The Prophet Jeremiah Part 3

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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August 23, 2022

The Prophet Jeremiah Part 4

00:00: So, what we're going to do first is let's take a look in the chat box for any questions.
00:06: Now a little bit of a note, and that is that if you type a question before we transition from our big computer to my laptop, then those questions get lost in the chat.
00:18: So just by way, if you want to ask questions, put them in the chat after you see that I've got this setup set up here, if that makes any sense.
00:29: So let's see here, I'm just going to walk through these here. Uh -oh, prayer for Stephen Elliott's dog.
00:37: Okay, well, we pray. That's an important thing. We pray for Stephen Elliott's dog,
00:43: Sadie. She's going to have surgery on Tuesday. Pray that all goes well. We thank
00:49: God for the gifts that he's given us and our furry friends. So, indeed. All right, let's see here.
00:58: So we've got details, speaking of natural remedies. All right, so it looks like there are no theological questions.
01:06: More along the lines of health -related questions and suggestions as it relates to caring for our dogs, which is a good thing.
01:15: Okay, we have been working our way through the book of Jeremiah. First week was all prep work where we did some introduction, got the context, took a look at the state of, and I'm going to use a word that seems out of place, the state of the church in the times of Jeremiah.
01:35: Now, we recognize that Israel in the Old Testament is not referred to in those terms.
01:42: So when we're talking about church, we're confessing that the state of the visible religion around the one true
01:51: God in the time of the Old Testament prior to the birth, death, resurrection of the
01:59: Messiah. And so there are ways in which you can talk about church in the Old Testament, but always and again,
02:05: I would note that you have dispensationalists and Pentecostals who are quick to jump on you and say, you can't talk about the
02:12: Old Testament as a church. Yeah, actually you can, but you always have to make sure that your definitions are clear.
02:20: And so we noted that in the nation of Judah, that's pretty much what's almost left.
02:27: Remember, 10 tribes had gone into exile as a result of their idolatry in the northern kingdom, and then
02:34: Judah in the southern kingdom has now gone into full rank apostasy. God has sent prophet after prophet after prophet, calling them to repentance, assuring them that he will forgive them, give them pardon and peace, but they aren't listening.
02:47: And so Jeremiah has been raised up and he's been given a task of preaching to people, and God has prepared him ahead of time that they're not going to like him.
02:55: He's going to be, let's just say that his approval ratings are going to be worse than the current sitting president.
03:01: So that being the case, it's vital to remember that preaching the word is no guarantee of success by any worldly standard.
03:13: There are times when preaching the gospel will result in a large harvest, and this is all the work of the
03:20: Holy Spirit. God is the one who grants faith to people. And then there's times when the word of God goes out and it hardens hearts and drives people who are unbelievers away.
03:36: They don't want to hear it. So you'll note that we sinners don't like to hear the word of God.
03:42: We would prefer it diluted. We like it cut. We like the hard edges taken off. We like to be assured that everything is going to be just fine without any need for repentance.
03:51: And then when you preach the Bible in all of its severity and its glory in the gospel, you'll note that the experience of being convicted of your sins, the experience of knowing that there's nothing you can do to save yourself, the experience of knowing that you stand guilty before a holy
04:10: God, these are intense internal feelings. This is the kind of stuff that we should not just brush aside as if somehow it's a small thing.
04:21: It's not. There is deep internal pain that people experience in experiencing the conviction of their sins.
04:31: And we as Christians recognize that repentance is going to include sorrow for sins as well as confidence in the forgiveness of sins in Christ.
04:41: But again, this is a spiraling apostasy. And we also noted last week that contrary to the way the
04:48: Charismatics talk today, that the prophets of old, in their description of when the word of the
04:53: Lord comes to them, the way they describe it always makes it appear as if they were physically seeing with their eyes,
05:02: I like to say the pre -incarnate Christ, the angel of the Lord, Jesus. So we now continue in chapter two.
05:09: The word of Yahweh came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, thus says
05:16: Yahweh. And I got to warn everybody, we're steering into a portion of Jeremiah that pulls no punches.
05:25: This is as blunt as blunt gets. And sometimes, I hate to say it, we're scandalously namby -pambys when it comes to speech sometimes.
05:36: And if we're offended by what the Bible says, understand that may be a cultural thing.
05:44: So I remember your devotion. I remember the devotion of your youth. Your love is a bride.
05:50: So God is remembering the early days of His relationship with Israel after He brought them out of slavery in Egypt and the initial season when they were in the promised land.
06:02: How you followed me in the wilderness and land not sown. Israel was holy to Yahweh.
