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Voddie Baucham - Are The Apostolic Sign Gifts Still In Operation? · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Good evening. Let's try that again. Good evening. It's good
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Speaker 1: to be here. It's strange to be here. I've left
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Speaker 1: my family before to go and preach elsewhere, but I've
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Speaker 1: always left them with you. So it's very strange to
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Speaker 1: come here to you, having left them somewhere else. but
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Speaker 1: it is a unique delight to be here. Thank you
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Speaker 1: for your prayers for us and for your concern for us.
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Speaker 1: Everyone is doing well. We are grateful to God for
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Speaker 1: his care for us and pray for us. There's a
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Speaker 1: deadline coming up. Everything should have been done with our
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Speaker 1: registration with the government, but certain bureaucratic issues have, um,
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Speaker 1: have hindered that. And there's a November 15th deadline. And, um,
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Speaker 1: if we don't make that November 15th deadline, we won't
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Speaker 1: be able to start in January. So, um, just pray that, uh, that,
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Speaker 1: that God just takes care of that in his timing and, uh,
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Speaker 1: and that we're, we're able to, uh, to get this,
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Speaker 1: to get this work started. Um, One of the things
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Speaker 1: that has been very interesting to me, thinking about this
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Speaker 1: particular issue, is to see the ways in which the
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Speaker 1: Word of Faith movement and the prosperity gospel from here
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Speaker 1: in the United States has taken root and taken hold
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Speaker 1: and has wreaked havoc in Africa. I remember, you know,
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Speaker 1: I would have said, you know, when I first became
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Speaker 1: aware of the Word of Faith movement and began to
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Speaker 1: look into and study the Word of Faith movement, I
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Speaker 1: would always say things like, yeah, they can get away
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Speaker 1: with that here, but you can't do that in a
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Speaker 1: third world country. How wrong I was.
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Speaker 2: It's worse. It's worse.
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Speaker 1: You would think that there would have to be a
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Speaker 1: certain amount of wealth within a culture in order to
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Speaker 1: get people to grab a hold of this kind of ideology.
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Speaker 1: And the fact of the matter is that that's just
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Speaker 1: not the case. This movement is not necessarily about the
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Speaker 1: amount of wealth that an individual or a culture has
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Speaker 1: as much as it is about the desire that we
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Speaker 1: have for more, about our flesh, and the feeding of
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Speaker 1: our flesh, and how this movement essentially tells us that
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Speaker 1: we can have everything we want and Jesus, whereas Christ
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Speaker 1: has come to bid us to come and die. This
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Speaker 1: movement says you don't have to. Your flesh doesn't have
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Speaker 1: to die. Your yearnings, your desires don't have to die.
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Speaker 1: Your materialism doesn't have to die. In fact, you can
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Speaker 1: have it on steroids and still be all that Christ
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Speaker 1: has called you to be. And it's amazing to see
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Speaker 1: it in that kind of environment. Some of you may
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Speaker 1: have heard about recent events in now our part of
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Speaker 1: the world. One that I think we talked about before,
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Speaker 1: was a church where a pastor had his people literally
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Speaker 1: out on the front lawn of the church on their
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Speaker 1: hands and knees, crawling and eating grass. Literally, on their
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Speaker 1: hands and knees, crawling and eating grass. There was another
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Speaker 1: instance where some people had been actually beaten killed because
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Speaker 1: apparently during some service, the pastor sort of manifested as
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Speaker 1: a serpent. Again, these types of things are horrendous, but
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Speaker 1: they're becoming all too common. And in cultures where there
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Speaker 1: is already a bent toward animism and already a bent
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Speaker 1: toward You know, this sort of ancestral religion and this
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Speaker 1: idea of the spiritual strong man and the witch doctor
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Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. In cultures like that,
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Speaker 1: when you introduce ideas that sound very similar to it
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Speaker 1: and put Jesus' name with it, what you get is
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Speaker 1: a brand of Christianity that is not at all Christian.
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Speaker 1: And Justin Peters will tell us all about that. But
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Speaker 1: what I want to do tonight is address the elephant
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Speaker 1: in the room. And that is the idea of whether
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Speaker 1: or not it's appropriate for us to even do this.
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Speaker 1: Because you know as well as I do that there
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Speaker 1: are those individuals who would argue that what's happening here
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Speaker 1: is divisive. What's happening here is not loving what's happening
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Speaker 1: here is judgmental we're putting god in a box we're
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Speaker 1: quenching the spirit touching god's anointed and so on and
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Speaker 1: so forth well if you have your bibles with you
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Speaker 1: open them to the book of jude don't ask what
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Speaker 1: chapter Open them to the book of Jude and let's
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Speaker 1: look at those first four verses, shall we, there in Jude.
