The Prophet Jeremiah Part 4

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The Prophet Jeremiah Part 5

The Prophet Jeremiah Part 5

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Okay, we are going to get started. That requires us to pray. If you have a Bible, that would be handy.
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Something to take notes with, also handy. Those of you who are physically here at Kongsvinger, we have Bibles over there if you'd like to grab one and follow along.
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And our hope is to be in Jeremiah chapter three today. I'll back up a little bit in two, but I need to make a note.
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There was a question I saw regarding last week's Sunday school. Due to technical difficulties, last week's
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Sunday school, the file corrupted and it was not usable and it didn't happen.
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So this will forever be known as the lost episode. So yeah, so you had to be there.
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And all I can say is it was fire, but oh well. Say love you. That's how this works.
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So let's pray and then we will jump into our study today.
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Lord Jesus, again, we come before you humble, empty -handed, poor in spirit, recognizing that all we have is from you.
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Apart from you, we could do nothing. And so we humbly ask that through the power of your Holy Spirit and a study of your word that we may rightly understand your word so that we may boldly confess and proclaim the mercy that we have in Jesus Christ to a world lost in sin and the maze and error of the devil.
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We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, let's see here. All right, so sad
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I missed the fire. I wish I could describe it other than that.
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We did a lot of talk on what was kind of the off topic. The off topic was the dealing with predestination.
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So I would say this, the predestination topic is one that I do cover in depth in our catechism classes, and just a reminder again, this coming
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Thursday, no adult catechism. So keep that in mind. That's where we go.
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What I'm going to do is I've referenced this before, and that is that when we study
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God's word, one of the fatal errors that we make is when we say to ourselves,
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I've already heard that, I already know that. God's word doesn't work that way.
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If anybody who thinks that they've mastered God's word hasn't yet been mastered by God's word.
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And so one of the things we engage in, at least with some frequency, but not too far, is we engage in something called what's called the hermeneutical spiral.
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And the idea then is that you'll note that as we start today, although we finished chapter two last week,
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I'm going to back up into the context, and before we get into chapter three, rather than picking up where we left off, because I think it'll help us.
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But you're going to note that one of my reasons for doing this has to do then with the major theme of our sermon today, and that is that we are so lost in sin that we use good for the purpose of deceiving others in order to exploit them and manipulate them.
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It's just horrifying. And that the people who are the most needy among us,
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God has not called us to take advantage of them. God has called us to be their advocates, to help meet their needs.
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That when it comes to those who have been given blessings by God, we are instructed in the word that we are to make a living working honestly with our hands, having money to pay for our own needs, and stocking away a little bit.
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So a portion of our savings should be for the purpose of helping those who are in need. And that's the idea.
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And you'll note in today's day and age, that there are entire church movements like the prosperity gospel and the people like that, and those who wrongly teach that Christians are obligated to tithe.
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That is not true. Christians are not obligated to tithe. What they end up doing is they take texts out of context from Malachi and say, well, if you're not tithing,
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God's going to send a destroyer. He's going to destroy your wealth. It's just terrible. And the reality is we're not under the
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Mosaic covenant command to tithe. And so when somebody comes to church and they are legitimately in financial distress, and I would always point people to the fact that in our day and age, it's not merely widows who struggle.
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In fact, widows probably are better to do than young women who are divorcees and who have kids, single moms.
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They're like our modern era's version of widows. And over and again,
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I've heard so many tragic stories of people who are single moms who've showed up at churches and then were told that God requires them to give 10 % of the gross of their income, and that if they don't, they're in grievous sin.
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And that is so backwards. It's not even funny. The reality is that not only are we not under the obligation to tithe, you know, a widow or a single mom can give as much as they want or as little as they want, but the people who attend a church who are well -to -do, and they know that there's a single mother or somebody in financial duress in their midst, they're required to give of their resources, not to the church, but to the person who is in need.
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And so you'll note that we are so sinful that we create these pious, false stories, these false doctrines that then result in the oppression of those who are poor and needy.
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And I would note that Benny Hinn and Ken Copeland, they have made their millions on the backs of the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick among us.
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That's truth. And God will not look kindly on them when that time comes.
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And you can see this in his law. So Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 33 says, how well you direct your course to seek love.
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And he's talking about idolaters here. So that even wicked women you have taught your ways, you know, and on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor.
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It's idolatry and the oppression of the poor go hand in hand. These are one of the fruits that you look for, right?
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Yet you did not find them breaking in, yet in spite of all of these things you say, I'm innocent. Surely God's anger has turned from me.
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Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying that I have not sinned. Now, this is an important little statement.
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And note, engaging in the hermeneutical spiral, we're slowing things down a little bit. I will bring you into judgment for saying
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I have not sinned. I know a New Testament text that talks about this. And that exact same thing.
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And it's found in the epistle of 1 John. Hang on a second here. I need to make this a word, not a word search.
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I want a verse search. There we go. 1 John, not 10, but 1. There we go.
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Oh, Rose, bro. Everything's out of control. 1 John 1. There we go. And listen to these words, okay?
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1 John 1 verse 5. This is the message that we have heard from him and we proclaim to you.
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God is light, in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth.
