Hey guys, real quick. So, I've talked to men literally all across the globe about where they're missing the mark and how they want to improve. They normally talk about how they wish they were in better shape, they wish they had a better relationship with their loved ones, they wish they had more success and influence at work, and some other stuff like that. But, here are some of the most common and biggest things that I hear. I wish I knew more about the Bible. I wish I could lead my family spiritually. I wish I could recall more scripture. I wish Bible study wasn't such a struggle. Well, guys, I've got news for you. You don't have to keep wishing. It's time for you to start doing. It's time for you to stop wasting your time and money on stuff that has no eternal value whatsoever. I keep hearing you talk about how you want to be more biblically literate and spiritually resilient, and now is your chance to prove that you mean it. That's why I want you to take advantage of our partnership with the most powerful Bible software on planet Earth, Logos. So, Logos approached me about putting something together for the Undaunted Lifers out there, and we collaborated to create something I'm super pumped about, the Undaunted Life Study Bundle. So, here's the skinny on the bundle. There are over 200 individual resources, and they include titles from authors like Voddie Bauckham, Charles Spurgeon, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Matt Chandler, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, William Lane Craig, Paul Washer, John Stott, Doug Wilson, Paul David Tripp, J.I. Packer, and a whole bunch more. And there are so many helpful resources in there. There's Bibles, commentaries, Old and New Testament study guides, devotionals, systematic theologies, courses dictionaries histories encyclopedias, non-fiction books, and more, and more, and more. And here's the most insane part about this deal. If you were to buy each individual resource by yourself inside of Logos, it would cost you over $3,000. $3,000. But, if you get the Undaunted Life Study Bundle, you'll get all 200-plus resources for just $349.99. Guys, that's $3,000 worth of stuff for 350 bucks. Guys, that's almost 90% off. And you know that you waste more than that on the hobbies that you have right now all the time, and these won't help you with your discipleship and sanctification journeys, right? It's time to get real and take control of your Bible study and spiritual development. Click the link in the show notes for this episode. If you want the link, it's logos.com /undauntedlife. That's www.logos.com/undauntedlife or the link in the show notes. It's super easy to sign up. Again, go to the show notes and click the link or go to logos.com/undauntedlife, sign up for Logos, and get the Undaunted Life Study Bundle right now. This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. [music] I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it. Welcome back to the forging table. The mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. At the forging table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience by digging into God's word and we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with us. That's Adam, that's Tegan, that's Russ. I don't have a funny intro. I just got to be honest, I still don't understand how the cameras work. I just hope they're recording. Two weeks in a row. I was going to say we're now three for three on moving the hourglass and it hasn't fallen over or broken or some other horrible calamity. >> And here's the other thing. You just found out like you were yesterday years old when you found out that we even had one of these cuz I think you watched one of the other episodes. I still don't know where this came from. So, I don't know that. So, he knows, but uh I don't know if I said it or so I guess Tegan doesn't know. So, I go to my PO box and I added those. I added some little undaunteds on there. So, uh you know, I I I made I made this call well, I don't know a year ago like gosh we need a hourglass but all the hourglasses I I searched for and found were a little bit too ornate, a little bit too, you know, I don't know they just didn't really fit the vibe or they were huge. And then I go to my PO box and there's this package and I open it up and there's this in there. No note, no return address, nothing. So, whoever you are out there in YouTube land or Apple podcast land or Spotify land and if I'm lying I'm dying the very first thing I did is I turned it over and put a timer on it and as those final few bits of sand went through we hit the 60 minute mark. So, it is a legitimate hourglass ladies and gentlemen. It's a thing that exists. I mean it looks like someone made it. I think it's handmade. >> Yeah, it's from Amazon. So, it came in an Amazon Yeah, it came in an Amazon box and all that but there was no like gift note, there was no return address or anything like that. Someone just got on the website, sent it to the PO box and they enjoyed the nameless faceless approach to giving gifts. >> Actually, I looked I looked for some. I I was going to Yeah, I wanted to and I got stumped by just all the different styles. I was like just [laughter] Every week I'd get back on and be like I'm going to pick one and then on Etsy, on all of it and I never did so whoever it was awesome. >> We should make We should have one with a snake, not a dragon but a snake that goes around it, right? >> Are we going there? I just was wondering if that was a >> Are you team snake? Uh it's what the Bible says. It says it's a snake. It doesn't say it's a serpent. Okay, serpent. >> you go back to the original if you go back to codex sinaticus it's a big winged lizard. That's what it is. And why would it be a punishment for the lizard in the garden, for the serpent if it already had no legs and no arms? >> enjoyment out of getting him riled up as I do? It's one of my favorite things. >> That was just performative. I'm not actually mad. But no, seriously, team dragon or team serpent? Or team snake, I guess. >> Well, it says it The one thing that is compelling is that it says he's cursed to crawl on his belly. So, if he's cursed to crawl on his belly he He to have had legs to begin with. So, or some some other mode of operation like wings. >> Wings. He had something. >> Maybe he didn't have legs but had wings or he had legs and wings. Yeah. So, it was not that he was not the same form after the curse as he was before the curse. >> sense that if it was just legs, why there are lizards? Cuz that would just be the same thing. Versus if it had no legs but had wings, that would kind of make sense. >> if cuz if we go by kingdom, phylum, class order family genus species they were likely different species at the time or different phylum or different something like that. And so, there would have been a category for reptile with no wings. >> just amazing. Are you smarter than an eighth grader? I think you are. Well, I learned that in seventh grade. Shout out to Coach Owens, my seventh grade whatever science teacher or something like that. Kingdom, phylum class order family genus species. So, at some point along the line cuz that's how you explain That's how you explain Noah's Ark. Cuz people are like, "Wait, so you're telling me there were two of this kind of lizard and two of that kind of lizard and two of like No, no, no. There were two lizards. Right? So, so maybe it was a phylum or a class that was represented on the ark or something like that. And so, like there wasn't two Pomeranians and two German Shepherds and two Giant Schnauzers. There were two wolves. Well, I think that if Here's the only thing that for your argument on that it was a dragon, here's one thing that you'll have to admit that if it was a dragon, then dragons were much smaller and punier than what you think they are. >> No, there's no there's no indication cuz here's the thing. When If snakes were the old dragons, snakes are not full big dragons. But what are what are all the old animals like cuz the animals now, they're not as big as they were as the ancient animals in the ancient fossils that we find. Same could also be representative of human beings like being much lar- larger pre-fall, all these different things but also this dragon which I'll call it because it was, this is prefall. And so this thing could have been 100 ft tall and wouldn't have been scary to Eve. I would agree with that. It couldn't have been scary. to that. Although, we learn fear. They're living in the garden. They They're They're you know, laying down with a lion like there's no fear. >> Right. Right. Cuz there's no sin. >> Listen. It does make sense. So like for your deal, the tree would have to be very large. Have y'all seen those pictures of like where they take a what looks