I want you to open your Bibles today, if you would please, to 2 Kings, Chapter 17. 2 Kings, Chapter 17. We're going to read the first of six verses, but we're actually going to be using the entire chapter. Let me just go ahead and say I'm actually supposed to be preaching today on the second part of the reasons why we are different, and I will just come back with that message next Sunday and finish that message. But I was reading and studying this week and this popped out and I thought in light of the circumstances and the election that's going on and possibly whatever's going to be happening, this would be a good time to bring this truth to light. So let's look in the second Kings chapter 17 notice verse one and the 12th year of Ahaz king of Judah. began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his servant and gave him presence. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to Sow, king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halah and Habor in the river of Gozan, other river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Now the title of the message today is Incrementalism, Invasion, and Replacement. I am sure that everyone understands these three terms, or at least they certainly should understand these terms. Incrementalism is simply doing something slowly, piece by piece, little by little, until a goal is accomplished. There are many things that can only be done by increments. Building a house is only done by increments. You must first lay the foundation, and then once you get all the plumbing done, you stud up the walls, and once that's done, you can put up the roof, and just increments, little by little. Moreover, any large task is done by increments. You have to start somewhere, and little by little, you accomplish that task. When you stop and think about education, education is accomplished by incrementalism. I mean, we begin teaching our children phonics, and at the very minimum, sight reading, and then arithmetics. We do not begin teaching them physics and calculus. We lay the foundation, and slowly but surely, we build upon that foundation. I want you to stop and think about the fact that God created the universe incrementally. He did it one day at a time until he accomplished it in six days. The Bible says in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 11, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is and rested on the Sabbath day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So it is true, according to Psalm 33, verses 8 and 9, that God simply spoke the world into existence. Because the Bible says there, Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants stand in awe of him, listen now, for he spake, and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast. And so the answer to your question would be this. Yes, God could have spoken it into existence in an instant of time, but he did not do so. He took six days. He built this universe incrementally based upon his own wisdom, his own counsel. And he determined that which was going to bring him the most honor and most glory. The Bible tells us. in Colossians 1 in verse 16, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And so when you get to Revelation 4 and verse 11, thou wert worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. So God then created this earth in six days. Stop and think about this as well. God's providence is incremental. does not dump everything upon us at one time. In fact, we are taught to pray for our daily bread, not our annual bread. And also, he gives us seasons in which we gather fruits and our vegetables. In fact, the Bible says in Acts 14 and verse 17, nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with gladness and with food. So notice if you would, everything is basically done by increments. And here's another one. Have you ever considered the fact that everything that you know about the Bible, everything you know about God, was given to you incrementally. I mean, when God saved you, you did not become an instant theologian. You could not discuss theology. You may have known two great truths. Number one, that you were a sinner, and number two, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. You knew that for sure, but you could not discuss the rest of theology because you did not know that. How did you get to the place where you are now with your knowledge? And the answer is, incrementally. In fact, Isaiah chapter 28, verses 9 and 10, I want you to listen to this. Isaiah 28, 9 and 10, whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast, now listen to this, for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little. So God taught us by increments. So we understand what we understand today simply because of incrementalism. Do you realize then that our lives, And everything in them and everything about them involves increments. I'm 80 years old. I was not born 80 years old. It took me 79 long years to reach 80. So the point being, that is an increment. And we tend to forget, oftentimes, about the weight that we gain. You have to understand you don't go to bed slender and wake up the next morning 40 pounds overweight. You put that 40 pounds on incrementally and the way you can only take it off is incrementally. And I suppose that you've noticed it's a lot easier to put on than it is to take off. And when you start taking it off it comes off very, very slowly and those increments seem to be just not even noticeable for the longest period of time. Now, I'm