Shenanigan Faith - [1 Corinthians 2:1-5]

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Well, today I'd like to talk about something interesting, and that is deception. Things aren't always the way they seem.
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It was 14 years ago, I'm in North Hollywood, Kim and I are living there, Haley's 5,
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Luke is about 5 months old or so, and I hear a commotion in the backyard. We had 3 dogs at the time, they're in the backyard, small house in California, and we have some fruit trees and a very unstable fence.
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The dogs were freaking out back there, and I went out there to see what had happened, and possums would walk the fence to get the fruit and the lime tree and the guava tree and stuff like that, and the dogs would jump up to the fence, cause the fence to be unstable, and the possums would fall down, and so now all 3 of the dogs on top of this possum, grabbing it, biting it, and so I finally got the dogs inside the house, and I looked over and I thought, that possum's dead, there's spit all over that possum, and it just, you know, they got it.
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And then I thought, hmm, possums sometimes play dead, so I'm not going to just pick this thing up, so I went over and I got a broomstick, and I got a broomstick and I slowly went up to the possum, and I started pushing the possum's face around, and then in a moment
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I'll never forget as long as I live, that possum was laying like this, and it reached over and grabbed the broomstick and jammed it in its mouth and went, some kind of demon possessed possum, and I thought, sometimes things are not always as they seem.
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Did you know that there is a faith that you can have in Christ Jesus that will not allow you to go to heaven?
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Did you know there's a faith that saves, and there's a faith that doesn't save?
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There's a faith that doesn't make it to eternal bliss. That is to say, you can believe in Jesus, or you can believe facts about the wrong
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Jesus, and still not go to heaven, and it is good for everyone here to ask yourself the question, what kind of faith do
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I have? Real faith, fake faith? Superficial faith, or saving faith?
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Shenanigan kind of treachery faith? What could be a greater deception?
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Can you just imagine for a moment, when Jesus says these words in Matthew 7,
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Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my
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Father who is in heaven. On that day, judgment day, many will say to me,
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Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?
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And then I will declare to them, says Jesus, what haunting sober words they are,
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I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
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It's as if Jesus says, excuse me, I don't have any idea who you are. You're an intruder, you're an interloper.
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And I want everyone here to have the kind of faith that rests on the power of God. That's true faith.
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That's real faith. And I'm quite confident, not because I'm trying to whack you around, but I'm quite confident in an auditorium this size, there are some of you here today that are playing games with your faith.
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You say you believe, maybe you're a member, maybe you've been baptized. Maybe you're doing what
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I did 30 some years ago where I thought, you know, I'd like to just live my life the way
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I'd like to live my life, but I certainly wouldn't like to go to hell. So I'll construct this
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Jesus in my mind and I'll say, I believe in Jesus, virgin -born, he was virgin -conceived, perfect life, sinless, slain as a substitute on my behalf, raised from the dead, certainly coming back, but requires me not to follow him.
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That's the kind of Jesus I had in my mind. I want you today to examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith, 2
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Corinthians chapter 13. Test yourself. The good news is if you are a
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Christian, you can look back and say, I am a Christian and I'm a Christian by the grace of God, thank you
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God for saving me, wonderfully, eternally. And if you're not a Christian, I want you to know it.
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I want you to know that you're not so that you might cry out to God and say, Lord have mercy on me, the sinner.
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So let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians. We're in a series in 1 Corinthians, verse by verse through 1
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Corinthians. And today we're going to look at faith that rests on the power of God in chapter 2.
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Faith that demonstrates the God of the universe has done something to you. Can you imagine?
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Well, I wasn't a Christian before, the God of the universe, the mighty, omnipotent, powerful
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God of the universe has changed me and dwelled inside of me, but I'm not different at all. I'm the same guy that I was before.
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I'm the same lady that I was before. Nothing's changed. Friends, if nothing changed in your life, nothing has changed in the status that you have before God.
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I'm quite confident that most of the people here at this church have saving faith, but for the ones that don't, for the one maybe that doesn't, the sermon's for you.
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500 ,000 Americans have counterfeit diplomas, our credentials. I don't want one spiritual counterfeit diploma here.
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Well, let's have an update in 1 Corinthians. I've been out of the pulpit for a while and now we're diving back into 1
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Corinthians. So let me give you a review so we know where we are when it comes to 1
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Corinthians 2 -5. 1 Corinthians is one of these books that I love because it's
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Christ -centered, it's fast, it's action -packed, it's certainly not boring, it's readable, it's relevant.
