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Portions of the following program may be pre-recorded. I am Pastor Ernie Sanders, the voice of the Christian Resistance. Stay tuned, my radio broadcast, What's Right, What's Left is coming up right now.

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Thank you. This is What's Right, What's Left with Pastor Ernie Sanders. Good evening and welcome to another edition of What's Right, What's Left. The voice of the Christian Resistance on this fourth day of August 2024. And indeed this is the voice of the Christian Resistance. The title of the message tonight is a better understanding of why we do what we do.

And we're going to be discussing things like baptism, communion, church attendance, and well, burial versus cremation or prayer too. But before we get into all of that, round about last April, I had a very well known pastor call me. And he was beside himself. He just needed some advice and wanted to talk. And I'm not going to mention his name because he's very well known and he was in confidence the discussion.

And he is also the son of another even better known pastor. And so here he said, I don't understand what has happened. He said, my family has decided that they no longer want any part of the ministry.

It's like they just don't want any more to do with the ministry. He said, I don't understand this. He said, it just doesn't make any sense. There's never been any problem.

I had no warning that there was anything wrong. He said, can you tell me what is happening? I said, I think I can. I said, let's turn over to Mark chapter 6. And so that's where we're going to start tonight in Mark chapter 6. And he went out from this and he came into his own country and his disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue and many hearing him were astonished. They were astonished, saying, for whence have this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto him?

And even such mighty works are wrought by his hands. So here they're looking at Jesus and now he's back in his hometown. They said, can anything good come from Nazareth? But now Jesus is back in his hometown.

But then they said, wait a minute. Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and of Judah and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended by him. In other words, here they listened to him. They heard what he had to say. They realized that he had an incredible knowledge far beyond anything that they've heard before.

And he spoke with absolute authority. But they couldn't, they couldn't accept this because he was from their area because they knew him. His father was a carpenter and he was a carpenter. And so, therefore, they could not accept him. And Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work save the late hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.

And he went around about the village teaching. Now, the enemy know that God said, touch not my anointed. Well, Satan knows that even he, there will be a price to pay if he without permission touches God's anointed like what happened with Job. He had to go before God and get permission to do whatever he could do. Now, every single pastor that I know very well, that I know some pastors that I've never really sat down and had private conversations about their personal life, but every single pastor that I have had that, every single one can relate to what Jesus said here in verse 4.

He said, again, a prophet is not without honor but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house. And, you know, the Bible has plenty of examples. Now, again, I have some very good friends of mine that are pastors that have had some real major, well, defections, if you will, from their families. And some very good men whose hearts were broken by their children.

And we take a look and we see some of these when it talks about your own house. Remember Moses? Moses had Aaron and Miriam, his brother and sister, and they turned on him. They said, look here, Moses, we're going to start taking a bigger part and we think we know how to run things a little better than you.

And God was listening to that and he told them, really? I talked to Moses face to face. I don't talk to you face to face. I raised up Moses. I didn't raise up you, okay? Moses is known as my friend.

I didn't say that with you. And so Miriam, well, she pipes up and she said, well, you know, I don't care too much for the fact that Moses is a white man and he married an Ethiopian, a black woman, and I don't like it. Well, the Lord says, so you like white, huh? So he gave Miriam white. He gave her leprosy. She was whiter.

She had more white than she ever wanted. But it was only for seven days and here Aaron cried and he moaned and God said, you know, Mike, just cut it out. Shut up. It's only for seven days.

Quit your whining. And Moses had another one with one of these, supposedly the leaders amongst his people, Korah. Korah betrayed him. Korah decided that he was going to replace Moses and, boy, that didn't work well. God opened the earth and swallowed him and his whole family. And then you had Job. Job lost his children, lost all his children, and he was betrayed by his three best friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. But even worse then was when he was betrayed by his own wife. That even cut deeper. Now those three fellows, they told Job, listen here, we know what's happening.