pointing all this out for a specific reason. Because we are going to grasp, I hope, a vast spiritual truth that we need to understand in our lives. So let me put it to you like this. As Christians, we do not fall into deep sin suddenly and instantly. It is done by increments, little by little. We do not go to sleep one night and wake up the next morning with a seared conscience. No. If our conscience becomes seared, it's because we've listened to untruth, we've listened to lies, and we've spent time around people that we should not have spent time around. Now, the Bible tells you in 1 Timothy 4, beginning there with verse one, now the spirit speaketh expressly that in latter times some shone apart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrine of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron. Now there's another verse that is going to fit in what I'm going to be telling you. And that's 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 33. Because usually if we're listening to lies or we're listening to untruth, we're around people who speak untruths and believe lies. So 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 33 says, be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners. Evil communications corrupt good manners. Now, the Greek word for communications is the word homilia. And it refers to companionship, communion, and fellowship. So it would be what you and I would call just hanging around together or hanging out together. So I want you to turn in your Bible, holding 2 Kings 17. We're going to be going over most of this chapter. But I want you to look in Psalm 1 at verse 1, because here is an excellent truth concerning incrementalism. I want you to look at it. Psalm 1, verse 1. God says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel or the advice of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Now, believe it or not, God is giving us some incrementalism in this verse. So he tells you what the blessed man does not do. The blessed man does not walk in the advice or the counsel of the ungodly. Well, what happens then if a man does begin to listen to, heed, obey, and walk in the advice of the ungodly? Well, the next step, according to verse one, he stands in the way of sinners. That is, he associates with them. If you're going to listen to their advice, you're going to be associating with them. Well, if you listen to their advice and you associate with them, what are you going to be doing next? Well, he says in verse one, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. That's agreement. you end up agreeing with them. So what began with the advice began next with association and ended up with agreement. So the truth of the matter is just a little bit of listening and hearing of the ungodly leads to association with them, and then that ultimately leads to agreement with them. So let me just kind of explain this again, because I'm going to be showing you this in 2 Kings 17. Christian men and women do not wake up one morning and say to themselves, hey, I think I'm going to go commit adultery today. Doesn't work like that. Not at all. If it is done today, it began a long time back. with ungodly and unlawful thoughts and entertaining those thoughts in your mind. Once you had those thoughts in your mind, once you thought about this subject, the next thing you have to do is justify those thoughts or justify that action in your mind. And so here's how you justify. You justified with unbiblical, ungodly thinking. Well, my husband doesn't love me, or my wife doesn't love me, or they don't understand me, or I'm not getting the attention I deserve, or I think my spouse has stepped out on me, so I'm going to get even. Now, you see, it doesn't happen just at one time. So you begin to have unlawful and ungodly thoughts. Then you begin to justify those thoughts, and you're planning. And then the next thing you go, you pick out someone, you begin to flirt with them, you give them suggestive statements and ideas, and the next thing you know you end up agreeing to meet. So all I'm trying to point out is everything is done incrementally. Now, here's one more illustration. I've preached now for nearly 60 years. I have seen an awful lot of professing Christians leave the church and leave the Fellowship of the Saints. And a lot of these men and women would, once they made it their profession of faith, would be on the front row, full of them and vigor, wanting everything that they could get. Listening, they wanted teaching, they wanted preaching, they wanted this, they wanted that, they wanted books recommended to them. I mean, it was gung-ho. But the next thing you know, they get upset with the preacher, or they get upset about a sermon, Or they get upset with someone in the church. Or they get upset about the truth that they don't understand and don't like. And so now instead of sitting on the front row, they move somewhere to the middle of the church where they're a little more obscure. And then after a while, they're on the back row. And then They start missing prayer meeting. Didn't they miss Sunday night? And the only service they come to a Sunday morning. And guess what? After a while, they're not even there on Sunday morning and they never come back. How do they leave incrementally? So here's the point I'm trying to make. Sin is always accomplished incrementally. It always leads to judgment. Here is the point of 2 Kings 17. It is not just individuals who sin incrementally. Families may sin incrementally. Churches may sin incrementally. And nations may sin incrementally. So what we have in 2 Kings 17 is what you and I are actually seeing today. Okay, hang on. Israel, in 2nd Kings 17, has slowly but surely left the commandments of God. They've left the worship of God. Hosea, at the time, was the king in Israel. Now remember, if you would please, Samaria is the capital of the northern kingdom. just like Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom. So you actually have two kingdoms. And so here, Hoshea is the king of the northern kingdom. He is a servant to Shalmaneser, the Assyrian king. And of course, after three years, Israel, Samaria, is captured. So I want you to look, if you would, at verses 4 and 5 and 6. This just sets the stage here. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no present or tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him up in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Hala, or Habor, and by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." Now, I want you to note, if you would, Israel has sinned, and God has sent the Assyrians to invade them. And of course, they're about to be replaced as well. Now, I've told you this before, but since it's in this chapter and it's in the context, I'm going to point it out again. I want you to see the real reason why Israel went into captivity. Now, I know there are other reasons given in the scripture, but this main reason here summarizes all of the others as well. So I want you to look in 2nd Kings 17, beginning there verse 7. Now we already know that Hoshi has been captured, imprisoned. We also know that Samaria has been conquered. So look in verse 7. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods." Now stop right there just for a moment. So we know they've gone into idolatry. We know they feared other gods. What most people do not understand is the very basis of idolatry. Because we think of idolatry bowing down to an idol. No. In fact, Colossians 3, 5 tells us that covetousness is idolatry. But there's more to idolatry than just simply bowing down before an idol. Now, the Bible says in verse 7, they feared other gods. How did they fear other gods? Look in verse 8. and walked in the statutes, that's the laws, of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel and of the kings of Israel which they had made. There were no godly kings in Israel. So now what they're doing is obeying the laws of the heathen, man-made laws, and man-made laws of the kings of Israel, and refusing and rejecting God's law and rebelling against him. Now, it's interesting that God is equating idolatry with walking in the statutes or the laws of the ungodly. Now, the same sin in 1 Samuel chapter 8 is known as trading God for a man. That's where they demanded a king, a human king, when God was their king. That's when God told Samuel, fear not, they've not rejected thee, but they rejected me, that I should not reign over them. So actually, when we reject God's law, when we reject God's word, It is rejection of God as king, as sovereign, and what we're doing then is establishing and replacing man as king and sovereign instead of God. Now, I want you to remember Isaiah 33, verse 22. Isaiah 33, verse 22. The scripture says this, For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, The Lord is our king, he will save us. So what is God? God is king, he is judge, and he is lawgiver. He's the only one with authority and power to give law. Now, men are not to make law, quote unquote, so to speak. What men are to do are to implement God's law, because God's already made the law. Therefore, you read in the New Testament in the book of James chapter 4 and verse 12, for there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Only one lawgiver. And so that happens to be God. Now, there would be nothing wrong with obeying man's law, as long as man's law is in agreement with and in conformity to God's law. But when man's law contradicts God's law, according to Acts chapter 5 and verse 29, then Peter and the rest of the apostles said to their rulers, we ought to obey God rather than man. And so God is supreme and God is sovereign, and God is to be obeyed more than man. Now, I want you to hold 2 Kings, and I want you to turn in your Bible to the little book of Micah. The little book of Micah, and it is right after Jonah and right before Nahum. And I want you to look in Micah chapter 6. because God is going to show us a curse, but He's also going to show us the reason for the curse. And I want you to think about this in our land today. So look at Micah 6, and let's begin reading there with verse 14. We could have started earlier, but notice verse 14. God says, Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied, and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee. And thou shalt take whole, but shalt not deliver. And that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. Why? Look at this. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap. Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil. And sweet wine, but thou shalt not drink wine. Why? For the statutes, that is the laws, of Amri are kept. And all the works of the house of Ahab and you walk in their councils, that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing, therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people." Now he said, here's why I'm cursing you, because you are walking in the statutes of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their councils. Now I don't know if you know who Omri was, but he was the father of Ahab. And so they have then continued the statutes or the laws of Omri, and God says, I'm putting you under a curse. Everything is falling apart because, uh... you're you're you've rejected me as king you rejected me as judge you rejected me as lawgiver and you've turned to man and so therefore you are cursed with a curse so refusing and rebelling against god's lawful authority and submitting to man's usurped authority is treasonous in the sight of god Stop and think about 1 Samuel chapter 8 again. God said, they've not rejected thee, Samuel, but they've rejected me, that I should not be king over them. So it is treason in the sight of God, because God is to be obeyed at all costs, because he is the king, he is the judge, and he is the lawgiver. So let me ask you a question. I already know the answer, but I'm going to ask it anyhow. Someone came in this room, maybe the president, maybe the judge, maybe a cop came in this room and says, right now, I demand that each one of you reject Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. Would you do that? Well, I know the answer. No, you wouldn't do that. What if someone came in with a pistol, pointed at you and said, right now you reject Jesus Christ or you're going to die? Well, there might be a few that would cave in, but most would not. Most would not. Not if they really and truly knew the Lord Jesus Christ. So what I'm trying to tell you is this. I'm going to show it to you. The professing Christians who would not denounce Jesus Christ or deny him or his word or his truth would not do it by request and would not do it by coercion, but they would do it by incrementalism because they would not realize what was happening until it was too late. Now, I want you to watch this. Go back to 2 Kings 17. Watch carefully. Let's read verse 8 and then verse 9. And they walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and the kings of Israel which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, And they built them high places in all their cities, from the Tower of the Watchmen to the Fenced City." Now, it's important to understand that this rebellion and this idolatry began secretly That is where all sin begins, secretly. The word secretly is the Hebrew word kafa, and it means to do something covertly or to do something secretly. That is why on the farm when we were children and we wanted to do something bad, maybe smoke a cigarette or something, we would go out behind the barn. Why would you go behind the barn? Because nobody could see you. Secret. You know, the Bible talks about people doing things at night. You know why? Because of darkness. Folks cannot see you. And so when the Bible is talking about doing these things secretly, the Bible is referring to that which is done in the mind where no one can see what you are thinking. No one is knowing your thoughts except you and of course God. Now, I want you to, You don't have to look there, I'll quote it for you. But in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 8 and verse 12, if you want to turn there, look at Ezekiel 8 and verse 12, and look what God shows Ezekiel about the ancients of Israel. In Ezekiel 8 and verse 12, Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of Israel do in the dark? every man in the chambers of his imagery, or they say the Lord seeth not, and the Lord has forsaken the earth. So doing it in the dark means the chambers of the imagery. He's talking about the idolatry of all of these ancients that began in their mind. So here's what is happening in 2nd Kings chapter 17. All of this idolatry and all of this rebellion was in the minds and the hearts of the Israelites. When it could not be contained any longer in the mind, then they began to do their heathenistic worship out in the forest, under the trees, in the mountains, and as God says, under every green tree. They did them over and over and over. Now, I want you to watch this. He said in verse 9, And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. And they built them high places in all their cities. I'm going to come back to that. From the tower of the watchman to the fenced city. Now, this is a proverbial expression which just simply refers to the abundance of altars and high places." I'm going to give you three quotes. The first one is from the Puritan John Trapp. He said, from one corner of the country to another, a proverbial form of speech. Then Matthew Pooh. in all parts and places, both in cities and in the country, yea, in the most uninhabited and neglected parts, where few or none dwell beside the watchman, who are left there in towers to preserve the cattle and fruits of the earth, or to give notice of the approach of enemies. Then one more, Kyle and Dalich, in all their cities, from the tower of the watchman to the fortified city. He said, the Hebrew word for tower, migdal, is a tower built for the protection of the flocks in the steeps, that is, in the mountains, and is mentioned here as the smallest and most solitary place of human abode in antithesis to the large and fortified city. And in other words, what we are being told is they had these altars everywhere. in the country, but then it got into the cities as well. So look in verses 10 and 11. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree. There it is. And there they burned incense in all the high places, as did the heathen, whom the Lord carried away before them, and they wrote wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. Now, if you go back to verse 10, they did this, look at it, and they set them up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree. Now, the word image just refers to statutes. In other words, statues. They'd made statues which God had forbidden. They'd made idols. But now he talks about groves. Now notice, the groves is not a grove like you and I think about. We think about someone like one of my friends who owns a huge pecan grove, or we talk about a grove of oak trees, or a grove of hickory trees. No. Every time you see the word grove in the Old Testament, with the exception, and I forget the chapter in the book of Genesis, where Abraham planted a grove of trees, That refers to a grove of trees. But the grove, the rest of the time, refers to a false idol. In fact, the Hebrew word is a shira, which was the false goddess Astarte, who was the consort of Baal, who was a Canaanite goddess. Now, she may have been carved from a tree. It was an image. But it is not a grove of trees, it is just simply this Canaanite goddess. And she was an idol. So if you look back at verse 11, and there they burnt incense into all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them. and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, here it is, for they served idols, that goes back to the grove, that goes back to the image, for they served idols whereof the Lord had said unto them, You shall not do this thing. Now, here's the interesting thing. These people had totally rejected God, rejected his law, rejected his covenant, rejected him. And yet in his grace, in his mercy, in his compassion, he warned them and pleaded with them. So look, if you would, in verses 13 and 14. Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all the prophets and all the seers saying, turn you everyone from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law, which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by my servants, the prophets. Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their necks like to the neck of their fathers. that did not believe in the Lord their God. So God sent to them his prophets and beseeching them and commanding them to turn from their wicked ways, and yet they would not. They would not even listen. Now, what I want you to see next is the secret sin that became open in the sense that they were worshiping under trees and on mountains and mounds has now led to the point where they completely and totally repudiate God and His covenant and His Word. So if you look in your Bibles there to verses 15 through 17, look how total they were and their rejection of God. And they rejected His statutes and His covenants that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them. And they followed vanity, that is, idolatry. And they became vain, that is, idolatrous, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshiped all the hosts of heaven, and served Baal. Here it is. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divinations and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. I want you to notice the fact that the Bible says they sold themselves. You remember, the Bible tells us that Ahab sold himself. Anytime we sin, we are selling ourselves into slavery. We're selling ourselves into bondage. We're selling ourselves to judgment and destruction. Wow. Now, here's the final insult. You remember God had his house in Jerusalem that was built by Solomon. Well, what these people have done is they not only got tired of worshiping their idols on the mountains, on the mounds and under every tree. So they built houses for them, which means then that they totally rejected and repudiated the house of God. So, uh, If you look to verse 29 of 2 Kings 17, "...howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt." Now skip down to verse 32. So they feared the Lord and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrifice for them in the houses of the high places. Now the word houses is the word of bias in the Hebrew, which means a house, a dwelling place or habitation. So now they have totally rejected the house of God that is in Jerusalem. and they made all these different houses for their false gods. Previously, they had just worshipped under every green tree and on the mountains, but now they have their houses for their idols, and they completely and totally rejected God. Now, here's the sad thing. Judah, the southern kingdom, had stayed true for a while, but they finally capitulated and compromised and went with the heathen. So if you look in 2 Kings 17, beginning there with verse 19, 2 Kings 17, verse 19, look at this. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God. but walked in the statutes of the laws of Israel, which they made. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel and afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of the spoilers until he had cast them out of his sight. So here's something we need to understand. We need to understand that civil unrest Invasion, confusion, and chaos in a nation is the judgment of God for rejecting His statutes, His rule, and His worship. Israel, and later Judah, were both invaded and replaced. Let me show you. Look in your Bibles to verse... Oh, let's read verse 22. Let's start there. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did, they departed not from them until the Lord, notice now, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all of his servants, the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. Hang on. and the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Qatar and from Ava and from Hamath and from Sephardim and place them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they possessed some area that is the even and dwelt in the cities thereof. So let me make this statement. Nations that have been invaded, overwhelmed, captured, removed, and replaced are clear evidences of God's judgment. So it's important for you and I to note that the Assyrian king took the Samaritans, he took the Israelites out of the northern kingdom, especially around Samaria, since it was the capital, and put them over in Assyria in different areas. He then took heathen from different parts of the country, Babylon, Ava, Hamath, brought them over and put them into Samaria. Now, why in the world would he do that? Why would he import foreigners? Why would he not just leave the Samaritans where they were? Well, the answer is very simple. Because he was a tyrant. because he did not want any uprisings. He did not want any rebellions. So what he did, he took the Israelites out, placed them in foreign lands, different places, divided them, and brought all these different heathen and put them in the same country. So think about this if you would. There could not be any collaboration There could not be any identification. There could not be any collusion between all these people. Probably some of them could not even speak the same language. And so when you have different religions, you have different cultures, you have different habits. Good gracious. How could there be any uprising against the king? Because you can't get together on anything. When you read this chapter, and I encourage you to read it tonight, you'll find they worship so many different gods. They worship Timash, they worship Baal, they worship Tartak, they worship all of these gods. How in the world are you going to get people together when they cannot agree on religion, they cannot agree on culture, they cannot agree on habits, they cannot agree on anything? And so the king then knew exactly what he was doing. Now the few Samaritans, that were left in the land intermarried. They intermarried with the heathen. Now, Judah, remember, for a while, did not capitulate, did not compromise. Eventually, Judah did. But this is why, when you read in the New Testament, the Judahites referred to the Samaritans as dogs, because they'd intermarried with the heathen. And you remember there in John chapter 4, when our Lord went to Samaria and the woman came there to the well, and our Lord asked her for a drink of water, she said, whoa, whoa, wait, stop. How is it that thou being a Judean speaketh unto me a woman which hath of Samaria? Because the Judeans wouldn't even speak to the Samaritans because they counted them as dogs. So here's what God has done. God took these people who wanted to worship foreign idols, and he put them in a foreign land where they could get their belly full of foreign idols. In other words, this is perfect justice. This is the lex talionis, where God makes the punishment fit the crime. He put them in those foreign countries. Now, ah, They're now going to find out the futility and the impotence of serving those gods. Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, please, to Deuteronomy 28. I want you to hold on a second, Kings. We're coming right back there. But let me show you this. Look in Deuteronomy chapter 28. And let's begin reading there in verse 45. See, God said this specifically. This is part of the curses for disobedience. He says, Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed, because thou hearkenest not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes, which he commanded thee. And they shall be upon thee for a sign, and for a wonder, and upon thy seat for ever. Watch this. Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, For the abundance of all things, therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall send against thee in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in one of all things. And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flyeth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young. He shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed, which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kind, or flocks of my sheep until we've destroyed thee. And he shall be seeds in all thy gates until the hind fence walls come down. We're in thou trust us throughout all the land. He shall be seeds in all thy gates throughout all the land, which the Lord thy God has given thee. In other words, God said, I'm going to, I'm going to teach you the difference between my service and the service of these idols. Now I want to show it to you again. So if you will look in second Kings chapter 18 second Kings chapter 18 look at verses 11 and 12 here it is again. Second Kings 18 verse 11. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria and put them in Hala and Habor by the river goes and, and in the cities of the meads because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord, their God, but transgressed his covenant and all that Moses and servant of the Lord commanded and would not hear them or do them. So they would not obey, and they would not listen. Now, skip down to verses 33 and 34. Same chapter, 2 Kings 18, verse 33. Look at what is said. Now watch. Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvim? Hina and Iva, have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? Notice if you would, he's talking about all of these foreign gods that were in Samaria. Yes, God sent them into captivity because of those foreign gods. Foreign gods cannot save, they cannot deliver. All of the time, all of the expense, and all of the self-gratification that they had with all these heathenistic gods only merited and brought forth judgment. Now, I want you to think. I only have one application today, and it's going to take me a few minutes to make it. Have you been thinking about what is going on in America? and have you been thinking incrementally? Where we are today in America did not start yesterday. It started a multitude of years back. Incrementally, we have left our status as a Christian nation. Now, when you talk about a Christian nation, that does not mean that everyone in the nation is a Christian, but a Christian nation is a nation that has God for their God and his law for their laws. And originally that is exactly the way this country was set up. I can give you charter after charter, where you could not even hold a public office unless you confess that Jesus Christ was Lord and King and you believed in both the inspiration of the Old and the New Testaments. Yeah, that was in every colony. Look at all the original charters. So the point I'm trying to make is this. We have left all of our Christian principles incrementally. You remember, We kicked prayer and Bible reading out of the governmental schools years back. You remember that? I saw a picture. It was not a cartoon, but it was a picture of some people. And they were hollering and crying and screaming about the school shootings and the kids that were killed. And they were saying, why did God allow this in our schools? and someone had written under that, you kick God out, he's not there. Well, I understand, you know, God is omnipresent, but yeah, that's the principle. They kicked him out, yes. But not only that, we've allowed Moloch worship in the sacrifice of our children, in abortion, and also in governmental indoctrination. You remember when they worshiped Moloch, some of those kids were actually sacrificed. They were burned to death for Moloch. Others were just passed over the fire and purification and dedicated to the worship and service of Moloch. And unhappily, many of our governmental and public educational students are nothing more than good little statists. They know nothing of the Lord God because you can't have the Bible, you can't have prayer, you cannot have the Ten Commandments in a government educational unit. So not only that, think about this, we have allowed drag queens and sodomites and transvestites and other ites as well to not only express themselves but to seduce our children. Wow. We've allowed the social gospel to take over and gain foothold in our churches to the exclusion of the true gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. We've turned our churches into social clubs and entertainment centers. I've had people tell me, I go to such and such church because I have a good time. Really? You don't go to church to have a good time. You go to church to worship God. I've had people tell me, I go to such and such church, it makes me feel good. You don't go to church to feel good. You go to church to worship God. We've turned them into entertainment centers. We've also allowed sports, hunting, fishing, and other hobbies and habits, whatever, to take precedent over the worship of God. Alice and I just about every Sunday, especially during the summer, we pass people in boats or towing boats on the way to the river, on the way to the ocean, you know. It's hunting season. I'm sure folks are out hunting today. I saw something a while back I got really tickled about. This one husband told his wife, he said, it's a beautiful morning. He said, I'm going to get up and go hunting. She said, but today is Sunday, we need to go to church. He said, no, no, I'm going hunting today. So he got up and got dressed and left. And an hour or so later, he was back. And she said, well, what brought you back? He said, the Lord, the Lord convicted me. And I came back, I'm going to church. She said, well, how did he convict you? And He held his phone up and showed her a picture. There's a huge black bear sitting in his stand. He said, I got the message. I'm coming back to go to church. Well, but you know, we let anything take precedent over the worship of God. Well, I had company. You know, stop and think about this. My company can come to church with me. I've often thought, I've often thought, I would never do it, but I've often thought about it. Just not showing up one Sunday. When everybody calls to check on me, say, well, I just didn't feel like going today. That's what I hear all the time. Well, I just didn't feel like it. What? You understand. Well, we've allowed, think about this one, we have allowed foreign temples, mosques, and other buildings to be built in abundance in this nation to the exclusion of Christianity. In fact, our own government has built some of these mosques and some of these temples in other countries for the pagans. I know that for a fact. And I would really suspect, I do not have the evidence, that they have actually built some of those in this country as well. When you pass some of these temples, wow, you should see the one near Atlanta. You should see the one an hour up the road from us. When you see some of these huge mosques in Michigan and around, You have to wonder, where in the world did they get the funds to build