The Scriptures Are God Speaking - [2 Peter 1:20-21]

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A few years ago, they published something called a 100 -minute
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Bible. After all, Christians are starved for time, and so maybe we need an abridgment.
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This 100 -minute Bible only has 20 ,000 words.
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After all, 800 ,000 in the original are close to it. Publisher said, this is ideal for those who do not have time to read the original.
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A slimmed down page turner, trying to get people to read the
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Bible. Len Budd, the publisher of this book said, quote, there is a book for adults, this is a book for adults, and has been written in a style to encourage readers to keep turning the pages without resorting to any literary gimmicks.
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They said they spent 18 months on this work, and it includes all the, quote, really essential parts, end quote.
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Now, while Christians might be time starved, starving themselves of the
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Bible does no one any good. It won't help you look at the
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Lord Jesus Christ, because this is a book about Jesus. It won't help you live a holy life commensurate with your calling, and it won't help you when it comes to false teachers and buying into what they say.
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Positively, you need to pay heed to the Bible, you need to read the Bible. Hence, the term
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Bethlehem Bible Church. Why are we called Bethlehem Bible Church? I know where we get Bible, that's important.
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The Bethlehem, I'm not too sure about. There have been attempts over the years to change the name. I always rescue it by thinking
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Jan Hus in Prague was the pastor of Bethlehem Chapel, right, house of bread.
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But we're a Bible church because we want to teach you the Bible. We want you to pay heed to the Bible, to pay attention to the
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Bible, to be protected from false teachers, to learn and grow and rejoice in who
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Jesus Christ is. So with that said, please turn your Bibles to the book of 2 Peter.
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There are different genres in the Bible. There are narratives, there are poems, there are apocalyptic things.
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And here we have something called an epistle. It's a letter. Peter is writing a letter. He's a pastor, he's a shepherd.
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No more kind of rude, oafish Peter of the past. He's now seen the resurrected
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Jesus, and Jesus has sent him as his personal delegate, his apostle, to help the people of God.
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And these people of God who received this letter were suffering. It was a chaotic world. There was sin everywhere, and it was compounded with the fact that people were saying
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Jesus isn't going to come back. That's a big one. There's lots of lies that you could give, but it's almost like you give the biggest lie and then people buy into it.
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I mean, if you say, well, half of what Jesus said is true, maybe that little lie might people take for truth.
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But let's just go for the biggest lie of all. Jesus didn't tell the truth. He's not faithful.
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He's not coming back. He's in the grave. He's never going to return. And if you buy into that lie, like if you buy into the lie of evolution, it affects the way you live.
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If Jesus isn't going to come back, why live a holy life? If Jesus will never return, why trust the
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Bible? If Jesus isn't going to come back and judge sin and sinners and false teachers, well, then this is all we've got today.
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Let's live it up. But if Jesus is coming back, and if it is in fact true, then
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Christians say, I should walk in holiness. I should walk in a godly way.
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I should do what the Bible says. I should run from being licentious and worldly, and I shouldn't trust the false teachers.
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We've been going through 2 Peter, and everything has a context. So if you look at a letter, it's good to look at the whole letter and to see it in context.
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We don't have an abridged version of 2 Peter. We have the whole book, and it's this letter that flows from one thought to the next to the next.
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And early on, Peter, this great shepherd, he wants to make sure that the ultimate shepherd, Jesus's words, are embedded into the lives and the minds of the people.
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And he wants them to know that they have been protected by God. He says that in the first letter he wrote.
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He wants them to know that God has given them faith. He's given them the righteousness of his son.
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He's been giving them promises and divine power. And everything in those first four verses should tell you, dear
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Christian, I'm safe, I'm secure. What Jesus did for me, I'm safe.
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And I want to make sure I believe that and trust in him and walk by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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I could maybe summarize the first four verses with Spurgeon's words. When I thought
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God was hard, I found it easy to sin. But when I found
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God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against one who loved me so and sought my good.
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The foundation of the Christian life is, Jesus lived the life I should have lived, but I didn't live it.
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He died the death I should have died, but I didn't have to die that eternal death. And he's been raised from the dead.
