WWUTT 755 Q&A Expository Preaching, Hebrew Roots Movement, and All Foods are Clean?

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Are there any examples in the Bible of expository preaching? What is the

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Hebrew Roots Movement? And did Jesus actually declare all foods clean?

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The answers to these questions when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily study of the word of God.

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As we wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Find all our videos on our website, www .utt .com. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you so much, Becky. You're welcome. So there is a quote from Andy Stanley that came about, this was in 2009, an interview that he did with Ed Stetzer through Christianity Today, I believe was the publication.

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And so Stetzer had asked Andy what he thought about guys who preached verse by verse through the

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Bible. And here's what Stanley said, guys that preach verse by verse through the books of the

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Bible, that is just cheating. It's cheating because that would be easy, first of all.

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That isn't how you grow people. No one in the scripture modeled that. There's not one example of that.

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What? Yeah. That's a Stanley quote. No, that's totally false. The example that we looked at yesterday out of the book of Nehemiah immediately busts that claim that Stanley has said that there's not one example in the

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Bible of this. Nehemiah chapter 8, where Ezra reads the law before all of the people.

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And as he's reading the law, there were Levitical priests who helped the people understand the law while the people remained in their places.

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They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.

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Folks, that's expository preaching right there. Amen. Thumbs it up. The law read and explained as it was being read to the people.

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And that's how it's done. Yep. I mentioned that on the podcast yesterday, but I didn't make the connection with that popular comment from Andy Stanley.

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It still comes up every once in a while, even though we said it almost 10 years ago. But even in the New Testament, we have it said that the scriptures were read every

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Sabbath in the synagogues. That's Acts 15, 21. And every Lord's Day in the church,

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Paul gave the instruction to Timothy, commit himself to the public reading of scripture.

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So there are plenty of examples in this in the Bible, not just Old Testament, but also New Testament. It's a ridiculous comment, teaching model for a pastor to be committed just to topical sermons, which is what

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Stanley does, because that doesn't bring your congregation under the full authority of the word of God.

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Right. And it's Mark Dever I know that I've heard say that a part of your church's regular diet should be expository preaching.

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It's not that there aren't times when a topical sermon would be appropriate, maybe to address a particular matter that's even going on in your church, or in your community, or in the world.

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In general, maybe you have to leave what it is you're studying at that particular time because it doesn't pertain to something that your people really need to hear

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God's word address. Right. And so you have to leave the area of teaching that you're in and find another place in the

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Bible that would more appropriately address the matter that's going on. But you still do this in an expository way.

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Right. You preach it according to what the scripture says, not what you want it to say. Right.

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And when you have pastors that are entirely topical, that's exactly what it is that they do. They're taking the

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Bible to fit the topic that they've chosen, which is eisegetical preaching.

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They are imposing themselves on the scripture rather than letting the scripture teach and then coming under the scripture's authority.

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And that's following this model that we have right here in Nehemiah with Ezra reading the law and the Levitical priest explaining then what it was that Ezra was reading.

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Right. So, we've come into that. I've come into that discipline now as a pastor. We start with the reading, we pray, and then we come to understand what it is that we've read in the context in which we've read it and also how it applies to our lives in our present day and age as we walk as Christians in this world.

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And that's part of it. So, you come to understand what the scripture says and the application for all believers.

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And there's the examples that we have straight from the Bible. That's where they come from. And these letters that Paul wrote,

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I mean, the letters that Paul wrote to the churches were read in their entirety to the churches.

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And then the churches had a collection of those letters, which they would continue to read to hear the apostolic instruction and understand these instructions that came from God's messengers.

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So, yeah, there is no other way. Any other teaching is outside the instruction of the word of God.

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Sorry. Go ahead. I'm sure they didn't just read it one time through and be like, oh, yeah, I got everything. Yeah, not at all.

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Because even here, the example that we have in Nehemiah, the very next day, they read it again.

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Exactly. And started coming to different places, were like, wait, I remember reading this, and we as a people aren't doing this.

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And so they were even convicted by what it was that they heard read aloud. Right. And it's just like you need more than one time to absorb it.

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And the Bible is just so full. I can't even comprehend how much depth there is to it.

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That as my Christian life grows and deepens, every time

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I read the Bible, I get something else. Right. Like, oh, wow, I didn't even know that was in there kind of thing.

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There are even sometimes... I talked about this with Andy Olson on the Echo Zoe podcast, which we finally got that interview done and posted this week.

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And I mentioned that it's on my website or on the When We Understand the

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Text Facebook page. So Facebook .com slash WWUTVideos to get to our

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Facebook page and the Echo Zoe podcast is on there somewhere. I may have to post it again. So it's near the top.

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But anyway, one of the things I mentioned with Andy is that even as a pastor, I'll read something in a particular text that convicts me.

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And I may have read it 20 or 30 times before, but somehow it's saying something different to me now than it's ever said.

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And I'm convicted in such a way where I'm looking at this going, is it right that I'm a pastor and I haven't understood this until just now?

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Right. I'll have that conviction. But yet I heard Derek Thomas say something similar to that.

