Isaiah Lesson 36

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Isaiah: Prophet of the Suffering Servant Lesson 36: Isaiah 28:1-13 Pastors Jeff Kliewer and John Lasken

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Looking to your word, looking for your Holy Spirit to give us insight as we continue in our study in Isaiah.
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We understand the Northern Kingdom's worldview was not accurate, and we know that the world today is falling down a rabbit hole.
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Pray, Father, as we look to your word that we would be convinced and that our hearts would be drawn to a relationship that's honoring to the
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Kingdom of God, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, we're going to speak a little today about language.
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Rick, what was the quote from Winston Churchill about ending a sentence with a prepositional phrase?
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That is a situation up with which
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I will not put. Winston Churchill on ending a sentence with a preposition. Well, bad grammar can descend from bad to worse, and as a person's grammar gets worse and worse, it becomes less and less intelligible.
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At some point you arrive at the language of a drunkard, which is similar to the language of a baby.
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What do babies do when they come into the world? Goo -goo. They babble.
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Babies are babblers. This will be relevant to our lesson today. I have been to a
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Benny Hinn crusade. I have been to many charismatic events over the years, and one of the common things that you will see happening at a charismatic
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Pentecostal gathering is you will hear the person up front on stage say, okay, everybody begin to pray in tongues.
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Just pray in tongues. And before long, the entire assembly is speaking in babble.
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You not only recognize this in Pentecostal charismatic Christian circles, but also in non -Christian cults.
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For example, Oneness Pentecostals that deny the Trinity will do the same thing.
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But it even extends beyond Christianity to many other pagan or mystical religions.
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In fact, free vocalization, just the ability to string syllables together, is a simple ability.
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A child is able to do that. It doesn't prove anything to be able to freely vocalize syllables.
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And in fact, to speak in tongues without an interpreter in the assembly of Christians is explicitly denounced in Scripture.
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It is an affront to 1st Corinthians 14. We're going to get there on 1st Corinthians 14 20 to 22, but you can't understand the argument of 1st
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Corinthians 14 20 to 22 until you've studied Isaiah 28. Because Isaiah 28 is the quote taken from Paul in 1st
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Corinthians 14. So let's go to Isaiah 28. We're picking up in the context here there, of course, were all the judgment oracles through the 23rd chapter.
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And then there was a section break and a view of the coming tribulation. But then the view of the coming millennium and how we can have peace despite that.
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We saw last week Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, which is a picture of Satan. And now we move into another judgment oracle in chapter 28.
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So, John, would you be my first reader here? And we'll take the first four verses to begin with.
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Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine.
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Behold, the Lord has the one who is mighty and strong, like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty overflowing waters.
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He casts down to earth with his hand. The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot.
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And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first ripe fig before the summer.
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When someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand. Okay, clearly a judgment oracle.
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But to begin with, where is this judgment directed? Or Rick, is it to where this judgment is directed?
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To where is this judgment directed? Ephraim. And that is one of the southern or northern tribes?
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Northern. And often it stands as a metonym, one single thing speaking to the larger of all of the northern kingdom.
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So you'll just say Ephraim sometimes to refer to the northern kingdom of Israel. So the vast majority of the people of the northern kingdom have not built a biblical worldview, but instead have engaged in drunken revelry, drunkenness.
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So God will send the Assyrians speaking a language that the Israelites do not understand to judge
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Israel for her lack of discernment. That's what 28 is about. Let's see some of the particulars of this.
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Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim.
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The charge here at the very beginning is drunkenness. Is it a sin to have a sip of wine at a wedding?
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No. Depends. Kind of depends on your motive and things like that, if you're causing somebody else to stumble.
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But no, not in and of itself. Jesus turned water to wine. Is there any explicit command against drunkenness in the
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New Testament? Yes, against drunkenness there is. In Ephesians 5, do not get drunk on wine, which is debauchery.
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Instead, be filled with the Spirit. So drunkenness is a sin, and this is one of the examples of the sins of Ephraim.
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The bigger picture here is that they're not serious men. These are not people who are building a worldview.
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We're going to get to this later in the passage. And learning to walk with God, instead they're led by their passions.
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They're hedonistic. They're just pursuing pleasure, and drunkenness typifies that.
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The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty.
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Where else do we remember Isaiah famously speaking of a fading flower? Chapter 40.
