Sermon: 3 Essential Christian Truths(Scripture Alone)

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May be seated if you would open your

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Bibles to Galatians chapter 1

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Galatians chapter 1 It's a letter of the

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Apostle Paul To the church in Galatia many have argued. This is one of Paul's very first letters it was a subject that was very very important to him and vitally important to the life and the health of the church and the propagation of the gospel

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Galatians chapter 1 Verse 1 Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God Paul an Apostle not for men nor through man but through Jesus Christ and God the

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Father Who raised him from the dead and all the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia?

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our

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God and Father To whom be the glory forever and ever Amen, I am astonished

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That you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel

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Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel

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Contrary to the one we preach to you. Let him be accursed as we've said before So now

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I say again if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received

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Let him be accursed 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

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I would not be a slave of Christ As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as his people

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God we come before you Lord is redeemed Sinners rescued

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Adopted by you God chosen before the foundation of the world we are your people

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We come before your holy word and We recognize even now father that we shouldn't even be here.

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We shouldn't be in this room gathered together On this day to worship you in ourselves.

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We don't deserve this. We're not qualified for this We don't have the righteousness necessary in ourselves to stand before you and so Lord we boast only in you and your work in us and Lord there are

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Your people that you love the same around the world right now suffering and some dying

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For their faith in Jesus Some have no access to this word, but you've given it to us and we sit here in this room

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With the gift of your word in our hands and in our laps And so Lord we praise you and we ask

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God that today you'd get the preacher out of the way that you would speak by your spirit We pray that Lord you would challenge us open our eyes to the truth

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Lord, please speak by your spirit today to your church Equip us renew us embolden us

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Challenge us where we need to be challenged Lord, I pray in this room if there's anybody in this room

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That's been in the hearing of the gospel and Christian truth their whole life, but they do not know you

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They haven't turned and put their faith in Christ. I pray that today you would open the eyes of the blind

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And give grace and mercy we pray this in Jesus name. Amen Galatians Very short, right?

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I mean, we really don't have an excuse not to read it It's a very short letter of the Apostle Paul to the church in Galatia And as I said before many have argued this is actually one of Paul's very first letters to the churches

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And so can you imagine being in Galatia? There's a bit of a controversy in the background and the

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Apostle Paul and inspired Apostle Writes a letter to the church and this is read before the church.

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Imagine now you're hearing it 2 ,000 years later, but this letter was delivered to the churches in Galatia It was read to the church in Galatia on the

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Lord's Day Just like this and it's a letter from the inspired Apostle and he is speaking so directly to the church

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He goes away from that grand opening address that he has in the book of Romans Romans if you read it has this glorious opening to it

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I mean the first sentence is seven verses long in Romans seven verses

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One long sentence. He's just just just praising God He can't wait to see them and all this and in this letter you have the address

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Emphasis on grace and peace from God and then you have an immediate turn

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That he's amazed He can't believe what's going on that. They're so quickly.

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This is not long after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus So Christian truth can be opposed can be distorted can be degraded within the same generation of living

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Apostles Just consider that you can know the truth You can be

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Propagating Christian truth. You can be doing it faithfully. You can be doing it truthfully and Within that generation where the

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Apostles are still alive. You have the enemy trying to sow seeds of false doctrine

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You have those who were in Galatia who have had interaction with the inspired

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Apostles themselves Who are so quickly deserting the biblical gospel and how important is this in a day like today?

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We live in America today. So truth is, you know, whatever you feel I mean today

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Monday Tuesday, but how do you identify today? You a girl today a boy today? I saw this stupidest thing today this week on tik -tok

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It was a teacher talking about how on one day the student had said that they were one gender

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They identified as one thing and they were used to calling him that and then the next day it changes

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And so they were like, I can't believe I made the mistake. I called him the old pronoun and I felt terrible

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It'll never happen again. We have Flexible truth today that can change day to day even in terms of gender bending

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It doesn't matter Your truth is your truth. How do you feel today?

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What suits you today? but truth is Objective it's the truth and the gospel is what saves

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This is the timeless truth of the gospel It's how God redeems the world and within that generation of living

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Apostles even with contact with the Apostles You have the opportunity for doctrinal error that is so Destructive that the

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Apostle Paul actually goes as far as he possibly can When he uses the words here anathema

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He's talking about eternal separation from God forever Let whoever preaches this false gospel be damned to hell forever.

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By the way, that's what he's saying You understand what he's saying there? He's saying these people who preach false gospel an angel that preaches a false gospel go to hell

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That is what he's saying go to hell It is that serious when it comes to the truth and peace with God Why because there is one

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God and there is one way to peace with God and that is the ultimate That brothers and sisters as the ultimate we all have the same issues together

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We're all in the image of God no matter who you are No matter where you're out in this world You're in the image of God and you're in the image of the same

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God the one God and there is only one way to have Peace with this one God and each of us have the same enemy.

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We have an ultimate enemy. What is it? Death, what's the ultimate enemy for all of us financial catastrophe?

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You can recover from that not enough food in your cabinets You can recover from that car troubles you can recover from that most of human history.

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You didn't have a car You can recover from these things, but what's the ultimate? Divorce isn't even the ultimate disaster.

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God redeems those Broken relationships and friendships God redeems those we come out of those things.

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But what's the ultimate enemy? Death you're gonna die and I'm gonna die

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It's going to happen and Jesus has had victory over death and his victory over death is a guarantee and an assurance that you will have victory over death

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Because he is the one who conquers death and he's the only one that can and so there's only one way

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That you can ultimately have peace with God and conquer your ultimate enemy

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That's Jesus. But there is a gospel that is so precisely defined that Paul can say we gave you this and You're believing this another one

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Not that there is another real gospel, but this that you're believing is Another one.

