Judges chapter 19, these last four chapters are slippery slope. We see things happening here among the Israelites that are sad and yet they're so prevalent. wherever, in scripture or in our lives. And I'm not going to read this entire chapter. I'm going to pick up a few verses out of it. We will be just looking at that tonight. We will not be coming back, I don't think, to this chapter. Take time to read it.

But I do want to start in verse 1. And it came to pass in those days when there was no king in Israel, how often we find that here in the book of Judges. And it certainly shares with us a condition that we find out that there was a king. He identified himself as the king, but no one or very few people had any respect for this king. He is the king of kings and Lord of lords.

And there was a certain Levi. sojourning in the side of the Mount Ephraim, who took him a concubine out of Bethlehem, Judah. Now, this chapter faithfully catalogs the horrible results of the departure from God. The last chapter did, the chapter before that did. Guess what? Chapter one through chapter 17 did too. The horrible consequences of the departure from God.

Now, you know, I used to be really concerned about that, but that's the normal. That's just the normal. Natural man's normal position is just what we read in here. It takes the grace of God to get us out of that normal and put us into the kingdom of God. This individual, shares with us that he took the concubine. These folks adopted Canaanite. That's the original inhabitants of Canaan, adopted their ways, their religion, their philosophy, and everything else. They adopted this Canaanite violence and immorality. And you'll notice as you come to the end of this chapter that the Benjamites of Gibeah show that the city had sunk to the level of Sodom. It went downhill and downhill fast, but yet it shouldn't be surprising when someone is without Christ, there is, it is only the grace of God that there was any civility at all.

So it says here that there was this, uh, this, uh, uh, This Levite, he took a concubine of Bethlehem, Judah. We're familiar with that place. That's where Jesus was born, house of bread. And his concubine played the whore against him and went away from him into her father's house to Bethlehem, Judah, and was there four whole months.

Now, Lauren and I were talking the other day. When we went through the book of Isaiah, we had a lot of desert. There is a lot of desert in the book of Isaiah. And every once in a while, we got to come to a place of wells of water, palm trees, a place of rest. And the book of Isaiah just shares with us the natural state of man. And to be brought to a place where there's clean, cool water and shade is by the grace of God.

Now in this chapter, there's only, I just noticed a couple of places in here that showed a little sunlight. And I'd like to spend a little time on those places here in this chapter. And one of them is this right here, this incident that took place. This man took this concubine and she stayed with him a short period of time and then she leaves and goes back to her home. Well, notice what we read about this husband. She says, and her husband arose and went after her to speak friendly unto her. Isn't that interesting? That's almost the words that we find speak comfortably. Comfortably.

Here is a beautiful picture of Christ and his church. Here's a beautiful picture of Christ going comfortably after his bride. And the bride was unfaithful. If you're in the bride, you were unfaithful. You fell in Adam. And it was a terrible plight that we were in. And we went where we felt comfortable. And yet we find here that this husband came and it says there, and her husband arose and went after her to speak friendly unto her and to bring her again. This was his interest. His desire was to take her back with him and to him. And that certainly is what we find with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is out looking for the lost, those that were in His bride, chose against Him, left Him, and then He is comfortably going.

Now, in our day and time, that comfortable going is through the preaching of the Word. Speak comfortably unto them. Bring them knowledge that their sin is forgiven. Bring them knowledge that Christ Jesus the Lord went to the cross and he accomplished something on the cross. He did not make us savable, he saves us. He did not make us redeemable, he redeemed us.

So it's so much a blessing to see these types and shadows and pictures in the scripture where somebody had enough interest in someone who left under duress to go say, I'm gonna go speak comfortably, friendly. I'm not going over there and raise a ruckus. I'm going over there friendly and visit with her and bring her back. Now we can find this in the book of Hosea too. Other examples are found in the scriptures where people that did something terrible And someone went after them and brought them back safely. So the husband arose, verse three, and went after her to speak friendly unto her to bring her again, having his servant with him and a couple of asses. And she brought him into her father's house. And when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. So what a reunion we have here. Now, this man had no intention of spending five days there, but he is encouraged to by his father-in-law to come, eat, drink, be merry, enjoy life, stay here with me for a while. And they finally left.

