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Man, 1 Chronicles 23, we're entering a new section in the book of 1 Chronicles. Now after those first nine chapters, you thought that we were out of the woods. Well we're going back into the woods, all right? I'm going to take you into a dark forest tonight of long lists of names. The next seven chapters of 1 Chronicles get back into this kind of heavier material, a lot of lists of names and order. So if you remember the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles had to do with all the genealogies all the way from Adam down to David and his descendants and things like that. And then chapters 10 through 22 have pretty much been the story portion. Well we're pretty much out of the story portion now. And 23 through 29, those seven chapters are going to deal with the way David's kingdom is ordered and all the preparations that he's making for King Solomon to take over and for the temple to be built and so forth. So in chapter 23 verse 1 it says, so when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel. And he gathered together all the princes of Israel with the priests and the Levites. Now the Levites were numbered from the age of 30 years and upward and their number by their poles man by man was 38,000. Now let's stop right there. He talks about the Levites being numbered from 30 years old and upward. If you look in the book of Numbers it says over and over again that these priests would start their service when they're 30 years old and then they would stop when they were 50 years old. Those 20 years were their primary service. Now they still had other jobs to do after they were 50. They weren't just retiring at 50. But after they were 50 they performed other functions and before they were 30 they performed other functions. 30 to 50 was kind of their prime service for God as a priest. A little bit later in the chapter, if you jump down to verse 24, the number 20 years and upward comes up. It says in verse 24, these were the sons of Levi after the house of their fathers, even the chief of the fathers as they were counted by number of names by their poles that did the work for the service of the house of the Lord from the age of 20 years and upward. So for these particular jobs, this particular family, they would start doing that work when they're only 20 years old. And then if you jump down to verse 27 it says, for by the last words of David the Levites were numbered from 20 years old and above. So over and over again these numbers are coming up when we're talking about the Levites and the priests. Now the Levites are a broader category than the priests. The Levites are all the descendants of the tribe of Levi, whereas the priests are the descendants of Moses and Aaron. So it's a smaller group within the larger tribe of Levi. So when it talks about them being 20 years old, the Levites to basically do the more menial tasks and then 30 years old, the priests are doing their main work. You know, what does this teach us? What do we get from this? Well first of all we know that it pictures Jesus because Jesus Christ began his ministry being about 30 years old, the Bible tells us in Luke chapter 3. Also when we think about being a pastor, you know, how old should you be to be a pastor? How old do you have to be to be a pastor? Well when we see the term elder, some people could look at that and say, well he should be a very old man. I don't think that's biblical and let me give you some reasons why. I believe when the Bible calls the pastor the elder, it's talking about the fact that he's been saved for a long time. He's elder in the faith, elder spiritually, not necessarily physically elder. So we don't need to wait until somebody's 60 or 70 or 80 years old for them to become a pastor. On the other hand, we don't want someone too young being a pastor. Okay, well the Bible gives qualifications for the pastor in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1. And if you want to just flip over there, because I'm going to show you something in 1 Timothy 4 as well, we might as well flip over, we'll come back to 1 Chronicles. But over in the book of 1 Timothy 3, we have the qualifications for a pastor, and one of the qualifications for him is that he be the husband of one wife. So it says in chapter 3 verse 1, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife. Isn't it interesting how the Roman Catholic Church teaches the exact opposite of the Bible on this point? They teach that the bishop cannot be the husband of one wife. They believe that the bishop must be celibate, he must be single. It's the exact opposite of what the Bible says. If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? How can these single men be qualified to be a priest or a bishop or all the other funny names and funny hats that they hand out in the Catholic Church? How is he qualified to run the church when he doesn't even know how to run his own house? Because he's never even been married. He doesn't even know what it's like to be married, he doesn't even know what it's like to have kids, and usually he's probably a sodomite or even a pedophile based on the track record of a lot of these Catholic priests. But the bottom line is that it's the opposite of what the Bible teaches. The Bible says he must be the husband of one wife. They say he can't be the husband of one wife. How do you reconcile that with Scripture? And you know, that's not the only contradiction, folks. There are hundreds and hundreds of places where the Roman Catholic Church is doing the opposite of what Scripture teaches. It's not Bible-based. It's pagan and tradition-based and Greek philosophy-based. It's not based on the Bible. So the bishop has to be the husband of one wife, and it also says, verse 4, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Then it says not a novice, and the word novice simply means not someone who is new. We don't want someone who's newly saved, newly a Baptist, you know, newly has read the Bible cover to cover for the first time. We need someone who has a track record of serving the Lord in the church. They're not brand new. They're not a novice or a newbie or a beginner is another word that we would use. A beginner preacher should not be a pastor, right? He needs to get some experience. But we don't want to go to the other extreme saying, well, he needs to be very old. You know, we need to wait until all his kids are grown up. Some people will take this thing of having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly or this part about one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. And they'll say, well, we got to wait to see