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that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws. Praise ye the Lord. Brother Danver, you want to pray for us? Lord, I thank you so much for gathering us together today. I thank you, bless Pastor Shelley and strengthen his spirit. Preach whatever message you go in his heart. And I thank you in Jesus' name, I pray, amen. Amen. Well, it's definitely a great honor to be here with you guys and to, this is actually my second time to be back out here. And so it's definitely wonderful to be here. And I was looking at the weather and it didn't look very good, but yesterday was great. And it was a lot of fun. The soul winning was really good. And the fellowship was great. And it's great to be here with Pastor Jones. I always feel safe in his presence. So that's what you got to like about Pastor Jones. And he's got a great family. And so it's great to be here with all of you and to meet so many new people. And so thank you so much for being here this morning. I want to get started in our sermon and pick a little portion here of Psalms 105. But notice what it says in verse 14 again. The Bible says, he, talking of God, suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. Now, interestingly, in this chapter, the Bible is talking about the children of Israel as a whole. He's talking about how they came out of the land of Egypt. And many kings and different individuals wanted to hurt them, wanted to harm them. You can find Balaam is trying to curse God's people. And God doesn't allow Balaam to curse his people. And what you have to understand is that God is the God of the entire earth. And the Bible says, which is interesting, in this chapter, verse seven, he is the Lord our God, his judgments are in all the earth. So, it's not like God only cares about a certain specific area of the earth. You know, there's some people that think, oh, God only cares about Israel, or God only cares about a physical section of land. Yet, throughout all history, God is always looking down from heaven and his judgments are in every corner of the earth. You can't escape them. And one truth that's very evident from the scripture, and frankly speaking, you know, there's so much Bible on this topic that I really tried to limit it, but this topic of hurting God's people, and specifically doing his prophets harm. And really, that's the title of my sermon this morning, is Do My Prophets No Harm? And I really like that where it says no harm. It's not saying like a little bit, or just, you know, kind of. It's saying that you shouldn't do any harm to his prophets. And it's very, very important that we realize that we should not want to ever harm or hurt any prophet of God, any man of God. And it's not limited just to a preacher or to a pastor. I believe this is in context to any child of God. We wouldn't want to hurt or harm any child of God. But especially not the prophets of God. Especially not the preachers of God. Especially not the men of God. And we see every time someone does in the scripture, really bad things happen to that individual. Go if you went to 2 Samuel, chapter number one, 2 Samuel, chapter number one. Now, you would ask this question, why would someone hurt or harm a prophet of God? And it's simply because they don't fear God. That's why. They have no fear of God, because really the scripture could not be clearer that when you hurt or harm a man of God, or you hurt or harm the prophet of God, he is going to recompense you. His judgments are in all of the earth. You know, you're gonna reap what you sow. And so it's very clear in the scripture that we should not hurt or harm the prophets of God. 2 Samuel, chapter one, verse five. The Bible says, And David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead? Now, in 2 Samuel, starting out this chapter, you're kind of transitioning from King Saul to King David. And in this section, we already know that King Saul has died just from the simple narration of 1 Samuel and how it ended. But David is not aware of this yet. So this is David's opportunity to learn what happened to King Saul. And of course, if you'd read 1 Samuel, you'd realize that Saul was on a endless hunt against David. He was trying to hurt and harm David. He was trying to kill David. And think about this. While Saul is the king, and he's in a higher position of authority than David, David is still one of God's men. David is still a man of God. David is still a prophet of God. And by Saul hurting and trying to harm David, what happens? God ends up punishing Saul for that. But David did not try to hurt Saul. David did not try to harm Saul. He didn't want to do anything. In fact, he one time cut a little portion of his clothing off, and the Bible says it smote him in his heart. He felt bad about even just ruining his clothes, you know, about just hurting his clothing. And that is the type of attitude, that's the type of mentality that we as God's people should have towards men of God. That we would be even offended, we would be hurt in our hearts if something, you know, his jacket got mud on it. You know, we did anything to hurt or harm him in any way, even his clothing got hurt or harmed. And we see here in this passage, a man comes and tells him how Saul died. Well, let's keep reading verse six. And the young man told him, said, as I happened by chance upon milk go boa. You know, anytime someone starts a story, it's just like, oh, it just happened, this is what happened. You know, it's just lucky, you know. It's like, usually they're lying, okay? Behold, Saul leaned upon his spear, and lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. Now, let me ask you a question. Do you think that in the middle of one of the most intense battles and wars, and you have the, essentially the most important commander of a particular military, that you're just strolling by and you just happen to find that, right? I mean, we're talking about an area of a military battle where you're not just gonna find yourself magically there. I just happen to be in the middle of the hottest part of a battle, just randomly. You know, that's not a random coincidence. That's not just something you're strolling by and you just happen to see. Obviously, this guy's story's pretty fishy, isn't it? Right? And we know from the previous passage that all of his story's just made up. So just to give you an idea, everything this guy's saying is not really true. Verse seven, and when he looked behind him, he saw me and called unto me and I answered, here am I. And he said unto me, who art thou? And I answered him, I am Amalekite. He said unto me again, stand I pray, thee upon me and slay me for anguish has come upon me because my life is yet whole in me. So I stood upon him and slew him because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen. And I took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was on his arm and I have brought them hither unto my Lord. Then David took hold on his clothes and rent them and likewise all the men that were with them. And they mourned and wept and fasted until even for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel because they were fallen by the sword. Notice again, David's attitude when he learns of Saul's demise. Of course, this man is someone that's constantly hunted him, driven him out of his own country, driven him to where he can't even worship the Lord in the way that he wants to. He's driven him from his wife, he's driven him from his family, he's driven him from the country that he loves, he's driven him from God. That's a lot of evil that Saul did unto David. Yet, when David learns of his destruction, when David learns of his death, he mourns for him. And of course, obviously Jonathan's a portion of that and yet David is very sad and solemn about the destruction of King Saul. Says in verse 13, and David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger to Malachite. And David said unto him, How is thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? And he's saying, this doesn't make sense. How were you not even terrified to kill Saul? Because he told us previously, oh, I'm sure that he's not gonna be able to live. How do you know that? How are you so certain? You know, someone's that close to dying, why do you even have to finish them off? And if they're not that close, then how would you even know? And really, this guy, why didn't you just try to help him? Why didn't you just try to give him a little bit longer of a life? Couldn't he have just figured out a way to take Saul with him or to conceal him or to hide? Or just to die with him, you know? It's the man of God here. And think about, there's other places in the scripture where men of God are in really bad situations and then God rescues them, God delivers them. Why would you then think in your mind, you know what, God just really wants me to kill the man of God. You know, that doesn't make any sense. That's a foolish attitude. And even though, even if his story was true, which I don't think that David is necessarily, he cares whether or not it's true entirely, he's saying, look, if you killed Saul, well, what does the Bible say? Verse 15, and David called one of the young men and said, go near and fall upon him, and he smote him that he died. And David said unto him, thy blood be upon thy head, for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed. So he's saying, because you admitted to killing Saul, then you are going to be put to death. Did David say, good job, way to hurt the man of God, way to hurt the prophet of God, way to, you know. He's saying, you testified against yourself, therefore you're gonna be recompensed to what you did. You killed the man of God, therefore you must die. You must be put to death. No one can walk around and say like, I've slain Saul, because David is not gonna allow that. David is going to kill him. And why I really like this story is sometimes people, in their mind, they feel like they've been wronged by a man of God. They feel like they've been hurt or harmed by some