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But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.
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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his word is not in us.
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So you'll note that these words that we just heard from the prophet Jeremiah where God says, behold
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I will bring you into judgment for saying I have not sinned. We'll note that that's consistent with New Testament theology.
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Absolutely consistent. So you get the idea here. The person who says I'm a good person,
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I refer them back to the sermon from today and Jesus's words, no one is good except for God.
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I sound like a broken record and necessarily so. And I think at this point it's important to again reiterate what it is that Lutherans teach because we do that strange thing that always gets us accused of being like some kind of quasi
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Roman Catholics, right? Because you heard at the beginning of the divine service today, I as a cold and ordained servant of the word announce the grace of God unto all of you and in the stead and by the command of my
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Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all of your sins. And you sit there and go, Rome! Right?
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No one can forgive sins except for God alone. Right! Okay. And you sit there and go, but you just forgave sins.
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Okay. So I figure while we're on the topic and those words are ringing in our ears, let's take a look again at the gospel of John chapter 20.
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And let's see here. Here we go. So here's our governing text on this.
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So it's on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the door is being locked. This is the day of the resurrection. Being locked where the disciples were for fear of the
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Jews. Oh, look at that. They weren't out there with their five smooth stones slaying their Goliath Pharisees.
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They were hiding like a bunch of school girls. Okay. So Jesus came in and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you.
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And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And then the disciples were glad when they saw the
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Lord. Jesus said to them, peace be with you as the father has sent me, even so I am sending you.
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And when he had said this, he breathed on them and he said, and this is where the Greek is necessary.
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Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are. And here we got a weird tense in the, in the
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Greek. And come from the Greek word. And this is in what's called the third person, plural, perfect passive.
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Let, let me give you a rough translation of how that verb should be translated. If you wanted to just do it stiff and wooden, the sins you forgive will have already been forgiven.
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Note the been that's passive. Okay. So when we talk about active and passive verbs, this is a, this is an important distinction you have to make.
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Um, if you all have ever used Microsoft word, remember that stupid paperclip that would talk to you.
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Okay. I hated that thing. I almost put a bullet through my computer screen once to kill that thing. But I realized that I would just end up incurring all kinds of, well, fees and stuff to fix it.
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So, um, but whenever you would write in the passive voice, the, uh, the paperclip would say,
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I see that you're writing in the passive voice. Would you like me to change it to the active? No, you moron
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I'm doing it on purpose. I know, I know grammar. Okay. I think drove me nuts, you know?
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So, so let me explain what we mean by the passive voice. And I'm going to have to use a concept here that we all know.
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All right. When we go to the barber shop or the hair salon or wherever we go to get hair taken care of, assuming you have it, um, just checking.
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Okay. Assuming that you have it. Okay. People say I got my hair cut.
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Right. And we all understand when somebody says I got my hair cut, that that's kind of a passive way of saying
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I sat in a chair and somebody who knows what they're doing, who actually was trained to do this and is licensed by the state.
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You'll note that these people need licenses. All right. That they went and use their tools and their skills.
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And you went from being the shaggy dog to being presentable for the, at least the next two weeks.
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Right. Okay. This is a passive experience. Then if somebody were to say,
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I cut my hair, we immediately roll our eyes and go, Oh, honey, no.
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Oh, that explains everything. I thought that you had fallen on your lawnmower and that, you know,
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I'm looking for the head wounds. Okay. Okay.
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And we've all had, we've all had that child that did this. Right. Okay. And if you only have one child, that will be the one.
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Okay. Look, mommy, I cut my, Oh no. And you rush them to the
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ER. I mean, sorry, the hair salon. You know, you get what I'm saying? Right. But, uh, so we, we recognize that in our own language, there is a difference between active and passive voice.
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There, there is. So when we hear the absolution note, then
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I'll point this out in the liturgy. In fact, um, when we confess our sins, we are confessing our sins.
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Are we confessing our sins to me? No. Okay. Cause no,
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I'm okay. This is another bit of it. And when we're, we have the divine service here at Kongsvinger, I'm, my back is turned to you during the confession of sins.
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Why? Cause I'm part of the congregation. Okay. When I'm facing you, then
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I'm kind of a stand in for Christ. I'm speaking by his authority. Does that make sense? So when
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I'm, when I'm, you know, you're my back is turned to you. I'm speaking with every, and how does it begin?
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We confess that we are by nature, sinful and unclean. And the pastor has added his voice to your, we, and your, we, and my, we come together.
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And we are the big y 'all here. And we are all confessing our sins to whom? Christ. Right.
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So now Christ has given an authority then to the church and the authority to the church.
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This falls under what's called the law of binding and loosing. And I want you to think of it this way is that we've all seen those courtroom dramas, right?
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Where some poor fellow has been brought up on charges and charged with a crime that he has not committed.
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Right. And those, those are kind of the lesser themes you see in the justice movies, but it always happens.
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And what occurs when the jury finally deliberates and goes, oh, he's innocent.
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So they do, they deliver the verdict and the verdict is not guilty. And the judge says, the verdict is not guilty.
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He slaps down his gavel and then he speaks to the bailiff and he tells the bailiff go and let him go.
