Theology You Can Use - The Sufficiency Of The Bible

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all right well tonight we're going to continue our series our Sunday night series theology you can use roughly based on Wayne Grudem's systematic theology book tonight and next
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Sunday night should be the sufficiency of scripture and then the 22nd of January we're going to be having our prayer meeting that we have every quarter so that'll be the 22nd our prayer meeting but tonight back to what does the
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Bible say about itself we've looked at four words so far in this series called theology you can use and I hate to even say it because this morning
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I said well theology you know to show you how it's practical theology is practical but we want to try to focus on why it's practical on Sunday nights and the first four words just in review would be number one canon the canon of scripture which books are canonical they're 66 total which books
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God has revealed and inspired number two authority how scriptures have authority over our lives number three inerrancy that scriptures are without error number four clarity that God has spoken we talk a little bit about the emergent church and how you just can't be sure anymore about anything and if you think you know then you're arrogant and then number five tonight newly will be sufficiency of God's Word almost sounds funny is
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God's Word sufficient? is it complete? is it whole? anything less would mean that it's almost sufficient it's partly sufficient it's halfway sufficient what
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I hear lots of times as people say the Word of God is sufficient comma and then they utter the unutterable word when it comes to sufficiency and that is but scripture is sufficient but and then they tell me why it's not and so tonight we want to talk about scripture is sufficient and we'll look at Christ who is sufficient as well and here's my goal for you is to have the same thoughts that Martin Luther did 400 and some years ago here's what he said
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I have covenanted with my Lord that he should not send me visions or dreams or even angels
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I am content with this gift of the scriptures which teaches and supplies all that is necessary both for this life and that which is to come that is an amazing statement
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I don't want anything else I am content with the scriptures this gift of the scriptures and I think there's two kinds of people when it comes to the
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Bible and its sufficiency those that are satisfied with the Bible and those that want something more and I even almost hate to preach the sermon tonight because I know
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I'm preaching to a group who are satisfied with the scriptures satisfied with the Spirit of God but we'll talk about it anyway tonight the sufficiency of scripture good definition
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Westminster Confession of Faith by the way when I say the Westminster Confession of Faith what is it?
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why would I quote it? anyone? why would I quote the Westminster Confession of Faith?
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anybody remember the year that it was put together? the century?
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yeah would you say
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Nate? I'm thinking 1647 but I could be wrong but 1600s is good enough right and they were some divines who got together what do you mean divines?
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we don't call people like that anymore and I'm kind of sad because I'd like to be called divine but they were learned theologians and they were called divines
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Steve's just bowing his head I'd like to use that as my title that we you know on a daily basis use around here
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I always go back to when Scott Farah I first became the pastor and I was voted in here at the church in April of 1997 there were 42 voting ballots and I was voted in 40 affirmative zero against and two abstentions in 1997 and right after that Scott and I got to know each other a little bit
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I think we're standing over here that was a time when the youth room was I think painted sky blue pink or psychedelic purple or some kind of neon signs in there it was kind of wild around here that's not related to Scott but what is related to Scott Scott said well what do you want me to call you?
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you know it's good if we could have a friendship and get to know each other what would you like to me to address you as?
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and I said you know I don't really prefer Reverend because there's nothing in me to revere to revere is to we only should revere
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God and his word and I said you know priest obviously doesn't work I think just pastor you can call me
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Mike I prefer that the kids call me Pastor Abendroth because they just need to learn that but just call me anything but High Holy Father and so guess what
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Scott calls me behind the scenes on many occasions High Holy Father we can go down a level and you can call me a divine that's fine anyway there were some godly men in the
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UK who got together to basically give a statement of faith this is what we hold dear some people put it above scripture some people put it at the same level of scripture but it's just a good description of scripture because it's hard to say you know to a group we just believe all the
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Bible so they summarize it and it's just excellent they are Presbyterian but most other things are very good and this is how the
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Westminster Confession of Faith this document that's really withstood the test of time this is how it defines the sufficiency of scripture quote the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory man's salvation by the way did you get that order
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God's glory first and man's salvation secondly sometimes we flip it around remember when we evangelize we're after the glory of God first and man's salvation secondarily proper order here the glory of God man's salvation faith and life is either expressly set down in scripture either right there blatantly or by good and necessary consequence you can make deductions and maybe deduce from scripture unto which nothing at any time is to be added whether by new revelations of the spirit or traditions of men section 1 part 6 sufficiency of scripture is our supreme authority and it contains every truth that we need for spiritual life and for salvation true the sufficiency of God's Word let me ask you a question and please give me answers out loud why would the sufficiency of scripture be important anyone what's the big deal why preach on it
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I think it's gonna take me this week and next to preach on why is the sufficiency of scripture that everything we need for life and godliness is in this book yes
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Brian well if it wasn't sufficient we'd have to add to it right and it would be people adding to it all the time the smarter we got or okay good
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Lewis if it isn't sufficient what else are you going to use
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Book of Mormon wisdom psychology other things good mom does
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Peter know an answer is he just gonna give it a shot let's just give it a shot we're all family here Peter because it's