prophet. But let me ask this question. Are you gonna really tell me that there's a man of God out there that's hurt you more than King Saul hurt David? I mean, is there really someone that's done you more injury or done you more grief than King Saul? I mean, King Saul threw multiple spears at David to try and kill him. King Saul chased him out of the country. King Saul is hunting him down. And then yet, people be like, he forgot my birthday. And you're like, what? Why does he have to care about your birthday? You know, I can't even hardly remember my own kid's birthdays let alone yours. You think I'm gonna remember your birthday? No, I was impressed. Pastor Jones did remember some birthdays over here. So he's doing a lot better than me. But it's like, if the man of God doesn't do you right every single time, that is not an excuse to hurt him back. Even if that happened. Which again, I caveated by saying many times they think it in their mind. Because him not remembering your birthday, he didn't really hurt you folks, okay? He didn't really cause you any kind of pain. And a lot of times people just make up in their mind something that someone did to them. Even if it was legitimate though, the message is clear, you don't stretch forth your hand against the Lord's anointed. And you should be terrified to do so. You say, why should he be terrified? What is he gonna do to me? It doesn't matter what he's gonna do to you. What is God gonna do to you? Now of course, if there was any man of God that I wouldn't want to stretch my hand for, it's Pastor Jones for what he would do to me. But let alone what God would do to me. It doesn't matter, even if you found a man of God that you said, you know what, well I'm taller than Pastor Shelley. I'm tougher than Pastor Shelley, mmm, yeah. But you know what, God is on my side. And you know what, God is on the side of men of God. And you don't touch the Lord's anointed, do my prophets no harm is what the Bible says. It doesn't give a message of like, well, you know, I feel, no, you're wrong. You're always wrong. And everyone that tries to slay the man of God, he gets slain. And so that's my first point here, is don't try to slay the man of God. If you try to slay the man of God, you're gonna be slain. Go to Acts chapter number 12, go to Acts chapter number 12. Now here's the thing, in some cases you will be successful. In this case, this guy didn't really kill Saul because the Bible actually teaches that Saul committed suicide, that Saul took his own life. No one was willing to do it, everyone did actually fear killing the man of God. You know, that's the good thing about Saul's armor bearer. Saul's armor bearer is like, I'm not gonna slay you. I refuse to slay you. You know, and so the armor bearer slew himself, okay? Because he's not going to slay the man of God. But sometimes men are successful in this. Sometimes men do kill the man of God. But see what happens to them. Acts chapter number 12, look at verse one. Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with a sword. So Herod is a king, he ends up killing one of the men of God an apostle, one of Christ's disciples, the brother of John, a great guy. I mean, this is not just your average Christian here. This is one of the greatest Christians to ever live and he was killed as a martyr. And of course that happens in the Bible. You know, some people would suggest, and I think this would happen, if a great man of God today was ever killed for any reason, people would be like, oh, he deserved it, or oh, he's being punished by God or something like that. But you know what, that's the wrong attitude. Because plenty of great men of God have been harmed, have been injured, bad things have happened to them. And you know what, it wasn't because they were doing anything wrong. It was because God is gonna allow his people to go through persecution. In fact, God puts many of his people through persecution himself. I mean, have you ever read Job? And if you've ever read Job, you realize horrible things can happen to the man of God and he's doing nothing wrong. He's doing great. I mean, Jeremiah is one of the greatest preachers in the Bible and nothing good has happened to that guy. I mean, that guy is getting punched and put in the stocks, thrown in the dung pit. No one's coming to his church. I mean, it's Jeremiah, a church of one. And it's like, why? It's not because he isn't a great preacher. It's not because he doesn't fill with the Spirit. Think about the books of the Bible. What is really much longer than Jeremiah? I mean, you got Isaiah, but Jeremiah is a guy that got so much revelation, so much scripture, a powerful man of God, so much prophecy, one of the most difficult tasks ever ordained or given to a man, yet he didn't have a great revival. He didn't have a great movement. And so you can't judge a man of God by the circumstances. You can't say, oh, well, you know what? This guy has a church of one, so he's not of God. Or this guy got killed, so he's not of God. Or this guy lost all of his money and his health and his wife's nagging him, not a prophet of God. No, no, no, Job was still a prophet of God. Job was still a man of God. And James was still a great man of God. But you know what? When you do harm, when you try to slay or you do even slay the men of God, you should be terrified of what's gonna happen later to you. Look at, skip down to verse 21. The Bible says, and upon a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, it is the voice of a God and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory. And he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost. You know what? You kill the men of God, and then just look at this guy's death. Think about this guy's death. It wasn't a normal death, was it? An angel, just an angel just comes out of nowhere and just kills the guy. And think about this. Are we talking Old Testament? No, we're talking New Testament. Angels are available to just kill people. And so you know what? You should be terrified to stretch forth your hand against the Lord's anointed. You should be terrified to blaspheme God, to speak against God, to go against the Lord. And an angel could just come out of nowhere and just kill you. It's like, well, I'm in my house and I'm locked up and I have lots of guns. Good luck against an angel of God. Good luck, I mean, that guy just smites you and you're just instantly killed. And I mean, this is a terrible death. He was eaten of worms. What does that even mean? I don't know. It just, I've read it so many times and I still don't even know exactly what that means, but I know this, sounds awful. It sounds terrible. I mean, was this some kind of a worm infestation inside of him? Was it like actually, is it just saying like, you know, they put him in the grave and it's just talking about the fact that he died in the grave? I mean, I don't know exactly what the reference is. If someone can help me figure it out, let's go. But at the end of the day, this is what I do know. He hurt the man of God and he was killed. He slayed the man of God and he was slain. You know, you don't slay the man of God. You don't slay God's people and get away with it. No one gets away with it. You're going to reap what you sow. If you think, well, I've hurt this man of God, but I'm gonna get away with it, you're lying to yourself. God will punish you. God is going to do something to you. Go over to Esther, chapter number seven. Go to Esther, chapter number seven. And you know, we live in America, so the threat of physical death is very nominal in comparison to the rest of the world, to history, to the Bible itself. I mean, we've lived such a cush life that we don't really even understand a lot of portions of scripture as well as we could, because I find that the more I live the Bible, the more I actually understand it, and the more I go through difficulty. And you know, I've never really gone through what a lot of these people did where, I mean, death is just around the corner, or they have some of these scenarios that are just so kind of intense, where you have a mob dragging you out of the city to stone you, you have 42 men taking an oath saying they're not gonna eat until they kill you. I mean, these are some pretty extreme circumstances. I've never been thrown in a lion's den. I've never had to face a lot of the opposition that the men in the Bible have, and so I guarantee their understanding is a lot sharper on these issues. You know, David talked about how he was just a step from death in the sense that, you know, one wrong move, one wrong step, and he was gonna be killed. That's an intense situation. You know, driving can sometimes feel like that if you're in Jamaica, but we usually aren't in a situation where we're feeling like, you know, just one tiny, if I just make one mistake, just one tiny thing, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna be killed, it's gonna be end of me. Think about how stressed you would feel where every single moment of your life you just make one small mistake. Think about when you're hiding, where King Saul comes in to try and find you. Just one of your men that just says like, oh, David's over here, and you're done. Just one person to be a spy or a Judas in the group, they could just end you just like that. I mean, that's a lot of stress because it's stressful to guard yourself, but think about other people. You know, you've got all these other people you have to manage, you have to deal with, and so there's a lot of extreme situations that we really haven't faced, and so it's hard for us to understand this, but I believe there's coming a day, we could get to the point in the future where death is gonna become more of a reality, and you're gonna see more people slain, righteous men slain for the word of God, but let me make it clear, those who do the slaying are going to reap what they sow. They are going to be punished severely. God is gonna judge them in the earth. Look what it says in Esther chapter seven, verse nine. In Harbonah, one of the chamberlains said before the