WEBVTT 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.520 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.720 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:41.840 Mahler. And 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:43.840 I'm still woe. 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:47.040 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be talking about persecution and 00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:53.200 perseverance. We talked last week about loyalty and specifically when loyalty is 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.680 not due, when duty doesn't attach. 00:00:55.680 --> 00:00:58.800 This week we're not really talking about honor as it's connected to 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:02.160 these things, so we already decide we're gonna title this one Persecution 00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:05.200 and Perseverance because as we look at the state of the church, 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:07.040 as we look at the state of the world, as we look 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:10.400 at the state of many of our lives, it's clear that there 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:14.320 is a persecution that is taking place in isolated areas. 00:01:14.320 --> 00:01:20.000 And more broadly, there's persecution at large that we're collectively facing. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.000 And at the largest scale, there's persecution that's been going on for 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:26.000 as long as there's been a church. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.160 And so today we're going to be focusing very heavily on scripture, 00:01:30.160 --> 00:01:36.960 on looking at the places where persecution occurs, from what quarters does 00:01:36.960 --> 00:01:42.240 that persecution come, and then how do Christians persevere, not only in 00:01:42.240 --> 00:01:46.080 the faith, but simply well, it is persevering in the faith, but 00:01:46.160 --> 00:01:49.680 remaining in the faith means also persevering in the moment. 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:52.960 So it's not simply a question of, you know, saying the Lord's 00:01:52.960 --> 00:01:56.400 Prayer and confessing the creeds and however you want to specifically define 00:01:56.320 --> 00:01:58.400 define maintaining your faith. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:00.160 Draw the line wherever you want. 00:02:00.160 --> 00:02:04.400 There's more to perseverance than that because to some degree it's easy 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:06.000 for that to be lip service. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:10.320 The actual perseverance is continuing to show up even when it doesn't 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:13.040 look like it has anything to do with Christianity. 00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:16.560 So we're going to talk today about the Old Testament, the New 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:20.160 Testament, touch a little bit on history in the church, but overall 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:22.400 the point that we want to make here today, not to bury 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:24.720 the lead, I think we all have a habit. 00:02:24.720 --> 00:02:27.120 I certainly in the past have had a habit, which I was 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:31.760 taught, of reading the Bible as a collection of stories, of you 00:02:31.760 --> 00:02:36.320 have these old guys in the olden times being Doing olden things 00:02:36.320 --> 00:02:42.720 in isolated culturally specific places and circumstances. 00:02:42.720 --> 00:02:46.960 And yes, we should emulate some tiny portion of whatever they did 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:49.520 right, and we should certainly condemn whatever they did wrong. 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:52.480 And the Bible tells us what those are, most of the time. 00:02:52.480 --> 00:02:55.120 But we don't look at them as human beings. 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:59.600 Over the last year especially as I read the prophets and the 00:02:59.600 --> 00:03:01.360 things that happened to them. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:03.600 I see them much more as men. 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:07.840 I see them as guys who had a really miserable job. 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:09.760 And I read between the lines. 00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:12.160 I put myself in the shoes of one of those prophets. 00:03:12.160 --> 00:03:14.720 profits, not that I think I'm a prophet, but like having been 00:03:14.720 --> 00:03:17.760 abused for some time, those things stand out to me a little 00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:21.040 more. You know, we all get sensitive to whatever crap has happened 00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:21.600 to you. 00:03:21.760 --> 00:03:24.080 You tend to be a little more sensitive when it pops up 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:26.400 in whatever circumstances. 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:29.840 And so when I see someone who is sent by God to 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:33.680 speak to people and they try to kill him and he runs 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:36.000 away and God says, No, you have to go back, and the 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:37.360 prophet says, No, they're gonna kill me. 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:38.080 They hate me. 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:40.000 God says, Yeah, just go do it anyway. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.960 You see that pattern happen over and over again. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:46.000 And I have begun to have a great deal more empathy for 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.880 the man sitting in a cave or sitting out in the desert 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:52.400 or whatever, you know, being fed by ravens and it's just 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:55.040 you gotta feel for the guy. 00:03:55.040 --> 00:03:58.960 I think we don't necessarily look at them even as human beings. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:01.760 It's like, oh, he's a prophet, and so like that's all he 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:05.280 did. Well, even if his entire life was devoted to prophecy, at 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:07.600 least what was revealed of it, he was a man. 00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:10.560 He had to eat, he had to sleep, he was stressed out. 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:13.920 And so I was talking to somebody earlier this week about history 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:18.320 and I said that I hate how much I hate generally the 00:04:18.320 --> 00:04:21.520 opinions of people who spend a ton of time studying history because 00:04:21.520 --> 00:04:23.280 they make precisely this error. 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:26.080 It's not that learning history is bad itself. 00:04:26.080 --> 00:04:29.840 It's that when you reduce whatever has happened in the past, whether 00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:33.440 it's in the Bible or or, you know, Napoleonic Wars, you take 00:04:33.440 --> 00:04:36.480 your pick wherever you want to draw your focus historically. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:41.520 When you collapse it into names and dates and locations on a 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:45.520 map and you know, troop counts and whatever. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:48.880 When you make it a numerical calculation that can be put on 00:04:48.880 --> 00:04:53.360 a spreadsheet and on a timeline, you strip the humanity from those 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:58.000 moments. And the problem when people are doing that with historical analysis 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:01.680 is that those were human beings, regardless of what they were doing, 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:05.920 regardless of the moral tenor, regardless of even the outcome, they were 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:07.440 men in a place at a time. 00:05:07.440 --> 00:05:08.800 They had imperfect knowledge. 00:05:09.280 --> 00:05:11.280 They had impure motives. 00:05:11.280 --> 00:05:12.800 They were not perfect. 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:16.800 And so we try to read back everything that we know from 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:20.000 here into a situation where they didn't know all those things. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:23.040 And then the problem with that, like besides the fact that when 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:26.720 you do that, you no longer actually understand the object you're looking 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:32.320 at, to then extrapolate that incomplete, incoherent view of how people behave 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:36.640 into our own circumstances, just it flat out fails because you try 00:05:36.640 --> 00:05:40.000 to map you know the quantities of troops or the direction or 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:42.880 the weather or whatever and say, well, here's what's going to happen 00:05:42.880 --> 00:05:46.880 in Ukraine in the winter of 2025 because you know this happened 00:05:46.880 --> 00:05:47.760 a hundred years ago. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:51.360 It's the wrong lesson because you're not looking at the human beings 00:05:51.440 --> 00:05:53.760 and the stress that they were under, the fact that they were 00:05:53.760 --> 00:05:57.280 getting no sleep, the fact that their families were starving, like whatever 00:05:57.280 --> 00:06:01.440 was going wrong, they were human beings suffering in human ways. 00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:05.360 The good, the bad, the victories, the defeats have a human cost 00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:07.040 internally on every man. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:08.640 Things weigh on you. 00:06:08.640 --> 00:06:12.880 And I think when we look at the suffering and the perseverance 00:06:12.880 --> 00:06:17.120 and the persecution in the church and in history, we make the 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:19.360 same error, and that's the connection. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:22.640 Whether you're looking at historical events or biblical events, which are the 00:06:22.640 --> 00:06:24.880 same thing, scripture is history. 00:06:24.880 --> 00:06:27.520 It's the oldest account of human history that we have. 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:28.800 And it's inspired by God. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:30.240 So it's accurate. 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:33.840 And yet it's just very frustrating that we'd look at these things 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:37.440 and we just try to it's kind of the permenetic version of 00:06:37.440 --> 00:06:40.720 proof texting, just whatever you wanted from one little corner. 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:44.080 You don't look at the prophet who was afraid to go back 00:06:44.080 --> 00:06:46.960 out and talk to the crowd because they wanted to kill him. 00:06:46.960 --> 00:06:48.720 And God said, No, go do it anyway. 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:49.920 Don't worry about it. 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:51.840 Over and over again. 00:06:51.840 --> 00:06:53.760 Those men had to do something. 00:06:53.760 --> 00:06:54.880 They had to persevere. 00:06:54.880 --> 00:06:58.000 They were persevering in the faith in a way that at the 00:06:58.000 --> 00:06:59.920 time was ugly. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:01.360 It was difficult. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:05.600 And the story that we're trying to convey today is that that's 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:07.120 not isolated in history. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:08.480 That's not olden time stuff. 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:10.560 It's not just Bible stuff. 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:14.320 This is what the church looks like in all times and in 00:07:14.320 --> 00:07:15.440 all places. 00:07:15.440 --> 00:07:20.800 Wherever the elect exist, there will be men persecuting the elect. 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:23.280 And it doesn't matter if it was before the church age or 00:07:23.280 --> 00:07:26.240 after. That distinction has its place. 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:30.160 But these were Christians four thousand years ago, three thousand years ago, 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:32.880 two thousand years ago, thousand years ago and today. 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:35.760 These were all Christians because they all had the faith of Abraham 00:07:35.760 --> 00:07:37.840 and the promise that God had made. 00:07:37.840 --> 00:07:42.800 This is important because when you look at who is being persecuted 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:47.520 and who is doing the persecution, it's inside the same house. 00:07:47.520 --> 00:07:50.560 So we're going to talk about a number of passages in scripture 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:55.360 today that frankly until I brought this theme, this idea to the 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:59.120 scriptural passages that I looked up, I had forgotten how much this 00:07:59.120 --> 00:07:59.520 was there. 00:07:59.520 --> 00:08:02.320 I'd sort of bought into the view that we're all basically taught 00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:05.120 that, you know, the persecution in the New Testament and the Old 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:06.960 Testament was like the king was wicked. 00:08:06.960 --> 00:08:08.080 Ahab was wicked. 00:08:08.080 --> 00:08:09.920 And so that's political, right? 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:11.360 If it's the king doing it, it's political. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:12.720 That's not inside the church. 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.920 Nonsense. When you look at that story, it was absolutely the church 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:17.280 persecuting the church. 00:08:17.280 --> 00:08:19.440 In the New Testament, like, oh well, the Pharisees did it or 00:08:19.520 --> 00:08:22.000 the Sadducees did it, or the crowds did it. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:23.760 It was the church doing it. 00:08:23.760 --> 00:08:27.040 It was the people who called themselves believers. 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:29.520 And the formation of what we call the church in the first 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:35.120 century AD was the separation of those in that moment of those 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:38.160 who claimed to be believers but were not, and those who were 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:42.480 in fact believers, and they demonstrated by their perseverance in the faith. 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:46.240 But in the moment, in those synagogues, in those locations that are 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:50.880 described in Scripture, and later on in history, what we very clearly 00:08:50.880 --> 00:08:56.000 find is that the men who were persecuting called themselves believers too. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.840 When Saul stood there and approvingly held the coats of the men 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:03.200 who were stoning Stephen to death, he was a believer. 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:05.920 He wasn't a believer in the true God, like that was the 00:09:05.920 --> 00:09:09.600 division. But he was there for the church of his day. 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:13.440 That was unofficial, yeah, not formal, but it was very much a 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:17.280 proceeding of church discipline to stone that man to death because he 00:09:17.280 --> 00:09:20.000 had blasphemed, because he said he saw the Son of God in 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.960 heaven. After incidentally having preached a sermon where he described every evil 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:29.120 thing the Jews had done for a thousand years, up to murdering 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.680 Christ, and they murdered him for it on the spot. 00:09:31.680 --> 00:09:33.280 That was church discipline. 00:09:33.280 --> 00:09:37.040 He was a martyr, he was a witness, and that was an 00:09:37.040 --> 00:09:39.280 entirely internal church matter. 00:09:39.280 --> 00:09:40.400 It wasn't the state. 00:09:40.400 --> 00:09:44.480 It wasn't the Romans coming along and being mean to the believers. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:46.240 No. That was inside. 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:48.800 That was one man saying, I believe in God and I'm here 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:51.680 to serve God doing it to another man. 00:09:51.680 --> 00:09:54.960 And that's the message that we want to demonstrate and to make 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:59.120 the case for today because that's mostly what we're seeing now. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:04.240 We are going to increasingly see persecution in and of the church 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:05.760 by the church. 00:10:05.760 --> 00:10:08.560 It will be men who say they are Christians and they're doing 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:11.440 this in the name of God who do the bad things, who 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:14.880 do the worst things I have ever personally witnessed in my entire 00:10:14.880 --> 00:10:19.360 life. I've seen some heinous crap and I've never seen anything remotely 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:22.640 like what I've seen from men who call themselves Christians in the 00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:24.000 last two years. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:27.840 If we'd think that the Bible is just old timey stuff and 00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:31.680 those are sequestered in the past and they don't actually apply to 00:10:31.680 --> 00:10:34.880 us as a continuum, we're not going to get the message. 00:10:34.880 --> 00:10:37.040 And so we're going to go through a bunch of passages today 00:10:37.040 --> 00:10:41.280 to try to convey as best we can that it's the same 00:10:41.280 --> 00:10:44.720 picture. There's not a division of millennia. 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:48.480 There's not a division of anything except for the two sides, and 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:50.640 they're inside the church. 00:10:50.640 --> 00:10:54.960 The goats and the sheep are collected together under one roof. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:58.480 And that's how God says things will be until the last day. 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:01.920 When we talk about sheep and goats, we mostly focus on, oh, 00:11:01.920 --> 00:11:03.840 it's the unbelievers outside the church. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:04.880 Those are the goats. 00:11:04.880 --> 00:11:05.840 Those are the bad people. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:07.920 They're not morally justified. 00:11:07.920 --> 00:11:09.120 Not like us. 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:11.360 And then inside the church you have all the sheep. 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:13.360 Except that's not remotely true. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:16.320 The church is full of goats too. 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:17.600 Not ontologically. 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:21.360 You know, the definition of the church in one sense is strictly 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:25.440 the elect, only the elect, and then the intermingling can only possibly 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:27.520 be undone on judgment day. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:31.280 There are parables about the the sower and the reaping and the 00:11:31.280 --> 00:11:34.480 only way to separate the wheat from the chaff and the goats 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:37.120 from the sheep is to wait until the day of harvest. 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.920 Because to do so beforehand would destroy the whole thing. 00:11:39.920 --> 00:11:42.080 Why? Because they're all in the one place. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:43.680 And that's where we are today. 00:11:43.680 --> 00:11:50.800 We are all mashed together, wicked, reprobate, demonic men alongside believers, all 00:11:50.800 --> 00:11:54.080 saying that they confess the same God, all saying that they serve 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:55.520 the same Jesus Christ. 00:11:55.520 --> 00:11:59.440 If you believe that everyone who says he's Christian is Christian, you're 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:02.800 going to be in a situation where you can be destroyed. 00:12:02.800 --> 00:12:07.600 And we're doing this episode today because this persecution is rapidly ramping 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:09.200 up inside the churches. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.600 There are numerous witch hunts today as we're recording of anyone who 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:16.080 has ever said anything nice about Stone Choir. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:19.520 Like us, hate us, whatever, at least listen and figure out why 00:12:19.520 --> 00:12:20.320 you hate us. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:21.920 Most people won't do that. 00:12:21.920 --> 00:12:25.120 They will hear that we're bad and then decide it without ever 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:28.000 listening. The funny thing is that when people actually listen, like what 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:28.880 was the big deal? 00:12:28.880 --> 00:12:31.680 People say we sound like NPR and they're not wrong. 00:12:31.680 --> 00:12:33.920 Like we're mild mannered. 00:12:33.920 --> 00:12:36.400 Like this is not bomb throwing. 00:12:36.400 --> 00:12:38.720 We're making scriptural cases for things. 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:40.720 And it changes people's minds. 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:42.000 We're not playing tricks. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:43.600 And that is what is dangerous. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:46.560 And so this is not an episode about us, this is an 00:12:46.560 --> 00:12:51.280 episode about the church, but it's a microcosm, it's typological. 00:12:51.280 --> 00:12:54.160 The things that are being done today to some of the people 00:12:54.160 --> 00:12:56.800 who listen to Stone Choir, even if they don't like us, just 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:00.560 having listened is enough for you to be driven from your church. 00:13:00.560 --> 00:13:03.360 And we want to warn you that there are men who want 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:04.640 to hurt you for that. 00:13:04.640 --> 00:13:05.760 And that alone. 00:13:05.760 --> 00:13:09.440 If you will not publicly disavow us, they want you dead. 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:12.320 And that sounds like a very extreme thing. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:14.560 Some people get it and some people don't. 00:13:14.560 --> 00:13:17.680 Having been on the other side of that hatred, I promise you 00:13:17.760 --> 00:13:19.680 it's not reserved for Corey and me. 00:13:19.680 --> 00:13:23.280 It is reserved for the truth that we are discussing because it's 00:13:23.280 --> 00:13:24.560 straight from scripture. 00:13:24.560 --> 00:13:26.320 We're not making anything up. 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:27.920 You have to judge that for yourself. 00:13:27.920 --> 00:13:30.880 If we're evil and wicked and twisting everything, figure out how. 00:13:30.880 --> 00:13:32.640 How is it that we've twisted scripture? 00:13:32.640 --> 00:13:34.880 Because you need to be able to defend yourself against against you 00:13:34.880 --> 00:13:35.920 know wolves. 00:13:35.920 --> 00:13:38.160 Like that's a lot of what we talk about here. 00:13:38.160 --> 00:13:41.600 Saying this is what a wolf sounds like, this is what a 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:43.120 shepherd sounds like. 