BONUS - 5 Lessons Every Christian Should Have Learned Over The Past 2 Years
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 4 minutes
Harmful content
Misogyny
8
sentences flagged
Toxicity
33
sentences flagged
Hate speech
76
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the lessons we can learn from the book, The Chronicles of Narnia, and how we can apply them in our own lives. We can't fall for the lies we tell ourselves about God.
Transcript
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Hey guys, real quick, before we get started, I have a small request.
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If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show,
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So I've been praying, Lord, what can I do? What could I give to your people?
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And this is one of the things that's been on my heart so, so, so much,
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is, um, Lord, please let us learn the lessons that you providentially supplied over the last
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two years and not forget them. People are so quick to forget our nation as a whole,
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sadly, even conservatives and very sadly, even Christians. So did we not just learn that lesson?
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Did that not just happen? You know? And then we fall for it again. We fall for it again. It's
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like Charlie Brown, you know, and Lucy and the football. It's like, come on, Charlie Brown,
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Like, right, that's, yeah, Nancy Pelosi, right?
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That's Lucy, you know, she's moving the football.
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So one of the things that I thought about was just,
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speaking of Lucy, I thought about the Chronicles of Narnia,
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And one of his arguments was the liar, lunatic Lord.
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well, he's a good teacher, or he was a nice guy, or, you know, he showed us the triumph of, you
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know, the human spirit, and compassion, and love, and mercy, and you can believe all these things
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without believing his Lord, and the reality is you can't, and the reason why you can't is because
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nice guys don't lie to your face, right, and so we can't just look at the life of Jesus, and the
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actions of Jesus, we have to look at the words of Jesus, and in his words, he claimed to be God,
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and if he lied about that, then he's not a nice guy, right, he's malicious, he's a liar, he's
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deceitful, he's wicked. Or in a best case, right, this worst case scenario is he's malicious. Best
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case scenario, he's a crazy man, right? So liar, lunatic, or the third option is that he's Lord,
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and everything he said is true. And so C.S. Lewis, you know, that's what he argues when he
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writes on apologetics, you know, mere Christianity, books like that. But in his fantasy, in his fiction,
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most notably The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he paints this scene. And in the scene, we have,
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you know, the four siblings, you've got Peter, you've got Susan, you've got Edmund, you've got
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Lucy. And Lucy, as many of you know, if you haven't read The Lion, Witch, and The Wardrobe,
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as R.C. Sproul would say, what's wrong with you people? So, right, so go read that, you know, so
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I'm not going to say spoiler alert. It's been out long enough. If you don't, you deserve to have it
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spoiled. But Lucy, you know, she goes to The Wardrobe, and she goes to a magical land named
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Narnia. And she comes back, she tells, she's the youngest, she tells her older siblings,
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in this magical wardrobe, there's a whole nother world, all right? And I met Mr. Tumnus,
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the fawn, and all these different things, and had a lovely time, and, and they're all, you know,
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they don't believe her, but Edmund, it's not just, Edmund doesn't just disbelieve, Edmund is cruel,
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he's mean, right, he's picking on her, and poking fun, and just, he's just a bully, but then he's
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following her, a couple days later, following her, and, and to pick on her some more with, with
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nothing but the worst intentions, and, and she goes back into the wardrobe, and it takes her,
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transports her once again to Narnia, and he's following her to make fun of her, and he ends up
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in Narnia also, and then they come back, and he's now been to Narnia. He's seen. He's touched. He's
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heard. He's a witness that this is real, and he comes back, and Lucy's so excited with Peter
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and Susan because she's like, now Edmund can validate my testimony. We have two or three
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witnesses, right? The testimony can be established in the presence of two witnesses. It's not just me.
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There's a second witness that can validate my argument. We went to North. Tell him, Edmund.
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And he responds by saying, little girls, they just love to pretend. And she just melts into a puddle,
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just completely destroyed, distraught, not just because she's being made fun of, not just because
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it's demeaning and insulting to her intelligence, but because it's betrayal. It's a profound, deep,
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intimate betrayal, and she is heartbroken by her brother, that her brother would stab her in the
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back, and so Peter and Susan, the older siblings, still don't know what to believe, because Edmund's
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saying, she's just pretending, and so Peter and Susan are talking one, you know, within the next
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day, they're speaking with Diggory Kirk, he's the professor that the four siblings are staying with,
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and he's like, what's wrong with the little girl, the weeping girl, is what the professor calls her,
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and well she's you know she thinks she went to a magical world and edmund's been picking on her
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and he's like yeah hence the weeping you know but well but why why is she weeping well what's really
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going on and well she you know she thinks she found this magical world and he's like oh okay
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but did she where oh in the wardrobe i've said like he's very interested instead of just saying
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oh yeah that's a silly little girl pretending about a magical world he his eyes perk up he's
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like, what magical world? Where was it? Where did you find it? You know, he's like, I'd like to go
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too. And like, that's his, he immediately, and that's of course because he's been before, there's
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another spoiler. But all that being said, he's like, well, where? And they're like, well, we didn't ask
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where, because it's fantasy. Of course, this didn't happen. It's not real. So we're not asking
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specific questions about the geographic, you know, location of Narnia, because it's not real.
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And Diggory Kirk says, what do they teach children in schools these days?
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So Edmund, the one who says she's pretending, he's usually the truthful one, isn't he?
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Well, then logically, you should assume that Lucy is telling the truth.
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Our legacy media, our political administration, they're Edmund.
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And the reason I'm concerned is because we all agree.
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You can literally ascertain within 95 percentile of the truth
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by believing the opposite of what you see on CNN.
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And the difference between a conspiracy and a news story is three to six months.
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And conservatives immediately side with Ukraine.
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So I appreciate, that's a contribution to the whole world, right?
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So China brought COVID on the stage and Russia cured it.
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But I don't think Ukraine is the most innocent nation in the world either.
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And my point is, if Edmund has always been lying for two years straight, right, then why should we go ahead?
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But very clearly for the last two years, then why should we immediately?
