Sermon: Defending Essential Christian Truths

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It's only one chapter, one page, basically, so Jude. I've been doing a series on three essential

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Christian truths, and so I wanted to spend some more time today unpacking some of the things related to these truths, answering questions and providing more foundation.

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And so I wanted to start with just a verse that speaks to what I've been saying in terms of the

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Christian faith being something that can be known and defended. And so we're in Jude, starting in verse 1.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the

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Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

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Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together. God, we come before your word today rejoicing that we get to hear your voice, that we have your revelation before us.

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We thank you for the faith that has been passed down and taught and defended by your saints throughout the history of the

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Christian church. We thank you that we today have the gift to gather. We know so many brothers and sisters in Christ today in different contexts don't have this gift, so we praise you now and rejoice over this gift to be able to hear your word, to have the fellowship, to come to the table itself.

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We thank you for the gift of your word and for the gift of one another. We pray today that you would teach by your spirit, you would guide us into all truth, that you would use your word to challenge us, to change us, to make us new.

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And Lord, we pray that you would firm up our commitments to these essential truths and grant to us the courage to speak with humble boldness to the world around us about the truth of Jesus Christ.

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Please get the minister out of the way today, and Lord, let everybody remember you and what they've learned from your word, and may

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I be forgotten in Jesus' name, amen. Notice how this starts. I just want to say it very powerful.

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When we see this letter of June opening up and we see this call to earnestly contend for the faith, to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, once for all delivered to the saints,

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I love how it starts. To those who are called, beloved in God the

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Father, and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

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That's the promise of those who are in Christ. We are called by God, we are loved in God the

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Father, and we are kept for Jesus Christ. I almost feel like we can just say, all right, we're done. That was a full defense of basically what we've been trying to say.

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But it's powerful. I want you to note in Jude, verse three, something about the faith that could be said very early on in the history of the

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Christian church. This is very important, because if you consider it something about this particular passage, the

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Christian church came to life, was preaching the gospel all over the

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Roman Empire, was turning the world upside down. Paul can say in Romans chapter one that the Christian faith had been proclaimed throughout the entire world, that their faith is being spoken about around the entire world.

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And yet, if you think about the time that they lived in, what did they have? I mean, not far,

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I mean, in Jerusalem you have the temple, and in the temple are laid up the Old Testament scriptures.

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They knew what their Bible was, they had the Old Testament, they knew what it was, and it was there, laid up in the temple.

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So they have the word of God in terms of what we would say the older covenant documents, the Old Testament, that was there.

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They had that. Paul acknowledges that, and Timothy, when he says that all scripture is theanoustos, it is breathed out by God, profitable for correction, reproof, training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete.

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They had that. But if you think about it in this context, the Christian church is a baby in the history of the

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Christian church. This is in its real infancy, and not all of the churches necessarily at that time had all the letters from Paul, or all the letters from Peter, I mean, this stuff was happening organically, it was the free transmission of the text of the

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New Testament documents themselves, the inspired word of God in the New Testament, but somehow they still knew what the faith was.

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It could still be defended, and the call in the first century was that the Christians were to earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

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Christians are called to defend the faith because it is a faith that is known.

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It is a faith that is known. We're not confused about what the truth of God is. It is a faith that is known. It is a faith that is clear.

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It is a faith that can be defined, and it is a faith that can be defended.

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I want you to consider that in the context we live in today, where so many people want to say that your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth,

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Christian faith can't be defended, because we really know what this means in the first place. I mean, everyone has their own version.

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Can it be defended? And the call in the first century context was to believers to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

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So much for all the movements in the history of the Christian church that have popped up and said, no, no, no, we're the true

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Christian church. It's us. We've got the right authority and the right interpretation. The church fell away.

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There was a gap in history where the church was no longer there. And we're here to restore what was gone.

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This says, earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

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It can be defended. Do you know how to defend the faith? Can you articulate the

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Christian faith? Do you know what it is? Can you defend it? Because the Bible obviously teaches that it's clear.

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I mentioned as we started this short series on these three essential Christian truths that I mentioned that the apostles demonstrate to us,

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I think, a character. How should we go about defending the truth? And they also defend, they show us sort of a methodology how they did it.

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They did it in the public square. And they dealt very harshly with false teachers. But they had very open hands when it came to non -essential things.

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We'd call the adiaphora the things on the side. We see that the apostles acted as though the leadership of the early church acted as though the

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Christian faith was known, could be defined, and could be and should be defended.

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They weren't confused about it. And that's really important. So what we did is we talked about the supremacy of the word, the supremacy of the trinity, and the supremacy of faith.

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And what we were really talking about in there was sola scriptura, that the Scriptures alone are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the church.

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We talked about the trinity in terms of who is God, and we talked about the supremacy of faith, which is to say faith in Christ is what saves us.

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That's what the Bible teaches. So if you want to get caught up, go back and listen to those sermons. They are online.

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But I mentioned to you that I believe that these are three essential truths that we need to guard with our lives and be willing to lay everything down for.

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Because if you lose these truths, you've lost the Christian faith. If you lose the gospel and the hope of the gospel, there is no peace with God.

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If you lose who Jesus truly is, then you have an idol, a God that cannot save you.

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You can, and this is going to come out this week, we were in Salt Lake City, and by the way, it was like heaven for me, being downtown

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Salt Lake City with Mormon missionaries in uniform walking around. I know exactly what you're doing.

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I know exactly what you believe. And it was just amazing. I mean, they're everywhere. It would be heaven for me to be able to go downtown every day and just chase missionaries.

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Missionary hunting, that's how Luke and I used to refer to it. And I was talking to this

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Mormon missionary. You'll see it. I think we're going to drop it this week. Short conversation, but we were able to stop him at a crosswalk and we got in a little conversation with him.