06:07: The first fruits of His harvest, all who ate of it incurred guilt. Disaster came upon them, declares
06:15: Yahweh. So hear the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob and all the clans of the house of Israel.
06:22: Thus says Yahweh, what wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worth less?
06:39: Now, this is a phrase that does not ring well in 21st century western civilization.
06:45: Worth less? I mean, isn't every single Disney program, everything on Nickelodeon, everything that we teach our kids in preschool and the way the public schools teach us, that you are special, you are the bee's knees, you are the apple of God's eyes.
07:03: And you just need to follow your heart. I mean, the angels sang when you were conceived and born, you know, and this is how they talk about us, right?
07:16: And so you'll note that within the visible church today, you have men like Todd White who teach a theme here that runs very contrary to what scripture teaches.
07:28: If you ever heard Todd White say, you know, I believe that our worth, our value is demonstrated by Christ's death on the cross.
07:42: And so he says, just like when you purchase a house, a house is only worth what you pay for it.
07:49: And look what, look at the cost that was paid so that you could, you know, so that Christ could have you.
08:00: I mean, he laid down his own life. The blood of the son of God was shed. That shows you your inherent worth.
08:11: They sit there and go, wow, you know, well, after all, even though my wife doesn't recognize it, I recognize my own, my own great stature.
08:19: You know, you'll know this is absolutely puffs, puffs people up.
08:25: But here's one of the, one of the themes of scripture. And then we'll take a look at some of the cross references here is that in our fall into sin,
08:34: God did not send his son to die for us because we were worth it.
08:40: In our fall into sin, each and every one of us became worth less.
08:47: In other words, to somehow say that, oh, wow, you're so special. Look, God says you're worth it is put the emphasis on the wrong side label.
08:56: It puts it on you rather than on Christ who has had great mercy on each and every one of us, even though we are worth less.
09:06: Now, let me show you a passage that, um, let's just say the language appears thrice in scripture from time to time.
09:15: I quip, I joke that if you are ever in the awkward position that you, you are, you're somewhere and somebody's invited you somewhere and you are in the presence of a false teacher and they are teaching rank heresy in your presence.
09:29: I have been taught by one of my mentors, Dr. Ken Corby, that when, when you find yourself in that awkward position, you are to, as he says, cough three times loudly.
09:44: Why three times? One for the father, one for the son, one for the Holy Spirit. And then you are to cry out so that everybody can hear you.
09:54: Saints in heaven, preserve us. Okay. You know, and the idea then is, is that, uh, you know, people will catch on something.
10:06: Something's amiss here. Right? So whatever, if you ever are in the presence of somebody says, oh, Jesus died to show you just how worth it you are.
10:14: There's a passage of scripture that appears, at least language appears thrice, three times in scripture. I'll show you one and we'll take a,
10:21: I'll show you where the cross references are. Romans three, Romans three, verse nine,
10:28: Paul, after giving an, uh, just a brilliant logical argument as to why everybody is a sinner, concludes his argument by asking the question, are
10:39: Jews any better off than Gentiles? I mean, after all, I mean, Jews received from God, the
10:44: Torah, the promises, the covenants and it's from them that the Messiah comes. And here's what he says.
10:50: No, not at all. We've already charged that all, and by the way, the word, the Greek word for all here, you know what it means?
10:58: All. And you don't even have to be a Greek scholar to get it.
11:04: Okay. That all, both Jews and Greeks, all does not mean some, all both
11:09: Jews and Greeks. And in this, in this category, then in the Jewish way of thinking, there are only Jews and Gentiles.
11:15: There are only Jews and Greeks. That's everybody that all are under sin as it is written.
11:20: And watch the language. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.
11:27: All have turned aside together. They have become and watch the word worth less.
11:35: Well, my self esteem is hurt. Good. That's your problem. Your self esteem is your issue, right?
11:43: And by the way, I said this appears thrice in scripture. Here is one of the places Romans three.
11:48: And if you do your cross reference work in your, you know, just look at your, your notes in your study
11:53: Bible, you'll note that the same wording appears also in Psalm 14 and Psalm 53.
12:02: Almost verbatim. And so I would argue that when scripture repeats itself and says the same thing, not once, not twice, but three times, you might want to pay attention.
12:20: I find it absolutely fascinating that, you know, that, that those people who are fleeing the legalism, you know, that is just latent in so much of today's evangelicalism, whether it be in the
12:32: NAR, the secret driven movement, Pentecostalism, or just mild generic, you know, evangelicalism that, you know, after trying to very valiantly to save themselves and realize they're just not pulling it off, where do they go for solace?
