Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #24466 - Not Everyone Likes the Doctrine of Grace - Acts 15:1-5

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#24466 - Not Everyone Likes the Doctrine of Grace - Acts 15:1-5 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the Study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co To learn
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more about the many resources available through Abounding
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Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary, Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Now here's Pastor Ed to take us
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into our study. Amen.
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All right, open your Bibles to a couple of places, if you will.
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You can go to Second Samuel, Second Samuel, Chapter 6.
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We're gonna start there and then we're gonna weave into Acts
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Chapter 15, looking at the first couple of verses and the Bible
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study today is entitled Not everyone likes the doctrine of
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grace. It's a little long, but very
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descriptive because not everyone likes the freedom that you have
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in Christ. Not everyone likes your worship
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of Jesus. There are always those that want
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to take control of someone living in freedom.
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And you need to know that whenever you begin to see the
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hand of God's blessing, there are always those that push back.
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There are always those that aren't so happy.
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And there are a few people that show up in your life in the
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midst of great things or in the midst of great things in a
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church life, and they want to take control.
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They don't like freedom and they don't especially like your
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freedom. There are those that like to
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argue. They like to argue against the
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clear work of God. It happens now.
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It happened in the early church, and by the time we get to Acts
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chapter 15, the church couldn't be at a happier time.
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Not without difficulties, but just filled with the joy of the
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Lord. People are getting saved all
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over the place. The very first missionary
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journey, which was brand new, thinking just like you as a new
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believer so much in the church. It's brand new, brand new.
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Never heard it before, didn't know anything about it.
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That's how the early church is as we study in the book of Acts.
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These are brand new things. They don't know anything about a
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mission journey. They didn't know anything about
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going around the world. They were given direction by
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Jesus, but didn't know how it was going to live out.
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So you remember the they gathered together in the Church
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of Antioch. The Holy Spirit spoke separate
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to me, Paul and Barnabas. They sent them out on this first
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missionary journey, and it was an absolute success.
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A lot of warfare, a lot of resistance, but a lot of
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success. People are getting saved,
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Churches are being planted, leaderships being appointed,
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Cities are being literally turned upside down for Jesus.
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And you can jot it down in John chapter 14 and verse 12.
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They're living out the promises of God.
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We emphasize greatly here when I when I emphasize greatly when I
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teach the Bible that you hold on to the promises of God.
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Hold on to them even if you can't see them, even if they
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don't seem like they're realistic to you.
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The promises of God. Everything in Christ is yes and
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Amen and you can trust him and they're living this out because
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it would be hard to go wow, how Jesus would say something go I
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don't even I don't even understand what you're meaning.
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How could I do something greater than you?
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Jesus. But notice what he said in John
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14 and verse 12, he says. Most assuredly I say to you, he
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who believes in me, the works I do, he'll do also, and greater
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works than these he will do because I go to my father,
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they're doing greater works. The more ministry's taken place
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in the first few years of the church in in terms of churches,
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planet and people reached, than the three years, all the years
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that Jesus was on the earth. And he intended it to be so as
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he was training and preparing them so wherever they went and
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preach the gospel Jesus through them.
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Save people, families being rescued, marriage is being
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healed. Kids waking up to a different
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home. Imagine that.
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One night kids go home, their kids, their parents are lost, as
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lost can be, and the very next morning it's a brand new house.
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Generational change. But not everyone's happy about
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this. You need to have your eyes wide
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open on this. Not everybody is happy with
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progress or with change, or when God is moving in a wonderful
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way. And it's a good reminder today
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that we understand conflicts and disagreements happen among
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believers, especially in the room right now.
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If you just think in the room right now, or people connected
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to us by the thousands outside of this room, you got to just
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think. We all don't think the same
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thing about everything. There will be conflict and
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disagreements among us in the body of Christ.
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I mean, the best way to describe this, I guess is you could talk
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to newlyweds, let's give them about six months, and then we'll
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interview them six months later. And and you, you talk to them.
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And one of the things that they found out is that they're very
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different people. They do the the toilet paper
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over under wrong. They do toothpaste different.
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They like their eggs cooked this way.
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I mean, Maria and I, we've been married 34 years and we still
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like our eggs cooked differently.
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Like, it's just like, do you want breakfast?
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I don't know. I don't like really Well, I'm
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not cooking using anything. Well, that's fine.
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I could cook my own eggs. It's fine.
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It's all right. I disagree with you.
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I don't think scrambled eggs are the best way to cook eggs and
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that just. I know how to divide the room
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very quickly, you know, but you know, you just don't agree.
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It doesn't mean it's bad. I don't necessarily mean, like
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on the worst scale, you just find out you're different.
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It's not bad yet. It's just normal because it
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can't get bad. It can be bad here, like you
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think of the things in this room right now.
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The disagreements in the room doesn't aren't necessarily bad
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yet, because the real issue with disagreements is not that they
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exist. And the real issue with
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disagreements is not that they happen.
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The real issue is how you respond to them.
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That's the key, how we respond and react.
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Now, I want you to remember that because, you know the
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disagreements of things are highlighted for us, you need to
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understand that the people that God uses are imperfect people,
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imperfect. All of us.
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We're all imperfect. That's all God has to work with.
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He He doesn't have any perfect people.
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There's no one that just arrived ready to go.
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We're all imperfect. And So what does God do with our
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imperfections? I guess the Let me let me step
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back for a second and say this. The real root of the
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imperfections in our lives, the real cause of most issues in our
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lives is we like to do things our way and we just have it our
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way. You notice how I describe the
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egg situation favoring my way. I just thinking of that right
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now. I didn't mean to do that, but
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that's one of my imperfections. I favored my way.
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Marie's way is still wrong, but I favored my way.
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It's fine if she might watch it online.
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And sorry, honey, but you know, don't stop cooking me breakfast,
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please. Every 3rd day.
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I'm all right with it, you know? But we like things our way, and
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that causes a lot of friction. My way or the highway even can
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be really bad, and that's not helpful.
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We need to learn how to meet in the middle.
