Sept. 15, 2024

Is The Church In Trouble?

Is The Church In Trouble?

A discussion about the current state of the church

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A discussion about the current state of the church

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All right, this morning, we were going to go to

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Romans chapter two, verse one, and look at the next Therefore,

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as we go through the Book of Romans, looking at

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all the their furs. But because people being out this

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morning and things kind of going in a different direction,

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what we're going to do is we're going to discuss

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a subject that has been talked about pretty much my

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entire Christian life, and over and over and over and

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over and over. It is stated within the church, it's

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stated on Christian radio, it's stated in Christian publications, it's

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stated in Bible College and seminary over and over and

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over that the Church in America is in trouble, that

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we are in danger of full blown collapse, and it's

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all going to be over. And I was greatly influenced

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by that in my early Christian life, that the Church

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is in trouble, the Church is in trouble. And then

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I think in some ways it makes sense for those

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in Bible College and seminary to hear that, because then

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you're motivated to do what get done with Bible college,

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get a seminary, and then go out there and do

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what revolutionize everything, change everything. At the same time, obviously,

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I don't think it's just a marketing employee for seminaries

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and Bible colleges. But we know within Christianity throughout, depending

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on the specific time, usually with about every within ten

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of maybe fifteen years, someone comes forward with a new idea,

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a new concept, a new book, a new plan to

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fix the church. Right, And we could go through all

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the different movements, we could go through the revival movements

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of say Finny, we could go throughout throughout church history,

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and someone will come forward and they're like, this is

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what the church needs, right, we need a revival movement,

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or we need well we need amend's ministries like promise Keepers,

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or we need we need the purpose driven church, we

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need secret sensitive And then churches are always changing because

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they're trying to continue to do what to survive, but

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continue to because whether we like it or not, okay,

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And this is the negative part of church that in

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most cases churches are very much a business. And there's

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no way to get around denying that, right, because what

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do churches need to survive? They need people, and then

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they need those people to do what to give money?

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And why do they need the money? You gotta pay

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the bills, right, okay, because churches can't just operate. The

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buildings cost things, right, the uh keep everything going. And

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then if you want programs and activities, they cost things.

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And depending on some churches, you would be utterly shocked

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how much money churches spend for curriculum for Sunday school classes. Like,

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that's a crazy amount of money. So you got it.

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What do you have to keep doing? You gotta keep

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bringing in people? Right, So if things are going, if

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people are leaving, then you got to come up with

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a new and I know this sounds there's nothing spiritual

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about any of this. You got to come up with

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a new marketing plan. Right, how are we going to

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advertise or we send out? Depending on where you live.

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You live in Apple, probably about every couple of months

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you get some flyer from Beltleigh, Right, you're gonna get

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from some one of the big churches. And that costs

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lots of money to produce those, right, And so why

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because they gotta keep bringing in people And according to

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some studies, you have to bring in thirty people per

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year just to maintain thirty people a year just to

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stay where you are. Why because there's such turnover, right,

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people leave, people leave, people lead. That's just to stay

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where you are now. If you want to grow, you've

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got to bring in more than thirty a year. That's

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just that's just a cycle that you never can get anywhere.

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You can't get anywhere with that cycle, and it just

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puts a lot of pressure on everyone. So in many cases,

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pastor's job is really to do what well. He's got

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to motivate the people, to go out and bring in

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people only to maintain everything's going. And then what is

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the pastor also what else does he have to be

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very careful with doing? Can't tick off anybody. You make

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the wrong people mad, then they're out. And then and

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then this is where it can be very dangerous that

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if the pastor knows who gives the most as much

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as a pastor may try to separate himself from the finances.

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If usually you can figure it out, and once you

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figure it out, then what are you afraid to do?

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I can't tick off them because they're paying for them, right,

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So then them becomes the people You're like, Okay, well

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this may offend them, but they don't give as much

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as them, So I'm not gonna have everything about it

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because that's just it's disgusting. Right, nobody gets in the

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ministry thinking that's the way they want it to be. Right,

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you get in the ministry, you have all of these

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ideas and these concepts, and then you get into it

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and you're like, what has happened? This has turned into

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something I never envisioned. Right, You got people mad about this,

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you got people ticked off here. But you know, if

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they leave, then you don't have the money for this.

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You don't have the money for this, and then you've

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got your own selfish You may not get any money,

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and then what do you do for a living? Right,

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So then you have to be bivocational. And the people

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in the church may think that's wonderful and spiritual, but

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we know the detriment that can have one's family. So

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it's always this never ending cycle of, well, the church

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is in trouble. The church is in trouble because there's

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an entire basically it's almost like a entire industry of

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people trying to tell you what how to fix it,

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how to fix it, how to grow at church. There's

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books written about it. And so as everyone continues to

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try to figure that out, you've got all of these

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concerns and churches are always so much of what a

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church does. They may say it's evangelism, but in reality,

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what is it? Just business growth strategy keeping the doors open.

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I know you'll like, deep down, no, no, no, we

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want to get we want to bring people to Christ.

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You want to bring people to the church because without

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the people in the church, your church is not going

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to survive. And I hate that, right, I wish there was.

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There's no really easy way to fix it. There's no

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really easy way to fix it other than trying to say, well, well,

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I think when you're young you can come in saying

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I'm going to fix it, right, and I don't care

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who I tick off, right, And it depending on where

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where your situation is, right, like if you if you're

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not dependent upon the church for money, the pastor can

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be much more what get mad at me, I don't care,

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I don't need you, right, So that's a good thing, right,

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But it can also at the same time then that

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can hurt their church from ever growing. So it's such

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a I hate the entire thing. So the constant cry

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is the church is in trouble. The church is in trouble.

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And on one hand, you can see you can kind

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of understand why there is concern. At the same time,

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you can see that maybe sometimes it's more manufactured because

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someone is gonna get Look, anytime someone says the church

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is in trouble, what almost always follows that, order my book,

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come to my conference, buy my video, because I have

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the answer, and you need to give me money in

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order to get the end. Oh you see how wrong?

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That just feels right? That feels wrong. So at the

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same time, it also can be self serving for a

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pastor if the pastor stands behind the pulpit and tell

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everyone the church out there is a mess, the church

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is in trouble. Therefore you need basically me or you

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need this church that can kind of become their own marketing.

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I see that even that could be fleshly right. So

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there's no real great way to ever put it. This way,

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we can all dogmatically say this, the church will never

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be what what can we say? The church perfect? Never

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going to be perfect. It's always going to be a mess, right,

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It's always going to be flawed motivations, it's going to

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be corrupt, it's gonna be it's never gonna be perfect.

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And why is it never going to be perfect? That

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everyone in it is what imperfect and it's a sinner

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right when what we do not stop sinning because we

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become a Christian right, And to think that way is

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just a flawed understanding of the entire Gospel. Right, we

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are saved by what kind of righteousness? Imputed? Meaning it's

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a legal declaration. It doesn't make me righteous. I'm just

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declared to be righteous because christ righteousness is accredited to me. Right.

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Remember that's the entire Protestant Reformation hinges on that fact.

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Catholicism says you are infused with righteousness, and the Protestant says,

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righteousness is imputed or accredited to your account. I'm declared

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to be that which I am not. Right. That's a

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radical difference, correct, But that's great from a thiological standpoint,

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But from a practical standpoint, that makes things complicated in

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the Church because you've got a bunch of people who

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are declared to be righteous but who are not righteous,

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including the best right. So that makes it messy, right,

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and then you have money considerations building, and then you

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see where it can just turn into a mess. So

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all of those things are factual issues. At the same time,

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it's constantly said the churches is in trouble. The churches

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in trouble, the church is in trouble at the same time,

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depending on one's eschatology or study of the end times.

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At the same time, we feel that there is scriptural

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support saying the church is only going to get worse.

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And then that's two Timothy chapter three. Will at least

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look at this this morning, or yeah, fast approach afternoon.

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Second Timothy chapter three. We can at least look at this,

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right everybody there secon Timothy chapter three, verse one. But

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know this that in the last days, right, the last days?

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What kind of times are coming? Perilous times will come?

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Now typically a lot of churches. How is this read?

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They read this as describing the culture. And my argument is,

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this is not written to describe the culture. This is

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written to describe what the church is going to look like.

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And then what does it say that in the last

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days perilous times will come for men will be lovers

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of themselves. That don't tell me that's not inside the church,

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that's inside every church? Right? What else? Lovers of money?

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Don't tell me that's not inside the church, that's inside

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every church? What else? Boasters proud in fact, I think

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that's us the key to Christianity, right, Okay, because we

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think we're always better than everyone else. Right. Blasphemers maybe

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maybe in certain ways, Okay, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,

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unforgiving slanderers, without self control, brutal despisers of good, traders, headstrong, haughtie.

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And then look, this is the one where I know this. This,

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this is the thing that makes me know this is

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referring to the church. What does it say, lovers of

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pleasure rather than lovers of God? Now that's never If

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you're going to say in the last days this is

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the way it is going to be, people outside of

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Christianity would always be lovers of pleasure more than lovers

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of God. That would def that defines the world. Right.

