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Man, the part of the chapter that I want to focus on is there, beginning in verse 8, as I turn there, where it says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. And then it says, be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Now I want to focus on that thought, be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. We don't want to get caught up in weird doctrines or strange doctrines or things that are foreign and bizarre. We think of Ephesians chapter 4 that talks about being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. There are a lot of people that just get caught up in whatever weird doctrine comes down the pike. And today I specifically want to bring up some very strange doctrines of the Mormons. And I'm going to tie in some stuff with the resurrection because of the fact that today's Easter so we're thinking about the resurrection of Christ. But let me tell you something, the Mormons believe some really weird stuff. They've got some very strange doctrines that they've been carried off with. And I'm going to give you some examples of these tonight, but specifically I want to talk about this doctrine that the Mormons have taught about Jesus being married. And of course it's not just unique to them, of course I've never read it, I never will read this blasphemous garbage, but I guess that's what the Da Vinci Code is about, right? The best-selling book by Dan Brown. Isn't it something about Jesus being married or having kids? So this is a junk doctrine that's out there and it's something that the Mormons have taught. And the thing that put this on my mind was I mentioned on Wednesday night the Mormon cartoon. So of course, you know, my son came to me and said, hey, Dad, I want to watch that Mormon cartoon. You said to watch it immediately. And so I said, all right, let's watch it immediately, you know. So I turned on from the Mormon cartoon and it's funny because I've seen that cartoon so many times, but this time something kind of jumped out at me in the Mormon cartoon where it said, you know, that Jesus was married to at least three wives, you know. And I was like, whoa, what in the world? So I Googled it, you know, do Mormons believe that Jesus was married? So I found this website that's a website dedicated to defending the Mormons. It's called FairMormon.org. And it's basically defending the Mormons against all the false accusations, you know, from, you know, from people like the people who made that cartoon, you know. So I went to this article, you got to hear this, I went to this article on FairMormon.org called Do Mormons Believe Jesus Christ Was Married? Here's the first thing that's written in the article. The first words are Mormons don't officially believe that Jesus was married. Now what do you notice about that right away? It doesn't say Mormons don't believe he was married. It says Mormons don't officially believe that he was married because guess what? The Mormons don't officially believe a lot of stuff that they actually believe because the Mormons hide a lot of their beliefs, don't they? I mean to me that's a meaningless statement. Well not officially. Okay, well what about all the other secret stuff that people learn after they have been initiated into Mormonism? Mormonism is in a lot of ways like a secret society where you get initiated into deeper levels of it and you learn the really weird stuff after you go to the temple endowment ceremony or after you get married in the temple, you get into the more strange aspects of it. You know, the Bible says that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. You know, if our beliefs are scripturally sound, we don't need to hide them, do we? Well just, I mean look, if somebody asks me what I believe, I'll just come out and tell them what I believe. I'll just show them from the Bible and I'm not ashamed of any Christian doctrine. But the Bible says, everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be manifest that they're wrought in God. And the Bible says that whatsoever makes manifest is light. So all of our doctrine is exposed. Jesus said, what I tell you in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. We're not to hide any scriptural teaching under a bushel but we are to teach all the things that Christ has commanded. Everything in the Word of God is openly preached by us. So it says, well Mormons don't officially believe that Jesus was married. That's a red flag right there. And they say, you know, a lot of Mormons believe that. You know, some believe it, some don't. And then they say, well the question is, what is it about Jesus being married that would make him less of our Lord and Savior? Yet Latter-day Saints are accused of not being Christian because of such beliefs. And then they bring up an example of a Presbyterian guy. William Phipps, professor of religion and philosophy at Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia, wrote an article and a book declaring his belief that Jesus Christ was married. Are all Presbyterians not Christians on account of Reverend Phipps' beliefs or do different standards exist for evangelicals than for those satanic cultists, the Mormons? So does everybody understand what they're saying? They're saying, well wait a minute, is this a double standard? If some Mormons have taught that Jesus was married, why does that make them non-Christian? I can point to a Presbyterian guy who taught the same thing. Does that mean all Presbyterians aren't Christian? Here's the problem with that logic. The problem with that logic is I'm about to read for you some quotes, not just from some random Mormon, but from the apostles of their religion, the president of the Mormon Church, the founders and architects and leadership of their church, their heroes of the faith. Here's the thing, I'll say this, that any Presbyterian who actually believes the Bible is going to reject what that bozo said and any Presbyterian who's following that guy is a phony. Amen? I mean, look, the difference is, yeah, I'm sure you can find some random Baptist that would believe weird stuff. You can find a random Presbyterian that would believe weird stuff. But here's the thing, we're not lifting up weirdos as the heroes of the faith. If some Baptist pastor started teaching that Jesus was married and Jesus had kids, would we just say, oh, well, okay, that's interesting. We'd say this guy's a heretic. Get away from him. That's a divers and strange doctrine. That's weird. That's not biblical. It's garbage. So there's no double standard here. It's not a double standard for the Mormons because we would reject any Baptist or Presbyterian or anybody else who believed that. And let's face it, you know, how many Presbyterians are flying the rainbow flag, for crying out loud, right? And here's the thing. If we actually ran into a Presbyterian who was saved, wouldn't we expect them to condemn the rainbow guy down the street? Of course. Not lifting him up as a hero. So the point is that the Mormon leadership has taught this. Here's an example. And by the way, all of this is coming from their article. I'm not going to go anywhere else to do research. This is their article defending Mormons. So this is a pro-Mormon article written by a Mormon. Here's what they say in their own article. It is true that several early Latter-day Saint leaders believed that Jesus was married and preached this from the pulpit. A little bit later they're going to quote the president of the Mormon church from the 70s, the 1970s, early Mormon leaders. 