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  THE CLANDESTINE CHURCH
  by Scott Hynds
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of standing firm in the
face of increasing hostility towards believers, drawing parallels to the
persecution faced by early Christians. It warns of a time when believers
may need to worship in secrecy and highlights the need to remain rooted
in the Word of God despite challenges and opposition. The message
encourages believers to trust in God's sovereignty and promises, even as
the world becomes more hostile towards the Church.

Duration: 33:13 Topics: "Perseverance in Faith", "Trusting God's Sovereignty"
Scripture References: Romans 14:8, John 15:18, Ephesians 5:16, 1 Thessalonians 4:18, 2 Timothy 3:16, Galatians 3:1, Matthew 24:13, Revelation 19:11, Psalm 46:1

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of standing firm in the face of
increasing hostility towards believers, drawing parallels to the
persecution faced by early Christians. It warns of a time when believers
may need to worship in secrecy and highlights the need to remain rooted
in the Word of God despite challenges and opposition. The message
encourages believers to trust in God's sovereignty and promises, even as
the world becomes more hostile towards the Church.

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CONTENT
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Hallelujah. Praise God, what a Savior. Indeed, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin, as we have already heard
indeed this morning.

Just before we hear from the Word of God, we hear the message of God, I
believe it is, the message of God to us today. Let me pray again,
please, just over the Word. Father, Lord, Lord, I thank Lord God of how
the Gospel, Lord, was entrusted to faithful men.

From the beginning of the Church down through the ages, Lord, there have
been faithful men. The baton has been passed on, and men, Lord, have
been faithful with the Gospel. They have never sought, Lord, in their
faithfulness, Lord, they have never sought to manipulate it any way or
alter that message, Lord, those who are faithful.

And I thank you, Lord, for those who are faithful today, that truly
discharge the duties, Lord, of the Lord and the ministry of the Lord in
complete faithfulness to you and to the message entrusted to them. And,
Lord, we thank you, God, that you always have your remnant that do not
bow the knee, as it were. And so, Lord, I pray, God, that if you tarry
many more years, that there would be many that would be raised up even
in our land to be faithful heralds of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ.

Lord, bless, Lord, this message this morning to our hearts, and help me,
Lord, to be able to rightly divide, Lord, your word of truth, to rightly
divide it, Lord, according to your will and way, in Jesus' name. Amen
and amen. Well, as I mentioned just briefly there this morning, that we
are on the move again as a fellowship.

God willing, a fortnight from today, we will be back in the centre.
There's no doubt that we have been pilgrims. We always have been
pilgrims in this fellowship and during this whole pandemic, last year
and a half, more, we have moved a few times and we're thankful indeed
for the Mahouts and for what they provided and also for Jim and what he
has provided.

But we're moving on again as pilgrims. You know, it does make me think
of what the writer in Hebrews 11 says about indeed those heroes of the
faith, pilgrims on earth, and no doubt we are pilgrims on earth. Our
citizenship is in heaven.

When I look at that word pilgrim, we can also have the word foreigner.
We are foreigners as Christians, above all things, we are foreigners on
this earth and it sort of makes me think about foreigners, about
migrants and about many indeed that come to this land or other lands for
different reasons. And when I think of the citizens of the land, there
are some that are not always hospitable to foreigners, to migrants when
they come.

Sometimes there is open hostility towards the migrant, towards indeed
the foreigner. And the reason why I share that is this, that the days
are coming when the majority are not hospitable to us but openly hostile
as believers. There are a number today, no doubt, in our land and other
lands and they are hostile and antagonistic towards the Christian
church, towards the people of God.

But I believe with all of my heart that that hostility will be ramped up
in the days to come, no doubt about that. And the reason friends and
dear brethren, the reason for that hostility towards us is found in
Romans 14 and 8 where Paul says, we are the lords and that's the reason
why the ungodly are hostile towards us because we are the lords. We
belong to God, we belong to a thrice holy God and because we belong to
this God, they are hostile.

John 15 and 8, a scripture we know quite well, Jesus said, if the world
hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. That word hate
means to pursue with hatred. It can mean to pursue with hatred.

As I read that this morning, those words to pursue with hatred, there
was something that came to my mind automatically and what I saw in my
mind's eye, we perhaps have seen this dramatized on a movie or some
reality show with the police, we have seen someone that's running away
with the fields and they are being pursued by the police. Let's say
being pursued by a a policeman or policemen with dogs, the dog unit, and
for a while the dogs are on the leash but there comes a stage in that
pursuit where the dogs are released. They are released and they pursue
indeed that person, that individual or a number of people and those dogs
no doubt are gnashing their teeth.