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The bailiff shows up either in the jail cell or in the place in the courtroom.
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And he says, I am freeing you. No, he's not. He's not.
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Okay. You know, if the, if the bailiff were to say at the jail cell, I'm, I'm going to let you go.
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All right. Technically he's right. But if the bail, if bailiffs all on their own authority started letting prisoners go, what would happen to bailiffs?
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They'd be inside the cells, right? Okay. Yeah, right. You didn't,
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Josh said they would, they would run for Congress. Okay. Oh, wow.
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That's terrible. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. Okay. But the idea then is, is that when the bailiff says
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I'm letting you go, he's doing so because the judge has already said, he's not guilty.
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That's how this verb works. If you forgive the sins of any, they are already forgiven them.
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Oh, so you're not really doing the forgiving. No, I'm, I say, I forgive you all of your sins because Christ told me to say those words.
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The sins you forgive. But when I'm standing in the stead of Christ, I'm speaking on his authority.
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We sit there and go, well, how do you know that person's sins have been forgiven? Can you name a single sin that Christ didn't die for?
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It goes all back to the cross. So the idea then is I have that authority by virtue of the fact that Christ is a lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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And he gave us this authority. This isn't a pastoral authority. Okay. You as Christians can actually speak this exact same, uh, absolution to penitent sinners.
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You absolutely can. So if somebody, somebody comes to you and says, I know that you're a Christian and, uh, and I, I, you know, and you know, the
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Lord's really been convicting me and they bear their heart and they confess a sin to you. No, what the scripture says, it talks about Christians who confess their sins one to another, right?
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You don't sit there and you don't pat them on the head and go, oh, that's okay. That's okay. No. What do you say?
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You say, I forgive you. And then my forgiveness here is Christ's forgiveness. We have authority as Christians to forgive penitent sinners.
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Full stop. I've pronounced an absolution as a lay person and publicly,
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I pronounce an absolution in the office of the pastor, but privately, you Christians, you still have this authority.
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This is an authority given to the church, not to pastors and not to a Pope because there's no such thing. Okay. So the idea then is, is that on the other end of this, then what do you do with impenitent sinners?
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So if you forgive the sins of any, they are already forgiven them. That's your perfect, uh, passive voice here.
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If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is already withheld. Okay. In other words, those people who do not want to be forgiven, you don't have to be forgiven.
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All right. So you only withhold forgiveness from, from an impenitent sinner and Christ doesn't forgive the impenitent.
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He forgives the penitent, right? If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
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So, you know, so I, there are some pretty weird people out there who critique me on, online claiming that,
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Oh, Roseboro says that you can't have your sins forgiven unless you confess them to him. What a load of malarkey.
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Okay. You know, nobody confesses their sins to me. Not one. I have never had anyone confess their sins to me.
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I've been present while those people have confessed their sins to Christ. And because of this authority given to the church,
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I have spoken to them, the absolution that Christ has given the church, the authority to do. But when you do that, you ain't the judge, you're the bailiff.
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Right? Why am I talking like that? All right. You get the idea. I need to work on my delivery skills here.
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All right. Okay. Let's see here. All right. So, whoa, the chat went nuts.
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Okay. I kind of thought it might. Okay. God bless you. Teaching and truth. So if you don't tithe, you won't have your prayers answered.
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That's Sylvester family. That's just evil. It's wicked. It's absolutely wrong. Okay. And by the way, if you want to text on that always and again,
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I take people 1 Corinthians 9. Because it's super important that you understand something.
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We're not under the Mosaic covenant. And by the way, as commandments go for how to financially fund the preaching of the gospel, the tithe would make no sense.
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And the reason why the tithe would make no sense is because according to the Mosaic covenant, people ate their tithes.
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Okay. I want you to think about this for a second. The tithe is like Thanksgiving.
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All right. You would bring your tithe to the temple. And in fact, let me see if I can find this.
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Hang on a second. I'm going to say tithe. And I'm going to every tithe of the land.
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Hang on a second here. I got to find this. Is it in Numbers or is it in Leviticus test? Hang on a second here.
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I'm going to hunt this down. I want to find this one now. I think it might be
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Numbers 18. Let me hunt. Let me just do a quick search here. Don't panic.
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All right. I want you to consider what the tithe was used for. Contributions.
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Let's see here. Tithe and hang on a second here.
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Money. No. And let me make sure
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I'm hunting in the right place. I'll text. All right. Hold on. I will find this.
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Bear with me. Every tithe of the land of the trees, Leviticus, every tithe, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
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There you shall bring your word offering to your tithes or contributions. Here we go. Ah. Yeah.
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Deuteronomy 12. That's what I think of. Hold on. Deuteronomy 12.
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I think this is what it is. You shall destroy the nations that I worship. You shall do according to their order, and then you choose.
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You shall make your sons and daughters and male servants. Um. Hang on.
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It's right there. 18. You shall eat them. Ah. Here we go. All right. However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns as much as you desire according to the blessing of Yahweh, your
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God, that he has given you. The clean and the unclean you eat of it. Only you shall not eat the blood. You may eat it within your towns.
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Okay. But you shall not eat them. But you shall eat them before the Lord. Okay. Verse 17.
