Q & A

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This is a very simple one, an easy one. What's the preaching schedule going to look like at Bethlehem Bible Church in the fall?
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What we're going to do is I'm going to finish 1 Corinthians at a pretty good pace. We're in chapter 13 now.
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We'll get through 16 pretty fast. Then I'll take a couple weeks off and preach something probably from the
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Gospels. Then it'll be Ruth for four weeks, chapter by chapter. Maybe take a week or two off and then it'll be
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Romans for 16 weeks, chapter by chapter. I'll probably do Jude and then I'm leaning toward maybe the
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Gospel of Luke. I'm not exactly sure, but that's going to get us through about the next year is my guess.
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Sunday nights I'll do a couple parts of things like this, things I alluded to this morning, and then 1
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Thessalonians as we work through 1 Thessalonians. You say, why 1 Thessalonians? Sunday night
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I've been jumping all around and I thought I just might as well start teaching through a book. I don't know 1 Thessalonians that well.
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Out of all the years I've taught the Bible, 20 -some I've never taught through 1 Thessalonians. I would love to study it.
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If I would love to study it, I'm sure you would love to study it too. That's the plan for the fall.
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Karl Truman, I believe, is going to be here soon for a conference that you want to surely attend. That's just the overview.
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Question number two. Why am I premillennial? Why am I premillennial?
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Let's turn our Bibles to the book of Revelation. I just want to give you, this is not a detailed analysis, but just a few thoughts on the book of Revelation.
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Milli means what? Thousand. A millipede has a thousand legs. Centipede has a hundred legs.
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Jesus is going to be reigning on the earth. Premillennial people think that Jesus is going to reign for a thousand years on the earth.
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A literal thousand years. Amill people, you put an A in front of something.
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If something's typical and you put an A in front of it, an alpha privative, it's no longer typical. It's atypical. So there's no milli for the millennial person.
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They believe that Jesus is ruling and reigning in his kingdom now, either in heaven or on earth, depending on what brand of your amill.
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Now, people ask me the question, am I still premill because I like a lot of covenant theology.
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That is to say, if you've got covenant theology that says God is a covenantal God, which
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I agree with, God has covenants like not just Abrahamic covenant, not just new covenant, not just Davidic covenant, but also theological covenants like the covenant of redemption.
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That is to say, before time began, the Father, Son, and the Spirit agreed to go rescue the elect.
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Covenant theology has things like the covenant of grace where the Son, Christ Jesus, covenanted with the elect to go rescue them.
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That's a theological covenant that I would agree with. Covenant of works, God has a covenant with Adam, and if he obeys, there's eternal life.
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And if he disobeys, there's punishment. Therefore, we're going to need the second Adam, Christ Jesus. I agree with some of the points of covenant theology.
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On the other hand, dispensationalism over here looks at the world through a series of, wildly, dispensations.
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How God deals dispensation of innocence, dispensation of government, dispensation of conscience, dispensation of law, dispensation of grace, etc.
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And they are usually, well, no, not usually, they are premillennial.
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Covenant theology is more amillennial. Dispensationalism is more premillennial.
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And then, like so many times in my life, I find myself in the middle with no place to call home.
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So, I believe in a lot of the theological covenants, but I am premill. That would be our statement of faith.
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We'd be premillennial. Now, there are good arguments on both sides of amill and premill.
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No one is stupid. No one is outside the camp theologically. No one is a heretic for that view of premill or amill.
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Most of the Reformers were amill. But this is why I continue to remain premillennial.
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This is the number one reason. It is the book of Revelation. And so, let me just walk you through the book of Revelation.
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And you can study this topic on your own sometime if you'd like. If you'd like to read the Reformers, you'll end up reading a lot of amillennial things.
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But premillennialism is something that is popular with dispensationalists, but it's also popular with people who are men like James Montgomery Boyce, solid
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Reform theologians. So, let's think big picture with the book of Revelation for a second.
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How many chapters? Twenty -two chapters. How would you outline the book of Revelation?
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Well, I'd outline the book of Revelation by going to chapter 1, verse 19. And the outline, interestingly enough, is right in the book.
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Right there for the things that you have seen, those that are, those that are to take place after this.
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That is a really good outline of those things that are, the things that are going to take place in the future.
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And so what, I almost said Paul, what John does in twenty -two chapters, listen carefully, you might not want to write them down, maybe you want to,
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I'm not sure. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Here's who Jesus is. There's going to be a great unveiling of Jesus.
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Yes, the Jesus who loves us. Present tense, maybe the only place found in the
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New Testament, a present tense love. Chapter 2 and 3, what's in chapter 2 and 3?
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The seven letters to the churches. If you have a red letter Bible, don't you see a lot of red letters in chapter 2 and 3?
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Jesus writes these to the churches. Then in chapter 4 and 5, it's very fascinating, there's a lot of discussion about the throne in heaven.
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If you have an ESV Bible, mine says the throne in heaven. And the throne in heaven is where we're going to see
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Jesus and where we're going to see justice as a great attribute promoted by God through John.
