It is a Conspiracy! — Anton Bosch

Those members of Sun Valley Community Church who are joining us through video this morning, and a special welcome to visitors from across the globe who are also joining with us this morning as we meet around the Word of God.

This morning I want to speak with you about conspiracies at a time of national, and not just this time, but any time of national and international stress and upheaval. All sorts of conspiracy theories begin to float around, and I want to have a look this morning at what they are all about, but I specifically want to look at what the Word of God has to say about them.

So let's pray before we begin the ministry this morning. Father, we are together, even though it's across the airwaves, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've come, Lord, to your Word, and we want to hear what your Word has to say, Lord.

We admit that so many of us have heard so much as to what the politicians and the scientists and the medical people have to say. We've seen what Facebook has to say, and Lord, we have been inundated with all sorts of conflicting information and data, and Lord, I pray that this morning you would help us to see things from your perspective, that we might understand what your Word has to say about these things, and Lord, that we might be able to direct our minds and our thoughts and our hearts, and particularly our lives, in a way that pleases you.

And so, Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand. I pray, Lord, for those who have preconceptions as they watch this video, as I'm sure there will be some or maybe even many. Pray, Lord, that you would help us to set aside those preconceptions and to hear your Word this morning, and that we may respond to your Word, we pray, in Jesus' name.

So I'm going to begin by reading from the book of Isaiah, chapter 8, and I'm going to read verses 9 through 18. So if you have your Bibles with you, and I would encourage you to have your Bibles with you as much as you do when we meet together here in the chapel, because I'm going to read, and then I'm going to speak about conspiracies, and then I'm going to come back to this passage, and so it would be good for you to find Isaiah, chapter 8, and to keep it open, so that when we get here, you're able to follow in your Bible.

So let's read Isaiah, chapter 8, verses 9 through 18. Isaiah, chapter 8, verses 9 through 18. Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces. Give ear, all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.

Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing. Speak the word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy.

Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the house of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many among them shall stumble, and they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples, and I will wait on the Lord, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me. We are for signs and wonders in Israel, from the Lord of hosts who dwells in Mount Zion. I am sure I don't have to tell you what conspiracies are.

We have seen many over the years, and in fact if you go to the internet and look at Wikipedia, they have an extensive list of dozens and dozens, maybe even hundreds, of different conspiracy theories that have floated around over the years.

I'm just going to mention a few that I've personally come across, and again it's not a complete list. We would spend the whole day here just enumerating these, and of course we want to get down to the word of God.

But there's the whole conspiracy around 9 -11, and that it was a planned demolition by the government for all sorts of strange ideas. There's the whole conspiracy that man never walked on the moon, and in fact it was just done in a studio.

There's the whole Sandy Hook thing, a very sad tragedy when children were killed, and many deny that it even happened because, again, it's just a conspiracy to be able to, so that the government can take away guns from people.

There was the whole Y2K conspiracy, and I remember living through that, and obviously for those who don't remember, it was when we changed from 1999 to the year 2000. There was this whole idea that the whole world was going to come to an end, and I may make a reference to that again in a moment.

The whole thing about black helicopters, and if these things aren't familiar to you, well, you can look at them on the internet, but they really are not helpful. There's the whole conspiracy that the earth is flat, and I know that many will laugh at that, and yet at the same time, it's in the same category as the rest of these.

So if you're going to believe in any of the other conspiracies, well then, maybe you should believe that the earth is flat also. The whole chemical trail thing, aeroplane spraying aluminum and all sorts of stuff in the air to be able to achieve all sorts of sinister purposes.

The whole Nephilim and super monsters thing, propagated by preachers who were able to sell thousands and probably millions of books and make huge money out of this whole thing about these super monsters that come from the book of Genesis chapter 6 and go through to the book of Revelation.

Some of the latest ones is the 5G thing, and again, I'm not going to get into the specifics, but obviously, as you know, we currently have 4G on our cell phones, generation 4, and they are looking to introduce generation 5, and there's a whole series of conspiracies that go around that whole thing.

And then, of course, the time in which we find ourselves now is the time of the COVID -19 or the coronavirus, and of course, there are numerous conspiracies running around the source of the thing, where it came from, what the purpose was, and sources of ideas that there is a sinister plan behind the release of the whole thing, and so on.

