Do You Think Of The Bible The Way Jesus Did?

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We were singing that song a few songs ago and Psalm 84 10 says for a day in your courts is better than a thousand outside I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my
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God than dwell in the tents of wickedness There was a reason for it verse 11 for the
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Lord. God is a son and a shield the Lord gives grace and glory
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No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly O Lord of hosts How blessed is the man who trusts in you?
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One of the great graces that God has given us is the Word of God There's something in me that likes to defend things part of it is
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I'm a man and God has made me a defender part of it is
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Theologically because God wants those who are elders and pastors to defend his word And we need that these days because all kinds of people have a myriad of beliefs about the
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Bible. Let me give you a few One man said the Bible may be truth, but it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth
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Samuel Butler Another man said if man would follow today the teachings of the
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Old Testament, he would be a criminal If he followed the teachings of the New Testament, he would be insane
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Robert Green Ingersoll another being said this
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Indeed has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden Three verses later the same being said you shall not surely die
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Satan himself But I prefer what the Bible says about the Bible.
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How about these? Is not my word like fire declares the Lord and like a hammer which shatters a rock
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Jeremiah said that The writer of Hebrews said this for the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two -edged literally surgeon scalpel two -edged sword
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Piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart
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Peter said First Peter one for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable
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That is through the living and abiding Word of God Paul said in Ephesians 5 that Christ might sanctify her bride the church having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the
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Word David said thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my
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Path turn to Matthew chapter 5 and I want to show you what Jesus said about his word
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You say where are we going? You'll see momentarily, but I want you to see what
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Jesus said about the word If Jesus knew there was errors in the
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Old Testament But didn't tell us he would be fallible and not the Savior if there were his errors if there were errors in the
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Old Testament But he didn't know about them. He would be less than all -knowing and he couldn't be the
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Savior But if there were no errors in the Old Testament and he acted like there was no errors of the
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Old Testament We would have what we have now and look what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 amazing
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Especially after we've read a tough chapter for scripture reading in 1st Samuel chapter 15
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Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 What does Jesus think about the word and that's going to be really my theme of this whole message today is
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I want you? To have the same thoughts about the Bible that Jesus does That he did on earth and that now he does in heaven
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Do you think about the Bible the same way that Jesus does and if you do it will be worshipful
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It will be right. It will be correct after all Psalm 138 verse 2 and the
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King James says that God has a he set apart and Exalted his word above his name
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Look what Jesus said do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I Did not come to abolish but to fulfill and Then amazing to me.
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He says in verse 18 for truly I say to you unless heaven and earth pass away Not the smallest letter our stroke jot our tittle
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I Ode a literally the smallest letter literally in Greek iota. It's like a little comma almost and Not the smallest letter our stroke shall pass away from the law until all is accomplished not one little tiny in Hebrew We would call that a yode y o d h one little tiny
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Mark, he said it's not going to pass away till everything is done Question how many yodes do you think there were in the
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Old Testament? I think there are little tiny yodes almost like the dot of an eye a little comma Jesus said
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The way I look at the Word of God and the way I want you to look at the Word of God He was saying to his audience and it goes true for us as well.
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One of those little things. Is that important? I loved it and I was in shock and I was in awe to find out that Bengal did a little research
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I think he had a lot of time and he counted how many yodes there were in the Hebrew Scriptures Not one of these will pass away until Jesus does everything that he's supposed to do and the
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Word fulfills all He said in a parallel passage in Luke that the Word of God would not fail
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How many yodes? 600 That'd be pretty good 6 ,000
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That'd be even better. Not one pass away the Word of God in its parts in its whole
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The veracity of the veracity of Scripture its authority its significance not one little yode
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How about 60 ,000? That's pretty good Bengal says that there are quote 66 ,420
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Yodes in the Hebrew Bible and that amazing not one little comma until all is fulfilled a high view of Scripture a
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Worshipful view of Scripture that talks about its authority its sufficiency in love.
