WWUTT 1070 Q&A Halloween, Reformation, Christmas, Could Jesus Have Sinned, Mortification of Sin?

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Can Christians celebrate Halloween, Reformation Day, Christmas Day?

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Could Jesus have sinned? And what does it mean to mortify sin? We will talk about these questions and others when we

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Understand the Text. This is

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When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we have hope.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. It's time for the program that gets twice as many listens as any other episode of our podcast.

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Oh, stop. It's just more convenient on Friday. Because Friday's the

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Q &A. That's right. And you'll find this interesting. So on Podbean, we have 1 ,155 subscribers.

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Wow. Just on Podbean. That's awesome. So that's not counting. Thanks, everybody. Yeah. That's not counting iTunes or people that might listen through Facebook or if there's some other podcast or, you know,

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I don't know what it is, engine that provides the podcast. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So 1 ,155 just on Podbean.

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Uh -huh. That's amazing. I just saw this statistic the other day, 100 % of every one of our subscribers on Podbean downloads an episode of our podcast at least once a month.

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Oh, that's great. 100%. That is fabulous. There's at least,

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I think it's like within a 28 -day period, so once a month. We have a 100 % response rate from our subscribers on Podbean.

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That is awesome. Yeah. It might be like 99 .5 % or something, but they just round it up to 100. It's close enough for us to be able to say every single one of our subscribers on Podbean listens to this podcast at least once a month.

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We need to celebrate. That's great. I mean that. That's fabulous. Unlike YouTube where we have 30 ,000 subscribers on YouTube for the what channel and a video will get 5 ,000 or 6 ,000 views.

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Wow. It's like, where are you people? Yeah. That's like a Baptist church. Right. We have a.

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We have a membership. That's right. We have a membership of 30 ,000 people, but only 5 ,000 show up.

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Yeah. You know. Yeah. So this is the day after Halloween and Reformation Day.

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The day that I would prefer we know October 31st as. Right. I'm just not a big fan of Halloween.

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I like the candy. Yeah. Candy's good. Candy seals. And after Halloween, I like the dress up because the kids like to dress up during the rest of the year.

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And I get pretty good deals. That's true. You can get the best deals on the costumes after.

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Oh, yeah. Halloween is over. That's true. I can see a plus there. I'm a smart shopper. One thing that we want to do early this year, so we're probably going to do it before Thanksgiving this year.

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Okay. Is put our Christmas tree up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're always late doing that. Yeah. We always say we're going to do it

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December 1st or the weekend after Thanksgiving. I mean, we even set a time and we never get around to it.

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We never make it. So we put it up like two weeks before Christmas and then it's up for like, yeah, or the week of. Yeah. And then it's up for like three or four weeks after Christmas.

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Yeah. You know, you got to get in that time. More of I just don't want to put it all away.

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Yeah. I spent so much time. That's true. But before we went to Truth Matters, we made a deal with our kids.

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Yes, we did. We would get the tree up shortly after we got back. So it might be this weekend.

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Yeah. It's got to be soon. I mean, we had our first snow before Halloween this year. We did. So, goodness. Might as well put the tree up.

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And now our daughter is crying because it's all melted. It's all melted. All melted the next day.

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It'll happen again soon. If winter is going to come on us this fast, it'll be again soon. I need to paint the house.

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Yeah. We talked about doing that. I think that winter has come on us too fast. We might need to wait until March or somewhere in there.

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Oh, boy. When we get that last ice storm of the season, right there in March. Yeah. After the second winter.

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Right. Right. You know. We get this weird little, almost like a spring or summer season in January.

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January. Yeah. January, February. For like two weeks. Yeah. It's almost two weeks. And it's like people from the fort, they're not used to this weather.

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And so they'll take off the tops of their Jeeps and they'll be -

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They'll be ready to go with the spring weather. Yeah. Getting ready on their motorcycles and bicycles and everything.

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And then all of a sudden it's snow. Yeah. Snow again. Like just dump snow again. We have to tell them, no, wait, wait. Hang on.

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Hang on. Don't - Our winter isn't over yet. Don't put away those winter clothes yet. That's right. It all comes back on you again.

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We run through two winters here in Kansas. Well while we were talking about Halloween and Reformation Day, I had queued up a couple of our what videos.

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Okay. To go along with this. Because even though it is the day after Halloween and Reformation Day, still a good reason to remember why we celebrate

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Reformation Day. Oh, definitely. But first of all, because this question gets asked of us every year. Okay. I did have an email about this, but I didn't pull it out.

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So I don't have it right here in front of me, but is it okay for Christians to celebrate Halloween? Gotcha. So here is that video that we did on this subject.

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What? Beware the dreaded All Hallows Eve, or as we've come to know it,

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Halloween, a subject of much controversy among Christians. Some participate with costumes and trick -or -treating like anyone else.

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Others try to redeem the holiday by calling it a fall festival or doing a trunk -or -treat. Some do Reformation Day parties.

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Since October 31st is the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Personally, I like that one. Then there are those who choose to abstain entirely, shutting off the lights and locking everything down until the zombie apocalypse is over.

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Is there anything evil about dressing like Batman or Batgirl and going door -to -door asking for candy? No, there's really not.

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However, the origins of Halloween are unmistakably pagan, with things a Christian should not participate in, like death and the occult.

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But Halloween is impossible to get away from. Once October rolls around, it's everywhere. Parents should always teach their children what is acceptable and what's not.

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In our hearts, we need to revere Christ as holy and honor God in all that we do. It's hard to deny door -to -door visitors make for a great opportunity to hand out tracts and share the gospel.

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As for whether or not to go trick -or -treating, the Christian is free to make that decision on their own. But don't quarrel over opinions.

