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Sabbath Lord vs. Religious Nitpickers Msg 1320 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: The Pharisees never knew what to do with Jesus. He
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  Speaker 1: absolutely drove them up a wall. They came up with
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  Speaker 1: all the rules and restrictions and regulations, and he ignored
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  Speaker 1: most of them. Sometime he deliberately went against them so
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  Speaker 1: that they might, if possible, learn the error of putting
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  Speaker 1: together their own truths as though they are on a
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  Speaker 1: level with God's truths. They never got it. As a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, their hostility only grew as time passed.
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  Speaker 1: Think about the things he did that they hated. He
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  Speaker 1: was a friend of sinners, and he even ate with them.
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  Speaker 1: They wanted nothing to do with sinners, forgetting that they
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  Speaker 1: were the worst of the group. He defended a woman
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  Speaker 1: who was taken an adultry. They wanted a stoner. He
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  Speaker 1: invited a tax gatherer to join his band of disciples,
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  Speaker 1: a man named Matthew, and in fact he became one
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  Speaker 1: of the twelve. They wanted nothing to do with tax gatherers.
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  Speaker 1: He ignored the stigma of leprosy as he spent time
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  Speaker 1: with a man whose name became Simon the Leper. He
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed eating with outcasts and people with bad reputations. They too,
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed being with him. Don't forget that. Actually he was
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  Speaker 1: in a place where a woman who had come from
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  Speaker 1: a very disreputable background in her life, she entered a
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  Speaker 1: room of men which was not viewed with kindness, And
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  Speaker 1: on top of that, she brought with her the most
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  Speaker 1: expensive perfume of the day and covered his head with it.
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  Speaker 1: He not only allowed it, he defended it. One man writes,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus hardly made for a soothing dinner guest. The list
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  Speaker 1: goes on. He kept breaking all of their expectations and
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  Speaker 1: never gave it a second thought. They never forgot it.
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  Speaker 1: We may find those traits intriguing and even attractive. The
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  Speaker 1: legalistic Pharisees found them shocking and sometimes revolting. What began
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  Speaker 1: as an idle curiosity on their part led to a
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  Speaker 1: spirit of suspicion, and the suspicion led to investigation. The
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  Speaker 1: investigation resulted in blind prejudice and then a malignant sense
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  Speaker 1: of hostility, followed by a determination to do what the
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  Speaker 1: Nazis hoped to do with the Jews, exterminate him, kill him,
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  Speaker 1: which gives you some idea of the motive behind those
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  Speaker 1: religious nitpickers. In fact, you can appreciate Matthew twelve. Where
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  Speaker 1: we want to go by first looking at Matthew fifteen.
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  Speaker 1: Turn in your bibles. I'm using the New Living Translation
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  Speaker 1: as my text, but you will follow along with similar words.
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  Speaker 1: We read of these Pharisees and some scribes who come,
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  Speaker 1: and they've come from Jerusalem again to see Jesus. Make
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  Speaker 1: no mistake, they came to check him out. They ask him,
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  Speaker 1: why do your disciples disobey our age old traditions, For
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  Speaker 1: they ignore our tradition of ceremonial handwashing before they eat.
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  Speaker 1: Stop right there. You must understand that for several hundred years,
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  Speaker 1: the Pharisees and others like them had compiled a list
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  Speaker 1: of rules and restrictions and regulations that were designed, in
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  Speaker 1: their opinion, to interpret the law. God gave the law
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  Speaker 1: to Moses in the tablets. The law is concise, simple
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  Speaker 1: and clear. It is also exacting. When God gave the law,
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  Speaker 1: these Pharisees later felt that they needed to be explained
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  Speaker 1: or clarified or amplified as a better word, and they
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  Speaker 1: went to work and doing so, and they had their list.
