WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:06.680 Man, this evening I'm preaching on the subject of the sons of Eli, and we're first introduced 00:06.680 --> 00:14.140 to the sons of Eli in 1 Samuel chapter 1, and we kind of see the story of the sons of Eli 00:14.140 --> 00:20.460 alongside of the story of young Samuel growing up and becoming a great man of God. 00:20.880 --> 00:25.460 And really the sons of Eli are there just going the exact opposite direction, just 00:25.460 --> 00:28.200 super wicked, reprobates, evil people. 00:28.660 --> 00:34.380 So in 1 Samuel chapter 1, we have the story about Samuel's parents and how his 00:34.380 --> 00:37.840 mother can't have a child, and it says in verse number 3, this is talking about 00:37.840 --> 00:42.560 Samuel's father, this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to 00:42.560 --> 00:46.800 sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh, and the two sons of Eli, 00:47.480 --> 00:51.720 Hophni and Phineas, the priests of the Lord, were there. 00:51.900 --> 00:57.680 So these two sons of Eli are really the two guys who are in the most important 00:57.680 --> 01:00.960 positions imaginable in the house of God. 01:01.120 --> 01:04.220 I mean, these two guys are running the house of God. 01:04.360 --> 01:08.340 They're the main priests at that time because Eli is their dad. 01:08.500 --> 01:09.920 He's the high priest, but he's older. 01:10.300 --> 01:15.400 And so Hophni and Phineas are the ones who are pretty much doing it on a daily basis. 01:15.900 --> 01:19.620 Now go to chapter 2 verse 12, and we're going to find out some of the 01:19.620 --> 01:21.100 problems with the sons of Eli. 01:21.380 --> 01:22.620 What are some of their major sins? 01:23.100 --> 01:26.600 It says in verse number 12, now the sons of Eli were sons of 01:26.600 --> 01:28.980 Belial. They knew not the Lord. 01:29.200 --> 01:31.800 That's just a way of saying, number one, they're not saved. 01:32.120 --> 01:35.420 When it says they don't know the Lord, it's saying that they're unsaved. 01:35.820 --> 01:39.580 And when it says that they are sons of Belial, it is saying that they are 01:40.440 --> 01:40.920 reprobates. 01:41.540 --> 01:43.700 Sons of the devil is what that means. 01:44.420 --> 01:47.700 Belial is noticeably in capital letters. 01:48.020 --> 01:52.020 And this is a word used to refer to Satan or the devil. 01:53.320 --> 01:55.040 Belial, Belial, Belial, Belial is above. 01:55.460 --> 01:57.200 We're talking about the devil. 01:57.320 --> 01:58.620 They're sons of the devil. 01:58.960 --> 02:02.300 Now there's some people out there who just think, oh, every unsaved person 02:02.300 --> 02:03.260 is a son of the devil. 02:03.600 --> 02:04.300 That is false. 02:04.480 --> 02:05.080 That's not true. 02:05.420 --> 02:06.880 We're all sons of Adam. 02:07.220 --> 02:09.480 We're all children of disobedience. 02:09.560 --> 02:12.680 We're all children of wrath before we get saved. 02:13.020 --> 02:15.820 But we're not sons of the devil. 02:16.600 --> 02:19.500 These are people that are reprobates, like the Bible talks about 02:19.500 --> 02:21.860 the Pharisees and the scribes. 02:21.920 --> 02:25.360 They would come past see and land to make one proselyte. 02:25.440 --> 02:28.520 And when he is made, they would make him twofold more 02:28.520 --> 02:31.060 the child of hell as themselves. 02:31.700 --> 02:35.080 And so the sons of Belial are reprobates, 02:35.180 --> 02:37.200 meaning that they're just doomed. 02:37.520 --> 02:38.260 They're super wicked. 02:38.440 --> 02:39.560 They're not gonna get saved. 02:39.740 --> 02:40.780 It's too late for them. 02:41.160 --> 02:41.900 They're reprobates. 02:42.020 --> 02:42.480 They're rejected. 02:43.020 --> 02:44.760 So it says that they're sons of Belial. 02:44.860 --> 02:45.700 They knew not the Lord. 02:46.040 --> 02:48.120 And then it says in verse 13, the priest custom 02:48.120 --> 02:51.200 with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, 02:51.800 --> 02:55.320 the priest's servant came while the flesh was in seething 02:55.840 --> 02:58.200 with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand. 02:58.400 --> 03:01.620 And he struck it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. 03:02.100 --> 03:03.960 All that the flesh had brought up, 03:04.120 --> 03:05.320 the priest took for himself. 03:05.760 --> 03:08.640 So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites 03:08.640 --> 03:09.600 that came thither. 03:10.200 --> 03:12.080 Also, before they burnt the fat, 03:12.620 --> 03:14.500 the priest's servant came and said to the man 03:14.500 --> 03:17.440 that sacrificed, give flesh to roast for the priest, 03:17.440 --> 03:20.720 for he will not have sodden flesh of thee but raw. 03:21.060 --> 03:22.440 And if any man said unto him, 03:22.760 --> 03:26.160 let them not fail to burn the fat presently 03:26.700 --> 03:28.780 and then take as much as thy soul desireeth. 03:28.960 --> 03:31.860 Then he would answer him, nay, but thou shalt give it me now. 03:32.020 --> 03:33.760 And if not, I'll take it by force. 03:34.100 --> 03:36.260 So what's going on here is that 03:36.260 --> 03:38.340 the priests are getting greedy, right? 03:38.520 --> 03:42.260 God has a certain law about the priests 03:42.260 --> 03:44.060 that they're supposed to get fed 03:44.060 --> 03:46.360 from the offerings of the Lord, right? 03:46.360 --> 03:49.000 And God's not trying to muzzle the ox here. 03:49.360 --> 03:51.340 The workman is worthy of his meat. 03:51.640 --> 03:53.500 The labor is worthy of his hire. 03:53.960 --> 03:57.240 The priests are supposed to be able to get the food 03:57.240 --> 03:59.940 and the bounty and everything that they need 03:59.940 --> 04:01.360 to keep the work going, 04:01.580 --> 04:03.580 but these guys are just getting greedy. 04:04.640 --> 04:06.800 And so what they're supposed to do 04:06.800 --> 04:09.000 is burn off the fat unto the Lord. 04:09.380 --> 04:11.260 They're supposed to sieve the meat. 04:11.380 --> 04:14.720 It's supposed to be sodden or boiled or cooked 04:14.720 --> 04:18.340 in such a way where the fat is burned off unto the Lord 04:18.340 --> 04:21.500 because the blood thereof and the fat thereof, 04:21.580 --> 04:22.700 they're not supposed to be eating. 04:23.200 --> 04:25.820 That stuff is offered in sacrifice unto the Lord. 04:26.400 --> 04:28.860 Now, I don't wanna go into a big, long dissertation on this, 04:28.880 --> 04:30.420 but just to give you the basic idea, 04:30.920 --> 04:33.840 when animal sacrifices are made in the Old Testament, 04:34.360 --> 04:38.060 the parts of the animal, like the fat and the organs 04:38.060 --> 04:39.560 and those type of things, 04:39.780 --> 04:43.120 are offered as a sacrifice upon the altar. 04:43.580 --> 04:46.780 And then the meat, the edible part of the animal 04:47.260 --> 04:50.500 is given to the priests and the priests are gonna eat that. 04:50.800 --> 04:53.460 There are certain parts of it that are holy unto the Lord 04:53.460 --> 04:56.900 and certain parts of it that are for human consumption. 04:57.320 --> 04:58.780 Now, sometimes they'll do what's called 04:58.780 --> 05:00.880 the whole burnt offering. 05:01.360 --> 05:03.240 That's what the King James Bible calls it. 05:03.280 --> 05:05.500 This is also known as holocaust, 05:05.520 --> 05:07.620 or in Spanish it'll be holocausto. 05:08.320 --> 05:11.420 And so the holocaust or the whole burnt offering 05:11.920 --> 05:13.680 is when they just take the whole animal 05:13.680 --> 05:15.140 and just burn the whole thing 05:15.140 --> 05:16.940 and they don't eat any of it, right? 05:17.080 --> 05:19.140 All of it is just offered in sacrifice to the Lord. 05:19.400 --> 05:20.820 But that's not the typical offering. 05:21.000 --> 05:24.120 Typical offering involves meat that is eaten 05:24.120 --> 05:27.280 by the priests and possibly by others. 05:27.900 --> 05:30.720 And so the point here is that these guys, 05:31.120 --> 05:34.400 they're like, well, no, we don't just want meat here. 05:34.720 --> 05:36.760 We wanna have a party in our mouth. 05:37.020 --> 05:39.340 We want those fatty cuts of meat. 05:39.340 --> 05:41.920 We wanna put this on the barbecue 05:42.560 --> 05:46.700 and we wanna saute this or fry it up in a way 05:46.700 --> 05:49.820 where we can basically get this fatty meat 05:49.820 --> 05:52.640 because let's face it, the fat of the meat 05:52.640 --> 05:56.080 can sometimes give the most flavor, right? 05:56.260 --> 05:58.980 And so they're wanting a party in their mouth 05:59.680 --> 06:01.920 even in violation of God's word. 06:02.540 --> 06:05.820 So the point is that, yeah, God wants us 06:05.820 --> 06:07.440 to get the food that we need. 06:07.440 --> 06:09.800 God wants his servants to be paid. 06:10.080 --> 06:12.960 It's biblical for pastors to be paid in the New Testament. 06:13.340 --> 06:14.900 It is biblical in the Old Testament 06:14.900 --> 06:17.040 for the priests to live off the sacrifices. 06:17.460 --> 06:19.640 But at the end of the day, human nature is such 06:19.640 --> 06:23.660 that people often get greedy and you'll have pastors 06:24.060 --> 06:26.320 just getting these insane salaries 06:26.820 --> 06:28.860 and just living in giant mansions 06:28.860 --> 06:30.400 and having all their mansions 06:30.400 --> 06:31.980 and private jets and things 06:31.980 --> 06:34.160 and just getting greedy and just going overboard. 06:34.160 --> 06:37.320 Instead of just the workmen being worthy of his reward 06:37.320 --> 06:38.800 or the elders that were well 06:38.800 --> 06:40.180 being counted worthy of double honor, 06:40.300 --> 06:43.800 it just becomes just this obscene level 06:43.800 --> 06:46.080 of wealth and lavish luxury. 06:46.600 --> 06:49.200 Look, these guys have everything they need. 06:49.700 --> 06:52.740 The priests are supposed to get the offerings, 06:53.080 --> 06:54.200 but no, no, no, they just want 06:54.200 --> 06:57.380 the fattiest, choicest cuts of the meat 06:57.380 --> 07:00.180 and they really are just gluttonous 07:00.180 --> 07:01.880 and greedy is what it comes down to. 07:02.380 --> 07:04.440 And then the problem is, the people, 07:04.780 --> 07:06.640 they know what the Bible says. 07:07.140 --> 07:09.620 So they're barking at this when they're saying, 07:09.900 --> 07:11.440 hey, we want the raw meat. 07:11.560 --> 07:12.620 We don't want the sod meat. 07:12.860 --> 07:14.480 Then the people are saying, 07:14.800 --> 07:17.380 hey, why don't we let them burn off the fat presently, 07:17.400 --> 07:18.620 then take as much as you want? 07:19.240 --> 07:21.700 So the people here know what the Bible says. 07:22.000 --> 07:24.680 And then the priest servant basically just threatens them 07:24.680 --> 07:27.680 and says, hey, shut up and give me what I want 07:27.680 --> 07:29.500 or I'm just gonna take it by force. 07:30.260 --> 07:35.520 And so this causes people to despise the church 07:35.520 --> 07:37.060 and despise the offering of the Lord. 07:37.200 --> 07:38.120 Look at verse number 17, 07:38.640 --> 07:40.680 wherefore the sin of the young men was very great 07:40.680 --> 07:43.800 before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. 