Episode Transcript
Good morning. It's 10 o'clock. Let's begin our Bible study.
00:00.000 --> 00:05.000
Let's make sure our cell phones are off, at least not audible.
00:05.000 --> 00:12.000
2 Kings 18 and verse 22. We left off in the middle of a thought last week,
00:12.000 --> 00:19.000
so we're going to go right back to it. 2 Kings 18 and verse 22.
00:19.000 --> 00:26.000
Let's reread the verse.
00:26.000 --> 00:36.000
Now this is Rab Shekah, the Assyrian general or Assyrian commander of the military,
00:36.000 --> 00:45.000
whatever his rank was, speaking to the three men whom Hezekiah sent to greet him, if you will.
00:45.000 --> 00:55.000
Rab Shekah is there for war, so he wasn't there for a party.
00:55.000 --> 01:00.000
And he said, "But if you say unto me, we trust in the Lord our God,
01:00.000 --> 01:05.000
is not that He whose high places and whose altars has Hezekiah had taken away,
01:05.000 --> 01:12.000
and has said to Judah in Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?'"
01:12.000 --> 01:19.000
Now the priests of Judah and Israel had done a great disservice to the children of Israel,
01:19.000 --> 01:28.000
but also to the Gentile world, to everyone who was watching.
01:28.000 --> 01:33.000
And it was so bad that Rab Shekah, the Assyrian military leader,
01:33.000 --> 01:40.000
was under the assumption that the God of Israel had many high places and many altars.
01:40.000 --> 01:48.000
He had just come to associate the religion of the children of Israel
01:48.000 --> 01:54.000
with a God who has many high places and many altars.
01:54.000 --> 01:59.000
That's how he viewed, if you will, Christianity in that day.
01:59.000 --> 02:04.000
And here he mocked Hezekiah by implying that the reason God's not going to help Judah against the Assyrians
02:04.000 --> 02:17.000
is that Judah, specifically King Hezekiah, has torn down all of God's high places.
02:17.000 --> 02:24.000
Now Syria and their king and their generals had it all backwards,
02:24.000 --> 02:31.000
at least from our point of view, because we know God never ordained high places.
02:31.000 --> 02:37.000
But because it had been done for so long,
02:37.000 --> 02:40.000
and because the kings ever since Solomon built those high places toward the end of his life,
02:40.000 --> 02:46.000
ever since that day they had not been torn down, even by the good kings.
02:46.000 --> 02:51.000
He was the first one who tore them down, Hezekiah was.
02:51.000 --> 02:57.000
And in fact, the opposite is true of what Rab Shekah said.
02:57.000 --> 03:02.000
God longed for Judah to repent and to turn back to him that he may bless them.
03:02.000 --> 03:09.000
He wanted to help them and he would help them,
03:09.000 --> 03:11.000
but they were going to have to do things his way.
03:11.000 --> 03:16.000
And as we studied that verse, I explained to you why many churches don't like it
03:16.000 --> 03:25.000
when preachers bear witness to the truth and reject men's traditions.
03:25.000 --> 03:32.000
And that might puzzle you, especially if you're not from this church.
03:32.000 --> 03:37.000
You might think, well, why would a church not like it when the pastor
03:37.000 --> 03:45.000
or the Sunday school teacher is telling the truth?
03:45.000 --> 03:48.000
That doesn't sound right. And it's not right.
03:48.000 --> 03:51.000
But it's because they've been so conditioned to associate the church with activities
03:51.000 --> 03:56.000
that the Bible does not endorse, in fact that the Bible prohibits,
03:56.000 --> 04:00.000
that that's just what the church is to them, and that's what Judah was,
04:00.000 --> 04:04.000
and that's what the religion of God was to the Assyrians.
04:04.000 --> 04:10.000
And last week we looked at what the Bible said, for example, about Easter,
04:10.000 --> 04:15.000
which was the Passover, and what it says about the resurrection,
04:15.000 --> 04:20.000
which was actually what we were celebrating last week.
04:20.000 --> 04:23.000
We loved the Passover.
04:23.000 --> 04:25.000
I crossed our Passover Lamb sacrifice,
04:25.000 --> 04:27.000
but what we celebrated last week was that first day of the week
04:27.000 --> 04:33.000
they ran to the tomb and found that it was empty, the resurrection.
04:33.000 --> 04:37.000
The Passover happened somewhere in the middle of the week, before it.
04:37.000 --> 04:42.000
In fact, we're celebrating the resurrection again today.
04:42.000 --> 04:46.000
Did you know that? That's what we're doing this morning.
04:46.000 --> 04:50.000
And God's Word did not support, as you saw yourself,
04:50.000 --> 04:54.000
God's Word did not support the practice of what people have celebrated as Easter
04:54.000 --> 04:59.000
for a long time. They've done it for a long time.
04:59.000 --> 05:03.000
And let me tell you what blessed my heart.
05:03.000 --> 05:06.000
After that message it was recorded and some people commented on Facebook.
05:06.000 --> 05:11.000
What blessed my heart was the comments people made on our Facebook page.
05:11.000 --> 05:16.000
Not one person who commented said anything negative about the truth
05:16.000 --> 05:22.000
concerning Easter and the resurrection.
05:22.000 --> 05:25.000
Nobody said, "Well, that's just the way we've always done it, Brother Andy.
05:25.000 --> 05:28.000
I don't understand why you're so against it or against that."
05:28.000 --> 05:33.000
I don't understand why you tore the high place down is what they're saying.
05:33.000 --> 05:37.000
Nobody did that.
05:37.000 --> 05:40.000
So for some, a high place was torn down in their minds.
05:40.000 --> 05:46.000
And I'm sure some of you may have had to change the way you thought about Easter
05:46.000 --> 05:51.000
and the resurrection based upon what God's Word taught you.
05:51.000 --> 05:55.000
That's what's important. If I convinced you to change your mind,
05:55.000 --> 05:59.000
I could convince you of anything.
05:59.000 --> 06:01.000
But if you let God's Word teach you about it and change your mind if that's what was done
06:01.000 --> 06:08.000
and you disregarded those traditions that you may have held for a long time,
06:08.000 --> 06:14.000
then that's a good thing. And that blesses my heart. It does.
06:14.000 --> 06:20.000
And I'm thankful, whether it's people in this church or anywhere else for that matter,
06:20.000 --> 06:25.000
Christians who are willing to be instructed and corrected by God's Word
06:25.000 --> 06:32.000
regardless of the traditions they may have observed before.
06:32.000 --> 06:37.000
Now imagine if I had gone to the average church around here or anywhere else,
06:37.000 --> 06:43.000
but let's just use Maybank area, and had taken the Bible
06:43.000 --> 06:49.000
and told you what I told you last week, showed you what I showed you last week,
06:49.000 --> 06:53.000
and torn down their Easter bunny, their Easter egg hunt with God's truth.