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Holiness, chapter 4 verse 8, holy, holy, holy. If you go to chapter 5, it's more of the same.
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This justice and this holiness and how God is worthy and wise to receive honor and glory.
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And why are these chapters here? Think about it. Chapter 6 through 18 is the tribulation. And there's going to be so much hell on earth.
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If you're not careful, you would say looking at what goes on in the tribulation, this is an excess.
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This is not right. This is too much. Enough already. But John says before you even get to the tribulation, don't forget how
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God is holy, He's just, and He's worthy, He's wise, He's mighty.
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Have a good view of who God is because then it's going to be the unleashing of the justice of God in chapter 6 through 18.
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Then chapter 19 is the second coming. Then chapter 20 is the millennial kingdom.
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Then chapter 21 and 22 is the eternal state. And it just lines up so easily.
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I mean, you just wake me up in the middle of the night and I'll say, chapter 1, introduction, 2 and 3, seven letters, 4 and 5, a view from the throne of God, 6 to 18, tribulation, 19, second coming, 20, millennium, 21 and 22, the eternal state.
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It just lays itself out. So if you read this, if I gave you this, you came from the island of Sri Lanka and never knew the
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Bible and I gave you the book of Revelation, my guess is you would be pre -millennial because you just read it, it comes like this.
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But Amill people are Amill for lots of reasons and they have a hard time with the book of Revelation and if they accept what
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I just said, guess what happens to their Amillennialism? They become pre -mill.
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So they've got to set something up and what they do is they end up using chapter 12 and 20 and they say there's some similarities and they have something that's called a recapitulation.
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Something happens in chapters, up to chapter 12 and then it's a reboot, go back to the early on church and it starts over again and they do this,
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I'm not gonna get down to anything more technical, but it's called recapitulation. So let's have a little fun and I want you to see some of the words that start the chapters that go against recapitulation.
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In other words, if you look at the first verse of every chapter you're gonna see this, then, then, then, then, then, then, then.
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Now there's a few exceptions, there's gonna be some ands in there, but you're gonna see that kind of word use for something that happened these days and then shortly after that then this happens.
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So let's just do this for fun. I was doing this outside. What do pastors do on Sunday afternoon for fun?
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They just look up the first verse of every Bible chapter in the book of Revelation. It was quite fun. Actually my dog was outside jumping up the tree.
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I was trying to get her some exercise so I put this toy up there that she has to get and she was jumping up and jumping up and she's had the
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California life for six weeks, right? You know, meat and cheese and caviar and all that and she's not used to things anymore and literally 15 minutes of jumping,
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I saw her and she's just like, I thought she was gonna keel over with heat exhaustion. I'm like, you know, Jetty come and she's just like this and so I had to take her, put her under the sink and put all kinds of cold water on her just to get her to cool off.
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What does that have to do with anything? Has everything to do with me reading these verses while the dog was jumping, almost killing herself.
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Let's just go to chapter, let's not do chapter 1, 2 or 3 because those are letters. Let's go chapter 4 verse 1, after this
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I looked. Chapter 5 verse 1, then I saw.
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Chapter 6 verse 1, now I watched. Chapter 7 verse 1, after this
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I saw. Chapter 8, when the lamb opened the door.
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Chapter 9, a continuation, and the fifth angel blew his trumpet. Chapter 10 verse 1, then
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I saw. Chapter 11 verse 1, then I was given. Chapter 11 verse 15, then the seventh angel blew his trumpet.
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Chapter 12, and a great sign appeared. Chapter 13, I saw a beast rising out of the sea.
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Chapter 13 verse 11, then I saw another beast rising out of the sea. Chapter 14, then
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I looked and behold. Chapter 14 verse 6, then I saw another angel.
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Chapter 14 verse 14, then I looked and behold. Chapter 15 verse 1, then
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I saw another sign. Chapter 16 verse 1, then I heard a loud voice.
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Chapter 17 verse 1, then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls. Chapter 18 verse 1, after this
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I saw. Chapter 19 verse 1, after this
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I heard. Chapter 19 verse 6, then I heard what seemed to be.
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Chapter 19 verse 10, then I fell down. Chapter 19 verse 11, then
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I saw heaven opened. Chapter 20 verse 1, then I saw an angel coming down.
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Verse 7 of chapter 20, and when the thousand years had ended. Chapter 20 verse 11, then
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I saw a great white throne. Chapter 21 verse 1, then I saw a new heaven.
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Chapter 21 verse 9, then the came one of the seven angels. Chapter 22 verse 1, then the angel showed me.
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Now that is not irrefutable truth, proof that pre -millennialism is right, but my point is when you read the book of Revelation, there's nothing to be found that says we're going to go for a ways and we're going to rewind and we're going to start over again to get us to have this fit the amillennial scheme.
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It's one thing, then the next after the next, so much so that it's the tribulation, second coming, millennial kingdom, and eternal state.
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So why am I pre -mill? I'm pre -mill for lots of reasons, but one is the book of Revelation.
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I went to a church six weeks ago and the pastor's preaching through Daniel. Seventy weeks of Daniel and he's amillennial and I have a lot of respect for him, but all the details of prophecy don't work out for him, so everything is kind of planed out.
