Conference Questions and Answers

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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November 9, 2015

00:01: This is the question and answer time for our 2015 Reformation Celebration Conference, and there are a lot of questions.
00:12: I have a handful.
00:13: I've previewed some of them, but not all of them, and some of them are directed to any speaker, and some of them are directed to specific speakers.
00:22: If a speaker has left, we will allow someone else to answer it, just so everyone understands what's happening.
00:32: This first one is for everyone.
00:38: The culture has infiltrated the church, which has led to error being taught or permitted in many churches.
00:47: When should a Christian correct someone promoting biblical error, either in person or online, and when should we not engage someone? And that's open to everyone.
01:05: Should we engage publicly or privately? It says, when should a Christian correct someone promoting biblical error, either in person or online, or when should we not? I think the question is, are there times when we let it go, or should we always engage? I think that's the question, and I guess we can speak to the how as well, should it be public or private? But I think the question is, should we ever just sort of kind of let it go and not worry about it? I think that's the gist of the question.
01:37: Am I getting that correct? Well, go ahead, however you guys interpret that.
01:45: Well, I don't think everything, you have to die in every hill.
01:50: I think there are certain things that we need to deal with, and if they're point-blank heresy where it affects the tenets of our faith, I think we need to deal with it.
02:03: But I just think we need to be real careful how we deal with things online, the whole social media thing.
02:08: I mean, and also you've got to ask yourself, are you dealing with the church, your own church, or are these other Christians, they have another church or whatever.
02:14: So I think just dealing with other people, we have to be just real careful that we're not just getting into a bunch of just needless battles, just wasting a bunch of time arguing with people on social media when we could, you know, there's a lot bigger fish to fry.
02:31: You know, I would definitely say that every Christian has a responsibility to hold each other accountable in the local church.
02:40: I also think it's important to definitely ascertain your time on social media.
02:46: I know a lot of times it can become pejorative.
02:49: One person can post something, and you all know when you send an email or you say something online, it can always be mistaken for something else.
02:58: The whole purpose is not to publicly humiliate, but in error.
03:03: It's for restoration.
03:06: You know, bringing someone, restoring someone, especially someone you care about, back into fellowship.
03:12: So I think that's important, and I would definitely encourage you to focus one-on-one and working those issues out with people you care about in private, again, so it doesn't become as construed as public humiliation.
03:30: Again, we talk about principles.
03:32: Am I on? Yes, sir.
03:34: Keith, I think in general, public sin needs to be reviewed publicly for public repentance.
03:43: Private sin should be reviewed privately for private repentance, if possible.
03:52: Second of all, of course, we operate by the rule of Scripture.
03:58: Probably the most dramatic answer might come out of Galatians chapter 1, right, and 2.
04:05: Paul understood correctly that to add any kind of works righteousness to the gospel was such a vital error that he was willing to confront even the apostle Peter and say, you're not walking in an orthodox way.
04:24: And he said to the Judaizers that basically, may you be cursed, may you be damned.
04:39: Anathema on your head.
04:41: Let me say it again.
04:42: Let you be cursed.
04:44: Don't say that at me.
04:46: No, but so, I mean, that would be an example of extreme confrontation and it would be necessary.
04:54: If it was a matter, again, if we go to the Scriptures, that you might have offended a brother by eating meat sacrificed at the heathen temple, then that's probably not going to affect someone's eternal destiny, but it's something that's very important for the life of a church and needs to be handled.
05:14: So, wisdom would be the major issue there.
05:18: Are you willing and able to differentiate between what's absolutely essential to a saving gospel and what more pertains to the closeness and the unity of the fellowship that can be handled more personally.
05:35: But we need to know the Bible.
05:36: That's my bottom line.
05:37: You need to know what the Bible says about addressing these things.
05:42: It's got to be sufficient to answer that question.
05:45: Amen.
05:46: I think that's great.
05:47: I don't have anything to add.
05:48: That's wonderful.
05:49: I'm going to move now to the second question.
05:51: This one is specifically for Jeff.
05:57: I've heard many pastors use the verse Luke 10 to the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.
06:05: How can you reconcile with your experience that people are not hungry for the gospel knowing that we've been told that the harvest is great? Well, it doesn't change human nature.
06:23: The reality is that men are dead in their sin.
06:27: The Bible tells us very clearly that men are enemies of God.
06:35: In Romans it says that they're not searching after God.
06:39: No one understands.
06:41: The scriptures tell us clearly that man is not going after God.
06:46: Man is running away from God.
06:50: No one's going to chase after God when they're dead in their sin.
06:53: Only when God awakens that person does that person have a desire to come to God.
06:59: God places and gives that man a new heart, that woman a new heart.
07:03: The harvest is determined based upon God himself.
07:06: He is sovereign and he elects those by which are going to be saved.
07:10: He uses the means of a preacher to save those.
07:13: I don't know exactly who's going to be saved, but hungry for the word of God.
07:19: The only people that are hungry for the word of God are those who have a new heart.
07:24: God's hunger is within them.
07:25: God puts the desire to come.
07:27: It's only when they come.
07:29: How big the harvest is? How do we count those numbers? How do we count them? Is it like a crusade where you've got a bunch of people coming up making decisions? Or ultimately is it over a period of many years? I've seen people come to the Lord.
07:48: I've seen people repent and get right with God.
07:52: As far as the harvest is concerned, only God knows the numbers of the harvest.
08:02: Alright.
08:02: Since that one was just for you, unless somebody else has something...
08:04: Oh yeah, I was just kind of leaving it open for you.
08:07: I'll add one thing to that too.
08:09: I believe it was John Owen that once said that...
08:15: He said something to the extent of the rule of free will.
08:20: Free will is deformed darlings' corrupt nature.
08:24: The palas or beloved self-conception of darkened minds.
08:29: In regards to free will, he made a good point.
08:32: No one seeks after God on their own.
08:35: And even R.C.
08:36: Sproul said the neutral view of free will is impossible.
08:40: It involves choice without desire.
08:43: And I think that's important that we all understand.
08:46: Unless the Father speaks to the heart and draws the person to Him, we will not come to Him on our own.
08:55: And Romans 3 would certainly testify to that.
08:59: No one understands God.
09:00: No one seeks after God.
09:01: They all turn aside.
09:03: They all become unprofitable.
09:04: So I just wanted to add just a quick word on top of what you just said.
09:11: I think I know the answer to this.
09:13: But I'm going to ask all of you to give a quick thought.
09:21: What are your thoughts on the co-exist movement? The co-exist stickers and everything.
09:27: One of our young people asked, and I think that's a good question.
09:30: What do you think about the co-exist? Do you know what we mean by co-exist? Do everybody understand? You see the sign on the back of the car and it's got all the different religious symbols.
