(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) men Deuteronomy chapter number 7 again remember the book of Deuteronomy is Moses preaching unto the children of Israel right when they're on the eve of entering into the Promised Land they've already wandered in the wilderness for 40 years the disobedient generation has died off and now we've got a new generation that is reared in the wilderness they've been serving God they're ready to enter the Promised Land with Joshua and they're getting these final instructions and admonitions from God and Moses is preaching to them in verse 1 of chapter 7 it says when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it and it cast out many nations before thee the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Parisites and the Hivites and the Jebusites seven nations greater and mightier than thou and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them thou shalt make no covenant with them nor show mercy unto them now several things that I want to point out here about this first of all we see that the children of Israel yes they are a large group of people yes there are millions of them but the seven nations that they are defeating in Canaan are greater and mightier nations than themselves they are not the biggest nation ever they're a minority when you put them next to these other nations and one thing I want to point out is that God's people are always in the minority in general in this world because broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it God's people are never gonna be the largest number the biggest majority but through the power of God even though there are less of us we can still do great things for God and ultimately we are going to have the victory ultimately we are literally going to inherit this earth but that is only going to be after the second coming of Jesus Christ until then we're always going to be pilgrims and strangers in this world we're going to be a minority the broad way is always going to lead to destruction and so God is talking about these nations that are larger and mightier but we know from the context that these nations have become extremely wicked in the sight of God okay you think our country is getting bad you think America is getting bad I mean these countries were way worse than any of the wickedness that we even see in America right now okay I mean these nations had committed all kinds of abominations and perversions God lists all these horrific gross sins in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 and he says that the people of the land have done all of these things you know this is all the stuff that they're doing and so these people have done very wickedly before the Lord and so God says when you go into the Promised Land you're not going to cohabitate with these people you're not going to share the Promised Land with them you are going to completely wipe them out and replace them in the Promised Land they are going to be utterly destroyed and he says make no covenant with them that means if they say we surrender we're sorry they die anyway they've gone too far they pushed it too far there's no going back for these people God is just sending the Israelites in to just completely wipe them out not to make any covenant with them nor to show any mercy unto them okay now when we go forward in the book of Joshua you're gonna have a group of people the Gibeonites that are gonna trick Joshua into making a covenant with them because they're so scared they know they can't win so they trick Joshua into thinking that they're from far away and they get Joshua to swear by the Lord and then Joshua has to keep his word and so forth but they had to do that because other than that Joshua and the children of Israel aren't making covenants with anybody they're not accepting surrender from anybody they're not trying to make peace with anybody they're just going in to wipe out everyone and take over now on the surface of course this could seem callous this is the type of thing that atheists love to bring up like oh God is such a monster because he just prescribed this genocide and just you know wiping out whole nations but here's what you have to understand is that these nations had become so wicked and so perverted that you just couldn't fix them anymore they just couldn't be redeemed anymore it's like Sodom and Gomorrah you know you just have to just wipe it off the face of the earth with fire and brimstone from heaven this is the reality that we see in the Word of God that people and groups of people can become too far gone yet this is something that is absent from preaching today in most of Christianity this concept is just completely absent and therefore the atheists think this is like a gotcha moment or something when they point out these kind of stories what they don't understand is that we read these kind of stories before breakfast every morning you know and and so we're not we're not shocked or surprised by any of this because we understand that yeah there are some groups of people that are just too far gone now thankfully the vast majority of the world's population is not too far gone that's why we're having a missions conference in November that's why we're participating in missions all the time that's why we're going out there and preaching the gospel to every creature that's why we're going into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature we're not just sitting here just fatalistically saying hey you know everybody's doomed whatever no we're doing something about it we're trying to pull as many people out of the fire as we can get as many people saved as we can before it's too late for them because we know that ultimately for every unsaved person it will eventually be too late what's funny is that Christians sometimes have a hard time with this concept of people or individuals or a group of people being too far gone but yet every Bible believing Christian believes that if a person dies without Jesus Christ that it's too late for them I mean think about it people are dying and going to hell and they don't get a second chance it's over for them so therefore why would it be so shocking that it could be over for some people a little sooner I mean what's so like oh man you mean you mean it's just too late for these people what about all the people that are already in hell right now it's too late for them so why is this such a foreign concept I don't get it okay what you have to understand is that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believeth in him would not perish but have everlasting life and so he has extended salvation to everyone he is given the greatest gift of all his own son he spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all and so God wants everyone to be saved God has put out the call whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely God loves people God wants people to be saved but ultimately people who reject that free gift of salvation will go to hell when they die and there's no going