Gut Check

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Good morning brothers, hopefully you are not put off by the fact that I am wearing a clerical collar.

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Lutherans believe that pastors should wear a uniform. I've discovered that evangelicals also believe that pastors should wear a uniform.

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The problem is that the standard evangelical pastoral uniform involves skinny jeans.

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And I checked with the fire department and the jaws of life were not available today so I had to go with the clerical collar instead.

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I hope you will understand. By the way, if you ever wonder why pastors wear clerical collars and what it all means, the idea behind it, you'll notice the shirt is black.

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It really ought to be black. That's to remind you that I'm a sinner. The collar itself should recall a slave shackle so that you always understand that your pastor is not there to rule and to reign over you.

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Instead, your pastor is there to be your slave, to be your servant. So it is an honor for me today to come and be your servant, to be your slave if you would, as we are going to open up God's Word.

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Now I'm going to assume that everybody here believes that the Bible is the inerrant, inspired, theanoustos,

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God -breathed Word of God. Amen. And you know what?

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It is. How do I know this? Well, I know this because Jesus rose from the grave.

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And Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would recall to their minds all the things that He said and taught.

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And so He rose from the grave, that means what He told His disciples is true, and what we have in the

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Gospels are eyewitness testimony of the life, death, and resurrection of none other than God Himself in human flesh.

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This is quite the claim. And we learn as we're getting ready to go in what historically is known as Holy Week that this

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God who was born of the Virgin Mary, and virgin means virgin by the way, I don't play word games.

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Virgin means virgin. This Son of God, God laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

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That we who were born and dead and trespasses and sins under the dominion of darkness, He has transferred us because of His great love for us from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of His Son.

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And this has all been won for us by Christ's victorious death on the cross for your sins and for mine and for all of this we are to praise and honor and worship this

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God in thankfulness for the gift that He has given us. Do I have an amen? I'm tapping into my evangelical roots here.

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Gentlemen, if you have a Bible, I would like you to open it. If you have a Bible that's electronic,

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I would like you to turn it on. These are the days that we live in. We are going to be, we're going to begin our gut check, if you would, by looking at something from the

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Acts of the Apostles chapter 19. And we're going to begin at the end of a story, at least a chapter, if you would.

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Something is happening in the city of Ephesus and we're going to read, starting at verse 23 in Acts chapter 19.

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By the way, I'll be reading from the ESV, that's the English Standard Version, and so I don't know what translation you're using, at least you know what

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I'm using. Here's what it says. We're in the city of Ephesus. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way, which by the way was one of the early names for Christianity.

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For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

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These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades, and he said, men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.

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And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul fellow has persuaded and turned away great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

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And there is danger, not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess

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Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may be deposed from her magnificence.

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She whom all of Asia and the world worship. By the way, the great temple of Artemis in the ancient world was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

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It was quite the complex. There's nothing left of it now except for a bunch of toppled stones, and well, one column that every year some birds set a nest up on the top of it.

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So the story continues. When they heard this, the craftsmen of Artemis, they were enraged, and they were crying out, great is

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Artemis of the Ephesians. And so the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them

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Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel.

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And you sit there, and you go, all right, we've jumped into the middle of the story. What is going on here?

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Now I'm going to ask a simple question. When Paul blew into town in Ephesus, did he have as his goal to shut down the temple of Artemis?

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No, not at all. He did not. But then how did he accomplish such an amazing feat?

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Say that again. That's right. He spoke the truth. You see,

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Paul was sent by Jesus Christ to preach the gospel. And Paul, every time he would go into a town, he would preach the gospel.

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And this is part of our gut check, if you would. I've seen in my lifetime, and I'm almost 50, not quite as old as Phil Elkey, but I've seen in my lifetime a major shift in the

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United States. Have you all seen it? Literally the rise and the normalizing of sin and iniquity.

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This is what it is. Now, let me make something perfectly clear. The problem isn't just out there.

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The problem is also in here. And the reason for that is simple. Each and every one of us,

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Scripture reveals, still has a sinful nature. We too are sinners. Now, as Christians, oftentimes we are tempted.

