Latest / Reformed Thinking / Truth Without Remainder, Authority Without Expiration: The Enduring Word of God (Psalm 119:160)

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Truth Without Remainder, Authority Without Expiration: The Enduring Word of God (Psalm 119:160) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive, the show
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where we take a stack of challenging source material and
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really get into the text to deliver the essential
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stabilizing insights you need. We are, I think it's safe to
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say, living in a cultural moment where the very ground beneath
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objective truth feels like it's shaking.
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You can almost call it a crisis of knowing this, this sort of
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epistemological Vertigo where the stability of a fixed reality
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is being, well, actively eroded by opinion and cultural
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pressure. It is.
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And just think about the the language you hear constantly.
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The modern command, the modern mantra, is speak your truth.
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Right, your personal truth. Exactly.
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And that personal, subjective idea has completely replaced the
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ancient, singular call to speak the truth.
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And if you're relying on those shifting sands of human opinion,
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you are. You're just adrift.
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But nothing to hold on to. Nothing.
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So our mission for this deep dive is to take your source
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material, specifically a single verse Psalm 119.160, and use as
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an anchor, an anchor against those tides of relativism that
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really threaten the polls all under.
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We were looking for something fixed.
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And what's so striking about this verse is, well, it's the
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context. The psalmist is not theorizing
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in a peaceful, academic setting. He's not in a library.
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He's writing this under the threat of actual persecution.
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So he offers a radically different source of stability.
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He doesn't look inward to his feelings, which are obviously
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under enormous duress, and he doesn't look outward to the
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consensus of the powerful Princess who are harassing him.
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He looks upward to God's revelation.
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And this anchor verse, it's a declaration that serves as the
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bedrock for how we have to understand Scripture.
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It says the sum of your word is truth.
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And every one of the righteous rules last forever.
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That statement is just. It's so totalizing.
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It is the psalmist is making a claim that stability is found
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only when we submit to God's claim over reality, and that
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claim is total and it is fixed. So our conversation today has to
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demonstrate that because God's Word is truth in its entirety
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and its authority is eternal, the believer finds true rest
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only by submitting to that total claim.
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We have to reject the fluid narratives of a world that
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despises anything fixed. OK, so let's unpack this verse
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and I think we have to start exactly where the psalmist
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started, in the dirt, in the affliction.
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That context is so crucial to really appreciating this text.
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This definitive claim about God's revelation isn't some
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abstract theological position he's worked out.
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He is crying out from the trenches.
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He's being persecuted by Princess as we see in the very
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next verse, verse 161. I mean, his life is on the line.
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That context is everything. Psalm 119.160 is the theological
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climax of the entire rush stanza.
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That whole section from verse 153 to 160 and the entire
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section is concerned with the preservation of the Saints life
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amidst unjust persecution. So the statement that the word
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is truth, it's not a detached observation.
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It is the foundation stone he places under his prayer for
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deliverance. So if the word isn't totally
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true. Then his hope of rescue is
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baseless. It all falls apart.
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So he declares Roche, Devreka Emet, the psalmist uses these
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these three powerhouse Hebrew words that really change
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everything we think about truth. Can you walk us through those?
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Let's let's start with Roche. We have to A careful examination
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of the text is necessary here. So we start with Roche.
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Literally. Roche just means head, top or
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maybe beginning. Right, like Rosh Hashanah, the
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head of the year. Exactly, but when the psalmist
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uses it in this construct chain Roche devoreka head of your
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word, it signifies the the sum total, the essential substance
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of the matter. OK, so if you were to gather
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every single thing God has ever spoken from Genesis to
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Revelation, the definitive quality, the heading for that
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entire collection is truth. That's it.
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It's like the overarching principle that governs
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everything inside it. I think many listeners today,
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though, they might be comfortable saying the Bible is
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mostly truth. They'll accept the spiritual
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parts, the moral lessons. But when you say the Roche the
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sum is truth, what does that instantly eliminate?
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It instantly eliminates the theological error of partial
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inerrancy. Explain that.
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Well, that's the view that says the Bible contains valuable
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spiritual truth and theology and moral lessons.
