How's Your Core (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

4 views

0 comments

Wrong Views On The Sovereignty Of God (part 3)

00:01
Our great God, we thank you this morning for all the blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus.
00:08
Not only did he die for our sins, but he rose for our justification.
00:16
Father, he lived the life that we should live, and died the death that we deserve. Father, we praise you for that, and thank you for causing us to believe.
00:26
Thank you for sealing us with your Spirit. Lord, we pray that this morning, as we look to your
00:32
Word, we would be encouraged to think rightly, to stay focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to try to push other things out of our way as we think about the race that is before us.
00:49
We pray for these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're going to continue this morning, but obviously
00:55
I was a little concerned, because any time you have a 20 -question quiz, and you get through half of them in one thing, you have to think to yourself, well, wait a minute, what if I finish, and we've got, like, five extra minutes this morning?
01:07
So we have bonus questions! Woo -hoo! What would it be without bonus questions?
01:16
And the bonus questions, of course, will be worth double. So, you want to make sure you get those.
01:22
I heard somebody talking in the back, and I won't name any names, but his name is Dan Rutherford. And he mentioned one word, and I wanted to start with that.
01:33
And the word is, of course, Ukraine. And you say, why Ukraine? I got an email message, or not an email message, a
01:42
Facebook Messenger message yesterday, and I was talking with Janet about it. Somebody sent me, and I get these, this
01:50
Facebook friend sends them every so often, these prophecy updates. And here's this pastor sitting down.
01:58
It's obviously a Sunday evening, and he is going to start waxing eloquent about Ukraine, and where this whole situation fits into the end times.
02:11
Well, I wrote back, and I said, you know, that's really interesting. I said, but, you know, the problem
02:17
I have is most Christians, and we're going to, and this is my point here, most Christians can't even identify basic doctrines.
02:25
But they want to spend, this update was an hour and a half. And she said, and this is the important part.
02:34
She said, well, I just like to keep it simple. Confess with your mouth Jesus is
02:39
Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, right? Confess with your mouth.
02:45
Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And what? You should be saved. And she said, 25 % of the
02:54
Bible is prophecy. And if we want to be Christ -like, we need to study prophecy, so we can understand what
03:01
God has said, so that we can understand what's coming. To which
03:08
I said, well, I won't tell you quite yet, but I'll just put it this way. Because I don't want to ruin the bonus questions.
03:17
I'll put it this way. That I think there is a focus, and we talk about this often. There's a focus on trying to figure out when the end's coming.
03:25
And guess what? When the end's coming, I can promise you this. You will know, right?
03:34
Whether it's the rapture and we all go up instantly, or whether the Lord just returns and instantly judges the earth, whichever view you hold, you will know.
03:43
There won't be any doubt in your mind. So the emphasis, ethical eschatology, rather than, you know, without getting political, trying to sort out what the political and world situation tea leaves are.
04:03
There's actually danger in that. What did I do? I think I threw out, what did
04:10
I do? I threw out one of my pages.
04:16
Yeah, the second page of my notes, which is exactly where we're going to be. But I'll just start anyway.
04:22
We can start with a review. I'm not even going to go to number one. Well, I'll just mention it.
04:28
Why does BBC not hold a Super Bowl service? Well, it's basically because that's not our philosophy of ministry.
04:39
What we want to do is teach Christ. Number two, true or false, the concept of dogma was created by Catholics and therefore must be rejected.
04:50
False. I mean, I find it interesting because a lot of things are getting put under that category these days.
04:56
You know, natural theology, the idea that we can learn anything from nature.
05:02
Well, that must be rejected because it comes from Roman Catholicism. We're like, okay, is that true?
05:09
I don't really think it is true. But a lot of things are getting kind of lumped into that.
05:14
And I go, well, you know, if you want to, some people would say the Trinity comes from Roman Catholicism.
05:19
I don't agree with that. But some people say that. And so therefore, you know, then what? Yeah. Thank you.
05:27
It's pretty bad when you throw away your own notes. They're so bad. Perfect.