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God gave us the Scriptures He didn't have to speak It could have just have been the Sun and the moon and the stars and the moves to speak of the glory of God People say well, you know the
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Old Testament You know Adam and Eve they represented people etc. How about Christ's view of the
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Old Testament? Matthew 19 Jesus said he created them from the beginning and he made them male and female for this cause a man shall leave his
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Father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. He talked about Adam and Eve He talked about Daniel Matthew 24
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Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation that was spoken through Daniel what the
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Prophet? He spoke of Cain and Abel Luke 11 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the house of God Jesus affirmed the
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Old Testament in every way shape and form Well, you know that story about that little localized flood that caused a big problem
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You know that that myth every culture has the myth the myth of Gilgamesh and now it's the myth of Noah's Ark Well, that's not what
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Jesus said Jesus affirmed the story he could have said there was all kinds of mistakes Jesus said
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Luke 17 just as it happened in the days of Noah. So shall it be in the days of the
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Son of Man? Oh, yeah, that one burning bush thing, you know in Exodus 3
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That was way back there with the kind of the God of wrath and it's a different God and how can you have a bush? That burns that doesn't burn.
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What did Jesus say mark 12? But regarding the fact that the dead rise again
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Have you not read in the book of Moses and the passage about the burning bush how God spoke to him?
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Oh, yeah, that one lady. Remember her that big story. She turned into a salt lick lot, you know, it's just it's
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These are stories These are allegories. These don't you can't live underneath this
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On the contrary Jesus said in Luke 17. It was the same as happened in the days of lot They were eating and drinking and buying and selling they were planting and they were building
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He goes on to say several verses later Remember lots wife and he does not say remembers lot was wife, but skip the part about the salt deal
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He affirms it. Oh Yeah that one little story too about how they they would put the snake up on the staff and if you got bit by the poisonous snakes those those figurative allegorical snakes that would
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Figuratively and allegorically bite people and you'd look up to it and you'd be healed Jesus said It's true
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He affirms it John 3 and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness Even so the Son of Man must be lifted up that whoever believes may in him have eternal life
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All that stuff that comes down out of heaven the manna, you know what manna is in Hebrew.
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It means what is this? Stuff's coming out of heaven. What is this? How can that be true yet?
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Jesus affirms every bit of it John 6 our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written
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He gave them bread out of heaven to eat and the one that people don't want to talk about very much.
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How about Jonah? How about Jonah? I love Billy Graham when he said
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I would believe the biblical account of Jonah if the Bible says that Jonah swallowed the fish
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I thought that was pretty good But Jesus affirmed yet Jesus affirmed
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What happened in the book of Jonah? Matthew chapter 12 just as Jonah was in three days was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster
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So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth Jesus has the right view of the
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Old Testament. He has the right view of the New Testament as well And my question to you this morning is what would you say about the
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Bible? What's your view of the scriptures? Let me push a little farther because we at this church
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We believe that they're infallible that they are inerrant that they're sufficient that they're God breathed
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They're inspired that they're the Word of God's we that they're the Word of God. We believe that My question to you as we examine several passages
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Does your Bible reading and your love for the scriptures? Betray your knowledge of what the scriptures are the
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Word of God that sanctifies It saves that upholds that guides or can today we say
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God give us more grace because we do believe the scriptures teach this and our view by practice as we just must not think they're that true and they don't sanctify that much because we don't study the scriptures
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As we are as you know, we've been in a decision -making
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Series and just for review Let's go over those if we pull back the telescope even farther verse by verse through the book of Ephesians And we're up to 517 and 517 says don't be foolish
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But understand what the will of the Lord is and so he's basically trying to tell the church at Ephesus and now us
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To use their minds and not go around doing what they used to do to think differently And that's really what the Christian does.
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That's what I do. That's what you should do is to think differently There's a book written years ago called the scandal of the evangelical mind and you know what the scandal of evangelical mind is
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There's no mind to the evangelical We don't want that Everywhere you look from the worship of God With your heart soul mind and strength to even thinking about life to understand and so we had a decision -making series start several weeks ago
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That stemmed right out of the book of Ephesians and we can answer these out loud let's just review it one more time before we look again to that central component of the
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Word of God and Again, we don't alliterate everything here. Although there's nothing wrong with alliteration matter of fact
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I was reading in Hebrews this week and sometimes even the writer of Hebrews Alliterates the first W there were six
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W's for decision -making and the first one was what what was the W? The will of God and that comes right out of Ephesians 5 17 instead of saying
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God You're here to help me for my life. God's will for my life. It needs to be flipped upside, right?