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By the way, if you don't know this, I'm not here to make the Bible relevant. The Bible is relevant. I'm here to just show you its relevancy.
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It is relevant. This book is grace -laden, truths for you, and it's interesting.
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It has all kinds of things. Chloe was a lady and her household wrote to Paul and said, we've got some issues in the church and the issues are there's division in the church, there are sexually immoral people in the church, there's no discipline in the church, and there's lawsuits in the church.
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And so in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, all the way through chapter 6, Paul deals with these sins that Chloe's household ask about.
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And then in chapters 7 -16, he answers specific questions in a letter that they sent.
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So tonight we're going to have Elder Q &A. Some of you have sent us letters and the questions have been like this.
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When Jesus died on the cross, what happened to him in between his death and resurrection? The Apostles' Creed, is that true that Jesus descended into hell?
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What did he do? And you've written us that question. What happens there? What is the anointing?
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Who were those kind of weird hybrid things going on in Genesis chapter 6? Those will be answered tonight.
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Well, Paul was asked some questions and the questions were more like, what about celibacy? What about marriage?
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What about me to offer the sacrifices? Should you veil a woman in public? What do you do for the
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Lord's Supper? What's going on with spiritual gifts? Is the resurrection important?
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What about giving? And that's in chapters 7 -16. So now we're going to back up and we've gone from kind of the big view and now we'll go to chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, all about division.
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And it's all swirling around this topic of wisdom. Do we have the wisdom of the world which splits people up or do we have the wisdom that follows
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Christ Jesus? And we come to chapter 2 verses 1 -5.
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Paul is going to make sure he doesn't appeal to anything less than the wisdom found in the cross. And in review, we looked at four words that described what
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Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 -5. I don't know if you remember those four words, but let me give them to you now.
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The first word is disregard. You, like Paul, should have a total disregard for methods that distract from the gospel.
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See it in verse 1 there? The sermon is really from verses 4 and 5, but we're just leading up to that.
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Look at how Paul purposely, with premeditation, says,
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I'm coming with an agenda. And I, when I came to you brothers in Acts chapter 18,
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I've been here to Corinth. Now he's writing to them. But when I was with you brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
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It wasn't some kind of Aristotelian logic. It wasn't kind of the art of the deal. It wasn't
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Dale Carnegie -like classes, speech class, motivational speaking.
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After all, if that's the way you win people to Christianity, then what do you do when a better speaker comes along?
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The second word is determination. Word 2 is determination, found in verse 2. You, like Paul, should be determined to make this your message.
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Forget the how. Remember the who. This is Paul's reason for his method.
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For I decided, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
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Is it ever too problematic to be focused on Jesus that much?
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If I were, if you were ever able to go speak at Harvard, Yale, how about Larry King?
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When Larry King asked John MacArthur, come on my show. Does John say this?
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Well, I'm just praying for the spirits leading. I'm just kind of waiting for a word from God.
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He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way and he'll certainly give me utterance. Don't be afraid when you stand in front of the judges,
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I'll give you utterance. What does John do? I'll tell you exactly what he does.
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I have a plan and here's my plan. I'm going to talk about Jesus and give the answer that's
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Jesus no matter what the question is. Hi John, how old are you? Well, let me tell you about Jesus.
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Tell me about your days drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals. Let me tell you about Jesus. And MacArthur has learned from Paul and so should we that when you're going to speak to somebody, whether it's a one of people, if I were asked to go to Harvard or Yale, you say,
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I have a message, there's only one message that saves, it's real wisdom. It's this Jesus on a cross, that's my message.
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If you are in a plane and that plane is going to crash and you have 30 seconds, what are you going to say?
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Well, you'd say, I need to tell them about sin, holiness, substitution and atonement, literal resurrection, repentance.
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You're going to pack that stuff in. And Paul says, to be spirit led is to do what the
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Bible says. And Paul says, I want to be spirit led to obey the Bible. And I have a message and that message is Jesus.
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Type YouTube John MacArthur or Larry King and you'll know what I say because they'll ask him, do you think homosexuality is sin?
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And John will say, yes, but it's a forgivable sin because Jesus Christ came on the earth to die for sins like that, was raised from the dead as a substitute atonement for all those who would ever believe, including homosexuals.
