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I will sing of my Redeemer and his wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross he suffered from the curse to set me free. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story how my loss did stay to save. In his boundless love and mercy he the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer with how the victory he giveth over sin and death and hell. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will sing of my Redeemer and his heavenly love to me. He from death who life hath brought me, Son of God with him to be. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. Great job, everybody. Let's all pray together. Thank you, Lord, so much for Steadfast Baptist Church and allowing us all to gather here together today. And we just ask that you bless the service in Jesus' name, amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 187. Song number 187, Jesus Loves Me. Get the kids involved on this one. Song number 187, Jesus Loves Me. Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so, little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, he who died. Heaven's gate to open wide. He will wash away my sin. Let his little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, he will stay. Close beside me all the way. Thou hast bled and died for me. I will henceforth live for thee. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. All right, great job, everybody. If you don't have a bulletin, one of us just come by, get you guys a bulletin. On the front, we have the Bible memory passage, Revelation 1, verse 8. Any child that's able to quote the verse of the week can receive a special treat. Excuse me. On the inside, we have a service and soul winning times and then our church stats. Please, please make sure to submit your soul winning totals to your soul winning captains. And then we have our prayer list as well as our expecting ladies. Continue to pray for them. We like to go over our prayer list throughout the week. Continue to pray for the Negeris for health. And we've been praying for Miss Lucy, for her mother and her tumors. We've been praying for brother Cameron, who his leg is continuing to heal. Also, we've been praying for brother Pendleton. And then also brother Wallach's friend, Juan. Cancer treatments, we've been praying for Miss Cooley, stepdad, who also is suffering from cancer. We have the Scott family, we've been praying for health and just relief from pain. Also for the Gail's father's kidneys health. And then brother Suhail, we've been praying for his fiance, that their visa would process in time and in a speedy amount of time they could be here soon. Also, we've been praying for Miss Aphelia's daughter, who is diagnosed with inflammation of the heart. We've been praying for brother Rich. I guess he's been having some back pain. He's also asking for prayers so that he can return to work without pain. Also, we've been praying for Randall's mother, who was recently in the hospital. And then also been praying for the Goodwin family for health. So a lot of health requests in there and some other things. So we'll just go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family this evening. Thank you so much Heavenly Father for giving us this evening to be here, to be gathered together. Thank you for our church. I pray that you'd please be with all of our ladies who are expecting. Please be with their children. Please help them to develop and to have a timely birth. I pray that you would also be with our family that has struggled with a lot of health issues. Please give just a speedy recovery to those who have sickness and health and those who have chronic issues. I pray that you could just give them deliverance. Please also relieve them of their pain. I pray that you would also give them peace during their time of affliction. You'd comfort them. You would help them. I pray that you would also help our church family with their traveling requests. Please help them as we continue to pray for those who are close to us. We want them to see them saved. And I pray that you'd just help to use our church to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On the back, a couple announcements. We have a baby shower for the Neguiras. It's going to be on Saturday, April 15th. And it's from 1230 to 230. The location is listed there in the bulletin. If you'd like to know where to go, also please RSVP to Ms. Milstead. If you would like to attend, and please, please do so that way they can accommodate everyone, make sure they have enough snacks or food, things like that. Also, if you'd like to bring a side dish or dessert, please also let Ms. Milstead know that as well. It is nursing's only preferred for our baby showers, but we don't want to turn anybody away. Also, there's a Mother's Day tea, and there's a sign-up sheet in this hallway. Please make sure to sign up, so then that way we know how to accommodate you. I think we have to register our place very soon. And there is a group chat that you can get updates as far as the details on that. You can see my wife, and she can give you that information. Sorry boys, you can't be a part of the Mother's Day tea, except for a nurseling. They'll be the ladies' men there, but it is a mother and daughter tea celebration. If your parents are able to come, but they don't regularly attend the church, you're also more than welcome to invite them to participate in the event. Just please make sure to sign them up, so that way we can anticipate their spot, and we have room for everybody in anticipation of that. Church reminders. So just a couple church reminders. And these are really just no matter where we're at, but please don't let kids get into areas that they shouldn't be. Please also make sure that they're attended at all times. Also, if you bring any kind of a toy or something for your children, please try not to use that during the service or right after the service. Please limit that in between services. If those things are needed, that's fine. And please try not to share them. And the reason why I say sharing is kids love to share, but we really don't want to get in the habit of that, because they could be sharing things that are dangerous, or they get stolen, or they fight over, or not everybody has one. It just seems like it causes a lot of problems when kids are bringing in a lot of toys. Plus, we have a lot of varying age groups, and we don't want some very young child to get a toy that could possibly injure them or harm them. And we don't want to also give an expensive toy. Sometimes people bring expensive toys, and then my kids will definitely break them. So I don't know about your kids, but my kids are very good at breaking things almost instantly. I remember for our Wild West party, we got James a gun, and it was less than a minute he had already broken it. It was like, wow, I didn't even get to see it. It was just like, I saw the box, and then the next time I saw it, it was broken. And I was just like, what happened? And it was like, I don't know, they just break it. So if you bring these expensive toys, it's like, good luck, they could definitely be broken. And you'll have to talk to someone else about that, because it's not my issue, no I'm just kidding. So it's just better if you're not doing that. Also, you know, sometimes people, they just love children, and they just love people, and they just want to give them gifts and stuff. But please just refrain from doing that, or if you really want to, ask the parents first. Because we just don't want people to get in the habit of getting candy, gum, all these different things from strangers or from other people. Don't give my children gum, please. And don't give them anything else, okay? They don't need any toys, we have plenty of toys, we'll give you toys, okay? They don't need more toys, or gum, or candy, or anything like that. It really is, it's just not good in general. We don't want to get in a habit, I don't want my kids to get in a habit where they're just accepting gifts from strangers. Because bad people love to give gifts to children to try and win them over, win their confidence, and we don't want, children will accept any gift. So that's why they're so easy to get saved, right? We want to give them that gift, but we don't want to get them in a habit of just getting all these random gifts, or toys, or candy, or whatever. Because it's just not a good habit. And I'm not saying it's coming from a bad part or a bad place, but to me it's just, please don't do that. If you do do that, you should ask the parents first, that way they can, you know, vet everything that's going to their children. So that's just a couple reminders. And just wherever we're at, in between services, please on Sundays, if you can, just try to be quiet at whatever location you are between, from two to four, that way people can just rest or whatever they need to do. So that's kind of just a few church reminders. Also