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Rich, you get to read it. It's in my notes here. Chapter 40, verse 8. You can turn there and just look on the notes.
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You already know it, Rich. Come on. You wanted to get it exactly right.
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That's why you looked it up. Good job. So in chapter 28, verse 1, the comparison is the fading flower of its glorious beauty.
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The pride of the Ephraimite is in transient things, things that are passing. There is a gift from God, which is the fruit of the vine.
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But to put your pleasure in the fruit of the vine, especially wine, which is fermented, and become drunk on those things is to pursue the gift rather than the giver.
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It's to take the gift outside of the bounds that God has drawn around it. The same is true of so many of God's gifts.
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Is sex a dirty and ugly and sinful thing? No, it is a beautiful gift from God.
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But there are boundaries drawn around that gift, which is, of course, marriage. At which point, when a person crosses those boundaries, it's pursuing the gift rather than the giver, taking what's not meant to be and pursuing that rather than God's intention, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine.
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Ephraim has a region that is rich with wine, that has grapes that just come forth gloriously, and the people of Ephraim are rich in that valley.
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A good gift from God, and yet they're putting their hope in it. Verse 2, behold, the
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Lord has one who is mighty and strong, like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty overflowing waters.
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He casts down to the earth with his hand. Now, who is the mighty and strong in verse 2?
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I don't think so. Right.
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In this context of judgment, think back to the judgment oracles that we've been reading, and especially think about Isaiah chapter 10.
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When God is wielding a certain nation like a sword, but they do not so intend in their heart, the rod of God's anger, the rod of his judgment is?
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It's Assyria. Again, this is the Assyrian conquest. They come over like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest.
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They wipe everything out in their path. A storm of mighty overflowing waters.
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Maybe you've seen a documentary or a movie about when a tidal wave runs over a beach coastline.
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A tsunami. Yeah, in Indonesia, places like that. It just completely levels hotels and everything, and kills everything in its path.
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This is like a coming tsunami, the Assyrian army. He casts down to the earth with his hand.
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The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot.
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What is June recognized as in the United States of America? Pride Month!
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According to Proverbs, what comes after pride? The fall. Pride goeth before the fall, and the
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Hadi before destruction. Sadly, that's the fate of those who elevate themselves in pride.
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There is a humbling that comes from God. Now, if you humble yourself before God, and you beat your chest, and you repent of your sin, and you turn to God, what do you find him to be?
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Merciful and forgiving. But if you puff out your chest in pride, and you parade your your sinfulness, that pride will be met with his judgment.
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And the problem with Ephraim is, they're not humble before God. They're prideful. The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot.
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Pride goes before the fall. Verse four, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley.
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Yes, Ephraim is prosperous. Yes, they're rich. Yes, they have so much excess that they can get drunk at night.
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Work during the day, and the ground is bringing forth so much fruit. They have excess, and they're beginning to delight in those things.
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But this fading flower, it doesn't last forever, does it? It will be like a first ripe fig before the summer.
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When someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand. Walking along, it's picked from the tree, and eaten the very second that it's noticed.
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Ephraim is to be judged. So, clearly, a judgment oracle against the Northern Kingdom. Now, God always has a remnant.
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So, who would like to be my next reader? Barb, do you got it there? Isaiah 28, 5 and 6.
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In the day of the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.
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He will be a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
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Okay, this concept of a remnant is something we've seen over and over again in Isaiah.
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God sends judgment, but he always keeps a remnant. He has a remnant, and here in Ephraim, even so.
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Now, the nations will be lost. There will never be a regathering of Ephraim after the Assyrians come and wipe them out.
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Contrasting that, the kingdom of Judah will be regathered after their exile, but the kingdom will be lost.
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Does that mean that there will be no believers from the Northern Kingdom? No. In fact, what do we see in Revelation?
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12 ,000 from each tribe. Yeah, so you will still see God regather a remnant.
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He's not done with his ethnic people. Israel as a nation, the book of Revelation sees the regathering and his gathering a remnant from the northern tribes, too.
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But even so, in this day, in the days of Isaiah, there will still be some believers saved.
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And how so? In that day, the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory. Those who have made
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God their delight. They delight in God as their crown, a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people.
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Not by and large. This is probably a small remnant in the vast number, millions of Israelites at that time.