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All right. You may not eat them in the towns, the tithe of your grain or your wine or your oil, the firstborn of your herd or your flock or any of your vow offerings, your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, but you shall eat them before the
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Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose you and your son and your daughter and your male servant and your female servant and your
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Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. Take care that you do not neglect the
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Levite as long as you live. All right. And so here's what it says. When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he has promised and you say
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I will eat meat because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. If the place that the Lord your
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God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or flock which the
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Lord has given you as I commanded and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. Just as the gazelle.
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Only be sure that you do not eat the blood and you shall not eat it. I'm going to fast forward a little bit here. But the holy things that are due from you in your vow offerings you shall take and you shall go to the place the
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Lord your God choose and offer your burnt offerings and your flesh and blood on the altar of the Lord your God the blood of your sacrifices but the flesh you may eat.
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So the idea here is that the tithe itself you ate it.
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Okay. A portion of it goes to the Levites for their upkeep in the temple.
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But if you were to kind of think of it this way it makes no sense. All right. So the tithe doesn't work as a way of funding the gospel.
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Instead when you look at 1st Corinthians 9. Let's see here. All right.
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So here's our governing text along these lines. All right.
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Let's see here. So this is my defense to those who would examine me, Paul writes. By the way how much did
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Paul charge people to be an apostle? Zero.
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Paul made a point of like always paying his own way or if he went to serve a different congregation or to preach the gospel in a different region he did receive support from other churches but not the churches he was planting or caring for.
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So this is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and to drink? Well yeah actually that fifth commandment thou shall not murder is yeah that's in play.
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So do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the
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Lord and Cephas. Uh -oh first pope was married. Don't tell Rome.
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Okay. Okay. Or is it only
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Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? So here's the question then.
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Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? No soldier does that right? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit?
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No one who owns a vineyard does that. Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Nobody does that right?
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So do I say these things on human authority? Does not the law say the same? And this is where Paul then goes when it this is the governing
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Old Testament commandment when it comes to pastoral salaries.
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You ready? It is written in the law of Moses you should not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
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Did you just say the pastor's an ox? You betcha. Pastors the beast the burden of the congregation and you know you gotta feed you gotta feed your beast right?
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That came out wrong. All right.
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So then Paul says is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak certainly for our sake?
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It is written for our sake because the plowman should plow and hope that the thresher and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
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If we have sown spiritual things among you is it too much if we reap material things from you?
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No. If others share this rightful claim on you do we not even more? Nevertheless we've not made use of this right but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
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Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
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Yes they do. In the same way the Lord commanded and here's the explicit command of Christ. Those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
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Full stop. All right. So Christ wills that normatively men who preach the gospel make their living by the gospel.
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So I always like to say this. So the idea then is how much should you pay your pastor? How much it costs to live in where you're at?
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Okay you know I know pastors in California who make exorbitant amounts of money far more than I do and you know what?
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They barely get by because a 2 ,000 square foot house in Southern California runs for more than a million dollars.
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Okay I just think about my hundred year old house you know in Grand Forks you know if we can do the
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Toto thing you know maybe have a tornado come and just take it away over Kansas all the way to Southern California and lightly put it down in Southern California.
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I could sell it for a lot of money. But here's the thing.
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So I know pastors who on paper we're talking they make six figures.
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I do not. They make six figures and they are worse off than I am and that's because they live in California right?
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I live in North Dakota. Nobody lives here. Nobody wants to live here. Okay you're weird.
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You know this is American Siberia. Okay if we believed in karma then we really messed up in a previous life.
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But you'll note then God wills for pastors to make a living from the gospel.
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So the idea then is that this isn't the governing commandment is that you don't muzzle an ox while it's treading out the grain.
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That's your governing text. The end. All right and then you'll note that in 2
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Corinthians 9 you have this wonderful passage that talks about how we are to give our gifts to God willingly.
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So the point is this whoever sows sparingly reaches sparingly. Note that God does reward those who use their earthly finances, their earthly assets for the purpose of forwarding the gospel.
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Because the person you're really lending to is God. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion.
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God loves a cheerful giver. So I can say this with absolute certainty. I have no clue who's giving anything at Kongsvinger or Emmanuel Lutheran.
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I have no clue. It's none of my business. And those churches that have those software systems where the pastor can check your tithing record.
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I just think that's evil. Yeah. I think that's just wicked. Okay. Because at the end of the day there is no set amount that you are required to give.
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You want to give one percent? Do it. You want to give ten? Go for it. You want to give more than that? That's between you and God.
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It's none of my business. Each one must give as he's decided in his heart.
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In other words your heart's the governing issue here. Not me. Not the law of God. Not the tithe.
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Right? So well then how are you supposed to afford a private jet?
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We don't. Yeah. I'm driving a 2006 Ford F -250.
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And I'm biting the bullet and buying a new 350 next year. I don't want to do it. But I'm doing it.
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All right. You get the idea. Okay. So coming back then here. So or if you don't tithe and give an offering on top of that then your funds are under God's curse.
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No they're not. Christ became a curse for us on the cross. Christians are not under a curse.
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Full stop. Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. He became a curse for us so that we can be blessed by God.