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:45.760 And if you believe that we're evil, then figure out how we're 00:13:45.680 --> 00:13:48.640 tricking people because we're doing it really well. 00:13:48.640 --> 00:13:52.800 And And no one has yet to make a case against that. 00:13:52.800 --> 00:13:57.120 The persecution, if we were evil men, then it wouldn't be properly 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:58.720 persecution, it would be justice. 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:00.800 That's of course the framing. 00:14:00.800 --> 00:14:03.040 That's always the framing in these circumstances. 00:14:03.040 --> 00:14:04.240 Yeah, they deserved it. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:06.640 Those guys were absolutely evil and wicked, and it has nothing to 00:14:06.640 --> 00:14:08.160 do with Jesus whatsoever. 00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:12.320 The final calculus is in determining that which is scriptural and that 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:13.600 which is against God. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.400 And that's why we make these cases from scripture. 00:14:16.400 --> 00:14:19.360 Either we're lying and we're twisting scripture, or we're saying the same 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.640 thing that God says and we're pointing out that there are discontinuities 00:14:22.640 --> 00:14:26.880 in our churches, in our pastors, in our doctrines, in our lives. 00:14:26.880 --> 00:14:30.880 And those discontinuities, if they're there, if we're not liars, then those 00:14:30.880 --> 00:14:32.480 are cause for repentance. 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:34.640 Go back and listen to the repentance episode. 00:14:34.640 --> 00:14:38.400 When you realize that you have been an error, you have sinned, 00:14:38.400 --> 00:14:40.720 repenting is not feeling bad. 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:43.920 Repenting is turning away from your own wickedness. 00:14:43.920 --> 00:14:46.560 It's saying, this thing that I did was disgusting. 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:47.200 I rejected. 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:48.480 I'm not doing it again. 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.400 I am going the opposite direction. 00:14:50.400 --> 00:14:52.800 And you should come with me because I don't want you to 00:14:52.800 --> 00:14:54.000 be evil like I was. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:55.360 That's repentance. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:58.960 It's throwing yourself under the bus and throwing yourself on God's mercy. 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:00.480 And He'll forgive you. 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:04.000 He will absolutely forgive you when you call on Him for forgiveness. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:05.920 But repentance is more than feeling bad. 00:15:05.920 --> 00:15:08.320 It's about doing the opposite. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:11.280 When anyone comes along and illustrates that the thing that you were 00:15:11.280 --> 00:15:13.280 doing yesterday turns out it was bad. 00:15:13.280 --> 00:15:16.080 Nobody ever told you, you didn't know, but it turns out it 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.000 was actually against what God says. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:20.960 The Christian response is I I'd had no idea. 00:15:21.520 --> 00:15:24.160 I didn't know that eating seed oils would hurt me. 00:15:24.160 --> 00:15:27.200 I didn't know that nylon underwear would hurt me. 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.440 Now that I know I'm gonna live a different life. 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:32.640 You know, those are trivial examples, but only because they're not moral, 00:15:32.640 --> 00:15:34.960 but the damage is just the same. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:39.280 They're these things that are intrinsically either good or they're harmful. 00:15:39.280 --> 00:15:40.400 Even if you don't know. 00:15:40.400 --> 00:15:43.600 You can know nothing about nutrition or clothing or anything, and you 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:45.600 can harm yourself by doing the wrong thing. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:47.680 The same is always true spiritually. 00:15:47.680 --> 00:15:50.640 The persecution that's going to occur in the church and is occurring 00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:55.680 today is in those places where the church for decades, not centuries, 00:15:55.680 --> 00:15:57.200 and that's one of the problems. 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:00.640 Most of these things we're talking about now, they're not century disagreements. 00:16:00.640 --> 00:16:02.560 They're decadal disagreements. 00:16:02.560 --> 00:16:06.960 That is itself one of the arguments against this modern wickedness. 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:10.320 When you look at these things that have changed, and you point 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:13.680 out that someone who lived two hundred years ago is in heaven, 00:16:13.680 --> 00:16:17.200 even if I agree with him, the persecution is turned on. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:20.240 They're saying, You can't believe what people believed two hundred years ago. 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:23.120 You have to believe the new thing or you're going to hell. 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:29.040 All by itself, any reasonable understanding of logic and the very most 00:16:29.040 --> 00:16:33.520 basic scriptural understanding must lead one to believe that someone who says 00:16:33.520 --> 00:16:35.520 that is not from God. 00:16:35.520 --> 00:16:40.000 God is unchanging, his word is unchanging, his commands are unchanging, the 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.360 faith inherited is unchanging. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:47.120 What we have inherited, what we have been taught cannot be from 00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:51.120 God if it's fickle, if it's eighty years old or fifty years 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:54.160 old or twenty years old is some of these new teachings that 00:16:54.160 --> 00:16:55.040 are coming in. 00:16:55.040 --> 00:16:58.160 There are things that were illegal in the nineties that today we're 00:16:58.160 --> 00:17:01.440 told will go to hell if we say they're wrong. 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:05.760 These tests have to be applied rationally and out loud and in 00:17:05.760 --> 00:17:10.480 ways that are going to divide men against each other because we've 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:13.440 gotten them wrong and we've done it with a clean conscience. 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:17.760 And so when the church begins to reorient itself when believers begin 00:17:17.760 --> 00:17:18.800 to say, you know what? 00:17:18.800 --> 00:17:20.160 I was misled. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:23.040 I my grandmother got rid of head coverings. 00:17:23.040 --> 00:17:25.200 I now think that I should be covering my head if I'm 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:26.480 a woman. 00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:32.400 That turn back towards the things that God commands illustrates plainly that 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:35.520 the last 60 to 80 years of what has happened in the 00:17:35.520 --> 00:17:37.520 West is anti-Christian. 00:17:37.520 --> 00:17:40.240 And the response is persecution. 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:45.120 It is hatred, bottomless hatred, that's directed at anyone who will dare 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:49.040 to say the thing that my grandparents believed, I believe too. 00:17:49.040 --> 00:17:51.200 Anyone who does that is in danger. 00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:52.880 They're not in danger from the state. 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:56.000 Like that's going on too, but the point of this episode, that's 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:57.760 a minor part of it. 00:17:57.760 --> 00:18:01.920 Most of the persecution of the faithful is going to come from 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.400 those who call themselves faithful. 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:05.760 What better place for it? 00:18:05.760 --> 00:18:08.640 And as we're going to illustrate today, it's exactly what scripture says 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:11.040 is going to take place. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:11.760 When 00:18:11.760 --> 00:18:17.520 we mention persecution and martyrdom and related matters, Some of you undoubtedly 00:18:17.520 --> 00:18:22.880 will think of possibly the most famous statement by Tertullian. 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:27.680 The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:31.280 But is that statement actually true? 00:18:31.280 --> 00:18:35.360 And similar to some degree to the answer one must give to 00:18:35.360 --> 00:18:38.080 the question: is baptism necessary? 00:18:38.080 --> 00:18:42.160 The answer is yes, but no. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:48.320 And the reason for that is that are martyrs necessary in a 00:18:48.320 --> 00:18:51.840 sense, or at very least, are they useful? 00:18:51.840 --> 00:18:55.440 Do they help to spread the word, God's truth? 00:18:55.440 --> 00:18:58.000 The answer to that obviously is yes. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:03.760 Woe certainly mentioned several martyrs in his opening, Stephen, of course, being 00:19:03.760 --> 00:19:06.000 one of the chief among them. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:10.320 Did his blood, for instance, help to spread God's word? 00:19:10.320 --> 00:19:11.920 Help to spread God's truth? 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:14.800 The answer to that is yes. 00:19:14.800 --> 00:19:15.440 And so 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:20.400 in that case, and to that degree, his blood was indeed a 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:21.680 seed of the church. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:25.120 It seeded the church in the world. 00:19:25.520 --> 00:19:30.080 But persecution does not always grow the church. 00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:34.080 There are many to day, particularly, who will try to argue that 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:38.080 where the church is persecuted in the world, it is growing the 00:19:38.080 --> 00:19:39.760 most rapidly. 00:19:39.760 --> 00:19:44.320 If you look at the actual data, that does not pan out. 00:19:44.320 --> 00:19:47.920 But we can also look at history because we have more than 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:52.800 just surveys for the last 20, 30, 40 years. 00:19:52.800 --> 00:19:55.520 We have centuries of data on this. 00:19:55.520 --> 00:19:58.960 We can look at the history of the church in various places 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:00.560 at various times. 00:20:00.560 --> 00:20:04.480 Did persecution cause the church to grow? 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:08.400 The answer again is yes and no. 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:13.360 Sometimes when the church was persecuted, for instance, early on in Rome, 00:20:13.360 --> 00:20:15.840 the church grew as a result. 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:21.040 Sometimes when the church was persecuted, the church was all but eradicated. 00:20:21.040 --> 00:20:24.000 There are a number of examples of that, it's not a one-off 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:31.040 thing. For instance, Anatolia, what we today call Turkey, used to 00:20:31.040 --> 00:20:32.800 be Christian. 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:37.680 Those churches, in Revelation to which the letters are written, are located 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:40.080 in Anatolia. 00:20:40.080 --> 00:20:47.760 The Christian population today of Turkey is one fifth of one percent. 00:20:47.760 --> 00:20:48.000 The 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:53.760 church there was destroyed by persecution, Muslim persecution in this case, with 00:20:53.760 --> 00:20:56.400 a great deal of Jewish help. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:21:00.160 North Africa used to be Christian. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:05.040 North Africa is no longer majority Christian. 00:21:05.040 --> 00:21:07.040 The Christian communities there 00:21:07.040 --> 00:21:14.400 were destroyed largely murdered out of existence by Jews and Muslims. 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:18.560 A more modern example, and one of which we should all undoubtedly 00:21:18.560 --> 00:21:23.920 at this point be aware, under the Soviet government, under the USSR, 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:30.000 under communism, Christianity in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe was 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.480 destroyed. It was basically eradicated. 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:39.040 Because the Christians were sent off to gulags and worked to death. 00:21:39.040 --> 00:21:44.800 Sure, Stalin and others propped up a new form as it were, 00:21:44.800 --> 00:21:49.920 of the EO Church, in order to use it for propaganda purposes. 00:21:49.920 --> 00:21:53.920 But Christianity in that part of the world effectively died. 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:58.240 If you actually look at the hard numbers on the things people 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:00.800 there believe and do, they are not Christian. 00:22:00.800 --> 00:22:06.720 It does not matter if they claim membership in the EO Church. 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:09.600 That's one of the central points that we're making. 00:22:09.600 --> 00:22:14.240 Just because someone claims membership in a church doesn't mean he's a 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:20.160 sheep. In the case of the East, the former Eastern churches, it 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:24.640 may be that he simply doesn't believe anything about Christianity. 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:29.600 In our case here today, many of those who actually are persecutors 00:22:29.600 --> 00:22:34.320 of the saints will claim to believe in many of the things 00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:36.320 that Christianity advances. 00:22:36.320 --> 00:22:39.360 They may very well recite the creeds. 00:22:39.360 --> 00:22:43.280 They may very well say that Christ is Lord, but if you 00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:48.080 actually look at the things that they ultimately believe, and the things 00:22:48.080 --> 00:22:51.120 that they do in their lives, it is very clear that they 00:22:51.120 --> 00:22:53.760 are not sheep, they are goats. 00:22:53.840 --> 00:22:56.160 Because they will have a different God. 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:00.320 It will not be blasphemy against Christ, that is the thing they 00:23:00.320 --> 00:23:02.400 detest most severely. 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:06.880 It will be some other idol, blasphemy against which will be the 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:10.400 most important thing in their life, that is the thing, over which 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:10.880 they will be 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:13.200 willing to murder you. 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:18.560 When's the last time you saw one of these supposed Christians advocate 00:23:18.560 --> 00:23:21.440 for any punishment, for blasphemy. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:22.160 Don't forget 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:24.800 the punishment in Scripture is a capital punishment. 00:23:24.800 --> 00:23:28.480 But when have you seen them advocate for that for blasphemy against 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:33.840 Christ, for blasphemy against the Father, for blasphemy against the Spirit? 00:23:33.840 --> 00:23:38.320 Never. You will never see them advocate for that or argue for 00:23:38.320 --> 00:23:41.520 that, because that is not their God. 00:23:41.520 --> 00:23:43.920 The Lord God is not their God. 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:48.560 Because they are goats, they have a different God, they have idols. 00:23:49.280 --> 00:23:53.040 They are the ones who are going to be persecuting the saints. 00:23:53.040 --> 00:23:57.520 Because if Satan can persecute the church from within the church, that 00:23:57.520 --> 00:24:02.240 is going to be a lot more effective than persecuting from without. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:05.200 Now, of course, that's not to say that persecuting the church from 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:07.200 without is never effective. 00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:11.040 I gave three examples where it was very effective. 00:24:11.040 --> 00:24:15.840 But it's much easier for Satan to persecute the church from within, 00:24:15.840 --> 00:24:19.840 because if he can hollow out the church and destroy the true 00:24:19.840 --> 00:24:24.720 faith and leave the churches intact, that's even better. 00:24:25.040 --> 00:24:28.240 Because then men will believe that they have the Christian faith. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:32.000 Because while I attend church and I listen to this pastor, when 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:35.600 they don't actually have the Christian faith, because the church they attend 00:24:35.600 --> 00:24:39.520 isn't a church, and the pastor isn't a Christian, that is a 00:24:39.520 --> 00:24:41.440 much greater victory for Satan. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:45.280 He would much rather have that victory than simply stamping out the 00:24:45.280 --> 00:24:47.040 church entirely. 00:24:47.040 --> 00:24:47.760 If you will 00:24:47.760 --> 00:24:52.800 believe something wicked and at the same time think yourself holy, that 00:24:52.800 --> 00:24:57.680 is much better than simply having you believe nothing at all. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:01.120 It is far worse to do something wicked and 00:25:01.120 --> 00:25:05.120 call it good than simply to do nothing. 00:25:05.120 --> 00:25:07.840 Satan wants the greater victory. 00:25:07.840 --> 00:25:12.800 And so when it comes to persecution, we cannot believe that persecution 00:25:12.800 --> 00:25:15.040 is always a good thing for the church. 00:25:15.040 --> 00:25:19.200 We should not seek out persecution. 00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:22.000 This is also something that we hear sometimes. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.400 There are those who will say that persecution is good for the 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:26.640 church because the church grows under persecution. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:28.880 It's a very similar argument. 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:31.600 And it's an insane argument. 00:25:31.600 --> 00:25:34.880 One way we can look at this is with the analogy of 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:40.560 warfare. A nation that is at war, particularly for an extended period 00:25:40.560 --> 00:25:44.640 of time, and a war that is significant enough to expend a 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:49.440 large percentage of the overall efforts of the nation toward it, will 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:49.760 make 00:25:49.760 --> 00:25:56.080 technological advancements, typically speaking, that far outpace those seen in peacetime. 00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:01.600 In some ways, and to some degree, there are benefits of being 00:26:01.600 --> 00:26:02.720 at war. 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:07.440 Now you could achieve those same results with proper organization and incentives 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:10.560 in your society, but that's a topic for another time. 00:26:10.560 --> 00:26:16.800 But generally speaking, historically, warfare has driven human progress with regard to 00:26:16.800 --> 00:26:22.640 technology. Does that mean we should desire to be at war constantly? 00:26:22.640 --> 00:26:23.920 Ignoring the fact that we 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:26.720 more or less have been as the United States. 00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:30.080 Not on the grand scale necessary to drive that development 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:31.760 necessarily, though. 00:26:31.760 --> 00:26:33.600 The answer is no. 00:26:33.600 --> 00:26:37.520 We would never say that you should desire to be at war 00:26:37.760 --> 00:26:43.440 at all times simply because there are these certain benefits. 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:49.120 Similarly, would we say that you would want widespread violence in society? 00:26:49.120 --> 00:26:52.640 Well, that gives you a certain mindset to learn to defend yourself, 00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:55.360 to train properly, to do these various things. 00:26:55.360 --> 00:27:02.480 Those may be beneficial, but is the cause, is the impetus worthwhile? 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:06.960 Is the benefit sufficient to warrant the detriment? 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:10.400 The answer is no, we wouldn't want that either. 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:13.360 Yes, you should do some sort of physical training. 00:27:13.360 --> 00:27:18.640 I am a strong advocate, a staunch advocate for taking some sort 00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:23.040 of martial arts, whether it is Hima or Japanese, those are basically 00:27:23.040 --> 00:27:25.600 my two preferences, whichever one you happen to take. 00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:26.640 I advocate for that. 00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:28.640 That's a good thing. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:31.200 But do we need to be at war in order to train 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:32.320 men in that way? 00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:34.320 The answer is no. 00:27:34.320 --> 00:27:37.040 The same thing is true with regard to the church. 00:27:37.280 --> 00:27:41.120 We do not want the church to be persecuted. 00:27:41.120 --> 00:27:45.440 It is a blessing from God to live in a time of 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:49.760 minimal or even no persecution and peace. 00:27:49.760 --> 00:27:54.400 Just because there are some countervailing concerns and you have to structure 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:59.040 things in order to account for those, does not mean that you 00:27:59.040 --> 00:28:02.400 say you don't want the blessing, that you seek persecution, that you 00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:05.600 seek warfare, that you seek these bad things, these things that are 00:28:05.600 --> 00:28:07.920 bad in themselves. 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:11.920 Now persecution in this life is going to come. 00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:17.600 And depending on how broadly you want to define or describe persecution, 00:28:17.600 --> 00:28:20.960 there are different sorts of persecution. 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:26.240 There's the personal or the internal, which we usually would call temptation 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:29.680 instead, but it is a form of persecution, really. 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:33.600 But in this episode, we're speaking of persecution on the grander scale. 00:28:33.600 --> 00:28:38.880 And so that's persecution from the world, really. 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:43.360 Because those who are in the church in particular, but also those 00:28:43.360 --> 00:28:47.920 who are without the church, are acting on behalf of the world 00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:52.560 and on behalf of Satan in persecuting the church, but even if 00:28:52.560 --> 00:28:55.760 we lived in a restored Christendom, even if we lived in a 00:28:56.320 --> 00:29:00.720 thoroughly Christian society in which there was no persecution from the world, 00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:06.320 because the world in this microcosm is structured to basically be the 00:29:06.320 --> 00:29:10.880 church, to be part of the Church uppercase C. 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:15.040 You will still face temptation from the flesh, you will still face 00:29:15.040 --> 00:29:17.040 temptation from the devil. 00:29:17.040 --> 00:29:20.240 You will not be able to escape those things entirely in this 00:29:20.240 --> 00:29:24.640 life, even if we had a society that was perfectly constructed, perfectly 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:27.440 organized, and thoroughly Christian. 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:32.720 So we shouldn't long for persecution, we shouldn't seek out persecution, because 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:35.360 it is not good in itself. 