SUNDAY SERMON - Pastors Who Shut Down Their Churches ｜ Psalm 63
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 10 minutes
Harmful content
Misogyny
16
sentences flagged
Toxicity
38
sentences flagged
Hate speech
50
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, we continue our series on David's exile from the kingdom of Israel and the exile of his own son Absalom. We see that the source of David s exile is not King Saul and his persecution, but rather his own own son.
Transcript
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Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
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One final time, our text for this Lord's Day is Psalm 63 verses 1 through 3.
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O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you.
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As in a dry and weary land where there is no water, I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
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seeing your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips
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will praise you. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated and we'll begin.
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By way of introduction in your notes, if you'd like to follow along, I've written the following.
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A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
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A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
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If you were with us last Lord's Day, we had a similar context for the writing of that Psalm.
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His house was surrounded by militia, men who served King Saul.
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But there's a difference in the context of our text today.
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He has been effectively severed from the kingdom of Israel.
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And therefore, by being severed from the kingdom of Israel, he's been severed from the temple.
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He's been severed from, well, the tabernacle at this point
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because his son Solomon ultimately built and constructed the temple.
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But he's been severed, separated from the place of worship.
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Where there was the praise of God, the people of God, and the presence of God.
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But this time, what has ultimately cast David out as a fugitive on the run,
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what's cast him out into the wilderness to this dry and weary place is not king saul and his
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persecution but very clearly from the text we see that that the source of david's exile in this
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particular circumstance is actually his own son it's actually absalom we know this because later
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in psalm 63 namely verse 11 david is clearly already king see when he was on the run from
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king saul david had been anointed by samuel the prophet to be the new king of israel at a certain
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point but he was not yet king he had not yet come into the throne but psalm chapter 63 verse 11 tells
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us that david is already king and so we can assume by using inductive reasoning that that david must
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be on the run a fugitive in the wilderness separated from israel and the tabernacle and
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the dwelling place of the presence of God because not of Saul's persecution but rather his own son
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Absalom. There are really only two key moments that David is a fugitive. It's when he's being
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persecuted and hunted down by Saul and later on it's when he's being persecuted and hunted down
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by his own son Absalom. Allow me to read 2 Samuel chapter 15 verses 2 through 5 to provide a little
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bit of context for his son Absalom and what was going on this mutiny that his son that his son
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acted upon it says this and Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate and
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when any man had a dispute to come before the king that being David for judgment Absalom would call
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to him and say from what city are you and when he said your servant is of such and such a tribe in
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Israel Absalom would say to him see your claims are good and right but there is no man designated
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by the king to hear you the king is not he's not personal he's a good preacher but not a good
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shepherd right he doesn't he's not empathetic if only we had an empathetic leader right I mean
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good policies who cares if only there was someone like me says Absalom as he intercepts notice what
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he's doing he's intercepting people they're on their way to the king the king would have dealt
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with with their circumstances he would have he would have executed justice the king was more
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than happy to meet with his subjects to meet with the people of israel but absalom he's standing in
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between the people and his father the king he's intercepting them on the way and he's saying i
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like just the language here i like how he says from what city are you and all the person has
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actually said at this point in their response to that very very specific question is i'm from such
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and such a tribe in israel they haven't even really made their claim yet and absalon says
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man you are wise your claims are true right i mean now there's a million applications for this
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i can't help and this is self-serving and i'll i'll confess that up front i i don't think i'm
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so much trying to serve myself as it's just my experience so i automatically think of well this
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is what i think of i think of many senior pastors plights this is not the case connor is fantastic
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so please hear that disclaimer but many senior pastors who are sinners themselves they've had
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plenty of faults on their own but there are cases where a senior pastor has an absalon as his
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associate pastor my dad's shaking his head he you know he's come from pastoral ministry and it's a
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common thing where where the senior pastor he's usually most often in the pulpit and and he's the
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buck stops here guy and not the buck stops here after uh shifting blame to every single party you
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can imagine and then saying the buck stops that you know you guys might be familiar with examples
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like that but an actual buck stops here a guy who actually takes responsibility and then
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responsibility that's not even really his often is attributed to him because again he's he's the
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visible he's the tip of the spear he is the visible leader so there can be a plurality of elders which
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i would argue for i do believe that that's the biblical polity that there should be a plurality
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of elders and that those elders should have equal weight and authority when it comes to making
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decisions for the life of the church that the senior pastor doesn't get two votes so that so
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the elders are equal in weight and authority but it does make sense that one elder right because
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because we're not egalitarian and there is a difference right so there's there's a difference
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in in a plurality of elders who have equal weight and authority um versus saying that they're all
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the same equality and sameness androgyny are two different things see our culture has has
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completely hijacked the word equality and made it androgyny so we can't be equal unless we're the
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same right so you can't have a difference of people and an equality of worth and value
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under the law without androgyny which is precisely just for the record i mean that's that's that's
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what, you know, at least second wave, not necessarily first wave feminism, you know,
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working, you know, on the widget factory and helping to build planes for World War I and
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II, that's a little bit different. And even there, we had some roots coming in. But second
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wave feminism is the idea of liberating. It's liberation of women from what? From the misery,
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the absolute misery oh the horror of being in the home that prison the home that i'm a wife
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and a mother and everyone knows how miserable it is to have children goodness gracious could you
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imagine a worse sentence than motherhood you know and so so feminine feminism and all its compassion
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and all its great kindness liberated these poor oppressed trapped women from the home and and now
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what we ultimately have. Employers loved it, by the way. You know who loves feminism more than
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women? Men. Wicked men. Behind every feminist, pulling the strings, laughing maniacally, is a
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man. In the name of feminism, women are going to just go ahead and hand out sex like candy.