like a mountain like area and they show that it looks like the base of a tree like the rings and stuff. No. All right. Well, we're on a different real cycle or something. But Yeah, our arguments are a little different. But we're not there. >> this weird stuff and tried to make an idea that like there are some stuff that they would say are like the base of a tree which the tree would have to be, you know, the size of a mountain. >> Is this like the Noah's Ark thing and on Mount Ararat where they think Noah's Ark is really there? Is that kind of what you're talking about? >> No, this is this is much more like completely off the scientific track like not real, but they basically try to Well, I was reading AI images. I'm just trying to make sure that >> So I was reading and and I can't remember I was reading it, but it was talking about since sin broke the cosmos, the entirety of creation including humanity and everything in the earth has been in a process of decay. That is why the the rocks cry out. And so like tornadoes are because of the fall. Hurricanes are because of the fall. All that. So there's been a complete decay. Are you trying to bring us up to verse 20 already? Yeah, I was trying to get to verse 20. >> we're not getting there. We're not getting to verse 20. Shoot. I don't know if we're going to get there in the next 2 weeks, but Let me ask you this. So So if if you're team dragon, did the dragon exist and also snakes existed together? It's certainly possible. Cuz we don't know cuz the one of the things that we don't know because again the the Bible's not a taxonomy textbook, is again, at what point along were we already living in species mode at the time of when he named all the animals? Because when people hear that he Adam named all the animals, they think, you know, like he'd name them all the different dog breeds, all the different kinds of snakes, all the different kinds of, you know, whatevers. If it was if we were just in kingdom, like if you look at animals and you look at a chart. So, guys, go go look at a chart and look at, you know, types of kingdoms, like the the breakdowns of kingdoms of animals. And then you go down into phylum's and it's going to break off and branch off even more all the way down to species. When we're in the garden, are we in kingdom? Are we in phylum? Are we in class? Like we like we we don't quite know, but it almost assuredly is not going to be the amount and number of animals that we have now. Yeah. Okay, so if if snakes existed, then it could make sense that a dragon who had its limbs removed and had to slither on the ground >> Mhm. like a snake because snakes exist and are known and the slithering of this dragon is described as a snake. Well, it's just They they could be describing What what he keeps saying is that the word used for serpent was actually a word meaning a winged something, right? That's what Yeah, so if we go back to serpent because there are some translations that look at because what what what was I looking at the other day? So, King James uses a different So, King James uses translations of the Bible that are about 800 years younger than what ESV NASB uses, right? And so, when people are like, old school people are like, "We got to use King James cuz, you know, everything got to file after that." It's like, do you want to use the older manuscripts or do you want to use the younger ones? Because the older manuscripts are what is used by the people God I think that's Codex Codex Sinaiticus or there's a couple of those that are 800 years older than what King James based his interpretation off of. but basically what I'm looking at is in Genesis 3 whenever God is directly uh addressing the serpent. Sorry. All right. Uh starting in 14, "The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field." Again, what kind of livestock, what times of beasts, we we have no idea. "On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life." And so it would not be punishment to a serpent to continue being a serpent. That would not be punishment, right? And so and then what I attach it to is how do we have all And this is where you get into you know, pre-Egyptian, pre-Sumerian like civilizations. How do all these disparate groups across all of the planet? And is this pre-Pangea, post-Pangea? We don't know. But how do we have all these cave-dwelling paintings and drawings and inscriptions showing a winged legged reptile dominating human beings? How does something like that happen? So on on that note, do you think that there was one serpent that got made to slither on its belly? Is that what you So what I think is I think uh this is not my idea, I got it from somewhere else. I I got to start, you know, committing these things to memory. But that Satan took the form of one of the animals that God created and put in the garden. And it was that kingdom phylum class order family genus, or species that was from that point forward condemned to to its belly. And then when you talk to other people >> that there were other winged animals that would have been what the other markings from other civilizations saw. Certainly possible. And then there's the other thing about how um cuz people talk about uh generational memory, how you will experience something and you have this nat- natural affinity for certain things and this natural aversion to others. Where does something like that come from? Is that collective memory? And so people are like, you could walk through like I can go out to Adam's land and walk it during the middle of the day, but when I'm walking to the the deer blind at 5:00 in the morning with no headlamp and no light and all that and you hear a rustle in the bushes, you're like, all right, that's a saber-tooth tiger that's coming to get me. Like, you know, it's it's one of those things. It's like you have that collective memory of someone along my line that I'm still somehow soul level connected to was taken out by a snake or by a cat that was, you know, >> Close to taken out. You have the memory, so it was like close to taken out. Somebody else was taken out. They locked that into their DNA memory and now you've got it. Something like that. So we're like connected to Eywa. Connected to what? >> Eywa. Eywa. What is Eywa? Oh. >> You're not an Avatar guy. I watched it like once in the theater. Eywa is Is that where you plug your ponytail to a tree and you're attached to everything somehow? Exactly. And then you you can talk to your ancestors through that. I feel like Kyle would not be a Avatar fan. Prob- If he doesn't like Lord of the Rings, you probably wouldn't like Avatar. But no, I I think what you're saying is true, but it just it sounds like the concept of Eywa where you can commune with your ancestors by connecting to this tree and hear their thoughts and No, I don't think >> experience the things that they can experience. I don't think we have a familial connection to nature in the same way that we have a familial connection to We have a I think we have a generational soul level connection with sentient humanity. Not with rocks, with trees, with stumps, with dirt, like that kind of thing. >> Would you say that that's coming >> Is that coming from the spirit, you think? Or do you have have you fleshed out where you think that's coming from? Cuz I think you're I think you're you're likely right, but like where where does that come from? Is that just ingrained inside of our brains at birth somewhere? Or is it the spirit speaking to us and teaching us those things? I'm I was actually reading something on uh we won't get there but 20 where it does talk about the all of creation moaning and stuff and talked about the idea that it has had to suffer through our curse. Uh and so there is like a connection there between like creation and the curse of man and the that it's feeling the pains of it or something. I don't know. RC Sproul's and RC Sproul in some of his teaching on Romans 8 talks about when he likes to go hunting that like when he goes to the deer stand and he sees a deer and a pig and a and a turkey that they're in their element but the second that they know man is there that there's danger and that there's uh concern and like you know things are bad things are wrong once a a human gets involved and his point was like that's not the way it's supposed to be. Like there's a problem with that. Well, here's the other thing. Whenever you go when you actually go I'm using Logos Logos whatever you want to say and I'm looking I'm going all the way back to the original Hebrew which is what Genesis would have been written down in and you want to go ahead and read that word right there in terms of the definition it brings up. Let me read all of it. All right. Serpent, sea serpent, dragon. Hmm. Hmm. So, if we go back to the original language right