Book of Acts Part 4

We are we should pray and then we will get into our study Lord Jesus as we open up your word

We ask through your Holy Spirit to help us to rightly understand what you have revealed in your word so that we may properly believe

Confess and do according to your Holy Word we ask in Jesus name. Amen We are working our way through the book of Acts, but you'll note that true to my normal teaching

Pattern we are off on a bunny trail and it's an important bunny trail The question that we're looking at here is from the

Gospel of John and this is an extended section We're going to be looking at parts of 14 15 16, maybe into 17

What does Jesus teach that the Holy Spirit is going to do when he sends it and so far?

We can legitimately say that Nowhere does it say that the Holy Spirit is going to make you cluck like a duck bark like a dog or anything like that and I would remind you that Behaving like an animal was a punishment that God sent on Nebuchadnezzar in order to humble him.

That's not a blessing from God That's something completely different. And so you'll note that in this portion of Scripture We're gonna hear about the

Holy Spirit again But we're also going to hear about the importance of Christ's words and the reason for this although it might seem that Jesus is off -topic

Why does he talk about the word and keeping his word and abiding in his word and then he talks about the helper? He talks about the

Holy Spirit. The answer is quite simple and We see this in 2nd

Timothy 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and an important section of Scripture.

It says this in verse 16 all Scripture is they a new stuff.

That's the Greek word by the way breathed out by God and So they a new stuff when you when you look at the

Greek word for spirit Pneuma New stuff's okay is based upon that.

So breathed out by God tells us that the Holy Spirit is Intimately involved in the writing of Scripture So all

Scripture is breathed out by God profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete and Equipped for every good work for all the people out there who are talking about the gifts of the

Holy Spirit And we need to have a spirit -filled church and all this kind of stuff. What do they do with the Bible?

They closed it They they close it put it aside and then they twist it when they open it up Okay, don't tell me that you are a spirit -filled church when you couldn't rightly handle biblical text to save your life you know,

I one of the things I've said in the past is some of these people couldn't exegete their way out of out of a paper bag if If I actually wrote the sermon for them or you know gave them a pair of boxing gloves and a flashlight

They still wouldn't be able to work their way out of it They can't rightly handle God's Word, but then there's a similar text in 2nd

Peter and it's important here that we take a look at what Peter writes regarding the work of the

Holy Spirit and Here's what he says regarding the scripture 2nd

Peter 1 for we did not follow Cleverly devised myths when we made known to the power and the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty For when he received honor and glory from God the

Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were there with him on the holy mountain

And then watch where he goes from here and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed

To which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

So watch what Peter is doing he's making a comparison or a connection between the

Mount of Transfiguration, which was a legitimate Spiritual experience one that shook these guys to their core, right?

I've said it before and I'll say it again Patricia King would probably be willing to sell her mother into slavery to have a spiritual experience like that to hear the voice of the

Father to see Jesus and Moses and Elijah and and the glory of Christ, right?

but here Peter you're gonna note that he is underplaying the importance of that event and He says now we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed

To which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place

Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts knowing this first of all that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation but for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as They were carried along by the

Holy Spirit So that the very words we have in Scripture when it says all

Scripture is God -breathed Okay Or it says that the Scripture is living and active and sharper than a double -edged sword and here it says that these men

Wrote these words as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We know then that God is actively speaking to us in his word and So the idea here is is in this section of Jesus's discourse

He's gonna talk about the Holy Spirit. He's gonna talk about the word. He's gonna talk about the Holy Spirit He's gonna talk about the commandments he's gonna talk about the

Holy Spirit is gonna kind of weave in and out of this and the reason being is quite simple is Because we know that when we hear

God's Word rightly taught we are hearing the voice of God We are hearing what he wills

God is Communicating to us. And so when we talk about the pastoral office, let me give you another word here

I'm gonna look for a word in Peter's epistle first. The word is oracle. Okay, and in first Peter Roll down Peter gives this admonition to those who speak who teach in Christ Jesus in Christ Church Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God Okay, so there's this is where we get the idea then that Everybody who preaches and teaches in Christ Church who's doing it rightly

I hope not Yeah, it is. So the idea then is whoever is preaching and teaching in Christ Church When they do so they are speaking

Prophetically so I can say in one really weird narrow sense.

