The Prophet Jeremiah Part 24

Let's pray and then we will get into our study today. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask that your

Holy Spirit to open our hearts, our minds, so that we may rightly understand what you have revealed there.

That we would not make void what you have revealed in the written word, but instead embrace it by faith.

And then bearing fruit and keeping with repentance that we may serve our neighbor in love and good works. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, I think I got this all sorted out here. So Josh is, he's our tech guy, and he's enjoying some vacation and some

R &R, so I have to do everything. And let's just say that I used to be convinced that I understood how technology works.

Now, not so much. You know, the older. You know what you're looking for. Yeah, if you detect a technical difficulty, please send it into the chat and I'll be sure to ignore it.

You know, how this works, I think. Okay, so we've been doing a study on the book of Jeremiah, and the text that we were in was in Jeremiah chapter 30.

And let me read the verse that kind of launched us into the mini study on Sola Scriptura, which we're not quite done with yet, but we may finish it today, we may not.

We'll see how this works. So Jeremiah chapter 30 begins with the words, the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, thus says

Yahweh, the God of Israel, write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you.

Now, it might seem like I'm taking a lot of liberties here by going on an entire study as it relates to Sola Scriptura, but you're gonna note that God requires us to listen to his words.

Are you recording? Yes, I'm recording. God requires us to listen to his words, and God requires us to not listen to the false prophets.

So next Sunday, if you attend either the men's or the women's

Bible study, you know that we took a look ahead. We always do that for the most part. We take a look ahead at what's coming in the following week in the lectionary, and coming up next week, it's

False Prophet Sunday, okay? We've got an entire Sunday dedicated to the topic of false prophets, and God wills that you don't listen to those yahoos because God didn't send them, and scripture commands us to test to see whether or not anybody claiming to be from God and having a word from God is actually from God, and I can legitimately say this.

So I've been doing Fighting for the Faith since 2008, 2008.

That's 14 years. It'll be 15 years in less than a year that I've been doing

Fighting for the Faith, either in podcast or video form, and I can legitimately say in all the years that I've been doing

Fighting for the Faith, I have yet to see a real prophet of God speaking in our day.

Everybody who claims to be a prophet of God speaking in our day has been a false prophet, but I'll give you some biblical text along these lines that'll help bear this out, but next week, we're gonna deal with that topic, but you're gonna note here,

I know that when I go into the scriptures, God has spoken, and he's still speaking.

The word of God is living. It's active, sharper than a double -edged sword, so the

Bible isn't like any other book. You don't read it. It reads you. It's the most amazing book ever, but all that being said, we're still dealing with the topic of sola scriptura, but let's take a look at the

Gospel of John chapter eight in this regard and see how it relates to sola scriptura.

Again, a reminder, the Pharisees were not people who were orthodox.

They were not. They are not. The Pharisees were legitimately heretics, and they explicitly disobeyed the command of God to not add to or take away from his word.

They added a whole lot of stuff. It's in the Talmuds.

It's in the Mishnah. It was their oral Torah, and when we look at how Jesus interacts with the

Jews who do not believe in him, remember, these are people who had added to the words of God.

Now, only God has the prerogative to add to scripture, because you gotta know, although Deuteronomy says you cannot add to or take away, that means the restrictions put on human beings to add to scripture, it does not apply to God.

God can add anything he wants to the Bible, anything he wants at any time if he so chooses, but he has not chosen to do so, and we have some texts that strongly suggest he's not adding anything, and hasn't added anything in 2 ,000 years, won't be adding anything else.

So in John 8, 31, we read this. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, and listen to the statement.

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

And here's the thing. Heretic after heretic, false prophet after false prophet, false apostle after false apostle, they do not have you abiding in the words of Christ, they have you abiding in their words.

And I suggest doing this just as kind of a study for this reason, to verify this.

Go to the Sid Roth It's Supernatural YouTube channel, okay?

And just ask yourself, am I hearing the words of Christ on this

Christian, air quotes, in this Christian program?

Or what's the major content of it? This person ascended into heaven, and they've had a visitation with Jesus, and he taught them how to play the banjo and the fiddle, and they had a showdown with the devil, and they were able to save their soul.

In fact, the Jay Giles Band wrote their song about this angelic encounter, you get the idea, right?

