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Mark chapter three beginning verse number one the Bible reads and entered again into the synagogue and there was a man there which had a withered hand and they watched him whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him and he saith unto the man which had the withered hand stand forth and he saith unto them is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil to save life or to kill but they held their peace and when he had looked round about on them with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts he said unto the man stretch forth thine hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored whole as the other and the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him now I don't want to talk too much about the Sabbath day because I just preached about it a couple Sunday nights ago a couple Wednesday nights ago I've already covered it a lot lately but what I want to point out in this first part of the story is that Jesus Christ when he's teaching in the synagogue and he comes across this man with the withered hand Jesus has compassion on this man and in fact throughout Jesus's ministry you'll see the word compassion used over and over again when Jesus looks upon people who are suffering who have some kind of a plague or an illness case it was a withered hand and what you see in the Pharisees and them that looked on is a total lack of compassion for this guy they don't care about this guy whatsoever and that's what made Jesus so angry because it says in verse five when he had looked round about on them with anger Jesus Christ was filled with anger why it says that he was grieved for the hardness of their hearts you see it's a hard hearted person that would look at a person who has a withered hand and not want them to be healed and not feel bad for them have sympathy for them and think boy wouldn't it be great if that person's hand could be restored whole like as the other but the Pharisees had no compassion they had no love for this man all they wanted to do was find an excuse for accusing Jesus and for attacking Jesus and what's funny is that even after they see Jesus Christ perform this great miracle of healing this man's hand it says in verse six that what they immediately went out and did what they straightway did was that they took counsel with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him so even when they had looked upon this amazing miracle they still didn't believe on him they just wanted to go out and find a way to get him arrested to get him in trouble I think of in John chapter 11 when Jesus performed an even more amazing miracle where he raised Lazarus from the dead four days after he died and he said Lazarus come forth and of course Lazarus comes out of the grave still bound in the grave clothes come stumbling out of the grave alive after he'd been dead for four days and immediately when they saw that they went out and took counsel how they could get him arrested and how they could put him to death not only that they said we don't want to just kill Jesus we want to kill Lazarus because Lazarus is the walking proof of this miracle that was done and they said so many people are believing in Jesus we have to do something to stop him I mean isn't it just bizarre that after all that they wouldn't believe on him now if you would let's go down a little bit further in the past as I want to tie this in we'll come back to the stuff that we're skipping but jump down if you would to the part on the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost it says in verse 28 verily I say unto you all sins shall be forgiven under the sons of men and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation because they said he had an unclean spirit back up to verse 22 where they said that the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said he hath Beelzebub and of course Beelzebub is the name for Satan in the Old Testament is spelled a little differently Baal hyphen Zebub and Baal is the same God that the children of Israel would worship when they turned away from the Lord and they would perform human sacrifices they were worshipping Baal who is none other than Beelzebub or also Belial where the Bible say the sons of Belial it's the same thing it says here that they said that he had Beelzebub and by the prince of the devils cast at the out devils God said that they had blasphemed the Holy Ghost by saying that Jesus had an unclean spirit and that because of that they would never be forgiven now flip over to John chapter 12 just a few pages to the right in your Bible John chapter number 12 and while you're turning to John chapter 12 I'm going to read for you from Matthew 12 where the Bible reads wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men and whosoever speaketh the word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world neither in the world to come now a lot of people have been interested in knowing what is this unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Ghost because he said all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men neither in this world neither in the world to come it's a scary thing and so people have often what you know what is that what does that mean to blaspheme the Holy Ghost some people have even feared and say you know I'm afraid that I may have blasphemed the Holy Ghost in the past but Mark chapter three told us very clearly what it was it said because they said he hath an unclean spirit so them blaspheming the Holy Ghost was when they said that Jesus was possessed with an unclean spirit okay so a lot of people have wondered is that something that it's even possible for a person to do today because obviously Jesus is not walking among us performing miracles you know can this sin exactly be committed in 2014 and you know that's kind of a question mark right there but we do know this there are definitely people today as there have always been who cross a line with God where there is no more forgiveness for that person now a lot of people resist this doctrine and they say nope it's never too late for anybody but honestly that's just not what the Bible teaches even though that sounds good hey until they're dying right there's always hope and they can always be safe but it's just simply not true first of all we know that when a person dies without the Lord Jesus Christ it's too late for them there's no second chance after death so that's why I find it