(Part 2) Lesson # 12 Obedience (Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur)

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A study from the book Fundamentals of the Faith #gospel #discipleship

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Obedience (Part 3) Fundamentals of the Faith Lesson # 12

Obedience (Part 3) Fundamentals of the Faith Lesson # 12

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So last time I think we ended around section, let's see, it would be number four, examples of obedience.
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Does that sound right to you? I think so. Now before we start, I was just thinking about this.
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There's a verse in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 8, that talks about those who do not obey the gospel.
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And that verse always stuck out to me because we always talk about and think of the gospel as something that you believe, right?
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Believe the gospel. But Paul in that verse talked about obeying the gospel.
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So I was thinking about that. Of course we're talking about obedience. What does it mean to obey the gospel?
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So if the gospel is the death primarily, kind of the short definition, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, that's something that happened.
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We believe in it. We trust in it. What would it look like to obey the gospel?
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Any thoughts on that? Respect it.
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Okay, all right. Yeah, you know, there's people who talk about gospel living.
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Of course, you know, how do you define these things? Marcus, what was your idea? Well, it just came to me, so who knows if it's accurate or not.
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Give it a shot. I was thinking whoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it.
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Whoever will save his own life will lose it. So Christ gave his life for us, and he calls us to give our lives for him.
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Yeah, okay, so I think those are good thoughts.
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So obeying the gospel. The gospel has implications, doesn't it?
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So if Jesus died for our sins and rose again for our justification, if Jesus rose from the dead, that has implications.
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And the implications are really for all of life. One of the things that Jesus did in the resurrection,
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Philippians 2 talks about this. He was obedient to the cross. He rose from the dead, and because of that, he has been declared
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Lord, right? So if Christ is Lord, and we've heard of lordship, right?
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It's the idea that he is our, just as the Jews looked to Moses and Moses gave them the law,
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Jesus gives us new commandments. And of course, we know the primary commandment given on whatever
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Monday, Thursday, as people call it at the Last Supper. The new commandment that Jesus gave is to love one another.
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But there are deeper implications, and that's just really the overarching subject of obeying
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Christ. It's one thing to believe it, but we are also called to obey it. So just,
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I thought that fit in with what we were talking about. Larry, you had your hand up? Yeah, well, to obey is to do.
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You have to do what either the law requires or God's word says.
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And, you know, Haven replaced the doing with love.
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And, you know, how can we say we love God if we don't obey him?
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And, you know, the past number of years, you know,
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I've questioned, you know, do I really know what it means to love
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God? You know, other than, I mean, through this lesson, you know,
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I'm seeing that obedience and love go hand in hand.
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And to love God, I must do his work.
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Right, yeah. I think what people fear is when you start talking like that, that some people hear like a work salvation.
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That you're saying, okay, if you really believe, that means you're going to do all these work. And then some people don't see the distinction between salvation by grace through faith and works.
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But at the same time, these are clear teachings by Jesus and the apostles clear commands that obviously we are supposed to obey.
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I mean, we're commanded to obey. It's not the works to salvation, but it's because of salvation that the works happen.
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Right, right. Okay. Any more thoughts? And then we'll get into examples of obedience.
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All right, let's look at it. It says the Old Testament contains numerous examples of obedience.
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Notice the Old Testament heroes of faith and obedience listed in Hebrews chapter 11.
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Okay. So let's turn to Hebrews chapter 11. And another thing that kind of jumped out at me is in Hebrews 11, it'll say by faith, so -and -so, and then it'll say something that they did.
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Right. So by faith, Abraham, you know, he, he left his homeland and went to a land that God was showing him.
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So by faith, they were doing these actions. By faith, they were doing works.
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They were, by faith, they were serving God. Just a few examples.
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Let's see. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4.
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By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
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So he did it by faith, but he was doing something. Right. I mean, this is where you get the idea that faith without works is what?
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Dead. Right. So this whole chapter, the faith chapter, they were doing things by faith.
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Noah, he had faith. He was saved by faith, but he had to build the ark.