They're not teaching the words of Christ at all. And so you're gonna note, one of the things that happens is that heretics draw away disciples after themselves.

And I will reiterate it. Nobody online, nobody here physically in the building at Kongsvinger, none of you all are my disciples.

I do not have any disciples. The closest thing I have to a disciple are my children, all right, and that had to do with me parenting them so that they would go from being unskilled at life to having enough skills to be able to live independently on their own, and now that they're on their own, we don't do a lot of interactions along those lines.

The closest thing you can come up with as a disciple of Chris would be my kids, but we are all disciples of Christ.

I'm a disciple of Jesus, you're a disciple of Jesus, and you are his disciple if you abide in his word.

And so I, one of the things that annoys me beyond all reason is that sermon after sermon after sermon that I have reviewed on fighting for the faith in these big box megachurches and in these charismatic churches over and over again, you get a sermon, but it's only

Bible -flavored. You get a sprinkling of a little bit of Bible, and one of the things that we've heard,

I've heard many times over the years, is that people will say, you know, I went to a confessional

Lutheran church for the first time, and once I got past the initial knee -jerk reaction that they look like Roman Catholics, which is a tough barrier for some people to get over, that's a high hurdle.

But once we got over that, the one thing I noticed that in one church service, I heard more

Bible in one church service than I heard in a year in attending a big box megachurch, and that's not hyperbole.

I wish it were, but it's not. I know for a fact it's not. And what has happened today is that people give lip service to the word of God, but Christ says you abide in my word.

Abiding is more than taking a sermon and just flavoring it with a few verses out of context.

That requires you to work through large swaths of God's word. Christ's words are going to include the

Old and the New Testament by virtue of the fact that he is God in human flesh. Jesus is the

God who met with Moses. Jesus is the God who gave Moses the 10 Commandments.

You get the idea here, right? So if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will what?

Set you free. Have you noticed that when you are in a religious context that calls itself

Christian, and you are not rightly hearing God's word taught or you're barely hearing it taught at all, there is all kinds of confusion.

There's all kinds of anxiety. There's all kinds of doubt, and you can never quite make sense of any of it.

Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe the problem here is that you're mixing sources? We just need the

Bible, right? And of course, the Jews who heard him, who didn't believe in him, they decided to take issue with some of the things that Jesus was saying.

They said, well, we're offspring of Abraham. We've never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say that you will become free?

You see, this is good catechesis, all right? You were born enslaved to sin, all right? And this is what

Christ says. Truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Slave doesn't remain in the house forever.

The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. And how are we freed?

By abiding in his words, and by abiding in his words, we know the truth, and by knowing the truth, the truth sets us free.

Oh, and by the way, Jesus is the truth. That's the other thing.

He's not just a truth. He is the actual source of all truth.

In fact, anything that calls itself truth that contradicts Christ and his word is by definition a lie.

I know that's a big concept, but it's true. So he goes on. So if the son sets you free, you'll be free indeed.

I know that you're offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because, listen to this, you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

You ever, okay, sitting there going, you know, I think we just need, I've heard sermons. We just really need to be careful.

You know, we need to be careful because we need to recognize that in Jesus' day, there were people who were reading their

Bible, and they wanted to kill Jesus. And so we might wanna be careful.

We might not wanna be too literal in how we take the scriptures. Otherwise, we too might be guilty of wanting to kill

Jesus. This is how they talk, right? But what does Jesus say is the presenting issue? Because my word finds no place in you.

That's the big dividing line. If Christ's words find a place in you, if you abide in his word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

And the reason why people who were Jews wanted to kill

Jesus is because they were absolutely opposed to the word.

Yes. Well, when it comes to the crucifixion, yes.

Yeah, you can add our voices to the crucifixion for sure. That's because of our sin. We're all guilty of nailing

Christ to the cross. And so what's the difference then, really, what's the difference between the disciples and those crying at crucifixion?

The disciples of Christ, for the most part, and I have to say for the most part, listened to his word and believed him.

Now, what was the big failing on the part of Peter? He didn't abide and believe the words that Christ told him.

You're gonna deny me three times. I'll never do that, Lord. Good grief. Has Jesus ever said something's gonna happen and it doesn't happen, right?

If Jesus says you're gonna moo like a cow, you're gonna moo like a cow. This is how this works.

He kind of has that prerogative, right? So the big primary difference then is that, is based on the word.