how his kids turn out. Well, then he would have to be quite old because he'd really have to be at least 50 years old in order to even be pastoring then for us to see his children grow up and be adults. But is that what the Bible is teaching? Well, Timothy was pastoring and Timothy was ordaining other pastors. And if you flip over to chapter four in the same book, because Timothy's the guy who is doing the ordaining, Titus is ordaining a lot of pastors. These guys were younger than the apostle Paul. In fact, look what Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter four verse 12, let no man despise thy youth. Do you think he's saying that to a 60-year-old man? Do you think he's saying that to a 50-year-old man? Do you think he's saying that even to a 40-year-old man? I don't think so because Jesus Christ began his ministry at age 30. He died on the cross when he was 33. So I find it hard to believe that Timothy was much older than that and he's being told let no man despise thy youth. He's probably closer to 30 years old, maybe even in his late 20s. But if I had to guess, I would say he's probably in his early 30s or mid 30s, something like that. And some people might think, hey, who's this guy to ordain elders in these cities? You know, he's too young, he's only 30 or whatever. And it's amazing how when people get older, they consider a kid something older and older. You know, when you're a kid, you think kids are people who are not adults, like people that are under 18 or under 20 years old. But you know, you get to talking to people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, they start calling people in their 20s kids, 28-year-old man, oh, this kid, okay. That's not a kid. That's an adult. That's a grown man. That's a grown woman. But it's funny how these old IFB preachers, they've always disdained me for being young. Okay. And they say, oh, you know, this young punk in his 20s, now I'm a young punk in my 30s. So now I'm 37 years old. I have 10 children. I've been pastoring successfully for 13 years, but I'm still this young punk child. Well, if I'm a child at 37, what did that make Jesus when he died on the cross for you? You know, I guess you don't want to listen to him either, because you know what they say? Well, you're not 50 years old, right? That's what the Pharisees said to Jesus. Thou art not 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Hey, Jesus said before Abraham was, I am. And you know, before I was, this book was. This book is. This book has always existed. And so we don't want to despise the youth. He told Timothy, let no man despise thy youth. I think that age 30 to 50, if we take a biblical principle, is going to be a prime time to be a pastor. You know, if you can get started young enough, if you can meet the qualifications young enough, if you can be a pastor during that age, that's a great time to be a pastor from age 30 to 50. I mean, that should be the prime of life. Now a lot of people today, when they're 40, they think like, oh, I'm already old or over the hill. You know, you need to take a little better care of yourself. You shouldn't be decrepit when you're 40 years old. You know, when you're 45 years old, you should still be healthy enough to be working and in your prime, because, you know, there's a certain intersection of the youthful vigor of your body and then actually getting the brains of being older, right? As they say, youth is wasted on the young, right? Because as you get older, you get wiser, but you have less energy. When you're young, you have all this energy, but you don't have as much wisdom. So there's kind of this intersection where you've still got enough energy to really serve God at a high level and really just push yourself and work hard physically, but you've started to get enough wisdom to where you can really make some good decisions, hopefully, you know, and lead. Now, when I started pastoring, I was 24 years old, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that because of the fact that when I was 24, I'd already been married for five years, over five years when I started pastoring. I had three children, and I'd read the Bible 20-some times cover to cover, you know, so I mean, and I wasn't new to church. I mean, I was born and raised an independent Baptist. I'd been saved since I was six years old, so I'd been saved for 18 years, so I was not a novice. I was married. I knew how to run a household. I had three children, so I believe I was qualified. Now, here's the good thing, though. When I was 24 years old, I didn't just walk in and take over a church of 500. I don't think I would have been qualified for that. You see, when you start out your own church from scratch, you start humble. So when I started the church, there's 10 people coming on Sunday morning. So at age 24, I had enough wisdom and experience and knowledge to pastor 10 people, and when I was 25, I had enough experience to pastor the 20 people who came to the church. When I was 26, I had the experience to pastor the 30 people that came to the church. So the good thing about starting the church from scratch is that you're not burdened with a giant responsibility as a very young man. So if a young man is going to be a pastor, and let's say he's 24, 25 years old, because that's probably about the soonest you're going to meet the qualifications, realistically, for you to get married, have kids, get some experience, know the Bible, and whatever, it's going to be pretty hard for you to meet that before you're 23, 24 years old. That'd probably be the lower limit of becoming a pastor. I wouldn't put a guy like that in a position where he's just pastoring 500 people or 1,000 people or something. Have the guy start a church or take over a small church and grow into that role. At the time, I wanted the church to grow really fast, but then looking back, I'm kind of glad that it didn't grow that fast because I needed to learn more and get experience and so forth. So I don't think there's anything wrong with someone pastoring in their 20s. Basically by the time they're 30 years old, that's a prime time if they have the experience, started young, meet the qualifications, et cetera. And I'm also not against someone starting a church past 50 years old. I've known of people who successfully started churches when they were over 50 years old and they did a great job, they started the church. If they're healthy and able to do it, great. There's no reason for us to just be falling apart when we're 50 if we take care of our bodies and so forth. So I don't think there's anything wrong with somebody pastoring in their 20s. Certainly the Bible would not speak