hard to understand why people struggle with this because it's never too late for anybody but wait a minute when a person dies without Christ it's too late for them so at some point it's too late for every unsaved person okay but they say yeah but that's after they're dead you know until they're dead they always have a chance well these people didn't have a chance because the Bible said that they had blasphemed the Holy Ghost and that they would never have forgiveness for that now look at John chapter 12 and this should shed a little bit of light on it and this kind of ties in with what we saw in Mark chapter 3 it says in verse 37 but though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him so in John 12 37 we see the same thing we saw in Mark 3 where they watch him right in their presence heal a man with the withered hand and they still don't believe in him they saw Lazarus raised from the dead in chapter 11 of John they still don't believe in him and it says in John 12 37 but though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake Lord who have believed our report and whom at the arm of the Lord been revealed watch this therefore and I want you to pay special attention to these words they could not believe therefore they could not believe because that as I said again he had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should heal them now right there the Bible is clear that they could not believe because God had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart now where a lot of people get false doctrine from this is that they say that God just chooses certain people and just blinds them not because of anything that they've done but he just blinds some people and he just damns people and he and he saves other people just arbitrarily according to his will and this doctrine is called Calvinism or sometimes you'll hear it called predestination which is a misnomer but that's what you'll often hear it called now this is not what the Bible teaches because if we go to some biblical examples for example we see the story of Pharaoh and in the story with Pharaoh the Bible is really clear when it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart you know Moses stood before him preached the word of God unto him and it says Pharaoh hardened his heart but then later on in the story it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart but what you have to understand is that God did not start out by hardening Pharaoh's heart first Pharaoh hardened his own heart and then as a result of Pharaoh hardening his own heart later God hardened his heart okay but the false doctrine is where you just say well God just hardened Pharaoh's heart and he never had a chance he never had a choice he never could have been saved that's a lie because the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ tasted death for every man that Jesus Christ is the savior of all men especially of those that believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world and so it's a lie to teach that he only died for certain people that's what Calvinism teaches and to say that it's foreordained by God and that there's nothing any person can do to choose their own destiny that is a lie but on the flip side there are people who get to a point through their own decision through the choices of their own mind where they get to a point where they harden their heart where they reject the truth they reject the Lord Jesus Christ to the point where God gives them over to a reprobate mind and then he blinds their eyes then he hardens their heart and so forth flip over to Romans 1 but while you're turning to Romans 1 another passage that deals with this is in Romans chapter 11 you're turning to Romans 1 I'll read for you from Romans chapter 11 verse 7 where it says what then Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded according as it is written watch this God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day and David saith let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always so here again another scripture talking about God darkening their heart blinding their eyes and so forth Romans 1 is probably the clearest passage on this even though there are a lot of scriptures that teach this Romans 1 is the clearest it says in verse 21 because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened now first of all I want you to know that when it says when they knew God it's not saying that they were saved it's just saying that they knew God okay for example let's say after my wife and I had met if someone asked her do you know Stephen and this let's say before we were married you know we had just met and known each other but we were not married if someone said to her do you know Stephen Anderson she would say yes but that doesn't mean that she's attached to me that doesn't mean that we're married okay that doesn't mean that there's any bond or commitment between us now it's the same thing a lot of people know God or know Jesus in the sense of that they know who he is they're familiar with him it doesn't mean that they're saved it doesn't mean that they have their faith and trust in Jesus it doesn't mean that he is their father and they're his child because a lot of people they know who Jesus is they know about Jesus but they've not trusted Jesus as their savior they've not asked Jesus Christ to save them or called upon the name of the Lord just like you might know people it doesn't mean that you trust them or believe I mean do you know anybody that you don't trust that you don't believe in of course so the Bible says they knew God so it's not like these people had no exposure to who God is they knew God and when they knew God they glorified him not as God so who's taking the action there who's the one making the choice there they are they knew God and they glorified him not as God that was their first mistake then it says they became vain in their own imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to into an image made like to corruptible man into birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things so we see them making all the wrong choices them rejecting the true God them believing in false gods and and doing all these things what's the result of their rejection of the Lord it says wherefore God also gave them up now just think about that phrase for a minute let that sink in God gave them up now a lot of people say well God won't give anybody up well what does the Bible say it says