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[0:00] Well, we welcome you to our September 22 class. We are continuing with our exposition of the prophecy of Zechariah. It is a book that is just so absolutely replete with prophetical implications that we are now arriving at.

[0:19] But it is sometimes difficult to put a handle on these things because Zechariah is cycling back and forth. And by that I mean there are times when he really takes Israel, his beloved nation, to task.

[0:39] And he rebukes them for their idolatry, for their rebellious spirit against God. And he warns them, as do all the prophets.

[0:50] And by the way, this is always the ministry and the rationale of the prophet. It is to deliver information. And sometimes it is good news.

[1:04] And sometimes it is bad news. But the bad news always comes with a warning. And there is always, this is a beautiful thing. There is always a way out of the bad news.

[1:18] And it is always the same way. No exceptions. It is repentance. You get the message.

[1:29] You have wronged God. You have deserted Jehovah. You have abandoned your principles and precepts. And you're going to pay for it. But, that can all be wiped away.

[1:44] Conditioning is realized in your acknowledgement of it, your repentance of it. And God will forestall judgment.

[1:55] Otherwise, the axe is going to fall. And even then, it will be in your own best interest. Because, who is he whom the Lord chastens that he does not love?

[2:06] God's chastening, God's rebuke is always predicated upon his love for the subjects. Never just an idea of retaliation or punishment for the sake of punishment.

[2:17] It is always the same principle that the writer of Hebrews laid out. What son is he whom the father chastens not? And if you endure not chastening whereof all are partakers, then are ye illegitimate or bastards, King James says, and not sons.

[2:35] So, a father will discipline his children because he loves them. He knows it's in their best interest. God is no different. In this case, the children constitute a nation.

[2:49] It is the nation of Israel. And in Zechariah, we're going to find good news and bad news. Followed by good news, followed by bad news. And the reason is because of the variation in the nation's behavior and attitude.

[3:05] And Zechariah is called upon to address that. So here, well, I'll just read this without much comment. But in verse 11 of chapter 9, As for you also.

[3:21] Now, this is Ephraim, Judah, and Ephraim. Now, you've got to remember, Judah is one of the two tribes in the north. We're talking about a divided kingdom now.

[3:33] It's already divided. And under the son of Solomon, Rehoboam divided the kingdom, or it was divided because of him. And the two tribes in the south, Judah and Benjamin.

[3:46] And Benjamin is where the temple is located. And then the ten tribes in the north. And the largest of the ten tribes is Ephraim.

[3:59] Their numbers were greater than any of the other tribes. So sometimes Ephraim is used almost as a synonym for all of Israel.

[4:09] And if you keep this straight, and it was so confusing to me as a new Christian, but I well remember the agony I went through. And then I discovered about these two kingdom things. But if you will remember, with the secession of the north from the Union, ten tribes of the twelve pulled away.

[4:27] They were going to establish their own king, their own monarchy, and they did. And it was with Jeroboam, who had been exiled and brought back into the country.

[4:38] And they established their own priesthood, which was a renegade priesthood, wasn't viable at all, and God had not established it. The throne was not legitimate, and the priesthood was not legitimate.

[4:50] Because the legitimacy still lay in Judah, in Jerusalem, with the priests that were descendants from Aaron and Levi, and the royal line that was descended from David.

[5:03] So we've got a kind of renegade nation that has pulled apart and has severed themselves from the Union. And they are sometimes referred to as Ephraim.

[5:16] That's the whole ten tribes. Or sometimes also called Israel, the whole ten tribes. And then Judah in the south. And that's where the tribe of Benjamin was. So we see here there's deliverance for Judah and Ephraim.

[5:30] And that means the south and the north. So eventually, eventually this divided kingdom is going to be reconstituted into just one people.

[5:42] And that will be where the new covenant is addressed in Jeremiah 31, where the Lord says, Behold, the days are coming when I will establish a new covenant with Judah and Israel, not like the covenant which they had before, which they broke.

[6:07] But the new covenant will be entirely different. And that's another subject. So we look at verse 11, and I'll just read on here if I may. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

[6:25] Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope. This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you.

