Love Is Not Against The Law - [Matthew 5:43-47]

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Enemies, do you have any enemies? How many enemies do you have?
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If you have any, what is your attitude towards your enemies? Do you love them?
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You pray for them? You cast down imprecatory Psalms upon their head?
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This is my Father's world, but it's also the King's world. And the King has a mandate for how to live in His presence.
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And let's turn our Bibles to Matthew 5 for a message from our King Jesus about enemies that is shocking, it's staggering.
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If you were one of the original readers, it would floor you. To use the term, it would bowl you over.
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It is an amazing passage that cuts right to the heart of the matter when it comes to loving not just our neighbors, but also our enemies.
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Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is commonly called the Sermon on the
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Mount. There's lots of mountains in Matthew. It's called the Gospel of the Mountain.
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Can you remember the third temptation of Jesus on the mountaintop with Satan? The transfiguration on the mountain?
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The great commission on the mountain? And here we have a sermon, the Sermon on the
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Mount, delivered from this mountain. John Stott said, with almost deliberateness between Moses on Sinai delivering the law to Israel, and now
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Jesus on the New Testament Sinai, as it were, delivering the law, the
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King's law, to His people. If you look at Matthew 5, verse 1, it says, when
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Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain. And in rabbinic style, in a style that shows authority and instruction is about to come forth,
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He sat down, His disciples came to Him, and He opened His mouth, again a language that talks about urgency and importance, and He began to teach them, saying, and here
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Jesus then gives the beatitudes and then the similitudes, all talking about righteousness, real righteousness is manifest in what way in Christ's kingdom.
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How is that coming about? And if you look at Matthew 5, verse 20, really the verse that should unlock all of 5, 6, and 7 for us is talking about the
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Pharisees and the scribes and how they look at righteousness and then how Christ Jesus offers a different view, a biblical view, a
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God -centered view. And if you see it in verse 20, Jesus said, for I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And Jesus is saying in contrast to the self -righteous, the external righteousness, all the outside show righteousness, as I said last week with peacock -like style that the
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Pharisees and the scribes would show forth, Jesus said, in my kingdom, I want internal righteousness.
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And he gives several examples and there's actually six, but in review of the first five, do you see the first one, and these are antithetical statements, black and white, right or wrong.
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Chapter 5, verse 21 through 26, he talks about anger and murder and it's not just enough to stop murdering, but he says, in my kingdom, my opposite of the
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Pharisees, external only, I'm going to deal with the heart issue and I'm telling you even if you're angry with your brother, that is sinful.
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He goes to purity in Matthew 5, 27 through 30, when it comes to sexuality, it might be good for the
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Pharisees to say we are faithful to our spouses, but in my kingdom, Jesus said, real righteousness must be manifest and that is from the inside.
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And so he said, even when you look at someone with lust, that's wrong in my kingdom. Divorce and remarriage in verse 31 and 32, he gives us the king's view of that.
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Oaths and truth in verses 33 through 37, that's the fourth antithetical statement, heart righteousness, opposite of the
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Pharisees, personal rights in verses 38 through 42, and then for the new one today, antithesis number six, the sixth black and white stark contrast, here's how the
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Pharisees say to do things, here's how the scribes do it, and here is what
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I say to you. You have heard it said, but I say to you, antithesis number six, loving people like God does, is what
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I could call this sermon, loving like God does. Let me read verses 43 through 47 and I have to tell you, we won't get through it today, so we'll work on it the next couple of weeks.
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There's so much. Deeper is always better than superficial. Slow is always better than faster, that's just what
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I've been taught and this is going to be leaving the original readers speechless.
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And Jesus said for the sixth opposite of the Pharisees statement, you have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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But I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and it sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
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For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
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If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the
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Gentiles do the same? Have you ever heard someone say something to you and then you couldn't really talk for a second?
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It was kind of that lump in your throat and you wanted to kind of almost make a little hymn or a haw.
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This is an amazing statement in light of the culture, in light of what has been said and Jesus is basically saying once again,
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I've created everything, I'm the Redeemer, I'm the Savior sent from God and this is how we do things in my kingdom.
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Right from this passage, we'll look at four exhortations from Jesus the King so that you will love like God loves.
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That's what he's after. Here's how God loves and that's how I want you to love as well. Four exhortations or admonitions so that you can love people the way
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God loves people. This is a difficult one because it's full of all kinds of sand traps and quicksand like statements and if we're not careful, what we'll get from this could be some kind of amorphous kind of social liberal goo love and we want to make sure it's biblical.
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Don't you want that? If we know the two great commandments are love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbors ourselves, would it be fair to say that if we disobey one of those two great commandments, it could be two of the greatest sins?
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Would it be important? At least we would all agree that it's important to love properly.
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So we are just going to work our way through this with just a purposeful slowness.
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Even though I'll speak quickly, I want to just try to slow down so we get this right. If Christianity is boiled down to the essence of loving
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God with everything we have and loving our neighbors as ourselves, it would be important to hear from Jesus the King how exactly we should do that and he, in his goodness, gives us the rationale as well.