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One person thinks of a day one way while another thinks all days alike. Don't pass judgment on the one who abstains or on the one who eats

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Halloween candy. Know the origins of Halloween and study Romans 14 to help you come to an informed and biblical decision.

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In the process, avoid guilting others into why they should or should not participate. Everyone is to be fully convinced in their own mind when we understand the text.

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All right, so you know, I don't care much for the holiday. Yeah, but you don't care for many holidays.

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I really don't. Yeah. Thanksgiving and Christmas, that's pretty much it for me. Food holidays. Yeah. Easter. Easter's on there too.

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Yes, Easter's on there too. Because we have a buildup to that too. We have Passion Week beforehand. Yeah, here at our church, we do like week -long services.

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So it starts on Palm Sunday and we go every night leading up to Easter. And it's just good to remember that story.

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It's just good to refresh your mind on that every year. So we like doing that. And each one of us elders will teach a different message usually that corresponds to that particular day on Easter.

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Halloween really is probably my least favorite of the holidays. I don't know, Valentine's is pretty obnoxious too.

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Yeah, you hate Valentine's too. I like it. I really don't like that one. I love it.

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I just choose to get you wonderful things and your favorite chocolates any other time of the year.

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I know. And I appreciate it every other time of the year too. Then I don't have to worry about February 14th when they jack up the prices on everything.

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Oh my goodness, they do. Besides, I can't get your favorite candy until after Valentine's Day because this lady loves

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Cadbury eggs. Oh, I do. I do. And they really don't roll out the

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Cadbury eggs until after they pull down the Valentine's candy. I know it's not a favorite of everybody, but I love them.

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She does. She loves her Cadbury eggs. I'll eat like the whole box a day.

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Fruit Shocks are kind of climbing on your list though. Oh, no, no. I've been...

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Okay, so I opened up another package. Sorry, we ran into some friends at Truth Matters who came from Australia and they brought her some more

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Fruit Shocks. They did. They were actually from the town where the Fruit Shocks got made. So she had a little blessing.

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So in California, I shared. I did share the Fruit Shocks, maybe not a lot, but I did share.

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And then I shared with the kids when we got home. And so that bag just went very quickly.

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Which one was it? That was the original. The orange ones. Yeah. Okay. It's not orange though.

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It's apricot and peach. Okay. Right. It's the orange bag. Yes. The orange bag.

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So now I've opened up the dark chocolate with cherry in the middle.

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So yummy. Yeah. It says on the bag that they're like a new flavor.

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So worth going out and getting. All right. So if you're in Australia. Yeah. Well, one of these days, we got to make it down under.

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We do. It would be so fun. We just need to start getting our, like we said last week, getting our -

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Oh yeah. Hey, somebody come have us speak at a church or something. Yeah. We'll come down there. Give us a good excuse to come down there in Australia.

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That'd be so fun. Maybe Cameron Butale can go with us and be a guide. Oh, fun. Isn't he from New Zealand though?

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I have no idea. I don't think he's actually Australia. I think he's New Zealand. I don't recall.

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Aren't they very particular about, no, I'm not from Australia, I'm from New Zealand. There is a particular. Yeah. They make that very distinguished.

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It's kind of like - Distinct. Yeah. Distinguished? Distinct. Yeah. You're right.

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Anyway, there were some people from New Zealand who worked with my grandpa. They just randomly came to Kansas.

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I don't remember why, but they had some sort of program where they got hired from New Zealand and would come.

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And I'm like, so how are you guys liking the weather and everything? And they're like, oh, well, it's about like New Zealand.

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So apparently it's pretty similar. So interesting. Well, we kind of dropped the ball on following that Halloween video by talking about Halloween.

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So yeah. So Halloween. Anyway. No, that's it. That's it. We've covered it. So now we're going to go on - No, we kind of talked about Halloween. Yeah, we did.

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We kind of talked about Halloween. Kind of. So don't quarrel with one another. Basically, that's the down.

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I had Romans 14 open right in front of me. I was ready to - We'll go. No, we've covered it. We're past it?

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Nope. We're good. But the Lord comes first. The Lord comes first. So let's make him first. Go ahead.

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I mean, that's always good advice, a good lesson. I don't understand how that really tied into this.

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Romans 14? Romans 14. Yeah. What's it say? As for the one who is weak in the faith, welcome him not to quarrel over opinions.

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One person believes he may eat anything while the other person eats only vegetables or Halloween candy.

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Let not one - I'm pretty sure that's not in there. Not one who eats despise the one who abstains and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats for God has welcomed him.

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Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls and he will be upheld for the

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Lord is able to make him stand. Now when you go through these, the Christian liberty instructions that we have here in Romans 14, those who really don't like Halloween and really think it's completely against scripture for a

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Christian to have anything to do with Halloween, they love to come to this and go, no, no, no, no, no. Paul is only arguing about Sabbath and food laws, dietary law.

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That's the only argument that's going on here in Romans 14. But the principle still applies. If you believe that something is sin, which

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Paul goes on to talk about here in Romans 14, if you believe it's sin, then it's sin.

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Don't do it. But if you, in liberty of conscience, are not convinced that that is sin, if you are convinced this day is still holy unto the

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Lord because all the days belong to the Lord. So I can participate in Halloween. I'm not doing anything that compromises my witness or makes me a sinner before God just because I'm dressing up as Batman and saying trick or treat.

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Then if you are not convinced that it's sin, in this such a matter, you're not sinning.

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But don't quarrel over opinions. If you're convinced it's sin, don't do it. If somebody else is convinced it's not, let them do what they're doing.

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And if it makes you sin, don't do it. It makes you sin. Don't do it. This was a discussion. There's a lot of costumes out there.