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Speaker 1: Small letter. I heard someone refer to it once as
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Speaker 1: a postcard. Jude a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother
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Speaker 1: of James, to those who are called, beloved in God
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Speaker 1: the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace,
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Speaker 1: and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was
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Speaker 1: very eager to write to you about our common salvation,
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Speaker 1: I found it necessary to write appealing to you to
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Speaker 1: contend for the faith that was once for all delivered
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Speaker 1: to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed,
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Speaker 1: who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people
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Speaker 1: who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and
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Speaker 1: deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. A couple
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Speaker 1: of observations that I want to make here, really one observation,
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Speaker 1: and some other observations that are subsequent to that. And
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Speaker 1: the one observation that I really want to make, regardless
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Speaker 1: of what else we have time for, is this, that
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Speaker 1: the idea of contending for the faith is consistent with
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Speaker 1: the idea of mercy, peace, and love. The idea of
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Speaker 1: contending for the faith is consistent, not at odds with,
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Speaker 1: but consistent with the ideas of mercy, peace, and love. Now,
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Speaker 1: as I've said before, you've heard me say this many times,
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Speaker 1: the 11th commandment is thou shalt be nice. And we
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Speaker 1: don't believe the other 10. That's our culture. Niceness. is
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Speaker 1: the height and the epitome of true Christianity. And contending
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Speaker 1: is seen as not being nice, as not being loving.
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Speaker 1: So if you are contending, then you are not being loving.
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Speaker 1: You are not being Christian. But note what Jude says.
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Speaker 1: He says in verse 2, May mercy, peace, and love
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Speaker 1: be multiplied to you. And then in verse 3 he says,
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Speaker 1: Agonize greatly. Contend. The word that he uses in the
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Speaker 1: Greek is epagonizomai. Agonize greatly for the faith. Wrestle.
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Speaker 2: The word there would be a word for wrestling. It'd
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Speaker 2: be a word.
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Speaker 1: That was derived from the physical sport of man-on-man combat
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Speaker 1: and wrestling and two men agonizing with one another.
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Speaker 2: In the most physical manner possible.
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Speaker 1: That's the word that he chooses to use in verse
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Speaker 1: 3 when he says, contend for the faith that was
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Speaker 1: once for all delivered or handed down to the saints.
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Speaker 2: And he uses this.
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Speaker 1: One verse after his prayer says, that mercy, peace, and
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Speaker 1: love be multiplied to you. Now, how could the apostle
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Speaker 1: argue for mercy, peace, and love being multiplied to you
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Speaker 1: on the one hand and argue for agonizing greatly for
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Speaker 1: the faith on the other if there is some inconsistency
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Speaker 1: between the two?
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Speaker 2: How could he possibly juxtapose.
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Speaker 1: These things if to do one was to negate the other?
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Speaker 1: He can only do this if somehow, if in some way,
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Speaker 1: these things are compatible. And again, this grates on us.
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Speaker 1: This works against us. I get that. I understand that.
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Speaker 1: And actually, I understand it from both sides. Many of
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Speaker 1: you may not know this about me. I talked to
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Speaker 1: Stephen about this. He didn't know this about me. The
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Speaker 1: first book that I ever read as a Christian, the first, like,
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Speaker 1: you know, book, book that I ever read as a Christian,
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Speaker 1: not a book in the Bible, but like a Christian
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Speaker 1: book that you find in the Christian bookstore and go
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Speaker 1: and read the thing from cover to cover, was Good Morning,
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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit by Benny Hinn. True story. True story. First
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Speaker 1: book that I ever read was part of a group
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Speaker 1: in college that was basically... charismatic in nature. I'd served
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Speaker 1: on staff at a church while I was in seminary
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Speaker 1: that was a charismatic church. Early on in my faith,
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Speaker 1: I attended a charismatic church where they had a, you know,
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Speaker 1: the sort of tarrying bench. And some of y'all from
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Speaker 1: a charismatic background, you know about the tarrying bench. You
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Speaker 1: haven't got the gift yet, you know, so you come
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Speaker 1: at the end of the service and Some people come
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Speaker 1: to get saved. Other people come so you can get
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Speaker 1: the second blessing. And so you come, and they lay
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Speaker 1: hands on you, and you lay hands on your head,
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Speaker 1: and maybe even lay hands on your chest and your
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Speaker 1: belly and tell you to just let it bubble out
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Speaker 1: of your belly. And so you've got to start stringing
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Speaker 1: syllables together so that you sound like you're speaking in tongues.
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Speaker 1: And the more you do it, the more syllables that
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Speaker 1: you can string together. Never mind you sound just like
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Speaker 1: the other people who are stringing syllables together. Never mind
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Speaker 1: the fact that you know that what you're doing is
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Speaker 1: stringing syllables together. The fact of the matter is you
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Speaker 1: start stringing these syllables together and all of a sudden
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Speaker 1: people shout and they get happy because somebody else just
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Speaker 1: got the second blessing. In fact, it was more exciting
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Speaker 1: for someone to speak in tongues than it was for
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Speaker 1: someone to be converted.
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Speaker 2: I've been there.
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Speaker 1: Served on staff at a charismatic church. Again, remember, I
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Speaker 1: didn't come to faith until I got to college. I
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Speaker 1: never heard the gospel until I got to college. And
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Speaker 1: the modern American church, just by default, is dispensational and charismatic.
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Speaker 1: Just by default. Not through people thinking it through and
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Speaker 1: making that decision. It just is. Nobody questions those two things.