And that leads us to the next shiny spot in this book, this chapter that I found. It says in verse 8, And he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart. And the damsel's father said, Comfort thine heart, I pray thee. And they tarried until afternoon, and they did eat both of them. And when the man rose up to depart, he and his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the damsel's father, said unto him, Behold, now the day draweth toward evening. You just follow this through. This guy is really interested in keeping his daughter around. And just, you know, it's a hard day and it's a long day. Just sit here for a while. We'll enjoy things. It reminds me of me. I'm a very good procrastinator. And here, I pray, Terry, all night, behold the day groweth to the end. Lodge here that thine heart may be merry, and tomorrow gets you early on your way. that thou mayest go home. But the man would not tarry that night. But he arose up and departed and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem. Now this is the original name for Jerusalem. And it wasn't until David's time that they actually claimed Jerusalem or Jebus and turned it and called it Jerusalem. And there were with him two asses saddled, his concubine also was with him.

And when they were by Jeebus, the day was far spent, and the servant said unto his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn in unto the city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it." Now notice what he had to say here. I just thought of, as we looked at this, that you just can't camp everywhere. And when we look at that from a spiritual place, we just can't camp everywhere. when there is false doctrine and false teaching. It's, we just can't camp there. It's just not place to camp. Well, you know, he says this, notice this, it's so, such a blessing here as he says in verse 11, and when they were at Jeebus, the day was far spent and the servant said unto the master, come I pray thee and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites in Lajanit, and his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger that is not of the children of Israel." We can't camp here. They're strangers, number one, and they're not Israelites. So he's just simply saying, we're going to pass on.

Well, if we follow the story, they get to a city and they sleep in the middle of the road, the street, in town, rather than spend time in this place that's later going to be called Jerusalem. And he says here, they're strangers, number one, and number two, they're not Israelites. What a statement about where we, can go camp, what a blessing it is to find some place where not only they are not strangers, but they also Israelites, spiritual Israelites, where we can have fellowship with them, where we have something in common with them, that we could camp with them, sit down and rest with them, and that there's not this contention going on. It's just sad to hear someone say, you know, you've been saved now, go to the church or synagogue of your choice. Well, that is poor, poor advice. Find a place where Christ is preached. Find a place that you can go and sit and not have to be on edge all the time. Find a place where there's Israelites, where there's Christians, where there's believers, where there's something that could be had and enjoyed. So this man shares with me, you know, we just can't stay here. We're tired. Yes, it's dark. Yes, it is. And we've traveled a long ways. Yes, we have. But we can't stay here. There is no reason for us to stay here. They're not. And they're not. So they left, they're strangers and they're not Israelites. So I encourage us to encourage people to camp with friends and with Israelites, to go to a place where they can hear something.

I was just in there in my study, it's an ongoing battle that I am in, and that is cleaning some. And I noticed something under my desk and I swap it out. And it was a little card about two inches wide and three inches long. And on it, how to lead someone to Jesus. You know, and here's five little steps that you do and you get, that's not comfortable. Number one, that's strangers and that's not Israelites. So it's going to go into my laugh file. There's no, nothing in it. Someone gave it to me. So we just find this here. And then as we travel through here, we find something so terrible happens to this concubine, to this wife. Where they end up, she is raped to death. It just shares with us the downhill slide of Israel. here. They were God's chosen people. He brought them out of Egypt. And you know, when you go through the Psalms, I don't know how many times it brings out that very thing. I brought you out of Egypt. I cared for you in the wilderness. I brought you into a good land. And yet we find out that the majority of those folks had no knowledge of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. They had a name. but they did not want the bread and they did not want the clothing of God Almighty.

