Amen. Okay, 1 Samuel chapter 3. And we finished up 15 through 18 roughly last time. And a whole idea there was that the first message that Samuel was given was very negative and hard to give. The whole thing was basically, I'm done with Samuel and I'm gonna basically wipe out his offspring and it's not gonna be good for him. And if you come to verse 18, Samuel does what every preacher should strive to do, the Bible says, and Samuel told him every wit, that means the whole thing in the archaic English there, and hid nothing from him. And like I talked about last time, the tendency for a preacher is to kind of only talk about the positive things and avoid what God has laid on his heart because it's negative. And so we talked about how important it is for a preacher or for any Christian. If God has given you a message to give, that you give that message and you don't remove words from it to make it sound better than you think it should sound right. And so you want to give every wit like like it says there is Samuel. And it's specifically look at this testimony that Samuel had look at verse 19 Bible says and Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and man What a great what a great testimony and did let none of his words fall to the ground Great testimony for a preacher to have now. I'll just tell you this I have heard a good amount of teaching and preaching Amen And I've heard preachers where I was suspicious of them and about what they were preaching and why they were teaching it that way, and why would you say it this way instead of this way, yada yada. I try not to sit in the church and be hypercritical of the guy. I'm there to try to feed on something, amen? You don't ever want to get in the position where every time you listen to preaching, you're like, the whole time, I don't think God can speak to you as well if you're like that. And that's your spirit, right? But, you know, you wonder about some things, and then I've heard preachers where it's like, that guy shot straight with me, and he gave it exactly how it's supposed to be. He didn't try to dress it up. He didn't try to make it all cutesy and all that. He just, this is the truth, and here it is right over home plate, you know what I mean? Just like that, that's what Samuel was. If God said it, he said it that way, amen? And that's important for a preacher to do. And Lord help me, amen? Lord help me, right? So I hope you're praying for me. Amen, but that is the goal the goal of any Christian or any preacher I don't care if you're a woman or man who you are is that when God says tell him this you tell him exactly what God said and I took you back to Exodus last time and I showed you how when when Moses is still over in the wilderness God appears to him in a burning bush and he says when you and Aaron get into Egypt you tell him Israel is my firstborn and you're gonna let him go and if you don't let him go I'm gonna take your firstborn and then you turn a couple verses over to chapter 5 of Exodus and Moses there and show up to Pharaoh's seat there and his palace or wherever he is and they they tell him let Israel go but they leave out the I'm gonna kill your firstborn part Amen? So the tendency is there. Moses is a great man of God as far as I'm concerned. And even he was susceptible to remove the negative part of the message because it's not fun to deliver sometimes. I don't think Samuel enjoyed telling, okay, Eli what was about to happen to his family. I don't believe that at all. And so what we wanna do is we wanna give God's word. Thus saith the Lord, amen. That's what you wanna do. Now look at verse 20. And look at this, all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba. What he's saying there when he says that, when you think about that phrase, it shows up quite a bit. Dan, here's a good map of this going on here. Dan is up here, okay? Dan is in the north. And then Beersheba's down here in the south. So sometimes in the Bible, you'll see from Dan to Beersheba, it's talking about everybody, right? All the 12 tribes. And that's what he's saying there. So from Dan to Beersheba, all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. They knew he was the real deal. They knew that he was called of God to be saying the things he was saying. And that's because when he was preaching, he was giving them the word of the Lord. That's where the power is, amen? And so when Samuel preached and when he taught, it was, thus saith God. And that stood out to people. They knew, this guy's called it. Man, did you hear that guy preach? He's a real deal, amen. Did you hear him teaching? Did you hear what Samuel said? Can you believe he said that? You know, that should remind you of somebody else. Jesus, when he showed up, the people heard him gladly. Why? He spake not as the scribes and the doctors and all these people, right? When Jesus spoke, he spoke with authority. People noticed this guy's not talking like the people down at the temple. We've been to their church service. Amen. Did you hear Jesus speak? He spake as one having authority Now, where does authority come from? Amen. Authority does not come from, Gus Richardson thinks, therefore, my experience is, my opinion is, what I think is that my truth is that there's no authority in that. But when you say, thus saith the word of the Lord, turn to 1 Samuel 3 and read from the very words of God, now we have authority, amen. The authority