Theology You Can Use - The Sufficiency Of The Bible (part 3)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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tonight we want to talk about the sufficiency of scripture that the Bible is sufficient for everything we need and tonight's actually part 3 for the sufficiency of scripture and so it's not going to be exposition verse by verse but it's going to be more of a theological talk as we work through in a loose manner

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Wayne Grudem systematic theology and so tonight it'll be the sufficiency of scripture by the way is sufficient are the scriptures sufficient?

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Are you sure? I'm gonna try to challenge that tonight and see if you really believe if the scriptures are sufficient.

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John Thompson said this we affirm that our all -wise

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God has revealed himself and his will in a completed revelation the 66 books of the

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Old and New Testaments which is fully adequate both in content and clarity for everything pertaining to life and godliness including the ordering of the church and the family.

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We deny that God's people should treat his word as inadequate for church and family life by supplementing his completed revelation with humanistic psychology corporate business models and modern marketing techniques.

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John Thompson believes that the Bible is sufficient for everything from family to church

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I think we can start thinking about the ploy of Satan when he said in Genesis chapter 3 to the woman indeed has

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God said? Did God really say that? My old pastor said it is a sin of monstrous proportions to deny the sufficiency of scripture.

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That's pretty big of monstrous proportions and so tonight we want to look at is the

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Bible sufficient? We've looked at the authority of scripture so far the clarity of scripture. Can you think of anything else we've looked at with regards to scripture?

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Those of you who are visiting Sunday morning when I ask a question I don't really want an answer Sunday night when I ask a question you can answer out loud if you'd like as long as the answer is correct okay perspicuity or clarity inerrancy good and there was one other one canonicity the canon of scripture and so we've looked at how

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God has given us his word and it is authoritative over our life we are under God's word not over God's word.

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It is clear it can be communicated with accuracy and tonight we're looking at it is sufficient it is complete it is whole it is all sided when it comes to our life

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Westminster Confession of Faith defines sufficiency of scripture like this the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory man's salvation faith and life is expressly set down in scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture unto which nothing at any time is to be added whether by new revelations of the spirit or traditions of men everything has been given to us and we have a sufficient scripture now

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I got an email this week very pertinent to this whole idea of sufficiency and how would you think you would answer this letter or answer the person who wrote the letter knowing that the sufficiency of scripture is true this was in leadership magazine by Brian McLaren who by the way will be a

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New England vision vision New England Congress speaker and he wrote this article it was called how should pastors respond to the homosexual question

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Brian McLaren quote the couple approached me immediately after the service this was their first time visiting and they really enjoyed the service they said they had but one question you can guess what the question was about McLaren says not transubstantiation not speaking in tongues not inerrancy not eschatology but where our church stood on homosexuality that's still small voice told me not to answer

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McLaren said instead I asked can you tell me why that question is important to you when

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I'm asses question usually it's by conservative Christians wanting to be sure that we conform to what

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I call radio orthodoxy I either religious political priorities mandated by many big -name religious broadcasters sometimes as asked by X asked by asked by ex -gays who want to be sure they'll be supported on their ongoing reorientation process

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I hesitate in answering the homosexual question not because I'm a cowardly flip -flopper who wants to tickle ears but because I'm a pastor and pastors have learned from Jesus that there's more than one way of answering a question we've got to be pastoral that means understanding the question beneath the question the need or fear or hope or assumption that motivates the question

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I'm just gonna skip the rest because you'll you'll know what I'm talking about as I read this final paragraph perhaps we need a five -year moratorium on making pronouncements regarding his homosexuality good are wrong in the meantime will practice prayerful

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Christian dialogue listening respectfully disagreeing agreeably when decisions need to be made up the admittedly provisional will keep our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies now if you don't listen anything else listen to this can you answer the question is homosexuality wrong are the scripture sufficient to tell you is it wrong or right well thank you but we'll keep our our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies theology ethics psychology genetics sociology and related fields then in five years if we have clarity will speak if not will set another five years have ongoing reflection

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I have a question for you does the Bible speak with sufficient clarity to answer the question is homosexuality is adultery is fornication we can name the sins but is the

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Bible clear on that or is it not do we need a dialogue we need more ethic questions we need more psychological analysis more genetical analysis what are your responses to that letter anathema okay give any other quite any other responses to that heretical spineless men -pleasing

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I don't like it that he says somehow we have to be pastoral and pastor just can't tell people the truth I think we speak the truth in love yes but we have to tell people the truth that's what we do or truth tellers as Christians tonight in the time that we have left

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I want to talk a little bit about why God's Word is sufficient and how you can be encouraged to know that if you know the

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Bible you can answer fell fallacies like that number one the