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I know this might sound foreign to you, but yes, the devil tempts us in many ways.

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And the obvious ways are ways in which we may be familiar with, but there are very subtle ways in which the devil tempts us.

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One of the ways the devil has tempted us, and I hate to say this, we, and I'm not saying you,

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I'm saying we as a church, have bought into some of these ideas. And here's the thing.

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We are used to, in this society of ours, for Christianity to have a powerful place in our society.

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We're used to this. How many decades ago, the majority of people in the

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United States were Christians? And in a republic like ours, where the majority of the people are

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Christians, what does that mean politically? We have power. We have muscle.

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We have flex. We are able to say no to evil. But I want you to keep this in mind, that just because at one time in our nation's history, we had the majority necessary to keep evil at bay, which by the way, is the job of the government.

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Keeping evil at bay is not the goal of Christianity. The job of Christianity is to preach the

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Word, to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name.

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And by the way, Jesus is the one who said that. In Luke's version of the

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Great Commission, Jesus says, go into all the nations beginning in Jerusalem, proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

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Pair this then with Jesus' Great Commission, for which we should all be familiar, right? Which says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me as you are going.

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I'm translating the participle there as as you are going. We oftentimes think the word go is the imperative.

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That's not the command of the Great Commission. The Great Commission command is, as you are going, here's the command, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And there's another part to it, teaching them all that I have commanded.

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Now, a little bit of a trick question here. When Jesus said, teaching them all that I have commanded, what does the word all mean?

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All. Good, good. Clearly there's no Calvinists in the room.

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The word means all. So here's the question

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I have for you. If the command given by Jesus, not me, given by Jesus is that we are to teach all that he has commanded, where is the only place

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I can go right now to find all the things that Jesus has commanded?

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The Bible. Exactly. I'd like you to take another look with me now.

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We're going to look at another passage. Flip over to Acts 20. Paul, eventually upon finishing his work in Ephesus, is having a meeting as he's heading to Jerusalem.

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He's having a meeting with all of the pastors that he has set up in the different congregations in the city of Ephesus.

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And they've all met on the beach. And listen to what he says. I'll start at verse 18.

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When they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the

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Lord with all humility and tears, and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how

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I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public, and from house to house, testifying to both

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Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God, and of faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith must go together. And now behold,

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I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except for the

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Holy Spirit testifies to me that in every city imprisonment and affliction await me. But I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to myself, if only

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I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

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And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

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Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not, here's the important part, shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

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How much of the counsel of God did Paul dedicate himself to teaching while he was in Ephesus?

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All of it, from Genesis to maps. On my radio program,

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I do something very politically incorrect. I apologize in advance, but I did not actually sign off on the

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Geneva Convention when it came to politically correct speech. Therefore, since I'm not a signatory, I'm free from these bonds.

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But one of the things I do is I review sermons. I review sermons from some of the most popular evangelical megachurches and other types of churches around the world.

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And I'm going to give you my honest assessment in a nutshell of the sermons that I hear. Are you ready?

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I hear in these sermons pastors preaching autobiography, preaching about themselves, and then baptizing these messages with out -of -context verses.

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If I hear, I know the plans I have for you, declares the

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Lord, plans to prosper you one more time out of context, I'm going to hurl. And I'm sick and tired of football players on opposing teams putting on their, you know, their black, eye black, no weapon formed against me will prosper.

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What do you do when you have two Christians on opposing football teams on Super Bowl Sunday saying, no weapon formed against me will prosper?

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Maybe the problem here is that we have decided that we're going to cut corners.

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We're going to cut corners and we have lost the ability to hear

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God's Word in its entirety, to hear the full counsel of the Word of God.

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In fact, I'm pretty sure that what I hear literally in the sermons I review are

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Sunday after Sunday, God's Word stripped mind for principles that you can apply to your life to make your life better.

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This is not the, this is not, and I mean this, what a pastor is to be about the business of doing.

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And this is one of the reasons why we're experiencing the decline that we are in our society.

