The NXR Podcast - December 18, 2022


SUNDAY SERMON - Pastors Who Shut Down Their Churches ｜ Psalm 63

Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
David Absalom Paul Washer Jesus Christ Hebrews Charles Spurgeon King Saul Babe Ruth Simon Martin Luther Satan Hymenaeus Gavin Newsom James Coates David David Doug Wilson John Calvin Jamie White Joseph Boot Jessica Mann Gary DeMar and 4 more
QUESTIONS - What Would The Current Population Be If Adam Never Sinned & No One Ever Died？ THEOLOGY APPLIED - 5 Doctrines That Stunt Sanctification w The King's Hall

Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 10 minutes

Words per minute

168.91

Word count

11,953

Sentence count

548

Harmful content

Misogyny

16

sentences flagged

Toxicity

38

sentences flagged

Hate speech

50

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

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

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
00:00:03 If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show,
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00:00:18 One final time, our text for this Lord's Day is Psalm 63 verses 1 through 3.
00:00:23 The Bible says this,
00:00:24 O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you.
00:00:32 As in a dry and weary land where there is no water, I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
00:00:39 seeing your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips
00:00:45 will praise you. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated and we'll begin.
00:00:51 By way of introduction in your notes, if you'd like to follow along, I've written the following.
00:00:56 Psalm 63 begins with a heading that says,
00:00:59 A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
00:01:04 A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
00:01:07 If you were with us last Lord's Day, we had a similar context for the writing of that Psalm.
00:01:14 The context was that David was a fugitive.
00:01:19 He was hiding out.
00:01:20 His house was surrounded by militia, men who served King Saul.
00:01:26 But there's a difference in the context of our text today.
00:01:29 Very similar in many ways.
00:01:30 David is on the run.
00:01:31 Once again, he's in the wilderness. 0.75
00:01:33 He has been effectively severed from the kingdom of Israel. 0.79
00:01:37 And therefore, by being severed from the kingdom of Israel, he's been severed from the temple. 0.84
00:01:44 He's been severed from, well, the tabernacle at this point
00:01:47 because his son Solomon ultimately built and constructed the temple.
00:01:50 But he's been severed, separated from the place of worship.
00:01:55 The place where the glory of God dwelt.
00:01:58 The place of the presence of God.
00:02:00 Where there was the praise of God, the people of God, and the presence of God.
00:02:05 But this time, what has ultimately cast David out as a fugitive on the run,
00:02:11 what's cast him out into the wilderness to this dry and weary place is not king saul and his
00:02:17 persecution but very clearly from the text we see that that the source of david's exile in this
00:02:24 particular circumstance is actually his own son it's actually absalom we know this because later
00:02:32 in psalm 63 namely verse 11 david is clearly already king see when he was on the run from
00:02:40 king saul david had been anointed by samuel the prophet to be the new king of israel at a certain
00:02:47 point but he was not yet king he had not yet come into the throne but psalm chapter 63 verse 11 tells
00:02:54 us that david is already king and so we can assume by using inductive reasoning that that david must
00:03:02 be on the run a fugitive in the wilderness separated from israel and the tabernacle and
00:03:08 the dwelling place of the presence of God because not of Saul's persecution but rather his own son
00:03:15 Absalom. There are really only two key moments that David is a fugitive. It's when he's being
00:03:20 persecuted and hunted down by Saul and later on it's when he's being persecuted and hunted down
00:03:26 by his own son Absalom. Allow me to read 2 Samuel chapter 15 verses 2 through 5 to provide a little
00:03:33 bit of context for his son Absalom and what was going on this mutiny that his son that his son
00:03:41 acted upon it says this and Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate and
00:03:49 when any man had a dispute to come before the king that being David for judgment Absalom would call
00:03:56 to him and say from what city are you and when he said your servant is of such and such a tribe in
00:04:03 Israel Absalom would say to him see your claims are good and right but there is no man designated
00:04:10 by the king to hear you the king is not he's not personal he's a good preacher but not a good
00:04:17 shepherd right he doesn't he's not empathetic if only we had an empathetic leader right I mean
00:04:24 good policies who cares if only there was someone like me says Absalom as he intercepts notice what
00:04:31 he's doing he's intercepting people they're on their way to the king the king would have dealt
00:04:36 with with their circumstances he would have he would have executed justice the king was more
00:04:41 than happy to meet with his subjects to meet with the people of israel but absalom he's standing in
00:04:48 between the people and his father the king he's intercepting them on the way and he's saying i
00:04:54 like just the language here i like how he says from what city are you and all the person has
00:05:00 actually said at this point in their response to that very very specific question is i'm from such
00:05:05 and such a tribe in israel they haven't even really made their claim yet and absalon says
00:05:10 man you are wise your claims are true right i mean now there's a million applications for this
00:05:18 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
00:05:23 so much trying to serve myself as it's just my experience so i automatically think of well this
00:05:28 is what i think of i think of many senior pastors plights this is not the case connor is fantastic
00:05:34 so please hear that disclaimer but many senior pastors who are sinners themselves they've had
00:05:40 plenty of faults on their own but there are cases where a senior pastor has an absalon as his
00:05:46 associate pastor my dad's shaking his head he you know he's come from pastoral ministry and it's a
00:05:51 common thing where where the senior pastor he's usually most often in the pulpit and and he's the
00:05:58 buck stops here guy and not the buck stops here after uh shifting blame to every single party you
00:06:03 can imagine and then saying the buck stops that you know you guys might be familiar with examples
00:06:07 like that but an actual buck stops here a guy who actually takes responsibility and then
00:06:12 responsibility that's not even really his often is attributed to him because again he's he's the
00:06:17 visible he's the tip of the spear he is the visible leader so there can be a plurality of elders which
00:06:23 i would argue for i do believe that that's the biblical polity that there should be a plurality
00:06:27 of elders and that those elders should have equal weight and authority when it comes to making
00:06:30 decisions for the life of the church that the senior pastor doesn't get two votes so that so
00:06:35 the elders are equal in weight and authority but it does make sense that one elder right because
00:06:41 because we're not egalitarian and there is a difference right so there's there's a difference
00:06:45 in in a plurality of elders who have equal weight and authority um versus saying that they're all
00:06:51 the same equality and sameness androgyny are two different things see our culture has has
00:06:57 completely hijacked the word equality and made it androgyny so we can't be equal unless we're the
00:07:04 same right so you can't have a difference of people and an equality of worth and value
00:07:11 under the law without androgyny which is precisely just for the record i mean that's that's that's 1.00
00:07:19 what, you know, at least second wave, not necessarily first wave feminism, you know, 1.00
00:07:23 working, you know, on the widget factory and helping to build planes for World War I and 1.00
00:07:29 II, that's a little bit different. And even there, we had some roots coming in. But second
00:07:32 wave feminism is the idea of liberating. It's liberation of women from what? From the misery, 1.00
00:07:42 the absolute misery oh the horror of being in the home that prison the home that i'm a wife
00:07:51 and a mother and everyone knows how miserable it is to have children goodness gracious could you 0.96
00:07:57 imagine a worse sentence than motherhood you know and so so feminine feminism and all its compassion 0.97
00:08:04 and all its great kindness liberated these poor oppressed trapped women from the home and and now 0.99
00:08:11 what we ultimately have. Employers loved it, by the way. You know who loves feminism more than
00:08:15 women? Men. Wicked men. Behind every feminist, pulling the strings, laughing maniacally, is a 0.70
