(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

allow us to pay attention to the preaching Lord and we pray all these things in your name. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Proverbs chapter 26, look down at your Bibles at verse 27. It says here, who so digget the pit shall fall there in and he that rolleth the stone, it will return upon him. And I wanna preach on the person Abimelech this evening from Judges chapter nine. In fact, go to Judges chapter nine, if you would. But we started with Proverbs chapter 26 because of the fact that this proverb or that we see here in Proverbs chapter 26 is a great description about Abimelech, is it not? In fact, when you think about what is being said here in Proverbs chapter 26 and verse 27, it's basically, if we're to sum up what it's teaching, it's basically telling us you reap what you sow, right? And it says there, who so digget the pit shall fall there in and he that rolleth the stone, it will return upon him. Hey, you know, you roll a stone in order to crush others in order to cause mischief upon other people, that stone will eventually come upon you again. You always reap what you sow and that's exactly what we see with Abimelech in Judges chapter nine. Now go to verse 52, if you would, go to verse 52 of Judges chapter nine and we're gonna come back to that concept of rolling a stone and in regards to Abimelech. But let me read to you from second Samuel chapter 11, you're in Judges nine verse 52, I'm gonna read to you from second Samuel chapter 11 and verse 20, it says, and if so be that the king's wrath arise and he's saying to thee, wherefore approach thee so nigh unto the city when ye did fight, knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech, the son of Jerubasheth, did not a woman cast a piece of millstone upon him from the wall that he died in Thebes, why went ye nigh to the wall, then say thou thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So what do we see in second Samuel chapter 11? And of course this is long after Abimelech has died, Gideon has died, they're no longer under the system of the judges. What we see in second Samuel chapter 11 is that Abimelech has become a byword and a proverb because of the fact that this is exactly how he died. So when military generals and people, when they try to strategize and figure out, hey, how are we gonna overcome this city, one parable that they always remember is Abimelech. Whatever you do, don't go up to the wall, don't get close to the wall because that's exactly how Abimelech died, okay? Now look at Judges 9 verse 52, it says, and Abimelech came unto the tower and fought against it and went hard into the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head and all to break his skull. So this guy, he got a little overly confident, he's winning this battle that we see here in Judges chapter nine, and he approaches the wall, he's overly confident, and what does God do? He allows a woman to drop a millstone upon his head. It's a very humble way to die, is it not? Very humiliating to think about. It's not by a sword, it's not by a bow and arrow, it's not by a spear, it's by a stone that basically breaks the skull. Look what it says in verse 54. Then he called hastily unto the young man, his armor bearer, and said unto him, draw thy sword, slay me. Then men say not of me, a woman slew him. Well guess what Abimelech, too late. Because you have now become the official byword of Proverb, and in fact, in second Samuel chapter 11, that's exactly what they say. A woman killed you, she dropped the millstone upon your head, and his young man thrust him through and he died. Even though his armor bearer did it, didn't do him no good, because no one remembers the armor bearer, they remember the woman who slew him, right? He became a byword and a Proverb. Now why is that? Well because of the fact that Abimelech is a wicked person, and the Bible tells us in Proverbs 13, 21, evil pursueth sinners, but to the righteous good shall be repaid. Proverbs 24, eight says he that deviseth to do evil shall be called a mischievous person. You always reap what you sow, and that's exactly what we're gonna see tonight with the story of Abimelech. Now go to the beginning of Judges chapter nine. Judges nine really just mainly focuses on this character known as Abimelech, and Abimelech is the son of Gideon. We know about Gideon in his 300, the great exploits that he did. Well what happens here is that Gideon passes away, we know him to be one of the judges, and this is during the time when they didn't have kings, they had basically military generals that would deliver them out of the hands of their enemies. We constantly see judges being cycled through Israel, the children of Israel would give themselves over to pagan idolatry, God would punish them, allow them to suffer oppression at the hand of a foreign enemy. They would cry out unto the Lord, and what would happen? He would raise up a judge and a deliverer to come and rescue them and fight their battles. Well that's what happened with Gideon, okay? He used Gideon to deliver the children of Israel out of the hand of the oppressor. But what we see here is that once Gideon dies, there's basically a vacuum of leadership that's left in Israel. There's no judge to basically take over after him. And in fact, the judge that we see after Gideon and after Abimelech is Tola, but that's not until way later. And so between Tola and Gideon, you have Abimelech. Now why is that? Well because of the fact that any organization that is absent of a leader, you will always have some wicked individual trying to come in and take over. That always happens. Whether you think of a local New Testament church where something happens to the pastor, whether he goes into sin or he dies, or whatever may happen to him where he's no longer there, you will always have wicked individuals trying to fill that vacuum of leadership. Why? Because of the fact that they want authority, they want power, they wanna take advantage of the people and this is exactly what we see with Abimelech, okay? Now Gideon had a lot of sons, did