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Because think of it this way. Pagans do what pagans do because pagans are what pagans are.

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Do you expect your pagan, unbelieving neighbors to bear the fruit of the Spirit in their life? No, you don't.

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How are they going to bear the fruit of the Spirit if you don't preach the full counsel of the

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Word of God and call them to repentance of their sins and placard

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Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of their sins and then using the

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Word of God, help them through the power of the Spirit in the Word to bear fruit in keeping with repentance?

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I want solving a spiritual problem.

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You are not going to solve this problem in Washington, D .C. It's impossible.

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As happy as I am that Hillary Clinton is not our president right now, I have zero confidence that President Trump is going to help people bear the fruit of the

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Spirit in their life. So coming back to our opening text, there's the

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Apostle Paul in Ephesus. And what is he doing? He's preaching

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Christ. He's preaching that he is the Messiah. Did they give him the keys to the city?

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No. Was he really popular? No. Let's go back now in our opening text.

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Let's come back and let's pick up the beginning of the story. We'll start at verse 8.

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He entered the synagogue. For three months he spoke, listen to this word, boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

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But when some people became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the whole of Tyrannus.

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This continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the

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Lord, both Jews and Greeks. What was

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Paul's message, by the way? When he would go into a synagogue, what would he preach? The gospel.

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I'm going to give us a cross reference here and I would like to take a look at, let me pull this up here, flip over to Acts 13.

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I'll start at verse 15. Paul is in a synagogue.

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Actually, let me start at verse 13. Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga and Pamphylia. John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

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And they went on from Perga and came to Antioch and Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and they sat down.

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After the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.

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So Paul stood up and he motioned with his hand and he said, men of Israel and you who fear God, listen to me. The God of this people,

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Israel, chose our fathers, made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt and with uplifted arm, led them out of it.

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And for about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness. Boy, that is, there is no, that is a major understatement in scripture.

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I don't know if you ever noticed how much people of Israel grumbled in the wilderness, right? So he put up with them in the wilderness and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

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All of this took about 450 years. And after that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. And then they asked for a king and God gave them

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Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king of whom he testified and said,

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I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart who will do all of my will.

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Little note here. What is Paul doing right there? He's literally summarizing all of the

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Old Testament. I'm going to just ask you a little challenge question. If I were to sit you down and have coffee with you and say,

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Hey, brother, could you in like 60 seconds or less summarize from the entirety of the

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Old Testament? How, how well would you do? Notice he's just able to write this, just prattle it off like this.

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He's equipped. And there's a reason why he's equipped. And because Paul is one of these fellows whose actions actually follow his beliefs in regard to the word of God.

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Every one of you said, amen. I believe that the word of God is, well, theonoustos, inspired, inerrant, and infallible.

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But I'd like to give you a category that we need start to come to grips with. If we were to have a liberal

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ELCA female pastor here, speaking with you today, she would be trying to convince you that God's word is not inspired and infallible, and it is not authoritative.

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That it's some kind of a communal book that reveals to us the progressive in people's thinking regarding the deity.

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And we would all sit there and go, nah, wrong. And maybe the braver among us would rebuke her and tell her to sit down.

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But I want you to note this, that if you go to a liberal mainline church, and you were to sit and hear their preaching,

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Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, they openly attack the scriptures. They openly attack what

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God's word says. They openly attack its authority. And then, is it any wonder that they do things like ordain impenitent homosexuals?

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Of course, it makes perfect sense. The reason why they're now able to ordain impenitent homosexuals is because they first attacked the word of God.

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And they got a whole bunch of people believing, falsely, that God really, really has no problem with sexual sin like that.

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And that we need to bless it because God really is all about love. And in order to get to this conclusion, they first had to attack the word of God.

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Now, none of you sound like that kind of liberal to me. But I would say this, if your pastor is not preaching the full counsel of the word of God, he's become a functional liberal, even if he's conservative regarding his views of scripture.

