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Well, good morning everyone, welcome to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your Psalm books and turn, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, take your Mountain Baptist Psalms, Psalms, Hens, and spiritual psalm books. Blue folders should be on your chair in the back, or on your pew there. And turn to page number 13. Page number 13 in your Mountain Baptist Psalms, Hens, and spiritual psalm books. We'll sing Rejoice in the Lord, song number 13, and if you would stand, yes. God never moves without purpose or plan, When trying a servant and molding a man. Thanks to the Lord, though your testing seems long, In darkness he giveth a song. Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistake, He knoweth the end of each path that I take, For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as one. I could not see through the shadows ahead, So I looked at the cross of my Savior, Instead I bowed to the will of the Master that day, Then peace came and tears fled away. Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistake, He knoweth the end of each path that I take, For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as one. Now I can see testing comes from above, God strengthens his children and purges in love, My Father knows best and I trust in his care, Through purging more fruit I will bear. Oh, rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistake, He knoweth the end of each path that I take, For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as one. Let's pray, Heavenly Father of the Lord again, we just want to thank you God for another beautiful day you've given us to meet in your house and to hear your word preached. I pray, Lord, that you would just fill our pastor with your power and your spirit. We love you, for it's in Jesus' name we ask all, but amen. All right, you may be seated and take your mountain Baptist song books and turn to page nine. Page nine in your mountain Baptist song books, we'll sing Psalm 139, page number nine. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God, Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men, Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And them not I grieve, With those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? For they speak against thee wickedly, For they speak against thee wickedly, And thine enemies take thy name in vain, And thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And them not I grieve, With those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies, I count them mine enemies, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And them not I grieve, With those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I'm just excited to get up here, brother. Amen. Well, welcome to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday morning. And so we have some announcements here. As far as our church services, everything is normal today. So obviously the clock went back an hour. So got an extra hour of sleep. Or if you have kids, nothing. Nothing changed. You just got another hour of waking up with your kids. So, but you get nothing. You lose, sir. Anyway, we have our afternoon service at 4 p.m. But before that, we have our soul winning time at 1 p.m. So meet up here after lunch a little before 1 o'clock. We'll get teamed up to go out. Soul winning. It should be a nice day today. I'm supposed to get up into the 60s, I think. So for November, I mean, it's a good time. So, yeah, if you can meet up with us, we're going to go out soul winning this afternoon. And then we also have our regional soul winning times. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday. And so just get with the men there or just get on the church group there as far as the locations and times and all that are concerned there. Upcoming events. We have the women's prayer meeting on the 17th and the men's prayer meeting on the 24th. We have also after this service, well, pretty much after every Sunday morning service, we're going to have a choir practice for kids for the Christmas music. And so just plan on that every Sunday morning after the service that will do that. And so I know it's not December yet, but need to practice. If there's any, and I know we've done this in the past, men doing kind of like a quartet when it comes to music, or if any of the ladies are feeling like songbirds and they want to do a special when it comes to the Christmas music, then you can speak up, not right now, but you can speak up later and talk to brother Dave or brother Nick when it comes to music and everything. So not going to push anybody to doing that, but if anybody would want to do that. And so I'm trying to think as far as upcoming events are concerned. I know there's some marathons. There's a marathon being planned here soon. Is that in December or is that the end of November? End of November. What is it? 18th? Okay, so that's mid-November. Okay, so and that's where at exactly? McKeesport? McKeesport. And is that, where is that located? I mean, it's near Pittsburgh, right? Is it just like south of it a little bit? Okay. So Pittsburgh area, McKeesport. There's gonna be a soloing marathon, brother Wade, brother Jim are leading that up here soon, actually. So I'm gonna be preaching out at Faithful Word for Admissions Conference. This coming weekend, so I'll be out on Sunday. I'll be traveling. But we'll have, brother Dave is gonna be preaching for us that day. So be in your places, all that. Everything will be normal next week. But you just won't see this mug that day. So be in prayer for me when traveling and all that stuff when it comes to that. I'm not sure if they're gonna be streaming it or how, if you're gonna be able to see it live or anything like that. But I'll be preaching that Saturday evening. And so I'm gonna be preaching about the Greece trip and all that. So on the back of your bulletin there, we have our chapter memory, Romans chapter 10. Many of you probably already have this memorized. But if you don't, this is a great chapter to have memorized. And also if you haven't memorized, it's good to maybe get it down pat. So there may be some, a lot of the verses you may have down, no problem. But there may be some ones in between to where you don't use them a lot, to where you can get that chapter memorized there. Psalm 120 in verse 7 is our memory verse for the week. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. And then birthdays or in November, did we miss anybody in October? Did anybody? Anthony? Where's Jacob? He's like not coming on Sunday morning now because of this. So Caitlin's is today. And then, and then there's Paula. What on Friday? And I think that's it for this week. So Miss Paula, we'll have to sing happy birthday to Miss Paula. And then on the pregnancies, Alyssa, Anastasia and Tabby being in prayer for them on the pregnancy list there. But then also just being in prayer for all the ladies that just had little ones. And so being in prayer for them as far as the recovery process and all that. So pray everything goes well there. Pray for those that are traveling. Brother Joseph's still out west in Montana trying to get an elk. So pray he doesn't get lost in the wilderness, you know, that type of thing. But also with all the holiday stuff coming up, you know, there's going to be a lot of traveling. So just being in prayer in general for all the families in the church when it comes to traveling, the mercies and all of that. We are going to be doing a Christmas like fellowship. It's probably going to be between, it may be just be right after Thanksgiving. Like it's going to be between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's usually when we do it. So just keep that on your radar. I know a lot of people are traveling when it comes to that stuff. So we don't want to have it like on Thanksgiving. We don't want to have it on Christmas. So we'll have it in between there at some point. So that will be coming up. And I think New Year's Eve is like on a Sunday this year. So I don't think anybody wants to be at church all day and then stay up until midnight. So I can't stay up until midnight if I'm fresh. But so I don't know if we're going to be doing anything for New Year's or not as far as like where we do like the up all night type of thing with games. But I'm not rolling it out completely. So that's all we have for announcements. The offering box is in the back there if you want to give a tithe or an offering. And then the mother baby rooms for the mothers and babies only. And Brother Dave's going to sing one more song. And I think Brother Wade, you're up this morning, right? Brother Wade's going to be reading Proverbs chapter 20 for us after we do one more song. All right. Take your song books and turn to song 420. Song 420. We're going to be singing a Christmas song, 60 degrees outside, but apparently we're doing this. All right. We're going to sing There's a Song in the Air, song 420. So before we do that, we need to sing Happy Birthday to Miss Paula. Stand up. You're right. Look back there. He told me, he told me, listen, he told me not to sing until you stand up. Charles, you got to come up here, okay? This is my favorite time of the service, everybody. I'll tell you what. All right. Your birthday's on Friday? All right. Everybody look at Miss Paula. And any other birthdays? Let me make sure. Go see it in your hands. Okay. All right. We'll sing Happy Birthday to Miss Paula. Ready? Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, hope your birthday goes well. And we will sing song 420. There's a song in the air, there's a star in the sky, there's a mother's deep prayer and a baby's low cry, and the star reigns, it's fire while the beautiful sing. For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king, there's a tumult of joy for the wonderful birth. For the virgin, sweet boy, is the lord of the earth, by the star reigns, it's fire while the beautiful sing. For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king, in the light of that star lie the ages imperiled And the song from afar has swept over the world, every hearth is a flame and the beautiful sing. In the homes of the nations that Jesus is King, we rejoice in the light and we echo the song that comes down through the night from the heavenly throng. I wish out to the lovely evangelical they bring, and we greet in his cradle our Savior and King. All right, if you would take your Bibles and turn to Proverbs chapter number 20. Proverbs chapter number 20 in your Bibles, and we'll have Brother Wade come and read that for us. Proverbs chapter 20. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion. Whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. The sluggard will not plow by the reason of the cold, therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing. Council in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. The just man walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him. Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure for my sin. Diverse weights and diverse measures, both of them are like abomination to the Lord. When even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Loved not sleep, lest thou come to poverty, open thy eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. It is not saith the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth. There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. Take his garment that is surety for a stranger and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. Every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice make war. He that goeth about as a tail-bearer reveal his secrets, therefore meddleth not with him that flattereth with his lips. Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. Say not thou, I will recommend to evil, but wait on the Lord and he shall save thee. Diverse weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a form of the Lord shall not be an abomination unto the Lord, and a false balance is not good. Man's goings are of the Lord, how can a man then understand his own way? It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vowels to make an inquiry. A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upholden by mercy. The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head. The blueness of a wound cleanses the way evil. So do stripes the inward parts of the belly. Let us pray, dear Lord. Thank you for your word. Let us hear something from your message today and be with pastors. We hear your word. Jesus, now I pray. Amen. Amen. So you're there in Proverbs chapter 20, and the name of my sermon is The Rules of War. The Rules of War. And this is really just going to be more of a sermon or I guess more like a Bible study on what the Bible teaches about going to war or what the Bible teaches about war. And I know I preached when we were going through like a time for every purpose. In Ecclesiastes, there is a time for war. So that's the one thing that first realized is that there is a time to go to war and that war isn't just wrong inherently or anything like that. There are unjust wars. There are wars that are not righteous. And stay there in Proverbs 20, but in Ecclesiastes 3, 1, it says to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. And in verse 8, it says a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace. So there is a time of war, but the question then gets into, okay, if they're in a war, are there certain rules to war? Are there certain, when you're talking about being righteous, obviously, you know, there's that old phrase, all is fair. All is fair in love and war. And meaning this is that, you know, in a straight fight, there's no rules, right? And when it comes to war, I mean, you know, obviously, your enemy may not follow morality when it comes to war, okay? But the idea here is, though, if you're to be right with God and to be moral when it comes to even war, that there are rules that are there, okay? And go to Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 18. Proverbs, just to show you that the Bible teaches about going to war, but you don't go to war flippantly. You don't just, you know, like basically you blow up your topics like time to go to war. And in our country, there's war hawks. There are people that just want to go to war. They're just itching to go to war. And they're just waiting for any excuse to go to war. They delight in war. And the Bible talks about people that delight in war, and it doesn't speak well of people that delight in war. There's difference between being good at war and being valiant in war and loving war, right? It's kind of like the idea of, you know, there's a time of peace and a time of war, but, you know, our memory verse is, I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. And it's not that it's wrong to go to war, but the idea is that we should, if at all possible, as much as lieth in us, live peaceably with all men. The idea is that we should be seeking peace, but if war comes about, it's not wrong to go to war in certain situations. But Proverbs chapter 20 verse 18 says, every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice make war. So it's not saying that you can't go to war, you can't make war, but the idea is that obviously it should be under good advisement and all that. Go to Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 6, Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 6. This, what I'm going to be getting, I'm going to be going through some different rules of war that the Bible lays out. I'm not saying this is all inclusive or this is exhaustive, you know, you say, well, you missed this point, you missed talking about this. You know, I already have five pages and I don't think I'm going to get to those. So, you know, if I have more than four pages, it's bad news bears. So I don't know if I'm going to get to all of these points or maybe even really expanding on a lot of these, but, and you say, well, why are you preaching on this? Well, I mean, it seems like we're constantly hearing about some war somewhere, you know, and I'm not saying we're in the beginning of SARS because there's wars and rumors of wars, but you never know if we're in that time. But the idea here is that there's always been wars. The question is, one, is it justified? Can it be justified, right? That's the idea. I think the first question is, yes, there are justifications for war. There are cases where it's righteous to go to war, but then there are cases where it's unjust and it's not a righteous war and God's not behind that and you're actually wicked for going to war with that, right? So, but the first thing we have to realize is that, hey, we can go to war, but it needs to be under good counsel and good advice. We're not just a drop of a hat and you're like, oh, you punched me, war, you know, like you did this over here, war, and just annihilate a country or whatever. So, now Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 6 here says, for by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war and in the multitude of counselors there is safety. And go to Luke chapter 14, Luke chapter 14, because Jesus uses this idea of considering war and thinking about it, right? You're not like just, the idea when it comes to war is that you're not just like, all right, you know, just flying off the handle going to war, right? And, but you're more so just, you're taking counsel, you're thinking about it, is this what we should do? Have we exhausted all ideas of peace and all that? And I'm not saying that there aren't cases where it is all exhausted. Think about the Revolutionary War, right? I believe that was a just war where there was oppression happening to the colonies to a degree that was so outrageous to where they had to defend themselves. They had to defend their own human rights, right? And the idea there is that there was a cause for war there and that I believe the Revolutionary War was a just war that was fought and, you know, and you can get into those ideas as far as what's just, what's not, what makes sense, what doesn't make sense. And Luke chapter 14 and verse 31, Jesus uses this example of basically going to war as an example of being a disciple. So, he's bringing this up to basically use this as an example, but I think the fact that he brings it up is proof enough that, hey, this is something that's done, this is something that you can correlate with the spiritual battles and the warfare that we go