Verse 1, Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel, then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you. For we seek your God, as you do. And we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Asher, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel and Yeshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build the house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, hath commanded us. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even unto the reign of Darius, king of Persia. Listen, lawsuits against churches is nothing new. nothing new. That's what they do. They come after you. Let's look at this tonight. Father, thank you for your word. And I just ask you tonight that you would teach us by your Holy Spirit, that you would illuminate your word tonight. You would just reveal, not reveal, you have revealed your word, but you'd illuminate your word and teach us tonight Lord, as we apply this to our own life and how we live on a day-to-day basis, would you help us to do that? I just pray, Father, for the requests that have been made and those that are traveling, those that have health issues, and we think especially of our brother Chris. Lord, we just ask you that you would intervene in a mighty way there. give Him some relief physically and help Him spiritually and even mentally. Just encourage Him by your Holy Spirit and pray that He'd get settled in where He is and He'd get some of those things squared away, just some of the silly rules that have been coming up and that some of those would be reversed and He'd be able to take control of His medicines like He needs to. And then Father, for our elections coming up and all of these things that are going on around us, and we're watching our nation crumble right before our eyes. And Father, Lord, we still have a say, and I'm thankful for that, and we pray you'd help us to be as involved as we ought to be. And then, Lord, for those that just couldn't be here tonight for health issues and such, would you just raise them up and heal their bodies and strengthen them physically Lord, that they could be back in the house of God. We thank you for what you're going to do tonight and what you're going to teach us. Lord, we love you tonight. We thank you for the Lord Jesus. And we ask all of these things in his name. Amen. We had some friends of ours, I know I've mentioned it before but it bears repeating for this passage that we're looking at here tonight. We had some friends that had decided that it was time for them to get back into church and they were away from the Lord and they had gotten married and gotten away from the Lord and they begin to have children and they realize, you know, we need to be back in church, we need to be faithful. And so they decided they're going to go back to church. And the wife said, you know, every week, every week something came up, something got in the way of us getting to church. And she goes, one week it was so bad. She goes, because we had a bat in the car, a bat had flown into our car. And she goes, we're there on a Sunday morning with a pitchfork trying to get this thing out of our car. They lived way south of Aurora on a big farm down there. And she said it was at that moment they decided it doesn't matter what happens, we're going to church. What was that? Well, it was just opposition. It was opposition. You know what she said? Ms. Clark said, she goes, you know, once we finally decided we're going to church, it stopped. All of the opposition, all of these weird stuff, it all went away because we just stuck a stake in the ground and said it doesn't matter what happens, we'll show up late, but we're going, right? And I like that because here's what we know in our Christian life. You've lived it long enough, right? If you're saved here tonight, you know it. You've lived long enough to know that opposition comes when you serve God. Listen, if you have good, we have evil. If you have progress, you have evil who wants to keep progress from happening. We've lived long enough to watch it, right? You make a decision at the altar, you come before God. I mean, the Holy Spirit of God just really tears you up in a message, and He points some things out, and you get along with God, and you're like, I see it, and we're doing this, and we're going this road, and I am just putting it down today. Bless God, I'm doing this. Boy, by Monday morning, whoop, well. We're starting Tuesday. We're starting Tuesday, right? I mean, you can mark it down. Opposition is gonna come. And in our passage tonight, we're gonna look at the opposition that came to these Jews that returned from this Babylonian captivity that they were under to this great place of revival and this great place of repentance. And I'm telling you, they just had the joy of the Lord and they're so happy to be back in the will of God. But don't you know it, hey, progress is gonna start being made. but opposition is going to show up. And this leads me to my very first point, which is adversaries will always be near. If you're going to do something for God, if you're going to be obedient to what God has for you in your life, adversaries adversaries will always be right under your feet. They'll always be right behind the door waiting for you. Webster's 1828 Dictionary says this, an adversary is an enemy or a foe, one who has enmity at heart. Right. Who