Beyond The Basics: Final Exam (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Father, we have much to rejoice in, to be grateful for. Father, we're thankful for this day that you have given us, for the fact that you have sustained us yet again, that you give us every good thing, including our next breath.

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Lord, we want to pray for Karen Binney, just having been told that she's been taken to Boston this morning.

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Just pray that the doctors would be able to get to the exact cause of that this morning.

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Thank you for Bruce and his love for his wife and for his wisdom, and immediately going to Boston.

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Lord, just pray that all would go well there. Father, for our time this morning, would you just be with us as we think through various issues?

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And Lord, I just pray this would be a time where we really are convicted of our need to study and to be at home in Scripture.

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Father, bless this time in Christ's name. Amen. Well, for those of you who don't know,

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I just mentioned Karen Binney going to Boston this morning. Don't really know what the status is other than she was really feeling poorly this morning, and Bruce took her down there.

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And I say, you know, I'm thankful that he took her to Boston immediately, because the last time we started in Worcester and they just about...

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Are we being taped? She just about didn't make it, so it's good to go down to Boston, because as soon as she got down there last time, they immediately did surgery.

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So you want to be praying for the Binneys. I do have a plan now.

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Next week we're going to talk about work. We're going to talk about labor on Labor Day. And that might go a week or two, and then we're going to start on the heaven, hell, and everything in between series.

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But I thought I had some interesting responses last week, and I thought I wanted to finish that and maybe do some more questions.

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So things to think about. Some of them are difficult questions. Some of them are easy questions.

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And some of them are things that we might have to discuss for a while. Anyway, last week

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I think we did maybe the first... Did we do the first 15 or 16?

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16? Okay, so the last one was number 16 then. What is wrong, if anything, with a statement?

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If God commands something, it means we have the ability to obey. And I think eventually we came to the conclusion that ability...

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Let's see. What is the conclusion we came to? That something being commanded in Scripture...

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Well, I remember this now. It's all coming back to me, which is good. Something being commanded in Scripture doesn't mean that we can always do it.

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Jesus said in Matthew, Be perfect even as your

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Father in heaven is perfect. And yet we can't be perfect. We can't fully obey the law.

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What would be the consequence if we could be perfect? We would have to earn our way to heaven.

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True. What else? The cross would be unnecessary, Pam said.

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And that's exactly right. I mean, if we could be perfect, if we came out of the womb without a sinful nature, and we could just be perfect, then why did

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Jesus have to die? If there was any possibility that anyone could be perfect, Jesus wouldn't have had to have died.

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Okay, number 17. Who impelled or drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by Satan?

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I'm sorry. The Holy Spirit did. God did. Holy Spirit. How do we know that?

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Because the Bible says the Holy Spirit drove Him? Where is that? In Matthew, chapter...

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Did I hear a four? That's very good. Matthew, chapter 4, verse 1.

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Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

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Why would the Spirit do that? It was

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God's plan. It was God's plan. I mean, no one could say that Jesus was not tested, that He was not tried.

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I mean, Satan offered Him everything. And I think it's also important to note verse 17, or number 17 there.

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Sorry, not verse 17. Question number 17, the first word. Who, not what. And really, impelled is a better word than led up, because it really suggests that He was basically driven into the wilderness.

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Number 18. Are there any limitations on Satan? Now, I think this is an interesting question, because last week a gentleman came.

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I don't know if he's here this morning, but he was here for Sunday school, and then he left. And he handed in his answer sheet, and he said, no.

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Are there any limitations on Satan? And I just said, I think sometimes we get this wrong.

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Who said, yes, there are limitations? Peggy. Okay. Okay, God would not be sovereign if He wasn't.

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I was reading this week, and some of what we're going to be talking about in the weeks to come, there's this idea called, what they used to call in seminary, neoplatonic dualism.

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Who knows what that is? Charlie. The devil is the equal opposite force to God.

