Would You Like To Trade?

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Father in heaven we thank you for this morning For the opportunity we have to come to your word
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To open it to study it to be Reminded encouraged and even instructed by your word father.
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I pray that you would bless each one here this morning. I Pray that this would be a time of Grace a time of introspection and father a time where Our minds are transformed by your word and we pray for these things in Christ's name.
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Amen Well How many of you ever watched the well,
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I guess it's on again. I saw it the other day the game show Let's make a deal. I mean people dress up in all these horrible outfits
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Usually and I mean in the old days they used to be really inventive I just saw a snippet of it the other day
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It was in the background as I was doing something else actually, I was visiting relatives and they had it on but They used to wear like gigantic costumes
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You'd come to the show dressed as the Tin Man from Oz or you know whatever huge bulky cardboard
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II things and you know are dressed up like Uncle Sam or Aunt Sam or whoever and Then you would you would
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Monty Hall was the guest host or he was the host and he would offer people deals He would say, you know
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You can have what's in my wallet or what's behind curtain number three or you know whatever or Jay would bring down a little box down the aisle and they would present it and you could either
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Pick what was unseen inside the box or he could take a thousand dollars or whatever
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And people would make deals based on a little more than what? Their their own intuition.
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I think this is a better deal than that because they didn't know what they were getting We live
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I think in a day and age where we are constantly making deals Sometimes we're not even aware of them and I want to bring that kind of to your attention this morning
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Let me just bring it a little bit more into focus Let's say I were to offer you And by the way for the record
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I am NOT offering this Let's say I were to offer you your choice
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Ten million dollars or a bag of trash from my kitchen
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How many people vote for the bag of trash I Can't even bring myself to vote for that one.
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Would you believe me if I told you? That not only do many of the people around you select that bag of trash
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But you let them do that. What do I mean when I say you let them do that?
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Well, you don't do anything to stop them. I Want to talk this morning generally speaking about discernment, but I want to focus in on one particular aspect of it
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Discernment meaning what well, let me get to the dictionary definition of it. I have it down here somewhere Because I wasn't gonna go to it just yet, but I I think
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I probably needed to find it before I start talking about it Well, what is discernment? Well, I'm looking for my definition
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What is it I see those hands but they're on your lap yes
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Applied wisdom Okay, let's just go with that definition for a minute.
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There's there's a presupposition there right before you can apply it you have to have it
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Bruce Okay, the knowledge to be able to choose between good and evil we might say right that involves discernment other thoughts
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Yeah, Erickson good better and best, okay
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Something pastor Mike talks about let me give you the dictionary definition of it the ability to see and understand people things or situations clearly and intelligently
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I Kind of like that, right?
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I mean you discern Even in people like you know, somebody comes to your door.
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Well, here's the most common thing, right? This is a common example of discernment your phone rings and you look at it and it says, you know
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Political survey I get those those calls political survey on my you know caller ID Now an undiscerning person picks up the phone
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Well, maybe maybe you just want to you're in the mood for a survey But now let's bring it down what would you say how can we modify that to make it a
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Christian discernment In other words if the
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Bible said or at the dictionary the Bible It's almost the same thing if the dictionary says the ability to see and understand people things or situations clearly and intelligently
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How about if we modify this to make it a more Christian? definition the ability to see and understand people things or situations clearly and Biblically To have that biblical worldview to view things as God has told us we ought to view them and so I'm going to begin with a rather lengthy
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Intro into what I want to say Sorry, this is by the way the material
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I'm taking other than this intro a lot of it comes from an article I read by Gary Gilley Who's a pastor in the
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Midwest and I'm going to say that discernment is not popular and It's really not popular among Christians among people who say that they're
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Christians Why do you suppose that is? why do you suppose the
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I the idea of seeing things and Looking at them with wisdom and a biblical worldview is not popular
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Miss Cooley people feel like you're judging them.
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It's not politically correct. And you know what? here's the problem a lot of people in the church a lot of people who are
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At least nominally Christians who would name the name of Christ are Concerned with being politically correct.