09:37: And it spells out co-exist with a Muslim star and crescent as the C and the different letters.
09:46: I would just say it's another sign of the neo-paganism we're living with.
09:52: We've lost the ability to distinguish between differences.
09:57: Hoping that everything and everybody is going to be the same.
10:01: And that bumper sticker is just an expression of that.
10:04: Amen.
10:06: I think that's true.
10:07: Do you guys want to add anything? Christ would be the most intolerant as far as the person ever walked the face of the earth.
10:12: He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
10:14: No one comes to the Father except through me.
10:16: There is no other way.
10:18: He wasn't saying all these other ways in equal terms.
10:23: He clearly divided.
10:24: He said, I'm the only way.
10:26: So, it destroys that whole concept.
10:33: This is something I think each of us can answer.
10:40: The question is, please share with us the challenges on preaching in the service.
10:49: Now, I think the heart of the question is, what are some of the challenges of being in the preaching ministry? It's a thoughtful question for the heart.
11:03: What are some of the challenges you guys face? Well, I'll go starting again with Jeremiah.
11:10: These false prophets, if they would have stood in my presence, then they would have had something to say.
11:17: They're saying, I've had a dream, I've had a dream.
11:20: Jeremiah replies, oh, what does my word have to do with dreams? What is the likeness between the chaff and the grain? Is not my word like a fire that burns away the impurities? And is not my word like a hammer that breaks the hard rocks? The greatest hindrance to my preaching is me.
11:51: And if I don't spend time in the presence of the Lord, I'm not going to have anything to say.
11:59: And God tells me, I think in every preacher, don't speak unless you're spoken to.
12:08: And when you've been spoken to, then you better speak.
12:12: So it's the condition of my own soul that's the biggest hindrance.
12:18: My own innate sinfulness, my fleshly desires, my hurriedness.
12:23: Sometimes before I run without something proper to say.
12:28: And I consider it a lot in terms of the Old Testament prophets.
12:35: God gives burdens.
12:36: I really believe this.
12:37: God gives burdens.
12:39: And my job is to make sure I discern what the burden is correctly.
12:43: And then I discharge it, that burden, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
12:49: I'll just begin there and stop.
12:53: I can't add to that.
12:59: I agree as well.
13:03: I think the Puritans especially are clear on this.
13:07: The word that would be channeled through me has no power to change other people's lives unless it's first changed my life.
13:16: Amen.
13:17: And that is the cost of discipleship.
13:23: That's great.
13:25: I agree.
13:25: We'll move on.
13:26: I think that you speak for all of us.
13:28: The biggest hindrance often is ourselves.
13:33: This is actually a specific exegetical question.
13:39: And so you may have to open your Bible.
13:41: He did write the verse out.
13:43: This is from another young man in the congregation.
13:46: And one of you mentioned this passage, and I think it was you, Sonny.
13:49: Revelation 19, 12.
13:51: And on his head are many diadems.
13:53: And he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
13:58: The question is, is the name something we can't pronounce? Or is the name something only he can be called? That false prophets can't steal? Why is it that no one knows but himself? I have not exegeted that passage in a while.
14:20: Unless someone has a Greek New Testament and about 20 minutes.
14:27: That's a heavy question.
14:29: Anybody else thought about that? What that means when it says there's a name written that no one knows but himself? I hate to speak before I thought to.
14:41: I guess I come to Matthew 11.
14:45: Jesus rejoiced greatly in his spirit.
14:47: I thank you, Father, that you've hidden these things from the wise and prudent and declared them to children.
14:54: Such was good in your sight.
14:57: What does he say? All things have been handed over to me by the Father.
15:03: No one knows the Son except the Father.
15:06: No one knows the Father except the Son.
15:08: And that the Son is willed to reveal him.
15:12: So there certainly is this shared knowledge of identities and names between the Father and the Son.
15:19: So I'd go to that place and say, well, the Father knows the name.
15:23: And maybe that's the best thing to draw from that at the moment.
15:26: This is a specific identity that Christ claims for himself that no one else has.
15:32: Wouldn't you say? The Father would know.
15:36: In that same context, it also says after his robe was dipped in blood and his name was called the Word of God in the same context.
15:47: So I'd say I think that's fairly accurate from what you're saying.
15:53: In the same context that it's a name that no one else can counterfeit because he's now revealed in his second coming.
16:06: All right.
16:08: This one I think all of us may want to respond to.
16:14: You meet many people during the course of your day.
16:17: Next to you is someone you have a few moments with or a few minutes.
16:26: What can you say to open the conversation about Christ and what do you say to make it effective? You've got two minutes to share the Gospel.
16:38: What do you do? Well, each conversation can be a little bit different based upon where you're at and what you're doing.
16:46: Are you sitting next to someone on an airplane? Or are you cashing out somewhere? I think the heart of the question, and I actually know the person asking, is ideas on how to open that conversation wherever you are, whatever it is you're doing.
17:00: What are some of the ways that you use to engage people? Maybe that's a...
17:05: And we all probably do it differently.
17:10: I'll answer my thought, and if you guys, maybe that'll help.
17:12: One of the things Paul Washer referenced and very recently has taken a great influence for me is just asking people the question, have you ever really understood the Gospel? Because that kind of cuts through all the nonsense.
17:36: Oftentimes we say, you've got to talk to them about where they work or where they fish or whatever.
17:41: You've got to swing from the natural to the spiritual.
17:43: We've all heard that, and there are times when certainly that's necessary.
17:48: But if you only have a few moments with someone and you really want to ask them a question that has eternal significance, have you ever really understood the Gospel? Nine times out of ten I ask people that.
18:05: They say, you know, I really haven't.
18:07: Or they'll say, does anyone? I've had many people say, does anyone ever really understand the Gospel? I say, well, I do.
18:16: Can I share it with you? Can I tell you what the Gospel is? If you don't know what it is, can I tell you what it is? And then there's no pretense in the conversation.
18:27: They know exactly what I'm going to give them.
18:29: I'm going to tell them what the Gospel is.
18:34: That's, and again, that's Paul Washer, and he said, I think he heard it from someone else, but it was just a very simple introductory question.
18:44: Do you, have you ever really understood it? It's a good question for Christians, too.
18:48: Oh, sure.
18:50: It's a good question for the counseling room, because everything goes back to the Gospel.
18:55: I frequently will ask, are you interested in spiritual things? A generation ago, people would clam up and say, no, I don't want to talk about that.
19:04: But today, in a postmodern kind of world, people kind of warm up to the idea, yeah, I like to talk about spirituality.
19:10: Yeah, I agree.
19:11: I use the same introduction about spiritual things.
19:15: Do you have a belief in God? What do you think about God? They always have a belief about God, whether they say He doesn't exist, which is a great opportunity as well, or they're just, their definition of the God that they've created in their own mind, which you can deal with that, too.
