Sunday 12-3-23

Turbulent times call for clear-headed insight. That's hard to come by these days, especially on TV.

That's where we come in. Salem News Channel has the greatest collection of conservative minds all in one place. People you know and trust, like Dennis Prager, Eric Metaxas, Charlie Kirk, and more. Unfiltered, unapologetic truth. Find what you're searching for at snc.tv and on Local Now Channel 525. The following program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content. Portions of the following program may be pre-recorded. I am Pastor Ernie Sanders, the voice of the Christian resistance. Stay tuned. My radio broadcast, What's Right, What's Left is coming up right now.

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Thank you. This is What's Right, What's Left with Pastor Ernie Sanders. Good evening and welcome to another edition of What's Right, What's Left on this December 3rd, Sunday, 2023. And the title of my message tonight is Seeking God, Suffering Persecution, and Keeping the Faith.

And we're going to start tonight with a little commentary. First of all, you know, we are living in the days of mass disinformation. I mean, we are really living in a time of disinformation.

And so it's extremely important that people take a lot of care to discern what you're hearing, especially so much what you're getting over the internet. Listen carefully, and nowadays I know that just some of the strange, strange things that have come that people believe nowadays. There are people that believe that Adolf Hitler is still alive, okay?

That he had some kind of a head transplant or whatever. There are people telling me, they're convinced that Donald Trump is not really Donald Trump. That's an actor playing Donald Trump, folks. It is not an actor. The Donald Trump that is outgoing to the Israelis is the real Donald Trump.

Trust me on this one, okay? There are people that told me that Hillary Clinton was actually executed at Gitmo in 2016. Folks, that's not true. It's just that this person that they have out there is a fake Hillary. It is not.

That is the real Hillary. There are people that are telling me that up until about a year ago, actually JFK was still alive, and that he was communicating with Donald Trump. Folks, JFK was not alive.

If he was, he'd be about 110 years old. So I'm not kidding you. When I'm telling you these things, I'm not kidding you. There are people coming to me and they believe these things. They're picking this stuff up off the internet. The latest thing is that JFK Jr., that JFK Jr., or that JFK Jr. is still alive. That JFK Jr. is still alive.

He's not. Folks, don't listen to all this. There are people out there that are just making up, and now it's coming from both sides, both what we call the white hats and the black hats. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to take a close listen. I know that there are people out there today that have very selective hearing. I've mentioned other times on the radio. A few years ago, I was sitting in a McDonald's restaurant with a group of pastors.

About four or five of us pastors were there. And a fellow came in, and he looks over and he sees me, and he's got these books in his hand, and he comes over to the table. He says, you're Pastor Sanders, aren't you? I said, yes, I knew that, right? And so he said, you're just the fellow that can help me.

And I says, help you do what? He said, well, and he showed me the book. He said, I need to get these books.

I've purchased a lot of these, and I want to get them into the prison to the inmates. And I looked at the book, and it was The Purpose Driven Life. I said, no, I would not help you get those in the prison. Those books, they're filled with very, very cleverly crafted deception.

You don't want, believe me, you don't want those books. And this fellow got very upset. And the other pastors all told him the same thing.

Listen to what Pastor Sanders is telling you. And this fellow literally put his hand on his ears. He put his hands over his ears and says, I won't receive them. He put his hands over his ears and says, I won't receive this.

I won't receive what you're saying. In other words, he had been, he just, well, not really biblically literate. You know, nobody knows the Bible better than Satan himself.

And they can twist and spin and take, you know, everything out of context. Well, here we had another situation where a fellow who, well, he wanted to debate me on whether or not Jesus died for everybody. Well, you know, the Bible, pretty clear on that. No, Jesus didn't die for everybody. In fact, he makes it very clear who he died for.

Go read Romans chapter eight, for one. If Jesus had died for everybody, everybody would be saved. His blood would have been now, was his blood sufficient to take away the sins of the entire planet? Absolutely. Was it his will that none would come short, that everyone would be saved?