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Jesus wins, Jesus is great, Jesus is going to come back. And he said before the sermon, you know, there's a lot of controversy about this within Christianity.
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As a matter of fact, Mike Abendroth is even here and I know he's going to disagree with me. And, you know, but we still love each other and Christian love, he's pre -mill,
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I'm amill thing. Now the thing is I was going to preach there several weeks later. So he preached Daniel chapter 9, 70 weeks of Daniel, Daniel 9, 20 verses 27, and when
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I got home I quickly pulled up James Boyce's commentary because it had all the calculations for the second coming, the first coming of Christ.
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And so then I preached there several weeks later. So here is my introduction. I said, it's great to be here to preach at First Baptist Scotts Valley Church.
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Please open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 9. Now I didn't really preach that, but anyway,
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I just thought that was funny. Okay, next.
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I'm going to just try to change things up. When you realize you're bombing then you kind of go for a different deal.
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What if somebody who's not elect wants to go to heaven? What do you do?
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People say, you know what, God has chosen some, not all. He could have chosen none. He could have chosen all.
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He could have chosen some. What about the people that God hasn't chosen before the foundation of the world?
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What if they want to go to heaven? What would you say to that? You can say it out loud. Raise your hand. Steve. Okay, eventually you'll probably come to a different conclusion as you read.
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That's a good way to go about it. You could say that basically about anything in the Bible. What else?
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Let's be more specific. Okay, does the unbeliever really want to go to heaven?
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I think he wants to avoid God. I think he doesn't want to be where God is because he doesn't want punishment.
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He's not a masochist, but he doesn't want the God who's in heaven. Alright, let's keep going.
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So far, so good. Yes. Okay, great.
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When it comes to spiritual inability or total corruption or depravity, they wouldn't want it anyway because they're dead in their trespasses and sins.
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See, I knew I love this congregation. Steve, do you want to redeem yourself after that first lame answer?
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Good. Can we know if someone's elect or not? How do we know if someone's chosen by God for heaven? I know.
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I'm chosen by God. How do I know? When you're a believer, you know you're elect.
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Your belief doesn't cause your election, but your election facilitates your belief. And so how do you know if someone's elect or not?
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Well, the way you know a believer's elect or not is that they're a believer. What about an unbeliever? Do you know if they're elect or not?
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No. We don't know that. So what do we do? We just keep preaching. What if you went to hell and you could go down to hell as a believer and say, by the way,
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I have a gospel message for you. You've rejected Christ Jesus. You've loved your sin. Let me tell you about the free grace of God.
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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, his substitutionary atonement for you, his literal resurrection, his real ascension.
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Believe on the Lord Jesus right now and you can get out of hell. What would the person in hell do?
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How would they respond? Pardon me? They wouldn't believe.
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Why? Because they don't have it in them to believe. Now they'd say, get me out of this torture.
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Let me read to you something that is in a book by Edwin Palmer that I think is very fascinating.
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He has a little segment in his chapter on election. And here's what it says. Listen carefully.
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In election, everybody gets what he wants. Does the believer get what he wants?
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Does the unbeliever get what he wants? He doesn't want punishment, but he doesn't want God. Listen, sometimes people complain that predestination is a harsh doctrine that forces people to do what they do not want to do.
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They say that if they wanted to believe, they could not unless God had predestined them. And if they did not want to believe,
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God would drag them into heaven. So what is the use of believing? Now listen, let it be firmly stated that everybody gets precisely what he wants.
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To put it in the most blunt way possible, hellions are glad they are in hell.
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Nobody is in hell against his will. Everyone there is glad that he is there.
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Do not misread that previous statement. Hellions know that after death, everybody goes either to heaven or to hell.
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They do not like hell, otherwise it would not be hell. It is the place where the worm never dies, where the fire is never quenched.
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In hell, there is only agony always. It is hellish, so hellions do not like being there.
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But what they hate worse than their agony is God the Father, God the Son, and God the
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Holy Spirit. The last place they want to be is in heaven. They cannot stomach the idea of repenting for sins and loving
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God and others more than themselves. They do not want to be in hell, but when they know that the alternative to hell is to go to heaven with a pure heart, they would much rather stay in hell.
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So it is true that everyone gets what he wants. Christians are glad they are with God, and hellions are glad they are not with God.
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Whenever a non -Christian complains about the teaching of predestination, it is usually a hypocritical rationalization for rejecting
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Christ. I would ask anybody, what do you want? Are you sorry for your sins?
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Do you trust in Christ as your Savior? Do you love God and want to go to heaven? If the answer is yes, then you should know that you are already a
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Christian, you have already believed. And him who comes to me, I will not drive away, says, Jesus, you have what you want.
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If you say no to those questions, then I would ask, why do you complain? You have what you want.
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You do not want to repent. You do not want Christ. You do not want heaven. Well, you have exactly what you want.
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Barry, that's true.
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According to Revelation chapter 14, well, this is another question. Let's lead in with that. Is God in hell?
