Big Brother Watch, Lessons from Acts 12

Greetings welcome to the dividing line. It is a Thursday. It is My granddaughters my current youngest granddaughters as in born

Fifth birthday, I cannot believe My little Janney is five years old today.

So we've only got an hour -long program today because I've got a jet Because since my wife was forced into retirement by the kovat panic

She used to watch all these baking shows, but she had to work full -time so she just watched baking shows

Well, the great danger is if your wife retires Even is forced into retirement and was watching all those baking shows.

Here's the danger. She'll start baking It's now she has all the time in the world to do it.

And so she has a unicorn cake And then she has another cake where she

Has has drawn Spaceships and planets and unicorns because that's what's

Jan the Janney's into right now. And so we've got to get those all out to the the party today and I've got to have priorities folks, you know

Grandpa's got a got to deliver deliver Nani who has the the baked goods to the to the party.

So That's got to have your priorities man. Got it. Got to do it I'm thinking thinking back into the past.

Anyway, it's good to smile about things like that and to be thankful for little

January and and What a what a sweet girl she is and it helps you to survive some of the stuff we've got to talk about today once again

Twitter providing No You know, I'm in I joined a me we group

Reformed theology and discussion we it's gone from 50 when I joined it to 250 in two days and it wasn't because of me

It's just an influx of people joining me We and they're just searching for groups and it's like that that one pops up and it's like, uh -huh.

Uh -huh That's uh, that's interesting. But anyway on On Twitter, there's a something called

UN watch and it's a China newly elected to the

UN Human Rights Council Just reviewed the

US Human Rights Record and here's what they say China wishes to recommend to the US root out systemic racism address widespread police brutality and combat discrimination against African and Asian Americans and I'm listening to them.

I'm reading this knowing that China's blowing up Christian churches imprisoning

Christians imprisoning Uyghur Muslims torturing people Millions of people have lost their lives in Chinese under Chinese communist

Torture and imprisonment and everything else and I mean look at what's happening to Hong Kong and they're talking to us about police brutality well

If you if you wanted to know who's behind Promoting all this stuff and who's sending the money to help promote this kind of divisive type false

Narrative Should be pretty obvious, huh? Yeah, it is it is it's

It's it's truly amazing. It's it's astonishing So you've got that and then what was that the other one that That I had just put up there

You know that level of hypocrisy was was amazing and oh, oh the other one was

I Hate having called all these things, but I called all these things a long time ago and and I was

I saw him come and But I I just I just hoped that they that that was wrong

Ticket master. Did you see this? Yeah ticket master plans to check your vaccine status for concerts

So if you want to get tickets to a concert then what you're gonna have to do is of course there is the

Already there and and people are making money Can you imagine if you had if you somehow

Could into the amount of money currently flowing into Cotton face masks.

I Mean Wow and So now you have these travel passes that are developing and that's why

I'm just That's why we're developing a studio and it's like man

I enjoyed traveling and and I I've got such good friends and places like South Africa and Ukraine and and Australia and For the foreseeable future.

Anyways, I'm not could be going to any of those places. I'm not going to be traveling Because we know what's coming.

You will have to have a medical passport and the medical passport

Will either you you will have to receive the immunization and the immunization the current one that's being pushed with a supposed 90 % success rate in producing antibodies problem is what you need are t -cells, but antibodies 90 % but guess what?

It's an annual shot. Just like the flu shot is and So you get to sign up to to have foreign substances injected in your body every year and that will then be attached to your

Passport which you'll have on your phone or on the RFID chip that you allow to be placed in your body

Which will be what is pushed and no, I'm not Connecting that to anything in the book of Revelation at all

Lot of every single time you say it's just constant There are so many

Christians that think there is only one eschatological viewpoint out there. So bing that's got to be it But it will be placed on your your record

The only other way around it is to have a negative COVID test 24 to 72 hours before flight or before concert or before whatever else is

So entire companies are going to come into existence that are going to Handle this stuff and and more and more of your private information out there for everybody for Big Brother to know everything there is to know about you and Yeah, there you go

So, yeah, yeah, right.