05:41
Okay. Number three. True or false, rigid rules of dogma can actually cause someone to be a heretic.
05:48
False. You know, what is it that causes you to be a heretic? It's heretical views.
05:54
Not, you know, orthodoxy doesn't make somebody a heretic. One of the dangers of dogma, number four, we might be sincere but sincerely wrong.
06:02
I think that is a danger. Dogma can make us seem mean. I think that's probably true, too.
06:10
As we get more and more revelation about end times, we might be tempted to change our position. That's false.
06:15
So, you know, if you said A or B, you're okay. Number five, true or false, too much dogma might lead to schism.
06:21
Similar to number three. And the answer we talked about last week, why is that false?
06:27
It's false, by the way. And why is it false? Because truth or doctrine, getting away from the word dogma, leads to unity.
06:36
We read Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 to 16. Pastor Mike preached that last week.
06:41
And ultimately, here's the point. If Christ gives gifts to the church, and he does, men throughout the ages who discover, discover, who establish truth from scripture, right, then we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
06:57
And as we study doctrine, as we study truth, as we study the word, as we get a better grasp of what the
07:03
Bible says, are we more unified or less unified? And the answer is, more unified.
07:10
That's what the Bible says. Rather than speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.
07:25
When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. In other words, this organism we call the body of Christ works better as we study, as we grow in truth.
07:37
Why? Because truth refines us. Truth humbles us. And truth brings us together, doesn't divide us.
07:46
True or false, the more firmly we understand dogma, doctrine, the more arrogant we are likely to be false. I mean,
07:52
I don't know that you can point to anybody in scripture other than the Lord himself who was ultimately more humble.
08:00
And I cited Ephesians 4, 1 to 3, where Paul says in verse 2, and with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit of the bond of peace.
08:16
And number seven, how many of these must one believe to be a Christian? I mean, you know, my friend wanted to just boil it down to this.
08:24
Confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you shall be saved.
08:29
True, but who is Jesus? And we have a list of things there.
08:35
What do you have to believe? God is eternal. Man is sinful. Jesus was born of a virgin. I think these are all pretty important.
08:40
We discussed whether somebody could know that. Well, okay, if they read the Bible, they would know that. Jesus was innocent, sin -free.
08:49
Jesus died for the sins of all believers. And Roman Catholics, you don't have to believe that.
08:55
F is definitely false. Number eight, true or false. Providence can be defined as karma.
09:01
Chance or luck, false. You know, if you want to sing along with instant karma, that's okay.
09:08
Just don't sing it in a worship setting. Number nine, true or false.
09:13
The fact that many religions contain some truth is helpful when evangelizing. True, because it gives you what some say, and I hate this phrase, a point of contact.
09:24
It gives you a starting point from which to reason with them from the
09:30
Scriptures. Number 10, true or false. Upon death, some believers are enabled to be guardian angels.
09:36
False, but I hear Christians say things like that, professing Christians. And that's found in Hebrews 9, 27, 2
09:46
Corinthians 5, 8. Okay, number 11, new material. What are some dangers of ecumenism?
09:54
What are some dangers of ecumenism? Who wants to define that?
10:00
Not dangers, and not what? Getting together with other denominations.
10:10
Getting together with other denominations, right? And isn't that a good thing? If we're all supposed to be unified, isn't it a good thing to get together with our brothers and sisters in Christ?
10:26
Depends on the denomination. I mean, what? Go ahead,
10:31
Shirley. Okay, if there's agreement on the basics, like justification by faith, then it's not really ecumenism, all right?
10:49
Maybe some of you have heard about an ecumenical movement. And what that means is kind of like years ago, there was this thing called
10:58
Evangelicals and Catholics Together, or ECT, a document signed by many renowned evangelicals, and the
11:09
Catholics couldn't wait to sign up for that. Why? Why would the
11:14
Catholics be so eager to sign it? Okay, I think that's true, right?