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Next question. What do you mean he's in hell? Let's go to Revelation 14 and see if we can find the answer.
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Now, certainly, Palmer would agree with us on this, Barry, but I think he's just talking about the goodness of God, the grace of God, the compassion of God that we would think of in heaven.
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God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. And can you imagine, all of God is everywhere at the same time.
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It's called the immensity of God. I like to think, all right, if God is everywhere, then he's kind of thinned out a little bit.
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He's spread out. But the immensity of God is that all of God is all there all the time.
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So if you go to...the other night, I was out looking at the stars in California. In Northern California, there's no smog, and I was taking a look at some things there, and I thought to myself, all of God is up by those stars, and all of God is here, and in the center of the earth, all of God is there.
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He's not thinned out. The immensity of God teaches that God is omnipresent, but he's all there all the time.
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You think, boy, that's blowing my mind. Great. How about that? I need my mind blown a little bit.
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And so, Revelation 14, I believe, verse 10, we're talking about the messages of the three angels.
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It says in verse 9, And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and its images and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will also drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength in the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the
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Lamb. And this doesn't stop either, and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.
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And they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name.
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So much so that I would also add, and everyone else who gets thrown in the lake of fire, God is omnipresent.
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And in this particular case, it will be God's holiness that will cause weeping and gnashing of teeth,
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God's justice, but no kindness of God, no common grace of God. Do unbelievers get common grace now?
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Unbelievers enjoy a nice meal and intimacy, companionship, family, all kinds of things, no common grace in hell, nothing but the judgment of God.
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So technically, is God in hell, Barry? Yes, and that's why hell is so bad.
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Not because Satan's there with a pitchfork torturing people, but because God is there in full holy strength.
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And what happens when a person is in God's presence? What happened to Isaiah? He says,
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I'm undone, woe is me. What happened to Peter? Lord, get me out of this boat, I'm unclean.
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What happened to Jeremiah? I'm black with sin, and the list goes on. What happened to Moses?
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So, back to the question again, what if a non -elect person wants heaven? Answer, the non -elect person will never want heaven.
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Furthermore, no one would ever want heaven unless God draws them, and the
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Father draws all that He's given the Son, and He draws everyone that the Son has died for, and everyone who
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God wants to go to heaven goes to heaven. You say, well, why doesn't everyone go to heaven?
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That's a good question, but it's the wrong question. The better question is...
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He's like a young Tarzan back there. Why does anyone go to heaven? That's the question.
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Why does anyone go to heaven? Bob, question. The non -elect certainly could be deceived.
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He would have the wrong reasons to want to go to heaven. Nobody wants to go to hell. It's like my father's best friend just died several weeks ago, and my brother did the funeral.
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It's a long story. I didn't think he was going to be asked. But my brother went to see my dad's dear friend, a man who really sacrificed for my mom and dad.
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Actually, my birth certificate has his address on it because mom and dad had no place to live when I was conceived out of wedlock and went to stay there.
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And so, Charles is laying there dying of pancreatic cancer no less than a month ago, and my brother said, are you afraid to die?
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Big guy, 6 '4", 240. He barely opened his eyes and he said to my brother, yes.
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I'm super glad he's honest because then my brother said, let me tell you about who has conquered death and who
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Jesus is. So, if you said to someone, think about myself.
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When I was a pagan, did I want to go to hell? No, I knew enough about hell to be afraid of it. Why is hell always in the context of not a theological discussion, but in the context of the gospel?
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You don't want to go to hell. Hell is the place for people who reject Christ, et cetera. The unbelievers say,
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I don't want to go to hell. But if you really told the unbeliever about who God is, they're going to want hell more than they're going to want
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God. It'd be hard to describe that, but that the essence that a prayer person doesn't want to love
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God and honor him, he wants to love and honor himself. So, nobody wants to be punished, but nobody wants to...
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You can even tell it with pagans and unbelievers. I don't want to go to heaven, all those harps and clouds and floating around, bored all day.
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Is heaven going to be anything but boring? I don't think it's going to be anything boring at all.
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Okay, I'm going to put my head down. I'm not going to look at any other hard questions. See Romans 9 for any other additional comments about why
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God damns anyone. See Romans 9, okay? Put my head down. I'm the pastor.
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I'm going to do what I want. I didn't think Pradeep was going to be here. I thought no other elders were going to be here tonight. I'm just going to go crazy.
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But Pradeep's here, so I'm going to mind my matters. Okay. Next question, is justification by faith important?
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It's the hinge where you've got a standing or falling church, Luther said. Is there a doctrine in the
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Bible that's more important than justification by faith? Now that's a tricky question, but I'm asking the questions.
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Is there a doctrine that's more important than justification by faith, Tarzan? Well, there probably would be, but how about this?
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Does Paul talk about justification by faith more or less than he talks about spiritual union with Christ?
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Justification by faith alone, are our sins imputed to Christ's account? Christ's righteousness is imputed to our account, confirmed by the resurrection.
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Or does Paul talk more about, I would say that's a very important doctrine. But does he talk more about spiritual union, mystical union with Christ, than he does about justification by faith?
