Episode Transcript
Last week we actually ended our study by finishing verse 25 of 1 Kings chapter 18.
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And that's where we'll be this morning.
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1 Kings chapter 18 verse 25.
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"Rabshika, the leader of the Assyrian military, had tried to deceive Judah into thinking that God told him something.
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That he told him not only to go up against Judah but to destroy it."
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And we talked for a little while about how careful you need to be when some religious figure or anyone for that matter says,
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"God told me to do this. God gave me a secret revelation or any of that."
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Because it's usually nonsense. In fact it's always nonsense.
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If it's not something that God put in his word, don't trust it.
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"Rabshika was just another in a long line of charlatans who tried to deceive God's people."
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You know that's the devil's mission. If you can say he has one, he's a destroyer and he's a deceiver.
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Now he can't destroy God's people because we're safe in the arms of Jesus, aren't we? We're secure.
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But he can certainly deceive us.
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But for him to destroy all of Judah, which Rabshika said God told him to do,
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he would have to destroy the line of the seed of the Savior.
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And if you're not familiar with that, if you look both in the beginning of Luke,
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and I believe it's Luke chapter 1 and Matthew chapter 3, or it's Luke chapter 3 and Matthew chapter 1,
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and you don't have to go there now, but when you read that, it takes you from Adam all the way to the birth of the Savior.
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And as we know, Jesus wasn't born of the seed of Adam, but the man is named in the genealogy, in the family tree, in the Bible.
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That's just kind of the way it works out.
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And so if any of those people all the way down to Mary would have been killed,
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anyone in the line of the Savior, then Jesus wouldn't have been born from that line like God said he would be.
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He wouldn't be the line of the tribe of Judah if he came from Issachar.
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And so if you remember that when you study the Bible, any time you think, "Boy, the devil almost did it,"
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well, he didn't almost do it, only in our eyes.
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In God's eyes, it was never a possibility that the line of the Savior would be destroyed,
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that godly line all the way through man's history.
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In fact, let's go ahead and go back into chapter 18 in our text, verse 26, which is where we'll start reading.
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And let's begin reading there.
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"Then said Eliachim," now this is right after Rab Sheikah said what he said in verse 25,
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"Then said Eliachim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah unto Rab Sheikah,
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'Speak, I pray thee to thy servants in the Syrian language.'"
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Now when he says, "Speak to thy servants," Eliachim's not telling Rab Sheikah,
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"Tell all your servants all of these things in the Syrian language."
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That wouldn't make any sense.
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The words "thy servants" were often used to refer to the first person who was doing the speaking.
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So if Brother Luke was speaking to me in the 1700s, and I said, "Your servant hears you,"
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that means I hear you. Thy servants mean us when speaking to someone who is in a position of authority.
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So that's what Eliachim is telling Rab Sheikah, "Speak to us thy servants in the Syrian language,
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for we understand it." Now that word "we" tells you that the words "thy servants" mean "we."
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There's your proof right there.
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"For we understand it and talk not with us in the Jews' language,
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in the ears of the people that are on the wall."
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Now in this verse, it appears that Eliachim was the spokesman for these three government officials
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who are named, Shebna and Joah being the other two.
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And in representing King Hezekiah to Rab Sheikah, it was Eliachim, it appears to me,
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who was doing the talking. Now why would he ask Rab Sheikah to speak in the Syrian tongue?
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Well, it was as we'll see to avoid causing panic among the majority of the people
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who did not understand the Syrian language. If he spoke to them in their language,
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they would all understand. So the majority of the Jews we take from here did not speak
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the Syrian language. The majority of them spoke their language and maybe some other.
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That seems to be strongly implied here.
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But most of the translations I've consulted actually have this word "Syrian."
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If you look in your text, it's called the Syrian language.
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Most of those translations have it as the word Aramaic. It's the same thing.
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In fact, the original text has the word "arami," A-R-A-M-Y.
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So this language was Aramaic.
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And it's a language that you'll encounter, but rarely, in the translation of the Bible.
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Sometimes it is used. In fact, in Mark chapter 15, verse 34, when Jesus was on the cross,
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he spoke these words as recorded by John Mark.
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"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
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'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,' which being interpreted as my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
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The word "Eloi" or "Eloi" and "Sabachthani" are Aramaic, which is very close to Hebrew in many ways.
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Excuse me, let me pop another cough drop here.
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My wife's probably saying, "Put a cough drop in your mouth."
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This church has some dry air in it, and I can knock off all day and come sit in here
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and cough at the most inopportune moment or moments as is happening today.
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And I'm sorry it's a distraction. I know it is.
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But the point here is that the Syrian or Aramaic language was a language the common Jew did not know.
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However, it was probably customary for officials like Eliacim to know Aramaic or Syrian
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and probably other languages from other nations with whom they may have interacted when they traded
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or in this case had a military struggle.
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Eliacim wanted Rabshika to speak in his native tongue, and that's probably to keep the Jews
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who were listening from being panicked at those words.
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Now that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? It does.
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Look in verse 27, and it starts with the word "but."
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So now we know just by looking at the word "but," this reasonable request made by Eliacim
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is not going to be honored because it says "but, Rabshika."
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He's going to do something other than what was suggested here.
