The Prophet Jeremiah Part 10

All right, we're going to pray, we're going to get started, and then we'll talk about a little bit of format change that I'm

working on for our Sunday schools here, and I'll explain why in a minute.

But let's pray.

Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask that through your Holy Spirit that you would open the

scriptures to us.

Apart from you, we can do nothing, and unless you reveal to us the meaning of the scripture, we are hopelessly lost.

So we humbly come today and ask that you would help us to rightly understand what you have revealed, how it points back

to Christ, how it convicts us of our sin, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, bearing fruit in love and good works towards neighbor,

we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay, so a little bit of a format change, okay?

And here's kind of my thinking, all right?

So we have two adult catechism classes that we do on Thursday, noon and

at 7 p .m., and that's a fantastic format for asking

questions as it relates to the basics of the faith.

And in general, I want to be able to open up the Sunday school

class for questions that may have percolated that are directly related to one of the texts from today

or from the sermon itself, and then always, and again, I'm trying to work my way through books of the Bible, but

what I'm noticing lately is that everything's kind of turning into the Bible Answer Man.

And so in order to make it so that we can continue to progress in our Sunday school through books of the Bible and

hit topics, what I'm going to do is we're going to save up questions until the end, and

I'm going to make a very kind of specific request, although I will not enforce this

legalistically.

And the specific request is that when I check for questions that they relate

to either the biblical text that we're working through or something related to the sermon or one of the assigned biblical

texts, if you have questions that are kind of bigger, broader, more basic, fundamental

questions, questions about baptism, Lord's Supper, questions about, you know, a particular article of faith, I would

invite you to the catechism class, or I would ask that you, you know, save those

up, because what I think I'm going to end up doing is maybe like once every five or six weeks doing kind of a free -for -all

Bible study here.

You know, the idea here is that that way, you know, you can just kind of free -range it on

the questions, because we've been in Jeremiah since October, and we're up to chapter

nine, and I'm beginning to feel a noose around my neck, like, you know, I could get in trouble or

something, you know.

You know, from a particular member of the church council.

Right, exactly.

So, yeah, I don't want to, because you'll know that in the Calvinist churches, you can always tell, you know, a good

Calvinist because they take about five years to work their way through one book.

It's the book of Romans, okay?

If you haven't done a five -year -long Bible study on the book of Romans, you're not even really a Calvinist.

At least that's what I've heard.

So, but all that being said, so what we're going to do is I'm going to focus today on

Jeremiah.

We're going to start at Jeremiah chapter nine.

We will have questions.

I will try to answer questions, you know, salient to the discussions at

hand or regarding the sermon or things like that.

You're always free to ask those questions, but I'm going to try to save them up until we've gotten a little bit more done

in our Bible study work.

Does that make sense?

I hope you guys understand.

So, all right, huh?

I'm not, I stopped sharing.

You know, my mom complained about that too.

Hang on a second here.

Yeah, yeah.

I was never able to share, so it was always a problem.

All right, Jeremiah chapter nine.

Jeremiah writes, oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears,

so that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

Now, up to this point, you'll note that Jeremiah historically is known as the weeping prophet.

He's the fellow who wrote Lamentations, which I've never heard Joel Osteen preach on.

So, you know, just, you know, a little bit of a note.

But all of that being said, here he's legitimately weeping because of God's judgment.

And God's judgment at this point has reached the provocation levels of God's

wrath.

If, you know, again, we saw this earlier in the book of Jeremiah that God wills to forgive, God

wants to forgive, and even in the midst of their impenitent idolatry, he is

still holding out to them that they can be forgiven and live.

And rather than listen to God, these people said, no way, Jose.

And you'll see this in the later chapters of Jeremiah.

I'll do a little preview work now.

After the sack of Jerusalem, after everyone's gone, and the total number of remnants

from Jerusalem that end up in Babylonian captivity is less

than 5 ,000.

You know, more than 90 % of the people die in this campaign.

And what ends up happening is that some of the refugees, because you'll note that when armies are on the move,

people skedaddle, and you get refugees on the border and stuff like this.

Not sure what that looks like.

Just watch the news today and you'll kind of get an idea.

You know, with the Russian army coming in, Ukrainian refugees are fleeing to Poland and, you know, other places.

And that's a normal thing.

So when Nebuchadnezzar's army was on the move, there were some who fled.

They skedaddled and headed down to Egypt, or they kind of hidden rocks in the caves and the

trees and things like that and, you know, became bush people for a little bit.

But we learn in the later chapters of Jeremiah that those people who survived by being

refugees, after everybody was gone, there was a set of circumstances where they

absolutely inquired of Yahweh whether or not they should stay in Judah.

They came back after the Babylonian army left, and they asked Jeremiah, should we stay or should we

go?

Should I stay or should I go?

Yeah, anyway.