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And in light of that, how do I live? Good question, verse five tells us. For this very reason, because we have the stability, because we have
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Jesus as our Lord and Savior, because we have the hope of heaven and all the promises of God, for this very reason, now we respond.
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Not to earn our salvation, not to keep our salvation, but because we're saved and out of gratitude, not a love for the
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Lord and to glorify him. Make every effort to supplement your faith with many lists, virtue, knowledge, self -control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.
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So he says, you know what? Live out your calling. You've been gifted in Christ Jesus.
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You've been protected in Christ Jesus. You've been given his righteousness and therefore now live a holy life.
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And then he says in verses 12 through 15, pretty much what I need to do in my last will and testament is to remind you of those very things.
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It's a good reminder, kind of PS. So now we come to verses 16 through 21.
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And essentially what Peter is saying is this. False teachers talk a lot. I almost past received quoted the talking heads, but they're not saying many things.
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They say a lot of things, but don't believe them. So if I not to believe the false teachers, who do I listen to?
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And so Peter is going to say, you listen to the word of God, the apostolic messengers and the prophets.
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There is truth, there's real truth. There's true truth that you can listen to. And so he's gonna say, you know, essentially there's two paths.
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Here's life, here's death. Here's the word of God, here's the false teachers. You're going to listen to someone.
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You're going to tune into someone's frequency. Do you wanna have false teachers tell you what to do?
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They're not even right. They say things based on their own will. Second Peter calls them self -willed.
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Or do you want some people to tell you something from the will of God moved by the Holy Spirit? So verses 16 through 21, the objective certainty of Christian truth.
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The objective certainty of Christian truth. How do we know the false teachers are wrong? We have the truth.
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How do we know Jesus is coming back? We have the truth. What is true truth? As Francis Schaefer said, we have it in our hands.
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Everybody keeps saying Jesus isn't coming back. By the way, did he come back yesterday? Come back last week, a month ago, a year ago, a decade ago, a century ago, a millennia ago, two millennia, we've been waiting, waiting, waiting.
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I mean, come on, is this all real? Let's just go for it. And Peter's very careful to say,
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I learned these things from my master on earth. And I've heard him say, he's going to come back.
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And matter of fact, although his timing's not our timing, he's coming back. Don't buy into the lie that Jesus isn't going to come back to judge.
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So for an outline, last week, we saw kind of a, the first charge, the first reminder for objective truth and the words for reliability.
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In verses 16 through 18, remember, see the Bible as reliable because of the apostolic witness.
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See the Bible as reliable because of the apostolic witness. Verses 16 and following. Remember this wonderful passage?
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I mean, I read it last week, but it's worth reading again. We, Peter said, did not follow cleverly devised myths.
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Remember the opponent is the false teachers. They're clever, they devise these things, and it's not truth, but we didn't follow those things when we made known to you the power and coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. People like to make stories up.
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This isn't made up. Now remember what Peter's doing here? If the second coming is going to be as powerful and glorious and magnificent and majestic as it's supposed to be in the
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Bible, is there something that Jesus did on earth that might give us a little hint of that, a flicker of that, a precursor, kind of a preview of coming attractions?
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What on earth did Jesus do that made you think, if that's so impressive, how much more the second coming will be impressive?
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And Peter's going to say this because he's going to say, the preview will show that the real thing is coming soon.
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And so instead of saying, well, Jesus raised Lazarus, that's impressive. Jesus walked on water. What manner of man is this?
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And even the wind and sea obey him. Those were all fantastic and glorious, but the thing that's the closest to the second coming is that flicker of time on that mountain, that holy mountain.
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Peter, James, and John sees Jesus with not a reflection on his face like Moses had when he went up to the mountain, but since Jesus is the eternal son, he's the magnificent glory from his essence, from his being, through his flesh, as it were, you see the streaming, beaming, a fulgent glory of God that makes you think, that was impressive because that's his nature and his nature is going to guarantee that he keeps his promises when he comes back with power and glory.
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Peter did not say, well, I felt it. I had some kind of feeling in my life.
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No, he said, I saw it. I was an eyewitness. And not only was I an eyewitness, but I heard things too, verse 17.
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For when he, Jesus, received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him, this wasn't in Peter's mind, this wasn't a dream, this wasn't an intuition, this wasn't an impression, this person was born to him by the majestic glory.