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Who benefits from that? Not women, right? In the name of feminism, all of a sudden,
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And corporations, 99% of the time, led by a male, all of a sudden, they can pay half
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I mean, if you look back to 1950s, 1960s, it was common to have a single income home.
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That one income, employers, they knew that it was their obligation, if somebody was a
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good worker, if they were faithful and had integrity in their work, in their vocation,
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It was the obligation of an employer to pay them a livable wage.
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And a livable wage meant to provide for a wife and children.
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But now, often what you'll hear employers say, even if you go humbly and ask for a raise,
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and if you were to even bring up the excuse of, well, I need a raise not because I'm trying to be greedy,
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not because I'm trying to be lavish, but because I have a wife and children.
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What an employer will be at least tempted to say, if they don't outright say, is this.
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they'll say well what gives you the luxury to think that your your household should be able to
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be sustained on one income why is your wife not working so so second wave feminism liberating
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women from the home well i mean all it did ultimately was it gave employers an excuse to
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pay half the wages right because it should be two incomes to support a family which that was not the
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culture before now my whole point in saying that is with that also came birth control now why birth
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control getting back to egalitarianism equality versus androgyny because a woman will never be
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the same as a man never just biologically it is impossible unless unless i mean it still doesn't
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make her the same but at least in one instance men can't get pregnant but women can until the
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birth hormonal uh hormonal pill and then but but what if somebody still gets pregnant where they
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forget to take their pill what if it doesn't work you know 99 effective abortion did you know the
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whole idea of abortion being a woman's right which is an abomination an absolute abomination which we
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should hate it is righteous for us to hate what the lord hates but that concept a big part of it
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was equality a woman must be able to abort her child first she needs to be able to take um all
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these kinds of of preventative measures so that she never gets pregnant because again the horror
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of of children the horror of pregnancy good good lord we've got to save women from that that disease
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called pregnancy um and so first you do all that but if a child slips through we have to have a way
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to to handle even that situation so that a woman is exactly the same as a man so that she has the
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same rights so the point is our culture thinks that equality is not merely an equality of worth
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and value but it's androgyny it's sameness and all that back to the elders analogy i'm praise
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god i'm remembering how i got here but the the elders analogy equal weight and authority does
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not mean sameness in terms of gifting and so if one of the elders happens to have a unique teaching
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gift all the elders must be according to scripture able to teach that's titus one that's first
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chapter three but if one teaches teaches better than the other elders then it only logically
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makes sense that he would teach more often and the scripture affirms this when the first sympathy
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chapter five when it talks about honoring elders the idea that we should give a tribute double
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honor to the elders who rule well. And then it says, especially those who labor in the preaching
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and teaching of the word of God, which implies what? Implicitly what's being said in that text
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is that some elders labor more in teaching than the others. But the scripture also says two
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chapters earlier from first sympathy five to first sympathy three, that all elders to even be
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qualified must be able to teach. So all able elders are able to teach as a term of their
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qualification and yet the scripture says plainly that some will teach more meaning what they're
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equal in weight and authority a plurality of elders but they're not the same do you see the
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difference between equality and sameness so so even though they have equal authority they're
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they're not necessarily the same in their gifting all right and all that being said bringing it back
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to absalom bringing it back to david david what was happening is he's sitting on the throne he is
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we're meant to assume because he's a man after God's own heart we see all of his righteous
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exploits as well as his sin but his righteous exploits we're meant to assume that David is
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more than able and more than willing to execute justice to do what is needed for the people of
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Israel as they have a need as they have some kind of crisis David is willing to meet with them
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David is willing to to handle their situation what's happening is not that David is this hard
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man that he is this uncaring unsympathetic man what's happening is that Absalom is standing in
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the way he is intercepting the people and he's lying about his father the king he's lying and
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he's saying oh if only there was somebody in Israel who is dedicated if only this king cared
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about the people he's a great warrior he's good with policy Israel has been blessed by his
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leadership? No doubt. But the one thing he's not good at is interpersonal care and compassion for
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people. And that, I'm telling you, the applications are limitless. You can do associate pastor,
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senior pastor. That line's going to get peddled a million times in a million different churches.
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But you could also apply it to a president and then members of his administration. You know,
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But the problem is that we have a jerk in office
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when what we need is an empathetic, caring leader.
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But if it comes along with an annoying Twitter feed, I mean, can we really measure how much damage that does?
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Wouldn't you rather have someone responsible for ending thousands of lives with torture and murder in Afghanistan but who is empathetic
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than someone who seems, you know, kind of annoying and harsh and foolish in their Twitters?
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I remember Jesus said something about this.
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The father asked both of them to go into his field and to work.
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So I don't want to act as though it's completely absolved of moral responsibility.
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Now, Jesus asked the question, and the answer is clear.
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Jesus asked the question, which one did better?
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So according to Jesus, given the dichotomy, pitting word against deed,
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in the mind of Christ, the guy who gives the wrong word,
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but who does the right actions, still is not ideal.