he not? He had 70 sons, not including Abimelech and Jotham. And so we see that he has these sons and one of the reasons that Abimelech is very wicked is because of the fact that he actually slays these 70 brothers, I mean these are his brothers basically and he slays them, we'll get into that in just a bit but look down at your Bibles in verse number one. We're gonna talk about this evening why Abimelech is so wicked. Number one, and what we can learn from that. Number one, Abimelech is wicked because he perverts judgment, okay? So this isn't like a righteous leader, he's not a spear-filled man, he's actually very wicked and he's not trying to gain a position of authority to help Israel, to deliver them from the hand of the oppressors. He wants it because he wants the position, okay? Look what it says in verse one of Judges nine. It says, And Abimelech, the son of Jerubel, went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren and communed with them and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying, Speak, I pray you in the ears of all the men of Shechem. Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubel, which are threescore and 10 persons, reign over you or that one reign over you, remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. So what is he saying? He goes, look, Gideon is gone, we need a leader, so talk to the men of Shechem and ask them, hey, what do you think is better? Do you want 70 people to rule over you or do you want one to rule over you, referring to himself? And by the way, just keep in mind that I'm your brother. What is he doing? He's trying to pervert judgment. He's like, hey, don't forget, I'm like your cousin, all right? You know, we come from the same hood, we come from the same tribe, we come from the same place, so before you make a judgment, before you decide, just keep in mind. Now, what is he doing here? He's perverting judgment by first and foremost exaggerating, is he not? I mean, do you really think 70 people are gonna rule over Israel? He said, do you want the 70 people to rule over you or just the one? Well, first of all, 70 people are not gonna rule over Israel. And you don't see the 70 sons of Gideon chomping at the bits to take over and be a leader. Who do we see chomping at the bits? Abimelech, okay? So what is he doing? He is not obtaining the kingdom by righteousness, by righteous works. He's actually obtaining it by what? Flatteries. I'm your flesh and your bone, I'm your cousin. Actually, he is their nephew, right? Because he's referring, he's talking to the brothers of his mother. And he's saying, hey, influence the people to basically vote for me, so I can come into office and be the judge, take this position of authority. And look, folks, a leader shouldn't be elected, whether in a church setting or even a political realm, based upon perversion, right? People shouldn't have to pervert judgment, trick people into voting for someone, or trick an individual, or trick a church into getting them to vote for you as the pastor or whatever it may be. Obviously, we don't vote here. It should be based upon the works of the individual taking the position. It should be based upon who he is as a person, if he's spirit-filled, if he's a man of God who fears the Lord, hates covetousness, and wants to do the work, okay? And the way we can apply this today is, you think of men who wanna become pastors. Often they wanna become pastors because they want the fame, they want, maybe they're just lazy people, and they think doing the pastor's job is very easy, they just lay back and do nothing. What does God say? If any man desire the office of a bishop, he desires the good what? Work. He should desire to labor in the word and in doctrine, to do the work of an evangelist, to do the work of a pastor. But some people know they can't do that job, so what do they do? Instead, they pervert judgment in order to get that position. They lie their way into that. Now, the New Testament would call this being self-willed. You understand? Titus 1.7 says, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. Now, another thing that we see with the Bimelech is that he's actually given to filthy lucre as well. We'll see that later on in the chapter. But first and foremost, we see that he perverts judgment. He can't be honest. He's like, hey, who would you rather have run the church? The entire deacon board? Or me, you know? And it's like, you're exaggerating, you're trying to pervert judgment, you're not being honest. You know, obviously you don't stick out as a leader because if not, if you did, people would just recommend for you to be the leader, but instead, you have to put yourself in that position in order to get that authority and that position. Second Peter 2.10 says, but chiefly then that walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness, despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities, the Bible tells us. So he perverts judgment in order to take that position, not because he's righteous, not because he has Israel's best interest in mind, he does it because he just wants a position of authority. And look, nowhere here does it say that Abimelech was a judge. He just took that upon himself. And you have a lot of pastors today that take on the title pastor upon themselves, but they're not even a pastor, they're not even ordained. They don't have another person actually laying hands on them, ordained pastor, to be sent out and start a church. This happens all the time. So look at verse number four. So first and foremost, he's a wicked individual because of the fact that right off the bat, he's already seeking to pervert judgment, he's lying, he's trying to obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Number two, Abimelech is wicked because he doesn't have genuine followers. He doesn't have genuine, sincere followers. He said, what does it have to do with him being wicked? Well, everything brings forth that for its own kind. Right? Look what it says in verse four. And they gave him three scoring 10 pieces of silver out of the house of Belbereth. Actually, let's start in verse