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So all I'm saying is, I'm not saying, and therefore this is true and that is false or this is true and that.
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what I'm saying is slow down. I think of the book of James, right? Be quick to listen, slow to speak.
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And one of the reasons we want to be slow to speak is those who are quick to speak often provoke
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the wrath of man. And there is a difference between the wrath of God, which is holy and good,
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and the wrath of man. And what James says particularly about the wrath of man is that
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it does not bring about the holiness of God. The wrath of God stems from the holiness of God,
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but the wrath of man has nothing to do with the holiness of God. It's a carnal wrath. It's a
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fleshly wrath. It's a fickle wrath, right? Our God, what makes God so holy is not that he is a God that
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is absent of anger, but what makes God's anger so magnificent and in a frightening and terrifying
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way, beautiful, is that our God who is angry, jealous is his name. Our God who is anger, our God
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who is jealousy, our God who is a consuming fire and burns with a holy, righteous indignation and
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wrath, he does so always for the right things, at the right time, at the right measure. God has never
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been angry about something more than he should be. He has never been angry about the wrong thing
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and not angry about the thing he should actually be angry about.
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It's always been timely, and one of his key traits
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is that he's long-suffering and therefore slow to anger.
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when the fullness of the measure of his wrath has been filled up.
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It's always in the right measure, and it's always for the right things.
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And so we, too, if we don't want to look foolish, if we don't want to have egg on our face, if we don't want to be embarrassed, then I think we should be a little bit slow, a little bit slow, a holy suspicion.
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And really, this stems from a Vantilian, Calvinistic, Reformed, presuppositional worldview.
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So here are five lessons that Christians better have learned over the last two years and that
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Christians better not forget. We should not have to be taught these lessons more than once. The
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Lord is patient. He is kind, but we should not put the Lord to the test. How many times must he teach
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us? Once should be enough. Praise God he's gracious and willing to do it usually more than once,
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But we should do our best to take away the lessons he's given us.
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I try to do some alliteration, make it easy on you, make it easy on me.
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All of you, what you're going to love about it, if you're not post-millennial, this is the beauty.
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You're not here unless you want to make a difference.
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So none of you are the pre-meal that's just putting their head in the sand.
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So I don't want to make a straw man for pre-meal, you know,
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and just get a high five with the post-meal guys over there behind the cookies later on.
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So I'm not going to pick on the pre-meal people, right?
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And so you're not, you're all here to make a difference.
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So you're all living as though you're post-meal, right?
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post-millennialism, a.k.a. play the long game, play the long game. So regardless of where you're at
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with your eschatology, pre-mill, post-mill, on-mill, either way, in terms of our practice,
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play the long game. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my background, I planted and
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pastored a church in San Diego, California for several years before moving to Williamson County,
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Texas in December of 2020 to plant the church that I now pastor, which is Covenant Bible Church
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located in Georgetown, Texas. Now, by God's grace, I had the privilege of baptizing over 100 people
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than merely planting churches and baptizing converts.
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and to see people come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
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In part, this was due to my specific theological convictions
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which at the time I was not even aware that I held to such doctrines.
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But these doctrines were present, all the same, influencing every decision I made.
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For instance, I assume that Jesus, who would likely come back at any moment,
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had decreed that everything in this world would continually spiral out of control until he returned.
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I also assume that the only thing of any real eternal value
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was preaching the gospel and saving lost souls.
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So aspirations for founding schools, starting businesses, or running for local political office all seem like worldly and carnal endeavors to me.
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Sure, these things may have provided some cover, some fire cover, for a little bit.
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These things would have maybe provided some benefit to Christians and society at large.
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Still, I assumed that the value would be short-lived.
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After all, I had been taught that even such atrocities as abortion
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would never actually end by legislation, but only by heart transformation.
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And for anyone who doubts that statement, let me remind you that it rhymes, so it must be true.
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I never stopped, right, but I never stopped to wonder, just for a moment,
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why there are approximately 1 million abortions in America each year, but only 16,000 homicides.
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people tend to gravitate towards whatever form of murder
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But throughout human history, deterring wickedness,
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through the second use of God's law, theonomy,
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By God's law, legislating it, imposing morality,
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Well, then why not commit to exclusively doing this
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complementarian relationships in their marriage
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in their home and those things. If that's all we're doing, if that's the whole enchilada,
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then why not do it in the most difficult places you could possibly go? Which is why I went to
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California. But it's also why I was a hypocrite. Because if I really believed that, that's what
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I would have said, but if I really believed, then I shouldn't have planned in California, go to North
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Korea. Let's all go to Ukraine. What's wrong with you? Do you really care? Do you really care?
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Why aren't you in Canada? Why aren't you in New Zealand? Why aren't you in Australia?
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If that's all it is, if it's just planting churches and snatching souls from the fire,
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Why not commit to exclusively doing this in the most challenging places in the world
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If we're serious about following Jesus, we'd move to Russia or Ukraine.
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on the other hand if it's possible just possible just throwing it out there guys i'm not saying
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this is true just possible that jesus might tarry for a while say a few thousand years or more
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and he intends to actually restore the world instead of making it dissolve like snow and
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annihilating it and he's going to redeem all things and not just the church but all things
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the cosmos to himself then there may actually be some merit in playing the long game and planting
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that changed my mind was my theology, for sure.
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three little girls sitting in the back of the room.
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Their wives. And you know how the wives become Presbyterians?
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They say, which one of these says that my babies are good?
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yeah, yeah, we baptize our babies in this house, you know, and so I, you know, I came right up to
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the line. I'm right there, as close as you can get to being a Presbyterian while still being a
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Reformed Baptist, but the deal is what moved me, what changed my mindset about ministry, about
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church planting, about everything that got me out of California, all these different things in Texas
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is I started thinking maybe a momentary tactical retreat might be a good idea if we're not just
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trying to win the present battle but the war and if the war is going to go on for a long time
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part of the reason why we lose is because we think that everything's going to be finished in the next
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15 minutes and so we don't play with a long you know how notice here's one thing i hope you took
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this away from john's lecture did you notice that one of the things that john did was he tracked
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through multiple people multiple efforts and multiple not just decades centuries how everything
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today came about. The left, they play the long game. They're post-millennial. We should be too.
