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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to faithful word Baptist church. Very good to see you all here on this beautiful Sunday morning. If you want to all please find your seats, please. Find this song book. We'll begin with our congregational singing this morning. Go to hymn 449. We'll begin hymn number 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Wellingville and hymn 449. Distance Georgeimer wellingville's 449 Far away the noise, the sigh of love, my ear is calling. And I know the sins of earth he set on every hand. Doubt and fear and things of earth remain to me are calling. Under me shall we meet, a new love land. I'm living on the mountain, underneath the cloudless sky. Praise God, I'm drinking at the mountain. That never shall run dry. Oh yes, I'm tasting on the manna, From about to full supply, for I am dwelling in new love land. Far below the storm, a doubt of love the world is beating. Sons of men in battle, on the enemy they stand. I live in the castle of God's work retreating. Nothing that can reach me, takes me to the land. I'm living on the mountain, underneath the cloudless sky. Praise God, I'm drinking at the mountain. That never shall run dry. Oh yes, I'm tasting on the manna, From about to full supply, for I am dwelling in new love land. Let the stormy breezes pull their pride, get out of our need. I am safely sheltered here, protected by God's hand. Here the sun is always shining, here there's not an army. I am safe forever, in new love land. I'm living on the mountain, underneath the cloudless sky. Praise God, I'm drinking at the mountain. That never shall run dry. Oh yes, I'm tasting on the manna, From about to full supply, for I am dwelling in new love land. Here we hear the words of God, I sing in contemplation. Hearing out his blessed voice, I see the way he planned. Well, forgive us here and here, I learn of old salvation. Gladly will I tarry in new love land. I'm living on the mountain, underneath the cloudless sky. Praise God, I'm drinking at the mountain. That never shall run dry. Oh yes, I'm tasting on the manna, From about to full supply, for I am dwelling in new love land. Well, that's all aspects of today's sermon. Bless Pastor Anderson, his family, his congregation, Lord. Thanks for keeping us safe while we're out there so many, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Men, back to hymn number 55. Hymn number 55, when the role is called up yonder. Hymn number 55. 55 begins when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more. Sing it out together right on that verse. Hymn number 55. When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more. And the morning breaks eternal brighter there. When they say the verse shall gather over on the other shore. And the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise. And the glory of his resurrection shed. When his chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies. And the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. Let us labor for the master from the dawn till setting sun. Let us talk of all his wondrous love again. And when all the life is over and the work on earth is done. And the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder. When the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we will be in Deuteronomy chapter 31. We've got the soul winning times listed there below. As well as salvation and baptisms. Cross the page. Congratulation of course to the newlyweds. There's a baby shower coming up this Saturday, February 17th. And it is here at the church building 12 to 3 p.m. There will be a catered lunch from Olive Garden. And so nurselings only please. And please RSVP to Mrs. Gayla Coleto. Keep praying for the expectant ladies at our church. That they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. On the back, we have a baby shower coming up this Saturday, February 17th. And it is here at the church building 12 to 3 p.m. There will be a catered lunch from Olive Garden. And so nurselings only please. And please RSVP to Mrs. Gayla Coleto. That's a door for specified culinary wartime delivery. On the back the small town soul winning trump for next week has been canceled so make a note of that. There is going to be some extracurricular soul winning and eloy on Saturday February 24 for more details you can speak to brother Alex Larson about that. Men's preaching class meets weekly at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays all soul winning men are welcome to participate. Speak with brother Caguora for more information. allowed, so only those who are actually participating. What we mean is that you just, if you show up, you're supposed to be prepared to preach a five minute sermon and participate in the class. You can't show up to just watch because we don't want to put undue pressure upon the students. All right, and then at the bottom, other upcoming things. There's a small town soul winning that's coming up there in March and another one in March, a couple things. So that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, you should find the insert in front of your hymnal of Psalm 139. If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand. ["Surely Thou Wilt Slay the Wicked"] We'll sing it on that first verse together. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Nice and slow on that first. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. O God, be far from thee, therefore ye bloody men. Be far from thee, therefore ye bloody men. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I free with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? For they speak against thee wickedly. For they speak against thee wickedly. And thine enemies take thy name in vain. And thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I free with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I hate them with perfect hatred. I doubt them, thine enemies. I doubt them, thine enemies. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I free with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And that good singing, everybody. Go to your hymnals now to hymn 361, hymn number 361. Did you think to pray? Hymn number 361. 361 begins, ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray? Hymn number 361. Sing it out together now. Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray? In the name of Christ, our Savior, did you super love in favor as a shield to gain. Oh, what a brain-wrestling, prayer will change the night today. So in sorrow and in gladness, don't forget to pray. When you met with great temptation, did you think to pray? By his dying love and merit, did you claim the Holy Spirit as your guidance day? Oh, what a brain-wrestling, prayer will change the night today. So in sorrow and in gladness, don't forget to pray. When your heart was filled with anger, did you think to pray? Did you plead for praise, my brother, that you might forgive another who had crossed your way? Oh, how brain-wrestling, prayer will change the night today. So in sorrow and in gladness, don't forget to pray. When sore trials came upon you, did you think to pray? When your soul was bowed in sorrow, oh, what good it is to follow at the gates of day. Oh, how brave that so clearly, prayer will change the night today. So in sorrow and in gladness, don't forget to pray. That gets even smaller. All right, here's time to put the Passer offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to 1 Kings, chapter number 16. 1 Kings, chapter number 16. As we always do, read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads 1 Kings, chapter 16, starting in verse number 1. 