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A spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
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He is one who vindicates those who belong to him. John, do you feel like reading a long passage?
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Sure. It's going to be Psalm 26. So guys, if you turn to Psalm 26, this is a good reminder that when you live in a generation that's hedonistic, that seeks only pleasure, as Paul described the last days, when people are lovers of selves rather than lovers of God, you're a remnant in a people that is not concerned with God.
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You feel like an outsider. You're outside the camp. You're rejected. And it seems like you're constantly losing and the wicked constantly prosper.
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But Psalm 26 reminds us that there comes a time when God not only establishes his own kingdom, but he vindicates the righteous.
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The righteous will ultimately be vindicated. In chapter 54, Isaiah will say, no weapon formed against you will prosper.
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And he vindicates us in that passage as well. But Psalm 26 captures this. Let's just read it.
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John, if you'd read that whole Psalm. Psalm 26. The Bible tells us to devote ourselves to the public reading of Scripture.
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Sometimes we just need to read the word and let the word wash over us. Vindicate me,
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O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
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Examine me, O Lord, and try me. Test my mind and my heart. For thy loving kindness is before my eyes and I have walked in thy truth.
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I do not sit with deceitful men nor will I go with pretenders. I hate the assembly of evildoers and I will not sit with the wicked.
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I shall wash my hands in innocence and I will go about thine altar, O Lord, that I might proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and declare all thy wonders.
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O Lord, I love the habitation of thy house and the place where thy glory dwells.
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Do not take my soul away along with sinners nor my life with men of bloodshed, in whose hands is a wicked scheme and whose right hand is full of bribes.
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But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity. Redeem me, be gracious to me.
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My foot stands on the level place in the congregation. I shall bless the
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Lord. It's a song of vindication. Vindicate me, O Lord. And there is a distinction between people, those who cling to God and obey his commands, and those who are bloodthirsty and they are often persecuting the righteous.
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There is a day of vindication and we call to God to let our feet be set on level ground in the great assembly.
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I will bless the Lord. Verse 2, I would challenge you in your quiet time, in your devotions or whatever, when you consider something like verse 2, to not take it lightly, it says, examine me,
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O Lord, and try me. Test my mind and my heart. There needs to be a realization of sin, of confession, of repentance, but is your heart true to God?
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Amen. I have a side question. Do Israelites or Israelis who are resettling now identify with different tribes?
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That's a good question. I don't think that most do that yet, no. Have you noticed that, that they're knowing their...
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The Jews do have a cultural propensity towards knowing their heritage.
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Now, whether there is an overt... I'm using these words because you're an
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English teacher. Whether there's an overt realization of the 12 tribes, we don't know that for sure.
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Right. But the Jews do have a propensity for knowing what heritage they... where their roots come.
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Yeah. From where do their roots... And probably a lot of that was lost. I think the records were all destroyed in 70 AD. Right.
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And then, like, I think of Andrew Rappaport, who comes here, a Messianic Jew. He knows that he's a descendant from Levi.
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So there's many who at least think they know. So there might be some gathering in Israel, but I think it's...
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a lot of it is lost. But God knows, and when he happens to draw up the 12 ,000 from each tribe, he'll probably reveal that to them, what tribe they're from, or else it'll just be the case and they won't know it.
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That almost makes that realization of what goes on there all the more...
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it's a more of an expression of God's omniscience.
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I got that wrong last week. Of his omniscience, that he knows, and then his omnipotence that he's able to let people know.
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Right. You know, where they're from. Do you think that has anything to do with remnants of God's people passing down what they've been through to their children and grandchildren?
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Yeah. I think the oral tradition, and yeah, I think they have passed on, and that's so important to the
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Jewish people. I think they would try to keep those traditions alive. And what's also interesting, going under the the teaching of the rapture before those seven years, we have
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Messianic Jews now, but the Jews that are going to be called back are not the
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Messianic Jews, because they would be raptured with the church. Right. All right, let's do verses 7 and 8, and one of the big ideas here of what
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God is judging is that the Ephraimite has not built a biblical worldview.
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They don't value discernment. Discernment is like, you know, whatever. They're just getting drunk, and so they're a lot like children.
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They're babblers, and like a drunken babbler, they have not built a biblical worldview, and this makes an absolute mess of things.
