(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) All right, good evening everybody, welcome to Sunday Night Service at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here this evening. Let's go ahead and grab those hymn books, please, the red hymn book, and we'll turn to song number 229, Since I Have Been Redeemed. We'll sing it out, 229, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I have a song I love to sing, on the first. I have a song I love to sing, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I redeem my Savior and sing, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. I have a glory in His name, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a Christ that satisfies, Since I Have Been Redeemed. His will, my highest crisis, I have been redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. I have a glory in His name, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a witness bright and clear, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Spelling every thousand years, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in His name, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name, Unblessed. Have a home prepared for me, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I shall dwell eternally, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. Since I Have Been Redeemed. In His name, Since I Have Been Redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. Amen. Great singing. Brother Caden, will you open us with a word of prayer, please? Dear Lord, thank you for this time you have. To sing praises to you and hear your word be preached. I ask that you please bless the preaching to come and the rest of our singing. Amen. Alright, let's turn to 215. 215. Another great song, Heaven Came Down. This has already filled my soul. Heaven Came Down. 215. On the first. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful baby I will never forget. After I wandered in darkness away, Jesus my Savior I meant. Oh, what a tender compassion and friend, He met the need of my heart. Shout out to spelling with joy and telling, He made all the darkness depart. Heaven came down to refill my soul. When on the cross the Savior made me whole. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down to fill me through my soul. Word of the Spirit. Word of the Spirit. Life from above into God's family divine. Just to run fully through God and His love. Oh, what a standing is mine. I'm the transaction so beautiful is me. When at the center I came. Look to the hour of grace, see the property saved me. Oh, praise is your name. Heaven came down to refill my soul. When on the cross the Savior made me whole. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down to refill my soul. Now I've a hope. Now I've a hope that will surely endure after the passing of time. I have a future in heaven for sure. There in those mansions sublime. And it's because of that wonderful day. When at the cross I believe. Riches eternal and blessed. From His precious hand I receive. Heaven came down to refill my soul. When on the cross the Savior made me whole. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down to refill my soul. Amen. All right, well, good evening. Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, just raise your hand and we'll have somebody drop one off for you. So with that being said, open up the bulletin on the inside there. You'll see weekly church service times. We have Sunday mornings at 1030. Sunday evenings are at 6 and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Underneath there is a list of soul winning times. That's where you go out into the community and preach the gospel to the lost. If you have any questions about that, 208-391-5323 is the number to call. Next page, tonight we're in 1 Kings, chapter number 9. This coming Saturday, October 1st. We're going to meet here at 10 a.m. We're going to have some snacks, but we're having a soul winning event. We're going to be soul winning in East Boise. Kind of like a mini marathon. We'll be done between 3 and 3.30. And then we'll meet back here for some food. Let's see what else. Oh, if you have any questions about that, just see me after the service. Let's see. Coming soon, family picture sign ups. So if you want to have your picture taken, the dates are there on the board. The dates are there on the bulletin. Just maybe let us know which dates you would like and throw that in the plate when it goes by. Or the box out here. Or just come by and tell me. No, that's not right. Just do it anyways. I don't care. Just let somebody know and your picture will get taken. We're going to take your picture no matter what. How's that sound? Here's how it's going to go. Either you sign up for one of these days, or we're just going to take a photo of you and just Photoshop something behind there. Anyways, yeah. I don't know. I should have paid attention when they put this in the bulletin. That's the real reason for the outburst. So if you have any questions about this picture, go see Caden. Okay? How about that? He's of age now, so you can ask him. Verse of the week, Matthew 8, verse 1, which says, When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. Next up on the bulletin, it says we are a family integrated church. So what that means, we don't separate children from their parents for any reason at all. However, if you need privacy, there's a mother-baby room right across the hallway. Dad's got to use the break room for now. Other than that, don't forget to turn your phone off. We're placing it on silent so it's not a distraction. And the very bottom line says some sins you fight, some sins you flee. I'd encourage you to go watch Wednesday's sermon to find out what that's all about. But in the meantime, we are going to have one more song before we receive the offering. All right. We're going to sing a song for 169, Come Thou Fount. 169, Come Thou Fount. Come, Thou fount of every blessing, Through my heart to sing back praise, The strength of mercy never ceasing, of her songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodies on it, some by flaming tongues above. And raise the mountain fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise my heaven decent, hither by thy help I'm come. And I know, my life of pleasure, safely I'll arrive at thee. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wondering from the fold of God, He too rescued me from danger, interposed His precious blood. Oh, through grace I'll pray again, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy voice, like a feather, bind thy wandering heart to me. Come to wonder, Lord, I feel it, for all to live the God I love. Here's my heart, oh take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. All right, well let's go ahead and pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us to be able to meet here this evening. We're just ready to bless the service, Lord, and the fellowship afterwards. Bring us back safely on Wednesday. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. All right, please turn your Bibles to 1 Kings 9. 1 Kings 9, continuing our study through the book of 1 Kings. You have 1 and 2 Samuel, then 1 and 2 Kings, 1 Kings 9. And as our custom, we'll be reading the entire chapter together. 1 Kings 9, starting in verse 1, the Bible reads, And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared unto him at Gibeon. And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me. I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there forever, and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and will keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them, and this house which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people. And at this house which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss, and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them and served them. Therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil. And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house, now Hyrum the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire, that then King Solomon gave Hyrum twenty cities in the land of Galilee. And Hyrum came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they pleased him not. And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabel unto this day, and Hyrum sent to the king six score talents of gold. And this is the reason of the levy which King Solomon raised, for to build the house of the Lord, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter Solomon's wife. And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether, and Beyleth, and Tadmor, in the wilderness, in the land, and all the cities of Stor that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bond service unto this day. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen, for they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen. These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house, which Solomon had built for her, then did he build Millo. And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings, and peace offerings, upon the altar which he built unto the Lord, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the Lord. So he finished the house. And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Isiongiber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon." Brother Moses, would you pray for us? All right, amen. First Kings chapter number nine, so I'm going to title this sermon, the gift that's an insult, the gift that is an insult. We'll get into that obviously here in a little while, okay? But first of all, if you would go back to chapter number eight, just flip a page back or whatever page it is in your Bible to chapter number eight, and we're going to look at a couple of things in review. But tonight we're going to see the answer to a few questions. One of them being, do we always get a timely response, or what we would consider a timely response to our prayers? Okay, we're going to get that answer in this passage. Another one would be, what about the temple? The physical temple that was just dedicated. What about this? Were the Hebrews, or these people, the physical nation of Israel, were they guaranteed throughout their generations to always have a physical temple? Okay, we're going to see the answer to that. And what can we learn from Hiram's displeasure? Because we just read the chapter, right? It said, Solomon gave him these cities, and he was displeased. Well, why is that? What does that mean for us? And also we're going to see a very practical lesson in how do we handle being let down from somebody that we're doing business with, okay? So all of that to come here. But verse number one, you don't have to turn there yet, but it says, and it came to pass, okay? Now before we go into verse number one, let's just quickly review some things. Chapter eight is a beast of a chapter. I mean, there was a lot. We didn't even make it through last week. There was a lot of stuff. I'm not going to re-preach it. We're not going to go through the last half of it. But basically Solomon's making prayer and supplication to the Lord for the nation of Israel, and just basically asking God to heal them when they go astray and things of that nature. And if you would, back up to verse number 40. This is just a point that I want to re-emphasize here. Verse number 40, look at what he says. He says in chapter eight, verse 40, he says that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. So you can see the heart and the mind of Solomon here. He wants people to fear the Lord, okay? Verse 41, it says moreover concerning a stranger that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake. And then look what it says here in verse 42. For they shall hear of thy great name and of thy strong hand and of thy stretched out arm. When he shall come and pray toward this house, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for, that all the people of the earth may know thy name. So again, that right there dispels dispensationalism, okay? That dispels this myth that's out there and I keep hammering this because it's in the Bible. It's all throughout the Bible. You know, this teaching that well back in the Old Testament, only the Hebrews could be saved or only the Jews could be saved or things of that nature. Obviously you see that that's not true because a stranger could hear of the Lord and move to Israel and become part of the nation, serve God and things of that nature. And then what else do we learn from Solomon later on? He says this, look at verse 46. He says, if they, meaning everybody, if they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not, right? There's no man that sinneth not. Once you're a sinner, you are always a sinner. That is what the Bible teaches. That's why we need a savior, okay? We have to be saved. And then we took a look at Proverbs chapter 20 verse 9, which gives us that rhetorical question, which is who can say that I have made my heart clean. I am pure for my sin. The answer is no one can, okay? We are all sinners. When you get saved, you get a new person inside of you. We talk about that all the time. And so just some highlights, some unique things that are not taught out there today because it goes against the narrative that is being pushed from the world, okay? So I just wanted to bring that up because that's going to kind of come into play a little bit as we go through chapter number 9. Now, again, where we didn't make it is all the way over here to verse 54. I just want to highlight one verse here real quick and then we'll get into the chapter. But verse 54, it says this. It says, and it was so that when Solomon had made an end of praying, all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. Now, you can leave your place there and go to 2 Chronicles, if you would, 2 Chronicles, chapter number 7. Go to 2 Chronicles, chapter number 7. And in 2 Chronicles 7, you kind of get the idea of what happens immediately after Solomon is done praying for the nation and praying for the world. And again, please keep in mind here, it was in Solomon's heart and mind that this temple and that this nation would be the beacon of light to the world, okay? It wasn't an us for and no more type mentality, okay? Because again, a lot of people like to push this. Well, back then, you know, if you were outside of the nation of Israel, you couldn't be saved. You were just without hope. That's what people teach. And here we see something completely different. The physical nation of Israel, which at this time had the oracles of God, they had the kingdom of God, and we'll take a look at that in a minute, they had the tremendous responsibility to push the name of God through the world, okay? Very important to understand. But anyways, going back to the end of the prayer, 2 Chronicles 7, look at verse number 1, it says, Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering, and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the houses, or the house. Verse 2 says, And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because of the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. Now go back to 1 Kings chapter number 9, and we will start to move on here. So after that event happens, okay? And the process of time goes on. 1 Kings chapter 9, verse number 1, let's just get right into it. It says, And it came to pass, so after these things, It came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he pleased to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. Now interesting fact here, verse 1 tells us a lot. It tells us that Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do. So, you know, when you study out what Solomon built with his house and the things, and the buildings that are associated with that, you'd kind of imagine it may be like the White House today, okay? Imagine if the White House today was next to, you know, I don't know, an independent fundamental Baptist church, and they went to church every day, or something like that, you know what I mean? That would never happen, but in other words, in this time here, there's no one crying out, separation from church and state. Separation from church and state, we should have the right to choose our religion. So what does that prove? That proves when God is in charge of a nation, there's none of this coexist, there's none of this, oh, you know, I think I should have the right to choose Buddhism, and God's just going to respect that, because that's my decision, and I'm an important person. God's like, no, if you want to worship other gods, you can get out of this nation here, or you're just going to get put to death. That's how it is, okay? Jesus Christ will come back to this earth and rule and reign with a rod of iron. So that this, what you see here is a picture of that, but could you imagine being in this nation during this time, where your king loves God, his house, so that the house where he dwells, the state officials, if you will, the politicians, if you will, live there right next to the temple, where God has agreed to place his name there. So essentially, you have the king living next to God. That's kind of what you have a picture of today, as we read this chapter, and I mean, this is really the pinnacle here. It's never going to get any better for the physical nation of Israel than what you're seeing right here, okay? In fact, even in this chapter, you're going to see they start to go downhill right away, okay? There's going to be a 20-year gap, and we'll get to it, but you're going to see that the nation starts to slide a little bit here. But all that to say this, look back, if you would actually, you know what? Go back to chapter 8 real quick. I forgot one thing. Look at verse number 60. 