00:08:22 man. In the name of feminism, women are going to just go ahead and hand out sex like candy. 1.00
00:08:29 Who benefits from that? Not women, right? In the name of feminism, all of a sudden, 1.00
00:08:36 And corporations, 99% of the time, led by a male, all of a sudden, they can pay half 1.00
00:08:43 the wages, right?
00:08:45 I mean, if you look back to 1950s, 1960s, it was common to have a single income home.
00:08:53 That one income, employers, they knew that it was their obligation, if somebody was a
00:08:58 good worker, if they were faithful and had integrity in their work, in their vocation,
00:09:03 It was the obligation of an employer to pay them a livable wage.
00:09:08 And a livable wage meant to provide for a wife and children.
00:09:12 But now, often what you'll hear employers say, even if you go humbly and ask for a raise,
00:09:17 and if you were to even bring up the excuse of, well, I need a raise not because I'm trying to be greedy,
00:09:22 not because I'm trying to be lavish, but because I have a wife and children.
00:09:27 What an employer will be at least tempted to say, if they don't outright say, is this.
00:09:30 they'll say well what gives you the luxury to think that your your household should be able to 1.00
00:09:38 be sustained on one income why is your wife not working so so second wave feminism liberating 1.00
00:09:44 women from the home well i mean all it did ultimately was it gave employers an excuse to 1.00
00:09:48 pay half the wages right because it should be two incomes to support a family which that was not the
00:09:54 culture before now my whole point in saying that is with that also came birth control now why birth 0.98
00:10:00 control getting back to egalitarianism equality versus androgyny because a woman will never be
00:10:06 the same as a man never just biologically it is impossible unless unless i mean it still doesn't
00:10:15 make her the same but at least in one instance men can't get pregnant but women can until the
00:10:21 birth hormonal uh hormonal pill and then but but what if somebody still gets pregnant where they
00:10:26 forget to take their pill what if it doesn't work you know 99 effective abortion did you know the 0.97
00:10:32 whole idea of abortion being a woman's right which is an abomination an absolute abomination which we 0.90
00:10:39 should hate it is righteous for us to hate what the lord hates but that concept a big part of it 0.99
00:10:45 was equality a woman must be able to abort her child first she needs to be able to take um all 0.82
00:10:51 these kinds of of preventative measures so that she never gets pregnant because again the horror 1.00
00:10:56 of of children the horror of pregnancy good good lord we've got to save women from that that disease 0.68
00:11:02 called pregnancy um and so first you do all that but if a child slips through we have to have a way 0.98
00:11:09 to to handle even that situation so that a woman is exactly the same as a man so that she has the
00:11:16 same rights so the point is our culture thinks that equality is not merely an equality of worth
00:11:23 and value but it's androgyny it's sameness and all that back to the elders analogy i'm praise
00:11:30 god i'm remembering how i got here but the the elders analogy equal weight and authority does
00:11:36 not mean sameness in terms of gifting and so if one of the elders happens to have a unique teaching
00:11:43 gift all the elders must be according to scripture able to teach that's titus one that's first
00:11:48 chapter three but if one teaches teaches better than the other elders then it only logically
00:11:55 makes sense that he would teach more often and the scripture affirms this when the first sympathy
00:12:00 chapter five when it talks about honoring elders the idea that we should give a tribute double
00:12:06 honor to the elders who rule well. And then it says, especially those who labor in the preaching
00:12:13 and teaching of the word of God, which implies what? Implicitly what's being said in that text
00:12:18 is that some elders labor more in teaching than the others. But the scripture also says two
00:12:23 chapters earlier from first sympathy five to first sympathy three, that all elders to even be
00:12:28 qualified must be able to teach. So all able elders are able to teach as a term of their
00:12:34 qualification and yet the scripture says plainly that some will teach more meaning what they're
00:12:39 equal in weight and authority a plurality of elders but they're not the same do you see the
00:12:44 difference between equality and sameness so so even though they have equal authority they're
00:12:50 they're not necessarily the same in their gifting all right and all that being said bringing it back
00:12:56 to absalom bringing it back to david david what was happening is he's sitting on the throne he is
00:13:02 we're meant to assume because he's a man after God's own heart we see all of his righteous
00:13:07 exploits as well as his sin but his righteous exploits we're meant to assume that David is
00:13:12 more than able and more than willing to execute justice to do what is needed for the people of
00:13:20 Israel as they have a need as they have some kind of crisis David is willing to meet with them
00:13:26 David is willing to to handle their situation what's happening is not that David is this hard
00:13:32 man that he is this uncaring unsympathetic man what's happening is that Absalom is standing in
00:13:39 the way he is intercepting the people and he's lying about his father the king he's lying and
00:13:47 he's saying oh if only there was somebody in Israel who is dedicated if only this king cared
00:13:52 about the people he's a great warrior he's good with policy Israel has been blessed by his
00:14:01 leadership? No doubt. But the one thing he's not good at is interpersonal care and compassion for
00:14:08 people. And that, I'm telling you, the applications are limitless. You can do associate pastor,
00:14:15 senior pastor. That line's going to get peddled a million times in a million different churches.
00:14:21 But you could also apply it to a president and then members of his administration. You know,
00:14:27 if only the president was his caring,
00:14:29 if only, what you're really saying is this.
00:14:32 Absalom, what he's really saying is this.
00:14:33 He's saying, if only I were king.
00:14:36 Right?
00:14:36 Is that not what he's saying?
00:14:37 If only I were king.
00:14:39 I would be better.
00:14:41 I would do this for you. 1.00
00:14:43 But the problem is that we have a jerk in office 0.99
00:14:46 when what we need is an empathetic, caring leader. 0.99
00:14:49 Because policies that mirror the law of God
00:14:53 at the end of the day may have some value,
00:14:56 But if it comes along with an annoying Twitter feed, I mean, can we really measure how much damage that does?
00:15:03 Wouldn't you rather have someone responsible for ending thousands of lives with torture and murder in Afghanistan but who is empathetic 0.78
00:15:09 than someone who seems, you know, kind of annoying and harsh and foolish in their Twitters? 0.96
00:15:16 I remember Jesus said something about this. 0.95
00:15:19 There was a parable of two sons.
00:15:21 The father asked both of them to go into his field and to work.
00:15:24 Now, one son, in his word, right?
00:15:27 Word and deed, word and deed.
00:15:29 In his word, he said, yeah, I'll do it.
00:15:32 But then he doesn't show up.
00:15:34 And the other son, in his word, he fails.
00:15:36 And it is a sin.
00:15:37 So I don't want to act as though it's completely absolved of moral responsibility.
00:15:42 He tells his father, no, it's disrespectful.
00:15:44 It's not honoring his father and mother.
00:15:45 It is a sin.
00:15:47 But in his deed, that's in his word, he sends.
00:15:51 But in his deed, he shows up.
00:15:52 Now, Jesus asked the question, and the answer is clear.
00:15:57 Jesus asked the question, which one did better?
00:16:00 The son who showed up.
00:16:02 So according to Jesus, given the dichotomy, pitting word against deed,
00:16:09 in the mind of Christ, the guy who gives the wrong word,
00:16:13 but who does the right actions, still is not ideal.
00:16:18 there's still sin but it is an improvement from the one who gives the right words but then does
00:16:24 the wrong thing i wish the church knew that about nine months ago i wish we remembered that
00:16:34 so absalom takes the throne how does he take the throne he does it by winning the hearts of the
00:16:42 people oh that i were judge in the land then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me and
00:16:48 i would give him justice and whenever a man came near to pay homage to him here's another one this
00:16:54 is it's literally i it's almost comical it is almost comical it's so similar it's eerie he
00:17:01 would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him shaking hands kissing babies right i mean
00:17:09 he's just the quintessential politician this guy you know and just for the record that's on both
00:17:14 sides of the political aisle you know but this idea he's he is winning the people but it's through
