Wretched Radio: Freemasonry Exposed, Preaching Examined, Genesis Rejected

Summary

Podcast Summary: Wretched Radio with Todd Friel – "Freemasonry Exposed, Preaching Examined, Genesis Rejected"

Date: May 21, 2026
Host: Todd Friel (with Jamie, Jimmy Hicks, Dr. Jason Lyle)
Producer: Fortis Institute

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Episode Overview

This episode of Wretched Radio centers on three primary themes: the value of expository Bible preaching, exposing the unbiblical practices of Freemasonry, and a preview of an upcoming apologetics podcast on Genesis and biblical creation by Dr. Jason Lyle. Todd Friel and co-hosts cover the significance of preaching, highlight the dangers hidden in cultural groups like Freemasonry, and discuss how rejecting the literal Genesis narrative impacts Christian worldview and contemporary cultural issues.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance of Loving and Valuing Preaching

• Many churchgoers are passive about preaching, treating it as a weekly tradition with little thought for its spiritual value. Todd urges listeners to approach sermons expecting to find treasures meant personally for them.
• The emphasis is on expository preaching—teaching Scripture line by line, verse by verse—from which believers can understand not just information, but the very "mind of God."
  (Timestamp: 00:30–05:45)
• Todd draws a distinction between teaching and preaching:
  • Teaching: Conveys information.
  • Preaching: Carries spiritual power (“fire,” “oomph”), aiming to move hearts and spark transformation.
• He shares a list of 10 common reasons to value exposition (from a referenced article), explaining why deeper reasons must underpin a true love for biblical preaching.

Notable Quote

"You and I should love preaching. We should go to church expecting to hear great things from God."
— Todd Friel (00:35)

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2. Ten Benefits of Expository Preaching (and Why Three Even Larger Purposes Matter)

Todd discusses a list of ten benefits of expository preaching, then argues for three even higher priorities.

Ten Reasons (Summarized)

1. Every word is important: Diving into grammar and context matters but shouldn't become an end in itself.
   (06:00–08:20)
2. Exposes church to unfamiliar passages: Forces engagement with the full spectrum of Scripture.
3. Emphasizes what God emphasizes: Avoids cherry-picking comfortable topics or pet doctrines.
   (08:30–10:00)
4. Avoids pet hobby horses: Prevents overemphasis on a preacher's favorite themes.
5. Exposes church to God’s whole counsel: The full breadth of biblical truth is addressed.
   (15:44–17:30)
6. Exposes to hard passages: Tackles challenging or controversial texts.
7. Frees from cultural hijacking: Keeps sermons from being co-opted by holidays or social trends (see the humorous tale of a pastor using a labor pain machine on Mother's Day).
   (17:35–19:00)
8. Trusts God to feed His people: God, not man, guides what's taught week to week.
9. Relieves pastor of creative pressure: No need for endless novelty—Scripture provides the message.
   (20:00–21:00)
10. Matches biblical model: Nehemiah 8—reading the word and giving its sense.

The Missing Big Three Purposes

Todd holds that if expository preaching doesn’t:

• Exalt Christ
• Apply the text to listeners’ lives
• Warm the affections (emotions and love for Christ) then it’s incomplete.

"If the exposition of a passage doesn't have application; if it doesn't change your affection; and if it doesn't have exaltation of Jesus Christ, then I think, dear pastor, you gotta go back to the expositional drawing board."
— Todd Friel (25:00)

Jimmy and Jamie attempt to guess these three pillars, leading to a discussion about how preaching should focus believers' hearts on Christ, drive transformation, and stir emotional devotion, not just transmit facts.

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3. Freemasonry Exposed (The First "M")

(Timestamp: 29:28–35:40)

• Todd critiques Freemasonry, presenting it as a group shrouded in secrecy, pagan rituals, and oaths wildly contrary to biblical teaching.
• He reviews a leaked ceremony video:
  • Describes it as LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) with “hideous oaths,” including threats of gruesome punishments if secrets are divulged.
  • Reads through several Masonic oaths, highlighting their violence and pagan roots.

Notable Quote

"This has nothing to do with Christianity. Nothing. Let alone the secrecy, let alone the mangling of scripture when they do choose to use it—it is paganism."
— Todd Friel (34:52)

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4. Muslim Youth in Vienna (The Second "M")

(Timestamp: 35:41–37:45)

• Vienna’s demographic is swiftly shifting, with 41% of Muslim youth favoring Sharia law over national law and nearly half expressing willingness to fight for their faith.
• Todd points out the naïveté of European policymakers: the surprise over these sentiments is misplaced, given historical Islamic theology and expectations.
• Notes how compulsory public education is now equally influenced by shifting religious demographics.

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5. Political Satire & Shifting Moral Norms in Minnesota (The Third "M")

(Timestamp: 37:45–40:37)

• Todd highlights the moral and demographic upheaval in Minnesota and beyond, with examples of political and cultural absurdities (e.g., a lawmaker telling a peer to “shoot himself” after a gun control vote; a white Democrat “uncomfortable” visiting a heavily white area).
• Satirically compares current events to the Babylon Bee’s headlines, suggesting reality is outpacing satire.

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6. Preview: Dr. Jason Lyle’s “In the Beginning” Podcast

(Timestamp: 44:06–54:39)

• Dr. Jason Lyle offers an extended teaser for his new podcast, which challenges the cultural rejection of Genesis and affirms creation's essential role in worldview formation.
• Lyle asserts that many current moral and social issues (marriage, human value, sexuality, clothing, law, etc.) are ultimately rooted in one’s view of Genesis:
  • If Genesis is myth or simply allegory, then Christian moral teachings lose their foundation.
  • The rise of evolutionary thinking has eroded confidence in Scripture and led to the normalization of behaviors at odds with the Christian worldview.
• Lyle defends the biblical “kinds” in creation and contrasts the consequences of a creation-based worldview with those of evolution, emphasizing God as the ultimate lawgiver.
• Podcast Launch: June 3; will release weekly.