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Bible is sufficient in this area it is sufficient in counseling we learned last time that the scripture sufficient in counseling anybody up have any comments or responses to what we talked about last message about the sufficiency of scripture in counseling you need to stay a tune to the latest

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Freud Adler Skinner Maslow and other psychological trends to be able to counsel someone can you counsel someone are you able if you're a

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Christian to counsel other Christians is that are the scripture sufficient enough for you to tell them this is right this is wrong may encourage you in this area of godliness can you do that absolutely and my exhortation would be stay in the word so you have something to give to someone when they need counsel just amazing to me when

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I study the Bible and then someone will come up and ask me questions nine times nine times out of ten as I've studied the

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Bible throughout the week I have an answer to give them about something from the Bible that I've studied from the passage

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I've studied beware of paying money congregation to Christian what counselors be determined to get counseling no be determined to get discipleship not counseling number two in review we learned that the

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Bible is sufficient to evangelize can you just use the Bible to evangelize or do you need to know about genetic structure fossil records

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DNA let me ask you a couple questions are people neutral to the gospel unbelievers are they neutral are you sure

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Jesus said no one can serve two masters either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other no one is neutral I've got a question for you when someone says you

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Christians use the Bible to prove that sin is sin and Jesus is God that's circular reasoning how would you respond to that that's a circular argument okay that's what the

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Bible says good it's circular reasoning you're using the Bible to prove the point how many people took the apologetic method the apologetics class okay a few you should know the answer

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Steve Cooley if someone were to say to you this is circular reasoning using the

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Bible how would you respond did you hear that that'll preach our job is to tell them what the

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Bible says as Spurgeon used to say the scriptures are like a lion in a cage and your job is not to stand in front of the cage with a little spear protecting those those lions and tigers

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I used to go to the zoo when I was a kid Ringling Brothers Barnum Bailey Circus or the Shriner's Circus and I used to love to get those little tiny spears with the kind of dyed feathers on there in the little plastic tip if you imagine just standing in front of the

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Bible defending the Bible against all comers with your little plastic tip spear what do you do you let the

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Bible out the Bible says this is what God's Word says it's not an argument it's not trying to to twist their arm it's you are declaring the truth remember beloved when you preach the gospel you have one goal in mind and that goal should never as a priority be salvation that person's soul should that be a priority could be a good goal

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I want that person saved therefore I'm preaching the gospel to them is that good but your number one goal should be when you evangelize what to honor

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God by doing what he says and he says give them the word proclaim the truth to them turn by the way to Ephesians chapter 2

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I talked about this a little bit to the new members this morning but Ephesians chapter 2 our job is not to try to debate

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God or argue God or somehow get tied up in a he said she said our job is to give them the

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Word of God and faith comes by hearing a message about Christ Romans chapter 10 says and we need to tell them the truth

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I mean how are you going to argue people into heaven who are by nature children of wrath and who are dead in trespasses and sins you can argue with dead people all you want but they're not going to believe and if you look at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 it talks about being dead in trespasses and sins verse 2 of chapter 2 of Ephesians talks about how

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Satan has captured their minds and then in chapter 2 verse 3 it says they were by nature children of wrath even as the rest how do you try to get a person who's depraved spiritually alive how do you do that well there's only one person who does that and that's

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God by the way the very fact that it says they're by nature children of wrath should be in our own minds pushing us to the corner to say it's not going to be gimmicks it's not going to be there's that what's the name that guy who has a really gimmicky evangelism book you're supposed to keep your

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Bible in your pocket at the right time you quick get it out and you quick give them these verses and when you try to pray with them you're supposed to put your hand on this shoulder and then if he's not bowing his head in prayer you can kind of apply some pressure on the back of his neck to make his head bow

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I have it in my office that's not what we do we're not trying to trick people and you know you ever told a lie yeah well then you're a sinner you know we want to tell people the truth

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God is not a God who kind of lets bygones be bygones

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God is not a God who helps those who help themselves Habakkuk 113 says thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on evil

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God is allergic to sin as it were he has a nuclear reaction to sin can you imagine for one sin

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Adam and Eve out of the garden for one sin all the posterity of Cain and cursed for one sin

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Moses out of the promised land for one sin Elisha's servant smitten by leprosy for one sin

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Ananias and Sapphira cut off so what do we do with people that we meet who are

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Ephesians chapter 2, 1, 2, and 3 people? We preach them the word and then you concede the very next word in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 it's not therefore

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God smashed them all to smithereens it's not and God gave them justice because he couldn't compromise his holiness but it's but, but God is rich in mercy and that mercy is delivered through the preached word turn to Acts chapter 18 if you would just for a moment and I want to show you a great example of preaching the gospel and this is the way it should be done how do you preach the gospel you just proclaim the word you just tell them this is what the

