Psalm 83 Pt 7

0:01 All right, Psalm eighty three. Let's see how far we can get today, next two hours dedicated to Saw eighty three. Let's see if we can accomplish anything. All right, So let's do this Saw eighty three simply put, simply put, what is Saw eighty three as a psalm of lament, as a sum of lament, and they are lamenting what is happening at that time. Make sure you stress that or put that in your notes. They are lamenting what is happening at that time. The reason I have to stress that is because so many other sermons turn this into a somehow a prophetic psalm prophesying something that has yet to happen even for us, or that it was prophesying something that was going to happen for them. Some try to connect it to second Chronicles twenty, which we saw. That makes absolutely just falls completely apart. So we want to distress it is a lament lamenting the situation at that time, and we have kind of somewhat of an idea of what time, because it is a psalm of Ace f Right, and we know that he was like the worship leader during the time of David and a little into the time of Solomon. So it's somewhere along that timeline, okay, that gives us at least some concept, and we know, simply put, what are they lamenting? That there are is a confederacy of nations that are coming

1:33 to do what to Israel, wipe them off the face of the earth. So he offers the lament. The main part of the lament is found in which verse. It's found in one right. That's really the essential part of the element, right, the essential part of the lament. What is specific are they lamenting? Where's God? Right? That's simply a way to put it. God, where are you? We need you to speak, we need you to act, We need you to intervene, do something right.

2:14 So there's the lament, because a lament is expressing. Typically, when we think of a lament, I like to refer to a lament as kind of a spiritual scream. It's a spiritual cry, right, you're letting out the emotion. So the lament, the part that captures the emotion, is really right there where they see where the lament says, do not keep silent, Oh God, do not hold your peace, and do not be still, Oh God. At least in the New King James after oh God. Both cases there's an ex exclamation point because they're trying to emphasize the emotion of it. Right, So there's the emotion they clearly it's clearly articulated, and then why is there that emotion? The rest of the psalm tries to articulate the reasons why. We won't go through the outline and everything again, so we get the basic element. So in that sense, it's pretty simple. It's pretty straightforward. All we have to say is this is a song of lament.

3:12 We can learn a little bit about the lament, we can understand the historical part of it. Maybe we could gain a couple of more lessons, and so technically we could already be done. The only reason I'm spending so much time on it is for a couple of reasons. Number one is because even the original sermon series that sparked all of this is now like at part twenty six or something, I don't even understand. I mean, that thing is lost. I mean, I don't even know how to describe it. It's talked about everything King James, only is I don't even know what it's going. I don't even know what's happening. But their basic their basic point supposedly was that there's a coming Middle East war, And while they never have ever even demonstrated that, I don't get it. Others want to go to the past, want to go to the future. I don't get I don't understand what it is about Saw eighty three that's creating all of that problem, because to me, sal maighty three is so straightforward. So because people are doing such weird things with it, then I feel the necessity to, well, then let's really dig in. A second thing I'm trying to accomplish here is because I have a tendency to go to the text of scripture and go, wait a minute, that's not for us. Wait a minute, that's not for us. Wait a minute, that's not for us. People then get very frustrated with the fact that I do that. So I'm trying now to go through saw Maty three and try to find some element that maybe for us, or at least we're gonna we're trying, we're trying to at least

4:45 go with that concept. I think the concept's going to fall apart at some point, but we're doing our very best, and the way we're doing this or the way I'm trying to do this, and hopefully you remember this is I've really really focused on what happens in verses two through basically five, right, what happens in verses two through five that I have repeated so many times now that well, probably people are tired of me repeating it. What happens in verses two through five that I think is so critical to having something that's applicable to us. Okay, well, those are some of the main lessons I've given from the whole song. Remember two through five. It gives the attributes of the enemies, right, Okay, remember that was the whole thing we spent two hours on last week. Right. I told you that you have to have that down. I said, I was going to repeat it over and over and over and over and over and over until everyone had it down, right, Because the attributes of the enemy. I am taking the attributes of those enemies and see if those attributes have any connection or correlation with enemies that we would face as Christians. Does everybody remember this? Okay?

6:12 All right? So what were those attributes? We've covered them now probably three times, maybe even four times, in the study so far of psaw Manty three I told everyone to write them down, know them. What's the first one, the tumult, right, it's right there, and verse two right, free, behold your enemy. Remember we went through them and order. Okay, for behold your enemies. Make a tumult, which means loud, confuse, noise, And we kind of gave this idea that it suggests a sense of disorder, agitation, unrest. Right, they bring about a sense of chaos. Or they got that one down. Okay, what was the second one? They hate God? They hate God. Everybody see that they hate God. Next, lift up their head, which gave the idea of pride, arrogance, and defiance. Right next, they have taken crafty council.

