Myths Christians Are Tempted To Believe (part 4)

Bethlehem Bible Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

All right, so tonight is myths, myths,

00:05

I'm going to say that a few times, myths Christians are tempted to believe number four. And my first myth is apologizing is the same as seeking forgiveness.

00:18

And my objective tonight or one of my objectives tonight is I want us to be like, let's just say

00:25

Ephesians 4 territory this evening. I want to equip you to come alongside other saints and really do the work of ministry.

00:34

We're going to talk about some issues tonight that I think are pretty commonly practiced. I mean, this is one that I hear all the time.

00:43

How is that? How is there a difference between apologizing and seeking someone's forgiveness?

00:49

What's the difference? I see no hands.

00:58

Sorry is a mistake. Okay. Sin is sin.

01:05

Yeah. Well, I mean, that's a good point right there. Let me just develop it a little bit. If you say,

01:10

I'm sorry, that's as if to say, you know what, I wasn't paying attention when I was driving and I hit your car, therefore,

01:17

I'm sorry. That's a far cry from I saw your car and I drove right into it.

01:23

In which case I need to seek your forgiveness because I sinned against you. One is maybe an accident, something you didn't mean to do something, you know, just untoward.

01:34

What's that? Not intentional. But if you sin against someone and then you say,

01:40

I'm sorry, well, let me just put it this way. Imagine that you've sinned against a thrice holy

01:46

God and you say, sorry, what is that?

01:54

Where would that be anywhere in the Bible? Where would you see someone sinning against God and then coming to him and just saying, you know what?

02:03

Sorry. I'm sorry. My bad. We wouldn't see that. Let's open our

02:08

Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 and you know, I'm not here to say that every time you say,

02:16

I'm sorry, you know, you should be taken out to the woodshed and flogged or anything like that. I just think that biblically we need to, well, we need to, first of all, think through a biblical lens.

02:26

We want to, we're not going to be perfect or anything like that, but I think as much as we can, we need to think in light of God forgiving us, we need to be a forgiving people.

02:38

I talked about that this morning, but we also need to people to be a people who ask for forgiveness, not say

02:44

I'm sorry or whatever, but to actually understand, well, let me just develop that a little bit further.

02:52

If you say, I'm sorry, what's the other person's response? They will, let me put it another way.

03:00

Do they need to respond at all? Because you're really not asking for a response.

03:06

I'm sorry. And they might say, okay, or that's all right, or forget about it.

03:12

But if you say, please forgive me, then what are you saying? There has to be a response.

03:20

You're asking for that person to say, okay, you've sinned against me, but I'm willing to put that behind us and I'm willing to forgive you.

03:28

We talked about that this morning, you know, just as far as East is from the West. That's what forgiveness is. I don't want to belabor that point.

03:34

I think we belabored it a little bit this morning at Sunday school, and we'll probably belabor it a little bit next week. And it's good to belabor.

03:42

But that's not my purpose here this evening. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 7, verses 5 to 10.

03:52

Actually, we're going to read through verse 11. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted every turn.

04:03

This is Paul writing. Fighting without fear, or fighting without and fear within.

04:10

But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you.

04:20

As he told us of your longing, he's writing to the church at Corinth. Your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoice still more.

04:29

For even if I made you grieve with my letter, which letter was that?

04:35

Not 1 Corinthians, it's the letter that we don't have. It's non -canonical. It's a letter where he just kind of laid it out to the

04:42

Corinthians. I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that letter grieved you, though only for a while.

04:53

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but listen, but because you were grieved into repenting, not because you were sorry, but because it made you take action.

05:04

It made you have a change of mind. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

05:12

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

05:22

For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment.

05:32

At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. When you ask someone's forgiveness, it's because you know that you've done wrong by them and you've done everything you can to do what?

05:47

To make it right. If you just say, I'm sorry, well there could be all manner of consequences to what you've done and you're just like, you know what, consequences, schmonsequences.

05:58

When you ask somebody for forgiveness, you are saying whatever it takes, whatever

06:03

I have to do to be right with you, that's what I intend to do. I'm going to make right what I did wrong.

06:10

I'm sorry just says it's very passive and we'll not find that in the

06:16

Bible. In fact, you know, typically what do we think of? I'm sorry, I'm sorry I got caught.

06:21

I'm sorry you were offended. You know, the greatest apologies are what? Something like this. If anyone was offended,

06:29

I'm truly sorry. Well, that's just evidence that what? You're not sorry at all. You're just sorry that somebody was bothered by it.