07:43.900 --> 07:46.760 Now look, obviously all sin is bad. 07:47.000 --> 07:48.800 All sin is abhorrent unto the Lord. 07:49.100 --> 07:50.200 But at the end of the day though, 07:50.520 --> 07:54.160 when God's house becomes a day of iniquity, 07:54.560 --> 07:56.920 this is especially offensive to God 07:56.920 --> 08:00.700 because it causes people to hate the church 08:00.700 --> 08:02.860 or despise going to church. 08:03.200 --> 08:06.160 I mean, it's hard to go to church with a good attitude 08:06.630 --> 08:09.960 if you knew that people are stealing money 08:10.430 --> 08:13.520 and that people are just defying God 08:13.520 --> 08:15.080 and disobeying the Bible 08:15.550 --> 08:18.100 and that the staff is corrupt and evil. 08:18.420 --> 08:20.440 You're not gonna have a good attitude about going to church. 08:20.580 --> 08:22.020 You might even just get out of church. 08:22.660 --> 08:25.380 And this is a stumbling block for a lot of people. 08:25.900 --> 08:28.320 And that's why the Bible talks about false prophets 08:28.320 --> 08:31.760 in 2 Peter chapter two, how they creep in unawares 08:31.760 --> 08:34.420 and because of their covetous practices, 08:34.700 --> 08:36.260 they'll make merchandise of you. 08:36.460 --> 08:37.220 And then it says, 08:37.780 --> 08:40.180 many will follow their pernicious ways 08:40.180 --> 08:43.020 by reason of whom the way of truth 08:43.020 --> 08:45.460 will be evil spoken of, right? 08:45.580 --> 08:47.720 It just gives Christianity a bad name. 08:48.020 --> 08:49.900 It gives church a bad name. 08:50.300 --> 08:54.120 And this obviously is very displeased into God 08:54.120 --> 08:56.660 when now people are mad at church, 08:56.860 --> 08:59.020 they don't wanna even give offerings to the Lord 08:59.020 --> 09:01.520 because of what these people are doing. 09:01.960 --> 09:04.820 So the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord. 09:05.400 --> 09:07.900 So you might think to yourself, well, this is not a big sin. 09:08.020 --> 09:10.400 You might think like, well, murder is a big sin. 09:10.940 --> 09:12.240 Adultery is a big sin. 09:12.900 --> 09:14.260 Stealing is a big sin or whatever. 09:14.640 --> 09:16.120 But here's the thing, to God, 09:16.360 --> 09:17.820 God's looking down at this and saying, 09:18.020 --> 09:20.900 this is a major, major sin 09:21.420 --> 09:24.800 because it is causing people to abhor the offering of the Lord. 09:26.060 --> 09:30.020 And so I would say that misappropriating church funds 09:30.680 --> 09:32.140 is a pretty big sin 09:32.540 --> 09:35.240 if it's gonna cause people to abhor the offering of the Lord 09:35.240 --> 09:36.960 and people are not gonna have confidence 09:36.960 --> 09:38.680 and people are not gonna wanna give 09:38.680 --> 09:41.100 if the money is being squandered 09:41.500 --> 09:43.860 and used on wicked things, okay? 09:44.000 --> 09:45.420 So it's important that we understand 09:45.900 --> 09:49.240 that they are in direct violation of the Bible here 09:49.240 --> 09:52.280 in such a way that is offending people 09:52.280 --> 09:54.500 and causing people to abhor the offering of the Lord. 09:54.900 --> 09:56.620 This is a big deal in the eyes of God. 09:57.080 --> 09:58.480 So it says in verse 18, 09:59.460 --> 10:01.700 but Samuel ministered before the Lord, 10:01.800 --> 10:04.040 being a child, girded with a linen e-pod. 10:04.140 --> 10:05.620 And what you're gonna see is that there's constantly 10:05.620 --> 10:08.460 like a back and forth between the sons of Eli 10:08.460 --> 10:12.400 that are just these evil, wicked thieves and reprobates 10:12.400 --> 10:15.900 and then the good boy Samuel 10:15.900 --> 10:18.520 who's just growing up and right with God 10:18.520 --> 10:20.720 and so forth, there'll constantly be a back and forth 10:20.720 --> 10:21.340 between those two. 10:21.740 --> 10:22.880 Now jump down to verse 22. 10:23.480 --> 10:25.200 It says, now Eli was very old 10:25.200 --> 10:28.580 and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel 10:28.580 --> 10:30.700 and how they lay with the women 10:30.700 --> 10:33.560 that assembled at the door of the tabernacle 10:33.560 --> 10:35.020 of the congregation. 10:35.280 --> 10:37.420 Now look, of course, this goes hand in hand. 10:38.040 --> 10:41.120 If you're gonna be greedy in one area of life, 10:41.440 --> 10:43.260 you're probably gonna end up being greedy 10:43.260 --> 10:44.260 in another area of life. 10:44.380 --> 10:47.160 If you're willing to cross these major lines 10:47.160 --> 10:48.540 spiritually over here, 10:48.640 --> 10:50.000 you'll probably cross them over here as well. 10:50.360 --> 10:53.600 So is it any wonder that the same people 10:53.600 --> 10:56.480 that are gonna be stealing from the offering played 10:56.480 --> 10:58.300 or stealing from the church, 10:58.840 --> 11:01.540 misappropriating funds, robbing the offerings of God 11:01.540 --> 11:03.200 are the same people that are gonna be out there 11:03.200 --> 11:05.960 committing fornication and adultery, right? 11:06.060 --> 11:08.060 Because obviously they're wicked 11:08.440 --> 11:10.960 and so they're not living within the bounds 11:10.960 --> 11:13.640 of God's word and people are greedy 11:14.060 --> 11:16.600 and saying, hey, I'm just gonna gratify my flesh 11:16.600 --> 11:17.260 in one area. 11:17.480 --> 11:18.380 You know, they're probably gonna be willing 11:18.380 --> 11:19.780 to gratify it in another area too. 11:20.140 --> 11:22.300 And by the way, this is why all of us 11:22.300 --> 11:24.400 need to take the apostle Paul's advice 11:24.400 --> 11:28.380 and keep under our body and bring it into subjection. 11:29.180 --> 11:30.060 What do I mean by that? 11:30.240 --> 11:32.080 Is that we should not go through life 11:32.080 --> 11:35.740 just fulfilling every lust and every craving of our flesh. 11:36.080 --> 11:37.560 We have to learn to have the character 11:37.560 --> 11:40.320 to tell our flesh no, right? 11:40.460 --> 11:42.920 I mean, sometimes we have to skip meals 11:43.520 --> 11:45.480 or sometimes we have to be austere 11:45.480 --> 11:47.480 about what we eat and drink. 11:47.820 --> 11:50.340 And sometimes we have to abstain from things 11:50.340 --> 11:54.240 and say no to things and not to just indulge 11:54.240 --> 11:56.620 every impulse like King Solomon or something, 11:56.940 --> 11:58.540 just anything you see at the store, 11:58.700 --> 12:01.480 you gotta buy it, any food that you crave, 12:01.680 --> 12:02.720 you just gotta eat it. 12:03.060 --> 12:04.740 You know, that is not the way to go through life. 12:04.900 --> 12:06.100 You gotta keep under your body 12:06.100 --> 12:07.760 and bring it into subjection. 12:07.980 --> 12:08.960 That's what the Bible says. 12:10.700 --> 12:14.800 You know, we don't live to eat, we eat to live, right? 12:14.800 --> 12:18.800 We don't wanna just have just an unfettered, 12:18.860 --> 12:22.300 just filling every craving for food, 12:22.480 --> 12:24.840 just totally unhinged in our eating. 12:25.300 --> 12:27.620 We need to stop and think about what we're eating 12:28.050 --> 12:32.320 and we need to be eating healthy, nutritious food 12:32.320 --> 12:33.460 and not eating in excess. 12:33.840 --> 12:36.120 And look, I'm not saying that I'm perfect about this 12:36.120 --> 12:38.320 because I tend to overeat. 12:38.560 --> 12:40.520 I mean, if I just ate whatever I wanted every day, 12:40.640 --> 12:42.600 I would be like 500 pounds, okay? 12:42.960 --> 12:45.840 Like, I wanna eat, who came up with three meals? 12:46.000 --> 12:48.300 Like, I wanna eat four major meals a day. 12:48.800 --> 12:51.780 If it was up to me, I wanna eat four major meals a day 12:51.780 --> 12:55.920 and I want two pints of milk with every meal, okay? 12:56.080 --> 12:58.440 Then I may grow thereby, all right? 12:58.580 --> 13:01.100 So I want two glasses of milk with every meal. 13:01.280 --> 13:02.380 I want four major meals. 13:02.600 --> 13:05.280 I mean, I eat every three hours, you know? 13:05.380 --> 13:07.720 It's just like, that's how often I wanna eat. 13:08.140 --> 13:11.420 You know, it's funny, I took my wife several weeks ago, 13:11.420 --> 13:13.340 we were doing like a little anniversary thing 13:13.340 --> 13:16.480 and so we did a quick little trip over to L.A., 13:16.480 --> 13:18.760 I preached at the L.A. Church with Pass. 13:18.880 --> 13:21.140 It's funny, they offer you like a food pass, 13:21.340 --> 13:22.260 like a meal pass. 13:22.420 --> 13:23.600 Who knows what I'm talking about, 13:23.860 --> 13:25.540 where you're at a Six Flags and get the meal pass. 13:25.820 --> 13:27.140 And here's what's funny about the meal pass. 13:27.240 --> 13:30.240 This sounds funny, but it's just too real 13:30.240 --> 13:32.560 because they give you a meal pass, 13:32.660 --> 13:35.060 you're allowed to eat every 90 minutes you get a meal. 13:35.760 --> 13:38.100 So every 90 minutes on this thing, you get a meal. 13:38.380 --> 13:40.500 Every 10 minutes, you can get something to drink. 13:40.500 --> 13:42.520 So I mean, my wife and I were like, 13:42.580 --> 13:43.980 all right, synchronize our watches. 13:44.460 --> 13:47.020 I mean, we're there every 90 minutes, get in a meal. 13:48.400 --> 13:51.040 You know, now, admittedly, at least there were two of us. 13:51.460 --> 13:53.620 So at least we're splitting it between two people. 13:53.720 --> 13:55.500 So then I guess it was tantamount to eating 13:55.500 --> 13:56.620 like every three hours, 13:56.780 --> 13:59.060 which is kind of what I do at home anyway, okay? 13:59.960 --> 14:02.800 But look, you've got to control yourself. 14:02.940 --> 14:05.560 Like I've heard people say that there's, you know, 14:05.720 --> 14:06.500 it's genetic. 14:07.080 --> 14:10.120 Being obese is genetic, that there's an obesity gene. 14:10.120 --> 14:12.040 Well, let me tell you something, if that's true, 14:12.120 --> 14:13.220 I've got it, okay? 14:13.560 --> 14:16.180 Because the obesity gene is the one 14:16.180 --> 14:18.820 where you're just hungry all day, every day, that's me. 14:19.380 --> 14:21.520 I'm constantly starving, I'm constantly hungry. 14:21.660 --> 14:22.040 And you know what? 14:22.340 --> 14:25.780 If I don't spend a few hours every day 14:25.780 --> 14:28.580 just absolutely hungry, then I gain weight. 14:29.840 --> 14:32.360 Like I'll just start putting on pounds. 14:32.440 --> 14:34.460 So I have to be hungry every day or I gain weight. 14:34.560 --> 14:35.940 Those are my two choices, gain weight 14:35.940 --> 14:36.920 or be hungry every day. 14:37.520 --> 14:38.180 But you know what? 14:38.360 --> 14:41.080 I end up choosing hunger a lot 14:41.080 --> 14:45.020 because I don't want to become gigantic, okay? 14:45.360 --> 14:46.840 It's not good for you. 14:47.520 --> 14:50.400 You know, God wants me to take care of the temple here 14:50.400 --> 14:53.340 and obviously if I'm gonna be able to serve God, 14:53.420 --> 14:55.660 if I wanna be able to preach and live a long time 14:55.660 --> 14:56.940 and work hard and get things done, 14:57.260 --> 14:58.300 you know, I need to be healthy. 14:58.900 --> 15:01.900 And so I don't think that my wife is interested in me 15:01.900 --> 15:03.200 putting on 100 pounds either. 