on as Christians, right? If you're going to be a disciple for Jesus, then you need to be ready to go to war, right? You need to count the cost, if you will. But in verse 31 here it says, Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an imbecage and desireth conditions of peace. So, likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. So, notice that in this idea of war is that there's two, one, you've got to, are we even able to take out the forces, right? The idea is like, do we have the ability to do this before we go to war, or are we just kamikaze-ing this thing, you know? It's just a matter of just like, it's just a suicide mission. Or at least send an ambassador and try to basically make peace to where we don't have to go to war. And the idea there is that there's thought going behind it, right? You know that, hey, you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you need to take up your cross daily and follow him. And we're not talking about being saved. Salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Being a disciple, on the other hand, that is where you're abiding in Christ and you're taking up his cross daily, you're dying daily, and you're forsaking all, right? The idea is that if you want to be a disciple, you've got to be willing for the cost. You know, you have to think about it and count the cost before you jump into it, right? And the same thing with going into war, is that you don't just flippantly go into war. And there are people that are just waiting. There are people that just want to go to war at the drop of a hat. And we shouldn't be in that mentality of just, like, wanting to go to war. No, we should want peace. And at the last resort, war is the action, right? So there are people that are just saying, no, war is never the answer. And there are some people that say, war is always the answer, right? But what does the Bible teach? The Bible says, you know, basically, as much as possible would be at peace, but if it has to come to war, it's going to be war, right? And that's in the Christian life as well, when it comes to the idea that we should be at peace with all men as much as possible. We should not desire war. I don't desire to go to war with anybody. But listen, if it has to be that way, and that's the only course of action, then so be it. I'm going to win, right? If we're going to war, then we're not going to lose. So if we're going to go to war, then we're going to win the battle, right? And you're going to take counsel, and we're going to win the battle with the Lord on our side, obviously. Now, no, this too is that God is called a man of war. So if you're going to say war is just inherently wrong, then you're saying that God is wrong, right? But go to Exodus chapter 15, Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15. So I'm just kind of laying some groundwork here. The idea, one, is that there is a time for war, but it's just as much as when it says there's a time to love and a time to hate, right? But let me ask you a question. Which should you be doing more often? Loving, right? I mean, 98% of the people in the world you should love. Even those that hate your guts, right? Because you should love your enemies. There is a, there are like a small group of people to where, you know, do not I hate them, oh Lord, I hate thee, right? The idea is that there are, there's a very small group of people that hate the Lord, and we're not to love them. But most of the time we should love one another, right? We should love our neighbor, love even our enemies, those that despise us and that are trying to like step on us to get up in the ladder at work or something like that. You know what I mean? Like there are people that you should just love because, hey, you want to win them to Christ and all that. Same thing with peace and war, though, is the idea is that we should desire peace way above war, right? The idea is that peace is what we should be about. We're to be the peacemakers, right? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Meaning that if you're walking in the Spirit, then you're walking in the idea of what is the fruit of the Spirit, one of those pieces there is peace, right? Love, joy, peace? And going down the line? So we should desire peace and we should want peace most of the time, but knowing that war is not wrong inherently. In Exodus chapter 15 verse 3 it says, The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. So the Lord is literally called a man of war. The Bible says that the Lord is a consuming fire. So know this is that God is a man of war, meaning that he knows how to go to war, and that he will win the fight, right, when it comes to war. And go to Isaiah 42, Isaiah 42 and verse 13. Isaiah 42 and verse 13. Isaiah 42 and verse 13, it says, The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall prevail against his enemies. This is another verse kind of stating the same thing, and the idea that the Lord is a man of war, he is like a man of war, and he's going to prevail against his enemies. I mean think about when Jesus comes on the white horse, right? The Bible says in Revelation 19 and 11, it says, And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. The Lord Jesus Christ in the end is going to make war with all the enemies, with all the enemies of Christ, with all the children of Belial, all the children of the devil, all those that took the mark of the beast, and we're going to be actually at war with him, meaning that we're going to all come down on white horses with two edged swords in our hands to fight that battle, okay? So we will be involved in a war one day, you know, when all this goes down. And go to Psalm 18, Psalm 18. God is a man of war, and also David teaches that God teaches him to war. So notice what it says here, in Psalm 18 and verse 32. It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds feet, and setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine hands. So I hope it's very clear that the Bible is not teaching that war is just inherently wrong. No, war can be right, and actually God is a man of war, that the Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name, and that he teaches us how to war, and that that's a good principle to learn how to fight. I mean to learn how to, I mean, obviously spiritually fight, but it's also a good thing to know how to defend yourself, to know how to fight to a certain extent. I'm not saying we all need to be in the octagon in MMA, but at the same time, like, we should know a little bit about the fact of how to handle ourselves in a battle. You know, get punched in the face once. I recommend every guy get punched in the face one time. You're like, oh, you're taking that verse, you know, where it says, I beat my body and making my sleep. No, listen, that's NIV, that's garbage. But the idea here is that having a little bit of experience when it comes to battle goes a long way. Now, I'm not saying that you need to get barefisted punched in the face. Do a little boxing match, you know, where you get punched in the face. And one, it will humble you a little bit. Take that little chip off your shoulder to think that you can just take everybody out. But also, it will give you a little bit to know what to expect when it comes to a fight. You know, I used to wrestle, I did boxing and stuff like that for a little bit just for fun. And you know what, getting punched in the face doesn't feel great, but I kind of know what to expect when it comes to that, when it comes to a little bit of training there. And so, like I said, we're not out there like just, I don't want to be a brawler, I'm not out there looking for a fight. But in the end, if a fight comes to me, I want to know that, hey, I'm not just going to, you know, fold like a deck of cards, right? My jaw just isn't made of glass. Like, you know, I'm going to be able to take something. Now ultimately, if someone's coming at me and my family, I'm not going to be putting my fists up, I'm going to be pulling out my sword. And you say, well, what's your sword? Well, you know, it depends on the day. Could be my .380, could be my 9mm, could be a .45, you never know. But the idea is that when it comes to the safety of my family and when it comes to battle, it's not, like I said, you know, in a street fight there's no rules, right? When it comes to self-defense, if someone, if I believe that my life is in danger and my family's life in danger, then it's going to be lethal force. It's not like, okay, let's duke it out and see who wins this battle and then we get a trophy at the end, in real life. Obviously, if you're just doing a boxing match or doing whatever, that's different. Now, go, first rule of war, I'm going to mention here, go to 1 Kings Chapter 2, 1 Kings Chapter 2. 