06:53.000 --> 07:01.000
They got their high place torn down with God's truth.
07:01.000 --> 07:05.000
There would be Rab Shikas in those churches who would say,
07:05.000 --> 07:10.000
"Aha, he's not a man of God. He took the Easter bunny out of the Lord's house."
07:10.000 --> 07:18.000
But those who are led by the Spirit of God would accept what God's Word says
07:18.000 --> 07:25.000
and repent, and they would change.
07:25.000 --> 07:29.000
I promise you, there's not anybody in here, present company included,
07:29.000 --> 07:33.000
who hasn't had a high place torn down by God's Word.
07:33.000 --> 07:37.000
If you haven't, you better get them torn down. You don't need them.
07:37.000 --> 07:42.000
They're not going to lead you to the truth. They lead you away from it,
07:42.000 --> 07:45.000
just like they did Judah.
07:45.000 --> 07:48.000
But the others who are not led by the Spirit in such churches would be mad,
07:48.000 --> 07:55.000
and they'd say, "Don't you ever let that guy come back and get in our pulpit again."
07:55.000 --> 07:59.000
And I'd be glad not to if that's the way they felt about it,
07:59.000 --> 08:03.000
because I would have offended their traditions with God's Word.
08:03.000 --> 08:09.000
What did Jesus tell those Pharisees? He said,
08:09.000 --> 08:12.000
"You hold your traditions of men above the commandments of God."
08:12.000 --> 08:17.000
They honored the traditions of men over the commandments of God,
08:17.000 --> 08:20.000
and when Jesus gave them a commandment that destroyed their traditions,
08:20.000 --> 08:24.000
instead of saying, "Lord," which they wouldn't call Him, you're right.
08:24.000 --> 08:30.000
You're exactly right. We have been doing this wrong all this time.
08:30.000 --> 08:33.000
Thank you for taking your Word and showing us where we messed up
08:33.000 --> 08:37.000
and how to get it right.
08:37.000 --> 08:39.000
Most of them didn't do that. They wanted to kill Him.
08:39.000 --> 08:42.000
They set about to persecute Him, and He was eventually crucified.
08:42.000 --> 08:49.000
I mentioned also last week that the way churches, their members,
08:49.000 --> 08:57.000
their pastors, teachers, deacons, so forth, conduct themselves
08:57.000 --> 09:05.000
shapes the world's view of the church, just like it did in Hezekiah's time.
09:05.000 --> 09:14.000
An example, whoever the first church was that let a woman preach
09:14.000 --> 09:21.000
set the tone for every other church to do the same thing,
09:21.000 --> 09:25.000
because the next church that did it said,
09:25.000 --> 09:27.000
"Hey, the first so-and-so church right over here,
09:27.000 --> 09:30.000
they let a woman preach, and she did a pretty good job. Why don't we try it?"
09:30.000 --> 09:35.000
And then before you know it, it just became the new thing.
09:35.000 --> 09:41.000
They set the tone.
09:41.000 --> 09:43.000
And Rabbi Sheikah would say, "Well, God's church lets women preach,
09:43.000 --> 09:48.000
and so that church right down there who told that woman,
09:48.000 --> 09:51.000
"Preacher, you got to go. You got to go sit back out here
09:51.000 --> 09:55.000
with your husband or whatever, but you're not going to preach,
09:55.000 --> 09:58.000
or you serve authority over a man."
09:58.000 --> 10:02.000
He would say, "God's not going to help that church,
10:02.000 --> 10:06.000
because they got rid of that woman preacher they had."
10:06.000 --> 10:10.000
Like he told Judah, "God's not going to help them,
10:10.000 --> 10:13.000
because they've torn down His high places.
10:13.000 --> 10:15.000
They've taken all these altars away and told the people
10:15.000 --> 10:19.000
to come to worship at one altar, which we'll look at in a minute."
10:19.000 --> 10:23.000
And 2 Timothy, so if Rabbi Sheikah says, "Well, God's church
10:23.000 --> 10:28.000
took the women down that were preaching, and so God's not going to help them,"
10:28.000 --> 10:32.000
well, the Bible says, Paul wrote, "Let the woman learn in silence
10:32.000 --> 10:36.000
with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach."
10:36.000 --> 10:40.000
There it is.
10:40.000 --> 10:41.000
"Nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."
10:41.000 --> 10:45.000
The liberal arm of the Methodists and the Presbyterians
10:45.000 --> 10:48.000
would claim we're being sexist.
10:48.000 --> 10:51.000
When actually we're just being scriptural.
10:51.000 --> 10:54.000
We love our women. We love our men. We love our children.
10:54.000 --> 10:57.000
And we love our God enough to honor the roles He's put each one of us in.
10:57.000 --> 11:03.000
And if we're all in our proper role, man, this thing hums like a well-oiled machine, doesn't it?
11:03.000 --> 11:09.000
And if we're not, it knocks.
11:09.000 --> 11:11.000
It makes a lot of noise, and it breaks down, and God's Word gets set aside.
11:11.000 --> 11:18.000
And you know, we don't style our worship, our Christian conduct,
11:18.000 --> 11:24.000
in an effort to please the world.
11:24.000 --> 11:27.000
We don't try to figure out how we can make the world happy.
11:27.000 --> 11:30.000
But at the same time, in our Christian conduct, especially outside these doors,
11:30.000 --> 11:36.000
we need to be careful not to bring reproach on the church,
11:36.000 --> 11:41.000
to bring a stain on the church.
11:41.000 --> 11:44.000
Our corporate worship, that means when we get together,
11:44.000 --> 11:48.000
all of our bodies come together in this same building.
11:48.000 --> 11:51.000
Our corporate worship is what we do in the building.
11:51.000 --> 11:55.000
But our conversation, that is our manner of living,
11:55.000 --> 11:59.000
for the most part, takes place outside of the building.
11:59.000 --> 12:03.000
168 hours in the week.
12:03.000 --> 12:06.000
And if you're able to come to all the services or tune into them online,
12:06.000 --> 12:10.000
then you've set aside about three hours a week.
12:10.000 --> 12:18.000
And that doesn't include your drive time.
12:18.000 --> 12:20.000
That's just the time that you're here in the building, roughly three hours a week.
12:20.000 --> 12:25.000
So that other 165 hours, you're not here.
12:25.000 --> 12:32.000
You may be on your way here or on your way from here,
12:32.000 --> 12:36.000
but your manner of living is being reflected outside of the walls of this building.