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Four exhortations from Jesus so that we would love like God loves. Before we start with the first one,
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I think our church would be more apt to have enemies than some other churches. Would you agree? If you just go with the flow, there's no real enemies to come across because you're just agreeing with everybody.
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But if you stand up for truth, if you stand up for Christ's word, if you have a pastor like me, you're going to have a lot of enemies.
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It's not bad to have enemies. Jesus is even letting them know you are going to have enemies and when you come across them, this is how you react to them and you relate to them.
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It's not sinful to have enemies. Jesus had many. But I think this is important for our church so we can understand what real love is.
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I don't want us walking around with our chin out, being kind of pugnacious, looking for fights. But I believe if we teach the truth and we evangelize, we'll have plenty of enemies that will find us.
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Loving like God, exhortation number one. Watch out for unbiblical definitions of love.
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Exhortation number one, watch out for unbiblical definitions of love and unbiblical definitions of loving your neighbor.
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You can see that by implication here in verse 43. You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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Where do they hear such a thing? You have heard. What does Leviticus 19 say, by the way?
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You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy? Does it say that? It says you shall love your neighbor what? As yourself.
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Now you are to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Jesus says you've heard that. Who did they hear it from?
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The Pharisees and the scribes. Wrong definitions. The Siamese twins of the scribes and Pharisees, this religious group that's taken over and they're teaching all these things to the people and if they're not careful, society has bought into this whole line of thinking.
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This whole idea of external love. What did Jesus say in Matthew 23 to the same people?
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Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they're full of robbery and self -indulgence.
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You know, the Pharisees, they weren't that bad, were they? Kind to their wives, provided for their families, good relationship in the community, leaders well -respected.
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Hardly in the eyes of Jesus, these people were messing with his word. Do you want to get
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God really angry? I know you don't. I don't.
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Mess with his word. One of the ways to do it is to mess with his bride and another way is to mess with the word of God and here
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Jesus comes on the scene and he wants to tell them, here's what I do, here's how
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I want you to act and I'm your king and here's my mandate and it's not what you've heard from other people.
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Leviticus 19 .18 says, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself and in case we miss it,
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I am the Lord. That these religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees, blatantly with calculation have done this, it brings the ire of our loving tender
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Savior. This is Jesus's word similar to his actions where he drives out the money changers out of the temple.
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You mess with his word, there is big trouble. These people thought they were over God's word, they were keepers of God's word and no, they were not the
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Romans, they were not the Assyrians, they were not the Egyptians, they were not anyone else, they were in the religious system.
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They're on the inside. How could things get so twisted? Love your neighbor to love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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Have you ever asked yourself that question? How can it go from that to that? So perverted, so out of socket.
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I remember I pick up my brother sometimes, not recently because that would be pretty much impossible to do, but when he was younger and I'd pull him up and his arm would come out of the socket.
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And you know, then he just walk around, you know, mommy, daddy, Mike hurt me.
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And you know, when you're a kid, you're like, no, I didn't. What are you gonna do with the kids walking around like that with his shoulder? Of course
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I did. And then you have to kind of just twist it the right way and put it back in. It's always been a command of God to love your neighbor and hear these
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Pharisees come in and they're just permit purposely for their own good so they can have the control so they can have the prestige so they can be in popularity with these people saying, you know what?
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We are over the word. We're keepers of the word and we will play fast and loose and just dislocate it for our good.
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And as I was studying this week, working on the whole section, I asked myself this question. So I'll ask you, how do people in your life?
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Are you yourself get around blatant, obvious commands of scripture?
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How is it that the scripture can be so clear, so plain, so conspicuous, and then people twist it and make it to the exact opposite of its original intention?
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How does that happen? And I think what we'll do today is we're going to look at the
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Pharisees and the scribes and see how they did it so then we can recognize it in other people. So before we do that, let's turn to Mark chapter 7 and get a little more background from these
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Pharisees and scribes and to see how they're thinking, to see what Jesus does with them.
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How and who are these kind of people that can take love your neighbor and switch it to love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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And Mark chapter 7 gives us some insight into that later in the life of Jesus, but still indicative of what these people say and do.
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And as we watch them, I want us to make sure we see what they do and say to ourselves, we want to steer clear.
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We don't want to do that. We want to be unlike the Pharisees and like Jesus. Mark chapter 7, there are these two perverse
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Siamese twins of group people. Again, the Pharisees, Mark 7, 1 and some of the scribes gathered around him when they had come from Jerusalem.
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I think they're purposely on this little deportation. They're all getting together. Where's Jesus?
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Let's go scout him out. It's a little seek and destroy mission. Let's send up our best to go get
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Jesus. And verse 2 had seen that some of his disciples were eating their bread with impure hands.
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How could they? That is unwashed. We're not talking about unwashed. You know, you didn't have lava soap.
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We're talking about the ritual traditions and all these added things where they didn't wash according to the, to the
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Pharisees, little piccadillious circumstances. Is that a word? It sounds good. All the little trite things that they've added on a side note, you show some, you show me legalism and I'll show you adding rules because you can't contain the flesh.