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What a name for God. This, the Father says, this
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Messiah right here is my beloved son with whom I am well -pleased.
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God is always well -pleased with his vice -regent Jesus, with his son
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Jesus. He gives Jesus the task to go rescue sinners. The Father is very pleased with this
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Jesus. Side note, when people try to tell me, well, Jesus isn't God, I say to myself, or sometimes
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I say out loud, depending on if I have the opportunity or not, Isaiah 42, I am the
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Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to what?
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Another, that's what the Father says. But here, what does the Father do? He gives all the glory to the
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Son because we believe in one God, God the Father, God the
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Son, God the Holy Spirit. And the Father says, I'm well -pleased, I'm always well -pleased.
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If you're a Greek student, and we have a few here, it's a timeless heiress, it means he's always well -pleased, always and forever well -pleased with the
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Son. Peter says in verse 18, remember, we ourselves heard this very voice, we saw things outside of us, we heard things outside of us, born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
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So you have the Bible as clear and trustworthy, as reliable, because the apostles that were sent by Jesus say, we saw this with our own eyes, we heard it with our own ears.
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And you might say, well, I wasn't there, I wasn't on that mountain, how do
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I combat false teachers? Easy for Peter to say, he saw Jesus, he has something firm and clear and reliable.
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Is there anything that I might have if I'm not there? Must I resort to the false teacher's sway?
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Secondly, you should see the Bible as sure because it's more fully confirmed than an actual true experience.
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It's more reliable than even being there on that mountain, verse 19. Remember, and we have present tense, you have, not just Peter, James, and John, but for me, for you, for all the readers of this, for the recipients of the letter, who've obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ, we have a prophetic word, the Old Testament word, and of course, now for the new, more fully confirmed.
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Transfiguration was confirming, this is more fully confirmed. And by the way, if you have something so fully confirmed, what should you do with it?
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Ignore it, discard it, which you do well to pay attention.
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So since you have the Bible, and the Bible teaches you that Jesus is gonna come back, shouldn't you pay attention to the
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Bible? And by the way, that's why I love this church. You want the Bible, you expect the Bible, you're expecting great sermons that reflect who
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Jesus is week in and week out. Oh, we all could study the Bible more, but I commend you, dear brothers and sisters, for your desire to study the
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Bible. Now, it's no fair because we have electronic Bibles now, and you can kind of walk in with your
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Bible anytime you want. But I remember our friend who used to be here, Steve Nelson, remember Steve Nelson?
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When he would go visit churches across the country, and he'd drive around, it was gone on a Sunday. He said he'd pull in the parking lot early after he'd doing the research online, and he'd wait to see if people brought their
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Bibles in, because if they didn't bring their Bibles in, he didn't wanna go to that church. So for those of you that don't have a physical
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Bible, I'm watching you. We have not been on that mountain.
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I trust the apostles saying that they have been because they've been sent by Jesus. But we do have the
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Bible in our own hands. And Jesus has said he's going to come back. The Old Testament prophets said he's going to come back.
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And even the way he phrases it in the original, more sure, front -loaded, so you know. Yes, transfiguration was sure, but we have something more sure.
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So I wanna pay heed to that. I want to study that. I could ask you, dear Christian, do you earnestly study the
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Bible? Are you careful to study the Bible, or is it like, well, I just need my daily bread, and I just read a verse in the daily bread, and I'm good to go?
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It's important. And you say, well, I wanna study more. Let me just remind you who
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God is, and what he has revealed is found in scriptures, and you ought to pay attention to what degree.
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I mean, I think Peter learned how to preach from Jesus, and Jesus would regularly use agricultural illustrations and other things.
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And what does Peter do here? Something exactly that the Lord Jesus would do. You do well to pay heed as a lamp shining in a dark place.
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It's dark, you're stumbling around, you need a flashlight. Reminds me of that song we used to sing as a kid, right, from Psalm 119.
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Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my, what? Path. We need that because false teaching makes everything dark.
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And how long do I need to do this? Well, here's the good news, not forever. You need to do this until you've studied the scriptures so much you're confirmed in your heart, or until the
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Lord Jesus comes back. And that next section in that verse could mean either of those, and both are true. Until the day dawns and the morning star,
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Jesus is called the morning star from Numbers 24, a messianic passage, he's called the morning star in Revelation 2,
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Revelation 22, and the morning star arises in your hearts. Until you're certain of the second coming, or until Jesus comes back, keep studying the scriptures.