00:29:35.520 --> 00:29:39.920 There may be good benefits from it, because under persecution, you must 00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:42.080 persevere, and that's a good thing. 00:29:42.080 --> 00:29:46.240 But the perseverance is not going to be absent. 00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:49.920 It's not something that will just disappear in your life if there 00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:54.160 is no persecution from the world and from the goats, because again, 00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:56.160 the temptation will still be there. 00:29:56.160 --> 00:30:00.320 As Scripture says, temptation must come, but woe to the one by 00:30:00.320 --> 00:30:02.080 whom it comes, of course. 00:30:02.080 --> 00:30:04.480 The same thing is true with persecution. 00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:06.400 Persecution will come. 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:11.760 But the one who does the persecuting is particularly cursed, is particularly 00:30:11.760 --> 00:30:14.720 damned, for being the persecutor. 00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:17.760 So one of the last things you want to be is the 00:30:17.760 --> 00:30:21.600 goat that is pretending to be a sheep and persecuting the saints 00:30:21.600 --> 00:30:22.720 in the church. 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:26.400 If you become that persecutor of the brothers, it would have been 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:27.040 far better for you 00:30:27.920 --> 00:30:30.240 simply never to believe. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:34.640 Because as it says in Scripture, that second state is far worse 00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:35.840 than the first. 00:30:35.840 --> 00:30:38.960 It is better to be an atheist than it is to be 00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:44.880 a Christian so-called who is persecuting the actual saints, who doesn't have 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:49.760 a true and living faith himself, but simply uses it as sort 00:30:49.760 --> 00:30:54.560 of a sheepskin coat in order to hide himself among the sheep 00:30:54.800 --> 00:30:56.880 and cause them harm. 00:30:56.880 --> 00:30:59.040 That is a far worse thing to be, 00:30:59.040 --> 00:31:02.480 and that person will have a far worse eternity because of 00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:03.120 it. 00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:11.200 One of the beatitudes is specifically related to this sort of persecution. 00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:15.280 And Jesus says that blessed are you when it happens. 00:31:15.280 --> 00:31:18.640 And that's not remotely contradictory to what Corey just said. 00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:23.280 The fact The fact that God blesses us with persecution and with 00:31:23.280 --> 00:31:28.160 suffering and reviling and being hated and all the depredations of life, 00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:32.080 those are blessings because God promises that our reward will be great 00:31:32.080 --> 00:31:36.960 in heaven for having endured them, for having been a perseverer under 00:31:37.040 --> 00:31:39.040 those circumstances. 00:31:39.040 --> 00:31:41.680 That doesn't mean that we should cheerlead it. 00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:44.160 And it certainly doesn't mean that we should invite it. 00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:46.160 And that was Corey's point. 00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:47.680 We do not invite evil. 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:53.360 Nevertheless, when we see evil come, we need to recognize that God 00:31:53.360 --> 00:31:55.600 will use it for his purposes. 00:31:55.600 --> 00:31:58.800 Nothing happens that God doesn't permit. 00:31:58.800 --> 00:32:02.320 And that's a hard thing to understand, especially when it's pointed at 00:32:02.320 --> 00:32:07.440 you, because some of the things that God permits seem unspeakably evil. 00:32:07.440 --> 00:32:11.040 And it's one of the great struggles that people have, especially when 00:32:11.040 --> 00:32:14.480 they're weak in their faith, earlier in their faith, and they're confronted 00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:17.680 with the worst thing that's ever happened to you in your life. 00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:19.440 How did God let that happen? 00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:22.080 How can a loving God let this happen? 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:27.120 When you look at the preaching of Jesus, he makes clear that 00:32:27.600 --> 00:32:31.760 the fallen world is not his fault, but he uses the fallen 00:32:31.760 --> 00:32:33.680 world for his glory. 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:38.880 And sometimes the only reason that we can attain is to accept 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:42.160 that. We can't make sense of it otherwise. 00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:45.760 In Luke Six, I'm gonna use the Beatitudes in Luke rather than 00:32:45.760 --> 00:32:48.800 Matthew, because Matthew gets all the attention and I'm thankful I looked 00:32:48.800 --> 00:32:52.080 at Luke for this because it actually makes the point that I 00:32:52.080 --> 00:32:56.400 hope to make here even better than the version that's in Matthew. 00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:59.840 Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you 00:32:59.840 --> 00:33:03.760 and revile you and spurn your name as evil on the account 00:33:03.760 --> 00:33:07.440 of the Son of Man, rejoice in that day, and leap for 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:11.680 joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven, for so their 00:33:11.680 --> 00:33:14.640 fathers did to the prophets. 00:33:14.880 --> 00:33:18.480 That last phrase is what's missing from Matthew. 00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:21.600 For so their fathers did to the prophets. 00:33:21.600 --> 00:33:24.400 And this gets back to my point at the beginning, and then 00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:27.040 the overall essence of this episode. 00:33:27.040 --> 00:33:31.440 Most people, most preaching, when it talks about the persecution of the 00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:33.920 saints, when it talks about you when you're gonna be hated and 00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:38.560 reviled and excluded on account of the Son of Man, Christians will 00:33:38.560 --> 00:33:41.920 look to when they had to go to DEI training at work, 00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:45.760 or they will look to when they were spit on an anti-abortion 00:33:45.760 --> 00:33:49.200 rally. And say, Yes, here's a moment where I was reviled for 00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:52.480 my faith, where something evil was done to me in the in 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:55.120 the name of evil when I was standing for what was Christian. 00:33:55.120 --> 00:33:56.960 And that's absolutely true. 00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:02.880 Those moments of persecution are undoubtedly also what God is talking about 00:34:03.040 --> 00:34:06.560 when he talks about the wickedness in the world being directed at 00:34:06.560 --> 00:34:10.400 his saints, at the elect, at us. 00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:13.680 But in this particular beatitude, when he says, Blessed are you and 00:34:13.680 --> 00:34:18.320 people hate you, exclude you, revile you, spurn your name as evil, 00:34:18.320 --> 00:34:22.240 he finishes by saying, For so their fathers did to the prophets. 00:34:22.240 --> 00:34:23.040 Now who is that? 00:34:23.040 --> 00:34:24.160 Who are their fathers? 00:34:24.160 --> 00:34:26.160 He's talking about the Jews. 00:34:26.160 --> 00:34:27.920 And who are their fathers? 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:30.160 Well, it was the Jews of history. 00:34:30.160 --> 00:34:31.200 What did they do? 00:34:31.200 --> 00:34:33.680 They continuously murdered the prophets. 00:34:33.680 --> 00:34:35.680 I was saying in the beginning, when you look at the lives 00:34:35.680 --> 00:34:38.560 of the prophets, they were miserable. 00:34:38.560 --> 00:34:43.760 They almost all of them were continuously haranged and hunted, they were 00:34:43.760 --> 00:34:45.520 despised, and they hated it. 00:34:45.520 --> 00:34:47.600 They battered God not to send them. 00:34:47.600 --> 00:34:48.800 They didn't want to go. 00:34:48.800 --> 00:34:50.400 They complained about it. 00:34:50.560 --> 00:34:53.200 They didn't come across as very faithful in a lot of cases 00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:54.160 if you look at 'em. 00:34:54.160 --> 00:34:56.640 Like in the best case they were whiners. 00:34:56.640 --> 00:35:00.240 You know, somebody like Jonah went to his death rather than obey 00:35:00.240 --> 00:35:01.920 God. He's like, just throw me in the ocean. 00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:03.440 I'd rather die than do what he said. 00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:05.760 I don't want to go be a prophet in Nineveh. 00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:06.720 He was a prophet. 00:35:06.720 --> 00:35:07.520 God sent him. 00:35:07.520 --> 00:35:09.360 God spoke to him personally and said, Go do this. 00:35:09.520 --> 00:35:10.560 I don't want to do that. 00:35:10.560 --> 00:35:11.520 And so he died for it. 00:35:11.600 --> 00:35:12.800 And God's like, nope, you 00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:14.800 still gotta go. 00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:17.760 He raised him from the dead and sent him anyway. 00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:21.040 That you know, it's sometimes the perseverance of the saints, it's not 00:35:21.040 --> 00:35:22.000 up to you at all. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:26.400 That's an extreme example of God persevering somebody against their own will, 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:28.640 but that's the point. 00:35:28.640 --> 00:35:32.800 God will preserve his faithful for his purposes. 00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:36.000 And it's probably gonna hurt when he does it. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:39.120 But when you look at the old testament in particular, because that's 00:35:39.120 --> 00:35:41.760 where the prophets were, and also in the New Testament, when you 00:35:41.760 --> 00:35:45.520 look at what happened to the apostles, historically, we learn that I 00:35:45.520 --> 00:35:47.680 think all but one of them was martyred. 00:35:47.680 --> 00:35:49.280 They're virtually all killed. 00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:51.600 We have every reason to believe that most, if not all those 00:35:51.600 --> 00:35:54.320 accounts are accurate, because they're very old. 00:35:54.320 --> 00:35:58.800 We tend to treat really old stories that aren't specifically recorded in 00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:01.120 scripture as myth, like oh what did they know? 00:36:01.120 --> 00:36:02.960 Well, they're the closest to the events. 00:36:03.200 --> 00:36:05.520 It's what everyone was saying at the time was true and it 00:36:05.520 --> 00:36:07.440 was accepted and it was written down. 00:36:07.440 --> 00:36:10.400 It doesn't mean it's absolutely true, but it is by far the 00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:12.800 best witness we have to those events. 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:14.000 They were killed. 00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:15.360 They were all killed. 00:36:15.520 --> 00:36:17.840 Prophets most of them died. 00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:20.880 Elijah's a notable example because he didn't die at all. 00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:24.320 God whisked him up into heaven and replaced him with somebody who 00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:26.880 had an equally hard time of things. 00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:30.880 The fact that Jesus says this for so their fathers did to 00:36:30.880 --> 00:36:33.280 the prophets tells us two things. 00:36:33.280 --> 00:36:39.360 One for all time within the group of believers we have had 00:36:39.360 --> 00:36:41.360 goats, we have had evil men. 00:36:41.360 --> 00:36:44.560 There were good Jews and there were evil Jews. 00:36:44.560 --> 00:36:46.880 And however you want to use the term you can separate Jew 00:36:46.880 --> 00:36:47.440 from Israel. 00:36:47.440 --> 00:36:48.960 We did an old episode about that. 00:36:48.960 --> 00:36:51.360 I'm not trying to make a fiddly point there. 00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:55.520 The people in those places, there was always some faithful remnant. 00:36:55.680 --> 00:36:59.840 Sometimes that faithful remnant was down to one guy, or a few 00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:03.440 guys, you know, a hundred prophets being hidden in a cave, while 00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:05.920 the rest of the prophets, who were also prophets, but they were 00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:09.600 prophets of Baal, were worshipping Baal for Israel. 00:37:09.600 --> 00:37:11.280 They were doing it for the king. 00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:13.440 It was the majority religion. 00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:15.360 It was what everybody knew to be true. 00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:16.640 It was the official belief. 00:37:16.640 --> 00:37:18.400 It was the same belief as from before. 00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:20.960 They just you know tweaked a little you know they had astropoles 00:37:21.040 --> 00:37:24.080 and sacrificing bulls to Moloch and all that stuff, but it was 00:37:24.080 --> 00:37:24.800 still for God. 00:37:24.800 --> 00:37:26.480 We're still God's prophets. 00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:28.000 That was the deal. 00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:31.200 And so the prophets that were being hunted and killed by Jezebel 00:37:31.520 --> 00:37:35.840 and and all the other examples, they were the bad guys. 00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:40.320 They were being hunted by the government because they were evil, because 00:37:40.480 --> 00:37:43.520 they were set out as outlaws. 00:37:43.520 --> 00:37:47.360 And so when Jesus says, For so their fathers did to the 00:37:47.360 --> 00:37:52.000 prophets, he's saying that the sons of Satan, the synagogue of Satan 00:37:52.080 --> 00:37:57.600 has continuously persecuted the faithful inside the church, inside the group of 00:37:57.600 --> 00:38:00.560 the elect, the gathering of the faithful is always going to have 00:38:00.560 --> 00:38:02.320 persecutors inside it. 00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:03.840 Go read Luke 6. 00:38:03.840 --> 00:38:05.680 Go read that passage. 00:38:05.680 --> 00:38:09.520 It makes it very clear that this persecution that he's talking about 00:38:09.520 --> 00:38:11.440 is exclusively inside the church. 00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:12.800 The way it's described here. 00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:16.160 Obviously, it comes from all all quarters, and in different times and 00:38:16.160 --> 00:38:21.600 in different places, sometimes it's exclusively outside, sometimes it's both. 00:38:21.600 --> 00:38:25.760 But most of what we see in current year is internal and 00:38:25.760 --> 00:38:29.680 that should not surprise us because it's a fulment of prophecy. 00:38:29.680 --> 00:38:34.480 A few lines later in the same passage in Luke, Jesus also 00:38:34.480 --> 00:38:37.920 says as a counterpoint to blessed are you when people hate you 00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:40.960 and exclude you and revile you, and spurn your name for the 00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:42.720 account of the Son of Man. 00:38:42.720 --> 00:38:46.720 Jesus then says Woe to you when all people speak well of 00:38:46.720 --> 00:38:50.640 you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. 00:38:50.640 --> 00:38:55.200 Jezebel's prophets, Baal's prophets, everyone spoke well of them. 00:38:55.200 --> 00:38:58.720 They were the official spokespersons for Israel. 00:38:58.720 --> 00:39:00.480 They were God's prophets. 00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:02.320 That's what everyone said. 00:39:02.320 --> 00:39:06.880 And Elijah and the others who were persecuted and killed, they were 00:39:06.880 --> 00:39:08.080 the bad guys. 00:39:08.080 --> 00:39:09.760 They were persecuted. 00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:14.240 They were persecuted and they were singled out, not because they were 00:39:14.240 --> 00:39:16.080 evil, but because they were faithful. 00:39:16.080 --> 00:39:18.800 And what Jesus is saying is this is what it looks like. 00:39:18.800 --> 00:39:23.600 If you're faithful, you're going to be reviled by everyone, including inside 00:39:23.600 --> 00:39:26.480 the church in some times, not in all times. 00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:30.560 This isn't something that's universally always true in every moment of church 00:39:30.560 --> 00:39:34.960 history. We can look at extensive periods of history where things seem 00:39:34.960 --> 00:39:38.320 to be, at least you know, from our historical perspective, which as 00:39:38.320 --> 00:39:41.600 I said earlier is admittedly divorced from reality. 00:39:41.600 --> 00:39:44.960 But when the accounts are generally good, it's all you have to 00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:46.240 go on. 00:39:46.240 --> 00:39:49.600 It's not always true that all the persecution is inside the church, 00:39:49.600 --> 00:39:51.440 but it's often been true. 00:39:51.440 --> 00:39:55.440 If you're not Roman Catholic, then you would agree that the Reformation 00:39:55.440 --> 00:40:00.080 was another one of those moments when people had been hunted and 00:40:00.080 --> 00:40:04.880 killed for being faithful before the Reformation and finally it popped off. 00:40:04.880 --> 00:40:07.840 Enough men stood up at the same time and said, No, this 00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:09.120 is not scriptural. 00:40:09.120 --> 00:40:13.760 This is not obedience to God and you in Rome are no 00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:15.280 longer faithful. 00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:17.600 We must be faithful. 00:40:17.600 --> 00:40:20.000 And the Reformation was not rebellion. 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:21.680 It was like, look, we need a clean house. 00:40:21.680 --> 00:40:23.200 This is not what the church looks like. 00:40:23.200 --> 00:40:27.120 And the Roman Catholic Church said, okay, we're gonna kill you all. 00:40:27.120 --> 00:40:31.680 And so the split came about as a result of persecution. 00:40:31.680 --> 00:40:35.600 Single those guys out, hunt them, kill them, call them wicked, say 00:40:35.600 --> 00:40:39.840 they're rebels, call them all manner of evil filth. 00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:43.600 Never say that they're speaking for God, because that begs the question, 00:40:43.600 --> 00:40:44.400 doesn't it? 00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:47.440 If these guys are speaking for God and we're standing against them, 00:40:47.440 --> 00:40:48.880 what does that make us? 00:40:48.960 --> 00:40:50.640 It It makes us the rebels. 00:40:50.640 --> 00:40:52.400 It makes us the evil ones. 00:40:52.400 --> 00:40:55.200 So of course the man who stands up and says, God says 00:40:55.200 --> 00:40:58.400 this and is faithful as he gonna get singled out as a 00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:01.280 rebel. Those are the accusations against Jesus. 00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:02.480 He points to himself as well. 00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:05.760 And elsewhere in Scripture it points to him as the prime example. 00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:07.840 He is the archetype of this. 00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:10.720 He came and told the truth, and they killed him for it. 00:41:10.720 --> 00:41:14.400 They didn't kill for lying, they didn't kill him for rebelling, not 00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:19.680 against God, but he did rebel against the church of that day. 00:41:19.680 --> 00:41:25.520 He rebelled against the leaders of that day, against the denominational presidents, 00:41:25.520 --> 00:41:31.680 against the YouTube superstars of the Sadducees, those guys were all on 00:41:31.680 --> 00:41:32.640 the same page. 00:41:32.640 --> 00:41:36.480 And then John the Baptist comes and Jesus comes and what do 00:41:36.480 --> 00:41:36.720 you do? 00:41:36.720 --> 00:41:38.560 You kill the rabble rousers. 00:41:38.560 --> 00:41:40.800 That's the pattern of the church. 00:41:40.800 --> 00:41:44.080 And if you see it happening again today, know that this is 00:41:44.080 --> 00:41:45.280 not a fluke. 00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:48.000 Now, none of this is to intimate that Corey and I are 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:50.640 prophets or that you are going to be prophets, except in the 00:41:50.640 --> 00:41:53.840 most minor sense of saying what God says to some extent as 00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:54.720 a prophet. 00:41:54.720 --> 00:41:57.840 Any pastor who stands in a pulpit and says what God says, 00:41:57.840 --> 00:42:00.160 that is in a very small way prophetic. 00:42:00.160 --> 00:42:03.040 It's not revelatory of anything outside of Scripture. 00:42:03.040 --> 00:42:05.440 It's speaking the words that God gave. 00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:08.560 And the difference between what we think of as a prophet who 00:42:08.560 --> 00:42:12.160 has been given a new revelation from God, which as far as 00:42:12.160 --> 00:42:13.520 we know is not happening. 00:42:13.520 --> 00:42:16.720 You should be incredibly suspicious if anyone comes along and says that. 00:42:16.720 --> 00:42:19.360 But when someone comes and says the same thing that God says, 00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:22.320 that is also in a small way prophetic. 00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:24.800 Because that's what the prophets were doing. 00:42:24.800 --> 00:42:27.040 God said, go tell them this. 00:42:27.040 --> 00:42:28.960 And scripture says the same thing. 00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:32.560 It says for us as Christians to go and tell men this 00:42:32.800 --> 00:42:34.640 and it's all the stuff in the Bible. 00:42:34.640 --> 00:42:37.920 It's not the stuff that's popular, it's all of it. 00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:42.080 So when Jesus warns woe to you when all people speak well 00:42:42.080 --> 00:42:45.520 of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. 00:42:45.520 --> 00:42:47.120 Take that to heart. 00:42:47.120 --> 00:42:49.200 Who is getting all of the adulation? 00:42:49.200 --> 00:42:52.160 Who has said he's a good man, he does everything that we 00:42:52.160 --> 00:42:53.840 want to see in the church? 00:42:53.840 --> 00:42:57.120 The test is how does he respond in these situations? 00:42:57.120 --> 00:42:59.840 Does he continue to be a good, faithful man? 00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:03.280 Does he go fangs out, knives out? 00:43:03.280 --> 00:43:08.160 Does every wicked impulse inside him become revealed in that moment? 00:43:08.160 --> 00:43:11.360 And he does every depraved thing to try to harm someone who 00:43:11.440 --> 00:43:15.920 even if they're wrong doesn't deserve that level of malice. 00:43:15.920 --> 00:43:20.000 That's why Jesus says woe to you, not if you get persecuted, 00:43:20.160 --> 00:43:23.120 woe to you if people like you too much under the Under 00:43:23.120 --> 00:43:26.400 the wrong circumstances, that is a warning. 00:43:26.400 --> 00:43:28.960 Blessed are you when they revile your name. 00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:31.360 Woe to you when people speak well of you. 00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:34.560 These are not back to back in the text, but they're back 00:43:34.560 --> 00:43:36.000 to back thematically. 00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:38.000 It's two sides of the same coin. 00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:39.520 And we don't believe that today. 00:43:39.520 --> 00:43:41.120 Nobody believes it. 00:43:41.120 --> 00:43:45.440 Everyone knows that when someone is pointed at and shouted down and 00:43:45.440 --> 00:43:47.840 reviled, that means they're bad. 00:43:47.840 --> 00:43:49.680 It's the only signal we have. 00:43:49.680 --> 00:43:50.400 What is that? 00:43:50.400 --> 00:43:53.040 That is completely feminine thinking. 00:43:53.040 --> 00:43:54.480 That is utterly feminine. 00:43:54.480 --> 00:43:59.280 And it's why girls are disqualified from judging these matters by God. 00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:02.240 There is a masculine way to judge things and there's a feminine 00:44:02.240 --> 00:44:03.680 way to judge things. 00:44:03.680 --> 00:44:06.000 And consensus is feminine. 