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So verses 7 and 8. Who would like to read? Who would like an opportunity? Rick, thank you.
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These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink.
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They are swallowed by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They reel in vision.
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They stumble in giving judgment. For all tables are full of filthy vomit with no space left.
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All right, when a man is drunk at the bar, and he's getting in a bar fight and dancing on tables, what do you recognize about him?
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He has no judgment. Alcohol has an effect on the mind that causes a person to lack discernment, to lack judgment, and to act in ridiculous ways.
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In Israel, the people, it says the tables are full of filthy vomit with no space left.
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This is the people that has not learned a biblical worldview or learned to act with discernment.
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That word discernment was mentioned as John taught last week. Look at chapter 27 verse 11.
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When its bows are dry, they are broken. Women come and make a fire of them.
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For this is a people without discernment.
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Therefore, he who made them will not have compassion on them. He who formed them will show them no favor.
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Yes, take a little wine for your stomach.
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The building of biblical discernment in the body of Christ is an essential.
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It is not just like an extra. Look at verse 11 again. This is a people without discernment.
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Does God look at that as a small problem in the church, or in this case in Israel? How does he describe it?
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Therefore, he who made them will not have compassion on them. It is a big deal to live your life like a drunkard, to not develop discernment, to not pay attention to what's happening around you, to not be wise like the sons of Issachar who understood the times and knew what they are to do.
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These are not optional things. To not have discernment will destroy you. Your drunkenness will bring you to the grave.
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And church leaders that don't take these things seriously and don't develop discernment to deal with the issues of the day are going to ruin their churches.
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They will ruin them for lack of discernment. So let's look at the positive side of this there in verses 9 and 10.
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John, would you read that? To whom will he teach knowledge and to whom will he explain the message?
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Those who are weaned from the milk, those who have taken from the breast. For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.
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So it's kind of a sarcastic question, isn't it? Who will the Ephraimite teach?
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The priests and the prophets are just like everybody else. So who's going to do the teaching in Ephraim?
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Well here's who you can teach. You can teach a baby because that's how much you know. Look at verse 9.
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To whom will he teach knowledge and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast.
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That's about what they're capable of doing. They need to learn from square one.
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They're back to the basics. But then you see in verse 10 how a biblical worldview is built.
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And I think this is a beautiful verse that we need to really hold on to and think about. For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.
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It's a strange verse, but you know that should be memorized. Because this is how a biblical worldview is built.
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Precept upon precept, precept upon precept. Systematic theology is the building of precept upon precept.
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When you think about Trinitarianism, the Father, the Son, and the
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Holy Spirit. To recognize that all three are one
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God, one being. Well that's Deuteronomy 6 .4. Hear oh
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Israel, the Lord our God is one. And yet in the New Testament, Jesus communicates person to person with his
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Father. How can there be only one God when there is interpersonal communication between Father and Son?
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Well there's distinction between Father and Son. And the Son was there and the world was created through the
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Son. And so there's a distinction between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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And yet they're united in one being, in one essence. As you begin to pull all of these precepts of the
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Scripture together, you develop a systematic theology. And you recognize that God is Trinitarian. But that applies to salvation as well.
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All areas of theology connect, because the one that the Father elected is the one for whom
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Christ interposed his precious blood. And the one that Christ interceded for with his blood is the very one that the
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Spirit will draw. So Trinitarian theology affects soteriology. All areas of theology are connected.
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It's precept upon precept, precept upon precept. It's also line upon line, line upon line.
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Some people would think that it's ridiculous to study through the Old Testament.
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In fact, Andy Stanley said he would like to see us unhitch from the Old Testament. Why did he say unhitch from the
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Old Testament? Because he wants to focus only on the new, or especially on the new.
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Unhitching from the Old Testament can cause us to distance ourselves from some of the unseemly things you read in the
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Old. But that's not what Isaiah teaches. He says line upon line, line upon line.
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This is why expository preaching is so important. Expository preaching is the line upon line explaining of the
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Word of God. It's taking what's in the text by exegesis, you study what's in there, and you draw out what the meaning of the author originally was, and you teach that to the people line upon line.
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Systematic theology, expository preaching. I wasn't here Sunday night, and you guys might have talked about this, but isn't that what's being challenged now, the systematic theology?
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Because, you know, if it's all based on my experience, then it has nothing to do with systematic, precept upon precept, line upon line.