1 Kings Chapter 2 is that there's a time of war and during that time there's bloodshed that's justified, but it's only in, there's a win that war is going on. Meaning that if there's not this declared war that's going on, you can't just go around, like, killing people, right? There's obviously self-defense and that's anytime, right? If someone was trying to come at you or they were trying to hurt you or your family, you have the right to defend yourself and even ultimately it's a lethal force, right? But, in this case, let me show you an example of shedding the blood of war in time of peace and how that is wrong, that's wicked, it should not be done. In verse 5 here it says, Moreover, thou knowest also what Joab the son of Jeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins and in the shoes that were on his feet. Do therefore, according to thy wisdom, and let not his forehead go down to the grave in peace. So, the story is, obviously, Abner was basically getting on David's side and when he was leaving, Joab comes up to him and kills him because Abner killed his brother, okay? So, he really is a revenge killing is what that was. And then Amasa basically took his job, took Joab's job, and so he killed him. And that was actually his cousin. So, he killed him, they weren't at war, right? I mean, Abner came and said, it's over, the kingdom's yours, all of that, right? There's no more war, it's all done. And then Joab goes after him and then just kills him. Like, acts like he's just being friendly to him and then kills him, right? That is wicked, that's wrong. And David obviously makes a big deal to say, hey, he had no part of that. All of Israel knew that David did not want Abner to be killed. And, but he didn't kill Joab. But, when Solomon took reign, he's telling him, basically, take care of Joab. Make sure he doesn't die in old age, right? Die of natural causes. And that's where Joab goes and lays hold on the horns of the altar. And then, Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, does work. So, if you want to know a man that just, like, cleans house, is when Solomon sends Benaiah to go clean house, right? And, you know, when you're reading through 1 Kings, you see that. So, shedding blood of war in time of peace. And here's how our country, a lot of times, will get away with this. Is they'll say, well, we have a war on drugs. Or we have a war on terror. Let me ask you a question, you know. Are drugs ever going away? You know, is terrorism ever going away? That's like saying, we have a war on poverty. You know what Jesus says? The poor shall never depart out of your land. So, you just put yourself in a perpetual war, right? Literally, you're in perpetuity at war with some phantom. Right? You know what that means? They have an excuse to kill at any time. Because they're basically saying, we're at war with this. We're at war with drugs, so if we kill these people during this whole raid or whatever, then, therefore, it's justified. If we have a war on terror, therefore, well, you know, this church down here believes that homo should be put to death according to Leviticus 2013. That's terrorism, therefore, we can justify it. I'm not saying they're doing that. I'm just saying that you can see how they could say, well, that's terrorism. Because terrorism is, you know, upon someone's definition, right? The whole idea that one person's, you know, terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. And I'm not here to say, well, you know, let's talk about Israel and Palestine. You know, like I said, both those states are wicked. You know, Israel and Palestine. So, it's kind of like, let them do their thing out there. Because it's not like God's behind either one of them. Now, so, the first thing that we see is that, well, shedding of blood, like the wartime blood, you know, it has to be during war. It has to be during that time. You can't just come home as a soldier and just start killing people. And then be like, well, I'm a soldier. It's like, no, you have to be at war, okay? There has to be charges that are given for the war, all of that, right? And so, it's not like when you look at like a soldier that killed someone in battle and they killed another soldier, they're not a murderer, right? That's shedding blood in time of war. And obviously, it's killing somebody. But the same thing is that there's a difference between killing somebody and committing murder, okay? And there's a difference between murder and manslaughter, right? Manslaughter is accidental. But you still killed somebody and it wasn't just, meaning like it wasn't something that should have been done. So, we see that one. Another one is, go to Numbers chapter 1, Numbers chapter 1 and verse 1. Just so you know, you're like, where did this sermon come from? Well, it's all Brother Wade's fault. You know, we were moving him and he had all these like paintings of like, you know, George Washington crossing the Delaware and like the hammer, you know, like there was like these battle scenes and everything. So, you know, certain things provoke your thought to something. And obviously, this is pertinent in our time because there's constantly talks of war. There's constantly, there's this discussion as far as what's just and what's unjust when it comes to war. And so, let's see what the Bible says. And I want to state this. If God does it, it's right. If God commands it, it's right. And you just need to let the chips fall where they may when it comes to that. I'm not going to explain away what God has done or what God has commanded. And some may say, that doesn't seem right. That doesn't seem moral. It doesn't matter what you think is moral and what's right. God's the standard. He is just and holy and true and righteous. And so, if we're going to look at what's true and righteous, He's the standard. So, I'm never going to apologize for what God has commanded or what God has done. I'm never going to explain it away. It is what it is. And I may not understand it. I may not fully grasp it as far as like why was that right? Why does that make sense? See, the why is something that I like to know but I don't have to know. It's kind of like, I'm constantly telling my kids to do something, right? And they'll say, why? And it's not wrong for them to want to know why, but in the end, I said, it's not important the why, just do it. And said, and maybe I'll tell you later why. Right, that idea of like just do what you're told and you can understand the why later. Now, obviously, when it comes to human beings, everybody makes mistakes. So, when someone commands you to do something as an adult, you got to ask the why, right? Because you need to know whether it's moral or not. But if God is telling you to do something, you don't need to know the why. But you know what? God is loving and merciful and a lot of times, He'll tell us the why. He'll tell us, you know, this is why I'm doing this. This is why this is the way it is. But ultimately, does He have to do that? I don't believe He does. I believe He can just say, do this, thus said the Lord, and you don't need to know why. And so, or why it's right or whatever, right? The idea here is that once you start saying, I don't believe that that was right to do, now you've made yourself God. Now you've made yourself the authority. Now you are the moral superior when it comes to what determines right and wrong. So, that being said, number chapter 1, another rule of war here is that men go to war, not women. Men go to war. Women are not to go to war. And I know in our society now, it's like, well, women can go into the army. It's like, that's not the way God intended it. Men are to go to war and that is who's to be in the army. But here's the thing. Also, what age? So this hits on the age as well. Now, I don't know, do they still have the selective draft? Do you still have to sign up for that at 18? So I know when I was 18, you know, you had to sign up for the selective draft. Selective draft. Like you have a choice, right? Unless you're Bill Clinton and you just dodge it. But, you know, 18 is what's considered an adult in our society. You know what the Bible considers an adult? 20. Who's right? Obviously the Bible, right? So when it comes to this, notice in Numbers chapter 1. Numbers chapter 1 and verse 1. Numbers chapter 1 and verse 1, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation on the first day of the second month, in the second year after, they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their poles. So who is this? Is it women, too, or is it just males, right? It's just men. Verse 3. From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel, thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. So, 20 years old and upward, and I'm not going to read the whole chapter, obviously. Each tribe gives you the amount of men that are twenty years old and upward that are able to go forth to war. And you say, well, where's the cutoff as far as the age? Well, there's a passage in Leviticus where it talks about those that are twenty years old and upward, or twenty years old to sixty. And usually the sixty is the cutoff point of, you know, like in the New Testament when it comes to like if you're a widow, under three, four years old, then get remarried kind of thing. And that, not to make anybody feel old that's above sixty or anything like that, but the idea is that it's kind of like twenty years old to sixty is kind of that realm. Okay? Now, in the army today, I think the cutoff is like thirty-five. I remember, where were we eating at the food court one time, and this like, this army guy came up to, maybe it was a marine, I forget, they came up to us and they're like, hey, you guys look fit, you know? And all this stuff