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But it might contain errors in what they call non salvific
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matter. Things like history or science
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or chronology. Right.
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The Psalmist refutes that entire idea right here in the structure
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of his claim. If you gather every component
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part of God's word, the total aggregate has to be truth.
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The moment you introduce even 1 genuine error into that
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equation, let's say you claim that Adam was mythological, or
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that some historical detail in Kings is just mistaken, Well,
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the Rosh, the sum is compromised.
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You can't say the total is pure if some of the ingredients
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aren't. You can't.
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It's impossible to affirm the sum while you're simultaneously
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decapitating the authority of other parts of the Bible.
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The whole thing stands or falls together.
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That makes the declaration of Rosh incredibly restrictive, but
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in the best sense it sets a very high power.
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So what about the word emit itself?
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It's translated truth, but is it just talking about intellectual
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correctness, like a math problem being true?
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No, and that's a key distinction.
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Emit carries a far greater weight than mere abstract
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correctness. It's derived from the root
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ammanan, which is where we get Amen.
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And it means to be firm, stable, or reliable.
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So when the psalmist declares God's word is Emet, he's
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asserting that it has complete reliability.
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It is truth firm enough to stand upon, truth that can bear the
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immense weight of your life when you're in affliction.
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I see the connection back to the persecution.
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Now the psalmist is facing lying Princess.
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He doesn't just need data points to be correct, he needs an
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anchor, yes, he needs a truth that is guaranteed to survive
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the executioner and the current political climate.
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So is that why he chooses Emet to imply this active dependable
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stability? Precisely.
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And you have to note the grammar because it's cements this fixed
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nature. In Hebrew, this is a verbless
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clause. The sum of your word is truth.
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There's no verb to be. Right, and that suggests an
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objective ontological reality. The word is truth by its very
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nature. It's the fixed objective
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standard that measures all other reality claims.
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It doesn't need our encounter with it or our approval to be
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real. That sets up the first clause
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beautifully. So now we pivot to the second
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claim in the verse, which speaks to the durability of that
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standard. And every one of your righteous
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rules lasts forever. Let's look at righteous rules.
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So that translates the Hebrew mishpat.
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This refers specifically to judicial decisions or legal
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rulings. So not just good advice.
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Not at all. By using Mishpat, the psalmist
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places the text firmly in the genre of legal wisdom and divine
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decree. These aren't suggestions God
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tosses out for our consideration.
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They are binding verdicts from the divine judge.
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They are authoritative evaluations of what is right,
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what is wrong, what is just, and what is unjust.
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And the structure of the phrase itself prohibits picking and
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choosing because the psalmist uses that distributive modifier
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everyone, the Hebrew word Cole. Yes, you can't just select which
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parts of the judicial system you want to obey.
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And that's vital. It dismantles the modern
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tendency to elevate one part of Scripture, maybe the love
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commands, while selectively dismissing the moral boundaries
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that feel restrictive. The psalmist affirms that every
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single ruling, whether it addresses worship or business
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ethics or sexual ethics or social justice, every single one
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is stamped with God's righteousness.
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There's no possibility of establishing a Canon within a
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Canon where we decide which parts are really authoritative.
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These ancient judgments reflect the fixed, unchanging character
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of God. And then you have the critical
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timestamp layolam translated as forever.
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This signifies perpetuity, eternal validity.
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I mean, that is a complete confrontation to the spirit of
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the age. It is the temporal marker that
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slams the door on cultural compromise.
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Our culture operates on the assumption that moral code has
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to constantly update. It has to evolve.
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Right, that is a social construct.
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Exactly. And if right and wrong are
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social constructs, they can be renegotiated.
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But Leolam insists that the Miss Patrum of God remain fixed.
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They don't expire because they are rooted in God very essence.
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So the believer is standing on a foundation that stretches from
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the very beginning, the Roche of creation.
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All the way to eternity OLEM, this foundation is completely
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stable, There's no wobble in it. OK, so let's move into the first
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of these huge claims. The sum of your word is truth.
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As you've said, this isn't some subjective compliment he's
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paying to scripture. No, it's a doctrinal confession,
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and it's grounded entirely in the being of God.
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The Word is true because it bears God's character.