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there's still sin but it is an improvement from the one who gives the right words but then does
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the wrong thing i wish the church knew that about nine months ago i wish we remembered that
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so absalom takes the throne how does he take the throne he does it by winning the hearts of the
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people oh that i were judge in the land then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me and
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i would give him justice and whenever a man came near to pay homage to him here's another one this
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is it's literally i it's almost comical it is almost comical it's so similar it's eerie he
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would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him shaking hands kissing babies right i mean
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he's just the quintessential politician this guy you know and just for the record that's on both
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sides of the political aisle you know but this idea he's he is winning the people but it's through
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flattery it's not sincere it's not real he doesn't care i mean he cares deeply about someone but it's
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himself and so he's he's shaking hands he's kissing babies he's campaigning he's doing a
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smear campaign but with careful language so it doesn't sound like it if only there was i were
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judge in israel but but implicitly what he's saying is my father the king does not care about
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the needs of the people so he's doing smear campaigns but but crafty smear campaigns he's
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shaking hands he's kissing babies he's intercepting he's ultimately what he's doing it's a mutiny
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it's rebellion it is rebellion against the king is rebellion against the order that god has
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established. Now, all that being said, it's not really a defense of Absalom, but it's an explanation
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of the sovereignty of God, even in the suffering of David. This came about as a fulfillment of the
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word of the prophet Nathan because of David's sin with Bathsheba. The prophet Nathan said,
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what you did in secret in your adultery is going to be done by a member of your own house
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in broad daylight. And that's exactly what happened. David is cast out into exile. The
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people side with Absalom because the people don't know they're easily swayed an empathetic leader
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wow wow an empathetic taxes are gonna you know triple but but he's he's caring though he's caring
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people are gonna die all over the world but he's caring right and so they Absalom sways the hearts
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of the people who are uninformed perhaps they had some fake news going i don't know but they're
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uninformed, sways the hearts of the people. The people unite with Absalom where it's a majority
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and they push out David. And while David's fugitive in the wilderness, in exile, Absalom
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takes his concubines, his father's concubines, onto the roof of the palace. And you know what happens.
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So all of the prophetic word of Nathan comes to pass. And there is a very real sense in which this
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is the earthly consequence for david's sin so david is not innocent in this so it's not to say
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that the guy at the top is a victim of of the of the two-faced deceitful mutinous underling
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that's not that's not the the whole picture of the story absalom is responsible he is two-faced
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he is mutinous he is deceptive all those things are true and david is an adulterer who sinned
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against the Lord, and this is the consequence for his sin. All that is going on, and that's the
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context for our text today. David is a fugitive. He's in a dry and weary land, not just physically,
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that's true, but also spiritually. He is separated from the people of God, and therefore the praise
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of God, and therefore the presence of God. And we've already had some texts like this, as I've
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already mentioned where david is cut off effectively because of exile whether it be on the run from
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saul or on the run from absalom there there are multiple psalms where david in that frame of mind
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in that context he cries out to the lord and he pins a song to the lord a prayer and a song to
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the lord where he where he confesses to the lord he declares his thirst for god his hunger for the
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presence of the god that he loves and in these psalms he often and our psalm today is an example
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of this he often mentions in his thirst for god that is always it is always in some measure
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correlated with his desire with his deep longing for the presence of god in the sanctuary the
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tabernacle and what i'm trying to say is this we'll get to this point in a moment but david
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understands what many evangelicals for the last year and a half have forgotten
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that there is a sweetness of the presence of god that is unique to the assembly of god's people
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that worshiping privately alone in your daily devotion is biblical it's right it's not only
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permissible or beneficial but but it's mandated it's commanded and yet there is still a unique
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sweetness to the presence of god on the lord's day when the saints gather together to administer
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right the officers of the church administer the ordinary means of grace to god's people
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preaching the word praying the word and all this public corporate public preaching of the word
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public praying of the word, public singing of the word, and public seeing of the word. The only
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sight that has been prescribed to New Testament Christians seeing the word, as it were, in the
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sacrament of baptism and the Lord's Supper. There is a sweetness. Jesus is present uniquely.
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Remember Matthew chapter 16, I believe it is. No, Matthew chapter 18. So Matthew chapter 16,
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remember Jesus says, who do you think that I am? To his disciples and Peter, right? I mean,
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Peter's like Babe Ruth, so he's always going to swing as hard as he can, so he's going to get the
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most home runs. You got it, you got it, give him credit, and also the most strikeouts, right? Babe
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Ruth and Peter the Apostle, two peas and a pod in that regard, but this is one of the moments where
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Peter, he knocks it out of the park. He says, you are the Christ, the Son of God, and Jesus says,
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blessed are you, Simon of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father
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who's in heaven and i say that your name cephas uh that your name simon will be cephas peter which
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means rock and on this rock not peter as as roman catholicism teaches but the rock being a true
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confession of the christ which you have just demonstrated by the by my father who has revealed
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it you could flesh and blood doesn't do this so peter you didn't do this on your own strength
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but god sovereignly revealed to you my deity that i am the messiah the christ that there is one god
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that is the rock on which I will build my church.
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and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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And now at this point, I would argue exegetically
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that Peter is standing in representative of the apostles.
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So Jesus now says, I'm giving you, being plural, the apostles, Peter representing this,
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I'm giving you, the apostles, the keys to the kingdom, the authority to do what?
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To bind on earth and it will be bound in heaven, to loose on earth and it will be loosed in heaven.
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In Matthew 18, that's Matthew 16, but in Matthew 18, where we have the famous passage of church discipline,
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Jesus, all of a sudden, he transitions the subject from the apostles to the church.
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The assembly, the gathering of the saints for worship.