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So you knew his faith was real because he listened to God. He obeyed
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God and actually built the ark. So in the book, Genesis 12, 1 through 4, and Hebrews 11, verse 8, it says, what were two of Abraham's greatest acts of obedience?
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The first one, he left his home for an unknown place. And then number two, he was willing to sacrifice his son,
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Isaac, as God commanded him to. And of course we know he didn't actually end up going through with it, but he was willing to, he started to do it and he did it.
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It was an act of obedience, but it was done by what? By faith. So you really can't separate true saving faith from works.
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As Larry pointed out, you're not saved by works. There's not enough good things you can do that.
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Okay. If you just give X amount of money to the poor, and if you just help enough little ladies across the street, and if you just do enough, you know, hours in the kitchen, then you will be granted access to heaven.
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We know that's not the way it works, but a true saving faith will produce, well, evidence.
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It'll produce works. Okay. Marcus. Well, we're going to be hearing the word resurrection a lot today.
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And I was just thinking, Abraham's faith, why he was willing to sacrifice his son was because he believed that God could raise him from the dead.
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So resurrection was something that even way back then, at the beginning of God's involvement with this lineage of Abraham.
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It had to do with faith and the resurrection. Amen. So two, it says, because Abraham obeyed
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God, what three things did God promise to Abraham's son? Genesis 26, two through five.
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The three things is that God promised his descendants would multiply, be multiplied as the stars of heaven.
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B, his descendants would be given all these lands. And then
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C, through his descendants, all the nations would be blessed.
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So these are the promises given to Abraham's son or his descendants.
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His descendants would be multiplied as the stars of heaven. Did that happen? Of course, this is figurative language to say, there's going to be more than, more than you could count.
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Of course, Abraham and his wife, they had no children. They were, how old was he?
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Abraham was 90 something and Sarah was barren. No kids. The, the idea that his descendants would be multiplied like that is just, that's impossible.
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But with God, all things are possible. His descendants would be given all these lands.
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And of course the Israelites did end up conquering and dwelling in the land of Canaan and his descendants through them, all the nations would be blessed.
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And that doesn't mean that, Hey, Jews are, you know, have blessed this country because they're great doctors and, you know, they've done so much, they've won so many
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Nobel prizes. That's not what it's talking about. All the nations being blessed through Abraham's descendants or his seed singular.
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What is that a reference to? Christ, right? So the whole world is blessed because of his ultimate descent, his seed,
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Christ. Okay. Uh, be Christ's example of obedience.
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Uh, what was Christ's primary concern on earth? John four 34.
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What did Jesus want to do above everything? Yeah.
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He wanted to obey the will of the father. He wanted to quote, to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work to when facing the cross, because that was the work when facing the cross, what was
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Christ's attitude? Luke 22 42. We all, we all know this, right?
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Yet not my will, but yours be done. And then three, to what extent was
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Jesus willing to be obedient? Philippians two eight. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.
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Okay. Of course, this is what we celebrated or what some churches observed on Friday.
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A good Friday is recognizing the day that Jesus died on the cross.
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Although there are those people who believe he actually died on Wednesday or Thursday, but we don't need to get into that whole argument.
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Um, any questions on this? Of course, you know why they say that?
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Cause just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. So must the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
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And they don't see three days and three nights from the end of Saturday to Sunday morning. It's more like one day and two nights, but, uh, you know, anyway,
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I digress. Uh, five, it says the promise and blessings of obedience lists, some blessings that are promised to us.
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If we obey God's commandments. All right, let's start out with this. Do you believe that that's true?
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Will you be blessed if you obey God's commandments? Okay. Should churches be preaching the commandments?
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Okay. Why do some churches not preach the commandments? You know,
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I've always been, cause I listened to all sorts of different things and I don't recommend you do that because you can get confused because there's all these different voices out there.
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But I mean, there are, there are people who would say that if you're preaching the commandments or if you're telling people,
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Hey, you need to obey Christ. Uh, sometimes that gets called, uh, legalism.
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Of course, that's not legalism. That's, that's crazy that, that, uh, that it is called that.
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But, um, there are blessings to obey the commandments. John 15 verse 10. If we obey, we will what abide in his love.