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Bible says about salvation about sin about Jesus Christ and if they'll listen great they respond that's

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God's business not ours Acts chapter 18 verse 24 a wonderful pattern for preaching the gospel now a

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Jew named Apollos an Alexandrian by birth an eloquent man came to Ephesus and he was mighty in the scriptures this man had been instructed in the way the

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Lord and being fervent in spirit he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus being acquainted only with the baptism of John he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue but when

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Priscilla and Aquila heard him they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately when he wanted to go across to Achaia the brethren encouraged him and wrote to disciples to welcome him and when he had arrived he greatly helped those who had believed through grace that's how anyone believes by the way is through grace for he powerfully refuted the

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Jews in public demonstrating by DNA evidence and the Michael Behe's book

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Darwin's box Darwin's black box that Jesus is God. Is that what it says? It's fine if you want to read those books but if you give one of those books to someone to say well

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I hope the latest Philip Johnson book is going to convince my friend here look at this he powerfully refuted the

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Jews in public demonstrating by the scripture that Jesus was the Christ I love

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Paul when he says in chapter 2 of 1st Corinthians I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified we just proclaim the truth the scriptures are sufficient to do that thirdly scriptures are sufficient for counseling they're sufficient for evangelism and thirdly they're sufficient for sanctification they're sufficient for decision -making

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I could say how do you make decisions with the scriptures well if you're like Blackabee and experiencing

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God he says on page 172 if the God of the universe tells you something you should write it down when

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God speaks to you in your quiet time immediately write down what he said before you have time to forget comments you have a journal that you're writing down things when

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God tells you okay good any other comments good

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Steve I've seen an advertisement of that on TV what if you just do this when you make a decision you can read your

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Bible and everything but I think you should go with your gut I think you should go with your feelings how about that come on you have to go with it just that kind of burning in your bosom it'll tell you we live in a feeling oriented society and if you don't think you're affected by people that make decisions by their feelings then we have another thing coming

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I like that little poem three men went up on top of the wall feeling faith and fact have you heard that little poem three men went up on top of the wall feeling faith and fact feeling had an awful fall and faith was taken back faith was so close to feeling that when he stumbled they stumbled and fell too but fact remain and held faith up and that helped feeling to the world says if it feels good do it and then later if you've got a conscience you can think about what you've done and of course the

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Bible is exactly opposite I think about things biblically I do them and then God rewards me with the feelings that are commensurate with that happiest you keeps the law as some would say in the

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Proverbs Jerry Reagan sightfully said I've often wondered why so many Christians seem to need specific clarity from God in the daily issues of life if an intimate walk with Christ demanded a whole set of daily personal revelations guaranteeing the best path for me how would

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I ever learn simple entrustment moreover when I be held responsible for carrying out every prescriptive detail of the revealed plan

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I have found scripture a ready and utterly sufficient weapon against the enemy and a thorough implement for spiritual surgery isn't it possible are even probable that I am simply being directed through biblical convictions which the spirit has seasoned through obedience over time for his providential and effective use at that particular moment or perhaps

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I'm experiencing a range of normal biblical thoughts brought on by a combination of biblical truth and Christian experience our minds work this way in every other area of life why must we suddenly divinize every strong notion and inner impression we don't need to do that we are to trust the

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Lord with all our what heart and lean not on our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight by the way on a side note

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Grudem basically says if you get subjective impressions don't ignore them and so as we confirm many things that are great in Grudem's book you want to watch out on that one number four is the

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Bible sufficient for determining social perspectives on issues like homosexuality women in ministry and marriage can the

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Bible the Bible tell us shouldn't we maybe do more majority that might be a better way since when does the majority make morality about politics maybe they should decide doctors psychology

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Doug Padgett said you tell me if you think this is right or wrong the question of humanity is inexorably linked to sexuality and gender issues of sexuality can be among the most complex and convoluted we need to deal with it seems to me that the theology of our history does not deal sufficiently with these issues for our day

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I do not mean this is a critique but as an acknowledgment that our times are different it's a different age how can you use that old dusty Bible to tell you what's right or wrong about marriage and everything else this will require us not only to draw new conclusions about sexuality but will force us to consider new ways of being sexual

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I thought the Bible sufficient for marriage and family and everything else attack after attack it's not to me a big deal that the liberals do it but people who call himself evangelical

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Christians are doing it that's what I don't like number five okay here's what you came for this is the new stuff all that's kind of review the

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Bible is sufficient for how to run a church it's sufficient for ecclesiology today people want to say to run a church you have to be a pragmatist whatever works whatever gives good consequences if you're doing something the church and you get the proper

