Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Crucial Truths, Rarely Understood Msg 1324 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Crucial Truths, Rarely Understood Msg 1324 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: As I was growing up with an older brother and
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Speaker 1: an older sister, you can imagine there wasn't much quietness
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Speaker 1: in our home, and every once in a while there
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Speaker 1: would be a moment of unusual silence, just kind of
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Speaker 1: a hush, and my mother would say, stay quiet, children,
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Speaker 1: there's an angel passing through. I often think of that
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Speaker 1: when the choir comes to a place and then they
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Speaker 1: go on. I think I can almost hear the flapping
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Speaker 1: of the wings. Holy, Holy, Holy, it's what the angels sing.
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Speaker 1: And I expect to make the courts of heaven ring,
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Speaker 1: But when I sing redemption story, they will fool their wings.
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Speaker 1: For angels never felt the joy that myself. They shouldn't
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Speaker 1: brings easy to forget, that, isn't it. We can know
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Speaker 1: dimensions of the Lord that not even the angels can know.
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Speaker 1: They elect angels, but they're not redeemed. Jesus died to
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Speaker 1: redeem us sinful people who don't deserve it, and he
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Speaker 1: gave us his book, his Word. The entrance of his
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Speaker 1: word gives light where it is a lamp to our
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Speaker 1: feet and a light to our path. Four verses are
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Speaker 1: tucked away in Matthew five. Child would like for you
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Speaker 1: to look at and for us to consider. As we
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Speaker 1: think about crucial truths rarely understood. You'll learn some things
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Speaker 1: today that you do not now know. That's one of
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Speaker 1: the exciting things about the teaching of the scriptures. There's
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Speaker 1: always something new to discover. Today is no exception. Once
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Speaker 1: you have found Matthew five seventeen. Please stand with each
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Speaker 1: other for the reading of God's word. Do not think
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Speaker 1: that I came to abolish the law or the prophets.
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Speaker 1: I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly,
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Speaker 1: I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
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Speaker 1: not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law,
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Speaker 1: until all is accomplished. Whoever thenknus one of the least
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Speaker 1: of these commandments and teaches others to do the same,
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Speaker 1: shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But
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Speaker 1: whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great
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Speaker 1: in the Kingdom of heaven. For I say to you
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Speaker 1: that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and
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Speaker 1: the Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Speaker 1: Searching words words from jesus own lips that meant something
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Speaker 1: remarkable to the people of that day, and the same
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Speaker 1: to us today. Please be seated, and now for more silence. Together,
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Speaker 1: let's enjoy simply the presence of the Lord as we
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Speaker 1: bow together, just sit before him and worship him. Our Father.
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Speaker 2: We do love your son, my Jesus, I love thee
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Speaker 2: I know Thou art mine and for you.
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Speaker 1: All the stupid follies of sin are resign, A gracious redeemer,
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Speaker 1: a savior. Art Thou. If ever we love you. We
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Speaker 1: love you now now in a world that's running in
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Speaker 1: the wrong direction because it's lost its way. We love
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Speaker 1: you now, surrounded by those who look upon you with
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Speaker 1: skepticism and doubt. We love you now with all the
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Speaker 1: unknowns of the future and all of the bad news
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Speaker 1: we hear every evening, and all of the threats against
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Speaker 1: us as a people, as a country, as Christians. We
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Speaker 1: love you now right now. Deepen our love for you, Father,
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Speaker 1: so that nothing, nothing ever weakens that love, that nothing
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Speaker 1: else captures our love and makes us wander away from you,
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Speaker 1: that nothing tempts us to turn away from your love.
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Speaker 1: We love you now, and may that love make a
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Speaker 1: major difference in the way we think, in motives behind
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Speaker 1: our actions and opinions. And thoughts behind our words, and
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Speaker 1: the way we treat other people at the store, on
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Speaker 1: the street, our neighbors, strangers. Thank you, dear Father, for
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Speaker 1: your sovereign hand on our lives. The prophet writes that
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Speaker 1: a woman can forget her nursing child so that she
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Speaker 1: would walk away from the sun of her womb. But
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Speaker 1: you will not forget us. You have inscribed us in
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Speaker 1: the palm of your hands. Our ways are continually before you.
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Speaker 1: The ways of the couple who spoke to me earlier
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Speaker 1: today face cancer as the husband doesn't know what the
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Speaker 1: future holds. Your ways are greater than their ways. You
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Speaker 1: have a way through the wilderness the one sitting here
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Speaker 1: today confused, struggling, feeling abandoned lost. Our ways are continually
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Speaker 1: before you. You have a way of taking words from
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Speaker 1: page of scripture and then drilling them home to our hearts.