against that, especially not in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. And I think there's nothing wrong with staying a pastor all the way into the bitter end because if you look at the apostle John, he's still calling himself the elder and he's still going strong even in his very old age. The apostle Paul went strong all the way until the very end. Peter, other great men in the Bible did some of their greatest works. When they were 80 years old. If you have the physical strength to do it, if as Moses said, you know, your natural force is not abated, then just keep on going. So anyway, that's a principle from the Bible. If you want to go back to 1 Chronicles chapter 23, a principle from the Bible of the priests being approximately 30 to 50 years old in the Old Testament. And obviously that's not a hard and fast rule for the New Testament because the New Testament is just spiritually following in these footsteps. We're not literally setting up Levites and priests, but spiritually this is just kind of symbolic of the leadership of the church. When we study the Bible, we should always apply it to the day that we live it. We should always apply it to the New Testament. Who cares what the dispensationalists think? The Old Testament is written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. The Bible says all these things in the Old Testament are examples unto us. So they should be spiritualized and when we see that the tabernacle or the temple is mentioned, we should apply that to the New Testament house of God, the local church. And when we see the high priest and the priests and the Levites, you know, we could apply that to the leadership or the workers in the local church and get principles from it. When we see a battle in the Old Testament where they're out slaying the Philistines and slaying the Moabites and the Ammonites, we should apply that to spiritual warfare, not physical warfare, where we're out casting down imaginations and preaching against sin and winning people to Christ and so forth. So we want to make a spiritual application, so that's what I'm doing here in 1 Chronicles 23 saying, okay, the leadership of the house of God, this is the primo prime age right here, 30 to 50 is when you're supposed to be very effective. And even just if you're not even a pastor, that should be a time of life where you're very effective. Or if you're smart, you'll start being effective when you're 20 years old, right? And you know, building your career, obviously in the secular world and then spiritually, you know, you should be soul winning strong and serving God in the local church and doing great things for God and you know, finish strong. The Bible says in verse 4, out of these 38,000 men that are 30 years old and upward of the Levites, it says of which 20 and 4,000 were set to forward the work of the house of the Lord and 6,000 were officers and judges. So it's interesting how 6,000 of these men are officers and judges, meaning that these guys have to do with the enforcement of law. Why? Because at this time, the Bible was the law of the land. You know, they had the Mosaic law and they don't just call it the law as a fun name. I mean, it was the law because it was the law of the land. It was their criminal code. I mean, it tells you, hey, here's the punishment for stealing. Here's the punishment for murder. Here's the punishment for adultery. These are the laws. When it comes to liability, if somebody falls off your roof, here's how you make restitution. If your animal attacks someone, you're responsible for that. The law of the land was the law of God. So the priests here and the Levites, they were, in many cases, judges and officers of the court or whatever you want to call it, just working in the secular realm of criminal law enforcement or justice, criminal justice. Now if you would, keep your finger there, flip over to Revelation Chapter 1. Revelation Chapter 1. You say, well, how is this relevant to us? Well, there are a few things that we can learn from that. Number one is that the Bible, God's word, God's law, should influence our government and should influence the law of the land. You know, our government should be influenced by the Bible and by Christianity. And the more our government resembles the teachings of the Bible, the better off we're going to be. And the farther they deviate from the Bible, that's just the more wrong they are. So different governments in this world are wrong about different things to varying degrees depending on how different they are from what the Bible says. And when they have a law that matches what the Bible says, that's where we would say they are right on. Many people today don't agree with this. Even amongst Baptists, people believe that our American system is superior to what we find in the Bible. So they look at the laws and the way we do things where we lock people in cages and have more people in prison than any country on the planet. We have more people in prison per capita than Communist China or North Korea or the Soviet Union back in its heyday. We have more people in prison than any – but they think that's wonderful. They think that's biblical, even though the Bible never teaches that. It never teaches the use of prison. It gives punishments like a beating or a financial fine or death. But you don't lock people up in prison in God's system. But your average Christian today thinks that the American system is the best, the U.S. Constitution is like the Bible to them, and that the Bible is somehow antiquated, outdated, Old Testament, Christ did away with it or whatever they teach. Christ did away with the curse of the law being made a curse for us. He died for our sins according to the Scriptures and was buried and rose again. And the carnal ordinances, the meats, the drinks, the divers' washings were nailed to the cross with Christ, the Bible tells us. But the criminal code is still the best criminal code that has ever existed on the planet. And you have to be able to differentiate between the ceremonial laws of the animal sacrifices and meat offerings and drink offerings and the criminal code, which is the greatest criminal code ever pinned down. And if you say, well, I don't think it's the greatest criminal code, well, who do you think you are? When the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect, so you're going to give God lessons on civics and economics and government, that makes no sense. Who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him? You can't instruct the Lord. There's no knowledge or wisdom or counsel against the Lord. The Lord is the source of knowledge, wisdom, justice, perfection, righteousness. So