They are fixed indeed on those that they are pursuing, they are chasing
and as I thought on that indeed this morning church, we are in
incredible times. The scripture does say in Ephesians 5 16, the days are
evil. The days were evil in the times of the apostle Paul and the days
are incredibly evil now and will become more evil and as it were you
could say that there are those indeed that are openly hostile towards us
now, towards the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, like the picture of
the policeman with the dog on the leash but it's my belief indeed today
that we are coming as it were to a time in history where those dogs will
be released from the leases.

That's a bit of a mouthful. I do believe that that's something even more
potent and more powerful from hell, the hounds of hell as it were in
whatever form, I don't know, but I believe that that is going to come, a
pursuit because of hatred. You know the days are evil as Paul said, that
word evil can mean bringing toils, annoyances, perils, hardships.

I think of the days of evil in Acts chapter 12. I think of how the
scripture says about that time heard the king laid violent hands on some
who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the
sword and seeing this pleased the Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter
also.

So you could say a political power of the day persecuted the pilgrims
and death and imprisonment was the fate of some and friends I don't know
what will befall the church in our land in the west but the days are
evil and some might say well Scott such things would never happen here
in our democratic society. Such things would never happen in our land
because we have been known for tolerance, we have been known for
liberty, we have been known for freedom. Our country has been built on
such noble things but look at what is happening today.

These things are becoming corroded in our land, corroded in the good old
US of A and in the United Kingdom. Such things as tolerance and liberty
and freedom, such things are being taken away stripped away but Scott
you know the argument might be but you know it again will it will never
happen here where we will completely lose our freedoms. The thought
comes to mind you think of the Jews in the early 1930s in Germany.

You think of the great population perhaps I think there were half a
million Jews in Germany and those Jews had assimilated and integrated
into German life and into the nation and I'm sure though it was a time
of great harmony and Jews flourished and they had businesses, they had
shops and they were educators and all sorts of things and life was good
and I'm sure friend I'm sure that none of those Jews who reveled in the
light and peace time and pleasure ever dreamed that a great darkness
would come upon Germany, that a great darkness would rise and would
interfere and bring decimation and bring destruction indeed even to
their lives. I saw a picture of a shop that belonged to a Jew in Austria
I believe and over the windows and the door of the shop we had those
anti-semitic slogans and graffiti you know and I'm sure it wasn't long
before things changed from graffiti over the shop then to pulling the
people out of the shop and dragging them to their deaths, violence then
manifest. You know friends, feral you could say, the heart of feral, the
heart of Herod the Great is in the hearts of men today.