15:04.060 --> 15:06.060 You might think that I'm just making this up 15:06.060 --> 15:09.640 and just oh, you know, skinny pastor up here making this up. 15:09.780 --> 15:10.960 I'm not making this up. 15:11.160 --> 15:13.420 I went on the road trip with my kids 15:13.940 --> 15:16.540 and you know, we were out there for four weeks on the road. 15:16.640 --> 15:19.060 I gained 13 pounds in four weeks 15:19.060 --> 15:22.620 and that was with exercising for an hour every day 15:23.180 --> 15:25.100 and skipping meals and stuff. 15:25.240 --> 15:28.140 And I still gained 13 pounds in four weeks 15:28.700 --> 15:32.040 because I'm telling you, you know, I eat too much. 15:32.240 --> 15:34.480 And so I have to constantly exercise 15:34.480 --> 15:35.800 to try to burn it off. 15:36.200 --> 15:37.560 I have to constantly skip meals. 15:38.080 --> 15:39.460 Okay, but these guys right here, 15:39.840 --> 15:41.200 you know, they don't care about any of that. 15:41.320 --> 15:43.820 It's just to them, it's just if it feels good, do it. 15:44.760 --> 15:47.600 You know, and just just eat and eat and eat 15:47.600 --> 15:50.240 and give me the fattiest meat 15:50.240 --> 15:52.720 and give me all of the high calorie stuff. 15:52.980 --> 15:56.380 And you know what, we in our society struggle with this 15:57.480 --> 16:00.180 because of the fact that we don't burn 16:00.180 --> 16:01.760 as many calories as people used to burn. 16:02.060 --> 16:03.740 And look, I'm not hating on fat people. 16:03.740 --> 16:06.080 I've seen people say like, oh, in order to be fat, 16:06.260 --> 16:08.500 you just have to be a totally gluttonous and lazy. 16:08.660 --> 16:09.260 That's not true. 16:10.060 --> 16:12.680 Because like I said, I could easily get fat. 16:12.860 --> 16:14.660 I could show you how to get fat if you want. 16:14.900 --> 16:15.260 And like, 16:17.760 --> 16:20.420 and by the way, in our society, 16:20.660 --> 16:23.020 sometimes the hardest working people get fat. 16:23.740 --> 16:24.640 And let me tell you why, 16:24.900 --> 16:27.880 because they're doing work that's not physical work. 16:28.440 --> 16:31.420 So it's like the harder they work on their computer job, 16:31.900 --> 16:33.020 the fatter they get. 16:33.740 --> 16:36.520 You know, because I find myself, when I'm busy with work, 16:36.620 --> 16:38.000 it's like, why don't I have time to exercise? 16:38.480 --> 16:39.680 I'm too busy with work. 16:39.900 --> 16:42.060 But the problem is the work's not burning any calories. 16:42.280 --> 16:42.700 Everybody understand? 16:43.080 --> 16:45.000 And I know many people have just turned off the sermon 16:45.000 --> 16:46.580 now, you've just totally tuned out. 16:47.100 --> 16:49.400 But listen to me, I'm telling you, in our society, 16:49.460 --> 16:50.860 because we're so inactive, 16:51.300 --> 16:52.760 we got to be careful about this. 16:53.120 --> 16:54.080 We got to watch out. 16:54.220 --> 16:56.820 And look, I'm preaching this to you because I love you 16:56.820 --> 17:00.140 and I don't want you to become morbidly obese 17:00.140 --> 17:02.180 and suffer all the consequences that go with it. 17:02.760 --> 17:03.980 You're going to be a lot happier 17:03.980 --> 17:05.820 if you just suffer a little bit, 17:06.060 --> 17:07.900 put a knife to your throat as the Bible says, 17:08.040 --> 17:09.500 if they'll be a man given to appetite 17:10.160 --> 17:11.880 and control those impulses. 17:12.260 --> 17:12.920 And here's the thing, 17:13.240 --> 17:16.080 if you control your impulses when it comes to eating, 17:16.420 --> 17:18.180 that's also probably going to help you 17:18.180 --> 17:20.760 to just build some character in other areas as well. 17:21.420 --> 17:24.160 Because you also don't want to give in to other impulses 17:24.160 --> 17:26.740 and just fill your eyes with everything 17:26.740 --> 17:27.760 that they want to see 17:27.760 --> 17:29.920 and just gratify your flesh 17:29.920 --> 17:31.400 with everything that it wants to do. 17:31.740 --> 17:32.560 You know, what does the Bible say? 17:32.660 --> 17:34.520 The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, 17:34.660 --> 17:35.300 the pride of life. 17:35.680 --> 17:37.920 These things are not of the Father, but are of the world. 17:38.280 --> 17:39.100 These are our enemies. 17:39.520 --> 17:44.000 And so we've got to work at controlling those impulses 17:45.320 --> 17:48.800 and not just going crazy and just eating and drinking. 17:49.080 --> 17:50.720 And well, you know, whatever we want, 17:50.880 --> 17:52.160 no, we got to control ourselves. 17:53.320 --> 17:55.980 And so, you know, these guys are, 17:58.360 --> 18:00.300 overeating, they're overindulging, 18:00.920 --> 18:01.860 they're stealing money, 18:02.420 --> 18:04.520 people despise the offering of the Lord, 18:05.000 --> 18:06.920 and then they're committing fornication. 18:07.160 --> 18:10.820 They're basically using church as a fishing hole 18:11.300 --> 18:13.020 just to find more opportunities 18:13.020 --> 18:14.440 for fornication and adultery. 18:14.560 --> 18:16.160 I mean, that's super wicked, right? 18:17.120 --> 18:18.720 I mean, fornication and adultery are bad, 18:18.780 --> 18:19.520 but when you're sitting there 18:19.520 --> 18:21.780 and corrupting the ladies of the church, 18:22.000 --> 18:23.760 I mean, that's just heinous. 18:23.860 --> 18:25.560 That's horrible, that's terrible. 18:26.390 --> 18:29.800 And so it says in verse number 23, 18:30.000 --> 18:32.600 this is Eli, you know, correcting his sons. 18:33.160 --> 18:36.040 He said unto them, why do ye such things? 18:37.140 --> 18:41.180 For I hear of your evil dealings by all these people. 18:41.600 --> 18:45.960 Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear. 18:46.580 --> 18:49.260 You make the Lord's people to transgress. 18:49.440 --> 18:52.880 Now look, this is kind of a weak rebuke here 18:52.880 --> 18:55.140 in light of how bad their sins are. 18:55.140 --> 18:59.220 I mean, these are wicked, horrible, major sins. 18:59.420 --> 19:02.000 I mean, these guys should be taken out and killed. 19:02.220 --> 19:03.100 They're so evil. 19:03.720 --> 19:07.660 But he's just like, hey guys, come on, man. 19:07.920 --> 19:09.240 Like, why though? 19:09.440 --> 19:11.440 Like, why are you doing this stuff? 19:11.640 --> 19:13.520 You know, I'm hearing about all this stuff 19:13.520 --> 19:16.420 and I mean, it's not a good report that I'm hearing. 19:16.640 --> 19:18.060 Like, that's kind of an understatement. 19:19.380 --> 19:21.780 I'm not getting a good report on you guys. 19:22.920 --> 19:24.560 You make the Lord's people to transgress. 19:24.560 --> 19:27.840 If one sin against another, the judge shall judge him. 19:28.360 --> 19:30.440 But if a man sin against the Lord, 19:30.580 --> 19:32.000 who shall entreat from him? 19:32.120 --> 19:34.160 Not with sinning, they hearken not under the voice 19:34.160 --> 19:37.520 of their father because the Lord would slay them. 19:37.760 --> 19:41.520 So basically, their dad is verbally trying to correct them. 19:41.660 --> 19:42.360 It's not enough. 19:42.520 --> 19:43.660 It's too little, too late. 19:43.960 --> 19:46.320 He should have brought the hammer down on these guys. 19:46.580 --> 19:48.700 But he's obviously going soft on them 19:48.700 --> 19:50.720 because they're family, right? 19:50.820 --> 19:52.240 And this is what people tend to do 19:52.720 --> 19:54.740 is they tend to be soft on family 19:54.740 --> 19:56.700 and there tends to be nepotism 19:57.480 --> 20:00.740 where the boss's son can any organization, 20:01.000 --> 20:03.600 but especially not the house of God. 20:03.920 --> 20:07.660 You can't just give up pass to the pastor's kids 20:07.660 --> 20:09.440 or the deacon's kids or whatever. 20:09.960 --> 20:12.960 No, it's gotta be everyone treated the same. 20:14.180 --> 20:15.860 You know, if anything, you know, 20:16.020 --> 20:17.760 they should be held to a higher standard, 20:17.760 --> 20:20.300 not just being allowed to get away with murder. 20:20.300 --> 20:23.540 And these guys are clearly actually full-time servants 20:23.540 --> 20:25.200 of God in the ministry. 20:25.800 --> 20:27.820 I mean, they need to be held to that standard. 20:28.100 --> 20:31.960 These guys should be toast, not just Eli telling them, 20:32.160 --> 20:33.940 hey guys, why are you doing this? 20:34.120 --> 20:35.120 No, you shouldn't be doing it. 20:35.500 --> 20:37.480 And then the Bible says that they didn't listen to their dad 20:38.000 --> 20:40.040 and the reason why they didn't listen to their dad 20:40.040 --> 20:41.980 is because God wanted to kill them. 20:42.440 --> 20:43.960 I mean, that's what that means when it says 20:43.960 --> 20:47.280 the Lord would slay them. 20:47.280 --> 20:51.580 That would there is an old way of saying that he wanted to. 20:51.960 --> 20:53.860 The Lord wanted to slay them. 20:54.400 --> 20:56.460 And so what you'll find all throughout scripture 20:56.460 --> 20:59.560 is that when someone doesn't listen to correction, 20:59.620 --> 21:01.340 they don't listen to rebuke. 21:01.660 --> 21:04.960 It's often because God has just had it with that person 21:04.960 --> 21:06.660 and is ready to judge that person. 21:06.920 --> 21:09.020 So he will actually harden their heart 21:09.020 --> 21:11.280 and then basically they'll get smoked 21:11.280 --> 21:12.480 because that's what they deserve. 21:13.580 --> 21:15.340 I mean, that's a scary place to be 21:15.340 --> 21:17.360 where God's just like, well, I wanted to destroy you. 21:17.640 --> 21:20.740 So, you know, like I'm glad you're not obeying. 21:20.840 --> 21:22.360 I'm glad you're not listening to dad 21:22.360 --> 21:23.780 because I wanted to kill you anyway. 21:23.960 --> 21:26.880 I mean, that's a really wicked person 21:26.880 --> 21:27.920 when you get to that point. 21:28.820 --> 21:31.220 And then again, just kind of just back to Samuel, 21:31.460 --> 21:34.460 the child Samuel grew on and was in favor 21:34.460 --> 21:36.580 both with the Lord and also with men. 21:36.660 --> 21:37.840 It's kind of interesting the contrast 21:37.840 --> 21:39.820 between the sons of Eli and Samuel. 21:39.920 --> 21:40.580 And here's what's interesting. 21:41.000 --> 21:42.440 You know, the sons of Eli, 21:42.980 --> 21:46.320 these guys have not the royal blood, 21:46.480 --> 21:48.640 but they have the priestly blood, you know, 21:48.720 --> 21:52.540 they're in that bloodline of the Aaronic priesthood. 21:52.940 --> 21:55.760 And so these are the guys that should be 21:56.320 --> 21:57.620 serving God in a great way. 21:57.740 --> 22:00.360 And they're just complete losers, complete trash. 22:00.740 --> 22:03.220 And then Samuel is the adopted son 22:03.720 --> 22:06.080 who's not even the biological son of Eli. 22:06.540 --> 22:09.200 He's just adopted and he's a Levite 22:09.200 --> 22:11.120 but he's not of the priestly lineage. 22:11.120 --> 22:12.920 He's not of the sons of Aaron. 22:13.460 --> 22:15.840 He's just a Levite in general. 22:16.720 --> 22:19.960 And yet Samuel is the one that is doing right 22:19.960 --> 22:20.660 and serving God. 22:21.020 --> 22:21.980 And so here's the thing, you know, 22:22.080 --> 22:24.620 serving God unfortunately is not hereditary. 22:25.220 --> 22:26.720 There is no, you know, we talked about 22:26.720 --> 22:28.620 the obese gene or whatever, you know, 22:28.640 --> 22:29.520 if that's even a thing. 