WWUTT 009 Our True Citizenship (Philippians 1:27-30)

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We receive a lot of listeners and a lot of viewers from a lot of different parts of the world and you're probably pretty proud of your national heritage, right?
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But ultimately, the kind of citizens that we are to be shouldn't have to do with the nation that we were born into on Earth, but the nation that we are born into in Christ, when we understand the text.
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Welcome to When We Understand The Text. My name is Pastor Gabe. Such a privilege to be with you as we have been reading through the book of Philippians together.
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And I want to take a moment in this particular episode of the broadcast to thank our international listeners for joining us.
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You know, over the course of the past week, I have actually received emails from six continents. I've not received any email from Antarctica, but it would be pretty cool if no pun intended.
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It would be pretty cool if somebody is some scientific expedition, I suppose, has got a really good
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Internet connection, would happen to be listening in there in Antarctica and would shoot me an email. That'd be pretty awesome. Be truthful, though.
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Nobody do it just because I said something about it. But I've received emails this week from Europe, from Asia, from Africa, North America, South America and even
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Australia. It has been a privilege to hear from you all. And thank you for sending your questions or your comments about the broadcast.
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Best way to get a question to us is to go to our website, www .utt .com.
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And you'll see there on the right side of the page, we've got the latest episode of the podcast posted.
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And right underneath it is our email link. That's the best way to get a question to us. www .utt .com
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and click on that email. Again, we love getting comments through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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But sometimes those questions get by us and we don't get every one of them or get to respond to every one of them.
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But if you send us an email, we will reply and then also ask your permission if we can use it on an episode of the broadcast.
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Again, www .utt .com. You'll see the email link there on the right side of the page.
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Thank you for joining me for this episode. Today we're going to be in Philippians chapter one, verses 27 through 30. Between today and tomorrow, we'll finish up Philippians one.
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And then toward the end of this program, I'll take another question from a viewer. This is a general question.
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It doesn't have to do with a particular video. But somebody was inquiring about the resources that we use and some of the information that we share.
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So that question, which comes from Arkansas today, will be coming up the last third of the broadcast.
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Let's go to the text and then we'll come to the Lord in prayer. Philippians chapter one, starting in verse 27.
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The Apostle Paul has been talking about being able to be with the Philippians again for their progress and their joy in the
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Lord. He says in verse 27, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
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So that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
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This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw that I had and now hear that I still have.
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Lord, as we come to this text today, I pray that the words of the Apostle Paul continue to speak to us commonly now, as relevant as they were to the
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Philippians 2 ,000 years ago, they are relevant to us even now. No matter what nation on earth we live in, we receive your message, your gospel in Jesus Christ, storing up these words in our hearts and in our minds so that they might give us confidence for the day of glory when we'll all be united in Christ as one.
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Doing away with our lowly bodies and our lowly body will be made to be like his glorious body.
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Fill us up with your truth and the hope that is in this word. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. The Apostle Paul is writing to the
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Philippian church while under house arrest in Rome. And he is saying to them that because of their prayers and by the spirit of God, he knows that he will be delivered from this trial that he is under, the sentence that he is under right now, so that he can come and be with them again for their progress and joy in the faith.
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That's verse 25. So that in me, you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
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So that whether I come and see you or I am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
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I want to go back to the start of that verse and look at that phrase. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
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There's a Greek word that appears there. Now I'm reading that from the English standard version. That's the translation of the
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Bible that I'm reading from the ESV. You might be using a different translation. There's a Greek word that appears there that has been translated.
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Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. But the the
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Philippians would have received that a little bit differently. The Greek word that appears there is polita eusta.
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And it basically pertains to citizenship. So the way that the Philippians would have understood that phrasing from the apostle
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Paul would have sounded more like this. Only behave as citizens that are worthy of the gospel.
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In other words, our hope is not in Caesar. Our hope is in Christ.