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Did you get that? It needs to be right side up Sometimes I'll swim out to the lake and they've got these buoys slow down No wake and if kids crawl on those enough and hold on to him enough
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Our adult adults do it kind of gets too much water in there and they sink and they go upside down And so if we're not careful, we will think by nature apart from the
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Spirit of God We will think in a man -centered way in a way that revolves around our own life
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Paul says I want you to think about the will of God and the will of God in Ephesians is this God saves
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God conforms his people to his sons likeness Instead of making the decision. First of all,
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God helped me make my decision step one in decision -making should be this God It's all about you
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It's your plans and I'm I've been bought with the price by your son's precious blood you own me
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I owe you and I will go wherever you call me to go Second W and we do use these in order first W is the will of God Second W is what the
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Word of God? What does the word say? What does the Word of God say? explicitly Implicitly, how can we find the mind of God when we need to make a decision?
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Thirdly if we can't find the answer there in terms of explicitly or implicitly we do what?
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What's in third W? Wisdom we need God's wisdom James tells us to pray for God's wisdom
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Proverbs 11 and 15 tell us go to godly people and get their wisdom So you pray to God for wisdom or you go to others who would give you?
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godly wisdom Third W excuse me fourth W is what? Wish many times in scriptures in the scripture.
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You'll see in Acts 15 and the disciples did what they thought was best Your desires your wishes delight yourself in the
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Lord. He'll give you the desires of your heart What do you wish to do you say to yourself God? I'm about you.
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I'm not about me. I'm trying and by your grace I'm striving to do that. I've examined your word I've got godly counsel and none of those things have intercepted my current thought pattern
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I think this is a good decision and I think you've had it on my heart to do and There's nothing wrong with it.
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It's not sin. It's not gonna make anybody else fall into sin I think it's a good decision. And so you just do what you wish Sometimes you don't have enough information.
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So the fifth W is what? Wait many times we have to wait as God gives us information so we can make a better decision
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And there's something about waiting that really makes you trust the Lord, doesn't it? You were thrown on the mercies of God and the final
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W is what? It's not what it's worship Worship God that we can worship
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God even though we're in a decision -making trial We don't know what to do whether we eat or drink or make a hard decision.
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We can do all for the glory of God So those were the six
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W's by the way, I hope you've got to use them Last week we wanted to focus on this
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Word of God in decision -making We went through the first six W's and they said we need a little more help on the
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Word of God And we saw that God's Word was sufficient. I Could put it this way. Jesus wants you to see
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God's Word as sufficient. How many people started to try to memorize Psalm 19? I Have an overwhelmed how many people last week said that they would what's the difference?
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It's like the pastor who gets up here and says, okay, everybody read 3rd Samuel next week for a church service
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It's very important to do and then the pastor says well, how many read 3rd Samuel and you go? Oh, there's no 3rd
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Samuel But I got all kinds of encouraging emails this week My my wife and and I are memorizing this one man said
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I memorized the entire thing That was on Monday had it all done on Monday Others say I'm I'm trying to memorize it.
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How many should I do per week? I told our kids by the way Let's memorize it as a family So we have those first two verses down of Psalm 19 1 and 2 to see the sufficiency of God's Word You may want to kick me out for this
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I doubt it but I even told my kids I will give you $2 if you memorize Psalm 19 told our kids you read through the
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Bible. We'll give you $100 Why to bribe them, of course Drive them.
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I went through the six W's it seemed to be fine It's doing different than if you say kids
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It's Bible study time You're gonna memorize Psalm 19 Because I've got that mousetrap over your finger.
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And if you say firmament instead of expanse, you're in big trouble No, if you're the husband you say and if you're a single mom or you know with other friends you go
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We're gonna be accountable. We want to memorize God's Word. We want to remember when we walk outside It's God's creation and space isn't a vacuum.
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It's a testimony to God's grace. We're gonna memorize it God's God is so good to us.
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It's exciting Let's do it. And so then the days that you don't feel like doing that your kids say it's time to memorize right dad
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Now if their motives are for the two bucks, then they're for the two bucks But I'll try to hide God's Word in their heart any way
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I can The law of the Lord Psalm 19 we learned last week is perfect restoring the soul
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The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise is simple The precepts of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the
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Lord is pure enlightening the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean and doing forever the judgments of the
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Lord are true. They are righteous altogether in other words God's Word is sufficient God has spoken.
