WWUTT 1650 Q&A The Bible Project, Kristin Du Mez, Tim Keller, John 3:16
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Responding to questions from listeners about the video responding to The Bible Project, books by Kristin Du Mez and Tim Keller, and the context of verses like Philippians 4:13 and John 3:16. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
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- What is propitiation and why is it such an important doctrine? What's the problem with books by authors like Christian Cobus Dume and Tim Keller?
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- And what's the context of John 3 .16? The answers to these questions When We Understand the
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- Text. This is
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- When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.
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- Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .wtt .com.
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- Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, who is not in studio with me this week.
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- We've both had a very busy week. And by the time we got around to recording this, she was out of energy.
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- So I'm flying solo, but still wanted to respond to some of your emails. On the Friday edition of the broadcast, we take questions from the listeners.
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- And you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com
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- about whatever you want. We will give priority to questions that had to do with something that was taught on the podcast this week.
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- So I began in 2 Corinthians. That was Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
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- Just finished up Proverbs yesterday. So if anybody had asked anything about, you know, some of the things that I taught earlier in the week,
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- I would respond to those questions first. Then if somebody has a question about a what video that I've done, we'll respond to those.
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- But then if you have any general theology question, anything you've always wanted to ask, maybe that question will end up on one of these programs.
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- So once again, you can email a question to whenweunderstandthetext, that's all one word, at gmail .com.
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- This first email has to do with the video that I did warning about the
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- Bible project, the false teaching that is being presented in the video ministry,
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- The Bible Project. And that video kind of centered on the subject of propitiation.
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- The Bible Project, when they did their video on Romans, never mentions propitiation, never talks about atoning, the atoning sacrifice of Christ, which is all over the book of Romans.
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- Understanding that we are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. How are we justified?
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- Because Christ took our penalty upon himself with his death on the cross. But the Bible Project will call that a false doctrine, what we refer to as penal substitutionary atonement.
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- So it's in Romans chapter 3, where we read that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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- But we are justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
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- God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith for a demonstration of his righteousness.
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- Because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. That word propitiation, it's right there in the
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- Bible, Romans 3 .25. And it means that God's wrath was satisfied with the death, with the atoning sacrifice, the blood that was spilled by Christ on the cross for our sins.
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- God's wrath was upon us. That's John 3 .36. That was our condition before we came to faith in Jesus Christ.
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- We were under the wrath of God. And if left to ourselves, we would never seek after God and we would perish under his judgment because we have sinned against God.
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- But Jesus' death on the cross took the wrath of God upon himself for us.
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- So he becomes the propitiation for our sins, for all those who believe in Jesus. So that's what that video was about, centering on the doctrine of propitiation, which the
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- Bible Project won't teach. They'll call it a false doctrine. So Missy wrote this email and she said,
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- Gabriel, thank you for bringing to light the truth. Propitiation is so very important.
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- And the greatest transaction ever was Christ taking on our sin, dying for us and rising from the grave so that one day we would live with him for eternity.
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- You did an excellent job of pointing out how we are to test the spirits. That's 1 John 4 .1.
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- I probably watched four of Tim's videos, she says. Tim Mackey is kind of that main voice in the
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- Bible Project. She says, and something seemed off, so I immediately began to pray about his videos and God pointed me away from them.
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- Thank you for at least trying to, in love, show people why they need to read and study the word of God, pray for discernment, and turn from incorrect doctrine, your sister in Christ.
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- Well, I thank you for that, Missy. And you can find that video, anybody else that's interested in watching it, if you haven't seen it.
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- I get more emails about that video than anything else because it's my most watched video. But if you go to WWUTTEXT, that's the extra channel where I kind of do extra videos responding to what videos and messages from listeners and things like that.
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- So you'll find that video there, or just search for what, WWUTT and the
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- Bible Project. And that'll be the first video that comes up there on YouTube. This next email, this comes from Jordan, and it actually has to do with something that I put on my blog.
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- About three years ago, I did a 40 -day Bible reading plan.
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- And this Bible reading plan, the purpose of it was to do an overview of the Bible. So you're reading a couple of chapters every day for 40 days, and you get kind of the high points of the
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- Bible when you do that. And so Jordan said, this is a wonderful list. Thank you, Pastor Hughes.