has enmity against God? Well, I think Satan does, don't you think? Can I just interject this right here? A lot of the attacks that we get, some of the attacks are not attacks. Sometimes Satan gets blamed for stuff, and it's just our own wicked flesh, and it's our own choice, and it wasn't him. But there are times when Satan definitely, definitely attacks, right? And let me say this, a lot of the attacks that Satan has are not at you. they're really at him. If he can get to you, he can make God look bad. And that's the ultimate goal, really. That's really who he's after. And you're just a, sometimes we can be a useful tool for Satan to make God, try to make God look bad. Webster's going to say it's an opponent or an antagonist, like in a suit of law or somebody who is an opposing litigant. I'm telling you, it's an adversary. They are out to get you. They are an enemy. They are a foe. And we know Satan has been called an adversary, right? He absolutely has been in Luke 22. Remember what Jesus said to Peter? He said, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat. I mean think about the process when they bring in the They would cut down, like you remember, Boaz and Ruth and all of that, and they're gleaning the fields, and they'd bring in to the building, and you'd have an open door on one end and another open door on the other end of that barn, and they'd get it set up just right for that wind to come through, and they'd bring that wheat into that area, that barn, that covered area, and they'd throw it up into the air, and what happened? The wind would come and blow all of the chaff away, all of the stuff that's not wheat. blow it away. And it was that process of just threshing the wheat and threshing the wheat and getting it up in the air. And Jesus told Satan, what an imagery, Jesus told Peter, Satan desires to sift you as wheat. Well, you know what that tells me? We, us and ourselves, we're pretty powerless against Satan. He can just thrash you around wherever he wants to, if he really wants to, if God allows him, right? He really can. Look what he did to Job. God had to tell Job, whatever you want, just don't kill him. You can't kill him, right? Because he would have, right? He would have, absolutely. And so he tells Peter that Satan desires to sift you as we. Now, I love what Jesus follows it up with. I mean, we get pretty terrified, but Jesus says, but I have prayed for thee, right? That thy faith fail not. and when they are converted, strengthen the brethren. Oh, he's going to here in a little bit, isn't he? Over in 1 and 2 Peter in those epistles, he's gonna strengthen the brethren. But remember when Peter told the Lord that he wouldn't allow him to be crucified? Now watch, Jesus has already warned him, Satan wants you, Peter. He definitely wants you. He wants to destroy your life. And so Peter has told the Lord over, I believe it's Matthew chapter 16, he tells the Lord that he's not going to allow him to be crucified, right? Jesus tells him, I'm going to go up to Jerusalem. We just talked about this. I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going to be crucified, but I'm going to rise again. And Peter says, no, you're not. I'm going to, I'm not going to let it happen. There's no way, right? Listen, I've got it written down, verse 22 and 23. Then Peter took him. I mean, I have this imagery, you know, and Peter took him. It's like he almost like took him. And he said, he began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, that this shall not be unto thee. He's like, I'm not going to let this happen. Maybe he said, come here, this isn't happening. I know what you said, but I don't... I mean, think about the boldness of that. That's kind of funny, right? Give him some slack. He doesn't have the complete canon of the revealed Word of God, right? Give him a little slack here, right? And he said, but listen, what did Jesus turn and say to him, though? He said, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savest not the things that be of God. I mean, this is quite a deal that Peter said, right? And he says, You are after the things that be of men, not of God. And then we saw last Sunday night in Matthew 26 at the supper, right? And Jesus said he's going to die, right? He's going to die, but he's going to rise again. And Peter said, you know, back over, I think around verse 34, Where am I at? Verse 32 it is. He said, though all men shall be offended in thee, yet I will not I be offended in thee. And Jesus says, Peter, verily, means this is fact here, buddy. Before this night's over, before the cock crows, we're not gonna look at all that again. Before the cock crows, you're gonna deny me three times. But hey, listen, Peter's persistent, he doesn't give up. It's like, as if God doesn't know what he's talking about, right? Isn't this ridiculous? It really, I mean, we look at it and think, this is crazy. Peter has watched Jesus turn water into wine. He's watched Him heal the sick. He's watched Him raise the dead. He's watched Him walk on water. He's watched Him call Lazarus out from the dead. And when Jesus says, I'm gonna die and rise again, he goes, nope, not gonna let it happen. Listen, we get that ridiculous. Don't get too excited about it. Don't get too hard on Peter. Yeah. He goes even further. He goes, hey, Peter says, though all men should deny thee, yet I'm not going to deny