Shattering

Take your Bibles, if you would, please, and turn to 2 Corinthians 10:5. Today's sermon is going to be preparatory for our Shattered Conference, and I'm looking forward to that starting this Friday evening. Our key verse for the Shattered Conference is 2 Corinthians 10:5. If you're taking notes, today's message is "Shattering," and so I have some things that I would like to work with us on in preparation for this idea of shattering. We need to see that from the text first of all.

By way of proposition, I'll say to you that the need to defend our faith by refuting and dismantling and shattering what opposes Christ and condemns souls to death forever is greater now than ever. And so let's see in the text in 2 Corinthians 10:5 where we need also to be ones who are destroying speculations and shattering and dismantling them. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, the Bible says, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

Pray with me for just a moment, if you would. Lord, thank You for the opportunity to go into this frame of mind so that we can be families that develop the purity of Christianity within ourselves, and a church that has a purity of Christianity, and as well our own souls. Lord, help us to be sanctified by Your Word today and to see that it is a Christian duty to refute anything that opposes You and stand for sound doctrine. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

In the text, you'll see the word "destroying," and this word means shattering. And so I'll identify some of the key words in this text as we go through this verse together. The first word, "we," by textual observation, means that Paul and his accompanying ministers are defending themselves against the critics in the church. And so this is an issue within the church. You have the need for sound doctrine to be refined.

And then it says, "We are." This is something that we are doing. This is a state of being. We're continuously being sanctified and refined. This state of being is a present action. This is kind of like our identity: we are Christians, and Satan opposes Christianity. And so we need to constantly be refining what Christianity is for us and in us.

And so interpretively, this verse means that the visible church truly has wheat and tares in it. That's the visible church, not the actual true church. And that is the case for most congregations: you have wheat and tares, lost and saved people, everywhere. Applicationally, then, we would say that we defend sound doctrine and destroy false doctrine. We have to be able to identify a snake for what it is, and then also sound doctrine for what it is. We don't want to blur the lines. American Christianity blurs the lines to where anything goes, and you can say anything and get away with it. In fact, you don't have to have qualified leaders, and such just kind of erodes from there. But in this verse, "we are."

And then the Bible says "destroying." This word "destroy" means to take down by force. It means to refute and diminish, shatter. We are shatterers. We are shattering anything that raises itself up against the knowledge of Christ. The Greek word here means dismantle and then demolish. It is a work to where you dismantle the foundation of these rudimentary arguments, and then you shatter it. The arrogant philosophies are torn down.

It's an image that we can see, kind of like a building, where someone would go in—perhaps if the building needs to be torn down—and you attach some bombs to the pillars, and you blow up those pillars, and then the whole building comes crashing down. And so as Christians, we get inside of these arguments, these false religions, these ideologies, and we identify them, and we compare it to the Bible and Christ, remove them or blow them up, and that whole speculation comes crashing down.

Hold your place there and turn to 1 Samuel 2:10. I'd like for you to see this idea of shattering coming not only from the militant apostle Paul, who was a minister planting churches, working hard against the Corinthianization of society, but it's also for women. Women are both to be shatterers as well. In 1 Samuel—if I spoke incorrectly, it is 1 Samuel chapter 2—you see Hannah's song of thanksgiving. And then in verse 10, 1 Samuel 2:10 says this: "Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered." And so you see Hannah's confidence here as she is singing and praying to the Lord, that she also was one who was going to shatter speculations, and she is looking forward to the day where Christ shatters all of these ideologies. And so shattering is for both men and women.

Back to 2 Corinthians 10:5. I just wanted you to see that "shattered" is all over the Bible, by the way. It's a phenomenal word. And you'll see in 2 Corinthians 10:5, as we continue to move forward to understand what this idea is, that we are destroying speculations. Speculations are reasonings. They are thoughts that reach the heart. Have you ever been around in a conversation where someone floated an idea and you thought, "That's a dangerous ideology"? Well, at that very moment, when the Holy Spirit of God convicts your heart, reveals to you that that is a dangerous idea, it needs to be confronted. It needs to be addressed. It cannot creep into not only our hearts but our children's hearts and those around us.