king, behold also the gallows 50 cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. You know, and I just kind of quickly went to this section, but Haman wanted to kill Mordecai. He made a law, he passed a law through the hand of the king to not just hurt Mordecai, but all the Jews, all of God's people, and he built a gallow for Mordecai. That's a pretty intense situation. This guy's ready, and he in fact went to the king to ask to kill Mordecai, and if it wasn't just like perfect timing of Esther and everything else, it would have possibly even happened. But God is aware of these situations, God's gonna judge, and of course God has comedic timing. You know, of course, the day that Mordecai is supposed to be killed, essentially, Haman's coming in to kill him, King Ahasuerus is like, hey, you know, there's some guy that I wanna honor, you know. And he ends up having Haman have to walk up and down the whole town and praise Mordecai and do good under Mordecai, and then he even gets killed on the gallows that he built for Mordecai. And you know, to me that just shows that God has a sense of humor. Because why in the world would God allow all these things to happen to Haman exactly in this manner? It's because God is going to bring just evil destruction upon those that wish up evil. Often what you dream up as evil against the man of God, God will bring that exact evil upon you. And so therefore, it's important that we don't have this attitude, we don't allow ourselves to get bitter against a man of God and wish him evil and want him to be slain. Go if you would now to Numbers chapter 12, go to Numbers chapter 12 in the Old Testament. So point one is this, you know, we don't wanna slay the man of God, we don't wanna slay the prophets, we wanna, of course, not cause them any physical harm. But there's other ways to injure someone beyond just physical injury. There's other ways to do evil unto someone. And one of those would be just speaking against them, or speaking evil or wishing evil to come upon them. Some people might try to feel like they're getting off the hook by saying, well, I didn't do anything to him, I just wish him evil and I just pray that he'll die and I just said all this nasty stuff about him. Well, God doesn't like that either. Look what it says in Numbers chapter 12, verse one. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. Now, of course, the Bible, you know, makes it clear that Moses did marry an Ethiopian woman. So this isn't a railing accusation. This is for sure true. We can't argue that he didn't marry an Ethiopian woman. If you study the scripture, his previous wife that we know about in the Bible is not Ethiopian. She's like a Midian. And her father, Jethro, is not an Ethiopian. So, you know, we don't really know a lot about this portion of scripture, but I think from just the amount of information we have and when you kind of study all the different pieces here, it appears that Moses, at some point in time, took an additional wife. And this is a very common thing. We don't know if his first wife had died. I don't know if it's just a second wife. Either scenario, it doesn't really matter for the context in which we're looking at. One thing I would say is I believe that him marrying an Ethiopian woman is wrong because the scripture does pretty much allude to and teach principles around the children of Israel marrying within the children of Israel. When it comes to the tribe of Levi and the priests, they're only allowed to marry within the priesthood. So they're only allowed to marry within the tribe of Levi. And the priests themselves have very strict guidelines on who they can marry. They can't marry a harlot. They can't marry a woman that's profane. They can't marry a woman that's been put away or been divorced. So they would have to marry, in many cases, either a virgin, in some cases, potentially a widow. The high priest has an even higher standard for whom he can marry. Now Moses is not really specifically in that priesthood because it's more like the Aaronic priesthood. It's the priesthood of Aaron. But he's in the same family as Aaron. So it's standard reason that Moses, let's say his wife died, he probably should have married another Levite. You know, again, reading the scripture, is there a verse I could point you to that say that thus saith the Lord that Moses had to marry a Levite? No. Could I show you a verse that just says, point blank, he had to marry someone in the tribe of Israel? Not necessarily. But from the principles and what we kind of understand in the scripture, especially even comparing the New Testament and understanding the commentary there, we're supposed to be equally yoked. We're not supposed to be marrying unbelievers. We have Solomon marrying what the Bible describes as strange wives, and that's rebuked in the book of Nehemiah. So I personally believe it's probably something he did that's not right, in essence, right? It's not a good decision, probably wasn't the right move. I don't think God would have wanted him to marry an Ethiopian woman. But nevertheless, he did it. So why it's important to understand this is for a couple reasons. If we were going to examine Moses' life, we will find issues. And I think that's the point. The point is that they brought this up because it has some legitimacy to it. And of course, a lot of times when people want to criticize someone or attack someone, they'll try to find something that has at least a little legitimacy to it, or well, this is actually kind of true, or this is somewhat of an issue. And look, if you studied me, if you paid attention to me, you could probably figure out, you know what, well, Pastor Shelley did X, or Pastor Shelley did Y, or here's an issue that I've noticed with him, or here's his problems, and you say, well, I don't know if that is true. Well, ask my wife. Just kidding. Of course, your spouse is gonna realize you're not perfect. Your children are gonna realize you're not perfect. There's always gonna be a reason for you to criticize someone, okay, if you really just want to, if you want to speak against them. But here's the question. Is it really Miriam and Aaron's place to sit here and just speak against Moses? And the answer is very clearly no. Not only this, we kind of, as we read the next few verses, understand why they even did it in the first place. Look at verse two. And they said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And notice what it says, and the Lord heard it. So what is the Lord really mad about? He's mad about the fact that they're looking at Moses and saying, this guy has issues. This guy's not perfect. This guy's not doing everything exactly right. Well, who is he to then tell us all what to do, and who is he to just, is he the only man of God around here? Is he the only preacher around here? Hasn't God used us to preach the word of God to? And notice that God gets, here's this, it says in verse three, now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth, and the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto Miriam. Come out, ye three, unto the tabernacle congregation, and they three came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood on the door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. This is like when mom screams your name. You know, it's like, Jonathan Andrew, shall we? And you're like, oh no. You know, when God's just like, come out. And then he's just like, Aaron and Miriam, come forth. You're like, uh-oh. This is like, this is scary. And he said, hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches. And the similitude of the Lord, shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Now, let me say this. So far, we've been reading a lot of scripture and we've seen men of God saying this. This is God himself saying this to Miriam and Aaron, saying, how are you not afraid to speak against Moses? And notice how God's talked about Moses. Hey, this guy's faithful in all mine house. Hey, this guy is faithful to church and this guy's faithful to the word of God and this guy's a great prophet. In fact, he's above all the prophets anyways because a normal prophet, he gets a little bit, but Moses gets to speak to me mouth to mouth. He gets to look at me, he gets to talk with me. We're like buddies. Why in the world then would you sit here and criticize my buddy and criticize my friend and criticize my pal? How are you not afraid to speak against the man of God? And if God is so quick to defend his prophets, why wouldn't we have a similar attitude? That when we see one of our friends and one of our men of God or a guy out there being attacked, that we wouldn't say, you know what? I'm there to defend that guy. Hey, that's my buddy. Hey, that's my buddy. Why are you not afraid to speak against the man of God? And Miriam and Moses, I'm sorry, Miriam and Aaron, you know, made a mistake here in criticizing Moses because frankly speaking, it was not their place. It was not their space to blow off their mouth, to speak against the man of God, to suppose that they're, well, we're great too. You know, we're wonderful too. Notice that Moses doesn't go around bragging about himself. Notice that Moses doesn't go around telling people how wonderful he is. The Bible says he was the meekest man on all of the earth. That's why God even used Moses, folks, is because he wasn't a prideful, arrogant jerk. But what I notice is people that criticize men of God, they're often the most prideful people and they love to sing their own praises and they love to go on a campaign to tell you how wonderful and how spiritual they are and look how all the works that I've done, look at all the people that got saved. But wait a minute, okay, yeah, did Miriam and did Aaron, were they used by God? Absolutely, did they preach the Bible? Yeah, did they possibly save souls and do good things? Sure, but you know what, it's not their place to criticize Moses. And just because God used them at one point in time does not give them a license to then attack the man of God. Hey, you're a soul winner, praise