WWUTT 1600 Q&A Open Your Church, Love and Laughter, Catechism for Kids, I Stand at the Door and Knock

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Why should your church stay open even if the government tells you to close? What is a good catechism for you to use with your kids?

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And does Jesus stand at the door of our hearts and knock? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Thank you, Becky, who pre -recorded that greeting. She is not in studio with me this week.

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And this week, it doesn't have to do with, you know, like, we just couldn't get together. We had to get down to the church. We needed to find something to occupy the kids.

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No, she's just sick this week. We've had illness going through our home, so your prayers for us would be appreciated.

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We've had illness going through our church. There's been staff that has been out since last week.

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Pastor Tom got sick, and I had to preach for him on short notice on Sunday.

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He's preaching this coming Sunday, but then he's leading the Expositors Workshop in Arkansas this coming week.

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He's going to be preaching at the Founders Conference in Florida, and then I'm going to be preaching that next Sunday, so at least he's not prepping a sermon in the midst of all that as well.

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But recovering from illness and then the busy week that he's got, pray for Tom Buck, that the

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Lord would give him strength and health as he heads into this next week. You know, I still get a lot of emails from folks saying that their churches are shut down or they're requiring people to be masked.

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I don't think that I've received any emails yet saying, I'm not allowed to attend my church until I get vaccinated, but I'm expecting that pretty soon.

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We're going to start hearing from folks saying, my church is requiring me to be vaccinated in order to come to church.

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My friends, we have said to us in James 2 .1, show no partiality as you hold to the gospel of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Put no stumbling block in front of anybody in the household of faith that we may come together as brothers and sisters in the

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Lord to rejoice in our King. Open the doors of your church. Let everybody come and worship.

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You can't tell me that you are safer going to a supermarket or to a restaurant than you are coming to church on a

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Sunday. Like you're okay with people preparing your food, but you're not okay with sitting too close to somebody in worship.

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That's ridiculous. Don't let the fear narrative determine your worship.

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Obey God. Have no fear of man. Have no fear of disease.

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Obey the Lord and tremble at his word. Come together for church on Sunday.

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I wanted to play this clip for you here. This is from a Trinity Bible chapel in Canada, and we've talked about them before.

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Pastor Jacob Rayume, who has been persecuted by the Canadian government because they have decided to have church.

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Well, they released a video of a baptism this past week. This was just a few days ago. I think it happened this past Sunday.

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And listen to this gal's testimony, okay? This is the woman who is being baptized. Listen to what she shares.

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Most recently, I was smoking and shooting seven grams of cocaine a day, and my son asked me to come to a prayer meeting at Trinity.

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In my small group, I asked for prayer to help me stop. I left a comment on one of Pastor Jacob's sermons on YouTube.

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Pastor Jacob took the time to find out who I was and tracked me down and called me to pray for me and to encourage me to keep coming to church.

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I did. I went down for prayer one morning, and Elders Dean and Harvey prayed for me.

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The next day, I got a phone call that there was an upcoming bed available at a sober living house in Cambridge. I kept coming to Trinity in the meantime.

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I've been clean and sober now for over seven months, moved into my own apartment, and the body of Christ here at Trinity has helped me with furniture and other blessings.

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None of these things would have happened if Trinity closed its doors and was solely online. I know for a fact that I'd be dead right now if God had not used this church in my life.

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And then after that, after sharing her testimony, you see her get baptized, and a congregation, which is present to witness this testimony and this baptism, cheers, because this is a woman who was dying.

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She was dead in her sins and her transgressions, and she has been made alive together with Christ. What a phenomenal testimony.

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And would not have been possible for her if the church had their doors closed and wasn't open because the

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Canadian government told them not to be open. But they obey God rather than men.

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My friends, even before we got to the COVID pandemic, when I was living in Kansas at the time, of course,

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I'm in East Texas now, but in Kansas, where we had much harsher winters than we have in East Texas.

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We had that strange winter last year where the church was shut down. We actually closed the church for a

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Sunday because we couldn't get anywhere. In Texas, they don't have salt and snow plows.

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So if it snows, you have to shut down. There's nothing you can do about it. The roads are not open for you to be able to go anywhere.

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So we didn't have church that Sunday. I actually still made it here just in case anybody was going to show up for church and nobody came.