upcoming events, our Dallas, Texas Sony Marathon is this Saturday. There was a sign-up sheet, but I guess if you haven't signed up, just let Dylan know so we just have some idea. But I think we already have our food and everything ordered, and we're meeting at a park, and that's going to be emailed out to everybody. Is that correct? The location's emailed out? It's on the sign-up sheet as well, if you'd like to know the location. And of course you can always show up, it's going to be a great time. A lot of good soul winning in the Dallas area, that's a great area to go soul winning. Also, we have the Bama's Missions trip later in April, and then May 13th is that Mother's Day tea. We have these cards that we had ordered, the movie tickets, and it seems like they're working out pretty well, I like them. We're also getting new movie tickets for a cool film, it's called The Sodomite Deception, and it's a really good film you should check out. Also, our DVDs specifically are in production, so they're not completely finished, but they've been producing the actual covers and all this stuff like that, and we're getting a big shipment, 5,000 of them to start out. I'm just going to get the sleeves at first, and then I'll order some hard cases as well, but I just wanted to get the sleeves in time for when we go to the Bahamas, so we could just hand that thing out, and God willing we'll get that thing to us in time. I think we should be fine on getting that, but we want to try and get those DVDs then, and we'll distribute them liberally as well. So, lots of exciting things, that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements are concerned. We can go ahead and go to our third song, Psalm 15, and your special handouts, or you could just use the King James Bible, Psalm 15, Brother Dustin's going to come lead us. Psalm 15. All right, that was Psalm chapter 15. Psalm 15. Everybody sing it out on the first. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor putteth hope to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, and whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord, and whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that putteth not out his money to usury, he that swearth to his own hurt, and changeeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. Takeeth reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Dwell in thy holy hill. Great job, everybody. Now as the offering plate, oh, sorry. Now turn in your Bible to Hosea chapter 13. Hosea chapter 13. . . . . . . Hosea 13, the Bible reads, When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel, but when he offended in Baal, he died. Now they sin more and more, and have made them molten image of their silver, and idols according to their understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no Savior beside me. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled. They were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten me. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion, as a leopard by the way will I observe them. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the call of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion, the wild beast shall tear them. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. I will be thy king, where is any other way that may save thee in all thy cities, and thy judges of whom thou saidest, Give me a king and princes. I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hid, the sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come. The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up. He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. Samaria shall become desolate. She hath rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword. Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for Hosea 13, Lord, I pray you fill Pastor Shelley now with the fullness of the Holy Ghost and enable him to explain this chapter to us to the best of his ability, and help us, Lord, to learn more about your word, to draw connections, and to apply valuable lessons that you would have us to apply it to our lives. And we thank you for salvation and for our church and for our pastor. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. We're here in Hosea chapter 13, and, you know, the interesting thing about Hosea through the several chapters we've been going through is it's not been very negative, it's not been very positive. It's talking a lot about the destruction of Ephraim, and that's a clear context that keeps going forward, yet we get some indications here and there about some hope, but it's interesting how he kind of keeps giving them the same message over and over again in regards to kind of their journey and where they're at and what's happened, and I think he's just kind of giving some different perspectives on the exact same situation of how Ephraim has corrupted itself. And you have here this first verse. It's kind of interesting. It says, When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel, but when he offended in Baal, he died. Now, it's a very interesting verse. Having kind of thought about it this week, I kind of ended up interpreting this first verse a little bit different than I had initially thought, but I believe it's making a contrast here. If you kind of look at, if you kind of pay attention, it's saying that when he spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel, but when he offended in Baal, he died. So it's kind of showing, like, two different things that are happening here. They're kind of a dichotomy of situations, and what does it mean to speak trembling? Well, this is mentioned in the Bible in a few different places, but keep your finger here and go all the way to James, chapter number 4 for a moment. Go to James, chapter number 4. But I think that the Bible consistently uses trembling in a context of fear and in relation to God specifically. So if you think about someone speaking in fear to God, it's often associated with trembling. The Bible uses this positively. James, chapter 4, look at verse 10. So according to the Bible, when you humble yourself, God ends up lifting you up. So the way up is down. By humbling yourself and lowering yourself, you're going to be lifted up. Now, if you're not really afraid of God, you're not going to be, you know, trembling or speaking with some type of awe or reverence. Yet when you're trembling, it kind of shows fear. It shows humility. And by speaking with, you know, some kind of a fear, it often kind of shows that you're lowering yourself, and then God can end up elevating you. So if you go back to Hosea here, just look at this verse again. Think about what it says here in this second part. It says, he exalted himself in Israel. Now, at first glance when I read this, I'm kind of thinking like it's saying, like, well, exalting yourself, that's awful, right? That's being prideful, lifting yourself up. But I think in the context what it's trying to say is when he was speaking with trembling, that's what's causing him to be exalted. He's exalting himself by speaking through trembling. He's not lifting himself up necessarily. So it's kind of this combination of he's lowering himself and God's lifting him up. If you go to Psalms chapter 2, go back to Psalms chapter number 2, and I want to look at verse number 11. The Bible kind of gives us this idea everywhere. I mean, I don't think I could go to every verse. I just thought of a couple popular ones that the Bible gives us a description here. But look at this commandment in Psalm chapter 2, verse 11. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. So notice that the Bible is actually prescribing trembling. And, of course, it's rejoicing with trembling. Why is that coupled together? Isn't that kind of an interesting coupling, rejoicing with trembling? But I believe why it's coupled that way is because God does not want us to ever get too lofty of a view of ourselves or in the rejoicing, we're not doing it in our own works, in our own might, but we're rejoicing with trembling, meaning that we're still in great fear of the Lord even though we go through joy, we have celebration, we have victory. We're doing these things yet with fear, awe, and reverence to God. So it's kind of insinuating when Ephraim started out, they spake with trembling. You know, if you think about the children of Israel, when they're being led through the wilderness and they see the great mouth, and they see the fire, and they see the brimstone, especially those of you that memorize Exodus 20, they were terrified. They were saying, Moses, you go talk to the Lord. They were speaking with trembling, they're scared, they're afraid of the Lord, they have the fear of God, and while they weren't necessarily that great, they at least had awe, and reverence, and fear for the Lord. And that fear is a good, healthy fear, and of course the Lord will exalt you when you fear Him. The Lord will lift you up when you speak with trembling