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ABCs it must be working by the way what are the ABCs of church growth attendance buildings and cash and if those three are up you must be doing the right thing attendance buildings attendance buildings and cash attendance is up you might be doing great things

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I wonder how we would gauge Jonah's ministry when all of Nineveh repents and he's doing the boneheaded deal and I wonder what about Jeremiah who's faithful and glorifies

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God and how many converts does he have that's why please if you can just do your best when someone says well what church do you go to and they say well how many people attend your church does it matter how many people attend how many people attend well a lot attend so therefore must be blessed of God no

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I try my best not to say how many people come because it's irrelevant and if there are a lot of people that attend why pity that poor pastor because he's got a lot of people to stand before God for on judgment day these are the people that I shepherded pragmatism comes from William James and John Dewey that's where it comes from let me give you some quotes of people who

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I think want us to run the church in a very pragmatic way Rick Warren says explosive growth occurs when the type of people in the community match the type of people that are already in the church and they both match the type of person the pastor is

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I don't think you all want to be like me you can put up with me for about three hours a

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Sunday that's it pardon me purpose -driven church page 177 is all my notes if something works it doesn't mean it's necessarily right numbers crowds same author went on to say in church quote we want to loosen up the tense muscles of uptight visitors

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I'm not making it up how could I when your body is relaxed your attitudes less defensive so that Holy Ghost back rub thing that I was talking about this morning might actually work give them a little back rub then give them the

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ABCs of Christianity for spiritual laws same man said this keep your pastoral prayer short in your seeker services the unchurched people can't handle long prayers we purposely try to have long prayers and long scripture reading why?

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because we like God's Word you love God's Word? if you don't you're in the wrong church we want to hear from God we want to hear from God and it's long pastoral prayers well that's such a long pastoral prayer we better cut it down because people maybe won't like it same author said we must be willing to adjust our worship practices when unbelievers are present

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God tells us to be sensitive to the hang -ups of unbelievers in our services when

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I find out there's unbelievers in the church you know what I do? I turn it up all the more they need to hear the gospel

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I want them to hear the words of eternal life Vance Havner was just a sharp guy and here's what he says about pragmatism in a local church how should unbelievers respond to the church he said the

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Ichabod Memorial Church decides to pack them in with folk music then they say over at Ephesus we'll try a

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TV personality then Pergamos says well we're gonna have a fellow who can play the fiddle and beat tap drums and blow harmonica all at the same time then over at Sardis they say we're gonna put on Aunt Dinah's quilting party come dress like they were a hundred years ago we'll see

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Nellie home then over at Latter Day See they have a talking horse I heard about one of those horses sometime ago they ask him how many commandments and he stomped 10 times how many apostles and he stomped 12 times some nitwit in the crowd asked how many hypocrites there are in this church and the horse went into a dance on all fours you can fill a church with anybody five bucks if you come it's like I said this morning we don't even design the worship service so you're pleased we design the worship service as an offering to God we hope you're pleased we want to try to teach you to be pleased but it's about God he's the object of our worship so when

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Pastor Joe said Christ is the center of worship that means we adore him we do everything for him because he's the object of our worship

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George Barnes said the major problem plaguing the church is its failure to embrace a marketing orientation in which in what has become a market -driven environment

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I would pay money for the reincarnation of John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Malachi, Nahum, and any other prophet to come into one of these churches and stand there and proclaim the truth because they would run those people out unless they were really a believer and then you'd say

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Lord I needed to hear that word today. James Boyce said instead of me fitting a religion

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I found a religion to fit me. I have a question was Jesus a pragmatist?

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Did he do things to kind of get the crowd? He chased them away we can get into John 6 we've done that lots of times how about turning to 1st

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John chapter 4 with me we need to keep our Bibles open I know tonight's a little bit more kind of philosophical and not necessarily an exposition but 1st

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John chapter 4 this idea that we have to study man and be up on anthropology and sociology and psychology so we can figure out how to make a church grow and we're gonna survey the community and figure out what we need to do that it may be popular and it may somehow bring a lot of people in but I just think it's it's antithetical to everything we stand for.

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1st John chapter 4 verses 5 and 6 they're from the world therefore they speak is from the world and the world listens to them we're from God he who knows

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God listens to us but he was not from God does not listen to us by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

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We don't need to study men to figure out what they believe we need to proclaim the truth real

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Christians respond. Jesus said in John chapter 10 my sheep hear what? my voice and I know them.

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Turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 14 let me show you my prayer request for what I would hope that unbelievers do when they come to our church by the way when people do come to our church as unbelievers if you're turning there

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I want them to know God's standards and God's holiness and that Jesus is the only Savior he's the risen one and he's the only one offering salvation and I want them to know that and if they don't want to come back at least they have heard the truth.