thee. Right. All the disciples said, yeah, we're not going to deny you. Well, they did. And they all ran away. Yeah. Except John. But you know, after he says all this on that Passover night, it wasn't just a few hours, a few hours later, right? He said, verse 74 and 75, then began he, Peter, to curse and swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. Peter remembered what Jesus had said. He remembered it. And he went out and he wept bitterly. But can I remind you of this? It was years later, years later, Peter would write these words, be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil has a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. You know what Peter found out? He found out who his adversary was. And in our text tonight, Israel is gonna find out their adversary as well, right? Listen, if you're gonna do anything for God, The adversaries there will always be near. Satan will always be near. Other adversaries, the world, the flesh, they're always going to be close by. Don't ever think as you start out that it's going to be smooth sailing. It will not. It will not. It'll help you. It'll help you keep going, actually, right? If you know what you're going in. Could you imagine signing up in the military, and you're getting ready, and you're in, and you're getting ready to go on some mission, and they tell all of the troops, this is gonna be a piece of cake, right? Could you imagine that, Brother Chuck? No problems, we'll just, don't even worry about it, get on out there, right? And all of a sudden, the incoming missiles, and bombs, and guns, and tanks, and everybody's like, you're not prepared. You wouldn't be prepared. That'd be ridiculous if they, they wouldn't do that. Right? My cousin told me when they were going into, anyway, a certain place down South in the 80s, he said, they told us we're not coming back. He said, one of these days, I'll show you a photograph of me and the team that went in. He goes, we look like death, because we were terrified. Because they told us, well, you're not coming back from this. Right? Yeah. I mean, they prepare you. Well, obviously, they came back. He's still telling me this stuff, right? But they prepare you. Jesus is preparing all through the Word of God. He prepares us. We're prepared here again. And we can see we always will always have an adversary. And you know what they do? Here's what Satan loves to do. He loves to show up when there's progress. not when things are just status quo, not when people are just living a blah life, not the Christian who's just, you know, is not making any ground with God, he's not going off on a higher ground, he's just living the blasé Christian life, he's not getting excited, he's not necessarily getting into wicked sin, he's just cruising along there in cruise control. Satan loves that, he loves that. But I tell you what, God gets a hold of you, and He gets a hold of you in a message, or in your Bible reading, or in prayer, and I'm telling you, He begins to show you something, a revival begins to come back, and you begin to live your life for God again, oh, He's going to show up. Why? Because this is when they show up, they show up in progress. Look at verse 1. Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple of the God of Israel, Lord God of Israel, then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers and said unto them, Let us build with you. Yet now they're interested, and this is how it goes. Listen, they had no desire to build the temple over the last 70 years that it laid in ruin. They didn't care, right? If they were so concerned about the will of God, why is it still sitting here like this? They said in verse two that they'd been in the land ever since Azarhadon brought him into Judah. Ezra Hayden ruled Assyria from about 681 BC to 668 BC, which is about 130 years before this event in chapter four, 130 years. Think about it. If they were really sacrificing and seeking God for the last 130 years, why the interest in the building now? This is when we need to put on our logic hat, okay? And to think some things through, right? What's going on? Well, things are going well, and now they want to help. But here's what the Jews are going to find out. They're going to find out that the Assyrians were not concerned with the things of God. Are you saying they lied? Yeah, they're a bunch of big liars. Yeah. They really are. They have ulterior motives. What is it? They don't want the temple to be built, and they don't want the Jews back into the land, right? Later on, they're gonna accuse them, and they're gonna write back to Cyrus and to the government and say, don't you know these people, there's war from this city? Don't you know the previous kings who used to rule from this city? You can't let them go on and rebuild this temple, because they're gonna go over and take you out again, right? I mean, they were terrified of this. And so here it is, we see it again, that when the progress for the Lord is evident, adversaries will always show up. They're going to show up around progress. When your life gets right. When you start getting close to the Lord. When you start making decisions that please the Lord. When you put a stake in the ground and say, We need to go to church. We need to get the family back in church. We need to start doing right again. We need to start serving the Lord. Hey, can I remind