unto Him. But what happens in the contrast? Go back to Hosea chapter 13, and then look at verse 1 again. But, when he offended and bailed, he died. So notice, as long as you have the fear of God, you're going to be exalted. But what happens when you replace that fear of God, to now you're worshipping false gods? They no longer are trembling for the Lord, they're in complete rebellion against God. They have no fear of God. To worship an idol is to have zero fear of God. Is to essentially get rid of the trembling, and simply exonerate some graven image, some statue, and claim that that's God, or something that should be worshiped, is showing the exact opposite of fearing the Lord. I mean, if you really think about the Ten Commandments, I mean, what is the first commandment? Thou shalt have no other God before me. So, what is God's, like, really important thing? He's God. You know, there's no other God, you have no other gods before me, no idols, God hates idols, He hates false religion, He hates fake things, and yet the children of Israel are constantly whoring themselves to idols, false religion, false gods. He wants them to be in fear and trembling towards Him, not being a servant of a rock, a servant of devils, a servant of false religion, and of lies, ultimately. And that's what destroys Him. So when you speak with fear unto the Lord, you get exalted when you go after false religion, what's the consequence? Death. Death and destruction, that's when He died. And, you know, you could even look at it as a spiritual death in a sense that they're just completely spiritually dead, now going after false religion. The Bible talks about even a widow woman, that while she lives in pleasure, she's dead while she liveth. You know, when you stop serving God, you're dead. You know, faith without works is dead. And, you know, as described in the Bible constantly, when you're not serving the Lord, when you're not walking in the Spirit, you're dead in a metaphorical sense. And this nation, while they're still alive, they're just dead. A church that has no works in the New Testament, they're dead. So the Bible's really consistent in this message that is delivering that someone that's not profiting, someone that's not serving God, someone that's not doing anything, is in this dead state, or has the quality of being dead. And look, we have a lot of dead Christians in America who are just not serving God. They have no fear of God. There's no trembling in their voice. They're not afraid. You know, the Joyce Meyers of this world are giving them confidence in their sin. God's not mad at you. And God just wants a relationship. It's not a religion. It's a relationship. You don't have to follow the commandments. You just, you know, you just hang out with your buddy Jesus, you know. Have you watched Jesus Revolution, Pastor Shelley? I mean, we're just all hanging out and just having a good time. I mean, all you fuddy-duddies with your Old Testament and, you know, your suits and stuff and, like, commandments, you know. It's just hanging out. No, no, no. False. That is not it. And how irreverent to speak about God in such a way to pretend like he's your hippie buddy that you're just going to hang out and chill with. No, everybody in the Bible that ever meets God, they're not just, like, hanging out and they're cool. They're falling on their face for fear of God. They're in sheer awe and reverence and respect. They look at God as someone to be terrified of. That is the true experience when you're around God. It's not this one of just, like, what's up, my homie? You know, that's a wicked idea coming from Hollywood. It's a wicked idea of the heart of man. It's not biblical. It's not scriptural. God is someone to be feared. And if you study the Bible, you're going to see it over and over, the fear of the Lord. I mean, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of understanding. So those who have no fear of God are idiots, according to the Scripture. They're just idiots. They're fools. God has no respect under them. I want to show you one verse still related to this. Let's go to Psalm 25, Psalm 25, verse 14. We need to increase the fear of the Lord. And, of course, the fear of the Lord comes from hearing the Bible, hearing the Word of God, going to church, reading the Scriptures on your own. I'll say this. There's no other real place to get the fear of God. People in this world are not fearing God based on life circumstances. Hollywood movies aren't giving them the fear of God. I mean, the Hollywood movies, the Chosen series, how is that giving anybody the fear of God? Everybody's like, oh, man, this guy's a lot softer than I thought. Yeah, because he's not the real Jesus. He's not going around rebuking people. He's not going around actually preaching what the Bible says. He's going around telling people they smell like oranges. That's not the Jesus of the Bible, folks. I mean, what kind of weird, bizarre stuff do they dream up in Hollyweird? But that's, of course, what you get when you get a Hollyweird production. It's nothing biblical. Psalm 25, look at verse 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Notice also there's a secret with God. And I find this very true. Those who don't go to church, don't read the Bible, they just really don't understand anything in the Bible. They really just don't understand the things of Christianity. And they don't understand the joys of following his commandments. And, you know, there's so much joy to finding a godly wife. There's so much joy to having godly children. And this is what you could often hear. You know, you take, you have your sweet family, and you go out in public, and people see all your children, and they're well behaved. Maybe not to you, but to the world they are, okay? And I get that, right? You're sitting here like, obey, and then the parents come in, they're like, whoa, your children are so amazing or something. And to the world it is. And this is what they could say. What's your secret? Hey, your wife, you know, makes you like meals and, you know, dresses feminine, and your wife, like, you just tell her what to do, and she does it. What's your secret? Right? Hey, your kids aren't drug dealing, you know, losers that are knocked up and have just a destroyed life. What's your secret? Hey, you got promoted at work, and the boss likes you. What's your secret? Hey, you don't seem to be addicted to every kind of drug and alcohol, and you're just ruining your life, and you look young, and you look healthy, but what's your secret? And it's like, it's right here. It's the secret of the Lord. Why is it the whole world is destroying itself, and there's all this chaos, and there's all these economic woes, and you seem happy? What's your secret? It's the joy of the Lord. And some people, they just don't get it that there's so many secrets of the Scripture, there's so many secrets of the Word of God, and when you follow God's commandments, you know, He's going to give you blessing and life, but when you worship Baal, it brings death. Go back to Isaiah chapter 13. Of course, we need to have fear of God because it's right. Number one, He just tells us to do it. But you know what comes with the fear of the Lord? His secrets. You know what comes with God's secrets? Joy, happiness, peace, prosperity, goodness, everything you could ever want, all the things that we truly want do come from the fear of God, but when you go and you worship false gods, they will bring you death and destruction. And look what it says in verse 2. This is where it gets worse, and now they sin more and more. So at first, they started just kind of going down a false religion path, but notice it just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn't it? Then they just sin more and more. You know, it's kind of like this alphabet animal mafia that exists in our society. First, they just want a little bit, and then they just want more and more and more. Sin just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. Rap music used to be pretty risque. Rap music and rap culture, it used to be taboo. You wouldn't be able to quote their lyrics. Think about the lyrics today. I mean, think about what they're singing. I mean, you can't even say the song title. It's so disgusting. And of course, everything's gone to acronyms now. You know why? Because nothing's appropriate to say anymore. So it's always just initials. Just everything's initials. I don't want to give the initials because they're disgusting. But everything's, you know, basically it's just A-I-D-S, okay? And they just, everything is just, you know, fornication and adultery and drugs and just debauchery, and it gets worse and worse. And there's no satisfaction in sin. There's no satisfaction in false religion. There's no contentment in those things. So they always have to have more. Those who drink alcohol, when they first drink alcohol, you know, I'm going to put an arbitrary number on it, but let's say it took them three beverages