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We should be too. So all that being said, perhaps Christians would be wise to momentarily fall back
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behind enemy lines to rebuild and regroup for a generation or two. That's the first lesson.
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Play the long game. Post-millennial. All right. Number two, and you could do it as a non-post-millennial,
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But that's, think long-term, wherever you're at, eschatology.
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We were talking about this as we were recording, me and John and A.D.,
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we thought, you know, one of the things that we said is,
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it's good to have a word like shibboleth, right?
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Now, if you're not familiar with that story in the Bible, you know,
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the Ephraimites, there was a certain thing, a certain Hebrew word
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that they could not pronounce without their accent betraying them, right,
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And people would know, oh, you're not actually Hebrew.
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You're not actually the people of God, right?
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And J.I. Packer, actually, it was J.I. Packer who said this once upon a time, a few decades
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back, back with the battles, you know, with inerrancy and those kind of things.
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And people were thinking, even the conservatives, the good guys, they were thinking, well, let's
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lower the bar a little bit and say something, right?
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Let's use a different word that means exactly the same thing.
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Technically, it means the same thing, but a different word, right?
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infallibility, or this, or that, you know, but not inerrancy, because it just trips people up,
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that word. And J.I. Packer said, sometimes it's good to have a word that trips people up.
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Sometimes it's good to have a shibboleth word that the enemies of God, that reveals them,
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that gives them away, that they can't say. Patriarchy is a good word.
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Complementarian is not good enough anymore. Patriarchy is a great word. I can find a whole
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lot about where you're at doctrinally, what you think about the Lord Jesus Christ. I can find out
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real quick where you're at. If I say, yeah, I'm patriarchal, and I have a wife and three daughters,
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right? And they're like, oh my gosh, we've got to rescue your wife and three daughters. They must
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be oppressed, you know? And it's like, okay, yeah, so we're not on the same page, you know? Or they're
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like, God bless you. Man, your wife and three daughters are probably blessed because God is a
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father. You know why I'm patriarchal? I'm patriarchal because God identifies himself as a father, and so
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we have a heavenly father, and we live in the father's world, and we live in the father's world
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who made his fatherly world with his fatherly rules,
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and all creatures and all creation through fathers
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in three divinely instituted sovereign spheres,
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which is why elders should be men in the church.
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God the Father blesses all people through fathers.
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that the political left, the cultural left,
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They hate fathers because they serve their father.
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They are children of the devil, John chapter 8,
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When he lies, he speaks his native tongue,
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and get a pretty good idea of what's actually true
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They lie because they're just like their daddy, the devil.
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of the Lord Jesus Christ and those who have union with him by the Spirit through faith.
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Apart from that, God is not your father, but that does not mean that you are fatherless. You have a
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father, even if God is not your father, your father is the devil. And children always bear
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a striking resemblance to their father. If the devil is your daddy, you will do what the father,
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your father does, and he is the father of lies. He's the father of lies. That's why I'm patriarchal.
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everything is father everything is society everything in culture and certainly everything
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in the bible it's it's fatherly language we can't escape it it's a good word shibboleth
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liberals can't say it we can immediately identify all right so during my pastoral tenure in
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california i regularly championed the cause of christians being willing to sacrifice for the
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mission of jesus i passionately preached against the evils of the prosperity gospel which truly is
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evil. Still, I foolishly conflated this health and wealth heresy with just a genuine, honest desire
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to make money, start a family, purchase a modest home, and leave up an inheritance for your
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children's children. That's not the prosperity gospel. That's the Bible. Now, that said, books
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like Radical, perhaps you've heard of it, books like Radical by David Platt served as my inspiration.
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But I fail to recognize how truly radical it is for a Christian man to marry a woman in his youth.
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to remain faithful to her throughout his entire life,
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See, in my assessment, the American church
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has too many men who are eager to go to third world countries
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but not nearly enough men who are willing to fight
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for this country by simply establishing godly households
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and demonstrating faithfulness to their wives and children.
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I am now convinced that the vast majority of men in our churches
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Instead, they need teaching about how to be men.
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They need to be taught how to be husbands, how to be fathers,
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how to be sons, how to be brothers, how to be entrepreneurs,
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how to start businesses, how to start publishing companies,
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how to be authors and write books and artists and all the rest.
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I wasted far too much time engaging with the men in my previous church
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about peripheral doctrines and the prospects of
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maybe one day the Lord will call you to be a pastor or a church planter. And I invested far
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too little time talking about the fundamentals of what it means to be a Christian man.
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And so in this way, I failed these men. And in this way, I failed myself. Most importantly,
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I failed the Lord Jesus Christ. Now these days, I think young Christian men seem to have a lot
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in common with the Samaritan woman in John chapter four, verse 16 through 20. Here's the text.
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Jesus said to her, go and call your husband and come here.
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And the woman answered, sorry, and the woman answered him, I have no husband.
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Jesus said to her, oh, you're right in saying you have no husband,
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for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.
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The woman said, oh, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
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but you say in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.
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Now, see, when a pastor confronts young men in the church today about family matters, about biblical masculinity, matters of marriage, matters of family and parenting, these men will often attempt to change the subject.
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Could you flesh out for me the specific details of superlapsarian as it pertains to the doctrine of limited atonement?
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It's precisely at this point that a wise pastor will simply respond by saying no.
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It is true that God calls some men to stand up in the pulpit as pastors,
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but not before these men learn how to stand up for their own wives and their children as husbands and fathers.
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Biblical manhood in this country has been dying a very slow and painful death for decades.
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But when we emasculate Christ's church by championing every feminine characteristic as though it were a virtue
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00:25:59.800
Men who have not managed their own household,
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00:26:07.080
there's a problem and guys aren't addressing it. Let's continue to go. So what does the Bible
00:26:11.960
have to say about true masculinity, biblical masculinity? Perhaps the best place to start
1.00
00:26:16.800
is by looking at some simple biblical commands. As we investigate these commands, I will attempt
00:26:21.660
to demonstrate from my own personal story how a plain reading of scripture is ultimately all it
00:26:27.360
took to convince me that I needed to move out of California. Number one, men as sons, men as sons.