1972? Is early? Anyway, but here's a guy from the 1800s. Apostle Orson Hyde. Here's what he said. If you would turn in your Bible to John chapter 2. Turn your Bible to John chapter 2. Here's what the Mormon apostle says, Orson Hyde. Now there was actually a marriage at Cana, John chapter 2 verses 1 through 11, and if Jesus was not the bridegroom on that occasion, then please tell me who was. If any man can show this and prove that it was not the savior of the world, then I will acknowledge I am in error. We say that it was Jesus Christ who was married. This is the apostle of the Mormon church, Orson Hyde. This isn't just some random guy. This is the leader of their religion back then. Now let's see what the Bible says. Look that at your Bible in John chapter 2 verse 1. And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, they have no wine. Now let me ask you this, does it sound like Jesus is the one getting married? It's absurd. It's crazy. It's impossible. It says there was a wedding in Cana and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. You would never say that about the person who was actually getting married. I mean think about, you know, brother Ryan LeBlanc, you know, I, you know, what, I remember when you got married, right? What if I say like, hey, there's a wedding and you're invited. By the way, you're the groom. That's stupid, right? Makes no sense. Would I say Ryan was invited to that wedding? Or would I say it was Ryan's wedding? Do you see what I'm saying? That's crazy to say that. So you know, I mean if anybody can prove me wrong, I'll change my belief. It's like, have you thought about reading the text? Have you thought about just opening your Bible to John chapter 2 and just reading where it says that Jesus was invited to a wedding? That's what called means in this context. You know, if you study the word called in the New Testament, the way it's used in this context, it just means that he's invited. He's a guy who's invited along with his disciples. It brings up the fact that his mother was there before it even brings up him being there. If he's the groom, wouldn't that be the most important thing? It's crazy. It's absurd. It makes no sense. So this guy doesn't know the Bible at all, okay? This guy's twisting scripture for his weird cult where they're marrying a bunch of teenage girls and stuff. Sierra Leone style, amen? But if you would, flip back to Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus chapter number 18. Because this false prophet Orson Hyde goes on to say, if he had Mary and Martha and several others as wives, it's all the same to me. He said, hey, why not? You know, so what? Maybe he was married to Mary, Martha, and several others. It doesn't matter to me. Same to me. Well, here's the problem with that, Orson Hyde, is that that would make Jesus a sinner. Because number one, first of all, polygamy's a sin. The Bible says that at the beginning, God made them male and female, and for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. It doesn't say they, you know, three, or they, plural, or just, or he could have just said cleave unto his wives and they shall all be one big flesh. No. It says they too shall be one flesh. Two people. That's what marriage is supposed to be, two people. Now it is true that under God's law, polygamy was tolerated because it was just something that was going on. It wasn't criminally against the law, but it was always a sin. It was never God's will, it was never allowed, it was just something that wasn't made criminal. For example, you know, I, for one, and this might offend some people, you know, I don't think weed should be illegal, but I think it's wicked and sinful to smoke weed. Smoking weed is wicked. Doing drugs is wicked. But you know what else is doing wicked? Drinking alcohol is wicked. But I don't think alcohol should be illegal. I think it's ungodly, I think it's sinful, I think it's wicked, but I don't think it should be against the law because there's a difference between sin and criminal. Does everybody understand? You know, so there are a lot of things in the Mosaic law that aren't a crime. People can do it in society, but that doesn't make it right. Okay. If every sin were illegal, we'd all go to jail every day, you know, because we're all sinners, right? So you can't make every single sin illegal or the jails would be overfilled. But in the Levitical law, being – even though these Mormons, you know, if you tell them polygamy is a sin, they're not going to listen to that because they believe it's okay. But in the Mosaic law, the Bible specifically said you cannot be married to two sisters while they're both alive. That is for sure not allowed at all, not even tolerated. No marrying a woman and her sister, okay. Look what the Bible says. I'll show you in Scripture. Are you there in Leviticus 18? Look at verse 18 of Leviticus 18. It says, neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister to vex her to uncover her nakedness beside the other in her lifetime. So if you're married to one woman and then she dies and then you marry the sister after she died, that's okay. But don't do it at the same time in their lifetime. Why? Because it's going to vex them, to vex her. Now isn't there a story about this in the Bible? In the book of Genesis, you have the story of Jacob being married to two sisters. How did that work out? Rachel and Leah, they're hating each other at each other's throats, fighting. It's a disaster. It's a bad example. And you know what this kind of reminded me of a little bit? It kind of reminded me of a science class, okay. Now who's ever taken a science class where you had to do the lab and the class? It's like two different components. There's like the, oh great, all right, people can connect to my lecture here, you know. So it's like, because a lot of times I'll make an illustration and it's like two