22:29.900 --> 22:30.780 But I'll tell you what, 22:31.180 --> 22:33.260 there definitely is not a serving God gene. 22:34.200 --> 22:38.080 There's not like a godliness gene and ungodly. 22:38.080 --> 22:39.480 No, because those are spiritual things. 22:39.480 --> 22:41.760 They're not having anything to do with the flesh. 22:41.940 --> 22:44.360 They have to do with the spirit and being spiritual. 22:44.580 --> 22:48.640 So therefore, just because someone is the son of someone else, 22:48.840 --> 22:52.520 it does not mean that the zeal for God is gonna be there. 22:52.980 --> 22:55.280 And the problem that a lot of people have 22:55.280 --> 22:58.020 is that you'll have a pastor who's preaching 22:58.020 --> 23:00.840 and doing great work for God, powerful man of God. 23:01.200 --> 23:02.220 And then it's like, well, 23:02.300 --> 23:04.780 let's just put his son in charge of the church. 23:05.020 --> 23:07.720 Or let's put the son-in-law in charge of the church. 23:07.720 --> 23:10.980 And you'll see this constantly in the old IFB 23:10.980 --> 23:12.980 where the pastor's children 23:13.460 --> 23:16.980 or the pastor's children's husbands are on staff 23:17.600 --> 23:19.180 or taking over the church. 23:19.360 --> 23:20.640 They become employees. 23:21.140 --> 23:22.160 They become pastors. 23:23.020 --> 23:28.400 And, you know, it rarely is a good fit for those people. 23:29.100 --> 23:30.800 Now, I'm sure that there are good examples. 23:31.280 --> 23:32.540 And I'm sure that there are good examples 23:32.540 --> 23:35.420 of these kind of daddy-ordained pastors 23:35.420 --> 23:37.100 where basically like, you know, 23:37.160 --> 23:39.100 they just got coordinated pastor 23:39.100 --> 23:40.780 because their dad's a pastor 23:40.780 --> 23:43.040 and then they became a pastor or what have you. 23:43.300 --> 23:45.280 I'm sure there were good examples of this, 23:45.320 --> 23:46.700 but I can't think of any. 23:46.820 --> 23:48.240 I'm sure that there are good examples. 23:48.480 --> 23:50.580 And I guarantee that they're out there, 23:50.840 --> 23:55.400 but I can list for you just so many bad examples 23:55.960 --> 23:59.580 of the guy who just automatically becomes a pastor 23:59.580 --> 24:01.020 because his dad's a pastor 24:01.020 --> 24:03.620 or he automatically is put on staff 24:03.620 --> 24:06.120 because his dad's the pastor or deacon or whatever. 24:06.560 --> 24:07.120 And you know what? 24:07.300 --> 24:09.640 This is not the way that things should be. 24:11.600 --> 24:14.380 Everything in the church, as far as position, 24:14.840 --> 24:16.340 should be merit-based. 24:17.480 --> 24:18.960 Merit-based, you know? 24:19.120 --> 24:20.960 So the pastor should be chosen 24:20.960 --> 24:22.560 not because of who he's related to 24:22.560 --> 24:23.880 or what his last name is, 24:24.140 --> 24:27.680 but rather based upon his walk with God, 24:28.160 --> 24:29.920 how serious of a Christian he is, 24:30.140 --> 24:31.720 how godly of a person that he is. 24:31.720 --> 24:33.080 That's what it should be based on. 24:34.090 --> 24:39.600 And again, let's say that if a pastor's son 24:39.600 --> 24:41.840 wanted to go into the ministry and become a pastor, 24:42.300 --> 24:46.020 he should probably be trained and or ordained 24:46.020 --> 24:50.480 by someone else because it's hard for us sometimes 24:50.480 --> 24:54.500 to be able to see things in our own family 24:55.050 --> 24:56.940 that other people could easily see, 24:57.280 --> 24:59.880 but for us, sometimes the blinders are on 24:59.880 --> 25:01.000 because they're family. 25:01.000 --> 25:04.340 And people always wanna kinda give a pass to family 25:04.340 --> 25:07.940 and just think like, hey, he's family, so he gets a pass. 25:08.060 --> 25:11.140 Well, no, that's not the way things work, you know? 25:11.520 --> 25:13.020 Right is right, wrong is wrong, 25:13.220 --> 25:15.640 and the Bible makes it very clear that in the church, 25:15.960 --> 25:18.260 we are to do nothing by partiality. 25:19.260 --> 25:21.900 We are not to prefer one above another 25:22.420 --> 25:25.260 and have respect of persons in judgment, 25:25.660 --> 25:27.440 but that rather the same rules 25:27.440 --> 25:28.960 should apply for everyone. 25:29.560 --> 25:33.180 And so Samuel ends up being the great man of God 25:33.760 --> 25:37.420 and the actual biological sons of Eli are both trash. 25:37.880 --> 25:40.140 Literally, that's what reprobate even means. 25:40.920 --> 25:44.040 Okay, so let's look down here at what the Bible says. 25:45.480 --> 25:47.340 It says in verse number 27, 25:47.560 --> 25:48.920 there came a man of God unto Eli 25:49.540 --> 25:51.560 and said unto him, thus sayeth the Lord, 25:53.360 --> 25:55.560 did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father? 25:55.900 --> 25:58.100 And when they were in Egypt and Pharaoh's house, 25:58.100 --> 26:00.540 and did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel 26:00.540 --> 26:03.780 to be my priest, to offer upon my altar to burn incense, 26:03.980 --> 26:05.200 to wear an ephod before me, 26:05.440 --> 26:07.100 and did I give unto the house of thy father 26:07.100 --> 26:09.980 all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel? 26:10.080 --> 26:12.060 He said, look, I gave you food to eat. 26:12.500 --> 26:14.840 I gave, it wasn't the exact meal that you wanted, 26:15.160 --> 26:17.480 but I gave you the offerings made by fire. 26:17.600 --> 26:19.900 You got your protein, you got what you need, 26:20.020 --> 26:21.240 you got the food that you needed, 26:21.560 --> 26:23.540 maybe not necessarily the party in your mouth, 26:23.800 --> 26:26.340 maybe not necessarily eating every 90 minutes, 26:26.340 --> 26:28.140 like you're at Six Flags or something. 26:28.860 --> 26:31.800 But it says, you know, I gave you that, 26:32.840 --> 26:34.960 wherefore, verse 29, which means why, 26:35.460 --> 26:37.900 kick ye at my sacrifice, and at my offering, 26:38.180 --> 26:39.700 which I've commanded in my habitation, 26:40.180 --> 26:42.240 and watch this, this is the key, don't miss this, 26:42.620 --> 26:45.280 and honor is thy sons above me. 26:46.440 --> 26:48.340 So you might sympathize with Eli 26:48.340 --> 26:50.700 and think like, well, Eli did tell him no, 26:50.800 --> 26:52.520 it's not Eli's fault that they're not listening, 26:52.940 --> 26:55.120 but God looks down and says, you know what, 26:55.560 --> 26:58.640 you are honoring your sons above me 26:59.900 --> 27:03.320 to make yourselves fat with the cheapest 27:03.320 --> 27:06.600 of all the offerings of Israel, my people. 27:06.780 --> 27:11.060 And notice how he ends up being lumped in with the sons, 27:11.320 --> 27:13.540 because they're the ones that are stealing the food, 27:13.880 --> 27:17.300 but notice that Eli is actually benefiting from it as well. 27:17.520 --> 27:20.320 Eli is eating of the stolen food, 27:20.480 --> 27:22.300 like the food is stolen by the sons, 27:22.300 --> 27:24.940 but he's eating it too, okay? 27:25.680 --> 27:28.600 And that's why later on in the story in chapter four, 27:28.700 --> 27:32.300 when he dies, it talks about how Eli was a very heavy man, 27:32.500 --> 27:35.960 and he ends up dying by falling out of his chair 27:35.960 --> 27:39.460 and breaking his neck, because he's just so obese 27:39.460 --> 27:42.680 that he is shocked and slips and falls 27:42.680 --> 27:45.160 and the chair breaks, and he breaks his neck 27:45.160 --> 27:45.480 and whatever. 27:46.240 --> 27:49.620 So notice here that Eli is being blamed 27:50.440 --> 27:53.080 for also eating of the stolen food, 27:53.140 --> 27:56.380 because he says, you have made yourselves fat. 27:59.840 --> 28:02.000 And he said, with the cheapest of all the offerings 28:02.000 --> 28:02.760 of Israel, my people. 28:02.900 --> 28:04.840 And then later he's gonna explain exactly 28:04.840 --> 28:06.440 what the problem is with Eli. 28:06.840 --> 28:09.880 He tells him, you did not restrain your sons. 28:10.700 --> 28:13.200 So the idea here is that it's not enough 28:13.200 --> 28:16.860 to just tell them no, you have to actually physically 28:17.440 --> 28:19.460 put a stop to what they're doing. 28:19.700 --> 28:22.400 You have to actually restrain them, okay? 28:23.000 --> 28:25.120 And so it's not enough to just tell people no. 28:25.460 --> 28:26.900 I mean, think about what if we were in the church 28:26.900 --> 28:29.060 and we in the church said, hey, 28:29.160 --> 28:31.100 we're not gonna have any fornication in the church. 28:31.380 --> 28:33.380 We're not gonna have drunkenness in the church. 28:33.540 --> 28:35.080 We're not gonna have railing in the church. 28:35.180 --> 28:38.200 But then people fornicate, get drunk, rail, 28:38.460 --> 28:40.900 and then we just go like, well, we told him not to. 28:41.860 --> 28:44.540 We said no, we preached against it. 28:44.540 --> 28:46.780 What can you do, right? 28:48.080 --> 28:49.360 Is that acceptable? 28:49.940 --> 28:50.100 No. 28:50.720 --> 28:54.380 What needs to happen is there has to actually be enforcement. 28:54.940 --> 28:58.300 And this is what we call, by the way, church discipline, 28:59.020 --> 29:02.660 okay, and it's straight out of first Corinthians chapter five. 29:03.000 --> 29:05.880 It's straight out of Matthew chapter 18 29:06.220 --> 29:08.500 that there are times when unfortunately 29:08.500 --> 29:11.060 people cross the line, they go too far. 29:11.480 --> 29:13.360 They're in grievous, unrepentant sin 29:13.360 --> 29:16.500 and they have to be thrown out of the church. 29:16.660 --> 29:18.580 They have to be excommunicated from the church. 29:19.040 --> 29:20.180 And it's called church discipline 29:20.180 --> 29:20.920 because here's the thing, 29:21.240 --> 29:23.040 if there's no such thing as church discipline 29:23.040 --> 29:24.240 then there's really no enforcement, 29:24.560 --> 29:26.480 then the rules might as well not even exist. 29:26.620 --> 29:30.260 If we just got up and said, no fornication, period. 29:30.560 --> 29:32.280 And then it's just people are just living together 29:32.280 --> 29:33.200 and they're not married. 29:33.480 --> 29:35.120 And we're just like, well, we preached against it. 29:35.180 --> 29:35.680 We said no. 29:36.180 --> 29:37.800 Now, I just wanna tell you this. 29:38.160 --> 29:41.760 There are huge segments of evangelical Christianity 29:42.340 --> 29:45.960 that do not believe in or practice church discipline. 29:46.320 --> 29:49.540 And in fact, I would say the majority of the old IFB 29:50.120 --> 29:52.100 does not believe in or practice church discipline. 29:52.240 --> 29:53.600 When I was at Hiles Anderson College, 29:54.200 --> 29:56.640 the idea of church discipline was totally foreign 29:57.220 --> 29:59.120 to First Baptist Church of Hammond 29:59.120 --> 30:00.200 and Hiles Anderson College. 30:00.460 --> 30:03.320 And I remember there was a guest preacher who came in 30:03.320 --> 30:04.940 and he was teaching in the college 30:04.940 --> 30:06.800 and he was talking about church discipline 30:06.800 --> 30:08.800 and the staff member that was there 30:08.800 --> 30:11.120 was just like, he looked so horrified. 30:11.120 --> 30:12.180 And he was so confused. 