number three, sorry. And his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem, all these words, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, he is our brother. So the first category of people that we see following him, they're not following him because he's a righteous person, they're following him because they respect our people. They say, well, he's our brother, so why not? You know, he is related to us, we know him, we know his mom, let's just follow him because of the fact that we know him like that. It says in verse number four, and they gave him, look what it says, three score, excuse me, and they gave him three score and 10 pieces of silver out of the house of Belbereth, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons which followed him. So what do they do? So these guys who are following him, first and foremost, because they respect our people, they go to some pagan temple, the temple of Belbereth, they take up the offerings there, right, and they give it to him so we can start his little campaign. He's like, I wanna invest in your campaign here, let's go ahead and grab some finances from this wicked temple, and you can use this to basically kickstart your campaign. So what does he do? He uses it to hire the baser sort. What it says here, vain and light people which followed him. Are they following him because he's casting vision? No, they're following him because he's casting money. He's like, hey, I'll put money in your pocket, just follow me, I want a big crowd to come with me, make it look like I got an army behind me, make it look like the people are behind me, but here's the money, and this is what I want you to do. And the Bible tells us that only those who are vain and light chose to follow him. Now, this actually reminds me of, who knows who Suge Knight is? Anyone knows who Suge Knight is? Everyone, who doesn't know who Suge Knight is, right? So, you know, a lot of people see this guy as a gangster, and I mean, sure enough, for sure, he's like a very dangerous man, okay? He's killed people, he's very dangerous, but prior to him starting, by the way, if you don't know who he is, just enjoy the story, all right? Prior to him starting this record label called Death Row Records, he actually was not a gangster. He was not involved in any gang activity. It wasn't until he started Death Row Records that he actually started getting involved with the Los Angeles gang known as Blud's Compton gang. And so he started associating with these people, and these people would come around, and basically he wanted to associate with them to kind of give them strength, make them look more legitimate. And what happened was, a lot of these gang members who were part of that Blud gang, they would only work for him because he would give them money. So it's not like he had any street credibility, you know? He didn't put in work, so to speak, in the hood. Really what it was is that he was paying them off. Many of them have come out years later and said basically, we don't even like that guy. And any time he wasn't paying us, we'd just tell him, hey, we're about to get you and get whatever, and he would say, all right, here's your check, and you'd just pay him off, just so he can wear the red suits and have the Bloods with them and make it look like he's just this hip-hop guru kingpin of the Bloods or whatever. But this is what we see. It's not because he had any credibility, so to speak. It's because he's paying them off. And this is exactly what Abimelek is doing. Because of the fact that he's not an honest person, he's actually very wicked, he's a very wicked individual, he can't get honest people to follow him. Therefore, he has to pay them off to do so. Now, go to James chapter two, if you would. I'm sorry, go to Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17. So he's wicked because he doesn't have genuine followers. The people who follow him are vain and they're light. What does that mean? Well, vain basically means empty. In other words, these aren't people of substance, okay? These are people who don't have any biblical substance, they don't have personal convictions, they don't have necessarily good morals. They're there to be a part of his campaign because of the fact that he's paying them. So they're vain and they're light people. What does that mean? They don't take anything serious. I mean, just the fact that they're receiving money in order to be a part of his campaign shows you that. It's not based upon convictions, they're vain and light people. They're taking things lightly. Look what it says in Acts chapter 17, verse four. It says, and some of them believe and consorted with Paul and Silas and of the devout Greeks of great multitude and of the chief women, not a few, but the Jews which believed not moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and gathered her company and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. A common thing that you see in the New Testament is that any time the Jews wanted to persecute Christians, what would they do? They hire people to falsely accuse them. These aren't people who are deeply rooted in biblical convictions. They're not men of morals. They're not men of honesty. They're wicked people who basically will do whatever you want as long as you pay them the right amount of money. So there's nothing new under the sun. This is exactly what Abimelek is doing. He's trying to get wicked people to follow him and it's based upon his evil deeds. Go back to Judges chapter nine. Now this is what this reminds me of today as well. This reminds me of like churches that will split for example, okay? You think of Adam Fannin, okay? He split the church and he's got his own church and now he's like the pastor now and now he's doing his own thing but you look at the congregation, the people who are in his church, bunch of idiots in that church. I mean you got flat earthers. You have one is Pentecostal idiots and everything in between, okay? Now is that a solid group there? I mean come on. It's not a solid group at all. It's light people, right? Vain and light people. You think of