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Speaker 1: May that happen today. May I prove to be altogether
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Speaker 1: insignificant in the process. Get me out of the way,
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Speaker 1: so your word can run and have free course. As
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Speaker 1: our hearts absorb what you have written, May it make
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Speaker 1: a difference in our wills. Soften our stubbornness, break our pride, arrogance,
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Speaker 1: create within us, Father, a clean heart, pure of deception,
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Speaker 1: free of hypocrisy. Place your hand on those in difficult places,
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Speaker 1: those who represent us on the mission fields around the world,
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Speaker 1: around the world who serve you, and places will never be,
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Speaker 1: And speak to those will never meet. We pray that
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Speaker 1: you'd give them strength to press on. For those who
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Speaker 1: walk into the face of the enemy, literally never knowing
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Speaker 1: that the next step will lead to give them courage,
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Speaker 1: give them hope, surround their families with the reassurance that
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Speaker 1: you were there as well as with them. Bring them
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Speaker 1: safely home. Now, our Father, we realized we could not
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Speaker 1: earn a living if it weren't for the strength you
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Speaker 1: give us. We wouldn't have the brains to carry out
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Speaker 1: our job. We wouldn't have the discipline to get up
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Speaker 1: in the morning face what it requires. We wouldn't make
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Speaker 1: the wage that we make. But we realize all of
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Speaker 1: this work together that we might have the ability to
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Speaker 1: give to your work. May our gifts be given with
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Speaker 1: the right heart, May they be handled with integrity as
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Speaker 1: they are used for your glory. In the name of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: whom we love, we pray and we give everyone said Amen.
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Speaker 1: We knew something was missing, but we just didn't know
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Speaker 1: what it was. For the longest time, Cynthia and I
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Speaker 1: felt there was something we weren't getting from the church
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Speaker 1: we were attending. I understand that there was a Bible
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Speaker 1: used every Sunday. We had carried a Bible all our lives.
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Speaker 1: We were raised in families that love the Lord and
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Speaker 1: believe the Bible, and for our grandparents on her side
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Speaker 1: and mine the same for great grandparents. But in our
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Speaker 1: courtship and then our engagement, for those eighteen months, we
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Speaker 1: would say to each other from time to time, there's
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Speaker 1: just something. It isn't satisfying, something's missing. All our lives
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Speaker 1: we'd been involved in the religious life of that particular denomination,
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Speaker 1: and we went to the activities, and we knew the preachers,
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Speaker 1: we knew the evangelists. We would hear them special meetings.
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Speaker 1: We would hear missionaries or familiar names.
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Speaker 3: And.
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Speaker 1: We were aware of that world that was altogether familiar,
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Speaker 1: a lot of traditions connected with it. At this we
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Speaker 1: were strangers to this book. This Bible seems funny, doesn't it.
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Speaker 1: We carried a Bible, we read from it. We heard
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Speaker 1: one gospel message after another, gospel message after another gospel message.
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Speaker 1: Were already saved, We already knew the Lord we needed.
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Speaker 1: We needed truth to live by, not information that would
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Speaker 1: help us know how to be saved. So we remained hungry.
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Speaker 1: We didn't know what to do, We didn't know where
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Speaker 1: to turn, but we knew something was missing. When you're
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Speaker 1: in a context like that, you become familiar with that world,
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Speaker 1: and you hear all kinds of sermons, topical sermons and
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Speaker 1: devotional sermons and textual sermons, and longhorns, Germans point here
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Speaker 1: and the point. They're in a lot of bull in between,
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Speaker 1: and and you get all that stuff, and you finish,
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Speaker 1: and you go go to launch or you go home,
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Speaker 1: and it's like, uh so what. And then, through a
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Speaker 1: series of circumstances I'll not get into, we were led
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Speaker 1: to a place where the truth as we had never
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Speaker 1: heard it was being taught. No denominational tie, no no
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Speaker 1: long traditional trappings, nothing wrong with tradition, if the traditions
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Speaker 1: are a part of the truth. And when we were
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Speaker 1: exposed to that, we realized, this is what we have
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Speaker 1: been missing. Interesting same Bible, same verses that we had
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Speaker 1: looked at all through our earlier years, same no different voices,
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Speaker 1: new voices, voices that were from people who had made
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Speaker 1: a deep and a consistent study of the scriptures, so
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Speaker 1: that it made sense, and we found our soul satisfied.
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Speaker 1: We made a tough decision, the first in our family,
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Speaker 1: to pull away from the long routes that had been
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Speaker 1: a part of our lives. And some warned us, some
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Speaker 1: told us we were moving into trouble. We certainly were
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Speaker 1: in a new group of people that we had not known.
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Speaker 1: It was a remarkable change that came over us. We
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Speaker 1: found ourselves excited about going to classes that the Word
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Speaker 1: of God was taught and hearing different people that would
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Speaker 1: open the scriptures and help us, help us see what
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Speaker 1: is really there. And as how we Hendricks would say,
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Speaker 1: we moved from pablum to porterhouse. We moved from baby
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Speaker 1: food where we were spoon fed Sunday after Sunday, Sunday
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Speaker 1: after Sunday, Sunday after Sunday, where we were offered meat
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Speaker 1: truth to live by. And suddenly we learned of the
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Speaker 1: doctrines of the scriptures. We learned of justification and sanctification.
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Speaker 1: We learned of the prophetic plan of God for the future,
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Speaker 1: that it isn't all sort of up for grabs so
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Speaker 1: that we'll all wind up the same place at the
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Speaker 1: right time, and we'll kind of sing glory. It's not
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Speaker 1: like that at all, that the world is not going
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Speaker 1: to get better but worse, because the scriptures teach in
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Speaker 1: the last days, savage times will come, and that's where
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Speaker 1: we are. So we weren't disillusioned, we weren't hopeless. God's
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Speaker 1: word was being fulfilled. What was happening was the authority
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Speaker 1: of the scriptures took hold of us, and we wanted
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Speaker 1: that regardless of who the speaker may be. We had
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Speaker 1: been in churches where the pastor was sort of the
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Speaker 1: prima donna. You never questioned the pastor. But we learned
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Speaker 1: in this new setting that there's no church boss. Pastors
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Speaker 1: aren't the boss of a church. Corporations are run by
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Speaker 1: bosses the churches in the corporation. The church is a family,
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Speaker 1: and God is the head. Christ is the lord of
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Speaker 1: the church. Christ is the one we worship, and the
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Speaker 1: pastor is under the authority of Christ, just as the
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Speaker 1: people are. And we could rest our case. It was magnificent.
