Questions & Answers

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I always recommend a book on Sunday night and when I was preaching through Ephesians 6 I could not find one book written by a
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Christian that was any good on the subject and I thought you know maybe sometime in my spare moments I'll write a book on the subject and I guess now
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I don't have to because I found one after that and it's called Spanking a Loving Discipline a
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Guide to Biblical Discipline by Roy Lesson L -E -S -S -I -N pretty good book overall he does quote a word faith teacher one time but other than that it's an excellent book just to give you kind of an overview about spanking common excuses for not disciplining a child see if any these hit home he's not old enough to understand he's so tired today he's always naughty when he's tired he's this way because we're not at home he's not feeling well today
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I like this one he's just like his uncle Jim, Jim has a real temper he'll outgrow it and then he gives you some how -to's and I thought many these were helpful use the right instrument 1.
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2. Spank promptly 3. Find a private place 4. Clarify the issue 5.
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Spank the proper area 6. Spank sensibly and swiftly 7.
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Have a period of reconciliation and so I thought that was a pretty good book on spanking and now
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I don't have to waste my time or Steve's time editing it. It takes more time to edit than it does to write but anyway spanking a loving discipline anybody see this before?
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I got it at CBD. You've seen it? Good. alright well tonight is called question and answer
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Flo can I tell your story? okay about once a quarter so we have question and answer a lot of times you can tell we have the question and answer time when
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I just have had a stressed week and have been busy or out of town like this week with my mother and just not having enough time to get right back into Ruth and so question and answers are usually an opportunity for me to take a little break and catch up because I usually know the topics ahead of time that I'm speaking on but we'll advertise question and answers outside.
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It says something about India but that's next Sunday night and so Flo was just beginning to come to the church and she was driving in from Boston every week and she drove all the way in from Boston and it said
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Q &A and if you're familiar with what we do once a quarter well I just have questions that I've gotten from you ahead of time and I answer those but she didn't know what question and answers were and so she didn't know what to do do
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I come into that weird Bible teaching church for question and answers what do I do and we laughed about it this morning
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Flo said well I don't know if I'm coming back for question and answers but anyway she didn't stay because she didn't know what a question and answer time was and from now on Flo is gonna make every question and answer series we have and by the way
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I'm thankful for Flo. Flo is a good example of somebody who comes to the church and doesn't need to be told with a hook in her mouth here you need to serve you're saved you've been given spiritual gifts now get going she just comes and starts to serve right away and so I'm thankful that Flo's here very much so alright let's see anything else before we start next
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Sunday night I think we'll meet at five o 'clock for our pot providence Indian food if you can make it if you're too a week to have
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Indian food here Steve raises his hand I remember two years ago Steve said I was going to go to India to kill some bugs with my stomach that's how tough my stomach is
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I wouldn't go that far but we'll have a pot providence time at five o 'clock I believe we'll have some
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India films and I'll preach a message as well we'll have our Bible open it won't be some kind of missionary update without Bible teaching so we'll do that and then we'll have communion at the very end so Dallas and the ladies so let's not have communion
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May 1st a .m. service it'll be next Sunday night p .m. service so if you let the proper ladies know that would be great alright on Sunday nights we like to have a little response back and forth so if I ask you a question you either want to blurt out the answer or raise your hand that's fine
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Sunday morning is a little bit different I'm gonna give you a question I might play a little bit to the advocate on this one and we'll talk about five or six subjects tonight to try to reinforce some key themes in scripture and some issues that are popular these days are not popular my first question to you is as a congregation is hell real is hell real are you sure could you prove it biblically let me ask you another question how long is hell eternally but how could that be if sins are only temporarily how could
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God punish justly sins eternally Bruce okay well this is no fun
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I'm waiting for some wrong answers so I can correct you with right answers very good the issue is the one in which we sin against and since he is eternally holy it will take that long to meet out his just punishment so that's very good if you had to ask answer this question why do you think hell is unpopular today because people have to answer for their sins good someone else it doesn't feel good that's exactly right thirdly we have a bunch of false teachers running around saying there's no hell
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I found some in my study Mormons Joseph Smith said the false this is false doctrine that the punishment to be visited upon erring souls is endless it is a dogma of unauthorized and erring sectarians at once unscriptural unreasonable and revolting
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Jehovah's Witnesses founder Charles Russell said that we would be forever annihilated because quote the teaching about a fiery hell can rightly be designated as teaching of demons so if you believe in eternal punishment you believe in the teaching of demons and so when you want to try to show someone that the
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Bible teaches hell what would be the best way to go about that something quick and easy to do whose words would you go to the words that are extra inspired because they're read all the scriptures inspired and we're just joking about that it doesn't matter if it's read or not sometimes read
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Bibles are nice because you can find Christ's words a little bit easier but they're just as inspired as the other words where would you go you go to Christ's words why don't we turn our
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Bibles to Mark chapter 9 and we'll cover about six topics tonight or so maybe three or four who knows but let's at least look at Mark chapter 9 and I want to just show you a little bit about our
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Savior in fact he was a loving Savior but he was also a very just Savior and we want to talk about this issue of hell and by the way as we talk about it
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I hope you're spurred on to want to preach the gospel to people because without the gospel people do go to hell and we want to make sure we do our part in the
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Great Commission and preach the gospel to people I did my studies and one evangelical seminary student body was surveyed and 46 percent of those surveyed felt preaching about hell to unbelievers was poor taste it's not really that easy of a topic to talk about and nobody wants to listen and by the way if you want to have church growth and fill your churches up to the brim why talk about things like hell by the way has a sermon ever been preached in this church about hell can you remember the last one?