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  Speaker 1: Believe me, I'll get to it in the moment regarding
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath. But let me jump ahead and say in
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  Speaker 1: the Talmud, one of their works that has lived on,
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  Speaker 1: there are twenty four chapters dedicated to nothing other than
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  Speaker 1: the laws regarding the Sabbath. To give you some idea,
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  Speaker 1: God simply wrote, keep the Sabbath holy. It's a day
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  Speaker 1: of rest. As we'll see, the Sabbath was a Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: a time when they were to no longer do their
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  Speaker 1: trade or their farming, or their work. They were to rest,
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  Speaker 1: they were to relax. They turned that into such a
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  Speaker 1: list of rules and regulations. One writer says they worked
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  Speaker 1: harder on the Sabbath to keep the rules than they
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  Speaker 1: did at their job through the week. It went on
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  Speaker 1: and on and on. If you've ever been around legalists,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about. And here we're going
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  Speaker 1: to see legalism exposed as it rarely is. Why do
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  Speaker 1: your disciples disobey our tradition? Their rules are called the traditions.
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  Speaker 1: God's rule is called his law. But they put it
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  Speaker 1: on the level of the law and said, because your
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  Speaker 1: disciples don't wash ceremonially as we require, you wouldn't believe
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  Speaker 1: those requirements they are breaking God's law. In fact, their
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  Speaker 1: requirements had little to do with God's law. As it
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  Speaker 1: relates to washing, says, they ignore our tradition of ceremonial
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  Speaker 1: hand washing before they eat. Look at Jesus unintimidated. I
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  Speaker 1: love this about him as much as anything. Why do you,
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  Speaker 1: by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God your
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  Speaker 1: Bible may read invalidate. In other words, you put together
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  Speaker 1: your books, your lists, your papers, your pages, your requirements,
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  Speaker 1: and you've lifted them to a level with the law
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  Speaker 1: of God. How wrong in many ways, how absurd of
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  Speaker 1: you to do that. For instance, God says verse four,
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  Speaker 1: honor your father and mother. Anyone who speaks disrespectfully or
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  Speaker 1: father or mother must be put to death. But you
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  Speaker 1: say it's all right for people to say to their parents, sorry,
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  Speaker 1: I can't help you, for I have vowed to give
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  Speaker 1: to God what I would have given to you. In
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  Speaker 1: other words, they compromised what God wrote clearly in his
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  Speaker 1: concise moral law, and they made it possible for people
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  Speaker 1: to go around it. In this way. You say they
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  Speaker 1: don't need to honor their parents, and so you get this.
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  Speaker 1: You can't sol the word of God for the sake
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  Speaker 1: of your own tradition. Don't miss that. That's how serious
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  Speaker 1: legalists are regarding their lists the word of God. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's certainly significant. But don't miss what we have told
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  Speaker 1: you we require of you in this fellowship, or in
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  Speaker 1: this gathering, or in this religious circle. Look at Jesus'
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  Speaker 1: response to them, you hypocrites. Let me ask you, just
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  Speaker 1: before we go any further, when's the last time you
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  Speaker 1: said that to anybody? See, we don't come across like
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  Speaker 1: that unless we look judgmental. Jesus goes, you hypocrites, you're
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  Speaker 1: like dead men's bones on the inside, but on the outside,
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  Speaker 1: you try to look pious. He quotes from Isaiah, and
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  Speaker 1: he ends the quotation. They teach man made ideas as
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  Speaker 1: commands from God. I love the next verse. Don't miss it.
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  Speaker 1: Then Jesus called the crowd to come and said, listen
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  Speaker 1: and try to understand. It's not what goes into your
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  Speaker 1: mouth that defiles you. You're defiled by the words that
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  Speaker 1: come out of your mouth. When will we ever learn
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  Speaker 1: that it's not what you eat or how you eat,
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  Speaker 1: it's what comes out of your heart that shows the defilement.
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  Speaker 1: And look at the next verse. The disciples came to
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  Speaker 1: him and asked, do you realize you offended the Pharisees
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  Speaker 1: by what you just said, really, I mean Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: saying up there earlier, I want you to put this
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  Speaker 1: in your who can smoke it, don't forget it. It's
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  Speaker 1: kind of a loose paraphrase of what he's saying, but
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  Speaker 1: don't forget this. Stop doing that kind of stuff. He
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  Speaker 1: confronts them with that, and the disciples said, you realize
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  Speaker 1: that you offended them. Let me tell you something, anytime
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  Speaker 1: you confront a Phariseakh legalist, you're going to offend him
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  Speaker 1: because they don't I want to ever be told they're wrong.
