Book of Acts Part 3

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Book of Acts Part 4

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Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pray, and we're gonna get started. John Palletto, I'm assuming you can hear me.

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Yep, that's a good sign. And that's all good. So let's pray, and we're gonna get into our study.

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Lord Jesus, as we open again your word, we ask that your Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, that we may believe correctly and do accordingly through the power of the

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Holy Spirit, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Now, we are working our way through the book of Acts.

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Hang on, I gotta switch. That's right, that's a good point. Yeah, let me pull the old switcheroo.

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All right, hang on a second here. How's that? Better, okay. We've been working our way through the book of Acts.

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And I told you I had some pre -planned bunny trails slash excursuses, excursi, yeah, that, in working in the study.

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And today is going to be the beginning of one of those excursuses. And here's what we're gonna do.

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We do not get an opportunity during the church year in the lectionary to read out

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John 14, 15, and 16. And as a result of it,

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I think a lot of people do not understand what the Holy Spirit is sent to do.

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Jesus spends a lot of time in these chapters explaining the work of the

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Holy Spirit and what he would do and the role he would play. That being the case, you'll note that today's modern -day

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Pentecostals and Charismatics, they would look at Kongsvinger and they would say, oh, there's a church without the

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Holy Spirit. If only they could have a spirit -filled church.

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And by spirit -filled, they mean that we have a praise band, a smoke machine, that we allow people to get up and say,

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I feel the Lord is telling me a suddenly is coming. And for people to get up and say things like, coulda bought a

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Hyundai, shoulda bought a Kia, okay? Don't forget the sexual assault lawsuits. Right. Yeah, we can do without those.

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Okay. Yes, please. So all of that being said, a careful study of what

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Christ says in context when he discusses that he's going to be sending the

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Holy Spirit is going to be imperative because the Holy Spirit is going to do exactly what

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Christ says the Holy Spirit is going to do. And with a careful study of this, we can then get into Acts chapter two and the sending of the

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Holy Spirit, and we are able to proverbially hit the ground running with a proper understanding of what the

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Holy Spirit's going to do. So that being said, not all of what we're gonna be reading in John 14, 15, 16, and maybe a little bit into 17 has to deal with the

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Holy Spirit, but you have to read it in context. So Jesus says, and I believe this is the night that he's going to be betrayed.

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So this is a very long discourse in the Gospel of John. He says to his disciples, let not your hearts be troubled.

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Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would

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I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? So Jesus here is now going to deal with the realities of he's spent three years with these disciples of him, and he spent 33 years on earth, and Jesus's earthly ministry for the purpose of saving the world through his vicarious death, his resurrection, and ascension, all of that is coming to a close, and he's gonna be presented with a kingdom upon his ascension, and things are going to be different.

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So he's not going to be physically, visibly present in the ways that he's been with the disciples for these three years.

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And so he's talking in these terms. The disciples are getting sad, getting despondent, but he's comforting them.

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He's comforting them with several different points. Point number one, he's going to prepare a place for you.

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I love this picture of the carpenter of Nazareth going to prepare a place for them, because you'll note then that there's kind of this idea that when you get to heaven, your apartment, your mansion, whatever it is that you're inheriting,

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Christ the carpenter of Nazareth is the one who's prepared it for you. Beautiful, beautiful picture.

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So if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also.

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And you know the way to where I am going. Now, Thomas speaks up at this point going,

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Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way?

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And then watch Jesus' answer. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my

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Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. And he's talking about the fact that Jesus is God.

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It's not that they've seen the person of the Father. They've seen Christ, who is God in human flesh, and they are deity together, although they are different persons.

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They share the same nature, everything about that. But you're gonna note here, so Jesus, when

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Thomas says, we don't know the way, Jesus says, I am the way. And you'll note in today's day and age, if you were to say this text, part of this text, in mixed company, there is salvation in no one else.

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Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him. What do you think would happen in a conversation in mixed company if you said something like that?