I Am a prophet Okay, but you'll never see me on prophecy bingo. And when

I utter oracles of God Here's the thing you can follow along because it's written down in the

Bible That's the idea. So and and you'll know this is one of the main reasons why when

I preach we work through large Pieces of Scripture, you know we stay on the rails of Scripture because God has to speak to us through the scripture and My goal in the sermon is to kind of set it up so that we get the proper sense of what it is that we're gonna

Be reading and what we're gonna be hearing but then we let the Word of God eclipse all of that and then we hear from God when we listen to his word and Notice I say we because when

I preach I'm not preaching just to you. I'm also preaching to me

Right because God's Word is speaking as I'm preaching it So coming back then to Christ in John 14,

Jesus says if you love me, you will keep my commandments again This is not stark naked obedience

Toretto means to guard Okay You need to be familiar with his commandments and continue to keep them before you and I will ask the father

He will give you another helper to be with you forever Even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him

You know him for he dwells with you and will be with you So again, just by way of summary, the

Holy Spirit is our helper The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and he dwells in the believers.

This is all very non spooky crazy stuff, right? Christ says I will not leave you as orphans

I will come to yet a little while and the world will see me no more But you will see me because I live you also will live in that day

You will know that I am in the father and you and me and I and you whoever has my care Whoever has my commandments and Keeps them again guards them.

He it is who loves me So you've shown me that you do not love Christ when you attack the

Word of God Okay, when when you look at People in these leftist woke churches, right, you know, it's gonna be blunt.

Okay Every single Nation that has engaged in civil war or rebellion, right?

The the rebelling side has always come up with their own flag with their own standard With their own colors that that the people are fighting

For right so you think of you know at the time of the Revolution of the United States Which technically was a just war fought by lesser magistrates who were our elected officials

That's a whole other story But all that being said the Stars and Stripes made their appearance when the Confederacy left the

Union they flew the Confederate flag, right? And the Confederate flag is still kind of a picture of that rebellion.

Yeah of that Going, you know going against the the United States's Union I would note that any church that flies the

LGBTQ XYZ LMNOP flag That you can just legitimately say that church is in full rebellion against Christ They do not love

Jesus Let's just be blunt and the commandments in Scripture are very clear

You know in the book of Leviticus and other places It says that a man will not lie with another man as he does with a woman that is an abomination to God and you

Quote that text to them and they have all this rhetoric designed to basically minimalize and dismiss those passages

They'll say well You know that That's a clobber text and you know

And we we just focus on the red words of Jesus and Jesus is all about love love love love love love love

Right, or they'll sit there and say, you know here's like five reasons why we need to not pay attention to this commandment and recognize that it that this doesn't apply for you know apply to people who engage in Homosexual relationships and engage in same -sex marriages today

They come up with all these reasons why this this commandment doesn't apply to the very thing that they're they're condoning

It's a different time. That's right. You know, what was that? It's the

Old Testament and all this kind of stuff Which is a good argument by the way

Justice argument was yeah, we could totally murder people now because we're in the New Testament here, you know, I would note

Yeah, right So Christ says the one who loves him keeps guards his commandments, right?

That's the person who loves him He who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him

Judas Iscariot not Iscariot said to him Lord How is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus said if anyone loves me, he will keep my word now note here.

Jesus uses a different word altogether He uses the word word rather than commandments because the commandments of God are the

Word of God But the Word of God is more than commandments. I would remind you of Jesus's rebuke against the

Pharisees in Mark 7 important words If you remember the account the

Pharisees they grumbled about Jesus They had sent some people from their Jerusalem headquarters to kind of check

Jesus out okay, and if if you remember the Pharisees they had created their own

Word of God and they called it the oral Torah or The tradition of the elders and they're there the meta -narrative that they had made for it

Is is that when Moses went up on Mount Sinai Sinai? He came down with two Torah's one was the written one

The other is an oral one and the oral one was given by God to keep Gentiles from knowing the full truth

So the Gentiles could never be saved That was their argument. And so who were the keepers of this oral

Torah this tradition of the elders they were Okay, and so Jesus is being spied on if you were there

They've sent guys from headquarters to kind of check him out So they got their clipboard and they're taking notes and stuff like this and after watching

Jesus for a day they go into one of the houses of the Pharisees and Jesus immediately does something that sets them off and that is to say he refuses to let his disciples follow the the hand -washing ceremony that is laid out in the tradition of the elders because there is no biblical text in the written text that commands us to wash our hands and And I would

I was always happy to point that out to my mother when we were going up It never really got me anywhere I still had to wash my hands before dinner every single time, which

I thought was a very unnecessary thing to do I mean, I shouldn't have to wash my hands more than once a month like any respectable person.

