Caring For The Church - [1 Timothy 3:1-7]

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When you give a message like this morning, sometimes you wonder, my wife was saying that I may have missed a few people who ran out before I could get to the door.
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And I thought, you know, it's not like I want to inflict upon you some of the things that I read during the week.
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But I thought that it is, this is such a, not only a controversial issue but this is such an issue that faces the church,
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I thought it might be good to look at some of the reasoning of the other side and look and see what we can discern biblically.
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And I'll be asking some questions of you tonight, so we're a little less formal obviously on Sunday evening.
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It has something to do with the fact that there's a lot less of us. So, but I found this, all these online, but some of them are quite prominent people, other people not so prominent, but there are all sorts of organizations that say they're evangelical and they're feminist, or they're feminist and they're
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Christian, or some combination thereof. This is from a woman who writes this, she says,
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I know that some people think that the words Christian and feminism are as incompatible as oil and water, but that's because of a misunderstanding about both
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Christianity and feminism. Danger, warning, fire alarms should be going off, a misunderstanding about Christianity, we just don't get it.
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She says, Christianity is built upon the gospel message, a message that's supposed to mean good news, glad tidings of great joy to all people, not just half the human race.
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It's a message about a God who's involved with us, who cares about each one of us, and it's a message of freedom from all that would oppress us, all that would block us from living up to our full potential, all that would keep us from being all that we were meant to be.
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Is there a problem with that? Is that what the gospel's about? I'm like, that sounds almost like an army commercial, but, you know, be all that you could be, get saved.
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Freedom from all that would oppress us. I, you know, I taught through First Peter, and the first thing
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I thought when I read that is, I'm just like, well, here's Peter warning the church about oppression, the things that are, the persecution that's going to come, and she says, hey, we're supposed to be free from all that.
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She goes on, the goal of being all that we can be is what feminism is all about, too, so we have this joining of ideas.
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The media, both secular and Christian, have all too often distorted the basic message of feminism, giving rise to the mistaken notion that a feminist is anti -male, anti -family, and even anti -God.
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But a feminist is nothing more or less than a woman or man who believes that men and women should be considered equals in God's sight, and in earthly relationships, responsibilities, rights, and privileges.
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I don't see how the terms Christian and feminist are incompatible when understood in that way.
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I don't see how they are either. If you twist the gospel, you can twist feminism, and you wind up with something that is perfectly compatible.
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She says, unfortunately, some Christians have given secular feminists the impression that Christianity is bad news for women rather than good news.
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As a result, many feminists think Christianity has nothing to say to them, even though many have a deep spiritual longing and would be open to what
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Christian feminism is all about. We lose an important opportunity when we fail to reach out with a healing message of love to women who have been deeply wounded by misinterpretations and misapplications of scripture and hurt by attitudes of churches.
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The reason some Christians consider feminism to be incompatible with Christianity is that they have interpreted the
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Bible as teaching a prescribed social order that restricts women to a specific role, a role that limits what they can do or be and requires subordination to male dominance, no matter what a woman's interests or abilities or sense of God's calling may be.
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Let me read that last part there. In other words, she's saying that women are required to be subordinate to a male hierarchy.
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She says, no matter what a woman's interests, abilities, or sense of God's calling may be.
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Another way of saying that would be what? No matter what she wants, no matter how she's gifted, and no matter what she thinks
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God might want her to do. What I talked about this morning, that inner sense of calling. You know, sometimes a guy will say, how do
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I know if I'm called to the ministry? And we'll go through what it means to be a pastor and a teacher and an elder, and then we talk about the subjective inner call.
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You have to want to be it, and it talks about that in 1 Timothy chapter 3. But the question is, if a woman has that inner call, what about that?
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What's she supposed to do? What's that? Hang up on the inner call.
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I have a couple of questions for you. Are women lessened? Are they made less important?
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Are they not as significant as men because they are called to submit to their husbands?
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I hear a no. Well, why not? Difference in roles does not mean inequality, okay?
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Any other ideas? Yes. They're actually fulfilled when they submit to what
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God's Word said. I mean, I think of the times where an uncomfortable situation has come along and, you know, my wife really doesn't want to handle it, and so I, like a good husband, reluctantly do it.
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And she almost always says, you know, something in the effect of, you know, thank you for not making me do that or protecting me from that or whatever, you know, because there is a sense where it's kind of nice to have a protector, you know, that's kind of what women want.
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If you don't protect them, they don't like that very much. Second question.
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Are women lessened? Are they less important because there are restrictions placed upon them?
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Like this morning where we talked about women cannot teach, they cannot exercise authority. Does that diminish women, particularly in the sight of God?