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  Speaker 1: They're the ones who tell you what to do. Their
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  Speaker 1: desire is to control you, not for you to confront them.
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  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you, do your best to do it
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  Speaker 1: in love. You try your best to say it in
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  Speaker 1: a way that's kind and gracious, But before long you
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  Speaker 1: realize you're standing toe to toe with a religious nitpicker
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  Speaker 1: who cannot even hear that kind of confrontation because they
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  Speaker 1: are so bent on their own rules. Don't answer out aloud,
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  Speaker 1: but were you raised with rules? Now? When you're little kids,
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  Speaker 1: you need rules, of course, or you tear the world apart.
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  Speaker 1: But as you grow up, the rules don't apply, But
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  Speaker 1: as you grow up in legalistic circles, they keep applying.
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  Speaker 1: Don't play cards, don't dance, don't wear leotards when you
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  Speaker 1: work out. Sometimes that's a good idea for some people.
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  Speaker 1: There should be no mex bathing. I think they met
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  Speaker 1: mixed swimming, but they said mixed bathing. Shouldn't bathe with
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  Speaker 1: each other. That's not good, and on and on the
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  Speaker 1: list of and you know we chuckle about it today.
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  Speaker 1: Let me tell you, in legalistic circles, they're not laughing
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  Speaker 1: because to them, it's like what God would have you
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  Speaker 1: know and do? It? Isn't it isn't. You cannot find
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  Speaker 1: those statements in the scriptures. When we live by grace,
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  Speaker 1: we certainly ought to live in love and understanding of
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  Speaker 1: each other and as best we can get along. But
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  Speaker 1: trust me, legalists are not built to get along. They're
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  Speaker 1: built to take charge and to keep you under their thumb.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the most dangerous people in religious circles are legalistic.
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  Speaker 1: Pastors take advantage of congregations by pulling rank and making
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  Speaker 1: demands and holding the congregation under his own set of
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  Speaker 1: rules and regulations. Turn back to Matthew twelve, Let me
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  Speaker 1: show you an example of legalism in action. At about
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  Speaker 1: that time, Jesus was walking through some grainfields on the Sabbath.
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  Speaker 1: Don't miss that. Seven times in twelve verses we read Sabbath.
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  Speaker 1: See it verse one on the Sabbath, into verse two
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  Speaker 1: on the Sabbath, into verse five on the Sabbath. In
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  Speaker 1: of verse eight over the Sabbath. A little later at
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  Speaker 1: verse ten on the Sabbath, verse eleven on the Sabbath,
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  Speaker 1: verse twelve side, it's all about the Sabbath. Shavaf means seven.
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  Speaker 1: It's the seventh day of the week. It was never Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: never meant to be applied to Sunday. Nothing in the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament requires the keeping of the Sabbath. For those
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  Speaker 1: who live in this wonderful era of grace, we worship
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  Speaker 1: on the first day of the week. We don't worship
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  Speaker 1: on the shave. Now, believe me, when you go to Israel,
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  Speaker 1: you encounter the continuation of keeping of the Sabbath, because
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  Speaker 1: there are numerous Orthodox Jews who follow the law, and
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  Speaker 1: they have their list, they have their Maybe you don't
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  Speaker 1: know this if you've never been to Israel, but there
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  Speaker 1: is a Sabbath elevator. So when you get in that elevator,
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  Speaker 1: it stops at every floor. You need to take your
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  Speaker 1: lunch with you if you live on floor twenty five,
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  Speaker 1: because every floor. The reason is you can't punch the number,
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  Speaker 1: or that would be work, honestly. But you see, if
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  Speaker 1: you're going to start to make your list and go
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  Speaker 1: to extremes, there is no extreme too far. There's nothing
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  Speaker 1: that is absurd in their minds, because they're explaining rest
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  Speaker 1: on the Sabbath, which is far from it. Now, let's
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  Speaker 1: notice they're on the Sabbath. They're walking through some grain fields,
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  Speaker 1: and the disciples are starving. They're hungry. His disciples are hungry.
