WWUTT 004 Indeed Preach Christ (Philippians 1:12-18)

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1 Peter 2 .23 says that when Jesus was reviled, He did not revile in return.
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When He suffered, He did not threaten, but He continued to entrust Himself to the one who judges justly.
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And we need to respond that same way when we understand the text. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the
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Text. My name is Pastor Gabe, and it is sure a delight to be with you reading through the book of Philippians together. Today, we're going to be looking at Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 through 18, and I'm going to get some help today from Dr.
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Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. No, he is not with me in the studio,
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I wish. But we're going to be talking about discernment today, and Dr.
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Mohler answered a question related to discerning other ministers, and I'm going to use a snippet from that answer.
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That'll be coming up later on in the broadcast. We're also going to take another question from a viewer. Typically, we take questions from somebody who has seen one of our videos, and they're asking a specific question about a what video, and you can find a complete list of videos on our website, www .utt
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.com. Our question today doesn't have to do with a specific video, it's actually a question related to doctrine.
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This person knows that we are out to promote sound doctrine and expose faulty doctrine, so they have a doctrine -related question to ask us today, and we'll get to that in the last third of the broadcast.
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If you have a question that you would like to submit, send it through our website. That's the best way to get in touch with us.
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We love to get questions on our Facebook page, through Twitter, or on our YouTube wall, but sometimes we miss those comments, so the best way to get a question to us is really to ask it through our website, www .utt
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.com, and click on the email link. Include your first name and the city that you're from, too, by the way, if you do that, because that's just good to kind of add in there.
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We will withhold your last name, but first name and city, if you can let us know that, we would surely appreciate it.
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Philippians 1, verses 12 through 18 is where we are today. If you are sitting in your living room or at the table, you can open up your
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Bible with me, and we'll go through the text together. Why don't we open up first with prayer? Our gracious and sovereign
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Lord, we thank you so much for your word, that we might be able to know something about the mind of God, and I pray that these words would continue to work on us, even after we're done with the study today, after we close our
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Bibles and we go throughout the day, your word is still living and active, and is still continuing to teach us.
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Lord, I pray today as we come to this text, you teach us what it means to be discerning. You teach us to be patient with the brotherhood of Christ, with the family of God, the way that we treat one another and love one another in the family of God is a testament in and of itself to those who do not know you and do not follow
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Christ. I pray that we will have our joy restored, make it complete by what it is that we're going to read today and putting these things into practice.
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We understand what it means when we read in Ephesians 1, 3, where it says that we have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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And in these things, Lord, we rejoice. We pray and ask all of this in Jesus name, amen.
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Philippians chapter one, beginning in verse 12, Paul writes, I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
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And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, they are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
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Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.
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The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim
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Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
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What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed.
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And in that I rejoice. Just to give you some backstory again here as to what has been going on up to this point in the letter.
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The apostle Paul has been thrown in prison in Rome. In fact, he's been placed under house arrest for preaching the gospel.
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He can't go anywhere, but people can still come to him and he can continue to minister from his own home.
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The Philippians have heard about this. In fact, they've heard about it because there are some preachers out there who have been preaching out of rivalry.
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They've been preaching against Paul, like as if they're competing with Paul. And some of them don't want to associate with Paul because it's, you don't want to associate with prisoners.
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They're considered the lowest of the low, so we don't associate with Paul. He's been placed under arrest. And the
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Philippians, however, they love Paul and they want to encourage him in this ministry that he is continuing.
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We looked at, uh, at, at Matthew 25 earlier, where Jesus says that, uh, you know that what you have done to the least of these brothers of mine, you do also to me.
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And that includes visiting those who were in prison. And so the Philippians are showing the genuineness in their love by taking up a collection, a monetary offering and sending it with Epaphroditus to Rome to help
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Paul in his ministry. So Paul is writing back to the Philippians, thanking them for their gift, but also to use that as an opportunity to instruct them further.
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And so this is the letter that we are reading, that letter that Paul has written back to the Philippians. And even though he's been thrown in prison for preaching the gospel, he wants to encourage them.
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I want you to know, brothers, that what's happened to me is, has actually served to advance the gospel.