God. That doesn't give you liberty to attack your pastor. Hey, you know some of the Bible? Great, but that doesn't give you liberty to criticize the man of God, to criticize the evangelist, to criticize the deacon, to criticize the leadership, to criticize anybody. Look, you should just keep your mouth shut and not speak against the man of God. And of course, to speak evil against them especially. Now, interestingly enough, we kinda have two parties that are in trouble here. But notice what ends up happening. It says in verse 10, and the cloud departed from off the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow, and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. Now, I'm not gonna read the entire portion of this scripture, but if you do, you understand that only one person was punished. Did you realize that? God speaks against both of them, but then who does he really punish? He punishes Miriam, okay? And it says in verse four, Moses asked to heal her and says, he's like, no. Verse 14, and the Lord said unto Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days, let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that, let her be received in again. So God is equivalating his punishment to Miriam as if God just hawked a loogie in Miriam's face. I mean, just spit in her face. I mean, how embarrassing would that be to just have your dad, young lady? You say you mouth off, young lady, and your dad just spits right in your face. I mean, that would be embarrassing. That would be a shame, and God is saying, that is how I feel about Miriam right now. Miriam needs to feel embarrassed. She needs to feel ashamed. She should not be having any kind of alleviation of this particular punishment, and of course, while men, you know, Aaron made a mistake here, and men should also not make this mistake. God, in this essence, is kind of showing that women speaking against the man of God is even worse, and that women should really keep their tongue against the man of God. Go if you would to 1 Timothy, chapter number two. Let's look at a couple more places in scripture about this, but I'll tell you, you know, I've been in church a long time, my whole life, always been in church. My wife grew up in church. Her dad was on staff at a Baptist church, and I'll tell you, some of the worst people, some of the people that'll say the worst things are often women. Women will just run their mouth, and they'll say, and here's the thing, women are just meaner than men, okay? You guys are just better at criticizing. You have a sharper tongue. I mean, they just have the ability to just really use that thing. They're better communicators by nature. Women often communicate. It's usually because they talk so much, but you know, you have to understand, you know, they are really practiced, okay, in this art. Plus, girls just, I guess they get really envious of other girls, so they learn how to be really mean, and of course, you know, guys, when they're mad at each other, they just hit each other, right? They just rear back and just start throwing punches, but when girls don't like another girl, I mean, they're way more crafty. They'll use that tongue to cut her down so hard and so fast, and so women by nature are gonna be really good at criticizing. They're gonna be really good at speaking against people, but just because you're really good at something doesn't mean you should do it. You know, just because, what if you're really good at, you know, killing people, or you really are skilled in that arena, should you just go around and someone talks bad about you, oh, you know, I have a certain set of skills, you know. It's like, no, obviously just because you're really good at it doesn't mean you should still be a peaceful person, you should still turn the other cheek, right? And just because you as a woman might be really good at criticizing doesn't mean you should criticize anyone. And notice what the Bible says in First Timothy, chapter number two, verse 11. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Is it really Miriam's place to exercise authority over Moses? I mean, what kind of backwards, you know, society are we gonna live in when we allow women to criticize the pastor? Women to overthrow a pastor. And look, there are churches all over this country where women will throw the pastor out, where women will get up and they'll rise up in the congregation and they will get the pastor, you know, thrown out, they'll get the whole congregation mad at them, they'll use their tongue to spread gossip and lies and rumors, they'll affect the deacons, they'll affect the church, and they'll just basically ruin the entire church. And you know what, that is a bad church when the women are in charge. Show me the church that's really taking it to the devil right now that's led by women. Where's the great soul winning movement led by a woman pastor? Where's the great evangelist movement led by a woman evangelist? Where's the great deacon, you know, doing great service that's the woman? You know, this doesn't exist, folks. And because it doesn't, you say, well, why does it not exist? It's because you, patriarchs are trying to hold us back. Because you misogynists are trying to, you know, keep women down. No, no, no, there's plenty of churches out there where they're not keeping women down and it still doesn't exist, folks. Why? Because women are not supposed to usurp authority over the man, they're not supposed to be in charge, they're not supposed to criticize. Yeah, did Miriam prophesy? Yes. Was Miriam considered a prophetess? Yes. What was Miriam's greatest prophecy? She sang a song. And you know the Bible talks about men singers, women singers. You know, when we're all gathered together and it's time to sing songs unto God, I hope all the women lift up their voice. You know, my wife is a great singer, in fact, she's very loud. And you know what, praise God for a woman that'll open up her mouth boldly and sing the glory of God. But you know what, just because my wife might be a better singer than me does not mean she's gonna overthrow me as the pastor. Just because a woman might be a really great soul winner doesn't mean she gets to criticize the man of God and go against the man of God. She needs to realize her place in society. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. And you say, well this is like a New Testament doctrine, Pastor Shelley. Because we have church. They didn't have church back then. No, no, it's called the church in the wilderness, folks. It was still the same thing. Of course, is there anything wrong with a woman opening her mouth and preaching the Bible? No. But again, is that appropriate in every context? No. Just like it's not appropriate. You know, right now we're having a church service. It's not appropriate for every guy in this room just to start preaching at the same time. That's confusing, right? You know, it's funny, women wanna be like, well, why can't I be the pastor? Well, you know what? There's only one pastor. All the other men aren't the pastor either. Did you realize that? It's like you think, oh, I'm not the pastor. Lots of men aren't the pastor either. It's not like just everybody gets to be the pastor. Not everybody gets to be Moses because there's one Moses, folks. So it's okay to just learn your place, learn your role. And of course, it doesn't mean you don't have a good opinion. It doesn't mean that you aren't intelligent. It doesn't mean you can't be filled with the Spirit of God. Look, the Spirit of God came upon Miriam. And you know what? I believe the Spirit of God comes upon women when they go out and they preach the gospel. I believe the Spirit of God can come upon women whenever they're leading and guiding their house and they're educating their children and they're preaching the Bible. And you know what? Sometimes women even ask other women for advice and you know what? Praise God for women that give godly advice. But let me tell you something. You know, when it comes to the congregation, when it comes to the authority of God's Word, women are not to usurp the authority over the man. The Bible couldn't be clearer. Look what it says in verse 33. First Corinthians 14, verse 33. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. Now, what I find interesting here is, notice what it says in verse 34 at the end. As also saith what? The law. Now what do we mean by the law? We're talking about the law of Moses. So was it appropriate for women to speak in the congregation at the time of Moses? No, it was not. As evidenced by First Corinthians 14. So is it cool for Miriam to get up and to criticize Moses as speaking in the congregation and to usurp authority over to Moses? No. You know what, she spake against the man of God. And you know what, God punished her for it. She became leprous. It was a grievous punishment that came upon her. And even when men of God tried to intercede for her, God said, nope, she is going to be punished. She's not gonna get away with this. And you know what, women should be afraid of what God is gonna do to them when they speak against the man of God. When they speak evil on the man of God. When they're wishing him evil. And there's a lot of women that would love to just go online and blast their mouth and just speak evil of men of God. And you know what, it's wicked. It's wicked when women do this. And you know what, it makes me mad. It makes me mad when I see women going online and blowing their mouth off against pastors, railing on pastors, criticizing pastors inappropriately. You know, that is just not of God. And anybody that wants to even justify that attitude is also having a wrong spirit. They are wrong and they are wicked as well. If they're gonna justify women going out and blowing their mouth about men of God. But we live in a society today where it's never been easier to criticize someone. It's never been easier to speak against someone. I mean, you don't even have to open your mouth and you just use your thumbs. You can just get online, use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all