00:26:35.280
Honor thy father and mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you.
00:26:39.960
Although obedience to our parents is a temporary command issued to younger children while they remain at home,
00:26:45.160
the command to honor our fathers and mothers is a lifelong command that continues even for adult children.
00:26:50.320
Now, for quite some time, my parents were doing everything they could to transition from Bay City, Texas,
00:26:55.800
that's in Matagord County, to San Diego, California, when I was pastoring there.
00:26:59.480
They desperately wanted to be closer to their adult children, and let's be honest,
00:27:02.900
mainly the grandchildren. Although my parents were diligently trying their best to achieve this goal,
00:27:08.120
it was doubtful that two individuals who had lived most of their adult lives in one of the poorest
00:27:12.480
counties of Texas would be able to successfully retire in one of the most expensive cities
00:27:16.920
in the nation, which actually was just rated the worst city in the nation to live in. Beat San
00:27:21.840
Francisco even, in terms of the ratio between cost of living and jobs. San Diego, horrible,
00:27:28.640
horrible place economically to live. Now, over time, I became convinced that I had an obligation
00:27:35.560
to help provide for my aging parents by ensuring that they were able to fulfill their heart's
00:27:41.020
desires. 1 Timothy 5, verse 4 says, but if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first
00:27:46.900
learn to show godliness to their own household and make some return to their parents. For this
00:27:53.100
is pleasing in the sight of God. Now, although this biblical text specifically references elderly
00:27:57.920
widows, I have come to believe that it is still pleasing in the sight of God when adult children
00:28:03.060
earnestly seek to make some return to their parents, even when both father and mother are
00:28:07.440
still living. That's men as sons. That made me leave California. What about men as fathers? Here's
00:28:12.560
another biblical command. Genesis 128, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.
00:28:18.340
As the scripture testifies, children are most assuredly a blessing from the Lord. Psalm 127 3.
00:28:23.560
and while I will maintain that scripture allows for some measure of careful and ethical family
00:28:28.340
planning, that is contraceptives that do not impose abortive risk, the pill I believe is sin,
00:28:34.440
I am convinced, however, that in most circumstances married couples will do well to have several
00:28:40.440
children. That's Psalm 127 verse 5. However, procreation is just one small portion of the task
00:28:47.540
that the Lord has assigned to parents. In addition to producing offspring, the father must be
00:28:52.620
willing and able to protect and provide for his children. Now, at the risk of sounding overly
00:28:59.000
simplistic, protect and provide, you might say that every man needs a job, provide, and a gun,
00:29:05.080
protect. Two vital commodities that California politicians are working tirelessly to eradicate.
00:29:11.160
Guns and jobs. There will be no guns, there will be no jobs in California, says Gavin Newsom,
00:29:17.300
and he's doing a bang-up job. If that's his goal, nailing it. Now, a significant component of this
00:29:24.020
provision, fathers provide and protect, this provision includes the children's education.
00:29:29.820
Here's another verse, Ephesians 6, 4. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them
00:29:34.940
up in the discipline and instruction, the fear and admonition of the Lord. In light of biblical
00:29:40.140
texts such as this, it appears evident that a Christian man cannot merely abdicate his fatherly
00:29:45.600
duty by handing his children over to the secular state to be educated. This is especially true in
0.57
00:29:51.100
a state like California, but let me be clear. I believe it's just as true in Williamson County.
00:29:57.900
Now, this means that a husband and wife will be required to homeschool their children or pay a
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00:30:04.780
significant amount to place each of their kids in a private Christian school, not Christians in
0.88
00:30:09.460
education. You know there's a difference, right? Right? Well, our kids have Christian teachers in
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their public school. They identify as Christians. There's a difference in Christians in education
00:30:18.940
and a distinctly Christian education. A Christian education doesn't just mean a Christian is
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00:30:22.980
teaching it. It means the education, the content, the curriculum itself comes from a Christian
00:30:28.520
worldview. And that doesn't just mean a 45-minute Bible class and then we go into pagan doctrine.
00:30:33.720
No, it means math through a Christian worldview. It means engineering, right? I want a Christian
00:30:39.700
engineer, right? It's just like what Martin Luther said. The first implication of the gospel
00:30:46.580
and the cobbler is not that he makes Christian shoes, but he makes good shoes, right? So if you
00:30:50.860
start a restaurant and you have John 3, 16 on the bottom of the inside of the cup, that doesn't
00:30:54.740
necessarily make it a Christian restaurant. You know what makes it a Christian restaurant? When
00:30:59.120
the owners of the restaurant submit to the law of God and they love the Lord Jesus Christ and they
00:31:04.320
make good food. They make good food, right? So a Christian engineer is somebody who builds a plane
00:31:10.620
that doesn't fall apart in midair, and who recognizes the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the
00:31:16.020
basis for them building that plane, right? The atheist, he can't account for the way that he
00:31:22.060
lives. His worldview doesn't validate his life, right? He believes everything is chaos. Everything
00:31:27.780
is random. The whole scientific method and all of it, observation completely falls apart if you
00:31:33.540
don't believe that the world was designed by a creator, by an architect, and therefore we can
00:31:38.780
expect to detect reoccurring consistent patterns, right? The atheist doesn't, they have no basis
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00:31:45.700
for patterns in the cosmos, and therefore they have no basis for laws of physics and laws of
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00:31:51.660
gravity and all these, no basis whatsoever. So I don't want a committed atheist building the plane
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00:31:56.900
that I'm going to get my wife and children on. Now, you know what? In God's common grace,
00:32:01.280
not special grace, regeneration, but in his common grace, atheists don't actually believe what they
00:32:06.720
claim to believe. And that's why atheists make good planes. Because they believe like atheists,
00:32:12.300
but they build planes like Christians. Because only Christians can build good planes. Period.
