Wicked governments take over what's happening in America today. Every example, it is when the people go away from God, God takes his hands off of that country, that nation, and he allows you to get the kind of leadership you deserve. So when rulers rebel against God's program, The people suffer, and sadly, that includes some good people, decent people, law-abiding people. They suffer. 11 of the 12 apostles were murdered. They were the cream of humanity. If you're talking about good people, the apostles minus Judas, they were the best men on the planet. And they suffered, and they suffered martyrdom. And so that's, sadly, that's life, folks. That's why we don't store our treasures up on this, in this life, on this earth. We store our treasures in heaven. That's where you get the blessings without any death, without any imprisonment. without any torture, without any of that. Most of us in America have gotten through life without any of that. But most Christians throughout history have suffered greatly, either persecution or just suffered because their governments were corrupt and they were impoverished, that sort of thing. Proverbs 29.2, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. That's why there's so much mourning in America today. So now verse two, who hate the good and love the evil. That's the opposite of what it ought to be. Who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones. Some would say this is just a figurative thing, but I believe it's both figurative and literal, both. What do you think we're doing with little unborn children by the millions in America? Even with Roe v. Wade being overturned, half the states in this country enacted abortion laws and they're killing those babies. You want a description of what happens in an abortion? Right there. That little baby in the womb is dissolved in a chemical solution and then ripped to pieces. by the millions here in America. So it's not just figurative, no matter what people tell you. And this perversion of good and evil is another parallel study. We talked about how Isaiah in our Sunday school we're studying, and in Micah right here, there's a lot of parallels. Just one place I want you to read. Go back a few pages there to Isaiah 5. Beginning of verse 20. Isaiah chapter 5, and this is a great memory verse, isn't it, Jenny? If you want a new verse, another verse to add to your memory verses, especially in this day and age, it really comes to mind many times. Read 20 if you're there. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. And it goes on then from 21 to 25, it says, 21, woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. You talk to these baby killing leftists and Marxists and everything, and they just think they're so smart. Go read Hillary Clinton's tweets or ex-tweets, whatever they're called in their posts now. She is, just the other day, posting about how important it is that we defend the right to kill unborn children. And she thinks she is so smart. And when Hillary is burning in hell, she's gonna remember those tweets. And she will burn in hell. Not just because she's pro-abortion. She's pro-abortion because she's full of the devil and because she's never been born again. She's a Christ-rejecting fool. Verse 23, Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. Of course, this goes with the whole legalization of pot. What we see in the news yesterday, Art Schlesier found again with crack in his car. You know, all these people, they make this money, they get a big reputation. Next thing you know, it's all drunkenness, drugs, and now what's killing most of the kids in this country who are dying right now, fentanyl. coming across the border because we have evil people in the White House who won't stop the flow of fentanyl and won't stop the sex slave trade. Verse 23, which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Verse 24, therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust. Coming soon. because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Read verse 25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them. And the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. It's exactly a parallel to what we're reading back here in Micah 3. And most of the Christian loved ones we know don't even know that's in their Bible. And if they carry a Bible, it's some piece of garbage like the NIV and ESV tears out thousands of verses. What a thing. Just think about where you're living right now. The time you're living in. Where even people who profess to be believers are so foolish. Amen. She's not talking about me, though. Hi, Isla. Forgive me, I have to say. So such perversion ultimately leads to the darkest, most evil conditions, including cannibalism. You do know they're eating people right now. You do know they're taking these little babies they kill and they're putting them into food. They're putting them into makeup and other products. Yeah. Over in places like China, they take the less desirable people and they harvest their organs before they're even dead. It's happening right now. And most people are totally clueless to it because they don't go to any real news source and so they don't ever hear this stuff. That's what, look at verse three. Who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from off them. You know what those Hamas did to the Jews when they killed them on October 7th? Ripped their hearts out and took bites out of it. Videotaped themselves doing it. You won't see that on your fake news. They