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1st Corinthians chapter 14 verses 24 and 25 this is the way our church should be run so if an unbeliever walks in this should happen.

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What do you think that should be? Well we want to give them cookies certainly we want to be kind we want to be nice I try to shake their hand at the end thank you for coming how can we minister to you we want to be loving and nice but here's what we want the church is for Christians but if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters he is convicted by all he is called to account by all the secrets of his heart are disclosed and so he will fall on his face and worship

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God declaring that God is certainly among you. Is that what you want when an unbeliever comes?

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That he gets saved or that he gets entertained? Spurgeon used to say do we feed the sheep or do we entertain the goats?

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let me give you a statement and you tell me if it's true or false and then why please God's will is for every local congregation to grow numerically.

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True or false why or why not? Okay it's false why

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Lewis? How many times we see that in Acts especially when there's big trouble and the

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Holy Spirit added those who are to be saved we don't add people to the church we don't somehow say well we've got to manipulate the numbers will lower membership requirements down and you don't have to believe in the

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Trinity really to be a member because you say you believe in God no. Any other comments? Is God blessing this church?

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It used to be bigger. It's not as big as it has been other comments about growth?

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What kind of growth are we looking for? Maturity! The depth and the maturity of you the

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Christian. What are you going to do when your life is turned upside down with some kind of medical problem or health issue or financial issue then what are you going to do?

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You're going to lay back on the greatness of God that you've learned and you've studied and you've said here is the high view of God that I've learned and I can still trust him even though he might slay me.

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Noah was a failure wasn't he? Pragmatically. Poor guy 120 years only people who believed in him was his family 120 years and no one believed in him.

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Jeremiah carried away to Egypt. Jeremiah 43. In my study this week

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I found that two churches in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 were commended that had no rebuke. Smyrna and Philadelphia both were small poor, lacked influence but they held their confession of faith to the end.

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It's not about numbers and it never has been Let me ask you another question. What the unbeliever wants the church to be we should make it that way.

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Why? What should we do instead? Luke I like your eagerness

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A for effort by the way if you want to pray for the Avendroths this week please do there's a school competition at Luke's school and he is in the preaching competition fourth grade.

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He's got a three to five minute sermon It was a tough week for us as the

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Avendroths because that school certainly I want to submit to them and be under them and I'm not trying to rile them up and change everything we just want to take what's good and so we have little talks at home when their teachers say have you accepted

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Jesus in your heart and then we come home and download a little bit and say the issue isn't do you accept him in your heart but do you believe with all your heart

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Romans chapter 10. They're a King James only church and so there are other translations that are fine so we talk about that sometimes and this last one was he had to preach this salvation message that was given to him.

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This was on Friday. So we were given the message on Thursday and he had to preach it on Friday in front of the chapel and it talked about God's desire and there was a few theological errors in there and I told

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Luke you're gonna have to preach a little bit different message because this isn't strictly biblical. What kind of pressure is that?

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The pastor wants this, your dad wants that, what are you gonna do? And I said there's five kids in three slots you preach what's honoring to God and if you don't get it, you don't get it.

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It's okay you honor God and it does not matter did I get the competition? Did I win? And so boy it was just big high drama.

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What do you do? Do you go with your convictions? You know what's gonna happen? And so Luke went to school and I came here to the church about one o 'clock in the afternoon

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I get a phone call. Ring, ring. Don't know that number. Mike Avendroth.

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Hi Mike, this is Pastor Arnold Twin City Christian School. I just wanted to talk to you about that message that your son preached.

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I'm sorry you have to talk to my wife. See ya. I said yes,

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I work with him, sorry I wrote some of the notes on there Luke told me you know we're not supposed to write in there, sorry.

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Oh he says that's fine. He said I could tell you're a little more Calvinistic than we might be at school.

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And I said well Whitfield the Calvinist and Wesley the Arminian they both love lost souls and we can love them together kind of thing.

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And he goes yeah that's right. And he said well I was just wondering if you could help Luke put together a new sermon so he could still preach.

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He made the competition. I think he's got some gifts and we want to know if you just help him put together a message that would would not flame him out because it was so Calvinistic but it would be truthful and you could keep your convictions and you could just help him preach it and I'd really love that.

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I said absolutely that'd be great. So anyway we've been working on that sermon this afternoon and it's entitled

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You Must Be Born Again from John chapter 3. And if the

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Lord would have you know would have determined that we couldn't do it, we still have convictions and if we don't get the results that seem positive to us, at least we have our convictions.

