(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Yes, it's going in our hearts and give us all ears to hear, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right. Amen. Psalm chapter number 12. Look down at verse number 1. Psalm chapter 12, verse number 1. The Bible says, Now, typically when we're in Psalm chapter 12, we use verses 6 and 7 and pretty much just talk about Bible preservation. But it's not too often we get a chance to come back and actually take a look at the context surrounding those great verses. And we're actually going to do that this morning. So you can see in verse number 1 that David's song, David's prayer, the message that David wants to get out is that the godly man has ceased from the children of men and the faithful fail. We're going to take a look at why that is. And the title of the sermon this morning is The Mandemic. The Mandemic. Kind of like a plandemic or a pandemic, right? You all know what a pandemic is. It's a large scale spread of infectious disease. And we actually have that in regards to manhood in our day and age today and be in today's Father's Day. I figured this would definitely be a good topic to get into. So obviously another thing I should bring up is we'll resume our series next weekend because it is still Remember the Flood Month. So we're going to take a look at why or we're going to take a look at how these people fail. How is it that the faithful fail? What does it look like and what we can do about that? Because this is obviously the day and age in which we live. So again, the title of the sermon is The Mandemic. Now, I'm going to start off here with a quick story. There's probably one of the worst things I have ever heard a beta male say. Unfortunately, and I'm not saying this to be rude or because I'm angry because I just don't care anymore. But it actually came from somebody who used to go to this church. The worst thing I have ever heard, and this is in my entire life, the worst thing I've ever heard a male say. Let's back up here for a second. We had a guy who used to come to this church, married, has a small child, wound up getting influenced to leave by his father. Made up a bunch of lies about me. I've told the story before. This individual, his father, would go on later to send me a text message. I never got it. I don't know what happened. Never got it. Don't care. Not going to read it. I'm only interested in face-to-face at this point. But it got back to me that this male who's married with a young child had said, Well, Pastor Jones is guilty. You know, Jim Jones is guilty. You know why I'm guilty? Because I wouldn't respond to his father is what he said. He said he wouldn't respond to my dad and he's the head of my household. He's the head of our family. Let that sink in. Think about that. I have been around thousands and thousands and thousands of people in my life. Through the military, working for the government, just working jobs, being in church. I've met a lot of people that are weak. I've met a lot of beta male types. I've met a lot of reprobates, unfortunately. I have never, listen to me, I have never heard a statement like that. And the question that I have is how in the world did it come from this church? And this idiot here, he goes on to make fake YouTube accounts and he's on our channel making stupid comments. He went on one of our sermons and said, he doesn't think I know it's him, but he's like, that pulpit just breeds weakness and effeminacy. And what's hypocritical about that is that this individual, when I took his sermons off our channel, went and put them on his own personal channel. Think about that for a second. Just think about that for a second. That came from this church. That came from somebody who used to walk in these doors week after week. How does that happen? How do you miss the very first page of the Bible? How do you miss the most basic doctrine that God created them male and female and that when two come together in marriage that they leave and cleave? How do you miss that? How do you not understand that? How do you come here for four years and not get that? Can somebody please explain that to me? And that's what we're going to take a look at this morning. Look, I'm telling you right now, we have a huge problem, not only in Christian churches, but in this world with godly men ceasing and the faithful failing. And it needs to be addressed. And so that's what we're going to do. Look down at verse number two. And what I want you to see here is I want you to, when we read this verse here, I want you to notice the culture because David's complaint here, David's diagnosis is there's no godly men and the faithful that remain have failed. They have failed from among the children of men. Why is that? What is going on? Look at verse two. It says they. Okay? So those that are left, they speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. Keep your place right there in Psalm chapter 12, but go to Job. So go to the book of Job and go to Job chapter number 17. Job chapter number 17. So what I want you to do in, as you're turning to Job, is I just want you to kind of think about that. Okay? So David says the godly man ceases. It just appears there's no one who's godly anymore, no one who wants to hold the godly standards, and the faithful fail. Now part of what that means is that the faithful have failed to even be present. They're not even there. Okay? But another way that I like to look at that, because it's what we see today, is that the people that have the ability to be faithful are failing in that. Meaning they're not getting something right. There's something that they have failed to do which caused the godly man to cease, and thus the culture becomes what you see in verse two. Vanity, and that is what is basically the subject, that is what is