1.00
00:32:18.520
So, all that being said, you need your kids not just to have Christians in education, but to get
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00:32:22.480
a Christian education. And there's only really two ways to go about that. It means that your wife
0.53
00:32:27.420
can't supplement your income, husbands, because she's got to do homeschool. Or it means that
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00:32:34.320
all of your expenses that you already have, go ahead and add about a grand monthly to send your
00:32:41.560
kids to a Christian school. And I would advocate for that being a classical Christian school.
00:32:47.720
my point is this part of biblical masculinity is money and that doesn't mean that you have to be
00:32:57.720
rich to follow jesus but what i'm saying is there is a cost to discipleship there is a relational
00:33:03.200
cost mother and father if you want if you're not willing to lose mother and father and this and
00:33:08.640
for my sake you're not worthy of me there's a relational cost when jesus calls someone to be
00:33:13.580
his disciple. You beg and you plead for all of your
00:33:17.720
relationships to follow Jesus with you. Jesus has called me.
00:33:21.440
He's called me, and I am following him, and I hope, I pray
00:33:25.140
that you would heed his call and come with me. Come.
00:33:29.360
We found the Messiah. We found him. Come and see. But sometimes
00:33:33.620
they don't come, and therefore you must leave some of the
00:33:37.620
closest and dearest relationships in your life. Leave father and mother. So there's a relational cost.
00:33:41.600
right but but there's there's not just a relational cost there is a financial cost
00:33:46.360
to following jesus there is here's one of the financial costs right and this will
00:33:51.880
prove that john and ad are not pastors and i'm the pastor in the group part of the cost is 10
00:33:56.260
of your income well that's law giving that's old testament you know all right i'm down for gospel
00:34:03.300
giving all right this new testament well it's not it's not you know the tithe is not in the
00:34:06.440
New Testament. It's just gospel giving. My question, though, is how come gospel giving always in real
00:34:13.040
dollars and cents equates to less cash in the offering plate than law giving? And if we're
00:34:19.380
going to be theonomous, which I am, you don't have to be, but I am, then what we hold when it comes
00:34:24.480
to the civil law of God is the general equity. And that's not just theonomous. I mean, that's
00:34:29.120
Westminster. If you're confessionally reformed, that's 1689. That's Westminster. That's the
00:34:33.260
doctrine of the law of God, right? The moral law of God, the Ten Commandments, endures forever.
00:34:37.220
And the civil law, we take the general equity, right? So don't muzzle the ox while he treads the
00:34:42.540
grain. And it's not just because God is concerned about oxen, although our compassionate God is.
00:34:46.900
He has compassion on all he has made, says the Psalms. But he's also using the general equity,
00:34:52.120
Paul does in the New Testament, to make an argument for paying pastures from the ox thing,
00:34:56.660
right? In the same way, we take the general equity of building a border, a fence line around the
00:35:00.520
perimeter of your roof, because when it was hot in the summer months, people would sleep on top of
00:35:04.480
the roof with no AC to get a cool breeze, and if there wasn't a border, you might roll off, you
00:35:09.560
might get seriously injured or die. And we take the general equity of that, and we don't go around
00:35:13.720
and police, say, if you don't have a border on the top of your roof, then you're getting a fine.
00:35:18.300
But what we do is we take the general equity, thou must esteem and defend and cherish the
00:35:22.840
sanctity of human life. And what we do is we take the general equity of that civil code, case law,
00:35:28.340
given to Israel, and we apply that with something like speed limits. And our nation has done this.
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This is why our nation has such just laws. And you can link the justice of our law system
00:35:40.580
directly to the monetary wealth. Our nation has prospered because our nation has been just.
00:35:50.260
And our nation has been just because our nation has been Christian. Well, wait a second. I don't
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think America is a Christian nation. Here's the deal about America. I believe that America is
1.00
00:36:00.180
currently an apostate nation because I believe that America made a covenant with God. That doesn't
00:36:06.460
mean it's on par with the covenant that Israel made with God. That's unique. That's unique, and it
00:36:11.440
doesn't mean America is the equivalent of Israel, and it certainly doesn't mean America is the
00:36:15.020
equivalent of the church. No, but I do believe that individual nations, ethnic nations, they
00:36:22.960
ultimately are underneath the lordship of jesus christ he is lord and you either love him or hate
00:36:28.080
him bless him or curse him but every individual has a relationship with jesus it's a good one or
00:36:32.920
a bad one and likewise every single nation has a relationship with jesus and the reason why is
00:36:37.700
because the nations not just does god give them not only does god give them the permission to
00:36:44.780
exist but god ensures not only that it's right for them to exist today but that they will
00:36:49.060
indefinitely exist until jesus comes back because the nations are his inheritance they are his
00:36:54.680
inheritance and so america made a deal with god and that's why we've been so blessed we modeled
00:36:59.720
our laws and all these things off of biblical law biblical law taking extracting the general
00:37:05.960
equity from the civil law taking the moral law the ten commandments and putting it in two or three
00:37:10.640
witnesses and as we've turned our back on biblical justice and all these different things we're all
00:37:17.420
of a sudden, it's not a coincidence that we turn from
00:37:19.340
justice, and we're also experiencing inflation.
00:37:35.240
if they stop, and let's say it's legally, you know,
00:37:47.160
my daughters, and our son now on the way, if I tell my son, I'll use him as an example, if I tell
00:37:55.100
him, if you keep your vows to your wife, you love your children, you fear the Lord, and you work hard
00:38:00.720
with integrity, then eventually you'll do pretty well. You'll do pretty well. And you might say,
00:38:08.460
that's the prosperity gospel. No, that's not the prosperity gospel. That's work. That's sowing and
00:38:14.120
reaping God will not be mocked that's that's just that's the basic principles of scripture you might
00:38:19.500
say well but there are times where that doesn't happen right you work hard you have integrity
00:38:22.440
you fear the Lord and you get cancer yeah that's that's true but but but that's the minority and
00:38:27.760
when you get cancer bless the Lord he gives and takes away he's still sovereign and everything
00:38:31.360
he does is for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes
00:38:34.260
but but for us to to say well there are exceptions to the rule people suffer and then to make the
00:38:41.680
exception, the norm. That's the very thing that the left does, right? It's always taking everyone
00:38:46.480
down. How do you get equality? You suppress everyone down to the common denominator, the lowest
00:38:51.460
rung. And we do that in our theology. Because somebody is suffering, has cancer, and lost their
00:38:56.340
job, we say, well, I guess we shouldn't really teach people that if they're faithful, God will
00:39:00.560
bless them. Because sometimes it doesn't happen. But Paul makes no caveats. He makes no disclaimers.