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He's faithful, and as the Bible says elsewhere, he cannot lie.
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So the authority of the Bible is theological before it's, say,
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apologetical. It's true not because it can
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successfully withstand our tests of human reason or cultural
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usefulness, right, but because it proceeds from the God of
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truth. A deceptive word would imply A
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deceptive God, and the psalmist just utterly rejects that
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possibility. Exactly when the Psalmist roots
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the words reliability in emit, he roots it in God's
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faithfulness. We see this principle repeated
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all over Scripture. Numbers 23.19.
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God is not a man that he should lie.
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Kitus 1.2 God who never lies. Promised eternal life.
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If the source is fixed and true, the revelation proceeding from
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that source must also be fixed and true.
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I think we need to linger on the practical application of this
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word some the Roche because it forbids what you could call the
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fragmented approach to Scripture.
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Yes, the psalmist is saying we cannot treat scripture as a
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mixed bag of wheat and error where the reader has to be the
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final arbiter separating the two.
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That's the key error, the reader as arbiter.
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I know many listeners probably feel this temptation daily.
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It's like treating the Bible like a spiritual buffet.
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That's a great analogy. You keep the parts that offer
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peace and comfort and prosperity, but you just quietly
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sideline the passages that confront your sin, whether those
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are passages about regulating worship or defining sexual
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ethics or demanding costly discipleship.
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That seems to be the default position in modern life.
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It is, but that's the difference between acknowledging isolated
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truths that you like and submitting to a comprehensive
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total reality that you might not.
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If you pick and choose the parts you like, you are implicitly
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exalting yourself as the judge over the Word.
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This verse announces the opposite reality.
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The Word is the fixed standard by which we are judged.
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To edit the Word is to claim the very authority that belongs only
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to the divine author. And this total truthfulness is
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also what gives Scripture its coherence.
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Truth is harmonious. Since the whole thing is truth,
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Scripture has to interpret Scripture.
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This is a principle we call the analogy of faith.
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For someone who hasn't heard that phrase, what does that mean
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practically? It means that if you come across
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a verse that seems unclear or difficult, it should always be
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interpreted by a clear verse elsewhere in the Bible that
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speaks on the same topic. Right, so it means that apparent
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tensions or difficulties in the text shouldn't be an excuse for
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us to just dismiss the text. Not at all.
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They should drive the reverent reader to humble submission and
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careful synthesis to dig deeper. They shouldn't drive us to
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cynicism and dismissal. And this stability is practical.
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It's not just an academic idea. Let's go back to the context.
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The psalmist is in a situation of suffering and persecution.
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Half truths crumble when the political pressure is heavy.
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Lies just cannot sustain you through real suffering.
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But if the Rosh the whole sum is truth, then every promise, the
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promise of justice, the promise of refuge, the promise of future
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deliverance, all of it, is utterly reliable, even when your
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immediate circumstances are screaming the exact opposite.
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That's the anchor. That is why the believers
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necessary confession, especially in a world saturated with
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propaganda and lies, has to be what Paul stated in Romans.
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Let God be true though, every man were a liar.
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Yes, that places the reliability of God's speech above the entire
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consensus of fallen humanity. It's an act of intellectual and
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spiritual rebellion against the age.
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OK, so let's move to the second claim.
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This shifts our attention from the quality of the Word, which
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is truthfulness, to the durability of its authority.
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The verse declares that God's verdicts, His rules, they stand
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regardless of the age or any opposition.
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Yes. Every one of your righteous
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rules lasts forever. These misplot of these judgments
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are authoritative evaluations, and they're called righteous
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because they conform perfectly to God's holy character.
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These aren't just arbitrary rules that God could have issued
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differently. They actually flow from His
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perfect moral essence. And that righteousness is fixed.
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The durability of that standard is what makes this claim so
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challenging to our modern autonomous self.
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Let's really get into the details of the implications
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here, starting with the scope everyone and then the permanence
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forever leolum the scope. This means there is no selective
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obedience allowed. The verse explicitly shuts the
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door on treating certain commands as essential, like,
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say, love your neighbor. The ones that are easy to agree
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with. Right, And then treating other
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commands as optional, like passages dealing with holiness
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or specific ethical boundaries that our culture now rejects.