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"But, Rabshika said unto them, 'Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words?
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Hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall that they may eat their own dung
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and drink their own piss with you?'"
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Now another translation of the first part of this verse reads,
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this may make it more clear for you,
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"Hath my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words?"
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And this would be the case if Rabshika spoke in his native language
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because only Hezekiah and some of his officials like Eliacim would understand those words.
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But on the contrary, Rabshika says, "My king didn't send me just to you fellows
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to speak to you in the Syrian language and to tell you all this.
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He sent me to speak to everyone that's on the wall, everybody."
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And these were most likely soldiers and perhaps some curious Jews who were on the wall
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wanting to see what was going on after all their city had been besieged.
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And it's no secret that if someone like Rabshika can get the people stirred up in a panic,
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then he can get an advantage.
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It's hard to get people to do anything when they're scared, isn't it?
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What do we usually tell them?
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"Hey, calm down for a second. Calm down. Let's think this through."
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So the implication is that people who are not calmed down,
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who are in a panic or having an anxiety attack, they're not being rational.
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And so for Rabshika to get everyone stirred up,
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create anxiety among the people is a great advantage to him
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because those people would probably turn on their own leaders
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and want them to do things that they would normally not suggest they do.
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And there's nothing like people running all over the place
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and fear-mongering and spreading chaos.
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And I want to tell you, and this isn't being ugly, this is just being observant.
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Most people are easily swayed by this type of rhetoric.
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They really are.
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They scare easily. Most people scare pretty easily.
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Let's just take the people in our church, including our online members,
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and if you're not a member and you're watching or you're here,
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you're included too, all right?
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Doesn't that make you feel needed?
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You're included in this group too.
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Whenever there's a loud thunderclap while Brother Fulton is preaching,
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what do most of you do?
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You look up or you look out like you can see it through the roof or something,
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but most of you get startled and you look up to the sky.
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And maybe for some of you, maybe your heart starts racing
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and it might take you a few minutes to either calm down
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or to get that thunder out of your mind.
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But there are also probably a few of our members and people watching
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who can hear a thunderclap and never flinch, and I'm one of those people.
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That's just a gift God's given me.
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I don't know when I was aware that I had that,
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but I imagine Brother Fulton is the same way.
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And you have to have those characteristics to do what he and I have done
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for a living for the majority of our lives.
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You have to be the one who's calm when everybody's running around
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like a chicken with their head cut off.
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I don't know how far that kind of chicken can run,
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but that's always been the analogy I've heard.
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But there has to be somebody who runs toward the fire,
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who calms the people down, who gathers them and says,
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"Hey, you're okay. Have a seat over here. Get a drink of water."
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Somebody has to do that.
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We're not all alike, are we?
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We're not all going to panic and we're not all going to be calm.
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And the devil knows that, by the way.
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So on a larger scale, such as the scene we're studying here in Judah,
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Hezekiah and some of his officials were most likely the ones
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who wouldn't be easily startled.
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But the common people were prone to anxiety.
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By and large, the common people were prone to anxiety.
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Now, when I went through the DPS Academy in 1988,
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after that it was easy.
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Brother Fulton went through the next class.
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It was a lot easier.
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No, it wasn't. And it's still not.
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But when I went through, they had certain exercises and tests along the way
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to weed out people who either didn't really want to be there
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or who didn't need to be there.
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And one of those was in the boxing ring.
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Now, right away, when somebody found out they were going to box,
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their anxiety level went up.
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I mean, all of ours did.
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We had some Golden Gloves fighters in our class.
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We had some martial artists and all that.
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And you just didn't know who you were going to draw.
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And so they would post on a certain Friday early in the school,
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they would post who your matchup was for Monday.
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Well, guess what happened?
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Some people didn't show back up Monday.
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They said, "I'm not fighting that big guy."
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And that's exactly what they wanted.
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Whether you won or not didn't matter.
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It was, "What did that do to you mentally, emotionally,
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when you found out you were going to have to box somebody
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who you thought might be able to whoop you?"
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And so that people would leave over that
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or they'd leave over not being able to pass the tests
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or whatever it was.
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But it got whittled down.
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So most people did not belong in that academy.
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And that's OK.
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Because there were people in that academy
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who graduated like me who don't belong in other professions.
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Like teaching elementary school students.
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That's not where Brother Andy needs to be.
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I'd be fired in about three seconds, especially now.
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It might take two seconds.
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But the devil has a tendency to use this character trait
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that people have against them.
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That is, that they're prone to anxiety.
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They're prone to hearing words and just being
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scared out of their wits.
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And in fact, he's, in a sense, spoken to some of you.
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I'm not saying audibly.
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I don't believe that.
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But he's spoken to you in your own language,
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telling you, hey, you're not saved.
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Or God's going to punish you for that.
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You're going to lose your salvation.
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Or maybe he convinces you you're going to die.
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And so on.
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Now, the people of Judah had gone away from God's word.
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Now, that's very clear in what we've read so far.
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So it was no wonder that they would be scared at the words
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of Rabshika.
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Their faith in God was weak.
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Their commitment to God's word.
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Why, you saw what Hezekiah told the priest to do.
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He said, clean out that temple.
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Sanctify yourselves.
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The priesthood was weak.
