Don Elmore Sermons

The Big Question

by Pastor Don Elmore

November 9, 2014

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 31:23

What kind of government did Israel operate under when they were freed from Egyptian slavery?  Were they under a democracy?  Monarchy?  Dictatorship?  Republic?  No, there were under a form of government that no one else ever was under.  The seed of the people who were recipients of the covenant made and swore to by God; were under a theocracy. 

A theocracy was rule by God.  God had made a covenant with Abraham, later confirmed this covenant with his son, Isaac, and then passed it on to Esau.  But Esau despised the covenant and sold it to Jacob; the other of Isaac’s twin-sons.  This is why many, many times in the Bible, God refers to Himself as being the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Exodus 3:6, and many other places).It is nowhere written in the Bible, that God is the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Esau” although that is what most Christians believe!  God wasn’t the king of the entire world; He was king of His people.

Why was Israel in Egypt in the first place?  God, in his covenant, had said that His people were to go to a nation and serve them.  The time that they were to be there was 215 years; 4 generations.  The Canaanites, whose land they were promised, had not as yet fulfilled all of the evil that they were to do. 

by Pastor Don Elmore

September 7, 2014

Scripture Reading:  Exodus 7:22 

In the story of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, we have the magicians of Egypt duplicating three of the miracles from God that Moses proclaimed that He would do against the Egyptians.   Many Christians are unaware that the magicians of Egypt could do some of the miracles that God could do:

• Rods turned into serpents (Exodus 7:11-13)
• Turning of the water to blood (Exodus 7:22)
• Bringing up of frogs (Exodus 8:7)

In fact, if the Christians reads closely he will see that it just wasn’t just the magicians, but the wise men, sorcerers and the magicians that were called by Pharaoh (Exodus 7:11).  What was the difference between them?

1. Wise men:  men of learning; men who knew the occult arts.
2. Sorcerers:  men who revealed hidden secrets; to uncover.
3. Magicians:  men who were decipherers or interpreters of the hieroglyphic writings found in books containing magic formulas that belonged to the Pharaoh.

Exodus 7:11:  “Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers:  now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.”

Let’s recreate the scene in our mind:  Aaron took his rod and cast it before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a serpent.  Then Pharaoh called his wise men, sorcerers and magicians and they also threw their rods on the ground and they became serpents.  So we have a tie:  we have all of these serpents slithering on the ground:  one serpent from Aaron’s rod and the other serpents from Pharaoh’s occult crowd.  But it didn’t remain a tie; for Aaron’s rod (serpent) swallowed up their rods (serpents)!  This proved that God’s power is greater than the power of the magicians.

But this also shows us that the occult does have some power.  They can perform some of these miracles in like manner with their enchantments.  The magicians, wise men and sorcerers in the future will bring down fire from heaven and do various kinds of miracles to deceive even the elect.  Does this also include the healing of the sick?

The First Three Shepherds of Israel

by Pastor Don Elmore

October 26, 2014

Scripture Reading: Numbers 28:15-23

We are near the ending of the 40 years of wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness after their miraculous exodus from Egypt.  It is almost time for them to cross the Jordan River and to do battle against the inhabitants of the Promised Land.  They had already completely destroyed all of the Amorites who were living on the East portion of the Jordan River. 

by Pastor Don Elmore

Part 1 The First Three Shepherds of Israel:  Israel had a government that no other nation on the face of the earth ever had.  It was known as a Theocracy.  It was in existence for about 1400 years but Israel wanted another kind of government.  They rejected God as their King so they could be like all the other nations.

Part 2 The Big Question: how many years was Israel under a theocracy?  When did they switch to a Monarchy?  The Bible tells a fantastic story of Israel's history. What is the major question that the average Christian doesn't even know?  Find out when you read this sermon.

Part 3 The Books of the Bible:  Ken Hamm equates "inter-racial" marriage with the marriage of a Christian with a non-Christian.  What is wrong with this?  And who were the people who plotted and attempted to kill Jesus Christ, according to the Bible?

by Pastor Don Elmore

October 5, 2014

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 4:3-4

Who is today's Scripture reading about?  When is this going to happen or has it already happened?  “They shall turn away their ears from the truth” means that they will not listen to the historical, biblical account, but instead they would believe a foolish or improbable story.

Did that happen in Timothy’s day or has it reoccurred over and over down through the centuries?  I used to belong to a church that taught that the Laws of God were nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ.  That, they said, meant that we do not have to obey His laws because they are now put away--abolished.  The only thing that now matters is Jesus and you must believe in Him.  I don’t think they considered the consequences of this doctrine!

by Pastor Don Elmore

August 24, 2014

Scripture Reading:  Revelation 18:4

The Church and its Music

The church began with their singing of the Psalms that are found in the middle of their Bible.  The Psalms were put to music and the congregation sang the praises to our God.  Over the last several hundreds of years new hymns were written; some good, some bad.  But in the last fifty years, something new has slipped into the churches:  the singing of rock ‘n’ roll.  The church is drawing closer and closer to the world and not to God.  The church is serving other gods and not the God of the Bible.  The church has learned the way of the heathen.

by Pastor Don Elmore

September 21, 2014

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:14-15:

The Foursquare Church is continuing the vision of Aimee Semple McPherson to reach out to the Jewish community through the efforts, service, and support of the Foursquare Rabbis Caucus. “It is important at this stage that we carefully nurture the seed of Messianic hope that's been planted here tonight,” said Kurt Reust, a licensing Foursquare Messianic leader from The Rock, a Foursquare Church in Anaheim, California.