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He hasn't left out something. We need 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 3 says what he is granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness
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Everything we need matter of fact everything in the Greek is emphatic every possible thing we need and I'm so glad for that We live in a truthless society
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But it's no different than the Bible days Isaiah 59 for truth has stumbled in the street
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Isaiah 59 the next verse truth is lacking Jeremiah 7 truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth
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Daniel 8 flinging truth to the ground and And People just want to abandon truth because they realize when they have to come face to face with moral absolutes and truth
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There must be the truth giver that God has given us truth Jesus wants you to see the
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Bible as all sufficient Let me give you something else that Jesus wants you to see the Bible as and that is final and let's turn to Hebrews chapter 1 again today is not
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Straight expository from one passage will expose and exposit the verses as we go there But I want to hammer in before next week's
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Ephesians 5 18 message The Bible should be seen as Christ wants us to see it to help us not only in life
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But decision -making that we have as well Jesus wants you to see the word as sufficient and now he wants you to see the word as final are authoritative
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Once you abandon the complete authority of scriptures, you're in big trouble as a congregation or as a person
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Hebrews chapter 1 The theme of Hebrews 1 is the superiority of Christ Jesus is preeminent and he gives us some of the ways he's preeminent in chapter 1 verses 1 through 4
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Which is one sentence That's my paragraph size One sentence about how great and superior he is and listed right in there.
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He shows these seven ways. He's superior now We're just gonna zip through this just so you can get the idea because it's important to understand
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He's superior because he's an heir of all things. Look at verse 2 of chapter 1 see it tucked in there whom he appointed heir of all things
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Christ is the possessor Christ is the owner. He's been given everything By God the
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Father all authority has been given to me Matthew chapter 28 Matthew 11 all things have been handed over to be by the
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Father all things Jesus owns To show he's also superior.
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Look at the rest of verse 2 through whom also he made the world He's an heir, but he's also the creator.
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Jesus is the creator He's the creator of the world and world means not only those things that are in the world
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It means literally ages the times and the history and the time frame of everything
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Colossians 1 echoes this for by him all things were created by Jesus both in the heavens and on earth
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Jesus is superior He's thirdly superior in verse 3 and he is the radiance of his glory when you see the out shining of God in the
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Transfiguration and the shining forth of his glory and Jesus as he says, I'm the light of the world you get the idea that Jesus is
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God on the inside and occasionally you see that glory of folge out So people can see it
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Verse 3 gives us another reason why Jesus is superior and you say pastor. Where are you going with all this? Hang on He's the exact representation of his nature see that in verse 3
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The Revised Standard Version translates it this way. He bears the very stamp of his nature The stamp our engraving tool our character our imprint of God is
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Christ It's the father's good pleasure for all the fullness of the deity of the
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Godhead to dwell in him He's superior because he has God's essence in nature
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Look at verse 3. Here's another really neat one why Jesus is superior Because in verse 3 he upholds all things by the word of his power
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He takes the universe that he's made but he also upholds it and keeps it going
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Providentially working everything together for our good and his glory throughout time in a sustained way
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Contra Atlas who holds that world on his shoulder Colossians 1 says he's before all things and in him all things hold together
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Well, what's more? This is a very impressive resume verse 3. He's also superior because he's made purification of sins
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I love that word. It's like the word to cauterize. He's made purification for our sins we need that the most and Lastly, why is he superior verse 3?
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He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high If you would go into the Old Testament temples, what would happen?
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They had a lot of different furniture in there But I'll tell you one thing they never had that was a what a chair.
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There was no chair. There was no futon There was no couch why because the day was never done sinners would sin
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They'd have to slay the animals and arrange all the parts and do all that kind of stuff and there was no sitting down But when
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Jesus died and has said it is finished and when he publicly as Romans 3 says made propitiation
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He sat down the work is done. It's figurative language for a job being done. It's also language that says he's exalted
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He has power he has authority Hebrews wants us to know that Jesus is superior
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Now here's your English class quiz You can audit it if you had to diagram
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Hebrews chapter 1 1 2 4 remember diagramming I'll do it backwards. You've got the line here and there subject goes here verb you can put adjectives down here and direct objects and indirect objects to try to figure out what the subject is and what the verb is if You've got a sentence that runs from Hebrews 1 1 2 1 4 all those words and you had to say to me
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Mike in three words, I can tell you the subject and the verb
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What would you tell me you look at all that stuff? It's full of great things I'm not trying to say purifications of sins are not great
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They are exalted but the writer of Hebrews is trying to make a point and he has this point to make There are some
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Hebrews that believe there are some Hebrews that don't believe in Jesus there are some Hebrews that think they better turn the back on Jesus and he's trying to say that Jesus is so great and Something else if you had to diagram the sentence, how would you diagram it?