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So I was only answering the phones. At least I can still say I have a perfect church attendance record. As a pastor,

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I've still never missed a Sunday. But anyway, I'm rabbit trailing here in Kansas.

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That would happen quite frequently, right? There would be more than one Sunday in a winter period where it would snow so bad that some churches are closing.

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But I would never close. As long as I could get to the church, those doors would be open. It would snow six to eight inches or more, and all the rest of the churches in town are closing down.

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But I'm open. Even if 10 people are going to show up, the church is going to be open because somebody nearby is going to want to go to church.

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And they know that when they come by my building, my doors are going to be open, and they will hear the word of God proclaimed.

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Even if it's to a small audience, I'm still going to preach the gospel. And I have had occasions where somebody came to my church on a day when most other churches were closed.

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They came to us, and they were so thankful that we were open because they just wanted to worship

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God. Or they had some questions they knew they could go to the church and have answered.

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May we shine as lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

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As it says in Philippians 2 .14, holding out the word of life, this world is in desperate need of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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May we not withhold it from anyone, nor close our doors to anyone.

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Well, this is the Friday edition of When We Understand the Text, when I take questions from the listeners. And you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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This first one comes from Jeanette. And Jeanette, I did share this email with Becky.

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She says, hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I hope this finds you well. Loving the study on 1

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Corinthians 13. That was the chapter that I was in Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week.

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Funny story, she says. Do you know how you said love? Yeah, I said it's impossible to talk about 1

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Corinthians 13 as the love chapter without saying it just like that. So Jeanette goes on to say, my husband and I say it like that all the time.

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He gave me a CD of drive -by theology with Todd Friel and Stephen Lawson.

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On one of the chapters, Todd opens with love. The way Todd says it is so dramatic.

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You can just imagine how Todd Friel says it. And makes Steve Lawson just laugh.

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I've recorded it. I have it recorded and saved on my phone because whenever I'm feeling down and I need a laugh,

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I play it and it gives me a chuckle. I am adding it to this email. Oh boy.

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Okay, I've got to pull this. I actually have not listened to this yet. I'm adding it to this email so that you can see what

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I mean. Steve Lawson's laugh makes you just laugh because it is so heartfelt and genuine.

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Okay, let's do this here. So here's the clip of Todd Friel saying love that Jeanette sent to me.

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And we're going to get Steve Lawson's genuine laughter here. Let me finish.

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Oh, forget it. This is lecture. Oh, that is great.

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You got to love Steve Lawson. He's got such a genuine laugh. You can't help but laugh along with Steve Lawson.

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You don't even have to know what he's laughing at. And it's just funny to you too. Thank you for that,

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Jeanette. I appreciate that. Okay, so she's got more email here. She says my husband loves to look up words and the

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Greek origin for them. He always has logos pulled up and follows along. I have a traumatic brain injury.

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Well, bless your heart, Lynette. And with that, a very short fuse follows. We were listening to you teach that patient translates to even tempered in Greek.

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And I commented, yeah, about that. That's not me. Without skipping a beat.

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My husband says maybe odd tempered. And we just laughed. Enjoy your weekend.

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Tell Becky. Hello. Hopefully she'll be on with you tomorrow. And of course, this was an email that I got yesterday.

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Thank you for all that you all do. It's much appreciated. God bless. Thank you so much for that email, Jeanette. And sharing with us the joy that you get from Todd Freel and Steve Lawson.

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So this week, as I was teaching from 1 Corinthians 13, it's in verse 4 where Paul says that love is patient and love is kind.

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And even there, the usage of patience implies commitment. We're committed to the church.

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When people hurt us, we don't run away from the church and go, well, I don't go to church anymore because people hurt me there.

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Well, that's probably going to happen. You know why? Because we love one another. And when you love somebody and they do something that a person who loves another person should not be doing to someone that they love, it's going to hurt.

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It's because the church is full of sinners. We are not perfect. We're being sanctified, but we're not there yet.

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And so we must be patient with one another. We are long suffering. We are committed through thick and thin.

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And Jeanette, it sounds like you and your husband are patient with each other. Maybe that translates as odd -tempered, but you're committed to one another, especially in the sense of in sickness and in health, because you have this traumatic brain injury.

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He is nonetheless committed to you and patient with you, because he knows that your fuse is short, but that's not going to stop him from loving you.

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Now, of course, Paul is addressing the church here in First Corinthians 13, and we are to be long suffering with one another, committed to each other, because Christ is long suffering with us and committed to us.