break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron. And the elites devour the people and abuse the people even as the people are themselves backslidden and evil. Most of the people coming across that border down south are wicked people. A lot of them don't care. They don't care about the fact that they're being used to bring drugs in the country. They don't care that they're even, a lot of them willingly go into the prostitution thinking that they'll make some money. That's what happens when you get to where we are right now in human history of apostasy worldwide. The end result, violent demise of society altogether. We, our founding fathers, I just wanna say this for, as Americans, we can be thankful that our founding fathers, not a lot of them were Bible-believing Christians, but they believed in biblical morality. They believed in God, and insofar as the God of the Bible was their idea of God, they just didn't, a lot of them, believe in the deity of Christ, so they weren't saved. But some of them were. A lot of them were deists, yeah. There was another revolution some of you might not know about. In 1776, when we were having our revolution, another one was starting over in a place called France. Go read about that revolution. The one that was godless. Atheist. Closed the churches down. Get away with Sunday as a day off or Sabbath, totally godless, and then read about the massive killings, the beheadings by the hundreds, just any single day. You're not taught about that in school because they like to pretend that the revolution in France was just a little more violent than ours and it was a product of the Enlightenment, not of God's word. See? So they want to propagandize the French Revolution and the Enlightenment make you think it was a wonderful thing. It was not a wonderful thing. Yeah. I was shocked when I found out the true history of the French Revolution. And if it wasn't for having men like George Washington, I mean, most any other men would have just declared themselves dictator and taken over the country. And Thomas Jefferson, who was kind of the opposite of Washington's politics, but yet they believed in biblical principles. That's where they get the idea of the three branches of government to keep each other in check is because they believed in the inherent sin of man. They believed in the depravity of man and that man had to be checked with gridlock. Otherwise, you'd get what we're getting today, where they pass bills without even reading them. This happened during the Babylonian siege, literally, verse 3. This actually happened in 588 to 586 during the 18-month siege of Jerusalem. And again, 40 years after Jesus ascended to heaven, 70 AD, I guess it's closer to 40 years from the beginning of His ministry. But after he ascended to heaven, 70 AD, God gave him about almost 40 years. If you count from the beginning of Jesus' ministry to 70 AD, God gave them 40 years to take and receive their Messiah. And they didn't, and they didn't, and they didn't, and finally God gave them over. The Roman general Titus came down. sacked the city of Jerusalem, and they began resorting to cannibalism in both instances. Just like the Bible says. And when the dust settled, God goes silent. After this happened in Babylon, what'd they do? They came back down, got in the land, but we have a 400 year silence before Jesus comes. After Jesus ascends, He gives us, up until 70 AD, He gives us Paul's epistles, and then He gives us just one or two books, the book of Revelation being one of those, after 70 AD. And then He's been silent ever since. Until after the rapture. And then 144,000 wildcats. The virgins of Israel, Revelation 7. But He's silent and He lets the wicked suffer the consequences of their own choices. And that's what we'll look at verses 4-7. I'm going to deal with some things. I want to move quickly. It says in verse 4, the first part of the verse, Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them. He will even hide His face from them at that time. That flies in the face of what most preachers teach and most people believe today. But it says right there that even while they're not dead yet, and God says, I'm not going to hear them. I'll hide my face from them. We'll come back to that as we continue. And then the rest of that verse, actually should be 4B, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. This is talking about the religious and political leaders. And we talk more, seems like, over the last three or four years. We've talked much more about the political leaders and all the corruption because that affects us so directly. As far as we're concerned, the religious apostasy, I mean, we're not letting it in these walls. And if you're not letting it in your home and you're not letting it in your head, then the religious apostasy doesn't affect you quite as directly as the political corruption. But it does today include respected teachers among evangelicals. So back in Micah's day, it would have been the priesthood and the so-called prophets. Today, it includes people like John MacArthur. Now, I'm just going to tell you, there's no way I'm going to have a net worth of millions of dollars. I'm saying even if millions of dollars come in, If I were to sell books and make millions of dollars, I'm not going to have a net worth of millions of dollars. I'm not letting that money sit in the bank account in my name. It's going to go to some use for God's glory. I wouldn't tell you what I'm doing with it. It would