00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:09.600 The masculine way is the way where you have a single man 00:44:09.600 --> 00:44:13.280 standing up and saying, This is a lie, and we cannot permit 00:44:13.280 --> 00:44:16.560 this. And come what may, he's going to speak the truth. 00:44:16.560 --> 00:44:20.480 That is the masculine approach to these circumstances. 00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:23.920 The church today is entirely feminized. 00:44:23.920 --> 00:44:29.680 Entirely. Anytime there are any harsh noises or there's any criticism, everyone 00:44:29.680 --> 00:44:30.800 loses their minds. 00:44:30.800 --> 00:44:32.720 Like, oh no, the worst thing in the world has happened. 00:44:32.720 --> 00:44:33.680 There's disagreement. 00:44:33.840 --> 00:44:35.200 We gotta all agree again. 00:44:35.200 --> 00:44:37.040 I'm so upset that there's disagreement. 00:44:37.040 --> 00:44:38.080 It's terrible. 00:44:38.080 --> 00:44:41.680 Really? Worry about the fact that someone has pulled the fire alarm 00:44:41.760 --> 00:44:46.400 because either they're a vandal or a terrorist who's starting an alarm 00:44:46.400 --> 00:44:49.520 when there's nothing wrong, or they're telling the truth and there's a 00:44:49.520 --> 00:44:51.600 fire and you have a real problem. 00:44:51.600 --> 00:44:53.520 One of those two things is true. 00:44:53.520 --> 00:44:55.120 Don't worry about bad feelings. 00:44:55.120 --> 00:44:57.760 Worry about whether or not there's a fire or there's a vandal, 00:44:57.760 --> 00:45:00.640 because you've got one of them on your hands. 00:45:00.640 --> 00:45:04.720 This approach to viewing our circumstances and every time and every place, 00:45:04.720 --> 00:45:08.160 saying this applies to Luther just as much as today, he stood 00:45:08.160 --> 00:45:11.200 up and said, Hey, I just read the Bible and these guys 00:45:11.200 --> 00:45:12.320 are saying something different. 00:45:12.320 --> 00:45:13.920 We got a problem. 00:45:13.920 --> 00:45:16.240 God occasionally does that. 00:45:16.240 --> 00:45:18.080 There's a corrective matter. 00:45:18.080 --> 00:45:21.600 And Jesus talks about it, and the New Testament talks about it. 00:45:21.600 --> 00:45:27.440 In Second Timothy three, Paul writes You, however, have followed my teaching, 00:45:27.440 --> 00:45:31.120 my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, 00:45:31.120 --> 00:45:35.680 my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me in Antioch, 00:45:35.680 --> 00:45:40.480 at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them 00:45:40.480 --> 00:45:42.000 all the Lord rescued me. 00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:45.440 Indeed all who desire to live of godly life in Christ Jesus 00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:49.520 will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from 00:45:49.520 --> 00:45:52.800 bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 00:45:52.800 --> 00:45:55.520 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have 00:45:55.520 --> 00:45:59.840 firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood 00:45:59.840 --> 00:46:03.040 you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to 00:46:03.040 --> 00:46:06.800 make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. 00:46:06.800 --> 00:46:10.720 All Scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching and 00:46:10.720 --> 00:46:14.960 for reproof Proof for correction and for training in righteousness, that the 00:46:14.960 --> 00:46:18.480 men of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:22.800 So this passage that often gets cited, and especially by us, talking 00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:25.440 about how all scripture is breathed out by God, and that's redundant, 00:46:25.520 --> 00:46:27.440 that's what scripture means. 00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:31.760 That scripture which has that power is the scripture for which you 00:46:31.760 --> 00:46:34.160 will be persecuted if you believe. 00:46:34.160 --> 00:46:35.840 As Paul was persecuted. 00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:40.720 He was hunted he went through the ringer so many times because 00:46:40.720 --> 00:46:42.960 God sent him and kept sending him. 00:46:42.960 --> 00:46:45.760 I'm sure many times he probably just wanted to die. 00:46:45.760 --> 00:46:47.840 God's like no, you gotta go over here now, you gotta go 00:46:47.920 --> 00:46:49.200 over here now. 00:46:49.200 --> 00:46:52.800 Not every Christian is going to have that sort of life, but 00:46:52.800 --> 00:46:56.720 that example of perseverance is a rule for us too. 00:46:56.720 --> 00:47:00.880 You don't get to quit just because it's unpleasant. 00:47:00.880 --> 00:47:04.400 The only question that matters is, am I obeying God? 00:47:04.400 --> 00:47:08.480 And if we are obeying God, that has to be enough. 00:47:08.480 --> 00:47:11.600 If God is merciful, there will be more than that, more than 00:47:11.600 --> 00:47:15.120 simply be obedience to God, and then something good will come from 00:47:15.120 --> 00:47:17.440 it, and you won't be killed and you won't be hated. 00:47:17.440 --> 00:47:18.800 That'd be nice. 00:47:18.800 --> 00:47:20.800 I wish that for everyone listening. 00:47:20.800 --> 00:47:22.480 But there's no guarantee. 00:47:22.480 --> 00:47:25.520 There's only a guarantee that you will prove yourself one way or 00:47:25.520 --> 00:47:27.360 another when these things come to you. 00:47:27.360 --> 00:47:31.120 Because we are being put in a situation today where this persecution 00:47:31.120 --> 00:47:34.960 that Christ warns about is coming from inside the church as it 00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:36.560 always has. 00:47:36.560 --> 00:47:40.560 For so their fathers did to the prophets, for so their fathers 00:47:40.560 --> 00:47:42.080 did to the false prophets. 00:47:42.320 --> 00:47:45.920 One was hating, the other was loving. 00:47:45.920 --> 00:47:48.080 Those are the only two sides here. 00:47:48.080 --> 00:47:50.880 And it's inside the church that those things are occurring. 00:47:50.880 --> 00:47:52.160 We must believe this. 00:47:52.160 --> 00:47:53.760 These are not Bible stories. 00:47:53.760 --> 00:47:56.480 This is the pattern of the Christian life, and it will be 00:47:57.040 --> 00:47:58.640 so until the end of time. 00:47:58.640 --> 00:48:01.360 And if we don't take it seriously, that that's not just a 00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:04.400 Bible story, that's not just about Paul or Elijah, like you can 00:48:04.400 --> 00:48:06.880 turn to just about any page and you're not going to be 00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:08.560 very far from one of these stories. 00:48:08.560 --> 00:48:10.160 Maybe think about why that is. 00:48:10.160 --> 00:48:13.040 Why does God keep showing these examples? 00:48:13.040 --> 00:48:14.880 And they're not all perfect examples. 00:48:14.880 --> 00:48:19.280 Like Jonah's in some ways, he's not a terrible example, but he's 00:48:19.280 --> 00:48:24.160 he's an example of God making his glory manifest in situations where 00:48:24.160 --> 00:48:25.200 the prophet falls short. 00:48:26.240 --> 00:48:30.160 The prophet wants to be unfaithful to the point of death. 00:48:30.160 --> 00:48:32.240 The most shameful thing imaginable. 00:48:32.240 --> 00:48:33.840 God's like, no, doesn't matter. 00:48:33.840 --> 00:48:35.440 You're not done. 00:48:35.440 --> 00:48:38.640 We should take that seriously because it applies to us to not 00:48:38.720 --> 00:48:41.440 that God is going to resurrect us and say, no, keep going, 00:48:41.440 --> 00:48:42.880 but that it's going to hurt. 00:48:42.880 --> 00:48:44.720 It's going to be miserable. 00:48:44.720 --> 00:48:47.680 The reason the storm came about Jonah on the boat was because 00:48:47.760 --> 00:48:49.120 he was disobeying God. 00:48:49.120 --> 00:48:51.600 And that was why he ended the storm and he knew it. 00:48:51.600 --> 00:48:55.760 He knew that it was his disobedience to God that jeopardized everyone. 00:48:55.760 --> 00:48:58.160 The lesson there is don't disobey God. 00:48:58.160 --> 00:48:58.880 Just go. 00:48:58.880 --> 00:49:01.520 If he sends you, if he tells you what to do, and 00:49:01.520 --> 00:49:04.240 he does in scripture, he tells us all what to do, to 00:49:04.240 --> 00:49:07.840 be faithful in small ways and great ways in your life. 00:49:07.840 --> 00:49:10.400 You don't have to change what you're doing unless you're not doing 00:49:10.400 --> 00:49:14.480 anything, but do the thing that you're doing for God more faithfully. 00:49:14.480 --> 00:49:16.400 Do it more steadfastly. 00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:19.440 And know that when you do so at some point you're going 00:49:19.440 --> 00:49:22.080 to be a threat to the world and you're gonna be persecuted 00:49:22.080 --> 00:49:22.720 for it. 00:49:22.720 --> 00:49:24.240 You're not gonna get a pat on the back. 00:49:24.240 --> 00:49:26.000 You're not gonna get a parade. 00:49:26.160 --> 00:49:29.840 You're gonna be hated if you're actually effective for the kingdom of 00:49:29.840 --> 00:49:32.720 God. That's what time it is. 00:49:32.800 --> 00:49:36.880 None of this should really be surprising at all to anyone. 00:49:36.880 --> 00:49:40.160 Because we see this playing out not only in the church, but 00:49:41.120 --> 00:49:45.760 I won't say everywhere else, but many other places simply in human 00:49:45.760 --> 00:49:48.400 society and in our lives. 00:49:48.400 --> 00:49:52.480 Because the man who stands up and says hang on a minute, 00:49:52.480 --> 00:49:59.120 I think this is wrong, is seldom met with happiness or with 00:49:59.120 --> 00:50:01.920 approval by the crowd. 00:50:01.920 --> 00:50:05.760 Typically speaking, the man who stands up and says, No, you're all 00:50:06.240 --> 00:50:11.280 wrong, is met with stones, or the equivalent, depending on the era 00:50:11.520 --> 00:50:14.480 and the proximity of stones. 00:50:14.480 --> 00:50:19.200 In the case of the church, this obviously is more important. 00:50:19.200 --> 00:50:26.320 This is a weightier matter because we're ultimately speaking about ultimate things. 00:50:26.320 --> 00:50:30.960 If you're in a corporate meeting and you stand up and say 00:50:31.360 --> 00:50:35.760 we've been doing this particular thing wrong for ten years, however long 00:50:35.760 --> 00:50:36.720 it's been. 00:50:36.720 --> 00:50:38.640 We need to change. 00:50:38.640 --> 00:50:40.560 That could cost a lot of money. 00:50:40.560 --> 00:50:41.920 It could cause problems. 00:50:41.920 --> 00:50:44.320 It could get some people fired. 00:50:44.320 --> 00:50:46.080 But no one's going to hell for that 00:50:47.040 --> 00:50:48.560 typically speaking. 00:50:48.560 --> 00:50:52.000 Perhaps different if you're Planned Parenthood. 00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:55.760 But when it comes to the Christian faith, if someone stands up 00:50:55.760 --> 00:51:00.240 and says, No what you believe is false, what you are doing 00:51:00.240 --> 00:51:01.920 is blasphemous, 00:51:01.920 --> 00:51:04.080 that's a different matter. 00:51:04.080 --> 00:51:07.520 Because that is a matter of heaven or hell. 00:51:07.520 --> 00:51:09.040 And so when it comes to the church, 00:51:10.160 --> 00:51:14.400 these things are far more important than any of the similar conflicts 00:51:14.400 --> 00:51:17.680 that we have elsewhere in our lives. 00:51:17.680 --> 00:51:21.840 And so to some degree it should be entirely expected that you're 00:51:21.840 --> 00:51:26.960 going to see men take a stronger stance and have, let's call 00:51:26.960 --> 00:51:31.600 it a stronger reaction when someone says that they are wrong about 00:51:31.600 --> 00:51:35.440 something with regard to the Christian faith, particularly if it is something 00:51:35.440 --> 00:51:37.600 that is a matter of salvation, 00:51:37.600 --> 00:51:42.480 which of course any error with regard to doctrine or theology can 00:51:42.480 --> 00:51:45.920 rise to the level of a matter of salvation 00:51:46.240 --> 00:51:50.240 if you make it part of your core belief, because it becomes 00:51:50.240 --> 00:51:54.160 an idol then, and you are no longer Christian. 00:51:54.160 --> 00:51:58.640 As we have gone over in other episodes. 00:51:58.640 --> 00:52:03.680 But the reaction should not be simply to blindly double down. 00:52:03.680 --> 00:52:06.400 The reaction should be to look at God's Word. 00:52:06.400 --> 00:52:10.880 That is why in our episodes and elsewhere, our writings, when we 00:52:10.880 --> 00:52:12.960 comment on social media, whatever it happens to 00:52:12.960 --> 00:52:15.600 be, we refer to God's word. 00:52:16.400 --> 00:52:19.440 Because that's what Christians should do. 00:52:19.440 --> 00:52:22.960 If someone says, You are wrong on this 00:52:22.960 --> 00:52:27.600 point, there needs to be a follow-up of here is why. 00:52:27.600 --> 00:52:27.920 Not just 00:52:28.640 --> 00:52:30.240 you're wrong. 00:52:30.240 --> 00:52:32.800 That's not helpful to anyone. 00:52:32.800 --> 00:52:38.400 If you say you believe X, that is incorrect, because here in 00:52:38.400 --> 00:52:41.280 Scripture it clearly says not X. 00:52:41.280 --> 00:52:44.320 That's helpful because then there can be a discussion. 00:52:44.320 --> 00:52:48.960 You can look at what God's Word says and discuss that as 00:52:48.960 --> 00:52:52.960 supposed Christian brothers, hopefully actual Christian brothers. 00:52:52.960 --> 00:52:54.800 Because there are going to be divisions. 00:52:54.800 --> 00:52:56.240 Scripture is very clear on that. 00:52:56.880 --> 00:53:02.240 There will be divisions within the Christian Church, and those divisions are 00:53:02.240 --> 00:53:04.560 between actual Christians. 00:53:04.560 --> 00:53:08.880 Every time there's a disagreement, it doesn't mean that someone is a 00:53:08.880 --> 00:53:11.280 goat and someone's a sheep. 00:53:11.280 --> 00:53:13.360 It means that someone is wrong. 00:53:13.360 --> 00:53:15.040 It could be you're both wrong. 00:53:15.040 --> 00:53:17.680 But at least one person is wrong. 00:53:17.680 --> 00:53:20.880 Simple laws of logic dictate that. 00:53:20.880 --> 00:53:21.120 And 00:53:21.120 --> 00:53:25.040 so as Christian brothers, we should look to the Word of God 00:53:25.360 --> 00:53:29.040 and other helpful writings, insofar as they are true and 00:53:29.040 --> 00:53:33.600 help us to interpret the Word of God, discuss the issue, and 00:53:33.600 --> 00:53:37.440 figure out who is right, or what is right if neither party 00:53:37.440 --> 00:53:38.560 is right. 00:53:38.560 --> 00:53:43.280 The reaction should not be to attempt to destroy men and drive 00:53:43.280 --> 00:53:48.720 them from the churches, and label them as apostate and wicked, and 00:53:48.720 --> 00:53:52.160 excommunicate them and do all of these things. 00:53:52.160 --> 00:53:56.640 That is not how Christians behave. 00:53:56.640 --> 00:53:58.960 Christians are known by their love. 00:53:58.960 --> 00:54:03.680 Christians are known by their concern for one another, and notably love 00:54:03.680 --> 00:54:06.880 does not just mean a happy fuzzy feeling. 00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:10.080 We went over that at length in previous episodes. 00:54:10.080 --> 00:54:12.640 But part of love is speaking the truth. 00:54:12.640 --> 00:54:16.400 Love is not permitting a brother to continue in error because it 00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:21.280 would be uncomfortable or painful to correct that error, and possibly even 00:54:21.280 --> 00:54:24.000 risk that friendship if it comes to that. 00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:28.240 Love is correcting someone when he is in error, particularly about something 00:54:28.240 --> 00:54:33.040 as important as Christian doctrine, as the Christian faith. 00:54:33.040 --> 00:54:37.200 But again, simply because there is disagreement does not mean that one 00:54:37.200 --> 00:54:39.360 party is a goat. 00:54:39.360 --> 00:54:43.280 I will not say the reformed are all goats simply because I'm 00:54:43.280 --> 00:54:48.800 Lutheran. Yes, I disagree with Reformed doctrine, woe and I both do. 00:54:48.800 --> 00:54:54.400 We do not agree with the Reformed conception of predestination, for instance. 00:54:54.400 --> 00:54:58.320 We do not agree with the reformed conception of the Lord's Supper. 00:54:58.320 --> 00:55:01.920 But that doesn't mean that we believe the reformed are all goats. 00:55:01.920 --> 00:55:05.280 We believe they are fellow sheep who are in error. 00:55:05.280 --> 00:55:08.240 We're never going to sugarcoat that or paper over it. 00:55:08.240 --> 00:55:12.720 We're not going to deny that we believe those doctrines are erroneous. 00:55:12.720 --> 00:55:16.160 But we are not going to say those men are damned because 00:55:16.800 --> 00:55:21.120 of that, we can discuss these things with them in a civil 00:55:21.120 --> 00:55:26.000 and brotherly fashion, which is what Christians are supposed to do. 00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:30.240 One of the ways that you can identify these goats who are 00:55:30.240 --> 00:55:33.840 in the churches instead of fellow sheep who may be in error 00:55:34.160 --> 00:55:39.680 is how they respond when these issues arise. 00:55:39.680 --> 00:55:46.560 Christians do not respond by issuing a fatwa against their enemies. 00:55:46.560 --> 00:55:48.960 They don't respond by saying 00:55:49.120 --> 00:55:52.400 that man has to be killed, that man has to be destroyed, 00:55:52.400 --> 00:55:54.400 he has to be driven from the church. 00:55:54.400 --> 00:55:57.600 They respond by looking at the claim. 00:55:57.600 --> 00:55:59.760 What is the man saying? 00:55:59.760 --> 00:56:03.360 What is he using to support that claim? 00:56:03.360 --> 00:56:06.960 Yes, I'm not saying that there is no point at which a 00:56:06.960 --> 00:56:10.320 man has to be excommunicated, or driven from the church for the 00:56:10.320 --> 00:56:11.440 good of the body. 00:56:11.440 --> 00:56:13.280 Obviously that happens. 00:56:13.280 --> 00:56:19.360 If someone remains in persistent and high-handed wicked error over a period 00:56:19.360 --> 00:56:22.880 of time, will not listen to Christian counsel, will not yield to 00:56:22.880 --> 00:56:26.560 the Word of God, then yes, there are measures the body of 00:56:26.560 --> 00:56:30.160 Christ must take, and that is entirely within the realm of not 00:56:30.160 --> 00:56:33.360 only the permissible but the required. 00:56:33.360 --> 00:56:36.320 But if you look at what is happening in the churches today, 00:56:36.320 --> 00:56:39.760 and has happened many times in history, that is certainly not what 00:56:39.760 --> 00:56:41.840 is happening at all. 00:56:41.840 --> 00:56:46.960 We do not see reasoned discussions, we do not see arguments founded 00:56:46.960 --> 00:56:49.840 upon and grounded in the Word of God. 00:56:49.840 --> 00:56:53.840 We see things that are founded on idol worship. 00:56:53.840 --> 00:56:56.320 We see the post-war consensus. 00:56:56.320 --> 00:57:01.040 We see all of these new beliefs that cropped up since the 00:57:01.040 --> 00:57:05.280 forties and now are held out as being core parts of the 00:57:05.280 --> 00:57:06.880 Christian faith. 00:57:06.880 --> 00:57:11.200 Those who are advancing those things are goats, they are not fellow 00:57:11.200 --> 00:57:16.960 sheep who are simply in error, they are believing openly wicked things, 00:57:16.960 --> 00:57:22.240 demonstrably wicked things, things that have not been believed by any Christian 00:57:22.240 --> 00:57:26.000 at any point in the entire history of the church, and yet 00:57:26.400 --> 00:57:32.480 supposedly, according to these goats, these things are necessary, they are required 00:57:32.480 --> 00:57:34.240 of the Christian. 00:57:34.240 --> 00:57:39.520 If anyone tells you that some novel belief is required of the 00:57:39.520 --> 00:57:42.480 Christian, and that you go to hell if you do not believe 00:57:42.480 --> 00:57:46.560 it? What that person is saying is that everyone who was born 00:57:46.560 --> 00:57:51.200 before this new belief was discovered, probably in the nineteen sixties, is 00:57:51.200 --> 00:57:54.240 in hell. 00:57:54.240 --> 00:57:59.600 That should strike you as so wicked and absurd that you immediately 00:57:59.600 --> 00:58:03.200 know that person is a false teacher. 00:58:03.200 --> 00:58:04.800 That person is wicked. 00:58:04.800 --> 00:58:07.760 He is attempting to do you harm. 00:58:07.760 --> 00:58:11.040 There are some sheep who have been misled, and they should be 00:58:11.040 --> 00:58:16.240 rescued. But those who are teaching these things, they are false teachers. 00:58:16.240 --> 00:58:20.240 You don't rescue wolves, you destroy wolves. 00:58:20.240 --> 00:58:21.600 This is a matter of wisdom. 00:58:21.600 --> 00:58:25.600 You have to be able to distinguish between the sheep, the brother 00:58:25.600 --> 00:58:30.240 who is in error, and the wolf who is seeking to devour. 00:58:30.240 --> 00:58:31.040 As has been said 00:58:31.920 --> 00:58:35.600 by a number of writers in the past, when God sets up 00:58:35.600 --> 00:58:39.840 a church, Satan opens a synagogue next door. 00:58:39.840 --> 00:58:45.120 If only it were so easy, because in reality, he doesn't bother. 00:58:45.120 --> 00:58:50.480 Yes, we have those unfortunately as well, but typically speaking, he just 00:58:50.640 --> 00:58:52.480 infiltrates the church. 00:58:52.480 --> 00:58:54.400 It's much more effective. 00:58:54.400 --> 00:58:58.080 If the attacks come from within the church, that is much more 00:58:58.080 --> 00:59:02.960 effective at dividing and destroying the body of Christ than would be 00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:08.080 an external attack, because sometimes external attacks serve to strengthen unity. 00:59:08.080 --> 00:59:11.920 Internal attacks, so division and discord. 00:59:11.920 --> 00:59:14.000 That is what Satan wants. 00:59:14.000 --> 00:59:18.480 By and large, the world, at this point, doesn't care that much 00:59:18.480 --> 00:59:20.160 about attacking the church. 00:59:20.160 --> 00:59:21.840 Why would it bother? 00:59:22.400 --> 00:59:27.600 The church isn't currently doing anything to challenge the wickedness of the 00:59:27.600 --> 00:59:32.960 world. Why would the secular authorities care to attack the church? 00:59:32.960 --> 00:59:35.760 Why would they enact any persecution? 00:59:35.760 --> 00:59:37.520 It would be totally pointless. 00:59:37.520 --> 00:59:40.000 It would be a waste of effort for them. 00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:45.360 The only time we see the authorities attacking the Church is when 00:59:45.360 --> 00:59:51.280 the authorities are so thoroughly subverted and so extensively wicked that they 00:59:51.280 --> 00:59:54.800 basically serve as the right arm of Satan himself. 00:59:54.800 --> 00:59:58.400 And so of course the Soviet example should come to mind. 00:59:58.400 --> 01:00:00.640 We don't quite have that today. 01:00:00.640 --> 01:00:03.680 And they don't care what the churches are doing, because again, the 01:00:03.680 --> 01:00:05.760 churches aren't really doing anything. 01:00:05.760 --> 01:00:10.080 The churches by and large are parroting all of the things the 01:00:10.080 --> 01:00:11.920 government itself is saying. 01:00:11.920 --> 01:00:14.640 And so the persecution is not external. 01:00:14.640 --> 01:00:19.440 The persecution is from within the church by those claiming to be 01:00:19.440 --> 01:00:24.640 Christian. And they are doing it, whether they are conscious of that 01:00:24.640 --> 01:00:26.240 or unconscious of it. 01:00:26.480 --> 01:00:30.720 They are doing it to subvert the church and to destroy Christ's 01:00:30.720 --> 01:00:32.960 body and devour the sheep. 01:00:32.960 --> 01:00:35.760 That is their goal. 01:00:35.760 --> 01:00:38.560 Now, of course, we know that just because that is their goal, 01:00:38.560 --> 01:00:43.680 because that's been Satan's goal from the beginning He is pure malice, 01:00:43.680 --> 01:00:45.120 as it were. 01:00:45.120 --> 01:00:48.080 We know that Christ promises that he will lose none out of 01:00:48.080 --> 01:00:49.120 his hand. 01:00:49.120 --> 01:00:52.080 And so as Christians we have that comfort. 01:00:52.080 --> 01:00:55.520 We know that not one of the elect will fall away. 01:00:55.680 --> 01:00:58.560 So, yes, these things are important. 01:00:58.560 --> 01:01:00.800 Yes, they are a matter of concern. 01:01:00.800 --> 01:01:04.640 Yes, they are something we have to recognize and we have to 01:01:04.640 --> 01:01:08.640 combat. But they are not something about which we should worry in 01:01:08.640 --> 01:01:12.960 that sort of teleological or eschatological sense. 01:01:12.960 --> 01:01:15.760 We don't worry about the outcome. 01:01:15.760 --> 01:01:20.720 We have a healthy concern for the things here and now, the 01:01:20.720 --> 01:01:23.920 things that it is our duty to address. 01:01:23.920 --> 01:01:26.320 But the outcome belongs to God. 01:01:26.320 --> 01:01:28.800 We don't have to worry about that outcome. 01:01:28.800 --> 01:01:33.040 And so just because we're doing an episode on persecution and perseverance, 01:01:33.440 --> 01:01:36.560 Doesn't mean you need to worry about the persecution of the church. 01:01:36.560 --> 01:01:38.480 It's not a matter for worrying. 01:01:38.480 --> 01:01:42.960 By and large, the recommendation is Christians should not worry. 01:01:43.200 --> 01:01:46.800 There's a fine line there, of course, between having an appropriate level 01:01:46.800 --> 01:01:49.680 of concern for something and worrying about it. 01:01:49.680 --> 01:01:52.800 Because obviously again we have to be concerned. 01:01:52.800 --> 01:01:54.160 There are wolves. 01:01:54.160 --> 01:01:56.160 There are wolves in sheep's clothing. 01:01:56.160 --> 01:01:58.960 There are goats mixed in among the sheep. 