Sermon - The Impossibility & Futility of Knowledge Apart From God

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Praise God. If you would open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, this is our series going verse by verse through this book of wisdom from above, wisdom from God, God's divine revelation,

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His speech to us about what is true and how to live out those truths.

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We've been going verse by verse through the book of Proverbs chapters 1 through 2.

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We're finished now going on to chapter 3, but before we move on to chapter 3, I wanted to sort of summarize and begin to make some application with regard to one of the most important elements of the book of Proverbs and knowledge in general and wisdom in general,

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Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7. We're actually going to read chapter 1 verses 1 through 7.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth.

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Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.

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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for the gift of your word.

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We thank you for the gift of you. We thank you, Lord, that you speak. Your speech is always heard.

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You speak through the created order itself. You've told us that you do that. It's unavoidable.

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Your existence, the knowledge of you, is something that is unavoidable.

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It is poured out day and night upon all of your creatures. Everything in your world, your good world, testifies,

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Lord, to you. And so we give you praise, but you've not only spoken, Lord, through the created order, you've spoken specially in history to your people, through your prophets, and supremely,

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God, you have spoken, Lord Jesus, you in the incarnation, taking on flesh, walking among us, instructing us, teaching us, giving us your truth.

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You are the way, the truth, and the life, Lord Jesus. No one comes to the Father but by you, and so we trust you.

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God, speak through your word today. Work through the proclamation of the word by your spirit today,

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God. In Jesus' name, amen. So wisdom from above, the difference between knowledge and wisdom is important, but there's some ways that that sort of distinction isn't up front and center throughout the book of Proverbs.

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Sometimes it's used interchangeably in terms of you can't really know how to apply something unless you know the truth itself, because knowledge is the foundation of wisdom itself.

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And in chapter one, the book opens up with some pretty bold claims, some fundamental claims about wisdom and instruction, words of insight.

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There are so many bold claims in the first two chapters, and we have to actually, I think, unpack what this means beyond just the study of the particular words as we've done, as we've moved through chapters one and two.

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What does this mean? If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, what does it mean out there in the world?

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What does it mean at home tonight? What does it mean when you wake up in the morning? What does it mean in your relationships, in your job, and what you're building for?

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What does it mean the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge? Does that touch academics? Does it touch education?

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Does it touch media, journalism? Does it touch the arts? Does it touch storytelling?

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Does it touch just the basic everyday life of relationships with one another?

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Does it touch the question of morality? Does it touch the question of justice and righteousness?

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Does it touch the question of law, order, and society? And the answer is, yes, the fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Notice how that's put as we think about the implications of what we've been studying and all the promises that come along with it, the implications of it.

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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's not the middle, not the end. It's the beginning of knowledge. It's a bold claim coming from the word of God.

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And I've tried to remind us as Christians that sometimes we see bold claims in scripture, some pretty audacious from a human perspective, audacious claims in scripture.

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And at times, we sort of just, we accept it, but we don't think about the implications. We don't think about where the roots go down and what it'll begin to produce if we actually believe that, that the fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of knowledge. That's all -encompassing. You understand that, Christian?

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You understand that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge is one of those unacceptable

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Christian claims today. Why? Because we're not saying the fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of knowledge for Christians. Between our ears and in between these walls, that's where we want to fear

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God, and that's where Christian knowledge is. The claims that we make are spiritual claims.

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Like this book is for Christians, and so this stuff is for us in our small little group. No, that's not what's happening here.

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This is divine revelation. These are the words of God. Scripture says that this is theanoustos.

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It is breathed out by God. So the revelation of God here in this wisdom from above is that you don't even really start the process of knowing anything at all apart from fear of God.

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There's knowledge claims made every single day, every moment, every second, all over the world.

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People are claiming right now to know things, to have skill in living. It ought to be done this way.

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Just think about just the last week, just the last week, if you pay attention to the news, which you probably shouldn't, if you listen to media, if you watch the people who are in leadership, if you watch the people who are in power, if you watch the people who are to be respected, you see them daily making claims about what is right, what is good, what is true, what is beautiful, what is lovely.

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And this touches on everything. This is an all -encompassing claim. And so I wanted to do this message.

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I was tempted just to get right into three. I wanted to do this message to say, no, this is really the main thing.

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This is the foundation. This is the grounding. This is the grounding when it comes to theological disputes.

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You understand that? Theological disputes. How do I know when we talk about things like Sola Scriptura?

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I mean, the essence of Sola Scriptura is this, isn't it? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

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You want to know how to apply, skillfully apply, Christian truth and wisdom? You want to know what truth is?

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What did God say? God is the reference point. When we talk about that foundational thing in terms of the theological disputes, it's fear of God, not fear of man.

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It's respect of man and the church when they are acting in and parallel with the truth of God given in Scripture, but we say the word of God is the foundation.

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This is the very starting point of all of it. We first have to say, what has God said? I yield to God.

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And when it comes to not just theological disputes, but every other dispute in the world, it's going to come down to this, fear of God.