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The people, by and large, had walked so far away from God,
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they didn't have his word right here.
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They weren't holding on to his word.
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And so they only had their own defenses
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to rely on against the devil.
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And guess what?
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You're going to lose every time if you
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rely on your own defenses, on your own psychological
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strategies to fight off the devil and those thoughts
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he puts into your mind.
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So their faith in God was weak.
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Now, are you easily swayed by the devil?
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Does he cause you to doubt?
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Then what you need to do is to cling to God's word
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when you're in fear.
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And the more you know God's word--
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and this was the case with the people in Judah--
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the more you know God's word and the more
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you trust in God's word, so you know it
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and you say, I believe that.
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What's written right there, I trust in that.
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Then the less you will fear what Satan can do to you.
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So whenever he suggests to you that that sin you did last week
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would undo your salvation, then you
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can lean on Jesus' words, "Whosoever believeth in me
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is not condemned."
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Say, no, I'm not.
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Even if you say it out loud, that's fine.
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But if the devil tries to convince you,
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hey, what you did last week, even Jesus
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can't forgive that one.
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You can say, nope, "Whosoever believeth in me
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is not condemned."
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I'm not condemned.
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And you hang on to that scripture, because that is truth.
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And oh, how Judah needed to return to God's word.
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And wouldn't it have been wonderful if Eliachim
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could have told Rabbi Sheikah, hey,
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I don't care whether you speak Syrian, Hebrew, or Pig Latin.
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These are God's people.
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And they are trusting in the Lord their God.
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And you can ask any of them, and they know God's word.
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And you're not going to shake their faith.
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You can trample this city from one end to the other,
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and they're still going to trust in God.
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Wouldn't it have been nice if he could tell them--
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if Eliachim could tell Rabbi Sheikah
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that the people are not afraid of what you can do to them?
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Now, as a Bible teacher, and I feel sure I
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speak for Brother Fulton, we have a job to do.
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We have a lot of jobs to do.
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But that job is to feed you God's word every time we meet.
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What did Jesus tell Simon Peter?
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As a test of whether he loved him, he said, do you love me?
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And he said, you know I love you, Lord.
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And he said, feed my sheep.
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That was what he told him to do.
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He didn't say, start up a baseball team at your church,
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Peter.
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He didn't say, be sure you have this so-and-so celebration here
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or do this thing there.
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He said, feed my sheep.
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That was his number one assignment.
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That was the thing that was most important to Jesus' heart
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for his pastors, for his apostles,
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is that his sheep be fed.
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So if you find a pastor, wherever he is,
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you find a Bible teacher, wherever he is,
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and he feeds the sheep, you stick with him.
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You stay with him.
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You pray for him, support him, love him.
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Do everything you can to encourage him,
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because not many people will.
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He's not flashy enough.
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While he's boring, if you love God's word,
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you're not bored when God's word's being taught.
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If you are bored when God's word's being taught,
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either you have a problem or the preacher does,
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because he's not doing it right.
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Charles Spurgeon put it on the preachers.
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He said, if people fall asleep while you're teaching,
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that's on you.
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That's not on them.
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I'm not sure I believe that.
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I don't know if Valium was around when Charles Spurgeon was
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a preacher, but anyway, he was very adamant about teaching
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God's word.
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And that's what Jesus wants us to do.
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So when we feed you God's word in here,
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we're doing it not just so we can say, hey,
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I preach the Bible today, but we want to encourage you
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to believe it and to embrace it so that when the devil tries
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to make you fear, when he's like Rabshika
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and he's shouting at the people on the wall, you,
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and trying to get you to be afraid,
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then you can hold up the armor of God,
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and part of which is the shield of faith
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and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
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That's all found in Ephesians chapter 5, by the way.
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Ephesians 6.
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And you'd do well to learn that.
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And we would be able, in that case, to tell Satan,
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hey, go ahead and speak to them in their language.
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They're not going to hear you because they
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know God's language.
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And God's language is his word.
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And because they know his language
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and they speak his language, they're not afraid.
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I hope Kelly McCormick is watching.
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Kelly, yesterday I read your testimony about how you came out
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of the Word of Faith movement.
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If you all get time, I suggest you read Kelly's testimony.
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It's on her Facebook page.
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And I'm not a big Facebook guy.
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I found it.
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And I found that testimony.
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And it was-- boy, it was wonderful.
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It was precious.
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It was revealing.
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It was hard for her to write because she's a private person
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and didn't like to reveal things about her past like that.
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I'll tell you what it was encouraging to me.
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And Kelly was taught, when she was in that Word of Faith
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movement, that-- and you know she's
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got some physical disabilities--
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that if she wasn't healed of her physical illnesses,
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that it was her fault for not having enough faith.
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Now, she was taught that.
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Can you imagine the anxiety that would cause someone
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who loves God, who is trying to do what God wants her to do,
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and then some charlatan, some unsaved so-called preacher,
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tells her, the reason you're not healed
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is because your faith is weak?
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And the devil had used these false preachers to scare her
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and to cause her to have severe anxiety.
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She was affected physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
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But as she testified, God used some godly people
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to point her back to the Bible and to what Jesus had done for
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her.
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There was a particular lady she talked about,
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and then she talked about our pastor as she came to that
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No I'm Saved website.