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So what Paul is warning Timothy this is going to

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be the condition of the church. Now. The issue is

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that phrase the last days. Now, some people believe the

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last days begin win with the ascension of Christ, basically

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that when Christ descended, basically the last days began. Some

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people believe the last days. There's always some kind of

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argument on when they started do what right stage, So

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there's some argument, but almost everyone believes that we are

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definitely in the last days, right, So, and the point

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is that describes the church, does it? Not lovers of

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pleasure more than lovers of God? Look, the church is

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filled with that as well, don't don't we as Christians,

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we may try to act like but we love pleasures

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more than God. And there's every statistical study in the

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world demonstrates that. Right, Christians, Christians love pleasure more than

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lovers of God. If we didn't, Christians would be doing

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what all the time we'd be reading, studying, praying, going

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to church. Back in the early church? How many times

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did they meet every single day? Do we do that

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anymore in church? No? Right? And then churches bring in entertainment,

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they bring activities, they bring fun because guess what, that's

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what we like, right, having a form of godliness. That's

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another reason we know this is the church having a

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form of godliness but denying its power, and from such

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people turn away for these sorts or those who crept

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into houses and make captive of gulible women, loaded down

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with sins, led away by various lusts. This is referring

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to what's going to happen in the church. Paul is

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warning Timothy, this is what's coming to the church. Paul

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was telling Timothy that. So Paul knew that this was

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already happening. And we see this happening, right you read that?

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Does that not sound like the Church of Corinth? That

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sounds like the Church of Corinth. So during the Biblical times,

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this was already occurring, and it was already happening, and

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it's inevitable, this is what's going to happen in the church.

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So can in some ways, what can we say? The

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church has always been in trouble. Us always been in trouble,

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and it's only going to get worse. Right now, trying

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to figure all of this out is always complicated. So

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since this morning, since everything kind of got messed up,

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and I wanted to, you know, continue in our study

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in Romans, but we're gonna just discuss this because I

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was sent an article and I was going to use

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it for the podcast, but I was sent an article

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about basically, is the church and trouble? Well inevitably the

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obvious answer is yes, because in some ways it's always

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been in trouble. And why is it in trouble because

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of us? Now, historically the church tends to try to

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put itself that we're in trouble because of the bad

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people out there. Right. We like to play the victim.

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Oh they don't like us, Oh we're being persecuted. The

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church loves to take that particular stance. But really the

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issue is inside the church. Paul's warnings typically to any

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of the churches he wrote the problems were where in

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the church. Paul didn't write and say, watch out for

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those people outside of the church. The problems always inside.

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It always is with us. But it's much easier if

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you put the focus out there, because why if you

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have to deal with the problem and here, what's inevitably

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going to happen. You're gonna tick someone off. And as

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soon as they get ticked off, where do they go?

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They go right out the front door and they go

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to another church. And then the church has to deal

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with all those financial issues that we were discussing. You

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see how it's like the church's problems. Our system almost

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creates a system which they cannot be ultimately wide fixed

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because to address it is inevitably you're going to do

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what lose someone, you make a change, what's almost inevitably

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going to happen, you're going to lose someone like you can't.

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You almost have to kind of figure out, okay, you

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find the perfect stre and then you're just like, okay,

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I've got the majority happy, and if the minority is unhappy,

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you try to just as as quickly as possible, do

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what get them through? Go go, go, go go, because

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as long as I got to maintain a balance. And

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that's kind of that's kind of messed up the way

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it works, right, But this is this is what's it's

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been in the church. This describes the church, all right.

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I know if you go to most churches and they

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preach this, they act like, hey, what's the news? Pay

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attention to what's going on in Hollywood? This is what? No,

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that's not them. This is us, all right. So let's

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read this again that in the last days, peer list

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times will come. Let's go through them again. What's the

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first description? Lovers of themselves? Is that not? Where aren't

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we just built that way because of our sensful nature?

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Lovers of money? Okay, come on, churches love money just

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like people love money, right a right? Love them boasters, proud, blasphemers,

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disobedient to parents. I'm thankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving slanderers without

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self control, brutal despisers of good traders, headstrong, haughty lovers

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of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form

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of Godliness but denying its power. I think that that's inevitably.

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You may you can always go find one thing there

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and try to say well, and it covers so many

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things that it's hard for no one to say, well,

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I kind of fit in there. We all fit in

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there somewhere somehow, so well, I want to do relatively quickly.

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We'll see where this goes. We're going to work through

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this article. The name of this article is is the

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Body of Christ in Trouble? And this was sent to

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me Is the Body of Christ in Trouble? And this

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was published September the twelfth, twenty twenty four, so meaning

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once again it's now. But I can find articles from

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two thousand, nineteen ninety five, nineteen eighty five, nineteen nineteen

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sixty five, eighteen hundred, seventeen hundred, sixteen hundred. I mean

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a loser doctor Church was in trouble in the fifteen hundred.

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I mean we could go on and because in every

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every decade this same thing typically happens, all right, And

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this is from Grace Ministries. Bible College is from a

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Bible college, okay, which is where you typically start hearing

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how bad sometimes it's weird. Sometimes you hear about how

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bad the church is in Bible College. But inside the

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church you almost have to kind of play it off

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like everything's good, other than when you're trying to convince

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the people here that everything is good where here. Everything

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is bad out there because you want the people to

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stay here. Okay, So there's the selfish, selfish motivation that

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can come into play. So what do you think they

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start their argument with. This is where they start with.

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According to Pew Research Center, they did a survey on

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the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Right, so this is

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where they contact Christians and they basically ask about the

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fundamentals of the faith. Right, these are the basics, and

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we talk about the fundamentals. And remember the Fundamentals of

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the faith was in trouble when remember this, I tell

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everyone constantly, I've been for twenty something years to read

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these books, the four volumes on the Fundamentals. This is

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in the nineteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, And what was

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the problem. They were worried about the fundamentals. Okay, we

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can go all the way back to Luther. Luther was

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worried about the what I thought the fundamentals were. That's

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why the early Church was creating what catechisms, creeds, because

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there's always been a fight trying to define the fundamentals

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and then getting what people to believe and adhere to them. Right,

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that's why we have the Apostles, Creed, the nice and

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the Ethnician Creed. We can go through all throughout church history. Right. So,

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but according to this study, half of US Protestants, so

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this removes this removes Catholics, right, Half of us Protestants

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say faith alone is needed to get into heaven. That

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sounds good, right, But on one hand, isn't that shocking?

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Only forty six percent a Protestant say faith alone is

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needed to get into heaven. Only forty six percent. All right,

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ladies and gentlemen, that's okay, that's the end of that.

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That means someone needs to go find Luther's grave and

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wake him up and tell him what you lost? You failed.

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Only forty six percent Faith alone for salvation is the

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the I mean, that's the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation.

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So then what I mean, how do you what do

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you do when you see that statistic? But it gets worse,

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So only forty six percent agree to that. Are you

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ready for this? Fifty two percent say both good deeds

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and faith are needed. So that's a full blown rejection

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of sola fide. I mean, we go through all the

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solos of their reformation, it's all the Protestant Reformation failed.

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In twenty twenty four, we can announce the Protestant Reformation

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was a failure. And that's frustrating because typically in October

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thirty first, what are most churches running around here doing.

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They're doing fall festivals, trunk or treat yelling and screaming

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about the evils Halloween. And what should they be doing

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on October thirty first? You think they would be studying

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the Reformation, which is literally and from a historical perspective,

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almost the birth of Protestantism. I know independent Baptist would

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make a different argument, but we get the idea. From

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a historical perspective, we don't. We're not even agreeing with

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our own history that I mean, like that's when I

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read that, I was like, well, I'm I'm just gonna

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give up, all right, I'm just gonna go find a

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liquor store and just be done. Because this is what

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is that? Right? Only forty six percent of the participants

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say the Bible is the sole source of religious authority

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for Christians. So forty six percent say faith alone. That's

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already less than half. And then another forty six percent

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come along and say the only forty six that the

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Bible is the sole source of religious authority. So if

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the Bible, so that's what sola scriptura out the window,

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sola fide, I mean, we can go through all so

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la gratia, all of the solas are just finished, Like

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i'd how do you respond to these things? I don't

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even know what you do? Right, So, and now I've

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argued it forty six percent saying the Bible's the final authority.

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You even know that there's a bigger problem even with

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the forty six percent, because the forty six percent say

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the Bible's the final authority, and we know reality, who's

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the final authority, the individual, which is already a bigger problem.

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And that's a problem within Protestantism, right, Okay, what Catholicism

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would say, the Church has the authority, right, so we

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already know there's an nbajor problem here, right. However, fifty

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two percent say Christians should look both to the Bible

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and to the church's official teaching and traditions for guidance.

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That sounds very Catholic. That sounds very Catholic, all right,

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So so I don't even know what you do with that.