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He uses the language, you know, if your brother sins against you,
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go and tell him his fault privately between you and him alone.
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If he listens to you, you've won your brother over.
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But if he does not listen to you, then bring along one or two witnesses,
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so that or one or two others so that the testimony may be established in the presence of two or
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three witnesses but if he does not listen to them then tell it to the church and if he does not
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listen to the church then hand him over it's the same kind of language as Paul saying hand them
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over to to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander first Timothy chapter one I have handed these men over
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to Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme any longer and Jesus says then treat him as an
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outsider a tax collector or a gentile which were both outsiders outside of the people of god and
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thereby outside of the presence of god but then the very next words out of jesus mouth right after
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that church discipline passage is this he says whatever you bind on earth so he doesn't specifically
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say in matthew 18 i give you the keys he says that in matthew 16 but matthew 16 with the apostles i
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give you the keys whatever you bind whatever you lose that's matthew 16 matthew 18 he now is not
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speaking to the apostles but the church the assembly of the saints and he uses the same
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language so it's implicit that the keys now belong to the church because he says he gives the authority
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and the responsibility to the church to do precisely what the keys do which is again he says
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whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
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heaven and then jesus goes one step further in matthew 18 he says for wherever two or three
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are gathered in my name there i am in your midst now this is funny it's peculiar because
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for new testament christians and for all christians for that matter because we've all been
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saved by grace through faith in christ either looking forward as an old testament saint
00:26:41.780
to the christ or looking back as a new testament saint to the to the christ but but for the
00:26:47.600
christian for the christian our body is what first corinthians chapter 6 it's a temple of the holy
00:26:55.040
spirit whom you have received from god you are not your own you are bought with a price therefore
00:26:59.400
honor god with your body shall i take the members the members of christ and unite them with a
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prostitute may it never be right and so our bodies are a temple of the holy spirit which means what
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00:27:10.720
every single christian has the presence of the holy spirit and what does the holy spirit do
00:27:19.340
He says that the Spirit guides you into all truth.
00:27:21.620
He'll bring to remembrance all the teachings of Christ.
00:27:24.440
And ultimately what the Spirit does is He testifies to
00:27:27.780
and even exudes and exemplifies the ministry of the risen Christ.
00:27:35.480
Jesus Christ, who is physically seated at the right hand of the Father
00:27:38.780
because He has come, He has lived, He has died, He has resurrected
00:27:42.420
and now bodily ascended, bodily resurrected and bodily ascended
00:27:46.300
to the right hand of God, Jesus Christ is physically present at the right hand of the
00:27:50.520
Father. But Jesus Christ, by virtue of the ministry of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is
00:27:55.920
spiritually present with who? Wherever the Holy Spirit is present, the spiritual presence of the
00:28:01.840
Lord Jesus Christ is also present by virtue of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So all that to say,
00:28:08.680
God is omnipresent, and Jesus Christ is the second member of the Godhead, is uniquely even
00:28:15.980
present not just in his omnipresence but uniquely present with all believers in all places at all
00:28:22.980
times not just when we gather together on the lord's day not not not just in church but but
00:28:28.380
if you're a believer in the lord jesus christ the spiritual presence of jesus the resurrected christ
00:28:33.820
his spiritual presence is with you by virtue of the fact that the holy spirit is with you and the
00:28:39.740
holy spirit is guaranteed to be with all those who trust in jesus because of first corinthians
00:28:44.480
chapter six your body is a temple of the holy spirit all that theological framework to make
00:28:50.900
this point if you're a christian jesus is present with you so what in the world does jesus mean in
00:28:57.240
matthew 18 where he says wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name there i am in your
00:29:03.260
midst because it seems that statement seems to discount the fact that jesus is present with a
00:29:10.600
with a christian by virtue of the ministry of the holy spirit even if they're alone right if a
00:29:16.180
christian is is persecuted and taken captive and placed in prison jesus is present when when when
00:29:25.000
peter was imprisoned before the earthquake came and the angel who let him out jesus well actually
00:29:33.200
that's yeah jesus i was thinking timeline was this during jesus earthly no it's after he's
00:29:39.120
resurrected and ascended so the spiritual presence of jesus is with peter by virtue of the holy spirit
00:29:44.000
and peter is not gathered with any other believers he's completely alone so when jesus says in matth
00:29:49.120
18 where two or three are gathered in my name there i am present we must we must exegete that
00:29:55.480
to mean that jesus is uniquely present that there is something special a greater degree a heightened
00:30:02.860
a heightened blessing a greater blessing a more profound sense of the presence of jesus when we
00:30:11.160
come together he's always present even when we're alone by virtue of the holy spirit but he's
00:30:16.360
uniquely present when we gather together and david all that back to our text david recognizes this
00:30:24.240