Yeah So live music stocks soar on COVID -19 vaccine breakthrough

What we need to recognize is this doesn't get rid of COVID -19 and we will never get rid of COVID -19

Just like we've not getting gotten rid of h1n1 or h1n2 or anything else They will always be a part of What's out there and there will be other stuff in the future and how we handled this will now become the paradigm for the future we

We We did not handle it like any previous pandemic and I think we've exacerbated it horribly as a result.

And of course we have grown global government to a massive size just to it absolutely astonishing size in in the process and so we shouldn't be surprised that the

That's what I was looking for, that's what I was looking for Let me

There oh man, I had that Had that right where I could where I could see it.

There was this astonishing thing from the office of the president -elect and there of course is no such thing as an office of President -elect and there currently is not a president -elect

In the United States, but that's Not stopping the media and people like David French from being all over that but there was a

Thing that was talking about immediate here it is ding -ding -ding This is actually from discern

And it's a article by Peter Heck Oh get out of there,

I hate those videos Early executive actions

This is what Biden has promised early executive actions address

COVID -19 pandemic prevention response and treatment including launching a new COVID tax task force immediately following transition and From soap from what

I've seen so far. I remember the guy that one of the guys it's advising Biden Says it there's no reason to live past 75, of course the average age of a

COVID death is 78 figure that one out and of course Joe Biden 77, so I'm sure

Kamala Harris is behind that one Sorry Joe since you yourself have assigned this guy off with you, but The people

That are now coming into light as a part of a supposed future

Biden administration are So far on the left.

We we tried to tell you we we said oh I said over and over again

Joe Biden's an empty suit. He's not there Kamala Harris is the most leftist senator in the

United States Senate You elect these people you are electing Communists to the highest levels of the government

United States communism and the Constitution cannot exist together. Therefore the Constitution is doomed And you're not gonna like what happens

If you like even a smidgen of freedom and liberty, you're not gonna like what's gonna happen but Bit as it may

Number two implementing a national mask mandate Which will which will immediately make us wonder.

What's South Dakota gonna do? What are what are states where this is so stupid that it boggles the mind going to do?

When Big Brother says we don't care We don't care what your situation is.

We don't care what the facts are We don't care how much this will damage people. We are just simply saying this is for your safety

It's a lie, but we're the government and so when we say it, it's the truth, even though it's a lie

Yeah implementing a national mask mandate extending the public health emergency, which means keep those lockdowns going forever, baby and Increasing funding for testing and contact tracing.

He wants a hundred thousand more people to basically be Collecting your private information and following you everywhere and of course who already does this

The same people that Facebook hired to be their censors from the

CCP The Chinese Communist Party, this is what they do. They follow all citizens everywhere

Well, it takes a lot of citizens to follow citizens, which actually really aren't citizens They're more like subjects, but it takes a lot of people to do that Sure, most of it's computerized

But you got to run the computers and stuff goes wrong and there are update problems and you know all the rest of that stuff and So you got to have literally hundreds of thousands of people to spy on the other hundreds of thousands of people hundreds of millions of people

Takes a lot of work. Takes a lot of work to be Big Brother. Big Brother is lots of people Reverse Trump actions that have weakened the

Affordable Care Act. In other words, we're going to socialize medicine, socialize medicine all the way I can't believe how many people over the past couple of days were telling me on On social media.

They're talking about how wonderful it is to have everything free. I'm just like I Really feel for anybody who thinks that they live like in Canada and say well everything's free

Wow you Nobody home lights on nobody home. You think that's free, huh?

I Guess you haven't looked at your paycheck and the pay stub and yeah, anyway

Oh Then reverse Trump actions on abortion reproductive health care including reversing the

Mexico City policy Restoring funding to Planned Parenthood and contraceptive coverage under the

ACA They'll probably be going after the poor sisters as well again to make sure that the poor sisters the nuns are

Paying for contraception as well because that's what the Obama administration did So I'm sure they'll they'll probably be doing the same thing right back to where we were

Because of course that you know Trump did those things as executive orders as soon as you put the communists in control

Then they use executive orders to do the exact opposite thing it But hey big

Eva told us it's cool. It's it's it's alright to fund

Planned Parenthood and all the transgender madness and and and Governmental theft to promote abortion and fantasy all that's cool because of Trump's tweets big

Eva told us and evidently People listened. There you go. So yeah, that's under Opinion Christians we are going to have to resist

Peter Heck you might want to look that up on discern if you want to read that particular a thing as well

But if you if you're going well, you know Now what's this here?

