There's the unbeliever who, evangelicals, we've all been taught this so we don't do it on purpose, but we lie to people. We tell them that right up to their last breath, they can call on God and be saved. That's not really true. It could be for some. But for others, God could cut them off way before they take their last breath. And we've seen it. But let's read a passage before we get into that. Proverbs chapter 1. And we've read this a few months ago. But come back to it. Proverbs chapter 1 verses 23 through 28. And this is somebody that God has worked with and worked on and convicted and dealt with and they just keep saying, no, no, no. Now we don't know why, but sometimes God will cut them off even before they're dead and gone. But a lot of times I think if you read, we'll see, I think I've got Romans one in there, but you'll see that it has a lot to do with how far gone they are in their wickedness. And so some people just keep saying no, no, no, but they don't really turn against God fully into wickedness. And so God keeps working on them. And there have been deathbed conversions. And of course, the thief on the cross is an example of that. But verse 20, I have 23, it says, turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. That's what God wants to do to every man, woman who ever lives. That's his will. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But then there are those who he says in verse 24, because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded, but you have said it not all my counsel, all, and would none of my reproof. This is an extreme case. What's it say in verses 26 through 28? Read with me. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. That says what it says. And that's talking about people who are still alive and breathing. In the Bible, I believe we have some examples of that. I believe Cain. Wait before he's dead. Nabal. Now, it may have been just about 24 hours. I don't know at what point God handed him over, but he seemed to be handed over from the very beginning of the account that you read. And if you're not familiar with that, start reading your Bible. The third one is Judas. It was sometime before the crucifixion that Jesus says, I have chosen you 12, and one of you is a devil. I think by that point, Judas had totally been given over. And he still stuck around to do his work. And then after he even confessed, he knew he had innocent blood on his hands, but instead of repenting and turning to God, goes out and commits suicide. I've skipped a bunch here, there's others we could throw in there, but think about this. Every person who takes the mark of the beast falls in this category. Once you take that mark during the tribulation period, you're damned eternally, even though you may have, who knows, five years to live, two and a half years to live, according to when they take the mark. for whatever time they remain alive, if they're alive to the second coming when Jesus comes and destroys and takes all those with the mark and throws them in a lake of fire. That's something, isn't it? They're all dead men walking. I just want to mention this. Many commentaries skip this verse in Proverb 1, where it says, then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. I read commentaries all the time, and I like to compare my own views, and sometimes they'll bring out something that I haven't thought of. Other times, I'm just like, What? But, you know, you've got to use discernment. And that's why I don't recommend them to everybody, because some people just can't handle that kind of a, you know, you've got to really be discerning, you have to be careful with that. But it's no different than listening to somebody talk to you, whether you're reading a commentary or you're discussing a Bible verse with somebody. Either way, we have to be Acts 17.11 Bereans, right? And search the Scriptures daily whether those things are so. Well, I'll come back to you in a second. This is just an example. Spurgeon's morning and evening devotional. No text for this verse. John Wesley's notes. You know I quote him a lot. He only commented on one word in the verse. Early. Then this guy named Gray is a good commentator. No great text for this verse. And I just want to say this, I think the reason why isn't, I'm not, by the way, I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal and put these men down below me because they're not. What I'm saying is, I think sometimes even some of the great men that we respect are so conditioned by isms, like, you know, truisms we call them, that then they are shocked by what they read in the Bible and they just kind of back off and say, I don't think I'll touch that. Because over and over, how many of you heard, you can be saved right up to your last heartbeat, your last breath? Well, if you haven't been handed over, that's true. But some people are handed over. We know that. The text says so. Johnny, what did you want to ask me? Is there a chance that this is referring to the idea of where it's sort of a they got caught moment? In other words, they're calling out because they don't like the punishment, but not because they're actually repenting? Could that at least cover some of this maybe? Explain what you mean, I don't understand. In other words- He's talking about an extreme case where people have rejected his Efforts. Not just one time, not just one thing. And it's just, he's come to his end with them. They're calling out to God, but they're really not sincere. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Well, it doesn't say they're not sincere. They're calling to him sincerely only because they're in trouble, not because they're repentant, not because they believe him. Oh yeah, their heart, yeah. They're trying to save their skin. Yeah, that's beside the point though. I mean, I'm just, I'm trying to stick to the issue. The question is whether or not there are some people who reach a point where God won't even hear them when they call out. Because the text doesn't say anything about their heart. Well, we have to figure if they'd been handed over, they probably don't have a right motive for even calling out. But, you know, that's another thing we could get into and talk for who knows how long, because when I got saved, I'm not sure my motive was really pure even then. The only thing that made me pure was being saved. That came later. So, anyway, Jessica, you had your hand up, didn't you? That's just a person. Yeah, but we don't need to talk about him. Why do you need to know who he is? I'm just showing you examples of teachers who said they didn't have any comment. No, it's not. It's not Bob Gray. Jim, what'd you want? Well, I mean, you've been warning us lately about casting pearl before swine. Yeah. We have people like this in our family. You don't know when someone's in that condition, but I mean, you kind of get a sense for it. Yeah. So it's just, I think you still pray for them. Yeah. But boy, they just can't be the focus of your life or your age. We never make that, the Bible never tells, and I haven't said that, so don't ever add to anything I've, no, I didn't say that. I'm not telling you that you make that judgment. I'm saying it's a fact. And so based on that fact, instead of telling people, oh, I know you're rejecting Jesus now, but just remember, even up to your very last breath, I'm saying what you should be saying is, you better be careful. Now is the appointed time. Now is the day of salvation. So you better be careful because you're, especially when you're dealing with one of these people, he's nasty, you know, sodomite slash sodomite ally slash leftist slash woke slash whatever. Oh, yeah, most of the population today. You know, you're dealing with them. You know what? Being a nice, fluffy, kitty-cat preacher, you know, may have had its day, but we're in the day where you gotta look at somebody and say, listen, you are on thin ice. The Bible says people like you can go too far, and even before you're dead and gone, God will hand you over. You better watch it. You better repent before it's too late. I think that's a better response. And I'll be praying for you. I love you and I'll still be praying for you, but you better watch it. Better be careful. I know some people who said that to me and I'm glad they did. Back in the 80s. God hands certain, unrepentant, wicked people over. And as I said, we got Romans 1, so let's go over there real quick. Romans 1, 19 to 28, we're not going to read all those verses. That's the overall. Of course, verse 16 starts it off, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And then he begins talking about verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Read 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. Like I said, what you hear, you hear these guys, they know the truth. They just reject it. They would say, I know some of you people believe in this God of the Bible and you believe Jesus is the Savior and all that, but I'm just telling you, take this and you'll see. It's just kind of like the serpent in the garden, doesn't it? Thou shalt not surely die. Same spirit behind it. It says in verse 20, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. See? And then read 21 and 22 with me. Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Whew, that sounds like a lot of people. And it goes on to describe their, verse 23, they turn to idolatry and paganism, pantheism. Verse 24, they turn to sex and they turn into, well, That is a general condemnation of illicit sex. Verse 25, they change the truth of God into a lie, and that's what you see then when they've taken over denominations. Apostasy. They change the truth of God into a lie. All this is just, you can see this taking place right here in our culture today among the masses. And what's it say then in verse 26? Read that. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change their natural use into that which is against nature. We call that lesbianism. Verse 27, read that. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat. Of course, that's the male on male sodomites. And then now read 28. This is where we see the living dead. Read it. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. That's it. So I'm saying, as we will move on after this, but we should stop assuring people that they can play with fire. It's a sad thing. I know guys, I was in church with guys who would hear this gospel message and they'd be on the cusp of making a decision and going forward and then somebody would say, now I know some of you may not be ready to be saved tonight, but I want you to know God will always be there. right up to your last heartbeat, right up to your last breath. I want to stand up and say, and that might be the next heartbeat before you even get out of the room. But it's like they always had to soften everything up, make sure people aren't offended. I've seen that worse and worse and worse as the years go by. Warn them they may reach a point when, as our previous message says, there is no answer of God. warn them, love them enough to warn them. So now we pick up where we left off in Micah 3, if you want to get back there, and we conclude with a discussion of those who deceive themselves into believing that in spite of their sin and wickedness, is not the Lord among us? And that's what most of the people we were just talking about, a lot of them, they're pastoring churches today. They're in missions today. Do you know there are tens of thousands of missionaries around the world who don't believe the gospel? Don't believe in Jesus Christ. They just go over to, they're do-gooders, and they go over to dig a well or build a house, everything, which is great if you're preaching the gospel when you do it. It's a shock when you first learn about it. Then as you see it, you open your eyes to it, you realize it's so prevalent. So let's read verses eight through 12. Read the even with me, beginning verse eight. But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of judgment and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel that abhor judgment and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. Amen. So Micah closes this portion of his immediate prophecy. He talks about his power source. Then he gives the accusation in verses 9 through 11, and then we see the consequences in verse 12. So let's look at that power source in verse 8. It says, but truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of judgment and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Now Micah is not bragging here, but he's giving credit where due. So notice that. And that's a good habit to give in. If anybody ever comes up and starts, you know, patting you on the head and telling you how wonderful you are, and they say, oh, I can just see God in you. Now, if you do enough for the Lord, you'll hear that kind of thing. What do you do? You say, well, you know what? I'm just a sinner saved by grace. This is what I tell them. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I deserve hell. He's given me everything. Anything good in me you see, it's because of Jesus. And that's all Mike is saying here. But he's making sure that the people he's talking to understand this isn't just Micah saying this. You're hearing a message from God, you'd better pay attention. And do they? Well, of course we know not. But it's by the Spirit of the Lord that Micah has the courage with the message itself. He would have never come up on his own either. Matthew Henry said, quote, the prophet experiences a divine power going along with him in his work. And he makes a solemn profession and protestation of it as that which would justify him and bear him out in his plain dealing with the princes and rulers. In other words, when someone looks at you and says, you're a hater. And all you've said is Jesus is the only way to heaven. Then you say what Micah said. Don't get mad at me. That's not my words. Those are the words of Jesus Christ in John 14, 6. And then there's Acts 4, 12. Peter said, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That didn't come from me. You hater! If you're talking about the words I'm speaking, you aren't upset with me, you're upset with the author of those words. That's what Micah is saying here. And now that it's clear where the words of Micah are coming from, he then lays it out. So we need to be careful to do that. Always make sure people know you're quoting the Bible. If you don't know the exact reference, Jenny and I work on memory verses, and that's the hardest part, is the references. Always remembering which reference goes with the verse. It's good to learn those, though. Try. Work at that. But the most important thing is you learn the words. And you can at least tell a person, the Bible says, and if you can't remember the exact place, but you remember it's in the book of John, or maybe you remember it's in John 14, but you don't remember the exact, just give them the information you got. As long as they know, you're getting it from God. This is the word of God. Great preachers through the years, and we said this before, read the New Testament, Jesus and Paul, they didn't refer to chapter and verse. They said it is written, and they quote. Great preachers used to say, the Bible says, the Bible says, you know. Well, you can say it without screaming and punching people, but you can still say the Bible says. So we have the accusation now, verses 9-11, hear this I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel that abhor judgment and pervert all iniquity. That is something we can say to our politicians of both parties today. abhor judgment and pervert all equity. Don't have enough money to protect our borders. Right now we've got a million-man army of fighting-age single men that have been led into this country because I believe the leaders of this country are traitors and they are trying to overthrow our government and our country as we know it. They're wicked, evil, brutes. I wouldn't put any money down to these guys up there, not just Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, you name it, both parties, the leadership. Now Johnson, I still hold out some hope for him. I have a little bit of firsthand and secondhand knowledge of his actual life that he lives in Louisiana and everything. He seems like he's a real Christian, but he won't last long probably. They're already trying to hang him. But as far as, you know, Rand Paul, I'm amazed he's still, you know, in the Senate. And so anyway, that is such a true statement in the day of Micah and in our day of corrupt leaders in the government. And it says in verse 10, they build up Zion with blood. So first, I want to mention this before we move on. Look no further than Washington, D.C. and Vatican City for examples of this type of corruption. Just happened to be a book I read. I got it from Adullam Ministries, from Chris Pinto's ministry. It's called Washington in the Lap of Rome. You might notice there it was written in 1888, which just happens to be when the new Bibles came out from Westcott and Hort, written about 150 years ago. It's only gotten worse since that time. And it's not an easy read, but it was very, You know, interesting. So then verse 10, they build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. I just want you to understand this. This isn't even an insult. I'm not putting anybody down. This is just a fact. Israel, America, and every powerful nation on earth has been built upon blood, war, and wicked deals. All you got to do is study the history of the United States to find this out. We have slavery. If it wasn't for slavery, who knows how long it would have taken for our government and our country to become the economic powerhouse that it did. 388,000 were imported, and then with their wives and reproduction and everything, it was over 4 million souls held as slaves in this country. And a lot of them were raped, abused, murdered, and that explains why God allowed the Civil War to happen. And the death toll is really unknown as far as how many died as a result of their treatment of being slaves. But then I mentioned the Civil War. War. War has been an integral part of the history of our country and getting us to where we became an economic powerhouse. And over the years, 1.3 million Americans have shed their blood upon which this country has been built and killed 12 million of the enemy. That's a whole lot of blood to build this country. Then there's abortion. The sin of convenience. Kill the baby so you don't have to worry about the expense and trouble of raising it. 65 million plus just since I was four years old. Then you have workers. This is the unknown soldier of the American economy. 