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Speaker 1: We moved from the opinion of preachers to the authority
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Speaker 1: of the truth. Oh how greed it was. And all
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Speaker 1: of a sudden, the truths had a new flavor, had
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Speaker 1: a great taste. I have a friend who doesn't enjoy fish,
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Speaker 1: never goes to a fish restaurant, won't be found in
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Speaker 1: a fish market, doesn't like even the smell of it.
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Speaker 1: Well it doesn't that great at smell, but I mean
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Speaker 1: he didn't like it no matter what. And then he
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Speaker 1: went with us, and we were with a group on
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Speaker 1: our Alaska cruise. We went to a lodge called Taku
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Speaker 1: Lodge where they fixed salmon out on the grill. And
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Speaker 1: if you didn't fight the bears away along enough, you
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Speaker 1: can get enough salmon together to come inside and enjoy.
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Speaker 1: Makes my jaws hurt just thinking about salmon at Taku Lodge.
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Speaker 1: And my friend goes, this is great. Suddenly he's eating salmon,
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Speaker 1: but not your garden variety salmon. He's eating salmon like
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Speaker 1: no other place. And we caught the truth like never before.
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Speaker 1: And you know what, nothing else satisfies whom had we
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Speaker 1: lorded these soul thirst to satisfy exhaustless spring. The water's free,
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Speaker 1: all other streams are dry. Hey, young man, say to
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Speaker 1: me following the first service today, as he named a
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Speaker 1: particular church he came out of and and he said,
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Speaker 1: I'm not here to talk about that. He's I just
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Speaker 1: want to tell you I went through a similar situation.
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Speaker 1: And he said, the difference it has made is like
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Speaker 1: night and day. He just lit up. He said, I
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Speaker 1: was bored for the first twenty twenty five years of
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Speaker 1: my life. And now that I've gotten a hold of
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Speaker 1: digging into the word for myself and seeing that it
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Speaker 1: speaks to me with authority, that I can't describe the
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Speaker 1: change it's made. Now I've used the words several times,
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Speaker 1: so we need to define it. What do I mean
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Speaker 1: by the authority of Holy Scripture? Now I did just
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Speaker 1: what you can do. So let me give you a tip.
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Speaker 1: I have no corner on truth. You can study just
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Speaker 1: as I study. You have Webster's Dictionary, just like I do.
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Speaker 1: Get your dictionary. Look up authority. This is the definition
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Speaker 1: you'll find. It's excellent. The right and power to command
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Speaker 1: to exact obedience, to influence thought, opinion, or behavior. That's
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Speaker 1: a great definition. When the scriptures speak, they have the
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Speaker 1: right to command to exact obedience from the reader, to
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Speaker 1: influence my thought, my opinion, my behavior. And it's done
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Speaker 1: the scriptures have done that for years and years and years.
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Speaker 1: In my life, I have no corner on the truth.
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Speaker 1: I have eyes like you have. It's in English, just
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Speaker 1: like you read, and you and I can read through this.
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Speaker 1: And as the authority of the scriptures comes over us,
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Speaker 1: we realize that that is where the power is, not
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Speaker 1: in me, not in us, It's in the Word. I
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Speaker 1: love the way John R. W. Stott put it Here, then,
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Speaker 1: is the preacher's authority. It depends on the closeness of
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Speaker 1: his adherents to the tech he's handling, that is, on
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Speaker 1: the accuracy with which he has understood it, and on
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Speaker 1: the forcefulness with which it has spoken to his own soul.
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Speaker 1: In the ideal sermon, it is the Word itself which speaks,
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Speaker 1: or rather God in and through his word. The less
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Speaker 1: the preacher comes between the Word and its hearers, the
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Speaker 1: better he goes on. Expository preaching is a most exacting discipline.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps that is why it is so rare. The systematic
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Speaker 1: preaching of the Word is impossible without the systematic study
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Speaker 1: of it. Like you, I read it verse by verse
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Speaker 1: and sometime word by word, and I say to the Lord,
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Speaker 1: I need insight here, and I don't have it in myself.
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Speaker 1: Show me what this is saying, and let me read
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Speaker 1: what you have written for my life and for those
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Speaker 1: I'll be teaching. Now, why is this important? Why am
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Speaker 1: I on the subject as we're dealing with the sermon
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Speaker 1: on the mouth in Jesus' words? Here's the reason. Because
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Speaker 1: without the Holy scriptures, we have no standard. It's like
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Speaker 1: building a house with no measuring mark, with no slide ruler,
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Speaker 1: with no level. The word of God gives me the
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Speaker 1: measuring marks of my life. Thy word is truth, and
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Speaker 1: otherwise we do what seems right in our eyes. You
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Speaker 1: do what your parents told you to do. I do
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Speaker 1: what my parents told me to do, and a lot
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Speaker 1: of other things beyond no disparage comment about any parents,
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Speaker 1: but parents are not omniscient. Everything they taught us is
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Speaker 1: not right. Much of what they taught us is magnificent.