[6:38] Now, that's talking about future blessings and benefits. And the reason he's going to restore double to them is because in keeping with the Jewish establishment and the way of doing things, it was the firstborn son of every family that upon the demise of the father, it was the firstborn son that would receive a double portion of the inheritance.

[7:10] And everybody else would be divided up with what was left. That was the privilege of the firstborn son, primarily because to him would be assigned additional responsibilities as the new head of the clan in the place of the father.

[7:27] And that simply meant that he would have expenses and responsibilities that the others didn't have in caring for that. Plus, there was the prestige that went with it. So the firstborn had a special place of blessing and provision.

[7:43] And when he says that he will restore, here in verse 12, I will restore double to you. It is because God has repeatedly referred to the nation Israel as being my firstborn.

[7:58] And no other nation is that true of, but Israel. They are regarded as God's firstborn. And that's the basis for his restoring the double to them.

[8:11] I will bend Judah as my bow. I will fill the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece.

[8:22] And this, I think, is a reference to Zechariah's reference to Alexander the Great.

[8:33] And you'll recall, we shared with you last week, I won't go into it now, some of the comments and items regarding Alexander the Great, who had to have been one of the most competent military analysts who ever lived.

[8:46] There's just no question about that. He was uniquely blessed. And he, of course, was a Greek. And when Alexander passes on his kingdom, which is considerable for all practical purposes, it encompassed pretty much what you would call everything in the Mediterranean basin.

[9:06] When he passed on at the ripe old age of 32 or 33, his kingdom was divided among his four generals. And they are going to rule and reign in their four different components.

[9:23] And one of those will be, of course, in charge of Israel. And eventually he will be known as Antiochus Epiphanes.

[9:35] And Antiochus Epiphanes will persecute the Jew. And there will be wars against the Jews.

[9:46] This is with the Seleucids and great conflict going on. And it will be during this time that the Bar Kokhba rebellion will break out in 130.

[10:00] And it will be put down in 133 by the Romans this time. And when Rome does it, this is in addition to 70 A.D. when they destroyed the temple and everything. And then Israel came back.

[10:12] And then eventually Rome will come in again. And this time they are going to level everything permanently. They're going to scatter the Jews all throughout the world, which they end up scattering to this day.

[10:24] And that's all part of an ancient picture. But this Antiochus Epiphanes, he will be the guy who will go into the temple and forbid the sacrifice of animals.

[10:39] And to show his disgust and disdain for the Jewish people, he will have sacrificed upon the sacred altar of all things a pig.

[10:51] Nothing could be more distressing to the Jewish people than to have an unclean animal sacrificed by unclean people on the altar of Jehovah.

[11:03] And he's going to do that, of course. It will be just like a twisting of the knife for the Jew. And he does it for the effect. So that's going to be, when he says, Against your sons, O Greece, that's part of who is involved.

[11:17] I will make you like a warrior's sword. Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet, march in the storm, wanes to the south.

[11:28] The Lord of hosts will defend them. And they will devour and trample on the sling stones. That's an interesting expression. I better not stop there, though. And they will drink and be boisterous as with wine, and they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, drenched like the corners of the altar.

[11:47] And the Lord their God will save them in that day. That is a phrase that is key, and we will see it repeatedly in the next chapter.

[12:02] Well, not in chapter 10, but in chapter 11, where that phrase, in that day, in that day, in that day, is used time and again, and it all refers to the same time.

[12:13] But it isn't talking about a 24-hour period. It's talking about a block of time that will be described as that day. So let us move on, if we may.

[12:25] I'd like to get down into chapter 10. And he says in verse 17, In other words, this is blessing and benefit and restoration and so on.

[12:37] Grain will make the young men flourish and new wine the virgins. And be reminded, when Zechariah wrote this, he did not write it in chapters.

[12:49] He didn't even write it in verses. He wrote it as one lengthy, continuous document with no chapter breaks and no verses identifying.

[13:00] And neither of those were even added to the Bible until about 500 years ago. And that's really not very long at all in connection with human history.

[13:11] Isn't this after they've come back to start to rebuild Jerusalem? I mean, yeah, Israel? Yeah. So it was that point in time. Yeah. And there's a multiple in that day coming up, but it's all future, of course.