back from that if you screw that up you're done you're toast it's over for you okay and so you better seek the Lord while he may be found and this is why we want to strongly encourage friends loved ones and anyone that we can meet even just door-to-door to get saved to believe on Jesus Christ not to reject the free gift of salvation not to be an unbelieving Christ rejecting heathen because if they are there's one place for them and it's the lake of fire and that's where they're going whether they like it or not that's the truth and so yeah it's too late for people you say oh it's so heartless you know to go and wipe these people out these people are going to hell anyway whatever Joshua and the children of Israel do to these people they're going somewhere worse because they're going to hell that's worse okay so God is a consuming fire God is a God of love and compassion but he's also a God of wrath and justice and so therefore it shouldn't be shocking that God is telling them to wipe these people out and get rid of them why do you not want to make a covenant with them because they're so horribly perverted and wicked that if you make a covenant with these people they're going to influence you and then they're gonna corrupt people and send even more people to hell and ruin your country just like they ruined their own country and so the Bible is saying get rid of them and then he says in verse three neither shalt thou make marriages with them you know completely wipe them out and don't sit there and say well you know we're gonna wipe them out but you know what about this young lady over here this young man over here that could be a good husband or a good wife no he's saying get rid of them you don't want to bring these people into the family don't give your daughter to his son or his daughter shall thou take unto thy son for they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly but that's how you deal with them you shall destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire now obviously this is pretty clear that they were supposed to go in wipe out these nations destroy all the idolatry and set up a new nation where they're worshipping the Lord not intermarry with these wicked people but start a new nation and so forth but whenever I'm reading stuff like this I always want to try to apply this to our day right because we're not going into the Promised Land and breaking down altars of Baal and so how does this kind of thing apply to us well I already mentioned that first of all God reminds them that they're a smaller group that they're in the minority we can apply that to ourselves because we're in the same boat when God says don't make a covenant with these horrible perverts don't show mercy unto them well obviously we in the New Testament are not involved in any physical battle God has not ordained for us to go and fight any wars or or take over any countries or or wipe out any wicked groups of people but spiritually we know that there are still these kind of people living today horrible evil perverts and you know a little bit later we're gonna find out that these people hate God okay because the Bible says in verse 10 about these people that God repays them that hate him to their face to destroy them he will not be slack to him that hate it to him he will repay him to his face let me ask this are there people today who hate God and look I'm not just talking about your average unsaved person I'm not talking about people that are just wrong on salvation or just grew up unsaved and they're just not religious or whatever I'm talking about people who hate God I'm talking about all these freaks that are out there protesting outside of the pastor Shelley's Church and in Dallas Texas and and all of these people that are just foaming at the mouth with all of their disgusting sodomite perverted garbage and just hateful toward Jesus Christ and all things that are clean and right these haters of God no we are not to physically assault them because in the New Testament we wrestle not against flesh and blood our battle is a spiritual battle not a physical battle the weapons of our warfare are not carnal they're spiritual pulling down strongholds and our spiritual weapons are for casting down imaginations and bringing every thought into captivity and obedience to Christ basically it's an ideological war it's about teaching and preaching the truth of God's Word and winning the battle when it comes to reaching people with the truth and winning hearts and minds over to our side how do we win the battle it's not by killing anyone it's not by fighting a physical fight it's by winning people over to our side by exposing them to the truth of what God's Word says I mean think about it is the enemy not at work all day every day trying to brainwash people into accepting the devil's agenda whatever that agenda is and that agenda is different in different generations whatever the devil is pushing this week or this month or this year whatever cause he's pushing and sometimes the devil's message is just about tearing down Christianity tearing down the Bible or the foundations of our faith or whether that is about exalting some perverted group of people and trying to get us to accept and and and make peace with haters of God and horrible degenerates the devil has his agenda well you know what we have an agenda too and not only is our agenda to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to teach people that salvation is by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ and that it's easy to be saved by putting their faith and trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross his death his burial his resurrection but not only that we are also preaching a message to Christians teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded us and so every single thing in the Bible we want to preach it and teach it to Christians because today a lot of Christians they don't even know what the Bible says they have a wrong view of God from not hearing the entire Bible preached but rather just getting a sugar-coated watered-down version of what the Bible teaches no we want to win the battle and say no these things are not okay because the world what does it want to do it wants to say that basically things that God condemns are fine the Bible says that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God this world has an agenda to say hey kids go ahead and go out and commit fornication go ahead and sleep around before you get married that's the world's message show and and how do they get that message to you well they show you TV shows where that's what everybody's doing they show you movies where that's what the main characters are doing right you know you go down and see the latest James Bond movie or whatever I'm sure they're still remaking you know James Bond's 57th movie or whatever and I guarantee you what James Bond is going to bed with a different woman every single movie right what are they teaching you hey kids this is cool this is what manly men do