Sola Scriptura-Scripture Alone

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Please stand for the reading of God's Word. The Old Testament we're reading this morning is

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Psalm 19, verses seven through 14. That's page 456 in your pre -bibles, if you'd like to read along.

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The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

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The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

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The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

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More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

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Moreover, by them is your servant warmed, and keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors?

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Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

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Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

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New Testament reading this morning is in 2 Timothy, chapter three, verses 10, and then chapter four through five.

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You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Ichaum and at Lystra, which persecutions

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I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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All scripture is breathed out of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

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I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge and the living of the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.

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Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebroke, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears they will accumulate for themselves, teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

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As for you, always be sober -minded, endured suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfilling your ministry.

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You may be seated. Those of you who may be new to our congregation, and there are a number of you, each year we celebrate

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Reformation Sunday. We celebrate it because in the

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Reformation, the gospel was recovered. We celebrate it because we stand on the shoulders of those who've gone before us.

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We're here because of what others have done in the past. We're here because of the stands others have taken.

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We even have the Bibles in our hands today because of a man named William Tyndale.

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And because of that, we ought to be thankful. And we ought to recognize, you know, some people think, why do

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I need to learn church history? Why do I have to pay attention to that? Why do I have to listen to those old, dead people?

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Well, one reason is because the Holy Spirit was also teaching them, and we have thousands of years of teaching that the

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Holy Spirit brought to them. Holy Spirit isn't just at work today, it was at work back then, and so we can learn from those in the past.

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And besides that, I think it's good for us to review how Jesus kept his promise of building the church.

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As we see, we can look back and see all the different, the things that, the ups and downs and the revivals and the deeps places and the dark spots of church history in order to remind ourselves that Jesus kept his promise.

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He was gonna build his church, and the gates of hell, we're not gonna prevail against it. And so we are here today because of what others have done in the past, and I would pray that there'll be future generations that will be doing what they're doing because of what we're doing today.

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And so it's good, I think, to remind ourselves of these things, and I think this is a special day in which we can truly look at the word of God and see it played out in the lives of others as we've done for these many years.

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Having said that, let me pray, and we'll look into God's word. Lord God of heaven, we're thankful for today.

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We're thankful for the fact that in the history of humanity and in the history of your church, you have worked in many ways to bring the gospel to many people.

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We're here today, Lord, because of what others have done in the past, and we pray, Father, that what we do will lay a foundation for future generations, for the young people that are here today, and their children, and the generations that come after them.

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Father, encourage us today. Encourage us with the truth of your word as we see it played out in the lives of others.

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Thank you now. Help us, give us listening ears. Encourage our hearts, we pray.

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In Jesus' name, amen. The morning of October 6th, 1536,

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William Tyndale was led out of his prison into the light of the town square of Vilvoorde, Belgium.

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As he came out of the prison door, his gaze fell on a great beam that was erected in the middle of that square.

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It was between the church and the castle. Iron chains were fastened to it. There was a noose that came through that beam.

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He was 42 years old. His captives led him up the stairs of the platform and gave him one last opportunity, recant of his heresies.

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He was securely bound to the stake by his feet, the iron chains going around his feet, and his calves and his chest, and the noose going around his neck.

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Wood was piled around him like a pyramid, and given a brief period to pray,

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Tyndale cried out, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. At the given signal, the executioner tightened the noose, but he bungled the job and he didn't kill him.

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So they lit the fire, and William Tyndale died in the flames. Now why did he die?

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Why did he die in such a manner? Because he believed in the doctrine of sola scriptura, scripture alone.

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That scripture alone tells us how a sinner is reconciled to God. Scripture alone tells us how we are made right with God.

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Scripture alone is the authority for all our faith and all our practice. It's scripture alone that tells us what to believe and how we ought to behave.

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That no traditions of men, no pronouncements on life and godliness that did not come from the scriptures could not bind a human's conscience.