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I mean, what we're finding out is that everything is

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just a total mess, is what we're finding out. Only

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thirty percent, only thirty percent of those surveyed believe faith

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in God alone is needed for salvation and that the

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Bible provides all the guidance Christians need only thirty percent. However,

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only eighteen percent believe faith in God alone but not

398
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the Bible as the soul source. Another seventeen percent don't

399
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believe faith in God alone, but says the Bible is

400
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the sole source of guidance. So they're like, there's that's

401
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even a contradiction there. All I needs faith alone, No,

402
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I need scripture, Like it's just all over the place.

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And basically, how I mean, I've been saying it for

404
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twenty well more than twenty four years. The church is

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just I mean, I think it's fair to say is

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covered in philological illiteracy. There's biblical literacy, there's pillological illiteracy.

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But whenever you say, how do we fix the biblical

408
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and philological illiteracy, nobody wants the answer, right, because then

409
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churches would start focusing on deep teaching in seat of

410
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entertainment and what happens when you really try to go

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deep and really well? We transitioned. We transitioned from a

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church that taught theology to a church that now does theology.

413
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That doesn't work well? Does it? Because doing theology creates

414
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what makes people mad? Right? Because what do we do

415
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when we do theology? We question, we challenge, We create hypotheses,

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and then we test those theological hypotheses. Just over what

417
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in the last couple of months, what have we done?

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We completely came up with a radical different way to

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interpret Romans one eighteen to the end of the chapter.

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Right then we took the parable of the sewer. We

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flipped that completely on its head. But we considered every

422
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possible interpretation, and we challenge those interpretations because we are

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not bound by a tradition. What we should be bound

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by is the text. And if the text allows us

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to question and challenge that then we will. But people

426
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don't like that. They just want to come to church

427
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and get three nice little points and get out by noon,

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and that they did something of great meaning, when in

429
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reality they don't even remember what was preached by that evening.

430
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So then everyone's just playing a little game, right, and

431
00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:11.480
they kind of go to church more out of what reason,

432
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tradition or obligation. All right, So the article then has

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this Houston, we have a problem. Red lights flashing, alarms blaring.

434
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That's how I felt when I read these results. It

435
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says we are talking about Christians. The body of Christ

436
00:26:32.839 --> 00:26:35.039
is in trouble. Many of the men and women who

437
00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:38.279
go to church Sunday after Sunday don't understand the common faith,

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which it means to earnestly contend for the faith. And

439
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jud Chater, well, there's not chapters Jude verse three, right,

440
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which says to earnestly contend for the faith. Why was

441
00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:52.319
Jude trying to earnestly contend for the faith? Because there

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00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:55.920
was a problem. Now, on one hand, though, that tells

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me what has been from the very beginning. So on

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one end, we should not then panic, going, well, the

445
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church is in trouble. The church has always been in trouble.

446
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I guess that's what I want to drive. The church

447
00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:15.079
has always been in trouble. There's always this struggle within

448
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the church. And why is the struggle within the church

449
00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:23.720
because you have competing interest right, what are the competing interests? Well,

450
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the one interest is to do what bring in people

451
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so that they give money so that you can continue

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to maintain the building. You can build, You can have programs,

453
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you can have activities. Why do you need the programs

454
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and activities so you can bring in the people, And

455
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then you've got to keep doing things in order to

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keep the people that you brought in to keep paying

457
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for all of those things. So that's a competing interest.

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On the other side, there is the idea that what

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do the people need when they need theology, they need

460
00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:56.000
church history, they need doctrine, they need to understand the Hebrew,

461
00:27:56.079 --> 00:27:59.200
they need to understand Greek, they need to understand these

462
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.440
theological terms. Well, the problem is if you push that,

463
00:28:02.599 --> 00:28:06.519
what almost inevitably happens. Do you begin to lose people?

464
00:28:06.680 --> 00:28:09.680
And if you begin to lose people, then the other

465
00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:14.640
factor of money, and now you end up in a mess.

466
00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:18.640
In the church. And that's the struggle within the church.

467
00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:23.519
And how do you now churches, many churches who try

468
00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:25.359
to do a lot of those things. They will tell

469
00:28:25.400 --> 00:28:30.200
you what we're doing good teaching. We're doing good teaching. Inevitably,

470
00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:32.200
when you review the teaching is not near as good

471
00:28:32.200 --> 00:28:35.240
as they make it sound. Out it sounds good because

472
00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:39.599
the pastors can be trained to speak in an authoritative way.

473
00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:43.279
Make it sound good, give you three good points. You think, oh,

474
00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:45.759
we really studied the text. And then you just ask

475
00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:48.599
people basic questions about the text, and almost inevitably they

476
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:52.640
cannot answer them because they didn't actually do what study

477
00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:59.599
the text? Well, how do you fix this? So on

478
00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:02.200
one end, the problem's always been there, but there is

479
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:04.240
I think what we can say is what there's no what,

480
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:10.599
There's no ultimate way to fix this. There's no easy answer, right,

481
00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:13.640
there is really no easy answer. And how to fix it?

482
00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:15.480
I mean, obviously they couldn't fix it. They didn't fix

483
00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:19.920
it in the New Testament era. Right, was Paul able

484
00:29:19.960 --> 00:29:25.200
to fix it? No? Was John able to fix it? No?

485
00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:29.279
I know? And then what did the early church tried

486
00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:31.799
to fix it? They tried to fix it with the councils, right,

487
00:29:32.440 --> 00:29:35.880
did that fix everything? No, it just the church became

488
00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:38.400
more and more divided, more and more divided, more divided.

489
00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:40.559
And then by time Luther comes down to the scene

490
00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:43.079
in the fifteen hundreds, by the time he takes it,

491
00:29:43.079 --> 00:29:45.680
he writes his ninety five thesis, the church is a total,

492
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:50.200
absolute mess. I mean, the church is so messed up

493
00:29:50.200 --> 00:29:52.680
it's not even funny. Then then the Luther thinks he's

494
00:29:52.720 --> 00:29:56.599
got the solution. Post the ninety five thesis, the Protestant

495
00:29:56.640 --> 00:29:59.599
Reformation happens, and then how long did that last? Well,

496
00:29:59.599 --> 00:30:03.400
then ediately the Protestants started fighting with whom each other,

497
00:30:03.799 --> 00:30:05.759
and then they split, and they split, and they split,

498
00:30:05.799 --> 00:30:07.839
and they split, and they split and they split. And

499
00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:10.960
now we're I mean, depending on which source you look at,

500
00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:18.039
thousands of denominations, thousands upon thousands upon thousands, and we

501
00:30:18.200 --> 00:30:23.359
have no it's just a total and complete mess, all right.

502
00:30:24.039 --> 00:30:27.359
So he goes on to say that most Christians don't

503
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:30.279
understand the common faith. Right, So then they go on

504
00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:33.799
to say this, what Scripture says about the children of

505
00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:37.599
Visual and Jeremiah and Hosea is prophetic about the body

506
00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:39.559
of Christ today. Now, immediately when I read this, I

507
00:30:39.559 --> 00:30:43.880
already have problems, right, because he's worried about the person

508
00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.640
who writes the article this Bible college is Hey, we

509
00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:49.960
got an issue because the church is a mess. So

510
00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:53.119
then he wants to find scripture to address the problems

511
00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:55.559
in the church, and he goes to the books of

512
00:30:56.519 --> 00:31:06.559
Jeremiah and Hosea. Now, you can'trest if you're going to

513
00:31:06.599 --> 00:31:08.680
address the problem, you go to address the problem in

514
00:31:08.680 --> 00:31:11.400
somewhat of a meaningful way, right, because what's the problem

515
00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:16.160
with going to Jeremiah and Hosea. Okay, yeah, Jeremiah and

516
00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:20.039
Hosea are dealing with issues facing either the Northern Kingdom

517
00:31:20.039 --> 00:31:22.359
and the Southern Kingdom or the combined Kingdom. So let's

518
00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:24.079
look at the We're gonna look at the scriptures that

519
00:31:24.079 --> 00:31:26.319
they offer and see where we go. Here. Are you ready,

520
00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:31.839
all right? Jeremiah chapter two, verse thirteen. Go to Jeremiah

521
00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:36.720
chapter two, verse thirteen. Oh, we already know we have

522
00:31:36.799 --> 00:31:53.559
problems here Jeremiah chapter two. Right now, before we look

523
00:31:53.559 --> 00:31:56.079
at the particular verse, let's go back and let's try

524
00:31:56.119 --> 00:31:59.680
to establish some kind of context. Right, Let's go to

525
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:02.440
Jaiah chapter two, verse one. That's a good place to start,

526
00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:05.559
don't you think. Moreover, the word of the Lord came

527
00:32:05.599 --> 00:32:12.920
to me. Who's the me? Jeremiah saying, go cry in

528
00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:18.960
the hearing of Jerusalem, go and hear in the Christ.

529
00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:22.240
So who is he to go speak to Jerusalem? Right?