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First, yielding to Him. First, being in awe of God. Starting there, what does

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God say? What has He revealed about Himself in this world and myself? It's foundational to everything.

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Think about some of the claims. Let's review just quickly. The first four verses here. Wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth.

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That's what you get with the wisdom from above, God's wisdom.

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And it's the fear of the Lord that's the beginning of that, not the middle, not the end, it's the beginning. And the

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Bible says you're a fool if you despise wisdom. What wisdom? God's wisdom.

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God's wisdom. You're a fool if you despise God's wisdom and correction or instruction.

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So there's the fear of the Lord is the beginning, and then you are classified as a fool. Remember, we've talked about this.

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When the Bible uses the term fool, it uses it actually a lot in Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament.

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It's not the typical sort of name -calling and jabbing that we would say on the street.

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Fool, just trying to cut somebody down. It's actually a moral indictment.

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Fool in Scripture is a sin. It's a moral indictment upon a person who refuses to use their image -bearing mind in a way that is consistent, that is pleasing to God, that yields to God.

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You're a fool. If you despise wisdom and correction, who's wisdom? Any wisdom?

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The wisdom from God's knowledge. Now, more is said here in just the first chapter.

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If you look at chapter 1, there are some promises about God's wisdom. There's a foundation of the fear of the

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Lord as the beginning of it all. And in verses 28 through 29, it says, wisdom is going to respond to the scoffer and to the fool who refuses to listen to wisdom, to God, actually.

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And in verse 28, it says, then they will call upon me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but will not find me.

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Remember that. This is powerful. I hope it took root in all of us, me too, that wisdom is crying out in that chapter in the marketplace to everybody, begging, pleading, listen,

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I'll bless you, please. And everyone says, no, no, I don't want the wisdom, no. Go my own way. I'll stay on my path.

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And then what the return answer is, is when the day of your calamity comes, because you wouldn't listen, because you lived your own way, because you chose darkness over light,

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I'm summarizing here, what's going to happen is when your calamity comes, God says, I won't answer you.

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When I was crying out in the marketplaces and you weren't listening, you wouldn't respond, I'll do the same.

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When your calamity comes, I'm not going to listen. I won't respond. And then it says this in verse 29, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the

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Lord. Did you catch that? This happens actually a few times in the book of Proverbs.

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It says some things about lost people. It says some things about those who are dead spiritually.

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We know scripture teaches that. It says about people who are on that wrong path, the unrighteous, the wicked, who are ready to spring and shed blood.

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It says things about them like they hate knowledge. They did not choose the fear of the

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Lord. OK, so there's the camps. That's it. There's your camps. There's the person over here that actually hates knowledge.

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They act like they love it. They act like they know things. They act like they're wise. God says, fool.

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You actually, in your rebellion, you hate it. You don't want to know.

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You hate knowledge. You despise it. You don't choose the fear of God, which is the beginning of knowledge.

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And so you actually hate knowledge. You hate your own soul. And God even says further along here, you've probably heard it a lot lately, those who hate me love death.

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That's in the Proverbs as well. So God describes the person who will not submit to fear of God.

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They won't submit to his wisdom. They won't yield to God. He describes them as people who actually hate knowledge.

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You don't want to know. You actually love death. You hate me.

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You love death. These are some bold claims. And just catch this for a moment.

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This is the thing. Don't let it pass you by. These are some bold claims, some big claims coming from the word of God.

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Think about what this is saying. God's the reference point. God's the foundation. It's God, God, God.

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And God, watch this, he isn't defending himself here. When God makes these claims about those who hate him, love death, and these people who refuse to fear him actually hate knowledge, he doesn't feel that he needs to provide a defense for his position.

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God just speaks it. It's just the truth. It's coming from God. He doesn't ask to come into a courtroom with you and to debate the issue.

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God doesn't ask for a moderator and two tables to say, I'll sit down with you, and I'll make my case.

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God's authority is self -attesting. God is God, and we're not.

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And you notice how when God makes these claims about truth and knowledge and wisdom, God isn't asking for a moderator to have a debate.

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He's not going to give you the line of evidence that you will look at to find acceptable as to whether or not you'll accept

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God's authority over knowledge and truth. God just makes the claim. Here it is. The fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of knowledge. If you want to know, if you want to have true knowledge, justifiable knowledge, knowledge that leads to light and peace and blessing and justice and righteousness, you have to fear

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God. And that is fundamental and foundational. Chapter 2, verse 6, we talked about this promise.

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For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

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He's a shield to those who walk in integrity. The Lord gives wisdom.

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From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. And there's a million ways to apply this.

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I want to know. I don't understand how to live. I want to be a better husband. I want to be a better wife.

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I want to live in a godly way. I want to be a better business owner. I want to be a better ruler in whatever capacity.

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I want to be a better artist. I want to do everything to the glory of God. I want to just do all these things.

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But I don't know how. Scripture says wisdom comes from God's mouth, knowledge and understanding from him.