is not in me. The authority comes from the book. When they heard Jesus talk, and when they heard Samuel preach, they said, something's different about this guy. Now the problem is, is people know when they're hearing real preaching. The problem is, is hardly anybody wants to sit under that. There's the problem, amen. Nobody wants to hear preaching. I want a guy who will tickle my ear. The Bible says in the latter days shall part from truth and they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, amen. Not preachers, they heap teachers to themselves. I know who has now, thank God for YouTube and the teaching that's on there. Praise God. God's used it. I believe that. But I've just so happened to notice that all the YouTube videos that have all the views, by the way, are the teaching videos. Amen. The videos on YouTube that have millions of views is not the sermon that's hard preaching. Nobody wants to hear that, amen? They want teachers, because when you teach something, it's not convicting like preaching is, all right? And there's a difference between the two. So anyways, when they heard him preaching, they knew that he was speaking with authority, and so everybody knew. It's like, yeah, did you hear that guy preach? Yeah, the Lord's gonna use that guy. The Lord's gonna use that guy. And so they were saying that. Verse 21, 1 Samuel 3, 21, and the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, And the Lord revealed himself to Samuel and Shiloh by the word of the Lord. How does God reveal himself to somebody? It's a good question to ask, right? Well, he's gonna reveal himself to them in this or that and the other. Ultimately, when it boils down to it, biblically, the way that God wants to reveal himself to you is through his word, amen? That's how we learn of God. Technically speaking, you don't need another man to tell you anything. And I have scripture for that. You have not need that any man teach you, the Bible says, because you've been given the Holy Spirit. When I depart, I will send the comfort and he will come and he will lead you into all truth, he will teach you, the Bible says. Now the Bible says, and also in other places, it says in Ephesians, for example, he shall send, he'll set up evangelists, he'll set up teachers and preachers. So he uses those two, amen? But God speaks in all types of ways. But you say, well, how would how would God reveal himself to somebody? The way that he wants to is through his word. You say, well, I was I was watching The Chosen and and, you know, and then I started to believe in Jesus. Well, praise the Lord that God used that to lead you to him. But where he wants you to be is with your nose in that book. And that's where he'll reveal himself to you. So read it again. The Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh, how? By the word of the Lord. It is so important that we stay in these scriptures because we learn of Him, okay, through the scriptures. The Bible says, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by? the word of God, amen. And so it's so healthy for a Christian to stay in the book. You start having issues as a Christian when you put the book down. And a lot of people, a lot of Christians, I don't wanna spend too much time with this, I've just noticed over the years, I'll hear people say, well, God said this, or God would do that, or I think Jesus would say, and they say the wildest things. And immediately I know that you've never even read the Bible, have you? You've made up some fake Jesus that you, this is how you would like Jesus to be, isn't it? And the only way for you to fix that is to get in the book and say, wow, the Jesus that I came up with in my own head, my own fake Jesus that I made, he's not very much like the actual Jesus of the Bible. And you adjust to what Jesus in the Bible is like. Look at verse seven. Look at this. So he says, the word of the Lord, look at verse seven, now Samuel did not know yet the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him, revealed unto him. Look at verse 10, and the Lord came and stood. Okay, so I don't know how you pictured this whole scene here with Samuel having God speak to him. But it's not like God is in heaven, per se, and calling down to Samuel as he sleeps. It's almost as if God shows up, and he came and stood, and he's right there. Okay, now you say, well, who is that? I believe it's Jesus, amen. And if I were you, I would not confine, you have all of this Old Testament here. I mean, two thirds of your Bible, at least. Think about this. Look at how much material is back here in the Old Testament. Don't confine Jesus to hanging out in heaven the whole time this is going on. I could show you five or six places where it's clear that Jesus showed up. Not in the flesh per se, but he showed up. And in this passage here, Jesus shows up and he's gonna say some things to Samuel. Now, it says they're revealed. Not only that, but it says they're also the word of the Lord. You know that Jesus is basically synonymous with the Word of the Lord, right? In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God, right? So Jesus and the Scriptures are very close, okay? You wanna know Jesus? Pick up the book, amen? You don't need a preacher, you don't need a pastor, you don't need a priest, per se, to tell you how he is. You can, with your own time and your own Bible and your own lap, open up the Word of God and read and find out all you need to know about Jesus, amen? And thank God for it. Thank God we don't have to depend on other men to find out who God is. Praise the Lord for that. I don't know if you're thankful for it, but I'm thankful for it. Amen. So it looks like, you know, good start for Samuel here. Look at chapter 4 and verse 1. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Would everybody agree that that's like a good thing? I think that's a good thing, okay? Because Samuel's preaching the word of the Lord, right? So wouldn't it be a good thing if his word came to all of Israel? That would mean that more people are hearing what God has to say, right? So I read that and I don't think, well, shame on Samuel, you know, trying to make a name for himself. He's interested in his own name and his branding and all this stuff. How dare you, Samuel? No, I think praise God that Samuel's voice was heard all over the place. Praise the Lord, he's hitting the truth out. Circuit rider going all over the place, preaching and teaching. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that inherently. Now, nowadays with YouTube and branding and all the stuff that goes on, there are people out there that use this book as a means of gain, amen? And their whole motive is to make a name for themself, because it's good for business and it fills their belly. And the Bible speaks about that. So what do we do? Should we say that, well, because there's people who do that, it would be wrong if you were to get a name by preaching the Word of the Lord? I don't think so at all. I think if God's using it, and you're preaching the Word of the Lord, and you're letting none of His words fall to the ground, then praise God, amen? I thank God for people who put the Word of the Lord out there. There's a verse in Psalm 68 verse 11. We're not going to turn there. It says the Lord gave the word Great was the company of those that published it Great was the company of those that published it. I want to be in that company, personally. I want to take God's Word and proclaim and publish it, to get it out there, amen? I want to give people tracts. I want to preach the Word of God. I want to get it out there. In fact, I'm just about ready to start live-streaming our service and putting it on YouTube, if that's what I have to do, amen? Now, call me apostate, tell me I'm trying to make a name for myself, that's fine, amen, but I have been burdened about this for a long time. Listen, the sinners are on the internet. You know what I mean? Like, if I have a burden to get the gospel out, and I'm called to preach the gospel to every creature, amen, to all nations, what am I gonna do, just go to a back alley where there's nobody? I wanna go where the sinners are, amen. The sinners are spending 10 and 11 and 12 and 13 and 14 hours, two-thirds of their day on social media. Well, if that's where they are, then I better go after them, amen? Well, you're trying to make a name for yourself and all this stuff, phooey on that. If that's what you interpret, that's fine. God knows my conscience and God knows my heart. I want to go where the sinners are. Now, if we do that, if we start live streaming and I catch any y'all staying at home, boy, you're going to be in so much trouble, brother. That's the problem with that is people misuse it. I'm going to attend church online. You can't. A church is a called-out assembly. You say, well, two or three are gathered together, and my name, their name, they're missing. That's fine. You may have that going on at home, but you are not congregating with that local congregation, and it will not be the same. Now, am I telling you never watch preaching on YouTube? I watch preaching on YouTube. Please don't misinterpret what I'm saying. I'm saying that a local church is a called-out assembly. Amen. And so YouTube and all that stuff, as much as I watch it and I get a blessing from it, will never replace gathering physically at a local church. Amen. It will never replace that. And so if I ever we ever start live streaming here, it will be for the right reason. Amen. Lord willing, after much prayer and it will be not a replacement of what we're doing right now. Right. So I'm still praying about that. But I'm thinking about it. And there's a way we could set it up where, you know, Victoria's not, you know, nobody except for who's preaching is in this frame and all that. And I'll be honest with you, I personally, in the flesh, do not wanna do it. And Brother Humphress, I'm sure, I don't even have to ask him, does not wanna do it, amen. But am I gonna let my flesh get in the way of me? You know, in my opinion, and you can take my opinion for what it's worth, I just talked about how we should avoid opinions, amen. Look at me, the hypocrite. In my opinion, if there's just one more link or place to click that leads a lost sinner to the truth, amen, praise God for it. Praise God for it. The truth should be published everywhere. And if I can do something to do that, then I should put my flesh down and do what God's put a burden on my heart to do. All right, so there's that for you, you can think about that and let me know, but I'm still praying. All right, so it says, in the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle. Okay, now, I'll just tell you this, when I read the Old Testament, I put myself in the place of what's going on. That's what I do. I mean, you know, that's how I get a