WEBVTT 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:39.520 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.320 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:41.840 Molly. And 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.080 I'm still Wo. 00:00:44.080 --> 00:00:48.160 Today's Stone Choir is part four of our series on the state 00:00:48.160 --> 00:00:49.280 of the church. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:52.800 Today we're going to be discussing the subject of apostasy in the 00:00:52.800 --> 00:00:54.160 church and of the church. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:58.800 We began with the first episode where we discussed the nature of 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:02.800 religion itself and in that we defined religion in terms of where 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:06.640 it sources its morality, where our church is getting their right and 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:12.480 wrong, because right and wrong moral claims are themselves the basis of 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:13.520 a religion. 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:17.360 And so within the Christian church, the exclusive source of such morality 00:01:18.160 --> 00:01:20.080 must necessarily be scripture. 00:01:20.080 --> 00:01:22.880 And we made the case in that first episode that much of 00:01:22.880 --> 00:01:26.000 what we in the church today describe as right and wrong is 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.000 not actually sourced from scripture. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:32.640 Much of it is in in effect sourced from the new global 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:36.240 religion that's emerged really since the 60s. 00:01:36.240 --> 00:01:40.000 In the second episode, we dealt specifically with the Judaizing heresy, the 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:46.160 fact that so much of newly invented theology in the last generation 00:01:46.240 --> 00:01:52.080 or two is fundamentally trying to make Christianity more Jewish, that somehow 00:01:52.080 --> 00:01:53.680 that would make it more authentic. 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:56.640 And so we gave a couple examples and pointed out that this 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:02.000 is pervasive and it's relatively new, but it's not novel because in 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.200 the first century it was the very first heresy that the church 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:08.720 battled. So the fact that it would come roaring back, not a 00:02:08.720 --> 00:02:10.960 surprise. It's entirely believable. 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:15.600 It's another example of how the church is departing from the historic 00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:17.040 Christian faith. 00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:21.360 Last week's episode was entirely about the Gnostic heresy, which was the 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.400 second major heresy that attacked the church after Judaizing. 00:02:24.880 --> 00:02:27.200 And it went on for a couple centuries. 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:31.840 And we made the case that there are significant portions of the 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:35.760 underlying Gnostic religion of the first few centuries that are that are 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:38.400 roaring back today inside churches. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:44.480 Like there are aspects that are clearly emerging in secular culture where 00:02:44.480 --> 00:02:47.680 it's not seen as religious, but it in fact is things like 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:51.440 transsexualism completely Gnostic from start to finish. 00:02:51.440 --> 00:02:54.480 And yet within the church, we find those same tendencies. 00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:57.120 So we made the case in a couple hours last week that 00:02:57.120 --> 00:02:58.400 that's another heresy. 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:03.360 It's another degree of apostatizing unbelief that has emerging in the church. 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:08.000 And so this last episode in this series, we're going to conclude 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:12.240 by an extensive Bible study of all the passages, well, not all, 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:16.160 but a selection of passages in the old and the new testament, 00:03:16.160 --> 00:03:20.320 the layout what apostasy looks like in the church. 00:03:20.320 --> 00:03:23.760 And I want to say a couple things up front to preface 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:26.480 and to frame what we're talking about. 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:30.640 We are specifically talking when we're talking about apostasy this week about 00:03:30.880 --> 00:03:32.320 the church bodies. 00:03:32.320 --> 00:03:35.600 We're not talking about individual apostasy. 00:03:35.600 --> 00:03:38.800 I want to point this out because one, I know that there 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:41.760 are quite a few people who are listening who have apostatized from 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:44.400 the faith in the past and are coming back to the faith 00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:49.440 now. And we want not to burden your conscience or to beat 00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:52.480 up on you by using that word. 00:03:52.480 --> 00:03:57.120 In some ways the fact that when an individual apostatizes, you know, 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:01.600 they have faith of some degree, you're baptized, you're in the church, 00:04:01.600 --> 00:04:04.400 for whatever reason you fall away, usually it's probably going to be 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:08.400 a lukewarm church or a bad church where you finally realize there's 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:09.280 nothing here for me. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:11.280 I don't believe any of this. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:16.400 When a man individually apostatizes, it is better than when the church 00:04:16.400 --> 00:04:19.440 does it because at least the man knows there's a before and 00:04:19.440 --> 00:04:22.000 after. He knows I used to believe in God. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:23.440 I just don't have faith anymore. 00:04:23.440 --> 00:04:25.680 I don't I don't believe any of this stuff anymore. 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:27.760 So he knows that something happened. 00:04:27.760 --> 00:04:32.240 We're talking about a different type of apostasy within the church because 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:37.440 when the church denominations are apostatizing as they are today, there's no 00:04:38.080 --> 00:04:40.240 overt before and after. 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:43.040 There's no one day they stand up and say we believe in 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:45.440 God and then the next week they say we don't believe in 00:04:45.440 --> 00:04:49.360 God. Or we actually want to worship Satan or Baal or Molech 00:04:49.440 --> 00:04:50.960 or something else. 00:04:50.960 --> 00:04:54.560 What happens when a church apostatizes is it keeps on being the 00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:57.840 church, it keeps on saying we're Christian, keeps on talking about Jesus 00:04:57.840 --> 00:05:01.840 and God and love and all the Bible stuff, all the Jesus 00:05:01.840 --> 00:05:06.000 butter. What it doesn't do is continue in the faith of our 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.520 fathers. It throws away scripture by bits and pieces. 00:05:09.520 --> 00:05:13.520 It throws away the confession of the historic church and replaces it 00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:16.960 wholesale, but wholesale over time, not all at once. 00:05:16.960 --> 00:05:20.160 So it's really kind of a ship of theseist theology that occurs 00:05:20.320 --> 00:05:24.080 where they'll start with little stuff like, well, you know, Genesis, obviously 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:27.920 like the stuff in the very beginning about six days and you 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:31.920 know God talking and like the that stuff's not real, obviously. 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:33.200 It's a metaphor. 00:05:33.200 --> 00:05:35.520 Something happened, but we don't know what it was, and so this 00:05:35.520 --> 00:05:36.160 is a story. 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:38.800 It begins there, and by the time you get to the end, 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:41.840 they're just flat out denying everything in scripture and say, My God 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:43.440 isn't like any of this stuff. 00:05:43.440 --> 00:05:47.680 So while the wholesale replation of Christianity eventually it becomes clear to 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:47.920 everyone 00:05:48.960 --> 00:05:51.840 as it's happening, it's usually gradual. 00:05:51.840 --> 00:05:53.840 It takes generations to occur. 00:05:53.840 --> 00:05:57.280 And so as that frog is being boiled, and we're that frog, 00:05:57.280 --> 00:06:00.480 many of us don't even see it or feel it happening. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:06.000 And so the apostasy that we're speaking of today is specifically churches 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:11.280 pretending to continue to be the true church, but adopting false demonic 00:06:11.280 --> 00:06:14.640 teachings. So in that sense, it's very different from what the individual 00:06:14.640 --> 00:06:19.040 does. So we are beating up on the denominations, all of them. 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:21.760 We're gonna have a few specific examples of different churches. 00:06:21.760 --> 00:06:24.240 We're gonna beat up on some of you. 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:27.760 We're beating up on ourselves too, like the Lutheran church is a 00:06:27.760 --> 00:06:30.000 key example of this sort of apostasy today. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:31.920 We'll give some of those examples. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.720 So just at the outset, I don't want anyone to feel like 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:39.360 they're just getting crushed by what we're saying about individuals. 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:42.400 Frankly, if you are worried about apostasy or if you feel guilty 00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:45.200 that you have in the past, that's a good sign. 00:06:45.200 --> 00:06:48.880 That means that God remembered your baptism that he gave to you 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:51.200 and he's drawing you back to him. 00:06:51.200 --> 00:06:53.040 That is the gospel. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:56.080 That is God saving you as he saved all of us. 00:06:56.080 --> 00:06:59.520 He calls us to himself and he gathers us and he gives 00:06:59.520 --> 00:07:00.640 us his things. 00:07:00.640 --> 00:07:02.240 That's what he does for us. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:04.800 It's not us doing things for him. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:08.640 So this is gonna be a lot of law in this episode. 00:07:08.640 --> 00:07:11.440 We're gonna hammer home the point that things are really bad. 00:07:11.440 --> 00:07:14.160 And I don't want this to be a downer episode. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:18.320 In some ways it's gonna be, but fundamentally this is a this 00:07:18.320 --> 00:07:19.840 is a signal beacon. 00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:21.840 This is this is sounding an alarm. 00:07:21.840 --> 00:07:26.240 This whole series of these four episodes is sounding an alarm to 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:29.440 say, this is actually happening today. 00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:33.680 And by the way, scripture prophesied that it would happen, Scripture tells 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:37.520 us what God thinks about it happening, and Scripture makes clear what 00:07:37.520 --> 00:07:41.120 he has done in all the previous cases where believers ceased to 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:42.960 be believers and did these things. 00:07:42.960 --> 00:07:45.680 And by the way, we're seeing all that today too. 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:48.320 So this is not hypothetical. 00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:50.560 This is not just about doctrine. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:54.400 This is about whether or not we continue to live and have 00:07:54.400 --> 00:07:59.280 God's blessings, both as human beings, as nations, and as church bodies, 00:07:59.280 --> 00:08:02.560 with the pretense of Christian doctrine. 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:04.800 We don't want there to be a pretense, we want there to 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:06.720 actually be the Christian faith. 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:08.960 And as we laid out in the first episode, but I want 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:10.160 to reiterate here, 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.360 One of the key things that you have to hold in mind 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:17.840 when you're tackling this subject is that it is entirely possible for 00:08:17.840 --> 00:08:22.640 a man to simultaneously have a true confession and a false confession 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:24.160 that are at odds with each other. 00:08:24.320 --> 00:08:27.360 That absolutely happens at the same time. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:30.960 And we talked about in the judge not episode. 00:08:30.960 --> 00:08:33.920 We can't read a man's heart as God can. 00:08:33.920 --> 00:08:37.520 We do not know what the final disposition of a man's soul 00:08:37.520 --> 00:08:39.920 is going to be when he has a false confession and a 00:08:39.920 --> 00:08:40.880 true confession. 00:08:40.880 --> 00:08:44.240 We can only warn him this thing that you're saying that's false 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:45.120 is false. 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:46.240 This is damnable. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:48.480 You're also saying this thing is true. 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:51.200 God's going to sort that out, but for the sake of your 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:54.000 soul, let's get rid of the false stuff. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.000 And so one of the first examples we're going to have is 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.120 where this was absolutely the case back in the days of the 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:02.560 kings, in the old testament, as we call it. 00:09:02.560 --> 00:09:05.200 That pattern, it's an actual pattern. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:08.160 It's not just the oh, there's an old story about the olden 00:09:08.160 --> 00:09:10.880 times. That was thousands of years ago, and gosh, you know, I 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:12.960 it's too bad they didn't do a better job. 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:15.280 Those old stories are about us too. 00:09:15.280 --> 00:09:16.880 They're not just history. 00:09:16.880 --> 00:09:20.720 They're telling us what men are vulnerable to, what we have a 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:24.000 tendency to do, and they also tell us exactly how God responds 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:24.720 to it. 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:29.040 God's response to the unbelief in the Old Testament is identical to 00:09:29.040 --> 00:09:30.160 his response today. 00:09:30.160 --> 00:09:31.120 God didn't change. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:35.680 He doesn't hate unbelief and idolatry any less or any differently than 00:09:35.680 --> 00:09:36.800 he did then. 00:09:36.800 --> 00:09:40.880 So when he reveals then here's what I think about this stuff 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:44.080 and here's what I do, and then we see the doing happening 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:46.240 today, we should know, yeah, that's makes sense. 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:51.440 God thinks very poorly of idolatry and the sacrifice of infants and 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:52.640 all these other things. 00:09:52.640 --> 00:09:57.360 So when we see the same consequences, it makes perfect sense. 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:00.000 I hope by the end of the episode we'll have established the 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.400 case we're trying to make that the churches are apostatizing in real 00:10:04.400 --> 00:10:08.320 time. Every single church body, I don't care what body you're in, 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:12.880 they are apostatizing to varying degrees and in varying fashions, but they 00:10:12.880 --> 00:10:16.720 are all participating to some degree in the worship of demons. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:18.080 Every single one of them. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:20.560 Whoever's listening and shouting, you're no exception. 00:10:20.560 --> 00:10:21.280 Yours too. 00:10:21.520 --> 00:10:24.480 We're not going to beat up on every single denomination. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:28.400 We want to establish that this is happening everywhere, and that's the 00:10:28.400 --> 00:10:32.480 concern. Because God has promised that He will preserve His church. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:36.160 He has not promised that he's going to preserve any particular denomination. 00:10:36.160 --> 00:10:38.720 The faith will persevere until the end. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:40.480 There will be believers until the end. 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:44.960 And some of the passages we'll specifically get into deal with that. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:48.560 But it does not follow that we can just do whatever we 00:10:48.560 --> 00:10:51.360 want in our lives and in our churches and God's going to 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:52.160 preserve us. 00:10:52.160 --> 00:10:56.160 Because God also spends a lot of time talking about faithless churches 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:58.320 having their lampstands removed. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:02.160 God takes away their faith, he no longer speaks through them. 00:11:02.160 --> 00:11:03.520 He goes elsewhere. 00:11:03.520 --> 00:11:04.560 That's a threat. 00:11:04.560 --> 00:11:05.520 That's bad news. 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:07.760 that's both barrels of the law. 00:11:07.760 --> 00:11:10.000 And nobody wants to hear that because we don't think, oh, I 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:12.560 I don't want that to happen to me, or that couldn't happen 00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:13.280 to me. 00:11:14.160 --> 00:11:18.000 This series is intended to demonstrate that it is in fact happening 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:18.960 to all of us. 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:22.640 And not that we should then whine about it or pout or 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:25.120 like just point and shout and call names. 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:26.400 We need to fix it. 00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:27.520 We need to obey God. 00:11:27.520 --> 00:11:30.160 We need to detect when these things are happening. 00:11:30.160 --> 00:11:31.760 And we need to do something. 00:11:31.760 --> 00:11:34.160 And again, every church has its own problems. 00:11:34.160 --> 00:11:37.120 So there's not a checklist for one church that's going to apply 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:37.920 to another. 00:11:37.920 --> 00:11:40.880 We all have our own issues, but they're all following the same 00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:41.120 path. 00:11:42.160 --> 00:11:46.560 So as we go through these many passages today, keep in mind 00:11:46.560 --> 00:11:51.520 that when Jesus is speaking and God is speaking throughout scripture, he's 00:11:51.520 --> 00:11:52.800 talking to us too. 00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:54.000 He's also talking to them. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:55.760 You know, a lot of this is typological. 00:11:55.760 --> 00:11:59.520 As we get into many of these things, they're talking about end 00:11:59.760 --> 00:12:01.040 times. And 00:12:02.640 --> 00:12:06.800 one of the problems that has come about in the church is 00:12:06.800 --> 00:12:11.200 that people think, well, that happened 2,000 years ago or 3,000 years 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:12.400 ago, 4,000. 00:12:12.400 --> 00:12:13.840 So it can't happen again. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:15.840 God said it was going to happen, then it did, and that 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:16.720 means it's over. 00:12:17.040 --> 00:12:22.000 When you understand that God works typologically, that he establishes a pattern 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.280 to indicate here's the type of thing that's going on, when it 00:12:25.280 --> 00:12:29.040 happens again, that doesn't mean he was wrong the first time and 00:12:29.040 --> 00:12:31.200 he's right the second time, he didn't skip anything. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:34.400 Sometimes God repeats patterns for our benefit. 00:12:34.400 --> 00:12:38.960 So some of these prophecies were certainly fulfilled in the past. 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:41.200 That doesn't mean they can't be fulfilled again. 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:44.080 And it's also certainly true when you look at the the black 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:47.760 letter text, some of these prophecies have not happened yet. 00:12:47.760 --> 00:12:51.600 And the specific questions surrounding them were the end times. 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:55.360 When and the disciples were asking Jesus point blank, when will we 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:57.040 know when these things are happening? 00:12:57.040 --> 00:12:59.680 And he gives them signs of the end of the age. 00:12:59.680 --> 00:13:03.040 And he says, These things will happen, and not until these things 00:13:03.040 --> 00:13:05.280 happen will the end come will I return. 00:13:05.280 --> 00:13:07.840 And so as we talk about these things, I don't want people 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:11.200 to get the sense that we're Doom and gloom, or that we're 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:12.480 talking about the end of the world. 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:14.240 It's like we're right around the corner. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:15.360 We don't know. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:18.560 Everything that we do is hopeful that we will obey God. 00:13:18.560 --> 00:13:21.760 And whenever He shows up, we just want to be obeying Him. 00:13:21.760 --> 00:13:23.840 We want to believe what He said and do what He told 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:26.960 us to do and leave the rest in his hands. 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:29.440 And if that's tomorrow or a year from now or a thousand 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:32.560 years from now, it shouldn't change what we do today. 00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:34.960 So a lot of times you'll see like doomsday calls. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:36.320 They're like, okay, the end is near. 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:38.960 Everybody sell your stuff and go live on a hill and just 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:40.240 look up at the sky. 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:43.120 No. If the end is near, do exactly what you should have 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:44.160 been doing all along. 00:13:44.160 --> 00:13:46.160 That's what God wants for all of us. 00:13:46.160 --> 00:13:50.080 So we don't want this to seem like it's an eschatological 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:52.160 nightmare scenario. 00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:55.680 Like the eschatology is not a nightmare, it's unless you're an unbeliever, 00:13:55.680 --> 00:13:58.480 which is part of the reason for talking about these things. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:01.360 If unbelief is tolerated to the end, there are a lot of 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:02.800 warnings in these prophecies. 00:14:03.040 --> 00:14:06.400 Like, if you're asleep when I show up, you're damned. 00:14:06.400 --> 00:14:08.560 That's what Jesus warns people. 00:14:08.560 --> 00:14:12.400 So when we warn people today, it's not as some sort of 00:14:12.400 --> 00:14:14.400 like doomsday prophecy. 00:14:14.400 --> 00:14:16.800 It's just saying what God said and say, hey, take this stuff 00:14:16.800 --> 00:14:18.800 seriously. When he comes is in his time. 00:14:18.800 --> 00:14:20.240 We don't worry about that. 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:22.080 We shouldn't worry about that. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:25.040 What we should worry about is that we're actually believing and obeying 00:14:25.040 --> 00:14:28.800 him. And when we look at the church today through the lens 00:14:28.800 --> 00:14:32.960 of these passages, we find that we are not believing and obeying 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:36.800 God. So we're gonna begin in second kings seventeen. 00:14:36.800 --> 00:14:41.040 We're gonna read three pretty long sections from 2nd kings. 00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:43.280 Frankly, they're too long for you to be able to hold in 00:14:43.280 --> 00:14:43.920 your head. 00:14:43.920 --> 00:14:46.080 So and that's kind of deliberate. 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:48.400 All the citations that we have today are gonna be in the 00:14:48.400 --> 00:14:50.240 show notes, so you can go read all these things. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:52.160 Like you said, this is really a Bible study. 00:14:52.160 --> 00:14:55.360 We want people to go and read their Bible a lot after 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:56.080 this episode. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:57.360 It doesn't be right away. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:58.320 Wait a couple days. 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:00.640 So that what we have said is sort of faded. 00:15:00.640 --> 00:15:02.960 Go back through the verses and just read them. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:06.320 Just you and God, him talking and you listening, you're going to 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:08.080 reach the conclusions that we're presenting here. 00:15:08.160 --> 00:15:11.120 Because we're not saying anything novel. 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:16.000 As we read these first few passages in 2 Kings, because they're 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.880 so long, I want you to use this listening exercise to help 00:15:18.880 --> 00:15:22.160 you sort of frame what it is we're presenting. 00:15:22.160 --> 00:15:27.760 There are going to be numerous instances of describing the Hebrews, the 00:15:27.760 --> 00:15:32.880 Jews, the Israelites committing acts of apostasy, committing acts of idolatry and 00:15:32.880 --> 00:15:38.160 unbelief. Every time there is a mention of some act of apostasy 00:15:38.160 --> 00:15:41.040 or unbelief, I want you to imagine a bell ringing. 00:15:41.040 --> 00:15:43.120 We're not gonna have a soundboard, not gonna do any sort of 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:46.880 silly gimmicks, but you in your head, just imagine a bell dinging 00:15:46.880 --> 00:15:50.640 every time you hear some act of falling away of disbelief or 00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:52.400 of disobedience. 00:15:52.400 --> 00:15:56.240 And then the second category to keep in mind as we're reading 00:15:56.240 --> 00:16:00.160 these, every time God says says this is evil, don't do this, 00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:02.560 or God punishes them for doing a thing. 00:16:02.560 --> 00:16:07.280 Imagine a buzzer, like the really loud, obnoxious high school buzzer in 00:16:07.280 --> 00:16:08.960 the gymnasium. 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:14.320 So apostasy, a ding, punishment, a buzzer. 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:17.280 With that in mind, as you're listening to us read these things, 00:16:17.280 --> 00:16:19.280 you're gonna hear just a cacophony. 00:16:19.280 --> 00:16:20.640 It's gonna happen over and over again. 