like, you know, trying to recruit us. And they're like, how old are you? I'm like thirty-something. And he's like, oh, oh, okay, never mind. It's like, oh, like I don't feel that old, you know? Like I feel like I could go to war, you know? I mean, if Caleb was eighty-five years old going, you know? Anyway, all I have to say is that, one, it's men. Men are to go to war, not women. You say, oh, you're saying there's a difference between men and women? Yeah, I am. Because men are stronger. Women are the weaker vessel. But also, there's a mentality that's there with men. Not just the physical muscle strength, bone density, and you know, just physical ability, but there's the mentality that goes with that. There is a mentality that men can handle war, whereas women have a different mentality. And praise the Lord, listen, I didn't marry a man, you know? I married a woman for a reason because she's different. She has different mentality. She has, you know, anyway, she's obviously physically different than me. But that being said, men go to war, not women, and it's twenty years old and upward, okay? How about this, go to Deuteronomy 24. Deuteronomy 24, here's a rule of war. You don't send a newlywed off to battle. These are just certain rules that, does this mean that this is followed? No, I mean, listen, I don't know how, I know there's people that went to war at like 17, 16 years old, you know, back in the day. And they'll like sign a waiver and go off like really young. And obviously going to war after just getting married and all that. But I'm stating to you what should be done. This is what God intends, that if you're going to war, you should be a man, you should be 20 years old or older. You shouldn't be sending 16 year olds or even 18 year olds off to war, okay? And also, if you've just been married, notice what it says here in verse 5, Deuteronomy 24 and verse 5. When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business. But he shall be free at home one year and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken. That's a whole other term for another day, what it means to cheer up your wife. You know, like obviously maybe like the idea of like leaving home and like the idea of being sad about departing from your parents and all that stuff. Either way though, one year that you're supposed to be married before you're sent off to war. I mean think about who this is written to, right? It's written to the leaders to know like hey, you don't take this newlywed out to battle. And there could be many reasons for that too, I mean besides what's stated there. I mean the mental state too of being like a newlywed and you're in that honeymoon stage and your mind's not in the battle, right? It's on like, it's on your wife or whatever, so. So that's a rule of war, is that you should, if you're married, you know, at least have one year where you're with your spouse before you go off to battle, okay? And go to Numbers chapter 10, Numbers chapter 10. Now going to war, here's where I believe it's always justified, okay? Is when you are in defense, meaning this is that if someone's invading your country, someone's invading you. This gets into, you know, self-defense, but on a national scale. Let's say, let's say China just invaded our country right now. Well, I mean we're perfectly within our rights to defend ourselves as a country and kill every single last one of those people that come into our country. Does that make sense? Like, that's justified. I think that's an easy way to look at it, I mean self-defense, you know, defense. Where it gets into like, is this moral or not, is when you start conquering, right? National expansion if you will, right? Kind of like a Napoleon or, you know, an Alexander the Great type of mentality, like is that right? Where you're just conquering the world and just taking out countries and conquering countries, right? That's where you get into this like, is that just, is that right? Now Numbers chapter 10 and verse 9 here, it says, And if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets and you shall be remembered before the Lord your God and you shall be saved from your enemy. So obviously God's behind this, right? The idea that, hey, they're coming against you and you have the right to defend yourselves. And obviously get the Lord behind you and all that. And what you'll see constantly throughout the Bible when it comes to wars is that the army is coming and setting themselves in a ray and then you come out and set yourself, you know, or setting yourself in a ray, right? Meaning this is that they're coming against you, you see them camped about you, alright, let's get our army and we're going to defend ourselves, right? And one, you know, example of this is in 1 Samuel chapter 17 dealing with David and Goliath, the story of David and Goliath. But here's how that whole story starts. It says in verse 1, Philistines gathered together their armies to battle and were gathered together at Choco, which belonged to Judah, and pitched between Choco and Ezekiel and Evesteman. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of Elah and set the battle in a ray against the Philistines. So there's your kind of typical, like, the Philistines are trying to oppress Israel and they're setting their battle in a ray. And obviously that was right to do, you know, it was right for Israel to defend themselves. And obviously you get into the story with David and Goliath and David destroys Goliath and all that. But that's the easy one, right? That's the kind of easy, like, when is it right to go to war? Same thing, like, when is it right to take someone's life? Right? Well, self defense is, that's the easy answer, right? You know, self defense is obviously right to take someone's life. Then you can get into the question, okay, well what about the death penalty, right? When it comes to government. Well then you get into the laws of God and as far as what's a capital punishment. What constitutes that? And that gets into the laws that are put forth and are those righteous, right? That's a whole other argument to where obviously a government putting someone to death for murder under two or three witnesses is righteous. It's not murder, that's just what should be done. And obviously there's other cases where capital punishment would apply. So when it comes to war, you have that. And actually I'm going to go to my last point before I get to the other ones here, because the other ones that I'm going to be getting to are ones that I think is going to be really hard to justify nowadays, okay? But go to 2 Kings chapter 6, 2 Kings chapter 6. I want you to see what the Bible shows in cases of, let's say you have captives of war, right? Prisoners of war, like how do you treat them? Do you torture them? Do you just capture people and then kill them? Now what I'm going to show you later on is the fact that there are cases where captives aren't taken and everybody's killed. Like everything, I'm talking beast, everything. Like complete annihilation, okay? And I think that's the argument that a lot of people are thinking about or at least what I would think about as far as, okay, is there ever a case where you can just annihilate a country? Man, woman, and child, okay? Is that ever justified? Now there are cases in the Bible where God did it and where He commanded it. The question is, is that something that you could justify today? Obviously God can make that call, but what I want to state here though is the typical going to battle though, typical going to war, someone's coming, you know, someone's trying to destroy you. Here's a case where Syria is going to war with Israel and notice what it says in verse 8 here. So 2 Kings chapter 6 and verse 8, it says, Then the king of Syria warred against Israel and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. Now, so Syria is warring with Israel and basically Elisha, the prophet, is giving this counsel to where Syria just can't get a foothold. Like they just can't, they can't win anything because Elisha is there like feeding them like what they should do. And obviously Elisha is getting that from God as far as what they should do. But notice what it says in verse 15, And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, Behold, a host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots, and his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? So what basically the king of Syria, not Assyria, the king of Syria did, is that he said, basically, go fetch this man and bring him to me. Right, it's kind of like, we can't defeat them with Elisha, you know, basically giving them counsel. So he's going to go find him there. And verse 16 says in the answer, and then the servant of the man of God, so the servant of Elisha is basically like, what are we going to do? There's this whole host of army coming against us. And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city, follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were coming to Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. So, get the picture here. They're basically coming to find him. And he tells the Lord to smite them with blindness. And then he leads them basically into captivity, right? Leads them into Samaria to where basically now they're going to be their captives. Does that make sense? It's just like, yeah, go over here, into this jail cell, right? And then they close the door on them. And so that's the picture, that's what you're getting here. You've got the enemy that's trying to come after Elisha, and God obviously does this miracle, smites them with blindness, and then Elisha leads them on to basically bring them into captivity. But verse 21 is what I want you to see here. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? That's the question, right? Okay, you have enemies of war. They're coming at you with war, and now they're your captives. They're no longer enemies. They're no longer able to fight you, right? They're disarmed, whatever, right? And notice what Elisha says in verse 22. And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them. What is thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with the sword and with thy bow? This is kind of like a rhetorical, like, is that something you do? It's a rhetorical no, right? You don't do that. If you take someone captive, you don't just, like, kill them. Just kill them, right? I mean, it's like, you either take them captive or you kill them, right? You don't take them captive and then bring them back and then kill them, right? And set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. Now, as far as whether they should be sent back, obviously you could make that call. As far as, in this case, I believe obviously the Lord was behind this to where they weren't going to come after him anymore after that whole ordeal, right? After that miracle that happened. But the idea here is that they didn't torture them, they fed them. They gave them bread and water. And so, when it comes to taking captives, is it customary to just put them to death? Is it customary to torture them for information? Is that the rule? And so, just some thoughts here. Now, the question that you have to think about here is that, okay, what about the cases in the Bible where basically there was no captives taken? Everybody was destroyed, man, woman, and child. What is that about, okay? Well, one, you have to understand that God destroys, one, the whole world with the flood, and then he destroyed like whole cities, man, woman, and child, himself, okay? Meaning this is that he didn't need anybody. There was no armies involved. He did it, okay? With obviously, you know, kind of catastrophe type things as far as like a flood or hail and fire. So, look at Genesis chapter 6, Genesis chapter 6. You got to take the Bible as a whole. Obviously, I'm not here to say like these passages don't exist or, you know, like let's not, don't worry, nothing to see here. Don't worry about these passages over here where God commands to kill everybody, okay? But when you're dealing with war, typically what you're dealing with is you're dealing with men going to war, and it's men against men, and you fight that war. If you take captives, you don't torture them. You don't kill them. You actually just feed them, right? And the idea there is that if you don't want to do that, then it comes down to this. Are they surrendering? Are they trying to fight you? Do you just mow down those that are just, you know, putting up the surrender flag? You know, that's the kind of the idea there when it comes to captivity or do you take captives and all that. Now, Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5 here says, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the earth, for it repenteth me that I have made them. So obviously, you know the story of the flood. He destroys everything except for Noah and his three sons and obviously the wife. So there's eight people that are saved on this ark and then the animals, two of each kind, right, that are on this ark. And he destroys everything else, right? I mean that's extreme, right? I would say that's everything that breathes essentially, everything that has the breath of life. And so we have that case where the Lord does that and you say, well, was that right? Of course it's right. God was right. God could just destroy everything right now if he wanted to and he would be right. You know, God is always right and you could say, well, I don't think that was right. There was definitely, there was innocent people. I mean, what about the children, all this stuff? And you could say, well, I don't think that was right. Well, you're wrong. God is right. Now look at Genesis chapter 19, Genesis chapter 19. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them. So it wasn't just Sodom and Gomorrah, but he completely annihilated them to the point where they still have never been inhabited. Every man, woman, and child. Now the thing that you'll see with all of these cases, okay, is that the wickedness that was in these lands or at that time was extreme. Meaning this is that you had violence and think about Noah's day, right? That there was violence and that they only imagined evil continually, right? Yes, Sodom and Gomorrah says they were sinners exceedingly, right? The idea of the sin that was going on in Sodom to the point where that sin of Sodomy got his name from that, I mean, it's basically been branded. It's like been a proverb for ever since then and it's still today. I mean, people know what Sodom is talking about, right? And what Sodomy is talking about and everything else. So Genesis 19 and verse 24 says, Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground. So it basically destroyed everything. And you know the story, right? Lot and his two daughters, the only ones that made it out, obviously Lot's wife turned back, turned into a pillar of salt. But everybody else was annihilated. So you have that with the Lord. And it says in 2 Peter that these things were done for an ensemble, making an ensemble unto them that should after live ungodly, right? These were examples that were given about what would happen to a country, to a nation, and yay to the world in the end. What's going to happen to the world when God doesn't destroy the earth with water but with fire. So listen, this is going to happen again. Where God is destroying the earth and there's going to be mass, basically killing of nations and all that. And God is obviously right to do it. Now let me give you an example of a case where God commanded Israel to completely annihilate another nation. And this is what is more so I would look at a war, an avenging war, right? It's basically like they're getting recompense what they did for their actions that they've already done. So basically they did something and then they're basically getting the recompense for that. In Deuteronomy 25 verse 17 we're dealing with Amalek. Now we're going to be getting into this story in 1 Samuel because, well we're going through 1 Samuel. And this is, Saul is the one that actually is the one that's supposed to be fulfilling this. But to give you back the back story is that there was this war with Amalek back in Exodus chapter 17. Where there's war and Joshua prevails against them, right? And this is where, if you remember Moses, his hands were put up and you had Aaron and her that were holding up his hands so that Joshua would win this battle. But there's a reason why there's this curse that's put upon them from way back then. In verse 17 it says, Remember what Amalek did unto thee, by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt. How he met thee, by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou was faint, weary, and he feared not God. So, what happened here? Basically, Amalek, the Amalekites, basically were picking off all the weak and feeble people. Whether it's children, women, children, basically all these people that weren't soldiers, they weren't going to battle or anything. And they basically were just killing all these people that were basically just women and children. These type of atrocities still happen today. And they happen, there's this one story, and I forget when it happened. But basically they had, like there was this, the army was basically, sent all their women and children to this island to basically keep them safe from the war. And the enemy went over there and just killed them all. That's quite an atrocity, isn't it? And in these cases you can see that there's an avenging that happens here. Notice in I Samuel, I'm sorry, verse 19, it says, Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, and in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, thou shalt not forget it. So you know what God's saying? You're going to completely take them out to where they don't have a name anymore. Basically annihilation is what that is. And that happens in I Samuel, chapter 15. I Samuel, chapter 15, we have, this is actually where Saul messes up because he doesn't destroy every single thing. But go to I Samuel, chapter 15. And the last thing I'm going to show you is dealing with going into Canaan, right? The idea of going into the Promised Land. But in both these cases, I want you to think about this. God told them to do it. Is that something that could be said today? I mean, is God audibly talking to the prophets today and talking to people? Listen, unless you can show me chapter and verse, don't tell me God said it. That's the time we live in right now. So you