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Paul comes back to this concept of citizenship again in Philippians 3 20, where he says,
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But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
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That's a crazy statement to a Roman citizen. The Philippians are very proud
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Roman citizens. Philippi was in a Roman colony. The apostle Paul himself was a Roman citizen, and he used his
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Roman citizenship to advance the gospel in and around the region of Philippi.
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So for the Philippians to be proud Roman citizens, Paul is basically saying to them, Do not place your hope in Caesar, though.
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You place your hope in Christ. For a Roman citizen, it was impossible to believe the gospel.
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It's actually impossible for all of us to believe the gospel. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapters 1, 2, and 3 in particular, where he says that a person who has a natural mind, the natural mind is not going to understand spiritual things.
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It takes a transformation by the Spirit of God to even understand the gospel.
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And this is especially true of a Roman citizen, because for them, Caesar was God. Caesar exalted himself to a place where he claimed to be a
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God, and the people honored him as such. So to accept this idea that Jesus Christ, who was a carpenter from Nazareth, died on a thief's cross, and was buried in a borrowed tomb, yet he came back to life again three days later.
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He was alive on earth for 40 days, ascended into heaven, where he now sits at the right hand of the throne of God and subjects all things to himself.
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Caesar is even going to bow to him. He subjects even Caesar to him.
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And we're going to read later on in this letter, Philippians chapter 2, verse 10, at the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. Even Caesar is going to bow to Christ? Yes.
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And for a Roman citizen to believe that was crazy. That's a crazy concept.
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And it is only by a transformation of the Spirit of God could a person who is a Roman citizen accept that as gospel truth.
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And that's really the case for all of us as well. It is impossible for us to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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It is only because our hearts and minds have been transformed by the Spirit of God that we are able to receive it and understand it.
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Now, let me tell you, there are going to be some things that you don't quite understand just yet. And that is because the
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Spirit still has a work that he is doing on you. This is that process of sanctification, which we were talking about last week.
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So don't get discouraged when you're looking at something in Scripture. You're like, oh, I don't understand this. The Spirit is not giving me the knowledge of it.
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So therefore, I must not be in the Spirit and I'm not really saved. No, there are certain things that you don't know just yet, but the
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Spirit is continuing to grow you and he is continuing to bring you to the knowledge of these truths.
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As you continue to seek God's word and ask him to show you wisdom and insight, he will give it to you.
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We've talked about this earlier this week, but if you seek, you will find. If you ask, it'll be given to you.
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Knock and the door will be open to you, as Jesus said. And so continue to seek these things in the
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Spirit. And by the power of the Spirit of God, you will grow in the knowledge of his truth. The Philippians are growing this knowledge and Paul is serving for their knowledge, their progress and their joy in the faith.
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And he says to them, let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Behave as citizens of the kingdom of Christ, not as citizens of the kingdom of Caesar.
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And folks, as I said in the introduction of this broadcast, we've got a lot of people who are listening to this particular episode from all different parts of the world.
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We have folks from all over the globe that are watching our When We Understand The Text videos, and we love hearing from them.
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But whatever nation that you live in, your pride is not that flag, is not in that flag for that nation that you were born into.
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The pride is the banner of truth that we are born under in Christ, born again in Christ Jesus under his banner of truth.
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That's the flag that we fly. That's the kingdom that we belong to, the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ.
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No matter where we come from, no matter what walk of life, no matter what nation or continent, nation we live in or continent we live on, we are all citizens of the eternal kingdom that is in Christ Jesus.
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If we are in Christ Jesus. In Mark chapter 10, we read the story of the rich young ruler.
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He comes up before Jesus and kneels before him and says, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
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And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. And this is not
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Jesus saying that he's not God. He knows that this rich young ruler doesn't really think of him as God.
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So why is he calling him good? Jesus goes on to tell him, You know the commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud and honor your father and your mother.
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And the young man says, Teacher, all of these that I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him.