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Speaker 1: Nobody questions dispensationalism. Nobody questions continuationism. If you're a Christian,
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Speaker 1: you basically accept those two ideas. And I basically accepted
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Speaker 1: those two ideas. And then I began to grapple with
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Speaker 1: Reformed theology. It messed me up. And it was then... Now,
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Speaker 1: I didn't change. Hear me carefully. I didn't change. But
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Speaker 1: here's the way this thing works. When you're on the
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Speaker 1: charismatic side of the ledger and believe that you're speaking
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Speaker 1: in tongues and believe that you have this second blessing
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Speaker 1: and believe... that you now have the Holy Spirit in
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Speaker 1: the kind of abundance that other mere just baptized, just
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Speaker 1: water baptized Christians don't have, you're not considered contentious in
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Speaker 1: the least. You look down on other people for literally
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Speaker 1: not being as spiritual as you are because you have
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Speaker 1: something that they don't have, but you're not considered contentious
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Speaker 1: in the least. You make claims about what God told
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Speaker 1: me and what God showed me and what God, you know,
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Speaker 1: you can't have an evangelistic encounter. You can't meet someone
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Speaker 1: and the conversation turn to the gospel. Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh.
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Speaker 1: You can't do that. When you tell the story, I
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Speaker 1: looked over and God told me, go talk to that person.
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Speaker 1: And I said, what, Lord, you want me to talk
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Speaker 1: to that person? And I said, yeah. He said, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I want you to talk to that person. See, that's
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Speaker 1: the way you have to tell the story on that side.
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Speaker 1: But you're not being contentious at all. Or you're not
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Speaker 1: considered contentious at all. But the minute you begin to
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Speaker 1: question the charismatic assumptions, in that very second, you are
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Speaker 1: considered contentious and unloving. It's not unloving for me to
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Speaker 1: believe that I'm more spiritual than you are because I've
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Speaker 1: got a second blessing and you don't. It's unloving for
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Speaker 1: me to question whether or not that experience is appropriate.
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Speaker 1: I saw it just as clear as day. All of
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Speaker 1: a sudden, I was considered contentious. All of a sudden,
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Speaker 1: I was considered less than. All of a sudden, I
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Speaker 1: was considered unloving. And all of a sudden, I was
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Speaker 1: considered dangerous. Now, people whose theology was wrecking folks' faith
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Speaker 1: weren't considered dangerous. But those who would dare to question
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Speaker 1: these concepts were considered dangerous. Because there is this idea,
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Speaker 1: and this idea is that if you are not part
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Speaker 1: of this program, then you are actually against God and
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Speaker 1: against God's work. Even the way the conversation is framed.
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Speaker 1: I had a conversation recently with a gentleman who was,
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Speaker 1: you know, a conversation through email. But he just really
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Speaker 1: wanted to understand how someone who, in his words, seemed
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Speaker 1: So spiritual. How can someone like you who seems so spiritual,
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Speaker 1: seems to have such insight into God's word, seems so
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Speaker 1: passionate about God, how can someone like you, and here
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Speaker 1: is the quote, not believe in the gifts? Did you
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Speaker 1: catch that? How dishonest. How completely and utterly dishonest. We
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Speaker 1: believe in the gifts. You don't believe in the gifts.
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Speaker 1: You don't believe God can heal. You don't believe that
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Speaker 1: God's the same today. You don't believe. Really, how dishonest
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Speaker 1: can you be? Do you know how many spiritual gifts
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Speaker 1: there are in the scriptures? Cessationists make arguments about a
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Speaker 1: very specific line of gifts that we would call sign gifts.
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Speaker 2: Sign gifts.
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Speaker 1: That we would argue are relegated to the apostolic age,
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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden we don't believe in the gifts.
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Speaker 1: We don't believe in any gifts. We pray for people
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Speaker 1: to get healed. Amen? We pray for the Spirit of
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Speaker 1: God to change people's hearts. We pray for God to
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Speaker 1: do all of these things. Why? Because we believe in
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Speaker 1: all of those things. We just do not believe that
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Speaker 1: those gifts are resident in individuals today like they were
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Speaker 1: during the apostolic age. But God can do every and
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Speaker 1: anything that God desires to do.
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Speaker 2: Can God do all things? Yes, God can do children.
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Speaker 1: All his holy will. all his holy will. There's a
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Speaker 1: difference between not believing that those gifts are resident in
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Speaker 1: individuals today like they were during the apostolic age when
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Speaker 1: the apostles were being set apart and validated and believing
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Speaker 1: that there are no spiritual gifts, that God can't do
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Speaker 1: what God wants to do. But even the way that
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Speaker 1: is framed, But we're the ones who are not. Loving.
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Speaker 1: This is a problem. And it's something that we have
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Speaker 1: to clear up. So how, in light of that reality,
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Speaker 1: do we answer the charge? How do we answer the accusation?
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Speaker 1: In the midst of a culture where people literally believed,
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Speaker 1: are literally convinced that the idea of contending on these
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Speaker 1: kinds of issues is automatically inconsistent with love, mercy, and peace. Well,
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Speaker 1: number one, the text couldn't be clearer. The juxtaposition of
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Speaker 1: verse 2 and verse 3 proves our point.
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Speaker 2: But why?
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Speaker 1: Why? What is the theological reality to which the apostle
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Speaker 1: is pointing? Notice it if you go back to verse 1.