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And once she had been convinced that what Jesus did for her
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is where her salvation was and where
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her assurance of salvation was, your salvation
22:39 --> 22:43
and your assurance are in the same person.
22:43 --> 22:46
You say it's not that your salvation is in Jesus
22:46 --> 22:48
and your assurance is in how tightly you hang on,
22:48 --> 22:51
because you'll drop it.
22:51 --> 22:53
Both are in Jesus.
22:53 --> 22:54
And when she realized that and she embraced that,
22:54 --> 22:57
it cleared up all the confusion.
22:57 --> 23:00
Then it didn't matter what language Satan spoke,
23:00 --> 23:04
because she knew where her answers were.
23:04 --> 23:07
And she knew she was safe in Jesus' arms.
23:07 --> 23:13
Now not only was Rabbi Sheikah planning
23:13 --> 23:15
to speak to the men on the wall in the Hebrew tongue,
23:15 --> 23:19
but as he told Eliachim and these other two officials,
23:19 --> 23:24
he was doing it for a reason, that they
23:24 --> 23:27
may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you.
23:27 --> 23:29
Now this sounds gross, and it is.
23:29 --> 23:33
But I believe this is a reference to those men
23:33 --> 23:37
on the wall, those people on the wall, being in such anxiety
23:37 --> 23:41
and fear after hearing Rabbi Sheikah's words
23:41 --> 23:45
that they would actually resort to doing such a foul thing
23:45 --> 23:49
to themselves, such an unclean habit.
23:49 --> 23:53
You know, fear and anxiety can cause you to do things you never
23:53 --> 23:56
thought you would do.
23:56 --> 23:58
And that's what Rabbi Sheikah was
23:58 --> 23:59
hoping to induce in these Jews on the wall.
23:59 --> 24:05
Now look back in your text at verse 28.
24:05 --> 24:07
"Then Rabbi Sheikah stood and cried with a loud voice
24:09 --> 24:12
in the Jews' language and spake, saying,
24:12 --> 24:15
hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria."
24:15 --> 24:21
Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
24:21 --> 24:26
Now the words that follow these words
24:26 --> 24:29
are the ones that are supposed to make the Jews so afraid
24:29 --> 24:33
that they will eat and drink their own waste.
24:33 --> 24:36
But once again, what Rabbi Sheikah does not know
24:36 --> 24:41
is that many of the people have heard the words of their great
24:41 --> 24:47
king Hezekiah.
24:47 --> 24:49
And their great king Hezekiah has pointed them
24:49 --> 24:52
toward the Lord.
24:52 --> 24:53
He said, we're taking the Passover again.
24:53 --> 24:54
We're cleaning out the temple.
24:54 --> 24:56
The priests are going to be sanctified.
24:56 --> 24:57
We're going to do this right.
24:57 --> 25:00
And Rabbi Sheikah didn't know that these people had already
25:00 --> 25:04
been encouraged by the words of the Lord.
25:04 --> 25:07
Did you know that one day those who
25:07 --> 25:11
have heard the word of the king of kings, who Hezekiah
25:11 --> 25:14
represents here, will be told to hear the word of another king,
25:14 --> 25:19
just like Judah was told to hear the words of Sennacherib.
25:19 --> 25:22
Now that's the king of Assyria, Rabbi Sheikah's talking about
25:22 --> 25:26
here.
25:26 --> 25:28
And we find, among other places, we find this truth in Matthew 24
25:28 --> 25:33
verses 21 through 26.
25:33 --> 25:37
Matthew 24 verses 21 through 26, if you want to write that down,
25:37 --> 25:43
where he said, "For then shall be great tribulation,
25:43 --> 25:47
such as was not since the beginning of the world to this
25:47 --> 25:50
time, no, nor shall ever be.
25:50 --> 25:53
And except those days should be shortened,
25:53 --> 25:55
there should no flesh be saved.
25:55 --> 25:57
But for the elect's sake," that's the saved,
25:57 --> 26:00
"those days shall be shortened."
26:00 --> 26:03
Now listen to what is going to be said to the elect,
26:03 --> 26:06
to these people, the saved.
26:06 --> 26:09
"Then if any man shall say unto you,
26:09 --> 26:13
lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not.
26:13 --> 26:17
For there shall arise false Christ and false prophets,
26:17 --> 26:20
and shall show great signs and wonders,
26:20 --> 26:22
insomuch that if it were possible,
26:22 --> 26:26
they shall deceive the very elect.
26:26 --> 26:28
Behold, I have told you before, wherefore if they shall say
26:28 --> 26:31
unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth.
26:31 --> 26:35
Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not."
26:35 --> 26:39
Jesus said to those of you--
26:39 --> 26:43
and I'm giving you another angle here--
26:43 --> 26:46
to those of you who know my language,
26:46 --> 26:49
to those of you who are the elect,
26:49 --> 26:50
that's everybody who's ever put their faith in Jesus Christ.
26:50 --> 26:55
To you all, there will be false prophets,
26:55 --> 26:58
and they'll say, hey, look over here, there's Jesus.
26:58 --> 27:01
Hey, look over there.
27:01 --> 27:02
He's in the desert.
27:02 --> 27:03
Go after him now.