And then flowing from that, from the coronavirus conspiracies, is, of course, the conspiracies that revolve around the development of a vaccine. And so we know that all the nations in the world, probably just about every pharmaceutical company is working on developing some kind of vaccine, and so this has been connected to the 5G theory, and the basic bottom line is that this is a way to control the world, to set up the world for a one-world government, and of course, I believe that there will be a one-world government.

And so the inoculations are part of that, and if you accept the inoculation, you are in fact accepting the mark of the beast. So these are some of them, and I'm going to come back to this idea of the mark of the beast in a moment.

But in looking at these theories, they have certain things in common, and all of them have certain commonalities. The first is, and not necessarily in this order, but the first of the things that are common to them is that they appeal to a very specific kind of person in the world and in the church, and in fact, psychologists have done a study of that, and they very clearly defined the kind of psychological makeup that is predisposed to believing these things.

And I believe that while that may be true, and I think it is true, as far as the world is concerned and as far as psychology is concerned, I think that it is specifically true as far as the church is concerned.

The conspiracy theories are particularly interesting and are believed and propagated by people within the body of Christ who have a particular spiritual problem. Now don't turn the TV off or the video off.

I want you to hear me out. But there is a spiritual predisposition within certain Christians for conspiracies. And I trust that as we go through the message today, you will understand why I say that. They are also all promoted these days on Facebook, certain websites, talk radio, and sensationalist preachers.

Now, obviously, Facebook is a new thing. It hasn't always been there, and so before Facebook, there was talk radio, and then came the Internet, and of course, preachers who just love to be sensationalist and love to stir up controversy, they have always been there.

And so this is really where they come from, and they all have, again, the same people who promote them. They fall into the category always of something new or novel or unique. And of course, this is not a new problem.

This is a problem that goes back to Acts chapter 17, where Paul is in Athens on Mars Hill, and it says that the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

And you know, this is an accurate description of Facebook today. What is Facebook all about? It's about people spending their time either telling or hearing some new thing. And so people pick up a story somewhere, and they rush to post it to their Facebook, and the next person takes it and shares it, and so it goes, and so it spreads, and pretty soon it becomes the truth.

When in fact, it has no basis of truth whatsoever. And so Facebook is one of the most dangerous places for a Christian to be today. Of course, we can use it for good purposes, and we're sharing this message on Facebook, but we need to be careful.

Facebook contains more nonsense than it contains truth. We've said this many times, and I'm saying it again. Even the fact that it has a Christian title above the video or above the meme or above the article does not mean it is Christian.

In fact, one of the problems that we have today is that every Tom, Dick, and Harry has now set himself up as a preacher on Facebook and on YouTube, and these are people who have no business of preaching the Word of God or of opening the Word of God, and yet now anybody who has a cell phone can set themselves up in their kitchen and begin to broadcast the biggest lot of garbage and nonsense under the guise that it is Christianity.

And of course, together with this comes all of these conspiracy theories. They also have in common, for the Christian, that they appeal to a desire for hidden knowledge. Now again, this is not a new problem.

You'll recognize where this problem comes from. It goes right back to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were tempted by the fact that they could know something that God had chosen not to reveal to them, and that's the thing behind every heresy is that people claim to have knowledge that God has not revealed in His Word, that God has not revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ, and so every cult leader, every false teacher claims to have some kind of revelation, some kind of knowledge, and this is exactly the same principle that underlies conspiracies.

Oh, we're telling you stuff that you won't get on the news media. We're telling you stuff that the scientists won't tell you. We're telling you the secret information, the secret knowledge. Remember what this caused to begin with.

It caused the fall of mankind. Adam sinned and Eve sinned because they wanted this hidden knowledge, and this is still the problem today. They appeal to our bizarre desire for the spectacular and for that which is sensational and for that which is weird and wacky.

Somehow there is something within us that is fascinated by these things, and of course that's the very basis on which the Coney Island freak shows made their money out of, and that is still very much the same principle here today.

There are these freakish things that people are just absolutely fascinated with and fill their hearts and their minds with. The final thing that they all have in common is that they originate, or those who originate them have a agenda.