Well, I was thinking about that. What happened here in Israel? Well, we find out as we look through the scriptures that God just simply raised his restraining hand God's restraining hand is so beneficial. There has never been anybody that has ever lived on this earth that has done everything they could have possibly done in the sin line. Everybody has had some restraint imposed upon them by almighty God. The worst of the worst of the worst has not done what anybody is actually capable of doing. God has protected even that. So his restraining hand, God raised his restraining hand.

Restraining grace is that special way God handles his creation. What sin is recorded in judges, yet even out of their worst moment, Israel did not do all they could do. They didn't worship all the worst of the worst. They didn't perform the worst of the worst. God restrained them from doing even that. It tells us, turn with me if you would to the book of the Psalms, Psalm 127. As we think about the church and we think about these things, the restraining hand of God, God's restraint. And you know, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to be thankful for God's restraining hand over us today. If it wasn't and isn't for his restraining hand, just think. We don't know what we would be involved in. The moment we start thinking that we're doing a pretty good job, then we read about David. And we think we're doing a pretty good job. We read about Moses. We think we're doing a pretty good job. We read about some other Christian in the Bible. We read about Peter. We read about, and God's restraining hand is the only thing that keeps us straight. It's not our activity. It's not our sanctification. It's not our works that keep us close to God. It's his restraining hand. It's his loving hand for us. It's his caring hand for us.

So we find here among Israel, he's lifted his restraining hand for a bit. Look what they're like. Look what they're doing. And we say, I'll never do that. Don't you ever say that. We did it before we're saved and we're capable of doing it now. I believe Solomon was saved until I read about him worshiping every idol on the face of the earth. And I wonder what in the world, why did he do that? God's restraining hand was lifted. Now, I'm just gonna have to say, I'm just gonna trust God with this. He's gonna do right with Solomon.

All right, here in the book of the Psalms, Psalm 127, we read this. Psalm 127. Psalm 127, and here in verse one, we read this. Except the Lord build the house, except the Lord build the house. Now we can say, well, except he build this house, except he build our house at home, except he take care of it, we'd labor in vain. Well, I think he's talking more spiritual than that. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. So when they're laboring in vain, his interest is not in them, with them at that moment. They, except the Lord, keep the city. And the watchman walketh but in vain. It's just, I don't know how many times I shared with people when I was away, what do you, do you worry about your house? They said, no. Well, I guess I did a little, but I would say to this to myself, except the Lord keep this city, except the Lord keep my house. Somebody's gonna break into it. He's gonna lift his restraining hand and they'll do that.

Well, when we find out what was going on in here in Israel, we find out if there was one person, if there was one mama and one daddy who was going to have a son by the name of Samson, The Lord God Almighty raised them up in that terrible place that was just as bad as we read about it in chapter 19. They are the ones we find out that God revealed himself to them and gave them a son, a son of promise. And he kept them as long as he desired to keep them. And he built them up. They were not built on their own and they didn't have any help to be built up. They didn't have people encouraging them. It seems, it appears that they're the only ones at that time that knew anything about the gospel.

So accept the Lord, do the work. Accept the Lord, keep the house. Accept the Lord, protect us. The Lord put his arms about us, unless except, or when he raises his hand of restraint, God be merciful to me. Oh God, protect me in that situation.

Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Genesis. Two times in the book of Genesis, we read about Abraham, and we read about Abraham lying about his wife. He said to two important people, and we're gonna read about him, he said to two important people, she is my sister. Now he said that because he didn't want himself being killed and someone take her away and marry her. Now she was his sister. She was his half-sister. So he was only telling half a lie. He was protecting himself.

Now notice here, as the Lord shared with us that he got, the Lord is just moving in this in such a significant way to show us God's restraining hand, that he is capable, very powerful in restraining what he wants to restrain.