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And he said to him, You lack one thing. He doesn't give the answer to the rich young ruler that he wants to hear.
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He gives him the answer that he needs to hear. That's what's being said there in verse 21 where it says, Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said,
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You lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.
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And then come follow me. But the rich young ruler walked away disheartened by Jesus words because he had very great possessions.
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And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words.
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But Jesus said to them again, Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
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And they were exceedingly astonished by his words. And Jesus, well, they said to him,
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Then who can be saved? And Jesus looked at him and said, With man, it is impossible, but not with God.
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For all things are possible with God. Again, it's impossible for us to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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It is possible only by the power of God. Peter responded to Jesus and said to him,
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See, we have left everything and followed you. So what do we get, right? The rich young ruler, he didn't leave his stuff.
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He just walked away and held to his possessions. We've left everything and followed you. What do we get in Jesus? Peter's looking for a handout here.
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Some affirming words from Jesus. And Jesus said in verse 29, Truly I say to you, There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions.
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See, there's something extra tied into that. You won't be comfortable. You'll be persecuted, even though you have received a hundredfold.
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Now in this time, even this life that you walk here on this earth, you will receive houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands.
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And also in the age to come, eternal life. Jesus goes on to say, But many who are first will be last and the last will be first.
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So what is Jesus talking about when he says in Mark 1030, Now in this time you will receive a hundredfold houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands.
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He's saying that we receive all these things as members of the kingdom of God here on earth.
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As we continue to grow, as the body of Christ grows, we receive houses.
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We get to enjoy fellowshipping with one another in each other's homes, even living in each other's homes, receiving shelter in one another's homes.
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As we go out with the gospel, we receive brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers.
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Those that we grow in the faith with, those that grow us in the faith. They would be considered our mothers and fathers, children or lands.
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The children are those that we bring to Christ. The lands are the different parts of the world that we go to. And yet we are able to find other members of the kingdom of God.
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Others who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. For my sake and for the gospel, Jesus says, they will receive a hundredfold now in this time with persecutions.
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It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be light work. It's going to be tough. But if we endure, we will receive in the age to come, eternal life.
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The Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2, we have been called out in Christ, living stones being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
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He says in verse nine, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
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Amen. So no matter what background we come from, no matter what our ethnicity, no matter what nation we were born into flag, we were born under creed that we have followed.
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We are of the same nation, a holy priesthood, a single nation in Christ Jesus.
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As Paul says in Colossians chapter three, verse 11, here in Christ, there is not Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, or free, but Christ is all.
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And he is in all folks. We have no reason to discriminate against one another because of the color of our skin.
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For in Christ, we are one. We have no reason to discriminate against one another because we wear different colors, different colors of flag.
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Okay. In Christ, we are one. We have no reason to discriminate against one another because we grew up speaking a different language.
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In Christ Jesus, we are one. Paul telling the
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Philippians that our hope is not in the ruler of our nation, of the nation that we were born into on earth.
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Our hope is in the ruler of all nations, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Glory.
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Hallelujah. Christ Jesus, who is our Lord. Let us walk in a manner of life worthy of the gospel of Christ, who is our
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King. So that Paul goes on speaking to the Philippians, whether I come and see you or I am absent,
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I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
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We strive side by side to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. Folks, our hope is not in what laws are passed or who governs us.
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Our hope is in Christ Jesus. Now, the laws that pass in our nation might be a reflection of the hearts of the people or a reflection of the hearts of the rulers of that people, but that should not cause us not to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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To give you an example of this, you know, there's a law here in the United States that we're not supposed to pray in public school.
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You know, it just means that prayer cannot be led by teachers or by any member of the government or any of those things.
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Students can still pray in school. And if I have students listening to me or I have parents of students in public school that are listening to me, tell your student that they can still lead by example in their school by praying.
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There is no law in the United States that says that a student cannot pray in his school. He can still lead by prayer.
