought, hey this is working out great, everything's fine, I don't know what

27:21.800 --> 27:27.640
that idiot Jotham was talking about, everything's great, God's blessing us.

27:27.640 --> 27:33.080
You know what, God's judgment upon sin does not always come immediately.

27:33.080 --> 27:37.120
And a lot of times people commit a wicked sin that the Bible says is wrong, but then

27:37.120 --> 27:42.960
they seemingly get away with it and they think, see, I don't know what Pastor Anderson's talking

27:42.960 --> 27:49.200
about because I did this and it's working out great for me, everything's going fine.

27:49.200 --> 27:54.660
God's not cursing me, everything's going well, therefore what I did must be okay and God

27:54.660 --> 27:56.640
must condone of it.

27:56.640 --> 28:02.000
But wait a minute, God's judgment is coming eventually, sometimes it just takes a little

28:02.000 --> 28:03.000
while to get there.

28:03.000 --> 28:07.040
You know, when you sow a seed, you don't reap the next day, do you?

28:07.040 --> 28:13.440
Whether that seed be good or bad, you reap later and you reap more than you sowed.

28:13.440 --> 28:19.240
But it's a delayed reaction, God's judgment upon sin is always delayed and here it's delayed

28:19.240 --> 28:23.320
by three years, but of course it comes.

28:23.320 --> 28:28.280
And after three years, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem and

28:28.280 --> 28:32.980
the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, treason, treachery, the same word

28:32.980 --> 28:33.980
there.

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It says in verse 24 that they basically are turning against their king now.

28:37.100 --> 28:39.320
They don't want him as king anymore, they don't like him anymore.

28:39.320 --> 28:46.100
God sent this evil spirit between them, basically an evil attitude there between the two to

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not be pleased with one another.

28:48.880 --> 28:55.160
It says in verse 24 that the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubel

28:55.160 --> 29:00.680
might come and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother which slew them and upon the

29:00.680 --> 29:04.340
men of Shechem which aided him in the killing of his brethren.

29:04.340 --> 29:06.740
Verse 25, so they're both going to be judged.

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And the men of Shechem set liars in wait for him in the top of the mountains and they robbed

29:11.820 --> 29:15.500
all that came that way by them and it was told Abimelech.

29:15.500 --> 29:20.380
And Gael the son of Ebed came with his brother and went unto Shechem and the men of Shechem

29:20.380 --> 29:24.300
put their confidence in him and they went out into the fields and gathered their vineyards

29:24.300 --> 29:29.500
and trode the grapes and made merry and went into the house of their God and did eat and

29:29.500 --> 29:32.220
drank and cursed Abimelech.

29:32.220 --> 29:37.640
And Gael the son of Ebed said, who is Abimelech and who is Shechem that we should serve him?

29:37.640 --> 29:41.120
Is not he the son of Jerubel and Zebel as officer?

29:41.120 --> 29:44.560
Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem for why should we serve him?

29:44.560 --> 29:47.320
And would to God this people were under my hand.

29:47.320 --> 29:51.720
Then would I remove Abimelech and he said to Abimelech, increase thine army and come

29:51.720 --> 29:52.720
out.

29:52.720 --> 29:56.940
Come on Abimelech, bring your army, come fight against me.

29:56.960 --> 29:58.940
Now here's what's funny here.

29:58.940 --> 30:01.820
You see a guy, he goes where?

30:01.820 --> 30:04.340
To the house of his false god and what's he do?

30:04.340 --> 30:05.880
He starts drinking.

30:05.880 --> 30:06.880
You notice that?

30:06.880 --> 30:11.900
They go in there and they start drinking and sometimes the Bible uses the word merry with

30:11.900 --> 30:17.440
wine to talk about people who they're drinking and they're having a good time, woo, you know

30:17.440 --> 30:18.440
their party.

30:18.440 --> 30:24.040
Now look, drinking gives people boldness that they don't normally have.

30:24.040 --> 30:26.160
We see it in Daniel chapter 5.

30:26.160 --> 30:33.240
Remember when Belshazzar takes the vessels from the house of the Lord and drinks wine

30:33.240 --> 30:39.860
in them and he starts praising all these false gods and desecrating the temple of the Lord

30:39.860 --> 30:43.980
and if you remember he was emboldened by liquor, okay?

30:43.980 --> 30:49.960
Have you ever heard of people drinking up the courage to do thus and so?

30:49.960 --> 30:53.940
Now the Holy Spirit gives us boldness to do right.

30:53.940 --> 30:59.080
The Bible talks about it in Acts 4 31 and when they had prayed, the place was shaken

30:59.080 --> 31:02.520
where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they

31:02.520 --> 31:06.520
spake the word of God with boldness.

31:06.520 --> 31:09.320
Boldness is an evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

31:09.320 --> 31:13.680
Boldness to preach, boldness to do right, boldness to fight the Lord's battles.

31:13.680 --> 31:16.740
That's why in the Old Testament the Spirit of the Lord would come upon them and they

31:16.740 --> 31:20.800
would fight with boldness and fight with courage and valor.