19:30: But getting them talking about spiritual things.
19:32: I think we can just be transparent, too.
19:35: I don't see any reason to be discreet or to use savvy relevance in anything that we're doing.
19:42: I mean, it's just a matter of when we go door-to-door witnessing every Wednesday in our congregation, we just tell people who we are, and we tell them, you know, we're passing out tracts tonight about the Gospel, we would like the opportunity to share this with you, and we're just very transparent.
20:00: You don't have to, you know, kind of use any type of eloquent words or lofty speech or wisdom, just as the Bible says, proclaim Christ and Him crucified.
20:10: That's all you have to do.
20:11: That's sharing His Gospel with people as you're commanded to do.
20:15: Can I ask you guys a favor? Can y'all share the black microphone? For some reason, that cord seems to be...
20:20: I just don't want to mess up the video.
20:21: Can you just set that on the ground, and y'all can just share that microphone for us? I just don't want it to...
20:25: I was going to say as well, real quick, too, that I learned some open air techniques through a gentleman by the name of Robert Clockhart, who was an open air preacher back in the time when Spurgeon was around, and he would just call people out, and we would, you know, intentionally dialogue, we call it dialoguing in the open air, where you try to stop someone, and they're walking past you, and, sir, are you right with God? Are you ready to stand before God? I don't believe that God exists! They'll stop, and they'll start, you know, contending, and then it will usually cause, within other people, give them confidence to be able to lash out at the preacher, too, because this guy is, and a lot of times within a few minutes or so, you can have two or three hecklers on you wanting to debate back and forth, and next thing you know, you have a good crowd of, you know, sometimes, you know, 50 to 100 people standing around based off just getting one person to stop, and that's kind of what we do to build crowds, we don't use gimmicks, or pragmatism, or anything like that, we just, as people are walking by, we try to dialogue with them to get them to stop, you know, we just throw, shoot arrows out there, finally, something will connect, and they'll stop and start dialoguing, then other people will start standing around, you'll start seeing that someone else will get some boldness, and they'll want to shout something out, and you're dialoguing with that person going back and forth, handling their questions, then someone else will start heckling you, and within about, you know, 10-15 minutes, you get that 50 to 100 people standing around, and these three hecklers keep heckling you, and the crowd just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and then you're able to really just proclaim the gospel.
22:01: I would just add, if this is a personal conversation, unscripted and unplanned, most of the communication is nonverbal, right? And people will pick up on whether the fact you genuinely are concerned for them.
22:17: They'll somehow subconsciously know whether you are trying to love them.
22:23: And hopefully, the answer will be yes, and they'll be willing to talk.
22:29: I had a young girl, when we were out doing the evangelism booth, half way through the conversation, she said, you're talking to me like I'm stupid.
22:37: And I stopped.
22:40: And I said, that's not what I want to do.
22:43: And if that's what I'm making you feel like, I'm sorry.
22:48: I said, I care about you.
22:50: And I wasn't trying to make her feel stupid, but I was talking to her in a way she probably hadn't been talked to before.
22:56: I was talking to her about her sin and her need for a savior.
23:00: But she heard me in not a loving way.
23:04: So I had to stop.
23:06: I had to apologize.
23:07: And I had to say, I care about you.
23:09: I ended up talking to her for another 15 minutes after that.
23:12: She was ready to walk away.
23:14: And I said, then I'm going to change the way I talk to you.
23:17: But I'm not going to change what I'm saying.
23:20: But I need you to know my heart yearns for your salvation.
23:23: I hurt that you are lost.
23:26: And if I'm talking to you like I'm stupid, like you're stupid, I'm sorry.
23:32: That's what you just said about.
23:33: Because I didn't realize that was what I was communicating.
23:36: And also, for the person who asked the question, gospel tracks.
23:39: Somebody mentioned them.
23:41: Having good gospel tracks with you to give someone they can be a doorway to communication.
23:47: May I give you this? What is it? It's the gospel.
23:50: Why are you giving this to me? Because I care about your soul.
23:55: You know, that's a simple thing.
23:56: You were going to say, brother? No, I was just going to say, even when you're driving down the road, I mean, just coming up here, driving down here from Kentucky to Florida, you're going to pass billboards that just say, heaven or hell, there you go.
24:09: There's a perfect example for you.
24:10: If you die tomorrow, where are you going to go? It's something that the Savior said in John 3.36.
24:15: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the Son does not have eternal life, but the wrath of God that abides in him.
24:22: And when you start talking about end-of-life matters, you're going to catch people's attention.
24:26: I just went down to UK with a dear friend of Jeff.
24:31: UK is University of Kentucky, and we simply asked that question and were just surrounded by students, and as he was saying, sometimes there are certain things that you say from God's Word, and it will cause people to surround you, and we had probably anywhere between 50 to 75, and probably 50 to 75 students in just a matter of, you know, five minutes surround us by asking that question.
25:01: Some were scoffing, but some, through our peripheral vision, were literally just this countenance on their face that it just really mattered to them.
25:13: And they were thinking to themselves, and they were raising their hands, wanting to ask questions.
25:19: So that's one of the things I've taken away from a lot of these street preaching brothers.
25:23: That's how I found Brother Jeff, by watching a lot of the preaching he does online, and seeing the guys actually putting their faith into practice on the streets, and to be able to preach to people that would not come into the congregation.
25:38: You know, homosexuals, Catholics, and people that would never step foot in a church like this, or my church, or my brother's church here.
25:47: And you'll reach them on the streets.
25:49: So you'll learn just by being transparent, and just by, you know, kind of cultivating your own methods, just by saying, heaven or hell, I mean, it's a simple question, because that's the reality of what it's going to come down to.
26:01: Heaven or hell.
26:03: I don't want to drag this question out much longer.
26:06: I was just saying that you want to connect with other people that are going out, and learn to, I know that was a big part of my own life, and it still is, get out with other people who are doing it.
26:17: It's really hard to go alone.
26:19: It's great to go out with others, get excited.
26:22: Pastor Jennings said, pray, seek the Lord, you know, and get out there with something to say, but get out with others that will encourage you, because it really is a difficult thing to do.
26:35: The question was probably intended to be how do you start a conversation one-on-one with someone that you're sitting next to, or you come and talk to someone, I get all that.
26:43: But I'm just saying, for those of you out there who are thinking maybe you would like to venture out of the seas of open air preaching or something like that, I would encourage you as well to come to the Herald Society, and maybe get connected, because that's where the training is.
26:58: That's where they start talking about different ways in which you can get out there and you can get in contact with the culture and be able to proclaim the word of God, apologetics and all kinds of things.
27:10: It really equips you to go out and be able to know what you're doing out there.