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I'm just saying. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And that was mentioned in the video. The occult and things like that, that are so closely linked to and tied to Halloween can.

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I mean, all of that's very prevalent. So you've got to be careful with how much you indulge in any of those kinds of things.

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Stuff that has to do with Satanism don't have anything to do with that. Right. But, you know, making something fun out of it, handing out tracks to kids that come by your house, stuff like that, there's nothing wrong with doing anything like that.

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Yeah. Now, we did have this discussion with our son just yesterday.

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So he comes into the living room munching on a piece of ice. Do you remember this? Okay. Do you know what

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I'm talking about? No, keep going. He comes in munching ice and you said to him, did you grab a piece of ice and sneak off to eat it?

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Right. I did. There's nothing wrong with him getting into the ice box and pulling out a piece of ice to eat it.

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It's not like eating candy or even helping himself to the apple juice or something like that. He's just getting a piece of ice.

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Right. But there's no harm in it. There's no harm in it. We do prefer that our children ask us that first, before they do that.

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Right. So he comes in munching the ice and Becky said, did you? Oh no, he was finished. He was finished with the ice.

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He was finished. Okay. Yeah. And you said to him, did you sneak off with a piece of ice? And so he's looking at us guilty.

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Right. Because he snuck away with the ice so we wouldn't get caught with the ice. So I had to tell my son, son, if you think you're doing something wrong, you're doing something wrong.

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Right. Yep. So this is a good thing to apply to these liberty of conscience and sin issues as well.

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Right. If you think it's wrong, it's wrong. And if you feel like you have to hide it, like if somebody were to walk in, say your pastor would walk in and see you doing whatever.

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If it looks like something you would be ashamed of, then don't do it. Yeah. Yeah. If God is in the room with you.

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Yeah. Well, God is always there. He's always there. The Holy Spirit is in your heart. Right. But you know. So that's why

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I was giving the pastor illustration. The pastor illustration. Because generally when we walk into a room and somebody is chatting about something and they're like, oh, you know, it's just a physical reminder of, oh yeah, yeah,

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I got to straighten up. There are some people that do that, like people we know who aren't Christians. I'll come in and they'll immediately like straighten up their language and all that.

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But there are people in my church that probably wish I would lighten up a little bit. I walk in the room, they're just going to keep doing it and go, ah, come on Gabe, you can get into it anyway.

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They don't have any problem with it at all. So that was where we were going with the

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Halloween thing. Talk about this in Romans 14 and this verse 19, so then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

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Don't argue about this. And if it causes someone else to stumble, don't do it. Right. Really, if you've got one family in your church that is deeply offended by any involvement or participation in Halloween, might

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I put before you that you don't do the trucker treat? Right. Trucker treat. Trucker treat.

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I think I would like trucker treat. You probably would. You would go to that more often than the trucker treat. That's right.

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We'll do a tractor pull or something. But if that's going to offend somebody, if any sort of thing like that, the involvement in that is going to offend somebody, just don't do it.

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Right. We do have a fall festival coming up. We moved it to this Wednesday since we had to call off Wednesday due to the snow.

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But the kids are supposed to come dressed as their favorite Bible characters. And I'm always looking forward to how many Davids and Esthers I can count whenever we do that.

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And Marys. There's a lot of Marys. Oh, do we have some Marys too? Yeah, generally. The very last verse here in Romans 14, but whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith.

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For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Doing all things to the glory of God.

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And if what you are doing is not to his glory, then it is sin. If it is not done in faith, in obedience to our

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Lord God, who has called us to holiness and righteousness. If you feel like you're compromising that pursuit of holiness in anything that you would delve into, then it's going to be sin for you.

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Even if the Bible says there's nothing wrong with that thing. If you're convinced in your mind that there is something wrong about it, then you would violate your conscience and in your own conscience, you would have believed that you had sinned against God.

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Right. So don't do anything. And did it anyway. And did it anyway. Yeah. Did it anyway.

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Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. It's just so cold lately. My lips are all like.

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So that's the end of the Halloween part. Now we go on to Reformation Day part. Of course.

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And here is the next video. On October 31st, 1517,

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Martin Luther nailed to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, his 95 theses, a list of arguments calling out the corrupt practices of the

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Roman Catholic Church. This marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, an effort to reform the church and recover the gospel.

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But why did Luther choose that day to present his theses? Well November 1st was All Saints Day and the church in Wittenberg was about to present an exhibit of newly acquired relics.

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Worshippers would come great distances to genuflect upon these relics, hoping to take thousands of years off their purgatory sentence.

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The Catholic Church was selling the forgiveness of sins and teaching people they could be saved by their works.

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This was not the gospel. Salvation is not through sacraments or the Pope. It isn't earned by deeds or money.

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We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. One of Luther's theses was the true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.

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That's the meaning of Reformation Day, when the light of the gospel broke forth out of darkness. Hence the motto of the

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Reformation, post Tenebros Lux, Out of Darkness, Light. The Bible says, For God who said,

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Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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Reformers like Luther, Calvin, Knox, Tyndale, and many others helped to lead the church back to the glorious doctrines of justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, to the glory of God when we understand the text.

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Yeah, it always cracks me up whenever some Protestant will be upset at John Calvin or Martin Luther, you know, well,

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I'm not Lutheran, I'm not a Calvinist, da da da da da. These guys are the reason why you're Protestant. Right.

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Very true. And by the way, we are always delighted to recommend Nate Pickowitz's book,

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Why We're Protestant. Yeah, definitely. You want to get like a primer on the

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Reformation, understanding why we're a Protestant church and we're not a Catholic church or we're not part of Eastern Orthodoxy.

