Monsters Among Us

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Monsters Among Us - Judges 17:1-6 - Skip Heitzig

Welcome to Calvary Church, with Skip Heitzig. Thank you for joining us today.

As we walk through life, we begin to realize that not every monster lurks

under the bed. For centuries, demons and dark spiritual forces have been

downplayed as entertaining mythical figures, while insidious and destructive

sins have been disguised as fun and freedom. This message with Pastor Skip

will expose the hidden idols and dangers of our culture and reveal the true

freedom that is found in Christ alone.

[MUSIC PLAYING AND THUNDER ROLLING] This is a series that we're calling A

Monster's In Our Closet." This morning, would you turn in your Bibles, please,

to the Old Testament book of Judges, the book of Judges, chapter 17. This is a

message I'm calling "Monsters Among Us." I think you'll see why. This is a

message that has been on our hearts for some time.

A quick announcement before we begin, and that is, with all of the appeals

that we make to your generosity, and you are so generous with all these

projects, there is another project we have been involved in for decades. And it

is now the season for Operation Christmas Child. So those are the shoeboxes

that we pack with toys and your address, if you so wish, or your picture of your

family, if you so wish.

And these will go to children around the world. 12 million of these shoeboxes

will go to countries, different languages, different distribution sites. Children

will open them up in a service of a church that is dedicated to have parents

and children in the community come. The kids, open up the boxes. They

haven't had presents, many of them, ever.

They understand that there's people who love them because Jesus loves

them. And it opens a door for the gospel. It is the most effective child

evangelism tool I have ever seen in my life. That's Operation Christmas Child.

And the boxes are available for you.

So Judges, chapter 17 is where we begin. You've probably noticed that the

past has a way of repeating itself, that things that were in vogue or practiced

in the past find their way into the present, that everywhere you look in

society, it seems that there are signs of ancient worship systems still around

us, symbols of the gods and goddesses of antiquity. It's so prevalent we hardly

notice.

For example, I am confident that none of you are worshipers of Nike, the

goddess, the winged goddess of victory from Greek mythology. But I bet a lot

of you wear Nike shoes or sports clothing. I saw a few this morning on some

of you as we came in. And that borrows from ancient Greek mythology, even

the swooped wing from the worship of this ancient goddess of victory, Nike.

The Goodyear Tire Company decided many years ago to use as its logo the

Roman God Mercury, or at least a part of it, called by the Greeks Hermes. This

is the God of travel, the God of speed, and hence, Goodyear tires. They

thought that would be a great logo for us to employ.

Ajax the Great was the warrior in Greek mythology, one of the heroes of the

Trojan wars. He probably never knew that a grime cleaner would be one day

named after him. But it is, Ajax. Some of you have that in your homes.

Athena was the favored child of Zeus, the goddess of strategic warfare. Now a

body wash is named after her and a lotion. It's a whole company called

Athena. Zeus was the king of all the gods, king of the Olympian gods. He was

the ruler of the sky. He was the master of the thunderbolt. And so many

corporations have taken as their logo the thunderbolt, whether it's Gatorade,

or Opel Automotive, from Germany, or Zenith Electronics, it's that idea of the

thunderbolt from Zeus.

NASA has used the name Apollo for its space program, one of its space

programs. Apollo, of course, was a son of Zeus. He was the God of the sun and

the light. Then some of you who drink Starbucks coffee, though you really

should drink Solomon's Porch coffee.

[LAUGHTER]

But Starbucks uses as its logo this siren. And they will even state on their

website-- they do it on purpose-- the siren in ancient times was like a super

mermaid. She had two tails, but she had an alluring voice. And she would call

to sailors and lure them to their deaths-- very appropriate, actually, for

Starbucks.

[LAUGHTER]

Just kidding. But there are so many examples-- Midas Muffler, Trident Foods,

Mercury Car Company, Pandora Streaming Service, art, literature, video

games. All of them are filled with motif or ideas or logos from ancient worship

systems. Now, I think we probably agree that most of that is benign. I'm going

to put that in the relatively harmless category.

I'm not all hung up on what logos companies use. There's something far more

sinister going on. And that is philosophies, ideologies, from paganism, trends,

that we have ancient gods dressed in modern garb. There are monsters

among us. There are practices, beliefs, once considered aberrant in our

culture, once considered abhorrent in our culture, now widely accepted by

our culture.