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It was an excellent one I can say that because I didn't preach it an excellent sermon that you need to listen to on hell maybe the best one
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I've heard for a long time it was by Don Whitney on hell and it should be on our website where's
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Dan? I think it's up there on the website can you imagine 46 percent of some seminary students said it's in poor taste
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J .C. Ryle is on the flip side he said quote let others hold their peace about hell if they will
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I dare not do so I see it plainly in scripture and I must speak of it I fear that thousands are on the broad road that leads to it and I would feign arouse them to a sense of peril before them what would you say of the man who saw the neighbor's house in danger of being burned down and never raised the cry fire call it bad taste if you like to speak of hell call it charity to make things pleasant and speak smoothly and soothe men with the constant lullaby of peace from such notions of taste and charity may
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I ever be delivered my notion of charity is to warn men plainly of their danger my notion of taste is to declare all the counsel of God if I never spoke of hell
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I should think I had kept back something that was profitable and should look on myself as an accomplice of the devil isn't that amazing?
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J .C. Ryle all scriptures inspired Paul said to Timothy and we're to teach all of it if you look at Mark chapter 9 let's see what our
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Savior said about hell and I want to remind you for two reasons tonight one make sure you understand that you but by the grace of God are escaping that and so we can be thankful and also you have friends and family and loved ones and we don't want them to go and if they don't hear a message about Christ they will in fact go.
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They need to repent and believe. If you look at Mark chapter 9 working our way down through the passage getting into the forties if you take a look at verse 42 to give us some context whoever causes one of these little ones he's talking about believers there he's not talking about little children to stumble it would be better for him if with a heavy millstone hung around his neck he had been cast into the sea.
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Then he talks about the radical nature of dealing with sin and he uses figurative language here if your hand causes you to stumble cut it off it is better for you to enter life crippled then having your two hands to go into hell into the unquenchable fire.
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So there's our first little metaphor of fire then he says in verse 45 you might notice in your text verse 44 verse 46 have brackets around them not found in the oldest and best manuscripts it does not matter because verse 48 contains the same theme the exact same words.
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He says in verse 45 if your foot causes you to stumble cut it off it is better for you to enter life lame then having your two feet to be cast into hell 47 if your eye causes you to stumble throw it out is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye then having two eyes to be cast into hell and here we get it in verse 48 if you see the capital showing
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Old Testament quote where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
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And so tell me someone what is Jesus saying in that passage about hell tell me a few things that you could describe about the nature of hell in that passage.
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Anyone? Pardon me? You never die so we know that God fits people in hell with a body that can suffer the torments of the dam forever and ever right?
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There's a resurrection of the body for the just and the unjust. Good. It never goes out.
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Eternal fire. Good. Eternal torment. Is that what you said?
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Eternal torment. Okay good. Take a look at that word worm. What do you think that whole worm deals about?
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Their worm doesn't die. What do you think about worms? When I think of worms I'm an
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American I just think about nightcrawlers. That's what I think about. I think about the worms you know little meal worms or something that you give to your frogs or something.
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What's this worm business and why would Jesus quote that passage in Isaiah 66 24 their worm does not die.
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Well let me just give you it's probably going to gross you out but it's going to encourage you to study. Somebody knows what's coming.
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The discipleship guys got it this morning. When you study the Bible it helps if you see the context.
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It helps if you know the history. Helps if you know the grammar and sometimes you have to say to yourself what would you think about when there was a worm that didn't die back in those days?
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Can you think of some gross worms? I just was in India and I kind of do this once in a while.
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I'll eat some really weird food or I'll eat some kind of sashimi or uncooked fish or some sushi and so I'm always thinking about the bugs that might be in my gullet kind of thing in my gizzard if you will and I always think well how could
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I clean those out? While I was in India eating some weird food as well they said well here's some pills that you can get at the pharmacy and if you have two a day it will kill all the bugs and worms in your system that you could easily pick up if you live in India.
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So missionaries especially if you stay for a long time two a day it gives you some nausea it gives you some diarrhea a little bit but two a day for three days.
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So by the way I have those I'm going to start taking them tomorrow. This is a good introduction. It reminds me of the old Sears catalog.
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I believe the first Sears catalog for a diet pill was a little pill full of tapeworms because they will eat lots of nutrition and take it from your body.
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But what's Christ trying to say? If you sometime pick up some of these commentaries there are many good commentaries and we only endorse
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John MacArthur around here no far from it. You can see our book table has all different kinds of books all different kinds of authors.
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I of course like John because he has taught me and mentored me. In John's commentary he says this quoting
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Dr. Morton an authority about these worms. Now we will tie it in. You say what does it have to do with anything?
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We will see. The phrase eaten of worms in Greek is skola kobratas.
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The root word skolex means a specific head structure of a tapeworm. Now I'm reading out of the
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Acts commentary because remember King Herod you kill James and then you have a big day where it's worship
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Herod day and you want to be dressed Josephus the historian, the Jewish historian said he put on the silver robe just when the sun was shining in and he stood up and they're all saying this is the this is a
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God not a man this is a God not a man. Josephus said he didn't even rebuke them. He was just getting praised and worshipped.
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Oh he's so great. Great is Josephus. He is exalted Josephus. No not
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Josephus. Great is Herod. He got killed because the
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Bible says he was eaten by worms and died and this is the kind of worm that's the same worm in Mark chapter 9.
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There were several kind of tapeworms but most common ones were found in sheep growing countries called the dog tapeworm.
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The heaviest infections come from areas where sheep and cattle are raised. The disease is characterized by formation of cysts generally on the right lobe of the liver.
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These may extend down to the abdominal cavity. The rupture of a cyst may release as many as two million skolexes, two million little worms.
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The developing worms inside the cyst are called skolexes because the anterior region constitutes the major part of the development at this stage.
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When the cyst ruptures the entrance of cellular debris along with the skolexes may cause sudden death.
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By the way Josephus said it took about three days for Herod to die. The use of the word skolex is not limited to this reference about Herod.