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And so we live in a world today where it's a foreign concept. Isn't it today?

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Isn't it foreign today? Out there in the marketplace of ideas, out there in the public square, isn't it foreign to have somebody come in to say, well, why don't we open our

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Bibles here and say, how do we do this? Isn't that foreign? Now, so much can change in very short periods of time, which is why

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Christians need to constantly give back to the fundamentals, to the essentials, to know what the

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Bible says, to be able to defend these things. Because you can see, in our culture and society today, just where we live, in our communities around us, how quickly

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Christian truth and God's wisdom can be lost and ultimately despised in the marketplace.

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Despised, right? Can you imagine today some congressman opening their

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Bible, going up to try to determine what to do, to go left or right, up or down? And a congressman opens the

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Bible and starts saying, well, let's check with God because wisdom and knowledge, understanding and insight come from his mouth.

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So let's see what God's word has to say about this. How would that go today? Right? People would start crying out, what?

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That's a theocracy. That is, of course, in Christian history, when the gospel has transformed nations and cultures, what it inevitably led to is, look, if we want to be knowledgeable, if we want to be wise people, if we want to build something not on sand, we have to start with God's revelation of himself.

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We have to start there. And Scripture says knowledge and wisdom comes from God's mouth. More, in terms of the blessings, in chapter 2, verses 9 through 10, it says, then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity every good path.

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So important for today because you can't escape this. I know I've been hashing it out a lot because the words are in the text.

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You can't escape this. We're in God's world. He built this place. He's God, and he's sovereign over it.

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And so there's no escape from the fact that people who are made in his image are going to be asking about righteousness, justice, and equity.

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Because even if you hate God, you despise God, you will still be in his image. And you'll still be living in his world.

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And you're still going to feel the weight of injustice and unrighteousness. And you're going to try to find out, how do we actually establish justice and righteousness?

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Only you'll try to find it out apart from God. You'll try to find it out not listening to his wisdom or words from his mouth.

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But Scripture says, here's what wisdom will bring to the world. Justice, righteousness, and equity.

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How do you get there? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Now, final word on this part in terms of the blessings and foundation.

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Proverbs 1 .7. Let's do it together. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

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Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Foundational.

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It's everything. It's true for your families when you go home. It's true in your relationship between one another.

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It's true for us as a church body as we live in such a way to glorify God and to work in the world, leaving a legacy for Christ.

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It's true everywhere. And I wanted to say, this truth is everywhere.

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It's thematic throughout the entire Bible. And the Bible actually begins with this.

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So here's what I'm saying. Proverbs 1 .7 gives us an application truth that to truly know and be wise, we must fear

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God. The fear of God is the starting point. And the Bible actually starts with that story.

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That's how it starts. You know the story. Let's rehearse it for a moment with each other. Again, this is all about putting this in picture form and being able to give an understanding to others beyond your pastor articulating it to you.

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The Bible opens up with a lack of fear of God in the garden because what took place?

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God created everything. He created the world, the universe. He filled the world with beautiful things.

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And then God creates His image in the garden, male and female. In the image of God, He created them.

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And God actually tells them, this is why I made you. Here's what I want you to do. Go, be fruitful, multiply.

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Take dominion. God's telling them, beautify my creation. They're the image of the

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God who made all this. And that's what makes them so distinct. Like what makes

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Adam and Eve different than the snails, the horses, the rocks, the dogs? What makes

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Adam and Eve different than the water evaporating? What makes Adam and Eve so distinct?

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This, they're in the Imago Dei. How important is that? That's everything.

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God does something so unique that I admit, I confess, I confess, I can't even begin to understand the glories of it.

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I can give you parts and pieces, but I can't tap that truth out. What it means to be in the image of the

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God who is eternal, none above Him, none below Him. He is the transcendent

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God. He is yet imminent. He is everlasting. He is the standard of all righteousness.

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He answers to nobody. What is righteous and just is what is consistent with His own character.

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He doesn't appeal to anything above Him. If you were to say, God, how do you know that's true?

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The answer would come from within God. He wouldn't appeal to something outside of Himself.

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He wouldn't say, like in Mormonism, well, I had a daddy God before me who had a daddy

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God before Him, and they told me and taught me, and through progression, I came to understand that this is actually true.

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That's a false God. The line will go back and back and back. It never lands anywhere that's a foundation.

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That's not who God is. He's the everlasting God, and He creates His image in the garden that is unique and special and glorious in its own way.

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And what's He do? Rehearse the story. He says, you're to do this. Here's why I made you.

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And then He says, you can do this, but not that. He says, the day you do this, you'll die.

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So this, but not that. People have said, theologians have argued over the centuries, discussed this.

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Was there some magical thing about the tree? Answer is no. I mean, it's a rudimentary human experience.

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I mean, they're naked, for goodness sakes. They appear in a garden. God's made it all. And all

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He does is a rudimentary, like it's blessing and curse. You do this, and here's what happens to you if you do that.