00:16:20.640 --> 00:16:23.920 And that's the reason for reading these passages because they're so dense 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:27.760 with both that it really makes the point that this stuff happens. 00:16:27.760 --> 00:16:28.640 This is real. 00:16:28.640 --> 00:16:30.480 Here the specific examples. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.600 And the reason it's interesting we're looking at second Kings is that 00:16:33.920 --> 00:16:36.160 these were God's people. 00:16:36.160 --> 00:16:37.920 These were the twelve tribes. 00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:40.080 At this point we're talking about the two kingdoms. 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:42.880 So you have the northern kingdom of the ten, the southern kingdom 00:16:42.880 --> 00:16:47.760 of the two tribes, but those were descendants of Jacob. 00:16:47.760 --> 00:16:51.360 Those were the twelve tribes of Israel and yet this is what 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:55.440 they were doing and this is how God responded because this framing 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:59.920 of how bad things were then points directly to how bad things 00:16:59.920 --> 00:17:01.440 are today. 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:01.600 In 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:05.120 the twelfth year of Ahaz King of Judah, Hoshea the son of 00:17:05.120 --> 00:17:09.520 Elab began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine 00:17:09.520 --> 00:17:12.480 years, and he did what was evil in the sight of the 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:15.760 Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 00:17:15.760 --> 00:17:20.960 Again Against him came up Shalmansir, king of Assyria, and Hoshea became 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:23.200 his vassal and paid him tribute. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:26.720 But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:30.320 sent messengers to so, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to 00:17:30.320 --> 00:17:34.000 the king of Assyria as he had done year by year. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:37.280 Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in 00:17:37.280 --> 00:17:40.560 prison. Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came 00:17:40.560 --> 00:17:44.880 to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:49.280 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, 00:17:49.280 --> 00:17:52.960 and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria, and placed them in 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:56.640 Halah, and on the Habor, the Rib the river of Gozan, and 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:58.720 in the cities of the Medes. 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:02.080 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the 00:18:02.080 --> 00:18:04.880 Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:08.400 of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt, and 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:12.160 had feared other gods, and walked in the customs of the nations, 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:15.920 whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:19.120 the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:23.360 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord, their God, 00:18:23.360 --> 00:18:25.040 things that were not right. 00:18:25.040 --> 00:18:29.120 They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower 00:18:29.280 --> 00:18:30.800 to fortified city. 00:18:30.800 --> 00:18:34.720 They set up for themselves pillars in Asherim, on every high hill, 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:38.720 and under every green tree, and there they made offerings, on all 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:42.640 the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:43.760 before them. 00:18:43.760 --> 00:18:47.840 And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, and they 00:18:47.840 --> 00:18:51.520 served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, You shall 00:18:51.520 --> 00:18:52.640 not do this. 00:18:53.040 --> 00:18:56.720 the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:01.360 saying, Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my 00:19:01.360 --> 00:19:05.600 statutes, in accordance with all the law that I commanded your fathers, 00:19:05.600 --> 00:19:09.760 and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets. 00:19:09.760 --> 00:19:13.920 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:16.960 been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 00:19:17.360 --> 00:19:21.440 despised his statutes and his covenant, that he made with their fathers, 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.520 and the warnings that he gave them. 00:19:23.600 --> 00:19:27.760 They went after false idols, and became false, and they followed the 00:19:27.760 --> 00:19:31.840 nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them, 00:19:31.840 --> 00:19:34.080 that they should not do like them. 00:19:34.080 --> 00:19:37.440 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:41.200 made for themselves metal images of two calves, and they made an 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:45.760 ashera, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 00:19:45.760 --> 00:19:49.520 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used 00:19:49.520 --> 00:19:53.520 divination and omens, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight 00:19:53.520 --> 00:19:56.240 of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:59.920 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out 00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:01.040 of his sight. 00:20:01.040 --> 00:20:04.640 None was left but the tribe of Judah only. 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:08.320 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, 00:20:08.320 --> 00:20:12.080 but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced, and the Lord 00:20:12.080 --> 00:20:15.920 rejected all the descendants of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:19.360 into the hand of plunders, until he had cast them out of 00:20:19.360 --> 00:20:20.480 his sight. 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:23.680 When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:28.480 Jeroboam the son of Nabat king, and Jeroboam drove Israel from following 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:28.960 the Lord 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:47.520 So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this 00:20:47.520 --> 00:20:48.400 day. 00:20:49.600 --> 00:20:53.840 So as I mentioned, this is the two kingdoms, this is Israel, 00:20:53.840 --> 00:20:56.240 the Northern Kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom. 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:59.120 In this moment is the end of Israel. 00:20:59.120 --> 00:21:01.200 This is the end of the northern kingdom. 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:02.480 God destroys them. 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:07.440 Ten tribes, ten of Jacob's sons, ten tribes have been had promises 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:08.080 made to him. 00:21:08.080 --> 00:21:10.560 They're preserved until this day. 00:21:10.560 --> 00:21:15.280 In the northern kingdom, God destroyed them in this moment because of 00:21:15.280 --> 00:21:16.400 their unbelief. 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:20.160 And if you were imagining dinging and buzzing, it was going off 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:24.640 continuously throughout that passage, because there are all these different examples of 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:28.560 their wickedness, of their unbelief before the Lord. 00:21:28.560 --> 00:21:33.360 And as we said in past episodes, having no other gods before 00:21:33.360 --> 00:21:37.760 God, when you understand that God is omniscient, everything is before him 00:21:37.840 --> 00:21:40.400 because everything is according to his knowledge. 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:43.920 So they were doing this right in front of God, in despising 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:46.720 everything he had promised and told them, and so he wiped 'em 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:48.720 out. And so the northern kingdom is gone. 00:21:49.040 --> 00:21:51.360 The ten tribes are destroyed. 00:21:51.360 --> 00:21:54.320 You know, today when you hear about the men who call themselves 00:21:54.320 --> 00:21:57.520 Jews today, there aren't twelve different versions of them. 00:21:57.520 --> 00:21:58.880 There are a few different versions. 00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:02.240 We've all heard of the Ashkenazim, you know, the Sephardim, some have 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:03.920 heard of the Mizrahim. 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:08.160 Those are all different names for the places where the diaspora was 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:11.120 sent, and they effectively misegenated with their neighbors. 00:22:11.120 --> 00:22:12.720 They were all wiped out. 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:16.560 The Northern Kingdom was wiped out and became Samaria. 00:22:16.560 --> 00:22:20.880 These people, these Jews became the Samaritans, by mixing with their northern 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:25.280 neighbors. It was race mixing with people who were not of God 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:29.040 after God cast them out, he abandoned them, and then destroyed them 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:31.280 by these means, and they vanished. 00:22:31.280 --> 00:22:32.800 They're completely gone. 00:22:32.800 --> 00:22:35.600 They cannot be reconstituted to this day. 00:22:35.600 --> 00:22:41.360 And so the modern person who calls himself a Jew can't possibly 00:22:41.360 --> 00:22:45.280 trace any lineage back to the twelve tribes because they were immolated. 00:22:45.280 --> 00:22:49.280 And the same thing happened to Judah between the days of Christ 00:22:49.280 --> 00:22:51.040 and after the destruction of the temple. 00:22:51.040 --> 00:22:53.280 The southern kingdom had already been conquered. 00:22:53.280 --> 00:22:55.040 It was it was there was nothing left. 00:22:55.040 --> 00:22:58.240 They had no king, but they were still in Jerusalem. 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:02.080 I think it's a little bit notable that when the modern state 00:23:02.080 --> 00:23:05.760 of Israel chose to reconstitute a name, even though they're down in 00:23:05.760 --> 00:23:10.880 Jerusalem, there were in Judah today or Judea, they chose the name 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:12.560 of the northern tribe. 00:23:12.560 --> 00:23:16.720 They chose the name of the group that had openly and completely 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:20.320 apostatized and been destroyed by God for their wickedness. 00:23:20.320 --> 00:23:23.280 You know, it they call themselves Jews, but they don't call it 00:23:23.280 --> 00:23:24.560 Judah or Judea. 00:23:24.560 --> 00:23:25.760 I just I think it's interesting. 00:23:25.760 --> 00:23:27.040 It's not a theological point. 00:23:27.040 --> 00:23:31.200 It's just kind of it's conspicuous when you understand the history Where 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:33.520 people choose to anchor themselves. 00:23:33.520 --> 00:23:37.360 And choosing to anchor themselves in terms of Israel as being some 00:23:37.360 --> 00:23:41.120 promise thing, well, here we see how the promise turned up. 00:23:41.120 --> 00:23:43.920 Was it God failing to keep his promise? 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:47.680 No. It was a people who were so wicked and so apostate 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:49.360 that he destroyed them. 00:23:49.600 --> 00:23:51.200 That's why we're talking about this today. 00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:55.120 This was ancient apostasy, but these had been God's people. 00:23:55.120 --> 00:23:58.480 They had been given the law and the prophets, they were sent 00:23:58.800 --> 00:24:00.160 prophets over and over again. 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:01.920 The prophet in this day was Isaiah. 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:05.120 It'll come up in one of the other passages and there's a 00:24:05.120 --> 00:24:08.960 parallel description in Second Chronicles and then the entire book of Isaiah 00:24:09.120 --> 00:24:13.280 all talking about this period, so it's covered extensively. 00:24:13.280 --> 00:24:16.800 But the key point for this this particular episode and this subject 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:21.280 is that they fell away and God destroyed them. 00:24:21.280 --> 00:24:25.600 And so today, if we make the case, if it's true that 00:24:25.600 --> 00:24:30.720 the churches today are also falling away, we should believe that God 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:32.400 will destroy us too. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:34.960 And I think that when we look at the current state of 00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:39.120 the West of Christendom, which is Christendom is dead, but we're in 00:24:39.120 --> 00:24:43.360 the ashes of Christendom, when we see these very same things, these 00:24:43.360 --> 00:24:47.840 very same punishments occurring to us, to our people, to our lands, 00:24:47.840 --> 00:24:52.240 it's worth considering whether the same God who hated their unbelief and 00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:55.920 their departure from the faith would also hate our unbelief and our 00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:59.360 departure from the faith, and would maybe punish it exactly the same 00:24:59.360 --> 00:25:01.840 way because that's how he punishes unbelief. 00:25:01.840 --> 00:25:04.640 I think it's a reasonable question to ask, but it's one that 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:06.560 nobody wants to ask because we want to say, oh, this is 00:25:06.560 --> 00:25:08.640 this is just the old stuff, it's the old testament. 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:10.400 Yeah, it's god that was the angry God. 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:11.600 We got the loving God now. 00:25:11.600 --> 00:25:13.040 No. There's one God. 00:25:13.040 --> 00:25:16.160 And he views this stuff the same way today as he did 00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:18.480 then, because God doesn't change. 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:22.080 So if it's true that the church is apostatizing that the West 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:25.840 has apostatized, I think is pretty much inarguable. 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:29.840 You can quibble over to what degree churches have, but the West 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.160 is completely de Christianized. 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:34.960 In fact it's almost illegal to be Christian at this point. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:38.240 And even in the churches now, the last vestiges of Christianity are 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:39.920 being hunted down. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:41.920 So this is a live issue. 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:45.120 This is why we're not talking about this as a historical quibble 00:25:45.280 --> 00:25:47.200 or some minor point. 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:49.680 This is pointing to today. 00:25:49.840 --> 00:25:53.520 If you take our argument at face value, then it's happening today. 00:25:53.520 --> 00:25:56.720 But even if you don't think that, you have to wrestle with 00:25:56.720 --> 00:25:59.920 the fact that this is how God views these things. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:03.200 So if they happen, we should expect they would play out very 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:06.720 similarly. Because God's telling us, here's what I think and here's what 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:07.440 I do. 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:08.560 We should take that seriously. 00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:14.160 Scripture is very clear that God sets both the times and the 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:18.320 boundaries of the nations, and we see both of those in play 00:26:18.320 --> 00:26:23.680 here. Because with the case of the Northern Kingdom, he brings their 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.880 time to an end, and so takes all of their land from 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:31.680 them. With the case of the Southern Kingdom, they are punished differently, 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:34.480 we will get into that shortly. 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:39.120 But that's more of an issue of partially he takes away their 00:26:39.120 --> 00:26:43.200 land because he is dividing up, he's already divided up after the 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:48.960 time of Solomon, the the former territory of Israel, ancient Israel, into 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:51.680 two kingdoms, the northern and the southern kingdom. 00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:53.360 And so that's a division. 00:26:53.360 --> 00:26:54.320 That's from God. 00:26:54.320 --> 00:26:58.720 That is a punishment from God for their failure, particularly Solomon's failure, 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:01.840 but then the failure of his sons as well after him to 00:27:01.840 --> 00:27:04.240 follow the Lord God. 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:09.360 But I want you to pay attention particularly to one verse from 00:27:09.360 --> 00:27:10.000 that reading. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.320 Obviously you can't hold the whole thing in your mind as I 00:27:12.320 --> 00:27:13.200 was going through it. 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:16.320 That's why we encourage you to read it again later. 00:27:16.320 --> 00:27:21.520 But I want you to bear in mind verse eighteen Therefore the 00:27:21.520 --> 00:27:24.720 Lord was very angry with Israel and removed the Removed them out 00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:29.280 of his sight, none was left but the tribe of Judah only. 00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:35.760 That is clearly telling us that God destroyed the northern kingdom for 00:27:35.760 --> 00:27:37.920 their apostasy, for their wickedness. 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:41.200 That's what it means to be removed out of the sight of 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:47.200 God. Now, it is possible for God to turn his face away 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:47.680 from you. 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:49.920 Now there are two ways to look at God turning his face 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:50.800 toward you in scripture. 00:27:50.800 --> 00:27:53.680 He can either turn his face toward you in judgment or he 00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:58.240 can remember you, and usually scripture uses that phrasing of God remembered. 00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:01.840 It doesn't mean that God forgot, it means that he is turning 00:28:01.840 --> 00:28:05.840 toward that person or those people in order to aid them, in 00:28:05.840 --> 00:28:07.840 order to restore them. 00:28:07.840 --> 00:28:12.880 If God removes you out of his sight, God is omniscient, He 00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:14.240 sees all things. 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:18.720 To remove you out of His sight means to destroy you utterly 00:28:19.040 --> 00:28:22.400 Now there are times where that may be a temporary judgment. 00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:24.320 In this case, it's not. 00:28:24.320 --> 00:28:26.400 He destroys the northern kingdom. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:28.160 It is gone. 00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:32.720 The punishment for their apostasy is the destruction of them as a 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:34.880 people, as a nation. 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:37.520 God has done that a number of times historically. 00:28:37.520 --> 00:28:41.120 We obviously see that in the pages of the Old Testament, when 00:28:41.120 --> 00:28:46.160 the Israelites come into the land and destroy some of the Canaanites, 00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:48.880 they were supposed to destroy all of the Canaanites, they failed in 00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:52.160 that endeavor, which is part of the reason they're being judged here, 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:53.760 of course. 00:28:53.760 --> 00:28:55.200 But God destroyed them. 00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:55.760 God destroyed 00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:01.840 all of the Antideluvians, with the exception of Noah and his family. 00:29:01.840 --> 00:29:06.080 Only eight people from the ancient world were saved. 00:29:06.080 --> 00:29:12.320 God judges peoples, God judges nations, and he sets their times and 00:29:12.320 --> 00:29:17.120 their borders, and those who are faithless will see their time drawn 00:29:17.120 --> 00:29:18.240 to an end. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:20.800 God is not slow as men count slowness. 00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:23.760 He does things in his perfect time. 00:29:23.760 --> 00:29:27.440 That's why he waited for the wickedness of the Canaanites to be 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:30.640 full. He waited for them to fill full their cup of wrath 00:29:30.800 --> 00:29:34.160 before he brought in the Israelites to destroy them. 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:37.200 But that also means that you're given a period of time to 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:39.360 repent and turn back to God. 00:29:39.360 --> 00:29:41.760 You don't know when that will end, you don't know how long 00:29:41.760 --> 00:29:45.280 that period will be, because God does not tell us. 00:29:45.280 --> 00:29:48.160 And so we should take that to heart, and we should turn 00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:48.240 back 00:29:49.120 --> 00:29:50.720 immediately to God. 00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:54.800 We should recognize the apostasy, the same signs we see here in 00:29:54.800 --> 00:29:58.240 Scripture, we see happening today. 00:29:58.320 --> 00:30:01.600 So I'll move on to the second reading which is from chapter 00:30:01.600 --> 00:30:05.520 twenty two, dealing now with Judah. 00:30:05.520 --> 00:30:08.720 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he 00:30:08.720 --> 00:30:11.200 reigned thirty one years in Jerusalem. 00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:16.480 His mother's name was Jeddah, the daughter of Adiah, of Bozkath, and 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:18.960 he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:22.480 walked in all the ways of David his father, and he did 00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:25.920 not turn aside to the right or to the left. 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:30.480 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:34.960 son of Azaliah, son of Meshulam, the secretary, to the house of 00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:38.800 the Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he 00:30:38.800 --> 00:30:41.280 may count the money that has been brought into the house of 00:30:41.280 --> 00:30:44.880 the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:48.160 people, and let it be given into the hand of the workmen, 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:50.720 who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let 00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:53.600 them give it to the workmen, who are at the house of 00:30:53.600 --> 00:30:57.760 the Lord, repairing the house, that is, to the carpenters and to 00:30:57.760 --> 00:31:01.120 the builders and to the masons, and let them use it for 00:31:01.120 --> 00:31:04.560 buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. 00:31:04.560 --> 00:31:07.440 But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that 00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:11.200 is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:15.680 And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphon the secretary, I have 00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:18.400 found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. 00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:22.080 And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it, and 00:31:22.080 --> 00:31:26.160 Shapon the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king. 00:31:26.560 --> 00:31:29.600 servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, 00:31:29.600 --> 00:31:32.720 and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen, Who have 00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:35.040 the oversight of the house of the Lord? 00:31:35.040 --> 00:31:39.600 Then Shapon the secretary told the king, Hilkiah the priest has given 00:31:39.600 --> 00:31:43.520 me a book, and Shapon read it before the king. 00:31:43.520 --> 00:31:46.080 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, 00:31:46.080 --> 00:31:50.480 he tore his clothes, and the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:54.800 Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Akmor the son of Mekiah, and 00:31:54.800 --> 00:31:59.920 Shaphan the secretary, and Asiah the king's servant saying, Go inquire of 00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:03.520 the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, 00:32:03.520 --> 00:32:07.120 concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great 00:32:07.120 --> 00:32:10.320 is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because 00:32:10.320 --> 00:32:13.840 our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do 00:32:13.840 --> 00:32:16.800 according to all that is written concerning us. 00:32:16.800 --> 00:32:22.080 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Akbor and Shaphan, and Asiah 00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:25.920 went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shalum, the son of 00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:29.760 Tikfah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. 00:32:29.760 --> 00:32:33.520 Now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter, and they talked 00:32:33.520 --> 00:32:37.200 with her, and she said to them, Thus says the Lord the 00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:38.480 God of Israel. 00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:42.160 Tell the man who sent you to me, thus says the Lord. 00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:46.480 Behold I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants. 00:32:46.480 --> 00:32:48.640 All the words of the book that the king of Judah has 00:32:49.200 --> 00:32:53.360 read, because they have forsaken me, and have made offerings to other 00:32:53.360 --> 00:32:56.800 gods, that they might provoke me to anger, with all the work 00:32:56.800 --> 00:32:58.080 of their hands. 00:32:58.080 --> 00:33:01.840 Therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will 00:33:01.840 --> 00:33:05.280 not be quenched, but to the king of Judah, who sent you 00:33:05.280 --> 00:33:09.520 to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus 00:33:09.520 --> 00:33:13.360 says the Lord, the God of Israel, regarding the words that you 00:33:13.360 --> 00:33:17.680 have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before 00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:21.280 the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and 00:33:21.280 --> 00:33:25.680 against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:28.320 and you have torn your clothes and wept before me. 00:33:28.320 --> 00:33:31.520 I also I also have heard you, declares the Lord. 00:33:31.520 --> 00:33:35.520 Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall 00:33:35.520 --> 00:33:39.120 be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not 00:33:39.120 --> 00:33:42.800 see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place. 00:33:43.040 --> 00:33:45.440 And they brought back word to the king 00:33:46.560 --> 00:33:50.400 There are a few vital points in this passage that I think 00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:53.600 speak very directly to us today. 00:33:53.600 --> 00:33:57.680 One, it's worth considering the beginning and ending of that passage where 00:33:57.680 --> 00:33:59.920 it says that Josiah did what was right in the lies of 00:33:59.920 --> 00:34:02.400 the Lord and walked in the ways of David his father. 00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:07.440 And at the end, the prophetess says to him, From God, Because 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:10.160 your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before the Lord when 00:34:10.160 --> 00:34:13.840 you heard how he spoke against this, God would show mercy specifically 00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:15.040 on Josiah. 00:34:15.040 --> 00:34:15.360 So 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:20.560 God is crediting to Josiah righteousness on account of his faith. 