7:21 Right, they've taken crafty council. So the first part we had to just want the idea that they took counsel together. We see that in verse five they have consulted together with one consent, they form a confederacy, meaning that they are working together. The enemies form and work together. They have that they We could think of it this way, and that particular in the historical setting, whether those nations had disagreements or dislikes or a lack of trust, they all come together for one definitive purpose, which is ultimately to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Right, So then we can look and see how our enemies may come together in some way, shape or form or have a common goal. Next, they take crafty counsel, which suggests cunning and deceitful strategies that they come up with, deceitful strategies and plans to harm God's people in this particular case, the nation of Israel. All right, was there any more? Okay? Right? And and so and because we definitely talked about that phrase verse three, and consulted together against your hidden one. Remember there was like three different ways of translating this sheltered ones, hidden ones, or treasured ones. So we gave the idea the attribute that God's enemies hate and want to go against anything that God would treasure or value

8:56 or have chosen. All right, So those are some of the basic attributes. We've covered them. So and I stress that know those attributes, know those attributes. Now. Once we got those attributes all down, well, then of course we know what happens in Saw eighty three. After those attributes are given, the enemies are described. Then the enemies are listed starting in verse six. Right, we have the tents of Etom and the Ishmaelites moab Hag writes keyboll ammon Amelek Felicitia with the inhabits of tire Assyria also joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. We went through and identified all of those historical enemies, right, I'm not going to go back through all of that again. We identified everyone, gave some basic information. There's not a lot you could I mean, from a historical perspective. We know exactly then who it is coming against them, We know exactly why this would lead to a lament, and by looking at their attributes, you could see why the people would be very, very very emotional and concerned. We got all of that. So then what I decided to do was like, okay, well, since everyone says I never take these texts and apply them to us, how can we apply them to us? Well, the only way to apply this to us is say, okay, let's take these attributes and let's see if these attributes have anything in common with the enemies with whom we face as believers. All right, so we started working on that. Who

10:28 was the first one we looked at, We looked at Satan, right, the primary adversary of Christians, described as the prince of this world and the Bible. He seeks to deceive, tempt, accuse believers in order to lead them away from God. All right. Satan is portrayed in the Bible is powerful, prideful, crafty, being one who harbors intense hatred towards God and seeks to undermine his plans. He has described as were as warring against God's chosen people and desires to eliminate them. These characteristics are evident from various passages in the Bible. We went through them. Now, I don't I'm not going to go through all of this again. But we can we agree on this? Would we agree that Satan hates God? Okay? Would we say that Satan is full of pride? Yes? And I've got we can look at Isaiah fourteen and Ezekiel twenty eight to prove both of those. I don't think I need to prove that. Can we agree that Satan seems to be considered crafty, are subtle, and has strategies? Right? Yes? Okay?

11:35 And we could get that from Genesis three? Can we not? All? Right? Right? He wars against God's people. We can see that a little bit in Revelation chapter twelve, and he desires to eliminate God's people. And we can get into a whole discussion about John ten ten whether it refers to Satan or not. But the thief comes only to still kill and destroy. Some that may say that refers to false teachers, but the false teachers would be then operating in accordance with Satan in that particular case. So we can at least say in general, I'm not to get all into the hermoneutics of that passage, but we can say that Satan meets all of those attributes to the almost to the letter, can we agree, all right?

12:16 So that would put us as Christians in the same position as these people were, but in somewhat of a different way. They're looking at a physical threat that they can see. We face a threat in whom we cannot see, all right. And remember from all of that, I have tried to emphasize and saw maybe three some very important points. So before we continue on, looking at a lot of enemies, and I have a long list of enemies, all right, and it's going to become You may think, well, you're you know, you're kind of going too far on this, but I'm trying to make a point here, So but let me go back and at least remind you of some of the basic points I've tried to take from this psalm, because I've tried to emphasize these over and over and over. Saw maighty three describes the life of people who believe in a God whom they cannot see, living in the midst of circumstances that they can see, and those very circumstances call into question the existence of that God whom they cannot see.

13:28 Everybody got that Saw many three describes the people who lives in the midst of circumstances that they can see. Can they see these circumstances developing in Saw eighty three? Yes, And these very circumstances call into question God whom they cannot see Saw eighty three. From just a practical standpoint, we can all relate to Psaw eighty three because that describes your life. In my life, do we not live in circumstances that we can see? Yes, those circumstances do they at least even slightly call into question the existence of the God whom you cannot see? Any reasonable person would say yes. Now, I know in church you're supposed to say, well no, absolutely not. Nothing would call into question the existence of God. Okay, come on, just every day thinking about life calls into question the existence of God, all right, Because if God is all powerful, all knowing, and present everywhere at all times, what's he doing? I mean everyone can acknowledge that, right, because if you listen to the way Christians talk, just talk to your Christian friends or people who go to church. They constantly God does this. They always constantly talk about God's involvement. God led me to this, God did this, God did this, God did this, God did this like God is supposedly active twenty four to seven and everyone's life. But then you can say, well, then if God was doing this and then this and this and