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John 15 verse 14. If we obey God's commandments, we will be his what friends.
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And first John three 22, we will receive what we ask of him.
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You know, I think we understand this. Those of us who have children, when our children are doing the right thing and they're obeying us and they're being good kids, we're more likely to do things for them or to give them what they ask.
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Say, Hey, can we go out for ice cream tonight? Well, if they'd been a really bad boy all day, you're probably not going to bring them out for ice cream, right?
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But if they're obedient and they're doing all the things that they should, then you're likely to do that, right?
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I mean, this is just basic. So if we are obedient to God, he's that much more likely to answer our prayers.
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So it's, it's very basic. And, uh, I saw your hand Marcus in one moment, just one comment on this, uh,
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John 15 14. If we obey his commandments, we will be his friends. Who is the first man that was called the friend of God?
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Moses. Well, I think Abraham was the first. I mean, maybe, maybe there was someone else, but I think of Abraham was called the friend of God, right?
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Why was Abraham called the friend of God? Because yeah, because he obeyed that.
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That's what it was about when God told them to do something, something that was really, really difficult.
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He did it from picking up and going to the land that God will show him. And obviously the thing with Isaac, Abraham obeyed and he was called the friend of God.
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Do we want to be his friend? Yeah. Marcus, you had your hand up.
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Well, of course, as you keep speaking, I keep getting more and more Bible verses or thoughts on it, but the, just the word blessing, uh, we think, oh yeah, yes,
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I want to be blessed. God bless America. God bless you. Yes. I want you to be happy, but, uh, it's not necessarily the case.
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Uh, blessed are they that mourn? Blessed are they that hunger and thirst?
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Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
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There's all kinds of X, you know, examples of being blessed along with these difficult things.
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And obedience is a difficult thing. You know, clean your room, do your dishes, vacuum.
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Yeah. All that sort of stuff. So the, this is a common thing you'll hear, uh, that the promises to the
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Jews were earthly and the promises to the church were heavenly or mainly. And I think there's a lot of truth to that.
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I don't, I don't think that's 100 % true across the board, but I think there is a lot of truth in that.
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So when the nation of Israel was given the commandments, uh, it was a very clear agreement.
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You obey me. God said, if you obey me, you will be blessed. But if you disobey me, you will be cursed.
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And that was here in this life on earth as a people individually, that could happen.
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But as a nation, it would certainly happen. If you disobey me as a nation, it's not going to be
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God bless Israel and wave the flag and everything's great. No God's curse will be upon Israel.
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And we saw them taken away captive and, and all the rest. Um, but the promises made to the church were not exactly given those same guarantees.
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The apostles certainly were not. If you obey Jesus, you're going to be blessed on earth because they suffered, they were beaten, they were arrested, they were martyred.
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So Christians, we tend to look at our reward as a heavenly reward instead of the prosperity gospel, which you know, is, is so absurd that Jesus promise promises
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Christians that if you just do the right thing, you'll be healthy and rich here in this world. When Jesus said the son of man has no place to lay his head and the apostles said silver and gold, we have none.
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But I think the, the blessings for us are primarily, the guarantees are primarily heavenly, but in the old
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Testament, it was more earthly. Yes, Larry. And the blessings, even though we may go through hard times or like you just said, the apostles and many of the disciples were beaten and imprisoned, tortured, you know, yeah, we don't really look at that as a blessing, but God is with us no matter what we're going through.
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And the prosperity is not necessarily financial or health, wealth, and all that.
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But we prosper in God's grace. We prosper in his faith in him and we prosper through his peace that surpasses all understanding and allows us to be able with strength to go through those difficult times.
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And knowing that this is not our home, we're just the passing through, you know, that heaven is our home and there's where the eternal rewards, eternal blessing, eternal prosperity.
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Yeah. And of course the apostles were told those things, knowing
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Jesus knew they were living in a hostile environment and Jesus knew what was going to come.
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Not all Christians have lived in that type of environment, you know, living in the United States in the 20th century.