We're apologists. We're defenders of the faith. We are Christians. We're on the offense. We not only defend the faith, but we also move forward in the faith to see that the faith is established in others. And so these reasonings and these thoughts that reach the heart and the conscience and such, the seed-thought ideas—we as Christians are responsible to analyze ideas and to see if it is lifting up Christ or if it is raising itself up against Christ. And so we are destroying speculations.

If we could take just a little bit of time here with this word "speculations," turn to 2 Timothy 2:23. It's important to see how this is an important thing for us to be able to do as a people, to be obedient to the Scriptures. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 23, you'll see this idea come up. It says, "But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations." To refuse these speculations is congruent with point number one, if you're taking notes: shattering is dismantling anything that is antichrist. Point number one: shattering is dismantling anything that is antichrist.

And for this, 2 Timothy 2:23 says to "refuse foolish and ignorant speculations." And if we're going to be faithful, to refuse means to actually shun. But it moves forward from shunning an idea that is foolish or ignorant, that raises itself against Christ; it also means to avoid and reject it. And so you can't just simply walk away and be faithful. A fully faithful Christian is not only going to eventually walk away from something that is ignorant and foolish, but they're also going to confront it and reject it and even shun it. To bring it down, to shun and to reject, is to bring something down. It's an active rejection, not a passive rejection. And so it's not good enough just to keep your mouth closed when something is going wrong. Lives are at stake here. It's an active rejection, not passive.

And it's not friendship evangelism, which has been popularized in our day. That would say where you engage with them and you affirm them, and then one day, after you have made friends with them and affirmed them for—what, I don't know—you've become their friend, and you've got it up your sleeve one day to give them the truth, and you switch on them. Like, you totally turn on them. You say, "Oh, well, I don't really affirm what you have been saying. I actually believe that you have to die to yourself and repent and believe the gospel." You see, friendship evangelism is actually cruel when you do not share with them the truth as you are really being authentic with them as you go.

And so if someone is truly, like, perhaps a Jehovah's Witness or any other religion, or they don't believe Christ, just be a Christian up front, and don't hide your Christianity. Don't think you have to establish a rapport or friendship with them first. Otherwise, it's a works-based system that you're following, because it's the power of the gospel unto salvation. It's not your good looks, though you look good. It's not your smile; they have good smiles. It's not your good clothes—that we all have clothes, and I'm grateful for that. It is truly Romans 1:16, the power of the gospel unto salvation for those who would repent and believe. And so we need to be dismantling these things and refusing these things as we go.

Nor is it the other extreme, who perhaps would be engaged in, like, aggressive debates and arguments. We're not all about the refuting of arguments. We don't lead with this idea. We are Christians—meek, humble, gentle, truthful Christians. And so don't go to the other extreme. So you're going to go from one extreme of being, like, completely, you know, liberal and allowing anything, to now being too legalistic and aggressive in conversation. And if you do that, you would be one who would be more about winning the argument rather than the person. And so how you do what you do really matters. How you are with people—remember, you're a Christian, and you're giving them the person and the work of Jesus Christ, not winning an argument at the expense of the soul.

And so the idea of refusing is not necessarily abrupt. It's not aggressive. You are depreciating foolish ideas through persuasion, through facts of Scripture, and then you are appreciating, or lifting up, Jesus Christ and faith in Him. And so this is truly the work of the gospel. It says in 2 Timothy 2:23 this: "But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels." And so by refusing these foolish and ignorant speculations, this idea of refusing speculations is identifying the fact that unedifying debates cause quarrels. And we don't want to be engaged in endless unedifying debates. We want to be more or less focused upon edifying doctrine and lifting up Jesus. And along the way, you've got to identify: does it measure up? But you see the balance in that. We are not aggressively attacking; we are lifting Jesus Christ.