And not just accepted, but they're considered normal. Not just considered

normal, but they're being considered as good. Not just good, but they're

considered something worthy to be celebrated. Not just worthy to be

celebrated, but if you don't think it's good and you don't celebrate it, you, in

fact, are evil. That's the concerning thing.

There are monsters among us. Now, they are not called by the same names

that they used to be called. Nobody talks about worshiping Baal anymore.

But they do worship the idea of hedonism, materialism, pleasure. Nobody

worships Ashtar or Ishtar or Ashtoreth-- she goes by several names-- from the

Babylonian pantheon, but transgenderism, which was a huge thing with

them, is prevalent today.

Nobody is worshipping at the feet of Molech, like they did in the Old

Testament. But abortion on demand has been widely practiced in our

country. Nobody's worshiping Chemosh or Mammon or Dagon or any of

these other gods, but these philosophical and ideological practices, including

gender fluidity and the like, are all a part of modern culture. And we're going

to be talking about all of those things in this series. We're going to be talking

about how these ancient systems have made their way into modern society.

Now, let me just take you back without taking you all the way back through

all of the scriptures. But in the Old Testament, whenever those gods that I

mentioned or goddesses were being worshipped, the Bible places a different

title on them than just worshiping Baal, or worshiping Ashtoreth, or

worshiping Molech. The Bible says they were actually worshiping demons,

worshiping demons.

So it might appear that they're worshiping just Baal, but behind Baal is a

demonic force. And the Bible says they are worshiping demons. You know

how the scripture says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Deuteronomy chapter 32, "They sacrificed to demons and not to God, to gods

they did not know."

2 Chronicles, chapter 11, speaking of King Jeroboam of Israel, "He appointed

for himself priests for the demons." Psalm 106, the psalmist says, "They

worshipped their idols, and this led to their downfall. They even sacrificed

their sons and their daughters to the demons."

Now, just think about what that means for a moment. If you know your Bible,

you know that demons are spirits. And if you know their spirits, you know that

they don't die. So if demons don't die, then the same demons that were

around thousands of years ago haven't gone anywhere. They've just figured

out a way to reinvent themselves in new disguise.

Jesus even said that if a demon leaves a man, he searches through the dry

places to find something or someone else to inhabit. So that is a fundamental

idea that we're going to build upon in the next several weeks.

Now, in this first study, in Judges chapter 17, I want to show you how this

trend develops. I want to show you how societies over time tend to shift away

from God, from truth, from his authority. We're going to be looking today at

Judges chapter 17, verses 1 through 6. Let's begin.

"Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was

Micah. And he said to his mother, The 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken

from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears-- here is the

silver with me; I took it. And his mother said, May you be blessed by the LORD,

my son.

So when he had returned the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother

said, I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son, to

make a carved image and a molded image. Now, therefore, I will return it to

you. Thus he returned the silver to his mother.

Then his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith,

and he made it into a carved image and a molded image. And they were in

the house of Micah. The man, Micah, had a shrine"-- notice that word "shrine."

It literally is "he had a house of gods, a house of gods." He was worshiping

several idols.

"Micah had a shrine, a house of gods, and made an ephod"-- this piece of

clothing used for worship-- "and household idols. And he consecrated one of

his sons, who became his priest. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and

everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

What I'd like to show you briefly in this passage are three notable

characteristics that tell us how monsters gather around us-- corruption in the

nation, confusion in the home, chaos in the heart. Those are the three

characteristics. All three are inextricably twined. One leads to the other. One

exists with the other, corruption in the nation, confusion in the home, chaos

in the heart.

Let's begin with the first, Corruption. In the nation. Go back to verse 6, which

we just finished with. It says, "in those days, there was no king in Israel, and

everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

What days is he referring To The days of the judges, a very specific period of

time in which the nation, God's nation, was falling away dramatically. The

period of Judges was a 350-year period after the death of Joshua and before

the United monarchy under King Saul, King David, King Solomon.

That 350 years was a period of tribal confederation. That is, leadership was

dispersed among the tribes of Israel, all 12 of them. There was no king in the

nation, and it was a time of spiritual decline. So there's no central leadership.

And the implication of saying there's no king in Israel, and everyone did what

was right in his own eyes, is that had there been a king, had there been a

godly king, especially, he could have, at least in part, prevented the wholesale

outbreak of idolatry. And there were righteous kings in the Old Testament

that did exactly that.

But there was no king in those days, and everyone did what was right in his

own eyes. The first thing, as I'm reading chapter 17, that stuck out to me is

that we are dealing with God's people. These are God's people we're talking

about. These are not Philistines or Ammonites or Canaanites or Amorites or

Jebusites or termites.

