F4F | Living Proof Beth Moore is an Autonomian

Welcome to another installment of fighting for the faith. My name is Chris Roseboro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

This is the program that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the

Word of God. Now what we're gonna do today, we're gonna kind of change it up. So let me get this out and you know in the early part of the video.

Go ahead and like the video, subscribe down below, ring the bell so you can be notified when we update our channel.

What we're gonna do today, I'm gonna open this up. We are going to do a little bit of front -loaded teaching, front -loaded teaching, and then we'll take a look at something that Beth Moore did literally just a couple weeks ago.

Yeah, so and note how this is gonna work out. But I want to talk to you today about auto -gnomians.

And you're going, what is an auto -gnomian? Yeah, now if you're familiar with some of the evangelical fighting that has taken place over the past few years, you'll note that there are a group of people who have been labeled anti -gnomians.

These are people who sit there and go, we Christians, there's no law that applies to us.

And so what they end up doing is turning the gospel into a license to sin, and what ends up happening as a result of anti -gnomianism is that preachers who buy into this concept that, you know, the law has nothing to say to Christians today, what they end up doing is never getting to any of the exhortation texts, especially in the

Epistles. It's the weirdest thing ever. And so you hear a lot of gospel, but Christians, they hear like zero law.

It's the weirdest thing. Now, we note then that there are three proper uses of God's law.

There are three. First use is used by the government, then that use is the civil use, and so the government enforces the law to punish evildoers, and so that's the first use of the law.

What it does is it has a curbing effect on evil, a chilling effect if you would, because over and again we note that people who are criminals ultimately are cowards, and what they're trying to do is figure out how to get away with what they're doing without being caught because they don't want to be punished.

So first use of the law is used by your local governments when they go and arrest people for doing bad things like stealing or murdering and, you know, things like that.

You kind of get the idea. Second use of the law is the theological use. This is the use that is talked about by the

Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3, where the law convicts us of our sins in order to silence us before God.

We end up standing guilty before him. That's the second use. So shows us that we're sinners, which ultimately shows us our need to be saved, which is what

Christ's job is. And then the third use of the law is only for Christians. It shows us what a good work is, and we do them not for our salvation.

We're not saved by our good works. We are saved for Christ's sake.

Instead, we do our good works for God's sake because he's said so.

So, you know, now the law has an instructive thing to showing us what a good work is.

You want to see what this looks like in action? I would point you to, you know, like the book of Ephesians, where Paul front -loads,

I mean, the epistle to the Ephesians with gospel, gospel, gospel, I mean, and just beautifully teaches that we were once dead in trespasses and sin,

God has made us alive in Christ, and we are saved by grace through faith. It is not our own doing, this is a gift of God so that no one may boast, and that we are

God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

That's the idea. So, you know, the third use of the law shows us what a good work is, and we Christians, because we still have a sinful nature, yeah, we need exhortation along those lines in order to continue the daily task of drowning and mortifying our sinful flesh.

All of that being said, that has nothing to do at all with what we're talking about here.

I'm going to introduce you to a third category that has nothing to do with the right first use, second use, the third use of the law.

This has to do with just rank lawlessness. Autonomians.

And so, to do this right, I'm gonna have to walk through this a little bit. Judges chapter 17, verse 6.

Famous verse, kind of frame our understanding of autonomians. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

This is not a good thing. This is like a verse that leads into God's judgment, and God will have to rescue people after he sells them into slavery because they were doing what was right in their own eyes.

They were autonomians. And you're sitting there going, Rose, bro, I've heard you use that phrase a few times now, still don't even know what it means.

All right, let me explain it. When we talk about autonomy, you're sitting there going, oh, come on.

Autonomy is like when a kid grows up and now they can move into their own apartment and they're autonomous.

That's not the way I'm using it here. Autonomy, when you break it up into its component parts, in this sense, autos, the

Greek word, means self. Namas. Law. Somebody who is truly autonomous, in the way

I'm describing here, is self - governed. They are a law unto themselves.

They are subject to no one. No authority. They are under no one's authority, even

Christ's. And that's what we're gonna talk about, you know, today. So here's my question, kind of lead -in question, food -for -thought kind of question.

Ready? Is any Christian or any Christian congregation autonomous?