God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever amen now these are three key words for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections does it say God just chose some people to give up to vile affections for no reason or it was just according to the mysteries of his will he just made that choice before the world began and had nothing to do with the merits of the people involved no it says for this cause because of what they did because of their rejection of the Lord he gave them up unto vile affections vile means disgusting if something is vile it means it's gross and the Bible says he gave them up unto vile affections for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving themselves that recompense of their error which was made look at this nice synopsis in verse 28 and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient now that phrase three times is used God gave them up God gave them up God gave them over why did he give them over because of their choice when they knew God to not glorify him as God and the Bible makes it clear in verse 28 that they did not even want to retain God in their knowledge basically they wish that they could even just forget that there is a God just push God out of their mind completely that's why these people are described in verse 30 as haters of God do you see that backbiters haters of God they hate God that's why they just want to push God out of their mind they don't even want to retain God in their knowledge they want to worship a false God and the Bible tells us that they become perverted as a result they go into vile affections men with men women with women don't be deceived my friend it's not a coincidence that we see this huge rise in America today of all the sodomy the homosexuality the perversion the queers the sodomites the lesbians the faggots whatever you want to call them nothing offends me but let me tell you this there's a reason why because as a nation as we reject the Lord and as the school system teaches people to worship the creature more than the creator and when the school system teaches them to to worship animals and to worship human beings and to reject the Lord God and when we see a hatred for God amongst the people of America today it shouldn't surprise you that there's also a rise of perversion at the same time in our nation now the reason that I point out this scripture to you and I could show you a lot more scriptures and in fact I do want to show you one other scripture in Matthew chapter 13 there are a lot of places we could turn and it's really a whole sermon in of itself but I know that people have a lot of questions about this subject of being reprobate or being a person who's beyond forgiveness you know beyond salvation it's a subject that people are interested in hearing about and they have questions about and so I want to deal with it a little bit here but I want to show you one more scripture here just to just to prove the consistency of this subject in the Bible it says in Matthew chapter 13 in verse 14 it says and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which saith by hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive for this people's heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing these statements are very similar to what we've seen elsewhere but look at the next statement and their eyes they have closed so who's the one closing their eyes they close their eyes they have closed their eyes and the Bible says let's at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted and I should heal them so we see that they closed their eyes they rejected the truth when it was presented them eventually God hardens their heart you say why would God do that why would God harden anybody's heart why would God darken their eyes and blind them so that they cannot see well think about this why did God harden Pharaoh's heart because at first he hardened his own heart but God hardened his heart why because any sane person would have just let the children of Israel go after a couple of those plagues I mean any person with a brain in their head and I'm sure Pharaoh was a very intelligent man would have just seen the plagues and the destruction and just realize this isn't worth it let these people go get these people out of here but God wanted to destroy Pharaoh and God wanted to punish Pharaoh and his armies God wanted to be glorified by demolishing Egypt and the armies and the king and he wanted to bring his judgment it reminds me also of first Samuel I believe it's chapter three where we have the sons of Eli and the two sons of Eli Eli takes them aside and tries to correct them because they were fornicators they were gluttons they were wicked men they were sons of Belial the Bible says which you know again they're reprobate and and Eli tries to talk to them and warn them and rebuke them and the Bible says that they would not hark into the voice of Eli because the Lord would destroy them okay so God gets to a point with people that are unsaved and they keep rejecting the truth he gets a point with them where he's fed up with them and he wants to destroy them now obviously we know God's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance but when a person crosses a certain line you know God gets fed up with them and he decides you're done game over you're done now for some people that's death he'll bring death but other times they'll still live but he'll harden their heart remember Nabal his heart became as a stone and we see here in the story with Pharaoh that God did not want Pharaoh to let the people go on the sixth plague or the seventh plague he didn't want to let him off that easy and any normal person would have let it go at that point all of his advisors are coming to him and saying what are you doing don't you know Pharaoh that all of Egypt is destroyed what are you doing but yet he just stupidly and and just the point of ridiculousness holds out until the tenth plague is done and then even after he lets them go he gets all the army together and goes and chases after him why because God wanted to drown them all in the red sea and so that's what happened so God gets to a point where he decides that a person is just marked for judgment it's too late for them you know they've rejected the truth too many times they're too wicked and God decides to turn them over to a reprobate mind he'll darken their heart he'll blind their eyes and he'll destroy them but don't let people twist these