March 21, 2025

How Three Devotionals Rewrote The Bible

How Three Devotionals Rewrote The Bible

We explore the story of how the Bible was rewritten due to three devotionals.

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We explore the story of how the Bible was rewritten due to three devotionals.

WEBVTT

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone.

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It is Friday, March the twenty first, twenty twenty five.

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It is currently one thirty nine pm Central Time, and

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I am coming to you live from the Theology Central

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studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, my journey

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into Christianity, it really began when I was a teenager

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sitting in a pew during a fall revival service in

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a country church in Tuscola, Texas. What the population of

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Tuscola back then was what two hundred three hundred people.

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It's a country church. I'm sitting there in the pew.

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I don't go to church. I end up there. Kind

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of a weird set of circumstances brings me to this

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revival service. I wasn't intending on going. Family didn't go,

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I had no real reason to be there, but I

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end up there. I'm sitting in the pew. In a moment,

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I realized I'm a sinner. I deserve to go to Hell.

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Jesus Christ died for me. He paid for my sins,

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and I believed in his finished work and that began

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my journey into Christianity. At that very moment, I became

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extremely emotional. I broke down. I was weeping like out loud,

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just weeping like uncontrollable. And they literally stopped the service,

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had an altar call, and I came forward to as

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they would say, accept Jesus Christ into my life. And

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that began my journey into Christianity. Now, when the revival

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service was finally over, everyone had left, the pastor walks

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into his office, he walks out, He hands me a

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Bible and he says, this is the word of God.

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This is God's word. And I remember putting it in

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my hands, walking out of the church, getting into my car,

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putting the Bible next to me driving home, and I

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just kept thinking, well, if there's a God and this

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is his word, I want to understand everything about it.

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I want to understand this. And so I went home,

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I stayed up all night. I read the entire New

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Testament the very first night that I was saved, and

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within the week I had finished all the Old Testaments.

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So within one week of my salvation, I read from

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Genesis to Revelation and one week and that began my journey.

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I mean that began my journey really into the Bible,

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reading it, studying it, seeking to understand it, buying commentaries,

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buying systematic theologies, buying books on how to study the Bible,

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learning twelve methods of Bible study. Just read and read,

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and read and read. And I would like to tell

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you that my journey in the Christian world would be

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one that is all positive. It would all be I

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could just tell you how amazing it's been. It's been wonderful.

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But if I'm being honest with you, the longer I've

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been on this journey, the longer I've been on this journey,

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this journey has turned into one of frustration. It has

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turned into one of irritation. It has turned into one

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of discouragement, depression, despondency, just wanting to give up and

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just see what this whole thing is just ridiculous. You

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could almost say, lead me almost to the brink of

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deconstruction in a negative way. And I know some people say,

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how that's not even possible. How can you even say that,

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because it is very possible because of what happens once

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you start the journey into Christianity. You see, it's one

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thing to say and maybe we should draw a distinction.

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Is it my journey into Christianity that led me to frustration, irritation, discouragement, despondency, depression,

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and almost wanting to deconstruct what maybe would say, Maybe

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it'd be more accurate to say my journey into Churchianity,

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because Christianity and Churchianity are two different things. Christianity, that's

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the truth of Christianity. That's the truth that is taught

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right here in the Bible right It's the truth of

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God's word. It's the truth about Christ, his incarnation, his life,

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his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, is coming to judge the

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living and the dead. That's the truths of Christianity. Churchianity

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is something sometimes very different, and I think it's my

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journey into Churchianity that has led me to in many cases,

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to so many negative feelings. And I'm not going to

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go into all the reason why. I'm just going to

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focus specifically into one area. If you're a listening to

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this podcast, you know where I'm going to go. The

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sermon review. The sermon review I have loved since the

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very beginning, since that very first night of becoming a Christian,

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all the way to this day. I love listening toscermons.

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I love listening discernments. I like seeing how a pastor

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opens the Bible, takes the text, how his approach to

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the text, his hermoneutical approach, his hypotheses, everything about it.

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I love how they structure it, how they do their introduction.

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I love everything about preaching, and I love it. However,

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the more preaching I've listened to, the more frustrating frustrated

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I have become. In fact, my irritation, frustration, depression, discouragement,

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and despondency, deconstruction, all of that. Really it actually flows

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from listening discermons, because time and time again pastors stand

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behind pulpits open the Bible, and somehow I don't know

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why they do this, but they insert us into text

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that are not about us. And we have seen this

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over and over with all the sermons. I mean, I've

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now listened to over one hundred sermons on Isaiah forty

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through Isaiah fifty five, and time and time again, you

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take this story Isaiah forty through fifty five. Words of comfort,

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Who are those words of comfort to They're to the

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people and Babylonian captivity. They're not to me. It's not

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about me. It's not about the church. It's not about you.

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It's not about your problems. It's not about my problems.

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It's about those people and Babylonian captivity. That's what it's about.

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Isaiah thirty nine sets the entire scene forty through fifty

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five are the words of comfort to be given to

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those people in captivity. We've talked about it a million times,

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but sermon after sermon, Oh no, we're inserted into it.

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Isaiah forty through fifty five somehow becomes about me, somehow

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becomes about you. How is that possible? I don't know.