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- I'm wondering if I can get your permission to print and post this as a 40 -day plan to bring my congregation through.
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- And Jordan's email address, it indicates that he's part of a Lutheran church. Hey, love my
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- Lutheran brethren. I don't agree with you on all of your doctrine, but nonetheless,
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- I love you guys. And yes, Jordan, you can use that 40 -day Bible reading plan, print it off, distribute it however you want.
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- Now, I did not necessarily come up with that originally. I was inspired by another
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- Bible reading plan, but I did tweak it because there were certain chapters, certain sections of Scripture that weren't in the
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- Bible reading plan that I found. So I tweaked it and kind of made it my own. The idea was not mine originally.
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- I guess you could put it that way. I don't even remember where I found it. But the list of chapters that you have in the version that I wrote, that was my list that I came up with.
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- But there's no copyright on it. I'm not even looking for credit. Print it off and distribute it however you want.
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- If you want to find it, go to pastorgabe .com and it's titled 40 -day
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- Bible reading plan, an overview of the Bible. I think if you just search for that, even the blog will come up and it'll give you that particular plan.
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- So you're not going through the entire Bible in 40 days, just so you know, because you're like, wow, that's a lot of reading.
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- You would probably be reading five, six hours a day, maybe even a little more than that to try to get through the
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- Bible in 40 days. The 40 -day Bible reading plan as an overview of the
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- Bible just takes you through select chapters. You get high points of the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
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- As I look back over that list, one that I wish that I had put in there was Jonah. Just one day, you read the entire book of Jonah.
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- I think that would have been a good... Yeah, maybe I could tweak it. Maybe I could come up with a way to stick
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- Jonah in there. Once again, you're looking for the 40 -day Bible reading plan and you're putting the number 40, four zero, not spelling it out.
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- This next question comes from Jennifer. She says, I just wanted to thank you for your article. This is about another blog
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- I did. So she says, I wanted to thank you for your article. The question, Kristen Cobus Dume won't answer, but did.
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- I think I did that article back in November. I truly appreciated that article and it was really well done.
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- You are helping to shepherd the flock, which has been left very vulnerable to wolves. Appreciate you taking the time to break it down as you did.
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- Thank you, Jennifer. I appreciate that email. Yeah, so kind of the nuts and bolts of that particular article,
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- Kristen Cobus Dume is the author of a book called Jesus and John Wayne.
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- And it's basically Dume's hate letter to evangelicalism because they elected
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- Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton in 2016. I'm not making that up. That really is kind of the gist or the motivation behind the letter.
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- But she really tears apart evangelicalism. It's been a hugely popular book. And some of the things that she says in there, she says some things in there that are true, but a lot of things that are lies.
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- And the target that she's making with that book is white evangelical men. Just wants to make them look like the scourge of the earth.
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- The most recent editions of that book, the paperback in particular, I think it is, may not be the hardback, but in the paperback editions, there's a recommendation on the front of that book.
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- Only one. It's one recommendation. And you'll see the name attached to that recommendation, a glowing recommendation about how great this book is.
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- The name on that recommendation is Chrissy Stroop. Chrissy Stroop is a man pretending to be a woman.
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- Chris Stroop is his birth name or the name his parents gave him. He claimed to become a woman and then changed his name to Chrissy.
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- He loves that book. His name ends up on the cover of that book. A man pretending to be a woman, a man who is sexually depraved is on the cover of that book talking about how great it is.
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- That should be enough to tell you right there what the book is like. When the trans community is praising it, it's not good for the church.
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- It's tearing the church down. Christian Cobus Dume is an enemy of the body of Christ.
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- So mark and avoid this kind of deceptive literature. Romans 16, 17, now
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- I urge you brothers to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and stumblings contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away from them.
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- For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own stomach.
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- And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. All kinds of evangelicals have given glowing praise to Jesus and John Wayne, including
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- David French, Sky Jotani, Phil Vischer of the Holy Post podcast,
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- Beth Moore. It's a deceptive, wicked book. Stay away from it and warn your friends not to be deceived by it also.
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- This next question, this comes from Savannah. Hello, family. I have a question about content my pastor endorses.
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- Our pastor has made it clear one of his biggest influences is Tim Keller. Before all of the recent controversy around him,
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- I didn't find this concerning, but now it is a little concerning with Tim Keller's views on certain things.