We know what's going on here. Job is your sin. It's your sin. That's what's happening, why all this bad is happening to you. Now you're the guy that's always been talking about and boasting about integrity and honesty and being a good example for others. But now you're in the spotlight.

Now it's coming upon you. And here we even see Eliphaz goes and he tells Job, listen, never has there been an innocent man. Never has there been an innocent man persecuted unjustly. Well, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard, okay?

We see it happening every day in this country. Well, anyhow, those three decided they were going to set Job straight and at the end of the book you hear God telling those three, you better pray, you better pray that Job intercedes for you because if he doesn't you guys are in real trouble, I mean real trouble. And they were lucky to have Job to intercede for them or they would have been in very, very big trouble. And then they had, well, they had King David. King David, he was betrayed by his King Saul. He was betrayed by his own son Absalom. And he was betrayed also by his number one, his right hand man, his advisor Ahithophel. They all betrayed him. And of course we know that our Lord Jesus, he was betrayed by his own people. He was betrayed by Peter.

Peter denied him three times. And of course, you know, he was betrayed by Judas. And so, the bottom line is this, if a pastor is doing his job by preaching what they need to hear and not what they want to hear, he will have opposition by those that are closest to him often and they will find that there is a price to be paid for their stubborn pride. And that's when the scripture says, touch not my anointed. Now, we want to take a look at baptism. And with that, I'm going to start over tonight here in Matthew chapter 3. And in Matthew chapter 3, starting with verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John. To be baptized of him.

But John forbid him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and thou comest thou to me. And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, for thus it is become us to fulfill all righteousness. Now, that word there, all righteousness, means that everything that God does is the right thing to do. Everything that God does is the right thing to do. God doesn't ever do anything that's not the right thing.

He never does anything that's not the right thing. And so here, we see, then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straight away out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Now, when we baptize people today, we always baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

And this is the reason why. Here, you had all three of the Godhead, all three of the Godhead, the Trinity present. You had the Lord Jesus being baptized, the Holy Spirit descending upon him, and God the Father speaking.

And so this is why, when we baptize today, we baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so we go back to this here, but John forbid him, saying, I have a need to be baptized of thee that comest thou to me. Now, Jesus had no need of repentance. He had no sin to repent of. He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness.

And again, he was, in fact, not only did he have no sin, but he was soon to become sin for all of us. Now, you notice something here when it says, and when Jesus was baptized, he went up straightaway out of the water. Now, you notice it said out of the water and not out of the Jordan. By the way, I certainly wouldn't want to be baptized in the Jordan today.

Boy, the last time I was there, it was dirty. I mean, dead fish floating on it, and yet there were people out there being baptized, and that water was dirty. And so I stepped into the Jordan, and I waited in a little ways, and then I saw just how bad it was, and then I came out. You notice that he says out of the Jordan. Well, if he had said this, if he had said he came up straightaway out of the Jordan, then half the people in the church would want to go to the Jordan to be baptized, thinking they had to go there to get baptized.

But he didn't. He said out of the water. And that means that any water, a river, a pond, a lake, an ocean, or even just a big tub, a baptistry of water, any tub, as long as you're submerged, as long as you go under the water, and again, here, that's a water baptism. And so, now we notice something too, as far as being baptized, that in the New Testament, you won't find anyone being baptized other than by immersion, and other than on their profession of faith as Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. You won't find not one example of an infant being baptized, because an infant can't make a profession of faith.

You won't find one example in the New Testament of anybody being baptized by sprinkling. Just, you know, every single case in the New Testament is by immersion. Now, I want to go over to Acts chapter 8, and in Acts chapter 8, we read, starting with verse 36. And as they went on their way, they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water.

What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, Well, if thou believeth with all thine heart, then thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, to be baptized, and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and that the eunuch saw him no more.