Now, it's a little bit of a trick question because the answer should be there should be no Christian or any

Christian congregation who's truly autonomous. And there's a reason for that, and here's the reason why.

Matthew 28 18, Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

So in Christ's Church, all Christian congregations, and everyone who proclaims and claims to be a follower of Jesus, a disciple of Jesus, they cannot, by definition, be autonomous.

They cannot be self -governed. They must be Christ -governed. Period. Because Christ is the authority.

So the question then is, is how does Christ govern us? Well, here's what

Jesus says in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verses 30 through 32.

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

So you'll note that disciples of Jesus, because all authority has been given to him, they abide in his word.

They keep his word. They guard his word, and they strive to obey his word.

Now, we recognize as Christians that we sin daily and sin much. But the idea then is that if we say we have no sin, the

Apostle John says, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins,

God, who is faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So a

Christian then recognizes that on a daily basis, they need God's forgiveness. And so you walk through the commands of God, and you say, oh, oh

Lord Jesus Christ, I've messed up here. I've sinned here. I've transgressed your law.

Have mercy on me. Forgive me, Lord. I have sinned against you. And we have assurance then that, you know, that when we confess our sins,

God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So abiding in his word requires you to recognize his commands, and the commands then of Christ, you'll note, fall into a few different directions.

But we'll note here, in the same chapter, John chapter 8, Jesus says, whoever is of God hears.

Hears. Hears! Not just hears, but like has ears to hear. Hears the words of God.

And the reason why these people who were arguing with Jesus in John 8 do not hear them is because they're not of God.

So Christians under no circumstance are ever autonomous. They must always recognize that they are a creature and that God is their creator, and that Christ is

God in human flesh, and the words of God found in Scripture are the ones that we are to keep, to guard, to hold, to obey, to listen to, and not cast aside.

The one who says, oh, I'm a Christian and doesn't heed or obey

God's Word, Jesus says the reason why you don't hear them is because you're not of God.

Those who are of God hear God's Word, hear Christ's words. They abide in them, strive to obey them, keep them.

You kind of get the idea. So moving on, then, to the next point. The words of God, where are these found?

Well, remember what Jesus said in John 8, you know, that his disciples hear God's Word, and this is where we're to find them.

Paul, writing in 2nd Timothy chapter 3, says this, all Scripture is theonoustos, is breathed out by God.

Now, no, Jesus is God in human flesh. That being the case, since all

Scripture is breathed out by God, these are the commands of Christ. The Word of God is synonymous with the words of Christ, period, because Jesus is

God. So all Scripture is breathed out by God, is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

So if you're a Christian, your authority is not yourself. Your authority is not your opinion.

Your authority is not your reason. Your authority is Christ, and he governs you and I through his written

Word. That's important, so we don't have the ability to just turn it aside.

All of that being said, we're gonna note here a few things that people play games today, and they do so in very horrible and devastating ways.

Let me give you an example. Let me give you an example. I hear people who call themselves

Christian engaging in arguments like this. Well, such -and -such a thing you say is wrong and you say is a sin.

Oh, you conservative, backwards, backwoods, conservative

Christian, you need to get your head out of the first century and get it into the 21st century.

Yeah, because, you know, you're using a bunch of clobber passages to try to control me, but, you know, those clobber passages have no bearing on me.

Let me give you an example. Let's say you and I have a friend, and we'll just call the friend Joe. You know, I don't know why, just we'll call him

Joe. All right, so you and I, we know Joe, and wouldn't you know it, Joe has left his wife, and Joe has moved in with his shack -up honey, and he's committing adultery, and Joe sings on the praise band at the local megachurch, and so we sit

Joe down, and we say, Joe, God's Word is clear. Adultery is a sin.

So we pull out Exodus chapter 20 verse 14, you shall not commit adultery, and we say to Joe, Joe, look at the commandment says you shall not commit adultery, and we follow up, we dogpile with some follow -up passages like, you know,

Leviticus 18 20, you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife, and so make yourself unclean with her, or Deuteronomy 20 22, if a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die.

It's a capital offense in the ancient theocracy of Israel. The man who lays with a woman, and the woman, and the woman, so you shall purge the evil from Israel, and then consider what it says in Proverbs 6 32, he who commits adultery lacks sense, and he who does it destroys himself.