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It's not about us. And then we stumbled upon Acts

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chapter twenty seven, and what happens the storm of life metaphor.

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Anytime a pastor opens up the Bible and there's a

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story of a storm, that storm becomes now metaphorical, allegorical.

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How about the storms and your life? And we started

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talking about that storm of life metaphor, and I declared

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war on the metaphor and talked about the history of

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that metaphor and where we think it originated from, because

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it doesn't come from scripture, and time and time again,

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I'm just like, what are you wait? We're over here

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in Ezekiel, We're over here in Isaiah, We're in Genesis.

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All of a sudden, it's the church. It's you, it's me,

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it's your problems, it's your issue, It's it's your goliath.

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What do you mean my goliath? How do I take

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out my goliath? How the Exodus becomes about my breakthrough?

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All this just nons and I'm like, I get so

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tired of it. Well, what I want to do today

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is I want to tell you the story of how

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this all came to be. I want to tell you

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the story about how three books changed the way we

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read the Bible, How three books changed the Church forever,

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changed Christianity forever, changed Biblical hermeneutics forever. And when I

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tell you the name of these books and we start

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talking about them, many of you, many of you are

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going to push back. You're going to disagree with me,

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You're going to argue, You're going to get very upset.

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All I can ask is, please just listen carefully. Now

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here's what we're going to do in this episode. I'm

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going to tell the story in a narrative form. I'm

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going to tell the story in a narrative form. I've

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been using the narrative idea and our discussion about the

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Salem witch trials. I'm going to do this in a

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narrative way. Of course, I'll kind of go into the

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narrative out of the narrative, and then maybe over time

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I'll cover maybe some of the same material in a

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much more academic way and a much more normal teaching way.

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But I want to start today with doing a narrative

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to at least kind of give you an overview. So

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let's enter the narrative so that we can learn the

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stories about how three books, three books changed Christianity forever.

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And even if you've never read those three books, I

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guarantee you you have been influenced by them. Even if

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your church has never promoted these three books, they have

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been influenced by them. Are you ready? Here we go?

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When we open the Bible today? What do we expect

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to find when you open the Bible today? What do

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you expect to find when the people you go to

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church with when they open the Bible? What do they

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expect to find when your pastor preaches a sermon? What

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do you expect to hear? I think this is a

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question we should be asking ourselves and you should be

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asking the people you go to church with, and you

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maybe even should be asking your pastor. Are you expecting

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a promise for your pain? Are you looking for a

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word for your day? Are you looking for a guide

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for your decision making? What are you looking for? Most people,

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whether we like to admit this or not, they don't

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come to scripture asking what did this mean to the

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people it was written to? Or how does this fit

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in the the story of God's redemptive work and history. Know,

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most people, most churches, most pastors, come to scripture looking

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for something deeply personal, immediately applicable, and emotionally resonant. That's

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how people approach. That's what people want in sermons. They

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want a sermon that's deeply personal, it's immediately applicable, it's

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emotionally reson it resonates with them, it connects to them.

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And that's why I have said a million times and

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I will continue to say, sermons are the enemy to

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biblical understanding, because sermons come in and they want to

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make it practical, they want to make it applicable, they

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want to make sure it resonates with everyone's It's almost

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like just doing a performance. It's like a stage performance.

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And I'm not saying it's that means that means it's

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theatrical or dramatic. It just means they're going to the

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text and it's like, I gotta make this about the people.

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I got to open the Bible. It doesn't matter where

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we are. It's about you. It's about your marriage, it's

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about your kids. It's about your work. It's about your life.

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It's about your problems. It's about your trouble. It's about

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your worry, it's about your anxiety. It's about you. You you

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you you you. And that's how come time and time again.

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We're in Isaiah forty through fifty five. Sermon after sermon

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makes it about us, makes it about the church. We're

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in Acts twenty seven. All of a sudden, it's it's

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about your storm in your life. Most people come to

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the scripture looking for something deeply personal, immediately applicable, and

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emotionally resonant. But how did we get here? How did

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we get here? How did we How did Churchianity end

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up in this mess? How did Christianity end up like this? Well,

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it didn't happen overnight. So that's what we're going to

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explore the answer in part lies not just in our pulpits,

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it doesn't lie really in our seminaries. So I'm gonna

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say that the problem, the real issue here at it

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didn't even start in the pulpit. It didn't necessarily necessarily

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even start in the seminary. It started really in three books,

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three best sellers, three devotional classics. And if you've been

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a Christian for any length of time, you've either heard

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of these books, or someone has told you, your pastor

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has told you to buy them, or if you're using

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the sermon audio app and you click on the devotional tabs,

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they're using one of these books to give you your

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daily devotional. And I think these three books are what

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caused all the problems. These books, these three books, they

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shaped how Christians read the Bible, how pastors preach it,

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how churches teach it, and how generations came to believe

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that the Bible is mainly about their own journey. I

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cannot stress this enough. These three books they shaped how

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Christians read the Bible, how pastors preach the Bible, how

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churches teach the Bible, and how generations came to believe

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that the Bible is mainly about their own journey. This

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is the story of the Pilgrim's Progress, Morning and Evening

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and my Utmost for His Highest. I know, I just

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went after the three most classic, famous, best selling devotional

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books in history. I'm going after like you're not allowed

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to touch these by me, even getting near and even

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sounding like I'm going to offer criticism immediately. People are

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going to get mad at me. All the response to

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this is going to be extremely negative. But I lay

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the blame at the foot at the feet of these

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three books, the Pilgrim's Progress, which we've already discussed, The

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Pilgrim's Progress and its influence on how people destroy Isaiah

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forty three, Morning and Evening. I've told you so many

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times my frustration with Morning and Evening and my Utmost

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for its Highest. Oh don't I look. I've offered my

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criticism about it numerous times. This trilogy shaped modern devotional Christianity.