530
00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:24.200
I mean, that's what the text says. You don't have

531
00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:26.400
to figure out a Bible college to figure that out, right,

532
00:32:27.160 --> 00:32:33.960
saying that says the Lord, I remember you in some

533
00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:39.160
translations thee and other translations. Who is now Jeremiah is

534
00:32:39.240 --> 00:32:41.799
recording the words of God? And God is thing I

535
00:32:41.839 --> 00:32:44.680
remember you? Or Thee? Who is the you and the Thee?

536
00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:51.839
He's referencing Jerusalem or Israel? Correct, the kindness of your youth,

537
00:32:52.119 --> 00:32:54.920
the love of your betrothal when you went after me

538
00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:58.799
in the wilderness, and a land not sown Israel was

539
00:32:58.839 --> 00:33:01.880
holiness to the Lord. The first fruits of his increase.

540
00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:05.119
All the devour him will offend. Disaster will come upon them,

541
00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:08.680
says the Lord. He even tells you who he's referring to.

542
00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:15.240
Who's referring to Israel. There's nothing to do with the church. Now,

543
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:17.400
we'll see how the article's gonna use this. But I'm

544
00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:20.880
already concerned. Right. So the articles like, hey, the church

545
00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:23.400
is a mess. They don't even understand the fundamentals of

546
00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:25.319
the faith. And how am I going to address it

547
00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:31.599
by going to a passage that's not about the Church? Well,

548
00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:34.680
that's problem right now. If he wants to say, let's

549
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:37.720
look at how Israel acted and then we'll compare it

550
00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:39.640
to the Church, maybe he's going to do that. But

551
00:33:39.720 --> 00:33:42.440
I just want you to see clearly who's he referring to.

552
00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:44.920
You See look at verse four. If you need more

553
00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:51.599
clear more evidence, hear the word of the Lord, oh

554
00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:55.279
house of Jacob, all the families of the House of Israel.

555
00:33:55.279 --> 00:33:58.079
I mean, come on, you don't You don't even need

556
00:33:58.119 --> 00:34:01.000
Bible college or seminary to figure it is that. You

557
00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:04.960
need basic reading comprehension that you're supposed to learn in school. Right.

558
00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:10.000
If you need more help, look at verse six. Neither

559
00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:12.599
did they say, where is the Lord who brought us

560
00:34:12.679 --> 00:34:17.320
up out of the land of Who is that Israel?

561
00:34:17.639 --> 00:34:22.480
Who led us through the Who's that Israel through the land?

562
00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:25.360
And he goes on and on and on. I brought

563
00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:28.679
you into a bountiful country. Who did he bring into

564
00:34:28.679 --> 00:34:33.119
a country? Israel? All right? You read about it in

565
00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:37.599
the Bible, all right? We read about the wilderness wanderings,

566
00:34:37.599 --> 00:34:40.199
and then we have them coming into to the land,

567
00:34:40.440 --> 00:34:43.239
so you can tell who all this is referencing. I

568
00:34:43.239 --> 00:34:48.599
don't think there's any way to understand. I mean, I mean,

569
00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:51.000
it's just so I don't I just get frustrated. But

570
00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:52.719
go to verse thirteen. This is the verse they want

571
00:34:52.760 --> 00:34:59.800
us to read. All right, first three words for my people?

572
00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:03.880
Now who are my people? As a reference to Israel,

573
00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:06.639
you could just put Israel right there if you need to. Now,

574
00:35:06.840 --> 00:35:11.000
what did his people do? They have committed to evils?

575
00:35:11.440 --> 00:35:16.960
So what evils did Israel commit? Number one, they have

576
00:35:17.079 --> 00:35:21.760
forsaken me the fountain of living waters. And secondly they

577
00:35:21.800 --> 00:35:27.039
have funed themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

578
00:35:27.440 --> 00:35:30.199
Just to make sure that there's no confusion, very next

579
00:35:30.280 --> 00:35:36.119
verse Israel. The very next verse seven mentions Israel. So

580
00:35:36.559 --> 00:35:40.679
this is God's words to his people Israel and the

581
00:35:40.719 --> 00:35:43.480
sins that they had committed against him. And we know

582
00:35:43.840 --> 00:35:46.000
that He's going to go after them over and over

583
00:35:46.079 --> 00:35:48.960
and over and over in the Book of Jeremiah. And

584
00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:51.039
then ultimately what's going to happen before the Book of

585
00:35:51.079 --> 00:36:00.880
Jeremiah is over which captivity Babylonian captivity, right them primarily

586
00:36:01.239 --> 00:36:03.679
when we say Israel, well that's a generic we're referring

587
00:36:03.719 --> 00:36:06.639
to both. But in this particular case, this is the

588
00:36:06.679 --> 00:36:10.679
Southern Kingdom, and the Southern Kingdom goes into Babylonian captivity

589
00:36:10.679 --> 00:36:15.480
for how long? Seventy years? And so Jeremiah's warning them

590
00:36:15.480 --> 00:36:18.920
that judgment is coming. What happened to the Northern Kingdom

591
00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:22.760
Assyrian captivity and they never really come out. Judah goes

592
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:26.119
into Babylonian captivity to be returned to come back out

593
00:36:26.119 --> 00:36:28.920
of it. Right, so we know the historical context. Remember

594
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:32.400
we spent half a year in the Book of Jeremiah,

595
00:36:32.480 --> 00:36:34.920
so we should know that. Really, well, so what does

596
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:36.320
he think he's going to do? What do they think

597
00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:38.440
they're going to do with this? Right? They just quoted it.

598
00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:44.360
Let's see, are you ready? The individuals and the Pew

599
00:36:44.440 --> 00:36:48.159
Research survey shows levels of disagreement with what the Bible

600
00:36:48.199 --> 00:36:50.400
says about faith and the role of the Bible plays

601
00:36:50.440 --> 00:36:53.320
and how we are to live. And you and I

602
00:36:53.400 --> 00:36:56.639
know when that happens, people are creating doctrine that works

603
00:36:56.639 --> 00:37:00.039
for them, cisterns they are willing to drink from the

604
00:37:00.079 --> 00:37:02.039
Bible says this is evil. Now you see what he

605
00:37:02.159 --> 00:37:06.800
just did there. Okay, he's saying that when we look

606
00:37:06.840 --> 00:37:10.119
at this survey, they're creating their own doctrine. That is

607
00:37:10.239 --> 00:37:13.880
very true. They have departed from the fundamentals of the faith,

608
00:37:14.679 --> 00:37:17.519
that is very true. But he's trying to draw a

609
00:37:17.559 --> 00:37:22.360
parallel between this word to Judah that they'd une out

610
00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:25.719
their own cisterns, and that's what Christians are doing today.

611
00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:28.400
You can try to draw a parallel if you want.

612
00:37:28.639 --> 00:37:30.159
We just got to make sure we make it very

613
00:37:30.159 --> 00:37:35.199
clear this is about Judah. Now, I think I could

614
00:37:35.199 --> 00:37:37.679
go to New Testament passages and probably do a better

615
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:39.880
job of doing this than going to this one, because

616
00:37:39.920 --> 00:37:43.719
you create the confusion. If you're trying to address people

617
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:46.079
who've left the fundamentals of the faith, the last thing

618
00:37:46.119 --> 00:37:48.559
you need to do is in the U Scripture in

619
00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:51.199
a way that could possibly only lead to confusion. I

620
00:37:51.239 --> 00:37:55.159
got no problem saying something like, what remember what Israel dead?

621
00:37:56.320 --> 00:37:58.679
The Church does the same thing. Why do we do

622
00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:02.480
the same thing as Israel. We're all sinners, all right,

623
00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:05.440
So there maybe would be a better way to approach it. Okay,

624
00:38:05.480 --> 00:38:08.920
so all right, he doesn't do horrible with that, But okay,

625
00:38:08.920 --> 00:38:17.000
but now says, go to Joseah chapter four, Hosea chapter four,

626
00:38:17.159 --> 00:38:21.719
And you know I get nervous already, right, I don't

627
00:38:21.719 --> 00:38:23.599
even need to go back to chapter one, verse one

628
00:38:23.679 --> 00:38:27.320
for this. Look at Hoseiah chapter four, verse one. Doesn't

629
00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:29.239
take a lot of time to figure out. Once again,

630
00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:34.320
what's being spoken of here, Hosea chapter four, verse one.

631
00:38:34.519 --> 00:38:37.840
Let me know if you're there, hear the word of

632
00:38:37.880 --> 00:38:43.280
the Lord. The children have Israel, for the Lord brings

633
00:38:43.320 --> 00:38:49.440
a charge against the inhabitants of the land. Do you

634
00:38:49.480 --> 00:38:52.960
see that? Clearly this has a historical context. Right, So

635
00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:55.880
what verse do you think he wants us to look at?