1 Kings, chapter 16, the Bible reads, then the word of the Lord came to Jehu, the son of Hanani, against Beasheth, saying, for as much as I exalted thee out of the dust and made thee prince over my people Israel, and now hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins, behold, I will take away the posterity of Beasheth and the posterity of his house, and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Him that dieth of Beasheth in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth of his in the fields shall the fowl of the air eat. Now the rest of the acts of Beasheth and what he did in his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Beasheth slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah, and Elah, his son, reigned in his stead. And also by the hand of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, came the word of the Lord against Beasheth and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord in provoking him to anger with the work of his hands and being like the house of Jeroboam and because he killed him. In the 20th and 6th year of Asa, king of Judah, began Elah, the son of Beasheth, to reign over Israel in Tirzah two years. And his servant Zimrai, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house in Tirzah. And Zimrai went in and smote him and killed him in the 20th and 7th year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned in his stead. And it came to pass when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the house of Beasheth, he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolk nor of his friends. Thus did Zimrai destroy all the house of Beasheth according to the word of the Lord, which he spake against Beasheth by Jehu, the prophet, for all the sins of Beasheth and the sins of Elah, his son, by which they sinned and by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? In the 20th and 7th year of Asa, king of Judah, did Zimrai reign seven days in Tirzah. And the people were encamped against Gibethon, which belonged to the Philistines. And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimrai hath conspired and hath also slain the king, wherefore all Israel made Amrai the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp. And Amrai went up from Gibethon and all Israel with him and they besieged Tirzah. And it came to pass when Zimrai saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house and burnt the king's house over him with fire and died. For his sins, which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord and walking in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he did to make Israel to sin, now the rest of the acts of Zimrai and his treason that he wrought, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts. Half of the people followed Tibnai, the son of Ginnath, to make him king and half followed Amrai. But the people that followed Amrai prevailed against the people that followed Tibnai, the son of Ginnath. So Tibnai died and Amrai reigned. In the 31st year of Asa, king of Judah, began Amrai to reign over Israel 12 years. Six years reigned he in Tirzah and he bought the hill Samaria of Shimer for two talents of silver and built on the hill and called the name of the city which he built after the name of Shimer, owner of the hill Samaria. But Amrai wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Amrai which he did and his might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Amrai slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria and Ahab, his son, reigned in his stead. And in the 30th and eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, began Ahab, the son of Amrai, to reign over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Amrai, reigned over Israel in Samaria 20 and two years. And Ahab, the son of Amrai, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ithbel, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. In his days did Heel, the Bethlight, build Jericho. He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram, his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son, Segeb, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua, the son of Nun. Thank you. Father in heaven, thank you for this beautiful day, and thank you for the blood of your son, Jesus Christ, that washes away us from all sin. Thank you for the earnest of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of your children, Father, that have believed in your son, Jesus Christ. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches your word so that we, your children, would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Help us serve you, Father, for your son says in the word, without me you can do nothing. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Man, if you would, keep your finger there and flip over to John chapter four. This morning I'm preaching on the subject of the Samaritans. Now, Samaria is a really important subject in the Bible. Just to give you an idea, 124 times in the Bible, the place Samaria is mentioned. So this is a pretty major subject. 10 times the term Samaritan or Samaritans is used throughout scripture. And of course, there are some really famous stories in the New Testament that involve Samaritans. The one that comes to everybody's mind at first is of course the Good Samaritan, the story of the Good Samaritan who helps out the man who's beaten and laying in a ditch and so forth. And then we have the story of the 10 lepers who are healed. Nine of them do not return to thank Jesus, but one of them actually comes back and glorifies God and thanks Jesus. And the one who comes back is a Samaritan. And then of course we have the story of the woman at the well in John chapter four, and she's a woman of the Samaritans. I've been preaching through the book of John. We went through a lot of material in chapters one, two, and three. So here we are in chapter four, beginning of verse number one, the Bible reads, When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. So in order for him to get from Judea into Galilee, he has to pass through Samaria. So the first thing we need to understand is that Jesus is not making a point to go to Samaria because when Christ was here in his earthly ministry, he made a point to focus on preaching to all the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That was his mission. Then after he dies on the cross and is buried and rises again, then he tells them to go teach all nations, go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. But during his earthly ministry, he was really homed in on the Israelites. Now this doesn't mean that he doesn't love or care about other people, it's just that he's one person, he had a certain mission, certain amount of time to do it, and so that was his focus. But throughout his ministry though, he will sometimes preach to and minister to other people, even if they're not his primary objective, obviously if he's in Samaria, he might as well win someone over. He might as well preach the gospel while he's there, and that's what he does. And so it says here that he, you know, he must needs go through Samaria, it's just something that he has to do geographically. And it says he cometh to a city of Samaria, verse five, which is called Sychar, near the parcel ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour, and there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. Jump down to verse nine, then saith the woman of Samaria to him, how is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me, which I'm a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. So right away we see that there's some kind of an animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans, but who are the Samaritans? What is their history? What's their background? Where did this rift take place? Well, let's go all the way back in the Old Testament, First Kings chapter 16, and find out what Samaria is. Now we just read the whole chapter before the sermon, but just to kind of summarize what we read, you had this succession of wicked kings in the northern kingdom of Israel, and there was one king in particular named Zimrai, and he only reigned for seven days, right? Because he had treacherously taken over the kingdom, and people didn't want him as king. And so once he realized that he was not going to be able to continue reigning, and that the captain of the host of Israel was marching toward him to actually take over and become king, that's Amrai, well then he just decided, well, if I can't have this palace, no one can. So he just burned down the palace over his own head, killing himself in the process, but he just did it out of spite, like, you know, well, I'll show you guys, I'll just burn the whole thing down, and then nobody can have it. So that's what he did. So then this captain of the host, Amrai, becomes king. Now if you would look at verse number 23. It says, in the 30 and first year of Asa, king