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And Derek Thomas is way, way above where I'm at in my biblical acumen. And yet he's even talked about how the

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Word of God continues to convict him even now and make a child of him to realize I'm still at the feet of the

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Father. Yeah. It's so humbling. Hearing his instructions. Yeah. It's beautiful. So in Titus chapter one, as we've been reading through Titus as well,

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Nehemiah and Titus. So I'm going to connect the two together. All right. Titus 1 .1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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So it is our reading of the Word of God and our application of that word that grows us in godliness.

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And yet Stanley wants to insist that's not how you grow people. It's the only way you grow people.

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Oh, amen. We have to hear all the time. That's right. Like, just spell it out for me.

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Put it all down. Okay. Even even the words that are just a little bit big, you got to use littler words.

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Break them down. Yeah. Just break it totally down for me. That's how we grow in sanctification. We grow in holiness.

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We grow in the knowledge of God and the understanding of him and his word when we hear his word preached.

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So don't let anyone tell you that that that's cheating and that's not the way that we're supposed to understand the

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Word of God. And using scripture to interpret scripture is just it's so enlightening.

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That's a necessary discipline as well, learning how to do that. And I'm grateful that my father taught me how to do that.

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Oh, amen. Doesn't mean that I understood the scriptures well, but at least he gave me a model on how to properly interpret the scripture using the

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Bible to understand the Bible. And so as I continued that application, growing in a knowledge of the scripture, eventually

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I did come to a deeper conviction of the truth that I did not have before. So starting, you know, when

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I was five or six years old and dad had me reading through all of Exodus, I may not have understood it, but he at least gave me the groundwork and then the tools to use to interpret it.

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And then as I grew, understanding what I was reading and applying those things because he gave me, he equipped me with the tools on how to do that.

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So as folks will ask me, like, what sort of Bible should I get? Usually the Bible that I recommend that you get first is a reference

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Bible. So a study Bible has all the study notes and everything like that. But sometimes when we have our study

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Bibles, we tend to rely on those notes instead of learning how to do it ourselves, right? So it's good to have a reference

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Bible because then you have those reference markers out to the side and you can read that verse, look at other verses that pertain to that verse.

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Somebody who's done that work for you and written those references out there. So helpful. Yes. But even, even

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I today will look at like the reference margin and I'll go, hey, they forgot a verse.

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I know another verse that ties in with it, you know, so it'll be something like that anyway. But it's always good to have more than one

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Bible to compare. There's that as well. You have more than one translation. So that you have, yeah, you've got especially like the

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New American Standard, the ESV and the New King James. I still think the

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ESV and the NASB are superior, but the New King James, simply because you have that historical reference to, to understand how the

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Bible has been understood at least for the last 400 years until we had some of the more modern translations without going any further into that.

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Right. Today we are, we're taking questions mostly about the Hebrew Roots Movement because that was the series of videos that I just finished up.

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Okay. And then I'm next going to do, I believe the next what video, I'm not absolutely positive this is what

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I'm going to do next, but I think it's on the flat earth. I wrote this script a long time ago and I've not done it because I just don't want to,

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I don't want to address this topic. But there are more and more people who call themselves

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Christians. I'm not saying they're not believers. I mean, whether or not the earth is round or flat really doesn't have anything to do with your salvation.

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But there's just a growing number of people who call themselves Christians who believe that the earth is flat and they believe that the

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Bible says the earth is flat. So I wrote a script responding to that a couple of years ago, but I just didn't do it because it was like,

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I don't want to do this video. This is such, this is the silliest topic

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I've ever addressed. And uh, and, but, but since Columbus, you know,

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Columbus settled this already. Yeah. Chris Columbus. Thanks. Thanks guy. Thanks for sailing the ocean blue and for making home alone.

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But the, uh, it was the same director, right? Yeah. Christopher Columbus in 1492.

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And then in 1992, I don't know when that movie came out, I don't know either, 500 years later, he made a, he made a funny movie.

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What was I saying? But anyway, there are more people now, and especially, you know, with the myths that just squirrel around online, but there are more, uh, confessing

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Christians now believing in a flat earth than when I first read that script there, there are even people on Facebook who have joined this, uh, this club, this group in which they have their profile photos changed to say flat earth for life.

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They'll even have that in their profile photo. They are proudly proclaiming, I believe that the earth is flat and, and the

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Bible even says so on top of that. So anyway, that may be the next video

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I'm doing. All that to say it's a maybe it's a maybe that's, that's also given that I can do this with gentleness and respect because it's difficult to just not want to make fun of you for thinking that the earth is flat.

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Justin Peters has said on Twitter that he gets so many emails from flat earthers, people saying,

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I bet you believe this and this and this and that the earth is round. You joker. You know, something like that.

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They're getting really high and mighty on their flat earth conspiracy.

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After finishing up Hebrew roots, that may be the next video or I may want to address something more relevant, pertinent.

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So right now, John MacArthur is coming out with a series of blogs addressing the social justice movement.

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And I've had a few folks approach me, even some very influential teachers whom

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I learned from and have asked me, could you do some what videos addressing some of these things with the social justice movement?

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And I have done a couple, but I'm just I'm really not the voice in that. There are some some guys out there who just say things way better than I do related to this particular topic.