[13:26] Chapter 10, then. Ask rain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain, the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.

[13:39] For the teraphim speak iniquity. The teraphim are household idols. They are false gods. They are false gods, false deities.

[13:52] When Jacob was fleeing from the house of his father-in-law, Laban and Rachel and Leah were his two wives, and they fled while their father...

[14:08] His name escapes me now. What was her father's name? Laban.

[14:19] Laban. Yeah. When he went to the sheep shearing, Jacob says, the time has come now, and let's go. And got his two wives together and all her kids and loaded up the camels and the asses and everything, and they took off.

[14:36] And in the absence of Laban, and when Laban came home and found out what was going on, he took a troop and chased after them. And Jacob told him, you know, after he'd served the second seven years for his other wife, Jacob said, I knew you wouldn't want us to go, so we just took off while you were gone.

[14:59] And he says, okay, well, it's bad enough that you took off and that you stole my grandchildren away from me and everything, but why did you take my household idols? Why did you take my teraphim?

[15:10] And these were nothing but pagan good luck charms that he was worshiping, household idols. And they believed that if you revered these idols and you prayed to these idols, they would make your crops grow and they would make your animals productive and all the rest of it.

[15:28] And Jacob says, well, I didn't take your household. Well, you did too. I did not. And he says, what's more, you can search my whole caravan and if you find the household idols in the possession of anyone, they'd be worthy of death.

[15:45] I haven't stolen. And Rachel took them. Remember? Rachel stole them because she was part of the paganism. This, what we're talking about, folks, is people still steeped in idolatry that had a relationship and a connection with a true God, which just points out that even being rightly related to God does not prevent you from doing stupid and foolish things.

[16:11] And they did. And you know, they probably rationalized these backup gods. Well, just in case, you know, cover all the bases, just in case. And she took her father's household idols and, and he would start searching.

[16:26] He started ransacking, going through all the stuff. And he came to Rachel and Rachel was the one that had them hidden in the saddlebags. But we're told that she was having her cycle and was thus considered contaminated, you know.

[16:48] So when he learned, when her own father learned that his daughter was in the menstrual way, he skipped her because he was convinced that she wouldn't have taken him anyway.

[17:01] But she's the one that did. And she had, that's the teraphim. And this goes all the way back to ancient paganism. Actually, it even was part and parcel of ancient Babylon.

[17:13] So, the teraphim, speak iniquity. In other words, the false information. And the diviners, false prophets, see lying visions and tell false dreams.

[17:26] Mankind has never been able to get away from fake news. It's way, way back here. It's never, it's always been part and parcel of humanity.

[17:39] And that's exactly what he's talking about here. Lying visions and they tell false dreams. They comfort in vain. In other words, they try to prop the people up with positivism.

[17:52] Think positive and so on. And he says, it's in vain. Therefore, the people wander like sheep. They have no direction. They have no purpose.

[18:02] They have no information. They wander like sheep. My anger is kindled against the shepherds and I will punish the male goats.

[18:14] He's not talking about four-legged animals. He's talking about those who were in respected positions of authority over Israel who were supposed to be giving guidance and care and provision.

[18:29] Instead, all they were doing was lining their own pockets. And we've all heard cases of where people have entered into public office almost penniless and after having been there for a number of years when they leave, they're pretty well off.

[18:50] Joe Biden. Yeah, well, there are lots of illustrations and by the way, no one political party is exempt from this.

[19:01] There are plenty of them that have gotten rich on the taxpayer's dime and there's nothing new about that because we had that back here all the way back in the Bible. I will punish the male goat.

[19:13] That's just an expression that is used for the shepherds and that the Lord of hosts has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic horse in battle.

[19:29] From them will come the cornerstone. that's a curious expression and it's a very important one.

[19:40] The cornerstone was so valuable in the construction of any building because its situation and placement would determine the parameters of the building that was going to follow and it was called the cornerstone because it was on the corner.

[20:01] It was the first stone and all of the edifice and the foundation thereof was going to go from either end or side of that cornerstone and it would determine the direction and the accuracy with which that building was going to be constructed.