Aha! And then, of course, don't forget 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 10, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, or thieves, or the greedy, nor drunkards, or revilers, or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

See, it says right there, adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God, and then, of course,

Hebrews 13 4 says, let the marriage bed be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous.

And so you lay all this out for Joe, and you and I are together with Joe, we lay this all out, say, Joe, you're sinning, you need to repent,

God is telling you through his word that this is a sin, and Christ has bled and died for this, but you need to repent and be forgiven, and bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

And Joe's response is, those are nothing but adultery clobber passages.

You see, you know, we live in the 21st century, you know, and so because of that,

I mean, you know, I know, Joe says, that down in my heart that God's telling me that my wife is not right for me, and that this woman

I'm living with now, she's my soulmate, and God approves of what we're doing, and you pulling out these clobber passages is just showing how hateful and how bigoted and narrow -minded you are.

You're just, you're, yeah, well, the problem here is that Joe is an autonomian.

He is a law unto himself, and those who are a law unto themselves, they are lawless.

I mean, if you are a law unto yourself, you are truly lawless. And Jesus gives us some pretty firm and stern warnings regarding the lawless.

Scripture does, also, you know, in the broader sense. In 1st John chapter 3, verse 4, it says, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness. Or Jesus, in the

Sermon on the Mount, says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my

Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?

And then he will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Isn't that weird? Workers of lawlessness in the visible church.

That's a strange thing, yet that's exactly what Jesus says. And then you think of Jesus's rebuke of the

Pharisees in Matthew 23. Woe to you, you scribes and you Pharisees, you hypocrites. You're like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

So you also outwardly appear righteous. You appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Yeah. So there's our category. Let me remind you, our category, again, big word today is autonomian.

This is somebody who does what is right in their own eyes. They are a law unto themselves.

But no Christian, no Christian is autonomous. Anybody who is a disciple of Jesus cannot be autonomous, because as Jesus said, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to him.

And Scripture is clear. God and Christ, Christ himself, governs us with his authority through his words, so we dare not cast his words aside.

All of that being said, we are gonna be heading over to Transformation Church, Transformation Church, and at the beginning of June, Transformation Church invited

Beth Moore to preach the sermon to the congregation during their normal church service times.

Yeah, that's exactly what happened. Let's let Derwin Gray explain to the people there at Transformation Church what they're gonna be hearing.

Hey, what's happening, Transformation Church? We are about to start our summer series, and we are kicking off with the one and the only

Beth Moore. Now, I could talk about all the books she sold. Yeah, they're kicking off a new sermon series.

Beth Moore is kicking it off. All the Bible studies that have influenced us, but what

I want you to know is Beth Moore is a real person, and she's a friend, and so you're gonna get blessed, because she's gonna teach the

Bible. She's gonna teach the gospel, and we're gonna be transformed by the Spirit of God.

So she's gonna preach a sermon, and you're gonna be transformed by the

Word of God. Okay. So could you welcome my good friend, the one and the only

Beth Moore. Yeah, that's

Beth Moore preaching a sermon on a Sunday morning at a church.

Transformation Church, you have stolen my heart today. I will tell you that it will be hard for me to go on, get to the airport, and head home.

It will be difficult to leave you. What a fabulous church. I wonder who else is in the room that has never been before today.

Can I see your hand? Because there's just an outpouring of joy here that is remarkable.

An outpouring of joy there. This sounds like manipulation to me.

I love the leaders of this church so much. I love Derwin and Vicki Gray. They are some of my favorite people in the body of Christ.

You are so blessed to have their leadership. Humble, godly people, and I admire them.

Now, I gotta say this. Humble, godly people. I have to challenge the statement, because humble and godly people would never publicly and defiantly oppose the authority of Christ so egregiously as what we're witnessing here.

I'll give you details in a minute. So, I mean, my opinion, because of what's happening here, of Derwin and his wife, is that they're not humble.

They are absolutely prideful. They're not godly people. They are lawless autonomians who refuse to submit to the authority of Jesus.