27:19: Yeah, and I you know, we talk about our evangelism booth that we do.
27:24: I tell people this isn't just evangelism, this is training.
27:27: Because this is putting you in front of a big banner with a big sign over your head that says do you understand the gospel, with tracts in your hand with three other people that are also holding tracts in their hand it gives you the confidence to do it.
27:39: Where when you finally get by yourself you've done this before.
27:45: And you've done it before with somebody beside you.
27:48: So, yeah, I like the idea of training and having people beside you.
27:53: If all that God has chosen will come to him in salvation then why do some Reformed preachers speak of urgency in evangelism after all God will lose none of the elect? We speak of the urgency because it's not arbitrary, it's an indispensable command, as I told you all earlier.
28:20: We are commanded to preach the gospel.
28:23: As Spurgeon once said, yes God does elect, but that is something that the Father, who is absolutely sovereign, who governs and sustains all things according to his infallible foreknowledge as the Westminster Confession and the London Baptist Confession teach us.
28:40: And if God does things according to his immutable purpose and the free counsel of his will, Spurgeon says that we don't have a big E on our chest.
28:52: We are not, we don't know who the elect of God are.
28:55: In fact, I heard a preacher at a conference probably about a month ago, he said it's a good thing we don't know who the elect are because we would only love the elect when God has called us to love people, to preach the good news of Jesus Christ about salvation.
29:15: I recently met my first hyper-Calvinist and if you don't know what a hyper-Calvinist is, it's a Calvinist that eats too much caffeine.
29:26: Oh, come on, that's not a joke.
29:33: A Calvinist is a person who believes that God is sovereign in salvation and that he is the one that opens the heart to believe and that he is the one who draws men to himself and that no one will come on his own outside of God's strong enablement.
29:47: Do we agree with that? A hyper-Calvinist believes that God does not use means in saving his elect but simply saves his elect by some unseen force.
29:58: We believe, as all of us, I would assume, identify ourselves at least as being Calvinistic in our soteriology, our belief of salvation, we believe in what we would call the doctrines of grace.
30:10: We would identify a hyper-Calvinist as someone who says that the gospel is unnecessary to bring a person to salvation because that's what they're saying.
30:20: They say, you don't have to have the gospel, the elect are going to come.
30:24: That's what this man said to me.
30:26: He told me.
30:26: He said we were standing there doing our evangelism and he came up and he started quoting scripture and he saw the name of the church, Sovereign Grace Family Church and he said, well, Sovereign Grace, I know all about that.
30:34: He started quoting Romans 9 and a few other passages and I said, well, tell me about yourself.
30:39: And he says, well, I'm a 15-year primitive Baptist preacher.
30:43: And I said, okay.
30:44: And I knew at that point that at least what I'd heard, primitive Baptists are more hyper-Calvinists.
30:50: And I said, well, what do you do now? I'm not in the church anymore.
30:54: I don't go to church anymore.
30:56: I said, you know, we're called to love the brethren.
31:01: And he said, I don't love Christians.
31:04: I said, you know the word of God says you're not saved, right? I mean, I must be pretty clear.
31:09: You know, if you don't love the brethren, if you don't love the bride of Christ, what are you talking about? You don't love the brethren.
31:14: He said, I don't love them.
31:16: He said, I don't care.
31:17: It doesn't matter if God's going to do what He wants.
31:21: And I said, so what you're telling me is the gospel is not necessary to save.
31:26: He said, that's right.
31:27: He said, God saves anybody.
31:29: He said, people don't have to believe in Jesus.
31:30: God's going to save whoever He wants.
31:32: You see, this is misunderstanding the doctrines of grace.
31:37: If you don't understand that God uses means to bring about His ends, then you have missed the doctrines of grace.
31:45: The means of the gospel and the proclamation of the gospel and bringing souls to salvation is necessary.
31:56: And so, I just say that in response to the question to say, why is there urgency? Well, it's not urgency in the sense that we think God's going to miss somebody, that God's going to lose somebody, but it's urgency in that we've been commanded to do this and we know God's going to use this.
32:15: God's going to use the preaching of the gospel.
32:17: It's either going to be preaching death unto death or life unto life, but He's going to use this.
32:21: And the urgency is in the going.
32:25: We're urgent to go because we've been commanded to go.
32:31: How shall they believe Him who they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall anyone preach unless they be sent? Can I add one thing out of that, too? I wanted you all to be aware, too.
32:45: There's always going to be people that are going to make categorical statements and some disparaging rhetoric against Calvinists being hyper-Calvinists.
32:53: Let me explain to you something through this, through church history.
32:56: It was actually John Ryland Sr.
32:58: who once looked at William Carey, a missionary, and said, young man, sit down.
33:03: If God want to convert the heathen, He'll do so without your help or mine.
33:06: And that's kind of a historical example of what hyper-Calvinism is, but that's not Calvinism.
33:12: To call Calvinism hyper-Calvinism is like calling a military soldier a terrorist just because they both have guns and they both serve in a militant form.
33:22: Amen.
33:24: That's good.
33:25: I just like that quote.
33:31: Sonny, you said in your message, and this is directly to you, that you said that there's nothing you can do to be saved.
33:41: Can you elaborate on your comment that there's nothing you can do to be saved? Absolutely.
33:46: Matthew 19.
33:47: The question was asked of Jesus, well, what can a person do to be saved? And Jesus' response was pretty simplistic.
33:56: With men, things are impossible.
34:01: With God, nothing is possible, and here's why.
34:03: Because a man's works have nothing to do with his righteousness before God.
34:08: Romans 4.
34:09: If Abraham was justified by works, he would have reason to boast, but what do the scriptures say? Abraham believed in God and it was counted to him as righteous.
34:17: And if you look theologically through Romans 4, the argument here is not that Abraham was not righteous.
34:25: But the argument here is that it was not his righteousness, his own, how he gained acceptance with God.
34:31: You see, a man's good works cannot gain an acceptance with God because a man cannot earn merit or favor with God.
34:38: Scripture also reveals to us, too, that in the book of Galatians, it says, for by works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight.
34:47: And it tells us for those who rely upon the works of the law will be under a curse.
34:52: Cursed is everyone that does not abide by the things written in the book of the law and do them.
34:56: So you see, it is impossible for a person to earn merit or favor with God because the purpose of the law, according to John Calvin, he said that it functions by fear of punishment to restrain certain people who have been untouched by any care of what is just or unjust unless compelled by the dire threats of the law.
35:16: So you see, it promotes civic righteousness.
35:18: He said it also lastly warns, informs, and convicts us, and lastly condemns us of our own unrighteousness and admonishes us for holy living.
35:27: So the purpose of the law is only to show us what our sin is and what it deserves.
35:34: It cannot free us.
35:35: Deliverance can only come through the gospel.