00:34:20.560 --> 00:34:24.640 Josiah was born he was made king at age eight. 00:34:24.640 --> 00:34:28.720 For eighteen years the things that we're gonna get to in the 00:34:28.720 --> 00:34:32.880 next and final reading from Second Kings were going on while Josiah 00:34:32.880 --> 00:34:34.320 was king. 00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:37.520 So in a minute we're gonna talk about how bad that was, 00:34:37.520 --> 00:34:42.400 but I think it's notable that Josiah was seen as a faithful 00:34:42.400 --> 00:34:46.320 king by God, which means he was, that's not speculative. 00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:51.760 And yet when Hilkiah, the high priest, brought him what the workmen 00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:52.480 had found. 00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:56.960 They found some portion of the Torah, maybe the whole thing. 00:34:56.960 --> 00:35:00.160 It doesn't say I've seen speculation on which part of it it 00:35:00.160 --> 00:35:02.720 was. Personally it seems to me like it would have had to 00:35:02.720 --> 00:35:05.920 have been the whole thing because I don't know how much of 00:35:05.920 --> 00:35:11.360 the Torah you could remove and tolerate what is described in the 00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:13.120 next chapter. 00:35:13.120 --> 00:35:16.480 But even if it was a portion of it, his response when 00:35:16.480 --> 00:35:21.120 it was discovered was to realize that his fathers had cursed them 00:35:21.120 --> 00:35:25.360 all, that the unbelief of the prior generations, that they would forget 00:35:25.360 --> 00:35:26.480 God's word. 00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:30.320 Because remember, this was this was literally the word of God basically 00:35:30.560 --> 00:35:32.000 buried in some rubble. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:34.000 It was buried somewhere in the temple. 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:37.200 Like guys were looking to clean out money and stuff, and they 00:35:37.200 --> 00:35:39.200 found these scrolls and took it to the priesthood. 00:35:39.200 --> 00:35:40.320 Hey, this looks important. 00:35:40.320 --> 00:35:42.800 No one's ever seen it, but it seems like it might have 00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:43.760 mattered at one point. 00:35:43.920 --> 00:35:46.880 Seems like it might be valuable, because they knew how valuable scrolls 00:35:46.880 --> 00:35:49.200 were. They're incredibly expensive. 00:35:49.200 --> 00:35:53.360 When Hilkiah read it to Josiah, he tore his robes, he was 00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:54.800 filled with grief. 00:35:54.800 --> 00:35:59.040 Why? Because the word of God had literally been lost. 00:35:59.040 --> 00:36:02.720 It wasn't lost in the sense, oh no, we've misplaced the Bible. 00:36:02.720 --> 00:36:05.200 It was lost to the point that they weren't looking for it 00:36:05.200 --> 00:36:09.680 anymore. They had forgotten not only the word, but they had forgotten 00:36:09.680 --> 00:36:11.840 the existence of the word. 00:36:11.840 --> 00:36:16.880 And so some form of the faith still existed because Josiah was 00:36:16.880 --> 00:36:20.480 a faithful believer, sort of. 00:36:20.480 --> 00:36:24.400 We're gonna get into his faithlessness in the next chapter, but he 00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:27.120 was faithful in the sense that he was actually trying to serve 00:36:27.120 --> 00:36:29.440 God. So in the eighteenth year of his reign, so when he 00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:33.040 was twenty-six, he sent workmen in, they're cleaning out the temple. 00:36:33.040 --> 00:36:36.800 Like he was trying to maintain God's temple. 00:36:36.800 --> 00:36:38.560 And that's when they found the Bible. 00:36:38.560 --> 00:36:40.720 So I highlight this passage. 00:36:40.720 --> 00:36:44.000 We want to bring this to your attention because the word of 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:45.600 God was literally lost. 00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:49.040 And it's not like there was some other copy somewhere else. 00:36:49.040 --> 00:36:53.120 Remember, in the previous passages we've seen that the northern kingdom was 00:36:53.120 --> 00:36:54.160 already destroyed. 00:36:54.160 --> 00:36:56.960 They were already in complete unbelief. 00:36:56.960 --> 00:36:58.160 They had nothing left. 00:36:58.400 --> 00:37:02.320 In the southern kingdom, something had been preserved, but it was in 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:07.360 such shambles that they had literally forgotten that they had the Bible. 00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:08.480 They forgot they had it. 00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:09.760 They weren't looking for it. 00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:11.280 It was just out of mind. 00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:14.000 So there was some like there was still a temple. 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:16.320 There was still something like temple worship. 00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:19.200 But when we get to in the next chapter, we see all 00:37:19.200 --> 00:37:21.040 the horrors that were going on. 00:37:21.520 --> 00:37:25.360 It's crucial to look at this because we would think this is 00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:29.600 unbelievable. How could scripture possibly be misplaced or forgotten? 00:37:29.600 --> 00:37:32.240 You know, and in those days, you know, they only had one 00:37:32.240 --> 00:37:35.360 or two copies, maybe the rest were lost, we don't know. 00:37:35.360 --> 00:37:38.960 This was the first time Josiah had ever been aware that this 00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:40.480 even existed. 00:37:40.480 --> 00:37:43.200 And so his response was the Christian response. 00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:45.280 He said, Lord have mercy. 00:37:45.280 --> 00:37:46.160 He fell on his knees. 00:37:46.160 --> 00:37:51.680 He was horrified to realize the faithlessness of his fathers. 00:37:51.680 --> 00:37:55.680 Because for generations, he had thought that what he had inherited was 00:37:55.680 --> 00:37:58.320 a faithful, God-fearing kingdom. 00:37:58.320 --> 00:38:01.760 What he found was that the faithlessness had been going on for 00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:04.800 so long that no one even remembered this stuff. 00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:09.040 There were bits and pieces floating around, but when he had the 00:38:09.040 --> 00:38:11.920 law ready, he's like, I this is all new and this condemns 00:38:11.920 --> 00:38:16.560 us. That I think is pointing in some ways to what happened 00:38:16.560 --> 00:38:17.920 in the Reformation. 00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:22.400 You know, it's obviously we didn't lose the Bible, but we lost 00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:24.640 a sense of what it said. 00:38:24.640 --> 00:38:29.600 And so there was a pre and post-Reformation change, not in terms 00:38:29.600 --> 00:38:31.200 of doctrine being 00:38:32.080 --> 00:38:35.760 discovered, but being uncovered, because one of the things that the reformers 00:38:35.760 --> 00:38:38.240 did was they went back and looked, you know, five hundred and 00:38:38.240 --> 00:38:41.520 a thousand years prior, and said, Well, when we're reading the Bible 00:38:41.520 --> 00:38:47.520 here effectively for the first time, this doesn't match church teaching, what 00:38:47.520 --> 00:38:51.680 happened. And so as they started looking at patristic investigations, what they 00:38:51.680 --> 00:38:54.960 found was that there were many, not all church fathers, but there 00:38:54.960 --> 00:38:58.400 were many church fathers who believed what the reformers held. 00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:01.280 There were disputes as there had always been disputes, as God says 00:39:01.360 --> 00:39:03.120 there will de be disputes. 00:39:03.120 --> 00:39:06.400 But what had changed was that those disputes were forgotten and only 00:39:06.400 --> 00:39:12.080 a version that ignored what the Reformation believed to be the true 00:39:12.080 --> 00:39:14.160 confession of the faith. 00:39:14.160 --> 00:39:18.560 So one of the premises that the Reformation was illegitimate was that 00:39:18.640 --> 00:39:20.000 well that would never happen. 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:25.360 Obviously, once God established the church, it was never going to err. 00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:28.640 This shows that this stuff happens over and over again. 00:39:28.640 --> 00:39:33.040 Different forms, you know, it's clearly not exactly the same as having 00:39:33.040 --> 00:39:37.680 the Bible or part of it lost in some dusty corner versus 00:39:37.680 --> 00:39:41.440 men simply not reading or believing it for centuries. 00:39:41.440 --> 00:39:45.920 But this recurring theme of men realizing that their fathers had been 00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:49.760 faithless is part of the Christian experience, it's part of our faith. 00:39:49.760 --> 00:39:53.280 To go along for a while, in good conscience, Josiah was acting 00:39:53.280 --> 00:39:57.200 in good conscience for eighteen years, and we get to it in 00:39:57.200 --> 00:39:58.240 this final chapter. 00:39:58.240 --> 00:39:59.440 It's horrifying. 00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:01.760 It's unbelievable how evil it was. 00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:05.040 And yet he saw these things we're gonna describe with his own 00:40:05.040 --> 00:40:07.360 eyes and didn't see anything wrong with it. 00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:11.200 He thought he was serving God when he tolerated the most wicked 00:40:11.200 --> 00:40:13.120 forms of evil imaginable. 00:40:13.120 --> 00:40:14.480 It's a laundry list. 00:40:14.480 --> 00:40:17.520 If you're still doing the ringer and buzzer thing, you're gonna go 00:40:17.520 --> 00:40:20.160 deaf by the end of this next section because it's just a 00:40:20.160 --> 00:40:22.400 nonstop stream of terrible things. 00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:24.320 And Josiah tolerated it. 00:40:24.320 --> 00:40:26.880 The good king and the good kingdom. 00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:29.600 He looked at it and he didn't even know it was evil. 00:40:29.600 --> 00:40:32.640 And so the rediscovery of scripture and the reading of it and 00:40:32.640 --> 00:40:36.960 the sharing with his people brought it brought back the true belief 00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:38.560 in God for a generation. 00:40:38.560 --> 00:40:41.200 When he died and went away, his son became wicked and they 00:40:41.200 --> 00:40:43.040 went right back to their old ways. 00:40:43.040 --> 00:40:45.360 And so this is another warning to us. 00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:48.640 We think, oh well, you know, my denomination is X years old 00:40:48.720 --> 00:40:52.720 and they believe this and I have this inheritance, so it's fine. 00:40:52.720 --> 00:40:57.600 Well, if the faith is not sustained by men actually believing what 00:40:57.600 --> 00:41:00.720 was transmitted to them, it will be lost. 00:41:00.720 --> 00:41:03.040 And that's not to say that the faith will die. 00:41:03.040 --> 00:41:06.240 God will preserve the faith, but He doesn't need us to do 00:41:06.240 --> 00:41:09.440 it. It's our duty to preserve the faith because it's what God 00:41:09.440 --> 00:41:10.320 has given us. 00:41:10.320 --> 00:41:13.360 And we want to transmit that to future generations. 00:41:13.360 --> 00:41:17.200 But if we fail, God will find someone else who'll do it. 00:41:17.200 --> 00:41:18.800 That's not an out for us. 00:41:18.800 --> 00:41:20.320 That's not an excuse. 00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:21.520 It's a threat. 00:41:21.520 --> 00:41:23.520 It's saying that we can be replaced. 00:41:23.520 --> 00:41:25.440 And if we want to be a part of this and we 00:41:25.440 --> 00:41:28.240 want our children to be a part of it, we must preserve 00:41:28.240 --> 00:41:29.120 what we have. 00:41:29.120 --> 00:41:32.000 And when we discover that the word of God has been found 00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:36.400 in rubble or no one has believed it for centuries, then we 00:41:36.400 --> 00:41:38.640 do what Josiah did and we repent. 00:41:38.640 --> 00:41:41.200 And God credited that to him as righteousness. 00:41:41.200 --> 00:41:43.840 He said that he was a good king, despite the fact that 00:41:43.840 --> 00:41:46.640 he tolerated all this wickedness because he didn't know. 00:41:46.640 --> 00:41:49.520 And as soon as he found out he repented, he turned away 00:41:49.520 --> 00:41:50.400 from it. 00:41:50.400 --> 00:41:53.120 That is the response of the Christian today. 00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:56.480 If we've been taught something in our churches and we believed it 00:41:56.480 --> 00:42:00.400 with good conscience, when we realize that it was an error, when 00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:03.760 we realize that racism is a sin that was invented less than 00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:06.720 a hundred years ago, and we realize that that is not in 00:42:06.720 --> 00:42:09.520 fact Christian doctrine at all. 00:42:09.520 --> 00:42:14.240 We must repent because that false confession was to a false God. 00:42:14.240 --> 00:42:16.080 We're gonna establish that in a bit. 00:42:16.080 --> 00:42:19.840 All these things that are being done in the church today, they're 00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:22.480 fundamentally worship of false gods. 00:42:22.480 --> 00:42:27.120 But this first example from the olden days of the olden testament 00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:31.440 demonstrate that this stuff can and will happen and how God deals 00:42:31.440 --> 00:42:33.680 with it when it does. 00:42:33.680 --> 00:42:37.520 Before we move on to the reading from chapter twenty three, I 00:42:37.520 --> 00:42:40.400 want to go ahead and pull out one verse from this chapter 00:42:40.400 --> 00:42:43.760 the same as I did for the previous reading. 00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:47.120 For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against 00:42:47.120 --> 00:42:50.960 us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, 00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:54.480 to do according to all that is written concerning us. 00:42:55.840 --> 00:42:58.320 We've gone over this a number of times in a number of 00:42:58.800 --> 00:43:03.200 episodes, not least of all one of the very early episodes. 00:43:03.200 --> 00:43:07.760 But both blessings and curses are generational. 00:43:07.760 --> 00:43:11.040 And what Wo just said makes that very obvious if Because if 00:43:11.040 --> 00:43:15.120 your father fails to transmit the faith to you, that is a 00:43:15.120 --> 00:43:19.360 generational curse, and it will pass on to your children and your 00:43:19.360 --> 00:43:24.960 grandchildren until that is broken by some outside influence. 00:43:25.440 --> 00:43:28.640 Because someone else will have to come back and restore the faith, 00:43:28.640 --> 00:43:30.160 teach you the faith again. 00:43:30.160 --> 00:43:34.400 That is what we have seen happen many times throughout human history. 00:43:34.400 --> 00:43:38.400 If the faith is lost in a particular place, the only way 00:43:38.400 --> 00:43:42.640 it is coming back is if God sends someone to that place 00:43:42.960 --> 00:43:45.920 with the true faith to restore it. 00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:48.560 And so, yes, the sins of the fathers very much can be 00:43:48.560 --> 00:43:53.680 visited and are visited on the sons. 00:43:53.680 --> 00:43:56.800 So to move on to our next reading. 00:43:56.800 --> 00:44:00.240 Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem 00:44:00.240 --> 00:44:02.960 were gathered to him, and the king went up to the house 00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:06.240 of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah, and 00:44:06.240 --> 00:44:10.320 all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the prophets, all 00:44:10.320 --> 00:44:14.160 the people, both small and great, and he read in their hearing 00:44:14.160 --> 00:44:16.880 all the words of the book of the covenant that had been 00:44:16.880 --> 00:44:18.800 found in the house of the Lord. 00:44:18.800 --> 00:44:22.080 And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before 00:44:22.080 --> 00:44:25.840 the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, 00:44:25.840 --> 00:44:30.240 and his testimonies, and his services with all his heart and all 00:44:30.240 --> 00:44:33.760 his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written 00:44:33.760 --> 00:44:37.680 in this book, and all the people joined in the covenant. 00:44:37.680 --> 00:44:41.280 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priests, and the priests of 00:44:41.280 --> 00:44:44.800 the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out 00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:48.320 of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, 00:44:48.320 --> 00:44:51.360 for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. 00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:55.600 He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried 00:44:55.600 --> 00:44:59.440 their ashes to Bethel, and he deposed the priests whom the kings 00:44:59.440 --> 00:45:03.120 of Judah had ordained, to make offerings in the high places, at 00:45:03.120 --> 00:45:07.680 the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, those also who burned incense 00:45:07.680 --> 00:45:11.920 to Baal, to the sun and the moon, and the constellations, and 00:45:11.920 --> 00:45:13.920 all the hosts of the heavens. 00:45:13.920 --> 00:45:16.960 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord, 00:45:16.960 --> 00:45:20.880 outside Jerusalem, to the brook of Kidron, and burned it at the 00:45:20.880 --> 00:45:24.640 brook of Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast the dust 00:45:24.640 --> 00:45:27.200 of it upon the graves of the common people. 00:45:27.200 --> 00:45:30.720 And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes, who 00:45:30.720 --> 00:45:33.760 were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings 00:45:33.760 --> 00:45:36.560 for the Asherah, and he brought all the priests out of the 00:45:36.560 --> 00:45:40.800 cities of Judah, and defiled the high places, where the priests had 00:45:40.800 --> 00:45:45.360 made offerings, from Geba to Bersheba, and he broke down the high 00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:48.080 places of the gates, that were at the entrance of the gate 00:45:48.080 --> 00:45:52.160 of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on one's left 00:45:52.240 --> 00:45:53.920 at the gate of the city. 00:45:53.920 --> 00:45:56.640 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to 00:45:56.640 --> 00:46:00.240 the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread 00:46:00.240 --> 00:46:01.600 among their brothers. 00:46:01.600 --> 00:46:04.640 And he defiled Topeth, which is in the valley of the son 00:46:04.640 --> 00:46:08.400 of Hinom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter 00:46:08.400 --> 00:46:10.320 as an offering to Molech. 00:46:10.320 --> 00:46:13.920 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated 00:46:13.920 --> 00:46:17.200 to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, 00:46:17.200 --> 00:46:21.040 by the chamber of Nathan Melech, the chamberlain, which was in the 00:46:21.040 --> 00:46:25.440 precincts, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire, and 00:46:25.440 --> 00:46:28.720 the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which 00:46:28.720 --> 00:46:32.240 the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had 00:46:32.240 --> 00:46:35.040 made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he 00:46:35.040 --> 00:46:38.480 pulled down and broke in pieces, and cast the dust of them 00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:42.640 into the brook Kidron, and the king defiled the high places that 00:46:42.640 --> 00:46:46.320 were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, 00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:50.560 which Solomon the king of Israel, had built for Ashtareth, the abomination 00:46:50.560 --> 00:46:55.200 of the Sidonians, and for Kemosh the abomination of Moab, and for 00:46:55.200 --> 00:46:59.520 Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites, and he broke in pieces the 00:46:59.520 --> 00:47:03.600 pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the 00:47:03.600 --> 00:47:06.080 bones of men. 00:47:06.400 --> 00:47:08.960 So as I mentioned, this is the good kingdom, this is the 00:47:08.960 --> 00:47:11.680 kingdom of Judah, and this is a good king, this is King 00:47:11.680 --> 00:47:15.040 Josiah. And yet this is what was going on in his good 00:47:15.040 --> 00:47:19.600 kingdom for eighteen years when he thought that he was serving God. 00:47:19.600 --> 00:47:24.240 There was literally Baal worship inside God's temple. 00:47:24.240 --> 00:47:27.280 All of these things, everything that was just rattled off, was either 00:47:27.280 --> 00:47:30.960 in the temple or around the temple or somewhere in the city. 00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:34.880 All this was going on in every direction. 00:47:34.880 --> 00:47:38.880 It's indescribable how much evil was going on in this place. 00:47:38.880 --> 00:47:42.400 And for eighteen years, when he thought that he was serving the 00:47:42.400 --> 00:47:45.280 Lord, he saw all of these things every day. 00:47:45.280 --> 00:47:47.520 He undoubtedly participated in them. 00:47:47.520 --> 00:47:48.480 He was a king. 00:47:48.480 --> 00:47:50.560 He was certainly favorable toward them. 00:47:50.640 --> 00:47:52.640 He was paying for this stuff. 00:47:52.640 --> 00:47:56.720 And yet he did not know it was evil until scripture was 00:47:56.720 --> 00:47:57.360 read to him. 00:47:57.360 --> 00:48:01.680 When When they rediscovered the Bible and they read it again and 00:48:01.680 --> 00:48:06.720 he repented, he immediately knew all these things are idolatrous, all these 00:48:06.720 --> 00:48:10.720 things must be taken out and destroyed, and the altars of these 00:48:10.720 --> 00:48:13.280 false prophets must be defiled. 00:48:13.280 --> 00:48:15.840 They didn't just quietly get rid of them. 00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:22.000 This was ceremonial humiliation of these false gods and of the priestesses 00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:24.960 and the priests involved in their worship. 00:48:24.960 --> 00:48:27.760 It was all destroyed, because that was faithful. 00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:32.400 And so again God credited him as righteousness, the fact that he 00:48:32.400 --> 00:48:34.880 was capable of doing this and that when it came to his 00:48:35.520 --> 00:48:40.160 attention and he finally realized that he had been participating in sin, 00:48:40.160 --> 00:48:41.440 he ended it. 00:48:41.440 --> 00:48:43.760 That's really all any man can do. 00:48:43.760 --> 00:48:45.280 He inherited something evil. 00:48:45.280 --> 00:48:46.080 He thought it was good. 00:48:46.080 --> 00:48:47.040 He thought he was worshiping God. 00:48:47.760 --> 00:48:51.520 And then when he actually read scriptures, he's like, Lord have mercy, 00:48:51.520 --> 00:48:52.640 this is all evil. 00:48:52.640 --> 00:48:56.480 There's almost nothing that we've been doing religiously that is actually for 00:48:56.480 --> 00:48:57.440 the true God. 00:48:57.440 --> 00:48:59.440 It's all been idolatry. 00:48:59.440 --> 00:49:05.360 This was the state of the remnant that God preserved in Judah. 00:49:05.360 --> 00:49:08.480 So again, as we just wrap up this Old Testament section, just 00:49:08.480 --> 00:49:12.800 keep in mind just how bad things could get, and yet God 00:49:12.800 --> 00:49:13.680 would keep trying. 00:49:14.160 --> 00:49:16.400 God did not give up on his people. 00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:20.960 But this is how bad unbelief can make things. 00:49:20.960 --> 00:49:23.840 And so in the first three episodes of this series, when we 00:49:23.840 --> 00:49:28.240 talked about the false beliefs being brought into our churches, it's the 00:49:28.240 --> 00:49:30.000 same kind of idolatry. 00:49:30.240 --> 00:49:33.360 It takes a different form, but it's being done the same way 00:49:33.440 --> 00:49:34.240 they were doing it. 00:49:34.240 --> 00:49:39.280 They were worshiping Baal, they had Asherah, totems or whatever, inside God's 00:49:39.920 --> 00:49:42.720 temple. And they thought it was all hunky dory. 00:49:42.800 --> 00:49:45.280 They thought, well, this is just us being religious. 00:49:45.280 --> 00:49:47.920 And as long as they're being religious, it must be okay. 00:49:47.920 --> 00:49:49.760 Because that's faithfulness. 00:49:49.760 --> 00:49:53.840 Scripture revealed, no, this is all evil except for the small tiny 00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:55.840 bit that was still being done for God. 00:49:55.840 --> 00:49:59.200 And so presumably all the rest of those things were restored as 00:49:59.200 --> 00:50:02.880 God commanded, because they weren't missing anything anymore. 00:50:02.880 --> 00:50:07.360 It is entirely believable that this could happen again, in different forms. 00:50:07.360 --> 00:50:10.560 Again, just as in the Reformation, the Bible had not been lost 00:50:10.560 --> 00:50:15.040 again, but an understanding of it was, the concept of justification that 00:50:15.040 --> 00:50:20.560 existed prior to Luther's day radically changed after the Reformation. 00:50:20.560 --> 00:50:24.000 And it wasn't that it was new doctrine in the church, it's 00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:27.200 that it was a restoration of doctrine that had been lost in 00:50:27.200 --> 00:50:28.320 the church. 00:50:28.320 --> 00:50:31.680 And so when these things happen, whether they're cyclical or not, the 00:50:31.680 --> 00:50:36.880 question is not has someone changed something, but is the change a 00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:38.960 restoration of what God established? 00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:40.640 Is it consistent with scripture? 00:50:40.640 --> 00:50:42.880 Or is it just something completely new? 00:50:42.880 --> 00:50:45.520 And so in all the previous episodes we've done on Stone Choir 00:50:45.680 --> 00:50:50.400 talking about things like racism and feminism, things that today will get 00:50:50.400 --> 00:50:55.520 men excommunicated from so called Christian churches, where Christian churches will say 00:50:55.840 --> 00:51:00.560 you go to hell if you commit this new sin that existed 00:51:00.560 --> 00:51:02.720 for less than 200 years. 00:51:02.720 --> 00:51:06.240 That's a false confession of a false God. 00:51:06.240 --> 00:51:08.960 But they do it in the name of God, which is why 00:51:08.960 --> 00:51:11.520 this is all fundamentally about apostasy. 00:51:11.520 --> 00:51:13.360 Judah was apostate. 00:51:13.360 --> 00:51:16.400 Now, was it one hundred percent apostate? 00:51:16.400 --> 00:51:21.520 No, because Josiah still had faith of some sort, it was weak, 00:51:21.520 --> 00:51:24.480 and God commended him when he saw and repented. 00:51:24.480 --> 00:51:27.840 But God was still very angry with Judah and promised that the 00:51:27.840 --> 00:51:30.480 rest of them were going to be punished for this stuff. 00:51:30.480 --> 00:51:34.800 So when we look at these things, we can't just think that 00:51:35.440 --> 00:51:39.600 God's gonna let us off the hook because we had good intentions. 00:51:39.600 --> 00:51:43.040 The question is, are we actually obeying what God said? 00:51:43.040 --> 00:51:46.720 And the reason that this is a very long Bible study, this 00:51:46.720 --> 00:51:50.560 is probably gonna be a longer episode than usual, but it's crucial 00:51:50.880 --> 00:51:55.360 because when you look at scripture makes certain people really nervous. 00:51:55.680 --> 00:51:59.840 If nothing else, that's a good indication that you're dealing with something 00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:02.160 that's bad for the faith. 00:52:02.160 --> 00:52:06.400 When men start pointing to portions of scripture that have been ignored 00:52:06.400 --> 00:52:09.840 for generations and say, hey, what about this thing? 00:52:09.840 --> 00:52:12.720 It wasn't lost on a dusty shelf in the temple. 00:52:12.720 --> 00:52:15.280 It was just ignored by pastors who wanted to preach on the 00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:17.840 things that weren't gonna cause problems. 00:52:17.840 --> 00:52:21.120 And when you ignore stuff for a generation or two, it becomes 00:52:21.120 --> 00:52:23.680 normal, and suddenly no one can preach on it anymore. 00:52:23.680 --> 00:52:27.200 And if son uppity so called layman comes along and says, Hey, 00:52:27.200 --> 00:52:29.280 what do you think about this stuff in the Bible? 00:52:29.280 --> 00:52:31.920 Maybe this still matters too. 00:52:31.920 --> 00:52:34.240 Then you have a real conflict. 00:52:34.240 --> 00:52:36.480 And that is where the church is today. 00:52:36.480 --> 00:52:39.680 The men at the top, the men that are establishing what will 00:52:39.680 --> 00:52:43.040 be the doctrines that are tolerated, are by are by and large 00:52:43.360 --> 00:52:48.000 active participants in the new global religion, regardless of denomination. 00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:52.720 The Pope says stuff, the Lutherans say things, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, 00:52:52.720 --> 00:52:55.360 everybody is saying the same sort of thing. 00:52:55.360 --> 00:52:59.520 They're variations, that's not a hundred percent unity, but when you look 00:52:59.520 --> 00:53:02.880 at where their moral compass is pointing, as we talked about in 00:53:02.880 --> 00:53:06.720 the first episode of the series, the morality is all coming from 00:53:06.720 --> 00:53:09.440 the same place, and it's coming from a place that is not 00:53:09.440 --> 00:53:10.560 in scripture. 