30:12.540 --> 30:14.000 He's like, I've never heard of this. 30:14.200 --> 30:15.600 So then like during the break, 30:15.620 --> 30:17.180 I'm like talking to the staff member 30:17.180 --> 30:20.200 and showing him First Corinthians five and Matthew 18 30:20.200 --> 30:22.120 and kind of, and I was being really polite. 30:22.300 --> 30:23.980 Like I wasn't schooling him. 30:24.200 --> 30:25.820 I was kind of saying, well, let me tell you 30:25.820 --> 30:27.340 what the guest preacher's talking about. 30:27.440 --> 30:29.140 Here's, you know, here's where he's coming from. 30:29.840 --> 30:31.480 I'm thinking to myself, like, yeah, 30:31.600 --> 30:34.340 and he's 100% right and you're 100% wrong. 30:34.720 --> 30:36.040 But I didn't say it that way. 30:36.060 --> 30:37.180 I was just like, you know, 30:37.220 --> 30:38.220 let me just kind of show you 30:38.220 --> 30:39.760 where Bro is coming from. 30:39.760 --> 30:42.300 And I'm showing him the verse that he's just frowning 30:42.300 --> 30:43.120 and looking at the Bible. 30:43.300 --> 30:44.580 I've never heard of this. 30:45.300 --> 30:46.880 This, this doesn't seem right. 30:47.300 --> 30:49.820 It says, I mean, to us, that's bizarre. 30:50.420 --> 30:52.660 Obviously because the Bible is so clear. 30:53.460 --> 30:55.380 We take church discipline for granted. 30:55.640 --> 30:57.240 And man, I wouldn't even want to be a pastor 30:57.240 --> 30:59.480 without the tool of church discipline. 30:59.900 --> 31:00.940 That would stink. 31:01.440 --> 31:03.500 Being a pastor and just having to just leave 31:03.500 --> 31:06.300 all the cancer in the church to just fester 31:06.300 --> 31:08.460 and sour and get worse. 31:09.840 --> 31:14.060 But the point is saying no isn't necessarily enough. 31:15.020 --> 31:17.620 You know, when it comes to enforcing things in your home, 31:17.920 --> 31:19.840 when it comes to enforcing things in the church, 31:20.180 --> 31:21.400 I mean, does the government just, 31:21.500 --> 31:23.820 do they just tell us no about stealing 31:23.820 --> 31:27.580 and then if we steal, they just kind of throw up their hands? 31:28.200 --> 31:29.700 It's just stupid and doesn't make sense. 31:30.060 --> 31:31.160 If there's no enforcement, 31:31.220 --> 31:33.540 then there's pretty much not even a rule at that point. 31:34.240 --> 31:36.660 And you better know God enforces his rules. 31:37.280 --> 31:38.280 Be not deceived. 31:38.280 --> 31:40.960 God is not mocked for whatsoever a man sowed 31:40.960 --> 31:42.420 that shall he also reap. 31:42.960 --> 31:45.080 Whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth 31:45.080 --> 31:48.820 and scourges every son whom he received. 31:49.000 --> 31:50.500 That sounds like enforcement to me. 31:51.400 --> 31:52.980 And so the problem with Eli here 31:52.980 --> 31:54.700 is he's not enforcing anything. 31:55.500 --> 31:56.540 He's not restraining. 31:56.880 --> 31:59.200 The Bible says that his sons made themselves vile 31:59.200 --> 32:00.940 and he restrained them not. 32:01.640 --> 32:04.660 Now obviously Eli's sons are not children. 32:05.300 --> 32:05.860 They're adults. 32:06.620 --> 32:08.100 So you could say, well, they're adults. 32:08.260 --> 32:09.020 Yeah, but here's the thing. 32:09.200 --> 32:11.260 They're still under his authority though, 32:11.380 --> 32:14.180 because he is the high priest 32:14.180 --> 32:16.760 and they are under his authority. 32:16.980 --> 32:18.060 They're working for him. 32:18.160 --> 32:19.560 He's like the senior pastor 32:19.560 --> 32:21.960 and they're like assistant pastors or whatever 32:21.960 --> 32:24.740 if you wanted to think about a modern analogy of this. 32:25.160 --> 32:26.480 He works for them. 32:27.380 --> 32:29.620 Or they, excuse me, they work for him. 32:30.080 --> 32:32.480 And so he does have authority over them 32:33.020 --> 32:35.240 as the leader in the house of God 32:35.240 --> 32:36.300 as their employer. 32:36.720 --> 32:38.940 And he's basically turning a blind eye. 32:39.440 --> 32:41.720 He tells them no, but he doesn't really stop them. 32:41.980 --> 32:44.180 And ultimately God looks into his heart and says, 32:44.260 --> 32:47.380 well, you're honoring your sons more than you're honoring me. 32:47.440 --> 32:49.340 And we're gonna come back to that a little later. 32:49.480 --> 32:54.500 I got to hurry for sake of time, but let's see. 32:54.600 --> 32:55.440 Where did I leave off? 32:55.900 --> 32:57.660 Verse number 30. 32:57.900 --> 33:00.040 It says, wherefore the Lord God of Israel said, 33:00.900 --> 33:03.440 sayeth, I said indeed that thy house 33:03.440 --> 33:06.160 and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. 33:06.340 --> 33:08.880 But now the Lord sayeth, be it far from me. 33:09.380 --> 33:11.640 For them that honor me will I honor 33:12.300 --> 33:15.840 and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 33:15.920 --> 33:18.360 He's saying, you know, by honoring your sons above me, 33:18.800 --> 33:20.260 you know, it's like you're dishonoring me. 33:20.660 --> 33:21.800 You're despising me. 33:22.760 --> 33:24.620 Look at verse 31, behold today's come 33:24.620 --> 33:26.080 that I will cut off thine arm 33:26.520 --> 33:28.100 and the arm of thy father's house 33:28.580 --> 33:31.200 that there shall not be an old man in thy house. 33:32.200 --> 33:34.680 And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation 33:34.680 --> 33:37.500 and all the wealth which God shall give Israel 33:37.500 --> 33:40.200 and there shall not be an old man in thy house forever. 33:41.080 --> 33:42.820 And the man of thine whom I will not, 33:43.160 --> 33:44.860 whom I shall not cut off from my altar 33:44.860 --> 33:47.840 shall be to consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart 33:48.440 --> 33:50.780 and all the increase of thine house shall die 33:50.780 --> 33:52.600 in the flower of their age. 33:52.760 --> 33:54.720 He's saying, and he repeats this over and over again. 33:55.060 --> 33:56.960 There's not gonna be an old man in your family. 33:57.600 --> 34:00.340 Everybody's gonna die young, you know? 34:00.340 --> 34:01.840 And here's the thing, you know, 34:01.980 --> 34:04.960 dying young, dying in your 30s, 40s, 34:05.200 --> 34:07.140 that's not a blessing, right? 34:07.520 --> 34:10.560 Most of us wanna have it be well with us 34:10.980 --> 34:13.360 and that our days would be long on the earth, right? 34:13.480 --> 34:17.600 We wanna live to be 70, 80, 90, 100 years old. 34:17.840 --> 34:20.820 We don't wanna be dying in our 30s or dying in our 40s. 34:20.820 --> 34:22.420 Now obviously, there are exceptions 34:22.420 --> 34:24.600 where good people can die young. 34:24.760 --> 34:26.080 Of course that happens. 34:26.360 --> 34:28.500 It happens in the Bible, it happens in our lives. 34:28.500 --> 34:30.700 But at the end of the day though, in general, 34:31.200 --> 34:33.020 long life is a blessing from God 34:33.600 --> 34:36.200 and being cut short is the fate of the wicked. 34:36.340 --> 34:37.840 The wicked should not live out half his days. 34:38.180 --> 34:40.640 I mean, look how many of the celebrities of Hollywood 34:41.220 --> 34:43.120 and how many of the rock stars and stuff. 34:43.440 --> 34:45.100 You know, yeah, you're gonna have the Keith Richards 34:45.100 --> 34:47.320 that's like 150 years old or whatever, 34:47.460 --> 34:50.480 but you know, look at how many of them die young. 34:51.160 --> 34:54.320 Just constantly dying in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s. 34:54.520 --> 34:55.760 You know, that's not a blessing. 34:57.440 --> 34:59.320 And so he's saying, hey, here's the curse 34:59.320 --> 35:00.400 that's gonna come upon your house. 35:01.180 --> 35:03.000 Everybody's gonna die in the flower of their age. 35:03.100 --> 35:04.240 They're gonna die in their prime. 35:04.720 --> 35:06.120 They're not gonna live to be an old man. 35:07.340 --> 35:08.760 It says in verse number 34, 35:09.100 --> 35:10.540 and this shall be a sign unto thee 35:10.540 --> 35:14.640 that shall come upon thy two sons on Hophni and Phineas 35:14.640 --> 35:17.320 in one day they shall die both of them. 35:17.960 --> 35:20.080 And I will raise me up a faithful priest 35:20.080 --> 35:21.720 that shall do according to that, 35:21.780 --> 35:23.300 which is in my heart and in my mind, 35:23.520 --> 35:25.220 and I will build him a sure house 35:25.220 --> 35:28.240 and he shall walk before mine anointed forever. 35:29.380 --> 35:31.560 Obviously part of this is prophetic 35:31.560 --> 35:33.280 of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, 35:33.300 --> 35:35.800 being the ultimate priest that has raised up, 35:35.960 --> 35:36.620 that will walk forever. 35:37.060 --> 35:38.400 The short term fulfillment of this 35:38.400 --> 35:40.020 is the priesthood of Zadok 35:40.480 --> 35:43.460 who replaces the line of Eli as the high priest. 35:44.100 --> 35:46.440 But it says in verse number 36, 35:46.780 --> 35:48.260 it shall come to pass that everyone 35:48.260 --> 35:50.100 that is left in my house shall come 35:50.100 --> 35:52.740 and crouched him for a piece of silver 35:52.740 --> 35:54.540 and a morsel of bread and shall say, 35:54.540 --> 35:56.540 it put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest's offices 35:56.540 --> 35:58.500 that I may eat a piece of bread. 35:58.840 --> 36:00.540 And of course, this is the poetic justice 36:00.540 --> 36:02.940 because they are stealing food 36:02.940 --> 36:05.520 and gorging themselves on the fattiest foods. 36:06.300 --> 36:07.880 You know, it's like they're gonna be 36:07.880 --> 36:09.480 just wishing for bread and water. 36:09.960 --> 36:12.800 As a punishment, God's gonna make them super hungry 36:12.800 --> 36:14.720 to where they're just begging for a piece of bread. 36:15.620 --> 36:17.420 Okay, look at chapter three, verse 11. 36:17.540 --> 36:19.400 I just wanna hurry up and get through all this here 36:19.820 --> 36:20.960 before we run out of time. 36:20.960 --> 36:23.500 It says in verse 11, and the Lord said to Samuel, 36:25.140 --> 36:26.860 behold, I will do a thing in Israel 36:26.860 --> 36:28.680 at which both the ears of everyone 36:28.680 --> 36:30.020 that heareth it shall tingle. 36:30.880 --> 36:33.120 In that day, I will perform against Eli 36:33.600 --> 36:36.240 all things which I have spoken concerning his house. 36:36.580 --> 36:38.760 When I begin, I will also make an end, 36:39.240 --> 36:42.740 for I have told him that I will judge his house forever 36:43.280 --> 36:46.040 for the iniquity, watch this, which he knoweth. 36:46.240 --> 36:48.700 So it's like he knows that this stuff is going on. 36:48.980 --> 36:50.380 He knows about the fornication. 36:50.380 --> 36:51.920 He knows about the adultery. 36:52.260 --> 36:53.460 He knows about the gluttony. 36:53.540 --> 36:54.960 He knows about the embezzlement 36:56.340 --> 36:59.060 because his sons made themselves vile 37:00.100 --> 37:03.500 and he restrained them not, right? 37:03.600 --> 37:05.000 It's not enough to just say no. 37:05.300 --> 37:07.620 You have to put a stop to it. 37:07.740 --> 37:09.380 You have to restrain them. 37:09.760 --> 37:11.340 You have to put an end to it. 37:11.580 --> 37:14.180 Don't let these things happen under your watch. 