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The Sovereign Providence of God over Deception and Dullness of Heart · Reformed Thinking

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  Imagine finding out that the Grand Chess master of the
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  Universe does not just anticipate the bad guy's moves.
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  He actually, you know, sets up the board.
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  So the bad guy is guaranteed to fall for a lie.
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  Yeah, it is quite a thought. Welcome to Reform Thinking.
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  I'm so glad you're joining us Today.
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  We are looking at one of the most terrifying, untalked about
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  concepts in ancient theology. We really are.
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  The idea that God actively weaponizes mass deception.
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  It is a lot to take in. So for you listening right now,
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  consider this a theological warning label.
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  For sure. This deep dive is going to
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  shatter that clean, comfortable, sanitized view of God that so
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  many of us grew up with. Yeah, the one that fits nicely
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  in a box. Right.
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  We are taking a hard look at texts arguing that God is an
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  active orchestrator of history, and that includes sovereignty
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  over sinful actions and mass delusion.
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  Orchestrating them as a precise, calculated judgement against
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  human rebellion. It is.
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  Well, it's the absolute definition of theological Muddy
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  Waters for the modern mind. It is.
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  We like things to be visible, you know, to be categorized
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  neatly. We really do.
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  We want a universe where God is entirely separated from anything
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  messy, where he only ever does the visibly, obviously positive
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  thing. Like he's just up there smiling
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  and nodding. Right, but our road map for this
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  is going to take us across multiple centuries and biblical
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  genres to challenge that assumption.
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  So where are we starting? We will examine historical
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  events from the Old Testament, focusing on King Ahab, the
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  prophet Amos, and Ezekiel. OK, heavy hitters.
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  Then we will move into the New Testament to examine the Apostle
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  Paul's urgent warnings to the early church, look at the
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  earthly ministry of Jesus Christ himself, and finish with how the
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  Westminster Confession of Faith synthesizes all of this teaching
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  on Providence. I have to admit my initial
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  reaction to reading these historical and theological
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  documents was it was genuine shock.
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  I'm not surprised at. All the modern church often
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  portrays Guide as this cosmic bystander.
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  It is like he is up in heaven, wringing his hands, desperately
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  hoping that people use their free will to choose the good.
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  That is the popular narrative. But the scholars and theologians
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  we are reading today, they paint a picture of a sovereign Lord
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  who actively hands rebels over to delusion.
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  It is a terrifying majesty. It feels very unsettling because
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  it goes against the grain of the cultural water we swim in.
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  What is fascinating here is that this is the real meat of the
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  theological discipline. Yeah, it challenges belief
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  systems that have become very popular today.
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  Like what kind of systems? For those who might be rusty on
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  their theological terms, we are talking about systems like
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  Arminianism or open theism. OK, right.
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  Those are the belief systems that have focus on human free
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  will. Got it.
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  And they suggest God does not control, or perhaps in the case
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  of open theism, even know every future human choice.
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  Which is a huge claim. It is, the scholars point out,
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  that those systems attempt to strip God of His sovereign
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  prerogative to blind and harden. So we kind of have to drop our
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  modern baggage here. If we want to understand the
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  ancient texts, we have to lay aside our modern democratic
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  sensibilities. Yeah, that makes sense.
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  We need to look at the actual grammar, the syntax, and the
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  ancient history of the text itself.
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  Let's start with a really striking question raised by the
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  theologians. OK, what happens when a group of
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  people repeatedly despise the truth?
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  That is the core issue. According to the historical
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  records we are examining, God's first strike of judgment is not,
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  you know, fire raining down from the sky.
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  No, it is not. It is a famine.
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  To understand that famine, we need to look at the geopolitical
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  and historical reality of the prophet Amos.
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  OK, set the scene for us. We are situating ourselves in
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  the 8th century BC. Yeah, the northern Kingdom of
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  Israel is experiencing massive economic prosperity and
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  territorial expansion under the reign of King Jeroboam the sect.
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  So things are going really well for them on paper.
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  On paper, yes. There was a power vacuum in the
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  ancient Near East at the time. Meaning the big bullies were out
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  of the picture for a minute. Precisely.
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  The Assyrian Empire, which normally terrorized everyone,
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  was temporarily weak. This allowed Israel to expand
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  its borders, control major trade routes and accumulate massive
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  wealth. It was a massive boom time.
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  The text describe ivory beds, summer houses, winter houses and
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  vineyards. Total luxury.
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  But underneath that shiny economic surface, social
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  injustice is rampant. Very rampant.
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  The new merchant class is oppressing the poor, selling the
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  needy for a pair of sandals, as the text says.
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  It was brutal. And alongside this economic
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  boom, religious syncretism is thriving at places like Bethel
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  and Gilgall. Religious syncretism is a
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  crucial concept here. What does that actually look
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  like on the ground? It means they were blending the
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  worship of Yahweh with the worship of local Canaanite
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  deities like Baal. So hedging their bets basically,
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  yeah. They kept the festivals, they
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  kept the outward rituals of worshipping the God of Israel,
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  but they infused it with Pagan practices.
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  The people felt entirely secure because their religious rituals
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  were continuing right alongside their surging wealth.
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  So they thought they were blessed.
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  They assumed economic prosperity was the undeniable proof of
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  God's favor. And into that false security God
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  promises is a specific judgement.
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  Yes, he does. In Amos chapter 8 verse 11, he
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  says he will send a famine, not of bread, nor thirst for water,
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  but of hearing the words of the Lord.
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  The deprivation of the truth is the judgement.
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  It's so intense. God punishes those who do not
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  want His Word with the privation of His Word.
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  It makes sense though. It is a fascinating
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  psychological and spiritual mechanism, right?
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  When a culture decides that they prefer a synthetic compromise
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  religion that validates their greed, God does not try to shout
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  louder over their noise. He did not force it.
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  He simply stopped speaking. Think of a parent dealing with a
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  child who constantly complaints about the healthy, nutritious
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  meals being cooked. It is a great analogy.
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  The child throws A tantrum, demands candy, demands ice cream
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  day after day. We have all seen that.
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  Eventually, the parent just stops cooking the healthy food.
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  Yeah, the parent steps back and lets the child gorge on the junk
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  food they demand until they get a massive stomach ache.
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  They let the natural consequences take over.
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  The absence of the good thing is the discipline.
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  God, just stop speaking the rigorous truth they despise.
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  That analogy captures the dynamic perfectly.
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  The prophet Zechariah brings in another layer to this judgement.
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  What is he at? In Zechariah Chapter 11, verses
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  16 and 17, God talks about raising up worthless shepherds
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  over the people. Shepherds who do not heal or
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  nourish the flock. Right.
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  When a people treat the rigorous truth of God with contempt, God
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  does not just leave a vacuum. He fills it.
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  He actively gives them the false corrupt leaders they actually
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  want. The ones they were asking for
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  all along. Leaders who will not care for
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  the destroyed, seek the young or heal the maimed.
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  That is chilling. The worthless shepherd is a
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  divine scourge against a rebellious flock.
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  The mechanism of judgement is giving the people over to their
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  own flawed desires. The authors we are reading made
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  a fascinating and likely controversial modern parallel
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  here. Yes, they do pull this into the
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  present day and. I want to be very clear for you
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  listening right now, we are just neutrally reporting what the
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  authors of these texts are arguing here.
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  We are just looking at their theological critique.
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  Right, We are not taking a political side on this show,
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  left or right, we are just giving you the information from
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  the source material. Absolutely.
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  So the authors argue that if you look at modern secular
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  frameworks like critical race theory, intersectionality, the
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  broader social justice movement, these are not just political
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  trends. They see a spiritual dimension
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  to it. They view them as actual
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  theological judgments, delusions given to a culture that rejected
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  traditional gospel truths. It is a bold claim.
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  When a culture or even a church prioritizes entertainment,
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  pragmatism, and a sort of therapeutic moralism over
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  rigorous Scripture exposition, the argument is that God hands
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  them over to these secular theories as a form of active
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  judgement. It raises a significant question
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  about causality. How so?
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  The text asserts that the loss of divine revelation, the famine
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  of the Word, is the severest consequence of chronic
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  covenantal rebellion. Worse than an actual famine.
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  It surpasses any physical famine or military destruction.
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  The judgement is that the culture gets the exact ear
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  tickling philosophers and leaders it craves.
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  But there is a leap here that I am struggling with.
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  What is that? It is one thing for God to just
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  walk away and let us stumble in the dark.
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  That is the famine concept. But the text does not stop at
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  the dark, does it? It suggests God actually sends
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  the trap. That is the uncomfortable part.
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  We move from the famine of the word to the actual blinding of
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  human faculties. This brings us to Isaiah
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  terrifying Commission in Isaiah chapter 6.
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  This part always stops me in my tracks.
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  It is very stark. The context here is the death of
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  King Isaiah, who had reigned for decades.
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  It is a time of national instability.
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  A lot of anxiety in the air. Isaiah goes into the temple.
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  He sees the Lord enthroned. He is terrified.
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  He is cleansed by the burning coal and he says here am I, send
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  me. The classic call narrative.
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  You would think God is going to say great, go make my message
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  crystal clear so everyone repents.
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  That is what we expect. But Isaiah is not told to go and
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  make things clear. God commands him, Make the heart
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  of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their
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  eyes. The command finishes with lest
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  they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
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  understand with their hearts, and turn and be.
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  Healed. Hold on, you are saying God
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  intentionally told Isaiah to make the message confusing.
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  That is what the text says. I am sorry, but that completely
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  short circuits everything I was taught in Sunday school it.
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  Throws a wrench in the typical narrative.
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  How is that not just cosmic cruelty?
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  Why would he command a prophet to actively make people blind
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  specifically to prevent them from turning and being healed?
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  It feels jarring, but we have to look at the exegetical reality
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  of what scholars called the Covenant lawsuit setting.
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  The covenant lawsuit, OK. God does not harden morally
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  neutral people, right? There is no such thing as an
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  innocent person begging for truth while God capriciously
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  blindfolds. Them that is a key distinction.
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  God is dealing with a persistently rebellious nation.
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  Israel has had the Law, the prophets, the visible signs of
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  the covenant for centuries, and they have repeatedly chosen
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  idolatry. So God is essentially taking
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  Israel to court after centuries of patience.
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  Precisely. The delayed repentance has
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  shifted into judicial blindness. OK, God is decreeing that the
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  very preaching of the Word will now have a hardening effect
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  rather than a softening effect. Wow, the preaching itself does
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  the hardening. The word will expose and confirm
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  their rebellion. Think about how the sun effects
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  different materials. OK, I'm tracking.
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  The exact same sun that melts wax will harden clay.
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  Oh that is a great image. The nature of the material
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  determines the reaction. The preaching of the prophet is
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  the sun, and the persistently rebellious hearts of the people
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  are the clay. So the light just bakes them
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  solid. The presentation of the truth
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  hardens them further. And the theology points out that
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  this is not just an Old Testament phenomenon.
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  No, it continues. This exact concept is brought
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  right into the New Testament, directly into the earthly
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  ministry of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 13 and Luke
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  chapter 8, the disciples come to Jesus and ask him directly why
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  he speaks to the crowds in parables.
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  As a modern reader, I always assumed parables were just these
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  folksy, accessible teaching illustrations.
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  Like an ancient PowerPoint presentation.
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  Right, like Jesus was just being a good communicator using
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  agricultural metaphors so the 1st century farmers would
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  understand the concepts better. That is the common assumption.
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  We view parables as sermon illustrations designed to make
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  things easier to grasp. But that is not it at all, is
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  it? Jesus gives a devastating answer
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  that contradicts that completely.
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  He quotes that exact passage from Isaiah 6.
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  Oh, he brings Isaiah right into it.
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  He says he speaks in parables specifically so that seeing they
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  may not see and hearing they may not understand.
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  He intentionally concealed the truth from them.
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  He did. Parables are not teaching
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  illustrations, they are mechanisms of divine sorting.
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  Divine. Christ is acting as the ultimate
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  prophet who reveals the Kingdom to little children, the
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  dependent, the humble, and actively hides it from the
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  proud, the wise and the understanding.
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  If we unpack the psychology of that for you listening right
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  now, the concept here is gifted understanding.
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  Yes, that is the theological term.
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  The scholars argue that if a person understands the truth of
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  the gospel, it is a divine donation.
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  It is handed to them. It is not the result of superior
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  human intellect. It is not about having a higher
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  IQ or being more spiritually sensitive than your neighbor.
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  Jesus says to you, it has been given to know the secrets of the
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  Kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
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  That is Matthew 13.11. So it is a direct gift.
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  Understanding is a gift of sovereign grace, not a human
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  achievement. Yeah, if you see the truth, it
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  is because God opened your eyes, not because you squinted hard
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  enough. That is incredibly humbling.
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  The natural human mind is actively hostile to the things
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  of God according to the theological framework we are
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  examining. We have seen God withhold truth,
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  and we have seen him dull the human senses through parables
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  and prophetic preaching. Right now we need to look at
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  what might be the most staggering claim in this an
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  entire stack of historical records.
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  It gets even heavier. God actively dispatching
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  deception. To grasp this, we turn to the
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  Ahab narrative in First Kings chapter 22.
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  Tell us about Ahab. The historical setting is the
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  mid 9th century BC. King Ahab of the northern
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  Kingdom of Israel is a notorious monarch.
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  A guy was just awful. He is married to Jezebel, he has
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  institutionalized Baal worship, and he frequently murders the
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  true prophets of Yahweh. Not exactly a stellar resume.
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  He is aligned with King Jehoshaphat of Judah, the
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  southern Kingdom, and they are seeking to reclaim a highly
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  strategic military territory called Ramoth Gilead from the
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  nation of Aram, or modern day Syria.
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  Ramoth Gilead was a major city on the King's Highway, so
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  whoever controlled it controlled a massive amount of trade and
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  wealth. It was a very lucrative spot.
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  Ahab, being the corrupt king he is, has gathered 400 sycophant
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  prophets around him. Yes, they are state sponsored.
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  Yes, men. They're culturally conditioned
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  to prophecy prosperity, telling Ahab precisely what he wants to
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  hear. They say go up, for the Lord
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  will give it into the hand of the king.
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  Jehoshaphat, who is a much more faithful king, is uneasy.
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  He can tell something is off. He senses that these 400
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  prophets are just echoing Ahab's own ambitions back to him.
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  He asks for a true prophet of Yahweh.
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  Enter Makaya. Makaya is the lone dissenting
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  voice he is. He does not just disagree with
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  the 400 prophets. He pulls back the curtain on the
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  spiritual realm. He describes a vision of the
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  Divine Council in heaven. This vision is wild.
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  God is sitting on his throne, asking the heavenly host who
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  will entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead.
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  A spirit volunteers, Yeah, the spirit says I will entice him, I
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  will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his
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  prophets. In the original Hebrew, that is
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  Ruach Shekhar, a spirit of falsehood and vanity.
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  God's response is the kicker. He says you are to entice Him,
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  and you shall succeed. Go out and do so.
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  God guarantees the success of the deception.
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  He authorizes the mission. He signs off on it completely.
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  This is a targeted covenantal judgement against a king who had
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  consistently He hated the truth. Ahab loved lies.
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  He'd been asking for lies his whole life.
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  He surrounded himself with false prophets for years.
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  So God uses a lying spirit to give Ahab the exact lie he needs
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  to hear in order to March into his prophesied doom at Ramoth
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  Gilead. We see this same intense
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  linguistic structure in Ezekiel chapter 14, verse 9.
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  Yes, very similar dynamic. The scene there involves elders
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  coming to consult God, but they are secretly harboring idols in
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  their hearts. They are completely 2 faced.
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  They want a word from the Lord, but they refuse to give up their
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  hidden sins. The Hebrew syntax in Ezekiel 14
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  is incredibly precise and unavoidable.
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  The text uses the Hebrew root Pata.
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  Pata, OK. When applied to the human
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  prophet in the Niful stem, which is the passive state, it means
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  to be gullible or easily enticed.
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  Yeah, passive state like it just happens to.
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  Them right, it reads. And if the prophet is deceived?
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  That sounds somewhat passive, like the prophet just made a
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  mistake or got confused. But then God speaks about his
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  own action. Yes.
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  God speaks in the peel stem, specifically the Peel Perfect
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  PTT. The peel stem.
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  What does that do to the meaning?
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  The peel stem in Hebrew grammar indicates intensive active
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  causation. It is not passive permission.
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  Oh wow, God says I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet.
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  I yaghe, have deceived that prophet.
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  I mean, the unyielding nature of that original Hebrew grammar is
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  incredibly heavy. You cannot ignore it.
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  You cannot soften that into a passive hands off approach.
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  You cannot. This is not bear permission.
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  God actively weaponizes the deception.
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  He is using it as a tool. He uses the deceived prophet to
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  give the idolatrous elders the false comfort their depraved
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  hearts desire, accomplishing his prophesied justice against them.
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  A listener might think, OK, that is the Old Testament, that is
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  ancient Israel, chaotic kings and ancient prophets.
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  Surely this act of deception does not happen in the Church
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  Age. You would think so.
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  But we turn to the Apostle Paul's letters to see this
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  happening in the New Testament era.
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  We must look at Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians.
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  Let's set the scene for you. Imagine a young persecuted
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  church in the 1st century. It was a very hostile
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  environment. Thessalonica is a prominent
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  bustling Greco Roman port city right on the Via Ignatia, the
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  major Roman highway spanning across Macedonia.
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  Lots of traffic, lots of trade. The believers there are
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  surrounded by the Roman imperial cult where Caesar is worshipped
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  as a God. They are dealing with intense
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  local persecution. And internal confusion.
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  Right on top of that, they are receiving forged letters
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  claiming that the day of the Lord, the end of the world, has
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  already happened and they missed it.
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  They are terrified. Paul writes 2 Thessalonians
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  chapter 2 to comfort them by giving them a clear prophetic
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  timeline. He needs to settle her down.
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  He talks about the coming of the man of lawlessness.
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  In verses 9 and 10. Paul acknowledges the satanic
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  means of deception. OK, he says.
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  This Lawless 1 operates according to the working of
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  Satan, with false signs and wonders and wicked deception
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  aimed at those who are perishing.
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  Paul makes a terrifying pivot in verse 11.
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  There is this Greek conjunction diatuto which translates to for
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  this reason or therefore. It connects the two ideas.
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  Because of the previous things, a divine action happens.
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  Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion.
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  The Greek exegesis here is vital.
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  Bring that down for us. The phrase strong delusion
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  translates the Greek energy in Planias.
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  Energy in means an active, effectual working or operation.
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  So it is doing something, it is moving.
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  It is dynamic, not scattic and planes, which is where we get
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  the word planet meaning a wandering body means error or a
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  wandering from the path of truth.
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  Wow, OK. So God is sending an active
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  effectual working of wandering. It is not just that they get
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  confused. The text has a purpose clause.
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  Ace tu pistios E otos tu sude and.
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  What does that mean? The Greek preposition is denotes
• 19:43
  explicit purpose. God's design is so that they may
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  believe what is false, or more literally translated so that
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  they place saving faith in Eli. In the lie.
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  Sudo's intentional falsehood. If God is the one sending the
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  delusion, sending the effectual wandering so that they believe
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  the lie, how are the people? Guilty.
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  That is the obvious question, isn't it?
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  How can God judge them for a delusion he sent?
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  That is the necessary question, and Paul answers it in the
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  preceding clause in verse 10. What does he say?
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  The delusion comes upon those who are perishing because they
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  refuse to love the truth. The human rebellion precedes the
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  Divine Blinding. Precisely.
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  We need to unpack the psychology of this.
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  They did not just fail to understand the truth
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  intellectually, they actively refused to love it.
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  It was a moral rejection, not a math problem they couldn't
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  solve. The text says they had pleasure
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  in unrighteousness. When a human being loves
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  unrighteousness, their brain, their soul, their entire
• 20:41
  worldview adapts to protect that love.
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  They build a fortress around their sin.
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  God is not corrupting an innocent person, He is giving
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  the rebel over to the full trajectory of their own
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  depravity. Just letting them have what they
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  want. He responds to their hatred of
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  the truth by sealing them in the lie they already prefer.
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  We must address the massive theological issue we have been
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  circling around. The elephant in the room.
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  How do we reconcile this? We've seen the text saying God
• 21:06
  sends lying spirits and strong delusions, but we also have the
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  absolute biblical mandate that God cannot lie.
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  The absolute veracity of God is non negotiable in this
• 21:16
  framework. I mean Titus chapter one verse 2
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  explicitly says God never lies. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 18 says
• 21:23
  it is impossible for God to lie right?
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  How can the God of truth ordained deception without
• 21:28
  violating his own nature? This is where historical
• 21:31
  confessional frameworks bring immense clarity.
• 21:34
  Like the Westminster Confession? Minister Confession of Faith
• 21:37
  offers a brilliant synthesis of these seemingly opposing ideas.
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  What does it say? It states that God's almighty
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  Providence extends even to the first fall and all other sins of
• 21:47
  angels and men. However, it extends in such a
• 21:50
  way that the sinfulness proceeds entirely from the creature and
• 21:53
  not from God. Meaning God is not a deceiver in
• 21:56
  the sinful human sense. Correct.
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  When a human lies, it is prompted by malice, fear, a lack
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  of knowledge, or a desire to unjustly manipulate someone for
• 22:06
  personal gain. It comes from a deficiency.
• 22:08
  God is prompted by none of those things.
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  His Providence over deception is an act of perfect infinite
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  justice against rebellion. Think of it like this.
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  Imagine a flawless grand manager playing chess against a highly
• 22:22
  malicious, aggressive amateur opponent.
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  OK, I like this analogy. The Grandmaster never breaks the
• 22:28
  rules. He never cheats, he plays a
• 22:31
  perfect clean game. He is playing Florida State.
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  But because he is a grandmaster, he perfectly anticipates the
• 22:38
  opponent's flawed, aggressive, sinful moves.
• 22:41
  He knows what they are going to do before they do it.
• 22:43
  He arranges the board in such a way that the opponent's own
• 22:46
  blind aggression leads directly into a trap.
• 22:49
  The opponent defeats himself. The Grandmaster orchestrates the
• 22:52
  checkmate using the opponent's bad moves.
• 22:55
  The opponent defeats himself through his own flaws, while the
• 22:58
  Grandmaster remains a perfect player the entire time.
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  That is a highly effective way to conceptualize the
• 23:03
  relationship between primary and secondary agents.
• 23:05
  Primary and secondary agents, let's break that down.
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  God is the primary cause, the Grandmaster, the lying spirit,
• 23:13
  the corrupt prophets of Ahab, the depraved human heart.
• 23:16
  These are secondary agents. They are making their own
• 23:19
  choices. They act entirely according to
• 23:21
  their own sinful natures. They lie because they love
• 23:24
  lying, right? God.
• 23:25
  Florida State uses their wicked deception to execute His holy
• 23:30
  justice without ever violating His own holy nature.
• 23:34
  Where does all of this terrifying massive sovereignty
• 23:37
  point? This is not just an academic
• 23:38
  theory for a seminary classroom. No, it has an actual destiny.
• 23:42
  It points directly to the central event of human history,
• 23:45
  It. Points directly to the cross of
• 23:47
  Calvary. The crucifixion is the climax of
• 23:49
  sovereign Providence over human deception.
• 23:51
  When? You look at the crucifixion of
• 23:53
  Jesus, you see a sheer, overwhelming amount of human
• 23:56
  deception. It is everywhere in the
• 23:58
  narrative. You have Judas Iscariot hiding
• 24:00
  his treachery for three years while walking alongside the Son
• 24:03
  of God. A completely fabricated loyalty.
• 24:05
  You have the illegal nighttime trials before the Sanhedrin,
• 24:09
  which were built entirely on the testimony of false witnesses.
• 24:12
  The Greek word used there is pseudo martyrs, liars.
• 24:15
  You have Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor, declaring Jesus
• 24:19
  innocent with his own mouth, finding no fault in him, and
• 24:22
  then immediately handing him over to be executed anyway to
• 24:25
  appease a mob. It is a master class of
• 24:27
  orchestrated, sovereignly ordained falsehood.
• 24:30
  Just lie after lie after lie. The early church understood this
• 24:34
  Florida State. In Acts chapter 4, verses 27 and
• 24:37
  28, the believers pray and declare that Herod, Pilate, the
• 24:41
  Gentiles, and the people of Israel did whatever your hand
• 24:44
  and your plan had predestined to take place.
• 24:47
  The multiplying lies of the religious authorities and the
• 24:49
  political leaders were the precise predestined instruments
• 24:53
  God used to bring the Son of God to the cross.
• 24:56
  Which presents the ultimate paradox of the Christian faith.
• 24:59
  It is incredible to think about. God used the greatest deception
• 25:03
  and injustice of men to accomplish the greatest
• 25:06
  revelation of His truth. The cross demonstrates that even
• 25:09
  in the darkest, most deceptive hour of human history, God's
• 25:12
  Providence was unyielding and flawless.
• 25:15
  Christ bore the wrath of the God of truth so that liars could be
• 25:18
  justified. He took the curse of our
• 25:20
  deception, our dullness of heart, upon himself.
• 25:24
  He turned the ultimate lie into the pream act of saving grace.
• 25:28
  Speaking directly to you, the listener, as we wrap up this
• 25:31
  deep dive. Yes, let's bring it home.
• 25:33
  If you understand the gospel today, if you see the truth of
• 25:37
  who Christ is, it is not because you are smarter, more educated,
• 25:41
  or more righteous than someone who is currently caught in a
• 25:44
  mass delusion. It is not about your IQ.
• 25:48
  It's because of sovereign mercy the Father gave you eyes to see.
• 25:51
  That reality should absolutely crush human pride and foster an
• 25:56
  intense gratitude. It should also cause us to test
• 25:58
  our shepherds. We have to be discerning.
• 26:00
  The pastors, the leaders, the authors we listen to on a
• 26:02
  regular basis, do they preach the rigorous, sometimes
• 26:06
  uncomfortable word of God? Or are they just giving us junk
• 26:09
  food? Do they flatter human ability
• 26:11
  and avoid the hard doctrines we discussed today?
• 26:13
  We must demand fidelity to Scripture, not just charm,
• 26:16
  Polish or cultural popularity. I want to leave you with a final
• 26:19
  thought to Mull over. We have talked about God giving
• 26:22
  people over to the lies they desire as a form of judgement.
• 26:26
  It is a heavy thought. Think about the media you
• 26:29
  consume. Think about the voices you allow
• 26:31
  to influence you daily on your phone, your feeds, your
• 26:34
  networks. Our digital diets.
• 26:36
  If God's most severe judgement is to give us over to the
• 26:39
  flattering lies we secretly desire, what happens when we
• 26:42
  intentionally curate our own news feeds, our own algorithms,
• 26:46
  and our relationships to only tell us what we want to hear?
• 26:51
  We are building our own echo chambers.
• 26:53
  Are we building our own strong delusion before God even hands
• 26:56
  us over to 1? A sobering question for an age
• 26:59
  of customized reality. It brings us right back to the
• 27:02
  beginning. We want a clean, sanitized view
• 27:04
  of the universe, but we are dealing with a sovereign God who
• 27:07
  judges the hidden, murky desires of the heart.
• 27:09
  The Grandmaster is on the throne.
• 27:11
  Orchestrating history with perfect justice.
• 27:14
  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive on reformed
• 27:16
  thinking. Keep seeking the truth.