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How dare you, arrogant, you, ah, right? Out comes the verbal vomit and the assaults, right?

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And you will be accused of all kinds of nonsense, of being arrogant, prideful. Are you saying that my

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Hindu neighbor isn't going to heaven because he doesn't believe in Jesus? No, I'm not saying that, Jesus said it, right?

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So you get the idea. Continuing on, Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it's enough for us.

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Jesus said, have I been with you so long? And you still don't know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the

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Father. Again, talking about the fact that they are both the same God. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the

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Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the

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Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the

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Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe on account of the works themselves. So truly, truly,

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I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the

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Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, and that the Father may be glorified in the

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Son, and if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Now, a little bit of a note here.

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Highly tortured text. So, if you were to listen to Bill Johnson, Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, and people like that, okay?

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They will sit there and say, Jesus says we will do greater works than he does, so come over here and let's do a miracle.

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I'm gonna lengthen your leg. Did Jesus say that Christians would do greater signs than he did?

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Greater works, Eragon. That's an important distinction. So let me show you this.

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In John. John 21, let's see here. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

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Okay, it's actually in the preceding chapter. Okay, hang on a second here. Of course,

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I have the context fully on, so let me do this. Here we go. Check this out. John 20, verse 30.

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Jesus did many other, what? Signs.

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Signs. In the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. So when we read in the

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Gospel of John that it says, Jesus says, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, he's not talking about miracles, okay?

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What is the work that Jesus did? He served people. Humbling himself.

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He was servant to all. He preached the good news to them, proclaimed to them that their sins were forgiven, right?

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And so the idea then is that to participate and to do greater works than Jesus is to continue the ministry work of Christ, not the signs and wonders bit.

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You have to make that distinction because in the history of Christianity, so from the time of Christ's ascension until today, how many

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Christians have performed more signs and wonders than Christ? Zero.

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Absolutely zero. John says if they had recorded everything that he'd done, all the books in the world couldn't contain it, okay?

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In the history of humanity, out of all the miracle workers, Moses being a high -water mark of the

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Old Testament, no one even comes close to Christ. How many people did he raise from the dead?

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How many lepers did he cleanse? How many paralytics did he give the ability to walk? You start to see it, and John says what's recorded in the

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Gospels is the tip of the iceberg. It's selected ones, right?

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So then what's then this idea that we will do greater works than Christ?

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Well, a good way to think of it is this way. When Christ finished his earthly ministry, how many

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Christians were there? 120. 120, okay? That's not bad.

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Three years, growth to 120, that's pretty good, okay? When Peter is crucified decades later, how many

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Christians are on planet Earth? A lot, lot more.

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Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds, right? There is a notable -sized church in Rome, and Peter has gone throughout the

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Roman Empire proclaiming Christ and crucified for our sins and him resurrected from the dead, and he an eyewitness.

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The Apostle Paul, how many churches did that guy plant? A lot, okay?

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So we can point to the Apostle Paul, we can point to the Apostle Peter, and we can say those guys did way more works than Jesus did.

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Way more. Not signs and wonders, but way more. And then you think of Christian missionaries throughout the history of the church.

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How about St. Patrick, okay? St. Patrick, he's the guy who went to preach the gospel to the people in the

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Isles of Ireland, right? And at the end of his life, how many Christians are there in that pagan world?

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A lot. So the idea then is that Christ, in this text, is not saying that people are gonna do greater signs and wonders that he did.

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Nobody ever has, in the history of humanity, come close to the signs and wonders in Christ.

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But you're gonna note that in places like Bethel and in the New Apostolic Reformation, they believe that this is talking about signs and wonders.

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And the issue is this, they're not performing them. Intolerable is the word for it.

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Right, and I would note that Christ has already warned us ahead of time that those wackerdoodles will be able to perform great signs and wonders before his return, okay?