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Now when it comes to preaching I have no idea where I am. Yeah Steve?

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Yes. What do we do? Authentic community.

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Well the reason why I brought that up is because we don't compromise the message no matter what situation we might be in whether it's at school, chapel or here the message stays the same and we don't let the ungodly unbelieving enemy of God, rebellious people tell us how we should worship

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God. They should walk in here thinking this is the wildest thing I've ever been to. Up there praying and everybody's standing up and they're reading all this

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Bible stuff. They've all got their Bibles out while this wild man is up there preaching for 55 minutes and they're all telling them to preach more.

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Everybody's kind of nice and hugging people walking around with just Bibles everywhere. This is unlike anything

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I've seen in the entire world. The flip side you walk into a church that's all seeker sensitive and you just feel at home.

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Now when I go to seeker sensitive churches I feel like I'm not saved. I have to kind of hide my

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Bible because nobody else has got them. First Corinthians chapter 1, for indeed

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Jews ask for signs. Greeks search for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified. We know you want a sign.

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We know you want signs and wonders. We know you want a bunch of wisdom. Here's Jesus. But to those who are called both

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Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Let me ask you this question.

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Since the church doesn't grow very much in numbers, do we need a new

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Reformation? Do we need a new Reformation? Well, one man,

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I won't mention any names, in California with a big kind of crystal like church, glass everywhere, swimming pool inside.

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He said this, you need a new

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Reformation and that Reformation is self -esteem. It's not working so you've got to give the people what they want. You've got to make them feel better.

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Additionally, there was a book published about church growth and they had pastoral sins listed.

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Here's the second pastoral sin. Believing that preaching will change people.

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It's a sin. That starts making me think of Isaiah where they call evil good and good what?

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Evil. Quote, preaching is important but it is important only in connection with the rest of what a pastor and church do.

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Jason was told in seminary that preaching is the most important thing a pastor does. No, Jason, it's the most important thing in the preaching class but it's not all that big of a deal to grandma and grandpa.

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I have no words to describe that. Since the

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Bible is sufficient, let me just give you a few exhortations as we wrap up. Number one, if the Bible is sufficient, would you read it?

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Would you read the Bible? We talked about that a lot this morning. Maud Frazier said, what if I say the

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Bible is God's holy word, complete, inspired without a flaw but let its pages stay unread from day to day and fail to learn from God's law?

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What if I go not there to seek the truth of which I glibly speak for guidance in this earthly way?

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Does it matter what I say? Do you believe the Bible is sufficient? Read it. Number two, praise

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God for protecting His word. Can you imagine how many times the

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Bible has been attempted to be wiped off the face of this earth and God has protected it providentially?

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If it's sufficient but not around, we're going to be in big trouble but He's protected His word.

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Psalm 119 says, of old I have known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.

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Jesus said in Matthew 24, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will what? Not pass away.

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Jesus said in John 10 and the scripture cannot be broken. I even read this week where they were trying to get rid of the

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Tyndale Bible because they didn't like it. It was this Protestant translation and of course St. Thomas More and the

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Catholics didn't like it and he said about the Tyndale Bible that searching for errors in the

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Tyndale Bible was similar to searching for water in the sea. Just trying to attack the credibility of the scripture.

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Even this recently Bible burning in the Republic of Georgia, 2002,

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February 3rd, Christians of all denominations were worshiping on Sunday morning and Basil Macaliphagibi, that's about right, a defrocked

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Orthodox priest and approximately 150 of his supporters broke into a warehouse containing Bibles in the

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Republic of Georgia. They removed the Bibles and other books stored there and proceeded to pour gasoline on the materials and set them on fire.

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Throughout the ages Satan has got his Bible burners and still the Word of God stands firm.

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Number three, be content with what God has revealed in scripture. If the Bible is sufficient then be content with what is revealed there.

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Specifically, we talked about this a little bit in new members class today, if the Bible doesn't tell you what happens to babies when they die, don't study that for the next 35 years trying to figure out the answer because you know what the answer is?

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You're not to know. You're to trust God with all your heart. He hasn't told us.

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Where scripture is silent, John Calvin said, I am silent. You've entrusted your entire life, your eternal life, to God.

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Can you entrust the life of your child to the Lord? The answer is absolutely. God's good.

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God's faithful. All the paradoxes that we try to figure out, we don't need to figure them out.

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Deuteronomy 29 .29, you know the verse but we always forget the second half. The secret things what? Belong to the

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Lord. There's more to that verse. I know it's to Israel but there's good advice by implication for us.

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But the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever. Why? Some things we don't know but the stuff that we do know, what does

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God call us to do? That we may observe all the words of his law.

