Amen or A-Woman? Seriously?

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Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture and media from a Reformed perspective.
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Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.
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Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.
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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
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Today is January 4th, 2021 and it is the first program of the new year.
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Looking forward to a great new year, praying that the Lord will lead us through and want to begin by welcoming you.
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If you are a new listener to the program, I kind of want to give you a heads up about what this program is about and what you can expect.
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Coffee with a Calvinist was started last year during the height of the COVID lockdown.
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My name is Pastor Keith Foskey.
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I'm the pastor of Sovereign Grace Family Church in Jacksonville, Florida.
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And this began as a daily opportunity for me to reach out to our congregation and to share some scripture with them, to share words of encouragement, sometimes to share a funny story, sometimes just to reach out and let them know that I was there and I was thinking about them, and to point them to the Bible.
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And over the months, it began to change.
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And as I began to be more adept at doing the program, started adding in some things.
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And now we have the Caffeinated Calvinist Roundtable, where I bring in some friends and we have discussions about subjects, sometimes politics, sometimes pop culture, sometimes things that matter, sometimes things that are just for fun.
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And so this program has a lot of different things in it and a lot of different elements to it.
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It's not any one thing.
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This is why we say it's a daily conversation about scripture, culture, and media.
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And so every day, it's a little bit different.
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So if you're new to the program, I want you to know it's not always the same thing.
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But normally by the title, you can tell what it's about.
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And because we do this every weekday, we only take off the weekends and special holidays.
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There's always something of a variety in our list of things that you can listen to in our programs are usually less than 20 minutes long.
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Also want to take an opportunity to remind you that if you are in the Jacksonville area, that we would love to have you come and visit Sovereign Grace Family Church.
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We are meeting in person.
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We continue to meet in person.
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We only took a couple of weeks off at the height of the COVID pandemic.
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And since then, we have continued to meet in person.
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We have continued to do so.
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We are convinced that the Lord has told us that worship is essential and gathering for worship is important and necessary.
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And so we continue to gather on the Lord's Day, Sunday school at 930 with Brother Andy Montoro.
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Worship service is 1030 a.m.
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in our sanctuary.
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And we would love to have you come visit with us.
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And if you'd like more information about us or the church, you can go to sgfcjax.org.
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That is Sovereign Grace Family Church of Jacksonville, sgfcjax.org.
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And again, my name is Keith Foskey and I'm the pastor of the church.
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If you'd like to hear some sermons to hear what we're about, you can go to our page on Sermon Audio and you can download sermons for the last several years.
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I've been the pastor now for almost 15 years.
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And you can see sermons going back for about 11 years on our program on topics and subjects ranging from all kinds of different subjects.
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And you'll also notice that typically I preach verse by verse.
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Currently, I'm preaching verse by verse through the book of Genesis.
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And I started that back in 2019, took some time off during the height of COVID and some other things to address some relevant topics.
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But ultimately, we've been going strong through the book of Genesis.
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And just this past Sunday, we looked at Genesis chapter 4, verses 1 to 16.
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This week, we will begin in Genesis 4, verse 17.
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And one other thing that we have at the church that I wanted to make mention of is our church hosts a is we call it an academy.
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It is Sovereign Grace Academy, and we we call it Seminary for Every Believer.
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And what it is, it is a two-year program of ministerial training and Bible training for anyone who would like to come and take the classes.
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They are eight-week semesters followed by a four-week independent study where you have the opportunity to write your paper, turn your paper in, and you receive a grade.
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And when you receive a grade, if it is a passing grade, then you receive a certificate for that particular course.
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And if you do the whole two years of the program, you receive at the end of two years a diploma of ministry showing that you have essentially went through the basic training of ministry that we provide at Sovereign Grace Academy.
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The next course that's going to be starting is in this month in January.
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It's on January the 14th, 2021.
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We begin at 630 p.m.
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You do have to apply to be a member of Sovereign Grace Academy.
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You have to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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You have to fill out an application and turn that in and be approved.
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So if you are interested in joining us on January the 14th, then you need to get that application in as soon as you can.
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This class, this term, is going to be a survey of Bible doctrines and our textbook, which you will need to purchase and read the first part of the textbook, part one, is Everyone's a Theologian by Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul.
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It's Everyone's a Theologian, An Introduction to Systematic Theology by Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul.
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So you'll need to purchase that book, read part one, and be ready for the first night of classes.
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And if you have any questions about that, feel free to message me.
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You can email me right here through the podcast at calvinistpodcast at gmail.com.
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Again, that is calvinistpodcast at gmail.com.
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And I'd love to interact with you.
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And if you have a question for the program, something you would like for me to address or something that you would like for our caffeinated Calvinist roundtable to address, you can send a message in and we will read it.
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And if at all possible, we will formulate a program to respond to your question or to deal with it.
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Well, as we kick off 2021 with our first program, I wanted to share with you something that happened during the opening of the hundred and seventeenth Congress, which began with a prayer.
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And I'm going to play you a 13 second clip from this prayer, which ended with a very interesting final word.
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Listen to the how how this prayer, which is being prayed in the halls of Congress, the hundred and seventeenth Congress opened with this prayer.
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Listen to the words of this prayer.
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We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God and God known by many names, by many different faiths.
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A man and a woman.
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All right.
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Just in case you didn't catch it, I'm going to play it again.
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It's only 13 seconds.
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Listen up.
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We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God and God known by many names, by many different faiths.
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A man and a woman.
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We ask it.
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All right.
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So the prayer includes the phrase, we ask this in the name of the monotheistic God.
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And then there is a word that is a little inaudible that the man is wearing a mask.
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So it's his words are a little jumbled.
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And then he goes on to say a man and a woman.
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Now, I want to make mention of something and provide a response to this.