And he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Asitas, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Now, we first must believe in Christ as our Savior, as our Redeemer, as our Messiah. We are baptized in obedience to God. Baptism is one of two ordinances the Bible gives us. Because we are saved, and not to be saved. See, you're baptized because you are saved.

You've already made that profession. There are those that teach that you're saved by baptism, but that's not what the Word of God teaches. It teaches that we're baptized because we have accepted and received Christ as our Savior.

Now, what is this? What do we do it for? Well, baptism is professing to men that we have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And the Lord Jesus said, if you're ashamed of Him before men, so shall He be ashamed of you before the Father. And that is us boldly, boldly professing that Jesus Christ is Messiah. He's the Son of God.

He's the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, and He's our Savior, and we have received Him. And then, I want to go now over to Romans chapter 6. And Romans chapter 6, I'm going to take a little swig here. Tonight I have, I have pineapple juice here.

And boy is it good. And here, in Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 4, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, living in longer therein? Know you not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Now, here, when we see this, he's talking about our sins were placed on Christ on the cross. And He paid the price in full for redemption of our sins. And so He died, we died with Him, and now we will live with Him forever. Now, you notice here, He says this, God forbid, how shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Now, He's not saying that we're never going to slide back. Okay, what He is telling you here is that we can no longer ever live in sin. I know people that live a total life of sin.

They've out there, well you see them all the time, they're on television. So many in the entire Democratic Communist Party, they embrace everything that God's Word, the Bible, calls sin. They promote child killing, child sacrifice. They promote sodomy, the LGBTQ, the entire Democratic Party, they're just, they're ripe with pedophiles.

I mean, so many of those in the top of the party are pedophiles, folks. And here, there are eight references in Romans 6, 1-11 to the believer's death here in Christ. And all are stated in a tense that speaks of action completed in the past. That is, our sins were placed in Christ, He paid the price of redemption by His death for those sins. And so we died with Him. We also live with Him in His resurrection, and our daily lives should reflect the great truths. Live any longer, one has truly been redeemed by faith in Christ's death for his sins. Again, as I said earlier, we may occasionally slip into sin, but we cannot live, we cannot live in the sin. The Holy Ghost would never allow us to live in that sin.

He would take us home first. Or, believe me, well Hebrews chapter 12 explains it pretty clear. Now, when it says that we were buried with Him in baptism, the reference to baptism in Romans 6, 3, 5, we read before here.

Romans, well we're reading right here, 3 through 5. He says, For we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, and we shall also, also in the likeness of His resurrection. And so here, what we see here is that, clearly, it implies that immersion as no other mode could picture the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ.

Likewise, immersion here also portrays the death of the believer to the old life, and the resurrection to the new man in the old life. We go underwater with our sins, and we're brought under the water with the sins, and then we're raised up, cleansed of our sins, and a new life. Now again, baptism, we do not, does not save us. Baptism does not save us.

Again, baptism is our profession to men that Jesus Christ is our Lord and our Savior. And so, here, I want to take a look at communion. A lot of times people have a lot of questions on the Lord's table, and so, let's go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 through 34. For I have received the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread.

Now, I want you to notice something here, folks. It says that He took bread. It's very clear Jesus has taken bread, He was breaking this bread, and He was passing it out. So the apostles clearly saw Him, that this was bread. And when He had given thanks, He break it and said, Take eat, this is My body, which is broken for you, this too, in remembrance of Me.

So, the symbolism here is very, very important. The symbolism here is that Jesus' body was going to be broken for us, folks. And when He says, they knew that He was not talking about eating their flesh. They knew that that bread, that piece of bread, does not become the flesh. They knew He was speaking symbolically.