[20:18] And if you look for just a moment can we go back there to Isaiah 29 16 maybe for just a moment Isaiah 29 I'm sorry I'm sorry Isaiah 28 28 and this too is of course all prophetic and let's begin in verse 16 therefore thus says the Lord God behold I am laying in Zion a stone a tested stone a costly cornerstone for the foundation firmly placed he who believes in it will not be disturbed the cornerstone was what gave direction and accuracy to all the rest of the building and here the cornerstone is none other than Yeshua

[21:34] Yeshua HaMashiach Jesus the Messiah he is the cornerstone in fact some songwriters in this in our generation has even written a song about Christ the cornerstone and it's a very very accurate song about being the cornerstone and it is the same as what our Lord said when addressing the scribes and Pharisees he said the builders have rejected the stone that Christ had become a stone of stumbling to Israel rather than a building stone because they rejected him and when they when they cut the stone at the quarry it had to be cut and faced and dimension at the quarry so that when it was brought to the place where it was to be inserted there would be no tool applied to it for there was no construction allowed there it had to be done at the quarry so that meant accurate dimensions and measurements and placement and shape and size and everything had to be established before it was brought to the place where it was to be put in and when it was brought up and ready to be inserted where it was supposed to be the foreman of the job would look at the stone and examine it and make sure that it was the right dimensions right shape and everything before it was put in this is what

[23:10] Jesus was talking about when he said the stone which the builders have rejected it was himself he was the stone the builders of course was the leadership of Israel and they rejected him because he didn't measure up to their specifications he did not fit the role but it's very apparent that he fit God's role and they were the ones who were out of line so he is the cornerstone let's get back to Zechariah 10 if we may please and he continues on saying from them will come the cornerstone from them the tent peg and that too is an interesting expression and I was reading what some of the Jewish scholars said about it and they said that this is not the tent peg is not not really a good term actually if you're if you're establishing a tent the peg is pretty important because it holds the tent in place and gives it stability but what this actually is this tent peg here it's not one of the several pegs that's put around the perimeter of the tent to hold it this is the mast it's the center pole to which everything else is oriented and that according to the Jewish scholars is what is involved here it is that center that is described here as the tent peg and from them the bow of battle and the idea is that everything then is hung upon that center pole this was like a well it was like kind of like the equivalent of a mast on a ship it was the tall pole and it was straight and it was strong and it was the center of everything and all else was attached to that and that's what this peg is here and on it they would hang implements of warfare bows and things like that and garments they would put nails in that and use it as hooks and hang things upon that center pole and from every ruler all of them together and they will be as mighty men treading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle and they will fight for the

[25:36] Lord will be with them and the riders on horses will be put to shame and I shall strengthen the house of Judah and I shall save the house of Joseph Joseph is of course just one of the many sons and I shall bring them back because I have had compassion on them and they will be as though I had not rejected them for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them and Ephraim will be like a mighty man and their heart will be glad as if from wine indeed their children will see it and be glad their heart will rejoice in the Lord I will whistle for them to gather them together for

[26:37] I have redeemed them that's a beautiful expression and it's one with which we can't not really identify but every Jew especially back in that time could because when the shepherd would take his flock out for pasture take them out of the sheepfold and take them out for pasture when it came time to gather them together and bring them back into the fold for the night the shepherd would whistle and each shepherd had a separate whistle and the sheep learned to know the whistle of their master and they learned to know the voice of their master and this is what Jesus was talking about in John 10 I believe it is when he said that that my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they know me and another they will not follow because they are attuned to the voice of the shepherd and here it is a whistle and I can't imitate it but I don't know what it was but each shepherd in this clan in this community had a specific whistle and his sheep and only his sheep would be able to identify that whistle and not the whistle from another shepherd but that whistle and they would respond to that particular whistle so we call them dumb animals but there are some things that they can learn yes this is

[28:14] Zechariah Zechariah chapter 10 and verse 8 I will whistle for them to gather them together for I have redeemed them and they will be as numerous as they were before when I scatter them among the peoples they will remember me in far countries and they with their children will live and come back and he had told them earlier in some of the other prophets I'm thinking of Hosea too where he said that if you continue in your rebellion and you do not repent and return to me I'm going to bring pagan enemies against you and they are going to scatter you over the whole earth well today we see the result of that and one can only wonder if something isn't brewing because hundreds of thousands of Jews have been returning to the land of Israel and they had never been there they weren't going back from where they started they had never been there but they're