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It's not being squashed here in Rome. It's become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment, what
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I've been placed under arrest for is for Christ. And you know, as the Philippians would have heard that from Paul, they would have, they would have rejoiced in that because that's the same thing that happened to Paul when he was in Philippi.
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If you'll remember back to Monday, when we were studying through Acts, Paul goes to Philippi preaching the gospel and he gets arrested, he's beaten, he's put in prison and fastened into stocks.
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But then there's an earthquake that comes as he and Silas are singing hymns to God. There's an earthquake that springs the jail doors open, breaks their bonds.
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The prison guard comes in and sees this and he draws his sword to kill himself because it's a shameful thing to let a prisoner escape under his watch.
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Even when there's an earthquake that he couldn't control, the Imperial Guard, the Roman Guard would have killed him and shamed his family.
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So he is, he's going to kill himself and take matters into his own hands. But Paul cries out, don't harm yourself.
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We're still here. And, and the, the, the guard knowing that they had been placed there because they had professed
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Christ, they were preaching the gospel. They know that it was their God that sprung them free and yet they remain.
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So he goes in and he falls down at their feet and he says, good sirs, what must I do to be saved?
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Paul and Silas say to him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You and your household.
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And then they shared with him and his whole household, the word of the Lord. And so what happened to Paul and Silas, even in prison in Philippi, had served to advance the gospel.
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The next day when the guard tried to take them out of the jail, they, the, it was, it was known throughout
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Philippi that the magistrate had to come and apologize to Paul and Silas. So that even served to advance the gospel further.
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And then they go back to the brothers in the Philippian church that they had planted and rejoiced together. So the
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Philippians know that even in Paul's experience there in Philippi, the gospel was spread even further.
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And that same experience has happened in Rome. So they're rejoicing in these things together as they read this from Paul's letter.
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It's become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment here is for Christ.
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And so the gospel is going out even more. Most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, they're now much more bold to speak the word without fear.
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He says in verse 14, and that's been true for me also. I've had times when I've been able to meet people who have been persecuted for advancing the gospel.
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There was a gentleman that came through our town one time, Junction City, Kansas. Part of his ministry was to evangelize in drug riddled communities.
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And even though we're a small community, we do have a place where drug trafficking is very prevalent. And so he was here preaching the gospel in those places.
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And as he was sharing this with me and sharing some of his stories, I said to him, man, I wish I had more confidence to do what it is that you're doing.
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I can't even walk up to a person on the street and start sharing the gospel. I wish I had more confidence to do that.
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And he said to me, you know, very simple instruction, although it was probably revolutionary to me at the time.
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He says, you just need to go out and do it. The more you do it, the more experienced you get at it, the more confident that you will become in doing it.
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Furthermore, as you experience persecution in doing it, you will become more confident. And that will also serve as a testimony to others that they need to be more evangelical and they need to have confidence in going out in and sharing the gospel with others.
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So I'm really thankful for that individual. You know, a church needs to have a support system in place for those who go out and evangelize.
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Because as they go out, they may not get beaten and thrown in prison for sharing the gospel in the public square.
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But they're going to be ridiculed. The Apostle Paul told Timothy that for those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, they will be persecuted.
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And that can really beat a person up after a time, can be really discouraging. So the church needs to be able to come around those people, encourage them, surround them with prayer.
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They weep together and rejoice together in the places where the gospel has been advanced, Let's be able to celebrate together as a church, and where a person has been beaten down and broken, that they can even weep with those individuals.
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It commands us to be able to do that with one another in Romans chapter 12. And so let the church have a good support system around those who evangelize.
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And please send out people to do evangelism in your community. Such an important thing.
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As you do that more and more, you will gain more and more confidence to do it. And as Paul has been in prison for preaching the gospel, it emboldens the other brothers to speak the word of the
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Lord without fear. We have nothing to fear of God. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There should be nothing to fear from the world either, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world, as Paul also said to the
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Romans. So he acknowledges though, here in verse 15, some indeed are preaching Christ from envy and rivalry.
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Yeah, there are those out there. You've heard about them. I've heard about them, but others are preaching from goodwill.
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The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim
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Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
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They're still competing with Paul, even though he's been thrown in prison for advancing the gospel.
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And how does Paul respond to this? Verse 18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,
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Christ is proclaimed. And in that, I rejoice. And boy,
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I need that. I need that testimony from Paul, because there are people who have come against me for being sound in doctrine, even in my own church.