And why? Well, because in His own words, He had said that the eating of human flesh and blood was wrong. It was cannibalism. In fact, He had given that, even to the nation of Israel, as a punishment for their rebellion. And so here, He goes on to say, And after the same manner also He took the cup, and when He had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament and My blood, this too as you drink it in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till He come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Now, here, those of us, we can take, what a privilege, what a privilege that we can take the Lord's table, take the Lord's Supper. The most powerful, the wealthiest, the most powerful men in this world, folks, if they're not saved, if they're not saved and they take the Lord's table, they're going to end up either very, very sick or very dead or both. And so here, He goes on to say, So let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh the damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. That means they're dead because they took the Lord's table either being unsaved or they took the Lord's table with unconfessed sin. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chased into the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. And so, here again, when we see this, there's no certain amount of times you can take the Lord's Supper.

We did it today. We had communion twice today. The purpose of that, as He said, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, to show the Lord's death till it comes. So the whole purpose there is to remember what He died for us. And in the observance of the Lord's Supper, the cup represents the new covenant of which God, the new covenant of God with His people, that Jesus was the substitutionary sacrifice for all of our sins.

Now I want to take a look at some church attendance. And we start over in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25. And we read verse 25, So here He makes it very clear we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

This is not a suggestion here, folks. To forsake the assembling of ourselves together is a blatant neglect of God's command. If you're going to show disrespect for God's commands, there will be consequences. Now, there are times, there are times when missing church is excusable. Being sick, you know, if you have the flu or the COVID or something and you don't want to spread it around, you know, if you have it, it would be a good idea to stay home and not come to church. Sometimes, you know, or obviously if you're lame, you know, we've had people whose back hurt them so much they just couldn't even get up and stand.

In that case, that's excusable. Or sometimes people are forced to work on Sunday. Now, these people often, except for like in federal jobs, sometimes if they will tell me about the situation and I call and I talk to their employer, you know, it's different if it's like, well, you know, a police officer or a fireman or post office where you have a situation where if you are at the bottom of the totem pole, if you're a new hiree and then you get, you have to do those jobs and that's a part of the program. But even then, I would be more than glad to talk to the boss and see if we could not work something out.

And, you know, that's happened. And, well, also, you know, if you have someone, often you will have someone here that's, they have to take, they have to stay home and take care of somebody who's sick or disabled. You don't leave a person that's very sick or disabled home alone, you know. And so those are some reasons why some, that not going to church is excusable. But there's no, these are some reasons that are not acceptable playing golf. Going golfing on Sunday morning is not acceptable or going fishing, unless, of course, you're on vacation. If you're on vacation, that's a different thing. Okay. Or attending a sporting event or a concert or going to the water park or to the beach or on a picnic. These are never, these are never legitimate excuses to ignore God's commands.

And so it's just not something you do. Now, I want to go over to Romans chapter 10 for a minute. And Romans 10, starting with verse 16. Okay. And we pastor by again. And I'll get there in a minute. Romans chapter 10. All right.

I made it. Romans 10, starting with verse 16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

But Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So where do you go to hear the word of God?

Well, you can hear it on the radio, but the best place is to go to church. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went out unto all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the earth. Now, I know that sometimes some of this is what I'm about to read here. It sounds a little silly. And, well, just bear with me.

And there's, as you might say, a method to this madness. He goes on to say. Did I just?

Okay. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, the sound went out over all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy. That's not the passage I was thinking of here.

No, there's nothing silly about this. The next passage is where we run into that. I will provoke you to jealousy, to him that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. So here Moses, Israel had rejected God and Christ for no gods. So God will replace his chosen people by no people. That is, the Gentiles in general, or not another chosen nation, would displace Israel in God's economy at least for a time. And saith Isaiah, like Paul had to be bold and telling the exclusive-minded Jews that the Gentiles would take their place in God's plan. So he goes on to say, But Isaiah is very bold, and saith, I was fond of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked me not. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsane people. Here God had been almost infinitely patient with Israel, even for several decades, for her leaders had crucified their Messiah.