These are God's people, the Israelites, the covenant nation, the ones that he

redeemed from Egypt, the ones that he gave the land of Canaan to, through

which would come the plan of salvation for the world by birthing the Messiah,

that nation. And that's a profound thought. And I want you to just see hints of

this in our text.

It says in verse one that this man was from the mountains of Ephraim.

Ephraim was the second born son of Joseph in the book of Genesis. He

became a tribal leader of a prominent tribe that got their land allotment right

in the center of Canaan. So it is a very, very prominent Jewish tribe.

Then I want you to notice in verse 1 his name. The name Micah means "who is

like God?" or "who is like Yahweh?" specifically. So he had a great name, but

he didn't live up to that name. Though his name meant "who is like Yahweh?"

he is very, very unlike Yahweh. He is very ungodly.

Then something else to make a note of that is noteworthy is that his mother,

in verse 2 and 3, uses the covenant name for God, the very specific Hebrew

Jewish covenant name for God, not just God generically. But look at what it

says in verse 2. "May you be blessed by the"-- What does it say? "May you be

blessed by the LORD."

Notice something about that word, all capitals, all cap, capital L, capital O,

capital R, capital D. Whenever you find that in the Old Testament, you are

dealing with the tetragrammaton, the four-lettered word of God in Hebrew,

which we would transliterate Y-H-W-H, in Hebrew, yod, heh, vav, heh, Yahweh.

It's a very specific name that God introduced himself to the children of Israel

with when he made a covenant with them. It was the Jewish God, Yahweh,

sometimes named Jehovah. But it's Yahweh.

So she uses that in verse 2, and also in verse 3. "I had wholly dedicated the

silver," she said, "from my hand to Yahweh, to the Lord for my son." Now let's

just stop here and get a big picture.

This is the book of Judges. The book of Judges can be divided into two

sections. The first section is the chronological section. The second section is

the biographical section.

So chapters 1 through 16 is the chronology. Then it stops. Beginning here in

chapter 17 to chapter 21, the second section, there's no more chronology.

There's just little examples that are given. It's biographical. It is an appendix, if

you will.

The first 16 chapters describe the external threat to the nation, through the

Philistines, through the Midianites, through the Amorites, and how they were

delivered by these judges. That's chapters 1 through 16.

But chapters 17 through 21, as I said, is biographical. And it is intended by the

author to give example after example, to show the reader how far God's

people have fallen into apostasy.

And so he says, well, here's an example, and here's another example, and

here's yet another example of just how far they had fallen. As if to say, this

nation, that once marched triumphantly through Canaan to the glory of God,

has now disintegrated so morally and politically, that they are bringing

disgrace upon the name of Yahweh. That's what this section is intended to

convey.

And that's what is so shocking about chapter 17. We're dealing with idolatry,

not among pagans, but among believers. You see, when Philistines carve idols

and worship them, ah, no big deal. That's what Philistines do.

When Babylonians carve little images to Baal, and they worship Ashtaroth,

you go, OK, well, that's Babylon. That's what they do. When Canaanites bow to

Molech and sacrifice their children to Molech, we have an understanding that

is who they are. That's their practice, their culture, for years.

But when Israel has molded images, when Israel is practicing idolatry, we go,

oh-oh. And that's what we should say. You see, when sinners sin, we expect

that. I hope you're not shocked when the world acts like the world. When

sinners sin, I can't believe they did that. I can. It's what they do.

But when Christians practice the same things, now that should take your

breath away. That should give you pause. Why? Because we are supposed to

be the transformed ones. We're supposed to be the ones that God changed.

Romans chapter 12, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by

the renewing of your mind.

I love the Phillips translation of that. Don't let the world squeeze you into its

own mold. Did you know that God calls New Testament believers to be

nonconformists, to be transformers, to be world changers? We are not to act

like them.

But there's always a tendency. There's always a temptation. Because there's so

much corruption in our culture. And I'm guessing that some of you have

friends who are not saved. And the temptation is we want to be so accepted

by our peer group, and seen as like them, and seen as cool, and seen as not

stodgy. So we are tempted to compromise, to conform. But we are told, "Be

not conformed to this world, but be transformed."

Now, I believe that one of the biggest threats to the church isn't from the

outside. But one of the biggest threats to the church is from the inside. Yes,

there is a threat to the church from the outside. It's called persecution. We

don't get much of it. You get some of it. People laugh at your bumper sticker.