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Answer, yes. Let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians. I'm all for justification by faith. I affirm it.
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It's in the Bible. I agree with it. But in Christ, union with Christ is something that's talked about more.
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Now whether that makes it more important or not, I'm not going to debate times used in the Bible.
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But if Paul talks about justification by faith a little bit, he talks about union with Christ a lot.
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130 times you'll see in the New Testament, Paul alone, in Christ, in the
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Beloved, in whom, in Him, in Jesus Christ, something like that. So much so that Ephesians is just packed with it.
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Ephesians, the book that John Calvin's favorite letter. That should make you want to read it right there.
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And so let's just find a little bit of what we're looking for in chapter 1, verse 3 to 14.
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And I want you to count silently how many times you see in Christ, in Him, in the
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Beloved, are anything close to that. Spiritual union with Christ Jesus.
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Jesus, our representative, and when He died, we died in Him. When He rose, we rose in Him.
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When He ascended, we ascended in Him. It's called spiritual union, our union with Christ.
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See how many times you can find it. And by the way, this is one sentence in the Greek. Blessed be the
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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
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In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which
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He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which
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He lavished upon us in all wisdom, and inside He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to the kind intention which
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He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ.
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Things in the heaven and things on the earth, in Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who are the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
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Verse 13, In Him you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the
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Holy Spirit of promise, who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.
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How many times did you count it? Nine. Anybody else have a different number? Anybody else have a different number?
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Anybody else have a different translation? Anybody counting from the message
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Bible? If you are, don't admit it. We have ushers standing by.
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Turn to Romans 6 just for a second. Here's my point. I love justification by faith, but spiritual union is very important.
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In Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Do we talk about anybody else like that? Oh, hi,
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I'm in Buddha. I'm in Krishna. I'm in Confucius. You don't even talk about Old Testament characters like that.
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I'm in Jeremiah. I'm in Moses. I'm in Plato.
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We don't talk that way. Somebody laughing? See, we don't talk that way. We totally don't talk that way.
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Somebody else is laughing. The Brownsville Revival is breaking out here. This is such a strange concept that some grammarians have come up with what they call a mystical dative.
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Dative is when you have the preposition I -N, and they call it the mystical dative because it talks about the spiritual union we have with Christ.
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Look at chapter 6 of Romans. It's the same thing. Here it makes it a little more explicit.
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It expands what in Christ means. Verse 3, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, Jesus were baptized into His death?
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We were buried therefore with Him by baptism, this isn't water baptism, into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Verse 5, for if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall be certainly united with Him in a resurrection like His.
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Verse 8, now if we have died with Christ, we believe we'll also live with Him. Being in Christ, spiritual union.
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That might be something good for you to study. Robert Lethem has written a new book about union with Christ.
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Okay, let's see. I don't know how much time we have. Let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 6. This will be our hymn as we wrap it up pretty soon.
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Not right yet though. Immortable, yeah, immortable, immortal, invisible,
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God only wise. 1 Timothy chapter 6. What does it mean that God is immortal and why does it matter?
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Who could tell me right now? God is immortal means, pardon me?
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Everlasting? Getting warmer. Undying, okay?
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Mortal, you die. Immortal, you don't die. Undying.
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And sometimes the way we have to describe God is by using something negative. Titus chapter 1, God never lies.
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Could say God always tells the truth, but He's the unlying God. The a -lying
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God, if you will. And let's see what happens here in 1 Timothy chapter 6. If you're an elder or a pastor or a wannabe or a leader or a deacon, you're going to grab hold of these verses right here, especially when there's sin in the church, people struggle in the church, you feel inadequate for ministry, you're discipling someone and they don't seem to be doing the right thing, someone can't grasp something, they're struggling.
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This is a pastoral epistle and at the very end Paul is going to say, by the way, you want to study hard, by the way, you want to shepherd with all your might, but it's
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God who's in control of this church and you need to entrust yourself to God. Look at chapter 6 of 1
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Timothy chapter 6, verse 13. This morning
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I could use the excuse that it was 5 a .m. when I was preaching. Tonight, what's my excuse tonight?
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I have no excuse. I charge you, 1 Timothy 6 .13,
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in the presence of God, that's quite a charge. Raise your right hand and put your other hand on the
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Bible and swear after me, who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without staying or reproach until the appearing of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Timothy, stay at your post, be faithful.
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I'm charging you to do that very thing, which He will bring about at the proper time.
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He's coming back. And look at who God is, Timothy, in the midst of all your trouble, in the midst of all the issues in 1
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Timothy and pastoral issues, crazy church, upside down world. What a great way to end an epistle.
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He who is the blessed... Stop there for a second.
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The blessed means content or happy. God is not frustrated.
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God is not anxious. God is not wringing His hands. There's going to be a vote coming up this November. There's people struggling with sin at Bethlehem Bible Church.
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God's worried. God controls everything. He's perfectly peaceful.
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He's perfectly joyful. He's perfectly fulfilled. No unhappiness, no frustration.