of Judah began Amrai to reign over Israel 12 years. Six years reigned he in Tirzah, okay? So Tirzah was the original capital city, if you will, where Zimrai had burned the house down on himself, okay? So that's where he starts out reigning, but because the palace has been burned down anyway, he decides he's gonna build a new capital city. And so it says in verse 24, he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver and built on the hill and called the name of the city which he built after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill Samaria. So that tells us where the word Samaria comes from. It comes from this guy's name, who's just a random guy who owns a hill. The king buys that hill and decides to start from scratch and build a brand new capital city for the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And so he builds the city of Samaria. Now look at verse 25, but Amrai wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sin or with he made Israel to sin to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities. And so you see that this man who founded Samaria, who bought the hill, built the city, established it as the capital of Israel is a very wicked man who was more ungodly and wicked than anybody who came before him, okay? So right away, you can see that Samaria is founded as a bad city. From the beginning, it's a wicked place founded by a wicked person and it's associated with false religion, okay? Then we go down and get to the King Ahab. And this is the son of Amri. He's a lot more famous than Amri is King Ahab because there are a lot of Bible stories about Ahab. But look at what verse 30 says. And Ahab, the son of Amrai, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. So he's even worse than Amrai. And it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Eph-baal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. Okay, so Samaria is a wicked place. It's a capital city of false religion, okay? Now, go back, if you would, to 1 Kings chapter 12 briefly, 1 Kings chapter 12. Because here's what we need to understand about the northern kingdom of Israel, okay? The reason that the northern kingdom of Israel even existed is because there was a split in the nation of Israel, because Israel used to be one nation that was ruled by the judges for about 400 years. And then they had King Saul for about 40 years, David for 40 years, Solomon for 40 years as a united kingdom. But after Solomon, the kingdom is split, and you have the northern 10 tribes and the southern two tribes. The southern kingdom becomes known as Judah with the capital city of Jerusalem. The northern kingdom is Israel. And then ultimately, we see that the capital becomes Samaria. Well, because the capital city is Samaria, and because in the ancient world, most areas are ruled by city-states, then the whole region will often just be referred to as Samaria. You can just call it the villages of Samaria, the land of Samaria, because Samaria is the ruling power in the northern kingdom and that's why you have 124 mentions because the preaching about Samaria, sometimes, yeah, it could be referring to the actual city but it's also just kind of a reference to the whole northern kingdom of Israel anyway. But what happened exactly with this rift that split the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom? Well, what it really comes down to is a rejection of the Davidic monarchy, right? A rejection of those kings of the line of David, right? The sons of David to rule over them because the southern kingdom of Judah is ruled over by the sons of David. And Jerusalem is called the city of David. And not only that, Jerusalem is known as the place that God chose to put his name there. God chose David to be the king and God said that David's lineage, David's, what do you call it, dynasty would last forever and that Jerusalem was the city that God had chosen to put his name there and so forth. Well, the northern kingdom is a rejection of that because they break off and make a different king that is not the son of David, right? Look, if you would, at 1 Kings chapter number 12. The Bible reads in verse 16. So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, this is when the split happens, look what they say. The people answered the king saying, what portion have we in David? Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. And of course, David is the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel. Now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed under their tents. So, and then look at verse 19. So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day. So when 1 and 2 Kings is being written, okay, which is just probably a few hundred years before Christ, then the Bible is saying, look, they've rebelled against the house of David until this day, okay. So what is that split between the southern and northern kingdom? It's the northern kingdom rebelling against the house of David, rebelling against the sons of David as their kings. Now of course, this is a foreshadowing of Israel rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate son of David. And so by rejecting the house of David here, Israel is foreshadowing the fact that the Jews are going to reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior and with the same result. When they rejected their king, David, then they end up being cursed by God, ruled over by wicked leaders and ultimately destroyed as a nation and scattered into the four winds. So we have this series of wicked kings in that northern kingdom of Israel. They never have any godly or righteous kings. They just don't. The southern kingdom kind of goes back and forth with some good kings and bad kings. The northern kingdom is just bad. It's just wicked. Some are worse than others, but they're all bad, okay, because they've rejected the Davidic line. Ultimately, they get so bad that God allows the Assyrians, who were a major world power at that time, to come in and take over. Now, if you would, flip over to 2 Kings 17. So we're gonna fast forward in time, but here's what we've learned so far. We learned that the Samaria was founded as a wicked city by a wicked person. It's a hub of false religion. They're worshiping the devil. They've rejected David. They've rejected Jerusalem, and they've rejected the Lord by doing so. Then we fast forward to 2 Kings 17. They've gotten so bad that God allows the Assyrian empire to come in and conquer, and they end up being defeated and taken away into captivity, meaning that people are literally abducted, and they're literally removed from the land, okay? And of course, that's later gonna happen to Judah in the form of the Babylonian captivity, but this is earlier. This is the Assyrian captivity. Now look at verse 24 of chapter 17 of 2 Kings. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cutha and from Ava and from Hamath and from Sifarvayim and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. Notice cities of Samaria, because remember, Samaria is now referring to the entire region, not just the capital. And they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof. So they've removed a bunch of Israelites, and now they've brought in a bunch of foreigners from a whole bunch of different cities to come in and take over. And because they're being planted there by the Assyrians and the Assyrians are giving everything to them, now they're gonna be loyal subjects to the king of Assyria. That's the idea. They don't want any patriotism to spring up amongst the Israelites and Samaritans. So they get them out, bring a bunch of foreigners in who don't really have any attachment to the area, and then now they're probably gonna be loyal to the king of Assyria, because that's who gave them everything and handed them all these cities ready-made, out of the box, ready to go. And so it says here that they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof. Verse 25. And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they feared not the Lord. Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. So here's what's going on. When these foreigners first come in, why would they worship the God of Israel? They're not from Israel. They're not Israelite people. They're from all these other places. They're from Babylon and Cutha and all these other places so when they show up, they're just doing their own religion. They're not worshiping the Lord whatsoever. But then, of course, God plagues them. And so it says in verse number 26, Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria know not the manner of the God of the land. Therefore, he has sent lions among them and behold, they slay them because they know not the manner of the God of the land. Now, in the ancient world, a lot of these pagan polytheistic types, they have this idea that there's a different God associated with each region, okay? And so it's not that God is the God of the entire earth like the Bible teaches, that he created the heaven and the earth and that all the gods of the nations are idols and that he's the one true God over the entire earth. Instead, they have this view of, well, we're kind of on Jehovah's turf right now because we're in Samaria and apparently, you know, he's mad at us and so we've got to learn how to placate this God. They think it's like a geographical thing. So then it says in verse 27, The king of Assyria commanded, saying, Come thither, or carry thither, one of the priests whom you brought from thence and let them go and dwell there and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. Now, right away, this priest that they're grabbing from the Israelites, remember the Northern Kingdom of Israel has not been truly rightly worshiping the Lord, okay? They are worshiping in a wicked way where they have these idols and they have a totally warped view of the God of the Bible. So this priest that they bring in is not a righteous priest of God. He's a phony, false prophet type of guy. And so they bring in this priest and he's gonna teach them, you know, how to worship the God of the land. And it says in verse 29, Howbeit every nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made every nation in their cities which they dwell. So here's what they're doing. They're not really getting rid of their old religion. They're still doing their false religion, but then they're just bringing in and adding the God of the Bible, adding the Lord to their pantheon of gods and saying, well, we're gonna serve the Lord just to kind of keep them off our back, but we're still gonna worship, you know, for example, it says in verse 30, the men of Babylon made sucketh Benath. You know, talk about a God that sucketh, but you know, sucketh Benath and the men of Cuth made Nergal and the men of Hamath made Ashima. So they have all these false gods and then they're just adding in the God of the Bible into that pantheon. And look, this is not what the Bible teaches about worshiping the Lord that basically was, you know, you can do both, right? You can be Buddhist and Christian. You can be Hindu and Christian. You know, I can be traditional Native American and pray to great great grandfather and I can also be a Christian. No, you've got to choose this day whom you will serve and as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, but you can't do both. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, the Bible says. And so God demands that we worship him alone and that we only serve him and we cannot have this hybrid religion where we still hang on to some other religion. And here's the thing, when we're out soul winning and we talk to people who are mixed up in false religion, you know, part of the process for them getting saved is gonna be that they're gonna have to discard whatever false religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, if they're saying, well, I'm still gonna be a Muslim, well, then you're gonna go straight to hell because you're not gonna get saved because you got to believe that Jesus is the son of God and that's not a Muslim belief. You can't do both, they're not compatible, okay? And that's what we see here is that they're trying to mix in paganism with the religion of the Bible. I mean, I can't imagine that anyone would do that today, you know, like there's not some huge religion called Roman Catholicism that brings in all kinds of idolatry and paganism and hocus pocus and mixes it in. And it's like, oh, they're gonna worship the Lord but they're also gonna pray to the saints. They're also gonna pray to the queen of heaven, why? Because they're ancient pagan ancestors in Greece and Rome and Babylon, they're already praying to the queen of heaven. And so it's like, well, we're still gonna worship the queen of heaven and Jesus. No, it's gotta be all Jesus, 100% Jesus. And so the Bible says here that they feared the Lord, notice that phrase, because we'll get back to that. They feared the Lord and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests unto the high places which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places, because it's not the Levites, the Levites are down in Judah, the Levites are down in Jerusalem. So they just pick the lowest of the people and make them priests. They feared the Lord and served their own gods after the manner of the nations unto whom they carried away from thence. Under this day, they do after the former manners. Now here's what's funny, verse 32, they feared the Lord. Verse 33, they feared the Lord. Verse 34, under this day, they do have four manners. They fear not the Lord. So which one is it? Now this is the kind of situation where a bozo would come along and be like, oh, it's a contradiction of the Bible. Sorry that the Bible's a little too complex for your little pea brain. This isn't a Saturday morning cartoon, but what the Bible's saying here is that they're fearing the Lord, they're going through the motions of serving God, but because they're fearing other gods too, fearing the Lord plus fearing other gods equals not fearing the Lord. Believing in Jesus plus believing in another religion equals not believing in Jesus. You see what I'm saying? And so that's what the Bible's trying to teach us. It's not contradicting itself, it's showing us that fearing the Lord and worshiping idols is known as not fearing the Lord. Because God demands 100% of our faith, 100% of our worship be directed at him alone. And so it says, they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes or after their ordinances or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them saying, you shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. Now, with that, let's go to the New Testament. And if you would flip over to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. So here's what we learned so far is that Samaria is founded, wicked city, wicked King, false religion, worshiping Baal. Sometimes they're giving lip service to worshiping Jehovah God. Other times they're just straight worshiping Baal. It goes back and forth between bad and really bad. Bad is when they're worshiping the Lord, but they're doing it with a golden calf. Worse is when they just straight worship Satan and worship Baal. And they kind of go back and forth between bad and worse, but ultimately God allows them to be conquered by the Assyrian empire. The majority of them are taken captive and abducted and taken into other nations, scattered into the four winds, as the Bible says. And then you have all these other foreigners coming in and you would expect these foreigners to just come in and just worship their own false gods. And that the Northern Israelite religion would have just been obliterated. But that's not what happened because what happened instead is that they ended up bringing in a priest from Samaria and he taught them all the Samaritan religion and then they all started following the Lord, but they still have a lot of paganism and other stuff mixed in. So that's kind of where we leave the Samaritans in the Old Testament, right? At the end of it all, the Assyrian captivity, they are foreigners, they are worshiping, yes, the Lord, but also false gods. Well, the problem is that between that time and the New Testament, many centuries go by, right? And so many centuries go by and we get to the New Testament and the Samaritans in the New Testament seem to be a little bit different in their beliefs and practices than what they were doing back then, okay? And believe it or not, there are still Samaritans today. I looked it up and as of 2022, there are 874 of them left, okay? There's the Samaritans. And I've actually met