1 Kings chapter 8, look at verse number 60 real quick. I almost forgot to bring this up. So it says this in verse 60, it says that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is none else. He says in verse 61, let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments as at this day. So again, you have the nation's leader saying this. His desire is that politics and the religion would be one, okay? And what I'm trying to say is it's going to be that way again on this earth in the future, okay? So if you would go back to chapter 9, and let's keep moving on here. So it says in verse 2 that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time as he appeared unto him at Gibeon. Verse 3, look what it says, and the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, okay? Now, the language there in verse 1 should tell you that there's been a space of time, okay? So Solomon makes his prayer. Remember, he's on his hands. He's got his arms stretched out to heaven. After that's done, God receives the offering. But the answer to the prayer hasn't shown up yet. Okay, now that's a valuable lesson for us because sometimes we're pouring our heart out to God and we're asking for help. We're asking for the things that we believe that we're just in desperate need of, and sometimes we are, and we don't always get an immediate response. What's your response when that happens? Do you get offended? Do you get discouraged? Okay, those are natural human emotions, but that's not how we're supposed to respond. We need to understand that God responds in his own time. He is God and we are down here, okay? If we could just have more people understand that, we'd be a better society. We'd be better off as Christians. Verse 3 again, and the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me. Now, don't miss this. He says this. I have hallowed this house which thou hast built to put my name there forever, and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. Notice the three. The name, what does it say there? Let's put my name there forever, there's number one, and mine eyes, number two, and mine heart, number three. Well, there's your symbology of the Trinity, and these three are one. So again, going back to the Trinity deniers, that doctrine's taught literally on every page of the Bible, if you know how to look for it, okay? And so God says this, hey, I have hallowed this house. I have agreed to place my name here, okay? And that's where a lot of people just stop. Seriously, a lot of people, that's it. They stop right there, and they will say, well, see, today the Jew, now that they are back in the land and they're working on the third temple, it's going to be glorious. We ought to send our money over there and help them to build this thing because that's God's house. It's like, wait a second here. Is that what the Bible teaches? That that's the house of the Lord that's being built over there by a bunch of people that hate God? Are you serious? Look at verse number four. And if, remember we talked about this a few weeks ago, these if-then statements, okay? So God says, yeah, I put my name there, but you better understand there is a condition, and this condition has to be met in order for this to be sustainable, okay? And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and will keep my statutes and my judgments, then, look at verse five, then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever, as I promised David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. Now, if anybody ever comes to you and they say, okay, well, you know, based off what you're saying, you know, your anti-Semitic statements or whatever, you know, you're blaspheming God. You're saying that there will be no man on the throne of Israel and there isn't Israel today. Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God. He did not just cease being man when he rose from the dead, okay? That's just, you know, that's part of the miracle, you know? That Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, defeated death, okay? Understand that he is fully man. He is in heaven right now with a body. He is fully man, fully God, okay? So we need to get that through our heads. So understand that this is conditional, okay? Now, let's talk about that temple that's being built today in modern-day Israel. Does God look down at that and say, yes, yeah, that's mine. Those are my people. I love them. No, the religious Jew today does not believe on Jesus Christ. In fact, they don't even believe Moses and the prophets, okay? We all know that. You should understand that by now. So why do we have so many Christians today saying, oh, we ought to send our money over there. You know, John Hagee is a big supporter of that and I'm sure there are many others. You know, let's just send our funds over there, send our money over there. How many people have given up their hard-earned money to support something that is unbiblical like that? It's absolutely blasphemy is what that is. That is not the temple of God, okay? Look, Solomon told us last week, he's like, I know this house can't contain me. He's like, there's no way this house can contain me. So his prayer, his supplication is that God would just respect the house and keep his name there and of course at this time while Solomon's praying that, he's thinking in his heart like, yeah, I'm going to follow the Lord. See, at this time Solomon doesn't realize, yeah, I'm going to go out and I'm going to apply my heart unto wisdom of the world. I'm going to marry all these, you know, strange women and they're going to turn my heart away from God. He's not thinking that right now, okay? That's what's going to happen. But God says, okay, Solomon, I'll meet you here. I'll put my name in this house. But there's a condition. If you do these things, if you walk in my statutes, then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever as I promised David thy father. So look at verse number six. He says, but, okay, but if you shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, verse number seven, this is the killer here, verse seven, then will I cut off Israel out of the land. Stop right there. Why is God saying that if you turn from me, I will cut you off this land. I will cut you out. You're done. Yeah, because it's conditional. The condition is you worship God. Is Jesus Christ God? Is he fully man, fully God? Right. So if those people over there today in Israel do not worship God, they do not believe on Jesus. They reject him. They reject the Bible. Why are so many people, I'm talking overwhelming professing Christianity today teaches that those are God's chosen people and that's his temple and that they are the apple of God's eye. Why are they saying that if even back when the real temple where God did say he was going to put his name, you know, God put a condition on it and said, if you follow me, then I'll keep my name there, but why are we looking at those people today and they're clearly blaspheming God. They're proud of it. They spit on the ground when you say the name of the Lord to their face. It's illegal to go door to door preaching over there. It's illegal to go preach the New Testament over there. So why are we saying that, yes, God is blessing you? I think we have a big problem. And it's called, I don't care what the Bible says, I want money. Let's just be honest. Let's just sum it up. It's about money and it's about control. That's what it's about. These people, they go to these Bible colleges. And that's the big, did you go to Bible college? Did you go to Bible college? No, because I don't want to learn that false doctrine because that's where it comes from. No, I read this 20 times before I even moved here. I've lost track, but that's not good enough for people. And I still forget things, you know what I mean? This is a big book. You know, we're busy people. We can't keep these things, you know, 100% in our minds, but I'll tell you what. If you read this book through cover to cover at least one time and you're saved, you're ahead of just about anybody who's gone to Bible college, especially if they use the NIV. And you're going to see that why here in a second. So again, verse 7, God says, hey, if you forsake me, you're done. But yet today Christianity says, oh, even though they're forsaking him, it's okay, they could still go to the temple. It's ridiculous. It's false doctrine. It's not true. Verse 7, he says, then will I cut off Israel out of the land, which I have given them. So again, they did not earn this land. It was given to them conditionally. I gave them this. It says, and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight. And Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people. Keep your place there, but go to Genesis chapter number 9. We're going to go to Genesis 9, then we're going to go all the way to the New Testament, past 1 and 2 Corinthians to Galatians. But first, go to Genesis chapter number 9. God is very clear. You do things my way or the highway. That's it. There's no other way. These people at this time frame, they're worshipping the God of heaven. They're saying, we agree to this. We love the word of God that they have. They say, we're sacrificing, we're doing the right things. The people over there today in modern day Israel are not doing, they don't even believe this story here. If you don't believe me, come so in with us. We will take you to Jews, modern day Jews, and we will ask them, do you believe this? I don't believe that. You know why? Because they're nothing but Sadducees today. That's all they are. They are sad, you see? Sadducees, okay? All right, Genesis chapter 9. Let's talk about this cut off. This cut off here is a big problem for people in the world today. What does it mean? You know, first of all, let me just say, you want to always pay attention to context with phrases, with