12:36.000 --> 12:43.000
Now I want you to listen to why our outside behavior is just as important
12:43.000 --> 12:50.000
as what we do in here.
12:50.000 --> 12:52.000
1 Timothy 3, verse 7.
12:52.000 --> 12:56.000
1 Timothy 3, verse 7.
12:56.000 --> 12:59.000
And in that section, the Apostle Paul is describing to Timothy the pastor of Ephesus,
12:59.000 --> 13:07.000
whom he trained.
13:07.000 --> 13:09.000
He's describing to Timothy the necessary character traits of a bishop,
13:09.000 --> 13:14.000
which is another word for an overseer, and we call a pastor.
13:14.000 --> 13:18.000
It's the same thing.
13:18.000 --> 13:21.000
Bishop Fulton doesn't want to be called Bishop Fulton.
13:21.000 --> 13:24.000
He wants to be called Brother Fulton, and he is our pastor.
13:24.000 --> 13:28.000
He is the overseer.
13:28.000 --> 13:29.000
He is the bishop.
13:29.000 --> 13:30.000
It's the same thing.
13:30.000 --> 13:31.000
So in this passage, speaking of a pastor/bishop,
13:31.000 --> 13:36.000
Paul wrote, "Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without,
13:36.000 --> 13:44.000
lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil."
13:44.000 --> 13:47.000
So "them which are without," the Scripture says,
13:47.000 --> 13:53.000
means those who are outside the church, not just physically outside the walls,
13:53.000 --> 13:57.000
although they are, but it's the world.
13:57.000 --> 14:02.000
And even people who are unbelievers have a certain expectation of what a pastor
14:02.000 --> 14:11.000
should be like, and they have a certain expectation of what a Christian should be like as well.
14:11.000 --> 14:19.000
And the character traits listed by Paul for this pastor are, in that passage,
14:19.000 --> 14:28.000
"The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior,
14:28.000 --> 14:33.000
given to hospitality apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker,
14:33.000 --> 14:39.000
not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous,
14:39.000 --> 14:44.000
one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity."
14:44.000 --> 14:49.000
Now, if someone outside the church, just say you're an average unbeliever,
14:49.000 --> 14:55.000
knew a pastor who was faithful to his wife, who was mature, well-behaved,
14:55.000 --> 15:04.000
hospitable, who was ready to teach God's Word, who was not a drunkard,
15:04.000 --> 15:09.000
who was not a brawler, a violent person, who was not greedy, who was patient,
15:09.000 --> 15:16.000
who was not covetous, a man who was a good father and husband,
15:16.000 --> 15:21.000
then that person outside the church should have nothing bad to say about that pastor as a person.
15:21.000 --> 15:29.000
That means that person's opinion of that pastor is a good report.
15:29.000 --> 15:36.000
If that person wrote a report about their observations of that pastor,
15:36.000 --> 15:40.000
he or she would say, "This is a good report."
15:40.000 --> 15:44.000
If others read it, they would say, "Oh, yeah, that's a good report on that pastor."
15:44.000 --> 15:48.000
They may not use those words, but that's essentially the conclusion they would come to.
15:48.000 --> 15:56.000
In fact, such an upright pastor would play a big part in shaping that unbeliever's view
15:56.000 --> 16:05.000
of what a pastor should be like.
16:05.000 --> 16:07.000
Now, can you imagine if every pastor that an unbeliever encountered was the same way,
16:07.000 --> 16:13.000
the same kind person described by the Apostle Paul,
16:13.000 --> 16:17.000
then unbelievers would think all pastors are good people.
16:17.000 --> 16:22.000
Wouldn't that be wonderful?
16:22.000 --> 16:26.000
So what happens when people watch a televangelist steal money,
16:26.000 --> 16:33.000
and not just televangelists, there's plenty of them who don't get on television who do it too,
16:33.000 --> 16:38.000
steal money by deceiving vulnerable people.
16:38.000 --> 16:43.000
When a pastor has been caught in adultery or pornography, theft or some other crime,
16:43.000 --> 16:50.000
or when a Sunday school teacher or a deacon shows up at the local bar on Friday
16:50.000 --> 16:56.000
and drinks himself into a stupor, people like Rab Shaka are watching.
16:56.000 --> 17:02.000
And their view of pastors takes a negative hit when they see that.
17:02.000 --> 17:08.000
Brother Fulton and I, from time to time, share, and we do this with a great burden,
17:08.000 --> 17:15.000
share with each other articles about this pastor fell, fell into sin,
17:15.000 --> 17:23.000
pastor of a very large church.
17:23.000 --> 17:26.000
And you know who he hurt? He hurt everybody.
17:26.000 --> 17:29.000
He hurt his family. He hurt the members of his church.
17:29.000 --> 17:33.000
But he also hurt the church as it is viewed outside the walls.
17:33.000 --> 17:39.000
The world looked at him and went, there you go.
17:39.000 --> 17:42.000
Why in the world would somebody want to be a Christian?
17:42.000 --> 17:44.000
That guy's more crooked than I am.
17:44.000 --> 17:49.000
So they come to believe that's just what pastors do.
17:49.000 --> 17:54.000
Thank God for kings like Hezekiah, who against the criticism of the world
17:54.000 --> 18:03.000
stood for truth anyway.
18:03.000 --> 18:07.000
He took action rather than just speaking vain words into the air.
18:07.000 --> 18:13.000
And wouldn't it be refreshing, really, for the world to see the church
18:13.000 --> 18:19.000
where it's supposed to be rather than the way it is now?
18:19.000 --> 18:25.000
And wouldn't it be refreshing for the world to see pastors
18:25.000 --> 18:30.000
and other Christians the way we're supposed to be
18:30.000 --> 18:33.000
rather than the way we're perceived now?
18:33.000 --> 18:37.000
And the worst part about it for me is that the world calls people Christians who aren't.
18:37.000 --> 18:44.000
You may see some kind of survey taken of people in the United States
18:44.000 --> 18:49.000
that says we have 80-something million evangelicals
18:49.000 --> 18:53.000
and I don't believe it's anywhere close to that high at all.
18:53.000 --> 18:57.000
We may have people who go to a church that falls within that category
18:57.000 --> 19:02.000
of evangelical churches, but what is evangelism?
19:02.000 --> 19:05.000
It's telling the good news, isn't it?
19:05.000 --> 19:07.000
That Jesus died for sinners and He's the only way to heaven.
19:07.000 --> 19:10.000
He's the only way to be accepted by God,
19:10.000 --> 19:12.000
and most churches are not preaching that.
19:12.000 --> 19:14.000
If you add all the churches together,
19:14.000 --> 19:16.000
all the different religions that call themselves churches,
19:16.000 --> 19:19.000
most aren't saying that.
