Context in History

[Music] well thank you Rebecca and Kyle appreciate that it's good to see everybody here today it looks like we have a few more than we had last week we had quite a few people out although he had a lot of visitors last week I do see mr. McNair here it's a shame that you let down the folks up in Asheville I think he did have a substitute I can't remember who it was but he was under the weather so he had a substitute so somebody is up in Asheville I thought I'd take a few minutes to update you a little bit on the trip that I just got through with it was a rather extensive trip left on the 5th of February and got back on the 28th of February I left on a Wednesday evening to go to Canada to record for telecast for Canadian content which is very important for the work up there it allows us to have a television at better times on better stations at a better cost and so having dual citizenship that's very helpful I was met there by mr. lovak our regional director he flies to Mississauga on a fairly regular basis about once a month for a week or 10 days he lives in Edmonton so he takes that trip it's three or four hours of flying out there a couple times or once a month approximately he'll be coming down here he puts a lot of miles on to say the least a dead record a program on Thursday another one on Friday gave a couple sermons on the Sabbath to two different con gay shion's and then on Monday I had two sermons not two sermons but two telecasts to record and thankfully they went better than normal for me because then I had to leave that evening I think around 10 o'clock that night to fly to Manila which is about 16 hours non-stop arriving in Manila I thought that this should be pretty easy because it was 4:20 a.m. and it shouldn't be too crowded but instead there were about 1,500 people trying to go through customs at the same time trying to figure out which line to be in some made the mistake of being in the wrong line which would not hard to understand I had to ask several times somebody to make sure I was in the right line otherwise it's back of the line but it took about an hour and 20 minutes to get through customs and mr. Gonzales that was there faithfully to meet me we went to the hotel where mr. Tyler had already checked in and that evening had a little bit of relaxing evening trying to recover a bit from that from the travels that was on Wednesday left on Monday night got there on Wednesday morning and then Thursday and Friday we had a conference a leaders conference for all the ministers in the Philippines it was very good to meet some of the people whose names I had heard of for in some cases decades and never met in person but we had a very warm and friendly conference there on Thursday and Friday Twp on the Sabbath and then that evening we had meal and entertainment from the locals there a lot of traditional dancing and so forth the next morning on Sunday morning I flew to the Sunday morning or Sunday evening Sunday morning I guess was flew to Thailand and mr. Tyler I flew there with me and who we spent Monday touring some of the sites there in Bangkok it's amazing how elaborate the architecture is and how many various forms of buddha you can see all gold-colored sometimes painted sometimes actual gold leaf which people then sometimes chip off but we had several of us there and we did two or several places in Bangkok and went to a conference not a conference but a play that evening they claimed to have the tallest stage in the world and I do believe it as well as just one of the largest stages the probably the largest stage I've ever seen very fine performance but it is amazing how and the worship of their God they really go all out in so many ways and so it was it's a totally different world over there than it is that we're used to when you see statues of Buddha everywhere in one particular place at the palace they have the Buddha they have changed garments three times a year they have three seasons they consider over there and they change the garment the king of Thailand who is now living in Germany comes back about three times a year so that he can change the garment which is made of gold and one of them worth a million dollars literally in gold and just changed the the Buddha because the Buddha can't change his own garment rather in incapable that we then flew up to my thought in northern Thailand there and mr. to Allah Bey who is a relative of Saleh Bey a name that some of us going back to worldwide days have heard of for decades he died some years ago but to us a relative of his and he is watching over our work there in Thailand we do have members in Thailand met a number of them they were at the office of the living Church of God foundation some of these parts of the world is easier to be registered as a foundation than as a church it takes a little bit more owning a building owning a lot of things too to be able to to be able to register that way so we have the living Church of God Foundation and involved with that is helping out doing good works which we certainly are always anxious to be able to do and so we had a couple students from Australia earlier that went there for a couple months and they taught English and one of the elementary schools their school about 600 students and they're taught English in their school but they do not have native English speaking teachers and so they enjoy having others come in who are native speaking English people who can then have the right accent and be able to teach some of the nuances of the language that their own teachers may not be able to do so we toured the office met some of the members there and then went to one of the schools where we sat down with a number of individuals including the the acting principal at this time very well-spoken a woman there and we talked about what we're doing and what they're looking for and then a principal from another school a junior high and high school came over and we met with her and then she invited us over to the high school and so we went there we do have a plan for a couple students to be able to go over there this summer for two months a couple of our living education students Kyle and Sarah whether they'll be able to do that I don't know because of the coronavirus and they've already let us know that they understand that it may not be best to have somebody traveling there so that remains up in the air right at the moment but the idea is to have some of our students and perhaps other members from time time in a very small way just a couple students a couple people be able to go over there and help out so it does provide an opening for us to have the church there and also gives a young people most of the time of be young people but others the opportunity to learn a little bit about the culture over there and to see a different part of the world and it's a wonderful opportunity for us as well as it is for them and they seem very appreciative of what the foundation could do for them in the meantime we do service the individuals who