11:26
To some small degree, it kind of papers over a lot of the things that happened during the Reformation. I mean, here's the interesting thing that many people don't know, is that during the
11:38
Reformation, there was actually something that went from 1618 to 1648, which was called the, amazingly enough, 30
11:48
Years War, 1618 to 1648. And this war was, unlike a lot of wars, it was about one thing, the
11:58
Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church was pretty much determined to waffle -stomp the
12:05
Reformation. And they were going to do it the way they did everything throughout the years. If there was a sect they didn't like, what did they do?
12:12
They sent troops out, and they killed them. If there was a leader like Jan Hus, what did they do?
12:19
They tracked him down, and they burned him at the stake. This is just what they did. And in their minds, they could justify it because they were doing what?
12:29
They were killing the heretics. They were guarding the truth, right? But the ecumenical movement today, the idea is to, let's minimize our differences.
12:45
Let's maximize what we have in common. And so, I think, what's maybe the most common thing that we do, we, generically, do that is ecumenical?
13:00
Communion? Not exactly what I have in mind. I'm thinking about outside of church. Okay, Charlie?
13:08
Anti -abortion protests. Right? And which, I hate abortion.
13:17
It's murder. But what's the problem with that? I mean, we live in a state that's what?
13:25
I think it's like 90 % or 90 % plus Roman Catholics.
13:31
And of that 90 % Roman Catholics, there's probably 90 % of them who never go to church or, you know, go once or twice a year.
13:41
The problem is, we're going to be walking down the street, carrying signs about how wicked abortion is. We're going to be locking arms and yucking it up with these people.
13:49
You know, yeah, aren't we doing really something? And then we're going to get done, and we're going to find out that the person on our left was a
13:55
Muslim, the person on our right was a Catholic, the person behind us was a Catholic, the person in front of us was a Mormon, and we're going to say, well, we're all together.
14:06
Are we all together? See you next week.
14:11
Let's do it again. The problem is, ultimately, and I'm not against protesting abortion,
14:19
I just think we have to be a little bit cautious because what we're really doing, a lot of times, is we're linking ourselves with the mission field.
14:27
If most of these folks that we're protesting with are Roman Catholic, and by percentage, they probably are, we have to think, okay, am
14:36
I really together with these people? Well, I am against abortion, and I think that's fine. I just think we have to be cautious.
14:44
Have to remind ourselves, okay, I still need to evangelize these people, even if we agree on one thing.
14:53
Thoughts, questions? I see that hand. Yeah, and that's the point because it's often not the point, or it's often not the case that they're united with us in terms of one
15:08
Lord and one faith. Right, and this is why I kind of cringe at the idea of the great religions, or we're all people of faith, those kind of things, because we're not people of faith.
15:24
We're people of Christ. Our banner is Jesus. And if we said we're
15:32
Christians against abortion, are the Muslims going to go with us? No. Now, some other people would try.
15:40
The Mormons would like to be there. The Catholics would be there. The Jehovah Witnesses would stay home because they don't believe in protesting or voting or much of anything.
15:54
But when we have people who think, like the
16:00
Latter -day Saints, the Mormons, who think that they're Christians, but they're not, we can really muddy the water.
16:09
Am I saying don't protest against abortion? No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying keep in mind when you do that that probably most of the people around you need to be evangelized.
16:18
Okay. Number 12. On a scale of 1 low to 10 high, how biblical is this statement?
16:29
One theologian's heresy is another theologian's orthodoxy. No, I don't think the term theologian implies correctness as evidenced by the fact that, you know, heresy.
16:52
But I think what the trick to this question, having written it myself, I think the trick to this question is the word biblical.
17:09
The word biblical. I mean, would we ever see that where, you know, they go, well, you know, one theologian's heresy is another theologian's orthodoxy.
17:19
No. Jonathan. Yes. Yeah, it's too hard to understand.
17:31
And I have here a quote from one of the great theologians of our time.
17:36
Anybody know the name Paul Crouch besides my wife? Who's Paul Crouch?