the other weird apps that exist out there, TikTok. And of course, you will find a plethora. You will find an enormity of women criticizing pastors, preachers, even people that they just don't like. I mean, Brother Dylan has millions and millions and millions of women criticizing him, okay? And you know, he just works for the church. But they just can't even stand the fact that someone would get up and preach the Bible. They just can't even stand the fact. But you know what? Evil's gonna come upon them. God is not gonna let that go. God is going to punish those individuals. God is gonna judge in the earth. And you know what? Just because a lot of people are doing it does not give you license to do it. You know, don't be like the Jezebels of this world, like the liberal feminists of this world who are constantly criticizing men of God. You know what? Just keep your mouth shut and be like Sarah. Right, amen. Go to second Samuel, chapter number 16. You know, there's a lot of railing that goes on against men of God. And you know, the Bible says rebuke not an elder. You know, the Bible is very clear on this subject. And then we shouldn't wish evil on any man of God. Now, I do wanna make it clear that when we talk about speaking evil of people and speaking against them in these manners, I'm not saying that just because someone's a pastor that they could never be criticized, that they could just be against them. They could be criticized that they could never be shown to be an error. Obviously, we find that all in the scripture. We find the Apostle Paul, you know, standing against Peter and saying, you know, he withstood him to the face, according to the Bible. And he let him know that what he was doing was wrong. Of course, there's times in the Bible where men of God are arguing and they're disagreeing and they're having issues. Of course, the Apostle Paul is constantly criticizing and rebuking false doctrine in churches. The Apostle Paul is calling people out by name. But to be able to understand this process and to be able to understand kind of this delineating factor is you have to understand there's a place to criticize false doctrine. There's a place to criticize, you know, issues. But, you know, I'm not gonna just wish that someone, just something horrible happens to them. You know, that's different. So let's say there's a saved pastor out there that gets up and preaches some lies, okay. Let's say they preach the pre-Trib rapture, folks, and we know this is a lie. You know, it's definitely not true. Should I then go, I hope your church just gets destroyed. I hope that God just punishes you and your family. I hope that bad, you know, that would be speaking evil of the man of God. That would be speaking against the man of God. Or I don't even think you should be allowed to preach because you're wrong on that one particular issue. Well, you know what? Then I guess no one's gonna be able to preach because I guarantee every single person on this planet is wrong about something. So are we gonna say, you know, if you go to a church and you say, well, I think my pastor's wrong on this one issue, that does not give you liberty to say, well, he shouldn't be the pastor anymore. I should, you know, or let's get a new pastor or whatever. You know, that's wrong. Now, if he's getting up and saying that Jesus isn't God, if he's getting up and saying I'm Jesus Christ, okay, well, then all of a sudden, yeah, let's go ahead and deal with that situation, right? But when a man of God is off or wrong about something or has, you know, some kind of a little bit of an issue here, that is not a license to attack that individual. The right response would be if you felt like it was necessary to say something is go to him in private and treat him as a father. Speak to him in kindness. You know, did they go to Moses and say, Moses, so, you know, I know you're interested in this lady, but she's an Ethiopian. I don't think that you should marry her. I don't think that's the right decision. You know, did they do that? Or did they wait until after they got married and then they're just blasting their mouth about, well, why are you still in charge? Didn't you marry an Ethiopian woman? And it's like that is speaking against him, trying to criticize him, undermining his leadership, undermining his authority. You know, that's wicked to undermine the authority and the leadership of a pastor of a church. You know, I've even had people come and preach for me and it's like their whole sermon was just trying to undermine the pastor or undermine other pastors. And I'm thinking like that's wicked to go to another church and instead of trying to build up the church or to try to strengthen the church, you're trying to undermine the pastor. You know, men will sometimes get an opportunity. Laymen will get an opportunity to speak in their church. You know what? That's not an opportunity for you to try and get little digs in against your pastor or to go against him or to try and say, now I know the pastor says this, but actually the Bible says X, Y, Z. You know, I've had preachers. They get up and they're just saying all kinds of, you know, pastor Shelley didn't preach on this, so I'm gonna preach it, you know. Or pastor Shelley, you know, I don't know if he's right on this, but I'm gonna. And I'm thinking like, what is wrong with you? Like, is there not enough Bible here for you to preach? You have to try and figure out what I've got wrong. And of course, you know, if they were right, I would at least be appreciative that they were right about something, but they're usually wrong anyways, you know. Hey, let me correct this thing. It's like, you're not even right. You're being stupid. You're being foolish and pedantic. And it really just shows in their heart that they're wicked. It shows in their heart that they have a problem. So we wanna understand the concept that we're teaching here, okay? I'm not saying that a pastor is not capable of being criticized. I'm not saying that a pastor should not be held accountable for the things that he says and the things that he does, but there's a time and a place and there's a way to do it. Also, if I went to an old Ivy church and I know they're pre-trib, I'm not gonna fill my job to just immediately go up to them and be like, hey, you're wrong in the pre-trib. Just wanna let you know. You know, I've gone to pre-trib churches and I've been members of pre-trib churches for long periods of time. And I never even one time criticized them on the pre-trib rapture. And I went to this church and I kid you not, they preached the pre-trib rapture for three months straight. Three months straight. And the pastor would get up and say statements like this. No one, no one could disprove anything that I've said this morning on the pre-trib rapture. And I'm just like, are you trolling me right now? I'm just like, what is happening? He's just like, are you looking at me? And it's like, no one could argue what I just said. I'm just thinking like, yes I could. But of course that's pride for me to wanna go, I don't wanna undermine the church. I don't wanna make the church look bad. And you know, I feel like it's necessary enough. I'll just go and I'll say like, hey pastor, can I talk to you about this? Can we discuss this issue? And try meekness and humbleness to approach someone. Because sometimes you're even wrong too. There's been times where I thought like, you know what? I think the pastor's wrong here and I wanna ask him about this. And then I approach and then I'm like, you know what, I'm actually wrong. Because you know, give the person the benefit of the doubt and say, look, this person's probably someone that's read the Bible a couple times. He probably knows the scripture a little bit. Maybe there's a really good reason why he actually believes that. And often this is why I approach it. I say, you know, I see what you're saying and I don't see that or I don't understand it. Will you explain that to me better? Or show me why you really believe this. And let them have a chance to go again. And if it's still wrong, then you say, well what about this verse? Or have you considered this? And again, if it's minor stuff, the best is just to keep your mouth shut. You know, I went to Fayettewood Baptist Church and fortunately for me, with Pastor Anderson, I pretty much agreed with him on everything. But there was probably a few just minor interpretations of the scripture that I didn't necessarily align. But you know how many times I went to him and asked him or criticized him or told him like, I don't think you're right on this passage? This many times. Zero times. Right? Now that we've been friends for a lot longer, there's been certain passages where we talk about, we discuss and we bring up. But you know what, it wasn't needful. It wasn't really that important. It didn't really change anything. And it's just silly to sit here and speak evil or speak against or to criticize. You know, and another thing, don't criticize your pastor or other pastors just to other members. Going around and just, you know, you should pretty much only speak positively about your pastor to everyone else. Should be a private issue between you and them. You know, not just going around and blowing off your mouth. And when people blow off their mouth, you know, everyone gets mad about it typically. Look what it says in 2 Samuel 16, verse six. This is talking about Shimei. And he cast stones at David and all the servants of King David and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, come out, come out the bloody man and the man of Belial. This sounds like he was showing up at church here, you know. Now, of course there's always been slanderers and railers and just people that just say all kinds of things. I mean, he's calling David. The man after God's own heart, a man of Belial. Now, any other criticism he has about him, I'm gonna immediately reject. When you're gonna label this guy a worker of Satan, then every other accusation you have about him, I'm not interested in. Yet I've