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  Speaker 1: So they decided or they began breaking off some heads
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  Speaker 1: of grain and eating them, walking along breaking off heads
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  Speaker 1: of the law allowed that Deuteronomy talks about it. You
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  Speaker 1: may take some. It's not thievery. In fact, there were
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  Speaker 1: paths provide along the edges of crops, so that you
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  Speaker 1: could do that. If you're hungry. Along the way, you
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  Speaker 1: could take some of the neighbor's grain like that, but
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  Speaker 1: but not not not the Pharisees, because it's the Sabbath.
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  Speaker 1: So the Pharisees saw them do it. I've got a question,
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  Speaker 1: what are the Pharisees doing out in the fields of
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  Speaker 1: grain on the Sabbath? Why are they there? They're fying
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  Speaker 1: them out. Think they're not taking a walk in the
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  Speaker 1: grain field enjoying the sunshine of the day. They're watching
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  Speaker 1: Jesus and this band of lawbreakers. So they show up
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  Speaker 1: and they see the disciples bring the You know what else,
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  Speaker 1: I notice? The disciples don't ask Jesus for permission to
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  Speaker 1: eat the grain. They've been under his teaching long enough
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  Speaker 1: to know they were free to do it. So they
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  Speaker 1: break it off, they chomp into it, or they they
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  Speaker 1: push it around in their hands and they clear it up,
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  Speaker 1: and then they eat it from there and it helps
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  Speaker 1: fill them up. So there's nothing wrong with that. They've
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  Speaker 1: been under Jesus teaching. When you're under Jesus teaching, you
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  Speaker 1: want to keep on asking permission. You're spiritually self sustaining.
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  Speaker 1: His word guides us, and you obey it, you follow.
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  Speaker 1: You don't need my permission, you don't need any religious
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  Speaker 1: leader's permission. You're maturing and learning how to live on
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  Speaker 1: your own. So they're enjoying the grain until the Pharisees
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  Speaker 1: come and they saw it and they protested. They said, look,
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  Speaker 1: your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on
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  Speaker 1: the sept Stop. It's not the law they're breaking, it's
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  Speaker 1: your Now we know, it's your tradition, it's your teachings
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  Speaker 1: about the law. They were perfectly within their rights. Now
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  Speaker 1: they are Pharisees. They're the ones who who really knew
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  Speaker 1: the scriptures. There were the conservatives among religious circles of
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  Speaker 1: that day. But look at Jesus question. It's a little insulting,
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  Speaker 1: He says, haven't you read in the scriptures? Whoa haven't
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  Speaker 1: you even read what the scriptures teach about David. David
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  Speaker 1: did when he and his companions were hungry what he
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  Speaker 1: went into the House of God. He and his companions
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  Speaker 1: really broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of
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  Speaker 1: bread that only the priests were allowed to eat. Again,
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  Speaker 1: that was allowed, that was provided because mercy trumps the
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  Speaker 1: rigid requirements. And in this case there's a need that's great.
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  Speaker 1: And haven't you read in the Law of Moses that
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  Speaker 1: the priests on duty in the temple may work on
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath? Think about it, if you're a priest and
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  Speaker 1: the sabbath rolls around you're involved in providing the cleanup
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  Speaker 1: from the sacrifices. You're there to keep temple in order
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  Speaker 1: and all the things in place. You're to provide the
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  Speaker 1: show brin. There's work that goes on in the temple.
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  Speaker 1: The Lord has enough room in his law for that,
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  Speaker 1: and he made room for it. Aren't you aware of that?
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  Speaker 1: But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if
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  Speaker 1: you knew the meaning of this scripture. WHOA feel the
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  Speaker 1: twisting of the knife. If you knew the meaning, the
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  Speaker 1: real meaning of the scriptures, you wouldn't be questioning my
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  Speaker 1: innocent disciples. I want to show you mercy, not offer sacrifices.