some of them because I went to the place where the Samaritan settlement is in Palestine because about half of them live in Palestine, half of them live in Israel. And I went to the Samaritan settlement in Palestine and we saw the Samaritan village and drove through it and everything. But anyway, that is another story that shall be told at another time or you can watch beyond Jordan. But when we get to the New Testament, look at chapter 10 of Matthew verse number five. The Bible says, these 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So right away, as we're reading our New Testament, we see in the book of Matthew that Jesus does not consider the Samaritans to be Israelites. But he's also clarifying and saying, don't go to the Gentiles, don't even go to the Samaritans because maybe some people could see the Samaritans as almost like a crossover between Israelites and Gentiles because they're kind of like quasi Israelites because they're kind of worshiping the Lord, but their genealogy is a bit dubious since we know a lot of these other foreigners are brought in. And then aside from their genealogy, also their religion is dubious, okay? So Jesus doesn't consider them part of the house of Israel and when he's giving the primary objective for their ministry, he says, we're not going to the Gentiles, we're not going to the Samaritans, we're focusing in on the lost sheep of the house of Israel, okay? We saw that also in John chapter four, the only reason he's there is because he pretty much has to go through there, okay? Now let's see if we can figure out some of the beliefs of the Samaritans in the New Testament. Go back to John chapter four, if you would, John chapter number four. John chapter number four, the Bible reads, we already read up through verse number nine, but look at verse number 12 and let's look at some of the things that the Samaritan woman says to figure out some things about Samaritans. It says, aren't thou greater, verse 12, than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle. Now again, whether this woman actually descends from Jacob or how much the Samaritans really are descendants of Jacob is pretty dubious at this point, right? But either way, she considers Jacob to be their spiritual father, their spiritual forebear. Maybe they've just come to believe that they're actually descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? Or they just see themselves as the spiritual children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And you know what? Again, it's very similar to the situation today with people in the so-called state of Israel, because again, their genealogy is super dubious because they're coming from Europe, they're coming from Germany, they're coming from Poland, they're coming from Russia. You know, are they really the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or is it more just, well, we think we're spiritually the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Well, it turns out they're just as wrong as this woman at the well was wrong. They're about as much God's chosen people as the Samaritans are at this point, okay? And it's really a great analogy because the Samaritans rejected David from reigning over them. And as a result of rejecting David from reigning over them, the Samaritans rejected a whole section of the Old Testament. See, the Samaritans, they only believe the first five books. And here's why, because the first five books don't make any mention of Jerusalem. They don't make any mention of David. They just vaguely say that we'll worship in the place which the Lord will choose. Whereas the rest of the Bible, as we get into things like 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, make explicit God choosing David and setting up David and setting up and establishing Jerusalem as the capital and so forth. Well, they reject all that. So by rejecting David, they end up rejecting a big chunk of the Bible too. All the books after Deuteronomy. Well, guess what? The Jews, by rejecting the son of David, Jesus, they end up rejecting a huge chunk of the Bible, the New Testament, the 27 books of the New Testament. They reject that by rejecting Jesus Christ, the son of David. And consequently, they're not God's people. And they are not following the God of the Bible. Look, if the Samaritans are not God's people and if the Samaritans are not following the God of the Bible, what's the difference between that and today's Israelites? It's just another juncture where there's a split that took place and you gotta be on the right side of that split where the southern kingdom keeps worshiping the Lord and the Samaritans go off into false religion, rejecting a portion of the Bible. Well, the same thing happened in the first century AD. Jesus Christ came, the Messiah came, he fulfilled the law and you have a split where you have people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then you have people who stubbornly reject and they become basically our Samaritans, right? A mixed people that we don't know where they came from but we know one thing, they don't believe in God, they don't believe in Jesus Christ, they're not saved because if you don't have the son, you don't have the father, the Bible says. And so you can't just believe in God the father and not have the son. It's a package deal, my friend. And so we noticed that this woman, she seems to claim Jacob as an ancestor whether physically or spiritually or whatever. Just as today, the white people in Israel would claim Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well. Now a little bit later in verse 19, it says, the woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet, she says to Jesus. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. So this mountain that she's talking about is Mount Gerizim. Now, if you actually read the Old Testament, Mount Gerizim is not really that significant, is it? It's not really something that you would think of as just being like a super important mountain. I mean, if I were to ask you, hey, name the most important mountains of the Old Testament, right? What was that show where the game show like Family Feud where like survey says, you know, ding, Mount Sinai, right? That'd probably be the big one that would pop up, right? You know, because it just goes by like what people think, right? They take like a survey. And so it's like, hey, what's the most important mountains in the Old Testament? You know, if you said Gerizim, it's probably gonna be like survey says, ah, you know, because it's gonna be more like Sinai, Zion, you know, Horeb, right, you know, or even Mount Carmel, where Elijah faced off with the prophets of Baal. You know, there are a lot of mountains that are more famous than Mount Gerizim. The only place you're gonna find like a Mount Gerizim Baptist Church is in South Chicago because they're running out of names down there. And so every mountain, any mountain that's even vaguely mentioned is gonna get a church name. You know, we're talking about a city where you got First Philadelphia Baptist Church, Second Philadelphia Baptist Church, Third Philadelphia, the true Philadelphia Baptist, the new Philadelphia Baptist Church, original Philadelphia Baptist Church. And I'm not making these up. Like I've seen these, I've driven by these places. And I'm pretty sure I drove by Mount Gerizim Baptist Church as well. Don't quote me on that one. But I'm telling you that Mount Gerizim is just not that emphasized. The only emphasis that it gets is that when the children of Israel enter into the promised land, they're supposed to pronounce the blessings and the cursings on those who would obey or disobey God's law and that the six tribes that pronounce the blessing are supposed to be on Mount Gerizim and the six tribes that pronounce the cursing are supposed to be on Mount Ebal. That's pretty much it. It's just there's this one ceremony that takes place there one time. Other than that, it's not emphasized. But according to the Samaritans though, it's all about Mount Gerizim. And so she's saying, well, our fathers worshiped God in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. So which one is it? She's like, well, I can tell you're a prophet, so let's settle this. Let's put this thing to bed. Is it Jerusalem or is it Mount Gerizim? Jesus