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We had a situation that came up recently where we put one thing on our church sign, and then another church down the road changed their church sign to say the opposite of what ours did.
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So I know that there was some rivalry going on there. But I also know that that church preaches the gospel, and I know that they have a passion to reach people for Christ.
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So I didn't enter into this church sign war, I just rejoice that the gospel is being proclaimed.
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You know, when we understand the text ministry that we have, we will produce videos that teach sound doctrine, and there are people that will come up against those videos.
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And like I said, there have been people even in my own church that have contested against me because I've been sound in doctrine.
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In fact, there were two individuals in particular, they left and they wrote this paper and published it online saying that I was under demonic oppression.
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And I was, by two individuals who were causing division in my church, and then left and said I was under demonic influence.
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But Jesus, as it says in 1 Peter 2, did not revile those who reviled him.
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And so even through times that I have been made fun of because of the gospel that I adhered to, it has actually drawn attention to our church, and for that reason
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I rejoice that the gospel is going out. Now we are supposed to respond to those who preach falsely.
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It says in Titus 1 .9. In fact, I'm going to go there here to the book of Titus, because there's a couple of verses that I want to draw out here.
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Hang on as all my pages are sticking together here. Okay, here we go. Titus 1 .9, it says the following, a person who has been called to preach the gospel of Christ, a person who is an elder, an overseer, a pastor in a church, must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it.
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So we are supposed to call out those who preach falsely. And those who cause division in the brotherhood, we see that they are not really in the spirit, but they are in the flesh.
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As it says in Titus 3 .10, as for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self condemned.
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Those two individuals that left our church and we're causing division, warped and sinful, self condemned.
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So we must warn them and we must call them out for causing division. But we must be careful not to stir up division over matters that are not essential doctrines.
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Like you have your essential doctrines in the faith, and yes, we do need to adhere to those things and call out false teachers when they speak against the gospel, which we just read in Titus 1 .9.
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That is one of the responsibilities of an overseer in the church, is to rebuke those who contradict sound doctrine.
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But when it comes to secondary or tertiary matters, secondary matters will divide a denomination.
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So the thing that separates us from a Nazarene church or from the non denominational church down the road is going to be those secondary matters.
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Tertiary matters can be disagreed within a body, but yet we can still edify one another and encourage one another despite those disagreements.
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I don't like the term agree to disagree. I really don't. But we can even use those disagreements to sharpen one another and make one another more effective when it comes to how we preach the gospel.
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Those who stir up division will be exposed as not being genuine. As Paul also said to the
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Corinthians, and so they must be rebuked, and if they refuse to repent, they would be removed from the brotherhood of Christ.
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But we need to be careful about how we correct those who disagree on tertiary matters.
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Not causing division, but being patient with one another. Dr. Al Mohler responded to a question concerning this, and it was concerning a specific teacher.
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And I won't mention who that teacher was because I think it'll distract from the answer here. But he says, one of the things that we need to do is that even though there's going to be teachers that will disagree, we need to rejoice whenever the gospel is being proclaimed.
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Here is Dr. Mohler expounding upon that answer even more. We need to be able to say we can learn from people with whom we have radical disagreements on the implications of the gospel.
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That's different than having radical disagreements about the gospel. But we need to be grown up so we can talk about these things, and hopefully you will have influence on those students to say, here, let's exalt in the gospel.
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Wherever the gospel is preached, let's give thanks. But we need to have, and this is a very important issue, I preached in chapel a message on this, and used myself as an example in an attempt to make clear the issue.
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We need to have more Priscilla's and Aquila's that take Apollos aside and explain to him his errors in order that he can be more faithful in ministry.
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There are persons at Crucial Issues in my life who have done that, who have corrected errors in me in order that I would be more faithful.
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We need that to be a more natural part of the life of the church, especially where there are opportunities to be a friend in word as well as in deed.
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Thank you. And thank you, Dr. Mohler. We do need to be gracious in how we respond to one another with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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That's Dr. Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He used the word discernment, and that was a word that I brought up before that clip as well.
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What is discernment? Well, it's a gift of the spirit. We see that in the New Testament. There are some who are gifted with an ability to be discerning.