to get the feeling that they wanted, but guess what? The next time they drink, three won't give them that same feeling. They have to drink four. And then the next time they drink, they have to have five. And the next time they drink, they have to have six. And the next time they drink, and they just have to have more and more and more. And those who steal, well, that wasn't enough. I got to steal more money the next time. And then I got to steal more. The people that lie, well, that lie wasn't satisfactory. I got to lie a little bit more. And sometimes it's not even purposeful as much as it is. You lie once, and someone's like, well, then how's this true? And then they're forced to lie again just to cover up that first lie. And then they have to lie even more. And then they have to lie anymore. It's like, well, how did, you know, three buildings fall in seven seconds flat? You know, it's like, oh, well, here's a NIST report. Oh, well, then how come this NIST report, you know, what about this? And it's like, well, then here's this lie. And then here's this lie. And then here's that lie. And then pretty soon it's just like, you can't talk about it, censored. And it's just they have to keep compounding sin, compounding lies, compounding evil, because there's no satisfaction, there's no stopping it. And when you go down false religion's path, guess what? There's no stopping it. We live in a culture where moral decay is exponential because there's nowhere else for it to go. It's only going to get worse, worse, and worse. And you see with the Canaanites, that happened. You know, you read chapters in the Bible, like Leviticus 20, and I remember as a child I read that, and I thought, why do we even need this? No one's ever going to do any of these things. All this stuff is weird. You know, people sleeping with a mom and a sister and like, you know, people sleeping with animals and all these perverted things that are going on and people just doing all these disgusting habits with their sister and cousin and you're just like, who would do this? Only in Kentucky could this even be a reality. No, I'm just kidding. It's like New Jersey now, okay? But, I mean, as a child it was like inconceivable. And I just thought like, why is this even in the Bible? But now we live in a society where it's literally happening before our eyes. We're actually seeing people do these things and you actually have to explain them to your children. You're thinking like, some of these things you would think you would never even have to explain and they don't even get it. But now it's like they have to be exposed to it and it's in the culture and people, you go to Walmart and it's there. I mean, why is it that grown men are dressed up like dogs and barking down the street? You're like, what is this? What is this bizarre culture that we live in? But let me tell you something. It's going to get even worse because that's the only direction it can go. And when you read about the Canaanites, it's like God wanted to destroy them probably sooner, but he's like, their wrath is not yet full. And I've worried for America, you have to understand the wrath is probably not yet full and we're reaping the consequences of our actions and it's going to wax worse and worse. And in verse 2 it says this, And now they sin more and more and have made them molten images of their silver and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. So it's one thing that you start worshipping Baal, but then all of a sudden now you have to start, you have to kiss it. And look, it's the same with our society. It's like, well, you just have to say that it's not illegal to be a sodomite. And then it's like, now you have to let us get married. And now you have to bake our cake. And now you have to let your children be subjected to a drag show in public school. Or we'll kill you. I mean, basically that's where it's getting to. It's like, you better kiss the calf. And it's like, I'm not going to kiss that disgusting false idol that you have out there. I'm not going to bow down. I'm not going to worship this anti-Christ that you set up. And you know, that's where you're headed when you don't stick with God's Word, when you're not fearing God, when you're not trembling at God's Word. You get to the point where now all of a sudden you're kissing the calf. This happens in the Bible. Go to 1 Kings chapter 19. I want to show you 1 Kings chapter 19. And sometimes it can even feel lonely in this pursuit of righteousness or carrying what God said. In fact, many men of God consistently throughout the Bible, they feel like they're the only person that even cares. And I'll be honest. There are times when I've had feelings similar to this. There's been times where I've thought things similar to this, and it seems like, man, does anybody even care? It doesn't seem like there's hardly anybody that cares. But of course, you know, we don't want to have this attitude of being a lone ranger or that we're the only one that really wants to serve God. There's going to always be a remnant. And look at this passage of Scripture, verse 18, 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 18. It says, Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. So even in the days of Elijah, which, you know, you could get to this point where you just feel like, man, the whole world is just so wicked and no one wants to serve God. But even in Elijah's day, there was seven thousand. That's a lot. And this isn't a localized area. This isn't across the world. This isn't a specific area. He still has seven thousand. But notice that these men are very special in something. They didn't worship the false religion at all. It wasn't like they kind of compromised. They never compromised whatsoever. And let me tell you something. There is still thousands of people that have not compromised and still love God's Word and have not kissed the Baal image. They haven't kissed the cast. They don't want that wicked, disgusting abomination in their country. And you know what? We're supposed to rally around those people and encourage those people to still fight the good fight of faith and also not get this attitude of, well, you know what? I guess it doesn't matter anymore because nobody else cares. No, there are people that care. And this was before social media. So they couldn't go on Facebook and find out everybody else that agreed with them. They couldn't go and necessarily know. But God's just letting them know, hey, look, there's still seven thousand. Don't get discouraged. And look, there are thousands of people in even this area that still love the Bible, love God's Word, that are not compromisers. It's just we might not necessarily know all of them or be best friends with them. We may never even meet them until heaven. But let me tell you something. They still exist. And we need to be bold and strong for them. And we need to help encourage them as well because I guarantee Elijah is not the only person in this day and age that feels alone. And you know what the enemy wants to do is the enemy wants to tell you you're the only one that's like that. You're in a cult. You're just this lone ranger. You're just this one person. Everyone else agrees. That's why the media loves statistics and polls. But they're all fake, friends. They're all lies and deceit. Oh, you know, half the country loves, you know, AIDS marriage. That's a lie. No way. I don't believe that for one second. All their statistics, all their polls are fake. They're made up. They're a bunch of lies. They say things like 40% of the country approves of Joe Biden's presidency. Where? You wouldn't get 43% of his cabinet. His all Jewish cabinet wouldn't even be that high of an approval rating. Even if his own relatives, it probably wouldn't be that high. The daughter that he showered with is probably not giving him that high of a rating. I don't even know if Hunter Biden can even fill out a poll. I mean, it's insane. They're lying, folks, okay? And they're lying about this. Why do you think they're pushing their stuff so hard? Why do you think they have to legislate it? It's because no one agrees with them. No one likes this junk. They just want to intimidate you and make you seem and make you feel like, oh, you're so alone and you're just this one person out of the whole majority and you're wrong. No, no, no, no. And even if that's true, guess what? I'm still not going to kiss the calf. I'm still not going to kiss. And notice when the whole country is just bowing down to the false religion, well, now it's just worthless. Ephraim just got to the point where they're just like, you know what, let's all just, let's go along with it. I don't want to have to fight that fight. What consenting adults do in private doesn't bother me. Well, pretty soon you're going to have to kiss the calf too. Is that bothering you now? Is that affecting you? I mean, what person on this planet, what person in America can literally tell me straight face, well, what the