12:46: They end up in like mysticism, you know, Richard Rohr in the, in the emergent church movement. And Richard Rohr, he teaches that the doctrine of original sin was created by Anselm of Canterbury.
13:01: I don't know. I'm kind of looking at this and going, hmm, none is righteous. Is that going to include adults?
13:08: Yeah. Is that going to include children? Yeah. Infants?
13:13: Yeah. How about fetuses? Yeah. What does
13:19: David say? I was conceived in sin and conceived, born in sin.
13:25: So you'll note then as a result of our fall into sin, God didn't sit there and go, worth it.
13:32: Okay. And the person who says that, oh, he looked across, he looked across the years of time and he saw what you could become and he saw your potential and he saw how amazing you would be.
13:47: And he said, worth it. Okay. No, he didn't. In sin, we have all become worth less.
13:59: And in one of my favorite books of all time, if you have not read this book, it's a great novel. It's a novel with four kind of like mini short stories in it.
14:08: It's called The Hammer of God. And in The Hammer of God, there's this, always and again, you have these
14:15: Swedish clergy that are part of the story. And in this one particular short story, there's a young priest, a young Lutheran pastor who who's of the,
14:28: I've made the decision to follow Jesus kind of thing. And into, you know, kind of the
14:34: Methodist theology that was running rampant in the day. And the old confessional guy looks at him and says, oh, that's just hogwash.
14:42: You know, he says, God didn't see any worth in you. He says, why would he choose you? He says, if you want to understand the gospel correctly, you were like a rusted out tin can and God was walking through the garbage heap and put his poker in it and thought, you know,
14:57: I could do something with this. That's the Roseboro paraphrase.
15:03: But it's a great book if you're looking for like something that isn't just constantly.
15:09: So I'm against theological prose. I'm not against that.
15:15: But if you're looking for prose that's theological, but written in a narrative, in a history that not, but it's not history, but a good, a good short stories,
15:23: Hammer of God. It's just absolutely fantastic. So you'll note then that Paul and the
15:31: Holy Spirit goes on because Paul's quoting the scripture. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good.
15:36: Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.
15:43: Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery.
15:51: And by the way, you know, I love the fact that there are so many people that are coming to grips with this.
15:57: And I recently heard some, you know, heard somebody talking about, you know, that those people who complain about everybody else in their life, but they don't even take stock of themselves.
16:07: And the person, I think the quote, this is kind of the paraphrase of it. The quote was, is that when, you know, the one common thread in all of your destroyed relationships is you.
16:22: Okay, yeah, that's some pretty strong stuff, right? So you'll note that we sinners, we don't get along well with each other.
16:28: Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that? So in our paths are ruin and misery.
16:35: The way of peace we have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is describing all of this. And so you'll note, we see the word worthless.
16:43: That word appears here. it appears in the Psalms, and it appears in Jeremiah, and this is, you'll note that you sit there and go, it just seems like what
16:54: Jeremiah's talking about, like there's nothing different going on today, we all still need to hear the same thing.
17:00: Right, because you'll note the sinners of Jeremiah's day are suffering from the exact same ailment that we are suffering from now, and that's sin.
17:11: That being the case, I think it's probably a good idea that we not get too uppity about ourselves, but that we stay humble and recognize, you know, the scriptures are describing me when it talks about me being worthless.
17:26: And here's the thing, and God has had mercy on us, and so you'll note that when we get away from the idea of us being so worth it, because we're not,
17:33: God didn't have to save a single one of us. He could have just said to every single human being, off to hell with you and the devil, and none of us would have been able to point a bony finger at God and say, that's not fair, that's not just.
17:48: We'd all rightly, you'll note that the gospel gives all of us what we don't deserve.
17:54: Mercy, grace, pardon, peace. Thank you, Lord. And so you'll note here,
18:00: God is doing, if I could make reference to Jen Bennett, who's been reading
18:05: Walther's Law and Gospel, Proper Distinction of Law and Gospel, what is Jeremiah doing? Law and Gospel, okay, and you're gonna note here that in doing
18:14: Law and Gospel, he's not holding anything back, and you'll note that the gospel bits come, but they don't come in tidy little packages.
18:22: What I mean by that is that it's a little bit later in Jeremiah where we're gonna get full blast gospel and wonderful, comforting words and pictures, prophetically, of what's coming in the new earth.
18:38: But right now, we're in the bitter pill portion of Jeremiah. This is some rough road to hoe.
18:44: So, what wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, that they went after worthlessness, and they themselves became worthless?
18:54: They did not say, where is Yahweh who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells, and I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things, but when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.