01:01:58.960 --> 01:02:02.880 Particularly as men we have a duty to recognize these things and 01:02:02.880 --> 01:02:04.640 to defend against them. 01:02:04.640 --> 01:02:08.240 Because as a man there are shot sheep entrusted to your care. 01:02:08.240 --> 01:02:11.920 If you're a husband, that's your wife, if you're a father, that's 01:02:11.840 --> 01:02:12.560 your children. 01:02:12.560 --> 01:02:16.960 If you're a grandfather, that's your children, and hopefully your grandchildren, whatever 01:02:16.960 --> 01:02:19.920 number of them happen to be there. 01:02:19.920 --> 01:02:22.640 You have very real duties. 01:02:22.640 --> 01:02:24.400 You have to take them seriously. 01:02:24.400 --> 01:02:29.520 You have to recognize that these problems exist in the churches, not 01:02:29.520 --> 01:02:31.840 simply as an external threat. 01:02:31.840 --> 01:02:36.080 In fact, by and large, there is very little external threat from 01:02:36.080 --> 01:02:38.960 certain authorities right now at this juncture. 01:02:39.200 --> 01:02:42.160 Because again, the government doesn't care. 01:02:42.160 --> 01:02:47.360 There's no reason to expend the effort in persecuting the churches when 01:02:47.360 --> 01:02:49.920 they'll do it to themselves. 01:02:49.920 --> 01:02:54.640 If your enemy is making a mistake, don't interrupt him. 01:02:54.640 --> 01:02:58.080 Very simple rule, very effective. 01:02:58.080 --> 01:03:00.480 The enemy certainly follows it. 01:03:00.480 --> 01:03:03.680 But again, as Christian men, we have these duties, and so we 01:03:03.680 --> 01:03:07.520 have to recognize the reality of what is going on. 01:03:07.520 --> 01:03:10.720 And so as men we have to recognize that this persecution is 01:03:10.720 --> 01:03:12.720 coming from within the churches. 01:03:12.720 --> 01:03:15.120 It's not a matter of the external, it is a matter of 01:03:15.200 --> 01:03:17.120 the internal. 01:03:17.120 --> 01:03:21.680 And so we have to be able to identify the sheep and 01:03:21.680 --> 01:03:27.040 identify the goats, and particularly identify the wolves in sheep's clothing, because 01:03:27.040 --> 01:03:29.520 they are there to devour and destroy the sheep. 01:03:30.080 --> 01:03:33.760 And if we don't do this, no one else is going to 01:03:33.760 --> 01:03:34.640 do it. 01:03:34.640 --> 01:03:39.760 This persecution will continue and it will grow. 01:03:39.760 --> 01:03:42.400 Look at the state of the churches today. 01:03:42.400 --> 01:03:45.920 Very few churches and certainly no church bodies can be said to 01:03:45.920 --> 01:03:49.520 be in good order, or healthy, or doing well. 01:03:49.520 --> 01:03:52.000 There are exceptions here and there, of course. 01:03:52.000 --> 01:03:55.520 But we should take this as a warning. 01:03:55.520 --> 01:04:00.400 It is possible for entire nations to fall away. 01:04:00.400 --> 01:04:02.400 We have seen that throughout history. 01:04:02.400 --> 01:04:05.600 It is possible for entire regions to be lost. 01:04:05.600 --> 01:04:08.720 Anatolia should come to mind to mind. 01:04:08.720 --> 01:04:14.080 The persecution from within the church is at least as salient and 01:04:14.080 --> 01:04:18.800 often more salient than the persecution from without the church. 01:04:18.800 --> 01:04:22.800 Because the persecution from within the church is often more difficult to 01:04:22.800 --> 01:04:27.440 recognize, because those who are persecuting the sheep seeking to devour them 01:04:27.440 --> 01:04:31.120 from within the church pose as Christians. 01:04:31.120 --> 01:04:34.880 And so some will say, well, he says he's a Christian, he 01:04:34.880 --> 01:04:39.520 confesses the creeds with me, he says all the right words. 01:04:39.520 --> 01:04:41.840 But then you have to look at the other things that he 01:04:41.840 --> 01:04:45.360 says, and you have to look at the things that he does. 01:04:45.360 --> 01:04:50.880 Because Christians are going to respond in a certain way, and goats 01:04:50.880 --> 01:04:52.800 are going to respond in another. 01:04:52.800 --> 01:04:58.160 Again, when faced with a disagreement, when faced with a man who 01:04:58.160 --> 01:04:59.360 says, I don't believe that's right 01:05:00.320 --> 01:05:04.160 or I think that's wrong, the sheep will look to the Word 01:05:04.160 --> 01:05:08.000 of God, the sheep will look to the things where the truth 01:05:08.000 --> 01:05:13.840 can be found, and assess the comment Assess the contention, assess the 01:05:13.840 --> 01:05:16.800 argument. The goat will not. 01:05:16.800 --> 01:05:18.560 The goat will attack. 01:05:18.560 --> 01:05:21.840 The wolf in particular will attack. 01:05:21.840 --> 01:05:25.760 Because that is Satan acting through his agents. 01:05:25.760 --> 01:05:29.120 The goal for the goat, the goal for the wolf, is not 01:05:29.120 --> 01:05:33.120 truth. The goal for the sheep must always be truth. 01:05:33.120 --> 01:05:36.640 And so look carefully at how men respond to these things, the 01:05:36.640 --> 01:05:38.480 tact that they take. 01:05:38.480 --> 01:05:42.720 Because Christians will act one way, and those who are only pretending 01:05:42.720 --> 01:05:44.080 will act another 01:05:45.440 --> 01:05:49.440 beginning of this year we did a five-part series beginning with true 01:05:49.440 --> 01:05:55.200 religion and following on with the Judaizing heresy, the Gnostic Heresy, apostasy, 01:05:55.200 --> 01:05:59.040 and then finishing with Galatians three twenty eight, where w we laid 01:05:59.200 --> 01:06:02.480 out over the course of those five episodes a lot of what 01:06:02.480 --> 01:06:07.280 we're saying here in different words, namely, you can judge what a 01:06:07.280 --> 01:06:10.560 man's true religion is by what he'll go to war for. 01:06:10.560 --> 01:06:14.480 And this is the proof within the churches today. 01:06:14.480 --> 01:06:18.560 Men who will identify things as Corey was saying that didn't exist 01:06:18.640 --> 01:06:21.680 several hundred years ago and say this is a test of the 01:06:21.680 --> 01:06:24.880 faith. They are confessing their true faith. 01:06:24.880 --> 01:06:27.520 They are not confessing the Christian faith. 01:06:27.520 --> 01:06:29.840 And that's the hard part, because they're saying I'm doing it in 01:06:29.840 --> 01:06:31.040 the name of God. 01:06:31.040 --> 01:06:34.160 I had a series of posts yesterday and today on XO and 01:06:34.320 --> 01:06:35.120 repeat here. 01:06:35.120 --> 01:06:37.200 A lot of people say, Oh, well the you know, the podcast 01:06:37.280 --> 01:06:40.320 says one thing and their timelines on social media say another. 01:06:40.320 --> 01:06:42.880 No. They're exactly the same thing. 01:06:42.880 --> 01:06:46.320 The only difference is that what will fit in 280 characters is 01:06:46.320 --> 01:06:48.720 not the same as what will fit in two hours. 01:06:48.720 --> 01:06:52.080 And a lot of things that we say on social media are 01:06:52.080 --> 01:06:54.800 distilled versions of what, you know, some of them could be two 01:06:54.880 --> 01:06:55.600 hour episodes. 01:06:55.760 --> 01:06:58.480 Some of them be 15 or 20 minute episodes because they're so 01:06:58.480 --> 01:07:03.280 obvious. But putting in 280 characters is a distillation that is a 01:07:03.280 --> 01:07:07.680 trap for those who are faithless, for those who do not understand 01:07:07.680 --> 01:07:08.720 what's going on. 01:07:08.720 --> 01:07:12.000 And so the reason that people get so upset about the distillations 01:07:12.000 --> 01:07:14.640 where they listen to the episodes like that was fine, is if 01:07:14.640 --> 01:07:16.000 they're not thinking clearly. 01:07:16.000 --> 01:07:18.800 And one of the reasons for us doing that is to illustrate 01:07:18.960 --> 01:07:22.560 some of you are not either thinking clearly or not capable of 01:07:22.560 --> 01:07:23.440 thinking clearly. 01:07:23.440 --> 01:07:27.040 And for those of you who are capable and just failing, we 01:07:27.040 --> 01:07:28.480 exhort you to do better. 01:07:28.480 --> 01:07:30.080 So here's an example of that. 01:07:30.080 --> 01:07:33.360 That's also a summation of the five episodes from earlier. 01:07:33.360 --> 01:07:38.400 First I posted you can go to heaven with eighteenth century beliefs. 01:07:38.400 --> 01:07:42.720 This is so obvious that no Christian can actually argue against it. 01:07:42.720 --> 01:07:45.760 To say that it's false that you can go to heaven with 01:07:45.760 --> 01:07:49.040 eighteenth century beliefs is necessarily to say that there is a new 01:07:49.040 --> 01:07:53.200 religion that came after the eighteenth century that they weren't aware of 01:07:53.440 --> 01:07:56.560 and therefore they couldn't possibly be saved. 01:07:57.040 --> 01:08:00.080 After a little while I posted a corollary to this, which is 01:08:00.240 --> 01:08:04.640 you can go to heaven while explicitly rejecting every value or belief 01:08:04.640 --> 01:08:08.080 invented or changed after the eighteenth century. 01:08:08.080 --> 01:08:10.720 So there the trap is unfolding. 01:08:10.720 --> 01:08:13.760 If everyone in the eighteenth century who is a Christian can be 01:08:13.760 --> 01:08:19.840 in heaven, then their views which necessarily rejected values and beliefs that 01:08:19.840 --> 01:08:21.920 were invented later, that's fine. 01:08:21.920 --> 01:08:25.120 They can be in heaven rejecting things that came later. 01:08:25.120 --> 01:08:28.000 And then I gave the summation today this morning. 01:08:28.000 --> 01:08:31.120 You can go to heaven if you reject the equality of races 01:08:31.120 --> 01:08:34.240 and sexes, if you demand that everyone in your country is a 01:08:34.240 --> 01:08:38.480 blood relation, if you support making all sexual marital acts outside of 01:08:38.480 --> 01:08:40.960 these bounds a felony, and so forth. 01:08:40.960 --> 01:08:43.840 God rewarded all the generations who did so. 01:08:43.840 --> 01:08:47.120 And that's a trap fully springing, because that is the entire fight 01:08:47.120 --> 01:08:50.160 today. All of those things are the things that make people lose 01:08:50.160 --> 01:08:52.240 their minds about the things that we say. 01:08:52.240 --> 01:08:55.920 All we're doing is presenting a defense of A what is scripturally 01:08:55.920 --> 01:09:00.560 true, B, what is revealed in nature to be true, and C 01:09:00.640 --> 01:09:04.480 what every Christian believed until about five minutes ago. 01:09:04.480 --> 01:09:08.000 It wasn't until these new sins weren't invented in the last century, 01:09:08.000 --> 01:09:11.920 or worse the last two century, that anyone disagreed with the things 01:09:11.920 --> 01:09:12.800 that we believe. 01:09:12.800 --> 01:09:16.480 And yet today there is a long list of men who seek 01:09:16.480 --> 01:09:20.000 our physical destruction for saying things that are a defense of Christians 01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:22.000 who've been dead for hundreds of years. 01:09:22.000 --> 01:09:26.560 Christians who are in heaven, who are sainted, who have every reason 01:09:26.560 --> 01:09:31.680 to have their names upheld as perfect examples of the faith lived. 01:09:31.680 --> 01:09:35.600 Not that they were perfect men, but that their perfection in Christ 01:09:35.600 --> 01:09:39.440 was by his blood, and it was not contravened by their confession, 01:09:39.440 --> 01:09:43.680 even when their confession was racist, even when their confession was sexist, 01:09:43.680 --> 01:09:45.840 even when their confession was nationalist. 01:09:45.840 --> 01:09:48.160 Those guys are in heaven too, because you know what? 01:09:48.160 --> 01:09:49.440 That was everybody. 01:09:49.440 --> 01:09:53.920 None of this crap that has the world attacking Christians today even 01:09:53.920 --> 01:09:56.320 existed in the eighteenth century. 01:09:56.320 --> 01:09:57.520 Didn't exist. 01:09:57.520 --> 01:10:01.040 It was a follow-on from the Enlightenment, which came before the 18th 01:10:01.040 --> 01:10:04.480 century, but it hadn't come to its fruition. 01:10:04.480 --> 01:10:07.200 Those men are in heaven, and you can go to heaven if 01:10:07.200 --> 01:10:08.000 you agree with them. 01:10:08.080 --> 01:10:09.600 It's just that simple. 01:10:09.600 --> 01:10:11.520 And see how dividing that is? 01:10:11.520 --> 01:10:15.360 That doesn't take a two-hour episode, and we've spent a hundred hours 01:10:15.360 --> 01:10:19.040 in various aspects of Stone Choir laying out the bits and pieces 01:10:19.040 --> 01:10:19.920 of that. 01:10:19.920 --> 01:10:22.640 But the bottom line is you can go to heaven if you 01:10:22.640 --> 01:10:24.800 have eighteenth century beliefs. 01:10:24.800 --> 01:10:26.400 And I picked that for a specific reason. 01:10:26.400 --> 01:10:29.760 I would you could draw the line elsewhere, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, I 01:10:29.760 --> 01:10:32.160 could do a whole series of posts that'd be redundant. 01:10:32.160 --> 01:10:36.640 But I picked eighteenth century because it was before slavery was abolished. 01:10:36.640 --> 01:10:40.960 It was before feminism, all the things that incidentally we've done episodes 01:10:40.960 --> 01:10:45.760 about, before all those things were attacks on Christendom, they were Christians. 01:10:45.760 --> 01:10:48.480 They rejected the things that Corey and I reject and that we 01:10:48.480 --> 01:10:51.920 exhort you to reject in the name of God, because it is 01:10:51.920 --> 01:10:55.200 false, it is wicked, it is a new religion. 01:10:55.200 --> 01:10:59.440 And the dividing line that we face today is that the churches 01:10:59.440 --> 01:11:02.640 are full of men who hold a new religion. 01:11:02.640 --> 01:11:04.960 The series at the beginning of this year that I just went 01:11:04.960 --> 01:11:07.440 over briefly was about that new religion. 01:11:07.440 --> 01:11:11.360 You know, the reason we did the episode on Gnosticism and Judaizing 01:11:11.440 --> 01:11:12.880 is that it's old stuff. 01:11:12.880 --> 01:11:16.960 These are ancient heresies that have come roaring back. 01:11:16.960 --> 01:11:20.960 Satan is unleashed, and he is running the boards right now inside 01:11:20.960 --> 01:11:24.480 the church as Christ promised that would occur. 01:11:24.480 --> 01:11:26.560 Listen to this in First Peter four. 01:11:26.560 --> 01:11:29.760 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes 01:11:29.760 --> 01:11:32.960 upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to 01:11:32.960 --> 01:11:36.800 you, but rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that 01:11:36.960 --> 01:11:40.400 you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 01:11:40.400 --> 01:11:43.600 If you are insulted for the name of Christ you are blessed, 01:11:43.600 --> 01:11:47.440 because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 01:11:47.440 --> 01:11:49.840 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief 01:11:49.920 --> 01:11:51.600 or an evildoer or a meddler. 01:11:51.600 --> 01:11:55.120 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him be not ashamed, 01:11:55.520 --> 01:11:58.880 but let him glorify God in that name, for it was time 01:11:58.880 --> 01:12:01.840 for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it 01:12:01.840 --> 01:12:04.400 begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do 01:12:04.400 --> 01:12:07.120 not obey the gospel of God? 01:12:07.120 --> 01:12:11.120 For those who do not obey the gospel of God, choke on 01:12:11.120 --> 01:12:12.800 that, Lutherans. 01:12:12.800 --> 01:12:16.880 And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the 01:12:16.880 --> 01:12:18.480 ungodly and the sinner? 01:12:18.480 --> 01:12:21.760 Therefore let those who suffer, according to God's will and trust their 01:12:22.240 --> 01:12:25.520 souls to a faithful creator while doing good. 01:12:25.520 --> 01:12:26.800 That's the gist of it. 01:12:26.800 --> 01:12:30.240 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will and trust their 01:12:30.240 --> 01:12:33.440 souls to the faithful Creator while doing good. 01:12:33.440 --> 01:12:36.480 You show up, you live a Christian life, and you leave the 01:12:36.480 --> 01:12:37.520 rest to God. 01:12:37.520 --> 01:12:40.080 If you're persecuted, give thanks. 01:12:40.080 --> 01:12:41.680 Know that it is a blessing. 01:12:41.680 --> 01:12:45.200 Don't welcome it as, oh great, this one, I want more persecution 01:12:45.200 --> 01:12:45.840 in the world. 01:12:45.840 --> 01:12:47.680 I want to see more Christians persecuted. 01:12:47.680 --> 01:12:49.680 I want them to be blessed like I am. 01:12:49.680 --> 01:12:52.160 No, it's absolutely evil. 01:12:52.160 --> 01:12:55.440 The point is that God will use the evil of these wicked 01:12:55.440 --> 01:12:59.760 men inside the church to glorify his name and to show the 01:12:59.760 --> 01:13:02.400 division between the sheep and the goats. 01:13:02.400 --> 01:13:05.920 Because these matters, which today many men think are eh, I don't 01:13:05.840 --> 01:13:06.880 really want to have an opinion. 01:13:06.880 --> 01:13:10.160 Like this is some of the stuff is strident and there are 01:13:10.160 --> 01:13:11.600 no books I can read about this. 01:13:11.600 --> 01:13:14.160 I'm not sure I can know what to believe. 01:13:14.160 --> 01:13:16.160 Okay, maybe you just need to check out. 01:13:16.160 --> 01:13:18.960 But don't hold an opinion one way or another. 01:13:18.960 --> 01:13:22.800 These divisions have come because this is the state of the world. 01:13:22.800 --> 01:13:27.200 This is again this is coming from outside the world in outside 01:13:27.280 --> 01:13:29.920 in the world into the church. 01:13:29.920 --> 01:13:33.040 That's a case that we make almost every week. 01:13:33.040 --> 01:13:37.680 Satan's new global religion is imported by false prophets into the 01:13:38.560 --> 01:13:43.120 church, they pick up garbage off the sidewalk, they bring it in, 01:13:43.120 --> 01:13:46.560 they polish it, they sprinkle some Jesus dust on it, and they 01:13:46.560 --> 01:13:50.880 say, Look what God said over and over and over again. 01:13:50.880 --> 01:13:53.200 And then if you say, well, I don't want this thing you 01:13:53.200 --> 01:13:54.640 picked off the sidebook. 01:13:54.640 --> 01:13:57.440 I want what the saints have believed for a thousand years, for 01:13:57.440 --> 01:13:59.520 two thousand years, for three thousand years. 01:13:59.760 --> 01:14:00.880 no, no, you can't have that. 01:14:00.880 --> 01:14:01.600 They had slaves. 01:14:01.600 --> 01:14:02.080 They're evil. 01:14:02.080 --> 01:14:02.800 They're in hell. 01:14:02.800 --> 01:14:04.720 Are they all in hell? 01:14:04.720 --> 01:14:06.480 And then we're off to the races. 01:14:06.480 --> 01:14:08.400 This is the division. 01:14:08.400 --> 01:14:13.120 The new global religion is going to persecute inside the church just 01:14:13.120 --> 01:14:14.480 as it does in the world. 01:14:14.480 --> 01:14:18.160 There are all sorts of worldly examples, entirely outside the realm of 01:14:18.080 --> 01:14:20.320 the church where we see persecution. 01:14:20.320 --> 01:14:22.880 Those are pretty easy to see in most cases. 01:14:22.880 --> 01:14:24.640 COVID was a prime example. 01:14:24.640 --> 01:14:26.160 Churches were shuttered. 01:14:26.160 --> 01:14:30.480 People had limitations on how many saints could be inside a church. 01:14:30.480 --> 01:14:35.520 Churches were banned from singing, from praising God with their mouths. 01:14:35.520 --> 01:14:37.680 That was persecution of the saints. 01:14:37.680 --> 01:14:41.760 It was wicked, and we were tested, and almost without fail, we 01:14:41.760 --> 01:14:43.360 failed. I failed. 01:14:43.360 --> 01:14:47.200 We all failed to see at that time precisely how wicked that 01:14:47.200 --> 01:14:48.640 was. What do we do? 01:14:48.640 --> 01:14:49.440 We repent. 01:14:49.440 --> 01:14:51.680 We say, look at all the ways that we failed when we 01:14:51.680 --> 01:14:53.360 were tested we didn't know. 01:14:53.360 --> 01:14:55.760 If you happen to get a perfect score on that test, God 01:14:55.760 --> 01:14:56.400 bless you. 01:14:56.400 --> 01:14:58.080 Be an example to everybody else. 01:14:58.080 --> 01:15:01.120 But for the rest of us who got something or everything wrong, 01:15:01.120 --> 01:15:02.640 it's not the end of the world. 01:15:02.640 --> 01:15:05.840 You throw yourself on Christ's mercy, you repent, and you don't let 01:15:05.840 --> 01:15:07.120 it happen again. 01:15:07.120 --> 01:15:10.800 You know that that persecution, when it comes, your duty to God 01:15:10.960 --> 01:15:13.680 exceeds your duty to the law. 01:15:13.680 --> 01:15:16.560 Especially when the laws aren't even legal. 01:15:16.560 --> 01:15:19.200 There's a time and a place for a Christian to submit to 01:15:19.200 --> 01:15:22.000 persecution, and there's a time and a place to fight it. 01:15:22.160 --> 01:15:23.520 We're not going to get into that today. 01:15:23.520 --> 01:15:24.480 It's not the point. 01:15:24.480 --> 01:15:27.200 The point is that it's easy when you see it coming from 01:15:27.280 --> 01:15:31.600 you know your local Stasi when they're saying what you can and 01:15:31.600 --> 01:15:33.200 can't do inside your church. 01:15:33.200 --> 01:15:35.600 It's easy to see if that's persecution. 01:15:35.600 --> 01:15:39.280 It's very much harder when it's your own pastor, when it's your 01:15:39.280 --> 01:15:44.480 own elders, when it's all the ladies downstairs after church gossiping about 01:15:44.480 --> 01:15:46.880 something that they heard and that they don't want to make sure 01:15:46.880 --> 01:15:50.000 it doesn't happen in their church because they've been doing things the 01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:52.160 right way for a long time and they they don't know what's 01:15:52.160 --> 01:15:53.920 going on, but it's not good. 01:15:53.920 --> 01:15:56.320 Scripture is the judge of all of us. 01:15:56.320 --> 01:15:58.400 God is the judge of all of us. 01:15:58.400 --> 01:16:03.680 These fights have come because this is Satan's last gasp at destroying 01:16:03.680 --> 01:16:06.080 what is left of Christianity. 01:16:06.080 --> 01:16:08.320 And he's doing an incredibly good job. 01:16:08.320 --> 01:16:11.760 Not because he's that bright, it's because we're that faithless. 01:16:11.760 --> 01:16:15.440 We're so lazy that we look to these things that are happening. 01:16:15.440 --> 01:16:16.960 It's like, oh, that's great. 01:16:16.960 --> 01:16:19.680 Some Jew pops up in the 60s and says, hey, ladies in 01:16:19.680 --> 01:16:21.760 church, burn your head coverings. 01:16:21.760 --> 01:16:24.240 And all the girls in church, like, yeah, we should do that. 01:16:24.240 --> 01:16:25.600 We should burn the head coverings. 01:16:25.600 --> 01:16:27.840 Download the patriarchy. 01:16:27.840 --> 01:16:30.080 That happened in our churches. 01:16:30.080 --> 01:16:31.760 Who was assaulting there? 01:16:31.760 --> 01:16:34.960 It was a Jew, it was Satan, and it was the churches 01:16:34.960 --> 01:16:38.720 themselves. It was rebellion openly in the churches. 01:16:38.720 --> 01:16:41.920 The only way to restore the Christian church is to turn all 01:16:41.920 --> 01:16:45.280 of that back, to say that the nineteen sixties were wicked. 01:16:45.280 --> 01:16:50.640 Anything that is a product of the nineteen sixties, legally, morally, doctrinally, 01:16:50.640 --> 01:16:52.400 is per se wicked. 01:16:52.400 --> 01:16:54.160 None of it is Christian. 01:16:54.160 --> 01:16:57.280 You can draw that line without a second thought, and you will 01:16:57.280 --> 01:17:00.320 be right every single time. 01:17:00.320 --> 01:17:02.800 When you look at things this way, when you look at things 01:17:02.800 --> 01:17:05.360 starkly, and then just side just does it work? 01:17:05.520 --> 01:17:07.440 you don't have to necessarily agree. 01:17:07.440 --> 01:17:09.520 Again, as we often say, I don't want to just agree with 01:17:09.520 --> 01:17:10.560 the things that we say. 01:17:10.560 --> 01:17:11.840 Use it as a test. 01:17:11.840 --> 01:17:15.120 Assume for the sake of argument that we're right. 01:17:15.120 --> 01:17:17.360 If so, does it hold up? 01:17:17.360 --> 01:17:19.600 When you look at the new doctrines and you look at the 01:17:19.600 --> 01:17:23.680 old doctrines and you look at scripture, which one wins? 01:17:23.680 --> 01:17:25.200 Every single time. 01:17:25.200 --> 01:17:28.320 The old ways win because they were Christian. 01:17:28.320 --> 01:17:30.240 The new ways are rebellion. 01:17:30.240 --> 01:17:33.360 And it's not simply that new ways were introduced into the church, 01:17:33.360 --> 01:17:37.760 it's that when men resist, those men are hated, they're shouted down, 01:17:37.760 --> 01:17:42.560 they're persecuted, they're reviled for the sake of the Son of Man, 01:17:42.560 --> 01:17:44.480 without exception. 01:17:44.480 --> 01:17:47.520 And And as I said earlier, it's never glorious. 01:17:47.520 --> 01:17:50.160 It's never oh what a faithful stand. 01:17:50.160 --> 01:17:54.080 It makes me sick today when people point to Martin Luther saying, 01:17:54.080 --> 01:17:56.960 Here I stand and they thump their chest and say, I'm just 01:17:56.960 --> 01:17:57.680 like him. 01:17:57.680 --> 01:17:59.280 None of these men are just like him. 01:17:59.280 --> 01:18:01.360 These are the men who are trying to have him killed. 01:18:01.360 --> 01:18:03.920 These are the men who if they had known who Junker Jorg 01:18:03.920 --> 01:18:05.600 was, they would have ratted him out. 01:18:05.600 --> 01:18:08.000 They would have collected the bounty on his head. 01:18:08.000 --> 01:18:12.000 Because doxing and murdering Christian men is a sacrament. 01:18:12.000 --> 01:18:14.400 He is a sacrament in this religion. 01:18:14.400 --> 01:18:15.840 You see it everywhere now. 01:18:15.840 --> 01:18:16.960 We see it rampant. 01:18:16.960 --> 01:18:20.160 If you're not on social media, you're lucky because the volume of 01:18:20.160 --> 01:18:25.760 wickedness that's been unleashed about these questions is it's shocking. 01:18:25.760 --> 01:18:29.360 It's genuinely shocking how open the malice is. 01:18:29.360 --> 01:18:30.640 I knew it was there. 01:18:30.640 --> 01:18:32.640 I knew that this wickedness was there. 01:18:32.640 --> 01:18:36.320 I have been shocked at how mask off all of these men 01:18:36.320 --> 01:18:41.120 have become across denominations, across all sorts of historical battle lines. 