00:39:06.160
And this is the New Testament. He quotes, he quotes the fifth commandment. Children, honor your father
00:39:11.380
and mother and then without any equivocation he gives the same blessing the same promise for this
00:39:16.940
is the first commandment with a promise that it will go well with you and your days will be long
00:39:19.700
in the earth but but what about children that are obedient and and die and drown in a pool at five
00:39:24.220
years old god forbid i i don't know ask the apostle paul he doesn't include that no parenthetical
00:39:31.720
statement no no disclaimer obedience blessing obedience blessing not not faith in the lottery
00:39:40.880
ticket blessing. That's prosperity. But also, we don't want to be prosperity, but we also don't
00:39:45.520
want to be poverty. What we want to believe is biblical theology. Work, sowing, you will reap.
00:39:53.540
God is faithful. He will not be mocked. And I think that us kind of buying into a poverty gospel,
00:39:59.200
some of these teachings coming from John Piper. And I think us buying some of these things,
00:40:03.520
along with things like two kingdom theology, along with things, I think, in the eschatology realm,
00:40:08.100
but all these things together in a mixed bag basically said
00:40:11.300
Jesus is coming back any second so you really don't need to put down deep roots
00:40:18.940
like Russian roulette you know like God there's no rhyme and reason to God
00:40:22.360
God is just a loose cannon he does whatever he wants he's random you know and
00:40:26.820
God is sovereign but sovereign and random are not the same thing but that's how we
00:40:30.960
taught so we said like yeah you can obey but that really doesn't guarantee blessing even though the Bible
00:40:34.740
explicitly says it does. Explicitly. And we did all these things
00:40:39.520
because we were afraid that to say anything other than that, all of a sudden
00:40:43.180
you would be like Kenneth Copeland. And I just want to say, brothers and sisters, this is a
00:40:47.200
sliding scale. There is a massive difference, a massive distance
00:40:58.100
It can't just be like, if you obey, God is sovereign, you'll probably die. You know, anyways, Shadrach, Meshach,
00:41:03.040
and Abednego, you know, like that's the outcome for everybody. Okay, yeah, them, but there's also
00:41:07.100
Abraham, right? They're not the only biblical example. Some were thrown to the lions. Some
00:41:11.860
were drawn in quarter, sawed in two, right? And the Bible commends them in the Hall of Fame.
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But others were rich and blessed. And so for us to say, well, don't work hard and don't do this
00:41:24.160
and don't play the long game and all these kind of things, because who knows what's going to happen?
00:41:27.700
That's why we lose. Now, if you're pre-mill because it's your actual conviction, praise God,
00:41:33.040
good on you. But if you're a self-fulfilling prophet, shame on you. If you're trying to make
00:41:40.260
your pre-meal doctrine correct by acting in such a way to ensure that we lose, shame on you. Dig
00:41:49.100
deep. Plant deep. Put down foundations. Play the long game. Think generational. A good man leaves
00:41:59.500
an inheritance for his children's children. That's a spiritual inheritance. Yes and amen.
00:42:04.680
Cannot be less than a spiritual inheritance. But could it be more? Could it also be a financial
00:42:10.920
inheritance? Is it not a shame? Think about this. Is it not a shame that the boomer generation
00:42:16.620
is proud to drive cars with a bumper sticker that says, I'm spending my grandchildren's
0.89
00:42:22.640
inheritance. What would God say about that? It's a shame. It's a shame. It's an indictment of an
00:42:31.860
entire generation. They're not thinking biblically. I want to build wealth because I need a $58
00:42:42.160
million jet plane. No. No, because I want to be faithful to the Lord. And I don't want to have a
00:42:49.440
disney fairy princess view of economics i want to read the bible and thomas soul
00:42:54.960
i want to be wise because i want to win i want to do a lot for the kingdom i want to plant churches
00:43:02.760
i want to make disciples and i want to baptize them and i never want to do less but as i get
00:43:08.360
older and i have children and i start thinking down the line decades centuries i want to do more
00:43:32.180
After that, the next one is be presuppositional.
00:43:35.700
This is what I started with, Edmund, Lucy, the whole Chronicles of Narnia.
00:43:41.820
You've got to learn this lesson over the last two years.
00:43:44.100
we learned this lesson. Don't forget it. We should not have to be taught this a second time
00:43:49.360
because we were already taught it like 10 times in the last 22 months. We should not have to be
00:43:55.320
taught again. Presuppositionalism. Everyone has an allegiance. Neutrality is a myth. Everything is
00:44:01.840
moral, and it's either for Christ or against them. It's of the utmost importance that we remind
00:44:07.440
ourselves that although we should resist the temptation of politicizing everything, everything
00:44:12.320
is still being politicized for us by someone else.
00:44:16.280
Christians must exercise, therefore, careful discernment
00:44:24.640
Now, do Christians hold to the doctrine of common grace?
00:44:41.380
whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. In other words,
00:44:46.880
Christians must better familiarize themselves with the myth of neutrality. Now, a few years
0.98
00:44:53.340
ago, I was profoundly challenged by a small book that presented a concise rebuttal to the two-kingdom
00:44:58.360
theology, particularly R2K, radical two-kingdom theology that comes out of Escondido, Westminster.