words, okay? But this is basically what he's saying here. This is the same language that you're about to read here in verse 11 is the same concept that he's saying in 1 Kings chapter 9. He's saying you're going to be taken off this land, plain and simple, okay? You're going to see in a couple weeks, you're going to see that the nation of Israel splits, okay? And then eventually, what happens to the northern kingdom of Israel? They get taken out of the land by the Assyrians, and they get replaced by other people. What happens several years later, several kings later, to the nation of Judea or Judah? They get taken off. The Babylonians come in, and of course, they come back and forth and stuff like that, but God took them out of the land because they rejected it. So what happens when Christ shows up on earth? Basically, the nation of Israel, as you know it, is dwindled down to just a, I don't know, just a, what, Judah, you know? It's just a small province under Roman control, just a small nation, just a small state, by this point, under Roman control. And Jesus is going out, and he's preaching, and he's teaching, and by and large, most people reject him, okay? Most people reject him. What happens 70 years, well, probably more than 70 years at that time, but what happens later on? Yeah, the Romans come in, they just completely destroy the temple, and they're gone. They're scattered from the land, okay? And today, we're supposed to believe in this miracle that, oh, Israel's back. Just because a bunch of people moved back there that claim their religion is Judaism, doesn't make them Jews. Romans chapter 2 tells you very clearly what a real Jew is. It's someone who is saved, somebody who is born again, okay? But anyways, back to this whole cut-off thing. God says, hey, I will cut off Israel out of land. A lot of people say, well, that just means he's going to throw up like a little barrier. You know, he's just going to basically put up a little dam for a season, and then once they pay their dues, he's going to open the dam, and they're going to flood back in, okay? That's not what he's talking about. Genesis chapter 9, verse 11. Interesting use of this phrase here, cut-off. Look what it says, verse 11. So the Bible says, and I will establish my covenant with you. Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood. Neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. So what is the Bible telling us here happened to those who succumbed to the flood? They were cut off. Now what happened to those people that were cut off? Did they go upon like a special island with a dam that was going to open up after they paid their dues? Or did they die? Did they drown? They died. They drowned. They tapped out. They're done. That's plain. That's easy to understand. They're done. Okay? So guess what? God's saying to the nation of Israel, if you turn your back on me, you stop worshipping me, you're done. I'm cutting you off. I'm taking you out of this land. It just blows me away how you can look at a Christian and tell them that, and they just don't believe it. It's crazy to me. This is the word of God, and that is what it says. You don't do what he wants, you're out of the land. Plain and simple. Go to Galatians chapter number five. Galatians chapter number five. Now we're going to take kind of a little commercial break here, okay? But we're still talking about cut off. A little false Bible version commercial break if we could, okay? So let's just take, just for study's sake, let's just take another look at this word cut off here. I'm going to show you why the King James Bible is superior, okay? Galatians chapter number five, we're going to start reading in verse number seven. So just to get you caught up here, basically Paul is dealing with some heretics who came into the Galatian churches and started preaching false doctrine saying, you know what, you've got to get circumcised, you've got to start doing all these works or you're not saved, okay? The same thing we deal with today. Preaching heresy, okay? Now look at what Paul says here in Galatians chapter five, verse number seven. So he says this, you did run well, who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? See, it always goes back down to this. What kind of Christian are you? Are you the kind of Christian that wants to obey truth, or are you the kind of Christian that is just out for some empirical feeling, okay? So he says, what kind of Christian are you? So he says in verse eight, he says, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. So this persuasion, these people, okay, this doctrine, it didn't come from God. And then in verse nine he says this, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. That's why if we get wind that someone is teaching false doctrine in the church, it has to get addressed right away. Because if someone's whispering, ah, you know, didn't really say this and that, it just causes issue. That little problem just festers, it builds, it grows, and then the next thing you know, you have nothing but trouble, okay? So Paul's like, hey, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So in other words, you have a cancer, you have a big problem that needs to be dealt with. Verse 10, he says, I have confidence in you through the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he shall be. So do you guys see what's going on so far? Paul's talking about a person. He's talking about these guys that are troubling the churches in Galatia. Them, as in their whole body. These people are troubling these churches, okay? Very easy to understand. Look at verse 11. He says, and I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? This then is the offense of the cross ceased. Okay, so let me just quickly explain what that means. So these guys are coming in saying, you know, they're preaching circumcision, okay? That's basically just a picture of works. You have to do this, you have to achieve this in order to go to heaven or whatever the case may be, okay? And so Paul's like, hey, why are you guys even believing this? If I preach that, okay, I wouldn't be offending people. Like we talked about this morning. The Jew requires a sign, the Greek seeks after wisdom, you know, and the gospel is what to the Jew? It's a stumbling block. Well, what is it to the Greek? It's an offense. It's offensive. Because when you preach the gospel of salvation, you have to knock down human achievement. Okay, and most of the world today will tell you, I'm on God's good side. I'm going to heaven because of what I have done. Okay, so when you say what you have done means nothing, it offends people, okay? It's just what it is. So Paul's like, hey, if I was preaching that, I wouldn't be in trouble right now. I wouldn't be on house arrest. I wouldn't be going to trial. Verse 12. Look, listen to this. I would. They. Because there are multiple people bothering them. He says, I would, they were even cut off which trouble you. What is Paul saying? I wish they were cut off. I wish they were removed from the church service. I wish that you would take them and kick them out. And we don't have time to get into all the verses about kicking people out of church. I'm not in a hair trigger to kick people out of church. You guys know that. Whatever, okay? But I do want to read for you what the NIV says about this. And some of you may know this, others this is going to be a shock, okay? Look down at the King James. It says, I would, they were even cut off which trouble you. Verse 12 in the NIV says this. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. That's embarrassing. That's, what? What? Are you nuts? Are you crazy? How did you get that? How did your sick twisted mind jump from people teaching circumcision for works to emasculation? You see, define that. Go ask your parents. It's not good. But while we're on the subject, okay? Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 23. Because when the King James Bible talks about such an issue, it's crystal clear. It's crystal clear, okay? Now, I'm not going to develop this in context. This is going to leave some questions in some of your minds. Come see me after the service. I'll explain it to you if you need it. But I just want to show you here how if the King James Bible in the translators, if that's what it said, okay? That Paul told the Galatians to tell these guys to emasculate themselves. Which, it's not what he said, but we've wanted to say that to people, you know? The problem is today, we have too many people that want to do that. In fact, people that are doing that are the ones protesting us. But that's a sermon for another day, okay? Deuteronomy 23, looking for verse number 1. He that is wounded in the stones. Look, the King James pulls no punches, okay? He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. Now, it's not talking about going to heaven and hell, because obviously women, this doesn't apply to you. We know that women can get saved. But look, if you want to talk about emasculation, the Bible just comes right out and says it, okay? Do you see the language there? Okay, the Bible's clear that if cut off did mean that, it would tell you in the context. But when you read Galatians chapter number 5 in the King James Bible, how in the world do you come to emasculation? You don't, unless you have a bunch of sick, twisted, lewd fellows of the baser sort translating your Bible. Why do people support that? Why? Tell me why right now. I want to know why. That's a disgrace to God. That is a slap in the face to our Lord, who preserves his written word. This is going to be the biggest fight of our lives in our lifetime. It is the preservation of the word of God. It is the number one battle that we face today. I get the alphabet people and all that stuff, but it's nothing compared to the authority of the scriptures. The foundation in which our faith is built on. The Bible, the word of God. Go to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter number 21. Thanks for putting up with my quick commercial break there on another reason why we don't use the NIV. God says, or the Bible says in 1 Kings chapter 9, Then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them, and this house which I have hallowed for my name will I cast out on my side. God says, hey, when you disobey me, this house is gone and you're gone. Both. No temple, no land, if there's no obedience. That's it, man. But yet today we've got so many preachers who went to Bible school and cemetery, and they're like, well, you just don't understand hermeneutics. I understand the English language. I have a secular degree. Does that count? I have a bachelors degree. Does that count? You think I'm stupid? Sometimes. Sometimes. But you know, a lot of these Bible colleges, these companies out here, they don't respect that. So it's kind of funny how they looked down their nose at me, like, oh, you must be some bumbling idiot. I don't know. I don't think so. But God says, hey, I'm also going to cast these people, cast this whole thing out of my sight. It will no longer stand. So again, what does that mean? Well, it means that at this time, the time of Solomon, the pinnacle of the nation of Israel, where you have a king, he's got rest on all sides. They finally completed the building of this temple. God says, I will put my name there. Things are going very well. Solomon, you saw his heart. He said, hey, I want strangers, and they will hear of thy name. They will hear of your great works. They will hear of your great wonders. The whole point of us existing is to reach the world. It's not just for us to hide and only be Hebrews and call each other Jew and just stick to our rituals. No, it's to get the name of God throughout the earth to get people saved, which is obviously our mission today. They failed in that. Matthew 21, look at verse number 42. So we're going to go over this. Like I said, you're going to see this a lot in the coming months because we're in Matthew and because this is another great fight that we have today as Christians. But Matthew 21, 42, look what it says. Jesus saith unto them, did ye never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. So in other words, these Jews of the time of Christ, they thought, you know, if we just reject him, if we just kill him, we just get him out of here, we can continue on with the way things are, the way things we want to be. And what happens? They're dead wrong. Okay? They're dead wrong. They're dead wrong. God's like, no, I'm going to be the chief cornerstone and I will build my church. Verse 44 or verse 43 says, Therefore saith unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. So let's again talk about that here. So because of this prophecy, because of the rejection of the people in the nation of Israel, because they have rejected the Lord, he says, Therefore say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you. You understand what that means? Jesus is saying this to these so-called rulers in Israel and he's saying, I'm going to take the kingdom of God from you. So you can sit here after that and call yourself a nation all you want to. That's fine. Do whatever you want. But you are no longer the kingdom of God. So what distinguished the nation of Israel from every other nation is that they had the oracles of God, they had the kingdom of God, meaning salvation. Okay? Salvation. So he says, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. So what nation is that today? Is that America? Is that Brazil? Is that Mexico? Is that China? Is that North Korea? Yeah, it's spiritual. It's the Israel of God. Okay? It's the Israel of God. Now, what are the requirements? What are the requirements to enter into the Israel of God today? Got to be saved. That's it. Born again, you're in that nation forever. Okay? And that's going to come back to play here in a little while. Verse 44. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. So look at the beginning of the verse there. Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken. So again, in other words, I mean, the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. When you go and you preach this word to someone and it breaks them, it cuts them open and it exposes what they believe. And it plants that seed and they say, you know what? In my heart, I'm going to believe this. I'm going to receive salvation. I'm saved. Born again. Guess what? That has broken them. That has broken down that old man and created a new person inside of them. Look at the other part of the verse. He says, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Guess what? That's a picture of this church right here in Boise, Idaho. Some of you may not know this or you may not agree with this, what I'm about to say. And please don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to sound arrogant. But this is the most feared church in the Treasure Valley. This is probably the most feared church in this state. When people see us coming and they realize they're not dealing with Mormons, they're not dealing with Jehovah Witnesses, they get scared. People are scared of this church. And it's not because we're breathing threatenings or anything like that. It's because we have the answers. It's because we have the oracles of God. It's because we get up here week after week and we draw the line on the sand and say, hey, what the world's doing is wicked. It's not okay. It's not right. And it grinds the wicked to powder. It literally melts them from the inside out. And so you have people all over town, especially a couple months ago, we've got to figure out how to get that church out of the state. We've got to shut them down. We can't tolerate this. We need to put them on the news. Forty, fifty people and they are scared to death of us. And they should be because we have the backing of the Lord God. We believe these things as they are written. We have the oracles of God. This church is made up of believers, people that are saved. And collectively, we are that nation in this area. And you know what? People ought to be afraid. Because the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you do not fear the Lord, you will not ever get saved. If you don't believe me, let's go knock on some doors and go talk to some arrogant people. Go try to give an arrogant person the gospel. Heck, these days they're just like, slam the door. You know, like every day. I had two hours of that yesterday. Verse 45, it says that when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard these, or heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. Look at this, verse 46. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a profit. See? You see that there? What's the response from the world when we come at them with the power of God? Yeah, they're scared. Let's lay hands on them. They want to physically hurt him. Let's get rid of him. He's a threat. He's a problem. And that's what they want to do to us. But we're not cowards. We're not backing down from anyone. We will keep doing what we've been doing. Go back to 1 Kings and we'll keep moving on here. 1 Kings chapter 9. So all of that, all of that, to make a very clear point, God says, hey, I'll keep my name in this physical building that you built as long as you and your sons don't turn on me. It's kind of interesting how the Jews over in Israel today thought, well, we are the descendants of David. Right? We're the descendants. And we hate God. And almost no one calls them out. Because if you do, you're labeled an anti-Semite and all this other garbage. It's like, no, I'm just preaching the Bible. You think God looks down at them? Oh, even though you hate me, it's okay. No judgment. No judgment. It's all good. No, that's not the way it is. That's absolutely absurd. Look at verse number 8. This one says this. This one says this. So again, they turn their backs on God. God's like, hey, the world's going to wonder, they're going to walk by and they're going to know why. Look at verse 9. So what is the consequence to the physical nation of Israel for not worshipping him? It's evil. God does evil. Now, a lot of people, that freaks them out. Oh, God can't do evil. The word evil just means to hurt. Now, there's wicked evil. God doesn't do that. But he does hurt. God says, I will hurt you. I will remove you. I will cut you off if you don't do things my way. And that's exactly what he does. And you know what? It's righteous. This type of evil is righteous. It's not like you're Hollywood evil, okay? I'm not talking about like this Halloween junk that's going on out there. And so let's move on here now to verse number 10. We kind of shift gears a little bit here. But let's pick it up in verse 10. So he says, So again, you know, making mention there that there was nobody running around. Well, you know, we need Antifa. We've got to have some protests, you know. You know, take religion out of schools. Get the Bible, you know, off of politics. None of that there, okay? So 20 years goes by. That's the key thing that you need to remember. 