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God's judgments reach the conscience and bind it.
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They summon every age and every person to repentance and faith.
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They do not need cultural approval to be authoritative.
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I could see how that's so important, but for many
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listeners that sounds incredibly restrictive.
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How do you respond when people claim that rigid adherence to
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every one of the rules just kills Christian freedom?
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Well, we respond by clarifying what true freedom actually is.
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Freedom isn't the autonomy to break the law.
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That's bondage to sin. Freedom is the ability to obey
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God's righteous standard without coercion, powered by the Spirit.
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The moral authority of these rules is a divine decree, not a
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social contract that we can just renegotiate every few years.
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So God's righteousness doesn't age.
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It doesn't. His standard remains fixed even
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when cultural moral language mutates or completely collapses.
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OK, now this raises A crucial point that I know Reformed
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thinkers have to address. If every one of your righteous
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rules lasts forever, why aren't we still offering animal
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sacrifices, right? And why don't we still enforce
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the specific civil penalties of ancient Israel?
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It seems like some rules have in fact expired.
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That is the necessary Reformed nuance, the classic law gospel
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distinction. We have to ask what forever
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means in relation to the Old Testament law.
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Forever affirms the enduring nature of God's righteous
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character and His moral will, but it does not mean we flatly
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apply every specific Old Testament ritual or civil
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statute today. OK, so how do we make that
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distinction? Well, we use the established
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threefold division of the law, which you find derive right from
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the Westminster Confession. There's the ceremonial, the
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civil, and the moral. First, the ceremonial laws.
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These included the sacrificial system, the priesthood, the
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temple rites. They were types and shadows
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pointing forward to something greater.
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They were abrogated, meaning they cease to be required
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because they were fully accomplished and fulfilled in
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the person and work of Christ. The substance has arrived, so
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the shadow recedes. Second, the civil laws.
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These were the specific judicial codes designed for the distinct
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government of ancient Israel, which was a specific theocracy.
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They expired when that theocracy ended, but the general
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principles of justice behind them, what we call general
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equity, still remain. And 3rd.
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The moral law. This is the expression of God's
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unchanging nature summarized for us in the 10 Commandments.
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This moral equity of the law remains eternally binding.
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The definitions of sin, of justice, of sexual ethics, these
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are not cultural artifacts that we can discard.
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They are eternal realities because God is eternal.
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So the psalmist statement that the mishpatim last forever is
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really affirming that the foundational moral code and
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God's standard of holiness are fixed.
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You cannot update the definitions of sin based on the
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latest cultural trend. Absolutely not.
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And this permanence it touch two ways in application.
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For the battered believer, it provides immense comfort, lasts
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forever, means that God's promises of deliverance and
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final justice are not going to be revoked by tomorrow's
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headlines. The moral order is not actually
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collapsing, and your obedience is never wasted.
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The truth you stand on is reliable.
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But on the other side, for the person who wants to outlive
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their conviction, who hopes that time or therapy or just cultural
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progress will erase their guilt. For them, last forever is a
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warning. Guilt cannot be dissolved by
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time, rebranded by psychology, or excused by cultural approval.
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Sin remains sin even when it's celebrated by the masses.
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The standard stands to crush our pride and ultimately, to drive
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us to mercy. So now we use this verse as a
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sharp instrument. The declaration that the sum of
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your word is truth and every rule lasts forever is a rallying
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cry against four specific deviations that seek to
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dismantle scriptural authority in the modern world.
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We have to guard the integrity of God's Word actively.
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We have to. So we start with the error of
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theological liberalism and neo orthodoxy.
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Liberalism historically treat Scripture as having truth that's
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buried under layers of myth and error.
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It suggests that the history, the miracles, the science in the
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Bible are all dispensable. Right, demythologize it.
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Exactly. And Neo Orthodoxy, which is
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often associated with Karl Barth.
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It shifts the authority. It suggests the Bible only
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becomes the word of God during an existential personal.
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Encounter. So the core issue in both cases
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is the status of the text itself before the reader ever engages
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it. Liberalism says I will judge
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what is true in the text. Neo Orthodoxy says my experience
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makes the text true for me. And in both cases, the human
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subject is elevated above the written revelation.