Notable Quote

"What you believe about origins will have consequences for your other beliefs. If creation is true, there are certain principles you would expect to also be true… These are creation principles. They would not make sense if we are simply the result of evolution."
— Dr. Jason Lyle (46:12–48:35)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Preaching:
  "Preaching will become better, even if the pastor doesn't, if you and I go to church looking for a treasure every single Sunday." — Todd Friel (04:21)
• On Masonry Oaths:
  "If you disclose what goes on inside of the Mason ceremonies or Mason teaching, this is the oath… I bind myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots..." — Todd Friel (31:30)
• On Worldview Drift:
  "Once you give up God’s word in favor of man’s opinion, there’s nothing to prevent an unlimited spiral into wickedness, because man’s opinion changes. And generally not for the better." — Dr. Jason Lyle (48:10)

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Key Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |---------------------------------------------|---------------| | Why Preaching Matters | 00:30–05:45 | | 10 Benefits of Expository Preaching | 06:00–25:00 | | Freemasonry Exposed | 29:28–35:40 | | Muslim Youth, Sharia in Vienna | 35:41–37:45 | | Minnesota Moral Satire | 37:45–40:37 | | Genesis, Culture & Dr. Jason Lyle Teaser | 44:06–54:39 |

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Tone & Style Notes

• The tone is direct, occasionally satirical, often laced with dry humor and cultural critique.
• Todd Friel employs lively analogies, especially during critiques (e.g., Mother's Day labor simulation), and uses memorable metaphors ("losing the forest for the pine straw").
• Dr. Jason Lyle speaks in a calm, accessible manner, translating complex apologetics into layman's terms.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Approach church preaching as God’s personalized gift, not a weekly obligation.
• True expository preaching should always exalt Christ, apply to the listener, and kindle spiritual affection—not just inform.
• Cultural phenomena like Freemasonry and societal moral drift are incompatible with biblical Christianity.
• Losing confidence in the literal Genesis narrative undermines the entire Christian worldview.
• A new apologetic resource is imminent (Dr. Jason Lyle’s “In the Beginning”) for believers wanting to firm up creation-based faith.

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For more episodes or to support content like this, visit fortisinstitute.org

Transcript

[Todd Friel]

Wretched radio begins in 3, 2, 1.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Your first mission is to keep yourself happy. It's living for self that is so exhausting and frustrating because you were made to live for him. So when you begin to please him, you begin to thrive. It's not a burden, it's not a duty, it's a joy. I come alive. This is what I was made for.

[Todd Friel]