They don't just come from nothing. There is a purpose behind them to begin with, and those purposes are twofold, but I want to illustrate this just by a practical little example, and I don't know whether in your culture you've heard of a thing called the boogeyman.

Well, the boogeyman doesn't exist, but the boogeyman was created by parents who needed to get their children to do what they wanted them to do. Don't go out of the house because the boogeyman will get you.

Don't get up at night when you're supposed to be sleeping, the boogeyman will get you. Where did that come from? Well, it came from a desire to control and to manipulate the child, and then how does that develop?

Well, the child then tells his or her sibling, and they tell their friends, and the message spreads and the message is spread probably to most parts of the world, and I don't know that there are many who are watching or listening this morning who have not heard about the boogeyman.

It's all a conspiracy to control children, and yet it becomes so real in the hearts and the minds of those children that they will do exactly what they are told to do, and they will obey because this fear has been instilled within them.

Now, I said that there are two purposes behind it, and the first purpose is a political one, which I'm not going to spend a lot of time on, but we must remember that there are nations and ideologies that want nothing better than to destroy Western democracy, and behind many of these theories, behind many of these conspiracies are countries and nations that want to impose and destroy Western democracy.

Just do a little bit of research, and you'll find out that many of the modern conspiracies come out of Russia. Russia still controls and dominates Facebook to a large extent and propagates this false information.

We in fact have an old name for it. It is called propaganda. Propaganda has always been a military tool that has been used to break the will of the opposing nation or army, and it is still being used today, and unfortunately, in the process, many Christians become enemy agents as they propagate the lies of the enemy.

But my concern is really not that much for the political, as I'll say to you in a few moments again, but my concern is for the spiritual, and there is a spiritual agenda, and I'm going to come back to this, and I want to emphasize this, because these conspiracies, particularly when they have an impact on Christians, there is an agenda behind them, and the one behind them is the devil himself, and his agenda is to undermine the Christian's faith, to undermine the Christian's relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, to undermine the Christian's confidence and trust in the Word of God.

And so there is an agenda behind every one of these conspiracy theories, and when we as Christians continue to propagate them and to promote them, what in fact we're doing is we're acting as enemy agents for the devil.

Now, let me get back to the Mark of the Beast and talk about that very quickly, and of course the reason is because it's very pertinent now, and it's going to become more and more pertinent in the next few months, as people will be increasingly badgered by their friends and by other Christians to not be inoculated, because there is this big conspiracy that comes from Bill Gates and the secret society behind all of this that are seeking to use this to control the minds and the thoughts of people, and ultimately what this is said to be is to be the Mark of the Beast.

Now the first thing that I need to say, in fact the most important thing that I have to say on this, is that you cannot and will not take the Mark of the Beast unwittingly. You will not take the Mark of the Beast without knowing that you're taking the Mark of the Beast.

Taking the Mark of the Beast is intimately connected and directly connected with worshipping the Antichrist, so you can't take the Mark and be worshipping God. You have to worship the Beast or the Antichrist first, and as a result you identify with him by taking the Mark, and this is borne out in the book of Revelation, and I'm going to just give you one verse, and in fact there are six verses every time, all six places where it speaks, and just by the way, the number six is not significant here, but every place where it speaks about the Mark of the Beast, it speaks about worshipping him.

Let's have a look at Revelation 14 .9, and the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the Beast and his image and receives his Mark on his forehead or on his hand, so he worships the Beast and receives his Mark, and you'll find exactly the same in Revelation 14 .11, Revelation 16 .2, Revelation 19 .20, and Revelation 20 .4, and also in Revelation chapter 13.

So unless you worship the Beast, you cannot take the Mark. It's not something that's going to just happen without knowing what you're doing. Let me give you two examples. In the short time that I have lived, we had the same conspiracy theory concerning barcodes and concerning credit cards.

When barcodes first came, and if you look at the back of the barcode, there are three checked digits that help you do the calculation of the barcode, the beginning and the middle and the end, and they are 666, and so it was said that this is the Mark of the Beast.

But the fact is that we have been using the barcodes now, and I haven't checked, but there may probably be a barcode in the Bible that you're using. There is nothing that you can buy today that doesn't have a barcode.