31:20.800 --> 31:27.220
But you see the Bible says, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled

31:27.220 --> 31:33.580
with the Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

31:33.580 --> 31:37.340
So what we see is that the two are contrasted.

31:37.340 --> 31:43.260
The Holy Spirit giving boldness to do right, alcohol giving the boldness to do wrong.

31:43.260 --> 31:47.940
Have you ever heard alcohol called spirits?

31:47.940 --> 31:48.940
Wine and spirits?

31:48.940 --> 31:49.940
You'll see that.

31:50.120 --> 31:52.800
That right there, that's pretty creepy in and of itself.

31:52.800 --> 31:57.840
But see, the Holy Spirit gives boldness to do right, liquor gives boldness to sin and

31:57.840 --> 31:58.840
do wrong.

31:58.840 --> 32:02.360
And people when they're under the influence of alcohol will be emboldened to commit sins

32:02.360 --> 32:03.540
they wouldn't normally commit.

32:03.540 --> 32:07.960
Things that they would usually think are weird or disgusting, they'll do it.

32:07.960 --> 32:12.200
People who normally wouldn't be a brawler and getting in a lot of fights, they will

32:12.200 --> 32:14.840
think that they're tougher than they really are.

32:14.840 --> 32:20.820
And they'll pick a fight with a bigger, tougher, stronger, better adversary because they're

32:20.820 --> 32:22.820
emboldened by alcohol.

32:22.820 --> 32:31.700
And so Gael here, he gets drunk and he's blowing off his mouth, curse you Abimelech, who are

32:31.700 --> 32:33.100
you to rule over us?

32:33.100 --> 32:34.100
You're nobody.

32:34.100 --> 32:39.880
Why don't you bring your army down here and come fight against me, buddy?

32:39.880 --> 32:41.460
And I like what Zebel says.

32:41.480 --> 32:45.520
Now Zebel, you say, well who's right in this battle though?

32:45.520 --> 32:46.520
Is it Abimelech?

32:46.520 --> 32:48.360
Well they're all wrong.

32:48.360 --> 32:49.360
They're all going to be destroyed.

32:49.360 --> 32:51.660
Remember, fire's going to destroy both of them.

32:51.660 --> 32:54.920
This guy Zebel, he's the ruler of the city.

32:54.920 --> 33:00.120
Basically this guy Zebel is a government official under Abimelech because Abimelech's the king,

33:00.120 --> 33:01.120
right?

33:01.120 --> 33:03.000
Well Zebel's like the mayor of the city.

33:03.000 --> 33:05.480
He's working under orders from Abimelech.

33:05.480 --> 33:09.880
He's part of Abimelech's government here, ruling over the city of Shechem.

33:09.900 --> 33:13.140
So Zebel, he hears Gael blowing off his mouth and he's angry.

33:13.140 --> 33:17.940
So he sends a secret message to Abimelech warning him saying, hey, this guy's blowing

33:17.940 --> 33:23.180
off his mouth, this guy's taking over the city, this guy is producing an insurrection

33:23.180 --> 33:25.020
and a revolution.

33:25.020 --> 33:32.360
And so he warns Abimelech and he tells Abimelech, come real early in the morning and attack

33:32.360 --> 33:33.360
and you're going to win.

33:33.360 --> 33:34.360
Why?

33:34.360 --> 33:35.500
Because they're all drunk.

33:35.500 --> 33:39.020
So the next morning they're probably not going to be feeling too well.

33:39.040 --> 33:42.400
And so he warns Abimelech, well look at this.

33:42.400 --> 33:47.640
It says in verse number 34, Abimelech rose up and all the people that were with him by

33:47.640 --> 33:50.880
night and they laid weight against Shechem and four companies.

33:50.880 --> 33:54.640
So they come at night, they set up all their armies, they're going to attack the city and

33:54.640 --> 33:59.080
destroy this insurrection led by Gael.

33:59.080 --> 34:03.000
And it says, and Gael the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entering of the gate

34:03.000 --> 34:06.960
of the city and Abimelech rose up and the people that were with him from lying in wait.

34:06.980 --> 34:11.860
And when Gael saw the people, he said to Zebel, behold, there come people down from the top

34:11.860 --> 34:13.700
of the mountains.

34:13.700 --> 34:17.420
He's taken by surprise by these armies that are coming.

34:17.420 --> 34:22.200
And look what Zebel says, thou seest the shadow of the mountain as if they were men.

34:22.200 --> 34:27.760
He's basically just trying to buy Abimelech a few more moments by stalling and telling

34:27.760 --> 34:33.840
Gael, no, that's not really an army, you're just looking at shadows.

34:33.840 --> 34:37.240
But of course, he eventually realizes it's not a shadow.

34:37.240 --> 34:40.060
He said, thou seest the shadow of the mountain as if they were men.

34:40.060 --> 34:44.540
Verse 37, and Gael spake again and said, see, there come people down by the middle of the

34:44.540 --> 34:48.660
land and another company come along by the plain of Mionium.