While some like James White draw alarm to having to get a shot What he should be drawing alarm to is people needing to get a mark in their body to buy or sell

That is a little too close to home for James White and those like him first Timothy 610. This is it's inside you

Let me let me take a wild guess Yep, 128 followers

You go, so I doesn't mean anything. Well, yeah, actually actually it does

February of 2019 and joined up and and got that many followers, but So I'm sitting here going

I'm wonder Just take a look here real quick. I love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.

Ah, there you go there you go, so Congratulations, it's inside you so I guess there's some eschatological connection from this particular

Tweeter Twitter Twitter there's something like that Someone asking if I'm on parlay

I am I mentioned when I've joined up. I don't know months ago I am

Eleuthera at Eleuthera see le you th e r o s which means freed redeemed

It's a actually a name that Luther used and signed a few times what?

What to search your name, I don't know a Lot of a lot of search stuff doesn't really work too well for me

So Okay You might be saying yeah, we got a bad here. Don't have it quite as bad yet.

We will as Norway yeah, I'm gonna tell you something you ready for this

By Trans and non -binary folks in Norway are celebrating a huge win after the country recently expanded its penal code

That previously only protected lesbian and gay people from hate speech to include gender identity and all forms of sexual orientation by the way

That's the Equality Act here in the United States and again, Biden Harris said from the start first thing we're gonna do

Equality Act and they're gonna do everything they can to win those seats in Georgia to try to take the

Senate so they can just so instead of Establishing the parameters of the

Equality Act via executive order, but that's not permanent They take the Senate then they just they just ram all this stuff through immediately just gut the

Constitution just like that and For and force the transgender insanity and it is it's a form of insanity

Down everybody's throats. And so this is what's happening in Norway But check this out

These amendments to the penal code not civil code penal code Which is first passed in 1981 comes at a time when the ultra -liberal country has seen a rise in LGBTQ plus hate crimes or at least reportedly

Um, let me see here the penal code states that those who are guilty of hate speech face a fine ready for this a fine or up to a year in jail for private comments and a maximum of three years in jail for public

Remarks now just stop for a second. Think about that.

What what does that mean? Yeah. Yeah, Rich is looking at his phone.

I already turned Siri off I already turned all that stuff off. Yeah No on an iPhone you can you can press it and still access it

But it won't be listening for anything and talk to it all you want and it I know

I know But but what would that what would that mean? That would mean

My assumption is a private comment is just two persons Public would be three or more

So what's the only way there there's only two ways that a private comment could get you a year in jail

If they are bugging you you're you're Alexa Siri Whatever type thing.

I've gotten getting gotten rid of all that stuff Or and here's the real thing

Here's the real thing The only other way for that private thing to work Is if people in the culture are willing to turn each other in for thought crime

This It's it's getting tiring to talk about the

Orwellian nature of these things but Orwell nailed it he saw where this was going and Absolutely positively nailed it

This is this is I remember reading the book and I'm not sure if it's in the movie or not

But this is those kids living in the same apartment area

In 1984 in the book and Knowing that they're watching everyone

Just waiting for anything to be able to make accusation of thought crime Against someone and of course, you're not innocent until proven guilty innocent until proven guilty is a biblical parameter

Under communism you're guilty until proven innocent and under any secular paradigm

Once once the subject not citizen once the subject Is accused by the state

The state is presumed to be right in all things And it's the

Christian worldview that says no You are innocent and you're presumed to be innocent until proven guilty

But there's no longer any place for that in the worldview in a secular worldview that has become predominant in our society

People like it when they're the ones being accused. They don't like it when they're making the accusations so if there are

Private comment Criminal penalties Then what you're doing is you are making incentives for the people in the culture to turn each other in to turn each other in You've got the thing up so I assume there's some reason

There's the other side of that coin and that you and I both do it. You've got your little hat on here So I'll I'll do this. So come coming next week the the

We will have links available to the online store where you'll be able to get this is gonna be called the dr

Oakley right here the dr. Oh and We've got hoodies and t -shirts and a lot more come like that So we're coming be be looking for that next week.