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And, you know, a few things came to mind. Let's open up our Bibles to Isaiah 48, 16, and this is a verse that I would like everybody to at least know where it is, and I'll tell you how
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I remember it. Isaiah 48, 16, and everybody knows,
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I'm sure, that if you divide 48 by 16, you get what? Three, is correct.
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For those of you who were breaking out your slide rules, not good. Because this passage talks about the
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Trinity, and I don't know if any of you were here the night I was ordained, but, you know,
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I was asked in an odd way about this thing that I'm about to talk to here, and I just thought, boy,
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I just don't want to go down this road because it is a deep theological issue. But Isaiah 48, 16 says this, draw near to me, and by the way, if you read this in context, you'll see that this is the pre -incarnate
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Jesus Christ saying this, draw near to me, hear this, from the beginning I have not spoken in secret.
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From the time it came to be, I have been there. And now the Lord God has sent me and, and His Spirit.
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And the reason I say 48 divided by 16 is because this speaks of the Trinity, so three, and I like to go, you know, this is the,
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I think, the best example of the Trinity in the Old Testament. I don't like to use Genesis, let us, because I don't think that has to do with plurality.
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I think it has to do with majesty. But so, in that verse,
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Isaiah 48, 16, the Lord God is doing what? The Father is doing what?
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Sending the Son and the Spirit. Well, who is He to do that? Aren't they equally
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God? Isn't that demeaning to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? I mean, this is, this is the same kind of mentality.
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You just go, well, aren't they all equal? Nobody should be above anybody else. It's the reality.
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Yes, they are equal, but they have different rules, different functions. Also reminded of this, you know, when we just get this idea, and I just kind of,
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I am boggled in my mind at the state of American Christianity, not only on this issue, but if it's congregational ruling, you just think, well, where, you know, where are you all going, or where am
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I going with this? The church is not about, we are all equal, but we all have different functions.
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That is what the church is all about, and we need to submit to leadership. Life is about learning where you fit in in things.
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You know, it would be, it would be really something if while I was on the sheriff's department, I just showed up for work one day and just told the captain what to do.
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I, that, you know, he's like three steps above me, and he'd say, well, thank you very much, Steve, but pipe down and get to work.
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We, we, we need to understand where we belong, and I can think of no better example than the
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Lord Himself. In John 6, 38, He says this, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.
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The Father sent Him, we saw in Isaiah 48, 16, and Jesus says,
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I didn't come to do my own will. I didn't come here to exercise what I want to do. I came here to do the will of the
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Father. You just go, well, wait a minute.
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What, what about you? What about your aspirations? You know, isn't that suppressing?
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What, what about your freedom? This, this idea of, you know, everybody having the same,
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I mean, imagine what kind of church would you have if we all showed up on a Sunday morning and, you know, 300 people said,
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I'd like to preach this morning. Well, you'd have a dead church, but you'd also have one of confusion.
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And we'll get into this a little bit later. I think it's fascinating that the proponents of women teaching like to go to 1
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Corinthians, and they like to try to prove their point from 1 Corinthians. And the reason I find that so interesting is because 1
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Corinthians was a church of chaos. I mean, it was crackers. They had all kinds of stuff going on.
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And that's the, you know, that's the passages that you want to seize and hold on to. This man here identifies himself as pastor.
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So he has some arguments here, and I want to deal with these. Talking about why women,
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I mean, he says that women should be pastors. This first one's so easy.
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Let's see, true or false? There is not one scripture in the Bible that forbids women from preaching.
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That's a tough one. Do I hear any, hear any trues there? And I, so I wrote, is he right?
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Well, the answer is yes, he is right. Because there's more than one. He said there is not one scripture, and he's right.
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There's more than one. We read 1 Timothy 2 .12
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this morning. We went through it. I'll just read it briefly. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.
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Rather, she is to remain quiet. Seems harsh, but again, as I said this morning, he ties it into the fall.
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Eve fell first. She was deceived. This is part of the reality of the fall.
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Let's see another verse. I think I read this this morning also, 1 Corinthians 14, 34, 35. And this is just, this drives me nuts because a little bit earlier in this chapter, they like to point to, you know, women prophesying and praying and all that stuff, and we'll get to that.
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But look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, 34, and 35. He says, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission as the law also says.
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If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
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But we should have women preachers. They should be up teaching, even though it's shameful. Finally, my third one,
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I mean, I'm sure I could locate many more, but how about this one, 1 Timothy 3, 2. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.
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The husband of one wife, sober -minded, self -controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.
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Think that all, you know, are you able to teach? If the Bible says you cannot teach, no, I don't think you can.
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And can you be the husband of one wife if you're a woman? Again, I say, even though this is Massachusetts, no, you may not be.