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Now Satan comes along, and here's another voice. Here's the voice of God. He's God. He comes in and says, here's what's gonna happen.

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Satan comes in, and he says, hath God said? Did he really? No, you won't die.

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You'll be like God, knowing good and evil. In other words, determining for yourself what is good and what is evil.

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You'll be the decider. You'll determine. And so here's all these voices. Here's the voice of God.

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Here's the voice of the devil. And then the, I imagine, internal monologue of Adam and Eve.

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Like, who do I believe? I mean, how does God know? Like, he just made this place. Is he sure?

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I mean, shouldn't we cross -examine him to ask how he actually knows that? I mean, here's this thing that he made.

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God made this creature, too. And this creature's saying, no, it's actually gonna be like this. And so how should

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I decide this, right? Is God trying to keep something good from me?

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I mean, what exactly is the thing here? And so what, listen, what should

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Adam and Eve have done? What was their moral ought in terms of making the decision about eating the fruit or not?

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What ought they to have done? Fear God. Because it was a question about knowledge.

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How do you know? Wisdom is wrapped up in there. How should you live in God's world?

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And fear of God is all over that first moment in the beginning of creation.

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Fear of God. What should Adam and Eve have done? They should have feared God. They should have resisted the serpent.

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They should have resisted the accuser. They should have resisted and said, no, God said.

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And that settles it. I'm standing on God, I'm gonna obey God. The answer is no, because God said.

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God is the very foundation and the source. And we found out at the beginning where a lack of fear of God takes us.

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So God's revelation was to be the foundation. They didn't fear God in the beginning.

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And we know in scripture, and you guys can turn here if you like, I'm gonna go rather quickly through it, in terms of how does this work out?

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A lack of fear of God, not wanting God's knowledge. Romans chapter one.

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So again, today's a little different than just working verse by verse through the text. I'm gonna make some application and connections to the rest of scripture.

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Where's this lead? Chapter one of Romans, famous section, you know this. Verse 18, it says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

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For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.

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So they are without excuse. They have no defense. In other words, what's the claim here?

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Everybody knows God. The light of God and the evidence of God is so clear in testifying to every single person.

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Everybody knows God to the degree that on the last day and in their judgment, they are left without a defense, without an apologia, apologia.

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Without, they are unapologetus. They don't have a defense. Here it is, watch.

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Verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking.

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See, they know him, but they don't want him in their knowledge. They don't wanna know him.

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And so they become futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be, what's the word?

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Wise. See, they know God, but they don't want God in their knowledge. They don't wanna know him.

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They don't want God's truth. They don't want God's knowledge. They can't defend themselves. God's clear to every single one of us.

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And so what happens is their hearts are darkened and it says they claim to be wise and they became, what?

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Fools. Exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

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In other words, they hate knowledge. They actually hate knowledge.

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They become fools. You seeing a theme here? It's thematic throughout scripture. You don't want God's knowledge.

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You don't want God as the source and foundation of all wisdom and truth. It's not like you're gonna not look for it now.

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Now your heart will be darkened. You'll become a fool. You'll hate knowledge and it all stems from what?

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No fear of God. I don't want God in my thinking. I want some other God in his place. And so what is the problem of all of humanity?

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It's wrapped up in this problem is that we choose to worship and serve the creature rather than the creator.

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We despise God's truth and God's knowledge and we reject his truth. We won't fear God and it leads to an unraveling of creation.

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You can continue to read Romans chapter one to see how creation itself unravels. God's purpose is unraveled.

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But just a quick glance. Move to Romans three. Notice how the apostle

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Paul summarizes. I think it's important. Notice how he summarizes the universal fallenness of mankind.

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Look what he anchors the very end of it on. As he takes those

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Katina verses from the Old Testament, pulls them together to describe the sinfulness of all humanity and how we're lost and we have no hope outside of Christ and the gift of eternal life through him.

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Notice how it starts. You all know it. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands.

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No one what? No one seeks for God. But look at that.

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No one understands. What does God promise in wisdom from above in the book of Proverbs?

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What does he say about understanding? Wisdom and knowledge. Where does it come from?

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God's what? Mouth. God's mouth. From his mouth come wisdom and understanding.

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And it says here that no one is righteous. No, not one. No one understands.

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No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good.

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Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.

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Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.

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Where'd you hear that before? Where'd you hear that before? Proverbs. Do you see where Paul is aiming?

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Knowledge of God, wisdom of God, understanding of God. You reject God. All of creation unravels.

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Your humanity is distorted. You become a fool. You don't really know anything.

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You have no understanding. And Paul says it leads to this, your paths. Your feet are swift to shed blood.

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In their paths are ruin and misery. Where'd you hear that before? Proverbs chapters one and two.

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Remember everything about the path of the righteous, the path of the wise, the path of the one who fears

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God, and then the other path where there is darkness, there is bloodshed. All of that, it's all summarized here and it has everything to do with the knowledge of God.