06:36

But that's just wrong thinking. So myth number one, apologizing is the same as seeking forgiveness.

06:46

Not true. I mean, if we just think about it in terms of active and passive. One is active and I'm actually, well, let me just take it a step further.

06:54

If I'm actually looking to do what? What's the goal of asking for someone's forgiveness beyond just getting it?

07:03

What am I really looking to do with end result? Becky. Restoring the relationship.

07:10

Reconciliation. Just as we have been reconciled to God by the work of Jesus Christ, we want to reconcile one another by whatever means.

07:22

Ever godly means we need to make to restore that relationship, to have that relationship as if nothing had ever happened.

07:31

So that's the goal. And again, I'm sorry is just a passive. It's a nothing burger.

07:38

You know, you look inside and you just go, there's nothing there. It's, you know, probably a 900 calorie meal or something, but there's nothing biblical about I'm sorry.

07:53

It's just unbiblical. Any questions or concerns about that? Yes, Brian.

08:01

A song by John Denver. I know where, I just think of that song. I'm sorry. That actually is a song.

08:10

Where did it come from? Where did I'm sorry come from? Do you know? I really don't know. But to me, it's just, you know,

08:17

I was joking when I drove out of the parking lot today, I rolled down my windshield and I, or window,

08:23

I didn't roll down the windshield. I rolled down the window and I said to Gil, you know, because Gil and I are like this,

08:30

I just said lo siento, which is I'm sorry in Spanish. So I hadn't sinned against him.

08:38

So you don't need to worry about that, Bob. Did I make a mistake introducing the car thing?

09:00

Let's just, well, let me, well, let's, it's possible.

09:06

On the other hand, and you're going to make it right, right? Through insurance or whatever, you know, whether it goes there or not.

09:15

But the point is, you know, the question is just, I mean, let's, what's a good example of just a complete accident?

09:23

Okay. You know, now, if you said, oh, there's a nice looking foot and you aim for it, okay?

09:31

In that case, you know, we need to call the police. No. In that case, you would need to ask for forgiveness.

09:37

But if you accidentally step on somebody's foot, well, then it was an accident. You didn't really intend to do that. And only you really know whether you intended to do that or not, right?

09:46

You and the Lord. Is sorry appropriate there? Yes. I think so anyway.

09:55

Maybe we'll have to have an elders council about that. No, I think that's right. Any other thoughts about forgiveness versus sorry?

10:02

I just think it's just too, oh, go ahead. That's good.

10:31

There you go. I mean, because if it's a sin, Jesus died for it. So, you know, and if it's an accident, no.

10:40

So, excellent. Good. Do I need to ask God's forgiveness? Excellent. Other thoughts? Yes.

11:06

And why is that though? You know, which is an excellent point. Our culture just says, you know what? Say, I'm sorry.

11:12

Apologize or whatever. Because there's no sense of, if I seek somebody's forgiveness,

11:19

I need to have kind of the psalmist attitude, 3251. You know, where I am truly broken over my sin.

11:28

I have regrets, as Paul said here. You know, a godly regret. And why?

11:34

Because I recognize the fact that I have wronged that person. Whereas, I'm sorry, why would the world encourage that?

11:40

Because they don't want you to feel bad about anything. You know, and a simple apology will get you off, and you're just gone off to the next thing.

11:50

And, you know, what's going on there is just a lack of recognition of sin. And so if somebody says, I'm sorry, and then they do it over and over again, well, guess what?

11:57

You can figure out pretty quickly, they're really not sorry. I'll get to you in just a second.

12:03

And when you, I mean, when you really recognize, you know, as David did when

12:09

Nathan confronted him, when you really recognize that you've done something wrong, when you can say against God, against thee and thee only have

12:16

I sinned, that's when, you know, that's the moment when you're broken over your sin, and when you need to seek someone's forgiveness.

12:24

So, Mark. Well, and you know what the other thing, well, the other thing about that too, if you just now apologize to her, oh, sorry.

12:50

Now, think about this too, if we, and I was talking about this this morning in a vague kind of way, but let me just bring it home.

12:58

In our homes, if we just say, even though we've sinned against our wife, or against our child, or against our parents, if we just say,

13:07

I'm sorry. We're thus requiring no response, not seeking to reconcile or patch up that relationship or whatever.

