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Man, Judges chapter number 20, we're continuing the story from last week. If you remember, I'll just do a super quick review, but of course this Levite, he goes back to try to patch things up with his estranged concubine, and he hits it off with the father-in-law, and the father-in-law keeps keeping them back, and they end up leaving too late in the day. They get caught late at night, and they need to find a place to stay. They opt for Benjamin. They don't want to stay with a foreign nation, so they go to a town of Benjamin to get lodging. There's a nice old man that takes them into their house, lodges them, but of course there are certain men of Belial, and this is different than the Sodom and Gomorrah story, because in the Sodom and Gomorrah story, everybody in Sodom and Gomorrah was a son of Belial. Everybody in Sodom and Gomorrah was a sodomite, was a pervert, was a predator, and of course Belial is the devil, and so it was just a certain segment of the population among the Benjamites that were these horrible sodomites, homosexuals, and they attacked the house, and of course they don't get at the man like they wanted to abuse that man, but instead the concubine is thrown out the door as sort of a sacrificial ram. She ends up being violated and abused to the point of death, and then the Levite takes her dead body, carves it up into 12 pieces, and mails it out to the 12 tribes of Israel, so it's a pretty rough chapter in the word of God, and you say, you know, well why would the Bible have a chapter like this, and you know, maybe we should put some kind of advisory label on the Bible because of these kind of stories, but here's the thing about the Bible is that it reflects the reality of the world that we live in. The world that we live in has some gnarly things, and the Bible says the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty, and the Bible doesn't whitewash that or sugarcoat that. It gives us the reality that there are people like this in our world. Let me tell you something. Today in America, there is a segment of our population that has no morals, that hates God, and that will rape and violate and molest because they have literally no conscience, and so we need to read this chapter because we need to understand what's out there and be warned about it. Now, I actually like chapter 20 better than chapter 19 because a lot of people are thinking about chapter 19 as, hey, that's the sermon where you really rip on the Sodomites, but you know, in chapter 20 is where we really rip on the people who tolerate the Sodomites because that's what chapter 20 is about. Look if you would at verse number 1 of chapter 20, then all the children of Israel went out and the congregation was gathered together as one man from Dan, even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the Lord in Mispy, and the first thing I want to point out is that this issue of being against the homos, against the Sodomites, this should be a unifying issue not a dividing issue. There's something wrong when this issue divides Christianity and you have people getting mad at men of God who actually get up and preach what the Bible says because they're too afraid to preach it. This should be a unifying issue where all of God's people should come together as one man and say, hey, maybe we don't agree on this or that or the other, but one thing we can all agree on is that this is sin, it's an abomination, it's wickedness, these people are a horde of God. I mean the Bible teaches how wicked they are and they are clearly taking over in our country. They have an agenda, they're infiltrating every part of our society, they're all over the TV and the radio and the mainstream media in every format. And so this should be a unifying issue, not a divisive issue. If it's dividing, it's because people are siding with the Benjamites instead of siding with God's people. That's what's going on. It says in verse number two, and the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God. Four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword. Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to misbe. So the Benjamites know what's coming. Okay, we're talking about four hundred thousand footmen, a major army is being amassed against the Benjamites and they know what they're up against. Then said the children of Israel, tell us how was this wickedness. Now here's the thing, they already know the story or they wouldn't have gotten four hundred thousand guys together. But they're still, they're just asking the guy to get it from the horse's mouth. They've already heard what happened. And the guy gives a very abbreviated version of the story, probably because he's a little too embarrassed to say what really happened. But we know what really happened from chapter 19. I'm sure everybody else knew what really happened. But he says in verse four, the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine to lodge. And the men of Gibeah rose against me and beset the house round about me by night and thought to have slain me and my concubine have they forced that she's dead. And I took my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel. Behold, year all children of Israel, give your advice and counsel. He didn't really want to brag about being a queer bait, so he didn't bring that up. It says in verse eight, and all the people arose as one man saying, we will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house, but now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah, we will go up by lot against it. And I want you to focus on verse 10, and we will take 10 men of 100 throughout all the tribes of Israel, and 100 of 1000, and 1000 out of 10,000 to fetch vittle for the people that they may do when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin according to all the folly that they have brought in Israel. What does that make you think of when you think of this ratio, 10 out of 100, 100 out of 1000? What does that make you think of? The tithe, right? It's one-tenth. And I believe what the symbolism here is that the tenth or the tithe is something that is taken by the men of God who led the nation spiritually, the Levites, you know, they lived off the tithes. In the New Testament, the Bible talks about how the Levites lived off the things of the tabernacle, and even so those that preach the gospel should live of the gospel. And so in the New Testament, preachers or those who work for the church, those who are deacons and pastors and clergy would be the ones receiving tithes. And so notice that the people who are going to go fight against this wickedness, this folly, this evil are the ones who are fed by what? They're fed by the tithe. And you know, this tells me that men of God have a responsibility to fight this battle. Men of God, if they're eating of the tithe, then they need to be doing the fighting. I mean, what's the point of these vittles here that's referring to food? It's to feed the people that are going to go fight this important righteous battle. Well, here's the thing, you got pastors today, they're taking the vittles, they're taking the food, they're taking the tithe, but they're not willing to fight the battle. And if you're not willing to fight the battle, you don't belong in the pulpit, you don't belong in the pastorate, you don't belong in the bishopric. Hey, if you're not willing to fight, then you need to find another job, you got to find another line of work. You're not cut out for