It's time for Wretched Radio with Tod Friel.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Why do you love, love preaching? You. You. You do love preaching, don't you? This is Wretched Radio. It is my suspicion that for the majority of people. I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about majority of people. Most people don't have an attitude toward preaching at all. They don't love it. They don't hate it. They probably just don't think about it. They go to church. If it's a good one, then it was a good Sunday. If it wasn't, well, then they did their part. They went to church as they are commanded to do. But the preaching was a little off this week, or it wasn't very good. But very little consideration is put into one's attitude toward preaching. You and I should love preaching. We should go to church expecting to hear great things from God. You say, but my preacher ain't so good. Not a really spectacular orator. Doesn't matter. Matter. If that man has labored over the word, if that man has dedicated himself to determine this is what God would say to his people this Sunday, then you are hearing an excellent sermon. Why? Because it was prepared. Just pour vous. That's Italian, if you didn't know. This preacher, who prepares a sermon with the flock in mind is bringing a present for you every single Sunday. Do you open it with expectation? Do you receive it? And look for the things that apply just to you because you know that God is alive and active in the proclamation of His Word. Most people, I don't think, think about preaching in those terms. Or they judge it based on how good it was that week or how clear it was or the illustrations. But they don't have a general attitude toward preaching. I would suggest to you preaching will become better even if the pastor doesn't. If you and I go to church looking for a treasure every single Sunday, there's another reason that we should love the preaching of God's Word. It's because we actually get to know the mind of God. We actually get to understand what it is that he thinks, how he operates and acts in the world. That should be plenty exciting to us. Now, having said all of that, there are some of us who love preaching based on how I'm thinking of the word detailed, thinking of the word meticulous in depth it is. In other words, if it gets really technical, if it dives in really deep to the Greek, if it really gives us some insight that we've never heard before because there was so much research that was done because the Septuagint used a word that in Roman society was sometimes used to communicate this. Oh, our hearts soar at that type of detail. And there's nothing wrong with that type of detail per se. But that isn't really what should cause us to love preaching. I would like to suggest to you that there are no doubt more three reasons you and I should love preaching. Specifically, we should love expositional preaching, line by line, verse by verse. Reading an article titled 10 Reasons why I Love Verse by verse Exposition. And I agree with all 10 of these points. All 10 of yes, amen. Rock on. But that's not why I think we should love expository preaching. The three reasons I believe we should love line by line, verse by verse. Now, the fellow who wrote it, maybe he thinks that, yes, those things are important too, but he didn't articulate them. I think that they should actually be at the top of the list. Because if preaching doesn't contain these three elements, I don't know that it's actually good preaching at all. It might be really interesting teaching. But remember the distinction between teaching and preaching. Teaching communicates information. Preaching has. That's the Greek word. No, that's the. If it were the Hebrew word, it would be is what it would be. It's got to have a little oomph. It's got to have a little fire to it. And it has to contain elements, three elements that teaching doesn't necessarily have to have. Let me share with you this list of 10 reasons why expositional preaching is a very good thing. But I don't think these are the main things. Number one, it highlights that every word is important. That's true. It is. Currently reading. Oh, man, Scylla. I knew this day was coming in. First, Peter three. Oh, Peter throws in probably four lines that scholars debate about. I mean, debate about. Really get into the weeds over just Greek grammar to try to determine what exactly was Peter saying when he said that he died in the flesh and rose in the spirit? You say, well, he died, his body died, but the Holy Spirit raised him. Well, that's one understanding. There's others, he died, but his spirit, small s Was alive. Oh. How do you know the difference? Well, you kind of have to dive into the language to try to sort it and understand how you understand all of the other verses that appear to be a little bit complex. In First Peter, chapter three, for instance, it says, baptism now saves. Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. What happened? Where? Grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone. Not ceremony, exactly. But how do we get to that conclusion? You gotta dive in really meticulously into that. That Noah preaching and God being patient and passing through the water corresponding to that baptism. What's happening? He went and preached to those spirits in prison. All right, who are the spirits and where's the prison? And you can dive into that. You have to dive into that to sort it out. And you realize every word is important. That's my point. Every word, every single prepositional phrase is crucial because it helps to determine the meaning, for instance, of the noun. What type of genitive is it? Or dative or accusative or ablative for that matter. What is the syntax telling us? Every word is important. And I love that about expositional preaching. Unless, of course, it's expositional preaching that dives in deep to every word all the time, no matter what, because we've got to ring every word for its meaning. And when that happens, for me, personally, I don't actually think that's good preaching. It's teaching, but it's not good preaching because it loses even the flow of the sentence. Forget the paragraph, forget the book, forget the Bible. It just loses the flow of the argument that's being made. What is the author trying to communicate in this? So when we dive into every single word, every jot and tittle needs to be exposited. Was the author really intending. Now I understand we have a language barrier. We need to sort that. I get that. But I also get that we can get so into the minutiae of every single word that we lose the forest for the pine straw. That's what we lose it for. Which is, by the way, if you're from the north, you have. Unless you watch the Masters golf tournament. Pine straw was a mystery. I used to watch the Masters golf tournament when we lived in Minnesota. Did I say it like that? Minnesota. They would hit out of the pine straw. I never thought anything about it till we moved to the South. Pine straw is everywhere. Where are all these pine trees? Number two reason this person loves expositional preaching. It exposes the church to unfamiliar Bible passages. Fair enough. You have to tackle them. You don't maybe want to. You wouldn't choose those. If you were just doing topical week after week, you have to preach on 1 Peter 3 and Jesus going to the prison and the spirits in the prison. Then Noah with the baptism, with the water being saved by. I'd rather not, but you have to because God dictates the contents. If you're doing it expositionally, number three, it emphasizes what God emphasizes. You're going to run into repeated themes. Even Peter in First Peter, he talks regularly, I mean, a lot about what Jesus did to accomplish our salvation, his suffering. It's so consistently woven throughout the text, almost to the point of repetition, which is a theme of Peter, by the way. He said, I don't mind repeating these things because he knows that we're knuckleheads and we forget. And so they get repeated. I probably wouldn't repeat it that much, but I'm gonna repeat it that much because God repeated it that much. So you have to Expositional preaching. This author is correct. It doesn't allow the preacher to preach on what he wants to, but preach on what God has written. Fourth, it doesn't allow pet doctrines to rule. The pastor can't just keep riding that same old hobby horse. I guess he could try to smash his favorite theology into every single passage. But if you do expositional preaching, it pulls you away from that. It doesn't allow you to do what you want to do, you want to do, you want to do. Instead, you preach on what God wants to communicate. Those are four reasons this individual loves expositional preaching. I love it for these reasons, too. There are six more, but I still think it's missing three. Do you know what they are? Next on Wretched Radio.

[Jamie]

No Retreat. That's the name of Fortis Institute's Spring Match campaign, and here's why. The culture we live in right now has made it pretty clear it has very little interest in the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're being told to keep our faith quiet in public or to soften what we believe so it goes down easier. Fortas Institute has no intention of doing either one. We exist to advance the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this spring we're doing it as loudly and as boldly as we know how. Your gift will help launch two new podcasts. It puts Todd Friel's new book, Go Serve youe King, into print through HarperCollins, and it puts the gospel back onto college campuses where it's least welcome and most needed. Our goal is $250,000, and we're asking if you would prayerfully Consider helping us get there. You can find out more right [e-mail]

[Jimmy Hicks]

donate would you like the university experience without the, you know, university experience? The Master's University Investigation invites you to visit their campus, or you can visit them online at masters. Edu Wretched. To discover a Christian college that is biblical, that offers all of the academic excellence you desire, sports, athletics, arts, communication, all of the activities of, you know, a secular university without the, you know, secular parts. Please consider the Master's university online or of course, on campus learning, undergrad, master's and doctoral programs. It's Master's University, the university with the university experience without the university experience. Masters. Edu Wretched.

[Jamie]

You know those really big questions you get when your kid comes home from college? Do you know the ones about whether God exists, if the Bible can be trusted, why there's evil in the world? Or what's wrong with everyone else's view on sexuality? Yeah, those. Road trip to Truth doesn't dodge them. This resource is hosted by John Ferbarez, and it goes straight to college campuses and talks to students who are asking these very same questions. But it doesn't just stop there. No, no. Then there are the experts that give the real answers with topics like science and faith, pornography, social media and mental health, critical race theory, marriage, eternity. And that's not even the half of it. If you have teenagers, this is the stuff they need to hear before the world gives them its version. And if you don't have teenagers, you'll still learn something. Road Trip to Truth, all four seasons. Available right now on Fortis for free. Download it now. Where you download apps on your smartphone, your smart TV, or just simply go to fortisplus.org.