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This book is the best, hands down the best starter book, I think, in understanding the

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Reformation. Yeah. And of course, why we're Protestant, the five solas of the Reformation. So check out

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Why We're Protestant. You can get it right now at Amazon. I'm going to talk about another book you can get on Amazon here in just a moment.

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All right. But coming back to the whole concept of the Reformation, the five solas of the Reformation, these are like the five key doctrines that were embraced for preservation against the heresies that were being pressed by Roman Catholicism.

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And those five doctrines included sola scriptura, by Scripture alone, or just Scripture alone, sola fide, by faith alone, sola gratia, by grace alone, solus

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Christus, in Christ alone, and soli deo gloria, to the glory of God alone.

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So according to Scripture, which is our authority, the authority is not the church. The authority is most definitely not the

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Pope. The authority is Scripture. The church is under the authority of Scripture. There is going to be some authoritative elements within the church.

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Peter says in 1 Peter 5, for example, be subject to your elders. So it's not that the church has no authority, but the church itself is to come under the authority of Christ.

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If you are sinning, and someone has confronted you in that sin, and you are not repentant of that sin, then you're probably going to be brought up before the church for church discipline.

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Right. There's an authority that exists there. And so you should listen to your brothers and sisters in the

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Lord and come to repentance. Yes. So again, yeah, there is some element of authority that does exist in the church, but the church itself comes under the authority of Scripture, by Scripture alone.

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Then it is by faith alone that we are saved. We are justified by faith. Yep. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 really kind of encapsulates both faith alone and grace alone.

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By grace, you are saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

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So you have by grace alone through faith alone. In Christ alone, the object of our faith.

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It is not through works. It is not through sacraments. It is not because somebody popishly declared to you that you are saved.

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Right. Faith alone. In Christ alone is our salvation. And all of this to the glory of God alone.

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Now whenever we talk about these five solas, somebody who is skeptical of this might step forward and go, oh yeah, where do you find those five solas in the

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Bible? Well, you actually find it in Romans chapter 3, verses 23 through 26.

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And when we walked our church through understanding these five key doctrines from the

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Protestant Reformation, why we're Protestant, this was the section of Scripture that we went through. We devoted the whole month of October 2017 to this because that was the 500th anniversary of the

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Protestant Reformation. So starting in verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

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This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

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It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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So we actually should have started in verse 21 because that's where the sola scriptura is. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

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So there's by Scripture alone, the witness to the work that was accomplished through Jesus Christ is given to us in the pages of Scripture, right?

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As much as somebody like Andy Stanley wants to say, you don't have to believe the Bible, you just have to believe in the resurrection.

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Where do you know about the resurrection from the Bible? The Bible tells me so that phrase that Andy Stanley hates so much is exactly the reason why he, well.

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We know about Jesus. Right. I was going to say it's the reason why he's a pastor. I don't know. That may not be true of Andy Stanley, but let's not open that can of worms.

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Verse 22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinct distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift.

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There's justification by the grace of God, not by any work of ours, not because we have merited our salvation, but because God is gracious through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Christ alone, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith, the gift of God's grace.

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Faith is the mechanism that God has chosen to transfer all of the, uh, the blessings of his grace upon us.

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So we have faith in Christ. We have the blessing of God, his grace, Jesus, God put forward.

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This was to show his righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

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And now here's Soledad Gloria in verse 26, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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No one gets the glory, but God alone. And there you go. You have all five of those

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Protestant doctrines right there, Romans 3, 21 through 26. I said 23 earlier, 21 through 26, you get all of them right there.

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So there's our, uh, our reformation recap for you. There you go.

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We've talked about Halloween. We've talked about Reformation Day. I think we've covered everything, uh, October 31st wise ish.

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Yeah. Now we're getting into November 1st and available for you today is the updated, revised new and improved version of 25

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Christmas myths and what the Bible says. Yay. You can get it. Written by?

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Me. It's my book. And I honestly,

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I loved writing this book. I really love Christmas. I enjoy Christmas a lot. And so it was great to put together an apologetic book because that's really what it is.

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It's an apologetic book. That's a defense of Christmas, not necessarily the holiday itself, but the things surrounding the

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Christmas story. Because there are a lot of myths that we have fallen into that, you know, like for example, the innkeeper thing we talk about every year, somebody wants to dress up and be an innkeeper and tell their side of the story as to why they turned away this couple, this woman who was about to give birth right on Christmas Eve.

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You know, there's always this innkeeper story. There's no innkeeper in the story, right? Furthermore, Mary did not get to Bethlehem in the throes of labor pains, right?

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And Jesus was not born in a barn. Yep. He was born in a home with family.

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Now where did I get all of this straight from scripture? And to know all of the apologetic arguments behind all of that, dispelling some of the myths and things like that, you got to get the book, 25

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Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. You can download it either for your Kindle or get the paperback version.

28:17

Now, I said this is new and improved. Yeah, I was going to ask. So why would they want to buy it again if they already have it?

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So here's why you want to buy it again. First of all, I'm not convinced you bought it in the first place. Okay. Unless you got it at our table when we were at G3.

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This is true. Then you probably did get it there. But there was a printing error with that first batch.

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There were no page numbers at the bottom. What? You probably figured that out when you were looking at something in the table of contents.

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You were like, what page is this on? Right. So there weren't any page numbers on it.

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That was part of the problem. So that was corrected. There were a couple of spelling errors, not a lot, but I got those corrected as well.

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And then there was a complaint that the Kindle version did not have chapter markers in it.

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And like in the table of contents, you couldn't click on the chapter and then go straight to it. So I solved that problem as well.

29:10

Okay. And that, I don't think, honestly, I really don't think that was on me. I think that was on Amazon.

29:17

But somewhere in the transfer of the document to present the

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Kindle book, it didn't take. I don't know what it was that happened. So the Kindle version now has a table of contents on it so you can click on it.