hands go up, you know. At least we got, okay, all right. So there's like the lab component and the lecture component, right. And typically what they'll do in a science class is that first you'll do the lab part where you do something, you kind of get experience with something hands on. Like you do it and then you go into the class and then they explain it to you. Like okay, let me explain what we did. So you do the lab and then the lecture is typically the order that that would go in, you know. Because here's the thing, sometimes when you're sitting in a classroom hearing about something, you don't really get it. It's too abstract. But when you've actually done it with your hands and actually looked through the microscope or whatever, then all of a sudden now the lecture makes sense, right. So think about it this way. Genesis is like the lab, okay, where it's like, okay, here's what it's like when a guy marries two sisters. And then we get to the lecture in Leviticus 18, it's just like, don't do it, okay. Because it's going to vex her and we can, we've already seen, like here's the thing, if you read Genesis first and then Leviticus, when you get to Leviticus and it says in verse 18, to vex her, don't you just immediately know what that means? If you'd never read Genesis, you'd be like, well, oh really, they don't like that? Women don't like that? But if you, if you'd read Genesis, you'd be like, yeah, to vex her, your mind immediately goes. I guarantee you that most of us, when we're reading our Bible in Leviticus 18, that's where our mind instantly goes. When we see to vex her, we're like Rachel and Leah, right? That's where your mind's going to go. But this guy doesn't know the, he's the head of their religion, he's one of their leaders, one of their heroes, and he doesn't even know the Bible. He says, oh, maybe Jesus was married to Mary and Martha. Wouldn't that put Jesus square in violation of Leviticus chapter 18 verse 18, making him a sinner? Just showing how these people don't know the Bible at all. Also the president of the Mormon Church from 1970 to 1972, Joseph Fielding Smith, and I'm getting this all from their article. We don't officially believe that. That's a lie. Well, okay, yeah, we've had some guys who believed it, you know, early, early guys. Oh, well, there was this guy in 1972 that was the highest Mormon in the whole church, Joseph Fielding Smith. So this other guy, J. Ricks Smith, boy, these are really creative names that they come up with. So J. Smith is writing to J. Smith for clarification on a question he had. And here's what he says, dear President Smith, in a discussion recently, the question arose was Christ married. The quote of Isaiah 53 10 was given, which reads, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. What is meant by he shall see his seed? Does this mean that Christ had children? In the temple ceremony, we are told that only through temple marriage can we receive the highest degree of exaltation and dwell in the presence of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Christ came here to set us the example and therefore we believe he must have been married, are we right? Sincerely, J. Smith. Here's the response. The response is, yes, but do not preach it. And folks, if I'm lying, I'm dying, okay? Get on the internet and go to their website, it's a Mormon website, fairmormon.org, look up the article called Do Mormons Believe Jesus Christ Was Married, and tell me if I'm lying. It says it right here, yes, but do not preach it. The Lord advised us not to cast pearls before swine. So I guess what they're saying is that their church members are swine, right? I mean, isn't that what they're saying? You know what, that shows you what the Mormon leadership thinks of you, Mormon, they think you're an idiot, and they're right, okay, so you need to leave. I mean, think about it. What if I got up and said, well, there's a certain doctrine I believe, but I'm not going to preach it because I'm not going to cast my pearls before swine. I'd basically be saying that you're swine. Because who is this guy preaching to? Is this guy like a street preacher? Does he walk down the street bullhorning with a sign saying the end is near? Does this guy go on TV preaching? No. Who does he preach to, folks? Who listens to Mormon preachers? Does anyone who's not a Mormon just seek out Mormon preaching? No. Those preachers are listened to by Mormons, and this is one Mormon leader telling another Mormon leader, yes, we believe Jesus was married, but don't preach that because the Lord advised us not to cast pearls before swine. And you know what, that shows what's in their heart when people say things like that. Like, our people can't handle this. They're pigs. You know, I don't look at you as pigs, you know, I love you. You know, I love our members here, I look out, I have no ill will or rancor toward anybody in this room, and I don't think that anyone in this building is an idiot. I think everyone here is my friend, I love you, you're, you know, you're the flock here, you're God's people, right? And if somebody turns out to be a Judas later, you know, I'll be surprised. I'm not, yeah, well, you know, that's what I thought. The point is that, you know, this guy hates his own people. And what kind of a person, well, yeah, we believe that, but don't preach it. You know what, let me tell you something, I preach everything I believe. If I believe it, I'm preaching it. Unless I believe something that's like an opinion that's not in the Bible, I'm not going to get up and preach my own opinions about, you know, sports or something. You know, I'm going to get up and preach Bible. But if I believe it and it's biblical, if it's about Jesus, then I'm preaching it, period. I'm not holding anything back, okay? But can you believe that? Just on their own, what they're admitting, they're showing the letter from the guy where he says, yes, but do not preach it. That should tell you everything you need to know about the Mormon Church. So if you would go to Matthew chapter 22, let's look at another strange doctrine of the Mormons. Matthew chapter 22, this is a good resurrection tie-in for Easter Sunday. Matthew chapter 22, and this is where the Sadducees confront Jesus. And it says in verse 23, the same day it came to him, the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, if a man die having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren, and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. Likewise the seventh also, and the third unto the seventh, and the last of all, the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, You do err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I'm the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. But