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God's word I think if God wants to communicate excellent answer by the way I think if God wants to communicate to us he could communicate to us clearly emphatically and sufficiently hoops forgot that part meant to tell you but didn't get there good anyone else good job
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Peter if it's not sufficient it's not the sole authority and something else could come up to the same level are in fact a trumpet at times good all let me ask you this question secondly what competes with the
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Word of God in lives of people what's what something else that people kind of let creep in here's the
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Bible insufficient is authoritative and what kind of creeps in to compete against that sole authority of the
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Bible psychology okay good we'll get there in just a second what else bill my own experience this happened to me therefore it must be true because how could
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I then say no it didn't happen to you when I wasn't there didn't experience it so our own experiences could creep in excellent good pretty
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I'm sorry the world standard and it always changes you know in the world doesn't talk about holiness it talks about crimes now it's not sin against God it's it's it's criminal good what else
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God spoke to me maybe that could be more in the it happened to me kind of thing but we could use that as well
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God spoke to me personally good Steve I thought we had only one song that was allowed from the pulpit today with Mr.
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Sandman how did that get in there this morning I'll never know feelings yes sir we have subjective feelings somehow are competing against the sufficiency of scripture anyone else
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I have a couple more listening to the words of men are the the machinations of someone claiming to be an authority okay good
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Lewis tradition that was one that I was after tradition fiddler on the roof a tradition good flow our own desires by the way that's one of the biggest problems we have in education today and that is they have the wrong view of man anthropologically they are not thinking properly if you have the paradigm that says people are good and we know that the scripture says that people are not born good then there's going to be a huge change in matter fact even the regenerate heart falls under Hebrews chapter 7
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Jeremiah 17 9 where the heart is desperately wicked deceitful above all else who can know it and the next verse is very important matter fact let's just go there let's go to Jeremiah chapter 17
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Jeremiah 17 just to see these words we quote them all the time one of the things I don't like is to read
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Jeremiah 17 9 without reading the rest and we have a little phrase in the slogan at this church we have many slogans one slogan is the point of the passage is the point of the sermon in the point of the sermon is the point of the passage but hermeneutically
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Bible interpretation wise if you don't understand the verse there's two things that you should do well they're two words that you should do their one thing and they are all together now keep reading that is like saying sick into a mad dog
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I love that we want to keep reading by the way if anybody ever ask you a Bible question open the
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Bible and begin to read the passage and it will probably give you a lot of the answers versus standing there and say well I'm not really sure the text just tells us the heart
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Jeremiah said is more deceitful than all else and here's Jeremiah the prophet ordained by God when did
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God call the prophet Jeremiah by the way after he finished his ordination classes and exams right no back in the womb and even then
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God knew I'm going to give you to this people and they are going to turn their back on you and here's your ministry worse than Judson worse than Peyton worse than any these others you just go here's your missionary movement you're gonna keep preaching and if you don't
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I'm gonna judge you Jeremiah but no one's going to listen to you anymore you're not gonna have really a ministry if you're thinking about numbers but if you're thinking about my glory you've got a ministry by the way what great encouragement for us when we're behind the scenes saying nobody ever notices and does do
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I make a difference and I'm not sure anybody even responds we preach we change diapers we minister to the glory of God and let him take up the rest my old my old pastor used to say all the time it is burnt into the fabric of my mind you take care of the depth of your ministry
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God will take care of the breadth it's up to him the size of the ministry is up to him so we just preach for his glory like the message this morning
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I'm surprised anybody's come back you know that's a good way to kill a church is just get up and say Jesus is Lord let's go and up today was the first day
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I really look at someone in the congregation and almost with utter disgust they were looking at me like I can't believe you're preaching what you're preaching now maybe it was a stomach problem or they needed
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Tums or something I don't know but it was one of those things like you disgust me I've been preaching for 12 years that's the first time
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I've got that kind of look for an entire 55 minute sermon well where am
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I back to Jeremiah if you don't know what to do when you're talking just go right back to Jeremiah right to the text the whole passage here in chapter 17 is talking about this deceitful heart and we're going to have to look at some outside source for our help for instance the sin of Judah let's go back to verse 1 is written down with an iron stylus with a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart this isn't just kind of a barely kind of touching the surface this is in the warp and the woof this is deep down this is down in the grain of something this is tattooed with permanency what's tattooed down there well some of their false idolatry in verse 2 if you look at verse 5 thus says
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Yahweh curse it is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the
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Lord he'll be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes but will live in stony waste in the wilderness a land of salt without inhabitant verse 7 blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh whose trust is in the
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Lord he will be like a tree planted by the water this is almost like Psalm 1 about the blessed man who delights in the law of the
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Lord that extends its root by a stream and boy if you were in the Middle East you'd realize how important this is and will not fear when the heat comes but it leaves will be green it will not be anxious in the year of drought nor cease to yield fruit the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick who can understand it the answer to man's problem and solution is not found in man where is it found verse 10
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I the Lord search the heart he understands I test the mind to give to each man according to his ways according to the results of his deeds so we have to be very careful when it comes to the word do we think it's efficient or do we go elsewhere here's my list of what competes with the