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The term also appears right there in your Bible in Mark chapter 9. The literal translation take a look at your
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Bible in Mark chapter 9 verse 48 and their skolex dieth not.
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The Greek word for the worm is skolex. The usage is very interesting the doctor goes on to say because the tapeworm keeps propagating itself.
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The worm doesn't die. Well why is that? Each section of the worm is a self -contained unit which has both male and female parts.
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So it doesn't die because it keeps propagating. It's got male and female parts and it's got plenty of food and it just keeps propagating more and more and more.
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The posterior part matures and forms hundreds of worm eggs. The word skolex in this text portrays a biological description of permanence which the text demands for the comparison.
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So now rereading the passage again where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. What an interesting and appropriate vivid illustration of eternal hell.
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Doesn't that just kind of give you the willies? Yikes! It makes me glad I'm not going there and I'm not saying there's going to be literal skolexes in your body in hell but the idea is the worm that doesn't die over and over and over.
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And can you imagine as Dave Jeffrey said this morning when we've been there one million years changing the lyrics to Amazing Grace we're never closer to the end even after a million years and the converse is true when it comes to hell.
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After a million years they'll never be aside from someone saying at least I got one -tenth of this ordeal done. And so even today as elders we were praying for some of you some of your children that God would rescue you because we don't want you to be in a place that is so bad.
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Now questions about hell I could probably open this up too much but are there any questions that we have about hell?
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Should it spur us on? Should it spur us on to evangelize? It is very real and if Jesus the loving
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Savior talked about it more than anyone else in the Bible I think we should probably talk about it as well even at the risk of people getting mad or I always think about it this way if I have to knock somebody down they're walking off the cliff blind and I have to tackle them with a rugby like tackle and knock their wind out of them in love to stop them from going over then that's exactly what
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I need to do and with our words when we preach the gospel that's in fact what happens sometimes. I'll never forget my grandfather dying.
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He's in the hospital we thought he was going to die he did get better and then die shortly after that and so I said to my mom mom and the kids you take grandma and distract her take her down to the hospital cafeteria she's not going to want me to preach the gospel to grandpa you distract her you kind of take her around and keep her busy and I'll sneak in and start talking to grandpa because grandma was in charge of that family and she wore the pants and she would say we're not gonna talk about that we're
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Lutherans we've been baptized don't talk to me about these things so they took grandma to the side and I just went into grandpa and I said grandpa
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I love you so much but I'm afraid for your eternal soul and getting baptized as a Lutheran baby's not going to get you to heaven and here's the gospel and I said it's gonna hurt this isn't gonna feel good
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I mean does it feel good if anybody comes to you and says listen I think you're on your way to perdition shake you a little bit verbally no it doesn't feel good but I said grandpa
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I love you and I don't want you to go and then grandma didn't she must have caught on to it because in she comes and she could hear me because I thought
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I'm just gonna keep speaking to grandpa and I gotta preach the gospel to him death and resurrection and belief and then grandma started screaming at the top of her lungs for me to stop and she started screaming for the nurse and I just thought you know it can't be a shouting match and I preach the gospel to grandpa and that's all
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I could do but it doesn't really feel that good when somebody confronts us with some of these issues the state of man.
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Jack are you gonna have a question about hell? Well why don't we just close in prayer thank you here's what we'll have to do
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I have to get back to you on that because I don't know the passage right off the top of my head some passages I do that one
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I don't but remember now there is a temporary the hell that people are in now isn't the full orb lake of fire hell it's not nice it's not warm and fuzzy it's a torment but there's a bigger torment coming when it comes to the lake fire so maybe we'll do that next
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Sunday just before we start or something like that good question maybe Dave or Steve do you know the verses off the top of your head?
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20 someplace yeah well let's just let's just see what we can do revelation 20 see if I can just pardon me 2014 the best book on hell that I've read outside the
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Bible of course is whatever happened to hell by John Blanchard and the good thing is he's dealt with Hades, Sheol, Gehenna those words verse there it is thank you
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Christine if you look back at verse 11 just to give you a context
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I saw the great white throne remember this is the judgment for the unbelievers the Bema Seat a la 2nd
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Corinthians 5 .10 it's taking place at a different time saw the great white throne and him sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them and I saw the dead the great and small standing before the throne and the books were open another book was open which is the book of life and the dead were judged from the things which are written in the book according to their deeds and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and the death and Hades gave up dead which were in them they were judged every one of them according to their deeds then death and Hades were thrown in the lake of fire this is the second death the lake of fire if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire so when people die now their body is still in the grave it's cremated it's the ashes are put out to sea they're they're not with their bodies but one day though but their spirit goes to a place of torment but it's not the lake of fire then when
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Christ returns the bodies go up to the air there'll be a reuniting between believers spirits and bodies and unbelievers spirits and bodies the dead ones and then they'll be fit for everlasting bodies for eternal life or eternal damnation and so right now when people say if you die you're going to hell they don't mean the final hell they mean hell hell not lake of fire hell it's not as that's correct it will only be permanent until revelation 20 at the great white throne but you know it doesn't tell us how much worse it is in the lake of fire and everything else we know it'll be bad and remember what makes hell hell is not that God is absent but that God is present is that true or is that false can somebody tell me is
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God present everywhere but he's not present in hell I get that straight he's omnipresent everywhere but he's not present in hell how could