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You know, what God does. God allows us to do our own
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thing and then suffer the consequences so that we can
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learn that His way is better. We'll learn that.
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But the only way to learn it is to go through it.
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I want to show you, I asked you to open a second Samuel.
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I want to show you a time in King David's life where God
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allowed him to do something his way and he suffered the
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consequences for it. Notice in Second Samuel chapter
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6 and verse 3. It's a very glorious time in the
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nation of Israel. The Ark of the Covenant's coming
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back. And so notice it says, they set
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the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the House of
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Abinadab that was on a hill. And Uzza and Ohio, the sons of
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Abinadab drove the new cart and they brought it out of the House
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of Abinadab, which was on the hill accompanying the Ark of
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God. And Ohio went before the Ark.
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Then David and all the House of Israel played music before the
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Lord, and all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on
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harps, string instruments, tambourines, sistrums, and on
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symbols. And when they came to Natan's
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threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to the ark of God and
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took hold of it, for the oxen had stumbled.
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But the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzza, and God
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struck him there for his error, and he died there by the ark of
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God. And you're like man, that's a
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dramatic situation. And it is.
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And if you know the Old Testament, it's one of the
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reason why we studied through the entire Bible here.
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And it's been many years since we went verse by verse through
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these books, but they're all up online.
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All the New Testament I've taught through and about half of
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the Old Testament, I've made it through.
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We studied this. And if you know the scriptures,
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you know that they're transporting the ark of the
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covenant the wrong way. They were not to put it on a
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cart. They weren't to roll it around.
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They weren't just to let anybody's sons go with it, but
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they nonetheless did it at David's instruction.
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And it makes sense. There's nothing here really
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would be cause for alarm. David was in the place of
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authority. He gave the instruction.
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They're going along. It's going fine until the oxen
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stumbles and the ark of the covenant falls and other does
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what is very natural. He stand, he takes out his hand
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and he steadies it. So it would be worse for it to
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fall than than anything. So they don't want it on the
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floor he touches, which is it? And that was a great failure on
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his part, and he lost his life as a result.
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You see, God allowed David and these men to go their own way.
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This is a classic example. This is a classic example in the
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Bible. There's many of them where David
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is doing the right thing, get that Ark of the covenant back to
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Jerusalem the wrong way. And I want you to notice, God
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allows you. He allows you and me to do the
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right things, even the wrong way so that we can learn.
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Because, you know, David, he goes back into the word of God
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at the rest of the chapter, and he finds out, you know what, we
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were wrong. We needed to do it this way.
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And he gets things right. He figures out that he had gone
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against God's command because the word of God shed light on
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this. And of course, we all, you know,
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you're in a church that emphasizes the Bible, wants you
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to read it, pray every day. Like like you, that this is the
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major failure of the church today.
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The major failure of the church today is that men and women
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don't know the Bible. And you don't want to know the
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Bible. And I don't know who I'm
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speaking to in particular, but you don't want to play.
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You don't want to spend the time investing in the word of God.
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You don't want to spend the time to go a little bit extra.
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And it's just hurting you more than you realize.
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And it's hurting our culture. It's hurting our church because
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you don't know the word. You go, But I'm doing the right
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thing. I'm doing the right thing.
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I know. But you're doing it wrong.
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And how would you ever know that You need to know the word of
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God. It's very, very important
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because eventually, you know, as you're a true believer, if you
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do the right thing the wrong way, I'm telling you you'll get
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back into the word of God. How many people this New Year is
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going to come back to the things of the Lord?
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Because 2023 was so bad, Because they were apart from God's word.
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Because they were apart from walking with Jesus closely,
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Because they did dabble over here and they did try this over
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here and they used their freedom over there only to find out what
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we've been warning them and warning them and warning them
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and warning them for here in Colorado, 24 years, we just
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celebrated it. 24 years I've spent my life teaching,
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instructing, correcting and warning anyone that'll listen to
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me. But now, you know, welcome back.
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I'm glad you're back. But it was a painful way to
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learn, wasn't it? You know, we can learn by
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example, but it doesn't have to be our example, and it doesn't
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even have to be example of the people with us.
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We can learn from the examples in God's Word.
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These are real people, and if they made a mistake, we don't
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want to repeat it. And one of the mistakes David
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made is he got too excited, too emotional, and he just jumped in
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and did something and and did something.
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But he did the right thing, the wrong way, and we want to be
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careful. And that's one thing I've always
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appreciated about this particular family of churches,
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family of churches I'm a part of because I got saved in a Calvary
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Chapel. And one of the things I've
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always appreciated is our desire, our desire to go God's
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way with our, with our church philosophy and leadership.
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Are we perfect? No, never.
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We're of course, we're not perfect, but our desire is to
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stick as close to the word as possible, to be led by the
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Spirit. You know, being led by the
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Spirit has two parts to it, a very exciting part where God's
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opening doors and amazing things are happening, and also a very
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exciting thing when God is closing doors.
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But we don't really appreciate the closed doors as much as the
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open doors. But sometimes we just got to let
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things go. And sometimes God is just
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saying, OK, enough, it's time, it's time to move forward, time
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to move on. You can't go in this direction.
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Hey, either one is from the Lord and we need that to try to stick
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as close to the Lord as possible disagreements among us.
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And I know I'm building up a a strong introduction because
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we've got a few more studies in chapter 15.
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But I want you to understand disagreements happen in the
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church. One of the ways the Bible
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describes the church is as a family.
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And you know as well as I do and all of our families there have
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been, there have been and maybe our current disagreements.
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Is there an Amen on that? We all have families.
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And you know, the world kind of has put families into two
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categories. There are the dysfunctional
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families and the not so dysfunctional families, I guess,
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or whatever. But the Bible doesn't have two
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categories. There's only one category of
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family. You want to know what it is
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Dysfunctional. Every single one of our families
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is not what a God intended. And we're all been marred by
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sin, Some unfortunately, more than others.