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And it says, and the way of peace they have not known. How does he end it, everyone? There is no what?

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Fear of God before their eyes. Fundamental problem of humanity, no fear of God.

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By the way, as we move on, and I'm gonna try to bring some people up here to do something, to put a pin on this in a picture.

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Can we all confess this? My sins in marriage, my sins as a father, my sins as a pastor, my sins as a friend, my sins will all fundamentally really start and be rooted in what?

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In that moment, I don't fear God, right?

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Think about it, if I'm holding on to bitterness, I'm in a relationship conflict with somebody,

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I'm holding on to bitterness, I'm being prideful, I don't want this conflict to end,

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I'm like doing everything I can to continue it. You know, you've been there before, don't pretend like you haven't, right? You're holding on to it, you're holding on to it, you won't let go, you're being prideful, you're saying it's all on them, it's all on them.

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You will not forgive as Christ commands. How many times, Jesus? Seven times?

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70 times seven, over and over. Forgive as God and Christ has forgiven you and you won't do it even as someone who loves

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Jesus, that moment you're just warring against God's truth even, you're trying to hold on to bitterness.

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Fundamentally, how come I won't yield to the scriptures and what God says about forgiveness? How come?

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Because in that moment, I don't fear God. I don't fear his, I don't fear God, I don't fear him as judge,

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I don't fear God. Even knowing his truth, fear of God. How come? Kids, disobeying parents, right?

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Parents say, don't do this and you do it anyway. Ultimately in that moment, what's truly being revealed?

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Think about it. Every time, I don't fear God. The person that falls prey to lust, pornography, adultery, well,

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I'm by myself, no one's seeing this, right? What's that mean? You think you're alone.

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You think God's omnipresence has somehow just dissipated in your moments of lust and sin and adultery, whatever the case may be.

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You think God disappears? What's really true about that moment? I do not fear

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God. In that moment, I don't. Fear of God is the foundation.

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By the way, this is thematic, again, through scripture. This truth, that God is the foundation.

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Here's what I'm getting us to see today. You leave here with this, you're gonna get everything. God is the center point. God is the reference point.

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God is the foundation. You fear God, submit to God, to his truth, you yield to him.

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What does God say? What's his knowledge? What's his wisdom? We yield to him.

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It's throughout scripture. We could do this for days, but I'm gonna just show you it in Jesus, in terms of the root, the ground, the foundation being

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God's own revelation. That's the source of knowledge. That's the source of wisdom.

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Jesus did it in Matthew chapter seven, 24 through 29.

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It's the famous scene. Matthew seven, sorry, Matthew seven. Matthew seven,

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Sermon on the Mount. 24 through 29, Jesus says, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the what?

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Rock, on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house.

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But it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man, there it is again, who built his house on the sand.

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And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

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Notice, very important, I'm gonna read the next verse, but don't go there yet. Notice that Jesus says, my words does them.

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You'll be like this rock. My words do them, you're on a rock.

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The storms of life can come, the bitterness can fall, everything can whip against that house, and you are on a rock.

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My words. He says the foolish one will not listen to my words.

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They will not build upon that. And so they build upon sand, and God says the destruction, the ruin is great.

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Now notice the response of the crowds, here it is. What did they hear when

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Jesus said this? Verse 28, and when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.

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They were astonished, for, here it is, he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

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Jesus is coming in with some bold claims. I think we just take it for granted at times, because as Christians we know who

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Jesus is. The things that Jesus says, if they are not true, he's a madman.

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Be honest about that. It's the old thing, Lord, liar, lunatic. There's good truth in that.

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Think about it. Jesus claimed to be God. Jesus received worship. Jesus forgave sins.

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Jesus said, all of life is summed up in this. You build upon the rock of my word.

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You do what I say, or you're destroyed. Who says that? Like, think about it for a second, not

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Jesus. Jeff Durbin comes to you and says, everybody, if you not build your house, your lives upon the words of Jeff Durbin, you will be building on sinking sand.

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I hope you all would stand up and then walk out, right?

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You would need to, because that's insane if it's not true.

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And they recognized it immediately. They were astonished. They're saying, he's teaching like somebody who has authority.

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Not only the scribes, who are sort of basing their authoritative teachings off of this teaching of this old rabbi and this truth that's been passed down to us and this and this.

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Jesus is teaching them as the one with authority. You build your life upon the rock, my words, my teachings.

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If you don't, it's destruction. So again, this is thematic. God is the reference point.

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God's the one who reveals himself and God doesn't argue with you to accept his authority.

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He just gives it. Self -attesting. Now, you see it again in Luke 16, 31.

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Just quickly, I'll just refer you to it. Luke 16, 31 is the rich man Lazarus. You know that story, right?

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He's like, oh, if you would just send someone back, if you would just send someone back to tell my family about this awful place.

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And what's the word that comes to the man who's in torment? What is it? They have

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Moses and the prophets. If they won't listen to them, they're not listening if someone comes back from the dead.