[29:36] Jews and tens of thousands have immigrated from Russia within just the last 30 or 40 years and the reason they hadn't immigrated before was because Russia would not give them permission to leave they couldn't leave and other nations throughout the whole earth there are a lot of people a lot of Jewish people in the United States and in Great Britain and in Germany that have returned to Israel and the population there as well and this 1948 May of 1948 is one of the most incredible Israel Israel is the only nation in the history of the world ever to have been reestablished after a 2,000 year absence that in itself is absolutely stunning and it's all in connection with prophecy God said that he would bring them back he said he would scatter them and he did and he said he'd bring them back and he did and he is and they are still coming back and the nation of

[30:46] Israel the nation of Israel has prospered benefited grown developed in an unbelievable inexplicable way because here is a country that has enemies on every side and as Golda Meir said the only border land that doesn't hate us is the Mediterranean and you know and they have achieved incredible accomplishments while devoting 90% 90% of their budget to defense and look at what they've still accomplished in medicine in engineering in technology it's astounding fellas there is simply no human explanation for it there just isn't there just isn't it's a

[31:50] God thing all the way through I will bring them back I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and of course there's still Jews in Egypt to do today and gather them from Assyria I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon until no room can be found for them and he will pass through the sea of distress and strike the waves in the sea so that all the depths of the Nile will dry up this is all future stuff and we'll see more of it later and the pride of Assyria will be brought down and the scepter of Egypt will depart and I shall strengthen them in the Lord and in his name they will walk declares the Lord well they aren't now but they're making progress they're getting closer to this day as we speak the vast majority of the state of Israel can only be described as secular they are not committed to even the Old

[32:59] Testament much less the New that's going to change but it will be the result of the remnant it will not be Israel in general much much of Israel will be eliminated what Hitler was able to do in World War II will pale in comparison to what the Antichrist is going to do in the tribulation period but it will not only be Jews there will be huge numbers of Gentiles who are going to lose their lives as well and this number fellas this number will be in the billions with a B we cannot we cannot conceive of that kind of carnage but that's what it's going to be and the Antichrist will be at the head of it and Jews will be put to death in huge numbers and this will also be the time of the ministry of the 144,000 you think things are chaotic in our world today boy I tell you there are going to be really something and you know what's going to be so paramount is confusion on every hand and confused people don't know what to do they don't know which way to turn they don't have direction they don't have any confidence that's going to be a pervasive element during this tribulation period it will be mass confusion and mass deception so that when you do hear information you will always have to regard it with suspicion maybe we're getting close to that now where you just really are reluctant to believe almost anything that you hear because there's another side to it somewhere and you're not getting either you're not getting the truth or you're not getting all the truth and that has always been a problem of humanity and it began with the father of lies of whom

[35:21] Jesus said there is no truth in him all he does is peddle deception but he peddles it in such an attractive way it's just amazing this is what's coming upon this earth now I want you to just look ahead a little bit and if you may to what is coming as we undertake chapter 11 look at verse 16 behold I'm going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing seek the scattered heal the broken sustain the one standing but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs woe to the worthless shepherds this is more of this negative stuff that is coming and then chapter 12 if you will just come down to verse 3 I'm just giving you a little bit of a preview before we open this verse 3 of chapter 12 and it will come about in that day

[36:24] I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the people and look at verse 4 in that day declares the Lord I will strike every horse with bewilderment his rider with madness this is all tribulational content verse 6 in that day I will make the clans of Judah like a fire pot and verse 8 in that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem and in that day they will be like David in the house of David and verse 9 in that day and verse 11 in that day and chapter 13 in that day and verse 2 in that day and chapter 4 or verse 4 in that you see all of this is coming in the time that is not only future to Zechariah but it is future to us as well and I am not finished but I quit so will I entertain any comments or questions you may have I want to make sure this was written after the temple was destroyed by

