WWUTT 1550 Q&A Keith Marshall‘s False Teaching, Colossians 2:12 Against Calvinists, Attending a Segregated Church

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Responding to questions from listeners about that Keith Marshall article going around social media, if Colossians 2:12 proves that faith precedes regeneration, and what to do if you attend a segregated church. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

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How do we respond to that Keith Marshall article floating around on social media? Does Colossians 2 .12
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prove that regeneration precedes faith, and should we still attend a church that is segregating us?
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The answers to these questions when we understand the text. This is
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When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.
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Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.
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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky, who is not with me in studio today. I am flying solo this week, but still responding to questions from the listeners, which we like to do on the
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Friday edition of the broadcast. You can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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Now something we forgot to talk about last week is that we're giving away a couple of Christmas books.
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There's my book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, and the new Advent book from Sinclair Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace.
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I'm going to give away both of those books if we read your question on the broadcast, and I think we'll do that next week.
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We have to do it soon, so we're allowing enough time for you to be able to receive these books and have them for Advent.
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These are books for you to read each day during Advent through the month of December. So send a question.
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The question can be about anything. Anything you've wanted to ask. You can ask a personal question if you want to.
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Becky, what's your favorite color? Whatever it is. Anyway, send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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Be sure to include your name and address, and if we read your question next week, you will receive 25
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Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says and the new Advent book from Sinclair Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace.
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He did one a couple of years ago called Love Came Down at Christmas, and we did that as a family. That was a great book.
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I haven't read this new one yet from Sinclair Ferguson, but I think that's going to be our Advent book this year, and we would love to gift you with that as well.
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Looking forward to your questions and listen in next week to find out if yours gets read on the broadcast.
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Let's get to the questions we have for this week. This first one is from Jeremy, and this actually has to do with a video that I most recently did.
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So let me play that video first. This is the most recent What video came out a couple of days ago regarding a certain newspaper article that has gone viral on social media.
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Here's the What video and then the question. Keith Marshall, a pastor of a liberal
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Lutheran church in Washington state, wrote a short article for a local paper that went viral on social media.
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He was asked if Christians should be able to claim religious exemption to avoid getting the COVID shot.
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Marshall said, What does my faith in Jesus Christ exempt me from? Then he gave three examples.
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My faith exempts me from one, putting my wants above the needs of others in humility, value others above yourselves.
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Philippians two, three to claiming my freedom in Christ as liberty to act without responsibility.
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Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another. Galatians 5, 13, three, refusing to protect the most vulnerable in our midst.
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Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me. Matthew 25 40. Therefore, Marshall said, my religious exemption requires.
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I received the COVID vaccination to safeguard life and wear a mask to care for my neighbor. Brethren, he is a twister of the word.
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First, neither the shot nor a mask will save your neighbor's life. Second, you are under no biblical obligation, no command of God whatsoever to get vaccinated against anything.
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Marshall said, by invoking the name of Jesus to claim exemption, you are using the Lord's name in vain.
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No, if you invoke the name of Jesus to command what God is not commanded, you are using the
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Lord's name in vain. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for making up commands. Mark 7 7 says,
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In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men when we understand the text.
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I'll soon be doing a follow up video to that one in which I answer the question, Can a
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Christian claim religious exemption against these mandated injections?
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Certainly we can. And I'll provide that for you in a 90 second video able to refer to that and and easy to share with others as well.
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Be looking for it soon. Our YouTube channel is WWU TT. Go there for new videos.
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Click to subscribe. Click the little bell on there. And whenever a new video gets posted, you will get an alert.
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Letting you know that a new what video has dropped. So following that particular video,
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Jeremy from Texas emailed and said, Dear Pastor Gabe, in your latest video, you mentioned that Keith Marshall is the pastor of a liberal
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Lutheran church. Liberal according to what? Is it just because his approach to massive vaccines is different than yours?
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Or were you going off of something more objective than that? Thank you for your video.
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Yes, Marshall is the pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Enumclaw, Washington.
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Their website is Hope Lutheran Church .org. You can look them up. According to the church's statement of faith, they're aligned with the
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Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the ELCA, which has formally allowed gay marriage, even ordaining homosexual clergy since 2009.