19:19.000 --> 19:21.000
And that's no surprise because the Lord told us that's the way it would be.
19:21.000 --> 19:27.000
The gospel of Jesus Christ has been set aside by most
19:27.000 --> 19:31.000
as the only way to become a Christian.
19:31.000 --> 19:34.000
I remember John Hagee, who was a popular, charismatic television pastor.
19:34.000 --> 19:40.000
Boy, sometimes you listen to him and you think,
19:40.000 --> 19:43.000
"Man, that guy can shell the corn. He is laying it down there straight."
19:43.000 --> 19:48.000
Until he was asked by a television interviewer
19:48.000 --> 19:52.000
if he thought that the Jews had to believe the same way
19:52.000 --> 19:58.000
the Gentiles do in order to go to heaven.
19:58.000 --> 20:01.000
And he said, "No."
20:01.000 --> 20:03.000
He said, "There's a different way God's going to save the Jews."
20:03.000 --> 20:06.000
Well, he lost me right there because when I was in college,
20:06.000 --> 20:08.000
I used to listen to him.
20:08.000 --> 20:10.000
And I heard him say that and I went,
20:10.000 --> 20:12.000
"Wow, that's not what the Bible says.
20:12.000 --> 20:15.000
Now you're just pandering to the nation of Israel
20:15.000 --> 20:19.000
rather than preaching the gospel."
20:19.000 --> 20:23.000
And how many people did that hurt? It hurt everybody.
20:23.000 --> 20:27.000
It hurt everybody who listened to him
20:27.000 --> 20:29.000
because all of the good things that he had preached,
20:29.000 --> 20:32.000
all of the times he had given a solid Bible message,
20:32.000 --> 20:36.000
well, those were put to the side because now he's believing heresy.
20:36.000 --> 20:40.000
He's preaching heresy.
20:40.000 --> 20:42.000
One of the modern trends that I've seen with many people
20:42.000 --> 20:47.000
is we're talking about how the world views us.
20:47.000 --> 20:50.000
How Rabbi Sheikah viewed Judah was not Rabbi Sheikah's fault,
20:50.000 --> 20:53.000
it was Judah's fault.
20:53.000 --> 20:55.000
And how the world views Christians outside the doors.
20:55.000 --> 20:59.000
One of the modern trends I've seen with many people I know
20:59.000 --> 21:03.000
is the tendency to use profanity in one sentence
21:03.000 --> 21:07.000
and then talk about the Lord in the next.
21:07.000 --> 21:09.000
Look at their Facebook pages.
21:09.000 --> 21:11.000
They'll have something filthy on there
21:11.000 --> 21:13.000
that they either copied and pasted or shared,
21:13.000 --> 21:16.000
or however you do all that.
21:16.000 --> 21:18.000
And then they'll have a scripture down there,
21:18.000 --> 21:20.000
"Oh, the Lord is good. Praise the Lord."
21:20.000 --> 21:22.000
And then they'll have the filthy language next to it.
21:22.000 --> 21:26.000
Can't stand to look at it.
21:26.000 --> 21:29.000
Just like bitter and sweet water
21:29.000 --> 21:31.000
can't come out of the same fountain,
21:31.000 --> 21:33.000
neither should that happen on your Facebook page.
21:33.000 --> 21:37.000
Or we're talking about your mouth right now.
21:37.000 --> 21:41.000
And I personally know people who say they are believers,
21:41.000 --> 21:45.000
they've told me they're believers,
21:45.000 --> 21:47.000
and they have some of the foulest mouths I've ever heard.
21:47.000 --> 21:50.000
And I mean consistent.
21:50.000 --> 21:52.000
I don't mean a word slips out in a moment of anger
21:52.000 --> 21:55.000
or desperation or whatever.
21:55.000 --> 21:57.000
I mean as a habit.
21:57.000 --> 22:00.000
And when they're around others who speak like that,
22:00.000 --> 22:02.000
it becomes worse.
22:02.000 --> 22:05.000
Now when an unbeliever hears a professing Christian curse,
22:05.000 --> 22:10.000
what impression does that unbeliever have
22:10.000 --> 22:13.000
of Christians in general?
22:13.000 --> 22:15.000
They say, "Well, Christians curse too."
22:15.000 --> 22:18.000
So the unbeliever says, "Why should I be a Christian?
22:18.000 --> 22:20.000
I can curse just fine without being a Christian
22:20.000 --> 22:22.000
and getting tied down to all of that that it entails."
22:22.000 --> 22:27.000
And by God's grace, the words that come out of our mouth,
22:27.000 --> 22:30.000
the words we type, the things that we endorse,
22:30.000 --> 22:36.000
ought to be clean and edifying,
22:36.000 --> 22:39.000
building people up in the faith,
22:39.000 --> 22:41.000
and not bring a reproach on God's people.
22:41.000 --> 22:46.000
And to keep the rab sheikahs of this world
22:46.000 --> 22:49.000
from thinking of Christians as drunkards and adulterers
22:49.000 --> 22:54.000
and thieves and worshippers of the high places,
22:54.000 --> 22:58.000
we are going to preach against those things.
22:58.000 --> 23:01.000
And we're not going to accept them as normal behavior.
23:01.000 --> 23:04.000
We're not going to say, "Well, this is the new normal."
23:04.000 --> 23:06.000
It's not, according to God's word, it's not normal.
23:06.000 --> 23:09.000
If it's abnormal in God's word,
23:09.000 --> 23:11.000
it's always going to be abnormal behavior.
23:11.000 --> 23:14.000
And we're not going to call it normal.
23:14.000 --> 23:15.000
It may be normal in society.
23:15.000 --> 23:18.000
But so many things are that weren't normal just 30 or 40 years ago.
23:18.000 --> 23:25.000
And we're going to preach His gospel and not another.
23:25.000 --> 23:27.000
And by God's grace, we will never allow the world to see this church
23:27.000 --> 23:32.000
as anything other than the pillar and ground of truth.
23:32.000 --> 23:38.000
That's all we want to be.
23:38.000 --> 23:41.000
Yes, we want to keep a roof over our head
23:41.000 --> 23:43.000
and keep the air conditioner on if we can and the lights on
23:43.000 --> 23:46.000
and have a place for you to park and restrooms to use, all of that.
23:46.000 --> 23:51.000
But if all of that falls apart and we still meet,
23:51.000 --> 23:55.000
we want to be the pillar and ground of truth.
23:55.000 --> 23:59.000
God's word is not a staff of a bruised reed.
23:59.000 --> 24:02.000
You can lean on God's word and it's never going to hurt you
24:02.000 --> 24:05.000
or go through your hand.