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And I tried to explain in 60 seconds, what are the main issues? And I said to him, it's not coffee.

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It's not tea. I love your community. Mormon communities are the most amazing communities. I love your people.

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But these issues are serious. They're definitional. Who is God? And I talked about Christ as eternal, as creator of all things versus the

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Mormon God, Jesus, who was Lucifer's brother, who came into existence as a spirit child of Elohim and one of his goddess wives.

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I did all that. And then I talked about the gospel itself, but I emphasized with him, I said, let's just think about something for a second.

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The Muslim uses the name Jesus Christ, but they don't believe that Jesus Christ died for sins or that he was the son of God.

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They have reverence for his name and they say, peace be upon him. But you don't believe that about Jesus, do you?

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And of course, the Mormon elder is like, well, no. And I made a point like, here's a lamppost.

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I said, if you saw somebody calling this lamppost Jesus and bowing before it and putting things before it, like, would you, would you say something?

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Yeah, he's using the name Jesus, but we all know this is an idol. This isn't the real Christ. And Jesus says,

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I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father, but by me. So we need to get the right

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God. You have to know who Jesus is, has to be the true and living Christ.

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And you have to know how you have peace with God. And the only way we really know with certainty what's true about those things, who is

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God and how do I come to know God, is by God's revelation. What has

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God said himself? What has he delivered to us in his word? That's how we know. That's how we can test.

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And so when we started this series, I talked about non -essential things needing to be held with a very loose fist, especially in the context that we live today in our own church.

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We all come from different places, different backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds. I love the different colors in this room.

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We have members of this church body who are Presbyterians in conviction, but they're members of our body.

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We love them. We cherish them. You have a sort of a mixed bag here of people who love Jesus and apology of church.

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And you have differences of opinion on particular things, things that are ultimately not defined by the word of God.

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We need to have a very loose grip over certain things that we personally have convictions over, but we need to have a very tight grip over what

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God has defined in his word. And the apostles demonstrate to us, these are the things you fight for.

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Have you noticed that the apostles aren't very nice, according to the modern evangelical way of thinking, towards false teachers?

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They actually call them some pretty harsh names. They use a serrated edge because they know that the faith can be defined.

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And that's what we've been trying to do. So we start today with the supremacy of the word. Now of course, that's a fancy way of really getting to the point of sola scriptura.

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Now what that really means is the word is supreme. God's revelation is the starting point. It's the place that you stand.

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It's the plumb line. It's the test as to how do you know what's actually true. And what

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I mentioned was that the revelation of God is the standard. And I wanted to start this discussion actually further back in the

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Bible, all the way back to the beginning. Do you remember where I started? It was in Genesis chapter one through three.

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And what did I point out in that section in terms of the supremacy of the word? We talk about the word of God as the standard and supreme.

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I talked about the fact that in the garden itself, God tells them this, but not that.

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The day you do, you'll surely die. Now God makes the claim.

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If you do this, you'll die. So you can do this, but not that.

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And that's it. God didn't appeal to any external authorities. He didn't say because this guy taught me that it's going to happen.

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God didn't appeal to anything outside of his own authoritative word. He simply says to our first parents, he says this, but not that.

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The day you do, you'll surely die. And what happens in that first moment of testing is that Eve is confronted with the craftiness of Satan.

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And Satan says what? Always. A questioning of God's authoritative word. He says, hath

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God said? Hath God said? He says, no, you won't die. He says, when you do it, he says, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.

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In other words, you'll be able to determine for yourself what's right and what's wrong. How does God know? No, you won't die.

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So what do you have in the garden is you have God says, and then Satan says.

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God says, and then the serpent says. And you've got two opposing voices. And what takes place is, of course, we know that Eve is deceived, and Adam is there, and he sins with a high hand against God.

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And what takes place? They are condemned and lost, and they do die that day spiritually, and they're cast out of God's presence in his garden.

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And then comes the story of redemption and forgiveness and salvation. But here's the point. All conflict comes down to what we see in the garden.

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God says, you say. How should Adam and Eve actually work through that conflict?

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How should they have done that? I made the point that if Eve had not eaten the fruit that day, or if Adam had not eaten the fruit that day on some other basis other than God's authoritative word, they would have ultimately been externally obedient.

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They didn't eat the fruit, but they had wrong motives internally. In other words,

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I said to you, if Eve had said, I don't want to eat the fruit because it's not very appealing to me today, she would have been externally obedient.

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She didn't eat the fruit. But actually, her motives were completely off, because she wasn't not eating the fruit because God said.

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Or if she had said, I don't like the taste of that particular fruit. It doesn't look appealing to me. I don't like durian fruit, which is actually exactly what

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I think that nasty fruit was. Like, she eats it, and she's like, whoa, that was not a good idea.

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It's like, yeah, you should have listened. No one's supposed to eat that disgusting stuff. But if she had said, no,

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I don't like the way it tastes, well, she would have been externally obedient. But she was actually disobedient because she wasn't not eating because of the authoritative word of God.

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Do you see it? Or what if she had said, ah, no, I'm not going to eat it because I don't want to get fat. Well, she wouldn't have eaten it.

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But guess what? She actually was disobedient if that would have taken place because she wasn't obeying

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God and his authoritative word. So what should have been the standard for Adam and Eve in the garden?

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What should have been the standard? God said, and that's why I'm not going to do it.

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Why? Because this is his world. He's the authority. He's the ultimate. He's defined it.

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And that's why I'm not doing it. That would have been obedience. That would have been obedience.

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And so really think about it. This question of the supremacy of the word, or we say sola scriptura, that the scripture alone is the sole, listen, infallible rule of faith and practice for the church.