notice he says unto them, that when they're wondering who this woman's going to be married to in the afterlife, he says, you are in error. You err. You've made an error because you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power of God. So that's where most error tends to come from, doesn't it? Not knowing the Bible, not knowing what the scripture says, just like that apostle had all those errors because he didn't know Leviticus 18 and he didn't know John chapter 2. And the Bible clearly says here that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. So therefore, in the resurrection, you're not going to be married. You know, there's a saying when you get married, till death do us part. It's not that we're just never going to part, ever. It's till death do us part. Now go back if you went to Isaiah chapter 53. Did I have you turn there and I forgot to deal with it? Go to Isaiah 53 because I want to show you that, Isaiah 53. But the Mormons, you know, they have this strange doctrine. And I read it to you a moment ago in that letter where, you know, Jay Smith is asking Jay Smith for advice. And they say, we are taught that only through temple marriage can we receive the highest degree of exaltation and dwell in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Because they think you have to do it as a couple. It's a couple's thing, you know, in the real high echelons of heaven. You can't go in there solo. It's a couple's only event. But in reality, you know, marriage is for this life only. Okay, when we get married, that lasts for this life only. Jesus was very clear that in the resurrection, they don't marry. They're not given in marriage. You say, well, yeah, but if you're already married, folks, he was answering a story about a woman who was already married and saying that's a meaningless question because in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, you know, the Apostle Paul says, you know, the time's coming when it's not going to matter whether you're married or not because that's all going to be over. That's done. So we are not married forever. Now this is one of the things that the Mormon church will use as like a recruiting tactic is they'll kind of push the family image. Now I don't know if you guys remember this, but back in the 1980s, they had a big TV campaign for the Mormon church. Does everybody remember that? Okay, now we're back to one of those illustrations where I have two people who remember, remember the commercials? They're like, they show this real family or and it's like, this message is from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California. It was now everybody's saying yes. Where were you a minute ago when I asked you to raise your hand? What do you mean? Yes. Did you see it or not? You know, we see all these commercials and it was brought to you by, I saw hundreds of them. I mean, I almost joined. No, I'm just kidding. I never did. I never thought about it, but throughout my childhood, I just kept seeing all these commercials about all these commercials and it was always like a family man and a mother who really cares about her family. They've always kind of pushed that angle and if you read their tracks, because we'll go up on the rez and we'll get their literature sometimes that they're passing out up there and it'll say like, isn't it great how families can stay together for eternity and you don't have to worry about being separated from your family because you know, it's just going to be one big happy family for billions of years. It's like, whoa, that, you know, that's a pretty intense commitment, you know, but anyway, we had this Mormon lady who would pick up produce at our house and she's like, yeah, she's like, yeah, we're married forever. Like, and she, and I'm like, well, you know, I'm sure your husband really appreciates you saying it that way, but she was acting like it was this big downer. But anyway, you know, they, they, they, they have this weird belief that marriage goes on after the grave and it simply doesn't. I'm glad that, that, you know, people love their wives and husbands and, and want to stay together. It's great. And I'm sure we're going to hang out up there, right, honey? You know, we're, we're going to, but, but you're not going to be married forever. It's just not biblical. It's a false doctrine. It's an error because you don't know the scripture. What could be clearer in scripture? Jesus just flat out said, you're wrong. You've made an error. You don't know scripture. So the verse that they're using to try to say that Jesus was married is this verse in Isaiah 53. Remember, this is what Orson Hyde quoted in Isaiah 53 where it says in verse 10, he shall see his seed. Now the seed is talking about the children or the offspring or the descendants, right? That's what seed means there. But if we actually back up a little bit, let's start back in verse number five. It says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. So it's talking about Jesus dying for our sins. All our iniquities were laid on him and he was bruised and beaten for us and by his stripes were healed. Verse seven, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and look at this next phrase. It says, and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken. I want to point out that key phrase. He was cut off from the land of living and before that says who shall declare his generation for he's cut off out of the land of living. What does that mean, who shall declare his generation? Okay, well, keep your finger there. Go back to Genesis. If you go back to Genesis, you'll often find that the definitions of key terms early in the Bible. You know, Genesis kind of introduces a lot of concepts and gives you a lot of key terms and defines them. So if we want to know what does this mean, you know, his generation, what does that mean? Well look at chapter 5 verse 1, the Bible says, this is the book of the generations of Adam. And what is this book about? The generations of Adam, it goes on to do what? It goes on to say that in verse 3 he begat a son named Seth and then, you know, Seth begat Enos and Enos begat Canaan. The book of the generations of Adam is a list of Adam's descendants. Does everybody see that? So it goes through his children and their children and their children and on and on. And then if we go a few pages forward in the Bible to chapter 10 verse 1, it says now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, right? And it goes on to explain who their descendants are, right? So in Isaiah 53 it says, who shall declare his generation? Now when we think about generation or generations, what we're talking about is a lineage. Now you have basically two