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This is the gospel this saves this doesn't which is why he says if I come back to you

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And I give to you a different gospel. Let me go to hell That's how serious this is and brothers and sisters just consider

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This is within a generation of the Apostles. They're still alive and kicking.

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This is early on in the history of the church And God in his providence allowed this error to creep into Galatia so that the

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Apostle Paul could give you inspired revelation Defining the gospel to the point that Paul basically deals with the gospel in Galatia this false one

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By saying if you're believing that then Christ is of no benefit to you make a decision grace or law

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But what's the problem? It seems so similar And that's the problem we have today people oftentimes try to blur the lines of distinction between true

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Christian faith and other Seemingly Christian faiths. I mean, what's the problem with somebody believing that you know, they trust in Jesus They believe that he was

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God. They believe that he died that he rose again So what if they believe that ultimately their peace with God is dependent upon their own obedience their own law -keeping

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I mean, what's the big deal? They still believe in Jesus Paul says go to hell That's where that belongs

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Because if you are trusting in yourself and your own righteousness even to the degree of saying how about just this one law

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Circumcision How about we just say look we all trust in Jesus.

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He's the promised Messiah. He's God in the flesh He lived perfectly. He died.

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He rose again. He's ascended but in order to be right with God You kind of have to at least be part of that Jewish community first Let's keep the circumcision and every guy in Galatians like oh

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Can we pick another one? But they say just keep the circumcision the sign that we've been so fixated upon as the people of God that God gave to us

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To identify us and to separate us out this covenant sign. Let's at least keep the sign of circumcision

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Let's just say faith in Jesus and just this one thing. Can we please pretty please just have this

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Jewish sign? circumcision Paul says Christ has become of no effect to you who serve if you attempt to be justified by law you've fallen from grace

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Fallen from grace. How are you saved by grace? Through faith

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Paul says in Ephesians 2 and that not of yourselves It is the gift of God not according to works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship

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Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has already prepared beforehand that we should walk in them

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God's gospel is a gospel. That's good news It's a gospel of grace unmerited favor and we only receive this peace with God through faith and So the

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Apostle Paul can actually say choose grace or law Choose your righteousness or rather your unrighteousness or the righteousness of another

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The righteousness that comes from God Through faith in Jesus Christ Paul actually goes on to say that look if you want to compare resumes

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I can beat you Circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin as to the law a

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Pharisee Trained on a gamaliel. I've got the best Jewish education and he says

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I don't want any of that I want the righteousness that comes from God the one that is through faith in Jesus Christ This is the true

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Christian faith We are saved because of the work of Jesus Christ and not our own work and how vital is this in our day?

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so vital So many Christians before us have fought these battles Have defended the truth against error and we live in a day where we are no longer allowed

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To simply assume that we understand these things or that we know why we believe them

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We have to know them and why we believe them and we have to be able to articulate and defend them

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I've said oftentimes that there are things That you should hold with an open hand for example, there's

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Disputes amongst Christians. We know this even in this body itself. We keep these things with an open hand

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Do you want to have head coverings as a woman or not? Do it before the

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Lord do it to the glory of God, but we have open hands over these things How do you want to do this thing or that thing or how do you want to eat or not eat or drink or not?

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Drink we have open hands Christian liberty Christian freedom and we love one another and we maintain unity even over issues that are actually important give an example

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What we preach from the pulpit here at Apologia Church in terms of the future is a victorious future

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Because of the gospel we're post -millennialists. We love it We think that it's actually very important and it does have an impact in your praxis and your life and your mission world it's very important, but there's differences between Post -millennialists and that's okay.

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Those are open -handed issues. There's differences amongst solidly there are more powerful men of God than I will ever be that disagree with me in eschatology and that's

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Okay open hand What do we agree on? Jesus is coming back and he will judge the living in the dead

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There will be a final judgment and a physical resurrection. All this is getting wrapped up We agree on that open hand some issues.

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What do I always say? As Christians we need to just be able to say shut up Right be quiet Because whatever the issue is if it's not an essential core thing it ought not divide you as brothers and sisters in Christ open hand but there are certain issues that we should have very closed hands and we need to be willing to let goods and Kindred go your mortal life also

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So I'm gonna talk to you today just briefly about three Three Things that are core.

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These are closed hand. These are things that you do not let go These are things that define true biblical faith and I'm going to speak in particular to the children in this room the teenagers in this room

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You may have experienced the gift and the blessing of growing up in a Christian community with truth all around you

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Consistent believers all around you. You've seen a love of the Christian community. You've seen the hospitality

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You've seen the grieving together. You've seen the pouring out constantly into each other's lives and you might really love this

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Experience, but it won't save you and it won't change you You have to know

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Christ yourself. You have to know why you believe these things. You have to know where it's at I mean, what good are we as a church body?

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If if somebody asks us who God is we can't even articulate the Trinity Shame on us.

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It's not to say that the triune God of the universe Can be fully comprehended by creatures like us

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But what he has revealed? Belongs to us and to our children and as to that we must stay committed three things

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Number one the supremacy of the Word the supremacy of the written revelation of God the

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Word of God number two the supremacy of the Trinity and Number three the supremacy of faith.

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And when I say that I mean how we're saved Through faith and through faith alone, so let's go quickly and I'm gonna encourage you after this message challenge you

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Listen to the sermons the extensive sermons we've done on these things Listen to the debates the dr.