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That's the whole point. God's not going to curse you. To curse you is to basically say that you're an impenitent sinner.
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All right. Again confusion of law and gospel. Sylvester I used to struggle with a huge guilt over that when we went through tough times financially.
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And so I would then note Sylvester family going through tough times financially you should have had not only no guilt everybody should have felt guilt for not helping you.
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Okay. That's how that works. And I would say one of the things I love about Kongsvinger is that if we are aware that somebody is in financial distress
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Kongsvinger sends them a check. All right. There are people I'm not going to I'm not lying there are people who have never physically set foot in Kongsvinger who have been part of our outreaches for years who've probably sent in just minimal amounts of money who've received more money from Kongsvinger than they've ever paid to Kongsvinger.
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The monastery downstairs. Yeah. You can't hear the singing downstairs. All right. All right.
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We continue then. All right. So I heard Jesse Duplantis say that if you want Jesus to come sooner you have to give what the
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Bible instructs you to give and then give more to quicken. Are you kidding me?
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Jesus is up there you know he's got like he's got one of those fundraising thermometers right? And so you know at the bottom here you know well we've only raised three trillion and before I come back we got to hit the top of the thermometer.
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This is insanity. And Jesse Duplantis is going to be poverty stricken in eternity.
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That's all I can say. Okay. Wow. All right. Let's see here. Isn't that crazy?
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Mary false teachers have so much power it's scary. Yeah. And the reason and here's the thing the the the the power behind a false teacher and remember in the sermon
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I talked about the fact that people deceive us by trying to be our friends.
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They deceive us by saying that they love us or they care about us or they have our best interests in mind and next thing you know we've been robbed blind.
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False teachers come to us under the pretense of I'm here to serve you and tell you about God but the person they're really serving is themselves.
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That's that's the issue. And so the problem is is that those who've been burned by people like that they oftentimes have a hard time trusting any church ever again.
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You know I legitimately know people that we serve who just physically walking onto a church property causes
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PTSD. They have an anxiety attack because of the abuse that they've suffered. So you know and it's it's very tragic but I would note that the existence of a counterfeit always proves the existence of the real thing.
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Always. So and this is why we're called to not believe every spirit but to test the spirits and always compare what people are teaching to God's word.
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Okay. So William Hinton six days ago said ago said disregard
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Roman 7 we are all saved. What? Um Jen I need you to send me the link to that please.
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I would like yeah it can send me the timestamp too because I seem to recall a guy by the name of Andley Stanley who was basically claiming we could take the
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Old Testament and just forget it. No we can't and no we can't disregard
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Roman 7. I do find it fascinating that the independent fundamentalist Baptist Bob Jones is famously quoted as saying that the book of Galatians isn't canonical and it doesn't belong in the scripture.
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But you know and the reason he would say that it's because he's an absolute self -righteous legalist right. Okay so yeah just just saying okay.
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We embrace the scriptures all of them even the ones that make us uncomfortable. Even the ones that are tough to work through.
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Yeah that that's all on purpose so all right. All right did they all go into the promised land? No they didn't.
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Good point Lily. All right so I have friends that stopped going their families Lutheran Church because they were tired of hearing long gospel over and over with with the mentality yeah
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I already know. How do you even address an idea like that? Okay all right so funny that you ask okay.
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So the answer is actually you address it with long gospel. What? Okay so work with me on this one okay.
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So you have the person who is a legalist all right. And it's la la la la la la la la la la la it sounds like you know the
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Smurfs right. And and so he's preaching nothing but law but the thing you never hear is the gospel.
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But here's the here's the sneaky bit about the self -righteous. The self -righteous delusionally think they're pulling it off okay.
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That's the issue you they think they're actually doing the law. And so they think the gospel is baby stuff.
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The gospel is like infantile stuff. That's the stuff that's in your rearview mirror. You never need to hear the gospel again.
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You need to get busy being intentional about cleaning up your act right. All right well here's the issue.
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It's not it you so you know it's super heavy on law and there's no gospel. But is it a properly weighted law?
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No okay and that's that's the sneaky bit there. So the sneaky bit is is that if you were to think of it like you know unjust measures.
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You know we've all seen the you know the accounts and movies of the of the guy who's out there.
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And he's he's you know the people are bringing their crops and they're trading him for money. And he's you know hit one of his scales one of his weights is made out of clay.
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So he's got an unjust weight right. Same thing with the legalist. They're dealing with an unjust weight. So all you got to do is put your thumb on the scale and push really hard okay.
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Because the one thing legalists are afraid of is people figuring out that they're not righteous.
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And so they spend an inordinate amount of time putting paint on the self -righteous facade.
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And so these are the same people who when they're driving to church. And I may or may not have done this as a
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Nazarene. But when they're driving to church okay there you are in the minivan. And by the way minivans for a man to have to drive that's annoying.
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It just is it is sexually degrading okay. And I had the double insult because ours was smurf green.
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Oh you know. No it was a smurf greeny blue thing.
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It was just embarrassing. Okay so there we are where we've packed the family in the minivan.
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I'm annoyed because I don't want to be seen in public driving this thing. And of course the kids do what the kids do.