19:21: Now, a little bit of a note here. This is another theme in scripture. I'm not gonna do all the cross -reference work on this, but over and again, you hear about, in scripture, how sin, quote, defiles a land.
19:37: And so, I'm gonna use this by way of a metaphor. So, the best way
19:44: I can put it is I'm trying to get at something. And that is, is that scripture is very clear that we exist within God.
19:53: In him we move and have our being, Paul says, in Acts chapter 17.
19:58: That being the case, sin was never part of the plan.
20:05: Or at least, we were not created to bear up under sin, and it's almost as if sin has a quantum effect on the creation itself.
20:18: So, those of you in my catechism class, you'll note that with regularity at certain points in the catechism,
20:26: I talk about quantum physics. And you're sitting there, why are we talking about quantum physics? Because it has a lot to do with what's going on here, because there's so much more going on in the universe than you could possibly imagine.
20:37: And so, I ask the question, and those of you who know the answer, you'll be able to readily get this.
20:45: Is light a particle or is light a wave? The answer's yes.
20:53: What do you mean? It's gotta be one or the other. Well, yeah, you're right.
20:58: But what is it that makes the difference? When is light a particle and when is light a wave?
21:03: Well, it changes from one to another when somebody is observing it, which begs the question, how on earth does matter and light know you're looking at it?
21:19: I have yet to hear a quantum physicist or any physicist explain that one. And I've asked physicists, how does matter and light know what's going on here?
21:30: So, the best way I can put it, so here we are at the Kungsvinger Lutheran Church in Oslo, Minnesota, don't you know?
21:36: And we don't spend a lot of time in this building. For the most part, we're here maybe once a week during Advent and Lent, we're here twice a week.
21:46: And then once a month, some of the ladies come in and clean the place up, right? So, which means for the most part, this building sits empty, right?
21:58: Which is kind of interesting because based upon what we know about quantum physics and how light and matter behave, what ends up happening is that when the last person shuts the door and locks it here, the whole place on the atomic level becomes fuzzy.
22:19: I know this sounds weird, okay? But if you're not sure about this, go to YouTube, type in the search,
22:28: Dr. Quantum Double Slit Test. Okay, Dr. Quantum Double Slit Test.
22:35: And here's the weird part. As soon as somebody shows up here and they're observing the room on the molecular level, everything comes into sharp focus.
22:46: When no one's looking at it, it's fuzzy. When you're looking at it, it's in sharp focus. How is that possible?
22:54: And here's the thing, this has been proven over and over and over again in physics.
23:00: How does matter and light know you're looking at it? Answer, there's more to this life than you think.
23:07: Newtonian physics isn't the only thing going on here. And as a result of this, when Scripture talks about lands being defiled by sin,
23:16: I don't think this is an allegory. I think there's something more going on here, is the best way
23:24: I can put it. And now I'm gonna put a big red flag right here.
23:29: At this point, I'm going to give you, again, it's a metaphor. This is a working analogy that I have for a storyline that I'm working on with my son.
23:39: But Josh and I, what we know about quantum physics and this concept of lands being defiled, we thought we would come up with a storytelling device to tell kind of a spooky story.
23:53: Because we've all seen the television shows where you have ghost hunters and things like this. And always, and again, favorite places to go where supposedly there's paranormal activity are like battlefields.
24:05: Why battlefields, right? Okay? And so years ago, my wife and I, we went to Gettysburg and toured the
24:14: Gettysburg battlefield, which is just, it's fascinating, right? But we did the
24:19: Gettysburg ghost tour that night. You know, which is kind of fun. So we got to hear some of the ghost stories.
24:25: But what's really interesting is that I remember a few years back, now maybe a little more than a few years, maybe a decade, about a decade ago, there was a fellow who became a very famous paranormal activity kind of guy on television.
24:40: And the first program in his series that was on the Travel Channel, he showed video footage that he had taken at the
24:49: Gettysburg battlefield. And he had thought that what he was looking at was basically battlefields, battlefield reenactors, okay?
25:03: But it wasn't during the normal reenactment. And the video footage he shows is of a group of guys, you know, standard bears, carrying flags, marching out onto the main portion of the battlefield.
25:17: And when he turned the camera around to ask who were the reenactors, he put the camera back on the battlefield and they were gone.
25:24: And that was what made him believe in the paranormal. And so in our storytelling device, using kind of quantum physics, we work with this idea that the earth was never made to sustain wars.
25:38: And it was never made for us to be sinners. And that sin itself, in its defiling capabilities, not only defiles us, it defiles the land.
25:49: And if I were to speculate along these lines, and that's what it is, the best way I can describe it is this defilement, it's akin to kind of like quantum physics.