blessing from it, you know? It's a devotional or, you know, if you read like a devotional, you know, little daily reading thing, they'll often go to like Exodus or the Wilderness Journey or David or Samuel, some of these people, and they will basically act as if you are in the place of these people, and then they'll minister to you because you're going through the same problems that these people went through, right? There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man." And so God gave us the Old Testament so that it can bless us in that way, so you put yourself in that position. Now, just do this for me. When you're reading through here, when you read Philistines or Amalek, as Brother Humphress was going over the other day, consider them a type of the flesh. the Philistines or Amalek, okay? Because God is constantly telling them, wipe them out. Right, and that's how we're to treat, the Bible says, reckon indeed your flesh indeed and dead unto sin, right? You're to reckon your flesh dead to sin. And every time you reckon it dead to sin, what happens? It shows back up again a couple days later. Sometimes the same day. That's how the flesh works. You beat the flesh down, amen, you get victory over it, and the next day it's just rearing its ugly head again, amen. And when you look through the Bible, that's kind of how the Philistines are. The Philistines, they beat them down, and they get rid of them for a while, and they knock them out. And next thing you know, they're rearing their ugly heads again and fighting against Israel again, right? And it's this constant war that the New Testament explains it as. That's a nice way to think about the Philistines and the Amalekites. But notice this, the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines in battle and pitched beside Ebenezer. and the Philistines pitched an aphec, and the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel, and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army in the field about 4,000 men." Not good. So they've lost a battle, and they're thinking, what in the world are we gonna do now? And so in verse three, and when the people were coming to the camp, the elders of Israel said, wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among us, it may save us." If you're a marker in your Bible and you do that kind of thing, you might underline the word it in those two places. You know what they just said? That it may save us. out of the hand of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas were there with the ark of the covenant of God." By the way, nowhere does God ever say, use the ark of God in this manner. Right? That thing's supposed to be hidden in the back of the back of the back of the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies, in a dark room where there's no light, and Aaron only goes in once a year with a censer that smokes so that he can't even see what's going on with the thing. That's how that thing's supposed to be treated. Right? So they're just like, I mean, it's like, you know, Lost Ark of the Covenant, Indiana Jones style, just pull this thing out in front of everybody, like, oh, it's the Ark of God. Like, that is not what God had in mind for that thing. That thing's supposed to be in a dark, secret place. And when the Ark, verse five, of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. Boy, they sure are excited about this it. Okay. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the Lord was come into the camp. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has come into the camp. Notice that the pagans. OK, these Philistines are pagans, they worship a fish god, as we're going to see in the next couple of chapters, Dagon. Remember, Dagon falls to the earth and his hands break off. Right? Okay, these are pagans, and you know what they say when they see the ark? They say God. The ark, the graven image, Okay, the creation, the gold and the wood, that is God. That's how pagans think. They associate God with a thing, an it. That's how they're thinking of it. And by the way, to throw the Israelites under the bus, they're thinking the same way right now. They may not think that that ark is God, but they're looking at it as if it's gonna save them. And it is not gonna save them. Okay, the ark is a good thing. God told them to make the ark. The ark had a purpose. God had good plans for the ark. It had its proper place. But what they're doing right now is wrong with that ark. They're taking a good thing and misusing it. Okay? Everybody understand? All right, so these Philistines, they call the ark, they say God is coming to the camp. And they said, woe unto us, for there had not been such a thing here before. And there wasn't supposed to be. Verse eight, woe unto us who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods. You can tell where their head's at. These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong and quit. Quit yourselves. Archaic use of that word there, it means to basically behave or act. Behave or act, quit yourselves like men. Behave or act like men. O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been to you, quit yourselves like men and fight. That word is still used kind of in that sense sometimes. You've heard someone saying acquittal, he was acquitted, a quick claim deed, stuff like that. Like it's still used nowadays in the same type of way. But anyways, to quit, quit yourselves