00:53:10.560 --> 00:53:14.480 Our contention is that this is itself apostasy. 00:53:14.480 --> 00:53:18.800 By degrees, it's apostasy in the same sense that the days of 00:53:18.800 --> 00:53:23.440 Josiah were apostate until he discovered the scriptures. 00:53:23.440 --> 00:53:26.160 And then there was a restoration for a brief time. 00:53:26.160 --> 00:53:29.200 But in the very next j in in the very next chapter, 00:53:29.200 --> 00:53:32.640 it goes to Pot again, his son became an unbeliever and they 00:53:32.640 --> 00:53:35.840 all reverted immediately to doing the wicked things. 00:53:35.840 --> 00:53:42.000 So it's only faithful preservation that makes any of this continue. 00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:45.440 If men don't fight for it. 00:53:45.840 --> 00:53:49.840 If men don't fight for this every single generation, it will be 00:53:49.840 --> 00:53:52.080 lost. God shows this. 00:53:52.080 --> 00:53:54.080 And then the passages we're going to deal with in the New 00:53:54.160 --> 00:53:57.200 Testament, in the second half of this episode, make very clear that 00:53:57.200 --> 00:53:59.200 this will continue to be a battle. 00:53:59.200 --> 00:54:03.920 So when we today say this is a problem, we're we're raising 00:54:03.920 --> 00:54:06.720 an alarm, but we're not saying anything new. 00:54:06.720 --> 00:54:09.600 We're saying the same sort of thing that's happened over and over 00:54:09.600 --> 00:54:13.680 again in the entire history of believers in God, it can happen 00:54:13.680 --> 00:54:14.080 to us too. 00:54:14.400 --> 00:54:15.280 We're not immune. 00:54:15.280 --> 00:54:17.360 We're not better than any of these guys. 00:54:17.360 --> 00:54:21.040 In some ways, we're worse because as we said before, like we 00:54:21.040 --> 00:54:23.200 have so many Bibles in our houses and we have so much 00:54:23.200 --> 00:54:26.640 access and like we have more of the Word of God than 00:54:26.640 --> 00:54:28.480 we will ever possibly know what to do with. 00:54:28.880 --> 00:54:30.560 And we don't read enough. 00:54:30.560 --> 00:54:31.840 We don't believe it enough. 00:54:31.840 --> 00:54:34.480 We don't take it sufficiently seriously. 00:54:34.480 --> 00:54:37.360 And then when these fights come up, it's just, well, whatever I 00:54:37.360 --> 00:54:39.520 feel. I feel like racism is hurtful. 00:54:39.520 --> 00:54:44.080 And so that's that's gonna be where I'm actually gonna expend all 00:54:44.080 --> 00:54:45.280 of my energy. 00:54:45.280 --> 00:54:48.080 The stuff that's actually in the Bible, no, I'm I'm not so 00:54:48.080 --> 00:54:48.800 worried about that. 00:54:48.800 --> 00:54:49.840 Like that's old anyway. 00:54:50.080 --> 00:54:50.880 it's outdated. 00:54:51.280 --> 00:54:54.240 We have new, more important things to pursue today. 00:54:54.240 --> 00:54:57.760 The world has different problems that require a different morality. 00:54:57.760 --> 00:54:58.960 That's the battle. 00:54:58.960 --> 00:55:00.960 That's the point of all of this. 00:55:00.960 --> 00:55:03.840 That there's no new morality without a new God. 00:55:03.840 --> 00:55:06.080 And we are seeing new gods emerge today. 00:55:06.080 --> 00:55:07.120 They're not brand new. 00:55:07.120 --> 00:55:09.200 They're the re-emergence of the old gods. 00:55:09.200 --> 00:55:13.120 There's Judaizing, there's Gnosticism, and you don't have to have a category 00:55:13.120 --> 00:55:13.680 for it. 00:55:13.680 --> 00:55:16.880 It's not like if you can name the thing, suddenly you have 00:55:16.880 --> 00:55:17.520 power over it. 00:55:17.520 --> 00:55:20.080 It's not name magic that we're talking about. 00:55:20.080 --> 00:55:24.560 What we're talking about is just admitting we can screw up. 00:55:24.560 --> 00:55:28.000 We can fall into the same trap as has happened over and 00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:29.840 over again because we're human. 00:55:29.840 --> 00:55:31.920 We're fallen sinful creatures. 00:55:31.920 --> 00:55:35.200 And Satan will recycle the same stuff over and over because it 00:55:35.200 --> 00:55:39.120 works. He's kind of lazy sometimes, but he can be because we 00:55:39.120 --> 00:55:41.600 just keep gobbling up the old lies. 00:55:41.600 --> 00:55:46.480 And so we are in current year in all of our churches 00:55:46.720 --> 00:55:49.440 at least vulnerable to this. 00:55:49.440 --> 00:55:51.760 And the fact that we say, oh no, well, I'm Christian. 00:55:51.760 --> 00:55:54.000 Well, Josiah believed he was a believer. 00:55:54.240 --> 00:55:55.200 he was a believer. 00:55:55.200 --> 00:55:56.960 He thought that he was being faithful. 00:55:56.960 --> 00:56:00.960 And And yet after eighteen years of tolerating all that wickedness, when 00:56:00.960 --> 00:56:05.680 Hilkiah brought him the scriptures, he realized he had not been faithful. 00:56:05.680 --> 00:56:09.120 He had to repent, and he was filled with sorrow and filled 00:56:09.120 --> 00:56:13.840 with horror because he had been a faithless king, even when he 00:56:13.840 --> 00:56:15.680 thought he was being faithful. 00:56:15.680 --> 00:56:18.720 So when we talk about apostasy, that's what we're talking about. 00:56:18.720 --> 00:56:21.600 A man who thinks he's acting in the name of God is 00:56:21.600 --> 00:56:24.960 actually getting it from somewhere else and he never even checked. 00:56:24.960 --> 00:56:28.880 Genealogy of ideas, all the little gimmicks that we've sprinkled throughout Stone 00:56:28.880 --> 00:56:30.720 Choir, it's for that purpose. 00:56:30.720 --> 00:56:32.480 Where did this stuff come from? 00:56:32.480 --> 00:56:35.840 If it didn't come from Scripture, if it came from your pagan 00:56:35.840 --> 00:56:37.760 neighbors, why are you doing it? 00:56:37.760 --> 00:56:40.080 How do you think God is going to respond when you behave 00:56:40.080 --> 00:56:40.800 that way? 00:56:40.800 --> 00:56:42.560 We don't have to guess. 00:56:42.560 --> 00:56:44.000 We don't have to guess. 00:56:44.000 --> 00:56:47.920 Scripture shows over and over what happens to a people, to a 00:56:47.920 --> 00:56:49.760 nation that does that? 00:56:49.760 --> 00:56:53.360 It's what happened there and it's what's happening to us now. 00:56:53.360 --> 00:56:55.440 That is a call to repentance. 00:56:55.440 --> 00:56:56.880 This isn't just theological. 00:56:56.880 --> 00:57:00.640 This is the life and death, both temporal and eternal, for everyone 00:57:01.120 --> 00:57:04.800 involved. This stuff has to be gotten right. 00:57:04.800 --> 00:57:06.480 We have to take it seriously. 00:57:06.480 --> 00:57:09.520 And the first step to that is simply admitting we are not 00:57:09.520 --> 00:57:11.440 immunized against all dangers. 00:57:11.440 --> 00:57:14.880 We are not free to think whatever we think and believe whatever 00:57:14.880 --> 00:57:18.080 we believe without regard for scripture and think it's going to be 00:57:18.080 --> 00:57:20.160 hunky dory because we say I'm Christian. 00:57:20.160 --> 00:57:20.880 It's okay. 00:57:20.880 --> 00:57:23.040 That's not how the faith works. 00:57:23.200 --> 00:57:26.560 Instead of pulling out a particular verse like I did with the 00:57:26.560 --> 00:57:28.080 previous two readings. 00:57:28.080 --> 00:57:32.640 Instead I want to highlight a particular point, a recurring theme. 00:57:32.640 --> 00:57:36.960 In this passage you see a lot of the false altars and 00:57:36.960 --> 00:57:41.440 various places of worship have been set up specifically in the temple. 00:57:41.440 --> 00:57:42.640 Now not all of them. 00:57:42.640 --> 00:57:46.240 You have the high places, you have the ashram and things set 00:57:46.240 --> 00:57:49.600 up under trees, you have things out in the valley near Jerusalem, 00:57:49.600 --> 00:57:53.280 but many of these altars and other places of worship 00:57:54.240 --> 00:57:56.560 are in the temple itself. 00:57:56.560 --> 00:57:59.120 And you may think, well, we don't really see that happening today. 00:57:59.120 --> 00:58:02.640 Sure we have that happening out in our culture because of course 00:58:02.720 --> 00:58:06.320 we have the same false gods are worshipped 00:58:07.360 --> 00:58:10.400 in a widespread fashion our culture that you see in all the 00:58:10.400 --> 00:58:14.240 ancient cultures, we still have Mammon and Moloch and Baal. 00:58:14.240 --> 00:58:17.280 It doesn't matter if you call them by those names or if 00:58:17.280 --> 00:58:21.920 you call them capitalism, abortion, and the various secret societies. 00:58:21.920 --> 00:58:23.520 It's the same God. 00:58:23.520 --> 00:58:27.600 Same God, same false idol worship that you see in the ancient 00:58:27.600 --> 00:58:32.880 world. But we do also have this in our churches. 00:58:32.880 --> 00:58:36.480 Now, some of the churches are very blatant about it, some are 00:58:36.480 --> 00:58:38.000 more subtle. 00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:42.480 I can think of some very blatant ones, I won't necessarily name 00:58:42.480 --> 00:58:43.680 all of them. 00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:45.600 But I will give one example. 00:58:45.600 --> 00:58:50.960 If you are, for instance, Roman Catholic, many of your parishes that 00:58:50.960 --> 00:58:56.640 are supposedly Roman Catholic parishes in places like Mexico and some parts 00:58:56.640 --> 00:59:01.120 of Central America, and now also some parts of the United States, 00:59:01.120 --> 00:59:03.520 have a cult of Santa Muerta. 00:59:03.520 --> 00:59:05.440 That's a cult of death. 00:59:05.440 --> 00:59:09.360 That's paganism, I mean neopaganism if you want to call it that. 00:59:09.920 --> 00:59:14.480 But that is false worship that is literally taking place in your 00:59:14.480 --> 00:59:18.000 churches, in your church buildings in many cases. 00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:22.320 And it's also associated with various kinds of sexual degeneracy which is 00:59:22.320 --> 00:59:28.000 another problem with that cult that's literally taking place in Roman Catholic 00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:32.800 churches. And I'm not just singling out the Roman Catholics for this. 00:59:32.800 --> 00:59:37.200 How many churches fly the six color so called rainbow flag? 00:59:37.200 --> 00:59:39.200 That's worship of a false god. 00:59:39.200 --> 00:59:41.840 It may not be an altar, but it's a symbol of a 00:59:41.840 --> 00:59:43.040 false god. 00:59:44.160 --> 00:59:48.000 How many churches have put up BLM signs or put it on 00:59:48.000 --> 00:59:49.840 their sign out in front of the church. 00:59:49.840 --> 00:59:51.840 That's a symbol of a false god. 00:59:51.840 --> 00:59:54.400 How many pastors preach against racism? 00:59:54.400 --> 00:59:56.720 Find that sin in scripture. 00:59:56.720 --> 01:00:00.560 If you call that which is not sin, and you require people 01:00:00.560 --> 01:00:03.680 to repent of it, that's worship of a false god. 01:00:03.680 --> 01:00:05.680 How many churches do that today? 01:00:05.680 --> 01:00:08.960 Good luck finding one that does not. 01:00:08.960 --> 01:00:11.600 How many churches do we have in the United States? 01:00:11.600 --> 01:00:15.920 Giving sermons on supporting the so called state of Israel, who are 01:00:15.920 --> 01:00:18.480 Zionist in their orientation. 01:00:18.480 --> 01:00:20.000 That's a false god. 01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:21.360 That's dispensationalism. 01:00:21.360 --> 01:00:25.120 We went over that in a previous episode at length. 01:00:25.120 --> 01:00:27.920 That is rampant in our society. 01:00:27.920 --> 01:00:32.880 How many pastors recently or next month will give a sermon on 01:00:32.880 --> 01:00:37.520 MLK? That's worship of false God if they aren't condemning him. 01:00:37.520 --> 01:00:41.200 A pastor who condemns him make sure you shake his hand afterward. 01:00:41.440 --> 01:00:45.280 How many pastors will bring up Bonhoeffer and say that he was 01:00:45.280 --> 01:00:49.200 supposedly this paragon of virtue in Christian belief? 01:00:49.200 --> 01:00:51.040 We went over that in an episode. 01:00:51.040 --> 01:00:53.360 He denied the core tenets of the faith and he's burning in 01:00:53.360 --> 01:00:57.200 hell along with MLK. 01:00:57.200 --> 01:01:02.000 These false religions are rampant in the churches. 01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:05.200 It's not just in our society, the churches have largely imported it 01:01:05.200 --> 01:01:09.920 from society, but it is now in the church itself. 01:01:09.920 --> 01:01:14.160 The exact same thing that happened here in the Old Testament, where 01:01:14.160 --> 01:01:18.240 they brought false gods into God's house and set up worship of 01:01:18.240 --> 01:01:22.320 those false gods in order to lend them some sort of legitimacy, 01:01:22.320 --> 01:01:26.000 because now they're taking place in God's house, so they must obviously 01:01:26.000 --> 01:01:27.360 also be God's. 01:01:27.360 --> 01:01:30.480 We see the same thing happening today. 01:01:30.480 --> 01:01:36.480 We have false teachers and false priests, false pastors, who are using 01:01:36.480 --> 01:01:41.120 their position of supposed authority to put a stamp on the worship 01:01:41.120 --> 01:01:43.520 of idols and false gods. 01:01:43.520 --> 01:01:46.080 And they are doing it in the name of God. 01:01:46.080 --> 01:01:47.920 Now that's terrible news for them. 01:01:47.920 --> 01:01:51.120 On the day of judgment will go very poorly for them. 01:01:51.120 --> 01:01:54.720 But it's also terrible news for the sheep who follow them, because 01:01:54.720 --> 01:01:56.960 you do not get the excuse of just saying, Well, I was 01:01:56.960 --> 01:01:59.520 following the instruction of my pastor 01:02:00.800 --> 01:02:02.480 That doesn't work. 01:02:02.480 --> 01:02:06.160 It is possible for the church to apostatize, and it is possible 01:02:06.160 --> 01:02:10.480 for that false church to take the sheep with it. 01:02:10.480 --> 01:02:13.520 And that is the thing against which we are warning. 01:02:13.520 --> 01:02:17.840 Another great example would of course be: I mentioned specifically Moloch, and 01:02:17.840 --> 01:02:21.520 we have that today, worship of Moloch, that's what abortion is. 01:02:21.520 --> 01:02:25.280 And you may be thinking, well, my pastor condemns abortion because that's 01:02:25.280 --> 01:02:30.240 one issue where some pastors still preach against it, thankfully. 01:02:30.240 --> 01:02:32.000 But they don't go far enough. 01:02:32.000 --> 01:02:35.440 And the reason they don't go far enough is because hormonal birth 01:02:35.440 --> 01:02:37.920 control is abortifacient. 01:02:37.920 --> 01:02:40.080 And you may think, well my pastor doesn't know. 01:02:40.080 --> 01:02:42.720 Neither did Josiah. 01:02:42.720 --> 01:02:46.960 But your pastor should know, and Josiah should have known. 01:02:46.960 --> 01:02:50.320 Now in the case of your pastor there's even less excuse because 01:02:50.320 --> 01:02:54.320 the information is out there and readily accessible. 01:02:54.320 --> 01:02:59.040 I will say it again, hormonal birth control is abortifacient. 01:02:59.040 --> 01:03:02.560 Which is to say that being on hormonal birth control or having 01:03:02.560 --> 01:03:07.520 your wife, daughter, whomever, over whom you have some sort of authority, 01:03:07.520 --> 01:03:11.440 over whom you are supposed to exercise headship, if she is on 01:03:11.440 --> 01:03:14.480 it, you are worshiping a false god 01:03:15.840 --> 01:03:18.400 That is worship of Moloch. 01:03:18.400 --> 01:03:24.000 That is the sacrifice of your children or grandchildren, or nieces and 01:03:24.000 --> 01:03:27.680 nephews, whoever it happens to be in relation to you. 01:03:27.680 --> 01:03:31.760 That is the sacrifice of children to a false god. 01:03:31.760 --> 01:03:35.520 Now it may not be that you're sacrificing it specifically to Moloch, 01:03:35.520 --> 01:03:38.480 because it may be that you're sacrificing these children in order to 01:03:38.480 --> 01:03:41.760 further your career, and so really you're worshipping Mammon. 01:03:41.760 --> 01:03:43.360 It doesn't matter. 01:03:43.360 --> 01:03:48.240 You're worshiping a false god and this is rampant in our society. 01:03:48.240 --> 01:03:51.920 And I don't believe that I have ever once heard a pastor 01:03:51.920 --> 01:03:53.520 preach against it. 01:03:53.520 --> 01:03:58.400 I've seen pastors say that we should not use birth control. 01:03:58.400 --> 01:04:01.200 I've seen pastors make arguments against it, but I have never once 01:04:01.200 --> 01:04:02.960 heard a sermon against it. 01:04:02.960 --> 01:04:06.240 Now I know that some people will probably comment on this episode 01:04:06.240 --> 01:04:08.880 with links to sermons on it's rare. 01:04:09.120 --> 01:04:11.760 I'm not saying no pastor does it, but I'm saying even if 01:04:11.760 --> 01:04:16.400 your pastor condemns abortion as abortion, which he should, and that's good 01:04:16.400 --> 01:04:20.720 that he does that, he probably does not go far enough because 01:04:20.720 --> 01:04:24.400 there are other forms that it takes in our society. 01:04:24.400 --> 01:04:28.240 And so we see again this very same thing happening in our 01:04:28.240 --> 01:04:32.240 society today that we see happening here in the Old Testament. 01:04:32.240 --> 01:04:36.560 The worship of false gods is being brought into the church. 01:04:36.560 --> 01:04:40.400 And there are individuals who are then worshiping those false gods, maybe 01:04:40.400 --> 01:04:44.240 they're even doing it, without their conscience really being pricked, it should 01:04:44.240 --> 01:04:46.240 be pricked somewhat. 01:04:46.240 --> 01:04:48.560 But maybe not to the degree that it would be if they 01:04:48.560 --> 01:04:51.200 knew it was false. 01:04:51.200 --> 01:04:54.960 And so yes, the harsher punishment, the harsher judgment, the stricter judgment 01:04:55.040 --> 01:04:58.240 is going to fall on those false teachers and pastors. 01:04:58.240 --> 01:05:01.200 But it also falls on the sheep, who follow them. 01:05:01.840 --> 01:05:03.680 Because we have God's word. 01:05:03.680 --> 01:05:06.960 We don't even have the excuse that Josiah had, Josiah didn't have 01:05:06.960 --> 01:05:10.160 God's word because the scroll was hidden away in rubble somewhere in 01:05:10.160 --> 01:05:11.920 the temple. 01:05:11.920 --> 01:05:13.360 You have God's Word. 01:05:13.360 --> 01:05:17.360 There isn't a single person listening to this who couldn't switch to 01:05:17.360 --> 01:05:21.360 another app and read God's Word or open another window if you're 01:05:21.360 --> 01:05:24.080 listening to it on your computer, whatever it happens to be, whatever 01:05:24.080 --> 01:05:28.000 device you're using to listen to this can also read God's Word, 01:05:28.000 --> 01:05:30.000 and you probably have a Bible. 01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:32.000 And you could certainly get one for free. 01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:33.840 We have no excuse. 01:05:33.840 --> 01:05:35.680 It is all right there. 01:05:35.680 --> 01:05:38.560 All we have to do is read and believe it. 01:05:39.040 --> 01:05:39.280 And 01:05:39.280 --> 01:05:43.680 on the subject of men holding both true and false confessions, I 01:05:43.680 --> 01:05:46.720 want to get back to something that Corey had said a number 01:05:46.720 --> 01:05:50.160 of times, the point that I can finally remember it. 01:05:50.160 --> 01:05:55.600 In the first chapter of Mark, after Jesus is baptized by John, 01:05:55.600 --> 01:05:58.240 John says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin 01:05:58.240 --> 01:05:59.520 of the world. 01:05:59.520 --> 01:06:04.000 Jesus is tempted in the desert, and then he enters his earthly 01:06:04.000 --> 01:06:08.720 ministry. The first time he goes to the synagogue, this happens. 01:06:08.720 --> 01:06:12.240 Immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 01:06:12.240 --> 01:06:15.600 that is a demon, and he cried out, What have you to 01:06:15.600 --> 01:06:17.360 do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? 01:06:17.360 --> 01:06:18.800 Have you come to destroy us? 01:06:18.800 --> 01:06:22.880 I know who you are, the holy one of God. 01:06:22.880 --> 01:06:28.160 I love this passage because this is the first confession in Jesus' 01:06:28.160 --> 01:06:30.800 ministry of him as the Son of God of God and it's 01:06:30.800 --> 01:06:32.320 from a demon. 01:06:32.320 --> 01:06:36.080 The very first person, John obviously confessed him when he said, Behold 01:06:36.160 --> 01:06:37.520 the Lamb of God. 01:06:37.520 --> 01:06:41.600 But after Jesus' earthly ministry had begun in earnest, he emerged from 01:06:41.600 --> 01:06:45.200 the desert, a demon was the first one to say here comes 01:06:45.200 --> 01:06:47.040 the Son of God. 01:06:47.040 --> 01:06:51.280 This is what Corey says this is notitia in a census. 01:06:51.280 --> 01:06:53.440 He gave notice of the fact that it was a son of 01:06:53.440 --> 01:06:55.440 God, and he ascented to the fact that you are the Holy 01:06:55.440 --> 01:06:56.800 One of God. 01:06:56.800 --> 01:07:00.160 A demon, of course, cannot say you are my God. 01:07:00.160 --> 01:07:02.720 That was what was missing, which is why he's a demon and 01:07:02.720 --> 01:07:03.760 not an angel. 01:07:03.760 --> 01:07:04.960 He's damned. 01:07:04.960 --> 01:07:08.480 All those who share his confession are damned. 01:07:09.600 --> 01:07:13.600 What's interesting about that is that it brings into light one of 01:07:13.600 --> 01:07:16.640 the problems that we have in the church today. 01:07:16.640 --> 01:07:20.160 It's something that has kind of become an online meme to 01:07:21.120 --> 01:07:26.000 witch test someone where you say someone says something and you get 01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:29.760 suspicious and you say, confess to Jesus Christ as Lord or some 01:07:29.760 --> 01:07:30.640 version of that. 01:07:30.640 --> 01:07:30.960 And 01:07:31.920 --> 01:07:35.360 it makes me really uncomfortable because I feel like it's really tending 01:07:35.360 --> 01:07:39.920 toward Towards taking the Lord's name in vain to kind of make 01:07:39.920 --> 01:07:41.360 a game out of it. 01:07:41.360 --> 01:07:43.040 That's my personal bad feeling. 01:07:43.040 --> 01:07:46.400 I'm not trying to bind anyone's consciousness with my bad feelings, but 01:07:46.400 --> 01:07:50.000 I can tell you this: the real problem with it, the unavoidable 01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:53.760 problem with that particular witch test is that this demon would have 01:07:53.760 --> 01:07:54.560 passed it. 01:07:54.560 --> 01:07:57.920 To say Jesus Christ is Lord, that's basically what he said, you're 01:07:57.920 --> 01:07:59.840 the holy one of God, what do you have to do with 01:07:59.840 --> 01:08:02.480 me? A demon can confess that. 01:08:02.480 --> 01:08:05.200 Now, part of the reason that it became a gimmick online is 01:08:05.200 --> 01:08:06.880 that it sometimes works. 01:08:06.880 --> 01:08:11.680 There are absolutely many cases where you will see someone witch tested 01:08:11.680 --> 01:08:15.040 like this, where someone will challenge them and say, you know, confess 01:08:15.440 --> 01:08:18.640 Jesus Christ as Lord, and they flatly refuse to do it. 01:08:18.640 --> 01:08:20.960 They cannot and will not do it. 01:08:20.960 --> 01:08:24.800 And sometimes it's so clear by their response that it is a 01:08:24.800 --> 01:08:29.360 spiritual recoiling that they are prevented from saying that. 01:08:29.360 --> 01:08:32.800 So that's part of why it's a problem is that sometimes it 01:08:32.800 --> 01:08:36.960 works. Sometimes you witch test someone with that particular question and they 01:08:36.960 --> 01:08:37.520 fail it. 01:08:37.520 --> 01:08:39.360 And you say, aha, found one. 01:08:39.360 --> 01:08:42.800 This person was pretending to be a Christian, but they're actually not. 01:08:43.120 --> 01:08:46.880 The danger and the reason for this episode is that there are 01:08:47.040 --> 01:08:52.720 demons and they're demons inhabiting men who will not fail this test. 01:08:52.720 --> 01:08:56.880 The men who have persecuted Cory and me, who have called us 01:08:56.880 --> 01:09:01.680 damned for saying what the Bible says, who called the FBI to 01:09:01.680 --> 01:09:05.760 hand us over for being murdered, who gave my name to Antifa, 01:09:05.760 --> 01:09:07.040 they confess God. 01:09:07.040 --> 01:09:09.040 They have the same confession as this Niedman. 01:09:09.040 --> 01:09:11.520 They say that Jesus is the Holy One of God, and they 01:09:11.520 --> 01:09:12.400 mean it. 01:09:12.400 --> 01:09:15.520 They did the things that they did to us in the name 01:09:15.520 --> 01:09:16.480 of God. 01:09:16.480 --> 01:09:20.320 So the notion that you can challenge someone, and if they're of 01:09:20.320 --> 01:09:24.000 another spirit, they will be unable to confess the true God in 01:09:24.000 --> 01:09:24.720 that moment. 01:09:24.720 --> 01:09:26.560 It's simply false. 01:09:26.560 --> 01:09:31.680 And it's dangerous because it sows confusion in a circumstance which where 01:09:31.760 --> 01:09:33.680 clarity is necessary. 01:09:33.680 --> 01:09:36.320 So some of the later passages we're going to get to specifically 01:09:36.320 --> 01:09:38.320 talk about fruits. 01:09:38.320 --> 01:09:40.960 I don't care at this point personally. 01:09:40.960 --> 01:09:43.440 I don't care what anyone says about their belief. 01:09:43.440 --> 01:09:45.760 I don't care what their confession is. 01:09:45.760 --> 01:09:49.680 Show me where they stand on these inflection points. 01:09:49.680 --> 01:09:53.040 Because the man who will confess the creeds, who will say that 01:09:53.040 --> 01:09:56.000 Jesus is Lord, will say all the right things, he'll have the 01:09:56.000 --> 01:09:59.840 shibbolets, but what he won't have is he won't be able to 01:09:59.840 --> 01:10:03.200 confess the creator who made a man a man and a woman 01:10:03.360 --> 01:10:07.280 woman. He won't be able to confess the creator who made him 01:10:07.280 --> 01:10:09.520 white and someone else black. 01:10:09.520 --> 01:10:11.360 That is not his God. 01:10:11.360 --> 01:10:14.880 So So when I look to what people are doing and what 01:10:14.880 --> 01:10:19.840 they're confessing, saying I'm Christian, saying Jesus is God, it doesn't tell 01:10:19.840 --> 01:10:21.040 me anything. 01:10:21.040 --> 01:10:23.680 If I've said before, that's a terrible place to be. 01:10:23.680 --> 01:10:28.880 I don't want to have a suspicious response when someone says I'm 01:10:28.880 --> 01:10:29.920 a Christian too. 01:10:29.920 --> 01:10:31.760 That should be a source for joy. 01:10:31.760 --> 01:10:34.480 And I want to get things back to the point where it 01:10:34.480 --> 01:10:39.200 can be, but as it stands today, most of the wicked people 01:10:39.280 --> 01:10:44.400 that are causing the greatest harm inside the church have a true 01:10:44.400 --> 01:10:49.920 confession. Just as Josiah had a true confession before he found Scripture. 01:10:49.920 --> 01:10:50.720 Because what do you do? 01:10:50.720 --> 01:10:51.760 He said, I serve God. 01:10:51.760 --> 01:10:52.640 I serve the temple. 01:10:52.640 --> 01:10:53.920 I'm gonna do all that. 01:10:53.920 --> 01:10:57.280 But he was blind to the evil that surrounded him. 01:10:57.280 --> 01:10:58.960 He was spiritually blind. 01:10:58.960 --> 01:11:02.400 So when he saw Baal worship inside God's temple, he thought, yeah, 01:11:02.400 --> 01:11:02.720 that's fine. 01:11:02.720 --> 01:11:03.520 That's good. 01:11:03.520 --> 01:11:04.720 He probably did it himself. 01:11:04.720 --> 01:11:06.720 There's no reason to believe he wouldn't have. 01:11:06.720 --> 01:11:09.680 Because if he thought it were bad, he would have prevented it. 01:11:09.680 --> 01:11:12.880 It wasn't until he scripture was discovered that he realized it was 01:11:12.880 --> 01:11:13.920 a bad thing. 01:11:13.920 --> 01:11:15.520 That's where the churches are. 01:11:15.680 --> 01:11:20.240 The men who say, Lord, Lord, who will cry out with the 01:11:20.240 --> 01:11:22.800 confession of that demon in the synagogue. 01:11:22.800 --> 01:11:25.280 This is interesting, the demons just hanging out in synagogues. 01:11:25.280 --> 01:11:27.840 That was kind of funny too. 01:11:27.840 --> 01:11:33.760 The fact that they're able to get by and masquerade as believers 01:11:33.920 --> 01:11:37.040 is the premise of really this entire episode, and certainly the rest 01:11:37.040 --> 01:11:39.200 of the passages we're going to go through. 01:11:39.200 --> 01:11:44.880 Because everything in the New Testament that specifically calls out deception inside 01:11:44.880 --> 01:11:49.360 the church is on the lips of those who say they're believers. 01:11:49.360 --> 01:11:52.400 I want to read again a passage that we've cited many times. 01:11:52.400 --> 01:11:53.600 It's from 1 Timothy 4. 01:11:54.720 --> 01:11:58.640 Now the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, expressly says that in 01:11:58.640 --> 01:12:02.960 later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to 01:12:02.960 --> 01:12:05.760 deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. 01:12:06.080 --> 01:12:09.760 We've talked about this passage many times and point out how low 01:12:09.760 --> 01:12:12.880 the threshold is for what a teaching of demons is. 01:12:12.880 --> 01:12:18.000 It's abstinence of meats and saying that some men should not marry, 01:12:18.000 --> 01:12:19.440 forbidding marriage. 01:12:19.440 --> 01:12:21.360 That's a pretty low threshold. 01:12:21.360 --> 01:12:23.040 It's not saying worship Satan. 01:12:23.040 --> 01:12:25.280 It's not saying sacrifice your infants. 01:12:25.280 --> 01:12:27.040 It's saying just don't eat meat. 01:12:27.040 --> 01:12:29.360 Scripture says that's a teaching of demons. 01:12:29.360 --> 01:12:32.080 That is from hell and leads to hell. 01:12:32.080 --> 01:12:35.120 So we we quote this passage all the time on Stone Choir 01:12:35.120 --> 01:12:36.880 because it's pivotal. 01:12:36.880 --> 01:12:39.920 I now want to focus for this episode on the first part 01:12:39.920 --> 01:12:40.400 of it. 01:12:40.400 --> 01:12:45.040 Now the Holy Spirit expressly says that in later times some will 01:12:45.040 --> 01:12:46.800 depart from the faith. 01:12:46.800 --> 01:12:51.360 So the devotion to the teachings of demons causes a departure from 01:12:51.360 --> 01:12:51.920 the faith. 01:12:51.920 --> 01:12:54.880 That is it causes apostasy. 