noticed, there will be people, they'll say evil like this. They'll say dumb stuff like this. And then people will be like, well, they're wrong on that, but I like this other thing they said. Or I like this other criticism they have. It's like, no, no, you've already shown yourself to be an unfaithful witness. You're a liar. Why would I then ever believe anything else that you're gonna say? Just like the Jews. I mean, you know, who's a liar, but he that denied that Jesus is the Christ. Why would I believe anything coming out of that mouth? I'm not gonna believe anything coming out of that mouth when you're an anti-Christ. I'm not gonna believe your mouth when you're saying that David is a son of the devil, when you're saying such evil things. Yet I've heard fundamental Baptist preachers come to this message and say, well, actually he's kind of right here though. Cause David is kind of a bloody man. And I'm like, no, he's not. David's not a bloody man. I mean, there is only one case in the scripture that we understand that David slew blood in a poor manner. And that was Uriah. But of course God dealt with that. He apologized and he got it right. And here's the thing, I don't think that Shimei even knew that. Shimei probably didn't even realize that this happened because God said that he had put away his sin. I think only those that were close to David and the prophet were pretty much privy to the fact of what actually happened with Uriah. Just because again, Uriah was out to battle and all this other stuff. It was kind of disguised and David did that on purpose is to kind of hide it from the eyes of the people. So Shimei probably doesn't even know about this. So when Shimei is accusing him of being a bloody man, that's a false accusation in my opinion. I've heard some people that they try to justify it by saying, well, later in the scripture, it says that David couldn't build the house of the Lord because he had shed much blood. Yeah, but that's trying to read into the scripture there. It doesn't say that he shed much blood in a bad way or he did something wrong. Think about it this way. It's probably hard whenever you preach against everyone. Think about this, if you preach against every Baptist in this area, it'd probably be hard to have a conference with all the Baptist showing up, right? Because you know, so if David just slew everyone, it's gonna be pretty hard for him to just start building a temple. I mean, Solomon has to make a lot of treaties with everybody, has to get a lot of goods and services. People are giving him money and all this kind of stuff. You know, it's gonna be easier for Solomon to accomplish that goal than it would be David because Solomon didn't shed blood, David shed blood. But that doesn't mean that David is this bloody man that's going around. I mean, the Bible speaks so evil about the bloody man. The Bible talks about God's soul abhorring the bloody and deceitful man. And I'm supposed to believe that this is David? That David is the person who's the bloody? You know, the bloody man is the guy that's this murderous, God-hating person, a serial killer. That's what he's accusing him of being. So to sit here and then accept this criticism is really just to show you have integrity issues because if someone calls David a man of Belial, you should disregard every other accusation he has about them. And look, there'll be people online, they'll say all men are of evil against your pastor, against other good men of God, other good pastors. And you know what? Don't harken to their lies. Don't try to listen to their, well, I think they have a little bit of, no! No. When they show themselves to be so wicked and so evil, you just say, I want nothing to do with you, Shimei. You're just, you know, in fact, I like the fact that these people just wanna take his head off, okay? But look at 1 Kings. Go forward to 1 Kings. Now, I wanna say this about it. Shimei's an interesting character because Miriam spoke against Moses and what happened in the Bible? Immediately, God dealt with it. Immediately. I mean, there was no time gap. It was just like, you spoke against Moses and you're a leper, okay? Shimei's completely different. Shimei cursed David and in fact, Shimei outlives David. David died before Shimei. So, Shimei didn't even, you didn't even see any punishment to Shimei in David's life. And sometimes, there could be a situation where you as the man of God, you're gonna be criticized by some loser and he's gonna even outlive you. Sorry, this is terrible, right? But you say, oh, so they got away with it? No, they didn't get away with it. Look what it says in 1 Kings chapter two, verse 44. The king said, moreover to Shimei, thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father. Therefore, the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head and King Solomon shall be blessed and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. So the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, which went out and fell upon him that he died and the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. So, you know what? Maybe your punishment is gonna linger. Maybe God is just gonna allow you to just keep cursing and keep doing evil for a while, but be known that it will come upon your head. You don't speak against the man of God and get away with it. Shimei might have gotten away with it for a long time, but that doesn't, just because there's a delayed punishment, you as God's people, be sure that punishment will come. And this is why I think that God sometimes delays the punishment, because you could see that example by Shimei and think, well, nothing bad happened to him. So I'll join up with Shimei. I'll criticize him too. But you know what? That's a trap. It's a snare to fall into this trap and think like, well, he got away with it so I can do it too. No, no, no, no, no. He didn't get away with it. God is just waiting for the right timing to destroy Shimei because he spake against the man of God. But be it known, those who speak against the man of God, those are gonna go and speak evil and try to harm his prophets. You know what? God will judge. There is no doubt about it. Go over to Acts chapter 13. For sake of time, I'm not gonna go there, but number 16, you have Korah. And you know what I really like about the story of Korah is that when Moses is rebuking them, he says, hey, if these people die a common death, if they die what he's trying to say, normal, natural death, or the death that's visited upon all men, then the Lord has not spoken by me. And what have happened? Of course, the earth just opens up and Korah goes straight into hell. I mean, amazing miracle, amazing situation that happened. But this is what I think is interesting. They didn't die the common death. And be it known, I believe that people that are gonna actively attack and actively go against the men of God, they are not gonna die a common death. They might just stumble into an alleyway and get beaten to death when they're trying to buy sneakers. They might, something weird is gonna happen to these individuals. They should be scared on every street corner. They should be terrified everywhere they go, every dirty look, every place that they visit, every friendship that they have. And even if they can hide from all man, they should be afraid that the angel of the Lord will smite them and they'll be eaten of worms. Because you know what, you don't slay the man of God, you don't speak against the man of God, and you know what, you don't try to stop the man of God either. Look at Acts chapter number 13 and verse number six. This is my third point. And this is the apostle Paul trying to preach the gospel, trying to get people saved, verse six. And when they had gone through the island of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God. But Eliamas the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation, withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. So notice he's trying to stop this guy from hearing the Bible. He's trying to stop someone from getting saved. He's trying to stop soul winning. He's trying to make it where people won't get saved. Says in verse number nine, then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost. Notice this phrase, filled with the Holy Ghost. Now when you're filled with the Holy Ghost, what is it? He set his eyes on him and said, I love you, you're so great, I wanna be peaceful to you. No, no, when someone's filled with the Holy Ghost, what do they actually say to these disgusting freaks? And said, oh, full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? You know, he's filled with the Holy Ghost, and you know what, the right response to someone trying to stop soul winning is to be angry. Not to be like, it's no big deal, no problem. No, no, no, no, this guy is an enemy of all righteousness. And notice what the Bible says about this guy. Full of all subtlety and all mischief. Now we read in the Bible, and you would think like, oh, is this guy running over there and like standing in their way and ripping the guy away and just doing all this grand show? According to the Bible, he's subtle. And you know, that's how the devil operates, is the devil operates in a subtle way, nuance. And of course, why do they always work in nuance? Because when they get called out, they're like, well, that's not what I meant. Well, that's not what I said. That's not exactly the words that I used. You know, you always summarize people's actions or the words that they say. If this is their response, well, that's not exactly what I said. It's usually because they have no real defense. And it is what they said. It's just they don't want this, you know, they get a ruckmanite view all of a sudden. They turn into a ruckmanite. It's like, yeah, that is what you said. Well, no, it's not exactly the words that I said. It's just like, but in essence, that's what you were communicating. And it's like, well, but those are not the words that I chose. It's like, quit being a ruckmanite, okay? That's what you meant. That's what you