So but you and I both do it. We don't even think about it and That is when you're watching the news

Which I'm not doing all that much and and and I do it I see something or they say something

I'm just that's just ridiculous and I say it out loud. Oh, yeah by myself. That's in private and yet I sit back and Yeah, I know my wife a co -worker in a secular medical place a co -worker is telling her about How she was thinking about getting new shoes she swears she never said it out loud

Never said it out loud they have algorithms they have algorithms that track your purchasing and Predict what you're going.

This is what AI is all about. Yeah, that's why the Chinese have been sucking up AI data right and left is because you can predict what people are going to be doing and What they're gonna be shopping for before they even think about themselves

I'm telling you I used to people could fault me for doing it But I used to watch that show person of interest and it's like this is this is it coming to life

I know their whole plot. Anyway, I know I know I know so here in Norway, then you've got private comments public remarks

Furthermore those charged with violent crimes are motivated by a victim's orientation or gender identity will receive harsher sentences

This is this is of course the elevation of people elevation of these sexual preferences and sexual

Rebellion to the position of Being privileged in society

So I don't know of any of these nations That have special laws for violating the feelings of Christians No, but if you are injecting yourself with testosterone all of a sudden you're now a special person and You you get to have special privileges and you can't be offended or Someone who offends you goes to jail.

There you go. If if that is not institutional establishment of fundamental rebellion

Against God's ways what is? What can explain this I I've recommended

I've been recommending Irreversible damage Abigail Schreier's book and again, let me tell you she's not a

Christian her answers are not biblical worldview answers but We have to be willing to read stuff outside of the

Christian realm Because she probably got to do interviews with people that a Christian author would not have gotten to do interviews with that's why you have

To be willing to read these things and to do filtering You got to trust the Spirit of God and the Word of God in situations like that.

Anyway, I Mean her insights are generally Track with ours.

She had a Jewish upbringing. So there's some obviously some biblical things like that, but it's not consistent and But but just the information the the the fact that for example 85 % of the people she interviewed

Of these girls primarily girls who were doing this alleged transitioning identified as progressives only a small percentage had any meaningful

Christian or religious experience at all and And That tells me that that these young women

Coming out of their the first ten years of their life into their teen years Had not been given a foundation

Maybe had never listened to their mother or father Together saying womanhood is beautiful Bearing children is beautiful God has made you beautiful and God has made you special and God has has put you in this place and he has a purpose in your life and This is how we flourish.

This is how we experience Goodness and righteousness and Especially Over and over again.

She commented that these parents would say well, we wouldn't we wouldn't have had any problem She said she was a lesbian, but now she's talking about having a double mastectomy because that's the big thing

That's the big thing is is This is how this is how this craze is spread right here if you get your teenage girl or boy a

Smartphone like this. You're an idiot Sorry Get him a dumb phone if you want to be able to get hold of them

Get him a GPS tracker if you want to know where they are, but internet enabled not with what's out there

This whole craze is less than seven years old and already the number of the thousands of young girls who have been ruined for life disfigured for life will never be mothers will never have children no matter how much they want and They'll never be men either because that doesn't work either

Absolutely astronomical it is it is a craze. It is a and it is a virus spread by the internet

It's a virus spread by YouTube It's a virus spread by glowing screens and It could never have happened before There have been crazes before there have been cutting crazes and anorexia and and Believe it or not.

I did not know this but there are there are websites you can go to that will teach you how to purge and how to hide things from your parents and All this kind of stuff.

It's just I Was just I was stunned by what I was reading But the purposefulness

Of this global Pandemic you want a real global pandemic a real global pandemic that is completely stoppable is the transgender craze

This is this no one saw this there there there have always been cross -dressers but they're almost always men to women not the other way around and They're almost always in age of maturity

No society was stupid enough to think that eight -year -olds or even teenagers

Were actually old enough mature enough To make the decision to mangle their bodies the impacts of Testosterone injection.