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White pastor White has done on the Trinity on these issues Read good solid books that dig these things up and explain them so that you know these things

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I'm not asking you brothers and sisters to have a seminary education I'm asking you to hold on to the essentials of the

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Christian faith the things that define the heart of our belief in our lives The things that transform the world to know these things and why you believe them.

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Do you know how? You can articulate these and defend these we need to know so number one.

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I Want to point out again that the Christian faith can be known this of course

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Shouldn't be a shock to apology a church But it is oftentimes something that people would disagree with in the culture today

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They would argue the Christian faith can't ultimately be defined I mean just so long as somebody says they believe in Jesus How many of you guys have heard that go into the

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Mormon temple and Mesa talking to the average Mormon on the street? What do they say? They say we're

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Christians, too We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe he's a son of God.

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We believe that he died We believe that he rose again, and we believe that salvation is only through him

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Now what I just told you Sounds like you're talking to a believer

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But if you ask the right questions You'll discover that you're talking to somebody Who believes that Jesus Christ is a created being who became a

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God one day whose brothers with Lucifer and is just one God among many gods and When they talk about salvation is in Christ.

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They don't mean solely through his work They mean that you are saved by grace after all you can do

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But the Christian faith can be defined you see the Apostles expressing this 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 11 Paul's worried about the believers there in Corinth that they'll be deceived by the craftiness of Satan and that they'll actually

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Believe in a different Jesus a different gospel a different spirit again Don't forget this is in the lifetime of living

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Apostles He is worried after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus that this church is gonna bite down on a false

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Christ and why is that a problem there is only one God and One mediator between God and men the man

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Christ Jesus There is only one way to be saved you can worship a stone altar You can worship hay gold stubble, whatever it might be.

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It can't save you and a false Jesus is The same idolatry as Worshiping the golden calf

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It's a God that can't save you. So having a false Christ means you have a false

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God That's why it's vital Galatians chapter 1 Paul says the gospel can be defined and in 2nd

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John Go there. It's near the end of your New Testament. I want to show you in 2nd

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John The Apostle is dealing with the church and the early beginnings of Gnosticism we've done this before but I want you to have these anchors and Know why this is so important in 2nd

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John. It's so short There aren't even chapters to point you to it's one page.

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And here's what John says in Verse 4 I Rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth

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Just as we were commanded by the father and now I ask you dear lady Not as though I were writing you a new commandment

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But the one we have had from the beginning that we love one another and this is love that we walk according to his commandments

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This is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it for many deceivers

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Have gone out into the world those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh

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Such a one is the deceiver and the Antichrist Apparently there's many

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Antichrists Watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have to work for but may win a full reward everyone who goes on ahead or goes too far and Does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

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God Whoever abides in the teaching has both the father and the son if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching

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Do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting for whoever greets him partakes part in his wicked works

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That's dealing with the church At the time the church was forming and they were growing there in Rome pagan society

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They're considered enemies of the state at one point in the first century For confessing

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Jesus as Lord over Kaiser Kyrgios Caesar is Lord They're meeting in houses sometimes even in hiding from the government and John says that there are deceivers

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There are Antichrists who believe in a version of Christ They say they believe in Jesus.

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They just denied that he actually took on flesh That God would take on flesh and become actually human again the beginnings of Gnosticism and John says you are not to even allow

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One of these false teachers and deceivers into your fellowship So as to disrupt it you don't even allow them to come in to disrupt the body of Christ Don't let him into your house

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Apparently Jesus His work his life and his gospel could be understood in the first century so that you can say this but not that This is true, but that is not true

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This will give you eternal life and this will condemn you to hell

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We don't like to hear that today, but brothers and sisters. Can I just say this make a choice? You believe this revelation or you don't

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Don't Be selective of what you believe by this book and never make apologies for this book This is either the revelation of the true and living

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God or it's not there's no middle ground Don't take pieces of it and say

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I accept that as a creature, but I don't like this part of the story Either this is

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God's Word or it's the words of mere men make a choice And if you believe that it's

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God's Word go all the way say what it says Do what it tells you to do?

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And if you have the inspired Apostles who walked with Jesus ate with him touched him

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Tell you that this is Christ and this is not Christ this is true and this is deception then believe it brothers and sisters and Tell people the same

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So let's talk about the supremacy of the word three things

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And today we're not going to go for hours I want to impress these things on us as a church because we're living in a time

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Where you cannot merely assume this and we're living in a time where you had better know what you believe and why you believe it

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Let me just pause for a second. I've been thinking a lot about something lately Oftentimes I think

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Christians We've come to die amen When you come to Jesus you come to die, that's the true that's the true call of the gospel

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We know the story Jesus says to people if anyone comes to me does not hate He names your favorite people mother father sister brother wife even your own life

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You're not worthy to be my disciple And so Jesus tells people to come take up the cross do the death march come follow him to die

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That's what it means to come to Christ. You come to die and rise again trusting in him means new creation.

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There's a death There's a resurrection And I think oftentimes you have true believers who will say

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I'm willing to die for my faith Now stop for a second and think about what we generally mean by that.

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I mean, I this is just my perspective There could be more but I think generally speaking you talk to Christians and you say you're willing to die for your faith

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They'll say yes and I think what we mean when we categorize that death or suffering or persecution is we say things like You know if somebody asked me to deny that Jesus is

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Lord, I'm not doing it you can take my head How many times did it take place in Afghanistan this last week?

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I won't deny Christ and that's how we usually sort of Express it like it means like someone's gonna tell me deny your faith in Jesus say he's not the

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Son of God or Maybe it even comes down to something like a doctrinal issue.