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The hope for our students in our public schools is not a law that would be passed that would allow teachers to lead prayer in public schools.
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Our students can lead by example as it is. They can stand up in public schools and they can pray and they can lead by example.
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We all need to do the same in whatever government that we live in. We cannot wait for the laws to be passed, to change, to sound a little bit more accommodating of the
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Christian faith, and now we live in the utopia that we've been after. We need to go out with the gospel.
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No matter what the law is, we need to go out with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our hope is not in the laws of our nation.
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Our hope is in the righteousness of Christ Jesus. Dear God, I pray and I hope that that is the attitude of our heart and our mind that we are behaving as good citizens of the kingdom of God, filled up with the hope of your promises in your word, not the promises of the laws of our government, but the promise of the law of God, which has been fulfilled in Christ.
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We focus on you in all things. We place our hope and our trust in you. And in Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen. They say that all governments have been established by God.
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If you live in the United States of America, you live in a republic, not a democracy, which is what a lot of people think. In a republic, the power resides with the people.
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The government is ruled by officials elected by the people to uphold the law drawn up by the people. You know that thing that starts we, the people of the
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United States? Yeah, that would be the Constitution. And because you are part of a political system established by God, with power given to the people to elect this government's leaders, for you to have a mindset that you would not participate is to go against what
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God has established. Our God is a God of justice who tells us to speak up for the mute and defend the rights of the destitute.
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He says not to pervert justice and use every opportunity to do good. He tells us to pay our taxes and honor the emperor.
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He says to pray for our leaders, desiring all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. In other words, when a government is friendly toward Christianity, the gospel is able to spread more effectively.
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The apostle Paul knew and exercised his rights as a Roman citizen in order to share the gospel.
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So we must do the same as American citizens when we understand the text. Our question today comes from Dan in McCrory, Arkansas.
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He says, Dear What, thank you for all your videos. I feel like I get more out of a What video than I have gotten out of church in years.
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Could I ask you what resources you use? What is something that I could look up that would help me have a better understanding of scriptures or be able to help me use the scripture to interpret scripture?
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Hey, Dan, thank you so much for the compliment, but I also want to tell you that it breaks my heart.
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You're not the only one that I've heard from who has said that they feel like they get more out of What videos than they get out of church.
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And I want to really encourage you to find a solid gospel -centered church.
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I promise that there's one in your area. It may be a little bit more of a drive than you're used to.
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Maybe 15 or 20 minutes away. But I promise there is a gospel -centered church near where you live.
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Don't be divisive about leaving the church that you're currently attending if you think it's necessary to do that.
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In fact, if you check out the 9marks website, the number 9marks .com, I know that Mark Dever has written an article about a biblical way that one should go about leaving their church.
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If there just seems like there's no way to reform the church that you're attending to something that is more gospel -centered, then peacefully start looking elsewhere.
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But otherwise, if you think that you can make your own church a ministry and start infusing more gospel -centeredness, pray and ask the
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Lord how he can use you to do that. Look for other people in your congregation who want the same thing and work together.
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I've heard Paul Washer say that there's no bigger mission field in the United States than the church. And that is so true.
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Don't cause division. Be peaceful about it, but give your church the gospel.
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Your church may actually need the gospel of Jesus Christ more so than it's using right now.
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I also want to mention here, and this is for everybody, not just Dan, but anybody who's listening. Even though I'm a pastor,
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I hope that you don't listen to this broadcast to replace going to church. I am a pastor, but I'm not your pastor.
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I don't know you, and you don't know me. This isn't church. This is meditating on God's Word in daily devotionals.
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You need to be in church. You need to grow with other Christians, encouraging and admonishing one another, as it says in Colossians 3 .16.
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Not neglecting to meet together, as it says in Hebrews 10 .25, but encouraging one another all the more as the day of the
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Lord draws near. Please be a part of a biblical, gospel, God -glorifying, not seeker -friendly church.