13:18

What happens over the course of not just one day, but several days, a month, several months, where it's just,

13:26

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, there's no reconciliation. I'll tell you what happens. You're going to go further and further apart.

13:32

The walls go up because there's not that sense of fellowship, of, there's no sense of urgency, there's no sense of brokenness.

13:43

The other person doesn't need to forgive you, and so therefore, they're free to just keep their little tally sheets.

13:49

And we ought not to want that on either side. And you know, by the same token, if somebody sins against you and says they're sorry, it's one thing if you can say, you know what, that's okay, forget about it.

14:00

It's another thing if you just say to yourself, sorry, but what you did was sin.

14:07

You can't just say, I'm sorry. We need to be reconciled. So, you know, sometimes

14:13

I think we can just let it go, but other times, for the other person's good, not because I might think, well, that was more than just worthy of an

14:21

I'm sorry. It's something that you need to ask my forgiveness for. Why? For your own good, because if you're doing this to other people, you're not going to, you're

14:31

A, sinning against them, and B, you're showing that maybe you don't understand the concept of sin.

14:38

So I think it's good to be in the habit of asking yourself even what Pastor Mike said. Is this something that is a sin against God, or is it just some kind of accident?

14:48

And if it's an accident, and I use that loosely, realizing there are no accidents, but if it's something

14:54

I didn't intend to do, and it's something I had no ill intent towards another person, well, then

15:00

I guess I'm sorry is okay. But if it was something that I did, or something that I said, which is the most common thing, isn't it?

15:10

The most common way that we offend people, I think, is with what we say. And when we recognize that, you know, if you insult somebody, and then you say,

15:19

I'm sorry, that's just not right. You need to go that step further and make sure that there's reconciliation.

15:28

Other comments about that? Bob? I have never heard that, and I'm thankful I've not heard that.

15:56

Well, again, I think Pastor Mike referred to Isaiah this morning in his sermon. And just imagine

16:01

Isaiah standing there, you know, beholding the glory of God and recognizing his unworthiness before God, not worried about everybody else.

16:09

And if he just said, woe is me, and I'm really sorry, I'm sorry. That's just not, that's a wrong understanding of God.

16:17

It's a very low understanding of God, a very low understanding of sin, a very high view of ourselves.

16:24

So, yeah, I couldn't even imagine that. Okay, myth number two. Now, this is kind of a long myth, but I want you to just go with this.

16:36

The myth is, well, I'll shorten the myth, and then I'll read the statement, and we can talk about it. The myth is when somebody says they're a

16:43

Christian, and their statement seems to be valid, then we just have to let it go.

16:50

Now, let me read this statement, and you tell me what, if anything, is wrong with it. By the conditions of salvation you believe in,

16:59

I am saved because I have accepted Jesus as my Savior. If I have a different understanding of Jesus' designs for me, of his teachings, or even of his nature, it is of no consequence.

17:13

It is like disagreeing on his hair color or favorite food. I worship Jesus Christ as my

17:18

God and my Savior. Therefore, by your definition, I am saved. Anything wrong with that?

17:31

Brian? For starters, where in Scripture does it say we're called to accept Jesus?

17:37

Okay. Where would we be called to accept him? That's true.

17:49

Anybody else? Bruce. That puts your finger right on it.

18:12

I mean, how can you worship, say that you worship Jesus, but you say, even if he has a different nature.

18:19

If I worship a Jesus that has a different nature, if I think he came from Mars and hovers around the earth constantly, then that's fine.

18:29

No, it's not fine. If I think, in this case, like with this man, he believes that Jesus Christ was a created being who later became

18:40

God, is that fine? Is he saved according to my theology? My theology,

18:46

I always like that. Well, that's your interpretation, that's your theology. What does the Bible say?

18:52

Let's look at 1 John chapter 4. 1

18:58

John chapter 4. You know, 1 John is a great book. It's often called the book of assurance. I like to call it the book of unassurance because it's a series of tests, and you read it and you just think, okay, do

19:09

I meet that standard? Do I confess my sin? Do I love the brothers? All these tests that just come out of 1

19:16

John to really see if we belong to Christ or not. And, of course, at varying times in our lives, we'll have more or less of a certainty, but it's good to read that book and to be reminded of what

19:32

God has called us to as his sons and daughters in Christ. 1

19:37

John chapter 4, verses 2 and 3. By this you know the

19:42

Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

19:49

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the

19:56

Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

20:03

Now listen to this quote from John Stott. I don't have many quotes tonight, but this one I do, and I like this one.