said. That's what you're doing. And you're using subtlety to turn people away from God. And of course, evil people, they love to be subtle. They love to just creep in and they love to just plant little seeds of doubt and just use little criticisms and little, you know. You know, did Miriam get up and just say, Moses should be kicked out, put me in charge? No. Did, you know, Absalom. Did he say, David sucks, let's get rid of David. No, no, no. What do these people always do? They plant little tiny subtle seeds. Like, oh, I wish that I were king. Hasn't God spoken by me? And doesn't that sound, you know, what Miriam said, doesn't that sound exactly like what Korah said? Oh, aren't all God's people holy? You know, we're holy too. We're really great too. We're really wonderful too. God's used us too. You know, it's not just him. You know what? They just, they wanna knock someone down. They wanna tear the person down a little bit. They wanna bring him down. Oh, David doesn't have time for you. Oh, Moses married an Ethiopian woman. Oh, Moses has put himself in charge of the whole congregation. They just, they use these little tiny subtle jabs. And again, what is their ultimate goal? Their ultimate goal is they're just an enemy of all righteousness. And of course, Miriam, she is not as bad as Korah. She's not as bad as Shimei and these people. But she got influenced by the wrong, the same spirit. You know, the devil can still come upon a saved person and give him that same evil wicked spirit, that rebellious spirit, and cause them to be likened unto the same people. I mean, you know, the reason why I think that Miriam didn't get punished by Korah is just because she's saved. Not because what she did was really that much different. It was kind of the same thing. It's just God didn't, she's not gonna send her to hell. She's saved, right? But be it known, you know, saved people can still make the same kind of mistakes. King Saul made the same kind of mistake, attacking David. And we wanna make it clear that, and make it sure that we're not gonna try and stop a man of God. Now, here's the thing. What if a preacher gets up and preaches lies and heresy? And I get up and I criticize that. And I say, this pastor preached this lie and this heresy. Am I really stopping them from serving God? Am I really stopping them from going soloing? Am I really stopping them? Am I really wishing evil on them? No. Am I trying to slay them physically? No. So you know what, there's nothing wrong with a preacher getting up and saying, look, here's a lie that this person said, here's heresy that this person taught. Let's expose it, let's deal with it. And even if they're saved, you know what, you're not going against what the passage is saying here. But you know what, a lot of people go beyond that. A lot of people go beyond that where they're trying to do them physical harm, physical injury. They're trying to cause them some kind of a problem, even financially or whatever. Or they'll speak evil and wish bad things. Well, I hope your church throws you out. Or I hope, you know, I've had a pastor text me and say, you know what, I wish that I could overthrow you as the pastor. You know, and I don't have that power. And I'm thinking like, what in the world? You know, people that are trying to stop soul winning in any way. You know, well, do you really have to call in the name of the Lord to be saved? Yes, you do. Well, well, but, you know, tracts can save people. Where? Show me. Show me all the people that you got saved by a tract. Okay, and look, I'm not against tracts. Hey, mail a tract to every person on the planet and I'll give you a high five. I'm for that, okay? Go for it. But at the end of the day, don't tell me that I'm gonna replace soul winning or open my mouth boldly to preach the gospel with a tract. Okay, that's an attack on soul winning. You know, or people, they get out there and say, where are the nine? You know, are we really getting people saved? You know, yes, we are. We really are getting, well, what if they don't come to church? Well, I don't believe in work salvation. What if they don't change their life? I don't believe in work salvation. So it doesn't matter to me. You know, he's like, well, but, you know, is that gonna really build the church? I don't care because God wants me to go out and preach the gospel. You know, God has commanded me to go out and do this work. And you know, what I like about this story is some people even criticize, well, but why do you have to preach the reprobate doctrine? You're turning people away from God. You know, why do you have to have a Leviticus 2013 sticker on the clock? You know, why do you have to have a pedophile hunter bad? You know, you're turning people away from God. You know, why can't we just reach more people for Christ? You know, why can't we focus on the soul winning? Okay, well, let's keep reading. It says in verse 11, and now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season and immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed. Why? Being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. Here is your first guy that needed the reprobate doctrine before he's gonna get saved. I mean, he's basically being attacked by a reprobate and he's like, all right, let me show you the reprobate doctrine, blind. And then he was like, whoa, this guy's evil. This guy is wicked. God hates him. I wanna get saved, you know. And it's like, look, that happens. If you're a soul winner, you will run into people and they are literally saying, pedophiles are going to heaven? You're like, no. Oh, well, these faggots are going to heaven? No. And they're like, what do you mean? And then you explain the Romans one and they're like, that makes sense. You know, there's so many people, you know, people hate fags so much that they wouldn't go to heaven if fags are going. Think about it. They're like, no, wait, you're telling me that faggots are going to heaven? And they're like, no, no, no, no. Okay, good, because I wanna go there then. But it's like, if fags are going, I don't wanna go. If these pedophiles and these predators are going, I'm not interested. He's like, I'm not interested in a religion that allows faggots to come in through the door. He says, hey, check them at the door. Let them go to hell. And you know what, they believe and they're astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. They say, this is right. This is good. You know, we met a guy out so many yesterday and he said, he has such a hard time with evangelicalism or believing in salvation by faith because he said, there's certain people that I think shouldn't be forgiven. And I was just like, you're right. There really is some of those people out there. And of course, you know, he wasn't saved and he had some things wrong. He wasn't even gonna get saved. But one of his holdbacks was the idea that there's these just really evil, wicked people. And he's like, I just don't wanna go to heaven with Michelle Obama, you know. I'm not interested in being there with Hillary Clinton and giving her a five or whatever. And it's like, you don't have to, okay. They're not even the Catholic that they claim to be, okay. Bill Clinton claims to be a Baptist. He's not, folks, okay. He's not saved. Isn't that interesting that Bill Clinton's a Baptist? Did you know that? I mean, you'd be surprised by politics 10, 20 years ago. I mean, 10 years ago, they sound like right-wing extremists, okay. 20 years ago, they would have been labeled domestic terrorists, Democrats, okay, of their views. I mean, our world has shifted so fast and so quick and a lot of us are just frogs in the boiling water. We don't even realize what's happening in our country and in our society. But let me tell you something. We should not allow anybody to stop the man of God. Go to Jeremiah 28. I wanna go another place. And again, just to reemphasize this and I think it's good to just say it multiple times so if you missed it. But I'm not saying that we don't correct a man of God. I'm not saying you couldn't withstand a man of God. I'm not saying you couldn't separate from a man of God. David separated from Saul. Peter withstood, or I'm sorry, Paul withstood Peter to the face. We see Apostle Paul and other men of God correcting other men of God in the scripture. I'm not saying you couldn't have different standards, right. If you think that a pastor has a standard that you don't agree to and you wanna have a higher standard, go for it. There's lots of people that criticize me and don't like some of the standards that I have for my church or certain words that I use. But you know what, okay, have a higher standard. Go for it. That doesn't bother me. That's not gonna offend me that you believe that something's wrong or you have a higher standard. Some people will allow their daughters to wear dresses and skirts down to their knees. And other men would say, well, I wouldn't let them wear it unless it's down to the calf. Or I won't let it all the way, you know. Think about the hijab. I mean, you can go that extreme. You have some high standards there, buddy. But does high standards always equivalent to righteousness? Because wouldn't you argue that the Muslims have a higher standard of righteousness, you know, they have a higher standard of clothing for their women than virtually every Christian. I mean, I've never seen, even the Mormons and the Amish do not dress to the extremity of the Muslims. So they have such a high standard that they're like, women just, you know, like in eye slits, that's it. Yet they're not righteous, are they? It's a man-made doctrine. It's fake, it's not really sincere. And so sometimes people will trick you and think like, well, I have a higher standard of righteousness than you. That doesn't make you more righteous, though. The only righteousness standard that matters is the Bible, number one. And if you wanna have personal convictions above that, go for it all day long. I'm not against you, but don't pretend like your convictions outside the scripture make you a better person or make