WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:07.020 Man's second king, chapter number 16, the Bible reads in verse number one in the seventh year of Pica, the son of Remeliah. 00:07.780 --> 00:10.620 Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to raise. 00:11.240 --> 00:17.360 Reign, 20 years old was Ahaz when he began to reign and reigned 16 years in Jerusalem 00:17.880 --> 00:22.760 and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father, 00:23.140 --> 00:28.480 but walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire. 00:28.480 --> 00:34.060 According to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. 00:34.240 --> 00:42.260 And so if you remember, there's just been several generations in Judah of just really kind of just lame kings. 00:42.740 --> 00:49.940 They, they vaguely did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not like David their father, not with all their heart. 00:50.020 --> 00:54.660 There's always a caveat and then toward the end of their lives, they all crashed and burned. 00:54.660 --> 00:59.760 So there've been a lot of lame generations, but with Ahaz in the southern kingdom of Judah, 01:00.180 --> 01:06.560 things just go all the way off the cliff now and he's just doing that which is wrong in the sight of the Lord. 01:06.940 --> 01:12.560 And he's even to the point where he does a sacrifice of his child. 01:12.760 --> 01:20.080 He'd be a human sacrifice, murdering a baby basically by making his son to pass through the fire. 01:20.080 --> 01:25.260 According to the abomination of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. 01:25.680 --> 01:31.260 So the people that lived in Canaan before the Israelites showed up were super wicked people, 01:31.740 --> 01:36.400 super perverted in Leviticus chapter 18 and in Leviticus chapter 20. 01:36.880 --> 01:40.780 It lists all of these gross perversions and wicked things and you're like, 01:40.800 --> 01:42.660 man, why is this stuff even being brought up? 01:42.880 --> 01:47.260 But then it says at the end that the inhabitants of Canaan had done all of those things. 01:47.260 --> 01:52.040 And that's why even the land itself was just vomiting them up because they were just so wicked. 01:52.340 --> 01:59.200 And one of the things that they also engaged in was this process of like passing your children through the fire, 01:59.300 --> 02:02.000 which is basically like a burnt sacrifice of humans. 02:02.380 --> 02:06.000 And really, these two things are always going to go hand in hand. 02:06.860 --> 02:10.900 Sexual promiscuity and murdering babies are always going to go hand in hand 02:10.900 --> 02:13.600 because you kind of can't really have one without the other. 02:14.400 --> 02:16.780 Okay, because it is promiscuity. 02:17.080 --> 02:18.400 It is fornication. 02:18.640 --> 02:22.560 It is adultery that causes people to have an attitude that says, 02:22.700 --> 02:24.680 well, we got to abort these babies. 02:25.060 --> 02:27.700 We got to have some emergency contraception. 02:28.060 --> 02:29.960 We got to do this abortion. 02:30.180 --> 02:33.040 And look, this is really not different than abortion. 02:33.320 --> 02:37.240 Okay, killing a newborn baby and killing a baby in the womb. 02:37.480 --> 02:41.720 You know, you're still murdering a human life just because maybe one of them 02:41.720 --> 02:44.380 is a little bit less grotesque. 02:44.620 --> 02:49.860 But really, that's just only because our society kind of puts the blinders on 02:49.860 --> 02:52.560 to the grotesqueness of the one versus the other. 02:52.880 --> 02:53.880 They're both wicked. 02:54.220 --> 02:56.420 They're both an abomination in the sight of God. 02:56.760 --> 02:57.620 They're both murder. 02:57.820 --> 02:58.480 They're both evil. 02:58.940 --> 03:01.100 And look, the devil and his crowd, 03:01.240 --> 03:03.460 they're always trying to push things a little bit further anyway. 03:03.940 --> 03:08.920 So if you say, well, let's just allow abortion during the first term, you know, 03:09.260 --> 03:11.320 then it'll be like, well, why not the second term? 03:11.320 --> 03:13.540 And then it's like, no, why not third term? 03:13.740 --> 03:18.440 And then it's like literally partial birth abortion where the baby is half-born. 03:18.660 --> 03:22.560 And I mean, this is something that has happened in the United States. 03:22.960 --> 03:26.120 Democrat politicians just absolutely pushing for, 03:26.560 --> 03:28.740 hey, we got to have partial birth abortion. 03:29.040 --> 03:32.080 And then they'll have these pieces of legislation where 03:32.080 --> 03:35.500 if the baby's accidentally born while they're trying to kill it, 03:35.660 --> 03:39.860 they'll just kind of just set it to the side and just let it slowly die or whatever. 03:39.860 --> 03:43.580 I know Obama had, you know, signed off on something like that 03:43.580 --> 03:45.660 when he was the senator from Illinois. 03:46.160 --> 03:50.060 And, you know, this is why these people are just so wicked and such evil trash 03:50.060 --> 03:53.600 that they don't even have the most basic respect for human life 03:53.600 --> 03:56.940 of just respecting the Bible's teaching on, thou shalt not kill. 03:58.560 --> 04:03.120 And again, it's not married couples who are monogamous 04:03.120 --> 04:05.780 that are driving the abortion industry. 04:06.640 --> 04:11.100 Okay, it's being driven by whores and whoremongers. 04:11.380 --> 04:13.420 Okay, that's what it comes down to. 04:13.920 --> 04:17.680 It's gross, it's wicked, it's evil, it's an abomination in the sight of God 04:17.680 --> 04:20.380 and it ought to be an abomination in our sight as well. 04:21.340 --> 04:24.340 And let's face it, children are not always going to be convenient. 04:24.820 --> 04:26.800 They're going to be a pain in the butt at times. 04:26.980 --> 04:28.300 But you know what the Bible says, 04:28.540 --> 04:30.580 in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children 04:30.580 --> 04:32.660 and thy desire shall be to thy husband 04:32.660 --> 04:34.360 and he shall rule over thee. 04:34.360 --> 04:35.960 So guess what? That's life. 04:36.800 --> 04:40.080 Okay, men go to work all day and they work by the sweat of their face 04:40.080 --> 04:42.680 and women bring forth children in sorrow 04:42.680 --> 04:44.380 and their husband rules over them. 04:44.620 --> 04:47.140 This is the order of the world that we live in. 04:47.380 --> 04:48.360 And so you can't just say, 04:48.380 --> 04:50.480 well, no, I'm just going to just rebel against that. 04:50.560 --> 04:51.660 I'm just going to murder my child. 04:51.880 --> 04:53.140 Well, there's going to be hell to pay 04:53.140 --> 04:55.260 because God is going to punish that kind of sin. 04:55.880 --> 04:59.700 And innocent blood is not something that God just winks at or overlooks. 04:59.760 --> 05:04.140 It's a serious, serious crime, sin and wickedness. 05:04.140 --> 05:04.900 And the eyes of God. 05:05.380 --> 05:08.320 So passing his child through the fire is, of course, 05:08.540 --> 05:11.020 a major abomination and God's upset. 05:11.180 --> 05:12.080 And it says in verse four, 05:12.520 --> 05:15.240 he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places 05:15.240 --> 05:18.260 and on the hills and under every green tree. 05:18.640 --> 05:20.800 Verse five, then reason King of Syria 05:20.800 --> 05:23.200 and Pika, son of Bromeliah, King of Israel 05:23.700 --> 05:25.300 came up to Jerusalem to war 05:25.300 --> 05:29.160 and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. 05:29.320 --> 05:30.200 So what we see here, 05:30.620 --> 05:32.540 you have, of course, the northern kingdom of Israel 05:32.540 --> 05:34.600 that again, they always have a bad king. 05:35.080 --> 05:37.620 Southern kingdom sometimes has good kings, 05:37.760 --> 05:38.700 sometimes has bad kings 05:38.700 --> 05:40.540 and the southern kingdom is not called Israel. 05:41.020 --> 05:43.240 The southern kingdom is called Judah, okay? 05:43.820 --> 05:46.060 And so Judah in the southern kingdom, 05:46.180 --> 05:47.220 now they have a wicked king. 05:47.600 --> 05:49.480 God's bringing some judgment upon them. 05:49.760 --> 05:51.560 So the northern king of Israel 05:51.560 --> 05:54.080 teams up with the king of Syria 05:54.080 --> 05:56.000 and attacks Jerusalem 05:56.460 --> 05:59.680 but they were not able to totally overcome Ahaz 05:59.680 --> 06:00.920 although they're besieging him. 06:01.340 --> 06:02.640 But then it says in verse six 06:02.640 --> 06:05.600 and this is a very key verse, verse six here, okay? 06:06.000 --> 06:08.140 You wanna know where this is in your Bible. 06:08.360 --> 06:09.820 This is an important verse, okay? 06:10.360 --> 06:13.520 At that time, reason King of Syria 06:14.340 --> 06:15.880 recovered Elath to Syria 06:15.880 --> 06:18.300 and draped the Jews from Elath 06:18.300 --> 06:20.160 and the Syrians came to Elath 06:20.160 --> 06:21.620 and dwelt there under this day. 06:21.720 --> 06:22.560 You say, well, you know, 06:22.660 --> 06:23.960 that doesn't seem like a very important verse. 06:24.400 --> 06:25.880 What is the significance here? 06:26.240 --> 06:27.160 The significance here 06:27.160 --> 06:29.580 is that this is the first time 06:29.580 --> 06:33.560 that the word Jew is ever mentioned in the Bible 06:33.560 --> 06:34.700 which is pretty significant 06:34.700 --> 06:38.200 because the word Jews is gonna be used over and over again 06:38.200 --> 06:39.940 dozens and dozens of times 06:39.940 --> 06:42.020 all throughout Old Testament, New Testament. 06:42.420 --> 06:44.380 Very important, significant word 06:44.380 --> 06:46.740 but isn't it interesting that we've already read 06:46.740 --> 06:48.580 our Bibles all the way up to this point 06:48.580 --> 06:50.740 and there's no mention of Jews in Genesis, 06:51.100 --> 06:53.880 Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 06:54.300 --> 06:57.940 Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel 06:58.600 --> 07:01.120 all the way up to this point of First and Second Kings 07:01.120 --> 07:04.460 where we're already starting to wind down 07:05.040 --> 07:07.320 with the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel 07:07.940 --> 07:10.440 and we're getting toward even the end 07:10.440 --> 07:11.940 of the Southern Kingdom of Judah 07:11.940 --> 07:13.760 as far as under the monarchy period 07:14.300 --> 07:18.840 and we're just now getting to the word Jews, right? 07:18.960 --> 07:21.860 So the historical books are taking us, 07:21.960 --> 07:23.740 you know, all the way from the creation 07:23.740 --> 07:26.140 with Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 07:26.140 --> 07:28.680 Joshua picks up from there. 07:29.040 --> 07:31.780 Historical books, you know, are almost over 07:31.780 --> 07:33.180 because at the end of Second Kings 07:33.180 --> 07:36.360 it's like, okay, after that it's pretty much chronologically 07:36.360 --> 07:38.660 just, you know, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, stuff like that. 07:39.900 --> 07:41.520 So why is this so important? 07:41.600 --> 07:43.260 Why am I making a big deal about the fact 07:43.260 --> 07:45.920 that this is the first time the word Jews is used 07:45.920 --> 07:49.700 is because a lot of people will mistakenly think 07:49.700 --> 07:52.960 that Israel and Jews are synonymous in the Bible 07:54.440 --> 07:57.280 and here's a powerful proof that that's not true 07:57.280 --> 08:01.340 because here it is Israel fighting against the Jews. 08:02.040 --> 08:06.380 Israel is teamed up with Syria fighting the Jews. 08:06.600 --> 08:08.620 That's the first time Jews are mentioned 08:09.080 --> 08:12.920 is actually in opposition to Israel, okay? 08:13.180 --> 08:15.460 And what these Bible teachers will do now 08:15.460 --> 08:18.100 is come along and say, oh, the book of Revelation, 08:18.180 --> 08:20.400 it talks about the Jews, this and the Jews, that 08:20.400 --> 08:21.280 and you're like, wait a minute, bro, 08:21.280 --> 08:24.400 I read the book of, it's like, oh, no, it's all about the Jews. 08:24.560 --> 08:26.020 The end times is all about the Jews. 08:26.240 --> 08:29.460 The pre-tribbers will tell you the tribulation is for the Jews, 08:29.600 --> 08:31.160 not for us, it's for the Jews. 08:31.380 --> 08:32.260 It's all about the Jews. 08:32.640 --> 08:35.000 Then wouldn't it mention the Jews like somewhere 08:35.540 --> 08:36.880 in the book of Revelation about that? 08:37.280 --> 08:40.540 And what they'll point to is where the Bible mentions 08:40.540 --> 08:42.680 the 144,000. 08:43.240 --> 08:45.460 But here's the thing about the 144,000 08:45.460 --> 08:48.040 is that it says that there are 12,000 08:48.040 --> 08:50.720 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, 08:51.520 --> 08:54.460 but these pre-tribbers will just say, quote, 08:54.720 --> 08:56.460 144,000 Jews. 08:57.220 --> 09:00.020 The Bible does not say 144,000 Jews, 09:00.500 --> 09:03.940 it says 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel 09:03.940 --> 09:05.340 and then it even gets super specific. 09:05.900 --> 09:09.020 12,000 from Reuben, 12,000 from Gad, 09:09.380 --> 09:12.160 12,000 from Naftali, et cetera, et cetera. 09:12.720 --> 09:14.980 Now that is a huge difference from the Jews 09:14.980 --> 09:17.200 and here's why, because what does the word Jew mean? 09:17.200 --> 09:22.700 The word Jew means someone from the Southern Kingdom of Judah. 09:23.360 --> 09:25.420 And this is where the word Jew even comes from, 09:25.540 --> 09:26.380 from Judah. 