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He goes on, he says, but on the contrary, there are many verses that encourage both men and women to preach the gospel.
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Are we talking about the same thing? Are we talking about the same thing when we say,
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God wants you to be a pastor, and God wants you to preach the gospel? Is that the same thing?
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I don't think so. The Great Commission, when we think about that, everyone is to go and preach the gospel, that's not the issue.
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The issue is, who is to teach within the church? He says, his second true or false, the
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Bible teaches that God is not a respecter of persons. That part's true, but keep reading.
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And he will use any and all who will yield to him, regardless of race, age, or sex.
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I have a little problem with that. What do you think an issue would be with that statement?
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And he will use any and all who will yield to him, regardless of race, age, or sex. I had a seminary professor who said that,
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I have no reason to doubt him, I mentioned him before, that he was saved at the age of five. Now, can you just imagine, little
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Timmy this morning is going to be our preacher. He just recently was saved, he's five years old, but God is going to use him.
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He's willing to yield himself, and here he is, little Timmy, that'd be ridiculous. And yet, he says,
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I mean, without qualification, regardless of race, age, or sex, I agree with the race, I think that has nothing to do with it.
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Age, maybe, I mean, 1 Timothy 3 does talk about not being a new convert.
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I mean, you would wanna have somebody up in the pulpit who has some seasoning. Who knows a little something.
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Galatians 3 .28, he appeals to. We talked about that this morning. Neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ.
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Now, I ask the question, is this passage teaching that anyone can be a preacher?
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Galatians 3. And obviously not, is the answer given 1 Timothy 1, or 1
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Timothy 2 and 3. How about, you know, how about this for a person to preach?
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You know, anybody, he says, anyone who's willing to yield. How about somebody who's saved but struggling with alcohol or drugs?
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Somebody who's saved but was recently arrested for being in a fight. And if he said, well, no, and I'd say, well, why not?
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After all, ye are one in Christ. You are neither a new believer, a drunkard, or prognatious.
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You are all equal in Christ. That's not what the passage is all about, Galatians 3 .28.
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Let's just, let's read that again. We read it this morning, but I want to read that because I have some comments from John Stott and his commentary.
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And he says, Galatians 3, starting in verse 23, Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
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So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
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But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. This is all about freedom from the law.
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For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
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This just reminds me of Ephesians 2. After Paul gets done talking about how we are saved, he goes on to say, listen, here's the great mystery.
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How were the Jews and the Gentiles ever going to get together? Because they had this enmity between them that separated them called the law.
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They were divided by the law. And in Christ, the law has been put aside so that now there are
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Jews and Gentiles together in one body, in the body of Christ. Listen to what Stott says about Galatians 3.
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And I thought this was on the mark here. A word of caution must be added. This great statement of verse 28 does not actually mean that racial, social, and sexual distinctions are actually obliterated.
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Christians are not literally colorblind so that they do not notice whether a person's skin is black, brown, yellow, or white.
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You still see that. Nor are they unaware of the cultural and educational background from which people come.
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Nor do they ignore a person's sex, treating a woman as if she were a man or a man as if he were a woman.
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Of course, every person belongs to a certain race and nation, has been nurtured in a particular culture, and is either male or female.
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When we say that Christ has abolished these distinctions, we mean that they do not, or we do not mean that they do not exist, but they do not matter.
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They don't keep us apart. They are still there.
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These distinctions are, but they no longer create any barriers to fellowship. We recognize each other as equals, brothers and sisters in Christ.
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By the grace of God, we would resist the temptation to despise one another or patronize one another, for we know ourselves to be all one person in Christ Jesus.
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When we think about the evils that have been done in the history of this country, when we think about segregation and the effects of that still, white churches and black churches, and you just go, that's where this belongs.
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That's where Galatians 3 belongs. It's saying, look, you have no business having a church that is all for this ethnicity or that ethnicity.
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Makes about as much sense as having an all -male church or an all -female church. We're all equal.
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That is, we're at the foot of the cross. We are all on equal ground. That doesn't mean that we all have the exact same roles.
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Not at all. Now, as to this pastor's reference to Acts 10 .34,
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that God is no respecter of persons, well, that's true, but what's the context? The context is
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Cornelius, a centurion, a Gentile, and it has nothing to do with teaching or God -given roles.
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Peter's just saying that God is no respecter of persons, meaning he knows that this Gentile man is just as open to the gospel as anyone else is.
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He goes on, I mean, he's got example after example. I mean, the biggest thing you can do when you're dealing with someone who's teaching some new kind of doctrine or something that seems wrong to you, put these verses in context.