they're just different woman every movie right and this is an agenda just teaching you fornication is the norm this is what people do this is what men do is what women do they're cool they're glamorous when in reality God demands that we keep that activity within marriage marriage is honorable and all in the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge the devil wants to get you to accept all kinds of things outside of marriage fornication adultery and so forth he wants to get you to think that drinking is cool that taking drugs is fine and that it's not a big deal and that you know it's just something that you do when you're young right you just kind of experiment with drugs hey that's the devil that wants you to mess with your mind and not be sober and not follow the Word of God he wants you to be drunk because he doesn't want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit he wants you fooling around with all these sins he wants to glamorize sin for you every chance that he gets well you know we as preachers of God's Word yeah we want to preach salvation want to preach the gospel we want to evangelize but you know what we also need to get up and preach against sin week after week so that God's people know that we are not to be conformed to this world we are to be different than the heathen out there and by the way the people that are controlling Hollywood and the TV shows and the music industry and the movies they're not just Joe unsaved many cases they are the worst reprobates it's literally the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and the Parisites and the Amorites it's those type of people that are setting the tone at the Board of Education and at Hollywood and at Madison Avenue and in Nashville and all these different places and so the devil wants to get you on his program and then we as preachers we're trying to get you on God's program and condemn these things and get you to understand how God wants you to live your life because God does not want us to be just like the world plus Jesus he doesn't want us to live just like the people out there in the world and then except we just show up to church a couple times a week that's the big colossal difference right I mean the difference between me and my unsaved neighbor is that I go to church three times a week is that is that really the difference you know there first of all there's a difference in our faith and our eternal destiny but but also there should be a difference in the way that we live our lives because if I'm getting up every single day and reading the Bible and basing my life on the Word of God it's probably gonna be different than a guy who's waking up every day putting on talk radio and living his life based on what this world is teaching because I think we can all agree that culture in America in 2023 is not Bible based and so there are gonna be some big differences between what the world out there is teaching and how we ought to be living as Christians and what we consider okay and what they consider okay you know when it comes to clothing they have different standards than we do or at least we should have different standards than a bunch of unsaved heathens who don't care what the Bible says or don't even know what the Bible says or if they do they're not interested okay we have a different way that we live we should be living a more excellent way and so he says here don't make marriages with with them you know what is the New Testament analog of that the Bible says in the New Testament that we should not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers and so I want to make sure first and foremost that my children and your children know that the most important criteria in a spouse is that they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ now if you're already married to an unsaved person you need to stay married to that person you need to be the best possible husband or wife that you can be and make the best of that situation but that is not an ideal situation and that is gonna be a major hindrance to you trying to serve God if your spouse isn't saved that's gonna make it hard for you to get serious about serving God because that should be a big important part of your life and if your spouse isn't on board with that you know that should be like the number one point of incompatibility when you're dating and thinking about getting married I mean that's that's like just a deal breaker I don't care how in love you are I don't care if you're madly in love and they're the most wonderful person ever if they're not saved don't even think about marrying them it is the worst mistake that you can make and by the way you know you know what I always tell my children too is I tell my children you know if you marry someone who's not saved every unsaved person has the potential 10 20 30 40 years from now to become a reprobate think about that I mean at least if you're saved and your spouse is saved you know that even if your spouse gets backslidden and becomes kind of a rotten person at least they're never gonna become a reprobate because you can never lose your salvation at least they're always gonna be a saved Christian even if they're super backslidden and worldly and and do a lot of bad things you know what at least it can only get so bad because at least they're saved they got the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is gonna be convicting them in their heart and at least they're never gonna go down the reprobate road of just really going off the deep end like a reprobate would but you know you hear about it all the time people have been married for 20 30 years and then all of a sudden their spouse comes to them and and says that they're a sodomite now I could tell people that I've known personally that that happened to and you know what what a nightmare what a horrific thing to happen hey at least if you marry someone who's saved you know that you're never gonna hear that as bad as it can get it's never gonna get that bad okay and so don't even think about marrying an unsafe person and you know when you're young here's the problem you may not be prioritizing the Lord in your life right now and some of you young people I know that God's not your number one priority you know he should be but guess what I just know that the reality is that every teenager and young person in this room is not necessarily putting God first in their life right now now hopefully as you get older and as you grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ hopefully God will become your number one priority if he's not already but even you young people that are saved I know that God may not be your number one priority right now because look I got saved when I was six years old and I could tell you there were times when I was a teenager when God was not my number one priority I was spending most of my time and energy thinking about other things and I was just kind of putting in a little time on Sunday showing up phoning in a little Bible reading but I was