If you abide in my words, you will know the truth. The truth will set you free. The reason why the Jews who didn't believe in him wanted to kill him is because his word finds no place in them.

I speak of what I've seen with my father. You do what you've heard from your father. And yes, things are gonna get real personal here because Jesus is going to go on to say that their father is

Satan, which is really, if you think about it, a very politically incorrect thing to say, right?

And the cancel culture decided to crucify him. So he answered them, they answered him, Abraham is our father.

Jesus said, listen, if you were Abraham's children, you'd be doing the works Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has what?

Told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You're doing your works the father did.

So they said to him, well, we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. And you could just see

Jesus going, oi vey, right? If God were your father, you would love me.

Don't tell me you're a good person and you love God and you hate Jesus's words.

It doesn't work like that. If God were your father, you would love me.

I came from God, I'm here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what

I say? It's because you cannot bear to hear my word. That's the big difference.

And so over and again, I'm always shocked by the fact that I hear people claim, oh, well,

I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious, right? I love Jesus, but I would never set foot in a church.

That's organized religion. Well, have you ever thought Jesus is the one who organized it?

Don't tell me that you think that you love Jesus and you hate organized religion. Jesus is the one who took the disciples and made them the apostles.

And part of being an apostle is exercising authority and oversight over Christ's church.

And there were rules and regulations set up by the apostles of Christ as to who could be a pastor and not be a pastor, what should be considered and approved in a church service, and which is not permitted at all.

That sounds like organization. And so you'll note that in our day and age, it sounds really pious to say that you're opposed to organized religion, but this makes about as much sense as saying

I love Jesus while at the same time hating his words, right? Why do you not understand what

I say? It's because you cannot bear to hear my word. And here's the blunt truth.

You are of your father the devil. Your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning. Doesn't stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character. He's a liar and he's the father of lies.

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. At the risk of losing your social media accounts, try this.

Try this, post on Facebook. God created a male and female. There are only two genders.

See what Facebook does to you. Minimum time in prison now,

Facebook prison, 30 days for that offense. 30 days, all right?

Who's that woman, that person in Norway who's in a whole lot of hot water for saying that men cannot have babies?

Is this rocket surgery? Okay, I mean, well, when

I was growing up, no man ever had babies. It still doesn't happen, by the way, right?

But you say that men cannot have babies and you are going to get in a lot of trouble.

Why? Because the world hates the truth.

Consider the implications. Okay? If it's true that men cannot have babies, and it is, this is like, this is obvious, okay?

Then the lies that are being spewed regarding your ability to choose your own gender and stuff like that, that's shown to be a lie.

The whole house of cards comes falling down. And you'll note, we human beings in league with the devil have this amazing ability to create these palaces, these card structures of complete fabricated lies.

And where is the place that I should go to hear the truth?

Christ says, if you abide in my word, you abide in my word, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

I think of Rob Dreher's book, Live Not by Lies. It should be mandatory reading for everybody now here in the

States, all right? Because we need to start sorting this out now.

How are we going to operate as the body of Christ when it becomes illegal to even say in the pulpit that God created them male and female?

I can tell you how this is going to go down. I'm going to tell that government, whichever it is, to go pound sand.

Guess who's going to be arrested? While preaching, right?

All they have to do is look ahead in the lectionary and go, well, he's going to be preaching on Genesis. That's going to be in the text there.

And he's going to affirm that there are only two genders. You'll note that already

Christians are facing real, real problems.

Out in the corporate world, in the corporate world, you are required by many corporations to address people according to their preferred pronouns.

Wasn't it our vice president just this past week who introduced herself as my pronouns are she, her, right?

And we're supposed to bend the knee to this new orthodoxy. This is all a lie. We are not, we do not have the freedom to engage in these lies.

So as a Christian, you have to say, the law forbids you from discriminating against people in employment regarding their religion.

The scriptures say God created them male and female. I'm a Christian and Christ affirmed that God made them male and female in the beginning.

Therefore, I will not be doing the ze, zes, them, them, whatever pronoun game.

I will address the person based upon the gender that God gave them. And there are people, there are going to be

Christians who are going to lose their jobs. Many have already. And so what are you going to do?

The word says, Christ has said. This is the truth. The world hates the truth.

And here's the bit we got to come to grips with. Within the visible church, the reason why they don't preach the word is because they hate it.