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Right. And so I'm kind of going to let them talk. And then if there's something about what they say that grabs me in particular that I think would make a good 90 second video, then

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I'll I'll grab some of those points and make those into videos. So I'm grateful that Dr.

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MacArthur and some of these other folks are addressing the social justice movement. And I think that because it's so influential, it does need to be addressed.

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But there are other things that are going on and we can't ignore those. Exactly. Yeah, that that there are other lies the enemy is using to to bring people or draw people away from the truth.

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And the Hebrew roots movement is one of those things. Right. And has quite a following online. You may not meet a

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Hebrew roots person personally, or maybe you have, but but it is definitely very widespread on the

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Internet. And I think the Internet is how the Hebrew roots movement has become such a movement is because they've been able to rally so many people through the

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Internet. So before we start responding to some of these questions and comments that I've received over the series of Hebrew roots videos that I put out,

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I want to first play this video that I did just this past week on Lex Meyer and his

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YouTube ministry called Unlearn the Lies, because the first email that I have to read here has to do with this particular video.

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All right. Unlearn the Lies is an online ministry that wants to correct many of the false assumptions people have learned about the

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Bible, kind of like another ministry we know. While host Lex Meyer seems like a nice guy who wants to honor

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God, that honor has to fit his Hebrew roots framework. Like most Hebrew roots guys, Lex loves wandering in the myth.

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He teaches that Elijah never ascended into heaven. The thief on the cross next to Jesus didn't go to heaven. And the idea that we go to heaven is pagan and might be the biggest lie we've ever been told.

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Lex denies that when we die, we go to be with the Lord, but rather we enter a state of soul sleep until the resurrection of the dead.

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He twists Jesus own teaching on the afterlife and says that if hell is a place of eternal torment, that would make

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God a sadist. Jewish holidays and dietary laws are also favorite topics. Lex says

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Jesus never declared all foods clean in the statement in Mark 7 19 was added by translators. But this isn't the only place we read all foods are clean.

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The Lord said it again in Acts 10. And Paul said in Romans 14 that he is convinced in the Lord Jesus. No food is unclean unless a person thinks it's unclean.

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Colossians 2 16 says, therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a

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Sabbath. But Unlearned Lies is constantly passing judgment on such things. First Timothy 4 1 through 3 says that some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to the teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, requiring abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who know the truth when we understand the text.

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So leading into that video, I didn't really give much explanation of what Hebrew roots is.

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No, but it's actually kind of difficult to nail down. OK, because they don't have any creeds or statements, you know, like a statement of faith or beliefs.

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In fact, they shun such things. They they say that you shouldn't have creeds or anything like that.

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You just simply point to the Bible. Well, the Bible says it. The Bible is a big book and the

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Hebrew roots guys take a lot of things out of context. But but basically, the gist of Hebrew roots is this, and that is that the church has become corrupted by Greek and Roman influences, even going all the way back to like the first and second century with these

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Greek and Roman influence, though primarily in the fourth century after the Council of Nicaea and Constantine and things like that.

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So Constantine really brought about the most corruption in the church. And we've kind of been on that trajectory ever since.

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So the Hebrew roots guys believe that we need to get back to our Hebrew beginnings and to be a good

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Christian means you must be a good Jew. OK, and and so you must follow all of the law as if it is some kind of higher path.

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And if you aren't keeping things like the dietary laws or celebrating the Jewish feasts and holidays, then you're just not being a

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Christian the way that Jesus and his disciples were Christians. And this is really a relatively new thing, even though it seems like, well, this has kind of been going on through the whole history of the church.

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Right. These Judaizers saying that we need to get back to our Hebrew roots. Now, this really only came about in the early 20th century.

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And then there have been various splinter groups. And one of those is Hebrew roots. That term was not coined until the 90s.

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So this is a pretty recent thing that has been going on. But it has it is it's taken so many people was delving into a lot of myths and conspiracy theories, obviously with the idea that all of this goes back to Constantine.

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And we have these Roman and Greek influences that have corrupted Christianity.

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And we need to get back to our Hebrew roots. They're often very wordy. They will elevate non -essential doctrines into essential status.

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And they love quarreling over words. That's another thing, especially when it comes to which names that describe

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God and Jesus Christ we use. OK, so that's the skinny of the

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Hebrew roots movement without having to, because like I said, it's it's really complicated.

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And whenever you ask these guys questions, they typically give extremely long winded, wordy answers.

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I witnessed a guy online asking Michael Rood and Michael Rood is like the Rick Warren of the

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Hebrew roots. OK, R .O .O .D. is how you spell his last name. So I witnessed a guy asking

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Michael Rood what his opinion of the Trinity was. Michael Rood sent him a video.

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Watch this and then you will understand my view of the Trinity. It was three hours long.

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Whoa. And I actually watched the whole thing. Whoa. Did I come to understand what

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Michael Rood's. Yes. Did I get what Rood's view of the Trinity was?

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I did not. I did not even getting to the end of that video. I certainly got a clearer view of his framework by which he operates and in which he interprets the scriptures.

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But I did not have any understanding of what his view or his thoughts of the Trinity were by the end of that video. And this this is just the way these

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Hebrew roots guys respond to these kinds of things. Because they keep talking until you lose interest in them.