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Some of you have experienced great, great the greatest source
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of pain has been in your family. And I'm sorry, that's not God's
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ideal. But you know, you made it
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through God's healing you, and you're strong, Some of you, some
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of the greatest pain you've ever felt has been in a church
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family. And you know, I'm sorry, but
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pain happens in families and God is healing you, and you're
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moving forward. But I have to say this, Whatever
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pain you're facing, how you respond is most important,
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because you can make things worse.
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You can make things worse for yourself.
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Something happened. You don't like a decision made,
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a situation happening, a conflict.
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If you don't handle it correctly, you're going to make
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it worse for yourself. And here's something that
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happens in our culture that you got to understand you.
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You you have to. It's just like a reminder today,
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right? Because you live in the culture,
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you shop in the culture, you work in the culture.
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Like you breathe it in and out all the time.
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Don't you think for a moment that it doesn't affect you?
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Don't you think for a moment that you don't walk into this
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room with thoughts that are completely unbiblical because of
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the world that we live in, the social media you're on all the
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time? Of course the the world tries to
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describe, or the church describes that as the world view
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and it just comes in and out. We have to, we have to
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acknowledge it. We have to open the word of God,
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let it be a mirror in our lives, and let God speak to us and
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change the way we think and renew our minds.
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And here's one thing that really you have to come to terms with
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if you want to make progress in walking with the Lord.
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And that is the world doesn't like to take personal
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responsibility for their own actions.
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They like to blame others. They like to play the martyr and
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the victim. And that will hurt you because
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there's only one martyr in the Bible and his name is Jesus
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Christ. And he took the pain and the
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penalty of your sin and mine. And until you and I learn how to
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take personal responsibility for our own decisions, then you're
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going to keep making things worse for yourself.
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And you're going to become angry, frustrated, bitter,
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depressed, discouraged because you're not allowing God to do
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his perfect work in your life. And I have to ask you, you know,
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and it's worth asking. You don't have to answer it.
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I'm not asking for an out loud answer but you you've been
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blaming people and it's some always someone else's fault and
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and I'm and I'm not even talking about like like like it's like
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what happened to you is real. So yes it's fine what happened
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to you is real but by always blaming them and being upset
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with them and not forgiving them how's that working out for you?
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What's the end result? What are you doing for the
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Kingdom of God? How is it affecting you
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emotionally or your spiritual life?
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I wonder what what kind of spiritual battles you've been
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losing lately. Just to say, you know what?
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What, what? Really what's what?
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What I control is how I responded.
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And you know, Lord, I just got so mad.
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I wasn't. I wasn't.
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I wasn't in the spirit. I was sinning in my anger.
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And Lord, I just come to you. I don't want to be angry anymore
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and you don't got to answer that prayer.
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But if you continue down this path, it's only going to get
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worse. You've got to take
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responsibility and let the Lord do that work, especially in
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disagreements, because the enemy loves division.
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He loves to perpetuate division. He loves to do it personally.
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He wants everybody not liking each other.
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He likes to do it doctrinally. So there's confusion.
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And that's where Acts 15 is. There's a doctrinal division
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coming on into the church that's carried by people, and we're
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going to spend some time looking at these verses today that it's
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important that you realize that disagreements happen, but how
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you respond to them is the most important part of the
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disagreement. It's the way it is.
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So we need to learn how to respond to them.
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The key is exactly where do we draw the line, especially
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doctrinally. And someone once said it's been
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attributed to many people, but I'll quote it here in Essentials
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Unity. In non Essentials Liberty and in
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all things Charity or love and the dangers of disagreements is
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how we respond. So let's pick up now chapter 15.
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That's an introduction for most of the rest of the studies in
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15. But notice in verse one and
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certain men. OK, let's pause there.
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Let's go back a couple verses and remember where we are.
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Chapter 14, verse 27. When they'd come together, when
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they had come and gathered the church together, reported all
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that God had done and that he had opened the door of fate to
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the Gentiles. They stayed there a long time
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with the disciples, and certain men came down.
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This is an exciting time in the life of the church.
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Paul and Barnabas came back. They had this great testimony.
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We looked at it last time. I doubt that they shared all the
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difficulties, although I'm sure they shared some of them.
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But it's like, you won't believe this.
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There's salvation happening. People are listening.
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They try to stop it, But then we just moved on.
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And. And you know, Paul, man, you
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won't believe it. He almost died, but he ran right
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back into the city. It was amazing.
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They're sharing all that God had done.
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And then certain men mark that in your Bibles you like to
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write. In your Bibles, it's always
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certain men. It's always a small group of
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people that like to stir up strife.
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In the church. It's never the majority.
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It's always just a few people, Certain men.
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I don't want you to read over this word.
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This is very significant because there are certain people that
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like to stir up strife in your life too.
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They just don't want to submit their lives to God.
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Now these certain men, there might be a genuineness in them.
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We don't quite know, but what message they brought was really
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bad, and it's in contrast to the testimony in verse 27.
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Notice again, certain men came down from Judea.
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They started to teach the Brethren.
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Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of
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Moses, you cannot be saved. Wow, circumcision in order to be
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saved. I don't think I want to be
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saved. I mean, that's what that's what
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they're teaching here. You need to go through a
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physical, painful process in order to be saved.
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It can't. They're basically coming and
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saying it can't be as easy as what Paul and Barnabas are
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teaching that Jesus died on the cross and forgave you of your
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sins and you can follow him. No, no, no, no, no.
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If you really want to be saved, you need to be cut and follow
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the law. Then you can be saved.
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And this is a very dangerous moment in the life of the
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church. There are always those that want
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to throw a wet blanket on the joy and the progress of the
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Christian faith. And if again, if you like to
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write in your bibles, you could write next to verse one,
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legalism. There is a a hint of legalism
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here. And what is legalism?
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They give you a simple definition.
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It's adding anything to the simple gospel in order to be
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saved. That's what legalism is.
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When you start making rules and regulations as a requirement of
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salvation, then you become a legalist.
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And there are many, many, many that hold the legalism today.
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And that's what they're doing here It you can't be saved that
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easy. You can't.
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That's not. That's what they're saying.
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And they started teaching them. No, no, no.