This Inaugural Messianic Passover Seder is intended to be the first of many. As the Foursquare Rabbis Caucus grows and matures, it hopes to sponsor similar events in order to build bridges between the Messianic Movement and the Church, bringing together Jew and Gentile to further the Kingdom of God. “For God Himself is our peace, who made both  groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall... that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace” Ephesians 2:14-15.

by Pastor Don Elmore

August 10, 2014

Scripture Reading Galatians 1:6-9

Mormonism strives with great effort to masquerade as the restored Christian church complete with an exclusive message, infallible prophets, higher revelations for a new dispensation which the Mormons would have us believe began with Joseph Smith, Jr. in the 1820’s.   Joseph Smith wrote in the Pearl of Great Price, Chapter 2, verses 1-25; that when he asked the Personages who stood above him in the light, which of all the sects (Christian churches) was right and which one should he join, he received the following answer:

• All Christian churches were apostate; they were all wrong; No Christian church.
• All Christian creeds were an abomination to God; No Christian theology.
• All professors of Christianity were corrupt; No Christians.

In other words, a restoration of true Christianity was needed, and that he, Joseph Smith, Jr., had been chosen to launch the new dispensation.  It all began in 1823 when the angel Moroni came to Joseph’s bedside and told him where the golden plates were hid in the hill Cumorah near Palmyra, New York.  Smith began to “translate” the “reformed Egyptian” hieroglyphics inscribed thereupon by means of the “Urim and Thummin,” a type of miraculous spectacles which the always-thoughtful angel Moroni had the foresight to provide for the new budding seer of the new Christian church. 

The “miraculous translation” taken from the hidden “golden plates” that the angel had told him where to find them; that translated word for word, even the mistakes, from the King’s James Version of the Bible which was written almost 2000  years after the golden plates were buried in the ground; became known as the Book of Mormon. 

Mormon theology is a polytheistic teaching that the universe is inhabited by different gods who procreate spirit children which are in turn are clothed with bodies on different planets; Adam-god being the god of this planet.  Adam-god had sexual relations with Mary to produce Jesus, the Son of god.  Lucifer was a spirit brother of Jesus prior to His birth.  The Garden of Eden was located in Missouri and not in Asia!  Mormonism is a universal religion; for they believe in universal salvation that all men will be saved, but each one in their own order.  Jesus will return to Missouri when he returns. 

Can you tell from the above that Mormonism is definitely not Christian?  It didn’t restore Christianity; it eliminates it. 

by Pastor Don Elmore

July 20, 2014

Scripture Reading: Judges 7:24, 25

This scripture reading tells of the victory that Israel had over the Midianites when they slew the two princes of that nation.  Remember that God had told Gideon 32,000 troops that Israel had, they would vaunt themselves against their God, saying, “Mine own hand hath saved me” (Judges 7:2).  So God instructed Gideon to eliminate 31,700 of the 32,000 troops:  Israel only had 300 soldiers left to fight the battle against the Midianites and Amalekites (Judges 7:6).  That is lowering the number of Israel’s army by over 99%!

The army of Israel was cut by over 99+%.  First, all those who were afraid were let go; that was 22,000.  Then 9700 men were let go who drank from the pond by putting their mouth in the water.  This left only 300 to fight against an army of over 135,000!  It lowered the odds from 1 to 5 to around 1 to 500.The soldiers of Gideon, which included men (no women) from the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, Naphtali and later Ephraim pursued after the Midianites and destroyed the enemy leaders named Zebah and Zalmunna and over 135,000 soldiers of the Midianites.   He was so successful that the “men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also; for thou hast delivered us, from the hand of Midian” (Judges 8:22).    Gideon answered:  “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you” (Judges 8:23).

Gideon dwelt in his own house for the last forty years of his life.  And he died when he was a good old age.  And it followed that after he was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the harlot with Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god.

In Psalm 83, both of these nations, the Amalekites (verse 7) and Midianites (verse 9) are mentioned as being enemies of Israel.  This victory of Gideon is reflected in this Psalm when King David longed for the victory over Israel’s future enemies.  “Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb: yea, all the princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna, (verse 11).”  It looked forward to a time when their adversaries would be confounded forever (verse 18).

by Pastor Don Elmore

July 6, 2014

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 25:1-7

This portion of Scripture gives the reference of when it was spoken:  the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah.  For twenty-three years, God had sent Jeremiah and His prophets to them telling the Judahites to repent.  Notice they all got up early.  Did any of the Judahites listen?

You can tell from the chart that the Kingdom of Judah went into the Babylonian Captivity eighteen years after this portion of Scripture was given.  The House of Israel was already taken into the Assyrian Captivity as well as most of the House of Judah.  It was given in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim and in eighteen more years Judah no longer existed as a nation.