AIDS community is doing in private hasn't been affecting me. I mean, what person can literally say, oh, well, what the homosexuals are doing in America isn't affecting anyone. Are you kidding me? I mean, we have a whole month dedicated where we have to worship these freaks, let alone now it seems like it's just turning into every day of the year, every day ending and why you have to worship these freaks. If you say anything negative, you could get fired. If you say anything negative, you could get attacked and assaulted and persecuted and ridiculed, and you can't even just live your life. Well, what they do in private, you know, idiot. Are you kidding me? How can you even say that argument anymore? When are you going to wake up and realizing that they're threatening you every day of your life? Well, what they're doing in private, they're not doing anything in private. Everything's open. They're marching down the street, screaming it. Wake up. They're putting their flag on your business and on every business. They're putting their stamp on your chocolate and on your coffee and on your car and on your police force. I mean, they have a literal police agent in Arlington that is the LGBT advocate, the LGBT liaison. Their whole job is just to make sure that they're treated nice. What they're doing in private, how is that private? What's private about anything that they're doing anymore? It's disgusting. How can anybody sit here and try to defend that attitude or that idea? That's just a cop-out. That's you just kissing the calf. Well, what they're doing in private, you're kissing the calf in public. You're not, this isn't private anymore. This isn't them just worshipping a false god in their little home. This is them bringing out the false god in front of you and saying, kiss the calf now. It's just like, well, what they do in private doesn't affect me. Liar. Look at Isaiah chapter 13, verse 3. Therefore, they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passeth away as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor and as the smoke out of the chimney. So God uses three earthly examples to illustrate how Ephraim's just going to be destroyed and become nothing. It's like dew where you wake up in the morning and the grass is wet and then by afternoon, nothing's wet. It's like, what happened to all that dew? It's gone. It just, it was there for a moment. It's like a vapor. It passes away. Not only that, the chaff. It's just this light, fluffy, just substance that just is going to blow away and you'll never see it again. It's just gone. It's just worthless. He uses another illustration of just smoke out of a chimney. Now, if you look at someone that's burning a fire in a fireplace at their home, right at the spout of the chimney, you might see a little bit of smoke, but pretty soon it dissipates and it's just gone. And you'll never see the smoke again ever. And he's saying, this is what Ephraim's going to be like. You don't reverence God. You don't respect God. You are just going to be eviscerated from history. And let me tell you something. Most societies that have ever existed are already like this. In fact, most of the ancient world, the only reason we even know about them is because they're in the Bible. You think that if we didn't have the Bible, we would know who the Canaanites are and the Philistines and the Ashdodites? And I mean, there's in fact plenty of these civilizations and countries and nations that even secular archeologists would be like, we don't know anything about these people. We don't even know where they came from or what happened to them. I mean, how many Indian tribes existed in North America and still do today? I mean, most people can think like Cherokee or something, you know, Apache. I mean, but there's literally dozens and dozens of Indian tribes. And now it's just like, who cares? Who knows anything about them? Who knows about all these ancient civilizations? Nobody cares about them. They're just gone. They're meaningless. They're just eviscerated. Countries are eviscerated. And he's saying, just like that, Ephraim is just going to be gone. And specifically, just talking about these individuals. Here's another just fact, cold hard fact. How many billions of people have already lived and died and nobody knows who they are? I mean, no one. No one alive today knows the vast majority of people that have already died. I mean, like 99.99999% of people that have already lived and died, we have no idea who any of them are. We know people that were in the Bible and we know like our very, very close relatives. Like your grandma and grandpa. But like great-grandpa? Like great-great-grandpa? Great-great-great-grandpa? It's like, I don't know. If you go a little bit higher up for evolution, it's a rock, so you've met him before. But, you know, for the most of us, I mean, you don't even know. Who knows their great-great-grandpa? Who knows his name? I got one hand in the room, okay? All right. What was his middle name? He doesn't even know his middle name. And I hope he was a great guy. But, you know, frankly speaking, let's be real here. Most people have already just died and they're gone. And all of those that were not saved, you know how many people are going to remember them? Zero. They're already just gone forever. They're already just nothing. The rich man is burning in hell and he's been burning in hell for a really long time and we still don't know his name. And you know when you'll know his name? I don't think he will. He's just a rich guy burning in hell. Pretty soon that'll be George Soros and Bill Gates and Hillary Clinton. And if the Lord tarries 100 years from now, many of these people, no one will know. I mean, right now plenty of people don't even care or know who they are. I guarantee a lot of these people. If we just walked up and down the street and we just, you know, talked to the people, it's like, who's George Soros? They'd be like, I don't know. They don't know. They don't care. Their memory is going to perish with them. How about, I mean, these people, they were real people. How many of them do you know? How many of them still exist? How many of it even matters? It doesn't matter. And I think from our human frailty perspective, people just forget about, this is a reason to fear God. Look, you want to live forever, it's through Jesus Christ. It's through faith in Him. And you can actually have a memorial for all of eternity. But most of these people, they're just, it's gone. Verse 4, yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me. For there is no Savior beside me. You know, Trump is not a Savior. DeSantis is certainly not a Savior. Greg Abbott definitely won't save you. I mean, from anything. He can't even, like, stand up to help you, okay? He can't do anything to help you. He's a Catholic. He's certainly not going to give you the gospel. You know, he might tax you or fine you for not supporting Israel or something, but, I mean, who's going to save you? The Republicans aren't going to save you. I'm not going to save you. No one's going to save you. You know, you have one Savior, God. That's it. He's the only Savior. There's no other God. And, you know, this is a good verse just to prove that there's only one God. There's no God but me. Also, there's no Savior beside me. This also proves the deity of Jesus Christ because, let me tell you who the Savior is. It's Jesus. And, you know, that is God. Now, go to Isaiah, I'm sorry, yeah, go to Isaiah 43. If you ever run into one of these freaks, they call themselves Mormons, they don't believe in one God. And so I often just take them to Isaiah 43. And what I like about this is you can just hammer that there's one God so many times in Isaiah just right in a row. So I always go to Isaiah 43, and I look at verse 10. That's a good place to start. But there's a lot of good verses right here just. In fact, if you have a Bible where there's a lot of verses on the page, you might could see like 10 references on the one, like, just in one place where you open. But Isaiah 43, look at verse 10. The Bible says, Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed. Neither shall there be after me. Oh, sorry Mormon, you're not going to be a God. Jesus Christ wasn't formed as a creation and then became a God. No, no, no. He was God. And there wasn't one before him, and there's not one after him. You got one option. There's only one God. There will only ever be one God. And in verse 11, I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. You know who will save you? Only Jesus. Only the name of Jesus. Look at Isaiah 44, verse 6. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. That's really clear, folks. He's like, hey, guess what? I'm the first and the last God, because there's only me. There's no other God. I mean, this is some pretty clear stuff, isn't it? Look at verse 8. Fear ye not, neither be afraid. Have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? Ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God. I know not any. Now, I think that he just gets a little bit sarcastic with us when he starts saying things like this, like, well, I don't know any, but also I know everything. Just FYI. It's not like there's an opportunity here for him to forgot. Oh, yea, there's this other planet called Kolob. I forgot about that. And then there's all these other gods on it. No, no, no, no. I don't know any. He says in verse number 10, who hath formed a God or molded a graven image that is profitable for nothing? He's like, really? You're going to make a God? And think about this, of how complex and sophisticated and holy and righteous and powerful God is, that you're like, well, I'm going to make one out of a rock. You know, I'm going to make one out of some wood. It's like at least, couldn't it be like kind of cool? You know, and of course, you know, AI is coming around, but even AI, it's nothing to God. You cannot form a God. There is no way, it's just vanity. It has no chance against God. It's like these stupid Hollywood movies that come up with all these superheroes and like fight each other. And I saw this one, it's like Batman versus Superman. So stupid. Really? Batman versus Superman? It's like Superman would kill them in less than a second. It's like this is the dumbest, they have to like create a way to where Batman can even kind of fight with Superman. It's like this is so dumb. I mean, Superman just has to just shoot like lasers out of his eyes and he just nukes Batman like that. He could just blow them away. It's just anything. I mean, Superman was so fast, according to one of the movies, he spun the earth backwards and turned time back. Yet he can't win against Batman? Like a grown man in a bat suit? It's like, come on. This is just silly. Played by, you know, what is it? Matt Damon and Bruce, or what is his name? Ben Affleck. The stupid loser Ben Affleck. He can't beat Ben Affleck, come on. Anybody can get that guy. I mean, it's just, that's the same, that's not even as close to as the God comparison, but it just at least shows you how ridiculous it is. If you think that Batman could beat Superman, that's even, you know, it's more ridiculous to think that you could form a God. That somehow that could compete with the God of the universe. It's just not even on the realm of possibility. Look at Isaiah chapter 45, verse 5. Isaiah 45, verse 5. Of course it's all made up anyways, but look. Batman can't win, all right? Isaiah 45, verse 5. I am the Lord, and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known me. And, you know, it's just sad that God has given life, breath, and prosperity to everyone, and yet so many people reject him, don't want to know him, make graven images and worship false gods, and follow the religion of Muhammad, a pedophile, follow the vanities of their mind, the Hindu gods making meals for graven images and pouring milk, wasting milk and pouring it on these things while they're starving to death. What kind of a wicked god is that? You know, our God, think about this. Like, if you serve the God of the Bible, you get to eat steak. Like, you get to go and offer a bullock to God, but then he lets you eat it. He lets you eat the lamb. You know, some of these false, fake religions, you make food for a rock that doesn't eat it. It's like the devil's just laughing at them. Like, what an idiot! He just made all this good food and he doesn't even get to eat it. What a moron! No wonder they look like they're starving to death over there in India. They're making food for a rock. That's what false religion does for you. It makes you stupid. Whereas God is letting you enjoy steak. They worship cows in these other parts of the world. We eat the cow. I mean, our lives are so much better than them. And of course, you know, they're just not going to get it. It doesn't make any sense to them. If anything, become a Christian for bacon's sake, okay? Become a Christian for steak and become Texan, you know? That's obviously, that's where it's really at, the promise then. Let's keep reading here. Verse 5, the Bible says, I did know thee in the wilderness in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled. They were filled and their heart was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten me. Now here's the problem though, with all the prosperity that God gives us, is often it can cause you to forget who is giving you all those blessings. You start thinking like, oh, it's because we're just smarter than those in India. No, it's just we have a better God. Well, you know, we're wiser. No, we have better scripture that gives us that wisdom. Well, I'm just stronger. Well, that's because you're eating good food, okay? Go if you would to Deuteronomy Chapter 8, Deuteronomy Chapter 8. But you have to realize that without God, we wouldn't have any of the blessings that we have. And we don't want to forget the God that's giving it to us. They were in the wilderness and he was there with them, he fed them, and then he led them into a good land, into a land flowing with milk and honey. But he warned them when he brought them into this area. And look what it says in Deuteronomy Chapter 8, verse number 6. And I'm not going to read the whole chapter here, but I just want to highlight a few verses. Verse 6, Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways and to fear him. Verse 7, For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills. So he's describing how wonderful an area he's bringing them to. Skip to verse 11, Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, and not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes for thy command thee this day, lest when thou hast eaten, and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. So notice he's saying, beware that when prosperity comes, you don't forget God. This is why it's so hard to find rich people serving God, because their prosperity has caused them to forget the God that gave them the wealth and the riches and the prosperity that they have. There's a blessing of being poor, is it'll keep you humble and seeking God. But when you have great riches, when you have great wealth, when you have a lot of other things you can do, you end up being more likely to forget God, to forget the Lord. And we need to stay humble and realize that, you know, we don't want to be those who forget the Lord or forget the blessings or where they come from, because that will destroy us. And, you know, one thing that I fear is, I fear for the future of my children because I worry that I might hand them a little bit too much goodness. Like, I worry about, you know, especially from a church perspective, you know, they maybe haven't had to struggle, especially some of my younger children, they won't know anything different. They'll have, you know, grown up maybe in a church, God willing, will still be in church, you know, when my children are raised like this, and they'll have been fed great doctrine and great preaching and knowing the commandments, but that could cause a complacency in their mind, and they don't realize that all the good things are happening in their life or because they're here. And so they go into the world thinking they can have their cake and eat it too, and they forget the Lord, and they don't realize it's going to destroy them. Whereas a lot of us have tried a lot of other approaches or been in the world and we've seen all the evil, we were in Egypt, and then we came into the Promised Land and we realized, wow, this is way better than Egypt. And it's easier for us to not forget the Lord because we know what Egypt is like, but for our children who don't know what Egypt is really like, sometimes it's easier for them to get into a deceptive attitude, a forgetful attitude, not respecting God. And you know what? It wouldn't be the first time we read in our Bible where prosperity caused the next generation to not know the Lord, the next generation to forget who God is. And it's an important job that we teach our children how to be humble, why you don't go the way of the heathen. There's one thing I love about soul winning. You know, you take your children out of soul winning, they'll see what it's like to not serve God. They'll see, you know, all the depravity and the filth, and they'll see all the people that believe just crazy things, weird beliefs, weird ideas. They won't be confused about what Catholics believe. Because they'll see what all the Catholics believe. They won't be confused about all the fake Christianity. They won't be confused about all the false religion. I even love the fact that, you know, I don't think our kids are going to be as deceived on the sodomite issue because they've seen them screaming and yelling and harassing. And they're like, these people aren't normal or nice. It's going to be hard to brainwash our children into thinking that they're just sweet, loving people. I mean, that ship sailed. And you know what? Praise God for it. I'm so glad that they had that