20:10

The fundamental Christian doctrine which can never be compromised concerns the eternal, divine, human person of Jesus Christ, the

20:21

Son of God. If you say that there was a time when Jesus did not exist, then you don't believe in the

20:29

Jesus of the Bible. When I taught through John chapter 1, and there are other passages.

20:35

In fact, let's just turn to John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

20:41

Word was God. Right there in chapter 1, it says the

20:48

Word was with God. It's a completely different was. It's the same in English, but different in the

20:53

Greek than when we see in verse 6 when it talks about John the Baptist. There was a man sent from God whose name was

21:02

John. And in verse 1, it would give us a sense of timelessness. Maybe a hint that he was from all eternity.

21:10

But we can go through John 8 where Jesus says, before Abraham was what?

21:17

I am. Referring to his eternality. John 10.

21:23

I and the Father are one. All these things, all these statements about his nature. And what is the response of the original audience?

21:30

I love it when people say, that's your interpretation. The original audience, the people who heard him say these things, thought what?

21:38

Stone him. Why? Because he made himself out to be God. Jesus was not ambiguous about who he was.

21:46

He was not confused about who he was. And so for someone to say, well, you know what? I don't have to agree with you about the nature of Jesus.

21:54

By your theology, I'm saved. No, by my theology, you need to repent. You need to have a change of mind.

22:00

You need to believe, like Bruce said, that he is who he said he is. If you don't believe that Jesus is who he said he is, then you don't have the

22:09

Spirit of God, and you have the Spirit of the Antichrist. You have the Spirit of Satan. So that's myth number two.

22:18

Any comments or questions about that? Theology matters. So when someone says, well, it doesn't really matter.

22:24

I worship Jesus my way. You worship him your way. I'll believe who I think he is.

22:30

You can believe who you think he is. There are certain truths that people have to believe in order to be saved, and you have to believe that Jesus is who he says he is.

22:45

That was John Stott. Oh, the myth? That was a relative of mine.

22:56

Okay. I don't even think I want to do myth number three here. It'll be short, too short.

23:06

Number four. I've heard this a few times. Maybe not directed at me.

23:13

My giving is your salary. My giving is your salary.

23:19

You know, it's almost like I can remember a guy telling me that he paid taxes when I was writing him a ticket, and therefore, you know,

23:26

I work for him. It's not an exact analogy.

23:35

It didn't go too well for that guy, though. I wound up towing his vehicle, too. But, you know, what's wrong with that mindset?

23:48

My giving is your salary. Gary. We're supposed to give as unto the

23:57

Lord. It's not like, you know, well, this is, you know, if you put in a little note down on the bottom that says,

24:05

Pastor Mike's salary, Pastor Steve's salary, or whatever. I don't know.

24:10

I don't know if that works or not. I don't think it does. Does it, Bob? No, it doesn't. Yeah. We give as unto the

24:22

Lord. Now, how about this one? I give, therefore, I have a right to have input into how it's spent.

24:34

Bob, you can't see this on the tape, but that was right on the nose.

24:45

It really comes down to submission and understanding that who's going to give an account for the way that things are run at the church.

24:53

Leadership is going to, you know, whether it's for the budget or, I don't really think the

24:59

Lord's going to hold us to account for the color of the drapes. I hope not. Second Corinthians, Chapter 9, talks about giving.

25:19

And I'd just really like to stress this point.

25:26

First of all, each one must give as he has decided in his heart. This is Chapter 9, verses 7 to 10. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, which means what?

25:35

That you should plan beforehand. And for those who don't plan beforehand,

25:40

I have a, whenever I finish my book, I have a little chapter devoted to you, but feed that as it may.

25:48

Decide it in his heart. You should plan beforehand, not reluctantly. In other words, if you're not convinced you should give, if you have restrictions you want to place on it, don't give.

25:59

Or under compulsion, if you feel like, I remember one man left the previous church we were at in California and came back years later, and I said, well, why'd you leave?

26:09

And he said, because I felt like everybody was checking my checkbook, you know, looking over my shoulder. I'm going, the entire time

26:15

I was at that church, nobody ever asked me what I gave. When I was in the Mormon church, every year at least,

26:22

I had to give an account for what I gave. Every single year. The bishop would call you in, and you had to say whether you were a full tithe payer or not.