he recognizes that there is a uniqueness there is a sweetness to the presence of god that is
00:30:32.440
uniquely belonging exclusively to the assembly the people of god and so therefore if he is cut off
00:30:41.340
from israel and cut off from the tabernacle and cut off from the people of god and the praise of
00:30:47.400
god he is therefore cut off effectively at least in one sense from the presence of god that doesn't
00:30:54.140
mean in every sense if david thought he was cut off from god in every sense there would be no sense
00:30:59.760
in him praying our text today why pray to god if you're completely separated from his presence
00:31:06.260
and david who wrote psalm 63 is the same david who also said where can i go from your presence
00:31:12.520
right whether i'm in the in the depths of shield or whether i'm cast into the sea
00:31:16.440
there is nowhere that i could go that i would be cut off from your presence so david recognizes
00:31:22.440
the omnipresence of God, but David also recognizes the unique sweetness of the presence of God
00:31:30.400
that exclusively belongs to the assembly of God's people. In other words, you cannot merely worship
00:31:38.860
God with a worship CD in your car or live streaming a sermon and say that it is a sufficient
00:31:47.600
substitute to the church. And yet Christians, many, have been doing this and saying this
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for a year and a half. And here's the kicker, not only that, not only saying it's permissible,
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but condemning those who gather and saying that they're doing it because it's a sufficient
00:32:11.320
substitute for the church, which is theologically and objectively wrong, and it's loving to their
00:32:18.820
neighbor. Right now, we are hating our neighbor in the minds of many who profess to be followers
00:32:26.160
of Jesus. I get the comments on YouTube all the time. You guys have probably seen them. Feel free
00:32:30.900
to feel free to come in there and make a defense. Sometimes I can't. The trolls are overwhelming. I
00:32:35.240
have to just, you know, let them go. But if you want to get in there and have a YouTube comment
00:32:38.560
battle you're welcome to do so be polite be respectful but i mean you see it all the time
00:32:43.800
you're hating your neighbor what are you doing this isn't loving this isn't loving but it is
00:32:50.060
we've been commanded we have been commanded to gather with one another that doesn't mean that
00:32:54.500
there are no circumstances that the church might might skip a gathering because of some serious
00:33:01.220
serious threat the reality though is that was you know doug wilson says that's the position he was
00:33:07.600
like, I used to be a reasonable man. You know, there were circumstances that I could think of
00:33:13.140
where I would have said, all right, we're going to miss this Sunday because there's a tornado coming.
00:33:17.660
And he said, but after the last year and a half, if I heard that report from the government,
00:33:21.580
I wouldn't believe it. They said a tornado was coming. I'd have to assume that they were lying
00:33:27.100
and we'd probably just go ahead and gather. So there are actually circumstances where the church
00:33:31.340
may not gather but to not gather for for so long for such for such a small risk i mean just it
00:33:39.920
denies the scripture first and foremost but it also denies the last 2 000 years of church history
00:33:45.060
i mean to quote martin luther or charles spursion who both had epidemics in their time and where
00:33:51.560
they say you know i will not go where my presence is not needed lest i unknowingly inflict harm on
00:33:57.340
my neighbor. Yeah, that's good. That's great. But number one, they weren't talking about church.
00:34:04.240
And number two, I'm not going to like this. Number two, they were talking about real sicknesses.
00:34:11.360
Are you a COVID-19? No. But I'm just saying by comparison, the Black Plague is not like COVID.
00:34:19.960
It's not. You know when there's a serious pandemic, we need to close churches. When someone's walking
00:34:25.560
down the street ringing a bell saying, bring out your dead. I mean, just last week, I had the
00:34:30.640
opportunity of speaking to two men who are bivocational elders in their local churches,
00:34:36.500
but their day job is that they own funeral homes. And they said, man, you know, we've been, I know
00:34:43.920
it sounds a little chagrined, but we've been disappointed. We were promised that business
00:35:17.860
and getting booster shots every three weeks.
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You know, like, you can be cowardly in that way.
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But you can also be cowardly by a baseless denial.
00:35:26.220
We don't admit it, and we may not even be consciously aware of it.
00:35:29.360
But one way that we kind of avoid things that scare us
00:35:40.520
Like, we don't need to have the pendulum over-swing
00:35:45.000
and end up in the ditch on the other side of the road
00:36:03.300
and it's amazing that COVID cured the flu, right?
00:36:14.560
But the point is, the things that were going on in the days of Martin Luther, the things that were going on in the days of Charles Spurgeon, when they said, I don't want by my presence to inflict unknowingly, accidentally harm, they're talking about two different things.
00:36:30.900
One, they're not necessarily talking about the Lord's Day gathering.
00:36:33.780
And number two, they are talking about diseases that wiped out a third of the population.
00:36:45.080
My mother's dad, from the age of 25 to the day he died, was in a wheelchair because of polio.
00:36:56.020
I think there's some fishy business with this particular virus.
00:37:10.380
because we don't want people to tune us out
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even when you're isolated, all alone in the wilderness.
00:38:00.120
If you're a Christian, you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you,
00:38:03.240
and by virtue of the Holy Spirit, you have the Spirit of the risen Christ present.
00:38:07.800
But even then, there is a uniqueness to the presence of Christ
00:38:11.700
that is exclusively belonging to the Ecclesia, the assembly,
00:38:20.700
David is thinking of that. He's thinking of the sanctuary.
00:38:23.460
He is longing and missing the unique sweetness of the presence of God that is pleased to inhabit no other place.
00:38:32.580
God is enthroned upon the praises of his people, the corporate collective praises of his plurality of people.
00:38:42.240
There is something undeniable, both by experience, I and you, I'm willing to bet, have experienced it in our lives as Christians,
00:38:51.160
But even more profoundly, by scripture, there is something undeniable to the uniqueness of the presence of God when believers come together.
00:39:00.400
Especially on the Lord's day to worship God in spirit and in truth through the administering of the ordinary means of grace.
00:39:12.320
I've looked upon you in the sanctuary, seeing your power and glory.