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I could almost refer to these three books as the

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forget calling it a trilogy the Unholy Trinity. I know

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I should not say that, I know, because people will

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get very mad at me. But I'm gonna call it

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the Unholy Trinity in regards to its negative impact on preaching, teaching,

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and biblical hermeneutics. I'm not saying everything in these three

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books is bad and I'm definitely telling you not to

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read them. I would tell you to read them no

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matter how much I disagree with them, because I'm not

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into censoring and saying don't read this and don't look

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at this, read think process, question challenge. But from a

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hermeneutical standpoint, these three books are a complete and uttered disaster,

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and the impacts on Christianity is happening even today, on

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March the twenty first, twenty twenty five, again, I want

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to tell you the story of the Pilgrim's Progress morning

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and evening and my utmost for his highest This trilogy,

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this unholy Trinity, shaped modern day Christianity. Are you ready

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to tell to explore this story, Let's start with Act one,

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the allegory Pilgrim's Progress. Act one Action. All right, here

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we go, you're ready. We're going to tell the story

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of the Pilgrim's Progress. It's sixteen seventy eight. John Bunyan

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is sitting in a prison cell in Bedford, England. He's

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not there for theft or violence, but for preaching without

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a license. An offense and the turbulent religious landscape of

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post Reformation England. And there behind bars, Bunyan writes one

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of the most important Christian books ever published, The Pilgrim's Progress.

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It's not a commentary. It's not a theology textbook. It's

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not a hermeneutics book. It's not a systematic theology. It's

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a story. It's a dream. It's an allegory. You see,

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a man named Christian leaves the city of Destruction Jewel

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and journeys towards the celestial city. Along the way he

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meets characters like Evangelist, Faithful, hopeful, and battles through Doubting Castle, Vanity,

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Fair and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The

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brilliance of the book it turns the entire Christian experience

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into a symbolic journey. The entire Christian experience is now

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a symbolic journey. Now again, many, it's the most amazing thing.

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I love it. It's the greatest thing ever. Okay, you

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hear that constantly, right, Everyone's like The Pilgrim's Progress, the

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Pilgrims Progress. Churches literally will will do entire sermon series

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on the Pilgrims Progress. They will they will give everyone

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a copy. I mean, the Pilgrim's Progress is like built

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into the DNA of Christianity. You see, it takes Bible

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characters and it places It takes Bible characters, Bible places,

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Biblical promises and dangers and reimagines them as your internal story.

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For a century, Christians read the Pilgrim's Progress alongside the Bible,

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and soon there was a way of thinking that was

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ingrained in their mind. There's a certain way of thinking

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that flows from the Pilgrim's Progress. No, I'm not going

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to say, John Bunyan, this was his intended goal, but

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it becomes the unintended consequence. Are you ready? Here's this idea.

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Because the people now are reading the Bible alongside Pilgrim's Progress,

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here we go. Soon there's an instinct, there's a way

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of thinking that is ingrained the story and scripture. That's me.

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David's battle, that's my battle, Israel's exodus that's my breakthrough.

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Now every story in the Bible becomes a part of

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this over arch allegory. It's all about me, right, It's

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all about me. What Abraham is facing that's my story.

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What what Jonah is facing, that's my story. What anybody,

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it's me, me, me, It's all me. And so everything

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and now is now framed and well, you're inserted into

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the story. You're now David, You're now Jacob, You're now Joseph,

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You're it's.

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You you you you you you you you you you

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you you you, and.

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We just insert ourselves everywhere. See, Banya did not invent allegory. No,

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but I am not claiming that. To claim that would

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be historically inaccurate. He didn't invent allegory, but the book

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Pilgrim's Progress made allegory the dominant lens for Christian devotion.

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It's the dominant lens for Christian devotion. So you'll get

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you'll maybe you're at lunch with some Christian Mantalok, so

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what is God toling you right now in your life?

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And I'm supposed to be like, well, I'm reading this

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and somehow it's about me. It's about me, It's everything

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supposedly is about me. No it's not, but that we

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won't get into that right now. So there's Act one

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Pilgrim's Progress. It changes, it now gives everyone this lens.

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The Bible is about me. It's about my journey. It's

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Goliath represents my my giant that's facing that I'm facing Jericho.

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What walls need to come down in my life? The storms,

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that's the storms of my Everything becomes an allegory metaphor

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for your life. But let's go to Act two. If

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Act one is the allegory, Act two becomes the letter,

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Act one is the allegory. Act two becomes the liturgy.

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Morning and Evening by Charles hadden Spurgeon. I've had, if

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I've had Pilgrim's Progress recommended to me my entire life,

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and Morning and Evening has been recommending recommended to me.