are in the church there and we're talking about ways to grow the church as much as possible we had a number of members come over from Burma or Myanmar Burmese individuals and one of them was Thomas taeho that's the name that I'd heard up for decades and he was so enthusiastic and told me I don't know how many times how appreciative he was of being able to meet the presiding evangelist he would have been you know very excited he'd meet dr. Meredith or mr. Armstrong but first time that he'd been able to meet and presiding evangelist of the church and yet I told him I said I knew of you before you ever heard of my name he's been around a long time and here he is an 80 year old man that you would think okay at 80 years of age how much how enthusiastic might he be and we had a Leadership Conference there for eight Asian nations and he got up and he spoke and told us a little bit about his area and so forth and he said that there were some of the ministers in his area that were getting on him about being Jewish and being Old Covenant and you believe in Jewish holy days and these laws have cleaned unclean meats and everything your Old Covenant and he said he replied to them Jesus was a Jew Peter was a Jew Paul was a Jew they kept these days they observe these laws I follow Jesus who do you follow the Pope and that's about the way he said it now that was in English I can only imagine what he said in his own language how it would have come across but you talk about fire in his belly here here's this 80 year old man and he has fire in his belly and it was so interesting to hear him express himself in that way you know he took a 19 hour bus ride plus other travelled to get there to the conference and so did the other ministers and elders and individuals and leaders from from Burma and so his trip was a certainly an arduous one especially at that age but it was so exciting to meet Thomas Neil Howe after decades of hearing that name we had a Bible study as well as the advice was there for the beginning of the conference wasn't able to stay for the whole thing but it was a very exciting time to be able to see those individuals old and young alike there are members of the church that are there from there I flew from my sawed down to Bangkok labor of about five hours and then on to Singapore and two-hour layover and in 10-hour flight to Johannesburg so that was a very long day and South Africa asked that I be able to see as many of the members as possible they accommodated that we had Sabbath services and Johannesburg on the Sabbath that's day after I arrived there and then at tomorrow's world presentation the next day flew down to Cape Town and had that tomorrow's world presentation on Sunday and then we had Bible studies in Port Elizabeth and Lesotho now the Sotho is a separate country I did not realize that I knew it was a separate entity but I thought it was just a part of South Africa it's surrounded by South Africa but you need a passport you need to go in and and by the way virtually every place we went there was somebody with a gun to your head and they were wearing masks and you know they were worried about the coronavirus about half the people that you came across until I got to South Africa they needed to see too many masks but they have a little gun to check your temperature and even going into Lesotho they checked our temperature coming into South Africa you couldn't even get off the plane nobody get off the plane they checked and made sure that nobody on the plane was had a temperature and I'm not sure what they would have done if that been the case you couldn't even get on the plane if you'd been to China within the last 14 days but they're taking it very seriously over there but it was a relief to get to South Africa really because you just felt like you weren't in this mass of humanity all wearing masks and shooting you with a gun all the time so it was was good to be there I loved going to Lesotho it was was interesting because when went up to customs there are a couple ladies there and mr. both immediately got into a conversation with one of them and I didn't know exactly what it was about he told me before but I didn't sink in but he asked her if she'd been reading the book and the book that he was talking about was the Bible because the last time he had come into Lesotho he was asked if he had anything that he was leaving behind I guess and he mentioned some Bibles and and this lady asked if she could have one and so she had to actually go out to his car where he gave her a Bible so he was asking her if she read the Bible and there was a very lively friendly smiling exchange between the two of them which certainly would not hurt our ability to get into the country if something came up but nevertheless it was interesting to see that and she was very very friendly toward mr. Botha one of the ladies that we met there in Lesotho where the congregation small congregation about 15 people or so was 92 years of age and if I understand the story correctly her husband was the the king of that area or some other area at one time perhaps mr. McNair knows a little bit more of that or somebody else from South Africa or that has been to South Africa could fill that in but it was very nice to see her they had served a wonderful meal for us we were able to leave after dark there and kind of it's a very difficult place to travel in some respects because it's narrow roads and people on the roads and a lot of people in that part of the world are killed as pedestrians because they don't walk on the side of the road facing traffic they walk with it and the lights of other cars can blind you so mr. both is very capable in that area but certainly needs our prayers he and all the others that work in that part of the world flew from there down to can t remember where I flew to but I was in Port Elizabeth that was another Bible study that we had there so we had a couple Bible studies while I was in town and Sabbath services and Joburg and Pretoria where they had a ray Bry never can't pronounce it right but anyway it's a barbecue and they have three kinds of meat and so forth but it was very very enjoyable being there all the way through flew back to Atlanta that was another 16-hour flight and then layover and then flying back here but it turned out it wasn't too bad the seats were a little bit further apart than normal and I thought I was going to be able to lay down because I had one of those roles where there were three seats and nobody else was there but in front of me there was a couple and then there was a single lady that wanted to move and so she asked if she could sit there by the window so she did so it was not as comfortable but I watched several movies I was too tired to really work but turned out to be very very good and I do appreciate all the prayers of God's people every place I went people were saying they were praying for me and I know that's true and I certainly do appreciate it because I have done on trips overseas where I did not stay as healthy as this