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It's what they refer to as the yin and the yang, the two opposing cosmic forces in this eternal struggle for good and evil.

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Is that a pretty common theme in our culture? Yes. What would be probably the most common example of that, the most popular example of it?

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I don't want to give it away, but would somebody hand me a lightsaber? The shoulder angels.

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The angels are always kind of, oh, yeah, okay, there you go.

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The devil and the angel telling you what to do and all that, and you're pulled in both directions.

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But I mention Star Wars because it's this idea of the force, that there is this cosmic kind of struggle going on, and what do they say?

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There needs to be balance. The devil made me do it. Well, yeah. That would be the, you know, is there any kind of limitation on Satan?

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Well, no, the devil made me do it. But it's in our popular culture, this idea that evil and good are in some epic struggle with the outcome either unknown or going on forever.

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Daniel? Yeah, they wouldn't really use the word evil, but they would say, well, actually, they might say evil, but if there is no

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God, is there good and evil? You know, I mean, atheists will argue that, yes, there is still some good and some evil, and what is that good and evil?

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What they say. Well, that's one argument, and what's that,

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Carl? Well, they have a slightly broader principle, and that would be whatever is in the broadest good, whatever is in the most common good, and, you know, things that are necessarily good are those that help the most number of people.

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But anyway, are there any limitations on Satan? Yes. Mention Job, and it's really right in the beginning of Job, right?

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Yeah. Okay. Peggy says 112. Then the

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Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.

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So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. You know, this kind of, I don't want to call it a deal, but this interaction between God and Satan, and Satan says, well, you know, he would crumble if you'd let me go after him.

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And so then God sets the parameters on him, and that's certainly one. What are some other limitations on Satan?

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Wes? He's a created being. Okay. Janet? He's in one place at a time.

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Says he does what? He prowls the world. Well, he's not enveloping the world.

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He's not omnipresent like God is. You know, when somebody says,

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Satan was leading me to do X, I just go, how do you know it was Satan? You know, did he give you a business card?

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I mean, there's only one of him. There are, yep, innumerable.

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We don't know how many demons there are. That's right. Good. Another limitation on him, right?

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Jesus tells Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, but that was not permitted.

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Certainly Satan has, as Pam said, the world, the order of the world, the, what's the word

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I'm looking for? Yeah, the system certainly is in his control.

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He is influencing it to a great extent. I mean, one need only look at a number of, just scan around the world and see the things that are going on that are acceptable behavior, whether it be cannibalism or child slavery or all manner of evil things, and they're acceptable within the culture and environment that they take place.

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Any other thoughts on Satan? Paul? He's doomed.

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That's a great one. Yeah, one of my favorites. I mean, you know, people want to debate

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Revelation and what it means, but when you look at Revelation 20 and it says, you know, that an angel comes and binds him with a chain and then he remains bound for a thousand years,

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I don't know how you get around that, and then it ultimately says that he's going to do what? Defeat God.

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No. He's going to lose and he's going to be cast into a pit. Okay.

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Number 19. Is BBC part of the Catholic Church? And again,

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I had an answer last week, well, yes, and they both teach truth, meaning this person said, you know, thinking

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Roman Catholic and all that. What's that? Right. Small c,

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Catholic, means church universal, means the body of believers.

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Can anybody think of something that would indicate that we are part of one body, a scripture that says that?

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You are a royal priesthood. I believe that's in 1 Peter, but any other passages?

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Well, I'm frantically turning my Bible. I was counting on you guys.

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We are what? All baptized into one body. Yeah. Very good.

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Ephesians 4, which is where I am, and I'm trying to find the verse because I didn't highlight it. 1

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Corinthians 12 .13. Do you have that, Dave? Go ahead and read it. Okay, good.

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In Ephesians 4, 4 says there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one

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Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

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Good. So BBC is part of the universal church, the visible church.

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Number 20, why does the local church exist? Excuse me. Edification of the saints, absolutely.