I could not believe that just the cult Any Ivy League school, did you go to will have

Testosterone available and All you've got to do is identify as transgender and they will not challenge you.

They will not they will not question you There are all sorts of places you can go to well, they'll teach you they will coach you how to say

Oh, I've always known that I was I was a boy I've always that's what you're supposed to say

You're coached to say it And all I gotta do is go in and say that and you can walk out with it with testosterone patches gels syringes whole nine yards and the impact upon the female body of Massive because they are massive testosterone injections clear long -term

Increase and in cardiovascular disease and just so It is insanity

It makes smoke and three packs of cigarettes a day look like nothing but we're doing it and governments like the government of Norway are

Saying and if you dare question any of this Because if you dare say there is no such thing as transitioning

Could go to could go to jail in Norway for saying that you're not even allowed to say it and on the last program

Or was it no No, I was I forgot to mention this the the thing that I shared yesterday on social media about the the government in the

United Kingdom the military Online going after anybody who spreads

Misinformation about kovat 19 vaccines in other words Whatever the government says about kovat 19 vaccines is the truth.

You're not allowed to question it You're not allowed to talk about it. You're not allowed to go I personally would like to have at least five years of testing, you know

So we have some at least inkling of what could be down the road maybe

Like we do with every other drug, you know, would that be okay? No, no

If you even ask they're literally saying they'll come after you and did you I don't know if you read it

But if they can get into your system, they will scramble your hard drive

They will encrypt your data so you can't get to it and can never use it again That's this is big brother in His biggest and he's already here and he's already saying you're gonna take my vaccine and if anybody questions

We'll wipe you out We'll wipe you out We will we will take you out right now that's

This is big brother and big brother says transgender stuff that destroys young women good thing

You got to remember what step back from all the details for just a moment. What does the great reset?

Want in this world? There was a clip that I watched yesterday with Bill Gates And Bill Gates was talking about how we need to have zero co2 emissions zero now

What he didn't say? Was that co2 is a minor player in Earth's temperature.

It's a minor player water vapor is the player period and discussion

Co2 is minor and the human portion of the co2 emission is minor minor minor minor

But as a matter because you're not allowed to talk about that either They'll shut you down for that in the future as well. Once once big brother has has control of all data

Then everybody just has to go along because who can ever you know, you won't even be allowed

To sell books on Amazon that say anything differently publish books Electronically anything you're gonna have to Hide under trees to hide from the drones without any phones near you to secretly mention it to somebody and if they're a

Government agent you're gonna end up in the who's cow anyways, so It Wow, it is an amazing situation, but Bill Gates is sitting there talking about how we need zero co2 and then he gives a a

You know, it's the number of people time the services they have times the amount of co2 is produced at the bit that the and you see

That the only way to make that work is to have a major decrease in the number of people

They want not just zero population growth. They want a negative population growth They want to see few far fewer humans on the planet.

The only way to do that is to stop reproduction and If you create a craze

Where girls voluntarily neuter themselves Destroy their ovaries have double mastectomies that works

That works. That's a part of it. I mean what you don't want to do is encourage marriage

And having children and the stable families. No, no, no No, you want to separate people as much as possible from one another

It's what the great seat reset wants So step back my friends. I I'm sorry for all of you sitting out there going out lights lost it

You all were doing that back when I was saying that you know the left was gonna extend lockdowns as close to the

The elections as possible so they get mail -in balloting Okay.

Well, you know, we'll see I said to a guy today. I said well You know instead of arguing with him

I said I'll just be waiting for your apology later on when what I said because I was just Observing something really obvious.

It's it's gonna come and I said, I'll just wait for your apology later on I'll never get it.

But hey once in a while it happens, you know, once while someone contacts me and says, yeah

I used to think you're a complete jerk. And unfortunately you were proven, right? So yeah, you just go from there

I'm dumped not always right, but this is this is a situation where you just need to step back

Take a deep breath and go. All right These folks promoting the Great Reset the

World Economic Forum and and Prince Charles and all these these elites

Bill Gates's of the world They've been very open

They've they've been open and we ignored them All along because it just seemed like those crazy elites who'd fly around in jets, which proved that we didn't they don't care about co2

Um Fly around in jets and meet in Davos and talk about stuff that no one everybody knew no one's ever gonna vote for that Well until you threaten them with a pandemic and convince enough of them that they're all gonna die in the streets

And then you get the media completely all on one page Repeating the same stuff no matter what channel you go to here's the stuff up in the corner

How many have died how many died today? How many died near you? That's all you see of that one thing

They won't they won't put in context. They won't talk about how many people would have died today one way or the other They won't talk about any of that stuff.