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You know what they do? They don't get along with each other. Have you noticed that the little people they really go at it.
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And when they do they're really loud okay. So you're in there and you're driving and your wife wants to listen to Abba.
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And you're just no okay. And and so Abba's on the radio.
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You're driving the smurf mobile. The kids are yelling each other. And then the mom decides she's going to get involved and tell the kids to stop yelling.
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You know you need to be quiet or otherwise I'm going to put you in timeout. And so what happens is the father that all this is on the way to church by the way.
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Okay that's the part you got to keep in mind. We're on our way to church. All right so then what happens is the father says something brilliant.
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He goes stop yelling. And everyone goes oh that was abusive.
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Okay all right. So now no one's talking to each other.
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The arctic frost of the nuclear winter has set in inside the minivan. You pull into the church parking lot.
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And no joke there's the parking lot attendants and they're waving at you. They're like the walmart greeters.
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And you get out of your car and someone says how you doing today. You say I'm doing blessed brother.
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I'm the head. I'm not the tail. You are a liar. You're putting on a facade. Okay you get the idea.
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Hang on a second. I'm going to do this and see if this works. There's a way to make this zoom out.
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There that's better. Okay so sorry. Yeah and then you know it's supposed to follow me. Hang on. There we go.
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Let's see if this does this. Yes it does. All right very good. He's doing what is he doing? Why is he holding that finger up?
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Because it has commands. All right so the idea then is is that for the self -righteous what do they need?
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Strip away the facade. You sit there and you go so you really think you're keeping those 10 commandments?
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Really? Let's kind of walk through what's required here. And and then at the you know you basically just take the law.
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Take it to 11. Spinal tap. You know take it to 11. Right and don't give them any quarter.
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And no gospel for them. No gospel at all until they cry uncle. Right and you just you basically sit there and go you are the most self -righteous delusional person ever.
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Scripture says if you say you have no sin you deceive yourself. You are deceiving yourself. You're not keeping this. Give me a break.
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Right and then when they they go then you give them the gospel.
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Right law and gospel. Now what do you do with the person who's the antinomian? They need law and gospel.
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But the the thing is is that they're not listening to the law. So you basically have to sit there and go do you really think that as a
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Christian that Christ sets you free from sin so that you can sin? That you can turn grace into a license? And so what you do is you point out their breaking of the first commandment by their twisting of what the gospel is and its implications by denying the law.
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So what do you do with them? You give them law. Law law law. Focusing in with a laser beam about the fact that the law that they're breaking is the first commandment.
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Okay and then when they whimper and cry you give them the gospel. But what about the person who says you know
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I'm sick and tired of going to church and all that pastor ever does is preach the law and gospel. He tells me
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I'm a sinner. Tells me I can't help myself. Then he tells me about Jesus. I'm bored. Right okay.
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Ah okay. This is a breaking of which commandment? Third. Okay third commandment.
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All right and and here's how the commandment goes. You shall remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean?
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We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching in his word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
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And the person who sits there and says I'm tired of hearing law and gospel. You know what they're doing? They're just tired of being told that they're a sinner.
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Okay that's the thing that they're annoyed at. When do we get on to the part where I don't get to have to hear that anymore? I remember years and years ago when
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I first came here it was some lady who was really offended. She was like three weeks I was three weeks into being the pastor here and she says how many more
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Sundays am I going to have to hear you tell me I'm a sinner? And I just looked at her and said well as soon as you stop sinning
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I'll stop telling you that. She didn't like that one.
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I just you know can't help that you know. If you ain't a sinner you don't need Jesus. Christ died for the ungodly.
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If you're not one of them why are you even here? Do you think Jesus is here to help you give you know instructions on you know life hacks and stuff like that on how you can you know work things out in the kitchen better?
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That's what TikTok's for man and Facebook all right. Jesus isn't here to give you life hacks. He's here to hack your life and show that you're absolutely a sinner and then make him be the solution to your problem.
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So the idea then is that the law and gospel is always the thing that we have to address and when people deviate you find that commandment that bit that they're guilty of and then just take the law unrelentlessly to them.
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That's what you do and then when they repent then you give them the gospel right. So you know also kind of along those lines
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I remember when I first got here there's a couple guys used to sit in the back pew over here.
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I would get nine minutes into my sermon. No joke one of these guys he would pull his arm out and look at his watch and he'd go while I was preaching okay and so he clandestinely asked me to have a meeting with him and another person and he tried to present to me scientific evidence that human beings are incapable of paying attention to a sermon that lasts longer than nine minutes.
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So it's like no the next
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Sunday I preached 10 minutes longer than the previous Sunday after that meeting. So anyway all right so all right let's come back to Jeremiah for a little bit shall we?
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Okay so back in Jeremiah back and let me make sure I get there hang on a second here we were at the end of Jeremiah 2.
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So I'm going to go to Jeremiah 3 and well I spelled it wrong.
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Why does it do that? I hate the fact that it does that. There we go Jeremiah 3. All right backing up just a little bit.
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All right so God said behold I will bring you to judgment for saying I have not sinned. Same today how much you go about changing your way you shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria from it too will come will come away with your hands on your head for the
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Lord Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust you will not prosper by them.