34:48.660 --> 34:54.180
Then said Zebel unto him, where is now thy mouth?

34:54.180 --> 34:57.140
Wherewith thou saidst to his Abimelech that we should serve him?

34:57.140 --> 34:59.600
Is not this the people that thou has despised?

34:59.600 --> 35:01.460
Go out I pray now and fight with them.

35:01.480 --> 35:05.880
He's saying, now that you're sober buddy, where's your big mouth now?

35:05.880 --> 35:09.020
He came with that army, in fact he brought four of them.

35:09.020 --> 35:11.360
Go face him, go fight him.

35:11.360 --> 35:14.280
Let's keep reading, let's see what happens in this battle.

35:14.280 --> 35:18.700
And Gael went out, verse 39, before the men of Shechem and fought with Abimelech.

35:18.700 --> 35:23.580
And Abimelech chased him and he fled before him and many were overthrown and wounded even

35:23.580 --> 35:25.260
unto the entering of the gate.

35:25.260 --> 35:29.140
And Abimelech dwelt at Aruma and Zebel thrust out Gael and his brethren.

35:29.140 --> 35:33.120
So basically, he's being attacked from the outside and then Zebel's fighting him from

35:33.120 --> 35:34.900
the inside.

35:34.900 --> 35:37.920
And it says Zebel thrust him out.

35:37.920 --> 35:38.920
What verse am I in?

35:38.920 --> 35:40.920
Let me find my place here.

35:40.920 --> 35:41.920
42.

35:41.920 --> 35:45.360
It says, it came to pass on the morrow that the people went out into the field and they

35:45.360 --> 35:48.880
told Abimelech and he took the people and divided them into three companies and laid

35:48.880 --> 35:53.120
weight in the field and looked and behold the people were come forth out of the city

35:53.120 --> 35:57.480
and he rose up against them at Smodum and Abimelech and the company that was with him

35:57.480 --> 36:01.440
rushed forward and stood in the entering of the gate of the city and the two other

36:01.440 --> 36:05.020
companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields and slew them.

36:05.020 --> 36:09.700
And Abimelech fought against the city all that day and he took the city and slew the

36:09.700 --> 36:14.000
people that were therein and beat down the city and sowed it with salt.

36:14.000 --> 36:16.900
So Abimelech wins a decisive victory here.

36:16.900 --> 36:22.900
I mean, he slays the people, he wipes out the buildings of the city, I mean he levels

36:22.900 --> 36:27.880
the city, he collapses all the buildings, and then he sows their fields with salt.

36:27.880 --> 36:33.100
Basically salt will destroy their crops and destroy their earth and destroy their wealth

36:33.100 --> 36:34.980
in agriculture.

36:34.980 --> 36:42.160
So he has a decisive blow here, I mean it just demolishes the men of Shechem.

36:42.160 --> 36:48.020
And it says, when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into and

36:48.020 --> 36:51.000
hold of the house of the god Beareth.

36:51.000 --> 36:55.880
Now remember this is Baal Beareth as the Bible calls it because we know it's of the devil.

36:55.880 --> 37:00.780
So they go to this devil's false god and they go there and that's where they're going to

37:00.780 --> 37:05.980
fortify themselves, that's where they're going to hide, in the house of their false god Beareth.

37:05.980 --> 37:10.900
And so they go into the hold and it says it was told to Abimelech that all the men of

37:10.900 --> 37:12.680
the tower of Shechem were gathered together.

37:12.680 --> 37:16.620
So Abimelech's not satisfied, he wants to wipe out all these guys who rebelled against

37:16.620 --> 37:17.620
him.

37:17.660 --> 37:20.180
So he's even going to pursue them under the house of Beareth.

37:20.180 --> 37:24.700
Verse 48, and Abimelech got him up to Mount Zalman, he and all the people that were with

37:24.700 --> 37:25.700
him.

37:25.700 --> 37:29.700
And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bough from the trees and took it

37:29.700 --> 37:33.440
and laid it on his shoulder and said to the people that were with him, what you've seen

37:33.440 --> 37:36.260
me do, make haste and do as I've done.

37:36.260 --> 37:41.740
So he grabs an axe, he chops down a tree and Abimelech carries a big giant log and he takes

37:41.740 --> 37:45.720
it and throws it next to the house of the god Beareth and he says, what you've seen

37:45.720 --> 37:48.000
me do, I want everybody to do the same thing.

37:48.000 --> 37:52.600
Everybody grab an axe, everybody chop down a tree and they pile up all these trees all

37:52.600 --> 37:58.960
the way around this house and they light them on fire and just burn the place down.

37:58.960 --> 38:04.160
Look what the Bible says here, and all the people likewise cut down, verse 49, every

38:04.160 --> 38:08.560
man is bowed and followed Abimelech and put them to the hold and set the hold on fire

38:08.560 --> 38:12.800
upon them so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men

38:12.800 --> 38:13.800
and women.