00:17:20 flattery it's not sincere it's not real he doesn't care i mean he cares deeply about someone but it's
00:17:30 himself and so he's he's shaking hands he's kissing babies he's campaigning he's doing a
00:17:36 smear campaign but with careful language so it doesn't sound like it if only there was i were
00:17:41 judge in israel but but implicitly what he's saying is my father the king does not care about
00:17:46 the needs of the people so he's doing smear campaigns but but crafty smear campaigns he's
00:17:52 shaking hands he's kissing babies he's intercepting he's ultimately what he's doing it's a mutiny
00:17:58 it's rebellion it is rebellion against the king is rebellion against the order that god has
00:18:05 established. Now, all that being said, it's not really a defense of Absalom, but it's an explanation
00:18:11 of the sovereignty of God, even in the suffering of David. This came about as a fulfillment of the
00:18:17 word of the prophet Nathan because of David's sin with Bathsheba. The prophet Nathan said,
00:18:23 what you did in secret in your adultery is going to be done by a member of your own house 0.90
00:18:28 in broad daylight. And that's exactly what happened. David is cast out into exile. The
00:18:34 people side with Absalom because the people don't know they're easily swayed an empathetic leader
00:18:41 wow wow an empathetic taxes are gonna you know triple but but he's he's caring though he's caring
00:18:50 people are gonna die all over the world but he's caring right and so they Absalom sways the hearts
00:18:57 of the people who are uninformed perhaps they had some fake news going i don't know but they're
00:19:03 uninformed, sways the hearts of the people. The people unite with Absalom where it's a majority
00:19:08 and they push out David. And while David's fugitive in the wilderness, in exile, Absalom
00:19:15 takes his concubines, his father's concubines, onto the roof of the palace. And you know what happens.
00:19:25 So all of the prophetic word of Nathan comes to pass. And there is a very real sense in which this
00:19:32 is the earthly consequence for david's sin so david is not innocent in this so it's not to say
00:19:38 that the guy at the top is a victim of of the of the two-faced deceitful mutinous underling
00:19:48 that's not that's not the the whole picture of the story absalom is responsible he is two-faced
00:19:53 he is mutinous he is deceptive all those things are true and david is an adulterer who sinned
00:20:00 against the Lord, and this is the consequence for his sin. All that is going on, and that's the
00:20:06 context for our text today. David is a fugitive. He's in a dry and weary land, not just physically,
00:20:13 that's true, but also spiritually. He is separated from the people of God, and therefore the praise
00:20:18 of God, and therefore the presence of God. And we've already had some texts like this, as I've
00:20:25 already mentioned where david is cut off effectively because of exile whether it be on the run from
00:20:31 saul or on the run from absalom there there are multiple psalms where david in that frame of mind
00:20:37 in that context he cries out to the lord and he pins a song to the lord a prayer and a song to
00:20:44 the lord where he where he confesses to the lord he declares his thirst for god his hunger for the
00:20:52 presence of the god that he loves and in these psalms he often and our psalm today is an example
00:20:59 of this he often mentions in his thirst for god that is always it is always in some measure
00:21:07 correlated with his desire with his deep longing for the presence of god in the sanctuary the
00:21:15 tabernacle and what i'm trying to say is this we'll get to this point in a moment but david
00:21:23 understands what many evangelicals for the last year and a half have forgotten
00:21:27 that there is a sweetness of the presence of god that is unique to the assembly of god's people
00:21:34 that worshiping privately alone in your daily devotion is biblical it's right it's not only
00:21:43 permissible or beneficial but but it's mandated it's commanded and yet there is still a unique
00:21:52 sweetness to the presence of god on the lord's day when the saints gather together to administer
00:21:59 right the officers of the church administer the ordinary means of grace to god's people
00:22:05 preaching the word praying the word and all this public corporate public preaching of the word
00:22:10 public praying of the word, public singing of the word, and public seeing of the word. The only
00:22:14 sight that has been prescribed to New Testament Christians seeing the word, as it were, in the
00:22:19 sacrament of baptism and the Lord's Supper. There is a sweetness. Jesus is present uniquely.
00:22:27 Remember Matthew chapter 16, I believe it is. No, Matthew chapter 18. So Matthew chapter 16,
00:22:35 remember Jesus says, who do you think that I am? To his disciples and Peter, right? I mean,
00:22:39 Peter's like Babe Ruth, so he's always going to swing as hard as he can, so he's going to get the
00:22:44 most home runs. You got it, you got it, give him credit, and also the most strikeouts, right? Babe
00:22:49 Ruth and Peter the Apostle, two peas and a pod in that regard, but this is one of the moments where
00:22:54 Peter, he knocks it out of the park. He says, you are the Christ, the Son of God, and Jesus says,
00:23:00 blessed are you, Simon of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father
00:23:04 who's in heaven and i say that your name cephas uh that your name simon will be cephas peter which
00:23:11 means rock and on this rock not peter as as roman catholicism teaches but the rock being a true
00:23:17 confession of the christ which you have just demonstrated by the by my father who has revealed
00:23:24 it you could flesh and blood doesn't do this so peter you didn't do this on your own strength
00:23:27 but god sovereignly revealed to you my deity that i am the messiah the christ that there is one god
00:23:34 and one mediator between man and God,
00:23:36 the man, the God-man Christ Jesus.
00:23:39 And that revelation from the Father
00:23:41 as a confession, a profession of faith,
00:23:45 that is the rock on which I will build my church.
00:23:47 And then Jesus goes further and says,
00:23:49 and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
00:23:52 And then he says, I give you the keys.
00:23:55 This is authoritative language.
00:23:56 I give to you the keys.
00:23:58 And now at this point, I would argue exegetically
00:24:00 that Peter is standing in representative of the apostles.
00:24:03 So Jesus now says, I'm giving you, being plural, the apostles, Peter representing this,
00:24:09 I'm giving you, the apostles, the keys to the kingdom, the authority to do what?
00:24:14 To bind on earth and it will be bound in heaven, to loose on earth and it will be loosed in heaven.
00:24:20 Now here's what's so interesting.
00:24:22 In Matthew 18, that's Matthew 16, but in Matthew 18, where we have the famous passage of church discipline,
00:24:30 Jesus, all of a sudden, he transitions the subject from the apostles to the church.
00:24:36 The ecclesia is the Greek word.
00:24:38 The assembly, the gathering of the saints for worship.
00:24:42 And what Jesus says is this.
00:24:44 He uses the language, you know, if your brother sins against you,
00:24:47 go and tell him his fault privately between you and him alone.
00:24:50 If he listens to you, you've won your brother over.
00:24:52 But if he does not listen to you, then bring along one or two witnesses,
00:24:56 so that or one or two others so that the testimony may be established in the presence of two or
00:25:01 three witnesses but if he does not listen to them then tell it to the church and if he does not
00:25:07 listen to the church then hand him over it's the same kind of language as Paul saying hand them
00:25:12 over to to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander first Timothy chapter one I have handed these men over
00:25:17 to Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme any longer and Jesus says then treat him as an 0.80
00:25:23 outsider a tax collector or a gentile which were both outsiders outside of the people of god and
00:25:29 thereby outside of the presence of god but then the very next words out of jesus mouth right after
00:25:35 that church discipline passage is this he says whatever you bind on earth so he doesn't specifically
00:25:42 say in matthew 18 i give you the keys he says that in matthew 16 but matthew 16 with the apostles i
00:25:47 give you the keys whatever you bind whatever you lose that's matthew 16 matthew 18 he now is not
00:25:53 speaking to the apostles but the church the assembly of the saints and he uses the same
00:25:58 language so it's implicit that the keys now belong to the church because he says he gives the authority
00:26:03 and the responsibility to the church to do precisely what the keys do which is again he says
00:26:09 whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
00:26:14 heaven and then jesus goes one step further in matthew 18 he says for wherever two or three
00:26:22 are gathered in my name there i am in your midst now this is funny it's peculiar because