verses to you that God's just doing that to people at random or they just pick certain people to do that that's not true it's our actions that determine our destiny and it's our faith in Jesus Christ that determines our salvation or our damnation the Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life that's a choice that the individual makes God said I've said before you this day life and death blessing her he said choose life you know we have that free will to choose salvation or rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and people get to a point though where they've made the wrong choice too many times and they cross that line you say well wait a minute pastor how can a person know if they've crossed that line well I think some of the keys that we saw in the scriptures that we just looked at was first of all in John chapter 12 it said they could not believe because a lot of people are saying you know are you saying that if one of these people believes on Christ they won't be saved no because anyone who believes on Christ will be saved anyone who believes on Jesus Christ shall be saved but remember John 12 said they could not believe so it's not that he won't save them if they'll call upon him it's that they can't believe they're past the point where they can believe not only that but it says they could not believe but it also says that they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge and that they were haters of God so some people have come to me concerned and said you know man I'm afraid you know I at one time I said this really blasphemous thing and I'm afraid that I might blaspheme the Holy Ghost or you know I'm afraid I might across the line in this other area or whatever you know I'm just afraid that I could be reprobate and I always just show that person these scriptures and say wait a minute do you believe on Jesus then you're saved because those that are not saved they don't believe in Jesus and and then I always ask them this too you know do you do you not want to retain God in in your knowledge they say you know no I love God I love the Bible then that's proof that you're not reprobate because the reprobate doesn't want to retain God in his knowledge he doesn't want anything to do with guy he doesn't believe in Jesus you know people like you know when you see a guy like Judas Iscariot for example you know you in him but you'll notice that Judas throughout Jesus ministry there are times when Judas will get angry and and hateful toward Jesus in his heart you know he'll see something that Jesus does or that some of the disciples where they put the ointment on his head and Jesus defends it and Judas gets angry and and hateful and everything like that and he was also possessed with with the devil also but it's pretty clear when you read the scripture that those who are reprobate those who've been blinded you know they don't love the Lord I mean they hate the Lord in their heart they they they can't believe they're haters of God and so on and so forth you say what causes a person to cross that line well biblically you know blaspheming the Holy Ghost and we saw what that was that was where they said that Jesus had an unclean spirit another thing that can drag a person across this line is according to revelation 22 anyone that adds to God's word or removes from God's word because the Bible says if you take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God will take away your part out of the book of life and out of the Holy city some people will try and basically they have no chance to be saved in the future someone who would add to the scripture or take away from the scripture loses the opportunity to be saved just like the person who blasphemes the Holy Ghost loses the opportunity to be safe another example of this is in revelation if a person receives the mark of the beast you know if they're living in that end time where the mark of the beast is given in the in the forehead or in the right head it says if anybody receives that mark they're going to be damned they're going to the lake of fire so that's another way that people can just seal their fate and become a reprobate and and become uh beyond salvation blaspheming the Holy Ghost receiving the mark of the beast um uh what was the other one that I mentioned I see the Holy Ghost receive the mark of the beast and tampering with God's work and then also I believe that if you study scripture people who just keep rejecting Christ keep rejecting Christ just keep hardening their heart closing their eyes to the truth you know there comes a time where they crossed that line now we don't we're not going to know when other people cross we know and we know we're saved because the Bible says these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the son of God we know that we're saved because we believed in Jesus as our savior that's how we know we're safe and the Bible says the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God so we know we're saved and when it comes to unsaved people we don't always know if they're reprobate or not now let me say this the vast majority of people are of course not reprobate the vast majority of unsaved people have the potential to become saved and that's why we should go out and give them to do those things that are not convenient the word convenient there means to come naturally you know to to be turned over to things that wouldn't come naturally you know we're all tempted to sin aren't we every day we have to fight the flesh don't we and we're tempted to sin but you know what that's not a sin that tempts normal people it's not even on their radar i you are attracted to women period now look is there a temptation to lust after women yes is there a temptation to commit fornication or adultery as a man yes there is but there's no temptation toward other men it's in fact it's repulsive it's something that you which just yeah get it away for me and you know i'm sick and tired of a of a a christianity that panders to the down handling this issue with kid gloves they're filthy they're vile they're perverted they're disgusting the bible said they shall be put to death i mean that's what the bible teaches they're they're vile he said that they're going after strange flesh and he said that they are filthy in second peter chapter two and i'm not gonna sit here and try to please everybody and i was told in bible college they said this well you gotta be careful though because everybody has a