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Word of God traditions of constitutions some churches have a constitution and that trumps the
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Bible I've been in some I've been down to Calvary Church in West Hartford with Ted Bigelow even a year ago and I would see this whole congregational meeting with the senior pastor was sitting right there and they would stand up one at a time slandering him quoting
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Robert's rules of order so that he might they might do it who cares about scripture who cares about not making accusations against elders without witnesses who cares about gossip and slander and how the scripture condemns that we have to know
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Robert's rules of order that only happened to me a little bit here I remember people coming up to me
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I mean not not those who were biblical but they would say to me you don't you don't know Robert's rules of order around here we'd like to buy you a copy and I said you know
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I'm sorry I don't know Robert's rules of order I don't I haven't read it I don't know about it I know that was devised by a pastor supposedly in Massachusetts so you could figure out how to run a business meeting but I know the
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Bible but I don't know Robert's rules of order am I still allowed to be the pastor Robert's rules of order
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I object all these things and they elevate that up to the scripture mysticism that experiences are authoritative and equal with scripture when second
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Peter one says we have the more sure word cult teachings where they have the cult leader who says things and then everybody buys with that cult leader says and then lastly
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I have a psychology where somehow pastors have to have counseling degrees so that they can be able to minister to the people and I think frankly some pastors are intimidated because if they don't have a counseling degree how are they able to minister to people and the litany goes refer them to a professional we'll get that to that later how about let's turn to second
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Timothy chapter 3 the topic tonight again is sufficiency of scripture you all know this passage but let's just work through it again because I want to show you that the word is not just ink on paper second
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Timothy chapter 3 everything that we need is found in this book God has not left a stranded someplace
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God has not allowed us to get on a lifeboat without all the necessary bits of information and all the right things second
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Timothy chapter 3 and we know this is a pastoral epistle written to Timothy and it's the pastor's tool bag but it certainly helps us as well if you take a look at verse 15 this is the kind of word that saves and from childhood you have known the sacred writings which were able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus all scripture is
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God breathed profitable for teaching what's teaching here's the standard of life this is what
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God says he requires here's how we articulate holiness and righteousness number two reproof here's how we have failed to live up to that the scriptures can say you should be acting this way but you're not acting that and acting that way and so since you failed to live up to that let me show you your sin that's what scriptures do they show us the standard they show us our sin number three for correction it literally means to stand up straight again here's what
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I desire here's how you fall short let me pick you up dust you off stand you up and point you in the right direction kind of terminology for correction and number four training in righteousness teaching us as a way of life how to live righteously verse 17 that the man of God may be adequate adequate means capable fitted complete able to meet all needs equipped for every good work so basically
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Paul says to Timothy if you're a pastor and they parachute you into West Boylston in 1997 and you have the scriptures and you have the
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Spirit of God you can what minister only if you know Robert's rules of order you can minister only if you have a psychology degree because after all we have repressed memories and everything else you can only minister if you have the tradition of the
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Baptist General Conference behind you or whatever other kind of thing no you are sufficient by the way I love this because sometimes
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I just call myself a dope are you familiar with that word that slang dope sometimes in our family it's translated as dopest
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I'll say that was a dopest thing of me to do and I am glad to know that in 2000 1997 in 3097 that if a man of God has been saved by God has the word and the spirit is it enough to minister what about those poor people in India what about Zimbabwe what about other places where to what do we do here's the word here's the spirit you give it into a minister's hand and can he turn that region upside down for Christ the answer is absolutely and if you look back at that word equipped for every good work this means to equip for a task if you're going to equip someone to play hockey there's quite a few things you need for that person what were some of the things you need if you're going to equip a hockey player so they wouldn't get hurt and they could play
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I can think a lot of things shoulder pads for me it was funny because when
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I first learned how to play hockey I bought one thing skates and so I would go out and play and then
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I would get hurt and then I would buy the next piece of equipment to cover my hurt and so I fell down on my elbow and I still have a bone chip in my elbow to this day because I fell down on the ice and so the very next thing
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I did after I bought my hockey skates is I bought elbow pad and so then you're going a while longer and then you fall down right on your shins and then you buy the shin guards once I'm a hockey puck just before Sunday night service it hit my shin right here and the thing grew out there
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I thought I was kind of it was a Pinocchio was coming out of my shin or something it was so big and so what
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I do went and bought shin guards then I fell down on my hip a while later and I thought
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I need to go to play it again Sam's and buy some shin guards and it just kept going and going oh duh finally
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I recognize that I should buy a helmet before I fall down on my head and have a craniotomy when
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God so equips the scriptures he doesn't prepare the hockey player and says you know what I forgot the helmet and really it was it was used of men who were going on a ship
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Jonah getting on the ship to Tarshish and then forgetting everything they needed they forgot food they forgot salt rind they forgot oranges and all these other things but when
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God rigs out a ship he does it perfectly listen to Jay Adams before ship was to sail all contingencies on the journey would be considered and supplies to meet each would be stowed on board i .e.