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This was six years before quote unquote gay marriage was federally legalized in the
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United States, and the ELCA was already allowing for it and even ordaining
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LGBTQ clergy men and women openly confessing to living in abominable sins that God has promised he will judge.
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In fact, listen to this. That was published in the Journal of Lutheran Ethics in August of 2004.
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So this was even five years before the ELCA accepted LGBTQism into their own denomination.
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This is the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, volume four, issue eight. Homosexual sex does not violate
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Jesus' principles of unconditional love and forgiveness any more than heterosexual sex does.
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Both homosexuals and heterosexuals deceive and manipulate each other. Both have committed long -term relationships, and both engage in prostitution, fornication, and adultery.
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Using Jesus' ethic, heterosexual sex is moral when it involves unconditional love, when it is free from deceit and manipulation, and when any resulting children are loved and cared for.
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Using that ethic, homosexual sex is also moral under the same circumstances.
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There is no reason to believe that homosexuals as a class are any more deceitful and manipulative than heterosexuals are.
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Deceit, manipulation, and self -interest are part of everyone's nature. Now, notice there again where it says, using
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Jesus' ethic, heterosexual sex is moral when it involves unconditional love.
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And the journal goes on to say that same ethic, by that same ethic, homosexual sex is also moral under the same circumstances.
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So homosexual sexuality is ethical according to Jesus, they say, as long as it has unconditional love.
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Well, it isn't possible to have homosexual eroticism with unconditional love.
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It isn't loving. It is an abomination. It's evil. There is no love in it.
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It doesn't matter what the culture calls it. There is no love in it. It is against God.
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It is an indulgence of the flesh, no matter how you feel about it. It is going after that which is unnatural, which
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God has promised he will judge. Jesus did not paint this ethic of, as long as it includes feelings of unconditional love, then it is somehow moral.
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What did Jesus say about the union of marriage? Matthew chapter 19, beginning in verse four, he answered, have you not read?
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That's that question itself is an indictment against the ELCA who rejects the word of God and what it clearly says on this subject.
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Jesus goes on, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
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So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.
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The definition of marriage, according to Jesus Christ, is a man and a woman, and that's what sex was created for, to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife in a covenant marriage.
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Hebrews chapter 13, verse four, let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous anything other than between a husband and a wife sex in any other kind of context, except within a marriage between a man and a woman.
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That's sexual immorality and homosexual sex in particular is a natural desire.
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According to Romans chapter one, this is what the ELCA has declared acceptable.
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It's what Pastor Marshall is accepting, even within his own congregation.
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So all things considered, what I said in that video was way more tame than what
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Pastor Marshall and his church are truly guilty of. I was just responding to the context of the article that had gone viral on social media.
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Liberal is an understatement. This is a man who, if he does not repent, will perish in judgment.
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I fear for his soul. So pray for Pastor Marshall and his congregation that they would come to know the truth and repent and not follow in the ways of the sexually immoral and depraved.
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Jesus warned the church in Revelation chapter two, beginning in verse 19. This is to the church in Thyatira. He says,
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I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance.
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And that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman
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Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
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I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
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Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her.
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I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works and I will strike her children dead.
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And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works.
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Let's continue on to the next question here. This comes from Maddie. He says, hey, Pastor Gabe, long time listener, first time emailer.
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I just recently saw that you were going to be debating Leighton Flowers in January on John 6, 44.
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I'm really looking forward to this. My question is actually not about John 6. I think I can wait until the debate.
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Rather, I have a question about a passage that Leighton believes is a stump verse Calvinists can't answer.
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That's Colossians 2, 12. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.
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Leighton says this verse demonstrates that faith precedes regeneration. Contrary to the
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Calvinist teaching that regeneration precedes faith and Calvinists, including James White, are stumped by that passage and can't explain it.
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Is Leighton handling this passage correctly? Here is the link to the video if you want to hear his argument in full.
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Keep up the great work. Thank you so much, Maddie. Yeah, I'll play a portion of that video here in just a moment.
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So Maddie is correct. I do have a debate coming up in January. I believe it's the 22nd is the day with Leighton Flowers.