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But William Tyndale and his contemporaries, Martin Luther and John Calvin and Thomas Cranmer, were not the only ones who fought the battle for the authority of scripture against the innovations of men.

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We fight that battle today. There's so many things, there's so many religious institutions, there's so many churches who do not believe or at least do not live by the doctrine of sola scriptura.

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And the war has been waged throughout the history of God's people, going all the way back to the beginning of God's people.

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The doctrine of sola scriptura is something that's been part of the history of God's people.

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Let's turn to Jeremiah 23 this morning. God has much to say about sola scriptura, about the fact that scripture alone, the word from God alone is what we need to hear.

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Now our text today is Jeremiah 23, verses 25 through 32.

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I'm gonna begin reading in verse nine so we get the whole context. All right, so you follow along as I read

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Jeremiah chapter 23, verse nine through 32.

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Concerning the prophets. My heart, Jeremiah says, my heart is broken within me.

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All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine because of the

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Lord and because of his holy words. For the land is full of adulterers.

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Because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.

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Their course is evil and their might is not right. Both prophet and priest are ungodly.

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Even in my house, I have found their evil, declares the Lord. Therefore, they shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness into which they shall be driven and fall.

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For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, declares the Lord. In the prophets of Samaria, I saw an unsavory thing.

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They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. But in the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen a horrible thing.

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They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers so that no one turns from his evil.

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All of them have become like Sodom to me and its inhabitants like Gomorrah. Therefore, thus says the

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Lord of hosts concerning the prophets, behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink.

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For from the prophets of Jerusalem, ungodliness has gone out into all the land. Thus says the

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Lord of hosts. Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesied to you, filling you with vain hopes.

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They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the

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Lord, it shall be well with you. And to everyone who stubbornly refuses his own heart, they say, no disaster shall come upon you.

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For who among them has stood in the counsel of the Lord to see and to hear his word? Or who has paid attention to his word and listened?

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Behold the storm of the Lord. Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest.

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It will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart.

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In the latter days, you will understand it clearly. I did not send the prophets, yet they ran.

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I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.

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Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him, declares the

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Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord? I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying,

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I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?

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Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak faithfully.

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What has straw in common with wheat, declares the Lord? Is not my word like fire, declares the

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Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the

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Lord, who steal my words from one another. Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the

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Lord, who use their tongues and declare, declares the Lord. Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the

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Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when

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I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the

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Lord. What's the problem here? What is the problem? The prophets who were supposed to be

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God's spokesmen were living immoral lives. They were living a lie, strengthening the hand of the wicked and promoting ungodliness.

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Not only that, but they were not giving the people the word of God, the word from God, but they were giving them their own inventions, the deceit of their own minds.

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Now understand what happened back then. The people would come to the temple to worship, to offer sacrifices, and to hear a word from God.

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Now God did not appear there to tell them something, neither did God send angels, but God would send prophets who would explain the word of God to them, or who would give them a word that God had given them.

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As prophets, they would receive messages from God and give it to the people. And so they expected to come to the temple and hear words from God.

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But Jeremiah says they were doing just the opposite. They did not minister the word of God, but rather the inventions of their own minds.

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In other words, the traditions of man. Now what are we to think here?

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Is the idea of sola scriptura just something that we grasped from the

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Reformation? Is it something that's true? Is God concerned about it?

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Is God concerned about sola scriptura, the fact that scripture alone, that any invention of man, not traditions, but scripture alone is the authority that brings us to Christ and that tells us how to live.

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Well, let's look at this text and think about that. First of all, recognize the nature of traditions not found in scripture.

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Look with me at verse 25. I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying,

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I have dreamed. I have dreamed. In other words, I've received this revelation from God. How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

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What are these traditions like? What characterizes the inventions of men?

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The traditions, first of all, are proclaimed in God's name, he tells us, and thus they claim the authority of God.

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These traditions that come our way claim the authority of God. The prophets proclaim their dreams in God's name, thus expecting the people to believe and to obey them, even to take comfort in them.