relative that is one now and they said if you get up and thunder forth toward homosexuality you're gonna offend the people because everybody has a relative that is i don't care if it's your siamese twin okay it's filthy it's disgusting okay i don't care if that offends you it's the truth it's bible and you're not gonna hear this anywhere else somebody's got to get up and preach the bible to you you're not gonna see it on tv you're not gonna hear it on the radio you're not gonna get it in school where are you gonna get it if you're not gonna get it in church but today christians think oh if we just go soft on the world they'll accept our message yeah how's and you know the preacher puts on a pair of blue jeans with a bunch of holes in it greases his hair back puts on a necklace you know take off the tie loosen up some buttons you know and he's just cool and he just tells you listen bro it's not a religion get this stupid tie off i need to get free of this legalism bro need to get free bro because let me tell you something it's a relationship it's all about it's not about a religion it's about a relationship with the with the lord you know but you know what let me tell you something they've been trying that for the last 50 years and you know what it is caused just a generation of young people that live like the devil that's all it cause when you get rid of the hard preaching whatever you tolerate in the church is going to be there when you sit there and go soft on sin and you don't preach hard anymore then you know what happens everybody just goes out and just commits all the sin because they're not being worn look what kept me on the right path as a teenager hard preaching i'll tell you what i didn't fornicate as a teenager for one reason and one reason alone because i was scared to death of the wrath of god and i'm not talking about going hell i mean i knew i was saved i knew i was going to heaven i knew that had nothing to do with works and i knew that i could never lose my salvation but let me tell you something i was scared of god punishing me and chastening me because the the bible talks about him scourging his sons that are disobedient and i didn't want to ruin my life and i knew that god would come down hard on me and you know what put that idea into my head leather long fire breathing independent fundamental baptist preaching is what did it i didn't get it at the liberal new evangelical niv preaching rock and roll church where there's no soul winning nobody's getting baptized and it's all just a fun center and a playhouse we need hard preaching today and we need to take a stand you don't get anywhere by pandering to these people look they're haters of god but you think oh if we just be nice to them then you know just be nice to them then they're gonna they're gonna you know feel the love of christ it's not happening no we need to stand up against them because they're taking over america they're not reproducers they're recruiters and let me tell you something the schools have been taken over the government has been taken over and hollywood you know i don't know if it's really been taken over if it was always a den of iniquity but i'm telling you we need to stand up and cry loud and spare not because the majority of people in this country agree with what i'm saying right now if i say that homosexuality is perversion and therefore they just take over everything and it's just all filth and perversion everywhere we turn it's it's disgusting it's reprobate but that's now what the sermon's about let's go to mark chapter three and let's finish this thing all right it's easy to get off on that i just get tired of it you you know i mean this this new evangelical movement of the last 50 years it's been no they don't you know who's reaching the most people for christ in phoenix arizona faithful word baptist church i mean if you want to know who's getting the most people saved okay i'm not saying we have the biggest attendance i'm saying who's going out and opening the bible and giving the gospel to more people in a given week or in a given month or in a given year in phoenix arizona it's faithful word baptist church and why we're not soft we're not compromising okay the real answer is not to compromise it's to go out and knock doors like we have scores of people doing and to bring the gospel and to bring the truth and to bring the word of god and this this new evangelical movement you know that's who we go around and give the gospel to all day and get them saved because they're not saved most of them i mean we knock on the doors of people all the time they go to these big community fun center you know mega churches and and the vast majority of them when you ask them if they know for sure if they die today they go to heaven say oh i hope so i'm a good person that's not the gospel i hope so because i'm living a pretty good life or well i think so can you you know oh yeah i i believe in jesus oh but can you lose yourself oh of course you can lose your salvation if you don't live right they don't know the gospel salvation is eternal it's through faith alone by grace alone not not of works the same answer both but we go around getting all their church members saved all the time because they don't get their church members saved because they don't teach any doctrine they're too busy pandering to a bunch of faggots and weirdos and they're too busy softening up and watering down the message and they're too busy trying to create a fun atmosphere for the youth and every you know and and they're too busy running their little coffee shop and their little look we need the word of god to be preached that's all we need but anyway let's get to mark chapter three jesus was grieved with the hardness of their hearts and we talked about why their hearts were hardened we saw a little bit later in the chapter that they blasphemed the holy ghost right that's why they had such a hard heart what does it mean to have lost i mean if you love people and you want them to go to heaven you're going to get out there and knock the doors and and preach the gospel you're going to open your bible to your co i mean if you really love your co workers and family and friends you're going to open your your bible and show them how to be saved that's the most loving thing that you could do bring them the good news the gospels good news today that jesus paid it all and that salvations by faith alone that's what it means to have compassion on the laws we don't have