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  Speaker 1: That wasn't one of their favorite verses. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: that wasn't their favorite quotation. Because the Lord is the
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  Speaker 1: Lord of mercy and mercy Trump's rigid rules for the
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  Speaker 1: son of Man is Lord even over the set. WHOA,
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  Speaker 1: don't think they missed that. You know what he's saying,
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  Speaker 1: I'm Lord over the Sabbath. Matter of fact, if you
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  Speaker 1: check it out, you'll realize Jesus authored the law. It
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  Speaker 1: is a part of the Godhead before he came to
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  Speaker 1: this earth. He's engaged in these things, and he says
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  Speaker 1: to them, I will tell you I'm the Lord of
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath that did it. At that point, their hostility
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  Speaker 1: grew by leaps and bounds. But he doesn't stop. Look
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  Speaker 1: at what happens. Then Jesus went over to their synagogue,
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  Speaker 1: where he noticed a man with a Remember it's still
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath, and he goes into the synagogue and he
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  Speaker 1: finds a man with a deformed hand. Look at this,
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  Speaker 1: the pharisees asked, Jesus, does the law permit a person
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  Speaker 1: to work by healing on the Sabbath? That is not
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  Speaker 1: a question without a hook. It's a question designed to
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  Speaker 1: nail him. In fact, Matthew says, they were hoping he
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  Speaker 1: would say yes so they could bring charges against him.
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  Speaker 1: To see it, they never examine their own motives. Pharisees
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  Speaker 1: are like that. They're so busy condemning and putting people
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  Speaker 1: on the spot. They don't stop to realize how hypocritical
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  Speaker 1: their words are, how deceptive in many ways, how unfair.
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  Speaker 1: But by the way, he didn't fall for it. Look
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  Speaker 1: at this, He answered it like a good prop at
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  Speaker 1: a school, He asked. He answers their question with a question. Now,
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  Speaker 1: look at this If you had a sheep that fell
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  Speaker 1: into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you work to
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  Speaker 1: pull it out? He knew that to them, the economy
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  Speaker 1: was very important, and they're having their sheep was extremely important.
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  Speaker 1: If your sheep falls into a well, would you attempt
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  Speaker 1: to pull it out of the well if it's on
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  Speaker 1: the Sabbath? And look at his response. Of course you would.
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  Speaker 1: I love that, of course you would. And how much
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  Speaker 1: more valuable is a person than a sheep? I want
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  Speaker 1: to read that to every tree hugger in the country.
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  Speaker 1: How much more valuable is a person than the environment?
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  Speaker 1: How much more valuable is a person than earth? A
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  Speaker 1: person has an eternal soul, not a sheep. But you
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  Speaker 1: place higher priority on a sheep's life than you are
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  Speaker 1: than you would on the man's hand being healed. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.
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  Speaker 1: The little space at the end of that statement at
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  Speaker 1: verse verse twelve, what you're hearing is jaws falling onto
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  Speaker 1: chests as they are standing without an answer. He's got them, then,
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  Speaker 1: he said to the man, look at this act of compassion.
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  Speaker 1: He said to the man, hold out your hand. The
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  Speaker 1: man held out his hand. It was restored just like
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  Speaker 1: the other one, and not one pharisee applauded. Not one
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  Speaker 1: thought how great of God to heal that hand. They
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  Speaker 1: all thought he broke our rule about the Sabbath. How
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  Speaker 1: dare you do that? You say, well, maybe you're going
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  Speaker 1: a little far. Well, maybe you've not read the next verse.
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  Speaker 1: The man held out his hand, it was restored like
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  Speaker 1: the other. Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot
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  Speaker 1: how to kill Jesus. I don't know what you do
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  Speaker 1: with a verse like that, but I pause and realize
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  Speaker 1: the evil that can lurk in every heart when you
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  Speaker 1: are so determined to control others that somebody gets in
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  Speaker 1: your way you plan to do away with him. You
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  Speaker 1: got some real homework to take care of. They have
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  Speaker 1: a meeting and plan a conspiracy for his death. This
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  Speaker 1: is the turning point in Matthew's God. At this point
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  Speaker 1: everything changes. Jesus goes more underground, they get more hostile,
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  Speaker 1: and it climaxes when you get to chapter twenty seven
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  Speaker 1: and they nail him to a cross. But notice what
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  Speaker 1: Jesus' response is in verse fifteen. Jesus knew what they
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  Speaker 1: were planning. Of course he did. He's God. He realized
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  Speaker 1: there was that conspiracy meeting held in secrecy, and he
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  Speaker 1: left the area and many people followed him. He healed
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  Speaker 1: all the sick among them. There are times when the
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: wisest thing to be done is to walk away. He
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: does so in this case because his time has not
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: yet come. It will. And when it does come in
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: the garden of Gathsemite and they arrest him, he doesn't
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: fight them. He gives himself up and allows himself to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: be crucified. But this is not the hour, this is
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  Speaker 1: not that time. So he slips away, and many follow
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: and he warns them not to reveal who he was.