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Worship of God, absolutely. Equipping of the saints, that's the one

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I was looking for. But those other ones are also true. What did you say,

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Daniel? Spreading of the gospel. I heard

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MacArthur say this on a number of occasions. If it weren't for evangelism, there would be no reason for the church to exist.

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We could all just go to heaven. We're here to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

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Ephesians 4, 11 says, talking about Jesus, and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers, verse 12, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.

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The local church exists to equip believers to do the work of ministry.

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Okay, number 21. What sin is to be dealt with in a very harsh way by the church?

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Unrepentant sin, okay? And I think one of the answers

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I got back last week was every sin. I go, well, so every unrepented sin, true.

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But there's one in particular, false teaching, okay?

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Janet, factious man. Dave, did you have a different one?

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Okay, disorderly man. And that's basically the idea. What I was going for was, I didn't have her own 16, but Titus 3 .10,

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reject a factious man after first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self -condemned.

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Why do you think, I mean, when we talk, let's look at the Romans 16 passage too. You know, it doesn't suggest they're going through, you know, taking it to the church and going through the normal process.

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What do you suppose that is? Listen to Romans 16, verse 17.

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Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.

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For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Jesus Christ, not of our

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Lord Christ, but of their own appetites. And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

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Why is that so critical? It can affect the body.

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I mean, what is it analogous to? It's analogous to cancer or gangrene or something like that.

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You have these people that are causing dissensions within the church that are factious, that really want to have people follow them, and they're willing to spread rumors about leadership.

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They're willing to spread different doctrines. They really have their own agenda.

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The unity of the church is to be prized highly.

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Christ is building the church, and those who would unbuild the church, those who would assault the foundations of the church, must be dealt with in a very harsh way.

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Thoughts or questions? Okay. Number 22, what is meant by reformed theology?

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I was listening this week to some Q &A from MacArthur, and it just got me thinking about this issue.

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By the way, I sent out an e -mail yesterday. I don't know if you're on the BBC announce list, but you really need to get on the

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Grace to You mailing list because you get good stuff for free all the time, so I like it.

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What is meant by reformed theology? Charlie.

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Okay. Two points that he made. Doctrines of grace and regulative principle, or we could just say sola scriptura.

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If it's in the Bible, that means scripture alone. If it's in the Bible, we do it, and if it's not in the

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Bible, we don't do it. Doctrines of grace. Let's see if I can do this from memory.

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T for total depravity, meaning not that you're as bad as you could possibly be, but that you come out of the womb not neutral, not somewhat averse to the gospel, but an enemy of God that sin impacts all of your thinking, all of your behavior.

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You are by nature a child of wrath. You are a sinner by nature and by inclination.

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Then we have the second one is unconditional election, what

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Pastor Mike was teaching about last Sunday night and that he'll be talking about this evening. Well, we have salsa and chips.

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I don't know if those two go together or if the salsa and chips goes after. I'm guessing probably after because otherwise, you know, crunch, crunch, crunch.

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What do you say? Unconditional election, that God for his own purposes chose some and didn't choose others, didn't choose others.

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You say, well, that's not fair. Well, actually, it is fair because he didn't have to choose anyone.

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You know, and then how do you know if someone's elect because they believe the gospel? How do you know when someone's elect?

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You know, people go into a panic. Well, what if my father's not elect? What if my sister's not elect?

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I don't know. But I can tell you this, that if you preach the gospel to them, if they are the elect at the appointed time,

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God will save them. So it's not a matter of, oh, election. You know, let's just take a step back and throw up our hands and there's nothing we can do.

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No, we can do something, and that is preach the gospel to people. Furthermore, the great comfort in the doctrine of election is that God is going to save some.

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As I was teaching through 2 Peter, this idea of the patience of God, you know, the false teachers at that time were saying, listen, you have, telling the church, listen, you have missed the second coming, or maybe there is no second coming is more accurate.