the healing powers of jesus and the apostles to be able to you know go find every person who has a withered hand and heal them it'd be a blessing if we could but we don't but let me tell you this we have the power of the gospel and we can get people saved and actually someone being saved is actually greater than their hand being healed it's even more important and so we need to have compassion and not be hard hearted callous where we see the suffering of people around us and and we don't care now this could apply to salvation we see the lost we don't care but also just people's physical suffering a lot of people have become very callous today maybe part of it's due to movies video games where violence doesn't bother them anymore and they become very callous to human suffering like for example people who cheer on warfare right and they they cheer on basically just bombing civilians they cheer on and i'm not saying that's what's going on this week because i i honestly don't even know what's going on this isn't somebody being bombed this week i don't know who's being bombed i haven't been i i you know i've been paying attention to this kind of stuff right here but you know i haven't really been paying attention to the news i know someone's being bombed i don't know who it is but i know that historically we bombed a lot of civilians you know and honestly i don't believe in it and i never will in the bible it's clear that warfare is to be fought between men on a battlefield and that just bombing innocent civilians is not right you call it whatever you want call it a little collateral damage no when you're bombing and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians that's not excusable it's just not right you say well we had to do it no you don't you don't have to do anything if you do what's right god will bless you if you do that which is wrong god will curse you so you can't say well we're just so scared for our safety we're just so scared over here that we're gonna we're gonna kill some women and children just to make sure we're safe no safety's of the lord the horse is prepared against the day of battle but safety is of the lord you know i'm not going to go into a big long history lesson but there are times when we basically have slaughtered civilians and i'm not saying we're the only ones who've done it i mean it's just it's something that all nations are doing now it's it's something that that has just become the warfare of the 20th and 21st century just to slaughter civilians and they say well you know it's just a new kind of warfare well it's a sinful kind of warfare it's a kind of warfare that we shouldn't have anything to do it you know for example and and this might offend people but it doesn't matter it's the truth you know dropping nuclear bombs on hirashima and nagasaki and just wiping out children women pregnant women men you know just innocent people was wrong you know not only that but the bombing of dresden germany in 1945 was wrong when they fire bomb dresden and killed like a hundred and some thousand innocent people in a city where there were no military installations no armaments were being produced there it had no strategic significance at all it was just let's just burn an entire city to the ground and kill every man woman boy and girl just to scare our enemies in february of 1945 when we're already winning you know it isn't right okay and regardless of your political views that's not the point the point is it's not right to kill innocent people but a lot of times people are just so callous and so hard-hearted that children innocent civilians being killed and they just don't care damn yeah i mean i've i've heard some people just talk about we should just nuke iran just nuke it just nuke it off the map what are you talking about what kind of a sick teaching is that to just say oh yeah just nuke it off the map just destroy and then i've heard some people justify it by saying well you know it's their fault because they you know they elected that government or whatever so it's their fault nuke them all wipe them all out or well they're muslim well first of all number one they're not all muslim there are christians over there as well or people that are just non- religious but even if they are muslim that doesn't mean that they can't be saved i've won some muslims to the lord on sole winning you know i hope to win more muslims to the lord you know just because somebody is another religion whether that be jewish muslim catholic buddhist it doesn't mean that we shouldn't love them and give them gospel not just wipe them out just kill them all and let god sort them out wrong we should not have this attitude but i've heard christians talk that way they just say hey just just nuke iran just just just bomb them just bomb iran just bomb them into the stone age and these type of things but what about all the innocent people over there and you know what uh they elected though okay well hold on a second do you want to be responsible for everything our government does i mean what if our government goes out and does all this wicked stuff and then somebody says well you deserve to be bombed because you elected those people i didn't know i don't even vote so how did i elect them yeah but you let it happen do i really have the potential me personally to stop what's going on in our country of 350 million people i'm just going to turn this government around single-handedly folks stephen anderson for president it's just not it's not happening it's actually stephen anderson for dictator president's not i need i need all the power all right in order to fix things all right it's only temporary but i'm just saying you know you can't sit there and just hard-hearted and just cheer and and christians today listen to me now christians have become the biggest cheerleaders for war and it's not a new testament teaching and they'll try to take you they don't rightly divide the word of truth they'll try to take you to an old testament passage where israel was told to wipe out a specific group of people and say see that's like what we're doing over there no you're not israel and you're not wiping out the hitites okay you need to welcome to the new testament blessed are the peacemakers okay and we should be for peace and look i'm all for self-defense i'm not a pacifist if someone comes to my house i will not even think twice about putting so many holes in them with my shotgun that there's going to be more hole than person