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In other words, the miracle and sign of resurrection isn't gonna convince the person who has already lost and, are you ready, refuses to accept

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God's revelation and self -disclosure that he's already given. Think about it.

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The guy's in torment. Send somebody back. Warn them about this place. And what's the word?

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They got Moses and the prophets. What's that mean? God's already spoken. If they're not gonna accept what

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God has already said, then they're not gonna believe if somebody rises from the dead. So what's the reference point there?

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The word of God, the revelation of God. Are we seeing a theme? It's a theme. The road to Emmaus, Luke 24, 13 through 35.

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You know the story. Jesus, after the resurrection, on the road to Emmaus. Disciples are all confused and sad saps.

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And then Jesus finally confronts them. And what does he say to them? He says, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

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In other words, you were supposed to know this. Why are you so confused? This isn't a novelty.

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This isn't something that should be a surprise to you. Why are you so surprised? And he calls them foolish.

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Slow of heart to believe. What? God's revelation. God already spoke. Again, it's thematic.

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God is the reference point. His self -disclosure is the reference point. That's gonna be key when we talk about some of the amazing truths in the book of Proverbs.

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But just quickly, in Paul, Colossians.

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I'm drinking a lot of water today. It's hot. I'm wearing this jacket, by the way.

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I wore, just a little insight. I wore this today. I was like, I'll wear a nice dress shirt and nothing else, because it's gonna be so hot.

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And then I drove here. And it looked like I was on a slip and slide. So I brought a jacket just in case.

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And it's like wearing a sweater. And so, pray for me that I don't fall out right up here. Colossians chapter two.

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Colossians chapter two. Again, we could do this many times over in many sections of scripture, but I wanted to give you some foundations to show you something that is thematic.

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It's throughout. In Paul, Colossians chapter two.

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In this time period, many claims being made by enemies of the church, outside of the church, about secret knowledge, things about Jesus that were completely false.

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Paul has to deal in that context with the questions of knowledge, truth. He also has to deal with the world around about him, the world of philosophers, the world of reason.

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I mean, the question of like rationalism and empiricism that's big in philosophy, that's an ancient question and they've never solved any of those problems.

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That just goes way, way, way back. Paul has all of that around him. He's got the spiritual stuff over here with the Gnostics and he's got the people around him who are the philosophers.

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And this is a bold claim. He says in Colossians chapter two, he says, for I want you, verse one, to know how great a struggle

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I have for you and for those at Laodicea. We did this recently, you remember. And for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is

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Christ, in whom, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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In Christ, in Christ, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ.

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Accept it, grant it. We believe that God is the very foundation of knowledge, wisdom, truth, understanding.

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That apart from God, apart from fear of Him, you will never really know anything.

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It'll be so -called knowledge. It will not be real, justified, true knowledge because from God's mouth come wisdom and understanding.

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Brothers and sisters, I want to pour into your hearts and your minds and mine a commitment to the word of the living

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God as the foundation of everything, everything. And you might be at a church like ours where you're like,

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Pastor Jeff, this is the same sermon as last Sunday. You're saying the same things. Matter of fact, all you pastors at Apologia, you go up and you say this a lot.

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I hope when you look at the culture around about us, you see why. We live at a time where many professing

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Christians and large professing Christian churches will not go out into the world boldly with the claim,

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God says, and that's how we know. This is wisdom.

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This is truth. This is understanding. God says. Brothers and sisters, we need to get back to that old style

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Puritan kind of Christianity that speaks the truth of God and says this is the anchor of all of life.

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God is a source of knowledge and wisdom. We're gonna see that over and over. Now, quickly, I know it's getting hot in here and I am gonna do my best to do this quickly.

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Can I have Daniel? Yes. Don't worry,

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I actually warned him. Is Oscar in here? Where's Oscar? What's that?

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Is he? I just saw Oscar. What's that? Jesse, come here, since you're talking.

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Yeah, yeah, up here, up here. We're gonna have a sparring match today. No, I'm just joking. I'm joking.

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Could you guys grab a chair? Each of you grab one chair. All right.

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We'll do, you put your chair over here, face the congregation. Jesse, you put yours over here.

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Face the congregation. All right. Now, stand on it.

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Yeah, don't fall, don't fall. You good, you gonna make it? You okay? You sure? Okay. All right.

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Now, we have to think as we think about someone making claims in the world. Think about an opponent.

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Think about the Mormon you're talking to. Think about the Jehovah's Witness. Think about the leftist. Think about the pro -abortion advocate.

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Think about the atheist. They're standing on something. Now, the atheist makes claims, right, all the time.

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Atheist makes claims about something that is true or wrong. You'll see atheists decrying

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Christian morality. You'll see atheists saying, this is what things ought to be like.

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Here's how we should live. So, it's not as though it's only one side, the

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Christian side, saying that there are things that are true, right? What did

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I say? You were the Christian? I'm the Christian. Okay, or did I? Okay, we'll call you the atheist, okay? All right.