the Bible is the standard. That's the first thing we can learn when we see how the priests are judges. Why? Because they know the Bible. So they're going to be perfect at administrating legal issues because they know the Bible. And the Bible is the law of the land. So we see that the word of God should influence the state. The word of God should influence every part of our lives, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do. We should do it in the name of Christ. We should do all things to the glory of God. But the second thing that we can take from it is that someday that system is going to come back where the people who are administering justice are priests and they know the word of God and they administer based on the word of God. That system is coming back and what we know is the millennium. Now the animal sacrifices are not coming back. That's a false doctrine. Jesus Christ is the lamb slain once for all. But the criminal code is coming back. Why? Because Jesus Christ is going to sit on the throne of David ruling and reigning and he says he's going to rule with a rod of iron. He's going to rule not with a California band soda straw or not with a twig or not with a wet spaghetti noodle. He is going to rule with a rod of iron. So you think he's going to be soft? You think he's just going to be walking around with a sheep wrapped around his neck telling everybody to love one another? He is going to come here and he is going to rule with a rod of iron. He's going to break them in pieces and he said you better serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling you kings of the earth. You need to be instructed. You better be wise or you're going to lose your job because Christ is going to reign on this earth. Now it's going to be a wonderful time. It's going to be a time of peace and harmony and gladness. It's going to be great. But when we say he's going to rule with a rod of iron, that's nothing to be afraid of because the law of the Lord is the law of liberty. There's going to be more liberty. People are trembling for the Lord's reign but it's actually going to be the most liberty anybody's ever experienced. It's going to be way more liberty than 1776 ever thought of delivering because if you study the Bible, you'll find that it's a very minimal government. But when it comes to the rules that are there, you better know they're going to be enforced with a rod of iron. No fags, amen? And a bunch of other rules that people aren't going to like. But he's going to rule that with a rod of iron. You know, there's going to be no adultery. There's going to be laws governing this world. But there's going to be a ton of freedom, way more freedom than we have right now. And we're blessed with a lot of freedom in the U.S. right now. There's going to be even more freedom when Christ is ruling and reigning. But there's not going to be the freedom to do certain things that a lot of people equate with freedom, like just perversions and sick things. But anyway, look what the Bible says. This is powerful. Look what the Bible says in Revelation chapter 1. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. Flip over to chapter 5. We are kings and priests. A king has to do with ruling in the sense of administering justice, actually a worldly leading of a nation or ruling over courts and the justice system. That's what a king does. And we have been made kings and priests. So when we study 1 Chronicles chapter 23 and we see these priests who are judges also, we can relate to that. That's what we're going to be someday. Because that kingdom of David in 1 Chronicles 23 through 29 is a picture of Christ's kingdom. Jesus is the son of David. Jesus is going to sit on the throne of David. And he's going to also have thousands and thousands and thousands of priests who are also judges and officers, who are also rulers of 10, rulers of hundreds, rulers of thousands. Look what the Bible says in Revelation chapter 5, just to show you that this is not an honorary title when it says we're kings and priests. This is not just a metaphor or an honorary title. The Bible says in verse 9, they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. Isn't that powerful? We shall reign on the earth. So this isn't just a title of, yep, you get to wear a crown and we're going to call you a king and a priest. No, we're going to act as kings on this earth. We will reign on this earth. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. And depending on what you do with your life, that's going to determine where you reign and how much authority you're given. Because if you're faithful in that which is least, then you'll be faithful in the great things that the Lord has in the millennium. So your faithfulness now determines your rank in the millennium and your rank for all of eternity. All of eternity is based on what you're doing with your life now. Now here's the thing. I'd rather be just the bottom rung in heaven. I'd just rather sweep the floor in the new heaven and the new earth than to be in the coldest spot of hell. But since we're already saved, so that's not an issue for us. We've already believed on Christ. We already know we have eternal life. He'll never leave us or forsake us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We're sealed until the day of redemption. He that has begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Hey, we might as well start working on some rewards and work on climbing the ladder spiritually so that we can rule and reign with Christ and not just be a king in name only, but be kings and priests who reign in the earth. Go back if you would to 1 Chronicles 23. So in 1 Chronicles 23 we see that these priests were judges and officers and then it talks about how there were 4,000 in verse 5 that were porters. Porters is coming from the word for door, right, Spanish, la puerta. The door, the porter is basically the doorman, right? So that's part of what that entails. These are other types of servants in the house of the Lord. And then we've got 4,000 that praised the Lord with instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith. So we see 4,000 praising the Lord with instruments and we know that in heaven we're going to be praising the Lord with musical instruments as well. Now there's a doctrine out there that I'm going to take a moment to talk about which has got to be one of the stupidest doctrines I've ever heard where they say that we should not use musical instruments in church. Now I realize that this is not a salvation issue, but let me tell you something. If somebody actually believes in this doctrine, I doubt their salvation because how can