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Yeah, I agree Tom man. I feel like I need to go commit ritual seppuku after that one
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People don't read their Bibles Tom says and therefore They're unaware of what the
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Bible says about discernment They wouldn't they can't make their own
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Discerning choices and when they hear someone else do it they go man. That sounds Judgmental that sounds mean
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You know what? You should read we should make like a collection of all the greatest hits that are sent to no compromise radio
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The email, you know, some people say things like this you guys are unloving your
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Pharisees my favorite one, of course is your Catholic bashers and even haters
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But I thought you know, we have spent a week in light of Scott Brown's excellent series on heresy
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Really kind of applying this and how we can live it out Not live out heresy, but Discerning what is heresy?
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What is wrong teaching? What is bad teaching what? Deviates from the norm and what we ought to do about it
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If Jesus said and he did say this, what is the great commandments? to love the
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Lord your with all your and all your And all your mind and then the second is like unto it which is
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To love your neighbor as yourself now Let me ask you this if someone spouts a heresy and you're in a position to say something about it
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Is it loving of God to just ignore it? Is it right to earnestly contend for the faith?
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There's a clue That's scriptural, right? Is it loving of your neighbor to see him?
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He has this choice between ten million dollars, I just picked that some we could say it's trillions and quadrillions it's an innumerable size of Treasure the treasure of the gospel or he could pick a sack of garbage
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He picks up the sack of garbage and you go well good for him. He picked that sack of garbage Be warm be filled
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We do that all the time we do it all the time Now I have to preface this story by saying
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I I don't like I don't want to be the hero of all my stories and I'll tell you what
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I'm a flailer a lot of the times. I'm just flat -out. I I don't do the right thing
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But recently I did do I think and and I just want to kind of encourage you in this
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I found myself in the in the car with two I Would say ardent
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Roman Catholics and Earlier in the evening, this is kind of later much later in the evening.
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We're driving but earlier in the evening, we heard a man get very upset as he
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Kind of told us the story of how someone I guess was evangelizing him.
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All he remembered was the guy saying You're going to hell which by the way
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As far as we can tell is true based on his current course and traject trajectory but this man was very offended and In fact, he was so agitated as you recounted it and there was a bigger conversation going on It just kind of it it went through.
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I mean this was not a great time to stand up for the gospel because It just would have basically descended into a
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Donnybrook Which is a big brawl by the way in case you're wondering, but I thought
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Is this a gospel opportunity? And so as we're going home as we're driving In this we have a long drive and and there was a lull in the conversation with these
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Roman Catholics and I thought you know, this is a good time to get to the gospel So I said, what did you think about that when he said that earlier, you know that he was going to hell
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And I don't even know what they said to be honest because I know this will shock you. I wasn't all that interested. I Don't remember that part
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It was just my way of starting the conversation Down the right track or what I proceed to be the right track, right?
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My goal is to get to the gospel and so I said
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I Asked them that and they gave me a response and and Then you know, there was another lull and I'm just like I'm not letting this go.
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So I said Tell me about your church and they did they told me about the number of services the number of people who go did it
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I said Then they started talking about the number of priests who had left over the last
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Several years and the reasons that they left and you know All these kind of things and none of those things were central to where I wanted to go, but I was keeping it going and I said by the way they told me about all the things that they did at the church all the activity and all the ways that they they
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Saw that other people didn't do what they did so then the husband made a comment about The current
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Priests there and how much they liked him because he related scripture to real life
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And I said, oh really I said, well, how long does he preach?
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You know, how long I probably said teach how does he teach? he said oh probably 15 or 20 minutes and I said
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How does he do that in 15 or 20 minutes relate the scripture to real life So he said well, you know recently he talked about Jesus going to the cross and he said how difficult and how painful it was and he said
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Because Jesus could do that we can suffer and we can undergo
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Hardship in our own lives What's wrong with that?
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Is there anything wrong with it? What's that? That's not why he went to the cross now you could say
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That's not why he went to the cross Might not be the best approach.
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I Said well, that's true It was difficult. It was painful
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It was excruciating literally to be on the cross. I said, but don't you think that really shows?