25:58: It actually has some kind of a ripping, tearing effect. And so in our storytelling device, we basically use that as the way of explaining why certain places have such high paranormal activity, because what they end up doing is where there's been places of lots of death or murder or lots of abuse, psych wards and things like this, that it tears at the very fabric of this time -space continuum, and that people aren't really seeing ghosts.
26:25: What they're seeing is they're seeing into another time through the tear in the time -space continuum using kind of a quantum concept.
26:32: But that was our idea. And so we're actually working on some kind of a short film to kind of tell a scary story along those lines.
26:40: We wanna enter it in one of the film festivals here in North Dakota. But all that being said, that's pure speculation, and it's just a storytelling device.
26:48: And the whole point of it is to drill into us this idea that our sin, our idolatry, our abominations, they have a cumulative defiling effect not only on our bodies, but our very land.
27:03: And so one has to wonder when you look at the patterns of apostasy in God's judgment of even pagan nations in the ancient world, that if the
27:15: United States isn't defiling itself to the point where God's gonna say, enough,
27:22: I just have to wonder along those lines. So coming back then, so when you came in, you defiled my land, you made my heritage an abomination.
27:31: The priests did not say, where is Yahweh? Which is, again, this is spoken in irony, okay?
27:39: Because in ancient Israel, the Levites and the priests were the ones tasked with being the teachers in the synagogues.
27:46: Their job was to teach the word of God to the Israelites. That's their job, teach the word of God to the
27:53: Israelites. And here, God ironically says the priest didn't even say, where is Yahweh?
27:58: Why? Because they don't even know the Bible. Those who handled the law did not know me.
28:08: One of the things I find fascinating is that one of the common complaints or criticisms that I get in my email is, how is it,
28:18: Rose, bro, you think you're right and all of these other pastors are wrong? There's more of them than there are of you.
28:25: So don't you think you should humble yourself and just go with the flow? That's generally how the argument goes, right?
28:34: I would note in times of apostasy, even the people who are tasked with the job of teaching, they're participating in the apostasy and they don't even know
28:43: God. Even though they're technically opening up the word. And it says the shepherds, and note the word shepherds, which is an odd, which is an odd word.
28:52: Because you normally think of like teachers in Israel as rabbis, here God is purposely calling them using shepherding language, which invokes pastors.
29:02: The pastors, the shepherds, they transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied
29:07: Bible all and they went after things that do not profit.
29:17: Now I do find this fascinating, okay? The prophets went after things that do not profit. Isn't it interesting that in the irony of ironies, the false prophets today, they make quite a big profit off of being false prophets.
29:29: But you'll note that that was the same in Jeremiah's days too. And so God here in saying that they went after things that do not profit is a way of basically saying the monetary gain you're gaining as a false prophet isn't going to profit you.
29:47: Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. What can you give in exchange for your soul?
29:53: If you're gonna habitually break the second commandment and continue to blaspheme the name of God for the purpose of making money because you're greedy, yeah, you might make a temporal profit, but it doesn't profit you eternally.
30:06: In fact, you're gonna go into eternity at a loss, which will result in the loss of your soul.
30:15: Therefore, I still contend with you, declares Yahweh, and with your children's children. You'll note that God's prerogative is that those who hate him, that God punishes even their children.
30:28: For cross to the coast of Cyprus and see, or send to Kadar and examine with care.
30:33: See if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are not gods?
30:41: No, they haven't. The ancient civilizations, they remain faithful to their false gods.
30:50: But my people, they have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Now you can hear today's all -inclusive, you know, coexist bumper sticker granola crunching, you know, liberal just screeching at this point, right?
31:07: Wee! Right? Wow, that's on camera.
31:12: Yeah. And why? Are you saying that God doesn't accept worship of him, even if somebody's worshiping him in the name of another god?
31:28: Right, yes, bingo. Okay, you'll note that's a big thing here.
31:35: And the temple itself, if you remember when we were talking about the state of affairs in Judah at the time, the
31:42: Solomon's Temple became the coexist bumper sticker in practice.
31:51: It was all about syncretism. They worshiped Yahweh, they worshiped
31:56: Asherah, they worshiped Baal, they worshiped the starry host of heaven, they worshiped Molech, and it was all in one place.
32:08: And God says, yeah, all of that other stuff, those other deities, they are worthless, and they do not profit you.
32:19: And yeah, you know, in other words, God doesn't accept worship of him via proxy when you're worshiping
32:27: Asherah, Molech, Baal, Zeus, Athena, Demeter, Persephone, you get the idea.