00:39:16.580
but for now as my son Absalom has has committed a full-fledged mutiny and lied and cut me off from
00:39:26.100
Israel and therefore cut me off from the praise of God the people of God and the presence of God
00:39:30.940
I am longing for the sanctuary you're with me if you if you weren't with me I want to be wasting
00:39:36.520
my breath I want to be I want to be writing this down I want to be praying this and crying out to
00:39:41.100
you. You're with me, but not like the sanctuary. The way that you're with me when I'm with other
00:39:48.760
believers in the sanctuary is unique. It's irreplaceable. There is no equivalent, not on
00:39:56.860
earth. There is no sweeter place. Charles Spurgeon said that though the church swarms with many
00:40:03.200
faults, it is the sweetest place I know. It's the sweetest place I know. Many of you perhaps have
00:40:09.500
been burnt by the by by your previous church right i mean there are so many people who you
00:40:16.140
know i and i feel for you i feel for you like so many i experienced this you know i experienced
00:40:21.340
this not not because i was passing a church i didn't experience it with myself um but but i
00:40:25.780
did experience it with other elders they're like many of us were either a part of a church as a
00:40:31.100
member or serving on an elder board in a church and and and we thought that we were being led by
00:40:37.800
or leading with a certain caliber of man, right?
00:40:43.020
We thought this is the kind of man who is my pastor.
00:40:49.220
that's not the kind of man who's actually my pastor.
00:41:34.660
I want you guys to see that as a loving mercy from God.
00:41:38.440
It is a mercy that God, by way of his sovereignty and providence,
00:41:47.280
He said that the sheep, they're like sheep without a shepherd.
00:41:55.440
He says, oh, how you would come to me, and I would long to gather you.
00:41:59.180
As a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
00:42:02.740
But you're not coming, and Jesus says, why?
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He's speaking of the guys who preach at the big conferences.
00:42:22.180
He's speaking about the guys in Big Eva of his day.
00:42:27.700
He's saying, these guys won't enter themselves,
00:42:32.940
by telling you that you're not loving your neighbor
00:42:58.820
finally actually had a practical challenge, right?
00:43:14.500
what we should have learned over the last 15 years,
00:43:27.540
All of a sudden, I was told that we can't have church the next Sunday because everyone will die.
00:43:35.960
And I had to tell my people some kind of reason.
00:43:38.920
I want it to be a biblical reason why we shouldn't gather.
00:43:41.860
And so I did a video, a 10-minute video on Romans 13.
00:43:48.120
And then I had to get in front of my church and apologize to them four weeks later
00:43:53.100
when I realized that this was a bunch of hullabaloo and we should be gathering.
00:43:57.540
now sadly a lot of pastors a year and a half later still haven't changed
00:44:02.240
and i think in some ways even more tragically many pastors have changed
00:44:06.620
but they never in word admitted it does that ring a bell
00:44:11.900
how many pastors that we know all of a sudden they did change their position in terms of action
00:44:17.420
which is a part of repentance it's very important it's very important so all of a sudden they
00:44:23.160
weren't gathering and then all of a sudden now they are gathering but what they didn't do is
00:44:29.060
they didn't say previously i was wrong you know what happens you know what happens when a leader
00:44:34.460
especially a spiritual leader a pastor in a church when a leader repents in their deed
00:44:40.480
but not in word at least what many things happen but at least one one negative effect of that is
00:45:16.860
you don't have options you have commands but but what that says even though they're not verbally
00:45:22.120
saying it by by by the example they're setting in their actions it sets up an example that
00:45:27.700
communicates to the people implicitly that both of these options are valid biblical options even
00:45:33.800
though logically they radically contradict so when you when you say the church is going to gather
00:45:39.000
this next sunday and then the night before all of a sudden there's a court ruling and you say
00:45:44.620
that the ninth district, the ninth circuit court
00:45:48.840
and we as Christians are commanded to obey the law of the land
00:45:53.400
even though we said we are going to meet on Sunday
00:45:54.860
we're changing our mind and not meeting on Sunday
00:46:42.000
confused so we can't just change right to repentance to turn we can't just turn in our
00:46:47.520
deed we must do that right so there's a way of repenting a word that doesn't repent indeed
00:46:52.540
there's a way of saying i'm sorry to the lord but but then continuing the very same actions
00:46:58.380
that also is sin but there's also a way of changing your actions which is radically important
00:47:03.800
and again i cannot under emphasize how grateful i am for those pastors who have taken a stand in
00:47:09.820
their actions but oh how much more powerful of a witness would it be if they in addition to
00:47:16.680
repenting indeed turning in actions if they added to that a repentance and worth if they also said
00:47:23.680
and what i previously said since you're not all a bunch of blockheads right i think it also it's
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insulting it assumes that everyone's stupid like they can't see the contradiction no the people of
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God are not stupid. And so giving them their dignity and defending clarity, theological clarity
1.00
00:47:42.320
by saying, we're now going to do this. And because you're not stupid, you might realize that 30 days
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ago, I said we're going to do the exact opposite. And these things cannot be simultaneously true.
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This one was wrong. Right? 50 years of ministry, you've been right 99% of the time you can afford
00:48:36.260
And what it has done is it has scattered the sheep
00:48:48.000
oh, how I miss looking upon you in the sanctuary.
00:49:21.340
Earnestly, I've been seeking you for two years.
00:49:25.820
My flesh, it faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
00:49:30.380
And I remember the sweetest moments in my Christian life in the past where I looked upon you with a great throng and procession with the saints gathered together on the Lord's day.
00:49:46.720
I saw you through the eyes of faith in the sanctuary, in the gathering of your people on the Lord's day.
