Okay, so Lord Jesus, we ask you to be with us today as we present our sermon. We pray, Lord, that it would be a true blessing and encouragement to your Christian people. You know, Lord, that we are hurting, and we are hurting as a church. We have not been as faithful as we should have been in this nation, to say the least. We repent of our sins, Lord, as a nation for allowing the doctrines of devils to become the law of the land, whether it is abortion or the sex-changing transgendering of children or the sodomite agenda that we've let take shape, Lord. All of these things that we have not helped people to find you by being vocal as the church. We apologize, Lord, for hiding within the four walls of our buildings. We thank you for modern technology like the new printing press, Lord. Social media can be used for good and we'll continue to do this, Lord. We know that your hand is upon us. We know that many who are faithful faithful Christians, those who stand for natural law, law and order are being censored. And that's fine, Lord, we know that where there's a will, there's a way. And we will continue to get our message out by your grace. We pray dear God that as the time shortens for witnessing, that we would all as Christians be more aggressive, in our message and again bring the gospel to everyone in this land at least once. We pray Lord that you would continue to discipline the visible church especially the major denominations that have become synagogues of Satan once again just like you warned us in the book of Revelation. We pray dear God that as you cut off these unfaithful ministers and elders that you would replace them with godly men that want to fill the ranks and truly declare your word we pray that your blessings would be upon us today lord we pray that your Holy Spirit, the real Holy Ghost, that opens up our hearts and minds and ears to hear the word, would be with us today. And we ask, Lord, that you would keep the distractions to a minimum. We pray for our live, in-person church service. We pray for our internet ministries, Lord. And we pray for our phone-in worship service for those who are sick or can't travel because of the quarantines and various travel bans. We know, Lord, that all these things will work out for good by your hand. We're not afraid, Lord. We ask that you continue to guide us. And we always thank you in the name of our only King, Jesus Christ. Amen. So thank you for listening today and being involved with the online sermon. We want to thank you for, again, participating, actively praying with us and being with us. We're trying to do our best to continue to bring you godly content, godly sermons. And once again, we want to explain the scripture a couple of verses at a time. And if you remember, we are in the first Peter the first book of Peter was still working in the second chapter and We titled this sermon series grown-ups in the room and we have 11 Parts to this series. We're in the 11th part today And the reason why we're doing this is because we want to take everything piece by piece line upon line and go through the text and explain to everyone why it's so important and that of all times, today, you need to be mature in the faith. You really need to understand the scripture and apply it. I'm just like you. I know nothing apart from the scriptures. No one is a special genius in the scriptures. You have to read the Bible and then compare scripture with scripture. And we can address all facets of society. Christians have deserted this nation. We've become immature. We're just like the culture. As the culture used to say when I was growing up, if you want to keep the peace, talk about anything. Just don't talk about religion and politics. The two most important things that men should be speaking about and women, Christian women. So you can talk about pornography. You could talk about the latest whore on TV or whoremonger. You can talk about sports teams, any type of foosball, baseball, basketball, whatever. That's okay, but you can't talk religion or politics. And now we are all locked in our homes and having our jobs taken away because we thought that we could play church inside the building and then trust people who weren't godly to run the nation, to run our churches. So we need to be active. And that's why we're explaining these things today and we're taking the time to work through the Bible week by week. We all have to understand it. This is our heritage. Our heritage is not McDonald's. It's not Kentucky Fried Chicken. It's not Levi Strauss jeans. It's it is not Nike sneakers. Our heritage in this nation and those who have been part of quote the West. We were developing the faith. The reason why we had the societies that we had and we were all able to raise our families. and be productive, very productive at times, is because we were not under Sharia law. We did not have the burden of three wives and marrying our nieces and concubines and we had escaped what Rome and Greece had done and what had happened in the early founding of this nation We answered the slavery problem. We just ended the slavery. We knew it was counterproductive. It actually held us back. And this was all from the word. The ministers and Christian people were always on the front lines. Even if you read the real story of how we gained our freedom in this country. It was the black robe regimen. It was faithful Christian ministers that formed militias inside their own church. If you were a grown man and a Christian and a serious Christian, you had the means to defend yourself and your family. We've lost all these mature traditions. We've become extremely effeminate in the church. And then we wonder why there is no male leadership. So we have to get this back. We have to be able to answer questions from the word. Now we'll be working again in 1st Peter. The text that we'll be working on is 1st Peter chapter 2 verses 9 and 10. Very simple. we sent the outline the outline is also posted on Facebook so we have in verses 9 and verse 10 but ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And that is why the title of today's sermon is, and I want to provoke a little controversy, is Cultural Assimilation is Good. So the time that you've been told that cultural assimilation