Sorry, I just, you know.

And so Jeremiah said, hey, wait, I'll ask God.

And he took some time, asked God, and God said, if they stay, I will bless them.

I will protect them.

They will not be ravaged.

They will thrive if they stay.

And when Jeremiah tells them this, they said, you're lying.

You're lying.

God didn't tell you for us to stay.

You're lying.

And so they went down to Egypt, and they perished.

It's just crazy stuff.

And so you'll note that this is a, at the end of the day, this is a ginormous refusal to

believe God's words.

And this is what we all wrestle with, right?

So, oh, that I had in the desert a traveler's lodging place that I might leave my people and go away from

them.

They're all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.

They bend their tongue like a bow.

Falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land.

Hmm, that sounds like today, right?

Yeah, they proceed from evil to evil.

It goes from bad to worse.

They do not know me, declares Yahweh.

So let everyone beware of his neighbor and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is

a deceiver.

Every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

Wait a second.

I seem to recall Jesus talking about the end times as children

betraying their parents because of the love of many growing cold that they will hand

people over.

Christian brothers, everyone's a deceiver.

This is, again, this is the big signs of apostasy.

Everyone deceives his neighbor.

No one speaks the truth.

They have taught their tongue to speak lies.

They weary themselves committing an iniquity.

Can you imagine like at the end of the day?

It's like, oh man, I really wore myself out there doing my bank robbery this week.

It was a busy week, you know.

I hope things kind of settle down next week.

I got, you know, yeah, you get the idea, right?

Heaping oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares Yahweh.

And there's your, there's your problem right there.

They refuse to know me, all right.

Therefore, thus says Yahweh of Arme, Savah.

Behold, I will refine them, test them, for what else can I do because of my people?

Their tongue is a deadly arrow.

It speaks deceitfully.

With his mouth, each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart, he plans an ambush for him.

Oh brother, peace, peace, brother.

While they're plotting your destruction.

Wow, sounds like a fun place to live, all right.

Shall I not punish them for these, declares Yahweh, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?

I will take up weeping and wailing from the mountains and a lamentation for the pastors of the wilderness because they are

laid waste so that no one passes through and the lowing of cattle is not heard.

Both birds of the air and of the beasts have fled and they're gone.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals.

I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.

And here's kind of an interesting theme in scripture.

So if you think back to the beginning of the world, okay, where did Adam and Eve work?

Garden of Eden, right?

Paradise.

Were there desert wastelands at that time?

No.

So the way the earth is described in that period is Edenic,

you know, it's paradise on earth.

And one of the pictures that scripture gives of the future earth that

God is going to make, the new heavens, the new earth, he talks about the deserts being no more, that

the burning sands become, you know, a place where waterfowl, you know,

migrate to and live and thrive and stuff like this.

So, you know, here you got this picture then, if you were to look at like planet earth, you know, on the globe, you know, you got

those big regions like the Sahara Desert and the Gobi Desert and all this kind of stuff.

All of that is, you know, is a visible consequence of our

sin and a reminder that when Jesus comes, it's paradise earth all over the place.

I'm really looking forward to getting rid of the white desert wasteland that I live in right now.

So, you know, it's kind of hard to believe, but I mean, when it's down below zero here, it's

drier than the Sahara, you know.

You know, I have to put 11 gallons of water into my house using humidifiers in order just to keep it at a

habitable humidity level, you know, but we have an older house and it leaks like a sieve, but you get the

idea.

All right, let's see here.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a layer of jackals.

I'll make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitants.

So, who is the man so wise that he could understand this?

To whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken that he may declare it?

Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness so that

no one passes through?

And Yahweh says, because they've forsaken my law that I set before them and have not obeyed

my voice or walked in accord with it, but they have stubbornly followed their own hearts

and have gone after the Baals as their fathers taught them.

And again, describing the problem, stubbornly followed their own hearts.

How does one end up worshiping a false deity named Baal?

By following your heart, you know.

Again, it's the theme of the Barbie movie and Frozen and all that kind of Disney stuff.

Follow your heart is the theme that will end you up in hell, all right?

Your heart's the problem.

Therefore, says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, give them

poisonous water to drink.

I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known.

I will send them the sword, send the sword after them until I have consumed them.

So, thus says Yahweh of armies, consider and call for the mourning women to come.

Send for the skillful women to come.

Let them make haste and raise a wailing over us so that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids

flow with water.

So, a little bit of a cultural note here.

This doesn't exist in many places on planet earth today, but it still exists.

Professional mourners, all right?

Have you ever seen professional mourners?

Like, I think they are still in Haiti.

So, if you were to like, you know, go to YouTube and Google professional mourners, there are people

who, for a fee, will come and wail and lament the death of a

loved one.

And, you know, for a bigger fee, they'll really put on, carry on.