before we sanitized it because somehow the Jews got involved or whatever Candace Owens would say like that that's what I'm saying. Like everybody [laughter] was team dragon. Here's the other thing. You want to go way off into crazyville crazy towns all those types of things. >> like we're we're buckled up for it anyways. >> You know what's funny is I got us down this road by just talking about putting on this [laughter] and I like to be honest I don't even have >> way back to Genesis 3. >> have an opinion on this topic. I just knew it would get him going and I'm so excited. Let's do it. >> This is where I'm at. Okay. So, when whenever they say oh the government's about to release another tranche of documents about extraterrestrials and UAPs and all these other different things couldn't care less about any of that stuff. People are like, "How could you not care less?" I was like, "It does Does it change the fundamentals of the gospel?" No? Then I don't care that much. I'm I'm vaguely interested, but I'm not like it's not something I would that could change anything. Because if God is, you know, over all of creation, is it possible that he created sentient life somewhere else that has nothing to do with or could replace or supplant the truth of the gospel? Yeah. But the truth of the gospel is the truth of the gospel. So, how about we attach our things to things that are knowable versus trying to, you know, in in some sort of gnostic way surmise meaning from somewhere else other other in the universe. But if if there were some sort of like an extraterrestrial thing that is something come here, you know where we're not going to see them? In the sky. You know where they're probably at? The freaking oceans. That's where they're at. They're underwater. They're like >> Now they're saying they're going between the water and the sky. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're in the They're in the vastness of the deep. Because like science can't explain yawning and you're trying to tell me that we don't have aliens in the ocean. It's like, come on. Like get get me some sort of like a better hermeneutic for understanding where we're at with anything like that. And we When Mark Hitchcock was here for like 3 hours, we talked about aliens for like 2 or 3 minutes. And he was basically talking about, you know, uh angels, demons, those types of things. It is possible that what those things are is those are demons. And you know, he pointed to certain scriptures in the Old Testament, I can't remember which ones, but it's talking about, you know, demonic activity in the air and in different things like that. But if they are anywhere on Earth, they're in the oceans. That like that is I mean, I'm not going to stake my flag there. >> Satan at one point called the prince of the >> of the air? Yeah, the air. I believe it. Whenever he comes to the tempt Jesus or something, it was said something along those lines. Okay, so tell me tell me if I'm following this right. And having had Mark Hitchcock on the show, I'm sure I'm going to say this completely wrong. But Mark's belief is the uh rapture happens before the tribulation, right? He's a pre-trib guy, right? So, the rapture is going to happen and so people are going to leave. And then I I also think that after the rapture during the tribulation, I think some people are going to be saved, right? It says that explicitly in Ezekiel 30 37 38. >> about the huge portion of the Jewish population is what if people that go to that belief believe that there's there's scripture there that says that like actual Israel comes back to Christ? So, okay. So, I'm we're on the same page and I'm I'm on board with that. But think about this. Okay. You know, a third or half of the population has been raptured and is gone and, you know, the words in here are have clearly become real for everybody who's here, right? How does everybody not believe after that moment? So, for these next How does everybody And what's what makes it amazing is the Antichrist is here for that, right? And so, whatever it is he does or whatever magic he possesses or whatever power he possesses must be incredible. It's got to be incredible, right? >> that saw Jesus die on the cross, raised again, and not all of them believed. >> And there were people that watched his ascension that were still like, "Nah, I don't get it." >> So, like I I do think that there is something to the I to the idea that you know, the devil is the father of all lies and the manipulation, the willing the willing submission to manipulation that we as humans have historically not even not even discuss like straight devil whispering in somebody's ear, but the the mass media, just things that we're willing to accept in humanity already has been crazy. I mean, you look at the Nazis, you look at all these different you read history about well, how did a whole people group get so wrong? They just absorbed an ideology that told them that black was white. I mean, in the Bible it it actually says that they'll actually reverse things. They'll say what's good is bad and bad is good and what's sweet is bitter and bitter sweet. And I mean, I think it's just I could see that happening tomorrow and people just attributing it something else. I guess it seems incomprehensible, but in the same way if I look back to to to the Israelites, I think the same thing. I'm like, "You freaking idiots. You didn't listen to them again. You know, another time you've decided you're going to He delivers you from Pharaoh and then you go make a golden calf and you worship the golden calf." Like to us it seems outrageous. It's probably the same if you look into the future. Same thing. It seems obvious that everyone should be saved after that happens and clearly not. >> Well, I think they would say a lot of like cultures would probably look at the time we're living in and say, "Why is not everyone a Christian?" Yeah. Like you've had you're in an era you're in an era even in the church history. Like reading about church history, how much of church history people didn't have the availability of the word in the language they even stood. They would go into a Roman Catholic church and listen to it in Latin and none of them ever knew Latin, but they were Christian because their lord over their area was a Christian. Like they would look at us and they'd be like, "Oh, so so after Luther, y'all all started getting the word. So that just kind of fixed Christianity, right? Like y'all had the word so like it all worked out." You'd be like, "No." We're [laughter] still a bunch of idiots. >> No, it didn't work out. >> What I think as well you have people that are in the So there's the Muslim Antichrist theory that a lot of people have, you know, got into and you know, Howard did a video where he summarized it. But when you look at the descriptions of the 12th Imam or the Mahdi, which is what the Persians, the Iranians believe, like they don't want a deal and by the time you're listening to this, who knows what the war in Iran's doing and all that and kind of where they're at with Strait of Hormuz and with Trump and with, you know, who knows. But they don't want a deal because they are trying to clear the path for the 12th Imam for the Mahdi. And when you look at the descriptions in the Quran and in the Hadith about what that being or entity will will look like, it is basically an exact description of what we see the Antichrist described as in the Bible. They'll say what's bad is good and good is bad. >> And so let's assume there will be a rapture, right? So pre-trib, whatever, there is a rapture. There's going to be such a cuz you mentioned, you know, Israel, a lot of Jews will be coming home and that will be one of the signs of the end times is a tremendous overwhelming amount of Jews, most of which are concentrated in Israel proper right now, will be turning towards Christ. They will see Christ as the fulfillment of their their holy text as opposed to, you know, a prophet, a false prophet that died for his trouble. I think one thing that we're going to see is a you're there's going to be two teams left. Cuz right now you could be team atheist, team agnostic, team Christian, team Buddhist, team Hindu, team team Muslim, like team Sikh, team whatever, uh team pagan. All that post-rapture, you're going to have two teams. It's going to be the team Christ or team Antichrist. >> Well, I I actually think the team Antichrist will absorb most of those groups that you just said. You know, I agree. that it'll find a way to to amend their beliefs in with the contrasting of believer. >> right now, who are some of the biggest supporters of the Iranian regime and the Palestinians? Progressive leftists, atheists, right? Queers for Palestine, Which it makes no sense. >> Chickens for KFC is basically what