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Yeah, that's pretty much it. Well, I'm going to get to that here in just a minute. You'll get kind of a sample, a much, a much shorter sample than Michael Rood's.

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When I'm getting a little concerned there. Yeah. When Lex Meyer responds to a question about Trinity.

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So we'll bring up that audio in just a moment. But first, I'll I'll read this email related to that video that I just played.

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This is from Richard. He says, Dear Brother Gabe and the what team. Thank you for your video confronting the major issues with the

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Hebrew roots movement. I recently studied and with some difficulty submitted to Calvinistic theology out of an

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Arminian Baptist background. I'm sure that was difficult. Oh, yes. It's never easy to accept some of those deep truths like that.

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I was wondering what else I was taught wrong or poorly. And then I found the

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YouTube ministry Unlearn the Lies. I certainly thought something wasn't right with Lex's exegesis and wasn't willing to submit myself to his teaching yet.

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But it did cause me a great deal of inner conflict. I used my own scriptural study and the teachings of my pastors and mentors to guide my steps.

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But just but to see the issues. Yeah, that goes right back into scripture, using scripture to interpret scripture, just like you were talking about.

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Good job. But to see the issues in Hebrew roots theology presented in such a crisp 90 second fashion on when we understand the text was a pleasant surprise and a good relief.

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I've been a longtime viewer of your channel and ever since I saw what video on Wretched, your ministry has been a blessing to me.

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And for that, I thank you, dear brothers. Well, I appreciate that very much, Richard, and blessings to you in Christ as well.

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So when I was coming up with that video addressing that ministry,

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Unlearn the Lies, I had to watch a lot of Unlearn's videos, a lot of Lex Meyer's videos, and some of them address some things where right away

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I would go, boy, that's wrong and would want to like section out that part and do a video responding to it.

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But it didn't encapsulate the things that Lex taught as as well as I think the video that I finally came up with, because I'm addressing there his teaching on end times or not end times, but the afterlife, life after death.

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And then also what he says about dietary laws and feasts and holidays, because those are the two topics that he really addresses the most on Unlearn the

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Lies. Everything else, certainly from a Hebrew roots framework or standpoint, but but definitely those two topics.

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But there was one video that he did on the Trinity, and this is the one that that I'm going to play clips of here.

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And he he's also asked by somebody, what are your thoughts on the Trinity?

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And it's clear that this person who is asking Lex what his ideas on Trinity are does not believe in a biblically orthodox definition of the

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Trinity. So I'm going to I'm going to play some clips of this and we're going to kind of interrupt it as we go to explain.

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All right. You know why Lex is right or wrong on this particular point. So is the

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Trinity biblical? Is God a Trinity? That has to be one of the most difficult questions

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I have ever tried to answer. And I want to apologize to you, Ike, for taking so long to respond to this one.

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The Trinity has been a topic of debate for nearly 2000 years, and I have to admit that I have been more than a little intimidated by this subject because I have been wrestling with it for quite some time myself.

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So please bear with me on this one as I try to do my best to explain my conclusions about it. The word

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Trinity does not appear anywhere in the Bible, but it's a word that was invented to explain the relationship between the

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Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It refers to one being and three persons. You also mentioned a belief that is known as modalism.

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Modalism is a belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit represent three modes or aspects of God, not three distinct persons.

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Basically, God takes different forms at different times. Both of these theories are trying to explain the unique nature of the relationship between the

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Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and both are considered to be monotheistic. However, I'm afraid that both are attempts to describe something that we don't really understand.

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We're trying to quantify and measure the immeasurable. Okay, let me stop him there for a moment.

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He says that both of these definitions of Trinity, modalism and the

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Orthodox definition of Trinity, are trying to describe the relationship between the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. No, they aren't. Modalism does not describe a relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

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Modalism rejects that there's a relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Right. But simply that God can be a father or he can manifest himself as a son or he can manifest himself as the

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Holy Spirit. But he cannot be all three. Right. At the same time. That's modalism.

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It is cause for no relationship. Yeah. There's no relationship there.

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So Lex doesn't even understand that. He doesn't understand the Orthodox definition of Trinity and he doesn't understand a definition that has been rejected as heresy for over a thousand years.

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And it sounds like he's still struggling with it. Yeah. Yeah. As much as he said that he's given time into studying this.

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It's like, have you not read any of the creeds or confessions on understanding the Trinity? Well, not if they reject it.

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Yeah, they do reject. They reject any sort of historical confession. I would not expect him to do any historical confession reading.

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Right. But even understanding or I mean, having studied this topic, he says he studied it for so many years.

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He should have at least read those confessions because they are such an integral part of the history of the church in understanding things like Trinity.

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True. And it's indeed true when he says that the Trinity is divinely mysterious and difficult for us to grasp.

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Absolutely. But the reason why you don't understand the Trinity of God is because you're not

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God. Right. And we're just human. They're mere humans. And there is a day.

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There is a day when we will understand it because 1 John 3 2 tells us that we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

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Right. Right now, understanding God is one God and three co -equal and co -eternal persons.

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We can't wrap our minds around that because you and I sitting right here, we're two individual persons.