can't tell me that God is telling Israel to annihilate Gaza and that that's of God. You can't tell me that because one, Israel is a Christ rejecting nation that God is not speaking to. Like to say that God is speaking to them is ridiculous. So what I'm showing you here is something that was in the Old Testament and you say, well, is there a difference? Yeah, because God who at sundry times in a diverse manner spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. But hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. So unless you hear Jesus speaking to you, saying, and Jesus is saying to Israel, Yes, annihilate Gaza and completely man, woman and child and everything that breathes. Then it's not justified to do that. Now, you can have a different opinion to me on that. But what you see with all these cases is that you're dealing with a righteous nation destroying a wicked nation. Right? That God is behind Israel and this nation is really wicked. I mean think about when he destroyed the earth with the flood. What did you have? Wickedness everywhere, right? Justified by cleansing away the wickedness, right? You have Sodom and Gomorrah, obviously wickedness, cleansing away all the wickedness. You have this case with Amalek, a wicked nation that did this wickedness. And obviously hundreds of years removed, right? From when it happened. But at the same time, who knows the wickedness that was going on with their gods and sacrificing children and all these different things. Think about the Mayans and how they would just sacrifice to their sun god, right? And sacrifice virgins and sacrifice children and do all these different things. To where you can look at that and say, that makes sense that they were taken out, right? So in 1 Samuel 15 verse 1 it says, Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus said the Lord, Opposed, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid weight for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy that they have, all that they have. And spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Now that's rough. But was God right? Was that commandment righteous? Was it true? Yeah. You know it's like when people are just like, are you going to defend that? I defend every word. You think I'm ashamed of what God did? You think I'm going to apologize for what God did? Yeah, it's rough. There's a lot of rough things in the Bible. And the same thing goes when it comes to conquering wicked nations for example. Think about Canaan. There was a curse put on Canaan back in Ham's day, right? And it was upon Canaan and the nation of Canaan. Because when it talks about, I'll just read this in Genesis 9 verse 25. It says, And he said, Curse be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. So that was all the way back in Genesis chapter 9 right after the flood. Fast forward to the land of Canaan that's made up of multiple nations, right? You have the Hittites, the Jebusites, all these different groups of people that are there that are of Canaan. But you had that and go to Joshua chapter 10. Joshua chapter 10, again destroying everything that breathed. And again, I don't believe this is something that you can justify today. Genocide. And you say, well that's genocide, that's wicked. No, this is righteous. And you say, well, you know, annihilation is never right. Tell that to God. God's right. Bible's right. It's righteous. But here's where it meets the road. When you start being God and saying, I'm going to annihilate that country. I'm going to annihilate that city, that nation. We as a nation are going to determine that that is righteous to do that, right? There's no blank check here saying, yeah, every country can just annihilate another country, right? This is based off the commandment of God. And so unless you have Jesus speaking to you and saying, thou shall make war with this country. And guess what? That will happen eventually when Jesus comes down on a white horse and we're with him. And he's coming to judge and make war. That will happen, but that won't happen until then. There is a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Show me the New Testament where it says to go to war and annihilate another nation. Listen, you're like, oh, you're replacement theology. You better believe we are because he takes away the first and he may establish the second. That the kingdom of God is taken away from that physical nation of Israel and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. So what nation is he telling now to annihilate everybody? That spiritual nation of believers? You say, well, in the Old Testament they did this. Yeah, and God told them to do it. You start telling me that God told you to do something in a dream? You know, like verbally told you to do something? I'm going to call you a Pentecost and tell you to get saved. Because that's not going on right now. There's no extra biblical revelation right now. All the apostles are gone. Paul was the last to see Jesus and he's the last of the apostles. And it is the apostles that were given revelation and they were the ones that were holy men of God that God moved to write the scriptures. That's not being done now. And until Jesus comes in the clouds, we have what we have written and don't add and don't take away. Joshua chapter 10 and verse 38. It says, Joshua returned and all Israel with him to Deber and fought against it. And he took it and the king thereof and all the cities thereof. And they smote them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein. He left none remaining as he had done to Hebron. So he did to Deber and to the king thereof as he had done also to Libnah and to her king. This isn't the only place he's done it. Actually, if you just read this whole chapter, you'll see that. So Joshua smote all the country of the hills and of the south and of the vale and of the springs and all their kings and left none remaining but utterly destroyed all that breathed as the Lord God of Israel commanded. There's your validation. God told them to do that. Now, there's people that they didn't destroy and they ended up being thorns in their flesh, remember? Remember Gibeon where they came and they tricked Joshua into thinking that they were some far country off and they were actually their neighbors? And they couldn't kill them because they made an oath, right? But then you have cases where because Israel was not following the Lord that God didn't drive out everybody. And that there were people there and they ended up being thorns in the flesh. The question that you have to ask yourself, and you say, well, why? Why was this right? Again, does it matter why if God says to do it? Right? If you're looking at that passage and say, I don't think that was right. Well, then now you're going against what God said and commanded. You don't really need to know the why. You just need to know, thus saith the Lord. But let me give you the reason why because God does give us the reason why. Go to Leviticus chapter 8, 18. Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus chapter 18. Again, I don't believe this is applicable nowadays. I think that war is applicable and it's something that still happens and it's still justified if you're in defense and all that. But this idea of just annihilating countries. We're not morally superior to the other countries in this world. I believe that we're the most Christian nation that's out there. But to think that our country is like some city set on a hill when it comes to morality. We're actually propagating a lot of wickedness. Probably only second to Israel. You say, how do you know that? Because Tel Aviv is the number one sodomite city in the world. That's pretty crazy because we have San Francisco. But I want you to think about this as far as the reason why. I believe God gives us the reason why. But I want you to notice that Israel isn't just given this like unconditional state of being in the land. And I want you to think about this with what's going on today. Leviticus chapter 18 verse 21. It says, Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire of Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God, I am the Lord. What is passing thy seed through the fire? The seed is talking about their children and they were sacrificing children unto a false god. By the way, Manasseh does that later on in Israel as a king. Verse 22, Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith, neither shalt any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto. It is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you. So what is he stating here? He's stating that this is what the nations that you cast out, that I cast out, that's what they were doing. Don't you do that. What were they doing? Sodomy, bestiality, sacrificing their children unto false gods. Verse 25, And the land is defiled, therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomitteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you. For all these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you, and the land is defiled. So we get an idea of what those people were like, right? Sometimes you think about when they're going in and they're just like, they're just minding their own business, and they're just out there reaping