And so the myths, the Gnosticism, and the stories of the old glory days were something that Paul was addressing here. It's not about the old covenant, the old system, the old tabernacle. Those days had their purpose, and now they're obsolete, and all of the traditions now were being replaced with new worship in Christ, new covenant Christianity. And so Paul was dealing with churches who had both Gentiles and Jews who had been converted to Christ, or were being converted, or someday to be saved. And within these congregations, you would have Jews who would have rich traditions, and they would say, "Well, what about what we used to do when it comes to the festivals? And what about what we used to do when it comes to the feasts?" And what about when you're wanting to reinstate all of these things because it's what they've always done? And this would cause within the churches all kinds of debates and discussions. And Paul's like, "Hey, this stuff, these speculations, these rudimentary arguments, all this stuff—these are not helpful. Jesus Christ is 'the way, the truth, and the life,' and we need to focus on Him." And reduce things that are human traditions, reduce things that are obsolete, reduce things that actually raise themselves up against Jesus Christ.

Contextually, Paul is saying refuse, but do not wrangle about words. Look at 2:14. In 2 Timothy 2:14: "Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers." Paul contextually then is also saying to avoid empty chatter; it leads to ungodliness. Read verse 16 with me: "But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness." And then as well, this spreads like gangrene, if you read verse 17 with me: "And their talk will spread like gangrene." And then he identifies two who do that. And then he says for us in verse 19 to abstain from this type of wickedness: "Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, 'The Lord knows those who are His,' and, 'Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.'"

And so we avoid those who identify themselves as Christians or proclaimers who are at the same time slanderers, and those who do unhealthy debating in the wrong spirit. It's okay to debate doctrine within the church. It's okay to discuss sound doctrine to refine yourselves, but it has to be done in the spirit of Christianity. And so point number one: shattering is dismantling anything that raises itself up against the knowledge of God.

Back to 2 Corinthians 10:5 as we continue this idea. And we're going to shatter just a thing or two after we get some groundwork established—I promise we'll get there. "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God." And as these speculations are being addressed and coming down, we look at the next word in 2 Corinthians 10:5. It is the word "and." And this is important, because we do refute both the speculations and everything that raises itself up against the knowledge of God.

And so both vague speculations, ambiguous concepts, ideas that are being floated around—the church that was at Corinth, or, I'm sorry, Colossae, was struggling with the beginning ideas of Gnosticism. It wasn't even named yet. If you do your research and look at when the letter was written, when the church was established, when Gnosticism had become officially a false religion—Gnosticism had its tentacles in the church at Colossae before Gnosticism was even named. And so the ideas were in the church. And so we're responsible not only to address the ideas, but this word "and"—not only the vague ideas and the concepts, but "and" anything that is concretely against Christ.

And this conference coming up that we're going to do is addressing the things that are in the church that are against Christ, the things that have crept into our own hearts and minds, the things that would refine our own faith, that would strengthen our own faith. If you think you've arrived, that's not a good, healthy thought. We always need to be constantly growing in our faith, and this is a need for us to be able to refine one another. And so there is a both-and idea in this text.

And then "every"—all ideas get examined in totality to be able to see whether or not they are fit for the edification of the congregation. This is primarily the job of the eldership: to refine, to judge, to see whether or not the doctrine or the teaching or the ministry or whatever it is is right at that particular time for the church, for the furtherance of the gospel.

Okay, and then "every lofty"—see, this is a great word, because these things are being lifted up high, these high-place-type things, anything that has lifted itself up. You know, when it comes to idols, they rise slowly, really, in our lives, and they grab on to us slowly—almost the invisible things in our life, our affections and our thoughts. Idols reach and they grab on to us, and before you know it, they've got a grip on us. And so we need to make sure that anything that is gaining ground in our lives or being lifted up, that we are addressing these things, like in the Old Testament, the high places. They were removed and replaced with the New Testament church.

And then as well, you have this thing: "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing." These things—the secular principles, secular philosophies, these invisible powers. Identify the things, perhaps the angelology that the book of Hebrews was addressing up front, or demonology. Address the fact that there are actual demons out there. Don't mess around with Ouija boards and stuff like that. They actually exist, and there is an evil one. And idolatries—anything that sets itself up against Christ as an idol in your life, visible and invisible things. And so in the text you have this word, "lofty things." These things are raised up against Christ, visible and invisible. And when it comes to being "raised," it's raised in pride, and "up," it's raised high and esteemed. And it's "against," or hostile against, and they oppose, try to prevail against Christ.