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I mean, being a Christian was accepted. It was actually looked upon very favorably. I saw a picture somebody shared online from 1954,
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New York city. It was on Good Friday. The skyscrapers were all dark, but you know, some offices, the lights were left on and formed a cross.
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Three skyscrapers in New York had a cross. And I thought that would never happen today.
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It'd be lit up with something else. But, uh, you know, in the United States, yeah. Obeying God, being a
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Christian, obeying the commandments, it could, it probably could lead to a lot of prosperity because that's just the time we're living in where it's, it's good to be a
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Christian, but in some places that's not the way it is. So it's, there's not a guarantee for earthly possessions for Christians.
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Cause it might depend on when and where you live, but yeah. And just one, one other thing, uh, cause
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I forget somebody said it, you know, God bless America. I don't know if somebody said that. And I, when I hear that these days and I know people are, we want this right.
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Uh, and people are well -meaning, but I just, how on earth can God bless the
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United States at this time? So, uh, when people say that, I think, yeah, you're, you, you grew accustomed to saying it years ago and you're still saying it, but you're kind of hoping against hope because at this point, uh, the nation of Israel, God was not going to bless the nation while they were, uh, worshiping bail.
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It just wasn't going to happen. And the United States, we're not worshiping bail. We're worshiping
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LGBTQ or whatever. You know, the latest thing is that people bow and, uh, obeisance, but you know,
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God cannot bless, uh, he cannot bless rebellion and sin, right?
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Uh, Marcus. Well, again, I'm the same things that we're talking about. You were talking about the blessings being heavenly rather than earthly.
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I would look at them more like the blessings are more inner than outer, more, you know, within us, within our spirit, because these ones, you know, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.
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So that's the blessing is being comforted. And, uh, I did look through and this verse is not mentioned in our lesson anywhere.
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So I feel free to quote it. John 14 .1 is one of my favorite ones on obedience.
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He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.
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And he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.
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Now there's the blessing. That is the nearness of Christ. That is why when everything is going wrong outside, uh, in our life, in our job, in our families, in our homes, uh, we, we, we can come here away from all that and inside way down deep inside in our spirit where the
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Holy spirit lives. That's, that's where we can, we can be blessed, truly blessed for an hour at least.
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If that guy in the back would just quit. Yeah. I don't know. The church is, is a real blessing that you can, uh, come and have fellowship with like -minded people who have not gone absolutely mad that are not worshiping
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Satan. You know, uh, things that just got so extreme. Yeah. It really is a blessing to have a church family and, uh, the blessings that God offers.
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They are hours. If somebody says, Oh yeah, well, I'm going to kill you. Okay, well then I'll die and I'll go to heaven and it'll be, it'll be great.
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They can't take it away. Okay. B it says to what, uh, what does
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Jesus compare the life of a person who hears and obeys his word?
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Matthew seven 24 and through 27. Let's let's turn there.
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Matthew. I want to read this whole passage, Matthew chapter seven. This is towards the end of the sermon on the
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Mount. I'm not going to get there on Sunday morning for a while. So let's just look at it.
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Now, most of us are familiar with this, uh, this parable.
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It's the parable of the two builders. So Matthew seven, starting in verse 24, some of you are still turning there.
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I'll just read this to what does Jesus compare the life of a person who hears and obeys his word to the wise man who built his house on the rock.
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So notice it's not the person who said, well, I believe it. Well, it's the person who believes and obeys.
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Cause if you believe, but you don't obey, well, we're going to see what happens. Matthew seven, starting in verse 24.
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Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain descended.
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The floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock.
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But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended in the floods came in the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall.
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Uh, this is the insanity of, of preaching that, Oh, preaching obedience is legalism to cry.
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That's that's crazy. That's crazy. If we don't obey Christ, well, see, some of us have, have lived for a time where we were disregarding
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Christ and we were breaking his commandments and we knew we were doing it. And how did that turn out?
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Uh, it just take a person who's living life on their terms. They're doing what they want. And there, some people make sport of breaking the commandments of God.
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How does their life typically end up? Yeah, right here.
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The floods came, the winds blew and beat on the house and it fell and great was its fall.
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So obedience, the portents importance of obedience. Okay. Next section.