35:37: And so that's why the importance that we all have to understand is that the universal rule of mankind, the universal guilt of mankind, both prove free will to be false.
35:47: So a person cannot gain merit or favor with God.
35:51: Salvation is only possible through the person in the work of Jesus Christ by what's called his active and passive obedience.
35:57: He was obedient to the law when we all have broken the law.
36:02: And Jesus Christ paid the penalty for the debt for which we incurred.
36:07: And he fully and absolutely satisfied the claims that divine justice had upon each and every one of us.
36:12: That is how we are saved.
36:14: And I think from the words of Luther when he was asked the question, well, if you take away a man's relics and a man's works, what would you place in itself? And here's why they had asked that question.
36:27: Catholic Catechism number 2068 says faith, works, are how a man is to be justified.
36:33: Well, if a man is justified by works, then that would mean something is in them that God must praise and not condemn.
36:39: And we know that's not the case because God sees nothing in us.
36:44: Just read Deuteronomy 7 to concur that.
36:47: So again, it's by the active and the passive obedience of Christ.
36:51: Sorry I went so long.
36:51: No, no, that's fine.
36:53: I know it was your question, I want to add one thought.
36:57: Sometimes I think that we think of salvation as a transaction.
37:02: You believe, God saves you.
37:05: That's the thing that I think people think of.
37:08: And that's what, when you say there's nothing you can do, I think people are saying, well, where's the transaction? Okay, I can explain that.
37:16: It's a one-sided transaction.
37:18: Let me explain that.
37:19: Genesis 15, think about what it says, Abraham believed in God and was counted to him as righteous.
37:24: The word reckoned, when you talk about the word imputed righteousness, God literally takes what belongs to somebody else and he credits it to us.
37:33: We did nothing.
37:33: You did nothing.
37:34: I did nothing.
37:35: But he takes from Christ and credits it to our account.
37:39: So I would say it is a transaction, but it's a very one-sided transaction.
37:43: The word reckoned imputed his righteousness.
37:46: And I think the best illustration I've heard in regards to justification would be by John Calvin.
37:52: Calvin said that a man will be justified by works when, or I'm sorry, justified by faith when, apart from the righteousness of works, he by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, and he's clothed in it that way he will appear in the sight of God.
38:08: That is a sinner, but is righteous.
38:10: Why? Because it's not our own.
38:11: It's his righteousness credited to our account.
38:14: And by the way, the reference to Abraham is important because you see God had promised salvation by grace to Abraham before he even gave the law.
38:23: And that's important for us to remember.
38:26: And it could be, too, as well that they may be asking the question in the sense, is there any kind of reaction from the sinner coming to the Lord? Does the sinner like, you know, they may be thinking that, um, do we look for any outward reaction? What must I do to be saved? Obviously, there's no salvific work within the sinner, but do we see any outward works of God within the sinner's life? And I would say yes.
38:53: I mean, because I think of the, um, you know, the whole easy-believism that is so, you know, inundated the church today.
39:02: You know, I think in people making decisions for Christ and all of that scares a lot of people away from calling them to repent and get right with the Lord, to come to Christ.
39:13: Um, so I think, you know, we don't want to lose that reality in this as well.
39:18: If men come to you, or women come to you and they want to be made right with God, it's not something, it's not their own doings, but it's God working in them and you may see that happening where they will cry out, what must I do to be saved? But that's not coming conjured up from their own will.
39:35: That's coming from the act and power of God.
39:38: And you lead them.
39:40: Lead them.
39:40: You know, bring them to Christ.
39:42: So, anyway, I just wanted to make that clear too because I know sometimes questions can be asked in a way, maybe that we're answering them, but maybe not completely in the way that you were asking.
39:52: The response is repentance and faith, but that response is a gift of grace.
39:57: So when we say there's nothing that you can do, it's not saying there's nothing you will do.
40:02: You're not doing it.
40:05: You tell people you must repent and believe.
40:08: And we're back to the Augustinian-Pelagian issue there, and saying with Augustine, Lord, command what you will, but you must give what you command.
40:19: So that's the level you put the inquirer on.
40:23: You must repent and believe, but even that you cannot do unless God's grace reaches you.
40:28: You need to cry out for that.
40:32: Yeah, I'll just say one more thing.
40:33: I love, I really challenge you all to read Martin Luther quite a bit.
40:38: His running commentary going through Romans where the scripture says, freely by his grace.
40:43: And he points out those two words, freely by his grace.
40:47: You know what that means? Salvation cannot be earned or deserved.
40:49: And then his argument with Erasmus.
40:52: Erasmus repeatedly said that God would justify one person and not the other because one person did something to try to be righteous and the other person did not.
41:02: Well, the problem with that is that would make God a respecter of persons.
41:05: And we know God is not a respecter of persons.
41:08: And I think you're right going through the whole Augustinian-Pelagian view.
41:13: What we don't want to do, and the reason why I love reform doctrine.
41:17: One of the reasons why I came to the reform faith is because if you take a look at Pelagius' view, he believed that yes, God discharges the debt of sin against us, but only with the consent and choice of the believer.
41:29: If you look back at the canons of Dort, you'll see that Jacob Arminius believed that salvation was based upon forcing faith or unbelief.
41:38: And if you take a look at Charles Finney, he was another person that rejected the notion of Adam's sinful, guilty nature that was transferred to all of his posterity.
41:46: And he also believed that man could create himself in himself a new heart.
41:51: Which those three views are heretical.
41:54: Salvation is entirely freely by his grace.
41:57: Yes, exactly.
41:59: Denied imputation, yes.
42:02: This next one actually is for me.
42:06: If you guys want to mention anything.
42:11: Since some people feel telling an individual about their sin instantly defeats the purpose or goal because it can be offensive, do you think it is necessary to build some type of relationship or correction with an individual, or connection rather, with an individual before telling them the truth about their sin? And since it's directed to me, I'll go first.
42:41: This is a major issue today.
42:44: We have something that has infiltrated the church called friendship evangelism.
42:50: What that means is, before I can share with someone the gospel, I must first become their friend.
42:59: Friendships take lots of time to develop.
43:06: And meaningful friendships are even more intense than that.
43:11: And the issue of, do I have to be someone's intimate friend before I can share the gospel with them? If that is the case, number one that drastically limits who I can share the gospel with, because I cannot be intimately friendly with every single person I come in contact with.