is not good, that's a complete lie. The way we adjust to a dominant culture when we join a new group of people and we come in as the outsiders, is if we want to fit in, if we like that group of people, if we like their country, their nation, if we enjoy their laws, if they're more prosperous than our nation, we want to come in to that nation so we can have life and again have it, as they say, as Jesus said, more abundantly, then we have to adapt to that culture. One of the complaints that you hear about in Europe and America today is that people are not assimilating to the culture. Now, that is not racist or biased or bigoted. My family came from mostly Southern Italy, some parts of Eastern Europe, but mostly Italy. They did not come here as a polished people. And since they wanted to be in an Anglo nation like America with freedoms and prosperity, and a better set of laws and an opportunity if you worked hard, people assimilated. They stopped speaking their particular Italian dialect, they had their children learn English, and they started to assimilate to the business culture in America. And even if we came here as a rough and shady people, as many groups do, we changed, we assimilated. Well, it's the same thing if you want to fit in with God's kingdom and the church. You need to change. You should not be the same person that you were when you came into the church five minutes ago, five years ago, 50 years ago. You need to assimilate to a Christian culture. We have laws. We have rules. We have things that we need to live by. And we need to assimilate. So we need to have this attitude as Christians. There's law and a culture that we need to learn to be able to be successful. And that's why we study the scriptures line upon line. And the point that we're at today is Peter is basically telling Jews that were faithful. It's a lie that not many Jews came to Christ. Many Jews came to Christ. The whole early church, the majority was Jewish, including many of the Pharisees who the Lord Jesus criticizes. The most famous one we know is, of course, the Apostle Paul. So these were good things that were developing in the church. Jesus was successful. He wasn't a failure and he wasn't a failure with the Jewish people. Now Peter is reminding the Jews of that time 2,000 years ago that they were living in the aftermath of Alexander the Great's empire. They were a captive people. They were not completely free in their culture. They basically became Hellenized in many ways and were Greek. The regions were Greek-speaking. They spoke Greek so much that talked to a Jewish person about the Septuagint. The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Torah from the original Hebrew because people couldn't read and speak the Hebrew. As a matter of fact the Hebrew language only made a major comeback when Israel was founded again and then that's when they started to revitalize the language. So we already have a people that's down and out when their Messiah came. So that's the text that we're up to and we're going to be breaking it down. So, point number one in the sermon, speaking about verse 9, Peter exhorts the Jewish believers that have accepted Christ as Messiah to honor Him in all things. They are now translated into the kingdom of God and are citizens of a new nation. They must assimilate to the righteous culture of their new nation, as we all need to do as Christian peoples. We don't become a Christian and then stay babes in Christ. And all this stupidity that you see with the wealth and health gospel, And the Christian now, now being the silly person that is not serious, that does not know scripture, doesn't know how to have a conversation on politics or religion or society or the laws of a society, that's going to change. They are already being eliminated, unfortunately. and God will continue to judge them. So this situation that we read about in Peter is nothing new. This happened before in Israel's history and that's why we're going to jump to Exodus chapter 19 1 through 6 and we're going to see the same Familiar words that Peter spoke to the people. This is a new beginning for the Jews Just like at Exodus and we see if you turn to Exodus chapter 19 with me and we read verses 1 through 6 Some of the wording is going to sound very familiar and this was done on purpose by Peter. So let's read it together. and will come to the desert of Sinai, and have pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mount, and saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and now I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey, obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. So, once again, we see that the point of the Lord Jesus bringing out a people, whether it's in the Old Testament or the New, it was for them to teach people how to live. as a special nation in this world. When God takes you from your old pagan life, which he's done for all of us, and he brings you into a new kingdom, you assimilate. You behave that way. So, if you were addicted to stealing, and now God rescues you and brings you into his nation, you steal no more. If you were someone who might have been a murderer or complicit in murder, like the Apostle Paul, you should no longer be killing Christians. But yet, in the modern church, in this church, we push grace. And God's forgiven us so much. And we don't explain God's law that people don't change. So yes, come as you are, but don't you dare stay as you are. You need to grow in the spirit. So the children of Israel were being brought out of Egypt. God was bringing them out. He gave them a contract. He gave them a covenant to live by. He wasn't going to make them an empire like the Egyptians or the Hittites or the Assyrians or these other groups to glorify themselves. He wanted to bring peace to the earth. He wanted people to have productive lives, families, children. And we don't mean productive just with money. We mean being able to put food on the table, raising your children where they don't have to be afraid of perversion, that a godly community would be safe for them, especially for women and children. And we see the same thing in the New Testament. That's why Peter repeats it. He says, look, this is your second chance. You that have