you be so blind to what the scripture teaches to believe something so weird. When somebody believes something super weird and super unscriptural, I'm sorry, I doubt their salvation. Why are you so blinded? How can you just be that blind unless you're not even saved? And by the way, every person that I've personally known who taught that musical instruments are wrong in church all ended up being unsaved. Now I'm not saying that there aren't saved people out there who believe in it. I'm just saying I've never met one and I'd be shocked because it's that stupid to believe it. Is it even biblical? What, is the Holy Spirit guiding you into any truth at all? I mean have you read the Bible at all? I mean the only way I could see somebody believing in this and being saved is just if they haven't read the Bible. You know, let's say they're saved but they just didn't read their Bible and somebody taught them this and they just never read the Bible. But if you're actually saved and reading your Bible, I don't see how it'd be possible to believe in something so stupid as no musical instruments in church. This is their argument. Well, there's no mention in the Gospels or the Book of Acts of them ever using musical instruments. Well, here's a good principle for you. Don't base what you believe on what the Bible doesn't say. Base what you believe on what the Bible does say. And you know what the Bible does say? All throughout the Old Testament, over and over and over again, God commands us to praise the Lord on stringed instruments. So what did Jesus dying on the cross have to do with musical instruments? So God's just telling us, praise Him on the strings. Praise Him with the cymbals. Praise Him with the trumpet. Praise Him with the harp. Praise Him on stringed instruments. Jesus dies on the cross. All right, musical instruments are a sin. That's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life, especially since the Bible commands us in the New Testament to sing psalms in the church to use psalms. And what do the psalms say? The psalms talk about musical instruments over and over again. So I guess according to these Mennonites, or who are the ones who do this again? Church of Christ, too? Oh, what do they have in common? Not saved. Church of Christ teaches baptismal regeneration. The Mennonites are not even close to being saved. They have a super weird salvation doctrine, hardcore hyper-Calvinism, and just total false doctrine not even close to being Bible-believing. And I'm going to get on the Mennonites a little bit more in a moment in the sermon. But the Mennonites, the Church of Christ, anybody else out there? The church that tarries along at the punch bowl? They don't do... They're against musical instruments. Who else? Amish? Who else? The Hutterites. I've never even heard of them. No, Presbyterians have musical instruments, don't they? Really? Wow. That's... Well, you know what's funny? I went to a Presbyterian church and they were rocking out in Sacramento. So they must not have been on that regulatory principle. Yeah, there's a spectrum. Yeah, that's true. So I guess the Presbyterian church I went to was on the loose end of the spectrum. They sang Brown-Eyed Girl as a congregational song. They sang rock and roll songs as a congregational song. They put the words on the screen in church and we sang John Denver, Country Roads Take Me Home, congregationally. And when my parents found out that I went to this Presbyterian youth group, they were screaming at me like, what are you doing here? And I told my dad, I said, Dad, there's no Bible teaching. There was no teaching. They literally didn't even have a sermon half the time. And when we did have a sermon, it was just three minutes long and it was either telling you don't fornicate or don't do drugs. And then my dad's like, well, okay, I guess, whatever. I said, we're just going there to party. We go there to hang out with our friends. You know, and he's just like, well, don't become a Presbyterian, you know. I'm like, don't worry about it. But anyway, yeah, that's interesting. So basically the more traditional Presbyterian, you know, that makes sense because like the Puritans, they were against the musical instruments, apparently a lot of the Presbyterians, Mennonites, all bozos, bozos all of them, okay, nonsense, garbage, okay. First of all, just because the Bible doesn't mention something doesn't mean you can't do it. Okay, we can't do the things that the Bible tells us not to do. If the Bible just doesn't say anything either way, then it's up to us whether we do that or not. The Bible commands us over and over again to sing praise to God. Well, it's Old Testament. What changed? And by the way, okay, we're going to be singing in heaven with harps. Every single person when they get to heaven, they're like issued a harp to praise God at one point, right. They're given white robes and harps and everything, right. So you know, if one of these non-musical instrument people happens to be saved, which I'll believe when I see it, the first thing that happens when they get to heaven, they're issued a musical instrument. They're like, whoa, what do I do with this? Nonsense. Yeah, we're supposed to sing Psalm 150, right, all about music, just listing musical instruments. We're supposed to sing that acapella. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, is that a crazy doctrine? That's crazy. Anyway, I just wanted to go off on that because it just, it gets me fired up. It's just, it's, it's so weird, you know, and, and the rationale behind it. Wow. Okay. I got to hurry up though. I'm running out of time here and I want to hit some other stuff in this chapter. So let's jump down to verse, we're going to skip over some of this. We already read the whole chapter before the sermon, so let's just skip down to verse 23. The Bible says, the sons of Moshai, Malai, and Edor, and Jeramo three, these were the sons of Levi after the house of their fathers, even the chief of the fathers, as they were counted by number, by names, of names, by their poles, that did the work for the service of the house of the Lord from the age of 20 years and upward. So these people are working full time in the house of the Lord even at 20 years old. So there's nothing wrong with that. So just because someone's 20 years old doesn't mean that they're a child or a young punk, or whatever. Now look, some 20 year olds are like a child or like a young punk, but guess what? There are some 20 year olds that are pretty mature. I remember when Pastor Roger Jimenez came and preached at Faithful Word Baptist Church for the first time, you know how old he was? Twenty years old. But he