But anyway So here's so yeah, what was that? Yeah, it's because it's it's washing your hands isn't the problem

The problem is is that they say it's a command from God and if you remember the ceremony itself

Nehemia Gordon actually lays this out in one of his in one of his YouTube videos The ceremony is actually quite simple

There's a wash basin and a pitcher and when you come in from after being among the sinful unwashed

Masses of the goyim that that's the the Gentiles their their ick get apparently gets on you

Who knew that it was an airborne thing? But what you are supposed to do then is that the ceremony goes like this left hand palm down Pour water from the pitcher on that hand switch right hand palm down pour water on that hand switch again

Left hand palm up pour water on that switch right hand palm up Pour water on that and then you just do this with your fingers and then say this

I thank you Lord God maker of heaven and earth that you have given us the command to wash our hands so the the ceremony itself invokes a

Command of God that is not in Scripture. It's outside of Scripture. Therefore Jesus's disciples cannot

Participate in this ceremony and Jesus himself refused to participate in it and this is where they go to war with him

So 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 that is

Unwashed for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly holding to the tradition of the elders

This again should be capitalized because it's an actual body of work and when they come from the marketplace

They do not eat unless they wash there are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing and I would note the word for washing here is

Baptismus was referring to baptism the baptism of cups pots copper vessels and dining couches and The Pharisees and the scribes asked

Jesus. Why do your disciples not walk again? Walk is conduct their lives Why are they not conducting their lives not according to the

Bible, but according to the tradition of the elders But they eat with defiled hands. And so Jesus at this point just goes off Well did

Isaiah prophesy of you you hypocrites as it is written as people honors me with their lips with the heart as far from Me in vain.

Do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men? Do you think that that would probably be the definitive?

Text to like don't do that Okay, again, I mentioned this last week

I was I've been doing some reading and some of the earlier Lutheran Dogmaticians and one particular dogmatician was having an argument a debate via books and articles and writings with a

Roman Catholic archbishop and the archbishop that archbishop said that the

Christianity does better without the Bible and that tradition is sufficient to teach the

Christian faith It's that's a bizarre argument just absolutely bizarre.

So Jesus says in vain. Do they worship me teaching his doctrines? What the commandments of men? So then he says you leave the commandment of God and you hold to the tradition of men

No, Jesus doesn't make it possible for you to have a little bit of both Why can't we just have some of our own commandments along with the commandments of God?

Jesus says you're leaving the commandments of God and holding to the tradition of men So I come back to my Nazarene experience where in the

Bible does it say you cannot drink? Nowhere and where does it say you cannot smoke?

You cannot chew you cannot play cards Yeah No, that would be the law of Karen Karen has no gospel.

Okay Okay So so all of that being said

Note here that we are all susceptible to doing this

Right. We are all susceptible now. Somebody might sit there and go pastor Rose, bro

Don't you have traditions there at Kong's finger? You guys follow the one -year electionary you guys

You know are but you change the pyramid colors for the different seasons and stuff like that Aren't you making void that the commandments of God by these traditions the answer is no because here's the thing we're not required to do those things and You know and you'll note

I follow the convention the tradition of a pastor wearing a uniform Does the

Bible require a pastor to wear a uniform? No Okay, but as soon as somebody makes it compulsory and says you're not a true

Christian your church isn't a true church Unless you guys do all the things that we do in your pastor wears a uniform Okay, as soon as somebody does that in within the spectrum of confessional

Lutheranism We're taking the pyramids down. I'm coming and preaching in flip -flops and a Hawaiian shirt.

I Couldn't get out of them Okay, if I put on skinny jeans, it's gonna take the jaws of life to get them off Okay, so yeah, no worries on that on that front

But but the idea here is is that I I would hope that we would all joyously do that Not just me but as soon as somebody says

You're not true Christians unless you do these things and this is a commandment of God and then all this kind of stuff

I think we should all joyously just go bonkers with it. Okay, and make sure

I put afterwards I'll make sure that we'll take a photograph of ourselves and send it to this fellow who said something like that to make him know

We're breaking your rule in order to preserve the gospel Right, right we rebel against your your your man -made rules.