38:13.800 --> 38:18.600
All these people that are in this tower, they probably died of smoke inhalation, let alone

38:18.600 --> 38:21.080
the fire that's consuming.

38:21.080 --> 38:27.200
It says in verse 50, verse 50, then went Abimelech to Thebes and encamped against Thebes and

38:27.200 --> 38:28.200
took it.

38:28.200 --> 38:33.280
So he goes and he's fighting against more rebellious people in Thebes.

38:33.280 --> 38:37.400
But there was a strong tower within the city and thither fled all the men and women and

38:37.400 --> 38:42.360
all they of the city and shut it to them and gapped them up to the top of the tower and

38:42.360 --> 38:44.920
Abimelech came under the tower and fought against it.

38:44.920 --> 38:49.360
Now look, he wants to try the same thing that he just succeeded in doing with the house

38:49.360 --> 38:51.000
of Beareth.

38:51.000 --> 38:55.200
So it says that he went there and he went hard onto the door of the tower, meaning he

38:55.200 --> 38:59.160
goes right up to the door of the tower, to burn it with fire.

38:59.160 --> 39:02.960
You know, he says well hey, it worked once, let's do it again.

39:02.960 --> 39:09.000
And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head and all two break his

39:09.000 --> 39:10.420
skull.

39:10.420 --> 39:14.620
So he's up there, he's got his idea, he brings his log, he throws it next to the house of

39:14.620 --> 39:19.660
this devil, or no, I'm sorry, that's what he did the first time.

39:19.660 --> 39:22.420
This time he goes to the strong tower of Thebes.

39:22.420 --> 39:27.420
He throws down his log and while he's doing it, a woman takes a big chunk of a millstone

39:27.420 --> 39:29.780
and drops it right on his head.

39:29.780 --> 39:33.020
And I mean think about having a big chunk of a millstone dropped on your head from a

39:33.020 --> 39:34.200
tower.

39:34.200 --> 39:36.940
It lands on his head and basically breaks his skull.

39:36.940 --> 39:39.860
He knows he's going to die, he can't survive that.

39:40.300 --> 39:41.300
So look what the Bible says.

39:41.300 --> 39:46.460
And he called hastily, verse 54, unto the young man, his armor-bearer, and said unto

39:46.460 --> 39:50.980
him, draw thy sword and slay me, that men say not of me a woman slew him.

39:50.980 --> 39:54.340
You know, he's like I don't want that to go down in history.

39:54.340 --> 39:59.300
He was killed by a woman in battle, what an embarrassment.

39:59.300 --> 40:02.740
And his young man thrust him through and he died, so his armor-bearer kills him.

40:02.740 --> 40:06.740
So that, you know, basically technically he was killed by the armor-bearer.

40:06.740 --> 40:09.300
That's not how it went down in history and I'll show you that in a moment.

40:09.300 --> 40:12.780
And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his

40:12.780 --> 40:13.780
place.

40:13.780 --> 40:19.180
Thus God rendered the wickedness, listen, this is the key verse, listen, thus God rendered

40:19.180 --> 40:24.860
the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father in slaying his seventy brethren,

40:24.860 --> 40:29.280
and all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads, and upon them

40:29.280 --> 40:32.880
came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubel.

40:32.880 --> 40:39.560
So you see here that both the men of Shechem and Abimelech are both defeated here.

40:39.560 --> 40:40.560
They're both killed.

40:40.560 --> 40:41.560
They're both punished.

40:41.560 --> 40:42.560
Now I want to tie in one other thing.

40:42.560 --> 40:46.680
But before I do, let me say this, you know, there's a famous quote from Dr. Martin Luther

40:46.680 --> 40:52.080
King Jr. and people will say, oh you're racist if you're against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

40:52.080 --> 40:53.080
You know what?

40:53.080 --> 40:57.100
I'm not, because didn't Martin Luther King Jr. himself say that we should judge a man

40:57.100 --> 41:02.480
according to his character, not the color of his skin?

41:02.480 --> 41:03.480
And you know what?

41:03.480 --> 41:09.400
I believe that every single person on this earth is created equal in the sight of God.

41:09.400 --> 41:11.880
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.

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In fact, the Bible says that God has made all nations of the earth of one blood.

41:17.760 --> 41:20.700
The concept of race is not even found in the Bible.

41:20.700 --> 41:24.920
The only time the Bible used the word race is when it says run the race.

41:24.920 --> 41:29.400
So obviously you can look around and see there's a diversity of people in this church because

41:29.400 --> 41:34.240
the Bible says that God's house is a house of prayer for all nations.

41:34.240 --> 41:39.760
And so we should all be coming together in God's house of all nations and kindreds and

41:39.760 --> 41:41.320
peoples and tongues.

41:41.320 --> 41:45.320
But let me say this, Martin Luther King Jr. was a false prophet.

41:45.320 --> 41:49.480
He was a Baptist pastor who denied the Lord Jesus Christ.