mainly thinking about other things here's the problem with that when God's not your number one priority when you're a young person is that then you might find yourself hanging around with some unsaved young lady in my case right as a guy or those of you that are young ladies you might find yourself hanging around with some unsaved dude and you guys just have so much in common because you're both just really worldly and not really interested in the things of God and so this incompatibility of religion might seem like a small thing because it is kind of a small part of your life sadly because you're not putting Christ number one in your life as you should be now here's the thing if you're a young person who has Christ as number one you're not going to be able to have some deep meaningful relationship with with you know someone of the opposite gender without that coming up because I mean if Christ is your life I mean look when I started to date my wife you know she could tell you I'm talking about the Bible all the time back you know we're going on those first dates and I'm constantly bringing up church I'm bringing up the Bible we're talking about biblical subjects all the time because this is what I was into right and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and so you know in the few weeks that we were getting to know each other in those early days man we're constantly talking about spiritual things biblical things church stuff because that's who I was and I hope that's who you are but here's the thing even if that's not who you are let's say you're saved and you're a born-again child of God but maybe you're just not really at a point in your life where Christ is a huge deal to you like maybe if my wife would have met me three four years earlier when I wasn't as dedicated to the things of God maybe I would have been talking less about the Bible in church and more about worldly things but here's the thing the danger is that when you're in that worldly mode you think that this is the big deal let me tell you something it's a huge deal and so you'd better be talking about whether you're putting Christ first or not right now when you're dating man you better be bringing that stuff up because you don't want to have a rude awakening later when you realize that you're married to someone who isn't saved and you've got this nightmare on your hands you know you've got this this bad situation yes you know I think about the fact that I never knowingly dated an unsaved girl as a teenager never I never knew that a girl was unsaved and data but you know what looking back I dated a lot of unsaved girls that I thought were saved every single one of them I thought were saved or else I wouldn't have been dating them but let me tell you something you want to know why I ended up dating a bunch of unsaved girls because I wasn't as dedicated to the things of God as I should have been I wasn't talking about the Bible as much as I should have been I wasn't thinking about spiritual things as much as I should have been I wasn't doing as much soul winning as I should have been in fact I wasn't doing any soul winning until I was like 17 years old and got out so winning so when I was you know 15 16 years old I hadn't been out so winning I didn't really know what I was doing when it came to winning someone to Christ I wasn't skilled at it because I hadn't done it or had practice and so when I was 15 16 years old I was dating a whole bunch of girls that I assumed were saved but then looking back looking back once I got a lot more knowledge about the Bible and soul winning and started talking more about the Bible then I'd go back and hang around with some of these same girls later as we remained friends and remained in some of the same social circles and then I started talking to them and you know what I realized that they're not even saved but you know what I couldn't realize I could have realized that earlier if I would have been in that mode so now think about this what if I never would have got serious about serving God I could have just kept dating those kind of girls just assuming that every quote evangelical Christian is saved I just assumed I mean I just dated any girl that was just vaguely Christian I just kind of assumed that they were saved because I was just being naive about it you know if you're smart though you will dodge that bullet by asking questions you know it kind of blows my mind when I talk to a Christian young person about their boyfriend or girlfriend what church they go to I'm not sure I'm pretty sure they go to I don't know maybe they go to some kind of a non-denominational I don't know well isn't that kind of important like how hard is it hey where do you go to church what are you talking about just continual texting continual phone calls continual dates you're not sure where they go to church so what do they believe about this what are they oh I don't know well what are you talking about just a bunch of meaningless fluff you know what you ought to be talking about some spiritual stuff I'm not saying that's the only thing you're gonna talk about because yeah obviously everybody has their personal interests and things that they do for fun and obviously when I was dating my wife we weren't just talking about Bible and church the whole time but at least we did talk about the Bible and church enough to figure out that we both know what we believe on these things and we're both able to you know realize that we're going in the same direction spiritually this is super important and so it's you know it's embarrassing for you to be dating someone and you don't know where they stand spiritually you better figure that out that should be like the first date you should be figuring some of those things out before you just waste your time on somebody who isn't interested in following Christ because I don't want to just be married to somebody who's saved I want to be married to somebody who's following Christ and guess what maybe now as a foolish young person just all you care about is just ice cream and partying or something and just having fun but guess what someday when you kind of settle into life a little bit you're probably gonna get more serious about the things of God I hope all this preaching is eventually gonna sink in someday and you'll get serious about it and you know what you're gonna be real disappointed if you're married to somebody who just doesn't give a rip so you better be equally yoked and don't marry an unsaved person and don't marry somebody who doesn't care about the things of God but especially don't marry an unsaved person so he said don't don't give your daughter in marriage them don't don't take your daughter to be married to your son they'll turn away thy son from following me verse 4 they may serve other gods so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly but thus shall you deal with them verse 5 he shall destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth hey we are different we're special we're supposed to be above