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As he says in verse 17, they say continually to those who despise the word of God, it shall be well with you.

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And to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, no disaster shall come upon you.

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It's proclaimed in God's word, and it says, believe this, take it to heart, even find comfort in them.

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You know, such doctrinal innovations were not uncommon in Tyndale's day. In his day, the church had many traditions that were proclaimed in the name of the

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Lord that were said to have the authority of God behind them. The church taught, for example, that if you made a pilgrimage to Spain, to a relic, and a relic is something like, in Spain, they had what they called a splinter from the cross of Christ and if you went there and you paid the money to see this splinter from the cross of Jesus, you would be released for many years in purgatory.

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Just as a side note, Martin Luther said, if you took all the splinters of the cross of Christ that are worshiped as relics, you could build a ship, all right?

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But what they said was, here's what the church said, if you go and pay homage to this relic and pay the money, you know, just like you do anywhere where you go see a site, you pay the money, you will be released from so many years in purgatory, you would have less years to spend in purgatory.

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Now, purgatory is a tradition that says that when you die, you're still impure and you have to go to purgatory where your sins are purged so that you can go to heaven.

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It's an in -between place. However, neither worshiping relics nor even the concept of purgatory can be found anywhere in scripture.

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In fact, the idea of purgatory says you have to be purged from remaining sin because what Jesus did isn't enough.

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You still have remaining sin that has to be purged before you can make it to heaven and that is still the doctrine of the

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Catholic church. To escape purgatory, you could take your money, the hard -earned money of these people.

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You remember in the 16th century, you know, it's not a prosperous time like us.

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People slaved and they worked hard for their money, but they could pay some of that hard -earned money to a priest and have 30 intercessory masses said for them after they died.

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This was said to have the authority of God behind it. The church taught it. This is what God says.

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They had the whole issue of indulgences. The church taught that it was in charge of a treasury of merits.

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Now, what is this treasury of merits? Well, the saints lived such good lives to earn heaven, they had enough merits left over.

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They had more than enough to get to heaven and so the merits that they didn't need to get to heaven were given to the church and the church could dispense the merits as they saw fit.

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So if you wanted to get out of purgatory sooner, you could get an indulgence, a certificate of indulgence, that some of those merits could be applied to your account and you then could get out of purgatory sooner.

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All of these claim to have the authority of God behind them, just like Jeremiah says here.

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You're proclaiming you're doing this in my name and so the church at that time was doing that, but those kinds of doctrinal inventions didn't end after the

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Reformation, they still go on. Listen to this. This is from a resolution called in support of equal marriage rights for all passed by the 25th

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General Synod of the United Church of Christ. Now, this is a little bit dated, but boy, it says it well.

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So when the debate was going on about whether same -sex couples could get married, this is what a

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Protestant church came to conclude in their General Synod.

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I'll just read you a part of it. First scripture, first scripture.

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We're saying this in the name of God. Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God.

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Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, 1 John 4, 7. Therefore, what

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God has joined together, let no one separate, Mark 10, 9. Now, here's part of what they said.

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Ideas about marriage have shifted and changed dramatically throughout human history, and such change continues even today.

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In the gospel, let's call God in. In the gospel, we find ground for a definition of marriage and family relationships based on the affirmation of the full humanity of each partner lived out in mutual care and respect for one another.

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Scripture itself, along with the global human experience, offers many different views of family and how family is to be defined.

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The biblical call to justice and compassion to love one's neighbor as oneself provides the mandate for marriage equality.

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Justice as right relationship seeks both personal and communal well -being. It is embodied in interpersonal relationships and institutional structures, including marriage.

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Justice seeks to eliminate marginalization for reasons of race, gender, sexual orientation, or economic status.

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It is essential to note that the gospel values of covenant do not come from the practices of marriage, which change and evolve throughout the history of the biblical story.

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Indeed, it is not possible to rely exclusively on scripture for understanding marriage today.