32:36: He doesn't accept that at all. And so in our day and age, you'll note that the big push, and this is where I'll take another jab at Richard Rohr.
32:47: Richard Rohr, he has a video out that runs in conjunction with a book that he published a few years ago, and the lecture's on, quote, the universal
32:57: Christ. And Richard Rohr legitimately says in that lecture that it's just silly to believe that God is angry because, you know, two people ate a bit from an apple.
33:11: He says that's just too small of a story. And then he also claims in his lecture and in his book that if we could just have a more esoteric understanding of the scriptures, then
33:24: Christianity can form the basis of a universal religion. Just let that sink in.
33:33: Yes, Elizabeth? Okay, so esoteric, an esoteric interpretation.
33:42: The best way I can put it is that you have to interpret the scriptures really akin in the same channel that somebody in the
33:50: New Age would interpret it. That these are myths that are teaching us things about fertility and prosperity and things like this.
34:00: Basically calling on us to reinterpret the scriptures with a
34:05: Gnostic or pagan overlay. Does that make sense? And, all right, yeah, that's the idea.
34:12: And then, yeah, and in these esoteric concepts, then, always at the core of these esoteric concepts are two things, the belief in reincarnation combined with the belief that once you realize that there is no difference between you and God, that then you've achieved enlightenment and you're closer to getting off of the wheel of reincarnation.
34:37: Nirvana, right, that's an esoteric reading. It's a Gnostic way of reading. And you have to be initiated into it.
34:44: You have to be initiated and then experience the initiation. So, all right.
34:51: So God says, my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, oh heavens, at this.
34:59: Be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares Yahweh, for my people have committed two evils.
35:04: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
35:14: Yeah, yeah, and here, the cistern is a metaphor for their religion, right?
35:20: God is the fountain of living waters. He's not even a cistern. He's not something that's holding things.
35:26: From him flow, issue out living water. And you sit there and go, wait, the fountain of living water, didn't
35:32: Jesus say something like that to the woman at the well in Samaria? You betcha.
35:38: So there's a consistency, there's a consistent, repeated pattern in some of these themes throughout the scripture.
35:45: And this would be a great place. The living waters, well, let's take a look at that, shall we?
35:50: Always a fun text in the Gospel of John. Hang on a second here. John, now is it four?
35:58: Yeah, here we go. All right, so John chapter four. And let's see,
36:05: Jesus is, so now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, only his disciples, he left
36:16: Judea, departed again for Galilee, and he passed through Samaria. Now, you know your history between Jews and Samaritans.
36:24: You can just hear every Torah -loving Jew going, he did what? He went, where?
36:31: Okay, you're not supposed to do that, all right? Jews would go out of their way to go out of their way to avoid
36:38: Samaria. They would lengthen their journey just to make sure. If their GPS had a path taking them through Samaria, they would hit recalculate so that they can get a different route.
36:51: They wouldn't go through. Jesus is intentionally gonna go through Samaria. So he left Judea, departed again to Galilee, he passed through the town of Samaria, so he came to a town of Samaria called
37:00: Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given his son, Joseph.
37:07: Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.
37:13: It was about the sixth hour. Now, a little bit of a note here. This is an important bit, because the geography of the
37:18: New Testament, especially the gospel text, oftentimes will play a role in a right understanding here.
37:24: Where is Sychar? What, if I were to find it on Google Maps today, where is it?
37:37: It's not Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah's in Jerusalem, okay? It's in the
37:42: Palestinian West Bank today. Let's do this, let me see here. Yeah, all right, we're going to go to maps .google
37:52: .com, and we are going to look for the city that is called today
38:00: Nablus, N -A -B -L -U -S. Hang on a second here. N -A -B,
38:07: Nablus, and we want the one that's in the Palestinian West Bank, here we go.
38:13: Okay, so I'm gonna scroll out just a little bit so you get a little bit of a gist of where we're at. So the red pin is where Nablus is, this is
38:22: Sychar of the ancient world. Now, important note here, this is ground zero for the
38:29: Samaritan idolatry, and you have to know your geography here, and let me see if I can change this from,
38:38: I want the satellite, I want some terrain. All right, let's see here. All right, in fact, let me, let me see, satellite view, voila.
38:50: Let's zoom in just a little bit here, and maybe I might want to go with that terrain view.
38:57: Okay, so Nablus is between here on this side, Mount Nebo, Har Nebo, and here, down here on this side, the south side,
39:09: Har Gharazim. Har Gharazim, Mount Gharazim.
39:15: Now, if you know your Old Testament, Mount Gharazim is the place where they set up a competing temple.