41:49.480 --> 41:53.920
I mean imagine this, he was a pastor of a Baptist church and yet he said that Jesus

41:53.920 --> 41:57.720
Christ was a man, he did not rise from the dead, are you listening?

41:58.240 --> 42:04.080
All you have to do, there are websites on the internet that basically are promoting

42:04.080 --> 42:09.400
Martin Luther King Jr. and they basically have a repository of all of his writings.

42:09.400 --> 42:11.040
They're not attacking him.

42:11.040 --> 42:16.420
There are universities who want to preserve his writings under posterity and I have gone

42:16.420 --> 42:20.840
in and looked at those writings, I read his paper where he says the Bible is not inspired

42:20.840 --> 42:25.160
by God, I read his paper where he did not believe in the virgin birth, I read his paper

42:25.160 --> 42:31.360
where he did not believe in the bodily resurrection, and this man claimed to be a Baptist pastor

42:31.360 --> 42:36.080
and yet he denied the Lord Jesus Christ and he's in hell today.

42:36.080 --> 42:37.400
That's the fact.

42:37.400 --> 42:40.360
And it has nothing to do with race.

42:40.360 --> 42:48.280
I love all black people, white people, Chinese, I love them all that are God's people.

42:48.280 --> 42:51.400
But he's a false prophet so I'm exposing that today right now.

42:51.400 --> 42:55.040
And do the research on your own before you get mad at me.

42:55.040 --> 43:01.580
But there was a time when Martin Luther King Jr. attacked the word of God in one of his

43:01.580 --> 43:06.760
famous speeches and if you go on a website of quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. he attacks

43:06.760 --> 43:10.440
the word of God in one of his most famous quotes and here is one of the most famous

43:10.440 --> 43:11.920
quotes that he has.

43:11.920 --> 43:16.360
He said this, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

43:16.360 --> 43:17.920
Who's ever heard that quote before?

43:17.920 --> 43:19.760
Few people, yeah I'm seeing hands go up all over them.

43:19.760 --> 43:21.440
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

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Hey I got news for you, God is the one who said an eye for an eye.

43:27.520 --> 43:32.840
That's what the Bible says but he says no I'm smarter than God and an eye for an eye

43:32.840 --> 43:36.340
leaves the whole world blind.

43:36.340 --> 43:43.720
But wait a minute, let's apply Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote to this story.

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I mean an eye for an eye pretty much wiped out both sides, did it not?

43:49.000 --> 43:54.080
But guess what, that's what God did because that's what God does because God is the one

43:54.080 --> 43:56.040
who set an eye for an eye.

43:56.040 --> 44:01.120
And so we in our human logic would say oh man let's not let people reap what they've

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sown or else everybody's going to get wiped out.

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I mean but that's what we see.

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We see Abimelech destroy the men of Shechem down to the last person and we see Abimelech

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destroyed in the process.

44:15.360 --> 44:20.400
We see everybody who worships Baal getting wiped out and so that's why we need to be

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careful not to latch onto the world's heroes.

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Are you listening to me?

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Let me explain something to you.

44:28.760 --> 44:33.720
Woe unto you when all men speak well of you for so they did unto the false prophets.

44:33.720 --> 44:39.320
And when you see somebody who's being exalted and lifted up by the world and that's a hero

44:39.320 --> 44:43.280
that we should all be following, there's probably something wrong with that person in the eyes

44:43.320 --> 44:49.200
of God big time because if they were a righteous person this world would not rally around them.

44:49.200 --> 44:54.240
When you see a preacher that's really popular, everybody loves him, all denominations are

44:54.240 --> 44:58.800
rallying behind him, that's a sign right there that he's not of God because the Bible says

44:58.800 --> 45:01.180
that's what they do unto the false prophets.

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He said they hated me, they'll hate you if you preach the truth.

45:05.160 --> 45:08.920
You know you look at these political figures that are lifted up in worship today and you

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know yeah okay Martin Luther King Jr. name whoever you want, John F. Kennedy.

45:14.360 --> 45:18.400
You know the most popular, I mean who are the most popular presidents?

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You know Bill Clinton, I mean Bill Clinton was one of the most popular presidents ever.

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I mean today he goes down in history as being one of the most successful presidents.

45:26.500 --> 45:32.180
He was an adulterer and a whoremonger and he was abusing a young person really that

45:32.180 --> 45:37.280
was under his power and under his paid role, he should have gone to prison for that.

45:37.280 --> 45:40.040
He denies the Lord Jesus Christ and the word of God.

45:40.040 --> 45:45.760
You know you look at other popular presidents, John F. Kennedy, these guys are, I mean look

45:45.760 --> 45:50.000
the most popular president of all, Franklin Delano Roosevelt who brought in socialism

45:50.000 --> 45:54.240
into our country and you know we could go on and on, but I'd stay away from the world's

45:54.240 --> 45:55.240
heroes.

45:55.240 --> 45:58.840
I don't rally around the world's sports heroes, are you listening?

45:58.840 --> 46:00.920
You know who my heroes are?