26:32

Moving on to verse 7. For God loves a cheerful giver. And here's what

26:38

I think, I go, you know what, if you're thinking, my giving is the pastor's salary. My giving gives me the right, in fact,

26:45

I just, I sort of wonder about that whole idea anyway. Rights. I think we'll go some in the

26:52

Bible before we find, you know, other than we have the right to be sons and daughters of God, that's true.

27:00

But what other rights are secured for us? Do we have the right to vote? Do we have the right to peaceably assemble?

27:06

Do we have the right to, I don't think those are in the, you know, don't get the constitution of the Bible confused.

27:12

You know, if you have one of those patriotic things that has a constitution in the back, well, you know, it's easy to get confused.

27:18

But it's not the same thing. God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency and all things at all times, you may abound in every good work as it is written.

27:33

He, listen, he, God has distributed freely. He has given to the poor.

27:39

His righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

27:52

Here's a thing. If we understand what we have is not, yes, it's the sweat of our brow, but it's also a stewardship.

28:01

God has given it to us. And really all that we have to do is righteously look over it, righteously deal with it, cheerfully give it.

28:11

And when it's gone out of our hands, when it's in the church's hands, so to speak, then the elders are responsible for it.

28:19

If they don't do the right thing, I mean, who would you rather answer to? Who would you rather be, the person who writes the check and trusts the elders or the elders who don't use it rightly?

28:31

I'd rather be the person who writes the check and says, you know what? Those elders are the ones who are going to have to answer and whatever they do, that's their problem.

28:43

And I actually had Hebrews 13, 17, so good job. All right, number five, myth number five.

28:50

I've heard this a few times too. Again, just think about this. You now can be a biblical counselor.

28:58

How about this one? I can't control my anger. I can't control my tongue.

29:07

I'm so quick -witted, I have absolutely no control over what I say. Fastest tongue in the

29:14

West. Let's see, some other excuses.

29:21

I'm Irish. I'm Italian. It's the way

29:28

I was raised. Must be something in the food. I haven't heard that one. But all these other ones

29:34

I've heard. This was the environment I grew up in. You don't understand. Let's go to Galatians 5.

29:45

This should be so easy. This should be so easy. And I'm going to start with the bad stuff first.

29:52

I don't want anybody to think I'm holding back here. We're going to go to Galatians 5, verses 19 to 26.

30:08

Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality. Impurity.

30:14

Sensuality. Idolatry. Sorcery. Enmity. Strife. Jealousy.

30:21

Those are all really bad things. I mean, who could be involved in any of that? Oh, let's keep reading. Fits of anger.

30:28

What? But I'm Italian. I'm Irish. Rivalries.

30:37

Dissensions. Divisions. Envy. Drunkenness.

30:42

Orgies and things like these. Imagine, in the midst of all those horrible sins, sexual immorality, orgies, fits of anger?

31:01

Paul goes on. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

31:10

You mean to tell me that because I have no control over my temper, I'm not going to go to heaven?

31:20

I'm not going to tell you anything. I'm going to tell you that's what Galatians 5 says. It's not up to me to judge whether or not you fit into that category, but it's definitely sinful.

31:32

There's no excuse given here. There are no asterisks, no footnotes, no exception clauses.

31:38

It's pretty rough. Let's go on to verse 22. It really kind of gives us a clue about a transformed life,

31:50

I think. But the fruit of the Spirit, these are the opposite things. Contrasting evidences.

31:56

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Listen. Patience. Kindness.

32:04

Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. And, uh -oh, self -control.

32:13

Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

32:22

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

32:33

If we belong to Christ, then our mindset should be, you know what? I do tend to get angry. I do tend to say things

32:40

I ought not to say. I do tend to do some of these things, so what do I do about it? How do

32:48

I have more of the fruit of the Spirit in my life? Right? If this is where I start when

32:55

I get saved, and I'm like, I have all these issues that I struggle with, then what I ought to see over time is what?

33:04

Things getting better. Am I going to be perfect right from the beginning? You know, am I going to put away all these sins and just stop them all immediately?

33:12

Probably not. But over time, I ought to be able to move away from them.

33:18

I ought to be able to more readily understand what it is that makes me want to do these things.

33:24

Let me ask you this. What are some of the things that maybe you've done or you've thought to help you steer away from fits of anger?

33:37

You know, what are some of these other things here?

33:46

Dissensions. Arguments. Things like these. What do you do to steer yourself away from those?