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God is content. He's not wringing His hands. Everything's exactly the way it should be in the world.
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One man said he's unperturbed. So that's what it says first. He is the blessed and only sovereign.
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An interesting word there, sovereign. It's where we get our word, dynasty. God is sovereign over everything.
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Timothy, God's not worried. Stay at your post. Timothy, God's sovereign over everything.
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Stay at your post. The King of kings and the Lord of lords. Literally, you're going to love this. Jesus is the
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King of those king -ing and the Lord of those lord -ing. I don't know how Handel would do that in the
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Messiah, but that would be a good one. Jesus is the King of those king -ing and the Lord of those lord -ing.
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Hallelujah. The King of those king -ing. That is great. Who alone possesses immortality.
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Hold that just for a second. We'll get back to that. And dwells in unapproachable light. A different light, transcendent light.
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You can't approach Him on your own. You're going to need a mediator whom no man has seen.
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Certainly no mortal man can see. Timothy, to Him be honor and eternal dominion.
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Amen. Great way to end the epistle. But it says in verse 16, who alone possesses immortality.
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Now, if I was a pastor, that's third -class conditional since I am a pastor, it would really be good for me to put my head down on the pillow and say,
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Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Jesus Christ is sovereign. He's the King of those king -ing and the
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Lord of those lord -ing. He's perfectly blessed and content. All those I understand. Yes, it's good to serve a
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God like that. He puts me at my post and I stay there and I'll say, you know, aye, aye, sir, hoorah.
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And I say, I'll stay here until you decommission me. Until you come back. But why is this somehow helpful to Timothy?
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Possesses immortality. Now, this doesn't mean he goes on forever, although that's true.
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This means deathlessness. He doesn't die. He has life from himself.
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Remember in the Old Testament, he said, I am who I am. I am the self -existent one.
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But my question still remains, why is that encouraging? Why does that keep
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Timothy at his post? Answer, the deathlessness of God makes certain that he is immutable and his promises can be kept.
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So, for instance, what am I saying? If God could die, then what about all those promises that he's made?
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Even in context here, you're going to come back? Is Jesus going to come back? And so the tie -in mentally has to be,
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God is deathless. He can never die. And since he is deathless, that means he's going to fulfill every one of his promises.
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You read S. Lewis Johnson, the tie -in is between deathlessness and keeping promises.
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S. Lewis said, God may be immutable and unchangeable because he has a dying and undying nature.
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If he was a person who died, then he could not be immutable. He could not make promises and be sure of keeping them.
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All right, does anybody know how long I've been going? 40 minutes? Has that been right?
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What's the exact time? 40 minutes and 20 seconds. All right, halfway done.
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All right, let's just do a few more. I've got a whole list of them. You know, sitting outside watching my dog almost die,
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I thought to myself, I don't have enough info. Okay, here's a fast one. Is speeding in your car a sin?
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No, but getting a ticket is. Okay, next question. What do you think, is speeding sin?
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Let's talk to a retired officer. Other comments?
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Titus 3? Okay, good. All right, would there be a consensus that speeding is a sin?
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Okay, how many people here speed? All right, tell me what's wrong with this rationale.
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I just go with the flow of traffic because I don't want to cause an accident. How about this for rationale?
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I'll just go a little faster if I get the ticket. I'll be respectful and I'll be glad to pay for my transgression.
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Anitra? Stop giving me kind of Bible verses.
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I just want more pragmatic, man -centered things so I can feel better because I'm in a hurry. Other comments?
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I'm not going to say anything else. That's all I'm going to say. Okay. Boy, there's so many.
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All right, let's do this one because this one's driving me crazy. Christianity Today has an article,
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The Current Christianity Today, and here is the title of the article written by Peggy Fletcher Stack.
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Richard Mao on why evangelicals need to be quick to listen to Mormons.
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Subtitled, The President of Fuller Theological Seminary on Talking with Mormons.
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Should you talk to Mormons? Sure. Is it okay to talk to Mormons?
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Yes, you can talk to Mormons. Let me tell you what Richard Mao said.
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One thing that really upsets me is when evangelicals say we don't have time for dialogue with Mormons and all the niceties.
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We have to stand up for the truth and denounce error. Richard Mao is very upset when people say that.
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Should he be upset? By the way, Fuller Seminary is pagan.
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I only know two people who came out of Fuller that have their evangelical convictions still. There are more people, but I only know two,
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James White and John Piper. She asked him,
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What are your chief theological differences with Mormons? Now, you're not the president of a seminary, but I'll just ask you anyway, just between us girls.
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What would you have a big problem with when it comes to Mormons? Anything? They mean they believe in Jesus. Pardon me?
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Deny the deity of Christ. Is that a big deal? Let's turn our
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Bibles to 2 John, just for a quick second. 2 John, let's see if I can find it.
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2 John 7. Kind, sweet old John. By the way,
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Ferdy and Nadia and all that, you can come in if you want, I don't care. If they're screaming their head off, that's fine.