was so believable as a preacher that people thought he was a pastor. They were calling him Pastor Jimenez. He was 20. But he was just mature for his age, he was sharp, he was a great preacher. He was one of those that just had the natural talent. He was just born to preach. And he came and preached when he was 20 years old. That's great. There's nothing wrong with that. Now we're not going to make him the pastor at 20 years old, right? Because at that time he was still only been married for a couple of years, didn't have the kids, didn't have the experience. But I think he became a pastor when he was what? Maybe 26 or something like that, or maybe he was 24 too, I don't know. But around that same time, he got married right when he was 18. And he and I are on the accelerated program through life, so we're kind of just hitting all the stops a little faster. But anyway, from the age of 20 years old and upward, amen. So you 20 year olds, time to catch up, amen. And you 17, 18, 19 year olds, you need to start thinking about being a serious adult. Because these people are serious adults when they're 20. And you're like, yeah, amen Pastor Anderson, I like this preaching about not calling me a child and a young punk. Well, you know what, start acting like an adult and you'll be treated like an adult. You know, I went out soul winning with a young man in Aruba, I believe he was 18 years old, his name was Daniel, not our Daniel here, but it was a different Daniel. And I thought this guy was in his 20s and I went soul winning with him and he did a great job soul winning. He had great people skills, he had a great head on his shoulders, spiritually minded young man and then I found out he was like 18. And I was impressed by that, I was blown away by that because you know what, the Lord and the scriptures, they make wise the simple. That even a young man, you know, could have maturity when he's 18 years old. And even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether his work be right. So take this young people, teenagers, children, take this as a challenge of growing up, becoming a man and putting away childish things. And our society tells us, hey we need to be a kid longer. Best thing I ever did was getting married when I was 19 years old. You know, there's nothing wrong with that. Now I'm not saying to go out and marry the first girl who comes along, but I am saying that there's nothing wrong with getting married young, if you find the right person, put a ring on it, get married and get serious about life, there's nothing in the world wrong with that. I'm not into this, oh wait till you're 30 to get married. Look, if you don't find anybody till you're 30, 40, no problem, you know, that's you. But the problem is when people want to impose that on a young person and say you must wait until you're 25 to get married or you must wait till you're 30. You know, the Bible says to avoid fornication. It's better to marry than to burn. It's better to marry and not be as tempted, right? But again, don't marry the first girl or first guy that comes along, amen? Unless the first one just happens to be awesome, but you know, and that happens sometimes. You know, some people, you know, I mean, some people are like that, you know, my brother's like that where he literally, you know, married his first love, you know, he didn't lose the first love, amen? He actually, you know, that's the only girl that he ever really dated was the one that he married and you know, I've known other people like that and it's a great success story. There's nothing wrong with that. When I say don't marry the first girl who comes along, I don't mean that literally. What I mean by that is don't just marry the first girl who comes along no matter what she's like. That's what I mean by that if you don't know that expression, all right. I just want to clarify that. It's like, man, I love this girl, but it's just she's the first one that came along. Pastor Harrison said that I can't marry the first one that comes along. So don't get all overly literal, all right? We're spiritualizing this whole chapter, amen? So don't get overly literal on me now, all right? So as we study this, it says in verse number 25, for David said, the Lord God of Israel hath given rest unto his people, and this is a great statement, that they may dwell in Jerusalem forever, that they may dwell in Jerusalem forever. Now, these people didn't end up dwelling in Jerusalem forever, but he said they may. They may dwell in Jerusalem. He's not saying, hey, these people are going to dwell in Jerusalem forever. But here's the thing, eventually they will dwell in Jerusalem forever. But we know that they were cast out of the land for the Babylonian captivity, 70 years, but not every single person went on the Babylonian captivity. There were still some people who stayed behind, okay. Then in the time of Christ or shortly after the time of Christ, in 70 AD, Christ's prediction came true. He said, look, because you've rejected me, he taught in parables that their city would be burned and destroyed and that they would be put to the sword. And that's what happened in 70 AD when Jerusalem was sacked by the Romans. There was the Roman, the Jewish-Roman War, or Roman-Jewish War, I forget how that goes. It went from 66 AD to 73 AD, seven years long. And in the midst of that week, of course, the temple was destroyed, the city was destroyed. Now of course there's also a future fulfillment of Daniel's 70th week, but there was a seven years there also as well. So Jerusalem was wiped out in 70 AD, but again, all the Jews weren't kicked out in 70 AD. There were still some Jews that were left. But in 135 AD, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem again, and this time they literally expelled every last Jew, all of them. In fact, they made it illegal for a Jew to even set foot in the city of Jerusalem. I mean, just making sure that their nation was completely scattered and completely, I mean, you want to talk about a fulfillment of prophecy. That prophecy was fulfilled down to the last man. I mean, when God's going to wipe you out as a nation, he's going to wipe you out. And so he made sure that literally not even one Jew could even set foot in Jerusalem. And so it was, and of course it was like that for, you know, a long time. Okay. And then, you know, I'm not going to get into all that because that's outside the scope of this sermon, but we know that when Jesus Christ returns, he's going to sit on the throne of his father, David, and he's going to rule from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is going to be his capital city. So when the Bible says here, the