we're saying. >> Unless you believe that both of those are mastered by the father of lies. And then you're like, oh, you'll actually do believe in the same being. There's only There's only one thing I do say. I I think I have to disagree with your opinion and Howard Stern's opinion because after you had that interview with Mark and then Howard Stern's video came out, the only thing that gives me a check about any of that is like when what you the claim that I feel like you and Howard are making I don't want to put words in your mouth so correct me if I say this wrong, but that if you were to connect all of the dots it really seems like all of the countries Iran and Syria, China, Russia that they're all kind of coming together and seemingly but possibly going to be part of what crushes Israel and what starts the end times. It's and you start talking about the colors, the red, the green, all of their flags, right? That almost seems too obvious is my my concern with that. It seems like yes, okay, but but the Bible says we're not going to know. We're we're not going to know who the >> We're not going to know the exact time, but we will feel the end times coming together. So if 200 years ago would not have seemed obvious. There was not a There was 100 years ago there wasn't the nation of Israel. >> I mean the bubonic you know, you go back to the you know, the bubonic plague and you go back to you know, the 19 Everyone feels like oh, our time is the worst. Our time is when time is going to end. So my I get the connections that you make and they you and and Josh Howardson make are compelling and they seem like they make a lot of sense, but my only concern with that is like it just seems too obvious. You know. >> So So I thought I had this thought this morning whenever Mark was doing his sermon cuz he made a mention today that we live in a time where we if if there's a terrorist attack in Nigeria and a bunch of Fulani terrorists go into a Christian village and behead a bunch of people, I'm going to find out about it in the next 5 minutes. If this were 400 years ago, you would never find out about it. There is the chance that somebody would write down a description of what happened on a scroll and that somehow that person would travel to your city and share the story with you. There's no awareness. So we Well, hang on. So So if we look at the time we're in, the information age, the ubiquity of AI that's forthcoming, The the the narrowing and and winnowing and flattening of of humanity, the potential of like, "Hey, you're not going to need to work. AI is going to do that for you. Here's some money from from the government." And here's the other thing that's interesting. Who are the two dominant world powers right now above all the other powers? United States, China. Two countries that are not explicitly mentioned in end times prophecy. Right? We have Persia, Iran. We have Gog, Magog. We have like Turkey, Sudan. We have uh Russia, but not China or the United States. And so there's the implication that we're going to see the tremendous and almost immediate fall of the United States and China either pre-trib or post-trib. What could bring upon something like that? The absolute collapse of the financial system. 200 years ago there was no such thing as an international financial system. 100 years ago there was vaguely an idea of that. Now we're all so interconnected globally in terms of finances. And what's the one thing that's going to completely upend that? Artificial intelligence uh combined with quantum. Which we're there now. And so that's the thing about in terms of end times. I agree with you. During World War II, don't you think people were like, "Gosh, the Jews are being murdered by the millions. Like like this is this has got to be the time. It couldn't possibly be worse than right now." But the number of prophetic things that are becoming even more and more clear. Uh I But again, it goes back to it may seem obvious, but there were people that saw the resurrected Jesus and were like, "Yeah, I don't know if he's the Messiah." Oh, I I will say to just to be clear in my position, I'm like 90% in your camp. Like it makes sense to me. But I also lived through Y2K, and I remember how in times-ish that seemed to feel. I also can remember when Obama was elected and the charismatic movement was repeatedly saying that he is the Antichrist. I I heard that nonstop and as ridiculous as that is. So I've I've heard it. I've lived through it enough now that I'm like, I'm always a little bit cautious when it seems like all of the dots are connecting and like we have it figured out, pump the brakes a smidge and it's okay if it's conjecture or we're guessing, which I think we are. >> Yeah. But it does it does make sense. And you know, the same thing that you said, the one of the lightbulb moments that I had when we were talking about the mark of the beast was, you know, Elon wanting to put all of these data centers up in space and they're going to have the cumulative knowledge of all human all human knowledge all combined together and they're going to be able to beam it down with satellites and then they're using Neuralink to have, you know, a neural connection to our brain. And man, the scariest thing is like if they're able to connect that and now if you have the connection, you are the smartest human on Earth that's ever lived. And if you choose to not get that because you're afraid of how it's going to influence your thought, that is probably the most the scariest thought I've had because if we choose not to take it and we choose not to be manipulated by that, we are, you know, talk about suffering. The suffering's going to be substantial. >> When I talked about Joe, I mentioned this as a it was a throwaway line and something I talked about, but I was like I think it was during my crisis of discernment episode, which I basically worked on since last September until the time that I released it. There's going to be an othering. People will be otherized because the pitch is going to be, "Hey, you have your IQ. You have your level of understanding. You have your languages that you can know and speak. But if you just take this chip, it's going to make us you won't even feel it. It's just going to be injected into the base of your brain. All of a sudden you will be able to communicate in all languages. Other people that have that chip, you will not even need to use words to communicate with them. You will be able to send them thoughts to where y'all will have a layer of understanding. Your IQ will essentially be infinite because whatever they allow you to have, whatever tier of the chip you get allows you a certain level of understanding and knowledge of humanity. And if you choose to to not go that way, it's the ultimate form of being a Luddite to where it's like, "Oh, you're basically it's going to be the difference between a chimp playing with sticks and, you know, somebody painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Like, that's going to be the difference. And so, for Christians, and Mark even made this point, it's like if you get obsessed with end times stuff, with eschatology and all that, it's fine. It's fine to dig into all that, but since we cannot know, all we can do is to prepare as if it's coming. Yeah. As if at any moment, like that that's going to happen. We need to evangelize, we need to understand, and we need to be prepared. Yeah. I I just want to say, so there's two things that I'm I'm kind of like you, like even with theology stuff, like, yeah, I could listen to that and I can join that camp really quick. I can listen to somebody else that has a totally different theology on end times and that these numbers are are are more of a mystery to us and it's not that clear and these are representative of whole numbers of certain things and all that stuff. I listen to that. Um listen to somebody that's really good in that fashion, I'm like yeah I'm that makes a lot of sense, too. And so, where I think on a lot of this stuff, I I end up being like, well, this this one kind of makes more sense and I'm I'm about 6 I'm about 90% sure, or let's say 60% sure that that thing is true and I'm about 50% sure that I'm right about that 60% sure. Yeah, I know what you're saying. That's why I said There's a lot of that and that goes back to theology, too. I I heard uh you mentioned something the other day about there's a lot of theology topics that we look at and I like what you said where it was like, okay, the Bible says this, says this, says this. You can take a bunch of verses. I think Mark had told you, like, but you need to weight how much of how many verses on this I I see versus that. And so, I think that a lot of those things that you've got to be okay with being able to say, okay, yes, what you're saying