experience because if they didn't have that experience, then later in life, maybe their cousin or their uncle or their whatever, they're like, oh, I bet that's not really true. He's probably sweet. They're nice. They give me candy. They give me goods. He wants to take me in his fast car. Oh, they like to go out and have fun. And they don't realize the trap that's there. They don't realize the evil that's awaiting them. And let me tell you something. We want to have our children be simple concerning evil, but we don't want to get them so far attached from reality that they just forget who God is because they're just living in so much bliss and so much prosperity and just so much wealth. Here's another thing. Don't just hand everything to your children. Make them work for it. Make them work hard. You know, our children do a lot around the house. They have to clean up after themselves. They have to clean the table. They have to take out the trash. They have to clean their rooms. They have to bathe themselves. They have to brush their own teeth. You know, don't be a parent that just does everything for your kid. Make them do it. And make them do it right because you don't want them to get this entitled, privileged attitude, this attitude where they don't need to fear God or respect the Lord. No, they need to learn the fear of God because we don't want them to turn out like Ephraim where they forgot. Their heart was exalted. Therefore, have they forgotten me? America's heart was exalted at one point in our history, and we forgot God. We forgot why we even have the country we have. You know, people get so mad at me. I've had a lot of recent conversations. I'm talking to somebody, and they're like, oh, why do you always have to preach, you know, about the homos? And it's just like, that's not the only thing I preach on, number one. Well, I was advocating only the death penalty for them. Murderers, I'm still advocating for their death, too. It's just we don't have a murder community out here protesting. The adultery community didn't show up, okay? The incest community is still in New Jersey, I guess, okay? You know, it's not like I didn't preach against them. You would think a bunch of New Jersey people would come down and be mad at me as many times I ripped on them, okay? I had plenty of sound bites, okay? You'd think a bunch of people that love Indian food would be circling the building, screaming like, he's going to destroy our establishments! Oh, no, the curry! We must protect our curry! But they don't care. They're not threatened, okay? They're the one making it a big issue. They're the one making it a big deal, okay? And they're just like, why do you think it's just so important? It's like, well, did you like America growing up? Did you like all the freedoms you have? Do you like the fact that you live in one of the greatest countries to ever exist in human history? Do you like that? Well, guess what built that? The laws that I'm saying we should have. I mean, why do you think you have the America you have? It's like, well, do you think that's going to work? What do you think society would be like? It'd be great. All the greatness we have was because of that. Where do you think you got? I mean, it's like, oh, what a horrible world to live in. You live in that world. You're a result of the world having been like that. Oh, well, let's build it on idolatry. Oh, so you want to go live in India? And it's not like India turned bad yesterday. It's been bad for a while, folks. It's been not that great for a while. Show me the place that was built on lies and false religion that's wonderful. Oh, you want to go live in the Middle East? You want to go have Islam? We have to hear some guy squawking the scripture. And, you know, to us it just sounds like gibberish. But, you know, it's actually, your women are tilth. Do with your women as you please. Beat them. Strike them. That's what they're actually singing. It's not just like. That's not like that charismatic service. No. It's something like strike them. Beat them. Your women are tilth. That's what they're singing. And you're like, this is weird. And they're like, well, we'll kill you if you don't like it. Oh, it's great. Yay. I love it. That's the society you want? I mean, look, why do you think America was so great? It's because we were based on the law of God. And it's like, make America great again, okay? It's right here. It's the word of God. That's what's going to make America great. Do we want to become Ephraim where we forget the Lord because of the prosperity that we had? No, let's not forget why we had the prosperity that we got. Like what it says in verse number seven. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion. You know, we talk about the devil as being a lion, but you know what the Bible says? God will even be a lion unto you. He says this, as a leopard, by the way, will I observe them. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps and will rend the call of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them. Oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. But in me is thine help. Hey, they killed, they destroyed themselves. But you know what, the only option they have is the Lord, and he's still ready to save. Verse 10, I will be thy king. Where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges of whom thou setest give me a king and princes. He's saying, hey, how is there anyone else that's going to save you? What judge is going to save you? What king and what prince, what ruler is going to save you? You know, I'm your only savior. Verse 11, I gave thee a king in mine anger and took him away in my wrath. Notice that God will give you bad leaders because he's mad at you. It's like, why do you think we have Biden? Because God's angry with us. And God may even take him away because he's even more angry and give you GCP. Give you some other worse leader. Give you Michael Obama or whatever. Sorry, I'm using the name Obama called him, you know. Michael. Hillary Clinton, 2.0. I mean, you don't even have Kamala Harris. Yeah, when we don't respect God, he could give us anything. He could give us anyone. Matthew McConaughey. Beto. I mean, the sky's the limit, folks. He could give us Little Nas X, Kanye West. I mean, you think that we've fallen. You don't even know, folks. Have you studied history? There's some bad leaders in history. Nero. Hey, you want to have a leader that's just tossing Christians into a ring to be devoured by lions? That's what happens when you don't want to serve God. Verse 12, the iniquity of Ephraim is bound up. His sin is hid. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. You know, one of the most excruciating-looking pains is when a woman's about to give birth or the birthing process. It's terrifying. It's scary for everyone involved. I'm not even in pain, and I'm scared. And he's saying that type of, like, just pain and scariness is what is going to happen to them. But you know what? They're not going to end up giving birth and then be relieved of that pain. It's just never-ending. You know, people always talk about women like, oh, she was in labor for 20 hours. This isn't ending in 20 hours. This isn't ending in two days. This isn't ending. This is just going to happen until death. Now, here's our one little bright light in the whole chapter. Verse 14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Now, God will sometimes, you know, paint a picture, and then he just pops in a little bit of a prophecy here. But, you know, we look at this picture. Ephraim's dead, right? It says in verse 1, when he offended and bailed, he died. So we kind of have this picture of him being dead and destruction coming upon him. But then God is giving us this positive note here that he's going to still ransom them from the power of the grave. He's still going to end up redeeming them from that death. And, you know, this is from an individualistic perspective. It's how we're all dead in trespasses and sins, yet he redeems us from our sins, and we're saved by grace. We're saved by faith, and he redeems us from the power of the grave. And, of course, what is death? It's hell. We're saved from hell. We're saved from that wrath to come. We're saved from the evil that God could have delivered us to. What's other ways we could apply this? You know, to the physical Ephraimites, in the sense that they're going to be destroyed as a nation, but eventually some of them will have been scattered, and a remnant is going to come back and be restored, and God is going to physically redeem physical Ephraimites, and they're going to be there. Another application. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 for a moment. Our chapter has our name on it. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. This is kind of an interesting quote. Now, for Ruckmanites, they won't see it as a quote because it uses slightly different words, but for those of us that believe the Bible, we can realize this is a cross-reference. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. Look at verse 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what? There is no sting with death because the moment my spirit leaves my body, I'm going to be with the Lord in heaven. I'm going to depart and be with Christ which is far better as the Scriptures describe. I'll be carried into heaven, and I don't have to feel the sting of that death. There is no sting of death for the saved believer. It's actually victory. It's victory, and we've overcome the world. And notice that it says in verse 55, O grave, where is thy victory? There is no victory for the grave for a saved person because I won't even know what the grave's like. I mean, my body will know, but my old body is nothing. I'm going to get a new body. The grave has no victory over me, yet everyone that's unsaved, the grave has victory over them. And you know what? The grave could not be victorious over our Lord Jesus Christ. It had dominion over him for three days, but you know what? No longer hath it power over him. Death hath no more dominion over him is what the Bible says. Yes, he was dead for three days, but you know what? He's risen again, and he has the keys of hell and of death, and he's going to deliver us from that destruction, from that evil, and we never even have the taste of it. He had the taste of it. We never have the taste of it. The Bible says that he should taste death for every man, meaning not only did he die on the cross, but the Bible says that his soul descended down into hell, but it was not left there because he could not be beholden of it. He was loosed from the pains of death. He was risen again from the dead, and he's conquered the grave for us. He's conquered death for us, and we never even have to think about it, taste it, touch it. I mean, nothing. We will never even know how evil. The only evil we'll know is through the lens of Scripture, but we'll truly never know what hell's like. We can only fantasize about it, and you know what? I'm glad I don't really know what it's like. I don't want to really know. It's so evil. We get some semblance of an idea here, and you know, all human suffering combined times a trillion wouldn't even compare to hell, and we don't even have to do it even for one little bit. Praise God for that. Praise the Lord for such a deliverance, and you know, we have that great picture and prophecy here in Hosea. Go back to Hosea chapter 13, and you know, the Bible says that death is an enemy, and that enemy's going to be destroyed, and you know, there will be coming a day when death will no longer even be a reality for us. Death will be gone, and there will be no more death. Death will be of the past, and we'll forget about it, and it will no longer exist, and what a glorious thing, because death is sad. You know, when someone dies and doesn't know the Lord, there's nothing more sad. That is the saddest thing, and you know, when you read Hosea, it's sad. This isn't, you know, let's not take away from the chapter's essence here, it's a solemn chapter, and when you read the next two verses, you get a picture of the sadness. Look what it says in verse 15. Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come. The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up. He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. Samaria shall become desolate, for she hath rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword. Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. Now, if you were going to say, like, what is one of the saddest things that could ever be described, it's that verse. I mean, if you were going to say, what's one of the greatest fears you could ever have as a society? That happening. And God's trying to paint a picture of what happens to those who rebel against him. God's trying to paint a picture of how sad and how horrible and how evil. But look, even as evil as this, hell's still worse. But he wants you to do what? He wants you to fear him. And he wants you to fear him in this life so that you won't go to hell. He wants you to get some idea like, wow, God is pretty wrathful. That's pretty awful. He wants to show you that the Sodomite community how awful their life is, so you're like, I better fear God. You know, I better believe on Jesus Christ and get saved because I don't want to be like that. I don't want this. I don't want hell. I don't want any of this evil that's going to befall those who have rejected God. But this is what is the end for those who have rebelled. This is what is going to happen to those who do not fear God. And let me say something. America is going to experience evil like this. But not necessarily the saved. The saved can be spared. You know, Jeremiah had to see his entire area this happened to them. He was spared. And you know, I don't want to see this. I don't want to see any of the women or the children or the families in here, any of that evil happen to them. You know, that's why it's important to serve God. That's why it's important to be in His will. That's why it's important to be saved. And if you love other people, to get them saved so this evil doesn't befall them as well. And even this evil, even if it did happen to a person that was a believer, you know, they won't have hell. But those who don't believe in Christ, even if they live fair and sumptuously every day, the evil of hell is much worse than this. And we have to understand the solemnness of Hosea and realize there's only one Savior. From a spiritual perspective, it's just believing on Jesus Christ and you're saved. But even physically, from physical evil, and our world's getting violent. You know what happened in Tennessee this week? It's disgusting. It's evil. It's horrible. I can't even imagine having dropped your kid off at school and then never getting to pick him up ever again. I mean, the savage brutality that's happening in our world. And look, it's not like this is going to be the first or last time that's happened. It's happening all the time. And it's going to get worse and worse and worse. And you say, well, what's going to protect me and my family? There's one Savior. There's one. Trope? No. It's not any of those people. It's only God. This is your only safe haven. You would like to think, well, I just want to run away. There's nowhere to hide. Security cameras, they already know where you're at. You can't hide. You can't run. You can't be strong enough. You can't have enough weapons. It doesn't matter. You have one option. It's this. It's like Ephraim. They had one option. It was this. Why didn't they turn to it? Because they were foolish. And we need to wake up a lot of Americans. We need to wake up Dallas-Fort Worth area. We need to wake up Baptists. We need to wake up people and say, hey, there's one Savior. There's one. And we need to start relying on Him and trusting in Him and not being ashamed of His word, not being ashamed of His commandments, not saying anything amiss, but actually speak with trembling and be afraid of the Lord and what He could do to our country when we don't submit unto Him. Close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this chapter, for giving us the reality, the solemn reality of what happens to those who rebel against You. I pray that we wouldn't be those who forget the Lord or allow prosperity to detain our view, but rather we would continue to be humble, we would continue to speak and rejoice with trembling, that we continue to serve the Lord with fear. I pray that you would just continue to increase the fear of the Lord in our hearts and our minds, that you would help us to motivate others to have the fear of the Lord, that we could speak with confidence in the Scripture, and that you would deliver us from the evil workers of this world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 189. Song number 189, I Never Will Cease to Love Him. Song number 189. For all the Lord has done for me, I never will cease to love Him. And for His grace so rich and free, I never will cease to love Him. I never will cease to love Him. He's my Savior, He's my Savior. I never will cease to love Him. He's done so much for me. He gives me strength for every day. I never will cease to love Him. He leads and guides me all the way. I never will cease to love Him. I never will cease to love Him. He's my Savior, He's my Savior. I never will cease to love Him. For He's done so much for me. Though all the world His love neglect, I never will cease to love Him. I could not such a friend reject. I never will cease to love Him. I never will cease to love Him. He's my Savior, He's my Savior. I never will cease to love Him. For He's done so much for me. While on my journey here below, I never will cease to love Him. And when to that bright world I go, I never will cease to love Him. I never will cease to love Him. He's my Savior, He's my Savior. I never will cease to love Him. For He's done so much for me. Great job everybody. You were all dismissed.