accepted the Messiah just like God promised our people over 3,500 years ago in the desert at Sinai. to be able to become a nation. He's doing it again. But this time we won't fail. And us, Jews, in all our weakness, with all of our problems, our Torah, the real meaning of our Torah, which the Messiah brought, we're going to teach the world how to live and how to correct themselves. And even cultures that had some good things, like people like to brag about the Greeks. Greeks were a great culture. your first scientists, philosophers, wonderful. The problem is, if you had a Greek city of 100,000 people, probably 60 to 70,000 were slaves. Also, you had the pederasty and the pedophilia. Same thing with Rome. Rome was very advanced. What they don't tell you about the Roman Empire, one of the reasons why they were able to advance is because they were unique in the ancient world. where they mimic the Bible and that a man only had one wife now what this did you know when you have one wife and one set of children you don't have these vendettas you don't have these rivalries between different wives and different children we see this even in the Bible people say well yeah you know men had two sometimes three wives in the Bible yes and it was always a disaster. The different bloodlines, even with the same father, always became rivals. It didn't always work out well. So when pagans even copy God's law and his habits, they'll be successful. They have some revelation, but they need the Bible. It doesn't mean they have no revelation. The law of God is written on their hearts, but they have some revelation. So, if God's main instruction for the church was for us to grow and actually read his word and understand it, why would we abandon it? Because we're foolish and we're stubborn. Just like Israel had been, the church is now. So that's why we need to assimilate. Assimilation is good. Don't listen to foolish people. Those who do not assimilate to the good things of the dominant culture around them, of the nation that they wanted to be a part of, they will either help destroy that nation or never be successful. So as Christians, we don't complain. We just raise our families the way we need to be. We are to be fruitful and multiply. And the pagans and those trapped in the world will not have children. And eventually the meek, like us, will inherit the earth. So even if you're a wealthy Christian and you're living the Christian life and you're getting pressure from your wealthy friends around you, look at them, look at their families. How many of their children have lost the drive to be fruitful and multiply? How many are destroyed in their sexuality? And we don't make fun of them. It's heartbreaking what our children and what people are going through. young people so that's the first point is that we need to come to the Lord on his terms we ought to be a righteous people we have to stand out by the things we do not just the things we say so if you talk a good game and speak about what a wonderful Christian you are and you have the biggest Bible when you're walking down the street but you're still angry and people can't approach you and you live in the world and look just like the world, you're not living a productive Christian life. And it is not wealth and health. You will not always gain money when you come to the faith. Sometimes you will, and sometimes, especially during a wicked generation like this, you might lose your job. You might lose some money and opportunities. But understand, wealth for a Christian is, hey, a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, enough food for the day and people are learning that again unfortunately in this nation as we're being judged. Now point number two in the sermon as we get to our second verse, so Peter speaks about being a chosen generation of royal priesthood men and women even though women should not be in leadership roles like being a pastor or an elder They absolutely can witness to other women and help women to raise their children properly and they can speak about the gospel. They are in the same leadership role when it comes to spreading the word and all women are not bound. So in the second verse, verse number 10, which we'll be working on, Peter tells them, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Peter is not just speaking about Gentiles. Sometimes people get confused. He's not just speaking about non-Jews that commit to God's covenant. He's talking to Jews. He's saying you were rejected. If you read your Old Testament, the last book of the Old Testament is Malachi and if you read that book it ends with a curse and God wouldn't speak to his people for 400 years and they went through tremendous stress and bondage they were not only under the Romans they were also under the Greek general that Alexander left his inheritance to so this was already an oppressed people they were losing their inheritance but this was their second chance and We'll look at the book of Hosea to back up Peter. So if you're going to understand and read the Bible, you can pass scripture with scripture. One verse doesn't do it. You need to go through your Bible and see where the Bible agrees with itself. That's how you study the Bible. You don't make tremendous mistakes. So please turn to the book of Hosea with me. Hosea chapter 2. We're going to read verses 14 through 23. Jesus didn't come and the Jewish people didn't accept him because he was extra mean. or the Romans didn't accept him because he was extra mean. God was always up front with the Jewish people. He was always up front with Gentiles. If you are going to live like pigs, if you're going to break my law, if you're going to take your little babies and sacrifice them to Molech or to Baal, whatever god of the time, if you are going to rape little children, which these cultures did, do an archeological study, it wasn't pretty if you're going to swap wives or women and not even marry them if men are going to be with one another if you're going to have sexual relations with animals I'm going to judge you because that's not what I designed you for so let's go to the book of Hosea and Hosea tells us in the Old Testament beautiful book As we read verses 14 through 23 in the first part of the