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And as God has shown us kindness through our Lord Jesus Christ, so we must be kind to each other as well.

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Be committed to your churches. So I talked earlier, churches have your doors open and for everyone else, be committed to those churches that you belong to, encouraging and strengthening one another in this most holy faith that we have in Christ Jesus.

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We go on to this next email here from Marcus. He says, I like watching some of your videos, but why do you have paintings or pictures of naked or not adequately clothed people in the intro of your videos?

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I don't mean this in an unkind way, but I think displaying those images is not exactly appropriate. Please carefully consider what

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I wrote. God bless. You know, Marcus, you might find this kind of funny and maybe a lot of you will find this funny.

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I have never had that complaint before. This is the very first time that I have received such a complaint.

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I know that there are a couple of paintings in the opening crawl. I mean, they're really small. The little, you know, thumbnails that come up here are tiny.

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But if you look at them, yeah, there might be some inappropriate clothing there. It looks like there's just two as I'm looking at it here.

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And that is Daniel and Jonah. Jonah's especially small, so you can't really can't see that Jonah is scantily clad unless you're really squinting at it here.

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But it looks like that Adam and Eve are even wearing more clothes than Daniel and Jonah.

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So Daniel is in the lion's den and he's got kind of a cloth around his waist.

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He's shirtless, but he's you know, he's covered in insensitive areas. And then

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Jonah is getting puked out of the fish. So he's got he's barely holding on to his clothes.

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It looks like he's flying out of his clothes. So why do I have those paintings in there if they're so inappropriate?

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There's actually a what video that I've got where I explain this. It was when I changed the paintings. The previous paintings, they were famous paintings, including, you know, pictures from the ceiling of the

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Sistine Chapel, like God reaching out to Adam, you know, their fingers touch. That was one of the paintings that was in there.

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But I got complaints about those paintings because they depicted God. And there are some who believe that was a second commandment violation.

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And I argued that I don't agree. But so not to cause somebody to stumble,

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I was willing to change the images to look like something else. Why don't I go ahead and play that video for you?

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So here was the video where I explained why the illustrations were chosen the way that they were.

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Well, wait a moment. What's in this image? Is that a picture of God? And are these paintings of Jesus?

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Even though the second commandment says you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above?

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Yes, well, there's an explanation behind our opening graphic. When we understand the text began as an effort to share the gospel and teach the

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Bible in context, correcting many assumptions people have come to believe, but the Bible doesn't actually say.

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For example, the Bible does not say Jesus stands knocking at the door of your heart waiting for you to invite him in.

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These images on the opening slide represent famous depictions of Bible stories. The logo is in a font called protest paint.

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So this opener was meant to be a protest against many common but false assumptions about the Bible. This does not break the second commandment.

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God told Israel not to make a graven image of anything in heaven or on earth. But then he told Moses to fashion two angels on the top of the

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Ark of the Covenant and there were statues of angels in the temple. Jesus is God born in the likeness of men and the

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Bible describes his appearance. The Holy Spirit has appeared as a dove and as fire. Are these images lawless?

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The context of the second commandment forbids worshipping any graven image which would make you an idolater.

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That's not permission to make a likeness of God who is spirit. Sufficient enough is the word of Christ who did not look like a shampoo model.

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To guard your conscience and not wanting to cause anyone to stumble, from now on the opening slide will look like this.

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And we hope you'll still be alright sharing the older videos with the old opener. We are when we understand the text.

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So there you go, some backstory into the opening logo of every what video.

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Now I mentioned in there Revelation 3 .20 which says it's

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Jesus speaking to the church in Laodicea. Behold I stand at the door and knock. It's funny that I mentioned that and I forgot that that was in that video because I'm going to talk about that here in just a little bit.

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So hold on to that thought. Anyway, the paintings as they appear are not meant to really be taken seriously.

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So from left to right what you have is Adam and Eve being removed from the

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Garden of Eden. You've got Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac and an angel stops him.

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Then it's Moses with the Ten Commandments. You've got JL about to nail a guy through the head.

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You have David carrying the head of Goliath. I just love that painting anyway. Daniel in the lion's den,

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Jonah being vomited out by the fish. You've got the women coming to the tomb and the angel is showing them that the tomb is empty.

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A picture of Peter. No I think that's Paul. That's supposed to be the Apostle Paul. And then John at the conclusion there receiving and writing the book of Revelation.