saith unto her, verse 21, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. So right away, his answer is saying, look, you're asking the wrong question. This isn't really what we should be that worried about. We shouldn't be so worried about geography. That isn't really the big issue at stake. The what of God's will is more important than the where of God's will, right? God is not as worried about geography as he is worried about spiritual truths, spiritual things, doctrine, and people who are very carnal, they become very obsessed over certain places and so forth. And so he starts out by saying, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. So right away, he's kind of indicating that she might be asking the wrong question. But look at verse 22. Ye worship ye know not what? We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. So Jesus is not dodging the question because he flat out tells her who's right and who's wrong. He flat out says, you guys don't even know what you're worshiping. Now, does that sound like they're worshiping the true God of the Bible? No, but they think they are. And they, you know, claim to believe the first five books of the Bible. They claim to be following the footsteps of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But yet he says, you worship ye know not what. And boy, how many religions could we say that about today? People who just are in church this morning, just kind of mindlessly going to church, kissing some icons, lighting some candles, genuflecting, and they don't even know what they're worshiping. They don't even know what they're doing. They don't even know why. They don't even understand. They're just going through the motions. And Jesus is saying, not only that they don't know what they're worshiping, but he says, salvation's of the Jews. You know what he basically just said? Basically he said, you guys aren't saved. You're in a false religion and you're not saved. Salvation is not coming out of Samaria. The Samaritan religion is not a religion of people that are saved, but of people that are unsaved, okay? He says, salvation is of the Jews. He's saying, you know, the people that are actually saved okay, are actually following the Davidic monarchy. They're following the Old Testament in toto and not just the first five books. You worship, you know, not what. We know what we worship for salvation's of the Jews, but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers of God, or excuse me, when the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. So he's saying, look, let's not worry too much about the place because here's the elephant in the room. Your biggest problem isn't that you're worshiping in Mount Gerizim, your biggest problem is that you don't even know what you're worshiping. You don't even, you're not even saved. That's the problem. It's not the geography that's your biggest problem. We know what we worship, but then he says, but in the long run, in a very short time, the hour's coming when we'll neither worship in Jerusalem nor in this mountain. And this is why I don't feel like I have to go make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Cause Jesus already predicted that that's not gonna be a thing anymore. We're not gonna worship in Jerusalem. We're not gonna worship in Mount Gerizim either. We're gonna worship God in spirit and in truth wherever we happen to be because God's the God of the whole earth. The woman sayeth unto him, I know that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ. When he's come, he'll tell us all things. So she seems to take in his answer here and say like, okay, well, you know, when Messiah comes, he'll straighten all this out. He'll explain everything. And he's like, well, you know, that's actually what just happened because it says in verse 26, Jesus sayeth unto her, I that speak unto thee, am he. Yeah, boy, you got that right. That the Messiah is gonna come and tell us all things. He's doing it right now. And of course she ends up believing this. She ends up believing in Christ. She runs into the city. She went there to draw water. She doesn't even finish that task. She leaves the water pot just so that she can just run back to the city, tell the Samaritans. And she says, this guy told me everything I ever did, little bit of an exaggeration, but because he had known things about her that no one else would have been able to know. And then it says in verse number 39, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified, he told me all that ever I did. So a bunch of the Samaritans, even though they're not saved, even though salvation's of the Jews, when Jesus Christ shows up and preaches them, a bunch of them do get saved. The woman at the well gets saved. A whole bunch of the Samaritans end up getting saved. Now let's just stop for a second and talk about the Samaritans beliefs, okay? First of all, in the Old Testament account, it talks about them, you know, also having idols to other gods and so forth, and that they're worshiping the Lord in addition to other gods. But we gotta remember that that is like about what? 700 years earlier or something approximately. And so, you know, this is not necessarily the same situation in Christ's day as what we, as where we left off the Samaritans like 700 plus years ago or something, okay? Because here's what you have to understand. At that time, the Jews were also doing a lot of idolatry as well. But by the time we get to the New Testament, there is not even a trace of idolatry amongst the Jews, except for their favorite idol, the almighty dollar, okay? But other than mammon, you know, you don't see them actually doing literal idolatry in the New Testament. It's just not a thing. You know, and look, how many times is Jesus rebuking them and preaching against them, the apostles are preaching? None of them ever bring up and say, hey, get rid of your idols. They don't have any. Whereas in the Old Testament, that was something that they were always struggling with, that they always had idolatry going on. So they've gotten away from idolatry by the first century, clearly from reading the Bible. Well, the Samaritans seem to also have gotten away from idolatry as well. Now they just seem to be just a different branch of Judaism, if you will. Basically, they're worshiping in Mount Gerizim instead of Jerusalem, and they're rejecting a huge section of the Bible, everything after Deuteronomy. Well, what's funny is that, so the Samaritans, like I said, they still exist and they have existed from this time until now, but there's only like 874 of them. You know, why are there only 874 of them left? And part of the reason is that a lot of them converted to Christianity over the years. Now, we see not only when Christ shows up in John chapter four, do a whole bunch of Samaritans get saved, but when we get into the book of Acts, you're gonna see Philip going throughout Samaria and just having just great success, just winning just cities and towns and villages of Samaritans of the Lord, and many, many Samaritans get saved and accept Christ, and that's part of the reason why they are no longer around. Obviously, over the years, a lot of them have just become Jews and Muslims as well, but we see in scripture a lot of them converting to Christ. So, you know, it's not that they're just these horrible, unsalvageable people, they're just like anybody else who's in a false religion. You know, they're just in a false religion, they needed to get saved, and apparently, they're pretty receptive because Jesus has great success, and later, Philip and other apostles have great success winning the Samaritans to the Lord. So, what's interesting, though, is that there's also, their Bible has come down to us, okay, even to this day and it's called the Samaritan Pentateuch, okay? Pentateuch is just referring to the first five books of the Bible, and here's what's interesting about the Samaritan Pentateuch, is that it pretty much lines up with the same, you know, five books that we have, except there are places where it's been intentionally altered in order to fit their doctrine. For example, whenever the Book of Deuteronomy says over and over again, the place which the Lord shall choose, they just change one single letter in that verb to say, well, the place that the Lord