Lord God of Israel had given rest unto his people that they may dwell in Jerusalem forever, God gave them rest in the days of King Solomon. And it was a time of peace, and that could have lasted, but they turned away from the Lord, so then God raised up enemies, and then they got into idolatry, and they got thrown out and went to Babylon, and on and on. But he gave them peace and the opportunity to dwell there forever, and not to wander any longer. And he says later in the chapter, you know, the Levites, they're not going to carry around the tabernacle anymore. They're not going to need to haul it around. You know, it's a permanent location now. We're going to build the temple, it's going to be static, it's going to be permanent, you're going to be stationed here, okay. Now, in the millennium, right, it's going to be Jerusalem. After the millennium, there's going to be the new Jerusalem. There's going to be new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem comes after the millennium. Now there's a doctrine out there that says that in the New Testament, in the Book of Revelation, the code word for Jerusalem is Babylon. This is not correct. Now let me just start out by saying, if people believe this, they're entitled to their opinion, but they're wrong. Now if they believe it, it's nothing to get upset about, it's nothing to get in a big argument about, because of the fact this is not a primary doctrine. This is not even a secondary doctrine, it's like a tertiary doctrine. I mean, this is like not a priority, not important, okay. You know, when you're getting into the fine-tuning of Bible prophecy. But let me just go ahead and say what I believe is that this doctrine is not only wrong, but that it's ridiculous. And when I say the word ridiculous, I mean worthy of ridicule, like it's just dumb. Now again, if people believe in it, don't get in an argument, there's no reason to make a big deal about it. But it's very far from being possible, let alone being the truth, okay. So let's just talk about this quickly, go over to Revelation chapter 16. Now Israel, Jerusalem, the Jews, okay, they play a role in the end times. Basically God pours out his wrath on them, God punishes them. And of course the Antichrist is going to rule from Jerusalem, why? Because the Antichrist is mimicking Jesus Christ. So he's going to enter into the temple of God and declare himself to be God. And the temple of God there I think is used loosely as in, you know, he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, well, he's not God. He's not really a godly temple either, and he's not as God or God or in a real temple of God, okay. So those, all three of those are like in his perception. He as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. So we're not for them building a temple over there, okay. So I hope you understand that. And I could go on and on about, you know, I'm not going to go on and on about this subject of Babylon, but I've done a sermon called Babylon in the end times, you could listen to that sermon or you could watch our film Babylon USA and understand this a little further. But here's why I say it's a ridiculous doctrine, okay. Because Jerusalem plays a completely different role in the end times. So Jerusalem can't be both Jerusalem and Babylon because it's two totally different places in the end times, okay. And if you look at Revelation 16 verse 19, the Bible says, and the great city was divided into three parts. That is Jerusalem there. The great city that's divided into three parts is Jerusalem. There's a literal earthquake that caused these crevices or abysses in the earth that breaks the city literally into three parts. And of course, you could take also a metaphorical or, you know, allegorical interpretation here about the fact that it's split between the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims, okay. But basically, the literal interpretation is an earthquake and it splits into three parts, okay. And the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give under the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. These are three different things. The great city is divided into three parts. That's Jerusalem. Cities of the nations fall and then Babylon comes into remembrance. Now if you go back to Revelation chapter 11, the Bible talks more about Jerusalem in the book of Revelation and it says in verse 8, and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified. There's no doubt that this is Jerusalem because it's where our Lord was crucified. It's a spiritual Sodom and Egypt where Christ was crucified. That is Hagar, the Egyptian, represents Israel and the Jews. That all makes perfect sense, okay. But this is not Babylon. Jerusalem gets wiped out at the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week, okay. And if you're not up on Bible prophecy, just glaze over for the next few minutes because the sermon's almost over anyway. But those of you who know Bible prophecy, okay. The rest of you just hang in there, think about what you're going to eat later or something. But anyway, you know, if you know Bible prophecy, you know, in the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week is this major event called the abomination of desolation where Jerusalem is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles for 42 months. Jerusalem gets a major judgment. If you read Luke 21, they're slain with the sword. The city is trodden underfoot, made desolate, wiped out at the midpoint. There's a major judgment on Jerusalem. So why would God then get to the end of the seven years and say, oh, Babylon came in remembrance before God to give under her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. It's like, oh, now I need to judge Babylon. There's one more thing. I mean, he's done the trumpets, he's done the vials. Oh, I forgot. He didn't forget, but you know what I mean. All right, one more thing comes into remembrance. We need to give Babylon the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath. Excuse me, didn't you just do that three and a half years ago when Jerusalem was totally made desolate and the Jews were slaughtered and cast out and went into captivity and all these different things? Isn't that already done? So this thing of Babylon being Jerusalem makes no sense, all right? And they say, well, it's the great whore. When have the Jews ever been a great whore? The Jews are the great pimp of this world. We're their whore. Okay? Because the whore is the one being used and abused and discarded. The Jews are the users. They're not the used. They are the, go to Los Angeles, California, and you'll find that they are the