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None of those depictions are, none of those look anything like those actual

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Bible characters. For one thing, they're extremely white. They all look very

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European and good looking. None of that, those stories did not look like anything there.

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There's also a lot of blue and red. Have you noticed that? These Renaissance painters, boy they loved their bright reds especially.

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So there's kind of a uniform to the color that you see in all of those images. It's not meant to be taken seriously.

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And when what comes up in protest paint, there's kind of a pun there because it's protesting against our common depictions of Bible stories which people have repeated for so long that they've come to believe it a certain way and it's not according to what the text actually says in scripture.

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So when we understand the text, it's coming back to the text and looking at what the Bible says so that we can understand these things in context.

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I appreciate your comment, Marcus, but I'm not planning on changing the images.

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They're small, they're barely noticeable. And like I said, you're the first person to have complained.

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We go on to this next question from Ali who says, do you recommend going through catechism with children?

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If so, what book or curriculum do you like to use? I've heard that the New City Catechism by Tim Keller is good.

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Do you know if this is a sound resource or has Keller weaved some of his more progressive ideas into the questions and answers?

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I want to get a catechism resource that's easy to use, which the New City Catechism seems to be.

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Your thoughts on this topic would be most appreciated. Thank you. And God bless. No, I don't recommend

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New City Catechism. I read it years ago and I don't remember there being any problems with it. But just because of of the progressive direction that Tim Keller has gone, he's woke now.

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Very embracing of critical race theory, politics and and even, you know, implementing those things, that kind of philosophy in his own church.

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So therefore, I cannot recommend anything that Tim Keller does. I would tell you to look up from Reftoons the illustrated

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Baptist catechism that Paul Cox recently came out with. He just came out with it at the end of twenty, twenty one.

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And we got a copy of it in our home. So it's the it's Keach's catechism with illustrations.

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The questions can be kind of advanced for kids. I'll tell you that. But I don't think that you should find a softer version of catechism.

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Just explain it to your children as they get older. They will understand it, even if it's complicated for them now.

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Don't don't go the dumb route, OK, or like even looking for Bibles that are dumbed down for kids.

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Read them the Bible and explain to them what it is that you're reading. Same way with catechism.

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Use the Baptist catechism and explain to your kids what it means. Catechism is meant to explain the

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Bible. So, you know, even sometimes we have to explain our explanations, right? So anyway, that would be the that's the catechism that I recommend you use.

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Now, of course, you can get that catechism for free online. Just look up Baptist catechism or Keach's catechism and it will come up.

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But if you're wanting a book, something that even, you know, catches kids attention, it's brightly colored and things like that.

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I think they'll really enjoy even going through Paul Cox's illustrated

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Baptist catechism. You can find it at Reftoons, R -E -F -T -O -O -N -S dot com.

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This next question comes from Robin. A blessed morning to you, sir and ma 'am.

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I am a pioneering member of a reformed Presbyterian church from the Philippines. I'm here to ask humbly for your permission to re -upload your videos.

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Thank you for your time and more grace to you. Robin, absolutely. You can use our videos in whatever way you want as long as you're not profiting off of them.

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Like you're, you're not ripping them off and then selling them to somebody else. I do these videos for free.

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And so as long as you hand them out for free, you can download them, you can make copies, you can distribute them, whatever you want to do.

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So long as the message of the gospel gets out. And I thank you so much for watching when we understand the text and sharing these videos with other people.

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It's, it's what I made them for that the gospel of Christ would go out to the world, even to the

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Philippines. Next up here, I got an email from Van in Georgia. It was just a short email.

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He sent me a link to a video and said, Hey, have you seen this? This is a video that Dr. Layton flowers did yesterday through his

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YouTube channel. So Terry ology one Oh one. And he was responding to, well, critiquing a what video that I did years ago.

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This is one of my earliest videos on revelation three 20 where Jesus says to the church at Laodicea, behold,

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I stand at the door and knock. I'm going to go ahead and play the video here. This is the 92nd what video.

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And then I'll play Dr. Flowers video and respond to his comments. In revelation three 20,

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Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

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I will come in and eat with him. And he with me, Jesus is such a polite guest, isn't he? He stands at the door of our hearts.

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If we just open up and let him in, at least that's the picture we paint with that verse. But that's not the context.