It's just this one thing and Then they get you masked up They get you to submit to that and the next thing is the immunizations and what's after that and You they've been open about it wide open about it and so you look at their worldview and You go what would fit in the worldview of the

Great Reset? Well Destroying as many young females as possible Fits in real well fits in real well, and that's what this entire transgender insanity is

Is all about it's destructive. It's evil. It's immoral and Now it's immoral to call that which is immoral immoral total reverse of The moral and ethical foundation now, can they defend it one -on -one?

No, but that's why they shut you down That's why they censor you. They can't defend it. They can't engage in debate.

They know it and Why should they they already control the media upwards and downwards?

Yep, well, there you go. There you go. There you go

Got to look at the big pictures, so let's look at a big picture to finish up the program today on Sunday evening.

We did something unusual at apology. We did something. We're all four elders spoke and I Just chose hopefully under the spirits leading to look at a text that I had never

I Had never looked at before I Think I don't think

I've ever preached from it before and I was struck by a number of things

Uh, you know, I I had the exact same amount of time. I did 20 minutes and we've got 20 minutes left here

Acts chapter 12 Acts chapter 12. I won't read the whole thing, but I would recommend it to remember

Acts chapter 12 is this Fascinating story that just sort of appears in the middle of narrative and there's a reason why it's there it's about Herod and It's about Herod pleasing

The people remember what he did is he acts chapter 12 Now about that time

Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them and he had James The brother of John put the death of the sword when he saw it that it pleased the

Jews he pursued to arrest Peter also, so here you have someone in political control and They do something

Put someone to death and they see that it pleases one of their key constituencies and So it's like oh

Well that worked. Well, let's try it again Let's do it again. And so he has Peter arrested.

Also, this was during the days of unleavened bread and so They chuck him in prison.

The church is fervently praying to God for him You know the story because it's one of those stories you got in in Sunday school all the time

Peter is released from prison by an angel and it's It's so supernatural

Peter thinks he's dreaming Because the guards don't wake up There are guards all around him.

He's chained to him double -chained the chains fall off his hands doors open of their own and He's let out to the street and then the angel leaves him and he thinks he's dreaming and By the way, just in passing.

This is that one place where I'm gonna have to look up the exact number But where Codex Bezae Canterbury Jancis Codex D has this really weird edition

Where it says I think I think it says there were 39 steps or was it 29? I'm gonna have to look it up 39 or 29 steps that Peter descended to go down to the street

It's the only manuscript that has it was like What That come from anyway, that's what we call

Codex D the living Bible of the of the early church anyway so Then you have the really funny story because there's there's there's a tough story in a funny story the funny story is when

Peter gets to where the Christians are and he knocks on the door and Rhoda Answers the door, but doesn't open the door.

Here's Peter's voice And gets excited instead of letting him in. He was just released from prison by an angel

He's standing out in the road and she leaves him standing out there to run inside and tell everybody and they don't believe him

So he's still knocking away that I would love to see someone videotape this, you know to recreate

Recreate this because I've known some Rhodas, you know, I really have I've known some

Rhodas that just you know Too much pressure and and yeah, what is what's going on?

and so and then Peter says tell James and Then he's out of there

He's out of there. So all of you that are into the Romans 13 means absolute capitulation

Peter didn't stop once they got out to the road and said the angel. Um, mr. Angel sir. Thank thank you so much, but The government has said that I need to be in there not out here and So, would you please let me back in?

No, he he hot -footed it. He got out of there because He hadn't done anything wrong to be in there in the first place.