makes sense and I'm and I think the scripture has 70% of that and then it's got 30% of this that is completely opposite of that. And so like both those things have to be true at once be on my comprehension of them. And the other thing I would say is reading this this book about church history. I can't overemphasize how many times in the church history we have already been othered. And we have already already been put in that position. People already thought that it was happening. Now that's not to say there's I love what Terry says about prophecy. And this is kind of where I fall on prophecy. There's people that believe prophecy has happened at specific times. There's people believe that all prophecy is talking about the end and so like you don't see it till the end. And then there's this repetitive idea of prophecy that it has happened as it said it would happen and we can see in history like the Babylonian area, different things that were like, all right, that happened. But yet it still seems to be talking about something else to be fulfilled in the future and that it is maybe a repetitive a repetitive prophecy that is happening at once. And I sometimes question the Antichrist still as has has the Antichrist is it has it is it at the end? Yes, we know that. Has there been forms where you know, we do believe that the devil the devil does not know how this is going to end. Like he's he's not all-knowing. Could it be that he has at times tried to set it up with Nero that he has at times tried to set it up with other people? I think 100% yes. Cuz he doesn't know. So why wouldn't he always just be trying to stand up eventually? Is this working? Is this working? I see I see what you're saying. And for us to almost look at these things that are right in front of us and say that this is it almost gives him too much credit that God is letting him determine well let me when that is going to happen. It's it's God determining it. It's well it's not even Satan determining it, it's God determining it. But I literally had this thought this week. Um I I thought about it in the context of like a like if you're you're a football coach or like in a dating context. And don't Believe me guys, I'll get there. So let's say you're a football coach and you're you're running Navy's offense, right? So you got wishbone, you got strong eye, you got I formation, all that. You're running the ball. Every now and then you're going to send your wide out on a go route. Just to see have the safeties and corners fall asleep, did the defensive uh coordinator on the other team completely fall asleep at the wheel, and you're going to throw that deep ball to see if you can get pick up those 70 yards all at once as opposed to over 17 plays. Okay. You're just throwing You're just doing doing the Hail Mary, you're doing the flyer, right? Also in a dating context, maybe you're a guy and you know, if you're being generous, you're a six out of 10 guy, and you got that 10 out of 10 gal, and you decide today's the day. I'm going to walk up to her and tell her, "Look, I'm really interested in you. I want to take you out on a date, blah blah." You're shooting your shot. I think Satan shoots his shot all the time. And I'm I'm going to look at me, this is you know, me kind of being vulnerable. Because of my wiring and because of my capability training, whatever you want to say, every now and then I will have a homicidal thought. Right? And when you look at where thoughts come from, right? You know, in terms of who's in this interplay, right? This cat dog that we you know, brought up a a couple of weeks ago, where it's just like, you should just run that person off the road. Right? Hey man, that that person doesn't deserve to live to live anymore. And Satan wouldn't do that to me if it hadn't worked on somebody else in the past that decided, "You know what? F it. Today's the day." You have no track record of of violence or anything like that, and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, I never thought this person was capable of that, and they beat someone to death in a parking lot. They hit someone with a hammer. They killed their mom. They they you know, they they lit the house on fire and then locked it so their other their would die. And you're like, "Where did this all come from? It's like Satan shot his shot and it took cuz he doesn't have omniscience, but he does have your playbook. And he's like, every now and then he's like, I can't do that every day. It's going to be too obvious. But I'm just going to shoot it and throw it out there. So yeah, I'm I'm open to that that he has tried to set up in his way because in order to be the father of lies, you have to be an expert at truth. Right? So Satan knows the scripture better than we do. Right? He He knows everything there is to know about scripture except where it's going. He knows he loses in the end. He's just trying to peel off as many souls as possible until he's thrown into the eternal lake of fire. Right? And so I think that that's all wrapped up in the same thing. I agree and I think that, you know, I'm we mentioned Daniel or I did maybe last week where, you know, I think it's in 10 or 11 where there's like 135 prophecies given in like one chapter, right? It's like the most prophecy dense chapter in the entire Bible. Well, the people that read that in Daniel's time, those things hadn't happened yet. So they were looking at as living life through the generations as is this the fulfillment of that thing that they that they're talking about. So it So now we are living in a this place where 135 of those have come true. And then and then others haven't. So what we have is we have the ability to look over our shoulder and say, oh, this was Alexander the Great. And this was this person, right? So we have this historical context one that they actually all came true, right? All 135 did. Um so we have no excuse of like, you know, belief. It's like, well, Well, some of even in even in Daniel, there are some very confusing pieces at the very end. We just went through it to where if you stopped before you read like a couple of more verses, all the prophecies fell on like this is definitely this kingdom. This is definitely this. And then it goes on to be like, "And then they do this and this and this." And you're like, "Well, that didn't happen." So, is that prophecy wrong or or is what I'm assuming is the fulfillment of that prophecy because it was 80%? I'm assuming that that that they just like that's as good as we get is 80% full on that prophecy being correct. But what we talked about is or uh that prophecy prophecy in its entirety we just haven't actually seen play out the full way yet, you know? And so, that's where sometimes we really try to pin ourselves exactly where we're at in some of those things just because some of them look like they have come true and they maybe have and then yet they are really going to be coming true later on as well. It doesn't mean that that didn't happen before, it just means that that seems in my mind that seems to be how God how prophecy seems to work is it's a it's a story within a story and the whole thing is going to be fulfilled bigger than what you even know and bigger than what uh like in this situation with the Antichrist bigger than what the devil's plans have been on trying to set that up as well, you know? And also, how much of the prop- the prophecy will be fulfilled again assuming pre-tribulation after rapture? Mhm. And so, it's like we may be looking at prophecy cuz I always thought it was a little bit too convenient for people that are like, "Oh, here's all the prophecies that have been fulfilled." It's like, "Well, what about this one?" "Oh, it just hasn't been fulfilled yet." I was like "Well, there's an unfalsifiable claim." Mhm. Except that it's probably true. That that's probably the most likely scenario. It's like if we just assume that the Bible is the word of God and that there is ultimate truth here in the most important of subject matters is that all of the all of the boxes will eventually be checked. In what order we don't know and in what time period we don't know either. And we might not ever even get the answer. We might We We not have known that it already was fulfilled. It might have seemed like it was, but it or seemed like it wasn't and in in in actuality it actually was. And we also have to remember you know how frustrating it is reading through a gospel and you're like, "How can the apostles be this dumb?" And every time I have that thought, I immediately have to flow chart myself and come back and be like, "You're that dumb. Okay, read read read read. These people shouldn't Time out. Wait, I'm that dumb." And so it's like, "How did Peter miss it?" Right? How did these people miss it? How do you go from you