33:55

Robert? Preach the gospel to yourself. Why does that help? Okay. It keeps him from sinning as much, and when he does sin, he recovers quicker.

34:16

I think part of that is, again, I think it's part of what we were talking about this morning, part of what I started talking about this evening, is when you look at life through the prism of the

34:26

Bible, through the gospel, if you think to yourself, in light of all I have been forgiven, you know, if you wake up in the morning and you think,

34:35

I'm special and I deserve X, Y, and Z, then your life is going to go a different way than if you think,

34:41

I am a sinner. I can't believe, as I reflect on my life, I can't believe all the things

34:46

I've done where God instantly would have been justified to cast me immediately into hell. But for His own glory, for His own purposes,

34:56

He chose me, He sent His Son to die on my behalf, and in light of that, how should

35:04

I live? How should I live in light of the price that Jesus paid on the cross?

35:11

How should I live in light of the hope of the resurrection? How should I live in light of the gospel? If I believe these things are true, how should it change my thinking?

35:24

So yeah, I think preaching the gospel yourself is a great way to go. Any other thoughts about that? Robert, Bob, that's excellent.

35:49

I mean, that's one of the things I'll talk about in Sunday School in the upcoming weeks is, you know, how big of a priority is this?

35:55

Is this an essential issue? Is this something really worth arguing, fighting, dividing over?

36:03

Is this a critical issue? Is this something I can just let go? Because if it is, what does it say about me that I won't let go of it?

36:13

I mean, obviously, if it's unbiblical, if it's sinful, then I need to confront it, but if it's not, you know, let's argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

36:24

It's not going to save anybody, and it's not going to edify anybody. Good.

36:29

Other thoughts? Yeah, Karen. Memorizing Scripture is excellent.

36:41

I mean, especially in light of, you know, a particular sin. And I think it's amazing if you really look at,

36:49

I think Dr. Mayhew wrote a book about Proverbs that categorizes the Proverbs and breaks them down by topic.

36:56

If you look at what the Bible says about your tongue, your language, how you ought to communicate with other people, and you start memorizing those verses, it gets pretty hard to be quite so wicked with your tongue.

37:11

It's pretty rough to just run around insulting everybody because every time you do, you'll just be like, oh, yeah, it starts a whole forest fire.

37:22

And, you know, it needs to be bridled, all these things that James talks about, and you'll go into the

37:27

Proverbs and you'll recognize all the things that you're doing sinfully, and you'll go, it'll slow you down.

37:35

It will slow you down. Excellent. Other thoughts? Robert. Yeah, why is it that every time

37:56

I do X, Y inevitably ensues? Well, stop doing X. You know, our former pastor used to tell the story about a guy who would drive by a particular store every day, and this man would stop in every day and commit the same sin.

38:11

And the pastor said, well, why don't you drive home a different way? Crazy.

38:17

That's crazy talk. We need to put off sin, right? Good. All right.

38:25

Myth number six, since I skipped number three. A little controversial.

38:32

Congregational rule can be demonstrated in the Bible. I did a modicum of research here, and I think this is good.

38:42

This is just from that unreliable Wikipedia, but it says, what makes congregationalism unique is its system of checks and balances, which constrains the authority of the minister, the lay officers, and the members.

38:58

Okay, this is a neutral kind of voice on this. But listen to what it says.

39:07

It's a unique system of checks and balances. What does that sound like? Checks and balances, accounting, okay, but that's what we talk about in our government, right?

39:18

We have three co -equals branches of government, and they each provide a check on the other imbalances and all that kind of stuff.

39:24

I'm like, okay, again, unless you have the Patriot Bible with the Constitution in the back, and I'm not knocking that.

39:30

I'm just saying, you know, if you have one of those. Checks and balances, not really a biblical concept.

39:37

Again, who are the elders accountable to? They're accountable to the

39:44

Lord. They're going to have to give an account to Him. I say they, us, we are going to have to.

39:53

What you'll find in Congregationalism, and, you know, I mean, I know there are different systems of it, and the original meaning, by the way, does anybody know what the original meaning of Congregationalism was?

40:06

It just meant that you weren't responsible to a bigger body. So, you know, like this congregation would be congregational in the sense that we're not part of a denomination or anything like that.

40:18

But now Congregational rule is a rather more modern term, and it's come to mean that, you know, basically one man, one vote, although certainly the pastor would have a little bit more authority since he would be preaching and, you know, maybe some of the elders too.