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So I've lost the number of times Morning and Evening

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it's the greatest devotional. It's the greatest devotional. You've got

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to have Morning and Evening. You've gotta have, You've got

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And I've heard now so many times I think people

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recommending that they've never even read it themselves, because you

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start asking questions like, I don't think you've ever even

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been through the book. But if you again, if you

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go to the UH Sermon Audio app or the Sermon

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Audio website and click on devotionals, guess what it's going

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to take you to Morning and Evening by Charles hadden Spurgeon.

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If you listen to Sermonadio Radio twenty four to seven,

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guess which devotional is gonna be there? Morning and Evening

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by Charles hadden Spurgeon. You listen to Christian radio over

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for many of them, especially conservative Christian radio, they will

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air the audio devotional four Morning and Evening by Charles

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hadden Spurgeon. It's literally everywhere. But to tell the story

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of Morning and Evening we have to fast forward now

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nearly two centuries. It's now eighteen sixty five. A young

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preacher named Charles hadden Spurgeon, already known as the Prince

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of Preachers, releases a small devotional book titled Morning and Evening.

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Its format is simple, it's elegant in some ways, it's revolutionary.

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One verse, one meditation twice a day, one verse one

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meditation twice a day, every day of the year. One verse,

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one meditation twice the day, every day of the year.

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No deep exposition, no historical context, just a single line

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of scripture followed by a reflection aimed straight at the heart. Now,

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to be fair, that maybe a little oversimplification. There are times,

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as someone who's been through Morning and evening. Numerous times

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Spurgeon sometimes will, to his credit, offer some historical context,

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offer some but it's going to immediately go become right

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about you. It's going to become about us, almost instantaneously.

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Spurgeon's pastoral warmth, his poetic language, and his rich spiritual

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insight gave readers a daily sense that God was speaking

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directly to them through that one verse, and with it,

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a new model of devotional life was born. One verse

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a day, a thought for my soul and a God

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who always meets me exactly where I am. It was personal,

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it was beautiful, it was comforting. But slowly and subtly

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it reinforced a new habit reading scripture as though every

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line was about me. And even if it wasn't, Spurgeon

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would find a way to make it so, somehow it would

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become about me. Now, Bunyan already turns the whole Bible

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into kind of an allegory about my life and my story. Right,

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so we already start thinking that way. And then Spurgeon

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gives us the daily liturgy using this concept and bring

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it into end of play. And we cannot. And if

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you know history, you know, if you know anything about

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church history. Who was one of the greatest influences on

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Charles Han's John Bunyan. He told everyone, I cannot remember

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the exact quote, but basically you should read Pilgrim's Progress

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like once a month or once a year. I can't

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remember the exact timeline he gave, but Spurgeon promoted everyone

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should read Pilgrim's Progress all the time. Interesting, So the

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one influenced by Bunyan now takes Bunyan's kind of concept

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and now turns into this revolutionary concept. The revolutionary concept

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one verse a day, a thought for your soul, and

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a God who meets you exactly where you are. It's personal,

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it's beautiful, it's comforting. But it gives this new habit

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where you simply read scripture as though every line is

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about you. Every line is saying something to you. Every

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line speaks to you. And you'll hear people say that

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if you'll be like around church people sometimes now most

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of the time they're talking about something else. But if

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they do talk, So, what is God saying to you today? Well,

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today am I devotions? I was reading in Jeremiah eighteen,

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verse fifteen, and it says, because my people have forgotten me,

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and it was as God was telling me that I

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have forgotten him. What are you doing, JEREMIAHS that's not

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about you, what are you doing? But it becomes about us,

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about us, about us, about us. That's how you get

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the plans I have for you, the plans to prosper you.

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How does that end up being read at high school graduations?

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Because this mindset has so infiltrated everything. No, no, no, no.

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That passage in Jeremiah about the plans I have for you,

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that's for those coming out of Babylonian captivity. Oh it

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drives me crazy. So we've got Act one, the Allegory,

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Act two, the lettergy How about Act three? Now? Act

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one and two let me be I'm gonna be completely

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honest with you. Act one and two had massive influence

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on me and my early preaching, because everyone told me

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Pilgrim's progress morning and Evening by Charles hadn't spurgeon. Morning

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and Evening by Charles hadn't Spurgeon. So I would do

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the same thing other people. I've got notebooks filled with

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that kind of approach, just reading my Bible going ooh okay,

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and make it all about me or make it into

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a sermon. I made everything into a sermon, everything into

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a Bible study, making it applicable to us. I did

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that over and over and over. Now the third one,

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the third act here, Well, I never bought into this one.

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I remember purchasing book number three at a bookstore in Bellevue, Nebraska,

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trying it for about a week, and like, what is this? Okay?

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I the third one did not have any influence over me.

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The first two had massive influence over me. So don't

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anyone say you just don't know what you're talking about. Oh,

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I promoted the Pilgrim's Progress and Morning and evening a

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million times in my Christian life a million times. Okay,

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But number three, here we go. Act three, I should say.

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Act one's the allegory. Act two is the liturgy. Act

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three the inner Voice, My Utmost for His Highest. Now

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we jump to nineteen twenty seven, nineteen twenty seven, okay,

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nineteen hundred. That do you really get the birth of

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the modern day charismatic movement? Right? Okay? Now, I know

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a lot of people don't think I'm fair with this book.