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Speaker 1: Look at the second part of verse 1. To those
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Speaker 1: who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept
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Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ. I would argue that this is a
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Speaker 1: Trinitarian application. That basically he's saying the Holy Spirit calls
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Speaker 1: those whom God loves and keeps for the Son. The
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Speaker 1: Spirit calls the Father, loves, and keeps for the Son.
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Speaker 1: I would argue that this is Clearly, clearly a Trinitarian construct.
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Speaker 1: And that is important. Why? It's important because one cannot
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Speaker 1: understand love in the truest sense and unity in the
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Speaker 1: truest sense apart from the triunity of God. In fact,
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Speaker 1: look with me if you will in 1 John. 1
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Speaker 1: John chapter 4 and verse 16. 1 John chapter 4
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Speaker 1: and verse 16. So we have come to know and
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Speaker 1: to believe the love that God has for us. God
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Speaker 1: is love. So there's the first thing. God is love.
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Speaker 2: You can't define love apart from God. We want to
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Speaker 2: do it.
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Speaker 1: We want to redefine love in our culture of romanticism,
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Speaker 1: and it doesn't look anything like what you find in
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Speaker 1: the Bible. But God is love. So you can't define
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Speaker 1: love in a way that's inconsistent with who God is.
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Speaker 1: God is love. And whoever abides in love abides in God,
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Speaker 1: and God abides in him. Why? Because the very concept
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Speaker 1: of love is rooted and grounded in the Godhead. The
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Speaker 1: love that the Father has for the Son and the Spirit.
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Speaker 1: The love that the Son has for the Spirit and
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Speaker 1: the Father. The love that the Spirit has for the
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Speaker 1: Father and the Son. This love that is an eternal love.
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Speaker 1: This love defines all love. And in fact, even in
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Speaker 1: our yearning for love, what we yearn for is something
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Speaker 1: that you can only find in God.
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Speaker 2: Think about the love songs you know. What are they
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Speaker 2: all about?
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Speaker 1: They're all about a love that is endless, that is eternal. Newsflash,
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Speaker 1: that's not human love.
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Speaker 2: We die. Amen, somebody.
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Speaker 1: Where does that idea, a love that will last forever,
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Speaker 1: where do you get that from with human beings who
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Speaker 1: die and return to the dust and then go marry
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Speaker 1: somebody else when they die? Where do you get that from?
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Speaker 1: Does this mean that all of a sudden the love
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Speaker 1: is not love? No, absolutely not. The idea is that
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Speaker 1: the love we have is based on something that is
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Speaker 1: more significant than what you and I can actually experience
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Speaker 1: and manifest as limited human beings. And it's only when
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Speaker 1: we grasp love from a biblical perspective, from a triune perspective,
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Speaker 1: from an eternal perspective, that it actually makes any sense.
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Speaker 1: This is why we yearn for that which we can't
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Speaker 1: get from another human being. Our love songs always talk
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Speaker 1: about a love that is sacrificial. A love that would
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Speaker 1: climb a mountain and cross a sea. A love that
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Speaker 1: would catch a grenade for you. That's one love song.
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Speaker 1: Some of y'all are like, huh, what? Never mind. Don't
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Speaker 1: worry about it. If you missed that era, you didn't
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Speaker 1: miss much. Where does that come from? That comes from
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Speaker 1: the idea of love that is rooted and grounded in
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Speaker 1: the triunity of the Godhead. God demonstrates his love for
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Speaker 1: us in this, that while we were yet sinners.
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Speaker 2: Christ died for us.
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Speaker 1: So God demonstrates his love for us in that way,
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Speaker 1: and what do we yearn for? We yearn for a
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Speaker 1: love that is demonstrated like that love is demonstrated, and
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Speaker 1: no human being can ever give that to us in
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Speaker 1: the truest sense. Our love songs yearn for a love
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Speaker 1: that what? That is constant. You are always on my mind. No,
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Speaker 1: you're not. I'm not capable of that kind of sustained
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Speaker 1: attention paid to another human being. You are not always
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Speaker 1: on my mind. That's only true from God's perspective. So
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Speaker 1: even the things that we hold in highest esteem relating
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Speaker 1: to love, they are only true because of God. They
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Speaker 1: are only true in God and they are only true
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Speaker 1: through God. So whenever we're talking about love, we have
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Speaker 1: to be very careful and understand that we have to
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Speaker 1: couch it within the triunity of God.
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Speaker 2: God is love.
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Speaker 1: So if I'm saying that I'm not being loving and
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Speaker 1: I'm not defining it by I'm not being what God
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Speaker 1: is exhibiting in the Trinity, then I'm missing it. So
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Speaker 1: those who are called, there's the spirit at work. Beloved
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Speaker 1: in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. Notice
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Speaker 1: that even this love that is communicated here is a
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Speaker 1: love that is not universal in its application.
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Speaker 2: If there are some who are called, then there are
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Speaker 2: some who are.
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Speaker 1: Not. Otherwise, it doesn't mean anything to be called. Amen? Amen.
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Speaker 1: If I love everybody the same way that I love
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Speaker 1: my wife, I really don't love my wife.
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Speaker 2: Amen, somebody.
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Speaker 1: Beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: Not everyone is beloved in God the Father and kept
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Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ. So again, this idea of discriminating people.