you we're all servants of God? We serve, we are serving God, and if we're not serving God, we're either serving ourself or we're serving Satan, but we are servants of God. People say, oh well, I just don't care to serve God. Well, you're gonna serve something. We all serve something, right? We all do. I'd much rather serve the Lord God, the one who loves me, amen. See, adversaries, here's what the problem is with our adversaries. Number three, adversaries want you to think they believe the same thing. They're always gonna be there, number one. Number two, they're always gonna show up when you start making progress. Number three, they're gonna want you to think they believe the same thing. Why? Because Satan is a deceiver and is a liar. And he was a liar from the beginning, right? He started in the garden. Well, he's doing the same thing half God said. Do you realize by saying, hath God said, he actually kind of, the deception, another aspect of deception there was that he was kind of knew what God wanted and that like there was some agreement there. I mean, there's some undertones there of agreement, you know, that he's challenging Eve with. He didn't agree. He's a stinking rotten liar. He's a deceiver. Yeah. Look at verse 2. Look what they say here. For we seek your God. Now that should have thrown up a red flag right there. They didn't say we seek our God. They said we seek your God. Right? Well, if you've been seeking the God of heaven, right, and you have no doubt within the temple structure, no doubt there's a Word of God left somewhere, maybe you should have already started on this thing, right? See this, and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Asher Hadan. Wait, you've been sacrificing for the last 130 years? Or the last 70 years that Israel's been in captivity? You've been sacrificing this whole time? Well, here's the problem with that, liars. Where's God's altar? Do you realize back in chapter three, they had to rebuild it. Where's the altar? Where's the evidence of the sacrifices that have even been offered up? There's no evidence of it. Where's the evidence of the feasts that have been kept? Where were the Levites who were the only ones who were able to offer unto God? Where are the Levites anyway? They weren't there. Where's the musicians? They weren't there. They may have been sacrificing to something. They may have been sacrificing to someone, but they were not sacrificing to the God of Israel. They were not. They're liars. Why are they liars? Because they're adversaries. Right? Because they want the progress to stop. They don't like what's going on there. Right? Hey, let's try this. Let's try another exercise of logical, deductive reasoning. You ready for this one? If all of this was already going on, why did God have these Jews come out of Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem in the first place? If this was already going on, why did He just bring them up anyway? Just leave them down there. I mean, they could have come up. There would have been nothing to rebuild. L-I-A-R. Liar. That's what they are. Their statement is, hey, what they said reveals they don't even know the Word of God. You ever have somebody tell you something biblical, right? Well, you know the Bible says, and you're like, eh, you just proved you don't read it. Because it does not say that. Well, I think it says it somewhere. No, it doesn't. Well, I know it's, I mean, it's probably you know, it's probably an inference there. Nah, no. Right. You ever hear this Bible says, you know, an idle mind is a devil's workshop. You know, idle hands are a devil's workshop. No, it's not. It doesn't say that. You know, I mean, there's things that are thrown out there that prove You know, it proved they really don't know what they're talking about. And Israel knew they were lying. Look at verse 3. But Zerubbabel and Yeshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build a house under our God. You can say you sacrifice. You can say you want to help. You can say you're all for God. We're pro-God, pro-God, pro-God, right? Can I tell you, there's sometimes one of the men, the only man that's running for president, says Christian things and I'm like, just don't say anything, please, because you've actually, you've done yourself some harm, right? Can I say this? I'm still voting for you. You don't have to go down that road, okay? I think non-Christian presidents can allow Christian interest They can still run on two tracks, okay? They cannot agree with us and still agree with us and allow things to be in law. I'm not too worried about that sometimes. But it's like sometimes they'll say things and you're like, you know, you don't need to say that. You've kind of set yourself out there. Israel knew they were lying. What did they say? What did they say in our vernacular today? Get lost. Wait, but these Assyrians, they love God. That's what they said. They've been sacrificing to Him. That's what they said. Until Israel told them no. Then you see what they really believe. What'd they do? They went and took a lawsuit out. Oh, well, there's love for the God of Israel. Just stop. You know, eventually they proved that they were totally against this whole thing. I mean, this is the classic sleazy sales tactic. Right, they pat you on the back, old buddy, old pal. You need this. This is the best thing you could ever have, old