important, that is what culture is like. Okay? You say, well what's vanity? It's excessive pride in oneself. That's what vanity is. So notice the connection here. The godly man ceases, the faithful fail, what's the result? Vanity or excessive pride in oneself takes over. That is the byproduct, that is what happens. And what does that lead to? That leads to flattering. Okay? They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor. Think about this, David writing these things under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It's written in this format, in this specific way to teach us something. Okay? Lack of godly people, you have the faithful failing, what takes over? Vanity, pride. Okay? Go look out the window there. That is what you see. Pride takes over. Okay? Excessive pride in oneself. And then what happens next? You see flattering. Now why is that? Because people whose heart is given over to vanity or excessive pride in oneself, they have to flatter one another in order to keep that flame going, in order to keep that drive and that subject matter alive. Okay? You all know what flattering is. It's excessive and insincere praise. It's the person that says, hi how are you doing? And they have that certain smile and they kind of look at the ground and then they look back. Or they come up to you, you're the best person in the world. Like you're the best dad, you're the best mom, you're the best preacher, you know, all this kind of stuff. Now we got to be careful with this though, because there are some people that are just downright grateful, you know, for you, they're grateful for me, they're grateful for our church and I get that and I understand that. Okay? But flattery is over the top praise. It's like when you start to feel like, no, I'm not that good. You know, you're like, something's wrong here. Okay? That is flattery and the Bible says that that will lead to destruction. Okay? That is what that says. And the last part of verse two that we read there, after the flattering lips, it says, and with a double heart, do they speak? What's that? Well, they become two-sided. They become double-hearted. They become literally perverse in their heart. They'll say, oh, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. But then maybe they change their mind. They'll turn on you on a dime. There's no loyalty. Right. That's the, that's the thing. There's no loyalty anymore. Okay? You're in Job chapter 17. We're going to look at one verse here. Okay? This is Job speaking here and look at verse number five. He makes this statement here and he says, he that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail. That's very interesting. Being today's father's day, the title of the sermon is the Mandemic. I want to help us all out here. You know, whether you're a father or whether you're not, whether you're a woman, whether you're a mom, it doesn't matter. This is going to help everyone. Okay? We need to all understand these things. And one of the things that we see here in Job is about a person that speaks flattery to his friends. A person that's insincere, that's just over the top, but yet not loyal. Okay? It says even the eyes of his children shall fail. Okay? And I want this sermon to help us out. I want our children to, to be aware of this. I want our dads to be aware of this, that if we live life through flatteries, which I've seen a lot of in my life, especially in the early days of this church. Okay? The Bible is clear. The eyes of your children will fail. What does that mean? How can that be? Well, what happens is that while dad is going around, giving people this insincere praise, and by the way, underlying that is because he wants something, kids pick that up. They will learn to look for the wrong things in their relationships as they grow up and get older. So instead of looking for people and having the skills to properly vet women and to properly vet their friends and their circle, what they will do is they will mimic and copy the behavior of their father. And they will follow the same pattern and learn, unfortunately, to try to scoop up as much insincere praise as they can because that temporary motivation is what will basically carry them through this life. And the Bible says that that's wrong. They will fail that way. Okay? You can only live on flatteries for so long. Sooner or later, reality and who you really are is gonna catch up to you. God will expose that. That is what the Bible teaches. Now go to Matthew chapter number six. Matthew chapter number six. So the Bible says here, when you think about this, okay, when you think about what David says, you have this process. So let's just quickly review this process. You go to Matthew six. Speaking vanity leads to flattery. Okay? That's how these people get themselves in a frenzy, get themselves worked up, get themselves to all think they're better than everyone. Okay? Speaking vanity leads to flattery because they need that self-approval. It indicates though something. It indicates the heart. And here's what it does. It proves which thoughts, what types of thoughts that enter into your mind these people tend to hold onto. I've talked about this before in the past. It's been a couple of years. You know, we did a whole series on the mind and the heart and just basically dealing with those types of subjects. All of us. I don't care who you are. All of us have thoughts enter into our mind all day long. Okay? But it's our job, and it's hard, but it's our job to choose and pick, or to pick and choose which ones we're gonna hold onto and which ones we are going to reject. It is hard. It is a battle. But I think once you understand that, you know, it does a couple things for you. First of all, it lets you know, hey, there's nothing wrong with you. You have the flesh. You know, Jesus