43:26: But also it causes this, and Tony Miano has a great little story he tells, I'm not going to try to pretend to be Tony, but where he says, you know, you have the neighbor who comes into your neighborhood, you go over to them, you make friends with them, you make plans, have a barbecue with them, you have a barbecue with them, so now you become football buddies and you start watching football, and you think, well, a year from now, when we're good and friends, I'll share the gospel with them, and a year goes by, and finally, you know, Super Bowl Sunday comes, and you decide that during the commercial time of Super Bowl Sunday, you're going to sit down and share the gospel with them, and they look at you and say, why are you, was this the reason you became my friend to begin with? Was this the whole, was this it? What, why have you, you've known me for a year, I've seen you leave for church on Sunday mornings for a whole year, why are you just doing this now? And Tony just says, you know, what would be better, you know, you have a new person come into your neighborhood, bake some cookies, put some gospel tracks in a basket, walk over to their house and say, hey, you know what, I'm thankful that you moved into the neighborhood, my name's Keith, this is my wife Jennifer, these are our kids, we also are members of the local church, Sovereign Grace Family Church, and we have some gospel literature we'd like to give to you along with these cookies, and we'd love to talk to you sometimes if you guys are open to this, we'd love to do that.
44:48: I mean, that's a different way of handling it, you immediately understand where you're coming from, and what matters to you is their soul.
44:56: That's one thing.
44:57: Another thing, though, is and this is something Mike Collier talks about quite a bit, he's not here right now, but he's one of our church members, he said, if you take a piece of paper, and you mark down the moment that you meet somebody and you draw a line on that piece of paper all the way out to, you know, infinite, their death.
45:21: He said, I want you to show me on that line when you should share the gospel with them.
45:29: You know, because you only got a certain amount of times.
45:33: And what if this is the only time you ever see this person? What if this is it? This is, you're on the elevator with the guy, you're coming down from the Baptist hospital, which I spend a lot of time in the hospital going to visit sick folks.
45:44: I'm getting on the elevator, person, I have a gospel tract in my pocket.
45:47: That's the moment.
45:49: I am never going to see this person again.
45:52: You know? Now, as far as being offensive, yes, we can offend people by telling them the truth about their sin.
46:04: And I hate to take all the time, I don't want to spend too much time.
46:06: Recently, I had an involvement with a lady who was a lesbian.
46:11: And she just said, I'm a lesbian, I know I'm going to hell.
46:13: She didn't want to hear about the gospel.
46:15: By God's grace, later, she actually came back and we talked.
46:20: And she said, in the midst of that conversation, she said, am I going to hell because I'm a lesbian? I said, look, have you ever told a lie? And she said, yeah.
46:35: I said, have you told several lies in your life? She said, yeah.
46:38: I said, so what would you call yourself? A liar? I said, Revelation 21.8 says all liars will have their place in the lake of fire.
46:44: Let's talk about you being a liar.
46:47: Yeah, you're a lesbian.
46:48: Yeah, that's a sin.
46:49: But you've got a lot bigger problems.
46:50: You're a liar.
46:52: So my point in that was simply to point out the fact that you are dead in your trespasses and sins.
46:58: This one sin is not what's going to send you to hell.
47:01: Your being a rebel to God is what's going to send you to hell.
47:06: We don't have to focus on one sin in a person's life.
47:09: We can look at the life that is in rebellion to God and be honest with them about their life, not simply point out one thing and make that the hobby horse that we're going to beat them with, but just be honest with the person about their whole life.
47:23: That's my thought, and you guys want to correct me, I'm open to that.
47:27: Again, we've learned so much from Christ in his gospel preaching.
47:32: He never had a method that he applied across the board with every person he met.
47:37: A general principle that's been helpful for me over the years is you can divide people normally into two kinds of groups, the proud and the humble.
47:47: You have the law and the gospel.
47:49: When Christ in general met a proud person, a Pharisee for instance, the rich young ruler who when asked, have you kept all the commandments? Yes, I've kept all the commandments.
48:00: What do you find Jesus doing? You find Jesus giving him the law.
48:04: Go and sell all you have, addressing his covetous heart.
48:08: Right? So when Christ met the proud, he gives them the law, and that might be offensive, but that's what the law does.
48:17: But when Christ meets the humble and the broken, the woman caught in adultery, he doesn't give her the law.
48:24: She's already broken.
48:26: Where did all your accusers go? They're gone.
48:28: Why did you stay? Well, because I know I'm in the light.
48:33: You are the light of the world, and I'm not going to run away from the light right now.
48:37: I've been exposed.
48:38: I've broken.
48:39: Christ says, in gospel form, go and sin no more.
48:44: You've been forgiven.
48:45: Does that make sense? So you're discerning whether this person is proud.
48:51: Well, he's not a candidate for the gospel, probably.
48:54: Until he understands the law should break him of his self-righteousness, so there's room for the gospel to come in.
49:01: If there's already brokenness, give him the gospel.
49:06: Amen.
49:07: We are getting low on time, so I'm going to move through these next ones rather quickly.
49:14: This one is somewhat unfair, and I only say that in a joking manner, because I imagine we don't all have the same millennial position.
49:24: Somebody asked a question about the millennium.
49:27: The question is, will there still be sin on earth during Christ's millennial reign? If you are a dispensational premillennialist, the answer is yes.
49:40: Based on what I understand.
49:42: Yes.
49:43: If you are a dispensational premillennialist, the answer is yes.
49:46: If you're a non-millennialist, we're in the millennium, so yes.
49:51: And if you're a post-millennialist, we're moving toward the millennium, and the answer would still be yes.
49:57: So I guess the answer is yes from my perspective.
49:59: I don't know if you guys want to correct me.
50:02: It wasn't really the subject, but it was a good question.
50:04: Anybody want to add? That's a good answer.
50:07: Yeah, that's a great answer.
50:08: I just say just be concerned with our personal eschatology.
50:11: You know, our personal end time, because you may not have another breath.
50:14: Amen.
50:15: Amen.
50:16: Yeah, that's good.
50:17: I remember you saying that at the conference.
50:19: We get so caught up in biblical eschatology that we forget our own eschatology, that every one of us has an end time, for it is appointed unto man once to die, and then comes judgment.
50:29: That's good.
50:33: Considering the state of the culture, how important is it that Christians use Scripture and evangelism? Can witnessing efforts be relegated to a specific methodology, i.e., Romans Road, personal testimony, etc., or should Christians be equipped by having a deeper understanding of Scripture? Yes.
50:53: The Word of God is the only means by which men are made right with God.
50:59: Preaching the Word of God is the only way.
51:03: I'd agree.
51:04: Ezekiel didn't raise the dead bones through psychobabbling or frivolous illustrations or personal anecdotes.
51:09: It was the Word of the Lord.
51:11: The Word of the Lord is what raised him up.
51:14: The dead corpse of Lazarus wasn't raised because Jesus was trying to build a relationship.
51:21: It's because Jesus came to save him.
51:24: It was by His Word that that dead corpse was subdued and was driven to Christ.
51:32: Because of the Word of the Lord.
51:33: Always the Word of the Lord.