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  Speaker 1: That's the reason. Let's keep it between us. I want
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: to ask you three questions as I close this message today,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and they are designed to make you think. And maybe
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: because they are such, it may make you squirm. I
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: don't know, but there are honest questions that came to
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: me when I finished studying this passage, Three probing questions.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Here's the first. Do you allow legalists to control you?
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Maybe you're thinking often I do, or sometimes I've done that.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: You may be among those who could say, in all honesty,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: never I've learned better than that. Part of the reason
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: is you can never please a legalist fully, and second,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: you have no reason to. A legalist doesn't speak for God.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: He follows his own list of rules and regulations. My
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: heart goes out to you. If you were raised in
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: a legalistic home, most people in my generation, I've learned
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: in talking with them. Maybe I should say many were
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: raised in a home filled with rules the requirements. Your
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: parents may have been legalists. They meant well, I'm sure,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: but that's the way they were raised because you control
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: conduct by giving out rules, which really is a rather
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: immature plan. You see, when you are self governed, you
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: restrict yourself. No marks of maturity is knowing you're going
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: too far, or you shouldn't do this, it's not appropriate,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: shouldn't go there. As you grow up in the Lord,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: you develop that sense of knowing what's best without needing
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: to be told. So my question stays, if it is
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  Speaker 1: true that you are still allowing a legalist to control you,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: you will not grow until you break that habit. Growing
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: spiritually requires that you start thinking on your own, which
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: brings me to the second kind of helps you answer
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the first. Can you discern between God's instructions and others expectations.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus lived his ministry doing that. We just saw it
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: an example of it right here on the Sabbath. Question again,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: do you discern? Can you discern between God's instructions and
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: others expectations? You realize that in this book there are
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: some lists, and they are important. They're part of the
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Word of God. Are you aware of those lists that
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: God has given us? When you bring a charge to
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: those who are being ordained into ministry, you lay on
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: them the responsibilities of the ministry, drawing the principles from
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the Word of God. You really give them a list.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: But it's a list that is worth following because it's
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: a part of the scriptures the application of such. But
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: then there are other instructions that come from those who
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: are not basing it on the scriptures. They have expectations
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and they give them to you, one to tree at
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: a time, three or four in the list, and you're
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: learn them and you will follow them. As you grow
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: in the Lord. You will discern you'll not need to
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: give your gift concern to that. If you do, you
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: will live under constant battle with guilt and shame. And
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the Lord did not come to pile up the guilt
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: and shame against us. He came truly to set us free.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: You will know the truth, and the truth will what
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: set you free. You will know the truth, and the
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: truth will set you free. And you are free then
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: to obey Christ. You're not free to do whatever you please.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: That's not freedom, that's self serving, that's narcissism. But you're
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: freed now by the power of Christ to follow his instructions.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: And how great it is when you come to that
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: place that you can live like that. Here's a third question.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Are you becoming an agent of grace? You're spreading grace
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  Speaker 1: messages as often as you can when, especially when you're
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: around those that you see or living under the thumb
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: of others. Here's a way to tell. Are you resisting
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the tendency to control others? Start with your own older children.