said, from the heart proceedeth all these different things. You've got adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, just vile things. These thoughts will come into your mind. But it's your job, it's my job to choose to reject those things. Okay? But what happens when we don't? What happens when the thought of more materialistic goods, more worldly success, more vanity keep coming into our mind and we hold onto those things? Well, what happens is then we then choose to speak through the abundance of our heart, right, which leads to vanity, which leads to flattering to continue that cycle and that process. And then what happens is we become a double-hearted person. We become a person who is unreliable, not faithful, not godly. And that is what you see today. And the Bible told you a thousand times. It seems like, you know, in the end times, it's like, guess what? People, men will be lovers of their own selves and that is what we see today. And that is what we need to fight against. Matthew 6, look at verse number 21. Jesus says this. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So the question for us today, especially fathers who the Bible specifically says your kids will model your conversation, okay, that's what it says. Where's your treasure? What is it that you treasure? What is it that you value? If we lose sight of this, if we lose sight of the fact that we are called to be faithful, that we are called to be loyal, we are called to be strong, we are called to stand up for that which is holy. But yet if we allow all of these external things to come into our minds and we hold onto those things, guess what? For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So if we start to treasure those things more than the things of God, then guess what? We're gonna go down that road in Psalm chapter number 12. Go to Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah chapter number 17. I need a new microphone for Father's Day, Kaden. Jeremiah 17, look at verse number nine. Jeremiah 17 verse nine. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? It's a rhetorical question. Nobody can know it. The fact is the heart is deceitful above all things. So the heart that we all have here, the flesh, the old man, is deceitful. We need to understand that. So that's why we need to be in a constant state of audit throughout the day. You know, these thoughts that are coming into our hearts. Do they line up with the word of God? Is there truth to these things? Okay, that's the battle that we live every day and I think it's good that we get reminded of these things from time to time. And unfortunately in today's day and age, we're living in a society where people are just like us. Where people are just, oh, I'm a free thinker. Restraint's not being taught anymore. It's do as thou wilt. Which I'm told is like the first tenant of Satanism. Which seems to be what's going on in most Christian churches today. Right? It's about you and the world that revolves around you and how to get you feeling good all day long, all week long. That's the message of most churches. It's sad, but it's the reality. Go to James, New Testament James, chapter number three. So the pandemic, one of the reasons there's a pandemic and there's many, we could spend weeks on this subject, but we won't, is because the godly man seeth and the faithful fail. You have this pattern prevalent in the world today, vanity, flattery, double heart. That is the cycle. Okay, that is the cycle that is taking place and it's an infectious disease. You know, this is why we get up and preach all things in the Bible. People say, well, you got all these standards and whether you wear a suit to church, Jesus doesn't care what you wear, blah, blah, blah. Really? You don't think God cares about standards? You don't think God cares about holiness? About being separate from the world? Apparently it sounds to me like you don't know God. That's what it sounds like to me. James chapter three, look at verse number six. And this is what we're gonna do about this. The Bible says, and the tongue, kind of like the heart, you know, the heart is deceitful above all things. Look at this about the tongue. And the tongue is a fire. It doesn't say some people's tongues are a fire. It says the tongue is a fire. It's what it is. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell. This is part of that battle between the new man and the old man that I keep bringing up. The question is though, how many people today really focus on this and really understand this? I mean, this is just what it is. Look, today is Father's Day. You've got this freak out here who brought his child this morning. Okay, Kate and I get here, it's like 9.20. He's out there, both fingers waving at us, you know, just saying the most vile things you could think of. And I'm just thinking like, I'm like, whoa, that's a child. Like at first I was like, thinking it's just the normal crew. That's when I was like, I'm just gonna shut up here. But it's like, who does that? Well apparently a lot of people do that. And I'm just looking out there through the window like, wow. You would literally bring a child and subject them to this, the filth and the stuff that these people yell at women and children that are just trying to go to church. Harassment, vanity, I mean it's crazy. But again, that's the world that unfortunately we live in. Jump down to verse number eight. This is, but the tongue can no man tame. Okay, and let me just stop right there. The tongue can no man tame. Wow, we could spend weeks on this. Look, this is why we need grace, this is why we need mercy, this is why we need Matthew chapter 18, this is why we need all the protocols that we have in the Bible. Because any time you hang around people, this tongue that none of us can tame is gonna offend one another at some point. And we just need to realize that. We just need to understand that. But the tongue can no man tame. So when someone tells you, I don't say stuff like that. Oh, you guys, I don't. You know what I've always noticed, and this has always been true, there is something else very, very deep going on, very wicked going on that we just haven't found out about yet, or something of that nature. Okay, when someone tells you that they can tame their tongue, they're lying. There's only one way to tame it. Look at the rest of the verse. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. You know what that's saying without saying it? You're better off being quiet most of the time. The only way you can tame it is to not use it, okay? Now, that doesn't mean that every time we have conversations, the things are bad, but in general, you cannot tame this. I mean, heck, sometimes people are so mad at each other that they do keep their mouths closed, and you can still feel the tension. You can still hear the words coming out of their mouth even though there is no sound, okay? So no matter how you slice it, this is true, but the point is, I think, one good thing for all of us is to listen more than we speak. I think that's a good place to start, but I brought this up to kind of help us out here, okay? Just need to remember, right? Our conversation after church, we talk about all kinds of things, work, different stuff, Bible, but that's one great thing about this church is that you can have a biblical discussion with somebody. You can bring any question to anyone, and no one's gonna get offended. You know, if you're different on prophecy than us, you can come up and say that, and it's like, okay, well, let me show you why I believe that. You know, I've been to churches where that's just not the case. Look, I know churches like ours where people have been going there for 10 years, and they don't believe the reprobate doctrine, but they keep going there because people are kind, and people are like, okay, well, here's why I believe this, and they're like, okay. You know, they don't try to shame them for it, but you could try to go to some of these other old independent fundamental Baptist churches which are quickly becoming new evangelical and try to say, well, you know, I believe it's poster of pre-wrath. They're gonna blacklist you. They're not gonna trust you. It's gonna be a problem, okay? That's just the day and age that we live in. The reason for that is because they have no argument. They have no argument for the truth, which, by the way, is why we are dealing with the mess that we're dealing with today and why vanity is so out of control today. Go to Colossians chapter number four. In Colossians chapter four, we're gonna look at verse six, and this is gonna teach us about balance, okay? Balance with our speech. Look at this here, Colossians four, verse six. Paul says, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye, you see that word, how, how ye ought to answer every man. And because people cannot do that today, by and large, what happens is people get offended. You know, a good way to not get offended is to find out the answers to the hard questions in the Bible if you can. That way, when you get challenged or somebody has a different opinion than you, you can say, well, hey, here's what I believe in, and here's why I believe it. Look, this is what this says. We can have a discussion. If I'm wrong, cool. You taught me something, and we can grow. Isn't that the mindset that we should have? But no, today, oh, I just have to be right all the time. Okay? Seriously, a lot of people are like that. I just have to be right all the time about everything. And if not, I'm gonna make myself right. That's the opposite of this here. That leads to vanity, which will send you into circles of people that have nothing but flattery, which is gonna cause you to be a double-hearted person, a double-minded individual, which, by the way, is gonna hinder your prayer life. So he says, let your speech be always with grace, and that's where the New Evangelical stops. Let your speech be always with grace, and they'll probably quote the NIV or something like that, ESV, but they'll never explain the rest of the verse. Season of the salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man, meaning we should have a ready defense for what we believe and why we believe those things. So go back, if you would, to Psalm chapter number 12. Psalm chapter number 12, the mandemic. There's a mandemic today in the world, and it is very bad. And part of that infectious disease is what people have chose to hold onto in their minds, which affects everything that they do. So let's move on here. Look at verse number four. Actually, let's look at verse three. So he says, so after verse two, okay, they speak vanity, flatteries, double heart, all that stuff. Look at verse three. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh, hey, proud things, okay? What do they out there scream this morning? Happy pride month. No, it's happy AIDS month. Pride goeth before destruction, before a fall, okay? And that's why July is gonna be remember the brimstone. Remember the brimstone month. That's what happens after pride. We need to start this trend and make it stick. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh, proud things. You say, why do you keep reading that? What's so significant about that? That is the heart of God. God hates those things. Therefore as God's children, we need to hate those things. Today's Father's Day. Don't you wanna honor your father? Learn his heart. Learn what he hates and hate those things. Look at verse four. Who have said with our tongue will we prevail? Our lips, our own. Who is Lord over us? Isn't that the attitude of a lot of these popular influencers today? You know, you got this pandemic going on, and you have plenty of business-minded people that are willing to capitalize on that and charge money and put their content on social media and tell you how to be a real man by being a professional fornicator and how to get lots of women and do this and do that. And look, ain't no one gonna tell me what to do. Ain't no one gonna tell me what to do, and it sounds good to the people infected by the pandemic, doesn't it? It sounds good. Wow, here's a guy who's speaking truth, who's saying it like it is. But what you don't see and what they don't tell you is this attitude that God tells us right here, right? This is their heart. With our tongue will we prevail. Our lips, our own. Who is Lord over us? So what that attitude breeds more often than not is a person who just won't listen to any authority except for their idol, who is now their favorite influencer on YouTube. Look at verse five. For the oppression of the poor. So you're starting to see what happens here? The godly man ceases. The faithful fail. You got vanity. You got flattery. You got people with a double heart. Basically, you just got a bunch of people that are selfish running the world. And then the byproduct of that is oppression, the lack of freedom. Why are our freedoms under attack today in the United States of America? You say, well, it's because of the Antichrist. Well, yeah, it's satanic, but by and large it's because people have this attitude, who is gonna lord over me? I say what I want. The byproduct of that is God pulls back his hedge of protection. Here's what happens. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. So God cares for the poor and the needy. Now, you say, does that mean we need to go out and feed people ham sandwiches? No, we need to go out and feed people the gospel. You see, the thing is in this country that most people, not all people, but most people that are standing on the street corners there holding the sign, more often than not, they have more money than you or they're just gonna throw it away on drugs and alcohol. That's just the sad reality. Look at verse six. The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Interesting that that verse there that we use so often to teach people about Bible preservation is coming off the heels of God explaining that he will free the oppressed. And when you really study this out, the oppressed and the needy are the faithful. The oppressed and the needy are really God's children who are being canceled, who are being silenced, who are being stuffed away, whose voices are being taken away in the earth. See, we have a need to get out there and to put our message out there and to be able to assemble peacefully, which is becoming increasingly difficult in today's day and age, isn't it? And God says, I'm gonna rescue you. There's coming a day where judgment will happen. And then he gives us this verse here that the words of the Lord are pure words. Meaning, guess what? You can bank on this judgment. You can bank on the fact that God will help us. He will rescue us. He will save us from all of our enemies. Look at verse seven. Thou shall keep them, O Lord. Thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. See, David had a similar thing that he saw in his day and age. And the words that he wrote down are just as applicable to us today as they were when he was king over the nation of Israel. So let's back up here and move on to the second thing I wanna talk about. Look at verse number one again. So David says, help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. Now here it is again. For the faithful fail from among the children of men. Go to Jude. New Testament, right before Revelation, go to Jude. And let's talk about this while you're turning there. Why do the faithful fail? I've already mentioned it. But again, what is being faithful? Let's start there. Well, it's remaining loyal and steadfast. And in today's day and age, you're seeing a lack of this. I don't think a day goes by where I personally don't hear somebody saying, hey, you know, my company, or I'm having a difficult time keeping people at work, getting people to just stay. You know, and you see that in today's day and age. It's hard for employers to find workers that are loyal or steadfast or just wanna show up even half the time or even show up at all. Why is that? Because there's a lack of loyalty. The New Evangelicals now, I've got a couple different big mega church influencer types that I subscribe to in our church email just to kind of get a feel for what's going on in the New Evangelical world. And one of the things that's very common right now is the lack of people that came back to all their churches after all this coronavirus stuff kind of settled down. And they're scared right now. You know, they're definitely, they're worried about it and they don't know what to do. And you got guys selling courses. Well, here's how you can get, you know, 50 people in your church in a month. And it's like, come on, man. God builds a church, okay. I don't care how crafty you are. If God doesn't want them there, they're not gonna be there, okay. It's just the way it is. But it really boils down to the faithful people that are saved or people that just kind of know there's a problem in the world that, you know, are even somewhat receptive. It really boils down to those people just not fighting correctly. For example, I'm gonna write this, I'm gonna write this blog on our website here probably tonight or tomorrow. But Jesus said, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, okay. That's what he said. Now, if we're gonna be a people that rightly divides the word of truth, what book are you gonna go to to get your definition of a group of people that are called dogs? We're gonna go to