Tyler Baker for example which by the way, his congregation is dying, okay? A lot of the people who originally went out there to go help them start the church, they already left. He has like two people or whatever, you know? Why? Because only vain and light people follow people like that. And if you want to look at how righteous or how godly or what type of person the pastor is, just look and commune with the people that are within his church. That's what you do. If you want to know what kind of pastor is pastoring the church, you go commune and fellowship and ask questions to the people that are found within the church. You want to see what kind of person Adam Fannin is, just go talk to the people that are in his church. You'll see that oh man, that guy's probably really wicked as hell. Because these people believe in the flat earth, their one is Pentecostals, and they're carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. They're light and vain people. And so this is common today. Now, you think of someone who's light. You think of, for example, liberal churches. Liberal churches that have a pastor who maybe he's there not for the right reasons, and he often pastures a people who take things lightly. They don't really take the things of God seriously. They don't take the word of God serious. You go to them and say hey, this is not the right Bible to use. You're using an ESV, an NIV, you should be using the King James Bible, and they're like oh, it's all the same thing. I'll use the ESV, the pastor will have NIV on the screen or whatever, and we all use different versions of the Bible. Still the word of God, they're taking it lightly. But what is that a reflection of, the leadership? Because he's taking his stance on the Bible lightly. You go to a church and just sin is rampant through that church, fornication is being committed. You have couples within the church that are not getting married but they're fornicating. Okay, they're committing the sin of fornication which by the way, merits excommunication out of the church in case you didn't know. And what do we see? We see, you go to them and say hey, these people are involved in fornication. You know, according to First Corinthians chapter five, we should remove this leaven in order for this church to be a pure church and not have the judgment of God upon the church. And what does the pastor say? Or what do the people say? Well we gotta give them time. Time for what, for her to get knocked up? Time for what? For them to just keep fornicating? Folks, they're taking it lightly. It's like, well it says right here in First Corinthians chapter five, gotta get rid of it. If it's something that's commonly reported, it's something that you should deal with right off the bat and the people are just like, well, you know, that's not what it means, you know. I think we should be loving. Oh, so basically you're glorying is what you're doing. You're being prideful. You're puffed up, you're vain. You're taking this thing lightly. You see folks, things that are just black and white in the Bible, we should not take lightly. If the Bible says it's wicked, it's an abomination. If it says fornication is wicked, if it says that they should be thrown out, if they're an extortioner, or a drunkard, or a railer, or an idolater, we are not to take those things lightly. But a leader who is vain, a leader who doesn't have anything of substance will produce followers who are just like that, if not actually worse than them. That's how it always works. You know, they take their church services lightly, right? They don't take their church services seriously. That's why you have smoke bombs coming out of the services, and lasers, and lights, and all this hoopla, and bells and whistles, just nonsense. Just cotton candy is what it is. What is cotton candy? It's nothing but sugar, it has no substance. It doesn't fill you up. But you know, there's a lot of churches that are just like cotton candy churches. A lot of fluff, it's very big, nice and fluffy, nice and pink, but as soon as you stick it in your mouth, it just melts and just goes away, it dissipates, it disintegrates, and it does not fill you up. Well, a lot of churches are just like that. Why? Because they're taking church services lightly. Folks, we're not gonna take it lightly here. Hey, we got a group of orchestra people here who are not taking music lightly. They're here, they're gonna be here tomorrow, right? If they weren't, now they aren't. I'm just kidding. They come on Mondays to practice. Sometimes they'll practice twice a week together, and they're driving from different parts, why? Because they understand the importance of their part of the music ministry to play with excellence, with skill. They're not taking it lightly. You understand? You say, well, some of those liberal churches, they play with skill. No, they don't. What do you call skillful? Skillful is something that you do that's honoring to God. Something of excellence that you give to God. All that sliding, all that garbage music is not skillful, it's sloppy. When you sing Amazing Grace, and you can't even get a part, you can't even finish the amazing part because you're sliding all over the place, that's not decently in an order, folks. Amazing. And it's just like, when are they gonna finish? They just desecrate that song. They defile it, why? Because they're taking it lightly. They're more concerned with people watching them and how they can just sing that one part and how good they can slide and how liberal they can sing rather than just taking the word of God and their service to God seriously and be grave about it. How about this? The churches out there that take evangelism lightly as well. Oh, just pass out 10,000 tracks or just do lifestyle evangelism. Just let your light so shine, brother. Just go out there and just let them see your light shine. Folks, we have enough scripture in the Bible to tell us that we oughta open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel. That we oughta go from door to door, preaching the gospel, doing soul winning, why? Because the Bible tells us not to