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For example, biblical texts that encourage celibacy, forbid divorce, or require women to be subservient to their husbands are not considered to be authoritative because they are primarily expressions of the cultural norms of the ancient

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Middle East. At the same time, there are also many biblical models for blessed relationships beyond one man and one woman.

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Indeed, scripture neither commends a single marriage model nor commends all to marry, but rather calls for love and justice in all relationships.

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Now, did you hear that carefully? Did you hear that? First of all, they bring in the name of God just like those false prophets did.

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They bring in the name of God. They say things like, in the gospel, and the gospel tells us, and the biblical things, but notice, scripture itself, along with global human experience, tells us how to do these things.

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They talk about that the practices of marriage, which change throughout all the history of the biblical story.

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Indeed, it is not possible to rely exclusively on scripture for understanding marriage.

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You see, even in this so -called Protestant church, they have abandoned the idea of sola scriptura.

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You see, it is not just about traditions, again, that the Catholic church has perpetrated.

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It isn't just that. It's against the inventions, the traditions that we are confronted with every day in our culture.

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Scripture is not enough, says even this church. We need more than the scripture.

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And remember that they make these claims, and they say they have the authority of God behind them to make those claims, proclaimed in his name, just like the false prophets did.

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Now, those traditions originate in the minds of men, not God's word, and they have the effect of moving you away from God and not towards him.

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They turn out to be delusions. As the prophet Jeremiah said, it's deceit of their minds.

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It's delusions. They think they're sophisticated. They think they're good and just, that they have a handle on truth.

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That's what they actually think. If you would talk to those who drafted that statement, they would say to you, this is truth.

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This is what we must believe. But in fact, they deceive themselves. John Calvin said, though the whole world applaud falsehoods and impostures, we are yet to know that everything is a deceit which has not

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God himself as its author. Not only do they deceive themselves, but they turn people away from God.

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They proclaim these dreams. They proclaim these inventions. They proclaim these traditions in the name of God, but in fact, it turns them away from the living

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God. And so the dreaming prophets of Jeremiah's day and the people of today that make these statements, they will gather in church and they may even have some elements of worship that we find that we have too.

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They will have the reading of scripture. They will have prayer. They will have all these things. They will invoke the name of Jesus, but they will do it all.

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They will do it all in their name of their traditions and it will lead people away from God no matter how sincere they are.

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Jeremiah says that the effect of those who claim the true God is the same as the false prophets of Baal.

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They're no different than the prophets who told the people of Israel to go to another

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God. Those who proclaim these inventions in God's name are doing the same thing.

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They turn people away from the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Listen, when you think about that statement, think about this.

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It's turning people away from the saving grace of Christ. Why? Because if I'm a homosexual and God says it's okay to be married to another man, then you tell me, what do

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I need to repent of? God's okay with me.

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All these kinds of traditions, not just back in Tyndale's day, all the way back to Jeremiah's day are gonna turn people away from the saving grace that's in Jesus.

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When men abandon soul of scripture, you end up with people claiming the authority of God while turning people away from God and away from the savior.

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Well, the question is how then could people back then in Jeremiah's day distinguish between true prophets and false?

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Because a prophet could say, a prophet could say, I have a word from God and tell them, how would they know if it really was a word from God or wasn't?

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That's a good question. How could they tell? God revealed his word to the prophets in visions.

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That's why they say, I've dreamed this dream because God would communicate to prophets in visions. But God did not leave his people just to try to figure it out themselves.

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Early on, at the very founding of their nation, he told them, turn with me to Deuteronomy.

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Deuteronomy chapter 13. God had told them exactly how to distinguish the prophets.

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All right, Deuteronomy 13. You follow as I read the first five verses of this chapter. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass.

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And if he says, let's go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or the dreamer of the dreams, for the

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Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

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You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.

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But the prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the

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Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to make you leave the way in which the

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Lord your God commanded you to walk so that you shall purge the evil from your midst.