And then if you pay them like the top price, they'll even throw themselves inside the grave while the casket's being lowered into the

ground, okay?

It seems a little bizarre, right?

Yeah, that's crazy, okay?

You know, but the idea then is that a cultural thing of the past

was paying people to lament and mourn, and this is what God is invoking.

In fact, when Christ is, he lands at Capernaum

after casting out the demons, the legion of demons from the demoniac of the Gerasenes,

and Jairus, the synagogue ruler, shows up probably at the dock and says, my little

girl's about to die, please come and heal her.

And Jesus at once goes, of course, because of the woman with the issue of blood who stopped him.

But after the woman with the issue of blood is healed, they send word to Jairus, don't bother the

teacher anymore, your daughter's dead.

And when Jesus arrives, the professional mourners were already at work, all right?

They were just kind of hanging around, waiting for the little girl to pass.

And so they were mourning, and when Jesus comes in, he says, yeah, yeah, yeah, she's not dead, she's only sleeping.

And they started laughing, you know?

They went from mourning to laughing.

So I hope Jairus got his money back.

But you get the idea.

So this is what God is invoking here.

Call for the mourning women to come, send for the skillful women, skillful in mourning.

Let them make haste, raise a wailing over us so that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water.

For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion, how we are ruined, how we are utterly

shamed because we have left the land, because they have cast down our

dwellings.

So hear, O women, the word of Yahweh.

Let your ear receive the word of his mouth.

Teach your daughters to lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge.

For death has come into our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the

streets, and the young men from the squares speak.

Thus declares Yahweh, the dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like

sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.".

Severe consequence, right?

And this really stands in stark contradiction to today's word of faith

prosperity preachers, you know, who are always talking in such positive terms, and who

even go so far as to say that if you ever feel convicted you feel

negativity while listening to a sermon that that's not from God.

You know, imagine the negativity that the the women of Jerusalem felt from Jeremiah who was

saying, thus saith the Lord, that their dead bodies of their men are going to fall like dung on the field,

right?

Again, all of this is a consequence of sin, and what's God trying to do?

Jolt them, make them recognize their idolatry for what it is,

forgive them, and restore them.

That's his goal.

So thus says Yahweh, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his

mind, let not the rich man boast in his riches, let him who boasts boast in this, that he

understands and knows me, that I am Yahweh who practices steadfast love, justice, and

righteousness in the earth.

For in these things I delight, declares Yahweh.

Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in

the flesh.

And this cracks open a huge theological category,

and you're going to note the category doesn't begin in the New Testament, the category begins

in the Old.

So in today's modern evangelicalism, there is a lot

of, I would say, incorrect emphasis on the nation -state of

Israel.

And what I mean by that is that they somehow think, so they're in the book

of Genesis, God says to Abraham, the one who blesses you I will bless, the one

who curses you I will curse.

And they think that is talking about merely those who are genetically

related to Abraham.

And here God is talking to Jews in the truest sense.

Jeremiah is sent to call the tribe of Judah to repentance.

He's talking to Jews and he is saying to them that they are circumcised merely in their

flesh.

And the circumcision of the flesh but not of the heart, will that give you the

blessings of God?

No.

And so you'll note then that even the Old Testament makes it clear to be a true son of Abraham,

to truly be circumcised is not merely a matter of some kind of a physical outward act

that occurs on a person, but the true circumcision is the circumcision of the heart done by the

hands of Christ, done by the hand of God.

Those who have the same faith as Abraham are all grafted into Israel.

So it doesn't matter what your ethnic heritage is, whether it's Mongolian,

Chinese, whether you're Native American or European or South

African, none of that matters.

All human beings come from one man, from Adam.

And anybody who has the same faith as Abraham is the one who's circumcised of heart and they have been grafted into

Israel.

And Christ happens to be Israel, if you think about it that way.

So we are all grafted into Christ and therefore we are all Israeli.

So Egypt, Judah, Edom, sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the

corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised

in heart.

Now this leads us into a fun little discussion here at this point.

Uncircumcised in heart.

Now I'm not that great with power tools.

I'm okay.

You give me a drill, I'm all right.

You give me a saw, a radial saw, I can cut things and I'm generally

okay.

If you need precision, I'm not your guy.

Let's just say that I have a square but I really should use it but don't.

But all of that being said, no one's going to trust me with a scalpel when it comes to

circumcising your heart.

You'll notice that Time Life, you guys remember the Time Life home repair series?

You'd buy them for your monthly payments of like $15 .95.

You can get the Time Life series on how to repair your home, things like this.

And you collect up the books.

But have you noticed that there are no Time Life books on self -surgery?

Here's how you remove your own appendix.

Nothing like this.

And there's a good reason for that.

But here we've got a problem.

They're circumcised only in their flesh but they're not circumcised in their heart.

Well, how is one supposed to pull that off?