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My Utmost for His Highest, I think my Utmost for

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His Highest begins to reflect this charismatic way of approaching scripture.

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I know that some people would argue that's not completely accurate,

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but I mean, nineteen twenty seven. I mean, you're right

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there at the beginning of this. So I'm still gonna

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say that the charismatic movement has an influence here. But

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it's nineteen twenty seven, five years after the death of

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Oswald Chambers. His wife, Bitty Chambers, compiled his notes and

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lectures into a new devotional My Utmost for his Highest. Now,

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this book wasn't allegorical like Bunyans, it wasn't very lyrical

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or poetical like Spurgeons, but it was intense, it was inward,

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and it was mystical. I think I would like to

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say charismatic, but I won't just try, and because I'm

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trying to be historically accurate. Not everyone agrees with my

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connecting it to the charismatic movement. I believe it's all

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over it, but that's my opinion. Each entry calls the

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reader to full surrender, radical obedience, and deep internal change.

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Radical obedience, deep internal change. Now we could say this

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one destroys proper distinction between law and gospel. This just

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annihilates it. There's almost this idea that you basically can

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be almost perfect, you can basically obey perfectly. It may

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not be that clear, but it's clearly implied. It's clearly implied.

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The Chambers doesn't explore the biblical context, of course, not no, no, no,

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of course not. He doesn't trace the passage's original intent,

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of course not. Instead, he uses the verses as a

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spiritual launching pad, a door into the inner synctom of

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the soul. Am I yielding fully? Is God speaking to

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me about something hidden? Is my life? Utterly and completely?

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His millions were drawn to his searching tone. It became

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the quiet voice of God for the modern believer. But

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once again, the Bible became a mirror for internal transformation

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rather than a record of God's external redemptive act. So

450
00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:21.880
Act one, the Allegory, Act two, the Liturgy, Act three

451
00:32:22.359 --> 00:32:31.720
the inner Voice. Those three books changed Christianity forever. So

452
00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:39.279
for Act four, the result, the result of these three books,

453
00:32:41.319 --> 00:32:45.279
we find ourselves with a brand new way of reading

454
00:32:45.720 --> 00:32:53.960
the Bible. Together, these three books do not reject scripture.

455
00:32:54.599 --> 00:32:59.079
They loved scripture. And this what makes this so subtle. See,

456
00:32:59.119 --> 00:33:02.279
we always want to look at oh, that false teaching

457
00:33:02.400 --> 00:33:04.880
or that false teaching or that false teaching. But the

458
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:08.599
dangers always arise from within. It's like when Christians are

459
00:33:08.680 --> 00:33:12.400
yelling and screaming about oh, the occult bookstore or this

460
00:33:12.599 --> 00:33:15.839
or that or Netflix. The danger usually is inside the

461
00:33:15.880 --> 00:33:21.319
Christian bookstore. The dangers usually inside the church. See these

462
00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:24.640
three books, they don't reject scripture. They love it, but

463
00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:30.480
they help each one help rewrite how Christians interact with it.

464
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:33.599
Or maybe I should say I said rewrite how each

465
00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:38.480
one of these books they help rewire how Christians interact

466
00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:43.480
with scripture. I like that it rewires it. I think

467
00:33:43.519 --> 00:33:47.119
that's the way we should put it. It rewrites the

468
00:33:47.160 --> 00:33:50.960
way we read scripture, but it rewires our minds and

469
00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:54.839
how we interact with scripture. Maybe that's it rewrites and

470
00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:57.720
it rewires. It rewrites how we read, and it rewires

471
00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:02.200
our mind and how we approach. See it goes like this.

472
00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:07.200
We go from redemptive history, the Bible's redemptive history, to

473
00:34:08.480 --> 00:34:13.719
your own personal journey. It goes from an objective meaning

474
00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:21.920
to a subjective experience. It goes from what God has

475
00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:28.760
done to what I feel today today. You hear sermons

476
00:34:28.960 --> 00:34:35.159
filled with phrases like what's your storm? What is your goliath?

477
00:34:35.400 --> 00:34:39.480
Are you wondering in your wilderness? All of this, see,

478
00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:44.360
all of this comes straight from Bunyan, Spurgeon, and Chambers.

479
00:34:45.800 --> 00:34:49.599
Sermon after sermon, does that? What is your giant? What

480
00:34:49.760 --> 00:34:52.840
is your storm? What is your wilderness? What is your jericho?

481
00:34:53.800 --> 00:34:55.199
What is this? What is that? What?

482
00:34:55.599 --> 00:34:58.840
You? You? You? You? You you you you you you.

483
00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:07.599
This is an exegesus, ladies and gentlemen. It's Bunyan, It's Spurgeon,

484
00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:12.320
It's Chambers, echoing throughout pulpits and devotionals and small groups

485
00:35:12.360 --> 00:35:13.400
and worship songs.