the ministry. And look, I've seen it over and over again. I've seen talented men. I've seen godly men, men who love the word of God, men who know the word of God. They know what the Bible says, they're smart, they're eloquent, they're able to speak, they're apt to teach, but they don't have any fight in them. They don't have the ability to say no. They don't have the ability to stand in the evil day. They don't have the ability to endure affliction. And let me tell you something, they don't make it in the ministry. They don't make it in the ministry. If they have integrity, they don't go into the ministry. Because anybody who goes into the ministry as a people pleaser is a bad person. There are a lot of people that could be in the ministry. They have the skills, they love the Lord, but what they lack is the ability to fight. And here's the thing, if you can't fight, you can't be in the ministry. It's that simple. That's why there's so much fighting language or warfare language when Paul is addressing Timothy and Titus. Now look, not to say that the man of God is to be this brawler, out looking for a fight, spoiling for a fight. You know, because he also tells Timothy to be gentle and to be meek and to seek for peace. And of course that's so true that pastors do need to be peaceful men. Not having a temper or a short fuse and not spoiling for a fight, not a brawler. But let me tell you something, a righteous man who's a peaceful man and a gentle man and a meek person is still going to come to points where fighting is necessary. And I'm not talking about a physical fight. You know, I've been in the ministry for 16 years and I've never been in a physical fight during that time. And God willing, I will go to the grave without ever being in a physical fight. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, God willing, I should be able to get up and say, hey, I've never been in a fist fight in the last 50 years of ministry. You know, I've never been, you know, that's what I should be able to say. Hopefully that's the way it's going to go. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about where Paul told Timothy, fight the good fight of faith. I'm talking about Timothy being told, this charge I commit unto thee, send Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. Fight the good fight. War a good warfare. He said, look, there are certain unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they have a circumcision, that's what he told Titus, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. He said, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. The people that they would have deceived, that is, may be sound in the faith if you rebuke the false teachers sharply. And so there has got to be an element to pastoring that involves a fight or a war or a battle. And that's why Paul told Timothy, make full proof of thy ministry. He said, do the work of an evangelist, right? You've got to be evangelizing, you've got to be soul winning, Timothy. You know, don't just send everybody else out soul winning, you've got to get out there soul winning. So the pastor is supposed to do the work of an evangelist, right? The pastor is supposed to fight the good fight. The pastor is supposed to endure afflictions. What does that mean, endure afflictions? It's talking about persecutions, trials, tribulations, opposition. There are going to be confrontations, there are going to be contentions and things that come up. You can't have a pastor who's just kind of a wet dishcloth and everybody just walks all over him because in a void of strong leadership, the least common denominator is going to rise to the top and take over. That's what we see a lot happening in the book of Judges. Whenever there's a lack of leadership, everything goes bad. And in order to lead, sometimes you have to be willing to fight because there are going to be people that bring in the false doctrine, there are going to be people teaching lies, people that try to change the direction of the church for the worse. And so I've seen guys where they're excited about going to the ministry, but when persecution or tribulation arises because of the word, by and by they get offended. And by the way, the word by and by in scripture, if you study carefully and compare scripture with scripture, you will see that the word by and by means immediately. We might hear by and by and think, oh, that's after a long time or something, right? No, you're wrong. Look up every time the word by and by is used, compare it with parallel passages and you will see that synonymous with by and by are words like immediately, straight way, anon. I didn't say q-a-non. I said anon, a-n-o-n means immediately and so does by and by. When it says by and by, you might think you know what that means, but study the Bible. It means they immediately get offended. They get offended right away. And that's actually what happens. They don't, you know, just when the persecutions come and the world starts hammering on them and the sodomites start hammering on them, they don't hang in there for a few months and then I can't take it anymore. No, no, no, these people get immediately offended. Like the first week, they're out. They're gone. Now, look, you know, let's say a major persecution came to our church and a bunch of people kind of chickened out and a bunch of people just kind of laid low and wouldn't come to church for a while because they were trying to avoid the persecution, trying to hide from it. Here's the thing, when the persecution is over, we would welcome those people back with open arms because we understand that sometimes the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. People are human. People are weak. People are sinful. So if people buckled in times of persecution, we'd bring them back because that's what Peter did. You know, he buckled under the persecution, but then he was restored and became a great man of God. But here's the thing about that though is that you can't have somebody who's chronically like that leading the church. Now, people, look, people can get this right. People, and look, I'm not saying to throw these people in the trash can because Peter got scared and chickened out, but then later, he was willing to put his neck on the line and preach with boldness, but there was repentance there, okay? He didn't just keep on going down that cowardly path, but he prayed for boldness. He got filled with the Holy Ghost, and then he started standing up for God and enduring. So it's part of being a preacher or even a deacon or anybody who's going to take a paycheck from the church, anybody who's going to receive tithes in any way, shape, or form, they better be willing to go out and fight the Lord's battles and not want to have their cake and eat it too, sitting around, refusing to fight, don't want to get any blood on their sword, and yet they're taking the paycheck. It isn't right. And so that's what I believe is signified here by the tenth being used to feed the ones who are going out and fighting against the Sodomites. Here's what I'm saying. A church that just wants to ignore this issue and pretend like it's not happening in America, pretend like these transvestites and Sodomites aren't out there, you know, that church is not right with God. That pastor needs to get right and preach the whole counsel of God. He needs to preach the whole Bible. And today, in America, we need this preaching. We need someone to preach to us the truth about the Sodomites, that they are wicked, that