15:00 this and this one, why didn't he step in here to I don't know, save the kid who died from cancer yesterday? Why didn't he step in yesterday when the kid was being molested? Why didn't step in yesterday when the woman was being raped? Like, but at the same time, God's doing this and this and this and this and this and that, Like if you listen to Christians, God is basically doing something twenty four to seven, and he's involved in the in the smallest details of our life. Well, he did this, and he protected me this, and he gave me this, and he did this, and he did that, and he did this and he did that. And you're like, well, why is it that he only does good things for you? Because there are a lot of people he didn't show up to yesterday. That's gonna call in the question. We have to acknowledge that what I love about the Bible is that the people in the Bible aren't afraid to express what I just express. If I express it, everybody rolls their eyes and gets defensive. The people in the Bible had no problem expressing it, like you can roll your eyes at me. I wish you would have went and rolled your eyes at job because he would have been like, I don't know who you are, but you can just get out of my face because I don't know where God is, ok, because all my family just died. Correct, all right? So I think that I love the fact that the Bible is not afraid and are It's not the sawmeist here expressing Hey, God, where are you at? And I think that's a very fair thing to say. Okay, I think that's I think that's that's real. So that's the first major point we've got. I cannot emphasize that enough, Like if you don't get anything from Ps. Many three,

16:30 everyone should be able to take away from that. But we added to that, did we not? As Christians we live a life surrounded by enemies we cannot see, and so many times we forget or as Christians, we live a life surrounded by enemies we can see. Let me state it that way. As Christians we live a life surrounded by enemies we can see. So many times we forget the enemies which we cannot see. But this is the most important thing. Whether it's circumstances or whether it's enemies, our only hope is in an imputed righteousness which we cannot see. Right, let me stress that again. As Christians, we live a life surrounded by enemies we can see. Can everyone say amen to that? You can see people who say things about you, do things to you. You can see that, right, You can see horrible things happening around you. So many times though we forget the enemies which we cannot see. So what we have to realize is whether it's circumstances or whether it's enemies. Our only hope is in imputed righteousness, which we I'm gonna state it again, which we cannot see now.

17:52 The minute I say that, ninety nine percent of Christianity will lose its ever living mind. You cannot see imputed righteousness, all right? Does imputed righteousness manifest itself? No? If you say yes, then it's not imputed. Does everybody understand that? Okay? I know that goes against every church in Abeline, but I don't care. You cannot see imputed righteous you say no, imputed righteousness will lead to a change. It's imputed. It doesn't do anything except me declares you to be something that you are not, so therefore you can't see it. Right. It declares you to be something you're not.

18:33 If it makes you something that you're not, then that's not imputed. That's what infused. That's Catholicism. The American Church is Catholic. Okay, they've Luther lost. The Reformation was a failure. It was a waste of absolute time, all right. All Luther accomplished was giving everyone the right to be the pope. You think one thing that he would have accomplished was giving a correct understanding of justification. But all the churches who claim to have the right understanding of justification turn around and act like that imputed righteousness is manifested in the lives of the people. It is not. You cannot see it.

19:15 I cannot stress that enough. Right, So saw maybe three gives us this great. We got enemies we can see, but we often forget the enemies we cannot see. We have circumstances which we can see, calling into the question of God whom we cannot see. And the whole Christian life is based off people who have been declared righteous. But nobody can see that righteousness, which is which why puts Christianity in a perpetual state of It seems like hypocrisy and a contradiction, does it not? Because anybody can walk up and go, where's your God? Well, I can't see him? Can you see him? No? All right, but look at those circumstances. Well, I know the circumstances look really rough, but we still believe in a God and whom we cannot see. Well, how about those enemies and those well we see those enemies, but we're worried about an enemy. We cannot see.

20:15 Well, that's ridiculous. You should be focusing on the enemy you can see. Wait a minute, you tell me you're righteous, Well, I'm righteous by an imputed righteousness. What does that mean? You cannot see it? That? That makes Christian sound almost what come on, let's just be honest. It makes us sound like we're insane, all right. That sounds like a mental disorder. That doesn't sound like logic and reason. All of that contradicts everything, right, because everybody got that. So those are some major points that come from it. So let's go through these enemies. And some of these enemies are enemies that we cannot that we want cannot see.

20:59 All right, And what's the first enemy we've now looked at and I'm not gonna go back and repeat it. Satan? Can we see him? No? We cannot. Is he an enemy? Yes? Does he meet all of that criteria of those attributes? Yes? All right? Now the question is, well, then what do we do? Well, we will get into that. That's gonna be the big issue here, is right, how do we handle these enemies? We'll have to Well I'm kind of given you a little clue, but all right, what's the next group of enemies demons. Do they meet the same criteria? Yes, they, Satan are well, we can go here a little bit here. Satan, also known as the Devil, is depicted in the Bible as the leader of fallen angels who rebel to get who who rebelled against God. These fallen angels are commonly referred to as demons. Satan works with demons to carry out his evil schemes, influence humanity, and oppose God's plans. Demons are portrayed as levolent spiritual beings who actively participate in tempting people, spreading lies and deception, and promoting chaos and destruction. Does not sound exactly like the attributes right there in Saw eighty three, An't that crazy? I just look up a kind of a definition of demons, and it almost sounds like I'm reading SSAW eighty three. That to me should be that's that's part. Not only that, though, because Satan and the demons do what work together, which is exactly what the enemies

22:33 do in Saw eighty three. They conspire together, they work together, all right. I could go through a number of things here, just we could go through and I we could go through a lot of scriptures. I'll just give a couple of things here. One Peter five eight. We all know that one, right, be alert and be sober your enemy. The devil prows around is a rowing line, looking for looking for whom he made devour. Now, obviously that's referring to Satan. But the demons are right there working with him, Okay, Right, and then and then again Ephesian six twelve. We know this. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, and against the authorities, and against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces and heavenly realms. Right, we know that he's he's there working, and he's going against it and all of those things. So we covered all of that, not going to go through all of it again. We got that. So we have two very specific enemies.