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You know, there is no second coming. And Peter says, don't be confused here. The patience of God doesn't mean that God isn't going to fulfill

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His promise. It just means He has been patient toward you, meaning the readers there, He had saved them in the interim between this time that the false teachers had said those things and Christ coming back, and He's patient still to save people.

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He is a Savior by nature. Unconditional election, nothing in us that He sees,

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He just chooses for His own purpose and His own glory. L, limited atonement, definite redemption, means that Christ came to save those that before eternity passed, the

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Father chose in an unconditional election. Jesus went to the cross to save every single person that the

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Father chose. Irresistible grace, meaning that the

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Holy Spirit in time takes the choice of the

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Father, the work of the Son, and applies the gospel to the person, allows them to hear, removes the scales from their eyes so that they can see their own condition, and God saves them.

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Perseverance of the saints or preservation of the saints, just meaning that once you are saved, you are always saved.

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You have the seal of the Holy Spirit. And what is it with the doctrines of grace? They are the work of God.

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From beginning to end, all the glory goes to God because no one can say, look what a great job we've done,

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God. You and me are an unstoppable team. It's kind of like you're the quarterback and I'm the wide receiver.

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I run down the field, you throw me the ball. There's only one problem with that. Illustration would be in reality,

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God would throw the ball and we'd still be laying there dead at the line of scrimmage. So not a very good one.

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Run! All right, sorry. Doctrines of grace, meaning what is grace?

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Grace being unmerited favor. We don't deserve anything and God does all the work.

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Yes. Okay, covenant theology and reformed theology.

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Well, that's something else I was going to get to under that same heading. Charlie mentioned the regulative principle.

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Well, typically, reformed theology can mean covenant theology. That's why

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I like to say we are reformed soteriologically. And you just go, what does that mean?

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It just means we believe in salvation by grace alone. In other words, the five points that I just gave.

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Now, we're not reformed, big R, like that says right there. Why? Because we don't believe.

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Reformed theology typically means covenant theology, which means what is covenant theology? The church replaces

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Israel, Pat said, and that is exactly right. And so we get all manner of weird things coming out of the

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Old Testament. And with all due respect to my covenantal friends, I just look at the

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Old Testament and I'm going, I don't see, for example, in Isaiah 2 when it talks about the last days and talks about the mountain of the

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Lord being raised and lifted up. And I don't see that being the church. And so what they do is they kind of take their

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New Testament understanding and impose it on the Old Testament and come up with all sorts of novel interpretations.

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So that is part of the issue with reformed or covenant theology is they will typically tell you that God is done with Israel.

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And I have a problem with that. Why would I have a problem with that? Romans 9 to 11 and Revelation and Genesis 12 and 15 and et cetera, et cetera, the

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Abrahamic covenant, because God promised Abraham several things. And among those is a piece of land called

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Israel. And even today, all of Israel is not

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Israel. What do I mean by that? I'm not talking about the people. I'm talking about the land. All that God promised to Israel has never been under Jewish control.

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Yes, Pam. Well, that's a good point.

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Pam notes that the 16th, 17th, 18th century when these things were being debated, Israel didn't exist as a nation.

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So why would they think, well, you know, someday the Jews are probably going to get back into Israel? So that would certainly make covenantal theology a little bit easier to grasp.

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And that's true. But, I mean, the Bible is, you know, it says what it says, and there's no getting around that.

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But, yeah, I think that's one possible understanding of it. There are different eschatological views.

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There is typically the covenantalists tend to be amil, meaning they don't believe in a millennium.

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Go ahead, Dan. Okay. And so typically, you know, the difference between us and a covenantal or reformed church would be we believe that there's a future for Israel.

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We believe that there is a millennial kingdom. And the reason is because we have what our pastor likes to call a plumber's hermeneutic.

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We look at the Bible, and we go, it says what it says.

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It means what it says, and that's just the reality of it. Dan. Yep, Dan mentions the five solas, which

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I will now call on him to recount. Sola scriptura, scripture alone.

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Sola fide, faith alone. Solus Christus, Christ alone.