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It really goes back even to the first couple of chapters of the Bible. God says, and that's how

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I know. That's the key thing. And brothers and sisters, I made the point, and I hope I did it clearly,

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I hope I served you clearly to demonstrate to you that this particular doctrine, the doctrine of sola scriptura or revelational epistemology, whatever fancy words you put on it, is a central theme that you are going to face every moment of your life.

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Every single moment of your life is wrapped up in this, the supremacy of the word. How do you know?

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How do you know? That's the question. When parents are giving our children instruction and we're saying, this is how you ought to live.

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Here's how you're to love one another. This is what you're supposed to do. On what basis should our children obey us?

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Simply because mom and dad say so? Brothers and sisters, just think about that as a standard. Here's the standard.

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Mom and dad say so, and that's the final authority. What about all the moms and dads in the world today who are moms and moms?

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And dads and dads that tell their children to do things because this is how you ought to live?

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Well, if we have the standard that because my parents say so, if that's the standard and rule we apply across all of life, what do we do with all the conflicting ethical systems out there with parents who think different things about morality?

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Is that the ultimate? I don't want my children to obey me because simply I say so.

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I do have a parental authority, kids, so don't take that too far. But I'm only saying so because I'm pointing to him as the ultimate authority.

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That's where it comes from. Or in your daily life, when you decide to do something or not do something, on what basis are you doing it?

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Because your church says so? Because your government says so? Or because God ultimately says so?

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This particular doctrine comes into every element of your life. The supremacy of the word, the revelation of God is the standard.

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Now I want to point you to something that the apostles make very, very clear. We recognize that there are realms of government and authority.

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There is family, there's church, there's civil government, and we recognize that there are authoritative figures in these realms and within the church.

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The apostles had authority. They were not sinless, but these were inspired men who gave us the revelation of God.

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And when the Bible talks about their own authority and their own message, the

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Bible is very clear about where the source is. It's not coming from them as the church sort of pulling rank on somebody.

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Why should you believe this? Well, because I'm an apostle, right? Because I have authority in the church.

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There are organizations that actually do that. They pull rank and say, we're in charge, we're the one true church, we have the right, and it's because we say so.

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Well, when the apostles are dealing with this question, notice how it's brought out.

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In Matthew chapter 16, famous section of Scripture, Matthew chapter 16, verse 17, this of course is the famous section with Simon Peter replying that you are the

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Messiah, the son of the living God. Notice what Jesus says in verse 17 of chapter 16 of Matthew.

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He says, and Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

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Notice the source of that revelation. You're the Messiah, the son of the living

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God. He says, blessed are you, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

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So ultimately, the truthfulness of that statement and the blessing that comes with it or from it is actually something that comes from transcendent.

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It comes from God. It's his revelation. Peter didn't get that on his own. He's saying the father revealed that to you.

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So where's the source of the revelation? It's outside of Peter, outside of Peter. Paul recognizes this as well in Galatians chapter one.

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Go to Galatians chapter one. We've been there a lot, but I think it's very important to pay attention to something that is often missed after Paul indicts the false teachers in Galatia, and he condemns them with anathema.

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He says in verse 10 of chapter one, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

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Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be the servant of Christ.

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Here's what he says. Listen to this. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was

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I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. You notice even in this aspect of Paul's own ministry, he's not pulling rank and just simply appealing to his own authority as an apostle in the church.

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I mean, he has authority. He is an apostle. He's giving us inspired revelation, but when he wants to buttress the point about the source and origin of all of this, he says it's the revelation of God.

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Just like Peter, flesh and blood didn't give it to you. My father who's in heaven, and Paul's point here is not merely that he's pulling rank.

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He's saying that I didn't receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

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That is the ultimate foundation. This is from God. Now I want to point out to you, when we ask the question about the supremacy of the word, sola scriptura,

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I want to point out to you that Jesus appeals to this principle of the revelation of God as the standard within his own ministry.

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Now here's what's amazing about this. This is actually very, very interesting. Here is God incarnate.

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In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

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He created everything in existence. So here's God walking among us, God in the flesh.

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He has his own authority as God, and yet when he is in conflict in his day, how does he challenge his hearers?

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He challenges them with the fact that God said, and he points them back to the revelation of God that they already had.

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And so one example is Matthew 15. I want you to have these in your hearts and minds and in your toolbox.

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Matthew 15, very important section because here's why this is critical.

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Here is a moment in the ministry of Jesus where God in human flesh is now confronted with something that was handed down by the church.

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This was seen by the Jews, these additional rules in this system.

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It was seen as, believe it or not, somewhat of a divine tradition. In other words, you've got the word of God.

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We believe in the word of God. We've got the Torah. We've got it all, but we also have these traditions that have passed down to us.

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You need to also do these things. Well, how does Jesus deal with the word of God saying one thing and their divine tradition saying something else?

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It says in verse one, then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?

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For they do not wash their hands when they eat. He answered them. And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

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For God commanded, honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

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But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God.

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He did not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God, you hypocrites.

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Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me in vain.

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Listen, it's critical. Do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men?

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So here's God in the flesh. And what's he do? He points down to what I just pointed out the very beginning.

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Genesis chapter one through three, God says, you say, and that's it. Jesus believes that the word of God is so clearly understood.

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He obviously believes in the perspicuity of scripture, which is this fancy word that means the clarity of scripture.

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He believes that God's word can be so clearly understood that they can be indicted because they have a tradition that's running alongside the word of God and they're binding it on people's consciences.

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And think about where that comes from. We're Jews. We love the word of God. We cherish the word of God.

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It's our foundation, but we also have these traditions that have been passed down to us by the elders and hey, we're the church.

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You know, we've been carrying this, the word of God down through history. And we've also got these traditions. These are divine traditions.