23:33 And what is significant about these two enemies They work together, same attributes, and we cannot see them. We cannot see them. They're not tangible, right, and so what do we tend to focus on tangible enemies? Tangible enemies. That's why the Bible speaks of our air is being spiritual, not what cardinal, not fleshley That's why the weapons we use are not to be Cardinal or Fleshley weapons. Can Cardinal and Fleshley weapons defeat spiritual enemies?

24:17 No, Cardinal and Fleshley weapons can only attack what physical enemies. I almost did a podcast yesterday about it, but I didn't get to it. There was a political leader invited to speak at a church in North Carolina. The video is somewhat disturbing. He's standing behind a pulpit that has a cross. There's a cross right here behind him, there's all the people in the church, and he begins to talk about that we have enemies and those enemies need to be killed, that some people just need to be killed. And I'm sitting there going what in the name of bubblegum is happening? The clip has gone viral, there's all kinds of articles about it. Well, what's more disturbing The people in the church do want. Now He's talking about the enemies, which you can see, and his solution is that they need to be killed. Now, I don't know why in the world that's behind the pulpit, but so many times Christians want to fight the enemy and ways that are what Cardinal Fleshley and we want to focus on what enemies that we can see, politicians, woke ideology, the LGBTQ movement. We want to go after all of these things, and we want to fight enemies which we think we can We're not to fight enemies we can see, because our enemies are the

25:51 ones that we cannot see. And I know that goes against everything. Look, how do look as much as we say we believe in a God whom we cannot see, as much as we say that we live our lives very much where and what we can see. Now we talk about God doing this, and God doing this, and God doing this and God doing this. But as soon as we're put forth some hard questions about God, whether we crumble because we don't have any definitive answers. The point is this is we live in a world which we can see, and we sometimes forget the world which we cannot see. And that is all of our enemies are really in this case, are spiritual. What is the third enemy we spent some time with last week? Sin itself? Sin itself. The underlying cause of our separation between humans and God is sin, and it leads to spiritual bondage and entice his believers to get against to go against God's will and can hinder spiritual growth and intimacy with God. Now we look at some of the attributes of sin. Do sin bring about disorder and chaos? Yes? It absolutely does?

27:00 All right? Does sin hate God? Absolutely? Is sin subtle and deceitful and crafty? Yes? Does sin hate what God would treasure and choose? Yes? I mean absolutely all right? Everything there? Okay, we talked. We talked about all of that, right, we talk about if you look at look at here, I think it's Hebrews three thirteen, y'all look it up really quick and just tell me what you find. I believe it's he Brews three thirteen. If I have this wrong, well, I think it's three thirteen. There we go. Hey, unless you be hardened it unless something happens to me by the deceitfulness of sin, Sin is deceitful, it is crafty. All right. So I think everything that we would say about sin, I think we can agree it meets all of those characteristics.

28:03 Can we agree to that? Now here's the problem with this. First of all, we can't see, okay, when we think of sin, we think of sin in really two ways. Right, Well, we should when we think of sin. What are the two ways in which we should think of sin? Think about it? I know it's kind of maybe a kind of a vague question, but I'll throw it out there. If you don't have an answer, that's okay. We have to think sin in regards to actions, and that's where most people focus on it, right, Most people focus on sin as an action. Right, So then in that sense, sin manifests itself in actions, and we have a tendency to focus on sin as an action. All right, but let's remember this is very, very important. This is like elementary and Christianity. But I reviewed a sermon clip just the other day where, once again demonstrating this is a very famous pastor. I don't think he meant it this way, but he clearly is confused about sin. I think he may have misspoke. I'm going to give him credit for just misspeaking, because there's no way his theology would believe this.

29:21 But he once again kind of described sin more as action more of what we do. Let me make it very clear. Sin is an action, but the action does not make you a sinner. In fact, he literally said, we sin, which makes us a sinner. Make it very clear, Sinning does not make you a sinner. Everyone got that down. Sinning does not make you a sinner. Everyone have that down. Everyone should say amen. Okay, sin does not make us a sinner. We sin because we are a sinner. When did we become a sinner? Because at the moment of conception? Right, we are conceived in sin. So we always think of sin as a sinful action. Why don't we always think of sin as a sinful action because we see it? Oh? Wait, are we not following a theme here in Psaw eighty three? Right? We see it.