01:12:54.880 --> 01:13:00.160 When we speak of apostasy, we're only talking about inside the church. 01:13:00.400 --> 01:13:05.440 The pagan who's never heard of God, who's never believed, cannot apostatize. 01:13:05.440 --> 01:13:08.640 All these passages that we're going to talk about that deal with 01:13:08.640 --> 01:13:11.840 falling away, the only way to fall away is to have been 01:13:12.400 --> 01:13:14.480 in the first place. 01:13:14.480 --> 01:13:18.320 So this is crucial because when we're looking inside the church and 01:13:18.320 --> 01:13:21.040 everyone's saying, I'm from Jesus, I love God just as much as 01:13:21.040 --> 01:13:22.800 you. Maybe I love God more than you. 01:13:22.800 --> 01:13:25.600 You're racist, you're a Nazi, you don't love God as much as 01:13:25.600 --> 01:13:26.080 I do. 01:13:26.080 --> 01:13:28.800 I'm holier than thou. 01:13:28.800 --> 01:13:31.680 If that's true, great, let that be an example. 01:13:31.680 --> 01:13:36.640 If it's not true, then it becomes a question of spiritual threat. 01:13:36.640 --> 01:13:38.320 And that's the problem we have now. 01:13:38.320 --> 01:13:42.480 That inside the church, the devotion to teachings of demons is coming 01:13:42.480 --> 01:13:46.080 from those who say that they're doing it for God. 01:13:46.080 --> 01:13:50.080 And also, incidentally, this is one of many passages dealing with this. 01:13:50.080 --> 01:13:52.320 We have different passages in a bunch of different books of the 01:13:52.320 --> 01:13:56.080 Bible that all That all say that this is in later times. 01:13:56.080 --> 01:13:58.480 Again, I said at the beginning, a lot of this is going 01:13:58.480 --> 01:14:01.280 to have an eschatological tenor to it. 01:14:01.280 --> 01:14:05.920 We're not trying to make you believe the end is near. 01:14:05.920 --> 01:14:09.120 I do want you to take seriously the possibility that the end 01:14:09.120 --> 01:14:09.760 is near. 01:14:09.760 --> 01:14:12.720 Not to fill you with fear, but to actually pay attention to 01:14:12.720 --> 01:14:14.480 what these passages say. 01:14:14.480 --> 01:14:16.640 Because proof texting is terrible. 01:14:16.640 --> 01:14:20.240 Chopping up books into chapters and then chapters into verses and then 01:14:20.240 --> 01:14:21.920 verses into phrases. 01:14:21.920 --> 01:14:24.640 Sometimes you can make a point, you can make an important point 01:14:24.960 --> 01:14:27.280 and still be faithful to the text. 01:14:27.280 --> 01:14:30.080 But a lot of times when you rip it out of context, 01:14:30.080 --> 01:14:31.680 you lose the rest of it. 01:14:31.680 --> 01:14:34.960 And so when we focus on you know the teachings of demons, 01:14:34.960 --> 01:14:37.920 that's the important part, but the teachings of demons come in the 01:14:37.920 --> 01:14:41.280 latter times and they come inside the church. 01:14:41.280 --> 01:14:43.600 So all those things happen at once. 01:14:43.600 --> 01:14:46.000 And you can make a different point at different times with different 01:14:46.000 --> 01:14:49.600 parts of it, but the point that God is presenting to us 01:14:49.600 --> 01:14:51.680 is that this is a package deal. 01:14:51.680 --> 01:14:55.040 Near the end, inside the church, the teachings of demons are going 01:14:55.040 --> 01:14:56.000 to run rampant. 01:14:56.240 --> 01:14:59.200 And if we're not seeing that today, I don't know what it 01:14:59.200 --> 01:15:00.560 could possibly look like. 01:15:01.120 --> 01:15:01.280 I 01:15:01.280 --> 01:15:04.800 am going to highlight an aspect of this verse, this section of 01:15:04.800 --> 01:15:09.840 scripture that I know will bother some of our listeners. 01:15:09.840 --> 01:15:13.440 But it is something that is important to note. 01:15:13.440 --> 01:15:17.440 I would hope that I don't have to define the word depart, 01:15:17.440 --> 01:15:20.160 but it just means leave. 01:15:20.160 --> 01:15:23.920 What God says here in this chapter of 1 Timothy is that 01:15:23.920 --> 01:15:27.600 some will depart from the faith. 01:15:27.600 --> 01:15:32.240 Think about that for a minute, pause if you need to. 01:15:32.240 --> 01:15:36.720 But in order to depart from somewhere, you must first have been 01:15:36.720 --> 01:15:43.440 there. You cannot depart from France if you've never been in France, 01:15:43.440 --> 01:15:44.800 if you are not in France. 01:15:44.800 --> 01:15:49.600 You must be in France to depart from France. 01:15:49.600 --> 01:15:56.480 You must be at home in order to depart from your home. 01:15:56.480 --> 01:16:03.520 This verse very clearly, unambiguously, is a refutation of 01:16:03.520 --> 01:16:06.160 once saved, always saved. 01:16:06.160 --> 01:16:09.120 It is possible to apostatize. 01:16:09.120 --> 01:16:12.560 One would think that we're doing an episode on apostasy. 01:16:12.560 --> 01:16:15.360 It would be obvious that we are saying saying it is possible 01:16:15.360 --> 01:16:20.080 to apostatize, but there are some who contend that it is not. 01:16:20.080 --> 01:16:26.720 Scripture throughout Scripture, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, many 01:16:26.720 --> 01:16:32.720 times in many places, warns about the danger of apostasy. 01:16:32.720 --> 01:16:37.840 Scripture is not going to warn you about something that is impossible. 01:16:37.840 --> 01:16:41.200 This is why when the issue of witchcraft comes up, we'll point 01:16:41.200 --> 01:16:46.480 out Scripture doesn't warn you about witchcraft and the worship of demons 01:16:46.480 --> 01:16:50.720 and things like that because they're false in the sense of being 01:16:50.720 --> 01:16:53.920 impossible or not real, they are false in the sense of their 01:16:53.920 --> 01:16:56.320 worship of a false god. 01:16:56.320 --> 01:17:00.000 Scripture warns you about these things because they are real, because they 01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:02.320 endanger your soul. 01:17:02.320 --> 01:17:06.800 And so when it says, some will depart from the faith. 01:17:06.800 --> 01:17:11.200 It means that it is possible to leave to depart from the 01:17:11.200 --> 01:17:15.200 faith. There is no other way to interpret this. 01:17:15.200 --> 01:17:17.840 This is not telling you that, oh well there are some people 01:17:17.840 --> 01:17:21.200 who are false believers they never really believe no it says they 01:17:21.200 --> 01:17:25.040 are departing from the faith that means they were part of the 01:17:25.040 --> 01:17:30.000 faith. Apostasy is a possibility. 01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:32.000 And that is why Scripture warns about it. 01:17:32.000 --> 01:17:34.000 That's why we're doing an episode on it. 01:17:34.000 --> 01:17:36.800 That is why this is such an important topic. 01:17:36.800 --> 01:17:41.360 If it weren't possible to apostatize, if it weren't possible to depart 01:17:41.360 --> 01:17:44.480 from the faith, then we wouldn't do this episode because it would 01:17:44.480 --> 01:17:49.440 be a waste of our time and a waste of your time. 01:17:49.440 --> 01:17:51.840 But the word of God is clear. 01:17:51.840 --> 01:17:55.840 It is possible to depart from the faith. 01:17:55.840 --> 01:17:59.360 And that's why these warnings exist in Scripture. 01:17:59.360 --> 01:18:01.200 That's why we are doing this episode. 01:18:01.200 --> 01:18:03.920 That is why this is such a vitally important topic for the 01:18:03.920 --> 01:18:05.120 church today. 01:18:05.120 --> 01:18:09.440 Because we see the churches departing from the faith and taking the 01:18:09.440 --> 01:18:11.440 sheep with them. 01:18:11.440 --> 01:18:15.600 And it is incumbent on those who actually believe, on those who 01:18:15.600 --> 01:18:19.920 read God's Word and believe what it says, to stem this tide, 01:18:19.920 --> 01:18:21.680 to turn things around. 01:18:21.680 --> 01:18:25.200 And you cannot do that, if you do not first and foremost, 01:18:25.200 --> 01:18:30.160 with regard to this issue, accept that apostasy is possible. 01:18:30.160 --> 01:18:33.040 Because if it's not possible, then what does it matter what the 01:18:33.040 --> 01:18:34.080 churches are doing? 01:18:34.080 --> 01:18:36.320 What does it matter what any of us are doing? 01:18:36.320 --> 01:18:40.320 If apostasy is not possible, then there's no risk here, there's no 01:18:40.320 --> 01:18:44.000 danger, there's no reason to go over this topic. 01:18:44.000 --> 01:18:45.840 But that's not what God says. 01:18:45.840 --> 01:18:47.760 His word is very clear. 01:18:47.760 --> 01:18:51.680 Some will depart from the faith. 01:18:52.080 --> 01:18:55.760 Next I'm going to read from Jesus' words in Matthew twenty four, 01:18:55.760 --> 01:18:57.840 and just for the sake of brevity, just so you know, if 01:18:57.840 --> 01:19:00.960 you're go back and read later, I'm gonna omit one portion just 01:19:00.960 --> 01:19:04.480 for the sake of time, but it doesn't change anything. 01:19:04.480 --> 01:19:07.520 As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to 01:19:07.520 --> 01:19:11.040 him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be and what 01:19:11.040 --> 01:19:13.840 will the sign of your coming and of the end of the 01:19:13.840 --> 01:19:19.120 age. And Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray, 01:19:19.120 --> 01:19:22.080 for many will come in my name, saying I am the Christ, 01:19:22.080 --> 01:19:24.320 and they will lead many astray. 01:19:24.320 --> 01:19:27.200 And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars, see that 01:19:27.200 --> 01:19:30.800 you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end 01:19:30.800 --> 01:19:34.560 is not yet, for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against 01:19:34.560 --> 01:19:38.400 kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 01:19:38.400 --> 01:19:41.200 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. 01:19:41.200 --> 01:19:44.640 Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to 01:19:44.640 --> 01:19:47.840 death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's 01:19:47.840 --> 01:19:51.920 sake. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and 01:19:51.920 --> 01:19:56.560 hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many 01:19:56.560 --> 01:20:01.120 astray, and because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will 01:20:01.120 --> 01:20:04.720 grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be 01:20:04.720 --> 01:20:09.120 saved. In this gospel to the kingdom we be proclaimed through the 01:20:09.120 --> 01:20:13.200 whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end 01:20:13.200 --> 01:20:14.400 will come. 01:20:14.400 --> 01:20:17.360 For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not 01:20:17.360 --> 01:20:19.520 been from the beginning of the world until now. 01:20:19.840 --> 01:20:21.440 No and never will be. 01:20:21.440 --> 01:20:25.200 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being 01:20:25.200 --> 01:20:28.160 would be saved but for the sake of the elect those days 01:20:28.160 --> 01:20:29.440 will be cut short. 01:20:29.440 --> 01:20:32.240 Then if any one says to you, Look, here's the Christ, or 01:20:32.240 --> 01:20:36.560 there he is, do not believe it, for false Christs and false 01:20:36.560 --> 01:20:41.360 prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to 01:20:41.360 --> 01:20:45.280 lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 01:20:45.680 --> 01:20:49.520 So again this is repeatedly from Jesus' own lips, not that all 01:20:49.520 --> 01:20:52.960 of Scripture isn't, but even at that, these are the red letters. 01:20:52.960 --> 01:20:58.640 God recorded Jesus specifically saying these things, and he repeatedly warns that 01:20:58.640 --> 01:21:03.360 in the end times false prophets and false teachers will arise to 01:21:03.360 --> 01:21:05.840 deceive the faithful. 01:21:05.840 --> 01:21:09.120 Because where else is Satan going to find God's people? 01:21:09.120 --> 01:21:11.920 See when we talk about pagans as those who are outside of 01:21:11.920 --> 01:21:15.440 the faith, and again, when we use that term, it's not pejorative. 01:21:15.440 --> 01:21:16.880 We're not being dismissive. 01:21:16.880 --> 01:21:20.160 It's sometimes translated as Gentiles in the New Testament. 01:21:20.160 --> 01:21:22.320 They're believers and they're unbelievers. 01:21:22.320 --> 01:21:24.160 They're Christians and they're pagans. 01:21:24.160 --> 01:21:27.680 To say unbelievers kind of begging the question, so I prefer pagan 01:21:27.840 --> 01:21:29.760 because I think it's more neutral. 01:21:29.760 --> 01:21:31.360 Satan owns the pagans. 01:21:31.360 --> 01:21:32.640 He's already got them. 01:21:32.640 --> 01:21:35.520 They don't believe in God, they never did. 01:21:35.520 --> 01:21:36.640 Maybe they never will. 01:21:36.640 --> 01:21:38.400 We would like to see that change. 01:21:38.400 --> 01:21:41.600 We try to reach them with the gospel and with the law 01:21:41.680 --> 01:21:44.560 to say, hey, all the problems in your life, all the things 01:21:44.560 --> 01:21:46.480 that are causing you misery and pain. 01:21:46.480 --> 01:21:48.160 There's a reason for that. 01:21:48.160 --> 01:21:52.160 Because the life that you're leading is in opposition to the design 01:21:52.160 --> 01:21:54.160 of the creator who created the universe. 01:21:54.160 --> 01:21:55.920 That's why it hurts when you do that. 01:21:55.920 --> 01:21:56.960 Stop doing that. 01:21:56.960 --> 01:21:58.080 It's bad for you. 01:21:58.080 --> 01:22:00.800 And by the way, that's also obedience to God. 01:22:00.800 --> 01:22:04.720 Learn what else God has taught you in Scripture, and you'll be 01:22:04.720 --> 01:22:08.480 saved. Not by doing, but by receiving the faith that God gives 01:22:08.480 --> 01:22:12.320 freely. Pagans need to hear the gospel. 01:22:12.320 --> 01:22:13.840 Everyone else already has. 01:22:13.840 --> 01:22:18.320 And so all these warnings about those in the church falling away, 01:22:18.320 --> 01:22:22.160 about being deceived, Satan, of course he's gonna target the church. 01:22:22.160 --> 01:22:26.800 What if if all the sheep are inside the sheep penite and 01:22:26.800 --> 01:22:29.840 there's a wolf outside the sheep pen, where does the wolf want 01:22:29.840 --> 01:22:30.160 to be? 01:22:30.160 --> 01:22:32.480 He must be in the sheep pen, because that's where the sheep 01:22:32.480 --> 01:22:36.880 are. Satan knows that if prowling like a roaring lion, you know, 01:22:36.880 --> 01:22:39.200 to mix these metaphors of God. 01:22:39.200 --> 01:22:43.120 When Satan is prowling, he's got to get where the juicy bits 01:22:43.120 --> 01:22:45.040 are. That's inside the sheepfold. 01:22:45.040 --> 01:22:47.440 That's inside the church. 01:22:47.440 --> 01:22:52.080 And of course, the best way to send the flock scattering, to 01:22:52.080 --> 01:22:54.880 send the sheep away so that they no longer have the protection 01:22:55.920 --> 01:22:59.440 is for false shepherds to enter among them, or for wolves to 01:22:59.440 --> 01:23:01.440 enter among them and to devour them. 01:23:01.440 --> 01:23:03.760 That's what God is warning about, and it happens. 01:23:03.760 --> 01:23:05.600 It's happening today. 01:23:05.600 --> 01:23:10.400 I mentioned earlier the the bit about doxing and feds being called 01:23:10.400 --> 01:23:13.600 and antifa being vaulted to murder people. 01:23:13.600 --> 01:23:17.600 When you hear things like they will deliver you up for tribulation 01:23:17.600 --> 01:23:19.680 and put you to death and you will be hated by all 01:23:19.680 --> 01:23:23.120 nations for my name's sake, and they many will fall away and 01:23:23.120 --> 01:23:26.160 betray one another and hate one another. 01:23:26.160 --> 01:23:29.840 If that doesn't describe that sort of behavior, I don't know what 01:23:29.840 --> 01:23:32.720 does. And to be clear, I'm not saying, oh look, I found 01:23:32.720 --> 01:23:33.840 myself in the Bible. 01:23:33.840 --> 01:23:37.920 No. I find all of us in the Bible, believers and unbelievers 01:23:37.920 --> 01:23:41.520 alike. But when God says in the last days these specific types 01:23:41.520 --> 01:23:44.640 of things will be happening, when they will kill you in my 01:23:44.640 --> 01:23:48.240 name and say they're doing it service to me, when when we 01:23:48.240 --> 01:23:53.040 see that actually happening inside the church, that other passage that refers 01:23:53.040 --> 01:23:56.320 to that specifically, it's talking about in the church doing that. 01:23:56.320 --> 01:23:58.960 It's talking not talking about the state killing people. 01:23:58.960 --> 01:24:03.440 It's talking about the church, about those who call themselves believers persecuting 01:24:03.440 --> 01:24:08.560 and killing unbelievers and saying that they're doing service to God. 01:24:08.560 --> 01:24:10.640 That's an end times prophecy. 01:24:10.640 --> 01:24:13.840 And I'm not saying, oh, look at us, we're in the Bible. 01:24:13.840 --> 01:24:14.480 I don't know. 01:24:14.480 --> 01:24:16.080 I not the point. 01:24:16.080 --> 01:24:19.680 The point is when I see those things and I compare notes 01:24:19.680 --> 01:24:23.120 with actual current events, that makes me wonder. 01:24:23.120 --> 01:24:24.800 It's entirely permissible to wonder. 01:24:24.800 --> 01:24:25.680 And I don't have to have a conclusion. 01:24:25.680 --> 01:24:26.000 I don't care. 01:24:26.720 --> 01:24:31.360 It's not important to know yes or no, because we don't have 01:24:31.360 --> 01:24:33.440 to worry about, oh, is this prophecy fulfilled? 01:24:33.440 --> 01:24:35.680 Like it, there's no checklist here. 01:24:35.680 --> 01:24:39.360 Prophecy specifically, event times is not a checklist. 01:24:39.360 --> 01:24:41.200 It's a call to penitence. 01:24:41.200 --> 01:24:44.400 It's a call to return to the Lord and to believe him. 01:24:44.400 --> 01:24:46.640 And so that when he shows up like a thief in the 01:24:46.880 --> 01:24:48.960 night, you're not up to no good. 01:24:48.960 --> 01:24:49.840 You're not asleep. 01:24:49.840 --> 01:24:53.840 You're awake waiting for him because he said to do precisely that. 01:24:53.840 --> 01:24:56.400 That's the whole point of talking about this. 01:24:56.400 --> 01:25:01.520 But the further along humanity gets in the timeline, and the worse 01:25:01.520 --> 01:25:04.800 things seem to be getting today, and the more of these prophecies 01:25:04.880 --> 01:25:09.120 seem to be getting checked off that list. 01:25:09.120 --> 01:25:10.960 We don't have to worry about a checklist. 01:25:10.960 --> 01:25:14.080 It's not about comparing notes with the newspaper. 01:25:14.080 --> 01:25:17.680 It's about saying God said that when things get really bad, you'll 01:25:17.680 --> 01:25:19.440 know that the end is near. 01:25:19.440 --> 01:25:23.520 When we see things getting really bad, we should take seriously the 01:25:23.520 --> 01:25:25.040 possibility that the end is near. 01:25:25.040 --> 01:25:27.200 As I said earlier, that's not oh no and I sell my 01:25:27.200 --> 01:25:29.680 stuff and I you know wait on a hill. 01:25:29.680 --> 01:25:34.400 No. Take care of your family, plant a garden, tell your neighbor 01:25:34.400 --> 01:25:38.320 about Jesus, help your brother out, do the good things that you 01:25:38.320 --> 01:25:39.680 should have been doing all along. 01:25:39.680 --> 01:25:41.760 And maybe at some point you forgot. 01:25:41.760 --> 01:25:44.960 Just do what God says to do so that whenever He shows 01:25:44.960 --> 01:25:47.360 up, he finds Christians. 01:25:47.360 --> 01:25:48.480 That's it. 01:25:48.480 --> 01:25:53.280 The Christian anticipation of the coming of Christ, the final judgment, is 01:25:53.280 --> 01:25:55.920 not about stocking up on good work so we can make it 01:25:55.920 --> 01:25:57.200 over the finish line. 01:25:57.200 --> 01:26:00.320 It's about making sure that we stay in the faith because to 01:26:00.320 --> 01:26:04.000 fail to do these good works, to fail to care for neighbor, 01:26:04.000 --> 01:26:08.000 to fail to love your own family, to love your own race, 01:26:08.000 --> 01:26:13.520 to not lose the natural affection that God has given us. 01:26:13.520 --> 01:26:18.160 Those things will separate you from the faith that will save you 01:26:18.160 --> 01:26:19.920 in the end. 01:26:19.920 --> 01:26:21.600 That's the point. 01:26:21.600 --> 01:26:24.400 It's not about who's doing better, who's doing worse. 01:26:24.400 --> 01:26:26.720 It's about us having what God wants to give us. 01:26:26.720 --> 01:26:28.720 And he warns us over and over. 01:26:29.120 --> 01:26:31.920 Virtually all the rest of these pastures are also going to talk 01:26:31.920 --> 01:26:33.040 about the end of the world. 01:26:33.040 --> 01:26:35.600 And it's it's not because we went looking for those passages. 01:26:35.600 --> 01:26:40.240 When we went looking for passages talking about apostasy, about falling away, 01:26:40.240 --> 01:26:42.160 that's how God connects it. 01:26:42.160 --> 01:26:44.160 And that's why this is so urgent today. 01:26:44.160 --> 01:26:46.400 In a four part series and next week when we talk about 01:26:46.400 --> 01:26:50.400 Galatians 3 28, it's going to be a recapitulation of this episode 01:26:50.400 --> 01:26:55.680 in the previous episode in that specific context of that one verse. 01:26:55.680 --> 01:26:59.840 When these things are happening inside the church, when men are being 01:26:59.840 --> 01:27:04.640 persecuted, when God is being damned from pulpits, as we see on 01:27:04.640 --> 01:27:09.600 Twitter and we see in press releases for major denominations, saying this 01:27:09.600 --> 01:27:13.200 God in the Bible is evil and wicked, I condemn him in 01:27:13.200 --> 01:27:16.400 the name of Christ, they're talking about a false Christ. 01:27:16.400 --> 01:27:18.960 They're confessing an antichrist. 01:27:18.960 --> 01:27:22.080 And if we believe well that's impossible, that's he's a good man, 01:27:22.080 --> 01:27:25.120 he's got a big mustache and a big crucifix, he would never 01:27:25.120 --> 01:27:25.920 do anything like that. 01:27:25.920 --> 01:27:28.320 I know he loves Jesus, he told me once. 01:27:28.320 --> 01:27:32.240 If you think that there're immunized against being able to fall away, 01:27:32.240 --> 01:27:35.520 you're calling Jesus a liar, he's warning the apostles. 01:27:35.520 --> 01:27:38.640 He's telling his inner sanctum, they're gonna come after you. 01:27:38.640 --> 01:27:39.840 And he's talking to us as well. 01:27:39.840 --> 01:27:43.680 Like it's not that this passage was only for the twelve, but 01:27:44.000 --> 01:27:47.200 when it's a when he's saying directly this is a threat to 01:27:47.200 --> 01:27:50.960 every believer in all times and all places, and it's gonna get 01:27:50.960 --> 01:27:53.680 worse in the end, just believe it. 01:27:53.680 --> 01:27:55.280 Believe it and take it seriously. 01:27:55.280 --> 01:27:58.320 And then when you see the church doing things that are contrary 01:27:58.320 --> 01:28:01.200 to scripture, let that be your concern. 01:28:01.200 --> 01:28:05.040 So that we end don't end up completely misplacing scripture and having 01:28:05.040 --> 01:28:08.320 it lost somewhere in the rubble or on a dusty shelf, or 01:28:08.320 --> 01:28:10.880 forgetting what it means entirely. 01:28:10.880 --> 01:28:13.840 Because the other part of the warnings about the end times is 01:28:13.840 --> 01:28:16.800 that at some point the clock runs out, and God does come 01:28:16.800 --> 01:28:21.760 back, and there's no more reboots available for Christianity to sort these 01:28:21.760 --> 01:28:23.120 things out again. 01:28:23.120 --> 01:28:28.080 At some point, God returns and it is what it is. 01:28:28.080 --> 01:28:30.400 Those who are faithful will go to heaven. 01:28:30.400 --> 01:28:32.720 Those who are faithless will go to hell. 01:28:32.720 --> 01:28:36.560 And as Christians, we should desire that all of our neighbors, that 01:28:36.560 --> 01:28:39.760 everyone we can reach, is going to be saved. 01:28:39.760 --> 01:28:42.400 We have to be faithful to be able to sell that to 01:28:42.400 --> 01:28:46.160 them. Not selling in a sense of girl scout cookies, but selling 01:28:46.160 --> 01:28:48.720 in the sense that this is what God says and here's why 01:28:48.720 --> 01:28:50.560 it's important. 01:28:50.560 --> 01:28:53.840 Satan needs to interrupt all of that, and he'll interrupt it any 01:28:53.840 --> 01:28:54.480 way he can. 01:28:54.640 --> 01:28:57.280 With a big ticket item, with a small item, even if the 01:28:57.280 --> 01:29:02.640 small thing takes generations before it bears fruit, he's patient. 01:29:02.640 --> 01:29:02.960 But 01:29:03.920 --> 01:29:07.600 we don't know how much longer we have before God comes back 01:29:07.680 --> 01:29:10.400 and there's no more time to fix the mess. 01:29:10.400 --> 01:29:13.680 And that's why Corey and I have a sense of urgency around 01:29:13.680 --> 01:29:14.320 these things. 01:29:14.320 --> 01:29:16.400 Not that we think the world's gonna end tomorrow. 01:29:16.400 --> 01:29:19.840 We think that if we let these things slide for another generation, 01:29:19.840 --> 01:29:23.280 I don't believe there will be a Christian generation after that one. 01:29:23.280 --> 01:29:28.000 I don't think that there's a path from today to two generations 01:29:28.000 --> 01:29:31.200 hence without the next generation being Christian. 01:29:31.200 --> 01:29:33.280 That's my chief concern. 01:29:33.280 --> 01:29:36.480 And the state of the church today pretty much guarantees that that 01:29:36.480 --> 01:29:37.440 won't happen. 01:29:37.440 --> 01:29:40.560 Now Now, God will preserve a remnant. 01:29:40.560 --> 01:29:43.440 He promises there will be someone who believes in the end days. 01:29:43.440 --> 01:29:45.760 I want it to be mine, my people. 01:29:45.760 --> 01:29:49.360 I want it to be everyone that we can share the gospel 01:29:49.360 --> 01:29:51.440 with. And that's not being racist. 01:29:51.440 --> 01:29:54.720 It's just saying, look, I can control what I can control. 01:29:54.720 --> 01:29:57.600 And if I can tell someone and help them understand this and 01:29:57.600 --> 01:30:00.720 they're going to believe it, so much the better. 01:30:00.720 --> 01:30:02.320 Everything else is in God's hand. 01:30:02.320 --> 01:30:05.600 We don't have to fix anything, but we have to be faithful. 01:30:05.600 --> 01:30:08.240 And in the end, if it looks the same way, that's because 01:30:08.240 --> 01:30:10.320 that's God's doing, it's not our doing. 01:30:10.320 --> 01:30:15.360 So the pressure's not on us to succeed, but the expectation is 01:30:15.360 --> 01:30:18.320 on us to be faithful, and God will take care of the 01:30:18.320 --> 01:30:19.280 results. 01:30:19.440 --> 01:30:22.320 We did mention at the outset that this episode would be heavy 01:30:22.320 --> 01:30:25.280 on law, and that is very true. 01:30:25.280 --> 01:30:28.800 I would recommend that for at least some of you, perhaps go 01:30:28.800 --> 01:30:32.240 back and listen again, or for the first time if this is 01:30:32.240 --> 01:30:35.920 one of the first episodes to which you're listening, go back and 01:30:35.920 --> 01:30:39.440 listen to the episode on election. 01:30:39.440 --> 01:30:43.120 We will eventually in the future do an episode on perseverance, and 01:30:43.120 --> 01:30:47.360 really that'll form a Trinity, as it were, a three part series, 01:30:47.360 --> 01:30:53.920 because they're all very intricately related election, perseverance, and apostasy. 01:30:54.400 --> 01:30:59.920 But Woe just mentioned that Jesus was warning the apostles in this 01:30:59.920 --> 01:31:04.880 particular passage, and I want to highlight two of the apostles because 01:31:05.200 --> 01:31:11.360 they give a great example of the possibilities as it were. 01:31:11.360 --> 01:31:16.480 All of the apostles had faith at one point. 01:31:16.480 --> 01:31:18.960 Most of them persevered. 01:31:18.960 --> 01:31:20.720 One of them did not. 01:31:20.720 --> 01:31:23.920 Judas fell away, Judas had faith. 01:31:23.920 --> 01:31:25.440 Judas fell away. 01:31:25.440 --> 01:31:28.080 He departed from the faith. 01:31:28.080 --> 01:31:32.000 And he despaired, and he is in hell. 01:31:32.000 --> 01:31:36.400 Peter is the other apostle I would like to highlight, because Peter 01:31:36.720 --> 01:31:41.360 also fell away from the faith, but Peter was restored, and so 01:31:41.360 --> 01:31:44.720 it is possible to be restored after falling away. 01:31:44.720 --> 01:31:49.040 Apostasy is not necessarily final. 01:31:49.040 --> 01:31:51.920 Just because something isn't final doesn't mean you should say, Oh well 01:31:52.000 --> 01:31:54.800 it's fine, I can repent on my deathbed. 01:31:54.800 --> 01:31:57.920 One you don't know when that will be, and so that's a 01:31:57.920 --> 01:31:59.920 very dangerous proposition. 01:31:59.920 --> 01:32:02.880 But two, you should want to live your life as God tells 01:32:02.880 --> 01:32:06.160 you to live it, and also there are rewards in heaven for 01:32:06.160 --> 01:32:10.560 your good works, not because they are meritorious in and of themselves, 01:32:10.560 --> 01:32:14.560 but because being in Christ they are credited to you, and you 01:32:14.560 --> 01:32:17.680 get rewards for those in paradise. 01:32:17.680 --> 01:32:21.680 So there are reasons to be a Christian throughout your entire life, 01:32:21.680 --> 01:32:25.760 not just wait until you're like I think I'm finally decrepit enough, 01:32:25.760 --> 01:32:29.920 I'll repent now, and then hope that you die soon afterward. 01:32:30.400 --> 01:32:31.600 That's a terrible bet. 01:32:31.600 --> 01:32:35.520 That's something that atheists will sometimes argue it's absolutely insane. 01:32:35.520 --> 01:32:38.320 But the point is that Peter fell away. 01:32:38.320 --> 01:32:40.560 And what And was restored. 01:32:40.640 --> 01:32:44.880 But if you actually look at why he fell away, and I'm 01:32:44.880 --> 01:32:48.480 not really trying to get into the perseverance issue, but just to 01:32:48.480 --> 01:32:52.560 give a foretaste of it here as it were. 01:32:52.560 --> 01:32:56.480 And because it does relate to apostasy, the reason he fell away 01:32:56.560 --> 01:33:00.320 if you look at it he says and yet I certainly will 01:33:00.320 --> 01:33:03.920 not when he is responding to Christ saying they would all fall 01:33:03.920 --> 01:33:06.640 away from him in that hour. 01:33:06.640 --> 01:33:11.440 He relied on himself, and that's the issue. 01:33:11.440 --> 01:33:15.760 He was taking faith, which is a free gift of God, sustained 01:33:15.760 --> 01:33:21.200 by God, wholly a matter of God, monargistic, and attempting to make 01:33:21.440 --> 01:33:23.280 it something that he did himself. 