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Sola fide. And sola gratia, right? And soli deo gloria.

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Okay, there we go. So faith alone. I mean, another way to look at it is salvation is by faith alone, through grace alone,

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Christ alone, by scripture alone. Yeah. And Christ alone. Well, all those alones. Alones, alones, alones.

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Reformed theology is very lonely. No. It just means that all these things, if we understand grace alone, that doesn't mean, what's the opposite of that?

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Grace with works. And, you know, even the typical picture, you know, the evangelist says,

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God takes 99 steps toward you. Will you just take that one step in faith towards him?

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I'd like to, but I'm dead. So it's all centered on soli deo gloria, which is the glory of God alone.

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God shares his glory with no one, not with us, not with any church, not with anyone.

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Okay, number 23. Can a Christian believe in reincarnation? Do I mean being born again?

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Nice try. Can a Christian believe in reincarnation? Only one who's never read the

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Bible. What passage would immediately rule that out?

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Okay, which is, it's appointed for man to die once, Hebrews 9 .27.

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And it is much as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.

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What else does that rule out? It's appointed to men to die once, and then to judgment.

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What else would that rule out? A second chance. You know, the idea that you can die in your sins and then you get some kind of holding place or whatever where the gospel is presented to you again.

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Number 24. If we define the word Catholic to mean all those who agree with and live according to the official writings and teachings of the

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Roman Catholic Church, would you agree with the following statement, all Catholics go to hell? That was a question posed to John MacArthur.

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Comments? Charlie? Charlie said that R .C.

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said after that question, he said, but thanks be to God, most Catholics don't know all the doctrines of the

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Roman Catholic Church, which is, I think, correct. But if you take, what's the

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Council of Trent? If you take the Council of Trent, and you read it through, basically everything that they say curses you, the

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Bible says, is eternal life. You know, if you believe that salvation is by grace alone, you're accursed.

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What? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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The implication would be, you know, dying in this condition. The Council of Trent is very, very clear in the things that it condemns, and it condemns basically what we would understand to be biblical teaching.

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All right, number 25. And by the way, that is not to say that people can't be in the

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Catholic Church. Let me just take that out of the negative. There are people in the Catholic Church who will go to heaven.

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They just don't ascribe belief to, you know, all the teachings of the

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Catholic Church. John? It's like 1548 or something or other.

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Yeah, in response to the Reformation. I guess it would be 1648, but yeah, in response to the Reformation. And specifically what they did was they just said, well, here's what the

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Reformers stand for, and anybody who believes that is accursed, is damned, in other words.

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So, you know, we didn't start this whole, if you believe X, you're damned. They did. Number 25.

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What would you say to someone who says, I don't believe in election? God does.

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What's that? Depends on if they're Savior. Okay, so someone who professes to be a

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Christian and then says, I don't believe in election. Read Ephesians 1. That's a good answer.

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Read Romans 9. That's a good answer. I mean, that's what I like to do is just say, well then, and actually

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I'll take it a step further. You do believe in election. You're a Christian? Yes. Do you believe the Bible?

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Yes. Well, the Bible talks about election, so you believe in it. Now, what you have to do is wrestle with it and figure out what it means.

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And, you know, years ago, and I've told this story, Mike and I were, this is 97,

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I think, we were out here. And Mike and I went to the basketball hall of fame, and on the way back we were listening to the

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Bible Answer Man. Somebody called in and said, would you explain election? I'm just kind of confused about it. And he says, well, there are two historical views within the

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Christian camp. One is that God looks down the corridors of time, sees who's going to believe, and he picks those people.

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The other one is that God, for no other reason than his own purposes and his own glory, chooses to save some. And we're driving back, and I just go, that is not an answer.

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That's a multiple answer, the Bible Multiple Answer Man. Because that's, you know, he's saying, well, you can believe this or this.