We're reading this even as New Testament, New Covenant believers and going, okay, yeah, I can see the problem here.

So one of the things I like to explain to people is that one of the most amazing things

about the Gospel, the Gospel imperatives, the Gospel says repent and believe.

The Gospel says be circumcised in your heart.

And whatever the Gospel demands, the Gospel actually provides.

It's kind of a fun little thing.

So the Gospel says believe and the Holy Spirit works in you faith.

All right?

And Scripture says be circumcised in your heart.

And what does Scripture say?

That God removes your heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh.

And we in the New Covenant can actually point to something tangible regarding that.

In Colossians chapter 2, I always like to point this out.

Paul says this.

I'll start at verse 6 because this is just such a wonderful section.

I always love reading this.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, conduct your life,

conduct your life in Christ, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith,

just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving, and see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and

empty deceit.

You'll note, you know, man, so many of the problems that exist today are because

Christians have been snookered into going along with whatever philosophical

idea is in vogue today.

You know, 10, 15 years ago, it was post -modernity.

All right?

Everyone was saying post -modernism, post -modernism.

And who were they reading?

You know, Foucault, Derrida, right?

You know, and those guys, their philosophy is just nihilistic as all get out.

But prior to that, they were reading the modernists, right?

And you know, and then they were reading the romantics, you know, the romanticists and things like this.

All right, just knock it off.

And now everyone's into this, you know, CRT woke stuff, right?

It's, this is just modern day philosophy.

Avoid this stuff like the plague.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental

spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in him, in Christ, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily, and you have

been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority.

In him also, watch this, you were circumcised.

Now, ladies, this includes you, okay?

You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body

of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also

raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

So here's how this works out.

Circumcision is the sign of the Abrahamic covenant.

If you haven't seen the lecture series or the series I did or the lesson I did on the Fighting for the

Faith channel, talking about the different, sorting out the biblical covenants, all right?

Every covenant has a sign.

Noatic covenant, the sign is the rainbow.

Abrahamic covenant, the sign is circumcision.

The Mosaic covenant, the sign is the Sabbath, the Shabbat.

The new covenant are the body and blood of Christ, right?

And you'll note that there's always a way into the covenant.

So the way men of Israel were brought into the Abrahamic covenant was by circumcision.

Christians are brought officially into covenant with God and brought into the new covenant through

baptism.

And you'll note then that baptism includes and is

not limited to, I have to say that, it includes the circumcision of your heart done by the hand

of Christ.

That's kind of cool, right?

That's like super -de -duper assuring, especially when I'm reading a text like this from Jeremiah who

says, behold the days that are coming and declares the Lord when I will punish those who are circumcised merely in the

flesh, all right?

Egypt, Judah, Edom, Sodom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of the hair,

all of these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart,

but not so for us who are in Christ.

You have experienced in the waters of baptism, circumcision of your heart done by the

hands of Christ.

What the gospel demands, the gospel provides.

And this is huge because I always love when somebody's struggling with their faith to be

able to point them back to the promises and say, listen, Christ has circumcised your heart.

Or if they're misbehaving saying, you're baptized, you know better than this, because they do, right?

Yeah, because they do.

That's kind of the point.

All right, chapter 10 then.

And maybe here since we finished a whole chapter, let me just check the chat.

Okay, sounds like a good plan.

People are agreeing with the plan.

Good.

And Mariska says, come to South Africa.

Is it warmer there than it is right now in Minnesota?

I'll be there in like, give me like five or six minutes.

I'll pack up my bags.

I'm just like done with this winter, but it doesn't seem to be done with me.

So if you appreciate the three days of summer.

Right, exactly.

Just let me know on the calendar what our three days of summer are going to be because I'm going to take, I'm going to just, you know,

you know, drink it down to the dregs, you know.

Yeah, I know for three days.

Yeah.

And then we get the smoke from Canada, you know.

I need to tell Trudeau I don't like his smoke so he can keep it.

Yeah, that Trudy fella.

All right.

Okay.

All right.

Moving on then, Jeremiah chapter 10.

So hear the word that Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel, thus says Yahweh, learn not the

way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at

them.

Okay.

So what are the, one of the, one of the ways in which the ungodly

idolatrous nations, they're all about signs in the heavens, the astrology and all these

kinds of things.

And, you know, so, you know, you know, here comes Haley's comment.

Oh, no, this is the, it's a omen of foreboding.

Right.

And all this kind of stuff.

The thing is, today's, you know, YouTube profits are like just as bad, you know, it's

just, it's horrifying.

Have you guys seen the, the, the rapture channels on YouTube?

They've lost their minds with the invasion of the Ukraine, you know, you know, and Jesus

specifically says in Matthew 24, like, when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, the Roseboro paraphrase, don't sweat it.

This is like, this is all normal.

This has been going on for like, you know, forever.