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Because the result is the same. If your pastor is not shutting up about himself and doing nothing but squawking about Jesus every

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Sunday, which is his job, and helping ground you in God's word, both

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Old and New Testament, connecting the dots, opening up the Old Testament to show how these stories all point to Christ, and how

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Christ fulfilled all of the Old Testament, and how He has bled and died for you and set you free, and helps you to really understand

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God's word in context by telling the stories Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

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Believe me when I tell you, pastors are nervous about doing this. You know why? The reason why they're nervous is because they know that at some point they're going to have to tell the same story over again.

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And so they begin to think that their job is on the line, and so they begin to innovate. And so they talk less and less and less and less about what the text actually says.

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And they're not really interested in telling the stories in the scripture, they want to tell you stories about themselves.

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About, well, the challenges they had when they were in high school. How they have misbehaved children who are all now glowing examples of perfect citizenry, and things of this nature.

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But in telling you about themselves, they're not telling you about Jesus. They're not grounding you in the word of God.

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You are not growing in your understanding of scripture. And you got to understand this,

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God's word is living and active. It is sharper than a two -edged sword, but it doesn't matter how sharp it is if your pastor leaves it in its sheath.

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Doesn't matter. You will not benefit from its sharpness. So one of the things

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I would like you to consider doing over the next few Sundays, I want you to take notes when you go to church.

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I want you to ask this question. Who did I learn more about in this sermon that I heard today?

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Did I learn more about Jesus, or did I learn more about my pastor or myself?

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And this is just simply objective. That's all you're going to ask. What did I learn about Jesus? Write your notes.

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What did I learn about my pastor? What did I learn about myself? If you learned hardly anything about Jesus, if you heard hardly anything about what the

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Bible teaches, there's a problem, and it's time for you to have one of those tough conversations.

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The reason why is simple. Because your pastor is sinning. Now, I want to give you another text.

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This is going to be a little bit of a tougher one, but I want you to hear it. 2

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Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4.

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This is a pastoral epistle written to young Pastor Timothy, whom Paul set up to be one of the pastors at the church in Ephesus.

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And I want you to hear what Paul writes to young Pastor Timothy. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who's to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in kingdom.

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Oh, by the way, we pastors get the supreme joy of being in a shorter line on the day of judgment.

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And the sign at the front of that queue says, stricter judgment, enter here.

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Why don't you consider that? So I charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who's to judge the living and the dead.

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So much for precious moments, Jesus. Here's what he says. Preach the word.

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How much of it? All of it. Not some of it. Not some of it.

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Preach all of it. Remember, Paul says, I am innocent of the blood of all of you. And the reason why is because Paul knows his

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Old Testament. He knows the Tanakh. He knows that in the book of Ezekiel, it explicitly says that the one who knows that he should tell and warn his neighbor of God's wrath and doesn't.

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And that man dies in his sins. Who is God going to hold accountable for that man's blood?

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The man who said nothing. When was the last time you heard a sermon on this?

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So we are to, as pastors, ready? Preach the word. Well, what if it's not popular?

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What if people don't want to hear it? What if they'll take away my retirement? No, not that.

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Here's what he says. Be ready in season and out of season and listen to what pastors do.

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This sounds really politically incorrect. Reprove, rebuke, what?

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And exhort with complete patience and teaching. How many of you, when you do your evaluation of your pastor every so often, we're going to evaluate you on a scale of one to ten.

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Pastor, how well are you doing at the rebuking? You know, pastor, you need to pick this up.

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When was the last time you rebuked somebody? Is this not one of the duties of a pastor given in scripture, yes or no?

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But if you do that, you're going to seem unloving. We live in a society now where we just all want to get along.

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Is that what we're called to do? No. Preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season.

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Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and doctrine is actually what the word teaching there means.

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And here's the reason why. Are you ready? For the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

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And they will turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander off into myths. So one of the things that scripture warns us about is the fact that there's a day coming, makes me wonder if it's today, when

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Christians in the church will have nothing to do with sound doctrine.

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And when a pastor preaches sound doctrine, you know what they're going to do to him? Run him out on a rail.

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We don't want to hear that. Stop telling me I'm a sinner. Stop telling me that Jesus died for me.