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Speaker 1: is an idea that is rooted and grounded in the
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Speaker 1: love of the triune God. God loves himself more than
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Speaker 1: he loves us. In fact, God only loves us because
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Speaker 1: of the love that he has for himself.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: If God loves me more than God loves God, then
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Speaker 1: God is guilty of idolatry. Everybody with me? Let me
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Speaker 1: say it again. If God loves me more than God
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Speaker 1: loves God, then God is guilty of idolatry because he
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Speaker 1: has placed something above God. God can't do that. God
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Speaker 1: won't do that. Why is this important? Because here's where
28:37
Speaker 1: the agonizing greatly comes in. If something is claiming to
28:43
Speaker 1: be from God and it's not, I must not love it.
28:49
Speaker 1: I can't. If something is claiming to represent God but
28:55
Speaker 1: is instead misrepresenting God and I give it the same
29:00
Speaker 1: kind of love that I give those things that are
29:03
Speaker 1: representing God accurately, I am not being loving.
29:07
Speaker 2: I am guilty of idolatry. So if I am not.
29:12
Speaker 1: Agonizing greatly, if I am not contending, if I am
29:16
Speaker 1: not wrestling with and wrestling against all of those things
29:20
Speaker 1: that are inconsistent with the triune God, then I am not,
29:23
Speaker 1: number one, loving God, and secondly, I'm not truly loving
29:27
Speaker 1: those individuals because I'm satisfied with their godlessness. That's why contending...
29:40
Speaker 1: is consistent with the multiplication of mercy and peace and love.
29:47
Speaker 1: Because we do not have will not have, cannot have
29:54
Speaker 1: mercy and peace and love of God, with God, and
29:59
Speaker 1: from God within the context of error. Love rejoices in
30:10
Speaker 1: the truth. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing. 1 Corinthians
30:16
Speaker 1: 13 makes that clear. Genuine love does not, cannot, must
30:23
Speaker 1: not rejoice in wrongdoing, but instead must rejoice in truth.
30:31
Speaker 1: So you see, those individuals who hold up these ideas
30:34
Speaker 1: as inconsistent with one another are only doing so from
30:40
Speaker 1: a standpoint of idolatry. Let me explain. What we've presented
30:48
Speaker 1: here is the idea that the triune God is the
30:51
Speaker 1: source of all love. That the triune God is the
30:54
Speaker 1: standard of all love. And that the truth of the
30:58
Speaker 1: triune God must be pursued and defended if our.
31:03
Speaker 2: Love is genuine. We have to contend. This is what
31:07
Speaker 2: we've argued.
31:08
Speaker 1: So if it comes down to choosing between your lie
31:12
Speaker 1: and God's truth, genuine, godly love will always condemn your
31:18
Speaker 1: lie and embrace God's truth. The problem that we have
31:24
Speaker 1: in our culture is that we are not God-centered. We
31:28
Speaker 1: are man-centered. So essentially what we say is, you... are
31:35
Speaker 1: the standard, not God. And what I must be committed
31:40
Speaker 1: to is doing and saying and believing whatever is required
31:47
Speaker 1: and whatever is necessary for there to not be disagreement
31:52
Speaker 1: and contention between the two of us. Because the ultimate
31:59
Speaker 1: is not God. The ultimate is you. It's all about you.
32:09
Speaker 1: You are the center. And when you come at it
32:16
Speaker 1: with that kind of thinking, the result is any individual
32:23
Speaker 1: who claims to be a Christian who is disagreeing with
32:27
Speaker 1: and contending with another individual who claims to be a
32:30
Speaker 1: Christian is violating that seminal law of love. because our
32:37
Speaker 1: understanding of love is horizontal and not vertical. But when
32:45
Speaker 1: you understand what's being communicated here between verses 1, 2,
32:50
Speaker 1: and 3, you understand, number one, that the text juxtaposes
32:55
Speaker 1: these ideas in such a way that one cannot argue
32:59
Speaker 1: that there is an inconsistency between contending and multiplying mercy, peace,
33:04
Speaker 1: and love And number two, you understand when you back
33:07
Speaker 1: up to verse one that this is true when and
33:11
Speaker 1: because it is rooted and grounded in the very nature
33:17
Speaker 1: of the triune God. That's where we start. Secondly, coming
33:24
Speaker 1: from that, now let's get down and look at verse
33:26
Speaker 1: three more closely. Beloved, although I was eager to write
33:30
Speaker 1: you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to
33:33
Speaker 1: write appealing words to you to contend for the faith
33:38
Speaker 1: that was once for all delivered to the saints. Here's
33:41
Speaker 1: the second thing. There is this false dichotomy that is
33:48
Speaker 1: often presented. What we need to be about is the
33:54
Speaker 1: salvation of souls, not all these disagreements. Because if our
34:05
Speaker 1: passion is for souls, then we can let all the
34:09
Speaker 1: rest of that stuff go, and we can just go
34:12
Speaker 1: and pursue the salvation of souls, because nothing's more important
34:16
Speaker 1: than the salvation of souls. Listen to verse 3 again. Beloved,
34:24
Speaker 1: although I, an apostle, was very eager... to write to
34:31
Speaker 1: you about our common salvation. Here's an apostle who says,
34:34
Speaker 1: you know what, I sat down and I was going
34:36
Speaker 1: to write you an epistle under the inspiration of the
34:39
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. So this is God. And all of a sudden,
34:50
Speaker 1: in my desire to write to you about our common salvation,
34:55
Speaker 1: which is seminal, primary, Top shelf issue. I felt the
35:06
Speaker 1: need in the midst of that desire to urge you
35:13
Speaker 1: to contend for the faith. He obliterates the false dichotomy.