51:35: And we're expounding the Word of God.
51:37: I mean, there's people that just stand up there and just read the verses like a robot, but it's expounding.
51:43: It's taken a verse and it's expounding and explaining and proclaiming that to the world.
51:48: Like the Puritans would say they would take when they preach, they didn't just stand up there and just read the scriptures and then get down and go sit down.
51:55: I mean, they took the Word of God and they exposited it or they explained it and they preached it.
51:59: They put it in their own language, their own wording, and they explained the Word of God and men would be converted.
52:04: I mean, because I've heard people say, well, I just go out in there, I just stand up and I just quote scripture the whole time I'm out there.
52:11: Yeah, but then what's the point of having a preacher? I mean, we must take the Word of God, ingest it, and then breathe it out to the world and explain what the Word of God is.
52:21: Could you expound on that a little bit? You understand what I'm trying to say? Yeah, I thought you said it well.
52:28: Well, I just want to make sure you guys understood.
52:30: Not necessarily like taking the Word of God and making it my own words, but taking the Word of God and explaining it in such a way where you're preaching and God takes the Word and he converts someone by you explaining what the Word means to others.
52:44: John MacArthur says the meaning of Scripture is Scripture.
52:51: If people don't understand what they're saying, what was it that Enoch said to Philip? How can I understand unless someone explains it to me? So sure, the explaining of the Word is part of it, absolutely.
53:03: This one is for you, Sonny, and I want to say, based on this question, I've had several people, I'm glad somebody actually wrote it down, I've had several people come up to me and make comments on your command of having great sections of Scripture memorized.
53:21: Several people, and they'll look forward to you preaching tomorrow, by the way.
53:24: Sonny's going to be preaching for us here at SCFC tomorrow.
53:27: You have a wonderful command of the Biblical content.
53:30: Did your memorization come through deliberate memorization or from constant reading or both? Constant reading.
53:38: I mean, Scripture commands us to meditate on the Word of the Lord day and night.
53:42: I mean, we see a commandment.
53:44: Jesus Christ, when he was in the wilderness, what was the response of the devil when he told him to command that these stones be turned into bread? A man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
53:59: Joshua, you know, that you show, you know, the Word of the Lord.
54:03: The Word of the Lord is what we're commanded to amplify our minds and to saturate ourselves with.
54:13: In fact, it was several years ago I had a dear brother in Christ.
54:19: He was giving a testimony to street preachers, and he had made a comment.
54:25: He said that the preacher, a man of God, must be saturated in the Word of God.
54:32: You know, must be.
54:33: And that brother said, right to my right of me.
54:37: So, what a beautiful testimony of accountability and the witness to one another about the Word of God.
54:46: And so, yeah, I would say for myself, it's just a constant study.
54:51: I mean, I look at the Bible, and I see how it says, be not many masters as ye come unto the greatest condemnation.
54:57: And you'll see in the book of Hosea, for my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
55:02: You know, woe is me if I am not prepared to be able to convey the Word of God to His people, and to feed their soul with the purity of Scripture that can make them wise in salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
55:15: Woe to me.
55:16: And I want to stand before God one day and say I would rather be hated by them and offend them than to offend you, O Lord.
55:27: So, I would say I love them, and because I love Christ, I love them.
55:32: And that's kind of, you know, how I've been trained for the ministry and how I've been sent out by my church to do so as well.
55:42: This next question has a potential for being somewhat divisive, so I'm going to ask us to answer.
55:54: All of us give a brief answer.
55:58: Has contemporary Christian music been a positive or negative influence on the practice of worship time in the church? Who wants to go first? I'll just tell you all this right now.
56:21: One of the things that I'm vehemently blaming because I believe it's biblical.
56:26: One of the reasons why embrace a confession, and I'll tell you why.
56:29: It's the London Baptist Confession.
56:32: You'll see a lot of similarities with Westminster in regards to what's called the Regulative Principles of Worship.
56:39: In other words, God regulates His worship.
56:42: You know, Neh Devin Abihu.
56:43: They offered to the Lord an unauthorized fire which God did not command.
56:48: So let me explain worship in three different ways.
56:50: You have what's called the Inventive Principle, the Normative Principle, and the Regulative Principle.
56:57: In the Inventive Principle, which is the Roman Catholic view that basically says that the church decides how the congregation is going to worship.
57:07: If you go into the Normative Principle, that's kind of more the high church liturgy, the contemporary music that basically says, well, if God does not condemn it, or if God does not expressively state that this is to be condemned, it's okay to worship God that way.
57:24: But hold on a minute.
57:25: Neh Devin Abihu, do we not forget that Neh Devin Abihu offered to the Lord a fire which he did not command.
57:32: And when you read that, that's not the only place you're going to find that scripture.
57:35: You're going to find Cain and Abel.
57:36: One offered to the Lord an acceptable worship, the other did not.
57:39: You're going to even see the woman at the well.
57:42: Jesus, this is where our Father said we are to worship.
57:44: Worship a woman you don't know what you worship.
57:48: You know, and scripture tells us in the book of Hebrews that the Lord is a consuming fire, let us offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe.
57:56: And in the Irregular Principles of Worship it says very plainly and simple that the light of nature and the works of God plainly declare that there is a God, and the acceptable way of worshiping God is instituted and commanded and prescribed by his word, and not according to the imaginations or the advices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan under any visible representation.
58:22: So the question that people have to ask themselves is, is the scripture, is our theological framework directing our worship? And also look at two factors, the manner and the object of which God is your worship.
58:37: You have to ask yourself that, or are you saying or we have to have this type of worship to attract youth, or we have to do this because that's what I did in my last church, we have to do this because that's what everybody else is doing.
58:48: Or are we going to put our focus on the purity of worship as commanded and prescribed by God in his holy word? Any of you have one more to address? I'm not going to condemn contemporary Christian music carte blanche.
59:07: I mean, there are, I believe, some hymns that have been written recently that are good hymns.
59:13: And they would be contemporary.
59:15: But for the most part, the contemporary music movement has spawned an entertainment aura about worship.
59:26: And you cannot go to church in order to be entertained.
59:32: Worship is a verb.
59:34: Entertainment makes you a passive participant.
59:40: You must worship with your mind, as well as your heart, and as well as your body.
59:49: So whatever hymns are sung, they need to be sung with understanding, and they need to be sung with real reverence.
01:00:00: Some hymns do that well, and some hymns fail miserably.
01:00:06: Next to preaching, the most important thing I do every week is choose hymns.
01:00:12: And I don't want our worship services to be like a shotgun blast across the back of a wall where you just see this scattering of all these elements thrown together in some way.
01:00:23: I'll choose a sermon text, and I'll want to make sure that as God speaks through that sermon text, He's also speaking through every other element of the worship, because there's a common thread running throughout the service from the call to worship to the benediction, and every part of those elements is honed in like a rifle shot on what the Lord wants to communicate that day.