they're evil, that they're vile, that it's not an alternative lifestyle, that they're not born that way, but they will burn that way because God has set forth Sodom and Gomorrah as an example today of them suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So he says at the end of verse number 10, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, that they may do according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel. So he's saying, look, these people need to be paid back for what they've done. They need to get justice for the violent act that they've done to this concubine. So it says in verse number 11, so all the men of Israel were gathered together against the city, knit together as one man. All of God's people should be knit together on this issue and should agree on this issue. And there's no room for people to be like, oh, well, we just need to have them over to our houses and love them, and we need to bring them into the church and welcome them into the church. And you hear people say the stupidest things like, well, if we don't bring them into the church, how are they going to get saved? Okay, here are a few things wrong with that. First of all, number one, last time I checked, you didn't have to go to church to get saved. Last time I checked, you could get saved anywhere because church doesn't save you. The pastor doesn't save you. The baptistry doesn't save you. The confessional booth doesn't save you. Not that we have one because we don't and we never will. But what saves you is the blood of Jesus Christ when you call upon him, and that can happen anywhere. That happens outside the church more than it happens inside the church. Church people get saved out there, not in here, if the church is doing what they're supposed to be doing because the church is supposed to go into all the world and teach the gospel to all nations and not just, you know, wait for them to come to us. How are they going to get saved if you don't bring them into the church? You know what? That's spoken by someone who doesn't get anybody saved because that shows their mentality, what I call the little Bo Peep mentality, waiting, you know, leave them alone and they'll come home wagging their tails behind them. You know, instead of going out and finding the lost sheep wherever they may be, you're like little Bo Peep waiting for the sheep to come home to you. You're just proving, if you say, well, if they don't get to come to church, how are they going to get saved? You're just proving that you don't win souls. You're just proving that you don't evangelize because the evangelism takes place 99% out there. You're just showing that you don't do that. You're relying on the pastor to do all your soul winning. You want to bring people to church so that the pastor can preach from the pulpit and they can be saved. When in reality, you need to take the Bible and teach them how to be saved. And you know what? In this room, I'm not going to ask for a raise of hand, but 90 some percent of people in this room are able to take the Bible and show someone how to be saved. I mean, if you're here tonight and you're not saved, you can grab almost anybody. I'm not kidding. You can just close your eyes and just grab somebody and they'll, they'll be able, they should be able to show you how to be saved unless you just have really bad luck. But I would just say, well, then that just means, you know, God's angry with you or something. If he would allow you to stumble into the one rare person that can't present the gospel in this church, the vast majority of people in this church would have no problem presenting the gospel because this is a soul winning church and people don't just think pastor Anderson does all the soul winning. No, everybody does it. And so, you know, how are they going to get saved if we don't bring them into the church? And number two, they can't get saved anyway because they're already reprobates. According to Romans chapter one, the only reason a man would even burn in lust toward another man is because God gave him over to do those things which are not convenient. Things that don't come naturally. That's what that means, by the way, when it says those things that are not convenient. Those are not things that normally would happen. Those are not affections that normal people have. They're given over to vile affections. They're given over to a reprobate mind. They're given up unto these things where they burn with lust one toward another, men with men and so forth. That's not normal. And when you see a man burning in lust toward another man, that is a symptom of the fact that he's already been given over to a reprobate mind. A lot of people will try to twist this doctrine and say, oh, you're saying that homosexuality is the unforgivable sin. Absolutely not. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. If the homo would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he would be saved. Everyone who believes on Jesus Christ is saved, period. But it's kind of hard to believe on Jesus Christ when you hate God so much, you don't even want to remember that he even exists. And that's what the Bible says in Romans one about reprobates. They don't even want to retain the Lord and their knowledge. It says they are haters of God. Haters of God. How can you be saved if you're a hater of God? How can you come to the Lord Jesus Christ humbly in faith calling upon him as your savior when you don't even want to believe that he exists and you hate his ever-loving guts? So that's why the sodomites aren't saved, it's because they don't believe in Christ. They say, well, what if they do? What if? Well, I mean, what if aliens land in the parking lot, you know? What if rivers start flowing backward? What if next time it rains, water is being sucked out of the ground into the clouds instead of falling and everything starts going? Folks, what if reprobates weren't reprobate? But they are though. So what are we talking about here? Okay, guess what? Normal dudes don't desire another dude. Normal women aren't burning in lust toward another woman. If they are, something's wrong with that picture. The Bible explains how they got that way. They got that way because God has given them over to vile affections. And that's why the Bible says in John chapter 12 verse 39 and 40 about another group of reprobates, therefore they could not believe. Because as I said before, God, I'm going to paraphrase, but God has hardened their heart and blinded their eyes. They couldn't believe. So if they believed, they'd be saved. So here's the thing. They're not reprobates because they're a homo. They're a homo because they're reprobates. So don't get that backwards. Don't get the cart before the horse. Being a reprobate makes you a homo. Being a homo isn't what makes you a reprobate. You wouldn't be a homo if you weren't a reprobate. Now the reason that's an important distinction is that we are living in such a twisted society right now. We're living in such a warped, backward society, and there's so much garbage today being taught to children and teenagers. They're being scarred for life. Their brains are literally being wounded and damaged irreparably. And so you have some children and teenagers growing up confused, and they might experiment in this kind of behavior without actually being a sodomite. You say, well, where do you draw the line? If someone commits that act, are they, boom, a reprobate? No, no, no. The reprobate is the man who burns in lust toward other men. The