Absolutely. But the fact of it is, no, he didn't die for everybody. Again, like I said, if he had, everybody would be saved. God always accomplishes his goals.

Okay. The other thing, too, is the same thing with, could you lose your salvation? Well, no, you cannot lose your salvation because you don't keep your salvation. Your salvation is kept in heaven by God. And the Bible makes it very clear.

The Holy Spirit's a seal and Jesus is a sealer. If you could lose your salvation, you would lose your salvation. And so these are some absolutes of the Bible. These are some absolutes. And of course, today in this world, that is what the world teaches, that there are no absolutes. And it's an amazing thing because they will teach you there are absolutely no absolutes, folks.

And so we're going to pick up today. And like I said, discernment is more important today than it ever has been. And we're going to start in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and in verse 6. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women, laden with sins, and led away with diverse lusts. Well, here the warning from the apostle there, Paul, are these false teachers, these false teachers. And the houses are church houses.

And it's much worse today, in our day, than it was in his, simply by mass numbers. But what is he referring to, they creep into houses? Well, here the concept of this whole thing is of a pseudo-woman, if you will, a woman who minimizes her feminine nature, seeking to be something that she was not created by God to be, or to do things that she was not created by God to do. Now, that word actually only occurs one time in the Bible, and it's right here. It's the only place that it occurs.

So what is he talking about? Well, here today, in America, there is no actual difference. There's no actual difference between an evangelical or the Catholic Church, where it comes to divorce between those that are in the church and those that are not in the church, they're outside the church.

Now, there is difference. In the Amish community, they have a much lower divorce rate, much lower. And then, of course, the fundamentalist Bible-believing churches, they have a very lower divorce rate.

But here, with those exceptions for the mainstream, and the reason is that there are people, well, they're ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, you have today, for example, you have open marriages. This is something that's becoming more and more popular, and they're using the term for open marriage as becoming enlightened, enlightened.

Now, here's the problem that they have with this. The idea that, and what they're teaching is this, that especially these young college girls, that a woman can have it all nowadays. A woman can have it all. They can have the security of marriage and a family. They can have a career, and they can have a variety of sexual partners.

They can have it all. Well, what the problem is with all of that is, first of all, the marriages don't last. And there's other problems, too, with even those that are shacking up and aren't married, just living together. When you have multiple bed partners, these relationships don't last very long. Again, you have a large number of children being conceived out of wedlock. And so, the divorce rate with those open marriages, over 90 percent, they just don't last, folks.

It's just that simple. But this is like the doctrines of silly women led away with diverse lusts. And so, things have turned around from the way they used to be. And so, you know, things have turned around from the way they used to be. Everything is different in this country today.

Today, again, everything was about the women's movement. There are more women now going to college than men, getting a college education. But the problem of it is, they're not getting an education. They're getting an indoctrination. They're coming out dumber than they went in. And what's happening, we've got a society that is just, well, we've got way, way too many lawyers out there in the society today.

Too many, way, way, way, way too many federal workers out there in our society today. So he goes on to say, now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. Now, it's an interesting thing, because the names of these Egyptian magicians are not really given in the biblical account of Exodus 7, verses 11, but are actually the traditional names that were handed down in extra-biblical accounts according to, well, in the book of Jasher, for a good example.

They would be in the book of Jasher. And then the book of Jasher says that Janus and Jambres were the sons of a false prophet named Balaam. And of course, you know, Balaam was the one that had a heart-to-heart discussion with a jackass. And well, the jackass seemed to win that debate.

He says, but they proceed no further, for their folly should be manifest into all men as theirs were. It's an interesting thing, because we were talking about Rick Warren and his Purpose Driven Life book, along with the Purpose Driven Church book. You don't hear too much about him nowadays, and why is that? Well, one of the reasons would be that you had people that came out, a number of people, and exposed that. I was one of those that came out and exposed the Purpose Driven Life book. And so, you also had Noah Hutchings, John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, and a host of others that came out and exposed exactly that.