other people on this earth now this is not a prideful thing because right after saying that God has chosen you to be above other people he kind of brings him down a notch in the very next verse to make sure they don't get prideful he says the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people he's saying look it's not your personal greatness this would be the New Testament application it's not your personal greatness that puts you above other people it's the fact that you're in Christ that gives you a higher value not because of you but because of Christ because you're in Christ well if God has called us to be ambassadors for Christ we need to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we've been called we need to be worthy of that honor of being a Christian which is a higher level than being a Muslim see see here's here's being a Muslim this being a Christian right here higher better superior Islam is garbage Islam is trash you know a Buddhism is trash Hinduism is trash you say what should happen to all these Buddhist temples and stupas and and shrines well you know what someday they're all gonna be wiped out you think Christ is just gonna allow all these Buddhist shrines and Hindu temples to exist no way it's gonna be it's gonna be similar to what we see here where he says man break down that stuff get rid of that stuff now again obviously we're not gonna go physically vandalize the Hindu temple tonight okay so if it gets vandalized tonight it wasn't us all right but here's the thing about that though is that we're gonna spiritually and verbally vandalize it tonight and every night we're gonna get up and we're gonna tear it down with our words and we're gonna tear down Islam we're not gonna go physically rip apart the mosque but we're gonna rip it apart in the sermon on Sunday morning and on Sunday night and Wednesday night we're gonna rip apart Buddhism we're gonna rip apart Hinduism casting down imaginations tearing down these strongholds of first false religion in our world but today a lot of preachers they won't say anything negative about Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam because they don't want to seem racist or offend people well it's really not about race anyway because you know people of all races are Christians in our auditorium tonight we have red and yellow black and white we've got Asians we've got Native Americans we've got right Caucasians we've got blacks we've got all of it we've got everything represented Latinos you name it it's in this room and we're all Christians here amen we all believe in Christ any Hindus out there tonight any Muslims no didn't think so and plus you have you have white people that are stupid enough to convert to all these religions even though they're born and raised in Christian families they go rebel against their parents and become you know one of these religions although I don't think Hinduism is accepting new converts because you have to die and come back to join Hinduism so if you want to be a Hindu next life you just get all new it you just get all new aged out burn a bunch of incense and get all Hare Krishna out and then then then when you die you hope that you get reincarnated into some Indian family good luck with that because you're gonna wake up in hell but that's the only way to really get into Hinduism you have these white people like oh I'm a Hindu now it's like that's not even how Hinduism works you got to be born into Hinduism you agree with me or okay we got we got an ex Hindu here that agrees with me so case closed you know what what further fact check do you need one person but what I am saying is true but here's the thing about that you got white people that just get all trendy oh I'm Muslim now or whatever Sinead O'Connor or whatever I mean she they probably have to make a special section in hell for her for like lesbian Muslim whatever all the different adjectives we could put on her since Sinead O'Connor died recently but oh here's where the bald Muslim feminist lesbian weirdos go you know let me show you to your cell but but the point is that it's not about race because Sinead O'Connor is a white Irish person right and went to hell professing to be a Muslim for whatever bizarre reason I didn't know that Islam was accepting lesbians last time I checked I thought they were throwing them off the roofs of buildings okay but whatever you know you know I think Madonna at one point was saying that she was you know into the Kabbalah and practicing Judaism you know and then you got Sammy Davis jr. getting into Judaism you know so you look it's not about race my friend it's about Christ versus idols Christ versus demons Christ versus false religion satanic religion wicked abominations spiritually and so no we're not going to destroy their altars but I will get up and say as many negative things as I can about these false religions and I will tear them down with my words and you have preachers today that say well you know we don't want to preach against other religions we don't want to preach against other faiths and we need to kind of respect all faiths no God said tear it down destroy it burn it with fire it's garbage now we're not doing that physically in the New Testament but can we do it verbally behind the pulpit can a Baptist preacher get up and condemn the false religions of this world and today we would take that for granted in faithful word Baptist Church but I'm telling you a lot of evangelical Christians out there they think we need to go soft on the Muslims you go soft on Hinduism you go soft on on Judaism and you say well how are we gonna reach them if we if you know if we get up and and scream and yell and say that Muhammad's a pedophile how are we gonna reach them well here's how we reach them we go to them outside of the church building we walk up to them and we offer to show them for the Bible how to be saved or we show them the love of Christ on the job we show them the love of Christ at school we show them the love of Christ in the neighborhood we open our Bible and show them the gospel you just don't necessarily point them to Pastor Anderson's fire-breathing sermon against Islam if you don't think they can handle it maybe they can't handle it because guess what I've had people come up to me and say I got saved listening to your preaching and I was raised Jewish in fact I had somebody come up and say that to me on Sunday morning this week okay but other people have come up to me and said I was raised Muslim I was Catholic I you know I got saved listening to the preaching isn't it amazing how the fire-breathing preaching got them saved even though it's so offensive it's good turn so many people away from Christianity that's funny is it amazing how the churches that are preaching hard on false religion and on sin are growing if it just turns everybody away why are the churches growing and here's the thing about the liberal church that's soft on false religion they say oh how are we gonna reach people I wonder how many people they reach for Christ this week I wonder how many converts to Christianity they had this year because what you'll notice about some of these big soft preaching churches is that they don't they don't go out and knock doors so they're not knocking the door you know we're knocking doors of Hindus every week we're knocking the doors of Muslims every week we're knocking the doors of Buddhists and Catholics and Mormons every single week we have people out there knocking doors of all these people lovingly kindly gently showing them one-on-one from the Bible how to be saved oh you're turning people away really know what we're doing is we're obeying the Bible and preaching hard against sin the Bible says rebuke false teaching sharply rebuke false teachers sharply call out the false prophets the New Testament's filled with it Jesus Christ got up and screamed woe unto you Pharisees woe unto you Sadducees you generation of vipers how should you escape the damnation of hell oh you're gonna turn people away I guess that was Jesus not being Christlike even though he is Christ how can Christ not be Christlike and he's getting up and then and then you know I love it when the the lawyers are like well you know thus saying thou reproach us also you know we're kind of offended too they literally come to Christ and say you know in that sermon that you're preaching against these other religions that kind of hits on our religion and I guess they expected him to be like oh man I'm so sorry I didn't mean to offend you he literally just he just changes the sermon and starts pointing at them so he's hitting on the Pharisees and Sadducees and then the lawyers are like well thus saying thou reproach us also you know when you say that you actually are getting on us too and then he's just like okay well woe unto you lawyers and then he just starts going off on the lawyers you know what's it gonna take what's it gonna take for Muslims to get saved what's it gonna take for Buddhists to get saved what's it gonna take for Hindus to get saved it's gonna take more than just hey looking good love ya anything I can do for you let me know and just hoping that someday they're gonna fall on their knees before you and say what must I do to be saved you know it's gonna take a proactive approach of going to them and giving them the gospel and you know what there there are different ways to save different people because what does the book of Jude say it says of some have compassion making a difference others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the first so here's what's going on some some Muslims are gonna get saved because you gently and kindly have compassion on them and show them one-on-one how to be saved amen you're a nice guy and you win them over with the love of Christ and show them the Word of God gently but you know other Muslims are gonna be safe because they go on YouTube and click on some video and they're like what and this guy's like you know and they're like whoa but then they actually get that message guess what preachers like me have always existed and always will exist and we have to exist and we're part of God's plan and you know there are other soft watered-down preachers out there that are also God's plan part of God's plan God can use them too and and we're all we're all reaching different kinds of people as long as we have the right gospel of salvation by faith alone in Christ you know God's gonna use me to reach certain people that that that mr. nice guy can't reach and God's gonna use mr. nice guy to reach people that I can't reach you know we all have a part in God's plan and by the way I'm a nice guy too okay because I was just I just was this afternoon kindly and gently explaining the gospel to a little old lady this afternoon you know you think I was just on her doorstep like apostolic Church what in the Pentecostal garbage you know no I was just saying hey you know here's what the Bible says let me show you she's like let me go get my Bible I'm like okay yeah go get your Bible let's look at this you know I'm just being nice okay but at the end of the day hard preaching works too okay and so the the New Testament equivalent of destroying their altars and breaking down their images is tearing them down verbally through hard preaching and not being respectful and everybody's like respect all faiths God didn't have respect unto Cain's offering in Genesis chapter 4 and guess what for the whole rest of the Bible God still doesn't respect false religion for the whole rest of the Bible doesn't respect bail doesn't respect Ashtaroth doesn't respect Pharisaicalism and and and the religion of the Sagittarius he just doesn't respect it okay he tears it down thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God thy God the Lord thy God hath chosen thee verse 6 to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth I got to hurry up but it says the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for you were the fewest of all people because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the house of Pharaoh king of Egypt know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations and repayeth them that hate him to their face to destroy them he will not be slacked in the that hated them he will repay him to his face so God can either be your best friend or your worst enemy you know God is either going to be blessing you and and shining his light upon you or he's gonna be a nightmare unto you if you have rejected him as Lord and you're not you know believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and so he says here that God will repay him that hates him and that's what's happening to the Canaanites the Jebusites the Parisites etc and he says in verse 11 thou shalt therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments was I command thee this day to do them wherefore it shall come to pass if ye hearken to these judgments verse 12 and keep and do them that the Lord thy God shall shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he swear unto thy fathers and he will love thee and bless thee and multiply thee he will also bless the fruit of thy womb etc he's talking about when he says your father's he's talking about Abraham Isaac and Jacob so God chose Abraham Isaac and Jacob to be a special chosen people and they would be the nation this is called the Old Testament right God made the Old Testament with the children of Israel that's the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob why did he choose them he chose them because of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and he set his love upon them and he kept the covenant that he made with Abraham and so he chose this nation to be a special people unto him the Israelites and he made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai that they would be his people and that he would be their God he said I will be to you a people you'll be to me or sorry you'll be to me a people I'll be to you God this is the covenant and so forth now this covenant that he made with them in the