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That's negative. After all, we live in a postmodern world, do we not? We've moved beyond this idea that God has wrath and that somehow his wrath needs to be propitiated via the sacrifice of Jesus's death on the cross.

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That's icky. Stop talking about that. So instead they'll gather themselves teachers who will suit their own passions.

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Now we have no problem. Anyone here pray to the Virgin Mary? No? Neither do

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I. Just want to check. Why? Why do you not pray to the

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Virgin Mary? She's a human being, right? And scripture explicitly says that we have one mediator, and that is

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Jesus Christ. Why on earth would I pray to a dead woman? By the fact that she died, doesn't that mean that she's a sinner like me?

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Right, of course. Okay, do you believe in the Immaculate Conception? Anyone here? No? No, I don't either.

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You know why? Because it's not taught in scripture. We have no problem identifying Roman Catholic mythology.

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Prayers to the saints, indulgences, purgatory, praying to the Virgin Mary, myth.

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It's not even sound out. This isn't biblical at all. Let me tell you this.

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Turn on Christian television and it's 24 -7 mythology.

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Do you believe that by sending a thousand dollars to Benny Hinn that God is going to heal you? Brother, you need to repent.

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Do you believe that if you stand in front of a mirror and say, I am the head and I am not the tail, that I am blessed, that I am strong, that my words will create a positive reality for my life?

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If you believe that, you're damned. That is not the gospel and that is false doctrine.

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You need to repent. Scripture says to deny yourself, not exalt yourself.

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Jesus warns the one who exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself and says,

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I've got nothing. Lord, have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. He will be exalted. You see, brothers and sisters, we have been sitting on our hands saying nothing.

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We are the inheritors of the Protestant Reformation, this being the 500th anniversary of the

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Reformation. And yet we are steeped in mythology and false doctrine every bit as much as medieval

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Rome ever was and still is. And you know what we've done about it?

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Nothing. God's word says it is his will that you silence false teachers.

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Have you done it? No, you haven't.

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And it's sinful for you to not have. And you need to repent.

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And the reality is, is that you listen to a lot of preachers and teachers who cut off corners and give you messages that make you feel good about yourself.

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And here's the problem. We judge pastors using the same criteria that we use to judge whether or not we like the latest

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Netflix series. Oh man, that was the best thing ever. I got to watch another episode.

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Great. Pop some more popcorn, honey. Oh, that made me laugh. It made me cry. Oh, that was the funniest thing ever.

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And we go to church and we sit there and you go, well, what'd you think of that sermon? Well, it was kind of boring.

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It was kind of boring. I didn't laugh. I didn't cry. I didn't feel good. I didn't feel bad. I didn't like what he said.

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Didn't like his delivery. He kind of stuttered and was slow. And oh my goodness, can you believe he actually read like eight verses in the

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Bible, man? And that prayer took three minutes. Don't you know the

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Vikings are playing tomorrow? We have lost the patience to hear God's word and we are judging the efficacy of a sermon based upon its entertainment value.

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This is wicked. This is absolutely wicked. What does scripture say again?

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For the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine and they will gather to themselves teachers who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear.

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Messages to suit their own passions. They'll turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander off into myths.

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But as for you, young pastor, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

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Huh. Wow. So here's this flunked

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Roman Catholic wearing a clerical collar. We don't know if we call him Father Roseborough or not. And he sounds like he just came out of the dark ages.

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You actually believe in something called truth. So do you. Each and every one of you knows that what

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I'm saying is true. And I've shown it to you from God's word. Now how then does this play into the bigger problem in society?

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Are you ready? Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, if the salt has lost its saltiness, what good is it for?

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Throw it away. It's good for nothing. How does the church maintain its saltiness?

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You got to speak the truth. You must placard Christ. But instead we are distracted by entertainment.

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We are distracted. And you know what? Our understanding of scripture is minuscule.

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Yet the Apostle Paul there and when he was preaching, he could just prattle off an entire summary of the

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Old Testament in no seconds flat. No problems. Let's go back to that text now. Again, Acts 13.