woman who burns in lust toward other men. That's a homo, and they are a reprobate because no one normal has that desire. Now here's the thing. I'll give you an example. I talked to a guy before, and this is a dedicated Christian man, a normal guy. But long ago, when he was a teenager, because he had been molested as a kid, so many people are getting molested now, or even just being shown things that are filthy and confusing before they're old enough to even process those things. So this guy, because he'd been so brainwashed, he actually experimented with that behavior one time as a teenager. But once he did that act, he realized, this is gross, this is bad, this is not who I am. And it was like, obviously, it was a wicked sin for him to even try that. It's an abomination, OK? And in the Old Testament, if he would have been caught doing that, he'd be put to death. And I would have been right there saying, yeah, because that's the world that they had back then. And we'd be better off that way now, by the way. But here's the thing. Guess what? If there would have been the death penalty for homos, the guy probably wouldn't have even gotten molested in the first place, because you would have been eliminating a lot of these pedophiles and perverts from society. But this guy, does that make him a reprobate? Does that mean that he's not saved because he did that sin? No, because of the fact that he did it because he was abused, his mind was twisted. He was brainwashed. And then he realized that, yeah, I don't want to do this. And then he never did it again. Now obviously, that's horrible. It's sick. But that doesn't make him a reprobate. And people pretend not to understand what I'm preaching right now. I think what I'm preaching right now is real simple and real easy to understand. I wish people would just quit pretending like they're dumb and that they don't understand what I'm saying. You're saying that homosexuality is an unforgivable sin. No, I'm saying that homosexuality is something that no normal person even desires to do. Because hey, who here is tempted by sin in general? You ever get tempted to sin? Like every day? Hello, is anybody home? Of course we're tempted to sin. Every single one of us is a sinner. Every single one of us has that proclivity. And that's why our children, we don't have to teach our children to lie, do we? We have to teach them to tell them the truth because they automatically are born with that tendency to tell lies. They have to be taught to tell the truth. They have to be taught not to steal. They have to be taught not to throw their trash on the ground. Because what would they do? They'd just throw their trash everywhere, right? Because human nature does wrong things. That's what human nature does. It's just bad by nature. And we have to teach them to do what's right. So we all have that tendency to sin. Now here's the thing. There are sins that you struggle with that I don't struggle with. And there are sins that I struggle with that you don't struggle with. You know, my struggles are totally different than your struggles possibly. Some of us might have the same struggles. But you know, I guarantee you there are people in here struggling with drugs and alcohol. I don't struggle with those things. But that doesn't make me better because guess what? I have other things that I do struggle with. We all have different sins. It doesn't matter whether it's drinking, drugs, smoking, if it's laziness, pride, you know, whatever it is, it could be any number of things. Fornication, adultery, all different manner of lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Okay? All the different sins. Stealing. I mean, some people are a kleptomaniac, right? So everybody's tempted by different things. But in general, we're all tempted by sin. But you know what? We're not tempted with, we're not tempted with another dude. In fact, you know, it's a horrifying thought to us. You're homophobic. Yeah, I am. Of course I'm afraid of that disgusting garbage. Who, I mean, who wouldn't run screaming in the other direction from that film? I mean, who here would just run screaming in the other direction from homos or homosexuality or homosexual acts? I mean, it's like, ah! You better know I'm homophobic and transphobic. Ew. It's too gross. It's too weird. It's revolting. I mean, think about it. As a man, you're driving down the freeway as a man and you got some illicit billboard of some hot babe or whatever. Are you going to be tempted to look at that? Does your flesh want to look at that? Yes, it does. And you'd have to make the effort to not look at it because your natural just magnetic is going to faint. You know, you're going to point toward north. You know, it's just that's the sin nature. Am I right? Yeah. And you'd have to make the effort to say, hey, I better not look at that. But if there's some dude in his underwear, there's no desire at all. You're just like, what kind of a stupid billboard? You don't want to look at that. Not tempted by that. And so how does this certain segment of our population get to where they're tempted by that? Something's wrong. Something went wrong. Oh, they're born that way. Hey, all the science has already been done on that. And guess what? It didn't pan out. They tried. They wanted it so bad to be that they're born that way and they looked and looked for that gay gene. And guess what? It wasn't there. The only gay genes are down at Abercrombie and Finch, okay, because it isn't there. They're down at urban outfitter. If you're looking for the gauging point, tell those scientists they've been looking in the wrong place. All right. I gotta, I gotta get back into the, there's so much great stuff in this chapter and I'm getting off on too many rabbit trails, but I have no regrets. So it says in verse number 12, and the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, what wickedness is this that is done among you? What's wrong with you? What kind of filth? What kind of garbage do you guys have? Are you guys sons of Israel or what? Are you guys Christians or what? What are we hearing about this Sodom and Gomorrah type garbage? What wickedness is this that's done among you? Now therefore, deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel, but the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah to go out to battle against the children of Israel, and here's what we see. We see a segment of God's people that they'd rather fight with their brothers and sisters in Christ than to throw the Sodomites under the bus. If the choice is between throw the Sodomites under the bus or throw our brothers and sisters in Christ under the bus, they'd rather go to war with God's people. They'd rather hate a man of God. They'd rather hate a Baptist pastor named Bruce Mejia, or they'd rather hate a Baptist pastor named Pastor Roger Jimenez. They'd rather hate Pastor David Berzins. They'd rather hate a man of God than to hate the Sodomites. They don't even know which side they're even on, and so they won't deliver them over. Look, how hard would it be? How many lives could have been saved? I mean, how many guys do you think it really was? It was just a certain man of the city that went and did this. How many guys was it? 20 guys? 30 guys? I mean, let's just get crazy and say it was 50 guys or 100 guys. Hey, before this is over, tens of thousands of people are going to die, and tens of thousands of good people are going to die because they won't just turn over just a few dirt bags. You say, oh, I don't