27:03 --> 27:05
He said, don't listen to him.
27:05 --> 27:08
Now, what's Rabbi Sheikah do?
27:08 --> 27:09
And he's telling the people who have heard the words
27:09 --> 27:12
from God's language--
27:12 --> 27:14
He has a chai that spoke it to him.
27:14 --> 27:16
He's trying to tell them these things that follow.
27:16 --> 27:21
And just as Jesus tells his elect,
27:21 --> 27:24
has a chai when one way or another would tell his people,
27:24 --> 27:28
don't you worry about what he says.
27:28 --> 27:29
In fact, don't believe it, because the Lord our God
27:29 --> 27:32
is with us as we studied a couple of lessons ago.
27:32 --> 27:36
Now, this is why you need to read your Bible and study it.
27:36 --> 27:47
So you can know whether you're hearing
27:47 --> 27:49
the words of the great king or the words of an imposter.
27:49 --> 27:56
The words of the imposter, the devil, the deceiver,
27:56 --> 27:59
are cunning.
27:59 --> 27:59
They're very similar to what God's word says.
27:59 --> 28:04
They parallel it.
28:04 --> 28:05
They're so close.
28:05 --> 28:08
And they sound sweet.
28:08 --> 28:11
But in the end, those words end in bitterness and sorrow
28:11 --> 28:18
and destruction.
28:18 --> 28:20
Don't believe them.
28:20 --> 28:21
But how will you know?
28:21 --> 28:22
How will you know the difference?
28:22 --> 28:24
Well, do you know the language of the Bible?
28:24 --> 28:27
I'm not asking if you know Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek.
28:27 --> 28:31
I'm asking if you know the language of the Bible.
28:31 --> 28:35
The language of the Bible is the same,
28:35 --> 28:37
whether it's written and translated
28:37 --> 28:39
into Spanish, Latin, Russian, English,
28:39 --> 28:41
or any other language.
28:41 --> 28:42
It's the same.
28:42 --> 28:45
And that language is composed of every word.
28:45 --> 28:48
God has spoken to mankind words that
28:48 --> 28:51
were written over a 1,500-year period by 40 men
28:51 --> 28:56
and preserved throughout the ages for everyone to read.
28:56 --> 28:59
Now, we don't have the original documents.
28:59 --> 29:01
Those were disintegrated and all that.
29:01 --> 29:03
But they were copied.
29:03 --> 29:04
And those were copied.
29:04 --> 29:05
And those were copied.
29:05 --> 29:06
And they were in various parts of that part of the world.
29:06 --> 29:09
And they all say the same thing.
29:09 --> 29:11
That's the language of the Bible.
29:11 --> 29:15
And one of the reasons that you should memorize scripture
29:15 --> 29:19
is so you will know the difference
29:19 --> 29:21
between the language of the Bible-- that's God's language--
29:21 --> 29:25
and the language of Satan, which is anything
29:25 --> 29:28
contrary to God's word.
29:28 --> 29:31
Now, why do people believe they should say a sinner's prayer
29:31 --> 29:34
to be saved?
29:34 --> 29:36
Because they don't know God's language.
29:36 --> 29:39
Why do people believe that God can't keep them saved even
29:39 --> 29:44
after they believed his gospel?
29:44 --> 29:46
Because they don't know God's language.
29:46 --> 29:50
The language of the devil, just like the language of Rabbi
29:50 --> 29:52
Sheikah, has scared them and given them anxiety.
29:52 --> 29:56
That's what Rabbi Sheikah hoped to do to the people of Judah.
29:56 --> 30:01
And that's what the devil does to you today.
30:01 --> 30:04
When the Bible says, be sober, be vigilant for your adversary,
30:04 --> 30:09
the devil, like a roaring lion walketh
30:09 --> 30:11
about seeking whom he may devour.
30:11 --> 30:13
How do you remain sober and vigilant?
30:13 --> 30:16
By learning, memorizing, embracing, and applying
30:16 --> 30:20
God's language.
30:20 --> 30:22
That's how there's not anything, any certain exercise or class
30:22 --> 30:28
you can take to ward off the devil.
30:28 --> 30:30
You need the language of the Bible,
30:30 --> 30:33
or you're not going to be successful.
30:33 --> 30:35
If I could give you people who are anxious one piece of advice,
30:35 --> 30:46
it would be this--
30:46 --> 30:47
discipline yourselves to memorize scriptures
30:47 --> 30:52
that pertain to the very things that make you anxious.
30:52 --> 30:55
Did you hear that?
30:55 --> 30:56
Discipline yourselves to memorize
30:56 --> 31:00
scriptures that pertain to the very things that
31:00 --> 31:02
make you anxious.
31:02 --> 31:06
And when you memorize those scriptures,
31:06 --> 31:09
you put them on your hard drive up here.
31:09 --> 31:11
They will be retrievable at the very moment you're in fear.
31:11 --> 31:16
I'm going to read you one, Psalm 56, verses 3 through 4.
31:16 --> 31:24
Psalm 56, 3 through 4, where the psalmist wrote,
31:24 --> 31:28
"What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
31:28 --> 31:32
In God I will praise his word.
31:32 --> 31:34
In God I have put my trust.
31:34 --> 31:37
I will not fear what flesh can do unto me."