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I'm not calling this man a cultist. I don't know his heart. I don't know that much about him other than what he's written here, but here's what
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I know from my many years of being in the Mormon church is that they can make themselves seem very orthodox by cutting a verse out of this context and out of that context, and eventually you can make the
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Bible say, you know, people say that, unbelievers love to say that. You can make the Bible say whatever you want. Well, you can if you take one verse here and one verse there.
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You know, you wind up with things like what you do, do quickly, and you can apply that to anything, you know. But he goes on and he says,
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Moses said in Numbers 11, 29, would, now this is to prove again that women should be preachers.
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He says, would God that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them?
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And he goes, see, there you go right there. That's proof that Moses wanted all the women to be prophets and to be teachers, to have the
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God's spirit upon them. One commentator says this,
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Moses' resonant response, in other words, his enthusiastic response to Joshua contrasts considerably with that of his earlier expressions of complaint and despair.
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Instead of condoning his servants' zeal in defending his, Moses' position of authority,
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Moses commends the Lord's movement among the two elders and expresses the desire that all people would be so endowed with his spirit.
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In other words, he's saying, look, he says, you wanna rebuke these two men, and I haven't gone through the context for you, but he says, you wanna rebuke these two men?
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He says, I'm happy. He says, I wish that everybody was this zealous for doing the work of the
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Lord. That's his point, and it's not that, you know, specifically women should teach.
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He never said that. And he goes on to say this, this pastor does.
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He says, the crying need of this hour is for more laborers, that is, more people who are willing to go out and preach the gospel.
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Now, listen, it is a trick of the enemy of Satan to try to downrate thousands of faithful laborers just because they were born females.
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What's wrong with that thinking? I mean, this goes right back to the passage we were talking about this morning, because I just,
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I noted to myself, I said, no, it is a trick of the enemy to think that we, God's church, can ignore his word, that we can distort it, that we can just take a clear teaching that says, you know, a woman shouldn't be a pastor, a woman shouldn't be teaching men, a woman shouldn't be exercising authority in the church, and we can just say, you know what?
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That's not what it means. It can't possibly mean that. When we think about, we didn't go through the exact fall where the serpent comes to,
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Satan comes to Eve, but what did both of them do? Satan distorted the word of God, and then what did
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Eve do? Let's look at it. Let's go back to Genesis chapter three, verse one.
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Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He's pretty shifty.
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Now, listen, Satan says this to the woman. Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
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Well, did he say that? Is that what God said? Is that what
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God said? No. He said what? You can eat of any tree in the garden except one, right?
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Now, look what Eve does. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.
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Fine. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. She just added that on.
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But the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And that's what the enemy does.
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The enemy, Satan, wants us to distort the word just like he did with Eve right there.
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Let's see. Go on to the Great Commission. They go for that. Try to expand that.
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Here's another one. See true or false. Let's see if I can phrase it in that way. It is an undeniable fact that God has called and anointed thousands of women to preach the gospel.
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True or false? I don't know about the anointed part, but let's go with the called thing.
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Yeah, I can go for that. But now listen. The full gospel organizations have hundreds of licensed and ordained women who are preaching, teaching, evangelizing, pastoring, and doing missions work with the signs following their ministry.
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God is using them for the salvation of the lost, deliverance from sin, gifts of the spirit, and infilling of the
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Holy Spirit. I think it's great that women are out preaching the gospel.
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Awesome. Unsaved people need to hear the gospel. But the rest of this is just not right.
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What does he base it on? What, in essence, what's he saying? He's saying, look, there are thousands of women out there who are fully ordained, who are preaching, teaching, and they're having great response.
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He's saying, experience what has really happened in the world trumps whatever scripture says.
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That's what he's saying. We've gone over this passage a number of times, and it's one that I think is just invaluable in this day and age where people say, well, you know what,
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I know what the Bible says, but I know what works. My experience shows me that X is true, whether the
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Bible says it or not. 2 Peter 1, verses 16 to 21, I'm just going to read this.
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For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking there of the transfiguration. But we,
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Peter, talking in kind of the we of trying to shove off the attention onto him or from himself, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
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Peter was there. For when he received honor and glory from God the
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Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory from God the Father, this is my beloved son with whom
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I am well pleased. Verse 18, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
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19, and we have something more sure, more sure than what? More sure than that experience of being there on the
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Mount of Transfiguration. And what is that more sure thing? The prophetic word to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.
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He says, listen, I had the greatest experience ever. No one could top, you know, it is like, and I think we've mentioned this before, but it's this idea, you know, if you wanna stop all conversation, you know, you basically have to have been an astronaut that went to the moon.
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Nobody can top that, you know? So it's like, hey, I won a, you know, a gaming tournament.
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And somebody says, well, I walked on the moon. Well, you can't top that, you know? I mean, it's just, it's impossible. And in this case,
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Peter says, listen, I was there on the Mount of Transfiguration. You cannot possibly have had a better experience or a more insightful experience than I had.
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And yet he says, pay attention to the prophetic word. Pay attention to the
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Bible. That's where you need to focus. Why? Verse 20, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
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They can't make it up. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. It is the more sure word. This pastor goes on to say, the
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Bible says, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. And then he says, and may we be reminded of the scripture in Acts 539, if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest happily ye be found to even fight against God.
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And you know what? I mean, to me, those are the sort of scriptures. When people are using that sort of thing, I wrote, and I'll just say it, that this is the last refuge of scoundrels, scallywags, and the biblically desperate.
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They have no verse, no passage that will support their theory, so they bring out these verses.
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In the context, in Acts 5, the apostles were on trial for preaching
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Christ. Peter, let's turn there. Acts 5, starting in verse 33. They're on trial for preaching
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Christ. They're facing the Jewish authorities. And Peter is just finishing their defense, which really, if he was a defense attorney, somebody would fire him.
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It'd be like, be quiet, you're killing us, Peter. In fact, he says that we're gonna keep on preaching.
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We can't listen to you, we have to listen to God. God is the higher authority. And listen to verse 33.
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When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them, the apostles.
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But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.
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Get the apostles out of here. Get these guys out of here. I wanna talk to you guys. The tribunal, as it were.
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Verse 35, and he said to them, men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days, the
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Judas rode up, claiming to be somebody. And a number of men, about 400, joined him.
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He was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him,
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Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished and all who followed him were scattered.
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Now there's he saying, look, we've seen these kind of Messiah figures come and go. You know, they get a little following and then it dies out and you guys are just, you're worried about nothing.
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Verse 38, so in this present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone.
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For this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail just as all the other ones have.
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But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing
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God. That is nothing like what he's saying here. Nothing at all.
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How can you be opposing God by upholding his word? Let's keep reading here. So they took his advice, this council did.
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And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
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Now I noticed he doesn't say, watch out, you might be opposing God. And by the way, now we have to beat you. He doesn't say that.
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They just, they like what they like. They pick and choose these little pieces. And again,
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I would ask, does this context have anything to do with women preachers? Does it have anything to do with women teaching in the church?
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And the answer is no. And he says, when someone says,
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God does not call women to preach, it is like saying that God does not baptize with the Holy Spirit today.
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We know better because we have witnessed and experienced it with our own ears and eyes. How many of you have ever seen people get baptized by the
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Holy Spirit or what people refer to as baptized by the Holy Spirit? It can get pretty wild.
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And I don't, you know, I don't know how you verify something is the Holy Spirit and something is not.
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But I mean, I've seen people do things, you know, under the Holy Spirit, allegedly, that I would not want to do.
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And it's scary more than anything else. But certainly it is not, again, you know, experience trumps the
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Bible occurring to these people. After all, who are you gonna believe? Scripture, your lying ears and eyes.
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I mean, it really is that absurd. And he says, I would be afraid to condemn women preachers lest I would be found fighting against God and be committing.
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Well, again, that passage he quoted had nothing to do with that. Number, well, he's got another one.
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Women preachers are a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and another sign of Christ's soon return to earth. And he cites
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Acts 2, 17 and 18. I'm not even gonna go through that because I want to get to some other things in the sake of time.
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But if you look at Acts 2, verses 17 to 20, and you see phrases like this, and in the last days it shall be.
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And then in verse 20, before the day of the Lord comes, well, the day of the Lord refers to judgment, final judgment.
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He wants to put this out as an example of instruction on women teaching.
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And it has nothing to do with women teaching in the church. Another one of his, the
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Bible declares that women will prophesy. And he cites 1 Corinthians 11, 5. MacArthur says this.
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Let me just read what he says or quotes the scripture. For every woman that prayeth or prophesieth.
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And then he stops there at King James. MacArthur says this. In other words, it is only necessary to combine the relevant passages to get the composite truth.
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In other words, you have to look at the context to get this. Women may pray and prophesy within the boundaries of God's revelation and with a proper sense of submission.
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And it is critical that their deportment, their behavior in so doing reflects God's order.
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Certainly they must not appear rebellious against God's will. Paul's point in verses four and five is that whenever and wherever it is appropriate for men and women to pray or prophesy, they should do so with proper distinction between male and female.
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Every man should speak to or for the Lord clearly as a man and every woman should speak to or for the
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Lord clearly as a woman. God does not want the distinction to be blurred.