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Yeah, so to take it in the direction of social justice, social justice is the rejection of systematic theology, because social justice has within its epistemology of how it knows things, standpoint epistemology.
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Meaning your standpoint, your feelings, your experiences are your truth, and you bring that subjectively to the table.
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Other people have different approaches, and that's equally valid. Truth is not known objectively by the
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Word of God, but rather subjectively by the standpoint of a person's experiences, and feelings, and background, and skin color, and gender, and sexuality, and all of the identity markers.
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This is how they discover truth, which is a wrong epistemology, and therefore you arrive at all the wrong conclusions.
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Some claim that there is no absolute truth, but isn't that an absolute statement that nullifies itself?
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Of course, yeah. Postmodernism is self -defeating. If there's no absolute truth, then the idea of postmodern epistemology isn't true either, and, yeah, it unravels.
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That, what he just said, was mentioned in a tactics workbook. Oh, in tactics.
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When someone said there's no absolute truth, and is that absolute truth? Right.
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The other thing I'd like to say is that we're talking about wine and drunkenness, but could that just be a picture of what happens when we intoxicate ourselves with the wrong things?
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Yeah, I think this is a metaphor. It's literal, and it's metaphorical, I think, of Ephraim.
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It would be, one, I think they actually were getting drunk. Like, physically, they were rich in wine, and they were just sensual, but it's a picture of a way of living your life as a hedonist, and rather than actually doing the work of building a
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Christian worldview, in that time, a biblical worldview, Old Testament worldview. All right, so this is the work we need to do next.
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Verses 11 to 13. John, would you read that for us? For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the
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Lord will speak to this people, to whom he has said, this is rest, give rest to the weary, and this is repose, yet they would not hear.
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And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken.
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That is an interesting passage. What is happening there? Look at verse 11. For by a people of strange lips, the context of Isaiah has already established that this is the
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Assyrians, right, as they sweep over the nations. When Assyria overruns the northern kingdom, they come not speaking
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Hebrew, but speaking Assyrian, right? The strange lips, a foreign tongue, what does that sound like to a non -speaker of the
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Assyrian tongue? Sounds like battle, sounds like drunkenness. The Lord will speak to this people, to whom he has said, so God is the one sending the
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Assyrian army, and as they come in judgment, they're babbling, it's
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God judging them with tongues. This is really interesting. We'll make the application.
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To whom he said, he told them, this is rest, give rest to the weary, and this is repose, yet you would not hear.
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He sent prophets speaking in Hebrew. He sent priests speaking in Hebrew with clarity.
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God values clarity. Dennis Fletcher says, I value clarity over agreement.
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I prefer clarity over agreement. He knows people won't always agree, but what he's seeking is, let's make this thing clear.
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Postmodernism obfuscates ideas. I have a quote from Karl Marx where he's speaking on hedgel and he talks about how his intention is that you could hear whatever you want to hear in the words he writes.
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He wants to obfuscate. The enemy loves to obfuscate ideas. Christians love truth, and part of truth is clarity of speech.
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We love to say exactly what we mean. That's also, by the way guys, why we name names.
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If we're going to call somebody out, don't do it in this vague kind of effeminate way of not really, and I don't mean feminine, because women can be clear, but when men speak effeminately, it means they're not willing to actually come up and stand up to what they're opposing, so they never name names.
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It's just like they're touching around the edges. We name names. Alexander the coppersmith,
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Demetrius. Diotrephes loves to be first. Tim Keller has
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Marxist underpinnings in some of his work. We will name names if we have to oppose something that's wrong, because that's clarity, preferring clarity over agreement.
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To whom he has said, this is rest. Give rest to the weary. This is repose, yet they would not hear.
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They would not listen. They would not engage. They just ignored it.
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They didn't want clear teaching. They did not want precept upon precept, line upon line. Now here's where it gets so interesting.
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And the word of the Lord will be to them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept.
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This is the Assyrian talking, and they don't understand. Line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that you may go and what?
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Fall backward and be broken and snared and taken.
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Okay, I began this sermon. Is it a sermon? This teaching. Speaking of charismatics who tell everybody just to pray in tongues.
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To do that is to judge people with a horrible judgment.
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You are cursing them and saying be broken and snared and taken captive.