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extra canvas from which to make new sails should the original sails be damaged the ship would be thoroughly rigged out mere men of course cannot foresee every possibility and so their best plans often end in shipwreck but God the omniscient one who knows the end from the beginning controls every contingency of history when therefore he rigged out his men of God for their work he neglected nothing in the pages of scripture are stowed every principle that might ever need that they might ever need to perform their tasks in that good everything we need is here it's not the hope is in the pastor hope he's got enough education kinda like this morning
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I alluded to my friend he doesn't have enough experience pastor doesn't have enough experience pastor doesn't have enough education pastor doesn't have this or that by the way several have asked me two weeks ago
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I said last Sunday I said there's a church looking for somebody who's innovative is that the same man that I talked about today as last week talking about innovation the answer was yes they want somebody innovative when we want somebody faithful but here we have the scriptures are entirely adequate for our textbook our book for living
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I can say this way Psalm 19 7 the law of the Lord is perfect all -sided lacks nothing scriptures are sufficient when we turn to Colossians because I'm gonna work from Jesus is sufficient to scriptures are sufficient but I don't think we're gonna get to the scripture part before we are gonna get to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ the book of Colossians is one of my favorite books
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I hope I live long enough to preach that here from this pulpit because it is a great book but the book of Colossians talks about the all -sufficient
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Savior if you're the kind that writes notes on the first page of the book of the Bible for instance when it says the book of Colossians I like to kind of write the theme in that extra space up there that it gives me and so if you want the theme for the book of Colossians you need to write these words that Jesus is sufficient
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Christ is sufficient is Jesus all you need the answer is yes he is
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Christ is the sufficient one and I think then it'll be easy for us to get the sufficiency of his word after we realize that Jesus himself is sufficient the book of Colossians all kinds of competition out there but God is sufficient
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Jesus is all you need now as we're turning the book of Colossians let me tell you some of the titles of his sufficiency you don't have to catch up with me because I'm gonna go quickly but let me just read these 114 the
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Son of God, 1 -4 the object of the Christian faith, 114
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Redeemer, 115 image of God, 115 Lord of creation, 118 head of the church 120 the reconciler of the universe 29 the fullness of the
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Godhead 210 supreme authority over all, 23 the essence of the mystery of God, 23 the one in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden 28 the standard of which all religious teaching is to be measured 215 the conqueror of evil in chapter 3 verse 1 he's enthroned at the right hand of God this
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God and this God alone is able to sanctify and is sufficient for everything we need pertaining to life, sanctification, glorification eternal life let's pick it up right in chapter 1 verse 15
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I'm gonna be talking about how Jesus is sufficient he's the great Savior by the way for those of you that like hymns we think this was an early
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Christian hymn verses 15 16, 17, 18 if it was a hymn it's a great hymn
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Colossians 115 and he is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation the preeminent one for by him all things were created we're talking about Jesus Christ both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created by him and all things have been created what for him it's all for him he is before all things verse 17 and in him
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Jesus all things hold together he's also the head of the body the church he's the beginning the firstborn the preeminent one from the dead out of all those who were raised from the dead
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Jesus is the best so that he himself emphatically might come to have the first place in everything for it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross through him
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I say whether things on earth or things in heaven so Paul is extolling the praises of God extolling the praises of Christ Jesus that he's the best he's exalted he's magnified and he's trying to tell the people you don't need anyone else
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Jesus is all you need there's always a problem and here's the problem verse 1 of chapter 2 for I want you to know how great a struggle
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I have on your behalf and for those who are allowed to see you and for those all those who have not personally seen my face that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery that is
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Christ himself I want you to know Jesus like you should know him there's competition in there these people who are trying to say other things about Jesus and you need this and you need that I'm telling you
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Jesus is everything verse 3 he just lathers it on he layers it on in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
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I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument and there were people out there for even though I'm absent in the body nevertheless
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I am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ therefore as you have received
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Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and establishing your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude then he stops and he starts talking about the people that are competing with the supremacy of Christ Jesus and I'm gonna call these wolves for tonight this is going to be the outline wolf 1, wolf 2, wolf 3, wolf 4, wolf 5 and I don't know how many we'll get to but it's not gonna be too many wolves tonight just a few wolves