01:18:41.120 --> 01:18:45.520 You got all sorts of Baptist and Reformed and Lutheran gathered together 01:18:45.520 --> 01:18:49.920 at the same trough saying, Yes, stone these men. 01:18:49.920 --> 01:18:51.680 There's a reason for that. 01:18:51.920 --> 01:18:55.360 The reason is the same reason that all those guys say Bonhoeffer 01:18:55.360 --> 01:18:56.240 is a saint. 01:18:56.240 --> 01:19:00.400 By the time this episode is out, this Friday, the Bonhoeffer movie 01:19:00.400 --> 01:19:01.440 is going to be released. 01:19:01.440 --> 01:19:04.560 Please go listen to that episode so that you can share with 01:19:04.560 --> 01:19:05.280 your friends. 01:19:05.280 --> 01:19:07.600 Bun offer is going to be coming up all over the place 01:19:07.600 --> 01:19:08.400 from now on. 01:19:08.400 --> 01:19:12.480 They're reinserting this brand new martyr that was invented in the 21st 01:19:12.480 --> 01:19:15.520 century because he is necessary for the new global religion. 01:19:15.520 --> 01:19:19.120 Pointing to a man who is an assassin, who was a traitor, 01:19:19.120 --> 01:19:22.960 who is a murderer, who is a blasphemer, who was not remotely 01:19:22.960 --> 01:19:26.480 Christian, saying, Yes, this is the kind of Christianity we want. 01:19:26.480 --> 01:19:27.840 It's in all of our churches. 01:19:27.840 --> 01:19:32.000 You'll find books and pamphlets about Bonhoeffer in your church Narthex, and 01:19:32.000 --> 01:19:34.560 your pastor's got books about Bonhoeffer on a shelf. 01:19:34.560 --> 01:19:37.520 It doesn't matter what religion he or what denomination he is, everybody 01:19:37.520 --> 01:19:39.200 likes Bonhoeffer. 01:19:39.200 --> 01:19:40.400 That has a reason. 01:19:40.400 --> 01:19:41.600 We already addressed it. 01:19:41.600 --> 01:19:43.760 How do we beat that to the punch by over a year? 01:19:43.760 --> 01:19:45.520 Because it's obvious. 01:19:45.520 --> 01:19:47.680 This is Satan's attack. 01:19:47.680 --> 01:19:52.720 This is Satan's persecution of the church, inside the church, and by 01:19:52.720 --> 01:19:53.760 the church. 01:19:53.920 --> 01:19:56.480 There's no escaping for a faithful Christian. 01:19:56.480 --> 01:19:58.000 Where do you escape? 01:19:58.080 --> 01:20:01.600 If you leave your church and then you just abandon God, that's 01:20:01.600 --> 01:20:03.280 what Satan wants. 01:20:03.280 --> 01:20:07.600 If you're destroyed where you stand, that's what Satan wants to. 01:20:07.600 --> 01:20:12.080 Satan wants men devouring each other, hating each other, hating the name 01:20:12.080 --> 01:20:13.280 of Christ. 01:20:13.280 --> 01:20:15.040 These are dark times. 01:20:15.040 --> 01:20:19.600 I'm sorry to have to deliver a bleak message in strident talk 01:20:20.080 --> 01:20:23.200 and bad news, but I'm not gonna lie to you. 01:20:23.200 --> 01:20:24.800 I don't care if you hate me. 01:20:24.800 --> 01:20:26.720 I care if you don't know what's going on. 01:20:26.720 --> 01:20:28.880 I would rather be the guy that pulled the fire alarm and 01:20:28.880 --> 01:20:31.360 made loud noises and made you aggravated. 01:20:31.600 --> 01:20:34.000 At least you get up out of your chair, because the alternative 01:20:34.000 --> 01:20:34.240 is 01:20:34.240 --> 01:20:38.960 burning. Part of the foundation for 01:20:39.920 --> 01:20:43.680 essentially all of this modern persecution in the church 01:20:44.800 --> 01:20:50.000 is the false belief In what is called progress. 01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:53.280 This comes from a number of sources, and we will undoubtedly get 01:20:53.280 --> 01:20:56.640 into this in greater depth in future episodes. 01:20:56.640 --> 01:21:02.560 But one salient source is of course Darwinism. 01:21:02.560 --> 01:21:08.560 Now it's a fundamental misunderstanding of Darwinism, whether the classical or the 01:21:08.560 --> 01:21:13.200 neo-version, it doesn't really matter, any of the formulations. 01:21:13.200 --> 01:21:20.480 But there is this idea that Darwinism means that life progresses, becomes 01:21:20.480 --> 01:21:23.120 better, greater in some way. 01:21:23.120 --> 01:21:27.360 Ignore that that's impossible in a materialist system. 01:21:27.360 --> 01:21:32.480 But the argument that these things become better over time, there's progress. 01:21:32.480 --> 01:21:37.360 You go from pawn scum to man if you only have enough 01:21:37.360 --> 01:21:40.960 years. Billions of years. 01:21:40.960 --> 01:21:44.640 Now, of course, that's absurd, and we took that apart in a 01:21:44.640 --> 01:21:46.880 previous episode. 01:21:46.880 --> 01:21:53.680 But that has been imported into our culture, into our societal consciousness, 01:21:53.680 --> 01:22:00.160 as it were, there is a belief among many, most, in fact, 01:22:00.160 --> 01:22:03.200 that our ancestors were primitive 01:22:04.080 --> 01:22:11.440 that they had these quaint, antiquated, sometimes wicked beliefs about things, 01:22:11.440 --> 01:22:15.600 that they were simply wrong on so many things, and we are 01:22:15.920 --> 01:22:20.960 right, and we are enlightened, and so we can make it a 01:22:20.960 --> 01:22:25.760 tenet of our religion, that slavery is wrong. 01:22:25.760 --> 01:22:29.200 We can make it a tenet of our religion, that women are 01:22:29.200 --> 01:22:33.280 equal to men, and that all men are equal to all other 01:22:33.280 --> 01:22:39.040 men. We can make it a tenant of our religion, that we 01:22:39.040 --> 01:22:42.880 should tear down hierarchy because of that equality. 01:22:43.120 --> 01:22:47.440 that we should tear down distinctions between the sexes because of that 01:22:47.440 --> 01:22:52.880 equality. And on and on and on the list is virtually endless. 01:22:52.880 --> 01:22:59.440 It's this belief in progress, so called, that undergirds this persecution in 01:22:59.440 --> 01:23:00.640 the church. 01:23:00.640 --> 01:23:05.840 Because to a man, those engaged in this persecution believe in that 01:23:05.840 --> 01:23:07.120 sort of progress. 01:23:07.120 --> 01:23:12.160 Whether they do it consciously or unconsciously really doesn't matter. 01:23:12.160 --> 01:23:15.440 Because it's what they ultimately believe. 01:23:15.440 --> 01:23:20.960 It's the same ridiculous notion as believing that our ancestors lived in 01:23:20.960 --> 01:23:24.960 caves, and we are so much more enlightened because we live in 01:23:24.960 --> 01:23:32.160 houses. That's false, and provably so, not just logically, rationally, but also 01:23:32.160 --> 01:23:35.040 archaeologically we know that's not the case. 01:23:35.040 --> 01:23:41.520 But it's these sorts of ridiculous nonsensical beliefs that undergird the worldview 01:23:41.520 --> 01:23:45.600 that enables these men to engage in this persecution with what passes 01:23:45.600 --> 01:23:47.360 for a clean conscience. 01:23:47.360 --> 01:23:52.080 Of course, in most cases it's simply so seared that it's impossible 01:23:52.080 --> 01:23:54.560 to judge whether or not what they're doing is with a clean 01:23:54.560 --> 01:23:58.640 conscience because they no longer have one effectively. 01:23:58.640 --> 01:24:01.760 But another layer of this in the modern world, another thing that 01:24:01.760 --> 01:24:05.200 feeds into this belief, is that we do in fact 01:24:05.200 --> 01:24:08.000 see progress of a different kind. 01:24:08.000 --> 01:24:11.600 We see technological progress, we see industrial 01:24:11.600 --> 01:24:15.760 progress, and so as we record this, I'm holding a pen that 01:24:15.760 --> 01:24:18.880 could not have been made a thousand years ago. 01:24:18.880 --> 01:24:22.160 It has materials in it that didn't exist. 01:24:22.160 --> 01:24:26.960 It was made using technologies of which no man had yet conceived. 01:24:26.960 --> 01:24:30.560 Even the metallurgy that went into the nib was beyond the reach 01:24:30.560 --> 01:24:33.360 of men a thousand years ago. 01:24:33.360 --> 01:24:33.920 And so 01:24:33.920 --> 01:24:38.320 technological progress is very much a real thing. 01:24:38.320 --> 01:24:44.480 But the men who made these things did not themselves progress. 01:24:44.480 --> 01:24:49.440 Because progress in that sense doesn't exist. 01:24:49.440 --> 01:24:56.160 There is no biological progress, so no Darwinian evolution, no progress in 01:24:56.160 --> 01:24:57.280 that sense. 01:24:57.280 --> 01:25:02.160 And there isn't a moral progress, as among men. 01:25:02.160 --> 01:25:04.160 Conflating technological progress 01:25:04.640 --> 01:25:08.560 with these other sorts of so-called progress is how you wind up 01:25:08.560 --> 01:25:12.800 with such a perverse and perverted worldview that you can justify to 01:25:12.800 --> 01:25:16.320 yourself, at least, the sorts of things that these persecutors of the 01:25:16.320 --> 01:25:18.480 brethren believe. 01:25:18.480 --> 01:25:20.880 And so you have to reject that. 01:25:20.880 --> 01:25:26.160 Because if you don't reject that conception of progress, you're not addressing 01:25:26.160 --> 01:25:30.160 the disease, you're attempting to treat only the symptoms, and that never 01:25:30.160 --> 01:25:33.920 works. If you're treating symptoms, that's called hospice. 01:25:33.920 --> 01:25:37.520 You're alleviating pain while the patient dies. 01:25:37.520 --> 01:25:40.080 You are not healing the patient. 01:25:40.080 --> 01:25:44.880 You are not addressing the underlying issue. 01:25:45.120 --> 01:25:47.680 Our ancestors were not 01:25:47.840 --> 01:25:51.040 less moral than we are. 01:25:51.040 --> 01:25:55.600 In fact, in most cases, they were more moral than we are. 01:25:55.600 --> 01:25:57.680 At least for those of us who can look back to our 01:25:57.680 --> 01:26:03.440 ancestors in Christendom, and even before that, as I've mentioned before, and 01:26:03.440 --> 01:26:07.360 I may even put the book in the show notes for this 01:26:07.360 --> 01:26:13.280 episode, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote of the Germanic tribes that marriage 01:26:13.280 --> 01:26:15.040 was so esteemed among them 01:26:15.200 --> 01:26:19.440 that adultery was basically unheard of. 01:26:19.440 --> 01:26:23.280 Can we say that about our society to day? 01:26:23.280 --> 01:26:26.160 Can we say that about a single society on the face of 01:26:26.160 --> 01:26:27.920 this planet today? 01:26:28.560 --> 01:26:32.320 And yet we're supposed to believe that we are more enlightened, more 01:26:32.320 --> 01:26:36.080 moral, better than our ancestors. 01:26:36.080 --> 01:26:37.680 The better angels of our nature is a 01:26:38.240 --> 01:26:40.640 complete nonsense phrase. 01:26:40.640 --> 01:26:42.160 It means nothing. 01:26:42.160 --> 01:26:43.440 It's propaganda. 01:26:43.440 --> 01:26:46.400 It's meant to deceive you and to mislead you. 01:26:46.400 --> 01:26:48.960 We are not getting better over time. 01:26:49.680 --> 01:26:54.720 If anything, the world and those who dwell in it are getting 01:26:54.720 --> 01:26:56.400 worse over time. 01:26:56.400 --> 01:26:59.920 And the reason for that is that the fall was not a 01:26:59.920 --> 01:27:00.960 one off curse 01:27:01.840 --> 01:27:06.720 The fall is ongoing because the consequences are ongoing. 01:27:06.720 --> 01:27:08.880 The curse is ongoing. 01:27:08.880 --> 01:27:13.040 Things are degenerating over time. 01:27:13.040 --> 01:27:16.960 We can see that from the smallest scale up to the grandest 01:27:16.960 --> 01:27:22.320 scale. On the small scale, every time your cells reproduce, there's a 01:27:22.320 --> 01:27:24.400 small chance you'll get cancer. 01:27:24.400 --> 01:27:27.600 And in fact you have cancer cells in your body right now. 01:27:27.600 --> 01:27:30.240 Typically your body is able to take care of 01:27:30.240 --> 01:27:30.800 that, 01:27:30.800 --> 01:27:34.880 but sometimes it spins out of control and it kills you. 01:27:34.880 --> 01:27:36.000 On the grander 01:27:36.000 --> 01:27:43.440 scale, all the celestial bodies are slowly but surely floating and spinning 01:27:43.440 --> 01:27:45.360 out of control. 01:27:45.360 --> 01:27:48.400 All of them away from one another, the moon is floating away 01:27:48.400 --> 01:27:50.320 from the earth. 01:27:50.320 --> 01:27:54.640 Every year it gets just a little farther. 01:27:54.640 --> 01:27:59.200 Everything is degenerating and falling apart. 01:27:59.200 --> 01:28:02.560 Now, similar to what Woe said, I'm not telling you these things 01:28:02.880 --> 01:28:05.040 as cause for despair. 01:28:05.040 --> 01:28:08.560 I am telling you this because it is necessary to recognize this 01:28:09.200 --> 01:28:15.280 reality to be able to reject the evil worldview that is held 01:28:15.280 --> 01:28:19.520 by those who are persecuting the sheep, who are persecuting the actual 01:28:19.920 --> 01:28:24.160 Christians and doing it in the name of Christ, which is sin 01:28:24.160 --> 01:28:26.800 heaped upon sin? 01:28:26.800 --> 01:28:32.400 If you do not recognize their worldview, and what undergirds, what supports 01:28:32.880 --> 01:28:38.800 upon what their worldview is founded, that you cannot accurately and competently 01:28:38.800 --> 01:28:42.880 respond to it, you cannot even recognize it, because you don't know 01:28:42.880 --> 01:28:44.240 what it is. 01:28:44.240 --> 01:28:48.000 And so you have to know their worldview is founded on this 01:28:48.000 --> 01:28:50.880 belief of an upward trend. 01:28:50.880 --> 01:28:54.960 It's this Pollyanna version of the end of history where everything will 01:28:54.960 --> 01:28:59.520 eventually reach apotheosis, and everything will be so good there will be 01:28:59.520 --> 01:29:02.240 no conflict, there'll be no problems any more. 01:29:02.240 --> 01:29:07.200 We'll live in a veritable paradise of our own making. 01:29:07.200 --> 01:29:09.680 Look at the last century. 01:29:09.680 --> 01:29:13.600 Are things better off or worse off here at the end than 01:29:13.600 --> 01:29:16.320 at the beginning? 01:29:16.320 --> 01:29:21.120 No man who recognizes the reality, no man who knows the truth 01:29:21.280 --> 01:29:25.840 of the last hundred, hundred and fifty, two hundred years can possibly 01:29:25.840 --> 01:29:28.000 say we are better off today. 01:29:28.000 --> 01:29:30.960 The only way in which we're better off is that we have 01:29:30.960 --> 01:29:34.960 a handful of material comforts that they didn't have. 01:29:34.960 --> 01:29:38.160 But even on that count, are we better off? 01:29:38.160 --> 01:29:42.960 Their food didn't poison them, their clothing didn't poison them, they didn't 01:29:42.880 --> 01:29:45.120 have microplastic in their blood. 01:29:45.120 --> 01:29:47.040 And on and on. 01:29:47.440 --> 01:29:50.560 In many ways, we aren't even better off materially. 01:29:50.560 --> 01:29:55.040 We certainly aren't better off spiritually, or culturally, societally. 01:29:55.040 --> 01:29:57.440 All of the ways that actually matter. 01:29:57.440 --> 01:30:00.000 Because ultimately speaking, does material comfort matter? 01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:01.280 Of course it does. 01:30:01.280 --> 01:30:05.680 The hierarchy of needs to some degree is a very real thing. 01:30:05.680 --> 01:30:09.200 If you want to teach a starving man about God, give him 01:30:09.200 --> 01:30:10.880 a sandwich first. 01:30:10.880 --> 01:30:13.920 These things are real, we cannot ignore them. 01:30:13.920 --> 01:30:17.280 But the ultimate things do matter more because they are in fact 01:30:17.280 --> 01:30:24.320 ultimate. And so it is necessary to recognize the perverseness and 01:30:24.320 --> 01:30:29.280 just the outright folly and incoherence of the worldview of the enemies 01:30:29.440 --> 01:30:34.320 and adversaries, so that you can respond to the persecution, so that 01:30:34.320 --> 01:30:38.000 you know why they are persecuting you, so you can know why 01:30:38.160 --> 01:30:42.320 and how they are justifying the persecution to themselves and to others 01:30:42.640 --> 01:30:45.360 And so reject the idea of progress. 01:30:45.360 --> 01:30:49.120 Not in the sense of saying we can't have better technology, although 01:30:49.120 --> 01:30:53.040 that's a discussion for another time, there are some problems there certainly. 01:30:53.040 --> 01:30:57.440 But in this sense that is employed by the enemies, in this 01:30:57.440 --> 01:31:02.960 sense where we discover new and better morality as we progress, as 01:31:02.960 --> 01:31:07.120 we ascend this ladder, that should remind you of a certain sort 01:31:07.120 --> 01:31:10.480 of religion, but it's not the Christian religion. 01:31:10.480 --> 01:31:15.040 The Christian religion does not say that mankind is going to progress 01:31:15.040 --> 01:31:20.160 morally over time, that mankind is going to get better over time, 01:31:20.160 --> 01:31:24.080 that we're going to construct a paradise here on earth. 01:31:24.080 --> 01:31:29.040 Every time humanity has undertaken that sort of project, it has turned 01:31:29.040 --> 01:31:31.200 into a hell. 01:31:31.200 --> 01:31:33.360 That was Babel. 01:31:33.360 --> 01:31:36.560 That was That was communism. 01:31:36.560 --> 01:31:40.560 That's every commune you've ever heard of in every cult. 01:31:40.560 --> 01:31:43.200 It always ends poorly. 01:31:43.200 --> 01:31:47.200 It is always worse than the starting conditions. 01:31:47.200 --> 01:31:50.320 That's the same thing these men are attempting to do. 01:31:50.320 --> 01:31:54.640 That's why you see these men supporting mass so called migration. 01:31:54.640 --> 01:31:56.640 They're rebuilding Babel. 01:31:56.640 --> 01:32:01.520 Satan is attempting the same thing again, many centuries removed. 01:32:01.520 --> 01:32:04.240 It's why you see them advocate against slavery. 01:32:04.240 --> 01:32:06.800 We can't possibly have a hierarchy. 01:32:06.800 --> 01:32:08.640 We have to have egalitarianism. 01:32:08.640 --> 01:32:13.280 We have to have equality in this new paradise we're building. 01:32:13.280 --> 01:32:17.120 If you know anything about communism, it's going to sound very similar 01:32:17.120 --> 01:32:19.920 to the claims made by the communists. 01:32:19.920 --> 01:32:22.800 How did that go for them? 01:32:22.800 --> 01:32:27.600 These men who are persecuting Christians in the church are doing Satan's 01:32:28.240 --> 01:32:31.680 work on his behalf, sometimes consciously. 01:32:31.680 --> 01:32:35.280 Mostly not, but sometimes consciously. 01:32:35.280 --> 01:32:39.040 And they are doing it because if Satan manages to destroy the 01:32:39.040 --> 01:32:43.040 churches in the West, he will have one. 01:32:43.040 --> 01:32:48.240 As Wo said, if the Western churches fall, there is nothing left 01:32:48.240 --> 01:32:49.840 to oppose him. 01:32:49.840 --> 01:32:54.080 There is no one coming from anywhere else to restore the gospel 01:32:54.400 --> 01:32:56.960 if it is lost here and now. 01:32:56.960 --> 01:33:02.080 That is why Satan is working so feverishly, so fervently. 01:33:02.080 --> 01:33:04.320 These may be the end times, they may not be the end 01:33:04.320 --> 01:33:07.680 times. We don't really know. 01:33:07.680 --> 01:33:09.520 But it doesn't actually matter. 01:33:09.520 --> 01:33:13.760 As I've said before, it's always the end times for any individual 01:33:13.760 --> 01:33:16.080 Christian. Because you could die tomorrow. 01:33:16.080 --> 01:33:18.800 You could die right now while you're listening to this podcast. 01:33:18.800 --> 01:33:21.760 I could die right now while I'm recording it, although chances are 01:33:21.760 --> 01:33:26.240 you wouldn't hear it then. 01:33:26.240 --> 01:33:29.680 Eternity is always a second away for any mortal. 01:33:29.680 --> 01:33:32.160 And so it doesn't matter if these are the end times or 01:33:32.160 --> 01:33:34.160 not the end times. 01:33:34.160 --> 01:33:39.680 It matters how we respond to what is happening in our churches, 01:33:39.680 --> 01:33:43.840 in our countries today, what is being done to our nations, what 01:33:43.840 --> 01:33:48.320 Satan is doing in the world, it matters how we respond to 01:33:48.320 --> 01:33:49.840 those things. 01:33:49.840 --> 01:33:54.240 Because God gives us the duty to do what we can with 01:33:54.240 --> 01:33:57.360 what we have been given, with the time in which we have 01:33:57.360 --> 01:33:59.040 been given to do it. 01:33:59.040 --> 01:34:02.640 Yes, the standard is of course perfection and we will all fall 01:34:02.640 --> 01:34:03.920 short of that. 01:34:03.920 --> 01:34:09.760 But ultimately and practically speaking, the standard is not perfection when it 01:34:09.760 --> 01:34:11.840 comes to what we must do in this life. 01:34:11.840 --> 01:34:15.760 The standard is doing your duty. 01:34:15.760 --> 01:34:20.080 God does not expect you to go out and conquer the entire 01:34:20.080 --> 01:34:23.040 world and bring it under the cross. 01:34:23.040 --> 01:34:26.320 He certainly doesn't expect every single man to do that. 01:34:26.320 --> 01:34:30.960 No one would advance that claim because that would be insane. 01:34:30.960 --> 01:34:34.880 But he does expect you, if you are a father, to raise 01:34:34.880 --> 01:34:38.640 up your children in the faith, to instruct them in the faith, 01:34:38.640 --> 01:34:41.840 to baptize them, to keep them in the faith, to take them 01:34:41.840 --> 01:34:42.960 to church. 01:34:42.960 --> 01:34:44.000 And the same, of course, 01:34:44.000 --> 01:34:46.640 is true with regard to your wife. 01:34:46.640 --> 01:34:50.240 He does expect you to do the things that are your duty 01:34:50.240 --> 01:34:52.720 with the things he has given you. 01:34:52.720 --> 01:34:58.400 Part of that is defending the churches against these wolves. 01:34:58.400 --> 01:35:00.960 Part of that is recognizing the wickedness of 01:35:02.080 --> 01:35:06.560 what they preach, recognizing that it is not the Christian religion, that 01:35:06.560 --> 01:35:10.400 it is a very different religion from a very different source that 01:35:10.400 --> 01:35:12.640 ends in a very different place. 01:35:12.640 --> 01:35:17.200 It is recognizing that this is our battle here and now for 01:35:17.200 --> 01:35:19.600 our time, for our generation. 01:35:19.600 --> 01:35:24.080 Different generations have different battles to fight. 01:35:24.080 --> 01:35:26.720 Some lived relatively peaceful lives. 01:35:27.040 --> 01:35:31.680 There were periods of Christendom, even when there may have been plague 01:35:31.680 --> 01:35:36.320 or other problems, certainly in certain centuries, there were periods where things 01:35:36.320 --> 01:35:38.640 were relatively peaceful. 01:35:38.640 --> 01:35:41.360 And so those men had the standard battles that all 01:35:41.840 --> 01:35:46.560 men have, against temptation, whether it's the flesh or the devil, against 01:35:46.720 --> 01:35:51.600 sloth, against lust, against all of these problems that are common to 01:35:51.600 --> 01:35:53.600 men at all times and all places. 01:35:55.200 --> 01:35:58.160 But there are certain generations and there are certain times 01:35:58.160 --> 01:36:03.200 that have exceptional battles, and we are faced with one of those. 01:36:03.440 --> 01:36:07.680 Because what we see happening may not be the great apostasy. 01:36:08.560 --> 01:36:11.440 But it is a great apostasy. 01:36:11.440 --> 01:36:13.440 We see many falling away from the faith. 01:36:13.440 --> 01:36:15.760 Now there are some coming back to the faith. 01:36:15.760 --> 01:36:19.200 And that is wonderful news, and we are always happy to receive 01:36:19.200 --> 01:36:22.400 those messages, because it means that God is still at work, and 01:36:22.320 --> 01:36:24.800 we know that He is still at work because He promises to 01:36:24.800 --> 01:36:29.360 be with us even to the end of the age. 01:36:29.360 --> 01:36:31.760 But there is much work to be done. 01:36:31.760 --> 01:36:35.440 Because if we are to rescue the churches, and certainly if we 01:36:35.440 --> 01:36:39.440 are to rescue the sheep still in these churches, in particular the 01:36:39.440 --> 01:36:42.960 wicked ones, then it falls to us to do 01:36:42.960 --> 01:36:46.560 that. Again no one else is coming to save us. 01:36:46.560 --> 01:36:47.920 I'm not saying 01:36:47.920 --> 01:36:52.560 that Christ is ineffectual or that his arm is shortened, because of 01:36:52.560 --> 01:36:54.880 course he will save all of the elect. 01:36:54.880 --> 01:36:57.600 Rather, I am saying that there is work to be done, and 01:36:57.600 --> 01:36:59.440 it is our duty to do it. 01:36:59.440 --> 01:37:02.560 Think of the parable of the talents. 01:37:02.560 --> 01:37:05.840 You are to do what you can with what God has given 01:37:05.840 --> 01:37:09.360 you, not bury your talent in the ground, and simply wait for 01:37:09.360 --> 01:37:11.440 his return and hope for the best. 01:37:11.440 --> 01:37:13.760 That is not the Christian life. 01:37:13.760 --> 01:37:18.800 The Christian life is standing up under this persecution and facing it 01:37:18.800 --> 01:37:22.000 down and doing what needs to be done. 01:37:22.000 --> 01:37:25.600 Because you want to see every single soul entrusted to your care 01:37:26.320 --> 01:37:28.640 in paradise for eternity. 01:37:28.640 --> 01:37:33.200 And yes, of course, we don't deny that there is predestination, that 01:37:33.200 --> 01:37:35.040 there is election. 01:37:35.040 --> 01:37:37.600 But these things aren't so simple. 01:37:37.600 --> 01:37:42.080 And God has given you things to do, and God expects you 01:37:42.080 --> 01:37:43.200 to do them. 01:37:43.200 --> 01:37:46.320 He expects you to do your duty. 01:37:46.320 --> 01:37:50.240 And again, part of that is discerning the reality of the time 01:37:50.240 --> 01:37:55.840 in which we live, knowing the times, discerning the sheep and the 01:37:55.840 --> 01:38:01.360 goats, figuring out which men aren't actually sheep, but rather wolves in 01:38:01.360 --> 01:38:06.160 sheep's clothing, and dealing with them as Christian men have always dealt 01:38:06.160 --> 01:38:07.680 with wolves. 01:38:07.680 --> 01:38:12.400 Because that is a Christian duty, and as Christian men, we cannot 01:38:12.400 --> 01:38:18.480 neglect that duty, or we cease to be Christians. 01:38:18.480 --> 01:38:18.720 So 01:38:18.720 --> 01:38:22.000 now we're actually going to do something that we don't typically do 01:38:22.000 --> 01:38:24.960 in episodes, but every now and then it's nice to have someone 01:38:24.960 --> 01:38:26.880 else speaking, perhaps. 