pimps. They're the ones running the human trafficking, the prostitution. They're running it in New York. They're running it in California. They're running in a lot of other places. So there are a lot of reasons. We could go on and on why Jerusalem's not Babylon. But the big reason, and I mean, like I said, there are a lot of very compelling reasons. They're all pretty compelling. But the really colossal reason is that what it says in Revelation 18, Jeremiah 50 and 51, when you read those three chapters, it emphasizes the fact that Jerusalem, or not Jerusalem, good night, that Babylon will never be inhabited again. I mean, he says it's going to be the habitation for dragons and owls and, you know, lizards and whatever. You know, it uses biblical words for those things. But it talks about the dragons and the owls and the, every unclean and hateful bird and all these desert creatures are going to thrive there because it's going to be a desolate wilderness. It will never be inhabited. So here's what's so foolish about saying that Jerusalem is Babylon. Okay, well, if Jerusalem is Babylon and it gets wiped out at the end of the seven years, never going to be inhabited. It's a home of dragons and owls and every bird and whatever, totally desolate, totally uninhabited. Then how's Christ going to start reigning from there a couple days later? Oh, it's never going to be inhabited. Psych, let's inhabit it three days later. Let's make it the capital of Christ's kingdom. That makes no sense, folks. So this is the Achilles' heel of that doctrine. So they try to get around this, you know. I heard one actually go so far as to take the New Jerusalem and just scoot it up a thousand years. Okay, now here was his rationale for kind of just, you know, what's a thousand years between friends, you know, just kind of scoot the New Jerusalem up, bring it a thousand years early so that it's sort of like the house landing on top of the Wicked Witch of whatever the compass direction, you know, like all the owls and all the dragons, they all get smashed by the New Jerusalem a thousand years early. Here's the problem with that, okay? This is, well, this is their, well, there's a lot of problems with that, but first of all, that's not uninhabited when you just build a new one on top of it. That's not uninhabited, folks. That's still being inhabited, okay? Or they say, well, Jerusalem's going to move or something. Come on. Do we need to go through the Bible and show why that's not feasible? But the point is, their reasoning behind this is like, well, the Bible says in Revelation 19 that the marriage has come. You know, Revelation 19, the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife had made herself ready. Well, then they jump to Revelation 21 and he says, hey, I'm going to show you the Lamb's wife and then I saw the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven. They take the interpretation that the city is literally the wife. Now, what, is this like women who marry a bridge or something or they fall in love with a carnival ride or a tree or something? You know, this is crazy to think that the city is what he's marrying like the buildings, like the actual structure, like, you know, you just marry Phoenix. I mean, don't give them any ideas because this is the kind of stuff that shows up in the Facebook feed every once in a while from the London Guardian. Woman marries, you know, ancient building or something. Woman marries a gas station. You know, you see like hugging a tree, hugging a bridge, who knows what I'm talking about? All right. I see all the people that are on Facebook. All right. No, I'm just kidding. That's stupid news stories, right? Good, stinking night. I guess then when God so loved the world, he really just loved this planet, right? He just loved the dirt. I love thy rocks and hills. When it says God so loved the world, it means he loved the people in the world. And when he's showing him the Lamb's wife and it's the New Jerusalem, he's showing him the people in the city, right? Or do you think it's actually the city itself? Yeah, it's the people, okay? Yeah, when he loved the world, it's the people. Okay, he's not talking about like the actual physical structure because, you know, in order for him to be married in Revelation 19, he's got to have that structure. No, he just has to have the people. And people say like, oh, the church being the bride of Christ is a false doctrine. Good night. There's so much scripture how Christ loved the church the way that the husband loves his wife. Now, look, it's true the church is not the bride right now because of the fact that the wedding happens in Revelation 19. But the church is the fiancé of Christ. We are going to be the bride of Christ and all saved believers are going to be the bride of Christ. That's why when he describes the city, then he says, the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. That's the bride. It's the saved people. God doesn't marry a building or a city. He marries a city in the sense of the people, okay? You know. And it doesn't even say he marries the city. It just says, here, I'm going to show you the wife. Let's look at this city. Nations of them which are saved walk in the light of it, okay? Just like, hey, he loved the world. Same thing, folks. So anyway, I, you know, I just wanted to get that off my chest as well. So what's the Bible saying here? Jerusalem is going to be dwelled in forever. It's the exact opposite of Babylon which is going to be desolate forever. Jerusalem is going to be inhabited by God's people forever. So this has an immediate meaning in 1 Chronicles 23 of, hey, God's people may dwell in Jerusalem forever if they get their act together, if they can stay right with God. But then it also has a spiritual application that in the resurrection when we're all right with God, we're going to dwell in Jerusalem forever. Amen? Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, and help us to understand the spiritual meaning behind your word and to understand that all these things in the Old Testament, they all have a spiritual meaning. They all have a New Testament application. Lord, they're all relevant in 2018. They're all profitable today for instruction in righteousness today. They're not antiquated or outdated. Lord, help us to apply these principles to our lives. Help us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we're called. Help us to act as kings. Help us to act as priests. Help us to act like an adult if we're 20 years old or upward or 30 years old or upward. Help us to live up to what you would have for us in this life. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.