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God be present in hell how do we do that can you show me from scripture someplace the where I would go is if you go to revelation chapter 14
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I do know that verse remember what makes hell hell is God is there not with his mercy and kindness and goodness and patience but with his holiness and when sinful man is by holy
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God Mike Horton is right when he says there's going to be a spiritual nuclear winter there and you can see even godly men in God's presence and they are cringing with fear and they are on their face yes
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Steve okay so no matter where you go
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God is there good and additionally a revelation chapter 14 verse 9 just to pick it up to talk about these worshippers of the beast but I think as well for those who were in hell if you think about it from the text and also theologically than another angel a third one followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand he will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and so God is everywhere and what makes heaven heaven is
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God is there with all his mercy and compassion goodness and what makes hell hell is that God is there and CS Lewis I think used to say hell's gates are locked on the inside but I don't know how much
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I agree with that statement I would say this let's just even make it trickier if somebody was to give the gospel to someone in hell would they repent and believe if you repent and believe you can be out of this torment forever never never would they want to get out of the torment yes but would they have it in their nature to change themselves and make themselves born again to get out would they have a love for God because remember
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Jesus said you either love me or you hate me and so how can you take someone who loves something and turn that in they love their sin and turn it into the they hate their sin only the divine
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God could do something like that but these are just philosophical questions so I think we should move on any last questions that are a little easier than Jack's Lisa no but I don't know isn't it good that we don't know everything and I'm glad that I don't know with my grandfather my grandmother are my grandmother are my father none of them seem to profess saving faith but I'm sure hoping at the last minute
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God who was able snatch them from the brands and just save them and I think
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I'll be surprised in heaven by someone who I thought for sure they didn't make it and that's why when we go to people in the hospital in an
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ICU or something like that and they can't talk I say go right up there and preach the gospel talk and and who knows what'll happen
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God saves through the preaching of his word and so no none of them actually said that it was interesting when
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I was kind of in corporate America fast -track I never made millions or anything but I was doing alright for myself living in Los Angeles my grandparents on my father's side were super proud of me oh he's just he's 25 and he's bought this new house and he's living in LA he's doing all this stuff they would brag all the time and then when
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I got saved and my brother got saved and he became a pastor and I became a pastor they would never talk about us because we were the black sheep of the family because we were the
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Protestant pastors who weren't Lutheran so it was just sad so I hope at the end somehow
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God saved them by the way to can God save on the deathbed you know we have only one deathbed conversion the
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Bible Spurgeon said for two reasons one so that we might have hope the thief on the cross and two so that we might not be presumptuous and just assume you know we'll just wait to the end before we get saved
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I learned about all this in church my mom and dad are saved but I'll wait to the very end and if that elevator cable breaks on the way down I'll repent and believe and Spurgeon said by the way with deathbed conversions when he would go and minister to somebody on their deathbed and say here's the gospel and they would say yes
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I repent and believe and I don't want to go to hell and I don't want to to to suffer the torments of the damned I want to love
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Jesus Christ he said to a person the ones that got better walked away from the faith and so it is few and far between people getting saved but they do people do get saved on their deathbed and I'm thankful for that I'm thankful that you preach the gospel to somebody and they've lived for 49 years as a sinner and God could still say it is my pleasure to show the brilliance of Christ and his work at Calvary who could engulf all those sins take him upon himself and turn that sinner into a saint for his glory he could do that and so we want to make sure we have hope and I'm kinda glad I don't know and in heaven
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I won't really care one way or the other in heaven I'll have the mind of Christ and whether I know they're in heaven or hell I don't think it'll matter if they're in heaven
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I'll be rejoicing if I don't know their state that'll be fine and if I do know their state that'll be fine too because I'll think like God does and I won't think family bloodlines and love like that I'll say here's the most lovable Savior here's the loving one here's the one that we adore and my grandmother hated him she gets what she deserves and so in heaven
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I'm not going to be crying over the state of my family but on earth it's sad because I want my family to love
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Christ I want my family to honor him. Alright let's turn to Matthew chapter 16 just for a moment this is gonna be a little bit faster
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Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 I just wanna talk about church growth just for a moment and then we're gonna get into the day of atonement
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Bruce brought up a good point last week and I wanna talk about how God deals with sins especially in the Old Testament I think you'll see neat insight into Christ but Matthew chapter 16 interestingly he says it in the future
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I have some dear friends and they think the church is going all the way back into Abrahamic times and Adam but he says here with the future
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I also say to you that you are Peter upon this rock I will build my church of course we don't have the church yet because the church starts in Acts 2 so he uses future tense and the gates of Hades our death will not overpower it and so I've been taught in Master's Seminary that we are not to be in competition with Christ building his church if Christ building his church why would we try to build the church a different way when it's his job to build the church struck me
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I read a little book review and it talked about this book called hypnotism factor fiction by Frederick Marcuse and it talks about a research study at a large eastern university you can have a collective sigh of relief it doesn't say northeastern some place eastern probably
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Virginia or something like that the researchers attempted the article says through hypnotic suggestion to induce a convinced and vocal atheist to become religious so we're going to use hypnotism to get persons saved in other words the attempt was so successful that it had to be halted and all suggestion removed from the subject's mind when his entire attitude towards religious faith changed after only three sessions and for the first time in his life he began to attend church the investigators decided that the ethics of the situation prevented them for pursuing any further research you can manipulate people and you can get a crowd anybody can get a crowd and anybody can kinda work up the lather to get people to respond even in hypnosis furthermore psychologist