like men, act like men and fight. And the Philistines fought and Israel was smitten, so it did not save them, by the way. And he says, Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent. And there was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas were slain, just like Samuel prophesied. One test of a prophet is, does what he say come to pass? And it absolutely did. All right, now, what is the lesson from this passage? There's a lot of stuff in there. but I would just like to draw to your attention that they grab this ark like it's some type of weapon, like it is going to save them. And he says specifically back in verse three at the end of the verse that it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. Now, the lesson from the passage is it cannot save you, okay? And here's the problem with every false religion. Every false religion trusts in something to save them. Now here's a mark of the true religion, the true God, is when you come to Christ, you're not trusting in something or an it to save you, you're trusting in someone, amen? And so one way to pick out a false religion is if it tells you to trust in an it, okay? Here's a graven image. Here's the 10 commandments. That's an it. Here's good works. Here's the holy sacraments. Here's the church, and here's marriage, and here's having children, and anything else you can trust in outside of somebody, amen, Jesus Christ, to save your soul. A lesson from the passage is that it cannot save you. You ever heard a message called that before anybody? Maybe if you've heard that I've heard some really good preaching From this passage and the title of the message is it cannot save you amen It's a great lesson from there It cannot save you and the whole point is is that you run into all these people who don't know Christ They're trusting in an it and it comes in a lot of different forms now. They are taking a good thing Amen and properly improperly using it that that that You know, if somebody wants to come along and say that there's a justification for graven images, they might say, well, there's a graven image in the tabernacle. And technically speaking, there is, okay? A graven image is when you take something similar to the golden calf and you mold it into something and you're making a form and a shape out of something. That is a graven image. Well, that's exactly what's sitting on top of the ark. On top of the ark is a graven image of Cherubim. So you have the ark. Like I said last time, you have the tabernacle here, and there's a gate down here where people walk in. There's this stuff going on right here. And then there's a holy place with the showbread and all this stuff. you know, the candlestick, the censer, and then in the back of this is the Holy of Holies. And in this place is an ark, what we've been talking about. And that ark is like this. It's like a box. They can put stuff in it. I don't know if you remember, but he tells Moses and Aaron to take some of the manna and put it in the ark. They take a jar of that stuff so that, you know, your children of Israel may know. So it's like a box that you can open. But on top of this thing is like some pictures of some cherubim on their knees and their wings come out over the mercy seat and touch over this, just like that. And it's a picture of some cherubim there. And there are graven images. Now, somebody may say, well, how could you preach against graven images when God told them to make one and put it in the tabernacle, right? That may be the thought process. The problem is, as I've already explained, is that only Aaron was ever to go into that room. And by the way, the only light in the holy place is coming from this candlestick. There is no candlestick in this place, it's completely dark. And on top of that, as Aaron came in, he was commanded to hold some type of sensor with smoke coming out of it, and good luck seeing with that smoke in there. Everybody understand? So, well, there's graven images in the tabernacle. Well, show me anywhere in the Bible where anybody is commanded to go up there and pray to it, or trust in it to save them. You can't find that, amen? So there are graven images in there. That's not the point of what they're in there for, though. All right, so they were worshiping the ark. They were trusting in it. And you find from the Bible that God is not interested in people worshiping graven images. Look at Isaiah chapter 44. Isaiah chapter 44. I mean, this is throughout the Bible, we'll look at a couple spots here. But God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth, and He's the only God, and He's never interested in people making an image for Him, or of anything else. Isaiah 44, look at verse 9. This is the Lord speaking, by the way. Okay, look at verse 2. Thus saith the Lord. God is speaking, verse 6, thus saith the Lord. There's a whole chapter is God speaking. So this is God speaking, verse 9. They that make a graven image, all of them vanity and their delectable things shall not profit. They are their own witnesses. They see not nor know that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a God or a molten, a graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed and the workmen They are of men, let them all be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall fear and they shall be ashamed together. The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals and fashioneth it with hammers and worketh it with the strength of his arms, yea, he is hungry and his strength faileth, he drinketh no water and is faint. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule, he maketh it out with a line, he fitteth it with planes, be like a block plane with a blade in it, and he marketh it out with a compass and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest. He planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn, for he will take thereof and warm himself, yea, he kindleth it and baketh bread. Yea, he maketh a God, and worshipeth it, he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire, with part thereof he eateth flesh, he roasteth roast, and is satisfied. Yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire, and the residue thereof he maketh a God. even his grave and image, he falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and sayeth, Deliver me, for thou art my God. They have not known nor understood, for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see in their hearts, that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding, to say, I have burned part of it in the fire. Yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof. I have roasted flesh and eaten it. Shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? He feedeth on ashes a deceived heart that had turned him side, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? You know what that is? That's the Lord reasoning out the whole thought process and almost borderline mocking the thing. He cut down a tree and then you take some of it, you know what I mean? And you make a fire for yourself and you cook some food on it. And then what you have left, you carve into a God and you bow down before the same thing you were cooking your food with. And the Lord's up in heaven like, hello! You know what I mean? Like, does that not register? That's not gonna save you. You're cooking food with it, man. That's what he's saying there. God is not into graven images. He says he bows down before it, and you know what he calls it there? An abomination. An abomination, an abomination. Not my opinion, not my words. Look at 2 Kings chapter 18. And so throughout time, it's always been an issue. People want to be able to see something, and I don't blame them, brother. I wanna be able to see and feel and handle God, amen? I get the idea behind it, right? There's God right there. It's hard to live by faith. It's hard to not be able to see God with my physical eyes, all right? But the Bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please Him who hath called us. Right? So God is pleased when I can't see Him that I'll still worship Him anyways. And there's a tendency, there's a very religious tendency and corrupt nature in man that says, I want to see what I'm worshiping. I want to be able to touch and handle and feel Him. I want to be able to make Him up and go and stand before Him. And there's my God right there. That's what man wants to do. You say, well, how is it that you know that man wants to do that? Because there are billions of people on this planet right now who fall before graven images and pray to them. It's still a problem today. Amen. You don't catch me doing it, man, by the grace of God. I'm not trusting in an it to save me. I have Jesus Christ. I have somebody, amen. I'm not trusting in an object. It's a man that saves me. Look at 2 Kings chapter 18. 2 Kings chapter 18. Now, this was a problem for all types of people. And in this passage here, you have Hezekiah, verse 1, it came to pass in the third year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. And he begins to kick butt and take names. And he's destroying stuff, he's getting a wife there, yada yada. Verse 4, he removed the high places and break the images. Say, well, how is that even possible? It's Israel, and they have the true God, and they have the tabernacle. Even back in those days, people were breaking, making images. Say, well, what were the images, too? Surely the ones that he was breaking, it was a bunch of pagan false gods, right? Not necessarily. Look at the rest of the verse. He break down the images and cut down the groves and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. You guys remember that story? There's a bunch of disease and a fire and serpents that go out and they're killing a bunch of people in the wilderness, and God tells Moses, make a serpent and put on a staff, and anybody that looks on that thing, right, be saved and be cured. Great type of Jesus Christ. Christ says in Psalms, he says, I am a worm. He's hanging on a cross, amen, type of Christ. Anyways, he does that, and that thing's a great thing, man. I mean, praise God. God himself told them to make that thing, right? Everybody understand that? They had a very commandment of God to make that graven image, and they made it, and it saved people by them just very looking upon it, right? And then you come several hundred years down the line here, and what happened? People started worshiping that thing. That it, amen. And so what does he do? He breaks it. He destroys it. He says at the rest of the verse, for unto those days, the children of Israel did burn incense to it. And he called it Nehushtan. And that Nehushtan literally means a piece of brass. It's nothing. You're worshiping a piece of brass. You're bowing before and burning incense to something that's just an inanimate