And then you see the word "the." This is great; this is singular. Let's go through it again: "destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against"—okay, the position is against, a hostile-takeover-type thing—"the," the singular idea of Christ being the only way, the only truth, and the only idea worthy of our time and our hearts and our affections. The thing that Satan comes against is Christ, the thing. And then this spiritual "knowledge of"—"of" being a word of belonging; "of" means belong—and so belonging to the one true God. We've got to shatter a lot of things in our life in order to stay faithful to Christ.

Point number two is that shattering means "means, not men." Let me really repeat that: shatter the means—M-E-A-N-S—the means, not the men.

And this is important, that we see that contextually, Christians wage wars successfully against Satan's means and Satan himself, not men. We're not destroying men. We want to destroy the means. Satan uses various means, such as ideas, false prophets, doubts, appeals to the flesh, false religions, even deceived people. These means by which Satan is using to raise up things against Christ—we are contextually to shatter the means, not the man or the woman, the person. Luke 19:10 says that Jesus came to save that which was lost: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." He's after the heart of man, and we should also as well be after the heart of man.

And so we demolish the arguments and not the arguer. You're going to have plenty of arguers. You destroy and you shatter their foundation, their argument, not the person. We shatter, then, evil pretensions, not the person. We're destroying what is from the destroyer without disparaging them. I mean, this is a huge mistake in Christian apologetics today: disparagement. Listen, we can establish what is right and true and holy and pure without disparaging the person. And we need to make sure that we're doing this as well.

When we talk about politics, it is easy to disparage a person, and it's a little bit harder to bring down the ideology, the ideologies upon which they're standing. And you need to take the harder road—that's right—not the easy road—that's wrong—and destroy the evil ideologies. And so talk about abortion, and not the one who has committed abortion. See what I'm saying? Destroy the argument and not the person. We need to draw that person to repentance and faith in Christ and care for the soul, and not try and win an argument at the expense of a soul.

And so if you get caught up in the moment and drawn into the flesh—obviously we are defending our faith most of the time before those who are lost, who are already in the flesh—and if you get drawn into their playing ground, their way of arguing, then you're really misrepresenting the gospel and Christ. So don't get caught up in the moment and drawn into the flesh and lose your Christlike witness, and offend them, and also misrepresent Christ.

Write down 2 Corinthians 10:1, if you would. It's important to see that in 2 Corinthians 10:1, in context here, it says, "I, Paul, urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ"—by the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you. And so you see Paul's character here on display, and he is proclaiming Christ and going on to shatter the arguments without shattering those arguers.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5, Paul uses military imagery to destroy the arguments—not the people, but the prideful speculations and philosophies. And so if you set your mind on the real target, then you'll have that in mind when you're in conversation, and you'll be able to keep your Christian character. Paul also uses architectural imagery here to dismantle the foundations of nonbelievers, to see those evil ideologies crumble like a building.

And when they crumble, here's the difference between the military and Christianity. The military is good at breaking down men and breaking them, but is not good at building them back up—and that is true. But Christianity is good at building up men, and so we need to be capitalizing on that. And so when a person is brought to the knowledge that perhaps their idea is futile, and they repent and their world comes crashing down, we need to be there to build them back up in Christ. And unless we do the proper work of dismantling, will they actually, really, truly come to the one Savior?

I was around one who had truly given his life to understanding evolutionary theory. He called it a fact. And when he realized that it was futile, I was right there with him as he was stumbling in the grass and walking in circles. He looked like he was completely stunned; his whole life had just come crashing down. But he recognized who the one true God was. And this is truly what happens in a person's heart and mind. Their whole world can come crashing down, but Christianity builds them back up in Christ, and we need to do that in a Christlike manner.

I'd like to talk to you about point number three, and that is the tools for shattering. The tools for shattering. And so we have now learned that we need to shatter the means and not men, but what are our tools for shattering? Let's look at the text in 2 Corinthians 10:4. The verse before our key verse says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." And so these weapons of our warfare, they are powerful. And there is an allusion here when it comes to the destruction of fortresses in this text, and this is an allusion to the phrase in Proverbs 21:22. I'd love for you to turn to Proverbs 21:22 and see this phrase here when it comes to the destruction of strongholds.

Proverbs 21:22 says, "A wise man scales the city of the mighty." Okay, there's a comparison here in Proverbs 21:22 that is being alluded to. First of all, you see that a small and humble Christian is identified as a wise man in the verse. He scales a city, a mighty city. Okay, and this is an illustration of something that is of the world, of the flesh, and it's mighty and it's big and it's powerful. All right. So "a wise man scales the city of the mighty," and guess what he does? He "brings down the stronghold in which they trust." And so small Christians bring down, dismantle, and even shatter these huge, mighty strongholds. Isn't that great? That the least of us in Christ can do mighty things for the kingdom.

This was driven home to Zerubbabel. The prophet Zechariah said to Zerubbabel, "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the Lord of hosts. And so we need to make sure that we are fighting in the Spirit, with Christlikeness, and not given to thinking that we need to take over perhaps political powers to win a city, or go in like in the Crusades and force our way through with violence. No, the weapons of our warfare are not those.

In fact, Ephesians 6:10–20 gives you the weapons of our warfare. They're all spiritual: prayer and truth and righteousness, the gospel, faith, our salvation, and the Scriptures. These are our weapons that we fight with. And so in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 and following, you see that prayer prepares us and inwardly breaks down the opposition and makes them to where they have no argument. They're weak on the inside, and we're strong on the inside.

And then as well, the truth is illustrated by the belt of truth that secures us. We are secure in our fighting. We're secure and safe and bold and strong and held together by the truth of Christ when we are waging warfare. And then our personal righteousness—men, if you do not know that personal righteousness is one of the most crucial things for your confidence in Christ, you're missing it. Personal righteousness and personal holiness is how you are on the inside, and God knows that. And when we sin against God, when you have engaged in worldliness or lust or sin, you immediately feel fractured or hurt or convicted or debased or lowered on the inside. Remember, Christ is our strength. We are not our own strength. And if you do it in the flesh, you'll fall, but if you do it in the Spirit, you'll win, and you'll be stable and strong and confident.

You can look at a man who was given to pornography, and it's almost like the light has been turned off on the inside of him: the dimness in his eyes, the weakness in his spine. He stands for nothing. He doesn't have any strength. It's because Christ is not alive and well in him. He's offended a holy God. And so righteousness is a breastplate in Ephesians chapter 6 that protects our purity.

And then as well, the gospel is illustrated by the shoes that we wear, that are for readiness, to be able to be ready to go to war, to be able to be ready to share the gospel. And then as well, our faith is a shield that deflects arrows. When the evil one is harpooning you, or with a bow and arrow, and throwing ideas that penetrate the heart, you deflect them with your faith. The content of your faith rejects those false accusations. The content of our faith—Christ and who He is, the Scripture, these ideas—are a shield to us so that we can deflect these things that can pierce the innermost parts of us. And so we deflect the arrows with our faith. And then our salvation is like a helmet that protects our mind, and the Scriptures are like a sword that we offensively and willingly go to battle with and dismantle things that need to be fought against.

It is great to see that the tools of our faith can be utilized by the least of us, the smallest of us, the weakest of us. In fact, I was having fellowship with my son over text just a little while ago, a couple days ago, and we were having fellowship over this idea: the more God uses you, the weaker you truly feel, because you're dependent upon Him. And what I'm saying is not a contradiction. We're strengthened by being strong in the Lord. Ephesians 6:10: "Be strong in the Lord." And so we in our flesh feel like we are very weak without God, but with God we're strong and we're mighty, and we're able to do, like perhaps what Proverbs 21:22 says, "A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust." And so we utilize metaphors like this to refine these things.

Now, with the time that we have left—I wish you guys were willing to stay here for another, I don't know, three or four or five hours, because we could shatter Mormonism, Catholicism, atheism, naturalism, humanism, feminism, polytheism, and Buddhism. I just got notes a mile long. Let me just choose one that I think is very pertinent for us. Y'all are relieved, aren't you? You're like, "All right, just one." All right, let me skip some pages here and get past atheism, get past feminism, naturalism, polytheism. Yeah.