17:43
Marilyn? Singer. That was Andre Crouch. Yes. TVN and maybe
17:55
Daystar 2, you know. But the important thing is he had a mustache. I never trust people with mustaches.
18:03
Mostly because I can't grow one. Yeah. He owned
18:13
TVN. He founded it. He would say, he said that actually, one theologian's heresy is another theologian's orthodoxy.
18:25
Why would he say that? If you've ever watched
18:31
TVN, you'd know why. Because they have people on there who deny the Trinity. I mean, there's an irony.
18:37
If you own the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and you put people on there who deny the Trinity, you know you don't care a whole lot about doctrine, right?
18:46
It's not really all that important. And, boy, were the sets, if I could say it this way, the sets looked like early
18:57
Donald Trump. You know, just gaudy as all get out on this TV show. I mean, just gold everywhere and just, you know, that whole thing.
19:06
Okay. It's true to this extent.
19:11
One theologian's heresy is another theologian's orthodoxy. It's true because if you want to say that there is no right or wrong, it's just a matter of interpretation, then fine.
19:26
But is there one truth? Yes. Jude 1, verse 3,
19:38
What? That was once for all delivered to the saints.
19:51
It's not up for debate. It's not a matter of, well, you know, some people say you can work your way to heaven, and some people say
20:00
Jesus did it all. You know, eh. These things matter. We're to contend for them.
20:07
The basics, as Charlie said earlier, you know, justification by faith. These kind of bedrock truths we are to fight for.
20:21
Okay, number 13. On a scale of 1 to 10, because I like that for whatever reason. How biblical is this?
20:28
Christians should never judge a brother or sister by name in any sort of doctrinal appraisal.
20:40
Never judge somebody by name in any sort of doctrinal appraisal. Yes, Andrew.
20:56
Yeah, I think it's helpful to point out dangerous teaching. And here's the reason. Somebody was saying that they let their daughter listen to Joel Osteen for 10 minutes the other day.
21:08
And the daughter's response was this. Dad, does he teach some kind of cult?
21:16
10 minutes! And she figured that out. It doesn't take long.
21:21
Why do we do things like that? You know, would we have any biblical examples of people being called out by name?
21:32
Okay. Paul called various people out. Not just Barnabas, but others, yeah.
21:42
Alexander the coppersmith, he did me much harm. My favorite example, of course, is when
21:48
Paul went right to the seat in Rome. Y 'all remember this.
21:55
He went right into the Holy See, into the Vatican, in to see
22:00
Pope Peter. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
22:06
And he said what? Basically, I told him he was wrong to his face.
22:12
Because he was adding to the gospel of grace. I mean, did Jesus call people out by name? Woe to you, scribes,
22:22
Pharisees, hypocrites. Yeah, it'd be better if a millstone was tied around your neck, right?
22:36
So, you know, I mean, there are multiple examples. But I think, you know, it's not just, and we can go to Titus 1 .9.
22:46
You know, we exhort in sound doctrine and we do what, elders? We refute those who contradict.
22:52
Okay, I don't want to mention anybody by name, but no, no, we can call them out by name.
23:00
You know, why? Because we compare what they say with what the Bible says. Now, so, you know, on a scale of one to ten, that's probably about a one.
23:08
Again, Paul Crouch says, the answer is simple.
23:15
This is Paul Crouch. Read it in the Apostles' Creed or any number of other confessions, such as the Heidelberg Confession.
23:21
Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, crucified, risen again, ascended to heaven, by whose blood our sins are forgiven, who will return in power and glory to judge the living and the dead.
23:32
Beyond these absolute essentials of the faith, there is infinite room for honest men and women to disagree and debate the limitless issues of doctrinal purity.
23:47
Is he right? For example, in that quote
23:54
I just read from the great theologian, Paul Crouch, Heidelberg Confession.
24:02
He sounds very knowledgeable. Jesus, born of a virgin, true, crucified, risen again, ascended to heaven, by whose blood our sins are forgiven, who will return in power and faith and glory to judge the living and the dead.
24:14
Now, let me ask you this. Does it say anything in there about justification by faith alone?