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So he's continuing of this man's offspring, talking about Jesse and the son of David or David of this man's offspring.

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God has brought to Israel a savior as he has promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

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And as John was finishing his course, he said, what do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But but behold, after me is one coming, the sandals of whose feet

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I am not worthy to untie. Wait a second. It sounds like the Apostle Paul was very familiar with the gospel narratives.

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Where is John the Baptist written about in the Old Testament? He's not, except for in prophecy.

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But here, Paul, in his presentation of the gospel in the Jewish synagogue, actually references the words of John the

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Baptist, which we find written in one of the gospels. But if you listen to the liberals, the liberals will tell you the gospels are not eyewitness testimony.

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They weren't written until like 70 or 90 years after Jesus was the earth. Then why is

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Paul quoting Luke? So he references John the Baptist, and then he says this brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear

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God to us has been sent the message of this salvation. So here's his message.

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Notice what it is. It's the message of salvation for those who live in Jerusalem and the rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every

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Sabbath. He fulfilled them by condemning. They fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked

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Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in the tomb.

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But God raised him from the dead. And for many days, he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

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And we bring you, listen, the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children by raising

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Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm. You are my son today. I have begotten you.

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And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way.

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I will give you the holy and sure blessing of David. Therefore, he says also in another

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Psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption. Look at that. Paul has

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Bible memorized, Psalms memorized. And by having them memorized, when the time comes to preach the word, those verses are right there, ready to go like ammo, ready to just put into your

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AR -15 and send down range. You know, I like my AR -15. I'm just saying. But if you never buy the ammo, you can't put it in the mag, can you?

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And so you'll notice Paul has all of the scriptures down inside of his heart.

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This is something to which he has applied himself, meditated on, is able to work with the text, able to quote it at will.

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How about you? Have you applied yourself to God's word in this way?

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No weapon formed against me will prosper. I know a verse, Jesus wept. I know that one too.

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You'll notice that the Christian faith is not something that the apostle

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Paul grew out of. It's something he grew into. And here's the problem with really thin, wispy, very, well, self -help sermons with Bible sprinkles on top.

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They are not capable of actually producing repentance in your life. They're not. And not only that, they don't help you to be able to master

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God's word in this way so that you can use it in this manner to tell the world about Christ. In fact, if you think about it, so much of the preaching we hear nowadays is, all right, folks, it's time for you to get out of debt.

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So we're going to do this series over here. We're going to teach you how to financially manage your money so that you can get out of debt.

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And so, hey, I've gotten out of debt. Congratulations. Now I can tithe more to the church, which makes me wonder if that was the reason why we did that sermon series in the first place.

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Maybe I'm just being cynical. And then, of course, we all know how important it is for that fruit of the Spirit, known as having better sex, right?

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And so our pastor is going to be really edgy. He's going to put a bed on the stage, and we're going to tell everybody all about how to have great sex so that all those unbelievers out there will be jealous because we had the best sex ever.

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I wish I was making this up. I'm not. Yeah, because everybody knows the fruit of the

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Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and way better sex. And then, of course, after sex comes what?

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Children. So we've got to do a series on how to have better behaved children, right? And so we're going to find five easy principles that you can apply to your life to make those little hooligans act, well, godly and Christ -like.

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And then, of course, by the time we're done with that, then we're up on the summer season, and we want to be relevant.

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So we're going to preach about all of the spiritual themes in the latest blockbuster movies that are out for the summer.

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I'm not making this up, and you know I'm not. And then, of course, we're going to have the big fall launch.

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And so for the big fall lunch, we're going to have like, you know, Churchapalooza, man. There'll be a water slide and a confetti cannon, and oh, there's going to be games that kids are going to love.

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It's going to be the best thing ever. And what are they going to preach about? Oh, the importance of decreeing and declaring so that you can go and conquer and take territory.

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Yeah, man, you're going to go, and we're going to get you committed to conquering the territory in your life and stuff.

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And at the end of the year, how much of God's Word have you heard from the stage in context?

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Very little. But man, you laughed.