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how much God hates sin and he said well
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What do you mean? and I said because In order to pay the penalty for sin
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Jesus being God in the flesh lived a perfect life went to the cross that he didn't deserve died on that cross and Was raised on the third day.
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I said that's how much the penalty of sin was How do you argue against that?
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You don't But this is This is
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Really what we can do and and I think you know the date ended well, they didn't throw me out of the car
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I wasn't you know, like some superhero rolling down the highway or something like that They they couldn't argue with that They didn't really want to but there were a couple of different occasions during our conversation where I got to go back to the gospel
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I Didn't command them to repent and believe what I do is or what I did was I presented the truth
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And I trusted that the Lord could rescue them from their false system if he wanted to I made it very clear that Salvation was not by works
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We spoke for a little while about this And I said, you know if we could be good enough to be saved
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Did Jesus have to die on that cross, you know all these kind of things and we can do this We just have to be intentional about it.
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We just have to think about it We have to think okay, I know these people are willing or interested to talk about these things
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How can I steer the conversation? to the gospel now
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I Had this whole thing all typed up, but it doesn't really matter now Again, I don't
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I don't know what's gonna happen. I Do know That the
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Lord uses our efforts no matter how feeble they are Sometimes to save people
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I've relayed the story Many occasions, you know how I this would be
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I'm gonna say maybe 96 97 something like that early in my
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Christian ministry. I had a friend who I'd known for many years and I still do know him
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I've known him since he was a kid and we we play games together and He was a professing
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Christian and yet he would act in a way that was not consistent with Christianity at all.
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In fact, he he'd get drunk and he'd pass out and do things like that and so I I Had him over the house for some of mrs.
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Cooley's world -famous pizza and I Then you know gave him the gospel and nothing happened and He went to church with me for a week or two and nothing happened and then he was gone and Back to living his own life and then
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I contact or he contacted me in 2004 This this is seven years later. And my point of this is sometimes we don't know what's going to happen, right?
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Sometimes it can take seven years That's just the reality of it and he said, you know,
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I Could mention his name it doesn't really matter at the moment But he said to me he said he sent me an email said he wanted to get together wonder if we could go to church again
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He was very concerned disturbed about the election in 2004 just couldn't figure out why some
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Christians voted the way they did and wanted to get together and talk about it and I said well, that's gonna be a little difficult because 3 ,000 miles away now, so But I was able
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I went back to California, I think it was in December November December Because I had a previous engagement back there and we went back there and and we talked and we stayed up till late at night talking about the gospel and I I was exhausted and finally
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I just said I need to go to sleep and He said, you know, would you pray for me and I did and then unexpectedly he prayed
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And I remember listening to his prayer and just thinking if he believes what he just prayed he might be saved I mean he is saved if he believes that and lo and behold, you know, the
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Lord has worked in that man I was a groomsman and at his wedding a couple years ago and now
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This week he was made an elder at Grace Community Church That's not because of me
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Right But and and my encouragement there is sometimes we don't know, you know, we plant the truth
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We we we tell somebody the truth And we don't get an immediate response and we're discouraged
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But we don't know how the Holy Spirit is going to use that over the years now.
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I Want to get to some questions that Gary Gilley raised In his article and we'll move rather quickly through these
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He says common objections to discernment and this is all in our mindset of being gospel centric of thinking first about the glory of God The centrality of the cross but secondly about our concern our love for other people
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So he says here are some common objections to discernment number one What right do we have to judge others?
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Who are you? you know, are you the possessor of Gnosticism, you know of higher knowledge
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Who gives you this wonderful insight? Well, what does scripture say?
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You know, I have more insight the psalmist says then all my teachers why because the
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Word of God but what's the site or the scripture that unbelievers and even believers site
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Yeah, it's Matthew 7 1 who are you to judge? Well, I want to turn to Matthew chapter 7, but I want to go to verses 15 and 16.