buddy, old pal. Yeah, here you go. And you go, no, I don't want that. Well, I knew you wouldn't have enough sense in you to see what you needed. I mean, and then all of a sudden you're just a, you know, not smart enough to see anything. It's like, wait a minute, I thought I was the smartest thing on the planet, until I told you no, and now I'm the dumbest person on the planet. Right? What is that? It's just a sleazy sales tactic. This is what they are, right? When they came to help the temple, build the temple, they had a really, really cheap polyester plaid suit on. I'm sure all of them did. Right? I'm sure they were, they just, they just, never mind. Anyway. Yeah. So what's going on here in Chapter 4? Well, hindering. The hindering process has begun. And they're going to hinder Israel for some time actually. They're going to put them off for several years actually. It's going to work. But what is it, how does it apply to us tonight? That's what we want to dig into real quickly here and then we'll be going. We know this, we have adversaries in our life. I've already mentioned this, I've already touched on this. And we know this when you decide to obey God and take a turn in life towards God, right? When you decide to draw an eye onto Him and He begins to draw an eye onto you. Listen to me, the liars are going to rear their ugly heads. We have adversaries in our life. We do. There's the obvious ones that we have, right? The worldly philosophies through entertainment that contradict the word of God. Right? Those are adversaries. Ungodly music. Government. How did we do during COVID? How'd that go? Right? Oh, well, you can, you know, you don't want to cause the mass death of millions, do you? It'd be all on your shoulders. Right. And, uh, you know, when I realized they weren't really, weren't concerned about the death of people. When I learned that Planned Parenthood was still open in St. Louis and they were still butchering babies during, during COVID. Yeah. Do you remember what I told you? If they can continue to murder babies in St. Louis, we'll just continue to have church, and we'll be open, right? Can I wear a mask? Sure, wear a mask. Do I have to wear a mask? I don't care what you do. If the mask works, then they're fine, right? The ones who are wearing it. If it works, they're fine, right? And if they don't work, then we're all in trouble. We're all in trouble, yeah. Government. Hey, can I tell you something? Remember what we talked about Sunday night when the Bible says Satan, in the wilderness, when Satan tempted Jesus and it said he left him for a season? Can I tell you, the adversaries, they may leave for a season, but they're coming back. And I'm going to tell you, it's an election year and they're coming back. The government will be back. Yeah, absolutely they will. Especially if the guy that's running for president, if he wins, oh man, they'll be back. They'll do everything possible they can to stop whatever He wants to do. Don't you kid yourselves. They'll shut churches down. There'll be some new monkey pox thing coming out, right? Unfortunately, that didn't work because only certain people get it. But anyway, no, they're coming. They're adversaries. They would love it if every Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church shut down and went out of business. They would love it. They would rejoice. These are obvious ones. What about our own flesh? Boy, there is an adversary. Yeah. You go to bed at night and go, boy, praise the Lord, I can't wait to get up at four this morning and read my Bible. I don't know if anybody does that, but I don't. I mean, I don't say four. But I'm just saying, boy, you know what? Your alarm goes off and your flesh goes, you're not getting up. Just shut up and go back to bed. I'm in charge here. And you go, okay. Right? No, our flesh is an adversary, as the door upon its hinges. The proverb says, so is the sloth upon his bed, right? I mean, we battle the flesh, you know, a little slumber, a little sleep, a little folding of the arms to sleep, so shall thy poverty come, right? Go to the end, thou sluggard. I mean, listen, we fight our flesh every day, and it's an adversary against the things of God, it is, yeah. Just ask somebody who gets saved and the Holy Spirit of God begins to deal with them on certain vices that they brought into their life with Christ and some vices that the Holy Spirit begins to work on. I think you need to get that out of your life and you need to remove this from your life and you begin and you say, well, yes, Lord, yes, and all of a sudden your flesh is going, no. You know what happens a lot of times? Progress stops because the adversary got one. I'm not saying it's easy. It's not. Right? If you think it's easy to have victory over your flesh, I don't know what planet you're living on, but you're not on Earth. You're somewhere. There's obvious adversaries, but there's those that are not so obvious. There's sneaky adversaries. Yeah. That's where it hits home. No pun intended. But family and relatives, boy, they can really be adversaries. They really can. You want to do something for the Lord, and you know what, the children rise up, the spouse rises up, aunts and uncles and cousins rise up. Hey, some haven't had the privilege to have a godly heritage and a lineage of generations to where they say, God's called me to do this, and their