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Speaker 1: But my parents were wrong in some areas. If I
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Speaker 1: operated my life according to that, I would operate my
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Speaker 1: life in contrast to the scriptures. So as I grew up,
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Speaker 1: I needed my parents less, just like you, and I
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Speaker 1: needed the truth more so that now my authority rests here.
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Speaker 1: And if this book says it, I adjust my life
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Speaker 1: to it. I may have a temper, but when the
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Speaker 1: scripture says that has no place in the Christian life,
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Speaker 1: then my rage has to be kept under control. Or
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Speaker 1: I'm in sin, I'm a lust or I may covet
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Speaker 1: or I may be selfish. And the reason I know
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Speaker 1: that is because the scriptures teach me that lusting and
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Speaker 1: covetousness and selfishness are sins. It doesn't matter how I
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Speaker 1: feel about it. That's what the scripture teaches. And if
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Speaker 1: that's what scripture teaches, I need to adjust my life
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Speaker 1: by it. Now, what does all this have to say
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Speaker 1: to the sermon them? Mount stop and think. The people
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Speaker 1: who came and heard Jesus teach that day had been
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Speaker 1: raised in the church. They called it a synagogue, and
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Speaker 1: they had listened to the scribes and the Pharisees. They
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Speaker 1: had listened to their rabbis year after year, year after year,
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Speaker 1: year after monotonous year, and much of the teaching was
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Speaker 1: based on tradition, tradition. Like Fiddler on the Roof, tradition,
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Speaker 1: tradition is everything. No, the tradition of men and women
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Speaker 1: is not authority, but it is impressive, and it is
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Speaker 1: also on occasion absolutely wrong. So these people who had
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Speaker 1: been raised in the synagogue sit down and they listen
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Speaker 1: to someone who speaks not like a scribe or pharisee.
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Speaker 1: And it's like, oh, well, look for yourself. Look at
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Speaker 1: the end of the sermon, chapter seven, verse twenty eight,
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Speaker 1: and verse twenty nine. You'll see it right here, seven
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Speaker 1: twenty eight. When Jesus had finished these words, that is,
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Speaker 1: he finished his message. We call it the Sermon on
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Speaker 1: the Mount. What happened. The crowds were amazed at his teaching.
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Speaker 1: I remember having that experience when I fale became exposed
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Speaker 1: to the truth. I sat back and I would say
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Speaker 1: to Cynthia, that's what we've been missing. Is this magnificent
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Speaker 1: or what not? Isn't he great? It wasn't about the preacher.
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Speaker 1: It was about seeing the truth. And these people heard
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Speaker 1: the truth, and they had never heard anything like it.
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Speaker 1: They were amazed, for he was teaching them as one
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Speaker 1: having authority, not as the scribes. He was teaching them
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Speaker 1: as one who was true, and they had never heard
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Speaker 1: anything like in his Remember the at the crucifixion centurion
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Speaker 1: couldn't couldn't think of it. Remember when the centurion reports back,
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Speaker 1: No one ever spoke like this man. He's like none other.
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Speaker 1: He represents something we've never heard before. So when we
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Speaker 1: get into the servant and when we work our way
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Speaker 1: through it, we shouldn't be surprised that there had been
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Speaker 1: critics even early on in his ministry, who said he's
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Speaker 1: abolishing the law. He stands against the prophets because he
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Speaker 1: took on the scribes and Pharisees, and he called a
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Speaker 1: spade a spade. In fact, he called them hypocrites, which
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Speaker 1: they were. But like in my younger years, you never
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Speaker 1: criticized the pastor, he's the boss. You never criticize the pharisee.
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Speaker 1: He's the art. No no, no, no, wait, you've already forgotten.
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Speaker 1: This is the authority. So we place ourselves under the
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Speaker 1: rule of scripture. And if I teach something that cannot
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Speaker 1: be backed up in scripture, I am wrong. You have
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Speaker 1: no business following that teaching. However, if I do base
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Speaker 1: it on the scriptures, after a careful study, you are
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Speaker 1: wise to follow the teachings of scripture. Now that's the
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Speaker 1: group of people Jesus is talking to. They've heard the criticism.
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Speaker 1: So for the first time, Jesus changes all the us
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Speaker 1: to I verses one through sixteen of chapter five. It's you, you,
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Speaker 1: including you are the salt of the earth. You are
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Speaker 1: the light of the world. But when he gets to
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Speaker 1: verse seventeen, he says, do not think that I. So
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Speaker 1: it changes from second person plural. We would say here all, y'all,
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Speaker 1: y'all ought to do this, y'all ought to do that.
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Speaker 1: But when he gets to verse seventeen, he says, I
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Speaker 1: I came. I did not come to abolish the law.
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Speaker 1: I did not come to abolish it, but to fulfill it.
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Speaker 1: See I twice in verse seventeen, look at eighteen. For truly,
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Speaker 1: I say to you verse twenty. For I say to
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Speaker 1: you now, he says, let me tell you a little
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Speaker 1: bit about me personally. I'm not here to abolish the truth.
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Speaker 1: I'm here to uphold the truth, to fulfill it in
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Speaker 1: every way, personally, ethically, in every possible way. I'm here
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Speaker 1: to fulfill it. That's why the Father sent me. But
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Speaker 1: the fact was they were surrounded by people whose tradition
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Speaker 1: trumped the scripture, so that what they taught about keeping
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Speaker 1: the Sabbath went further than the law taught. Not only
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Speaker 1: were you to be clean, but they had a way
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Speaker 1: of washing hands that it was meticulous and time consuming.