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Sorry, Jesse. Okay. So, the atheist and the Christian. Now, we can't forget, when we're engaging in a conversation with someone, the nature of the situation.

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What does God's word say about the person in front of me right now, right?

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They're not a blank slate. We know that God's word says about, say, the unbeliever. Sorry, Jesse.

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That this person hates knowledge. It doesn't mean that they're rabidly,

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I hate knowledge, I don't want, like they're just running around like, you know, like with a humpback and they're through the street sort of a thing.

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It's just saying God's image, they're self -deceived because of their sin. But what does God say about them?

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They reject the knowledge of God. They're a fool, morally. Intellectually speaking, they're a fool. God says that they're at war with him.

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They're rebelling against him. They know the true God, but they suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness.

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So when I'm in a conversation with an unbeliever who denies God, I'm remembering, what does

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God say about this person? They know him, but they're suppressing the truth of God and unrighteousness.

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Now, we're asking questions as we're engaging about what's right, what's true, what's wise, and the unbeliever, the atheist, is making all kinds of claims.

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But we can't just take for granted that they're making claims and maybe they're neutral and so are we and we live in this neutral world.

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Nobody really knows. What does the Bible say? God is the foundation of knowledge.

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God is the source of wisdom. God is the God of justice and righteousness and mercy and truth.

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And so when I'm in a conversation, I'm always trying to remember that this person I'm talking to is made in the image of God and the only way this person is ever actually gonna understand and know and see is if God does something miraculous in their life, if he opens their eyes to the truth.

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And how do I get that in? I have to give them God's truth. God is the one who opens the eyes of the blind and opens their ears.

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So I think about the unbeliever in terms of what does God say about this person in front of me right now?

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But when they're talking to me and they're making claims and arguments and they're claiming they know and understand,

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I'm remembering that they're standing on something. They're standing on something. Now, the

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Christian, we should have picked a different guy for the Christian. It's good like that. Yeah, I love

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Daniel so much. You know that we're totally teasing with each other. Okay, he said, no, we're not. Daniel is a

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Christian and he's also standing on something. What's he standing on? Christian worldview.

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You could just as easily put this at his feet. That's the source of knowledge and understanding and wisdom.

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When Daniel makes claims about what is true, what he knows, what is right, what is just, he's going through his mind saying, well, what did

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God say about that? What did God say about that? And when he looks at his opponent, the atheist, the unbeliever, he's thinking about his opponent in terms of what that says.

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Image of God. Valuable, worthy of love and respect to be held with dignity, all of that.

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So remember, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Both in God's image, in Christ and outside of Christ, are gonna make knowledge claims.

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The question is, how do you know? The Christian says,

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I know because wisdom comes from God. I know because I fear God and God has spoken, right?

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Now, let me see here. Let me, I need to get a child.

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A child. Clementine. Okay.

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Come on up, Clementine. How you doing? Okay. So now we have a child.

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Now, if you were to talk to the atheist and the Christian, average atheist and Christian on the street today, and they would look at a child, a beautiful little girl like Clementine here, they'd probably say some of the things, some of the same things.

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She's cute. We ought to protect her. You know, she's wonderful. She's sweet, she's smart, all those things.

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You know, people dote over little children, all of that. But I wanted to show you something. Ready? Let's see how the reaction would be.

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Atheist, standing on an atheistic view of reality. What does he say about the world?

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He knows what about the world? Origins. Where did we come from, according to him? Big bang.

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Stuff just banging around in space. The universe is unguided, no purpose, right? Our ancestors came from bacteria, and then evolved to fish, and then somehow through some mechanical reconfigurations, people start, you know, hopping up on the shore, and then somehow reproductive organs form in a population to somehow perfectly match the other.

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It's a wild story, but they really believe it. And we're African apes in a purposeless universe.

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There's nothing above us but what? Sky, no justice ahead of anybody.

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That's the atheist. What's the Christian say about her? She's in God's image.

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Does she have rights, according to God? Should she be, is there a moral obligation to protect her?

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Preservation of human life, justice, image of God, specially created.

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Now ready? From the atheist perspective, is she different, fundamentally different, in terms of this whole order, is she different than that?

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I just threw an object. Is she different? She's part, I mean, atheism, right?

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And atheism, she's just another random result of evolutionary processes, right?

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I could throw rocks and other things and say, we're all part of the same order. You know, some of us evolve differently, but what's the difference between this and that?

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Now what if I said, what if I said, now,

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I'm gonna treat clementine like I just did the bottle, are you ready? Okay. Would the atheists stop me today?

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Would they? Be honest, don't, let's not treat him bad. If I said, all right, clementine, let's do this, and I was ready to throw her over the pulpit, would the atheists stop me?

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Yes, it'd be hard -pressed to find one that wouldn't. But is the atheist acting consistently or inconsistently with their principles?

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Inconsistently, because what does the atheist say about clementine? She's an accident, a cosmic accident, and though it might be painful to throw her over the pulpit, you ready for this?