00:45:05.280
In this book, the author pushed back on one two-kingdom advocate, his assertion that there's
00:45:10.420
nothing moral or theological about making stir-fry. Now, the author did this by providing
00:45:15.700
examples of a certain cannibalistic tribe that would fry their victims' flesh with vegetables
00:45:20.580
in a pan. Apparently, even stir-fry cooks are influenced by their theology. Even stir-fry
00:45:27.460
can be moral. It's not neutral. Now, it's been said, never let a good crisis go to waste.
00:45:33.940
Ever heard that? Crisis is key for the political left in our nation because individual liberty
00:45:39.340
always seems to get in the way of progressive political agendas.
00:45:43.060
So how does the political left find its way around these pesky provisions
00:45:47.620
outlined in a little thing called the Constitution?
00:45:50.820
What they do is they incessantly search for ways to convince the masses,
00:45:54.460
the public, to trade in their liberties for something else.
00:46:00.820
and almost nothing historically has served as more enticing bait
00:46:06.420
personal liberty for public safety a terrible trade to be sure but a decision that our nation
00:46:14.740
has been willing to make time and time again in the 70s it was global cooling you might have
00:46:20.660
forgotten that one in the 80s it was global warming later this evolved into climate change
00:46:25.220
and then as if right on schedule our politicians have informed us that we're entering into a
00:46:30.180
climate crisis now due to this claim the democrats attempted to slip elements of the green new deal
00:46:50.600
the general public that the crisis actually exists.
00:46:54.160
This task requires at least two primary institutions,
00:47:09.320
as politically neutral and strictly following the science,
00:47:17.760
If any two spheres have been completely monopolized
00:47:23.600
they are undoubtedly the spheres of academia and the media.
00:47:35.660
Therefore, if we genuinely believe that neutrality is a myth
00:47:38.440
and that our theology and morality influence every area of our lives,
00:47:43.080
we must commit to exercising careful discernment as we read any academic report.
00:47:49.400
Again, the political left dominates not only universities, but also the legacy media.
00:47:54.580
Universities do the research, and the media presents their findings.
00:48:03.240
Once more, can unbelievers contribute in helpful ways
00:48:12.160
when we should be willing to read these academic reports.
00:48:25.080
examining against the unchanging standard of the Word of God.
00:48:31.580
Being slow, being wise, exercising discernment.
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00:48:35.920
There appear to be at least two common pitfalls for Christians
00:48:40.880
First, there are Christians who can ignore
1.00
00:48:43.720
any negative possible outcomes without credible reasoning
1.00
00:48:52.500
Now, denial, while possessing the veneer of courage, is actually a subtle form of fear.
00:49:09.020
If you've got a reason, an objective reason from the Word of God to deny something, then deny.
00:49:14.600
Now, second, we can believe everything, and this is where most of our nation would fall,
00:49:19.000
we can believe everything the moment we hear it without any ounce of suspicion,
00:49:25.360
Our secular universities and left political medium
00:49:28.080
have overplayed virtually every crisis there has ever been,
00:49:36.260
It behooves us, therefore, to remember that these are the same people
00:49:40.180
who assured us that everyone would be dead by now
00:49:42.360
if we did not begin using solar panels and driving electric cars.
00:49:59.960
simply because it flies under the banner of science.
00:50:06.100
But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said,
00:50:23.480
So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report,
00:50:27.880
a bad report of the land that they had spied out saying,
00:50:35.720
and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.
00:50:48.300
There's a fine line between faith and insanity.
00:50:57.160
Sometimes, sometimes wisdom is a euphemism for fear.
00:51:05.180
But then also sometimes faith is a euphemism
1.00
00:51:09.320
So there's a very thin line, a razor's edge
0.87
00:52:08.580
but the gathered assembly of these believers on the Lord's Day is absolutely essential.
00:52:13.780
The church is essential, and I'm talking about the church when it churches,
00:52:17.820
the church when it assembles, the church when it gathers on the Lord's Day
00:52:21.840
for the rightly preached word, the rightly administered sacraments,
00:52:29.460
However, what I noticed over the last two years is this.
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00:52:32.300
Even among Christians who are convinced that the church is essential,
00:52:34.940
many remain suspicious of its genuine necessity.
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00:52:38.180
This suspicion is likely because many Christians,
00:52:41.000
they understand, they affirm that the church is essential,
00:52:47.020
They think it's essential, but they don't think it's unique.
1.00
00:52:50.060
In our day, there appears to be an alarming amount of Christians
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00:52:55.200
in the gathered assembly of the saints on the Lord's Day.
00:52:57.740
They fail to see how what takes place at church
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00:53:00.500
is categorically distinct from what individual Christians do
00:53:03.300
all week long in their private practices of piety.