24:05.000 --> 24:08.000
Now look back in verse 22 at the second part of Rabbi Sheikah's indictment
24:08.000 --> 24:12.000
against Judah and Hezekiah, he said, look at the last part of the verse.
24:12.000 --> 24:19.000
"Hezekiah had taken away and has said to Judah in Jerusalem,
24:19.000 --> 24:23.000
'You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem.'"
24:23.000 --> 24:27.000
Now what is the implication there?
24:27.000 --> 24:29.000
The implication there very strongly is that there were other altars
24:29.000 --> 24:33.000
in the land where people worshipped that were not in Jerusalem.
24:33.000 --> 24:40.000
The purpose of taking away the high places was twofold when Hezekiah did this.
24:40.000 --> 24:46.000
One was to get rid of these unauthorized places of worship
24:46.000 --> 24:51.000
that were inspired by the heathen religions of that day.
24:51.000 --> 24:55.000
And two was to bring people back to the one authorized place
24:55.000 --> 25:01.000
that was inspired by the author of the one true religion.
25:01.000 --> 25:08.000
Now the children of Israel carried that tabernacle around in the wilderness.
25:08.000 --> 25:14.000
They set it up and then God would say it's time to move.
25:14.000 --> 25:18.000
They'd tear it down.
25:18.000 --> 25:20.000
They had certain people who carried certain parts of it
25:20.000 --> 25:22.000
and then they'd set it up again when God said stop
25:22.000 --> 25:24.000
or when the cloud or the pillar stopped and then they'd tear it down again.
25:24.000 --> 25:30.000
"Once Solomon built this temple in Jerusalem, which we read at great length,
25:30.000 --> 25:35.000
that was the place for them to come worship.
25:35.000 --> 25:39.000
That was the one place for them to bring their sacrifices and offerings
25:39.000 --> 25:44.000
and for the high priest to do his work that he was called to do.
25:44.000 --> 25:49.000
But since Solomon's time, the religion of the Lord in Judah
25:49.000 --> 25:56.000
had become known by those succeeding generations
25:56.000 --> 26:01.000
as the religion with the high places and altars
26:01.000 --> 26:04.000
and under good kings and bad kings alike.
26:04.000 --> 26:07.000
So the Assyrians had been watching this.
26:07.000 --> 26:10.000
That's why Rabbi Sheikah said God's not going to help you all
26:10.000 --> 26:14.000
because you tore his high places down.
26:14.000 --> 26:15.000
That's all he'd ever known.
26:15.000 --> 26:17.000
That's all he'd ever associated with the Christians,
26:17.000 --> 26:20.000
with the children of Israel that day.
26:20.000 --> 26:23.000
I like how this verse, we just read verse 22.
26:23.000 --> 26:26.000
I like how it's written in 2 Chronicles 32.12 as well.
26:26.000 --> 26:30.000
Just write that down and I'll read it to you.
26:30.000 --> 26:32.000
2 Chronicles 32 verse 12.
26:32.000 --> 26:35.000
Now these are some more words that Rabbi Sheikah said
26:35.000 --> 26:40.000
as recorded in 2 Chronicles.
26:40.000 --> 26:42.000
He said, "Hath not the same Hezekiah
26:42.000 --> 26:44.000
taken away his high places and his altars
26:44.000 --> 26:47.000
and commanded Judah and Jerusalem,
26:47.000 --> 26:49.000
saying, 'Ye shall worship before one altar
26:49.000 --> 26:51.000
and burn incense upon it.'"
26:51.000 --> 26:54.000
Now the purpose of coming to one place that is Jerusalem
26:54.000 --> 26:59.000
was to worship at one altar,
26:59.000 --> 27:02.000
the sacrifices at the brazen altar.
27:02.000 --> 27:04.000
Now the incense, as we've learned,
27:04.000 --> 27:06.000
would be burned at one altar,
27:06.000 --> 27:07.000
but that wasn't the brazen altar.
27:07.000 --> 27:08.000
That was the altar of incense.
27:08.000 --> 27:10.000
But it was in one place.
27:10.000 --> 27:13.000
And we who worshiped the Lord have one altar,
27:13.000 --> 27:16.000
and that's the cross.
27:16.000 --> 27:18.000
The cross where the Lamb of God was sacrificed
27:18.000 --> 27:21.000
for the sins of the world.
27:21.000 --> 27:24.000
And when we tear down the high places
27:24.000 --> 27:28.000
and restore the religion the Lord gave them,
27:28.000 --> 27:32.000
or when He did that,
27:32.000 --> 27:34.000
Hezekiah pointed to what Jesus would do.
27:34.000 --> 27:39.000
He said, "Tear the high places down.
27:39.000 --> 27:42.000
Everybody will worship at this one altar."
27:42.000 --> 27:45.000
He had already told them,
27:45.000 --> 27:47.000
"We're going to start observing the Passover,
27:47.000 --> 27:49.000
so you priests sanctify yourselves,
27:49.000 --> 27:51.000
and you get in there and you clean out the Lord's house.
27:51.000 --> 27:53.000
You bring the things back that belong in there
27:53.000 --> 27:55.000
and get the things out that don't.
27:55.000 --> 27:57.000
We're going to do this right."
27:57.000 --> 28:01.000
And when He did that,
28:01.000 --> 28:03.000
He would be able to use that temple,
28:03.000 --> 28:08.000
those sacrifices, that high priest,
28:08.000 --> 28:11.000
to once again point to the Lord Jesus Christ.
28:11.000 --> 28:14.000
Judah had been pointing everywhere
28:14.000 --> 28:16.000
except to the Lord Jesus Christ.
28:16.000 --> 28:18.000
Their priests had been pointing everywhere
28:18.000 --> 28:20.000
except forward in time to the Lord Jesus Christ.
28:20.000 --> 28:24.000
It was a mess.
28:24.000 --> 28:27.000
In this world,
28:27.000 --> 28:29.000
the average church is pointing everywhere
28:29.000 --> 28:32.000
except back to the Lord Jesus Christ
28:32.000 --> 28:34.000
and what He did for sinners.
28:34.000 --> 28:37.000
Pointing all around them.
28:37.000 --> 28:39.000
They've got all these activities going on
28:39.000 --> 28:41.000
and all these speeches they're giving
28:41.000 --> 28:43.000
behind pulpits like this,
28:43.000 --> 28:45.000
and whether or not they even used the Bible,
28:45.000 --> 28:48.000
they're not pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
28:48.000 --> 28:51.000
I would almost rather a fellow just say,
28:51.000 --> 28:54.000
"Listen, I'm not going to teach you anything about this."