So That act that Romans 13 thing is talking about punishing evildoers and rewarding those who do good

So when the government reverses that different situation Biblically speaking anyway

But in the passing There was there's there's two things a minute because remember what happens at the end of the story and the story

Herod goes tyrant Sidon. They're buttering him up the words of a god not of a man

He doesn't give glory to God. God strikes him dead. He's eaten by worms Okay Clear indication that Political power is

Subject to divine ordination and That when someone no matter how powerful they might think they are

Allows themselves to be worshipped in that way They are accountable before God and in some instances

God brings judgment right then and there takes him out But there was a little story that I I brought attention to um

That's in verse 18 now when they came there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter Yeah Yeah I'm I'm seeing this picture in my mind.

Are you? You know, he's Roman soldiers, you know, this starts getting a little lighter in the cell

Sun's coming up You know and it smells in there cuz Roman soldiers have never seen a deodorant can and Hey Brutus, what?

Where'd Peter go and there's there's a chains lie in there and they're empty double chains double change change you know, so the first thought is okay who came in and let him out to use the restroom or something at which

What what so you call the guards because there's guards at the doors too and they come in and there's that It's sort of like, you know,

I had a truck stolen once when I was at Phoenix College they stole my truck out of the parking lot just found layer of the

Dave stripped and that when you first walk out and You thought you knew where you parked

Okay, I must I must it must be this row over here and then all of a sudden

There's that tightening in your chest When you realize it's gone, it's been stolen

And when I found the glass on the next the parking spot where I thought I had parked, you know, that's what

I knew they had broken the window and stolen and Well, there was a at some point all of a sudden they start looking at each other and they realize

They're dead not they had lost their truck They're dead

Because the law was straightforward when a prisoner was placed into the custody of a

Roman soldier if That prisoner escapes the Roman soldiers life is forfeit

That's why he was double -chained they took this very seriously and they knew

Herod would too and so when it says

There was no small disturbance OOK Aligas A Tarakas and it wasn't a small one.

There is a great disturbance amongst the soldiers as To what in the world happened to Peter?

When Herod had searched for him and had not found him he examined the guards and or they be led away to execution

Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there so It was

There there was no discussion. There was no hesitation the guards you're done

Were they were they just run through with a sword beheaded It doesn't say they're crucified but that wouldn't happen to it

They wouldn't they didn't use that type of punishment for someone like that who would was in the

Roman army or something like that It would been run through with a sword or beheaded or something like that They're they're executed now, let's think for just a second you think

God saw that coming Let's put this way no matter what your theology of the providence and sovereignty of God is

You think God knew When he sent his angel to deliver

Peter in the way he did Which was not to have an angel come in and and the soldiers stand up and the angel goes yeah and and throws him up against the wall and they're all knocked silly and their bones are broken and and Then they can they can say to Herod this bright shiny thing came in and Look, we can't even walk our legs are broken and our arms are broken and maybe they would have survived

Maybe they wouldn't have been killed maybe because Herod This Herod knew all about the stories about the resurrection of Jesus and this

Peter dude Connected who knows the way that God did it

You think God knew what the absolute outcome of that was gonna be

It's obvious The absolute outcome Was that those soldiers were going to die now, is that fair?

Now think about that for a moment Because in our day and age, I'm afraid

I can think of a lot of evangelical church contexts where if you brought this up and You said you think that's fair a lot of people would have to go

No, I mean they didn't do anything wrong they were just doing their jobs and and Lo and behold, you know the way that Peter was released was supernatural and obviously

God Kept them asleep So that Peter could escape and they didn't hear doors opening

I'm sure those doors were not exactly the most oiled doors in the world and It's like that's not fair and you step back and you go were these guards sinners

Well, yeah, of course they were We don't have any evidence that they were believers so they're sinners and They're that means they're under the judgment of God So can

God bring his judgment to bear upon any sinner at any point in their life? The biblical answer is yes.