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  Speaker 1: You're still trying to control them, or you release them
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: they're on their own now. Are you releasing others off
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: of probation or do you hold people for a period
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: of time until they prove themselves. Do you look for
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: opportunities to affirm others. One of my questions I like
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: to ask is do you offer encouragement to at least
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: one person every day? Are you breaking the habits of
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: shame and blame? If so, you're an agent of Greece.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Years ago, I came across a wonderful peace that I
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: have carried with me and will sometimes use. It's called
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: letting go. Listen carefully, these are words of grace. To
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: let go doesn't mean to stop caring. It means I
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: cannot do it for someone else. To let go is
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: not to cut my It is not to cut myself off.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: It's the realization that I cannot control another. To let
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: go is not to enable, but to allow learning from
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: natural consequences. To let go is to admit powerlessness, which
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: means the outcome is not in my hands. There's more.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: To let go is not to try to change or
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: blame another. I can only change myself. To let go
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: is not to care for, but to care about. To
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: It's not to judge, but to allow another to be
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: a human being. To let go is not to be
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: in the middle of arranging all the outcomes, but to
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: allow others to affect their own outcomes. To let go
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: is not to be protected, but to permit another to
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: face reality. It is not to deny, but to accept.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: To let go is not to nag or scold or argue,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: but to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: but to take each day as it comes. To let
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: go is to fear less and love more. If I've
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: learned anything in these many years in the ministry, I've
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: learned the value of letting things go. I used to
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: not do that. Cynthia could tell you. When people didn't change,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: I thought there's something I need to do or I
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: need to say. When there wasn't a real, healthy, affirming
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: response to my preaching, I thought, I've got to fix
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: my preaching so they'll respond positively. When people didn't correct
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: their paths, I would think, I'm obviously not doing something
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I should be. See I was the I am the
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Frisco fixer. I'm a professional fixer. If I don't watch it,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: when I'm about to live long enough to stop sweating
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: all that fixing stuff. You know what, when this sermon ends,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: you're on your own. I ain't following your car, I
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: ain't looking through your keyhole. You know why I got
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: too much stuff in my own life that takes my
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: time to deal with. My job is to declare the
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: truth and get out of the way. Hi, you're on
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: your own or you will never grow up. You see,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: If I don't believe that, I'll keep counting how many
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: are coming to church to listen to me when it
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: isn't about that at all. We come together to learn
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: principles that help us grow up and become spiritually self
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: sustaining for the glory of Christ. Actually, as you grow up,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: you become easier to live with, rather than harder to
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: live with. Some of your wives have written me, no,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I'm kidding. I haven't heard from anybody, and letters like
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: that I don't give much attention to because my job
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: is not to fix you. It's to be a faithful
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: teacher of the truth so that you take the truth
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: and apply it if you need Jesus. I don't follow
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: you around telling you that twenty four hours a day.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I tell you that as often as I can, and
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: then I get out of the way and let Jesus
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: take over. He's very able to handle you. He's never
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: met his match, and if you get out of line,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: he has ways of bringing you back in line. He
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: doesn't need me to help him. It's part of being mature.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: It's part of a reason you love Stonebrier Church because
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: you can feel the freedom to fail and you won't
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: be thrown out because failure is a part of growth.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: You really know Christ? Are you sure you know the Lord?
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: It all starts with him. You'll never fall in line
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: with Christ if you've not released yourself to Him and
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: taken his gift of salvation. Let's deal with that. Let's
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: bow together right where you're sitting alone with your own thoughts.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Invite you to see yourself when you step into eternity,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and now ask today, where will that be? If you
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: want it to be heaven with the Lord your God,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: you'll have to come through Christ. I am the Way,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: the Truth, and the life. No one comes to the
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Father but through Me. Whether you believe that or not
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: is yours to deal with. I can't make you believe it,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: but I can tell you it's the truth. If you
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: trust in Christ, you will have the gift of eternal life.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: If you don't, you won't, and your eternity is as
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: dreadful as I could possibly describe. So turn to him now.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Trust him now, Father, remind us again and again how
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: amazing your grace is, and how relieving, how freeing, and
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: what a source of joy, and what a sense of
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: satisfaction to know that we before you can come to
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: terms with things that are good for us, and to
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: also acknowledge things that aren't, so we won't do them.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Help us all in the journey from earth to Heaven
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: to make right choices. The best is to come to
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: know your son, be especially near to those who are
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: right there and made that this very day. Trust him now, Lord,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: dismiss us, with the relief that we have heard the
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: truth and realizing we have the responsibility of applying it
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: for your glory, and in the power of your spirit
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: through Christ, we all pray. Everybody said Amen.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: The preceding message, Sabbath Lord versus Religious Nitpickers was copyrighted
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty one, and the sound
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty one by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.