I think we were one of the very first, the fact that I know of, to do that here. We would know a Hutchings. But when he says here, when it's referring to ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, because they're never learning the truth. And when it says here in verse 8, resisting the truth. Well, today, oh boy, my, do we have people today that resist the truth. The mainstream media. Boy, the mainstream media really resists the truth. The apostate church resists the truth today. Look at our corrupt department of the DOJ. Look how they resist the truth when it comes to January 6th, the Christian Patriots.

Look at the FBI. Oh boy, especially look at the corrupt courts that we have out there. And that takes us back to what's happening here in Ohio.

And I want to say praise the good Lord for this, because we now have 10,000 of those postcards going to state legislators in the Supreme Court in Ohio, demanding that the state legislators actually do their job and reign in, reign in these activist courts out there so that they would stop legislating from the bench. Now, I want to go over to, uh, Hebrews chapter 11. And in Hebrews chapter 11, I may have to get me something to wet my whistle here. I forgot to bring something up, but I think I can get something within arm's reach here. If I, if I stretch for where I'm sitting, I believe it's a little bottle of water.

Yeah, there is sure enough. And the water's froze. Oh my, uh, let me see here.

I have another model that's not frozen. So anyhow, uh, where I left off over here, and we're going to pick it up in Hebrews chapter 11. And this is the chapter of the heroes of the faith chapter.

One of my favorite passages in all of the Bible is right here in Hebrews chapter 11. And we're going to pick it up. I can't believe this. I can't get that. Got it.

I was having a struggle getting the lid off the bottle. Now here in Hebrews chapter 11, starting verse one. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen for by it elders obtain a good report through faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. And so here, when we take a look at that, um, first of all, that word substance in verse one, for faith is a substance, uh, who processes who processes means that which stands under or basically it's the foundations is referring to a foundation.

So the substance of things hoped for is the foundation and it's like a realization or conviction. And then it says here in verse two, for if by it the elders obtained a good report. Well, the elders are the ones that are spoken about in this entire chapter here, verse 11, where it refers to Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and others through faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And so the word here actually in the Greek for worlds is Aion and it was used to, well, it can be used for two different things.

One is an age or dispensation period, or actually it's also can be used for a physical word. And so here now when he's talking about, uh, where the worlds were framed, the worlds were framed through the word of God. But I want to go back, let me go back here for one minute here and go to where the word faith through faith, we understand that faith occurs in this 24 times in this chapter. And there's three kinds of faith that it's referring to in this chapter. One is the saving faith, one is the faith to live by, and one is the work of faith.

So these three different faiths are referred to. Now, when I want to go to the worlds that were framed by the word of God, he says things that do appear, is referring to the physical universe, was not made out of pre-existing materials, folks. It was recently, I remember Carl Sagan, who was a, was a evolutionary scientist, so forth. And I remember Carl Sagan one day, as I was sitting listening, uh, he said, 50 billion years ago, there was nothing, there was no you, there was no me, there was no universe, there was nothing. And then there was a klasmatic explosion. And this klasmatic, this huge, huge eruption, explosion, out of that came, out of that explosion of energy came everything, this material. Now, I want you to think about what he said. They call this the Big Bang Theory.

First of all, think about this. He said 50 billion years ago, there was nothing, no you, no me. So, according to his theory, 50,000 years ago, someone or something that did not exist used an energy force that did not exist, that did not exist, to ignite materials that did not exist. So, what happens if someone that's not there uses an energy force that doesn't exist, and you ignite nothing, if you get enough nothing together and ignite that nothing, out of all of that nothing comes everything. Well, this whole this whole theory of evolution where it has to start, folks, with some material things, and they talk about the primordial slime, and out of this primordial slime crawl these little creatures. Again, God says this, that he spoke things into existence.