20 years goes by, okay? Verse 11. It says, That then King Solomon gave Hyrum 20 cities in the land of Galilee. Okay? Go to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter number 12. We're not going to be too much longer. Romans chapter number 12. So interesting here. Solomon gives Hyrum. Hyrum is not of the nation of Israel, obviously. But he gives them these cities in the land of Galilee. Well, that's Israel. That violates, I mean, that violates the law of God. So 20 years from the time that, you know, that condition is given to Solomon, here you have Solomon giving Hyrum these cities. And it's like, what in the world is going on here? You know, that's a clear violation of scripture. We don't have time to go into that right now. But you say, what is that a picture of here? Okay? What's going on here? Because then it says later on that Hyrum is displeased. These cities did not please him. Well, that's weird. You know, and a lot of people will say, and this might be true, it doesn't say, a lot of people will say, well, the reason why Hyrum got upset is because these cities were desolate. They couldn't grow crops. They couldn't do this and that. It doesn't say that. What did we learn last week about the land? That it's morally conditional. As long as they worship God, they would get the rain, they would get the crops, they would have plenty food. It would be the land that floweth with milk and honey. Is that the case today over in the Middle East? Not at all. I mean, they're having to go crazy with their engineers to come up with ways to grow crops and to make sure there's a steady flow of water and food. I mean, it's hard for them out there. You know, go do the research. It's an act of man, it's not an act of God. Back then it was an act of God because they were obeying, you know, they had plantiness. So I'm not sure quite, you know, I get people say that, but the point is, and what we need to learn is that Hyrum's displeased. Now, here's what we know, okay? Solomon, the wisest man on earth, he has riches, I mean, just abundant riches. He's the wealthiest king on the planet at this time. You know, so if he's going to give you something, I mean, probably you'd hope it would be great. I mean, just marvelous, just awesome. But whatever the condition of these cities was, Hyrum was like, what manner of cities are these, man? I'm not even pleased with these. You know, and that's where I got the title for the sermon, the gift that is an insult. You see, we can all get to a place of complacency after our 20 years, so to speak. Right? Where we just say, you know what? I think I'll just give you this. I think I'll just, you know, I think I'll just give God one service a week. And I'm not trying to offend anybody. I know people live all over the place and, you know, we got new people that come and go in that. I'm not trying to get down on you. But I'm just saying, if you call yourself a disciple, right, are we just giving God of our excess? Oh, you know, I got a couple thousand dollar gift the other day. I think I'll give God a couple bucks. Does anybody in here honestly think that God's going to be okay with that? No, not at all. Oh, you know, I'll give God a chapter a month. Look, I'm not trying to offend anybody. I'm just saying that what you're seeing here, the reason why Hyrum's displeased is because what he expected based off of how Solomon's wealth was didn't match up. Either way you slice it. Whether the land was desolate or not, it doesn't matter. But Hyrum's like, man, I was a lifelong friend of your father's. I supplied you with all this stuff. Thank you for holding up your end of the bargain. But you're going to give me a gift and this is what it is? You know what I mean? Like something ain't lining up here. You know, I've heard a story. I used to talk to people that worked at Microsoft while Bill Gates is over there. And they'd always tell stories about how, you know, Bill Gates would bring everybody over for pizza. And they'd be, you know, they'd send a memo out through the company saying, hey, you know, on Friday, for example, we're going to celebrate this. We hit this number. We hit that number. And we're going to have some food. And everybody would be like, oh, man, it's going to be steak and lobster. It's going to be this great, you know, meal. And it would be like dominoes. And they'd be like, take two slices and basically get the hell out of here. You know what I mean? And people were like, after that they realized this is a scam. I'm going to go work for Apple or I'm going to go work for Google. You know, I'm out of here. This is dumb. This guy is a billionaire. And he disrespects us with pizza. You know what I mean? But that's what we do to God, isn't it? Seriously. Let's just be honest. Hey, can we just not be honest? Can we just be honest today? We all do that, don't we? All of us do that. And it's not right. It's not okay. It's not okay. Romans chapter 12, look at verse number 1. Look at what Paul tells the Romans. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Look, Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, past, present, and future. Do you know where his soul went after he died? It went to hell. Okay, that's where his soul went. Very clear in the Bible. He endured hell, which we deserve. Rose from the dead, defeated all of it, and doesn't even say you have to do all this stuff to be saved. All you got to do is just put your faith and trust in me, and you're good. You're in. Don't you think it's reasonable that we give him more effort than maybe our flesh wants? You know? So what I'm saying is we don't want to fall into this mentality where we're like, I'm just going to give God of my excess only. Why not just hop in 100% full bore? That's what Paul's telling the Christians here at Rome. Look at verse 2. He says, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's what we are after. Let the word of God renew your mind. Okay? Truth. Look, if you don't have truth, if you are not exposing yourself to truth, you're not going to have that renewing of mind, are you? That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Discernment. Look, you get something out of this. Understand that, guys. You get something out of your sacrifices. Go to 1 Peter chapter number 2. 1 Peter chapter number 2. I mean, think about it. Our God is exceeding, abundantly merciful. And when we do offer up spiritual sacrifice, for example, everybody in here is offering up a spiritual sacrifice. You've sacrificed your time to come here tonight when you could be doing anything else. You know, God accepts that. He respects that. Right? But here's the thing. You know, and I know, I understand people got different work schedules, so don't let me try to, you know, browbeat you too much because you weren't here on Wednesday or whatever. You know, don't take offense to that. Okay? What I'm simply saying is we will never excel. We will never make it if we have this mentality where we're just going to give God out of our excess. That's not a sacrifice. Okay? It's not. Did God give us out of his excess? I got a little bit of spare time. I can die for the whole world. Could you imagine if that was his attitude? We'd be teaching a whole other program here. 1 Peter chapter 2, look at verse number 5. So Peter says this, Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. We are the temple of God today. Believers, right? Unholy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Go to Hebrews chapter 13. So what does that look like though? It's broad. Looks like a lot of things. When you do something good for another brother or sister in Christ, that's a spiritual sacrifice. You go do some work for them, you go help them out, you pray for them, you encourage them, that's a spiritual sacrifice. See, we're past the whole animal thing today. See, they had the animal thing back in the Old Testament and that was a picture of us obviously offering up spiritual sacrifices to the Lord. But we ought to do it willingly. You know, we ought to do it willingly. Not when we just feel like it. No, discipline. Discipline is lacking today. Discipline is lacking today in so many people. You say, why are so many employers today having such a difficult time finding employees? It's because people aren't disciplined. They want Uncle Sam to do everything for them. We ought to be different. We are supposed to be holy and doing things that are acceptable unto the Lord. That's how we are called to live. But Hebrews chapter 13, look at verse 15. It says this, it says, by him therefore let us offer the sacrifices of praise to God continually. You know, one of the reasons why we have a prayer and praise session every week is to meet this very verse here. Look what it says after the comma. It says, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. So again, just another bit of encouragement. If you've got something that's a praise, something that God has helped you with, write that down on the communication card. Just go rip off a piece of paper. Put it in the box over there and let us know so that we can put that on the praise list. Because when we offer up praises as a church, guess what? That's a spiritual sacrifice unto God. Okay, verse 16 says, but to do good and to communicate forget not. For with such sacrifices God is well pleased. There's a lot of different sacrifices that you could do. Just saying. Go back to 1 Kings chapter number 9. 