time but God was really with me in every way I did miss one flight because of a mix-up they changed the time but I was able to catch it 25 minutes later and that was the day I was flying to Cape Town for the tomorrow there were presentations so I was happy that I was able to get one that was only 25 minutes later the warmth and the support of all our people in these areas is very heartwarming they wanted to say hello to all of you they are fully supportive of the work that we're doing here and all the members they were just very warm very supportive in every way the dedication of our ministry is is amazing some of these men travel in that part of the world long distances mr. Tyler has to travel up to to India to Thailand to Thailand over to Malaysia and other places and they just spend a lot of time traveling in areas that are not quite as is easy to travel in is what you and I are able to travel in most of the time and the the kind of travel that I did was really the type of thing that dr. renae Oh does he's been that around the world several times and we have mr. Hernandez traveling all through Central and South America over to France from time to time we have mr. Peter Nathan who travels from Britain all the way down to the tip of South Africa from time to time as well as other places in Africa mr. Rees Ellis does a lot of travel in Africa so these men do this all the time this was a little bit unusual for me to be able to take such an extensive trip but they take these long trips from time to time and pretty regularly so they certainly do need our prayers and I hope that we will remember them in our prayers there was a a theme that I used in most of the Bible studies that I gave well on this trip it's a theme that evolved based on a common someone made and based on a book that I read three and a half decades ago and of course based on the Bible and it involves how technology changes our way of thinking and acting and how we need to be circumspect about such changes in other words there's a lot that it's happening in our world that it's changing you and me in ways that we would never think of but it is changing us is changing our behavior is changing how we actually think let's notice in Daniel the twelfth chapter very familiar passage we've read this many many times on the telecast and sermons but just want to refer to it because it's relevant for our day today in verse 4 Daniel 12 verse 4 but you O Daniel shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end so it's talking about our day today and it says many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase when you see all the people flying back and forth and all around the world yes many are running to and fro maybe not as many today at the moment because of this virus but nevertheless many are going to and fro but knowledge shall increase we have never seen such a knowledge explosion and all the history of mankind and we're talking about artificial intelligence and all the stuff that goes on knowledge truly is increasing at an ever-increasing rate exponentially and yet in the book of hosea just a few pages over and the book of hosea the next book after daniel and the fourth chapter in verse 6 says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge so how do we square the two knowledge is increasing but God through Hosea says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge well it goes on to say because you have rejected knowledge notice it says you have rejected knowledge the knowledge is there but you've rejected it I also will reject you from being priest for me because you have forgotten the law of your God I also will forget your children now that's the world in which we live God is truly forgetting our children our children that are growing up now I don't mean your children hopefully but young people are growing up today are lost when it comes to truth how else can we explain the socialist agenda in our country that is being swallowed by some 60% of Millennials it's hard hard to comprehend how you can have a candidate for president in this country who is praising Venezuela and Cuba and other communist places around the world when we look at what's happened in those places in Venezuela they've lost what a quarter of their weight I think it is it seems 25 pounds or 25 percent of their weight for lack of food or lack of the ability to buy food that was some months ago I don't know where they are today but we see this this ignorant of of history of what's happening in the world and yet people are buying into this sort of thing I'm not trying to be political this is just a fact that this agenda that has been tried in Cuba and in the Soviet Union in China China's prospering because they got rid of that economic plan you know it's it's amazing how things are changing in the world and how young people really don't understand but the point is that they are they are rejecting the true knowledge of God but not just the knowledge of God but knowledge of history in general as we shall see and because they've rejected knowledge God says he's going to reject them as sad because young people are being manipulated by leftist professors in our culture and society that really want a very different world from the world that you and I grew up in they're pushing this agenda of same-sex marriage of course I mean that's almost past say now but of transgenderism and all the other things and by the way there's a good commentary by mr. Davy Crocket that just came out I think today and he talks about this a little bit very strong commentary we don't know what kind of pushback we'll get but it's very interesting that he's written that and is published for this weekend but we see that they have rejected knowledge I was just reading in a book by Bill Bryson on the human body and it's talking about blood and the red blood cells the white blood cells the platelets and how the platelets are it was only in I think in this past century that they understood what they were for what the purpose of them was and they have to do with blood clotting and as Michael Behe points out in his book on the subject the the body has to protect itself it has to clot when something happens you get caught if it didn't clot you would bleed to death but at the same time if it doesn't stop the clotting at certain point your whole body just turned into gel you die and and Bryson says very interestingly in just very quick statement he said there are 12 a at least 12 I think his way he says it checks or what's the word that he uses 12 safeguards involved in the clotting system now how did that evolve we have come the place where we can see what happens within the cell we can see the marvels of life itself and that knowledge is being rejected and being substitute with the power of evolution it's such a powerful thing evolution over in Romans the first chapter again a very familiar scripture and verse 18 it says for the wrath of God Romans 1:18 for the wrath of God has revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness and that's what we see today we see a lot of knowledge out there but we see a suppression of the truth or there be moral truth or just truths that are inconvenient for this leftist agenda that we see in our modern world we see the pro-life movement being squelched but we see a promotion of the idea of abortion that's there everywhere over an Isaiah the 59th chapter Isaiah 59 I know that sometimes people think well this this is sounding political this is this is a moral issue whether it be abortion whether it be same-sex marriage whether it be transgenderism and a whole lot of other things these are moral issues and these are being squelched and rejected and other ideas are being substituted in their favor or in favor of these behaviors that are contrary to the law of God and verse 13 Isaiah 59 verse 13 says in transgressing and lying against the eternal yes they lie and departing from God speaking oppression or vote revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood notice conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood they conceived these things they think these things up we hear about fake news and fake news goes across all political barriers or sides of things but we hear these things and these these are conceived these are thought up these are things that that they think of and then they utter them from the heart words of falsehood justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off if you want to know what justice is and how it's been turned back just Acts Jack Phillips the fellow that makes cakes and Colorado yes he's one eventually after about seven years of persecution but at what cost was there any real justice in that and there are others that have experienced that justice has turned back and righteousness stands afar off for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter so truth fails and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey we see that happening in our world over in Jeremiah just a few pages over again Jeremiah the fourth chapter and verse 22 describes our world today he says for my people are foolish Jeremiah 4 22 my people are foolish they have not known me they are silly children and they have no understanding they're wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge now why is it that they are silly children why is it that they have no understanding and their wives do evil but to do good they don't know I read a book about thirty-five years ago by Neil postman he was titled amusing ourselves to death public discourse in the age of show business and in the book it's it's the first 40 pages are tough it's it's it's at least they were tough for me it might not be tough for you okay but they were tough for me to read the first 40 pages because I really did he used vocabulary I wasn't used to hearing and after you get through that it becomes interesting and one of the most influential books that I've personally read it's not a long book it's a pretty short read one sense but you have to stick with it for a bit but he starts out by talking about how we judge knowledge and intelligence and he used the example as I recall of Solomon over in first Kings the fourth chapter I don't think he actually turned the scriptures but he did refer to this in a general sense first Kings 4 and verse 29 it says and God gave Solomon wisdom an exceedingly great understanding and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore thus Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt for he was wiser than all men than Ethan the Ezra height and Heymann caw caw another couple individuals and his fame was in all the surrounding nations now how was he described as being intelligent and obviously his intelligence went beyond this but as the postman was pointing out that a person who knew a lot of Proverbs at one time was considered a very intelligent person you kind of see that a little bit with Confucius a lot of Proverbs he was considered a wise man he had a lot of Proverbs and aphorisms and so forth it says he spoke 3000 proverbs and his songs were 1005 but he also spoke of trees from cedar trees and animals and birds and creeping things and fish he had a wide scope of knowledge about a whole lot of things but the point that postman was making is not so much just about Solomon but there was a time when there was not as much writing or was not ready of readily available and so if you were able to quote proverbs that you are considered to be an intelligent person and he traced it down through history to a more modern time when you are considered intelligent if you could read and write now a person who could not read or write was not considered all that intelligent but there are people that couldn't read and write but they could do a lot of things in a physical way that someone who can read and write would not be able to do so you could be able to read and write and be dumb as a bag of rocks in some ways when it comes to practical things but that's the way that we evaluate intelligence now coming down to our age he brought down to the telegraph because when the telegraph came in we could find out what was happening way over there from here we could find out that you know mrs. McGillicuddy's cat died in the fire and who cares but we we learned those things we can find out about those things there there there and so the telegraph brought news from far too you know think about things that we really they have no effect on our life at all now this Broadus says he brought out to the age of Trivial Pursuit where when you have a man who's on Jeopardy as an example who wins 26 times in a row we think he's intelligent now he's good at pressing the button the buzzer at the right time and he has a lot of a lot of facts about a lot of different things but what does he know in the context of everything what does he know about the context of things we had the game Trivial Pursuit and people that were good at Trivial Pursuit were thought of as being intelligent well that person is smart might say it that way he's smart he knows all these little facts about a lot of things that have no connection necessarily we have newer means of communication that make it possible that we can sit in say Charlotte right here we can read an electronic version of of a London newspaper about a fire in Australia so we read it here but it comes from London but it's about something happens on the other side of the world we the accuracy of which may be questioned by those who are closer the the scene it may be correct it may not be correct but how are we going to know for sure as we sit here we read those things now just as the telegraph changed our world so have other technologies radically changed who we are and how we think and without realizing it I'll bring some of these threads together here in a minute but let me give you an example my wife and I were driving from Wisconsin Dells after a Bible study or Sabbath service I guess was on time down to Dubuque Iowa and we cut across country and we were getting 50 miles out or so