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- Our pastor endorses a lot of his old books and articles without addressing the recent problems with his views.
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- Is this something to have a conversation about? Thanks so much for always being watchful and blessing so many by making us aware of any blind spots we have in discernment.
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- Appreciate you guys. Well, thank you so much, Savannah. You know, even on this very podcast, I used to speak of Tim Keller favorably.
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- So this would have been going back to 2015, 2016. That was when the podcast began.
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- We're on our seventh year now. But in the early days of when we understand the text,
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- I was still all right with Tim Keller. In fact, it was in 2015, before I started the podcast,
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- Becky and I went to the Gospel Coalition Conference in Orlando. That was in April.
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- Yeah, April of 2015 was when that was. And we didn't start the podcast until later that following August.
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- Tim Keller was one of the keynote speakers there. Of course, I was there to see Votie Bauckham. It was my first time to see him preach live.
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- John Piper preached, D .A. Carson preached, Ligon Duncan preached. You know, some guys that at the time we thought were really solid before they got wonky and started following all this woke nonsense.
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- And Tim Keller at that particular time, I admired him a great deal. Had several of his books, still have several of his books.
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- But when you go back and you read those books, even in light of the wokeness theology that he has fallen into now, you can see some problems even with those earlier books.
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- I was just probably immature and naive to believe that what I was reading was some good and decent material.
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- I do not recommend Tim Keller's books. There are going to be some books of his that are just fine.
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- It's going to be the earlier works. But like you said, Savannah, some of his more recent views are really concerning.
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- And if you get into just a little bit of Tim Keller, you are going to get into more of the woke nonsense that he's been espousing over the past few years.
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- Even some of the things that he said about homosexuality. You have probably heard this quote,
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- J .D. Greer has said it and Ed Litton has said it. And Litton has said it because he was ripping off J .D.
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- Greer. But anyway, the quote goes like this, that homosexuality doesn't send a person to hell.
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- Do you know how I know that? Because heterosexuality doesn't send a person to heaven. You ever heard that quote said?
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- That comes from Tim Keller. That's who that came from. And some of the doctrine and theology that you're seeing espoused, that sounds a little off.
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- Some of this stuff that's being said in evangelicalism about LGBTQ ism, even calling it an
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- LGBTQ community, which it's not. These are people in sin who need to be told to repent.
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- But even calling them a community that has been fostered and furthered by Tim Keller.
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- He's one that has been doing that kind of stuff. To go back to that quote that I just mentioned, I don't want to leave you hanging on that quote just in case anybody's going, well, yeah, what was wrong with that quote?
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- So the statement homosexuality doesn't send anybody to hell. I know that because heterosexuality doesn't send anybody to heaven.
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- It's false because homosexuality will send a person to hell.
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- That's that's plainly in scripture in first Corinthians six, nine and 10.
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- Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.
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- Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
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- So just as you could not be an adulterer and expect to get into the kingdom of God, an unrepentant adulterer, so you cannot be an unrepentant homosexual and enter the kingdom of God.
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- Yes, homosexuality will send a person to hell. Now, heterosexuality doesn't save a person.
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- But when someone comes to faith in Jesus Christ, they're going to put off the desires of their flesh and not walk in those things anymore.
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- Even the desire is itself sin that is worthy of the judgment of God.
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- Colossians three, five, therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
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- On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.
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- Even the desire for it will incur the wrath of God. And these comments that Keller has been making about this stuff has serious consequences.
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- And it has spread far and wide across American Christianity because of how popular
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- Tim Keller has been. You consider the revoice conference. I'm not sure if you're familiar with this or not, but revoice is basically,
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- I mean, another name for it is it's the gay Christian conference. It's this idea that you can be gay and be
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- Christian. So this conference was started for people who want to try to believe that they can still be
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- Christian and be claimed to be LGBTQ at the same time. It's called revoice.
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- And one of the guys that helped start revoice, his name is Grant Hartley. And just yesterday, this was just yesterday on social media.
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- He said the following, reading Tim Keller's Center Church, that was a book
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- Keller wrote Center Church was a large reason why I began to think of the LGBTQ plus community as a distinct cultural group, which is the foundation of much of my work, especially at the two revoice conferences and a significant theme in my life.