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James McConnell said the time has come when if you give me any normal human being in a couple of weeks
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I can change his behavior from what is now to what it is now to whatever you want it to be if it's physically possible
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I can't make him fly by flapping his wings but I can turn him from a Christian into a communist and vice versa found in the book by Karens and Abelson in persuasion 1970 it's not my job to persuade you into the kingdom
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I want to implore you I want to try to compel you to say you've got to follow Christ but how can
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I get you to sign on the dotted line how can I save you if it's God's job to save so I'm very concerned about some church growth tactics that somehow can get a big church anybody can get a crowd we could say come next week and everybody who comes next week as a visitor gets a thousand dollars if you think we're in a financial crunch now wait till next week by the way if you haven't been sacrificially giving you need to because we're slowly draining the savings that we have at the church and we're not worried about it we're not you know cancelling missionaries or anything but we do we just need to have better giving but we could get a crowd if we wanted to so here's my question with all this church growth stuff let me read you another quote remember
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Jesus passed to build the church Jesus saved Jesus is the author and finisher for salvation it is my deep conviction that anyone can be one to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart the most likely place to start looking for the key is with the person's felt needs what's the difference between that quote the hypnotist quote and the psychologist quote you show me somebody and I get into their heart and figure out their needs
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I can lead them to Christ is it true I wish it was true I wish it was true for my grandma and my grandpa and my father et al and so when
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Rick Warren says something like that I'm very very frightened because you can get this crowd and when I go there and there's 20 ,000 people
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I'm just worried about that so what we want to do here at this church is we want to say you know what it's our job to preach the gospel and then it ends there correct we preach the gospel and God does the saving
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I have no responsibility and therefore when I go home at night I don't say to myself last week we had a visitor by the way this is a true story we had a visitor and this person likes to hear
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Bible teaching they know that the place that they're at now does not save them they acknowledge that they're not saved and what if it was my job to save them last week to get them to come up to the
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Awana line we don't do altar calls we do the blue Awana call line here right there what if I had to do that and compel them and get them shut the doors and then
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I went home at night and just how could I sleep thinking that their blood would be on my hands well
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I can sleep because my job is to preach the gospel it's God's job to save and so that is so good when you go out and preach the gospel you've heard it said over and over would you please remember your number one job when you preach the gospel is not salvation because you can't save anybody your number one job is to be faithful to the text glorify
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God let him do the saving that's why when you go to the rest home and preach the gospel when you come back and someone says how many people got saved will you just smile and say thanks for asking a spiritual question like that but I don't think anybody got saved but God was pleased by the aroma of his word from those from life to life to those who are being saved and death to those perishing
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I think the Lord was pleased I tried by the grace of God to be faithful to the text and I preach the cross the resurrection and the call to repentance and you go home and you say
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I did my job that's our job and so I love it that the church is filling up but it's not our job to fill it up what if there's real church growth in our church by maturation because the next onslaught of persecution comes and we are whittled down to the true 45 what if there's persecution and next year you have to claim on your taxes are you a
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Christian yes are you a member in good standing with the church yes and your taxes go up by fifty percent we'd find out who really were
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Christians around here how much more if we had all the sudden say well you know Mike flits around the world anyway enough to Omaha and India but now he's been arrested because he won't do things and then
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Steve thankfully second in charge and they could arrest him and then Dave and then right on down the line how would you still meet sneaking in the back alright let's turn to Leviticus chapter 16 and let's talk about Yom Kippur who knows the
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Hebrew word for the who knows what the Hebrew word Yom means day and so it's the day of what the day of atonement why would we study some stuffy old book like Leviticus I mean come on that will clear church out come back for Sunday night service come one come all for him sing and the book of videos would you do that can you still understand
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Leviticus up and up have a better appreciation for Hebrews of course and here it is a great great chapter if you want to make sure you love all the
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Bible read Leviticus it is amazing for me to see the precision in how God wants to be worshipped we like to say what we worship
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God as we want to God wants to be worshipped in an exact precise way and everything else is are you ready idolatry it's idolatry to worship
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God the way you want to worship him we are told by the grace of God in Revelation he reveals or tells us what he wants us to think about him and how were to praise him and how were to worship him and here the day of atonement is wonderful because it starts pointing and you can start seeing how
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Christ was the one who really fulfilled who really assuaged the wrath of God and the true day of atonement the final day of atonement was in Matthew chapter 27 when
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Jesus paid for the sins of all those who would ever believe the real day of atonement this is almost a precursor and last week
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Bruce made a good point I was talking about the little lamb and what I did I said many things that were true but what
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I did is I took Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16 and I morphed them into one and so now
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I'll correct myself and make sure that we figure out where's the little lamb where's the goat where's the mercy seat what's going on and I'll do that by Leviticus 16 so that was a good point by Bruce it is true that they'd have to kill the little lamb as I said last week in the
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Passover in Exodus 12 but it wasn't the lamb with the mercy seat as I either said directly or alluded to so that is my mistake and now let's just correct that with Leviticus chapter 16.
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How many people here have celebrated the day of atonement? Do we have any Jews here that would celebrate the day of atonement?