[Todd Friel]

LEXICON There are many words to help us understand the nature of the Bible. Words like perspicuity, the clarity of scripture. God uses the text of scripture to clearly communicate his character and will. God has not hidden his will for only. Only the enlightened few to find his truth can be clearly understood by anyone who reads his word. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.

[Jimmy Hicks]

I'm sorry, this is Ratchet Radio. Jimmy?

[Dr. Jason Lyle]

Yes?

[Jimmy Hicks]

Would like to give you a little assignment if you'd be so kind. You're gonna have to find. Oh, man. What do they call that thing? Hold on, I'll get it. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm coming up with it. I keep wanting to say computer. AI Keyboard. No, it's a pen. A pen. Find a pen and a. What's that? Other word, paper. Find a pen and paper and write down what you think. I think are the key three elements of expositional preaching.

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Jimmy Hicks]

And then we'll see if our patriarch, Our papers match.

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Jimmy Hicks]

I think that's called cheating, if I'm not mistaken.

[Jamie]

All right.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Write them down. So if you recall from an article which is very good, I have no critique of it other than it has 10 reasons why expositional preaching is awesome. But I think it's missing the big three. Jamie, see if you can figure out what the big three are. If you recall. One, it highlights every word is important. Two, it exposes the church to unfamiliar Bible passages. Three, it emphasizes what God emphasizes. Four, it doesn't allow for pet doctrines to rule. And number five, it exposes the church to the whole council of God. That's a very good thing if it's nothing. Look, a pastor, I don't think he's sinning if he's doing topical preaching all the time. If I were to say that unless a pastor is preaching line by line, verse by verse, through a book, he's not doing it right, well, then a lot of puritans did it wrong. Then Martin Luther did it wrong. And a lot of the reformers were doing it wrong because they didn't go line by line, verse by verse, regularly. They would go all over the place. And I think that that is certainly not a sin. But there is a danger to that in that you get what he picks every week. You want what God picks every week. If you're a fan of the regulative principle of worship that God regulates what goes on on a Sunday morning, then you should love expositional preaching because it is regulated by God. What is going to be preached on this week. God determined what's going to be preached on next week. God decided. First Peter 3, 1 6, where are the verses on women submit to your husbands? Would I have picked those for the life of our church at the moment? No. No, I don't think so. But God did, so we did. And interestingly enough, I discovered that God was right. There's a shocker for you. God was right because I spoke to one of our biblical counselors who said that is a big issue for so many women. It really is needed. And I went, oh, what do you know? I wouldn't have chosen that subject. But God did. Why? Because he knows better. And that's what expositional preaching does. It is regulated preaching determined by God himself. Number six, it exposes the church to hard Bible passages. Yep. Number seven, it doesn't Allow culture to hijack the sermon. Ain't that the joke? What was the one that I just. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm not gonna grab. Okay. Maybe we should try to grab it there. No, no, I'll just. I'll just tell you about it. There was a big, mega church and. And the wife, I guess, standing next to the pastor, husband. They're on the platform. This is Sunday morning Mother's Day. Mother's Day, you know, in the pericope of the church calendar. Well, Mother's Day actually isn't there. It would be things like Ascension Day, those types of actual church type of calendar, holidays, if you will, that we would celebrate week after week after week if you do pericope type preaching. So this guy on Mother's Day has the. There's apparently a big. You connect it to your belly. It's connect. There's a box with some wires, with some pads, and you connect the pads to your belly and then somebody you turn the crank to to try to simulate birth pains. And so this box is hooked up to the pastor's belly. And while he's trying to deliver the announcements, she's turning it up further and further. Hi O. See what he did there? Yeah. What he did there was let a holiday hijack the sermon and turn it into complete hijinks and chicanery. Frankly, why in the world would a pastor need to do that? And the answer is he's letting culture determine what happens at church on Sunday. Ridiculous. Yes. Silly, goofy, dopey, all of it. But it is another sign of a church that is not regulated by God. Instead, in this instance, it's the. Well, I guess it would be the federal government. Is it a. It's an official. Is Mother's Day an official national holiday? I think so.

[Jamie]

Is it?

[Jimmy Hicks]

I don't know. We do it every year. We do do it on everybody's calendar. The church was hijacked by a holiday. Number eight, reason. This fellow loves expositional preaching. It causes you to trust that God gives his people what they need because he's feeding them. The pastor can't know what's going on in everybody's world and heart. God does. And so he feeds them what he knows they need. That is a wonderful blessing of expositional preaching. Takes a lot of pressure off of the pastor. Number nine, it takes away the need for creativity. I remember two, three years ago, maybe something like that. Andy Stanley said, these guys that do expositional preaching, they're cheating. It's so hard to create something out of thin Air every week. He said it's just. Well, he didn't put it like that, but that's actually what he was saying. It's really hard to be creative every week. Yeah, you're right. It is. It's a burden. And you're running out of gas. And that's why he basically repeats five themes every single year. How to have better finances. How to have better relationships. It's the same. How to be a better parent. How to be a better spouse. How to have your emotions under control over and over and over again. Why? Because he has to create it. And no man can be as creative as God. No man can just keep cranking out something new every single Sunday for year after year. So I agree, Andy. It is hard creating stuff out of thin air. That's why you should preach expositionally. You don't have to. And finally, number 10. This is how God delivered the Bible. It's a quote from Nehemiah 8. They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and gave the sense of it so that the people understood the reading. So that's really the endorsement verse for expositional preaching. Those are the ten reasons. All good. I think there are three that are missing. Jimmy, do you have your paper?

[Jamie]

I do.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Give me your number three.

[Jamie]

Number three.

[Jimmy Hicks]

These are the ones that I think should be at the top of the list. Let's see if our papers match it.