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Jesus is addressing the church at Laodicea to whom he gives another famous verse. I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot.

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So because you're lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. And he rebukes them for their complacent faith.

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Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. That's verse 19. Right before he says,

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I stand at the door and knock. This is not the picture of a guest looking for someone to welcome him into their heart.

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Jesus Christ is the master of the house. And when the master comes back, because remember, this is the book of Revelation.

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We're talking about the return of Christ here. When he comes back, he expects to find alert and working servants, not lazy, complacent freeloaders acting like they own the place.

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Such persons will be thrown out into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Matthew 24, Jesus says,

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Be ready, for the Son of Man will return in an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has sent over his household to give them their food at the proper time?

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Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. And when he comes, it will be as a conquering king.

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And we will sit with him and all of the faithful at the wedding feast of the lamb. That's a much more glorious picture than that of a passive Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts when we understand the text.

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Yes, you can clearly tell by the quality of that. That was a very early what video?

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I did not remember the audio quality being that bad. Why is my voice so high and tingy?

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I must have had a bad setting on the board when I did that because my voice has not gotten lower in seven years.

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It still sounds exactly like it did seven years ago anyway. So of course, that video is confronting the common misuse of Revelation 320 as if Jesus stands at the door of your heart and knocks.

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The word heart is not even mentioned in Revelation chapter three, but that's the way that people use that verse.

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Todd Freelike that video. I remember him playing that one on wretched, so apparently he was okay with the audio quality.

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Layton Flowers of Soteriology 101, though he did not like this video.

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So here was his response, which he posted just yesterday. I did not watch the whole thing.

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It's an hour. It's an hour long video responding to my 90 second video. He takes an hour.

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I don't have an hour, nor am I going to stretch out this episode that long. So we're not going to respond to the whole thing.

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We're going to catch the first eight minutes or so here. This is Layton Flowers responding to that what video.

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Hello and welcome back to Soteriology 101. Today we're going to be replying again to one of the what, when we understand the text videos put out by Pastor Gabe, which by the way, in about a week from now, a

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Monday, week from Monday, I guess it is. I'm going to be debating Pastor Gabe on John chapter six, and I look forward to that.

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More details about that later. I need to get a link and things for that for you to know and be able to watch those things.

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And this came to my attention when I was studying for and preparing for the debate, just looking through some of Pastor Gabe's materials and came across this.

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And this is another example of when Calvinists go too far. Okay, let me stop there for a moment.

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So the video that he's going to respond to, I just played it for you. I played the whole thing. Calvinism was not in that video.

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There's no Calvinist Soteriology at all. In fact, I have only mentioned the word

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Calvinist in one what video, as far as I know, I've done over 300 videos and in only one video did

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I mention the word Calvinist and it was in the video that I did responding to Soteriology 101 because it's not possible to confront

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Leighton Flowers Ministry and not mention Calvinism. It's what his ministry is all about. He has a one track mind.

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All he hears is Calvinism and that he needs to disprove it to the point that Soteriology 101 is a misnomer.

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It's actually anti Calvinism 101. If you listen to Soteriology 101, you do not learn

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Soteriology, nor do you even get an honest or fair presentation of Calvinism.

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And that was really what I said in the video that I did responding to Leighton Flowers Ministry. Furthermore, does

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Dr. Flowers actually know of any place that I've called myself a Calvinist? I do not present when we understand the text is a

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Calvinist ministry. This is an expository ministry. We're going verse by verse through the

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Bible, line by line, chapter by chapter, entire books. And I've been doing this now for how many episodes?

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1600. Today is the 1 ,600th episode of when we understand the text.

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And you know what you're getting Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we do New Testament study. We've been in the book of first Corinthians.

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Next week, I start on chapter 14. On Thursday, we do Old Testament study. I've been in the book of Proverbs Friday.

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We do a Q and a. So if there's something that you disagree with in what I have said or what

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I have taught plainly from the text in context, send me an email. We'll talk about it on the

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Friday program. Let's continue on with with Flowers response here. And let me give you let me give you just a picture of what

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I mean by this. You can see it there on your screen. It's kind of a pendulum. And I've talked about this before, even when

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I was a Calvinist, I made these same kinds of mistakes, because when you're around the seeker sensitive kind of what we've called the the

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Namby Pamby, you know, easy believism, chicken soup for the soul, pop psychology kind of stuff, when you when you're surrounded by that in the

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Christian world and you see the health, wealth, prosperity stuff becoming so popularized in our culture, it's emotional.