636
00:38:56.800 --> 00:39:01.559
He wants us to look at verse six. Now what

637
00:39:01.599 --> 00:39:04.960
does it say? First two words my people? Okay, Now,

638
00:39:04.960 --> 00:39:09.239
immediately that's a reference to Israel. Okay, that drives me crazy. Hell,

639
00:39:09.840 --> 00:39:12.079
but this kind of stuff happens in churches all the time,

640
00:39:12.119 --> 00:39:14.159
even when they're addressing the problems in the church that

641
00:39:14.280 --> 00:39:18.159
continue to perpetuate the same problem. All right, my people

642
00:39:18.639 --> 00:39:25.199
are destroyed for lock of knowledge? All right? Now, what

643
00:39:25.320 --> 00:39:28.280
is he going to say here? It says in verse one.

644
00:39:28.920 --> 00:39:31.920
Now I do I like this about the article in

645
00:39:32.039 --> 00:39:34.079
verse one? The Lord has an issue with the children

646
00:39:34.079 --> 00:39:36.840
of Israel. Can we all applied? All right? Yet's good?

647
00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:40.320
That's really good, right, because there is no truth, nor mercy,

648
00:39:40.440 --> 00:39:42.599
nor knowledge of God in the land. And the Lord

649
00:39:42.639 --> 00:39:45.360
gives us the reason why in verse six, my people

650
00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:49.119
are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Because thou hast

651
00:39:49.199 --> 00:39:53.880
rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee that thou shalt be,

652
00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:57.280
that thou shalt be no priest to me. Seeing that

653
00:39:57.320 --> 00:39:59.719
has forgotten the law of thy God, I will also

654
00:39:59.800 --> 00:40:03.079
forget get thy children. When we look at Jeremiah and

655
00:40:03.079 --> 00:40:05.440
Hoseiah together, we see that the people are destroyed for

656
00:40:05.480 --> 00:40:08.599
a lack of knowledge, because they are determining for themselves

657
00:40:08.920 --> 00:40:12.920
who God is and how he is to be served. Now,

658
00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:15.679
I think there is a parallel between what Israel does

659
00:40:15.719 --> 00:40:18.599
and what the Church does. So in that sense we

660
00:40:18.639 --> 00:40:23.320
can agree, right, Israel and the Church are run a

661
00:40:23.360 --> 00:40:27.679
parallel course, do we not? We do so? Right? And

662
00:40:27.719 --> 00:40:33.880
what is true of both courses? Both paths sinners who

663
00:40:34.039 --> 00:40:40.920
act in very similar ways. Now the question comes down

664
00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:45.239
to now, so let's let's go ahead and draw a parallel.

665
00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:47.079
Let's do this all right? So now you've got your

666
00:40:47.079 --> 00:40:49.719
thinking caps on, because I'm going to present you the problem. Right.

667
00:40:51.039 --> 00:40:55.480
Israel had this problem throughout their entire history, right through

668
00:40:55.519 --> 00:40:59.519
their entire history, and it got really bad for them, right,

669
00:40:59.559 --> 00:41:02.800
really really bad for them, because ultimately God in the

670
00:41:02.840 --> 00:41:07.519
flesh came to his own Israel offered them the kingdom,

671
00:41:08.920 --> 00:41:13.280
and they killed the king. Right, And so what happens

672
00:41:13.320 --> 00:41:16.679
in seventy a D. They're wiped off the face of

673
00:41:16.719 --> 00:41:20.280
the earth. Gone, seventy a D. They're done, right, and

674
00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:24.559
they basically don't exist as a nation until nineteen forty eight,

675
00:41:24.559 --> 00:41:27.360
all right, So but we can see the parallel of

676
00:41:27.480 --> 00:41:30.159
them and all of their sin, their rejection, and we

677
00:41:30.199 --> 00:41:33.559
can see that, all right, Typically, depending on your theology,

678
00:41:33.679 --> 00:41:37.800
the Church shows up when about thirty three a D. Right,

679
00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:41.400
And now the Church is running its course, right, And

680
00:41:41.440 --> 00:41:45.800
the Church and most cases, act very similar to Israel,

681
00:41:46.360 --> 00:41:50.000
very similar. Right, we say the right words, we may

682
00:41:50.320 --> 00:41:52.599
use the right words, We do a lot of the

683
00:41:52.639 --> 00:41:55.519
same things, but some of the same rebellion and the

684
00:41:55.599 --> 00:42:00.519
same sin is present. So then the issue is if

685
00:42:00.559 --> 00:42:04.199
we are following a very similar path and we conmit

686
00:42:04.239 --> 00:42:09.239
the very same sin, and even these verses, right, we

687
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:12.000
reject knowledge, we hewn out our own sisters, what we

688
00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:15.440
do the very similar things. Then the issue is what

689
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:21.400
is the problem and what is the solution? Now, what

690
00:42:21.599 --> 00:42:27.039
is the problem? We're all so we can maintain this.

691
00:42:27.320 --> 00:42:30.559
The problem is internal sin, and what can we be

692
00:42:30.719 --> 00:42:35.760
dogmatic about that God has not removed that internal sin.

693
00:42:35.960 --> 00:42:38.360
Now you see where why this is a problem in churches.

694
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:43.519
The church can never address the problem because the church

695
00:42:43.599 --> 00:42:47.840
is almost inevitably unwilling to acknowledge that as Christians we

696
00:42:47.880 --> 00:42:51.480
are still what. They will say it, sometimes they'll pay

697
00:42:51.559 --> 00:42:53.639
lip service to it. And this is where the church

698
00:42:53.679 --> 00:42:57.039
gets very confused, because while the church may say we're

699
00:42:57.079 --> 00:42:59.800
still sinners, what do they continue to preach over and

700
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:01.519
over and over and over. You can go to every

701
00:43:01.599 --> 00:43:03.440
church in ably and ask them this question, and they

702
00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:05.559
will all give an affirmative answer that when you become

703
00:43:05.559 --> 00:43:09.119
a Christian, what happened to you? Practically you become a

704
00:43:09.119 --> 00:43:12.880
new creature. All things have passed away, all things have

705
00:43:12.920 --> 00:43:17.239
become new. So then the inevitable idea is what Christians

706
00:43:17.239 --> 00:43:22.599
should no longer sin? Well, that's completely fraugile. And because

707
00:43:22.599 --> 00:43:24.679
if we're new creatures and the oldest gone and everything

708
00:43:24.760 --> 00:43:29.199
is new, all of our problems in the church should

709
00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:34.079
be over So we know that the problem is that

710
00:43:34.159 --> 00:43:38.920
when that passage says anyone who's and Christ is a

711
00:43:38.920 --> 00:43:42.239
new creature, that's reference to our positional standing before God,

712
00:43:42.519 --> 00:43:46.599
not our practical reality. My position is because of imputed righteousness,

713
00:43:46.599 --> 00:43:50.360
I'm perfect holy, practically I'm not, but the Church has

714
00:43:50.360 --> 00:43:54.159
a hard time recognizing that or dealing with that. As

715
00:43:54.159 --> 00:44:02.480
a result, we can never fix the problem. So what

716
00:44:02.639 --> 00:44:04.639
is the cause of the problem in Israel and in

717
00:44:04.719 --> 00:44:12.000
the Church sin? What is the solution? Okay, now the

718
00:44:12.039 --> 00:44:14.960
Diane just said, I think on one hand, the solution

719
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:18.639
first is we are saved positionally by imputed righteousness. That

720
00:44:18.679 --> 00:44:21.920
doesn't fix the practical problem. But the ultimate solution is

721
00:44:21.960 --> 00:44:24.679
not this glorification. What's going to be the ultimate solution

722
00:44:24.840 --> 00:44:29.079
for Israel when all Israel is saved? And then we

723
00:44:29.199 --> 00:44:31.400
talked about the millennial kingdom right, So like we're on

724
00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:36.199
very parallel paths. So let's see what they offer as

725
00:44:36.280 --> 00:44:38.920
the cause of the problem and the solution. Are you ready?

726
00:44:40.119 --> 00:44:43.559
When we look at Jeremiah and Hoseah together, we see

727
00:44:43.559 --> 00:44:45.639
that the people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge

728
00:44:45.679 --> 00:44:48.119
because they are determining for themselves who God is and

729
00:44:48.159 --> 00:44:50.599
how he is to be served. Now, stop right there,

730
00:44:50.880 --> 00:44:52.480
Guess what that sounds like. They're going to say the

731
00:44:52.519 --> 00:44:57.840
problem the solution is, they're going to say, the solution is,

732
00:44:57.880 --> 00:45:02.400
we just need people to have the right knowledge, and

733
00:45:02.400 --> 00:45:04.559
then if we get the right knowledge, then we fix

734
00:45:04.599 --> 00:45:09.199
all of our problems. That that sounds good, right. I

735
00:45:09.239 --> 00:45:11.199
would have been very committed to that early in my

736
00:45:11.280 --> 00:45:14.280
Christian life, like, hey, if we just teach everyone the

737
00:45:14.360 --> 00:45:18.559
right way, then everything will be fine. But that doesn't

738
00:45:18.559 --> 00:45:22.480
work that way, does it after twenty five year? I

739
00:45:22.519 --> 00:45:23.960
took me twenty five years to figure it out. But

740
00:45:24.280 --> 00:45:27.320
now I've kind of figured it out, right, Okay, So

741
00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:30.239
let's see if they offer a solution that seems to

742
00:45:30.280 --> 00:45:32.480
be where they're going. Maybe maybe they're gonna pivot here

743
00:45:33.119 --> 00:45:37.599
It says, guess who God holds responsible for the sorry

744
00:45:37.679 --> 00:45:40.800
state of affairs? Now, this is how something I would

745
00:45:40.840 --> 00:45:42.559
have said, who do you think the article is going

746
00:45:42.639 --> 00:45:47.440
to blame? Now, we're not gonna blame it is Relkay,

747
00:45:47.519 --> 00:45:51.400
They're gonna blame pastors, which is what I would have done. Right.