Right.

All right.

So don't learn the customs of the nations.

You know, they see signs in the heavens and they're dismayed at them for the customs of the peoples are vanity.

All right.

Why would I want to bring, you know, some kind of in vogue, you know, vague new age

spirituality into my Christianity?

Right.

That makes no sense.

It makes absolutely no sense.

And God specifically says, all that stuff is vanity.

A tree from the forest is cut down, worked with an ax by the hand of a craftsman.

They decorate it with silver and gold.

They fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.

Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.

They cannot speak.

They have to be carried.

They cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them.

They cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

God's basically saying these are inanimate objects.

These are not deities.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Scarecrows have been around as long as crows have been around.

You know, as long as people have been trying to grow crops, you didn't have to.

A little bit of a side note here.

Okay.

Because the winter has been so tough, have you noticed that the deer around here are hungry?

Guess whose yard they're going into and whose trees they're eating right now.

Okay.

My ring camera is going off like several times an hour every night because the deer are coming and helping

themselves to my trees.

Okay.

You know, I'm thinking one of them may not make it at this point.

It's just like, and it's a mess, you know.

And you thought rabbit poop was bad.

Deer poop is bigger.

All right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, I'm thinking, you know, maybe what I just need to do is like grab my bow and arrow and

because the neighbors would never hear, you know.

Yeah.

The problem is that that leaves a blood trail.

No.

They have friends.

Duane says to just get a bag of crushed corn and feed them.

No way.

Because they'll have a party and then when they're done eating the corn, they'll continue eating my trees.

Now we're talking.

Okay.

Yeah.

One of our neighbors, they're snowbirds, so they're not even there.

Put the corn in their yard.

I like the way you're thinking.

Is this recorded?

Darn it.

All right.

Let's get going here.

All right.

There is none like you, O Yahweh.

You are great.

Your name is great in might.

Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?

For this is your due.

For among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.

There's none like Yahweh.

They are both stupid and foolish.

The instruction of idols is but wood.

And you're going to note here, well, that seems kind of harsh.

I mean, don't you think that it's a little unbefitting of the Lord to talk in such harsh

terms?

You're going to hurt someone's fee -fees, you know, right?

You'll note God's really blunt.

He legitimately is blunt.

They're stupid.

They're foolish.

They are the instruction of idols is but wood.

Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, gold from Uphaz.

And the work of the craftsmen and of the hands of the goldsmith, their clothing is violet and purple.

They are all the work of skilled men.

But Yahweh is the true God.

He's the living God.

He's the everlasting King.

At His wrath, the earth quakes and the nations cannot endure His

indignation.

In other words, fear Him.

Don't fear that piece of wood over there that's elaborately embellished, right?

So thus, shall you say to them, the gods who did not make the heavens and the

earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.

Now, real quick here.

I want you to consider this verse, Jeremiah chapter 10, verse 11, in light of

Mormon doctrine.

Okay?

In fact, hang on a second here.

I'm going to do a little bit of an excursion here.

Let me see.

I want Book of Abraham.

Abraham.

Let's see if I can find it.

Book of Abraham.

Mormon doctrine, Book of Abraham.

All right.

Let's see here.

Let's see if I can actually find the text itself.

See, my copy of the Book of Abraham is at home.

Let's see here.

All right.

They claim that this was, that Joseph Smith purchased some Egyptian

papyri and that it was the hand of Abraham.

But that was, yeah, that wrote them.

The problem is it's an Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Let me see if I can find the actual text.

Joseph Smith papers.

All right.

So, Book of Abraham.

Translation.

Let's see here.

Church of Jesus Christ.

All right.

I'm hunting here because I want to find it.

I want you to consider this book.

All right.

Let's see.

Book of Abraham.

Translation.

That's the translation portion.

I want to actually read the text of it.

Hang on.

They don't have it online.

Let me see if I can go to the Wikipedia real quick here.

Don't panic.

Don't panic.

Origin.

Translation.

Prophesies.

Book of Abraham.

Text.

Okay.

Book of Abraham.

Tells the story.

Distinct doctrines.

Facsimiles.

All right.

By the way, it's this particular book that is causing all kinds of problems within Mormonism because it

is an easily provable forgery.

It's just a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and it's not what they claim it to be.

Yeah.

I know.

I know.

But it's a fascinating book because if I can get to it, when you read it, it's like, whoa.

Text.

Let's do this.

Text.

Yeah.

In fact, this is not even plagiarism.

He just made stuff up.

Okay.

Here we go.

Let's see.

Book of Abraham.

Conferred.

My father's.

All right.

This is the text itself.

Let me do a quick search here.

Gods.

Okay.

So part of the Book of Abraham.

My father's, having turned from their righteousness and from the holy commandments of the Lord their God, given unto them unto the

worshiping of the gods of the heathen, they refused to hearken to my voice.