46:00.920 --> 46:07.000
They're characters of the Bible and Bible believing preachers and Bible believing men

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and women who serve God and love the Lord with all.

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That's the role model I want for my children.

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I want my daughters to emulate godly women of our church and other like minded churches.

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I want my sons to emulate John the Baptist and Elijah and people like that or people

46:28.080 --> 46:32.720
that are living today that are men of God and men in this church who might work a blue

46:32.720 --> 46:36.760
collar job not necessarily in the ministry, but they're in the ministry because they're

46:36.760 --> 46:41.760
out soul winning and they're preaching the word of God from house to house as God.

46:41.760 --> 46:47.680
Those are the role models that I want my sons to grow up and emulate, men who are masculine,

46:47.680 --> 46:52.680
men who preach the word, men who are soul winners, and I want them not to follow the

46:52.680 --> 46:57.220
world's heroes, the unsaved heroes.

46:57.220 --> 47:03.020
And so again, he wasn't saved and go down the list and they weren't saved.

47:03.020 --> 47:06.980
But anyway, let me say this.

47:06.980 --> 47:11.400
God will recompense sin, he will punish the sinful in this life.

47:11.400 --> 47:18.740
Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

47:18.740 --> 47:23.500
But let me just show you a little symbolism here in this passage very quickly.

47:23.500 --> 47:26.020
Let me turn you just to two passages.

47:26.020 --> 47:29.820
First of all go to 2 Samuel chapter 11.

47:29.820 --> 47:34.540
And I hope everybody has a good handle on the story today.

47:34.540 --> 47:37.140
You probably haven't heard this story.

47:37.140 --> 47:41.420
I've read this story my whole life reading the book of Judges.

47:41.420 --> 47:46.340
I've read it many times, but I've never really heard a sermon preached on this passage of

47:46.340 --> 47:49.620
Abimelech and Gael and Zebol.

47:49.620 --> 47:51.700
Those are not really characters that you hear a lot about.

47:51.700 --> 47:54.500
And in fact, Abimelech, probably most people when they hear the name Abimelech they're

47:54.500 --> 47:59.020
thinking of a different Abimelech from Genesis that's a little more common.

47:59.020 --> 48:00.620
Look at 2 Samuel chapter 11.

48:00.620 --> 48:03.540
Let me show you part of the reason why I preach this chapter today.

48:03.540 --> 48:06.180
2 Samuel 11 18.

48:06.180 --> 48:12.100
The Bible says, Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, and charged

48:12.100 --> 48:17.560
the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto

48:17.560 --> 48:23.660
the king, if so be, now this is Joab coaching his messenger.

48:23.820 --> 48:27.620
If so be, that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee.

48:27.620 --> 48:29.220
So is the king saying this?

48:29.220 --> 48:30.220
No.

48:30.220 --> 48:32.020
Joab is speculating.

48:32.020 --> 48:35.600
This is what the king is probably going to say to you.

48:35.600 --> 48:39.980
When you bring him the tidings of the battle, this is what the king is probably going to

48:39.980 --> 48:42.660
say to you.

48:42.660 --> 48:43.660
His wrath's going to arise.

48:43.660 --> 48:47.860
He's going to be mad when he hears that we lost the battle.

48:47.860 --> 48:52.660
Wherefore, this is what he's probably going to say, verse 20, Wherefore or why approached

48:52.660 --> 48:55.540
you so nigh unto the city when you did fight?

48:55.540 --> 48:58.900
Why did you get so close to the city when you're fighting?

48:58.900 --> 49:02.180
Knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall?

49:02.180 --> 49:03.900
Who smote Abimelech?

49:03.900 --> 49:07.100
Now look, he's referring back to the story in Judges 9.

49:07.100 --> 49:10.940
He says, Who smote Abimelech, the son of Jerubasheth?

49:10.940 --> 49:11.940
Now you say, Jerubasheth?

49:11.940 --> 49:12.940
Who's that?

49:12.940 --> 49:16.740
Well, remember Jerubael was the name that was given unto Gideon.

49:16.740 --> 49:22.300
Well Jerubael means, remember, the one that pleads against Baal, or the one who Baal pleads

49:22.340 --> 49:28.540
against, the one who strives with Baal, or strives against Baal, Baal strives against.

49:28.540 --> 49:34.660
Well this word, Jerubasheth, means he who strives against confusion, or he who strives

49:34.660 --> 49:36.860
against shame.

49:36.860 --> 49:41.140
And what's interesting, obviously this is a name that had evolved over time because

49:41.140 --> 49:45.640
of the fact that these gods are gods of confusion or shame.

49:45.640 --> 49:51.100
But what's interesting is, that's a really cool name, just to be known as the one who

49:51.100 --> 49:57.700
fights confusion, the one who fights shamefulness, the one who fights Satan.

49:57.700 --> 50:04.100
You know, I think of the verse in Acts where those that are demon possessed say unto the

50:04.100 --> 50:10.820
seven sons of Sceva, they say, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?