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Listen, anyone who says that they're a Christian, necessarily then, if there's any validity to their profession, because people say they're

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Christians and then just do whatever they want, but if there's any validity to their profession, they believe the Bible. And if they believe the

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Bible, then they have to then wrestle with election, because it's in the

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Bible. They can come to different conclusions than I have, but they do believe in it.

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They just don't know what they're doing yet.

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They have to wrestle with that issue. John? Right.

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And that is such a great point. Thank you for bringing that up, because people hear that, and they think there's no personal responsibility.

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That is just not true. Here's personal responsibility. God is sovereign.

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The Bible teaches us God is sovereign in salvation. And the Bible absolutely teaches what? That we are responsible for our sin, and we're responsible to repent of that sin.

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So you have two truths, and the problem that people have is they go, okay, if God's sovereign and man's responsible, where do those two things meet?

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How can those both be true? Don't they conflict? Don't they contradict each other?

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They're not irrational, even though we don't fully understand it. And John said something I think is good. He said, you know, my little brain, they do.

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Well, it's not up to our little brains. In the mind of God, those two truths, we hold them both in tension.

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Who wrote Scripture? Men and the Holy Spirit. Who lives your

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Christian life? You and Christ in you.

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How do you explain that? How do you explain who wrote the Bible? I mean, there are a number of those kind of tensions where you just go,

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I can't fully understand that, but here's what I know. God is sovereign. Man is responsible.

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I cannot reconcile those two things. They're both true.

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And that's exactly Romans 9, I think somewhere around verse 20, Paul addresses that exact issue.

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He says, you will say to me then. This is Paul saying, positing a question that people will say, because he's just laid out the doctrine of election.

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He says, well, you'll say to me then, how can God judge anyone? In other words, that's not fair.

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If God only chooses some and not others, that's not fair. They don't really have a chance.

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And how can we be held responsible because no one resists the will of God? And Paul says, on the contrary.

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He doesn't answer the question the way the person would like to have it answered. He doesn't say, well, you know,

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God is sovereign and we're all robots. And he doesn't say, well, you're absolutely free, and God just kind of guides a little bit.

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He says, no. Right.

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And let me address that in just a second. But Paul gets to and he says, listen.

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He says, it's not a question of either or. He says, the problem you have is that you're questioning

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God. Right. Who are you?

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Who answers back to, who are you to say God's not fair, God's not just? And Daniel points out the parable of the workers in the field.

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You know, they get paid and they all get paid the same amount, even though some of them have been in the field less and some of them have been in longer.

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And the point of that is God could have given nothing to all of them and been completely just, and it's completely within his rights to give them exactly whatever he wants.

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That's what makes him God. Yeah, we don't want

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God's justice. We want his mercy. We want his compassion. We want his grace.

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It's actually still in Romans 9, where he says that in the same context where he says, there are some vessels for grace and vessels of mercy and some for wrath.

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But yeah, yeah, yeah.

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It's not knowing ahead of time. OK, let's see.

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We just talked about human responsibility, thankfully. Why does God pass over some and not elect them?

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Because it's his choice. Let's look at number 27. Can Christians become too heavenly minded?

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Yeah. You're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. Daniel says if you are heavily minded, it's probably helping your walk on earth.

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Charlie. Persecuted for weirdness sake.

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John. Yeah, I would say to anyone who is hanging out on the rooftop for Jesus to come back, that would be bad.

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Go ahead. Go ahead and read it.

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Yeah, I think really, you know, except for some extreme kind of hailey bop or hail bop comet cult thing, the answer to that would be no, you can't be too heavenly minded.

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Keep your eyes fixed on Christ. I mean, the language, lay up your treasures in heaven, not on earth.

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In other words, and you know, what is our hope? Our hope is of heaven, not of vacation.

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You know, I mean, this is the goal to which we press and push.

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And Daniel, go ahead. Right.

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Yeah, and I think that's a good caveat there. Appropriately heavenly minded, you know.

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So, yeah, scripturally heavenly minded. I mean, it is right to have our focus there.