01:33:23.280 --> 01:33:26.800 No, I will believe hard enough that I will never fall away 01:33:26.800 --> 01:33:27.680 from you. 01:33:27.680 --> 01:33:30.320 And then he fell away. 01:33:30.320 --> 01:33:37.200 While standing standing in the presence practically of Christ he fell away. 01:33:37.200 --> 01:33:41.280 So bear that in mind, it is entirely possible to fall away 01:33:41.280 --> 01:33:45.120 from the faith, and when you fall away, you can despair like 01:33:45.120 --> 01:33:51.600 Judas, not be restored and spend eternity in hell, or, like Peter, 01:33:51.600 --> 01:33:55.200 you can be reconverted to the faith, and be restored to the 01:33:55.200 --> 01:34:00.640 faith, and spend eternity in paradise. 01:34:00.640 --> 01:34:05.200 Our next reading is from Matthew seven. 01:34:05.200 --> 01:34:09.040 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but 01:34:09.040 --> 01:34:11.360 inwardly are ravenous wolves. 01:34:11.360 --> 01:34:15.520 You will recognize them by their fruits, are grapes gathered from thorn 01:34:15.520 --> 01:34:17.920 bushes, or figs from thistles. 01:34:17.920 --> 01:34:21.520 So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears 01:34:21.520 --> 01:34:23.040 bad fruit. 01:34:23.040 --> 01:34:26.960 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a disease tree 01:34:26.960 --> 01:34:28.240 bear good fruit. 01:34:28.240 --> 01:34:31.760 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and 01:34:31.760 --> 01:34:33.440 thrown into the fire. 01:34:33.440 --> 01:34:38.160 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. 01:34:38.160 --> 01:34:41.520 Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the 01:34:41.520 --> 01:34:44.720 kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my 01:34:44.720 --> 01:34:46.640 Father who is in heaven. 01:34:46.640 --> 01:34:50.640 On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we 01:34:50.640 --> 01:34:54.320 not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, 01:34:54.320 --> 01:34:56.880 and do many mighty works in your name? 01:34:57.040 --> 01:35:00.640 And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart 01:35:00.720 --> 01:35:04.800 from me, you workers of lawlessness. 01:35:05.120 --> 01:35:09.200 So we find here just as in the earlier passage in Matthew 01:35:09.200 --> 01:35:13.680 twenty four that not only is this inside the church, not only 01:35:13.680 --> 01:35:19.280 are these people who are calling out Lord, Lord, which directly eliminates 01:35:19.280 --> 01:35:23.520 the possibility that we're talking about pagans, but they're performing miracles. 01:35:23.520 --> 01:35:25.760 They're doing signs and wonders. 01:35:25.760 --> 01:35:27.920 They're not just teachers. 01:35:28.400 --> 01:35:33.680 They're those who have some sort of power. 01:35:33.680 --> 01:35:36.080 Now we don't see that sort of power today. 01:35:36.080 --> 01:35:39.520 I don't know, not making a claim one way or another, whether 01:35:39.520 --> 01:35:41.920 that's is going to re-emerge, but we are warned 01:35:42.960 --> 01:35:47.040 specifically that the false prophets who will come in God's name, who 01:35:47.040 --> 01:35:51.600 will cry Lord, Lord, are going to seem legitimate. 01:35:51.600 --> 01:35:54.560 And so therefore, what does this Matthew seven passage say? 01:35:54.640 --> 01:35:56.160 It Says judge them by their fruit. 01:35:57.120 --> 01:35:58.560 What does it omit? 01:35:58.560 --> 01:36:01.360 Don't judge them by their confession. 01:36:01.360 --> 01:36:05.200 If you judge man by your his fruits, you're ignoring what he's 01:36:05.200 --> 01:36:10.320 saying. You're looking at the product that occurs downstream from what he 01:36:10.320 --> 01:36:16.320 says. So when we have pastors who go online and say, Let 01:36:16.320 --> 01:36:19.840 me teach you about the Lutheran faith, and the fruit of that 01:36:19.840 --> 01:36:23.840 teaching is that men become Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, or they 01:36:23.840 --> 01:36:26.240 leave the faith in other ways. 01:36:26.240 --> 01:36:28.240 That is the fruit. 01:36:28.240 --> 01:36:31.200 That is the proof of the nature of the tree. 01:36:31.200 --> 01:36:37.440 If you only pay attention to the checklist evaluation of the confession, 01:36:37.440 --> 01:36:40.320 then all these teachers are gonna seem fine. 01:36:40.320 --> 01:36:45.040 All the ravenous wolves who are clothed as sheep, they're gonna seem 01:36:45.040 --> 01:36:47.600 okay because their confessions are gonna check out. 01:36:47.600 --> 01:36:49.280 Cause Satan's not dumb. 01:36:49.280 --> 01:36:51.920 He knows what he needs to do to pass. 01:36:51.920 --> 01:36:55.200 This is spiritual tranneism we're dealing with. 01:36:55.200 --> 01:36:59.280 Someone who is one thing that's masquerading as another. 01:36:59.280 --> 01:37:03.840 And the difference is that it's basically impossible for a man to 01:37:03.840 --> 01:37:07.840 present as a woman in a way that's can deceive people. 01:37:07.840 --> 01:37:09.840 Although unfortunately it's getting so horrifically 01:37:10.880 --> 01:37:15.120 advanced now with the mutilation of flesh that sometimes you just can't 01:37:15.120 --> 01:37:21.360 tell what happens with these spiritual trannies that are demons that are 01:37:21.360 --> 01:37:27.120 cloaked as Christians, is that their words are gonna check out. 01:37:27.120 --> 01:37:32.400 And so God specifically says you will recognize them by their fruits. 01:37:32.400 --> 01:37:36.240 So I said, and I've said before, I honestly, don't care what 01:37:36.240 --> 01:37:40.320 someone's confession is at this point, which is not to say that 01:37:40.320 --> 01:37:42.240 a confession doesn't matter. 01:37:42.240 --> 01:37:46.720 The confession that we have is vital, but it is not the 01:37:46.720 --> 01:37:50.640 proof. The proof is what's downstream from it. 01:37:50.640 --> 01:37:54.400 Because many of the men inside the church whose confession is entirely, 01:37:54.400 --> 01:37:58.800 well, it's not, but as a superficial reading of the creeds and 01:37:58.960 --> 01:38:02.800 whatever confession of your church body may hold, don't care how thick 01:38:02.800 --> 01:38:08.080 the book is, however close they're able to cue to the words 01:38:08.080 --> 01:38:12.400 of those confessions, when push comes to shove and you look at 01:38:12.400 --> 01:38:16.080 what's actually happening in their lives, in the lives of their children, 01:38:16.080 --> 01:38:16.640 in the lives of 01:38:17.680 --> 01:38:21.920 their congregations, what happens to people who have been exposed to their 01:38:21.920 --> 01:38:26.560 teaching five, ten, twenty years down the road, that's the fruit. 01:38:26.560 --> 01:38:29.360 The fruit is not gonna lie. 01:38:29.360 --> 01:38:34.240 If there's a trail of death and destruction and misery and deceit 01:38:34.400 --> 01:38:35.360 and slander 01:38:36.560 --> 01:38:41.280 and grift and avarice, if some permutation of all those things 01:38:42.160 --> 01:38:47.040 that are incidentally also marks of the absence of the Holy Spirit, 01:38:47.040 --> 01:38:51.440 if you see a cloud of that surrounding someone, I saw today 01:38:51.440 --> 01:38:57.040 that apparently some internet pastor who had been stirring up stuff with 01:38:57.040 --> 01:39:00.320 false confessions saying that you know it's okay for you to bless 01:39:00.320 --> 01:39:03.200 a sodomite union, a so-called marriage. 01:39:03.200 --> 01:39:05.440 Somebody said he was worth fifteen million dollars. 01:39:05.440 --> 01:39:07.440 I don't know if that's true or not, but I can stay 01:39:07.440 --> 01:39:12.880 with absolute certainty, no Christian pastor is worth $15 million. 01:39:12.880 --> 01:39:16.320 No Christian pastor is going to accumulate that. 01:39:16.320 --> 01:39:20.880 It's not to say no Christian can, not drawing a line on 01:39:20.880 --> 01:39:24.560 where too much wealth separates you from the kingdom of God. 01:39:24.560 --> 01:39:28.240 A pastor, the only way for a pastor to get there, it's 01:39:28.240 --> 01:39:31.200 basically the same way that a congressman could get there. 01:39:31.200 --> 01:39:34.960 When they're making 180, 80,000 a year or whatever and living in 01:39:34.960 --> 01:39:36.160 Washington, D.C. 01:39:36.320 --> 01:39:39.600 most of the year, the only way that they go in worth 01:39:39.600 --> 01:39:43.200 less than a million and come out worth more than 50 million 01:39:43.360 --> 01:39:48.480 is when they've been practicing corrupt and wicked things. 01:39:48.480 --> 01:39:52.080 For a pastor to accrue great wealth as a result of being 01:39:52.240 --> 01:39:55.280 pastor tells you he's a false prophet. 01:39:55.280 --> 01:39:58.240 I don't need to know a word out of his mouth. 01:39:58.240 --> 01:40:00.640 I don't need to know how sincere he is. 01:40:00.640 --> 01:40:04.160 For that to be the case, it's a fruit. 01:40:04.480 --> 01:40:08.800 that accumulation without using it to benefit others for a pastor, it 01:40:08.800 --> 01:40:11.040 can't and will not happen. 01:40:11.040 --> 01:40:14.080 So So I know this is a this is a tough thing 01:40:14.080 --> 01:40:17.520 to deal with in the Christian church because again, like we we 01:40:17.520 --> 01:40:21.280 focus a lot of other episodes saying, look, your confession must be 01:40:21.280 --> 01:40:22.560 clear and direct. 01:40:22.560 --> 01:40:24.320 You have to say what's true. 01:40:24.320 --> 01:40:26.560 That we're not disputing. 01:40:26.560 --> 01:40:31.600 We're saying that in this specific case where churches are apostatizing because 01:40:31.600 --> 01:40:37.600 leaders are apostatizing, because faithless demonic shepherds, like some of the men 01:40:37.600 --> 01:40:41.520 who are listening right now, because the demons inside them compel them 01:40:41.520 --> 01:40:45.360 to listen, because hell's gonna get worse with every word that comes 01:40:45.360 --> 01:40:48.080 out of our mouths that they hate because it's from God, it's 01:40:48.080 --> 01:40:49.360 not from us. 01:40:49.360 --> 01:40:54.160 Those men are compelled to do evil because that's what they serve. 01:40:54.160 --> 01:40:58.960 Just as we are compelled to do good because we serve God. 01:40:58.960 --> 01:41:04.320 The fruits of the stone choired ministry, for lack of a better 01:41:04.320 --> 01:41:07.760 word, is that every week now people are joining churches. 01:41:07.760 --> 01:41:09.920 Every week now babies are being baptized. 01:41:09.920 --> 01:41:11.520 Adults are being baptized. 01:41:11.520 --> 01:41:13.040 People are finding faithful churches. 01:41:13.040 --> 01:41:14.480 Sometimes for the first time. 01:41:14.480 --> 01:41:15.280 Those are fruits. 01:41:15.280 --> 01:41:16.640 Those are real fruits. 01:41:16.640 --> 01:41:20.960 So you can say all manner of slander about anybody, but the 01:41:20.960 --> 01:41:24.560 only thing in our wake is that people are believing God and 01:41:24.560 --> 01:41:25.680 obeying him. 01:41:25.680 --> 01:41:28.560 And that is not giving us a shred of credit. 01:41:28.560 --> 01:41:32.320 God is doing that in spite of whatever flaws we have. 01:41:32.320 --> 01:41:35.360 But we're here to try to do these things because we know 01:41:35.360 --> 01:41:39.920 that when God's word is faithfully employed, that's what's going to happen. 01:41:39.920 --> 01:41:44.160 And we have these mics and they have been blessed thus far 01:41:44.800 --> 01:41:47.280 with those fruits. 01:41:47.280 --> 01:41:50.240 So you don't need to decide if we're telling the truth or 01:41:50.240 --> 01:41:53.760 not. Even if even if all the slander about us is true, 01:41:53.760 --> 01:41:58.320 if the fruit of what we're saying is that people are becoming 01:41:58.320 --> 01:42:01.440 Christian and becoming more engaged in their faith and they're doing a 01:42:01.440 --> 01:42:04.640 better job in their lives, well that proves that the slander can't 01:42:04.640 --> 01:42:07.520 be true because God would not produce those fruits. 01:42:07.520 --> 01:42:09.920 Satan will never produce good fruit. 01:42:09.920 --> 01:42:14.640 He won't permit it, maybe momentarily to deceive someone, is in the 01:42:14.640 --> 01:42:18.720 case of these signs and wonders that false prophets are permitted. 01:42:18.720 --> 01:42:21.840 But good fruit is only going to come from a good tree. 01:42:21.840 --> 01:42:24.720 Evil fruit will always come from an evil tree. 01:42:24.720 --> 01:42:27.760 When you look at these men's lives, when you look at what 01:42:27.760 --> 01:42:30.960 happens around them, they might be the most charming guy in the 01:42:30.960 --> 01:42:33.680 world on YouTube, but when you look at what happens around them, 01:42:33.680 --> 01:42:35.840 you can see that the fruit is evil. 01:42:35.840 --> 01:42:39.680 And that tells you that your ears were deceived, that the confession 01:42:39.680 --> 01:42:41.520 that they had was false. 01:42:41.520 --> 01:42:45.520 It's again, this is a tough thing in Christianity because we should 01:42:45.520 --> 01:42:46.880 be able to believe everyone. 01:42:47.120 --> 01:42:49.840 But God says test the spirits. 01:42:49.840 --> 01:42:52.480 He says you'll recognize them by their fruits. 01:42:52.480 --> 01:42:53.600 That's a duty. 01:42:53.600 --> 01:42:54.720 That's not optional. 01:42:54.720 --> 01:42:57.920 That's what we are told by God we must do in these 01:42:57.920 --> 01:43:01.680 cases when anyone comes along and says, Hey, I want to teach 01:43:01.680 --> 01:43:05.520 you about God, this should always be your first instinct for anyone, 01:43:05.520 --> 01:43:06.400 especially us. 01:43:06.400 --> 01:43:07.360 And we say that. 01:43:07.360 --> 01:43:11.360 I I'm happy to tell anyone, don't believe a word we say, 01:43:11.360 --> 01:43:14.320 go read your Bible, because you're going to come back a week 01:43:14.320 --> 01:43:17.280 or a month later and say, yep, that was that was right. 01:43:17.280 --> 01:43:22.160 You don't need to have an influence to reach the outcome that 01:43:22.160 --> 01:43:23.760 scripture provides. 01:43:23.760 --> 01:43:25.520 God explains this stuff. 01:43:25.520 --> 01:43:28.640 And for the most part, we just point and say, hey, look, 01:43:28.640 --> 01:43:31.200 like we're we're almost two hours in is just reading a bunch 01:43:31.200 --> 01:43:34.240 of Bible verses to say over and over again, in the end, 01:43:34.240 --> 01:43:38.240 teachings of demons, wolves are gonna come, they're going to deceive, people 01:43:38.240 --> 01:43:40.800 will fall away, churches will be targeted. 01:43:41.520 --> 01:43:44.400 If we're not there, I don't want to live long enough to 01:43:44.400 --> 01:43:46.720 see what it actually looks like. 01:43:46.720 --> 01:43:51.200 But for whatever days we're in now, we have a duty to 01:43:51.200 --> 01:43:55.360 God, to our families, to our neighbors, and to future generations to 01:43:55.360 --> 01:43:56.640 do the best we can. 01:43:56.640 --> 01:43:59.760 And that means believing God first, obeying Him. 01:43:59.760 --> 01:44:03.840 And when it turns out, the churches are falling away, the teachers 01:44:03.840 --> 01:44:05.760 are false, we have to deal with it. 01:44:06.000 --> 01:44:09.040 We have to deal with it just like a fire on a 01:44:09.040 --> 01:44:11.040 ship, because that's really what it is. 01:44:11.040 --> 01:44:15.360 It's an emergency situation that threatens everyone on board. 01:44:15.360 --> 01:44:18.160 And maybe the fire can be put out on the ship. 01:44:18.160 --> 01:44:19.520 Maybe we have to get to the lifeboat. 01:44:20.160 --> 01:44:21.040 I don't know. 01:44:21.040 --> 01:44:25.520 Different situations are currently in place for different people, but there's a 01:44:25.520 --> 01:44:27.680 fire. That's indisputed. 01:44:27.680 --> 01:44:30.240 There is a fire on the ship. 01:44:30.240 --> 01:44:34.240 And And some people hear the alarm, some people smell the smoke, 01:44:34.240 --> 01:44:35.760 some people are fast asleep. 01:44:35.760 --> 01:44:39.360 We're trying to wake people up and say, look, this is happening. 01:44:39.360 --> 01:44:41.600 What God said is happening. 01:44:41.600 --> 01:44:43.760 Shouldn't be a surprise to a Christian. 01:44:43.760 --> 01:44:45.920 God keeps his promises. 01:44:45.920 --> 01:44:47.280 God can't lie. 01:44:47.280 --> 01:44:50.720 The notion, like there's as Corey said before, there's no way to 01:44:50.720 --> 01:44:54.320 structure in the English language a way to suggest that God could 01:44:54.320 --> 01:44:56.320 lie that wouldn't be insane. 01:44:56.320 --> 01:44:58.080 It does not compute. 01:44:58.080 --> 01:45:01.040 What God says is true, and he said this stuff. 01:45:01.040 --> 01:45:03.280 So we just have to look out for it and then deal 01:45:03.280 --> 01:45:04.800 with it when we find it. 01:45:04.800 --> 01:45:07.600 Because if we don't deal with it, if we ignore it, if 01:45:07.600 --> 01:45:12.400 we ignore these these roaring lions and these ravenous wolves, they're gonna 01:45:12.400 --> 01:45:14.320 continue their predation. 01:45:14.320 --> 01:45:16.160 And that's what they want. 01:45:16.160 --> 01:45:19.280 It's men who will stand up and point and say that's a 01:45:19.280 --> 01:45:21.440 wolf that is disruptive. 01:45:21.440 --> 01:45:24.480 The men who do that, who say these things that were invented 01:45:24.480 --> 01:45:26.960 in the last hundred years are not sins. 01:45:26.960 --> 01:45:29.920 Every man who stands up and says that is going to be 01:45:29.920 --> 01:45:32.240 attacked. He will be persecuted. 01:45:32.240 --> 01:45:34.000 That's what these passages are saying. 01:45:34.000 --> 01:45:37.280 They're gonna hate you for the sake of my name, for the 01:45:37.280 --> 01:45:38.960 sake of the name of Christ. 01:45:38.960 --> 01:45:42.400 Any man who is faithful will be hated in the last days 01:45:42.400 --> 01:45:44.240 for Christ's name. 01:45:44.240 --> 01:45:45.200 That's a promise. 01:45:45.280 --> 01:45:46.720 It's a it's a good one. 01:45:47.120 --> 01:45:48.160 it's a test. 01:45:48.160 --> 01:45:50.240 It's It's saying, you know what? 01:45:50.240 --> 01:45:51.520 It's one or the other. 01:45:51.520 --> 01:45:53.840 You can have peace for the world or you can have peace 01:45:53.840 --> 01:45:54.560 with God. 01:45:54.560 --> 01:45:57.440 And which one you choose will determine your eternity. 01:45:57.440 --> 01:46:00.240 And it can be easy now or it can be easy later, 01:46:00.240 --> 01:46:01.520 but you're only gonna get one of them 01:46:02.480 --> 01:46:02.720 As 01:46:02.720 --> 01:46:07.200 Will mentioned earlier, there are a number of witch tests out there 01:46:07.360 --> 01:46:13.200 in order to assess whether or not a teacher is true or 01:46:13.200 --> 01:46:15.680 false, or perhaps just a Christian. 01:46:15.760 --> 01:46:18.800 And as Will mentioned, they are a somewhat mixed bag. 01:46:18.800 --> 01:46:21.600 They can be used profitably. 01:46:21.600 --> 01:46:25.920 They can be circumvented, as it were, by some of the wolves 01:46:26.000 --> 01:46:28.560 who are a little more cunning. 01:46:30.400 --> 01:46:35.760 I would like to distinguish between two separate things when it comes 01:46:35.760 --> 01:46:38.320 to applying witch tests. 01:46:38.320 --> 01:46:42.800 The first is doctrine, and the second is ministries. 01:46:42.800 --> 01:46:47.280 When it comes to doctrine, the witch tests are actually perhaps more 01:46:47.280 --> 01:46:51.760 useful the ones that are floating around out there, one of which 01:46:51.760 --> 01:46:55.520 I happen to have created. 01:46:55.520 --> 01:46:58.720 Because those witch tests, the ones that are actually useful, the ones 01:46:58.720 --> 01:47:03.520 that are good, are a distillation of Scripture, Scripture itself being the 01:47:03.520 --> 01:47:07.440 only witch test when it comes to doctrine, because all doctrine must 01:47:07.440 --> 01:47:09.360 be judged against Scripture. 01:47:09.360 --> 01:47:12.480 And so if a doctrine is true or false, is a matter 01:47:12.480 --> 01:47:16.880 of whether or not it agrees with or disagrees with Scripture. 01:47:16.880 --> 01:47:17.680 Very simple. 01:47:17.680 --> 01:47:19.120 That's all it is. 01:47:19.120 --> 01:47:24.320 That is the one ultimate witch test, as it were, for doctrine. 01:47:24.320 --> 01:47:27.760 Some of the other ones that are good are just a distillation, 01:47:27.760 --> 01:47:30.960 a summary of scripture that is easier to apply in a given 01:47:30.960 --> 01:47:33.360 situation because perhaps just you can remember it. 01:47:33.360 --> 01:47:36.320 And you And you can ask the question more easily. 01:47:36.320 --> 01:47:41.680 When it comes to ministries, however, it's a different matter. 01:47:41.680 --> 01:47:46.800 Those more simple witch tests, as it were, do not work as 01:47:46.800 --> 01:47:50.000 well. However, we don't need to use those when it comes to 01:47:50.000 --> 01:47:54.320 a ministry, because God has given us, the perfect one, right here 01:47:54.320 --> 01:47:56.400 in Matthew. 01:47:56.400 --> 01:47:58.720 You check the fruit. 01:47:58.720 --> 01:48:03.840 Because a good ministry, a faithful ministry, will bear good fruit. 01:48:03.840 --> 01:48:06.880 So will a faithful Christian, of course, a faithful teacher, a faithful 01:48:06.880 --> 01:48:08.960 pastor, they will have good fruit. 01:48:08.960 --> 01:48:12.480 Their ministry, and I don't mind using the word, but their ministry 01:48:13.760 --> 01:48:15.440 will bear good fruit. 01:48:15.440 --> 01:48:19.360 That is a promise from God, that is what Scripture says. 01:48:19.360 --> 01:48:24.480 However, a false ministry, a diseased tree, an evil tree, because that 01:48:24.480 --> 01:48:27.520 word is sapros there in the Greek. 01:48:27.520 --> 01:48:31.440 It has a wide range of meaning, but it means evil, diseased, 01:48:31.440 --> 01:48:35.760 rotten, corrupt, and so it's not just diseased, it is a stronger 01:48:35.760 --> 01:48:36.560 word than that. 01:48:36.560 --> 01:48:41.200 But this evil tree will not bear good fruit. 01:48:41.200 --> 01:48:46.400 And so if you see a ministry that is bearing rotten fruit, 01:48:46.400 --> 01:48:49.360 you know it is not of God, you know it is wicked, 01:48:49.360 --> 01:48:50.480 you know it is of Satan. 01:48:50.480 --> 01:48:56.400 It doesn't matter whether it's wearing the Jesus mask, whether it's slathered 01:48:56.400 --> 01:48:59.600 itself in Jesus butter. 01:48:59.600 --> 01:49:01.120 You look to the fruit. 01:49:01.120 --> 01:49:06.080 God has given us a perfect test when it comes to teachers, 01:49:06.080 --> 01:49:12.720 priests, pastors, various others, anyone who has a ministry that is related 01:49:12.720 --> 01:49:15.200 to the Word of God, that is related to the church, that 01:49:15.200 --> 01:49:20.960 is related to Christianity, you can test them infallibly by this test 01:49:21.280 --> 01:49:23.520 given by God. 01:49:23.520 --> 01:49:27.280 And so all you have to do, again, look to the fruit. 01:49:27.280 --> 01:49:32.080 A good ministry will bear good fruit, a good ministry will produce 01:49:32.080 --> 01:49:36.560 Christians, will produce Christians who act in a Christian manner, will produce 01:49:36.560 --> 01:49:37.760 good works. 01:49:37.760 --> 01:49:42.960 It's going right back to the issue of faith versus good works, 01:49:42.960 --> 01:49:43.920 which is false. 01:49:43.920 --> 01:49:47.680 We're not supposed to set them against each other. 01:49:47.680 --> 01:49:50.720 Again, the right way to conceive of it is if you are 01:49:50.720 --> 01:49:53.840 a Christian, which is to say if you have a living faith, 01:49:53.840 --> 01:49:56.560 you will you will produce good works. 01:49:56.560 --> 01:50:00.240 The same thing is true of a Christian ministry, of a good 01:50:00.240 --> 01:50:05.040 ministry. It will produce good works, because that is what the Spirit 01:50:05.040 --> 01:50:06.880 does through Christians. 01:50:06.880 --> 01:50:10.640 And the Spirit is going to do that through a Christian teacher 01:50:10.880 --> 01:50:16.080 or a Christian an actually Christian teacher, an actually Christian pastor, and 01:50:16.080 --> 01:50:20.480 actually Christian ministry, because the Spirit will be at work and he 01:50:20.480 --> 01:50:23.760 will produce these good works. 01:50:23.760 --> 01:50:28.720 On the other hand, an evil ministry, a wicked tree, is not 01:50:28.720 --> 01:50:32.240 going to produce those good works, is not going to produce good 01:50:32.240 --> 01:50:36.960 fruit, because the Spirit is not working through that person. 01:50:36.960 --> 01:50:39.840 And so we have this test from God, and this is the 01:50:39.840 --> 01:50:41.360 one that we should use. 01:50:41.360 --> 01:50:45.200 And quite frankly, it's a fairly easy one to use. 01:50:45.200 --> 01:50:50.000 Because most, at least public ministries, certainly it's more difficult if it's 01:50:50.000 --> 01:50:51.280 a smaller ministry. 01:50:51.280 --> 01:50:54.800 So if you're assessing a pastor to specific church, but even just 01:50:54.800 --> 01:50:58.080 a pastor to church, many times you can tell. 01:50:58.080 --> 01:51:00.720 If you walk into a church, and this one is going to 01:51:00.720 --> 01:51:03.440 hurt to hear for some people, but it needs to be said, 01:51:03.440 --> 01:51:06.720 if you walk into a church and there are no children, that 01:51:06.720 --> 01:51:08.720 is a bad sign. 01:51:08.720 --> 01:51:11.760 You probably should not attend that church. 01:51:11.760 --> 01:51:14.880 Because children are a blessing from the Lord. 01:51:14.880 --> 01:51:18.960 And so Christians who are faithful to God, obey the things that 01:51:18.960 --> 01:51:23.920 He says, are necessarily going to have children in their congregation. 01:51:24.000 --> 01:51:26.960 It doesn't mean that every single Christian is going to have children, 01:51:26.960 --> 01:51:31.280 But God gives children as a blessing, and so Christian churches will 01:51:31.280 --> 01:51:33.040 have children in them, inevitably. 01:51:33.040 --> 01:51:34.640 That is the way that it works. 01:51:34.640 --> 01:51:37.440 If you are faithful to God in your marriage, you wind up 01:51:37.440 --> 01:51:38.320 with children. 01:51:38.320 --> 01:51:39.200 That's how it works. 01:51:39.200 --> 01:51:40.880 It's very simple, straightforward. 01:51:40.880 --> 01:51:44.480 Basic biology as it were, but of course with the blessing of 01:51:44.480 --> 01:51:47.840 God, because none of this works without God's blessing. 01:51:47.840 --> 01:51:51.200 None of the cells in your body divide without God blessing it. 01:51:51.200 --> 01:51:57.600 That's how intimately and intricately involved God is in his creation. 01:51:57.600 --> 01:52:00.080 But that is one of the sure tests for whether or not 01:52:00.080 --> 01:52:04.240 a church body is faithful, is whether or not you hear crying 01:52:04.240 --> 01:52:06.640 during the service. 01:52:06.640 --> 01:52:10.080 And there are other tests, of course, but for a public ministry 01:52:10.080 --> 01:52:11.280 it's very simple. 01:52:11.280 --> 01:52:15.440 You can look at those who have been influenced by that ministry, 01:52:15.440 --> 01:52:18.560 and see what has become of them, see what has happened in 01:52:18.560 --> 01:52:21.920 their lives with regard to their faith and the good works they 01:52:21.920 --> 01:52:24.080 have produced. 01:52:24.080 --> 01:52:28.880 So yes, test teachers, test the spirits, and again we are saying 01:52:28.880 --> 01:52:31.680 the exact same thing with the With regard to the two of 01:52:31.680 --> 01:52:37.600 us. When it comes to doctrine, test what we say against Scripture, 01:52:37.600 --> 01:52:39.680 because that is the ultimate test. 01:52:39.680 --> 01:52:42.640 When it comes to whether or not we are faithful in this 01:52:42.640 --> 01:52:49.120 ministry, test the fruits, what we are producing with the ministry. 01:52:49.120 --> 01:52:53.200 That is how you can tell if we are good or evil, 01:52:53.200 --> 01:52:54.880 if we are true or false. 01:52:54.880 --> 01:52:58.080 And I believe that we have amply demonstrated that we are true 01:52:58.640 --> 01:53:02.560 teachers because we are producing good fruit, and everything we say is 01:53:02.560 --> 01:53:06.480 consonant with Scripture and supported by the Word of God. 01:53:06.880 --> 01:53:09.760 The next passage that I want to read from Matthew twenty five 01:53:09.760 --> 01:53:13.840 is another case where they cry out Lord, Lord. 01:53:13.840 --> 01:53:16.640 Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took 01:53:16.640 --> 01:53:19.120 their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 01:53:19.120 --> 01:53:22.000 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise, but they For 01:53:22.000 --> 01:53:24.880 when the foolish took their lamps they took no oil with them, 01:53:24.880 --> 01:53:27.840 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 01:53:27.840 --> 01:53:31.520 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 01:53:31.520 --> 01:53:34.400 But at midnight there was a cry, here is a bridegroom, come 01:53:34.400 --> 01:53:35.280 out to meet him. 01:53:35.280 --> 01:53:38.880 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish 01:53:38.880 --> 01:53:41.280 said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our 01:53:41.280 --> 01:53:42.400 lamps are going out. 01:53:42.400 --> 01:53:45.840 But the wise answered, saying, Since there will not be enough for 01:53:45.840 --> 01:53:48.880 us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for 01:53:48.880 --> 01:53:53.120 yourselves. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and 01:53:53.120 --> 01:53:56.000 those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, 01:53:56.000 --> 01:53:57.360 and the door was shut. 01:53:57.360 --> 01:54:00.960 Afterwards the other virgins came to him, saying also, Lord, Lord, open 01:54:00.960 --> 01:54:04.240 to us, but he answered truly I say to you, I do 01:54:04.240 --> 01:54:05.360 not know you. 01:54:05.360 --> 01:54:10.880 Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour. 01:54:10.880 --> 01:54:15.120 So this is yet again a passage where we're not talking about 01:54:15.120 --> 01:54:18.560 unbelievers here, we're talking about those who cry out Lord, Lord, those 01:54:18.560 --> 01:54:20.960 who are expecting the return of the bridegroom. 01:54:20.960 --> 01:54:23.520 And he said, Truly I do not know you. 01:54:23.520 --> 01:54:26.880 That's a phrase that we find repeatedly in scripture. 01:54:26.880 --> 01:54:30.240 And again, as I said at the beginning, I want to reiterate, 01:54:30.240 --> 01:54:37.040 when we're specifically talking about apostasy this week, we're focusing on churches. 