29:30

And I've also corrected the footnotes on the Kindle version so that if you click on the footnote, it'll actually show you the footnote.

29:39

Interesting. Before you had to. Oh, it didn't do that? No, before you actually had to go all the way to the back to check the reference.

29:45

Oh, okay, okay. But this time it's actually got a link on it so you can click on it and it'll give you the reference right away. Oh, that's nice.

29:50

Now, if you've already bought it on your Kindle, that should update by itself. Okay. So it's not something you have to repurchase.

29:57

On Kindle with those corrections made, if you just refresh it or something like that, that'll all come up.

30:03

It'll come up corrected. Now there is one other thing that I've added to it.

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You'll find this on your Kindle. You'll also, this is also in the print version. And this is why

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I think buying the print version is that much better. But I've added at the end of every chapter a reflection.

30:22

This wasn't in the version of the book that I released last year. Last year also it came out on December 25th.

30:28

Yeah, it did. So it was like, Christmas was kind of over by then. Yep. We got a plenty big jump on it enough this year, we're gonna be talking about it every week now.

30:37

Woo -hoo. Leading up to Christmas. Pick up 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. At the end of every chapter is a reflection for you and your family to do.

30:47

You can do it by yourself if you just read the book by yourself. If you want to do it as a family thing, you've got 25

30:53

Christmas Myths. So from December 1st to December 25th, you could be doing a different myth each day.

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Like showing here's what the Bible actually says about this. And you can do it together as a family. At the end of the chapter is a

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Christmas Carol. At the end of every chapter. Neat. So it's a different Christmas song. I won't say it's always a

31:13

Christmas song because I think there's two chapters where I picked a hymn that wasn't a Christmas hymn. But it still fit with the chapter.

31:20

Okay. And it still talks about Christ coming. So it still fits within the realm of Christmas even though it might not be what you traditionally think is a

31:29

Christmas Carol. So there is a song at the end of every chapter. It's just the lyrics.

31:35

But if you know the tune, because who doesn't know these Christmas songs, you can sing it together as a family. And my kids are always ready to jump on board with.

31:43

Always. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. We sing Christmas songs all the time. Yeah. We'll get together and do our little family time and we're singing music together.

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And one of the kids is going to pipe up, joy to the world. Yep. Or silent night, you know, something like that.

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So this is something you could even do together as a family now. And I've given you enough notice that you can order the book.

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And still have plenty of time to start reading it on December 1st. That's right. Now you can go through it in advance.

32:11

Of course, you read it twice. Oh yeah. You read it and then you go through it with the family. Yeah. I will say that there are some things that might need a little explanation for some younger kids.

32:23

Okay. Particularly the chapters on Jesus being virgin born. Okay. I was very careful with the language there.

32:31

Okay. But of course, understanding what a virgin is, you might have to explain that to your kids.

32:37

Right. And then also Jesus being an only child. I think I talked about that there as well.

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Okay. He wasn't an only child. Right. He was Mary's firstborn son. But then there were also half brothers and sisters that he had after that.

32:51

Right. So that chapter dispels the myth that Jesus was an only child. And there are, you know, there's going to be some things in there maybe for little kids.

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Might be a little difficult to explain. I'm just letting you know that in advance so you can read those chapters in advance before you get to it and go, oh yeah, how do

33:09

I explain this? I wasn't ready to do this yet with my four -year -old when that's the only child you have in your family.

33:19

25 Christmas myths and what the Bible says. Is Christmas a Christian holiday or is it a pagan holiday?

33:26

Christian. It's a Christian holiday. No question about it. We're celebrating the birth of Christ. Right. How could that possibly be pagan?

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But doesn't it have pagan origins? No. No. It doesn't. There are no pagan origins to Christmas.

33:39

What's the evidence behind that? Pick up the book. It now has footnotes. That's the other thing. That's the other new and improved version.

33:46

Okay. Footnotes at the bottom. Okay. That was a complaint I got last year. I have those purists.

33:53

Yes. Just don't want the references at the end of the book. Put those footnotes on the bottom.

33:59

Yes. So fine. I did. They were very insistent too. They really were. I was about to be brought up for church discipline,

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I think. People from outside the church were going to come in and go, discipline Gabe, he won't put footnotes at the bottom. So not only have

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I added my references to the bottom, but there are now additional references and fun little facts. Oh, cool.

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Things like how many real Christmas trees are sold each year versus fake

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Christmas trees. There's a fact like that in the bottom. Also I share some fun little memories and things like that.

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And there might be some backstory behind some of the Christmas carols that you're singing. And that will be mentioned in the footnotes also.

34:43

Very cool. I'm presenting this to you as, this is the Christmas book that you have to have for this holiday season.

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I don't often sell myself. I'm actually very, very terrible at promoting myself.

34:57

You're doing great. I don't do well with it. But this time, with this book, I'm excited about this book.

35:03

Yes, you are. I got it done just in time for Christmas last year, Christmas Day, you could have ordered it. So it was already past the season by the time you're reading 25

35:11

Christmas Myths. But we got the updates done and posted on Amazon in time for you to be able to order it now and enjoy the

35:20

Christmas holiday season actually before we get to Christmas Day. That's right. So you can get the book on Amazon and the number 25, so don't spell out 25.

35:30

The number 25 Christmas Myths and what the Bible says, it'll come up right away. Even though I didn't get the book out until Christmas Day last year, it was the number one bestselling

35:41

Christmas book on Amazon at the end of 2018. At the end of 2018.

35:47

That's awesome. There probably weren't a lot of Christmas books coming out on Christmas Day. Just ignore that part.