748
00:45:51.760 --> 00:45:54.000
Remember I used to always blame the church, the church,

749
00:45:54.079 --> 00:45:56.719
the church, the church, the church, the church. Right, So

750
00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:00.760
here we go the priest. That's who that they level

751
00:46:00.760 --> 00:46:04.280
because he's quoting Old Testament scriptures. Right, he holds them

752
00:46:04.360 --> 00:46:08.760
responsible for the people, for the people not knowing or

753
00:46:08.800 --> 00:46:13.679
adhering to his laws. Whoa wait a minute, So it's

754
00:46:13.719 --> 00:46:18.480
the priest's fault for people not knowing nor adhering to

755
00:46:18.559 --> 00:46:23.000
the laws. Now go back to that Hoseah passage. They

756
00:46:23.039 --> 00:46:28.440
wanted us to read Hoseah for six. Right, does the

757
00:46:28.480 --> 00:46:31.639
next verse explain why they have a lack of knowledge?

758
00:46:31.760 --> 00:46:41.559
Or am I wrong? I'm just going from memory? Say

759
00:46:41.599 --> 00:46:51.440
that again? Well, look at verse six the first part.

760
00:46:51.599 --> 00:46:54.719
My people are destroyed for a lack of next verse

761
00:46:54.800 --> 00:47:01.639
or next or next part because you have rejected did knowledge? Now,

762
00:47:01.679 --> 00:47:07.480
wait a minute, is it my fault this someone rejects knowledge?

763
00:47:11.920 --> 00:47:16.440
Right now? See, you gotta be careful here, right. You

764
00:47:16.480 --> 00:47:21.599
can't hold the priests responsible if the people reject knowledge.

765
00:47:22.159 --> 00:47:26.599
All you can do is teach him the knowledge. I

766
00:47:26.679 --> 00:47:31.719
can make you accept it. I mean, are we on

767
00:47:31.800 --> 00:47:34.199
the same path? I mean, if you're a parent, can't

768
00:47:34.239 --> 00:47:37.599
you can tell your kids things you can't do? What

769
00:47:39.079 --> 00:47:41.280
make them? What's the old saying? You can lead a

770
00:47:41.320 --> 00:47:44.280
horse to water, can't make him drink, right? I don't

771
00:47:44.280 --> 00:47:45.920
know if you can or can't. I don't know the

772
00:47:46.159 --> 00:47:49.920
facts the facts of that, but I know it sounds good, right.

773
00:47:50.679 --> 00:47:57.400
I can only teach so much? You can't as a pastor.

774
00:47:57.639 --> 00:47:59.800
Not only can you only teach so much? What can

775
00:47:59.800 --> 00:48:04.280
you not do? You can't even make people show up? Okay,

776
00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:07.760
you're right there, right, There's been countless times in church

777
00:48:07.840 --> 00:48:09.920
and you're like, oh, I'm gonna cover this, I'm gonna

778
00:48:09.920 --> 00:48:12.480
cover this, and then six months later some people will say, well,

779
00:48:12.519 --> 00:48:15.159
what about this and what about that? I'm like, I

780
00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:18.440
just spent six months studying that. Do you not pay

781
00:48:18.519 --> 00:48:21.119
any attention to what we do here? Right? I mean?

782
00:48:21.280 --> 00:48:25.199
And for us for twenty something years, everything we teach

783
00:48:25.280 --> 00:48:28.840
is on the internet, usually within a thirty minutes after

784
00:48:28.960 --> 00:48:32.800
the message, Okay, and not only that, five six hours

785
00:48:32.800 --> 00:48:36.119
of broadcasting almost a day. Like I mean, I'm I

786
00:48:36.119 --> 00:48:39.119
mean we I mean we're are this church in the

787
00:48:39.159 --> 00:48:41.239
middle of nowhere. We're in the top five percent of

788
00:48:41.280 --> 00:48:46.320
all podcasts on the internet. Okay, that's I mean that.

789
00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:51.440
I mean that that means what our content is where available? Right,

790
00:48:51.559 --> 00:48:54.960
I mean we're everywhere. We're on serious XM satellite radio

791
00:48:55.039 --> 00:48:58.840
for crying out loud. Okay, we're everywhere. Okay, So that

792
00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:03.320
means the content it has always been available. But what

793
00:49:03.440 --> 00:49:08.599
can I not do? I can't go Bobby, Diane, what

794
00:49:08.599 --> 00:49:12.480
are you doing in there? Listen to the podcast? I mean,

795
00:49:12.519 --> 00:49:14.239
I guess I could Bobby probably pull out a gun

796
00:49:14.280 --> 00:49:19.159
if they get off my yard, right, okay, right, okay,

797
00:49:19.320 --> 00:49:22.400
So the point that I can't do anything, So I

798
00:49:22.400 --> 00:49:23.719
don't know if I want to put the blame on

799
00:49:23.760 --> 00:49:28.559
the priest here, because it doesn't say they didn't have

800
00:49:28.639 --> 00:49:30.960
knowledge available? What does it say? Let everyone look at

801
00:49:30.960 --> 00:49:36.400
that verse again. They rejected it. Now why do we

802
00:49:36.519 --> 00:49:42.199
reject knowledge? Okay, now we're going back to the real problem.

803
00:49:42.199 --> 00:49:46.280
Where's the real problem again? The sin nature? What does

804
00:49:46.320 --> 00:49:56.639
sin nature do? Sin nature cares about one thing? What self? Right?

805
00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:01.519
What does the sin nature love self? What does it

806
00:50:01.559 --> 00:50:05.079
care about self? What does it exalt self? What does

807
00:50:05.119 --> 00:50:11.199
it want self? So in many cases it's our sin

808
00:50:11.320 --> 00:50:17.639
nature that does what rejects? So I want everyone look

809
00:50:17.639 --> 00:50:19.000
at that verse again. I want to make sure you

810
00:50:19.039 --> 00:50:22.719
just write this verse down. Okay, my people, that's Israel's.

811
00:50:22.760 --> 00:50:24.519
But if we're gonna connect it to the church, are

812
00:50:24.519 --> 00:50:27.719
destroyed for a lack of knowledge and when I and look,

813
00:50:27.760 --> 00:50:29.920
I was taught this in Bible college, taught it everywhere.

814
00:50:29.920 --> 00:50:33.679
And guess what my idea was, Well, I'm going to

815
00:50:33.719 --> 00:50:37.400
be the one to fix this. I'm gonna have a church,

816
00:50:37.559 --> 00:50:40.559
and all we're gonna do is teach, teach, teach. I'm

817
00:50:40.559 --> 00:50:43.480
gonna teach them church history. I'm gonna go all the

818
00:50:43.519 --> 00:50:46.639
way back to the seven Ecumenical Council. And did I

819
00:50:46.679 --> 00:50:49.239
not do all of this? I'm gonna teach, teach. We're

820
00:50:49.239 --> 00:50:52.719
gonna do systematic theology. We're gonna do historical theology. We're

821
00:50:52.719 --> 00:50:55.760
gonna do biblical theology. We're gonna talk Hebrew, We're gonna

822
00:50:55.760 --> 00:50:59.360
talk Greek. We're gonna talk about exegeating scripture. We're gonna

823
00:50:59.360 --> 00:51:04.119
go on and on. We're gonna study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study.

824
00:51:04.280 --> 00:51:08.360
I'm gonna fix it. What did I stupid? What did

825
00:51:08.360 --> 00:51:13.360
I not do? Read the next line? Okay, what does

826
00:51:13.400 --> 00:51:17.920
the next line say? Yeah? I didn't. No one can

827
00:51:18.239 --> 00:51:22.639
fix that for me. Right, Because you have rejected knowledge,

828
00:51:22.719 --> 00:51:24.920
I will also reject you from being priest for me

829
00:51:25.199 --> 00:51:27.239
because you have forgotten the law of your God. Now

830
00:51:27.280 --> 00:51:31.079
please note I'm gonna reject you from being priest for me, now,

831
00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:34.480
is that referring specifically to the priest or to Israel itself?