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Yes, Larry. Well, I think Marcus said that verse a little while ago, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world?
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And that's where our country, our culture is seeking the goods as much as we can get.
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Now have our best life now kind of a thing. But you know, that verse says, you know, if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul, what profit is it?
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You know? I mean, yeah, he has profit right here and now, but this life is temporal.
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Right. Yep. Okay. Areas of obedience. And of course, people need to be taught this, you know, part of the great commission is, you know, make disciples.
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So you want to get, get people to believe, uh, baptize them. That's the second thing. And then the third thing is to teach them all that Christ commanded.
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That's often the part that doesn't get done because if a person doesn't join a local church, they're probably not going to be taught all the
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Christ commanded or I believe, or they came forward at an evangelistic crusade and maybe they even got baptized, but they never really followed through.
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And you know, if you're not taught, then you don't know. I mean, people have a general idea. I know
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I'm not supposed to steal. I know I'm not supposed to kill, but the teachings of Jesus, people really don't know unless they're taught.
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So the importance of being taught, uh, within a local church, it's, it's vital.
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Otherwise, otherwise we're just going to be figuring it out as we go along.
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So number six areas of obedience. What are all
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Christians to be taught concerning Christ commands? Matthew 28 verse 20 to observe what all observe all that he commanded us.
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I mean, that's a lot, that's a lot to ask. Well, that's what the Lord asks, right? To observe all that he commanded us.
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Here's what we typically do. Um, and maybe not you personally, but we'll say, okay, the things that really matter are the virgin birth, uh, the deity of Christ, you know, the fundamentals, believing the
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Bible is the word of God. Those are the things that really matter. And then all this other stuff, you know, that's like secondary issues, third tier issue that, that doesn't really matter.
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And we kind of set that aside as if it's not important. This is what really bugs me about, um, people.
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And I, we talked about this on Wednesday night, uh, secondary issues. Now we were talking about the kingdom of God, the millennium, and well, that's a secondary issue.
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Christians can agree to disagree maybe without, you know, it doesn't mean someone's lost because they have a different viewpoint, but some people would say, well, it's a secondary issue.
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It's not, it's not like the resurrection or the virgin birth. So it's not that important. And some people will take that to mean, well, that doesn't really matter that we don't have to teach it or we don't have to know that what
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Jesus is saying that we are to teach and you, and we are to learn what all that Christ commanded.
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So there is no point, uh, of there is no, uh, book of the
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Bible or passage of the Bible that doesn't matter or that, well, we get to ignore this part.
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And yeah, I think that's what's happening to a large degree within evangelicalism. It's just, you know, we'll focus on the gospel things.
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The gospel is the important things, but the rest of it, you know, that some people disagree.
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So it's divisive. We won't talk about it. That's not what I see here. We are called to observe all and teach all that he commanded any, am
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I off base? Do you think that that's a thing? I think it's, I think it's happening and this is now
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I'm starting to preach again and, and, uh, but it's, it's the importance of going through books of the
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Bible. You know, that's all, it's kind of like all we do around here. It seems like whether I'm on the radio
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Sunday morning and whether you have a Bible study or something else, we're constantly going through books of the
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Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. And what are we doing? We're trying to get it all because if you're not going through a book, if you're not going through verse by verse, you're not going to get it all.
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Even if you do the Bible so big, it's hard to get through it all, but okay.
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I'll stop. The Bible is so deep and so rich that you, that the more you dig, the more gold nuggets you're going to find.
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And it will take you. This is, I think we're going to be doing it through all eternity. Yeah. Uh, Mary, you had your hand up.
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I was just going to say that it's a blessing to uh, understand enough to have an opinion.
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So, so that if you hear conversations, yeah, you can have an opinion.
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Yeah. Okay. Uh, B says read each verse below and fill in, fill in who is to be obedient to whom and why.
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All right. So this is based on Colossians chapter three, verse 20, who is to be obedient to whom and why.
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Okay. So I'll, I'll just read this and you tell me if this is what you got. All right. Who children, children are to be obedient to parents.