01:38:26.880 --> 01:38:31.680 We are going to share a clip from Paul Washer going over 01:38:32.320 --> 01:38:36.400 persecution and what it means for the modern church for our time 01:38:37.920 --> 01:38:38.160 the 01:38:38.160 --> 01:38:41.440 church in America is going to suffer so terribly. 01:38:41.840 --> 01:38:45.280 And we laugh now, but they will come after us and they 01:38:45.280 --> 01:38:47.520 will come after our children. 01:38:47.520 --> 01:38:51.040 They will close the net around us while we are playing soccer 01:38:51.040 --> 01:38:52.960 mom and soccer dad. 01:38:52.960 --> 01:38:56.080 While we are arguing over so many little things and mesmerized by 01:38:56.080 --> 01:39:00.400 so many trinkets, the net even now is closing around you and 01:39:00.400 --> 01:39:03.840 your children and your grandchildren, and it does not cause you to 01:39:03.840 --> 01:39:10.800 fear. You will be isolated from society as has already happened. 01:39:10.800 --> 01:39:14.400 Anyone who tries to run for office who actually believes the Bible 01:39:14.480 --> 01:39:19.040 will be considered a lunatic until finally we are silenced. 01:39:19.360 --> 01:39:22.720 We will be called things that were not and persecuted not for 01:39:22.720 --> 01:39:26.640 being followers of Christ, but for being radical fundamentalists who do not 01:39:26.640 --> 01:39:29.360 know the true way of Christ, which of course is love and 01:39:29.360 --> 01:39:34.000 tolerance. You'll go down as the greatest bigots and haters of mankind 01:39:34.480 --> 01:39:37.360 and history. 01:39:37.360 --> 01:39:41.120 They've already come after your children, and for most of you they 01:39:41.120 --> 01:39:42.080 got them. 01:39:42.080 --> 01:39:45.840 They got them through the public schools and indoctrination and the university 01:39:45.920 --> 01:39:49.280 and indoctrination, and then you wonder why your children come out not 01:39:49.280 --> 01:39:50.320 serving the Lord. 01:39:50.320 --> 01:39:54.320 It's because you fed them right into the devil's mouth. 01:39:54.320 --> 01:39:57.120 So little by little the net is closing around and then it's 01:39:57.120 --> 01:39:58.160 not little by little. 01:39:58.160 --> 01:40:01.120 Look how fast things are going downhill just in a matter of 01:40:01.120 --> 01:40:05.280 weeks. Matter of weeks. 01:40:05.280 --> 01:40:10.880 But at the same time, know this: persecution is always meant for 01:40:10.880 --> 01:40:14.240 evil, but God always means it for good. 01:40:14.240 --> 01:40:18.560 And is it not better to suffer in this life to have 01:40:18.560 --> 01:40:22.400 an extra weight of glory in heaven? 01:40:22.400 --> 01:40:24.640 You must settle this in your mind. 01:40:24.640 --> 01:40:28.080 This is the one thing I want to say over and over. 01:40:28.080 --> 01:40:32.400 Do not believe down through history you have a wrong idea of 01:40:32.400 --> 01:40:34.160 martyrdom and persecution. 01:40:34.160 --> 01:40:39.600 You think that these men were persecuted and martyred for their sincere 01:40:39.600 --> 01:40:41.680 faith in Jesus Christ. 01:40:41.680 --> 01:40:46.240 That was the real reason, but no one heard that publicly. 01:40:46.240 --> 01:40:51.840 They were martyred and they were persecuted as enemies of the state, 01:40:51.840 --> 01:40:58.960 as child molesters, as bigots, as narrow minded stupid people who had 01:40:58.960 --> 01:41:02.800 fallen for a ruse and can contribute nothing to society. 01:41:02.800 --> 01:41:05.600 Your suffering will not be noble. 01:41:05.600 --> 01:41:09.520 So your mind must be filled with the word of God when 01:41:09.520 --> 01:41:12.560 all people persecute you and turn on you. 01:41:12.560 --> 01:41:15.680 And the Spirit of God in common grace pulls back and you 01:41:15.680 --> 01:41:19.200 see even your children and your grandchildren tossing in the lot that 01:41:19.200 --> 01:41:20.320 you should die. 01:41:20.800 --> 01:41:22.640 This is no game. 01:41:22.640 --> 01:41:26.400 You want revival and awakening, but know this. 01:41:26.400 --> 01:41:30.960 For the most part, great awakenings have come only preceding great national 01:41:30.960 --> 01:41:34.160 catastrophes or the persecution of the church. 01:41:34.160 --> 01:41:38.000 I believe God is bringing a great awakening, but I believe that 01:41:38.000 --> 01:41:42.080 He is raising up young men who are strong in trust in 01:41:42.080 --> 01:41:45.520 the providence of God to be able to wade through the hell 01:41:45.520 --> 01:41:47.200 that's going to break loose on us. 01:41:47.200 --> 01:41:48.240 And it will be on us 01:41:49.200 --> 01:41:56.080 before we even recognize it, unless unless in God's providence he is 01:41:56.080 --> 01:41:57.360 not done. 01:41:57.360 --> 01:41:59.200 He is not done. 01:41:59.200 --> 01:42:02.960 And note this is this is not silly talk. 01:42:02.960 --> 01:42:06.480 Apart from a great awakening, these things are going to come upon 01:42:06.640 --> 01:42:11.200 you. Be ready to lose your homes, your cars, and everything. 01:42:12.320 --> 01:42:12.640 So that 01:42:12.720 --> 01:42:16.320 Paul Washer clip is sixteen years old, and it may as well 01:42:16.480 --> 01:42:19.840 been recorded this week or next week or next year. 01:42:19.840 --> 01:42:23.760 It is truly evergreen because it's talking about the same things we're 01:42:23.760 --> 01:42:24.720 talking about. 01:42:24.720 --> 01:42:26.560 The state of the world. 01:42:26.560 --> 01:42:28.800 It's not about one denomination. 01:42:28.800 --> 01:42:32.480 It is about everything that we see around us. 01:42:32.480 --> 01:42:35.200 And what he says is entirely consistent with scripture. 01:42:35.200 --> 01:42:37.680 Despite he's not a Lutheran, I'm sure we would argue about all 01:42:37.680 --> 01:42:40.400 sorts of things, but we don't argue about the one thing that 01:42:40.400 --> 01:42:42.160 matters right now. 01:42:42.160 --> 01:42:44.480 That's part of the reason that Stone Choir exists. 01:42:44.480 --> 01:42:47.360 Despite the fact that we're Lutheran and we talk about certain things 01:42:47.760 --> 01:42:50.560 in very Lutheran ways, and we're not going to budge on those 01:42:50.560 --> 01:42:55.120 beliefs. But the fight that stands before the remainder of the church 01:42:55.120 --> 01:42:58.560 today is not one that breaks along denominational lines. 01:42:58.560 --> 01:43:00.080 And we see that everywhere. 01:43:00.080 --> 01:43:01.920 It's unavoidable. 01:43:01.920 --> 01:43:06.320 When you see the Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church 01:43:06.480 --> 01:43:10.400 and the Lutheran Church of Missouri Synod all on the same page 01:43:10.400 --> 01:43:15.040 about certain issues, that has an external force and it is not 01:43:15.040 --> 01:43:16.240 from God. 01:43:16.240 --> 01:43:18.960 I want to read now from the end of John fifteen and 01:43:18.960 --> 01:43:20.320 beginning of John sixteen. 01:43:20.320 --> 01:43:23.440 We're going to bury you in scripture like I said we would. 01:43:23.440 --> 01:43:28.480 Once again, this is Jesus speaking as in all the scripture. 01:43:28.480 --> 01:43:31.600 If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before 01:43:31.600 --> 01:43:32.720 it hated you. 01:43:32.720 --> 01:43:35.520 If you were of the world, the world would love you as 01:43:35.520 --> 01:43:36.320 its own. 01:43:36.320 --> 01:43:38.720 But because you are not of the world but I chose you 01:43:38.720 --> 01:43:42.160 out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 01:43:42.160 --> 01:43:45.360 Remember the word that I have said to you a servant is 01:43:45.360 --> 01:43:47.280 not greater than his master. 01:43:47.280 --> 01:43:50.320 If they persecuted me they will persecute you. 01:43:50.320 --> 01:43:53.600 If they kept my word they will also keep yours, but all 01:43:53.600 --> 01:43:56.480 these things they will do to you on account of my name, 01:43:56.480 --> 01:43:59.120 because they do not know him who sent me. 01:43:59.120 --> 01:44:02.080 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not 01:44:02.080 --> 01:44:04.800 have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for 01:44:04.800 --> 01:44:06.000 their sin. 01:44:06.000 --> 01:44:08.800 Whoever hates me hates my father also. 01:44:08.800 --> 01:44:11.440 If I had not done among them the works that no one 01:44:11.440 --> 01:44:14.240 else did, they would not be guilty of sin. 01:44:14.240 --> 01:44:17.440 But now they have seen and hated both me and my father. 01:44:17.440 --> 01:44:20.640 But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. 01:44:20.640 --> 01:44:23.040 They hated me without a cause. 01:44:23.040 --> 01:44:25.360 I have said all these things to you to keep you from 01:44:25.360 --> 01:44:26.640 falling away. 01:44:26.640 --> 01:44:28.800 They will put you out of the synagogues. 01:44:28.800 --> 01:44:31.920 Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he 01:44:31.920 --> 01:44:35.680 is offering service to God, and they will do these things because 01:44:35.680 --> 01:44:38.320 they have not known the Father nor me. 01:44:38.320 --> 01:44:41.200 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour 01:44:41.200 --> 01:44:43.680 comes you may remember that I told them to you. 01:44:44.800 --> 01:44:49.040 One of the reasons that Corey and I are so vehemently opposed 01:44:49.360 --> 01:44:54.880 to preterist arguments about which portions of scripture are completely fulfilled, whether 01:44:54.880 --> 01:44:58.880 it's all fulfilled, whether all prophecy is done or some prophecies but 01:44:58.880 --> 01:45:02.560 not others, is it's a rejection of typology. 01:45:02.560 --> 01:45:07.120 It is necessary to understand that when Jesus and when the apostles 01:45:07.120 --> 01:45:12.080 and the prophets speak, there are prophecies that they give that are 01:45:12.400 --> 01:45:15.200 evergreen. They are recurring. 01:45:15.200 --> 01:45:18.000 Just as there will be wars and rumors of wars. 01:45:18.000 --> 01:45:22.560 Perhaps the most evergreen statement of prophecy in scripture. 01:45:22.560 --> 01:45:24.640 It's the state of things. 01:45:24.640 --> 01:45:27.360 So when Jesus says they're going to throw you out of the 01:45:27.360 --> 01:45:29.280 synagogues and they're going to kill you and they're going to say 01:45:29.280 --> 01:45:33.920 they're doing it in my name, yes, that absolutely happened up to 01:45:33.920 --> 01:45:35.760 and after AD 70. 01:45:35.760 --> 01:45:37.840 That doesn't mean that was the last time it happened. 01:45:37.920 --> 01:45:41.760 Doesn't mean that was a complete fulfillment of what was prophesied. 01:45:41.760 --> 01:45:43.600 We see that today. 01:45:43.600 --> 01:45:47.760 There are men who have been thrown out of the synagogues today 01:45:47.760 --> 01:45:52.000 for saying what God says, and they have sought to kill those 01:45:52.000 --> 01:45:54.240 men, and they will continue to do so. 01:45:54.240 --> 01:45:57.520 And they may eventually succeed, if God permits it. 01:45:57.520 --> 01:45:59.120 Glory be to God. 01:45:59.120 --> 01:46:01.760 We don't have to worry about the outcome. 01:46:01.760 --> 01:46:04.320 We have to worry about are we gonna show up and be 01:46:04.320 --> 01:46:07.760 faithful? That's the only thing we can control. 01:46:07.760 --> 01:46:10.880 We can control whether or not we're going to be faithful with 01:46:10.880 --> 01:46:14.000 the things that God has given us and with the promises that 01:46:14.000 --> 01:46:15.840 He has made to us. 01:46:15.840 --> 01:46:19.760 All of these exhortations, they're not about saving ourselves. 01:46:19.760 --> 01:46:21.360 They're not about picking fights. 01:46:21.360 --> 01:46:24.320 They're not about anything except for believing God. 01:46:24.320 --> 01:46:28.320 That should be the simplest plea for any Christian to give to 01:46:28.320 --> 01:46:32.000 another. And any man who here is a Christian pleading with him 01:46:32.000 --> 01:46:34.960 to obey God should take it seriously. 01:46:34.960 --> 01:46:39.200 As I've said before, I do take it seriously when these opponents 01:46:39.200 --> 01:46:42.720 say God says do this, you're being bad, you're sinning. 01:46:42.720 --> 01:46:45.040 I take the premise seriously. 01:46:45.040 --> 01:46:47.120 Because if that's true, I'm gonna repent. 01:46:47.120 --> 01:46:49.760 There have been things that I've done, like I just I flip 01:46:49.840 --> 01:46:51.360 so fast you wouldn't even know. 01:46:51.360 --> 01:46:56.080 It's unsatisfying to accuse me of sin when I'm sinning because I 01:46:56.080 --> 01:46:59.920 try, my strict goal for myself is to suck it up and 01:46:59.920 --> 01:47:04.000 immediately repent and to thank someone who has called me to repent. 01:47:04.000 --> 01:47:05.920 That is my spirit. 01:47:05.920 --> 01:47:09.440 The things that we are all accused of now are things that 01:47:09.440 --> 01:47:10.640 are not sins. 01:47:10.640 --> 01:47:12.160 They are not from God. 01:47:12.160 --> 01:47:13.680 They are of the devil. 01:47:13.680 --> 01:47:17.760 They are of the devil's children who speak all around us. 01:47:17.760 --> 01:47:20.880 Contact with the devil's children is damning. 01:47:20.880 --> 01:47:25.360 Everywhere we see that when men it consort with them, damnation follows 01:47:25.360 --> 01:47:27.040 in its wake. 01:47:27.040 --> 01:47:30.800 All of these issues have been driven by the devil's children, and 01:47:30.800 --> 01:47:32.640 men who will stand up and say that are going to be 01:47:33.120 --> 01:47:35.680 hated. They're going to be thrown out of the churches. 01:47:35.680 --> 01:47:38.320 They're going to be killed in the name of God by men 01:47:38.320 --> 01:47:40.240 who say they're serving God. 01:47:40.240 --> 01:47:43.360 Just as Paul was serving God when he held the cloaks for 01:47:43.360 --> 01:47:46.160 those who stoned Stephen to death. 01:47:46.160 --> 01:47:49.120 It was one of the wickedest acts recorded in scripture, and they 01:47:49.120 --> 01:47:50.800 were all doing in the name of God. 01:47:50.800 --> 01:47:52.640 That's what it looks like. 01:47:52.640 --> 01:47:54.400 The Romans didn't kill Christ. 01:47:54.400 --> 01:47:56.400 They were the proximate cause. 01:47:56.400 --> 01:47:58.480 They just happened to be the instrument. 01:47:58.480 --> 01:48:01.520 He who wielded the sword had another name. 01:48:01.520 --> 01:48:04.240 All of these matters are gonna look like one thing and they're 01:48:04.240 --> 01:48:05.760 actually gonna be another. 01:48:05.760 --> 01:48:08.640 And the problem is that so many men today do not have 01:48:08.640 --> 01:48:09.840 spiritual eyes. 01:48:09.840 --> 01:48:13.280 They're either blind or they're asleep and they can't be bothered to 01:48:13.280 --> 01:48:16.320 look and see what's actually happening. 01:48:16.320 --> 01:48:19.120 And those of you who do have spiritual eyes have been astonished 01:48:19.120 --> 01:48:20.480 at these things. 01:48:20.480 --> 01:48:22.640 Cause, you know, in the case of Stone Choir and the things 01:48:22.640 --> 01:48:24.800 that we've said, we're not bomb throwers. 01:48:24.800 --> 01:48:26.000 We're not disappointed. 01:48:25.920 --> 01:48:28.240 This sounds like NPR most of the time. 01:48:28.240 --> 01:48:30.560 It kinda is, except it's Christian. 01:48:30.560 --> 01:48:33.600 Like we just sit down and talk about something that's important. 01:48:33.600 --> 01:48:36.720 We talk about it articulately and well, but we talk about the 01:48:36.720 --> 01:48:38.400 things that are crucial. 01:48:38.400 --> 01:48:42.080 Unlike NPR, we're talking about things that actually matter. 01:48:42.080 --> 01:48:46.080 This is not an anesthetic to just dull your day so that 01:48:46.080 --> 01:48:47.360 you can get through it. 01:48:47.360 --> 01:48:49.040 This isn't warm bath. 01:48:49.040 --> 01:48:51.120 And we try to be sensitive to the fact that when we 01:48:51.120 --> 01:48:53.440 have heavy episodes like this, we don't bury people. 01:48:54.480 --> 01:48:56.720 But you need to know what time it is. 01:48:56.720 --> 01:49:00.560 Paul Washer was warning men sixteen years ago what time it is. 01:49:00.560 --> 01:49:02.400 It's even more urgent today. 01:49:02.400 --> 01:49:05.440 We are that much closer to the end of all things. 01:49:05.440 --> 01:49:10.240 Persecution inside the church is coming for men who claim they're Christians. 01:49:10.240 --> 01:49:14.880 The only way to discern what Christ promises is to discern that 01:49:14.880 --> 01:49:17.760 there are those who will claim in the name of Christ things 01:49:17.760 --> 01:49:22.960 that are satanic, things that are positively utterly wicked, are going to 01:49:22.960 --> 01:49:25.120 be declared in the name of Christ. 01:49:25.120 --> 01:49:28.560 And if you do not know your master's voice, you will follow 01:49:28.560 --> 01:49:29.680 Satan into hell. 01:49:30.240 --> 01:49:34.720 Those who understand and recognize their master's voice follow him. 01:49:34.720 --> 01:49:36.240 That's all this is. 01:49:36.240 --> 01:49:40.000 Scripture says one thing, the pastors are saying another thing. 01:49:40.000 --> 01:49:41.520 Who's telling the truth? 01:49:41.520 --> 01:49:44.720 God or the man who's standing there saying he's speaking in the 01:49:44.720 --> 01:49:45.920 name of God? 01:49:45.920 --> 01:49:47.840 Somebody's lying. 01:49:47.840 --> 01:49:49.760 You better put your money on God. 01:49:49.760 --> 01:49:51.360 You better obey God. 01:49:51.360 --> 01:49:54.480 And if you're persecuted and you're thrown out of the synagogue for 01:49:54.480 --> 01:49:55.600 it, you know what? 01:49:55.600 --> 01:49:57.520 Know that it was always a synagogue. 01:49:57.520 --> 01:50:00.160 Maybe you didn't see it, but it had to have been, to 01:50:00.160 --> 01:50:02.160 have gotten to that point. 01:50:02.160 --> 01:50:06.960 This wickedness that is rampant today is because past generations have failed 01:50:06.960 --> 01:50:09.360 to be faithful We have no time machine. 01:50:09.360 --> 01:50:12.160 We can't go back and fix past errors. 01:50:12.160 --> 01:50:14.960 We have to fix the accumulated errors today. 01:50:14.960 --> 01:50:18.160 And that begins with pulling this fire alarm and declaring to every 01:50:18.160 --> 01:50:21.040 man this wickedness is going on among us just as it was 01:50:21.040 --> 01:50:26.000 prophesied. The persecution of the church is in the church by the 01:50:26.000 --> 01:50:30.800 church. It is false Christians persecuting true Christians, and it's not going 01:50:30.800 --> 01:50:31.840 to look like it. 01:50:31.840 --> 01:50:33.760 It's going to be called church discipline. 01:50:33.760 --> 01:50:36.240 Something I would wager most of you have never even heard of 01:50:36.240 --> 01:50:38.240 actually happening in your churches. 01:50:38.240 --> 01:50:41.200 Church discipline is almost a fiction. 01:50:41.200 --> 01:50:44.800 It's something that yeah technically exists and you know, someone who's removed 01:50:44.800 --> 01:50:47.120 from the role so they didn't show up or maybe once in 01:50:47.120 --> 01:50:49.280 a while something really egregious happens. 01:50:49.280 --> 01:50:51.360 Today, it's on everybody's lips. 01:50:51.360 --> 01:50:53.760 Church discipline out the wazoo. 01:50:53.760 --> 01:50:56.480 Wouldn't it be great if there were a great awakening where we 01:50:56.480 --> 01:51:00.320 were going to call to repentance all of those who have children 01:51:00.320 --> 01:51:03.840 who are not virgins, who have left their homes, who are drug 01:51:03.840 --> 01:51:07.680 addicted, who are doing all these things and don't repent, those parents 01:51:07.680 --> 01:51:10.400 should be expelled from the churches for unrepentance. 01:51:10.400 --> 01:51:11.840 Wouldn't that be delightful? 01:51:11.840 --> 01:51:14.960 If we actually held men to account to God's standards? 01:51:14.960 --> 01:51:16.400 But that's not what's happening. 01:51:16.400 --> 01:51:17.920 None of it's what's happening. 01:51:17.920 --> 01:51:21.520 The only place where you see this sort of so called discipline 01:51:21.520 --> 01:51:26.320 is to persecute Christians who despise the new global religion and the 01:51:26.320 --> 01:51:29.200 priests who will murder for it. 01:51:29.200 --> 01:51:30.640 That's it. 01:51:30.640 --> 01:51:32.640 It's real simple. 01:51:32.640 --> 01:51:36.000 You can have 18th century beliefs and go to heaven. 01:51:36.000 --> 01:51:37.120 I promise you. 01:51:37.120 --> 01:51:41.040 Your great-great-great great grandparents are in heaven if they were Europeans. 01:51:41.040 --> 01:51:43.040 Almost all of them are probably in heaven. 01:51:43.040 --> 01:51:44.320 Most people were Christian. 01:51:44.320 --> 01:51:45.440 Were they great Christians? 01:51:45.440 --> 01:51:46.240 Probably not. 01:51:46.240 --> 01:51:47.440 Are you great Christians? 01:51:47.440 --> 01:51:48.320 Probably not. 01:51:48.320 --> 01:51:52.240 I'm certainly not a great Christian, but I trust in God's promises. 01:51:53.360 --> 01:51:56.080 That is the measure of the Christian faith. 01:51:56.080 --> 01:51:58.560 The creeds are the measure of Christian faith. 01:51:58.560 --> 01:52:02.080 Things that happened in the nineteen sixties are not the measure of 01:52:02.080 --> 01:52:03.280 the Christian faith. 01:52:03.280 --> 01:52:06.080 Any man who says so is antichrist, period. 01:52:06.240 --> 01:52:08.480 Doesn't matter what comes out of his mouth after that. 01:52:08.480 --> 01:52:11.440 If he said that you need to believe something from nineteen forty 01:52:11.520 --> 01:52:15.760 five or nineteen sixty four or eighteen sixty-one, he is going to 01:52:15.760 --> 01:52:18.160 hell and he is trying to drag you there with him. 01:52:18.240 --> 01:52:19.840 There's no other way around it. 01:52:19.840 --> 01:52:22.240 And you don't need to be confused and you don't need to 01:52:22.240 --> 01:52:23.440 listen to his arguments. 01:52:23.440 --> 01:52:27.040 Because what he's actually saying is that everyone is in hell until 01:52:27.040 --> 01:52:28.640 this came along. 01:52:28.640 --> 01:52:32.480 If that is Christianity, then Christianity is nothing and we're wasting our 01:52:32.480 --> 01:52:35.520 time. I have lots of things that would be much more pleasurable 01:52:35.520 --> 01:52:36.400 to do than this. 01:52:36.400 --> 01:52:40.560 Things that would actually help me materially, help me in my body 01:52:40.720 --> 01:52:43.040 and my days instead of this. 01:52:43.280 --> 01:52:45.600 Being despised is not pleasant. 01:52:45.600 --> 01:52:48.160 Being isolated is not pleasant. 01:52:48.160 --> 01:52:51.840 And so it's important to remember that when it happens, there's a 01:52:51.840 --> 01:52:53.120 reason for it. 01:52:53.120 --> 01:52:56.080 And it's not just that you said something that was unpopular. 01:52:56.080 --> 01:52:58.960 It's not that you believed something that was unpopular. 01:52:58.960 --> 01:53:01.520 It's that you were faithful to God. 01:53:01.520 --> 01:53:05.360 You believed God and you believed his promises and you stand with 01:53:05.360 --> 01:53:07.200 a cloud of saints. 01:53:07.200 --> 01:53:10.240 And the world is going to hate you, and that world includes 01:53:10.240 --> 01:53:12.000 most of the church. 01:53:12.000 --> 01:53:14.560 That was part of the lesson of that series at the beginning 01:53:14.560 --> 01:53:15.280 of the year. 01:53:15.280 --> 01:53:18.160 When you look at the beliefs of those inside the church, it's 01:53:18.080 --> 01:53:19.760 overwhelmingly not Christian. 01:53:19.760 --> 01:53:22.800 People who show up for church, who call themselves Christians, who say 01:53:22.800 --> 01:53:24.080 they're good Christians. 01:53:24.080 --> 01:53:26.960 They might even seem like it until they're put to the test 01:53:26.960 --> 01:53:30.400 on these very simple matters, and the fangs come out, and the 01:53:30.400 --> 01:53:33.520 knives come out, and the murder begins. 01:53:33.520 --> 01:53:38.720 Instantly. These issues instantly cause behavior for men that we all thought 01:53:38.720 --> 01:53:40.160 were Christians for decades. 01:53:40.160 --> 01:53:41.600 We all thought, wow, what a great guy. 01:53:41.600 --> 01:53:42.960 He's devoted his life to Christ. 01:53:42.960 --> 01:53:44.400 He's done all these good things. 01:53:44.400 --> 01:53:46.240 I benefited from his teaching. 01:53:46.240 --> 01:53:49.120 And then one thing comes out that has to do with a 01:53:49.280 --> 01:53:52.000 something that's happened the last two hundred years and they want to 01:53:52.000 --> 01:53:53.520 murder men. 01:53:53.520 --> 01:53:55.600 That is a spirit of antichrist. 01:53:55.600 --> 01:53:58.160 Satan cannot conceal himself forever. 01:53:58.160 --> 01:53:59.360 And this is what we're seeing. 01:53:59.360 --> 01:54:01.440 And we're seeing it inside the church. 01:54:01.440 --> 01:54:03.760 Don't worry about state persecution. 01:54:03.760 --> 01:54:06.480 Don't worry about the state of Christianity in China. 01:54:06.480 --> 01:54:09.280 Worry about the state of Christianity in your zip code. 01:54:09.280 --> 01:54:11.680 There are probably fewer Christians in many of the zip codes of 01:54:11.680 --> 01:54:14.640 the listeners of this show than there are in China. 01:54:14.640 --> 01:54:16.240 That's not a joke. 01:54:16.240 --> 01:54:17.360 I live in New England. 01:54:17.360 --> 01:54:21.120 There are more witches in New England than there are Lutherans. 01:54:21.120 --> 01:54:24.000 And Lutherans think I'm the problem. 01:54:24.000 --> 01:54:26.160 I think I'm their problem. 01:54:26.160 --> 01:54:29.200 For this very reason, they're not worried about the witches. 01:54:29.200 --> 01:54:31.360 They're worried about Christians. 01:54:31.360 --> 01:54:34.960 That is what persecution is about, and that is what perseverance is 01:54:34.960 --> 01:54:38.720 about. We have to be thinking about these things, as Paul Washer 01:54:38.720 --> 01:54:41.840 mentioned, because if you don't think about it before it happens, when 01:54:41.840 --> 01:54:44.640 it comes, you're going to be so confused and overwhelmed that you 01:54:44.640 --> 01:54:46.160 will probably submit. 01:54:46.160 --> 01:54:49.680 Someone comes to you and tells you to confess a false sin, 01:54:49.680 --> 01:54:53.040 as many of my friends have, as these events have unfolded. 