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It's an online debate so you can watch the live stream and we're going to be talking about John 6, 44.
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No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. The words of Jesus there.
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So I'm going to be taking a reformed position on that passage and on John 6 in full and Leighton Flowers is going to be debating from the provisionist perspective.
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I would appreciate your prayers. I have not done a debate in 20 years. It's been that long for me now.
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I used to debate a lot. In fact, I went to college on a debate scholarship and there was a four -year college.
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I went to a JUCO on a debate scholarship. There was a four -year university that offered me a full ride to join their debate squad and I actually turned it down.
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They were offering me room and board and I turned that down as a long story as to why.
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But anyway, it was something that I enjoyed doing, but I haven't done it since.
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Did a lot of debate in college. I've been in dozens of debates. If you just take, you know, the four years of college that I did debate, but I haven't done one in 20 years.
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And so, I'm out of practice. It's not an easy thing to do, even though I've had previous experience in it.
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As you've probably heard James White explain debate before, it involves having to do several things at one time.
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You've got to listen to what's being said. You got to be able to take notes. You got to formulate arguments for when you're going to, you know, get up and do your speech or rebuttal or do cross -examination or whatever else.
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There's certainly a preparedness that I have to have going into that and I'm working on that right now. But you have to have, you have to be ready for certain questions.
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You have to be able to answer on the fly and work some things out in your mind that you weren't ready to have to respond to before you came into the debate.
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You never know what can happen. I could have a certain expectation and then, you know, we get to the debate and it wasn't what
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I was thinking at all. I have some people that are helping me think through those kinds of things and helping me prepare for this.
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And I would certainly appreciate your prayers also. Well, let's get to this particular clip.
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So Leighton Flowers believes that Colossians 2 .12 is a stump verse for Calvinists that they cannot respond to it.
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Here's the video that Maddy sent me and I'll break in here periodically and give a response. Hello and welcome back to Sociology 101.
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Today we're going to ask the question once again, does regeneration precede faith? In other words, are you given new life?
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That's what regeneration is, being born again. Does that precede you having faith or do those who believe get new life?
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Well, according to the scripture, I think it's quite clear. We've seen this quite a few times, but I'll pull it up again for those that need to see it again.
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You see from John chapter five, beginning there in verse 40, speaking to the Pharisees, you were unwilling to come to me so that you may have life,
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Jesus says. He didn't say, I refuse to give you life so that you would certainly come to me. Jesus' order salutis is that you must come to him in order to have life.
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Well, that verse is right in the middle of a sentence, and that is not the context. So John 540, which
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Leighton quoted is, you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. Go back to verse 39.
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Jesus says, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
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It is these that testify about me and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.
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What kind of life? Eternal life. This isn't talking about regeneration. This is not
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Jesus giving an order salutis as Dr. Flowers had just said. The context is with regards to eternal life.
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And indeed, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved, will have eternal life.
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You go back earlier in John 5 and Jesus says the following. Just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the son also gives life to whom he wishes.
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For not even the father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the son so that all will honor the son even as they honor the father.
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He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Truly, truly,
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I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.
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But how have they received that eternal life? By faith, most certainly. But understand that that is the son who gives life to whom he wishes.
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It is not by our work. It is by God's work. So for Dr. Flowers to say that the ordo salutis here, according to Jesus in John chapter 5, is to have faith first and then to receive life, according to what
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Jesus said earlier in John 5, it is by the will of the father and the son to whom he wishes before anyone receives life.
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Those who believe show that they have been chosen by God unto eternal life.
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Dr. Flowers goes on with his answer. We also see this over in John chapter 20, verse 31.
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Therefore, many other signs Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe.
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So the gospel has been written. These truths have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
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So how do you have life in his name? According to the scripture, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so as to be given new life.
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So not only does Dr. Flowers ignore immediate context, like in his usage of John 5, 40, but he's also missing the overall context of the gospel of John.
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What did John say at the beginning of his gospel? John 1, 12, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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In John 8, 47, Jesus said, he who is of God hears the words of God.
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For this reason, you do not hear them because you are not of God.
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Having been chosen by God for salvation precedes faith.