just go there. For all you know, I may have made millions of dollars. No, I'm just kidding. But I wouldn't come in here toot my horn, but I guarantee you I wouldn't hoard up $20 million like John McArthur. And you put a big red S there because they say house, but he's got numerous houses. He bought one in the 80s. It's now worth $1.5 million on a couple of acres there in California. Five bedrooms, four baths, nice. All right, tennis court, okay, okay. But then in 1996, he got another home in California. Three bedrooms, two and a half baths. It's next to a world-class golf course where he does his best studying, I suppose. and it's near the beach. Then he acquired his largest home in 2007. It's located in Colorado Springs. It's a small little place with seven bedrooms and seven and a half baths. When you see people living like that, they're serving mammon, and you'll see their doctrine go to the pits. In your Hebrew commentary, you state that we are redeemed, quote, not by his bleeding, but by his dying. Do you still stand by that and why? Yeah, we're not saved by his bleeding because it wouldn't have done any good if he just bled. This was a big controversy years ago. Some people who were enemies of me decided to fabricate all kinds of strange things, and we got kicked off 55 radio stations, all because they said I denied the blood of Christ. Well, look, if Jesus had just bled, nobody would be saved. The wages of sin is not bleeding. The wages of sin is death. And people must understand that it's not the bleeding of Jesus, and it's not the blood of Jesus. To speak of the blood of the cross, the blood of the cross, is to simply speak of the efficacious, substitutionary, sacrificial death of Christ. Do I think He had to actually die, actually bleed? Not to save us, but to fulfill the Old Testament picture, somebody suggested that I might have thought he could be bludgeoned to death. Well, I suppose if God had decided that's the way he would die, it would be fine, but the pattern and the picture of the shedding of blood was in the whole Old Testament sacrificial system, and as the fulfillment of the final lamb, he fit that model and that pattern. But we are not saved by His blood. There's a weird theology that floats around that people have that turn the blood into a fetish, and they actually believe that, and they'll try to deal with this, with some people who accuse me of denying the blood, that somehow God collected all the actual blood of Jesus. Collected it all. around the foot of the cross put it in a bowl and took it to heaven and it's up in heaven sitting on a mercy seat and every time somebody's saved it's dumped out and recollected and then dumped out again and recollected. Of course this is wacky. See what he's doing? He's a liar. He's a liar. There's nothing magic in Jesus' blood. Magic. Who teaches that there's magic? That's how liars talk. His blood or his saliva or any other... Saliva? part of the fluids of the human body. I don't need to get too graphic here. I mean, what we're talking about is his death. And blood is a euphemistic way to refer to his death, particularly when you realize the bloodshed that occurred there. So I'm not... Yeah, that was his exact words. Orthodox Christianity has said for its entire history. He's a liar. We're not saved by his bleeding or by his blood as a fluid, but by his death. I wanted you to hear the whole thing because too many times Christians get a little clip and they get a wrong idea. You heard the whole thing. He misrepresented the whole argument. No one says only the blood saved us. He did have to die. And he misrepresented. You heard him say it's not the blood he had to die. He had to do both. He had to die shedding his blood. And he misrepresented the argument several times during that thing. And no one believes they're up there in heaven dumping and collecting and dumping and collecting the blood. And why bring up saliva and other things when no one I know brings that up? That's how liars argue. They bring up all kinds of things that have nothing to do with the discussion in order to defray or just to distract you from the reality. The Bible says, for the life of the flesh is in the what? Blood. Then in Matthew 26, 28, Jesus Christ said, for this is my blood. Not, this is my death. This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Then in Colossians 1.14 says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. But MacArthur's corrupt Bibles, his ESV, take out those words from the Bible. through his blood is gone from his ESV, his NIV, or whatever new version they're using. And then Hebrews 9.22, and almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. It's downright scary. Then you have just another example, Billy Graham. When he died, he was worth $25 million. $25 million. Look what it says down the bottom. That would rank Graham as one of America's eight richest pastors. Beliefnet.com reported Graham's estimated $25 million net worth is equal to that of guess who? Rick Warren. but lower than Joel Osteen of 40 million. And listen to this, Kenneth Copeland is worth $760 million. Can you imagine being so stupid that you'd send a dime to Kenneth Copeland? And they do every year. Millions and millions and millions are sent to him. And he got on TV begging for millions of dollars to buy a jet when he's got 760 already. But what about those faiths, the Mormons and the others that you mentioned, believe in Christ? Here's where love of money will get you. Right here, Billy