So, I gotta tell you, I was very, very moved by the seniors. If you're just joining us by live stream, you may not know that we have gotten to be introduced to the seniors that have just graduated or are just graduating.

And it was quite an impressive sight to see them all lined up here, young men and women.

And it made me think of something that I want to say to you. And as I bring the message today, I want you to know that I will have you in my mind.

And I pray this will be to all of you. But there's nothing I love more than thinking that somebody, maybe in class,

I'm a teacher by trade, a Bible teacher by trade, and there's nothing that thrills me more than to think maybe someone is new to it.

Maybe someone doesn't know that this is a book like no other book. Now, I'm going to agree with Beth Moore.

The Bible is like no other book. Like I just pointed out at the, you know, opening portion of this segment of Fighting for the

Faith, that, well, the Bible, it's theanoustos. It is

God -breathed. It is the infallible, inspired Word of God.

It has the authority of the God who spoke the universe into existence behind it.

It's living and active, sharper than any double -edged sword. And the Holy Spirit works in connection with the preaching and the teaching of the

Word of God. I mean, it's, there is no book like it. I agree with you, Beth. That these are living words because the

Holy Spirit himself inspired them. Right. The Holy Spirit inspired these words.

I agree. Quickens them, that they're not just dead words on a page. I agree.

They're not just dead words. Page that we admire and that we find sacred. No, these are the living, eternal words of God on the page.

Right. Including, well, you know, 1 Timothy chapter 2.

This is part of the living, active words of God on the page.

1 Timothy chapter 2, starting at verse 8 for context, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty, self -control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with that which is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.

And then verses 11 through 14, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet.

For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

You see, when the body of Christ comes together, Christ, to whom all authority in heaven on earth has been given, has used his authority to say that when the body of Christ comes together to hear

God's word, to receive the Lord's Supper, you know, to baptize and do what the congregation does, right?

That in those cases, the women are not to have any authority.

They are not to teach or have authority over a man, period. This, by the way, forbids women from being pastors, and this is what

Christ has chosen to do. Again, he is the one who has authority. To act contrary to what he has explicitly commanded in his living, active word is to defy

Christ and to make yourself the authority rather than him. Yeah, so yeah, just saying.

And I want to tell you something. It sort of takes seeing that, and you see it all the time in Derwin, when you see someone that's really like lit up in the scriptures, and that's what happened to me.

I was already what you would call a motivational speaker at that time, a Christian motivational speaker.

I'd started that in my early 20s, but when I was 27 years old, my church asked me if I would sub for one year a women's

Sunday school class. Yeah, women's Sunday school class.

They didn't make you a pastor. You weren't allowed to preach sermons. It was about 28 to 31, so the youngest one was older than I was, but would

I sub while a woman was going to be out on maternity leave from teaching the class? And it was just a treacherous year because I just thought up things to talk about, and then

I got panicked on Saturday because I think, where is me a scripture to go with it? Anybody know what

I'm talking about here? I'm not going to say that we didn't have fun. We had a blast. My class was packed, but it's just that we really weren't studying the scriptures, and so I was just terrible, and I thought if I just could get through this,

I'm just going to be a speaker. This is not what I want to do. I just want to be a speaker. So by her own admission, she begins as a motivational speaker.

She was given a women's Bible study class. She didn't know what she was doing.

In other words, she was given the authority, strangely enough, to teach a women's

Bible study, and she was not qualified to do so. I want to get me a few messages, and I want to give them a lot of times, and that's how

I want to do this thing, and so my church offered a Bible doctrine class, and I was toward the end.

I just said, Lord, get me through this year, and I guess I was about at the nine -month point. They let you flounder for nine months, really.

Of the year, just a couple of more months to go, but it was like I was looking at my church, what we called a bulletin in those days, and had all the information of things that were being offered at the church, and so Sunday evening during the discipleship hour,

Bible doctrine class, and it was like I heard a voice from heaven going, go, for crying out loud, go before you kill all of us, and they're eternal, and so it's just like I went, and I remember thinking

I got my Bible that had this very beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, still gold edges, and I got me a new notebook.

I got me colored pens, everything, and I went to class. I dressed cute because I thought, you know, if you're not having a good time, you at least could look cute.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? That makes you feel better about where you are, and so I just, I made sure that I dressed really cute, and I was there and ready to go, and it was a small class because, you know, it was just the people.