[Jamie]

Forces or not forces. But it trains your people how to read the Bible. No.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Well, let's just make that number 11. That is a good point. It does that.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Hicks]

And it's so helpful because you can look at it and you see it and you watch the pastor die. It's like, oh, okay. No, see, you're right, but you're wrong.

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Yep. Go ahead.

[Jamie]

All right. So then it makes certain our focus is kept squarely on Christ.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Warm. Yeah, warm. Okay. Yeah, I think we're pretty. Okay, here's mine. It exalts Christ.

[Jamie]

Yeah, that's what I meant.

[Jimmy Hicks]

It should exalt Christ.

[Jamie]

Absolutely.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Because if all it does is do all of the Ginsu knifing that expository preaching can do, but Jesus Christ is not put in the spotlight. Well, you failed. You failed. We're Christians. If you can preach a sermon as meticulous as it is in the details in the exposition, but a Jewish rabbi would hear it and go, amen to that, I think that sounds very good. I don't know if all Jewish rabbis talk like that, but they would. They should be offended by it, because Christ is Exalted. And it's such an easy step to miss. And by the way, the three that are on my list, these are the three that we're going to be focusing on next year. We've got a big focus coming on that. What?

[Jamie]

I thought you were moving on. I was going to say you didn't let me finish my list.

[Jimmy Hicks]

All right, well, keep going. Number two.

[Jamie]

Well, yeah, so I only have one more because you said one of mine was wrong. So it produces text based application.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Yes, application.

[Jamie]

Not just information, but transformation.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Amen to that, brother.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Okay, so you pass.

[Jamie]

Okay, good.

[Jimmy Hicks]

You're not getting a gold star.

[Jamie]

Silver's fine.

[Jimmy Hicks]

Well, you should get a gold star because this is the 21st century. Everybody gets them going. It better have application because you can do all of these aforementioned things. But if it doesn't apply to an individual, then I don't think that it is successful expositional preaching. And then the third one on my list is, it should warm the affections. It should make you love Jesus more. It should help you to trust your God more. It should help to abate your fears. It should minimize your worry because there is a panoply of emotions. It's not just love, it's all of your affections. It's all of your emotions. They should be affected by expository preaching. And if the exposition of a passage doesn't have application, if it doesn't change your affection, and if it doesn't have exaltation of Jesus Christ, then I think, dear Pastor, you gotta go back to the existence expositional drawing board. This is Wretched Radio

[Jamie]

and it's now time for your daily Fortis news break, the production of Fortis Institute. We'll start in California today where a Marina Del Rey woman named Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of paying people to register to vote. For roughly 20 years, Armstrong worked as a paid petitioner circulator and prosecutors say she handed cash to homeless people to sign official ballot petitions. We're constantly told this kind of thing never happens. Turns out it does. The only real difference is that she got caught on camera. In this case in Colorado, the state Supreme Court has just ordered Children's Hospital Colorado to resume so called gender transitions for minors. The hospital stopped doing those procedures back in January after federal health officials concluded the treatment was were neither safe nor effective. But in a 52 ruling, the court sided with four families calling it discriminatory to withhold cross sex hormones from kids who want them so to a hospital that finally decided to follow the science. Now they're being ordered by judges to ignore it. And speaking of children, Cosmopolitan magazine is now coaching readers on how to get around abortion pill bans by skipping the first drug and using only the second second. The problem with that is that it can result in a live premature birth. Which means Cosmo's clever little workaround ends with a woman watching a living baby gasp for air. It's hard not to identify the side of evil here, folks. You just need eyes to see. And the pattern continues in North Carolina Harnett county specifically, where two married men, Joshua Gilliam and Ronald lynch, adopted five boys. Now they've been charged with child sexual exploitation and rape. Investigators have identified at least two victims, and police were reportedly tipped off a full year before the arrests. We hear I would say endlessly that this arrangement is equal to or even better than a mom and a dad, but the evidence just continues to suggest otherwise. On the media front, the Southern Poverty Law center, long treated as America's official referee on hate groups, is now facing an 11 count federal indictment for wire fraud and money laundering. Among the allegations, the group quietly funneled money to the very extremists it's claimed to be tracking. And the response from Big Tech, the Google, Yahoo, and MSN News app completely ignored it while Wikipedia buried the story 65 paragraphs deep. Finally, in San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi has endorsed City Supervisor Connie Chan to fill her coffee congressional seat, snubbing the frontrunner, openly gay State Senator Scott Werner. Werner authored California's transgender sanctuary laws and once pushed to soften sentences for people who knowingly exposed others to hiv. Even by San Francisco standards, that's a resume that wraps up today's Fortis News break. I'm Jimmy Hicks. If you want more, you can download Fortis or sign up to become a Fortis Insider for exclusive daily content, both of which can be done at Fortis Insider. And don't forget, you can subscribe to Fortis News on your favorite podcast app in order to get these updates daily. And until tomorrow, go serve your king.

[Todd Friel]

Important Dates in Christian history 1456 Johann Gutenberg produces the first printed Bible and his press becomes a means for dissemination of new ideas and catalyzing changes in politics and theology. Without the printing press, the Reformation may have looked very different. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.