24:25
Does it say anything about sufficiency of Scripture? No. You know, are those issues of doctrinal purity that we should argue about?
24:34
And I think the answer is yes. You know, and I think there are many others that we just kind of... I think it's fine to say these things are true, but if you want to say everything else, it just matters about which we can debate.
24:45
I think that's false. My favorite quote from Paul Crouch, of course, he had
24:51
Roman Catholics on the channel as well. He said one time, he said,
24:57
Don't call me a Protestant. Why not?
25:03
Because I'm not protesting anything. Okay.
25:09
I mean, that speaks volumes. Number 14.
25:16
Is dogma or doctrine enough to maintain unity in a church, if not, what else is needed?
25:23
In other words, it's just truth, established teaching, a statement of faith.
25:30
Is that enough to keep unity within the church? What else would we need, Cindy? Love.
25:38
Right? I mean, it's right there in Ephesians 4. We have the truth, but if we don't have love, and, you know, even if you think about Matthew 7, the unbeliever's favorite verse 7 -1, you know, judge not, but then he goes on to say how we should judge, and how we should judge is, first, what?
26:01
Examine yourselves. Right? We have to consider others more important than ourselves.
26:10
So love has to be an important part of unity. I mean, we could go on and argue about other things, or, you know, argue for other things, like I would say, you know, to my friend, who, you know,
26:22
I just like to keep it simple, profess, believe.
26:29
Okay, well, does your church practice church discipline? You know, these kind of things.
26:35
Those things are also essential for maintaining unity in the church. Why would I say that church discipline is important for maintaining unity?
26:55
Yeah, to deal with factiousness, to deal with obvious sin. I mean, can you imagine a situation where, you know, a married couple, they each start having adulterous relationships.
27:11
The church doesn't want to get involved because it's too loving to do that sort of thing. They get divorced.
27:17
Their new spouses come in and sit with them, you know, and everybody just acts like that's normal, like that's fine.
27:24
But there are churches who do that. What's that? They do.
27:32
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we need that objectivity. And I don't want to get too far into that because it'll give away much of the quiz.
27:41
Okay, number 15. What do people, even many Christians, think about inflexible doctrine?
27:51
You know, you just sit. That it's unloving, right? The word
27:56
I had was arrogant. Now, can it be? Absolutely.
28:01
Absolutely. But inflexible doctrine, like Andrew was saying, is really protection.
28:09
It really keeps us from, as Ephesians 4 says, being tossed about by every wind of doctrine.
28:16
Something new comes in and we go, whoa, and we just flock towards it. Yes. You got to understand.
28:24
You got to understand. I mean, it's just human nature. Yeah, it is human nature.
28:30
Yeah, it's fine.
28:36
She's harder to live with. Okay, yeah. You're right, I probably don't. You have no idea.
28:48
Okay, there'll be counseling afterwards. Pretty, get them. All right.
28:54
Number 16. Does it take arrogance or courage to confront
28:59
Christians who are in error? Sometimes we think, right, it's unloving, it's arrogant to confront somebody.
29:11
But if you've gone through the Matthew 7 process, you've removed the beam from your own eye. It really is a mark of courage.
29:19
I mean, just ask yourself. You know somebody who's in sin, and it's not just the kind of sin you can overlook.
29:26
It's a serious sin. What's your first thought? It's not, when can
29:33
I confront them? It's just like, I hope somebody's going to do something. Or maybe, Lord, I pray that you would convict that person of their sinfulness.
29:45
I mean, Pradeep did seven, eight, 10 weeks on biblical counseling, and it has as its presupposition the idea that you are courageous enough and what, loving enough to care about somebody and say, you know what, even though I'm embarrassed, even though I'm a nobody, even though I'm a sinner too, for the sake of this other person, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of righteousness,
30:23
I'm going to go talk to them about this. I'm going to go confront them. I mentioned it earlier, but I just like to read it.