37:16.360 --> 37:19.040 Verse 14, and therefore I've sworn 37:19.040 --> 37:21.240 unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house 37:21.240 --> 37:23.680 shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. 37:24.060 --> 37:24.900 Now go to chapter four 37:24.900 --> 37:27.140 and let's see God's judgment begin to pour forth. 37:27.520 --> 37:30.480 So we've seen the sins of the sons of Eli, 37:31.360 --> 37:34.780 they're not saved, they're reprobates. 37:36.060 --> 37:36.920 You know, and here's the thing, 37:37.040 --> 37:38.680 if you grow up in church 37:39.240 --> 37:40.920 and you're hearing a clear presentation 37:40.920 --> 37:42.120 of the gospel all the time 37:42.120 --> 37:43.900 and then you're unsaved, 37:44.000 --> 37:45.900 it's a pretty good chance that you're a reprobate 37:45.900 --> 37:46.480 at that point. 37:46.580 --> 37:48.740 You know, if you can just go years and years 37:48.740 --> 37:51.740 and decades hearing all this great preaching 37:52.240 --> 37:53.380 and then you're unsaved, 37:53.760 --> 37:55.860 you know, possibly you're just a reprobate at that point. 37:56.080 --> 37:57.880 And that was the case with the sons of Eli. 37:58.540 --> 37:59.560 Eli's not a reprobate. 37:59.720 --> 38:01.120 I mean, Eli's a saved man. 38:01.320 --> 38:02.100 I mean, we're going to get to heaven 38:02.100 --> 38:04.860 and you know, he'll probably be thinner in heaven. 38:05.120 --> 38:06.560 You know, he's probably going to be young and thin. 38:07.020 --> 38:08.900 But when we get there, we're going to see Eli. 38:09.360 --> 38:11.140 Otherwise, you know, it'll just be like 38:11.620 --> 38:13.860 the ghost of Eli is going to be this big guy 38:13.860 --> 38:14.500 or something, I don't know. 38:14.820 --> 38:16.180 But I'm saying when we get up there, 38:16.740 --> 38:17.940 you know, Eli's going to be there. 38:17.940 --> 38:19.100 He's a saved Christian, 38:20.080 --> 38:23.480 even though he's a failure as a leader here. 38:23.660 --> 38:25.100 And why is he a failure as a leader? 38:25.500 --> 38:30.160 Because he's not restraining his sons who are on staff 38:30.160 --> 38:34.500 and he's allowing them to do this on his watch, okay? 38:35.980 --> 38:38.940 But the sons of Eli, they're reprobates, 38:39.240 --> 38:40.260 they're fornicators. 38:40.680 --> 38:42.360 And you know, it says that they're laying with the women 38:42.360 --> 38:44.020 who assemble at the door of the Congress. 38:44.400 --> 38:47.060 You know, it's probably married women too. 38:47.060 --> 38:48.820 Then that would be adultery into the mix. 38:49.020 --> 38:50.980 You know, fornication, adultery. 38:51.280 --> 38:53.840 They're also cheating on their own wives, 38:53.980 --> 38:57.020 presumably as well in the course of this. 38:57.380 --> 39:00.400 And so super wicked, they're stealing, 39:00.740 --> 39:02.860 they're embezzling, they're gorging themselves 39:02.860 --> 39:03.400 and whatever. 39:04.160 --> 39:05.420 So now let's see the punishment 39:05.420 --> 39:07.600 that God has said he's going to bring upon them. 39:08.320 --> 39:10.800 In verse number four of chapter four, 39:10.920 --> 39:13.260 it says, so the people sent to Shiloh 39:13.740 --> 39:17.540 that they might bring forth thence or bring from thence 39:17.540 --> 39:20.360 the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts 39:20.360 --> 39:22.420 which dwelleth between the cherry-bims 39:22.420 --> 39:25.340 and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas 39:25.340 --> 39:27.000 were there with the ark of the covenant. 39:27.240 --> 39:28.500 So just for a second of time, 39:28.620 --> 39:30.380 let me just give you a rundown on the story here. 39:30.880 --> 39:32.980 Basically, the Israelites are fighting 39:32.980 --> 39:35.460 against the Philistines and they're losing. 39:36.560 --> 39:38.960 So they have this idea, hey, 39:39.040 --> 39:41.120 let's go get the ark of the covenant. 39:41.600 --> 39:44.380 And if we bring the ark of the covenant into the camp, 39:44.780 --> 39:47.500 then we're gonna have the power of God on our side 39:47.500 --> 39:49.260 and then we're gonna defeat the Philistines. 39:49.380 --> 39:51.360 But the problem is, God's not gonna bless 39:51.360 --> 39:54.260 the children of Israel because of this grievous sin 39:54.260 --> 39:57.660 of Hophni and Phineas, so he's not gonna do that. 39:57.740 --> 39:59.680 So what happens is, they go 39:59.680 --> 40:01.140 and they get the ark of the covenant 40:01.620 --> 40:03.520 and the Bible says Hophni and Phineas, 40:03.800 --> 40:05.160 they weren't at the first battle. 40:06.120 --> 40:07.520 They're with the ark of the covenant. 40:07.900 --> 40:10.360 But then when the ark of the covenant goes to battle, 40:10.880 --> 40:13.020 they go with it because they're there 40:13.020 --> 40:15.280 as custodians of the ark of the covenant 40:15.280 --> 40:17.160 and this is how they're ultimately 40:17.160 --> 40:18.300 gonna end up getting killed. 40:18.840 --> 40:21.420 Because remember, God said, this is gonna be a sign unto you, 40:21.680 --> 40:23.560 both of your sons are gonna die the same day. 40:24.520 --> 40:26.940 Now, normally, they probably wouldn't even be 40:26.940 --> 40:27.880 in harm's way. 40:28.320 --> 40:31.180 Normally, they're back working their clergy job 40:31.720 --> 40:33.140 and the chance of them both dying 40:33.140 --> 40:34.320 on the same day would be slim. 40:34.560 --> 40:36.660 But it's because of the fact that the people 40:37.280 --> 40:39.700 grab the ark of the covenant and take it to battle 40:39.700 --> 40:41.720 and then Hophni and Phineas go with them, 40:42.040 --> 40:44.580 that's where they end up getting killed as a result. 40:44.940 --> 40:47.740 And so it says in verse 11, the ark of God was taken 40:47.740 --> 40:51.980 and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas were slain. 40:52.300 --> 40:52.800 They were killed. 40:53.160 --> 40:54.000 Look at verse 17. 40:55.000 --> 40:56.620 And the messenger answered and said, 40:57.120 --> 40:59.240 Israel is fled before the Philistines 40:59.240 --> 41:01.180 and there have been also a great slaughter 41:01.180 --> 41:03.820 among the people and thy two sons also, 41:04.380 --> 41:06.740 Hophni and Phineas are dead 41:07.200 --> 41:09.840 and the ark of God is taken. 41:10.580 --> 41:13.020 And then of course, we have the daughter-in-law of Phineas, 41:13.520 --> 41:16.180 or the daughter-in-law of Eli, Phineas' wife, 41:16.700 --> 41:18.420 she is about to give birth 41:18.420 --> 41:20.200 when she hears the news in verse 19. 41:20.760 --> 41:22.360 And then it says, when she heard the tidings 41:22.360 --> 41:23.620 that the ark of God was taken 41:23.620 --> 41:26.240 and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, 41:26.580 --> 41:28.940 she bowed herself and travailed for her pains 41:28.940 --> 41:31.120 came upon her and about the time of her death 41:31.120 --> 41:33.460 the women that stood by her said unto her, 41:33.600 --> 41:35.400 fear not for thou hast borne a son. 41:35.400 --> 41:38.180 But she answered not, neither did she regard it. 41:38.780 --> 41:40.940 And she named the child Ichabod, 41:41.280 --> 41:44.480 saying the glory is departed from Israel 41:44.480 --> 41:46.600 because the ark of God was taken 41:47.040 --> 41:49.340 and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 41:49.640 --> 41:52.160 And she said the glory is departed from Israel 41:52.440 --> 41:54.860 for the ark of God is taken. 41:56.000 --> 41:57.940 So anyway, she's dying. 41:58.200 --> 42:01.660 She dies giving birth to this son Ichabod 42:02.200 --> 42:03.940 and it's all over, we're doomed. 42:03.940 --> 42:07.200 Now if you would go to 1 Samuel chapter 22, 42:07.400 --> 42:08.300 1 Samuel chapter 22. 42:08.720 --> 42:10.840 So when it comes to the judgment upon the house of Eli, 42:11.520 --> 42:14.120 it really comes in three stages, okay? 42:14.700 --> 42:17.620 So stage one of the judgment upon Eli 42:18.240 --> 42:20.680 is when his two sons, Haphni and Phineas, 42:20.900 --> 42:22.900 both die the same day, right? 42:23.280 --> 42:24.780 They go with the ark into battle 42:24.780 --> 42:26.160 and they both end up getting killed. 42:26.540 --> 42:27.960 But that's not really everything 42:27.960 --> 42:29.120 that God said he was gonna do. 42:29.260 --> 42:31.780 I mean, God said that he was gonna pretty much 42:31.780 --> 42:34.080 just wipe out all of Eli's descendants. 42:34.540 --> 42:36.800 He said, remember, they're all gonna die 42:36.800 --> 42:38.280 in the flower of their age. 42:38.380 --> 42:40.580 There's not gonna be any old men. 42:40.960 --> 42:42.160 They're all gonna be killed 42:42.160 --> 42:44.040 and I'm gonna just totally switch over 42:44.040 --> 42:47.900 to a different lineage of the sons of Aaron 42:47.900 --> 42:48.660 to be the priest. 42:48.800 --> 42:51.720 That's ultimately gonna be the Zadok lineage. 42:52.480 --> 42:54.200 But look what the Bible says here 42:54.200 --> 42:57.000 in 1 Samuel chapter 22. 42:57.240 --> 42:59.680 This is King Saul and if you remember King Saul, 42:59.680 --> 43:01.640 he's chasing after David. 43:02.020 --> 43:04.000 And you remember how the priests of the Lord 43:04.520 --> 43:06.060 end up helping David. 43:06.220 --> 43:08.140 They didn't even know that David's on the run. 43:08.580 --> 43:10.900 They don't even know that there's any smoke 43:10.900 --> 43:12.040 between David and Saul. 43:12.380 --> 43:14.040 So they just kind of innocently 43:14.640 --> 43:17.100 just give David the sword of Goliath 43:17.100 --> 43:18.580 and they give him to show Brad 43:18.580 --> 43:20.480 and he eats the show Brad and everything like that. 43:21.040 --> 43:23.820 Well, Saul shows up and he finds out about it. 43:25.420 --> 43:26.980 And it says in verse 16, 43:26.980 --> 43:27.620 The king said, 43:27.760 --> 43:29.980 Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, 43:30.280 --> 43:32.140 Thou and all Thy father's house. 43:32.240 --> 43:32.900 Now who is this? 43:33.880 --> 43:37.780 Ahimelech is the great grandson of Eli. 43:38.200 --> 43:39.660 So this is Eli's great grandson. 43:39.960 --> 43:43.840 This is that family that got cursed by God 43:44.320 --> 43:46.800 because of the sins of Eli and his two sons. 43:47.200 --> 43:48.160 They're totally cursed. 43:48.640 --> 43:49.960 And so what does the Bible say? 43:50.040 --> 43:51.560 That God will visit the iniquities 43:51.560 --> 43:53.100 of the fathers upon the children 43:53.100 --> 43:54.600 under the third and fourth generation. 43:55.200 --> 43:57.280 This is the third or fourth generation, 43:57.400 --> 43:58.540 depending on how you look at it. 43:59.260 --> 44:03.140 And so this Ahimelech is the grandson of, 44:03.240 --> 44:04.780 or excuse me, great grandson of Eli. 44:05.100 --> 44:08.100 Now look, obviously it's not right for King Saul 44:08.100 --> 44:09.840 to murder the priests of the Lord. 44:10.200 --> 44:11.520 Really, he doesn't do it himself, 44:11.600 --> 44:13.160 but he has doeg the Edomite 44:13.160 --> 44:15.620 do the actual murdering of the priests of the Lord. 44:15.960 --> 44:19.280 But ultimately this is a fulfillment of prophecy though, 44:19.400 --> 44:21.500 because this is a huge number 44:22.560 --> 44:24.520 of Eli's children getting killed. 