kinds of lineage. You've got the lineage that led up to you and then you've got the lineage coming from you because in Matthew chapter 1 it says the book of the generation of Jesus Christ and then it says, you know, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, and it goes all the way down through getting to Jesus. So that's the generation of Jesus is basically all the people that came before him. Another kind of generation that we saw in Genesis, the generation of Adam, is all the people who came after him. Generations of Noah, all the descendants that he had. Now obviously when the Bible asks the question in Isaiah 53, who shall declare his generation, we're not talking about the people that came before him because, well, that's an easy answer. Matthew is going to declare his generation. Who shall declare his generation? Luke in chapter 3. Who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. He had no physical descendants. He has no generation. He did not generate offspring. He did not have children. Now this should be obvious because we've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, none of them mentions Jesus being married. What we do see Jesus doing is just going off and preaching nonstop for years. And he's so busy, often he barely even gets a chance to rest and eat. I mean he's very busy throughout his ministry. He's constantly trying to get away from the crowds and just take a little break. And people are following him and thronging him. And over and over again Jesus is trying to take a rest and take a break and he's just preaching and just redlining for the three and a half years of his ministry. And then we see him, you know, going off by himself to pray in a mountain. And we do see him at the home of a friend, you know, where he's at the home of a friend with Lazarus and Mary and Martha and their friends. But why is there no mention of Jesus' wife? Because you didn't have one. You can't just make up stuff and say, well the Bible didn't say no. And here's what it says in this article. The scripture is silent on the issue of Jesus' marital state. Well then why don't you be silent about it? Because here's the thing. If you'd be silent about it, there is no one who would read Matthew and walk away and say, I think Jesus was married. Nobody's going to read Mark or Luke or John and think that because there's nothing like that in scripture. Now look, the Hindus teach that Jesus went to India. They think that Jesus, when he was a teenager, he's, you know, he went through that phase like John Lennon and, you know, Paul McCartney or something. He went through that phase that the Beach Boys went through where they go and they take drugs and they play the sitar and hang around with some kind of a guru in India. They claim, that's what Hindus, I've gotten hundreds of comments like that on my videos, Jesus went to India, you know, Jesus, and he studied Hinduism and came and that's what he was teaching, Hinduism. Now here's the thing. Can I point to you a chapter and verse that says Jesus did not go to India? Do I have a Bible verse that says Jesus did not go to India? Okay, who here thinks Jesus went to India? He didn't go to India because that's absurd because there's no mention of that in scripture. So we don't have to have a verse that says he didn't go to, it also doesn't say he did not go to Timbuktu. He did not circumnavigate the globe. He didn't go to Antarctica. I don't need a verse to tell me that because my beliefs are based on what the Bible does say, not on what it doesn't say. And I don't sit around speculating about these wild theories of, well, maybe he was married. Maybe he had children. I mean, and then, and then you got to love this, this false prophet says, if Jesus was not the bridegroom on that occasion, please tell me who was. So if I can't produce the name of the guy who got married 2000 years ago in Cana, then well then it's got to be Jesus. Because I don't know, you know, that it was Shlomo, whatever they got married, who knows? So when we read the scripture in context, we see, or what the Bible is saying in verse eight, he did not have offspring. He was cut off from the land of living. He died without producing children. Does everybody understand? I mean, that's obvious because when Jesus is on the cross, who's he worried about? His wife? His kids? He's worried about his mom. When Jesus is on the cross, he says to the apostle John, behold thy mother. And he says to Mary, woman, behold thy son. And John took her into his home from the day, from that day on. You know, how come he's not like, oh, okay, honey, you're going with Peter or what? You know, where's the care and concern for his wife and kids? Because he didn't have any, because that's a dumb doctrine that's not in the Bible. So Jesus did not have physical descendants. And then let's keep reading. Are you there in Isaiah 53? Look at verse nine. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. Now, if this were talking about his actual physical children, why does he have to wait until his soul is made an offering for sin to see them? Does everybody see what I'm saying? When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. And then it says, he shall prolong his days, because he was cut off out of the land of living. He was killed physically. But he's going to do what? He's going to live forever. Because when Jesus rose again from the dead, he lives to die no more. Death hath no more dominion over him. And so, when his soul is made an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. So if we take verses 10 and 11 together, right, 10 and 11 together, he shall see his seed. What's he see in verse 11? He shall see of the travail of his soul. How is he going to see the travail of his soul? Because by his knowledge he shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. So here's what the Bible is saying. The Bible is saying that because Jesus Christ died for our sins, he ends up saving us. He ends up justifying us, bearing our sins. He's going to justify many people, and he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. He shall see his seed. Look, we are his seed. The travail of his soul, what does travail mean? Travail is the pain of childbirth, right? When women are in labor, they're in travail. If somebody's out in a field on a really hot day working super hard, they're travailing, right? Travailing is labor, pain, suffering. Now if I went out and worked in the field and then I saw of the travail of my soul and was satisfied, you know what that would mean is, you know, I went out and labored and I plowed the field and I planted and I watered and I worked and sweated, right? And then what do I see? I see the crops and I see the