30:34
Galatians 2, verses 11 to 14, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
30:42
For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
30:52
In other words, this idea that the Old Testament law was still in place, and the rest of the
30:58
Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
31:05
But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, when
31:12
I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel,
31:18
I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a
31:24
Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? Now, this was a doctoral matter, and so he handled it in a semi -public manner, right?
31:33
Peter was responsible for his teaching, and he got basically hip -checked, body -slammed, taken to the boards.
31:42
I just like to say that. By Paul, you know, it's hockey season, come on. If it's a personal issue, we ought to go to them, what?
31:53
In private, Matthew 18. Anyway, number 17. True or false, any doctrine worth teaching or defending must be clear or clearly implied in Scripture.
32:06
True or false?
32:14
True. Yeah. I have several points here.
32:19
All fundamental articles of faith must be drawn from the Scriptures. The fundamentals are clear in Scripture.
32:27
Every essential to saving faith is fundamental, therefore it's taught in Scripture. Every doctrine we are forbidden to deny is fundamental.
32:40
Let me go back to the eschatology argument for a minute. I said this last week, but I want to say it again.
32:50
I want to emphasize this. Correct knowledge of eschatology is A, a sign of maturity.
32:58
B, impossible. People act like it's the ultimate thing.
33:07
I think this is a broadly evangelical thing. The goal is to study prophecy and to figure out all these things and to understand.
33:21
This is probably the only legitimate reason to subscribe to the Boston Globe. The Boston Globe in one hand, the
33:29
Bible in the other, and to try to sort out where we are. If no one knows the hour, then why are we trying to figure that out?
33:41
I think if I were to ask my friend to define the
33:48
Trinity, if I were to ask her to define the gospel, if I were to ask her to define justification by faith,
33:56
I dare say I don't think she could. And which is more important? I don't think it's prophecy.
34:08
The fundamental doctrines of the Bible are summed up in the person and work of Christ, right?
34:14
And if you can't defend those things, and if you can't explain those things, then why are you pursuing the lesser things?
34:21
The tertiary issues, the things over which we ought not to divide. Number 18.
34:30
Which is better? A shorter or a longer confession of faith? Longer the better.
34:39
Why? Why John Zook? What? I wasn't really serious, but maybe there's a confession of faith.
34:54
What do we believe? I wasn't really serious, but maybe. Okay. Yeah. Okay, the more defined it is, right?
35:06
In terms of specifics, how does that help us? Well, when we come to issues in Scripture where we're going,
35:14
I don't really know. Well, if the confession or if our statement of faith defines that, it helps us.
35:23
Helps us to understand at least what the church teaches. If there's something, let's put it this way, because people are like, oh, you know, the confession of faith, that takes the place of the
35:32
Bible. What's the fallacy there? Is there a fallacy there? Okay, it's not the
35:39
Bible. Okay, any confession is rooted in Scripture.
35:47
Right? And the confession, the authors of the confession themselves, what would they say? They would say, look, if the
35:53
Bible contradicts what we've written, then guess what? The confession loses.
35:59
Right? You need to change the confession. Which is better, a shorter or longer?
36:07
Well, I think a longer is better because it gives us more clarity. It helps us to understand what they believe.
36:13
And you know what? I would say, and I'm not going to name names, but I think there are people, men who have been faithful teachers who would have benefited from a longer statement of faith because it would have kept them from errors.
36:31
Errors that they later changed. If you want to know more, you can ask me later. Number 19.
36:39
Why don't BBC preachers address politics from the pulpit? Same as question one.
36:49
What was the answer to question one? It would violate our philosophy of ministry.
36:59
We're not interested in making, you know, our goal here isn't to make
37:06
America great again in order to build back better. It's not either one. Because this country, you know,
37:14
I don't know how to tell you guys this, but the heavenly city is not the United States of America.
37:20
So bad news. Anybody who was wondering about that. Number 20.
37:28
What would you say to a pastor who said that owning a gun is tantamount to murder since the only reason to own one is to kill a human being?
37:41
Yeah. Cindy said, you know, what about hunting? And I agree. There is that too.