35:54

May not have had a lot of competition, but nevertheless, I was proud of that. So yeah, pick up the book and if you've read it, please leave a review.

36:03

We did get a couple of negative reviews. One of them was actually very personal in nature.

36:10

We know who the person was that wrote it and we know exactly what his beef was. But I'm not going to go into all of that.

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If you've read the book and you can give a positive review for it, would love you to be able to. I wouldn't ask you to give five stars just to give five stars.

36:24

But if you really think that it's a five star book, then give a review and recommend it to other people.

36:30

25 Christmas Myths and what the Bible says. All right. Now we're going to get to some questions here. All right.

36:36

When we understand the text at gmail .com is our email address and this first one comes from Zechariah, Dear Pastor Gabe and Becky, I wanted to ask you in the most simplistic form possible, could

36:50

Jesus have sinned while from pure instinct and average Christian would instantly say, no, he could not have sinned.

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I have heard and even met Christians who teach that Jesus could have sinned because he was fully man and fully

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God. And the only reason why he did not sin is because his God nature overpowered his human nature.

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Would you say that that is true? Would you possibly make a video on it to explain it in much further detail?

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Thank you both for your contributions to this ministry. That's a good idea for a video suggestion.

37:24

I hadn't thought of that. Could Jesus have sinned? The answer is yes and no.

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So we're talking about what's called the hypostatic union here. Okay. He is very man and he is very

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God. Right. In his humanity, could Jesus have sinned? Yes. Yes.

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Yes. And I think that if he couldn't have, then the whole temptation of Satan.

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That would be irrelevant. Right. It wouldn't make any sense. Right. I mean, why is Satan even trying? Right. Now, the

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God side of Christ, it's not half and half. The hypostatic union is very mysterious.

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It's difficult for us to comprehend how Jesus could be very God and very man. But his divine side could not have sinned.

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Right. God cannot sin. Right. As James himself has said, God even tempts no one with evil.

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God does not do evil. God is pure. He is holy. It is a complete compromise of his character if God were ever to have sinned.

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Right. So God cannot sin. If he could sin, he wouldn't be holy. Right. So the divine side of Christ could not sin.

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His human side could have. Now having said that, you're still going, well, that doesn't make sense.

38:41

I know. There are parts of this that are difficult for us to comprehend. Right. Just like the

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Trinity is hard for us to comprehend. How is God Father and Son and Holy Spirit?

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But he's not three gods. He's one God. Right. Three persons. Yep. How does that work? You're just one person.

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You're one human. You're never going to be one human and three persons.

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It's just never going to happen. But God has this divine, mysterious, holy, transcendent quality to him that is difficult for us to comprehend because we are individual finite creatures.

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We cannot fathom the infinite. Right. So Trinity is complicated for us to grasp. And the whole concept of God's incarnation,

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Christ's incarnation is itself difficult for us to grasp also. Very true. The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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In the beginning was the word. He was with God from the beginning. Right. And he became flesh and dwelt among us.

39:39

So is he infinite or not? Yeah. At one point, does Jesus stop being the

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Son? And he's... Yeah. Anyway. So I get that. I understand how those concepts are very, very difficult for us to grasp and to comprehend.

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But the human side of Christ was susceptible to temptation. In the book of Hebrews where it says he had to become like his brothers in every respect so that he would be made a faithful high priest for us in the presence of God.

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Right. If Jesus had not gone through a process of obedience, then he would not have become that great high priest.

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That whole concept between Christ's active and passive obedience.

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And so his sanctification that is given to us, the righteousness of Christ that we are clothed in, the double imputation that our sin was placed upon him with his death on the cross.

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His righteousness has been given to us. Amen. These things like you can understand the textbook theological definitions of them and you could give them.

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It sounds smart. You'd sound great. You would ace your theology class. Good for you. Right. But do you really get it?

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Yeah. Like do you really grasp the concept? And when you sit down and you're trying to meditate on it and you're trying to wrap your mind around it, it'll blow your mind.

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Right. But that's just how great, that's just how much greater God is than we are. So could

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Christ have sinned? Yes, he could have. Could he have sinned? No, he couldn't have. They're both right.

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Both answers are correct. Like if you take it in terms of Jesus in his humanity in the time and space that he had entered into when he became

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God incarnate. Could he have sinned? Yes. Could he have sinned from the perspective of God's divine decree?

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Because remember Christ's incarnation, even his death and his resurrection, all of this was foreordained by God.

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The apostles pray such in Acts chapter 4. You had planned all of this by your decree that Pontius Pilate and Herod would be gathered together along with all the

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Romans and the Jews to put to death your son by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

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So God had decreed this from before the foundation of the world. From the perspective of God's decree, could

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Christ have sinned? No. No. Because God knew exactly how this was going to go. He had decreed that this is exactly the way

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I'm going to redeem a people for myself whom I have chosen from before the foundation of the world.

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So from that perspective, could Christ have sinned? No, he couldn't have. But entering into that time and space, the providence of God that interacts with us in the moments in which we live.

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You think of that within Christ even in that time that he lived 2 ,000 years ago. Those three years that he was doing his earthly ministry, the 33 give or take years that he was on earth, could he have sinned in any of that period of time?

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Yes, he could have. But he was perfectly obedient so that he would become the last

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Adam. The first Adam brought death. The last Adam brings eternal life.

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Right. You were going to say something else in there. I just said life. Okay. Yep. I thought before that though you were like you were going to jump on something.

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It's gone now. It's gone. Yeah. Yeah. But I agree. Well, good. Yes. I'm glad you agree with all of that.

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There is a great article that you can read about this. It is entitled, Could Jesus Have Sinned?

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It is from R .C. Sproul. It's dated January 27, 2012, and you'll find it on Ligonier Ministries' website.