So the idea then is is that We we follow these godly traditions if you would that Have proven themselves over the millennia to be very effective at discipling people in the

Christian faith Okay, but we recognize that this isn't the only way to do it This isn't the only way to do it and as soon as you make it a law, then we've got a problem

Okay, so we kind of do this open -handedly big. I'll be blunt though I haven't seen other ways of doing it that are quite as effective as as the old ways that the church had set up long ago

And not only that I'm just too darn lazy to come up with my own So it's so much easier just to go with go with that.

Okay. Anyway, so that's not the same So Jesus goes on watch what he says here and watch the language

You have a fine way of rejecting watch this the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition

So Jesus is making it clear that what they have abandoned are actual commandments of God But then he says for Moses said honor your father and your mother whoever reviles father and mother must surely die so note here

Jesus Legitimately recognizes that Moses is the author of the five first five books of the

Bible the Pentateuch But in saying that they that God commanded them he's saying it doesn't matter that Moses was the human author

God was this the divine author behind what Moses wrote as he is in all the scriptures

Right. So when you hear somebody Say something like this. Let me show you the text out of context if I were to go to John Chapter 10.

Let me show you how this gets misused I need a flex here. There we go Okay Let me see is it up here?

Yeah. Yeah here it is Truly truly Jesus as I say to you he who does not enter by the sheepfold by the door

But climbs in by another way that man is a thief and a robber But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep to him the gatekeeper

Opens the shepherd hears his voice and he calls to his own sheep by name and leads them When he has brought out all of his own he goes before them and his sheep follow him for they know his voice

A stranger they will not follow but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers

So you're gonna note this passage and similar ones to it. The Pentecostals will sit there and say see

You have to hear the audible voice of Jesus Okay so they just assume that what

Christ is talking about here is you have to learn how to hear God's voice and When you listen to their sermons, okay

How does one learn how to hear God's voice? They always come up with these really? Bizarre very modern analogies, which make not a lick of sense

Okay So analogy number one was make I note that Rick Warren really had kind of helped make this one popular

He and Bill Hybels use this often and the analogy goes like this that God is always talking

Okay, but it's like a radio station. So God is broadcasting on KGO D right and You have to learn how to tune your soul to hear what he's saying on that station.

Yeah Yeah, I got that song stuck my head stop it, okay

I remember back when I was growing up you guys remember like at night Listening to a .m.

You could actually like get Stations that were like way the heck far away when

I was growing up I grew up in Southern California, but at night I could get an a .m. Station from Salt Lake City in Southern California, it was crazy it but you couldn't do it during the day.

It was only at night It was just one of those weird things but anyway No, what nowhere in Scripture does it say you have to do that?

Okay, nowhere in Scripture does it liken God's voice to always being broadcast and then they'll sit there and go

Well, if you're not if you don't hear his voice, then you're not as sheep Okay, note here what

Jesus is saying in our text You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition for Moses said honor father and mother

Whoever reviles father and mother must surely die So Jesus is making it clear that God is speaking the voice of God is

Communicating in the written Word of God Okay, all

Scripture is God breathed Living and active right whoever reviles father and mother must surely die

But you say and there's where the big deviation is God says Moses said but you say and now we play that game from Sesame Street One of these things is not like the other one of these things is not the same, right?

So the you say bit is not in accord with what God said or what Moses said because those two go together

You say if a man tells his father mother whatever you would have gained from me as Corban that is a gift 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

If this isn't the most decisive text on this, I don't know what is right? So you want to hear the voice of God open up your

Bible you want to hear God speak to you audibly? Read the Bible out loud or come to church where a pastor is rightly handling

God's Word and preaching to you the word You'll hear God's voice speaking to you out loud and presently when you attend

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church God's voice is gonna sound a lot like mine in The future should

Christ Terry and Kongsvinger eventually calls another pastor God's voice will sound like that guy's voice

Right as long as he's rightly preaching the word not Dan you had a question Yeah Which okay, so let me pull that text up.

We'll do a little bit of work on that I'm glad you brought that up because that is a major passage used by people in in the

In the NAR and Pentecostal churches. It's is it first John or second John? First John what?