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This is how you're saved circumcision, and you need to
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keep the law. Which circumcision could be
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done. Keeping the law couldn't be
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done. Paul spent the whole time in the
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book of Romans teaching us that he told us what the purpose of
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the law was. For the purpose of the law was
22:24
to show us that we can't keep the law.
22:28
Just like when you drove to church today a little faster
22:30
than you should have. You know what busted you?
22:34
Not your speedometer and maybe not even an Aurora police
22:38
officer. You know what busted you?
22:40
The sign. When you drove past the sign and
22:44
the sign had a number that didn't match your speedometer,
22:46
the law revealed to you that you were a lawbreaker, you bunch of
22:51
sinners on your way to church. Some of you didn't even pay.
22:56
I didn't even know there were signs.
22:57
There are signs that tell you how fast to drive the law.
23:02
You can't keep the law. We're all lawbreakers.
23:05
Every single one of us, even if we did our best efforts, there
23:09
may be some moment, you know, you're trying to get a pregnant
23:11
woman to the hospital or you're trying to out.
23:13
Like there's always exceptions, but even an exception is still
23:18
breaking the law, and that's the way it is.
23:21
So what they're what what they're doing here is they're
23:24
bringing in false teaching into the new church.
23:28
And we know if you want to look at verse 24 of chapter 15, they
23:32
came from Jerusalem. They came from Jerusalem, but
23:36
Jerusalem didn't send them. Now let me just say I'm using
23:39
city names here. When I mentioned Jerusalem in
23:42
the early church, that was the headquarters of the early
23:45
church, predominantly a Jewish. That's where the Holy Spirit was
23:49
poured out. That's where the first church
23:50
was planted. That's where persecution came
23:53
and believers left Jerusalem. Do you guys remember we've
23:55
studied through the book of Acts.
23:57
So when I mentioned Jerusalem here in the context of Acts,
23:59
this is headquarters for the early church.
24:02
So they came from headquarters, the region of headquarters.
24:06
But they weren't sent you notice in verse 24 as they're
24:09
answering. So we're going to get into this
24:11
later. But they're answering the issue.
24:13
And it says, since we have heard that some of you went out from
24:16
us, troubled you with words, unsettling your soul, saying you
24:20
must be circumcised to keep the law.
24:23
To whom? We gave no such commandment.
24:27
They were not authorized messengers of the headquarters
24:30
of the church, if you will. They were speaking on their own
24:33
behalf and sometimes people will do that here.
24:36
They'll speak as if they're speaking for our church, but
24:37
they're not. Has nothing to do with our
24:40
church. Well, you know, I go to church
24:42
there and they're name dropping, but they have no relationship
24:45
here. And they might have come through
24:47
and they might have attended, they might even been in
24:49
leadership. But there are those.
24:51
You just have to understand that the churches are places where
24:54
false doctrine are always trying to be sprinkled.
24:58
There are. We've seen our fair share over
25:00
the years of false teachers here.
25:01
You know that. We've seen our fair share in the
25:04
past, and we will see our fair share in the future.
25:07
That's why God has established the elders and the pastors to
25:11
make sure that false teaching doesn't take root in this
25:14
church. It's not like it won't show up.
25:16
It'll always show up. People come here all the time
25:19
wanting to spread their own little deal.
25:21
I mean, last night I came in because we had the week off.
25:24
So Pastor Everett's not feeling well.
25:25
So I I had to open all his mail as the administrator of the
25:28
church and open all my mail, and wouldn't you know it, there was
25:32
a package. He actually got two of them
25:35
addressed to Pastor Everett, two big thick envelopes.
25:38
And I counted last night. I thought there were 30, but
25:41
there were actually 16 page letter of doctrinal nonsense
25:46
addressed to Everett. I don't know what he subscribed
25:48
to, but he's getting all the letters.
25:51
And we don't have time for that nonsense.
25:53
But you get letters. That's why.
25:55
That's why we. You know, I remember back in, I
25:57
started thinking back in the first time I was exposed to this
26:00
was at the Harvest Crusades. You familiar with them?
26:03
Pastor Greg Laurie. They started in Southern Cal as
26:06
a new believer. We got saved just when they were
26:09
starting. And we would go and take the
26:10
kids and we'd invite people to harvest Crusades.
26:13
And I'm telling you, every single Harvest Crusade has
26:17
people in the parking lot protesting, yelling, screaming
26:21
with big signs. Not a really effective
26:23
evangelism tool, but I promise you, they're picking people off.
26:27
They're picking. It may not be many, but how many
26:29
is too many? One is too many to get ripped
26:33
off with false teaching, but they're there.
26:35
And then I thought back to California again when I was
26:38
serving there, where they used to be, there were people that
26:40
would go through the parking lot putting things on windshields.
26:43
And then it happened here. And then it happened when we
26:47
were meeting on Thursday nights, Wednesday nights.
26:49
And that's why we have a brand new ministry, just scrolling
26:51
through, strolling through the parking lot, making sure you
26:54
don't get ripped off by some weird doctrine on your
26:56
windshield, like why? Why would they come to a church?
27:00
Is that how strong their message is?
27:02
Their message is so strong, they would come to people, people who
27:05
were already committed to the word of God, to try to rip you
27:07
off. And it's true.
27:09
They do. They want two things from you.
27:12
They want two things from you #1 You know what?
27:14
They want your money. They want your money.
27:19
They want to rip you off financially.
27:21
They they want it to catch your year so that you so believe in
27:25
their nonsense that you begin to follow them.
27:28
But you know what they want more than your money.
27:30
It's interesting. They want something even more
27:32
than your money. You know what they want you.
27:36
They want you. The enemy wants to destroy your
27:40
life. And one of the tools that he'll
27:42
use is false teaching. And so we don't allow that here.
27:46
That's why we don't allow anything to be just put on the
27:48
counters around here or passed out around here.
27:51
The answer is no. You can't do that here, Even
27:54
good or bad, you can't do that here because the people in our
27:57
church are not for you to take advantage of with whatever
28:01
you're into, whether it's good or bad.