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Until the Lord comes back, we have to pay attention to the apostolic teaching and the Old Testament. Now, when
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I study the Bible, I regularly am studying, looking at the minutiae, and lots of times I just push myself back from the table, and then
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I say, big picture, think about who Jesus is, what to say about the Lord Jesus, since this is a
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Christian pulpit in a Christian church. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, but I keep saying it because it's so very important.
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If you have a view of the Bible like Jesus had a view of the Bible, you're where you should be.
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Say, I don't know about fossil records, I don't know about archeology, I don't know about carbon dating, how do
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I know if I could trust the Bible? You need to have the view of Jesus when it comes to the
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Old Testament, and then the new, and you'll be fine. Did Jesus see the Old Testament as sure?
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What was Christ's view of the Old Testament? You have people running around today, Max Lucado, apologizing for what he says about LGBTQ things in the past.
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You have Andy Stanley, oh, the Old Testament, and they mock and ridicule things. I don't care what
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Lucado says, what Stanley says, and you shouldn't care what I say, what is Jesus's view of the prophetic word made more sure?
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When I studied the life of Jesus, I'm most struck by what he did not do. He had ample opportunities to correct
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Scripture, the Old Testament. It had been 400 years since Malachi had been written, and Jesus could have come along and said, by the way, there's some errors, and I need to correct those.
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Jesus, the Messiah, comes to the scene, he would have demanded the purity of the word of God. He would have demanded the integrity of the word of God.
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He could have said, you know what? I need to correct the manuscripts. Frankly, you know, here's what happens.
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Well, we don't have the original manuscripts, so how do we know what we have is true? We don't have anything but the copies, and we don't have the autographs, the original manuscripts.
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Do you know what? There were no original manuscripts of one of the Old Testament books when Jesus came, and he didn't say, since we don't have the original autograph or the original manuscripts, you can't trust the
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Bible. He did not say that. Whole books of the Bible could have been missing, and Jesus would have corrected it.
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He could have said, well, on the opposite, you know, too long for Jewish people have thought the book of Esther is
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God -breathed. It's not even a historical book that refers to my father one time. No, he didn't do that at all.
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He affirmed, and on the opposite side, he never quoted an extra -biblical source ever.
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Never quoted from the traditions or the rabbis. Instead, when he quoted things, like to Satan, it was what?
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It is written. It stands written. Thus saith the Lord. And if Jesus ever ran into anybody that was running their mouths wrongly about the
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Old Testament, did he correct them? Absolutely, he corrected them, but he never corrected the canonicity of the
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Old Testament. 39 books for us, 22 for the Jews. He didn't say, well,
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Jonah's a big, fat myth. It's an allegory. And, you know, Jonah's Israel, the ocean's the
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Gentile, the fish is Babylon, and regurgitation of Israel, regurgitation of Jonah out of the whale's belly, the fish's belly is
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Israel's return from exile via Ezra. He didn't say that at all. Jesus accepted the authority of Scripture, and he said 67 times in the
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New Testament, it is written, occurs, and 20 of those were from Jesus himself. If I was a liberal, by the way,
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I wouldn't wanna read Jesus, because here's the definition of liberal. No supernatural things, like no second coming, or anything supernatural.
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It's Mason with Christianity and liberalism. Liberalism, no supernatural. Christianity, supernatural.
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But what did Jesus do, almost to confound these liberals? He kept quoting Old Testament verses that were the most supernatural, the most fantastic.
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Moses in the burning bush, Jesus said, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him saying,
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I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Well, you know, Noah's just that little story.
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It's not really true. Jesus said, and just as it's happened in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the
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Son of Man. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were given in marriage until the day of Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
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Jesus said, manna came from heaven. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Sodom and Gomorrah. He said all those.
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Jesus confirmed the authority of the Old Testament record. He affirmed and confirmed the veracity of the
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Old Testament. And that's why we know it's true. Calvin said, we owe to scripture the same reverence with which we owe to God.
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I used to do this with my kids. If I held the Bible up like this, and I said, and I did that, what would you say?