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And it was blurred in the Corinthian church. And that's the whole point is, again, they wanna go back to the
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Corinthian church. The Corinthian church was doing 98 % of the stuff wrong. They weren't doing church discipline.
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If unbelievers came in, they would have thought it was chaotic because they had no order, no structure. People were speaking out of turn.
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It was absolute anarchy. Another one of his complaints is that God called and used women preachers in the
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Old Testament. And he gives some examples. And I'm just gonna summarize it here.
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I mean, I have a lot of stuff I could read here, but unusual Old Testament cases do not prove or negate clear
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New Testament instruction. In fact, I have a whole deal here from MacArthur where he goes through case by case and says, those
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Old Testament cases basically prove nothing. Another one,
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God called and used women preachers in the New Testament. Priscilla assisted Paul in his revival meeting and even taught
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Apollos in the way of the Lord more perfectly, which is true to an extent.
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Here's what we know about Priscilla and Aquila, that they, in Acts 18, verse 26, that he, talking about Apollos, Apollos began to speak boldly in the synagogue.
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But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
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And when he wished to cross, when he left town, in other words, they took him into their home and they helped him because he didn't even know, it would say in verse 25, he only knew about the baptism of John.
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So he was still working under a bit of an old theological regime as it were.
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So all we know about Priscilla and Aquila was that they were married and that they took this man in there. And based on what
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I've read, that Priscilla would be the more prominent, that she had maybe some royalty or that she was well -known and wealthy.
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But it doesn't say anything there about precisely who did what, we have no idea.
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But what we do know without question is that Priscilla never got into the pulpit and taught in church.
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We know that for a fact. Let's see, this is interesting.
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And then I have a few points of application, but here's this ran in the Los Angeles Times. This is by Dr.
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Rick McClatchy. And he's responding to something that Paige Patterson wrote. And he says, the proposed revision to the
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Baptist faith and message states, the office of the pastor is limited to men. Current Southern Baptist president,
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Paige Patterson, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, this is a statement from Southern Baptists that our positions and our perspectives are not going to be dictated by culture.
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So I'm sorry, he didn't write this in the LA Times. This is a response to something that appeared in the LA Times. He says, he quotes
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Paige Patterson as saying that we're not gonna be influenced by the culture. We're going to take our stand on women not being pastors by scripture alone.
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And he says, if we stand alone, we stand alone. So this man says, there you have it.
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Those who believe the Bible reject women pastors and those who give in to culture accept women pastors.
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And when you stop right there, you go perfect. His next sentence though, is such thinking as pompous poppycock.
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You get that two Ps there, which is very Baptistic. Patterson should have said,
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Paige Patterson should have said, I believe the Bible teaches that a woman should not serve as pastor. In other words, if it was just his own opinion, that would have been okay.
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And then he goes on to talk about why he thinks it's okay. And he gives this long list of how
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Jesus dealt radically with women, which is true. He dealt with them in a whole different way than the culture did.
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The Greek culture had a very low view of women. Jesus though, was so contrary to that.
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Judaism had a very low view of women, but Jesus was contrary to all that. He talked in public to women.
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He taught women about religion in public forums and in private forums. He gave women an active role in his ministry.
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And then he says, he has all these different things he says, but I just wanna summarize.
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He says, coupled with these examples of women in ministry, there are three basic theological truths, which seem to indicate women should be involved in all aspects of church life, including the ministry.
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First, there is no indication that any spiritual gift was limited to men. That's what we call an argument from silence.
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In other words, it doesn't say that only men could be gifted as teachers, therefore women could be, and so they should be teachers within the church.
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Second, all of God's people were called his priests without any hierarchy of males.
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It's true, but it doesn't really explain anything. Third, all human distinctions were moved in Christ who united them,
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Galatians three. Again, you know, again, that passage just gets brutalized.
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He goes on and he's talking about 1 Corinthians 14, I'm just gonna go really fast. 1 Corinthians 14, about women remaining silent in churches.
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This is interesting, his comment here, he says, now listen, he says, this passage is hard to harmonize with the rest of the
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New Testament where we see women taking an active role in the church. It's really hard to harmonize when it says they should remain silent in the churches and he wants to hold out hope that they should be teaching in the church.
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That makes it really hard, it's brutal. And he goes on to say the best explanation is that Paul's advice here, it's advice in 1
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Corinthians 14. His advice here is only temporary in nature. The thinking of this view goes along this line, verses 34 and 35 are part of a larger section.
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I agree with that, but he goes on to say this, apparently the women at Corinth were the main ones who were causing disorder in the church worship service.
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So therefore we should make them teachers, right? So Paul made a temporary rule for this bad situation.