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There's no wrath talked about. There's no call to repentance, those kinds of things. It's a weak form of the gospel.

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And sometimes what happens is the church sees that kind of thing. And they allow the pendulum to swing completely far over into the opposite direction instead of coming to that sweet spot in the middle of the true biblical gospel.

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They swing so far away from the emotionalism of the Namby Pamby stuff that they become overly deterministic and they're focused so much on the wrath of God and his control.

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And they they think of it as being much more pious and deep and spiritual and exegetical. And those guys over there, they're just weak and and and, you know, just emotional.

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Dr. Flowers actually props up those weak gospel seeker sensitive guys.

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So it's kind of strange to hear him dog on that chicken soup for the soul stuff when these are the guys that he gravitates toward.

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I mean, when you have a weak soteriology, that's who you go for. The guys that don't preach about the wrath of God but water down the gospel, guys like Andy Stanley.

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Flowers has had Andy Stanley on his program. Stanley's like the quintessential seeker sensitive guy.

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And I know that because that's the way I used to think of all our minions. I used to think of all people who were not

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Calvinist as being just these very weak minded, very shallow types of Christians.

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And I think that that's what Pastor Gabe here in this what video is doing. He's allowing his pendulum to swing so far the opposite direction that he undermines the clear meaning of the text so much so that he doesn't even give us an explanation as to how we are to interpret

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Revelation 320 when it talks about Jesus knocking at the door. He doesn't give us an explanation of how we should understand it.

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He just says you shouldn't believe whatever that picture is of Jesus.

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And then he just talks about the wrath and vengeance of God in contrast. And it gives a very poor picture, in my estimation, of the balance, the proper balance of what the scriptures teach us with regard to the nature of who

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Christ is. Did you get that impression from the video that I played? Did it sound to you like I did not explain?

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Revelation 320. Now, the ironic thing here is Dr. Flowers has an hour.

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This is an hour long video. And he doesn't go through Revelation 320.

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So he doesn't really read the text either, at least as far as I can tell. I went through about 25 minutes of the video.

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So as far as I could tell, he never actually comes to Revelation 3 and and reads the text for you, gives it to you in context.

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So what he's criticizing me for, even though I did give the understanding of Revelation 320, but what he's criticizing me for, he doesn't do.

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But before we go any further, I want you to watch the video for yourself. One of the positive things about about the videos is they're short.

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They're usually like two minutes long. And so they're easy to play into and to talk through. And so that's something that we can be thankful for.

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That's not a really long video, though. I've had the pleasure of talking and listening through some of Pastor Gabe's longer messages, much of which, like with a lot of other

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Calvinists that I've come across, I actually appreciate and like. I like a lot of his teachings. He's got an awesome radio voice, by the way, if you hadn't noticed that.

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He's got a really good recording voice. And so he's fun to listen to. And a lot of what he says and teaches on a lot of other topics,

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I'm right there with him. That is a wonderful compliment. And I am very appreciative of that, especially considering the audio quality on this video is really bad so that he still speaks highly of my radio voice.

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That was very kind. Thank you, Dr. Flowers. But it's his sociology, I think, like mine once was, is just flawed.

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It's it's it's based in a deterministic worldview, a Calvinistic deterministic worldview. And I think that'll become quite evident when you watch this video.

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So let's watch it together. In Revelation 320,

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Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

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I will come in and eat with him and he with me. Jesus is such a polite guest, isn't he? He stands at the door of our hearts if we just open up and let him in.

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At least that's the picture we paint with that verse. But that's not the context. Jesus is addressing the church at Laodicea to whom he gives another famous verse.

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I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot. So because you're lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. And OK, so notice that even the music change.

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It's the little quiet, you know, tingy music that's just emotional.

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Jesus knocking on our little, you know, real Namby Pamby looking weak.

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Jesus knocking at the door. And now we're going to switch over to the wrathful vengeance. You know, we're not we need to understand

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God is wrathful and vengeful and mean and, you know, and just he misses.

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He's the he's allowing the pendulum to swing in the opposite direction. And notice he never gives us an explanation of that verse from even a

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Calvinistic perspective. Well, you got to play the video. It's only 90 seconds.

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He plays 30 seconds of it and then interrupts and goes, he doesn't explain the verse and then adds that.