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Speaker 1: And you washed this hand in a certain way with
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Speaker 1: the fist on the palm, and then you wash that
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Speaker 1: hand a certain way, and then you let the water
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Speaker 1: drip off the elbows, and then you let the water
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Speaker 1: drip off the fingers. None of that is in scripture.
29:30
Speaker 1: It's the tradition of men. But if you did not
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Speaker 1: do that, you're criticized. Just like when we were in
29:38
Speaker 1: that church I mentioned, we were given a list. You
29:41
Speaker 1: don't dance, you don't play cards. Uh, there's no mixed bathing.
29:50
Speaker 1: I think they meant mixed swimming, but there's no mixed swimming.
29:57
Speaker 1: And if you do that and Sunday, you don't want
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Speaker 1: the loan on Sunday. Where does the scriptures say that
30:07
Speaker 1: that's the Sabbath. Sabbath is Saturday. And all these people
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Speaker 1: walking around with the rules for Sunday in the Sabbath
30:15
Speaker 1: shave a mean seventh, the seventh day of the week.
30:20
Speaker 1: All of that took place on the shabab. And they
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Speaker 1: added to the let me show you chapter fifteen. Look
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Speaker 1: over there right quick, hold your place. I'm gonna get
30:29
Speaker 1: to chapter five nowhere. I'll get there but you got
30:31
Speaker 1: to see it in light of all of this, and
30:33
Speaker 1: then you can understand and appreciated. Look at fifteen. I
30:37
Speaker 1: love this passage. Some phariseasans cribed came to Jesus from
30:42
Speaker 1: Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition
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Speaker 1: to the elders, trying to sound officious. Why do they
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Speaker 1: do that? For they do not wash their hands when
30:55
Speaker 1: they eat bread. Really, there's nothing in the commandment it's
30:59
Speaker 1: about washing it. But there is something in their commandments. See,
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Speaker 1: they added hundreds of things to the law, became a
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Speaker 1: part of their books that they taught. So why do
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Speaker 1: they do that? And he answered and said, why do
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Speaker 1: you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake
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Speaker 1: of your tradition? Now you understand, why do you give
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Speaker 1: the people this long list of things that they do
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Speaker 1: and do not do when God's word does not teach that.
31:33
Speaker 1: For God said, honor your father and mother, and he
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Speaker 1: who speaks evil of father of mothers to be put
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Speaker 1: to death. But you say, whoever says to his father
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Speaker 1: or mother, whatever I have that would help you has
31:45
Speaker 1: been given to God. It was a way to keep
31:47
Speaker 1: things for themselves and not help their parents as they age.
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Speaker 1: He is not to honor his father, he is one
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Speaker 1: of That is what they taught by this. You invalidated
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Speaker 1: the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
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Speaker 1: Got it? You see it? Now go to the next
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Speaker 1: verse down at verse twelve. I love this verse. Then
32:07
Speaker 1: the disciples came to him and said, do you know
32:09
Speaker 1: the Pharisees were offended, really really give mean when I
32:16
Speaker 1: called him hypocrits. They were hypocrites. But nobody had the guts.
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Speaker 1: I'll use the word guts. Nobody had the guts to
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Speaker 1: call them hypocrits. But Jesus could because he understood righteousness,
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Speaker 1: which had nothing to do with external living all with internal.
32:43
Speaker 1: It's not what goes into the man that corrupts him,
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Speaker 1: it's what comes out from the inside. Now about to
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Speaker 1: chapter five. So much more I want to say about that,
32:56
Speaker 1: but I don't want to get through this passage. So
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Speaker 1: Jesus in the Law verses seventeen and eighteen. In case
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Speaker 1: you think he's soft on the law, look at verse eighteen,
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Speaker 1: one of my favorite verses in the sermonal the Mount.
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Speaker 1: You'll see why, truly, I say to you, until heaven
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Speaker 1: and Earth pass away. Not the smallest letter or stroke
33:17
Speaker 1: shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. When
33:22
Speaker 1: you and I were growing up, we carried a King
33:24
Speaker 1: James Bible. Some of you may still that's fine. And
33:28
Speaker 1: in the old King Jay's Bible it called it a
33:31
Speaker 1: jot and a tittle. Remember, every jot and tittle will
33:36
Speaker 1: be will be fulfilled, will be kept. What's a jot
33:42
Speaker 1: and what's a tittle? I remember quoting the verse years earlier.
33:46
Speaker 1: I never knew what that meant until I became exposed
33:49
Speaker 1: to someone teaching the truth who explained jot and tittle.
33:52
Speaker 1: Allow me to do that. Turn back to some one nineteen.
33:58
Speaker 1: Let's just do it right. Psalm one nineteen right in
34:05
Speaker 1: the middle of your Bible. And it's the longest psalm,
34:09
Speaker 1: and it's an acrostic psalm. Here's what I mean by that.