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But if you don't want to come in, you don't have to, but you can if you want. Bring them in. Verse 7 of 2
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John, there's only one chapter. If you have a computer program, you have to type in 2 John 1 .7, but technically, 2
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John 7. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus the
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Messiah in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and antichrist.
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It's pretty blunt right there. Richard Mao said this,
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Mormons deny the Trinity, but they talk about the three persons of the Godhead. They say that God was human -like form, but they sing how great thou art, which he said is in the
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Mormon hymn book. Other basic differences include issues like baptism, temple worship, and authority.
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Evangelicals emphasize the Bible alone, while Mormonism adds scriptures. We have to make a distinction though between the working theology of Mormonism and its previous declarations.
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Question, Dr. Mao, why do you not classify Mormonism as a cult?
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Cult often connotes secrecy, duplicity, and a rigid one true church mentality.
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None of that really fits modern day Mormonism, which scholars instead call a new religious movement.
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Now listen to this, this has blown my mind. Ordinary Mormons love Billy Graham. Guess they're in.
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They read Christianity Today as a helpful source for their own growth and faith.
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Maybe that's because Christianity Today is really so bad. That's another subject. Many Mormon scholars enjoy attending evangelical sponsored theological conferences.
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None of this is true of Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, or Hare Krishna, which are typically described as cults.
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Here's the thing that I try to do in my mind to make it quick. When someone has a wrong view of Scripture, for them it's the
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Bible plus, right? And they have a wrong view of Jesus, Scripture Savior.
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What's their view of Jesus? He's not God in the flesh. He's not the eternal Son of God.
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Jesus is the eternal Son. Scripture Savior and salvation.
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They have a works -based salvation. Read 2 Nephi, you are saved by grace after all that you can do.
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Who could write such a thing? Well, Joseph Smith could write such a thing. See, I've got the wrong view of Scriptures, the wrong view of the
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Savior, and the wrong view of salvation. And therefore, I don't dialogue with Mormons.
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If I have a Mormon who's a neighbor, am I kind to them? Nice to them? If I have a
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Mormon as a president, would I go up there and shake his hand and say, it's a pleasure to meet you,
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Mr. President? The answer is yes. But I'm not going to sit down at a table and dialogue because we don't dialogue with pagan antichrist deceivers, do we?
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We preach the truth to them. It's just like when people knock on your door. Knock, knock, knock.
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Oh, who's over here? Kids, clean up the front room. You open up the door and instead of Sue down the street who wants to borrow a thing of butter from you, it's two people dressed up, a couple of bikes over here, heavy old -fashioned bikes, bad derailers, but they're bikes nonetheless.
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And they talk to you. And basically, they're there to try to damn you and your kids.
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And instead of giving a butter stick to you or borrowing something, they want to give you poison.
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I want to give you poison. Now, they might have a smile and they might not think that's the case. I don't dialogue with them.
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And friends, can I tell you, don't dialogue with those people. Don't let them in your house. Don't give them any water.
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I tell them sometimes, when false teachers come to my door, the Bible teaches me, I don't want you to sit down.
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I want you to be hot in the sun so you get tired and go home early so you don't go damn other people. And I'm not going to give you any water because I want you to pass out from, oh,
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I don't say that, but I just want you to be thirsty so you go home and drink out of the tap. I don't want to do that. I don't want to welcome you to my home.
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And we don't dialogue. Yes, but sir, you know, I want to know if you want to talk about spiritual things. I do.
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And it's my house. I've said this before. I talk, you listen. That's the deal.
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Yeah, but no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is private property. Here's our deal.
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I tell you about how you can have your sins forgiven. You're quiet or you get off my property.
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Well, that's a little huffy. All right, let's just try this again. Jesus is God. You deny
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Jesus is God. Romans 9, verse 5, Titus 2, verse 13, 1
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John 5, verse 20, John 1, 1, you go wherever you want to go. Jesus is
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God. He's the only way of salvation. And I get to tell you about Him. You don't get to talk or you get off my property or I call the police.
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That's the added one that I gave them at the end. Now, you don't have to be so huffy. Friends, there's no salvation outside of Jesus.
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And you want to tell me Jesus isn't the real Jesus. And I've got my four kids standing here watching daddy right now.
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And what am I supposed to do? Do I want to be kind to you? Do I want to be nice to you? The answer is yes.
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And here's the way I can be kind to you. You need to repent of your awful system and your works -based theology or you're going to die and go to hell.
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And you, sir, who are training this other person, you're twice the son of hell as this person because you're training him in all this diabolical stuff.
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And then of course, since I've kind of got the mean face, if I'm not careful, kind of the German Ebendroff face, I have to then say and then kind of go, but there is a solution.
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It's the gospel of Christ Jesus. And then they said, well, we don't want to have a dialogue.
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I said, then you need to repent and believe. Then they walked out of my house at North Hollywood. This was years ago.
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And my neighbor, Mr. Torres, who is a Catholic, they started going over to his house. And I said,
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Mr. Torres, and good Catholics know that Jesus is God. These people don't believe that Jesus is
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God. Don't listen to them. Then I would go to the hospitals where I worked.