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So if we live long enough, we won't even have to imagine it. Could you imagine

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Todd White legitimately performing a miracle and him just sitting there, you know, woo -hoo,

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I'm the best, I'm a giant slayer. You're just like, no, that's the signs and wonders that Christ warned us about to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

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So you'll note then, this text is not about signs and wonders, it's about doing greater works that Jesus did.

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An important thing here, whatever you ask in my name.

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Now, people, because of bad preaching and teaching, they believe that to just tack on at the end of a prayer in Jesus' name means that Jesus is gonna rubber stamp whatever it is that they're asking for, okay?

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Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes -Benz in Jesus' name? And then

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Jesus goes, ka -chunk, there you go. Oh, he got me. Right? That's not how this works.

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That's not what it means to pray in Jesus' name. To pray in Jesus' name is to pray with his authority and according to his will, okay?

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So you'll note that James helps us out tremendously in this regard in his epistle in James chapter four.

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Here's what James writes. What causes quarrels and causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

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You desire, you do not have, so you murder. That makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

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Okay? You covet, you cannot obtain, so you fight and you quarrel.

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And then watch this. You do not have because you do not ask. Prayer is asking, by the way, not decreeing and declaring.

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And then watch this. So then you ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

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You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? So you'll note that the scriptures clearly contradict this idea that you could just pray for whatever you want.

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I pray for a private jet, okay? You know, I got one once.

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It was about this big. Somebody sent me a model of the private jet that Benny Hinn was flying around in.

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They thought that would be funny. I actually thought it was very funny. I prayed for Nast and Martin.

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I have three of them, okay? But they're these Hot Wheels things, okay? So you'll note that just tacking on the end of a prayer in Jesus' name doesn't mean that you're going to get it.

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And that's how the prosperity preachers preach that text. They will say, well, whatever you ask in Jesus' name, believing that you've received it, that's what you're gonna get.

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But they fail to understand to pray in Jesus' name is to pray according to his will. And Jesus taught us to pray what?

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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. People today do not pray that prayer.

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Bill Johnson was recently asked in one of his videos, do we pray in such a way that we ask

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God for things and say, let it be according to your will? Kid you not, Bill Johnson from Bethel says, no, we can't pray that way because to pray,

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Lord, let it be according to your will, he says that means you don't have any faith. But Jesus taught us to pray.

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Thy will be done. Yep. So you're gonna note that there's a lot of bad things floating around out there regarding in his name, but to pray in his name, whatever you ask in his name, is to pray according to his authority, according to his will.

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And if you're asking for something from Jesus so that you can spend it on your sinful passions, James has already said, you're not gonna get that.

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God ain't gonna give it to you. And if somehow you end up with that thing, Satan is the one who gave it to you to harm you, right?

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So whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the

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Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Yes.

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Related to in my name, we greet each other with peace, like Paul's epistles at the beginning, grace, peace, and mercy to you.

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Can we greet each other that same way? Sure, absolutely. You know, caras cararena, yeah, grace and peace and mercy to you.

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Absolutely we can. Okay, so that's not a pastoral office. No, no, no, no. Greeting and salutation.

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No, that's a standard Christian greeting, right? All right, so whatever you ask in my name, this will

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I do. If you ask me anything in my name, according to my will, according to my authority, and I would note that sometimes my prayers for people that I love and care for who are not

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Christians, I will throw God's words right into God's face. I'll say something like, you said in your will, it's not your will, and he should perish.

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Well, this person's perishing. They've wandered away from the faith, or they don't trust in you.

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And so you said if I pray anything in your name, according to your will, that you're gonna do it.

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Well, it's not your will that they perish, so you got a problem, you gotta fix it. You gotta save that person.

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And I've seen people legitimately saved through prayers like that, because God prays.

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God keeps his word. Now, here's the first reference of the Holy Spirit. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

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Now, tereo here does not mean obey. Tereo means to guard, okay?