34:15
Speaker 1: It's in stanzas of eight verses each all the way
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Speaker 1: through to the end of the Psalm, and each of
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Speaker 1: the stanzas begins with the same Hebrew letter, and there
34:29
Speaker 1: are successive letters in the alphabet. Look for yourself. If
34:34
Speaker 1: you have a new American Standard Bible as I'm carrying today,
34:38
Speaker 1: you will see not only the name of the letter,
34:41
Speaker 1: but you'll see the character itself. Look at some one
34:45
Speaker 1: nineteen verse one, and look right above verse one. Your
34:49
Speaker 1: Bible may read alifh. What's that? That's the first letter
34:54
Speaker 1: in the Hebrew alphabet. If you wonder what it looks like,
34:58
Speaker 1: you have a new American state under Bible. Look to
35:01
Speaker 1: the left and you'll see the little alif. Go down
35:04
Speaker 1: to verse nine, second stanza bf. There's a beath right there.
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Speaker 1: That's what the b in Hebrew looks like. Okay, go
35:15
Speaker 1: to verse seventeen, eight verses later, next stanza gimmel. All
35:21
Speaker 1: of the verses in this section seventeen through twenty four
35:26
Speaker 1: start with gimmel, one of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
35:30
Speaker 1: The next letter verse twenty five is dali it. Now,
35:34
Speaker 1: I won't keep this all the way through, but I
35:36
Speaker 1: want you to understand. This takes you through the Hebrew alphabet.
35:40
Speaker 1: I'll let bath gimmel daleth hey while Zion calf deaf
35:43
Speaker 1: old kopfl I mean name, so said Gina all the
35:47
Speaker 1: way to the end. Now let me show you the job.
35:52
Speaker 1: Keep reading. Go over to verse seventy three. I love
35:58
Speaker 1: this kind of teaching. Some of your going what time
36:00
Speaker 1: is he through? So I for you, I apologize, but
36:05
Speaker 1: for the rest of you. Look, look at yode. It's
36:08
Speaker 1: the word translated jot in the King James Bible. Yo
36:12
Speaker 1: d h yode you in with your tongue between your teeth.
36:17
Speaker 1: It's not yode. It's yode. Like you would say loathe,
36:22
Speaker 1: say yothe with me. Yo. You could tell somebody at
36:26
Speaker 1: lunch you learn a little Hebrew over there. Now it
36:29
Speaker 1: looks like an apostrophe. That's the smallest Hebrew letter in
36:33
Speaker 1: all the alphabet, not one yode, not even the verse,
36:38
Speaker 1: but not one of the smallest letter. The smallest letter
36:43
Speaker 1: will pass away, not one yode. Now let me show
36:46
Speaker 1: you a tittle. Look at Dalith. Go back. We were
36:52
Speaker 1: there earlier c. Verse twenty five. Okay, stay with me,
37:03
Speaker 1: hold your place, and go all the way to Rash.
37:07
Speaker 1: All right, that would be like our r Here we go.
37:12
Speaker 1: We're on a search for Rash verse one, p. Fifty three.
37:20
Speaker 1: There you are. Now look at it. See the race,
37:27
Speaker 1: see the dollarth. The race just is a little looks
37:33
Speaker 1: like a right angle, little soft curve. The dollar has
37:38
Speaker 1: a then it goes down. That is the tittle. It's
37:45
Speaker 1: a part of a letter. It distinguishes the dollar from
37:50
Speaker 1: the race. What does this have to say about scripture?
37:55
Speaker 1: How important is it that we take scripture literally? He
38:01
Speaker 1: protects right down to the yode and the tittle. God
38:07
Speaker 1: cares so much about his word that not even the
38:10
Speaker 1: smallest letter of any part of the word, of any
38:14
Speaker 1: verse of scripture, of any book of the Bible will
38:18
Speaker 1: pass away, right down to the very stroke that distinguishes
38:22
Speaker 1: a dollar from a race. Now you're back to Matthew five.
38:28
Speaker 1: Now let me ask you something. Don't answer out loud.
38:31
Speaker 1: Did you know that? Probably you didn't, And you know what,
38:36
Speaker 1: That's okay, But now that you know it, you're beginning
38:40
Speaker 1: to see what I mean when I say by attending
38:44
Speaker 1: a church that teaches the Bible, not just the Gospel story,
38:50
Speaker 1: but the Bible, you get into the details that begin
38:55
Speaker 1: to make sense. And if a yode and tittle will
38:59
Speaker 1: make sense, think of the difference it will make when
39:01
Speaker 1: you understand the Sermon on the Mount and how it
39:05
Speaker 1: can impact your life. Suddenly it's not just a section
39:08
Speaker 1: of scripture you put in a coffee table Bible and say, oh,
39:11
Speaker 1: we believe all of that. No, this is truth to
39:14
Speaker 1: live by. Look at verse eighteen. I say to you,
39:18
Speaker 1: until heaven and earth passed away, not the smallest letter
39:21
Speaker 1: or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.
39:26
Speaker 1: Was Jesus soft on the scriptures? Not if I believe
39:29
Speaker 1: verse eighteen. No, not on your life. I won't change
39:34
Speaker 1: one thing. I won't remove one part of one letter
39:39
Speaker 1: of one verse. You're surrounded by those who teach otherwise.
39:43
Speaker 1: I will not do that. I will lead you into
39:45
Speaker 1: the truth. The Word is truth now the Christian and
39:48
Speaker 1: the law is nineteen and twenty. Move there. Whoever then
39:52
Speaker 1: announce one of the least of these commandments and teaches
39:56
Speaker 1: others to do the same, shall be called least in
39:58
Speaker 1: the kingdom of Heaven. Doubt it. There are those who
40:01
Speaker 1: do that. There are those who are in various cults
40:13
Speaker 1: and different kinds of churches that will cause you to
40:17
Speaker 1: question your faith. They will weaken your trust in the scriptures.