00:26:32 for new testament christians and for all christians for that matter because we've all been
00:26:38 saved by grace through faith in christ either looking forward as an old testament saint
00:26:41 to the christ or looking back as a new testament saint to the to the christ but but for the
00:26:47 christian for the christian our body is what first corinthians chapter 6 it's a temple of the holy
00:26:55 spirit whom you have received from god you are not your own you are bought with a price therefore
00:26:59 honor god with your body shall i take the members the members of christ and unite them with a 0.89
00:27:04 prostitute may it never be right and so our bodies are a temple of the holy spirit which means what 0.97
00:27:10 every single christian has the presence of the holy spirit and what does the holy spirit do
00:27:16 What Jesus says in John 14 and John 15,
00:27:19 He says that the Spirit guides you into all truth.
00:27:21 He'll bring to remembrance all the teachings of Christ.
00:27:24 And ultimately what the Spirit does is He testifies to
00:27:27 and even exudes and exemplifies the ministry of the risen Christ.
00:27:33 So this can be said.
00:27:35 Jesus Christ, who is physically seated at the right hand of the Father
00:27:38 because He has come, He has lived, He has died, He has resurrected
00:27:42 and now bodily ascended, bodily resurrected and bodily ascended
00:27:46 to the right hand of God, Jesus Christ is physically present at the right hand of the
00:27:50 Father. But Jesus Christ, by virtue of the ministry of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is
00:27:55 spiritually present with who? Wherever the Holy Spirit is present, the spiritual presence of the
00:28:01 Lord Jesus Christ is also present by virtue of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So all that to say,
00:28:08 God is omnipresent, and Jesus Christ is the second member of the Godhead, is uniquely even
00:28:15 present not just in his omnipresence but uniquely present with all believers in all places at all
00:28:22 times not just when we gather together on the lord's day not not not just in church but but
00:28:28 if you're a believer in the lord jesus christ the spiritual presence of jesus the resurrected christ
00:28:33 his spiritual presence is with you by virtue of the fact that the holy spirit is with you and the
00:28:39 holy spirit is guaranteed to be with all those who trust in jesus because of first corinthians
00:28:44 chapter six your body is a temple of the holy spirit all that theological framework to make
00:28:50 this point if you're a christian jesus is present with you so what in the world does jesus mean in
00:28:57 matthew 18 where he says wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name there i am in your
00:29:03 midst because it seems that statement seems to discount the fact that jesus is present with a
00:29:10 with a christian by virtue of the ministry of the holy spirit even if they're alone right if a
00:29:16 christian is is persecuted and taken captive and placed in prison jesus is present when when when
00:29:25 peter was imprisoned before the earthquake came and the angel who let him out jesus well actually
00:29:33 that's yeah jesus i was thinking timeline was this during jesus earthly no it's after he's
00:29:39 resurrected and ascended so the spiritual presence of jesus is with peter by virtue of the holy spirit
00:29:44 and peter is not gathered with any other believers he's completely alone so when jesus says in matth
00:29:49 18 where two or three are gathered in my name there i am present we must we must exegete that
00:29:55 to mean that jesus is uniquely present that there is something special a greater degree a heightened
00:30:02 a heightened blessing a greater blessing a more profound sense of the presence of jesus when we
00:30:11 come together he's always present even when we're alone by virtue of the holy spirit but he's
00:30:16 uniquely present when we gather together and david all that back to our text david recognizes this
00:30:24 he recognizes that there is a uniqueness there is a sweetness to the presence of god that is
00:30:32 uniquely belonging exclusively to the assembly the people of god and so therefore if he is cut off
00:30:41 from israel and cut off from the tabernacle and cut off from the people of god and the praise of
00:30:47 god he is therefore cut off effectively at least in one sense from the presence of god that doesn't
00:30:54 mean in every sense if david thought he was cut off from god in every sense there would be no sense
00:30:59 in him praying our text today why pray to god if you're completely separated from his presence
00:31:06 and david who wrote psalm 63 is the same david who also said where can i go from your presence
00:31:12 right whether i'm in the in the depths of shield or whether i'm cast into the sea
00:31:16 there is nowhere that i could go that i would be cut off from your presence so david recognizes
00:31:22 the omnipresence of God, but David also recognizes the unique sweetness of the presence of God
00:31:30 that exclusively belongs to the assembly of God's people. In other words, you cannot merely worship
00:31:38 God with a worship CD in your car or live streaming a sermon and say that it is a sufficient
00:31:47 substitute to the church. And yet Christians, many, have been doing this and saying this 0.83
00:31:57 for a year and a half. And here's the kicker, not only that, not only saying it's permissible, 0.91
00:32:05 but condemning those who gather and saying that they're doing it because it's a sufficient
00:32:11 substitute for the church, which is theologically and objectively wrong, and it's loving to their
00:32:18 neighbor. Right now, we are hating our neighbor in the minds of many who profess to be followers
00:32:26 of Jesus. I get the comments on YouTube all the time. You guys have probably seen them. Feel free
00:32:30 to feel free to come in there and make a defense. Sometimes I can't. The trolls are overwhelming. I
00:32:35 have to just, you know, let them go. But if you want to get in there and have a YouTube comment
00:32:38 battle you're welcome to do so be polite be respectful but i mean you see it all the time
00:32:43 you're hating your neighbor what are you doing this isn't loving this isn't loving but it is
00:32:50 we've been commanded we have been commanded to gather with one another that doesn't mean that
00:32:54 there are no circumstances that the church might might skip a gathering because of some serious
00:33:01 serious threat the reality though is that was you know doug wilson says that's the position he was
00:33:07 like, I used to be a reasonable man. You know, there were circumstances that I could think of
00:33:13 where I would have said, all right, we're going to miss this Sunday because there's a tornado coming.
00:33:17 And he said, but after the last year and a half, if I heard that report from the government,
00:33:21 I wouldn't believe it. They said a tornado was coming. I'd have to assume that they were lying
00:33:27 and we'd probably just go ahead and gather. So there are actually circumstances where the church
00:33:31 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 denies the scripture first and foremost but it also denies the last 2 000 years of church history
00:33:45 i mean to quote martin luther or charles spursion who both had epidemics in their time and where
00:33:51 they say you know i will not go where my presence is not needed lest i unknowingly inflict harm on
00:33:57 my neighbor. Yeah, that's good. That's great. But number one, they weren't talking about church.
00:34:04 And number two, I'm not going to like this. Number two, they were talking about real sicknesses.
00:34:11 Are you a COVID-19? No. But I'm just saying by comparison, the Black Plague is not like COVID.
00:34:19 It's not. You know when there's a serious pandemic, we need to close churches. When someone's walking
00:34:25 down the street ringing a bell saying, bring out your dead. I mean, just last week, I had the
00:34:30 opportunity of speaking to two men who are bivocational elders in their local churches,
00:34:36 but their day job is that they own funeral homes. And they said, man, you know, we've been, I know
00:34:43 it sounds a little chagrined, but we've been disappointed. We were promised that business
00:34:48 was going to be boning.
00:34:50 And it's been exactly the same 0.54
00:34:52 as any other year.
00:34:54 Now, this doesn't mean
00:34:55 that hospitals haven't been overwhelmed.
00:34:57 Right, we don't,
00:34:58 see, here's the thing.
00:34:59 There is a baseless denial
00:35:01 that is actually
00:35:02 a thinly veiled form of cowardice.
00:35:06 So you can be, right,
00:35:07 we want to be courageous,
00:35:08 but did you know, 0.78
00:35:09 you can be cowardly 0.97
00:35:10 in at least two ways. 0.99
00:35:12 You can be cowardly 0.98
00:35:13 by sitting in your basement 1.00
00:35:15 for the rest of your life,
00:35:17 you know,
00:35:17 and getting booster shots every three weeks. 0.97
00:35:19 You know, like, you can be cowardly in that way. 0.93