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And so therefore, the regenerated heart also that it may hear the gospel and be convicted of sin and believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and so be saved. That regeneration precedes saving faith. Now, Dr.
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Flowers is going to cite an expert of greater knowledge than I have, Dr. R .C.
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Sproul. So that's in this next segment here. But this is the crux of the entire argument that we have with our
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Calvinist friends. Even R .C. Sproul lays this out for us pretty clearly. Listen, if you will. And the whole dispute is over the question of the order of salvation, which comes first, faith or being born again?
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Because if there's anything that is unique to Reformed theology, it is the idea that regeneration or rebirth precedes faith.
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That is, it's a logical recession, not necessarily a temporal one, but the chicken and the egg here.
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Regeneration comes first and then faith. Okay, so there you heard it from a leading
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Calvinist source that says this whole crux, the crux of this entire debate really rests upon this one central view that we have to be given new life, we have to be raised to new life in order to believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. When the scripture seems to indicate quite the opposite, as the verses we've already looked at and many others in other episodes that we've talked through.
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Yes, he's taken a few passages out of context and used them as proof texts.
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But I think I've demonstrated by looking at those verses in context that they don't mean what
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Dr. Flowers said they meant. Now, this next segment is where he gets to Colossians 2 .12,
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which is the whole reason why I'm responding to this. He uses this as a proof text also.
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I'll let him set this up and then we'll look at Colossians 2 .12 a little more closely. This is one of the reasons
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I asked this question of Joel Webben in my debate on Remnant Radio with him on the question, does regeneration precede faith?
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I hear was that exchange. Do you believe that one, you know, we're talking about regeneration preceding faith.
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So do you believe one is raised to new life so as to have faith? Yes. OK, but in Colossians 2 .12,
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it says you were raised with him through your faith. So it sounds like through faith means that's the instrumental means by which we're raised with Christ.
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How do you explain something like that? I'll give you a second to open it up if you need to. Colossians 2 .12,
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and I'm quoting, you were raised with him through your faith. So it seems to me even if you believe that faith is irresistibly or effectually given to the elect, it still is the instrumental means by which one is raised.
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So it must logically precede the being raised, at least in Colossians 2 .12. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him, being
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Christ, from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
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God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. Your question is saying you believe that Colossians 2 .12
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is saying that through faith, that faith is ultimately what gains us that raising.
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It's the instrumental means by which we're raised. Because it says through faith. It doesn't say you're raised unto faith or you're raised in order to have faith.
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It says you're raised through faith. So faith seems to be the instrumental means by which we're raised, which is one of the reasons I think maybe
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George Whitefield and others don't believe in pre -faith regeneration, but they're Calvinists. And they hold to a different view that says ultimately that we're something else like an effectual calling precedes our becoming believers.
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But that regeneration itself doesn't come until after we actually have faith in God.
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Yeah. I think there's just multiple other texts that would say precisely the opposite. I think there are other texts that speak of being born again.
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What do you think is the best text that clearly teaches that faith... Okay. And so instead of answering what he believes about Colossians 2 .12,
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he just says, well, there's other texts that indicate this, which doesn't give us an answer to Colossians 2 .12.
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And Joel recognizes. Joel was a humble, godly man and recognized where he fell short.
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I know it's very nerve wracking in a debate when you're first presented with things that you haven't thought through and you're having to think through them on the fly.
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That's a hard thing to do. Not everyone can do that. I certainly don't do it very well. I try my best.
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And Joel handled himself very well in the debate. A very, very cordial man that I enjoyed having a sparring contest with, with regard to our various views.
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Now, this is actually not that complicated. And as I demonstrated with some of the other proof texts that Dr.
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Flowers just used, when you look at the passage more clearly, it really does not serve
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Dr. Flowers for the purpose that he is attempting to use Colossians 2 .12
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to do as a stump text. Calvinists are stumped by this. They can't get around this because this text proves that regeneration does not precede faith.
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That's not what's being said in this verse at all. So let me go back a little bit further. Colossians 2 verse eight.
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I'm going to read this first of all out of the English standard version, and then I'm going to give it to you in the new
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American standard or in the legacy standard, which is like the updated new American standard.