such a magnificent structure? These things are not easily built the way they are built. And just think about, they're now on every corner, almost like the churches are. Our government, think about this, at first secretly and then openly allowed us to be invaded by communist, Marxist, terrorist, criminals, and sociopaths. We have been deliberately and premeditatedly invaded. There's just no two ways about it. We've also allowed our government to steal our silver and our gold and give us nothing but this funny money, this fiat paper money, which is absolutely worthless. Everybody keeps talking about inflation, inflation. Inflation is not our problem. Inflation is the symptom. High prices is a symptom. Inflation is caused by the continual printing of money, and therefore our paper money continues to go down in value. It is worthless, and therefore it takes more and more to purchase what we used to purchase. It's just that simple. But yet we've allowed all of that, contrary to the Bible and even the Constitution, demanding silver and gold as our standard for money. Stop and think about the people. Some of our, some of them Christian folks who've already fled this country, expatriated, got out because they think some other countries are going to be safer than this country. And think about also, All these foreigners that are coming in, and a lot of our people are marrying them, and now what you're going to have is divided households, divided loyalties, divided religions. You're not even going to have Americans anymore. Let me give you a quote. You may have heard this. This is from President Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt. May not agree with everything in this quote, but at least he's hitting the nail on the head. Here's the quote. He said, in the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with anyone else. For it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the persons becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room but for one flag, the American flag. We have room but for one language here, and that is the English language, and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people. Wow. Where is Teddy Roosevelt today? So here's what I'm trying to show you. Incrementally, we're being destroyed. Incrementally, we're destroying ourselves. Incrementally, we're being judged. And unless there is repentance, all I can say is you better buckle up because it's going to get a whole lot worse than it is. God is immutable. We understand that. God is unchangeable, but also his judgments are unchangeable. And the reason that he judged people hundreds and thousands of years ago is the same reason he judges people today. The reason he judged Israel as a nation is the same reason he will judge America as a nation. Our only hope is in repentance and restoration. Unless we turn back to God in humility, In faith and in repentance, there is no hope. Our hope is not in politics. Our hope is not in man. Our hope is not even in our Constitution. Our hope is in God alone. If God does not turn our hearts and turn our minds, we'll never be turned. It's just that simple. Now, one other thought. I want you to think about this. We sin by increments. I've pointed that out. We may also be restored by increments. What do I mean by that? Well, here's what I mean. There's not one in this room and no one listening to me who can go to Washington, D.C. and drain the swamp. We're not going to have a revival top down. I cannot control Washington, D.C. I cannot control Atlanta, Georgia. But by the grace of God, there's one person I can control, and that's myself. And I have to start with myself, making sure that I am right with God and my repentance is real and genuine. And once my heart is right with God, I can work on my family. Once my family gets right with God, I can work on my church. Once my church gets right with God, I can work on my community. Once my community gets right with God, I can work on my city or my county. You see what I'm saying? It's going to be from the bottom up, incrementally. It's not going to be from the top down. Now, here's the question. You say, but there's not enough time. Oh, hang on. Proverbs 16, verse 7. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. If we just started pleasing God and obeying Him, we would have extra opportunity, extra time, because He's quite capable of making our enemies to be at peace with us, to leave us alone so that we could accomplish that which He's ordained. Incrementalism. Just like we sin incrementally, just like we've been invaded incrementally, just like we've been replaced incrementally, we can repent and seek restoration incrementally. Because when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. The road back to God will be by increments. unless God, just in His mercy, does something suddenly the way He did in the Old Testament under the revival of Hezekiah. Incrementalism, invasion, and replacement. Let's seek the Lord and ask Him to turn our hearts. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask you for your grace. We ask you for your mercy. We pray, Lord, that you would indeed show us the importance of this message. And, Lord, what is happening in our country? And, Lord, whether it's chaos, confusion, civil war, I don't know what's coming. But, Lord, help us to know that you are the answer, and obedience to thee is part of that answer. Help us, Lord, to honor thee and glorify thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray, amen.