Let's be blunt. They do not like biblical Christianity, so they've created their own version of it.

And anybody who makes their own version of Christianity ceases to be a

Christian, and they are now idolaters guilty of making their own religion.

This is not my opinion. This is what the word of God teaches. These are people who go out from us.

The only anchor we have for the truth is the scripture. We are to abide in the words of Christ, and I know of only one place to go for that.

All right, so the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and because I tell you the truth, you don't believe me, so which of you convicts me of sin?

If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God, what?

Hears the words of God. You want a big litmus test?

You want a big litmus test as to whether or not this church or that church is a church you should be attending?

Do they hear and preach the words of God? Or do they just come up with Bible -flavored false doctrine?

And the opinions and pontifications and dreams and visions of the vision -casting leader or prophet, a prophetess.

Again, whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not of God.

I think that's a strong argument for sola scriptura, don't you? Last week I asked the question, since the job of a pastor, we saw this in 2

Timothy 4, is to preach the word when? In season and out of season, when it's in vogue or even when it's despised, you preach the word.

And since my job as a pastor is to preach the word, I don't get to do what I wanna do. I don't get to give my opinions and spout my philosophies and things like this.

We'll talk about philosophy in a minute as if somehow that rises to the level of the word of God. This is Christ's church and he wills that his words be heard.

And if I refuse to hear them, then I should question my own salvation. I may not like the way

I feel when I read God's word or when I preach it. My feelings are insignificant, they don't matter.

I'm convicted of my own sin as much as you're convicted of your own sin when I hear those same words, even if it comes from my mouth.

Because they're not my words, they're God's words. So that is a good place to go.

Let me add a little bit more of the Gospel of John. As we continue to talk about Sola Scriptura.

In the Gospel of John chapter 12, I'll start at verse 47.

Now let me throw in the context. So Jesus cried out, whoever believes in me, believes not in me but him who sent me.

So note, there's kind of an interesting hierarchy here. Jesus humbled himself.

Although he is God by nature, he humbles himself and takes on the form of a slave and is incarnate.

And he humbles himself and is obedient to death, even death on a cross. And Jesus makes it clear that he was sent by God the

Father. And the words that he speaks are not his own.

These are the words of the Father. So whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.

Whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them,

I do not judge him for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge.

The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day for I have not spoken on my own authority but the

Father who sent me, he has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.

And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say therefore I say as the Father has told me.

If you will not hear the words of Christ, then God the Father is your judge. And the very words that you refuse to hear and abide by and believe will be the very words that God the

Father uses to judge you. Now how do we know that Jesus was really sent from the

Father? I would note the resurrection seems to be a pretty big thing. Since none of us have been able to pull that off,

Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead verifies his words to be true here.

He truly was sent by God the Father and the one who rejects and doesn't believe his words stands under the condemnation of God's judgment.

Yes, Barb. Yeah, it's not the word tereo.

Let me explain this one. So phaladze is our word here.

Its lexical form is phalaso. To carry out sentinel functions to watch and to guard, to protect by taking careful measures to guard and to protect.

It's a similar word to tereo. But you'll note here, this idea here kind of implies a military hierarchy.

So Dwayne, when you were in the submarine force, if your boat got a command from the admiral that you were to be in a certain place at a certain time with your weapons hot and charged and ready to go, if you guys showed up a day late with your weapons off, what would happen to the commander of your boat?

He'd be relieved immediately, right? Okay, so this word phalaso here kind of has that idea here.

We are getting authoritative commands and we are to take the words of Christ and to keep and to guard them as if they are coming from the chief top guy, the head honcho and not deviate from them because they have that kind of weight and import.

In the same way that any officer in the military when given commands from the general or an army or from the admiral or whatever, he is to obey those commands come hell or high water, otherwise he'll be relieved of duty, right?

So good question, but phalaso is a little different than tereo, similar, but this one really kind of has this idea that the words coming are words that must be obeyed by virtue of the office of the man giving the words.

Okay, in this place, it's not anyone, it's God, okay? Now, a little bit of a note here,

I'll throw this into the mix, an important thing. John 10, just a simple sentence here and let's see here,

John 10, 35, simple sentence and it's not even a full sentence, it's a thought.

The scripture cannot be broken. I want you to think about that for a second.