09:27.780 --> 09:29.660 And so we have the Northern Kingdom of Israel 09:30.100 --> 09:31.760 and the Southern Kingdom of Judah 09:32.340 --> 09:33.900 and the people who live down here 09:33.900 --> 09:35.200 in the Southern Kingdom of Judah 09:35.900 --> 09:38.880 begin at some point to be known as Jews. 09:39.520 --> 09:41.140 And then in the New Testament period, 09:41.480 --> 09:44.760 this became a Roman province called Judea. 09:45.240 --> 09:47.220 And then the Northern Kingdom of Israel 09:47.220 --> 09:50.620 becomes a Roman province known as Samaria. 09:50.960 --> 09:54.560 And so you have the province of, again, Judea. 09:54.920 --> 09:58.320 And so the Judeans, the people who live in Judea, 09:58.600 --> 10:01.560 the people who are following the religion of 10:02.040 --> 10:04.160 and are in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, 10:04.560 --> 10:05.460 they are Jews. 10:06.140 --> 10:07.180 That is where the word comes from. 10:07.540 --> 10:09.820 And so the Northern Kingdom of Israel, 10:10.440 --> 10:12.760 also known as the 10 lost tribes, 10:13.280 --> 10:15.380 they're not called Jews, right? 10:15.520 --> 10:18.780 So the people living and operating in that Northern Kingdom 10:18.780 --> 10:20.940 are not called Jews, they're just not. 10:21.360 --> 10:23.180 Now in the Old Testament, they're called Israelites, 10:24.040 --> 10:25.380 Hebrews, et cetera. 10:25.740 --> 10:27.540 And then ultimately they're going to become known 10:27.540 --> 10:30.580 as Samaritans, but the Jews 10:31.040 --> 10:32.900 are referring to people of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. 10:33.360 --> 10:36.120 So if you're going to go into Bible prophecy in Revelation 10:36.680 --> 10:39.280 and say we got 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 10:40.280 --> 10:41.060 those aren't Jews. 10:41.880 --> 10:44.600 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, those aren't Jews. 10:45.180 --> 10:46.820 You know, 12,000 from natural life, those aren't Jews. 10:46.940 --> 10:51.580 Now look, obviously there are just small remnants 10:52.160 --> 10:54.320 of people from those Northern tribes 10:54.320 --> 10:57.400 that migrated from the Northern Kingdom of Israel 10:57.950 --> 10:59.740 and came down to the Southern Kingdom of Judah 10:59.740 --> 11:01.940 and became Jews, you know, and they basically, 11:02.280 --> 11:04.100 you know, join in with that nation. 11:04.400 --> 11:07.680 But the vast majority of those people 11:07.680 --> 11:11.080 of the Northern 10 tribes were never called Jews. 11:11.520 --> 11:14.200 They're never Jews and they ended up being scattered 11:14.200 --> 11:17.240 into all nations and those tribes no longer exist. 11:18.220 --> 11:21.740 So today what we have is of course the 13th tribe, 11:21.920 --> 11:25.240 the tribe of Poland over in Israel today. 11:25.440 --> 11:28.740 We have the Pollocks and Hungarians and Russians 11:29.360 --> 11:31.460 and all the Germans and people over there 11:31.460 --> 11:33.860 that are basically masquerading as Jews. 11:33.980 --> 11:35.500 They're basically just white Europeans 11:36.040 --> 11:39.340 who've adopted the religion of Judaism, okay? 11:39.520 --> 11:41.040 And now all of a sudden they're supposedly 11:41.040 --> 11:42.520 the ancient Israelites. 11:42.980 --> 11:45.800 But here's the thing, even the ones who are 11:45.800 --> 11:49.360 some kind of a descendant of the actual Jews, 11:49.680 --> 11:52.800 you know, would predominantly be from two tribes, right? 11:53.480 --> 11:55.440 Judah and Benjamin. 11:55.720 --> 11:57.360 And then you could say Levi as well 11:57.360 --> 11:58.420 because the priests obviously. 11:58.660 --> 12:00.800 So three tribes, Judah, Benjamin and Levi 12:00.800 --> 12:03.500 are pretty much the main players of the Southern Kingdom. 12:03.500 --> 12:06.620 It's gonna be very few examples of people 12:06.620 --> 12:07.540 who migrated down. 12:08.380 --> 12:11.440 So to sit there and say that in the end times 12:11.440 --> 12:16.220 there's gonna be 144,000 Jews, that doesn't make any sense 12:16.220 --> 12:19.100 because it doesn't say Jews, it says 12,000 Reubenites. 12:19.440 --> 12:21.380 And guess what, the tribe of Reuben no longer exists. 12:22.160 --> 12:24.760 Tribe of Gad doesn't do a little research on it. 12:26.200 --> 12:27.400 Naphtali doesn't exist. 12:27.760 --> 12:28.720 None of those tribes exist, 12:28.800 --> 12:30.580 which is why they're called the 10 lost tribes. 12:31.120 --> 12:34.020 And so Jews are only representing 12:34.020 --> 12:35.000 the Southern Kingdom of Judah. 12:35.400 --> 12:37.700 And also if you ask those in Israel today 12:37.700 --> 12:39.860 or Jews in New York or Jews in Los Angeles, 12:40.140 --> 12:42.180 if you ask them what tribe are you, they don't know 12:42.680 --> 12:43.580 what tribe they are. 12:43.780 --> 12:46.260 The only ones who would even claim to know 12:46.260 --> 12:48.980 are the priests because they would say like, 12:49.020 --> 12:51.720 well, we know we're of the priestly faction 12:51.720 --> 12:53.020 so therefore we're of Levi. 12:53.600 --> 12:56.440 But again, we're taking the Bible more literally 12:56.440 --> 12:59.280 and they accuse us of not being literal 12:59.280 --> 13:00.500 and spiritualizing everything. 13:00.860 --> 13:02.520 But really we're actually being literal 13:02.520 --> 13:03.840 that we believe that in Revelation 13:03.840 --> 13:05.400 when it says 12,000 Reubenites, 13:05.660 --> 13:06.860 it actually means Reubenites. 13:07.360 --> 13:12.360 And the only way to get 12,000 male Reubenite Virgins 13:12.760 --> 13:16.080 would be to get them from the Old Testament, right? 13:16.880 --> 13:18.980 I mean, where are you gonna get 12,000 13:18.980 --> 13:19.760 of the tribe of Gad? 13:21.040 --> 13:22.600 You know, you're gonna get it from the Old Testament 13:22.600 --> 13:26.060 back when the tribe of Gad actually existed, okay? 13:26.560 --> 13:28.040 And so here's what's going on 13:28.040 --> 13:29.100 is that if you actually, 13:29.240 --> 13:31.360 and I don't wanna make this a big Bible prophecy sermon 13:31.360 --> 13:33.000 but I just wanna kinda touch on this briefly, 13:33.460 --> 13:37.100 is that what's going on is that in the end times 13:37.640 --> 13:41.160 after the tribulation is gonna be the second coming of Christ 13:41.160 --> 13:43.780 and the dead are going to be resurrected. 13:44.420 --> 13:47.720 And when the 144,000 are on this earth 13:47.720 --> 13:48.560 doing their ministry, 13:48.940 --> 13:51.420 it's after that resurrection takes place. 13:52.180 --> 13:56.780 Their ministry happens after the resurrection takes place. 13:56.780 --> 13:59.700 So they're basically resurrected, okay? 13:59.800 --> 14:00.680 That's what's going on. 14:01.140 --> 14:05.960 And so you have the 144,000 being sealed up in heaven. 14:06.060 --> 14:08.700 They're already in heaven before the rapture, okay? 14:09.180 --> 14:12.680 So you have the 144,000 in heaven before the rapture 14:12.680 --> 14:16.560 already being sealed and prepared for their ministry. 14:16.860 --> 14:18.680 And basically as we're leaving, 14:18.940 --> 14:21.000 they're basically showing up. 14:21.460 --> 14:24.260 And so as the Christians are raptured 14:24.260 --> 14:26.660 after the tribulation, but before God's wrath, 14:27.020 --> 14:30.620 they're basically replaced on this earth with the 144,000 14:30.620 --> 14:34.060 who are resurrected Old Testament saints, 14:34.560 --> 14:39.500 literally 12,000 from Gad, 12,000 from Manasseh, et cetera. 14:39.920 --> 14:42.540 That's an actual literal reading of the text 14:42.540 --> 14:43.340 that actually makes sense. 14:43.580 --> 14:46.800 But what they'll try to do is just say Jews. 14:47.800 --> 14:51.380 But again, if you go to 2 Kings chapter 16 verse six, 14:51.480 --> 14:52.880 you get a definition of Jews. 14:52.880 --> 14:55.340 You see, it's not Israel, it's not Syria. 14:55.840 --> 14:57.720 No, it's people in the southern kingdom of Judah. 14:58.420 --> 14:59.500 That's who the Bible calls Jews. 14:59.600 --> 15:01.400 And a lot of times the first time a word is used 15:01.400 --> 15:02.520 in the Bible is significant 15:02.960 --> 15:04.660 because it kind of defines that word for you. 15:05.020 --> 15:07.500 I don't think it's a coincidence that the very first time 15:07.500 --> 15:09.780 that the word Jew is ever used in the Bible 15:10.360 --> 15:13.120 is in opposition to Israel showing you, 15:13.360 --> 15:15.720 hey, Israel and Jews aren't the same thing. 15:16.460 --> 15:17.840 These are two different things, okay? 15:18.180 --> 15:19.120 Southern kingdom of Judah. 15:19.320 --> 15:21.000 So anyway, that was a little bit of a rabbit trail, 15:21.000 --> 15:23.320 but I just wanted to make sure and teach that 15:23.320 --> 15:25.500 because there's so much bad teaching out there 15:25.500 --> 15:29.320 about end times prophecy and all this kind of pro-Israel, 15:30.140 --> 15:32.960 Zionist dispensational teaching gets people confused. 15:33.220 --> 15:35.120 I'm just trying to cut through some of the confusion 15:35.120 --> 15:38.300 and say, look, Jew is southern kingdom of Judah. 15:39.260 --> 15:41.560 144,000 is from specific tribes. 15:41.880 --> 15:45.900 That's not just the same as just a blanket Jew terminology 15:45.900 --> 15:48.600 because couldn't God have just said 144,000 Jews? 15:49.400 --> 15:51.700 You know, he could have just picked the whitest, 15:51.880 --> 15:54.480 blondest Jews that he wanted to if that's what he wanted to do, 15:54.720 --> 15:55.700 but that's not what he's going to do. 15:56.060 --> 15:58.640 He's going to take 12,000 from each of these ancient 15:58.640 --> 16:00.560 Israelite tribes, you know, 16:00.680 --> 16:03.540 and they're going to be on this earth doing their thing 16:04.460 --> 16:06.300 while God's wrath is being poured out. 16:07.020 --> 16:10.800 So back to chapter 16, verse 6 here. 16:11.240 --> 16:13.100 So they're fighting and it says in verse 7, 16:13.220 --> 16:15.840 so Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath, 16:15.840 --> 16:17.480 Pileser, king of Assyria saying, 16:17.820 --> 16:19.780 I'm my servant and my son, 16:20.280 --> 16:22.800 come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria 16:22.800 --> 16:24.820 and out of the hand of the king of Israel, 16:25.220 --> 16:26.820 which rise up against me. 16:26.960 --> 16:29.100 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found 16:29.100 --> 16:30.900 in the house of the Lord and in the treasures 16:30.900 --> 16:33.280 of the king's house and sent it for a present 16:33.800 --> 16:35.040 to the king of Assyria. 16:35.120 --> 16:36.680 So he's not relying on the Lord, 16:37.020 --> 16:39.420 he's relying on this foreign king of Assyria. 16:39.720 --> 16:42.580 So he takes the money away from the house of God 16:42.580 --> 16:45.100 and used it to pay off this foreign king 16:45.100 --> 16:47.360 that's going to help him because he can't trust the Lord 16:47.360 --> 16:49.200 because he's not actually following the Lord. 16:49.520 --> 16:51.140 So God's not going to be there for him. 16:52.360 --> 16:53.840 And so it says in verse number nine 16:53.840 --> 16:55.760 and the king of Assyria hearkened unto him 16:56.120 --> 16:58.380 for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus. 16:58.660 --> 17:00.540 Of course, Damascus is the capital of Syria 17:01.120 --> 17:03.840 and took it and carried the people of it captive 17:03.840 --> 17:07.820 to Kerr and Slough reason and king Ahaz went to Damascus 17:07.820 --> 17:10.400 to meet Tiglath, Pileser, king of Assyria 17:10.400 --> 17:12.800 and saw an altar that was at Damascus 17:12.800 --> 17:15.460 and king Ahaz sent to Eurya the priest 17:15.780 --> 17:18.460 the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it 17:18.460 --> 17:20.320 according to all the workmanship thereof 17:20.320 --> 17:22.320 and Eurya the priest built an altar 17:22.320 --> 17:25.360 according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus. 17:25.660 --> 17:29.160 So Eurya the priest made it against king Ahaz 17:29.160 --> 17:31.700 came from Damascus, some strange grammar there 17:31.700 --> 17:33.820 but that is just because this was translated 17:33.820 --> 17:35.120 over 400 years ago. 17:35.520 --> 17:39.220 The bottom line is that he goes to Damascus 17:39.220 --> 17:41.060 he teams up with some heathen, 17:41.060 --> 17:43.860 he goes to this heathen capital of Damascus 17:43.860 --> 17:46.800 and while he's there, he sees an altar 17:47.560 --> 17:49.600 that he thinks is cool, right? 17:49.760 --> 17:52.440 So he's basically in a place of false religion, 17:53.220 --> 17:55.460 idolatry, not worshiping the Lord 17:55.460 --> 17:59.180 and he just aesthetically likes this altar. 17:59.320 --> 18:01.540 He just thinks this altar looks really cool. 18:01.880 --> 18:03.560 The prophet doesn't really tell us what it looks like 18:03.560 --> 18:06.980 but he gives a very graphic description of this 18:06.980 --> 18:09.960 and he sends it home to Eurya the priest 18:10.520 --> 18:12.980 back home in Judah and he says hey, 18:13.360 --> 18:14.500 you know make this thing 18:15.080 --> 18:16.880 and basically the idea is he's going to make it 18:16.880 --> 18:19.360 even before king Ahaz gets home 18:19.880 --> 18:22.660 he's already going to have the new altar made for him 18:22.660 --> 18:25.240 according to the specifications that he sends. 