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Until the church got back on its feet, functioning correctly, the women were to keep silent in worship. He compares it then to martial law.
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You know, Paul was declaring martial law in essence, to just keep the women under control for a little while until the church kind of got its act together.
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Well, there's a real problem. The problem is this, that if we looked at 1
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Corinthians, let's just go there, 1 Corinthians 13 or 14. I mean, this guy's a doctor, he has a lot more education than I do.
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I'm employing the plumber's hermeneutic with just a twist of Greek, if you will.
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1 Corinthians 14. And it is, right.
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He says, the women should keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission as the law also says.
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Now, when it says should keep silent, here's this man's problem. The problem is that Greek verb is a present active imperative.
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In other words, it is a command with ongoing permanent force, not some kind of temporary ceasefire.
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I mean, there are a lot of ways Paul could have said this. He said, hey, he could have said, hey, until you Corinthians kind of put things in order,
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I don't want the women teaching. They're causing a lot of trouble. He doesn't say that. He says without qualification that the women should keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak.
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That is an ongoing command. In describing the passage that we talked about this morning, 1
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Timothy 2, verses 11 and 12. He says, the question must be asked, why did
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Paul make such a command? The rationale for this command is found in a church crisis caused by false teaching.
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And as I've said, the church at Ephesus had its problems with false teaching. Paul makes it very plain in chapter one.
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Where Timothy was working was an area plagued by false teaching. And he says, see 1 Timothy chapter one, verses three to seven.
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I'm with him 100 % right there. Paul wanted Timothy to combat these false teachers. Absolutely.
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Now I believe these false teachers had made inroads into the churches, listen, through the women, especially the younger women.
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That'd be why at the end of chapter one, and I won't review all this, but that'd be why Paul specifically names
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Alexander and Hymenaeus. No, no, no, they're not women, they're men.
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There's no indication that there were false teachers who were women. He just wants to import that in here because he has to find some rationale for it.
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He says, Paul tells these women in this church, where Timothy is, where Timothy is working, to keep silent and not to teach in order to stop the spreading of false doctrine.
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Really? Is that what it says? And listen, it gets even worse.
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Paul says in the verses immediately following, for Adam was formed first, then Eve, and then Adam was not the one deceived, it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
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Paul evidently wanted the women of the church, where Timothy was working, to keep silent because he was afraid they would deceive someone else, as Eve did.
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This is what we call, you know, this is the hermeneutic of making it up as you go along. He goes on to say, he says, the church must recognize the spirit's leadership and not develop rules which restrict the spirit.
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Meaning, if women are gifted, we need to recognize that. And just horrific.
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Just some highlights from things I stole from MacArthur here. He says, talking about the Old Testament, and then we'll get to the
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New Testament, but talking about women and men, that they were always the same before God. He says, they had the same responsibilities as men in the
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Old Testament to obey God's law. They had the same protection as men. Penalties given for crimes against women are the same as those for crimes against men.
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They took the same vows as men. Women could even take the Nazarite vow. I remember Samson's mom was under a
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Nazarite vow. They had the same access to God as men did, but they did not serve as leaders.
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There were no queens, either in Israel or Judah. While it is true that Deborah served as a judge, her case was unique.
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And in fact, she didn't exert as much authority as we might've thought because she needed Barak to do the military aspects of things for her.
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But he says, there is no mention of women priests in the Old Testament. No woman wrote any portion of the Old Testament.
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And women had no ongoing prophetic ministry. No woman in the Old Testament had a prolonged prophetic ministry, such as that of Elisha or Elijah.
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None, not one of them. The Old New Testament, like the Old, teaches the spiritual equality and differing roles of the sexes.
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And that's what we were talking about this morning, differing roles. New Testament, they had the same responsibilities as men.
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All the commands, promises, and blessings of the New Testament are given equally to men and women. They had the same access to Jesus as the men did.
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Just concluding here, he says, there is no New Testament record of a woman apostle, pastor, evangelist, or elder.
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Nowhere in the New Testament does a woman preach any sermon. While the daughters of Philip are said to have prophesied, their role is not defined.
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We don't know what they did. There is no reason to assume they had an ongoing prophetic ministry or that they prophesied during the church service.
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Now let's talk about some practical implications of male headship.
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We've talked a lot about roles. I just wanna say some things about why this is so important, why this is such an important topic, not just within the church where it is important.
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And I mentioned this morning, one of the things about the 20th century church, you track back and you look at some of the denominations that were founded and especially those founded by women,
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Seventh -day Adventist, Four Square Church, whatever. You look at where they are doctrinally and you just shake your head because it's a disaster.
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Women are not supposed to be teachers. But within the home, husband is the head of the wife.