Christ says the scripture, grafe, it cannot be broken, cannot be.

So when persecution shows up and we decide to abandon the word of God, that's foolish, right?

Because you'll note that whoever's threatening us will be broken by Christ and God's words cannot be broken.

The truth that he is speaking and has spoken stands and endures forever.

So I'm kind of thinking this out loud, because from time to time I teach, I teach eschatology, it's part of our catechesis that we engage in and recently in our adult catechism classes, one of them we walked through the kind of the really, we were down in the weeds, we got in a lot of detail regarding the eschaton and I'm a firm believer that if you're gonna understand the book of Revelation, you must be catechized first into how these symbols work by the book of Daniel, because Daniel actually explains how to read apocalyptic literature and when you read

Daniel and then you go into Revelation, it starts to make a whole lot of sense and one of the things that has struck me is that there is a generation coming and I do not know if it's our generation or not, but there is a generation coming when the words that Christ spoke in the

Olivet Discourse regarding the end of the world and the man of lawlessness, the abomination of desolation, those words will come true because God's word cannot be broken and as a result of it,

I've kind of speculated and thought, you know what? I know exactly what

I would do if we're part of that generation. If I'm alive when those things start to take place and somebody comes to arrest me for my confession of Christ, I'm gonna look him dead in the eye and go, you are aware that you are fulfilling the very words that Jesus said that you would fulfill.

You're doing the exact things that he said would happen. That should probably make you nervous, right?

I think that's a good answer to give to somebody who would dare to arrest us and make us martyrs for the

Christian faith. You're doing exactly what Jesus said you would do. You might wanna take pause.

He said that 2 ,000 years ago, right? That's the idea. So the scripture cannot be broken.

Now, we already talked about traditions, how they add to and take away from God's word.

Let me give you another passage along these lines when we're talking about Sola Scriptura that I think is very helpful.

Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs chapter, proverb, there we go, yeah.

A proverb is a verb that's lost its emitter status. So I just wanna make sure you guys understood that, how that works.

All right, proverb. Proverbs 35 and six. Listen to these words. Every word of God proves true.

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 a liar.

I don't know. Seems like a Sola Scriptura passage to me. But then again, I'm just a hillbilly

Lutheran, right? Yeah, every word of God proves true, including the one that says that Christ has bled and died for your sins, including the word that says that salvation is a gift from God given by grace through faith and not of works.

That all proves true as well. The word of God that also declares all who are in Christ are saints.

They are his holy ones. That word proves true as well, right? And this also then, let me say this uncomfortably, this proves true then regarding what?

The creation. The creation. This universe that we find ourselves in, this planet that we find ourselves on, everything that you can see, smell, taste, and touch, including light that's hitting us from galaxies that are a long way away, this all was created in six days.

And there was evening and there was morning the first day. And there was evening and there was morning the second day.

These are days, six days. Oh, and by the way, if you think that that's just crazy,

Christ is remaking the heavens and the earth in one when he comes back.

He's gonna top it. So don't add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

All right, here's another warning. And I'll throw this into the mix because I really do think that this is, it relates to the topic.

1 Corinthians chapter four. Listen to the words of the

Apostle Paul. Here's what he says. I have applied all of these benefits to myself and to Apollos for your benefit, brothers, so that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written.

Do not go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

I don't know, it just seems like a sola scriptura text to me. Why is it,

Roseboro, that you don't teach about purgatory? Well, because it says don't go beyond what's written.

How come you don't teach Semper Virgo? Because I don't want to go beyond what's written. How come you never pray to Mary and to the saints?

Because I don't want to go beyond what is written. You'll note that I never preach from Maccabees.

Have you noticed that? Or the Book of Wisdom? I never preach from them, ever.

There is no pericope by which I could because they're not scripture, right?

So do not go beyond what is written. Revelation gives another warning.

Let me go, let me keep in this vein. 2 John, 2 John, which

I find to be a fascinating text. 2 John, we could read this whole book.

It's only like, what, 13 verses? All right, check out these 13 verses. We may not get to all of them, but we'll focus on the ones.

So John is writing to the elder and to the elect lady and her children.

The elect lady is the woman who has a church meeting in her house. Remember, when Christianity got up and running,

Christianity didn't have St. Peter's Basilica. Christianity didn't have large estates and property and assets and people bequeathing their entire estate to the church.