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We don't know a lot but what we do know, God help us to do. And then lastly, rejoice because sufficiency yields great liberty.

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Think about it this way. If the Bible is sufficient, there's nothing in there that God, there's nothing that God wants us to do that we don't know.

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God is wanting you to all kind of worship a certain way but you don't know because it's not in the Bible so you're running around your whole life going,

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I wonder if God would be pleased with that. What if I'm forgetting this? No, since Scriptures are sufficient, we know what

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God is pleased by and now we can go ahead and do it. Full steam ahead. Nothing is required of us by God that is not commanded in Scripture, true or false.

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It's there, we don't have to run around thinking, what should we do? So I've talked for a long time, three weeks now on the sufficiency of Scripture.

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But we want to affirm with our lives and our mind that Scripture is sufficient for everything we need and God has been good to give us the

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Scripture. And we don't want to try to change our church because of management techniques, consumerism or anything else.

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We want to just preach the Word and you know what? I'm thrilled that I preach the Word and what happens to you? You grow.

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The church is growing. We ran out of bulletins today. Now if we shrink, remember what

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I said about Sermon on the Mount? We'll either shrink to 50 or we'll explode to 400. Now I'm not a prophet nor a son of the prophet so if neither of those happen, don't kill me.

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I'm not trying to say it as prophecy but it's just one of those passages you can't stand idly by and go, you know what?

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That's kind of nice. What Jesus said is sure nice, sure sweet. I wish the pastor would kind of have a little drama time up there to kind of dramatize the

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Sermon on the Mount. It'd just be lovely to just kind of watch it just played out before your very eyes. I mean

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Jesus says, this is right, this is wrong, you can't sit on the fence. You know what it does? It strengthens the hearts of the believer and as a pastor

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I just think, I can't believe I get to pastor you. You guys are rabid for the

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Word of God. So many people came up to me today and said, I want you to preach longer. You cut that off way too soon today.

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I could tell you had more material. You just keep preaching. I said I preach 50 minutes. I had 10 more minutes to go but I thought, well

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I turned it up so high on some of the, you better read your Bible thing that I just thought we'll just cut back on time.

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Just for the sake of your own souls and consciences. It's a pastor's dream.

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We want the Bible. And you only want a pastor who will tell you the truth.

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And just to show you in last verse of the day, last verses, if you have a Bible turn to 1 Kings, here's my homework assignment for you all this week.

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Read the book of 1 Kings and I'm going to tell you how it ends in 1 Kings. I've been just doing this for my own

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Bible reading time, my own devotional time. And this is why, one of the reasons I rejoice that I get the privilege of pastoring you, this church,

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Bethlehem Bible Church. Because you want the Word. You want it all. And you don't want it watered down.

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And you want it for a long time. Look at what happens in 1 Kings chapter 22. It's just the classic story.

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We talked about this a little bit this morning in the members class as well. 1 Kings 22.

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By the way, how many chapters are there in 1 Kings? 22. Good. 7 days.

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How many chapters do you need to read a day to finish the assignment to read 1 Kings this week? 3. And if I drive by your house and see that blue orb thing that I was telling you about, and you tell me you can't read 3 chapters.

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Joe's going, the guy's a legalist. He tells me they can't watch TV. Ahab. Micaiah.

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Let's just jump into verse 5. Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Please inquire first of the word of the

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Lord. Verse 6.

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Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men. 400 preachers. What are the preachers going to say?

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It's a pastor's conference. We've got revival going on there. And said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth -Gilead to battle, or shall

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I refrain? And they said, Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. Amen, choir.

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But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not yet a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him? Those guys are bogus.

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Let's talk to the real guy. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the

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Lord, but I hate him. Because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.

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He is Micaiah, son of Imlah. But Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

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There's one guy that'll tell you the truth, but I hate listening to him because he always gives me the bad news. That's the pastor that's always afflicting the comfortable versus the afflicted.

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Know what I mean? The proverbs are true, that when you talk a lot, there's plenty of room for mistake.

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King of Israel called, verse 9, an officer, and said, Bring quickly Micaiah, son of Imlah.

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Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were sitting, each on his throne, arrayed in their robes.

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Have you ever spoke before a king? You weren't even supposed to look at the king unless he asked you.

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You couldn't even approach him until the scepter came down on your shoulder. I don't know what

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I would do if I was asked by the president to come speak and preach the gospel. I would hope that I'd have the nerve to tell him the truth.

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Years ago when Gordon McDonald and others went to go talk to President Clinton, I would hope that if I was asked that I would tell him the truth about God and the standards and righteousness.

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But I would be scared. Walking to the Oval Office and the Blue Room and everything else, and it's the king, and who are we?