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by the way If you want to study the Bible one of the best things you could do is buy yourself a little English grammar book or go to one of these college classes go to Quinn Sigmund go to Worcester State go to Assumption wherever you want to go and just enroll in an
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English class because your Bible knowledge will increase Say pastor, okay, that's long enough
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God is the subject Hebrews 1 1 and Hebrews 1 2 when he finally gets there gives us his verb and that is has spoken half spoken if you're
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KJV God has spoken There's ongoing revelation for the
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Jew you can even see it here in Hebrews chapter 1 He spoke long ago to our fathers in the prophets
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Right. He spoke to Abraham. He spoke to Isaac. He spoke to Jacob. He also spoke in the prophets Elijah and Elisha and many portions in in many ways dreams and the room and the
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Thuman and still small voice and through the prophets voices themselves
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But here like a bang out of a starting gun Hebrews doesn't even say grace to you in peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ He doesn't say writing to Timothy a faithful servant
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Paul it's not like Romans Paul called a Call to Christ Jesus, you know called as an apostle bondservant of Christ Jesus.
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It's like Genesis chapter 1, isn't it? God By the way, every 73 words in Hebrews will have that word
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God out of nowhere He just says God not even grace and peace or anything to prove
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God's existence. No, he doesn't do that God spoke long ago to these different kind of people in different ways, but in these last days since he's come and Since he's come down in the incarnation and then he's been raised up from the dead and then ascended in these days between then and now
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God has Spoken you say I don't get it
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It does not say God is speaking God still speaks.
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Of course. Does he speak through his word? Yes, but the point of Hebrews is Everything you need to know about Jesus is found in his word in himself in the
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Apostles writing God has spoken He's done revealing himself in other words the
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Canon is closed for us How about this?
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How about Hebrews chapter 2 go down there just a little bit Furthermore, I know God is no longer speaking because when
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God speaks in these last days in his through his apostolic messengers, there was an
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An unbelievable amount of miracles and signs going on there were Hebrews 2 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation after it was first spoken through the
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Lord What happens? When Apostles speak new words, it was confirmed to us by those who heard
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How God verse 4 testifying also with them both by signs and wonders and by various?
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Miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will Beloved in the context of decision -making
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God has spoken. You don't need to have God tell you anything You don't need a still small voice.
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You don't need an impression You don't need to have God say I'm speaking to you Mike 10 up because a these scriptures are sufficient
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B He's already spoken with finality. You can think of James chapter a Jude chapter
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Well, there's only one chapter in Jude Problem is with these computers. It says Jude chapter 1 verse 3
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Obadiah chapter 1 verse 6 Everything's chapter oriented, but there's no chapters in Jude Jude 3
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Jude says I have the once delivered faith It's been delivered my question to use if you say
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I've got a decision to make and I need God to speak to me or tell me or Impress me or give me a vision.
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I say to you God's Word is first sufficient and second of all authoritative Final did you know?
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Let's make it this way true or false There is a command in the Bible to listen to God outside of his word
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We're not talking about the stars Nothing. Did you know that there's nothing in the
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Bible in 1st Timothy 2nd Timothy and Titus for pastors? To let us know if somebody in the congregation says
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God told me something. It's outside of the word God told me something and Now we have to figure out if he did say it or if he did not say it
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Don't you think that'd be important for the local leadership to know because if God says it we have to do it Gifted assertment doesn't exist any longer in 1st
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Corinthians chapter 12 through 14 because the cannons closed. What do we do? People say yes, but it's happened to me
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We'll get to that in a minute. How about this? Do you know it is rare for God to speak? It is rare for God to speak if you took all the times that God spoke
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To his prophets and to his people and crunched it down into one segment of time How many years do you think that would be?