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And Psalm 119.160 just dismantles both of those views.
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It utterly dismantles them because it asserts the rash.
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The sum is a met truth. Ontologically, the Word is truth
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regardless of whether you have an encounter with it or not.
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We have to stand with the confession that Scriptures
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authority depends wholly upon God, who is truth itself, the
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author thereof. That means it's authority is
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inherent, not derived from human experience or rational approval.
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So to deny the historicity of key biblical figures, say a
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literal Adam or a physical space-time resurrection of
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Jesus. Is to concede error, and if
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there is error in the component parts, the sum is erroneous.
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A limited inerrancy is functionally no inerrancy at
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all, because the moment the reader is tasked with separating
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the wheat from the chaff, they have become the final authority
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and not the word. OK, the second error is
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antinomianism, lawlessness. This one is subtly pervasive.
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In some modern evangelical contexts.
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You see this clear trend to unhitch the Christian faith from
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the Old Testament. The law is sometimes treated as
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just a foil to grace, implying the rules of the past were
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oppressive restrictions we have now thankfully outgrown.
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Or that true freedom means ignoring the moral commands in
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the first half of the Bible. And the rebuttal from our verse
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is immediate and clear. Every one of your righteous
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rules lasts forever. The moral equity of the law
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remains binding. The Holy Spirit writes the law
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on the heart of the believer. He convicts us of sin precisely
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because the standard has not changed.
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So to reject God's fixed moral standards.
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Even under the guise of freedom in Christ is not grace.
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It's a deep misunderstanding of salvation that quickly devolves
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into rebellion against the unchanging moral will of God.
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All right, let's shift to two errors that are visible in
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contemporary church structures and attitudes, starting with
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pragmatism. This is the idol that asks does
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it work? Does produce results over the
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more fundamental question, Is it true this attitude fuels so many
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methodologies that soften the hard edges of Scripture?
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It really does. Prioritizing therapeutic advice
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or market driven strategies over God's righteous rules, All in
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the name of what? Numerical growth.
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And we just have to go back to the psalmist.
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He stood on Emet while he was being persecuted by Princess.
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He was not tracking positive growth metrics.
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He was fighting for his life. And he certainly did not adjust
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his message to appease the political authorities.
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The church must reject market based strategies that confuse
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consumer satisfaction with spiritual vitality.
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We have to prioritize reverence for God's Word over cultural
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relevance. Can you give an example of what
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that looks? Like sure, when a church leader
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refuses to preach on uncomfortable topics, sexual
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purity, hell, costly discipleship because they are
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afraid of losing attendance or donor money, that is pure
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pragmatism. They're making a business
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decision. It's a business decision.
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They have traded the total truthfulness of the Rosh for
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temporary popularity. The only results that actually
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matter are those produced by the proclamation of the
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unadulterated word. If you have to change the
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diagnosis to make the treatment palatable, you've already
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betrayed the truth. And finally, we have to address
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moral revisionism and deconstruction.
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This is the insistence that moral norms, especially
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concerning sexuality, marriage and personal identity, must be
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fluid and self. Or that Scripture itself must be
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placed on trial before our modern secular assumptions?
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Yes, and the rebuttal from Psalm 119.160 is absolute.
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God's judgments last forever. This means that moral reality is
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fixed. It is not constructed by human
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desire or defined by cultural trends.
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When the culture attempts to rename vice as virtue, it is
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making a claim that is contradicted by an eternal
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decree. Scripture is not the defendant
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in the dock, subject to the whims of modern ethical
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frameworks. It's the judge.
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It is the judge that judges our judgments and exposes our
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cultural blind spots. The faith once for all delivered
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to the Saints, is not clay for each generation to reshape.
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When the age demands that you explain yourself, the only
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appropriate answer for the believer is repent and believe.
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Because the fixed moral standard of God applies to all time, we
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can't allow ourselves to believe that simply because an idea is
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new, IT is therefore superior to the Word that lasts forever.
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We have established just how imposing Psalm 119.160 is.
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The righteous rules last forever.
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That declaration, just on its own, is a terrifying prospect
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for a Sinner. It has to be.