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So you have to add rules to make you think you're obeying. For the Pharisees, verse 3, and all the
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Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, observing this, their tradition of the elders.
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And the Pharisees inscribed asked Jesus, they're after him, but he put, they point to the disciples. Why do your disciples like, you know, at home, if the kids disobey, you know, you say to your wife, why are your kids doing that?
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Not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands. And so what does
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Jesus do? They're asking him question. And so often, as is the MO of Jesus, people ask a question, he knows their heart and he doesn't really answer the question.
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He just goes straight for the jugular. And he basically says, you know what?
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You're not asking the question, but I'm going to tell you real worship is not focused on self, but it's focusing on God.
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I call this scud number one. And he said to them, it's just so full of sarcasm.
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It drips. He said to them, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites.
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And let me give you a chapter in verse two, as it is written, this people, you honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.
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And it's the same as it ever was with the Pharisees and scribes, external only minimum obedience, lip service, but nothing from the heart.
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And he says, you do well. I mean, it is like a wasp stinger right in the eyeball. Imagine that.
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Wow, you do well. And he literally says, you get this, the hypocrites, that's the
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Greek, you do well, you the hypocrites, the hypocrite of the ages, you phony windbag clanging symbols.
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Here's the delegation. This is not a bunch of B team players. This is 18 coming up. Here's Jesus.
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And friends, when you watch Jesus, this one's for free. And as a side note, when there are people who know they're not righteous around him, how does he treat them?
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Kindness, compassion. He eats with them. Prostitutes, tax gatherers, sinners.
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He's with them. He's letting them anoint his feet with their hair.
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But when they are self -righteous and hypocritical and mess with his word, here comes the laser like wrath of God.
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He says, you're a hypocrite. You're play actors. Some fake things in life are
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OK. Trying to think of a couple imitation vanilla still smells good. Imitation crab.
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It's OK, I guess it's not too bad. There are some fake things that are absolutely horrible. We used to eat
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Ritz crackers when I was a kid. And on the back, the older folks will know this on the back of the Ritz cracker box.
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There was something called what mock apple pie. And you don't use any apples.
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You just put a lot of Ritz crackers in the pie and you put a couple other things in there that aren't natural. And you come up with an apple pie with no apples made of Ritz crackers.
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You should see some of your faces mock apple pie.
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Here's mock righteousness. And can you imagine with the thrice holy God of the universe who knows all who sees all who knows their motives and they're offering some kind of little trinket of their obedience and they want him to have their backs padded?
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Abraham Lincoln said this about the definition of a hypocrite. He is the man who murdered both of his parents and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.
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Took up some of you a while to get that all the rights and all the rituals is all just a mask for insincerity.
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And then he says in verse seven, but in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines. See, it's all tied to the word, the precepts of men neglecting the commandment of God.
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You hold to the tradition of men. You lay aside the word.
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You desert the word. You a wall the word and grab this other fake mock imitation. It's like people who run to New York and have to get the fake
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Rolex watch because what they really want is the prestige of the, of the tag or the Rolex watch.
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It costs 10 bucks and you know, it's going to break in 10 days. One man said about that, what a commentary on man's tendency to value outward appearance more than reality.
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Jesus isn't done. I just love to watch Jesus. Here comes scud number two found in verse nine and following not just as is real worship focused on God.
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Real worship is determined by God. Oh, I feel worshipful today out in the, out in the links.
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Well, that's fine. You can feel any way you want, but here is corporate worship for you. It's defined by God, not religious leaders, not by traditions that supersede the
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Bible. Mark seven verse nine. He was also saying to them, you, here's the more sarcasm that cuts to the bone.
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You nicely, you honorably, you beautifully, you commendably do this.
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He's not commending them, but it's just all sarcasm. You set this aside. You set aside the word of God, the commandment of God in order to keep your traditions.
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How about this? I think this will make sense. It did to me for the word of Christ is living and active and sharper than any two edges, sword piercing the
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Pharisee and the scribe as far as the division of soul and spirit. And there is no
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Pharisee or scribe hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
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How are you going to kind of sidestep this issue when you're dealing with the omniscient one? Verse 10 for Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and you speaks evil of father and mother.
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Let him be put to death. But you say the Bible says this and you nicely, you commendably, you honorably put that aside.
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And what do you say? You say, if a man says to his father, his mother, anything of mine, you might have been helped by his
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Corbin. That is to say, given to God, basically, you don't have to to give it. Verse 12, you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother.
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This is a cop out. What they would do is they would say, you know what? I know my mom and dad are getting older and they need some assisted living and I should probably take care of them.
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And I know the Bible speaks of that. But you know what? I've just dedicated my money to God. They probably did the
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G .A .W .D. kind of God. God, I give my money to God. I mean, I call that the hypocrite limbo.
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How low can you go? A .T.
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Robertson, the Southern Baptist preacher, said with some eloquence, it was a home thrust to these petty, fogging sticklers for their ceremonial ceremonial punctilious.
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You can mark that they're robbing their parents and hiding behind tradition.