30:19 So we focus on the external action. But the external action is only the result of that which we The sinful action is the result of that which we cannot see. It is your nature. So when we think of sin, we have to think of sin as an action, but we have to think of sin as a and nature. We have a sinful nature, meaning by nature, our nature. What we'll go to saw mayty three. Those attributes, Okay, those attributes describe your nature. Your nature is one of chaos. Right, doesn't your nature go against maybe even sound reason logic?

31:14 Your your nature goes to I mean, so many times, what do we constantly say? Why would people do that. No, don't we constantly say that when you hear someone so and so and so, why would they do that? Why would I just don't understand people today, why why we do What are you talking about? The sin nature has been there since Adam and Eve fell. I don't know why. I just don't know what's wrong with the world today. What do you mean you don't know what's wrong with the world today. It's the same thing that's been there since then. People like the world today has just lost their mile. Oh, I don't know. I guess when a man decides to turn his daughters over to an entire city of men to use them sexually, I guess that's what was back in the good old days, right, Oh, I don't know. When when the men of the city do that too, and the end of judges, you know, sexually assault a woman and then they chop her body up and send her parts to the different the twelve trucks. I guess as we're back in the good old days. I guess it was back in the good old days when you used your slave to produce a child, back in the good old days. Now that the problem has always been present, right, why, yeah, I mean, I mean on and on and on and on, and I mean like the Bible is filled with it, is it not?

32:31 History is filled with it. Genocide, murder, rape, slavery. You just go on and on and why, Well, I can understand why the world is confused, right, they can't explain why. So they think, well, education will fix it. If we can get people out of poverty, that will fix it. Well, everything that we try to do fix it doesn't fixes it. Because as Christians we know the reason why. The reason why is because of what we cannot see, and what we cannot see is the thing that produces all of that chaos and produces all of that, which is our sin nature. So our sin nature that we cannot see, produces that which we can see, which then causes us to focus on what we can see well, ignoring what we cannot see. And so what do then Christians tend to do. We create a theological system that becomes nothing more than moralism. Do this and do that because we try to combat what what we can't know. That's the problem with Christianity. We don't find our nature.

33:49 We go after what we can see, we go after the what the actions, We go after our actions. Christianity is a is just simply moralism is all it's become. It's a moral system. And so what do we tell people to do? Don't drink, don't do this, don't do this, don't listen to this, don't watch this, don't read this, don't don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. And if we don't do all of that, then somehow magically we become good. Christianity teaches that righteousness is achieved by what what is I mean? This is just a basic philological lesson we have to I talked about this yesterday in the podcast we Christianity teaches that we become righteous by doing what?

34:36 By doing righteous things? Does everyone understand the problem with that? Go to Galatians? I believe it. I did this verse yesterday in a podcast. I believe it's Galatians too that I covered Galatians two Glicious two twenty one to twenty one. I did an entire forty five minutes discussion on this about frustrating the grace of God? How do we frustrate the grace of God? Right? Look at the new King. James doesn't use the word frustrate the king James does. Look at Galatians two twenty one, Paul says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. I do not set aside. I do not nullify the grace of God. And then he goes on to offer a very important statement. If righteousness could be obtained by the law and Christ died in vain, what does that imply? What does that verse seem to imply? Righteousness is not obtained by the law. You do not become righteous by lawkeeping? Why can you not? Why do you not become righteous by lawkeeping? Well? Okay, well let's start first with this. The law cannot produce righteousness because you were already unrighteous. But in your nature you're already

36:13 unrighteous in your nature. So guess what all the law keeping does that change your nature? No, all the lawkeeping does not change your nature. That was one of the first things I learned as a Lutheran. Right. That was one of the in fact that shocked me when I first learned it as a Lutheran. It's like if I kept all the tank commandments, what would I be? One of the questions I asked when my Lutheran pastor was going through the Catechism with me. If I was to keep all the law, what would that make me? Well? And what do you think? Most people would answer righteous? And he's like, you would still be a sinner.

36:53 I'm like, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, you haven't been to a Baptist church, okay, right, But then like, no, you're still a sinner. You would just be a moral center, But you would still be a sinner because why because my nature is already corrupted, and only that I would still be guilty because I'm guilty in atom, which everyone seems to forget. Even if I was to keep all the law, It's still be guilty because I'm guilty an atom. Everyone seems to completely just abandon that. So Christianity, our problem is we have these enemies, and we think, okay, we're so confused in all of this. Right, so what we have a tendency to do. Sin is ultimately an enemy we cannot see. But because sin manifests itself, we become preoccupied with what we can see, ignoring what we cannot see. And what's the issue.

37:51 The issue is what we cannot see, because what we cannot see is the problem, And how do we combat the sinful nature. Oh, let's start with this. What are the ways in which we cannot combat the sinful nature? We cannot combat the sinful nature with simply moralism? And that's all Christianity wants. Right, what's the big push right now? In the Republican Party? They want the Ten Commandments everywhere, right, they want them in the public school. Oklahoma's gonna do it. I think I can't remember the other state. They gotta post the Ten Commandments. Well, you can post the Ten Commandments all day? What is that gonna fix? I doubt it.