believe in the death penalty. It's too cruel. Here's the thing about the death penalty is that it saves lives. The death penalty has a net savings of lives. If you could kill a few mass murderers and pedophiles and weirdos, and you could save more lives, you know, you've got to do that math, my friend. And then tell me who is pro-life. You know, I just think it's so hypocritical when people are pro-life and then they're for the death penalty. It's because we're not just pro-life, we're pro-child. We're pro-Christian. We're pro-children. We're pro-innocency. We're pro-victim is what we are. I mean, think about it. You know, how many people did John Wayne Gacy kill? You know, what, 20-some people or something? Don't quote me on that, but I'm just guessing, but I think it was like 20-some people or 30 people or something. You could put one guy to death and, you know, prevent him from doing more of that or from other people of doing that because the death penalty, you know, not only do dead pedophiles not reoffend. And by the way, you say, whoa, they'll just be in prison. Folks, pedophiles get out of prison after like five years, six years, seven years and they go out and they reoffend and they typically will literally molest over like a hundred times before they get caught. They'll have like 20 victims before they get caught. Look at the stats on how many victims they have before they get caught. And so if you could scare some of these people, put some of these people to death, because look, every pedophile should be put to death. Every rapist should be put to death, okay? Everybody who commits first degree murder should be put to death. Every kidnapper should be put to death. And if you did that, it would be a deterrent. It does work because dead pedophiles don't reoffend, number one. And number two, it's a deterrent to other people. It puts fear into them. Now, the reason why it doesn't put fear in in America is because it takes like 20 years to get executed. And the Bible says that if the sentence against a crime, I'm paraphrasing, but from Ecclesiastes, it says because the judgment against wickedness is not carried out speedily, you know, that's why it's not effective. Okay. It needs to be carried out speedily. Speedy trial, speedy execution for people that are clearly guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, rape, molestation, et cetera. So they make the wrong choice here. The Benjamites, they don't, now they're not homos, but they tolerate homos. And you know what ends up happening to them? They end up getting wiped out because they tolerated homos. It says, but the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities under Gibeah to go out to battle against the children of Israel, and the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities, 26,000 men that drew sword beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered 700 chosen men. Now, notice that the Benjamites are severely outnumbered. Remember the 400,000 guys, the 400,000? They're going against 26,000. So the Benjamites are severely outnumbered, but the Benjamites are better warriors, right? The Benjamites, they have more fighting skills. And you know, the sad thing is today, what we see today in America is that the people who are on the right side of this issue, it just seems like so few of them know how to swing a sword. You know what I'm saying? Like the people who actually believe right on the Sodomites, I don't see a lot of them swinging the sword effectively, but then I see the queer-loving crowd out there loud and proud, and man, they are militant, aren't they? And they're organized, and they're effective, and they're loud, and they are just getting their agenda pushed through. And then it's like, even though, let me ask you this, who outnumbers who in America? Born-again Christians or Sodomites? People Christians or Sodomites? There are way more born-again Christians than there are Sodomites in the United States of America, and so why is it that we would flee before them, okay? We should be winning. It says in verse number 16, or I'm sorry, verse 17, and the men of Israel besides Benjamin were 400,000 men that drew sword. All these were men of war, and the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God and asked counsel, I gotta hurry just for sake of time. They asked counsel of God and said, which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first. Now this is a key point, don't miss this. Keep your finger in chapter 20, go back to chapter 1. Keep your finger in chapter 20, go back to chapter 1. Notice this question, which of us shall go first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first. Now look at the very beginning of the book of Judges, chapter 1, verse 1. Now after the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up. Sound familiar? What's the difference? Spot the difference. Canaanites has been replaced by Benjamites. You know what? The Canaanites are people who are the Lord's enemies. I mean, God was just not with these people at all. And he's telling the children of Israel, it is open season on the Canaanites. I mean, these are wicked people. God's wrath is on them. Well, what does the Bible say in the book of James? It says, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. So you have the Benjamites. They want to be a friend of the Sodomites. And what does that make the Benjamites? When they're the friend of the Sodomites, it makes them the enemy of God. Now they're just like the Canaanites. Just like God said, hey, send Judah up first against the Canaanites. Now he's saying, send Judah up first against the Benjamites. They're in the same category. Chapter one, you've got God's people, the godly nation of Israel, and they are going to fight against the heathen. And then we see the downward spiral throughout the book of Judges, right, down, down, down. And I mentioned how the end section of Judges is out of chronological order, but this particular story is at the very end of the period of the Judges. And so we see this as going from chapter one, where the Canaanites are the bad guys, to chapter 20, where the Benjamites are the bad guys. That's how they've degenerated so much. Look, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be like the Canaanites unto the Lord. I don't want to be a friend of the world at the expense of being the enemy of God. Now look, hey, I just want to be friends with everybody. Just reach out and just hold hands and be friends with everybody. But here's the thing about that, you can't be friends with everybody. It's not going to happen, okay? Because look, if I'm over here, if I got the Lord over here and the world's over there, you know, I want to be friends with the Sodomites over there, I got to do this number, right? You can't have it both ways. You can't say, hey, I'm a friend of the world and I'm a friend of God. Hey, you want to be like Abraham, the friend of God? It means you can't be friends with the Sodomites. If you're the advocate of the Sodomites, if you're going to bat for the Sodomites, if you've got a bleeding heart for the Sodomites and you just love the little faggots so much, let me tell you something, then God is going to be now in opposition to you. You're going to be at enmity with the Lord. Now I don't know about you, I'd rather be tight with the Lord and at enmity with the Sodomites. I'd rather that every single Sodomite in this country just curses my name and breathes out hatred against me than for God to be mad at me. I just