01:54:37.040 --> 01:54:41.520 None of this stuff is intended to fill individuals with dread that 01:54:41.920 --> 01:54:43.680 oh no, maybe it's me. 01:54:43.680 --> 01:54:45.840 Am I one of the foolish virgins? 01:54:45.840 --> 01:54:49.440 To anticipate the return of God to believe in God and his 01:54:49.520 --> 01:54:53.200 promises, to do the things that he says to do, means that 01:54:53.200 --> 01:54:55.040 you are not one of the foolish virgins. 01:54:55.600 --> 01:54:59.680 And so these parables they're a warning in the sense that they're 01:54:59.600 --> 01:55:04.720 an admonition, but equally they're an exhortation to do that which is 01:55:04.720 --> 01:55:08.880 good. The warning is saying, Hey, here's the bad outcome, but it's 01:55:08.880 --> 01:55:11.040 easily avoidable. 01:55:11.040 --> 01:55:14.560 And when you're talking about people crying out Lord, Lord and Jesus 01:55:14.560 --> 01:55:18.080 saying I never knew you, what will cause that? 01:55:18.400 --> 01:55:21.520 What will cause that is a false confession. 01:55:21.520 --> 01:55:23.120 It is unbelief. 01:55:23.120 --> 01:55:28.320 It's the sort of unbelief that filled Israel and that overran most 01:55:28.320 --> 01:55:29.840 of Judah. 01:55:30.240 --> 01:55:33.600 Josiah was one of the few exceptions in those days who was 01:55:33.600 --> 01:55:34.880 a faithful king. 01:55:34.880 --> 01:55:36.560 Most of them were wicked. 01:55:36.560 --> 01:55:40.560 And even the faithful king, as we said, for eighteen years tolerated 01:55:40.560 --> 01:55:42.960 Baal worship inside the temple. 01:55:42.960 --> 01:55:44.880 Thought that was hunky dory. 01:55:44.880 --> 01:55:46.560 He was one of the good ones. 01:55:46.560 --> 01:55:51.840 We will not fare any better without scripture, which is really the 01:55:51.840 --> 01:55:53.440 key lesson of that whole thing. 01:55:53.440 --> 01:55:56.080 When he found scripture he came to repentance. 01:55:56.080 --> 01:56:00.160 When we find scripture, we come to repentance. 01:56:00.160 --> 01:56:04.480 Will you hear in church, where you're in a podcast, it always 01:56:04.480 --> 01:56:06.400 has to accord with scripture. 01:56:06.400 --> 01:56:10.320 Wherever you're getting it, the Bible is the norming norm. 01:56:10.320 --> 01:56:12.800 It's where everything else has to come from. 01:56:12.800 --> 01:56:15.440 There are things that can be said that can be derived from 01:56:15.440 --> 01:56:21.440 scripture, but unless it is constant with what God says, and unless 01:56:21.440 --> 01:56:27.360 it fulfills the same promises that God makes, you cannot trust it. 01:56:27.360 --> 01:56:30.240 There are good things that men can say that are not scriptural. 01:56:30.240 --> 01:56:33.760 There's plenty of wisdom in the world, but the only infallible word 01:56:33.760 --> 01:56:35.760 is from God's lips. 01:56:35.760 --> 01:56:36.400 And so 01:56:37.520 --> 01:56:41.200 That's why it's so important when we see these passages say, Lord, 01:56:41.200 --> 01:56:44.560 Lord, let us in, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy and cast 01:56:44.560 --> 01:56:46.000 out demons in your name? 01:56:46.000 --> 01:56:48.640 They thought they were serving God. 01:56:48.640 --> 01:56:54.160 Now, Josiah could have led the same life, but as an unbeliever, 01:56:54.160 --> 01:56:57.280 and when the word of God was found, he could have just 01:56:57.280 --> 01:56:58.800 said, I don't recognize this. 01:56:58.800 --> 01:56:59.680 I don't want this here. 01:56:59.680 --> 01:57:00.640 Just get rid of it. 01:57:00.720 --> 01:57:02.320 Doesn't mean anything. 01:57:02.320 --> 01:57:05.280 He would not have been the man he was. 01:57:05.280 --> 01:57:08.560 He would not have been the king that God wanted him to 01:57:08.560 --> 01:57:13.600 be. But that was an entirely reasonable reaction, particularly because it was 01:57:13.600 --> 01:57:15.920 not consonant with tradition. 01:57:15.920 --> 01:57:17.280 They'd forgotten scripture. 01:57:17.280 --> 01:57:18.880 They forgot it existed. 01:57:18.880 --> 01:57:20.800 When they discovered it, they didn't know what it was. 01:57:20.800 --> 01:57:22.240 They didn't know what they found. 01:57:22.240 --> 01:57:23.440 They knew it was important. 01:57:23.440 --> 01:57:26.720 Physically, it was like obviously this thing is important. 01:57:26.720 --> 01:57:30.160 But it wasn't until it was read aloud that his heart was 01:57:30.160 --> 01:57:35.200 softened because it was convicted by the word of God. 01:57:35.200 --> 01:57:37.440 That is the test that we see today. 01:57:37.440 --> 01:57:40.720 When the word of God is spoken among these men who cry 01:57:40.720 --> 01:57:43.760 out, Lord, Lord, what do they say next? 01:57:43.760 --> 01:57:46.320 Some of them say Lord have mercy. 01:57:46.320 --> 01:57:47.680 I didn't know that. 01:57:47.680 --> 01:57:49.680 They respond the way Josiah did. 01:57:49.680 --> 01:57:52.480 They were in error to whatever degree, and when they hear what 01:57:52.480 --> 01:57:54.400 God says in Scripture, they repent. 01:57:55.360 --> 01:57:59.200 Others, when they hear what Scripture says, they call the FBI. 01:57:59.200 --> 01:58:02.320 They see we condemn this in the name of Christ, and they 01:58:02.320 --> 01:58:04.320 condemn Scripture itself. 01:58:04.320 --> 01:58:05.600 They damn God. 01:58:05.600 --> 01:58:10.080 They literally damn God in press releases and from pulpits because they 01:58:10.080 --> 01:58:14.480 must necessarily do so to serve their true master. 01:58:14.480 --> 01:58:17.920 Because even while they have a public confession that checks all the 01:58:17.920 --> 01:58:21.520 boxes, when push comes to shove and you bring out scripture and 01:58:21.520 --> 01:58:22.560 say, Well, what about this? 01:58:22.560 --> 01:58:23.360 God said this. 01:58:23.360 --> 01:58:24.400 They say, I hate that. 01:58:24.400 --> 01:58:25.440 That's not my God. 01:58:25.440 --> 01:58:26.720 I don't recognize any of that. 01:58:26.720 --> 01:58:28.080 I I can't even read this. 01:58:28.080 --> 01:58:29.120 What is this crap? 01:58:29.120 --> 01:58:32.880 This is wicked and we condemn it in the name of Christ. 01:58:32.880 --> 01:58:35.280 They're made are men who will condemn God in the name of 01:58:35.280 --> 01:58:38.240 the Antichrist and they will say they're confessing God. 01:58:38.240 --> 01:58:40.720 And the last day, they're being warned. 01:58:40.720 --> 01:58:43.200 Matt Harrison's gonna cry out, Lord, Lord. 01:58:43.200 --> 01:58:46.240 Some of the pastors listening right now who are filled with malice 01:58:46.240 --> 01:58:50.240 and evil will cry out, Lord, Lord, and God will say, You 01:58:50.400 --> 01:58:54.640 workers of lawlessness, I never knew you. 01:58:54.800 --> 01:58:57.680 We talk about this stuff, it's not simply that these are men 01:58:57.680 --> 01:59:01.760 who are individuals, these are men who have the authority that is 01:59:02.320 --> 01:59:06.160 perceived by the church to be speaking on behalf of God. 01:59:06.160 --> 01:59:10.960 Whether God truly gave them that authority and they betrayed it at 01:59:10.960 --> 01:59:15.920 some point, or whether they were never true to begin with, have 01:59:15.920 --> 01:59:17.040 no Have no idea. 01:59:17.040 --> 01:59:18.640 Don't care. 01:59:18.640 --> 01:59:20.560 Their fruits are wicked. 01:59:20.560 --> 01:59:22.000 And that is the concern. 01:59:22.000 --> 01:59:25.440 Because it's not about one guy or two guys or ten guys 01:59:25.520 --> 01:59:29.520 or a hundred or an entire denomination or all the denominations. 01:59:29.520 --> 01:59:32.560 It's about the souls in the pews who are affected by the 01:59:32.560 --> 01:59:36.480 teaching. Because as Corey said earlier, most people just don't know. 01:59:36.480 --> 01:59:39.600 You do the best you can with the information you're given. 01:59:39.600 --> 01:59:43.600 You hopefully try not to violate your conscience and you try not 01:59:43.600 --> 01:59:45.360 to worry about it too much. 01:59:45.360 --> 01:59:48.560 Most people are just head down in their lives hoping that the 01:59:48.560 --> 01:59:51.920 Jesus guys take care of the Jesus stuff and it's sorted out 01:59:52.000 --> 01:59:54.240 and they don't need to worry about it too much. 01:59:54.240 --> 01:59:56.800 That was basically my attitude most of my life. 01:59:56.800 --> 01:59:58.880 I trusted patriots in charge. 01:59:58.880 --> 02:00:00.960 I was told they're good men in control now. 02:00:01.120 --> 02:00:02.640 we won the election, we're doing well. 02:00:02.640 --> 02:00:03.680 Like, okay, good. 02:00:03.680 --> 02:00:05.360 One less thing for me to worry about. 02:00:05.600 --> 02:00:07.600 When I actually looked, I found that wasn't true. 02:00:07.600 --> 02:00:10.640 I found in fact that there was rampant evil, and that it 02:00:10.640 --> 02:00:14.800 was only by pointing to scripture that that evil could be illustrated. 02:00:14.800 --> 02:00:16.640 Because the confession was true. 02:00:16.640 --> 02:00:18.800 They were still saying Lord, Lord. 02:00:18.800 --> 02:00:21.760 They were still slathered in Jesus Bother. 02:00:21.760 --> 02:00:24.240 It's squishing between their toes. 02:00:24.320 --> 02:00:29.280 I know that's it sounds like it's something that's almost blasphemous. 02:00:29.760 --> 02:00:34.640 The reason that we say it is precisely because it is blasphemous. 02:00:34.640 --> 02:00:39.760 It is blasphemous for them to hide behind the name of God 02:00:39.760 --> 02:00:41.520 for their false teachings. 02:00:41.600 --> 02:00:45.840 That's a violation of the commandment that says thou shalt not take 02:00:45.840 --> 02:00:48.080 the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 02:00:48.080 --> 02:00:52.800 There's no greater violation of that commandment than to lie in the 02:00:52.800 --> 02:00:56.080 name of the Lord, which is precisely what we're dealing with at 02:00:56.080 --> 02:01:01.040 the denominational level, at the church level, at the big ticket level, 02:01:01.040 --> 02:01:04.000 individuals on the ground, we're all trying to do the best we 02:01:04.000 --> 02:01:08.560 can with limited and sometimes imperfect and sometimes frankly false information, because 02:01:08.640 --> 02:01:10.560 we believed and we didn't know any better. 02:01:10.560 --> 02:01:13.040 When the When the truth comes to light, when you see the 02:01:13.040 --> 02:01:17.280 scripture actually says this, that you lost you s lost whole passages 02:01:17.280 --> 02:01:19.200 out of scripture you didn't know were there. 02:01:19.200 --> 02:01:21.120 No one ever preached from them. 02:01:21.120 --> 02:01:24.400 Cause for many of the passages in Scripture to be preached from 02:01:24.400 --> 02:01:28.320 many of the pulpits in our churches would be for the pastors 02:01:28.320 --> 02:01:29.760 to indict themselves. 02:01:29.760 --> 02:01:34.400 They can't possibly speak the whole counsel of God from the pulpit 02:01:34.400 --> 02:01:38.240 without being struck dead on the spot by God's wrath. 02:01:38.240 --> 02:01:39.120 And they know it. 02:01:39.120 --> 02:01:40.720 So they just avoid those things. 02:01:40.720 --> 02:01:43.680 They they'll either paper over them or they'll acknowledge them and say, 02:01:43.680 --> 02:01:46.000 well this is you know, that was that was in that moment 02:01:46.080 --> 02:01:47.280 and it's kind of cringe. 02:01:47.280 --> 02:01:52.080 There's some stuff in here that's obviously we're better than that today. 02:01:52.080 --> 02:01:53.760 That's where the churches are. 02:01:53.760 --> 02:01:57.360 It's men who cry out, Lord, Lord, and then they torch scripture. 02:01:57.360 --> 02:01:59.520 And they do it in the name of God. 02:01:59.520 --> 02:02:01.680 And so that's the point. 02:02:01.680 --> 02:02:03.760 That's the point of this four-part series is 02:02:04.640 --> 02:02:08.240 when we look at the confession, we'll see one thing in some 02:02:08.240 --> 02:02:11.600 cases. We'll see maybe something that seems Christian, or at least you 02:02:11.600 --> 02:02:16.400 can sort of gussy up to the point that it's not sub-Christian. 02:02:16.400 --> 02:02:18.800 And then when you look at the fruits, when you look at 02:02:18.800 --> 02:02:22.160 the passion that the men have for what their true religion is, 02:02:22.160 --> 02:02:27.520 for their competing confession, you'll find abject evil, not a little bit 02:02:27.520 --> 02:02:32.000 evil, not slightly wrong, but you know, it's matter of dispute. 02:02:32.000 --> 02:02:34.240 Abject wickedness. 02:02:34.240 --> 02:02:40.640 The most malevolent, sort of slanderous, murderous hatred and m malice that 02:02:40.640 --> 02:02:44.160 any man's heart can summon, you'll find it in the very men 02:02:44.160 --> 02:02:46.800 who say that they're there speaking in the name of God. 02:02:46.800 --> 02:02:49.280 I don't know what else to say other than to do a 02:02:49.280 --> 02:02:52.160 Bible study like this where we point to scripture in a series 02:02:52.160 --> 02:02:55.120 like this where we say, look, here all these different things that 02:02:55.120 --> 02:02:58.800 are being imported into the church and everybody has a clean conscience, 02:02:58.800 --> 02:03:01.040 we're all just sort of sailing along, saying, Oh yeah, that sounds 02:03:01.040 --> 02:03:04.560 fine, like Yahweh, Yeshua, that's like that's that sounds legit. 02:03:04.800 --> 02:03:08.080 that seems that seems better than what we had before. 02:03:08.080 --> 02:03:11.920 And bit by bit and piece by piece, new sins are adopted, 02:03:11.920 --> 02:03:16.960 and suddenly you have you have vessels to bail inside the temple. 02:03:16.960 --> 02:03:17.760 And you know what? 02:03:17.760 --> 02:03:18.640 God's gonna leave. 02:03:18.640 --> 02:03:20.080 It won't be God's temple anymore. 02:03:20.320 --> 02:03:22.720 It's gonna be Satan's temple. 02:03:22.720 --> 02:03:27.360 Because the mixing of the sacred with the profane causes the sacred 02:03:27.360 --> 02:03:28.800 to cease to be. 02:03:28.800 --> 02:03:30.640 God is still sacred, but he's elsewhere. 02:03:30.640 --> 02:03:33.360 He's not gonna be in that place He will not be mixed 02:03:33.360 --> 02:03:35.520 with wickedness. 02:03:35.520 --> 02:03:38.080 So on the ground, as we're trying to sort this stuff out, 02:03:38.080 --> 02:03:41.120 we just have to be faithful as best we can. 02:03:41.120 --> 02:03:45.120 That's why looking at scripture, reading scripture, pointing to scripture, and when 02:03:45.120 --> 02:03:49.360 someone comes along with a scriptural argument, don't resort to the Bill 02:03:49.440 --> 02:03:50.320 of Rights. 02:03:50.320 --> 02:03:51.760 Please don't do that. 02:03:51.760 --> 02:03:55.040 Don't quote Thomas Jefferson at a man who comes to you with 02:03:55.040 --> 02:03:58.240 scripture. That's a confession of their true God. 02:03:58.240 --> 02:03:59.360 We've seen that too. 02:04:00.640 --> 02:04:01.360 that's it. 02:04:01.360 --> 02:04:04.960 That that's the moment where you know I'm not dealing with a 02:04:04.960 --> 02:04:08.960 Christian. Even while they're wearing a cross, even while they have reverend 02:04:09.040 --> 02:04:12.080 in front of their name, even while they say Lord, Lord and 02:04:12.080 --> 02:04:16.880 say I love Jesus, their confession when they're confronted with scripture is 02:04:17.040 --> 02:04:19.680 what do you have to do with me, holy one of God? 02:04:19.680 --> 02:04:24.800 They respond as the demon responded, acknowledging that it's God and hating 02:04:24.800 --> 02:04:27.440 it. 02:04:27.440 --> 02:04:27.600 So 02:04:27.680 --> 02:04:31.280 in the interest of not having this episode run too long, we 02:04:31.280 --> 02:04:34.480 will go over two more passages. 02:04:34.480 --> 02:04:37.920 We'll do second Peter, and then we will close out with the 02:04:38.720 --> 02:04:40.560 parable of the sower. 02:04:40.560 --> 02:04:44.400 So first from Second Peter. 02:04:44.400 --> 02:04:48.080 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will 02:04:48.080 --> 02:04:52.560 be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, 02:04:52.560 --> 02:04:58.560 even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction, 02:04:58.560 --> 02:05:02.480 and many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way 02:05:02.480 --> 02:05:06.400 of truth will be blasphemed, and in their greed they will exploit 02:05:06.400 --> 02:05:07.920 you with false words. 02:05:07.920 --> 02:05:12.240 Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is 02:05:12.240 --> 02:05:13.360 not asleep. 02:05:13.360 --> 02:05:17.360 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast 02:05:17.360 --> 02:05:21.280 them into hell, and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness, to 02:05:21.280 --> 02:05:24.880 be kept until the judgment, if he did not spare the ancient 02:05:24.880 --> 02:05:29.680 world, but preserve Noah, a herald of righteousness with seven others, when 02:05:29.680 --> 02:05:33.200 he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by 02:05:33.200 --> 02:05:36.960 turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them 02:05:36.960 --> 02:05:40.560 to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen 02:05:40.560 --> 02:05:45.440 to the ungodly And if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by 02:05:45.440 --> 02:05:49.440 the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived 02:05:49.440 --> 02:05:53.520 among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over 02:05:53.520 --> 02:05:57.920 their lawless deeds, that he saw and heard, then the Lord knows 02:05:57.920 --> 02:06:01.760 how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous 02:06:01.760 --> 02:06:06.400 under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge 02:06:06.400 --> 02:06:09.680 in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. 02:06:10.560 --> 02:06:14.880 Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious 02:06:14.880 --> 02:06:19.520 ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce 02:06:19.520 --> 02:06:23.040 a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 02:06:23.200 --> 02:06:28.800 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught 02:06:28.800 --> 02:06:33.920 and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also 02:06:33.920 --> 02:06:38.160 be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their 02:06:38.160 --> 02:06:42.400 wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, they are 02:06:42.400 --> 02:06:47.200 blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 02:06:47.200 --> 02:06:52.640 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin, they entice unsteady 02:06:52.640 --> 02:06:58.320 souls, they have hearts trained in greed, accursed children, forsaking the right 02:06:58.320 --> 02:07:02.240 way, they have gone astray, they have followed the way of Balaam, 02:07:02.240 --> 02:07:06.480 the son of Baor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked 02:07:06.560 --> 02:07:08.240 for his own transgression. 02:07:08.240 --> 02:07:13.920 A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. 02:07:13.920 --> 02:07:18.400 These are waterless springs, and mist driven by a storm. 02:07:18.400 --> 02:07:21.840 For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 02:07:21.840 --> 02:07:26.320 For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of 02:07:26.320 --> 02:07:29.920 the flesh, those who are barely escaping from those who live in 02:07:29.920 --> 02:07:35.360 error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. 02:07:35.360 --> 02:07:40.320 For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved, for if, 02:07:40.320 --> 02:07:43.760 after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge 02:07:43.760 --> 02:07:47.920 of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in 02:07:47.920 --> 02:07:51.840 them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than 02:07:51.840 --> 02:07:52.880 the first. 02:07:52.880 --> 02:07:55.600 For it would have been better for them never to have known 02:07:55.600 --> 02:07:59.280 the way of righteousness, than after knowing it to turn back from 02:07:59.280 --> 02:08:01.680 the holy commandment delivered to them. 02:08:01.680 --> 02:08:04.800 What the true proverb says has happened to them. 02:08:04.800 --> 02:08:08.880 The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing 02:08:08.960 --> 02:08:12.000 herself, returns to wallow in the mire. 02:08:12.880 --> 02:08:17.280 This passage certainly speaks to what we've been talking about. 02:08:17.280 --> 02:08:18.800 This is Second Peter again. 02:08:18.800 --> 02:08:22.240 This is not a book that we've previously referenced. 02:08:22.240 --> 02:08:24.640 And that's part of the point that we want to make. 02:08:24.640 --> 02:08:29.680 That when you acknowledge that apostasy inside the church of the church 02:08:29.680 --> 02:08:33.120 itself is possible, you will begin to find it everywhere. 02:08:33.120 --> 02:08:37.280 Like this was the entire second chapter of second Peter. 02:08:37.280 --> 02:08:41.120 And we've gone very long, this is a longer episode than usual. 02:08:41.120 --> 02:08:42.560 It just keeps going. 02:08:42.560 --> 02:08:45.280 We could have had a dozen more passages that still wouldn't have 02:08:45.280 --> 02:08:49.760 covered everything because that is the nature of God's warning to the 02:08:49.760 --> 02:08:52.400 church about the church. 02:08:52.400 --> 02:08:55.280 Again, I'm gonna repeat this ad nauseum. 02:08:55.520 --> 02:08:57.040 When we talk about 02:08:58.000 --> 02:09:01.760 apostasy in the church, we're not talking about pagans. 02:09:01.760 --> 02:09:04.160 All of these passages are about Christians. 02:09:04.160 --> 02:09:08.320 Every one of these passages is about someone who either is or 02:09:08.320 --> 02:09:13.200 was Christian or is at least Christian presenting when they insinuated themselves 02:09:13.200 --> 02:09:14.560 into the church. 02:09:14.560 --> 02:09:18.400 And at some point it doesn't matter which of those was the 02:09:18.400 --> 02:09:21.680 case, because the fruits themselves are destructive. 02:09:21.680 --> 02:09:25.600 And when God warns us to judge the fruits, that's why. 02:09:25.600 --> 02:09:28.720 You don't need to know a man's heart to know if he's 02:09:28.720 --> 02:09:32.640 producing evil in his life and in the life of his family 02:09:32.800 --> 02:09:35.440 and his community and his church, wherever he is. 02:09:35.440 --> 02:09:38.960 If you can look at fruits and find evil, you know. 02:09:38.960 --> 02:09:41.920 Now there's some men, even evil men, even men that we have 02:09:41.920 --> 02:09:46.320 gone after in the past, they produced some good fruits. 02:09:46.320 --> 02:09:50.320 When you understand where good fruit comes from, that makes sense. 02:09:50.640 --> 02:09:55.440 That's not an incongruity because the word of God does not return 02:09:55.440 --> 02:09:56.640 to him's void. 02:09:56.640 --> 02:09:59.360 And so all these men who are in the church who are 02:09:59.360 --> 02:10:03.840 speaking the word of God, God's word is efficacious all by itself, 02:10:03.840 --> 02:10:07.760 even when the men are idiots, even when they're blasphemers, even when 02:10:07.760 --> 02:10:11.120 some of them have a demon inside them, when those men speak 02:10:11.120 --> 02:10:14.960 the word of God, insofar as they leave it alone or don't 02:10:14.960 --> 02:10:18.240 do harm to the text, God is going to work through it. 02:10:18.240 --> 02:10:22.160 So yes, it's entirely the case that you will see sometimes men 02:10:22.400 --> 02:10:26.240 who are doing evil who also produce good fruits because God for 02:10:26.400 --> 02:10:28.160 produces the good fruits. 02:10:28.160 --> 02:10:30.880 I think that's the key distinction there. 02:10:30.880 --> 02:10:33.360 Good fruit only comes from God. 02:10:33.360 --> 02:10:34.720 We don't get credit. 02:10:34.720 --> 02:10:35.760 We don't take credit. 02:10:35.760 --> 02:10:39.680 Certainly God gives us credit when we are Christians and we obey 02:10:39.680 --> 02:10:43.200 Him and we say what God says, and then it produces good 02:10:43.200 --> 02:10:45.360 fruit according to his will. 02:10:45.360 --> 02:10:48.160 We do get credit for that, but that's not why we do 02:10:48.160 --> 02:10:53.280 it. When evil produces evil fruit, it's necessarily because it didn't come 02:10:53.280 --> 02:10:54.000 from God. 02:10:54.000 --> 02:10:57.600 Evil fruits are never produced by good doctrine. 02:10:57.600 --> 02:11:02.800 And even a doctrine that is sound in a narrow application, when 02:11:02.800 --> 02:11:06.160 it's misapplied somewhere else, can become evil. 02:11:06.400 --> 02:11:10.320 I think that's another thing that's really difficult for Christians to understand 02:11:10.720 --> 02:11:13.760 because a guy will take some doctrine that he really has a 02:11:13.760 --> 02:11:14.800 good handle on. 02:11:14.800 --> 02:11:19.280 You know, Protestants are extremely guilty of this post-Reformation. 02:11:19.280 --> 02:11:24.640 We fixed justification because we started confessing what Scripture said. 02:11:24.640 --> 02:11:28.720 The pre Reformation sects still get justification wrong. 02:11:28.720 --> 02:11:32.800 So when it was fixed, it wasn't Luther was some repair man, 02:11:33.200 --> 02:11:36.000 or any of the other reformers, whoever you want to place at 02:11:36.000 --> 02:11:37.600 the head of that party. 02:11:37.600 --> 02:11:40.560 It was simply the fact that they started pointing to what scripture 02:11:40.560 --> 02:11:42.160 said. That's what fixed it. 02:11:42.160 --> 02:11:44.560 It wasn't men coming up with new doctrines. 02:11:44.560 --> 02:11:49.440 It was men faithfully confessing that which God had previously revealed. 02:11:49.440 --> 02:11:52.400 The damage goes the opposite direction. 02:11:52.400 --> 02:11:55.920 Whatever damage we do, it's because we're not saying what God says. 02:11:55.920 --> 02:11:58.080 We're breaking whatever He did. 02:11:58.080 --> 02:12:02.560 Which is why evil fruits will always prove that there's evil behind 02:12:02.560 --> 02:12:06.080 it. God will not produce evil fruit ever. 02:12:06.080 --> 02:12:07.520 He cannot. 02:12:07.520 --> 02:12:11.760 His tree is perfect, his fruit will always be good. 02:12:11.760 --> 02:12:16.720 What happens in between the tree and the fruit is a function 02:12:16.720 --> 02:12:19.360 of the last parable we're going to talk about the sower of 02:12:19.360 --> 02:12:20.480 the seed. 02:12:20.480 --> 02:12:26.000 Because there are times where God sends out his word and it 02:12:26.000 --> 02:12:29.120 comes among men, and for a while it bears fruit and then 02:12:29.120 --> 02:12:30.640 it stops and it withers. 02:12:30.640 --> 02:12:32.480 And that's not God's failing. 02:12:32.480 --> 02:12:36.000 It's the fact that some soil is rocky, the the parable goes 02:12:36.000 --> 02:12:38.240 over the the permutations there. 02:12:38.240 --> 02:12:40.960 When we're looking inside the church, when we're looking at our own 02:12:40.960 --> 02:12:44.160 churches and our own denominations, at our own beliefs, our own personal 02:12:44.160 --> 02:12:47.440 beliefs. Again, none of this should be an assault on you personally. 02:12:47.600 --> 02:12:50.000 Think, oh no, am I apostate? 02:12:50.000 --> 02:12:52.400 No one who's apostate is gonna think that. 02:12:52.400 --> 02:12:55.440 It's similar to the sin against the Holy Spirit. 02:12:55.440 --> 02:12:58.880 No one who's committed the unforgivable sin cares. 02:12:58.880 --> 02:13:01.120 The last thing that would ever enter their mind. 02:13:01.120 --> 02:13:05.760 It cannot enter their mind because they've already closed that door. 02:13:05.760 --> 02:13:09.200 So nothing we've said should make anyone fearful, oh no, I might 02:13:09.200 --> 02:13:10.640 be apostate. 02:13:10.640 --> 02:13:13.680 It should make you cautious that I should be careful about not 02:13:13.680 --> 02:13:18.560 messing around with false doctrine in false teachers and false churches because 02:13:18.560 --> 02:13:20.320 they can lead me astray. 02:13:20.320 --> 02:13:22.800 And you can adopt more and more false beliefs. 02:13:22.800 --> 02:13:26.240 And then you end up in a place where you can't apostatize 02:13:26.240 --> 02:13:30.000 unknowingly. But again, that shouldn't be a source of fear, it should 02:13:30.000 --> 02:13:31.920 be a source of vigilance. 02:13:31.920 --> 02:13:35.680 It's possible for Christians to be vigilant without being fearful. 02:13:35.680 --> 02:13:40.640 Being awake, being watchful, being sober minded, these are all described as 02:13:40.640 --> 02:13:44.480 fruits of the Spirit precisely because this is what they do. 02:13:44.480 --> 02:13:48.800 When you are all of those things and these confrontations come up, 02:13:48.800 --> 02:13:51.360 if you're grounded in scripture, you're going to be able to keep 02:13:51.360 --> 02:13:52.880 your head on straight. 02:13:52.880 --> 02:13:56.400 You're not going to be just completely blown away by the confusion 02:13:56.400 --> 02:13:57.840 of the matter. 02:13:57.840 --> 02:14:00.160 The church will have these problems. 02:14:00.160 --> 02:14:02.240 God promised it'll have these problems. 02:14:02.240 --> 02:14:06.720 It's not terrifying or scary to realize that we have these problems. 02:14:06.720 --> 02:14:09.520 It should in a way be comforting to at least know that 02:14:09.520 --> 02:14:10.800 God warned us. 02:14:10.800 --> 02:14:13.920 No matter what bad thing can happen in our life, in your 02:14:13.920 --> 02:14:20.240 personal life, in the church, wherever, God foreknew the circumstance, he foreknew 02:14:20.240 --> 02:14:21.840 your particular situation. 02:14:21.840 --> 02:14:22.960 God knows everything. 02:14:22.960 --> 02:14:25.760 And he warns us, I'm gonna take care of you. 02:14:25.760 --> 02:14:28.240 He warns us, obey me. 02:14:28.240 --> 02:14:29.520 They're all warnings. 02:14:29.520 --> 02:14:32.560 They're saying, look, this is coming, don't fall away. 02:14:32.560 --> 02:14:36.480 Believe me, stay strong in the faith, hold fast to the word 02:14:36.640 --> 02:14:38.080 of God. 02:14:38.080 --> 02:14:40.800 None of that should be a source of dejection. 02:14:40.800 --> 02:14:44.720 It should be a source of joy and of mutual encouragement, which 02:14:44.720 --> 02:14:46.720 is what we hope these episodes can be. 02:14:46.720 --> 02:14:49.200 This should be mutually encouraging to all of us in all the 02:14:49.200 --> 02:14:53.120 various denominations to know that we're facing the same challenges, to know 02:14:53.120 --> 02:14:54.880 that we have the same problems. 02:14:54.880 --> 02:14:58.320 Even where we have doctrinal disagreements, one of the places where we 02:14:58.320 --> 02:15:01.440 have unity is that Satan's coming after us all. 02:15:01.440 --> 02:15:04.960 That's good news because it means that there's something there from God 02:15:05.120 --> 02:15:07.040 that Satan needs to destroy. 