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I would say just type in, Could Jesus Have Sinned? R .C.

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Sproul, and it will take you right to the article. Next question. This one comes from Britt in Oklahoma.

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He says, Dear Pastor Gabe and Miss Becky. Sorry, that was my sound effect of trying to scroll down.

43:42

That was interesting. And you got a fanfare right there. This goes to a sermon that I recently preached.

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So this was about a week and a half ago, almost two weeks ago. Okay. I want to start by saying thank you for all that you both do for the

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What ministry and for the sermons that you post from your church online.

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While listening today, and again this goes back a couple of weeks, your 20th of October sermon,

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Children of Light, Ephesians 5, 1 -3, I was struck with something you said about mortification of sin.

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I have a hard time fighting my porn addiction. I can say that my fight isn't as hard as it was from the beginning, but it is still hard, and I get so tired at times fighting it.

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I do pray and repent when I have those thoughts. I don't want to have these thoughts anymore, but sometimes it seems like it will never end.

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I don't want to surrender to it. You mention mortification of sin.

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My question is, what is mortification of sin? How do we do that? Will I ever be able not to have these thoughts?

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You have my permission to present this on the What podcast if you wish, and you can give my name and location as well.

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May you both and your church continue to be blessed and do what God has given you to do. With much love and respect, thank you so much.

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The whole concept of mortification of sin, we get this in several places, but primarily where this is stated most explicitly is in Colossians 3.

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In Colossians 3 .5, it says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

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The first things that Paul mentions all have to do with sexual immorality. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.

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Those things encapsulate not just the actions that you would do with your body, but also the thoughts that you would think with your mind.

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When you're talking about covetousness, and this is what I said with my congregation, is coveting done with your body or with your mind?

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With your mind. You covet with your mind, or you covet in your heart, however you want to put your thought life into that, however you put that behind it.

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Coveting is done with your mind, it's not done with your body. Sexual immorality is done with your body. It's what happens when you follow the thoughts of your mind to their fulfillment.

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You finally give in the thoughts that you've had, the temptations, you've given into that, and now you do it with your body.

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There are even instances in which you don't follow that through, but you like the thought.

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As I've heard Phil Johnson say, the thought's like sucking on a Tic Tac, you just like it.

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The sin that you thought of, you just let it linger there, because you're like, I like this thought. I've been there,

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I understand that. I've been there before where the thoughts pop into my head, and I'm like, I'm not going to act on this, but I sure like the thought, and that's sin.

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Because you're not doing what is commanded of us in 2 Corinthians 10, 5, taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ, or even the instruction that we have right here, putting to death what is earthly in you includes even passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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Desiring those things that God does not desire for you is idolatry, because it's saying to God, what you have for me is not good enough,

47:21

I need something else. I was pretty much going to say that. That's what you were going to say. Yeah.

47:26

See, if I just pause a little bit longer. Yeah, if you just pause, I'll jump in, but yeah, it's good. I was just going to say that idolatry is putting anything before Christ, and thought process is obviously in the

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Bible. And we have our culture right now saying, hey, it doesn't matter what you think as long as you don't act on it.

47:48

Well, our culture doesn't say that. That's part of our culture. Part of the culture does. This is a worldview that has weaseled its way into the church, especially when it has to do with somebody claiming to be a gay

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Christian. I'm a Christian, but I'm gay, but at least I don't do it, I'm celibate. You are not taking your thoughts captive and making them obedient to Christ.

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You are not mortifying the sin even in your thought life. You are identifying yourself with those things that God has said he will judge.

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And you think it's perfectly fine. You're thinking, hey, there's nothing I can do about these thoughts. I just have them.

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They're natural. Right. It's natural. And we talk about, you know, lust and things like that being every man's battle.

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I agree that men are probably more susceptible to that than women are. But Paul Washer has talked about this.

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You go find that Paul Washer clip on YouTube. He says not every man deals with this. There are men who have mastered this because that's what the

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Bible tells us that we're supposed to do. We have to have mastery over our own bodies.

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And that includes even the thoughts that we think. When that thought pops in there, you immediately have it taken captive.

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And you have the mind of Christ, Philippians 2 .5, to such a degree that now those thoughts aren't even popping into your head anymore.

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Now, that's a level of sanctification that you've probably not achieved yet. I will grant you that.

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The thought's still popping in there. Sure. Especially if you've committed a lot of years of your life to looking at porn.

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And it was the sort of a thing where your addiction was so bad, you're just running through pictures. It's just picture after photo.

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It just gets burned into your mind. And it becomes like a Rolodex. And at any moment, you can just access that Rolodex and start rolling through pictures in your brain again, like you were when you were going through your computer.

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You have seared these images into your mind. And it's going to be really difficult to get away from them.

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I grant you that. Because I've been there. So I understand how that is. And I've come to a place in my life where those thoughts are not as prevalent in my mind anymore.

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So sanctification as you grow in it will make you able to master those thoughts and not be haunted by them anymore.

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But here's the thing. You are responsible with that click of the mouse. You may not be able to control those thoughts coming back on you again because of the seared conscience that you had before.

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But you have the power in yourself not to pull up that computer screen, not to start clicking on images.

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And if you are clicking on images, you can't come out of that going, Oh, we'll see it. It's my sanctification.

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I just haven't grown in sanctification enough yet. No, that is, you are making excuses.

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You absolutely know enough. You have enough control over your faculty not to roll that mouse over that image and click on it or that video and watch it.

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You've got enough control over yourself. And Jesus instruction in Matthew chapter five, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

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If the computer is causing you to do that, you really don't have enough control over your body to not sit down and look at the stuff you shouldn't be looking at.

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Throw it away. Get rid of the computer, unhook your internet, whatever you've got to do, right?