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Ephesians 5 says, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself its savior.
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Nobody complains that we have Christ as our head, but somehow the idea of husband being the head of the wife is a problem.
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Verse 24, now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Why? Because the husbands are better?
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No, because they have a different role. And actually, the truth is what? The husbands are going to be held to a stricter standard.
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They've got more accountability. In fact, I would say to the husbands tonight that you have a very strong accountability.
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You won't be judged for the sin of your wife, the sin of your kids, but you will be judged for what you do in response to it.
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First Timothy 3 .5 says, if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
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Talking about the responsibilities of being an elder, but you have to manage your own household.
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And what does that mean? Practically, what does it mean? It means you have to be loving toward your wife. I mentioned protecting her from anything that scares her.
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Sometimes it's as silly as a spider, but it could be a lot of things. Could be the finances, could be yard work, wild animals, whatever.
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Your role as a husband is to protect her. You also need to be attentive.
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In 1 Peter, it would give us the idea of learning about our wives, of being students of them.
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You also need to take her counsel. Sometimes it's true. Wives have good ideas.
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But sometimes the guys can be wrong. It happens. I know, it's true.
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Shocking, but true. Men make mistakes. I don't know what to say.
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What else about running your household? Well, you must be a father to your children. What does that mean?
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You know, being a father to your children. It's a great responsibility, and I think one that is really overlooked a lot of times.
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What does it mean to be a father? You need to teach your children. I can remember just sitting at the dining room table and taking out things as simple as, you know, now that's a good question by R .C.
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Sproul and just reading that. And my kids would get so tired about hearing about Romans 9. I'd say, where does it talk about in the
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Bible? And they'd always go, you know, they'd get to the point where they'd just go, Romans 9? You know, it's a good answer.
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I'd say, good answer, but wrong. You know, and then move on. But you need to be teaching your kids.
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What are they going to learn? You know, so often I think it's just left to the moms to just deal with all this stuff.
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And that's really not a burden that they should have alone. Fathers are responsible for what goes on inside their house.
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Not only teach them, but interact with them, talk to them, find out what they're doing, find out what they like. You know, it's amazing to me that, you know, kids will be 10, 11, 12, 15 years old, and their fathers have absolutely no idea what they want to do.
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And in particular, with respect to girls, they need to date them. There should be no one in the world that your daughter loves more than you.
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Take them out. Let them know that you're there to protect them until the day you give them away in marriage.
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And that is a very special day. You need to shepherd your children, discipline them.
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Shield them, protect them. I think so many issues, you know, within the church at large can be solved with just a little bit of husbands loving their wives like Christ loved the church, and really looking after their kids being involved in their children's lives.
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We have a lot of problems at the church, not a ton, but we have our fair share of them.
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And I think so many of them relate back to the guys really maybe even knowing what to do, but just not doing it.
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We need our guys to step up and you say, what does this have to do with feminism? Because I just think, you know, somewhere along the way, not only the church at large, but some of us have kind of lost our way and figure the wives are kind of in charge and we're just along for the ride.
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It's one thing to say, you know, women can't be teachers, women can't be preachers, but it's another thing to say, men, you need to be men in your homes.
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You need to be fathers, you need to be husbands, and that isn't a passive thing. You know, being a father just doesn't happen.
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It's something you are involved in. Anyway, we need to pray, but I'd be happy to take questions afterwards and we can talk for a while.
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Father, we thank you for your word. We just are saddened really when we see so many assaults on it by men and women, some of whom
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I sure love you, but are just confused and have received errant teaching, ignoring the very plain truths that are presented, that they might cling to doctrines that lead nowhere, that ultimately will lead away from the truth, that will lead away from any kind of sense of peace and harmony and love within the home.
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Lord, I would pray for the churches even here in New England. I just am amazed when I read some of the writings that are done promoting this idea of evangelical feminism, women in the pulpits and women teaching and leading.
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And what's wrong with that? And it has really gotten to the point where people who call themselves
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Christians, Lord, it's just a very sad day.
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Father, would you bring about a conviction among your people, not just here at Bethlehem Bible Church, but throughout
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New England, throughout this country, that we might clearly see a dividing line, as it were, between those who name the name of Christ and seek to honor you in all that they do, and those who name the name of Christ only and want nothing to do with you, because their hearts are far from you.
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Father, would you keep us faithful to your word? It is so easy for us to be pulled away, to want to cave in, to want to be popular.
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Let us not give in to that. Father, more than anything else, we thank you for your son,
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Jesus Christ, for forgiveness of all the sins that we've committed, many as they may be.
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Lord, would you cause us to live in light of your mercy and your grace to us? In Christ's name we pray, amen.