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Do you see what he says? He says, look, this is very important. Even if a prophet would come and do miracles, do wonders, do signs, even if he'd be able to do this incredible thing, if he does not say, if he says, let's follow these other gods, what are you supposed to do?

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It doesn't matter what kind of miraculous things he does. He is going against the revealed word of God and he must die.

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By the way, as you read through the rest of the chapter, he even goes on to say, if your brother says to you, follow another

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God, he must die. What's the point? The point is that they had to remain, they had to be speaking in faithfulness to what

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God had revealed and if they did not, it doesn't matter if they can do miracles. Listen, we need to hear this today, don't we?

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You know, the wonders and the signs are not self -interpreting. Just because someone does something miraculous does not mean he's from God.

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If he's not true to the word of God, you do not listen no matter what he can do and this is what

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God had told them. And by the way, the nation of Judah at this point was on the verge of extinction, why?

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Because they had been following what the prophets said, they were going against the covenant of God and God was bringing judgment on them.

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The very armies of Nebuchadnezzar were around the city and these false prophets were saying, disaster is not gonna fall on you, right?

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What about us? What about us? Well, you know what?

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Turn to Deuteronomy 18. Let's talk about this. We have to think about prophecies as well, right?

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Deuteronomy 18. You follow me as I begin reading in verse 14 or verse 13.

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You shall be blameless before the Lord your God for these nations which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune tellers and to diviners but as for you, the

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Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. No fortune tellers, none of these.

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What instead? The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me,

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Moses, from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen. Just as you desired of the

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Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the

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Lord my God or see the great fire anymore lest I die and the Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken.

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I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

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Who is that prophet? He's talking about one prophet. There's gonna be one prophet that's gonna come up and you listen to him.

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I'm gonna give him my words and you listen to him. Who is that prophet? Well, it's Jesus. You come to the

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Gospel of John chapter one. What does it tell us? In the beginning was the word and the word was

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God and the word was with God. He was in the beginning with God.

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Jesus is the very word of God. In John 8, 28, what does

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Jesus say? When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak just as the

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Father has taught me. Here he is. Here's the prophet that will keep us from going astray.

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And then John 16, 12 through 15, here's what we read. I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now.

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Jesus is saying, right, I could have told you a whole lot more but you can't bear it right now, okay?

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I haven't told you everything. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

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He will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

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All that the Father has is mine. Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

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Now what is he saying there? He is making a promise to the apostles. I have a lot more to say that I don't have, you can't bear it now but you know what?

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The spirit of truth is gonna come and he's gonna take my words, what I would have told you and he's gonna give it to you and so all that this prophet

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Jesus has for us is encapsulated in the rest of the New Testament.

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Those are from Jesus because the spirit took from him and gave it to the apostles so that we can be assured that what we have is the word of Christ and so we have a prophet that's told us the truth, who encapsulates all the truth and that we must follow.

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Now William Tyndale hated the traditions of his day and he determined to overcome those inventions with God's word.

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After studying at Oxford and Cambridge where it was found he had a real talent with languages. He was really good with languages.

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He became the tutor to Sir John Walsh's children, a tutor. That gave him a great deal of time to study the scriptures.

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Now Sir John set quite a fine table and many guests would come. He was always entertaining guests.

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Many of those guests were the local priests, abbots, archdeacons, and doctors of religion and often

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Tyndale would be sitting at that table arguing with these guys, with these great men of religion.

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He would be arguing with them, making known that what he was learning came from the scriptures which often went against what the traditions of the day that these guests would promote and he, you know,

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I'm in awe of some of these guys, right? He would just argue with them. He would tell them what he thought.

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He would tell them what scripture said. He wasn't afraid of that at all. Well, he was engaged in a conversation at the table one evening with a man famous for his religious learning, some revered doctor.