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You've got to do these things too. And Jesus simply says this, Moses says this, but you say that thus you make void the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

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That's how Jesus deals with people who claim to have an authoritative role in a church that passed down divine traditions.

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He simply says, God says this, you say that. You voided the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

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So for God incarnate, when he gives us the example of what is the perfect image of God, how are we to live when he's dealing with something that's a conflict between two voices?

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He says, God says this, but you say that. So you've made void the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

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I don't care how divine you think it is. I don't care how old you think it is. I don't care about your love for the

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Jewish people. If God says something and your tradition is contradicting it, it is your tradition that needs to go.

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That was the methodology of the son of man. Now what's important is that Jesus has that conflict, another conflict, just a couple of pages over.

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Go to Matthew 19. You'll see it again. This was the methodology of our Savior. In verse 1 of chapter 19,

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Matthew, now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the

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Jordan and large crowds followed him and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by saying, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?

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He answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, now here's

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Jesus quoting scripture, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so they are no longer two but one flesh.

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What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

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Now what's happening here in the text, you need to know this about history. This is a bit helpful to understand what's going on in the background.

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Notice the words, any cause. They're asking a question that was actually a hot topic issue of the day.

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It was the Hillelite marriage clause. And what it was was there was some schools of thought, there was

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Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai and one was more conservative in terms of the word of God defines how you can have a real just biblical divorce and the other school said, you know

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Moses did say to give a certificate of divorce so let's hang on that. Any cause for any reason just so long as you give the woman a certificate of divorce.

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So that's the question that's being asked. Can I divorce my wife for any cause? It's a question about the

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Hillelite marriage clause. You can divorce for any reason as long as you gave a certificate of divorce. They were manipulating the

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Bible. And Jesus does what when he's dealing with the controversy of the day?

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He says, have you not read? And then he quotes scripture.

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So the grounding that Jesus gives in the controversy of the day is the word of God says,

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God spoke. This is what God said. And so for Jesus dealing with a controversy in his day over doctrine and practice, he appeals to the word of God.

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And I'll give you one final one. This is not exhausting everything, but go to Luke 24, 25,

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Matthew, Mark, Luke, Luke 24, 25.

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This is the famous scene that I so love and I wish I was here for this

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Bible study. It's got to be the greatest Bible study in the history of the world to have God in the flesh walk you through all of the

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Old Testament and showing where that was prophesying of him. That must have been an epic, epic

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Bible study. One of my favorite things to learn about and teach about is the messianic prophecies of Jesus.

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It just can't be missed. But you'll notice that these people are, you know, they're super sad and they're a bunch of sad saps walking along the road.

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And here Jesus is now raised from the dead and he's walking alongside of me like, what's wrong with you guys? And like, how'd you not hear?

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You know, are you the only one who doesn't know? And we thought he was the Messiah and he died. And here's Jesus alive in fulfillment of the prophecies of the

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Old Testament and in fulfillment of his own promises, walking alongside them. But notice what he says to them.

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Very important. Here's what

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I want to hang on. In this moment, they're a bunch of sad saps on the road. Here's Jesus walking alongside them and he actually indicts them.

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You should have known. You've got the scriptures. You've been under the hearing of the scriptures.

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You should have known this. What's the indictment? Well, oh foolish ones.

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Why? Why am I foolish? I saw him, he's murdered on a cross and I'm foolish.

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Jesus says, oh foolish ones and listen to the challenge and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

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What's he referring to? What's he referring to? The Bible. The Bible that they had. The Bible that was laid up in the

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Jewish temple. The Bible that they were reading from at synagogue. The Bible that they understood and kissed and have reverence for.

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And he calls them foolish and slow of heart to believe. In other words, God spoke, you should know this.

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Why are you so sad? You should have known this. And so his challenge to his people is you're in possession of what the prophets spoke.

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You should have known this. You should have understood this. So Jesus apparently thinks that God's word is clear enough that if you miss these things, you can be challenged as foolish and slow of heart to believe.

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Because Jesus apparently believes that God has spoken with clarity. With clarity.

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Now, we have to, of course, answer some questions. It's clear that Jesus had this methodology. It's clear that the apostles, when they were trying to buttress a point, would refer to what does the scripture say, all of that.

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But we need to answer the question regarding people twisting the Bible. You know, people often say, well, if Sola Scriptura is true, then why are there so many different denominations?

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And then they invent numbers of denominations. Like I've heard, like there's like 35 ,000 denominations or 50 ,000 denominations.

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That's not true. And it's just, it's a claim that is made. I think it's a marketing tool that's often made for getting people into the one true church.

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But the question comes like, well, what about all the different interpretations? Guess what? That's a problem for everybody in a fallen world with fallible people.

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Name the organization and I'll show you, you do not have the unified voice that you think you have.

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If you want to just take a small section, how about Mormonism? Mormonism claims to be the one true church with this authority that speaks from God.

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How many different sects of Mormonism are there? How many times does the modern Mormon church in Salt Lake have to contradict

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Brigham and Joseph for you to understand that they do not have the unified voice that they say they have?

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But we have to answer the question. What about human beings that actually twist scripture? Peter answers that.

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Go to second Peter chapter three, second Peter, second

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Peter, chapter three, verse 16, we'll actually start in verse 15.

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Here's what Peter says and count the patients of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother

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Paul, here's Peter talking about Paul, also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all his letters, when he speaks on in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

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So first thing I want to note here is here is Peter, an inspired apostle, a leader in the church, calling

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Paul's letters scripture, because he's saying these people are twisting Paul's letters as they do the rest of the scriptures, there he is comparing the letters of Paul to the

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Old Testament scriptures, the very words of God. But you'll notice what Peter says here, he says about Paul's letters, which do contain things that are somewhat hard to understand, he says, what about that?