18:25.500 --> 18:27.120 So then when Ahaz gets home 18:27.120 --> 18:31.000 he's got this cool new altar waiting for him. 18:31.060 --> 18:33.300 Now we're going to get into that as we go. 18:33.340 --> 18:35.080 That's the main thing I want to preach about tonight 18:35.080 --> 18:39.800 is ruining God's house 18:40.520 --> 18:42.180 because what Ahaz is going to do 18:42.180 --> 18:45.180 is just totally change everything about God's house 18:45.940 --> 18:48.080 and get away from the biblical pattern 18:48.080 --> 18:50.240 and make everything totally different 18:50.240 --> 18:52.020 and then you know what that's going to lead to 18:52.020 --> 18:54.760 ultimately is the doors of God's house being closed. 18:55.440 --> 18:57.400 And I'm going to show you an analog with that 18:57.400 --> 19:00.720 how churches that get away from the fundamentals of the faith 19:00.720 --> 19:03.160 and change everything about our doctrine 19:03.160 --> 19:06.040 change everything about what we believe and preach 19:06.040 --> 19:09.920 they will eventually shrink and fail and close their doors. 19:10.380 --> 19:13.200 You know when you start getting away from the word of God 19:13.200 --> 19:14.800 and clear biblical doctrine 19:14.800 --> 19:18.920 you know that is just you getting ready to die as a church. 19:19.200 --> 19:20.840 Okay and I'm going to talk about that a little bit later. 19:20.960 --> 19:21.940 Let's get into this though. 19:22.340 --> 19:24.300 It says here in verse number 12 19:24.300 --> 19:26.100 when the king was come from Damascus 19:26.100 --> 19:27.540 the king saw the altar 19:27.540 --> 19:29.500 and the king approached to the altar 19:29.500 --> 19:30.920 and offered their aunt 19:30.920 --> 19:32.640 and he burnt his burnt offering 19:32.640 --> 19:34.160 and his meat offering 19:34.160 --> 19:35.900 and poured his drink offering 19:35.900 --> 19:38.580 and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar. 19:38.680 --> 19:40.280 Remember this is not God's altar 19:40.280 --> 19:43.940 God had them construct a very specific altar 19:43.940 --> 19:46.100 and it was a brazen altar 19:46.100 --> 19:47.420 an altar of brass. 19:47.940 --> 19:50.980 Now what does brass represent in the Bible? 19:51.160 --> 19:53.700 This is a representation of the judgment 19:53.700 --> 19:55.880 and justice of God 19:55.880 --> 19:58.480 and what's happening on the brazen altar 19:58.480 --> 20:00.360 is animal sacrifices 20:00.720 --> 20:02.520 where animals are being killed 20:02.520 --> 20:04.560 and their blood is being shed 20:04.840 --> 20:07.360 to make an atonement for sin 20:07.360 --> 20:08.920 and the picture is of course 20:08.920 --> 20:11.820 that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God 20:11.820 --> 20:13.960 which take away the sin of the world 20:13.960 --> 20:16.080 and we as human beings 20:16.080 --> 20:18.800 are all liable of judgment. 20:19.100 --> 20:20.380 We deserve to be punished 20:20.380 --> 20:22.260 and judged for our sins 20:22.260 --> 20:23.300 and God's holiness 20:23.300 --> 20:24.940 and God's justice 20:24.940 --> 20:27.900 is satisfied on that brazen altar 20:27.900 --> 20:29.520 where Jesus Christ 20:29.520 --> 20:31.200 actually took our punishment for us 20:31.740 --> 20:33.820 and that's what the brazen altar represents 20:33.820 --> 20:36.040 a sacrifice for sin 20:36.040 --> 20:39.040 to satisfy the justice of God. 20:39.240 --> 20:41.060 God demands justice 20:41.060 --> 20:43.140 and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ 20:43.140 --> 20:44.700 satisfies that justice 20:44.700 --> 20:45.700 and the picture of that 20:45.700 --> 20:46.720 was the brazen altar 20:47.280 --> 20:49.260 that was in the Old Testament set up 20:49.260 --> 20:50.300 whether it was the tabernacle 20:50.620 --> 20:51.760 or later the temple. 20:52.880 --> 20:54.880 So that's being put off to the side 20:54.880 --> 20:58.660 and this aesthetically pleasing altar 20:59.180 --> 21:01.880 that's just based on how cool it looks 21:01.880 --> 21:04.040 not that it's based on truth 21:04.040 --> 21:05.540 or right or justice 21:05.540 --> 21:06.800 it just looks cool 21:06.800 --> 21:08.980 that ends up taking the place of 21:08.980 --> 21:10.100 the brazen altar 21:10.100 --> 21:12.100 and the brazen altar is put off to the side. 21:12.300 --> 21:13.380 Look what the Bible says 21:13.380 --> 21:16.220 he brought also the brazen altar verse 14 21:16.690 --> 21:18.060 which was before the Lord 21:18.060 --> 21:20.660 from the forefront of the house 21:21.210 --> 21:22.700 from between the altar 21:23.220 --> 21:24.680 and the house of the Lord 21:25.340 --> 21:27.380 and put it on the north side of the altar 21:27.380 --> 21:28.580 so basically you know 21:28.580 --> 21:30.840 if you think about the way the temple is laid out 21:30.840 --> 21:33.480 you enter the temple through the east 21:33.480 --> 21:35.840 and when you walk in 21:36.440 --> 21:37.540 to the temple complex 21:38.020 --> 21:39.960 the first thing that you're going to come to 21:39.960 --> 21:41.340 according to God's design 21:41.340 --> 21:42.200 and God's specification 21:42.760 --> 21:44.340 is you come to that brazen altar first 21:44.340 --> 21:45.120 the first stop. 21:45.620 --> 21:47.180 So if you go back to the Old Testament 21:47.180 --> 21:48.340 read about the tabernacle 21:48.340 --> 21:49.680 you walk in 21:50.140 --> 21:51.660 and the first thing you're confronted with 21:51.660 --> 21:52.620 is the brazen altar 21:52.620 --> 21:54.440 where the animal sacrifice take place 21:54.440 --> 21:56.660 then beyond the brazen altar 21:56.660 --> 21:58.120 you get to the brazen 21:58.120 --> 21:59.100 laver 21:59.100 --> 22:01.400 and you know if you don't know what laver means 22:01.400 --> 22:03.260 but you probably know the word lavatory 22:03.260 --> 22:04.600 which is another word for a bathroom 22:04.600 --> 22:06.400 if you know Spanish lavar 22:06.400 --> 22:07.340 means to wash 22:07.340 --> 22:08.740 and so the laver 22:08.740 --> 22:10.320 is a washing place 22:10.320 --> 22:11.220 where the priests 22:11.220 --> 22:14.020 would wash and purify and so forth. 22:14.320 --> 22:15.240 So if you think about 22:15.240 --> 22:16.100 the order 22:16.100 --> 22:17.640 it's like brazen altar 22:18.240 --> 22:20.100 then you got the washing up place 22:20.100 --> 22:20.780 the laver 22:20.780 --> 22:23.260 then you get to the house of God 22:23.620 --> 22:23.920 right? 22:24.220 --> 22:25.700 And so if you stop and think about this 22:25.700 --> 22:26.820 this is symbolic 22:27.280 --> 22:29.060 we have to get saved first 22:29.540 --> 22:31.420 you don't clean up your life first 22:31.700 --> 22:32.880 the first thing you do 22:32.880 --> 22:33.900 is you get 22:33.900 --> 22:35.620 your sins taken care of 22:35.620 --> 22:37.180 through salvation 22:37.180 --> 22:38.600 through believing on Christ 22:38.600 --> 22:39.920 through the blood of Christ 22:39.920 --> 22:42.020 it's like that represents salvation 22:42.020 --> 22:43.280 being the first step 22:43.280 --> 22:44.720 first you get saved 22:44.720 --> 22:47.080 then afterward is the cleaning up 22:47.080 --> 22:49.120 the washing up your life 22:49.900 --> 22:50.380 sanctification 22:50.880 --> 22:51.120 right? 22:51.580 --> 22:52.100 and then 22:52.100 --> 22:52.780 it's like 22:52.780 --> 22:54.000 you first get saved 22:54.000 --> 22:55.100 then you go to church 22:55.700 --> 22:58.520 now obviously unsaved people come to church as visitors 22:58.520 --> 22:59.680 and we want to get them saved 22:59.680 --> 23:00.420 and preach to them 23:00.420 --> 23:01.120 but you know 23:01.120 --> 23:03.620 obviously in order to really be a part of the church 23:03.620 --> 23:04.800 you have to be saved 23:05.560 --> 23:06.040 right? 23:06.180 --> 23:06.600 So it's like 23:06.600 --> 23:07.300 salvation 23:08.080 --> 23:09.900 and then you get cleaned up 23:09.900 --> 23:11.260 then you go to church 23:11.260 --> 23:12.940 and that's the importance of the order 23:12.940 --> 23:13.620 but see 23:13.620 --> 23:14.840 what is he doing here? 23:15.080 --> 23:16.880 He's taking the most important thing 23:16.880 --> 23:19.520 that's at the forefront of the house of God 23:19.520 --> 23:20.780 the brazen altar 23:20.780 --> 23:21.780 and he's just like 23:21.780 --> 23:22.140 you know what? 23:22.200 --> 23:23.280 let's put it off to the side 23:23.920 --> 23:26.020 like we're not totally getting rid of it 23:26.020 --> 23:27.720 but we're demoting it 23:27.720 --> 23:29.520 to being like a side thing 23:29.520 --> 23:31.720 it's not the focus 23:31.720 --> 23:33.080 it's not important 23:33.580 --> 23:34.940 and it's not for you 23:34.940 --> 23:36.100 you're going to do this 23:36.100 --> 23:36.720 you know 23:36.720 --> 23:37.780 aesthetically pleasing 23:37.780 --> 23:38.840 damascene 23:38.840 --> 23:40.080 kind of altar 23:40.080 --> 23:40.540 or whatever 23:41.360 --> 23:42.000 and so 23:42.820 --> 23:44.100 the brazen altars 23:44.100 --> 23:46.220 put on the north side of the altar 23:46.220 --> 23:46.660 so again 23:46.660 --> 23:47.340 think about it 23:47.340 --> 23:48.680 if you're walking in 23:48.680 --> 23:49.840 from the east 23:49.840 --> 23:51.820 then basically it's just being put off to the side 23:51.820 --> 23:52.620 to your right 23:52.620 --> 23:53.420 because if you're 23:53.420 --> 23:55.300 if you're walking in the east side 23:55.300 --> 23:57.920 then north is going to be on your right 23:57.920 --> 23:58.840 so it's just like 23:58.840 --> 24:01.400 the altars is pushed off to the side 24:01.800 --> 24:03.160 and then this stupid 24:03.160 --> 24:05.320 foreign unbiblical altar 24:05.320 --> 24:06.780 gets stuck right in the middle 24:07.320 --> 24:09.140 that's what has the preeminence 24:09.140 --> 24:10.460 and then it says in verse 15 24:10.460 --> 24:12.920 and King A.S. commanded you ride to the priest saying 24:12.920 --> 24:14.660 upon the great altar 24:14.660 --> 24:15.020 so 24:15.020 --> 24:15.900 again 24:15.900 --> 24:17.000 this is the false 24:17.000 --> 24:18.920 Damascus wicked altar 24:18.920 --> 24:20.940 upon the great altar 24:21.600 --> 24:22.300 you know 24:22.300 --> 24:23.700 maybe just meaning that it's 24:23.700 --> 24:26.440 it's bigger than what God had prescribed or whatever 24:26.890 --> 24:28.440 but he says upon the great altar 24:28.440 --> 24:30.320 burn the morning bird offering 24:30.320 --> 24:31.760 and evening meat offering 24:31.760 --> 24:33.380 and the king's burnt sacrifice 24:33.380 --> 24:34.620 and his meat offering 24:34.620 --> 24:36.700 with the burnt offering of all the people of the land 24:36.700 --> 24:37.660 and their meat offering 24:37.660 --> 24:38.520 and their drink offerings 24:38.520 --> 24:39.920 and sprinkle upon it 24:39.920 --> 24:41.380 all the blood of the burnt offerings 24:41.380 --> 24:42.860 and all the blood of the sacrifice 24:43.580 --> 24:44.400 I mean look 24:44.400 --> 24:45.500 basically he's saying 24:45.500 --> 24:47.760 everything happens on the fake altar 24:48.300 --> 24:50.140 everything happens on the bogus altar 24:50.140 --> 24:51.840 except at the very end he says 24:51.840 --> 24:53.280 the brazen altar 24:53.280 --> 24:56.100 shall be for me to inquire by 24:56.500 --> 24:57.120 so it's like 24:57.120 --> 24:59.520 that's what I'm just going to use that 24:59.520 --> 25:01.060 we're going to keep it off to the side 25:01.060 --> 25:02.220 almost like 25:02.220 --> 25:03.560 something in a museum 25:03.560 --> 25:04.280 it's like a 25:04.280 --> 25:05.480 it's like a relic 25:05.480 --> 25:07.460 or an artifact or something 25:07.460 --> 25:11.740 so I'm just going to kind of have a little superstitious thing about it 25:11.740 --> 25:11.980 like 25:11.980 --> 25:14.060 yeah we'll kind of keep it off to the side 25:14.060 --> 25:15.500 kind of afraid to get rid of it 25:15.500 --> 25:16.460 and I'll just go 25:16.460 --> 25:18.160 I'll just go pray there 25:18.820 --> 25:21.160 and just like inquire of God there 25:21.160 --> 25:23.160 maybe use it for some kind of divination 25:23.160 --> 25:24.720 or maybe just he's just going to 25:25.280 --> 25:26.240 inquire by it 25:26.240 --> 25:27.620 he's just going to use it for prayer 25:27.620 --> 25:28.380 or whatever 25:29.780 --> 25:31.240 and then it says in verse 16 25:31.240 --> 25:32.640 thus did you rise to the priest 25:32.640 --> 25:34.940 according to all that King A.S. commanded 25:35.780 --> 25:37.040 and King A.S. 25:37.300 --> 25:38.660 cut off the borders of the bases 25:39.240 --> 25:41.480 and removed the labor from off them 25:41.480 --> 25:43.140 and took down the sea 25:43.140 --> 25:44.800 from off the brazen oxen 25:44.800 --> 25:45.300 we're under it 25:45.300 --> 25:47.140 and put it upon a pavement of stones 25:47.140 --> 25:49.260 he's probably just turning this into money 25:49.260 --> 25:51.740 he's probably just trying to cash out the brass 25:51.740 --> 25:54.000 so he takes all the brazen apparatus 25:54.000 --> 25:56.360 and just replaces it with like a stone 25:57.780 --> 25:59.900 platform instead for the laborers 26:00.440 --> 26:02.160 and it says you know the covert 26:02.640 --> 26:03.680 for the Sabbath 26:03.680 --> 26:05.280 that they had built in the house 26:05.280 --> 26:06.580 and the King's entry without 26:06.580 --> 26:08.200 turned he from the house of the Lord 26:08.200 --> 26:09.460 for the King of Assyria 26:09.460 --> 26:11.140 so now that that's what he's doing things for 26:11.140 --> 26:13.400 he's doing things for the King of Assyria 26:13.400 --> 26:14.780 it's not for the Lord 26:14.780 --> 26:16.340 it's not based on what God wants 26:16.340 --> 26:18.940 and it's hey let's be conformed to this world 26:18.940 --> 26:21.940 let's have an altar like the Damascus altar 26:21.940 --> 26:24.440 let's do what the King of Assyria likes 26:24.440 --> 26:26.340 let's just completely remodel 26:26.340 --> 26:28.640 and change around the house of God 26:28.640 --> 26:30.920 and in