harvest and I see the barn filled with all of that bounty and I sit back and say, yup, it ain't much but it's honest work. You know, and I look at the travail of my soul and be satisfied, right? You look at it and you're satisfied. Like I worked hard and here's what I've achieved. Well why did Jesus go through the travail of the cross? Why did Jesus endure such contradiction of sinners against himself? Why did he go through that beating and spitting and mocking and be nailed to the cross and take upon him the sins of the world? It was to save us and Jesus Christ does not regret that decision because he sees of the travail of his soul and is satisfied because by his knowledge he has justified many and he looks at all of us that are saved and all the other people that are around the world that are saved and you know what? He's glad that he died on the cross for us and he's glad that he endured the cross. He's glad that he did that because he sees his seed. He sees his seed and he's satisfied. He's justified many. I don't think this is super hard to understand in verses 10 and 11. If you just slow down and read verses 10 and 11. The seed are the ones that he's justifying. The travail of his soul is what he accomplished. What did he accomplish by dying on the cross? Justifying sinners, saving sinners. Justification is another word for salvation, right? To be justified means to be declared righteous in the eyes of God. We're not righteous, we're sinners but in the eyes of God he sees us as righteous. We're declared righteous because we're covered by the blood of Jesus. Our debt has been paid by Jesus and so to look at this verse and to say, oh well Jesus had physical children because he shall see his seed and that's like the worst way that you could ever interpret the Bible. Just grab a verse out of context, part of a verse and just make up a meaning. When the meaning is right here, what is the seed? It's the ones that he's going to justify. It's all right there because he didn't actually have a physical generation because he was cut off out of the land of the living but he actually gets to live forever and enjoy his seed because even though he didn't get to enjoy being married and having physical children, he ended up having a lot of spiritual children because we are his sons and daughters. Because if we're saved, we are the seed of Jesus Christ and so that's why my genealogy doesn't matter. You know, it doesn't matter who my parents or grandparents are or anything like that in determining whether I'm one of God's chosen people. My genealogy looks like this, you know, Abraham begat Jesus and Jesus begat Steven Anderson. That's my genealogy. So my genealogy is found in the New Testament because my genealogy is Christ's genealogy because I'm his seed and because I'm his seed, then all the promises of Abraham come to me. Because the Bible says in Galatians chapter 3, if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed? Think about this, you know, if my dad is Swedish but I'm not Swedish, does that make any sense? No, because you know, if my dad is Swedish then that makes me Swedish, right? Well guess what, if Jesus Christ is Abraham's seed and I'm in Christ, then I'm Abraham's seed. That's what Galatians 3 explicitly states. If you're in Christ, you're Abraham's seed. Because Christ is Abraham's seed, so you're jacking into that genealogy and you pick it up from there because you're adopted and you're begotten again as his seed. And so if you would flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter number 15, I'll wrap up here. But you know, I just want to point out to you that the errors of Mormonism is a very strange religion, a lot of false doctrine. And you say, well Pastor Anderson, you know, why do I need to hear this because there's no way I would ever join the Mormon Church, I didn't even see those commercials. And even if I had seen those commercials, I would have reacted the way you did and rejected them. The reason that I share these things with you is because the way that the Mormons twist scriptures are the way that other false teachers are going to twist scriptures to you. And I'm showing you how not to interpret the Bible, right? Because when we read the Bible, we don't want to use these kind of interpretation methods where we're basically just making up things. Well, maybe he went to India, maybe he got married, maybe, I mean, that's a stupid way to read the Bible. What we need to do is read the text for what it says and deal with the text. Read the text, okay, this is what it says about Jesus, that's what we're going to believe. That's why I'm not interested in sitting around and thinking about, I wonder what Jesus' early 20s were like. You know, this is how you get into false doctrine. I wonder what his early 20s, I wonder what his teenage years were like. Here's what I know about Jesus. I know what he was like when he was a baby, I know what Jesus was like when he was 12, and I know what Jesus was like when he was 30. You know, I can't say anything about Jesus' life when he was 22 years old or 17 years old, and I think that it's a wrong way to preach, it's a wrong way to read the Bible to make things up and think about these things and say, well, if the Bible doesn't say no, then, you know, I mean, you know, we need to go by what the Bible does say, okay. And we need to compare Scripture with Scripture, read the whole context, and take the Bible at face value. If the Bible says there's a marriage at Cana, Jesus is invited, his disciples are invited too, don't walk away saying, I wonder if he was the one getting married. That's the wrong way to read the Bible. Just take the Bible at face value. You know, some people, they try to read so much between the lines, they actually don't read the lines. They're so busy looking for the hidden meaning, they don't see what's right in front of them. We need to go always with the surface meaning first. Face value, what does the Bible actually state before you go off looking for all this super ultra-deep hidden meaning? You know, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is another chapter that's very powerful on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but this is a chapter that the Mormons will really twist. You know, they love to twist this and make it say something that it doesn't. And one of the verses that they like to bring up is verse 29 of 1 Corinthians 15, because I'm showing you tonight how to not interpret the Bible, okay? In 1 Corinthians 15, 29, it says, else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? Now let me ask you this, you know, the Bible's got over 31,000 verses in it, 1,189 chapters Is there any place in the Bible that tells us to get baptized