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

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So here's the problem with the twisting, it's the people doing the twisting, it's not the scriptures not being clear.

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It's not the word of God not understandable. It's the people that are the problem and as long as we live in a world with fallible creatures, there will be people who distort the scriptures, mishandle the scriptures, but brothers and sisters that is not a problem of God's speech into the world and his revelation.

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The problem is not with the word of God, the problem is with people. One of my favorite moments in a debate,

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I've got so many favorite ones, but one of my favorites is where Douglas Wilson was debating a very famous atheist,

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Dan Barker, James has debated him two or three times, I think two times,

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I debated him on the radio as well. He is a fiery, fiery atheist, very smart guy but completely ignorant when he tries to defend his atheism.

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But in the debate with Doug Wilson, he was losing so badly, he was just trying to throw everything out on the kitchen sink and he talked about all the different interpretations of Christians about the scriptures, you've got all these different interpretations and Doug said something

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I thought was very powerful, he says, take five people with five Bibles and put all five people with the same

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Bible into different rooms and they all come out with different interpretations. He says, where is the variable there? In the

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Bible or the people? And so it's obviously in the people, not the Bible. He says, so your argument is a good argument for not trusting people, isn't that the point?

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It's the same word of God, what's the problem? It's those fallible people who are handling it. It's not that God isn't clear, it's not that God hasn't spoken and spoken in a way where everyone can understand,

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Jesus held people to that standard. He said, God says, but you say, thus you make void the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

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The word of God is clear, the word of God is powerful. And in 2 Timothy 3, go there as well,

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I want you to go to these texts and have them ready. In 2 Timothy 3, some of our kids can quote this right now, 2

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Timothy 3, 16 through 17. Which one of my kids wants to quote this? Stand up. Who knows 2

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Timothy 3? Oh, of course. Give us 2

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Timothy 3, 16 and 17, nice and loud, so everyone can hear you. Good, okay.

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Okay, there you go, okay. Very good.

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Notice what Paul says here, all scripture is breathed out by God, Theanoustos.

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Theanoustos represents the breath of God, the revelation of God.

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All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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So what do you need here to be fully equipped? Is you need God's revelation, his breathed out revelation.

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And he says here that God's word, his breathed out revelation is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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That's what the word of God does, according to the apostles. But let's talk about this more in terms of the challenges that come with a perfect revelation of God and fallen and fallible people surrounding it.

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In Mormonism, they'll say, we are the one true church. Come to us.

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We've got the authority. We've got God's revelation. It's actually active today.

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God is still speaking through our prophets today. Well, we know the word of God has something to say about that.

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But in Mormonism, they'll say, we'll solve the problem. We're the one true church. Come to us.

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And what do you have in Mormonism today? Over 100 different sects of Mormonism. If you go to Utah today, one of the things that's interesting about going to Salt Lake to do ministry is that you can find

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Airbnbs that are actually three houses in one. There's actually quite a few of them.

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We call one of the places we stay at often, we call it Polygamy Palace, because it's actually cheap.

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It doesn't cost that much. James has actually stayed there and walked around in his pajamas.

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That's something to see. And we all have. He's got some banging pajamas.

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I'll tell you that much. He does. But you know what? You walk into a place like this, and there's so many rooms in the first level, huge kitchen, huge kitchen space.

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And you go downstairs, and there's way more rooms and another kitchen space downstairs and another house downstairs.

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You've got houses scattered all throughout Utah that are clearly for numerous families in a single house.

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And you have a lot of houses in Utah with hidden tunnels going from one house to the next house and those sorts of things.

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Because you have a lot of Mormons today, modern Mormons, that'll say, I reject Salt Lake. Salt Lake has fallen away from the truth.

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We have our little sect over here that's going to stick to Brigham and Joseph and to their original pure teachings because this church has fallen away.

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So much for the one true church. So much for the unified voice. Or you could go to Rome, where Rome will make claims that can be easily dismissed historically that we're the original church.

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We've been carrying this along and passing it down through the ages. We're the original church. Come to us.

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Well, I have a question. How many different segments of Romanism do we have to see before you realize there's not so much of a unified voice?

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How many piles of books of Roman Catholic authorities and interpreters do

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I have to pile next to one another to show their disagreements and the fighting within? How many

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Roman Catholics do you need to bolster today to show that they don't even agree that this Pope is really a good thing for their church or that he's ultimately from God?

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You see, so much for the one true church and the unified voice. What's the problem?

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It's not with the word of God. It's with fallible creatures surrounding an infallible word.

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And how do you know ultimately how to correct the problem? You go to the word of God and the voice of God.

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You take one voice, the word of God, and you take the other person's voice and you say, does it match up?

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That's what Jesus did in Matthew chapter 15. When you think about another problem in Romanism in terms of we're the one true church, come to us.

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We're the original church. Listen to us. We've got the authority. We've got the consistency. How many different segments of Rome do

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I have to see before I see that that's a false claim? And am I anathematized for not believing in the immaculate conception, a belief that is not in the

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Bible and grew up over history and there were even some Popes that didn't believe in? Are they anathematized for not believing the immaculate conception?

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Am I as a Christian, a reformed Christian, am I anathematized like the

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Council of Trent says or am I just a separated brother as was declared in the second

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Vatican Council, I believe? So which is it? Where's the unified voice?

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Where's the authoritative church that can tell me this is the way of God? These are the words of God. On the one hand,

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I'm condemned to hell and on the other hand, I'm a separated brother. So much for the unified voice.

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Where do I go for truth? Where do I go for solace? The word of God. Ultimately, in this question, it comes down to really two positions religiously when you talk about churches that are making authoritative claims in the name of God.