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You cried. Man, when our church, our dance team did Thriller during the, you know, the lead -up to Halloween, man, they slayed it, right?

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We're entertaining ourselves into hell. Not only are we entertaining ourselves into hell, we're entertaining ourselves into hell at the expense of our neighbor, whom we should be telling them about Christ, and we're not because we're too busy having a good time in church, which is not what church is for.

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So at the end of the year, you got a handful of verses. At this rate, how long will it take your pastor to work through the whole counsel of the

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Word of God? 50 years? 60?

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Because you know what's going to happen, right? Once he's worked through all of these relevant topics, it takes about three years.

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He'll start over again. And then by the time you go through the cycle the second time, you know what you're saying or a lot of people are saying?

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I've already heard this. I already know these principles. I think

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I'm going to sleep in on Sunday. There are 66 books in Scripture.

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I guarantee you if your pastor dedicates himself to digging in and teaching the full counsel of the

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Word of God, it's going to take him some time. You're going to need to take some notes.

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You might have to learn a Greek or a Hebrew word along the way, but it's only in that in -depth, meaningful study of God's Word is it there for you when the time comes for you to tell your neighbor about the salvation that is won for them in Christ.

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So Paul continues. So David served his purpose in his own generation. Verse 36, he fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, he saw corruption, but he whom

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God raised up did not see corruption. And here comes the kicker. So let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, and here it is, are you ready?

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Through Jesus, there is forgiveness of sins now proclaimed to you.

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Serious? Forgiveness of sins. I need that.

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How about you? Because when we examine our lives in light of God's law, and if you're not sure what that is, think

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Ten Commandments. If I were to ask you all, could you please give me the Ten Commandments right now without looking at your

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Bible, how'd y 'all do? You will have no other gods before me.

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You will not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. You'll remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor your father and mother.

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Do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet your neighbor's wife, or his house, or his property, or his cattle.

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Do these sound familiar to you all? Yeah, I know I did. I did forget one.

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But if I were to quote these all to you, and then say, now let's examine your life in light of these things, how are you all doing?

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Anyone in the, you know, we'll do it like in a bell curve, okay? Anyone in the 30th percentile?

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60? 80? Like, okay, 90 percent of the Ten Commandments, you're keeping them daily.

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Anyone? Hmm, so here's my job. Brothers, you have fallen short.

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So have I. God's law tells you you have fallen short.

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You are not loving God with your whole heart. You have fallen far short of loving your neighbor as yourself.

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Here's the verdict. You are a sinner. The wages of sin is death, and don't think that just means your corrupt little body being put into a box six feet under.

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That's also talking about the second death, which is hell. God does not grade on a curve.

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So many Christians, and part of this has to do with their lack of Bible teaching, think that the day of judgment is going to go something like this.

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Hey, Jesus, how's it going? Good to see you. Let's open up the file. All right, let's take a look here. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

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Take a look at that. And you sit there and go, yeah, I'm kind of embarrassed about that.

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But hey, you know, Jesus, I actually volunteered at church and helped out in the parking lot for like three months.

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Oh, well, that kind of cancels that thing out. Okay, so, you know, let's kind of put this on a scale. You know, you're volunteering in the child care thing at church and helping out with the

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BAM thing and then all the other stuff. And see, we're kind of hoping that, you know, if the good outweighs the bad,

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Jesus goes, whew, you just barely made it. Good job you're in, right?

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Yeah, because, I mean, everybody knows that it's good people who go to heaven, right? No. I need to tell you what

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Scripture says. Let's take a look at Romans 3, starting at verse 9.

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But then, are we Jews any better off? Well, no, not at all. We've already charged that all, both

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Jews and Greeks, that's everybody in the Jewish way of thinking, are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous.

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No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside.

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Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

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The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.

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In their paths are ruin and misery. The way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

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Who is that describing? Us. That's describing me.

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That's describing you. And by the way, notice what it says.

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No one seeks for God. Have you heard of seeker -driven services?

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They are built off of a false premise. No one seeks for God. Now we know whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped.