00:35:22 But you can also be cowardly by a baseless denial.
00:35:26 We don't admit it, and we may not even be consciously aware of it.
00:35:29 But one way that we kind of avoid things that scare us
00:35:32 is we just, we deny them.
00:35:35 It's not real.
00:35:36 So we do need to be careful.
00:35:37 We need to be seasoned and reasonable.
00:35:40 Like, we don't need to have the pendulum over-swing
00:35:45 and end up in the ditch on the other side of the road
00:35:48 and our ability to try to auto-correct.
00:35:51 If that makes sense, right?
00:35:53 So COVID is real.
00:35:55 Connor, he's a nurse.
00:35:57 Hospitals have been packed.
00:35:59 There are some real things going on.
00:36:01 Now that said, some of it's COVID
00:36:03 and it's amazing that COVID cured the flu, right?
00:36:06 There's no flu anymore.
00:36:09 But so anyway, so even with that,
00:36:10 you gotta take it with a grain of salt.
00:36:12 We need to be discerning in this time.
00:36:14 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 One, they're not necessarily talking about the Lord's Day gathering.
00:36:33 And number two, they are talking about diseases that wiped out a third of the population.
00:36:40 Smallpox and polio are not the same as COVID.
00:36:44 Just not.
00:36:45 My mother's dad, from the age of 25 to the day he died, was in a wheelchair because of polio.
00:36:52 So you don't have to be anti-vaccine to say,
00:36:56 I think there's some fishy business with this particular virus.
00:36:59 and this particular vaccine
00:37:01 and what we're hearing in this time.
00:37:04 And so we want to be careful with that though
00:37:06 because we need the caveats.
00:37:09 We need the disclaimers
00:37:10 because we don't want people to tune us out 0.95
00:37:12 as wacky weirdo Christians. 0.91
00:37:15 We want them to hear what we have to say 1.00
00:37:17 because we have something from God's word,
00:37:19 something that's true,
00:37:20 something that's beneficial,
00:37:21 something that is helpful.
00:37:23 So all that being said,
00:37:25 the gathering of the saints together
00:37:27 is radically important.
00:37:29 Look at verse 2 in our text.
00:37:31 I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
00:37:34 seeing your power and glory.
00:37:37 David is recalling.
00:37:38 He's bringing to remembrance.
00:37:40 He's savoring and reminiscing
00:37:42 the sweetness of God's presence.
00:37:45 But where?
00:37:46 He doesn't say,
00:37:47 I've seen you in the wilderness.
00:37:49 And that's not that God's not there.
00:37:50 I've already gone to painstaking,
00:37:53 exegetical links, theological links
00:37:55 to talk about the omnipresence of God
00:37:57 even when you're isolated, all alone in the wilderness.
00:38:00 If you're a Christian, you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you,
00:38:03 and by virtue of the Holy Spirit, you have the Spirit of the risen Christ present.
00:38:07 But even then, there is a uniqueness to the presence of Christ
00:38:11 that is exclusively belonging to the Ecclesia, the assembly,
00:38:16 where two or three are gathered in my name.
00:38:20 David is thinking of that. He's thinking of the sanctuary.
00:38:23 He is longing and missing the unique sweetness of the presence of God that is pleased to inhabit no other place.
00:38:32 God is enthroned upon the praises of his people, the corporate collective praises of his plurality of people.
00:38:42 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 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 Especially on the Lord's day to worship God in spirit and in truth through the administering of the ordinary means of grace.
00:39:10 David misses that.
00:39:12 I've looked upon you in the sanctuary, seeing your power and glory.
00:39:16 but for now as my son Absalom has has committed a full-fledged mutiny and lied and cut me off from
00:39:26 Israel and therefore cut me off from the praise of God the people of God and the presence of God
00:39:30 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 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 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 believers in the sanctuary is unique. It's irreplaceable. There is no equivalent, not on
00:39:56 earth. There is no sweeter place. Charles Spurgeon said that though the church swarms with many
00:40:03 faults, it is the sweetest place I know. It's the sweetest place I know. Many of you perhaps have
00:40:09 been burnt by the by by your previous church right i mean there are so many people who you
00:40:16 know i and i feel for you i feel for you like so many i experienced this you know i experienced
00:40:21 this not not because i was passing a church i didn't experience it with myself um but but i
00:40:25 did experience it with other elders they're like many of us were either a part of a church as a
00:40:31 member or serving on an elder board in a church and and and we thought that we were being led by
00:40:37 or leading with a certain caliber of man, right?
00:40:43 We thought this is the kind of man who is my pastor.
00:40:47 And then all of a sudden we realize
00:40:49 that's not the kind of man who's actually my pastor.
00:40:53 Like he talks a big talk, right?
00:40:56 He can have dramatic pauses in his sermons.
00:41:00 He's watched enough Paul Washer sermons
00:41:03 to mimic the style and sound really sincere,
00:41:06 sound really serious,
00:41:08 but when the rubber hits the road,
00:41:11 when catastrophe comes,
00:41:13 he's hiding in his basement.
00:41:16 And he is repeating, regurgitating
00:41:20 the same rhetoric as Gavin Newsom.
00:41:25 What happened to him?
00:41:27 Nothing happened to him.
00:41:29 This is who he is.
00:41:31 It just got revealed.
00:41:33 And it's a mercy.
00:41:34 I want you guys to see that as a loving mercy from God.
00:41:38 It is a mercy that God, by way of his sovereignty and providence,
00:41:43 has revealed to his sheep.
00:41:45 Right? What does Jesus say?
00:41:47 He said that the sheep, they're like sheep without a shepherd.
00:41:50 He weeps for Jerusalem.
00:41:52 He says, the sheep, you would come to me.
00:41:55 He says, oh, how you would come to me, and I would long to gather you.
00:41:59 As a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
00:42:02 But you're not coming, and Jesus says, why? 0.65
00:42:06 He says, because those who will not enter,
00:42:09 they will not enter themselves,
00:42:11 and they're also keeping you out.
00:42:14 He's speaking to the religious rulers.
00:42:17 He's speaking of the guys who preach at the big conferences.
00:42:22 He's speaking about the guys in Big Eva of his day.
00:42:26 That's who he's talking about.
00:42:27 He's saying, these guys won't enter themselves,
00:42:30 and they're keeping you from entering
00:42:32 by telling you that you're not loving your neighbor
00:42:36 if you obey my commands.
00:42:40 They're lying to you.
00:42:42 They're keeping my sheep away.
00:42:46 And Jesus weeps over Jerusalem 0.98
00:42:48 where that is the case.
00:42:50 And many of you, you've been burnt.
00:42:52 You've been shocked to find out
00:42:54 that when the rubber hit the road,
00:42:55 when the American evangelical church
00:42:58 finally actually had a practical challenge, right?
00:43:03 Why are we so bloated?
00:43:04 Why are we so lethargic and apathetic?
00:43:08 Because we've had it easy.
00:43:09 That's why, right?
00:43:12 We're all learning in the last 15 minutes
00:43:14 what we should have learned over the last 15 years,
00:43:16 including myself, right?
00:43:19 I had to learn alongside all of you
00:43:21 the proper exegesis of Romans 13.
00:43:24 I got it wrong, right?
00:43:27 All of a sudden, I was told that we can't have church the next Sunday because everyone will die.
00:43:32 And I didn't know, just like nobody knew.
00:43:35 And I had to tell my people some kind of reason.
00:43:38 I want it to be a biblical reason why we shouldn't gather.
00:43:41 And so I did a video, a 10-minute video on Romans 13.
00:43:46 And it was horrid.
00:43:48 And then I had to get in front of my church and apologize to them four weeks later
00:43:53 when I realized that this was a bunch of hullabaloo and we should be gathering.
00:43:57 now sadly a lot of pastors a year and a half later still haven't changed
00:44:02 and i think in some ways even more tragically many pastors have changed
00:44:06 but they never in word admitted it does that ring a bell
00:44:11 how many pastors that we know all of a sudden they did change their position in terms of action
00:44:17 which is a part of repentance it's very important it's very important so all of a sudden they
00:44:23 weren't gathering and then all of a sudden now they are gathering but what they didn't do is
00:44:29 they didn't say previously i was wrong you know what happens you know what happens when a leader
00:44:34 especially a spiritual leader a pastor in a church when a leader repents in their deed
00:44:40 but not in word at least what many things happen but at least one one negative effect of that is
00:44:48 is a lack of clarity for the people of God.
00:44:51 It's confusion.
00:44:53 Because what it implies