44:24.680 --> 44:25.680 It says in verse 17, 44:26.440 --> 44:28.300 the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, 44:28.660 --> 44:30.480 turn and slay the priests of the Lord 44:30.480 --> 44:32.360 because their hand also was with David 44:32.360 --> 44:34.060 and because they knew when he fled 44:34.060 --> 44:35.360 and did not show it to me. 44:35.580 --> 44:37.760 But the servants of the king would not put forth 44:37.760 --> 44:40.080 their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. 44:40.200 --> 44:44.080 So look, obviously murdering innocent people is not right. 44:44.700 --> 44:47.600 And so the right people, the good people, 44:47.840 --> 44:51.060 even when they're ordered to kill the priests of the Lord, 44:51.060 --> 44:52.020 they're like, no way, 44:52.200 --> 44:54.020 we're not just gonna murder innocent people, 44:54.080 --> 44:55.560 we're not gonna kill the priests of the Lord. 44:56.640 --> 44:57.700 They wouldn't do it. 44:58.540 --> 44:59.820 And the king said to doeg, 44:59.980 --> 45:01.620 and doeg is a total reprobate too, 45:02.320 --> 45:03.440 the king said to doeg, 45:03.680 --> 45:05.520 turn thou and fall upon the priests. 45:06.060 --> 45:08.280 And doeg the Edomite's like, sure, no problem. 45:08.860 --> 45:10.900 Turned and he fell upon the priests 45:11.460 --> 45:14.180 and slew on that day four score 45:14.180 --> 45:17.460 and five persons that did wear a linen ephod 45:17.460 --> 45:19.300 and knob the city of the priests, 45:19.300 --> 45:21.160 smody with the edge of the sword, 45:21.300 --> 45:24.120 both men and women, children and sucklings, 45:24.740 --> 45:27.220 oxen and asses and sheep with the edge of the sword 45:27.220 --> 45:29.460 and one of the sons of a Himalayan, 45:29.540 --> 45:31.440 the son of a Hiteb named Abithar escaped 45:31.440 --> 45:32.300 and fled after David. 45:32.700 --> 45:36.360 Now look, is this not a fulfillment of the prophecy 45:36.840 --> 45:39.980 that was given about Eli and his son saying, 45:40.060 --> 45:41.900 hey, there's not gonna be an old man. 45:42.340 --> 45:45.100 They're all gonna die in the flower of their age. 45:45.360 --> 45:46.060 And here's the thing. 45:46.060 --> 45:48.320 Yeah, obviously good people 45:48.320 --> 45:50.660 would refuse to carry out this murder. 45:51.040 --> 45:53.460 Bad people would carry out the murder, 45:53.700 --> 45:56.340 but at the end of the day, prophecy is fulfilled. 45:57.020 --> 45:59.320 Because let me just break this to you. 45:59.540 --> 46:01.620 The whole world is filled with a mix 46:01.620 --> 46:03.040 of good people and bad people, 46:03.520 --> 46:05.800 people with no morals, people with morals. 46:06.340 --> 46:11.160 There are plenty of evil, wicked, sick people in this world 46:11.160 --> 46:14.040 to carry out all kinds of destruction and devastation. 46:14.040 --> 46:15.480 And you know what we wanna have 46:15.480 --> 46:17.580 is we wanna have the protection of God in our lives. 46:17.940 --> 46:19.740 We wanna have the blessing of God. 46:19.880 --> 46:21.240 We want God protecting us. 46:21.520 --> 46:24.240 We want the angel, the Lord and camping round 46:24.240 --> 46:25.480 about those that fear Him. 46:26.320 --> 46:27.600 So of course it's not like, 46:27.960 --> 46:29.860 oh, it's okay for Doeg the Edomite 46:29.860 --> 46:31.740 to murder these people because he's fulfilling prophecy. 46:32.140 --> 46:34.400 Well, I mean, the Antichrist is fulfilling prophecy too. 46:34.720 --> 46:38.920 I mean, obviously God could use events 46:38.920 --> 46:40.780 that are wicked and ungodly 46:40.780 --> 46:43.180 in order for his ultimate will to be carried out. 46:43.180 --> 46:44.120 But at the end of the day, 46:44.600 --> 46:46.480 this is a punishment from God 46:46.980 --> 46:48.720 because God could have worked it out. 46:49.220 --> 46:51.380 I mean, think about, let me just illustrate to you this way. 46:51.860 --> 46:53.740 What about when Saul said, 46:54.280 --> 46:56.440 all right, everybody, we're gonna kill Jonathan, my son. 46:57.280 --> 47:00.120 And Saul actually orders Jonathan to be executed. 47:01.020 --> 47:04.880 Now, Jonathan was not a bad guy, okay? 47:05.080 --> 47:05.800 And here's the thing. 47:06.340 --> 47:07.860 The people end up saying, 47:08.240 --> 47:09.780 no, we're not gonna kill Jonathan. 47:10.140 --> 47:12.380 And they end up talking Saul off the ledge 47:12.380 --> 47:14.740 and they end up protecting and saving Jonathan's life. 47:15.620 --> 47:17.520 So couldn't the same thing have happened right here? 47:17.840 --> 47:19.040 Because what happens with Saul? 47:19.140 --> 47:20.700 Saul's like, okay, kill the priest of the Lord. 47:20.840 --> 47:22.380 And everybody is saying, no, 47:23.100 --> 47:24.560 we're not gonna kill the priest of the Lord. 47:24.920 --> 47:26.940 This could have ended up like a Jonathan situation. 47:27.500 --> 47:28.620 Hey, let's kill Jonathan. 47:28.880 --> 47:30.120 No, we're not gonna kill Jonathan. 47:30.360 --> 47:31.780 Okay, fine, we won't kill Jonathan. 47:32.600 --> 47:34.120 The similar thing could have happened here. 47:35.980 --> 47:40.420 Or even if he would have had some wicked person 47:40.420 --> 47:41.300 that would kill the priest, 47:41.950 --> 47:43.840 they're not necessarily gonna kill the women 47:43.840 --> 47:46.140 and the children and just the whole town 47:46.140 --> 47:47.760 and everybody's animals and everything. 47:47.860 --> 47:49.900 I mean, just slaughtering the whole town. 47:50.400 --> 47:53.420 This was a special job for Doeg the Edomite. 47:53.540 --> 47:55.920 You had to have just this super rotten guy 47:56.460 --> 47:58.160 who's just gonna just kill everybody. 47:58.520 --> 47:59.580 Couldn't God have worked it out 47:59.580 --> 48:02.420 to where Doeg just wasn't there that day 48:02.420 --> 48:03.960 and nobody would have been willing to do this? 48:04.480 --> 48:07.220 But God worked it out to where Doeg was there. 48:07.600 --> 48:07.920 Why? 48:08.360 --> 48:10.760 Because ultimately, his hand of blessing 48:10.760 --> 48:14.520 and his hand of protection is off of Eli's family 48:14.520 --> 48:16.080 because of this wickedness 48:16.080 --> 48:17.940 because they're running the house of God 48:17.940 --> 48:19.080 and they're doing a bad job 48:19.080 --> 48:21.320 and so he's gonna take them out. 48:22.560 --> 48:25.220 It's a sobering thought, but that's what happened. 48:25.920 --> 48:27.160 Now let's go to the last place. 48:27.320 --> 48:28.880 Go to First Kings, chapter two. 48:29.040 --> 48:30.000 First Kings, chapter two. 48:30.680 --> 48:32.080 So again, we said there's kind of like 48:32.080 --> 48:35.060 three main stages to the fulfillment here. 48:35.200 --> 48:36.360 And prophecy in the Bible, 48:36.520 --> 48:37.960 there's always like a dual fulfillment. 48:38.320 --> 48:39.880 Sometimes there's a triple fulfillment. 48:39.880 --> 48:41.900 So the first thing we saw was 48:42.640 --> 48:45.200 Haphne and Phineas themselves get killed, right? 48:47.120 --> 48:49.760 And then obviously Phineas' wife, 48:50.340 --> 48:53.120 dying and childbirth is also like a foreshadowing 48:53.120 --> 48:57.500 of just more curse and negativity on that family 48:57.500 --> 49:00.040 and the glories departed, Ichabod and all that. 49:00.300 --> 49:02.420 Then we fast forward to 1 Samuel 22 49:02.880 --> 49:05.060 and we get down to that third, fourth generation 49:05.920 --> 49:08.680 and everybody's getting killed in the flower of their age. 49:09.410 --> 49:11.740 Just the entire town, the entire family 49:11.740 --> 49:14.800 is wiped out to the tune of 85 priests 49:14.800 --> 49:17.400 plus all these other men, women and children 49:17.400 --> 49:18.900 that were not wearing the Ephod. 49:19.400 --> 49:21.680 So it's way more than 85 people murdered. 49:22.720 --> 49:25.320 And then when we get to First Kings, chapter two, verse 26, 49:25.520 --> 49:29.380 it says, unto a biathar the priest said the king. 49:31.080 --> 49:33.480 And remember in 1 Samuel 2220, 49:33.780 --> 49:36.800 it says that there was this one guy who escaped 49:37.420 --> 49:40.580 when the 85 priests and all their people got killed. 49:40.880 --> 49:45.880 The one guy who escaped, his name was a biathar, okay? 49:47.340 --> 49:49.700 So now we get to verse 26 here. 49:49.820 --> 49:52.720 It says, unto a biathar the priest said the king, 49:53.200 --> 49:55.640 get thee to anathoth unto thine own fields, 49:56.000 --> 49:57.160 for thou art worthy of death, 49:57.280 --> 49:59.060 but I will not at this time put thee to death, 50:00.180 --> 50:02.300 because thou bearest the ark of the Lord God 50:02.840 --> 50:04.960 before David my father and because thou hast been 50:04.960 --> 50:06.980 afflicted and all wherein my father was afflicted. 50:07.340 --> 50:09.620 So Solomon thrust out a biathar 50:09.620 --> 50:11.080 from being priest unto the Lord 50:11.080 --> 50:14.360 that he might fulfill the word of the Lord, 50:14.840 --> 50:18.260 which he spake concerning the house of Eli and Shiloh. 50:18.360 --> 50:21.280 So this is kind of like the last step here 50:21.280 --> 50:26.880 is that there's one pretty good guy that had survived 50:27.360 --> 50:29.480 and God has used this guy a little bit 50:29.480 --> 50:32.680 and so he gets spared being put to death, 50:33.760 --> 50:35.760 but he's kicked out of being the priest. 50:36.100 --> 50:38.980 He's told, hey, just go get a secular job. 50:39.580 --> 50:41.500 You know, you're just gonna go back to your fields 50:41.500 --> 50:42.920 because you can't be a priest anymore. 50:44.080 --> 50:46.300 And that was fulfillment of the word of the Lord, 50:46.400 --> 50:48.240 which he spake concerning the house of Eli and Shiloh. 50:48.380 --> 50:49.580 Look at verse 35. 50:50.100 --> 50:52.380 It says the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoida 50:52.900 --> 50:53.960 in his room over the host 50:53.960 --> 50:57.660 and Zadok the priest did the king put 50:57.660 --> 51:00.720 in the room of a biathar and it's Zadok 51:00.720 --> 51:03.660 and his descendants that actually continue to be the priests 51:04.200 --> 51:06.220 all the way up until the time of Jesus Christ, 51:06.660 --> 51:08.400 which is why the priestly faction 51:08.940 --> 51:12.220 in the New Testament are called Sadducees. 51:12.620 --> 51:16.340 If you look at the three main consonants in that word, 51:16.500 --> 51:20.000 you have the S, sad, you see, 51:20.160 --> 51:25.120 you have S, D and C, which comes from the name Sadok. 51:25.780 --> 51:29.160 So the Sadducees are the sons of Sadok. 51:29.160 --> 51:30.700 They are the priestly faction. 51:30.980 --> 51:33.820 And of course, by the time Christ comes on the scene, 51:34.060 --> 51:35.780 they've got horrible doctrine. 51:36.300 --> 51:38.760 They're basically like United Methodists or something 51:38.760 --> 51:41.520 where they deny all the miracles and the angels 51:41.520 --> 51:43.860 and the resurrection and they don't believe 51:43.860 --> 51:47.900 in life after death and they don't be stupid, wrong beliefs. 51:48.060 --> 51:49.400 But Zadok himself is a good guy 51:49.400 --> 51:51.840 and his line is good for a while. 