know, being you know, the the belief in the truth of the gospel being the rock, not Peter himself, but the belief on the truth of the gospel is the rock on which we're going to build the church, right? To denying him three times. Well, in Jesus's flow chart, he restores Peter post-resurrection by by basically saying like, you know, "Are you going to going to take this word to the ends of the earth?" Like and he just confirms it three times, right? And so it's like, I always have to remember we're we're looking at this, but we're always looking through the glass dimly, right? We We kind of can see part of it, but it's not in 4K yet. Right. That's even on uh Stephen's sermon, if I can remember back to it, Stephen's sermon whenever he went to the Pharisees, I believe it was the Pharisees where Paul uh held their coats to stone him. He goes through the Old Testament and he basically says, "And y'all have y'all have this whole time been rejecting the spirit of the Lord. Like the spirit of the Lord is trying to speak to you through these things. We kept on giving you He kept on giving you prophets. He kept on having people tell you stuff. And you this whole time have have rejected the spirit's call on yourself. And now you're doing it with Christ. He came. You crucified him." And then it says, you know, they plugged their ears and and grinded their teeth. You ask about like how people could deny an obvious thing like the rapture happening. And I'm not even sure my theology on the rapture is way different and way undecided. But, if that's your theology on it, how could people accept that as not being God? Well, they would plug their ears and grind their teeth and they it's inconvenient truth for them. When the people are put in front of inconvenient truth, they find another way to combat it. Let me go ahead and give a shout out to Acts 7 and Stephen's speech because I binged it for I don't know, a week. I don't know why I got on it, but I got on it and every morning I read it. And if maybe you're a guy who hasn't read scripture very much, doesn't doesn't feel like he knows a lot about the Bible, go read Acts 7. Just go read Acts 7 from the beginning to the end. It's a pretty gangster speech. It's a cool speech at the beginning because he just sets it up and goes through a lot of history from Old Testament to all the way and >> Do you feel like battle music starting to play every time you start reading your lines? >> guys. I don't know if I texted you guys or just texted Kyle. I was like, somebody there needs to be a movie about Stephen. And they're they'd have to take a lot of liberty to it, but the end of the movie is this speech. And if they could find the right guy to give this speech, holy crap. >> Heaven opening up, his face shining. But but think about the anger on the Pharisees' faces because man, he starts letting into them. And if you could if you could capture that moment, the anger of their faces turning because there's a part parts of the speech where where he's going through the history of the Old Testament where they're going to be nodding in agreement and they're going to like it and they're going to like it and then at the very end, the gangster part where he turns it back towards them and it says, I mean, close to the end when he's done, it says, "Now when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him. But he fell but he, full of the spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God." Oh, if you could capture that, that would be so amazing. >> Well, how is hell described in the Bible? There's going to be wailing and gnashing of teeth. RC Sproul pointed this out in one of his sermons. So, cuz we hear, you know, wailing and gnashing of teeth and we just think we think perpetual torture, right? And pain and agony. But the way he described it was interesting. He said the wailing are the people that are just overcome and distraught that they didn't believe. I can't believe and oh my gosh, if I could just have one more chance and that's the wailing. The gnashing of teeth is people that are so angry that God would do this. I didn't even believe in you and look what you've done. It's that attitude. And how is that described in Acts 7:54, like you just read? They ground their teeth at him. It's the same It substantively it's the same thing. They're grinding their teeth in >> [clears throat] >> If they were to stop for 5 seconds and chill out would realize that the thing they are an expert at is proving Stephen right. >> Right. Yep. And yet they picked up, you know, rocks to stone him. Yep. I'll try I'm trying to find it but RC Sproul he relates that to another scripture that talks about two different types of personalities when it comes to judgment that there'll be those that are bitter and then they're angry and then those that are in remorse. And I mean, there's so much scripture that whenever you I when I heard that same thing and I was like, oh my goodness, this guy [laughter] he's he's got a special channel to the to the Bible app or something. I mean, like some of his stuff is just amazing. But that idea that that idea that somebody will be that angry even at that point is crazy. It kind of brings up the Great Divorce we've talked about before but there's some stories in the Great Divorce that kind of speak to that type of that type of bitterness even towards the the judgment itself. And so all of that was because you just couldn't let the serpent snake thing go? How long have we been going I I cuz we don't have a timer. >> looking at >> timer to see how long we've been going for like 1 hour. Oh, let me see the timer. 45 minutes. 45 minutes on that. >> We've solved all the problems that we just discussed, right? It's like we we did the math and we've got equals answer. Correct. [laughter] Yeah, let's move on. We checked all the boxes. So, how about we get into Romans 8? >> Let's do it. Uh and so, what I think we should do is Dagon, if you would not mind, if you would let us know what version you'll be reading from, but let's go Romans 8 and we'll we'll park in 9 through 11. And so, that'll set us up next week to start just an absolutely blistering section which gosh, how long is it going to take us to get through 12 through 17. But, let's see what we can do with 9 through 11. And what what version you're going to read? Uh this is ESV. >> All right, Roger that. You, however, are not in the flesh. Oh, hold on. Let me back up real quick. Let me read 7 and 8. >> Yep. Uh actually, let me just read 8. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But, if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So, there's quite a bit there. One thing and so, I I need to mention something about Tim Keller cuz even whenever I mentioned him in the last couple weeks, I'm sure some people will like that ping to, you know, that hit a nerve for them. I will acknowledge that in the later years of his life, there were things that Tim Keller said publicly that were that linked pinged very progressive. He seemed to get into some political topics where I think his biblical foundation for some of the things that he was saying and arguing, I don't think were there. But, you cannot deny that in totality, the net positive that Tim Keller presented for Christendom, for the kingdom of God, was substantial. And his two-part series on Romans is fantastic, right? They're they're short reads, but every sentence is dense. Like, his rundown of Romans feels like Romans, where it's like, you just, you know, through Romans and put your finger down and it's like, all right, well, you can park in that verse for a while. And so, I say that to say, he was almost more [clears throat] clear about what his commentary was on the section you just read, Dagan, than in any other area, and he was so a matter-of-fact about it. He basically said, if you don't possess the Spirit of God, you're just not a Christian. And so, there's no consternation, there's no gray area, there's no nuance. It's black and white, baby. If you don't have the Spirit of God, and if there's no evidence of the Spirit in you, you are still in Adam. You are not in Christ. And we just see Paul kind of clearly elucidate that here as well. I've I've been strugg- I've had a struggle for a while with that, and I've I've played this out since I had this struggle, but I I wrote this down and I actually talked to Horn about this. And so, I want to see where this lands with you guys. So, my struggle with this about this exact topic was, if the Spirit dwells inside me, and the Spirit is part of the triune Godhead, and God cannot be around sin, and assuming that salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can't be lost, what happens to the Spirit when we consciously choose to sin and return our own our own vomit, is what I wrote down. And my my