That wasn't a thing then, all right? So when Christianity was getting up and running, if you wanted to go to church, you met in someone's house or you met secretly, and I do mean secretly.

Sometimes meeting secretly meant meeting and having the divine service in a graveyard or in the catacombs, all right?

So think of a little bit of a historical note here. So here at Kungs of Inger, we have volunteers to help us light the candles.

And the person who lights the candles is called a what? Acolyte, all right? The very first acolytes, when

Christianity was illegal, the job of the acolyte was to use candles in a kind of a coded way to let people know if they were gathering secretly, whether or not it was safe to meet or not, okay?

If certain candles were lit, it wasn't safe. If other candles were lit, it was safe. And the acolytes were actually like the guards at the door to make sure that things continued to be safe.

And if things changed and they found themselves in danger, the acolytes were the first to kind of give the warning, you gotta skedaddle before we get caught.

So keep that in mind. Lighting candles back in the day was used for the purpose of protecting

Christ's sheep and keeping them from being arrested and martyred for the Christian faith for worshiping, right?

So the elect lady has a congregation meeting in her home. John says, I love you in the truth, and not only

I, but also who know the truth. John seems to be a little bit focused on this concept known as truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.

Dang, that's like the first opening portion of this letter, and we see truth, truth, and truth, huh?

Right? Grace and mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the

Father's Son, in truth and in love. You're detecting truth as being an important theme here, right, and then he says this.

I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, aletheia, that's the

Greek word, by the way, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now

I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one that we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments and this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, this is talking about the

Gnostics. Such a one is the deceiver and is the antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

God. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

God. Whoa, that's gonna take a whole lot of stuff off the table.

Right? It's gonna take a lot off the table. Stuff in Rome, stuff in evangelicalism, it takes it right off the table.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching, note that John here is saying the same words that Christ said, that he recorded in his gospel.

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

John says, same thing, whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the

Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him in your house, and that's talking about the church, or even give him a greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

So anybody who preaches and teaches in Christ's church had better be abiding in the teaching of Christ and not going beyond it.

Not going beyond what is written or going ahead, right? So I think of some of the recent wacker doodles that we cover from time to time on fighting for the faith.

There's a whole teaching that has run through the charismatic churches and is all the rage right now, claiming that if you have any bad outcomes in your life, do you have a chronic illness, are your finances, does it seem like you can't make ends meet?

And this guy literally teaches that the reason why that's happening is because the devil ended up filing a lawsuit in the courts of heaven and you need to go and you need to file counter lawsuits in the court of heaven so that you can get your rights back to wealth and health and all this kind of stuff.

Is there a single biblical passage that says that we can file lawsuits in the court of heaven?

I mean, I'm just not that keen on attorneys, period, and usually they're pretty expensive, right?

Where is he getting any of this? Answer, he's gone on ahead and he's not abiding in the teaching of God or of Christ.

He's made this stuff up and scripture is clear. You don't receive him or his teaching in your church or you participate in his wicked works.

Another good argument for sola scriptura. Now, what about philosophy?

What about philosophy, right? Because you'll note that every age seems to have a predominant philosophical view that a lot of people buy into.

I happened to be alive during the transition from modernity to post -modernity.

We are living in a post -modern world. That's the predominant philosophical worldview.

And I remember when the emergent church movement first emerged out of the sludge and cesspool of Satan, right, that's where it came from.

And those guys were all about, if we wanna be relevant as a church, we have to learn, we have to make the church and its message relevant to people who have a post -modern worldview based upon the philosophies of Jacques Derrida and others, right?

Have you guys been reading Derrida lately? All right, and what did they end up doing? Basically, gutting

Christianity of its truth and the leftover husk was then filled with post -modernity, which is not what we're supposed to do at all, all right?

Scripture's actually very clear on this one. So when it comes to philosophy, what's the church's attitude when it comes to philosophy?

Colossians 2. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy.

Captive, enslaves you by philosophy and empty deceit.

Now, I remember when I first took a philosophy class at Concordia University, Irvine. Dr.

Rod Rosenblatt was my philosophy professor. It was a required course to take when

I was studying Christian apologetics. And Rosenblatt basically made it clear.

There's this perpetual game of king of the hill that takes place in the world of philosophy.