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Anyway, okay. Colossians 2 beginning in verse eight. Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.
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According to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ for in him, the fullness of deity dwells bodily.
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And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority in him.
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Also, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hand.
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So this is this is something that is not the work of man here. This is the work of God by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
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And now verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
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God made alive together with him having forgiven all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
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This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
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I think this is a very powerful verse that actually argues or a powerful passage, rather arguing for regeneration preceding faith, not that faith precedes regeneration.
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Let's go back to the main verse that Dr. Flowers had targeted, Colossians 2, 12, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.
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So is this saying that faith precedes the regeneration of your dead spirit in the trespasses in which you lived?
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That's verse 13. You were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
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But God has made them alive together with him, and it is by the powerful working of God that you have faith.
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Where did I get that from? That's exactly what verse 12 says. Consider the wording of 12 again, having been buried with him in baptism in which in this baptism, the supernatural baptism that has taken place, you were buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God.
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It is by this powerful working of God that you have faith. The same power that raised
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God from the dead raised you from the dead that you were in when you were in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh.
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That's exactly what the passage is saying. Now, let me read it to you in the NASB. This is Colossians 2, 12, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.
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It is the work of God that you have faith, not
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God believing for you. That's not what I'm saying, but that God works first before you believe.
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That's the order. That's what Colossians 2, 12 is saying. And it sounds a lot like Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, right?
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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.
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It is the gift of God, not a result of works, not a result of our works, so that no one may boast.
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As we have been studying through 1 Corinthians, consider once again 1 Corinthians 1, 30.
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By his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the
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Lord. Christ became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
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You cannot believe in God unless God changes your heart first from a person who is previously in rebellion against God to one now that can hear the gospel and believe it because God has acted in your heart first to believe it.
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You cannot will yourself to believe. It is by the will of God. Now, as far as our experiences are concerned, you made a decision to turn from your sin and believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely. We have all made that choice. We who are in Christ Jesus have chosen to turn from our sin to Christ.
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But when you get to the theology of it, when you get to the scripture and you read about the ordo salutis, the order of salvation, you come to find it was not by our work that we came to this salvation.
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It was by the work of God and praise God for that. When I was stupid and in my sin and going my own way and deserving of the judgment of God, God had mercy on me and raised me from death to life.
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Let me get to a couple of more questions here. This first one comes from Virginia.
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She says, Hi there. I'm listening to Pastor Gabe's podcast, 1337. I don't think the number is right there where you mentioned
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David's request for food from Nabal. You indicated that David was requesting food for 400 men, relying on Nabal's generosity.
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However, 1 Samuel 25, 7 says, Now I hear that it is sheep shearing time.
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When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them. And the whole time they were at Carmel, nothing of theirs was missing.
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I recalled from another pastor's sermon on this, that David and his men helped protect the sheep and only wanted what was their due as they protected from other robbers, lions, et cetera.
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Per John MacArthur's commentary, David sent the men to collect their right compensation for the good that they had done.
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David sent his men to bless them only to be wickedly rebuffed, of course, speaking to the character of Nabal.
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Granted, David was a little hotheaded and Abigail helped him reconsider what he was about to do. Just adding my two cents.
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Keep up the good work. I really enjoy your podcast. Yeah, thank you, Virginia. You know, if I remember right,
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I was in Proverbs when I recalled that story and I just gave a brief overview of it.
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So you're correct. I said that David sent men to Nabal and requested food for 400 men.
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And I left out that David was there, you know, protecting the sheep during sheep shearing season and thing.
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I was just giving a brief overview of the story. But you're correct that it was David wanting what was due them because they provided protection to Nabal's men during a time of bounty.
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We'll get to one last question here. This is from Samantha. Dear what? What is a family to do when they cannot attend any sound local churches due to COVID rules or being segregated from the congregation?
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We medically can't wear a mask and are not allowed to attend most churches.
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Others, we have to be segregated through a separate entrance and sit in a different room to watch the live stream, unable to worship and fellowship together.
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Do we look over the segregation to be able to continue going to church, even though we believe it is wrong?
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We know it is God's will for his people to be part of a local church, and we want to be and recognize its importance.