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And then again a little bit of a warning this is a this is a bumpy section of Jeremiah really bawdy in the language.
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So if a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife will he return to her?
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No. Would not that that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers and would you return to me declares
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Yahweh? But here's the interesting thing where human beings would you know where men would say no way okay no way
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Christ says yeah I'll take you back. That's the whole picture then of the bride of Christ.
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The bride of Christ it starts off as a polluted sinful woman and Christ marries her.
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He washes away her sin he he adores her right. So lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see where have you not been ravished by the waysides you've sat awaiting lovers like an
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Arab in the you've polluted the land with your vile whoredom therefore the showers have been withheld and the spring rain has not come yet you have the forehead of a whore and you refuse to be ashamed have you not just now called to me my father you are the friend of my youth will you be angry forever will you be indignant to the end behold you've spoken but you've done all the evil that you could.
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The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah have you seen what she did that faithless one
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Israel how she went up on every hill and under every green tree there and played the whore and I thought after she had has done all of this she'll return to me but she did not return and her treacherous sister
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Judas saw it she saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one
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Israel I had sent her away with the decree of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear but she too went and played the whore because she took her whoredom lightly she polluted the land committing adultery with stone and with tree yet for all of this her treacherous sister
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Judah did not return to me with her whole heart but in pretense declares Yahweh and that's the scary bit is that sometimes you know people give lip service to God they come to church in pretense well the reason why
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I'm really here is because I'm trying to build my network of you know people to kind of do business with I'm looking for my next clientele and so I'll go to church you know there's always people who do stuff like this right so the
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Lord said to me faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah and you'll note that when
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Jeremiah writes these words the northern kingdom is what was he's referring to Israel the northern kingdom has already been taken into captivity they've been scraped out of the promised land and they have been dispersed into the nations and here
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God is saying remember what I did to the northern kingdom what I did to Israel well Judah's worse
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Jews worse than she is right so go and proclaim these words toward the north and say so Jeremiah is now prophesying towards the north which is vacant all right all the
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Jews that were there they're gone long gone all right and say return faithless Israel return declares
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Yahweh and I will not look on you in anger for I am merciful declares Yahweh and I will not be angry forever and so here we get this beautiful picture note that Jeremiah works with law and gospel and so for all of his condemnation of Judah here you also hear repent relent confess your sins recognize who you are what you've done and God promises despite your sins being as outrageous as they are that he will not look on you in anger and that he will be merciful towards you it's beautiful it's absolutely beautiful I mean if Christ can forgive
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David and can forgive Peter he can forgive you right so what does he say only acknowledge your guilt that you've rebelled against Yahweh your
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God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree that you have not obeyed my voice declares
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Yahweh return oh faithless children declares Yahweh for I am your master I will take you one from a city two from a family
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I will bring you to Zion and there's an eschatological promise here bringing you to Zion right that's talking about the the inheritance of the world to come
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I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding and when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land in those days declares
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Yahweh they shall no more say the ark of the covenant of the it shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed it shall not be made again at that time
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Jerusalem shall be called the throne of Yahweh and all the nations shall gather to it to the presence of Yahweh in Jerusalem and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart so again note here the eschatological implications we're getting a glimpse now this this is a prophetic look at the world to come when all the nations stream into the new
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Jerusalem when God sets up his abode in the heavenly Jerusalem that comes down from heaven and God declares that now
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God will make his dwelling place with man right in the nation stream in in those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave to your fathers for a heritage
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I said how I would set you among my sons and give you a pleasant land a heritage most beautiful of all nations and I thought you would call me my father and would not turn from following me surely a treacherous wife leaves her husband you have been treacherous to me oh house of Israel declares
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Yahweh a voice on the bare heights has heard the weeping and the pleading of Israel's sons because they have perverted their way they have forgotten
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Yahweh their God return oh faithless sons I will heal your faithlessness behold we come to you for you are
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Yahweh our God truly the hills are a delusion the orgies on the mountains truly in the
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Lord our God is is the salvation of Israel so yeah it did use that word and yeah that was really going on you'll note in the pagan religions that sexual immorality becomes a part of their religious practices so these were orgies done in the context of worshiping false gods and God says despite that I'll forgive you despite that I will heal you truly
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Yahweh in Yahweh is the salvation of Israel but from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored their flocks their herds their sons their daughters so let us lie down in our shame let our dishonor cover us for we have sinned against Yahweh our
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God we and our fathers from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our
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God but if you return oh Israel declares
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Yahweh to me you should return if you remove your detestable things from my presence and do not waver if you swear as Yahweh lives in truth and justice and in righteousness the nations shall bless themselves in him and in him shall they glory for that says