But I mean, as far as none of you lost your lives this week, like they did in

Nigeria for being a Christian-- churches are being burned by the hundreds in

that country. And that has always been an effective attack against the church

by the enemy.

But what we face is attacks from the inside, corruption of our culture that has

made its way into the church. And when the church becomes like the world

and parrots the world, that's when you have the real problems.

I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, a quote by Vance Havner. He said,

"Satan isn't fighting churches; he's joining them." If you can't beat them, join

them. So fill them with people who call themselves Christians, but act no

different than those who they live around.

You should also note that everyone who has deconstructed their faith or

deconverted from Christianity at one time were solid evangelical believers, for

the most part. So the first component, corruption in the nation, we're dealing

with God's people here.

Second, the second component or notable characteristic is confusion in the

home. The corruption in the nation finds its way now into the home. There's

confusion in the home.

Now, we read through this text, but I think you'll agree there's a lot of mixed

up activity going on in this home. Let me remind you. First, there's a son who

steals money from his mom. Now, you may have done that as a young child.

But this is a grown up kid who has his own son and somehow, living in

proximity to his mother, steals a significant amount of money from his

mother. That's first.

Second, she pronounces a curse on the thief, not knowing the thief is her own

son. Third, he confesses his sin to his mother because he's afraid of the curse

that she uttered. That was a big deal, especially in those days.

Fourth, she then blesses him. After she curses him, she blesses him, as if to

counteract the curse that she had previously given. Then, fifth, she dedicates

part of the return money to the Lord to make an idol out of it. And then sixth,

he makes one of his sons a priest.

Have you ever seen a family more confused. They broke most of the Ten

Commandments. First of all, he coveted what his mother had and he didn't

have. Then he stole the silver. Then he didn't honor his mother, like the

Commandments say. Then he lied about it.

So, so far, he has broken the fifth, eighth, ninth, and 10th commandment. And

he-- no, let me rephrase that. They broke the first and second

commandments, which says, you will have no other gods besides me. And by

the way, when you worship me, you will not do so with an image.

So the first two commandments, God's saying, I want to be worshiped

exclusively, I want no competition, and then the second commandment, I am

to be worshiped without an image, that is, not only no competition, but no

representation, no physical, earthly molded image of God when you worship.

Oh, so not only have they violated six of the Ten Commandments, they've

broken the commandment of the priesthood. The priesthood says, it is only a

Levite from the house of Aaron that is to be a priest in the central sanctuary.

He's developing his own priesthood, and he thinks, I'm going to have my kid

as the priest of my own kind of homespun, do-it-yourself religious system.

Now, that won't last too long, because he's going to find a Levite. We won't

have the time to get into it. But the chapter continues. He finds a Levite and

hires him to be his next priest.

Now, let me just touch on something. And that is the whole thing of images.

Because I came from a religious background that employed lots of images in

worship. Why is it that God makes such a big deal out of no images?

Well, you need to know why. First of all, it's because images obscure the glory

of God. Images obscure the glory of God. There is no true image of God that

can be found in all the world, no true image of God that can be found in all

the world.

Every image of God that has ever been made is, by its very nature, limited.

God, by his very nature, is unlimited. He is unlimited. He is boundless. And he

is spirit. So to make something material, an image out of that which is

material, is to deny his very essence.

So if I place a crucifix in front of me, shows Jesus dying on the cross, that

happens to portray the greatest act of love in history. But it's incomplete. It

tells me about sacrifice, tells me nothing about majesty, tells me nothing

about deity, tells me nothing about sovereignty.

It shows a dying Jesus, not a living Christ. Now, I have no problem with what a

crucifix depicts. The problem I have is what a crucifix fails to depict, what it

hides. And a universe filled with images of God will not give you a complete

picture of God, because his nature is holy, unique, separated, other than.

There's no image that can contain that. So images obscure God's glory.

There's a second reason why images are a big deal. Images mislead people.

Not only do they not reveal God, not only do they not reveal his complete

character, it's what they do reveal that is often problematic. Images give

people impressions. Images give people impressions.

And you know that what we believe will determine how we behave. And so

it's a psychological fact that if you focus on an image of the one that you pray

to, you come to think of him as what the image represents.

So here's an example. This is Exodus 32. This is the golden calf thing, when

Moses went up to get the Ten Commandments, the verbal and written word

of God. They wanted something more visual in their worship, so they created

a golden calf.