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It comes down to sola ecclesia or sola scriptura.

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In other words, there's an ultimate. Who's the ultimate? What is the ultimate?

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In a church context, you could have a church like Rome or like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day

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Saints or like the Jehovah's Witnesses that says, we're the one true church. We have the authority to define and to interpret and also we have the word of God.

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What ends up happening is their authority starts to eat up the word of God and to destroy the word of God because ultimately you can't have two ultimate authorities.

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One is going to be ultimate. It's either going to be the church or it's going to be God and his revelation.

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It is ultimately sola ecclesia. The church alone is the final authority or it is sola scriptura.

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The word of God is the final authority. Because what are you going to get?

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You're going to get this conflict. Our church says, our church has the final say.

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The question is, how do we know? Because guess what? Rome is not the only church that makes the claim to authority.

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You've also got the Watchtower. You've also got Mormonism and a whole host of other sects and cults and other religions that make exactly the same claim.

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And so the question is, how do I know? Where is certainty found? And the answer is the revelation of God.

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But this question of how do you know, how are you certain? Here's some challenges. Are you ready? Because you're going to run into these.

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And if you saw the showdown in Salt Lake that we put out this week, how many guys saw that?

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How many guys needed like CBD or blood pressure medication after you watched that? Yeah, you should have been there for it.

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It was way worse. Being there was worse. But it comes down to the question of how you know.

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Challenge somebody because we're all humans. You're all creatures. We're creatures. We're creatures in this creation. And so how are you certain?

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How do you know anything at all? Let's bring up this. Kidnapping and enslaving, is that immoral?

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Now pause for a second and think about this as a Christian. When I say to you as a Christian, is kidnapping and enslaving somebody immoral?

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What do you say? Yes. Glad you do. Good. Okay. But why do you believe that?

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Because Christians go to the word of God as the ultimate standard here. What does God say about kidnapping and enslaving? He actually says that it's a capital crime and it deserves a death penalty.

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Which is, by the way, how the abolitionist Christians were arguing against the issue of slavery in their day.

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They were saying the word of God says that this guy is in the image of God, that this girl is in the image of God. They are to be protected and loved.

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And God exactly, he actually specifically says that if you kidnap and enslave somebody, you deserve the death penalty.

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These plantation owners, they deserve, according to God's law, the death penalty. This is no minor moral infraction.

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This is a death penalty according to the law of God. That's what they were arguing for. But you've got to answer the question, because kidnapping and enslaving is still a thing.

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It's not just far back behind us. It's not just something that the Christian church and Christian message did away with in the

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West and so it's over with. Everywhere Christianity has gone, it's done away with slavery. That's what we do.

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We bring the liberty of Christ and freedom and the law of God and justice. We do away with it. But guess what?

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It's still happening today. All over the world. In Arizona, it's happening.

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This is a huge state for sex trafficking. Kidnapping and enslaving is still taking place all around us.

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So is it immoral? Should we do away with it? Who says?

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You? Because people have to answer the question. How do you know?

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Somebody could say this about kidnapping and enslaving and it happens all the time. When you bring up this challenge to a secularist or a humanist today on the street and you ask the question, you know, was slavery wrong in America?

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What will they say as a humanist, as a secularist? Yeah, it was wrong. How do you know? Well, I just think it's awful.

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Yeah, but tell me how you know it's wrong. Well, it's against the law.

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It was legal then. So is the standard for what is righteous and true and good and beautiful and just, is the standard if it's legal, it's good?

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There are so many things in history that have been lawful according to the governments that are immoral and we know it now.

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How do we know it now? Because we have a transcendent law. We have the word of God given to us. His revelation.

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We can properly define and say this is immoral. If you think about it, people will say today, well, our law says today that kidnapping and enslaving is evil.

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Well, what do you do about Nazi Germany? What do you do about slavery in the

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US where it was lawful at times in the US? It can't just be if it's legal, it's moral.

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Somebody could say, well, I feel that it's immoral. Here's the problem. The slave owners don't agree with you.

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And sex traffickers don't agree with your personal assessment. And so if somebody says, well,

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I personally am against this. Guess what? You're not in charge of other creatures.

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And so your personal likes and dislikes are no basis, no rigorous basis for law and justice.

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You have to have something that goes beyond your own personal likes and dislikes. So how will you justify the claim that kidnapping and enslaving is evil?

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I don't have any problem as a minister of the gospel simply saying this. Ready? God says, and that's how

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I know. He makes no appeals above him or below him or behind him.

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He's the ultimate authority. And God spoke to this issue. And that's how

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I know. I know that that man's in the image of God. I know he is to be valued and loved and respected.

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And I know kidnapping and enslaving is not just a minor infraction.

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It deserves the death penalty. That's how serious a crime it is in the eyes of God.

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I have a basis that is ultimate. It is above me and is not just a mere personal preference.

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Or how about this? Let's see if this gets taken down. Homosexuality.

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I was born in 1978. And I know some of you guys, it's so funny. Some of you kids in here are like, dang, you're old.

51:09

Man, it wasn't that long ago. Man, life goes so fast. It really, really does. But I remember growing up through the 80s.

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And I remember in the 80s, we knew what homosexuality was. We knew that it was around.

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We knew that there was this movement of people. But you also can just take a small look at some of the shows from the 1980s and television series, where when they talk about or they depict homosexuality, they do it in a way that's unacceptable or derogatory or this is not acceptable.

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That was just the 80s. Move into the 90s and into the 2000s to where we're at today.

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And in my generation, we went from people who wouldn't dare speak it or say it out loud that I'm this way or I believe this is acceptable to a place now, where if you're a

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Christian and you say, no, God has defined appropriate and beautiful human sexuality, and it's not this way, you are the enemy today.