28:54.000 --> 28:57.000
And then I could just leave
28:57.000 --> 28:59.000
and not listen to what he had to say.
28:59.000 --> 29:01.000
I remember the last church I was a member at,
29:01.000 --> 29:04.000
our pastor, bless his heart,
29:04.000 --> 29:06.000
he made the mistake of having a guest evangelist
29:06.000 --> 29:10.000
come for a revival.
29:10.000 --> 29:13.000
And this evangelist was known
29:13.000 --> 29:16.000
as the shortest evangelist in the world.
29:16.000 --> 29:18.000
He was a midget or a dwarf.
29:18.000 --> 29:22.000
I'm not sure what the right term is for him.
29:22.000 --> 29:24.000
And he was about that tall
29:24.000 --> 29:26.000
and he was in a wheelchair
29:26.000 --> 29:29.000
because he wasn't able to walk.
29:29.000 --> 29:32.000
And so we had a fish fry and we did all that
29:32.000 --> 29:36.000
and then it was time for church.
29:36.000 --> 29:40.000
And he came in there and he said,
29:40.000 --> 29:43.000
"In the book of Isaiah, don't turn there."
29:43.000 --> 29:46.000
So the first thing he told us to do
29:46.000 --> 29:49.000
is the opposite of what our pastor always told us to do
29:49.000 --> 29:53.000
because he always told us,
29:53.000 --> 29:55.000
"Take your Bible and go to John 17."
29:55.000 --> 29:58.000
Or, "Take your Bible and turn to the gospel of Luke 4."
29:58.000 --> 30:02.000
He always told us to turn in our Bible
30:02.000 --> 30:05.000
because that's where he intended to teach from and he did.
30:05.000 --> 30:08.000
This man said, "Don't open your Bibles."
30:08.000 --> 30:12.000
And man, the air went out of my balloon just like that.
30:12.000 --> 30:16.000
And he was as offensive as he could be
30:16.000 --> 30:20.000
in his little time as he spent saying anything at all about God.
30:20.000 --> 30:24.000
He was mostly full of war stories.
30:24.000 --> 30:26.000
I didn't learn anything other than that man is not a preacher.
30:26.000 --> 30:31.000
The world's shortest evangelist, they called him.
30:31.000 --> 30:34.000
Now can you imagine if that man,
30:34.000 --> 30:37.000
pastor to church, those people never would learn anything about the Bible.
30:37.000 --> 30:43.000
They'd get cheated and there are people who go to churches like that
30:43.000 --> 30:47.000
most of their lives and they never learn a thing about the Bible.
30:47.000 --> 30:52.000
And you know people like that.
30:52.000 --> 30:55.000
You're not one of them because you're here.
30:55.000 --> 30:58.000
And whether it's myself or Brother Fulton
30:58.000 --> 31:00.000
or whoever the next person is that teaches you,
31:00.000 --> 31:03.000
you won't put up with anything less than being taught your Bibles.
31:03.000 --> 31:07.000
I know you won't.
31:07.000 --> 31:09.000
But there are people who have. They don't know any better.
31:09.000 --> 31:12.000
They think, "Well, this is the way church is supposed to be."
31:12.000 --> 31:14.000
You see what that does to people?
31:14.000 --> 31:16.000
Not just to the rabbishekahs of this world,
31:16.000 --> 31:18.000
but people who are inside the building, inside the house.
31:18.000 --> 31:22.000
I remember speaking to a man who'd been in the Church of Christ.
31:22.000 --> 31:26.000
He was in his 70s.
31:26.000 --> 31:28.000
And this was about 25 years ago, 30 years ago.
31:28.000 --> 31:32.000
And he had never believed the Gospel.
31:32.000 --> 31:35.000
And I told him the Gospel. I just went to John 14.
31:35.000 --> 31:38.000
I said, "Did you know, did you see what that said?"
31:38.000 --> 31:42.000
That that's the only way to the Father, is through Jesus.
31:42.000 --> 31:46.000
Not through your baptistery
31:46.000 --> 31:48.000
or through whatever your church ordinances are you do.
31:48.000 --> 31:51.000
And he just broke down crying.
31:51.000 --> 31:53.000
You know why? Because he'd been a song leader in that church for 50 years.
31:53.000 --> 31:57.000
And he'd be getting starved to death.
31:57.000 --> 32:00.000
Spiritually speaking.
32:00.000 --> 32:03.000
For you and me, Jesus tore down those high places, didn't he?
32:03.000 --> 32:12.000
And those high places for us were the filthy rags of our self-righteousness,
32:12.000 --> 32:20.000
which we worshiped and which we brought to God,
32:20.000 --> 32:23.000
saying, "Well, he'll surely accept me now,
32:23.000 --> 32:28.000
because I've done my best."
32:28.000 --> 32:30.000
Jesus tore down those high places
32:30.000 --> 32:32.000
and he brought us to the one acceptable place for worship,
32:32.000 --> 32:35.000
and that's him, at the cross.
32:35.000 --> 32:37.000
That's why Paul said we preach Christ and him crucified.
32:37.000 --> 32:42.000
To the Jews, a stumbling block.
32:42.000 --> 32:45.000
To the Greeks, foolishness.
32:45.000 --> 32:47.000
But to us who are saved, it is the power of God.
32:47.000 --> 32:51.000
Man, isn't that nice?
32:51.000 --> 32:52.000
The power of God knocked down all those high places for us.
32:52.000 --> 32:55.000
Now look back in verse 23.
32:55.000 --> 32:58.000
Rab Sheikah continues, "Now therefore,"
32:58.000 --> 33:03.000
that is based on everything he just said,
33:03.000 --> 33:06.000
"I pray thee give pledges to my Lord, the king of Assyria,
33:06.000 --> 33:11.000
and I will deliver thee two thousand horses,
33:11.000 --> 33:14.000
if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them."
33:14.000 --> 33:21.000
In his mind, Rab Sheikah had rendered Judah helpless,
33:21.000 --> 33:28.000
because in his mind he had destroyed the confidence
33:28.000 --> 33:31.000
on which they might lean both Egypt and the Lord God.
33:31.000 --> 33:38.000
Now when he tried to destroy Israel's, excuse me,
33:38.000 --> 33:42.000
Judah's confidence in Egypt,
33:42.000 --> 33:46.000
he didn't do it so he could point them to the Lord.
33:46.000 --> 33:50.000
He didn't say, "Hey guys, quit trusting in Egypt.
33:50.000 --> 33:53.000
You need to turn to the Lord."
33:53.000 --> 33:54.000
He didn't do it for that reason at all.
33:54.000 --> 33:59.000
When he tried to destroy Judah's confidence in Egypt,
33:59.000 --> 34:03.000
he wasn't doing it for their benefit.