Is that the Mark of the Beast? Clearly it is not, and yet people said it was some time ago. But it is not the same thing with the credit card, particularly when the credit cards came with a smart chip in the back, and I remember that they came to South Africa many, many years before they came to America, and many Christians said, no, you can't do that because you're taking the Mark of the Beast.

Well, today we're able to look back with the benefit of hindsight, and we're able to say, no, this is not it. This is not what it's about. I'm not denying that all of these technologies are setting the stage and are preparing the way for the Mark of the Beast.

Of course, the technology that we use, maybe the barcodes, the credit cards, the bank accounts, and certainly as we get through this coronavirus or COVID -19 crisis, they're already talking about lifting the restrictions, but one of the things they're going to be doing in every country is they're going to be tracking people in order to be able to connect others that have been infected by you or that may have infected you.

This is a way of being able to isolate the infection. And of course, does that create a platform? Does that create the technology by which people can be controlled? Yes, it does. But that does not mean you have to throw your cell phone away.

It doesn't mean that you have to go off the grid and go and live out in the desert somewhere. Because taking the Mark of the Beast has nothing to do directly with the technology. Yes, he will use the technology, but that's not the Mark of the Beast.

My big concern concerning that, the reason I'm spending a bit of time on this is, my big concern is that these conspiracies concerning the inoculations will prevent believers from being inoculated against the coronavirus.

Now hear me, and I am not a prophet, but I understand human nature and I understand what is going on. And there are those, and there are those who are watching this video this morning who will be faced with this challenge.

Do I take the inoculation or don't I? Because the inoculation could be the Mark of the Beast. Folks, this is nonsense. These are conspiracies. If you are a believer who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and you're walking in obedience to him and you're born again, then there is no way you will just stumble into taking the Mark of the Beast by being inoculated against the virus.

Now I know immediately there are those who are watching this morning who are going to say, well, you know, we trust God. We're not going to be inoculated because we trust God. Well that's a stupid argument, because if you're trusting God, then you should not be going to the doctor.

You should not be taking headache pills. You should give up your medical insurance right now. If you're going to trust God to keep you from the virus, well then you better begin to trust God now for every ailment and every pain that you have and stop taking every form of medication.

Never go and see a doctor again and give up your medical insurance. That's the stupidity of these arguments. The problem is that people who go against this inoculation have already begun to develop a groundswell of opposition to the inoculation are the very people who run to the doctors and many of those are addicted to painkillers.

And so it's fine to be addicted to painkillers, but it's not fine to take an inoculation. All right, let me move on because I really do need to spend time in the Word, but I have a few more things to talk about very quickly.

The first is, are these theories then not true? Are they not true? Well, some of them are true or based on truth and some of them are not. The Y2K thing, I made reference to that a little bit earlier.

Was there a problem with the computers changing from 1999 to the year 2000? Yes, there was. The problem was that the old programs had been developed to only contain two dates in the year code. In other words, you didn't have 1999, you just had 99.

So when you got to 00 in 2000, the computer would not know, is this the year 2000 or is this the year 1900 or 1800 or 1700? That was a problem and it was real. The problem was that what we attached to that is, this is the end of the world, the Antichrist is coming, Jesus is coming, this is the end of the world.

Now I do believe that Jesus is coming. I do believe that all of what we are seeing is taking us at a rapid pace towards the coming of the Lord Jesus and I do believe that he can and may just come today.

I believe that with all my heart. But I believe it because his word tells me that he comes at a time we don't expect. We need to be ready. I don't believe he's coming tonight or today because of some kind of conspiracy theory.

I believe it because of the word of God. And so yes, there is an element of truth in it, but sometimes it's just based on outright lies and I made reference to the problem with the boogeyman. Let me give you a very real current example.

A few months ago, a talk show host had this whole thing about COVID -19 and his conspiracy was this, that COVID -19 means that there have been 18 other COVIDs and so this is the 19th one and obviously the governments haven't done what they should have done in dealing with the other 18 and that's why the 19th one have got us.

And that's a very rough approximation of what he said. This has now become entrenched in the thinking of millions of people in America and in the rest of the world. And in fact, it was quoted by a White House spokesperson in this last week, exactly the same argument.