chose, past tense instead of future tense, so that basically the idea would be he already picked it and it's Mount Gerizim. Then they alter the 10 Commandments so that there's a new 10th Commandment because they basically ditch the first commandment and say it's like an intro to the second commandment. And then there are other bozos who do that as well, not gonna name any names, but it starts with an R and ends in omen Catholic. But basically, the thing is that they add a 10th Commandment saying that they're commanded to build an altar on Mount Gerizim. You know, so everything is basically just doctored in just a few little places to just really hammer in this thing about Gerizim. And you know what's funny today is that biblical scholars today will look to the Samaritan Pentateuch to try to somehow maybe correct our Bible with the Samaritan Pentateuch, sort of like they'll go to the Septuagint or you know, findings from the Dead Sea Scrolls or you know, to try to correct our Bible. Well, you know, last time I checked, Jesus Christ said that it's easier for one jot or one tittle to pass from the law, or excuse me, it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one jot or one tittle to pass from the law. Jesus Christ said heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away. That's the preservation of the New Testament. And then he said it's easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one jot or one tittle to pass from the law. That's preservation of the Old Testament. Okay, God's word has been preserved. We don't need to reconstruct the text because it never got deconstructed. We still have it. It's been providentially preserved and kept pure in all ages. And so no, we do not need to use the Samaritan Pentateuch as a valuable insight into, you know, the early form of the text. No, my friend, all the Samaritan Pentateuch does is show us that already 2,000 years ago, people were corrupting and editing and changing God's word just like they are now. I mean, look at the Jehovah's Witnesses. They have their own Bible that's been altered and tampered with to prop up their doctrine just like the Samaritans did. There is no new thing under the sun. Just as there are corrupt Bibles today, there were corrupt Bibles back then. I mean, everyone pretty much agrees except 874 people that the Samaritans intentionally made these alterations just to make it really clear that it's gotta be Gerizim, it's not Jerusalem. It's clearly been doctored to say that. Well, if they were doctoring it then, they're doctoring it now, my friend. I'm telling you, that's why the Apostle Paul said, we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. There were already many people back then corrupting the word of God. You know, the Apostle Paul is warning people in his letters about fake epistles that are being written to seem like they're coming from the Apostle Paul. And so if the Samaritans are corrupting it, if false apostles are corrupting it, there's all this evidence of corruption even in the time that the Bible's being written, then why would we just have this attitude that says, well, if we find something old, it must be right, right? They dig up a manuscript of the Bible from the fourth century after Christ. Fourth century after Christ, they're like, whoa, this is really old. This is really close to the original. And then they'll use that to correct the traditional text that's been passed down, passed down. Now look, here's what that means. If you have a certain traditional text that's passed down, passed down, passed down, the received text, the traditional, for example, Old Testament Hebrew text that's come down to us today. And then you have this other variant text that's dug up from 1700 years ago, 2000 years ago, whatever, what that means is that at some point the decision was made to reject that variant and say like, yeah, this is, no, this isn't what we're gonna do. This is junk. And then God preserves the real one. But then some turkey digs that up 2000 years later and says like, this is amazing. This is close to the original. You know, it'd be like if somebody 2000 years from now dug up the Mormon church, you know, and found the Joseph Smith translation and said, well, we've got the real Bible here. And here's the thing, these new discoveries that they're making, they don't even know where they came from. They don't know who used them. They don't know what church it was. They don't know what group it was. They don't know what their doctrine was. They don't know the beliefs. For all they know, it could just be some Unabomber type just wrote out some text and buried it in his own backyard. You know what I mean? It's just, who knows? Nobody knows. But here's the thing about the traditional text. We know where it came from. It came down to us. It's been preached and believed and used by God for centuries versus something that was dug up last week. We don't know where it came from. We don't know what it is. And so do you trust using the Samaritan Pentateuch in any way? Well, you know, yeah, they intentionally altered it here, here, here, and here, but you know, maybe it could really help us out over here. Folks, at some point, if somebody just becomes an unreliable witness, we just don't even put them on the stand, right? I mean, when you have some derelict who has just given so much spurious testimony, you know, eventually you just stop inviting them to court. It's called an unreliable witness. Well, guess what? Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, are both unreliable witnesses. They've both been intentionally altered in places. And this is not a sermon about the Septuagint. I've done sermons about Septuagint, so-called. But what we see is that they have this belief about the mountain versus Jerusalem. That's the big thing. It's sort of like when you're talking to Jehovah's Witnesses, all they want to talk about is the name of God. We're talking to the Seventh-day Adventists. They just can't stop talking about the seventh day. When that's not, look, folks, if they were actually saved and met on Saturday, who cares? I'm just like, woman, you know, yeah, you're meeting on Saturday, but you don't even know what you're worshiping because you're following a false prophet. Again, the real issue is about salvation and spiritual things, not the geography. That's not their biggest problem. But for them, that is the big thing that they just can't stop talking about, as we see from the woman at the well and as we see from the changes that they made in their text. I got to hurry, I'm almost out of time. But go over to Luke chapter nine. Luke chapter number nine. And we're going to see this reiterated what we know about the Samaritans from the New Testament and what we know about them just from the current religion and the findings of their manuscripts of their Samaritan Bible and so forth. Look at Luke chapter nine and we're going to see this reiterated. Verse 51 of Luke chapter nine, I'm almost done. It says, and it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. So Jesus is just dead set on going to Jerusalem because he knows that that's where he's going to fulfill the scriptures, that's where he's going to be sacrificed, that's where he's going to die for the sins of the world. And so his face is like a flint to go to Jerusalem. And it says in verse 52, he sent messengers before his face and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. So he's going to Jerusalem and he sends ahead a team to get things ready so that when he gets there, he has his lodging ready and so forth. They're trying to book the hotel basically. And then look at verse 53, and they did not receive him because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. So why don't they want him to stay there? Why don't they want to let him use the hotel? One reason, the Bible tells us, because he was going to Jerusalem and they don't want to participate in that because they're like, no, it's not Jerusalem. And so because of that, they won't receive him. And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did? You know, hey, why don't we do like Elijah did? And again, why is this relevant? Because remember, Elijah is prophesying in the northern kingdom. So he's prophesying in Samaria. And this is the difference with the Elijah