old covenant that he made with them at Mount Sinai was a conditional covenant it was not unconditional it was not you're gonna be my people no matter what you're gonna inherit the Promised Land no matter what no no they had to keep his commandments and his judgments and his statutes they had to be the holy nation that he was designing them to be they had to follow his laws and so forth in order to be in that group of the chosen people now this has nothing to do with personal salvation personal salvation has always been through faith in the Lord calling upon the name of the Lord whether we're in Genesis chapter 4 or whether we're in Revelation 22 we call upon the name of the Lord by faith to be saved and that's a personal decision right and it's not by works it was not by works in the Old Testament it's not by works in the New Testament but the old covenant was a covenant between God and the nation of Israel that they would be his chosen people it was conditional and he said if you hearken to these judgments he says in verse 12 do you see that then he says God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which is sworn to thy fathers so this covenant that he made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob yeah I'll keep that with you his descendants if you keep the commandments and judgments the statutes this is why when the children of Israel would stop worshipping the Lord God would allow them to be carried away captive into other nations and to be taken out of the promised land he promised the land to Abraham Isaac and Jacob but when the descendants don't follow him he removes them from the land and the Assyrians come and take the northern kingdom captive the Babylonians come and take the southern kingdom captive right because it's conditional now that new covenant that we have in the New Testament replaces the old covenant okay so the old covenant was made with the Israelites and it was a conditional covenant upon them obeying his commandments and if they forsake him then they get punished and they don't get to be the chosen people anymore and they get sent off into other nations and so forth now the new covenant is different because the new covenant is not made with a physical nation the new covenant is made with all believers in Christ man woman boy girl red yellow black white we are all the chosen people in the New Testament so salvation hasn't changed salvation is always for the individual been by faith in the Lord but here's what has changed who are God's chosen people according to the old covenant is a physical nation it's a visible physical geographically based nation of Israel in the New Testament it's just a spiritual nation not a physical group a spiritual nation made up of all believers and the condition to be one of God's chosen people in the New Testament is just to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the difference is that this can never be revoked in the New Testament it's not like the Old Testament where it's this temporary covenant that gets revoked if you don't do it right the New Testament is a never-ending covenant it's eternal and it will never be done away so it's not like well we have the Old Testament and then it got replaced by the New Testament and then something else is coming to replace it in the future nope the New Testament replaces the Old Testament and the New Testament never gets replaced the New Testament is permanent it's eternal it's unchanging we will always be God's chosen people and he will never discard us like he discarded the nation of Israel again not talking about individuals and their salvation because just as we cannot lose our salvation the individual in the Old Testament cannot lose his salvation either but the nation could lose that privilege of being the chosen nation inheriting the promised land etc and so this is the condition right if you do these commandments then God will keep his covenant with you meaning that if you don't do the commandments then you've broken your end of the bargain God will break his end of the bargain because that covenant was conditional he says that if they that God will also if they keep his commandments love thee and bless thee verse 13 and multiply thee he will also bless the fruit of thy womb and the fruit of thy land thy corn thy wine and thine oil the increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee thou shalt be blessed above all people there should not be male or female barren among you or among your cattle the Lord will take away from the all sickness and will put none of the evil diseases of the of Egypt which thou knowest upon thee but will lay them upon all them that hate thee and thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee thine eyes shall have no pity upon them neither shalt thou serve their gods for that will be a snare unto thee now this is in the perfect world of course we know it's not a perfect world so this is not the way things play out they end up not destroying all the nations they end up not following all of God's commandments and so they end up having a mix of blessings from God and curses from God and they you know live in the imperfect world that we live in eventually they disregard his covenant so much that it ends up having to be replaced with a new covenant and of course by and large they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and so most of Israel when Jesus came the majority of them did not get saved now a lot of Israelites did get saved but the majority did not get saved and so as a nation they rejected Christ and so they are no longer God's people at all the old covenant is no longer in effect it's totally gone it has been a hundred percent gone since the end of the first century AD so for at least 1900 years the old covenant is obsolete it's expired no one can be grandfathered in with the old covenant at all and so he says in verse 17 if thou shalt say in thine heart these nations are more than I how can I dispossess them he explains them look I'm with you it's my power my might that's going to allow you small nation that you are to defeat seven nations greater and greater and mightier than you are and by the way even when the children of Israel are in their heyday King David King Solomon right we would say the peak of the nation of Israel as far as prosperity is King Solomon let me ask you this were they a world superpower were they even a world power no they were super blessed they had a great nation and they had great prosperity and wealth and blessings from God under King Solomon but were they considered one of the big world powers no because while King Solomon's reigning Egypt is mightier right other nations are mightier you know the Assyrians are mightier all kinds of nations are mightier at that time again God's people are always small in number relatively speaking but who cares if you're a big player on the world stage what matters is you're in a nation that's blessed and loved by God that's what he's promising them they're not going to rule the world but they're