486
00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:18.719
This stuff is everywhere. These three books help make application

487
00:35:18.880 --> 00:35:27.840
the starting point, context optional, and personal connection. King, So

488
00:35:27.880 --> 00:35:33.079
what do we do? So? What do we do? Well,

489
00:35:33.199 --> 00:35:35.119
I'm just gonna be honest with you. We don't do

490
00:35:35.159 --> 00:35:37.280
anything because we're never going to win this war. The

491
00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:40.679
war is over right. I mean, I've got a better

492
00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:46.639
chance of teaching a dog how to do advanced mathematics

493
00:35:46.840 --> 00:35:49.719
than I have of convincing Christians to think about how

494
00:35:49.719 --> 00:35:52.320
they read scripture and approach it differently. I'm not going

495
00:35:52.360 --> 00:35:54.400
to convince anyone. I'm not going to change any minds.

496
00:35:54.519 --> 00:35:57.000
Nothing's going to change the Church is going to continue

497
00:35:57.039 --> 00:36:01.159
to march on this way, and nobody's going to change it. Nobody.

498
00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:04.519
This is what people want. And because to me, you say,

499
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:05.840
what do we do well? The first thing we do

500
00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:08.679
when we blow up the sermon, The whole sermon idea

501
00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:11.599
just needs to be torn down and thrown in the trash.

502
00:36:11.719 --> 00:36:17.000
Stop preaching sermons and approach, enter the pulpit with a

503
00:36:17.079 --> 00:36:23.159
Bible and notes, ready to teach the scriptures, to question, challenge, struggle,

504
00:36:23.559 --> 00:36:25.960
what about this? What does this mean? What not worried

505
00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:29.119
about a nice little three points sermon where everybody gets

506
00:36:29.119 --> 00:36:31.440
out at noon and you got a little application and

507
00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:33.639
you feel encourage and you got a little you got

508
00:36:33.639 --> 00:36:36.119
a little dose, You got your little hit. You know,

509
00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:38.960
everyone rolls up their sleeve, comes into church, tops on

510
00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:40.920
the vein, and give me, give me my hit of

511
00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:44.199
a little spirituality so I feel good. Nobody really knows

512
00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:47.440
the Bible, Nobody really understands the Bible, nobody understands theology,

513
00:36:47.519 --> 00:36:50.199
nobody understands church history. But hey, I got a little

514
00:36:50.199 --> 00:36:55.840
bit of spirituality. Now I can run off to the buffet.

515
00:36:58.400 --> 00:37:02.760
Nothing is going to change now. I could I can

516
00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:08.400
give you just I could, I could just you know theorize.

517
00:37:09.039 --> 00:37:11.519
Now some would say, well, do we need to cancel Bunyan,

518
00:37:11.599 --> 00:37:15.679
abandon Spurgeon or silence Chambers. I don't ever want to

519
00:37:15.719 --> 00:37:19.119
cancel or silence or abandon anything. Those books are to

520
00:37:19.559 --> 00:37:21.800
those three books. Anyone who wants to know church history,

521
00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:24.480
modern day church history, you better know those three books.

522
00:37:24.599 --> 00:37:27.960
You can't understand the modern day church without understanding Bunyan,

523
00:37:28.039 --> 00:37:32.760
Spurgeon and Chambers. So everyone should know them. Everyone should

524
00:37:32.840 --> 00:37:35.519
read them, but you should be thinking about what you're reading,

525
00:37:35.559 --> 00:37:43.119
analyzing it, critique it. We have to recognize their influence

526
00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:46.960
for what it is. Some may say, well, these books

527
00:37:46.960 --> 00:37:50.159
are great gifts, but they're gifts that came with a cost,

528
00:37:50.480 --> 00:37:55.000
a high cost. They may have given us warmth, but

529
00:37:55.039 --> 00:37:57.960
they but it was with but it came with weights.

530
00:37:59.119 --> 00:38:04.440
They may gave us access, but they've compromised accuracy. They

531
00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:07.519
may have taught us to fill the word, but they

532
00:38:07.559 --> 00:38:13.639
definitely did not teach us how to understand it. We

533
00:38:13.719 --> 00:38:21.199
need to return to things like context, grounded in theology,

534
00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:26.360
centered in Christ. We need to get back to understanding

535
00:38:26.400 --> 00:38:30.119
scripture based on what it says. Stop making it about

536
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:37.400
us when it's not about us. Thinking observation before interpretation. Observation,

537
00:38:37.559 --> 00:38:41.519
interpretation and application must be firmly rooted in what the

538
00:38:41.559 --> 00:38:44.400
text actually says. And we don't make the text about us.

539
00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:47.119
We're like, hey, this is what happened here, How could

540
00:38:47.159 --> 00:38:49.119
this be applicable to me in any way, shape or

541
00:38:49.119 --> 00:38:53.440
form without making the text about me, avoiding turning text

542
00:38:53.440 --> 00:38:56.719
into allegory and metaphor stop finding the church when the

543
00:38:56.760 --> 00:38:59.639
passage is clearly about the nation of Israel. Stop that

544
00:38:59.800 --> 00:39:03.639
not says he said, well, you're dispensational. Stop where we're

545
00:39:03.639 --> 00:39:06.920
putting people in camps, dispensational. Stop all of that nonsense.

546
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:10.920
It's not about dispensational, non dispensational. It's about reading comprehension.

547
00:39:11.119 --> 00:39:13.760
The text is about Israel, for crying out loud, Stop

548
00:39:13.760 --> 00:39:16.599
making it about the church, because it's not mentioning the Church.