Point number four. Here we go: selfism is to be shattered. Selfism. Romans 8:13 says, "Put to death the deeds of the flesh." Selfism. Man, you ever heard that phrase, "Don't be your own worst enemy"? Selfism. Selfism is a form of humanism.

Humanism—everybody says, "I'm no humanist," but we take on its characteristics sometimes. Humanism says this: it says man is the center and the end of all things. You're, like, stuck in little-kid mode: me, myself, and I—I, I, I. And you fight and you quarrel for things that you want. It's your desires that are ruling you. It's like, "I am god," right?

Humanism is the idea that human reasoning determines moral ethics. And so it's cultural ethics. And so what's right over in Africa is right for them. What's right in South America is right for them. What's right for us here in America is right for us. It's cultural. There's no standard of Scripture.

Humanism is personal autonomy. Humanism separates itself from biblical ecclesiology in regards to authority. It's like, "I don't want anybody to be boss over me." Well, just so you know, all bosses have bosses, right? There's no such idea as personal autonomy. It's humanism. Personal autonomy then determines a person's value and desires. What it ends up being is that experiences become what you seek after, and they become your goal. The naturalists are climbing the peaks and experiencing these heart-wrenching, adrenaline-thrilling-type, you know, challenges. That is their god. That is their idea of what needs to be accomplished. It is being driven from an idea of the self, the inner man.

And so I want to give you a phrase, and you can look it up later if you would like: Christian humanist subjectivism. Christian humanist—yeah. This is what has truly crept into what I would call the pseudo-church in America, American Christianity. You want to get to the heart of American Christianity? I'm giving you this phrase: Christian humanism, Christian humanism. Subjectivism is defined as this: subjecting God's Word to personal preferences. It's like, "I'm going to use God's Word to substantiate what I want to do, because I am my own god. I'm god, and I'm going to take the power of money. I'm going to take the power of God's Word. I'm going to take the power of influence. I'm going to take whatever I can to lift up myself." It's Christian humanism, and that determines truth.

You can verify this on Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, CARM.org, if you would want, and look up Christian humanism subjectivism. It claims these things: free will over God's sovereignty. And so it diminishes God's sovereignty, and it lifts up the free will of man. However, in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 10, the model prayer, Jesus said, "Thy will be done," right? Your will be done. And so humanists submit God to themselves. We make God into a Santa Claus, like a gift giver. Like, we want to use Him to get what we want. And we submit God to us. We reduce God, and we lift up the free will of man.

Christian humanism claims this as well: personal peace is confirming for God's will. And so they would say, "The peace that is inside of me, that I feel, verifies that this is God's will for me. It must be right. It feels great. I can do whatever I want, because I am using the peace that is subjective. You can't verify whether or not I have peace. In fact, I'm going to utilize this ambiguity as leverage to be able to do what I want." Hey, Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is not trustworthy and deceitful among all things. And so humanists then would conflate their feelings with the peace of God.

As well, Christian humanism claims this: that felt needs determine sermon content. And so they would poll the community and take all of their research and categorize it, and then aim sermons at felt needs in the community. And so they were subjecting the Scriptures to the felt needs in the community. But 2 Timothy 4:2 says to "preach the word." And so we are not flattering people and tickling their ears. We are truly staying committed to the Word of God.

Christian humanism—as we see the idea of selfism manifested in roots of humanism creeping into our own lives, in our own churches—also proclaims this, and says that the right hermeneutical method is the reader-response method. And you could probably understand it through this phrase: "What it means to me is true for me." And so with these popular at-home, you know, church plants that grow like crazy and just spread like wildfire, generally speaking, the idea is that they would simply read a verse of Scripture and go around the room and say, "What does that mean to you? And what does that mean to you? And what does that mean to you? And what does that mean to you? And what does that mean to you?" So you've got 10 different meanings with 10 different people. There's no standard. And so Jesus Christ is not "the way, the truth, and the life." They are all gods, or practicing Christian humanism, and they don't even know it.

Christian humanism also says that faith is a force and that God responds to these forces with rewards. Hey, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that God breathed. Okay, He spoke authoritatively. We can't breathe or speak out anything authoritatively and have it come into fruition.