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Back to Dan's question here. You asked about resources. One of the best study tools that I have ever possessed is a study
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Bible. I first of all recommend the ESV Study Bible from Crossway, English Standard Version. Of course, as I mentioned earlier in the program, that's the translation that I use.
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The New American Standard Study Bible is okay, too, as is the New King James Study Bible.
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Another good one is the Reformation Study Bible, which also is ESV. It tends to lean a little bit more
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Presbyterian in its interpretation of covenant theology. I'm a Southern Baptist, but it's still a good study
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Bible. I love my Presbyterian brothers. The English Standard Version is still my favorite translation.
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I've read several. I have read several translations. I grew up with the NIV, but once the NIV changed back in 2010, it actually became so different that I had to learn it over again, and I didn't want to do that.
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So that opened me up to study different translations, and the ESV is the one that I've settled on as being the best.
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It's what is called an essentially literal translation. It's probably the closest that we're going to get in English to what is said in the original
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Greek and Hebrew. It's not possible to do a word -for -word translation of the Bible. That wouldn't make sense.
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So an essentially literal translation is what you're looking for, and I think the English Standard Version does it the best.
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The great thing about a study Bible in particular is that you get the study notes that go with each passage.
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It also provides references, all of the cross -references. Now, study Bibles are not cheap.
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A good one will still run you about $60. A really good one, if you want to make a real good investment into the big, full, complete study
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Bibles, you're talking $80 to $100. Now, if that's not an investment that you want to make right now, or maybe you just don't want a
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Bible that big, then I encourage you to pick up what is called a reference Bible.
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They run about $20 a piece, still very affordable. In addition to the main text that you get, all of the good text and scriptures that you expect from a
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Bible, the reference Bible will give you, in the margins, all of the cross -references to the scriptures that you're reading.
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Now, I would say whether you get a study Bible or a reference Bible, the references and learning how to use them, that's more important than even the study notes.
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Study Bibles also have the cross -references. So, you have the study notes and the cross -references, but learn how to use the cross -references before you start relying on the study notes.
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Because when you talk about how to use scripture to interpret scripture, that's the tool that's going to help you do that, what's in the reference margins.
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Now, up until this new Bible that my wife got me, which I talked about earlier in the week, the new journaling Bible that she got me, my preaching
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Bible was a reference Bible. That was the Bible that I had with me in the pulpit. But when I did all of my sermon prep at my desk, the
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Bible that I used was my study Bible. And so, those are the resources that I recommend.
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When it comes to what we recommend as a church, like when we get new families that come in and they ask us, hey, what's a good
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Bible that I can buy? Or maybe we want to make an investment in a family Bible, what would you recommend? My number one recommendation, of course, is the
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English Standard Version, because that's what I'm preaching from, so that's the easiest to follow along with. Sometimes when I'm talking to couples, though,
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I'll tell them, hey, how about you as a husband, you buy one translation, and you as a bride, you buy another translation, because then with two different translations, you can kind of compare notes and can help to bring you to a better understanding of Scripture in that way.
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So, the three Bibles, anyway, as I was saying, the three Bibles that we recommend as a church are the English Standard Version, the
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New American Standard Bible, and the New King James. So, there you go, Dan. I hope that answers your question. I hope that's what you were asking about.
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When it comes to the research that we do for our When We Understand the Text videos, the main resource that we come back to is always going to be the text.
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It comes back to what the Bible has to say. And that is our basis for this broadcast as well.
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Join me tomorrow as we wrap up Philippians Chapter 1, and please, tell someone else about this what podcast.
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You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. Our ministry was born out of a local church, and we rely on the contributions of our viewers and our listeners to keep this ministry going.
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If our videos or this program has ministered to you, would you consider a donation? All gifts go directly to our church, a non -profit ministry.
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Give with card or check at our website, www .tt .com. We'll continue our study of Philippians tomorrow, rejoicing together in God's truth, when we understand the text.