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So you're gonna note, the way we keep Christ's commandments is what, we guard them, we memorize them, we mark them, we learn them, we're inwardly digest them.

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And when I'm working with my catechism students, we start off our classes with going through the memory work of the 10 commandments.

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That's a way in which we're keeping them. And I would note, many people have shipwrecked their faith by not keeping and guarding the commandments of God.

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Most notably, in the charismatic churches today, they are teaching people to legitimately blaspheme

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God. On one of my recent videos, I broadcast a testimony of a gal who's a former student of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, first year student when she was there, her first encounter regarding prophesying, because Bethel believes you gotta prophesy, she was told by the in -house prophet,

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Chris Vallotton, that she and all of her students in the first year, they needed to, on the spot right now, give a prophecy to the person next to them, despite the fact that none of them had the gift of prophecy.

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And then Chris Vallotton said, now, I know you were probably uncomfortable doing that, the girl confessed that she just made something up.

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Chris Vallotton said, now promise me that you're gonna mess up at least three times this year by giving false prophecies.

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And I would note, Chris Vallotton is not keeping God's commands, all right?

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If I were to ask my students over there, tell me about that second commandment again, Caleb, you guys remember that second commandment?

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Put him on the spot, poor guy. Did the blood leave your body, is it cold in here now?

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I was trying to get, I was telegraphing and giving context clues that this was coming. Maybe Elizabeth can help you.

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Elizabeth, what's that second commandment? That's right, you shall not misuse the name of the

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Lord your God. What does it mean? That we should fear and love God so we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by his name, but call upon him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks, right?

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So that being the case, anybody who gives a false prophecy is taking God's name and using it in vain, they are misusing

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God's name. Thus saith the Lord, y 'all will experience a suddenly, you'll need Kaopectate afterwards, but you'll be experiencing a suddenly, and there'll be a change in the season coming up and things like this, right?

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And I promise a breakthrough, the Lord is telling me that he's sending breakthroughs. That person is breaking the second commandment.

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And you cannot give a false prophecy without breaking that second commandment. And so you'll note then, to keep

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God's commandments is to guard them, to learn them, to know them, so that you recognize what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what

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God has called us to do, what God has warned us not to do, right? So misusing

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God's name and taking it in vain is one of the commandments, and those in the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, do you think for a second, if I were to sit

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Chris Vallotton down and say, hey, dude, right from memory right now, tell me what the 10 commandments are. I would be willing to bet money he wouldn't know them.

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And it shows in his teaching, right? So if you love me, you're gonna guard my commandments, and then watch this, and I will ask the

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Father, and he will give you another helper. So this is the first mention here in this portion of Christ sending the

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Holy Spirit, and he's describing him as a helper, which means y 'all need one. So do I, we need a helper.

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I will, he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even though what?

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Spirit of truth is any lie of the truth. No, when

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Satan is lying, what's he doing? He's speaking his native language, right? Jesus says he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, and when he speaks lies, he's speaking out of his character.

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This is his native language, okay? But the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. Would the

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Holy Spirit ever condone or prompt you to use lies for the purpose of promoting

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Christianity? Never, never. So in the charismatic movement,

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I would note that there are a lot of people telling a whole lot of tall tales, okay? When I, you know,

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I went to the grocery store the other day and I prayed for 50 people while I was in Walmart, and wouldn't you know, Revival broke out and four people who were in those little scooters got up and walked, okay?

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They were leaving the store. Right, okay, they got up and walked. Okay, do you have any evidence to confirm any of this?

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Nope, nobody thought to pull out their cell phone and record a 4K video on their phone of it.

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But it's true, it happened. And then, of course, you know, always cracks me up that at Bethel Church, they have a team called the

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Dead Raisers, okay? And they legitimately made a documentary film about the dead raising team at Bethel.

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How many people have they raised from the dead? Zero. Isn't that the non -dead raising team?