story, okay? The king sends 50 soldiers to come and apprehend Elijah and bring him back. And so Elijah calls down fire from God and consumes the 50 soldiers who are coming to apprehend him. That's a little different than, hey, we just don't want you to stay in our town. Okay, so James and John are getting a little carried away with that example of Elijah. And so they asked Jesus, hey, should we just command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? I mean, that's what Elijah did. We're in Samaria, after all. But he turned and rebuked them and said, you know not what manner of spirit you're of, for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. Now what's the point here? The point is that just because people are coming from a place that has a wicked background, it was founded as an ungodly city, it's always been a hub of false religion. When Christ shows up on the scene, they may not be doing idolatry anymore, they may not be worshiping that sucketh God anymore, but they're still messed up spiritually. But Jesus Christ doesn't hate them, Jesus Christ is not there to just denigrate them or condemn them, because the Jews just want nothing to do with them, they want no dealings with them, they won't even talk to them, they're not interested at all. Whereas Jesus though, is still interested in seeing people saved. He doesn't prioritize them in his earthly ministry, simply because he's not going to any Gentiles in his earthly ministry, he's focused in on the short time that he has reaching Israel, and then his apostles are going to go into all the world. But early in the book of Acts, chapter number eight, we see multitudes of the Samaritans getting saved, the Holy Spirit is working and leading, and God does care about the Samaritans and want them to be saved. And who knows, perhaps even people from this very village that rejected Christ here, might even be some of the same people that are getting saved in Acts chapter eight, we don't know. Because look, just because somebody rejects the gospel one time, it doesn't mean that they're just a reprobate. Because think about how Jesus' own brothers didn't believe in him when he was on this earth, living his earthly life. But after the resurrection, many of them end up believing, because we know at least that James and Jude end up even being authors of books of the New Testament. And those are Jesus' half brothers, who previously in John chapter seven, didn't believe in him. And so we need to understand that no matter what group of people we are thinking about, no matter how messed up their religion is, no matter how messed up their history is, no matter how messed up their ethnicity is, it should not be our desire to destroy them, or to call down fire upon them. You know, I guess the modern equivalent of that would just be an airstrike upon them, right? Should we call down an airstrike upon them, even as Elijah did? You know, but rather, we should want to see people saved. The son of man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. We should preach the gospel to every creature, teach all nations, and at least give people the benefit of the doubt that they could be saved. We don't know who is going to be saved and who isn't. And so when it comes to certain religions or ethnicities, you know, we need to at least be willing to attempt a gospel presentation, you know? And you know, I think a big one that would be applicable for a lot of people today is Islam, because obviously we're disgusted by Islam. We're disgusted by their false prophet, piss be upon him. We're disgusted by their so-called holy book. We're disgusted by their pedophile false prophet that they follow and the wickedness of that religion. But here's the thing, Joe Muslim is not the enemy, my friend. Joe Muslim is the mission field. And we shouldn't want these people dead, we should want them saved. I would like to win as many Muslims as I can to Christ. I want to win as many Jews as I can to Christ. You know, if I can get one of these 874 Samaritans saved, I'll do it. And then we'll get it down to 873. Hey, I want to get everybody saved that I can. God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so we don't want to get an attitude that says, oh, well, you know, historically this country is X, Y, and Z. It's so what? Get over it. You know, people can't control what country they're born into or what religion they're born into or what, you know, nation they're born in. Now, supposedly there are a bunch of people in Brazil that are like worshiping after the fashion of the Samaritans. They're like wannabe Samaritans. And apparently it was like 20,000 of them. You know, there's only 874 of the real thing. And then you got these 20,000 posers in Brazil, you know, who are trying to convert into this thing just because I guess it's just this kind of exotic, ooh, you know, do Samaritan Pentateuch. Why don't you read the real Pentateuch? In fact, why don't you not stop there? Why don't you read Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel? You know what I've noticed is that the people going after exotic scriptures haven't even read this book. You know, why don't you read this book cover to cover and then we'll talk, right? Why don't you take two of these and call me in the morning and not be chasing after that which you don't have and actually read the real word of God scripture that you do have. And you know, it seems like the people that are the most into these spurious scriptures and pseudepigrapha and apocrypha and deuterocanonicals, it's because they don't even read the actual Bible, okay? There's a reason why there's only 874 of those people in a world where there's eight billion people. You really think those 874 people are right? Last time I checked, God's the Lord God of hosts. He's the God of the whole earth and there are people in every nation, tongue, kindred and people that are worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we ought to love people and just as Jesus wanted to reach that woman and other people of the Samaritans, we should be wanting to reach people for Christ. We're not here to destroy men's lives. We're here to save men's lives and we're not here to condemn the world. We're here that the world might be saved by believing in Jesus because guess what? They're condemned already. We're trying to pull them out of the fire. We're trying to save them, rescue them, help them. Let's borrow this and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you so much for this story about Jesus Christ preaching to the woman at the well, preaching to the Samaritans, Lord, and we pray that our church would follow that example and be willing to go into towns and villages and places that are maybe undesirable places or undesirable people and Lord, help us to get that one person saved or better yet, get a bunch of people saved and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, take your hymnals please. Go to hymn number one. Hymn number one, Jesus, I, my cross have taken. Hymn number one, let's sing it out together. We're on to that first hymn number one. Jesus, I, my cross have taken all to leave and follow thee. Hymn number one, sing it out together. Jesus, I, my cross have taken all to leave and follow thee. Yes, it do, despise, forsake it. Thou comest by all shall be. Perish every fond ambition. All are sought and owned and known. Get up which is mine condition. God and heaven are still my own. Let the world despise and leave me. They have left my Savior too. Human hearts and looks deceive me. Thou art not like and untrue. And while thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might, those they hate and friends may shun me. Show thy face and all is bright. And may trouble and distress be. Will the drive be to thy breast? I, for child's heart may dress me and will bring me sweeter rest. All is not in greed to harm me. While that love is kept in me, all do not enjoy to charm me. Were that joy a mix with me. Face me on come, praise to glory. Armed by faith and weak by friend, as eternal days before thee, God's own hand shall guide thee there. Soon shall close thy earthly nation. Slim shall pass thy pilgrim days. Home shall change to black fruition. Faith to sight and prayer to praise. And the next lesson is one of yours. Thank you for watching.