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You know, some people with their hands up to worship, right? What if I did this? What would you say?
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You worship the Bible. You're bibliolatry on steroids. Well, you could say anything you want, but I have the pulpit.
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I lift up my hands to your commandments, David said, which I love. Psalm 119.
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My view of the Bible is my view of the scriptures. It's my view of the Savior. Well, now we come to verses 20 and 21.
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The Bible is reliable because of apostolic witness. The Bible is reliable because it trumps experience. And now number three, verses 20 and 21, the
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Bible is reliable because of its divine origins. Why pay attention? Why study?
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Why think it's so important? Why do we need it in the midst of false teachers everywhere? Because it's God breathed.
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Now, if you notice at the end of verse 19 in your ESV, there's a comma. And so this trails verse 19.
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It's part of it. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
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For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. Remember the foil, the false teachers, like their own will, but men spoke from God.
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The false teachers are speaking from their own desires as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. Contra the false teachers. Why should you pay attention? Why should you study scripture?
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Because it is God breathed. Say, well, you know what? I study the scripture because it's uplifting.
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It's the timeless truth. It's great literature. Well, great, great, and great, except you should study scripture because it is
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God breathed. God has spoken. Back in the old days, if there was an idol, you could see the idol, but it didn't say anything.
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Remember? They have mouths, but they don't speak. God is invisible.
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You can't see him, but guess what? He speaks. Why should I pay attention to scripture?
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Why should I meditate on it? Because nobody made it up. It's God's word.
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Calvin said the apostles did not blab their inventions of their own accord or according to their own judgments.
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And for John Calvin to say the word blab, I rejoice, blab.
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Remember when you were a kid, you used to say to other people, if you're my age, blabber mouth.
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You ever say that? I think that's illegal to say now. It's hate speech. You blabber mouth.
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That's what the false teachers are doing. They're a bunch of blather mouths. They're just making it up as they go because they want your money.
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They want your affection. They want you. Jeremiah 23, thus says the
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Lord of hosts. Do not listen to the words of the prophesy who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.
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They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word, it shall be well with you.
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People that hate Jesus, hate his return, hate the word, they want to say, just sing it as well with your soul.
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That's what a false teacher does. And they say to everyone who follows his own heart, no disaster shall come upon you.
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Jeremiah says, I did not send these prophets, recording the Lord's words, yet they ran. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
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If they had stood in my counsel, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people. And they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.
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Gospel preaching is practical because it turns people away from immorality. Jeremiah said the same thing that Ezekiel said.
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Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. They weren't on the
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Mount of Transfiguration. They just say what they want to say. Now verse 20 has some interpretive issues, but if you look at 21, 21 tells us exactly what's going on here that helps us with verse 20.
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No prophecy, something that's foretold or foretold. This is not like only end time stuff.
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This is, you know, we have prophets from the Old Testament that talk more about end times things.
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They talk about other things as well. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. Where does
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Old Testament prophecy come from? From a man? I think I'll write a blog today. No, but men spoke, listen, from God.
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That's the divine part. And there's a human agency here. Of course, it's subordinate to who
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God is and what God is doing. As they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. Now that word carried along, how many people here sail?
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You know how to sail at all? I know how to sail with the wind. That's what
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I can do. Tacky. You could be in a storm that's so big,
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Acts 27, you don't know what to do. You throw everything overboard and you just take down the sail or you leave it up and you just let go of everything and it drives you, it carries you, it moves you, it bears you along.
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That's the language here. It's a sailing term. It's a ship term. It's a maritime metaphor.
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Born along, driven along. Acts 27, soon a tempestuous wind called the nor 'easter.
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I always love it that a nor 'easter is in the Bible. Struck down from the land and when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along.
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So it's as it were, as the Holy Spirit is pushing these men along as they had their sails up as it were, driving them, telling them exactly what to say and how to say it.
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Carried along, the Spirit of God drives them and carries them to say exactly what God wants them to say.
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Did you know when you read the Bible, you're reading what God is saying? God is speaking, it's God's word.