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Okay, so you'll note, the helper is the spirit of truth, not the spirit of lies, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

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You know him for he dwells with you and he will be in you. So first mention here, the

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Holy Spirit's a helper, he's the spirit of truth, he's going to dwell in us, and he's going to be with us, right?

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And how long? Forever, as long as we need him. Christ says, I will not leave you as orphans, yet I will come to you, yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you also will live.

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And in that day, you will know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you, whoever has my commandments and guards them, keeps them, it is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my

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Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him, okay? Now Judas, not

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Iscariot, the other Judas, speaks up and said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

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Jesus answered, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Now it's not just commandments and to lay, now we're going to keep his logos, his word, okay?

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Where's the only place I can go to find the words of Christ? Scripture, the only place.

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And yet there are entire movements in Christian denominations who run down and talk trash about the word of God.

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I was doing some reading and some of the Lutheran theologians during the 1700s and one particular

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Lutheran theologian from the 1700s, he was coming up against a Roman Catholic bishop whose argument was that the church doesn't need the

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Bible, the church just needs tradition and that tradition is a better teacher than the

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Bible. You just sit there and go, wait, what? Okay, and then within certain

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Pentecostal churches, I've done sermon after sermon review of people getting up on their stage and saying things like,

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God doesn't want us to have stale revelation. The Bible is yesterday's revelation.

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God wants you to have fresh bread, hot fresh bread, hot fresh revelation and so we recognize the

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Bible's important but that's yesterday's revelation. We need a revelation from God today.

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A steaming pile of it. Right. The proper response to that is keep your forked tongue behind your teeth.

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Right, so no, right. So Jesus says, if anyone loves me, he will keep, he will guard my word.

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So when somebody is attacking the scriptures, attacking the Bible, am

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I incorrect in saying, I don't think that person loves Christ? Okay, right.

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So if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.

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Whoever does not love me does not keep my words and the word that you hear is not mine but the

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Father's who sent me. So important thing, Jesus, his words, he didn't speak on his own authority while in a state of humiliation.

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He spoke with the authority of the words that the Father gave him. So his words were not his own, they were the

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Father's words and so the person who sits there and be like, we don't need to read our Bibles, we don't need to pay attention to the

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Bible, we just, we need to find out what the Lord is saying right now today, right. Same thing he said 2 ,000 years ago.

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Right, the message is the same, okay. Christianity is the faith once for all delivered to the saints, okay.

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Do we get a different message than Peter? No, do we get a different message than Paul?

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No, do we get a different message than Luke, the author of Luke and Acts? No, we get the same message, the same doctrine, the same faith.

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Christianity does not progress. I'm legitimately working on a segment for my

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YouTube channel that I kept putting off and I've been putting it off for years and I finally decided I think I need to do it and it's going to be a full sermon review of Henry Everson Fosdick's sermon,

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Shall the Fundamentalists Win? And in that sermon he attacks the belief of the virgin birth, legitimately attacks it and he attacks the notion that God created the world in six days and so in his way of thinking and this was his mentality is he said that just like the church of the

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Old Testament had to progress to the newer revelation of the New Testament, God is still speaking and truth is progressing so there used to be a time when human beings believed that the earth was flat and that the earth was the center of the universe and now we know better so that's truth that comes from God so now that Darwin has come along and we know how biology and human reproduction works, we now know what the fuller truth is so we can go back and we can say that when it says in scripture that Christ was born of the

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Virgin Mary and that he was crucified and risen from the dead and that the world was created in six days, we know now from the fuller revelation of God outside of the scriptures in our day, truth has progressed beyond those things and so we don't need to believe those things anymore.

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It's just diabolical. For context, that person was around the same time as Darwin.

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So he was in the early 1920s. Okay, so he was part of what's called the modernist movement. James. They are.

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Yeah. You had your hand up, David. What do you play back with that?

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I mean, you tell them that, well, the Bible's irrelevant because of the new sciences coming in and I said, that's wrong.