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I was Carl Sagan. I might say two billion billions and billions 100 years
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He spoke mainly to Moses and Joshua He spoke mainly through Elijah and Elisha and the other prophets at that time and he spoke to Jesus and the
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Apostles those three times Why did he speak during those three times? Well, they were doing the miracles and that was when he was giving the law and the prophets and then the
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New Testament People say well, how about we could do it this way we could reverse it Satan is after me say
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Wow Satan's after you That's a pretty big deal. I mean if Satan was after John MacArthur RC Sproul, I might get that But Satan's after you he can't be everywhere same thing when people say
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God spoke to me Do you know how rare it is for God to speak to people in the Bible? You know, there was 400 years between the end of the famous Italian Prophet Malachi the last book of the
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Bible to Matthew 400 years of silence from Malachi We're not even sure if Malachi is his name
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Malachi just means my servant God rarely speaks and when he does it's with thunder and lightning and fire
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And so now we want to make a decision and we're not sure We don't study our Bibles like we should and then we just kind of do this thing
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Well, God led me God spoke to me. God told me beloved You are denying the sufficiency of Scripture and you're denying its authority and finality.
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It is a closed system J. I. Packer said all the biblical narratives of God's direct communications with men are on the face of it
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Exceptional and the Bible biblical method of personal guidance is quite different Do you know that if you say
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God still speaks to me today outside of the Bible that you deny sola scriptura How about our statement of faith of this church, which is taken from the
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London Baptist Confession of 1689 Which mirrors the Westminster Confession of Faith? Quote the sum total of God's revelation concerning all things essential to his own glory and to the salvation
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And faith and life of men is either explicitly sit down are implicitly contained in the
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Holy Scripture Nothing whether a supposed revelation of the Spirit or man's traditions is ever to be added to Scripture Now we would say we live in a culture where there's a group that says we love the
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Bible and tradition and we reject That there's also a group that says we have The Bible and some kind of mystical experiences.
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Well, then why do we accept that? We can't add that in the canon God has spoken you say but I've experienced it pastor
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Let's go to 2nd Peter chapter 1 and look at that for maybe our final Section today.
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I want you to see Jesus's See the scripture like Jesus does sufficient final and number three
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As something that trumps all experiences
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Christ wants you to see the scriptures as sufficient for everything Authoritative and final nothing to be added.
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And finally if you have an experience we do not say I've experienced something
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Therefore it must be true. The biblical model is the other way I have experienced something and maybe you have but what does the
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Bible say about that experience? This is a great passage 2nd Peter chapter 1 by the way, what's the context you ever jump into a
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Bible? Book you say what's the context and the context is? false teaching
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And you can imagine those false teachers out there saying God told me Because hey, we believe the
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Bible and if the Bible says God told me I want to do it I would hate to disobey God think about think about Saul Saul didn't say
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God forget you. I'm not going to destroy the Amalekites. He did almost all of it but not quite all of it and Beloved I want if I could use
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David Wells's terminology. I want your view of scripture to be
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Biographical what does the Bible teach you? I don't want it to be autobiographical what you have experienced when it comes to God speaking 2nd
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Peter chapter 1 verse 17 for when he received honor and glory talking about Christ from God the
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Father We're at the Mount of Transfiguration It has to be such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory.
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The Father said something to Christ This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased
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Now not all the Apostles were there just three 2nd Peter 1 18 and we the three of us ourselves
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Experiences we heard this utterance Made from heaven when we were there we were with him on the holy mountain
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It's not a holy mountain until Jesus lands on it. Then it becomes holy we saw we heard we experienced the three of us and So we verse 19 we
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Peter and now the readers and now us Have the prophetic word made more sure
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To which you do well to pay attention to as the light shining in a dark place until the heaven dawns and the morning star
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Rises in your heart. Oh, yeah, there's false teachers everywhere God told me this God led me that God gave me this vision
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God told me this impression and they were taking all the flock and running them down to the ground and Peter says hold the phone
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Stop, these false teachers may have had some kind of experience but whatever experience they had a
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It doesn't match our experience seeing Jesus and his effulgent glory at the mountain of transfiguration and be there's something more sure than someone's experience
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What is it the more sure word Can you imagine more sure the lexicons say it means that it can be relied on It does not cause disappointment.