In the book of Genesis chapter 12, verse 10, Genesis chapter 12 and verse 10, let's read this over here. In the book of Genesis, chapter 12, verse 10, we read this about the restraining hand of God, beginning with verse 10, how valuable it is, how important it is in our life. Our righteousness that we provide, our sanctification that we provide isn't worth, it isn't worth, it's worth nothing. There's no value to it. So we are so dependent upon his restraining hand and his righteousness and his sanctification. We have nothing else to go on. The moment we think we are doing it, we are failing miserable. We are having an idol and that idol is our sanctification. If we think we're getting it done, it is us. We are worshiping something that God never encouraged us to worship. We're to worship Christ.

Here it says, and there was a famine in the land, verse 10, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. Now, who brought that famine? We just know who that is. It's happened enough in the scriptures for us to understand that that famine was brought by Almighty God.

And it came to pass, when he come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. You're very beautiful, and you're going to attract a lot of attention down in Egypt. Therefore, I shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife, and they will kill me. But they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee.

And it came to pass that when Abram was coming to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. And the princess also of the Pharaoh saw her and commended her before Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. And he had treated Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen. And he has his manservants and maidservants. And she has his camels. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh. and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abraham's wife.

And Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou she is my sister, so I might have taken her to my wife? Now therefore behold thy wife, take her and go thy way. Who appeared, who called, who came unto Pharaoh with this? Who plagued Pharaoh? God Almighty. Abraham didn't do that. There wasn't somebody behind the scenes doing that. God Almighty.

All right, let's look at the next one in chapter 20. In chapter 20, it's almost an identical situation, but it is a little clearer here. As we think about the restraining hand of God, God's ability to restrain is still in power. He has not given it up. And when we see things going so wrong someplace, it is he simply lifted his restraining hand. If we can live in peace and there's peace around us, it's God's restraining hand in effect. That's all it is. It's not because we're a Christian nation. It's because we have someone who can restrain people. And he can restrain those, our neighbors. He can simply do that. And he does that. And we're thankful for that. But I'm more thankful that he restrains me. That his restraining hand is upon me. I don't know what I could do And guess what? I don't want to find out.

All right. In Genesis chapter 20, verse one, and Abraham journeyed. God, his name changed. Here we have Abraham. And fenced toward the south country and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur and journeyed in Gerar. And Abraham said to Sarah, his wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream and said to him, behold thou art but a dead man. Now who came with this message? Abraham didn't come in and says, you touch my wife, I'll kill you. In fact, he's just the opposite. And we have God appearing unto Abimelech, for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near her and said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he, nodding to me, she is my sister. And she, even she herself said, he is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and the innocence in my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart. For I also withheld thee from sinning against me." I say, hallelujah. I've withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now, I don't think that this is just an isolated account in the Bible. I think we're going to find out that this account is found everywhere. That God in his restraining hand with his people restrains us. He does that through the word. He restrains us through his word. He restrains us by his spirit. He restrains us by his power. He is our savior. So it's such a joy to read places like this.

As I was thinking about who stopped Israel from stoning Moses to death. I mean, they got rocks in their hands. When those 10 spies came back with the report that they had, those people were really stirred up. Well, let's just go over there and read in the book of Numbers chapter 14. Let's look at these folks, these nice guys, these children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These folks that have been led by God through the wilderness, through Moses and through Joshua and Aaron.

In the book of Numbers chapter 14, Numbers chapter 14. Now the Lord is exercising his great power over there in the book of Numbers, or excuse me, the book of Judges. Now he is exercising his power to raise. It's his prerogative. to let us see what natural man is really like. We're so thankful that we can be at a place where his restraining hand is down and we don't have to put up with all that nonsense. But here we go. Numbers chapter 14, verse six. Numbers chapter 14 and verse six. Remember this is after the spies come back and 10 of them come back with an evil report. And that is the truth. They came back with an evil report. You know what their report was based upon? Their view of the inability of God. That's what it was based on. Christ is not sufficient. And we're not in this case. There are giants over there. Well, I think a whole bunch of them were looking through big thick lens glasses.