Finally, however, Israel's stubborn refusal to believe led to the destruction of the city and its temple, followed by her worldwide age-long dispersion and suffering amongst all the nations. I want to go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 very quickly, and 1 Corinthians chapter 12, starting with verse 12. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body bring many, being many, or one body, to also the Christ. Now, like I said before, some of this sounds a little silly, but just bear with me. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into the body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not thy hand, I am not of the body, is therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?

And if the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him? And if they were all one member, where were the body?

But now are the many members yet but one body? And the eye cannot say into the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncommonly parts have more abundant calmness. For our commonly parts have no need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which is lacked. And there should be no schism.

And the body but the members should have the same care for one another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or the other member be a household, or the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and the members are particular. And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondary prophets, thirdly teachers. After that miracles, then gifts of healings helps in government, diversity of tongues. Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles, have all the gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret, but covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show unto you a more excellent way? Now, all true Christians have gifts of the Spirit.

We are to use those gifts in obedience and glorifying God to forsake the manifestation of gifts, whether we're preaching, or whether it's teaching, or tongues, or healing, or casting out devils. Maybe you have a gift of, well, of helps, gift of helps. Maybe just a gift of feeding the hungry, or a gift of going to nursing homes, or even, well, even doing maintenance in the church.

There's a lot of things. You have a gift, maybe you're a handyman, and God has given us all gifts. Maybe you have a gift of teaching, maybe a gift of preaching.

But whatever gift God has given you, you're to take a gift and receive that, and that's what God wanted, and use it for His glory. You know, I knew a fellow once that he wanted to be a preacher. Now, he had a gift of teaching, but he wanted to be a preacher. But the problem was, he has this real low, quiet voice.

He spoke very quietly. And when he got nervous, he got a little bit nervous, he would stutter. And so, he just was a terrible preacher. I mean, he, but when it came to the teaching, you see, he wasn't, he didn't get nervous when he was teaching. That was his element.

And he could teach without stuttering. And so that's the gift that God gave him. And we all knew, look, that's the gift that God gave you.

Take it and run with it. God knows what he's doing. He always knows what he's doing. I want to go over now to prayer. And the Bible teaches us about prayer.

And I want to start over in Philippians, chapter 4, verse 6. Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God. Now, when he says be careful for nothing, he's talking about fear nothing. Fear nothing. Don't worry, don't be afraid of anything.

That's what he's saying here. And so, when he says be careful for nothing, fear nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. So, he's telling you, look, don't be afraid of anything but pray for everything. Again, don't be afraid of anything but pray for everything.

And so, here, worry about nothing because we can pray about everything as the old saying goes. I want to go to the 145th Psalm. The 145th Psalm, we read, verses 17 through 21. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is not unto them that call upon him to call to all that call upon him in truth. He's talking about praying. Okay, now, you know, when he says that all that call upon him in truth, there are people, folks, that lie to God.

There are people that lie to God. Cain, when God says, where's Abel, Cain? Where's your brother, Abel? Cain says, I don't know.

Am I my brother's keeper? How should I know, right? When Sarah was standing in the doorway of the tent. And the Lord says, why were you laughing, Sarah? And she said, I wasn't laughing. Yes, she was. He said, oh, yes, you were.

Right? And then, Jesus said to those that, in Matthew chapter 7, that many will come to him in the last days. Say, Lord, Lord, oh, in thy name did I cast out demons and did I heal the sick. And he will say, depart from me, you worker of iniquity.

I never knew you. They were lying to the Lord. I remember Stanislav Luna.

He was the highest ranking, the highest ranking defector of the Soviet Union at that time. And I spent a week with him. And, boy, I'm going to tell you, it was an interesting week. And it really was. We played spy. I mean, it was like spy versus spy versus spy.

And that's a long story about how we had to ditch those that were following us. But anyhow, here, he told me that in December of 1969, he went, he was in Moscow, and his job was to teach Bill Clinton how to look you in the eye and lie and whatever rolled off from underneath his nose, whatever story that he told, whatever lie that he told, he was to believe that lie. And so that was his job to teach him. They were grooming him to be president of the United States back then. And so he said it was the easiest job he ever had. He said he had never come up upon a natural born liar.