take it lightly. It's something that is serious, it's something that God takes serious, but there's churches out there that do not wanna do that. So it's no wonder that if you have a vain pastor up there, he's gonna produce vain and light congregants as well, okay? We wanna be a church that's just the exact opposite of this. Though we're not vain, we have some substance. Hey, when people talk to you in church, you have something to talk about, right? You have some knowledge. You're not just like, oh, well, you know, did you see this TikTok? I made this new TikTok today. You know, the stupid videos that they post there and they just, they back up and they do this stupid little dance. People tell me like, yeah, but they get like 500,000 views watching them dance. Is that like the greatest accomplishment now or what? It's foolishness, folks. You know, better to have a conversation about biblical things, ministry, music, the podcast, ideas to come up with, things of substance. Not be vain, but have some gravity to us, okay? And not take things lightly, we take things very serious. So, obviously, this is a train here that we're looking with, Vimalek, that's gonna come crashing. I mean, it's gonna come to a halt because this organization that he's creating has no substance, okay? He's like, I can't get people to follow me, so here's a couple bucks, can you just, you know, follow me, make it look like I have a really big church, make it look like I have a really big congregation. And folks, let me just remind you, you know, we have a pretty decent sized church and let me just remind you that a church that is over like 60 is actually bigger than your average church because your average church in America has about 50 to 60 people. So if you're running 80 to 100 people, you're actually larger than your average church. But also keep in mind that when you see these churches that run 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, it means nothing, folks. It's like the cotton candy. Joel Osteen has like the biggest church in America, if I'm not mistaken, when you're filling up a football stadium, but look, it's a stadium of cotton candy is what it is. Has zero substance to it. Look, I can show you, you know, how many of you have ever seen a dead dog, okay, who's left out in the sun and he begins to swell up? You know what I'm talking about? How many know what I'm talking about? I remember we were going down the 710 freeway one time and there was this pit bull that got hit. I think you're the one who told me about it, Brother Albert. There was this pit bull that got hit. It was years ago and, you know, like Saturday we went over there and it was just kind of big and then Sunday it was like even more big. By the time Tuesday came around, it was like massive. But here's the thing, it was dead. And it was the gases and all the nastiness going on and then eventually it just blew up or something. I don't know. Because it was swelling up, right? Oh, but it's so big. Yeah, but it's full of dead men's bones. And you have these megachurches, it's like, yeah, but they're so big. Yeah, but they're full of dead men's bones. I'd rather have a small church, which we don't have a small church, but I'd rather have a small congregation of substance than a church of 20,000 filled with vain and light people. You understand? Go back to Judges chapter nine. So he is wicked because of the fact that he obtains his position by flatteries. Oh, I'm your brother. He obtains it by finances, by paying off the baser sword to follow him. But not only that, he's wicked because he gets rid of his so-called opposition. Look what it says in verse number five of Judges nine. And he went into his father's house at Ophrah and slew his brethren, the sons of Jerubel, being three score and 10 persons upon one stone. Notwithstanding yet Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubel, was left for he hid himself. Now, look at the poetic justice in this. He slew his brethren upon a what? A stone. And what is it that killed them? A stone. But we see here that after he's elected to be the leader, the so-called judge of Israel, the first thing on his agenda is what? Time to go for my brethren, the 70 brethren, and slay them. Why did he do that? Because he's an insecure leader. And as an insecure leader, he's just like, well, I gotta get rid of anybody who can potentially take my place. Evil, wicked, insecure. These are the type of people that, they don't want anybody to have the spotlight other than them. It's just like, well, I don't share my pulpit with anybody. And if they do share a pulpit with someone, as soon as that person preaches, they put them down, they criticize them because they can't handle anybody else getting the spotlight. They can't handle having stronger people around them. He's an insecure leader, and he's threatened by his own brethren, so he does what he thinks best. He kills them. Very wicked. Now, this is what insecure leaders do. Now, my mom, my mom's family, and I think it was my aunt's, someone related to my aunt, I don't remember exactly who it was. He was involved in politics in Guatemala, and in fact, he was pretty up there. But the thing is, he was a Marxist, right? He was this communist guy. And this new guy came in, and he basically was this libertarian, and he actually ended up winning the election. And that guy, that Marxist guy, he took off. And my mom was suddenly like, yeah, the reason he had to leave was because as soon as this libertarian came into office, he was gonna go for that guy and kill him. And he says, that's how typically would go in Guatemala in the 50s, when you had a certain individual that was voted out, or you had another individual coming in, that other individual would just leave, because the one who's ruling didn't want any competition, so they would try to get rid of that individual. You think of, for example, Poipa in Cambodia. This communist guy, when he came into power, he actually, what he did was, he rounded up all the nurses and doctors and killed them all. Anybody who had any type of education, he killed them. Folks, if you walked