And yet if you looked it up and you just bothered to ask the question, where does this name come from, you'll find that COVID is an abbreviation, but the 19 refers to the year that it first was recognized, the year it was first diagnosed, the year 2019.

Doesn't mean there were 18 before, it simply means 2019. And yet, so it is completely false and yet people will run with that, people will write blogs on it, people will share it on Facebook and the list just goes on and on and on.

The fact that there may be truth in something does not mean that the conspiracy is true. The devil also speaks truth. He presents himself as an angel of the light in order to deceive us. He came to Eve and he presented the word of God, he started, has God not said?

And he quotes the word of God, but then he begins to deviate from that. The fact that there's an element of truth does not mean that it is truth. Now I said to you earlier that all conspiracy theories have one source, they all originate with Satan.

I'm now speaking specifically from a Christian point of view and he has one agenda and that's why the similarity between the political attack on Western democracy is so pertinent. The devil has one purpose and that is to destroy the church and the believer, to undo the work of God.

That is his purpose and he will use all sorts of plans. And Paul warns us, don't be ignorant of his schemes, don't be ignorant of his devices. And this is one of the devil's devices, to undermine the Christian's confidence in the word of God, the Christian's confidence and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's behind it. We need to understand that the devil is trying to get us. And he does this, first of all, through fear, to get us to not trust the Lord. Oh no, we can't trust the Lord to keep us. And so we have to keep ourselves.

We can't, we're going to go through the tribulation. I don't believe that we are, but there are many who believe that they're going through the tribulation and many preachers have made millions out of selling all kinds of preparedness kits and all kinds of forms of prepping and shelters and food sources and supplies in order to, so you can make it through the tribulation, instead of teaching people to have a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a real conspiracy and it is a cosmic conspiracy. It is a worldwide, international, universal conspiracy. And that is that the devil has conspired against God and his people. The devil has conspired against God and his people.

That is the conspiracy. And yet we'll talk about all sorts of black helicopters and chemtrails and this nonsense and that nonsense, and at the very, in the very process, we are propagating this conspiracy of the devil trying to manipulate, and not trying to, but manipulating us.

Now before I get to the word, I want to, or actually transitioning to the word, I want to speak about three things that we must understand. All conspiracies or conspiracy theories are looking at things from a worldly perspective and not from this perspective of God.

They may have a biblical veneer. They may seem to be biblical. They speak about the antichrist. They speak about the mark of the beast. They speak about the tribulation. But in fact, they're looking at things from a worldly point of view and not from the point of view of the word of God, which we're going to look at in a moment and you'll see how this plays out.

The second is that they are aimed at self-preservation. In other words, I must do what I need to do to protect myself from the government, from the conspiracies, from the stuff that's going on, from Bill Gates, from the Illuminati, from whatever it is that's out there.

I need to protect myself from those things. But in fact, what I'm doing in the process is I'm not putting my trust in God. And so while they say we're trusting God, we're not going to take the inoculation.

In fact, they're not trusting God. They're not trusting that God has given men skills to develop certain things, and they're putting their trust in their ability to shelter themselves from all of these slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

And then thirdly, they all deny that God is in control. In other words, things are just happening to the world. Things are just happening to the church. Things are just happening to me as a Christian and to my family.

And God has no say. God is not in control. These things are just happening. And I need to do the best I can to keep myself informed about the latest conspiracy so that I can protect myself and my family and my church from these things.

It's a denial of who God is. And it's a statement of unbelief and disbelief in the Lord and in his word. I've quoted this verse probably every time in the last three weeks, and I'm going to quote it again, and you should know it off by heart.

We know that all things, Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose. Now, I believe that there are preachers who are going around saying, well, you won't be affected by the virus.

God is going to protect you. That 10 ,000 may fall on this side, but God is going to keep you through those things. He has not given us a promise that he's going to keep us from these things, but he's promised that he, in fact, in the same chapter in Romans 8, that through all these things, not over or out of, but through all of these things, we are more than conquerors through the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so he is using these things for our good. And our good is not our self-preservation. Our good is that we be conformed to the image of his son. That's the next verse in Romans 8, verse 29. So let's go to the text and see what the word of God has to say.

I read from Isaiah chapter 8, and our text is going to be in Isaiah chapter 8, verse 12. Obviously, I'm sure you picked that up when we read that. But I want us to look at the context in which this is said.