This is Exodus 32. It says, "They began offering burnt offerings and peace

offerings to the calf idol." Listen. "Afterwards, they sat down to feast and drink

at a wild party, followed by sexual immorality."

Now, do you ever wonder why they created a calf? A calf, they had come from

Egypt, and one of the gods of Egypt was Apis the calf, the bull, that was a

symbol of Egyptian strength. And they wanted a god that represented

strength. So they created a golden calf.

And they wanted to say, Yahweh is strong. And so they looked at it. They built

it. They looked at it, and they worshiped before it. They felt the need to

worship this strong God with a strong frenzy. So images misled them.

Sometimes people say, well, Skip, when you pray, what do you picture in your

mind? What image do you have? Here's the answer. Nothing, absolutely

nothing. I'm not picturing a man with a beard and a halo, with robes and

sandals. Or I'm not picturing God as a heavenly grandfather. I have no image

in my mind whatsoever.

So there is corruption in the nation. There's confusion in the home. But before

we move on to the third, let's go a little deeper into this. Because she

mentions in verse 2 and in verse 3, the LORD, and the name, as you know

now, is Yahweh, the covenant name of God, the Jewish specific name of God.

It could be that she really did once honor Yahweh, and she wanted to use that

money to honor Yahweh in the right way. But her son did not worship

Yahweh. Her son worshiped idols. He had, in fact, a house of idols. He had a

shrine to several little deities in his home.

Perhaps this mother, knowing this about her son and not wanting the curse

that she uttered to fall upon him, decided to change the curse into a blessing.

Blessed are you, my son, by the Lord.

There is a sad trend where some people will actually change their entire belief

system based upon their own sin or the sin of a loved one. They are willing to

throw God under the bus. Norman Geisler said-- we'll put it on the screen--

"Fraternity will almost always overcome theology."

Now, let's just keep that up for a minute. That's a very profound statement.

Fraternity will almost always supersede or contradict or overcome theology.

See, if I find something in the Bible that conflicts with something I want to do,

or with what my child wants to do, or maybe a friend or nephew or niece

want to do, I might just change what I believe about that. So, for example, a

parent may raise a child to believe in right and wrong, good and evil, two

genders, until they walk home one day, and they say, I'm gay, or I'm gender

fluid, or I'm pregnant, and I'm going to have an abortion. Are you OK with

that?

And sometimes a parent will feel, because human relationships can be very,

very powerful, as an incentive for eternity can overcome theology. They'll say,

well, I really want to affirm my child and show my child that I love him or her.

And the best way to do that is to let them do whatever they want.

That is not love. And what you are doing is making your child God. If you're

willing to say, everything I believed about God is now wrong because my child

is practicing this, then you are making your child God and not God, or your

family, or yourself. So there is this happening in the book of Judges,

corruption in the nation and confusion in the home, leads us to a third. And

that is chaos in the heart.

And again, all three of these go together. There's chaos in the heart. "In those

days, there was no king in Israel." And here's the phrase, I think you will agree,

is like the perfect description of our era, our country, our culture. "Everyone

did what was right in his own eyes." That happens to be an editorial comment

on the spiritual condition of that time. And I would also say this time.

Here's the point. If you have no standard of objective truth, all you are left with

is subjective truth. Do you understand that? Objective truth means that

which is outside of us. Subjective truth means truth that is inside of us, what

you feel.

So when you have no standard of objective truth-- this is what is true. This is

what is right. This is what is wrong, because we have a standard, because we

have a God, because he has given us his revelation. If you throw that out, all

you're left with is subjective truth. You're going to do what seems best to you.

Now, would you not agree, that is the mantra of modern culture? You hear

this everywhere-- Well, that's your truth, but this is my truth. Or, follow your

heart. Or, go with your gut, some of the worst advice ever.

Did you know there was a time in our society when there was a moral

consensus that as a society, for the most part, it was very easy to say, that's

right, that's wrong, that's good, that's evil. There was a moral consensus, a

shared value system, right and wrong, good and evil, truth and error.

There was indeed a framework of absolute truth. 2 plus 2 equals 4. That's not

my truth. That's the truth. Because truth is ontological. Truth is based upon

facts in reality.

Smoking is hazardous to your health. That's not my truth. That's the truth.

There are only two genders, not 42 genders. That's not my truth. That's the

truth.

Some of you have asked, well, why is it when I sent my kids to college, they

came back thinking so differently? Well, it's because as soon as they hit the

college classroom, the basis of truth was moved from something objective to

something subjective. There is no universal absolute, right and wrong. It's all

how you feel, what you want, what's within you, your gut, your heart. It

became subjective.