I don't think most Christians actually believe that I I do not think most

Christians actually believe that God has the right to bring his judgment to bear at any point in the life of a

Rebellious of any of the sons or daughters of Adam Let's have it put that way because I know there's a bunch of Christians who don't believe that They don't believe that we're fallen sons and daughters of Adam not in the sense of having any culpability or being held accountable total rejection of federal headship

But if you don't have federal headship Then all you can say is well, but I'm sure these guards had committed personal sin

And so they were liable for their personal sin and Therefore God was just to Bring that at that particular point in time even though There were probably lots of worse

Roman soldiers and we're not told these Roman soldiers were the worst Roman soldiers in the world, right?

but the point is they were part of a worldly system that was being used

To persecute the Saints of God and remember what Jesus told Paul when he was

Saul Saul Saul, why are you what? Persecuting me

Persecuting me What am I getting at here? Well of everything that we talked about today.

This is the most important This is the most important there is an infection going around.

There really is and The infection is the infection of The myth of neutrality

The myth of neutrality and Most of us are raised

With the myth of neutrality if you are raised in a context Where you think that your religious life is over here, but your political and secular life is over here and You can somehow separate these out

To where Jesus's claims of lordship are only relevant over here in the spiritual realm There is no claim of Jesus's lordship.

In other words when he's king of kings. He's only king of kings politically He's only

Lord of Lords spiritually not politically opposite He he has spiritual authority.

He doesn't actually have kingship as a king would These soldiers were a part of a political system that was already

Persecuting Jesus Saul why are you persecuting me?

Jesus could have said that these soldiers. Why are you persecuting me? What do you mean? He's one of mine. You persecute him

You're persecuting me. Well, but we're just told to do what we do

That involves the myth of neutrality that you can be neutral That you can just well, you know

As long as I was told by my superiors to do this then I am absolved of all culpability.

No, you're not No, you're not You're standing in opposition to the king of kings

Well, you Calvinists can't claim because because you think God has decreed all the stuff and again The decree is what makes the actions in time culpable.

What happens in time is real But just in time was real What God did in delivering

Peter was real ask the soldiers. They found out how real it was Okay, so as we think about what we're facing today

Then we need to make sure That when we talk about, you know, how many times the program over the past number of months that we talked about We can't offer the pinch of incense on the altar and say

Caesar is Lord while the greatest challenges we have as Christians today is

Determining where where is that dividing line? what what

Constitutes the offering of the incense on the altar. We can't offer it

We cannot say Caesar is Lord and we cannot function on the basis of thinking that there is neutrality

So we call when we when we call for people to repent The idea that many of us have is that the only possible call of repentance is

For your own personal sin there's never any idea of calling people to repent for having stood against God and his purposes and yet Here you have

Caesar Because who do these soldiers represent they represent Caesar who did Herod represent he represented

Caesar to his He may have thought his authority was because he's a king but Herod knew

Herod well knew he could not go against what Caesar Authorized him to do

That whole power dynamic was a very complicated one, but he he knew he couldn't do that and so you have

Caesar here and in both instances in Delivering Peter you have

God bringing judgment on Caesar In striking Herod down you have

God bringing judgment upon Caesar There's no neutrality no one could say well, you know

Herod did how could Herod know? Uh Well He could know for many many different reasons general revelation he had he certainly knew the

Jewish faith Anybody who's who Dresses up in his royal finery and allows people to stand in front of him saying the voice of a

God and not of a man Is an idolater He is accepting the adulation and worship of the people, of course, he knew that they were doing it only to gain political favors still made it feel good at least until God did whatever it was he did to him, which

I'm sure was from the description Not really pleasant in any way shape or form.

Well, wasn't he just neutral? No, there is no neutrality You either submit to the

King of Kings and Lord of Lords or you're a rebel against him Or you're a rebel against him

Herod that was obvious. The soldier is not so clear until we think it through Until we think it through and when we do we see we see

All right. Well, there you go Thank you very much for listening to the program today again process

Continuing on We made some some cool advancements yesterday. I was rich put a picture up of me playing with that board that I'm gonna be using so much and and We have plans within plans

So I'm really looking forward to being able to bring you all in on that continue to pray for us

I joked yesterday and I hope it was a joke I joked yesterday with rich that we're gonna put all this together right the time that big tech takes us out

Then you and I can sit in there and go this would have been fun, you know, but we're hoping that's not the case but continue to pray as we as rich is working very very hard many many hours stringing stuff together and making stuff work and Hopefully we'll be able to start showing you some of the results of that very very very soon.