37:48
Yeah, let's go hunting. I mean, you could use a slingshot. Yes. Not every killing of a human being is murder.
38:00
You know, there are people who say that they would not, under any instance, use force that might terminate another human being's life, especially if that unbeliever might be, or that other person might be an unbeliever.
38:16
Right? Because therefore, I'd just be ushering them into hell. What about that?
38:22
Is it necessarily wrong to take another human life? Charlie. You know, it reminds me of that great theological moment in that great theological movie,
38:43
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where the ancient knight says what?
38:51
Scratches his chin a little bit, and he says, he did not choose wisely. Right?
38:57
And that's exactly, you know, what you're saying. It's not my fault that person tried to attack my wife.
39:03
And, you know, he did not choose wisely. Other thoughts, Jonathan. And, and that, and that's, you know, the old west, you know, he was not elect.
39:33
Yeah. Well, much more we can say about that, but for the sake of my sanity, we'll move on.
39:40
Okay. Number 21 bonus question. Remember kids, these points are, these are worth double points. True or false.
39:48
Jesus was created by God. Everybody should, you know,
39:55
I want people to not only confess with their mouth that this is false.
40:00
I want them to believe it from the heart. Can you give me some biblical reasons why this is false?
40:11
John one, one in the beginning was the word and the word was, and the word was a
40:16
God. Oh, okay. Sorry. I went into my watchtower mode for just a minute.
40:25
Later on, what does that chapter teach us that Jesus, all things were created by him.
40:34
Now, there's not much of a logical conundrum there. Is there not much of a, a wrestling match in our minds.
40:42
If Jesus created all things and he's a created being, then what would the logical conclusion be?
40:51
He created himself. That's like, which came first, the chicken or the egg, right?
40:59
That makes no sense. The created being created himself. False. But listen to this.
41:13
A vast majority of Americans, according to one survey, 69 % agreed in the idea of the
41:18
Trinity. That there is one true God and three persons. I think this was like in the 1800s. They took this poll because I, I don't know if 69 % could agree to this idea of the
41:28
Trinity. Uh, more than half of Americans, right?
41:34
So this is not believers. 52 % said that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.
41:42
And I dare say there are a lot of self identifying Christians who believe that.
41:48
Why? Because they go to churches that are going to teach them about where we are on end times.
41:54
And not who Jesus Christ is and what he did. That's why, you know, people are like, well, can we have something besides the gospel every week?
42:05
Well, you can. And we would invite you to go somewhere else and find it. We want to equip you for good works.
42:14
And we do that by preaching the Bible and the Bible is about Jesus. This idea that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God is incompatible with the
42:25
Nicene Creed, which declares Jesus Christ is the son of God. Listen, begotten of the father, light of light, very
42:35
God of very God, begotten, not made being of one substance with the father.
42:43
People are like, well, what is this substance? God. Well, is the father more
42:48
God than the son? No. Well, can you explain that? No. Sorry.
42:57
I mean, if I can explain a being that has no need of time, then
43:03
I'm fine. But I can't do that, Jonathan. That's good.
43:09
Since you're a deacon. Firstborn.
43:26
The word is prototic us, which means preeminent. You know,
43:32
I think our English translations often fail us. Another example is, you know,
43:38
I've been on kind of a jihad. Sorry for the word. About the way than the
43:43
English standard version, create treats monogamous, which is to say, they say, yes, he says,
43:53
God's only son. And I'm like, no, it's his only begotten, you know, because we need to define, understand that he is unique in every respect.
44:03
And in the case of prototic us, it just means, you know, was Jesus the, the first fruits of the resurrection.
44:13
We know that from first Corinthians 15, right? And so the idea is that he is, um, above all, he is preeminent, not that he's the, the, the first born in the sense that he's the first created or the first,
44:32
I mean, we even know that. I mean, who was the first born? I mean, the first born would be, who's the first born man.
44:41
I knew somebody was going to say that. Was he born? No, it's the first born man. Can you know her?
44:51
So, I mean, he, he's not, he's not in any physical sense.