But there's more to it.

So when you actually read the Book of Abraham, it tells you that

gods created the heavens and the earth.

Gods, plural, right?

And Mormonism, the key doctrine in Mormonism is what's called the law of eternal progression.

The law of eternal progression states as man is, God once

was.

As God is, man can become.

That's the text

of the key doctrine of Mormonism.

But this is like only chapter one.

There's other chapters.

I have to do my research and maybe get my old copy out.

I can show it to you later.

But when you consider that in light of polytheism, listen to what this says.

The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth, they will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.

Okay.

There is only one God.

There is only one God that will ever be.

When I teach the catechism to our youth, I think of

texts like Isaiah 43 .10.

Isaiah 43 .10 says this.

You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

I, I am Yahweh, and besides me there is no savior.

Such a clear text.

Now consider the implications regarding any kind of pagan Gnosticism.

Pagan Gnosticism teaches that there always has to be both gods and goddesses.

This is a weird aspect of Gnosticism.

But what does the one true God say?

Before me no god was formed, nor will there be any after me.

Full stop.

All right.

You know, so every single deity that human beings worship is either a

figment of their imagination or their origin is a little bit more

nefarious than that when you consider 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 says, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers.

Our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed to the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud

and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink, they all drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock

was Christ.

Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things took place as examples for us so that we too might not desire evil as they did.

Do not be idolaters as some of them were.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23 ,000 fell in a single day.

We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as

some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.

Therefore, let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide a way of escape

that you may be able to endure.

Therefore, my beloved, flee idolatry.

The best advice I can give you is do what King Arthur did when the bunny came out.

Run away.

Run away.

Do the brave Sir Robin thing.

Run away.

I speak as to sensible people.

Judge for yourself what I say.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

Yeah, it is.

The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Yeah, it is.

So because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

So consider the people of Israel.

Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

You betcha.

So what do I imply then?

That food that is offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?

No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.

Well, that is an unloving thing to say.

It is the truth.

There is only one God.

And at the heart of idolatry is demonic deception.

Behind Baal is a demon.

I would say that the angel Moroni that appeared to Joseph Smith, demon.

The angel Gabriel that appeared to Allah, I mean to Muhammad of Islam,

a demon.

In fact, I think personally, if I had to come up with a hypothesis, I think

the same demon that appeared to Muhammad is the one that appeared to Joseph Smith.

That is how blunt the scriptures are.

There is zero, zero space for idolatry.

You will have no other gods.

There is no other God.

Any God that did not create the heavens and the earth will perish.

God says before me, no God was formed, nor will there be any after me.

What's the origin of idolatry?

The demonic.

And I would note that within the church itself, the scripture warns about the

deceivers, the false Christ and the false prophets teaching doctrines of demons in the visible church.

I know this is a really, really, really cold bucket of water, but that is how

blunt the scriptures are when it comes to idolatry.

Is this also true of Virgin Mary apparitions around the world?

Yes.

Okay.

Leave that poor woman alone.

She's dead.

Okay.

Just, you know, Mary.

Okay.

The one who gave birth to Christ, the mother of our Lord, scripture calls her.

Okay.

Surely she's blessed, but she's also a sinner.

She even struggled with her own doubts regarding her own son.

And she perished just like every sinful human being perishes.

All right.

And I note that archeologically, you know, much to the chagrin of the Roman Catholic church, we found the

woman's tomb about 15 years ago in Turkey.

All right.

You know, cause Rome likes to say that she was assumed up into heaven.

No, she, she died just like everybody else.

And here's the thing.

We found her tomb exactly where it should have been because John, the apostle was the one

who took care of her because Christ put Mary in his care.

And after Paul planted the churches in the city of Ephesus, the apostle John moved

himself and Mary and they lived and were over the churches in the city of Ephesus.

And guess where her body is near Ephesus, like really super close.

Okay.

You get, you get the idea.

So, you know, so Mary isn't appearing to people today.

That's just, this is nonsense and don't pray to her under any circumstance.

You know, if you forget what Rome says, you know, you know, well, you know, if Jesus isn't answering my

prayer, I'm going to go talk to his mom and she'll give him a scolding.

You know, this is, this is not how this works.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Quite.

Tony says quite an assumption.

I see what you did there, Tony.

Yeah.

I get it.

All right.

So coming back then to our old Testament text, how are we doing on time?

We're actually doing pretty good.

All right.

So the gods who did not make the heavens and the earth, they will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.

It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding, who

stretched out the heavens.

Man, that is such a huge, huge thing here on the top.

All right.

So consider the implications for a second.

God made the earth by his power.

He established the world by his wisdom.

We are not the product of random chance.

All right.

And by his understanding, listen to the word.

He stretched out the heavens.

Okay.

Wait a second here.

This is describing what scientists call the big bang, right?