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That's very important It's essential that salvation is through faith in Christ alone I'm willing to die for that.

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Most Christians say yeah, I'll die for those truths and I think persecution will look like that But brothers and sisters the persecution of the church over righteousness and truth

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Oftentimes means you'll be in a jail cell Suffering for righteousness over an issue that you never would have imagined

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Would be your suffering for righteousness. How about the Covenanters? Why were they killed?

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Why were they murdered? Why were they starved to death in the elements? Why did their children die in front of them?

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It wasn't for faith in Christ or that. He's the Son of God They were saying

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I will not say That the king has authority over the church

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That's why they died Now pause for a second Would you?

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Would I? Be willing to watch your family starve to death in freezing cold for weeks and months on end

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When all you have to say is that the king has authority over the worship of the church

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If you say it you're released if you say it you're out the

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Covenanters signed the National Covenant in their own blood because they knew in Signing that declaration that Jesus was

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Lord over the church and over Scotland They knew I have to sign this in blood because I know

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I'm committing to die Would you suffer for righteousness to that degree to say that the government has no authority over the worship of the church

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Brothers and sisters, there's pastors in jail this last year for that very reason and There were

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Christians saying they're wrong. They should have just yielded bent

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Gone that direction. They should have just accepted it. They wouldn't be in jail today. Just wear the stupid mask.

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Just get the vaccine You know suffering for righteousness in a day like ours may not be over these core issues

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It may be over rejecting a mandatory vaccine That's straight from hell

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I'm not talking about vaccines today. We're not doing the data on all that. I'm talking about Jesus is

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Lord over my body and Suffering for righteousness at times may look like suffering over things.

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You never imagined you'd be suffering for But these are things

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Supremacy of The word supremacy of the Trinity and supremacy of the Christian doctrine of justification through faith supremacy of faith

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So let's talk about the supremacy of the word quickly. Why do you believe what you believe? Why do you have certainty?

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Let's just go for a second with this kids Let's say that you are doing chores at home

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Mom and dad say to you if you do all this work for this many hours this many days I'll pay you this much money.

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And so kids you work you labor you do what you're told you do your chores And then you get fat stacks from dad.

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He pays you you take that money you put it into Piggy bank, or does that exist anymore?

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You put it somewhere? Now that's your money. You earned it It's your property and let's say another kid comes into your room and Takes that money that you earned that dad gave you for your work and labor.

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It belongs to you Question Is that wrong? I'm asking the kids now, right?

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Is it wrong for someone to walk into your room and take something that belongs to you that you worked hard for?

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Is it wrong for someone to walk in and steal from you? Who says? you

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Just because you say so is it because mom and dad told you it's wrong to steal.

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How do they know? They just kind of got here to what's that? God the simplicity of the

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Christian faith God's own character is the central reference point God doesn't answer to anybody next to him above him below him

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He is the standard God is love love does no harm to its neighbor Therefore I don't steal why not because I feel like I shouldn't steal because it doesn't seem right to me

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But because God is the standard and God spoke and he said this but not that you shall not

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Steal it's because God is not a thief And so when

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I say you shouldn't steal you ought not steal it's because it's based on the Word of God You can't go beyond it the supremacy of the word.

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How do you know what you know? How do you know really so that you can't change your bend your you can't change your gender?

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I'm saying gender bending. You can't change your gender six times till Sunday. How come?

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Now everyone today that we see doing these foolish things Monday saying can't be defined

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Tuesday feeling like a lady Wednesday feeling like a dude people in the culture today are saying they should be allowed to do that because who really knows on What basis do you have certainty to say

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God created male and female? I just said it the

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Word of God Jesus said Have you not read that from the beginning?

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He created the male and female and that a man shall leave his father and mother and Cling to his wife and become one flesh.

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That's how I know Because when God became a man he expressed

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God's ordained Creative purpose in male and female relationships

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That's how I know a lot of people don't like the simplicity of this how do you know what you know because God says so and Brothers and sisters that goes beyond the dispute you have with the secularist today

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It goes into doctrinal issues, too And this issue brothers and sisters This is core get this and you'll get kind of the main point

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I'm getting at when you talk about the supremacy of the word This dispute goes back to the very beginning of this book

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Genesis chapters 1 through 3 God is the sovereign.

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He's the creator of all things. I was thinking we were actually coming home from the airport

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You have to excuse me Salt Lake City ruined me with the allergies. Can you guys all hear me?

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Okay We were in the car and Stellar and Jude were with us in the car and we were talking about the

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Concorde flight They used to fly like what is like 1 ,300 miles per hour. The nose went down.

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He broke this speed of sound and Then I think Jude said how fast is the speed of light?

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and so We googled it It's like a hundred and eighty three thousand miles per hour.

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What's that? Per second, sorry second What per second

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The galaxy that we live in we can't traverse at the speed of light

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Because of the length even and it's impossible to go that fast with anything with mass like a ship or a human body this

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Universe is so incomprehensible We can't even make it across one edge of our galaxy to the other at the speed of light that sheer distance will never it'll

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Never happen in our lifetime. And even if you could travel that fast right now, you wouldn't make it across per second and This sovereign

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God creates the universe and he has all authority. He answers to nobody

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We had some deep theological conversations while we were stuck last night in Salt Lake City and my son

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Stellar said, you know when you really think about it guys The day you do that is the day you die

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Now question think about it who says? Who says

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It's simple the sovereign eternal God said the one who answers to nobody

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The one who's the reference point of all truth the one who is the truth said this but not that The day you do you'll die now watch because every conflict comes down to this point in Genesis 1 through 3

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You don't want to know where sola scriptura ultimately comes from. We love the Reformation were reformed were

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Calvinist a hundred proof We're all of that. You know where it really starts Genesis 1 through 3.