Deuteronomy, okay. And you're gonna find out that those people are sodomites. Then you're gonna go to Philippians 3 with us on Sunday evenings. And you're gonna learn that there are people that we are to be aware of. The dogs, the concision, you know. I mean, I don't wanna spoil it, but you get the point here. We're told not to give that which is holy. The word of God is holy. The Bible is holy. Jesus himself, hey, give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Why? Because they're just gonna turn around and rend you. They're gonna turn around and destroy you. And not to be rude, I brought this up, I think, on Wednesday. You know, but somebody wrote a bunch of encouraging messages and chalk out there before we got here, you know, talking to these people that God loves you, this and that. I took pictures of it all. And I'm not mad at this person. You know, I get the way of the world today. But you know what those freaks did? They just turned around and perverted all those statements that this person wrote and just turned them into things. Like, look, I was out there, you know, pressure washing with Kayden. He's almost 20 years old. I'm like, don't look at the ground. That's how bad it was. You know, don't even look at the ground. You know, pressure washing and trying to look at the sky and look down every once in a while and make sure I got it. Okay? It doesn't work. But because that's the prevailing, oh, we could just love him into Christ. No, you can't. And that is our goal. That is our mission, to teach people that you cannot. There's one way to fight this battle today. And it is through preaching every line upon line in this book. Preaching the doctrines that come from the Bible. All of them. The tough, harsh realities. That is the only thing that is going to be effective in the fight to get the pandemic under control. So you're in June. We're gonna get there here in a second. So the second thing we're talking about this morning is why do the faithful fail? And of course, talk about the new evangelicals. They're in a frenzy because they're losing numbers. And to them, when they lose numbers, they lose money. When we lose numbers, we get more money. I don't understand it, but it is what it is. And God just takes care of us. So it's just, you know, amen. Okay? This is how it works. We worry about preaching the word of God and going soul-willing and doing what God called us to do. And he takes care of everything else. Okay? That's how it is. But honestly, it should never be said and looked at on the fundamental community, the people that claim to be fundamental Baptist, that we failed. You know, that we're not loyal or not steadfast. And that's something we try to drive into people as they become a part of our church. Look, you know, God wants you to be faithful. You know, you're not doing this for me. You're doing this for God. He needs people. He wants people that are faithful, loyal, and steadfast. And so you're in Jude. Let's look at verse three real quick. We're gonna go back to Psalm 12. Jude three. So Jude says this, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should, look at this, earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. Go back to Psalm chapter 12. So we can see there a call to the faithful that we are to earnestly have a strong desire to stand up and fight for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Guess what, saints? We were delivered Genesis to Revelation. That's what we have been delivered. And therefore we need to earnestly contend from Genesis to Revelation. That is what we need to do. We're called to do that. And because people aren't doing that, the faithful fail, the godly man ceaseth to be in the land. Let's look at something else interesting here. Look at verse three again. Psalm 12. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. So I mentioned this is the heart of God here. This is what he is going to do. Okay? But before he does that, God wants people out there warning of these things, preaching against these things. So how do the faithful fail? Well, they fail by failing to speak out against proud things, unrighteous things, false things. That's what we're learning here of failure. You have people today that just have no backbone. They just think that they can get both sides to get along. Oh, that's really, you know, being an ambassador. We've got to get everyone to get along, this Rodney King Baptist Church type attitude. It doesn't work. You have truth. You have falsehood. You have the religion of human achievement. You have the religion of divine accomplishment. You have probation. You have salvation. It's black and white. What side are you on? You living in this deluded state that, oh, I can somehow float between the two and create this super loving kind organization. It ain't gonna happen. It is not going to happen. God is looking for tough men to lead tough families in tough times. And because there's a lack of that, we have a pandemic. Go to Ezekiel chapter number 22 and I'll show you a picture of this. Ezekiel chapter number 22. Ezekiel chapter 22. So Ezekiel the prophet, taken into captivity as Nebuchadnezzar was taking the children of Judah captive from the southern kingdom of Judah. So this prophet here, Ezekiel, he's preaching to the captives in Babylon and I want you to listen to some things here. We're gonna start reading here in verse 24 and this will picture how the first prophet in here in verse 24. And this will picture how the faithful fail and the result. And I want you to, as you're reading these things, think about your own nation. Think about your own country today. Look at this here. Ezekiel 22 verse 24. Son of man. So this is God telling Ezekiel. Son of man, say unto her, thou art the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation. Verse 25, let's talk about the southern kingdom of Judah. What's left of Israel. At this time, verse 25. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof. Like a roaring lion, ravening the prey, they have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made her many widows in the midst thereof. When I read that verse there, the first thing that pops into my mind is literally new evangelical Christianity. That is what I see. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst. So you have this nation today, right, metaphorically, and you have all these people that claim to be preachers and they claim to be prophets and they claim to have the word of God and they have a message. And what does that message provide? Nothing. It takes souls. You say, well, how do you know that? Well, because we go and knock on the doors of these people and try to get them saved and they cannot receive the word of God. Verse 26. Her priests have violated my law. Look, does God like it? When his law is violated. When someone violates the word of God. When someone assaults it, attacks it. No, he doesn't like that. He doesn't like it when people get around and say, oh, we can change this and change that and change this and make this easier. He hates that. That is a violation of his law. And that's what he's saying about these people back in the day. Her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things. They have put no, this is very important, they have put no difference between holy and profane. So when you read that, what do you get in your heart that you should do? Well, you should put a difference between what is holy, what is profane, what is acceptable, what is unacceptable, what is profitable, what is not profitable in the kingdom. Neither have they showed any difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am profaned among them. You take a church today that refuses to put a difference between holy and unholy, between the clean and the unclean, God says that that is that church literally profaning God. That is what that is. You say, well, you attack my church. Yes, because you attack my God. I have that right. You have that right, but the question is, man, what is the courage to do that? That's the question today. Look at verse 27. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravitting the prey to shed blood and to destroy souls to get dishonest gain. We literally see the same thing today. Verse 28, and her prophets have dobbed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and dividing lies into them, saying, thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken. Why is all this going on? Why was all of this stuff taking place back in Ezekiel's day during the captivity? Because the prophets and the priests of that day, they would not look to the law to try to prove whether something is holy or profane, clean or unclean. They refused to do it. They wanted to live this happy medium. Let's all get along. Let's let God figure out the doctrine. Let God sort the doctrine out. We just need to do our thing. Verse 29, the people of the land have used oppression. There's that word again. You saw it in Psalm chapter 12. Here it is at the fall of Israel. The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy. You see, you have to understand, when God set up his nation, he built into the law a provision to take care of the poor and the needy. But yet, when people decided, let's ditch God's law, the byproduct of that, what happens is the poor and needy get oppressed. People get robbed. They get robbed of truth. They get robbed of living a life that God has given them the option to live. He says, yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And oh boy, don't we see that today. Look at verse 30, and here it is. What was God's first solution when all this was going on? Look at this verse right here, verse 30. This should be the verse of the sermon. And I sought for a man. God says, hey, I looked for a man. During the last reign of the kings, after Josiah, I looked for a man. I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge. What does that mean, make up a hedge? Go out there and do landscaping? No, he's talking about building a man that would make up protection and build protection for the people with the word of God. And stand in the gap before me for the land. That I should not destroy it, but I found none. See, the mandemic's nothing new. The mandemic always leads to oppression and destruction. And that is what is going to happen to this nation. Because we didn't have enough men to stand in the gap and provide that hedge of protection because they figured it would be better to go along to get along and keep their mouths shut. That's why we're in this trouble today. Look at verse 31. Therefore, so he's coming to a conclusion here. Because I couldn't find a man. I couldn't find anybody to stand up with guts. Therefore, I have poured out my indignation upon them and have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own way have I recompensed them or recompensed them upon their heads, saith the Lord God. Go back to Psalm chapter 12. We're almost done. The faithful failing is a bad thing for any nation on earth. Any nation on earth. Again, how many times do we have to be reminded or remind these people that we're supposed to be the salt and light of this world? So again, we're going to wrap this up here. Look at verse one. David says, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity, every one with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. So again, the first thing we talked about was this process. How do these things happen? How does the godly man just cease? How do the faithful fail? Well, it starts with the faithful failing to do what's right, failing to speak against vanity, failing to call out