their fields, and they're just, you know, la dee da, you know, nothing going on. No, wickedness was going on in that land. And you know what was happening? The land was vomiting them out. You had a very wicked country that Israel took out. Notice what it says here. Verse 28, That the land spew not you out also when you defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you. Does it sound unconditional? Let me ask you a question. Is Israel right now a bastion of righteousness? Like I said, Tel Aviv. It's like voted number one city for Sodomites. Like that's their place. That's where they like to go. Israel, to be a citizen there, you have to recant that Jesus is the Christ. Israel's, you know, as far as the nations concerned, I mean I know there's other people that live in there that have different religions, other religions, Judaism, which reject that Jesus is the Christ. And who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is anti-Christ. To deny the Father and Son. Israel, by definition, is an anti-Christ nation. Does it sound like, you know, in our days, you know, he has spoken unto us by his son. Does it sound like Jesus is going to be speaking to them about anything good? Like Tel Aviv, one of their major cities, is like the number one Sodomite place to visit. And that their religion is the most anti-Christ religion that's out there. So tell me again that they, that God is giving them a license to just annihilate another country. And yet, I don't think that any nation has that license right now. I don't think our country has that license. I don't think anybody has that license. I don't think that that's a thing that can be justified. I think as a nation you can justify going against the oppressor. Right? And I'm not saying, listen, I'm not saying that Israel shouldn't defend themselves if there's people coming at them trying to kill their innocent women and children. Am I saying that? No. I'm saying, yeah, defend yourself. All those people that came across the border and did that should all be killed. Right? But here's not the answer. Going over and just bombing the whole city and just obliterating all the innocent civilians that are over there. Show me, show me where, you know, when they made their battle in array against the Philistines, they're just like, kill all the women and children that are among them first. You know, just kill them all. Right? Kill them all and let God sort them out. You say, well, there's cases where they annihilated everybody. Yeah, God told them to do that and it had to do with their wickedness. Let me ask you a question. Who's the righteous nation? Palestine? Definitely not. Right? Islam's a wicked, pedophile, you know, prophet-loving religion. Muhammad, their main prophet, married a six-year-old and consummated at nine. He's a pedophile and he's roasting in hell right now. You know, they're like, blessed be his epispia upon his name. Wicked. You say, oh, you're pro-Palestine, you're pro-Hamas. No. Islam's wicked. I'm not for Palestine and I'm not for Hamas. Definitely not for Hamas. But am I for Israel? Am I for this nation that is known to be Sodomite-loving and known to be Christ-rejecting? Like, even if you were going to be like, I think that there's a license to do this in our day, that would be the last place that I would put that, say, yeah, God's going to be in there for that one, right? Does that make sense? Like, let's say you were to make that case and be like, I think that you can make that case in the New Testament for a nation to completely annihilate another nation because of their wickedness. Israel would be the last nation that I would put that on and say, yeah, they have the right. I mean, I would say Venezuela has a bigger right, you know. I would say Lithuania, Switzerland, I don't know. I mean, pretty much name the country and I'd be like, yeah, they have a bigger right to do that than Taiwan. You know, not that they're going to do anything, right? Taiwan, you can do it to China. Good luck. Now, when it comes to, you say, and the last thing I'll mention here, and I don't have time to get to it really, is the idea, you say, well, how, that doesn't seem right that God would destroy the infants and the children, right? But if you think about it, if you're taking out their parents, what are you going to do with the children, right? But at the same time, what you have to think about is that there's a verse in the Bible that says, in Isaiah 57, verse 1, it says, the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from evil to come. Think about a nation that you're being brought up, think about your child that's being brought up in Sodom. Children that have not the knowledge of good and evil, they go to heaven. They die. They're better off. You know, then you're like, that sounds sinister, that sounds bad. Listen, facts. All those children and infants that were killed when the Amalekites were taken out, they're all in heaven right now. Would they have gotten saved? Would they have been believers if they would have survived and grew up in that country? I'm just, you say, well, you know, that doesn't really help me too much. It doesn't matter. The idea is that God commanded them to do it, it is what it is, and it's right. But here's a little bit of, hey, here's where God's mind's at on that. Where you could think, oh, man, you know, these children died. Well, you know, children died in Israel and children died in Gaza. They're in heaven. Let me ask you a question. If they grew up in that environment, what are the chances of them going to heaven? And I'm not here to say, just kill them all so they go to heaven, you know what I mean? That's not what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is that in these cases you can look at that and say, okay, that makes sense. Or you can at least say, hey, I have some comfort in that, that, hey, what God did there, that's rough, but there's some comfort there in the fact that the children are in heaven. The children are not going to hell or anything like that, right? And you have the story of Jeroboam's child, right? The son that dies, and the mother goes to the man of God asking, you know, will the child die? And he says, the child will die, but it's a good thing. Because every single one of Jeroboam's sons are going to die, and they're going to be eaten by dogs. But this child is going to have a burial, there are going to be people mourning for him, because there's something good found in him. Meaning this is that, you know what, that child's in heaven right now, and maybe every single one of the Jeroboam's sons are in hell. What if that child was allowed to live? What would have been the end game, right? And that's where you get into the idea the righteous are taken away, but none layeth at the heart that they are taken away from evil to come. And I'm not saying that that just simply like, that makes it all better, you know, that makes me feel better inside, you know. I'm just saying that his thoughts are above our thoughts, his ways are above our ways. And we are not to question what God does. Do you want to understand it more? Sure. I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to grasp it, understand it, and try to understand the why. But ultimately we don't have to know the why. But God is gracious enough in a lot of cases where he does tell us the why, and either way, it's righteous. So I hope that makes sense. The rules of war here is the idea that there is a time of war, and I'd say in time of defense and someone's trying to take you, you know, another country's invading, yes, of course. Go to war, destroy anybody that's trying to invade your country, right? Makes sense. So self-defense, all of that, right? When you get into invading other countries, that's where it gets a little harder, right? You're going to be policing the world and you're nation-building. That's where I think you're going to be getting into water where you're going to be on the side of unjust wars. And our country is guilty of that. Unjust wars, nation-building, all of that. And so, you know, like I said, it's not all the places in the Bible that talks about that. I can get into other avenues, but let's end with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for these passages. And Lord, thank you for being holy and just and true. And Lord, help us to, one, believe everything that you have done is righteous, but also to understand it as well and to have your mind and to think like you think. And Lord, we pray that you be with us throughout the rest of the day. We pray that you be with us as we go soul-winding. Lord, we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Brother Dave will come and sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed. Or, Brother Matt, sorry. Page number 351, Tell it to Jesus. Are you weary? Are you heavy-hearted? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over your sleep-hearted? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He's a friend that's well-known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Do the tears flow down your cheeks, unbidden? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He's a friend that's well-known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow? Tell it to Jesus.