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- This is Grant Hartley talking here. His discussion of contextualization and missiology is perhaps surprisingly one of the biggest reasons why
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- I call myself gay, why I began to consider my sexuality to be an aspect of my identity, why
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- I feel such a strong connection to LGBTQ plus people, culture and history.
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- I quoted him extensively throughout those breakout sessions at the first two revoice conferences, and his work has irrevocably shaped me as I continue to write and speak about faith,
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- LGBTQ plus experience now, unquote. So that's just kind of an idea of what kind of an impact
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- Keller's teaching on LGBTQ stuff has had. It is it is permitting naive
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- Christians with sinful desires in their hearts to believe that they can have those sinful desires.
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- And that's just fine where the scripture tells us, put to death what is earthly in you don't even have the desire for those things anymore.
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- There has been this growing acceptance among evangelicalism to think that you can still call yourself gay or you can still feel like you're gay.
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- You can still have gay thoughts just as long as you don't go sleep with another person.
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- Then it's all OK. And it's simply not true because we know the word of Christ talking to adulterers.
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- This was Jesus talking to heterosexuals in Matthew, chapter five, where he says that if you lust after a woman in your heart, it's the same as if you've committed adultery with her.
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- Now, homosexual desires are unnatural, so they're even worse than heterosexual lust.
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- And in fact, a person who let's say you have a man who desires a woman, he can have that kind of desire in such a way that is not wicked and is not sinful.
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- If you're talking about a single man who desires a single woman and sees in her a prospective wife, there's a desire there that isn't wicked.
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- But if a man desires another man, that's instantly wicked. There's nothing about that temptation that is innocent because it is a unnatural desire.
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- And so we must put these things to death. You can't believe that that's normal and that's
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- OK and that you can just have it as long as you don't entertain it. You must put it to death, put to death what is earthly in you and seek
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- Christ. Turn to Christ. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you may not desire these passions of your flesh anymore, but you desire the things of God.
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- Matthew six thirty one. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things that you need here on this earth.
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- God will give to you as well. The Bible tells us when we seek Christ, he will give us a new mind and a new heart.
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- This is being born again. As Jesus said to Nicodemus in John three, you cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you are born again.
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- So you are not of the flesh with the desires of the flesh any longer. But you are of the kingdom of God, born again into the family of God, desiring the things that God desires for you, hating your sin and loving righteousness.
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- That is that is what we have been called to in Christ Jesus. I don't think that Tim Keller's teaching directs you there.
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- I think that Tim Keller's teaching, especially in the more recent years, will allow you to have certain desires.
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- And, you know, Keller may say homosexuality is wicked. You'll probably find statements from him saying something like that.
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- But it's the whole idea that he lets you tiptoe the line. It's it's never going as far as you must repent.
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- You must put this to death. You should not walk in it any longer. And you are you are risking coming under the judgment of God.
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- The closer you get to that sin, you'll never hear Keller say something like that. And so that's what's concerning about his teaching.
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- It's watered down and soft. I don't recommend it, even though there may be books from Keller that you can pick up and read and you probably wouldn't find anything in it.
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- That's a problem. It's it's all of his other stuff that would direct a person in this kind of sinfulness.
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- I think you just need to stay away from Keller altogether. This next question comes from Tobias in Oklahoma.
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- He says, I need some scriptural help. Can you explain to me the issues that people have with Philippians 413,
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- John 3, 16 and others like them? Note, you don't have to include the judge not versus because I do understand those.
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- OK, like Matthew 7, 1, judge not lest you be judged. I'm assuming that's what Tobias is referring to.
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- I know it is said that many are using these scriptures wrong, Philippians 413 and John 3, 16, and I'd like to be sure
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- I understand them correctly. So if you could explain both how folks are using them and what they actually mean and how to use them,
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- I'd be extremely appreciative. I know today is Sunday. Well, that was part of the question that he gave to me back on Sunday.
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- And you're extremely busy. So whenever you get the time would be fine. My point in asking for clarification is so I don't lead others astray.
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- Tobias, that's a that's a great reason. We should all desire to know the word of God and handle it rightly.
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- As the Apostle Paul told Timothy, Second Timothy 2, 15, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
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- That should certainly be the desire for everyone, every one of us that we handle the word of God rightly, not just so we don't lead others astray, but so we know what the
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- Bible says and that we are obeying what God has said to us, understanding what he has said and and walking in it rightly.