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You are the one that is guilty of hate speech. That's in a generation. So my question is this.

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How do you know what is a proper human relationship intimately? How do you know? Thank you.

52:22

Somebody says, you guys are giving away all the answers too fast. Somebody could say this.

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How do you know? Well, I feel. This is my story. It's my experience. This is my space.

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And this is what I feel is true. It's what gives me happiness. It's what gives me fulfillment.

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See, it's my story. Or somebody could say, well, you know what? Now, homosexuality is basically legal everywhere.

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It's not condemned. It used to be a crime in the United States of America. In every Christian nation where the gospel had penetrated and changed the world, they always saw homosexuality as a crime, not just a sin, but a crime if it was done publicly and flagrantly and with witnesses.

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But now today, the Supreme Court says, right? So somebody could say, well, no, we know that it's moral and it's

53:16

OK because I feel that it's OK. Or the Supreme Court has said. How do you combat that?

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How do you combat that? Well, the Supreme Court is not the supreme being. And the Supreme Court has made a load of mistakes in history.

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How about you go back to look at the times of slavery where the Supreme Court actually argued against slaves being free?

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God is the one who defines it. The Supreme Court says. Or do we simply say the word of God says?

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Just one example, Matthew chapter 19. We were just there. How does Jesus deal with a human relationship category like husband and wife in his day with the

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Hillelite marriage discussion? He says, have you not read? He says, this is what God says.

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Male, female, husband, wife, father, mother, one flesh.

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That's how Jesus defines it. And so if you were to ask me today, well, how do you know that's sinful? How do you know that's immoral?

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My answer is the incarnate one defined this. God's word says.

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That's the ultimate. Somebody says today, well, how do you really know what marriage is?

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Why can't it just be one man and seven women? Why can't it be a man and a man? Why can't it be one man, two women, two women, three dogs, a woman and a tree, a woman and a cat?

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I mean, who really gets to define marriage in the first place? Answer the question. How do you know?

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God says. In church history, we can see conflicts in church history.

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And I praise God for those conflicts, because God used those conflicts to transform and strengthen the church.

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But you see, from the very beginning of the church, all the way back to the pages of the New Testament, you see the church was involved in defense of the gospel and the

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Christian faith. And they had enemies almost immediately. Either enemies of the

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Jews who were rejecting Christ, or the Gnostics who were coming in and giving a new story of Jesus and denying the incarnation.

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In the second century of the church, you've got Sabellianism. And you've got all these different heresies creeping in. And the

55:30

Christians are having to fight against these heresies. And how are they doing it? Are they just pulling rank and basing it on their own authority as they move throughout the ages?

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We say. The church collectively says, this is true because we say so. No. Christians throughout history historically have said, this is the revelation of God.

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God says. This is what God says. You see, here's the problem. If you base how you know what you know based upon what the church says, my question is, when?

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Where? Which part of the world? Who's in charge of that? Because you know, if you look at church history,

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I'm not the expert in church history. This guy is over here. But I like to refer to church history as a glorious mess.

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It is a glorious mess. It is glorious because you see

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God moving throughout history with his saints, changing the world, using the truth of the word of God to change the world.

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But it's also a mess with a bunch of fallible people who say some amazing things at times and then do face plants on the very next page.

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Don't put your trust in mere men. Don't put your trust in mere men.

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If somebody were to say, well, it's what the church says collectively, that's how we know it's true.

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Try that with the Trinity and Athanasius, where it was Athanasius contramundum, where basically it's

56:55

Athanasius standing against Arianism. And it's like he was the last man standing, not literally the last man standing, but that was the point.

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It's like the whole world woke up and it was Arian, and you've got Athanasius fighting against this error that we were supposed to know was false the whole time.

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And if somebody pulls rank and says, well, the church has officially decreed at this time that we're going to be Arian.

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Are we Arian now? Because the church pulls rank and says, well, there's more of us now. We've got the authority.

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We're going to define it. How do you know the Trinity is true? Brothers and sisters,

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I'm grateful that throughout church history, the church has risen to the occasion and fought against Sabellianism and Modalism and Unitarianism and Arianism and all the isms.

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I'm praising God that God, through his spirit and his word, he put those things down and destroyed them.

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But I don't believe in the Trinity because the church says so. I believe in the

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Trinity because the word of God says so. And I praise God that he has used his bride to defend that truth throughout history.

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But let's try another one, because I believe this one's coming. Polygamy, believe me, there are actually a lot of Mormons that are quite happy with the love is love movement and the redefinition of marriage.

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So many people who actually feel more comfortable today coming out as practicing polygamists because of what the

58:28

Supreme Court did to undermine marriage. People who are saying, hey, you know, if there's no objective standard of what marriage actually is, then who are you to say to me that I can't be married to seven women?

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Who are you to say to me that this isn't good and lovely? Love is love.

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How do you argue against polygamy? Someone says love is love. Is that a standard?

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Or someone says, I feel that this is so good. It emotionally fulfills me, it spiritually fulfills me.

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I believe personally that this is right before God. Or you can take examples in history.

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Well, let's just use again, I'm not trying to pick on the Mormons today, but it's a powerful point to be made. Mormonism teaches that it's the one true church.

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That all of us, the professors of Christianity are corrupt and that our creeds are an abomination.

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And God restored the church with Joseph Smith. But if you look at early Mormon history, the authority of the church said,

59:35

Brigham Young said, he said that if you deny the practice of polygamy, you'll be damned.

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And he said, the only men who become gods or even the sons of God are those who enter into polygamy.