we had a Bible study later that the next day and so I thought well maybe we better check and see if we can find a motel so I stopped at this hotel and they were full it's not drove a little further and there was another hotel and they were full and we began to realize there was something going on here and ask a few questions and I don't know it was a prom night or something but it was some big event and as they're basically told the hotels for miles around were taken up and so we drove by a bed-and-breakfast place and I'm getting a little bit desperate this time we've got to find a place to stay and so I I knocked on the door or rung the doorbell and this fella came to the door he had a beard and and I said two questions do you have a room and how much wasn't really know hello or anything like that and he was kind of taken back and he he said well he said no we don't have any room and the price he gave me the price he said what would you like to come and look at the place well I felt kind of bad because I had been a little bit abrupt with him so I thought okay I'll I'll go in and he'll show me a room and that'll be it so I went in he started talking and preached and I said well I've got to go my wife's out in the car he said oh bring her in well so I did I went got her and we came in and he ushered us into this room and he flipped light on that was key he flipped lights on because before we could sit down and he began to explain that these lights were very special lights they're very old and you could not replace them you could have them repaired but you had to send them off to some place where they would repair them or refurbish them and that's why he rarely turned these lights on in other words I'm turning this on for a special occasion now how do you leave at that point so he invited to sit down and we sat down and we talked and you know it was one of the one of the most interesting conversations it was we stayed there a good hour we didn't find a place to stay until about 50 miles on the other side of Dubuque but we we did find a place eventually late at night 1 o'clock in the morning or something but it was an interesting conversation and he was talking about how our world has changed and how the owner of this house who was a cabinet member and one of the presidents I remember which one president's cabinet always had time for people because you see they used to sit out on the porch and the cool of the day in the summer and neighbors would come by and they would talk and that was something that our world was losing and we discussed a number of things and he point out two things they're so obvious to all of us if we think about it and that is two things changed two things took us off the front porch and being neighborly in that way one was air conditioning and the other was television and so instead of sitting out on the porch where we can visit with our neighbors as they walk down the street invite them up there for a cold drink we closeted ourselves and homes with our televisions with mice air-conditioning in the summer or heating in the winter whatever it might be but those two inventions changed who we are they really did and now does that mean that it's all evil well we can we can we talk about that I suppose we can debate that all day long but that is a change that has taken place let me give another example I was listening so I was driving up the summer camp one time and there was about an hour long program on the radio NPR or something and it was talking about the Amish community and they were interviewing one of the leaders of the Amish movement or the Amish religion and he was pointing out that what a lot of people think about Amish is not true for example a lot of people think that they think that the automobile is a sin and he was saying no the automobile is not a sin but he says what the automobile will do for our young people is take them out of our community into town where there is a lot of sin now think about how the automobile has changed for example dating how the automobile has changed young people whose minds may not be totally mature yet but the hormones are raging and they take you know dating dating is very different today than it once was we have to think about these things how do these things changes now we've got another technology this is much newer smartphone right how many of you have a smartphone is there anybody that doesn't know you don't have to raise your hand we all have oh somebody doesn't okay smartphones you know this the phone is smart now we think because we have this that we are more intelligent today I say now you probably never thought of it that way but I think a lot of young people think oh my god wonderful technologies and all this sort of wonderful stuff let me tell you what this will do for you you want to know what 132 divided by 11 is it'll tell you the answer do you know how to do division apart from this well those of us who are older do but young people don't have to know what 2 plus 2 is all they have to do is hey Google what's two plus two oops like him on those if I had this on I suppose it would tell me I mean it's on but it's on airplane mode you don't have to know two plus two anymore do you because it tells us everything now let me bring this closer to home we have commentaries online we have a number of things online and as you're reading through it we've got a hyperlink and so it may have a scripture and you don't have to look up that scripture do you all you'd have to do is hover over that hyperlink boom there it is it tells you what's there now this seems like a good idea it seems like well we can do it we ought to do it but I think this is a discussion that we ought to have here in the church I say in the church and not not amongst all of us but in other words at headquarters I think it's a discussion we ought to have are we without realizing it dumbing people down because many people only use this for their Bible probably some of you now does that mean it's bad to be able to ask Google a question of course not in our lunches mr. Aames does this all the time he asks Google about something maybe one of us says something he wants to check it make sure there's nothing wrong with that but we have to understand it and we have to understand the limitations that the has because let me give you an example let's go with this one of the things that Neil postman brought out is a mantra that you and I have probably all used at one time or another how many of you have heard that a picture's worth a thousand words yeah pretty much everybody how many have actually said that pictures worth a thousand words okay no sin no problem but what is a picture what is a picture a picture is an instant in time a fraction of a second in time that's been captured of some event and we don't know what went before we do not know what went after that we don't know what is on this side or that side of the picture or up or down it's an instant in time now what's the problem with that one of the most iconic pictures