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I Mean we could go all through Matthew 7 But I I just want to focus on just a few things here before we move on to the next one
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Because we're gonna move quickly. I want to get to Lord willing next week. I want to start the humanity of Jesus Matthew 7 verses 15 is 16 and if somebody would read that please
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Okay. Now I just want to I want us to just take this absolutely literally for a moment
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Imagine we're all here today Dressed up like sheep. We all have sheep costumes on Okay, and if we all took our sheep costumes off most of us would look right like regular people
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But maybe there'd be a few that would be wolves That'd be kind of shocking with it. We'd be looking around going.
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Look at all these sheep and then we go Okay, it's time to unsheep ourselves And we go.
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Whoa There's a couple ravenous. We'd be kind of surprised. Well, that doesn't really happen, right?
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We don't all wear costumes What so what is he what is he saying? There are some people who appear to be sheep appear to be
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Christians But inwardly They're not and in fact
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They want to devour what a ravenous wolves they're hungry You know, what's the old adage you don't want to put a
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Fox in charge of the hen house. Well, you don't want to put a wolf in charge of the sheep house but look at verse 16,
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I Mean doesn't this basically this passage just kind of scream for discernment.
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I Think it does Gary Gilley says this about fruits.
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He says fruits means both their lives and their Teachings you listen to their teachings.
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Look at their lives And he says rather than ignoring
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False prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing Which is what people typically a lot of well -meaning
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Christians say, you know, what? Why do you focus on those guys? Why don't you talk about them? Just ignore them
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Gilly says rather than ignoring false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
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We are to watch out for them and examine the product of their doctrine and lives we are to do so in order to avoid being deceived by them and living false lives ourselves
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Their goal, I mean they're sitting there they're acting like anyone else or maybe they're up fronts
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They're acting like anyone else, but they're not they have a different goal and Their goal is not
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Your good and God's glory So now think about this
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You know that somebody is a false teacher a ravenous wolf Wolf but you're not going to Warn them because who are you to judge?
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You want to be loving? You don't want to condemn anyone because after all you're a sinner so Say nothing.
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I think there's something wrong with that Again it's not every situation that you can always do this
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But if you can if you have the opportunity to warn someone, why wouldn't you do it? What right do we have to judge others?
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Well, and can I just say this you're not judging the people. What are you doing? I Judging the person
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I'm warning. I'm trying to help them I'm not ultimately judging the person the false teacher.
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What am I saying? I'm looking at their words And we'll talk more about this. I'm comparing them to Scripture.
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I'm looking at their lives. I mean I see the the lady from the Midwest who
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Has a personal jet and flies around and buys all these expensive houses for her kids and everything else
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Everybody's living in the lap of luxury and I'm going there's something not quite right about this Not just because she's a woman teaching
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Everyone else but because her lifestyle the things that she teaches are not biblical number two objection number two
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This is a common one Aren't you following in the footsteps of the Pharisees?
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Aren't you just kind of a legalist? Aren't you just kind of like, you know a rules guy?
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Aren't you just clinging to the letter of the law? What about the spirit of the law what about love covers a multitude of sins
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Aren't you just kind of a bitter clinger Gary Gilley says
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Those who recognize the importance of discernment are accused of being Pharisees by clinging to the letter of the law
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But missing its spirit the idea behind this accusation is that any who dare critique?
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The beliefs of others are following in the footsteps of the Pharisees In other words if you hold to a literal interpretation of the
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Bible and expect other professing believers to do the same You're a Pharisee Well, is that right?
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Is that what the Pharisees did? Let's look at Matthew chapter 15
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Matthew chapter 15. I'm gonna read this because it's rather lengthy.
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So I better get a little sip of water here first Matthew chapter 15 verses 1 to 9
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Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat?
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He answered them and you have to love it when he doesn't answer their question with a statement, but with a question
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He has answered them and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
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For God commanded honor your mother or 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 have gained from me is given to God.
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He need not honor his father So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the
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Word of God you hypocrites Well that Isaiah prophesied of you when he said these people honors me with their lips
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Honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me in vain Do they worship me teaching his doctrines the commandments of men?
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So, what did they do wrong were they just literal in their understanding of Scripture is that what their sin was
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Were they just clinging to the letter of the Word of God Jesus said what you have made void the
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Word of God they elevated their traditions Over what the
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Bible clearly taught The Pharisees did this I mean again and again, what did he say to them?