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Yeah. Though it may be painful, it's not wrong. It might make some of us uncomfortable.

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And maybe as a crowd now, we've decided maybe you shouldn't just randomly hurt other products of evolution, but it's not morally wrong.

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There's no ought above me right now to not throw clementine over the pulpit. But the atheist will decry it, but they have no foundation.

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Now, why would the Christian standing on God's revelation and his wisdom, why would the

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Christian decry me throwing clementine over the pulpit right now? The image of God, preservation of life, love your neighbor as yourself.

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Is that a moral obligation? Yes. In other words, is it just a preference or is it a moral ought that is over all of our heads?

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Is it over all of our heads? And if you believe it's over all of our heads, if you believe that it's transcendent and it's above us, you really ultimately only believe that because the fear of God and you yield to his revelation.

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Because here's the thing, take God's revelation out of this question. Stand on this platform where there is no

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God, there is no meaning, there is no purpose. There's no justification for laws of logic, no justification for moral oughts.

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Stop pretending that it's wrong to abuse children. The only reason we live in a culture and society today that feels like we do about hurting children is because we live in a world that's been fundamentally transformed by this message.

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And the only way to preserve justice, righteousness, equity, knowledge, wisdom, and truth is to get back to a place where we boldly proclaim to the world that this is the source of knowledge, wisdom, and truth.

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We need to be the kind of people that say, God says, and that's how I know. The kind of people that in conflict are willing to say, what does

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God say? And let it actually mold your own hearts. The kind of people that in conflict even with other believers, we say, we have to fear

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God right now and lean on him as a source of our wisdom and understanding. God's word is the very reference point.

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Thank you, Clementine. Thank you. We'll just keep you up there.

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You guys can go back down now too. I don't wanna wear everybody out today. It's getting a little warm in here. We could do this.

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I actually had a number of examples here where we could go for another hour, don't worry, where we could just analyze claims that people make, knowledge claims, claims about how we should live, and ask the question, based upon what?

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How do you know that? It's rather comforting. And it's simple.

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It can be explained in very high level philosophical terms. You can do the comprehensive analysis of Christian revelational epistemology.

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You could talk about the different systems and self -attestation and all the rest. But you know what? It comes down to this.

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Ready? God said. God says. And that's how

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I know. Get to a place like that where you could simply say, God says, is because you have had your heart and your mind changed by God as a gracious act of God so that you can actually start your thinking by saying,

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I fear you, God. What do you say? You're the reference point. Brothers and sisters, as we move forward in this entire discussion, understand the bold claim being made in God's word that actually stretches across everything.

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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

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If we go through the rest of the book of Proverbs with our eye, our mind, and our heart on that foundation, we will be transformed.

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We will. Because you're gonna come into some hard things in Proverbs where you recognize you're wrong and you failed.

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I've failed. We're not wise. We're not a wise people. And you could get to a place where you receive that and you're transformed and you're on the path where it is guarded and shielded.

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Or you'll be in a place where you resist that wisdom from God and you become a fool. Brothers and sisters, one word about wisdom is that there is no way for me to love wisdom and knowledge apart from a heart that's been transformed by God to love it.

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And the problem of humanity is that problem I articulated in the middle of the sermon today. What is it?

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We don't fear God. We're not righteous. We're not good. We are the rebels.

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We're enemies of God. Scripture puts all of humanity in that context. Outside of Jesus, that's where you're at.

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You'll hate knowledge. You'll be a fool. You'll be a hater of God, an enemy of God. You'll be dead in your sins and trespasses.

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And the only way to go to a place where there is healing and salvation in life is to repent and to believe the gospel.

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Jesus is the very wisdom of God. Jesus is

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God in the flesh, walked among us. He lived a life of righteousness and not rebellion.

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He lived a life of knowledge and wisdom and understanding that we have all failed. He truly feared

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God as a man, the Father. He lived it perfectly. He lived that perfect life that all humans everywhere have failed and will always fail because we're sinners.

01:00:02

And He died on a cross to take the death penalty that His people deserve.

01:00:08

And He rose again victoriously from the grave. He has ascended and He has seated.

01:00:15

And the call of the gospel is to repent and to believe. Because I wanted to end with this.

01:00:20

If you hear all of this promise of wisdom and paths of light and justice and all this, it's possible for someone to come in here and say, that sounds good.

01:00:30

I don't like the path of destruction. I don't want the house that gets knocked over by the storm. I'll take that wisdom from God.

01:00:37

Apart from a regenerate heart, apart from reconciliation and peace with God, it's meaningless, ultimately.

01:00:44

Repent and believe the gospel. Christ offers life eternal, peace with God, forgiveness of sins.

01:00:52

And it is only through faith in Him. Come to Christ and live.

01:00:58

Let's pray. I pray, God, that You'd bless, Lord, the word that went out today for Your glory and kingdom.

01:01:08

Make us a wise people, Father, according to Your word. In Jesus' name, amen.