51:11

If you've got a mind wipe the computer to get rid of the stuff that you've saved on it and stuffed into folders, wipe the computer.

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I don't care what documents you're going to lose. I don't care how much work you've got on there for you for years that you're going to not have anymore.

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It is not worth, you shouldn't care either. Yeah, you're exactly right. You should desire holiness so much, whatever you're willing to give up in order to grow in the likeness of Christ.

51:37

You should give that up for Christ has said again in Matthew five, it is better if a part of your body gets thrown away than your whole body were to be thrown into the hell of fire.

51:51

Yeah. Now, Jesus, of course. Oh, go ahead. Oh, there. I was going to say there's things that you can set up with a friend, like the accountability thing where they can go and see what all you've looked at on your computer.

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Definitely find some accountability person that will tell you outright that you need to stop.

52:13

Right. Or that you would feel bad about telling, not just make excuses and then be like, oh, it's okay.

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It's just one time. No, you need somebody that's going to really hunker down and be like, no, stop.

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And then what else is there? There's, oh, if it's a habit, change the way you go about it, change where you sit, change how you use the mouse.

52:40

Put the computer in public. Yeah. Go to the library and use the computer over there. I mean, you don't have one in the privacy of your home if you can't be trusted with it.

52:48

Right. I struggled with this years ago and I was living in an apartment by myself and I went to a pastor and talked to him about it.

52:58

I went to a pastor and confessed, I'm having a problem with this. And I said to him, now,

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I do a lot of work on my computer and I don't want to have to get rid of my computer.

53:09

But am I, I mean, if I'm telling you I'm struggling with this, should I get rid of my computer? And he told me, no. He said, no, you got a lot of work.

53:16

I know, I understand what you do and you do a lot of work on your computer, so I don't think you need to throw it away. But looking back on that,

53:22

I think that was bad advice. I think he should have told me, whatever you've got to do to eliminate that temptation, get rid of it.

53:30

You can't go work on your computer at work when you're around other people. You can't go down to the library and get on a computer there.

53:36

Get away from the stuff that you keep coming back to that draws your mind to it, that you're doing in the dark by yourself and you don't think anybody's ever going to find out.

53:44

Get rid of that stuff. Now put it on the child, you know, restricted, you're right, but the parental controls, all that on there.

53:53

Yes, those. So whatever you have to do, Britt's question, let me come back to this again quick here before we wrap up the program.

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He's asking what is mortification of sin and how do we do that? Let me read you here from second

54:05

Corinthians 10, which is where I've been quoting from here. Paul says, we, uh, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds.

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We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey

54:32

Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

54:41

So now coming back to Colossians three, five, and also where I was preaching from out of Ephesians five put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you?

54:51

And then mentioning those sexual sins, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness.

54:57

How we, how do we do that? It basically means this, you go to whatever extreme measure that you need to take in order to conquer that sin, right?

55:07

One of the statements that I made in the sermon was regarding Cain because the

55:13

Lord had said to Cain when he had such anger and malice toward Abel, God said to Cain, sin is crouching at your door and its desire is for you, but you must master it.

55:26

And Cain had within himself enough self -control that he could have taken those thoughts captive and not give in to the wrath and malice that he had against his brother

55:38

Abel and killed him, but instead the sin mastered him and he gave himself over to the sinful desire and followed that desire to its unfortunate end rather than taking that thought captive and putting it to death.

55:50

We've been crucified with Christ, Paul saying, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer

55:56

I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And in Romans chapter six, where we talk about being buried with Christ in our sins and being risen with him to new life.

56:07

So whatever you have to do to kill the sin that you don't give into it, and the more you get, you know, like even when you're playing with fire, you try to tiptoe close to the line as long as I don't cross this line, then

56:20

I'm not sinning. See, if that's even your attitude about it, the sin's always going to linger in your mind.

56:26

You're not taking it captive and putting it to death. Right. I always tried that approach. I was like, oh,

56:32

I'm doing good because I didn't actually, you know. That was me too. I know. It's like, what on earth was

56:37

I thinking? That was just dumb. Same excuse I used to make. It's a setup for failure.

56:43

Right. That's all that that is. But in light of what Christ has done for us, realizing that our sin was so evil against God that the only way that we could be saved from our rebellion against him was for him to send his son, perfect, holy, spotless lamb of God, to die on the cross for our sins and rise again from the grave.

57:04

That's what it took for us to be cleansed of all unrighteousness. And now knowing that you have been purchased by the blood of Christ in light of what

57:13

Christ has done for you, in light of the love of God that has been demonstrated through his son.

57:20

Do you know that you've been saved by the grace of God? Then walk in it. Right. Don't walk in the darkness anymore.

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Walk in the light of the Lord that has been revealed to us in Christ. Amen. Let us conclude with prayer.

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Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and our conversations today and opening up your word and talking about what the scriptures say.

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What you have revealed to us in your word that we have so accessible to us.

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It's wonderful to be able to do a program like this, to be able to open up the Bible and read it and talk about the wonderful words that have been spoken to us by the creator of the universe through your prophets and apostles.

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As Becky opened up the program saying these things were written down for our instruction so that through the encouragement of the scriptures, we have hope and help us to not be discouraged by what we read, but to be filled with hope.

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Looking forward to that day when Christ returns, we are relieved of our temptations and the evil of this world, and we live forever with God in your imperishable kingdom.

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I pray for Britt that he would understand what it means to mortify the sin, to put it to death, and that he would walk in the light of Christ.

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And we pray also for all of our listeners that Christ is the thing that they see.

58:42

That for all of us, we are reminded of Christ, we are focused on Christ and pursuing him, the author and the perfecter of our faith, so that we might grow in Christlikeness day by day.