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If the standard of God's holiness is eternal and
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unyielding, then the verdict against our unholiness is also
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eternal. The stability of the law means
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the durability of our condemnation, unless, of course,
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there is a mediator who satisfies that law.
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That is the essential turn from law to gospel.
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The law functions as a divine prosecutor.
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It exposes our shifting standards and our catastrophic
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failure to align with the e-mail of God.
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The permanence of the law means that guilt is not dissolved by
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time or by cultural evolution. The law's function, ultimately,
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is to silence human boasting, to demolish every false refuge we
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try to build, and to drive the terrified Sinner to the only
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true refuge. And this truth is precisely why
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we cannot embrace antinomianism. We can't.
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If the law didn't last forever, sin wouldn't be so serious and
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the gospel wouldn't be so glorious.
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The good news is not that God lowered the standard, which
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Psalm 119.160 forbids. The good news is that God
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justifies the ungodly through a righteous substitute who
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perfectly honored that fixed standard.
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And this text preaches Christ explicitly in two powerful ways,
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using the verse's own language. First, we see Christ as the
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Incarnate sum of truth. The Psalmist speaks of the sum,
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the Rosh of God's Word being truth in Christ.
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The written word is inextricably bound to the living Word.
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Jesus is the Logos, the one who was in the beginning of the
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Roche and he declared I am the way and the truth and the life.
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He is the head, the Roche of the body, the Church, according to
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Colossians 1.18. He's the Amen, the faithful and
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true witness in Revelation 3.1 tomb.
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He perfectly embodies the truth and stability that the psalmist
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longed for in his time of lies. So when the Princess of this
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world lied. Christ stood silent before
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Pilate, embodying the emit that does not need to negotiate with
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falsehood. He is the rock upon which the
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entire standard rests. 2nd We see Christ as the fulfiller of
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the eternal law. God did not lower the bar of
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righteousness, He sent His Son to clear it completely.
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The rules last forever, and Christ fulfilled them perfectly.
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This is. Crucial we preach the act of
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obedience of Christ, where we failed to keep the precepts of
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the law and thought word and deed.
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Jesus obeyed perfectly. He loved the law.
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He said He came not to abolish, but to fulfill every jot and
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title of the eternal rules. He lived the life we should have
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lived, earning the perfect righteousness demanded by that
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fixed, eternal law. And we preach the passive
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obedience of Christ because the penalty for breaking the rules
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must also last forever. The durability of the law spells
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the durability of the punishment.
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Christ bore the infinite weight of the law's curse on the cross.
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He became sin for us. He satisfied the mishpat, the
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judgment of God, so that the law could be upheld in all its
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righteousness, and the Sinner could still be saved.
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And the ultimate result for us? Is union with Christ because the
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believer is united to Him. The righteousness of the law is
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fulfilled in US who walk not according to the flesh, but
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according to the Spirit. The righteous rules shift in
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their status for us. How so?
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They are no longer a terrifying condemning indictment.
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They become a description of our new Christ centered life.
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We love the law not as a ladder to try and earn life, but
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because we share the life of the law giver.
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Our standing before the eternal Judge is as secure as Christ
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Himself, who is the only perfect keeper and satisfier of the
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Word. OK, this is where we take this
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high doctrine and we press it into this specific contours of
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our lives. If the theology doesn't move
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from the head to the heart and then flow out through the hands,
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it just remains abstract knowledge.
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That has to be applied. Let's start with the application
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to the intellect to the head. The application required here
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is, well, it's radical intellectual submission to the
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totality of Scripture. The idol of our age is autonomy,
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the belief that the human mind is the final arbiter of truth.
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We are all tempted to approach the Bible with a red pen,
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highlighting the promises we like while censoring the
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mishpatim that offend our culture or our personal desires.
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And Psalm 119.160 just dismantles this intellectual
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arrogance. If the Roche, the sum is truth.
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You cannot be a critic of the text.
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You can only be its servant. The necessary belief is simple,
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but it's revolutionary. God is smarter than you.