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How about you, Larry, do you believe? It's like, where did that come from? I'll tell you where it came from.
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It was a premeditated conscious strategy before he got into the studio.
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Paul was smart. Paul could have come along and talked about whatever he wanted to talk about, but he was resolute and fixed and determined.
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Someday I'm just going to drive to your house. Sometimes I drive by your house on my bike.
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Usually what I do is I usually always go to the Ferris and it's over by the Dunn's as well. I like to drive by the
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Ferris and I have the same slogan every single time. I'm in all my bike gear and livery and I always have the same message.
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And here's the message because I've thought about it ahead of time and I shout it out every single time. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
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I figure that takes care of indicatives, imperatives and off we go. It's preplanned. I'm going to preach that message.
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Say, well, I have a friend and he's dying. His son is dying. Well, I don't know how long you're going to take with your friendship evangelism.
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I want you to be friends and I want you to evangelize them, but they are on the brink of eternity and there's one saving message.
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Paul says, so I had to be determined. It doesn't mean you just have to say Jesus and Him crucified all the time.
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But whatever Paul talked about, he made sure he used that as the beeline to talk about Christ Jesus and the cross.
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Not about us. It's hard to talk about a crucified Savior and make yourself look good at the same time.
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Colossians 1 says, Him, Jesus, we proclaim. We announce.
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You say, well, people get bored if you just preach about Jesus only. I don't know about if you're bored or not.
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I don't know if the world gets bored or not, but we're told to preach Jesus. So we preach Jesus. It's not
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Jesus plus anything. Jesus plus political activism. Why don't you talk about Republicans and Democrats and those kind of things more?
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Because I'm under authority to preach about Christ. Not plus sociology, psychology, human experience.
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Listen to what David Well says. This problem of Christ missing as the focal point in the church today is not like the abduction of a child who is happily playing at home one minute and then is no longer to be seen.
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She found the next. No one has abducted Christ in this sense. The disappearance is closer to what happens in homes where children are ignored and to all intents and purposes, abandoned.
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They remain in the home, but they have no place in the family. So it is with Christ in the church.
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He remains on the edges of evangelical life, but has been dislodged from its center. Good homework for you to do is to read
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Colossians when you get home because you'll see Paul to the church at Colossae preach Christ. I just found a few.
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Paul preached Christ in Colossians as the Son of God, Chapter 1. These are all in Chapter 1. The object of the
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Christian faith, the Redeemer, the image of God, the Lord of creation, the head of the church, the reconciler of the universe, the fullness of the
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Godhead, supreme authority over all in Chapter 2, the essence of the mystery of God, the one who reveals wisdom and knowledge, the standard by which all religious teaching is to be measured.
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He is the conqueror of evil. He is the one enthroned in the right hand of God. One message,
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Jesus Christ, whether it's popular, whether it's politically correct, the crucified
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Messiah, although oxymoronic as it might sound, the Messiah who has been crucified.
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Word 3, found in verse 3, disregard, determination. Word 3, deference.
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You, like Paul, with humble deference must obey your God. This whole thing here in verse 3 is language of military compliance.
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Somebody who's over you tells you to do something and you say, yes, sir, yes, ma 'am.
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Fear and trembling here isn't, I'm really afraid, I'm biting my teeth and I'm scared. Fear and trembling is a word used when you are having a master over you slaves.
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You need to have fear and trembling and you're under their authority. Verse 3, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.
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Humble acknowledgement that there's somebody over me. I'd like to use my personality to win people.
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I'd like to use my rhetoric to win people. I'd like to use some sales ability to win people. But I have somebody over me and his name is
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Christ Jesus. And he says, you just preach the word. And by the way, I've picked people like you who are weak and frail and not the superstars of the world so that when people believe, what do they do?
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They say, it has to be Jesus. Paul doesn't have stage fright.
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Paul says, I realize the majesty of God and I'm under him and so therefore I preach. And now the final word, demonstration.
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We just touched on it lightly a few weeks ago. So now I want to develop that a little bit because it will help us ask the question and answer it, what kind of faith do you have?
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Demonstration. Your preaching like Paul's must be a demonstration of God's power and God's spirit, not persuasive words.
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We do want results. I'm not against results. If it was up to me, there'd be a thousand people here.