object. You have no business worshipping this thing. Now, you know what every Israelite was saying as they bowed before that? I'm worshipping the true God here. It's not like I'm worshipping some Hindu false god. It's not like I'm worshipping Buddha. It's the true God, right? This is God's creation here, and they're bound before it, right? And you know what the guy who came through who had some spiritual wisdom said? He said, that's a piece of brass, we had no business worshiping that. It will not save us. Now come back to Exodus 20 here. I could show you a lot of examples, but look at Exodus 20 and look at where God makes it clear about this. And I'll list out these first two commandments for you, okay? What is the first commandment? Look at verse 1 and 2 right there. The first one is thou shalt have no other gods before me, right? I'm just going to put this right here. Okay, thanks Patty. All right, let's read verse one and two here. And God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Does that look about right? Okay, there's number one. Number two. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, that's where God is by the way, or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, so forth and so on. So you know what the second commandment is? Thou shalt not make any graven image. All right, now, why am I pointing that out? Because, I'm gonna just put this down for you here, in the Roman Catholic Church, they've completely messed that up. And if you look at the list of the Ten Commandments in liturgical Roman Catholic yada yada that the liturgy could get their hands on, you'll find number one is correct, okay, no other gods, amen, that'll pop up. And that's number one in the Roman Catholic list. All right, I printed this straight from catholicanswers.com, okay? Number two on their list is thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Now, does anybody notice a problem here? You skipped one. You say, well, how do they come up with 10 commandments then? Well, number nine, Okay, and number 10, they turn number 10 into two different commandments. So number nine is don't covet your neighbor's wife. And then number 10 is thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods. Which if you've read the passage, you know that those are one commandment. All right, so what's the problem here? Why are you pointing this out? Because they removed the second commandment. You say, well, why did they do that? Okay? Because in those churches, brother, there are graven images. Okay? So it makes complete sense. Now, you talk to them and say, well, it's an aid to worship. I'm not actually worshiping the graven image. But let me read you something here. Okay? I'm going to read this to you. So this is a rebuttal of someone accusing someone of worshiping images. All right, although it is customary among Catholics to keep images of Jesus and to pay their respects to Jesus, Catholics are not idol worshipers. Idolatry generally means erecting images of unknown gods and goddesses in various shapes and sizes and to pray directly to these images. The prayers are a quest to God for guidance and protection. The goddesses will bestow health, wealth, beauty, and provide for various needs. They are asked to forgive transgressions. The worship of Jesus really means paying homage, veneration, devotion to him and what he represents and not to the stone or metal figure. The image is a visual aid that helps one to recall Jesus in the mind and to remember his great qualities, which inspired millions of people from generation to generation throughout the civilized world. Roman Catholics use the statue as a symbol and an object of concentration to gain peace of mind. The statue enables the mind to recall Jesus and inspires devotees to follow his example and instructions. In their mind, the devout Catholic feels that living presence of his master. This feeling makes their act of worship become vivid and significant. The serenity of the Jesus image influences inspires them to observe the right path of conduct and thought. Those who criticize Catholics for practicing idol worship are really misinterpreting what Catholics do. Does that sound familiar to anybody? Okay, that is the argument that Roman Catholics give for having the graven images. I don't know if you've ever talked to one before. I'm not really worshiping the image. It's an aid to my worship. Now, let me just point out to you that I just kind of try to deceive you right there. This is not a paper on the defense of Catholics worshiping images. This is a paper on Buddhists. explaining why they don't worship images. So I just replaced every word Buddhist and Buddha with the word Catholic and Jesus. They have the same argument. Now, in that sense, you would have to ask a Catholic, okay, well, if you're not worshiping images, then where in the world does image worship exist? Does that exist anywhere? Is that a real thing? Because all of the other people who use images say the same thing that you do. Okay, and I believe that God understood that it was an issue because throughout the Bible, you find him telling you, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. Now, why is he saying that so much if nobody does it, amen? All right, so it's just something to think about. So if I was a Roman Catholic and I seen that the Catholic Church removed number two, I would be like, what's going on, guys? Why would you do