So, how in the world could that happen? Well, that's far, far beyond your ability and my ability to even become close to comprehending. That is where we get off into the divine mysteries of God. And so, here he goes on to say this, that by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testified in these gifts, and by it he made, by it, he being dead, he is speaking. Now, here Abel actually, a lot of people don't realize Abel was a prophet, he was a prophet, referred to as the prophet Abel, and here he was righteous, so righteousness has always been imputed by God, imputed by God to sinful men, because all men were sinful, only sinners can be saved, but it was on the basis of obedient faith in his word. So, Abel's more excellent sacrifice, well, could have been pronounced such by God as only on the basis that Abel believed God and offered the type of sacrifice specified.

In other words, a slain animal whose blood was shed in an atonement or covering for the sin of the one offering, well, you might say is a substitute, whereas Cain, for reasons of pride, and there you go, that was Cain's downfall, he did not. And where it says here that Abel, yet being dead, he's speaking, his blood cried out to God from the grave. By faith Enoch was translated, now, that's very interesting, the remarkable assertion of Enoch's rapture into heaven, while still in human flesh, well, it seems scientifically impossible, both by the law of gravity and by the, well, inhospitability of outer space to human life. Nevertheless, there's nothing that's impossible with God. And you say, well, how could that be? I mean, how could he take him to heaven?

I mean, in his human body, he has to have air to breathe, his lungs would collapse and depression, all this and that. Folks, the Bible says not only is there nothing that's impossible with God, and again, that's way beyond our ability to even begin to try to understand, to understand ultimate and complete and total power. And that's what God has.

I know, it's very hard to, and intelligence, he's omnipotent, all powerful, he's omnipresent, he's everywhere at once, okay, and he's omniscient, meaning he, he within him contains all knowledge, past, present and future. And you say, how could that possibly be? Well, it wasn't very long ago, when I was a kid growing up and you would talk about these computers and things that we have now, if you were to tell us about that, we would laugh at you and say, how could that possibly be? How could that happen?

How could that possibly be? And I mean, how can you walk around and have telephones without no phone wires, without no telephone poles? I mean, back in the day, those things would have seemed very unlikely to us. And yet God's science is light years ahead of us. God's science is art, like, you know, like, for example, Einstein said, God has no need to theorize.

God never has to theorize. And I guess that kind of says it all, huh? I want to go over now to John chapter six. And we start getting into some interesting scripture here.

And in John chapter six, verses thirty-seven and verses forty-four, I want to read these two. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will and no wise cast out. Okay, no one can come to Christ on his own volition. This is what the Bible says. Let me read verse forty-four. No man can come to me, except that Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up on the last days. So here now, he's making a point that the point is simply that nobody can come to Christ. Now, we're to seek the Lord.

We're to seek the Lord. But this is one of those things that the human minds are just totally incapable of full comprehension into, well, it's what you would call a divine paradox, if you will. Now, here the mystery of divine election, where the Bible clearly teaches two things. It teaches predestination, it teaches divine election, but it also teaches free will.

And so, how do you have both at the same time? Well, God's word in the Bible says there's nothing that's too hard for God. It's not impossible. So, if this is the case, if the Father, of course we know the Father, has to draw us to Christ, so if we do adhere to both of these, would we be able to, can we choose not to receive Christ?

Can we resist the draw of the Father? And what happens is, it seems like automatically people that don't quite understand this, and it's very hard to discern. Again, like I said, this is a paradox. Automatically, they start parodying, this is Calvinism, this is Calvinism, where most of what John Calvin's accused of preaching, he never talked.

What they call Calvinism is mostly what it really is, what it really is is hyper-Calvinism, it's people that took what Calvin taught to an extreme teaching. So here, you have this paradox, you have this mystery, and we'll settle this mystery someday when we all get to heaven. I want to go now over to James, in James chapter 4. For whence come wars and fightings among you?

Come they not hence even of your lusts, that war in your members? You say, wait a minute, hold it, Pastor. Isn't he talking to the Church?

Yeah, he's talking to the Church right here. You lust and you have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight in war, and yet you have not because you ask that? I don't know, how, wait a minute, when do we see Christians fighting and killing each other?