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Why? Do I want a thousand? Not necessarily, but if there were 700 more people that got saved because of your evangelism, would you be happy?
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I would. I want you to learn and grow and mature. I want people to get saved.
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It's not that we're anti -results, but we want them to be God's results. Verse 4 and 5, demonstration.
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And my speech, Paul says, and my message are not implausible or persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power for a reason, for a purpose.
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Why do we do what we do? That your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, that will damn you, but in the power of God like Paul.
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Here's what Paul does. Paul says, I'm a human. I'm a sinner. I know what human sinners like, especially around this
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Greco -Roman culture. They love wisdom. They love words. So it's almost like Paul did a little poll.
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Do you ever see people that say, I'm going to take a little poll. What would you like in church? I'd like it to be relevant.
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I'd like it to be short. You know, I've got a busy day on Sunday. I'd like it to meet me where I'm at.
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I have great children's programs, really nice -looking parking lot, fellowship hall.
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I really like espresso. And then you go around the neighborhood and here's the results, and now we'll give a church for you.
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It's like the Starbucks coffee mug. You see what it says on there? The first big three letters, Y -O -U, the
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U Church. You go, this is what you want? You know what Paul does? Paul goes,
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I'm sure glad to have the template because everything they want, I'm going to do the opposite. They don't know what they need.
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They know what they want and their wants come from a sinful desire to consume, to be entertained.
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They're not, here's what real worship is. And so Paul just does the opposite. You want man's wisdom? Here's a stick in your eye.
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You want some kind of plausible words? You know what I'm going to give you? Jesus on a stick.
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Look at that. Because Paul says, I want your faith to demonstrate
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God's power, not my manipulative power. And friends, maybe
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I think, well, I do think more highly of myself than I ought to think. But I think I'm a fairly persuasive guy.
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I think I have a fairly domineering personality. There's nothing wrong with trying to use that personality to persuade you.
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You must believe or you're going to bust hell wide open. And the water that was sprinkled on your head isn't going to help, unless you're born again.
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I want to say things persuasively. Paul is not saying, don't ever persuade. Knowing the fear of the
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Lord, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we what? Persuade men. There's a persuading in Acts 18 later on.
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But if you're converts because I persuaded you, then you're a convert to me.
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My converts don't go to heaven. My converts don't last. And by the way, if you have kind of a quieter disposition, if you have kind of more of a calmer demeanor, good.
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But you still preach, here's who Jesus is. You want people's faith to rest in the power of God.
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I think this is especially important for parents. I can get my kids to pretty much believe in anything I want them to believe in, and probably you can too.
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Paul says, I want the demonstration to be of the spirit and of power. Take a look at that word there, demonstration, found in verse 4.
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It's the word that we get legal proof from in a law court. This is admissible in court.
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That's that language, demonstration. This rigorous proof that we have that will stand up under the court of God's law, of spirit and of power, using the word of God to save people.
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Now, what was that demonstration? Two options. One, a bunch of miracles. Paul says, you know, miracles were done.
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Apostles could do miracles, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. But then that would have said here, it would have been demonstrations of power.
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I don't think this has anything to do with miracles, although Paul could do them. By the way, the
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Church of Corinth would want miracles. I think this has to do... What's the demonstration? It has everything to do with conversions.
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You want to know that this is a real message, Church of Corinth? It changes who you are. Flip over to chapter 6.
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Show me a gospel preacher and I'll show you what God does with the gospel message that the gospel preacher gives.
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It's not people following Paul. It's people that are changed from the inside out. What's the demonstration that Paul preached the real gospel about Jesus?
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People really got saved. Verse 9, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. It changes righteous, unrighteous into righteous.
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Do you not know? You should know. I've already taught you that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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Do not be deceived. It's easy to be deceived because you've got daughters, sons, grandparents, spouses.
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Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revivals, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
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Do you think Paul was talking about the sins that happened over in maybe India? He's talking about the sinful people that were at the church there at Corinth, right?
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And then he says, and such were some of you.
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Here's Paul's demonstration that the spirit of God was working. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. I ask you now, what can explain your life right now?
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If you say you're a Christian, what explains your life? Is it the power of God?
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You used to be an unbeliever and now you're a believer. What explains it? Somebody's, you know, two easy steps, three things you ought to know, four spiritual laws, five things that keep you from heaven, and you just heard about it and you said, yeah, yeah, that'll be good.