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And Jesus is not pleased. And this ends up being what 13 says it is.
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Verse 13, thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition. See all that tradition in there which you have handed down.
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And you do many such thing as that. If you see the pattern, watch this.
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Verse eight, neglect God's word. Verse nine, after neglect, it's reject.
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And then verse 13, it's reflected in people's lives. If you show me a person who neglects God's word, pretty soon they'll reject it and then it's reflected in their lives.
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Verse 14, while we're here, we might as well see what happens. And after he called the multitude to him again, he began saying to them, listen to me, all of you and understand, pay attention.
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I want you to see what's happening here. There is nothing outside the man which is going into him that can can defile him for 17.
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But the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. They had a low view of sin, a low view of God's holiness, had everything all compartmentalized.
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Jesus is saying depravity affects everything. And even his chosen disciples were under the influence of these people.
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Look at verse 18. And he said to them, are you so lacking in understanding as well? Are they putting you under their spell and their magician ship?
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You're around this kind of tradition long enough and it will hurt people, it will influence them. Jesus goes on to say, you know what?
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All foods are clean. St. Clair Ferguson said, all foods are clean and all hearts are unclean.
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How do you think the Pharisees responded, by the way? Let me just read you Matthew 15. Here's their response. Then the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the
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Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement? Jesus said, verse 13, every plant which my heavenly father did not plant shall be rooted up.
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Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, they will both fall into the pit.
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Let them alone. The worst judgment on anyone, just let them be. They'll get what's coming to them. Now back to Matthew chapter five, please.
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The scribes and the Pharisees are perverting the word of God. How can you go from love your neighbor to love your neighbor and hate your enemy?
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You do that because your heart is wicked Pharisees, because you nicely set aside the word for tradition.
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And Jesus comes on the scene after 400 years of no revelation of God except John the
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Baptist and says, here's how we want to do things. Let me correct things.
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And he didn't say, by the way, as I'm trying to correct things, Jonah was all wrong.
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Sodom and Gomorrah was all wrong. You've misinterpreted all that Old Testament stuff. It's all an allegory. No, he goes straight to this.
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How do we spot this kind of lie in our world today? Let me give you 12 areas to watch out for with Matthew 543 and the
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Pharisees as an example to watch what they do. So we don't do it. And we don't fall prey to that 12 examples, 12 areas to watch out for.
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So we don't do this very thing. And it will help you with your own life, scripture, it will help you with any cults when they come knocking at the door.
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And this will help us root out what I call theological. You ready for this?
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Weasels. If God's word is loved by God and cherished, you think
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Satan is going to attack what? The word. If Satan's attacking the word,
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I'd kind of like to have a little peek behind the headquarters of Satan to see what he does so I can analyze it better.
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And here is just almost like opening up the curtain and looking insane. Here's satanic headquarters behind the scenes behind the
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DMZ. And now I can see what they do and I can be ready for it. How can things get so twisted?
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How can people get around blatant, obvious commands of scripture? Let's look at 12 of these. So we can in a covert way, get some game film of the opposition so we can understand.
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Already. And now you've already said to yourself, I'm sure we'll never make all 12.
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Well, you never know. Number one, and they all start with watch out.
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It's a theme in scripture. Be on the alert. Gregory, we get the word Gregory, right? Be on the alert. Watch out.
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Watch out for big lies when it comes to the Bible. Watch out for big lies.
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Satan through his emissaries, the scribes and the Pharisees. What does he do? Oh, let's go for that little lie.
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You know that one that's tucked away in Deuteronomy 36 someplace. Is there a Deuteronomy 36?
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Let's go for one of those little tiny ones. No, we're going to go for one of the two great commandments. This is
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Hitlerian. This is a go for the big lie. Aryans are superior race.
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Everybody's inferior. Blonde haired, blue eyed people are right. Born with a defect, you should be killed.
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Hitler is the savior of Germany. Say my name when you pray. I mean, this is what
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Satan does. See the passage again. You have heard it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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He goes right for the big lie. The big lie is hate your enemy. And we're seeing that all around.
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I mean, this week, did you did you read the news? The Methodist pastor, who was a woman last week, is now a transgendered male with the new name
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Drew Phoenix. So, you know, can you imagine you come to church and you walk in, you go, there's something different today.
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Maybe is it a new bulletin? I know something just kind of odd today. I can't quite get it. Oh, yeah.
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Our pastor was a woman and now he she's a man. I mean, that is amazing. But we just buy into it if we're not careful.
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That is a satanic strategy. Gay marriage. It's satanic. Strategy, just strategy, just go for the big ones.
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We want to be careful. I put some other big lies here that we should watch out for evolution.
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He who dies with the most toys wins. It's grace plus sacraments.
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It's salvation plus works. All religions contain truth. All religions lead to the same place.
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Jesus was just a good teacher. Jesus was just a moral man. You're saved by grace, but not alone.
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You're saved by faith, but not alone. It's scripture plus tradition. It's saved by Christ, but not alone.
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Human nature is basically good. If you want to solve your problems in life, the answer is somewhere in your past.