38:37 If I was a teenager, I would go find the Ten Commandments and say, oh, well, guess what I'm gonna do every single thing on this list twice. Okay, you're gonna post the Ten Commandments. Watch me, I'm gonna break them all right, Any good, good, rebellious teenagers should do that, right, Okay, come on, right, you don't shouldn't follow them, break them all right, because that's everything in our nature. But we think that we can fix the problem by attacking the external element. The issue is the internal issue. We cannot see it. So we got three and guess what do these three enemies work together? Yes, they do. Can we see Satan? No? Can we see a demons? No?

39:20 Can we see sin? We can see the manifestation of sin. But the issue of the manifestation of sin is that's not what makes someone a sinner, what make the sinful? Actions are only manifesting the reality of what we cannot see, which is our nature. And so we become preoccupied in fighting what we can see when we have to realize the problem is what we cannot see. So everybody got that, yes, right, And I know that leads to a From a Christian perspective, it's very difficult, right. We' forget a Christian perspective because Christians don't care about any of this. But from a logical perspective, I do understand it leads to a very uncomfortable reality, right, because the uncomfortable reality is this, I can stop doing this action.

40:15 I can stop doing this action. I can stop doing this action. From a human perspective, that makes all the humans happy. Right, And then they'll pat you on the back, saying, what a good man he is, what a good woman he is. I've never met someone so godly in my entire life. Right. You always get that kind of talk, right, But guess what the reality is before God? What are they still a sinner? Because righteousness is not obtained by the law. How are we made righteous then by imputed righteous which we can't see. That's a weird dynamic.

41:06 Once again, Christianity seems like a contradiction. Right, Hey, do good, but hey, no matter how good you do, you're never gonna be good. And that a weird lesson. Hey, pull your kids in and go ahead. Kids. I need you to keep these rules. I need you to do everything on this list, but just know this, no matter how good you do, you're never gonna be good. You're always gonna be a sinner. You're always gonna be bad. Well, then what does that tend to motivate? Oh, come on, we can be honest. That would motivate that. What's the point? Right, that's a difficult answer. That's a difficult question. He said, Well, well we should try.

41:49 Well, we can try, but in it difficult to try knowing that no matter how hard you try, you're still felt that from a pilological that's from a thiological prayer. Now I know, from a human perspective, but you can be good. You can be sometimes though even that good is what that good is about as fraudulent as fraudulent can be, right, because the external action may please everyone, but that doesn't have anything to do with what's going on where inside. That's a that's a weird battle to find ourselves in. We have three enemies which we ultimately cannot see that lead us to all and you can see why Christians get so whacked out and confused and how to handle all of this do we not? You can see why our strategies are so like, it's just crazy. Right, there's those Those are three enemies.

42:45 Now let's go to the fourth. What do you think a fourth enemy should be? Let's bring in false teachers? False teacher. Now this one becomes a little interesting, right because the first three, yeah, we can see a false teacher, right. The first three we really cannot see. We can see the manifestation of, but we can't allow the manifestation to distract us from the real issue, which is what we cannot see. Now the fourth one is much more tangible. But the fourth one's gonna have its own issues. So let's just first ask ourselves. Do false teachers meet the do they follow or are they? Can they be described using the attributes and saw eighty three. Well, I have this down. False teachers. False teachers bring chaos and confusion, leading people away from God's truth. I can say that they bring chaos, right do they not? They bring a tumult?

43:54 Right? What when false teachers enter into a situation, They're gonna bring tumult, They're gonna bring They're gonna bring confusion. Can we agree to that all? Right? Next, they harbor hatred towards God and his truth, seeking to distort and undermine it. A false teacher ultimately, now the hair is the most difficult thing about a false teacher. A false teacher would never say that they do what hate God, But ultimately they hate God because they are teaching that which is false and goes against God. So in one sense we may not their hatred towards God is hard. This is where it becomes very complicated. Every false teacher will claim they love God. In fact, they will claim that they love God more than other people, but at the same time they hate God. So there's kind of that what you see and what you don't see. Third, are they crafty and deceptive? Yeah? I mean the whole thing about false teachers is they use cunning and deceitful tactics to mislead and manipulate others. Right do they attack that which God has chosen, that has sheltered ones, has treasured ones? While they target believers, seeking to disrupt their faith and leading them astray? Right do they seek to destroy something? False teachers do what they ultimately conspired to destroy the foundations of true faith and spread falsehood? Can we agree there? I think they made these

45:30 attributes and probably ways in which, all right, let's just look at some script We'll look get more scriptures for these, just because I think it's important to understand this. I think this one man false teachers become a major philosophical dilemma. But okay, Second Corinthians, chapter eleven, Second Corinthians chapter eleven. All right, everybody there, First Corinthians chapter eleven, or I'm sorry, Second Corinthians chapter eleven. I apologize. Second Corinthians chapter eleven. I should have known as soon as I said. First Corinthians, that's about the Lord Supper. So Second Corinthias chapter eleven. Everybody ready, starting verse thirteen, what do we read for? Such are false apostles deceitful workers. There's the cunning craftiness, right, transforming themselves into and to the apostles of Christ, the new King, James says, and no wonder for seeing themselves transforms themselves into an angel of light. All right, So this is very important.