And it goes all the way back, right? You got Socrates, you got

Plato. I know it's Socrates, right? Bill and Ted are running around in my head at the moment. But you got

Socrates, you got Plato, you got Aristotle, right, the big three of the ancient world. And you're gonna note, what end up happening is that in successive order, one philosopher was the king of the hill.

Everybody talked to him. One of his disciples then ascended and overturned the philosophy they learned from their philosophical father.

All right, so Plato arises, Aristotle comes neck. And Aristotle completely guts

Plato's philosophy and comes up with his own philosophy, right? And this is the way it's been the entire time.

So the next generation of philosophers after Aristotle, they dethroned Aristotle and they enthroned themselves.

And so on and so forth. Okay, when I was growing up, modernity was the thing that everybody was talking about.

We live in a modern world. And it's ridiculous to think that in this age of modernity that we are going to believe in miracles and things like this, right?

Well, postmodernism has come along and they've got their own thing and they have been going hard after modernity.

And what's Christianity's position on all of it? Just avoid it like the plague, man.

It's meaningless. It's a chasing after the wind. Philosophy is according to human tradition.

It's according to the elemental spirits of the world. It's not according to Christ. Don't let it take you captive.

When you try to mix Christian doctrine with postmodernity, you end up with postmodernity. You lose

Christianity. That's how this works. So make sure that no one takes you captive by this philosophy.

For in Christ, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily. You have been filled in him who is the head and rule of all authority.

In him, you were also circumcised. You got the idea. Having been buried with him in baptism, which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

So when it comes to philosophy, we are cut off from that. We are cut off from false prophets as well.

We are cut off from adding to the scripture. We're cut off from subtracting from the scripture.

We're cut off from going beyond what is written. The job of a pastor is to preach the word.

Christ says, if you abide in my words, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And his enemies who wanted him dead were the ones who wouldn't tolerate his words.

The deceivers are the ones who do not bring biblical Christian doctrine, but bring their own.

We're not supposed to listen to them. Have you noticed that by process of elimination, we at this point pretty much only have the scriptures left.

That's all that there is. That's the only place I can go that I can trust what has been written as actually being the words of God.

And I have very stern warnings not to go beyond what is written or to go on ahead and not abide in the teachings.

You'll note that heretics are not interested in the Bible, they're interested in creating their own doctrines. It's really, all these people who say, we don't follow the dead word, we follow the living word and the living and active word that's in the rocks and the trees and it's in my heart and all this kind of stuff, right?

No, no, the written word is the word. All right, so we've talked about false teachers, false prophets, yeah, all right, let's see here.

A little bit of a note here, I'll throw this in as an aside and then we'll kind of, we're gonna point one other thing out regarding the false prophets, anyone claiming to be a prophet today, but let me show you this, okay?

Have you ever heard somebody say that they do not trust the writings of the

Apostle Paul, okay? And so you say to an ELCA pastor, scripture's clear, you're not allowed to be a pastor.

You're forbidden from this office. Well, that was just the Apostle Paul and everybody knows the

Apostle Paul, he was the original creator of the He -Man -Woman Haters Club and so because of that, we can just ignore what

Paul says. Do you know what Peter's opinion of Paul's words, his writings were?

We're talking about the Apostle Peter, the guy who walked on the water, okay, that guy, okay?

Peter writes in 2 Peter, therefore beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.

Count the patience of our Lord as salvation just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him as he does in all of his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

Peter thought what Paul wrote was scripture. How do you know better than he?

When somebody attacks the Apostle Paul and says we can ignore his words, Peter would beg to differ and Peter here has just taken

Paul's entire body of letters that he's written and he's elevated them to the status of scripture and claims that the wisdom that is in them was given to him, implying that the wisdom given to him was from God.

So should we just say I don't like that Apostle Paul? No. In fact,

Peter says the ignorant and the unstable are the ones who twist Paul's words to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

Now regarding prophecy real quick here, okay? I'm gonna make a point and I'll have to, you're just gonna have to take at least some of what

I'm saying here for granted. You can do the research yourself if you think that what I'm saying is incorrect.

But I was in the latter reign during the late 80s and it was at that time in the latter reign when they claimed that God had restored to the church prophets, okay?

In the early 2000s, C. Peter Wagner and his books regarding apostles claims that it was in the early 2000s that God restored to the church apostles today, okay?