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What they tend to do is they abstain from eating and drinking washing they abstain from applying oils and lotions on the skin they abstain from marital relations and they abstain from wearing leather shoes and one rabbi
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Dressler says quote on Yom Kippur the power of evil inclination is muted therefore one's yearning for spiritual elevation reasserts itself after having lain dormant as a result of sins deadening effect on the soul this rejuvenation of purpose entitles a person to special consideration and forgiveness
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I don't even know what that means so let's find out what the day of atonement does mean very symbolic for us as Christians this is the sacrifice that anticipates the the sacrifice if you will
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Leviticus 16 .1 now the Lord Yahweh spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron by the way what kind of relations would that be to Moses those two sons okay when they had approached the presence of the
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Lord and remember that story what chapter in Leviticus is the death of the two sons
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Nadab and Abihu it's one of the most shocking stories I think in all the Bible go back to Leviticus 10 and let's just pick it up talk about precise worship and having a reverence for God these men were probably drunk they probably had some kind of either carelessness or some kind of bad sin and you see in Leviticus 10 .1
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now Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took their respective firepans and after putting fire in it they placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the
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Lord which he had not commanded them but they're just going with the flow they just feel like they want to worship this way it just feels better you know
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God's got all those strict regulations we feel like doing a little fire I don't know if they thought that doesn't really matter verse 2 we know it was wrong and fire came out from the presence of the
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Lord can you imagine that the cloud the Shekinah cloud over the mercy seat fire comes zooming right out of that consume them and they died before the
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Lord Yahweh then Moses said to Aaron it is what the Lord spoke saying by those who come near me
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I will be treated as what holy and before all people I will be honored and if you just had two sons die
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I don't know how you would act but I think Aaron is very godly in his response and submitting to the will of God so Aaron therefore kept silent so that gives us the context back to Leviticus 16 please back to Leviticus 16 verse 2 just to set this up I have a couple purposes tonight 1 correct my mistake from last week 2 talk about the day atonement and 3 show you
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Leviticus is great I've never met anyone who said I'm doing Leviticus in my quiet time but I'd like to meet one
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Lord said to Moses tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark lest he die for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat remember we talked about that mercy seat last week and what it was and now we go on to the day of atonement and I'm going to just give you not chronologically but more by organization what goes on in this chapter and I'm following Deffenbaugh's outline is very good and I think there's like 13 things
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I don't know if you have time to write them so let's go to the first one one found in verse 4 Aaron had to take off his priestly garments wash and put on the special garments so he could go into the holy of holies verse 4 he shall put on the holy linen tunic the linen undergarments shall be next to his body he shall be girded with linen sash and attired with linen turban these are the holy garments then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on by the way did he bathe because it was really dirty in Palestine and a lot of wind and dust and it's ritual right ritual cleansing that's right and so here before God he's got to put on these things and I've got another question for you what about all those splendid clothes that he had and all those really fancy clothes that he had before and all the stones on that one breastplate what about that why didn't he wear those in well he was not supposed to because God said just wear this but in the presence of God boy you don't have any of your regalia you don't have any of your you know
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Dr. Mr. so -and -so reverend founder the church kind of thing you were just coming in low -key just just with the basics then he had to get the necessary animals if you look at verse 3
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Aaron shall enter the holy place with this with a bowl for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering okay and that was for whose sacrifice was this for himself because he had to have himself cleansed verse 5 and he shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one for a ram a ram for a burnt offering okay now he's going to kill the bull for his own offering 3 found in verse 6 then
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Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself that he may make atonement for himself and for his household then
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Aaron that was a dwindling household then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering which is for himself make atonement for himself and for his household verse 11 and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself so very clear repeated two times now he's got to go into the holy of holies but before he goes in there what does he have to create you're gonna go not into the holy place but the holy of holy place and what you have to kinda create you can have the
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Shekinah glory of God streaming down the effulgent glory of God everywhere just as radiate radiating light almost blinding light the kind of light that Moses gets on his face the kind of light that if you see you have to hide your eyes so if you gotta walk into that place what should you do to kind of refract the light rays put the incense in there and put the smoke in that's exactly what he does verse 12 he shall take a fire pan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the
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Lord see all that all the time before the Lord in presence of the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense and bring it inside the veil you think his heart was pumping by the way
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I get nervous when I come up to preach I have to do that 104 times a year or whatever can you imagine one time a year in you go verse 13 says and he shall put the incense of the fire before the
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Lord that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark the testimony lest he die oh this is serious then he has to do something else he's got to take some of the blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat seven times verse 14 moreover he shall take some of the blood of a bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times why is all this blood stuff kind of a gooey gory bloody religion is this why is there so much blood talk anyone out loud without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness that's exactly right now they're gonna cast lots for these goats which one will be slaughtered which one will be driven away verse 7 go back up a little bit again this is just by organization not by verse order he shall take two goats and present them before the
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Lord at the doorway the tent of meeting verse 8 and Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats one lot for the
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Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat now the goat for slaughter down in verse 15 it's the goat for the people sin offering was to be sacrificed and they're going to take the blood into the holy of holies right where the bulls blood had been verse 15 then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat now
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Aaron has had his kids killed his sons killed for improper worship I mean how exacting do you think he was in this you think he was counting he was seeing some song that Moses had written a
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Psalm 90 or do you think he was focused with all his determination by the way is this worship I don't think he's got a lot of we do we feelings but is this worship is is
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Aaron worshipping God absolutely that's exactly what's happening now he's gonna have cleansing made for the holy place verse 16 he shall make atonement for the holy place because the impurities of the sons of Israel because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities verse 17 then he goes to make atonement in the holy place no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel if I was going to add something in I would say all the congregation said amen we don't want to go in there you can go ahead and do it this time next outside the tent he had to make an atonement for the altar and burnt offering so if you see in verse 18 then he shall go to the altar that is before the
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Lord and make atonement for it shall take some of the blood of the bull some the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides now he's got the second goat which is kept alive let's go learn about that a little bit go back up to verse 9 please this was the goat the scapegoat where the sins of the nations were symbolically laid on its head and they would drive it out verse 9 and Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the