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Right. And we're also two individual beings, whereas God is one being.

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Right. But three persons that that's supernatural. That is beyond our natural limitations to be able to grasp a

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God that exists in that way. Right. But yet we have it written down for us in the pages of Scripture.

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And so we trust what the Bible says and know that a day is going to come when, as Horatio Spafford put it, our faith will be sight.

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And in the meantime, we believe what Scripture says, which clearly presents

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God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And Jesus himself said in Matthew 11, no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

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The reason why we even have this concept of God being one God and three persons,

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Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is because this has been revealed through the person in work of Jesus Christ.

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Right. Who shows us the father. Amen. So but but Lex is even confused on that point.

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And you'll realize that as we go on. By claiming to understand the nature of God, are we putting

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Him in a box and making a God of our own imagination? The Bible even tells us that it's a great mystery.

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And without controversy, great is the mystery of holiness. Elohim was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the

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Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. We need to be careful about not going beyond what the

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Bible tells us. Because we don't want to invent theories or spread lies. How ironic.

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And you may not have caught it because I broke up the clip there. But he said that, are we not coming up with a

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God of our own imagination? And that's what he thinks of the historic creeds. He thinks that in the history of the church, when we've tried to explain the

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Trinity in a biblically orthodox way, that we're actually conceptualizing something that is beyond the text, rather than understanding it according to the text.

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And he read from 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.

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He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

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And I don't deny that great indeed is the mystery of godliness. And yet we have these creeds and confessions, like Paul said here in 1

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Timothy 3, 16, so that we can understand these things a little bit better. And that is according to what

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God has given us, that we can understand his nature when we as finite creatures would not otherwise be able to understand the complexities of an infinite

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God. And there's still so much we don't understand. But yet there is so much that has also been revealed to us.

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Oh, yes. Amen. Through Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that Yahweh is one. Likewise, Yeshua said,

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I and my father are one. The language that's used in the Bible seems to indicate a plural unity.

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For example, the Shema says, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. Yahweh our

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God, Yahweh is one. The word Echad is translated one, but it can also indicate a unity.

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For example, the same word is used for husband and wife becoming one flesh. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave into his wife and they shall be one

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Echad flesh. Likewise, the word Elohim is a plural word, but it's used to speak of one

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God when referring to Yahweh. So it seems that Yahweh Elohim is a plural singular.

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And see, those things, it's not necessarily wrong to consider that, to think about such things.

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I've always found that intriguing, that the word Elohim is indeed a plural singular.

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So it's describing one God, but yet there's a plural aspect to that word as well. So even the spirit of God was revealing to the

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Hebrews a plural nature to God, even though he is one

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God and yet three persons. So those are indeed neat. They're intriguing. But the problem is that Lex refuses to acknowledge that any of these other definitions of Trinity are actually biblical.

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He thinks they're extra biblical to even use that word Trinity, because you notice he said at the beginning of the thing,

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Trinity doesn't appear in the Bible. Right. Which, of course, that word doesn't appear in the Bible. It's just like the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement doesn't appear in the

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Bible. Right. But yet it is nonetheless a biblical doctrine. And in fact, another way of saying penal substitutionary atonement is the message of the gospel.

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Just because that term isn't in the Bible doesn't mean it's somehow wrong for us to mention it or study such things.

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So so going on with Lex's definition of Trinity here. But what does that even mean?

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I have spent years trying to understand the Trinity. I studied it in college. I've read several different books on the subject and I've searched the scriptures for answers.

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And I am convinced that the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a mystery that we may never fully understand.

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And I'm not sure that we're even meant to. We are finite mortals who are trying to describe an infinite, immortal

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God. And anyone who thinks they have it figured out is fooling themselves. People have been arguing about the nature of the

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Godhead for nearly 2000 years, and all it has accomplished is strife and division. One person calls another one a heretic if they disagree about this topic.

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Churches have been split over the subject and whole denominations have been formed as a result.

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I suggest instead of arguing about the Trinity, we need to spend our time and energy seeking him, listening to him and obeying him.

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That is a very Jewish answer. Oh, instead of getting to know

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God in this way, the way that he's actually revealed himself in the scripture as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

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We just need to be seeking him, which Lex doesn't even really quantify what that means.

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Yeah, it would be seeking him according to what the Bible says. And we just need to serve him and obey him.

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OK, that's a Jewish answer. Oh, so let's just obey God. We don't really have to know

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God. We just need to obey God. That's exactly what an Orthodox Jew today would tell you.

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Wow. That there isn't anything that we know about God. God is he's up there. He's way out there.

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How could we even have this relationship with God? We just need to obey God. That would be the

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Jewish response to that. And it's almost deistic in a certain sense. God is so way up here above us.

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And we're so way down here. We can't even understand that. So we can't have a relationship with it.

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We can't get to know him this way. He's so he's so out there and mysterious. We can't know. So let's just obey him.

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Let's just obey God and we'll continue in obedience. And and that's enough. And if we just do that, then there won't be all this division and strife and things like that that come about because we actually study his word and try to understand what it is that he said.

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Right. Right. So as we continue in our study of the book of Titus, we'll get to chapter three, verse nine, which says, but avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions and quarrels about the law for they are unprofitable and worthless.