[Jimmy Hicks]

No, no, I'm not proud of this. This is Wretched Radio. Here we go anyway. M and M and M. That's right. That's what I came up with for the title of this Segment M and M and M. Let's start with the Masons, shall we? Saw a little snippet, a little video. I think we're going to do a short. Maybe we did. No, we did it already. Maybe it's. I don't know. We saw a short of a Masonic ceremony. They don't allow that. This is why they don't have windows on their buildings. If you ever go by a Freemason building, you'll notice, hey, it looks kind of creepy. Cults like to do that, by the way. They don't like you to see what's going on in the inside. Take a look at a Mormon tabernacle. Take a look at a Mormon church. Take a look at a Jehovah's Witness building. Notice they don't like people looking inside. And the same thing is true with the Freemasons. But somebody must have brought in a camera. And when they were doing. I think that there are tiers of masonry. You come in as like the lowest level. Duh, Todd. And then you make your way up. Well, somebody filmed the higher up ceremony of this individual moving to become like the top of the list of Freemasonry. I don't keep track of their names because I've never been a fan of masonry because of the hideous oaths, the blood curdling oaths. And what we saw from this video was larping. Larping. Have you ever been to a university campus or a Renaissance festival? You know what I'm talking about. Because at a Renaissance festival everybody dresses up like a knight or a damsel and then they run around in their clothing pretending to be somebody that they're not. Same thing is true on university campuses. On the village green, you go check it out. Any campus on whatever particular day, it'll be a lovely spring or fall day and people are dressed up and they're got their. They're jousting, they've got their swords and they're doing live action role playing. That's what was going on inside of this Freemason ceremony. And this sound is kind of crummy, but it was basically a guy presenting himself and somebody blocking his way. Who art thou? I am Jubilar of the Essenes. Jubilar. I am Vulcan of the Schenectades. Thou shalt not pass. I will pass. Thou shall not. Tell me the code or I will kill thee. I'm not kidding. Tell me the code or I will kill thee. I shall not tell thee the code. And then he takes this thing and he hits him in the Head and the guy falls backward into a tarp that a bunch of other guys are holding so that they can wrap him up and bury him. Now we know what goes on behind closed doors. Larping and the hideous oaths. Don't know if you're familiar with the vows that they make you take in masonry. I printed up a few for your consideration. If you disclose what goes on inside of the mason ceremonies or mason teaching, this is the oath that you have to take. I bind myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across. That seems a little extreme. My tongue torn out by the roots. How else can you have your tongue torn out, I ask. And my body buried in the rough sands of the sea. That's a hideous oath right there. Is that necessary? No. Is that something that the Bible permits? No, it doesn't. To have my left breast torn open, my heart and vitals taken from thence and thrown over my left shoulder. You got to get that right. Because if you throw your emboweled heart, your ripped out heart over your right shoulder, that's seven years of bad luck. And you don't want that. It's bad enough that you got the masons upset with you and they've torn your heart out. Wait a second. To have my left breast torn open, my heart taken out and throw. Okay, so you don't have to throw your own vitals over your shoulder. Somebody throws them for you. Boy, I hope they don't get confused. Because if they're right handed and they're throwing and they're thinking it's got to go over the left, they might think it would be like the crisscross and then it would be going over the right and. Oh wow. That ever be the repercussions from throwing your heart and victuals over the wrong shoulder. You don't want to be playing. To have my body severed in two, my bowels taken thence and burned to ashes. To have my skull smote off and my brains exposed to the scorching rays of the meridian sun. This does raise some questions. What if I'm not living near the meridian? And what if it's a cloudy day? What are you going to do now, my mason friend? That all the veins and arteries in my body shall be severed and my blood shed upon the sands. They got a thing about beaches here in masonry. To have my head struck off and placed upon the highest pinnacle in Christendom. And we all know where that is, don't we? Actually, I just saw, I think it was Christian post. Somebody was Announcing that they're building the tallest church ever. And I thought, well, somebody has to. And finally, if I betray my Masonic oath, may I be branded as an unworthy traitor, my carcass mutilated and cast out without burial. That's Masonry. I know. I know that there are some denominations that aren't willing to denounce it. I think they should. This has nothing to do with Christianity. Nothing. Let alone the secrecy, let alone the mangling of scripture. When they do choose to use it, it is paganism. But that's just our first M. Here's our second M. Let's talk about the Muslim youth, specifically in Vienna. They're shocked. I tell you, they are shocked. The city of Vienna, they commissioned a survey to determine what are the young people thinking. Well, here's the results. 41% of Muslim youth in Vienna say Sharia law comes before national law. Isn't that to be expected? My Viennese friends, Did you not understand that when you opened up the gates? Did you not know that Sharia law stands in opposition and it stands superior to any other national law? You didn't know that? So now you have to commission a survey. Why are they shocked? It's staggering that this is happening. Until there is somehow a reformation in Islam that wipes out dozens of Quranic verses and it wipes out the eschatological belief that Islam must reign before the return of the Mahdi, then you are going to have history repeating itself over and over and over again. Does nobody read a book in Europe? A profound demographic shift in Vienna. Muslim children now account for roughly 40% of students in compulsory schools, making them the largest religious group among younger generations. Oh, Vienna, you gonna be changing real soon. And by the way, did that word catch you? Compulsory schools as American, we should actually be opposed to that. If I don't want my child to be educated, it's my child government. You can't compulse me to give my child an education. Nevertheless, I digress. 46% of Muslim youth agreed that one should be willing to fight and die for their faith. Well, that's a little bit of a problem now, isn't it? And our final M would be Minnesota. Oh, Minnesota, the land of 13,000 lakes. I know the license plate says 10,000. It's actually about 13,000. But then again, if it rains and there's a puddle in the parking lot, we put a sign up and call it Lake something. Lake Mall. Lake Mall of America. Actually, there's probably several Lakes Mall of America in the parking lot because, well, it rains a lot, and it's a really big parking lot. Minnesota Democrat tells GOP colleague after a bill failed to take guns away from people that he should bleeping shoot himself. Classy. Very, very classy. It's an inverted world. What we used to think was good is now bad. What is now bad is now considered good. And all of the rights that we once esteemed and cherished, they're just being flipped on top of their heads, courtesy of, well, the progressive side of the political parties. Speaking of, just honestly, when is Babylon be going to go out of business? They can't beat the satire of the world. Seriously. They're funny, but they're not as funny as the world. Did you catch this one? This was an Iowa Democrat. I remember the first time I went back to Northern Minnesota to visit. I was just kind of shocked at how many white people there were. You're shocked at how many white people there were? I know there are a lot of white people in Minnesota. The demographic is changing. Honestly, when I think that there were. Maybe when we moved from Minnesota 20 years ago, there were three, maybe as many as five people that weren't white. I mean, it really. It was very homogenous, very white sort of place. Now, again, that demographic is changing, but that's not the point now, is it? This white Democrat from Iowa was shocked at how many white people there were. That feeling was very different. Quote, I was uncomfortable. Hey, Babylon B, you better make a living quick because I'm telling you, your time is running out. This is. Oh, hey. Something really special. Next. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Really Big surprise. Next. On wretched radio,