00:44:54 in the perspective of the people
00:44:56 is that we shouldn't gather. 1.00
00:45:00 That's right and biblical.
00:45:02 And now we should gather,
00:45:04 even though nothing's changed,
00:45:06 because that's also right and biblical.
00:45:08 So what it says in the mind of the people is
00:45:10 you can really do whatever you want.
00:45:13 Right?
00:45:14 You have options.
00:45:15 No, you don't.
00:45:16 You have commands.
00:45:16 you don't have options you have commands but but what that says even though they're not verbally
00:45:22 saying it by by by the example they're setting in their actions it sets up an example that
00:45:27 communicates to the people implicitly that both of these options are valid biblical options even
00:45:33 though logically they radically contradict so when you when you say the church is going to gather
00:45:39 this next sunday and then the night before all of a sudden there's a court ruling and you say
00:45:44 that the ninth district, the ninth circuit court
00:45:47 is the highest law of the land
00:45:48 and we as Christians are commanded to obey the law of the land
00:45:51 so therefore we're actually not going
00:45:53 even though we said we are going to meet on Sunday
00:45:54 we're changing our mind and not meeting on Sunday
00:45:56 because we obey the law of the land
00:45:58 and then a month later you say
00:46:00 Christ not Caesar is head of the church
00:46:02 these are contradicting positions 1.00
00:46:04 now the second one is right
00:46:07 and I am so grateful
00:46:08 that they're doing the right thing
00:46:10 but how hard is it
00:46:12 to simply say
00:46:14 Christ not Caesar is head of the church
00:46:16 and what I said 30 days
00:46:18 ago radically and
00:46:20 directly contradicted that and I was
00:46:22 wrong I'm sorry
00:46:23 it's not that hard
00:46:25 it just takes a little bit
00:46:28 of humility
00:46:28 and your refusal
00:46:32 as a leader to be
00:46:34 humble the
00:46:35 casualty of that among many
00:46:38 things but at least one is confusion
00:46:40 the people are
00:46:42 confused so we can't just change right to repentance to turn we can't just turn in our
00:46:47 deed we must do that right so there's a way of repenting a word that doesn't repent indeed
00:46:52 there's a way of saying i'm sorry to the lord but but then continuing the very same actions
00:46:58 that also is sin but there's also a way of changing your actions which is radically important
00:47:03 and again i cannot under emphasize how grateful i am for those pastors who have taken a stand in
00:47:09 their actions but oh how much more powerful of a witness would it be if they in addition to
00:47:16 repenting indeed turning in actions if they added to that a repentance and worth if they also said
00:47:23 and what i previously said since you're not all a bunch of blockheads right i think it also it's 0.97
00:47:28 insulting it assumes that everyone's stupid like they can't see the contradiction no the people of 0.99
00:47:34 God are not stupid. And so giving them their dignity and defending clarity, theological clarity 1.00
00:47:42 by saying, we're now going to do this. And because you're not stupid, you might realize that 30 days 0.98
00:47:47 ago, I said we're going to do the exact opposite. And these things cannot be simultaneously true. 0.99
00:47:53 This one was wrong. Right? 50 years of ministry, you've been right 99% of the time you can afford
00:48:00 to just once be wrong.
00:48:02 That would be awesome.
00:48:04 That would be awesome. 0.98
00:48:06 The problem is we have cowardly pastors. 0.97
00:48:08 The pastor I was just mentioning, 0.95
00:48:10 not going to name,
00:48:11 very grateful for him.
00:48:12 He's not a cowardly pastor.
00:48:13 But I'm talking about other guys now. 0.97
00:48:15 We have cowardly pastors, 0.74
00:48:17 but then we also have prideful pastors. 0.99
00:48:20 There's cowardice.
00:48:22 There's arrogance.
00:48:23 All these things hurting the people of God.
00:48:26 All these things tempting the sheep,
00:48:28 assuaging their consciences,
00:48:31 even guilting them
00:48:33 if they even try to attempt obedience.
00:48:36 And what it has done is it has scattered the sheep
00:48:38 all across the world.
00:48:40 It's scattered the sheep in our nation.
00:48:41 And all of us in some capacity, like David,
00:48:45 like David, have been thinking,
00:48:48 oh, how I miss looking upon you in the sanctuary.
00:48:52 I remember in that context,
00:48:55 the uniqueness of your presence
00:48:57 where I saw your power and glory.
00:49:01 Because your steadfast love, I miss it.
00:49:04 It's better than life.
00:49:07 And because of that, even in isolation,
00:49:09 I will praise you.
00:49:10 Some of you, that's been your testimony
00:49:12 for the last year and a half.
00:49:14 Wandering in the wilderness.
00:49:17 Wandering in a dry and arid land.
00:49:19 Oh God, you are my God.
00:49:21 Earnestly, I've been seeking you for two years.
00:49:24 My soul, it thirsts for you.
00:49:25 My flesh, it faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
00:49:30 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.
00:49:43 I saw you as it were with spiritual eyes.
00:49:46 I saw you through the eyes of faith in the sanctuary, in the gathering of your people on the Lord's day.
00:49:53 I miss church.
00:49:56 So many people, I miss church.
00:49:59 And here's the problem, it's twofold.
00:50:01 It's not just I miss church
00:50:02 because churches aren't allowed to gather.
00:50:06 Well, a lot of them are now.
00:50:07 At least in our state, praise God.
00:50:10 But people are still missing church.
00:50:13 Did you know that?
00:50:14 Some of you definitely know that.
00:50:15 That's why you're here.
00:50:18 There are Christians still missing church
00:50:19 because even though their churches can now gather,
00:50:21 in God's providence of what previously happened,
00:50:24 the veil has been lifted, and they've realized, even though the church may now be gathering,
00:50:29 I can't gather there anymore. So it's not, I can't gather there because they stopped gathering,
00:50:36 but even now that they've resumed, I still can't gather there, because their complicity
00:50:42 and their horrible exegesis and twisting scripture to hammer Christians who had courage over the head
00:50:50 and guilt them and chastise them for biblical courage.
00:50:53 Their actions, their rhetoric, their decisions, all of it.
00:50:59 Now, I cannot in clear conscience before the Lord
00:51:03 gather where I used to gather.
00:51:06 And so even though churches are gathering in states like ours,
00:51:09 there are still displaced Christians, 1.00
00:51:14 misfit toys all over our nation 1.00
00:51:17 saying, well, I mean, yeah, some churches are gathering now 0.94
00:51:21 and this one down the road is gathering,
00:51:24 but I can't go there.
00:51:27 I can't go there.
00:51:28 I can't gather with this church
00:51:31 that every single Sunday
00:51:32 is talking about how disparities equal discrimination.
00:51:38 I can't go to this church that literally,
00:51:41 and children's ministry is gonna train my children 0.94
00:51:44 if they're white, that they're guilty. 0.96
00:51:46 I can't go to this church that I can't even distinguish 0.99
00:51:50 what the pastor's saying because he's wearing a mask
00:51:52 during the sermon.
00:51:54 And where everybody's wearing a sticker,
00:51:57 the greeters are wearing stickers outside
00:51:59 that says, I got vaccinated.
00:52:01 Not saying that it's what, but the convey,
00:52:04 the message that's being conveyed is like,
00:52:06 you must do this or you're immoral.
00:52:09 I can't go there.
00:52:11 And so even though churches are gathering,
00:52:12 what God has done is he has so ripped off the lid
00:52:15 with our evangelical leaders
00:52:18 that there are still displaced Christians.
00:52:21 Many of you are like David,
00:52:24 longing for the sweetness of the presence of God
00:52:27 that is special and uniquely and exclusively here on earth
00:52:34 belonging to the gathered assembly.
00:52:36 But it's not just any gathered assembly.
00:52:40 It is a church that biblically constitutes as a church.
00:52:45 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 It's two or three being gathered in Christ's name, covenanting together as a local church,
00:52:57 and covenanting to be a church according to biblical standards.
00:53:03 Church is not a free-for-all.
00:53:06 There are things that make you a church, and if those things aren't there, it's not a church.
00:53:12 There may still be many Christians, but it's not a church.
00:53:15 It's a weekly Sunday Christian ministry, but to be a church, the Bible gives us a criteria.
00:53:26 The word faithfully preached, and not just exegeted, but applied.
00:53:32 The word faithfully prayed, the word sang, the word seen, and the Lord's Supper and baptism
00:53:40 with biblically qualified elders
00:53:43 and biblically qualified deacons.
00:53:46 All these things.
00:53:48 John Calvin summarizes it like this,
00:53:50 and it's helpful because he makes it simple.
00:53:52 Wherever the word is rightly preached