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It is reliable. It has continuity and it is valid over a period of time
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So what's he saying the Bible over experience Every time
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I have my experiences and I have to look through the scriptures Verse 20, but know this first of all that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation
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He's not talking about personal interpretation. He's talking about how God reveals Scripture It's not not the false teachers for no prophecy has ever been made by an act of human will but men moved by the
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Holy Spirit spoke from God Beloved when you want truth don't look on the inside you look at the
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Word of God and analyze the experiences you've had from Scripture say well,
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I Did have an impression? I think God did talk to me. What could it be first of all?
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I can't say it didn't happen to you because I wasn't there but I could say if God's Word is sufficient Why would he if God's Word is final?
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How could he and if God's Word Says that experience is trumped by his word and he we don't need that anymore
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Then could it be as Friesen says? Could it be? Satan could it be a demon could it be human emotions?
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Could it be a hormonal and hormonal imbalance? insomnia medication Upset stomach sinful temptation.
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How can you tell if these things are from God or not? I think we have to use caution, especially beloved at a time like this when the scripture knowledge of most
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Evangelicals is so low that we put well God led me God told me God impressed me
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God spoke to me We put that so high It's one thing if we all really knew our Bibles and evangelicalism and then we had some kind of mystical inward spiritual experiences but now we hardly
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I mean, do you know you are a scholar in Evangelical circles these days and at the top of the list if it's
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I Mean you just go to the I don't even know if I have many more. I do. This is from three weeks ago
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How nice is that? Top 20 hardcovers. I am shocked at the
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Christian gruel that is sold Doesn't mean nothing in these books is good
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But I just looked down the books and I go purpose -driven life wild at heart prayer of Jabez I mean, please and no wonder we say well
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God moved me. God told me when we have the more sure word We have been and we say oh,
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I want to be like Psalm 19 where it's like honey to my lips
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You're going to Dunkin Donuts these days and they have white packs blue packs pink packs and now they got something else if it's a high -tech
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Dunkin Donuts yellow packs They've got show maybe brown packs to now with that raw sugar white sugar raw sugar sweet and low
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What's the blue stuff equal? Aspartame I think they said if you have aspartame you can't your short -term memory goes.
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What's that yellow stuff called again? Splenda they didn't have sweeteners back then and Psalm the psalmist
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David is saying Oh The sweetener to my life is the Word of God. It's like honey.
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That's it. That's what I use Matter of fact Saul was put down as king and David lifted up as king and David was the man after God's own heart that he said it's all about the
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Word of God David well says the heretics of old one suspects would be sick with envy if they knew the easy pickings that can now be had in the church
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When the onslaught of subjectivism is this high and our Bible knowledge is this low beloved even be more careful
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And you can get in a lot of trouble if you say well God impressed me to do something and it's not found anywhere in Scripture The great
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George Whitfield. I love George Whitfield The guy could stand and preach and 6 ,000 people could hear him without any kind of audio help
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George Whitfield said, you know, God told me and gave me an impression that I'm gonna have a boy Didn't have any children.
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He's married and God told me he was going to be a preacher God told me he was going to be named
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John after John the Baptist Jonathan Edwards tried to warn his friend.
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You better not do that. You have to be cautious when you think something is revealed from God First of all,
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God doesn't need to second of all God's done speaking third of all if you take that as from God you're going to be
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Going to obey it or when it doesn't happen. You can have the wrong view of God and God could let you down four months later little boy was born named him
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John and they buried him and Whitfield said
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I misapplied several passages of Scripture Many good souls mistook fancy our faith and imagination for revelation
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Beloved if God speaks to you or talks to you you can't trust it because what if it's from yourself
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If the scripture is sufficient and final and authoritative and over experience Why would we go somewhere else?
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the only reason would be is because it's so much easier than pouring our hearts and our lives into what
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God says and We want to have somebody to say okay. It's okay to make that decision
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Everything is going to be fine. And I love it when
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Edwards was talking to Whitfield about this He later said why would you leave the guidance of the polar star to follow a jack -o' -lantern?
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You have the Word of God and it tells us everything we need to know There's not one thing missing everything that's come to pass as should and it's been fulfilled and sixty -six thousand two hundred forty yodes and God Confirmed that why would we go somewhere else and follow a little jack -o' -lantern?