going to be a blessed nation and God's going to use them to defeat huge armies when a mighty empire like Egypt sends an army you know God can allow the little nation of Judah to push back against Egypt or Assyria or Babylon or whoever if it's his will God can protect his people and so he talks about how it's going to be through God's power that they conquer the land he's going to use natural forces like even insects like hornets weather he can intervene in various ways to just cause the enemy to lose I mean think about throughout history how many battles have been decided by things like the weather you know one of the most famous examples the Mongolians are just taking over nation after nation but the Mongolians were not able to conquer Japan why because God sent a storm that destroyed their ships and of course the Japanese did not give glory to the God of the Bible but they still called it the divine wind right which is where we get the term kamikaze which literally means divine wind kami meaning God and kaze meaning wind am I right all right so you know that's basically an example of God intervening for whatever reason or you could think about when you know a storm destroyed the Spanish Armada and allowed the British to have victory or you could think about just you know Hitler invading the Soviet Union and then what why did why did the Germans lose it was the winter right it wasn't that the enemy defeated them it was that the elements defeated them if the weather would have been different they would have won so God intervenes in history at various times not necessarily because the you know the Japanese were so godly or the Mongolians are worse or something but just for whatever you know it's just these are things that happen sometimes you could say that they could even happen by chance or just that God's intervening for whatever reason but in the case of God's people we know he's intervening for his people and so he's for sure sending Hornets or storms or droughts or whatever to hurt the enemy and so they destroy them and he says when you do verse 25 the graven images of their gods shall you burn with fire thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them nor take it unto thee lest thou be snared therein for it is an abomination of the Lord thy God neither shall to bring an abomination into thy house lest thou be a cursed thing like it but that's not utterly detested not should utterly abhor it for it is a curse of things so the last thing I want to say is that you know we should not bring relics of false religion into our house even if they look cool you know for example you know we were just we were at we were at Ross the other day and in addition to clothing Ross turns out Ross sells like everything else in the entire world so anyway I just saw like a section for everything so I you know while the clothing shopping was going around I was just kind of like wandering around like I was kind of wandering in the wilderness for a minute just kind of like so we ready to go home but anyway so I met Ross and and there was like there was just this beautiful picture of Buddha this really fancy like with all kinds of like special effects and the gold and silver and precious stones and there was just a really cool looking Buddha picture for like 20 bucks or something you know but here's the thing about that that thing is an abomination like not only would I not put that in my house because it's it's wicked it's a false religion but I would literally even be like scared to have it in my house because I wouldn't want to bring like a curse on my house by having that thing up on the wall I mean do you think that God would be pleased with you having relics or images or symbols of false religion decorating your house just because they look cool just because it's trendy or something to have this kind of stuff no way that thing we should utterly abhor that thing and say get that Buddha out of here right and look I remember when I was a teenager my my friends parents they came home from some vacation they had these little like tiki little faces or whatever but they looked like false gods they were like some kind of idolatrous tiki monsters or whatever and my friend and I told his parents like you have brought an abomination into your house you know you've got to get rid of this thing you know this is a scary thing and they're like oh you know it's no big deal it's just it's just it's just decorative we just thought it looked cool but here's the thing some bone-in-the-nose guy is literally worshiping that as a false God so we shouldn't have that kind of decoration right we shouldn't have the tiki decoration I mean I'm for a tiki torch you know there's no absolutely no issue with a bunch of tiki torches around your swimming pool or whatever you know that's just that's just a cool you know summer decor but you know what I don't want to have some kind of a face of a false god or a graven image or a molten image or any symbolism of Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism and you know some of this stuff might seem basic and you say like come on pastor Anderson why are you insulting my intelligence telling me not to buy a picture of Buddha at Ross you know do I really need to hear that but here's the thing you know I've learned as a pastor it's best to just preach everything that the Bible says because I don't know what people have thought of or struggled with or or what kind of decorations people are given as a gift you know one time I had somebody give me an idolatrous gift and I was polite to this person because I didn't want to offend him he was an unsaved person and I and he was just trying to do something nice for me he thought I would like this you know idolatrous like carved it was like a graven image of Jesus and his disciples and he was trying to do something nice he was trying to be nice and I'm like oh wow thank you I appreciate it into the trash now look I didn't want to hurt his feelings but at the same time I'm not gonna have an abomination on the wall in my house I want to get rid of it because God does not want me to have some random long-haired hippie sculpture that's claiming to be Christ or whatever because the Bible says we shouldn't have graven images and I'm not gonna have some religious graven image in my house not gonna do it so we need to always when we're reading Deuteronomy try to apply it to today even though it has a specific context back then we can find a way to apply all these things today and tear down Buddhism verbally and get the the the the laughing Buddha decorations out of your house which I know your house is filled with them let's buy father we thank you so much for your word Lord and thank you that it's always relevant and Lord God I pray that you would just speak to us your people from your word every time we open it Lord and that we would hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches on Sunday and Wednesdays Lord as the Bible's preached bless us as we go our separate ways in Jesus name we pray amen