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I also don't explain it from a Calvinist perspective. Well, first of all, that's not my objective at all. Secondly, there's no

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Calvinist reading of this verse. The point of the video is to show you how the common misuse of Revelation 320 is not what

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Jesus is saying to the church at Laodicea. And how is this verse often twisted?

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You heard it in the video. People will take it to mean that Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart.

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If you will just open up and let him in the word heart does not even appear in Revelation three.

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In fact, here's an assignment for you. You can do this on your own later. Look up all the occasions that the word heart appears in the book of Revelation and it's always in the context of judgment.

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Jesus address here to the church in Laodicea is very serious and it should not be softened or downplayed.

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Let's consider it together. Let's do the thing that Layton is not going to do. And that's actually take you to the text and read it.

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Revelation chapter three. I'm going to start reading in verse 14. We'll go through verse 22 and to the angel of the church in Laodicea, right?

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The words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

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I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot.

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So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold. I will spit you out of my mouth for you say.

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I am rich. I have prospered and I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.

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I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom

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I love. I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent.

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Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

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I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. The one who conquers,

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I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

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He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

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And as the spirit was communicating to these seven churches in Revelation two and three, so the spirit speaks to us through these words.

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Even now, Jesus says to the church at Laodicea, you are not hot or cold.

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You're far from the source. That's what he means when he says you're lukewarm. You're not like the hot water that comes from a hot spring or the cold water that comes from a cold spring.

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You're lukewarm. And because you're far from me, I will spit you out of my mouth.

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These are these are people that call themselves Christians, but they're actually far from Christ.

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And they think because they're rich in the world's goods that they don't need anything.

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And Jesus says, you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. You have nothing.

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Get from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself talking about his righteousness and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

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You may see your sin and God's righteousness and consider verse 19.

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And by the way, I reference verse 19 in the video, which Leighton didn't get to.

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He cut me off. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.

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So be zealous and repent. I don't say anything about wrathful, vengeful God here.

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That's Leighton putting words in my mouth. But this rebuke is a very serious, stern warning that Jesus is giving to this church.

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And there's an urgency here. He wants them to repent now. Do not delay any longer.

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Turn back to me because I am coming soon. That's the reference to behold.

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I stand at the door and knock. Christ's return is imminent. It is any day. So delay no longer repent and turn back to Jesus Christ.

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This is the message that Leighton is softening. He wants me to soften and is rebuking me for speaking it too harshly.

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Come on, that was too much for you. Then take it up with Christ. Repent of your twisting of the word.

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Once again, Dr. Flowers has that one track mind. All he hears is Calvinism. Even when you quote the words of Jesus and he's got to refute it.

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And this is where I have to push back to Gabe and just say, Pastor Gabe. Is God less sovereign over believers than he is over unbelievers?

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Calvinists believe in sovereignty overall, right? Doesn't that mean he's sovereign over the church's carnality?

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And he's called them to repent. Laodicea, don't be lukewarm. I'll spit you out of my mouth.

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Isn't he sovereign over whether they repent from their lukewarmness? Isn't he just as sovereign over whether a believer repents of his carnality as he is over whether an unbeliever repents in faith and trust in Christ?

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Is God not just as sovereign over conversion as he is over whether his church, his own people repent?

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And therefore, does God become weak and Namby Pamby and emotional once people become believers?

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You see the problem, Gabe? You're not addressing the context of the scripture properly because you're not even addressing what

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Jesus means by the by the statement. I stand at the door and knock.

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He thinks he's got me here. I gotcha. You know, of course, Christ is sovereign here.

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God has ordained the ends and the means to that end. And if Christ is going to bring this church to repentance, it is going to be because he called them to repentance.

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What is Jesus expression? What's the what's the thing that Jesus is helping you to understand? Obviously, by that metaphor of him standing at the door and knocking, he's showing he's patient.

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He's long suffering. He's compassionate for you to repent. That doesn't remove the wrath because if you don't repent, wrath remains.

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So wrath is still there. But what's what's the knocking on the door illustrating? I'm waiting on you.

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I see how he's making that argument, but it's not it's not what Jesus is illustrating here.

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And if you go on and you watch the what video, I show another place in the

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New Testament where Jesus uses this reference to knocking on the door. It is in Matthew 24. The reference to I stand at the door and knock means

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I'm coming back soon. So repent now. Do not delay.