01:54:53.040 --> 01:54:57.120 Men I trusted and thought were good men, they have folded like 01:54:57.280 --> 01:54:58.240 cheap suits. 01:54:58.240 --> 01:55:01.840 They have confessed false sins to false gods, because it was easier. 01:55:01.840 --> 01:55:05.440 I pray that they repent, but they will answer to God for 01:55:05.440 --> 01:55:08.080 their a refusal to persevere. 01:55:08.240 --> 01:55:12.240 Their refusal to stand with God against these evil things. 01:55:12.240 --> 01:55:14.800 It's easier to stand with the evil because that's where the crowd 01:55:14.800 --> 01:55:18.880 is. That's where all of the adulation is. 01:55:18.880 --> 01:55:20.480 That is where the good names are. 01:55:20.800 --> 01:55:22.960 That goes back to what Jesus said in Luke. 01:55:22.960 --> 01:55:24.880 Woe to you when all people speak well of you. 01:55:24.880 --> 01:55:26.400 For so their fathers did. 01:55:26.400 --> 01:55:28.240 Of the false prophets. 01:55:28.240 --> 01:55:31.680 The false prophets were told to be good men. 01:55:31.680 --> 01:55:35.040 The prophets who were actually faithful were murdered. 01:55:35.040 --> 01:55:37.280 The false prophets were praised. 01:55:37.280 --> 01:55:38.960 That is the rule. 01:55:38.960 --> 01:55:40.320 That is the rule. 01:55:40.320 --> 01:55:44.320 When God blessed past generations with an exception to that rule, they 01:55:44.320 --> 01:55:49.840 were blessed for their faithfulness over generations, where entire nations were Christian, 01:55:49.840 --> 01:55:51.760 entire races were Christian. 01:55:51.760 --> 01:55:53.840 None of that exists anymore. 01:55:53.840 --> 01:55:57.600 God seems to have withdrawn his blessing, and all we have now 01:55:57.600 --> 01:56:01.840 is persecution inside the church, outside the church, from the church, of 01:56:01.840 --> 01:56:03.360 Christian men. 01:56:03.360 --> 01:56:06.480 You must persevere in the face of it because God promised these 01:56:06.480 --> 01:56:07.280 things would happen. 01:56:07.280 --> 01:56:10.400 And if he promised they would happen, he promised that he would 01:56:10.400 --> 01:56:11.280 take care of you. 01:56:11.280 --> 01:56:13.120 And he promised that he would reward you. 01:56:13.120 --> 01:56:16.000 Not that doing what God says just for the sake of reward 01:56:16.240 --> 01:56:18.560 is it's never been a motivation for me. 01:56:18.560 --> 01:56:21.680 I just don't want to betray the God who created me and 01:56:21.680 --> 01:56:23.680 the God who died for me on the cross. 01:56:23.680 --> 01:56:26.800 What a despicable, cowardly thing that would be. 01:56:26.800 --> 01:56:32.000 I would much rather be crapped on for being a Christian than 01:56:32.000 --> 01:56:33.760 to betray God. 01:56:33.760 --> 01:56:35.520 It's just that simple. 01:56:35.520 --> 01:56:40.400 If nobody likes you, maybe you're a jerk or maybe you're faithful. 01:56:40.400 --> 01:56:41.440 You gotta figure it out. 01:56:41.440 --> 01:56:44.000 Some people are just jerks, some people are just terrible. 01:56:44.000 --> 01:56:46.240 They don't have any friends and nobody likes you, and everyone says 01:56:46.240 --> 01:56:48.560 they're terrible because they're actually terrible. 01:56:48.560 --> 01:56:51.600 It's not proof, but it's also not proof that they're bad. 01:56:51.600 --> 01:56:55.280 In Scripture says that many times when that happens, especially in the 01:56:55.280 --> 01:56:59.360 end of days, is because those are the faithful remnant speaking against 01:56:59.360 --> 01:57:00.720 this evil. 01:57:00.720 --> 01:57:04.080 The last thing that I want to say is quote from Stonewall 01:57:04.080 --> 01:57:07.600 Jackson about his faith and a quote from James, because they're both 01:57:07.600 --> 01:57:10.000 a summation of a lot of this. 01:57:10.000 --> 01:57:11.840 There's a quote that many of you have heard before. 01:57:11.840 --> 01:57:13.760 Stonewall was an awesome man. 01:57:13.760 --> 01:57:17.840 He said my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in 01:57:17.840 --> 01:57:19.680 battle as in bed. 01:57:19.680 --> 01:57:21.760 God has fixed the time for my death. 01:57:21.760 --> 01:57:25.200 I do not concern myself about that, but to always be ready 01:57:25.360 --> 01:57:27.680 no matter when it may overtake me. 01:57:27.680 --> 01:57:30.640 That is the way all men should live, and then they would 01:57:30.640 --> 01:57:32.640 all be equally brave. 01:57:32.640 --> 01:57:34.080 He's absolutely right. 01:57:34.080 --> 01:57:37.120 And it's something you have to think about before the bullets start 01:57:37.120 --> 01:57:40.000 flying, before the accusations start flying. 01:57:40.000 --> 01:57:43.280 Because if you don't take that sort of confident faith into the 01:57:43.280 --> 01:57:46.800 battle, you will not find it when you're under fire. 01:57:46.800 --> 01:57:50.480 You're not going to just suddenly remember, oh, God's going to take 01:57:50.480 --> 01:57:53.680 care of me if you don't remember it going in. 01:57:53.680 --> 01:57:58.400 The breastplate of righteousness, all that talk about armor and swords and 01:57:58.640 --> 01:58:03.520 battle and equipment is about what we take into it. 01:58:03.520 --> 01:58:07.440 And it's from God, but you gotta carry it with you. 01:58:07.600 --> 01:58:13.440 James one writes Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, 01:58:13.440 --> 01:58:16.080 for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown 01:58:16.080 --> 01:58:19.760 of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 01:58:19.760 --> 01:58:23.120 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted 01:58:23.120 --> 01:58:26.480 by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself 01:58:26.480 --> 01:58:27.840 tempts no one. 01:58:27.840 --> 01:58:30.640 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by 01:58:30.640 --> 01:58:31.760 his own desire. 01:58:31.760 --> 01:58:35.520 Then desire when it has conceived brings birth to sin, and sin 01:58:35.520 --> 01:58:40.000 when it is fully grown brings forth death. 01:58:40.000 --> 01:58:44.160 Our steadfastness as Christian men and women 01:58:45.360 --> 01:58:46.720 is in those terms. 01:58:47.360 --> 01:58:51.520 We're steadfast in the faith, not only in the terms of withstanding 01:58:51.520 --> 01:58:56.960 these assaults and perseverance, we're steadfast in terms of just living Christian 01:58:56.960 --> 01:59:00.800 lives where we try not to sin as much as we possibly 01:59:00.800 --> 01:59:03.440 can, and we know that when we fail, we throw ourselves on 01:59:03.440 --> 01:59:05.120 Christ's mercy. 01:59:05.120 --> 01:59:10.880 The steadfastness also involves persevering when we're under assault from without. 01:59:10.880 --> 01:59:12.240 Sometimes it's also within. 01:59:12.560 --> 01:59:14.000 Sometimes it's just doubts. 01:59:14.000 --> 01:59:17.280 Sometimes it's I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing. 01:59:17.280 --> 01:59:18.960 All these people are mad at me. 01:59:18.960 --> 01:59:20.480 Does that mean I've sinned? 01:59:20.480 --> 01:59:21.840 It's an important question. 01:59:21.840 --> 01:59:23.680 It's the most important question. 01:59:23.680 --> 01:59:25.040 Have I sinned? 01:59:25.040 --> 01:59:27.520 Should always be in the back of your mind. 01:59:27.680 --> 01:59:30.240 It should pop to the front of your mind fairly often. 01:59:30.320 --> 01:59:33.120 Then when you're reading scripture, you're also going to find passages that 01:59:33.280 --> 01:59:36.400 like, hey, here's a sin that you were trying to commit and 01:59:36.400 --> 01:59:37.440 you didn't want to think about. 01:59:37.600 --> 01:59:38.080 Guess what? 01:59:38.080 --> 01:59:39.680 You gotta do the other thing. 01:59:40.160 --> 01:59:42.320 God works that way. 01:59:42.320 --> 01:59:46.240 When we flee from his word, when we flee from his commands, 01:59:46.240 --> 01:59:48.640 he will not remember us. 01:59:48.640 --> 01:59:51.440 All we have to do is throw ourselves on his mercy, and 01:59:51.440 --> 01:59:54.800 then everything else will take care of itself as he has promised. 01:59:54.800 --> 01:59:58.000 So as Corey said, it's not that we want people worrying about 01:59:58.000 --> 02:00:01.120 these things apart from just planning. 02:00:01.120 --> 02:00:04.000 I was doxxed a year and a half ago on I did 02:00:04.000 --> 02:00:07.200 my response to being doxed in 2022. 02:00:07.200 --> 02:00:10.640 The episode A Name No Man Knows was my response. 02:00:10.640 --> 02:00:12.720 And I described everything that would happen. 02:00:12.720 --> 02:00:15.280 And I described what my response would be. 02:00:15.280 --> 02:00:18.480 I already had been doxed in my mind before it happened. 02:00:18.480 --> 02:00:20.560 And so none of it surprised me on the day. 02:00:20.560 --> 02:00:23.040 Like, okay, this is what I expected. 02:00:23.040 --> 02:00:24.080 So I didn't run. 02:00:24.080 --> 02:00:25.120 I didn't hide. 02:00:25.120 --> 02:00:27.920 I didn't apologize for things that weren't sins. 02:00:27.920 --> 02:00:31.600 I didn't throw myself or anyone else under the bus because the 02:00:31.600 --> 02:00:37.920 false accusations from murderers and child rapists were of the devil. 02:00:37.920 --> 02:00:40.960 And all the sins that I've committed in the past, I'm given 02:00:40.960 --> 02:00:41.680 by God. 02:00:42.000 --> 02:00:46.320 And all the reasons that I'm hated today are for trying, however 02:00:46.400 --> 02:00:48.320 imperfectly, to serve him. 02:00:48.320 --> 02:00:50.080 That is the threat. 02:00:50.080 --> 02:00:52.800 So I was able to persevere in that moment because I was 02:00:52.800 --> 02:00:53.920 mentally prepared. 02:00:53.920 --> 02:00:55.360 It wasn't mental toughness. 02:00:55.360 --> 02:00:57.280 It was just, okay, what's gonna happen? 02:00:57.280 --> 02:00:58.480 Here's what's gonna happen. 02:00:58.480 --> 02:00:59.360 What do you do? 02:00:59.360 --> 02:01:00.480 This is what you do. 02:01:00.480 --> 02:01:01.920 And I did it. 02:01:01.920 --> 02:01:05.520 It can be very simple for most men, I hope, for some 02:01:05.520 --> 02:01:08.080 men at least, if you think things through. 02:01:08.160 --> 02:01:11.040 That's the That's the reason for doing an episode like this. 02:01:11.040 --> 02:01:17.360 Mental preparedness, spiritual preparedness, must take place before the moment of testing. 02:01:17.360 --> 02:01:20.000 If you're not prepared, you will fail. 02:01:20.000 --> 02:01:24.400 I mean, God may help you, but God is going to help 02:01:24.400 --> 02:01:28.320 you better when you have put your trust in Him months and 02:01:28.320 --> 02:01:29.520 years ahead of time. 02:01:29.520 --> 02:01:32.640 When you've already thought there are men in my church that might 02:01:32.640 --> 02:01:35.440 want me dead that if they knew what I believed about something 02:01:35.440 --> 02:01:39.680 that is completely incidental, they would try to harm my family. 02:01:39.680 --> 02:01:41.920 There are many of you who don't believe that today, they're gonna 02:01:41.920 --> 02:01:42.960 learn the hard way. 02:01:42.960 --> 02:01:44.800 I don't want you to learn the hard way. 02:01:44.800 --> 02:01:47.200 I don't want it to be true, first of all. 02:01:47.200 --> 02:01:52.000 But it is true, and this fire has been lit and it 02:01:52.000 --> 02:01:54.160 is spreading like a wildfire. 02:01:54.160 --> 02:01:58.400 Not because Stone Choir has said anything false or evil, but because 02:01:58.400 --> 02:02:01.200 we are shining a light in dark places. 02:02:01.200 --> 02:02:04.960 The persecution in the church by the church and of the church 02:02:05.200 --> 02:02:09.920 is going to look to most men like just good solid Christian 02:02:09.920 --> 02:02:13.760 men trying to tamp down on these internet bad guys. 02:02:13.760 --> 02:02:16.240 If that's true, then I would cheer them on. 02:02:16.240 --> 02:02:17.760 They're bad people on the internet. 02:02:17.760 --> 02:02:19.680 I can name a few. 02:02:19.680 --> 02:02:23.360 But what is occurring is not of God. 02:02:23.360 --> 02:02:27.120 And the spirit and the lies that are told in service to 02:02:27.120 --> 02:02:28.560 it prove that. 02:02:28.560 --> 02:02:32.960 Any man who looks at the behavior of those who hate us 02:02:33.360 --> 02:02:36.720 cannot possibly think that this a good Christian response to us. 02:02:36.720 --> 02:02:40.000 Even if we are wrong about everything, none of the responses have 02:02:40.000 --> 02:02:41.760 been good Christian responses. 02:02:41.760 --> 02:02:45.200 They have been wildly out of character, they have been over the 02:02:45.200 --> 02:02:50.320 top, false, hysterical, malicious, incoherent. 02:02:50.320 --> 02:02:53.440 No one has mustered an actual argument because 02:02:54.480 --> 02:02:57.440 all that matters is destruction. 02:02:57.440 --> 02:02:59.200 The persecution is going to come for you. 02:02:59.200 --> 02:03:01.120 It's going to come for every man who's listening. 02:03:01.120 --> 02:03:02.640 They have promised. 02:03:02.640 --> 02:03:04.720 It is dangerous to listen to Stone Choir. 02:03:04.720 --> 02:03:06.880 And I hope you believe that. 02:03:06.880 --> 02:03:09.680 Not because what we're saying is false, not because what we're saying 02:03:09.680 --> 02:03:12.240 is evil, because what we're saying is true. 02:03:12.240 --> 02:03:14.800 And we're saying it to men who are in churches, and we're 02:03:14.800 --> 02:03:18.160 saying it to men who have joined churches because of Stone Choir. 02:03:18.160 --> 02:03:21.520 The kingdom of God has grown because of what we say. 02:03:21.520 --> 02:03:23.840 That is not the fruit of a poisonous tree. 02:03:23.840 --> 02:03:26.080 That is the fruit of God's work. 02:03:26.080 --> 02:03:29.440 That is what must be stamped out. 02:03:29.440 --> 02:03:32.800 This is a precarious time for all Christians everywhere. 02:03:33.040 --> 02:03:35.760 You have nothing to do with any of this internet crap. 02:03:35.760 --> 02:03:39.520 All Christians are in danger because if they're faithful, they will have 02:03:39.520 --> 02:03:42.320 to persevere in the face of persecution. 02:03:42.320 --> 02:03:45.920 Believe it now, because when it comes, if you are not prepared, 02:03:45.920 --> 02:03:47.520 you will fail the test. 02:03:47.520 --> 02:03:49.360 I don't want that for any man. 02:03:49.360 --> 02:03:50.960 I want to meet all of you in heaven. 02:03:50.960 --> 02:03:53.360 I want to hang out in the new earth and have a 02:03:53.360 --> 02:03:54.000 great time. 02:03:54.000 --> 02:03:56.400 And if we remember any of this crap, we're gonna laugh. 02:03:56.400 --> 02:03:58.880 If we don't remember even better. 02:03:58.880 --> 02:04:02.240 We have an eternity together in joy. 02:04:02.240 --> 02:04:06.000 We will not share that joy together if we do not persevere 02:04:06.000 --> 02:04:10.000 together here where things are bad. 02:04:10.240 --> 02:04:10.560 I 02:04:10.560 --> 02:04:12.160 want to close out with 02:04:13.440 --> 02:04:18.640 three more readings from scripture, not very lengthy ones, but three important 02:04:18.640 --> 02:04:20.560 readings on this topic. 02:04:20.560 --> 02:04:22.320 But before I get to those 02:04:23.520 --> 02:04:28.080 I just want to emphasize what Woe said about church discipline. 02:04:28.240 --> 02:04:31.440 I want you to think about something. 02:04:31.440 --> 02:04:37.600 We see many beliefs and many actions among supposed Christians that are 02:04:37.600 --> 02:04:40.240 very much not Christian. 02:04:40.240 --> 02:04:43.760 And yet I want you to ask yourself, have you ever seen 02:04:43.760 --> 02:04:51.040 church discipline for someone who believes abortion is morally permissible. 02:04:51.040 --> 02:04:55.200 Have you ever seen church discipline for a woman who had an 02:04:55.200 --> 02:04:58.960 abortion? Have you ever seen church discipline for a man who pushed 02:04:58.960 --> 02:05:01.280 a woman to have an abortion? 02:05:01.680 --> 02:05:02.880 Have you ever seen church discipline 02:05:03.760 --> 02:05:05.360 for adultery? 02:05:05.840 --> 02:05:09.680 Have you ever seen church discipline for divorce and remarriage, which is 02:05:09.760 --> 02:05:14.640 of course adultery, except in the case of sexual immorality? 02:05:14.640 --> 02:05:18.480 Have you ever seen church discipline for obesity? 02:05:18.480 --> 02:05:21.440 Which is indeed a sin? 02:05:21.440 --> 02:05:25.120 Have you ever seen church discipline for cohabiting? 02:05:25.120 --> 02:05:27.440 Which again is indeed a sin? 02:05:29.280 --> 02:05:34.240 It is not the things that are manifestly sin that are being 02:05:34.240 --> 02:05:40.320 pursued by these persecutors within the church, because they are persecutors, they 02:05:40.320 --> 02:05:42.080 are not Christians. 02:05:42.240 --> 02:05:46.720 If they were Christians, they would be dealing with these issues of 02:05:46.880 --> 02:05:50.960 open, high-handed, manifest sin. 02:05:50.960 --> 02:05:56.400 That is not what they're addressing, because again, they are not sheep, 02:05:56.400 --> 02:06:01.760 they are not shepherds, they are not working on behalf of Christ, 02:06:01.760 --> 02:06:03.760 for the sake of his church. 02:06:03.760 --> 02:06:07.200 They are persecutors and accusers of the brethren. 02:06:07.200 --> 02:06:11.440 They are wicked, they are evil, they are wolves. 02:06:11.440 --> 02:06:16.160 It is obvious from what they do and what they believe when 02:06:16.160 --> 02:06:19.680 pressed because they reveal it. 02:06:19.680 --> 02:06:23.680 I wish that more men had the eyes to see this, because 02:06:23.760 --> 02:06:28.240 then we would be in a better position. 02:06:28.240 --> 02:06:33.600 Part of that is spending time in scripture and developing that scriptural 02:06:34.160 --> 02:06:38.880 outlook, developing spiritual faculties. 02:06:38.880 --> 02:06:43.200 This is not something that you just get when you're baptized or 02:06:43.200 --> 02:06:45.600 when you convert to Christianity. 02:06:45.760 --> 02:06:51.360 Really, when you are converted to Christianity, of course. 02:06:51.680 --> 02:06:54.560 Because this is a matter of something that you build up over 02:06:54.560 --> 02:07:00.000 a lifetime of faithfulness, of time spent with other Christians, time spent 02:07:00.960 --> 02:07:04.400 in Christ's Word. 02:07:04.400 --> 02:07:09.680 If you do not spend the time in the things of Christ 02:07:09.680 --> 02:07:15.440 and His Church, you will not persevere you will not stand up 02:07:15.440 --> 02:07:19.760 under the persecution, because you weren't ready. 02:07:19.760 --> 02:07:23.440 You will be the seed that falls in the rocky soil you 02:07:23.440 --> 02:07:26.320 will have no root, and you will wither away. 02:07:26.320 --> 02:07:29.360 That is the reality of this. 02:07:29.360 --> 02:07:33.600 And that is why we are blunt on these matters. 02:07:33.600 --> 02:07:35.680 It is why the things we're saying are 02:07:35.680 --> 02:07:39.520 stark. Because these are eternal matters. 02:07:39.520 --> 02:07:42.720 This is a matter of your eternal soul, of where you will 02:07:42.720 --> 02:07:43.360 spend your 02:07:43.360 --> 02:07:49.840 eternity. It matters above and beyond everything else in life. 02:07:49.840 --> 02:07:54.320 Yes, the things of this life matter because how you execute those 02:07:54.320 --> 02:08:01.760 things is service or disservice to God, is faithfulness or unfaithfulness. 02:08:01.760 --> 02:08:03.280 But you need to spend 02:08:03.280 --> 02:08:04.960 the time in God's Word. 02:08:04.960 --> 02:08:09.280 And as we continually say, don't simply believe the things we say. 02:08:09.280 --> 02:08:12.240 It's one of the reasons we're closing with God's Word. 02:08:12.240 --> 02:08:15.360 Compare what we say to the words of God. 02:08:15.360 --> 02:08:16.080 Compare what we say 02:08:16.960 --> 02:08:18.000 t' what Christians have 02:08:18.000 --> 02:08:22.560 always believed, and subject the words of the adversaries to the exact 02:08:22.560 --> 02:08:24.880 same treatment. 02:08:24.880 --> 02:08:28.480 Because what you will find is that what we are saying is 02:08:28.480 --> 02:08:32.320 written in the Word of God, is echoed by the saints down 02:08:32.320 --> 02:08:36.160 through the ages, and what the enemies are saying, what the adversaries 02:08:36.160 --> 02:08:39.680 are saying, is not found in the Word of God. 02:08:39.680 --> 02:08:42.960 It's found in a very different sort of literature. 02:08:43.040 --> 02:08:46.160 And it has not been believed by the saints down through the 02:08:46.160 --> 02:08:50.480 ages, because it is not Christian. 02:08:50.480 --> 02:08:52.400 God does not change. 02:08:52.400 --> 02:08:53.280 Christianity 02:08:53.280 --> 02:08:54.560 does not change. 02:08:54.560 --> 02:08:58.640 The beliefs of Christians do not change. 02:08:58.640 --> 02:09:02.080 That is one of the reasons we recite the creeds. 02:09:02.080 --> 02:09:06.480 It is a bulwark against false belief. 02:09:06.480 --> 02:09:10.240 You can look to the great cloud of witnesses because they all 02:09:10.240 --> 02:09:12.400 believe the same things. 02:09:12.400 --> 02:09:17.280 Because again, Christianity does not change because Christianity belongs to God. 02:09:17.280 --> 02:09:19.920 Just the same as your faith belongs to God, even though it's 02:09:19.840 --> 02:09:23.520 a free gift from God to you, it belongs to God. 02:09:23.520 --> 02:09:25.040 It's why you won't be lost out 02:09:25.040 --> 02:09:28.080 of his hand. 02:09:28.080 --> 02:09:32.960 But we'll close with a reading from Matthew, a reading from Romans, 02:09:32.960 --> 02:09:35.280 and a reading from Jeremiah. 02:09:36.800 --> 02:09:39.760 This is the first one from Matthew, we've gone over it a 02:09:39.760 --> 02:09:45.760 number of times before, but it certainly bears repeating. 02:09:45.760 --> 02:09:48.880 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to 02:09:48.880 --> 02:09:53.280 him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be, and what 02:09:53.280 --> 02:09:55.840 will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of 02:09:55.840 --> 02:09:57.120 the age? 02:09:57.360 --> 02:10:01.600 And Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray, for 02:10:01.600 --> 02:10:04.960 many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ, and 02:10:04.960 --> 02:10:08.560 they will lead many astray, and you will hear of wars and 02:10:08.560 --> 02:10:10.080 rumours of wars. 02:10:10.080 --> 02:10:13.200 See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but 02:10:13.200 --> 02:10:15.280 the end is not yet. 02:10:15.280 --> 02:10:20.000 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there 02:10:20.000 --> 02:10:23.280 will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 02:10:23.280 --> 02:10:26.320 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. 02:10:26.320 --> 02:10:29.520 Then Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you 02:10:29.520 --> 02:10:32.720 to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my 02:10:32.720 --> 02:10:33.920 name's sake. 02:10:33.920 --> 02:10:37.360 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate 02:10:37.360 --> 02:10:42.400 one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 02:10:42.400 --> 02:10:46.400 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow 02:10:46.400 --> 02:10:50.480 cold, and the one who endures to the end will be saved, 02:10:50.480 --> 02:10:54.000 and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole 02:10:54.000 --> 02:10:58.320 world as a testimony to the nations, and then the end will 02:10:58.320 --> 02:10:59.120 come. 02:11:00.240 --> 02:11:04.240 The second of the three readings is from Romans eight. 02:11:04.240 --> 02:11:07.120 What then shall we say to these things? 02:11:07.120 --> 02:11:10.640 If God is for us, who can be against us? 02:11:10.640 --> 02:11:14.160 He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up 02:11:14.160 --> 02:11:18.240 for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give 02:11:18.240 --> 02:11:19.440 us all things? 02:11:19.600 --> 02:11:22.640 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? 02:11:22.640 --> 02:11:26.480 It is God who justifies, who is to condemn? 02:11:26.480 --> 02:11:30.320 Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was 02:11:30.320 --> 02:11:30.960 raised, 02:11:30.960 --> 02:11:34.080 who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding 02:11:34.720 --> 02:11:35.600 for us? 02:11:35.600 --> 02:11:38.480 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 02:11:38.480 --> 02:11:43.760 Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger 02:11:43.840 --> 02:11:44.960 or sword? 02:11:44.960 --> 02:11:48.640 As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all 02:11:48.640 --> 02:11:52.720 the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 02:11:52.720 --> 02:11:57.040 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him 02:11:57.200 --> 02:11:58.400 who loved us. 02:11:58.400 --> 02:12:02.320 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor 02:12:02.320 --> 02:12:07.040 rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, 02:12:07.040 --> 02:12:11.040 nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to 02:12:11.040 --> 02:12:17.280 separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 02:12:17.280 --> 02:12:21.920 And the last of the three readings from the Old Testament, because 02:12:22.080 --> 02:12:26.160 of all the things of which I am willing to be accused, 02:12:26.160 --> 02:12:29.920 I hope that neglecting the Old Testament is never one of them. 02:12:29.920 --> 02:12:33.040 And so from Jeremiah. 02:12:33.040 --> 02:12:36.560 But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior, therefore my 02:12:36.560 --> 02:12:40.400 persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. 02:12:40.400 --> 02:12:44.080 They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. 02:12:44.080 --> 02:12:47.520 Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. 02:12:47.520 --> 02:12:51.360 O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart 02:12:51.360 --> 02:12:55.680 and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to 02:12:55.680 --> 02:12:59.200 you have I committed my cause. 02:12:59.200 --> 02:13:00.560 Amen.