00:53:05.840
prayer scripture reading fasting therefore pastors must labor to teach their congregations that when
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we come together on the lord's day we do not merely experience the heightened benefits of
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individual christian practices due to the reality of being surrounded by other brothers and sisters
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in christ instead what takes place in the gathered assembly is a spiritual reality that occurs in no
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other earthly context according to scripture when true churches that is orthodox churches
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orthodox churches with which faithfully proclaim both law and gospel when true churches gather
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together on the lord's day and rightly administer the ordinary means of grace which is to publicly
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preach the word publicly pray the word publicly sing the word psalms hymns spiritual songs and
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publicly see s-e-e-c the word in the sacrament of the lord's supper and baptism when churches true
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churches gather together for this purpose the bible tells us that christ himself begins to walk
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among the lampstands. The lampstands are the churches themselves, and Christ holds the angels
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of these churches in his right hand. The angels are the gospel ministers who've been tasked with
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the faithful proclamation of God's word. And as these angels begin to preach, a double-edged sword
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does not merely proceed from their mouth, but from the mouth of Christ himself, and it begins to
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pierce the hearts of men all that is according to revelation chapter 1 verse 10 through 16 now
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since some of you do not appreciate my exegesis of revelation allow me to present a biblical case
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from matthew 18 verse 17 through 20 if this is my exegesis baked in if the impenitent church member
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currently under formal church discipline refuses to listen to the two or three witnesses who have
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confronted him, then tell it to, not the elders of the church, not the presbytery, but the gathered
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assembly on the Lord's day. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, the gathered assembly
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of church members, elders, deacons, and members on the Lord's day, if he refuses to listen even to
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the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector, aka as an outsider no longer
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considered to be a brother or sister in Christ. Truly, Jesus goes on, truly, I say to you, whatever
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you, the gathered assembly of the church, bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you
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loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about
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anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or
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three are gathered in my name, that is, wherever a true church exists and is assembled, there I am
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among them. So according to Jesus, the minimal requirement for constituting a biblical true
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church is the presence of two or three baptized believers who have made a public and credible
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profession of their faith and who have covenanted with one another in a local context to follow
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all of Christ's commands while teaching others to do likewise. And when true churches, that's
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Jesus' definition of a church. And when true churches that meet this definition
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gather in Jesus' name on the Lord's day for the ordinary means of grace,
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preaching the word, praying the word, singing the word, seeing the word,
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when this takes place, Jesus promises to be present
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among them. In other words, Jesus who is always present
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with all believers at all times by virtue of the indwelling
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ministry of the Spirit, this Jesus who is always present promises
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is because although they claim church is essential,
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unless you believe this thing you're calling essential
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see that church is unique. And what makes church unique, among many things, is that Christ promises
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to be uniquely present. Christ is present on the Lord's day when your biblical church, if you belong
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to biblical church, when you show up on the Lord's day for church, Christ is there in a special way,
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in a way that he's not in your home, in your living room, with your family worship. Christ is not, and
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I'm the pastor, but Christ is still, he is not present in my living room when I do family worship
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with my family. He's not present in the same way that he is on the Lord's Day when we meet at a
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barbecue restaurant because that's church. Church is special. It is. The Bible tells me so. So proper
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ecclesiology. I'm going to skip the rest of that. Here's the last one. Number five. Number five is
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got to remember Protestant resistant theory, right? That's a real quick topic. But Protestant
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resistance theory, I'm just going to read a couple paragraphs of what I wrote. When it comes to the
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christians duty to submit to the civil authorities it is vital that we rightly interpret the whole
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of scripture it's crucial that we recognize that romans 13 that is the biblical text that is so
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often cited for why churches should comply with every government regulation that it says nothing
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explicitly about christians being required by god to submit to unrighteous rulings handed down
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by tyrannical overlords instead romans 13 merely describes god's good and holy purposes for civil
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governments. And therefore, the text assumes that Christians would do well to submit to these
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civil governments. Now, all that be said, here's the text. Therefore, Romans 13, my exegesis baked
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in. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed. And those who
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resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to those with good conduct, but those
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with bad. Would you have no fear of the one who has authority over you? Then do what is good,
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and you will receive his approval for he is god's servant for your good but if you do wrong be afraid
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for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is a servant of god an avenger who carries out god's
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wrath on the wrongdoer therefore one must be in subjection all right now notice this is what the
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text does not say it does not say would you have no fear the one who's in authority then do whatever
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he says no it says then do what is good according to who don't you think the assumption of the
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apostle Paul's. It's not, would you have no fear of the one who rules over you? Then do whatever
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he says is good, regardless of whether or not it measures up to God's unchanging standard.
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No, would you have no fear of the one who rules over you, the civil magistrate? Then do what is
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good. And what is good? What is truly good, that which is in accordance with God's law. That's
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what Paul's saying. You don't want to be afraid of the one who rules over you? Then do what is
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good, and you will receive his approval. So Paul's assuming that the civil magistrate is moral,
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that he's functioning as an avenger, God's avenger, as a servant, God's deacon. That's what he's
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assuming. You'll receive his approval for he is, the text doesn't say this, an autonomous agent
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working on his own behalf for his own benefit. No. Instead, the text says, would you have no fear
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of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, that is what is objectively good according
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to God's unchanging moral standard, and you will receive his approval for he is God's deacon. He
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works for God. And he has to submit, ultimately, to God's design for government and function within
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God's perimeters for civil authorities. That is for your good. And for your good, what is your good?
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That is your true and lasting good in accordance with what God commands in Scripture. Sadly,
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Romans 13 was misused time and time and time again by cowardly pastors seeking to biblically
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justify their sinful compliance and cowardice. So all that being said, five lessons that we better
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have learned over the last two years and we better not forget because we're going to be tested again
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and again and again on these same five points. Number one, play the long game. Dig deep. Build
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to last. Maybe Jesus comes back tomorrow, but I think we need to pretend as though, live as though
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he may tarry for a while. Think generationally. A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's
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children. So play the long game. The next one, patriarchy. Patriarch. Build families. Build
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households. And build on the rock. Build in faith. Love your children. Love your wives. Start
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businesses. Run for local office. All these different things. The next one, presuppositional.
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It's not the same as your quiet time with the Lord
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on the Lord's Day when the church gathers together.
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And lastly, number five, the one that I just did,
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Understand that we don't just have to roll over
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Great example of that would be the Gospel Coalition.
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But women, if your husband says you shouldn't dress that way,
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you don't have to submit to your husband. He's being
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gospel coalition, what they're giving away is they're saying
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authority in the home, not a big deal, but authority
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They're statist. That's where their hope is. That's where their
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allegiance is. Whereas we would say, no, these are
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sovereign spheres. It's like a Venn diagram. There's overlap.
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spheres that God has divinely instituted, and they are beside one another, not on top
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of one another. The state is not over and against families. It is not
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superior to families. And the church is not superior to families, either.
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And any time anyone in a position of authority, civil
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authority, familial authority, or ecclesiastical authority, oversteps their God-given
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jurisdiction according to the unchanging standard of Scripture, that's
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right? Defying tyrants is obedience to God, right? That's John Knox, Scottish reformer.
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All right, let me pray. Father God, thank you for your word. Thank you for the lessons you've taught
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us. Please, please, please help us not to have such short-term memories. Help us to remember.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks so much for listening, but real quick, before you go, do us a small
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favor, take a moment and leave us a five-star review if you enjoyed the show. This is undoubtedly
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the best way that you can help us get this biblically faithful content to as many people