46:44 Now we have false teachers. What do these false teachers do? They're cunning and crafty, and they're going to be manipulative because they transform themselves into why they claim to be wide And then this obviously has a historical correlation. Well, at that time they're claiming to be what apostles? Now, why is that difficult at that time? Because who had clear authority at that time? We call that apostolic authority? Right, which is always a big dispute in church history. Right, whenever we talk about apostolic authority, what's the big question in church history? It's called Apostolic succession? Does that authority move forward? Right? Catholic Church claims that it moved forward and they now possess that Apostolic authority. That's why they can define dogma and declare right and wrong.

47:35 Right, as Protestants, we don't believe in Apostolic succession. But do we or don't we? That's a big question. Do Protestants believe in Apostolic succession. What do you think do you think the Christians? You know, do you think they believe in apostolic succession or reject it? Every Protestant who says they don't believe in Apostolic succession is a liar because they all believe they they have it. They all believe they have it, right do they not?

48:21 Every Christian? What do they do? Do They tell you what is right and what is wrong? Yeah, they will tell you this is what the right answer is, this is what they're wrong. As if they have the apostolic authority to declare dogma, define what is right, define what is wrong, and they can judge what. Oh, come on, we know how it works in the church. Who's in charge in the church, Okay, not the pastor? And the pastor is a loser, okay, pastors are Loser's right. The people in the pew make all the determination. Right, They sit there and they determine if the pastor is preaching that which is right are wrong. They declare if it's right or wrong, And then they would declare if the pastor is a good teacher, bad teacher, true teacher, false teacher, And they can make all that determination on the basis of what what they think. And in fact, in many cases, does it even require does it require any formal training? Do they have to go to Bible college, Do they have to go to seminary? No? Do they even have to do any intensive study? No? Yet they can declare what what is true? What is false? Right, So, in a roundabout way, the same thing has been going at that point, it would have been really dangerous, right, because the apostles are kind of the kind of the they're they're very the building blocks of the early church. Right, And

49:51 so if the apostle said something, what was the perceived concept is that you either were in agreement or you surrendered to their authority. Are basically you were considered what outside of Christianity kind of way to the Catholic Church, and the church followed that same concept. That's why we have the seven Ecumenical councils. Right, we declare what is right, and if you disagree, you were what anathema? Okay, you were, you were outside of it. So the false teachers come along and claim to be that. Now this is very difficult, right, This is where things get really complicated for us as an enemy. We can see the enemy can we not a false teacher? Can we see them? Yes? The problem with seeing them is what they they all? They transform themselves into what what does the text just say the apostles of Christ, just like Satan, appears as an angel of light, meaning then we can see. But in since we cannot see because we have to see what we cannot see, because what we see outwardly is they say all the right things, do all the right things, look the right way.

51:13 What's the whole thing? Jesus warns about false prophets doing what wolves coming in? Sheep's good and they're gonna come as a sheep, but they're a wolf. You have to be able to go, oh, oh look look everyone, Hey, we've got a petting zoo out back. Let's go pet the sheep. And you're right. You get ready to pet the sheep and say, oh, we're gonna call this fluffy, and then the sheep does what rip off your arm? Because it's actually a wolf. So this becomes complicated. Can we see the false teacher? Yes, but in a sense we cannot see, so we have to be able to judge. We cannot see irregardless of what we can't. Oh, this sounds very similar to everything in saw many three? Does it not? I Can I judge the existence of God based off what I can see? No? I have to believe in God, irregardless of what I see goes. So, when it comes to a false teacher, can I judge a false teacher based on what I see?

52:24 Not necessarily? So now I've got to base it on what I necessarily cannot see. Well that becomes a little confusing, right, And now what if I got I'm basing that judgment on what? Oh, come on, give me the church answer. You're gonna base that judgment on the false teacher on what? Okay, well let's give me the church answer. Oh, come on, you're Protestants. Oh you're gonna say on the Bible. I knew that. I knew that was gonna be. And that makes absolutely no sense. Why because the false teachers using the same Bible you are, and they're going to tell you that their interpretation is more correct than your interpretation.

53:07 So what makes your interpretation the standard and which to judge the teacher and declare the teacher to be false? And they got an answer? Yeah, I see. Now yeah, now we got a problem. Right. So, now so when it comes to it. Satan is a scary enemy, but we can't really see him, right, Demons are a scary enemy, but we really cannot see them, and so we kind of struggle on how to engage that. Right, So what do we typically do in the church when it comes to Satan and demons? What do we typically do? Now, if you're into, if you're into, like a major charismatic, you may actually be looking at demons behind every rock. But mostly Christians take on take demons and Satan, and we kind of focus on really external enemies, saying Satan is using rock music or Satan is using we tend to connect Satan to something visible and then we go fight the visible, claiming that we're actually engaged in spiritual warfare, when in reality, all we're doing is fighting something visible, but we attach Satan to it. Right, Hey, parents, you gotta go into your kid's route. You gotta look at the music because Satan is using that music to destroy your kid. So go burn some records.