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Edward says one erroneous principle that which scarce any has proved more mischievous to the present glorious work of God is a notion
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That is God's manner in these days to guide his saints at least some that are more eminent by inspiration or immediate revelation
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God told me God spoke to me beloved Hebrews 1 says God has
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So since he's spoken, I'm gonna give you one more homework assignment.
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Everybody was emailing me this week. I'm studying Psalm 19 I'm going for it. I'm ready.
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So here's your next homework assignment. I Like you to read the book of 1st John every day in the book of July 1st
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John I like you to read it from the same Bible My old pastor taught me this from the same Bible so, you know right down there halfway down as 1st
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John 1 9 and how we're talks about being faithful God's faithfulness and this and that and so you read it from the same
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Bible the same book and I don't want you to read it fast.
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If you say Mike, I only read the first chapter, but I read it for 30 days I want you to read it to meditate
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I want you to read it like Joshua would meditate on scriptures and I want you to go through and if you hit something I can't think of one in 1st
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John, but like in Psalm 19 and their Expanse is declaring
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You go what's an expanse? What's a firmament? I don't know. I got it memorized
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Anyway, heavens are telling the glory of God and their expanse Well the firmament you get yourself a Bible dictionary out and by the way just between us girls you can count this as your devotion time
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Studying what the word means you say I'm gonna figure out what expanse and expanse is like It's like a bowl take a bowl and flip it upside down and God has made this covering over everything that it holds in all the right stuff and gravity and Protects from UV rays and everything else and God's expanse just declares his great glory.
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So you've got your Bible dictionary out You've got your dictionary. You've got all this stuff and you say I'm gonna go through 1st John every day
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You can be like Luther. He said I study my Bible as I gather apples first I shake the whole tree that the ripest might fall then
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I shake each limb and when I have shaken each limb I shake every branch and every twig then I look under every leaf
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How could we do that if we're in the Evelyn Woodhead speed reading class? And we just got to get through 1st
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John because our daily Bible through a year at Mach 11 just is not working So you go.
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All right, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna set time aside. I'm gonna have somebody hold me accountable I'm gonna read through 1st
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John first few times. You're gonna read it. You're gonna go got it Understand five chapters.
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He tells me two different times why he wrote the book. Everything's going there and I go, okay I've got that now first John's all about confession confess sins confess
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Jesus as Lord It's all about love love not the world love of the Christians love God got the book set down I'm ready all of a sudden the sixth day eighth day 20th day you see things in the scripture that you never saw before not because there's some mystical thing because you have not seen it
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In context and you think wow, I've used that verse my entire life and I've taken it out of context. What am I doing?
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It's amazing. It says God is love. It doesn't say love is God. It starts exploding and seeing you think that is so great
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It's like honey. It's like Splenda. It's a better evangelist
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Robert Sumner Wrote the book called the wonder of the Word of God and he he found a man in Kansas City And he had been injured by an explosion.
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You probably know the story, but it's I've heard it a hundred times It's so good. It makes me want to study the Bible His hands were disfigured.
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He couldn't see his face was badly disfigured and he became a Christian by the grace of God He couldn't read the
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Bible He heard about a lady who could read Braille with her lips But he discovered the nerve endings of his lips and they were too damaged so he couldn't figure out the characters
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Like a flash though, he thought
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I can read the Bible using my tongue and he began to read the
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Bible with his tongue And at the time that Sumner wrote the book That talked about this man.
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He had read through the entire Bible with 66 ,000 Yod's Six times when
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Luke thinks something's really cool. He now says to me dad That's sweet That's sweet.
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Let's pray Father thank you for our day -to -day Thank you that your words
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Convict so many times Yet father they produce that peace in us as we become more righteous by your grace, but also the words comfort
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And father, I would love our church starting with myself and the rest of the people father, whatever degree we study now
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Would you by your spirits prompting help us to study? To know your mind better to understand really in a practical way how your words are sufficient they're all we need how you don't speak anymore outside your
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Bible and to be guarded against that and How father we should trust always in you and your word and not on ourselves
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Father we have decisions to make in life Some will have to make huge decisions even this week and I pray that the
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Word of God might be central in those decisions that we make For your glory in Christ's name.