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The first thing is the idea that a man has anything to do with gender demonstrates an absolutely ignorant understanding of what the word a man means and how it is used.
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The word a man is not in regard to a man or a woman.
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And to say a man and a woman demonstrates one, that you are you're so woke that you don't you can't even see past your own nose because you're so blinded by your woke status.
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But the idea that you would use a man and a woman means you don't even understand what the word a man means.
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The word a man is a way of saying so be it or to say something is truly when Jesus would say verily, verily, I say unto thee and the King James Bible that is translated from the phrase.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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It was a phrase which means truly, truly or so let it be.
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And the idea of a man as expressing anything to do with gender is absolute ignorance.
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Even the Webster's Dictionary expresses this truth.
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If you go to a man and the Webster Miriam Webster's Dictionary, it says used to express solemn ratification as of an expression of faith or hearty approval as of an assertion.
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When someone's saying something, you say a man because you agree with it.
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Or if someone says something that is regarding faith, you say a man because you believe it.
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So the idea that this has anything to do with a man or a woman is absolute ignorance.
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And I imagine this man knows this.
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He's probably attempting to be somewhat clever.
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But the question is, what type of clever is he trying to be? Is he trying to be clever by saying, well, we have been part of the patriarchy for way too long.
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And we've been talking about a man, a man, a man.
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And I know it doesn't have to do with men, but we use men too much.
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We need to say a woman.
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And again, this just shows a level of ignorance that is really beyond the pale.
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But I want to make mention of something else, because that is honestly, that's just full bore lunacy.
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That's just outrageous.
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But there's something else that he says at the beginning that I think is being overlooked.
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Listen to this again.
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We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God.
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All claim to be monotheistic.
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Christianity claims to be Trinitarian monotheism.
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Judaism claims Unitarian monotheism and Islam claims Unitarian monotheism.
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And interestingly enough, all three of those religious faiths claim to be worshipping the God of Abraham, though not all three are.
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That is a conversation for another time.
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But if Jesus said very clearly, if you believe in Abraham, then you should believe in him.
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And therefore, he said, if you're not believing in him, then you are not of the faith of Abraham.
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And so I would say and argue that Christianity has the exclusive claim to the faith of Abraham.
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We see this throughout the New Testament, that if you are a Christian, you are following in the footsteps of Abraham.
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The Apostle Paul clearly says that those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are of the faith of Abraham.
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We are actually sons of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ.
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So the point I'm making is this.
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When somebody says, well, I'm praying in the name of the monotheistic God.
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Well, there's only one.
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And it is the triune God of Scripture, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Yahweh, who has demonstrated himself as Trinity in the New Testament, as well as concealed within the Old Testament are references to the Trinity, but expressed very clearly in the New Testament.
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The monotheistic God is the God who has expressed himself as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, not three modes of being, but three persons who are interactive with one another, who are able to love one another and be in fellowship with one another.
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And yet at the same time, they share one being, the one being of Yahweh.
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And so we refer to God as Yahweh or Jehovah, the divine name.
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But in the New Testament, that is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all three persons co-equal, co-eternal and distinct.
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And so we are defining the Trinity as the monotheistic God.
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The modern Jewish nation does not worship the God of Scripture.
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They have abandoned the God of Scripture because he has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ and they have rejected Jesus Christ.
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Muslims do not worship the God of Scripture because they have rejected the full deity of Jesus Christ, as have the Jews and or those who are not messianic Jews.
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Those who say they are non-Christian Jews have rejected the full deity of Jesus Christ.
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The Muslims certainly have rejected the deity of Jesus Christ.
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So when this man says that he's praying in the name of the monotheistic God, in some way he's trying to appease everyone.
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But in reality, he's appeasing no one.
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And he's certainly not appeasing God.
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And I would say this, this prayer is not a prayer that God would receive.
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We talk about sometimes whether or not God hears the prayers of unbelievers.
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And the reality is God hears everything in the sense that he is omnipresent and he is omniscient.
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So there's nothing that he does not know.
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But it's not as if he doesn't hear the prayer, but he does not show regard to faithless prayers.
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Just this past Sunday, I preached on Cain and Abel.
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And it talked about God showed regard for the offering of Abel.
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But for the offering of Cain, he did not show regard for that offering.
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And the reason was, according to Hebrews 11 verse 4, that Cain did not bring his offering in faith.
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But Abel, by faith, brought a better offering or a better sacrifice.
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And so if you're praying in a generic name of a generic monotheistic God, and you're praying the foolishness of all men and all women, you are not praying a legitimate prayer that is being regarded by the God who exists.
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You are praying a foolish prayer that is going out into the air and is accomplishing nothing.
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So I say this to you.
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If you are an American, you should definitely be on your knees praying for your nation.
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Our nation is broken.
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It has abandoned the God of Scripture.
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It has abandoned so much of the foundations upon which we were built.
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And certainly, these types of prayers demonstrate that we have moved away from any semblance of Christianity and into a full-blown sense of paganism in our Congress and in our government.
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We see paganism in the government, and it is a very, very sad state indeed.
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So that is the program for today.
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Something I wanted to share with you came across my desk today and reminded me just how far our nation is from God.
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May we pray that God would send revival.
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And as I say often, when we pray the phrase, God bless America, we should always end that statement with two simple words, with repentance.
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If God is to bless America, it is going to have to be that he blesses us with repentance, because we need to repent from the top down.
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We need to repent in our churches.
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We need to repent in our government.
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We need to repent all throughout our nation.
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And when God sent Jonah to Nineveh, it repented from the top down, and he can do it again.
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So pray God bless America with repentance.
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Thank you for listening today to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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My name is Keith Foskey, and I've been your Calvinist.
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May God bless you.
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May God be with you.