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Only drugs and professional counselors can help you be more holy. If you've got problems, it was because somebody did something to you.
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And friends, mark this. Those that promote big lies are harboring pet sins.
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Why do you promote big lies? Because you're petting and harboring a pet sin. That's why they're doing it.
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I met somebody in Massachusetts in the last 10 years. And I met with them and I said to the couple, man and woman, and I said it was premarital counseling.
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And I asked the same thing. I mean, I hate to ask it, but I always have to ask it. It's uncomfortable. Are you two both being pure?
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Are you sexually clean and you're waiting for marriage?
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And then the one looked at me and said, well, no, not really. And kind of put their head down. And certainly there's forgiveness and grace, and I understand all that.
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But they said, well, you know what? I said, well, you better stop it. I don't need to know the idols of their heart.
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Somebody's doing something wrong. I just tell them better stop. Repent. That's not right. I mean, I was kind and everything. And they said, well, we've been studying the word fornication.
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And fornication really isn't sex between a couple who love each other and who are ready to get married.
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It's sex with a prostitute in a Corinthian kind of setting. I said, you know what you're doing is when you want to sin bad enough, you tell a big enough lie.
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Number two, what do we watch out for? Not just the big lies that support pet sins, but number two, watch out for versus taking out of context.
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This is we know this, but that's exactly what they did. Every one of these, we can see what the Pharisees did.
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Next week, we'll look into how do we love our enemies? How do you make things credible?
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Quoting your old psychology textbook? How about quoting the Bible? That's how people make things credible.
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Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. And here a couple of Bible verse will just grease the open mouths of unsuspecting
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Christians. Remember my grandmother, she was German. Could you tell
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Hedwig, Erna, Klaus, and Ebendroth? She would always... I said, well, your first name's
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Hedwig. Yeah? Yeah. Okay. No wonder you go by Erna. Sorry if anybody hears name
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Hedwig, I don't know what to tell you. When I had a cough, she would take a spoonful of sugar, and then what would she do to that?
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Yeah, but you know what her medicine was? Scotch whiskey. Scotch whiskey on that little thing of sugar.
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Man, that burn going down. You at least didn't cough for a minute, I'll tell you that. You choked is what you did.
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Friends, when cults come to your door, they have a Bible. The biggest cults in the world, they all have a
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Bible. There's a context. We know that. God has taught us that at this church and elsewhere. You make things credible by quoting the
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Bible. And sometimes they just take it out of the context immediately, but sometimes in a larger context.
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And so the Pharisees would use verses like this. Don't turn there, just listen. Deuteronomy 7, show the
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Hittites no mercy. Deuteronomy 20, do not leave alive anything that breathes.
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Deuteronomy 23 6, do not seek a treaty or friendship with them as long as you live, the
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Moabites and others. Psalm 139, do I not hate those who hate you,
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O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? Psalm 3, arise,
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Lord, save me, O my God, for thou hast smitten all my enemies on the cheek and has shattered the teeth of the wicked.
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And so they go, you know what, here's a bunch of verses that say that God is pretty much hating these enemies and we're to kill them all.
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But they've tweaked what? They've taken it just out of joint enough that these national commands to Israel should now be instituted in social, communal, personal relationships.
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So they take a verse that's for a nation and then they make it for a person. That's wrong.
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Jesus' teaching here on the Sermon on the Mount, as we've seen with another antithetical statement, an eye for an eye, has nothing to do with civil government.
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It has everything to do with what? Personal relationships. Watch out for those who use the Bible out of context.
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Number three, not just big lies, not just out of context, but number three, watch out for words that get redefined.
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Same vocabulary word, but different meaning. Friends, this is what people do.
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What the Pharisees did when they saw that, as you look at your text, love your neighbor, by inference and by tradition, they said, you know what?
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If I'm to love my neighbor, that's exclusive. So if I'm to love my neighbor exclusively, then that means
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I should do what to my enemy. Well, the opposite of love is hate. If we're supposed to only love our neighbors, then if we've got enemies, well, we should hate them.
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So they would redefine these words. One commentator said, along with that significant omission, tradition had narrowed the meaning of neighbor to include only those who they preferred and approved of, which amounted basically to their own kind.
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So even if they were an Israelite, but they were a tax gatherer, or they were somebody not like them, then we won't have to love them.
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They're our enemies. And the same goes for cults today, beloved. I want you to watch out for people that say,
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I love Jesus, because I want to know who that Jesus is. Is he the Jesus that needs to be sacrificed every week?
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When I was talking to my grandma, Hedwig, again, for another illustration, I said to grandma,
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I just got saved. And of course, I've calmed down a lot. But I was fairly enthusiastic back in those early days when
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I was saved. And of course, you know, running around like, like some kind of snowplow.
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You ever seen those snowplows that have like a little tip like that. And whenever you go through the snow, it just spreads it all.
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I'm just running around like some kind of rhinoceros plow thing going around and preaching the gospel to my grandma.