39:23: When the northern kingdom was torn away from Solomon's son, and they had their independence from Judah and from Benjamin, the leader of that, of the northern kingdom, set up his own worship complex at the top of Mount Gharazim, and so this is a huge place.
39:45: So much important history goes on here. This is the place where, this is the same place where the brothers of Dinah, so the 12 brothers, two of them murdered the people of the town because Dinah was violated by one of the princes of this town.
40:08: This is the place. This is the place where Isaac built his well. This is such an important place.
40:15: So note then here that this'll play into, because where is Jesus? Very heart and center of the false worship of the northern kingdom and of the
40:25: Samaritans, even to that time of Jesus, and Jesus is doing everything wrong.
40:31: He shouldn't be in Samaria. He's in the exact wrong city that he should be in. This is ground zero for ick and idolatry, and then he's gonna, to add insult to injury, he's gonna talk to a woman, okay?
40:43: It's Alabama. I don't. Sorry, we've lost control here.
40:53: Somebody has cast aspersions on Alabama. Anyway, but you get the idea here.
40:58: So there's so much going wrong, and that plays into this. So he came to Sychar near the field that Jacob had given his son
41:05: Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
41:12: Sixth hour is what time? Noon. It's high noon.
41:19: This is not a time for you to go get water from a well. There's a reason why this woman's getting water from the well at noon, and the reason why is because she doesn't want to bump into the other ladies of the town, because we're gonna find out that sexually she's not exactly known for her high standards, and even among Samaritans, her standards are low, all right?
41:42: So a woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink.
41:48: His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a
41:54: Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, which is kind of an understatement here, and Jews have no dealings with Samaritan women, doubly so, okay, men and women talking in public is not a thing in this time.
42:13: So Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
42:22: Oh, wait, hang on a second here. Same theme that we just heard from Jeremiah. God says that he is the wellspring of living water.
42:31: He's not a cistern, and that those who worship false gods, they have dug out cisterns for themselves, but they all have holes in them, which means they're as leaky as a sieve, okay?
42:45: That's the picture here. Now Jesus shows up, taking the language of Jeremiah and applying it to himself, because he is the living water, right?
42:53: So the woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with.
43:01: The well is deep. Where do you get that? And here's where you can almost see her doing the scare quotes thing. Where do you get that?
43:07: Living water, right? You just see this. It's just being a little snippy here. Are you greater than our father,
43:14: Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.
43:20: So you'll note that this is a big place for them, and their religious identity is wrapped up in this place.
43:28: So Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
43:38: Now she's not quite understanding that Jesus is talking about himself and talking in symbolic language, all right?
43:46: So the water that I will then give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to what?
43:52: Eternal life. Wonderful picture here, and it's wonderful to blend it here with Jeremiah.
43:59: So the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here and draw water.
44:05: She's thinking, I will never have to see anybody again. She's been social distancing for a while. So Jesus said to her, all right, go call your husband and come here.
44:21: Yeah. So the woman answered him, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, all right, you're right, saying
44:29: I have no husband. In fact, you've had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.
44:34: What you've said is true. Awkward. So the woman said, sir,
44:43: I perceive you're a prophet. Our fathers, and here it is, our fathers worshiped on this mountain. What's she doing?
44:48: She's pointing to Mount Gerizim. She's pointing her finger south. Mount Gerizim, right there.
44:54: Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where the people ought to worship.
45:03: Now watch what Jesus does here. He doesn't sit there and say, oh, it doesn't really matter who you worship. It's not what he says.
45:10: He says, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the
45:15: Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know.
45:22: Salvation is from the Jews. Notice he didn't say that Judaism is salvation, but that salvation is from the
45:30: Jews. But the hour is coming is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the
45:38: Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
45:52: Let that sink in. Because so much of today's worship, the value of a church is based purely on emotion.
46:03: Oh, that place has the spirit. You know how much truth they got in it? Can't fill a gnat's navel with the truth preached in some of these places.
46:17: Sorry. For the purpose of this illustration, they do.
46:24: Elizabeth said they don't have navels, right? You'll note then that Christ says those who worship
46:33: God worship him in spirit and in truth. All right, now let me hold here for a second here.
46:46: We always diminish sin. New age. All right, so let me go back. I'm gonna back up now just a little bit. I gotta wrap up here by taking a look at questions and then
46:56: I gotta be on my way. Let's see. Matthew says, it's almost like God saving us is nothing but a massive testament to his glory and his mercy.
47:07: Right. That is absolutely true. Let's see.
47:13: Let's see. Wow, there's a lot going on in here.
47:22: I leave you guys alone for just a couple of minutes and the whole chat box just blows up. Okay, let's see here.