when i'm done okay i've got my shotgun loaded to the hill with buckshot i got a few slugs on the on the side of the stock just in case you know for a strategic reload i've got extra buckshot right there i'm ready and i wouldn't even think about it if somebody comes in to hurt my family if somebody comes in and my family's in danger i'm gonna blow them away okay and it's and but but i'm not a pacifist and look if someone's actually invading our country and i'm not talking about some island that we control thousands of miles away that's you know that's our soil i'm talking about if somebody actually invades our country then we should defend it i'm all for fighting a defensive war but that's not what's going on that had that hadn't happened in a in a long time when was the last time that happened 1812 or something you know i don't know i'm sure it's happened since then when do you think it happened did they really in world war ii in california okay well there you go but we were of course we were already fighting them at that point right yeah but anyway so you know there's nothing wrong with fighting a defensive war or defending your house but you know what if i think about this what if i came out of my house with my shotgun and said you know there are a lot of people in this neighborhood that are a threat you know i mean i mean these people i mean look at them first of all they're armed they're criminals they've said threatening things to me you know and i'm just going to go ahead and just i'm just going to proactively go take them out but in fact that would make more sense because that's actually in my neighborhood but what if i said in fact i've heard about a really bad criminal elephant in los angeles california and i'm afraid that they might one day travel to phoenix and invade my home so i'm going to get some you know get a coalition together we're going to go to la we're going to hunt and kill every derelict gang member in east la you know just and either you're with us or you're with them you know let's go kill them for let's kill kill or be killed kill them before they get to us it's stupid friend but you know what you've got your head so far in christ or in conservative talk radio that's where you're getting these weird ideas from we gotta fight these people we gotta defend them you know we are no we don't we need to defend ourselves and not go get involved in warfare on the other side of the world say oh but they they killed americans who were over there messing with them they didn't come here and kill americans okay so this idea of oh yeah we gotta go bomb them because look i'm against it and i'm deaf and and any war that we fight should be a defensive war and we should fight against soldiers and troops and and and uh you know we could fight against the supply lines we should not be just bombing women and children and just killing civilians it isn't right okay and you say well but they're using them as human cover well you know what so what maybe the lord would just bless us if we do what's right but you know what our country doesn't do what's right in so many areas they know that god's not going to bless them anyway that's why they just do whatever when it comes to the battlefield and i just have to bring that up just because of how hard-hearted people are where they're where they cheer for war you know even if there was a war that actually needs to be fought it should grieve us when people die whether the people are on our side or the other side when young soldiers and innocent men women and children die it should grieve us we should have sympathy and sorrow and not just be so callous because we've been playing some video game where we blow people apart all day that it just means nothing to us anymore and you know what that this kind of preaching offends people and steps on people's toes but you need to hear it though because there's a lot of just propaganda out there to try to get you all fired up to go to war and to go kill everybody and go fight everybody and we need to as christians stop and let the bible be our guide and think about this and have some more compassion on people but anyway let me let me blast through the rest of this chapter the things i haven't covered yet of course we have the story about jesus christ it says in verse seven but jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea and a great multitude from galley followed him and from judaea and from jerusalem and from idumea and from beyond jordan and they about tyre and zion a great multitude when they had heard what great things he did came unto him and he spake unto his disciples that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude lest they should throng him so again we just have huge crowds following jesus it says for he had healed many and so much that they pressed upon him for to touch him as many as had plagues and unclean spirits when they saw him fell down before him and cried saying thou art the son of god and he straightly charged them that they should not make him known and of course this is kind of a mystery but jesus just didn't want people to know at this point yet that he was the son of god or that he was the messiah or that he was the christ because if you remember there were all times throughout where you know people say thou art the christ the son of living god and he charges them not to make it known yet because his time was not yet come his hour was not yet come he had a certain purpose for how he wanted his ministry to play out and at what point he would be arrested and he didn't want things to happen prematurely he also didn't want the people to take him by force and make him a king because a lot of the jews at that time were expecting the messiah to be one who would come and bring political deliverance that would be a warrior that would fight against rome and free them from roman oppression and and build a great kingdom of israel like it was in the days of david and solomon and so they were afraid jesus was afraid many times that they would take him and make him a king by force and he was constantly trying to escape from that so i think that's why he he told them not to make him known of course the devils knew who he was they're saying you're the son of god because you know of course the devils believe and they fear and tremble the bible says but the bible talks about after that in verse 13 he goeth up into a mountain calleth unto him whom he would and they came unto him and he ordained 12 