Christians don't do that. Well, we have two wars in this country, one called the Revolutionary War and another called the Revolution, the Civil War, called the Civil War between the states. And in those, both of those wars, you had houses divided against each other, and you had families, you had professing Christians that in both cases thought that they, that their cause was the righteous cause, and that they were doing, and they were honoring God with their cause.

And again, the Civil War wasn't just about slavery by any means. And so, with that, unfortunately you had brothers killing brothers, and fathers and sons killing cousins, and nephews and uncles, and it was not a good thing. And so Paul here is saying, or John, I'm sorry, James brother, he says, you ask and you receive not, because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. He goes, what are we talking about? We ask, you ask amiss. When you pray to the Lord, when he says you ask and you receive not because you ask amiss, you may consume it upon your lusts. The entire point of when you're praying is to glorify God. The purpose of us praying to God, the very purpose of us is to ask God, to pray that God glorifies himself. So our prayers are to be prayers that are pleasing to God. And again, prayers that the brain glory to him, it's not about us. God created us to serve him and to glorify him. We didn't create God to serve us. He goes on to say, you adulterers and you adulteresses, know you not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Well, there's so many different ways out there. You know, being a friend of the world, I was just amazed, taken back during this whole COVID, when they came out and we warned people and warned people and warned people, don't take the shot folks, don't take the kill shot, don't do it. And to have people that really should have known better, that really shouldn't have known better.

You know, the Bible says we must obey God rather than man. And to have these mega churches where they actually allowed their churches to be used to dispense the kill shot. And not only did that happen, as bad as that was, they were getting paid. Many of them got paid from the government to use their church to administer the kill shots, which were making people sick and people dying.

I couldn't, you know, I just, you know, could not believe that they would be so gullible. He goes on to say, and oh well, you know, friendship with the world, there's a lot of ways to have friendship with the world. One, well, those that participate in events and things where, you know, well, things like these drag queen shows, people professing Christians in the apostate church, take their little children to these horrible, horrible things. And these crusades that are supposed to be crusades when people are told that whoever you came with, whoever brought you here today to go back to their church, well, you have everybody there. You have Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses. You've got Muslims. Believe it or not, they'll go to these things and take people there. Maybe not Muslims so much, but boy, all of the others.

And they're told to go back to their churches. Folks, we are to be in the world, but not of this world. Say, well, how do you, are you a friend of the world? Public school systems are friends of the world. The public education system are friends of the world. The public universities are friends of the world.

Things like Disneyland and that. They're all friends of the world. He goes on to say, do you think that the scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us less is to envy? And so, here what he's referring to, our spirit, our spirit is supposed to yearn for fellowship with the Lord. Our spirit, this would be better said that way, that our spirit, the Holy Spirit and us is to yearn, we're to yearn to have fellowship with the Lord. He that giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resists the proud, but giveth grace into the humble. Boy, I'm going to tell you, you know, you see these athletes that are making 50 million dollars a year, you have people out there that are called king makers. And what they do, they're professionals and their job is to go and convince you that you are not just a simple mortal man, that you are the greatest, the best thing that God ever created.

And that's what these people do, they go and they put a bug in your ear and they tell you just how, and actually it's a way of controlling you too, when they're doing these things. And so here, when he refers to God resists the proud, how many times have you heard people say, I did it myself, nobody helped me, and no, God didn't help me, I did it without God. Well folks, let me tell you one thing, that these people that make these very stupid statements, one, without God you wouldn't be here to begin with. Two, had it not been for God, by God's grace, you might have been born in Bagel Dash or some place, you might have been born with no arms or legs, you might have been born blind. You could not choose your parents, you couldn't choose who your mother or father would be.

You couldn't end up with her, you might end up with two mommies. You couldn't, without, apart from God, you could really do very little at all. And so, that's the point he's making, submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Well how do you resist the devil? The best way in the world to resist the devil is to pray continuously, just to pray continuously.