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The false teachers, this is what I think, thus saith the
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Lord. No wonder the Old Testament prophets said, I have a burden of the
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Lord. I have an oracle from the Lord. I don't care if I get thrown over the cistern, I have to say it because it's
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God's word. The constraining power of the word of God. The power and coming of the
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Lord Jesus isn't made up by people. It's God saying in the
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Old Testament and of course then in the New, I'm driving along these authors so they write everything that I want them to write.
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Do they have personalities? Do they have their own grammar and diction and syntax? Yes, but they're saying exactly what
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I want them to say. While Paul is not inspired in everything he says, in these letters that I have him write, that he is inspired.
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It's revelation. Now, if you look at verse 20, you can study this on your own sometime.
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21 really helps us, but it says, knowing first of all that no prophecy of scripture come from someone's own interpretation.
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Now, some people say, well, here's what's going on here. The false teachers look at the Old Testament prophecy and we'll interpret that for you so you understand that Jesus really isn't coming back.
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Is that what he's saying here? Well, one certain is the source of scripture is God. God is speaking in the
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Bible. God speaks through the Holy Spirit and God speaks through the Holy Spirit by moving men. Holy Spirit is the source.
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Yes, their own personalities were used, their own background, vocabulary, and style, but you just can't take the
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Bible and make it say whatever you want. You're not the interpreter. It certainly does not mean that you need the
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Roman Catholic Church to interpret the Bible. That's what some have taken it to mean. Peter, in 2
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Peter 3 .16, knows that people were misusing the Bible. They were distorting the scriptures.
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They were interpreting the Bible the way they want it to be. Interpretation by the apostles does not ultimately come from them, but it's a divine source, prophecies from God.
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That is the issue. Prophecy is not a product of the prophet. It is a product of God through the
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Holy Spirit. Now, if I were to say this, let's take a break because this is kind of heady stuff for a second.
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How many religions in the world? Two, we could boil them all down into two.
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I think there are 1 .2 billion people in India, 330 million gods, and I could put all those with every other kind of Hindu, Buddhist, Confucius, Jehovah's Witness, Mormon, whatever we want, boil them all into one, and it's how do you do things?
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It's an ethical thing. It's be good, be nice, be kind, love.
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Some things that they say are actually good, but you obtain God's favor by doing.
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Only one religion says everything we do is tainted by sin, so we can't do anything.
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And by the way, if we could do something, that was such a shame to have Jesus come die on the cross, kind of masochistic of God, why would he do that?
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I mean, don't send Jesus to die on the cross for sins if we can save ourselves. Here's the works religion, and they all fit into that.
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And here's a religion that says, well, you know what, you got the works part right, but what you didn't get right is God requires perfect works, perpetual perfect works, perpetual perfect personal works.
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And therefore, we can't do that. We realize when we, our own conscience, scripture, our spouses would tell us, you know what, you don't live up to your morals.
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We need some good news. We need something, not just ethical, but a statement, a declaration that says,
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I have good news, Jesus lived the life you're supposed to live. He died the death we were supposed to die and has been raised from the dead.
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Two different religions, do and done, achieve, accomplish. But did you know when it comes to revelation and knowing what
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God thinks, revealing himself, there are two religions. Here are the two. One comes from the inside.
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What do I think? What do I feel? How I've experienced things. And the other one comes from the outside.
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Internal truth, external truth. Only Christianity is a revealed religion.
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Warfield said, B .B. Warfield said, revealed religion comes to man from without. It is imposed on him from a source superior to his own spirit.
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The unrevealed religions, on the other hand, flow from no higher source than the human spirit itself.
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Did you get that? We need not internal truth, our truth, my truth.
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I need external truth. I need something true. Why is that?
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Why are the false teachers always wrong? Why are the false religions always wrong? Because they have been affected by the fall.
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We believe in total depravity, do we not? Whole depravity, W -H -O -L -E.
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I've been wholly affected by Adam's sin, my mind, my emotions, my conscience, my will, my body.
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And therefore, I need something outside of me that hasn't been affected by the fall. And that's what's happening here in 2
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Peter. They say, oh, we think this, but they're affected by the fall. I need something from outside of me to say, sure and certain.
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Now, since we're in New England, I often quote the New England primer. And if you don't have the
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New England primer, you can get it free online. And it's alphabet, A through Z, A through Z.