1 Kings chapter number 9. So again, these things, the things that were written aforetime were written for our learning. What can we learn from the way Hyrum was displeased with what Solomon gave him? I don't know, I would think if Hyrum got those cities they didn't meet his expectations. So he's like, what kind of stuff is this, man? What kind of cities are these? What's going on here? Okay, that's a picture of what we fall into. You know, we can fall into this mentality. And trust me, there are times when I'm like, man, I've been sitting in front of this computer. I've been doing sermons, I've been reading the Bible. Man, I just don't feel like it. I don't feel like reading every day. I'll tell you that right now. The reason why I do it is because I just decided a long time ago, discipline. I got to do it. You know, being the pastor does kind of help. I really can't not do that. But you get what I'm trying to say. The point is discipline. We want to offer up sacrifices. We want to offer up things that are pleasing in the sight of God. And there's a whole host of ways that you can do that. So again, verse 12. And Hyrum came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they pleased him not. Verse 13. And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Kabul unto this day. And be careful, you know, people. Oh, this word in ancient languages means this. Whatever, man. It's just the point is he's displeased. He gave him that name. End of story. Okay, verse 14. So let's answer the question now. Okay, how do we respond when we're offended or we feel like, you know, this we had an agreement here and someone didn't hold up their end of the bargain. You know, what should our response be? Well, I mean, Hyrum here, what was his response? Did he just like, you know, I'm displeased, but the heck with you, Solomon, I'm not going to help you out anymore. I'm going to cry. I'm going to whine. I'm going to complain. Was that his attitude? Let's see. Look at verse 14. And Hyrum sent to the king six score talents of gold. Verse 15. And this is the reason of the levy which King Solomon raised, for to build the house of the Lord and his own house and millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer. So Hyrum, he's displeased and he just marches on. Right? Think about that. Okay, just takes it. All right. I'll give you this name. You just keep moving forward. That's it. See, how do I overcome it? You just keep pushing forward. That's what you do. You keep working. You don't, look, are we that weak of a people to where we're just going to allow ourselves to be bogged down by these types of things? Look, you're not going to make it out in the world if that's your attitude. Because your boss will offend you. Your neighbors will offend you. Your family members will offend you. People in this church will offend you. Jesus said it is impossible, but that offenses should come. So just get over it and keep moving forward. That's how you deal with it. So, look back there again. Verse 15 he says, And this is the reason for the levy which King Solomon raised, for to build the house of the Lord and his own house and millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer. That popped into my mind today because it wasn't too long ago that I read through the book of Joshua. And if you remember, the children of Israel were not able to drive out all of the Canaanites from Gezer. So if you look at verse 16, look at what happens. It says this, Verse 16, For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burnt it with fire and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife. So it's kind of interesting here how even in the end they wind up getting the land that they should have conquered back in the times of judges, back in the days of Joshua during that time frame. So things are still going well. I don't believe it was right for Solomon to give those cities to Hyrum. That was their land. He should have given them something else. But despite that mistake, despite that problem, God is still blessing the nation of Israel. Look what God's doing. God's using the world to actually solve his problems. Now that's where we don't want to be. If we can avoid it. We want to handle our own business. We don't want God doing it that way because, I mean, that's embarrassing. You know what I mean? That's not the way it should be. God told them, Hey, this was your mission. You guys should have drove out all the Canaanites. And of course they failed to do it. But nonetheless, God still blesses them with this. Verse 17, and Solomon built Gezer and Beth-horon the nether. Verse 18 it says, and Balath and Tadmor in the wilderness in the land and all the cities of store that Solomon had. And cities for his chariots and cities for his horsemen and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion. So again, they're still worshiping God. They're still, you know, by and large doing well, but you kind of see a glimpse, a little glitch in the program 20 years later. This is going to be important because next week we're going to see the fall of Solomon. You're going to see that this is basically leading up to it. And notice how it's always so short-lived, you know? It's like when you read through 1 Samuel, you know, and you learn about King Saul. It's like he's picked to be king. He gets a quick victory over the Philistines and then boom, next thing you know, Samuel's there like, you're done. You want to offer sacrifices on your own time, pal? Okay, you're done. It's like, wow. You know, at this point in time, God is not playing around. That's a good lesson for us because, you know, we get into this mode and we never know when God's going to be like, all right, you know, I can't use you anymore. I can't use this and completely remove us from our mission. Let's see, look at verse number 21. He says, There are children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able to utterly destroy. Upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bond service unto this day. Verse 22, But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen, but they were men of war, and his servants and his princes and his captains and rulers of his chariots and his horsemen. So obviously the people of the children of Israel, they became men of war. They had the better option. Everyone else he put to be bond servants, basically. And we talked about that in a whole sermon probably about a month ago. So I don't want to get too far off into what that means. Just go look that up on our channel. But look at verse 23. It says, These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bear rule over the people that wrought in the work. Now, I think we talked about this last week, right, in numbers. I think it was Wednesday, actually, we went to numbers. You know, what did God tell the nation of Israel would happen if they did not dispel all the people of land? He said there'd be thorns in your side and pricks in your eyes. Okay, and that's important because that's eventually what's going to happen. So it seems like a good thing that they're doing here. Oh, we'll just put all these guys to tribute. We'll just put, make them bond servants. It always comes back to bite you. See, what's the lesson in that? Well, all of us think, you know, I can just keep this pocket of sin over here and this pocket of sin over here, and I can just keep these things that no one knows about, what I'm looking at on the Internet, or whatever the case is, right, and no one's going to know. I'll just keep it kind of locked up over there, like the sins in fornication. What happens to people every single time they think they can hold that off? I'll just put that under tribute. It comes back to bite them. That's why the bottom line is some sins you can fight and some sins you got to flee. You know, that's the lesson in that. You know, sins of pornography, fornication, and things of that nature, we got to flee. You're not, no one's strong enough to withstand that, to hold that and say, okay, I can just keep that over here. I can just keep the magazines and the DVDs and stuff like that over here. Like my dad saying, I just read the articles. No, you didn't. You're not that strong. You're not that tough. You're lying to me right now. Of course, back then I didn't know that. I just, you know, whatever. But, verse 23, these were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, 