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At one point in the argument that great doctor asserted, we are better off to be, we are better off to be without God's laws than the

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Pope. Now what do you mean by that? He meant God's laws meant the scripture and the

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Pope meant all that came with that canon law and tradition and everything else. Tyndale fired back.

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Now this again, you guys, you gotta think of the radical nature of this in the 1500s.

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Tyndale fired back and said, I defy the Pope and all his laws, right?

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I defy the Pope and all his laws and then he went on to say this that night. If God spare my life here many years,

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I will cause a boy who drives the plow shall know more of the scriptures than you do.

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See the die was cast, he says, I'm gonna translate the scripture into my language, our language so even the plow boy can understand the

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Bible. You see the church didn't allow people to have Bibles. It was being printed now, right?

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The printing press, that revolutionary piece of technology had made it available and the church would not allow people to have the

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Bible. You were not allowed to have the Bible that you have in your hands right now because who knows what you would do with it, right?

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And so the die was cast. He intended to translate the Bible into the language of the common man so that they could understand the word of God and what it taught, that the common man could be led away from tradition to find

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Christ in the scriptures. Now Jeremiah also tells us that we can recognize in the nature of God's word.

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We know the nature of these traditions. What's the nature of God's word? Verses 28 and 29. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.

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What has straw in common with wheat, declares the Lord. Is not my word like fire, declares the

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Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Wow, that's the nature of God's word.

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The word requires that one who has the word of God should speak it faithfully. Let the dreamers, the inventors of these new traditions speak, let them go on with their visions, but the one who has the word of God should make it known faithfully, in season and out of season.

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You know, Protestants worship, now see, you're used to it. You don't know anything different. Almost all of us don't know anything different, but what you certainly know from your experience is that the preaching of the word of God is central to our worship.

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That wasn't the case for many centuries. It was the mass. Listen, if you go to a

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Catholic church today, you will find that there's a little spot for speaking the word of God, but mostly it's all about that mass, offering

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Jesus again for your sins. That's the central part. With Protestants, it became the word of God is central because we can't understand this without the preaching of the word of God.

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And so that became central. And Tyndale did preach the word of God. He not only determined to translate the scripture, he determined to preach the gospel.

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He'd go out and preach the gospel to the people, the gospel that had captured his own heart. Here's what he said about the gospel, the word gospel.

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He says, the word gospel is a Greek word that signifies good, merry, glad, and joyful tidings that makes a man's heart glad and makes him sing, dance, and leap for joy.

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You ever thought of the gospel like that? He says, that's what it means. It means this joy, this gladness that makes you sing, dance, and leap for joy, right?

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That's what the gospel means. But because of his dinner table arguments and because he openly preached the gospel, he was in trouble.

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He was accused of heresy, and he was forced to leave Sir John's employ.

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But he faithfully proclaimed the word of God. Notice why you speak it faithfully.

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Look at our text. The word nourishes you. The straw here are the yammerings of those who invent their traditions, who come up with these ideas, who invent their word from God, while the true word is like wheat.

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They may be mixed together for a time, but the true word of God will nourish and strengthen the soul.

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I don't know, some of you may have struggled with, I met some in terms of counseling, but if you ever met an anorexic person, you will see someone who is sluggish, who gets tired very quickly, who doesn't have the strength to do the most simple tasks because they're not taking in nourishment, and they can't do those things.

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And one who hears the word, who studies the word, who reads the word, who memorizes the word can face life with strength, can face life with strength.

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No matter what God's providence brings into your life, if the word of God is part of your life, you will have strength in the worst of tragedies to face it, not become bitter, but able to walk through it and rejoice in what

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God is doing. But only if you have the nourishing power of the word of God.

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He says the word works powerfully. Jeremiah likens it to fire. It consumes and destroys those who do not look to Christ, but it refines those who belong to him.

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It can consume whole cultures and transform them. It's like a hammer. It destroys and it shatters and breaks anyone who refuses the gospel, but it subdues and breaks in God's people all the desires that oppose him.

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The word of God will smash to pieces those desires that would destroy your fellowship with God and move you away from him.