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We're no one. What do you tell the king? Tell the king good things if you want to come back. But the man of God won't compromise.

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Verse 10, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were sitting, each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in the threshing floor of the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them, and you know it was all good, you're going to win, you're great, you're righteous, oh great king.

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Then Zedekiah, the son of, what's his name, made horns of iron for himself and said,

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Thus says the Lord, with these you will gore the Arameans until they are consumed. And all the prophets were prophesying thus,

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Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.

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Then the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Behold, now the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king.

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Please let your word be like the word of them and speak favorably. By the way, do you see those soldiers over there with those big swords?

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Just imagine the guards everywhere, we don't know what happened, but you could see the whole kind of idea here.

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By the way, in a throne room, when a king is on the throne, it's a small room, and everything leads up to that throne.

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You remember Solomon's throne? The lions on each side? Sometimes when the person would get the verdict from the throne, you'd have to have a knife tied underneath your chin if you were a criminal, so you'd have to look at the king in the eyes when he pronounced judgment.

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And thrones, they didn't give blessings from thrones, thrones gave what? Judgment. That's why in Hebrews chapter 4 when we boldly can come to the throne of judgment, the

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Hebrews would think, but this is the new throne, it's the throne of grace. But here there's judgment, it's the throne, there are the robes, there are all the people there and all the guards, everybody else has said good things.

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Verse 14, this will make you want to name your kid after this guy. Bob and Nyada are having a little girl

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Larita, but if it was a boy, I learned this morning, it would have been this guy's name. Where are the men of God?

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Where are the women of God who will say, we're going to stand up for righteousness as the Lord Yahweh lives, what the

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Lord says to me, that I will speak. Kill me, throw me in jail, cut off my head, it doesn't matter,

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I'm going to preach what God tells me and what no one else says. When he came to the king, the king said to him,

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Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall we refrain? And he answered, go up and succeed and the

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Lord will give it into the hand of the king. That's weird. Then the king said to him, how many times must

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I adjure you to speak nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord? So first he goes, here's a little sarcasm, everybody else is saying oh yeah, that's right, well

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I'll tell you, you're going to win too. No, I know better, these people are all just trying to speak to me the good things,

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I pay them to do that, you are the man of God, you tell me the truth, what is it? The king said to him, how many times will

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I adjure you in the name of the Lord? So he said, I saw all Israel scatter on the mountains like sheep which have no shepherd and the

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Lord said, these have no master, let each of them return to his house in peace. Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, did

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I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me but evil? Then the great preacher

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Micaiah said therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord, you think you're on a throne, there's two of you here, but I saw the

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Lord sitting on his throne, sounds like Isaiah 6 and he raised him, he high and lifted up and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right and on his left, they're standing ready for action ready for deployment.

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The Lord said, who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said this while another said that, then a spirit came forward and stood before the

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Lord and said, I will entice him. The Lord said to him, how? And he said,

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I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Then God said you are to entice him and also prevail, go and do so.

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And therefore, behold the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all those prophets, your prophets, and the

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Lord has proclaimed disaster against you. Then Zedekiah the son of Jinnah came near and struck

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Micaiah on the cheek and said, how did the spirit of the Lord pass from me to speak to you?

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Micaiah said, behold you whitewashed sepulcher Oh no, that's a different passage. Behold you shall see on that day when you enter an inner room to hide yourself.

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Then the king of Israel said, take Micaiah and return him to Ammon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son.

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And say, thus says the king, put this man in prison and feed him sparingly with bread and water until I return safely.

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Micaiah said, if you indeed return safely, the Lord has not spoken by me. And he said, listen all you people, put me in jail,

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I don't care, but God didn't say that. But the Old Testament's pretty boring isn't it? All that Old Testament stuff and can't read it, can't understand it.

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God's a God of wrath in the Old Testament. He's never a God of love and can't figure it out and I need to have a how -to on my financial life so I can't be bothered with that.

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It's the best! First kings! Let's pray.

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Lord we would bless your name today. If you could work through a man like Micaiah to give him boldness before the kings,

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Lord you could give us boldness too. We're a bunch of nobodies Lord. We're just here in West Boylston and New England.

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Not many mighty, not many wise, not many noble and yet Lord you've given us the gospel and we want to herald it.

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And we would affirm tonight and want to worship you and say it is sufficient for everything. Lord give us strength to go preach it.

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Give us strength to give our brothers and sisters in the church a word from you when they need counseling.

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Lord give us the strength to do what the word says even in our church. And again

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Lord we pray for Pastor Joe when it comes to those seven non -negotiables that that church in Lancaster would respond to the word.

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Our Lord that you would see fit to bring new people who would respond and say yes and amen to all the promises found in Christ Jesus.