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Lord fell and make it a sin offering verse 10 though but on the goat which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the
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Lord to make atonement upon it send it to the wilderness as the scapegoat two goats were taken to bear the people's sins one was a sin offering the other was sent off to the desert to bear the sins of the people as it were in the uninhabited place what's all this sin stuff by the way we're not really that bad are we how can we be that bad
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I mean compared to Osama Bin Laden I'm pretty good compared to Steve Cooley I'm great what's all this sin stuff remember it's against the thrice holy
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God and so there's sin to be dealt with and we have this great Savior that can deal with all the sin in this particular case in the day of atonement and in our case the real day of atonement
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John Calvin once said no one knows the 100th part of the sin that clings to his soul we are a needy people and God has provided every little thing now
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Aaron has to go in verse 23 of Leviticus 16 he's got to go in remove his linen garments and put on his normal priestly garments then
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Aaron shall come to the tent of meeting take off the linen garments what he put on when he went to the holy place and shall leave them there down to verse 24 burnt offerings for the
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Rams one for Aaron and his family he shall bathe his body with water in the holy place put on his clothes come forth and offer a burnt offering now he's got to finish the sacrifice of the bull and the goat verse 25 verse 27
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I could go on and on verse 26 anything that had been unclean you've got to take care of that and how should the people respond what's the people's role verse 29 kind of wrapping up this
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Leviticus chapter and this shall be a permanent statute for you Israel in the seven month on the 10th day of the month you shall humble your souls and not do any work whether the native or the alien who sojourns among you verse 34 it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you you shall be clean from all your sins before the
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Lord it is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you that you may humble your souls it is a permanent statute verse 32 so the priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as a priest in his father's place shall make atonement shall let's put on linen garments the holy garments make atonement for the holy sanctuary listen to all those holy words and shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar shall also make atonement for the priest and for all the people in the assembly now you shall have this as a permanent statute how many times does it say permanent it's the third time to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year and just as the
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Lord had commanded Moses so he did now when you're reading all that what's the chapter in the Bible that just should be echoing out listen to this chapter in the book of when you're reading
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Leviticus 16 what chapter in the New Testament should you be thinking about Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10 over and over and over you see the quotes in Hebrews chapter 10 so here's my assignment for you if you'd like to start thinking about the great facets of redemption get these two facets this week besides Ecclesiastes read
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Leviticus 16 and Hebrews what was the chapter again 10 Leviticus 16 and Hebrews 10 and you'll see how this day of atonement was a good anticipation of the real day of atonement the real
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Yom Kippur and by the way why don't we celebrate Yom Kippur as Christians it's Passover weekend
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I think isn't it why don't we celebrate Yom Kippur though as Christians our atonement's been made and how many sacrifices for sins do we need one and why did
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Jesus sit down at the right hand of the Father he's done by the way did you see any seats there in the in the tabernacle for Aaron to sit down did you notice he said when you're changing your clothes sit down in that seat when you're done doing all those bowls and go sit down in your seat sit down and rest for a while sit down and stay a while sit down and just enjoy the ambiance of the
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Shekinah Glory where's the seat there's no seat well why does Jesus get to sit down because atonement has been made that's exactly right and can you imagine the anticipation
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I love Christmas when I was a kid because I still believed in the heathen
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God Santa Claus you know some of the fundamentals will say well Santa is just another word for the we have the letters rearranged
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Satan I never liked those kids when I was growing up who came to me and said there's no such thing as Santa Claus I think
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I even got in a fist fight one time with some kind of wild Iwana kid some guy had this weird outfit on you know
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I had my little weeblos outfit and he had his Iwana outfit on he was trying to tell me there's no Santa Claus and I was going to show him when
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I was a kid I just so looked for Christmas time I look forward to Christmas time now because I get to be with family we get to sit and just enjoy each other and the family tries to get together it's just a sweet time of fellowship but I would just stay up at night trying to wait up for Santa to come
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I was all so happy I don't think we really get how these Jews must have felt the day of atonement you start thinking about all your sins and you go back to Luther and he just all the time when you think about sins of commission they don't seem that big well
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I've never I haven't committed adultery I haven't got caught stealing I haven't got caught doing this I haven't done this I haven't done that but think have you since you were born loved the
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Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength 24 hours a day seven days a week from conception loving him with just all the gusto you could put together all the intensity enthusiasm who's done that?
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I wonder if we took our sins we've calculated that before haven't we Nate? how many how many times have we not done that today?
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a hundred? how many times have we not loved our neighbors ourselves today? a hundred? let's just do that 200 you live to be 60 years old figure that out
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Nate 200 sins a day for 60 years 200 times 365 times 20 times 60 times anything it's a big number and so you can think of the
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Jews in their anticipation looking forward to that great day the day of atonement it was a celebration it was just time to rest because when you're resting you're thinking about that and I don't think we have literally the
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Sabbath today for Christians but the Lord's Day is just a good time to do the opposite of what the
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Jews did as the Jews look forward to their day of atonement we look back at the day of atonement and every Sunday it's as if we're resting and just saying
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Lord thank you for what you've done you've just been so good and I'm thrilled that we have this many people come out on a
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Sunday night for the Lord's Day how can you celebrate the Lord's Day when it's just you know here's an hour here Sunday morning and then the rest of the day is all ours
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I like Sunday night service because here's Sunday morning Sunday school here's prayer time and here's the service and I come back and it's kind of the bookends and so it really feels like the
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Lord's Day for me and again I'm not a Sabbatarian but I think the Lord's Day is important I talked to a man in India he is a pastor of Redwood Creek Bible or something like that in just north of San Jose and matter of fact the
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Kellers used to attend this church after they left here went against the will of God and moved to California they're in Virginia now
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I think and he said Mike you're the first pastor I've met who's a graduate of the Master Seminary out of 30 guys that I know that has a
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Sunday night service I thought that is so amazing to me
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I love Sunday night services I love the fellowship I love the camaraderie I love to see people and hug them and see their faces and and I don't get to sit underneath the
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Word of God but all week I get to sit underneath the Word of God before I preach it and I get to say I never would have learned about Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and all these things and here's the front end of the day here's the back end of the day and it is the
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Lord's Day and as the Israelites were looking forward to that and then they did it and then they just rested it's just so nice to be able to rest and look back upon the day and say