around with glasses, he's just like, smart person, kill him. Because he didn't want anybody revolting or anybody intelligent under his rule to potentially usurp his authority and take over and cause an uprising. So what he did is he just got rid of everyone. Michael, you'd be gone, man. Anybody with glasses is like, if you even look smart, you're gone. Now why did he do that? Because he's insecure. He's a wicked individual. He's afraid of opposition, so-called, okay? This is what weak leaders do. Go to John, the book of John, Third John, excuse me. Third John, nine. Says here, I wrote into the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbideth them that would and casteth them out of the church. Who is the one speaking here? John, the apostle John. He is being malicious towards the apostles. He will not receive any of the apostles, including John. Why? Because he wants to have the preeminence among them. He wants to have the preeminence in his church. It's like basically a guy who basically says, hey, make sure you don't listen to anybody on YouTube. It's like the equivalent. Hey, get off of social media. You have this pastor who's just like, you know this pastor in Florida? He's like telling everybody, hey, you need to get off of YouTube and social media, and then he uploads that video to YouTube. You know, the fine ironing or whatever, you know? And the reason for that is because they're insecure. They can't handle other people, they can't handle their people listening to other pastors. Folks, this is insecure. This is a attribute of a weak leader. And this is what I tell some of the guys in our church. I actually like it when our church members listen to other pastors in our movement. I think it's great, and I'm gonna tell you why. Because if you're listening to other pastors in our movement, it's only gonna make you a better Christian, and guess who benefits from that? Me. So my pastor friends are helping me make better church members. What pastor would not want that? Right? And hopefully, Lord willing, I'm doing the same for them, amen? Hopefully I'm helping them make better church members, but I'm not gonna, yeah, don't listen to Pastor Jason Robinson. You know, he's from West Virginia. You know those southern people? You know the Bible Belt over there? This is California! No, in fact, I promote Pastor Robinson in our church all the time. You guys know that. Like, hey, go listen to the sermon. This is a great sermon, because it's only gonna make you a better Christian, which in turn makes you a better church member, which in turn blesses the church. But the insecure leader says, no, I don't want you to learn from anybody except for me. And folks, mark it down. There's people like that today in 2020. Pastors who just can't handle having you listen to all types of pastors. Now look, if you come up to me and you say, well, that's why I listen to John MacArthur. Then this is what I'll tell you. I'll say, well, you know what? You're in the wrong church. You're in the wrong church. And number one, I'll tell you, you're in the wrong church. Number two, I'll tell you, well, I got my sermon for Sunday. Thanks for telling me. I got myself a sermon for Sunday. Because I expect to pastor intelligent people. I don't think there's idiots in our church. And if there's someone who listened to John MacArthur, their intelligence just went up right now. They're like, I'm probably not gonna listen to him anymore if he's a bad person. And by the way, if you don't know that John MacArthur's a wicked individual, if you don't know, now you know. He's a wicked Calvinist who denies the blood of Christ. When it comes to wicked Calvinists, wicked individuals who use a different Bible version, they have a different salvation, they have different doctrine, I'm not gonna slam you for that. I'm just gonna tell you, you're probably in the wrong church. This is not where you wanna be. And then I'm gonna preach against that false prophet. But look, when it comes to other saved pastors, even if they're old IFP pastors, you think I'm gonna get mad if you listen to an old IFP pastor? If you listen to my old pastor, or my father-in-law, or anybody else, I'm not gonna get mad at that. You'll benefit from that because he's a saved man preaching the word of God. You understand? But unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the other side. You know, there's saved pastors that do not want you to listen to us, for whatever reason. What is it? It's the diatrophies mentality, okay? But this would have been like that, so he just gets rid of his opposition, he gets rid of his brother, and he just slays them, he kills them, because he doesn't want anybody to replace him. So why is he wicked? Number one, because he perverts judgment. He's not an honest individual. Number two is because of the fact that he has wicked people following him. He produces after his own kind, which is a person who is vain and light. Number three is because of the fact that he's an insecure leader, he wants to get rid of the opposition. And by the way, look, in our church, we have multiple leaders. Now, I'm the main leader of this church, because I'm the pastor of this church, but there is eight leaders that I have chosen in this church who lead the people of our church. And you know what? The people who are in the groups of our church leaders, sometimes they're closer to their leader than they're closer to me. And you know what? I'm A-OK with that. In fact, that's exactly what I want. Because at the end of the day, the most important thing is, folks, is that people are just taken care of, right? That they're being tended after, they're being cared for, they're being discipled, people are spending time with them. It doesn't have to be me who does it. It could be another leader in our church. And my desire is that when people come to this church, they look for their leader. They want to spend time with their leader. It's like, aren't you a little jealous of that, though? Doesn't that bother you a little bit? No, it doesn't bother me at all. Because in order for us to grow, that's what we have to