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It's as simple as that. It is when your modern logic or
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your contemporary sensibilities clash with the fixed judgments
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of Scripture. It is your logic that is flawed,
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not the eternal rule. We have to repent of the
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arrogance that seeks to edit God to make Him more palatable to
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the current age. This application speaks directly
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to intellectual hurdles. If you, the listener, feel a
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conflict between the Bible's account of creation or gender or
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justice and what the popular academic consensus says, this
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verse demands submission to the Word.
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It does. Stop trying to make the Bible
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fit the science or the ethics of a fallen, shifting world.
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The world's definitions are just shifting shadows.
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Only the Word is IMENT. The Bible is the fixed plum line
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that has to straighten our crooked hearts, not the other
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way around. OK second, the application to
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the affections to the heart for the persecuted or weary St. the
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kind of person the psalmist was. This doctrine provides a deep
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emotional stability. We could call it a courageous
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tranquility. I like that the emotional toll
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of being told your faith is foolish or backward or even hate
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speech. That's heavy.
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It is. But because God's rules last
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forever, you know the final verdict on your life belongs to
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God, not to culture. You can actually rest when the
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culture shifts because your foundation does not move when
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you face mockery on social media or rejection at work for
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maintaining a fixed moral standard.
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The heart finds peace knowing that the One who judges all
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things has declared his standards permanent.
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It also cultivates genuine gratitude, doesn't it?
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It has to. We should feel immense joy that
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we serve a God who does not lie, who is not the capricious, and
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whose word is reliable. In a world saturated with
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gaslighting, misinformation, and manipulation, the honesty of
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God's Word is a deep, satisfying comfort.
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We are called to cultivate a love for the law, not to earn
28:16
salvation, but because it is true.
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And it beautifully reflects the character of the Lawgiver who
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saved us. Finally, the application to
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practice to the hands. If the sum of the Word is truth,
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then our practical actions have to reflect whole Bible
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obedience. We can't be selective in our
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ethics, and this begins with Bible intake.
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You cannot live by the sum if you only read the parts you
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enjoy. We have to stop neglecting the
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Old Testament. We need to read Genesis and
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Leviticus and Chronicles and the minor Prophets with the same
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hunger we bring to the Gospels. We have to discipline ourselves
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to read the entire Canon, because it is the entire Canon
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that is the Roche of truth fully satisfied in Christ.
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And that leads directly to unapologetic proclamation.
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And we must stop apologizing for God when we speak to others or
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we teach our children. We cannot soften the hard
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sayings of Scripture about sin, judgment, and the eternal
29:05
consequences of rebellion. To hide or soften the righteous
29:08
rules is to hide the severity of the diagnosis that makes the
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cure of the gospel appear necessary in the first place.
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And perhaps most personally challenging, we have to confront
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personal pragmatism in our daily decision making.
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We have to reject the urge to do what works over what is
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demonstrably right. That's a daily battle.
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It is if we face a business decision where a small lie would
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be profitable, or a relational conflict where a compromise with
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a fixed moral boundary would just be easier.
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The hands of the believer are tied by the e-mail of God.
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We have to obey the righteous rules, and we leave the
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consequences, good or bad, to the God who lives forever.
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Our duty is faithfulness, not results.
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So at the end of the day, Psalm 119.160 leaves us with a stark
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and unavoidable choice. We must either bow to the
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shifting narratives and the compromises of the moment, or we
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stand on a book where the sum is truth and every rule lasts
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forever. This verse stands as a judge.
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It exposes the proud who crave autonomy, but at the same time
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it's a source of rescue. It liberates the humble who
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desire a firm, unshakable foundation that will not fail
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them, especially in times of. Affliction.
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The urgency of this is just. It's inescapable.
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The world may redefine virtue and rename vice, but God's
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verdict stands fixed and His Word does not age.
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Do not edit the Word to fit the spirit of the age.
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Instead, let the Word expose you, correct you, and comfort
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you. The final question pressing on
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all of this is not simply whether you own a Bible, but
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whether the Bible, in its totality and its authority, owns
30:39
you. When the dust of every cultural
30:41
trend finally settles and every human opinion fades away, the
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believers peace is anchored not in the flexibility of God's
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rule, but in the finality of Christ's finished work, which
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fully satisfied the standard of truth that lasts forever.