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Jesus is sufficient Jesus is all you need these other people are coming around to tell you you need this and you need this higher knowledge and you need all these other things
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Paul said here's Jesus look to him and by the way I'm gonna tell you now who's competing with Jesus and we're gonna call those wolves wolf number one philosophy these are wolves that attack
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Christ's sufficiency and the word of course since Jesus is the word the first wolf that attacks
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Christ's sufficiency is philosophy Colossians 2 8 see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception see to it be on your guard watch out better be careful they're gonna try to take you captive back in those days would they take people captive there'd be kidnappers there'd be men stealers these people are gonna try to steal your mind they're gonna try to get you according to the tradition of men according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ there's some kind of chicanery going on there's some kind of thievery some kind of robbery and they're gonna try to rob your mind it's kinda like invasion of the body snatchers remember that old show you're gonna steal your brain brain stealers some of you are getting kinda tired so when
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I say things like that now you're paying attention false teachers stealing people that's how
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Paul is kind of depicting them he says I want you to be careful they're gonna try to steal your mind by teaching things about philosophy and empty tradition it's empty deception is what it is now literally philosophy means love of wisdom is there anything wrong with wisdom by the way should you love wisdom how many people love wisdom should you get wisdom seek wisdom acquire wisdom that sounds like the
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Proverbs is this the wisdom do you think Paul's talking about is a wolf is a men's dealer no good way to think of this kind of philosophical wisdom is the kind of of worldview that's against the scriptures something that's it's certainly not the wisdom of God in the sacred oracles this is a these are theories about God and how the world should be run and the meaning of life that are contrary to scripture
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Paul says you've got to be careful this is worthless it's empty you think it's higher knowledge you think you've got the inside scoop kind of this
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Gnostic I know and you don't but you have to say that is not profound that is not insight that is wrong and they're trying to capture my mind by the way did you know that Christianity is a religion of the mind it's all about thinking yes it's more than thinking but it includes thinking we're to love wisdom
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God's not against wisdom but he's against the wrong kind of wisdom true or false yeah the kind of wisdom that says yeah we say
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Jesus is sufficient we give him lip service but he's really not we need these other things we need some kind of philosophy we need some kind of literally here in the text
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ABCs of things and then he does something weird if you're gonna try to teach someone that you don't need philosophy you don't need tradition you don't need any these kinda things that are wolves how would you teach somebody that what does
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Paul do I probably go into the heirs of Sigmund Freud and all kinds of other things what does he do he justifies his warning by talking about who
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Jesus is do you see that look at verse 9 he just blast over that wolf of philosophy by saying let me just show you who
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Jesus is let me show you the real deal here and you don't have to worry about all these other heretical things you want the plumb line here's the plumb line for all doctrine verse 9 of chapter 2 for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form you don't think you're full of the right kind of knowledge and do you have this philosophy you think somebody you know you think they're the haves and the have -nots and you need more well if you've got
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Jesus you've got it all and in him you have been made complete and he's the head over all rule and authority and in him you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands spiritual in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism when we get saved we're placed in the body of Christ in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead the very best way to show the sufficiency of God is to talk about who he is and now what he's done what has
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Jesus done by the way can you get sins off your back by philosophy can you get sins off your back by psychology
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Steve do you mind telling your quick story about what happened when you were not saved and how you went yeah just tell everyone to this day some things never change well there's one thing that you can try to assuage your conscience with naps and with movies that's what
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I'd like to do if I was having a hard time in life if I just go see a movie for two hours I forget about myself I take a nap
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I don't have to deal with it you can use alcohol and drugs and other things but Paul's trying to say Jesus is so great there's gonna be competition they're the wolves of philosophy and tradition but I'll just try to correct that and let me show you who
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Christ is here's Jesus's person and now here's his work if Jesus can forgive your sins
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I think he's probably got the whole package if he can do the greatest thing then can't he do the smaller thing Jesus is up there in heaven saying you know what
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I've forgiven your sins but everything else in life sorry I'm gonna leave you empty and you're gonna be like a chicken with the head cut off or a chicken with the bag over its head and just running around you don't know what to do so he goes right into verse 13 and says let me show you the sufficiency of Jesus Christ let me point you to the cross your sins can be forgiven verse 13 one of the best verses in all the
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Bible and when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh he made you alive together with him that's the gospel that's the gospel some people's
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Bible read it this way and when you were kind of sick in your crimes against society you made yourselves alive together with God and you accomplish that together no if this is the