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There are other passages that we can look at about Jesus being patient and long suffering. I don't disagree with that.

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Can't even begin to express to you how patient Jesus has been with me.

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Oh, the grace of God that I have experienced in my life. But that's not what

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Revelation three is about. That's not what Jesus is saying to the church in Laodicea. He is telling them to repent right now.

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Now, like I said later on in the video, I make a reference to Matthew 24 where Jesus again uses that that metaphor of I stand at the door and knock.

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Let's look at another place. Look, let's look at the way that Jesus puts this in Luke 12.

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I'm going to start in verse 35. Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast.

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So that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.

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Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them.

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If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants.

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But know this that if the master of the house had come at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.

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You also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour.

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You do not expect. That's what Jesus means by I stand at the door and knock.

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So yes, I had it exactly right in the video. Dr. Flowers is wrong in how he's interpreting.

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I stand at the door and knock. You've cast me out of the church because of your carnality. I'm not fellowshipping with you because of your carnality.

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Just like in first Corinthians chapter three, when he talks about the carnal brethren who can't go deep and receive the meat of the word, they're still in the milk of the word because of their carnality.

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And he's calling them to repentance so that they can learn the deep truths of God. Same with this church in Laodicea. Because you cast me out of the church because of your carnality,

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I'm separating myself from you. It's just like what we've talked about before in Revelation three, when it talks about the deadness of the church of Sardis.

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What is deadness? Separation due to rebellion. He says, you have a reputation to be alive, but you're dead.

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Wake up and renew what remains, he says in that same chapter of Revelation. So what's he saying? You're carnal.

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You're distant from me because of your carnality. Return, renew what remains. Open the door and I'll come back in and dine with you.

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So listen, I understand where Pastor Gabe is coming from here. I understand his heart here because as a

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Calvinist before, I did the same kind of correction. Well, that's not talking to the lost. That's talking to the church.

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And it's true. It is talking to the church. But how much more so is God's compassion expressed to the lost, desiring them to come into the church as it is he's talking to the church who becomes carnal after becoming believers?

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Yeah. So now he's inferring things from the text that are not there. It's a startling lack of self -awareness that he uses this illustration of me being on a pendulum.

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And I'm so opposed to the seeker sensitive stuff that I've swung in this hyper Calvinist direction.

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Well, the reality is that, you know, as Dr. Flowers has said here, he used to be a Calvinist. And now he's swung so far the other way that he is opposed to Calvinism at every turn.

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I'm even going to find Calvinism where there's not Calvinism, just so I can oppose Calvinism.

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And the very thing that he accuses me of not doing, of not explaining the text in context, he doesn't do.

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Never looked at that passage. Revelation 320 in context. Anyway, that's as much of the video that as I'm going to go through here, once again,

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Dr. Flowers and I are debating on January the 24th, a week from this Monday on John six.

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And I encourage you to read John six in advance, maybe even go through the first six chapters of John.

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So you've got that in context, and you're able to test us with some of the things that we'll be talking about in that debate.

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It's going to be live stream. But even if you don't catch it live, I'm sure that video will be out there on YouTube forever.

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So whatever silly mistakes I make, they will always be there. Hopefully my audio will be better in that debate than it was in that in that one video.

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Any other questions you have for me, send them to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

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Becky gives you her love. She would much rather be here than sick in bed.

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And we appreciate your encouragement and your prayers. Let me pray for you as we close out here. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for the goodness and the kindness and the patience that you have shown to us through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. Romans 5 8. God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners,

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Christ died for us. Christ died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sins, rising again from the grave so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

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You sent somebody to us to preach to us the gospel. We needed to hear about our sin and what we deserve for our sin is the judgment of God.

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But we can be saved by faith in Jesus. And just as we needed somebody to preach that to us, so there is a world full of lost and dying people desperately in need of the gospel.

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Give us boldness in this crooked and twisted generation that we would preach the gospel and many others would come to faith in Jesus Christ and so be saved.

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Thank you for these listeners and their desire to want to learn the word of God and grow in this word.

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Sanctify us in your truth. Your word is truth, as it says in John 17 17.

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I pray for good, strong, healthy churches for these listeners that they can go to this weekend and we can worship with the saints together.

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Looking forward to that day when we will all be together in glory with Christ around the throne.

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Come quickly, Lord Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. This is when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

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Find a good, gospel -teaching, Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again Monday for more