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That's where it starts if you want to know where the doctrine Begins unfolding in Scripture.

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It's Genesis 1 through 3. What do you have one voice? God says Satan comes along and he's crafty.

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He deceives and he says Half God said did

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God really say he says no. No. No, no, you see You won't die.

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God says die. Satan says not die. So now you have two claims. One is die.

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One is not die and And the devil says you see if you do eat of it

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You'll be like God You'll be the determiner of good and evil Knowing good and evil is not experiencing it.

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It's settling it for yourself. I Will be the one who determines what's right and wrong

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Do you see the point at the very beginning? It was God saying this is right. This is wrong and Satan says no

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No, no, he's trying to keep you from determining what's right and wrong. How does he know and So, of course they eat of the fruit and what takes place they did die that day and then

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God promises the Redeemer But the whole dispute comes down to that point

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God says and here's another voice now stay with me on this because it's the problem of all human history

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You have the voice of God His revelation and you have another voice that comes along and says but this

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Genesis 1 through 3, how do you know anything at all? Some of you guys have recently seen my discussions with an atheist pro -choicer pro

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BLM Pro sex work, whatever all the other things. They're pro all bad stuff.

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Okay we've had some discussions on apology or radio with this person who says they want to have an engagement and You'll notice that every turn the unbeliever in those discussions

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Cannot root their knowledge in any certainty. They'll decry evils like rape theft lying murder

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Pedophilia, but when you really challenge, how do you know those things are morally evil?

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They'll say well ultimately nothing is evil and nothing ultimately matters Acting like image bearers of God all the while denying

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God and the grounding of certainty Brothers and sisters listen to this. I say this often because I think it needs to be memorized by us

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Christians are the only ones With a truly philosophically justified basis to say that you ought to love your neighbor rather than eat them

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Most people say I thought that was kind of assumed by all of us Not everywhere in the world

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Do you guys ever see that? I got a I'll probably try to share it tonight. Do you ever see that? That really famous leftist

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Secularist he's written stuff attacking Jesus He went as a journalist to go

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Interview this cannibalistic tribe It I I found it to be so delicious

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Because he goes to this tribe today There are cannibalistic tribes today around the world who eat other human beings and he goes to them this this recipient this man who attacks

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Christ who's a recipient of the benefits of Christian civilization where we love our neighbors and don't eat them and he goes to sit with These cannibals and this cannibal

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Terrifies him and so in the middle of the interview this cannibal basically says that he'll kill him and eat him

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And so the journalist who went there to like interview like whispers over to the camera guy Maybe we should just go and we should make our way out of here.

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Like he's terrified because now he's face -to -face with people who don't have his certainty and Only the

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Christian faith can give you a philosophically justifiable basis to say love them not eat them

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How do you know what you know? God's Word is self -attesting. It is self -attesting

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Self -authorizing when God speaks. It's the truth. He doesn't say

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I'm Telling you because of this other authority over here or because this thing over here when

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God Speaks it's the truth and that's the basis of Our faith the revelation of God the supremacy of the word is the central reference point

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You see that in Genesis 1 through 3 that conflict you see it unfolding more in Deuteronomy 13 1 through 5 what's the test go there in your

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Bibles? Let's hope my voice hangs on Deuteronomy 13 the law of God God's protecting his people and he says this if a prophet verse 1 or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and The sign or wonder that you he tells you comes to pass and if he says let us go after other gods

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Which you have not known and let us serve them You should not listen to the words of that prophet or the dreamer of dreams for the

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Lord your God is testing you To know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul you should walk after the

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Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and Obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him

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So stop think about it What's happening in Israel they're getting law from God as to how to test a prophet and What was the test of a prophet in Deuteronomy 13?

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Even if it looks real, even if it looks like a successful ministry, there are signs and wonders happening

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It seems like the supernatural is at work in this guy's ministry What is the Word of God saying if he leads you after other gods?

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Gods, which you have not known He's a false prophet, so what was the standard for Israel even listen with living prophets like Moses the standard was

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God's revelation was supreme The voice of the prophets had to be tested by God's previous revelation

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God's given commandments That's his revelation Obey those and don't listen to the voice of the lying prophets.

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What do you have here in Deuteronomy 13 two voices? One is the previous voice the revelation of God and you have the voice of the prophet

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How are you supposed to test prophets pray about it? See if you get a burning in your bosom

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No, how about it feels better? Many people today are deluded by the visual by the aesthetics

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You walk into a place You've got the huge stained -glass windows, which by the way,

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I have no problem with I think we need those in churches I love them you have this ornate

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Worship Center everything looks beautiful. You have people dressed up in all kinds of crazy ornate things it seems so spiritual and so high and so it must be

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God and People are deluded and deceived because they say well this feels like the presence of God brothers and sisters if that communion is contradicting the word of the

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Living God then that communion is Apostate that communion isn't true.

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We don't believe things based upon emotion or Visual appeal brothers and sisters think about this for a second.

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Think about your own inconsistencies. Don't pretend we all have bad days You have moments where your mind wanders you have moments where you deal with unbelief you deal with anxious anxiousness

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I'm gonna say I'm believe I'm an anxiousness worry about the future. It's just unbelief when you deal with those things you have an inner voice

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Right. How many times a week are you wrong? If you think you're not look to your spouse and ask them

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Right, we're wrong a lot we respond to trials in a wrong way

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We assess situations wrong at times How many times have you been if you're an adult in a situation where you have someone close to you?