34:03.000 --> 34:06.000
And although we need, if you are an unbeliever,
34:06.000 --> 34:10.000
you need your confidence in Egypt destroyed,
34:10.000 --> 34:13.000
just like the children of Israel did when they came out
34:13.000 --> 34:17.000
of Egypt into the wilderness,
34:17.000 --> 34:21.000
they needed their confidence in Egypt destroyed,
34:21.000 --> 34:23.000
because some of them within three days murmured saying,
34:23.000 --> 34:26.000
"I wish we were back in Egypt by the flesh pots,
34:26.000 --> 34:29.000
eating the leeks and the onion and the garlic and all that,
34:29.000 --> 34:32.000
instead of coming out here to starve to death in the wilderness."
34:32.000 --> 34:37.000
So in both cases it is right to destroy our confidence in Egypt.
34:37.000 --> 34:46.000
Acts 20, verses 18-20,
34:46.000 --> 34:51.000
Paul gave his defense before King Agrippa.
34:51.000 --> 34:57.000
It's Acts 20, verses 18-20.
34:57.000 --> 35:00.000
Now what was Paul's crime?
35:00.000 --> 35:01.000
Why was he having to give a defense?
35:01.000 --> 35:03.000
He was preaching the gospel,
35:03.000 --> 35:05.000
and he was preaching it loud.
35:05.000 --> 35:09.000
And in that passage he testified that God sent him,
35:09.000 --> 35:14.000
"to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light,
35:14.000 --> 35:20.000
and from the power of Satan unto God,
35:20.000 --> 35:23.000
that they may receive the forgiveness of sins
35:23.000 --> 35:26.000
and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith
35:26.000 --> 35:29.000
that is in me." That is God.
35:29.000 --> 35:31.000
"Whereupon, O King Agrippa,
35:31.000 --> 35:33.000
I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision,
35:33.000 --> 35:36.000
but showed first of them of Damascus and at Jerusalem
35:36.000 --> 35:40.000
and throughout all the coasts of Judea,
35:40.000 --> 35:42.000
and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent
35:42.000 --> 35:45.000
and turn to God.
35:45.000 --> 35:48.000
And do works meet for repentance."
35:48.000 --> 35:51.000
Alright, what was the difference between Rabschika and Paul?
35:51.000 --> 35:56.000
Rabschika tried to turn Judah from Egypt
35:56.000 --> 36:01.000
and from the Lord unto Assyria.
36:01.000 --> 36:06.000
Paul tried to turn the Jews and Gentiles alike from Egypt,
36:06.000 --> 36:10.000
which was darkness, unto the Lord.
36:10.000 --> 36:13.000
That's the difference.
36:13.000 --> 36:15.000
Both are right to turn Judah away from Egypt,
36:15.000 --> 36:19.000
but one was trying to turn them to Assyria,
36:19.000 --> 36:23.000
and one was trying to turn them to the Lord.
36:23.000 --> 36:27.000
So you can't just say, "Egypt's bad, Egypt's bad,
36:27.000 --> 36:29.000
orange man bad," right?
36:29.000 --> 36:32.000
You've got to tell them what the good news is.
36:32.000 --> 36:36.000
Notice in verse 23 that Rabschika prayed them to
36:36.000 --> 36:40.000
"give pledges to my Lord, the King of Assyria."
36:40.000 --> 36:44.000
Now pledges are surities.
36:44.000 --> 36:46.000
One person pledges to another by giving him something,
36:46.000 --> 36:50.000
and that says, "I will either do this thing
36:50.000 --> 36:52.000
or I will not do this thing. Here's my pledge."
36:52.000 --> 36:55.000
And if the person violates terms of the pledge,
36:55.000 --> 36:58.000
then he forfeits the thing that he pledged.
36:58.000 --> 37:01.000
This pledge in our text was more like a wager,
37:01.000 --> 37:05.000
kind of like a bet, but it was a mockery
37:05.000 --> 37:08.000
on the part of Rabschika.
37:08.000 --> 37:10.000
Remember the context of what he's saying here.
37:10.000 --> 37:13.000
Assyria is poised to conquer Judah.
37:13.000 --> 37:16.000
They're ready, just like it conquered Israel.
37:16.000 --> 37:20.000
They had no trouble.
37:20.000 --> 37:22.000
And Rabschika has already warned Judah
37:22.000 --> 37:25.000
that their words about counsel and might were vain.
37:25.000 --> 37:31.000
He told them Egypt was impotent.
37:31.000 --> 37:33.000
They can't help you.
37:33.000 --> 37:35.000
And he told them the Lord God's not going to deliver you either
37:35.000 --> 37:38.000
because you've torn down his high places
37:38.000 --> 37:41.000
and made people come and worship at one altar.
37:41.000 --> 37:44.000
And now it appears Rabschika is challenging Judah
37:44.000 --> 37:48.000
to put 2,000 men on horses.
37:48.000 --> 37:52.000
Now for us, 2,000 would be a lot,
37:52.000 --> 37:55.000
but when you're considering an entire nation of people,
37:55.000 --> 37:58.000
2,000 is not that many.
37:58.000 --> 38:02.000
And when you consider the size of a large army,
38:02.000 --> 38:06.000
2,000 is not that many.
38:06.000 --> 38:08.000
And you'll see later in our studies
38:08.000 --> 38:11.000
that Assyria's army was at least 185,000 strong.
38:11.000 --> 38:18.000
So what kind of a challenge or pledge is this?
38:18.000 --> 38:22.000
Rabschika probably doesn't believe there are 2,000 men
38:22.000 --> 38:26.000
in all of Judah who could ride a horse.
38:26.000 --> 38:29.000
Now that's mockery.
38:29.000 --> 38:32.000
You've got this large Assyrian army out here,
38:32.000 --> 38:35.000
and I'll tell you what, if you can even put 2,000 men on a horse,
38:35.000 --> 38:39.000
we'll give them to you.
38:39.000 --> 38:40.000
We have them to spare here.
38:40.000 --> 38:44.000
On the other hand, there are probably 185,000 men in Assyria
38:44.000 --> 38:48.000
who know how to ride a horse.
38:48.000 --> 38:51.000
And if Judah can't even field 2,000 horsemen,
38:51.000 --> 38:55.000
then it would be obvious they cannot defeat the Assyrian army.
38:55.000 --> 38:58.000
I believe that's the picture Rabschika was painting
38:58.000 --> 39:02.000
for these men who heard in place of Hezekiah.
39:02.000 --> 39:08.000
Verse 24, "How then will thou turn away the face of one captain
39:08.000 --> 39:15.000
of the least of my master's servants,
39:15.000 --> 39:18.000
and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?"