for dead people? Is there any command like that? Is there any story where Peter shows up and says, hey, let's get baptized for your dead relatives? Cornelius, what about your relatives that already died? Let's get baptized for that. There's nothing like that in the Bible. Yet the Mormons will say that they're, because they get baptized for dead people. All day, every day, they're just getting baptized. They just have lists of names of genealogies, and they're just baptizing for that person. It'd be like if I just brought Brother Segura down here every day, five days a week, Monday through Friday, and I just got a list of all of Chris Segura's ancestors, all my ancestors, all your ancestors, and we're just like, and I'm just pretending that he's my great-grandfather Gustav. And I'm just like, all right, Chris, put on a baptism garment, and I'm just like, all right, Gustav Anderson, I baptize you, and I'm just like, all right, Adolph Anderson, Anders Anderson, you know, and I'm just going through all of these ancestors, dunking him. That's what the Mormons are basically doing. Okay. And why? Where are they getting this? Well, I mean, they've got 1 Corinthians 15, 29, else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? Well, there you go, folks. Now, here's what's wrong with this method of interpreting the Bible. Is this verse telling us that God's people do this? Is this verse saying that the apostles do it? That Christians do it? Is he saying that we should do it? Is he telling us to do it? Is he saying that he does it? No. What he's talking about in this chapter are false teachers who are denying the resurrection, and he's pointing out an inconsistency in their own doctrine. He's saying if these people don't believe in the resurrection, then why are they baptizing for the dead if the dead rise not at all, then why are they baptized for the dead? Do you see what I'm saying? He's just pointing out that their own religion contradicts itself. It'd be like if I said, well, if the Mormons believe that Jesus was married, why don't they preach it? If that's what they believe, then why don't they preach that? Oh, well, Pastor Anderson thinks that they should preach that. No, I'm just pointing out the fact that they're not even consistent with themselves. So you never want to base a doctrine on a question. Base a doctrine on a statement. This is not even a statement. This is a question saying, well, why do these people do this? It doesn't even make sense what they're doing. Oh, well, let's go do that. You see how that's a wrong way of interpreting the Bible? And you know, you wonder sometimes, you know, there's all these denominations, there's all these religions out there, how do we know which one's right? Everybody's got an interpretation. But you know what, friend, that's not true, okay? You've got people who interpret the Bible correctly, rightly dividing the word of truth, and you've got people that twist scripture to teach what they want it to teach. The Mormon Church is built on the lusts of men like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young who wanted to just have a harem of underage girls, and that's what they did. They had a harem of underage girls, and so they're going to build a doctrine around that. Oh, you know, you can't go to heaven unless you get married, girls, and you want to go to the real, hey, you want to go all the way to Telestiel or you want to go to Celestiel? Hey, stick with me, babe, you're going to be in the highest level of heaven, the Celestiel. Okay, that's where this doctrine comes from. It's a bunch of dirty old men in Utah bringing a bunch of underage girls into the harem wanting to be married to 10 wives, 15 wives, 20 wives, they're a bunch of perverts. That's what's going on, and so they're going to build a doctrine around that. And let me tell you something. The Bible, because it has 31,000 verses, you can pretty much get the Bible to say whatever you want it to say if you take verses out of context, and if you just grab a line here and grab a line there and just rip it out of its context, twist it, especially when you go get some other version of the Bible, you can get the Bible to pretty much say whatever you want it to say if you want to twist scripture, because there's 31,000 verses. There's so much material to work with. Or with a good and an honest heart, you could approach scripture and just take it for what it says, and just read what it says, and not read into it things that aren't there. You can just read it and read, okay, here's Jesus, he's baptized, he's got 12 disciples, he's going around doing good, he's doing miracles, he's preaching, he dies on the cross, he's worried about his mom, he takes care of mom, you know, there's no mention of him being married or having kids or anything like that, but if you want to read that into the text, you're going to go dig for some passage in Isaiah, he shall see his seed. And then you're like, where, I'm trying to find Jesus getting married in the Bible, well he attended a wedding. Must have been his wedding. If not, then tell me whose it was. Because if you can't tell me who got married, I'm going to say it was Jesus. Well you know what, I can tell you that it wasn't Jesus, it wasn't Mary, and it wasn't any of Jesus' disciples, because they were all guests who were invited. But you see how if you want to approach the Bible with a weird doctrine, you can put it in there. You can put whatever you want in the Bible. And look, every weird Catholic doctrine, they have a verse to back it up, but it's out of context 100% of the time, it doesn't actually say what they're saying it says when you actually read it in context. Every weird Mormon doctrine, they can point you to something. I got a thing in the mail giving me all the biblical justifications for worshiping Mary, or the transubstantiation, I mean look, they have a verse for everything, but it's out of context. It's being read into the text and not what the text actually says. You know, you've got to read the Bible and take it at face value. And you know what, I'm all for looking for deeper meanings, because the Bible's really deep, right? I like all the symbolism and the allegory and the deep meaning, but you know what, always make sure before you go deep to get what's on the surface. That should be the first thing, the first stage of Bible preaching and teaching should be just what does the text actually say? You know, I mean, the first thing that I'm going to do when I'm reading the Bible and I get to a story of, you know, Hagar and Ishmael and Hagar and Ishmael get thrown out, you know, I'm just going to start out by just saying, you know, Hagar and Ishmael got thrown out, you know, and tell about