47:29: As an atheist once tried to scandalize me with some passage of the Bible, I think it was Judah and his sister, he wasn't able to since I had read it more than once.
47:41: It's not, her name isn't Samaria, her name is Tamar. And Judah, he didn't sleep with his sister, he slept with his daughter -in -law.
47:50: And it's a really weird story, too. We won't get into that, but yeah.
47:58: The one thing I can tell you, if you know your Old Testament well, is that the scriptures take great pains to show us the warts of the patriarchs.
48:07: Just takes great pains. Romans 5, 8, Jen says, we were
48:12: God's enemies and still God died for us. That's right, while we were still sinners. And in Romans 5, 10, we were enemies of God.
48:20: God didn't sit there and say you were worth it. We were worthless enemies, right? Yeah, so our old fake church never ever read those convicting scriptures.
48:29: That's sad. Another book for Dane to buy for me. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
48:36: Jen, I think your husband's gonna need to put you on a budget, um, you know. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
48:43: I would say this, that every time Dwayne Clevin calls me and he has questions regarding camera gear, my immediate question is, have you run this by Becky yet?
48:54: You know, because I don't want to get in trouble with her. So, you know, so, yeah.
49:01: Yeah, but I suggest books, you know, buy them according to what is a wise budget.
49:06: You know, that's the best way I can put it. You said, buy this lens. Yeah, yeah, ha ha ha ha ha ha.
49:12: Huh, I can neither confirm nor deny any such things.
49:19: All right, Lily says, charismatics often quote verses like fearfully and wonderfully made. And before I formed you in the womb,
49:26: I knew you, et cetera. And ask, how can God send people who are fearfully and wonderfully made to hell?
49:32: Therefore, everyone is saved. Such a crazy logic and ignores the rest of the Bible. How do you answer to this and where do you begin?
49:40: So Lily, the idea then here is that yes, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And another version of that argument goes something like this.
49:47: Well, if you read the beginning of the book of Genesis, God created everything and he said it was very good.
49:54: Okay, it was tov ma 'od. That's your Hebrew for the day, right? Tov ma 'od, very good, tov ma 'od.
50:02: And so the answer to the question is this, is that in the scriptures, there are different states for humanity.
50:12: So you have humanity prior to the fall, you have humanity after the fall. You have humanity after the fall before the
50:19: Messiah, and you have humanity after the Messiah and after somebody believes in Christ.
50:26: So the idea here is that you have to pay very close attention to where you're at. You don't take a passage that is describing our creation as if somehow that negates what the rest of scripture says.
50:40: So the passage we went to in Romans three, that we were worthless, that's a text you go to and that's talking after the fall.
50:55: Ephesians two, one through three is after the fall. And then Psalm 51, in sin did my mother conceive me, that's after the fall.
51:04: And then you could talk about Christians after conversion or regeneration, but that's a whole another story, all right?
51:11: So God is in control after all. That's why, that's what we should never forget. It's grieving to see once Christian West falling to unbelief just as the days of Jeremiah.
51:21: And yet, Kai, I would note that Christ told us all of this was coming. In fact,
51:28: Jesus, after telling us all this was coming, says, see, I told you ahead of time. So everything is going according to plan.
51:35: So we don't worry about these things. So we chase after empty things, which in return makes us empty.
51:41: Yeah, we chase after worthless things, which makes us worthless. So New Age, we always diminish sin. Isn't the
51:46: Antichrist on the stage when the world is trying desperately to be united? Yes, yes, crying peace, peace, when there is no peace, and then sudden destruction comes on them suddenly.
51:56: All right, since being on here, it's shocked me how many churches have fallen. NAR, Word of Faith, Charismatic, because it's easier for people to hear.
52:05: The truth is getting harder and harder to find all the time. Yes, it is, yes, it is. And that's exactly what
52:10: Christ said. And if I stop preaching the truth, sack me. That's the best way
52:15: I can put it, and find somebody who'll do his job. All right, let's see here. Hammer of God, there we go. We have a word in sacrament.
52:21: Do we need more? No, we don't, so. All right, so what does exactly that mean to worship
52:27: God in spirit? It's not talking about, that is not referring to emotionalism.
52:34: You could talk about the fact that you can say heart and mind, but that's not even getting at it either.
52:41: To worship God in spirit is to worship in faith. Faith according to what the
52:48: Holy Spirit has revealed and said. That's the right way to look at it. That's why truth is so vital a part of it, so.
52:55: All right, I've gotta wrap up here because I've gotta get to another church. So Lord willing, we'll see you guys in a couple of weeks.