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Yahweh to the men of Judah and Jerusalem break up your fallow ground so not among thorns circumcise yourselves in the
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Lord remove the foreskin of your hearts oh men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem lest my wrath go forth like fire and burn with none to quench in it because of the evil of your deeds now
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I'll point this out here this is um this is a fascinating thing one of the things we see in the prophets are law commands showing us what
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God requires we heard it in Amos today right Amos said seek the Lord and live but the psalmist says no one seeks for God Paul says no one seeks for God so what's the solution
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Christ sought you Christ came to seek and saved the lost similar thing going on in this passage for thus says
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Yahweh to the men of Judah break up the fallow ground so not among thorns circumcise yourselves to Yahweh remove the foreskin of your hearts oh men of Judah inhabitants of Jerusalem I would note that uh time life has not put out a series on self -surgery so you know you get the idea here there's no do -it -yourself books when it comes to performing surgeries like this and circumcising your heart sounds like something that you doing to yourself could probably be a little bit on the dicey side right so this is another one of those examples where if you know your
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New Testament reference and the fulfillment of this it is super helpful and in Colossians chapter 2 we see that where we fail in circumcising our hearts
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Christ succeeds in a place that a lot of people haven't even considered or when you point it out they sit there and go no right here's what
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Paul says in Colossians 2 see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human traditions according to the elemental spirits of the world not according to Christ for in Christ the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority in him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God and I would note this isn't a metaphor what
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God demands here for the men of Judah to do to circumcise themselves in their hearts
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Christ has done for us in the waters of baptism when we were baptized the hand of Christ circumcised your heart that's what the scripture says and this is a very very comforting and assuring thing where we fail are incapable of doing the thing that God has commanded of us
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Christ does for us so that's the beauty of how the gospel works what God demands
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Christ gives and he's he's met those demands for us all right now I'll check questions just a little bit more and then
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I'm going to have to skedaddle before too long here all right let's see had a hard time find a church that isn't law it's hard to find a church that isn't law and gospel at least
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Lutheran ones they should be law and gospel right do the disciples receive the Holy Spirit book of John before those in Acts so you'll note
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Carmen in the text that we that I quoted from John chapter 20 the disciples received the
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Holy Spirit the ones in the upper room they received the Holy Spirit directly from Christ and then on Acts chapter 2 all of the rest of the disciples who were not present also they received the
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Holy Spirit and things kind of got going there was a lot of there were signs and wonders accompanying the the sending of the
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Holy Spirit at that point but Christ did breathe on them and said receive the Holy Spirit so we recognize that at least the inner core that the the the 11 at that point had received from Christ the the
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Holy Spirit that's I think the right way to do it so Jen says in also in an emergency in an emergency baptism lay person can do that as well absolutely okay so they're you know if you're in a situation where uh there are there's no pastor pastors baptized publicly because that's part of the public office all right but any
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Christian can baptize in an emergency you know you're in a situation where uh you know you've got a relative they they you know you're preaching the gospel to them on their deathbed and they've got 15 minutes to live in the closest pastors an hour away oh no what are we going to do baptize them all right it's real simple grab some water pour it on their head and say
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I baptize you in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit it's not the amount of water that matters it's
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God who does the work so the idea that any Christian can baptize in an emergency and then um
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I would note that it is it in the past I don't know if it's still if it's still the case now but in the past many uh
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NICU nurses uh these are nurses who work in the in the NICU before the neonatal these tiny little preemies that many
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NICU nurses were trained in how to to baptize and um if a a little preemie baby looked like they weren't going to make it oftentimes these
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NICU nurses would baptize those babies with with a with an eyedropper of all things you know that's the only thing they had handy um there was a gal who attended here at Kongsvinger for many years she was baptized in the
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NICU so and in a situation like that what do you do well the next public you know church service you recognize the baptism you know
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Christ does the baptizing period right okay let's see here so if a penitent sinner asks you for forgiveness and you withhold it what happens in my case
59:19
Louise I get defrocked okay I'm breaking my ordination vows so um so um
59:25
I am required by virtue of my ordination vows I must give an absolution to a penitent sinner must if I refuse to absolve the penitent sinner
59:35
I'm going contrary to my vows and that's a defrockable offense same with absolving an impenitent sinner that's contrary to my vows as well so you'll note that that that that's that's how serious it is it is such a serious offense to refuse to uh forgive a penitent that that the the cost for a pastor to do that is to lose his ordination and rightly so okay all right
01:00:05
Deuteronomy 14 all right so biblical potlucks okay that's right yeah you you eat your you eat your tithe and in one of the texts it may be
01:00:14
Deuteronomy 14 it makes it very clear that when you're traveling to the place that God causes his name to dwell and the journey is long you can convert your tithe into money at the beginning of the journey carry it with you and then buy whatever you want okay you can including strong drink that was on the menu by the way don't let the
01:00:32
Norwegians know that but yeah yeah all right let's see Italian food forever and didn't
01:00:39
Paul work he was a tent maker yeah he was Paul was a tent maker and he you know Bryce said I just wanted to okay good all right let's see
01:00:53
Stephen Elliot says I once had a minivan for a rental car for six weeks when I was in Montana for work you get time off of purgatory for having to drive a minivan as a guy
01:01:02
I'm just saying you know it's so it's so degrading anyway
01:01:10
Chuck says could the present -day practice of tithing as a means to procuring the approval of God be equated with the old pagan practice of sacrificing their children to God since children were a resource in that potentially the children could work to better the household
01:01:26
I would be careful with pushing that too far the reason being is that I understand