The heart of feral, the heart of Herod the Great is in many political
leaders today because there are those indeed who seek to pursue the
church and kill it, to kill our faith, to kill what we believe in, to
stop us but whatever, let me say this, but whatever casualties may lie
ahead for the church in coming days or months or years if the Lord
carries this is what we know that the gates of hell shall not prevail
against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what I said today in
coming that is the word I believe today a now word in coming you know
for some of you you might be familiar with that word in coming it's an
army word as you know I'm a former soldier and if you were on the
battlefield and you heard someone shout in coming then you know what
that means it means a warning that something is coming towards you
primarily enemy artillery fire is coming from the heavens and dear
friends today in coming in coming the word of God says in coming the
word of God is is full of warnings indeed that something is coming as it
were from the heavens from the principalities something that has been
born and manipulated in hell itself you see when we say in coming uh if
I would have heard that as a as a soldier um your response to that uh
word being bellowed out um was to hit the dust you would hit the ground
you would get your head down and keep your head down that's what you
would do and dear brethren I believe there is a time to come when we
will barricade ourselves in a room and coming in fact we have done that
not so long ago barricaded ourselves in a room because of incoming
because of what is coming from hell we shall be the clandestine church
and that word clandestine can mean conducted with secrecy and we have
been the clandestine church we have conducted worship indeed in secrecy
you see clandestine and when we look at that word it speaks about
especially describing something that is not officially allowed and the
reason why we will again become the clandestine church because our
worship will not be officially allowed by the government our governments
our powers to be and so therefore we will have to withdraw and barricade
ourselves in a room so to speak like the disciples who did that you see
I believe wholeheartedly that the pharaohs of political power they seek
now and will seek more so so to speak to remove the firing pin you know
when we think about the firing pin of a weapon of a of a rifle without a
firing pin the gun does not go boom it doesn't go boom when the pin is
removed and dear friends today the bible is the church's boom there's no
doubt about that the gospel it's the heart of the church indeed his
gospel his message and government and laws now indeed and laws that will
be are are being proposed and shall come to pass seek to remove indeed
the firing pin the scriptures the teaching of the scriptures from the
heart of the church on godly powers will seek to censor our voices even
more so muzzle the church you know for some of you this morning in your
bibles and perhaps you in fact you know I know this is a word from the
lord this morning because for some of you in your bibles you highlight
scriptures or chapters with with a yellow marker or an orange marker as
I was saying that I looked at my brother's bible and it's full of
highlights just at the front here praise the lord and keith has
highlighted certain scriptures there in yellow and orange and um he's
covered the scripture but he can still see the scripture he can still
see what's written underneath but dear friends it would be a different
thing if keith was to take a a black permanent sharpie um to the words
in his bible um mark the chapters the scriptures is he going to be able
to see what's underneath no we know that it's going the scriptures the
word of god is going to become invisible to the eye and that's what
antichrist seeks and desires the spirit of antichrist seeks to take as
it were the black sharpie to the scriptures and even more so in the days
to come to take god's holy and infallible word and remove and seek to
erase books and chapters of the word of god because it doesn't align
itself with the with the antichrist narrative it doesn't align itself
with the wokeism and the lesbianism that's true and so much more which
is contrary to god's holy and infallible word and there are those that
will that won't mind it there are those that won't mind having the
firing pin removed there are those indeed in the days to come that won't
mind having their bibles marked out and erased just like pastor woo in
china who said this we have to remember first of all we are a citizen of
this country speaking of china and we are a citizen of the kingdom of
god that comes second that was the quote of pastor woo who is a puppet
priest and who has been raised indeed by state by state by the chinese
government and pastor woo falls in line and pastor woo will do what the
state says not what the lord says and i have said this to you before
friends and what we see in the east indeed we shall see in the west i
think of what paul says to the church of galatia we all know what
happened we all know that they came to faith saving faith through grace
we all know that the the jews the teachers of the law the judasers got
into that church and turned them turned so many away from the the gospel
of grace and galatians 3-1 as paul said oh foolish galatians who has
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth who has bewitched you
and dear friends when we look at that word bewitched from the dictionary
it means to put a magic spell on someone or something in order to
control him her or it and i tell you friends today there are many
witches today and they are not in black cloaks with pointy hats they are
dressed in suits with shirts and ties and they have the american flag a
wee badge on their lapels or they have the union jack behind them as
they give speeches they are the witches they are the ones that are
bewitching so many in the church today with their rhetoric and with
their speeches there are witches indeed with colors on and skinny jeans
all sorts of garb but i tell you friends we need to watch the witches
you know that stand in front of the american flag and stand in front of
the union jack or the tricolor because they're casting spells and they
shall cast spell after spell you know doesn't cast one spell do they
they are known for casting spells plural and as i said to bewitch means
to put a magic spell on someone or something in order to control him
anti-christ seeks to control god's people anti-christ seeks to control
the church and to control the mouth of the church and what the church is
saying and i tell your friends when i think about witches and i think
about the witches in power today that seek that are openly hostile
towards the church the one that they have it's not in their hands the
one that they have is in their mouths it's the tongue it's the tongue
that persuades it was the tongue of the judicers that caused the people
to turn to turn from the gospel that paul had preached and it's the
tongue today the tongues of government the tongues of false prophets
indeed that are turning hearts and there are many strategies indeed that
will be in play that are in play many deceptive strategies i i watched a
cowboy a cowboy rupa um rupa kai and um and that cowboy uh i i think
there's three ways perhaps there are two or three ways in which you can
whoop the cow and we look at the we we think of the noose and it either
goes to the feet to cause it to stumble or it goes around the head
around the neck the chook you could almost say to pull the thing one way
and that that the strategies are from the witches of hell is to do that
to cause the people of god to stumble to cause the people of god to be
pulled in a different direction um the hounds of hell are released or