that they should be with them and that he might send them forth to preach and have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils so these are the apostles they're given special power to perform miracles to heal sicknesses and they're also commissioned to preach the gospel he lists the names of the apostles we already read them earlier then it says in verse 20 and the multitude cometh together again so that they could not so much as eat bread and when his friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him for they said he's beside himself now what does it mean to be beside yourself so you know crazy yeah when you're beside yourself means you're crazy so what happened was jesus fame went into all countries of how he's doing all this healing so every sick person in the whole region is trying to get there to be healed by jesus and they're thronging him and he can't even get a break even to eat a meal and he just keeps healing he just keeps preaching so jesus is really pushing himself to the limit of how much preaching he can do how much healing he can do and his friends are going to basically do an intervention here you know they want to take hold on him and get him out of there and they said he's nuts he's beside himself they they just can't believe that he's just going to keep preaching keep healing you know they're like he needs a break he needs to have something to eat just shows the intensity of jesus ministry just how hard he was working and and just how much he really pushed himself to do the most that he could while he was on this earth and then of course we have the part about the the blasphemy of the holy ghost which we already talked about but let me just focus in on verse 27 in jesus parable about satan not being able to cast out satan he says in verse 27 no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he will first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house so that's a great parable saying that if somebody wants to come in and rob a strong man's house the first thing they have to do is bind the strong man then they'll spoil his house okay because if the strong man is unfettered he's going to defend his property he's going to kill him he's going to hurt him he's going to fight them up but if you think about this in the day that we live in today's world of course we have homes that are led by men the father the husband the head of household and if you think about it the devil wants to attack the family he wants to destroy the family he doesn't want to spoil the physical house of physical goods the devil doesn't care about material possessions or money or wealth he wants people remember genesis 14 when when the king of sodom who represents satan came to abraham and said abraham you take all the goods for yourself give me the persons and that's what the devil wants he wants your soul he wants the souls of your children he wants the souls of mankind he's not interested in material wealth and so the devil wants to spoil our houses not our physical house of of you know a building of wood and plaster but actually our homes he wants to destroy our homes he wants to get in and destroy the home and in order for the devil to spoil our houses he has to first bind the strong man you see the husband or the father of the home should be the strongest leader in that home and should be the first line of defense in that home you know in the middle of the night if something happens dad should be there to protect dad you know i'm a very deep sleeper so my wife will probably have already killed everybody by the time i wake up but honestly you know she won't even you know think she won't even bother waking me up she'll just tell me about it the next morning but i'm just kidding but anyway if you think about it you know it's it's the man of the house that you know when there's a noise outside you know that goes and investigates you know he's the one that's the greatest threat to the enemy he's the strongest force in that house the strongest defense the bulwark against the enemy and in order for the devil to destroy families he has to bind the strong man first you know the husband or the father has to be taken out of the equation first of all and that's why there's an attack on men in the home today by what does it mean to bind the strong man what does it mean to be bound tied up right tied up basically tying the hands of fathers and husbands today tying their hands what do you mean tying their hands making them incapable to rule their house so that he can come in and make the rules and what i'm talking about today is that you know the world that we live in would love to make it illegal to spank your children and not only just would they love to make it illegal to spank your children and by the way you have to discipline your children or they're going to be monsters you say how do you handle eight children you know when i go out in public with my eight children people are like i can't even handle the one that i have or i can't even handle the two that i have how do you deal with eight but here's the thing if you actually deal with them if you actually teach them and train them and raise them and spend time with them and discipline them it's manageable but the way some people deal with their kids no wonder they only have one no wonder they only have two there's no way they could have more than that they would outnumber them and lynch their own parents you know so that's why they only have one or two just something that they can contain because they don't train the children but men's hands are tied today but not even just tied in that way but also just spiritually and just mentally men's hands are being tied where men are being told hey you can't lead you can't you can't tell your wife what to do you know she's her own woman and feminism and i'm woman hear me roar and all this stuff of you know uh equal equality and and look men and women are equal of value in the sight of god but let me tell you something there's there's not equal authority there's not equal roles men and women have different roles and the bible says that the husband's the head of the wife the wives that obey their husbands but today men's hands are being tied and they're saying you can't rule you can't lead you know and and then they say oh you know you have to let your children do whatever they want let you have to let i mean i heard about some guy getting in trouble because he wouldn't let his daughter go to the prom