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Or is it the power of God that has changed you from the inside out? I look at my life and I think, there's no living explanation for what
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I used to be to what I am now except for the grace of God. That's this demonstration that Paul was talking about.
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Paul doesn't want people's faith to rest in the wisdom of men. It's superficial. You're not going to go to heaven if you've got that kind of faith.
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I don't want you to have a superficial faith. I don't want you to say, you know what's explained my life is behavior modification.
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I used to be kind of a bad guy and now I'm a better guy. I don't want medication to explain your life.
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I used to be all messed up and now I'm on these three psychosomatic drugs and I'm better. I don't want it to be education.
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I didn't know before and now I kind of know better. I used to not have a life coach but now
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I've got a life coach and things are better. I didn't have a support group around me and now I have a support group.
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I want you to have a life that no life coach can explain. I want you to have a life that shows no
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Oprah book club could explain. A demonstration, ask yourself the question, does my life show a demonstration of how
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God can take the dead and make them alive? To make somebody who hates God and can kill him if he could and turn him into somebody who worships
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Christ Jesus. To take somebody who used to hate the Bible, hate Bible study, hate worship and now loves those things and the list could go on.
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If the God of the universe has invaded your life, you ought to be different. Perfect in practice? No. Growing, maturing?
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Yes. Babies that don't grow and mature are called what? Stillborns.
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If you're alive, you'll be growing. And as a pastor, it doesn't make me feel good to think there are people that listen to this message week in and week out and still have not bowed the knee to Christ Jesus.
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For whatever reason, they don't want to lose friends, they don't want to lose sin. I want you to go to heaven.
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And I want you to know that there are times when you have to ask yourself the difficult questions. Our society, think about the noise pollution.
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Been driving on the freeway from Virginia and you just look in cars and you know, it's a little bit different on a long trip,
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I guess. But every moment of every day, you wake up and the radio is on, you're in the car, the radio is on, the iTunes phones are on, everything is in and around and busy, busy, computer, all these things.
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And when do you stop and just say to yourself, I ought to consider going to die one day and stand before God and then
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I'm going to throw Jesus some religious bone. I'm going to say, well, you know, I did these Christian things like in Matthew 7 and then what great is your destruction.
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Paul said to the church of Thessalonica, our gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power and in the
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Holy Spirit. You're different. Paul says, you
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Thessalonicans received my word not as the word of men, but as it is the word of God, which effectually works in those that believe.
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The Bible teaches that there are false gods, false prophets, false Christ, another
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Jesus, another gospel, false brethren, false teachers, false apostles and it teaches that there's a false faith too.
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I believe in Jesus. Our hearts can deceive us.
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How about this for an added trouble? Satan compounds that problem by blinding people's minds.
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So I know I see things clearly. If you're an unbeliever, you're slaved your own sin and Satan's blinded your mind.
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So you think things like, well, I think I can just be good and go to heaven. I think I'll just buy into evolution.
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That sounds good to me. Friend, you're a slave to sin and you're blinded. You say, well,
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I don't know who that guy thinks he is, but that makes me mad. I don't think you're quite mad enough yet.
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I want you to be incensed with me. I want you to be so mad you say, I'm going to pick up my
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Bible and I'll show him. Because I want you to learn the
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Bible. I want you to go to heaven. I don't want you to fall prey to an angel of light who masquerade around, mixes truth with error.
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So I'm going to ask you three questions. Three questions in light of 1 Corinthians 2, 1 to 5.
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Probably means I'm not going to get to too many, but let's just try three. Leading up for you to personally think about your own life first, then maybe your kids or other loved ones, but your life first.
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Does your faith rest in man's wisdom or does your faith rest in the power of God?
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In other words, are you a demonstration of God's handiwork, what he does with a sinner? How he can take someone like a
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John Newton, who used to be a slave owner, and then becomes a sinner. Question one.
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Already said before, but for emphasis, I say it again. Did your life radically change when the
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God of the universe made you born again? When he made you alive together with him,
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Colossians chapter 2, did your life radically change? Now, for me, as I look back in my life, again,
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I've lived for 30 years underneath this hole, well, I believe. I'm out in California and I move in to a place where Kim and I had a friend and this lady was named
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Aria. I've told you about Aria before and Aria liked to jog and I like to jog, and so we would run sometimes and Kim and Aria and I would do something together before we were married and go out and we began to talk about religion.