39:18.000 --> 39:23.000
Rabschika assumed Judah could not even put 2,000 men on a horse.
39:23.000 --> 39:28.000
He assumed Egypt and the Lord would not save Judah.
39:28.000 --> 39:33.000
And based upon those assumptions,
39:33.000 --> 39:36.000
Rabschika questions how Judah could turn away a captain
39:36.000 --> 39:40.000
of even one of the least of his king's servants.
39:40.000 --> 39:43.000
Now this is haughty. This is prideful.
39:43.000 --> 39:46.000
But this is how the world views the Lord and His church.
39:46.000 --> 39:51.000
Exactly.
39:51.000 --> 39:54.000
So get it settled in your minds.
39:54.000 --> 39:56.000
The world doesn't just disagree with us agreeably.
39:56.000 --> 40:00.000
You know, we may have a conversation.
40:00.000 --> 40:03.000
Brother Billy and I might talk about the best kind of plastic worm
40:03.000 --> 40:08.000
to catch a bass during the spawn.
40:08.000 --> 40:11.000
He may say, "Oh, I go with a purple whitetail, 6-inch."
40:11.000 --> 40:14.000
I say, "Well, I kind of like the riverside floating lizard, 4-inch."
40:14.000 --> 40:18.000
And we might never agree on it.
40:18.000 --> 40:22.000
But we can do that agreeably.
40:22.000 --> 40:25.000
We can disagree agreeably and be friends, be brothers, no trouble.
40:25.000 --> 40:32.000
Now I'm sure there's some fishermen who can't do that.
40:32.000 --> 40:35.000
But the world doesn't see us that way.
40:35.000 --> 40:39.000
It not only disagrees with us, but it hates us
40:39.000 --> 40:42.000
and it hates the truth that we stand for.
40:42.000 --> 40:45.000
Because the truth we stand for, right here,
40:45.000 --> 40:48.000
flies in the face to most of what they're doing.
40:48.000 --> 40:51.000
It flies in the face of what they believe
40:51.000 --> 40:53.000
and how they live their lives
40:53.000 --> 40:55.000
and what their pastor tells them if they go to church.
40:55.000 --> 41:01.000
It hates that we preach the narrow way of the gospel.
41:01.000 --> 41:04.000
That is probably the most offensive thing to the world,
41:04.000 --> 41:08.000
especially the religious world,
41:08.000 --> 41:10.000
most of the Pharisees in Jesus' day and in Paul's day.
41:10.000 --> 41:15.000
The former governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura,
41:15.000 --> 41:19.000
you probably remember him, Jesse the body of Ventura.
41:19.000 --> 41:22.000
I wouldn't want to see what his body looks like now.
41:22.000 --> 41:24.000
I don't think it's probably not in very good shape.
41:24.000 --> 41:27.000
But he said this about organized religion.
41:27.000 --> 41:29.000
This is a quote.
41:29.000 --> 41:31.000
He said, "Organized religion is a sham
41:31.000 --> 41:34.000
and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers."
41:34.000 --> 41:39.000
Now, the pure, undefiled religion
41:39.000 --> 41:43.000
which the Lord's church undertakes is not a sham.
41:43.000 --> 41:48.000
It's not a crutch.
41:48.000 --> 41:50.000
And it's certainly not for weak-minded people
41:50.000 --> 41:54.000
because we're staking our eternity on it being correct.
41:54.000 --> 41:59.000
So our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is very narrow.
41:59.000 --> 42:02.000
It excludes all other hope upon which most of humanity has depended.
42:02.000 --> 42:09.000
Our religion does not depend on strength in numbers.
42:09.000 --> 42:13.000
It never has because the Bible says that few find eternal life
42:13.000 --> 42:21.000
and even fewer live their lives according to God's Word.
42:21.000 --> 42:26.000
What Governor Ventura got right is that organized religion
42:26.000 --> 42:30.000
the way the world does it is a sham.
42:30.000 --> 42:34.000
It is a crutch.
42:34.000 --> 42:37.000
It is for weak-minded people, the unbelievers.
42:37.000 --> 42:40.000
It is for people who not only need but who depend on strength in numbers.
42:40.000 --> 42:48.000
And when the Lord's church is criticized for its stand against sin,
42:48.000 --> 42:52.000
then organized religion comes out and says,
42:52.000 --> 42:55.000
"Well, how can that little church's position and opinions
42:55.000 --> 42:59.000
hold up against the position of even one of our convention pastors,
42:59.000 --> 43:04.000
one of our association bishops,
43:04.000 --> 43:07.000
much less against the entire convention and association,
43:07.000 --> 43:11.000
why the such-and-such Baptist convention just met
43:11.000 --> 43:15.000
and voted unanimously that this is what the truth is?"
43:15.000 --> 43:21.000
Or the bishop in such-and-such place in his high tower declared,
43:21.000 --> 43:27.000
"This is what the truth is."
43:27.000 --> 43:30.000
Rome said, "This is what the truth is."
43:30.000 --> 43:35.000
We don't depend on any of that.
43:35.000 --> 43:38.000
We don't depend on numbers, the approval of the world.
43:38.000 --> 43:41.000
We have a Bible, and we go to the Bible to see what the truth is.
43:41.000 --> 43:46.000
It says in verse 24, he said,
43:46.000 --> 43:50.000
"And put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen."
43:50.000 --> 43:53.000
This was part of the question.
43:53.000 --> 43:55.000
Again, Rabbi Sheikah is assuming God will have nothing to do
43:55.000 --> 43:59.000
with delivering Judah out of a serious hand.
43:59.000 --> 44:02.000
He narrows Judah's choices down to two.
44:02.000 --> 44:07.000
Choose Assyria's horses or Egypt's chariot and horsemen.
44:07.000 --> 44:12.000
And this is a false choice because these are not the only choices Judah has,
44:12.000 --> 44:17.000
and when we come back next week, we'll look at the choices they have.
44:17.000 --> 44:22.000
Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for giving us another Lord's Day to meet,
44:22.000 --> 44:28.000
to study your Word, to meditate upon it,
44:28.000 --> 44:31.000
because there's so much there to meditate upon.
44:31.000 --> 44:34.000
And I pray that it would grow us in the faith, draw us closer to you,
44:34.000 --> 44:39.000
and that when the world sees us, not through pride or vain glory,
44:39.000 --> 44:44.000
but by your grace may we be seen as shining objects in this dark world,
44:44.000 --> 44:49.000
that we may do as Jesus said, "Let our light so shine before men
44:49.000 --> 44:53.000
that they may see our good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven."
44:53.000 --> 44:56.000
We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.
44:56.000 --> 44:59.000