So let me ask you a question. If prophets hadn't been around for 2000 years and God restored them in the late 80s, if apostles hadn't been around for 2000 years but God restored them in the early 2000s, what does that mean the status of prophets and apostles were prior to their restoration?

Those offices had ceased, right? Everybody who was honest back in the day before people set up YouTube channels dedicated to being prophetic channels to tell you worthless things like, in the month of August, God is going to release breakthroughs and suddenlies, right?

That before any of that happened, okay? Back in the 80s, nobody claimed to be a prophet.

And then the latter reign claimed that God restored prophets. Before the 2000s, nobody was running around claiming to be an apostle.

But C. Peter Wagner in his books claimed that God restored the office of apostle, okay?

And so now we've got 20 and 40 years later, the landscape in the

Charismatic Church populated by people claiming to be prophets and apostles. It's ridiculous.

But when we read in the prophet Daniel, this prophecy that was given to him by the angel

Gabriel, pay close attention to the details here. It happens quick.

This is the famous prophecy of the 70 weeks. 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and watch this detail, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

Daniel's prophecy of the 70 weeks is a time prophecy, which basically makes it very clear that if Jesus isn't the

Messiah, ain't nobody the Messiah. Because the total fulfillment of this takes place from the time

Daniel receives this prophecy from the angel Gabriel, and it finds its total fulfillment and terminus, the last of the 70 weeks, was in the year 130

AD with the complete demise of all Jews being scraped out of Judea and the

Roman Empire changing the name of Judea to Syria -Palestinia.

That's when this all takes place. So listen, know therefore and understand from the going out of the word to restore and build

Jerusalem to the coming of the anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and a moat, but in a troubled time.

So this prophecy is talking about the decree will go out, rebuild the temple, it'll be rebuilt, it'll be rebuilt in a troubled time, and after 62 weeks an anointed one,

I wonder who that is, Jesus, shall be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war, desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.

Now, when you read really good scholarship on this, again, the whole 70 weeks is from the time of the decree to rebuild the temple until 130

AD. That's the full time of the 70 weeks, and packed in there is one detail, okay?

And the detail is to seal both vision and prophet. Now, the claim of the charismatics is that you don't have a single biblical verse that says the prophecy's gonna cease.

Yeah, I do, and it's right here in Daniel 9 24, and it's tied to historical events that have already been fulfilled.

The total fulfillment of this takes place in 130 AD, full stop, and the way they try to get around it is they say, well, the last week of Daniel's prophecy hasn't yet arrived.

Oh, it has all come down. It's all already occurred. So we do have a biblical text that says that prophecy and vision will be sealed at the completion of the 70 weeks.

Also happens to coincide with the time when the New Testament is finished, and the last of the apostles die.

Keep that in mind. And it's also concurrent with church history, which shows that there were no apostles that came up after the apostles, and the gift of prophecy even died with the death of the generation that was raised by the apostles.

Those cease to be in the church and are timed perfectly with this, and you're gonna note, has there been any additions to scripture in the past 2 ,000 years since John wrote the revelation, the apocalypse?

No. Vision and prophecy are sealed, and we'll end with this.

This will be our last verse in this regard. Consider Revelation, let me go in, let me get a

Greek text here, Revelation chapter 22, and this will be our last little shot here.

John writes, I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. Now, a little bit of a note here.

Which is the referent? Is it only talking about Revelation, or is it talking about the

Bible? I think it's talking about the Bible, because that's consistent with all the other warnings that God has given from the

Old Testament, and also consistent with the fact that God the Holy Spirit knew full well the book of Revelation was going to be the final book, and you'll note, this is at the end of the

Bible. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them,

God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the prophecy of this book,

God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Same warning, do not add, do not take away, and threatened with eternal punishment for adding or taking away.

If you are Christ's disciples, you will abide in his words. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The scripture's the only place we can go to get them. There is no other place to go. Prophecy and vision have been sealed for 2 ,000 years.

Anyone claiming to be a prophet today is a wingnut, wackerdoodle, deceiver sent by the devil. And I think

I've made the biblical case for it. All right. All right, real quick.

I'm not gonna be able to get to the questions today. I will get a copy of the questions.

Let me just do this, I'm gonna copy them real quick. And I will address questions next week, okay?

But I cannot get to them now because I gotta go. All right, peace to you brothers and sisters.