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And Aria said that she follows Jesus. Kind of refreshing to be in California and have somebody follow
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Jesus. I grew up Lutheran and I was good to go and I had been baptized and I went on a missions trip and other things.
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And so I was okay, do whatever I want, but at least I'm not going to hell like those other poor people. And so I'm fine.
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I talked to Aria and she said, yeah, I worship Jesus. Hey, great. You know, because I can meet
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Muslims and Jews and other people. I worship Jesus. And then she said something quite interesting. She said,
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I'll have a picture of Jesus. Probably, you know, blue eyes, blonde.
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No, no, she said, I have a picture of Jesus, me and Jesus. I'm standing next to Jesus, he's in my house.
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I said, well, I got to meet the guy. So I walked in and there was this kind of dweeby looking guy in a suit.
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There's Aria standing next to Jesus. And this was not some kind of Jesus kind of thing. She thought he was the
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Christ. She thought he was the Messiah. And there he stands. I said, that's Jesus?
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Yes, that's Jesus. And she was in a cult in Southern California that she wanted me to get into.
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And I said, I'm not getting into the cult Jesus. You know, Peter, I know, and Paul, but that's not
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Jesus. I messed up the slogan. In my mind, something like, you know,
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Larry Bird's not going to walk through those locker room doors. That was in my mind. I didn't want it to be, but it was. I was smart enough to know as an unbeliever, that's not
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Jesus. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. You can say, well, I know the
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Jesus of the Bible. I know he healed blind people. I know he walked on water. I know he was virgin born.
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I know all these things. And still, that doesn't demonstrate the power of God in a person.
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That's just an intellectual fact. When God changes people, he changes them.
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Just a quick list. 2 Peter 1, he gives them a divine nature. Ephesians 4, a new self.
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2 Corinthians 5, a new creature. 1 Corinthians 2, a new mind. Romans 5, a new heart.
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Romans 6, a new will. Joseph Wilson was right.
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The change of a sinner's heart is as great a miracle as any Jesus Christ wrought on earth.
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Faith isn't some kind of creedal idea that I just confess. What would you think if I told you where I used to surf,
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San Onofre, California, and they had two nuclear reactors right there on the beach. If I was surfing one day and one of those broke open, and the green ooze nuclear waste came down so fast that there was kind of a...
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It made it a swell and I caught the swell of green nuclear waste ooze and rode it out about a quarter of a mile.
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Just here to tell you about it. You'd think, guys, loon. It's just as loony to say,
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I've experienced and encountered and been affected by the God of the universe and I'm still the same.
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As it is for me to say, I've just walked into a nuclear waste up to here and everything's just the same in my life.
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No, you'd be like Charles Wesley. Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night.
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Thine eyes diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free,
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I rose, went forth and followed thee. Turn with me, if you would, to James chapter 2.
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You probably realized we were going to get here eventually, but I just feel compelled to make sure everyone here understands that there is a faith that doesn't save.
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There's a faith that's superficial. A faith that's built on the sinful deception of men, blinding by Satan, some kind of truncated gospel that you received.
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Who knows? But 2nd chapter of James, verse 19, James is talking about faith that does something.
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A faith that has to have works follow. No works that save, but if God has changed you, you'll be different.
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And here we have what Lenski called the most stunning illustration of dead faith in the Bible. And this is like some kind of yellow jacket sting.
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You believe that God is one, James 2 .19, you do well.
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Even the demons believe and shudder. Paul is going to shatter the faith that doesn't save, confronting this objector.
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You believe that God is one, James doesn't say, now, you know, we are all together, we're apostles, we're all these people.
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No, you believe, I'm not going to associate with that kind of talk. It just says you can believe something in your mind and it doesn't change you.
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Because when God gives you faith, it's a faith that saves, it's a faith that sanctifies. You believe that God is one and the unity of the
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Godhead? For people today, you believe that you're a Trinitarian and you're better than Aryans and Jehovah's Witnesses?
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That God is one? Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, the
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Shema in Deuteronomy 6. You believe that? The most basic foundational truths?
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Well, that's interesting. The demons also believe. And by the way, they do something better than that.
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You say you believe, they, demons, have better faith than you do.
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Because demons' faith is not just intellectual, it's emotional too. What do demons do?
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The demons also believe and shudder. What an amazing passage this is.