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But what does that mean? I love Charles Spurgeon's explanation of discernment. He says that discernment is not merely knowing the difference between right and wrong.
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It's knowing the difference between right and almost right. And there are some who have that wonderful gift of discernment.
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They're able to tell you, hey, this teaching that you're listening to is totally in line with the sound words of the gospel of the
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Lord Jesus Christ that we read about in Scripture. Or they're able to say, this teacher that you're listening to, boy, that teaching has a few problems in it.
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I want to show you how that doesn't line up with the sound teaching that comes from our
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Lord Christ. There are some people out there, though, that will use the gift of discernment to sow division and they cause rivalry in places where there does not need to be rivalry.
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We need to rejoice that the gospel goes out in all of the places that it does. Not sowing this discord among brothers.
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We read in Proverbs 6 that it is a worthless person, a wicked man who goes about with crooked speech and devises evil, continually sowing discord.
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Later on in that chapter, it says that the Lord hates, he hates one who sows discord among brothers.
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In fact, it is referred to in Proverbs 6, 16 as an abomination. It is an abomination that we sow discord among brothers.
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Yes, there are false teachers out there that absolutely need to be called out. But even when we do those things, we still need to do this with gentleness and respect.
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You know 1 Peter 3, 15, right? Always have an answer ready for the hope that lies within you, but do this with gentleness and respect.
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And Paul said 2 Timothy 2, correct your opponents with gentleness.
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Now in that context, he's specifically talking about opponents of the gospel, but it doesn't matter. Whether we're talking about those who are in the body of Christ or those who are not followers of Christ, we still need to be responding with gentleness.
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And the ways that we respond to one another in the body of Christ becomes a testament to those who are not followers of Christ. They see the love that we are under and that we respond to one another in a way that is different than the way people respond to each other in the world.
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Because we're holy in Christ. We are called out, set apart Christ as holy is also what is said there in 1
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Peter 3, 15. So let us conduct ourselves in a way that the gospel is being proclaimed in the very body of Christ.
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And that we also respond to opponents of the gospel with gentleness because God has dealt patiently with us.
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What we deserved when we were in our sin, we deserve to be separated from the body of Christ. We deserve to be separated from God for all eternity.
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But God loved us. He was patient with us, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to salvation.
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And that is the very attitude of heart that we need to have when it comes to the ways that we deal with one another in the body of Christ and the ways that we deal with those who are not followers of Christ with gentleness and respect.
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Our gracious God, thank you so much for dealing patiently with us and give us discernment so that we know how to deal with each one.
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Those who are opponents of the gospel and those who are stirring up division even within the body of Christ, help us to respond to one another graciously.
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And we pray this in Jesus name, amen. Judge not that you be not judged.
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Does Jesus really say that? Yes, he does. Matthew 7, 1. But do not miss the context.
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Jesus is not saying that we shouldn't judge at all. He's saying don't judge hypocritically. Continuing on, he says, how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye?
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You hypocrite. First take the log out of your eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
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Did you get that? First take the log out of your eye and then take the speck out of your brother's eye.
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By this, the Bible is actually telling us that we're supposed to judge. Proverbs 27 .5, better is open rebuke than hidden love.
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Proverbs 31 .9, open your mouth, judge righteously. Matthew 18 .15, tell your brother his faults.
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John 7 .24, do not judge by appearances but judge with right judgment. First Corinthians 2 .15,
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the spiritual person judges all things. First Corinthians 5 .12, judge those inside the church.
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Second Timothy 3 .16, the Bible is useful for reproof. Now we're definitely not supposed to be jerks when it comes to judgment.
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We also read in Second Timothy that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, correcting opponents with gentleness.
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Titus 3 .2 says to be gentle and show perfect courtesy to all people. The purpose is not to point out everyone's wrong so that we can show how much more right we are.
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The purpose is to point them to Christ who forgives sin and gives eternal life.
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Know the word of God so that we're able to instruct each other properly when we understand the text.
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All right, we get to our viewer email and this comes from Rocky in Huntsville, Alabama.
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It is not related to any specific video but has to do with doctrine, a doctrine related question.
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Dear what, I attend a Bible study that has been studying Genesis. I love that book.