parents and grandparents and cousins and uncles all go, praise the Lord, this is awesome, right? Some don't have that. Some don't have that. A lot of people don't have that. Many people, they get saved, and the family goes, oh, you're going to be one of those Jesus freaks now? Well, boy, isn't that encouraging? That'll really help you go on for the Lord, right? Or it's like, you're going to church again? Right? You know what they'll do? They'll miraculously show up at your house every time you've got to go to church. It's amazing. They drop and parachute in right here. And you're like, oh, wow, that's cool. Yeah, family. Work, that's a tricky one, why? Because you gotta work six days a week and do that labor. You gotta work. You can't just sit around in a cave all day just praying and mumbling prayers, right? I mean, God commanded us to work. But boy, there's times when work can be an adversary. Can be, yeah. Health. Health can be an adversary, yeah. There's some people that have serious health issues And they're limited, right? They're limited. And there's others that you look at and you're like, you don't have that many health issues. I can line up some people with legitimate health issues, right? And we know, we're praying for them all the time. Look who's here, praying for them all the time. Absolutely, yeah. But there's some, listen, there's some, it's like, oh, my back, oh my this, oh my that, oh that, oh this, oh this. Adversary, adversary. There are some people that drag themselves into church, every bone in their body aches. I mean, they're in pain and it's like, I mean, they're not contagious or anything, but they're just hurting it, right? Remember Miss Edith Ward? I love Miss Edith. I miss Miss Edith. I can't wait to see her again. I'd go and give her a hug in the back. She was 93 at the time. How are you feeling, Miss Edith? Aw, terrible. But I figured I could feel terrible at home or feel terrible here. So I figured I'd be better off just feel terrible here. So praise the Lord. Give her a hug. Yeah. Adversaries. They'll show up. You know what? We need to be alert. That's why you need to walk in the spirit so you can see them, so you can understand where they're coming from, right? But not only in the personal life, we have adversaries in the church. Churches have adversaries. I'm having trouble with that word, adversaries. You know this whole evangelical movement that's been out there for years and then it's moved into what they call the neo-evangelical movement that says let's put aside our differences and just come together. Can I tell you there's some doctrinal things that we can't come together on, right? If you believe that your baptism saves you, we can't come together on that. That is anti-Bible. That is a work of righteousness. It is not faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. If you have problems with the deity of Jesus Christ and you don't believe He is God, listen, that's a problem. That is the difference where we cannot come together. It definitely is. There's a man by the name of Harold Ockengay. He was the, he was the, he was the, what some said was birthed the neo-evangelical movement. And his, his saying was infiltrate, don't separate. That was, he coined that, infiltrate, don't separate. You know, the Bible says to separate, right? This is what the Bible says, separate from them. that don't have truth, right? We are to reprove the works of darkness and separate from those things. But this guy comes along and says, well, let's just infiltrate and we'll get them this way. This is where these music artists, quote, Christian artists came along in the late 70s, early 80s, throughout the 80s, even into the 90s. And when the beginning of this started to happen, when like, Singers like Amy Grant and those started to be on the secular radio station. They said, well, we can reach more on a secular radio station than we can on a Christian station. But what did they eventually do? Well, they made their music sound worldly and secular and ungodly so they could reach the unsaved on the secular radio station. Well, that's neo-evangelicalism. That's Harold Ockingay. That's infiltrate, don't separate. Can I tell you what? It doesn't work because it's not biblical. It's not what God told us to do. It doesn't work. You know what happens? Have you seen her lately? She's still around. She's still around. You don't hear much with her rainbow sashes that she's wearing and things like that. She's infiltrated. She's really infiltrated. It's sad. Ephesians 5.11, "...have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." 1 John 2.9-10, "...whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God." That's what the Bible says. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God's speed." Have you ever been at the door of a Mormon and they say, well God bless you, and you just go, have a good day. I can't bid them God's speed. They don't believe Jesus is God, they believe He's the brother of Satan. They need to get saved. It's a sad thing to run into these people that have been taught this. It's horrible. This is why we're not a part of the Ministerial Alliance. Right? If people have problems, if churches have problems with the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can't associate with that. Why? They'll end up being adversaries to the work here. That's why we don't let somebody who denies the deity of Jesus Christ or some of the other doctrinal things, that's why they can't come in in church membership until they get some of those things ironed out and come to a place where they believe the Word of God. I'm just telling you, this is why we don't allow anything in this church. I'm not saying, I mean, some people bring in other Bibles and I'm not a lord over anybody. We just hope that they can learn what is right, but this is why in preaching and teaching, if you're gonna preach here, if you're gonna teach here, you better make sure that you preach and you teach and you believe and you defend the King James Bible. Yeah, absolutely. Oh no, this is what brings the throngs of people in. They love this. See them coming? They do. Hey, you know, I had a thought the other day. Can I tell you this? I had a thought the other day. I was, you know, you look at these mega churches and sometimes you go, wow, that's great, right? I mean, I'm talking the big, big mega new evangelical churches out there, right? They have no doctrinal, they don't say anything doctrinal because they just want more people to come in, right? They don't worry about doctrine. And I got thinking about those and it's enticing. It looks good. They have a lot of activity. Looks like it'd be fun to have, you know, more than 12 to 15 people hanging out, right? It just looks good. But I got thinking about it. I said, you know, if you look at Ford and Chevrolet and Dodge, you know, those factories are huge. And they're pumping out a lot of cars, a lot of cars. But there's also car companies like Lamborghini, whose hand making literally just a handful of cars a year. They're a little bitty place. hand-making just a few little cars. Which car is more valuable? You know what I'd rather have? I'd rather have a church full of Lamborghini believers. I mean, I'm telling you, they are deep in the Word of God. And watch, there may not be a lot of Lamborghinis, but when you see one go by, you know what it is. You're like, oh, look at that. You may not even know the name of it, but you know, that thing looks like a lot of money, and it is. You know what I'd rather have? A little factory that when people from this church get out into the world, they go, oh, whoa, look at that. What's that? That's different. Well, it's not different. Hopefully, it's just biblical, right? So don't despise small things, right? Don't do that. Yeah. Adversaries. This is why we don't allow certain music. I don't want it in my life. I don't want it in this church, right? I don't want music from Hillsong. and Bethel and all these music sources. Have you ever seen the lives of what these people believe? Right? What's his name? Johnson? Bill Johnson? Have you ever seen what this guy believes? That Jesus was man? And he just drilled down on it. He was just a man. And then he became God later at his baptism and things like that. I think Joyce Meyer believes the same thing. Jesus was just a man, but he became God at his baptism. That is blasphemy. That is wicked. And Bill Johnson, Hillsong, Bethlehem, they're writing all this music out there. Yeah. It's ungodly stuff. What are these things? They're adversaries. They're adversaries. You got to be careful of them. You don't want them in your life. No. Could you imagine showing up at a Mormon church or a Jehovah's Witness church or a church of Christ or a Seventh-day Adventist, just showing up there and going, hey, this is what we're going to do today, bud. We need to start changing your doctrinal beliefs because you're wrong. You know what they do? Get out. And rightly so. I mean, I guess that's their deal. They can do what they want, right? I have no right to come in and tell them how to run their church, even though it's not right and unbiblical. But watch, if we're not careful, if we're not careful, they get into our life. Adversaries to stop progress and to stop forward growth. So what do you do when they show up? Look at the end of verse 3. But we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us to do. Listen, we're building unto God. He's brought us here Right? He's allowed us to come back. He's brought us here. We're in the will of God. And we're just going to go ahead and continue to do what the King told us to do. You know what you and I need to do? We just need to continue to do what the King told us to do. Kind of reminds me of Naboth and Ahab, right? When Ahab wanted to buy Naboth's vineyard, he said no. And he's like, come on, I'll give you something even better for it. No. No. I mean, Naboth went to his death. He was stoned for saying no. He was killed in front of, I don't know what he was, I mean, I can only imagine. Could you imagine what he saw as the stones were falling? Maybe his family was there, maybe his wife's there, maybe his kids are there watching. Maybe he's watching grandkids and all of these things, thinking, is it really worth it? A stupid piece of property to the king, and you said no, and it actually cost you your life? Is it worth it? Naboth thought it was. Why did he do it? Well, it was in the words when he said, the Lord forbid it. End of story. The Lord forbid it. Oh, may God help us to live our life that way. That's conviction. That's what it means. That's what it looks like to live by conviction. And that's what these Jews are doing. They're just living, operating, building