fact let's just give it a totally different emphasis 26:30.920 --> 26:32.000 what it used to emphasize 26:32.000 --> 26:33.140 let's emphasize something else 26:33.820 --> 26:36.240 and just put the main emphasis 26:36.240 --> 26:39.340 off to the side as a relic token thing 26:39.960 --> 26:41.080 and then it says you know 26:41.080 --> 26:43.220 the rest of the acts of A has are written in chronicles 26:43.220 --> 26:44.240 let's go over to chronicles 26:44.240 --> 26:45.180 and look at something over there 26:45.180 --> 26:47.240 flip over to second chronicles 28 26:48.600 --> 26:49.740 because here's the thing 26:49.740 --> 26:53.160 when you totally change everything about God's house 26:53.160 --> 26:54.920 when you totally ruin it 26:54.920 --> 26:56.420 and revamp it 26:56.420 --> 26:57.660 and remodel it 26:57.660 --> 27:00.120 and deemphasize truth 27:00.120 --> 27:01.740 and doctrine and salvation 27:02.200 --> 27:03.860 and what's right in the blood 27:04.300 --> 27:04.700 you know 27:04.700 --> 27:06.780 you end up with something unrecognizable 27:06.780 --> 27:07.980 and ultimately 27:07.980 --> 27:09.700 it just closes its doors 27:10.700 --> 27:12.040 look what the Bible says 27:12.040 --> 27:14.340 in second chronicles chapter 28 27:16.160 --> 27:18.000 it says in verse number 22 27:18.000 --> 27:19.420 and in the time of his distress 27:19.420 --> 27:21.900 did he trespass yet more against the Lord 27:21.900 --> 27:24.060 this is that King A has 27:24.720 --> 27:27.800 for he sacrificed under the gods of Damascus 27:27.800 --> 27:28.820 which smote him 27:28.820 --> 27:31.520 and he said because the gods of the kings of Syria 27:31.520 --> 27:32.220 help them 27:32.220 --> 27:34.300 therefore will I sacrifice to them 27:34.300 --> 27:35.520 that they may help me 27:35.520 --> 27:37.120 but they were the ruin of him 27:37.120 --> 27:38.020 and of all Israel 27:38.020 --> 27:39.720 and he has gathered together 27:39.720 --> 27:41.080 the vessels of the house of God 27:41.080 --> 27:42.120 and cut in pieces 27:42.120 --> 27:43.340 the vessels of the house of God 27:43.340 --> 27:44.700 and watch this 27:44.700 --> 27:47.780 shut up the doors of the house of the Lord 27:48.300 --> 27:49.500 and he made him alters 27:50.040 --> 27:51.300 in every corner of Jerusalem 27:51.300 --> 27:52.780 so ultimately God's house 27:52.780 --> 27:54.080 just ends up closing its doors 27:54.840 --> 27:57.020 and in every several city of Judah 27:57.480 --> 27:59.280 he made high places to burn incense 27:59.280 --> 28:00.140 unto other gods 28:00.140 --> 28:00.920 and provoked 28:00.920 --> 28:01.800 to anger 28:01.800 --> 28:03.760 the Lord God of his fathers 28:04.660 --> 28:06.000 and so you can see here 28:06.000 --> 28:06.620 that 28:07.050 --> 28:08.660 what starts out as just 28:08.660 --> 28:10.760 hey I like that Damascus altar 28:11.400 --> 28:12.980 let's go ahead and 28:12.980 --> 28:14.380 you know use it 28:14.850 --> 28:15.680 ends up just 28:15.680 --> 28:17.840 ultimately closing the doors of the institution 28:17.840 --> 28:18.760 now let me ask this 28:18.760 --> 28:20.400 was A has ever 28:20.400 --> 28:21.660 right with God or worse 28:21.660 --> 28:23.720 no A has was always a phony 28:23.720 --> 28:25.540 he was always bogus 28:25.540 --> 28:27.480 he was always wicked in the sight of God 28:27.480 --> 28:30.480 every indication that he is totally unsaved 28:30.480 --> 28:31.100 okay 28:31.100 --> 28:33.100 so the idea here is though 28:33.100 --> 28:34.960 is that he's unsaved 28:34.960 --> 28:35.940 taking over 28:36.300 --> 28:37.220 the house of God 28:37.660 --> 28:40.160 and then he turns it into something totally different 28:40.160 --> 28:42.300 and then ultimately the people end up 28:42.300 --> 28:43.680 forsaking and abandoning it 28:43.680 --> 28:45.240 ultimately just close the doors 28:45.240 --> 28:46.660 because I mean what's the point 28:46.660 --> 28:48.760 right if you're going to totally get away from 28:49.180 --> 28:51.680 the whole point of having the house of God at Jerusalem 28:52.160 --> 28:53.780 then why would you even want to make the trip 28:54.340 --> 28:56.080 why are you going to drive that far 28:56.080 --> 28:57.780 why are you going to travel there 28:58.420 --> 28:59.520 if it's bogus anyway 29:00.000 --> 29:01.060 and so what happens is 29:01.060 --> 29:02.700 they end up just making alters 29:03.120 --> 29:04.080 just wherever they live 29:04.080 --> 29:05.440 just on every street corner 29:05.440 --> 29:06.840 and in every town 29:06.840 --> 29:10.440 because what's the point of going to this place 29:10.440 --> 29:12.180 if it's not even the house of God anyway 29:12.180 --> 29:13.620 because you've turned it into something 29:14.840 --> 29:15.360 unrecognizable 29:15.360 --> 29:16.800 and you say well yeah 29:16.800 --> 29:18.480 but it was a really cool looking altar 29:18.480 --> 29:20.320 super beautiful and aesthetically pleasing 29:20.780 --> 29:21.300 and yet 29:21.300 --> 29:23.240 there are beautiful aesthetically 29:23.240 --> 29:24.120 pleasing 29:24.980 --> 29:26.500 Protestant church buildings 29:27.080 --> 29:28.520 and yet nobody's showing up 29:29.380 --> 29:31.780 because people don't go to church for the architecture 29:31.780 --> 29:33.620 they go to church for the word of God 29:33.620 --> 29:35.400 they go to church for the preaching of God's word 29:35.400 --> 29:37.860 now let me give you a little bit of an analog of this 29:37.860 --> 29:39.140 here in America 29:39.140 --> 29:41.200 it's interesting because I was reading this book 29:41.200 --> 29:43.380 and it had some really interesting statistics 29:43.380 --> 29:44.760 that I want to read for you 29:44.760 --> 29:46.320 because here's the thing 29:46.320 --> 29:48.460 is that in the past in our country 29:48.460 --> 29:51.240 there were a lot of Methodists 29:52.340 --> 29:52.740 Presbyterians 29:53.360 --> 29:53.760 Episcopalians 29:53.760 --> 29:56.700 and these are known as the mainline denominations 29:57.700 --> 29:58.420 Lutherans right 29:58.420 --> 30:00.840 those mainline denominations 30:01.760 --> 30:04.520 you know I think that there is a lot of evidence that even 30:04.520 --> 30:06.880 all the way back to 1776 30:06.880 --> 30:09.140 they were already starting to fail 30:09.140 --> 30:11.260 and decline and be on their way out 30:11.260 --> 30:13.620 but they still hung on for a long time 30:13.620 --> 30:17.260 when they really just got completely annihilated 30:17.260 --> 30:20.460 was in the latter half of the 20th century 30:20.460 --> 30:21.140 okay 30:21.140 --> 30:23.280 so in the latter half of the 20th century 30:23.280 --> 30:26.440 I mean they just went into free fall 30:26.440 --> 30:28.360 they're just hemorrhaging members 30:28.360 --> 30:29.880 to the point where now 30:29.880 --> 30:32.340 they're very insignificant and irrelevant 30:32.980 --> 30:35.940 and obviously the vast majority of churches 30:35.940 --> 30:39.320 that are really growing and thriving and big 30:39.320 --> 30:41.520 are either Baptist or Pentecostal 30:41.520 --> 30:43.880 and all of your big non-denom churches 30:43.880 --> 30:46.480 are pretty much either Baptist or Pentecostal 30:46.480 --> 30:48.280 you know they just don't want to tell you 30:48.280 --> 30:51.560 but most of your big non-denom churches in this area 30:51.560 --> 30:52.700 if you look at the statement of faith 30:52.700 --> 30:55.220 it's either a totally Baptist statement of faith 30:55.220 --> 30:57.800 or it's a totally Pentecostal statement of faith 30:57.800 --> 31:00.460 and really the big colossal difference between those two things 31:00.460 --> 31:02.680 is whether you believe you can lose your salvation 31:03.260 --> 31:05.640 because if you believe this salvation is by faith alone 31:05.640 --> 31:06.760 and you can't lose it 31:06.760 --> 31:09.860 you know that's the core teaching of being a Baptist 31:09.860 --> 31:13.300 whereas the Pentecostals are more of a works-based salvation 31:13.300 --> 31:15.180 they all believe you can lose your salvation 31:15.800 --> 31:17.800 and so you'll find that there's the 31:17.800 --> 31:21.260 lose your salvation tongue-talking non-denom churches 31:21.620 --> 31:23.700 and then there's the kind of a baptistic 31:24.260 --> 31:26.760 save by faith, can't lose your salvation 31:26.760 --> 31:28.020 community churches 31:28.020 --> 31:29.480 and those are the two big ones 31:29.480 --> 31:32.520 so what happened to the mainline denominations? 31:32.960 --> 31:36.040 what happened to the Presbyterians 31:36.040 --> 31:38.480 and the Methodists and the Lutherans 31:38.480 --> 31:40.880 and the Episcopalians and the Congregationalists? 31:41.200 --> 31:42.540 you're like what's a Congregationalist? 31:42.800 --> 31:44.280 but if you look at the early days of our country 31:44.280 --> 31:46.160 there were tons of Congregationalists 31:46.160 --> 31:47.200 what is that? 31:47.360 --> 31:47.940 where are they? 31:48.600 --> 31:51.200 well let me tell you why these denominations 31:51.200 --> 31:52.440 got totally destroyed 31:53.100 --> 31:55.980 is because they basically did what King Ahaz did 31:55.980 --> 31:58.800 so I've got this chart in front of me 31:59.660 --> 32:04.520 and this is a survey that was taken in 1963 32:05.620 --> 32:09.520 so this is second half of the 20th century 32:11.140 --> 32:13.960 1963 this is right around the time 32:13.960 --> 32:16.320 when these Protestant mainline churches 32:16.320 --> 32:18.660 just started to absolutely go into free fall 32:18.660 --> 32:21.500 and just shutting the doors of their churches 32:21.500 --> 32:24.220 and just losing members like insane 32:24.800 --> 32:27.480 so let me give you some survey questions 32:27.480 --> 32:30.580 and this is thousands of people were surveyed 32:30.580 --> 32:32.340 in northern California 32:32.340 --> 32:33.360 church members 32:33.360 --> 32:36.400 so these are all church members of various denominations 32:36.400 --> 32:38.460 so here's the first question on the survey 32:38.460 --> 32:39.740 that I'm going to read for you 32:39.740 --> 32:40.000 it says 32:40.680 --> 32:42.920 I know that God really exists 32:42.920 --> 32:44.700 and I have no doubts about it 32:44.700 --> 32:47.780 like do you agree that God exists? 32:48.520 --> 32:50.160 you're sure that God exists 32:50.160 --> 32:50.900 okay? 32:51.700 --> 32:54.380 so when it comes to the United Church of Christ 32:54.380 --> 32:56.180 which is basically congregationalists 32:56.180 --> 32:59.300 41% said yeah 32:59.300 --> 33:01.540 yeah we know that God's real 33:01.540 --> 33:04.300 Methodist, 60% 33:04.300 --> 33:07.060 Episcopalian, 63% 33:07.060 --> 33:09.880 Presbyterian, 75% 33:09.880 --> 33:13.260 Lutheran, everything except Missouri Synod 33:13.260 --> 33:14.540 73% 33:14.540 --> 33:17.600 Missouri Synod was 81% 33:17.600 --> 33:20.400 hey Southern Baptist, 99% 33:21.100 --> 33:23.700 okay so you can see there's a little difference 33:23.700 --> 33:25.640 in the Baptist view 33:25.640 --> 33:29.760 versus these mainline Protestant denominations 33:29.760 --> 33:31.520 and then when it comes to 33:31.810 --> 33:34.420 what it labels here as sects 33:34.420 --> 33:35.480 so that'd just be like 33:35.890 --> 33:37.580 all different upstart sects 33:37.580 --> 33:40.660 a lot of which are Pentecostal, Charismatic, whatever 33:40.660 --> 33:43.760 you know they're also at like 96% 33:43.760 --> 33:45.220 of saying that God exists 33:45.220 --> 33:46.120 so here's the thing 33:46.120 --> 33:48.020 your mainline Protestants 33:48.720 --> 33:50.760 huge amounts of the congregation 33:50.760 --> 33:52.340 are like I'm not really sure 33:52.340 --> 33:54.040 if God even exists 33:54.900 --> 33:56.900 60% of the congregationalists 33:56.900 --> 33:57.820 are like I don't know 33:57.820 --> 33:59.360 if God exists 33:59.360 --> 34:02.780 and even 33% 34:02.780 --> 34:05.560 of these different denominations 34:06.440 --> 34:07.980 Methodists, Episcopalians, whatever 34:07.980 --> 34:09.200 I mean that's pretty bad 34:09.540 --> 34:10.780 listen to some of these other questions 34:10.780 --> 34:12.200 because it gets even worse 34:12.200 --> 34:13.600 when you start getting specific 34:13.600 --> 34:15.160 that's just the existence of God 34:15.420 --> 34:16.460 okay how about this one 34:16.460 --> 34:19.480 Jesus is the Divine Son of God 34:19.480 --> 34:21.080 and I have no doubts about it 34:22.640 --> 34:24.200 Congregationalists 40% 34:25.080 --> 34:27.040 Methodists 54% 34:27.040 --> 34:29.080 Episcopalians 59% 34:29.080 --> 34:30.200 and then it's like 34:30.200 --> 34:32.440 why are these churches on their way out 34:32.440 --> 34:35.980 because they've just become unrecognizable 34:36.700 --> 34:38.220 they're not teaching 34:38.220 --> 34:39.980 and preaching the Bible anymore 34:39.980 --> 34:42.640 as being like hey this is the word of God 34:42.640 --> 34:44.140 thus sayeth the Lord 34:44.140 --> 34:45.860 they became into 34:46.260 --> 34:47.800 not spiritual salvation 34:48.260 --> 34:49.600 not you must be born again 34:49.600 --> 34:51.280 not the brazen altar 34:51.280 --> 34:53.000 not the blood of Jesus Christ 34:53.000 --> 34:56.480 the United Methodist Church famously removed 34:57.500 --> 34:59.040 the songs from their hymnal 34:59.040 --> 34:59.760 about the blood 34:59.760 --> 35:02.100 because they said quote we don't want to have a bloody religion 35:02.940 --> 35:04.120 take out the blood 35:04.120 --> 35:05.580 what are they saying 35:05.580 --> 35:08.080 take the brazen altar and put it off to the side 35:08.780 --> 35:10.560 and when you take the brazen altar 35:10.560 --> 35:12.240 and you put it off to