35:24
Speaker 1: There is no either or there. There is no Either
35:29
Speaker 1: we unite in our passion for souls or we quibble
35:34
Speaker 1: about issues. There is no either or there. The apostle
35:40
Speaker 1: would argue that because of our desire for souls, we
35:46
Speaker 1: must contend for the purity of the gospel. It is
35:54
Speaker 1: our desire for souls that compels us to contend for
36:00
Speaker 1: the purity of the gospel.
36:01
Speaker 2: I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
36:03
Speaker 1: Why?
36:04
Speaker 2: Because it and it alone is the power of God
36:07
Speaker 2: unto salvation to all those who believe.
36:10
Speaker 3: But if what we believe is a tainted gospel and
36:13
Speaker 3: a perverted gospel, then we are calling into question the
36:18
Speaker 3: very concept of salvation itself.
36:23
Speaker 1: There is no either-or dichotomy here. We must be passionate
36:29
Speaker 1: about souls, and we must be passionate about contending for truth.
36:34
Speaker 1: We must be passionate about contending for truth because we're
36:38
Speaker 1: passionate about souls. There is no disagreement here. Why?
36:49
Speaker 3: Why?
36:50
Speaker 1: Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered
36:55
Speaker 1: to the saints. That's what we're communicating.
37:03
Speaker 2: That's what we're contending for.
37:04
Speaker 1: This faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
37:09
Speaker 1: Notice that it's been done. It's not in process. It's
37:14
Speaker 1: been done. This apostolic teaching says, Is.
37:22
Speaker 2: It was. We have it. We're not waiting on it.
37:28
Speaker 1: Amen?
37:30
Speaker 2: We're not waiting on it.
37:32
Speaker 1: Folks, you don't need a new fresh word from me.
37:40
Speaker 1: If you get a new fresh word from me, that
37:41
Speaker 1: means God didn't give you enough in the first place.
37:47
Speaker 1: You don't need a new fresh word from me. Master
37:50
Speaker 1: these first. Amen?
37:55
Speaker 2: You'll spend the rest of eternity unpacking these.
38:01
Speaker 1: More, Lord, more.
38:03
Speaker 2: We want more. No, you don't. You can't handle what
38:07
Speaker 2: you got. More of God would kill you. Amen, somebody.
38:18
Speaker 1: Amen. But isn't it interesting? There was an event in Zambia.
38:32
Speaker 1: And Pastor Conrad sent me a text afterwards. This big,
38:41
Speaker 1: you know, crusade that happened. This miracle crusade that happened.
38:44
Speaker 1: And it was reported that on the last night, 250,000
38:47
Speaker 1: people packed the national stadium. Now, there probably weren't 250,000 people.
38:54
Speaker 1: But here's the interesting thing. If there's this tendency to
39:00
Speaker 1: speak pastorally about numbers... That means lie. If there's this
39:08
Speaker 1: tendency to speak pastorally about numbers, then follow me for
39:13
Speaker 1: a moment, okay? One could leave here and say there
39:17
Speaker 1: were thousands... Pastorally speaking, right? But there's no way on
39:27
Speaker 1: God's green earth that you leave here. going there were 250,000
39:32
Speaker 1: people so even for that to be a stretch you're
39:40
Speaker 1: talking about 100,000 plus literally literally 100,000 plus you better
39:53
Speaker 1: believe the topic was not the gospel. The topic was not,
40:03
Speaker 1: you know, come and have your sins forgiven. Come and
40:09
Speaker 1: repent and believe. No. You know what it was. Come
40:13
Speaker 1: get your blessing. Come get your miracle. Come get your deliverance.
40:20
Speaker 1: Come get your, and the list goes on and on.
40:24
Speaker 1: These are the things that thousands flock to. And here's
40:32
Speaker 1: the assumption. The assumption is we've already mastered repentance and faith.
40:42
Speaker 1: We've already plumbed the depths of the gospels. We've already
40:49
Speaker 1: done all the exposition that we need to do on
40:52
Speaker 1: all the books of the Bible. What we need now
40:57
Speaker 1: is that real stuff. The apostle says, contend for the
41:14
Speaker 1: faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Why? Why? Why?
41:18
Speaker 1: And this is what's amazing. Verse 4. For certain people
41:23
Speaker 1: have crept in unnoticed. He's not saying contend for the
41:29
Speaker 1: faith because there are people on the outside who openly
41:35
Speaker 1: hate us and who openly disagree with us and who
41:39
Speaker 1: openly vilify us Christians. No, he says certain persons have
41:43
Speaker 1: crept in unnoticed. They have titles. Bishop. Apostle. They've crept
42:00
Speaker 1: in unnoticed. How do you recognize them? They were long
42:09
Speaker 1: before designated for this condemnation. God's not surprised. Amen? That's
42:16
Speaker 1: good news, by the way. Ungodly people who pervert the
42:22
Speaker 1: grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only
42:26
Speaker 1: Master and Lord Jesus Christ. They pervert the gospel and
42:32
Speaker 1: misrepresent Jesus. That's as simple as I can put it.