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Why this is pleasing to the Lord. That's Colossians three, 20
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Ephesians five, 22 through 24, who is to be obedient.
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Wives are to be obedient to their own husbands. Wait, hold on a second. Is that really what this says?
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Don't you know, it's the year 2023 like wake up. No, that's what it says.
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Why? Because the husband is the head of the wife and Christ is the head of the church. Speaking of passages that don't get preached in some churches.
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I, I know a guy, I don't want to give out too much information because then you might figure out who, who it is or where it is, but he's part of a church.
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He was leading a Bible study and maybe they're just going through the book of Ephesians. This guy likes the book of Ephesians.
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Uh, so he was teaching through Ephesians and they got to this, he's just going verse by verse and he read it.
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And one, it was actually a man who got just ripping mad. Are you telling me my wife is supposed to obey me or she's supposed to submit to me and he was offended and he left.
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He never came back. I thought that's strange for the guy to be upset about that. But, but, uh, uh, but that kind of thing happens, but you know, in fairness, okay.
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In fairness, if you are, if you're brought up in this culture, we know how the culture is.
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Um, and you go to a church, you've never heard this before. And all of a sudden there's this guy and he's proclaiming this as true.
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Yeah. You can imagine that, Whoa, this is, this is not, this is radical, but there's other radical things.
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Uh, Ephesians six, five through eight, the next section, who is to be obedient.
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Oh, this isn't politically correct. Slaves are to be obedient to who
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Oh, they're earthly masters. Why? Knowing that whatever good thing you do, you will receive back from the
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Lord. So you're not, you're not supposed to say that. Now I know people say, well, that, that applies to the workplace.
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It's like you being obedient to your supervisor. True. That, that would be the modern application, but here's the thing.
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Paul actually, they were actually talking to slay it again. It was different from slavery in the
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United States because slavery in this country was about, you know, ethnicity and people were slaves because of skin color, which we obviously find, uh, abhorrent, but, um, the, the, the point of the, uh, new
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Testament authors, Christianity was not to be used to start some sort of revolution. So if you enact principles of the new
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Testament, then a nation would eventually get rid of slavery. And that did happen over time, but you recognize that this is not a politically correct thing to say.
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Okay. And Hebrews 13, 17, who else is supposed to be obedient?
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Christians are to be obedient to whom leaders, or they watch over your souls and someday we'll give account for them.
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And then Romans 13, one, every person is to be obedient to who the governing authorities, because God established governments and gave them authority.
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Of course, that's not a popular thing with some people. But again, the idea is the Bible does not justify revolutions.
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You can't say that, okay, the teachings of the Bible, Jesus, Jesus allows us to take up arms to overthrow the government.
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Jesus does not permit that. Uh, same thing with slaves. Slavery is terrible, but Jesus does not tell slaves to, you know, go, go kill your masters in the middle of the night because they're evil.
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And you, Christianity does not give us an excuse to do any of that. So, uh, the gospel was revolutionary, maybe in a different sense, but it does not give us, uh, the, the right to rebel against authority.
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Okay. Disagreements, comments, opinions. No. All right.
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Now I would say that the, uh, every person obeying the governing authority, that there is a limit to that, right?
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And there is a limit to a wives submit to your husband. Let's say, uh, a husband, he's a, he's an unbeliever and he tells his wife,
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I don't want you to go into church anymore. You're not allowed to go to church and you need to submit because your
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Bible says so well, who do you obey? So you obey the
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Lord, not, not your, not your husband in that case or for us.
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Um, I know that this is some be something someone might disagree on, but when the government said, really, if we obey obeyed the letter of the law, we would have to have kept our church closed probably for a year because the
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COVID restrictions were so intense that really, if you were going to follow each one to a tee, you really couldn't have a church service or you'd only be able to allow a few people in the building.
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So, um, there, there are times where you make a decision to obey
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God over this is a true authority. You are to obey, you are to, uh, submit, but there are times where God commands you to do something different.
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You need to obey God. In those cases, you think of Moses when Moses was a baby, his parents were commanded by the
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King by Pharaoh to hand the baby Moses over and he would have been put to death.