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And then she said something about Mormons. And I said, Well, grandma, they need to get saved to they need to have a sin bearer,
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Jesus, or they're going to die in their own sins. And I'll never forget it. As long as I live, I know right where I was.
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She said, Mormons believe in Jesus to friends they do.
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But it's the wrong Jesus. It's the Book of Mormon that says you've been saved by grace after all you can what
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Steve do. The Jesus whose death on the cross was kind of good, but you've got to help to know when cults come around, they say grace, you need to find out what they mean by that they say faith, find out what they mean by that.
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They say Trinity. But then they say things like, well, we can be like God, Jesus once was not a
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God but became a God. Jesus is God, but not the only true
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God. Friends, when you talk to other people, this is such a biblically illiterate culture, ask them what they mean by that.
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Number four, watch out when people conveniently skip other verses that talk about the same subject.
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Watch out when people conveniently skip around these other verses, they hop, skip and jump around other verses that would add light to this problem.
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For instance, from the Old Testament are from tradition. If you meet your enemies ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him.
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If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him.
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You shall surely release it with him. Tradition, our Bible. That's Exodus.
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That's Exodus 23. When it comes to the nation of Israel, when God says go slay people, go slay people.
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But when it comes to your own enemy at personal odds against them, you love them.
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Your neighbor is not some military soldier. That's why Christians, we need to study something called what?
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Systematic theology. What does the Bible say about a topic from Genesis to Revelation?
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What is the full counsel of God so we might understand? Number five, watch out for the culture and the community that tries to dictate how we live.
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Watch out for the culture and community, the press, how watch out for their influence is what
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I'm trying to say. Did you know back in those days, the Qumran covenants commanded love for those within the community and they commanded hatred for those outside the community.
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So you've got the Qumran people, you've got the Pharisees, you've got the scribes, and all of a sudden it's influencing the people.
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You've got to watch out for how the world might influence us. I could ask you this question.
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If God says to love your neighbor, what does love mean? And will you define love with what the world says or with what the
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Bible says? What is love? Two consenting adults?
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No one gets hurt? I look to dictionary .com, not some radical anti -God website that I know of.
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Look at all these words for love, a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person, a feeling of warm attachment, a love affair, strong predilection or enthusiasm, chiefly tennis, a score of zero.
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I mean the list goes on and on and on. And last but not least, the benevolent affection of God for his creatures are the reverent affection due from them to God.
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What is the definition of love? And if we're not careful, the world can influence us.
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That's why we want to be people of the book. Number six, watch out for your own sinful, selfish hearts.
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Watch out. We need to, we have met the enemy and the enemy is within our hearts.
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Even from Mark 7, when Jesus was talking about it's from the heart and we need to be careful. And I've met plenty of smart people in my life who can rationalize sin because why?
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They're smart. Ever ask yourself the question, why do really intelligent people make stupid mistakes, make dumb decisions?
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Well, one, they can rationalize it. And two, they're sinful.
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That's why Proverbs 4 says, watch over your heart with all what? Diligence. We know
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Jeremiah 17, it says, our hearts are desperately wicked. But how about Ecclesiastes 9, three, we forget that one.
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The hearts of the sons of men were full of evil and insanity is in their hearts. You ever met somebody who's crazy?
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Me. There's insanity in my heart throughout their lives.
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It says insanity. Why do you think we have all these checks and balances of more than one elder, more than one spouse, government, all these things?
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Well, what I meant by more than one spouse, that didn't come out right.
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See, beware of pastors redefining marriage. Why do you think there's more than one spouse in a marriage?
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I mean, there's more than one person, right? There's a man and a woman. They're supposed to be number six.
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I told you, you can't trust me. My heart's insane. We trick ourselves.
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That's why Proverbs says, for by wise guidance, you will wage war. And in abundance of counselors, there's what?
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Victory. We can't trust ourselves. That's why we ask God for wisdom. We get wisdom from other people.
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Let's do one or two more. Number seven, watch out for omissions from the Bible. Watch out for omissions.
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Look at Matthew 5, 43. Tell me what's missing. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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Before we go further to the positive side, this is Jesus's negative in 43, next week, positive 44, how to love.
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But what's missing? What two words are missing? Well, maybe they're not in the best manuscripts, you know, those two words, as yourself.
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And maybe, you know, it's they just weren't taught. And maybe it's a simple accident. You know, they just overlook something.
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And certainly know they're, they're good people at heart. These people knew the
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Bible, and they're leaving out the two words as yourself. I have a question for you.
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What's worse, taking verses or words out of the Bible or adding words or verses into the
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Bible? Which one's worse? They're both bad. They're both horrible.
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scribed asked Jesus, what's the great commandment he knew, and here they're leaving it out. perversion by leaving things out.
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God's Word is holy. We're not to mess with it. Dare I say
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I've said this before and probably got in trouble. So I'll do it again. God's Word is holy. And we dare not mess around with it.
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Instead, we must what with God's Word, certainly reverence it certainly obey it.
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How about if I just threw this one out just to cause trouble today, we must worship it. We must worship
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God's Word. Hope I've heard it all now. I've heard it all now.