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But, you know, also if you're thinking about heaven, do you have more or less compassion for those who are not going to heaven?

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At least not yet. Right. Yeah, are you bringing glory to God if you're just sitting there like a vegetable?

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The answer is no. If you have in mind heaven, then your work here on earth will be different.

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It should be. Let's see. Can you disprove the existence of purgatory by scripture?

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Yeah, I'd say Hebrews 9 .27 again. You know, as appointed man wants to die and then to judgment, not to purging of sins for an unspecified amount of time.

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Number 29, why can't a woman be an elder? Paul forbids it.

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That mean Paul. What if Paul just had a thing, you know, against women?

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Okay. All right, Pam, you got me. He's speaking for God. That's a good point.

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Other thoughts on that? Anybody have any scripture they'd like to share? 1

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Timothy. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you today. Three.

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Okay. 1 Timothy 3 says, you know, starting in verse 1, it says it is a trustworthy statement if any man desires to the office of overseer.

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And some will say, well, what if, you know, it should be translated anyone? Well, there is a problem.

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And if we back up, I think this is what Pastor Dave was talking about in chapter 2. In verse 11 we read, a woman must receive instruction with entire submissiveness.

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Verse 12, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

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That mean Paul. But wait a minute, he gives a reason for it. Verse 13, for it was Adam who was first created and then

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Eve. 14, and it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.

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It goes right back to the curse. And one of the results of the curse is that women are not to have authority over men.

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And that would be in the church and in the home. So that's just the way it is. Cannot be an elder or a deacon.

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Question number 30, how can a loving God punish people forever in hell?

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He's a just and holy God who cannot abide sin, will not tolerate it in his presence.

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So this idea that, you know, certainly God will beat us with a few stripes and then let us go. No. 31, what is the right way to treat

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Mormon missionaries or representatives of the Watchtower who show up at our door? Preach the gospel.

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That is a short answer. Don't let them in. You know, why? Why would you not want to let them in? The Bible says not to.

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Yes, Wes. 29.

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Okay. That's an excellent question.

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I'm going to let Pastor Dave answer it. No, we've... That's in my notes.

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If you get a really sticky question, go to Dave. No, we kind of have a...

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Our thought on this is basically 13 and up. So mostly, you know, because we're rabbinic in our nature.

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No, we just think that's an appropriate age for... to treat young people as young adults rather than as children.

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Good question, though. Let's see. Number 32, what would you say to someone who says they died and came back to life?

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What's that? Where did you buy the stuff? Hebrews 9 .27

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again. I agree. I absolutely agree. All right.

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Briefly, can demons be Christian -possessed? Can Christians be demon -possessed?

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Why or why not? Fill with the Holy Spirit. And if you want to plunder the house, you must bind up the strong man.

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Can Christians be demon -possessed? The short answer is no, because they've got their possessions of the

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Holy Spirit. And guess what? He doesn't sublease room for demons. One master.

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That is correct. Okay. Let's go ahead and close in prayer. Father, so many issues this morning.

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The good news is that you have given us your all -sufficient word whereby we can struggle and wrestle with these issues and even have discussions, debates about them.

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But ultimately, we have to fall back on what you have said in your word.

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And that settles it in the minds of those who love you and are called according to your purpose. Father, I pray for any here this morning that struggle with some of these things that we've talked about.

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I just pray that you would give them insight as they are faithful to study your word that they would press on in their study and not be satisfied with their own understanding.

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And Lord, that we would always be, all of us, humble enough to think about the hundreds of years that you have given us faithful men to divide the word and their insights given by virtue of you gifting them.

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Lord, let us look to them. Let us look, most of all, to your word and to a good understanding.

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There are certainly difficult issues, but not impossible issues to understand.

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Father, help us to be faithful students that we might, when these questions come up in our own conversations with other brothers and sisters, with unbelievers, to be ready to have

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Scripture to give as a reason for our personal beliefs.