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But what do you do when you aren't allowed to attend or can't support the path that they are taking with segregation?
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Samantha, this truly breaks my heart. And I'm sorry that you have to go through this. I'm sure I'm sorry that there are so many leaders in the church who are cowardly and don't understand that what they are doing is contrary to what
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God's word says. James to one. My brothers show no partiality as you hold the faith in our
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Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. You cannot separate perfectly healthy people from the body of Christ simply because they're not wearing a mask or won't get vaccinated.
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It's absurd. And you're listening to the narrative of the culture, not the wisdom of God. But what should we do if our local church will not let us come in fellowship with the body if they have to segregate us and put us in a different room?
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We can attend church, but we have to sit in a different in a different place. Should we continue to go to church there?
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Now, if you had any other option, I would tell you, no, you need to leave that church and go be with a church where you can be with the body of Christ.
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But if there are no other options that are available to you, then you need to pick a church and you need to be going, even if they're going to segregate you out from everybody else, even though what the leaders of that church, what they are doing is wrong.
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I still think it's important for you to go and be with the body and continue to have conversations with those leaders so that they would recognize their error and they would repent of this and not divide the body of Christ any longer based on what the culture is telling them, not on what
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God's word is telling them. So why would I say you should continue to go to that church, even if they are segregating you out?
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Well, you can't affect change if you're not there. So you can't wait for the church to change their policy and then you go.
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You are going to have to be a part of helping these leaders in the church recognize their error and repent of it.
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And this is part of, you know, like Romans chapter 15, verse one, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves, but to build our neighbor up for his good.
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So you are recognizing you are strong in your spirit in seeing that what these immature believers are doing is separating the body of Christ.
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So you need to point out to them their error and continue to labor on them that they not break up the body of Christ any longer.
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In the meantime, you are attending that you may hear the word of God proclaimed that you may sing praises, even if you're in a different room with a different group of people, but you're still singing with the people of God, sitting under the preaching of the word of God, breaking bread together and partaking in the
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Lord's supper together in whatever fashion, whatever way that takes place. But you are doing these things in obedience unto the
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Lord. They're going to have to answer to God for the way that they're dividing up the church. But you're going to have to answer to God for your faithfulness as well.
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You can stand before God on that day and know that you continue to be faithful to his body, even though some of these individuals may not have been.
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But remember, the instruction for us in Ephesians 4 11 is that God gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the stature, which belongs to the fullness of Christ so that we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.
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But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head that is
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Christ. You cannot help the body grow into Christ, grow in unity.
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They're very divided now, but you cannot help the unity to happen if you're not there with them.
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So I encourage you to be in that church, continue the the conversation with the congregation so that they would overcome this divisive outlook and desire to have unity in the body in Christ Jesus the way that we should.
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I want to pray for you, Samantha, and for anybody else that is going through this as well, this segregation that is happening in churches over mask mandates and vaccinations and things of that nature.
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And and I pray that we would be obedient unto the Lord, not not caring about what sinful, wicked men and women are going to think of us.
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Of course, they hate us, because, as it says in First Corinthians one eighteen, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
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So we need to be obedient first unto the Lord, not worrying about what other people may think of us.
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Go to church, live your life and do all things to the glory of our
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Savior. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the mercy and the grace you showed to us in that while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. This is the demonstration of your love through the cross of Jesus Christ that our sins have been atoned for and we have received all of the blessings of your grace by faith.
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Continue to grow us in this faith, grow us together in the body of Christ and where we see divisions taking place.
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May we speak the truth in love, admonishing one another with goodwill, calling them to repentance and walking in the paths of righteousness for your name's sake.
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I pray for those out there who desire to go to church, but the churches around them that are in their area, they're all segregated.
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They're all trying to break people up for any number of reasons, critical race theory, intersectionality because of these mask mandates and vaccinations and things like this.
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May we not let any worldly philosophies come in between us and break up the body of Christ, but we desire to be unified in Christ, being patient with one another and loving each other as we should be doing as long as we are in these bodies.
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May we show kindness to one another as you have shown kindness to us. It is in the name of our
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Lord Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.
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There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours, but this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.
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Find a good gospel teaching Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again