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So according to early Mormonism, with the authoritative church speaking for God, they said that you'll be damned if you deny polygamy and you'll never become a

59:57

God if you don't practice polygamy. Enter a few decades and the

01:00:04

American government basically threatening the Mormon church saying they're gonna drive them out of Utah or exterminate them and then

01:00:10

God chooses and God changed his minds. No more polygamy. So how do

01:00:16

I know whether or not to practice polygamy? Well, if you go to the Mormon church, you're gonna have numerous voices within the

01:00:22

Mormon church, numerous sects within the Mormon church. You'll just be in a place of total confusion.

01:00:28

Someone says, well, our church says not to do it and then they change their mind over and over and over again.

01:00:34

Well, how do I know that polygamy is immoral and shouldn't be practiced? Because God commands against it.

01:00:41

Deuteronomy 17, 17, God has a moment where he actually speaks to the issue of polygamy, tells the king not to multiply wives.

01:00:49

Jesus says in the beginning, God's purpose was he made them male and female, not male and females.

01:00:57

Male and female, leave your father single and mother single and you cleave to your wife, you become one flesh.

01:01:06

The word of God defines that issue. So brothers and sisters, let's stop there today because as you can hear, my voice is going out.

01:01:13

I'd like to be able to speak next Sunday to you all. But let's hang there on this particular point of the supremacy of the word.

01:01:23

I hope you can see the importance of this biblical doctrine of the supremacy of the word in Sola Scriptura.

01:01:30

This will meet you at every moment of your life. This is not just a theological discussion that's up here and really heady and just really out there in the unknown and the irrelevant.

01:01:42

This is something that meets you at every moment of your life. When you leave this room, you could be experiencing right now opposing voices as you leave this room.

01:01:56

You might be a person who's struggling right now with depression and you're telling yourself that you're not worthy, you're not good enough, your faith is too small, you don't see enough change in your life or whatever the case may be.

01:02:10

You might be telling yourself that I'm no dang good at this. God doesn't love me.

01:02:17

And you could be warring with that internal voice that's setting you off and you're gonna leave this space and you're either gonna believe yourself in your experience and your own inner monologue or you're gonna believe the voice of God where he calls you a son or daughter, where he says that you're not condemned, where he says that if you believe in him, you have eternal life, that he's never gonna forsake you, nothing can pluck you from his hands, that nothing can separate you from his love, that he sings over you.

01:02:48

Do you see how this affects everything? Because you see, a lot of times we think about this discussion of the supremacy of the word and we think about those bad guys out there who say stuff contrary to God's word.

01:02:59

Well, guess what? Most of the day, you're your own bad guy. You're lying to yourself constantly about God, not trusting in his promises, believing yourself over him, believing your emotions over him.

01:03:13

And so this whole issue of the supremacy of the word is not just about our conflict with Rome or Mormonism or whatever the case may be, our government, the

01:03:22

Supreme Court or anything like that. This doctrine of the supremacy of the word will meet you at every point of your life.

01:03:29

Husbands who are not being faithful to your wives, on what basis are you gonna change?

01:03:40

How are you gonna change? Are you gonna change because God says? Wives who wanna love their husbands, love their children, what's the standard for you?

01:03:52

How are you gonna do that? You're gonna go to some blog out there where you give to some stranger that gives you 15 tips to success on how to have a sweet and rocking marriage or something.

01:04:01

I don't know. I bet you that's out there. How will you be transformed?

01:04:07

How is your life gonna be changed? When you go out there and you face work and business and even tyranny all around us, how are you actually gonna engage in a conflict against it?

01:04:18

On what basis? Your own personal likes and dislikes? This is one issue

01:04:23

I have today also. I think Pastor James was saying this weeks ago. When we look at the collapse that's happening all around us, this is important,

01:04:31

I will end on this. The collapse that's happening all around us and the tyranny that's happening all around us, you'll have some famous talking heads that'll say some, at times, very good things, like down with communism.

01:04:45

Now, give me the T -shirt. I want it, okay? Down with communism. I'm about to receive a lot of T -shirts, okay?

01:04:54

You'll have people that will say, we can't be communists as a country. And my answer to that is, yeah, please, never.

01:05:00

That's horrifying. It's killed millions and millions and millions of people. But you have these conservative talking heads or legislators that we consider conservative, and they'll be fighting against things like abortion, or they'll be fighting against things like communism or socialism, but they have no foundation to fight it.

01:05:21

They're not appealing to Jesus Christ. They're not appealing to the word of God as the standard.

01:05:27

They're not appealing to human sin and the call to repentance and faith and reconciliation with God. They're trying to fight around the edges.

01:05:35

It's like having an attacker break into your house at 2 a .m. You hear the glass break.

01:05:41

You hear the boots running down your hallway, and this huge figure comes barreling through your door.

01:05:47

This person means to destroy you and everything you love, and you jump out of bed, and you attack his ankle and start biting.

01:05:55

Is that how you take down enemies like that? They want to destroy you, your life, and your whole world?

01:06:03

Bunch of ankle -biting conservatives taking flesh off of ankles?

01:06:11

No, if you want to take down an enemy, you have to do it right. You have to deliver the mortal blow, and the mortal blow in our culture is using the word of God and his revelation to slay these dragons and these giants.

01:06:27

You can't destroy them. Am I playing around the edges and talking about this is immoral and that's immoral? Why? Well, because in American history, you've always been against this.

01:06:36

American history is actually not doing very well right now, is it? You have to base it off an objective, supreme word.

01:06:45

This is the revelation. This is going to meet you, brothers and sisters, at every point in your life.

01:06:51

How do you know? Where's your certainty? Let's pray. Father I pray that you'd bless the word that went out today for your glory and for your kingdom.

01:07:04

Help us to be transformed and renewed by your word and Lord use us to defend your truth for your glory and kingdom in Jesus name amen.

01:07:12

And now we come to the table. Jesus said to do this in remembrance...