5,000 died last year on the job. Did you know that? 5,000 Americans were killed on the job. And there's been at least a million workers just dying, go to work and die. And a lot of times it's their carelessness, but a lot of times it's because their employer's carelessness. A lot of times it's because they're not given the right equipment, they're not trained properly, and then sometimes accidents happen. But it's still a fact that it's the blood of all these workers with all that other blood we talked about. And that doesn't even count those who were killed with medical experimentation for the sake of medicine and drugs and that kind of thing. You ever heard of Tuskegee? drugs and alcohol that have been purposely sold at huge volumes, knowing it's going to get people killed, but they get the tax money. And then you have vaccines. We don't even have to talk much about that. Most of you are aware of what that's, recently anyway, you're aware of what's going on. Reckless endangerment, involuntary manslaughter, poison water, food contamination, and all these things. I mean, there's these poor women back in the, I think it was in the 30s, got the job of painting the little glow-in-the-dark paint on the little watches they sold, and they'd take the brush with their mouth and twirl it to get a nice little tip on it, and they'd dip it in that paint, and they'd do that, and they'd do that day in, day out, over hours and hours, and then what they were doing was looking at radiation. The glow-in-the-dark was from the uranium, and they ended up getting cancers and dying slow deaths. That's the kind of thing that's happening in this country. All that is because the powers that be didn't care enough about the workers to put in any kind of protections for them. They were told ahead of time they were afraid that this stuff could have bad effects and they just went ahead and had those young women doing it. So he says in verse 11, the heads thereof judge for reward, that means they're crooked. And the priests thereof teach for hire. That's crooked preachers. And the prophets thereof divine for money. Politicians, judges, and religious leaders are getting rich off the sheeple. Titus 1.11 describes it. Whose mouths must be stopped, whose subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. That's the typical preacher today. And then verse 11 closes, he says, yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. They are so deceived, even though they're crooks, that they think God's pleased with them somehow. Well, the God of this world is, but not the true God. And they sincerely believe they serve the Lord. We talked about some of them last week, but this is just the top level. There are thousands of others who are clamoring to be next to them in that collage, to make money and make more money and make more money and to build bigger. and to have more. And that's not what ministry is. Jesus came to minister. Not to be ministered unto. Not to live like a king. He spoke only about how he didn't have a place to lay his head. These guys have three or four houses big enough to have six or seven families in them. And some of these guys are considered among some of the more respectable evangelicals. Is not the Lord among us? Answer is no. And they say none evil can come upon us. Wrong. There is a payday coming. And that's what Micah is warning these in his day. The people you saw on that screen, that's today's crooks. And we could have put politicians, judges, and all kinds of other people up there. But that brings us to the consequences in verse 12, as we close the chapter here. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. You jump on a plane and go over and look, and that's what it looks like. There's new buildings up and everything, but anywhere you see old Israel, old Jerusalem, the old cities, that verse describes them to a T. It happened in 586 B.C., they started to rebuild, and then it happened again in 70 A.D., we talked about that last week, but it's gonna happen again, Revelation 12. One more time, they will continue to reject Jesus Christ, although there'll be 144,000 Jews who will be saved, and they'll die as martyrs, and then there'll be other Jews believed, but of all the Jews in the tribulation, 2 3rds are gonna perish, and that 1 3rd remnant will still be in unbelief right up to the time Jesus comes back. And so J. Vernon McGee, says this is a prediction that for their sins there will be a complete desolation of the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah quotes Micah as having said this, that's interesting, over in Jeremiah 26, 18, which is a confirmation of the prophecy. The destruction did take place when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. In the first chapters of the book of Nehemiah, we see the significance of it. When Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem, he found it a mess. It was nothing but debris, ashes, rubble, and ruin. And of course, as I said, you'll still see that today. And this will happen, also happen, to America. It's not an if, it's a when. So, can't give a real positive spin on this as far as our world we live in today, but to us the message is be right, be busy, be ready, I've talked to everyone in this room. You've all given me a professional faith. I baptized a few of you. So others of you, you've given me a solid professional faith. I trust you've been sincere. I'm telling you, I've been sincere. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you say amen? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus? And so we're right with God. We're ready for him to come. He says, occupy till I come. And that's how we respond to all of this. Father, we thank you, Lord, for a time in your word and the Holy Spirit helping us. Thank you for all those who have gone before and taught and helped us so that we can understand. We thank you for the time that we can just discuss these things with the brethren. Thank you for giving us a church to go to and where we know the Bible is the word of God. We're able to learn without having it corrected or Punted, literally kicked across the stage like that video Brian showed me earlier, or yesterday. And so much craziness going on in the name of God today. So thankful to have a church family. And thankful for what's ahead of us. We're about to be raptured out of here and be in your presence. Be among the saints, surrounded by the angels in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We cannot wait. Thank you for the wonderful promises that you've given us, because we know your promises are sure. In Jesus' name, amen.