28:04
We don't. We, we everything has to be
28:05
approved. It has to go through the right
28:08
authority because, look, we have one singular purpose here, and
28:12
it's not so. You walk out with 30 Flyers.
28:14
It's so you come to hear the Bible and you're changed.
28:17
That's it. And you, you, you.
28:19
I don't know. You might hear you go, man, Ed,
28:21
you're kind of strong on that. I am.
28:24
You're right. I am.
28:25
I hope you're happy you're in a church that a pastor cares that
28:28
you don't get ripped off by false teaching.
28:29
Well, Ed, you're a little overboard.
28:31
Yeah. I don't know.
28:31
I don't know how overboard you can.
28:33
Jesus went into the temple and he flipped tables over.
28:36
So I don't know, but I I have. You just got to understand the
28:39
weirdness that I deal with all the time.
28:40
I deal with this stuff all the time, All the time.
28:45
I can tell you a story because I remember it right down this
28:48
right down this middle section here few years ago and probably
28:52
right right after we moved in pretty close to when we moved
28:55
in. There's a guy at the end of
28:57
service walking in with a big black trench coat, bad idea.
29:01
It was summertime you know all the security surrounding him and
29:05
and he's like he wanted he came in he wanted a lot of attention.
29:08
One of the things I like to do is I like to engage people if I
29:10
can welcome him. How you doing?
29:12
So I went, I went down. It was after service.
29:14
I went down and gauged and back in the I'm not pointing at any
29:17
of you. You guys are all clear.
29:18
Everything's fine. I'm pointing down the middle.
29:20
And so I am going gauge him and he introduces himself.
29:23
He says Hello, I'm Michael the Archangel.
29:28
Welcome to our church. Michael the Archangel went into
29:31
his back pocket, pulled out a business card.
29:34
You know what it said, Michael, the Archangel Angels carry
29:39
business cards. And he came with some weird
29:41
thing. And he's like, I'm like, bro, I
29:43
don't think God sent you here. Who do you think you are?
29:46
I'm the pastor of this church. I don't think God sent you here.
29:49
And unless you repent, we're going to walk you right out the
29:51
doors. You're not welcome here.
29:53
You're out of your mind. I don't know what I said, but
29:55
that's what I'm thinking right now.
29:57
Says, this church is not for you to do anything to the people of
30:00
this church. And if you don't change, we're
30:02
going to. And that's exactly what they
30:04
did. They walked him out all the way.
30:06
And we pray that he would repent before he got to the sidewalk
30:09
because that's the only way he'd be welcome here is if he
30:12
repented and came to know the Lord.
30:14
He's not Michael the Archangel. He had no wings.
30:16
He didn't even carry a Bible. But people like that.
30:19
They, I mean, and some of you guys, you guys remember we had
30:22
the protester out here for a while screaming and yelling at
30:25
you. That's a great way to win you
30:27
over. You guys, he's a liar.
30:30
He's a liar. The one of the guys that
30:32
protests here, he's just mad at me because he didn't like my
30:35
answer on the radio. That's it.
30:37
And he doesn't want to handle it biblically.
30:39
So he's into some weird teaching and he's once he thinks the best
30:42
way to get his teaching across is to scream and yell at your
30:46
kids when you drive to church. That doesn't sound like Jesus to
30:49
me. Like we can have a disagreement
30:51
and it's OK to have disagreements, but I really
30:54
disagree with a guy that he, you know, obviously he can do it
30:57
legally. We try to get the cops.
30:58
We try to can't do anything to him.
31:01
So we start giving him doughnuts.
31:02
That didn't work. Start giving him water that
31:04
didn't work. You know, the guys are out there
31:06
trying to hug him. That doesn't work.
31:09
But what we just need to do is pray.
31:10
Because those types of people have, I made my point clear
31:13
enough. They they just hang around the
31:15
church all the time and you've got to be careful.
31:18
But not it's not just the church anymore.
31:20
The pandemic. When we were going through the
31:22
pandemic together, you heard this over and over again and and
31:26
I know I kind of get laughs. I need to get some kind of
31:28
laughter here because what I'm saying is hard.
31:32
But YouTube? And all the guys out there, they
31:34
also can rip you off. The Bible says such, says that
31:39
in the last days the church won't endure sound doctrine and
31:43
they're going to go looking for people that'll itch and scratch
31:45
the itch in their ears doctrinally.
31:47
And many people have been ripped off.
31:49
I mean some real special, wonderful people in our church
31:52
have been ripped off during that time because they got some.
31:56
Somebody got their ear, and really from the ear to the
32:00
pocketbook to the life, and now they're off on weird doctrine
32:04
and weird stuff. Where church, if you knew your
32:09
Bible. You would know.
32:13
That you're saved by grace. You would know that it it
32:16
doesn't. I'll show you by the end of our
32:18
Bible study. It's very simple, but people
32:21
love to do this. The Colts love to do this, and I
32:23
know it's hard. I know it's challenging that
32:26
when you make a decision like you make a decision to leave
32:29
something like that, there's a lot of pressure and a lot of lot
32:32
of stuff that come against you. But you've got to stick to the
32:35
word. So if somebody came, I mean,
32:38
think about this again, Acts, chapter 15, verse one.
32:41
I had a guest here. Let's just say I had a guest
32:43
here filling this pulpit because I'm off teaching at a conference
32:46
or something and he gets up here and goes Oak Church.
32:48
I just want to let you know Pastor Ed has been wrong all
32:51
these years. We are now going to have a
32:53
circumcision service because you can't be saved just by faith in
32:58
the blood of Jesus. You also have to be circumcised.
33:01
And I'm like, man, I hope you just get up.
33:04
If you're in any church like that, leave.
33:08
Leave. Call me If something ever
33:09
happens like that, call me. Go.
33:11
Ed, you will not believe you had some dude in the Pope that went.
33:14
I know. I don't know where he got that,
33:15
Bro, I'm so sorry. It's my fault.
33:17
I can't believe he dropped out on you.
33:19
That's not what the Bible says. If you would just know your.