832
00:51:34.599 --> 00:51:36.639
Or if it's referring to the priest, then this issue

833
00:51:36.679 --> 00:51:40.159
is not the people. This issue is whom the priest.

834
00:51:40.480 --> 00:51:43.800
The priest have rejected the knowledge. So this is not

835
00:51:43.880 --> 00:51:46.079
even going after the peace. So if you're gonna use

836
00:51:46.119 --> 00:51:48.719
this verse, you gotta be careful. But in my brain, oh,

837
00:51:48.719 --> 00:51:52.559
I was gonna fix it. But what could I not

838
00:51:52.599 --> 00:51:58.800
account for? You can't make people listen, you can't make

839
00:51:58.840 --> 00:52:02.000
people take notes, You can't make people do anything right.

840
00:52:02.639 --> 00:52:05.519
We can spend money on books, we can hand out devotionals.

841
00:52:05.559 --> 00:52:10.280
Guess what I can't make people do, use them, read them.

842
00:52:10.440 --> 00:52:15.239
Nobody prepared me for this. They prepared me for the

843
00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:18.000
first part. But in reality, health should this be applied

844
00:52:19.599 --> 00:52:21.639
If you are going to be quote unquote priest or

845
00:52:21.639 --> 00:52:25.639
a pastor, your job is to know the knowledge and

846
00:52:25.719 --> 00:52:31.159
not reject the knowledge. This seems more directed towards the

847
00:52:31.199 --> 00:52:34.320
spiritual leaders, does it not? Now? Go back to what

848
00:52:34.360 --> 00:52:40.440
they said here? All right, here we go. It says,

849
00:52:40.440 --> 00:52:42.639
when we look at Jeremy and jose together, we see

850
00:52:42.639 --> 00:52:48.760
that the people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge

851
00:52:48.760 --> 00:52:50.880
because they are determining for themselves who God is and

852
00:52:50.920 --> 00:52:53.440
how he is to be served. Guess who God holds

853
00:52:53.480 --> 00:52:56.360
responsible for this sorry state of affairs. The priest. He

854
00:52:56.440 --> 00:52:59.880
holds them responsible for the people not knowing or adhering

855
00:53:00.079 --> 00:53:03.360
to his loss. So the first problem is we blame

856
00:53:03.760 --> 00:53:06.280
the praiest for the people not knowing. But that's not

857
00:53:06.360 --> 00:53:08.880
what this is about. This is about people rejecting. So

858
00:53:08.960 --> 00:53:12.920
that's already the point. But second, okay, and oh, I

859
00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:14.400
know this is going to get this is going to

860
00:53:14.440 --> 00:53:16.039
get me in trouble. But I think we have to

861
00:53:16.079 --> 00:53:19.840
deal with this. When the Protestant Reformation occurred, there was

862
00:53:19.840 --> 00:53:22.960
a major shift that happened, right, But prior to the

863
00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:29.679
Protestant Reformation October thirty first, what year? Okay, I don't know. Okay,

864
00:53:29.719 --> 00:53:33.159
y'all need to look that up. Okay, fifteen seventeen, all right,

865
00:53:33.199 --> 00:53:35.039
look at that, Bobby, all right, good time, all right,

866
00:53:35.079 --> 00:53:39.519
So fifteen seventeen, October thirty first, fifteen seventeen, before that monumental,

867
00:53:39.559 --> 00:53:42.480
I mean, one of the most important dates in history.

868
00:53:43.199 --> 00:53:49.079
Before that happens, How does it work? The people have

869
00:53:49.159 --> 00:53:53.440
to rely on whom the church. It's called magisterial authority

870
00:53:53.519 --> 00:53:58.199
right within Catholicism, right, they have apostolic succession. They have

871
00:53:58.360 --> 00:54:03.800
the authority who declares dogma church, who says, if you

872
00:54:03.800 --> 00:54:08.079
don't follow the dogma, you were anathema the church. And

873
00:54:08.199 --> 00:54:10.679
so do you have the ability to read and interpret

874
00:54:10.760 --> 00:54:15.320
the Bible? No, who gives you the interpretation? The church?

875
00:54:15.679 --> 00:54:22.320
Everything is church, church, church, church Church. Luther decided disagree

876
00:54:22.360 --> 00:54:25.880
with the church. You're wrong. And you can understand why

877
00:54:25.880 --> 00:54:27.480
he was having problems with the church. The church was

878
00:54:27.519 --> 00:54:29.599
so corrupt at the time, it wasn't even funny, right,

879
00:54:29.920 --> 00:54:32.840
So Luther's like, no, it's not the church, it's the

880
00:54:34.760 --> 00:54:39.039
it's the scriptures. And then remember there was a big

881
00:54:39.079 --> 00:54:44.280
theological issue at this time, referred to as the priesthood

882
00:54:45.079 --> 00:54:50.920
of the believer. Oh, now this gets controversial, right, because

883
00:54:50.960 --> 00:54:54.239
now the idea is that you, everyone in the congregation,

884
00:54:54.360 --> 00:55:00.719
you are a priest, and you have the power and

885
00:55:00.800 --> 00:55:03.519
the authority to not only read the scriptures and to

886
00:55:03.679 --> 00:55:06.119
understand the scriptures, but you also have the power and

887
00:55:06.159 --> 00:55:10.320
the authority to do what to determine if what's being

888
00:55:10.400 --> 00:55:15.280
preached is true or false, putting you in what position

889
00:55:16.400 --> 00:55:22.280
the authority. Right, this is the inevitable cause. Remember with

890
00:55:22.840 --> 00:55:29.000
forevery action there's always unintended consequences, right, And so Luther thought,

891
00:55:29.119 --> 00:55:31.440
I'm going to restore the authority to the Bible. But

892
00:55:31.480 --> 00:55:34.039
in reality he restored the authority back from He took

893
00:55:34.039 --> 00:55:37.639
the authority from the church and gave it to the individual. Now,

894
00:55:37.679 --> 00:55:40.719
once the individual has that authority, you don't come to

895
00:55:40.800 --> 00:55:43.280
me and tell me it's the pastor's fault that people

896
00:55:43.320 --> 00:55:46.400
don't have knowledge. Guess whose fault it is. It's the

897
00:55:46.480 --> 00:55:52.440
people's fault. It's on them. Don't blame the pastor, especially

898
00:55:52.440 --> 00:55:57.760
in twenty twenty four, because every person in the world,

899
00:55:58.000 --> 00:55:59.840
but for the most part, other than maybe countries were

900
00:55:59.840 --> 00:56:02.400
so and things are banned, but almost across the popular

901
00:56:02.800 --> 00:56:07.559
the planet, every individual can have what a Bible, and

902
00:56:07.599 --> 00:56:10.679
probably not just one. They can probably have all of

903
00:56:10.719 --> 00:56:13.760
them on their phone, and they can have access to

904
00:56:13.800 --> 00:56:21.119
what Greek, Hebrew, that have access to commentary after commentary,

905
00:56:21.119 --> 00:56:23.960
they have the entire access to all the writings of

906
00:56:23.960 --> 00:56:27.519
the church fathers on their phone, for crying out loud.

907
00:56:28.519 --> 00:56:31.519
So don't sit there and say, well, the reason these

908
00:56:31.559 --> 00:56:35.320
statistics are so bad is because pastors aren't doing their job.

909
00:56:35.679 --> 00:56:38.000
It's not because pastors aren't doing their job. It's because

910
00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:41.920
the people in the pew don't stinking care to actually

911
00:56:42.039 --> 00:56:46.639
read and study anything. That's their fault. Stop blaming the church.

912
00:56:46.679 --> 00:56:49.960
I used to blame the church, but when you study

913
00:56:50.039 --> 00:56:52.360
church history, you're like, come on, now, this is on

914
00:56:52.440 --> 00:56:55.440
the people. Because you know why I decided to get

915
00:56:55.519 --> 00:56:59.960
tired of blaming the church, because I've been a pastor

916
00:57:00.079 --> 00:57:01.960
long enough to know what happens. As soon as I

917
00:57:02.079 --> 00:57:07.519
preached something that someone disagree with, they do what you're wrong.

918
00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:10.760
You're wrong, And I'm gonna live this church. I'm gonna

919
00:57:10.760 --> 00:57:12.599
go to a church that says the things I want

920
00:57:12.639 --> 00:57:15.280
to hear. Well, then if you're the authority, don't blame

921
00:57:15.320 --> 00:57:22.000
me for your lack of knowledge. It's whose fault. So

922
00:57:22.159 --> 00:57:25.840
don't blame the priest here. Now, in that context of

923
00:57:26.039 --> 00:57:29.079
the Old Testament, you could blame the priest because what

924
00:57:29.159 --> 00:57:33.559
did the people not have. They didn't have scripture, they

925
00:57:33.599 --> 00:57:37.119
had to rely on the priest. But in our day

926
00:57:37.159 --> 00:57:41.199
and age, you can't blame the church for that. That's insane.