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They love you. You love them. They tell you something that happened. Maybe they're talking about somebody else you bit down You believed it.

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You didn't follow God's standards next thing. You know, you find out maybe it was them that was wrong or that they were lying

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How many times are we wrong? We can be wrong a lot. So what should you never trust as ultimate?

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Your inner monologue your voice By the way, you want to get free from anxiety and despair and fear of the future

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It's not gonna come to you ultimately through a pill It's gonna come to you ultimately by trusting in this word as supreme and telling yourself to shut up Right, oh

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Things are going wrong. Things are terrible. Things are awful. The world is collapsing no, why don't you just be quiet and trust in God's Word that every hair of your head is numbered and that birds don't fall from branches apart from your father's knowledge and That you shouldn't have any fear of death that you can't change and add an hour to your span of life by your worry

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Dealing with your own. So what here's the point? Sometimes you've got the voice of God and the voice of a false prophet

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Sometimes you got the voice of God and the voice of a theological institution Sometimes you got the voice of God and the voice of the government.

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Sometimes you got the voice of God and your incorrect inner monologue

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How do you know? What's true? Based upon what you feel your experience the visual appeal the signs and the wonders

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God doesn't say the signs and the wonders are the ultimate test. It's the

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Word of God in his previous revelation next point Isaiah 820 just to show you some more of this in Scripture Isaiah 820

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Prophet Isaiah says to the law to the Torah and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word

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It is because they have no light in them No dawn

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Now I have that memorized by heart because that is the verse I take with me when I go to witness to the

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Mormons To the law and to the testimony. That's the standard if they don't speak according to this word

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It is because they have no light in them. That is the standard of God through Scripture next point

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Jesus in Matthew 15, this is vital. Please get me on this brothers and sisters. This is so vital.

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I need you to hold on to this Christian history is glorious and ugly and Contradictory your best heroes in Christian history are gonna have pages where you go

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Wow this person Did this in the fourth century?

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They have this kind of depth of insight Why don't we have more people like this today and then you turn the page and you go?

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Whoa face plant Massive face plant your greatest heroes from Christian history are like you inconsistent fallible mortals

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Christian history is glorious Because of God's work by his spirit in the history of the church We have the

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Trinity defended defined in ways that are so powerful. Don't miss it. Don't lose it.

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It's a gift We have so much benefit behind us Christian history is amazing

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Christian tradition can be glorious and a huge help We have tradition here at Apology of Church.

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We hold to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith We think that that's great But is it the ultimate standard no, this is devastating because So many people have been deluded by arguments of Christian history most of the time they're completely just lied to Christians have always done this or believe this as James has said many times before Anybody who uses those arguments with you hasn't read

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Christian history It's a beautiful mess You see you see Essential unity and you see some pretty significant departures at times that are like wow, that's kind of embarrassing

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I thought you would have known better than that but oftentimes people will say well, we've got this tradition and This tradition really has been given to us by God by the way

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It's not just Rome that says that it's not just Eastern Orthodoxy that says that it was also the first century

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Jews that said that in their day they said we have a divine tradition that is not in this book

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They had the books we had they're laid up in the temple You could have walked over there and they were over there same

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Bible same Old Testament They had them stored up in the Jewish temple same thing they had the Bible, but they also had this divine tradition that they said was orally passed down and These things are from God they are

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Binding you have to do them. They're authoritative and Jesus deals with them in Matthew 15 go there

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This is how God in the flesh deals with their divine tradition and It's the way all of us ought to deal with claims to divine tradition

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So I'll give you example as you're getting there our first Catechism. What is our primary purpose?

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That sounded so terrible It's to glorify

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God and to enjoy him forever you like to glorify God enjoy him from Yeah, it didn't sound very enjoyable

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What is man's primary purpose? to glorify

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God and to enjoy him forever And we memorize scripture that goes with that right what's the scripture we say in your presence is fullness of joy

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In your right hand, there are pleasures forever How do we know that that Catechism question is actually true is it because your pastor stood up here and Told you this is the question.

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This is the answer because we say so How do we know that that Catechism question and answer is actually true.

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It's from God Because it agrees with scripture So we have a tradition that's actually

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Good it is a tradition. It's not in the Bible that question and answer is not in the

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Bible believe it or not But that truth in the question and answer and in that tradition is from God It's true because scripture agrees with it

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So tradition can be good But the only way to know if tradition is true is that it agrees with the

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Word of the Living God in this case It says in verse 1 of chapter 15

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Then the 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 for God?

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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 He need not honor his father.

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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

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But their heart is far from me. Here it is in vain Do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of what?

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Those are men's words not God's words So, what does Jesus do? Same thing that goes back to the garden same thing happening in Deuteronomy chapter 13

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Same thing as a standard throughout the Word of God is he says this ready? Moses says that's from God.

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Here's God's Word, but you say and what were they doing? the

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Korban rule What they were saying was this. Hey, look honor your father and your mother

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By the way, this is huge so important The expectation in Scripture God's law is so good.

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I'm gonna try not to go too far on this The expectation in Scripture is that the family that God forms?

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That family is in this reciprocal Relationship of gift and blessing and serving throughout the perpetuity of its life

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It's just a cycle of blessing obedience and care and concern in this little sphere this little world

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God has made So for example in God's Word when the father dies his

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Stuff that inheritance is supposed to go passed down to the firstborn so that the firstborn in the family can then

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Distribute the earnings and good and the goods and wealth of the father and the family

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To that next generation to invest and to expand wealth

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To care for the family to start businesses to get homes and things to feed people

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It comes to the family and it grows and every generation is more and more blessing and wealth and care for one another

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Now our government says the firstborn doesn't get the inheritance now the government's the firstborn

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You ever hear about estate tax? Death tax. What's that mean? The government says we're the firstborn.