31:37 --> 31:40
Man, that's good, isn't it?
31:40 --> 31:43
And have those two verses ready.
31:43 --> 31:46
And every time the devil tries to bring you fear and anxiety,
31:46 --> 31:51
like Rabshika did these people on the wall,
31:51 --> 31:54
you say those words.
31:54 --> 31:56
Whether out loud or in your mind, you say those words.
31:56 --> 32:00
You embrace those words.
32:00 --> 32:01
You know they're true.
32:01 --> 32:04
These words aren't just vain words.
32:04 --> 32:06
They are powerful words.
32:06 --> 32:08
And they belong to you.
32:08 --> 32:10
You're not borrowing them from someone.
32:10 --> 32:12
God gave them to you for just such a time as this.
32:12 --> 32:17
And in fact, if you are somebody who
32:17 --> 32:20
struggles with anxiety and fear, I
32:20 --> 32:23
would like to suggest that you memorize Psalm chapter 56,
32:23 --> 32:27
the whole Psalm.
32:27 --> 32:28
It's 13 short verses.
32:28 --> 32:30
And I know you can do it, because you memorized
32:30 --> 32:32
all three verses of a rock and roll song
32:32 --> 32:34
when you were a teenager.
32:34 --> 32:36
Don't raise your hand, but you did.
32:36 --> 32:37
In fact, you probably know a bunch of them.
32:37 --> 32:40
So you know what that means?
32:40 --> 32:41
You memorized scripture, too.
32:41 --> 32:43
Your mind is able to memorize scripture.
32:43 --> 32:46
And I like the value that brings to the brain
32:46 --> 32:50
a whole lot more than some silly earthly song does.
32:50 --> 32:54
You just memorize one verse a day,
32:54 --> 32:56
or if you say, man, it really takes me a long time
32:56 --> 32:59
to memorize.
32:59 --> 32:59
That's OK.
32:59 --> 33:00
How about one a week?
33:00 --> 33:01
Just memorize one verse a week.
33:01 --> 33:04
And in 13 days or 13 weeks, you will have--
33:04 --> 33:07
that will be your victory psalm.
33:07 --> 33:09
There are a bunch of them.
33:09 --> 33:10
But that will be your victory psalm
33:10 --> 33:12
over fear and anxiety, because that's what bothers,
33:12 --> 33:17
I think, more people than anything else today,
33:17 --> 33:19
is fear and anxiety.
33:19 --> 33:21
If I were a therapist, that would probably
33:21 --> 33:23
be the number one thing that I talk to people about
33:23 --> 33:26
is fear and anxiety.
33:26 --> 33:28
I know people around me who have it.
33:28 --> 33:30
I know people here who have it, family members.
33:30 --> 33:34
And God loves you, and He gave you something
33:34 --> 33:36
that you can do about it.
33:36 --> 33:38
And that is to cling to His word.
33:38 --> 33:40
Now look back in verse 29.
33:40 --> 33:43
I hope that helps some of you.
33:43 --> 33:44
I really do.
33:44 --> 33:46
Verse 29, "Thus--" these are the words of Rab Sheikah.
33:46 --> 33:52
Now these are the ones he's hoping to use to cause
33:52 --> 33:54
this anxiety in the Jews.
33:54 --> 33:55
"Thus saith the king, let not Hezekiah deceive you,
33:55 --> 34:00
for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand."
34:00 --> 34:06
Well, that's the first thing he did.
34:06 --> 34:09
He said, don't believe what Hezekiah says.
34:09 --> 34:12
It's fake news.
34:12 --> 34:16
That's always what wicked men say, isn't it?
34:16 --> 34:19
And they say that for two reasons.
34:19 --> 34:23
One, they don't want you to believe truth.
34:23 --> 34:26
That's the first thing that the devil wants to do,
34:26 --> 34:28
is get you away from truth.
34:28 --> 34:31
If he can get you to not believe truth or to question it,
34:31 --> 34:35
kind of do it cafeteria style, where you take a little of that
34:35 --> 34:38
and you reject that and you take a little of that,
34:38 --> 34:40
anything to get you away from the truth,
34:40 --> 34:42
he's got you headed where he wants you.
34:42 --> 34:46
And another reason, and even more sinister,
34:46 --> 34:49
wicked men use the same words that righteous men use when
34:49 --> 34:54
we try to warn people about false prophets.
34:54 --> 34:59
We call them false prophets.
34:59 --> 35:00
What do they say?
35:00 --> 35:01
No, we're not.
35:01 --> 35:01
You are.
35:01 --> 35:03
I mean, little boys and girls do that.
35:03 --> 35:05
I know you are, but what am I?
35:05 --> 35:06
I know you are, but what am I?
35:06 --> 35:08
I'm not either.
35:08 --> 35:09
That's you.
35:09 --> 35:09
No, I'm not.
35:09 --> 35:10
That little argument.
35:10 --> 35:12
And that's what these wicked men do.
35:12 --> 35:15
So all of the truth that Hezekiah spoke to his priests,
35:15 --> 35:19
to his people, first thing Rabbi Sheikah said is, hey,
35:19 --> 35:23
don't believe what that guy says.