He said that he would come close to Bill Clinton. And so that tells you something there. And so here now, he says this. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and in all his holy works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them. To fear him, he will also hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love him, but the wicked he shall destroy. He goes on to say, my mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all the flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. And so there are those folks out there that care more about themselves than they do about God. And he says he will destroy them.

He will destroy the wicked. And then the last one I was going to talk about here is cremation versus burial. And well, folks, the Bible only talks about cremation. There's many ways in scripture as a way of desecration.

Cremation is, now let me just say this. You don't lose your salvation by being cremated. You do not lose your salvation. But if you know, for those, James 4 17, for those that know to do good and do it not to them it is sin. For those that know to do good and do it not to them it is sin. And so if you know that God's word that we are to be buried. For example, everyone you saw, all of the prophets, all of the prophets out there, the apostles, everyone was buried, folks. Now, again, you don't lose your salvation by being cremated.

But if you know that it's wrong and you do it anyhow, then you can lose rewards in heaven and glory. I want to go over to 1 Kings chapter 13. In 1 Kings chapter 13, I want to read, starting with verse 1 through 6. And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

Well, here, Jeroboam was the king. And it's an interesting thing, he says, and he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born into the house of David, Josiah by name. And upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burned incense upon thee.

A man's bones shall be burnt upon them. Here, that actually took place, that was prophesized 250 years before it took place. And you read about that in 2 Kings chapter 21, verse 26, chapter 23, verses 15 and 16. Now, here we see, and I guess this is the very first recorded miracle of its kind as we go through here in verse 4. And he gave a sign the same day saying, this is the sign which the Lord hath spoken because the altar shall be rent and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.

Now, these were the priests of the high places, these were Baal worshippers, the Baal worshippers. And he's the, what the man of God is telling, first of all, Jeroboam. And it came to pass that when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar and Rachel and Bethel, and he put forth his hand from the altar saying, Lay hold on him, and his hand which he put forth against him dried up that he could not pull it away in again to himself.

So this is actually one of the first recorded miracles of its kind here in the scripture. Now, here he goes on to say, in other words, his hand withered, his hand withered, he grabbed a hold of the man of God. And because he said that he was going to put forth that their bones, they were going to burn their bones, this was a sign of desecration to burn the bones.

And this is why all of the prophets in that, you know, from Jacob and Abraham, they all had their bones taken by their families and placed in a safe place where the enemies couldn't find their bones because they would take the bones of Joseph or whatever and burn them as a form of desecration. And so, again, he says, he would offer up the priests of the high places the burnt incense to thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he goes up and he says, and the altar was rent and ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given the world of the Lord. And the king answered and said unto the man of God, entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored to me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him again, and he became as it was before.

So he learned a pretty valuable lesson there, not to touch God's anointed, not to touch God's anointed. Well, we're out of time for tonight, but just one other place there in Matthew, chapter 28, when we read here, verses 18 through 20. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Therefore, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of the world.

Now, all power is given to me. That means Jesus was omnipotent. That tells of his deity. And he says, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We saw that in Matthew 3. And so here, when he says he will be with us, Jesus is with us in the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is the comforter that Jesus has placed on us.

And in that sense, he is with us right until the end of the earth, until the Lord burns this one off and makes it new again. And we're coming up to the end of the program tonight. So I'm hoping Kenny learns something here tonight, you know. Have you learned anything, Kenny? I always learn something listening to you, Pastor. All right.

Very good. But listen, I want you to remember one thing, all right? This is important.

Whether it's burial or cremation, make sure the person's dead before you do it. That's probably a good idea, yeah. You see.

You always got to double check. Yeah. That's what an education will do for you. You learn things like that. All right. I got to be close to the end, aren't I? Good night. God bless. And always, always, always keep fighting that fight. The preceding program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content.