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Somehow we've got the Bible. And you're just Bible worshippers. I know you're idolaters of the
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Bible. It's your by your Bible idolaters, your bibliologists. I know that's what you are.
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Friends, this is what is God's mind. This is God's mind revealed to us.
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And our approach to God would be worship and reverence. And could we have anything less for what he says, or who his son is?
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I'll prove it. Psalm 119 48. And I shall lift up my hands to worship is what you're lifting your hands up for to your commandments, which
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I love. God, here's your word. And what does David do? Some say Psalm 119 is written by Daniel.
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Doesn't matter. It's inspired. Here's your word, and I want to honor it. It's connected to your person.
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So there should be a reverence and an awe. Psalm 138.
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You have magnified God your word according to all your name. Reminds me of Satan.
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He knew better when he was talking to Jesus. And he he gives Jesus a sinful thing to do.
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And Jesus responds with Scripture. And so Satan says, Well, if you want Scripture, I'll give you some Scripture back. And you tell me what's wrong with this.
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Matthew four, six, you can probably look right over there. What is wrong? When Satan says this, after all, the
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NAS has all capitals, it must be all from the Bible. For six, it says, and Satan said to Jesus, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he will give his angels charge concerning you.
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And on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
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If you're the son of God, God's going to take care of you. Question, did Satan quote the scriptures accurately?
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answer? No, he omitted the phrase from Psalm 91, to guard you in all your ways.
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And he omitted that for his own personal purposes. Just a side note, when somebody ever asked me something about a
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Bible verse, you the Christian, or if an unbeliever says something, do you know what I always always try to do?
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If they say, you know, this Bible verse, kind of, I don't understand it, or this Bible verse here certainly teaches Jesus isn't
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God. And what do you think of that? And all these things that people say, what's the very first thing I do? I get my
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Bible out and look, because I can see with my very own eyes. These Pharisees did this to the word.
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And don't you think other satanic people would do it? Number eight, and we'll wrap up with this number eight, watch out for slogan
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Christianity. We talked about that a little bit last week. But here you can imagine, these
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Pharisees just became a slogan, it became popular, it was just this thing that you said, you should love your neighbor, and you show what hate your enemy, it just ran out of their mouth.
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You don't have to think as much if you do slogans all the time. And for me, when
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I hear a slogan, you know, the first thing I do, get the wolf's bane out is basically what
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I do. No, I say to myself, slogans might be initially good or partially good, but it doesn't tell the whole truth.
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For instance, grace, God's riches at Christ expense. It's true, but there's more to that grace aspect.
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How about justification? It's just as what? If I never sinned, if it has to be a full definition to be true, that's not a true statement.
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It's partially true, but God treats me like I've never sinned. And he also treats me like I never will sin in the future.
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And he'll treat me like I've perfectly obey because Jesus obeyed for me. What about this kind of slogan?
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This is a bad slogan that people imbibe. God helps those who help themselves.
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People believe that man is by nature good.
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A loving God could never send someone to hell. And I know
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I'll step on some toes on this one, but just trying to make you think God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
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You tell that to an unbeliever, by the way, if you tell that to an unbeliever and that unbeliever doesn't go to heaven, that was a lie that you just told them.
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It was a horrible, awful, dreadful. How about this slogan? This is kind of made the rounds and like all slogans and like all shortcuts and gimmicks, it dies a death worthy of itself.
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Pray the prayer of Jabez over and over and over and get real blessings. It just reduced because if we're not careful, we're lazy and we want the easy thing.
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Why do you think it's easier to come up here and I slay you in the spirit than for you to go home and say, you know what, by the resolve of my own self and by my
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Christian family and by the spirit of God that dwells in me, I am going to live this week for the glory and honor of God and love my neighbor.
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I'd rather just walk up here and have somebody slay me. I don't mean literally slain, but the slain in the spirit thing.
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Okay. I have to tell this story since it's getting intense. I'll never forget the time when, when my mother and my father had died.
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And so they brought my mother up to the front of the church and it's a big prayer thing.
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By the way, my mother died two years ago today. And so as I told sunny school, it's a big diet Coke and Frito day for me, forget the diet in honor of the mother.
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So I'll never forget my mother. She was up to the front and the guy was trying to slay her in the spirit. So she didn't want to be slain.
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She wants to get fallen over. It's like Benny Hinn in Anaheim knocks over the 80 year old lady. She breaks her hip and dies.
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I mean, who wants that? It's true story. So, you know, what are you going to do?
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Do you want to really obey and buckle down or do you want to just have some kind of trite slogan kind of get slain? So he tries to push her.
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She's pushing back. He's pushing her a little more. She's pushing back. She puts her foot back a little bit more. She's pushing.
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And all of a sudden, what do you do? You go, you know, it just must be their person's lack of faith. And off you go to the next one. Just like with telling kids, everything good in life comes from hard work.
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Anything that's free and easy probably isn't any good. Friends, justification, regeneration, being born again is an act by God alone on us.
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Glorification is an act of God alone on us. God alone working. But friends, sanctification is synergistic.