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The very thing that Lex is appealing to in order to have unity actually causes quarrels.

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And this was part of the problem with the Galatians as well. For Paul said to the Galatians in chapter five that you you bite and devour one another because they are they were contentious over the law.

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It is only the spirit of God that brings unity. Now, if there's any division when when we apply ourselves to right doctrine, if there's any division, it's because there are those who adhere to right doctrine and those who adhere to wrong doctrine, those who are in right doctrine are unified, but those who are in wrong doctrine are divided.

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Jesus said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword and family members will even be divided over one another over the things that Jesus has said.

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So the reason why churches have been divided or people have been divided over things that God has said about himself is because those who truly do know

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God and desire to know him, according to what he said in his word, are going to be those that God has called out from the world to himself.

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Right. So they, by the spirit of God, are divided from everyone else. And then there are those who love him and those who hate him.

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Right. And then those who try to serve God in the flesh or who try to get to know him according to fleshly means rather than by his word will instead be walking in the flesh and in this world instead of in the spirit and by his word.

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And so so that's that's the trouble there that you hear with Lex's attempt to not even define the

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Trinity, but just not define it. Yeah, he's he's he's not really defining much.

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Right. He's he's striving to not have to define it at all. And that's very Hebrew roots. It's very common.

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Like they don't even want to get to these fundamental doctrines. And Trinity is that one doctrine that separates

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Christianity from every other belief. It is unique to Christianity only and no other religion or spirituality or belief shares anything remotely similar to the doctrine of the

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Trinity. It is even the thing that separates Christianity from Orthodox Judaism because they do not believe

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Jesus is the Christ. So they don't believe in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They're indeed a monotheistic religion, but they don't believe in a triune

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God. And so Christianity even separates itself from Judaism in an understanding of the doctrine of the

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Trinity, which the Hebrew roots guys want to keep a foot in Judaism and a foot in Christianity.

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Right. So they don't want to have to define the doctrine of the Trinity. They don't want strife.

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When Moses asked who Yahweh was, he simply responded by saying, I am.

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And Elohim said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel.

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I am has sent me unto you. How can the creation even try to understand the nature of the creator?

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It's beyond our comprehension. And any attempt to define or measure God is utterly futile.

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So to answer your question, is God a Trinity? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, that was interesting.

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I almost hear him saying, I don't care. Yeah, I don't know.

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I don't care. Well, all you have to do is obey him. Yeah, just obey God. And what difference does it make?

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Who cares about this Trinity stuff? It's a made up word. It's extra biblical because that kind of seems to be his is his driving motivation in his answer is just, well, it's it's an extra biblical thing anyway.

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So why are we even trying to define this? We just need to go according to what the word says only.

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And that in itself is I mean, he's smack in the face of Trinitarians to say any attempt that you make to try to define

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Trinity is extra biblical anyway. So what are you doing? Which is it's not. No. And it also reveals his hubris and his hypocrisy because he's telling

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Trinitarians not to do the very thing that he's doing, which is defining the Trinity. Only he doesn't even know how to define it.

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And he and he also says you have to go with what I see that the

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Bible says, not with what you have concluded in your study or what you think that the Bible says you have to go with my understanding of this.

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And it just makes you want to say, Alex, do you really even understand Christianity? Yeah, I don't know.

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He's just confusing. It's like he's talking around circles, right? Yeah, it's not even answering a question.

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No, this is a teacher. In the beginning, he has come to the conclusion. And yeah, right.

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His conclusion is, I don't know. Oh, my God. OK, well, I've come to a conclusion. I don't know.

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Yeah, that was weird. That's not a conclusion. And there is a little bit more.

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I can't remember what's at the end of this, because I think I just kind of got lost at I don't know. It's like, oh,

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OK, well, why was I watching this? But I believe in the father, the son and the

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Holy Spirit. And I believe these three are one. We are not expected to understand how God is.

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We are simply expected to believe that he is. Oh, OK. I do remember that now.

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So we're not we're not expected to know how God is. We're just supposed to know that he is.

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Well, you know. How about who he is?

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Yeah. He has revealed himself to be through Jesus Christ. As we read about in Second Corinthians, the the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

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And we know the father through the son who has given us his Holy Spirit poured into our hearts.

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And we are indwelt with the very spirit of God. All those who believe on the name of Christ and desire to serve him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

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Amen. By the way, you cannot obey God unless you have the spirit of God.

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So true. So. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Lexus thing. Let's just obey God. Well, you can't even do that unless the

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Lord has given his spirit to you. Now, even in your works, they might be dead. You might have dead works or you acknowledge him with your lips.

40:45

Yeah. But your heart is far from God. Right. So I thank you for your comment, Richard. And I'm glad that that video was very encouraging to you.

40:52

We're coming up on the close. And and, you know, anytime that we do the Friday podcast, we also get closer and closer to Becky's weariness.

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Yeah. Sorry. She can only hold on for so long. That's right, because we do this on Thursday night and it gets close to Becky's bedtime.

41:11

But I still want to try to get to the what video here that I did on Mark 7 19, where it says that Jesus declared all foods clean.