Because aren't the heavens expanding right now?

Yeah, they are.

In fact, they were expanding at such a huge, such a fast speed at one point that

because of it, there's a visible red shift, you know, in one of the spectrums that, you know, like the

Hubble telescope and the new, you know, James Webb telescope, they can all see.

And that can only be described as basically God going like this, all right, and just taking it and just

doing that.

All right.

He stretched out the heavens.

And that's exactly what science has found.

And here's the, here's kind of the disconcerting bit.

The galaxies and the stars out on the edge of space, they're speeding up.

And no one can explain why.

Let that sink in.

And what are they going into?

Because there's, if time and space only exists where it's reached, what are they expanding into?

That's the other big question, right?

You get the idea.

But here, Jeremiah, millennia ago, talks about God stretching out the heavens because who was speaking?

God.

He knows what he did and how he did it.

You know, it cracks me up.

You can actually put this in the search bar on YouTube.

Look at the explanations as to how the moon came about.

Okay.

This one has got scientists just basically scratching their head.

Okay.

Because the moon is at the perfect place that it needs to be.

Okay.

In order for the earth to not just spin around like all over the place.

To make it so we have standard times and seasons.

It's the exact mass that it needs to be.

And it's at exactly the right orbit so that, you know, it's able to give us a total

solar eclipse.

Okay.

Which I saw my first one of those a few years ago.

Was it 2018?

Spectacular.

If you've never seen a solar eclipse, there's one coming up like in a year or two.

We're driving to Indiana for this one, man.

I'm telling you.

You know, we should take a church bus and we should all do this together.

I'm telling you, if you have never seen a total solar eclipse, it actually kind of made me weep a little bit

because it was so spectacular.

There's no way to describe it.

But all of that being said, you look at the scientists today and I kid you not, you ask them, where

did the moon come from?

We don't know.

There are scientists who are saying maybe an ancient civilization brought it from somewhere else and just happened to put it in

the right orbit.

I am not making that up.

There are scientists that are talking this way.

Were they little green men?

Okay.

You know, and other, you have others saying the moon was constructed and that it's like

the death star.

And the reason they say that is because, you know, on a couple of the moon shots, when we sent

our astronauts back up to, you know, connect to the capsule so they can return home,

the vehicle that was used to get them up, they purposely crashed those onto the lunar surface

and they had set up seismographs.

And they said every time an object hits the moon, it rings like a bell and it keeps ringing for hours.

Okay.

Which is kind of interesting.

So you put all this stuff together, but scientists have no idea where this thing came from because the regolith,

the stone that it's made out of, there ain't nothing like it here on earth.

There is no equivalent.

No equivalent at all.

So you sit there and go, well, I know where it came from.

God made it, you moron.

It can't be that.

Okay.

All right.

But you get the idea.

So when God utters his voice, there's a tumult of waters in the heavens.

He makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.

He makes lightning for the rain.

He brings forth wind from the storehouses.

Uh -oh, you might want to let Kenneth Copeland know about this passage.

Every man is stupid and without knowledge.

Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols.

Did God just say that people who worship idols are stupid?

Yeah.

Yeah, he did.

Okay.

His images are false.

There is no breath in them.

They are worthless.

They are the work of delusion.

Well, I never.

I can't believe how negative this Bible study is.

All right.

At the time of their punishment, they shall perish.

I assure you, there will be no idols in the new earth.

None.

There will be no goddess worshiping in the new earth.

There will be Shiva, Vishnu, Allah, Moroni.

They're all gone, man.

They're not coming.

Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob.

He is the one who formed all things.

And Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.

Yahweh of armies.

Savah is his name.

So gather up your bundle from the ground, O you who dwell under siege.

For thus says Yahweh, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring

distress on them so that they may feel it.

Wait, what?

I thought only the devil did that.

No, the devil don't do that.

God's in control, right?

So woe is me because of my hurt.

My wound is grievous, but I said, truly this is an affliction and I must bear it.

My tent is destroyed and all my cords are broken.

My children have gone from me and they are not.

There is no one to spread my tent again and to set up my curtains.

For the shepherds are stupid.

They do not inquire of Yahweh.

Therefore they have not prospered and all their flock is scattered.

I like the fact that God uses the word shepherd here because that's not what you

call a Jewish fellow who teaches in the synagogue.

You know what you call a Jewish fellow who teaches in the synagogue?

A rabbi.

But here God specifically uses the word shepherd, which is a New Testament term.

It's fascinating, okay?

But here it is.

Again, Jeremiah is the type in shadow prophecy of the great apostasy before the return of Christ.

So a voice, a rumor, behold it comes, a great commotion out of the north country to make the cities of

Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals.

I know, O Yahweh, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who

walks to direct his steps.

Correct me, O Lord, but in justice, not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

So notice we pray here, we ask God to correct us, but not in his anger.