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God who did it all he was alone working on our salvation isn't he going to be sufficient in everything else having made you alive together with him
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Scoparis named their daughter Lydia I like that name Lydia why did you name your daughter
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Lydia by the way act 16 mark said she's a pagan in the
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Bible act 16 oh excuse me that's exactly right she was a pagan and God opened her eyes and it says that God opened something else too
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God opened her heart that's the exact thing this is God alone doing the work he made us together he made us alive and there's competing philosophies in the world one with salvation is we save ourselves that's called
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Pelagianism after the aorist Pelagius there's another that says well we kinda help with God and we kinda do our part he does his part we take a step forward
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God kinda meets us and you know we we're just kind of we have free will and we certainly wouldn't be robots and it's not real love if we don't kinda show that we have love for God and so God does his part he cast his vote yes we do our part we cast our vote one way or the other hopefully it's yes because Satan has cast his vote no and that's called semi
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Pelagianism or Arminianism and then the other one here it says we were dead in our sins we couldn't even administer the antidote to ourselves we can't even see that we're sinful we're blinded by Satan too and then here comes the cavalry because of Calvary and he calls us his people and makes us alive and it says here with God active us passive he made us alive together with him and that's called what the
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Bible teaches some call it Calvinism I don't care about that word I care about what does the Bible teach and who gets the glory when it comes to getting glory is this one all of God is this one where we can cooperate all of God or is this one where we do it ourselves all of God and here right in the text clearly he made you alive together with him remember in the context of Jesus is all you need don't bow down to philosophy don't bow down to psychology don't bow down to any other kind of ology he did it he quickened that's what the word is he quickened us and what happens with quickening having forgiven us all our having forgiven us all our transgressions everyone we were in enmity with God and he saved us we didn't seek after God and he saved us we were slaves of sin he saved us why go for anything else he's sufficiently great enough to save if you take a look at the passage there in verse 13 having forgiven us all of our transgressions there's lots of word for forgiveness but this one has this root in it
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C -H -A -R -I -S it's how I sign all my email
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I hate to tell you but I have it already programmed so I don't have to type it every time but C -H -R -I -S exclamation point why do
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I sign my name that way why did I name my fourth daughter Gracie because I like grace
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I love grace so much I'm naming somebody after grace and not about Grace Kelly either not about grace anybody else the grace of God this has got the word he forgave us he graced us charis amenas he graced us he granted favor he gave us all our sins canceled as a good favor of God divinely accomplished divinely applied goes further verse 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt how could psychology or philosophy do any of that consisting of decrees against us
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God knew what we did he had it all lined up in these things were hostile to us and he alone has taken it out of the way not psychology not philosophy not the
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ABCs of worldly wisdom having nailed it to a cross certificate of debt actually means handwriting how many people have been to a chiropractor what does
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Cairo mean C -H -I -R -O what do chiropractors do they crack your back thank you let's pray
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Cairo means hand and here this word certificate of debt it is
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Cairo and then we get the word graphy where there's writing there's handwriting of God almost kinda
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Daniel -esque when the writings on the wall where the God instead of writing your days are done and maney maney takel fesarsi fesarsi something close to that I allude you to Daniel chapter the book of Daniel here we have the writing of God saying every sin he's writing down against us and it's in,
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Gladman's just laughing there was a time Gladman would come here and hear me preach and he would be respectful there's other times that he just laughs he's laughing with me here is the indelible ink writing of God that who's gonna erase that who's gonna go to the heavens and say you know the sins that Mike Gabendroth has committed sins of omission and commission sins of thought, sins of word, sins of deed
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God wrote them down with handwriting who's gonna blot those out and the person that can blot those out and just grace me then why wouldn't
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I listen to him why wouldn't I say he's sufficient why would I go back to what Freud, Adler, Maslow, Skinner and anybody else would say
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I wouldn't and he's trying to do the same thing of course Freud wasn't around in those days but there were the other eras the other wolves that were there
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God gave us remission of sins he canceled out that certificate it was hostile to us and he still did it wiped it off literally the word there cancel out means to wipe off like erasing a blackboard like erasing a whiteboard where you've got the new kind of markers on there we still to this day
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I think that bulletin board out there has Dave Keller's handwriting on it because Dave used permanent ink instead of washable ink and Dave if you're listening
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I have remembered that I have not blotted out that transgression of yours in my mind and he wrote on there with permanent ink and it's still there
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I think it says first Thessalonians 516 or something like that you lift up that little sheet you'll see it there who's gonna erase our sins when