50:10.820 --> 50:15.460
You know, Paul was one that strove against the kingdom of darkness in this world, and

50:15.460 --> 50:17.100
the devils, they knew him.

50:17.100 --> 50:18.100
He was their enemy.

50:18.100 --> 50:20.800
They said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know.

50:21.040 --> 50:27.320
What a great name to be known by, the one who strives against Satan, the one who strives

50:27.320 --> 50:29.320
against confusion.

50:29.320 --> 50:34.060
Just look up the word confusion in the Bible, it's an interesting study in and of itself.

50:34.060 --> 50:39.400
So who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubasheth, meaning the son of Gideon, in verse 21?

50:39.400 --> 50:45.120
Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall that he died in Thebes?

50:45.120 --> 50:47.080
Why would he deny the wall?

50:47.080 --> 50:50.040
Then say thou, thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.

50:50.200 --> 50:55.400
Now what this tells me is that this is a story that was commonly known in those days, because

50:55.400 --> 50:59.480
Joab brings it up right away and he says this is probably what David's going to hit you

50:59.480 --> 51:00.480
with.

51:00.480 --> 51:01.480
He's going to bring up Abimelech.

51:01.480 --> 51:03.360
He's going to bring up that woman who threw the millstone.

51:03.360 --> 51:08.800
Now what's funny is, remember Abimelech said to his servant, kill me.

51:08.800 --> 51:13.640
I don't want people to say that a woman killed me, and what are they saying about him?

51:13.640 --> 51:16.800
They're not even bringing up that armor bearer, they're saying yeah, remember that woman killed

51:16.800 --> 51:19.800
him?

51:19.840 --> 51:25.680
You see, it wasn't right for Abimelech to commit suicide.

51:25.680 --> 51:27.360
That wasn't right.

51:27.360 --> 51:30.040
But he did it so that they wouldn't go down in history that way.

51:30.040 --> 51:33.720
Well guess what, it went down in history that way anyway.

51:33.720 --> 51:35.940
Your sins are going to find you out.

51:35.940 --> 51:41.400
And so we see here that this story was commonly known to where Joab knew the story very well

51:41.400 --> 51:44.320
and he knew that David knew the story very well and he assumes he's going to bring it

51:44.320 --> 51:45.320
up.

51:45.320 --> 51:48.000
Let's turn to one other place, Psalm 61.

51:49.000 --> 51:52.640
Because there's a little bit of symbolism in the story, let me break it down to you.

51:52.640 --> 51:55.360
Actually there's a lot of symbolism in the story, but I'm only going to focus on one

51:55.360 --> 51:57.940
quick aspect.

51:57.940 --> 52:02.920
If you remember, the men of Shechem were the ones that God wanted to punish.

52:02.920 --> 52:07.520
He wanted to punish two parties, Abimelech and the men of Shechem.

52:07.520 --> 52:12.240
Is there any indication in the scripture that God wanted to punish the men of Thebes?

52:12.240 --> 52:16.820
Or that the people of Thebes had sinned against God in any way?

52:16.820 --> 52:19.320
No indication whatsoever.

52:19.320 --> 52:26.180
So we see here the evil men of Shechem destroyed, the men of Thebes, which we have no evidence

52:26.180 --> 52:29.460
that they've done anything wrong, they defeat Abimelech.

52:29.460 --> 52:30.620
They don't get killed.

52:30.620 --> 52:32.260
They survive.

52:32.260 --> 52:35.180
But the wording in Judges 9 is very interesting.

52:35.180 --> 52:40.620
Because where did the men of Shechem, where did they go to hide out?

52:40.620 --> 52:41.620
Where did they go?

52:41.620 --> 52:44.240
The tower of Baal, Beareth.

52:44.240 --> 52:49.500
They went to the house of Baal, Beareth, and actually they went to the stronghold.

52:49.500 --> 52:53.080
They went to the hold in the house of their god, Beareth.

52:53.080 --> 52:55.580
That's where they hid out.

52:55.580 --> 52:58.600
But in Thebes, the Bible uses a different wording.

52:58.600 --> 53:02.140
Instead of saying, oh they went to the house of Beareth, oh they went to the hold there

53:02.140 --> 53:07.840
of their false god, it says that the men of Thebes, they went into a strong tower that

53:07.840 --> 53:09.400
was in the city.

53:09.400 --> 53:10.400
They survived.

53:10.400 --> 53:13.200
The ones who went into the strong tower, they made it.

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They lived.

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They defeated the enemy.

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Those who went into the house of Satan, the house of Baal, Beareth, they were destroyed,

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men and women both.

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Look at Psalm 61 verse 1.

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The Bible reads, Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer.

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From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee.

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When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

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For Thou has been a shelter for me.

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And watch this, he's saying of God, you've been a strong tower from the enemy.

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I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever.

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I will trust in the covert of Thy wings, Selah.

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So in this Psalm, the Bible here is comparing God unto a strong tower, a shelter from the

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enemy, a strong tower that we can run into and hide, and he also refers to it as God's

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tabernacle, which is representative of the house of God.