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You have heard it said, but I say to you It was not that they kept
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You know a tight rain on Scripture is that they had this system of rules
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The system of traditions and they elevated them above Scripture. They weren't
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You know Bible keepers they were rule keepers Bob Missing the point because because what were they really after it was external obedience, you know, so a good
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Pharisee You know when the offering plate came by if they did that, which I don't know that they did But you know if they were in a typical
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Baptist Church, and we had a bunch of Pharisees in here Everybody would go reach into their wallet, you know, pull out a big stack of cash bigger than I ever have my wallet and and you know just kind of like Hundred two hundred three hundred four hundred you know
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Let it rattle around a little bit and then slap it down in the offering plate. In fact, it might take
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Three to five minutes, you know, yeah a little yeah, that'll be good to a little boo. Yeah Blow up the microphone.
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Yeah, I mean you had to display your righteousness before men. That's the whole point of what they did and You know who's more righteous than me, you know
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Probably nobody that that's the attitude of the Pharisees Any other thoughts on that?
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Bob Yeah, when they the the story of the widows might you know when
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Wasn't taught in a vacuum And so what they would do is go to the temple and they would you know make a great big display of how much they were
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Giving of course these days think about how great it could be You know imagine if we if we set something up like they had in the temple today
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It would be even better because we could have something that not only counted the amount of giving that you did
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But would also then announce it, you know over the microphone Charlie Cronin is just given 9 ,600 at $35 at 23 cents and we'd all go nice job
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Charlie, you know Be great, you know be great if Charlie got paid that much
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But yeah, I mean this is this is the whole thing, you know
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Jesus says they're praying and the Pharisee says what I thank thee that I'm not like other men there was an arrogance and a pride that went with it because outwardly just like Matthew 7 outwardly they appeared not only to be sheep but sheep of Very fine wool, you know,
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I mean they were white and pristine on the outside It was what was on the inside. That was the problem.
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They were not Guardians of the truth and protective shepherds of the people because they were the spiritual leaders
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But they were perverters of the truth and misleaders of the flock Objection number three to discernment.
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Well, aren't you just trying to prove your superiority? Don't you just want to prove that you're right and everybody else is wrong
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No, I mean at the Master's Seminary there was a sign, you know We used to say it was joke that it was like the
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Notre Dame sign You know, it says as you leave the Notre Dame locker room, by the way,
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I'd never root for Notre Dame but it would say Fight like a champion today, you know at the
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Master's Seminary. It says we teach men as if lives Are at stake
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Because they are So I wish we had one like that in our office that we could just slap as we leave, you know, let's go preach the
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Bible Yeah But if someone is teaching a doctrine that if believed would either keep someone from being saved such as modalism which
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Did you talk about that Scott modalism, yeah you know the idea that God is in one mode at a time that he's either the father or the son or the spirit that kind of thing if if and if you have a wrong view of an
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Biblical view of Christ and God and everything. It's pretty hard to see how you could be saved
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Or if they're teaching something that is damaging to spiritual health For example, you know, the most obvious one that comes to me is
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God told me, you know God told me this and this and this and this well, there's a lot of that today and I like what
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Mike says, you know God told me that he didn't tell you that, you know If if somebody is doing if they're handing out spiritual arsenic
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Then is it wrong Or are we trying to prove our superiority by just saying that's not right.
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You shouldn't believe those things You shouldn't listen to those people You know if I were around when?
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Joseph Smith who founded the Mormon Church, you know started stirring things up. Would it be wrong for me to say don't listen to that guy
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No, it would be the most loving most kind Righteous thing I could possibly do.
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I'm defending both the glory of God and The souls of man and that's what
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I want to be doing number four objection number four Why do you assume you're right and others are wrong?
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That's a it's tough Here's the thing though. Not everyone that we talk about not everyone that we mentioned, you know on the radio or anything else is wrong
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And we often cite sound teachers we encourage people to read
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Good books written by godly men who have profound things to say we want you to do that But you'll never find us promoting books by you know, say
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Joel Osteen or Even people that aren't Heretics like mr.