concern with that was, is this an indication that maybe we're not saved? And where my brain with that was going was like, okay, I I sure I feel assured of my salvation as much as I possibly can, but I'm still a sinner and I still continue to make the same sins over and over and over again. No matter how much I don't want to, it still freaking happens and it frustrates me. And so, because of that and if if if the spirit is with me, what happens to the spirit when I am choosing to sin? Not like a I don't know if it makes a difference if it's like a sin of a a sin of uh omission versus commission. >> Right. Like I'm choosing to do this. Is that an indication that I'm possibly not saved when I'm choosing to do that? I want to see what you guys think. I've got to go back to 7:15. Hold that thought. All right. Go Using your own arguments from the last couple weeks. >> Yes. Paul in 7:15, for I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. I think you He's describing that scenario. Go ahead. So, there's a couple of um So, I'd say No. I think what what he said. There's there's tons of verses in the Bible that do talk about the struggle with sin and us overcoming that and there being allowance for that. At the same time, it talks about an indwelling of the spirit. And to make that jive with what you said about that God cannot be in the presence of sin, um is the idea. I think there's a great mystery in the triune God, in the three spirits in one. And part of that, Jesus says this really mysterious thing to his disciples at one point, whenever they say, "We don't want you We don't want anything bad to happen to you." And he says, "You basically don't know what you're talking about. I have to leave so that I can send the spirit down to be with you." There is some mystery there. Like we we kind of talked about it a couple weeks ago, where we were talking about God stepping into the game in this form of flesh. He's playing by the rules. That doesn't mean that he is not powerful enough not to, but like the idea that he made he made a part of himself, Christ, fully flesh, fully flesh, fully man, and fully God. He's submitting to play by the rules in this, and there is something going on here with Christ saying these words that he said, "I actually have to ascend to the Father to send the Spirit." Makes me wonder because Jesus was around sin. He was also fully God. And so like there is a piece there that almost makes me think there's something about the Trinity that to be in perfection, a unity, that they can allow a one to leave. And there's times where the Spirit ascended down on Jesus and came up. So like there's something there that it has allowed for that, but that the unity in the Father needs to be remain pure at times or something cuz Jesus says this really weird deal. I'm not saying it. Jesus said, "I have to go to the Father to send the Spirit." That seems like he's putting a restriction on what can happen here. I don't think it's because of the limited power. I think there's something to do with the idea that this kingdom world, this Earth that that the Spirit comes to, that there is some separation to where the Father needs Christ back up there. And it may be because your purity question of like the Father can't be in sin. So how can the Spirit be with me and me sin? I think that's how. Your your point your point about Jesus being around sin. Obviously he didn't he didn't commit any sin, but around sin. That's similar to what Horn said. He's like he believes that the Spirit goes and grieves when that happens. And in Ephesians 4:30 it we are instructed uh and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And so, do you have anything else to say on any of that? Oh, it's just that I've heard uh or read like Jesus saying that Jesus was was put into flesh, right? And he was within the limitation of the flesh of being finite to one place, right? So, him having to leave his one place that he could have a an audience of whoever was in his particular presence, him leaving that body and sending the spirit who could be >> Released. >> everywhere. >> Right. That makes sense. Right. And on a and and exist with us on a different plane and was not constrained by the flesh. >> but still a separate than the entity of Jesus. Right. Right. It's not like Jesus It's not like Jesus had to go to the Father to become the Spirit, cuz that's not what he said. He said, "I have to go to the Father to send the Spirit." That's right. And I love the thought of, you know, I mean, he he atoned for our sins. He goes to the Father's right hand, and he is he's our advocate. You know, the devil is the accuser. Look at Kyle. Look at what he just did. And Jesus's answer is the same to everybody who knows him. It's like, I paid for that. It's like It's like these little mini trials of accusation, paid for it. Accusation, atonement, you know, and it's and it's constant. And I think it's part Sorry, go ahead. Oh, no. No, I'm done. No, I was just going to say like with that, it's the same >> thing I brought up that Mark Hitchcock said this morning uh in the sermon when he was talking about the helmet of salvation. It's like salvation is not past tense. It is past, present, and future. And so, the the past is our justification, the present is our sanctification, and the future is our glorification. And we see glorification clearly in verse 11. Again, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also, future tense, give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. And so, uh the Dallas Theological Seminary guys that, you know, did a commentary, it's like we get a physical like we get a spiritual resurrection life now. Like that is we become indwelt with the Holy Spirit. That's our spiritual resurrection now, but we have a physical resurrection that is forthcoming, right? You know, will be forthcoming in our glorification. And again, all the crowns that we will gather for ourselves and be presented with when we go to heaven, where do those go? We we put them at the feet of Jesus anyway. And so, I I think that that's that's an interesting point as well is like, okay, how does that salvation drain, thinking in terms of past, present, future, go even to what we said in verse 11? So, let me just say all of y'all's responses was was very reassuring to me because this was something that I really struggled with. And as I as I went through this, what you went back to on 7:15 was something I went back to, that Ephesians 4:30. Two of the other things that I found and and I want to mention this because I I I would imagine I'm presumably probably not the only one who struggled with this or had that realization of why do I continue to consciously sin and is that an issue with my future salvation? This is Psalm 51:11 and this is David right after sinning with Bathsheba. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. So, what had David just done? David had just abdicated his responsibility. He had chosen to stay in the kingdom and not go fight like he was supposed to and instead he chooses to sleep with a sleep with Bathsheba because he wanted what he could not have. And so, he's here in sorrow saying, "Please don't take your spirit from me." But this is another thing that I'm going to read and this is another quote from R.C. Sproul and this has to do with the imputation of what Jesus' righteousness does for us. And I think this is important and this is kind of got me over the hump. If we get rid of imputation and this to set this up, Sproul was talking about, I guess, in the last couple of years there's been some debate in amongst some of the denominations about uh the power of Jesus' imputation and whether or not it's still a thing. So, if we get rid of imputation, which what that means is Jesus' imputed righteousness to us instead of our own, we have no basis for any hope standing before the judgment seat of God. Either we stand before God's judgment with our righteousness or someone else's. If we have to stand before God with our righteousness, which in the Bible it says it's nothing but filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6, we have no hope. Take away the imputation of the savior's righteousness and there is no good news of the gospel. We are on our own. Nothing we can bring to the table is enough to escape the wrath of a holy God. Give me the imputation of Christ or give me death. I'd be happy, proud, and honored to die on that hill. So, in my brain, I connected that to like I'm feeling crappy about myself and I'm feeling like maybe my salvation isn't enough, back to myself because I continue to return my own vomit. But again, I'm relying on myself. I can't I I can't I can't do that. It's the imputation of what Jesus chose to do for me in his righteousness that covers me. Well, that's the Alistair Begg