42:37
Speaker 1: Who are they? They are people who, in the name
42:41
Speaker 1: of Jesus, pervert the gospel and misrepresent Jesus. And they
42:47
Speaker 1: must be contended with. They must be refuted. They must
42:53
Speaker 1: be exposed.
42:55
Speaker 2: Why?
42:56
Speaker 1: Because if you pervert the gospel and misrepresent Jesus, you
43:02
Speaker 1: undermine salvation. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I'll
43:15
Speaker 1: close with this. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Beginning in verse 1.
43:30
Speaker 1: Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I
43:32
Speaker 1: preached to you, which you received and which you stand
43:35
Speaker 1: and by which you are being saved, if you hold
43:39
Speaker 1: fast to the word I preached to you, unless you
43:42
Speaker 1: believed in vain. If the gospel that you're holding to
43:48
Speaker 1: is not the gospel proclaimed by the apostles you believed
43:51
Speaker 1: in vain. It does you no good to believe a
43:56
Speaker 1: false gospel. As Paul would say in Galatians, that's no
44:02
Speaker 1: gospel at all. We must believe the true gospel, the
44:09
Speaker 1: pure gospel. And the only way that people are going
44:12
Speaker 1: to believe the pure gospel and the true gospel is
44:16
Speaker 1: if someone somewhere stands up and refutes the false one.
44:24
Speaker 1: This is the job of every elder, according to Titus 1.9,
44:28
Speaker 1: to hold firmly to the trustworthy word as taught, that's
44:31
Speaker 1: apostolic teaching, so that they might exhort in sound doctrine
44:37
Speaker 1: and refute those who contradict it. It's the duty of
44:42
Speaker 1: every elder. The responsibility of every head of household. Hold
44:52
Speaker 1: firmly to sound doctrine and refute those who contradict it.
44:55
Speaker 2: Why?
44:56
Speaker 1: Because we're arrogant and we want to be the only
44:58
Speaker 1: ones who are right? No. Absolutely not. Because the gospel
45:08
Speaker 1: is our only hope. That's why. The gospel is our
45:13
Speaker 1: only hope. In fact, what this does, we're not talking
45:17
Speaker 1: about arrogance because where this starts is with me. Where
45:22
Speaker 1: this starts is when I'm reading the Bible. When I
45:28
Speaker 1: read the Bible, I can't sit in judgment on the text.
45:32
Speaker 1: I have to allow the text to sit in judgment
45:34
Speaker 1: on me. So that when the true Christian reads the
45:38
Speaker 1: Bible as a true Christian, he is also allowing himself
45:42
Speaker 1: to be refuted in those areas where he or she
45:45
Speaker 1: is wrong. The assumption is not, I know everything. And
45:54
Speaker 1: I'm just reading the Bible to confirm everything I already know.
45:58
Speaker 1: The assumption is, That I am sinful and broken and
46:03
Speaker 1: I need the word of God to correct me.
46:06
Speaker 2: This is why we need to sit under the preaching
46:09
Speaker 2: of the word of God on a regular basis.
46:13
Speaker 1: Because even when I'm reading the Bible with the best
46:16
Speaker 1: of intentions, I'm bringing assumptions to bear. And so what
46:21
Speaker 1: I need is someone to guide me through the word
46:26
Speaker 1: of God and challenge my assumptions in a way that
46:29
Speaker 1: I won't do myself.
46:33
Speaker 2: This is why we need the preaching of the word
46:35
Speaker 2: of God.
46:36
Speaker 1: And this is why we need preachers of the word
46:38
Speaker 1: of God who will refute error without fail, without compromise,
46:43
Speaker 1: without backing down. Because every one of us stands in
46:48
Speaker 1: need of having that done in our lives. But the
46:54
Speaker 1: idea is never ruffle feathers. Only stand on those things
47:04
Speaker 1: that are never going to cause any confusion. No matter
47:08
Speaker 1: how wrong people are out there, if that's our attitude,
47:16
Speaker 1: we're never checked. We're never corrected. We don't get fixed. Fixed.
47:33
Speaker 2: But you haven't arrived, saints.
47:35
Speaker 1: I got a letter. I got it a while back,
47:39
Speaker 1: but I just got a big stack of mail today.
47:44
Speaker 1: We left and our mail has been collected for us,
47:46
Speaker 1: and so I got the stack of mail today. And
47:50
Speaker 1: I had this one letter. It was in an envelope
47:54
Speaker 1: from Ligonier, and I had preached at their conference a
47:58
Speaker 1: while back. And Inside it, there was a card from
48:03
Speaker 1: someone else who had written the card to me, but
48:06
Speaker 1: they wrote it to Ligonier because they heard me through
48:09
Speaker 1: the Ligonier conference. And one of the statements that I
48:13
Speaker 1: made was a statement about the great joy that I
48:16
Speaker 1: derive from meeting old, old saints who've been walking with
48:23
Speaker 1: Jesus for a long time and hearing them talk about
48:27
Speaker 1: what they're continuing to learn. And how that just encourages me.