chapter we get into the judgment of God. Now Hosea talks about the restoration. Let's listen to Hosea as he speaks. and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt call me no more Baali. I would take away the names of Balaam out of her mouth and they shall no more be remembered by their name and in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven he's hearkening back to Genesis when things were right and the creeping things of the ground and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth and I will make them to lie down safely and I'll betroth thee unto me forever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercies I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord and it shall come to pass in that day I will hear sayeth the Lord I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil and they shall hear Jezreel and I will sow her unto me in the earth this should sound familiar and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy and I will say to them which were not my people thou art my people and they shall say thou art my God beautiful text in Hosea Israel had sinned they were going to be judged but he talked about a future restoration and it wasn't just it wasn't modern Israel now it was Jews that had to live in fear and because the religion was so strange and not accepted by many gentiles that that religion through Christ would be simplified, codified, and now they would have rest amongst the Gentiles as they converted. Now those who stayed stubborn and continued to be Jews, of course, have gone through different types of oppression and have also oppressed other people, including Christians. But those who converted, all of a sudden, the whole world had the Scriptures, the whole land of the goyim, that did not have the scriptures, now we're quoting your scriptures, your Torah, your prophets, your writings, the Torah, Ketubim, Nevi'im, all this was now quoted by Gentiles. So God restored them. This is what Peter's talking about. It is an amazing day, what happened for the Jewish people. He explains how this is their chance to fulfill the mandate they were given at Exodus. Accepting the salvific work of Christ by faith restores their relationship with God. There is no sacrifice and Christians have made this mistake. We like to pick on the Jewish people. for them wanting to do rituals and sacrifices. The Catholic Church does the same thing. Our charismatic friends do the same thing. You need to have a special vision, special miracle, claim certain things. That's not what you need to do. You need to humbly accept Christ, obey, obey Him and His commands, and you have everything. So we're saved by grace through faith, not some special work. So Jews that were searching for Christ, the Messiah, and that had him right in front of him, and accepted him, and would continue to accept him, had their inheritance back. And it's a beautiful story of redemption. And many times, Israel, God will describe his people like a woman, because we all understand the relationship, the natural relationship between a man and a woman. God is the most faithful husband you can have, this speaking metaphorically. He is the most faithful husband you can have and he'll never disappoint you. And God always wants to woo back his people when they've played the harlot and gone after other gods. And we know that it's a horrible thing when marriages are destroyed because of infidelity. and we need to make them something blessed that they are. And this is a warning for both men and women. If you're a man who claims to be godly, you have a woman that actually looks for your leadership and submits to you, and you ruin that, you make no mistake about it, I'm telling you, you reject a godly woman and destroy her, you will pay for it for the rest of your life. and vice versa for the women. You have a man that of course is far from perfect who wants to protect you and take care of you and you reject that type of man who wants to lead and cares about you and you will pay for it for the rest of your life. God is not playing games, okay? So that is, He has compared the relationship between Him and His people. to the relationship between a man and a woman. The world maybe has made it trivial. We've all become communists now. Their planks are no belief in God, no traditional marriage, women are to be rented out for sex and to have children, men are to be rented out, and this is the society we've got. But that's not the way it's supposed to be. So they have a chance to come back to God. Then the last point in the sermon, God's rejection of the Jews because of their disobedience is mentioned by God's prophets. The New Covenant Church is once again facing a similar situation, the quote, West. In the West, we became a very rich and powerful church. And by the West, yes, I mean Europe. But what we've done is take the heritage of the Puritans, they came here, Through their work, most of your Ivy League schools were founded. They were at the precipice of education and power, and they deserted God. And one of the most damaging forces in the world today, we call it secular Puritanism, where they took this heritage of education from their Puritan forefathers, and they used it just to make money and get stuff. And when you live like that, God will destroy you. You cannot be called his people. and behave that way. And even if you go to Yale today in the Stone, the Ten Commandments are engraved in the courtyard. Harvard was started because a pastor donated his whole library to start the school. And most of your Ivy League schools were started as seminaries to train people like me to be well trained in the Bible and understand logic and rhetoric and these other things and be able to bring the lessons of the Word to the people. And they have stabbed God in the back. And that's why we are losing our nation. Doesn't mean we're finished. We could have a Hosea moment where God says, yes, America, you have played the whore. You have deserted me. You are in bed with other gods. But even with your ritual sacrifice to Moloch, which you call abortion, even with your perverted relationships and sins, I can still restore you if you call on my name. If you call on my name and by faith ask for mercy through my son and what he's done for you at the cross and obey his commands. It can't just be lip service. So we're going through the same thing that Israel went through. Now let's read Hosea. Let's go back to Hosea chapter 2. We're reading it in reverse. We read verses 14 to 23 to show you God's blessings. But let's read about the judgment that was first coming for what they've done. And tell me this doesn't sound like today. Every fallen group of God. sounds like this. This is Hosea who had a whore for a wife and constantly chased after her and forgave her and wanted to bring her back into a right relationship. If you study the book of Hosea, you'll study a man who's probably one of the most faithful men that have ever lived. So let's read what he warns the Israelites about, the Hebrew people. Say unto your brethren, Ami, and to your sisters, Luama. Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her hoardings out of her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born and make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst and i will not have mercy upon the children for they be the children of whoredoms for their mother had played the harlot she had conceived them hath done shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns. and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. And she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband. for then it was better with me than now. For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore I will return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, And none shall deliver her out of mine hand. And I will also cause all her mirth, her joy, and her sin, all her mirth to cease for her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. and I will visit upon her the days of Balaam wherein she burned incense to them and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels and she went after her lovers and forgot me, saith the Lord." The situation never changed. never changes. God took the weakest people on the planet at the time, the Hebrew people, and made them into a nation. It's like taking a woman who was poor and destitute, and cleaning her up, and taking care of her, and dressing her, and she enjoyed in her husband's wealth, and she had position in the world, and she had respect, and she starts to believe that That's not from her husband. She owes him nothing. She can get it on her own. And she plays the whore and thinks all this favor came from her own might. And that's the way America is. And we were all victims of it, myself included. Our food, our clothing, everything on tap. Click the mouse. It gets delivered to your house. Food everywhere. Never thanking God. Many times, never thanking God. Thinking that tomorrow would be just like today. They call it normalcy bias. They tell people a deadly hurricane is coming and people don't leave. Most won't leave. until it's too late because we're all built like that. In our minds we identify that there's consistency and we think tomorrow will be like today. Well for those of us caught in this pandemic now, whether you think it's real or whether you think it was manufactured, we're all suffering now. Maybe we should have thanked God a little more. for the food that we had on our table, especially this nation that was made so wealthy from its Christian heritage. And don't listen to these books that are being written. They are hit pieces on the country. This country was founded by those who believed in God's providence. The Puritans helped found this nation when they landed here. This was a place that was supposed to be an example of godliness. It wasn't always perfect, but that foundation allowed it to develop what it became and we throw it in God's face as if we created all this wealth. So remember that. But God is merciful. So what we can do as Christians, all hope isn't lost for us. We can be the remnant that God hides in His hands and protects us. But we have to remain faithful. We have to teach our children His commands. We have to teach our grandchildren His commands. Oh, how do we do that? Start with the Ten Commandments teach them to honor marriage Teach them to honor their father and mother all those things that they're learning in school right now and in college universities They're being taught to hate their family hate their culture and worship their government So you need to reverse that through teachings of the Bible sit down. We live in the United States of America Why don't you read the Declaration of Independence? of independence, that some of those opening words that Joe Biden was afraid to quote because it mentioned the Creator. It says, all men are endowed with inalienable rights no matter what. All men are created equal and you know the thing because the Creator is mentioned in our declaration. We were not a secular nation. We were never meant to be that way. So, recover your heritage of faith. Cultural assimilation is good. Whatever culture you're from, I don't care what nation you're from, what your ethnic background is, take the good things in your culture that match with the Bible and keep them. And everyone has good things in their culture. And then those things that are wicked, that you've been taught, whether it's voodoo, whether it's throwing the Malachi at people, things like that, whatever doesn't match with God's word, change it and assimilate to the gospel. And I want to thank everyone for listening today as we conclude the sermon and let us now pray. Almighty God, we thank you that you give us your word. We thank you that we have the freedom to worship like this right now. We don't take it for granted, Lord. We pray that whoever was going to be touched by your word today, that a seed would be planted. We ask Lord that those who are already Christians, that their faith would grow. We pray that as we end our sermon, that people would continue to have that feeling of confidence and peace in Christ throughout the day. And we ask you, Lord, to protect us, your people, until we meet again to worship you. And we always thank you in the name of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless you. And again, we will have our service again next week at the same time. Thank you so much. And God bless you.