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Turn with me. 1st Corinthians 14 verses 20 to 22. Who'd like to read that one for me?
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John Detoli. 1st Corinthians 14, 20 to 22.
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Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
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In the law it is written, by people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will
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I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the
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Lord. Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
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Okay, for the longest time I misunderstood verse 22 because I didn't know
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Isaiah 28. There was no line upon line, precept upon precept, so I thought verse 22.
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Tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
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I assumed Simeon in the Greek there, Paul was referring to, for example, when
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Jesus would heal a blind person, and it's a sign of his grace and his mercy that he heals the sick.
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Or when someone is raised from the dead, it's a sign he's the Messiah. It's a gracious thing, a sign post pointing to the identity of Messiah.
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That was my wrong assumption. Look at verse 22. Thus, referring to verse 21, thus tongues are a sign.
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This is not a merciful sign. This is a sign of judgment.
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Tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers.
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You see that? While prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
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Here's the juxtaposition in 1st Corinthians 14. Prophecy and tongues.
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Prophecy is being commended because it's intelligible, it's understandable, it sounds a clear note, and the listener is able to hear it and respond.
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Tongues, in a certain condition, is a sign of judgment. Now what is that? Tongues without interpretation because no one can understand.
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It's well and good for a person to pray in tongues between that person and God. Speaks to God, not to men.
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That's fine. But in the assembly, to pray in a different language without an interpreter is judgment upon everybody gathered in that room.
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That's what he's saying. Look at verse 23. If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?
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An outsider comes walking into a Benny Hinn crusade and he says everybody pray in tongues and they're looking at the guy next to them who's just babbling like a drunkard and he says these
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Christians are out of their mind. But, verse 24, if all prophesy, see here's the juxtaposition, prophecy versus speaking in tongues without interpretation.
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If all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed and so falling on his face he will worship
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God and declare that God is really among you. The intelligibility is a good thing.
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Rich? A legitimate use of tongues is to build yourself up. Yeah. Whereas verse 3 talks about the gift of prophecy, but those who prophesy speak edification, exhortation and comfort to all men.
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Right. It's for building up others. Yeah, that's what's so beneficial and good about it. It's up building. So, prophecy builds other people up, builds up the church.
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Speaking in tongues can edify an individual. A person can pray in tongues and be edified privately and personally before God if they have that gift.
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Now, I think it's clear that this is referring to some kind of spiritual gift, otherwise why not just speak the language that you know, that everybody understands.
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There's a context here in 1st Corinthians 14, but what's being said, and this is why we bring it up, from verse 21 is a reference to Isaiah 28, which we just studied.
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When the Assyrian comes speaking a foreign language that nobody knows and wipes you out and you don't understand and it sounds like babbling, you drunkard, you're being judged by God.
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And so, we're not to judge other people in that way. We're not as a church to be here speaking in tongues so that the unbeliever comes in and has no clue what you're saying.
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You're not blessing them, you're judging them. That's God's place to give judgment, so don't,
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Christian, you fall into that. That's the argument of 1st Corinthians 14. Does that make sense? Does that unlock the teaching there?
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So therefore, tongues are a sign of judgment. Yeah, it would be it would be to their shame.
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Yeah, so they're doing things not decently in an order and that's kind of the whole idea of chapter 14.
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Wow, so that's why we don't do that. Yeah. He babbles on and on.
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Yes. Is he right or wrong? He's wrong. And see,
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Jimmy Swigert would be a perfect example of that. Probably there's a sincerity, there's some kind of sincerity that goes back to his entire ministry, but there's a man without discernment and that's what
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Isaiah 28 is about. He's never built a strong systematic theology. He's never been a great expositional
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Bible teacher. He's the anti John MacArthur. He's just an emotional guy who has no discernment and so he babbles on, literally babbling on, on national television and gives a wicked name to Christianity rather than a solid example of intelligent speech.
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He's more powerful than Billy Graham was. He gets six million dollars a month. He's all over the world.
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He's a broadcasting company and it scares me to see him be that powerful. Yeah, and he's foolish.
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Yeah, he runs his little scheme where he sells all his products on TV and to elderly people who at that time maybe don't have their full faculties.
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He exploits people in that and it's like this live -in residential community and it's pretty much the only people that come to his studio except for when
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Jordan Hall showed up there one time and and called him out on the show, which was very interesting if you want to Google it, but yeah, so yeah.