We do it, it's very good, it's very healthy for you, I do it all day long, but as I'm thinking about things and need questions answered or whatever, or I've got to start another job, we get into some very thick battles with the dark side, the deep state out here, and so yeah, I'm in contact as far as prayer goes with the Lord all day long. Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep and let your laughter be returned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil of one another brethren, he that speaketh evil of his brother and judges his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law, but if the law be judged there are not a doer of the law. Thou then judges another. You're not a doer of the law but a judge.

Therefore, okay let me go over, I want to go now to whip my whistle again, that's what I'm going to do. In John chapter 16, and in John chapter 16 we're going to do verses 29 through 33. His disciples said unto him, lo now speakest thou plainly and speakest no parables. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man should ask thee for this we believe that thou comest forth from God and so here the disciples have decided to make up their mind that Jesus is exactly who he says he is and Jesus answered them do you now believe with a question remember what the Lord said he said when I return will I find any faith on on earth when I return will I find any faith on earth but so he goes on he says behold the hour cometh yes is now come that you should be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone and yet I am not alone because the father is with me well well I'm going to tell you there the Lord Jesus knew what was waiting for him and folks again this is another one of those things where it is far far far beyond our comprehension to even begin to try to imagine the weight that Lord Jesus felt when he was upon that cross when the sins of the entire world were laid upon him when the sins of the world were laid upon him and these were sins past present future these were sins that were laid upon him for people that were not even with him yet had not even been born yet some of them and so now he goes on to say these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world now uh tribulation is not the wrath of God tribulation is not the wrath of God and people confuse this all the time just I just recently had another woman and you've heard them call up on this radio program over the years time and time again saying there is no rapture of the church there will be no rapture of the church and that you people are making false statements and that you're going to cause a lot of harm because people are going to they believe they're going to be raptured out before the start of the tribulation period and when they're still here they're going to lose all faith well first of all uh folks again the bible clearly clearly teaches that we're going to be out of here the lord's going to take us out it would be totally ludicrous for us for the church to have to go through the tribulation period the purpose of the tribulation period is the purification of Israel and also for judgment on the gentile nations and so it would be totally ludicrous totally inappropriate in fact the bible mentions many many times that the God will not lay his wrath upon the church the church will not the church will not suffer the wrath of God now when it comes to tribulation what Jesus said the church has always had persecution we've always had persecution in church and we will and as we get closer and closer to the lord's return it'll become greater and you know you're we're coming into a time you know when I was young I boxed a lot and what happens is you know if you're just standing there and letting somebody hit you you can feel the pain but when you're in the heat of a fight if you're in a real battle uh you might be you don't feel the pain when you're when you're in the heat of the battle the the pain you don't feel the pain till after the fight well we're going to be in the we are actually the some of us have been in the heat of a battle we're in the heat of a battle uh here all the time on doers of the word uh against the forces of darkness here but believe me and I've had people tell me that who you you're misleading people you're misleading people there's not going to be a rapture or the church and one of the things they say well that word rapture is not even inviolable no and like I said today I drive a chevy suburban chevy suburban is not in the bible but I use it all the time okay and folks the rapture of the church is spoken of as the calling away or the calling out okay uh that's what it's referred to we call it the word rapture the lifting up and calling out and the bible clearly the bible clearly clearly clearly teaches for the rest of the church but it also clearly teaches that the lord's returning to those that are looking for his return now that might give some of you folks up there uh something that you should be concerned about again the lord said he's returning for those for those that are looking for his return if you're reading his word the bible it's very clearly very clear that that his return is imminent there's no stuttering when it comes to that I want to go now to first corinthians or second corinthians I'm sorry chapter one second corinthians chapter one and I'll get there in a minute this is the third time today I'm preaching this message tell you the truth I'm kind of tired anyhow I'm in second Corinthians chapter one verses one through seven Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother unto the church of God which is in Corinth and all the saints with him that are that are in all Achaia now here Paul's writing a letter to the church and you you notice he's referring to the to all the saints to Timothy and all the saints well the bible clearly