40:34

But ultimately, if the congregation wants to get rid of a pastor or an elder or something like that, they would be able to do it.

40:42

And one man writes this. Listen, he says, Most churches claim something similar to the following. The church, or this church, accepts the canonical scriptures.

40:50

In other words, this would be like in most statements of faith, something like this. This church accepts the canonical scriptures of the

40:58

Old and New Testament as the inspired word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life.

41:08

But we all know, and that was the end of that, but we all know it's one thing to claim that our church accepts the

41:15

Bible as authoritative and another to live it out. That excellent statement, the one that said it was, you know, the inspired word of God and authoritative, etc.,

41:26

etc., etc. He says, That excellent statement you just read came from a Lutheran denomination that debated and voted at their 2009 convention to ordain openly homosexual men and women to the office of elder.

41:40

Claiming that the Bible led them, they then voted against the Bible. There's a real problem with that.

41:48

You know, when you have everyone in the congregation votes, then ultimately what does that mean?

41:58

Well, it means that people who don't know as much or who may not even be as saved, they may not even be saved.

42:06

Their vote counts as much as everyone else's. And in that kind of system, who should then pick the pastor?

42:15

The people who are the least spiritual or the most spiritual? The people who are the most steeped in Scripture or the least steeped in Scripture?

42:25

If the pastor's gone on vacation, who should fill the pulpit? Who should pick that? Who sets the budget priorities?

42:32

Are we going to do this on majority votes? And I think, you know, some of the roots of congregationalism, the idea that you should be separate and all that, really come from a desire to not emulate the

42:47

Roman Catholic Church, to be separated from that, and that's understandable. But the idea of one man, one vote, all these kind of things really comes from,

42:57

I think, stems from the Enlightenment. Let's look at Acts 20, 28.

43:05

Paul speaking to the church at Ephesus, and we'll close here in a minute, the elders at Ephesus, and he said,

43:13

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the

43:19

Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.

43:30

You really have to strain to get to this idea that congregations should be voting on matters, and we should have, you know, knock -down, drag -out fights at congregational meetings.

43:44

Just look at this, and he says, The Holy Spirit made you overseers of the church at Ephesus. You are to care for the church of God.

43:55

And we can go to other places where it just talks about the spiritual qualifications of them, but it's just key to see here that the elders, the overseers, are charged with caring for the flock, looking out for the flock, protecting the flock, which is what?

44:15

It's the church of God. This is Jesus' church. He obtained it with his own blood.

44:21

We're just caretakers. We're just under -shepherds. But this idea that congregationalism can be proven by the

44:30

Bible, I don't think it holds up. You could certainly point to places where everyone thought something was a good idea, like when they appointed the seven men, including

44:41

Stephen, but what you won't see there is a vote. In fact, you see them say the apostles, different era entirely.

44:51

You see the apostles say, Do this, and the congregation does it. So I don't really see how that holds up as an example of congregationalism.

45:01

But in any event, I don't think we would be able to make a good, solid case for biblical congregationalism.

45:08

Last thought on that, Titus 1 .5. Listen to what Paul says to Titus.

45:15

He says, This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order.

45:22

Obviously implying that there's some chaos there at the church in Crete. And appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

45:32

Not ask the congregation if they will approve of these men, but appoint elders.

45:37

And then he gives the qualifications. So I think that's a myth that people,

45:45

I mean, it's easy to believe. We're Americans. We like one man, one vote. We like the idea that nobody has too much power.

45:51

What we forget is this is Christ's church. Christ told us how to run it. And those men who are charged with this are going to be held to account by him.

46:03

All right, well, we're about out of time. So let's close in prayer. Father, we just thank you for your word.

46:09

We thank you that it's sufficient for everything in life pertaining to godliness.

46:15

And Lord, we praise you for that. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins.

46:23

And if we were to just calculate the sins in our own lives, and were to think that we might have to pay for them all,

46:33

Father, the cost would be incalculable. And yet you sent your son to pay that price, to bear that burden, to suffer in our place.

46:43

Father, not only that, but he lived a perfect life, the life that you've commanded us to live and that we don't, we can't.

46:51

He did it. Father, you raised him gloriously on the third day, even as he said he would be raised.

46:59

And he now sits at your right hand and intercedes for us what great and glorious truth this is.

47:04

Father, let us be more biblically literate. Even grant us opportunities to come alongside saints who are struggling, who need help, who need to have a more biblical, gospel -centered mind, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.