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- So let's go to the couple of verses that Tobias mentioned here. And of course, there's what videos on both of these.
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- That was kind of my niche in the very beginning when I started what videos was to look at some of those often taken out of context versus and putting them back in context.
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- And so that way we can understand the text, since that's the name of the ministry.
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- So, yeah, you'll find videos on Philippians 4, 13 and John 3, 16. And I've sent those to Tobias.
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- But let's go ahead and and look at these things in context. So Philippians 4, 13, we haven't done this in a while,
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- Paul says, I'm going to go back to verse. Verse 10, but I rejoiced in the
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- Lord greatly that now at last you have revived thinking about me. Indeed, you were thinking about me before, but you lacked opportunity, the opportunity to show their affection for the apostle
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- Paul going on into verse 11. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances
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- I am in. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in abundance in any and all things.
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- I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
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- Verse 13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to fellowship with me and my affliction, and you yourselves also know
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- Philippians that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but you alone.
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- So to kind of expound on that, the apostle Paul is writing to this church in Philippi while he is under house arrest in Rome.
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- The church in Philippi had taken up an offering and had it sent to Paul by the hand of Epaphroditus to help him in the ministry that he was doing there in Rome.
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- The Philippians were showing their support for him. And that's why Paul says here, you did not have an opportunity to show your affection for me until now.
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- And now you've done so with this gift and you have you alone have given to me when there were others that did not remember me in the midst of my affliction.
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- But it's there in verse 13 where he says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. What's the context there?
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- Again, going back to the previous verse, whether I have an abundance or whether I am in need,
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- I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I can endure these hardships through Christ who gives me the strength.
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- That's what that verse means. It's being able to endure tough times, still holding on to Christ who strengthens us.
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- It's not about winning a marathon, flying. I can fly through him who strengthens me.
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- It's not about climbing the corporate ladder. That's that is not the context of that verse. And you've probably seen the
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- T -shirts and the coffee mugs around that say, I can do all things through a Bible verse taken out of context.
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- You know, I said that years ago and I just did not patent that and put it on a shirt.
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- So somebody beat me to it and now they're making money off of it. And I missed my opportunity.
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- Yeah. Anyway, I can do all things through a verse taken out of context. Yeah. And that's pretty much it.
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- So now, John 316, that was the other verse that that Tobias had asked about. And there's not a lot of ways to mess up John 316.
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- I mean, if you're just quoting that verse, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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- If you've just said that much, then you've given a good one verse summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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- God gave his son and whoever believes in Jesus won't perish under the judgment of God, but you will have eternal life.
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- So what are some of the ways that that verse is misused? Well, more often than not, it's used to say that God loves every single person in the world.
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- And so he's given an opportunity to every single person to be saved if they would just pray and ask
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- Jesus into their heart or or just believe, just say that you believe and you will have eternal life.
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- So generally, the way that that verse is misused is synergism and easy believism.
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- So synergism is the idea that God has given us an opportunity to be saved, but we have to accept it.
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- And it is by our accepting of it that we are therefore saved. So it's a shared work in salvation.
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- Therefore, that's synergism. And then easy believism is the idea of, hey, just pray this prayer, just make this confession, just say these words, whatever, and then you believe in him, you won't perish and you will have eternal life.
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- Those are a couple of the ways, the most common ways that that verse is taken out of context. But this verse is not saying that God loves every single person in the world.
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- Now, you can make an argument for common grace. Every person who's alive right now in the world is alive because of God's common grace.
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- He could snuff every person out in an instant and he would be completely just in doing so. But people are alive because of the common grace of God.
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- This verse is not about that, though. This statement for God so loved the world is not saying that God loves every single person in the world.
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- If you want to make that case, you have to do it from another Bible verse. You really can't do it from John 316, because the context here is clearly showing that God loves
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- Jews and Gentiles, that he gave his only begotten son so that salvation would come to not just the
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- Jews, but also to the Gentiles. And that's the world, the world of Jews and Gentiles, basically.
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- So go back previously. Who is Jesus talking to in John 3? He's talking to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus by night and the two of them have a conversation.