00:53:54 and the sacraments rightly administered,
00:53:56 there a church of God exists
00:53:58 even if it swarms with many faults.
00:54:01 But it's got to be there.
00:54:02 It's not whatever you want. 0.97
00:54:04 And oh, how Christians have been longing for this. 0.95
00:54:08 I want to end by just reading.
00:54:09 this is something that I wrote back in April.
00:54:12 So this is actually a portion of a sermon
00:54:14 that I preached to the church I was pastoring
00:54:16 in California back in April of 2020.
00:54:20 But I think it fits with verse two of our text today.
00:54:23 I wrote this, those who maintain that churches
00:54:25 should continue to physically gather together,
00:54:27 which we would be among those,
00:54:29 during the pandemic, we're often relentlessly citing
00:54:33 Hebrews 10, 24 through 25, and let us consider
00:54:35 how to stir up one another to love and good works,
00:54:39 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.
00:54:42 Now, although I wholeheartedly agree that this text,
00:54:46 don't neglect the gathering, Hebrews 10.25,
00:54:48 it applies to the situation.
00:54:51 But I simply wish that more Christians have been better equipped,
00:54:54 including myself, to explain why it is so vital for believers
00:54:58 to obey this particular command.
00:55:01 Now, see, Hebrews 3, verses 12 through 13, says this. 0.95
00:55:04 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you
00:55:08 an evil, unbelieving heart,
00:55:10 leading you to fall away from the living God.
00:55:12 But exhort one another
00:55:13 that none of you may be hardened
00:55:15 by the deceitfulness of sin.
00:55:17 So, Hebrews 10, 24-25,
00:55:21 when properly placed in context
00:55:23 with Hebrews 3, 12-13,
00:55:26 it provides for us
00:55:27 both a biblical and logical explanation
00:55:30 for the tragedy of apostasy.
00:55:33 These two texts,
00:55:34 when cross-referenced with one another,
00:55:36 I believe it shows us
00:55:37 It paints a very detailed description for us to see how apostasy happens.
00:55:42 In other words, apostasy meaning how some individuals who once belonged to the visible church
00:55:49 ultimately chose to abandon the faith and fall away.
00:55:52 How does it do this? By way of implication.
00:55:55 Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 through 25,
00:55:58 it informs us that the weekly gathering of the saints is the primary context
00:56:02 for stirring up one another to love and good works.
00:56:06 Right?
00:56:06 If you look at Hebrews 10, 24,
00:56:08 stir up one another to love and good works.
00:56:09 And then it doesn't even have another sentence.
00:56:12 Comma, not neglecting the gathering,
00:56:14 as is the habit of some.
00:56:16 So what the apostle, I believe it was Paul,
00:56:18 but what the author of Hebrews is saying is this.
00:56:21 He's saying, stir one another up to love and good works.
00:56:26 And here's the chief context where that happens.
00:56:28 The gathering.
00:56:30 Right?
00:56:30 He's not, it's not a schizophrenic weird.
00:56:32 Paul's not doing what I often do on Sundays
00:56:35 and his brain is all over the place.
00:56:37 No, what Paul's doing is he's making a systematic argument.
00:56:40 They absolutely correlate with one another.
00:56:43 Stir up one another to love and good works
00:56:44 and therefore because you need to stir up one another
00:56:47 to love and good works, don't neglect the gathering.
00:56:49 Which implies what?
00:56:50 This gathering of the saints is the chief context
00:56:53 where we stir one another up to love and good works.
00:56:56 So that's the first step of the process.
00:56:58 But then the next step, the next step is Hebrews 3, 12-13
00:57:01 informs us that exhorting one another, which is the same phrase actually as to stir one another up
00:57:08 in the Greek, is one of the church's most effective strategies for guarding its members against being
00:57:15 hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, which eventually causes people to fall away from the
00:57:20 living God, aka commit apostasy. So let me pause there for a moment. Hebrews 3, 12 through 13 says
00:57:27 says this be careful brothers lest there be found in any of you an evil unbelieving heart causing
00:57:33 you to fall away from the living god but exhort one another which is the same phrases stir one
00:57:39 another up hebrews 10 24 exhort one another as um and i believe it says today as long as this is
00:57:46 called today and especially as you see the day nearing and so if we take these things together
00:57:52 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.
00:58:10 So they never had salvation to begin with.
00:58:12 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 but right the implication of that word but is so do this to guard against that so how do you guard
00:58:26 against many being ultimately in the end found to have an unbelieving evil heart that leads them to
00:58:31 fall away from the living god and the deceitfulness the hardness of heart that comes from the 0.97
00:58:35 deceitfulness of sin how do you guard people from falling away exhort them exhort them that's hebrews
00:58:43 three, 12 and 13. Take that cross-reference with Hebrews 12, verse 24 and 25, by exhorting one
00:58:51 another, right? Same phrase, exhort, stir up, stir one another up with love and good works,
00:58:57 not neglecting the gathering. So basically what Paul is doing is he's providing a three-step
00:59:03 process. He's saying, gather. Because in the gathering, that's where we stir one another up
00:59:10 to love and good works and exhort one another.
00:59:12 And if we don't do this,
00:59:14 if we don't gather, we don't do this.
00:59:16 And if we don't do this,
00:59:18 people fall away.
00:59:20 People commit apostasy.
00:59:21 People fall away from the living God.
00:59:23 So all that is to say,
00:59:25 let me find my place again. 1.00
00:59:28 In other words, Christians are commanded
00:59:29 not to neglect the weekly gathering of the saints
00:59:31 because it is the necessary environment
00:59:33 for fulfilling their Christian duty 0.74
00:59:35 of stirring one another up
00:59:36 and stirring one another up
00:59:38 or exhorting one another
00:59:39 serves as a powerful defense against the deceitfulness of sin which creates a hardened
00:59:43 unbelieving heart and finally an unbelieving heart is what ultimately leads people to fall
00:59:48 away from the living god so in short here's the conclusion the logical conclusion for the past
00:59:54 18 months christians and especially pastors have been presented with a simple choice either forsake
01:00:00 the gathering to minimize the physical threat of death to our bodies or continue to gather to
01:00:06 minimize the spiritual threat of damnation to our souls now some overly zealous calvinist might
01:00:12 object at this point by insisting that god is sovereign over salvation which is true and
01:00:17 therefore he is capable of preserving the souls of his elect even the absence of physically gathering
01:00:22 together on the lord's day however i might remind these zealous calvinists that the same god who is
01:00:28 sovereign over salvation is sovereign over everything and therefore he is also quite
01:00:32 capable of preserving the health of his people as they diligently seek to obey his commands
01:00:37 the choice has been this for a year and a half every christian has had to wrestle with it
01:00:43 and certainly ever every pastor has had to wrestle with it at the end of the day the choice is
01:00:48 do we neglect the gathering to preserve the body from the threat of the virus or do we risk
01:00:57 gathering do we risk gathering try not to be foolish but risk gathering in such a way that
01:01:05 we mitigate the spiritual risk to the soul and what we discovered in our nation and in nations
01:01:12 across the whole world is that pastors who've been charged with preaching the word of god
01:01:17 and esteeming and defending those things which are ultimately eternal when push comes to shove
01:01:23 They care more about the physical, present reality
01:01:27 than the spiritual, eternal reality
01:01:29 that they said they cared about.
01:01:32 We saw it.
01:01:35 So we don't have to ask anymore, right?
01:01:37 Like God looks at, you know,
01:01:38 man looks at the outward appearance,
01:01:39 but God alone sees the heart.
01:01:41 And yet, and yet Jesus says,
01:01:43 you'll know them by their fruit.
01:01:44 So there is out of the abundance of the heart,
01:01:45 the mouth speaks.
01:01:46 So God sees the heart, we don't.
01:01:48 But there is a way in which,
01:01:50 there is a sense in which we see the heart of a man
01:01:52 by what he says and by what he does.
01:01:56 You can make judgments based off of a person's fruit,
01:01:59 their life, their deeds,
01:02:00 and out of the abundance of their heart,
01:02:02 their mouth speaks, so their words.
01:02:04 And what we have seen,
01:02:05 what I'm saying is, church, don't fall for it.
01:02:08 Don't go back.
01:02:11 Right, well, no, no, no,
01:02:11 I really believe the spiritual thing.
01:02:13 No, no, but when the truth serum