We need that in your fatherly love, otherwise we cease to exist, we come to nothing.

So pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not and on the peoples that called not on your name.

For they have devoured Jacob, they have devoured him and consumed him, they've laid waste to his

habitation.

All right, now let me check questions real quick, and this is where we're going to jump off today.

All right, let's see here.

Okay, also all the people who say Jesus visited them.

Yeah, Dorothy, I would note that, you know, just basically take the Sid Roth,

the entire body of work by Sid Roth, and just burn it.

You know, it's that none of this stuff is real, none of it, all right?

All right, so yeah, I must restrain myself.

Okay, Jen says, the Vatican recognizes the ladies of Cabejo,

but not the boy who met Jesus.

Oh my goodness, I can't even pronounce this.

Sagatasha, I can't even pronounce it.

Hearing what you're saying, all these apparitions from demons.

I read the book by the Immaculate called The Boy Who Met Jesus.

You're going to note here, all right, all of these types of stories, the boy who

went to heaven, the, you know, the woman who met these kids who saw the Virgin Mary in

France, all this kind of stuff.

You know who people end up obsessing over?

Them, rather than Christ.

Okay, I confess that if Jesus showed up at Kongsvinger next week, I wouldn't recognize him.

I'd say, hi, my name is Pastor Roseberry.

He'd say, yeah, I'm Jesus Christ.

Yeah, you're joking.

You know, I, if he was, I would, I wouldn't recognize him a bit, okay?

But all of these people claiming to have these angelic visitations, visitations by the Virgin Mary,

they're, they are chasing down every little scrap of

potential supernatural stories.

They're gathering them up and putting all of their stock and faith in that, and you know what they don't listen to?

Actual biblical reasoning.

All right, and now, see, the thing is, is that, so when something like this

happens, you, now people will determine your orthodoxy on whether or not you

consider the Marian apparition that, you know, occurred in France as real.

Well, if you don't, if you don't believe that's really the Virgin Mary, then there's something wrong with your faith.

You know, it's just this weird way.

It's all divisive, and over and again, the messages that are given by, you know, when Jesus

appears, or when these angels appear, or when Mary appears, the messages they're given, they sound like that you can put them on

Prophecy Bingo, you know?

You know, their messages are so vague and vapid and nonspecific, you know?

So the Virgin Mary appeared to me the other day while I was out driving, and, you know, and she said that something's going to happen.

Really, okay, that's spectacular, you know?

You know, just, you know, but you get the idea.

Same for UFOs.

Yes, same for UFOs.

Okay, oh man, UFOs are like the big underpinning of, like, the Gnostics now.

Okay, we're not special.

We're, we might actually be a prison planet, you know, for, you know, a bunch of people who've been ostracized from

the rest of civilized, of the civilized universe, according to the UFO theories.

It's just crazy when you just get into this stuff.

You think that all of Earth is Australia?

Yeah, so basically, yeah, in some of these UFO theories, the Earth itself is Australia.

So, you know, just this nonsense.

Listen to Christ.

Listen to God.

Jesus has risen from the grave.

He's affirmed that all of the words of Moses and the prophets had to be fulfilled, and they were fulfilled in Him.

They prophesied His life, His sufferings, His shameful treatment, His flogging, His

crucifixion, His death, and His resurrection.

And ain't nothing even come close to this anywhere in any other religious system.

So we can trust Christ and His word.

Mariska, don't know if I'm stepping on any toes.

Oh, I do it all the time, Mariska.

It's kind of fun.

But a lot of charismatic people argue that Christmas trees are pagan because of Jeremiah 10, 34.

Three through four.

Okay, I'm glad you brought this up.

I actually did a whole video on, you know, Christmas.

Okay, so they decorate with silver.

They fasten with hammer and nails so they cannot move.

Their idols are scarecrows, cucumbers.

They cannot speak.

They cannot walk.

Don't be afraid of them.

Here's the issue.

When a Christian decorates their home with, you know, with, you know, they

deck the halls with boughs of holly, you know, you get the idea.

When they do that, this is not the same thing.

This is absolutely describing something else.

This is not talking about decorating a Christmas tree.

This is about fashioning an idol.

Actually taking a tree, cutting it down, taking a part of it, making it look like, you know, zuul, and then, you know,

putting gold and silver around it.

This is describing the fashioning of an actual idol.

This is not at all about that.

And yes, Melissa Dougherty did do a good satire piece on this last year.

Yes.

We'll

have to talk to you about how metaphors work.

Okay.

All right.

A little bit of misunderstanding.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The text is saying that these idols are like scarecrows and a cucumber.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you bow down and worship your Christmas tree, we need to have a chat.

Okay.

So, you know, we'll have a talk about that.

All right.

We're going to jump off here.

So, great to see you all, Lord willing.

We'll see you next time.