549
00:39:25.639 --> 00:39:31.000
The Pilgrim's progress morning and evening and my utmost for

550
00:39:31.119 --> 00:39:35.920
his Highest changed Christianity forever, and it changed it for

551
00:39:35.960 --> 00:39:46.119
the worst. When it comes to hermeneutics and my sermon

552
00:39:46.199 --> 00:39:50.320
reviews have brought this to light over and over again.

553
00:39:50.719 --> 00:39:52.960
We've reviewed two sermons on Acts twenty seven. What did

554
00:39:52.960 --> 00:39:56.960
they do? The storms in your life? The storms the

555
00:39:57.039 --> 00:39:58.840
acts twenty seven is not a thing to do with

556
00:39:58.880 --> 00:40:01.840
the storms in your life. It's it's not prescriptive, it's descriptive.

557
00:40:01.960 --> 00:40:04.599
It's not giving you principles. Has not a thing to

558
00:40:04.760 --> 00:40:09.719
do with you. Isaiah forty through forty five through fifty five,

559
00:40:09.880 --> 00:40:12.400
all of a sudden's about us us. No, it has

560
00:40:12.480 --> 00:40:15.280
nothing to do with us. Those words of comfort are

561
00:40:15.320 --> 00:40:19.559
for them and their historical situation. And then it is

562
00:40:19.559 --> 00:40:24.079
that Isaiah forty three, which we're getting ready to begin,

563
00:40:24.599 --> 00:40:27.440
Isaiah forty three, probably next not this coming Sunday, but

564
00:40:27.519 --> 00:40:34.760
next week. Oh yes, And and John Bunyan, John Bunyan

565
00:40:34.880 --> 00:40:36.719
is one of the ones that really begin to do

566
00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:41.039
this Isaiah forty three. Two. When thou passest through the waters,

567
00:40:41.480 --> 00:40:43.679
I will be with THEE. And through the rivers they

568
00:40:43.760 --> 00:40:46.159
shall not overflow THEE. And when thou walk us through

569
00:40:46.159 --> 00:40:48.440
the fires, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the

570
00:40:48.440 --> 00:40:50.840
flame kindle upon THEE. Has nothing to do with you.

571
00:40:50.960 --> 00:40:53.239
Look at the very next verse. For I am the Lord,

572
00:40:53.559 --> 00:40:57.280
thy God, the Holy One of Israel. Oh wait, you

573
00:40:57.280 --> 00:40:59.039
don't know if that's who it's about. Go to Isaiah

574
00:40:59.039 --> 00:41:02.119
forty three, verse one. But now thus Saith, the lord

575
00:41:02.360 --> 00:41:06.280
that created the Oh Jacob and he Hath formed the

576
00:41:06.880 --> 00:41:12.039
Oh is ray L. It's about Israel. It's not about

577
00:41:12.079 --> 00:41:21.239
you either. Learn to read the Bible and stop allowing Bunyan,

578
00:41:21.760 --> 00:41:28.400
Spurgeon and Chambers to continue this absolute rewriting of the

579
00:41:28.440 --> 00:41:31.360
Bible to continue. Is it gonna Am I going to

580
00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:34.239
change anything? No, there are already people here going I disagree.

581
00:41:34.280 --> 00:41:36.280
I disagree. I think it's a great I think they're

582
00:41:36.280 --> 00:41:38.159
the greatest devotion he's ever written. I don't care what

583
00:41:38.199 --> 00:41:39.840
he says. I'm gonna go get the book right now

584
00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:41.960
and read it right now, and I'm gonna follow it

585
00:41:41.960 --> 00:41:43.320
the way they tell me to follow it. Well, go

586
00:41:43.360 --> 00:41:45.079
ahead and do that. I mean, I mean, you're in

587
00:41:45.119 --> 00:41:47.519
good company. That's where the majority of Christianity does that.

588
00:41:47.880 --> 00:41:50.719
But just stop telling me you care about Exegesus. Stop

589
00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:53.440
telling me you care about what the Bible actually says,

590
00:41:53.480 --> 00:42:05.000
because you don't. There we have it. That's the story

591
00:42:05.280 --> 00:42:09.679
of the three books that changed Christianity forever, the story

592
00:42:09.679 --> 00:42:12.719
of three books that rewrote the Bible. And no, I

593
00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:17.719
didn't go pull out books from heretics or false religion.

594
00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:21.079
Three books and where did these books originate from within

595
00:42:21.159 --> 00:42:25.119
the church. Within the church, within the church, we always

596
00:42:25.199 --> 00:42:28.840
like to look at the external. We have to look inside.

597
00:42:29.239 --> 00:42:31.400
And ladies and gentlemen, I'm not sitting there like, well,

598
00:42:31.719 --> 00:42:34.079
you know, are you claiming you're smarter than anyone else? No,

599
00:42:36.320 --> 00:42:39.960
Pilgrim's Progress and Morning and Evening by Spurgeon had massive

600
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:42.679
influence on me, and I followed that way of thinking

601
00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:44.840
over and over in my Christian life. As I said,

602
00:42:44.880 --> 00:42:48.119
I could pull up probably five hundred notebooks right now

603
00:42:48.239 --> 00:42:51.360
somewhere in the garage filled with notes that would look

604
00:42:51.440 --> 00:42:54.800
like I'm following that very same template and my approach,

605
00:42:54.880 --> 00:42:57.280
my devotional approach, and that devotional approach would show up

606
00:42:57.320 --> 00:43:03.440
in my preaching. Nobody's like, oh, there's such a And

607
00:43:03.480 --> 00:43:05.239
then when I started moving away from that, what did

608
00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:06.800
I get? Oh? I wish you would go back to

609
00:43:06.840 --> 00:43:08.880
the way you used to preach. I wish you would

610
00:43:08.920 --> 00:43:10.840
go back to the way you used to preach. We

611
00:43:10.920 --> 00:43:14.000
don't like this. We wanted to feel more like a sermon.