the side 35:12.240 --> 35:14.580 and it all becomes social gospel 35:14.580 --> 35:16.540 social justice 35:16.540 --> 35:20.080 all these liberal community efforts or whatever 35:20.080 --> 35:23.660 and then you wonder why your people don't even believe in God 35:24.300 --> 35:26.660 or that Jesus is even the Son of God 35:26.660 --> 35:28.020 and then how about this 35:28.510 --> 35:31.780 it is completely true that Jesus was born of a virgin 35:32.660 --> 35:34.360 so do they agree with this statement 35:34.360 --> 35:35.740 is it completely true 35:35.740 --> 35:37.700 that Jesus was born of a virgin 35:38.660 --> 35:39.620 the congregationalist 35:39.620 --> 35:41.540 21% said yes 35:41.540 --> 35:43.540 this is why you've never heard of the congregationalist 35:44.700 --> 35:45.180 because 35:45.740 --> 35:47.920 only 21% of the members are like 35:47.920 --> 35:49.780 yeah Jesus is born of a virgin 35:51.180 --> 35:51.660 Methodist 35:51.660 --> 35:53.720 34% that means 2 thirds 35:53.720 --> 35:54.980 are denying the virgin birth 35:54.980 --> 35:57.720 and this is in remember this isn't today 35:57.720 --> 35:59.580 today these numbers would be even lower 35:59.580 --> 36:01.180 this is 1963 36:02.380 --> 36:03.460 this is before 36:03.460 --> 36:04.960 all the hippies 36:04.960 --> 36:06.960 all the sunflowers 36:06.960 --> 36:09.040 and all of the hindu rishis 36:09.040 --> 36:11.600 and gurus coming over with the beetles 36:11.600 --> 36:13.380 none of that has happened yet 36:13.380 --> 36:15.440 and a lot of people think of the 60s 36:15.440 --> 36:17.060 as this liberal wild time 36:17.060 --> 36:19.520 that didn't start until the very end of the 60s 36:20.160 --> 36:21.520 that's like 1967 36:22.120 --> 36:23.300 at the earliest 36:23.920 --> 36:24.380 okay 36:24.380 --> 36:26.920 the early first half of the 60s 36:27.460 --> 36:29.280 you would think it's like the 50s 36:29.280 --> 36:30.600 you know it culturally 36:30.600 --> 36:33.340 it was only the very end of the 60s 36:33.340 --> 36:34.820 that it became all this wild 36:34.820 --> 36:36.100 long hair dudes 36:36.100 --> 36:38.620 taking drugs and all the hippie stuff 36:38.620 --> 36:40.240 wait this is before any of that 36:40.240 --> 36:42.480 1963 this is the 36:42.480 --> 36:44.520 religious state of these denominations 36:44.520 --> 36:46.600 and then you wonder why they all just 36:47.340 --> 36:47.820 totally 36:48.480 --> 36:49.860 hemorrhaged members and closed their doors 36:49.860 --> 36:51.840 well it's the same thing you know when A has 36:52.500 --> 36:54.880 dramatically changes and remodels 36:54.880 --> 36:56.020 the house of God 36:56.500 --> 36:58.260 not in accordance with God's word 36:58.260 --> 36:59.740 but in opposition to God's word 36:59.740 --> 37:01.420 trying to fit in with the world 37:01.420 --> 37:03.020 trying to please the heathen 37:04.120 --> 37:06.400 well this is what you end up with 37:06.400 --> 37:08.060 80% of people saying 37:08.060 --> 37:08.940 no virgin birth 37:09.880 --> 37:12.360 so what percentage of the Episcopalians 37:12.360 --> 37:13.880 believed in the virgin birth 37:13.880 --> 37:15.660 39% 37:16.620 --> 37:18.740 Presbyterians 57% 37:18.740 --> 37:19.480 right 37:19.480 --> 37:21.720 Lutherans that are not Missouri Synod 37:22.260 --> 37:23.840 66% 37:24.980 --> 37:25.940 Southern Baptist 37:25.940 --> 37:27.260 99% 37:27.880 --> 37:29.500 right so Southern Baptist 37:29.500 --> 37:32.140 does God exist 99% 37:32.140 --> 37:34.140 yes Jesus the divine 37:34.140 --> 37:35.820 son of God I have no doubts about it 37:35.820 --> 37:37.860 99% it's completely 37:37.860 --> 37:39.440 true that Jesus was born of a virgin 37:39.440 --> 37:41.180 99% 37:41.940 --> 37:44.120 definitely Jesus will actually 37:44.120 --> 37:45.460 return to the earth someday 37:45.460 --> 37:48.260 Southern Baptist 94% 37:49.140 --> 37:49.940 Congregationalist 37:49.940 --> 37:51.420 13% 37:51.940 --> 37:54.040 Methodist 21% 37:54.040 --> 37:55.440 and this isn't talking about like 37:55.440 --> 37:57.360 the timing of the rapture 37:57.360 --> 37:59.040 or whether you're post-trib 37:59.040 --> 38:00.460 or pretrib 38:00.460 --> 38:02.500 or whether you're post-millennial 38:02.500 --> 38:05.660 this is just is there even a second coming 38:05.660 --> 38:06.780 of Christ period 38:08.320 --> 38:09.540 right and 38:09.540 --> 38:12.100 13% of the Congregationalist 38:12.100 --> 38:14.140 say yes 21% of the Methodist 38:14.140 --> 38:15.920 24% of the Episcopalians 38:15.920 --> 38:17.900 43% of the Presbyts 38:17.900 --> 38:19.520 54% of 38:20.040 --> 38:21.360 mainstream Lutherans 38:21.360 --> 38:23.700 75% of Missouri Synod 38:23.700 --> 38:25.360 Lutherans and then because that's like 38:25.360 --> 38:27.660 the more fundamental wing of the Lutherans 38:27.660 --> 38:29.060 and then the Southern Baptist 38:29.060 --> 38:30.780 are at 94% 38:31.360 --> 38:33.520 how about this it is completely 38:33.520 --> 38:35.300 true that the devil actually 38:35.300 --> 38:35.940 exists 38:38.160 --> 38:39.660 Congregationalist 6% 38:39.660 --> 38:41.420 believe that the devil even exists 38:43.300 --> 38:45.500 and it's like bro he's running your church 38:45.500 --> 38:47.300 like how can you not believe in him 38:47.300 --> 38:49.440 what the heck so it's like 38:49.440 --> 38:51.540 Methodist 13% 38:51.540 --> 38:53.560 so 87% of Methodist 38:53.560 --> 38:54.780 don't believe in the devil 38:54.780 --> 38:56.140 in 1963 38:58.340 --> 38:59.380 how many of them 38:59.380 --> 39:01.360 believe that the devil exists in the Episcopalian 39:01.360 --> 39:03.160 17% 39:04.120 --> 39:05.620 Presbyterian 31% 39:06.040 --> 39:06.860 Southern Baptist 39:07.440 --> 39:08.420 92% 39:09.160 --> 39:10.740 and you know the Pentecostal 39:10.740 --> 39:12.920 and other sects and cults and things 39:13.240 --> 39:15.000 they're all around like 90% or whatever 39:15.000 --> 39:16.900 but the point is here 39:17.420 --> 39:19.060 that these mainline Protestant 39:19.600 --> 39:20.000 denominations 39:20.660 --> 39:22.400 you know they get to a point where it's like 39:22.400 --> 39:24.440 oh it's all about the social gospel 39:25.000 --> 39:26.580 it's not about the blood 39:27.020 --> 39:28.520 get rid of the brazen altar 39:28.520 --> 39:30.340 put it off to the side 39:30.820 --> 39:32.580 they're emphasizing all these other things 39:32.580 --> 39:34.240 and the next thing you know it's like 39:34.240 --> 39:35.540 they don't believe in God 39:35.540 --> 39:37.300 they don't believe in the virgin birth 39:37.300 --> 39:39.340 they don't believe in the miracles of the Bible 39:39.340 --> 39:41.380 and let me tell you something they're even worse now 39:41.380 --> 39:42.860 this is 1963 39:43.640 --> 39:44.980 we're talking over 39:44.980 --> 39:46.860 60 years ago 39:46.860 --> 39:48.960 when the country basically still looked 39:48.960 --> 39:51.000 like the 1950s 39:51.000 --> 39:51.940 you know where it's like 39:51.940 --> 39:54.800 where men are like going to work in a suit and tie 39:54.800 --> 39:56.880 with a hat on and their wife's like 39:56.880 --> 39:57.940 at home in the kitchen 39:57.940 --> 40:00.360 baking in a fancy dress and everything 40:00.360 --> 40:03.020 you know it's just like a totally different culture 40:03.640 --> 40:04.680 than now 40:04.680 --> 40:06.960 and these mainline denominations 40:06.960 --> 40:09.900 are already just completely denying the Bible 40:09.900 --> 40:10.840 and then do you wonder 40:10.840 --> 40:12.680 why they just completely 40:12.680 --> 40:14.960 just lost the market share 40:14.960 --> 40:17.260 on religion in the United States 40:17.260 --> 40:18.860 of America because there's such 40:18.860 --> 40:20.900 a joke and look church of England 40:22.060 --> 40:22.920 same thing 40:22.920 --> 40:24.600 and you know what right now 40:24.600 --> 40:27.020 I don't remember the statistic I hope I'm getting this right 40:27.020 --> 40:28.420 I want to say that like 40:28.420 --> 40:29.720 6% 40:30.420 --> 40:32.200 of people in England 40:32.840 --> 40:34.280 go to a Christian church 40:35.220 --> 40:36.340 6% 40:36.340 --> 40:39.100 of the nation goes to church 40:39.100 --> 40:40.980 so the church of England is just a 40:40.980 --> 40:42.280 complete joke 40:42.280 --> 40:44.880 this used to be a nation where 40:44.880 --> 40:46.680 the vast majority of the nation 40:46.680 --> 40:48.060 they're all members of the church of England 40:48.060 --> 40:49.060 they're all going to church 40:49.820 --> 40:51.700 now the church of England is just 40:51.700 --> 40:52.880 pretty much gone 40:53.660 --> 40:55.780 there are more people today 40:55.780 --> 40:57.540 going to a mosque 40:57.540 --> 41:00.340 in England than going to a Christian 41:00.340 --> 41:01.660 church of any denomination 41:03.180 --> 41:04.140 but again 41:04.140 --> 41:06.080 the church of England is super liberal 41:06.080 --> 41:08.260 bunch of weirdo, lesbian 41:09.240 --> 41:10.620 freaks that don't believe the Bible 41:10.620 --> 41:12.320 and then they wonder why no one will show up 41:13.500 --> 41:14.320 here's the thing 41:14.320 --> 41:16.260 the whole point of going to church 41:16.260 --> 41:18.200 is to meet with God 41:18.880 --> 41:20.680 it's to sing praises to God 41:20.680 --> 41:22.920 it's to hear the preaching of God's word 41:22.920 --> 41:25.660 it's to have an ear to hear what the Holy Spirit 41:25.660 --> 41:26.760 is saying 41:26.760 --> 41:29.080 to the churches through his word 41:29.080 --> 41:30.680 through the preaching of his word 41:30.680 --> 41:32.260 what is even the point 41:32.260 --> 41:33.800 of even having church 41:33.800 --> 41:35.960 if you don't believe Jesus was born 41:35.960 --> 41:37.820 of a virgin well then we might as well 41:37.820 --> 41:39.860 just eat, drink and be married because tomorrow 41:39.860 --> 41:40.360 we die 41:41.540 --> 41:43.680 it's a joke and you know what's so stupid 41:43.680 --> 41:45.880 is that there's a logic out there 41:45.880 --> 41:47.000 that says 41:47.880 --> 41:50.080 well if you be more like the world 41:50.080 --> 41:51.980 you can win them to 41:51.980 --> 41:53.180 Christ and we have to just 41:53.720 --> 41:55.380 be like them to win them 41:55.380 --> 41:57.500 and we have to just be seeker 41:57.500 --> 41:59.780 sensitive and put aside doctrine 41:59.780 --> 42:01.520 get that brazen altar 42:01.520 --> 42:03.700 off to the side all that judgment 42:03.700 --> 42:05.460 and wrath of God 42:05.460 --> 42:07.500 and hellfire and damnation 42:07.500 --> 42:09.200 and salvation 42:09.200 --> 42:11.480 and you gotta be saved and if you don't 42:11.480 --> 42:12.760 get saved you're gonna go to hell 42:13.300 --> 42:14.700 put that to the side 42:16.060 --> 42:17.260 and behold 42:17.260 --> 42:20.220 the beautiful Damascus altar 42:20.220 --> 42:22.220 but the problem is 42:22.220 --> 42:24.460 when you get rid of your core beliefs 42:24.460 --> 42:25.920 when you get rid of 42:25.920 --> 42:27.580 what you even stand for 42:27.580 --> 42:28.560 you're just 42:28.560 --> 42:30.780 announcing the closing 42:30.780 --> 42:31.760 down of your church 42:31.760 --> 42:33.200 and the death of your church 42:33.200 --> 42:35.120 let me say what I've said over and over again 42:35.120 --> 42:37.600 you stay great the way that you became great 42:38.520 --> 42:39.240 right? 42:39.900 --> 42:41.880 churches that were founded on soul winning 42:41.880 --> 42:44.200 churches that were founded on hard preaching 42:44.200 --> 42:46.600 churches that are up there breathing fire 42:46.600 --> 42:48.020 and ripping face 42:48.020 --> 42:49.780 and preaching hard on sin 42:49.780 --> 42:51.760 and rebuking false religion 42:51.760 --> 42:53.780 and aggressively winning souls 42:53.780 --> 42:56.620 and preaching hard and ripping on sin 42:56.620 --> 42:57.980 and not holding back 42:57.980 --> 43:00.360 you know what those churches if they're gonna continue 43:00.360 --> 43:02.460 to thrive they have to stay the same way 43:03.300 --> 43:04.620 they have to stay the same way 43:04.620 --> 43:06.420 and you gotta have 43:06.420 --> 43:08.380 some brass going on 43:08.380 --> 43:09.440 you gotta have some judgment 43:09.440 --> 43:11.460 you gotta have some fire on the altar 43:12.060 --> 43:13.960 not just a pretty altar 43:13.960 --> 43:16.460 a beautiful altar it needs to be 43:16.460 --> 43:17.720 the word of God 43:17.720 --> 43:19.340 it needs to be doctrine 43:19.340 --> 43:21.940 it needs to be distinct and different 43:21.940 --> 43:23.840 see here's the thing why would I want to have an altar 43:23.840 --> 43:25.500 that looks like the altar of a false religion 43:26.420 --> 43:28.140 when you start trying to copy 43:28.140 --> 43:29.380 false religion you die 43:29.380 --> 43:31.840 I remember you know something similar 43:31.840 --> 43:34.100 happened when I was growing up we were in a church 43:34.100 --> 43:35.620 and the church 43:35.620 --> 43:37.320 had problems 43:37.680 --> 43:39.500 because of nepotism 43:39.500 --> 43:41.900 and you know there were just like internal things 43:41.900 --> 43:43.480 where like the pastor 43:43.480 --> 43:45.740 had put his kids on staff 43:45.740 --> 43:47.860 and they're making you know more 43:47.860 --> 43:49.800 money than other like more qualified 43:49.800 --> 43:51.720 people because they're just nepotism whatever 43:51.720 --> 43:53.860 and so there's different fights going on 43:53.860 --> 43:55.840 and then the pastor's wife died 43:55.840 --> 43:58.040 and then he married a Presbyterian 43:58.040 --> 43:59.600 and everybody's like what the heck 43:59.600 --> 44:01.880 you know there were just a lot of just kind