220 okay. Hang on a second here. Let's take a look at it And we're gonna look at it in context and we're gonna use one of the other rules for sound biblical exegesis

And that is cross using cross references. Okay, so So 220, okay

You have been anointed by the Holy One and you all have knowledge Interesting word here

Oida rather than rather than Gnosis, I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lies of the truth

So, where does it talk about that? Oh, it keeps going. Okay. So who is a liar? He is it's he who denies that Jesus is the

Christ This is the Antichrist he who denies the Father and Son no one who denies the Son has the

Father Whoever confesses the Son has the Father Let what you have heard from the beginning abide in you if what you've heard from the beginning abides in you

Then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father and this is the promise that he made to us eternal life

Now, where does it go on to say that you don't need anyone to instruct you next verse? So I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you

But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you and you have no need that anyone should teach you

But as but as his anointing teaches you about everything and it is true and is no lie

Just as it is taught you abide in him. Now. Here's the thing This is going to be a passage that we would say is a difficult passage to understand

Because when you read it on the surface It actually is being contradicted by the very actions that John is doing in writing this letter

To these people. Okay to these Christians is John not instructing them

He's instructing them So that is an issue and then you're going to note that when we take a look at Different gifts given by God.

So for instance, let me go to Let me go to I got to keep that one. Hang on a second here I'm going to go to Ephesians 4

Okay God gave the Apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and the what?

Teachers to equip the Saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ if Christ and gave us teachers to equip the

Saints Then do the Saints not need to be instructed They do and you're going to note that John is instructing them about the anointing in writing the letter

So the question is how do you understand? How do you take what he's saying to make sense of it because clearly he's instructing him while telling them they don't need to be instructed okay, so So you'll note then is if your understanding of a text is contradicted by other clear passages so for instance in Titus a

Pastor has to be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it

So the idea then is you can't take that tougher text and then obliterate all the clear passages that make it clear that Christ gave

Teachers pastors are to be teachers and given and teach what's in accord with sound doctrine Because then what happens is you have a badly ordered hermeneutic

So in in in the understanding of proper hermeneutics that the church has handed down to us for millennia

Clear passages will always govern unclear You don't take an unclear passage to get rid of a clear text

So we have clear text to say that Christ gave teachers We have clear text that teachers are to teach what's in accord with sound doctrine clearly

We need to be instructed. So how then are we to interpret this? So This is where good tools and resources are very helpful

So let's start with say The Lutheran study Bible what

I'm gonna do is I'm gonna roll down here Warning against Antichrist. I write these things about those who are trying to deceive you the anointing that you receive from abides in you

You have no need for anyone to teach you. Okay. So what is meant by that? Let's see if we can find a note here that'll help us understand what is going on Okay, so let's see here anointing.

So 227 the Holy Spirit remains in believers No need those baptized into Christ have received the

Holy Spirit through God's Word They have no need for false teachers who deny God the Father by denying his son

So what you're gonna note here, where does the Lutheran study Bible and this is based on really good scholarship

Based on the context here This is in the context of a warning against false teachers who are denying that Christ has come in the flesh

Those are your Gnostics by the way, this would be you know, the secret societies today still continue this kind of work, right?

And so the idea here is he says let what you heard from the beginning abide in you And so in the context it's this is about the you don't need to be

Instructed by teacher people who are denying what Christ has has come and then done in the flesh

That's the point of the text. And so I would note when you check other commentaries you're going to see good scholastic commentaries are going to basically agree with that because they recognize that the way the

Pentecostals read it that we don't need to be instructed by anybody because woohoo. I have the Holy Spirit That's a misuse of the text and you're taking in that text has to be governed by clear text and in the immediate context

It's in the warning against Antichrists Does that answer your question? Yeah, no,

I'm glad that you know glad to write it forward, you know Yeah, right

Yep Yep. Yeah, but the spirits gonna confirm a teaching is true through the word

So, you know, you've got to remember Christians are not Jedi. Okay, we don't sit

We don't sit in our meditation chambers and go. I feel a disturbance in the force.

Okay? No, we don't do that that kind of stuff at all. So the way we confirm something is by you know

Opening up the scriptures. That's the way it's done. Yeah Mm -hmm.