612
00:43:14.119 --> 00:43:19.000
We want whatever, because nobody really cares about the text.

613
00:43:19.320 --> 00:43:21.679
They want a sermon. They want a sermon, they want

614
00:43:21.679 --> 00:43:26.000
a speech, they want a play, they want a presentation.

615
00:43:26.320 --> 00:43:29.400
They want a performance because you get into the text.

616
00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:33.320
It's academic. It may be tedious. You may leave with

617
00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:42.599
going I don't understand. All right, We'll stop there and

618
00:43:42.719 --> 00:43:45.639
we'll talk more about these three books, maybe in greater detail.

619
00:43:46.559 --> 00:43:48.440
But I wanted you to at least know the story

620
00:43:49.920 --> 00:43:53.400
now today. Go, I mean right now, if you open

621
00:43:53.480 --> 00:43:56.400
up the uh, let me do it really quick. I'm

622
00:43:56.400 --> 00:44:02.840
gonna go to the sermons Sermonadio app really quick. Going

623
00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:09.000
to sermonadio app. Okay, hang on, going to sermonadio app.

624
00:44:09.039 --> 00:44:17.360
Where is the I'll go to discover where is the Uh?

625
00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:27.000
Hang on, maybe I'm not currently finding it. Where is it? Oh?

626
00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:29.320
Here's more more? Okay. If you go to the more

627
00:44:29.360 --> 00:44:33.000
tab down at the bottom, you'll see daily devotional. It'll

628
00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:36.400
take you to the Sermonadio website. March the twenty first,

629
00:44:36.440 --> 00:44:40.639
twenty twenty five. Start each day, right, enjoy Spurgeon's daily devotionals,

630
00:44:40.719 --> 00:44:43.679
and enjoy God's Word with a daily reading plan. All right,

631
00:44:43.960 --> 00:44:48.280
here's Spurgeon's morning. You shall be scattered every man to

632
00:44:48.400 --> 00:44:52.840
his own. You shall leave me alone, John sixteen thirty two.

633
00:44:53.199 --> 00:44:57.360
All right, uh, And then Spurgeon's Evening for tonight is

634
00:44:59.400 --> 00:45:03.800
Cat's sty will bind the sweet influence and lose the

635
00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:09.079
bands of or Ryan. And then it goes, well, he's

636
00:45:09.079 --> 00:45:12.880
going to take that verse way out of a context

637
00:45:12.960 --> 00:45:15.280
and do who knows what with it. But there you go.

638
00:45:15.719 --> 00:45:23.880
You can go check them out today. There you go,

639
00:45:24.679 --> 00:45:28.119
so check them out. And also you've got Daily Checkbook here,

640
00:45:29.159 --> 00:45:32.599
you got Daily Checkbook there. Daily Checkbook may be better

641
00:45:32.639 --> 00:45:35.119
than Morning and Evening. You can draw your own conclusions.

642
00:45:36.119 --> 00:45:37.840
I had a copy of Daily Checkbook. I still have

643
00:45:37.840 --> 00:45:39.960
a copy of Morning and Evening in a hardback somewhere

644
00:45:40.360 --> 00:45:42.760
because I've boughten multiple copies and said I'm going to

645
00:45:42.880 --> 00:45:45.000
spend all year going through it, and every time I'm like,

646
00:45:45.239 --> 00:45:48.440
what is happening? Now? Sometimes let's be fair. Sometimes you'll

647
00:45:48.480 --> 00:45:51.880
be like, that's actually pretty good. And it's true. We're

648
00:45:51.920 --> 00:45:54.960
not seeing every entry of every We're not going to

649
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.360
see every entry is wrong. We're saying that overall, it

650
00:45:59.400 --> 00:46:02.280
carries this idea and it takes these verses and rips

651
00:46:02.280 --> 00:46:04.559
them out of context, and we could talk about that's

652
00:46:04.599 --> 00:46:07.079
the whole danger of devotionals in the first place. Right,

653
00:46:07.519 --> 00:46:11.280
all right, thanks for listening. This should make me very

654
00:46:11.400 --> 00:46:14.559
very very very very very popular. I'm like, I bet you,

655
00:46:14.599 --> 00:46:17.320
I'm going to get so many downloads today, and I

656
00:46:17.360 --> 00:46:19.239
bet you I'm going to get emails with people going

657
00:46:19.480 --> 00:46:22.280
how can I support what you do? But no, I'm

658
00:46:22.280 --> 00:46:26.599
probably I'm going to get less support and some angry emails.

659
00:46:26.639 --> 00:46:29.440
But that's okay. It's got to be challenged, all right.

660
00:46:29.440 --> 00:46:31.639
Thanks for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless