Behind The Pulpit

New Fear Unlocked.

• Millington Baptist Church • Season 4 • Episode 11

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This week on Behind the Pulpit, Pastors Dave and Bob are finally back together at the table — just in time for Thanksgiving season. After a couple of missed Mondays, Dave returns with fresh energy, while Bob catches him up on everything he missed. The two dive into a wide spread of stories, from “new fears unlocked” about tick-borne red-meat allergies and global surveillance concerns, to baseball gambling scandals, drone mysteries, and even professional hockey’s surprising innocence. Add in a lively Book War matchup, some banter about worship speed remixes, and a few laughs over giant Reese’s cups, and it’s a full slate from start to finish.

Listeners will also enjoy an engaging set of Theology Sprint and apologetics-leaning questions, including a deeper dive into last week’s Nicene Creed discussion and a challenging conversation on creation, fall, and human nature. Dave and Noah team up for a chart-assisted exploration of Augustine’s fourfold nature of man, before fielding an apologetics question about the Flood and the origins of ancient peoples — a thoughtful defense rooted in Scripture, history, and worldview clarity.

In the sermon recap, Pastor Bob unpacks Isaiah 49 and the second Servant Song, drawing out themes of calling, mission, and the “song” God sings over His people. From the identity of the Servant, to the melody Christ expands to the nations, to the invitation for believers to “come out” of bondage and join the harmony — the passage calls us to tune our hearts to God’s voice amid the noise of competing songs. As you listen, may your ears be drawn more clearly to the true Servant’s melody, and may His grace tune your heart to sing His praise.

**SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS TO THE SHOW HERE**
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***VOTE HERE***
The Great Book War is on!  Vote for the winner of the 'Great Book War' with the link below!
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Senior Luncheon
https://millingtonbaptist.org/seniors/

Christmas Eve
https://millingtonbaptist.org/christmas-eve-2025/
City Relief Packing Party
https://millingtonbaptist.org/city-relief-packing-party-2025/

Music
"Ventura"
Morgan Taylor
U76EPPNJDYZYU0Y7

Dave:

Hey everybody, welcome to our Behind the Pulpit podcast. It's been a while since I got a chance to talk with you. I've been out the last couple of Mondays. I was sick, and then I took a little uh study leave, and so I'm back. It's November 17th. We are coming towards the Thanksgiving season. I'm here with my colleague, Pastor Bob, who's been holding down the podcast for it. What's up, man?

Bob:

Been hanging out here. Well, you weren't totally absent. We had your Beast's Dave over here. You guys joined us for the episode last week.

Dave:

You let him do this to me. This is not right. What's going on here, man? I'm impressed that you guys didn't eat these. This is a big temptation sitting right here. I guess you guys don't care about them as much as I do.

Bob:

You should open it up and just kind of cut it with a knife and a fork. It's remember that Seinfeld episode with the guy with the Snickers bar?

Dave:

Yes. We've done taste testings on the show before. Yeah, I think we have. I feel like there's like some kind of bread or something we did. It was a cranberry sauce. Yeah, we got a great show for you today. We are deep into the servant song section of Isaiah. We're gonna dissect Bob's expository message yesterday from Isaiah 49, touching on 42 a little bit, which I appreciated that because we didn't even get a chance to do the first servant song. So thank you. Uh so if you want to know about that, stay tuned. We got some theology sprinting going. We got some of your questions to dive into. What in the world does the Nicene Creed mean when it says, I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins? We got to talk a little bit more about that. Noah's been dying to put me on the spot with some other question. Um we are here for you behind the pulpit. Let's do this. Shall we? What's going on in the news?

Bob:

Alright, I got I got one or two news stories. Um first one I want to bring up is uh this headline, New Jersey man, uh believed to be first known death from red meat allergy linked to tick bites. Uh perhaps uh you have heard about this. So apparently there was a guy who um uh who died after this tick bit him and he was consuming a hamburger and just fell over dead. Because uh makes you allergic to uh certain things that are in red meat. I'm looking for the um uh oh it's it's called the Alpha Gow the Alpha Gow syndrome, AGS. The al watch out for the Alpha Gow. Is a serious potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that arises after people eat red meat or consume products with with alpha gal, a type of sugar found in most mammals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So, Pastor Dave, you gotta be watching it when you're out raking your leaves, cutting your lawn, hiking in the mountains, and then you go have a hamburger afterwards. You got you gotta do a tick check. Uh you know what my kids say?

Dave:

What do your kids say? New fear unlocked. I didn't know that this was possible. And sometimes I do find like ticks crawling on me. This is a little bit frightening. It's not the kind of big tick, though, right? It's probably one of those little deer tick things or something like that. This is this is the same thing. The tick injects something into your body right there.

Bob:

Oh, okay. There he is. Look at that guy kind of crawling on top of you. Yeah. Just picture that being your arm right there. Look, there he is. He's right.

Dave:

So this guy pokes his thing in you, and then he injects something into you, and then that thing in you makes you not be able to eat the red meat in a safe way anymore.

Bob:

That's that's that's what I'm gathering from this.

Dave:

You know what I was doing some research on mosquitoes. I think it's mosquitoes. So um they have a special thing that God has given them where they anesthesize the part of your skin that they're about to puncture before they puncture it so that you don't feel it when they actually puncture it, which I thought wow. Like how how how could something like that have just by chance evolved with no designer? It's just not that I really think that mosquitoes are the number one reason to believe in the creation, but um, I do think it's kind of amazing how the the animal kingdom works. And I'm not sure, did ticks exist before the fall? Is that a post-fall type of thing? That's a great question.

Bob:

Ticks is there any redemptive properties to ticks?

Dave:

I don't know. Somehow they um feed on your blood, right? Isn't that what they they like? So all right, so watch out for that. And if you like beef or pork or uh, you know, venison or something like that, this could really have an impact. But that's kind of devastating to think about.

Bob:

Well, speaking of beef or pork, this made me think about a second news story that I've been that I I caught my eye this week. Um, you may have heard that uh the Chinese government has been buying up farmland in the U.S. And there was a big hullabaloo this last week because apparently one of this tra the I think it was a trailer park that they bought through the Shell Company borders uh uh our base in Missouri where all the stealth bombers are, the B-2 stealth bombers. And we just found out about this. So China's been spying on the B-2 bomber base in Missouri, which I thought was a little unsettling. I'm not quite sure why we're letting them buy up farmland.

Dave:

You know, man, I can't even put in a gravel patio without the town council coming and knocking on my door wanting to have some kind of fee. I got neighbors like putting pickets out in my yard if I want to put in like a mailbox. And you're telling me that Xi Jinping is buying up the farmland next to you and nobody notices, and this is fine. There's not like a mayor or some sort of like department that says, hey, let's flag this before we approve this purchase. This just kind of happens, huh?

Bob:

Well, apparently they they do it behind a bunch of shell companies, so there's like layers and layers deep that you have to really need need the FBI and intelligence services to to find out. Um but still we're missing we're missing the ball here.

Dave:

That's a little too close to our uh military technology.

Bob:

I think I also heard that there was some some technology that got into military bases that had Chinese uh ties, which sent off alarm bells this last week, as it should.

Dave:

So, what do you think is the ultimate motivation here? Do you feel like they're um trying to get a handle on our technology, trying to steal our technology, trying to be able to um appropriately fight against our technology?

Bob:

I think I think in the avatar, they play the long game, and at the end of the day they're gonna try to do something with our infrastructure. Uh so imagine i if if our tech is better than theirs, but they could somehow take it out, that gives you an advantage in some kind of conflict. So Wow. Yeah, wow is right. And then and then those drones above your house are gonna be the least of your concerns.

Dave:

I've gotten used to them now. The drones are just kind of up there. Remember last year around this time, everybody's like, the drones, the drones, the drones, they're always up there. What are they? It was about this time last year. And now they're just like part of life. We just expect to have multiple drones flying. Yeah, all the time, every night. It's not even like a thing anymore. Now it's just part of the sky. We have drones. We got used to them. We stopped caring. We never figured out what they were. Remember? Trump said, as soon as I get elected, we're gonna get some answers on these drones. And he's been delaying. It's already November. It's like been a year. So no answers, but lots of drones.

Bob:

I heard there was some some guy who made a made a claim that his company was behind it a few months ago at some tech conference.

Dave:

Okay.

Bob:

I'll look it up. Well, I didn't hear about it.

Dave:

Maybe there is an answer. I don't know.

Bob:

Well, I don't I don't know if it was confirmed, he was, but he was boasting about it.

Dave:

Another news story um is for you baseball fans out there. Noah, Tim, it's not just basketball that's being corrupt by the the sin of gambling and covetousness. Now baseball as well. Did you guys hear about this? I did not hear about this. No? I don't think so. Who was it? Really? So there was a a pitcher, I think, that was um you could tell based on the window of error in his. I gotta look it up. You guys didn't hear about the baseball gambling scandal? I'll look it up. I can't remember the team. So sorry. Well recently? Yeah, yeah.

Bob:

Or like back in like the Black Sox back in the 1910s. No, no.

Dave:

Shoeless Joe Jackson. We just found out. Yeah. Uh no, I'll look it up. So there's there was a scandal. I heard about it yesterday.

Tim:

You know what, uh, you know what professional sport has no scandals like this? Which one? Professional ice hockey. Mm-hmm.

Bob:

So we were we were out with City Relief on Saturday, and Tim was wearing his devil's hat, and all the guys you saw were starting to talk about the devils and the rangers. We were uh It was like an evangelism tour.

Tim:

We were in we were in uh New York.

Bob:

We were sharing about Jesus wearing a devil's hat.

Tim:

I was like, I I am absolutely wearing some sort of devil's um merch to Newark when we're out in outreach, and then there's a couple of guys there, and they're like, the devils, and we were talking for a while. That's great. And then we were talking to a few of them about you know how I don't like the Rangers, and then one guy's just sitting on the stoop. He's like, Well, I'm a Rangers fan. I was like, Oh, I'm sorry. Well, you're a you're a good one. There you go.

Bob:

By the way, what were the news stories that Dave missed the last couple weeks? I feel like we should have a what Dave missed segment. Um, so we missed, we didn't talk, we didn't get to talk about the governor election. I think you weren't here for that. We didn't get to talk about something else that happened that was big. Um But anyway.

Dave:

So much. So much so much happened. So what about uh the baseball? All right. Members of Congress sent a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Friday, expressing concern over a quote unquote new integrity crisis facing American sports and asking for answers about the alleged betting scheme that led to the recent indictments of two Cleveland Guardians pitchers. Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which oversees professional sports, called the allegations against the Guardian Guardian pitchers Emmanuel Clace and Luis Ortiz, quote, markedly more serious, unquote, than recent betting incidents in um other other areas. So there's federal prosecutors on this case, and uh Ted Cruz, who led the committee, is questioning why um Chase's allegations, which began all the way back in May of 2023, were not discovered for two years. And so this is a big story that broke this weekend, guys.

Tim:

I'm just I'm just picturing my head Senator Ten Kurt Ted Cruz uh questioning baseball players. Yeah.

Dave:

The Guardians pitcher screaming uh is pleading not to jump.

Bob:

Did you spell? Did you hit that ball?

Dave:

Okay, they're calling it pitch rigging. Pitch rigging. So they're they're looking at his um the signs, the the strike zone, and they're saying it's just not possible for you to accidentally miss the strike zone by this window. You had to be doing this on purpose because you're a professional. And so this guy who's making like thirty million dollars a year or something like that is throwing games to win money. So it's a big scandal. It's like a problem. All right, that's my news story. I heard about it yesterday.

Bob:

Wow, the new Black Sox scandal.

Dave:

Yeah, it's like a thing. This is like Pete Rose 2.0 or something like that. I don't know. All right. Anything else we want to talk about on the news?

Tim:

I think I'm good. I think we can move on. Hey, NBC Church family. This one is for our seniors. It is once again that time of the month that we are hosting the senior luncheon that will be held this Friday from 12 to 2 p.m. We are so excited to welcome our very own Roy Garms, who's gonna be our guest speaker. You're not gonna miss what he has to talk about. So come on out. And as usual, it would not be the NBC Senior Luncheon without some amazing food. So bring your favorite casserole, salad, or potluck dish to share. Let's fill the table in the room with some incredible food and fellowship. For more details, check out the church website or call the church office. And every senior is welcome. So even if you don't receive the monthly postcard, you are more than welcome to attend the senior luncheon and invite a friend.

Dave:

We really need to get back to this battle. So there's a war, and then we took like a break from the war because I had stuff to do. So we're fighting, right? You and I. We're like going after each other. So Tim, is there a score? Did you say so? Where where does the the current there it is? There's the score. Pastor Dave five.

Bob:

Yeah, except I said because Dave wasn't here, he forfeited the last two weeks, and I should get two more points. That's true. I recommended three books last week in his absence.

Dave:

You know what? The uh the a forfeit is a loss. That's what happens. Like, you remember when you're in little league, if all nine kids didn't show up, you lost. Like, sorry, you get an L. That's right. I think I feel like Bob has a legitimate case against me there.

Tim:

The committee actually met um and we decided to uh to give grace to Pastor Dave.

Bob:

Uh but we're gonna appeal it to the upper community.

Tim:

We're thinking about something like like the uh the college professor model where if you if you miss a certain amount, then it'll be result in forfeits.

Bob:

But for now, this is no war is rigged against me. That's it's it's a it's a rigged rigged battle. Maybe it's being run by Chinese uh shell corporations. You never know. They're the ones that are voting on everything.

Dave:

All right. You want to go first?

Bob:

Uh sure. I can recommend a book. So by the way, do you remember this book? So this is the uh It is uh David Pallison.

Dave:

The great, the one and only.

Bob:

The great David Pallison. It's it's uh like a doodle doodle cover, which is interesting. Standing firm in spiritual Safe and Sound, Standing Firm in Spiritual Battles. So this is a book um about uh helping people through their dark days, uh how you face spiritual warfare, particularly in the uh the realm of counseling. Not not not necessarily professional counselors, but if you're if you're counseling somebody from the Bible, um they may indeed be walking through a dark season because there's spiritual warfare involved. And he he does a good job, the first couple chapters of outlining what spiritual warfare is, how we fight it, and then he offers some uh practical tools in part two counseling in the reality of spiritual warfare. So the battle of the shadow within, conflict with the occult, um, spiritual warfare focusing on the person, the last battle. Those are some of the chapter titles. So uh I was very much helped by this. We developed a spiritual warfare paper a little while ago for our elders, and that was a helpful book uh for me. So there you go, David Pallison. Met him a couple times, had dinner with him. I thought this thing was out of print. New Growth Press put this out. They did. I think maybe they retitled it. Yeah, it was something else. But I bought it on their website. So there you go. Oh. Sounds like a relic. Wow.

Dave:

You know, that's I need to have that. All right. Here's a picture of me with David Pallison. Maybe if you're like Christmas present for you. I got a chance to meet him. So that's there he is, right there. Boom the one and only. So that's my chance at trying to help you win this book war, Bob. I'm trying to try to get you back in the game. My book is from Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, the great doctor, Martin Lloyd Jones, wrote this book The Basis of Christian Unity. He was a pastor in the 60s. He was also a great, he was a he was a doctor, and so he left the medical profession. Like a real medical doctor. Yeah. He was a doc. And then he went to go back and get his theological training and became one of the greatest preachers of the last century. Um, he was at Westminster Chapel in England, and um he was really um facing down a crisis in the 60s called the ecumenical movement. And so there was this push for Christians to be unified, and there was this um movement that, hey, doesn't really matter, the differences, Christians are way too divided, Christians are way too polarized, you guys need to get together. You're not, you don't have a good witness to the world, you're you know, you're um you're essentially losing your evangelistic opportunity because of your divisions. And Jones was like, hold up a hot second. And he wrote this book called The Basis of Christian Unity, and he basically exposits the texts that are like the proof texts, which you should never do, but the proof texts that people use to um say we should all be unified, like John 17, like I pray that they be one, just as you and I are one, and then Ephesians 4, um when you know Paul talks about unity, and he says, you know, strive to keep the unity through the bond of peace. And so Jones is like, let's take a look at the Bible. What does it say? And he's he makes the case in these this book, it's very short, it's only 75 pages. He makes the case that those two texts do not go from he says you're you're doing it backwards. He says you don't go from the virtue, the the behavior of unity, and then that leads you to somehow be able to have unified doctrine. The the flow, the stream runs the other way. You have to start with the unity of doctrine, the unity of the faith, and then that unity of faith actually creates a unity by God already that you don't need to create at all. You just have to maintain the unity that He's already been like that's already been established for you by God. If you want to know how that works biblically, he does it here with two um different sections. One's on John 17, the high priestly prayer of Jesus, and then the other one's on Ephesians 4. And he kind of walks through the whole book of Ephesians, which is really neat and what he does there, and talks about what is Christian unity, what's the basis of it, what's the nature of it, how does it work, and what's the problem with the ecumenical movement and why we wouldn't want to just hold hands and sing kumbaya with every single person who claims the name of Christ. Because when we do that, sometimes we actually end up damaging the witness of Jesus with people who are denying certain fundamentals of the faith that are not it's not it's not really okay for you to deny those things. So Jones uh is an amazing person, and this is my recommendation. It's not expensive, and it's it's banner of truth, which they always do a great job, and it's it's short, man. You could read this in a day, you could read this in like two hours, 70, 77 pages. Basis of Christian unity, Martin Lloyd Jones. So we got look at this battle of the digestibles here.

Bob:

We got it's like comfort food right here for you. Look, there you go, boom, there you go. Yeah, which which skinny will you pick?

Tim:

Hey guys, Thanksgiving is almost here, and when I think Thanksgiving, I think about pies. And some of you may have ordered a pie from Little Footprints Learning Center as part of their fundraiser. If that's you, if you ordered a delicious pie, come pick it up on November 20th. Uh, please come and pick up your pie so you can take it home and get it ready for Thanksgiving dinner. All right, guys.

Dave:

We recommend you decide. We recommend you decide. Let us know.

Tim:

I know you people have been missing the voting. So uh go out, get to the polls, people.

Dave:

Get to the polls. Yeah. We should have maybe like I voted stickers that we can give people or something like that.

Tim:

We should. The people who do vote are very proud of their voting, I will say.

Dave:

Very good.

Bob:

All right, so that is the book war segment. People come up and tell me I ordered the book you recommended. Ordered.

Tim:

That's another level. That's right. And then do you say, well, did you vote for it?

Bob:

Well, clearly he voted they voted for it, yeah.

Dave:

All right, guys. We've got ticks, we've got baseball scandals, we've got Chinese people spying on farms, and we've got books. And now let's talk about questions, right? Are we doing questions? Uh we did not receive any audience.

Bob:

No, but so we have the follow-up questions or something. Follow-up questions from Noah. This was like the absent Dave questions. Oh, I think. Old questions. This will be good. Before we get to the sermon. That's why I tell you this is the Dave. You can call it the Dave wrap-up.

Noah:

Old questions. The Dave catch-up. Noah. So the first one is a theology sprint question, and this was the hard difficulty level of theology sprint question. Pastor Bob was able to answer the question.

Bob:

Noah gave me three. I got three in one uh one episode.

Noah:

But we didn't want you to be able to avoid this one, Pastor Dave, so we wanted to fire it off to you as well. So the question you missed was you thought you were out, you didn't miss it. The question was Was the earth perfect and sinless before the fall of man? If so, is it possible for there to be another fall in the new heavens and the new earth?

Dave:

Oh, well, you know, I think Genesis chapter one is um worthy of study here, but there is several usages of the Hebrew word tov, which is translated as good most of the time. It is good. He saw that it was it was good, and then he creates mankind as very good. Um there is no indication that there's anything that's not good in the creation text, and so most conservative Christians would argue no, there's not anything imperfect before the fall.

Bob:

Well, when you say imperfect, do you mean sinful or that Adam was alone was not good?

Dave:

Yeah, that one part was not good. Did you say sinful, or did you say evil, or did you say what did you say imperfect? Is there anything imperfect before the fall? What did you say?

Noah:

Uh I guess the way I phrased it was was the world perfect and sinless. Okay. Um so it's kind of like the overarching contrast of pre-fall, post-fall. Like, is it possible for there to be another fall in the new heavens and new earth? Right. Because if you know, a lot of times people view, you know, the new heavens and new earth as getting back to the way that creation was supposed to be. So by that logic, is it possible for the fall to happen again? Okay. I have a chart. Can we look at it?

Dave:

So, Tim, uh I sent you something like that. So St. Augustine came up with these categories, uh, they're Latin, um, and they're like the fourfold nature of man or the fourfold estate of man categories. And so each column represents like stage one, stage two, stage three, stage four. So on the left, the passa picari follow uh column there is you are um in a state of being as pre-fall man where you are both able to sin. Hold on, hold on. Yep.

Bob:

What what is passipicary?

Dave:

Well, the English translation is in the top row.

Bob:

Oh, it's this is the definition of the case.

Dave:

Yeah, so the English is in the top. So passe picary is able to sin, and then passa non-picary is able not to sin. So like Picarious sin. And um Adam and Eve literally had the opportunity to have actual autonomous uh volitional capacity. They could actually choose to either eat the fruit or not eat the fruit. They had the ability to do something that we actually don't have anymore. Phase two. So phase two after the fall is uh this phase where uh human beings are able to sin and not able to not sin. So we are now fallen, our nature is bent. Um, we are, you know, as theologians would call it, totally depraved. We have now uh inherited not just the guilt of sin, but we've inherited something called a sin nature, and this part of ourselves is actually enslaved to sin. We don't see it that way. A lot of times people who are not Christians don't feel like they're enslaved, they feel like hey, I can do whatever I want. That's like true freedom. But what you're not able to do, bro, is you're not able to actually stop sinning against your own conscience, and that that that means you're not free because you can't do that. Um, so that's stage two. Stage three is when you actually accept Christ, the Spirit comes in and regenerates you. You are a Christian now, and you are able to sin and able to not sin. You are restored back in some capacity where your will is actually to choose able to choose the good that God um has allowed you to see now. You can see the beauty of Christ, you can see the beauty of obedience, you you understand holiness is something that you want to pursue. Uh, you have a sin nature though, still, which is something Adam and Eve didn't have to deal with. So you're you're in a little bit of a different kind of situation than pre-fall man, but you are once again set free. He who the sun sets free is free indeed. One day, though, Noah, and this is getting me to your question, we will be glorified. And this is a state of mind where we will we will be able to not sin and not able to sin. And what what Augustine meant by that is that we will reach a state that is so beautiful and so glorious and so weighty, C. S. Lewis would call it, the weight of glory. We will one day uh get to a state of mind where we will never even look back and think about sinning anymore. It will never even cross our mind. It will not be something that we will ever want to do. We will look back on the these times that we're living in now and going, I can't believe we ever chose to sin against God. I I don't know how we ever would make such a foolish uh evil choice. And that state of mind will be glorious where we're not able to sin anymore. We will have truly free natures where God will um perfect us and we will become like him. We will be in a perfect state of mind, a perfect state of soul, perfect perfect state of spirit, will we where we will not be able to fall again. And so this is our hope. This is the great, wonderful um, you know, beauty of the future heavenly story. This is the gospel, this is where we're looking forward to getting to. So Augustine said it well. And I feel like I can't do better than that chart right there. It's got big words and everything.

Bob:

That's true. I think you just like saying Passipacari.

Dave:

It is kind of like rolls off the tongue, man. Yeah. So Noah, there's my answer.

Tim:

I believe the title of the episode is New Fear Unlocked. Yeah. Yeah, man, these ticks.

Bob:

Make sure you make sure you put a big picture of a tick on Dave's head in the so alright.

Dave:

I did want to just chat about something else that you guys talked about with the Nicene Creed thing. Yes. I don't know, is that Tim's question, or was that Noah's?

Bob:

Tim Tim had the question of the Nicene.

Dave:

Tim, you were at church the day before and you recited the Nicene Creed from 325 AD, right? Uh I was on the retreat.

Tim:

Uh however, uh Band of Brothers, uh a couple days before that, we recited the Nicene Creed. Right. And part of the Nicene Creed says what?

Dave:

Uh that we believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Excellent memory. And you're wondering how that works. And you you guys were talking about it a little bit last week, Bob, and I thought you guys handled it well, but I thought it was worth maybe just touching on a little bit more. And I think the emphasis there in the Nicene Creed is on the word one, and I think we need to confess that there is no other way to receive the forgiveness of sins except through the one baptism. So I texted myself actually when I was watching you guys' podcast on two times speed, by the way, uh, saying this to not forget.

Bob:

Oh, I like this, and going out over here and doing that.

Dave:

Yes, the already rapid fire episode on two times. Actually, I was watching Bob preach this morning when I was um watching your sermon on two times this morning, and then I went farther into the closing song, uh-huh, two times the closing song, with you know, uh John was doing that song. I called, you answered, you came to my rescue, and I whatever. And it was like really fast. And I was like, dude, that song sounds good this speed, it's not bad. So I screened recorded my screen for John, and I texted him the screen record at the two point two times speed of that song. I'm like, John, you should think about doing the song this way. Uh fast. And like you could actually like it would work, you know. Like, there's fast songs and slow songs. This song actually worked like fast. Here, I'll play it for you guys. Here you go.

Noah:

That's actually a new thing now. It can be a little sleepy. A lot of bands are re-releasing songs called fast. So, like it's called like fast and then title.

Bob:

Okay. Let me hear it. Let me hear it.

Noah:

Okay.

Bob:

There you go.

Dave:

Well, it was a good song. And I was like, man, we should do this. And he said, I'm not like a mariachi band, Dave. This isn't this isn't working then.

Bob:

He doesn't like those ideas, man.

Dave:

No. I can put my hands right now, man. This thing would work.

Tim:

I'm telling you, I feel like that sounds like it's gonna be like alright.

Bob:

Doom, doom, doom, the tourist is running long, we're gonna put this the song in cut time. It's gonna be called, you answered.

Dave:

The the speed that he was using the rhythm guitar hand would be great.

Tim:

It's it's a uh it's a lead up to a bass drop in an EDM song, is what it sounded like.

Dave:

Well, I liked it. I thought John. I'm saying in the worship setting. Anyway, back to Nicaea. So I texted myself this God grants forgiveness through Christ alone, meaning the one baptism thing. Baptism is the God-ordained sign and seal of that forgiveness, and the church acknowledges one baptism as the public mark of entry into that forgiven, redeemed community. So it's not that the baptism waters actually have salvific significance and that baptism itself is for the forgiveness of sins, but baptism is the God ordained sign uh that becomes the mark of the fact that you're now in this forgiven community. So the and I said this the one emphasizes unity and There is only one true baptism into Christ, just as there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. It rejects the idea also of repeated baptisms for renewed forgiveness, as if you need to be forgiven again and again and again. We believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We don't need to keep coming back to the altar again and again. Like the Old Testament had this repetition to the sacrifices, and the book of Hebrews says that's that was the weakness of it. But Christ has died once for all. And the phrase is actually taken directly from the book of Acts when Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost and he says, They're like, What should we do? And he says, Repent and believe and believe believe and repent and and uh and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. So it's a biblical phrase. Um, it's also said at Paul's conversion too, same exact phraseology. So I thought we could talk about that.

Bob:

This is what happens when you get a week to think about it, just so you guys know.

Dave:

Yeah.

Bob:

Much would you would you have said that?

Tim:

I mean, for the weeks.

Bob:

If you had just been.

Tim:

Listen, for the weeks that we don't have any audience questions, I'm totally fine with going back and revisiting some of the theology sprints, but yeah. There is no consideration here to take away.

Bob:

The theology sprint re call it the rewind, right?

Dave:

Do you guys have this like conversations in your head after you have a conversation? Like an hour later, you're like, oh, I should have said that.

Bob:

Oh, that's that's George. Oh, I should have said that. I wouldn't have said that.

Noah:

I wouldn't I wouldn't invite you guys to do that if we don't have any audience.

Bob:

I should have said.

Noah:

One of the other things that we talked about in relation to that subject was is there a distinction between the water baptism and then baptism of the Holy Spirit? That was one of the other things that we uh briefly mentioned. Oh, yeah.

Dave:

So yeah, I do think there's a distinction there, but um, I don't think the creed is talking about spirit baptism. I think it's talking about water baptism. Um so yeah, understood. Which is why, by the way, since we're gonna keep talking about this, uh, which is why the mainline Protestant uh idea of infant baptism is a little bit different than other denominations, such as the Baptist tradition. So because we hold to credo baptism or believers baptism, we believe that this is a visual sign of what's already occurred, that the forgiveness is actually something that is embraced. Um the mainline denominational um belief is that baptism is the sign and the seal of the covenant, and that later on the person gets confirmed into that covenant when they are uh of age where they can understand and embrace the faith, but the baptism is something that comes in their life earlier when they're an infant. As opposed to a Catholic or as opposed to an Orthodox person. Um, the Catholic person and the Orthodox person and the Baptist person are on the same page over here, and the mainline uh Protestant Presbyterian person uh is over here in the news. So, like the Catholic belief is also that the baptism is for the forgiveness of sins because they believe in baptismal regeneration, and the orthodox belief is also that they they would be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, and so is the Baptist position, but it's the mainline Protestant position, like the Methodist position or the Presbyterian position that holds to infant baptism that doesn't connect it together with a salvic act, that's the anomaly position. That's the part that we struggle with with regards to infant baptism in the mainline denominations. So I say that just because when you confess the Nicene Creed, are you confessing baptism like the rest of us, or are you confessing something different with regards to baptism?

Tim:

And what do you do with the Nicene Creed if you're like PCA or CPC or uh R R R C A or Methodist or so so just to get some clarification on what on what you just said, a Baptist and a Catholic would be um Baptist and Catholic walk into a church would be in the same boat because um they both believe that baptism is connected to salvation to a Christian, yeah. Whereas like the Cat the Catholic would argue that you need to be baptized in order as it's a part of your salvation, but baptism uh baptists would see baptism as like the the the outward sign of that salvific decision. I don't know if my words were good there.

Dave:

Yeah. So they're different. Obviously, we have a different belief about baptism than Catholic, but what we do have in common is that we both tie it directly together with the person being saved. They are interlinked, and it's the Presbyterians or the Methodists or um the Reformed or you know, the other denominations, the Protestant denominations that practice infant baptism that separate out baptism from salvation. That they're they're not connected in the same way. So that's different. Does that make sense, Tim? I am now in full understanding. All right, yeah. There we go. So I'm glad we did the Nicene Creed. That was different.

Bob:

Let's do it again. Let's pull out, let's do the Athanasian. Let's do something. Let's do the Athanasian Creed.

Dave:

Yeah, let's do the Chalcedonian Creed. We can name more creeds. How about the Apostles' Creed? Like we maybe we should have started with the the OG, the Apostles' Creed, man. This is true. So we got to do um a lot of stuff.

Bob:

We could do a little catechism, like call and response, too. Okay. Yeah.

Dave:

Heidelberg into a creed.

Bob:

By the way, Caleb McLaughlin doing a great job on the scripture reading this last week. Yes. Shut up. Got up there with uh with authority.

Dave:

He did good. I I I I like the way you guys did that. You ended worship and then he did the reading and then you came up.

Bob:

I thought it was Did you watch the first of the second service?

Dave:

Uh first.

Bob:

Where he said, no, hold on, don't sit down yet. Yeah.

Dave:

John John's goes, you maybe sit down. He's like, oh. Caleb did charge. He's like, stay standing. In honor of the word. Alpha. I like it. I think he did. Did they did they sit on accident or something? Or what was happening in the chat? John told them to sit. Right, so did they?

Bob:

Yes. It was like a false, a false start.

Tim:

Speaking of the Catholic Church, it was one of those. Caleb has spoken. It got Catholic in there for a second. There was a sitting down and standing back down. Up down.

Bob:

What was there any commentary up in the balcony? They're like, oh man.

Dave:

No.

Tim:

Oh man, we gotta keep standing. We gotta keep confessing. Hey guys, thank you so much for watching Behind the Pulpit. We're about to dive right into the sermon recap section of the show. Before we get into that, we just want to tell you about an awesome event that we have coming up here, and it is the City Relief Packing Party. If you remember, last year we had this awesome event where the church came together around Christmas time to pack hygiene kits for City Relief. City Relief is one of our strategic local partners, and one of the things that they do is they give out hygiene kits to the homeless community of New York, Newark, and Patterson. And these kits contain things like toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, other things like that that are integral to the daily hygiene of those struggling with homelessness. We want to blow away City Relief with the amount of hygiene kits that we get to provide for them. So as a start, Millington Baptist Church is providing 1,000 kits to be packed. So the base number of hygiene kits packed that day will be a thousand, but we want to exceed that. How we can do that is you can directly donate to providing more hygiene kits to City Relief that we will pack that day. So whether you're able to come to the event or you would just like to contribute, go onto our website, you can check the link in the show notes, and you can donate a contribution to the event, either a general donation or you can sponsor kits. All donations that we receive by December 1st are gonna go directly to purchasing more materials to make even more hygiene kits. Our goal is to get to at least 1,500 total. So that's the 1,000 that NBC is providing, plus another 500 or more provided by you guys. We're holding this event on Saturday, December 20th from 9 to 11 in the morning. We're gonna provide breakfast and some really good coffee from local roastery barrister coffee house. Breakfast will start at 8 30, so you can come in, get some breakfast, hang out with one another. This is gonna be an awesome Christmas event for the church to come together. We're gonna encourage you guys to wear your favorite Christmas sweater. We're gonna play some Christmas songs. We might have some candy canes and some hot chocolate for you guys. It's gonna be a really great time to come together as a church and make a difference in the lives of so many uh who need these hygiene kits. So if you're interested in coming to the event, contributing to the event, or both, scroll down, click the link in the show notes, and we can't wait to see you there.

Dave:

So that's our questions, and let that kind of leads us into the word. So um we're here in Isaiah, man. Isaiah 49, a little 42 sprinkled in there.

Bob:

Steven got the picture with the headphones where my wife's wife's headphones.

Dave:

Wait, can we talk about this picture for a second? Wow. Look at that. What kind of headphones you got there, man? Noise.

Bob:

DJ Pastor Bob.

Dave:

What's the brand?

Bob:

Uh the uh Cowan, I believe is his name, C-O-W-I-N.

Dave:

And they do they completely fit over the ear? Yes. Like, because these I feel like are okay, but my ears are kind of big.

Bob:

These are these are like real noise, the noise canceling ones. Yeah.

Tim:

Yeah.

Bob:

No, Tim.

Tim:

Between this one and there was another one where you were brandishing the the uh the headphones at the congregation. So it was between like a weapon. That was like pistol holding it out. Just holding it up. It was like this. Look at these headphones. My wife actually helped me out.

Bob:

We we settled on this one. We thought this was the better one. I did not preach the whole sermon with them on my ears, though.

Dave:

Does canceling have one L or two? I believe it's a one L. I'm looking at that word and I can't figure out this. Is that right? Okay.

Bob:

I believe it's one. I hope so. Double check.

Dave:

So when you say like noise canceling, and what that does is it actually gets rid of the it it interferes with it or it takes away the distracting sound, is something always on in the headphones, or do you have to do that?

Bob:

Yeah, so I did just because of time's sake, I had a longer explanation that I I cut down. But um Do tell uh because people were wondering. I was watching going, what is he talking about? So basically, my my research uh told me that um what it does is it actually there's actually little microphones inside of the uh the earphones that take the noise that's around you and they transform it and invert it and turn it into a counter sound that actually makes it feel like it's it's canceling out the noise around you. That that's how it works. So are these things receiving power all the time? These little microphones? So this thing is like plugged in? If you like on those things, I have to you have to actually turn on the noise. You turn it on noise canceling headphones.

Dave:

Do you remember the the anachoic chamber thing we went to in the Bell Labs?

Bob:

I think it's something like that. Yeah.

Dave:

Look it up.

Bob:

You put them on and you can't hear anything around you. Boom. Okay, actively cancels the noise. Okay. Just like God's grace.

Tim:

Speaking of canceling, yeah. Uh quick research. One L is American English, two L's is British English. Whoa. We're in America, one L. Take that.

Bob:

Thank you for the clarification. You ever look at a word and you're like, that word looks so weird. By the way, I was also having a conversation with John about the servant song here, and he said he was trying he was trying really hard. I had sent him a couple things to figure out what the closing song should be. And then about halfway through the sermon, he realized, oh my goodness, it's a song. He didn't know it was a song. So I guess I didn't do a good job of explaining that to him ahead of time. There's four of them, right? There's four. So let's talk about it.

Dave:

Can you give us a 60-second flyover of the song?

Bob:

60-second flyover. Servant song. This is the second servant song in Isaiah. Um, and the theme that I I pulled out was, of course, this noise-canceling headphone thing, because um we we talked a little bit about how God's no, which song are you listening to? The world song or uh God's song that comes from the servant. We talked about a spiritual song battle that we're all in. Uh we can get into that later if you want. And um uh it is the the servant who steps in and sings the melody, and then he calls the saints around him to sing in harmony. So the first half of the uh the message was focusing on uh the servant himself, uh, which we said was was Christ. We can talk about the different views of that. Um also we talked about the four or five different servant songs that are in the book, um, and how in the first part he embraced his calling and he expanded the melody. And then the second half, we talked about how that ultimately goes out to this to the saints, because God is calling us to rejoice and share the gospel with uh those that are in the world, that one day they can traverse the highway that God is He's clearing away the debris so that you can come into the presence of of God. Um and then it ends with this just wonderful singing, this explosion of of song as the prisoners have come out and as the people have come to come to their God. So thank you.

Dave:

So let's get right into the theology nerdy stuff, man. What is the argument against other interpretations of this particular song that the servant is identified with a different character, whether that be Israel or Isaiah or Cyrus, who specifically called my servant in Isaiah 45? Um so why convince us that we should identify this servant as Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth from the first century?

Bob:

Sure. Well, let's let's look at a uh refresh our memory about a couple of you. So there's I think there's there's a fourth one because some people split off the Israel piece. But I mentioned three. So the first one is that the servant is the nation of Israel. Uh some scholars, particularly Jewish scholars, uh see the servant as Israel as a whole, as God's covenant people.

Dave:

So if I were to walk across the street to the Chabad and talk to Mendy or Mendel, and I would say, let's look up Isaiah 49. Who's this? They say it's true.

Bob:

Good chance they say it's the collective people of Israel. Yeah. Good chance. Um Mendy, if you're watching, we'd love to hear from you. I'm sure Mendy watches us each and every week. Um so some support for this. Isaiah 41, 8 to 9, and 44, 1 to 2. The servant is explicitly identified as Israel, right? He says, But you, Israel, my servant Jacob, whom I've chosen. Um the servant's mission to be a light to the nations echoes Israel's covenant back in Genesis 12, 3, right? Where God has uh chosen Abraham and his family to bless the nations. Um thirdly, the servant's struggles, his laboring in vain, can describe Israel's historic experience of exile and apparent failure. So there's some images that are there that seem to represent um Israel as a whole. But some challenges to that in Isaiah 49, 5 and 6, the servant's mission, which we read, is to bring Israel back to God, which suggests that the servant is distinct from Israel, that he can't restore the nation and be identical with it.

Dave:

Here's where it gets confusing. Right.

unknown:

Right.

Dave:

So it's like, wait, you're calling me Israel on the servant, but then now you're telling me I need to help Israel. Right. To gather gather Israel. Yeah. Okay.

Bob:

Secondly, the servant seems sinless and fully obedient, which if you've read the Old Testament, you know Israel as a nation is not. There's actual frequent disobedience.

Dave:

So the servant does not sin. The servant is perfect, like Noah's question earlier, the servant is is flawless.

Bob:

Right. And of course, in uh in uh Isaiah fifty and then fifty two and fifty-three, there's an emphasis on his obedience uh to to the will of the Father.

Dave:

Well, I mean chapter fifty-three is very explicit, and it says, though he had do done no violence, nor was deceit found in his mouth, uh you cannot say that that would be characteristic of Israel. Um go on.

Bob:

So you needed a better Israelite. Um okay, number three, the prophet Isaiah or number two, the prophet um Isaiah is Isaiah himself the servant. Some people propose that the servant is Isaiah. He's speaking autobiographically about his prophetic calling. So some support for that. Isaiah was called from the womb, like the other prophets. We see that in Isaiah 49, 1, similar to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was called, that's in Jeremiah 1. Secondly, the servant's message of restoration parallels Isaiah's ministry to the exiles. And then thirdly, my mouth is like a sharp sword, could easily describe a prophetic word. So, is it Isaiah? Well, some challenges to it is that the servant's worldwide salvific role far exceeds Isaiah's historical ministry. So we talk about being a light to the nations of going out. Um Isaiah didn't get to do that. Uh later servant's a big impact, but not global. Right. Uh later the servant's songs, especially 52 and 53, which we just mentioned, clearly go beyond the experience of any prophet. So if you read Isaiah 52 and 53, does that sound like something Isaiah did or something of someone in the future that we know? Um some people who favor this view, mostly critical scholars, especially those who read Isaiah in a as a purely historical frame framework. And then the third one I mentioned was uh Cyrus, which is is interesting, or some other historical figure, but most people think Cyrus. Um a few people have suggested that the servant refers to Cyrus, the Persian ruler, whom Isaiah also calls my shepherd in chapter 44, and my anointed in chapter 45.

Dave:

And my servant in chapter 45. I've raised up Cyrus, my servant.

Bob:

Right. So um some extra support for that, right? Uh Cyrus was used by God to bring Israel back from exile, which is a theme in Isaiah 49, 5 and 6. So he was the one that helped them return. Um his worldwide impact fits the light to the nation's language in a limited sense. Um but some challenges. Cyrus is never named as the servant in Isaiah's servant songs, even if it's in different places. And then, secondly, the moral and redemptive attributes of the servant, especially in 52 and 53, don't fit Cyrus himself. So those are the the pluses and minuses for those. And then, of course, for Messiah Jesus, right? Which is the position that I took. And uh most Christian tradition takes is that in the Christian interpretation the servant is understood to be the Messiah, fulfill fulfilled perfectly in Jesus. So why would we say that? Well, number one, the servant is called and equipped before birth, paralleled in Jesus' incarnation and divine ministry. Secondly, the servant brings salvation to the nations, fulfilled in Christ's global gospel mission. Third, the servant is despised yet honored by kings, fulfilled in Christ's rejection and exaltation. Philippians two, every knee will one day bow, every tongue will confess. And then the New Testament explicitly applies servant passages to Jesus. Isaiah 49, 6 is quoted in Acts 13 47. Isaiah 53 is applied in 1 Peter 2, 24 and 25. Now, some people will challenge that and say that uh the servant's Israel identification and and see a dual meaning. I'm sorry, some scholars note that the servant's Israel identification I think they have a problem with the true with the dual meaning, but you know, you could see Jesus as the true Israel. And then secondly, it requires a theological but not a purely historical reading of Isaiah. So those are some of the challenges to to the traditional view. Did you add anything else to those?

Dave:

It's fascinating. I think um my notes here says in verse six of chapter 49, the word my salvation is used, and if you were hit listening with a Hebrew like ear, it would sound like Yeshua, like my salvation. That's the name Yeshua or Jesus. Um my name, my salvation will go to the ends of the earth, my Jesus will go to the ends of the earth, which is interesting. So it's like the corporate Israel is represented by the one who then accomplishes the mission, and he does that on behalf of not just Israel, but the whole world. I'm just imagining Jesus as a young boy, like going to synagogue, listening to the Isaiah scroll and hearing these like passages about the servant and going, This is me. This is my job, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take up this mantle, this calling, and I'm gonna carry it out.

Bob:

Well, then, of course, in Luke 4, when he begins his ministry, he quotes Isaiah 61, which some people think is a is a fifth servant song. So had to be ringing in his ears.

Dave:

Good answer. Question number two. I jotted down some questions for you. So you asked the question in the sermon, where would you be? Where would you be? Where would you be, sir? Where would you be, ma'am? Where would you be? Noah, where'd you be? Had Jesus the Son not taken up the mantle, not taken on the mission of the Father, not become the servant prophesied here. Number one, Bob, why is that important? Why is that an important and powerful question that we should meditate on? And then number two, where would you be?

Bob:

Probably not here. Not here sitting with Pastor Dave on a on a Monday afternoon. Um yeah, so it's see what you'd be missing out on. That's right. That's right. Uh so it's an important question. Um I think because ultimately uh well for uh of course, first and foremost, you know, where where would salvation come from? Um once you default to being your own your own savior and trying to save yourself and everything that that would entail. Um but uh yeah, it it I don't know how I don't I don't I often think I don't know how people face challenges in life and suffering and purpose without um a relationship with Christ. So I I think I think life would be it it would it would feel like there's a void that can't be filled, or you try to fill it with something that was was never ultimately satisfying. Um you know, I think for me, I I you know, I look back on my life and I I always was kind of a I guess one of those those kind of like I I didn't make any like super major uh have a super major rebellious phase when I was a kid. Um but but I definitely can see where I I would be I would be out there kind of living for myself at some at some level. Um whether that would be for acclaim or money or I I was into acting when I was younger, so maybe I would have been pursuing fame and fortune. Um until God, you know, gra grabbed my heart through Christ and called me into ministry and things like that. Um probably would have been more of a uh uh uh not as nice to people as as I as I am. Um yeah, those are just some things that come to mind, but uh it's definitely life transformative when you meet Christ. He he reorients you to say.

Dave:

This is a this is about as good as it would have gotten for me. I mean, I don't this is what I would be living for, man. What kind of a god is that?

Bob:

Sitting on a couch, cut cutting up the big Reese's with your fork.

Dave:

Fork and knife. Good quote, good answer. All right, question number three. In the second half of the sermon, you likened the servant to a conductor who's inviting others to sing harmony. I saw you going like this. I was trying. Except for it was two times speed, so it was like this.

Bob:

I'm gonna do Mr. Holland's opus right there.

Dave:

Yeah. So number one, how can we keep our ears tuned to the conductor? And number two, what is he asking us to sing? Like, what does that look like?

Bob:

Yeah, good question. Um, well, I did I didn't, if you did uh see the part with the shirt, uh we were doing a run-through, and Tim, I don't know, Tim, if it was your idea or or or something else. Maybe you know, maybe I came up with that, but then you had the idea of throwing the shirt out. So Johnny uh is challenging the youth this week with this proud Christian shirt challenge. And um I I I threw that out to the audience. There were two people that took it. So they're gonna be out singing with their life, representing Christ to those that uh they influence. Um I I think your life um can be a song in in the way that you live, that it it bring brings praise to God because people see there's something different about you, as well as you're bold enough to step up and tell people about who Jesus is and why he's changed your life and why your life is different. Um what was the first part of the question? Number one, how can we keep our ears tuned to the conductor? How can we keep our ears our ears tuned to the conductor? Yeah, so I I know this sounds very simple, but one of the reasons that we bought all these Isaiah journal journals for you, the congregation, to use was so that it it's it's a tuning instrument. Do you know that tuning fork? Like you you hit it and it rings and it it helps you to you know tune your ears and and wiggle it. It's kind of what the word of God is. If you're not in the word of God, if you're not reading it, meditating upon it, um studying it, how can your heart be tuned? Like if you don't know what's in the Bible. I hear people quote the Bible all the time, but it's clear whether they know it or they don't know it, because people that don't know it are just kind of quoting things out of context, not even really thinking about it. That is the way that you tune your heart to God's will because it is his special revelation to us. Um so reading the scriptures, meditating, praying, those are all ways of us um and being disciplined about that are all ways of us being tuned into um God's word.

Dave:

Tune my heart to sing thy grace, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Robert Robinson. Was he a Baptist? He's the guy who wrote Come Thou Fount and he left the reservation. He he backslid, he went uh off the rails with his life, and um he never really came back. It's kind of a sad ending to a great uh life who had uh certainly a great song there, um, but did not his his heart was prone to wander, and he felt it, and prone to leave the God that he loved, and he did leave. Um ultimately I don't think he rejected the faith, but he did not live for Christ.

Bob:

Robert Robinson had a diverse church church background rooted primarily in the evangelical movements of the eighteenth century England. Yeah, but he was influenced by the preaching of the Calvinist revivalist George Whitfield, who preached here in Baskin Ridge, and began his ministry associated with the Methodists. Ah, the Methodists. Oh, oh. Later he founded an independent church in Norwich in 1759. He adopted Baptist theological positions, including believers' baptism by immersion. I thought so. And he became the pastor of the Stoneyard Baptist Church in Cambridge, where he served for nearly 30 years. There you go. I thought that.

Dave:

Yeah. So uh tune my heart with the fork, Robert. That's a good song. There you go. What's his name? Baptist theologian um Andrew Fuller, in the same time period, knew Robinson, and he wrote him a letter. Um Fuller started a Fuller theological seminary? Different dude. Um he wrote uh him a letter about coming back and uh encouraging him to tune his heart with the fork. All right. My next question uh is you highlighted the invitation of the servant to quote unquote come out. Come out, come out. What is it that keeps people in meaning in bondage? And how can we take hold of the invitation to come out? And what keeps us from coming out?