And I'm going to begin in Isaiah chapter 6, a passage which we all should know quite well. And Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1 says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Uzziah was one of the best kings that Israel or the Judah ever had. He was a good king, but he died. And the hope of the prophet, the hope of the people, was now dead. But the Lord is still on the throne.

And, folks, this is the godly perspective. This is the biblical perspective. This is the perspective that you and I need to have as Christians today. God is still on the throne. It doesn't matter what happens to us.

It doesn't matter what happens to America. It doesn't matter what happens to the economy, what happens to the virus. God is still on the throne. Then let's go across to chapter 7 and verse 4. Now, let me sketch you the background to these chapters very quickly.

Judah was being threatened, and there were all sorts of conspiracy theories going around. There were two northern kings who were ganging up against Judah. And then there was also Assyria who was ganging up against them.

And so there were all sorts of conspiracies that Assyria is going to come, and Assyria is going to wipe you off from the face of the earth, and all these two northern kings, they're going to become allied, and they may even ally with Assyria, and you've got no chance.

You're done for. You're going to be totally destroyed. And so there were all sorts of theories about what was going to happen, how this was going to happen. And it's in this context, then, that in chapter 7, verse 4, the Lord says to Uzziah, and say to him, in other words, this is the message you need to bring, take heed and be quiet.

Do not fear or be fainthearted. For these two stubs, these are the two northern kings, are smoking firebrands for the fierce anger of resident Assyria and the son of Ramalei. And so don't fear. Be quiet.

Trust in the Lord. And this is true today. Don't fear the virus. Don't fear the economy. Don't fear Bill Gates. Don't fear the Antichrist. Trust the Lord. Take heed. Be quiet. Do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs.

These are... It doesn't matter how rich these men are. Doesn't matter how powerful the Antichrist will be. He is nothing in comparison to the God that we serve. And yet we are so concerned about what the world is doing and what the world can do to us.

And then if we go to chapter 8 and verse 8, and I'm just picking out a few verses here. We really don't have the time to go through all of them. And I'm probably going to be way over time again this morning.

But chapter 8 and verse 8. He will pass through Judah and he will overflow and pass over and he will reach up to the neck and the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel.

I'm not going to analyze that verse. Verse 9, be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces. Give ear, all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.

In other words, God is going to fight for Judah. God is going to protect them. And God is on the side of his church. And if you're part of the body of Christ, then he is on our side and the devil will be overrun.

He will be shattered. He can reinforce himself, as it says, gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. At the end, the devil will be destroyed. At the end, these forces in the world will be destroyed. And then verse 10 says, take counsel together, but it will come to nothing.

It will come to nothing. It doesn't, folks, here's the bottom line. It doesn't matter what Bill Gates, it doesn't matter what the Illuminati, if there is such a thing, decide. It doesn't matter what the deep state decides.

It doesn't matter whoever decides. They can make their counsel. They can make their plans and their decision. It will come to nothing against the body of Christ. Yes, they can kill us physically, but they cannot touch our souls because we have been born again and we've been committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speak the word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. God is with us. Here is the problem, and here's one of the reasons I'm so frustrated with Christians and preachers who propagate these conspiracy theories.

They're acting as though God is not with us, that they who are against us are greater than he who is with us. But in fact, God is with us. If we are born again and we are his children, he is with us. And we need to put our trust in him and not fear what the devil and what his cohorts are scheming and planning and conspiring against us.

And then let's go to verse 11. For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand. In other words, the Lord spoke clearly, powerfully to me and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people.

I don't know how to get this across more powerfully, but I believe that God is speaking to his church today. He's speaking to those who are watching here. I believe he's spoken to my heart and to the hearts of other brethren that I've spoken with in this last week.

He's instructing us not to walk in the way of the world, not to go after the stuff that the world is going after, not to have the world's mindset, but to have our trust and confidence in him. And then verse 12, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.

Are their threats real? Yes, they are real. Is the devil powerful? Yes, he is powerful, but he says, don't be afraid and don't obsess yourself. Don't fill your heart and mind and do not propagate these conspiracies because what they do is they simply destroy your faith and they generate fear in the hearts of believers.