33:23
Bible. You could dismiss this right
33:25
away, but this is a serious moment in the early church.
33:29
It's going to require as you read the rest of chapter 15,
33:31
they're going to have a conference together to really
33:34
wrestle this out and and really come to the conclusion that we
33:39
now, because they don't have the book of Ephesians, they don't
33:41
have Titus yet, they don't have it all written out.
33:44
They just have the teachings of Jesus, which was enough, but
33:47
they've got to talk it out and they're going to notice verse 2
33:50
now. So these guys come down, these
33:52
certain men, they come down. And therefore, when Paul and
33:56
Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they
34:00
determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of
34:03
them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about
34:07
this question. So being sent on their way by
34:10
the church, they pass through Phoenicia and Samaria,
34:13
describing the conversion of the Gentiles, and they cause great
34:16
joy to all the brethren. This is so cool.
34:20
So Paul and Barnabas, they take a stand and you know Luke as
34:24
he's writing here in Acts. He uses that phrase.
34:28
No small He does this a few times.
34:30
He's using the diminutive to emphasize something.
34:33
So when you say, hey, that's no small argument, that means it's
34:36
huge. It wasn't little.
34:39
And there's two things here I don't want you to think of right
34:42
away. Like, they're arguing.
34:43
Like screaming and yelling. They're not.
34:45
First of all, in verse 2, the word dissension actually means
34:50
reasoning. So Paul and Barnabas, they stand
34:53
up and they stop this teaching by trying to reason with these
34:57
certain men. But the certain men almost
35:00
always like Michael the Archangel.
35:02
They're unreasonable. And I'm sorry I said that he.
35:05
Wasn't the dude. I don't know what his name was,
35:07
but the dude in the jacket, he's not.
35:10
He's not reasonable. He he would.
35:12
The first thing we did with him was not walk him outside.
35:15
The first thing we did with him was try to reason with him, tell
35:18
him the truth and see where he stands.
35:20
So there was a reasoning there where they took a stand for the
35:24
truth. When that didn't work, notice
35:26
the next word there. And again, you can write this in
35:28
in your Bible. The original Greek for
35:31
dissension is reasoning. And then the original Greek for
35:35
dispute is now. They took a strong stand.
35:38
They became stronger. It's like enough is enough.
35:41
And because of that they go, you know what, I think we need to go
35:44
to Jerusalem. They're disrupting.
35:46
This was missionary journey, missionary journey, missionary
35:49
journey. And now the enemy's throwing a
35:51
wrench into it. Now they're stopping the
35:52
progress, and that happens. It happens all the time.
35:57
I mean, I I wish we would have wrote down over the years the
35:59
times that happened here. I'd have a whole list, Progress,
36:02
progress. Now I got to spend 2 weeks
36:04
taking care of this problem, when really I should be moving
36:07
in this direction, studying, praying, preparing, launching
36:11
outreaches. But then we got this over here
36:12
we got to take care of. And that's what they're doing
36:15
here. It's not that we won't take care
36:17
of it, we will. But it hinders the progress.
36:23
It's like, come on. What's going on?
36:26
Well, they're. Going to go to Jerusalem and I
36:28
wonder if Paul thought for a moment, man, they're not going
36:31
to listen to me in Jerusalem. They're not.
36:34
They're not going to I'm not going to get a fair shake.
36:36
Now we're going on their home territory.
36:38
But he goes nonetheless. And notice in verse three it
36:41
says being sent on their way, they passed through Phoenicia
36:44
and Samaria and they just kept sharing the gospel and they
36:47
talked about the conversion of the Gentiles and and they caused
36:50
great joy to the Brethren. So these false brethren, the
36:57
certain men, they thought and they taught that you had to 1st
37:01
become a Jew, then you could be saved like Gentiles had to be
37:04
Jewish first. But then we learn in Romans
37:07
that's not God's will. God's will was to take Gentiles
37:09
and graft them in and that most of us were all Gentiles and so
37:14
they're were grafted. And you don't have to become a
37:16
Jew first. That's the old covenant.
37:20
The old covenant We again we learn in the Bible was replaced
37:23
by what? The new covenant.
37:27
Every time we share communion together, we are declaring the
37:30
new covenant of God, not the old.
37:33
The old has been replaced with the new.
37:38
So by faith in Jesus Christ, you and I actually keep the entirety
37:43
of the old covenant. Did you know that?
37:45
Like some people will go, you know, why don't you?
37:47
Why don't you worship on the Sabbath?
37:49
You know you don't keep the 10 commandments by faith in Jesus
37:52
Christ. I actually do as a matter of
37:55
fact. The worship on the Sabbath,
37:56
that's that's not what you think it is.
37:58
The Bible actually says you should worship God in every day
38:01
of the week. Do you do that?
38:03
Well you know and so it's got some weird teaching doctrine
38:07
that's been developed over the years that isn't in the Bible
38:11
church. If he would just did I say this
38:13
already if you would just know your Bible.
38:15
Most of the false teaching you just dismiss like you're out of
38:18
your mind. That's you aren't Michael the
38:20
Archangel. You are not.
38:23
You go, Ed. How can you be so mean to him?
38:24
Wasn't mean to him telling somebody the truth and not to
38:27
rip off the church. That's not mean.
38:30
And maybe God will. Get to him and go stop this.
38:32
All your energy and efforts could be used for something for
38:35
the gospel and not your own thing.
38:38
Here, Paul and Barnabas, they're causing great joy, which tells
38:41
me that they handled the conflict properly, because when
38:44
you handle conflicts properly in the church and with each other,
38:48
there's joy as a result. These guys didn't bring.
38:51
Joy. It's no joy to be told you're
38:53
not saved. You're not saved.
38:55
I know how you can get saved. I'm going to cut you.
38:59
Literally lay down. It's time to cut you.
39:02
It's going to be painful, but then you can be saved.
39:04
After you heal, then you can just keep the law of the rest of
39:07
your life and then maybe you'll be saved.