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Osteen, but maybe aren't the best And maybe say some good things but Take too long to get there or you know, see a lot of not so good things
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We wouldn't want you to read those books why because they're not going to help you. They're going to leave you maybe more confused
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But what we do try to do is let's let's go to a second Timothy 2 15 This is the
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Iwana verse and I want to make sure we get this right, but don't punch
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All right Thank you very little Paul writes
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Timothy do your best to present yourself to God Think about that one again do yourself or do your best to present yourself to God in other words
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You're gonna stand before God as one approved Someone whom
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God approves of a worker who has no need to be ashamed Rightly handling the word of truth.
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Well, what do you have to do to do that? You have to study
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You have to study so when we challenge someone who is a
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False teacher someone who is a heretic We're studying the issue and we want to make sure that we get it, right?
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We don't presume that everyone's Wrong, and we're right. That would be the the sure mark of a cult.
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We don't say we were the guardians of the only truth Again we commend many other
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Bible teachers We just don't want to be commending people who get it wrong
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You know, there could be disagreements over difficult texts
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Difficult issues issues that we would not regard as primary. I mean,
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I I certainly would never baptize a baby But I'm not going to say something like, you know, if you listen to RC Sproul You know, there's no hope for you because I don't believe that I Wouldn't agree with him on that and some other matters, but if I'm listening to him talk about Justification if I'm listening to him talk about the gospel if I'm listening to him talk about many things
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I'm gonna say yes and amen But if I listen to a false teacher a wolf in sheep's clothing again,
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I'm not going to be saying yes and amen I'm gonna be saying how can he say that I'm gonna be getting more and more angry as I listen.
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I Just heard while we you know, we're on a extensive road trip to the Midwest here this last week
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So we spent a lot of time listening to the radio and I have good news for you There's gonna be a new this is a reason to go out and buy satellite radio
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Joel Osteen is gonna have his own station on Satellite radio, that's great news
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It's really not great news being in fact, I posted that on Facebook Somebody said well, you know now
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I'm gonna cancel my my satellite radio. It's not a bad idea Okay Objection number five.
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Oh, well, let me back up to number four and just saying one more thing Spiritual discernment demands and knowledge of the basics right anybody anyone here can be spiritual discerning spiritually discerning you can
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Determine truth from error, but it demands that you have a certain Foundation of knowledge and how do you get that knowledge?
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Scripture and there's one other way to get it and that's to read and to listen to godly men exposit the word so Those would be good ways to do that number five
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This is another objection. Aren't you just judging the motives of? the people you critique in 1st
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Corinthians when the answer is no 1st Corinthians 4 verse 1 Paul writes for I am not aware of anything against myself
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But I am NOT thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me and he's going to judge all men
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Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will
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Disclose the purposes of the hearts Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
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I don't judge The motivations I listen to their motivations I listen to what they say
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And listen when somebody tells you that God wants you to be healthy wealthy, etc
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But he doesn't want you to dig into the riches of his word there's something wrong with that You know alarm bells should be going off in your head as soon as you hear somebody say it's not
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God's will for you to Be sick. It's not God's will for you to suffer It's not
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God's will for you to be poor You just won't find those things in the
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Bible and so when somebody says that there's a reason that they're saying it and what the Bible talks about over and over again are the
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Motivations of people who say those things and they're not good. I Don't really care about their motivations.
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I care about what they're saying What we do is we take what people teach
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What they preach and we filter it through the lens of Scripture in Acts 17 The Brians were commended for what for taking what
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Paul taught them in comparing it to Scripture if that was the right thing to do if it was right to look at what the
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Apostle said and Compare it to Scripture then how much more someone who's not an apostle
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And that's why you know whether Mike's teaching Harry's teaching Pradeep's teaching Scott's teaching I'm teaching we'll say what
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Look at what the text says Look what the text says see if what
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I'm teaching is true. Look for yourself Objection number six you often sound mean -spirited when you critique others.