at the command of the king. So, we all have adversaries. You're going to have them. Maybe the adversaries are giving you a hard time even tonight. Maybe they are. Can I tell you really what it is? If you're having trouble with the adversary and you're giving in, listen to me, listen real close, listen close and I'm done, okay? It's an authority issue. Because every time an adversary comes in, I know sometimes they sneak in and we can't catch it. But when an adversary comes in, we're left at that moment whether we're going to obey the king or whether we're going to obey the adversary. It's an authority issue. Who we are going to allow to be an authority over our life. And if God has given us a directive and an adversary comes in and says, I don't do that, watch, all of a sudden we've made the adversary our authority. That's dangerous. It's dangerous. Do you know God loves you so much that He wants you to excel, and He wants you to do well, and He wants you to glorify Him, and He wants you to have joy, and peace, and contentment, and all of these things? And do you know none of those things are found in living to ourself or living unto Satan. They're only found in Christ. He loves you that much. And do you know what I found out? And I'm not saying it's not a battle, because we know it is. But I found out I would rather be submissive to the Lord. It turns out much better to say yes to Jesus than it does to say yes to myself or the flesh or whoever that adversary that shows up. It's an authority issue. And we just need to decide tonight who we're going to obey, who we're going to obey. You got an adversary giving you a hard time tonight? You say, I got 20 of them. I can count 20. Whatever. You have adversaries tonight? You have them tonight? Listen, decide tonight who you're gonna obey. Who you're gonna obey. And just follow. Follow the Lord. And do what he told you to do. Father, thank you tonight. Lord, we have adversaries and we know it. And Lord, would you give us the wisdom and the eyes to be able to see when they show up? Lord, when we're making progress, Lord, when we are doing have a heart and a desire to do your will and to be what you want us to be and live how you want us to be, and they show up, we know that happens. Lord, would you give us the wisdom to see it? And Lord, would you help us? I'm so thankful we have an adversary, but we also have an advocate, the man Christ Jesus. And Lord, would you help us, Lord, to have that strength and that wherewithal to tell the adversary no, and to tell you yes. Well, thank you for what you do tonight, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. We're gonna stand tonight, and we don't have our instrument to play tonight, but we'll just stand for just a few minutes. If you need to pray and spend some time with the Lord, you go ahead and do that. You can come forward, you can pray where you are. You got some adversaries tonight that you need that have been bothering you, maybe it's of your own flesh, maybe it's in your own life and things that have been allowed in and you realize that they're hindering the work of God in your life. Maybe tonight, maybe just tonight you need to tell the Lord, I'm going to follow the King tonight and some of these things are going to have to go. They're going to have to go away because they're adversaries, they're slowing down, they're getting in the way, they're stopping the progress that I've been making with you. Maybe the Lord is doing that, He's showing you that tonight and you respond to Him tonight if you would. You 100% sure when you die tonight that you go to heaven? 100% sure. If you were to die tonight, people are watching online, I don't know who's saved, who's not, who's confident that they're going to heaven when they die. Pretty big question, isn't it? Are you 100% sure? Are you 50% sure? Are you 25% sure? Can I remind you, the Apostle Paul said, I know, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Paul knew, Paul knew, he was confident that he had placed his faith in Jesus. And because of that, he was assured, absent from the body, present with the Lord. Are you 100% sure of that in your own life tonight? Do you remember the day that you called upon the Lord to be saved? Do you remember? Not when you were baptized, not when you joined a church, whether it was a Baptist church or any type of church, or it doesn't matter what it is, membership doesn't save you, baptism doesn't save you, good works doesn't save you. Do you remember the day when you called upon Jesus and you asked him to save you? Do you remember that day? If you don't, if you don't, you can call in, you can write, you can email, you can whatever. You can get with me tonight. We can take the Bible and we can show you how you can know 100% sure that when you die that your sins are forgiven and that you'll forever be with the Lord. We can show you that tonight. Father, we thank you for your word tonight. We just pray it'd be effectual in our life. Pray that we'd leave here tonight and strengthened and ready. And for another day that you'd be glorified in our life, that Jesus would have the preeminence, that you could use us, that we'd just be usable vessels and clean conduit for your power to be used in the places that you've placed us. We thank you for what you're gonna do in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we have switched.