do, OK? Reason number four why he's a wicked individual is because he wants to reign even though he's rejected. Now, this is what's funny. Go back to Judges chapter nine. Judges chapter nine. So he slays the 70 brothers, but he isn't able to get Jotham. And Jotham is his brother as well. Jotham escapes, and because he hides himself, he's able to escape out of the hands of Abimelech. Look at verse six, it says, And all the men of Shechem gathered together in all the house of Mylo, and went and made Abimelech king by the plan of the pillar that was in Shechem. Now, from verses seven through verses 15, Jotham, he gives this really funny parable. And he's speaking to the men of Shechem, and he's basically telling them, let me tell you what kind of person you decided to reign over you. Let me show you, based upon this story that I'm gonna tell, what kind of individual you chose. Look what he says in verse, we're gonna read the whole thing here. Look at verse seven. And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice and cried and said unto them, Harken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. And this is where he starts with the parable. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the olive tree, reign thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the tree said to the fig tree, come down, reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, come down, reign over us. And the vine said unto them, should I leave my wine, which sheareth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the what? Bramble, come down, reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, if in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow. And if not, let fire come out of the bramble, devour the cedars of Lebanon. So what is he saying? So this is the person you chose to rule over you. You went to the olive tree, and what did the olive tree say? I'm not leaving my fatness to rule over you. You went to the fig tree. The fig tree said, I'm not leaving my sweetness to rule over you. You went to the vine and the vine said, I'm not gonna leave my wines, reign over you. So you know what? You had to get the bottom of the barrel, the bramble bush. Now what is bramble? Go to Matthew, go to Matthew, or excuse me, go to Luke chapter six, if you would. Actually, I think I have the wrong scripture here. Oh no, no, I got the right one. So a bramble, look what it says in verse 42. Either how canst thou say to the brother, brother, let me pull out the mold that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye, thou hypocrite, cast that out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to pull out the mold that is in thy brother's eye. For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth the corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of bramble bush gather they grapes. What is it saying? A bramble bush is just a dry piece of grass that can't produce any fruit. And what is Jotham saying about Abimelech's leadership? You're like Bramble. You couldn't get the fig tree, you couldn't get the one, you couldn't get the other trees to work for you, the olive trees, so now you're just gonna get the worst type of leadership which is Abimelech. And according to the Bible, bramble bush is synonymous with that which is rejected. That which is a what? Reprobate according to the Bible. And in fact Hebrews 6, 7 says, For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it, and bringeth forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessings from God. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. What is Jotham telling the men of Shechem? You're gonna get what you guys deserve. You're gonna get the leader that you deserve. Now what's the modern day application to this? Regardless of who wins the elections, we get what we deserve. We get what we deserve. Now I personally believe that the elections are rigged. You may disagree with me on that, but I don't care. I believe they're already elected by the higher powers. And you say, well how does that work if we get who we deserve? Well this is what it's called. It's called number one, the New World Order. But number two, God basically allows these things to happen. And here's the thing is, when you think of the Antichrist for example, he's not elected by people. You know, he's already pre-chosen so to speak. This is already prophesied that he was gonna come into power, okay? But here's the thing, in order for the Antichrist to take power, the people who dwell on this earth deserve that type of leader first and foremost. And you know what, when you look at the kind of people that exist on this earth during that time, it makes a lot of sense. That that is the leader that it deserves. That's why the whole world wonders after the beast. So the lesson here that we can learn is this, is that whether we get Biden or Trump, we deserve what we get. You know there's people like, we need Trump though to stay in office. It's like okay, well if we get Trump, don't consider it a good thing because you get what you deserve. And look folks, things are gonna always get worse, they're not gonna get better. People are always thinking like, well you know if we could just turn this country around and the Star Spangled Banner and all this stuff and just revival, you're just denying the word of God. It's gonna get worse. And you're only gonna get the leader that you deserve. And let me just let you know it's not a good leader. Abimelech is the bramble bush. They're not getting the fig tree. They're not getting any of the other trees that can benefit them. They're gonna get a bramble bush that is eventually gonna burn them. And that's what he says, does he not? He says that tree, that bramble bush is gonna burn you. What does that mean? He's gonna turn on the men of Shechem. That's probably where the term comes from. You ever heard someone say that? Yeah that guy burned me. You know he turned on me or whatever, you know? Well that's exactly what Abimelech did. Go to Micah chapter seven if you would. Micah chapter seven. Micah chapter number seven. Let's read Micah seven through the lens of the story of Abimelech here. So Jotham goes to Mount Gerizim and he gives this parable in order to teach the men of Shechem, hey you think you got yourself a great king? No you actually got yourself bramble and eventually that bramble's gonna burn you because he's a wicked individual. Look at Micah seven verse one. Woe is me for I am as when they had gathered the summer fruits as the grape gleanings of the vintage. There was no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first striped fruit. The good men has perished out of the earth and there is none upright among them. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother with a net that they may do evil with both hands earnestly. The prince asketh and the judge asketh for a reward and the great man he uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up. Look what it says here. The best of them is as a briar. It's like the best person, the best prince, the best leader you can get is just a reprobate. So he's just as a briar. You don't have much to choose from so you're gonna get the base or sword. Cause think about this, they're trying to figure out who's gonna be the leader. Gideon is gone. Tola's not coming yet. So who's the best one to choose from? Well according to them it's Abimelech. The best of them is as a briar. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchman and thy visitation cometh now shall be their perplexity. And really what God is allowing, the reason he allows us with Abimelech is because Israel is just wicked. It's just become so wicked. And God's like I'm not gonna leave you without a leader but the leader that you're gonna get is just as a thorn, as a briar. He's gonna be your detriment. He's gonna be the cause for your destruction. This is what you deserve, okay. So what we see happen is that God eventually sends an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem and they basically turn on one another. And Abimelech turns on Shechem and basically desires to destroy them, et cetera. Now here's my last point. Go to Matthew 21 if you would. Matthew 21. So we're talking about why Abimelech is a wicked individual. He's wicked because of the fact that he obtains the kingdom by flattery, not by honesty. He's wicked because of the fact of the people that follow him. He's wicked because he gets rid of the opposition. He's wicked because he wants to reign even though he's already been rejected. But here's the last reason. Abimelech is wicked because of the fact that he's a picture of the antichrist, okay. Now why is Abimelech the picture of the antichrist? Well because, as I mentioned, he obtains the kingdom by flattery. Which is exactly what the antichrist does. According to the book of Daniel, right. Not only that, but he makes war with the remnant of Gideon's descendants. He tries to get rid of them just as the antichrist seeks to make war with the saints, with the remnant, according to Revelation chapter 12, okay. But here's the best reason why, okay. Because eventually we see that Abimelech is destroyed via stone, okay. Because what happens to Abimelech at the end? He gets overly confident. He tries to take on, you know, in this war, and he goes up, and what is he killed by? A stone, not by a woman, but actually the stone is actually that which kills Abimelech, right. Well look what the Bible says in Matthew 21 verse 42. 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 is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when we see the vision of the culmination of the new world order in Daniel chapter two, it tells us in verse 34, Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and break them in pieces. This is referring to that new world order, the millennial reign, the battle of Armageddon, when Jesus Christ comes and he destroys the armies of the antichrist with the brightness of his coming, it is symbolically represented as a stone coming to basically decimate that image which represents the new world order. One like man, that's what happens to Abimelech. He's so high and mighty, he's making war with the remnants of Gideon's descendants, he's winning all these wars, we even see later on in Judges nine, that he wins this war, but what happens at the very end? A stone smites him so that his skull breaks and destroys him. So, I don't think Abimelech was a saved individual, and if he was, this is a horrible way to be mentioned in the Bible. You never wanna be a symbolic representation of the antichrist, okay? But he received that he was exerting a lot of qualities that were in tandem with the antichrist. He obtained the kingdom by flatteries, he made war with the remnant of the seed, he was a person who's rejected a son of perdition, so to speak, right? And ultimately, he is a picture of the antichrist because of the fact that he is destroyed by a stone that breaks his skull and kills him. So, if you take anything from this sermon, take this as that we wanna make sure that we are able to identify this type of leader, you know what I mean? And recognize, man, who are the type of people that follow this guy? Are they vain and like people, or are they people of substance? And then two is this, hey, we need to make sure that we're not vain and like people, either. You know, your Christianity needs to have some substance behind it. And that substance comes as you read the word of God, as you're faithful, as you learn, as you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and thank you for this byword and proverb known as Abimelech. I pray that you'd help us to avoid leaders like this, Lord. And help us to avoid being followers like this as well. And may we take these lessons to heart. We're so thankful that even in the book of Judges, we can see things, prophetic events and things that take place within an individual's life in the book of Judges that represent end times Bible prophecy. And Lord, may you continue to bless us as a church. Help us to continue to grow spiritually, numerically. May you place a hedge of protection about us. And we love you and we thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. ["Pomp and Circumstance"]