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And every letter then teaches the truth. So you can teach kids the alphabet and teach them theological truths, the
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New England primer. Remember some of them?
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B, heaven to find the Bible mind. C, Christ crucified for sinners died.
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D, it starts getting darker here. The deluge drowned the earth around.
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What would you say for X? Xerxes did die and so must
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I. Follow with Y, even happier.
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While youth do cheer, death may be near. But of course it starts off with A.
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And you know what it says, even if you've never read the New England primer. In Adam's fall, we sinned all.
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Therefore, I can't have a religion that's this new age Buddhist, Hindu, and you put every other amalgamation in that says feelings, sensations.
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I think somebody thought I need external. I need something that's not touched by the fall because internal has been affected by the fall.
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J .C. Ryle, there are few errors in false doctrines of what's the beginning may not be traced to an unsound view of the corruption of human nature.
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Do you think I'm gonna listen to this blabber mouth when I know his mind and conscience have been affected by the fall and he's gonna start telling me things that aren't true?
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I need something from outside. I need a voice from God that says this is my beloved son and men moved by God, by the power of the
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Holy Spirit to tell me the truth. By the way, it doesn't take you very long to read the Bible to make you think this word shows men and women and their sin boldly.
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Does it not? You read the Bible and you think, you know what? This is who men and women are.
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I mean, I can put it this way. Don't go for people that have been affected by the fall. Go for an external source revealed religion.
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Why? Why? I could give you this illustration. Now it's a while into my sermon now.
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This is my second sermon and I'm getting hungry. You're getting hungry? I think my stomach's about ready to growl.
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Did you know what they used to do back in the day? If you had a growling stomach, they thought it was a dead person talking.
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Now the original word for ventriloquist was not Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snurd and Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy was
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Sherry Lewis for you old timers. You know, holding some doll up and then throwing your voice. That's what we think of ventriloquism.
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Ventriloquism really was a religious practice. That's how it started. It means belly speaking. Venter is belly.
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Loki is speaking where we get like Lagos. I got a noise in my stomach.
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I think it's a dead person talking inside of me. I better go to the Oracle of Delphi and have somebody translate it for me.
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Matter of fact, if I know you're laughing, it's true. I can even see laughs from here up to the balcony.
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If you ever wondered, can pastor see me when I'm sleeping? Of course I can. This is
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Quakerism. This is inner light. I have the truth with inside of me. No, no. He who trusts in his heart is a what?
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Fool. I need something outside external. I'm gonna deceive myself.
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The heart is still desperately wicked, deceitful above all else. Who could know it? So if we got the word that's external, no wonder
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I should be paying attention to that. And we all have to confess it's way too easy for us as Christians.
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Well, I felt led. I have an impression. I just kind of go along with my intuition.
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If that guides you, stop it because it's a sign of immaturity. May I just tell you that frankly, gently.
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One man said it's a basic mistake to think that guidance is essentially inward prompted by the
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Holy Spirit apart from the written word. My teacher within is broken.
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To quote the famous theologian, George Orwell. He was a theologian, a bad one.
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But he was right when he said, to see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.
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Every part of us has been affected by the fall. And so Peter knows. You know, when
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I'm left to my own self, I'm saying, Jesus, don't go to the cross. And Jesus says, get behind me,
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Satan. I have to have an external word. I have to go in the truth of what God's word is. We have been affected by the fall, heart, soul, mind, everything tainted by a sin.
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Even Christians who have been redeemed. We can't trust ourselves. Dear Abby, I'm 44.
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You would like to meet a man my age with no bad habit. Dear Rose, so would
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I. You better not believe what
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I say, unless it's here. My dad would say, don't trust that guy as far as you could throw him.
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That's how you trust the guy. For you to be Bereans, and I know you are, you're like, you know what?
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Mike Ebendroth, you know, dear Abby, I'm 60 years old. And do
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I have any bad habits? I mean, we'd go through the list. You can't take my word for it. You can't take anybody's word for it.
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No wonder in distinction to an internal religion is a revealed religion. Listen in a praise song what
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David says. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
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The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the
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Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
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The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
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More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycombs.
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And he's just adding metaphor on metaphor. So you say with David in verse 11 of Psalm 19, moreover, by them the word is your servant warned in keeping them is great reward.