the profane from the holy, the clean from the unclean, truth. And because of that, then the godly man ceaseth. And the result of that is that the culture, the speech of most people is centered around vanity, excessive pride in one's self. I mean, that's what you're going on. Look, the worst thing you could be today in this country is a fundamental Christian. If your skin color is brown, black, white, it doesn't matter. You're looked at as a white supremacist. So what is everybody trying to do today? Well, everybody's trying, Oh, I'm not white, I'm not Christian, I'm in this group over here, I'm in this group over here. Right? Trying to lift up their identities. This identity crisis that we have going on today. That is what's fueling that. People are like, I gotta figure this out. What's fueling that is a lack of people with courage and guts to stand up and say, Thus saith the Lord. Because what happens is people start to hold on to these vain thoughts that enter into their mind from their heart instead of rejecting those, they embrace those. It comes out in the speech, which leads to flattery, which produces a double-hearted person. It produces a person who, if they are saved, they just basically quench the spirit and live in the old man the rest of their lives. That's sad, it's what we don't want. Look at verse three. So that was the first point. Verse three, The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. And so the second thing is, again, men today aren't calling out this pride, arrogance, and falsehood that we see. Now, luckily everybody here does, you know, this is evident, okay? And that's great. But you know what? We need to do the opposite of the mandemic. So the mandemic is an infectious disease of vanity, pride, just self-absorption. Well, what we need to do is just continue to do what we've been doing and take every opportunity that we can when we're out talking to people to teach them the truth, okay? Give them truth, let them know what's going on. Obviously we want to preach the gospel, we are, okay? We're preaching the gospel. But what I'm doing, the first chance I get is I'm hopping right to the reprobate doctrine. I got a goal this month and next month to teach the reprobate doctrine to as many people as possible, turn as many people as they possibly can against the sods, okay? And it's working. I'll tell you what. By August, the treasure valley will be different. It will be different. There will be, I don't know how many, you know, maybe not a large number, but there will be more people now that have an understanding of what the Bible says about these people than prior. That is one of my missions. If somebody's like, oh, I ain't got time, you know, I'm trying to think of a way to bring it up. And you should have seen Chris a couple weeks ago. He slid that in pretty good. He's not able to be here this morning, but it was cracking me up. But it's working, okay? Go to Proverbs chapter 26. Last place I'm gonna have you turn and we're gonna be done. Proverbs 20, Proverbs chapter 20, I'm sorry, verse six. Proverbs chapter 20, verse six, we're done. Look at what this says. It says, most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. We all know that, we all do that. We fall into that sometimes, okay? But here's the rest of the verse. But a faithful man, who can find? This has always been a problem. It's definitely more prevalent today, but definitely always been a problem because you're reading it from what Solomon said, okay? So even Solomon knew that. Even while they had peace, even while they had all this prosperity, even Solomon, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, says, hey, everyone will proclaim their own goodness, but a faithful man, who can find? And that's what we need today. We need faithful people, people that are loyal, steadfast, down for the cause. And you say, well, how do we do that? It's not easy, but it is easy, if that makes sense. And what I mean by that is, I think that everybody in here needs to constantly have these things on their mind. I think these constant frequent reminders need to be prevalent. And one thing you can do is just every single day of your life, you make sure you do something consistently. And for us, what is that? It's reading the Bible, the Word of God. There should be some amount of the Word of God that comes into you every single day. That is gonna build and keep a faithful, loyal, steadfast person. And I'm telling you, we can put a dent in this pandemic. We can, at least around here, because we're out there. We're out there. You have the privilege of coming to a church that will send you out into the community to talk to people. And guess what? The time right now is ripe for these conversations because people are confused, and they're wanting answers. And praise God, the Bible says, hey, be a people that has their speech always with grace seasoned with salt, ready to give an answer, right? That's what we just read in Colossians chapter four, verse six. That's the idea. That is what we want to do is take advantage of that and understand it's not us being ignorant having the answers or trying to be right. No, we ought to be a people that are studying to show ourselves approved unto God. That is how we get God's approval, and we take that out, and we teach people the truth, and we provide them with comfort because we have the answers. And they get to learn, and then they tell other people, and before you know it, we're making an impact. We're doing something great for God. So let's stop right there, bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church. I just pray that everyone here would have a blessed day, Lord, and you bless the soul winning today and bring us back again safely this evening. We thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. .