that? Okay, and you know, they just basically depend on nobody picking up the Bible and finding out about it. All right, I'm gonna read this to you. This is the Cardinal's advice. Here is an excerpt from an address by the Cardinal in the Roman Church to Pope Pius III, which is preserved in the National Library of Paris, folio number 1068, volume two, page 650 and 651, if you wanna check me out. Of all the advice, this is the cardinal talking to Pope Pius III. He says, of all the advice that we can offer your holiness, we must open your eyes well and use all possible force in the matter, namely to permit the reading of the gospel as little as possible in all the countries under your jurisdiction. Let the very little part of the gospel suffice, which is usually read in the mass, and let no one be permitted to read more. This is a cardinal to the Pope. So long as people will continue, be content with a small amount, your interest will prosper. But as soon as the people want to read more, your interest will fail. This is a cardinal to the pope. He says, the Bible is the book which more than any other has raised against us the tumults and tempests by which we have almost perished. In fact, if one compares the teachings of the Bible with what takes place in our churches, he will soon find discord and will realize that our teachings are often different from the Bible and often still contrary to it. So they say, don't let them read it. They'll find out that we're lying to them. will suffer damage if people start reading the book. Martin Luther said, when he started reading the Bible, it was chained to the pulpit. And he had to go in there and read the Bible at the pulpit, because you couldn't take it with you. How about that, man? Now you say, well, you sound like you hate Catholics. I don't at all. I have a burden for them. I see someone who has been misled by wicked men in a wicked system. And what I see is people who have been told to trust in a system, trust in the sacraments, trust in their works, trust in these images, pray to them, yada, yada, yada. And what I'm saying is don't trust in those things, trust in somebody, amen. Trust in Jesus, amen. He's the one that saves you. All right? Yes, ma'am. Pope Pius III, it doesn't have a date on it. Yeah. All right, let me show you one passage here. We're running out of time. Mark chapter seven. Mark chapter 7. So I've talked to him before, well, you know, I'm not really worshiping, I'm not worshiping a pagan god. It's not like I'm praying to Buddha, I'm praying to Jesus through this image, okay? Not even getting into the whole Mary thing. I mean, if you want to go down the whole Mary route, the Bible says there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Neither is there salvation in any other, the Bible says. So we don't even get into that. We say, well, I'm praying to Jesus through my graven image as well. Look at Mark chapter 7. Just because you have the right name and the right God does not make it the right kind of worship. Okay? All right, we're going to close with this. Mark chapter 7 and verse 1. Verse 1, Then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say with unwashing hands, they found fault. Now you're really trying, if you're trying to find fault with Jesus, I can't find nothing wrong with them, amen? For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they washed their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market except they wash, they eat not, and many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the what? The elders. They're not concerned about what the Sola Scriptura says. They want to know what the priests say. What does the Holy Church say? But eat bread with unwashing hands. Verse 6, He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth who? Me. They have the right God. They're honoring Jesus, are they not? That's the right God. Amen. Okay, the object of their worship, can I say it this way? The object of their worship is Jesus. Okay, you know what he says? He says in verse six, this people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. How be it in vain? That means it's unprofitable, by the way, there's nothing to it. Do they worship who? They're worshiping the right guy. The problem is the method, amen? Well, I'm just praying that it's not like it's an image of Buddha. It's an image of Jesus. Okay, but the method could be wrong. You say, well, as long as I have the right object of worship, it's okay. Not according to Jesus himself, it's not. You could be worshiping him in vain if you're not doing it the way he wants you to do it. What does that mean? That means find out what he wants you to do and do that instead, amen? Their problem is, is they're looking at what men have told them to do. I'm glad I'm not in a system of bondage where I'm looking to men to tell me what to do. Amen. Please, please, Father, I want to know God. I've got these sins and I need help. And I just want to be helped here. And I've got this sin debt. I need help. Father, please tell me what to do. Please tell me what the Bible says. I'm glad I can come to the Bible and say, Lord, what do you say? Amen. What do you say? And what I have found from the scriptures, and I know to be true, is that it cannot save you. Somebody has to save you, amen? And that name is Jesus Christ. All right, it is seven on the dot. Seven on the dot. I feel like a professional tonight, amen?