during the Vietnam War was a South Vietnamese colonel with a pistol shooting at point-blank range a young man and it's it's actually captured almost at the instant that the trigger is pulled and you know the man is falling away I'm sure that most of you have seen that at least most of us who are older maybe some of the younger people have not I think was in Time magazine or Look magazine Life magazine one of those and it became one of the rallying cries for the anti-war movement that this awful terrible thing that was happening there in South Vietnam by the South Vietnamese soldier now what it didn't tell us it showed a man shooting another man it shall come pretty much what's going to be the result of it but what it didn't show us is what happened before and what was not generally known at that time because it wasn't published it wasn't what the media wanted to say but that young man had thrown a grenade into a restaurant or busy area killing and maiming a number of people just before that now that puts a little different light on the picture doesn't it but without knowing that all you see is one man shooting this innocent looking younger fellow a picture may be worth a thousand words in a way but it doesn't give context to anything well this is the age of knowledge it is certainly not the age of understanding or wisdom when people forget their history they cease to know who they are and this is what is happening in our world we are forgetting history just read something the other day how at least according to one person he feels that Germany never lost and never learned the lesson the United States where we are we haven't learned the lessons of history as we become some cases more isolationist as we encourage the Europeans to rearm as we pull back from the alliances that we've had there we've not learned the lessons of history there are so many things that we are forgetting in our world today and I say on the first chapter Isaiah one and verse two Isaiah one and verse 2 it says hear o heavens and give ear o earth for the eternal has spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me verse 3 the Ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib but Israel does not know my people do not consider in other words Israel during the time of Isaiah how much more so today have forgotten where they came from they forgot about the Exodus they forgot about the God who has blessed them we have forgotten who our God is we are beginning to worship other gods and reject God in general alas sinful nation o people a people laden with iniquity a brood of evildoers children who are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord and they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel they have turned away backward why should you be stricken again he says verse 5 you will revoke more and more the whole head is sick and the whole heart faints from the sole of the foot even to the head there's no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores they've not been closed up or bound up or soothed with ointment when we look at our world when we look at America as an example because I can't speak for every nation at this time but certainly America we see nothing but trouble in our world yes we've got a great economy but we have a 23 trillion dollar debt how do we how do we square that we've got lots of jobs but we've got something that's brewing out there sooner or later it's going to come back to bite us your country is desolate your cities are burned with fire strangers Duvall your land and your presence and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers we've got a few cities burned by fire literally fire in Australia and Canada the United States out in Paradise California what's the one up there and Fort McMurray and in Canada a place in Australia of lost parts their cities certainly a lot of land so the daughter of Zion is left as a booth and a vineyard as a hut and a garden of cucumbers as a besieged city unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant we should have become like Sodom we would have been made like Gomorrah and he says here the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom give ear to the law of our God you people of Gomorrah that's our world it's interesting that the Gentiles in this world are the ones who are upset about the changes taking place more than we are some of the African nations they don't put up with some of this stuff one of the candidates for president cannot get the black vote because the lifestyle they just don't want they don't want that we keep pushing for other countries to be like us in immorality and not the rest of the rest of the world is not accepting it now some of it is the Israelite nations are some of the Gentile nations but much of the world does not agree with our lifestyle with what we are promoting the culture that we have that's one of the problems we have much of the the Islamic world they see us going in a direction they don't want their people to go over in Deuteronomy 32 Deuteronomy 32 and verse 15 June I'm 32 15 but gesture on will grew fat and kicked you grew fat you grew thick you are obese then he forsook God and made him who made him and scornfully esteemed the rock of his salvation we were forsaken God we've grown fat as it were in terms of we have everything for us we've got our smartphones we've got our houses we've got our air conditioning with our cars we have all these things we don't need God anymore we think as a nation I don't mean you and me but this is what is coming with our nation they provoked him to jealousy with foreign gods with abominations they provoked him to anger they sacrificed to demons not to God to gods they did not know to new gods new arrivals that your fathers did not hear interesting how we have more people going into the New Age movement and even vagin ism as a part as I've mentioned in past sermons as it's a religion to people they're looking for other gods they've rejected the true God and they're looking for meaning in life and so they get caught up in all kinds of things he says of the rock who begat you you are unmindful and I've forgotten the God who fathered you yes we've forgotten our Creator and Jeremiah the second chapter of Jeremiah 2 and verse 32 Jeremiah 2 and verse 32 it says can a virgin forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number our people our Israelitish people especially have forgotten God many of the countries around this world never really knew God but much of the southern hemisphere is condemning the northern hemisphere for a rejection of the God that we tried to teach them about granted it was a false god but they see certain values the Bible we took the Bible to some of these countries and then we reject what the Bible says very clearly and they're taking them task of the Catholic Church and the Protestant world as well context in history which by the way is the title of the sermon context in history is important when you read through the Bible you find an interesting thing