40:22
Speaker 1: They spend their time picking and choosing at those places
40:28
Speaker 1: that they call contradictions, which are not that at all.
40:32
Speaker 1: But because that is true, there is a desire to
40:37
Speaker 1: weaken your confidence in the Word. Never doubt it. Every
40:40
Speaker 1: generation the watershed issue is the Word of God. Have
40:46
Speaker 1: nothing to do with any church or any kind of
40:50
Speaker 1: teaching that diminishes the Word of God. Stay away from it,
40:56
Speaker 1: run from it, Move toward the wherever they may be
41:01
Speaker 1: and whoever they may be, who take the scripture literally
41:05
Speaker 1: and teach the scriptures carefully, accurately, clearly, practically, so that
41:14
Speaker 1: when you have finished with the message, you go, I've
41:17
Speaker 1: got something I can take on with me. This makes sense.
41:21
Speaker 1: So look at the next verse. For I say to you,
41:24
Speaker 1: unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees,
41:29
Speaker 1: you will not enter the kingdom. What does that mean?
41:33
Speaker 1: Now you've got to think about that. What does it
41:36
Speaker 1: mean to surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
41:41
Speaker 1: Let me give you a little bit of help. Think
41:44
Speaker 1: of the words go beyond, or goes deeper, or comes
41:53
Speaker 1: from within, not without. See, the Scribes and Pharisees taught
41:57
Speaker 1: an external righteousness. This is the way Dwight Pentecost describes it.
42:03
Speaker 1: Scribes and Pharisees had interpreted the law of God to
42:06
Speaker 1: apply only to outward acts, never to the thoughts that
42:11
Speaker 1: produce the act. They said it was wrong to murder,
42:16
Speaker 1: but they said nothing about the hate that produces murder.
42:21
Speaker 1: They said it was wrong to commit adultery, but nothing
42:24
Speaker 1: about the lust that produces adultery. They said it was
42:28
Speaker 1: wrong to steal, but they said nothing about the covetousness
42:33
Speaker 1: which leads to stealing. As long as you were not
42:37
Speaker 1: caught in some act, you were righteous in the sight
42:42
Speaker 1: of the Pharisee. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, you
42:45
Speaker 1: got to go beyond that. I'm going to talk, and
42:49
Speaker 1: he does as the sermon unfolds. I'm going to talk
42:51
Speaker 1: about the covetousness of your own heart. I'm going to
42:55
Speaker 1: talk about the lust that dwells there that causes you
42:59
Speaker 1: to look at the opposite sex with adultery in mind,
43:06
Speaker 1: it's not the act of adultery that leads to the problem.
43:09
Speaker 1: It's the thought that leads to the act. And Jesus
43:13
Speaker 1: goes right back to the thought. That's a righteousness that
43:16
Speaker 1: goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
43:21
Speaker 1: You know how proud those people were of their own
43:25
Speaker 1: traditional teaching. There was a saying among the Jews in
43:29
Speaker 1: the first century, if only two people go to heaven,
43:32
Speaker 1: one will be a scribe and the other a pharisee. Really,
43:39
Speaker 1: Jesus says neither. Why do you think they nailed him
43:46
Speaker 1: to a cross because the majority were led by the traditionalists.
43:53
Speaker 1: Get rid of him. He is exposing the evil of
43:58
Speaker 1: our lives. Those who don't want to be exposed, get
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Speaker 1: rid of the one who does so. Now we've covered
44:09
Speaker 1: only four verses, but I want to apply them because
44:11
Speaker 1: I think they're worth remembering and carrying with us. I've
44:17
Speaker 1: got three thoughts I want to share with you. One
44:20
Speaker 1: is from verses seventeen and eighteen, another from verse nineteen
44:23
Speaker 1: on the third from verse twenty. Here's the first, based
44:28
Speaker 1: on seventeen through eighteen. Our respect for the scriptures must
44:34
Speaker 1: be absolute, not almost. Our respect for the scriptures must
44:42
Speaker 1: be absolute, not almost. You say, well, check, that's pretty narrow.
44:53
Speaker 1: I know. Let's say you were going into surgery, and
44:57
Speaker 1: just before you were under the influence of the anesthesia,
45:01
Speaker 1: the doctor says to you, I just want you to
45:03
Speaker 1: know that my gloves are almost sterile. I have a
45:09
Speaker 1: feeling go wait, wait, wait, why wait, it's all moved.
45:14
Speaker 1: What if you were really thirsty and I brought you
45:17
Speaker 1: a jog of water full gallon, and I say to
45:19
Speaker 1: you there's only one drop of poison. Go right ahead,
45:23
Speaker 1: drink up. You wouldn't put that container to your mouth
45:26
Speaker 1: one drop because it's almost pure. Be very careful, men
45:33
Speaker 1: and women about picking and choosing your way through the scriptures.
45:38
Speaker 1: Be very careful before you x out some things that
45:42
Speaker 1: are pretty convicting for you. What do you need to
45:48
Speaker 1: x out is the sin in your own life. God's
45:53
Speaker 1: word speaks for itself and speaks with absolute authority. And
45:57
Speaker 1: I want to tell you, when I read something here
45:59
Speaker 1: that ukes me, I've learned, don't fight it, address it,
46:05
Speaker 1: deal with it. But the power of the spirit of God,
46:10
Speaker 1: let that be taken care of in your life. So
46:14
Speaker 1: our respect for the scriptures must be absolute verse nineteen.