35:23 --> 35:25
Now, if he can get the people not to believe what Hezekiah
35:25 --> 35:29
says, he's got his nose under the tent, doesn't he?
35:29 --> 35:33
And he's about to turn it over.
35:33 --> 35:36
Now, what did Jesus tell his elect
35:36 --> 35:38
to do with the words of the false prophets and false
35:38 --> 35:41
Christ?
35:41 --> 35:43
Believe them not.
35:43 --> 35:44
Believe them not.
35:44 --> 35:46
What's Rabbi Sheikah doing to the people who have heard
35:46 --> 35:49
the truth from their king?
35:49 --> 35:51
He said, believe him not.
35:51 --> 35:52
So the wicked are going to take those very words that we use
35:52 --> 35:57
and try to turn them around on us.
35:57 --> 36:00
Rabbi Sheikah used the word deceive here in the text.
36:00 --> 36:06
He said, let not Hezekiah deceive you,
36:06 --> 36:11
as though Hezekiah's words would deceive Judah.
36:11 --> 36:17
Now, Rabbi Sheikah was, in fact, the deceiver.
36:17 --> 36:21
He was a gaslighter, wasn't he, if you know what gaslighting is.
36:21 --> 36:24
In psychology, we call this projection.
36:24 --> 36:28
And that is attributing your own characteristics
36:28 --> 36:31
to other people.
36:31 --> 36:33
So if I'm an angry person, I lose my temper all the time.
36:33 --> 36:38
And I am in an argument with somebody.
36:38 --> 36:41
I may say, well, you're angry.
36:41 --> 36:43
You're always losing your temper,
36:43 --> 36:44
when in fact, that's my personality defect.
36:44 --> 36:48
When Christian haters say, Christians are dangerous.
36:48 --> 36:52
Have you noticed the word dangerous
36:52 --> 36:54
gets used by the liberals?
36:54 --> 36:56
About as much as any other word does.
36:56 --> 36:58
This is kind of the new thing, at least in my view.
36:58 --> 37:02
They're saying, all these things that we
37:02 --> 37:04
do to try to protect the unborn and to keep men out
37:04 --> 37:08
of women's locker rooms and all of that, that's dangerous.
37:08 --> 37:11
It's dangerous.
37:11 --> 37:11
It's not dangerous.
37:11 --> 37:13
What they're doing is dangerous.
37:13 --> 37:16
And Christian, not what the world calls a Christian,
37:16 --> 37:21
but one who is born again, saved by faith
37:21 --> 37:23
in the gospel of Jesus, a Christian
37:23 --> 37:26
is the least dangerous person on the face of the earth.
37:26 --> 37:31
Nobody will love his neighbor more than a Christian does
37:31 --> 37:35
when he's walking in the spirit.
37:35 --> 37:37
And we're not dangerous.
37:37 --> 37:39
The people who call us dangerous are
37:39 --> 37:41
the ones who are dangerous.
37:41 --> 37:43
Hezekiah was not a deceiver, even though Rabshika
37:43 --> 37:47
called him one.
37:47 --> 37:50
Listen to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 6.
37:50 --> 37:53
Ephesians 5 and verse 6, "Let no man deceive you with vain words,
37:53 --> 37:59
for because of these things cometh the wrath of God
37:59 --> 38:01
upon the children of disobedience."
38:01 --> 38:04
Now, Rabshika was a child of disobedience.
38:04 --> 38:08
His words were vain, not Hezekiahs.
38:08 --> 38:11
His words were deceitful, not Hezekiahs.
38:11 --> 38:15
In fact, the words Hezekiah spoke were true,
38:15 --> 38:19
and they were life-giving.
38:19 --> 38:21
But Rabshika implied they were harmful and not
38:21 --> 38:24
to be believed, because he said, don't let him deceive you.
38:24 --> 38:29
Isaiah, the prophet, warned us about people like Rabshika.
38:29 --> 38:33
In Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20, Isaiah 5 and verse 20,
38:33 --> 38:39
he said, "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil,
38:39 --> 38:45
that put darkness for light and light for darkness,
38:45 --> 38:49
that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
38:49 --> 38:53
So that can be applied here.
38:53 --> 38:55
Woe unto Rabshika, who calls a man telling the truth
38:55 --> 38:59
a deceiver, who tells the people not
38:59 --> 39:01
to believe that which they should believe.
39:01 --> 39:04
It's the same principle.
39:04 --> 39:06
And the Apostle Paul, who wrote Ephesians,
39:06 --> 39:09
I read to you a moment ago, both in his day and in our day,
39:09 --> 39:15
Christians have been called all kinds of derogatory names.
39:15 --> 39:19
God's word has been doubted and mocked and maligned and misused
39:19 --> 39:24
by wicked men for their own lewd purposes.
39:24 --> 39:28
If you have your Bible, you treasure the truth that's in it.
39:28 --> 39:32
Don't forsake it.
39:32 --> 39:34
Don't walk around as a milk-drinking Christian
39:34 --> 39:37
your whole life.
39:37 --> 39:39
Get to the strong meat.
39:39 --> 39:42
And that's Scripture, Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12.
39:42 --> 39:47
In case you're stuck on high center with this, Hebrews
39:47 --> 39:50
chapter 5 and verse 12.