of 44:01.880 --> 44:03.460 dumb things and just kind of 44:03.460 --> 44:05.860 strife and whatever and so the church 44:05.860 --> 44:07.160 ended up you know losing members 44:07.640 --> 44:09.960 you know unfortunately churches go through drama 44:09.960 --> 44:11.320 and problems and whatever 44:11.320 --> 44:12.920 so the church started losing members 44:14.000 --> 44:16.040 and so a lot of people quit the church 44:16.040 --> 44:17.960 and they start going to a liberal church 44:17.960 --> 44:19.280 down the street which was called 44:19.280 --> 44:20.540 First Baptist of Elk Grove 44:21.060 --> 44:22.680 and so First Baptist of Elk Grove 44:22.680 --> 44:24.000 was just kind of a rock and roll 44:24.000 --> 44:25.940 NIV kind of church or whatever 44:25.940 --> 44:27.840 non-denom church on paper 44:27.840 --> 44:29.940 the doctrines all you know as far as like 44:29.940 --> 44:31.940 it's all Baptist on paper you know 44:31.940 --> 44:33.100 salvation by faith whatever 44:33.100 --> 44:35.000 but they're just liberal 44:35.000 --> 44:36.200 not standing for anything 44:36.200 --> 44:37.940 super weak super watered down 44:39.380 --> 44:41.100 and so what happened is 44:41.100 --> 44:44.140 we had gone back 44:44.140 --> 44:46.780 we had left the church tried some other churches 44:46.780 --> 44:48.820 but eventually you know we're just like 44:48.820 --> 44:50.840 hey let's just go back and make it work 44:50.840 --> 44:52.680 there so we went back to the church 44:53.360 --> 44:55.260 and you know we had 44:55.260 --> 44:57.140 some extended you know 44:57.140 --> 44:58.940 relatives or people that were connected 44:58.940 --> 45:00.720 to our family who had switched over 45:00.720 --> 45:02.560 to First Baptist of Elk Grove 45:02.560 --> 45:04.220 they came back for a visit 45:04.780 --> 45:06.800 at our church and the pastor is 45:06.800 --> 45:08.780 asking them hey can you give me that 45:08.780 --> 45:10.180 bulletin from 45:10.660 --> 45:12.660 the liberal church because he said 45:12.660 --> 45:14.220 you know I want to see what they're doing 45:14.220 --> 45:16.340 I want to start patterning things 45:16.340 --> 45:18.320 after what they're doing and he basically 45:18.320 --> 45:19.840 said well if everybody's going to leave 45:19.840 --> 45:22.100 and go to First Baptist of Elk Grove then we're just 45:22.100 --> 45:23.980 going to become like First Baptist of Elk Grove 45:25.080 --> 45:26.260 if people are going to leave 45:26.260 --> 45:28.300 and go there we'll just start to become like them 45:28.300 --> 45:30.080 well here's what's so stupid about that 45:30.080 --> 45:31.860 is if you're going to try to copy 45:31.860 --> 45:34.560 the big liberal First Baptist down the street 45:34.560 --> 45:36.180 then why wouldn't people 45:36.180 --> 45:38.600 just go to the source instead of the imitation 45:39.660 --> 45:40.880 so if you understand what I'm saying 45:42.080 --> 45:43.080 like if you're 45:43.080 --> 45:45.060 a fundamental Baptist if you're 45:45.060 --> 45:46.940 preaching heart if you're into soul winning 45:46.940 --> 45:48.760 if you're having biblical standards 45:48.760 --> 45:50.460 if you're preaching against sin 45:51.080 --> 45:53.140 and then you look down the street and there's some 45:53.140 --> 45:55.060 non-denom churches growing 45:55.060 --> 45:56.880 and thriving and being big or whatever 45:56.880 --> 45:59.220 and then you think like oh well let's 45:59.220 --> 46:01.200 be a little bit more like them 46:01.200 --> 46:03.180 let's be a little more like Damascus 46:03.180 --> 46:05.100 and then if we do that 46:05.100 --> 46:07.120 then you know we can grow too 46:07.120 --> 46:09.020 it's like bro no because here's the thing 46:09.020 --> 46:11.040 if you start copying them why wouldn't people 46:11.040 --> 46:11.940 just go all the way 46:12.520 --> 46:13.540 to the real thing 46:14.180 --> 46:17.160 the whole point of being a fundamentalist 46:17.160 --> 46:18.520 Baptist is to be different 46:19.040 --> 46:20.740 now back then you know notice I was 46:20.740 --> 46:22.420 reading statistics from the southern Baptist 46:22.420 --> 46:24.580 but here's the thing you know back in the 46:24.580 --> 46:26.720 especially in the early 20th century 46:26.720 --> 46:28.600 you know a lot of southern Baptists were 46:28.600 --> 46:29.260 pretty fundamental 46:30.340 --> 46:31.720 you know by 1963 46:32.500 --> 46:34.720 you know you still have them 46:34.720 --> 46:36.840 answering pretty well on the survey as far as 46:36.840 --> 46:37.900 the church members at least 46:37.900 --> 46:39.140 in 1963 46:39.640 --> 46:42.160 and so in many ways the southern 46:42.160 --> 46:43.400 Baptists of 46:43.400 --> 46:45.280 the early 20th century 46:45.280 --> 46:47.520 or maybe even mid 20th century 46:47.520 --> 46:49.460 are analogous to today's like 46:49.460 --> 46:51.620 independent fundamental Baptists as far as being 46:51.620 --> 46:53.780 you know more fundamental 46:53.780 --> 46:55.820 versus the northern Baptists are more 46:55.820 --> 46:56.980 liberal okay 46:56.980 --> 46:59.620 and so the point is that 46:59.620 --> 47:01.100 we are to be distinct 47:01.100 --> 47:02.980 we are to be different 47:02.980 --> 47:05.840 than this world and when the salt has lost 47:05.840 --> 47:07.860 its savor it's good for nothing 47:09.020 --> 47:09.960 it's not good for anything 47:09.960 --> 47:11.760 and so it's so stupid to think like 47:11.760 --> 47:13.920 well if we could just tone down 47:13.920 --> 47:14.860 the preaching a little 47:15.280 --> 47:17.620 and be a little bit more like the liberal church 47:17.620 --> 47:19.980 and be a little bit more like the non-denom church 47:19.980 --> 47:21.720 and be a little more like the world 47:21.720 --> 47:23.860 and start being a little more permissive 47:23.860 --> 47:25.940 and a little more feminist and a little bit more 47:25.940 --> 47:26.900 of this and that and the other 47:26.900 --> 47:29.880 and thinking that somehow that's going to reach more people 47:29.880 --> 47:31.740 first of all even if it did 47:31.740 --> 47:33.160 reach more people it's still be wrong 47:33.160 --> 47:34.960 because it just writes right and wrongs wrong 47:36.300 --> 47:37.200 so like even 47:37.200 --> 47:39.140 if it did reach more people it doesn't make it right 47:39.140 --> 47:41.280 because we're supposed to just follow 47:41.280 --> 47:43.140 the Bible I don't care if 47:43.140 --> 47:45.280 everybody loves the Damascus altar we're not doing it 47:45.280 --> 47:47.280 we're doing the Brazen altar front and center 47:48.540 --> 47:49.280 but here's 47:49.280 --> 47:51.100 the thing is the irony is 47:51.100 --> 47:53.100 it doesn't even make the church grow 47:53.100 --> 47:54.680 it just destroys the church 47:54.680 --> 47:56.800 and means that the church is going to close its doors 47:57.580 --> 47:59.220 because guess what happened to that church 47:59.220 --> 48:01.160 where the pastor said hey let's 48:01.160 --> 48:03.420 borrow their bulletin let's see what they're like 48:03.420 --> 48:05.360 let's start patterning ourselves after them 48:05.360 --> 48:06.980 you know pretty soon 48:06.980 --> 48:09.240 the entire church population 48:09.240 --> 48:11.220 pretty much left to the point 48:11.220 --> 48:12.620 where you're in this giant building 48:12.620 --> 48:13.900 and there's like nobody coming 48:13.900 --> 48:16.180 and so you end up having to downsize 48:16.180 --> 48:17.820 so they end up selling the building 48:17.820 --> 48:19.800 moving to a tiny storefront 48:19.800 --> 48:22.000 and the church just became a tiny 48:22.000 --> 48:24.120 shadow of what it used to be 48:24.940 --> 48:26.560 you know why because they 48:27.160 --> 48:28.540 you know lost their first love 48:29.160 --> 48:30.900 they lost their distinctives 48:30.900 --> 48:32.140 and they just became about 48:32.140 --> 48:34.180 hey let's just do whatever we can to grow 48:34.180 --> 48:36.100 and you know what's funny is that these 48:36.100 --> 48:38.800 libtard denominations like the Presbyterians 48:40.220 --> 48:41.220 Methodists, Congregationalists 48:41.220 --> 48:42.800 you know ELCA 48:42.800 --> 48:44.360 Evangelical Lutheran Church of America 48:44.360 --> 48:46.380 you know they think that by being liberal 48:46.380 --> 48:47.320 they're going to get more members 48:48.680 --> 48:50.740 but isn't it interesting how the opposite happened 48:52.280 --> 48:54.280 and here's the thing the more 48:54.280 --> 48:56.000 fundamental that you are 48:56.000 --> 48:58.120 you're actually giving people a reason 48:58.120 --> 48:59.020 to even show up 49:00.860 --> 49:01.300 okay 49:01.900 --> 49:03.720 and at the end of the day like I said it doesn't matter 49:03.720 --> 49:06.020 because rights right wrongs wrong we're going to do what's right anyway 49:06.020 --> 49:08.240 we don't care if everybody leaves 49:08.240 --> 49:09.940 and quits we're still just going to do what's right 49:09.940 --> 49:11.320 we don't care but here's the thing 49:12.020 --> 49:14.020 notice our church is thriving 49:14.020 --> 49:16.060 our church does have 49:16.060 --> 49:17.280 a great crowd why 49:17.280 --> 49:20.060 because of the fact that people are showing up for something 49:20.060 --> 49:22.160 real and as soon as you stop 49:22.160 --> 49:23.480 offering something real 49:23.480 --> 49:25.240 then there's no reason to show up 49:25.240 --> 49:26.940 and that's what happened in the Church of England 49:27.440 --> 49:29.140 that's what happened to all these denominations 49:29.140 --> 49:31.520 because basically if people are going to be told 49:31.520 --> 49:33.100 that Jesus wasn't even born of a virgin 49:33.100 --> 49:35.020 then it's like well then what are we even doing here 49:35.500 --> 49:36.500 and you know what's funny 49:36.500 --> 49:39.240 even the Roman Catholic Church experienced 49:39.240 --> 49:40.820 something like this at the exact same time 49:41.280 --> 49:43.600 and obviously the Roman Catholics are totally 49:44.340 --> 49:45.220 not saved 49:45.220 --> 49:46.700 not real Christians 49:46.700 --> 49:48.760 total pagan idolaters they've never 49:49.360 --> 49:50.100 believed the gospel 49:50.100 --> 49:52.060 okay but what's interesting 49:52.060 --> 49:53.720 is if you look at the history 49:53.720 --> 49:55.560 of the Catholic Church in America 49:56.040 --> 49:57.740 the Catholic Church in America was 49:57.740 --> 49:59.860 growing and thriving 49:59.860 --> 50:02.000 in this country in the 50:02.000 --> 50:03.700 early 20th century 50:03.700 --> 50:06.020 okay like I mean their numbers 50:06.020 --> 50:07.500 are just going through the roof 50:07.500 --> 50:09.320 a lot of that's from immigration 50:09.320 --> 50:11.380 because you got all these bunch of Irish 50:11.380 --> 50:14.000 and Italians and Germans coming over 50:14.000 --> 50:15.660 all these Catholics immigrate 50:15.660 --> 50:17.580 because when our country was founded it was like 50:17.580 --> 50:18.800 totally non Catholic 50:19.540 --> 50:20.900 you know when our country 50:21.280 --> 50:23.000 became independent in 1776 50:23.340 --> 50:25.440 the most Catholic state in America 50:25.440 --> 50:27.280 was Maryland it's literally 50:27.280 --> 50:29.780 named after the Virgin Mary Mary land 50:29.780 --> 50:31.240 it was literally designed 50:31.240 --> 50:33.440 by Lord Baltimore to be a 50:33.440 --> 50:35.320 safe haven for Catholics because 50:35.320 --> 50:37.400 other places like Catholic Catholicism 50:37.400 --> 50:39.780 was persecuted and not even legal 50:39.780 --> 50:41.200 because people in America 50:41.200 --> 50:43.460 a lot of them came here to get away from 50:43.460 --> 50:45.860 the mother whore Catholic Church and they hated it 50:45.860 --> 50:48.460 and they're like we don't want the stupid Catholic Church here 50:48.460 --> 50:50.220 they're super anti Catholic 50:50.220 --> 50:51.360 in America 50:51.360 --> 50:53.660 and so Maryland is designed for like 50:53.660 --> 50:55.860 a safe space for Catholics 50:55.860 --> 50:57.760 and in 1776 50:57.760 --> 51:00.220 approximately 3% 51:00.220 --> 51:02.060 of the population of Maryland was Catholic 51:03.570 --> 51:06.020 so the other colonies Catholicism 51:06.020 --> 51:07.620 was virtually nonexistent 51:08.420 --> 51:09.640 not relevant 51:09.640 --> 51:11.720 and in Maryland it's 3% 51:11.720 --> 51:13.100 of the population okay 51:13.100 --> 51:14.620 but obviously 51:14.620 --> 51:16.940 as we absorbed huge 51:16.940 --> 51:18.800 chunks of what used to be Mexico 51:18.800 --> 51:20.340 right because Arizona 51:21.000 --> 51:23.100 and California used to belong to Mexico 51:23.100 --> 51:25.120 as we absorbed all these chunks 51:25.120 --> 51:27.020 of Mexico we're bringing in a bunch of Roman 51:27.020 --> 51:28.860 Catholics because the Mexicans were 51:28.860 --> 51:31.120 predominantly at that time very Catholic 51:31.120 --> 51:32.940 and then also we had all these 51:32.940 --> 51:34.680 tons of immigrants come over from 51:34.680 --> 51:36.720 Ireland, Italy, Germany 51:36.720 --> 51:38.960 and other Catholic countries and so that 51:38.960 --> 51:41.020 boosted the Catholic numbers and then once they got 51:41.020 --> 51:42.860 here though you know they were really 51:42.860 --> 51:45.040 zealous about Catholicism because 51:45.040 --> 51:46.720 it was kind of a cultural thing too 51:46.720 --> 51:48.720 it's like a way to stay connected with the old 51:48.720 --> 51:50.620 country and they're connecting with all 51:50.620 --> 51:52.180 their fellow Italians and 51:52.960 --> 51:54.540 you know Irish and whatever 51:54.540 --> 51:56.980 and so you had 51:56.980 --> 51:58.920 like a lot of growth 51:59.540 --> 52:00.840 and numbers going 52:00.840 --> 52:02.500 up of the Roman Catholic Church 52:03.020 --> 52:04.420 in the 20th century 52:05.020 --> 52:06.680 but what happened well 52:06.680 --> 52:08.280 guess what around this exact time 52:08.280 --> 52:09.660 you have what 52:10.700 --> 52:11.580 who knows 52:12.280 --> 52:13.320 anyone anyone 52:14.060 --> 52:16.300 early 1960s what did the Roman Catholic Church 52:16.300 --> 52:17.820 do a massive major thing 52:17.820 --> 52:19.640 early 1960s 52:20.620 --> 52:22.280 exactly Vatican II 52:22.280 --> 52:24.200 they had their Vatican II 52:24.200 --> 52:26.120 Council you know and they 52:26.120 --> 52:28.140 ended up just radically 52:28.140 --> 52:30.240 overhauling the Catholic Church to make it 52:30.240 --> 52:32.300 more modern and so 52:32.300 --> 52:34.200 they modernized it and 52:34.200 --> 52:35.980 one of the things they did is they got rid of 52:35.980 --> 52:37.980 meatless Friday you know because 52:37.980 --> 52:40.060 it used to be considered like a big 52:40.060 --> 52:42.080 sin a big 52:42.080 --> 52:43.500 sin in the Catholic Church 52:43.500 --> 52:45.080 if you're eating meat on a Friday 52:45.680 --> 52:47.840 and so I mean think about this kids are going 52:47.840 --> 52:49.960 to school and they're having to have 52:49.960 --> 52:51.820 special lunches they're out with their 52:51.820 --> 52:53.880 friends on a Friday night they're not eating a cheese 52:53.880 --> 52:55.800 burger down at the drive-in 52:55.800 --> 52:57.640 down in and out burger McDonald's 52:57.640 --> 52:59.720 they're not having a burger until 52:59.720 --> 53:01.800 midnight clock strikes midnight then they can have 53:01.800 --> 53:03.740 a burger now this is 53:03.740 --> 53:05.640 a stupid arbitrary rule 53:05.640 --> 53:06.820 that's not found in the Bible 53:07.680 --> 53:09.380 so the Roman Catholic Church is like 53:09.380 --> 53:11.620 hey we're going to modernize 53:11.620 --> 53:13.840 so let's get rid of meatless Friday 53:14.620 --> 53:15.060 the 53:15.680 --> 53:17.660 mass is no longer going to be in Latin it's 53:17.660 --> 53:18.380 going to be in English 53:19.120 --> 53:20.900 once you put it in English we can figure out 53:20.900 --> 53:22.680 the nonsense that you're saying 53:23.680 --> 53:25.760 you figure out how stupid your sermon is 53:25.760 --> 53:27.400 when it's in English how 53:27.400 --> 53:29.460 worthless your teachings are so it's like 53:29.460 --> 53:31.020 oh we're going to put the mass in 53:31.020 --> 53:33.180 in English we're going to say 53:33.180 --> 53:35.100 sorry to the Jews and we're not going to 53:35.100 --> 53:36.240 be against Jews anymore 53:36.900 --> 53:38.980 you know it's all big misunderstanding we're 53:38.980 --> 53:40.560 not going to be anti-Semitic no mo 53:41.120 --> 53:42.960 and they said you know we're 53:42.960 --> 53:44.680 getting rid of meatless Friday so they 53:44.680 --> 53:46.860 dramatically overhauled and modernized 53:46.860 --> 53:48.980 the Roman Catholic Church and you 53:48.980 --> 53:50.160 know what it you know what ended up happening 53:50.840 --> 53:52.100 just their attendances 53:52.100 --> 53:54.780 just completely just 53:55.800 --> 53:57.120 plummeted as a result 53:57.120 --> 53:58.700 why because because then it's like 53:58.700 --> 54:00.720 people are thinking like wait a minute 54:00.720 --> 54:02.580 why were we even doing meatless Friday then 54:02.580 --> 54:04.720 if all of a sudden it's just not a sin 54:04.720 --> 54:06.040 all of a sudden it's just fine 54:06.040 --> 54:08.000 to not do it you know 54:08.840 --> 54:10.820 and so they ended up just totally 54:10.820 --> 54:11.860 just plummeting 54:11.860 --> 54:15.000 and losing members and just completely 54:15.680 --> 54:16.980 you know going south 54:16.980 --> 54:18.880 and it went from having just 54:18.880 --> 54:20.520 like you know 54:20.520 --> 54:22.460 I mean I was reading the statistics in this book 54:22.460 --> 54:24.260 of just how 54:24.260 --> 54:26.420 many nuns they had 54:26.420 --> 54:27.860 how many priests they had 54:27.860 --> 54:29.920 how many young men 54:29.920 --> 54:32.160 are studying for the priesthood I mean it literally 54:32.160 --> 54:33.920 just tanked 54:33.920 --> 54:35.140 to the point where it's like 54:35.720 --> 54:37.820 they're just in freefall 54:37.820 --> 54:39.740 numbers across the board 54:39.740 --> 54:41.880 of people just totally abandoning 54:42.160 --> 54:43.340 the Roman Catholic Church 54:43.340 --> 54:45.120 which amen praise God 54:45.120 --> 54:47.620 and you know of course this is at the same time 54:47.620 --> 54:49.980 as you had a bunch of big soul winning movements 54:49.980 --> 54:52.360 firing up in the 60s 70s 54:52.360 --> 54:54.260 and 80s winning Catholics to Christ 54:54.260 --> 54:55.960 and so thank God 54:55.960 --> 54:58.200 for Vatican Council too just making these people 54:58.200 --> 54:59.860 ripe for the picking 54:59.860 --> 55:02.080 realizing that their religion 55:02.080 --> 55:04.300 just dramatically changed right before their eyes 55:04.300 --> 55:05.960 and so the point is 55:05.960 --> 55:07.980 that this idea that says 55:07.980 --> 55:10.600 oh if we get more modernized 55:10.600 --> 55:11.780 and more worldly 55:11.780 --> 55:14.280 and we conform to this world 55:14.280 --> 55:16.100 somehow that's going to bring in members 55:16.100 --> 55:18.120 it's funny the denominations 55:18.120 --> 55:19.340 that have tried to do that 55:19.340 --> 55:22.220 whether they were saved or unsaved 55:22.220 --> 55:24.220 everybody who tries it fails 55:25.990 --> 55:26.840 it doesn't work 55:28.380 --> 55:30.320 and so you got to just be 55:30.320 --> 55:31.120 who you are 55:31.970 --> 55:33.240 you know be Jerusalem 55:33.240 --> 55:36.240 have the brazen altar follow the Bible 55:36.240 --> 55:37.640 stand for doctrine 55:37.990 --> 55:39.080 stand for what's right 55:39.080 --> 55:40.780 and don't just sit there 55:40.780 --> 55:43.300 and say well we got to just see what's popular 55:43.300 --> 55:44.700 and change and whatever 55:44.700 --> 55:47.360 because if you're not even distinct 55:47.360 --> 55:48.920 what's even the point and you know 55:48.920 --> 55:51.180 here's the thing about the independent fundamental Baptist movement 55:51.180 --> 55:52.720 is that the independent 55:52.720 --> 55:55.300 fundamental Baptist movement used to be 55:55.300 --> 55:57.420 a hellfire and damnation 55:57.420 --> 55:58.760 hard preaching 55:58.760 --> 56:00.920 zealous soul winning movement 56:00.920 --> 56:02.800 that's why it was growing 56:02.800 --> 56:04.080 that's why it was thriving 56:04.080 --> 56:05.280 that's why it was succeeding 56:05.280 --> 56:07.840 you see when I was a 17 year old boy 56:07.840 --> 56:09.660 walking into an independent 56:09.660 --> 56:11.200 fundamental Baptist church 56:11.200 --> 56:13.500 for the first time in many many years 56:14.760 --> 56:16.640 you know I loved it 56:16.640 --> 56:18.200 because it was so different 56:18.860 --> 56:20.100 from the liberal churches 56:20.640 --> 56:22.280 so I walked in and it was like 56:22.280 --> 56:23.180 and it was exciting 56:23.180 --> 56:24.900 it was hard preaching 56:24.900 --> 56:26.680 the preaching stepping on my toes 56:26.680 --> 56:28.340 and getting on my sin 56:28.340 --> 56:30.580 and it was everybody's zealous 56:30.580 --> 56:32.860 about soul winning and evangelism and everything 56:32.860 --> 56:34.880 and they were fired up and preaching hard 56:34.880 --> 56:37.560 and it was like man this place is legit 56:37.560 --> 56:39.080 this place is the real deal 56:40.080 --> 56:42.020 that's how the fundamental Baptist movement was 56:42.020 --> 56:42.780 in the 90s 56:42.780 --> 56:44.020 but what happened 56:44.020 --> 56:45.980 what changed the fundamental Baptist 56:45.980 --> 56:47.260 between then and now 56:47.260 --> 56:49.160 a big part of it is the internet 56:50.600 --> 56:52.500 part of it is the death of brother hiles 56:52.500 --> 56:54.600 because he was kind of like a leader 56:54.600 --> 56:56.160 of the fundamental Baptist movement 56:56.620 --> 56:58.660 and he was a hellfire and brimstone 56:58.660 --> 56:59.280 kind of a guy 56:59.280 --> 57:01.400 he died and the people who replaced him 57:01.400 --> 57:02.980 were just really soft and watered down 57:03.600 --> 57:05.280 I'm not saying in that exact ministry 57:05.280 --> 57:07.660 I'm saying in America 57:07.660 --> 57:09.620 as leaders of fundamentalism 57:09.620 --> 57:12.300 but a big part of it is the internet 57:12.300 --> 57:13.220 is why 57:13.780 --> 57:14.900 what do I mean by that 57:14.900 --> 57:17.400 is because now because of the internet 57:17.400 --> 57:19.060 if you preach hard 57:19.060 --> 57:20.560 if you rip face 57:20.560 --> 57:22.360 if you tell it like it is 57:22.360 --> 57:23.960 you're going to be persecuted 57:23.960 --> 57:26.500 because the whole world is going to find out about it 57:26.500 --> 57:29.140 people will take little clips from your sermon 57:29.140 --> 57:31.880 they'll grab that hot little clip from your sermon 57:31.880 --> 57:33.400 and you will go viral 57:33.400 --> 57:34.440 on tiktok 57:34.440 --> 57:37.100 instagram, x, facebook 57:37.100 --> 57:38.540 whatever because 57:39.100 --> 57:40.220 it's all public 57:40.220 --> 57:41.360 on the internet 57:42.560 --> 57:44.520 so here's the thing these guys in the 90's 57:44.520 --> 57:45.920 they're getting up and ripping face 57:45.920 --> 57:48.900 and preaching on homos and preaching to get sin 57:48.900 --> 57:50.380 and being strict 57:51.000 --> 57:52.060 and you know 57:52.060 --> 57:54.980 preaching hard and staying strong 57:54.980 --> 57:56.220 on doctrine and everything like that 57:56.220 --> 57:59.120 but then what happens is now that their preaching is going on the internet 57:59.120 --> 58:01.360 they had to tone down their preaching a little bit 58:02.520 --> 58:03.860 because they don't want to get busted 58:03.860 --> 58:04.760 they don't want to get in trouble 58:04.760 --> 58:06.680 that's why you have a guy like Jeff Owens 58:06.680 --> 58:08.700 Jeff Owens in the 90's 58:08.700 --> 58:10.140 is just screaming and yelling 58:10.760 --> 58:12.380 1996 in America 58:12.380 --> 58:14.320 we got to stop burning flags 58:14.320 --> 58:15.980 and start burning fags 58:15.980 --> 58:18.360 and he's just saying all these wild things 58:18.360 --> 58:19.900 and preaching hard and it's just like 58:20.480 --> 58:22.600 he's preaching that in the largest independent 58:22.600 --> 58:24.120 Baptist college in America 58:24.760 --> 58:26.000 Hiles Anderson college 58:26.000 --> 58:28.000 he's the vice president of the college 58:28.940 --> 58:29.880 preaching it 58:29.880 --> 58:31.580 the crowd's going wild 58:32.280 --> 58:33.440 everybody's loving it 58:33.440 --> 58:34.860 everybody's supporting it right 58:37.120 --> 58:39.520 and then what happens 58:39.520 --> 58:41.680 you know the internet comes along 58:41.680 --> 58:43.340 and somebody 58:43.340 --> 58:45.620 whose name starts with an S 58:45.620 --> 58:47.220 and ends in Tivan Anderson 58:48.480 --> 58:49.080 uploads 58:50.260 --> 58:52.080 that sermon to the internet 58:52.080 --> 58:53.780 I uploaded that part of the sermon 58:53.780 --> 58:54.340 to YouTube 58:55.300 --> 58:57.580 I made a YouTube video out of that part of the sermon 58:57.580 --> 58:59.380 and it went viral 58:59.380 --> 59:00.140 predictably 59:00.140 --> 59:02.280 I was there for it 59:02.280 --> 59:03.460 I was like yeah this is awesome 59:03.460 --> 59:05.760 I liked the sermon 59:05.760 --> 59:09.060 the whole sermon is called Struck Blind 59:09.060 --> 59:10.660 by Jeff Owens 59:12.200 --> 59:13.380 Struck Blind 59:13.380 --> 59:15.320 so I upload the sermon 59:15.320 --> 59:16.600 I upload the clip 59:16.600 --> 59:19.420 and then they come after Jeff Owens 59:19.420 --> 59:21.520 and start persecuting him 59:21.520 --> 59:23.860 and he uploads the lamest 59:23.860 --> 59:24.920 most faggity 59:24.920 --> 59:26.800 apology that you can even imagine 59:26.800 --> 59:29.620 he's like hi my name is Jeff Owens 59:29.620 --> 59:33.660 and I said some really hurtful things 59:33.660 --> 59:34.620 about gay people 59:34.620 --> 59:35.780 and I'm really sorry 59:35.780 --> 59:38.520 and I didn't even mean those things when I said them 59:38.520 --> 59:40.780 I was very young and stupid 59:40.780 --> 59:42.520 and immature when I said those things 59:42.520 --> 59:44.680 it's like bro you weren't young and immature 59:44.680 --> 59:46.400 you were the vice president 59:46.400 --> 59:48.320 of the largest independent 59:48.320 --> 59:50.680 Baptist Bible college in the world 59:51.220 --> 59:52.740 and you'd written two books 59:52.740 --> 59:53.760 one of them called Character 59:53.760 --> 59:56.020 and another one called More Character 59:57.020 --> 59:57.880 I mean when you 59:57.880 --> 59:59.060 write a book called Character 59:59.720 --> 01:00:02.020 and then you write another book called More Character 01:00:02.780 --> 01:00:04.260 and you're the vice president 01:00:04.260 --> 01:00:06.000 of the biggest independent Baptist Bible college 01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:07.660 I wouldn't say that you're young and immature 01:00:08.240 --> 01:00:10.060 you sound pretty stinking mature 01:00:10.060 --> 01:00:10.500 to me 01:00:11.320 --> 01:00:13.420 I'm not over here writing books on Character 01:00:13.960 --> 01:00:15.240 I'm not mature enough 01:00:15.760 --> 01:00:17.280 someday maybe I'll be that mature 01:00:17.280 --> 01:00:18.320 but I'm not there yet 01:00:19.480 --> 01:00:20.700 but it's like 01:00:20.700 --> 01:00:22.400 