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I guess the only way I can try to teach it is to try to show you the sarcasm that's in there.
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You believe that there's a God, you believe that Jesus was born, you believe
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He died on the cross for sins, you believe that He was raised from the dead, you believe He's coming back, and that's all you believe?
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James says sarcastically, big deal. Because the demons believe all that and it causes them to react.
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Less than saving faith. I'm not saying demons are going to heaven. But demons know the Holy One of God is going to judge them and what do they do in the life of Jesus?
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They were afraid. I know judgment is coming, just not now. There's an emotional response.
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For me, maybe this hits so close to home, is because I knew all this stuff, but it made no impact on my life at all.
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It wasn't changed. I wasn't even afraid. Because I had a little inoculation. I had some water sprinkled on my head as an infant and I was good to go.
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And I had more inoculation, because when I would go to the Lutheran funerals, what would happen? Very first thing, out comes some kind of person dressed in some kind of formal robe with crosses and lambs and sticks and things, and then they'd say, based on this person's baptism as an infant, they're in heaven now, we know that,
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O Lord. More inoculation, more inoculation. When we know that person who died couldn't have cared less about Jesus, worshipped their own life with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and now some kind of false teacher is going to further inoculate me by saying, he's in heaven.
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His faith, a person on earth, if God hadn't changed him, isn't even as good as a demon's who says, yikes.
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The Latin word for shudder is horao. I'm horrified by this. You say, this is no way to build a church.
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This is no way to get people to come. We're supposed to feel light. By the way, this is my Mother's Day message today.
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Happy Mother's Day. I'm not after a mega church.
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I'm after everybody who's sitting in this room, who I will have to bury if you live long enough, and I do too.
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And I want your faith to be found in Christ Jesus to the effect that it has changed you, it has made you born again.
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If you really believe, you will be different. I don't care if people like,
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I mean, I do care, I want people to like me, but I want something more than that. With fear and trembling, here's the message,
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Lord. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living
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God. Oh, I had this experience. I spoke in tongues.
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I had a feeling. God gave me just kind of a peaceful feeling in my heart.
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I had kind of a burning in my bosom. I had this and I had that. Some people have intellectual faith and emotional, and that's still not saving.
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Because James is saying this. Intellectual, emotional, that yields itself in the work of the
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Lord. Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is less than demonic.
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They have a faith that is afraid, but they don't do the works of Christ Jesus. One man said this.
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I didn't say it, but he did. He said, this is a sarcastic compliment. You have achieved a place lower than demons, if you just say you believe.
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When God saves you, you have this view of Christ now that you say, He is precious.
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He is wonderful. He is majestic. He is holy. He is the King. He is my
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King. I'll follow Him. I'll worship Him. Demons don't see the beauty of Christ Jesus.
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If you're really saved, your life will begin to change on the inside out. God declares you righteous based on Christ's work, and then
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He begins to rot in your soul. I don't even know how to say it.
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To rot in your soul? No. He began to rot in your soul. That doesn't sound right either.
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He begins to work in your soul. And there's this direction now of, I want to please. I'm not saying if you're an immature
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Christian, you're not a Christian. There are baby steps. There are steps.
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There's growth. But the growth begins at justification because that's when
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God regenerates. And you begin to change your life. You begin to be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as 2
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Corinthians 3 says. You begin to say, you know, I used to just do things because I had to and I was told to.
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And now, although sometimes I struggle and still say that, I do lots of things because I want to. I get enjoyment serving the
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Lord and serving the King. Probably the most, probably the largest group in this church of people who struggle with creedal faith alone that won't save, are you ready?
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It's our children. Because our children,
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I believe, have been taught the right things. And if you hear our children say you can get to heaven by another way, well, we correct that.
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And our children know, creedally, the right things. And so it's our responsibility, it's our privilege, yes, to teach the
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Bible and to tell the children, not just, well, you know, you accepted Jesus in your heart 15 years ago and you're good to go.
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Never go back to that time. To say, you say you believe, good. That's better than if a kid comes to you and says,
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I don't believe, Daddy. When your kid says, I believe, you say, good, and you encourage that faith.
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But you never say, well, that particular moment you believed and therefore we'll always go back to there. And as you see their lives change, you start becoming more assured that it's a
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Holy Spirit -wrought change. It's harder, see, in our circumstances, because if you meet the heroin addict, if you meet the transgendered, if you meet the adulterer, and God saves them and they run away from heroin, they run away from transgender, and they run away from adultery, we see it because it's a change in the outside.