want God to be pleased with me. Well guess what? I can't have both. I can't be the, look, these churches that have a rainbow flag on their signage, tell me something, is that, what would you rather go there or to a bar? I'd rather go to a bar and just get a club soda and just eat some beer nuts and drink a club soda and you know, I don't go to bars, but I'll tell you something, you know that United Methodist Church with that rainbow flag is a hundred times worse than any bar or casino or anything else. It's an abomination in the sight of God. They need to change that church name to Canaanite United Methodist Church, Canaanite Unitarian Church, right? Canaanite Presbyterian. That's what they ought to call it. Because that church is at enmity with God. It might as well be a church of Satan. I mean think about it. If on one corner you had a church of Satan, hail Satan with an upside down star and everything and then on the other side you had some fag friendly church with a rainbow flag flying, which one's worse? I say that the rainbow one's worse because at least it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't know. At least the Satan church isn't claiming to believe in Jesus. At least the Satan church is not dragging our Savior's name through the mud. At least they're just admitting who they are and not pretending to be for Christ. Because see, when you do sin, when you devour widow's houses and then for a pretense make long prayer, you receive a greater damnation. If you do wickedness in the name of Jesus, that's worse than doing wickedness in the name of Satan. And I'm not justifying bars, casinos or Satan churches, but I'm telling you that the bars, the casinos and the Satan churches are Canaan and the United Methodist Church is Benjamin and guess what? They're both getting the same treatment and they're in the same category. And by the way, doesn't the Bible tell us that when someone is thrown out of the church, let them be unto you as a heathen man or as a publican? You know what I mean? The thing is, you could go from being in the church to being considered like, well now you're considered like the heathen now. You're considered like a publican now. Well the Benjamites went from being part of the chosen people, part of the nation of Israel, part of God's people, part of the elect, I'm not talking about their personal salvation, but I'm talking corporately as a nation, now they're enemies like the Canaanites. Now obviously, personally, no one can lose their salvation. If someone gets thrown out of the church, they didn't lose their salvation. But they are under the curse of God. If you get thrown out of the local church, God has associated a curse with that. Because the Bible says that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And so when someone gets thrown out of the church, the Bible says they're delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. And so what I'm saying is, we as God's people, even though we can never lose our salvation, even though we're going to go to heaven no matter what, if we go out and start going to bat for the Sodomites, and be buddies with the Sodomites, and teaming up with them, and basically trying to get along with that crowd, and if pastors stop preaching against them, and start having a seeker sensitive message, they could get to a point where they are at enmity with God. I mean think about it, here's the thing, you know, my kids will always be my kids. But could there ever a situation arise where I could be at enmity with one of my children? Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, he's, you know, he's still my son, or she's still my daughter, I'm still going to love them, but there's enmity there. And you know what, it's the same thing with salvation. You know, we're always going to be saved, we're always going to be his children, we have eternal life, but whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. You could still be set up as an opponent, or an adversary. Jesus said, if you don't gather with me, you scatter abroad. He that's not with me is against me. And so, this is a scary thing to be on the wrong side of this issue. You say, aren't you scared of persecution? Aren't you scared of what happened down at first works is going to happen to you? No. I'm scared of what God would do to me if I actually stopped preaching the truth. Because God is way scarier than all these bunch of fruits and nuts and weirdos. God is much scarier. I mean, these people, there's not much they can do to me. God can truly destroy me in a moment. Okay, so I fear the Lord more than I would fear them. Man, I'm running out of time, there's so much good stuff. Let me just kind of hit the highlights here. Okay. Yeah, that's right. Part two. Yeah. Sunday night. Amen. No, no, no, no. We need to get this done. All right. So, I like how you think though. All right. But anyway, a couple things I want to point out here is that the children of Judah are going up first to fight against the children of Benjamin. This also brings to mind more symbolism because Judah represents King David and ultimately Jesus Christ, the son of David. Benjamin represents King Saul. Because why did God tell Judah to go up first in chapter one? Why did he tell them to go up first in chapter 20? Because of the fact that in Genesis chapter 49, Jacob prophesies that Judah is going to be the ruler. He says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come and to him shall the gathering of the people be. And so Judah is the ruler because David, the man after God's own heart, is going to found that dynasty of the tribe of Judah and ultimately Jesus Christ is going to come from that lineage of David. So Judah represents David, Benjamin represents Saul because Saul is of the house of Benjamin and there's a strong relationship between Saul and the tribe of Benjamin. And if you think about it, you know, David replaces Saul, right? And there's also more symbolism. We're going to go even deeper down this hole here and say that, okay, David represents Jesus, which represents the New Testament. And Saul represents the Jews and the Old Testament, okay? Because remember that Christians replace Israel. You know, it used to be that Israel was God's chosen people. Now the Christians are God's chosen people. They were the elect. Now we as saved Christians are the elect, whether we be Jew or Gentile, you know, of all nations, red, yellow, black and white, we're the chosen people. So just as David replaced Saul and Saul tried to persecute David and that's what happened when the Christians replaced the Jews, what did the Jews do in the Book of Acts? The Jews are like King Saul. They're trying to persecute the Christians and so forth. So it's a picture also, a symbolism of Old Covenant and New Covenant. Why is it that King Saul could not continue being king? He didn't continue in the Covenant. You know, he didn't follow the instructions and so he was rejected and it was given to someone better than him, to use the Bible's words, better than thou in David, right? The chosen. And the Bible calls the New Testament the better covenant, established upon better promises. Okay. So Judah represents the New Testament, Benjamin represents the Jews trying to hang onto that Old Covenant and so forth. And of course the Jews today, they harbor the sodomites. You're wondering where I'm going with this. I got like so far removed from the actual story, but then I brought it right back around because you know what the most queer friendly city