01:02:16 was put down your throat,
01:02:18 providentially by way of circumstance,
01:02:20 you said you didn't.
01:02:23 So once the Delta variant calms down,
01:02:25 and now that 80% of the population has been vaccinated, 0.82
01:02:28 and then pastors say, but the spiritual matter,
01:02:31 you've got to get in church, people.
01:02:32 Of course they want you to come back to church now.
01:02:36 No, no, no.
01:02:36 How do we know if we can trust them?
01:02:38 Well, maybe some of them have repented.
01:02:39 But here's how you know when you can really take someone by their word.
01:02:43 When there's risk.
01:02:46 When there's a challenge.
01:02:49 How do we know that the church fathers,
01:02:50 How do we know that they actually were committed to following Jesus even unto death? 0.93
01:02:56 Because they profess, like Polycarp, Christ as they were being martyred. 0.96
01:03:01 You don't have to wonder. 0.98
01:03:03 Is he being truthful?
01:03:05 Yeah, I think so.
01:03:07 Right?
01:03:07 When Christians are going to the lions because they will not deny Christ, we know that their faith is genuine.
01:03:16 But when Christians go, I'll say it like this.
01:03:19 When Christians are willing to go to the lions rather than deny Christ, we know they're serious. 0.96
01:03:24 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. 0.95
01:03:33 They're not.
01:03:35 And I'm not trying to be harsh.
01:03:36 I'm trying to be truthful.
01:03:38 We must be consistent.
01:03:39 We can't.
01:03:40 Things will eventually change.
01:03:42 There'll always be a new boogeyman.
01:03:43 There'll be climate control.
01:03:44 Whatever it is.
01:03:45 Right?
01:03:45 There'll always be a new boogeyman.
01:03:47 There'll always be some new crisis, because crisis, you can't let a good crisis go to waste.
01:03:51 And crisis serves the left.
01:03:52 So there's always going to be something.
01:03:54 But one day, this thing will eventually not be so prevalent in the minds of people.
01:03:59 And what I'm trying to tell you is this.
01:04:01 Don't forget.
01:04:04 Don't forget the last 18 months.
01:04:06 When the Delta variant calms down, when the hospitals aren't so overwhelmed,
01:04:09 when the rhetoric and media and politics begins to die down and it shifts to something else,
01:04:15 don't forget.
01:04:17 Don't forget, because it's not that people can't change their mind, it's not that God
01:04:21 can't grant repentance, but when it comes to discerning the motives of the heart, the
01:04:27 clearest sign, the most accurate litmus test is when the person is under pressure, under
01:04:35 pressure.
01:04:37 What did they do then?
01:04:39 It's not, what do you say after the fact?
01:04:41 You make a lot of bold statements after the fact, once more data comes out.
01:04:46 Once we realize, oh, anybody can do that.
01:04:50 But in the midst of the battle, when it was raging all around you,
01:04:55 there's a lot of guys who can shoot a gun at a range.
01:05:00 But if they're in a shoot-off and bullets are whizzing past their face,
01:05:05 what do they do then?
01:05:06 That's the test of a man.
01:05:08 That's the test of character.
01:05:10 That's the furnace.
01:05:12 The furnace for gold, the cauldron for silver.
01:05:15 But it's trials, it is trials that test the caliber of a man.
01:05:22 And what we just saw through the last 18 months of trials
01:05:25 is that we don't have a lot of men.
01:05:28 We don't.
01:05:30 We don't.
01:05:32 And again, I know this sounds self-serving.
01:05:33 And so I will confess that.
01:05:36 And the Lord searched my heart, if any of it is.
01:05:39 It doesn't have to be this church.
01:05:40 It doesn't.
01:05:41 Because we are not the only ones, right?
01:05:42 Elijah did that.
01:05:43 Well, I'm the only one, right?
01:05:44 He had threats in his day, but the Lord, Elijah was bold, but he also reserved 7,000 other men 0.76
01:05:50 who would not bow their knees to Baal, who would not comply, who would not compromise. And likewise, 0.80
01:05:55 there are thousands of other men and thousands of other churches by God's grace that are also
01:06:01 courageous and faithful. We are not the only ones. We are a small piece of the puzzle that God is
01:06:05 using to bring about his manifold wisdom and his glory throughout all the earth. That said,
01:06:10 there are other men we're not the only one that said it's slim pickings there are others
01:06:18 but not nearly as many as we thought 18 months ago and for us to miss that is naive for us to
01:06:26 miss that is foolish good churches good churches don't grow on trees and if you find one it's
01:06:35 It's worth the drive. 0.88
01:06:37 It's worth the commitment.
01:06:40 If you find one, man, if I've learned anything over the last 18 months,
01:06:45 similar to David, I haven't been on the run for my life,
01:06:49 but similar to David, what I've learned is that there is a sweetness
01:06:53 of the presence of God that belongs to his people assembled together
01:07:00 and that that place, the sweetest place on earth, as Spurgeon said, the church,
01:07:05 there are a lot fewer and further between than I thought.
01:07:09 And for me, and I hope for you,
01:07:11 I hope that your value and your esteem 1.00
01:07:15 of Christ-exalting churches 1.00
01:07:18 would have been immensely grown during this last season.
01:07:23 And that you would cherish Christ by cherishing his bride.
01:07:27 And that you would do everything you can to love her,
01:07:29 to serve her, and to be committed to her.
01:07:33 All right, let's pray.
01:07:34 Our Father, we thank you for your word
01:07:36 and we thank you for your church.
01:07:38 We thank you for this church,
01:07:40 but Lord, we thank you for all those other churches.
01:07:43 We are not the only ones.
01:07:45 We are not the hero of the story.
01:07:47 Christ is the hero in the story.
01:07:50 As Christ in the parable that he told,
01:07:54 our reply on that final day
01:07:56 when he says, well done, good and faithful servant,
01:07:59 our reply is, we are merely servants.
01:08:01 We merely did our duty.
01:08:05 You are the hero, Jesus.
01:08:07 You're the hero of the story.
01:08:09 And so, Lord, we pray for our church,
01:08:11 but we also pray for all these other churches in Texas,
01:08:15 in Williamson County especially,
01:08:17 in our nation and across the world.
01:08:19 We pray for Christian pastors and Christians
01:08:22 and churches in Afghanistan. 1.00
01:08:24 We pray for little house churches 0.59
01:08:27 in the police state of Australia.
01:08:31 We pray for pastors like James Coates and others in Canada.
01:08:37 And Lord, we recognize that we are not the only one
01:08:40 and we are humbled to be a part of this remnant
01:08:44 that you have reserved, that you're building,
01:08:47 that you're expanding.
01:08:49 And just like what Jesus, what you said to Peter,
01:08:53 blessed are you, Simon of Jonah,
01:08:54 flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.
01:08:56 Lord, we thank you that our understanding
01:09:00 of the civil magistrate,
01:09:01 our understanding of Romans 13,
01:09:02 our understanding of the importance
01:09:04 and value of the church,
01:09:06 flesh and blood didn't reveal it to us.
01:09:08 In fact, in the last 18 months,
01:09:10 flesh and blood,
01:09:12 evangelical pastors, they failed us.
01:09:14 Flesh and blood failed us. 1.00
01:09:16 And yet there is a remnant of Christians 1.00
01:09:17 all over the world that get it
01:09:19 because the Father in heaven,
01:09:22 through his word, revealed it to them.
01:09:24 So Lord, help us to cherish,
01:09:26 cherish these pearls, these treasures,
01:09:28 this revelation, the things that you've taught us
01:09:30 over this previous difficult season,
01:09:32 let it prepare us for whatever lies ahead,
01:09:35 whether it be relief
01:09:36 or whether it be even greater challenges.
01:09:39 We pray that in all of it, it would glorify you.
01:09:42 In Jesus' name, amen.
01:09:44 Oh, hi, I didn't see you there.
01:09:46 Thanks for sticking around.
01:09:47 I've got an important announcement to make.
01:09:49 That's the Theonomy and Post-Millennialism Conference,
01:09:52 2023, May 5th, 6th, and 7th,
01:09:56 Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
01:09:58 theonomy, and post-millennialism. We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up. That's
01:10:02 Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Dr. Gary DeMar, non-doctor, Pastor Joel Webin. But we also have
01:10:08 a bonus speaker, and that is Dale Partridge from Real Christianity. Perhaps you've heard of him.
01:10:14 If not, you should start listening to his podcast. It's fantastic. Dale Partridge is going to be
01:10:19 joining our team. We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll
01:10:24 be able to write in questions and get them answered. We're also going to have a catered
01:10:28 barbecue, Texas style barbecue meal on Friday. That's a part of your registration fee. All that
01:10:34 is covered. So you need to get there. This is how you do it. Go and register right now at
01:10:38 rightresponseconference.com. Again, that's rightresponseconference.com. God bless.