02:15:07.040 --> 02:15:10.720 Satan would be leaving us alone if he already had everything. 02:15:10.720 --> 02:15:11.840 So the disconnect between 02:15:12.960 --> 02:15:16.640 what scripture says and what Satan is trying to do to it, 02:15:16.640 --> 02:15:18.480 that's where the fight is. 02:15:18.480 --> 02:15:20.720 And it may not be the fights that we had in previous 02:15:20.720 --> 02:15:22.880 centuries. It may be new fights. 02:15:22.880 --> 02:15:25.360 It is, in fact, today, it's often new fights. 02:15:25.760 --> 02:15:30.240 Satan's trotting out the old tricks, but with new colors. 02:15:30.240 --> 02:15:33.680 And people who are distracted by the shiny colors don't realize that 02:15:33.680 --> 02:15:35.040 it's the same old play. 02:15:35.040 --> 02:15:38.400 So we're trying to give this playbook in these simple heuristics to 02:15:38.400 --> 02:15:40.240 say, well, yep, that's Judaizing. 02:15:40.240 --> 02:15:42.400 That seems like a form of Gnosticism. 02:15:42.400 --> 02:15:44.640 They're denying the body, they're doing these things. 02:15:44.640 --> 02:15:46.240 I know that that's bad. 02:15:46.240 --> 02:15:48.400 I should be on my guard. 02:15:48.400 --> 02:15:52.000 That's all it necessarily takes for us to begin to be aware 02:15:52.400 --> 02:15:56.320 in our churches that there's a problem to fix. 02:15:56.320 --> 02:16:00.720 And, you know, this series has mostly been about the bad things, 02:16:00.720 --> 02:16:02.320 the things we're getting wrong. 02:16:02.800 --> 02:16:05.200 Fixing them, you know, we haven't really talked much about it, but 02:16:05.200 --> 02:16:06.960 it's basically just believe God. 02:16:07.280 --> 02:16:10.880 if God says one thing and your church is confessing the opposite, 02:16:10.880 --> 02:16:14.960 fix the church, fix the confession, or go someplace where they get 02:16:14.960 --> 02:16:16.240 those things right. 02:16:16.240 --> 02:16:18.800 And we're all in the position now where we have to do 02:16:18.800 --> 02:16:19.920 one of those things. 02:16:19.920 --> 02:16:22.640 'Cause every church has some of these problems. 02:16:22.640 --> 02:16:24.640 And God promised they would come. 02:16:24.800 --> 02:16:28.080 Whether these little end days or not, I don't care. 02:16:28.080 --> 02:16:31.360 I don't lose a wink of sleep thinking about that. 02:16:31.360 --> 02:16:35.120 But it is important to acknowledge that in all these places where 02:16:35.120 --> 02:16:38.400 scripture says hey this stuff is going to happen, it talks about 02:16:38.400 --> 02:16:39.520 end days. 02:16:39.520 --> 02:16:42.800 Whether that's a week, a month, a year, a century, a thousand 02:16:42.800 --> 02:16:44.640 years, don't know, don't care. 02:16:44.640 --> 02:16:46.320 It's above our pay grade. 02:16:46.320 --> 02:16:50.080 What is not above our pay grade is actually believing and obeying 02:16:50.080 --> 02:16:53.600 God. We can do that right now and trust that He will 02:16:53.600 --> 02:16:55.840 take care of the rest. 02:16:55.920 --> 02:17:00.720 If you go back and read this chapter from 2nd Peter after 02:17:00.720 --> 02:17:04.960 this episode, or whenever you do that in the future, and again 02:17:05.040 --> 02:17:07.840 we would recommend that you do that, I want you to bear 02:17:08.400 --> 02:17:12.000 one thing in particular in mind. 02:17:12.000 --> 02:17:17.520 When Scripture speaks of adultery, it doesn't just mean a violation of 02:17:17.520 --> 02:17:19.040 the sixth commandment. 02:17:19.040 --> 02:17:21.520 Although in this case, yes, this is a violation of the sixth 02:17:21.520 --> 02:17:25.360 commandment, but it is not just that, it is also a violation 02:17:25.360 --> 02:17:30.800 of the first commandment, because adultery is used figuratively as worship of 02:17:30.800 --> 02:17:32.480 false gods. 02:17:32.480 --> 02:17:35.200 And so bear that in mind when you're reading this, and of 02:17:35.200 --> 02:17:37.680 course, we can see that that is one of the senses meant 02:17:37.680 --> 02:17:41.280 here, since it is followed up immediately with Balaam, and you can 02:17:41.280 --> 02:17:44.000 read about that elsewhere in scripture. 02:17:44.000 --> 02:17:47.600 But just as a quick aside before we move We move on 02:17:47.600 --> 02:17:51.360 to the parable of the sower to close out this episode. 02:17:51.360 --> 02:17:54.160 I want to mention here that I am going to include in 02:17:54.160 --> 02:17:57.760 the show notes a link to a poem by Rudyard Kipling. 02:17:57.760 --> 02:18:00.720 I am reminded of it because it references the last line in 02:18:00.720 --> 02:18:03.600 that reading from 2 Peter, and it's a very good poem, I 02:18:03.600 --> 02:18:06.240 think every man should certainly have read it at least once in 02:18:06.240 --> 02:18:10.960 his life, so that will be in the show notes. 02:18:10.960 --> 02:18:14.400 But to move on to our final reading for this episode, the 02:18:14.720 --> 02:18:21.280 parable of the sower from Luke, Luke Chapter 8. 02:18:21.280 --> 02:18:24.640 And when a great crowd was gathering, and people from town after 02:18:24.640 --> 02:18:28.720 town came to him he said in a parable: A sower went 02:18:28.720 --> 02:18:32.480 out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along 02:18:32.480 --> 02:18:35.840 the path, and was trampled under foot, and the birds of the 02:18:35.840 --> 02:18:37.440 air devoured it. 02:18:37.440 --> 02:18:40.480 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it 02:18:40.480 --> 02:18:43.520 withered away, because it had no moisture. 02:18:43.520 --> 02:18:47.280 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it, 02:18:47.280 --> 02:18:50.800 and choked it, and some fell into good soil, and grew and 02:18:50.800 --> 02:18:53.200 yielded a hundredfold. 02:18:53.200 --> 02:18:56.960 As he said these things he called out, He who has ears 02:18:56.960 --> 02:18:59.760 to hear, let him hear. 02:18:59.760 --> 02:19:03.600 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant he said, 02:19:03.600 --> 02:19:05.760 To you it has been given to know the secrets of the 02:19:05.760 --> 02:19:10.320 kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that 02:19:10.320 --> 02:19:14.320 seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. 02:19:14.320 --> 02:19:18.240 Now the parable is this the seed is the word of God. 02:19:18.480 --> 02:19:22.240 The ones along the path are those who have heard, then the 02:19:22.240 --> 02:19:25.680 devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that 02:19:25.680 --> 02:19:28.000 they may not believe and be saved. 02:19:28.000 --> 02:19:30.480 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear 02:19:30.480 --> 02:19:34.800 the word, receive it with joy, but these have no root, they 02:19:34.800 --> 02:19:39.040 believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 02:19:39.040 --> 02:19:42.480 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who 02:19:42.480 --> 02:19:45.920 hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by 02:19:45.920 --> 02:19:50.160 the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does 02:19:50.160 --> 02:19:51.440 not mature. 02:19:51.440 --> 02:19:55.040 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing 02:19:55.040 --> 02:19:58.800 the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and 02:19:58.800 --> 02:20:00.880 bear fruit with patience 02:20:02.960 --> 02:20:05.920 one of the things that stands out in this passage is something 02:20:05.920 --> 02:20:08.560 that harkens back to an earlier one where 02:20:09.520 --> 02:20:10.640 Jesus says that 02:20:12.000 --> 02:20:15.520 the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the 02:20:15.520 --> 02:20:18.640 word receive it with joy, but these have no root. 02:20:18.640 --> 02:20:22.640 They believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 02:20:22.640 --> 02:20:25.760 One of the earlier passages from Matthew talked about a time of 02:20:25.760 --> 02:20:28.640 tribulation. It's the same thing. 02:20:28.640 --> 02:20:32.000 This is certainly a time of tribulation, not in the capital T 02:20:32.240 --> 02:20:38.560 dispensationalist sense, but when men are losing their jobs for refusing to 02:20:38.560 --> 02:20:44.320 use a trannies pronouns because it's not Christian, because it's a lie, 02:20:44.320 --> 02:20:46.320 that is a time of tribulation. 02:20:46.320 --> 02:20:48.320 Anyone who is confronted with anything like that 02:20:49.440 --> 02:20:53.600 is undergoing hatred for the sake of Christ's name. 02:20:53.600 --> 02:20:58.320 Because to be faithful to God, to say what is true, to 02:20:58.320 --> 02:21:02.240 believe and confess what is true, even in the face of the 02:21:02.240 --> 02:21:04.400 world despising it. 02:21:04.400 --> 02:21:08.560 That is the ultimate time of testing of tribulation. 02:21:08.560 --> 02:21:11.600 And God warns that there will be some who they hear the 02:21:11.600 --> 02:21:14.080 word and they believe it for a while, and then when the 02:21:14.080 --> 02:21:16.560 when the going gets tough they fall away. 02:21:16.560 --> 02:21:17.360 They leave. 02:21:17.360 --> 02:21:18.960 They're not that tough. 02:21:18.960 --> 02:21:22.400 They come and they like it when it's easy. 02:21:22.400 --> 02:21:26.160 And the second it gets hard, they apostatize, they fall away. 02:21:26.160 --> 02:21:28.000 Like nope, I'm not gonna put my butt in a sling for 02:21:28.400 --> 02:21:29.120 this stuff. 02:21:29.120 --> 02:21:32.400 I don't have a God that's gonna make my life difficult. 02:21:32.400 --> 02:21:35.440 I I don't want any sort of God that's gonna make my 02:21:35.440 --> 02:21:36.960 neighbors not like me. 02:21:36.960 --> 02:21:38.240 I wanna get along with them. 02:21:38.240 --> 02:21:40.800 It's more important for me for my me for my community to 02:21:40.800 --> 02:21:45.440 find me respectable for holding the right worldly opinions than it is 02:21:45.440 --> 02:21:47.920 for me to say what God said. 02:21:48.000 --> 02:21:52.320 Again, when we talk about falling away, when we talk about apostasy, 02:21:52.320 --> 02:21:55.680 it should not be a source of terror for an individual, but 02:21:55.680 --> 02:21:57.200 it should be a source of warning. 02:21:57.200 --> 02:21:58.240 It can happen. 02:21:58.240 --> 02:21:59.440 Obviously it can happen. 02:21:59.440 --> 02:22:00.800 That's not a bolt from the blue. 02:22:00.800 --> 02:22:02.800 That's not a shock to anyone. 02:22:02.800 --> 02:22:05.200 Do you believe something when it's easy? 02:22:05.200 --> 02:22:09.120 And then when it gets hard, you're like, yeah, never mind. 02:22:09.280 --> 02:22:11.200 You never really believed it in the first place. 02:22:11.200 --> 02:22:13.120 That's not actual belief. 02:22:13.120 --> 02:22:14.320 That's LARPing. 02:22:14.320 --> 02:22:16.080 That's putting on a costume. 02:22:16.080 --> 02:22:19.760 And as soon as taking off the costume becomes advantageous, that's what 02:22:19.760 --> 02:22:20.080 we do. 02:22:20.880 --> 02:22:22.000 We see that all the time. 02:22:22.000 --> 02:22:24.480 People like, oh, nope, I you changed my mind. 02:22:24.480 --> 02:22:29.040 You know, guys wanna in times when when there wasn't continuous l 02:22:29.360 --> 02:22:32.400 war, guys would join the military for the GI Bill or whatever, 02:22:32.400 --> 02:22:34.240 but they'd never actually thought they'd fight. 02:22:34.720 --> 02:22:38.000 And then when suddenly a war starts and then they're told we 02:22:38.080 --> 02:22:40.720 need to go fight now, you're gonna get blown up and die 02:22:40.880 --> 02:22:42.480 and it's gonna be terrible. 02:22:42.480 --> 02:22:44.480 Like, but I just I wanted to go to college, I didn't 02:22:44.480 --> 02:22:44.720 want that. 02:22:44.720 --> 02:22:46.800 Well, too late. 02:22:46.800 --> 02:22:49.840 You signed up for a thing that has real consequences. 02:22:49.840 --> 02:22:53.040 Christianity has real consequences. 02:22:53.040 --> 02:22:56.640 And the opting in is completely different than the military. 02:22:56.640 --> 02:23:01.120 God calls on all of us to join in his word. 02:23:01.120 --> 02:23:05.120 And when we do, we should understand that it's joining a spiritual 02:23:05.120 --> 02:23:08.400 war. I think that's something that's missing for a l from a 02:23:08.400 --> 02:23:12.560 lot of preaching today is the notion, the recognition that this is 02:23:12.560 --> 02:23:14.400 actually spiritual war. 02:23:14.400 --> 02:23:18.640 It's something online I've specifically pointed out for years. 02:23:18.640 --> 02:23:21.920 I've said before that this is why I personally transitioned from talking 02:23:21.920 --> 02:23:25.120 so much about politics to talking about this stuff. 02:23:25.440 --> 02:23:30.240 Because one, I realized that the political solutions were not realistic. 02:23:30.240 --> 02:23:32.560 I I don't even know how to describe that anymore. 02:23:32.560 --> 02:23:35.280 Like it's just there's no path forward politically. 02:23:35.280 --> 02:23:37.680 And yet there are still political problems. 02:23:37.680 --> 02:23:41.120 The fixes will never need to be spiritual. 02:23:41.120 --> 02:23:42.320 And they're gonna be political too. 02:23:42.320 --> 02:23:44.160 I'm not saying like, oh, we can pray this way. 02:23:44.160 --> 02:23:48.640 No. But if we don't understand the spiritual element of the political 02:23:48.640 --> 02:23:52.160 problems, we're gonna get everything downstream wrong. 02:23:54.080 --> 02:23:58.240 God is a God of everything, and truth is always true, and 02:23:58.240 --> 02:24:00.400 lies are always lies. 02:24:00.400 --> 02:24:04.320 You know, we talked about first Timothy four with the teachings of 02:24:04.320 --> 02:24:09.280 demons being abstaining from meats and from marriage, forbidding marriage. 02:24:09.280 --> 02:24:13.840 That's small ticket stuff that God says come stray from hell. 02:24:13.840 --> 02:24:18.160 There's a much more serious list of sins that exist in the 02:24:18.160 --> 02:24:22.880 modern church than those that are teachings of demons. 02:24:22.880 --> 02:24:27.680 They're teachings from outside of the faith that God gave us. 02:24:27.680 --> 02:24:31.520 A source of morality that's not from scripture is not Christian. 02:24:31.520 --> 02:24:36.960 A source of tradition of beliefs that is Judaizing is anti Christian. 02:24:36.960 --> 02:24:40.480 A source of beliefs and of ideas that is Gnostic in its 02:24:40.480 --> 02:24:42.720 essence is an assault on the creator. 02:24:43.280 --> 02:24:47.200 A belief that we are immunized from being able to fall away 02:24:47.360 --> 02:24:49.120 is denying all scripture. 02:24:49.120 --> 02:24:52.240 There are so many places where scripture is very clear that you 02:24:52.240 --> 02:24:54.880 can fall away, and here's what's going to happen. 02:24:54.880 --> 02:24:57.840 And so when we see it happening in the church and then 02:24:57.840 --> 02:25:00.800 we see the consequences, we have to believe it. 02:25:00.800 --> 02:25:01.920 Like there it is. 02:25:01.920 --> 02:25:04.400 God said it over and over again, and I see with my 02:25:04.400 --> 02:25:07.680 own eyes, admit that it's actually happening. 02:25:07.680 --> 02:25:10.640 Because it's only with the admission that it's real that there's any 02:25:10.640 --> 02:25:13.280 possible hope of fixing it. 02:25:13.280 --> 02:25:16.400 You know, the fixing, we we're gonna do the best we can, 02:25:16.400 --> 02:25:18.480 and God will take care of the rest. 02:25:18.480 --> 02:25:22.560 I don't say we never say these things to say it's our 02:25:22.560 --> 02:25:24.080 problem to solve. 02:25:24.080 --> 02:25:26.000 It's our problem to confront. 02:25:26.000 --> 02:25:27.440 That's absolutely true. 02:25:27.440 --> 02:25:28.880 I hope we can solve it. 02:25:28.880 --> 02:25:30.560 I intend to solve it. 02:25:30.560 --> 02:25:33.120 I exhort others to help solve it. 02:25:33.760 --> 02:25:37.040 But God will give the growth, just as he gives the growth 02:25:37.040 --> 02:25:39.920 in this parable, just as he gives the growth to those who 02:25:39.920 --> 02:25:45.200 hear Stone Choir and become Christian or become stronger Christians, who actually 02:25:45.200 --> 02:25:46.800 start taking their faith seriously. 02:25:47.280 --> 02:25:48.640 God did that. 02:25:48.640 --> 02:25:50.640 God gives the growth. 02:25:50.640 --> 02:25:54.720 Fruits that are good are God's fruits, not ours. 02:25:54.720 --> 02:25:55.920 Evil fruits. 02:25:55.920 --> 02:25:59.440 Fruits where you see nothing but grey hairs in every congregation. 02:25:59.600 --> 02:26:02.960 That's a fruit of a lampstand being removed. 02:26:02.960 --> 02:26:05.840 That's a falling away generationally. 02:26:05.840 --> 02:26:08.800 Whatever happened, maybe it happened long ago. 02:26:08.800 --> 02:26:10.560 And it may well be that there are a lot of good 02:26:10.560 --> 02:26:12.160 pastures in those positions. 02:26:12.160 --> 02:26:16.240 They're trying to undo generations of wicked teaching. 02:26:16.240 --> 02:26:20.400 As Corey said earlier, sometimes the teaching is just not condemning birth 02:26:20.400 --> 02:26:24.720 control, which is itself evil all by itself. 02:26:24.720 --> 02:26:28.560 Sometimes the errors are small, but they're teachings of demons nonetheless, because 02:26:28.560 --> 02:26:29.280 what do they do? 02:26:29.280 --> 02:26:30.560 They produce evil fruit. 02:26:30.560 --> 02:26:34.960 They produce churches where there are no babies crying, where there's only 02:26:34.960 --> 02:26:36.880 hearing aids and walkers. 02:26:36.880 --> 02:26:39.760 And God bless the old for continuing in the faith. 02:26:39.760 --> 02:26:42.320 There's no mockery whatsoever there. 02:26:42.320 --> 02:26:46.720 The older generations are more closely connected to the church than the 02:26:46.720 --> 02:26:51.040 younger, but that reflects on the older as much as it does 02:26:51.040 --> 02:26:55.200 on the younger when the elderly and are still in church, but 02:26:55.200 --> 02:26:59.200 their children and their grandchildren and their great grandchildren have all apostatized, 02:26:59.200 --> 02:27:01.040 that's on them too. 02:27:01.040 --> 02:27:04.880 Josiah cried out in horror and realized that his fathers have betrayed 02:27:04.880 --> 02:27:09.280 him. He realized his fathers have betrayed Judah because they had not 02:27:09.280 --> 02:27:12.320 passed on the inheritance of the knowledge of the true God in 02:27:12.320 --> 02:27:17.040 Scripture. When we as Christians today reach that point, we have to 02:27:17.040 --> 02:27:18.240 respond as Christians. 02:27:18.240 --> 02:27:21.600 We have to respond with repentance to say, I acted in good 02:27:21.600 --> 02:27:23.600 conscience and then I realized it was wrong. 02:27:23.600 --> 02:27:24.480 I have to do better. 02:27:24.720 --> 02:27:25.600 Lord help me. 02:27:25.600 --> 02:27:27.760 And we turn to scripture to do it. 02:27:27.760 --> 02:27:31.120 That's why I hope that ultimately this is a positive call to 02:27:31.440 --> 02:27:36.160 exhortation in belief, because what else are we going to do? 02:27:36.160 --> 02:27:39.280 That's it's Peter's most beautiful confession. 02:27:39.280 --> 02:27:40.720 Lord to whom shall we go? 02:27:40.720 --> 02:27:42.480 You have the words of eternal life. 02:27:43.440 --> 02:27:45.680 That should be on our lips all the time. 02:27:45.680 --> 02:27:47.440 What else are you gonna do? 02:27:47.440 --> 02:27:48.960 Things are bad. 02:27:48.960 --> 02:27:52.000 World War III, famine, inflation. 02:27:52.000 --> 02:27:53.600 What are you gonna do? 02:27:53.920 --> 02:27:55.040 Turn to God. 02:27:55.040 --> 02:27:58.000 Like there's there's nothing else that you can do to fix some 02:27:58.000 --> 02:28:00.240 problems except trusting God. 02:28:00.240 --> 02:28:02.720 And if that's all you have left, it's enough. 02:28:02.720 --> 02:28:04.720 He'll take care of it. 02:28:04.720 --> 02:28:07.040 I want to see our churches talking like this again. 02:28:07.040 --> 02:28:09.520 I almost see our pastors talking like this and worried about these 02:28:09.520 --> 02:28:13.200 things. I must see our pastors and churches condemning the sins in 02:28:13.200 --> 02:28:16.080 the pews and not the sins in the world. 02:28:16.080 --> 02:28:19.200 It's one thing to snipe at sins that are far away, just 02:28:19.200 --> 02:28:21.840 as it's one thing to pretend to have love for those who 02:28:21.840 --> 02:28:23.280 are far away. 02:28:23.280 --> 02:28:25.920 To condemn the sins right in front of you in your own 02:28:25.920 --> 02:28:27.680 church, that's difficult. 02:28:27.680 --> 02:28:31.920 That is where you will find a true test. 02:28:31.920 --> 02:28:34.480 And there's we've said in past episodes there's a right way and 02:28:34.480 --> 02:28:37.040 a wrong way to do that, but to fail to do it 02:28:37.040 --> 02:28:39.280 at all is to fail the test. 02:28:39.280 --> 02:28:42.080 And it is to say I choose to diminish and fade away 02:28:42.160 --> 02:28:46.000 and to lose this faith because I don't think it's worth fighting 02:28:46.000 --> 02:28:50.480 for. Every Christian man must recognize that he has something worth fighting 02:28:50.480 --> 02:28:54.720 for. Not only his faith, but also his nation, his family, his 02:28:54.720 --> 02:28:57.440 community. All these things are gifts from God. 02:28:57.440 --> 02:28:59.280 And they all work in concert. 02:28:59.280 --> 02:29:03.760 There's no one, there's no church mode and then separate left-hand kingdom 02:29:03.760 --> 02:29:05.360 mode with all the other stuff. 02:29:05.360 --> 02:29:07.040 It's all from God. 02:29:07.040 --> 02:29:08.720 It's all his blessings. 02:29:08.720 --> 02:29:11.520 When you start chipping away and say, no, I only care about 02:29:11.520 --> 02:29:15.840 the spiritual, not the physical, congratulations, you're a Gnostic. 02:29:16.160 --> 02:29:18.800 Churches are failing to tell people this. 02:29:18.960 --> 02:29:20.880 That's why we're talking about it. 02:29:20.880 --> 02:29:22.400 We're already turning the tide. 02:29:22.400 --> 02:29:24.720 The tide has been turned in the last year by the number 02:29:24.720 --> 02:29:28.960 of people speaking in ways that three years ago, it was only 02:29:28.960 --> 02:29:31.920 the most crazy men on the internet talking about it. 02:29:31.920 --> 02:29:36.720 Today, blaspheming MLK and even Bonhoeffer is becoming normal. 02:29:36.720 --> 02:29:40.400 That's because when one man stands up and tells the truth, another 02:29:40.400 --> 02:29:43.120 man who also has courage, maybe just didn't know when he hears 02:29:43.200 --> 02:29:44.240 you like, Yep. 02:29:44.240 --> 02:29:45.120 That that's true. 02:29:45.120 --> 02:29:46.160 I buy that too. 02:29:46.160 --> 02:29:47.680 This is clearly scriptural. 02:29:47.680 --> 02:29:50.880 I'm gonna stand next to this man and support what he says. 02:29:50.880 --> 02:29:52.320 It's my confession too. 02:29:52.320 --> 02:29:53.520 It's my belief. 02:29:53.520 --> 02:29:57.200 It doesn't take too many men standing up before all the names 02:29:57.200 --> 02:30:01.760 fade away, and it's just a sea of faithful men acting in 02:30:01.760 --> 02:30:03.600 obedience to God as one. 02:30:03.600 --> 02:30:05.360 That's what the church is. 02:30:05.360 --> 02:30:07.680 The hierarchy is there for our benefit. 02:30:07.680 --> 02:30:10.000 It is not there to rule us. 02:30:10.000 --> 02:30:13.440 If it is not preserving the things of God, then it will 02:30:13.440 --> 02:30:15.680 be replaced by one that does. 02:30:16.160 --> 02:30:16.320 I 02:30:16.320 --> 02:30:19.360 would again recommend to all of you that you read over the 02:30:19.360 --> 02:30:24.320 passages that we have referenced or read in this episode, and they 02:30:24.320 --> 02:30:27.280 will be in the show notes to make that easy for you. 02:30:27.280 --> 02:30:30.080 But in particular, I would give you two things here at the 02:30:30.080 --> 02:30:30.960 end of this episode. 02:30:31.920 --> 02:30:36.320 First, I would recommend meditating on this parable, and again, that's Christian 02:30:36.320 --> 02:30:39.520 meditation is on something, it is not clear your mind. 02:30:39.520 --> 02:30:43.440 We've gone over that previously at some length. 02:30:43.600 --> 02:30:45.920 I'll give you the second item after I go over something about 02:30:45.920 --> 02:30:48.000 this parable. 02:30:48.000 --> 02:30:55.280 In this parable we see three different possibilities for apostasy, 02:30:55.280 --> 02:30:56.400 for unbelief. 02:30:56.400 --> 02:30:57.920 It's a combination of the two. 02:30:57.920 --> 02:31:01.280 And then of course the fourth is having a living faith that 02:31:01.280 --> 02:31:02.240 produces good works. 02:31:02.240 --> 02:31:06.480 That's what it means to be productive in this case. 02:31:06.480 --> 02:31:07.760 But the three 02:31:08.640 --> 02:31:14.080 alternatives, as it were, to not being Christian, would be the birds, 02:31:14.080 --> 02:31:17.200 the rock, and the thorns. 02:31:17.200 --> 02:31:22.880 And of course the birds are Satan and the rock is the 02:31:22.880 --> 02:31:25.520 flesh and the thorns of the world. 02:31:25.520 --> 02:31:28.560 These are the three things we always hear about that oppose us 02:31:28.560 --> 02:31:30.240 in our Christian faith 02:31:31.280 --> 02:31:33.920 would be the devil, the flesh and the world, and that is 02:31:33.920 --> 02:31:38.080 exactly what we see here in this parable and it's really a 02:31:38.080 --> 02:31:44.480 hierarchy of how long someone stays well in the first case not 02:31:44.480 --> 02:31:47.280 a Christian at all, but how long someone stays a Christian in 02:31:47.280 --> 02:31:49.840 the second, the third case before falling away. 02:31:49.840 --> 02:31:53.440 In the case of the birds, in the case of Satan, the 02:31:53.440 --> 02:31:56.560 word is taken away from that person, that person never believes. 02:31:56.560 --> 02:32:00.800 That person is simply a pagan and remains a pagan. 02:32:00.800 --> 02:32:04.400 But the second, you have the word that falls on the rocks 02:32:04.400 --> 02:32:07.280 and doesn't have a root, that is the flesh. 02:32:07.280 --> 02:32:11.040 And those are the people who immediately, as soon as there is 02:32:11.040 --> 02:32:14.960 any sort of testing, fall away, they apostatize. 02:32:15.760 --> 02:32:18.960 And then the second category of those who fall away in this 02:32:18.960 --> 02:32:22.960 parable would be those who due to the concerns of the world 02:32:23.280 --> 02:32:26.720 fall away at some time, at some point. 02:32:29.840 --> 02:32:33.760 And the biggest reason that we do this podcast is we want 02:32:33.760 --> 02:32:36.240 people to have a true and living faith. 02:32:36.240 --> 02:32:39.200 We do not want people, particularly one of the reasons we're doing 02:32:39.200 --> 02:32:42.320 this episode, we do not want people to fall away from the 02:32:42.320 --> 02:32:50.240 faith by importing these various false beliefs, and just slowly becoming apostate. 02:32:50.240 --> 02:32:53.840 With the Old Testament temple they surely didn't construct all of those 02:32:53.840 --> 02:32:56.000 altars to false gods in one day. 02:32:56.000 --> 02:32:58.400 Some one would have noticed that. 02:32:58.400 --> 02:32:59.600 They brought in 02:33:00.720 --> 02:33:05.440 an Asherah here, and then a side altar there, and then 02:33:06.400 --> 02:33:09.280 this symbol of this God, and that symbol of that God, and 02:33:09.280 --> 02:33:13.600 this statue to that one, it grew up over time, because that's 02:33:13.600 --> 02:33:17.520 how Satan works, because people are less likely to notice if the 02:33:17.520 --> 02:33:19.840 change is gradual. 02:33:19.840 --> 02:33:25.440 And so what Satan does, Satan, the the devil, the birds, through 02:33:25.440 --> 02:33:31.040 the world, through those concerns, through those thorns, brings into the church 02:33:31.040 --> 02:33:32.880 these various things of the world. 02:33:32.880 --> 02:33:36.560 And then because the flesh is weak, because people just let it 02:33:36.560 --> 02:33:41.440 happen, men don't stand up and stop it, you wind up becoming 02:33:41.440 --> 02:33:46.560 apostate, you wind up with an apostate church body, many apostate church 02:33:46.560 --> 02:33:49.040 bodies over time. 02:33:49.040 --> 02:33:51.920 And so I just would say meditate on this parable. 02:33:51.920 --> 02:33:55.680 Think about what exactly Christ is saying here, and what we should 02:33:55.680 --> 02:33:57.280 take away from it. 02:33:57.280 --> 02:33:59.200 And we shouldn't take away despair. 02:33:59.200 --> 02:34:02.480 That's not the lesson here. 02:34:02.480 --> 02:34:06.000 And to double down on that point that the point is not 02:34:06.000 --> 02:34:09.680 despair, I would recommend that if you do not already do so, 02:34:09.680 --> 02:34:13.360 pray the Lord's Prayer, maybe stop right now or wait till the 02:34:13.360 --> 02:34:15.520 end of the episode, it's almost over. 02:34:15.520 --> 02:34:19.040 Pray the Lord's Prayer at the end of the episode. 02:34:19.040 --> 02:34:20.800 Pray the Lord's Prayer to night. 02:34:20.800 --> 02:34:22.000 Pray it in the morning. 02:34:22.000 --> 02:34:24.240 Maybe form a habit of doing so. 02:34:24.240 --> 02:34:30.720 But in particular, pay attention to that third petition, because that third 02:34:30.720 --> 02:34:37.520 petition also has, in the explanation from the small catechism, that tripartite 02:34:37.520 --> 02:34:41.040 division that we see here, the devil, the flesh, and the world. 02:34:41.040 --> 02:34:45.600 And so I'll read the third petition from the small catechism to 02:34:45.600 --> 02:34:48.400 close out this episode. 02:34:48.400 --> 02:34:52.720 The third petition Thy will be done on earth as it is 02:34:52.720 --> 02:34:53.760 in heaven. 02:34:53.760 --> 02:34:55.280 What does this mean? 02:34:55.280 --> 02:34:59.280 Answer The good and gracious will of God is done indeed without 02:34:59.280 --> 02:35:02.560 our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be 02:35:02.560 --> 02:35:04.480 done among us also. 02:35:04.640 --> 02:35:06.240 How is this done? 02:35:06.240 --> 02:35:11.520 Answer. When God breaks and hinders every evil counsel and will, which 02:35:11.520 --> 02:35:14.400 would not let us hallow the name of God, nor let his 02:35:14.480 --> 02:35:17.840 kingdom come, such as the will of the devil, the world in 02:35:17.840 --> 02:35:18.800 our flesh. 02:35:19.040 --> 02:35:23.600 But strengthens and keeps us steadfast in his word, and in faith 02:35:23.600 --> 02:35:25.040 unto our end. 02:35:25.040 --> 02:35:27.600 This is his gracious and good will. 02:35:28.880 --> 02:35:30.160 Amen.