46:18
Speaker 1: Here's a second. Our obedience to the scriptures should be total,
46:24
Speaker 1: not partial. Before you're timpted to compromise, remember that principle.
46:32
Speaker 1: Our obedience to the scriptures should be total, not partial.
46:38
Speaker 1: I'm going to get downright specific. Okay. Scripture says, don't
46:42
Speaker 1: be unequally yoked. And let's say you're not married, and
46:47
Speaker 1: let's say you are attracted to this individual who is
46:51
Speaker 1: not a believer, and the scripture says, don't yoke yourself
46:56
Speaker 1: up with. Don't marry someone who is an unbeliever. Don't
46:59
Speaker 1: go there. Don't do that. Either you obey that or
47:05
Speaker 1: you're led by your emotions. You fall in love and
47:07
Speaker 1: you marry. You say, well, you know, God's a god
47:10
Speaker 1: of grace, he'll understand. Wait wait, hold it, no cheapen
47:14
Speaker 1: grace to apologize for your sinful decision. Grace was never
47:20
Speaker 1: meant to give you a pass through things that are
47:24
Speaker 1: a little bit uncomfortable for you or a little bit exacting.
47:28
Speaker 1: If you're going to make your decision that you're going
47:30
Speaker 1: to obey scripture, and obey scripture, guard against compromise that
47:38
Speaker 1: leads to corruption. If he cares about the john and tittle,
47:41
Speaker 1: he cares about the details. Here's the third. Our commitment
47:45
Speaker 1: to a scriptural lifestyle is to be inward and deep,
47:52
Speaker 1: not external and superficial. Our commitment to a scriptural lifestyle
47:59
Speaker 1: is to be inward and deep, not external and superficial.
48:05
Speaker 1: I'm not to conduct myself in a way that I
48:07
Speaker 1: impress you. That's not my goal. My goal is not
48:11
Speaker 1: to tell you what you want to hear. I do
48:15
Speaker 1: that because I want to please people. I've stopped doing that.
48:18
Speaker 1: I used to do that. As you've noticed, I don't
48:21
Speaker 1: do that anymore. I've decided that's external that's designed to
48:27
Speaker 1: make you think well of me. I'd rather you not
48:31
Speaker 1: like me at all and be reproved by the truth
48:34
Speaker 1: of Scripture than to like me and let me help
48:37
Speaker 1: you compromise. My lifestyle is to be marked by what's
48:44
Speaker 1: on the inside. It's not how I look. It's not
48:49
Speaker 1: even how I sound. It's how I think. It's the
48:55
Speaker 1: hidden motive of my heart. The psalmst in Psalm one
49:02
Speaker 1: point thirty nine, Search me, o, God, and know my heart.
49:06
Speaker 1: Try me and know my thoughts. Get that heart, thoughts,
49:11
Speaker 1: see if there be any wicked way in me, and
49:16
Speaker 1: lead me into the way of elasting. Let's do that.
49:20
Speaker 1: Will you bow? Please, just for a moment, right there,
49:25
Speaker 1: Just stay right there. I say that the Prophet rights,
49:32
Speaker 1: though your sins be a scarlet, they will be white
49:37
Speaker 1: as snow. The beauty of the Cross of Christ is
49:44
Speaker 1: that it's able to change a dark heart, a heart
49:49
Speaker 1: given to selfishness and arrogance and lust and covetousness. Pride
49:59
Speaker 1: was able to wash it clean through the blood of Christ.
50:04
Speaker 1: So if you've never met Christ, this is the promise.
50:10
Speaker 1: Believe in him, you will have eternal life. It's nothing
50:16
Speaker 1: you do that earns your way in. It's what you
50:19
Speaker 1: believe about the death and resurrection of Christ. Something in
50:28
Speaker 1: your life that is displeasing to the Lord only you know.
50:36
Speaker 1: But if He's spoken to you today in any special way,
50:39
Speaker 1: this is a great moment to let him search you
50:45
Speaker 1: and change you. May even be a need to apologize
50:50
Speaker 1: for those you've been offending, making things right with those
50:56
Speaker 1: you have done wrong by, And it's a great time
51:03
Speaker 1: to to relieve yourself of any grudge and to forgive him.
51:11
Speaker 1: Just forgive him, Lord of these are These are great truths,
51:20
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure I did a great job of
51:22
Speaker 1: explaining them. But I pray that you'll take these halting
51:26
Speaker 1: words and that you will help people unwind them, unravel
51:32
Speaker 1: them so they see the value of your word. Maybe
51:41
Speaker 1: leave impressed with your word. Maybe want to follow Jesus closer,
51:47
Speaker 1: not some preacher. Maybe long for the good word of God,
51:57
Speaker 1: not just an exciting event. Are a few outward actions
52:03
Speaker 1: clean us uproard, purify our thoughts, and lead us in
52:10
Speaker 1: the right direction. I pray this in the name of Jesus.
52:19
Speaker 1: Everyone said amen.
52:24
Speaker 3: The preceding message, Crucial Truths Rarely Understood, was copyrighted in
52:29
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen and twenty twenty one, and the sound recording
52:33
Speaker 3: was copyrighted in twenty twenty one by Charles R. Swindaw Inc.
52:38
Speaker 3: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
52:42
Speaker 3: commercial use is strictly prohibited