that I used to bother me a little bit because I'm a bit lazy at times and that is that an individual would go down through the whole history in rehearsing something as an example Steven when he was before the the individuals that were going to stone him rehearsed the history of Israel he just went read through there for yourself acts a seventh chapter he goes down through that history but that's not the only place in Psalm 78 fairly lengthy Psalm it does the same thing this turn over is Psalm 105 and we'll look at this one I don't have time for the whole Psalm it's 45 verses but notice what it says beginning in verse 1 I'll give thanks to the Lord call upon his name make known his deeds among the people sing to him sing psalms to him talk of all his wondrous works [Music] now what are his works that is going to talk about here it says glory and his holy name let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord we sing that a song seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore remember his marvelous works which he has done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth o seat of Abraham his servant you children of Jacob his chosen one so it goes right back to Abraham and to Jacob he is the eternal our God verse 7 his judgments are in all the earth he remembers his covenant forever looking back to the covenant that was made he remembers his covenant forever the word which he commanded for a thousand generations the covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute so it goes right back to the beginning of Israel now this is some what 500 years later one of our scholars I'm sure can tell us exactly what it was but if the accident took place around 1440 or there abouts Solomon know at the temple was 960 or something like that I forget the exact date 960 I believe was we've come some hundreds of years longer than the United States has been a nation and yet it's looking back to the beginning looking back to the foundation what are we doing in our world today we're looking back to the Constitution looking back to the founding of our nation because we are forgetting the founding of this nation and I'm not praising and saying that everything was great about the founding of this nation it was a democracy it was not God's Way of life it was not the Bible the Constitution is not the Bible I understand that but we as a people are forgetting where we came from and that's in a physical sense how much more have we gotten where we came from when it came to the Bible verse 11 saying to you I will give the land of Canaan as the the allotment of your inheritance when you they were few in number indeed very few and strangers in it when they went from one nation to another from one kingdom to another people he permitted no one to do them wrong yes he rebuked Kings for their sake saying do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm and then it goes down through here and it talks about the Exodus verse 26 he sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen and they performed signs and wonders and and so forth a just goes down through the history of where they came from and this is what our people are forgetting and we must never forget where we come from the truths that we have we must know where we come from you can read in a Deuteronomy the first couple verses do it on a one verse two and three just notice that the whole book of Deuteronomy is a rehearsing of what happened in the laws and and so forth after 40 years in the wilderness notice it says verse 2 it's 11 days journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea and it came to pass in the fortieth year in the eleventh month on the first day of the month that Moses spoke to the children of Israel so it was eleven days journey it took him forty years to make it it's really what he's saying there that's what he's saying that's what he's pointing out there and then he shows why he goes sooo all these things he says look when you are blessed with all these things when you have homes that you didn't build and fields that you didn't start out and plant and vineyards and all this sort of thing don't get fat and self-satisfying don't forget the God who gave it to you you can go down through Paul's defenses of himself in acts a 22nd chapter in acts 26 you can read Hebrews the eleventh chapter how Paul in that particular chapter rehearses the people of faith starting at the beginning and going all the way through we read in 2nd Peter the second chapter how he goes back to the Angels prehistory you might say or a pre Adam and how they left their first estate he talks about the pre-flood world he talks about Sodom he takes us back to those things to remind us of what the consequences are when we forget it he tells us in Deuteronomy the 17th chapter that the king was to write out the book of the law and read daily from it now why is all this important to us well they said Google can answer 132 divided by 11 but do we understand the context of it do we understand how that answer is derived I went down here this cookout burger and that's not here just up the street from the office one time and I bought a hamburger and I had french fries and coleslaw and a soft drink it was 5 dollars and 27 cents so I gave the man $20 $20 bill and 27 cents he gave me five fives back do the math either you're asleep or you can't do math I don't know which it is here it's like had to tell him that he giving me too much now maybe maybe the things happen I mean we all make mistakes but how many times have you been at a cash register where if if it isn't exactly it used to be that they couldn't plug that amount in that 27 cents and now they they're pretty good at it tells them what to give back but a lot of times they don't even know when it's wrong somebody comes up with a figure that is so far off that anybody ought to be able to figure you should shouldn't have to do the math but they don't know because they they rely on whatever the Machine says it happens with statistics it happens with everything we rely on the machines and we don't use our to ask what's happening what is this here that's going on let me give you an example of what I'm talking about when I came into the truth I started reading the booklets friend had or a brother of a friend had gotten me interested and I wouldn't read the booklets and being lazy as I have the tendency to be try not to be but that's a tendency of my nature I noticed that every time it referred to a verse that I could count on I could turn over there with great difficulty because I didn't know which books followed which books but I would go to the index and eventually you kind of get to know the Bible that way and that's all I'd look and sure enough it's there well no need to look it up because it's there no need to actually open up the Bible because the hyperlink shows where it is no need it's there in fact after a while you don't even have to look at the hyperlink you just get the the overall just of the article but then a couple came along an older