you a better Christian, okay? Because frankly speaking, many times those people are just holier than thou's. And they wanna just pretend like they have some extreme version of righteousness that doesn't really exist. Well, we're so much more holy because we don't even let our women's elbows be shown. I've had a person, a supposed fundamental Baptist, tell me that elbows are nakedness, that you can't even expose that. And I'm just like, whoa. Obviously, hey, is our world wicked? And I'm like, if I had to press a button, it's like, women can never show elbows or what we have today, okay. Let's go with no elbows again, right? But that's a dumb standard, okay, in my opinion. I don't agree to that, that's kinda weird. I've never looked at a lady's elbows and thought like, you know. I don't even think elbows are attractive. I mean, I don't know, aren't they kinda dirty looking? I mean, I'm not saying wash your elbows, right? But it's just weird that people create these standards. Jeremiah chapter 28, look at verse 10. The Bible says, then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and break it, and Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people saying, thus say the Lord, even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years when the prophet Jeremiah went his way. So Jeremiah is commissioned by God to not only preach but to do like object lessons where he actually takes physical objects and he tries to emulate, excuse me, some form of preaching that he needs to do. Well, he's trying to warn the children of Israel that they are gonna go into a literal yoke. They're gonna literally be tied up and driven into a country and be slaves. And so he does it to himself to try and illustrate that. Well, this false teacher comes around, rips it off of him and breaks it and then just preaches lies about it. But what he's kind of doing in essence is he's stopping Jeremiah from preaching what Jeremiah's commissioned to preach. Did he ask Jeremiah, hey Jeremiah, can I take that from you or no? No, he's stopping Jeremiah's preaching. He's trying to limit Jeremiah's influence. He's trying to get him to go out and stop being a preacher, stop being a pastor, breaking his yoke from off of him. But notice what happens when they try to break the yoke of Jeremiah. He left, but in verse 12, then the word of the Lord came into Jeremiah the prophet after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, go and tell Hananiah, saying, thus saith the Lord, thou hast broken the yokes of wood, but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And they shall serve him and I have given him the beast of the field also. Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, here now, Hananiah, the Lord hath not sent thee, but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth, this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. Notice someone's stopping Jeremiah from preaching, trying to teach rebellion against the Lord, and what happens? Jeremiah says, well guess what? You're gonna die now this year. You're gonna die this year for going against the man of God, for trying to stop the man of God, for trying to get him to quit preaching. And you know what? We don't need less preachers in America today. We don't need less fundamental Baptist churches in America today. And you know what? Woe unto the Hananias and woe unto the men that try to stop the men of God, that try to stop churches from going forward, to stop churches from being successful. Because you know what? When you stop a church, or you try to stop a church, guess what? God's gonna stop your heart from beating. God is gonna stop you from living, and he's gonna drive you from the face of the earth, because God made it clear to do my prophets no harm. And you know what? Jeremiah clearly preached against that guy. Why? Because he preached lies. Because he was against the Lord, right? So we have to make sure we get the right balance here. We need to not slay the man of God, speak evil of the man of God, or try to stop the man of God from serving the Lord. But that does not mean that a man could not be criticized. It doesn't mean that we couldn't show error. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't do right. Of course, I should be willing to be shamed publicly in an effort for the truth to go forward. Because it's not about my personal image, or persona, or popularity that's important. The thing that's important is the truth. And if I'm stopping people from serving God, woe unto me. I believe the job of a pastor is just to help other people serve Christ better. And I remember when I started Pure Words Baptist Church, and actually it's a little bit before that, just right before I had started, I said, this is my goal, is just to help people serve Christ better. And I just told the Lord, I said, I just want at least one person that comes to my church that cares. I said, if you just give me at least one person that comes to my church that cares about the Lord, and I can just help that person serve Christ better, then you know what, it's worth it. It's worth it to go out there and influence. And you know, of course, I always think of it this way, you know, I can't control other people. So if I have a Jeremiah ministry, or I have a great congregation ministry, that's completely out of my control. All I can do is what God commanded me to do. But you know what I do know, is if I start going against men of God, if I start going against the prophets of God, God's just gonna end me. You know, God's gonna do me harm. You know, when we started this chapter, it wasn't just about the man of God, it was about the people of God. You know, and we shouldn't do harm to the people of God. We shouldn't curse people of God. You know, there's a lot of people out there that criticize, you know, this church, they criticize friends of this church, they criticize the people of this church. And you know what, they are gonna get punished. They are gonna be judged. And when we look, it isn't interesting that when we look at other churches that aren't like us, that don't even like us, we're still hoping that they'll go soul winning, get people saved, do right, preach the right doctrine. You know, it just seems like these other groups that are just so envious, and they just can't stand it. I mean, you'll have churches running hundreds, and they'll be envious of Pastor Jones, just because he preaches better sermons than them. They're envious, they want him to stop because he just makes them look bad, just because he actually cares about the Bible, just because here's a man of God that's willing to stand against the foe. They're just envious that they never get a reprobate, you know? I mean, that's pretty cool, you know? I mean, God thought Pastor Jones worthy enough to send an actual unclean bird, an hateful bird, to come and harass the church. I mean, that doesn't happen to anybody, folks. You know, when the Apostle Paul is going up and down the street, I mean, they're like, hey, these are the servants of the Most High God. Hey, these are the people that are actually gonna show us the true and living way. These are the people that are gonna get somebody. You know, why is it that the reprobate's so concerned about this church? I mean, do you really think there isn't a bigger Baptist church out there somewhere? But you know, they're not as worried about stopping that one They're more worried about stopping a real man of God that's dedicated, that's willing to not compromise, that's willing to preach the whole Bible, that's not even embarrassed to put sodomite deception and psychopath reprobates and sticker. I mean, this guy is not ashamed of his doctrine. If there's anybody that's not ashamed, it's Pastor Jones. I mean, what a great man of God willing to stand for the truth today. And you know, I don't go to church for the people. I've always gone for the pastor and I always will go for the pastor because the most important thing for me is hearing the word of God being preached and to support the man of God and to get behind him and to rally with him and to serve the Lord. And you know what? Your church will always be a success in comparison to Jeremiah. So you can always think that, okay? No matter how big, and of course, you know, I pray that this church runs thousands and of course it can. There's nothing stopping it. And of course, we've seen a major shift in our culture where people are becoming aware. There's a lot of issues. They're realizing how bad and evil these satanic reprobates are. You know, you never know what God can do. But I do know this. When you go against the man of God, you're not gonna get to enjoy it. You're gonna be punished while everybody else that was faithful gets to go inherit the promised land with Moses. You're gonna be the people that get to return with David back into the city and take back the ark. You're gonna be the people that get to go with the apostle Paul out-soul-winning and reaching thousands with the gospel. You know, you're not gonna be all these losers that basically were punished. And you know what? Don't be a loser that gets punished. Just be humble enough to realize God put men on this earth for a reason. Why would I criticize them? Why would I wanna criticize God's friends? Why would I wanna criticize God's prophets? You know, it's a fool's errand. We should always have high respect and honor for the man of God. Let's go to some prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this opportunity to hear the word of God being preached. And I pray that you would just motivate our hearts and our minds and our spirits to have a high respect for the man of God. Even though our flesh may not always have the right opinion or wanna do the right thing, I pray that we would be motivated, even just by the fear of the Lord, not to criticize or go against the man of God. I pray that you would just bless this church, bless Pastor Jones, and that you would be with us this afternoon as we go out and preach the gospel in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.