in the world is? Tel Aviv, Israel. Not in the Middle East, in the world. They won an award a few years ago as being the number one queer vacation spot in the world on the planet. Obviously they're the queerest in the Middle East, but they've won awards for being the queerest in the entire world. Tel Aviv has the most massive queer pride event in that part of the world. Tel Aviv, Israel. Of course we know that the Jews run Hollywood. And guess what? Hollywood does promote sodomites all day long. In fact, when we were making a documentary, we were trying to get voiceover artists for our marching design film and this agency, we sent the money to this agency and we're working with this talent agency to get some voice actors and they sent the check back to us and this is what the lady said, and I quote, she said, you don't understand. We work in Hollywood. And she said, everybody in Hollywood's either Jewish or gay and you've offended both. That's what the lady told us. Folks, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that that's who's running Hollywood. Okay. And I'm not putting those two groups of people in the same category. I'm not saying that Jews are homos, but what I am saying is that the Jews are harboring the homos, like the tribe of Benjamin, protecting them, promoting them, pushing their agenda, pushing their filthy death style. I wish they'd get ahold of that verse from the Torah, Leviticus 20, 13, but I forgot Jews don't believe in the Torah. They believe in the Talmud. They don't believe in the word of God. They believe in the traditions of the rabbis. And so they're not preaching about Leviticus 20, 13 these days. Are they? No, they're not. I am a New Testament Christian and preaching more Torah than the Torah guys. I'm more Torah than the Torah observing. Whenever I, and by the way, whenever you know these like Torah observing Christians and messianics and everything, whenever I meet these Torah observing Christians, this is what I always say. I always say, oh, I love the Torah, Leviticus 20, 13, let's observe it. So you agree? Thank God finally a Torah observing. So yeah, shouldn't we have that law in the United States? Would you vote for that? And then they're just like, oh, well, uh, I've never met a Torah observing Christian who said, yeah, let's institute Leviticus 20, 13. Define irony folks, cause it's not really about observing the Torah. It's about Judaizing. It's not about observing the word of God. I don't see him doing a burnt sacrifice. I don't see them piling up an altar of stones, an altar of earth. No, it's about Judaizing into, and it's ultimately to suck you into rabbinic Judaism. Man, I'm just kicking every dog that I walk by tonight. I'm just trying, you know what I'm doing? Cause I don't have time to preach everything because of time. I'm just giving you some food for thought. This is something for you to think about. Like when you go read this chapter, think about this stuff. Think about what is represented by each group of people here. You know, like I pointed out the 10th, they're eating the tithe and they're supposed to be doing the fighting. You know, I'm just giving you some food for thought. You're probably gonna have to read this chapter a few times and think about these things to really glean everything from this chapter because there's just so much here. But the one last thing I want to touch on before I close the sermon is one of the things that I love the most about this chapter. And it's the tragedy of how the first time they go out to battle against the Benjamites, they end up losing badly. I mean, they end up losing, you know, between the two times, I mean, they lose 20 and 2,000 men and they lose 18,000 men. I mean, they just end up having like about 40,000 casualties. And here's the thing, are they fighting a righteous battle? Are they doing what God told them to do? Did they seek counsel of the Lord? Did he sanction this? He told them to send Judah first, they sent Judah first and yet they lose and then they lose and then the third time they win. And you know, this is very important for us in our lives. We cannot assume that just because we're on the right side and just because we're right with God and just because we love the Lord, we can't just assume that we're gonna win every battle. We can't just assume that we're gonna win every round. I will guarantee you something though, you will win the war. You may not win the battle, you're on the winning side, you will win the war. And look, if you need more proof, you could go all the way deep into the New Testament and turn to Revelation chapter 13 and you know what it says there? It says that the Antichrist will make war with the saints and will overcome them. So when the Antichrist makes war with the saints in the end times, who's gonna win? The Antichrist or the saints? Who's gonna win? The Antichrist is gonna win. The Bible says the Antichrist will make war with the saints and he will overcome them. Does that mean that the saints are on the wrong side? No it doesn't. Look, I know, you know, we like to live our lives just always hashtag winning and here's the thing, you know, that's how I feel. I feel like even if I'm defeated, it's a win because when you're on the Lord's side, all things work together for good to them that love God. We're more than conquerors to him that loved us. So sometimes it's hard for me to even see anything as a defeat because, you know, I am just hashtag winning constantly. But the thing about it is though that actually from a human perspective though, we're not just gonna go from victory to victory to victory, winning, winning, winning. There are gonna be setbacks. There are gonna be times when you lose. There are gonna be battles that you downright lose. But you know what? We as God's people should be steadfast and unmovable so that even when we lose a battle, we get up and we do it again. And not have this attitude that says, oh, you know, oh, the church building got bogged. God's not with us anymore. The hedge of protection has been moved. That's what some losers have said about First Works Baptist Church out in L.A., a bunch of losers that have never fought a real battle in their life, okay, a bunch of nobodies who nobody would even know that they existed except that they put Steven Anderson in some of their video titles to try to get attention, trying to ride my coattails, and they still have no followers. They still have no following. They still can't get people to show up. They still can't get subscribers to their channel because nobody wants to listen. They're boring preaching because the Spirit of God is nowhere near those sermons. That's why they're so stinking boring. Oh, you know, God's not with Pastor Meheer because his church building got bombed. Hey, folks, I guess God's not with the children of Israel since the Benjamites kicked their butts twice. If the Benjamites kicked Israel's butt twice, does that mean that God's not with Israel and that God's with the Benjamites? Is God with all the fag hags and queerbaits of Benjamin? No. He's with God's people whether they win or lose. Hey, look, whether I win or lose, I'm still hashtag winning because I'm more than a conqueror through Christ. I can't lose. It is impossible for me to lose as long as I'm serving God. As long as I'm serving the Lord, as long as I'm following Christ, I am invincible. You say, well, they can kill you. So what? I still win. To die is gain. I cannot lose. I am invincible because I'm walking with God. Now, here's