48:33
Speaker 1: That you don't ever exhaust this. This letter, again, this afternoon,
48:38
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in my hotel room crying this afternoon. Because
48:42
Speaker 1: this woman writes this letter and talks about how she
48:44
Speaker 1: was encouraged and talks about how she's one of those old,
48:47
Speaker 1: bent over, slow walking saints who's still growing in grace.
48:52
Speaker 1: And at the end of it she says, I'll be
48:56
Speaker 1: 97 on my birthday in October. 97 years old, listening
49:07
Speaker 1: to sermons, growing in grace, being challenged, and taking the
49:14
Speaker 1: time to write a handwritten note to say, thank you
49:22
Speaker 1: for helping me on my journey to sanctification. 97 years old. Amen. Hallelujah.
49:30
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. You don't know everything. Amen?
49:36
Speaker 2: By the way, that's good news.
49:41
Speaker 1: I'd be terribly depressed if I found out that at
49:45
Speaker 1: this moment I know everything that there is to know
49:49
Speaker 1: and I've got nothing else to look forward to. How
49:53
Speaker 1: awful would that be, saints? But you know what? Some
49:57
Speaker 1: of us treat God like that. And this is why
50:04
Speaker 1: it's so appealing. if I have this arrogant attitude that says,
50:09
Speaker 1: I've got the Bible figured out, there's nothing else for
50:12
Speaker 1: me to learn by digging into the text, what is
50:16
Speaker 1: left for me?
50:19
Speaker 2: Give me a fresh word.
50:22
Speaker 1: Give me something new.
50:25
Speaker 2: Give me an experience.
50:29
Speaker 1: Do something I've never seen before. That's all we got left.
50:38
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, when I have embraced the
50:44
Speaker 1: reality of God's inexhaustibleness, you don't have to do song
50:53
Speaker 1: and dance and pony shows for me.
50:59
Speaker 2: Just preach the word.
51:02
Speaker 1: Let the word of God do what it does. Preach
51:07
Speaker 1: it true. Preach it hard. Preach it without compromise. Preach
51:15
Speaker 1: it like you believe that there's somebody who needs to
51:17
Speaker 1: hear it. Preach it like you're preaching to people who
51:20
Speaker 1: are wrong and they need to be right. Because that's
51:25
Speaker 1: exactly who I am. A sinner who needs to be
51:30
Speaker 1: confronted on the regular. by someone who loves me enough
51:41
Speaker 1: and who loves the triune God enough to contend earnestly
51:48
Speaker 1: for the faith that was once for all handed down
51:53
Speaker 1: to the saints. It is far from unkind to do so.
52:04
Speaker 1: It's far from unloving to do so. Now granted, you
52:09
Speaker 1: can do it in a nasty, unloving way, and nobody's
52:12
Speaker 1: arguing for that. But you know what? Even if you
52:17
Speaker 1: do it in a nasty, unloving way, you know how
52:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to treat it? I'm going to treat it
52:25
Speaker 1: like somebody who crumbles up a $ 100 bill and throws
52:28
Speaker 1: it on the ground instead of putting it in my hand.
52:32
Speaker 2: I may be offended. but I'm going to pick up
52:34
Speaker 2: my money. Amen, somebody, right?
52:41
Speaker 1: I may talk about you for a while while I'm
52:44
Speaker 1: uncrumbling that thing, but I'm going to pick up my money.
52:48
Speaker 1: You know what's so sad? Because we have been so
52:52
Speaker 1: conditioned by our culture. Number one, we get offended just
53:01
Speaker 1: by the mere gesture of suggesting that there is truth
53:05
Speaker 1: in error and error needs to be refuted. And then secondly,
53:10
Speaker 1: in our offense, we decide that because of that error,
53:16
Speaker 1: there's nothing you're saying that's worth hearing. And so you've
53:21
Speaker 1: got people who are crumbling up $ 100 bills and throwing
53:23
Speaker 1: them on the ground, and you're refusing to pick them up.
53:29
Speaker 1: Because you think so highly of yourself. May it never be.
53:42
Speaker 1: May we always rejoice in the truth. May we always
53:51
Speaker 1: love as the triune God is love. And may we always,
54:01
Speaker 1: because of our passion for souls, be passionate about the
54:07
Speaker 1: purity of the gospel that saves them. Let's pray. Gracious God,
54:18
Speaker 1: our Father, we thank you. We thank you for your
54:23
Speaker 1: kindness and your mercy toward us. We thank you for
54:29
Speaker 1: your patience and long-suffering with us. We thank you, God,
54:37
Speaker 1: for your love And for the fact that that love
54:48
Speaker 1: not only redeems us, but that love gives us the
54:53
Speaker 1: ability to love. That love teaches us what love is.
54:59
Speaker 1: That love defines love for us. That love sustains us.
55:06
Speaker 1: That love keeps us. Grant by your grace. that we
55:16
Speaker 1: might be so captivated with this love that we refuse
55:20
Speaker 1: to allow it to be misrepresented or cheapened by anyone,
55:27
Speaker 1: including ourselves. And grant this, we pray, so that Christ
55:37
Speaker 1: might indeed have the fullness of the reward for which
55:40
Speaker 1: he died. This we pray. In his name, for his sake, amen.