39:09
That's not joy, that's bondage. But when you talk about the work
39:13
of God, that's joy. And I think about think about
39:16
you marry couples when you solve something wisely, aren't you
39:19
happy afterwards? Like it's this is so good.
39:21
I'm so sorry. I can't believe I was so wrong
39:24
and no, I was wrong. No, I now you're arguing about
39:26
who is more wrong. But there's great joy when you
39:31
and I handle things properly. And that's where they are here.
39:36
Verse four, it says. And when they come to Jerusalem,
39:39
they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders,
39:43
and they reported all the things that God had done with them.
39:46
What else are they going to say? But some?
39:48
Now there's another group that shows up, some of the sect of
39:52
the Pharisees. And you guys that study with us,
39:55
you know the Pharisees were the religious elite.
39:59
They were ones. There were two big groups that
40:02
were mentioned during the time of Jesus, the Pharisees and the
40:05
Sadducees. The difference between the two
40:07
is the Pharisees. This group of dedicated men
40:10
studying the scriptures believed in miracles.
40:12
So some when some Pharisees saw the resurrection of Christ, they
40:15
became believers. That's what it says here.
40:18
Notice it says some of the sect of Pharisees who believed they
40:22
rose up and said it's necessary to circumcise them and command
40:27
them to keep the Law of Moses. So you can see this doctrine is
40:31
floating around and it's popular among a group of people and it's
40:35
really popular in Jerusalem among the Jewish church.
40:40
This is no. Side issue.
40:43
This is what we would call in the church today, an essential
40:46
of the faith. And what's the essential?
40:48
How is a person saved? And there's two options.
40:52
By works or by grace. That's it.
40:56
There's only two options. You either save yourself or you
41:01
surrender yourself to the one who saved you.
41:03
Those are your only two options. And #1, the option number one,
41:07
is impossible. You cannot save yourself.
41:11
Only innocent blood shed for you can save you.
41:14
You can't forgive yourself in the sense of your relationship
41:17
with God. Only Jesus Christ.
41:19
Remember the gospel? We we heard it during our
41:21
Christmas services. For God so loved the world that
41:25
he sent His only begotten Son. You and I were not his only
41:28
begotten Son and so therefore only through Jesus can you be
41:33
saved. This is a big issue and because
41:36
Paul and Barnabas are going there, you're going to see in
41:40
our next studies in acts, they have a council together and they
41:43
start wrestling this out. They're received, it says in
41:46
verse 4 by the church. They're spreading joy on their
41:49
journey. And these Pharisees now I want
41:53
you to see. I want you to understand
41:54
something here. Before we head out, just.
41:58
A couple more things and we head out.
42:00
First of all, I want you to notice with the Pharisees,
42:03
they're talking about what they already believe.
42:05
It's necessary to circumcise them, and they command them to
42:08
keep the Law of Moses. I believe they believed us.
42:11
But I also want to point out something.
42:13
They're new believers. The Pharisees are new believers.
42:17
So they're talking like new believers because as new
42:20
believers, there is a lot of baggage that you bring with you
42:23
to the church. You don't know everything right
42:26
away, and even the entirety of your whole life you're not going
42:30
to know everything. So they bring in the baggage of
42:32
their previous beliefs. So it makes sense that they
42:35
believe this. It doesn't mean it's right.
42:38
It just means it makes sense. And I would think of some of
42:41
you, whether you're a new believer or maybe you came out
42:43
of a cult or you came out of a real difficult church, you're
42:46
gonna bring some of that baggage with you.
42:47
It's gonna be hard to get rid of it, to take it and measure it by
42:52
the word of God. It's going to be challenging.
42:54
But it's not impossible. It's not impossible because
42:58
there are people that God has given us that will help us
43:01
understand the Bible, pastors and teachers.
43:03
But you know, you don't even need a pastor or a teacher.
43:05
You have the Holy Spirit and the Bible.
43:08
The Holy Spirit can be your teacher.
43:10
You can bring any question of the Bible, and the Spirit of God
43:12
will help you. Now don't misunderstand that
43:14
that doesn't mean that we don't need pastors or teachers.
43:16
We do. They're God's gift to us.
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But you don't have to rely. God is not calling you out of a
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cold so you can follow another man.
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You're supposed to follow the Lord.
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You're not called out of one group, so you can follow another
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group and you can follow another group.
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You know, you and I, we need to learn to follow Jesus Christ.
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And then when you're in a church family, there's a like
43:37
mindedness. That even though there might.
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Be disagreements. There's a like mindedness and
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there's an absolute belief in the essentials, and that's why
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we can dismiss other groups by their teachings.
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You know, false teachings exist and we've got to call out false
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teaching. The way that we've approached
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this here is we don't have a service every week about false
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teaching. You know what?
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You get the truth. You get the truth every week.
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And when you get a steady dose of the truth, any false thing
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that comes along, you're just like, oh, it doesn't sound
44:09
right. That doesn't sound like Jesus.
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You know, I was just reading my devotions this morning.
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What you're saying right now is wrong.
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I even got a text last week. I got a text from a friend.
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He reached out to me and says, hey, I'm talking to some guy and
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he's telling me that hell doesn't exist.
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Is there anywhere? He says there's no verse in the
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whole Old Testament or New Testament that says hell is
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eternal. Can you share me it with?
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Can you tell me a verse? I'm like yes.
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It's all over the. Bible it's everywhere.
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But on questions like that, the place to go to is always go to
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Jesus. What did Jesus teach?
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Because if you believe something that you believe that something
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doesn't exist or is different than what Jesus taught and you
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got a big problem, How can you follow Jesus and at the same
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time be Jesus's master? Sorry Jesus, you got this one
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wrong. Because I've read the Bible like
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Jesus goes. I wrote the Bible bro, like what
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are you talking about? And so I just sent the brother a
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test. I said here I'll give you one
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verse, there are many more, but I'll give you He wants one, I'll
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give you one and here it is. You got to know the scriptures.
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So the Pharisees, you might be a new believer today.
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Or maybe you come out of a church and it's been hard for
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you. You're going to carry stuff with
45:24
you. Don't be too hard on yourself.