[37:27] Titus no this was written after the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar this is this is 500 years before Christ this is this is also post exilic when they when they were taken into the land of Babylon for the 70 year captivity they spent their 70 years they returned at least some of them returned to Israel and Zechariah is a post exilic prophet and he is one who is is ministering to the people that have returned from their Babylon and actually it's a whole new generation because most of the most of the old timers they died off you know and you got to remember that when they were carried into Babylonian captivity in 586 BC young man by the name of Daniel was only about 12 or 14 years old and he is going to survive that whole 70 year period and by the time that comes to a conclusion

[38:30] Daniel will be in his 80s and he will have survived that whole period of time and you know how strategic he was to the Babylonians in the land there so other comments or questions yeah when this was written or spoken do you have any idea that they'd understand that even them no no no very very frequently good point to be made the prophets wrote as they were inspired to write they very very frequently probably we could say most often did not write with understanding they could not have explained all of this if you had been there and asked them to explain it they wouldn't be able all they could do is say well I'm just writing as the Lord told me to write that's what inspiration is that is taking the message of

[39:34] God and putting it on paper and inspiration does not mean that the writer understands everything he's writing he doesn't most of them did not but there were prophecies that they did understand because some of the prophecies they gave were going to be fulfilled in very short order I mean a matter of months or just a few years and Jeremiah is an excellent example of that Jeremiah not only told the people of Jerusalem and of Judah that they were going to be taken into captivity he told them they were going to be taken into captivity for 70 years and he told them who was going to be taking them and he identified the Babylonians and said they're coming they're coming and the people said oh go on you're just a sensationalist you're just you're just trying to scare us you're a prophet of doom and the king was given Jeremiah's prophecy to read he read it and he said what a bunch of trash and he threw it in the fire burned the whole scroll and the

[40:46] Lord told Jeremiah don't worry about it Jeremiah get some more get some more parchment and write it again I'll give it to you again and he didn't have Xeroxes in those days all had all had to be done by hand and he wrote it out and of course it happened exactly like he said and he understood that he knew that for sure but a lot of the long range prophecies they had no idea they had no idea I'm sure they were probably as bowled over about some of it as we are except we are a whole lot closer than what they were for sure other thoughts or comments anyone I was going to say Daniel wrote prophecies too and he was told to seal off the book and he wasn't done absolutely absolutely Daniel's one of the Daniel and Zechariah very strategic very strategic and Daniel's just got magnificent well we've been through Daniel and Revelation but it's been some time ago and it's just outstanding stuff yeah

[41:49] I know what you read and I know what you've said how do other people interpret this that read this is there a difference in opinion across Christendom on this I'm sorry Don I'm not following I've got a hearing problem I've gone through two or three pair of hearing aids and I'm in the process now I'm getting none of it repeat which is it you're like me I put the brain in about twice a week no do others in Christendom other parts of Christendom understand this as you're reading it or are there other interpretations of this well the interpretation that I am giving of this is what we would call pretty much a literal approach to it we take it at face value but that is a minority opinion and I've told you that before and you need to understand that what I am giving you is referred to as a literal futuristic interpretation and we take these things at face value and when it says

[42:56] Judah I believe it means Judah I don't believe that's a code word for some Gentile nation that is unidentified because you see fellas and I've tried to make this clear and I'm sure I haven't always done it but the vast majority of the Bible the vast majority of the Bible was intended to be taken and understood just as it is written because the purpose the entire purpose of this book is just one thing just one thing communication that's what it's all about if you do not understand what is being communicated there is no way that you can have an accurate response to it if you don't know what it's saying or what it is requiring there is no way you can intelligently respond to it you're just left adrift you have no idea what it means and people say things like well

[44:14] I read what it says but what it says to me is that is pure bunkum what it says to me may be legitimate if you're just looking for an application or something that it reminds you of but the thing you need to keep in mind what it means the interpretation thereof is the meaning that the writer intended to convey when he wrote it that's what it means and that's all it means and Israel of all things means Israel the nation Judah means Judah Daniel means Daniel because the purpose is to communicate with understanding so that people can appreciate and comprehend the message but if everything is to be taken figuratively then every word is a code word but it's a code word for something else what else who can say because the moment the moment you depart from the literal interpretation and meaning of words you deliver it to the imagination of the individual and a half a dozen people will come up with a half a dozen different things well which one is right and today we've got the kind of thinking is well they're alright isn't that wonderful they're alright you know and I've treated this in a recent