Yes, it does. So Jesus in the Great Commission says make disciples of all nations a disciple is a what learner

Yeah Teaching all that I have commanded which again teaching. Okay, so Christ says you need to be taught

So the charismatic who says I don't need to be taught by anybody. I don't need a pastor I I the

Holy Spirit is teaching me Clearly the Holy Spirit is trying to get your attention because you're twisting his word

And you're denying clear passages and and note the untenability of their interpretation it can't square with other clear passages that talk about the need for us to teach and the

Command of Christ to make disciples and to teach Right and that Christ has given us teachers in the church and pastors are to teach what's in accord with sound doctrine clearly

Christians need to be instructed So the you'll note the charismatics They completely twist this text and I would know they do so in a way that it's patently obvious They're doing it if they would just pay attention to the context in which the words are said

One of the things that recently came up. I did an interview with Dan long Let me see if I can find the text here.

I think it's Matthew 10. Okay it yeah here it is in Matthew 10 Okay charismatics use this text to say that we as Christians have a mandate from Christ Okay, Bill Johnson uses this text all the time.

Heal the sick raise the dead cleanse the lepers cast out the demons see Jesus has commanded his church to do that and The person who reads their

Bibles goes not so fast there Bill, right? Note here the context and then

I'll show you how untenable that view is Based upon not only the context but other things that are that Jesus says

So Matthew 10 begins with Jesus called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits

To cast them out and to heal every disease in every affliction. Who did he give it to?

12 Was this an authority given to all Christians No Okay, and he then to make the point the names of the

Apostles all 12 of them are listed So then it says these 12 verse 5

Jesus sent out instructing them go nowhere among the Gentiles enter no town of the

Samaritans But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand

Here it's now we see the context heal the sick raise the dead cleanse the lepers cast out to the demons

Well, Jesus gave authority to the 12 to do that. You receive without paying give without pay

Always and again when somebody says we have a mandate from God heal the sick and it's in Matthew 10

Then it sit there and go if that's a mandate from God for a whole church Then you can't pass the plate at your church and you can't ask anybody for tithes or offerings because it says do everything without receiving pay

Yes Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course

In a later text Jesus sends out 70 or 72 depending on which manuscripts you're looking at, right?

Yeah So you get the idea here. So the person who says we don't need to be taught by anybody because 2nd

John 1st John says so in chapter 2. It's like oh, come on.

Let's Let's apply sound biblical exegesis to see what's really being said here, right?

All right coming back then. Yeah I'm not notice. I'm bunny trailing myself in the middle of a bunny trail.

Okay a Bunny trail within a bunny trail. Is that like is it's it's the it's the movie

Inception Yeah Do I sound a little bit worked up about this by the way if I sound a little

I am okay All right. So again, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word

My father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him Whoever does not love me does not keep my words and the word that you hear is not mine but the father who sent me

I Not to I can't reveal names here, but recently had a conversation with a gal who's she's become a confessional

Lutheran and her husband is still charismatic and Holy smokes the conflict that is in that marriage as a result and it's all based upon the word

And you know, she says well, this is what the word says and he attacks the word

Legitimately attacks it and says the God I believe in is all about love and he would never do these things

But the Bible says she would say I don't care what the Bible says. He says

All all in the name of Christ. It's fascinating. Jesus says whoever does not love me does not keep my words and The word that you hear is not mine

But the father's who sent me these things I have spoken to you while I'm still with you But the helper of the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name

He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you again You know, we're doing a little bit of review here today

Again, this is a promise given to the Apostles that they would have the gift of total recall which then speaks to the fact that We can trust what's written in the

New Testament Peace I leave to you. I'd leave with you my peace I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you let not your hearts be troubled neither

Let them be afraid you heard me say I am going away and I will come to you if you love me you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the father and the father is greater than I and now

I have told you before it Takes place so that when it does take place you may believe I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this

World is coming. He has no claim on me But I do as a father has commanded me so the world may know that I love the father rise

Let us go from here chapter 15. I Fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit.

He prunes that it may bear more fruit Being a Christian can be painful

That's all I have to say already. You are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you

Tell me that's not a comforting word right Christ's words make us clean as well

Abide in me and I and you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine

Neither can you unless you abide in me? I am the vine You are the branches whoever abides in me and I and him he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing

If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire ie hell and Burned if you abide in me and my words abide in you

Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you You'll note that when God's words abide in us.