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- And I'm just kind of skipping ahead, giving you the cliff notes version. So in verse 14,
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- Jesus says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.
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- What's the story that Jesus is referencing there? Well, he's talking about the story of the bronze serpent in the book of Numbers, when the people of Israel were bitten by snakes because they had grumbled against God.
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- He punished them by sending snakes into the camp and they bit the people and people were dying. But as an act of mercy,
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- God told Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole and lift it up. And if a person was bit by a snake, if they looked at the bronze serpent, they would be healed of their snake bite.
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- So Jesus is showing Nicodemus that this story in the book of Numbers was pointing to the savior who would come for the world.
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- So salvation is not just for the Jews. And that's what the Pharisees thought and taught, that it was just going to be salvation for the
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- Jews. Jesus is showing, yeah, this thing happened in Israel, but it was to show something greater that was to come.
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- And that was the son of man who would be lifted up. So must the son of man be lifted up on a cross so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.
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- For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So God loving
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- Jews and Gentiles, that would have been the shocking thing to Nicodemus for Jesus to say that God so loved the world more than just Jews.
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- Nicodemus would have been going, what, really? No, God's favor is only with the
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- Jews. And Jesus is saying a savior has come for Jews and for Gentiles.
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- That's what's meant there for God by for God so loved the world. That's the context.
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- And that's clearly the context. So you can still again, you can still say that verse.
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- You don't have to give that context to be giving that one verse summary of the gospel and then just leave it at that.
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- But if you're teaching on that passage, yeah, you certainly want to make sure that you get it right. Now, after I shared that with Tobias, he said that he had a follow up question.
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- So he asked this, what is the great divide between Reformed and Arminian on their interpretation of this verse,
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- John 3, 16? And so I told them that the Arminian view or semi
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- Pelagian, Pelagian, provisionist, etc. OK, we might call it Arminian, but all those different kinds of viewpoints are lumped together with what we might label
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- Arminianism. So the Arminian will say that Jesus died for every single person in the world, that the atonement was universal, but it is affected by faith.
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- The Reformed teaching is, you know, exactly what
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- I just explained. That world simply means more than just Jews. The atonement is particular and it is only for the elect who are known when they come to faith.
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- Like we know who the elect are when they come to faith. We don't know who God has elected from before the foundation of the world.
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- Charles Spurgeon said, I wish it were as easy to just go up behind a person and lift up the back of their shirt and you can see they've got a yellow
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- X. And then, you know, OK, you're an elect and I know to preach the gospel to you that you may come to faith.
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- We are not privy to that information. So the call that is upon us is to go out with the gospel to the entire world and we preach without prejudice that all may hear the call to repent.
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- As Paul preached at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17, the times of ignorance God has overlooked.
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- But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. And the ones who do repent are going to be the ones that God had ordained from before the foundation of the world he had elected, he had predestined.
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- And none of us can question the will of God. There are plenty of people out there. When you say stuff like that, well, that's not fair.
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- How can God choose these people for salvation and not others? Well, as it says in Romans nine,
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- I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion so that it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who has mercy for the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose,
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- I raised you up in order to demonstrate my power in you and in order that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.
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- So then he has mercy on whomever he desires and he hardens whom he desires.
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- You will say to me, then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will? But on the contrary, who are you,
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- O man, who answers back to God? Will the thing molded say to the molder, why did you make me like this?
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- Or does the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
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- And what if God wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience, vessels of wrath having been prepared for destruction and in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he also called not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
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- So nobody can answer back to God. Why have you made me like this? Who are you to say that unto the
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- Lord? God will have mercy on whom he has mercy and compassion on whom he has compassion.
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- You have heard the gospel of Christ. So it is upon you to turn from your sin to Jesus Christ and so live and go out with that message of the gospel to others that they too may hear and believe.
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- That's all I've got for you this week. God bless you. We'll we'll be back again next week with more of Second Corinthians on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
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- I'm going to start teaching in the book of Ecclesiastes on Thursday and then
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- God willing, we've got another Q &A coming up on Friday. Heavenly Father, thanks for this time that we have together as we seek your will according to your word.
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- Teach us to walk in your steps all our days until we come into your kingdom forevermore in Christ Jesus.
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- It's in his name that we pray. Amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.
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- There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.
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- Find a good gospel teaching Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again