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And every time I walk up to a hospital and I would see People Magazine, kind of nasty trash,
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Us Magazine, Self Magazine, all these other magazines. And I would see Watchtower Magazines.
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And when you see a Watchtower Magazine at a hospital, what should you do? Doctor's office, what do you do?
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I just walk right over, make sure I get rid of it. Sometimes I sneak a little more than I probably should, but I just want to get rid of that stuff.
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So when Richard Mao says we should dialogue with Mormons, I like John MacArthur's approach better.
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We preach the gospel to unbelievers. We don't dialogue with them. Now, if you have friends and they're
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Mormons, but you invite them over for dinner because you want to have dinner with them and get to know them, let them in your house. But when people are on the proselytizing mission and they're here to say,
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I want to talk to you about how you can go directly to hell and Jesus isn't God, then
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I don't let them in. Questions on that? By the way, the whole time this is happening, my heart's going like this.
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And I want you to know that if I'm kind of fired up and a little scared, then it's okay if you are. Here's what
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I don't want you to do. Knock, knock, knock. Oh, it's Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.
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Shut the windows and everybody be quiet. I don't want to talk to them. If you're married and you're the dad, you get your rear end out there.
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You have the good news. You don't even need a Bible. I used to keep a Bible right by the door.
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Now, I don't even need a Bible. Here's what you do. Oh, you know, you like to talk about spiritual things? That's great,
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I said. Do you have a Bible? And Mormons have a Bible. What kind of Bible do they have? 1611 King James only.
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They're not King James. Well, they are King James only, actually. Do you have a Bible? Yes. Could you please read for me
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Titus chapter two, verse 13? And then they read it and I say, who's that talking about? You don't want to tell me that's
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Jesus, the only God -man, eternal God -man, but it is. Could you read me another verse? Romans chapter nine, verse five.
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They read it. Who does that refer to? Jesus, the eternal God. Well, Jesus says in John 17 that the
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Father's greater and all that. No, no, no. Titus chapter two, verse 13 and Romans chapter nine, verse five. What does that say?
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Jesus is the only God. I'm glad you came today. God wanted you to come to my door today. Can I tell you a story about, well, it's too long of a story.
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All right, that's enough. All right, let me say this.
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I've got something. By the way,
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I'm pro -America. I love the country.
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I love other countries too, but I'm pro -America. I'm pro -USA winning
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Olympic golds. Go basketball team, go football team. I'm glad Gabby won.
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Gabby Douglas. But if you're gonna buy the new
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Gabby Douglas book or the new Tim Tebow book, would you just spend your money on Tozer or Pink or somebody like that?
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I'm happy when Gabby says to Jesus be the glory. I'm happy when people say
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Tim Tebow, I owe it all to God. But if we had a
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Christian celebrity here who won the gold medal, what do you think we'd do with that young 16 -year -old girl?
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What do you think we'd do with Tim Tebow? Treat him like a brother, okay.
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I thought you were gonna say make sure he tithes. I didn't know what you were gonna say. I had no idea. I don't know what you're gonna say.
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We'd treat him like a brother or sister. What else? For Gabby, I'd get somebody who was an older woman and say let's disciple her.
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And when she gets in front of the cameras, her theological tagline is always going to be, here's who
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Jesus is, here's the only Savior, but we're not going to have her up talking about theological issues, speaking circuit, books writing.
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Why would that be? Why would we not want that? Steve? Well that, and it's hard to make the focus
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Christ when you're 16, but it's hard to do it in a theologically articulate way. And I was just reading that same
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Christianity Today. The title of the article is, Where Was God When Lolo Jones Placed Fourth?
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Because remember she mouthed the words, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and then got fourth place. The article says,
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Gabby Douglas had a good feeling when she arrived in London last week. It was raining, Gabby said, and I thought it's going to be a great day, she said to People Magazine.
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My mom used to tell me when I was little, when it rains, it's God's manifestation, a big day's waiting to happen.
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What about all the people that lost? It rained on them too. Now I'm happy that she'll say,
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Jesus, to God be the glory, don't get me wrong. I like that, publicly thanking God for a win.
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It's inspiring. But I would just try to work with her and help her, and then it would be better off for the
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Church of Christ. Bethany Hamilton, dear sister in Christ, gets her arm bit off by a shark, and now she's just been thrust in the public eye to preach sermons in pulpits.
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What would I say to young Bethany if she was at this church? Sweetheart, when they talk to you on the news, make sure you say,
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Jesus is the only God, etc. But all the other times, we're not going to put you up as a teacher because you're a celebrity, because the
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God of the universe doesn't need celebrities with bad theologies running their mouth.
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You need to grow up and you need to learn how to teach and to give your testimony, and you just need a little training.
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When I say it nicely, I really would, in my own German way. Okay, somebody else had a question here.
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Sorry, I saw you. I'm glad you raised your hand. Yvonne, do you have any questions about God or the
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Bible? Is there anything you want to know about life or the Bible, or do you have any questions?
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Why did South Africa not win very many Olympic gold medals? They got one gold medal, right on.
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Did they? They got two, okay. All right, well maybe next week we'll do the other questions.