51:52.280 --> 51:55.000 Everything ultimately deteriorates and degenerates. 51:55.060 --> 51:57.680 So the final thought that I wanna leave you with 51:57.680 --> 52:00.720 on this story of the sons of Levi, excuse me, Eli, 52:01.440 --> 52:06.580 is that Eli honored his sons more than he honored God. 52:07.820 --> 52:11.500 He basically put family ahead of serving God 52:11.500 --> 52:12.820 and this is the wrong order. 52:13.780 --> 52:17.820 We've gotta put God, number one, family comes after God. 52:18.320 --> 52:20.960 And I mean, Jesus Christ is crystal clear on this. 52:21.680 --> 52:25.260 He says that you have to forsake everything 52:25.260 --> 52:29.880 and follow him and he that loveth son or daughter 52:29.880 --> 52:31.780 more than me is not worthy of me. 52:32.020 --> 52:34.340 He that loveth father or mother more than me 52:34.340 --> 52:35.360 is not worthy of me. 52:35.640 --> 52:37.720 He that taketh not his cross and followed after me 52:37.720 --> 52:38.400 is not worthy of me. 52:38.460 --> 52:40.240 I mean, he flat out tells you, 52:41.100 --> 52:44.840 you've gotta put the Lord first above family, 52:45.100 --> 52:47.500 above mother and father, above son and daughter, 52:47.940 --> 52:51.040 above all our loyalty is to Christ. 52:51.640 --> 52:53.180 That's clear in the New Testament 52:54.000 --> 52:56.940 and in the Old Testament, God is number one. 52:57.160 --> 52:58.900 Now listen, a lot of people today believe 52:58.900 --> 53:00.200 that family is number one. 53:00.980 --> 53:03.980 You know, and I feel like there's a lot of just movies 53:03.980 --> 53:09.260 and TV and books and media that really push 53:09.780 --> 53:11.860 almost like a cult of the family. 53:12.320 --> 53:15.220 It's almost like a religion of family 53:15.220 --> 53:17.340 where family is everything. 53:17.680 --> 53:20.660 Family is number one and it's all about family. 53:21.330 --> 53:23.780 But we always have to keep this in its proper perspective 53:23.780 --> 53:27.860 that no serving God trumps family. 53:28.300 --> 53:30.740 The Lord trumps family and so what did Eli do? 53:31.160 --> 53:34.240 Eli honored his sons above God. 53:34.980 --> 53:39.540 He put family, he put his children before serving God. 53:39.920 --> 53:41.480 Now, how did this work out for him? 53:42.060 --> 53:43.840 Think about the poetic justice here. 53:44.340 --> 53:47.940 Because he puts family first, does his family end up? 53:48.000 --> 53:49.480 Well, he invested in family. 53:49.860 --> 53:50.940 Well, what happened to his family? 53:53.380 --> 53:54.420 Everybody dies. 53:55.680 --> 53:57.020 I mean, that's pretty bad. 53:57.220 --> 54:00.000 I mean, think about just having hundreds of descendants 54:00.640 --> 54:02.860 and there are dozens of descendants 54:03.460 --> 54:08.120 and they're all, they all just get murdered, all of them. 54:08.720 --> 54:09.120 You know what I mean? 54:09.360 --> 54:12.920 So here's the thing, if you serve God, 54:13.120 --> 54:16.080 if you put God first, if you put Jesus Christ number one, 54:16.460 --> 54:18.140 the way the Bible clearly commands you to do, 54:18.140 --> 54:19.360 whether it's popular or not, 54:19.720 --> 54:22.440 whether that's what movies and TV are telling you to do, 54:22.880 --> 54:24.940 you know, if you put Christ first, 54:25.940 --> 54:28.180 you're actually laying up treasures in heaven. 54:28.480 --> 54:30.400 You're earning eternal rewards. 54:30.780 --> 54:32.340 And at the end of the day, you know, 54:32.380 --> 54:34.540 you have your physical family, 54:34.560 --> 54:36.600 but you've also got your brothers and sisters in Christ. 54:37.180 --> 54:39.140 You've got your spiritual sons and daughters. 54:39.660 --> 54:41.740 You got your spiritual family in the church. 54:42.400 --> 54:43.620 And at the end of the day, 54:43.820 --> 54:46.720 like nobody can ever really take that away from you. 54:47.380 --> 54:50.040 You know, the work that you do for God is an eternal work. 54:50.380 --> 54:53.240 The souls that are saved over in Barbados 54:53.800 --> 54:55.880 or on the White Mountain Apache Reservation 54:55.880 --> 54:58.820 or here in Phoenix on the weekend, week out basis, 54:59.320 --> 55:00.560 those souls that are saved, 55:00.700 --> 55:02.120 I mean, nothing can ever change that. 55:03.460 --> 55:05.540 Nothing can ever make those people unsaved. 55:06.100 --> 55:08.580 Nothing can ever undo the work 55:08.580 --> 55:10.340 that you accomplish for the Lord. 55:10.600 --> 55:12.340 And your brothers and sisters in Christ 55:12.340 --> 55:13.820 that are saved children of God, 55:13.820 --> 55:15.720 they will be in heaven with you forever. 55:16.800 --> 55:20.420 You're never gonna be permanently severed from those people 55:20.420 --> 55:21.560 because you're gonna see them in heaven. 55:22.020 --> 55:24.680 You're gonna have all eternity to rejoice those people. 55:26.680 --> 55:31.600 Whereas if you make an idol out of anything in this world, 55:31.980 --> 55:33.600 God could just take it away from you. 55:34.460 --> 55:36.340 Because he's like, well, if you're gonna put this 55:36.340 --> 55:38.340 before me, I'll just take it away. 55:38.600 --> 55:40.480 You know, somebody, and it could be anything. 55:40.640 --> 55:42.020 Like somebody says, well, I'm gonna, 55:42.020 --> 55:45.300 for me, sports are more important than serving God. 55:45.440 --> 55:47.280 Well, then God could cause you to get injured 55:47.280 --> 55:49.180 or you lose the ability to have sports. 55:49.440 --> 55:52.480 Or, oh, my business is more important than serving God. 55:52.840 --> 55:54.080 You know, God can take away your business. 55:55.360 --> 55:56.580 And if you're gonna sit there 55:56.580 --> 55:58.260 and make an idol out of family 55:58.840 --> 56:01.920 and say, well, I'm gonna put family first, 56:02.800 --> 56:03.460 family's everything. 56:03.960 --> 56:06.320 Family's the one and you're willing to disobey the Bible 56:06.920 --> 56:09.460 or you're willing to just put God on the back burner 56:09.460 --> 56:12.060 and honor your sons more than God, 56:12.300 --> 56:13.680 honor your family more than God. 56:14.040 --> 56:14.580 You know, at the end of the day, 56:14.660 --> 56:15.900 God can take that away from you too. 56:17.220 --> 56:19.980 And that's what he did to Eli because, you know, 56:20.460 --> 56:22.920 all of his descendants virtually get killed. 56:23.080 --> 56:25.160 And then the one that's even alive, 56:25.760 --> 56:27.300 the exception is like, okay, 56:27.380 --> 56:28.420 but he can't be the priest anymore. 56:28.800 --> 56:31.600 He has to just kind of go off and into the sunset. 56:32.480 --> 56:34.420 So, you know, I think that the big lesson here, 56:35.100 --> 56:38.440 besides the fact that we have to obviously enforce things 56:38.920 --> 56:41.100 and it's not enough to just say that there are rules, 56:41.240 --> 56:42.680 but we have to actually enforce rules 56:42.680 --> 56:46.060 and that we should also not have nepotism 56:46.060 --> 56:48.080 where we're just giving people favoritism 56:48.080 --> 56:50.020 because of who they're related to. 56:50.580 --> 56:52.940 But also, I think a big takeaway is 56:52.940 --> 56:54.820 don't put anything before Christ. 56:55.700 --> 56:57.120 Don't put anything before God. 56:57.600 --> 56:58.620 God's gotta be number one. 56:58.780 --> 56:59.600 Christ's gotta be number one. 56:59.640 --> 57:01.480 And if you seek first the kingdom of God 57:01.980 --> 57:02.740 and his righteousness, 57:03.480 --> 57:05.300 all these other things will be added under you. 57:05.840 --> 57:07.960 But if you seek all these other things, 57:08.480 --> 57:09.360 it's not gonna work. 57:09.620 --> 57:11.400 You know, another example I like to bring up is Gideon. 57:11.900 --> 57:14.420 I mean, Gideon had all these wives 57:14.880 --> 57:16.980 and so he ended up having 70 sons. 57:17.240 --> 57:19.520 And you can just see him being such a proud dad, 57:20.200 --> 57:22.380 like, hey, I got 70 sons. 57:23.340 --> 57:24.440 But then what happens? 57:24.580 --> 57:25.260 As soon as he's dead, 57:26.320 --> 57:28.980 all 70 of his sons get murdered except one. 57:30.840 --> 57:32.540 I mean, it's like, wow, 57:33.040 --> 57:34.700 okay, that didn't really go anywhere. 57:35.380 --> 57:37.980 So the point is everything in this world 57:38.480 --> 57:41.540 is transitory, temporal, you know? 57:41.760 --> 57:44.680 You can't sit there and think, families forever. 57:44.980 --> 57:46.200 Well, go join the Mormon church 57:46.200 --> 57:47.920 if you think families forever, okay? 57:49.140 --> 57:50.140 But at the end of the day, 57:51.020 --> 57:53.660 it's Christ that is eternal. 57:54.340 --> 57:56.560 It's heaven, it's the rewards. 57:57.020 --> 57:58.560 You know, yes, family's important. 57:59.200 --> 58:00.940 Yes, we should love our families 58:00.940 --> 58:02.440 and do things for our family 58:02.440 --> 58:03.820 and spend time with family. 58:04.180 --> 58:06.800 And obviously, our marriages are super important 58:07.280 --> 58:08.920 and spending time with our children, 58:08.920 --> 58:10.760 spending time with other loved ones. 58:11.120 --> 58:13.520 And look, those family relationships can be beautiful. 58:14.280 --> 58:14.940 But you know what? 58:15.240 --> 58:16.900 Sometimes those family relationships 58:16.900 --> 58:18.020 are not beautiful at all 58:18.020 --> 58:19.600 because sometimes someone will choose 58:19.600 --> 58:21.060 to go down an evil path. 58:21.780 --> 58:23.660 And someone will choose to be a Hothni 58:23.660 --> 58:26.320 or a Phineas and choose to be wicked 58:26.320 --> 58:27.820 and choose to be a son of Belial. 58:28.040 --> 58:28.740 And you can't just be like, 58:28.740 --> 58:30.600 yeah, but they're family, family first. 58:30.840 --> 58:32.580 It's like, nope, Christ first. 58:33.320 --> 58:35.100 Throw Hothni and Phineas under the bus. 58:35.760 --> 58:37.120 That's what, if Eli would have thrown 58:37.120 --> 58:38.540 Hothni and Phineas under the bus, 58:39.440 --> 58:40.740 he would have lived happily ever after. 58:40.880 --> 58:42.920 You wouldn't have 85 of his descendants 58:42.920 --> 58:45.580 being murdered a few chapters later. 58:45.880 --> 58:46.840 Let's bards and have a word of prayer. 58:46.960 --> 58:47.860 Father, we thank you so much 58:47.860 --> 58:50.720 for this cautionary tale, Lord, about Eli. 58:52.200 --> 58:53.720 Lord God, help us to control 58:53.720 --> 58:55.740 our physical appetites, Lord. 58:56.240 --> 58:58.420 Help us not to indulge especially 58:58.420 --> 59:00.360 in wicked things like fornication 59:00.360 --> 59:04.200 or adultery, Lord, drunkenness, drugs, 59:05.000 --> 59:07.080 or even just being gluttonous 59:07.080 --> 59:09.160 and just overindulging in anything, Lord. 59:09.780 --> 59:12.040 Help us to control our impulses 59:12.750 --> 59:15.600 and Lord, help us to always put you number one 59:15.600 --> 59:17.560 and serve you first and foremost 59:17.560 --> 59:19.340 and not put anything above you, 59:19.360 --> 59:20.380 even family, Lord. 59:20.820 --> 59:22.840 Help us not even to put that above you. 59:23.460 --> 59:25.100 And Lord, bless us now 59:25.100 --> 59:25.920 as we go our separate ways. 59:26.000 --> 59:26.920 In Jesus' name we pray, amen.