39:50 --> 39:53
"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers,
39:53 --> 39:56
ye have need that one teach you again,
39:56 --> 40:00
which be the first principles of the oracles of God,
40:00 --> 40:03
and are become such as have need of milk and not
40:03 --> 40:06
of strong meat."
40:06 --> 40:07
Now, he wasn't congratulating these Hebrew Christians.
40:07 --> 40:11
He was saying, you guys are-- you're stuck on high center.
40:11 --> 40:14
You got the gospel down, but even now we're
40:14 --> 40:17
having to teach you that again.
40:17 --> 40:20
You know, milk is easy to drink.
40:20 --> 40:22
You don't have to be very old to drink milk.
40:22 --> 40:24
A baby will naturally start off with his mother's milk,
40:24 --> 40:28
but one day he will graduate to eating strong meat.
40:28 --> 40:33
And a Christian ought to do the same.
40:33 --> 40:35
And spiritually speaking, it is wonderful
40:35 --> 40:38
to see a new Christian drinking that milk.
40:38 --> 40:42
But it's not so wonderful to see someone
40:42 --> 40:44
who's been a Christian 10 or 20 years still drinking only milk
40:44 --> 40:49
and not eating strong meat.
40:49 --> 40:51
And I'll tell you what, there were many years
40:51 --> 40:54
when I was a milk drinking Christian,
40:54 --> 40:56
and I'm embarrassed to say that.
40:56 --> 41:00
And I'm thankful the Lord led me to become
41:00 --> 41:02
a student of his word, not just one
41:02 --> 41:05
who carried this book around and relied upon the cliff
41:05 --> 41:07
notes I got from all these other pastors who
41:07 --> 41:10
had their cute little sound bites and sayings.
41:10 --> 41:15
And for over a decade, I was under the pastorate
41:15 --> 41:18
of a man who had a doctorate degree in theology.
41:18 --> 41:22
This was many years ago.
41:22 --> 41:25
And at first, I thought I was in good hands, spiritually
41:25 --> 41:27
speaking, but I didn't realize I was starving to death
41:27 --> 41:31
as a Christian.
41:31 --> 41:32
And I began fellowshipping with Brother Fulton
41:32 --> 41:34
mostly over the phone.
41:34 --> 41:36
He and I used to have some really long telephone calls.
41:36 --> 41:41
And we weren't just chewing the fat.
41:41 --> 41:42
We were talking about the Lord, and that was mostly
41:42 --> 41:45
me learning from him.
41:45 --> 41:47
And I began that fellowship, and I
41:47 --> 41:53
realized this guy knows so much more about the Bible than I do.
41:53 --> 41:58
And when I'd make a statement about something theological,
41:58 --> 42:02
he never berated me, never made me feel stupid,
42:02 --> 42:05
even though I was.
42:05 --> 42:07
But he'd asked me something like this, brother, what scripture
42:07 --> 42:11
did you get that from?
42:11 --> 42:12
Just that sweet tone of voice he has.
42:12 --> 42:15
And I quickly realized that he was going to ask me
42:15 --> 42:18
that every time I made some bold statement about my faith
42:18 --> 42:23
in a certain doctrine.
42:23 --> 42:25
And God used those profitable conversations
42:25 --> 42:28
with Brother Fulton to convey a simple truth to me.
42:28 --> 42:32
And that truth was that I needed to become
42:32 --> 42:35
a serious student of the Bible.
42:35 --> 42:38
And since that time, I haven't always
42:38 --> 42:40
understood every doctrine properly the first time I
42:40 --> 42:43
studied, or even the second time.
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But I learned that it doesn't matter what Baptists believe.
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It doesn't matter what the church covenant says.
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It doesn't matter what other popular preachers say.
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It only matters what God's word says.
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And that is true about every doctrine every time.
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And you fast forward to today, I've
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been eating strong meat for a long time now.
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And I regret not having begun to do it years ago.
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But I'm thankful God didn't toss me to the side
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and say, you're just going to be a milk drinker your whole life.
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He's so faithful to give you milk, then strong meat.
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If you'll just be faithful to study
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his word, which is his language.
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And I'll finish with this.
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We're just running a couple minutes past here.
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I never do this.
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But while milk is easy to drink, strong meat's not.
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In fact, you don't drink strong meat.
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You chew it.
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And it's hard work.
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You chew it a lot.
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And that's why you have to study,
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which is also hard work.
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And as our pastor alluded to in a prior message,
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don't let your testimony be, well, at least I'm saved.
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And that's it.
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You need to grow.
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A person who's a midget or a dwarf cannot help it.
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He was born that way.
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But a spiritual midget has nobody to blame but himself.
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And let's just stop right there.
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And we'll pick up next week where we left off.
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Father, thank you for giving us the time.
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Father, thank you for helping me to speak enough
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to where I wasn't such a distraction
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and to pray for strength of voice
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and also for our pastor as he speaks in the next hour.
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Enable him, help us to be good listeners
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and to set aside all these distractions we have
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and all the stain that the world has left on us
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through our ears and through our eyes and in our thoughts.
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And build us up in the faith today.
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And we sure appreciate everybody who's faithful to come
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and to tune in.
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And we pray they grow in the Lord Jesus Christ
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and in his grace.
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It's his name we pray.
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Amen.
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