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It takes time to learn, and you will.
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You will learn. Week by week, month by month,
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year by year, you will learn. And I believe these Pharisees
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will come to the conclusion of the early church, even
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themselves. So with our Bible study, let me
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give you a pop quiz. Are you saved by?
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Grace or by work? Say it Allah.
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Can you prove it? Well, I haven't given you the
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scriptures yet. Go over to Ephesians chapter 2
45:54
and let me help you. I just sound like a guy.
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That showed up at your doorstep. I've got a false teaching for
46:01
you. You're saved by works and your
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immediate response is Nah bro. Nope.
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And then I say prove it to me. Then you go to Ephesians chapter
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2 and they'll be equipped on this one question.
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Or you say you know somebody comes to your door.
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I've got a new doctrine. I want to circumcise you.
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Nah bro. Get out of my neighborhood and
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you get on next door and put on. Hey there's a dude that wants
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like no. You just answer them right here.
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Ready. Ephesians Chapter 2, Verse 8.
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And by the way, circumcision is the physical cutting of the
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private parts as a sign unto the Lord.
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It was given by God. It was part of the old Covenant.
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It it, it was real and valid. But it's not so relatable to us
46:44
today. It doesn't happen today
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religiously and especially in the in the in the church.
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But here's how you might hear it.
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You might hear it like this. Hey, you can't be saved unless
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you're water baptized. And like, what?
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Water baptism saves me. Yes.
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And some churches even say you can't be water baptized unless
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it's in our water and our ministers.
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It's the only way you can be saved.
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You can't be saved. You can't be baptized in the
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reservoir. Nope.
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Dirty water. And you can't be baptized in the
47:15
ocean. Nope.
47:16
Like it's it's almost comical, but many, many people get
47:22
tripped up by this stuff. And so you're not.
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Saved by works. If you're an unbeliever, like we
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have our baptisms here with Aurora.
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Water from the reservoir actually comes right in here.
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It's cleaned up by the time it gets into our sanctuary.
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If you're an unbeliever and you get into the water with and into
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the water and get out of the water as an unbeliever, the only
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thing that happened is you got wet.
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The water did not save you. Water never saved anybody in the
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Bible, only the blood of Jesus Christ, because you're not saved
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by works. Listen.
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Verse eight, Chapter 2. For by grace you've been saved
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through, say with me, faith, not of yourselves.
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It's the gift of God. And now say this with me, not of
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works. Lest anyone should boast, we're
48:06
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus 4.
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Good works. Not by good works, but four good
48:12
works which God prepared beforehand.
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So you're saved by faith, not by works.
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Turn over to Titus. Now back toward the end of your
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Bible. I'll give you one more Titus,
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Chapter 3. This is a.
48:24
Principle throughout the scriptures.
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But Titus chapter 3, you know one of the most popular
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religions around is Roman Catholicism, And Roman
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Catholicism is a system based on works from birth to death.
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And if you don't finish all the works properly, then you don't
48:43
really even know if you're saved.
48:45
That is not the Bible. A simple reading of the Bible.
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I don't know why, once you see what the Bible says, that you
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would still hold on to a workspace.
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Religion. God wants to free you from that.
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That you don't need a cower, or the fear of a system, or that
48:59
you did things right. Or that may be purgatory.
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Maybe you get a second chance in purgatory.
49:05
You don't know. You don't there.
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First of all, there's no such thing as purgatory.
49:08
It was invented by man. There's no such thing, and there
49:12
are no second chances. You're either saved by grace,
49:14
now or never. That's it.
49:18
There's no other option. It doesn't matter how many good
49:20
works you do, no matter what kind of good person you might
49:22
be. Doesn't matter.
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Only by the blood of Jesus Christ, which requires humility
49:28
and surrender. And so I ask you to open the
49:30
Titus. And so I will get there with
49:34
you. Titus, chapter 3 and verse 4.
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It says. But when the kindness and the
49:40
love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by, what does
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your say? Works of righteousness.
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Works of righteousness. What is a work of righteousness?
49:53
Water baptism. It is a work of righteousness.
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A believer steps into the waters of obedience.
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It's a work. You are doing it for the Lord,
50:03
but you're not saved by it. A work of righteousness, giving
50:07
you your tithes and offerings. A work of righteousness, being
50:10
kind, helping people. Those are all works of
50:12
righteousness. You've been changed.
50:14
Now you've got a different life, but you're not saved by these.
50:19
They come because you are saved. It's not by anything we've done.
50:24
But at verse five, according to his mercy, he saved us through
50:27
the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
50:31
So now you know, and this will get into the depth of what
50:34
happened in the early church. But you know, you just thank God
50:37
for the early church council because we don't have
50:40
circumcision services now. Because they.
50:44
Settled it, they settled. And for that I say thank God
50:49
that Jesus, that God put leaders in the church to make the hard
50:51
decisions so that they would retain the teachings of Jesus
50:55
and the freedom that he gives by faith.
50:57
That's what we're seeing in Acts 15.
50:58
So, Father, thank you for your word and the reality of of this
51:03
section of Scripture. Thank you for.
51:06
These men throughout the years, not just in the early church,
51:10
but believers throughout the years, that would stand strong,
51:13
I think of all of Protestantism for one Lord that would stand in
51:17
the gap and say, no, this is not what the Bible teaches.
51:23
And Lord, we know we don't hit it right all the time and we
51:26
know that even in this church we aren't.
51:28
We don't hit it right on every single minor doctrine, but our
51:34
heart's desire is to know you and to be as close to right as
51:39
possible. And if we're wrong, to admit it
51:43
and to humble ourselves before you and to move forward in
51:46
humility. So bless your church today as we
51:49
head out in Jesus name. Amen.
51:52
We pray that you've. Been encouraged by this Bible
51:55
study delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
51:58
For prayer, call us at 87730. Grace That's 877304 7223.
52:08
To listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
52:11
live stream services, visit us online at Calvary, Co dot Church
52:16
or download our free Calvary Church app, Be Blessed as You
52:20
Worship Jesus this week.