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It can shatter all that is ungodly. It can bring down entire kingdoms. Look, you want to see the power of God?

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Look at Jeremiah 1. Look at Jeremiah 1. This is

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Jeremiah's commission to preach. These words, man, I've preached them,

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I think one time here, these words. But wow, look at the power of God in his word.

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Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born,

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I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Then I said, ah, Lord God, behold,

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I do not know how to speak for I'm only a youth. But the Lord said to me, do not say I'm only a youth.

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For to all whom I send you, you shall go. And whoever I command you, you shall speak.

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Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth.

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And the Lord said to me, behold, I put my words in your mouth. So I've set you this day over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

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The word of God has the power to break and uproot entire kingdoms and nations and plant something else.

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That's how powerful it is. Because he believed in the power of God's word, Tyndale gave his life for it.

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He fled England. He was a wanted man. He fled England and he went to the continent of Europe.

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And for the next 12 years, he was constantly on the move as King Henry's agents were consistently trying to hunt him down.

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And here's the thing that just blows me away. He's a fugitive and he translates the

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Bible. Now, it just blows me away.

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He's running from place to place. In the meantime, he's translating the New Testament into English. And then he had the

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English Bible printed. He'd find printers and get it printed. He'd put them together, he'd ship them to England. And some of you remember the movie we watched years ago.

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They would smuggle the Bibles into England. And the bishops there, particularly the

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Bishop of London, was paying money for people to give the Bibles up so they could burn them.

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They could burn them. He was constantly on the move. He translated and printed the Bible until one day a friend betrayed him to Henry's agents.

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He was captured and he was in prison for a year and a half. And on the day he died, he prayed that God would open the

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King of England's eyes to the powerful word and allow it into his kingdom.

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And by the way, God answered that prayer. And the Bible was given to the people in England.

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The last thing we need to do is recognize God's judgment on those who depart from his word. Recognize God's judgment.

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Let's look at verses 30 through 32 as we close. Therefore, behold,

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I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. Behold, I am against the prophet, declares the

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Lord, who use their tongues and declare. This is what the Lord says, declares the Lord. Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the

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Lord, who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness when I did not send them or charge them.

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So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord. Is sola scriptura important to God?

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Absolutely. See how he addresses those who substitute their thinking for the word of God and the authority of the word of God.

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He is against them because they render God's word void by their useless and reckless dreams.

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They've not received their words from God, but from others. The resolution passed that I read to you earlier did not originate in scripture, but it came from the opinion of other men, or as Jeremiah says, they steal from one another words, supposedly from me.

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They take words from others and then say the Bible is not as authoritative, is not. God is against those who deviate from scripture because they give their opinion and they call it

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God's word. God is against those who look to sources other than the scripture because they destroy the people of God.

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For those who do not submit to the scriptures, God reserves judgment, for he declares,

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I am against them. Sola scriptura is important to God, it should be important to us.

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How important is it to you? You know, God in his providence gives us heroes of the faith to emulate.

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Men like William Tyndale who lived and died for the sake of the gospel. Men like William Tyndale who knew the power of the word of God in transforming lives.

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And Tyndale could walk to his death and pray the prayer he did on that, on all that funeral pyre that was piled up around him.

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He could do that because he knew the word of God. He knew the word of God. Be on your guard.

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We live in a religious culture today. We live in a culture, a religious culture today that would give you things to believe that are not from the scripture.

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Even though they declare, this is what God wants for us, be careful. If it doesn't come from the word of God, it must be rejected.

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If it cannot come from God's word, it must be rejected. Be on your guard. Sola scriptura is as important to us as it was to those in the reformation when

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God sent that great awakening. May God help us to know his word and to use it.

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Father, thank you again for the time we've had together. Help us now, Lord, not to just applaud and thank you for the men of the past, help us now to be like them in being discerning with the word of God that we would see that the word of God alone is our guide for faith and for practice.