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God knows and it's a strike against God's judgment the only person is going to erase it is when
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God says I'm gonna demonstrate my love towards you that while you're yet sinners Christ died for you so why go to someone else when only
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Jesus can cancel off or wipe out that debt verse 14 it says has and he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross so Paul basically says there's competition for the sufficiency of Christ remember who
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Jesus is and remember what he's done and you won't want to go someplace else well we only have time for one more we don't even really have time for that but let's just go for it for a little bit the second wolf is legalism oh
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I love talking about this because I used to be a legalist you get saved if you get saved in a background of there's not too many rules in life you get saved and all of a sudden there's rules everywhere if you get saved where there's a lot of rules and then you become kind of no rules here's another kind of attack on the sufficiency of Christ is somehow you can be pleasing to God as long as you have a do list and a don't list look at back in Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 therefore if Jesus is so great at who he is and what he's done therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival a lot of Jewish words here are a new moon or a sabbath day which are a mere shadow of what is to come but the substance belongs to Christ I don't travel that much but I have occasion to travel sometimes and I always long for the reunion with my family and I love to just come in through the front door and having all the kids and Kim and the dog and everybody just kind of swamp me
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I've got kids grabbing my leg I got Gracie just comes up and she just kisses me and she just grabs my leg and her mouth comes up to about my thigh you know and she just kissing my quadriceps you know just I just anything just kiss daddy just swamped and you just think oh so here
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I come it's in the middle of the day I get off the the airport and all the kids run up and start bowing down to the cement and kissing the shadow of me the shadow you'd all think my kids were crazier what you already think they are and I think you do it by the way
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I commend you for that one of my goals in life is to not have pastors kids wild crazy little hellions running around because I'm so busy with you so I'm thankful that the kids by God's grace they're they're still kids but I don't think they're pastors kids in that sense and so thank you for just treating them just regularly they're just kids if they disobey in your presence tell them to obey remember chapter 4 of Ted Tripp you're in charge why go for those things when it's just a shadow you think you're holy because you eat or don't eat certain foods because you have certain feast days or non feast days you don't read the comics on Sunday I mean there's all kinds of things no true or false keeping certain rules and rituals win favor with God false if God's loved you by giving him giving you his son how can you do that you couldn't somehow get him to love you anymore my children don't obey me to get extra love
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Christ alone is sufficient this whole thing like drinking alcohol it is not a sin to drink alcohol it is not sin to put dry leaves in your mouth light them on fire and suck in the smoke
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I don't know if it's smart to do but it's certainly not sinful sometimes we have people come to our church and smoke outside I think we should put an ashtray right out there what would you do if you walked out of church and saw people smoking on Sunday what would you do?
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I'm going to give them the little smoking sermon what if you went to somebody's house and you saw some wine there can't be a deacon what would you do if you saw somebody who went to the movies
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PG -13 how would you treat them?
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how about somebody plays with the devil's deck? 52 cards we're more holy because we don't do that that's so bad how do we treat people that do things that we don't do can't believe
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I walked in their house there's a Christmas tree in there they got mistletoe mistletoe from some ancient druids we hung up our mistletoe from the tooth of the bear head that my mom has we got this big real bear head in our house and the mistletoe is just in the mouth a good definition of legalism is majoring on the minors if somebody in the church differs from you in the way you look at the
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Lord's Day in the way you say smoking or drinking or movies or whatever it is if they differ from you and you get them alone in a room what are you going to tell them?
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I'll tell you what I used to do when I was first a Christian I'll tell you exactly what I was going to do I'd figure out a way to get them into the room alone and then
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I'd figure out how to tell them how wrong they were how could they do that? quickly just the last passage let's go to Romans chapter 14
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I'm leading up to this because there's something about Christian liberty and Paul appealing here in Colossians to say
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Christ is sufficient that I don't want us as a church and we'll talk about more of this next
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Sunday night Lord willing that we don't want to have to try to go around and act a certain way here's what we should do with people who have different views of cigarettes, pipe smoking chewing tobacco, movies parenting styles, oh
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I spanked three times on the bare buttocks and you spanked two times we schedule feed our kids, we demand feed our kids we,
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I mean the list goes on and on and on I have a big list here how about this, dating, oh we don't date we only court, you know there's all these kind of things what do we do?
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we don't go to Disneyland because some of that money goes to bad things I can't believe you'd go,
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I'm a Republican you're a Democrat, the big one, you ready?
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ready? drum roll we are public school people, you're private school birth control, our lack thereof we do this, we don't do that if you meet one of these people that disagree with you on these subjects what will you do?