44:57
The first born, he's just the preeminent one. That's the idea. Uh, number 22, we got to, I want you guys to get all the points you can possibly get 22 true or false.
45:06
The Bible was written to be interpreted as each person chooses false, but 51 % of Americans, again, said the
45:15
Bible was written for each person to interpret as he or she chooses. It's this idea that there's no objective truth, which is false.
45:24
You know, there's one right interpretation and that's the one that God intended. Do we always understand that?
45:30
No, because if we did, then we wouldn't have things like infant baptism. Sorry. okay.
45:41
Number 23, this gets to Andrew's point earlier, true or false. Extramarital sex is a sin.
45:51
True. How do we know that? Because the Bible says so, but only half of Americans say that sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin.
46:01
While 44 % say it isn't one. And I promise you that people who are within the church, whether they're
46:08
Christians or not, I cannot say believe that. But what did
46:20
Jesus say? He said in sermon on the Mount that even looking, you know, he said woman, why?
46:29
Because he was talking to men, you know, women, some women hate the patriarchy and say it's the biggest problem.
46:36
And I'm like, well, Jesus called out men all the time. They don't seem to have a problem with that. If you look on a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery.
46:51
Well, obviously he had a problem with that, but the physical thing would be just fine. False. False.
46:59
But I think it's interesting here. He says in this survey, 91 % of evangelicals agree that sex outside of marriage is sin.
47:08
Well, that's really good. 91%. That explains some of the churches though, right?
47:16
Number 24, gender identity, true or false, gender identity is a matter of choice.
47:29
Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Yeah, it is a, it is a matter of divine choice, right?
47:35
But I think the idea is, you know, that individuals are free to choose whatever they want.
47:42
38 % of Americans said that gender identity is a matter of choice, which explains a lot, by the way,
47:48
I'm not talking politics, but it explains a lot about our culture today. If you can't get that right, what can you get right?
47:56
51 % disagree with that. Only 32 % of evangelicals said gender identity is a choice, which makes me want to fall over dead.
48:06
That's just, that's just, male and female created, he, them. That doesn't seem complicated.
48:15
Okay. Thoughts or questions? Anything from you, Barry? Okay. Just watching.
48:22
Yeah, Anthony. I can't believe you said that.
48:29
Number seven, Roman Catholics don't go to heaven. Is that true or false? How many of these must one believe?
48:35
Okay. Why would Roman Catholics go to heaven?
48:41
I think I answered that last week, but I'm going to answer it this way. They would go to heaven if they don't believe what the church teaches, but they do believe in the gospel, right?
48:52
They believe that, and I think there are certainly people in that, in that camp, and I think that would be even more clear if we looked before the reformation, you know, but I, I argued last week and I believe that the more steeped you are in the
49:08
Roman Catholic doctrines, the more steeped you are in the faith, the higher you rise in the ranks.
49:16
I think the less likely it is that you can be a Christian, a biblical Christian. So, I, I think, uh, the
49:23
Roman Catholic Church is probably, in terms of numbers, the greatest impediment, uh, to the gospel on the face of the earth.
49:37
Okay. Well, let's pray. They don't, well, they do teach grace, but they teach a different grace, right?
49:44
I, I mean, I, I could wax eloquent about the treasury of merits, and they do teach grace, but they just redefine it.
49:51
They redefine a lot of, a lot of things, which is why they have such bad doctrine. Well, we need to close.
49:57
Let's close in prayer. Father, Lord, when we come to, uh, your word, we want to do many things.
50:07
We want to be humble, understanding that we don't know everything. Humble in the sense that we also know that, um, throughout the centuries, you have gifted men to the church, who have taught and expounded your word, and who have revealed to us the truth.
50:25
There is no, no, no new truth. Help us to be able, and apt, discoverers of these men, and, uh, cling to the once for all delivered faith.
50:41
Keep us from error. Keep us unified in truth.
50:48
Father, let us continue to pursue that, not for the sake of knowing truth, but for the sake of knowing more about Jesus Christ, our