00:50:19.380
because even though their churches can now gather,
00:50:21.760
in God's providence of what previously happened,
00:50:24.540
the veil has been lifted, and they've realized, even though the church may now be gathering,
00:50:29.640
I can't gather there anymore. So it's not, I can't gather there because they stopped gathering,
00:50:36.780
but even now that they've resumed, I still can't gather there, because their complicity
00:50:42.920
and their horrible exegesis and twisting scripture to hammer Christians who had courage over the head
00:50:50.380
and guilt them and chastise them for biblical courage.
00:50:53.760
Their actions, their rhetoric, their decisions, all of it.
00:50:59.780
Now, I cannot in clear conscience before the Lord
00:51:06.560
And so even though churches are gathering in states like ours,
00:51:17.900
saying, well, I mean, yeah, some churches are gathering now
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is talking about how disparities equal discrimination.
00:51:41.420
and children's ministry is gonna train my children
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I can't go to this church that I can't even distinguish
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00:51:50.640
what the pastor's saying because he's wearing a mask
00:52:12.800
what God has done is he has so ripped off the lid
00:52:24.360
longing for the sweetness of the presence of God
00:52:27.680
that is special and uniquely and exclusively here on earth
00:52:40.140
It is a church that biblically constitutes as a church.
00:52:45.940
So it's not just two or three gathering in the name of the Lord Jesus and then doing whatever they want.
00:52:52.200
It's two or three being gathered in Christ's name, covenanting together as a local church,
00:52:57.380
and covenanting to be a church according to biblical standards.
00:53:06.140
There are things that make you a church, and if those things aren't there, it's not a church.
00:53:12.300
There may still be many Christians, but it's not a church.
00:53:15.940
It's a weekly Sunday Christian ministry, but to be a church, the Bible gives us a criteria.
00:53:26.280
The word faithfully preached, and not just exegeted, but applied.
00:53:32.500
The word faithfully prayed, the word sang, the word seen, and the Lord's Supper and baptism
00:54:04.640
And oh, how Christians have been longing for this.
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But I think it fits with verse two of our text today.
00:54:29.840
during the pandemic, we're often relentlessly citing
00:54:35.920
how to stir up one another to love and good works,
00:54:39.060
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.
00:54:42.960
Now, although I wholeheartedly agree that this text,
00:54:51.280
But I simply wish that more Christians have been better equipped,
00:54:54.180
including myself, to explain why it is so vital for believers
00:55:01.300
Now, see, Hebrews 3, verses 12 through 13, says this.
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Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you
00:55:37.980
It paints a very detailed description for us to see how apostasy happens.
00:55:42.920
In other words, apostasy meaning how some individuals who once belonged to the visible church
00:55:49.000
ultimately chose to abandon the faith and fall away.
00:55:58.500
it informs us that the weekly gathering of the saints is the primary context
00:56:02.620
for stirring up one another to love and good works.
00:56:09.940
And then it doesn't even have another sentence.
00:56:18.860
but what the author of Hebrews is saying is this.
00:56:21.840
He's saying, stir one another up to love and good works.
00:56:26.280
And here's the chief context where that happens.
00:56:37.940
No, what Paul's doing is he's making a systematic argument.
00:56:44.980
and therefore because you need to stir up one another
00:56:47.440
to love and good works, don't neglect the gathering.
00:56:50.680
This gathering of the saints is the chief context
00:56:53.660
where we stir one another up to love and good works.
00:56:58.040
But then the next step, the next step is Hebrews 3, 12-13
00:57:01.360
informs us that exhorting one another, which is the same phrase actually as to stir one another up
00:57:08.460
in the Greek, is one of the church's most effective strategies for guarding its members against being
00:57:15.000
hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, which eventually causes people to fall away from the
00:57:20.940
living God, aka commit apostasy. So let me pause there for a moment. Hebrews 3, 12 through 13 says
00:57:27.640
says this be careful brothers lest there be found in any of you an evil unbelieving heart causing
00:57:33.280
you to fall away from the living god but exhort one another which is the same phrases stir one
00:57:39.920
another up hebrews 10 24 exhort one another as um and i believe it says today as long as this is
00:57:46.840
called today and especially as you see the day nearing and so if we take these things together
00:57:52.920
But Hebrews 3, 12-13 says that many, the implication is that many, at the end of the day, it's not that they'll lose their salvation, but they, 1 John 2, 12, I believe, if they go out from us, it proves that they were never one of us.
00:58:12.020
So Hebrews 3, 12-13 essentially says this, that many will be found to have an evil, unbelieving heart that leads them to fall away from the living God.