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So I'm going to play that one and then respond to a couple of questions related to that video. OK. In Mark seven,

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Jesus said, Are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled.

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Thus, he declared all foods clean. Now, what's with the parentheses? Cynics will say that modern translators have added this portion.

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The NIV, ESV, NASB, they all say thus he declared all foods clean. But that's not in the

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King James. Therefore, it's a translation edition. It isn't in the original text. Actually, yes, it is.

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All of the earliest Greek manuscripts say this. If you look in the New American Standard, you might notice the words thus he are italicized.

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That's because a direct Greek to English translation would not include these words, but they are implied.

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So to make sense in English, the words thus he are required in order to clarify the text.

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Jesus quote ends here and then Mark under the guidance of the Holy Spirit says that Jesus declared all foods clean.

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Origin in the third century and Chrysostom in the fourth century understood this passage the same way. It is not a recent translator's invention.

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Just look at the context. Jesus said whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him.

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Even if you ignore the parentheses, the message is still clear. Nothing that goes into a person makes them unholy.

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Not steak or fish, not pork or shellfish, not even a Twinkie or a Lego. What makes you unclean is your sinful heart.

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And only Christ can purify you. Ask forgiveness for your sins, and he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness when we understand the text.

42:57

They go a Lego. Yes, Lego. I'll take that Twinkie. Surely, surely you as a parent can relate to a child eating a

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Lego. Not swallowing, thankfully. But yes, many times. And by the way, you know why the little

43:13

Lego figures have holes in the tops of their heads, right? Oh, so they don't choke. Yeah. So when that head pops off and a child eats the head of a

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Lego figure that they don't choke on the head of the Lego guy, they're still able to breathe through that hole.

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And that's scary. And that's exactly why Lego did that.

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My cousin had I think it was her daughter ate one. I'm pretty sure one of my siblings ate a

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Lego because I remember I didn't. It's scary. I didn't have to do with any of this, but they had to, you know, check my brother's feces to see if the

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Lego passed. I don't even know that they ever found it. Maybe there's still a goodness, a

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Lego in his tummy. So so, Jared, in Russellville, Arkansas, says, thank you for making videos addressing the rampant

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Hebrew roots heresies that have recently been gaining traction on the Internet. Too many people are being silent.

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And because of that silence, many are being led astray by false gospels. So true. Yes, I appreciate that comment,

44:17

Jared. This comment from Travis. Oh, he made the comment that you could also go to first Corinthians 10, where Paul says, eat whatever is sold in markets.

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Pretty much straightforward that we are not under any dietary laws. Paul says that going into an unbeliever's home, we may eat whatever is put before us.

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That's absolutely true. So in first Corinthians 10, twenty six for the earth is the

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Lord's and the fullness thereof. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go eat, whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

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Now, of course, Paul is talking about that meat that is sold in the market, which was maybe sacrificed to false gods before it was sold in the marketplace.

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Right. Just don't ask if that's the case. And so that way you're not violating your own conscience by eating meat that had previously been sacrificed to idols.

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Right. Because there's nothing inherently wrong or dirty about the meat. Right. An idol is just an empty thing.

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It is. So it doesn't matter if it was sacrificed to a false god. But if you know that that has happened and then you eat it, you could defile your own conscience and you could also defile the conscience of the unbeliever who's sitting there with you thinks, oh, see, look,

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I can worship all these other gods and the Christian God. And and that's you know, that's spiritual enough.

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That's all I need to do. So so don't raise any question on the ground of conscience. You don't even have to ask what it is.

45:44

You can eat. Well, and you're eating is not inherently sinful. I have other issues called allergy.

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But I have to ask, but Becky can't eat shellfish. Right. So we're we're already staying away from that.

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That whole thing. But other than that, it's free game. Right. And by the way, so Becky cannot eat even at a restaurant where shellfish is served.

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Usually because of cross contamination. Right. And that would be the case also if we were still following the dietary laws that were given to us in the book of Leviticus.

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You could not even go to a restaurant and eat if shellfish was being served there because of cross contamination.

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The purity laws were very, very strict. So if we really were following that, according to what the

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Mosaic Law says. Oh, you guys would be miserable. Yep. Yeah. There are many places you could not go and eat.

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So many places. Yep. We could we could tell you that for sure we can. There are places we avoid because I don't want my wife to die.

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Well, you know, so I kind of like living. One last comment here, and this one's from a critic. OK, so somebody was critical of that video on Mark 7 19.

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You clearly did not understand the text. Oh, come up with something more original, please. That's that's the we do hear that.

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That's the number one comment I get from critics. You don't understand the text. When you look at the context of the whole chapter of Mark seven, the

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Messiah was not talking about the food. He was talking about handwashing tradition that was imposed by the

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Pharisees. Then came and then he quotes Mark seven, one through three, then came together unto him, the

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Pharisees and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashed, unwashing hands, they found fault.

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Don't you love the King James for the Pharisees and all the Jews, except that they washed their hands off to eat, not holding the tradition of the elders?

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Did that make sense to you? Did you get that? OK, so let's let's read it in the English standard version. So basically,

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Edgar is saying that that whole video is is out of context because I don't understand that what

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Jesus was responding to was the handwashing tradition that the Pharisees were imposing. So Mark seven, starting in verse one.