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Sanctification is God and us working together, as Philippians two would say. And if we just go for these slogans, we're robbing ourselves.
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Look at Luke 13. Just for my last Bible passage, I want to show you that the slogan of becoming a
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Christian is easy is wrong. Look at Jesus here when he says in Luke 13 verses that are going to mesmerize you versus that are going you're going to go home today and say,
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I've never seen that in my entire life. People say, Oh, becoming a Christians. You're able to do it.
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It's within your own power. Had a friend who wrote a book, the ABCs of Christianity, ABCs, admit, believe, confess.
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And I'm watching somebody on TV, this huge crusade. And if you prayed that prayer, you're for sure a Christian.
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I'm just thinking it is so wrong. If you pray that prayer really meant it well, then of course you're saved.
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But if you just prayed the prayer, you're not necessarily saved. And look at how Jesus's own words debunk any kind of claim of slogan
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Christianity. Luke 13, 22, and Jesus was passing from one city and village to another teaching, proceeding on his way to Jerusalem.
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And someone said to him, as theological students are prone to ask, it was quite the topic of the day.
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People would argue about this all the time. And some have even asked these questions in this generation,
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Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? Here's the theological problem.
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How many people actually go to heaven? There's a lot or there's just a few. And Jesus answers in Jesus style is so great.
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He didn't say how many, but he says who? It's kind of like, you know, when, when the tower of Salome fell down, and they're like,
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Hey, do those people sin? Or is there a mother sin? Or Jesus, what's going on? He said, you know what the issue is you.
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And it's the same thing here. Verse 24. Here's the verse. Here's the five g force verse, strive, agonize, keep on agonizing to enter through the narrow door.
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For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
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Now there was a gate in Matthew seven. And this is not the gate of Matthew seven, you go beyond the gate and go to somebody's house, and there's usually a door to get in and maybe as a side, maybe as a corner, maybe over there, it's smaller, and it's harder to find.
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This Luke 13 is not the gate, but it's the door. How far away is except Jesus in your heart terminology.
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Here is the real terminology. You want to get to heaven, contend, strive, agonize the same word used of Jesus in Luke 22, when he is what in the garden, agonizing.
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People are seeking to enter. Why will they seek to enter? Because death is coming judgment, sure.
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But you've got to seek to enter when the doors open, because when you're dead, guess what happens? Door shut.
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Verse 25, once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door and you begin to stand outside, knock, saying,
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Lord, open up to us, he will answer and say to you, I do not know where you're from. It's like now when you're alive, even now, if you're not a
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Christian, as it's as if Jesus is sitting down on a chair, and there's an ability that he has by his own discretion to get up and open the door for you.
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But on judgment day, the door will be shut, and he'll be standing in judgment, and he won't be available to open that door.
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And so Jesus says, you know what? It's worth everything to go to heaven. Strive while the doors open.
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That's a lot different than the ABCs of Christianity. Well, the list could go on and on.
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I don't know if we'll do the rest next week. But in case we don't, watch out for additions to verses would be number nine.
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For those of you that can't sleep at night without not knowing all the numbers, number 10, watch out for personal relationships that could influence your view of the
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Bible. That's very important. We'll have to look at that. And then number 11, watch out for pragmatism.
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And 12. Finally, watch out for mystical readings of the Bible. How do we love our enemy?
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Well, the first thing that we need to do is to make sure that the view of love, the view of our scripture that God has given us is true and right.
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And next week, we'll see how do we love as God would have us to love.
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Sometimes we're kind to people. Sometimes we're nice. But friends, let me give you a motivating charge.
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If you run into somebody this week who says something wrong or denigrating about scripture, may you follow the advice from William Bridge, the
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Puritan. For a godly man, it should be as with Moses. When a godly man sees the
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Bible and secular data apparently at odds, well, he does as Moses did when he saw an Egyptian fighting an
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Israelite. He kills the Egyptian. He discounts the secular testimony, knowing
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God's word to be true. But when he sees an apparent inconsistency between the two passages of scripture, he does as Moses did when he found two
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Israelites quarreling. He tries to reconcile them. He says, aha, these are brethren.
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I must make peace between them. And that's what a godly man does. Let's pray.
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Lord, we thank you for this day. And even though we are not into the practical application of love and what it means,
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Lord, we would ask that you would help us to be resolved that if your scripture teaches a definition of love and not hating the enemy, that we want to be doers of the word, not hearers only.
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And Father, we want to guard your text and contend for the text and be thankful for it. And we want to do what
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John Calvin did. And that is, oh, the same reverence to the text as we would to God, because it is breathed out by your spirit.
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And Father, help us this week not to be harsh. We don't have to be harsh because we know the truth.
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But to look for an opportunity to be a beacon of light and to tell the truth to other people.
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Father, we live in a fallen world, but you are king and you are savior. And you have equipped us to face the day.
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Thank you that we don't have to go to some monastery or some kind of place far away, but we can be here in Massachusetts.
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And we would pray like Jonathan Edwards would give us New England lest we die. Father, may that be our prayer in Jesus name.