Graham. What about those like the Jews, the Muslims, who don't believe as you believe? That's in God's hands. I can't be their judge. You don't judge them? No. How do you feel when you see a lot of these strong Christian leaders go on television and say, you are condemned. You will live in hell if you do not accept Jesus Christ. And they are forceful and judgmental. Well, they have a right to say that. And they are true to a certain extent. But that's not my calling. My calling is to preach the love of God and the forgiveness of God. and the fact that he does forgive us. That's what the cross is all about, what the resurrection is all about. That's the gospel. And you can get off on all kinds of different side trails. And in my earlier ministry, I did the same. Tell me, what do you think is the future of Christianity? I think everybody that loves Christ or knows Christ whether they're conscious of it or not, they're members of the body of Christ. And that's what God is doing today. He's calling people out of the world for his name, whether they come from the Muslim world or the Buddhist world or the Christian world or the non-believing world. They are members of the body of Christ because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their heart that they need something that they don't have and they turn to the only light that they have and I think that they are saved and they're going to be with us in heaven. This is fantastic. I'm so thrilled to hear you say that. There's a wideness in God's mercy. There is. There definitely is. You've got to let everybody hear what I'm playing. Now why am I doing that? Did you hear what he said at the end while you're moaning? He's talking about the wideness of God's grace. When Jesus said, enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. Let me go back to that. I read it too slow. And then beware, the next verse then says, beware of false prophets. After Jesus warns that the wide gate is to destruction, the narrow is to life, just like Billy said there, then the next verse says, beware of false prophets. Why? Because false prophets preach the wide way. Why? Because that gets them a bigger audience, which ends up with bigger offerings. The love of money. The love of money is the root of all evil. The new versions water it down. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. But what about those? I want to show you this. Here's another one. Bill Gothard, his name's come up among us two or three times. He's a creep. He was amassing millions of dollars when some young women came out and said that he had been sexually abusing them. He was on his way to making millions more, and he was exposed. The first headlines came out that 10 women accused him of rape and sex abuse. Later, another six, but I believe it was a total of 18. He was tied, how many of you watched the Duggars, what's it called, 19 and counting? They raised their kids on Bill Gothard's stuff. And one of their boys turned out to be a molester. And then what did they do? They sent him to his institute, where he got into even more of that stuff. 18 people have filed a complaint against Bill Gothard and the Institute and basic life principles, including six new women. According at the time of this report, one woman, Jennifer Spurlock, claims she was sexually abused by Gothard for years as a teenager. Daniel Dorset, one of Gothard's drivers, claims in court filings that between 94 96 he saw the minister abused more than 150 girls. David Gibbs of the Christian Law Center, he's a very respected man who represents Christians legally, he said, quote, it's like Bill Cosby. It continues to grow with more and more people coming forward, end quote. And listen, whenever a guy stands up there and says that his teachings, he calls them laws. Everything he taught, when he would say he'd come up with something, he would call it a law. And it was a key. It was a principle. It was Bill Gothard's opinions. And what he developed was a very cult-like control that he then taught families to adopt. The man was never married. He never had kids. And he's telling you how to raise your children. Christians have been covering up for this guy now for years. They're as bad as the Roman Catholic Church. And what happened? Bill started making millions of dollars and started hoarding the money up. And what are we told? Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their what? I would say blaspheming the blood of Christ and calling Christians slaves like MacArthur, denying that Jesus is the only way to heaven like Billy Graham, and fondling hundreds possibly of underage girls like Bill Gothard are all warnings enough Not, I know hardly anybody in this room's gotta worry about becoming a millionaire, but we should be very wary of religious leaders becoming multi-millionaires and hoarding that money up. They're now serving mammon. They made him step down from his ministry, by the way, and so he just went out and started his own again. Started his own website and everything. He's about 87, I think, now, or something like that. So, that's what we're told here. When you have apostasy, you get bad political leaders and you get apostate religious leaders. And they will be ill in their doings and the people will continue to support them. That's when you know you're in apostasy. When the people won't even stand up and say, enough! I put out that Billy Graham video a number of years ago and was disowned by people. They couldn't tell me a single thing in the video