quote. You know, you're presented before the king of glory and it's like, "Okay, does your pitch for why you should get into heaven start with because I? Because I did this, because I cast out demons, because I did all this work, because I gave all this money? Or is it because because he, right? And and is that it? And going back to your original question on this entire deal about, you know, when you sin and how that makes you feel and all that, when you sin, if you feel the way David felt post Bathsheba and maybe post murder of Uriah, which he coordinated, how do you feel about that? If you are in Christ, you you will have that condemnation feeling. Again, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. >> Conviction. >> You have conviction. Thank you. You will have that conviction, but the same thing is true like it's what uh John MacArthur said before he died. It's like he's trying to explain the sanctification process and it's like as you go on as a Christian and as you go through your sanctification process, you will sin less and when you do sin, you will feel worse about it because the recognition of your depravity and what you are still capable of and how much you still are in the flesh versus in the spirit, it it just comes up all the more and it's almost because it's a more rare occurrence because if you're just living and existing in this puddle of sin constantly, it's just there that you breathe. And that's what a new baby Christian is like. They're so used to that and so those early days of sanctification are so important in terms of the the foundation or the scaffolding on which you're going to build uh your faith on over over the the rest of your life. And then the more time you invest in your sanctification journey, the more hours you invest in it, the more you'll you'll realize your own sin and you'll become more aware of the more subtle sins. So maybe all of your sins early on were very carnal. They were, you know, fornicating and they were, you know, doing drugs. They were lying to people, taking advantage of people, violence, all those things. And then later you will feel 10 times the conviction for a negative thought you had about somebody. >> Mhm. Yeah, that's the only that's the only piece of that uh quote that I don't resonate with and I I I just disagree with the one word that he used there is that you'll feel worse about them. I think that the better word what you said is like you will be aware of more conviction in your life. But I do believe that there is a calling on Christians for a maturity level to happen in their life as well as they go through different sins and they put them to death that like we talked before, it can be frustrating to have your eyes open to new ways that you didn't realize that like man, I've stopped doing this, but I've found that I'm lustful in other ways or I'm lustful towards other things and that, you know, like I I've just rob Peter to pay Paul. I've kind of just turned my focus on something else and that can be frustrating, but I do believe that there is a call for a maturity of believers to get to a point to where even as you maybe find deeper things to wrestle with or deep deeper things to commit to the Lord and to be like, "Hey, all this is filthy rags. That rag doesn't look any filthier than this rag, but just out of a heart of humility, I want to keep on giving you these filthy rags just as much as I can let you take these." That there does become a point that I think that we're called to to mature in the faith in a form to almost be like humbly submissive and not happy with it, but just to the point of humility of being like, "Yes." I mean, if you really know your depravity, then there's almost a lightness that comes with that. A lightness in the fact of like, "I can understand that I am on a journey and that this is never going to be perfect and that I can be okay with the fact that I'm always going to have something else to address and there's a peace that comes cuz it says somewhere in here it said that the spirit leads to peace and love." And so like as Christians, we shouldn't always feel like that we are we are always uh worse and worse and worse and I feel worse about it. I take cuz that's not encouraging anybody. Let me tell you, "Hey man, you know that big sin you're dealing with? As soon as you get rid of it, you're actually going to feel worse because there's one right behind it." Like what I should say is, "You're actually going >> Yay. You're actually going to live what the Bible says and you're going to have peace in your life even while you're dealing with the next thing. The more you get rid of, the more you sacrifice to Christ, the more you can realize, "I have more to do and I have more peace about doing that work." But I you know, you go back to seven and what you hear Paul screaming is like, "Why can't I get this figured out? Right. >> You know, to the to the point where he says, "For I do not understand my own actions, I do not do what I want, but I do everything that I hate." >> Yep. Right? It's like >> subtle. It's not. It's It's this like uh you know, in in Nehemiah 8, Ezra's reading from the book, you know, he's reading the law to the people, and the people in that moment, first time they've ever heard it, they're they're the crowd is both celebrating hearing the word because they understand it, but also they're mourning their sin because it's been revealed to them. Right. And And this And this though, I don't think Paul's being prescriptive of to do it. He's being vulnerable and descriptive of his like situation. Like, I don't think Paul would say just just go through this and always have something that you're that is your next thing. I mean, I think that he would he would want in the in the rest of what he writes, he talks about us trying to get towards a a place of peace in the spirit. Yeah, and I think a lot of it just has to do as we wrap up here, it has to do with our disposition. Um and obviously, the reformed guys, you know, the Sprouls and the MacArthurs, they do get this this reputation of gosh, those guys, they just love depravity, and they love pointing it out on people. Um but if you actually hold on to TULIP, you know, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints, one of the things is last one, if you're the perseverance of the saints is the guarantee that Christ cannot lose one of his sheep. Like, he cannot have you and then not have you. That is not possible, right? And so, if someone were to fall away, as it were, it was if they were never there to begin with. And I think that's the important thing for all of us to kind of keep in mind. And so, it may be an uncomfortable feeling to be like, "Oh man, I feel worse about this." But I can say that there are sins now that I'm more sensitive to and my heightened awareness of them does make me feel worse because it's an ego thing. You think you're in a better place than you are and then that rug gets pulled out from underneath you and whose hands are on the rug? Your hands. You're the one that pulled the rug out from underneath you and you're the reason you're still in this predicament. But guys Or it's Kyle's stupid knee on my belly. Yeah, that's right. And not knee on >> Knee on belly. on belly. I still think we should make knee on belly t-shirts just for the the people that it will be right next to the sure t-shirts in the store uh in the sorry Joby ones. But guys, we're going to leave it there. Come back here next week where we're going to start in Romans 8:12, Romans 8:12. But before I let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost. Our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, physical resilience. Log on to Logos Undaunted Life Study Bundle. Check that out. You can get that link in the show notes. Crossway Forging Table Starter Set, five amazing things, amazing resources that you can get at a 50% discount. And we are donation-based ministry. So, if you want to check out ways to help us equip men around the globe to push back darkness, we need y'all to partner with us. undaunted.life/donate undaunted.life/donate or you can check out the link in the show notes. Thank you everyone for listening to this episode. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive five-star review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me an email to info@undaunted.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else including how to donate to keep more content like this coming. www.undaunted.life. The music on this podcast is the song Conqueror by the Christian metal band Void Awakened. Be sure to stream their music on Spotify, Apple Music, and wherever else you get your music. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience, keep seeking the lion of Judah. Void Awakened >> [music] [music]