couple husband wife and they said that the law is done away with they started taking things out of context in Romans and Galatians and Colossians I think I've told you this before and they had my head spinning and the fella who I found out the truth from originally I started talking him so no that's not right and he said let's get the booklets out let's let's look at him and we started looking at the scriptures again and I began to understand some things I didn't understand everything as I've said before but I understood enough you know I look back at that time I could have fallen away at age 17 I could have thankfully I didn't just happen to catch the broadcast on my own the radio program on my own thankfully there was somebody else there who kind of helped me up a little bit now he was never really converted he you know went to church for a while he had his problems but nevertheless I'm thankful that he was there because we had to go back and we had to start reading the scriptures in the context of them we couldn't take a snapshot we had to find out what was the context of these scriptures that's so important electronic Bibles have their place but they can be deceptive for those who use their electronic Bibles do you know the books of the Bible and order perhaps do you have an overview of how the Bible is put together you know there's something about having something in your hands and being able to read through and see from one book to the next you see if I just look up a scripture and I don't turn to anything I can yes I can read what's before what's after but at least on my my computer if I go to the Book of Numbers then I have to come out and go into the book of Deuteronomy but I might not see the connection between those two books I might not for example in reading Exodus the 49th chapter therefore I'm sorry 3030 ninth chapter fortieth chapter I'll get it right Exodus 40 I can find it because I'm passing through here Exodus 40 verse 17 it came to pass in the first month of the second year on the first day of the month that the tabernacle was raised up so that tells us that the end of the of the year it's the first day of the first month of the second year the tabernacle has raised up and so I can begin to see that all of this that we have an exodus from exodus 12 onward is a period of one year and then you read over in Deuteronomy at the beginning there and it says it came past in the fortieth year the eleventh month the first day you begin to understand that do you know why for example the book of Ruth is found where it's found let's go over to the Book of Ruth why is the Book of Ruth found in the way that we the way that we have it in our King James Version why is it found where it's found well it follows the book of Judges and you read judges I'm sorry Ruth the first chapter verse one it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled okay well that kind of tells you this is why it's written it's located where it is because we've just finished the book of Judges and instead of putting the lesson of Ruth in the book of Judges it's a separate book but why else is if we go to the end of the book only four chapters it says now this is the genealogy of Perez and then it gives the genealogy of these various people verse 21 salomon began TOA as boy as begat obed Boaz was one of the individuals here that's so important all but began Jesse and Jesse begot David so it's leading up to David what do we read in the next books the book of 1st Samuel well it introduces the first King and then I first of all Eli and Samuel and then the first King and then introduces David before he became King second samuel is David after he became King you get a feel for it when you have it in your hands and you can go back and forth and you see it you know what sized part of the pages on if you only rely on electronics yes it'll give you the answer but will it give you the context it can if you read the whole thing the whole book and that that but I there's something about it isn't there there is a difference for those of us who grew up cutting our teeth on this we see a difference now we're not talking about going back the scrolls but there's something when you've got it in your hands there's a feel for how large is this book how you know where does it fit with the other books of the Bible we can use these things as a tool electronics but don't rely on them entirely do we understand the point is how technology changes our lives changes how we think changes how we act and sometimes it's not always the best way it's not the technologies are bad mr. Armstrong always use technologies we use them but we have to understand the limitations of technologies pictures are wonderful but we must understand the limitations of pictures if we're going to use those pictures to change the way that we think about something the article that I wrote came the social media monster March April 2018 tomorrow's world I've encouraged you to go back and read that and not just read it and say okay that's interesting information but begin to think okay here are these individuals who've created the Internet and social media and they're saying we've unleashed a monster what do they mean by that and what way have they done so and how does that affect me the devil's deadly deceptions March April 2019 tomorrow's world another article that would do as well to read I would encourage you if you haven't done so to go on the internet and and listen to the sermon if you missed it here I gave it here but a sermon that I gave the serpent's infomercial how he is playing us like a fiddle and we've got to be not only smart enough but spiritually mature in to see what he's doing he is selling something and a lot of people even in the church are buying it Satan's alternative universe was the other one on when mentioned by dr. Meredith July August 2016 these articles are more than just an article to read they are articles that we need to meditate on that we need to think about and we need to ask ourselves some very hard questions how are these things affecting us sometimes the most dangerous of Satan's devices are the ones that are the least obvious pornography we know that's from Satan same sex marriage we know that's from Satan a hyperlink that I begin to rely on instead of actually reading in context the whole Bible that's a little bit more subtle isn't it we live in an ever-evolving world it's easy to allow technology to mold and fashion us so it's important to think and to meditate it's important to be grounded in spiritual truths don't always take the easy way I did for a short period time early in life and it could have cost me everything because I was taking the easy way don't allow Satan to lead you about as a bull with a ring in your nose because that's what he's doing with the world walk circumspectly no history no context especially in terms of the Bible [Music] you

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Length: 73min 59sec (4439 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020