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Now, when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled.

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That is, they were unwashed for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.

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There's the first three verses. Did that make more sense to you now? Yes. Did the King James version?

48:28

Yes. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.

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And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.

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So it's kind of like the Pharisees are going to extreme lengths with their cleanliness, and they are adding to the law the level of cleanliness that you have to go to before you eat.

48:56

OK, lest you defile yourself by eating something with unclean hands. OK, so it's taking the concept of the dietary laws to an extreme.

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OK. And the Pharisees, of course, were well known for adding to the law. So verse five in the Pharisees and the scribes asked

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Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but they eat with defiled hands?

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And Jesus said to them, Well, did the did the prophet Isaiah say of you hypocrites, as it is written, the people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

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In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Hmm.

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You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And Jesus said to them,

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You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said,

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Honor your father and your mother. And whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is

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Corbin, that is given to God. Then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father and mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do.

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So Jesus simply pointing out their hypocrisy here in the manner in which they follow the law of God.

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So verse 14, and he called the people to him again. And he said to them, Hear me, all of you.

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And understand, there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him.

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But the things that come out of a person are what defile him because they come from an unclean heart.

50:33

Right. That was the point that Jesus was making. So then verse 17, and when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples came to him and asked about the parable.

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And he said to them, Then are you also without understanding? And this is the part that's in the video. The video addresses verses 18 and 19.

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So now at this point, he's only addressing his disciples. He's not even with the Pharisees or the rest of the people now.

50:54

Right. So he says, Are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?

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He's basically repeating himself at this point. I just said. Right. Since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled.

51:13

And then in the parenthetical reference, which is written by Mark and it's in the original Greek, thus he declared all foods clean.

51:21

And he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of a man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

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All these things come from within and they are what defile a person comes from an evil heart.

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It is it is the heart that is wicked and it is the heart that needs cleansed. And it is only

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Jesus Christ that can cleanse us. Amen. And can change us from the dead, depraved person that we are into a living, righteous person who desires

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God and wants to know him and loves his word and obeys the commandments of Christ.

52:05

That is a change that is only brought about by Christ. So there's the context. This started with the handwashing tradition of the

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Pharisees. Right. But Jesus expounded on it to inform his disciples. Nothing that goes in you makes you unclean.

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Doesn't matter what it is. Right. Shellfish or a Twinkie or a Lego. Anything that you ingest does not make you unclean.

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Your heart is already unclean. And this is exactly what Jesus came to purify, to undo the works of the devil, the fallen nature of man because of the devil's temptation in the garden.

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Amen. And it is Jesus Christ that cleanses us and makes us right before the father so that we are received by God.

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We are no longer his enemies, but we are his adopted sons and daughters through Jesus Christ.

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And this is an adoption. It is a treasure. It is a reward. It is a grace that we receive by faith.

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Yes. Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. What a wonderful free gift.

53:07

Amen. That's the end of our program today. And so let's conclude with prayer and and then

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I hit stop on the recorder. I don't know what I was going to say after the end at that point.

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But anyway, all right. Dear Lord, we thank you for this time together. And I thank you for your word that we can study and we can see your kindness and your compassion and your grace toward us that has been given through Jesus Christ for how deserving we are of death, how deserving we are of separation from God because we have rebelled against you.

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We are as much participants in Adam's sin as Adam himself. We deserve to be removed from paradise.

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And there's nothing that we can do to earn that right or that favor again. And yet you have been merciful and gracious toward us by giving your son

53:58

Jesus Christ and furthermore, Jesus, who has fulfilled the law and the prophets. So all of these commands, all of these rituals and traditions that pertain to temple and tabernacle sacrifice that we don't have to follow anymore for Jesus is our tabernacle.

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He is our fellowship with God. We are able to come into your presence and address you in prayer wherever we are, worshiping you from wherever because of what

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Jesus has done. He is our access to God. And so I pray that we would be purified not by the things that we eat, but by the faith that we have in Jesus, that we would confess our sins and that he would cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that we may live upright, holy and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our

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God and savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen.

56:03

Do I need to do something about that? Because it's pretty loud. What's that? That's my stomach.

56:08

I had cheese on the tacos.

56:14

So before we get started recording, you need to do something about your noisy tummy. Take a mint?

56:20

I don't know. Take a mint. Does your tummy need fresh breath?

56:27

My tummy needs some settling. It doesn't like cheese. This is when we understand the text with Gabe and Becky and special guest

56:36

Becky's Tummy. Featuring... Interruptive Becky's Tummy.

56:45

Becky's Tummy, who's been known to be interruptive. Oh, really?

56:54

It has a lot to say tonight. Because we had tacos. Cheese. Cheese on the tacos.

57:02

Cheese on the tacos. Can't tacos without cheese. Your tummy's talking about tacos.

57:15

Oh, my. I'm going to be a walking taco here pretty soon. Walking, talking taco.

57:24

A walking, talking taco. Walking, talking taco tummy. Yep. Walko taco.

57:32

You're recording this? You're terrible. If I hear this tomorrow, it's going to be on.