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what will you talk about? Romans chapter 14 verse 1, I mean it's just a killer now accept the one who's weak in faith receive him, take him to yourself literally it means to extend a welcome to receive into your home receive into your close circle of acquaintances it's a views of God accepting a believer into his presence it means to give them genuine cordiality accept one another if you look at chapter 15 verse 7 it says wherefore accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God let's just say your view is mature and their view is weak accept them, keep on taking to yourselves it's a present imperative keep on, the opposite is shun, the opposite is reject the opposite is discriminate, the opposite is shame him the opposite is discriminate against kick him out, no
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Ray Stedman said the favorite indoor sport of Christians is trying to change each other accept the one who's weak in faith so you can accept him in your home and then change him welcome top of the morning to you come on in,
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I've got cheese and crackers ready for you sit down and we're going to have a little talk about drinking and smoking verse 1 but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions not so you can get him into the house and then knock him out literally, but not under quarrels about opinions disputes over opinions don't be a stickler about things that doesn't matter they'll learn, they'll grow that's why even at the church beloved, when we have visitors come and their kids are all obnoxious
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I want you to think of this illustration when you fly on an airplane what do they tell you? when the oxygen comes down you take that oxygen and what do you do first?
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put it to yourself first and then put it to your kids later it's the same thing, when people come to our church and they're running around and they don't know anything about the hypostatic union or reconciliation and they're not even saved and we're sitting there thinking yeah, those kids are just bugging me
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I'm thinking the oxygen mask needs to be applied to them so they'll be saved and then we'll worry about parenting later they don't know anything about parenting because they need to get saved so we want to be very careful one of the reasons why we have a junior church now is so people who come to the church and they need to listen and they're not saved that their kids can go to junior church but eventually we as a congregation you come week in and week out can train your children sit them down for 5 minutes a day then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes you can train your kids to sit here and listen to the sermon because it's good for them to hear the sermon it's good for them to hear the word of God and they listen and they learn but for the weaker ones for the unbelievers we want to send them off to where these kids can get taught the word
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I just want to make it clear that when we have people come to the church I want us to love them even though their kids might be wild accept them, the text says welcome them take a look at verse 3 let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat if they differ from you about what they can eat or what kind of parenting styles or what kind of feeding styles it was kind of a big deal here several years ago we kind of had the demand feeding and the schedule feeding camp and the people who were in the opposite camp weren't too friendly towards each other don't have contempt towards them and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats for what?
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verse 3 God has accepted them so God accepts them but you don't you don't feed your kid 12, 3, 6, 9 and 12 what are you doing?
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no, we don't do that don't despise, don't have contempt literally don't look down on them don't literally throw them out as nothing the same word is used in Luke 23
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Herod and his soldiers after treating Jesus with contempt same word for God has received him
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God has accepted him verse 4 who are you to judge a servant of another? he is
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Jesus' servant not your servant to his own master he stands or falls and stand he will for the
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Lord is able to make him stand we have people over and then we try to treat them like our servants because we tell them what they can and can't do on these minor things he's
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God's servant he's not our servant we don't snub them music style and all kinds of other things oh your kids go trick or treating and my kids don't well we're never getting together we have harmony at the church besides differences and then if you just take a quick look we need to wrap up chapter 14 of Romans you see in verse 6 for the
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Lord later in verse 6 for the Lord later in verse 6 to God for the
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Lord to God Romans 14 .8 for the Lord we live if we die we die for the
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Lord therefore whether we live or die we are the Lord's one man said personal convictions are private property we don't have to go around and try to tell people you're more like Christ you're more holy because you do this that or the other so Paul is trying to say in the book of Colossians Jesus is sufficient tradition attacks against that philosophy and all those other things and also this whole legalistic thing it basically betrays the fact that Jesus is who he is he says he is and has done what he said he's done given forgiveness and all these other things in legalism just don't add up and I think our church overall is pretty good about not being legalistic but we want to just guard ourselves against that because it does in the end betray our confidence in is
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Christ sufficient or is he not okay well the time is just zooming by we'll have to wait for mysticism until next
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Sunday alright let's just bow please Lord we thank you for our time today thank you that you are sufficient and thank you
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Lord that the only thing when it comes to our salvation that we could possibly do is after you saved us we could respond with faith and we would acknowledge tonight that faith is even a gift we would acknowledge that we couldn't come up with our own faith and even on judgment day knowing that just will live by faith will praise you and say you are the one who even gave us faith
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Lord we acknowledge that faith is the result of salvation not the cause because we couldn't boast and Lord I just pray that you protect our church in the future from somehow judging one another with legalistic standards that somehow will take away from Christ's sufficient work and also
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Lord you protect us from any kind of attack about philosophy or the new inside or the new way of living and Lord keep us to the old, old story of Jesus and his love in his name we pray