Bob:

Yeah, it's it's an important question. Um and if you just take the prison image for a second, I think a lot of times people um people like to be in prison. Like they they like the little kingdom they built inside the uh uh the chain links that are that are around them because it's it's meeting some kind of felt need in their life, um, and yet they just can't see the forest for the trees. Um so whether that's um man, I don't know. Some some kind of you know, whether it's it's money that's driving your life, that you know, it just feels good to have more money and you work hard and you run over people. Um, you can't see the fact that you're in the darkness um if you're not living for Christ. Um I think we've talked uh I mean you talked last week about the trial of the false gods, and uh the last couple weeks have been focused on idols. Uh we all have some kind of idol in our life that um uh can very easily become our central focus and make us comfortable. So so I would say I think a desire for felt needs, but secondly, things that make us comfortable. Um that's one of the reasons we don't come out of the out of the prison. We're we're kind of happy with what we're doing. We're we're we have comfort. You know, I eat eating ten Reese's packs like that every day feels good. Feels good going down, but then later on you're like, oh, why did I do this? And yet you keep doing it over and over again.

Dave:

Dude, guess how many serving sizes are in here? Guess how many servings are in here? Ten. Noah? Wow. How many serving sizes are in this thing? There's two huge services. What is the serving size or how many servings? How many servings are in here? How big is the cup? Four. Each cup is uh well, the whole package is sixteen ounces, so each one must be eight ounces each. You think this is four servings? No. Yes. Thirty two. Sixteen servings. Wow. And each serving is 140 calories. So if I were to sit down, mathematically I was on the right track. So if I were to sit down and eat unwrap this and eat this for a snack, let's just do the math here. So a hundred and what did I say? 140, right? Times what? Uh 16. So this thing is 2,240 calories.

Bob:

And that would be all all you could eat in one day. You're done.

Dave:

Like you're it's more than I can eat in one day. This is like a your toast, man. One package. And this is come out, come out of her. Come out of her. Come out. This is bondage. It'll be coming out in some way, shape, or form. All right. Let's keep it moving here. Whoa. I don't know how to come back from that, man. There's no segue. Noah. Theology sprint. All right. Are we good with that question? I'm good. Are you good with my answer? I guess so. All right. All right. Thank you, Bob, for a good sermon. Next week we are going to have a topical message on the book of Isaiah, and we're going to be pulling out different themes from Isaiah in our study that tie together with the vision of Millington Baptist Church. And so you're not going to want to miss this Sunday. It's one of the most important Sundays of the year. And it's all about what God is doing in our body through our ministry and what he has done. We're going to do a little recapping of the past year, and then we're going to be doing some forecasting and looking forward toward what we want him to do this coming year and what we're hoping him to do, what we're praying for him to do, what we're envisioning for our ministry. So you're not going to want to miss this. It's going to be an important Sunday. And uh Vision Sunday is coming up. All right.

Bob:

It's going to be good. All our sponsors will be there next week. That's right.

Dave:

Very good.

Tim:

Hey NBC. So we're still enjoying the fall season here in New Jersey, getting ready for an incredible Thanksgiving season. But it is never too early to start thinking about Christmas and what you are going to do for Christmas Eve. This year we are excited to announce three Christmas services. One will be held on Christmas Eve Eve, and two will be held on Christmas Eve. All three of these services will be identical, just on different days. So you're not missing out if you only come to one of them. Christmas Eve Eve will be held at 7 p.m. right here at NBC and will feature our candlelight service. And then on Christmas Eve, we'll have two services, one at 4 p.m. and one at 6 p.m. You're not going to want to miss this. And Christmas Eve is one of the best times of the year to evangelize and invite people out to church who don't normally come. If you have a family member, a friend, or a neighbor who you've been trying to get to church, Christmas Eve is the best time of the year to get them there. So use this as an opportunity to do a little evangelism in your neighborhood.

Dave:

Alright, so Noah, we're ready to sprint, man. You already gave us a doozy earlier, and then the second, like half a question, too. So this is number three, really, if I'm counting. So uh what do you got for us today, Noah?

Noah:

Alright, so I got an option for you today. Uh you can either A have just a normal theology sprint question, or you can have one that's a little bit closer to an apologetics question. It still is theological, but it's a little bit on the spectrum of apologetics to theology, it's a little bit closer to apologetics than usual. So I'll give you the choice. You want a normal one or this newer one that's a little bit apologetics-y?

Dave:

Does it have anything to do with ticks or red meat? No. Okay.

Bob:

Well, um what what do we call it before? It's the New Fear?

Dave:

Yeah, New Fear Unlocked.

Bob:

New fear unlocked. All right.

Dave:

I'll go with the apologetic style, man. All right. Let's let's defend the faith. Okay. This is what we're called to do in 1 Peter chapter 3, right? That's right. Like be prepared.

Bob:

Always be prepared to give a defense.

Dave:

To give an answer, to give a defense to anyone who asks you for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. Alright.

Noah:

Alright. Here we go. So our question is: if after the flood in the Old Testament, the Ark with all the remaining humans landed in the ancient Near East, then how did people like the Native Americans turn up in the Americas?

Bob:

Didn't I just read that they found some remains of the Ark?

Dave:

You know, there's always some Indiana Jones story coming out about like what they found with the Ark. I know I don't believe any of that stuff.

Bob:

It's like the white whale, they're always searching for it. Yeah.

Dave:

So yeah, I mean it's a good question. The question is, is it a local flood or is it a global flood? And scholars are divided on that. I tend to lean towards the global flood because of the description there in Genesis 6, 7, 8, and 9. It's like far above the highest mountain peak and so forth, and for it to rain that much and for it to take that long to subside. So, you know, how did the people get over here? The um, I guess the working theory is that there was a land bridge in between Alaska and you know East Asia there, and there was a migration that happened after Noah's flood, and those people uh showed up in America after that. And the dating of the civilizations over here, like the Mayans and the Aztecs or people like that, are far after Noah. So I don't know that you have to go beyond that, but there's there's my answer for the sim simplest way to think about that from an evangelical perspective. There's other more complicated perspectives. If you take like the old earth creationist perspective, and you could go to Bio Logos if you want to like read about how this somehow can fit together with Genesis and the theistic evolution theory, and uh there's other ways to answer the question.

Bob:

The reasons to believe is kind of a form of old earth, yeah. Not a theistic evolution one, but yeah.

Dave:

Yeah. I would say the story from Noah seems like a complete annihilation and destruction of every single human being and every single living thing on the earth. You know, in the New Testament, okay. Are we good with that? I I'm just gonna go on a rabbit trail. Okay. So there's a couple pictures of baptism in the next one. Final segment, rabbit trail. And one of the pictures is the flood is a picture of baptism. And it's a really interesting picture because it's like, how's that like baptism?

Bob:

Everybody dies, but actually judgment in the waters and coming out of the waters, right?

Dave:

Yeah, yeah. So you got like these people that are inside of a structure, and the judgment of God is swirling all around them, underneath them, above them, on the side of them, but they're safe in the structure, and eventually they don't perish like the rest of humanity perishes. And like that, if you're in the ark, you're in Christ, and you are surrounded by water, and you are safe in him, and that's a picture of baptism, which I find to be a really rich image for water baptism. So we circled all the way back to a good baptism by immersion illustration here, guys, which you know that's what we are. We're Baptists. So there you go. Thank you guys for watching today. Thank you, Pastor Bob. Good to be back. Could be back, be back with you next week. We'll be here. Boom. Hope to see you back. Have a great day, guys.