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It's hard. It's really hard But you know,
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I would say to these same people Steve you sound mean -spirited when you critique the teaching of others
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I'd say well, you know, I don't know what to tell you but I think if you read some of the things that Paul said if you read some of the things that Jesus said to the
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Pharisees pretty harsh Whoa, do you
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I mean son read we don't have time this morning, but if you read Matthew 23 the woes of the
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Pharisees just read that sometime and just ask yourself if Steve or Mike said this pretty said this
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Harry said this Scott said this what I think boy those guys are unloving Why is he saying that is
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It was it good for him to say that well, yes, because he's God But yes also because those people needed to know they were in error.
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Is it good to do that? Yes And our problem is as someone said earlier, we're unused to hearing critical comments in an age of tolerance
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You're not allowed. You're allowed to believe whatever you want as Long as it doesn't go against anybody else's belief
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But the Bible consistently says there are two ways you can go back to Psalm 1 there's a way of the righteous in a way of the wicked
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There's one way to the Father and that's through the Son and over and over again There are these two ways that are presented.
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There's the broad road in the narrow road There aren't a multiple, you know, it's not like you get to some massive
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Highway exchange and you have to pick all these different roads and you know They're all they all lead to the same path.
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Whereas the former leader of my Sheriff's Department said, you know all roads
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Meet at the top all faiths meet at the top. I never knew what it meant except for I think he was talking about a
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Point at the top of his head. So listen that was mean, please forgive me
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All all Faiths obviously are not the same But if we point out someone's errors, even someone who says that they're a
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Christian is that being mean -spirited? No It's it's as simple as this
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First Corinthians 2 Paul speaking he says and I when
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I came to you brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and Much trembling and my speech my message were not in plausible words of wisdom
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But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith not might might not rest in the wisdom of men
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But in the power of God, that's what we want That's why when we talk to people we want to bring them back to the scripture
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We're gonna bring them back to a scriptural way of thinking Last one I'll go super fast
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Teaching against the false teaching of others will make the hearers hard -hearted and cynical in other words
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If you're critiquing these false teachers, then the people who listen to you will think oh You know, they're there just isn't any truth out there
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I Need to just have my shields up and and I shouldn't believe anything. I hope not
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It should grieve them that others profess to come in the name of the Lord and then present heresy
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That's what should bother them. And again, you know as I've said many times Titus 1 9 what elders do
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They exhort in sound doctrine and they refute those who contradict they rebuke Those who contradict sound doctrine and finally acts 20 verses 26 to 22
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Paul talking to the elders at Ephesus And I'll just skip to the end of it
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Verse 31 when he talks about these wolves who will come in and not spare the flock then in verse 31
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He says therefore be alert. This is to the elders be alert remembering that for three years
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I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears and now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace
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Which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
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Listen We are commended to scripture to study the scripture, but we're also to be on watch on guard for those who would come in and seek to lead people astray we can't
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This isn't let's make a deal. But so often I think what we do is we say, you know what?
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I feel badly for that person. I look at how the church they're going to I know that church teaches error
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But I don't really know what to do. So I'm not gonna say anything That person thinks they're going to heaven
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But I look at their lifestyle and I go I know that person's not a Christian, but I don't want to judge them I don't want to confront them
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Here's what I want to ask you this morning I'll leave it on this Do you love God do you love
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Christ enough to speak to those people? Do you love them enough? And if you don't then here are the two things
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I would ask you Here are the two great commands love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself
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I want to ask you to repent When I ask you to repent to put aside your own
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Comfort To put aside your own pride To humble yourself and to think
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I need to do what's right, even if it costs me friends even if it costs me family relationships,
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I Want people to come to Christ and I'm willing to give up my own
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Comfort my own safety to do that. Let's pray father.
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We just thank you this morning that you are able to save Anyone that you are able to transform lives in The blink of an eye
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But father you've also ordained the means your word brought to people by other people
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We have a great responsibility And we ought not Kind of shield ourselves
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Block ourselves off from the plight of others Our eyes need to be open to it our hearts need to be open to these people every single day people
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Die and go to eternity and hell father. Let them step over our bodies over our feeble efforts let us be those who would stand up for the truth, even if it's just Pizza and a discussion about the gospel
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Let us be those who would plant seeds who would be willing to do that.