the thing. If I were to get back sledding and start going a worldly path, well, then, yeah, okay, then the hedge could be removed. Then God's hand isn't on me anymore. But let me tell you something. Preaching too hard against the Sodomites. Oh, you remember those prophets in the Bible that got in trouble with God because they preached too hard against the Sodomites? I forgot about that Bible story. Remember that one? Remember when God gets mad at Isaiah for preaching too hard? Do you remember when Jeremiah gets taken aside and it's like, hey, tone it down, buddy. You remember that? Because it isn't there because there's nothing like that in the Bible. And by the way, last time I checked, Pastor Mejia did not preach anything radical that none of us have all preached or that we have not all preached before. Am I right? I mean, did I miss some red hot sermon from Pastor Bruce Mejia where he said things that Pastor Jimenez never said? Because last time I checked, Pastor Jimenez preached the hardest ever sermon on the Sodomites since John Chrysostom, okay? So yeah, I mean, last time I checked, I don't remember Pastor Bruce Mejia saying anything that Brother Jimenez didn't say, saying anything that I didn't say, saying anything that Dave Burton didn't say or anybody else. Jonathan Shelley said the same stuff. I mean, we've all said the same stuff. Am I right? I mean, what radical thing did he come out with that all of us haven't said? But yeah, it's like, oh, he went too far. You can't judge his preaching by the consequences. Judge his preaching by whether it lined up with the Word of God. If what he preached lined up with the Word of God, the consequences don't determine what's true or not. And by the way, I've preached a hard sermon. Somebody loved it, and then persecution came, and people were like, you went too far. I'm like, that's funny, because last week you loved it. That's funny, last week you loved Pastor Mejia's sermon, and then the church got bombed, and all of a sudden, well, what do you expect to happen when you preach like that? Oh, you know what I expect to happen when we preach like that? Persecution. You wimp. You coward. You know what I expect to happen? A battle. What's your point? And by the way, they bombed the church building, nobody was even hurt. They bombed it in the middle of the night. They blew up the church building in the middle of the night, nobody got hurt. But let me say this, if someone would have gotten hurt, the truth is still the truth. If people would have died, the truth is still the truth. The truth is the truth no matter what the consequences are, because the Word of God is in stone. It doesn't change, and it doesn't matter what happens, look, if everything started going wrong in my life tomorrow, if everybody just turned on me and my life just went downhill and my health went bad and my finances went bad and the church fell apart and I was at strife and enmity with every loved one in my life, it would not change the Word of God that I preached. And it wouldn't change the fact that what I preached is correct from the Word of God. If that happened to me, I would be searching myself for sin. I'd be searching myself for some wickedness in my heart that brought that upon me. And you know what? If I decided that I didn't have enough wickedness to warrant that stuff coming upon me, then I would just assume that it was like a Job type situation. But it'd be one of those two things. I'd be searching my soul like, man, what sin can I get out of my life? How can I get right with God? I'd be getting on my knees trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. But I certainly wouldn't be saying, well, maybe I was too mean to the Sodomites. Maybe I preached too hard on sin because I've never preached as hard as some of the stuff in the Bible. I mean, some of the stuff in the Bible is pretty rough. Don't let the outcome determine right and wrong. Let the Word of God. God said, go fight the Benjamites. They lost badly, but the outcome didn't change the Word of God. They went back the second time, and you know what the Word of God said? The same thing it said the first time. Go fight them. They get destroyed again. They get beaten so bad again. They go back. Maybe we're reading the Bible wrong. Let's check it again. Same thing. Go fight them. The third time, they win. Folks, this isn't Burger King where you just have it your way, and it's just fast service, and it's just instant gratification. You've got to go through setbacks. You've got to go through fights and trials and tribulations. Life is not always going to hand you success on a silver platter. And so at the end of the day, one thing and one thing alone determines what's right and wrong, and that's the Bible. And so I don't need to know what building was bombed to figure out what the truth is on the Sodomites. You know what the truth is. Every church building in America could get bombed tomorrow, and I would still know what the truth is about the Sodomites. No law that could ever be passed, no sermon that could ever be preached, no legislation, no trend, no radio program or TV show could ever change what I believe about the Sodomites because I know what the Bible says, and it's not going to change. And if I go back and check, you know, if I woke up in the middle of the night confused and I stumble and reach for the bed, I look up Leviticus 20, 13, it's still there. All right. You know what I mean? In case I just dreamed it was there or something, and then I can just go back and church buildings are exploding and bank accounts are being shut down and PayPal is being shut down. And it's just, I'm just sleeping like a baby every single night. I sleep so good, it's not even funny. I sleep like a log. If somebody breaks in, my wife's going to have to kill them because I sleep so soundly. Because I'm sleeping so good because I know I preach the word of God, I preach the truth, I don't care what happens. It doesn't matter what happens. I'm sleeping like a baby every night, I'm going to go home and I'm going to sleep. And I won't have to do that check like I described. But if I checked it, it'd always be there because the Mandela effect's not even a thing. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for this chapter and thank you that it's going to be in the Bible five years from now, Lord, and that 10 years from now when we're preaching in the book of Judges, we don't have to wonder if it's going to be there, Lord, because you never change. The world changes, churches change, even our friends will change. Our friends will love us one day and then the next day when persecution comes, they just by and by get offended. Lord, thank you for never changing. Thank you for the Bible that never changes, Lord. Help us to get firmly rooted on that rock, Lord. And I know that this is not a pleasant subject and last Wednesday night's not a pleasant subject, Lord, but thank you for giving it to us anyway in the word because we need it. And thank you for people that will come out on a Wednesday night in the middle of a busy week. Help them walk their busy lives and show up on a Wednesday night to listen to something that they know is going to be a gnarly chapter from your word, Lord, because they know that these truths are important, Lord, that they're relevant, that they pertain to us today. Lord, thank you for loving and saving us and thank you that we're always on the winning side no matter what happens and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.