54:24 Hey, I mean that was all over the West Texas in the eighties, right, Okay, that was a big thing. But so we attach Satan to what to what we can see, meaning in many cases we're actually missing what Satan right. So, in other words, in many cases, we're not fighting a spiritual warfare. We convince we're fighting a spiritual warfare, but we're really fighting things that we can see. There's a problem. When it comes to demons, we do the same thing. Yes, When it comes to sin, do we do the same thing? Yes, yes, we focus on the external, not the invisible. How do we fight invisible enemies in whom we cannot see? That's the big question. But when it comes to false teachers, we have a major dilemma on our hands because now, when it comes to false teachers, we can see false teachers, but the false teachers pretend to be something they are not, Meaning, are we sure that we can judge what they are even though we can't see what they are because of what they pretend to be. That becomes convoluted. And I don't know what the answer is because I just asked, how do we judge the false teacher? And the standard Christian answer is we take the word of God and we compare what they say to it. But the false teacher is using the word of God, and we'll tell you what that what he says is

55:57 the right and what you say is wrong. Well, then how do we fight that in all cases and all enemies? What are we developing here with these enemies? Okay, we'll just end with this in Psalm eighty three, they're facing enemies that they can see. The facing of the enemies they can see is calling into question the existence of God whom they cannot see. As Christians, we have enemies whom we cannot see, but we tend to focus on the way those enemies manifest themselves and the ways in which we can see, So we become distracted and fighting what we can see. Well, in the meantime, the enemy whom we cannot see is not even being bothered or touched, so we become completely distracted and doing the wrong thing. When it comes to false teachers, what do we have a tendency to do? We try to fight what we can see, but in many cases, I don't even know how we even handle the false teacher situation. I don't even know.

57:05 I don't even have a clue. I don't even know what we do. I don't even know what I don't even know if they're I don't even know. Because it becomes it becomes just a subjective mess right, it really becomes this and and Christians, really false teachers are if we really want a true definition of a false teacher? And within Christianity, how would we define a false teacher if we're being like brutally honest, How would we define false teachers if we're brutally honest, Like, if we're brutally honest, how would Christianity define false teachers if we're brutally honest? A false teacher is anyone who disagrees with me. I mean, that's that's really the definition of a false teacher with a Christianity. I don't know what the two definition is. I don't know if there is a true definition. We would like to say, in theory, how would we like to define a false teacher? Like in theory, like if we were creating the perfect definition, anyone who teaches against God's word, right, anyone who teaches a doctrine against God's word that sounds so great, right and theory that sounds good. Sitting in a seminary classroom, you're like, ay man, I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna battle all these false teachers who go against the scriptures. But then you go battle them, and they're gonna be like, well, what are you talking about. I went to seminary just like you went to seminary, and I

58:37 believe this is the truth. You're like, but no, I believe this is the truth. Or this becomes really complicated. In Protestantism, one could argue anyone that goes against and creedle statement. In other words, you would need a creedle statement like the apostle. Nice scene, are the affinaceous creed right? And then anyone who went against those creeds could be declared a false teacher because you would have something clearly defined right. If you just say the Bible, what's the problem with that? I mean the preacher? Well yeah, that becomes a problem. Well I gimma, who can say that every preachers taught something wrong according to which standard? Okay, okay, well that's but I'm just saying it would be you making the determination that what they said was wrong. Because every teacher, who every preatruerth who taught something is wrong think that what they taught was right. So then when you say that they taught something was wrong, they would be like, no, you believe something was wrong. Because if you listen to me, you would believe something that was right that becomes really convoluted. So I the false teachers are very complicated in it, are they not? The other ones are much easier. We know Satan, right, Okay, we know demons, and we know our

1:00:07 sinful nature. False teachers, I don't know what to do with these enemies. I don't even know. So we'll talk more about the false teachers. Well, we're ultimately where we're headed is when we finally get to where the Psalmists ask God to intervene. He's going to ask God to intervene by doing in the present what he has done in the past. We're going to try to look at the commonality of all of the all the issues in the past. We're going to see how God intervened there and see does that have any relevance for us today. And that's where it's gonna get complicated, because the way God handled those enemies, I don't know if we can apply that to our enemies. So then just the whole analogy fall completely apart. Now I will stand firm on this. So far, every enemy I've listed do they meet, they do they follow the same attributes and characteristics as the enemies and Psalm eighty three, I think so far I have proven that to the letter right. It's not even been difficult to prove it. It's simple right, so that we can find something to it, meaning that we can at least take away from Psalm eighty three that just as they had physical enemies, we have spiritual enemies that have the same characteristics and attributes, meaning that we have to figure out how to combat and deal with our enemies. Because I don't think Psalm eighty three is going to give us the answer, but I could be wrong. All right, let's pray. Look, God, we come before you this morning. These are complicated matters. Lord. The one thing

1:01:40 we can all acknowledge is not only do we have enemies, ultimately we have something in us that is the greatest enemy, which is our own sinful nature. Lord, help us be more aware of that truth and continue to struggle on how to handle and deal with all the enemies which we face. We asked us in Jesus name, and God's people said