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Probably my favorite book of the Bible. When we got to Genesis 5 where you see the genealogy from Adam to Noah, someone said that each person's name means something and there's a hidden gospel message.
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For example, Adam means man, Seth means appointed, Enosh means mortal, all the way up to Noah which means rest.
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So when you put all the names together, the hidden message is man appointed to mortal sorrow, the blessed
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God shall come down teaching that his death shall bring the despairing rest. Is that true?
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Is there a hidden message in the genealogy in Genesis? Could you do a video about that? Thank you for your videos,
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Rocky in Huntsville. Thank you for your message, Rocky. And to cut right to the quick, no, there is no hidden message in the genealogy in Genesis 5.
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It is a myth and it is one that has been perpetuated by a teacher by the name of Chuck Missler.
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He is the guy who wrote a book about aliens abducting and impregnating women to create a hybrid race that plays into end time scenarios.
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And those hybrids are living among us right now. And no, that is not a work of fiction.
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He passed it off as biblical truth. You know, I actually had,
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I taught a class on Genesis and when we went through this genealogy in Genesis 5, I actually had somebody speak up and make that same declaration of that myth.
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Now, in the class, I didn't address it because it really wasn't that big a deal. And I'll talk about that as I get to the end of this response here.
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But I did confront that individual about that teacher later. Regarding the genealogy that we see in Genesis 5, let's go ahead and look through those names and the order in which they are given.
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And we'll look at the meaning of those names. The names that we see in Genesis 5 are Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah.
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Adam in Hebrew does mean man. So we're right so far. Seth means he appointed.
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Okay. Enosh means we don't know. There is not a definition to the name
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Enosh. If you do a Google for the meaning of the name, one of the first results you get is given by Koinonia House, which happens to be, surprise,
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Chuck Missler's ministry. He made up the definition. There isn't one. The Hebrew meaning of Kenan is possession, not sorrow, as Missler says it is.
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Mahalalel means praise of God. Jared means he who descended. Enoch means dedicated or trained.
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Methuselah doesn't have a definition and neither does Lamech. Now, Missler will claim that Lamech is the origin of the
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English word lament. Uh, no, lament comes from the Latin word lamentum.
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In the Latin Vulgate, the word for Lamech is not lamentum. It's Lamech. So Missler gets five of 10 names correct and then twist the rest to come up with something that would make someone go,
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Ooh, neat. Yet even his hidden gospel is pretty soft. Man is appointed to mortal sorrow, but the blessed
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God shall come down teaching that his death shall bring the despairing rest. How about this?
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Jesus Christ loved you enough to leave his throne in heaven, die in your place and save you from the wrath of God, which was burning against you because of your sin that came into mankind starting with Adam and has been infecting mankind every generation since.
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If you repent and follow Christ, you will have eternal life. That is not a hidden message.
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It's plain as day. Read John chapter three verses 16 through 21 and also throw in John three 36 while you're at it.
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The hidden message thing in Genesis five really seems harmless enough, which was why
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I didn't directly confront it when somebody brought it up at the end of our Bible study, or at least confronted in front of the group.
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I talked to that individual later, but we are instructed to have nothing to do with silly myths. That's first Timothy four, seven, silly myths leads to speculation and vain discussion.
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First Timothy one, three through seven. And it also leads to division. As we talked about earlier, you might approach that individual who brought it up and ask him where he got it from, lovingly try to instruct that person to stay away from myths and also to stay away from those who have a reputation for teaching such myths.
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They only lead to division. Now, I'm not saying that a person like Chuck Missler is not saved and he's actually done some good work for the kingdom.
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I would admit that, but he teaches myths. You really should stay away from his teaching.
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Don't go beyond what is written that we see that in first Corinthians four, six, stick with what we know.
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Thank you again, Rocky, for your question. If anybody else has any questions that they want to submit to this program, send them via our website, www .utt
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.com. Thank you so much for listening to the broadcast. God bless you, and we will see you tomorrow.
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You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. Our ministry was born out of a local church, and we rely on the contributions of our viewers and our listeners to keep this ministry going.
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All gifts go directly to our church, a non -profit ministry. Give with card or check at our website, www .utt
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.com. We'll continue our study of Philippians tomorrow, rejoicing together in God's truth when we understand the text.