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It's keeping up with science. Science is keeping up with the Bible and then they just blow you off.

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Yeah. Is there another punchline you can give them or? I don't even punch them.

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Right? No, I don't. Yeah, careful with your words there. That sounds like a microaggression coming from a white male heterosexual, cis -normed guy.

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Yeah, and that's this, is that scripture constantly points us to scripture and the thing is is that the scripture says of itself that all scriptures

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God breathed is theanoustos and every word of scripture is inspired by God and therefore is infallible and so I find it fascinating that everyone was talking the praises of Darwin for 150 years and then we discovered the

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DNA thing and now we have people who are working on the human genome and stuff and know how DNA works.

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Not a single one of them believes in Darwin. The guys doing the hard lab work on the human genome are saying this didn't evolve.

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Yep. And Jesus says this, again, remind you of the words of Christ from just last week.

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Jesus said to those who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

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Christ's words do not bind us, they set us free and Christ's words are not lies, they are the truth and Jesus himself, and this is one of the things

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I have pointed out to people, especially the liberals and they hate it, is that Jesus himself in several times in the gospels quotes from Genesis chapter one and says that this is the reason why certain things need to be thought of in this particular way, where God created a male and female and created them in the image of God and a man will leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two will become one flesh.

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Christ quotes Genesis one as history. I've pointed that out to postmodern liberals, like men like Tony Jones and Doug Padgett and Tony Jones said to me when

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I said that to him, he said, if Jesus had been born today, he would be an evolutionist. It's just nonsense, this is stubborn obstinacy and a refusal to believe the truth and basically my response to him was,

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Jesus is an eyewitness to the Genesis account because he's the one who said, let there be light. He blocked me after that.

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Yeah, James. Progress from truth to error, from error to another.

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Right, Christianity does not progress at all. So when there is a current scientific theory that contradicts the scripture, let me remind you of what the scripture says about itself.

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Proverbs chapter 30 is a wonderful chapter but there is a particular thing in here.

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Are you ready? Proverbs 30 verse five. Every word of God proves true.

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Does that sound like infallibility to you? Okay, every word of God proves true.

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He's a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words lest he rebuke you and you be found to be a liar.

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If only more people in the church actually read that because people seem to think that because, this is the mentality.

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We live in a free country. I'm allowed to believe whatever I wanna believe.

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I'm allowed to have whatever opinions I wanna have. Great, sure.

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As a Christian, you're not part of a free country. You're part of the kingdom of Christ and your opinions are told to repent and you have to bend the knee to Christ.

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Your opinions have no bearing on truth and when your opinions contradict the scriptures, you're wrong.

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You might have a right in the United States to hold that opinion but you don't have a right to hold it within the kingdom of Christ and especially in this church.

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Every word of God proves true. Do not add to his words lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

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Coming back then. I love how it's provoking thoughts in you guys. The word of God is doing that.

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Whoever does not love me, Jesus says, does not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but the

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Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the helper, the

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Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

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Now, this text oftentimes gets misused too, okay? Note that Christ is not promising you that you're going to remember everything he said.

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How many years did you traipse around the Judean wilderness with Jesus? You didn't traipse around the wilderness with Jesus at all, right?

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So this is a promise that Christ is, this narrow promise here is specifically for the apostles and this has a very important bearing then on the veracity and truthfulness of the

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New Testament. And so you're gonna note, Jesus promised through the agency of the

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Holy Spirit to his disciples who would become his apostles the gift of total recall.

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Yeah, it's a terrible movie by the way. That was just such a, dumb movie, okay? You know, at the end where he's outside, outside, argh, no, it's not.

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I hated that movie. Anyway, yeah, whatever.

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Yeah, I'm sorry, that movie's Gibbety Toilet, just, I'm just saying, it's got no riz.

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So, all right, so note then, he's promising this to the disciples that he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said, watch this, to you.

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That's how we know this is specifically for the apostles. So there's the apostles. Not very long, but in some cases, 10, 15, maybe 20 years after Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension.