All right, it says here, Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes, and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, the land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it unto us. He is sufficient. We mentioned that last week. We're going to mention that every time we get onto this passage of scripture. He is sufficient. They are looking at an insufficient God and follow this, as we go through the book of Judges, everybody that was following after a false god and idol was looking to an insufficient Christ. We need him and this, but the this took more precedent than him. "'If the Lord delight in us, "'then he will bring us into the land.'"

Verse nine, "'Only rebel not ye against the Lord, "'neither fear ye the people of the land, "'for they are bread for us. "'Their defense is departed from them, "'and the Lord is with us, fear them not.' "'But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.'" Now, who prevented that? Who restrained them? The very next few words tells us who did that and how he did that. It says, the glory of the Lord appeared. He restrained them. I can just see them with hands full of rock, and when they saw that, they just dropped every one. It's not me. I didn't do that. I wasn't involved in that. Well, they were, but His glory prevented them for carrying out what their heart wanted to do.

Now we're going to find this a number of times in the book of Numbers, that it was the restraining hand of God, His glory, stopped them from doing what they had plans to do. In the book of the Psalms, Psalm 33, would you travel there with me? Psalm 33, as we think about Israel, national Israel and spiritual Israel.

Now, nationally, Israel, there are times he restrains them. The children of Israel, in the book of 1 Samuel, want a king. You know what? God gave him a king. Gave him Saul, then David, and then Solomon. And once Solomon had reigned, his son said, we're going to make things worse on you. God had already had it planned. He had somebody already lined up to take 10 tribes. You know, those kings, the kings of Israel, if you read about them, there's not one good one. He gave them a king. How often the Lord seems to give people what they want and they find out what trash this is. They were the worst of the worst of the worst. Read about Ahab. My goodness, a terrible, terrible king. 20 kings in Judah and eight alone, only eight, had any semblance of civility and a good kingship. So they had 12 that were rotten guys. God gave them what they wanted, and my goodness, those natural men were animals most of the time. They were as bad as we find here in the book of Judges chapter 19, towards the end of it. They were just mean guys. So God gave them a king.

Now there were a few, a remnant according to the election of grace that recognized who the true king was. David recognized that. It may not be with my house, but with me, he's made an everlasting covenant. And we find a few through the scriptures that that was made with, God made that with. And there's often we find the Lord restraining people And yet once in a while, he raises his hand of restraint and we see what natural man is really like. And we see what we're really like by nature. Thankful for grace, thankful for grace.

You know, there was some reason that the apostle Paul says, I don't want to have John Mark around me anymore. And then later he said, send him over here, he's profitable. So I don't know what happened. But we know this, it happened.

All right, let's look here in the book of Psalms, Psalm 33. In Psalm 33, verse six, Psalm 33 and verse six, we read this. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters, verse eight. He let all the earth fear the Lord. Let's travel down in that to verse 10. The Lord bringeth counsel to the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. Now, isn't that interesting? He bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught. What does that mean? And it goes on, he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. I am in charge. I will restrain at times. I will lift my restraint at times. And we follow through those last four chapters of the book of Judges and he lifts his hand of restraint, and we just see the problems that develop. Natural man's problems develop.

Verse 11, the counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. He works all things after the counsel of his own will.

In the book of Zechariah, chapter two, notice here in the book of Zechariah, we said a few things about this when we went through the book of Zechariah some time ago. Here in chapter two, It tells us what he does for his church. We have a song that uses these words, a wall of fire about us. Have you ever thought about that? a wall of fire about us. Here in the book of Zechariah, chapter 2, verse 1, I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof. And behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him. And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls. The church. For the multitude of men, cattle therein. For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her." What a statement. I'll be like a wall of fire around Jerusalem. I will take care of this.