that story, then we'll go into the spiritual implications of, you know, Hagar represents the old covenant and Isaac represents Christians and, you know, but that's secondary. We always start with this. Otherwise people would say that the events in Genesis, you know, they didn't even happen because it's all allegory. There was no Abraham. There was no, let me tell you something. Abraham was a real person. Ishmael was a real person. Isaac was a real person. Noah and the Ark, that actually happened. Those are real people now, but we'll also say, okay, the door on the Ark represented Jesus, right? The flood represents damnation being on the Ark represents salvation. There's only one way, one door, Jesus. But you know what? Before I even begin to talk about that, the first thing we're talking about is God actually flooded the whole earth and Noah built the Ark and went on the Ark with his family and they were spared the physical destruction of drowning in the flood. You know, we don't want to lose sight of the main story. Yes, I love the symbolism. Yes, let's tie it in with the gospel of Jesus Christ, but let's not lose or negate what the Bible actually says. Okay. We need to go with just the surface meaning first and make sure we nail that down. Then let's go into the deeper meanings instead of just always looking for something weird. And that's why I started out the sermon with be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. There are people out there, they're just looking for something new, right? They just, it's like their goal. They're searching the Bible to see if they can find something that nobody else found and the weirder it is, the cooler it is, the more sci fi, wild, exotic it is, you know, so much the better folks. That is the wrong way to read the Bible. You know, we should be just looking for the normal stuff and just reading the Bible on the server. And you know, let's find the deeper meanings, but let's not just go into just crazy town looking for the weirdest. Maybe it was Jesus who got married at that wedding, you know, and you know, sometimes people, and I'm not, I'm not necessarily making fun of anybody who brings some of these things up to me, but sometimes people will come up to me with kind of wild doctrines like, you know, maybe the lake of fire is the sun. Maybe the sun's the lake of fire, and I'm not making fun of you if you thought that, but I'm just saying like, where does the Bible say that? Why would I believe that? Why would I teach that? Why would I believe that? What scriptural basis is there for that? That the sun is the lake of fire that just, it's just like, where's that coming from? I mean, if, if that's how we're going to read the Bible, then we can just start making up all kinds of wild things. Then pretty soon we're like Bill McGregor saying that the new Jerusalem is on the planet Saturn. I mean, Bill McGregor said that the new Jerusalem is hidden in the planet Saturn. Well show me in the Bible where it's not. You know what I mean? He said the 144,000 are in a secret base in Antarctica, and it's like, well show me in the Bible where they're not. He found some verse about people being cold or something, you know, the frost or ice or something and it's just, he just ran with it. Do not be carried about with divers and strange doctrines. If somebody comes at me with a wild doctrine, they better have some concrete evidence from them. They better have some clear scripture from the Word. And sometimes there are people like, you know, I can't, I think people bring me a doctrine and they're like, I can't explain it that well. You got to listen to this sermon. I can't explain it. Well, can you show me the Bible? No, but you got to hear this sermon. One time I heard this doctrine about how like when we are gone, when we're not here, that somebody believed that like demons come to the church building and mock us and have a fake church service while we're gone. And it's like, and it was just like, what? But they're like, if you heard the sermon that I heard, the pastor made a real good case for this. And it's just like, I don't need to hear that sermon. I know that that's not in the Bible. But if you heard the sermon though, here's the thing, if I have to hear some special sermon to believe something, it's probably not worth believing. If somebody can't just open a Bible and just show me a couple of verses, hey, this is where this is coming from, you know. But it's all this wild stuff. But if you heard the sermon, you got to watch this video, you know. Here's the thing, you know, look, everything I believe, I can just open my Bible and just show you some verses. And if I can't show you a clear verse about something I believe, you know what I'll say? I'll say, hey, this is my opinion, but I'm not really dogmatic about it because I don't really have a clear verse. Anything I'm going to say, hey, I know I'm right about this, it's because I can point you to a clear verse and it'll take me minutes to show you a couple of clear verses. That's the standard for doctrine. And we need to make sure that all of our beliefs are based on clear scriptural statements so that we're not carried about with all this wild stuff. And the Mormons are an extreme example, but even within evangelical Christianity, I mean, you know, people can get caught up in these weird things. I mean, look at that guy that they brought up at that Presbyterian seminary or whatever, you know, what's he teaching those students that are coming to that school and learning from this guy? That guy should be fired for teaching that right immediately. I mean, if some professor in a Bible seminary or Bible school is teaching that Jesus was married and had children, he should be immediately fired and they should be tarred and feathered. Anyway, that's what I did to Joseph. Did you know that Joseph Smith was literally tarred and feathered? Who knew that? Joseph Smith was literally tarred and feathered. In fact, they were this close to castrating him, but he escaped being castrated. In the early days of Mormonism, him and co-founder, right-hand man Sidney Rigdon, were both tarred and feathered and almost neutered. That's a true story. I'll close on that. Let's write someone a prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and it's good to be able to think about that today, Lord, and to realize that Christ is risen and that one day, because we know that Jesus is risen, we know that we also will be resurrected and we know that we have eternal life through Jesus because he purchased eternal life on the cross and we're his seed and we're what he travailed for and we thank you so much for the gospel and salvation through Jesus Christ and it's in his name we pray, amen.