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But it is hard to see that change on the inside of a pastor's kid, the deacon's kid.
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I do not want you to stand before God on that day when you will, if you're without Christ, shudder.
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You'll finally shudder. The demons shudder now because they know how bad it is. And if you're without Christ and you stand before God Almighty on Judgment Day, you will shudder and shudder and shudder and shudder and shudder and shudder.
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And you say, that's unloving. It's love incarnate to tell people, consider your soul.
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There are no unbelievers in hell. Oh, they believe, alright. 1
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Corinthians 15, it talks about holding fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
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There's a faith that is a vain faith. How about Sardis?
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Jesus said to Sardis, that you have a name that you're alive, but you are what? Dead. Well, I said three questions, so let me just give you the two rapid fire.
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Number two, did you respond to the biblical Jesus or the lowest common denominator
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Jesus? The truncated Jesus. The watered down Jesus. The Jesus without wrath, without holiness, without hell.
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You ever committed a sin? Yes, I've sinned. Okay, you're a sinner. You ever commit a lie? Yes, I've lied.
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Okay, you're a liar. Okay, now you're good to go and let me tell you about Jesus. Romans chapter 3, turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 3.
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Just very quickly, I'm not going to get to all three questions, but that's alright.
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Romans chapter 3, we are to preach to other people the law of God, the standard of God, the attributes of God, until the point where they come to their senses and they say this, if what you say is true,
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I am undone and I'm going to hell. I need help. Then we present the
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Savior. Too often people offer Jesus for what? They don't understand the gravity of sin and the heinousness of sin, the object of one that they sin against.
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Romans chapter 3 I think is very, very helpful. Don't offer Jesus too soon, because Jesus came to save those who knew they weren't righteous.
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Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that what?
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Every mouth may give an excuse. Oh, evolution, oh, I'm good. I'm not as bad as other people.
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Some have been laud and still worse. I've been baptized. I've been catechized. I went on a missions trip.
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I go to church. My dad's a pastor. All these rationalizations are not right. You preach the standard of God, the holiness of God, the attributes of God, the law of God, the law of Christ.
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And what did the person say? The person, if God is drawing them and working in their heart, here's what they say.
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Look at the text. So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be held accountable to God.
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Because every answer they give is a works answer. So Paul says in verse 24, By the works of the law, no human being, no
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Jew, no Gentile, will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
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And then the skies open. But now, hallelujah, the righteousness of God has been manifested.
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It's shown up. Apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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For all who believe, there's no distinction. For 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.
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Whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show
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God's righteousness. Because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show
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His righteousness at the present time. So that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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And what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law?
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By a law of works? No, by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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I want your faith to be in Christ Jesus alone.
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And I want it to not be superficial. I want it to be saving. And I want your faith to be such that when you look and others look, the response is, it was by the grace of God and God's power and God's might and God's Spirit that that person is who
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He is. That she is who He is. It is said that D .L.
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Moody was accosted on the streets of Chicago one day by a drunk who said, Aren't you Moody? Why, I'm one of your converts.
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Moody said, That must be true. For you surely are not one of the Lord's converts.
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I want you to be one of the Lord's converts. And I want you to repent of your sins if you're not a believer and trust in Christ alone today.
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Our Heavenly Father, we are humbled this morning to know that for all of us here who are
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Christians, we didn't become Christians because we were good or we did something.
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Father, we are probably greater sinners than those today who are sitting here not saved.
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Father, but You opened our eyes and You taught us that we have sinned an infinite sin against an all -glorious
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Being. Taught us about sin and holiness. And Lord, because of Christ's work, because of the
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Spirit's work, You've helped us no longer love our sin, but to hate it.
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Not to follow after the world, but to reject it. Not to play like we know
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God, but to have a desire to know Him and to be known by Him. So Father, I pray today for Bethlehem Bible Church and friends and family members, elders, deacons, kids, that Your Spirit would do its heart work and let those not sleep nor rest until they are convinced in their mind that there's no longer no condemnation in them because in fact
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Jesus paid for their condemnation and they believe that by faith. So Lord, would
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You reap a harvest today Would You do something wonderful in our church and may
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You show us the fruit, if it would be Your will, regeneration and baptism to follow.