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We'll take first It's wicked but God also says honor your father and your mother and We use this oftentimes in the wrong way.

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This is important I'm gonna I'm gonna go on this because it's actually vital in the

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New Testament It actually says that if somebody doesn't care for the needs of their family They are worse than an unbeliever.

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They denied the faith Now, yes, the principle there does apply to men fathers

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Husbands you take care of your wives you take care of your families no matter how hard it is

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It's your responsibility to care for their needs no excuses. You don't do it.

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You're worse than an unbeliever You've denied the faith No deadbeat dads in Christianity, amen but actually

55:43

The real principle there is an application to your caring for your family

55:50

When your parents become elderly and can't care for themselves. So what's the deal the parents take care of the kids?

55:59

Feed them provide for them invest in them. They grow up the parents get old and start to die

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Now the children are supposed to care for the parents provide for them care for their needs these wicked

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Religious people were saying wait a second I know it says honor your father and your mother and it's my responsibility to care for my parents

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But you see what I've done actually is taken the money that I've earned That should go towards caring for their needs and I've given it to the temple

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Instead of giving it to my parents I gave it to God I gave it to the church

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How many of these awful? charlatan word -of -faith preachers Have taken money from people

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That should have gone to care for their families and they said just give it give it to the new work of the

56:54

Lord Give it to the 18 -wheelers. We need to buy give it to this new building. We need to purchase and Hey that money you're giving to God.

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It's all glorifying God know that money should have gone to your family to take care of them But these people were manipulating the

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Jews by saying you don't need to really honor your father and your mother in that way You can do it by just funding this building project

57:19

Giving it to the temple and Jesus says this Moses says but you say thus you've invalidated

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God's Word for the sake of your tradition. This is a commandment of men not from God You have voided

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God's Word for the sake of your tradition Now brothers and sisters stop for a second Contextualize it

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These were the covenant people of God who said that they believed this book They believed it, but they said they just had this divine tradition over here that was passed down You're supposed to believe this too.

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It's binding. How did Jesus test to claim? He said well, wait a second

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Moses says this but you say that Thus you voided

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God's revelation for the sake of your tradition When God became a man ready, he tested the church's traditions by what?

58:13

Scripture the Word of God The supremacy of the word so would you guys mind if I extended the sermons the next time

58:24

I preach I Have so much more to say, but I don't want to abuse you today, and I'm losing my voice

58:31

And I don't want to miss any of this. So I'm gonna finish this this point and then we'll go to the other two

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In a single sermon, hopefully my voice will be better the

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Apostles When they were in a fight They didn't just say based upon their own authority.

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This is how you know They would say things like what does the scripture say?

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God says and then they would quote the revelation of God. So in other words when they were

59:07

Systematically delivering Christian truth the gospel itself say the book of Romans Paul doesn't simply say believe it on my say so he says

59:18

God says how was Abraham saved? Here's what the text says

59:23

He says the Word of God is the standard if you want to know if what I'm saying is true Go to the scriptures.

59:29

So the Apostles own methodology was what is the scripture say? Now again tradition can be good

59:36

But where's our certainty as to whether that tradition is true? Let me give you my point on this one of my great heroes of the

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Christian faith is Athanasius Always will be actually

59:51

I have him tattooed on my arm Athanasius contra mundum Athanasius against the world

59:57

We jokingly call him the patron saint of post -millennialism Because if you read some of his stuff on the future, it is so beautiful and so glorious He wouldn't even know the word post -millennialism, but it's so beautiful It's so encouraging and inspiring and it's written by a guy

01:00:15

Who was like the last man standing defending the Trinity The Christian Church had taught the

01:00:21

Trinity defended the Trinity for centuries Arianism was defeated and then it was like somebody blinked and now the whole world was

01:00:29

Arian and they say Athanasius contra mundum Athanasius against the world

01:00:35

Because it was like he was the last man standing for the doctrine of the Trinity which was defined by Christians defended by Christians for centuries and All of a sudden so much doctrinal decay enters the church.

01:00:50

It's like Athanasius is the last man standing He's my favorite.

01:00:57

I love him, but do I believe in the Trinity? Because simply the church says so I'm glad the church says so and has said so through Christian history

01:01:12

But why do I ultimately believe in the triune God of Scripture? Because that's what the

01:01:18

Bible teaches That's what the Word of God says It's found in this revelation

01:01:25

That's why I believe it and I thank God that the Saints have gathered gathered around that truth and held it up in history

01:01:33

But we know the tradition is good because Scripture will confirm it. How are you gonna fight today?

01:01:40

Against the gender bending in our culture Are you gonna just do it off statistical studies?

01:01:48

About what might be good or might not be good for human beings Are you gonna be the kind of Christian that actually engages the world?

01:01:56

With the Word of God and his revelation so that all those conversations can ultimately be about the gospel itself

01:02:03

You see what's gonna heal the gender bending of our day and the broken sexual culture that we live in is not mere statistics

01:02:12

It's gonna be calling people to look to God's Word and to see their own sin and their need for the

01:02:18

Savior Our world isn't changing on Neutral ground our world needs

01:02:23

Christ And so if we're gonna fight against the gender bending in our day, it has to be with the

01:02:30

Word of God the supremacy of his Word How are you gonna deal with the redefinitions going on in our day?

01:02:37

Will you deal with it with the voice of God versus their voice or in some other way?