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He never repented for cheating on his wife. Yeah, he needed to be disqualified from the ministry, which he was according to the
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Bible. Biblically, he was disqualified, but he reinstated himself after he got out of jail.
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Some of his teaching is good. He teaches the message of the cross. Right, and this is the point
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I make it. I love that you bring it up. There are sincere people whose salvation I won't comment on.
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That's not the issue. We don't know who's going to be saved and not saved. When we get to heaven, we'll find that out, but I'm saying that discernment matters and sincerity is not enough.
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You have got to build precept upon precept, line upon line. Build a strong systematic theology that can withstand cross -examination.
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Notice that the people who don't do this will never sit down with James White or Votie Bauckham for a debate.
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The people on the other side of the social justice argument would never sit down with little old me.
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I've challenged a lot of these people. Why don't we have a public open discussion with a moderator? Geno Jennings, right, and his oneness
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Pentecostalism babbling on screen. I've challenged him to a public debate for years. He would never do it if it was moderated with equal time.
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You see, we love truth, so we believe Proverbs 1817. Why is it that the left side,
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Mark Dever and David Platt and Al Mueller even, the guys that went on CHEPCON in 2019, sat across from John MacArthur and Phil Johnson.
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Why is it that the James White, Votie Bauckham, they're always saying, let's have an open conversation on this.
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The answer is because they believe in Proverbs 1817. And whereas the other side does too, they can't defend their position in cross -examination.
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That's the difference. Proverbs 1817, one man seems right until another comes and examines him.
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Truth will stand up to cross -examination. Public speaking in tongues without interpretation cannot stand up to 1st
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Corinthians 14 with reference to Isaiah 28. It can only stand up to misreading it without context.
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See what I'm saying? So all that to say, we have to be building systematic theology growing in precept upon precept.
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Acts 2 speaks very clearly on the apostles were speaking to a crowd who each understood in their own language.
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Each one understood. The apostles weren't speaking language. Yeah. I think the miracle of tongues was being given.
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And there was a miracle of interpretation that was unique to the day of Pentecost, where the people who were hearing, it says each one, there's not like a little cluster surrounding
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Peter, and he's speaking Romanian, and so 28 Romanians are around him. No, it says each one heard them speaking in their own native tongue.
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And then it lists like 17 places, Pontish and all the different regions. So they're all hearing this, what would be
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Babel ordinarily, they're hearing it in their own language. That's the birth of the church. But then when we're regulated in terms of the didactic teaching material on what to do with tongues going forward, 1st
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Corinthians 14, a person can pray in tongues in a private prayer time, but in the assembly, there would have to be an interpreter.
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And nowadays, I don't see any interpreters. I think with the death of the apostles, we don't have any way of validating an interpreter.
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I think that's unique to that time period. I don't think we should have people prophesying in tongues, because that's a challenge to the soul of Scripture, now that the canon is complete.
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Plus, whatever they're saying has to be verified through Scripture. It can't reveal new truths.
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And even prophecy. When I stand up on a Sunday morning, I don't just read the Bible, right?
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I speak. I apply things to our lives and things like that, that there's a prophetic element to that.
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And it's every person's job, sitting in the sanctuary, not to just take what
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I say, but Acts 17 11, like good Bereans, to see if these things are so. Absolutely.
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And 1st Thessalonians 5, when somebody prophesies, when you give this intelligible speech that everybody can understand, you are to weigh what is said, and hold on to what is good, and reject what is evil.
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And you would need to call me out if I say anything that's unbiblical. Scripture with Scripture.
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Right. Yeah. Such an important teaching today. Line upon line, precept upon precept. We will avoid being like Ephraim, if we do that.
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But if we lack discernment, we will be like drunken babblers. Let's pray.
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John, would you close us? Dear Lord God, your truth is everlasting, it is sure, it is the foundation that we should be built upon.
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Precept upon precept, line upon line, repetitively, just bringing truth into our hearts, beyond just our minds, and into our very hearts, so that when the world comes, and it does come, we have truth to measure up against.
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Protect us, Lord, from the way Satan would distract us, in ways that we could become intoxicated, prideful, in ways that our flowers just would be fading because there's no substance.
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Allow us, Lord, to stand true to you, and then to be bold, to speak that truth to the world.