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Now a very famous verse, you don't have to turn there, but in Proverbs 18, 10 a famous

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verse says this, The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

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Did you get that?

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The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

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The righteous runneth into it and is safe.

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And so what that tells us is that safety is of the Lord.

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You know, going into the strong tower of God's house, going into the strong tower of the

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tabernacle of the Lord, going into the strong tower of the Lord's shelter there, he says

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that will keep you safe.

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The righteous runneth into it and he's safe.

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It's a shelter in a time of storm.

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It's a place of refuge and protection, whereas did the house of Baal do that for them?

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And how did they die?

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They were burned.

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You know, that's symbolic there.

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Those who trust in the Lord versus those who trust in another god, a false god.

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Those who trust in another god will be tormented in hell.

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They will be in the fires of hell.

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Those who trust in the Lord will be safe.

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They'll be safe from the enemy.

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They will be in that strong tower and sheltered in the times of storm.

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Now let me quickly say this.

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You know, this sermon is all about reaping what you've sown.

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You know, you go out, you commit sin, you sow the wind, you're going to reap the whirlwind,

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the Bible says.

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But let me say this, when it comes to salvation, you know, salvation's not based on any good

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that you've done.

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The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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The Bible says very clearly what must I do to be saved and they said believe on the Lord

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Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

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And obviously the greatest part about salvation is once you're saved you can never lose your

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salvation.

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Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.

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Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

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And let me say this, when you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I'm not

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talking about living a good life, I'm not talking about getting baptized, I'm not talking

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about turning over a new leaf, I'm not talking about repenting of all your sins, and I'm

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not going to do this anymore, and I'm not going to.

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I mean when you just believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus

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Christ and put your faith in His blood, His righteousness, His salvation, not by works

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of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, when you put your

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faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, let me tell you something, that is salvation,

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that is a strong tower.

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That will never fall.

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You will be saved forever.

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But let me tell you something, you put your trust in anything else, and I don't care whether

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it's Baal Beareth, Baal Zebub, Baal Ekron, Baal Belial, Baalim, it doesn't matter what

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you call it, whether you call it Islam, or whether you call it Mormonism, or whether

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you call it Catholicism, or you could call it Hinduism, or you could call it Buddhism,

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or you could call it Sikhism, or you could call it Atheism, you could call it whatever

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you want, but let me tell you something, you're going to be burned.

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You're going to be burned.

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It cannot save, it cannot protect, and that's what the Bible is teaching here today, that's

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a little bit of the symbolism in the chapter, because it's not a coincidence that the term

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strong tower is only used a couple times in the Bible, and it has to do with this story,

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then it has to do with Psalms and Proverbs about how God's salvation is a strong tower,

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the Lord is strong, and by the way it said the name of the Lord is a strong tower.

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You better get that name right, the name that's above every name, neither is there salvation

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in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we

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must be saved.

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That name is Jesus.

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That name is above every other name, and so there's a lot we can learn from this story

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about life, isn't there?

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A saved man, Gideon, he made some big mistakes though, didn't he?

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Multiple wives, golden ephod, he made a big mistake, he paid for it.

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Unsaved people made big mistakes, they paid for them.

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You reap what you sow, whether you're saved or unsaved.

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Salvation just affects whether you're going to heaven or hell.

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That's what salvation affects.

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But in this life though, the saved will reap consequences, you know if I go out and kill

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somebody today, just because I'm saved I'm not going to get away with it, I'm still going

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to prison, God's going to punish me, and so forth, but I'm not going to hell.

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Because once you've believed on Jesus Christ you'll never go to hell, you're saved, you

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have everlasting life.

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But you will be punished in this life, just like Gideon was.

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And you know what's funny, let me just quickly say this, you know Gideon wanted to have all

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these sons, right?

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70 sons, so he has all these multiple wives, they all get slaughtered, but you know what

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else is interesting?

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His sons were nothing like him.

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You can't raise 70 sons to be like you.

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And maybe God gives you two kids or five kids or seven kids, ten kids, he gives you what

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you can handle and train and teach.

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Let God's wisdom guide that.

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Because you know what?

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His son Jether, Gideon was the mightiest man of valor around, Gideon was tough, I mean

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he had strength and might and courage, and his son Jether was a big wimp.

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We read it, I didn't touch on it in the sermon, but we read it in Judges 8, nothing like Dad.

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Wimp.

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Why?

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Because you can't raise 70 kids the way you can raise what God gives you.

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And so trust the Lord for salvation, number one.

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Trust God for salvation.

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Number two, trust God for the decisions of life.

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Trust God with giving you the children that he sees fit and giving you what he sees fit.

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And not only that though, just trust one thing.

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Be sure your sins will find you out.

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Don't play with sin.

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It's going to come back and bite you, you can trust that.

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Trust the fact that good that you do, you'll reap the good, and evil that you do, you'll

01:00:07.640 --> 01:00:08.840
reap the evil.

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Whether saved or unsaved, and this story is a perfect illustration of that.