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Lord this is the day for you it's the first day of the week it's not the last day of the week and you get the best you don't get the leftovers but you get the best well
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I thought we do five or six but I think that's pretty much it any other questions before we stop
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I can keep you a little bit because we have the desserts and you'll wait are there any other Bible questions something that you've been thinking about if I can't answer today
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I'll admit it and then we'll do it next time yes Karen yes well yes
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I actually kinda know the answer to this one but I'm just playing along it's very interesting when you study some of the patriarchs and see some of the sins that they committed and one man said great men have great sins it would apply to ladies as well and short of Christ everyone including
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John the Baptist even though he was a great man was sinful because that first sin,
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Adam's sin, was credited to our account and we then by nature were sinful and we do what our natures compel us to do so what do you do with a man named like David who was a man after God's own heart who was selected by God anointed by God did all kinds of great things for God yet David didn't only have those sins was
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David allowed to make the temple no he had blood shed on his hands and his son Solomon by the way what's the root word in Hebrew for Solomon when you meet a
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Jew and they say to you hello or greetings shalom Solomon shalom same three continental roots there how could
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David do that let me ask you another question congregation could David be a
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New Testament elder could David be a New Testament elder could he be a pastor no he wouldn't be qualified to do that but is he qualified to be the leader of the theocracy and to be the leader of of God's people
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Israel yes he was and so he was forgiven he did things that he ought not to do we are not told and that's why you don't hear me preach a lot be like David should
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I say like Psalm 51 where David was penitent and said against thee and thee only have I sinned and done evil in thy sight should we be like David and confess our sins yes but Solomon can you imagine 700 wives and princesses it said and 300 porcupines excuse me
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I mean concubines that's a sticky situation isn't it aww you think you got a honey do list now man wait till you have that and so Solomon do you think we'll see
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Solomon in heaven certainly see David in heaven so we these men have had horrible sins but Christ had covered those sins as we look back to the cross they look forward to the cross and would see the atonement made on their behalf by God and so how do we reconcile them we don't
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David was a a sinner saved by grace I have a little thing we could do right now let's turn to Genesis 6 it's not with David but let me talk to you about Noah who can tell me why
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God used Noah to be the man on the ark if you've been in my discipleship class you can answer why was
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Noah the man chosen by God to be on the ark come on someone okay don't give me the right answer
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I want the the wrong answer he was righteous and blameless in the sight of God that's the wrong answer let me tell you a little bit about Noah have you ever heard
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Noah's testimony let me tell you know his testimony and to tell you a little bit about Noah himself
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Genesis chapter 6 did we do this last time oh we did it last time okay sorry
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I've been you know I was with the guys in India and I taught them so many times you just kind of wind me up and put me in front of the group and I was teaching but we won't do it that was a testimony of not only
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Noah but also us and everyone else and so it was the same of David as well David was up not just the least in his family but he was a rotten sinner and God in his mercy and his compassion overlooked many of those things he made it much more clear in the
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New Testament with progressive revelation extra Bible things unfolded the importance of one man and one woman although I think you could see that all the way back in Genesis where here's a man and here's a woman there to be together but God in his mercy allowed that it would be very difficult today as people have in South Africa come up to my friend
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Joel James and said to Joel we have I'm a pastor of a local church in South Africa we have a tribe leader that has just been converted to Christianity and wants to get baptized and I don't know if he should be baptized or not
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Joel said what's the problem he has three wives so what do you tell that pastor get rid of the second one and the third one or get rid of the two cranky and contentious ones
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I mean what do you tell him there are all kinds of issues it's like the Russian case that's a true story where someone asked
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MacArthur what do we do in this situation we have somebody at our church and it's the it's a brother and a sister and they have a baby together and now they're acting as husband and wife and they move all the way across Russia to just try to get away from the family situation they have a baby and what do you do as a pastor do you let them become members of the church and what does sin do sin just muddies it up sin just makes everything all distorted sin is just a very difficult to deal with could that person be saved could that other one be saved absolutely should you tell them well you you need to break this union it's not proper and you need to find a wife and then you
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I don't know how you deal with all the kid things but there's all kinds of issues but I'm glad that as the day of atonement took care of every sin of the
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Jews thoughts and intentions of the heart salvation by God's grace took care of David's as well and it can take care of mine too but David was qualified to be a king he was not qualified to build a temple it would not be qualified to be a
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New Testament church leader so why does it why does God do that it's a sheer mercy and grace just like every time
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I sin I should be zapped to death and God the Bible says he is long nostrils with his wrath he's got a long nose figuratively and so it takes a long time to get that wrath out his long nose you just see some mean king just takes a long time for his wrath to get out of his nose and I'm glad for that can you imagine
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I was saved at 29 how many times did I deserve to be squashed before I was saved many many times so we have a risen
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Savior this would only be accomplished because of Christ victory over death and I don't know if I answered it very well but it's just the sheer grace of God what we cannot do is say
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David had extra wives and we can too it would be illogical and unbiblical to say
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David's a man after God's own heart David had extra wives and concubines therefore we can have extra wives and concubines we have a place for people like that it's called
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Utah no just kidding no it's wrong you can't do that that's why we have to be careful when it comes to Old Testament things we have to we can say you know what
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Abraham was justified by faith so too we are justified by faith and Paul makes that clear in Romans chapter 4 but what some of these other people did
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I mean Abraham was a great guy but do we say you know what if your wife can't become pregnant do you say what
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Sarah said to Abraham hey there's a Hagar over here and why don't you go have a son through him
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I mean we just can't conceive of those kind of things and so it's nothing but the sheer grace of God and I'm thankful that it is by God's grace alone all right we're going to have a little fellowship we won't sing our final song we'll have time for food and fellowship and friendship and we can talk about these things as well my desire for you is to be students of the
01:01:42
Bible so when someone has a question you can figure out what the Bible says and I don't
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I don't listen to him really anymore but when I used to listen to the Bible Answer Man here's what I would do there be a question by someone in the call -in
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I quick turn it off and see if I could answer myself before I heard from Hank Hanegraaff once I thought my answers were better than Hank Hanegraaff I just didn't listen to the program anymore
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I'm not saying I'm better or anything like that we just differ theologically I think that's a good test there's all kinds of questions and some questions like we learned about this morning can't be answered we just don't have to answer some of those why does my mom get cancer why am