shall be released and and here's here's the truth today dear friends
brethren we we as the as the redeemed of the lord we as the remnant
indeed of god this is what we are to do according to paul stand firm in
the lord that's what we are to do with all of these things happening and
all that shall come to pass the charge to us is stand firm in the lord
stand firm in the word of god stand firm in the tenants of the faith
stand firm in the gospel of the lord jesus christ stand firm indeed in
the gospel of the apostle paul stand firm in the word of the living god
the world the world has changed yes since the days of the reformation
but let me say this god's word has not changed since the days of the
reformation the world has changed and the world would seek that that the
scriptures align itself with its doctrine but dear friends we cannot
compromise we cannot um align ourselves with the world for the world is
at enmity with god we must stand together unified in the ranks of
christ's army we must remain fixed on him in these evil days hallelujah
the lord is at the door i think of paul writing to the the church the
thessalonians we read on one thessalonians chapter four uh we read the
great prophetic scripture of the lord coming and paul finishes that
chapter with one thessalonians 418 therefore comfort one another with
these words comfort it can also mean strengthen and dear friends
brethren today um hell might be loosening the hounds there may be great
antagonism and hostility now and even more so ramped up in the days to
come but i tell your friends we strengthen ourselves in the word of god
that the lord is coming that's what we stand upon we stand firm in the
promise that the lord is coming regardless of these things regardless of
what is happening what will happen what will snowball the lord is coming
we strengthen our hearts with christ's words i will come again and
receive you unto myself we strengthen our hearts with christ's words
behold i am making all things new we resound the scripture in your hand
our power and might there is no one who can stand against you may god
help us may god help and open the eyes of so many you know just in
closing um the other day i was at the petrol station and um i wasn't
getting fuel i was going into um inside just to get something else i
can't remember and um i i heard this voice from the from behind me hello
could you help me and i turned around and there was this woman at um at
her car and she was trying to get the pedal cap off and she couldn't and
she had her son with her and he was i would say he was 13 14 perhaps and
so i went over to to lend a hand and uh i put my hand on the petrol cap
and turned it slightly to the left and came off it moved in my hand and
came out the petrol cap and she stood there looking at me as did the boy
both you know flabbergasted and embarrassed because they were standing
there for so long doing the wrong thing and trying to go the wrong way
and didn't matter how long they they stood there um they were doing the
wrong thing and nothing was going to happen and it took me as a word to
go over and save the day it took me to go over and to show her the right
way um brethren this morning i i do believe that that is something that
um that we can say it's very applicable to our day and shall be in the
days to come but there are so many that are going to the wrong way and
shall go the wrong way and shall be bewitched and shall turn from the
word of the lord and shall turn on to fables and shall shall turn on to
a clever rhetoric and deception and stratagems of hell but i give god
thanks there shall be those that shall stand firm on the lord and shall
continue to bellow out the truth i give god thanks that god shall have
his watchman on the walls to be able to to cry aloud and the hope would
be that some would realize that they've been going the wrong way or
doing the wrong thing and that they would turn back on to the lord again
and turn back on to the truth again and turn back on to what the
scriptures wholly say again we believe wholeheartedly that everything
within the bible here today is god breathed for all scriptures given by
the inspiration of god all scripture from genesis to revelation from the
beginning to the end it is god's word it is the infallible and errant a
word of god and we thank the lord indeed for his word which has set us
free hallelujah the incorruptible seed that is eternal has set us free
and we look to his word in these days in the days to come and i cannot
reinforce that to you enough i cannot we look to god and we look to
god's word but we watch and pray and we be vigilant and we look to god
amen to god be the glory heavenly father lord as you very well know lord
uh it was my desire to wake up this morning even um lord i wasn't able
to as you know to be able to come before you yesterday uh lord or before
that to to to receive from you and even this morning lord i sat and lord
there was nothing that was germinating my heart but lord i thank you
that that this came forth this message came forth and lord i believe
with all of my heart lord that you have inspired me that lord that this
is your word to us this morning to the church and lord we thank you for
it and we thank you lord for in times gone by in which lord you have
given us heads up where you have said incoming and so lord we just pray
lord that our hearts would even become more entrenched in the word of
god that lord that we would bunker down into the word of god in prayer
because lord again we know that the days are evil and the days are
getting even more evil and vile we know lord god that even now that
there are caesars and pharaohs and heard the greats lord in power in the
world today on thrones making decisions well lord we know that you have
all power that you reign supreme that you are sovereign over all and
lord we know just as you have kept lord the church through persecution a
tribulation lord down through the years lord so you shall keep your
church in persecution today tomorrow tribulation that is to come and so
lord we we thank you that we can say that you are the captain indeed of
this great salvation that we have that you are our leash our commander
in chief and you indeed we trust lord i as i say that lord i think of
that those words and god whom we trust i think lord of that great lord
country of the united states of america i think lord in which that lord
that those words on on the banknotes i think lord god of the pilgrim
fathers i think of the early fathers i think of how they look to you
lord look to god and look to the bible but lord we have seen in that
nation and even in our own land lord a pulling away it's not in god whom
we trust but in man and whom we trust so many look to man than the lord
so many trust a man today not in the god of heaven so many want to see
lord today and god whom we trust erased erased out of the the fabric god
of society a raise lord that which was woven into god lord into that
nation and even into our nation lord so many want to see lord the name
of christ not mentioned the name of the lord jesus removed from every
institution from every place the lord this is what we know even as our
brother said this morning that there is one that is coming not in
swaddling clothes but there is one that is coming on a white horse the
word of god there is one that is coming and even the great men of the
earth shall hide and tremble from the wrath of the almighty from the
face of the almighty god and so lord we we we thank you hallelujah that
you are coming to conquer and subdue the god indeed be the glory in
jesus mighty name amen amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/_njBzvMtfWg.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/scott-hynds/the-clandestine-church/
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