Now, if you wonder where this all started, it actually started in hell. But it

started on Earth in the fifth century BC by a philosopher named Protagoras.

Protagoras preceded Plato and Aristotle and those great thinkers who, by the

way, contradicted what Protagoras said.

But Protagoras is considered the father of humanism. And what he said is,

man-- here's his statement. Man is the measure of all things. Man is the

measure of all things. So, truth is here, inside you. You make your own reality.

You decide what is right. You decide what is wrong. Man is the measure of all

things.

Now, again, Plato and Aristotle will come along and say, that's bogus. That's

not right. There are some shared universal truths, et cetera. But in a world like

ours, where our philosophy is Protagoras on steroids, any statement of

absolute truth, right and wrong, seems arrogant to our culture. How dare you

say that? What do you mean? You think you know the truth and nobody else

does? You have a corner on the market? That's arrogant.

And then when you insert into this pagan culture the truth claims of Jesus,

who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father

but by me," that's really narrow and abrasive and confrontational.

Now, some of you have been thinking through what I've been saying. And I've

left a lot out. There's a lot of history we haven't covered. But you're wondering,

so if Protagoras was fifth century BC, and yet you said, in the United States of

America, in our culture, we at one time had a moral consensus, a shared value

system, how is that even possible that far down the line to have a moral

consensus?

Here's why. Because originally, the United States was formed with a Judeo

Christian worldview, a Judeo-Christian worldview. It's even on our money, In

God We Trust. We were making a statement. There is a moral consensus.

There is a right and wrong because there is a God who says so.

So we had good roots. But we have not progressed. We have regressed back

to the philosophy of Protagoras, and fast. Let me put a scripture up, because I

think it bears meditation as we bring this to a close. 2 Timothy, chapter 4, says,

the "time is coming when people will no longer listen to right teaching. They

will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them

whatever they want to hear."

Do you think that has been fulfilled in our culture, in our day? In other words,

there's coming a time when people will say to you, how can you arrogantly

think you have a corner on the market of truth? There is no absolute truth.

Ever had somebody tell you that?

Do you realize that when somebody tells you there is no absolute truth, that's

a self-contradictory statement. Because they have just shared an absolute

truth. There is no absolute-- how do you know? If there is no absolute truth,

how do you know? Anyway, that's a philosophical discussion.

We hold, as Bible-believing Christians, that objective truth exists

independently of what a person believes, that it's not my truth, your truth, our

truth, their truth. It's the truth. Truth exists independently of human belief.

And though a person may change over time what they believe to be true,

that does not, in fact, change what is actually true. Truth exists and is

ascertained by reason and by evidence, not by feelings, and not by social

pressure.

The idea of your truth versus my truth is the core of philosophical absurdism.

It is an absurd way to live, to say, this is my truth, that's your truth. And I'll tell

you why. I'm not just being funny about that. It's ridiculous because it implies

there is no objective reality, there's no shared truth. That makes life inherently

meaningless.

You cannot have a meaningful conversation or agreement on anything unless

you agree that there are certain facts of reality. How are you going to teach

math, science, history, unless you have common ground on what is true and

not true? Christianity rests upon truth, absolute truth, objective truth, that

certain things happened in history, most notably the death, the burial, and

the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Moreover, the one who died and was buried and was resurrected said-- he

made an absolute truth claim-- I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes

to the Father but by me. And he said, he promised, You will know the truth,

and the truth will-- finish it for me-- it will set you free.

So yes, there are monsters in our closet. Because demons don't die. And

ancient gods have just dressed up in modern clothes. We're going to be

looking at those in the next few weeks, monsters in the closet, yes.

And though there are monsters in the closet, there is meaning in the cosmos.

Because there was a man on the cross who took your sin and my sin and

offers a path to live life and say, I know that I know what is true and what is

not.

Father, we worship you as the only God, the only true God. And we realize

from the lens of scripture-- we see clearly through that lens that there's not

just different belief systems and different religions. There's the worship of the

true and living God, and then there is satanically inspired demonic worship in

everything but the true and living God, that Satan's master plan is deception.

Help us to see clearly, to be equipped completely, and to live boldly, clearly,

and godly in the age in which we live. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us for this message from Calvary Church with

Skip Heitzig. We would love to know how this teaching impacted you. Share

your story with us. Email mystory@calvarynm.church. And if you'd like to

support this Bible teaching ministry with a financial gift, visit

calvarynm.church/give.