01:00:48: It's a much overlooked skill, I think, to choose music well.
01:00:56: That's wisdom right there.
01:00:58: That was very wise.
01:01:00: And I love that what you said about not condemning carte blanche, newer songs.
01:01:05: I know a lot of old songs that have terrible theology.
01:01:08: So, you know, wouldn't we agree that there are hymns that have been written a hundred years ago that are old? I remember a guy came to me one time and says, what about the old standards? I said, well, a lot of those old standards are undeveloped.
01:01:22: One of the great things that's happened in our church, we've become really good singers.
01:01:29: And people who visit our church, that's frequently the first thing they'll say.
01:01:33: Boy, you all really love to sing.
01:01:35: That's a great thing.
01:01:40: This...
01:01:40: Oh, listen, a lot of people even condemn hymns.
01:01:44: They've got to sing the psalms.
01:01:47: I've seen that view taken to the point where not even hymns are even allowed.
01:01:51: I mean, it's got to be singing the psalms.
01:01:54: There is a large division in the church.
01:01:58: And that's why I said it's a divisive question.
01:02:00: I don't mean to necessarily divide us, but it's a divisive question because there's so much...
01:02:06: In the regular principle, singing is there.
01:02:09: We all agree on that.
01:02:11: We're commanded to sing.
01:02:20: Sure.
01:02:21: I think, and I'll just add my two cents, which are worth what you pay for them.
01:02:26: But as far as a lot of the music that we do today, there are what we call Jesus Is My Girlfriend songs where it's...
01:02:36: You could take out Jesus and you could replace it with a girlfriend, and it's this sensuous type of Eros-type love, which is being expressed.
01:02:46: Not a reverential, fearful love of God, but some type of a savvy...
01:02:51: Sensual.
01:02:52: Sensual.
01:02:53: It's very sensual.
01:02:54: And there's music...
01:02:55: I did a series on Lords They Worship this past year, and I showed a video.
01:03:01: It was a Wednesday night thing, so I was able to show a video of a church that the music was hypnotic.
01:03:07: It was specifically designed to create an emotional hypnotism, and everybody was just standing there shaking as if it were a trance.
01:03:16: Was it the Hokey Pokey? I showed that video too.
01:03:21: That's unbiblical.
01:03:22: That's ungodly.
01:03:23: You're creating an emotion that's ungodly.
01:03:26: Let me say too, we use a phrase in a church, he who sings prays twice.
01:03:32: I'm not sure that's biblical, but I think there's truth in it.
01:03:35: Some people object to written prayers.
01:03:37: Shouldn't do that.
01:03:39: I reply by saying, every time you sing a hymn, you are using a written prayer.
01:03:46: And there's a frequent reminder that when we sing together, we are praying.
01:03:52: That's why the hymns are primarily directed to God.
01:03:56: They're God-centered.
01:03:57: They're talking about who God is, what God has done.
01:04:02: I do believe that melody is necessary for a good hymn.
01:04:07: And the melody is supposed to be there to support the main issue in the hymn.
01:04:12: That's the spiritual theological truth of the words.
01:04:17: The melody should carry that message.
01:04:22: And sometimes, especially in the contemporary kind of worships, there is no melody.
01:04:27: There's just kind of a da da da da da and then you go up or down a couple of times.
01:04:32: And, in a lot of those cases, you don't see people singing.
01:04:37: They're just watching the performance of the musicians up front thinking they're doing the job.
01:04:42: It's a great cheat in worship.
01:04:47: There's a question that was specifically for Jesse.
01:04:50: He's not here.
01:04:51: And seeing as we've really gone over time, I'm going to ask...
01:04:56: We've really gone over.
01:04:57: One of these questions is about theonomy, and the other one is about worldliness.
01:05:04: Just for the sake of time, I think we're going to begin to close up.
01:05:09: Those of you who had these questions, it wasn't that we didn't want to deal with it.
01:05:12: Does anyone...
01:05:13: We both know that the theonomy issue is going to take us much longer than the time we have.
01:05:19: Feel free to come and talk to us afterwards, but there are people who are needing to leave.
01:05:23: That is a big question.
01:05:25: Theonomy, if you don't even know what it is, it's a big question.
01:05:27: Just get on Facebook.
01:05:29: Just kidding.
01:05:30: I wasn't trying to put you off.
01:05:32: That's a seriously...
01:05:33: It's a huge battle, and that's one of the reasons why I got off.
01:05:36: One was directed to Jesse.
01:05:38: Since he's not here, I'm going to forgo that one.
01:05:42: But I am going to get this one last one.
01:05:44: Child asked this question.
01:05:45: I'm going to ask our brother.
01:05:49: Child asked you.
01:05:51: I'm going to let you answer this.
01:05:53: Child comes to you.
01:05:55: How might I be saved? Would you end with that? Just tell me how you would tell a child if he asks you, sir, how might I be saved? I hate to put you on the spot, but this is an important question.
01:06:09: That's something I try to do every week, I suppose, because we have a children's sermon.
01:06:21: The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
01:06:25: He's God himself.
01:06:29: He came to earth to bear your sins.
01:06:36: You can only be forgiven if he's willing to grant you forgiveness.
01:06:43: He can do that because he himself paid the penalty that you deserve by dying on the cross and taking your judgment.
01:06:54: Now, again, I'm praying as I'm answering a child saying, are they understanding this? Am I talking at the right level? When he died for your sin, he also gave you a gift, and the gift that he gave you was all of his righteousness, all of his right standing before God.
01:07:17: And as you recognize you need him to be your Savior and that he's paid the penalty for your sin on the cross, he gives you forgiveness and he gives you his own life of righteousness.
01:07:35: If you believe that, as you believe that, he'll make you his own child.
01:07:42: You'll be adopted into his family and born of the Spirit of God.
01:07:46: You belong to him.
01:07:47: He'll put his name upon you, and you can live for him.
01:07:56: Thank you, brother.
01:07:58: I appreciate that.
01:08:00: Ladies and gentlemen, I know these men didn't do it for applause, but please thank them.
01:08:11: Let me pray and we'll dismiss.
01:08:13: Father, thank you for the grace that you have given us and given us two days to hear the word of God, to interact with these men, and to be a part of this wonderful fellowship.
01:08:25: Thank you for the church, the women and men who served us today, served us food, who kept everything going.
01:08:32: Such wonderful service of God.
01:08:33: We thank you for that.
01:08:35: I thank you for these men who've driven here from distances, who've flown in, and I pray that they would have a safe travel home.
01:08:42: Lord, may through all of this, your Son be exalted and your name be glorified.
01:08:49: And it's in Christ's name we pray.