What? restraining hand God has over all things and he prevents us from doing so much that left to ourself we would do and be ashamed of doing. We're thankful for his righteousness and we're thankful for his sanctification because it is he that sanctifies, not us. Even at the very worst, man has never shown or been as bad as he could be. We think, my, that event that takes place in the latter part of chapter 19, that's terrible. And then what happens to that woman? Terrible. How can you even say that you know a God? doing stuff like this, how terrible. He raised his restraining hand and look at what happens. A terrible situation that went on. I'll let you read that. What happens when God raises his restraining hand? We see it quite clearly here in the book of Judges, but we could also see it in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and the rest of the Bible. We see it in the book of Acts. We see it at the crucifixion of Christ. We see it at the stoning of Stephen. What would people do if God raises his restraining hand? You know, the amazing thing is that they didn't take all of the deacons and all of the apostles out and stone them to death. You know, that's the logical thing I would think, but God's restraining hand was over this and only one, Stephen. Now, it won't be long, there'll be some of the apostles, but just one, Stephen, is taken out. So what happens here as we look at the book of Judges? Idolatry. From the very beginning, when we follow through with the Judges that took place here in this book, we find out there had to be that seed. In the hearts of many people, they were restrained under a judge. God protected them under a judge. God overthrew their enemies under a judge. But as soon as that judge died, That seed grew up instantly and they're off after worshiping other gods. We find the disregard for God. That is what happens with the restraining hand of God is lifted up. They wouldn't even go down to the tabernacle in the wilderness. Most of them, at least at night, camped around the tabernacle. They had their places. They had the cloud by day and fire by night, and they had their assigned places. But here, the tabernacle is down there at Shiloh. Nobody wants to go down there. Why? God raised his restraining hand and they truly showed what natural man is like with regard to God. We read over there in the book of Romans chapter eight that, what is that word? Not deceitful, not even at, but enmity. Inmity with God. Natural man is an enmity. I keep saying that, it's not. It's enmity with God. So the disregard, and the disregard for human life, that is just a plain statement about what we have when the restraining hand of God is taken up. All the very light view of mankind. And you know what? Mankind was created in the image of God. And I've heard preachers say it's just a subconscious way of dealing with a person's view of God. I don't want him, even that.

So turn with me as we come to the close. Would you turn with me over to the book of 2 Corinthians? This is just a verse of scripture that I just rejoice in. It uses the word constrain us. I read one time that that's like bringing a whole flock of sheep down to a single file, a fence, to bring them down to a single file so that the shepherd can examine them for health. Can't do it as a big flock, but he constrains them. Well, this word constrain as it's used in here, it's not urging or driving, but shutting up to one line and purpose as in a narrow walled road. So he constrains us. But here it says, the love of Christ. Oh, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 5.14. Thank you, Lord. 2 Corinthians 5.14. For the love of Christ constraineth us.

And you know, the church says hallelujah. that His interest is so much in the church that He would constrain us, bring us down to single file, that He is so gracious to prevent us from doing what our natural inclinations may have been. We're sinners, sinners saved by grace, but thank God that we're not as bad as we could have been. And we don't demonstrate that. It goes on, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. What is the reason for this constraint? Christ gave his life a ransom. He paid the sin debt. Sin is no longer chargeable. His love constrains us. He doesn't use the law on us. He uses his love on us.

So as we close out that chapter, chapter 19 of the book of Judges, it's terrible what went on in there. Couple of bright spots. She left. He said, I will go speak comfortably to her and bring her home. And he did. They went down and they couldn't camp at Jabez. They're strangers and they're not Israelites. And I just can't stay here. You know, I used to think in religion, you had to be in church every Sunday. And it didn't matter what kind it was if you couldn't find your kind. You could go to some strange things, but you had to go to church. You know, that's not what I do anymore. If I cannot find a place where the truth is declared, they're strangers and they're not Israelites. And I'd just as soon go fishing. But thank God that we can have a place where we can go. And there are. people that we love and there are Israelites.

And then to follow that out as God demonstrates what it is for him to raise his restraining hand and we see what went on and we're thank God at least today, it's not like that in our neighborhood, that he has restrained the natural man and constrained the church. The love of Christ constraineth us. We're going to stop there tonight, and Lord willing, next time we'll pick up the next chapter. We have two left. They're not that much different. So, thank you for joining us tonight.