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See, this is the reason why God gave us the law. He did not give us his law in order to give us a ladder so that we can climb into heaven.

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The purpose of the law, get this, is so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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The purpose of the law is to shut you up. I'm not making this up.

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But God, I'm a good person. Zip it. No, really, I meant well.

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Would you please be quiet? But, but, but, but, but, no. The purpose of the law is to shut you up and hold you accountable to God.

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And the verdict comes back, sinner. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified, which means to be declared righteous in God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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When was the last time you heard a meaningful sermon on the law of God?

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I guarantee you, if you've heard one, it will make you really uncomfortable. Because you're going to come away thinking, ah, ah,

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I'm not measuring up. And if that's your feeling, you know what? Good. Finally, you're starting to get it.

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You don't measure up. You're not going to be able to stand before God and go, have him go, man,

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I'm glad I finally got to meet you. Dude, you're the first person to pull it off after Jesus.

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Instead, through God's law comes the knowledge of sin. Hold up the mirror of God's law, and it's going to show you that you are falling woefully short.

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But then it doesn't stop there. The righteousness of God has been manifested.

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Listen to these words. Apart from the law, although the law and the prophets, they bear witness to it. This is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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For there is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation or an atoning sacrifice through his blood to be received by faith.

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In other words, think of it this way. We've all heard that Jesus was sinless, right? But Isaiah 53 says this.

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God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. What's Jesus doing on the cross?

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Is he there just demonstrating to us the principles we need to apply in order to get through the worst day of our life?

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No. What's he doing? God took all the sins of the world, put them on him, and then

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Jesus drank to the dregs from the cup of the fury of the wrath of God. So much so that the son says to the father, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then at the very end of his suffering, in utter darkness, because not even the son could look down on the son of God because he had been made to be the sinner, the sinner of the whole world.

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The son couldn't even look on him, and he cries out to tell us it is finished and he gives up his spirit and he dies.

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The eternal son of God, the creator of the universe, God in human flesh died.

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Why? Because he was paying the penalty for your sins and mine.

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Now, if that isn't good news, I don't know what is because I think every one of us have had that experience where we have literally woken up in the middle of the night from a dead sleep and went, oh,

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I'm going to die someday and stand before God. And we're utterly embarrassed.

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Because of the iniquity within our own heart, because of the sins that we have committed, sins that we've committed against God, against our wives, against our children, against our parents, the things that we do in the darkness that we think nobody knows about,

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God knows about. And so there's the apostle Paul in the synagogue, and he's preaching, let it be known to you, brothers, that through Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

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And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

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How did the apostle Paul destroy the temple of Artemis?

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He didn't. The gospel that he preached did. So then Paul, notice this, at this point, this is the part in the sermon where they're supposed to start playing the keyboard softly, or maybe just as I am, without one plea, right?

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But that's not what the apostle Paul does. No altar call here. Watch what he says. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about.

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Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish. For I am doing a work in your days, a work you would not believe even if one tells it to you.

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And as they went out, the people begged that these things might be told to them the next Sabbath.

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Some believed, some didn't. That's the way it goes.

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What did Jesus say to do if you go and you preach the gospel and somebody refuses to receive it and receive you?

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Did he say, go back to the drawing board and figure out how to make your message more appealing?

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Shake the dust from your feet. But we want to be liked.

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We don't want to bear a cross. We don't want to suffer. This is the temptation that we have fallen to.

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And this is what makes so many of our churches, churches who are the inheritors of the

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Protestant Reformation, who pride themselves on not believing in the mythology of Mary, indulgences, and things like that.

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We have shaved off the hard edges. We have stopped preaching the full counsel of the word of God. We have stopped telling the story.

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And we've stopped calling people to repentance and the forgiveness of their sins through the crucified and risen

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Savior, Jesus Christ. And as a result of it, we have turned our holy houses of God into entertainment venues.

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And we need to repent. And this is the reason why sin is growing in our society, because our churches have ceased to be salt and light, because making somebody laugh is not capable of bringing them to repentance in Jesus.

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Only the gospel, preached with God's law, can do that. Thank you, brothers.