Do we ask for foolish things from God? Nope By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples as the father has loved me

So I have loved you abide in my love if you keep my commandments

You will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love these things

I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you

So note and this is this I would note that in practice. This is not easy.

Okay How has Christ loved us? sacrificially It's forgiven us of all of our sins

We are to love each other in that same way not merely just husbands loving their wives in that way

But we're to love each other in that same way But have you noticed that there are some people here at Kong's vineyard that just get under your skin?

That you don't get along well with right Okay At times you just throw up your hands and go why right?

We we do that to each other You know, we're supposed to do in the middle of all of that Love each other

Right greater love has no one than this that someone laid down his life for his friends and you are my friends if you do

What I command you now, here's the thing Jesus is not saying do what

I command and therefore prove to me that you're really my friend That's not how this works The way this construction works and grammatically is kind of like this if I said if it's wet outside then it's raining

Okay, does the wetness cause the rain? No, the rain causes the wetness, right?

So the idea here you are my friends if you do what I command The idea here is is that Christ has redeemed us.

He's made us clean and those who are truly his disciples Because they are his disciples they do what he commands.

Do they do it perfectly? No, because Christ taught us to pray daily forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us

But it would be out of the question for us to sit there and go well, you know that command against stealing we've decided that as a church that just doesn't apply today and and so We've we've we've voted and Don Mastin is going to be the bank robber for Kongsvinger Lutheran Church Yeah, Don's like what?

Maryland's online going no, no, no, no, no right So the idea here is is that we're guarding

God's command and and well stealing is still a sin, right? That Argument is starting to sound very hollow, but that but we're in the

New Testament era so we can steal all we want It doesn't work does it? Okay, and you're gonna note here

Note the disconnect when people talk this way. Well, that's the Old Testament. We're in the

New Testament Weird thing you go to those churches. Okay, and what do they require you to do give 10 % off the gross of your income?

Minimum and you sit there go. Well, that's in the Old Testament And they'll say we're good

God's gonna send the destroyer to ruin your dishwasher if you keep this up Note the radical inconsistency, right?

No longer do do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing But I've called you friends for all that.

I have heard from my father I have made known to you. You did not choose me. I chose you

But I made a freewill decision to ask Jesus in my heart no you did not okay

You did not choose me. I chose you and Appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide

So that whatever you ask the Father in my name according to my will right?

He may give it to you these things. I have commanded you so that you will love one another More practical information if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you see here's the thing

Christians today people who call themselves Christians when the world despises them they sit there and go

We haven't done it, right? We must be doing something wrong. Why do you hate us? Okay.

Well, we don't like your hymns. Okay, we'll go we'll get rid of those We don't like your sermons either because they there's too much

Bible in there. Okay, we'll get rid of the Bible That's not a problem. Okay. What do you want? We want a praise band We want we want yoga classes and we want

Eastern meditation brought in and we don't want any Bible We don't want any hymns and we definitely don't want to hear about Jesus and any crosses and things like that.

Okay, we could do that In a coffee bar right called he bruise

Okay Because every Christian has dumb jokes, okay Jesus says if the world hates you

Know that it hated me before it hated you if you were of the world the world would love you as its own

I would note where the world loves a particular church and treats it as part of their own

You sit there and go. Oh, they're doing it wrong Okay, they're doing it wrong like really wrong

James has even stronger words. It's hard to believe But it's true if you go to like James 4 check this out

James 4 Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God, huh?

If you were in the world if you were of the world the world would love you as its own But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world

Therefore the world hates you Remember the word that I said to you a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me

They will also persecute you if they kept my word. They will also keep yours

But all these things they will do to you on account of my name because they do not know him who sent me if I?

Had not come and spoken to them. They would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin

Whoever hates me hates my father Also, if I had not done if I had not done among them the works that no one else did they would not be guilty of sin?

But now they have seen and hated both me and the father But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled.

They hated me without cause So note here Jesus makes a little bit of a reference the written word has to be fulfilled must be fulfilled

It is unthinkable that God's Word would never would not be fulfilled It will always be fulfilled, but when the helper comes whom

I will send to you from the father Again, the spirit of truth not of lies who proceeds from the father

He will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning

Next week we will not the next week No, it's got three weeks from now because it was the next week is the is the voter assembly

The following week is ask a pastor. So advent one Will be when we get to John 16.