oh I'm so sorry 01:00:22.400 --> 01:00:23.700 and you know oh you know 01:00:23.700 --> 01:00:24.980 will you please forgive me 01:00:24.980 --> 01:00:27.980 I literally like I forget 01:00:27.980 --> 01:00:30.280 how bad his apology was so I have to listen to it 01:00:30.280 --> 01:00:31.080 like once a year 01:00:31.940 --> 01:00:34.040 I'm serious I have to pull it out and play it 01:00:34.040 --> 01:00:35.080 like once a year just to 01:00:35.080 --> 01:00:37.080 because I can't even process it 01:00:37.080 --> 01:00:40.260 like my brain can't even grasp it 01:00:40.260 --> 01:00:41.840 so like I can't remember 01:00:41.840 --> 01:00:44.060 it's impossible to remember how bad it was 01:00:44.060 --> 01:00:46.040 so I have to play it like once a year 01:00:46.040 --> 01:00:47.920 the Jeff Owens apology 01:00:47.920 --> 01:00:49.180 because it's so bad 01:00:50.460 --> 01:00:51.920 and it's not just 01:00:51.920 --> 01:00:52.600 him folks 01:00:52.600 --> 01:00:55.640 the whole old IFB 01:00:55.640 --> 01:00:57.700 was ripping face preaching hard 01:00:57.700 --> 01:00:59.960 and they were growing like crazy 01:01:01.100 --> 01:01:01.780 now 01:01:01.780 --> 01:01:04.100 the independent Baptists are in decline 01:01:04.100 --> 01:01:04.860 right now 01:01:05.640 --> 01:01:06.460 they just are 01:01:06.460 --> 01:01:09.580 most of your independent fundamental Baptist church across America 01:01:09.580 --> 01:01:11.620 are getting smaller 01:01:11.620 --> 01:01:13.160 they're having to merge with other churches 01:01:13.920 --> 01:01:14.980 they're declining 01:01:14.980 --> 01:01:17.000 they're getting less people saved 01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:18.440 they're big auditoriums 01:01:18.440 --> 01:01:20.160 high steeple few people churches 01:01:20.980 --> 01:01:21.720 because 01:01:22.680 --> 01:01:23.760 what's the point anymore 01:01:23.760 --> 01:01:24.460 I mean think about it 01:01:24.460 --> 01:01:26.980 what's the point of going 01:01:26.980 --> 01:01:29.180 to Hiles Anderson college 01:01:29.180 --> 01:01:31.780 to get an unaccredited degree 01:01:31.780 --> 01:01:34.440 so your credits don't transfer 01:01:34.640 --> 01:01:35.060 anywhere 01:01:35.060 --> 01:01:37.020 it's totally unaccredited 01:01:37.020 --> 01:01:39.280 it's not considered a legitimate 01:01:39.280 --> 01:01:41.020 in this world's eyes 01:01:41.520 --> 01:01:43.100 bachelor's degree or master's degree 01:01:43.100 --> 01:01:44.300 what's the point of going there 01:01:44.300 --> 01:01:46.920 you're going there because it's a special place 01:01:47.600 --> 01:01:48.880 you're going there because 01:01:48.880 --> 01:01:50.980 you want to hear all that super hard preaching 01:01:50.980 --> 01:01:52.880 and you want to be in this super 01:01:52.880 --> 01:01:54.440 zealous soul winning environment 01:01:54.800 --> 01:01:56.560 and you want to be in this exciting place 01:01:56.560 --> 01:01:58.900 that's totally different than devil 01:01:58.900 --> 01:01:59.820 state university 01:02:00.560 --> 01:02:01.620 that's why you're there 01:02:01.620 --> 01:02:03.700 but here's the thing if these places 01:02:04.480 --> 01:02:05.440 will soften 01:02:05.440 --> 01:02:09.020 then it gets to a point where it's like 01:02:09.020 --> 01:02:09.900 the state university 01:02:09.900 --> 01:02:12.640 and get an unaccredited degree 01:02:12.640 --> 01:02:15.000 at the state university then to go to this place 01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:16.260 that's not really that 01:02:16.810 --> 01:02:18.660 you know different anyway 01:02:18.660 --> 01:02:19.820 or that fired up anywhere 01:02:19.820 --> 01:02:22.580 and it's like yeah they're still going to have 01:02:22.580 --> 01:02:24.140 the clothing standards and the dress standards 01:02:24.140 --> 01:02:26.500 but what you really need is the face ripping 01:02:27.020 --> 01:02:28.360 hellfire and damnation preaching 01:02:29.800 --> 01:02:31.220 that's what people want 01:02:31.220 --> 01:02:33.380 people want the spirit of god 01:02:34.160 --> 01:02:35.240 people want 01:02:35.240 --> 01:02:36.620 the zealous soul winning 01:02:36.620 --> 01:02:38.380 I'm not criticizing Hal's Anderson 01:02:38.380 --> 01:02:39.800 I'm just saying that 01:02:39.800 --> 01:02:41.940 as a whole 01:02:42.420 --> 01:02:44.380 I'm not singling them out or talking about them 01:02:44.380 --> 01:02:46.020 in particular I'm just saying 01:02:46.020 --> 01:02:48.520 that as a whole the old IFB 01:02:48.520 --> 01:02:49.860 in our area 01:02:49.860 --> 01:02:52.500 in every area has become weak and watered down 01:02:52.500 --> 01:02:54.400 I don't see them on the news 01:02:55.360 --> 01:02:56.860 and going viral 01:02:56.860 --> 01:02:58.200 you don't see them going viral 01:02:58.200 --> 01:03:00.880 for ripping on sodomites or ripping on feminism 01:03:00.880 --> 01:03:02.800 or fighting the cultural battles 01:03:02.800 --> 01:03:03.780 but if you took 01:03:03.780 --> 01:03:05.920 if you could dig out there preaching from the 90's 01:03:05.920 --> 01:03:06.760 it would all go viral 01:03:07.300 --> 01:03:08.460 you understand what I'm saying 01:03:09.940 --> 01:03:11.660 and so all that to say this 01:03:11.660 --> 01:03:12.680 when you 01:03:14.200 --> 01:03:16.120 deemphasize the blood of Jesus Christ 01:03:16.120 --> 01:03:18.280 when you deemphasize 01:03:18.280 --> 01:03:19.160 salvation 01:03:19.780 --> 01:03:20.840 and soul winning 01:03:20.840 --> 01:03:23.140 and going out and getting people saved 01:03:23.140 --> 01:03:26.260 when you deemphasize the wrath and judgment of god 01:03:26.260 --> 01:03:28.200 when you deemphasize 01:03:28.200 --> 01:03:30.120 the maybe unsavory 01:03:30.120 --> 01:03:30.880 or ugly 01:03:31.400 --> 01:03:31.800 things 01:03:32.320 --> 01:03:33.680 in the word of god quote unquote 01:03:33.680 --> 01:03:35.740 which I think is all beautiful but you know what I mean 01:03:35.740 --> 01:03:38.320 the things that this world would look at is unsavory 01:03:38.920 --> 01:03:41.080 and you want to put those things off to the side 01:03:41.080 --> 01:03:43.060 and have a religion that appeals 01:03:43.060 --> 01:03:43.940 to the heathen 01:03:43.940 --> 01:03:46.100 and you want to be like the world 01:03:46.820 --> 01:03:48.440 look the more you do that 01:03:48.440 --> 01:03:50.300 all you're doing is just 01:03:50.820 --> 01:03:51.900 speeding up your decline 01:03:51.900 --> 01:03:54.500 and ultimately the doors are going to close 01:03:56.300 --> 01:03:57.400 the doors are going to close 01:03:57.400 --> 01:03:58.920 and you know we could even name 01:03:58.920 --> 01:04:01.340 churches that had been 01:04:01.340 --> 01:04:02.800 new IFB type churches 01:04:03.340 --> 01:04:05.140 that were our friends and in our movement 01:04:05.140 --> 01:04:07.380 that basically went 01:04:07.380 --> 01:04:08.480 soft on issues 01:04:08.480 --> 01:04:10.080 and then they closed their doors 01:04:11.220 --> 01:04:13.340 or they shrink and get super small 01:04:13.920 --> 01:04:15.000 you know it's like 01:04:15.680 --> 01:04:17.140 God's not going to bless that 01:04:17.140 --> 01:04:19.220 and so Ahaz 01:04:20.560 --> 01:04:21.980 mutilated God's house 01:04:23.460 --> 01:04:25.520 went away from sound doctrine 01:04:26.880 --> 01:04:27.580 changed it 01:04:27.580 --> 01:04:29.360 and the next thing you know doors close 01:04:29.860 --> 01:04:31.040 that's the way it works my friend 01:04:31.040 --> 01:04:32.460 and why do you think they closed the doors? 01:04:32.600 --> 01:04:34.080 they closed the doors because nobody's showing up 01:04:34.680 --> 01:04:37.360 why did Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans 01:04:37.360 --> 01:04:38.860 Church of England, Episcopalians 01:04:38.860 --> 01:04:39.960 why did they all close the doors? 01:04:40.440 --> 01:04:41.540 congregationalist nobody's showing up 01:04:42.800 --> 01:04:44.840 because it's become unrecognizable 01:04:45.740 --> 01:04:47.340 and look if faithful 01:04:47.340 --> 01:04:49.420 word Baptist church is going to continue 01:04:49.420 --> 01:04:50.400 to be a great church 01:04:50.820 --> 01:04:52.960 continue to be a soul winning powerhouse 01:04:52.960 --> 01:04:54.640 continue to reach people 01:04:54.640 --> 01:04:55.980 continue to grow 01:04:55.980 --> 01:04:58.820 continue to thrive continue to make an impact 01:04:58.820 --> 01:05:01.360 we have got to continue 01:05:01.360 --> 01:05:02.880 to be different 01:05:02.880 --> 01:05:04.060 than this world 01:05:04.820 --> 01:05:06.920 we've got to be distinct and different 01:05:06.920 --> 01:05:07.840 from other churches 01:05:07.840 --> 01:05:10.840 we're not trying to be more like other churches 01:05:10.840 --> 01:05:13.340 we're not trying to be more like the old IFB 01:05:13.340 --> 01:05:14.900 we're not trying to be more like the 01:05:14.900 --> 01:05:15.960 non-denominational crowd 01:05:15.960 --> 01:05:18.040 we're not trying to be more like the 01:05:18.040 --> 01:05:20.580 Protestant mainline type churches 01:05:20.580 --> 01:05:22.460 no, we want to be distinct 01:05:22.460 --> 01:05:23.700 we want to be different 01:05:23.700 --> 01:05:24.880 we want to be hardcore 01:05:24.880 --> 01:05:26.660 we want to be biblical 01:05:26.660 --> 01:05:28.520 we want to keep the main thing 01:05:28.520 --> 01:05:30.680 the main thing and stay on the same track 01:05:30.680 --> 01:05:33.120 because the way that you stay great is the way that you became great 01:05:34.260 --> 01:05:35.620 last thing we want to do 01:05:36.350 --> 01:05:37.780 is say well 01:05:38.400 --> 01:05:39.360 let's accommodate 01:05:39.920 --> 01:05:41.020 let's mellow out 01:05:41.020 --> 01:05:42.320 let's not chill out 01:05:42.320 --> 01:05:44.640 let's get more fired up 01:05:45.800 --> 01:05:47.020 let's get wilder 01:05:47.020 --> 01:05:47.920 let's go crazy 01:05:47.920 --> 01:05:49.440 why not? 01:05:50.420 --> 01:05:51.740 and what's funny is 01:05:51.740 --> 01:05:55.120 some people do think that I have gone a little wild 01:05:55.120 --> 01:05:56.580 over the last couple of years 01:05:56.580 --> 01:05:58.840 but I would like for you to name one thing 01:05:58.840 --> 01:06:01.000 that I've preached or taught in the last two years 01:06:02.060 --> 01:06:03.080 where you can't find 01:06:03.080 --> 01:06:04.980 the same stuff from 0607 01:06:06.520 --> 01:06:07.280 look it up 01:06:07.280 --> 01:06:08.200 I mean 01:06:08.740 --> 01:06:09.860 people are constantly like 01:06:09.860 --> 01:06:12.420 can you believe what Pastor Anderson said 01:06:12.420 --> 01:06:14.920 and it's just like all the preaching.com 01:06:15.680 --> 01:06:16.640 search transcript 01:06:18.100 --> 01:06:19.060 2006 sermon 01:06:19.060 --> 01:06:20.160 2007 sermon 01:06:20.160 --> 01:06:21.380 2013 sermon 01:06:21.380 --> 01:06:24.160 it's like bro I'm staying the same 01:06:24.740 --> 01:06:26.040 I'm preaching the same stuff 01:06:26.760 --> 01:06:28.720 I've made little tweaks here and there 01:06:28.720 --> 01:06:30.280 but any tweak I make is 01:06:30.280 --> 01:06:31.380 let's get more biblical 01:06:32.840 --> 01:06:34.120 let's be hard or core 01:06:34.120 --> 01:06:36.360 but I don't even think I've become more hardcore 01:06:36.360 --> 01:06:37.720 I think I'm just preaching the same stuff 01:06:37.720 --> 01:06:38.980 I've been preaching for 20 years 01:06:39.920 --> 01:06:41.900 and why would I change if we're succeeding 01:06:41.900 --> 01:06:43.980 why would I change if we're thriving 01:06:44.940 --> 01:06:45.480 folks 01:06:45.480 --> 01:06:48.140 we need to stay distinct 01:06:48.140 --> 01:06:49.780 we need to stay what we are 01:06:49.780 --> 01:06:51.720 we are faithful word 01:06:51.720 --> 01:06:53.520 we are the new IFB 01:06:53.520 --> 01:06:55.680 and we do not need to become 01:06:55.680 --> 01:06:56.780 something that we're not 01:06:56.780 --> 01:06:59.360 we need to stay with what we're doing 01:07:00.240 --> 01:07:01.920 because that's how you fail 01:07:01.920 --> 01:07:02.680 as an organization 01:07:02.680 --> 01:07:05.840 by getting watered down and trying to copy 01:07:05.840 --> 01:07:07.580 other people 01:07:07.580 --> 01:07:08.800 that are less successful 01:07:08.800 --> 01:07:10.260 in the kingdom of God 01:07:10.260 --> 01:07:10.880 that's what he's doing 01:07:10.880 --> 01:07:12.020 he's trying to copy Damascus 01:07:12.020 --> 01:07:14.580 I want to be Jerusalem 01:07:14.580 --> 01:07:17.760 we thank you so much for your word 01:07:17.760 --> 01:07:19.280 and we thank you for 01:07:19.920 --> 01:07:21.640 this example that we could learn 01:07:21.640 --> 01:07:23.500 a bad example of Ahaz Lord 01:07:23.500 --> 01:07:25.740 who mutilated your house 01:07:25.740 --> 01:07:27.480 and changed it 01:07:27.480 --> 01:07:29.700 and emphasized the wrong things 01:07:29.700 --> 01:07:31.540 and put the right things off to the side 01:07:32.040 --> 01:07:33.880 Lord help us to keep the main thing 01:07:33.880 --> 01:07:35.440 the main thing and stay distinct 01:07:35.440 --> 01:07:37.480 and stay salty 01:07:37.480 --> 01:07:39.220 and stay 01:07:39.220 --> 01:07:40.160 fundamental 01:07:40.740 --> 01:07:43.500 and Lord God I pray that you would bless those 01:07:43.500 --> 01:07:45.380 among the old IFB 01:07:45.380 --> 01:07:46.880 who are preaching hard 01:07:47.240 --> 01:07:49.080 and who are staying fundamental Lord 01:07:49.080 --> 01:07:51.200 and Lord I pray that these 01:07:51.200 --> 01:07:53.000 lame liberal watered down churches 01:07:53.000 --> 01:07:54.200 would close their doors Lord 01:07:54.200 --> 01:07:56.420 so that people could go to good churches 01:07:56.420 --> 01:07:58.120 and hear good preaching Jesus' name we pray amen