clearly teaches that you enter into sainthood on the moment of your conversion the very moment you get saved uh you become a saint you don't have to go through any kind of rituals man-made rituals to achieve that you become a saint the moment you become saved and here and here he goes on to say grace be to you and peace from God the father and from the Lord Jesus Christ blessed be God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all comfort now here the father was thus our comforter the word comfort actually in these verses here it's it's in these verses total 10 times and it's either the words that's used here there's different words a couple it's either the word of the word of the word of the word of the word parakaleo or parakalesis and uh and and that word in some cases has been translated as constellations he goes on to say who comfort us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are at any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted from God in other words he's simply saying look uh in the in these times that we're coming to we need to make sure that one as we comfort others as we comfort others in their times of trouble that that we will also be comforted by God he goes on to say for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also abounded by Christ and whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual and the enduring of the same suffering which we also suffer or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation and how and our hope of you is steadfast knowing that as you are the partakers of the sufferings so shall you be also the consolation so what's he telling him well it's an interesting thing throughout scripture where God's people have suffered throughout the centuries we have we've been under much we've a much persecution throughout the centuries that's going to continue and Paul now has to he has to deal with this himself and we're going to conclude by going over to Corinthians um second Corinthians chapter 12 starting with verse 7 and here's what we read and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations that were given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of satan is buffeted me lest I should be exalted above measure well you've got notice the person has been exalted above measure well you've got to notice the personality of people and here in this case here he's making a point and that point that the Paul is making was for this thing he said I besought the Lord three times he besought the Lord and that he might depart from me now that word that he said here when he was referring to a thorn in the flesh the messenger of satan well that word messenger actually is a word called angelus in the Greek which means uh which refers to angel okay uh in this case you know it's a fallen angel or a demon uh that is is causing this affliction to come upon Paul now people there's a lot of speculation on what this affliction is we know is a physical affliction he goes on to say for this thing I beseech the Lord thrice that he might depart from me and that he said it to me my grace is sufficient for thee my strength is made perfect in weakness and my strength is made for thee my strength is made perfect in weakness most gladly therefore shall I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may be may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecution and distress for Christ's sake for I am weak thou art strong now what does he say well Paul understood this and this is what the other uh apostles saints many of them understood was that the more you suffered for the cause of Christ in this life the more you suffer it in this life the greater your reward will be in the next he's making another point too that this life is a very short life and if you if you decide well I want to stay away from religion I know what I want to believe I think I'm just going to go and uh live the way I want to live and and do what I want to do um but but the point that he's making here again let me say but but now Paul understood that again the greater this is why God allowed Isaiah people say why the world would God allow Isaiah to be sought in half can you imagine the rewards Isaiah gets in heaven can you imagine the rewards that the saints are going to receive right now today in this world there is great persecution amongst our brothers and sisters especially amongst the Muslims which just took place to in Israel with the way Hamas Hamas the barbaric reality of what Hamas has done folks we're out of time for tonight and so I thought it was an interesting message and so as we come up to this time I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday hope you all had a good church service and I'm going to be when you're hearing this being played I will be at the Geauga county right to life Christmas concert as you're listening to this program because it's being pre-recorded and so I guess I'm down to about 30 seconds so as we get to this we always say every night at this time we say good night we say God bless and then we we say always always always keep fighting the fight thanks for listening to the voice of the christian resistance what's right what's left hosted by pastor Ernie Sanders to learn more about our ministry please visit us online at www.wrwl.org please tune in next time for another edition of what's right what's left the preceding program is sponsored by what's right what's left ministries and is responsible for its content selling your car to carvana is as easy as as easy as pie sure all you have to do is enter your license plate or bin as easy as a stroll in the park okay then just answer a few questions and you'll get a real offer in seconds as easy as singing why not schedule a pickup or drop off and carvana will pay you that amount right on the spot as 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