01:02:44

How will you? actually articulate Absolute moral claims say against on the issue of sexual

01:02:55

Harmony against issues of theft or whatever. How will you deal today?

01:03:01

with the people who claim that they're fighting for justice when their justice is actually perverse and it's

01:03:09

Injustice. Will you do it with the voice of God or with some other voice?

01:03:15

The supremacy of the Word of God is essential How will you deal with the issue of abortion?

01:03:23

Will you deal with it on neutral ground? just trying to convince people that Hey, it might feel pain or maybe it has a heartbeat or will you deal with it on the basis of what

01:03:36

God says that actually is and How God commands against murder because brothers and sisters, isn't it amazing you've been here long enough many of you to know this

01:03:47

When we engage in this battle against the issue of abortion with the gospel, some of you like me were probably shocked

01:03:53

To see people as you challenge their position on the issue of abortion They're for abortion as you challenge and challenge and challenge you finally knock everything down you get to the bottom line

01:04:05

And what do they finally confess? I know that it's human I just believe a mother should be able to kill her own child.

01:04:13

It wasn't ever actually can it feel pain? Is It conscious? Does it have a heartbeat that doesn't matter to a person who's dead set on?

01:04:24

Their own personal freedom and the death of their own child So, how do you deal with an issue like that?

01:04:31

It's gonna be the voice of God versus their voice Next This question the supremacy of the word is important because we need to ask the question by what standard

01:04:44

It's one of our favorite questions and the reason why is because it's a very good one by what standard

01:04:51

Now watch we might use this a lot in our debates with the atheists the secularists the humanists because it's a powerful question

01:04:58

But let me just demonstrate something. It's not just an apologetic tool It's actually this it's this question.

01:05:05

Are you having conflict in your marriage? By what standard are you gonna solve that?

01:05:12

Husbands are you not living up to your duties as a husband by what standard?

01:05:18

Should that be addressed? wives same question Children same question in our relationships with one another if we have conflict we have disagreements

01:05:29

We have a collision with each other. The question is by what standard will we actually engage?

01:05:37

People don't like it because it does trip you up a bit at times. You'll have Christians even both professing believers

01:05:45

Who will be in a class with each other and the first instinct is? humanist Secularist worldly.

01:05:52

Oh, yeah, you don't agree with me. You don't want to make it right. Let's take it to court Let's go right to court.

01:05:59

Now the pastor comes in and says what? Actually first Corinthians chapter 6

01:06:05

Paul commands against believers going to unbelievers to trial at court to handle these disputes.

01:06:11

It's supposed to be handled within the church So no, you can't go to court over that just leap right to it.

01:06:17

It's supposed to be handled by the church So by what standard will you handle disputes? By what standard will we go to war?

01:06:28

See how important it is People are over the last couple of weeks are talking about the failures in Afghanistan everything that's happened there

01:06:36

That's not what the sermons about today. But here's the question by what standard ought we?

01:06:42

have gone to Afghanistan or Ought we have gone to Iraq or ought we have to gone to this country or that country?

01:06:50

Is it just off the whims of the current government or that president by what standard will we go to war?

01:06:56

Do you know the Bible actually has answers to that question and We'd be better off learning to obey it

01:07:04

By what standard will we educate our kids? By what standard will we tax the public in?

01:07:14

Scripture if just throw this out to whet your appetite in scripture. It actually says

01:07:21

That the people of God wanted a king like the other nations But God said But I'm their king

01:07:28

So I'll go ahead and give him a king to punish them and what he's gonna do is that King because they didn't want me as King that Kings gonna take their kids to war and he's gonna tax them at 10 %

01:07:44

Think about it. God said I will judge my people by allowing the government to tax them at 10 %

01:07:51

They will actually have the audacity to think that they're worthy of the tithe

01:07:57

The government So, okay 10 % is judgment from God 10 % taxation is gut is judgment from God So by what standard ought we to tax the public?

01:08:12

We have to believe in the supremacy of the Word of God to actually answer that question or by what standard we punish criminals

01:08:20

Should we cut off people's hands because they steal Should we

01:08:25

Take a man and put him behind a cage for a lifetime sentence

01:08:33

Because of something that he could have actually made right with the victim By what standard we punish criminals and by what standard will we settle doctrinal disputes?

01:08:45

Is it gonna be based on a feeling and emotion? Is it gonna be based on?

01:08:51

visual appeal Is it gonna be based on experience it felt real to me or will it be based upon the supremacy of God's Word testing all things by Scripture by what standard will we test prophets and by what standard will we hold pastors accountable?

01:09:12

We must as Christians believe in the supremacy of God's Word. That is the foundation of our hope

01:09:19

How do you know you have peace with God it shouldn't be because the church told you so it should be based upon things like this

01:09:27

Truly truly. I say to you he who hears my word and Believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death and into life therefore having been declared righteous by faith

01:09:45

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ that is the certainty of our faith and it's not based upon your feeling your emotion your inner monologue or even the testimony of the church as Ultimate it's based upon God's Word all of life comes down to God says but you say we must as believers be committed to the supremacy of God's Word as we face this culture today and Moving forward before the

01:10:17

Lord calls us home This is one of the most essential things to have rooted in your hearts and your minds the supremacy of God's Revelation Let's pray

01:10:27

Father I pray did you bless the word that went out today for your glory and for your kingdom? I pray that this truth would be something that finds its way into all of our hearts and minds

01:10:38

That it gets rooted there that we understand why we believe it that we can articulate it

01:10:45

We can defend it. I pray that you'd use our body With this truth for your glory in Jesus name.