[Jamie]

no Retreat. That's the name of Fortis Institute's Spring Match campaign. And we chose that name for a reason. The church has been quietly backing up for years. A doctrine gets a little uncomfortable. A truth sounds a little too exclusive. So we set it aside, and before long, the gospel sounds more like an apology than an announcement. Fortas Institute is determined to push the other direction, to encourage churches to hold fast to hard truth and to proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, rightly and loudly. That's why we're inviting you to join us on the no Retreat Spring Match campaign. Right now, through the end of May, every dollar you give is matched dollar for dollar, and your gift will help launch two new podcasts, publish Todd Frill's new book, Go Serve youe King through HarperCollins, and fund gospel proclamation on college campuses. The gospel doesn't move backward, and neither should we. You can find out more right [e-mail] donate thanks for listening to Wretched Radio today. Here's something that I've noticed, and maybe you have too, but it's really easy for us to treat our faith sometimes like a category, as Sunday is Sunday, work is work, parenting is parenting, and somewhere in there you try to be a Christian. But it doesn't always feel like it's all connected. That's why Dr. Jon Krotz and his podcast Integrated is so incredibly important. Dr. Kratz is a pastor, he's an author, he's a biblical counselor, and he's a Fortis Institute fellow and the host of Integrated. And he is helping people see how Scripture speaks to every part of their life. Not just the spiritual stuff, but the practical, everyday how do I actually live this stuff out stuff? And if what we're doing at Fortis Institute has been a source of encouragement for you, I want to ask you to consider joining us as an ongoing monthly gospel partner. Help us continue producing content just like Integrated that connects the dots. Go to fortisinstitute.org right now and find out how to join us. Wretched Amazing Grace Amazing Gospel Should Christians drink? What about tattoos? Is it okay to send your kids to public school? Or does homeschool make you holier? And don't even get started on worship styles? That's ended more friendships than monopoly. Here's the thing. Christians love to argue about stuff the Bible doesn't actually command or forbid. And when we do, we fracture over things that shouldn't divide us. That's where Christian Liberty comes in. It's a teaching series with Todd Friel, Phil Johnson and Ty Blackburn, all walking you through one of the most neglected and most misused doctrines in all of scripture. And when you actually understand Christian liberty, you stop majoring on minors. You learn to disagree without dividing. You grow in wisdom and maturity and have genuine love for other believers who see things a little bit differently than you do. Christian Liberty it's streaming right now for free on Fortis. Just download the app where you download apps on your smartphone, your smart TV, or just simply go to fortisplus.org.

[Todd Friel]

An apostle is a messenger sent from God. The apostles were granted power and authority to establish the New Testament Church. There are no apostles living today. But just as the early church dedicated themselves to the apostles teachings, so we dedicate ourselves to their teachings which have been recorded in the New Testament. This is Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.

[Jimmy Hicks]

What have we been doing around here? Glad you asked. This is Wretched Radio A big announcement to make. Dr. Jason Lyle, one of our Fortis Institute fellows. Guess what he been done doing? I can hear my 8th grade English teacher getting the ruler out of the drawer right now to wrap my knuckles. Guess what he'd been done doing? He has been recording podcast. It is called in the Beginning. Of course. It's Dr. Jason Lyle, astrophysicist, Fortis Fellow. He is going to be doing a weekly podcast, and I'm telling you, it is outstanding. Here's the bad news. You can't get it quite yet. It'll be out in a week. But I wanted to give you a tease because it is so good. I just love listening to Jason Lyle talk because it's clear he's smart, but he brings it down to a level where it's like, okay, I get what you're talking about here. And because the podcast is titled in the Beginning, where do you start a podcast titled in the Beginning? Well, in the Beginning, here is a little sneak peek preview of Dr. Jason Lyle's new podcast, which you can't get quite yet, titled in the Beginning.

[Dr. Jason Lyle]