And then as well, Christian humanism says that worship services, and worship in itself, is measured by how you've been moved on the inside. And if something moves you, then it must be of the Holy Spirit. If you had some—what they call in Christianese "holy goosebumps," or your hair raised on the back of your neck or whatnot—they judge whether or not the Holy Spirit is involved by these things, these things of the flesh. And you and I all know that if you watch the beginning of Bambi, most people will cry, right? But does it mean that it's true? Does it mean that the Holy Spirit of God has moved you? These things are not. And so Christian humanism says these things.

Psalm 29:2 says, "Worship the Lord." Worship the Lord. And so if you are moved by the Holy Spirit to tears and awe and wonder, fantastic. If you are reflecting and dwelling upon who God is, and you're absolutely amazed that He could save a wretch like us, and that He has removed your ashes—Isaiah 61 says the worthlessness within you, He's removed the ashes and replaced it with His beauty, the beauty of Christ, "beauty for ashes," Isaiah 61 says—if you recognize that your worthless sin that would condemn you to hell has been removed and replaced with the righteousness of Christ, then you understand this phenomenal doctrine called double imputation. It means where the imputation of Christ's righteousness has been imputed to you, and the sin which you had has been placed upon, or imputed upon, Him on the cross. Double imputation—that double, magnificent work is something that should move you, and it should bring you to tears. It should bring you to worship and awe and wonder. This is truth, and this is truly feeling for God, not Christian humanism subjectivism.

Now, most likely, if you've known all of this, fantastic. I'm happy. Come Friday and Saturday and this coming Sunday and this coming Monday for the Shattered Conference, where Justin Peters, Keith Foskey, me, and Dr. Anthony, Elder David, and Dr. Joel Breidenbaugh will team up and explain Satan's strategies, which we will be shattering—these things like decisional regeneration, mythifying hell, perverting women's roles, perverting church purposes, championing continuationism, popularizing the New Apostolic Reformation, warping hermeneutics, and attaching social justice issues to the gospel. Once we bring all of these things up, then we will blow them up and shatter them. And so I invite you to come, and I invite you also to pray.

In conclusion, I give you one take-home truth for today, one take-home truth: study yourself strong. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 15 says to "be diligent"—or in the King James, it says "study"—"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, who does not need to be ashamed, but accurately handles the word of truth."

Let's pray together.

Lord, thank You for our time together to be able to feast upon Your concepts and Your ideas, that which makes us strong on the inside. Oh, we love You so much. We pray Your blessings upon every soul here, that You would continue to save and sanctify us and see that we would be glorifying to You. Lord, I pray that anyone here who was lost would truly comprehend the fact that You sent Your only Son to die on an old rugged cross and to bear the payment of our punishment for our sin. Lord, You have made it so clear to us by giving us the law, the Ten Commandments, that none of us have been able to maintain a righteous stance before You. We've all sinned and fallen short of Your glory. And since we have fallen short and broken Your law, Your law, then, having been broken, comes with a penalty, and that penalty is death. And it has been so since the very beginning, when You told Eve if she eats from the tree, she shall surely die. And when she went against Your Word, sin entered in. God, I pray that You would keep us in the shelter of Your wings. And as we continue to see that the true gospel is forwarded, see that people would believe that they have truly sinned and fallen short of Your glory and Your righteousness, that they would repent of their sin and then turn to You and trust and believe that it was Your substitutionary work on the cross that paid for their punishment, that then they now can confess You as Lord and believe in their heart that You've been raised from the grave and be saved. Lord, I pray You save souls, and see that those souls will be baptized by immersion to picture Your gospel, and to then move forward to belong to a good Bible-preaching, believing church and be dedicated members. And then from there, they would make it a purpose inside of their heart to rightly divide Your Word and to study it according to 2 Timothy 2:15, to really, truly know Your Word, to get to know You more and more and more— this art of hermeneutics, of rightly interpreting Your Word. I pray that they would give themselves for the rest of their life to studying Your Word, to communing with You, and to knowing You. Thank You so much. Lord, help us to be disciple makers, to spread these truths as far and wide as possible. We do love You, and it is in Jesus's name that we pray. Amen.