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Did his parents, did Moses parents rebel against Pharaoh? Yes. And amen that they did it.
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Uh, the apostles, you know, told the Sanhedrin, you know, are we supposed to obey you over God?
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Right. Cause they told him, do not preach in Jesus name. And they said, well, we're, we're going to keep doing it because there is a higher authority.
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So God is the highest authority. Okay. So we obey God, but there are earthly authority.
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We do need to submit and obey earthly authorities. Okay. So we'll move on unless somebody, yes,
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Stacy. I have, I guess, a question for you and, um, using the
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Ephesians 5, 22 to 24 is kind of a basis, but I mean, there are other things that people talk about too.
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Do you think, um, that when people read those things and then they say, well, no way
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I, you know, I'm a woman of Yeah. 2023 and I'm not going to submit or, or even your example of the gentleman who was upset about that.
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Do you think it's because maybe their heart isn't really where it should be?
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I mean, if, if you read that and you're, you're trying to be faithful to the word, um, to grow closer to the
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Lord, if you read that, I mean, for me, I would read it again and again and again, and really try to absorb it and then say, okay, then this really is what
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I should be doing. But if you rebel against that, wouldn't that be a sign that maybe your heart really isn't in the right place?
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Right. Well, if you're knowingly and willfully rebelling against it, then yes, it's, it's evidence that your heart is not in the right place.
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Ultimately you're not doing it because you know, the man is, is up here and you're, that's, that's not the point.
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The Lord commands it. Like if you believe this is the word of God, you're, you're doing it for God.
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It's like when you go to your job and your supervisor is being unreasonable, you think, but you still submit because you're doing it unto the
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Lord, the scripture says, right? So you can justify it. Of course, people with Ephesians, I think part of it, it might not be in some cases, it might not be that a person's heart is in the wrong place.
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It's possible. Cause I think a lot of, a lot of people have been taught poorly. Uh, for example, in Ephesians five, you go back a few verses and it says, you know, submit to one another.
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See, my husband's supposed to submit to me because some, so that like undoes this other thing.
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Well, it doesn't really undo it, but we, we, we consider one another, right? The husband should be considering his wife.
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He ought to be ready to lay down his life for his wife. He should be providing for his wife.
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He should be caring for it. So it's not as, as always gets brought up the dictatorship, you know, he's not supposed to be a dictator.
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That's what people always bring up with this passage, but there's a consideration from both sides. But the point is there are earthly, there are authorities, right?
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There's authority in the government. There's authority at work. There's authority in the church. There's authority at home. People are anti -authority, but you can't avoid authority.
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There's authority everywhere. And I've never met a parent who interprets that.
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Well, yeah, my children are to submit to me, but the Bible says submit one to another.
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So I guess I should be submitting to my kids. Nobody interprets it that that way. So, well,
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I know people do it, but I've never heard them making a scriptural argument to do it is what I'm saying. Yeah.
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But Hey, if you're like, I don't know about this. Hey, it goes against the grain for all of us.
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None of us like to be told what to do. Cause we're all rebels at heart, right? We're, we're all sinful and we've fallen short.
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So this, we don't like this sometimes, but it's what the scripture says.
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This is close to what you just said, but if ever there was a passage where you needed to read the whole thing in its context, this is one of them, right?
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Do you see how they started in verse 22? Wives submit yourselves. The first one is the wives, then the husbands, but it is the verse before that it's verse 21, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
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So you're starting out that way. And you know, yes. Wives need to submit to their husbands and that's hard, right.
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Cause you know, but husbands have got a harder thing to do.
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They, they have to, they have to be like Christ. That's, that's pretty tough too.
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But if everybody's doing all of these things, you know, it's going to be okay. It's going to work out.
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Yeah. And I didn't mean to make this a big thing, but wives submit to your own husbands.
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What does it say? As to the Lord. So just follow this analogy through.
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Well, should Jesus be submitting to us, to the church? No. And yet he laid down his life for the church.
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He came to give his life a ransom for many. He did not come to be served, but to serve.
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Right. So, you know, there's, there's a balance to be had here, but what's the point of this section?