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Why? Because it's external, it's not internal. Our intuition is fallible, our impressions are infallible.
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I believe what Henry Mahan said, there's enough evil in the heart of the best sinner to make another devil.
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That's why when you read experiencing God by Blackabee and God speaks to you by way of impressions, that's rubbish.
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You ought not to be reading that. Don't take too much about subjective impressions.
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Don't take too much about false teachers. Spurgeon, to live by impressions is oftentimes to live the life of a fool and even to fall into downright rebellion against the revealed word of God.
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Not your impressions, but that which is in the Bible must always guide you to the law, to the testimony.
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If it is not according to this word, the impression comes not from God. It may proceed from Satan or from your own distempered brain, end quote.
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I didn't say that, Spurgeon did. Spurgeon, there was a young man who was impressed with the idea that he ought to preach for me one
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Lord's day, but I was not impressed to let him do so. When people tell me they have a lot of impressions, a lot of times
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I tell them, you know, I just got an impression that your impression was wrong. So I guess we have to go to an external source to find out who's right.
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Spurgeon, it's a dangerous thing for us to make the whims of our brain instead of the clear precepts of God, the guide of our moral actions.
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How much more I translate it for our false teacher motif. It is a dangerous thing for us to make false teachers' whims true and willing to follow.
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You do well, congregation, to keep heeding the word of God. It's not tainted by the fall.
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It's protected by the spirit of God as he moves men as they wrote it.
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False teachers were not on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were not invited by Jesus to go there. They had no real experience, just manipulation.
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They just made things up. They're only human, not moved by God, no Holy Spirit inspiration. So I commend you to the word of God and maybe
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I should end this way. What if you say to me, pastor, I don't really feel like reading the
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Bible like I should. Well, I would say this, join the club. Sometimes I don't feel like it either, but I have to remember the engine of my life can't be my feelings.
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So guess what I just do instead? I just start reading the Bible. And before you know it, I'm starting to feel like I should.
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Has that ever happened to you? Like, I know I should pay attention to the Bible. It's kind of like you have a hard time jump -starting, but once I'm in,
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I'm in. I'll give you an illustration of how wonderful this is. Look at 1 Peter 1.
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You say, well, I don't really feel like reading the Bible today, but I guess it's 1 Peter 1, here we go. And so we read
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Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who elect exiles of dispersion and Pontus.
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I mean, I can't even really pronounce these, can I? Where's Pardeep when I need him? Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the
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Father in the sanctification of the spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling with his blood.
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And then all of a sudden you go, okay, sprinkling of blood, sprinkling of blood, sprinkling of blood.
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What was that that pastor Steve read last week in Exodus chapter 29? What was going on there?
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Why in the world would we ever read Exodus chapter by chapter by chapter? I mean, come on.
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Remember what Steve read last week? She'll bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
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She'll take the garments and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastpiece and gird him with a skillfully woven band of the ephod.
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And you will set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. She'll take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.
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And then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them. You shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them.
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And the priesthood shall be theirs by statute forever. Do you know how long it took to make those clothes?
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I know we have some people here who knit or who make clothes. Do you know how long it took to make those clothes by specification and how clean they needed to be and nice they needed to be?
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This is gonna be the high priest representing you and you shall take the other ram.
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Remember when pastor Steve read this? And Aaron and his son shall lay their hands on the head of the ram and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the right ear tip of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons and on the thumbs of their right hand and on the great toes of their right feet and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar.
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And then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar and of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and his son's garments with him.
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He and his garment shall be holy. I have a shirt in my closet that I preach with that I spilled blood on eight months ago.
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I can't get that blood out. And now you've got the nice vestments, the nice turbans, the nice clothes, the priest who are gonna represent you.
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And you know what? They need to be made holy if they're going to intercede for God's people. And so you take the blood and you throw it all over them.
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Can you imagine the sight? Can you smell it? And now
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I read, instead of blood of bulls and goats, because without the shedding of blood, there's no remission.
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It's been the Lord Jesus and his blood shed for us. And we stand before him as clean and holy because we have been sprinkled with his blood.
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And then before you know it, I say, I'm not bored anymore. I feel like reading more.
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Amen. It's amazing. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Seal it to our hearts in Jesus' name.