And I want you to consider the United States of America now. We have the most churches, we have the most Christian colleges, we have the most Christian publishing, Christian radio and television of any nation. And yet for all of these Christian resources, it seems like we're becoming less Christian every day as a nation. And how is that happening? And is there any connection with Genesis? See, most people would say, well, the problems with our nation is we have things like marriages under attack and there's all kinds of perversion and wickedness is rampant. But what if there's a connection between all of these issues and a rejection of the literal history recorded in the book of Genesis? Because if you think about it, most people who are against doing what the Bible says would try to justify their position by saying, well, the Bible's been disproved by science, particularly in Genesis. That's right. Most people have lost confidence in the Bible as the word of God because they think it's been disproved by science, particularly in Genesis. And so why would you trust anything that is written after that? See, at the heart of the creation versus evolution debate, it really isn't about the science. I mean, those issues are certainly important. They do matter. But the real issue is God's word versus man's word. When there's a conflict between the two, who are you going to trust? And because evolution has been promoted so heavily in our culture, many people have lost confidence in God's word. At least when it comes to origins. And so why would you trust the gospel message that's presented in the very same book? Now, it wasn't always this way. It used to be in this nation, people had confidence in the Bible. Even people who weren't Christians had some degree of confidence in the Bible. And so you could say things like abortion is immoral and homosexual behavior is wrong. And most people would say, well, of course I understand that. But today you say abortion's wrong, homosexual behavior is wrong. And people will say, not according to my rules, because they're not standing on the common ground of God's word. Instead, they're shifted over to the sinking sands of man's opinion. And by the way, once you give up God's word in favor of man's opinion, there's nothing to prevent an unlimited spiral into wickedness because man's opinion changes. And generally not for the better. Evolution was invented in order to explain the origin and diversity of life without appealing to God. Now, I realize a lot of people try to add God to evolution and say, well, that's just the way that God did it, but that defeats the purpose. Charles Darwin, who did not invent evolution, but he certainly popularized a particular version of it, his reasoning behind that was to try and explain away God, to try and account for existence, especially the existence of different life forms, apart from the need for a creator. And one of the reasons that evolution still persists is that it gives atheism a veneer of intellectual credibility. And when I talk about evolution, I mean this idea that all life is descended from a common ancestor over billions of years, that billions of years ago, single celled organisms evolved from non living chemicals, and as they reproduced, mutations in natural selection caused them to diversify into everything else. And so he were related to broccoli in the evolutionary worldview. Now, I don't believe that, but that is what evolutionists believe. In fact, I was speaking to a group of atheists one time and I said, you realize in your worldview you believe you're related to broccoli. And one of them came up to me afterwards and he was not happy that I had said that. And he said, weren't you kind of making fun of us for saying we believe we're related to broccoli? And I said, but isn't that what you believe? And he thought about it and said, well, yes. I said, well, there you go then. I mean, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just reflecting back to you what you profess to believe. If it sounds ridiculous, reconsider your beliefs. Now, I don't believe that we're related to broccoli, but I do believe that organisms change a bit over time, but they remain the same kinds. And so dogs have always been dogs, and cats have always been cats. But you can get lots of different breeds and in some cases, even different species, but they remain the same biblical kind. And I believe that because that is what the Bible teaches about the matter. God created organisms according to their kinds. And remember that God brought two of each kind aboard the ark during the flood of Noah, and that was to preserve life. And so the kind appears to be the reproductive limit of an organism. Now, what you believe about origins will have consequences for your other beliefs. If creation is true, there are certain principles you would expect to also be true. For example, if creation is true, you'd expect to have laws, moral principles that we are required to follow. And that makes sense, because God is the creator. He has the right to make the rules. And we learn this in Genesis. We learned that God is a linguistic being. He spoke the universe into existence, and then he gave some instructions on what Adam and Eve were to do and what they were not to do. And we learn in Genesis that there is a penalty for disobedience. We learn that that penalty is death because sin is high treason against the king of kings, and that is a capital offense. We learn all of this in Genesis. And of course, these principles, these moral principles, eventually apply to all people as Adam and Eve reproduce. And that's because God is sovereign over all of us. He is the Creator, and this is his universe. These are creations, principles. They would not make sense if we are simply the result of evolution. Likewise, marriage. Where do we get this idea that marriage is one man and one woman united by God for life? Well, that goes back to Genesis, doesn't it? It's in Genesis 1 that we learn that God made them male and female. God made the two sexes, and only two in the human species. And then we learn in Genesis 2 that the Bible specifically says, for this reason, the man shall leave his father and mother and join to his w, and they shall be one flesh. So that is why marriage exists, is because God created the family unit, and therefore he gets to define marriage, not the Supreme Court. God defines marriage because it is his invention. And that goes back to Genesis. The origin of clothing goes back to Genesis. Most people, when they're out and about in public, wear clothing, a fact for which I am very grateful. I'm sure you are, too. Well, where does that idea come from? It goes back to Genesis, chapter three. Originally there was no need for clothing, but as a result of sin, God provided skins of clothing to cover our shame. That is a creation principle. And so the origin of clothing is found in Genesis. The value of human life. Why is it that human life has inherent value and dignity? And the answer is because human beings are made in the image of God. And where do we learn that human beings are made in the image of God? Well, it's right there in Genesis, chapter one. It is amazing the Christian principles that are contained in those early chapters in the book of Genesis. Now the Lord Jesus understood this when he was in his earthly ministry. He often quoted from or alluded to Genesis as real history. In fact, In Matthew chapter 19, when the religious leaders were asking Christ about divorce to explain marriage, Jesus went back and quoted Genesis 1 and 2 as the foundation for marriage, the historical foundation for marriage. That would make no sense if Genesis was just a fairy tale. You can't ground a moral principle on fiction. It has to be based on reality. But you see, there's another option today because we're told, well, Genesis, that's not the way it happened. We now know, allegedly scientifically, that millions of years of evolution is the way that life came about. Now if that were true, then why would we have moral laws? Because evolution is all about the strong dominating over the weak and eventually eliminating them. That's how it's supposed to progress. And yet laws are designed to protect the weak from the strong. That's why they exist. And so laws are anti evolutionary by their very nature. See, there is no right and wrong in a chance universe. What one chemical accident does to another is morally irrelevant. And so the idea that there should be moral laws guiding our behavior would make no sense if evolution were true. So it makes sense that as people increasingly embrace an evolutionary idea of origins, that we would see an increasing rejection of Christian morality.

[Jimmy Hicks]

June 3. Dr. Jason Lyle's podcast in the beginning. It will be out June 3rd. You'll want to get it onto your Spotify, Apple, Google machine. You will want to listen to this every. What day does it drop? Jimmy?

[Jamie]

I think that's a Wednesday.

[Jimmy Hicks]

With confidence, we say Wednesday. Probably. Yeah, pretty much certain of that. Maybe Wednesdays in the beginning. Dr. Jason Lyle, it is going to bless you. And until tomorrow, go serve your king.