that was not true. That includes childhood friends disowned me. And I don't care. If you'll follow scumbags like that, see ya. Doug? 1940s. Yeah, go back to his Decision Magazine. If they were just good people, they didn't even have to know Jesus. It's in a 1940s Decision Magazine. But he's slick, and he knew he couldn't come out and say that in his Crusades. And then later on, he thought he could get by with it, and it cost him some when he did this stuff, but most people just followed him. So verse five continues, thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, I just showed you three, that bite with their teeth and cry peace, and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him, talking about their fighting against God. And they're actually fighting against God's will and God's word. As we see today, the masses of professing believers follow liars, heretics, and thieves. They want it. They love it. Number one, Joel Austin of Lakewood Church. Texas televangelist Joel Austin lives in a 15,700 square foot home in Houston, appraised at almost $12 million. The Lakewood Church pastor's house is also estimated to be worth more than $14 million. Number 2. David Turner. In 2016, faith healer David Turner bought Tyler Perry's home for $17.5 million, which he later sold to TV host Steve Harvey. In 2021, Turner purchased a Florida beach house with spectacular views of the Gulf of Mexico for $7.5 million, which is now estimated at $8.9 million. Number 3. Jesse Duplantis. Televangelist Jesse Duplantis lives in a 3,500 square foot parsonage owned by Jesse Duplantis Ministries. As the mansion was being constructed, the St. Charles Herald Guide reported it had 22,039 square feet of living space in addition to 12,947 square feet of outdoor patios and garages. Number 4, Benny Hinn. In Dana Point, California, lies Benny Hinn's 2001 home, which is now estimated to be worth up to $9.2 million. Benny and Suzanne Hinn also own a home in Florida valued at $672,000 by the county appraiser, with its real value estimated at more than $1 million, and as much as $1.4 million. Number 5. Pastor Greg Laurie. Harvest Christian Fellowship Pastor Greg Laurie also owns a multi-million dollar home in California, which is currently valued at $3.7 million. Number 6. Greg Seurat of Seacoast Church. Greg Seurat, founder of Seacoast Church and president of the Association of Related Churches, is the owner of a lakefront home in South Carolina, estimated to be worth up to $2.5 million. Number 7. Keith Moore of Faith Life Church. Keith Moore, pastor of Faith Life Church in Sarasota, Florida, and Branson, Missouri, has a parsonage in Florida worth $4.5 million, and a beach house worth almost $2.5 million. Number 8. Stephen Furtick of Elevation Church Stephen Furtick of Elevation Church owns a 1,600-square-foot home worth $1.7 million. The pastor was open about the house, which he described as 8,400 square feet of heated living area, and the rest comprising of basement, attic, garage, and porch space. Number 9. T.D. Jakes, Lead Bishop of the Potters House. After Bishop Jakes moved to Fort Worth, he purchased this 14,014,045 square foot mansion for $5.5 million in December 2004. The estate features four bedrooms and seven bathrooms, including two partial baths, and sits on 17.8 acres of land. Number 10. Creflo Dollar, founder of World Changers Church International. Creflo Dollar's $3.4 million house is in the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, in a suburb named Fayetteville, in the 182.9 acres of property, there is a 17,017 square foot home that has a large circular driveway in the forecourt and an impressive entranceway and is surrounded by a large fence and stone walls with a backyard having a pool and large fountain. When men serve mammon, they do not serve God. Matthew 6, 24. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and man. So every time you see these guys getting off into money, they're going to get off into other things. Materialism, sex, drugs, you name it. And verse six, therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision. And it shall be dark unto you that ye shall not divine. And the sun shall go down over the prophets and the day shall be dark over them. You rarely hear God's word being taught or preached in such times of spiritual darkness. Just go out and listen or watch what's on Christian television and you'll learn about this much Bible if that. That's just your evidence for today, but all these guys have one thing in common, their day is coming. Verse 7, then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer of God. I wouldn't trade places with any one of those fools for all of their money times, I say one million, you could put a hundred million, I wouldn't. You couldn't put me in their shoes? I don't want to stand in their shoes on Judgment Day. No way. Such false teachers and their followers are both spiritually dead and cut off by God. That's how the verse ends. For there is no answer of God. That's where you go if you're the leader or the follower. Jesus warned the blind will lead the blind into the ditch. The blind is the false teacher. The blind following them into the ditch is the follower. And the popular teaching that God will hear and answer you right up to your final breath is not completely true. We've talked about it before and that's the living dead. I'm going to stop there because we went long and that's what we'll pick up next time. We'll start with the living dead in our discussion.