The martyrs were there. The martyrs were there, and so I was in class sitting, waiting, and a man walks up the size of your pastor.

Former football player. I mean, he is as thick as he is wide, solid muscle, and he walks to that podium, and he throws open the biggest mess of a

Bible I've ever seen in my life. How the pages were still hanging in it, I will never know, and he opened his mouth, and he began to teach, and I was mesmerized, mesmerized.

I had never seen anything like that in my entire life. I had known people.

I was raised in the church. I'd known lots and lots of servants of Christ. I have known true servants of the

Lord Jesus Christ, humble servants drawing no attention to themselves, laboring.

Yeah, humble servants drawing no attention to themselves. In the sermons so far, who is

Beth Moore preaching about? Herself. Hard for the work of the gospel.

I've known missionaries all of my life, but I had never seen anyone love the scriptures more than they would love their next meal.

I'd never seen that. I'd never seen somebody that you knew would rather do it than anything else on earth, that he'd rather study, and I couldn't take a single note.

I don't know that I flipped to a single scripture. I was completely flabbergasted, and at the end of that class,

I ran to my car. I did not stay after and talk nothing. I ran to my car, and I got in the car, slammed the door shut, and I said to the

Lord, I don't know what that was, but I want it. I want it, and it was like he struck a match against a stone and set it in my heart, and I'm telling you, he lit a fire in me

I could not even look up from. To this day, as of this morning, that same fire just rages in my heart to study the scriptures.

I love it so much. No, you don't. I'm sorry, but this is just a sham.

The reason I say you don't is because if you love the scriptures, you would love the one who wrote the scriptures and inspired them, and you would keep and hear and obey and abide by what

God has said to us in the scriptures as those under Christ's authority.

You are behaving by preaching this sermon as an autonomian. You have become a law unto yourselves, yet scripture says, 1

Corinthians 14, as in all the churches of the saints. By the way, this is only in the church.

Women are allowed to teach. Women are allowed to teach other people. You think about the fact that Apollos, when he comes into town, he's defending the faith and literally refuting the

Jews regarding Jesus, and his baptismal theology was all wet, pun intended.

He was corrected by both Aquila and Priscilla. That's right, both of them.

Priscilla is never rebuked for, you know, daring to correct Apollos's teaching, but you'll note this.

Priscilla never once preached a sermon. No way. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches.

They're not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says.

And the reference here, as the law also says this, you could translate namas here as Torah, because there's no commandment in the

Old Testament that says that women can't teach or preach. Instead, we see in the cross reference where it says

Adam. You remember 1 Timothy 2, verse 13, Adam was formed first, then Eve. Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

That's what he's referring to, as the law also says, the Torah. So Paul's appeal, then, is that order of creation and the order of the fall, that it was the woman who was deceived and became a transgressor.

So if there's anything a woman desires to learn, let her ask her husband at home, and it's shameful for a woman to speak in church.

Now, at this point, everyone sits there and goes, well, Paul's just a misogynist. He hates women. This is just a cultural ban.

No, it's not. Keep reading. Or was it from you that the Word of God came, or are you the only ones that it has reached?

If anyone thinks he's a prophet or a spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the

Lord. Yep. Paul's not a misogynist here.

This forbidding women to preach and to exercise authority over men when the church comes together, that's a command of Christ.

And remember, Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

This is his command. So if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

That being the case, we are bound to not recognize Beth Moore anymore. Yeah, so no more, more.

He's like, come up with a slogan here. No more, more. Why? Because she is not recognizing that this is a command of Christ.

She is outright disobeyed, just flat out given the middle finger to Jesus, and she's acting in lawlessness as an autonomian.

She's a law unto herself, and she needs to repent and to recognize that what she did was sinful and contrary to the

Word of God, the very Word of God that she claims that she loves so much, even up until that morning.

No, she doesn't. You don't get to say that you love God's Word and you love

Christ while refusing to obey his Word and to acknowledge that he has put limits, you know, based upon gender within his church as to who is to be preaching and teaching when the whole church comes together.

And that's not me being a misogynist. That's me pointing out what Christ in his authority has written for us to obey in his

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