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They've been preaching what Christ has done the entire time but we learn from the church fathers. Like for instance,

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Matthew at some point realized that it was gonna be necessary for him to take the message that he's been preaching among the

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Jews and write it down. And so some 20 years after Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, the apostle

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Matthew, the former tax collector, he wrote down the Gospel of Matthew. And it was specifically targeted for a

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Jewish audience and he left that there to continue to instruct them while he traveled to other places.

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And then he eventually died somewhere else, right? So knowing then that the Holy Spirit had given

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Matthew the gift of total recall, can we trust what Matthew wrote regarding what

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Jesus said, did, and taught? Yup, absolutely.

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So you're gonna note then, this then puts a huge stamp of trustworthiness upon the

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New Testament. So they have this gift of total recall and then he says, peace

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I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

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You heard me say to you, I am going away, I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the

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Father for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place so that when it does take place, you may believe.

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I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the

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Father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here, okay?

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So that's the first part, you're gonna note the Holy Spirit has some very important things. He's a helper, he's the spirit of truth, he's going to dwell in you and he's going to give the ability for the apostles to have the gift of total recall as they remember the things that Jesus said and taught them, right?

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Jesus continues, I am the true vine. My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

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Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. So note, we all recognize this metaphor that Jesus is using,

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I'm the vine, you are the branches and being pruned and stuff like that. But right in the middle of it, already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

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What's Jesus' view of the word that he preaches? It's powerful, it's living, it's active, it cleanses people, right?

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So Jesus' view of his own words is insane, right?

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And if it isn't true, then he's a nut job, right? So abide in me and I in you.

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As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you abide in me.

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I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do what?

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Nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers.

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And the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, now we're getting to it.

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How does one abide? Through the word abiding in you.

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If Christ is saying abiding in me requires my words to abide in you, should we ever as Christians just say, eh,

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I don't know, we don't really need to have that much Bible, you know? I know that Pastor Rose, bro, he had a tendency to just prattle on and his sermons were really long and he liked to put a lot of scripture and stuff in it, but now that he's gone, maybe we can get somebody who's a little bit more reasonable, right?

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That's how somebody might argue it, right? Because, I mean, after all, we got important things to do on a

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Sunday afternoon. I mean, the Vikings are playing today, right? That's what

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TiVo's for, by the way, just saying, okay? But if you abide in me and my words abide in you, watch this, ask whatever you wish, it'll be done for you.

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Now, here's the thing, this is another text taken out of context. If Christ's words are abiding in you and you are keeping his commandment and you are keeping his word, would you ever ask for something sinful?

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No, through the word then, the Holy Spirit mortifies our sinful flesh, crucifies its passions, and so the things that we ask

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God for as a result of it changes. It goes from Lord, won't you buy me a

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Mercedes -Benz to Lord, keep me steadfast in your word. Lord, I pray for the salvation of my friends and neighbor.

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I pray that you would protect my pastor from harm and danger, that you would protect us from the wiles and the schemes of the devil.

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Lord, have mercy on me, forgive me my sins. You gotta note, what you wish for changes radically when

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God's word is abiding in you. By this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

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And a disciple's a learner. A disciple is somebody who's learning a curriculum, right?

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That's like saying, I'm a student, well, what are you learning? Ah, well, we don't have any textbooks. I've never heard of a student without textbooks.

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Well, we just talk about whatever comes to our mind. Weren't you given a curriculum to follow?

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What's your homework assignment for next week? Oh, we don't have any of that. Okay, a disciple's a learner.

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So again, note how all of this implies that you're in the word, you're learning the word, you're keeping, you're guarding the word.

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By this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

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Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept the

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Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

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Now, this is where we're gonna stop today. Next week, we'll continue with this excursus. But already, this is starting to shed light then on a proper understanding, what the

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Holy Spirit does and the role then that the word plays in the church and those who love