00:58:20.260
but right the implication of that word but is so do this to guard against that so how do you guard
00:58:26.620
against many being ultimately in the end found to have an unbelieving evil heart that leads them to
00:58:31.580
fall away from the living god and the deceitfulness the hardness of heart that comes from the
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deceitfulness of sin how do you guard people from falling away exhort them exhort them that's hebrews
00:58:43.680
three, 12 and 13. Take that cross-reference with Hebrews 12, verse 24 and 25, by exhorting one
00:58:51.700
another, right? Same phrase, exhort, stir up, stir one another up with love and good works,
00:58:57.960
not neglecting the gathering. So basically what Paul is doing is he's providing a three-step
00:59:03.380
process. He's saying, gather. Because in the gathering, that's where we stir one another up
00:59:29.940
not to neglect the weekly gathering of the saints
00:59:39.500
serves as a powerful defense against the deceitfulness of sin which creates a hardened
00:59:43.640
unbelieving heart and finally an unbelieving heart is what ultimately leads people to fall
00:59:48.840
away from the living god so in short here's the conclusion the logical conclusion for the past
00:59:54.900
18 months christians and especially pastors have been presented with a simple choice either forsake
01:00:00.440
the gathering to minimize the physical threat of death to our bodies or continue to gather to
01:00:06.240
minimize the spiritual threat of damnation to our souls now some overly zealous calvinist might
01:00:12.540
object at this point by insisting that god is sovereign over salvation which is true and
01:00:17.160
therefore he is capable of preserving the souls of his elect even the absence of physically gathering
01:00:22.600
together on the lord's day however i might remind these zealous calvinists that the same god who is
01:00:28.480
sovereign over salvation is sovereign over everything and therefore he is also quite
01:00:32.780
capable of preserving the health of his people as they diligently seek to obey his commands
01:00:37.180
the choice has been this for a year and a half every christian has had to wrestle with it
01:00:43.600
and certainly ever every pastor has had to wrestle with it at the end of the day the choice is
01:00:48.600
do we neglect the gathering to preserve the body from the threat of the virus or do we risk
01:00:57.000
gathering do we risk gathering try not to be foolish but risk gathering in such a way that
01:01:05.200
we mitigate the spiritual risk to the soul and what we discovered in our nation and in nations
01:01:12.500
across the whole world is that pastors who've been charged with preaching the word of god
01:01:17.500
and esteeming and defending those things which are ultimately eternal when push comes to shove
01:01:23.580
They care more about the physical, present reality
01:01:50.140
there is a sense in which we see the heart of a man
01:01:56.020
You can make judgments based off of a person's fruit,
01:02:25.960
and now that 80% of the population has been vaccinated,
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01:02:28.860
and then pastors say, but the spiritual matter,
01:02:32.320
Of course they want you to come back to church now.
01:02:39.940
But here's how you know when you can really take someone by their word.
01:02:50.840
How do we know that they actually were committed to following Jesus even unto death?
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Because they profess, like Polycarp, Christ as they were being martyred.
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01:03:07.320
When Christians are going to the lions because they will not deny Christ, we know that their faith is genuine.
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When Christians are willing to go to the lions rather than deny Christ, we know they're serious.
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But when Christians won't even go to church for a virus that kills 0.1% of the population, we know they're not serious.
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There'll always be some new crisis, because crisis, you can't let a good crisis go to waste.
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But one day, this thing will eventually not be so prevalent in the minds of people.
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When the Delta variant calms down, when the hospitals aren't so overwhelmed,
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when the rhetoric and media and politics begins to die down and it shifts to something else,
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Don't forget, because it's not that people can't change their mind, it's not that God
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can't grant repentance, but when it comes to discerning the motives of the heart, the
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clearest sign, the most accurate litmus test is when the person is under pressure, under
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You make a lot of bold statements after the fact, once more data comes out.
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But in the midst of the battle, when it was raging all around you,
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there's a lot of guys who can shoot a gun at a range.
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But if they're in a shoot-off and bullets are whizzing past their face,
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But it's trials, it is trials that test the caliber of a man.
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And what we just saw through the last 18 months of trials
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And the Lord searched my heart, if any of it is.
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He had threats in his day, but the Lord, Elijah was bold, but he also reserved 7,000 other men
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who would not bow their knees to Baal, who would not comply, who would not compromise. And likewise,
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there are thousands of other men and thousands of other churches by God's grace that are also
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courageous and faithful. We are not the only ones. We are a small piece of the puzzle that God is
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using to bring about his manifold wisdom and his glory throughout all the earth. That said,
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there are other men we're not the only one that said it's slim pickings there are others
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but not nearly as many as we thought 18 months ago and for us to miss that is naive for us to
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miss that is foolish good churches good churches don't grow on trees and if you find one it's
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If you find one, man, if I've learned anything over the last 18 months,
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similar to David, I haven't been on the run for my life,
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but similar to David, what I've learned is that there is a sweetness
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of the presence of God that belongs to his people assembled together
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and that that place, the sweetest place on earth, as Spurgeon said, the church,
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there are a lot fewer and further between than I thought.
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would have been immensely grown during this last season.
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And that you would cherish Christ by cherishing his bride.
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And that you would do everything you can to love her,
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but Lord, we thank you for all those other churches.
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when he says, well done, good and faithful servant,
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but we also pray for all these other churches in Texas,
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We pray for pastors like James Coates and others in Canada.
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And Lord, we recognize that we are not the only one
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and we are humbled to be a part of this remnant
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And just like what Jesus, what you said to Peter,
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this revelation, the things that you've taught us
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We pray that in all of it, it would glorify you.
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That's the Theonomy and Post-Millennialism Conference,
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theonomy, and post-millennialism. We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up. That's
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Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Dr. Gary DeMar, non-doctor, Pastor Joel Webin. But we also have
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a bonus speaker, and that is Dale Partridge from Real Christianity. Perhaps you've heard of him.
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If not, you should start listening to his podcast. It's fantastic. Dale Partridge is going to be
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joining our team. We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll
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be able to write in questions and get them answered. We're also going to have a catered
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barbecue, Texas style barbecue meal on Friday. That's a part of your registration fee. All that
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is covered. So you need to get there. This is how you do it. Go and register right now at
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rightresponseconference.com. Again, that's rightresponseconference.com. God bless.