550, which bear rule over the people that rot and work. Verse 24, but Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her. Then did he build Millo. Verse 25, and three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the Lord. It says, and burnt incense upon the altar that was before the Lord, so he finished the house. Okay, so you can still see here that he's still worshiping the Lord, still loves God. His heart hadn't been turned yet. Verse 26, and King Solomon made a navy of ships in Esongiber which is beside Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. So, I mean, think about how powerful this nation is at this time. They've got men of war. They've got a navy. You know, some people say they had an air force, but I don't believe that. I'm just kidding. I'm just teasing. Verse 27, and Hyrum sent in the navy his servants, shipmen, that had knowledge of the sea with the servants of Solomon. So, understand here, you know, verse 28, and they came to Ophir and fetched from thence gold 420 talents and brought it to King Solomon. So, I mean, take a look here. You know, Hyrum's displeased. He's not happy with the gift that Solomon gave him, but what do they do? They build an international trading company. You know, these guys work together on military might, you know. I mean, think about it. You know, what if Hyrum was like, you know what, I'm done with you. I don't like this gift. It's a slap in the face. It's an insult that I just can't get over. That would cause a lot of issues. That would cause a lot of problems. You know, so the point is, you know, people get insulted all the time. They get offended. You know, the way around it is to just keep working. Keep working that job. Keep working in that relationship. Whatever it is that you find offending you and eventually, you know, the saying comes true, time heals all wounds. You know, you'll get over it and do something great for God. You know, there's been people who've come into this church and they're not unsaved, but they got offended or whatever, something I said, and they're out. What are they doing for God today? Nothing. Because we always hear about it. Think about it, man. 20 years goes by and Solomon decides, you know what, I think this will be good. I'll just give him some of the promised land. It's a big mistake. Okay, we're supposed to stay in the race and pace ourselves. Because the temptation from the world is always there and it's always trying to grab you and take your attention and take your ability to serve God. Okay, that is what the devil is doing today, actively. He's looking for people that are close to the truth, looking for people who are about to stumble onto something. He says, what can I do to grab this person? What can I do to take this person? Hyrum said, you know what, I'm offended. You know, I don't like this, but I'm going to keep pushing forward. I'm going to keep on working. You know, I read an article not too long ago. I might have brought it up in the past. I subscribed to some of these new evangelical guys just to see what they're, you know, what trends they're going through. And what they're saying is that after this pandemic junk that just happened, they're like, you know, a lot of people haven't come back. And they're like, and here's how we're going to get them to come back. Less preaching, more pausing. That's their new slogan. Less preaching, more pausing. Okay, and what's the point of that? What's the thought process behind that? Well, you read the article, and it's today's young generation are seeking a sign. They're seeking feeling. That's what they're seeking, okay? See, Hyrum, when he was offended, he was able to put his feelings aside and still do business with Solomon so that he could get food for his nation and help his nation as well. You see, it was a business transaction. And that's kind of what this is. This is, I mean, we come to church. We assemble together to do the Lord's business. Jesus said, hey, I am about my Father's business. You know, sometimes people were writing like, oh, you're nothing but a business. Yeah, we're about our Father's business, just like Jesus was, you know? It is what it is. You can't operate without money, sorry. House churches aren't sending missionaries out door to door, just so you know, even though this church started in the house, but you know, whatever. You get what I'm saying, okay? But anyways, going back to this article, you know, these guys were like, less preaching, more pausing. They're like, what people are responding to today, they don't want to see the Pac-Man background anymore, which is kind of sad to me because I like making fun of that, you know? But they just want like this long, you know, just this quote-unquote religious feeling. Well, guess what that does? We talked about that this morning. I told you I'd bring this up again tonight. That violates the very act of worship. That violates Philippians chapter 3, verse 3. We are called to worship God in spirit and in truth, and not to regard the works of the flesh, okay? Which is why we do things the way that we do them here, because we are all about the truth, pushing the truth. What is truth? Right? We don't want to have pilot syndrome. Oh, what is truth? You know, my dad was like that. You tell him something's true. Oh, how do you know what truth is? I'll bet if Uncle Sam doesn't give you your paycheck there, Dad, you're going to be real concerned about the truth. Well, that's different. That's different. Yeah, it's always different when it comes to money, isn't it? It's always different when it comes to things like that. But when it comes to the things of God, all of a sudden our guards drop and we're just like, ah, it doesn't matter. That's okay. No, we need to learn to be men. We need to learn to be real mature adult Christians and learn how to take control of ourselves just like Hyrum did. You know, he was offended. He's like, whatever, I'm going to push on, you know? And he wound up, I believe, blessing his own nation as a result of that. You know, and Solomon just, obviously, he's going to go down. I'm chuckling, but it's just sad to me to watch the wisest man that ever lived. You know, how he felt. And who was it? Strange women. You know, well, if I can handle one strange woman from Egypt, I can handle a thousand. And so, unfortunately, he learns later on, yeah, that's quite not the case. It's not going to happen here. But at least, you know, this is, again, one of my favorite parts of the Old Testament because you have all 12 tribes here. They've got a king. They're still worshiping God. They're still human. They're still making mistakes. But they're a powerhouse. They're a powerhouse with a common goal in mind, to get the name of the Lord spread throughout the earth. You know, and you tell people that today and they're like, nope, only Jews could be saved. I hate that doctrine. I want to see that doctrine take a serious death blow in our lifetime. And it's going to take all of us smashing it every single day. But enough rambling for me. Let's stop right there. We'll pick it up next week. We'll look at the second half of 1 Kings 10 and then we'll go into Chapter 11 just because we already dealt with the Queen of Sheba. So just be prepared for that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this truth and all the truth that you give us every single week. I just pray that you would bless what we've learned today, Lord. Help us to apply it to our lives and bring us back safely next week. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right. So for our final hymn this evening, let's pick up those books. Turn to number 56 with me. When we all get to heaven, let's go out singing with all our hearts. On the first, sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Sing his mercy and his grace. In the mansion, bright and blessed, he'll prepare us a place. When we all get to heaven, on a day of rejoicing, I will be here. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout with a victory. While we walk the pilgrims and wake, clouds will overspread the skies. But when traveling days are over, not a shadow, not a sign. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing, I will be here. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout with a victory. Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day. Just one glimpse of him in glory, we're the toys of life repaid. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing, I will be here. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout with a victory. On the last, onward to the prize before us. Soon his beauty will be whole. Soon the pearly gates will open. We shall strand the streets of gold. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing, I will be here. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout with a victory. Amen. Great singing, Brother Denver. We'll be the closest we'll work on this. Lord, I thank you for another opportunity to gather together. I thank you for this day. I pray that this week ahead of us is a blessed week. I thank you for your word. I thank you for the strengths of your wisdom. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.