[46:00] Christianity Clarified series that I'm dealing and some people actually I say look you can take good men love the Lord genuine believers going to heaven when they die they come to the scriptures you've got four or five different pastors and they're preaching on a passage of scripture and you've got a Methodist and a Baptist and a Presbyterian and a Lutheran and a Nazarene and you can throw in a non-denominationalist for good measure and they all read this passage of scripture and they come up with different interpretations what is all this and my response is the interpretation is the one that the writer intended to convey but there are those today who say well isn't this wonderful because there's a

[47:05] Baptist interpretation of the passage and there's a Methodist interpretation and a Presbyterian interpretation and a Nazarene interpretation and they're all different but they're all right isn't that wonderful isn't that wonderful God has made the word so that there is a Baptist interpretation and a Baptist meaning and a Presbyterian meaning and a Lutheran meaning and that now wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute do you realize that just 500 years ago just 500 years ago not very long there were no Methodists they didn't exist there were no Presbyterians didn't exist hadn't even been thought of there were no Nazarenes there were no Church of God they didn't exist they hadn't even been thought of so what did the interpretation mean then well I'll tell you what it meant then it meant then same thing it means today it meant what the writer intended to convey when you write a letter to anybody when you write a letter to anybody you reflect what you want them to know what's going on and when you say my brother

[48:22] John went to Detroit last week you don't look at that and say hmm I wonder what that really means well what it really means is your brother John went to Detroit duh well where's the where's the romance about that where's the intellectual about that that's just plain simple language yeah isn't it wonderful that's the way most of the Bible's written almost all of it John I'm I'm brother John anyway that's the way that our constitution ought to be oh yeah well this principle original I appreciate you bringing that up because that's an excellent excellent application and I'll tell you fellas what we're dealing with what we're dealing with and I've been intrigued with this and I just want to share it with you because it is so appropriate to what we're talking about right now although I hadn't

[49:30] I think I wrote it down here somewhere yeah yeah yeah this this is this is what we're dealing this is what the country is up against right now and and I want to give you a quote by John Adams I want you to think about this you you you recognize that he was our he was our second president and John Adams says we have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion our constitution was made listen to this our constitution was made only for a religious and moral people it is wholly inadequate for the government of any other now that says a lot and what it's saying is look this document will do these kind of people very well a religious and moral people but what if the people are not religious and not moral then you got a problem you got a problem you see our founding fathers were coming from an undisputed

[51:13] Judeo Christian background and it was Judeo and all that means is that provided the basis for morality Judeo is actually as a reference to the Old Testament to the Jewish document the Old Testament and the New Testament is the reflection of the Christian and it's a Judeo Christian thing and it provides a certain standard of value first of all life life if we were in that religious moral framework Roe v Wade would have never come about there would never been a need for it much less a need to repeal it but over the years we have gotten well astray of that religious and I hesitate to use the term religious it's not one of my favorite words but you know what I mean the religious and moral thing and all it means when you talk about the religion and the moral you're talking about the recognition that there is a higher power to which everyone is ultimately going to be accounted and today we've got the enormous impact that has made that has been made by evolutionists and they have simply eliminated the need for God because of the their definition of how things came to be and well everything that goes with it so what we're talking about

[52:47]  John Adams was right and this is why we are struggling with what we're struggling with today the constitution was put in place by men who were coming from a biblical moral viewpoint no they were not all born again believers no but I'll bet you would I'm almost positive that you would not find an atheist among them you'll find some deists and Ben Franklin was a deist and so it was Thomas Jefferson and both of them as great as they were were still thinking with a skewed logic and a warped intellect just like we all are and you need the scriptures to straighten out your thinking because you are born with a wrong thinker all of us were and that's why we need the scriptures the bible will straighten out your thinking and if you want some real information on that at your leisure read first corinthians chapter one and two and there you see the wisdom of god pitted against the foolishness of man and guess who's right well hey oh I'm already over so hey guys thank you so much for being here this morning we'll be looking at next chapter upcoming appreciate your presence you all have a great day