927
00:57:42.480 --> 00:57:46.880
That's the people's fault. Now. The people don't like hearing that, right,

928
00:57:47.320 --> 00:57:49.719
The people in the pugue. Whenever I throw when I

929
00:57:49.719 --> 00:57:51.599
throw it back on the people, they get mad. And

930
00:57:51.639 --> 00:57:54.960
so then guess how I started handling disputes. Don't come

931
00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:57.800
to me and tell me I'm wrong, do what? Go

932
00:57:57.840 --> 00:58:00.440
study and bring me the proof that you see studied.

933
00:58:00.679 --> 00:58:02.840
And guess did anyone ever come back and do that? No,

934
00:58:02.840 --> 00:58:05.159
not one person has ever come back and said, here,

935
00:58:05.039 --> 00:58:07.960
here's here's all my note books, here's all my notebooks,

936
00:58:08.800 --> 00:58:11.159
here's all the work I've done. And almost in every

937
00:58:11.159 --> 00:58:12.760
case I say, if there's gonna be a distribute, I

938
00:58:12.760 --> 00:58:15.840
tell everyone what to look up. Right, nobody comes out here?

939
00:58:15.880 --> 00:58:18.639
You go. I looked up every use of the word Israel,

940
00:58:18.840 --> 00:58:20.960
or I looked up every use here. I looked up

941
00:58:20.960 --> 00:58:25.280
this No, because that would require what lots of work?

942
00:58:25.559 --> 00:58:28.679
But they still But did that change the arguing No,

943
00:58:28.880 --> 00:58:33.559
still told me I'm wrong and still left. That means

944
00:58:33.559 --> 00:58:37.079
you have authority without even studying. So then you can

945
00:58:37.199 --> 00:58:40.199
then turn around to blame made for lack of knowledge.

946
00:58:40.360 --> 00:58:43.840
You see. So I agree with this article to a part,

947
00:58:43.880 --> 00:58:45.920
But this part I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm very much

948
00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:50.320
in disagreement with right. So let's read that again. All right,

949
00:58:50.360 --> 00:58:52.559
and we're oh, well, we're gonna we're out of time, right,

950
00:58:52.920 --> 00:58:54.639
We're not even gonna get through this. But that's okay,

951
00:58:54.679 --> 00:58:57.280
all right. So he says, guess who God holds responsible

952
00:58:57.280 --> 00:58:59.119
for the sorry state of affairs? The priest. He holds

953
00:58:59.119 --> 00:59:02.000
them responsible for the people not knowing or adhering to

954
00:59:02.039 --> 00:59:04.320
His laws. So we dealt with the not knowing part,

955
00:59:04.960 --> 00:59:07.599
the not adhering to the law part. This makes me

956
00:59:07.639 --> 00:59:10.280
want to throw my iPad and smash into a million pieces.

957
00:59:10.599 --> 00:59:13.880
All right, this is this drives me crazy. All right?

958
00:59:14.960 --> 00:59:17.880
Why do people not adhere to the law? Is it

959
00:59:17.920 --> 00:59:21.199
because of the pastor or because of the priest? And

960
00:59:21.360 --> 00:59:29.760
make it clear no one, no one can keep God's laws.

961
00:59:31.840 --> 00:59:35.000
That's one of the most like when you study theology,

962
00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:36.920
you're studying the Bible. That's one of the most mind

963
00:59:36.960 --> 00:59:40.800
blowing things about the Bible is the Bible provides a

964
00:59:40.840 --> 00:59:45.079
system of morality that the people who wrote it could

965
00:59:45.079 --> 00:59:50.559
not even keep. That's a good argument for the scriptures

966
00:59:50.599 --> 00:59:54.280
being inspired by God, because if I was writing it,

967
00:59:54.320 --> 00:59:57.480
I would write rules that I could do. What keep?

968
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:03.679
I can write rules that I can't keep. That's that's

969
01:00:03.719 --> 01:00:06.480
the dumbest thing in the history of humankind. Right, Hey,

970
01:00:06.519 --> 01:00:08.880
I'm gonna write a book of rules, and that I

971
01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:13.639
can't keep. That puts me making that inevitably I'm gonna

972
01:00:13.639 --> 01:00:16.199
be called a hypocrite. And when you read about the

973
01:00:16.199 --> 01:00:18.280
people in the Bible, what do you almost inevitably want

974
01:00:18.280 --> 01:00:24.679
to call them? Right? David who wrote the Psalms adultery.

975
01:00:25.840 --> 01:00:28.280
Then she got pregnant, so then he's like, oh, I

976
01:00:28.280 --> 01:00:30.159
gotta cover this up to try to get him drunk

977
01:00:30.559 --> 01:00:32.840
so that he would be with his wife. Didn't work,

978
01:00:32.920 --> 01:00:37.760
so then he had him killed. Then he lies to

979
01:00:37.840 --> 01:00:40.159
some priests. They all get slaughtered, and all the people,

980
01:00:40.159 --> 01:00:43.119
and we go all the things David did, Abram and

981
01:00:43.159 --> 01:00:45.559
we can go on and Solomon, I mean, Solomon was

982
01:00:45.639 --> 01:00:48.480
just going like, I'm gonna break every rule under the sun. Right,

983
01:00:48.960 --> 01:00:54.719
A thousand women, a thousand that the seven hundred wives,

984
01:00:54.760 --> 01:00:58.400
three hundred concubines, right, so about a thousand total. That's insane.

985
01:01:00.039 --> 01:01:01.519
I mean, we go on and on and on and

986
01:01:01.559 --> 01:01:03.639
on and out. Why were they not keeping the law.

987
01:01:03.800 --> 01:01:08.239
Let me make it very clear, no one can. I

988
01:01:08.280 --> 01:01:10.920
can give you three laws that can immediately demonstrate to

989
01:01:10.960 --> 01:01:13.599
you you can't keep it. You ready? Number one love

990
01:01:13.639 --> 01:01:16.639
God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. I'm

991
01:01:16.639 --> 01:01:20.400
done love my neighbor as myself. I'm not going to

992
01:01:20.480 --> 01:01:26.000
love anybody like I love myself. Number three, be ye

993
01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:29.519
holy as God as holy? If I could be as

994
01:01:29.559 --> 01:01:32.519
holy as God is holy, that's insane. That would be

995
01:01:32.760 --> 01:01:36.960
absolute perfection. And for Jesus to make it very clear,

996
01:01:37.199 --> 01:01:39.760
the Sermon on the Mount, where's the gospels begin with?

997
01:01:39.960 --> 01:01:42.199
What does he saying the Sermon on the Mount? Be

998
01:01:42.440 --> 01:01:50.559
Ye perfect? I can't do it. So if nobody can

999
01:01:50.639 --> 01:01:54.559
keep the law, I can't blame. He's blaming the priest

1000
01:01:54.639 --> 01:01:58.719
for people not keeping the law. Guess what? We nobody

1001
01:01:58.760 --> 01:02:01.760
can keep the law because we have a sinful nature,

1002
01:02:01.800 --> 01:02:03.679
So nobody can keep it. So what is the law

1003
01:02:03.760 --> 01:02:08.599
designed for? To show us that we can't keep it?

1004
01:02:09.000 --> 01:02:10.880
So that we feel guilt, so that we go to

1005
01:02:10.960 --> 01:02:16.760
what someone who kept it for us? And that's why

1006
01:02:16.800 --> 01:02:20.639
we are say by in imputed righteousness, because the obedience

1007
01:02:20.639 --> 01:02:24.079
of Christ is imputed to my account. So I stand

1008
01:02:24.079 --> 01:02:26.400
before God, and when I stand before God, I am

1009
01:02:26.440 --> 01:02:30.000
seen to be perfect, holy, and obedient, even though I

1010
01:02:30.039 --> 01:02:34.559
cannot and will never keep it. So can anyone ever

1011
01:02:34.639 --> 01:02:38.599
keep the law? No? So is that the priest's fault. No,

1012
01:02:39.760 --> 01:02:42.599
that's the inevitable state of our sinful nature. Now, if

1013
01:02:42.639 --> 01:02:45.639
you wanted to blame someone, who could you blame? You

1014
01:02:45.639 --> 01:02:50.000
could blame God, because God can remove our sin nature.

1015
01:02:50.039 --> 01:02:54.199
But he doesn't. Because the entire concept of Christianity is

1016
01:02:54.199 --> 01:02:58.199
that we are say, by grace alone, through faith alone,

1017
01:02:58.239 --> 01:03:01.320
because of Christ alone, and that we do not save ourselves.

1018
01:03:01.800 --> 01:03:04.199
He has to save us, not only by paying for

1019
01:03:04.280 --> 01:03:11.119
our sins, but then giving us the righteousness which he kept.

1020
01:03:11.400 --> 01:03:15.519
He obeyed the law, and then that's accredited to me. Now,

1021
01:03:16.039 --> 01:03:17.840
some people said, well, that's gonna be kind of a

1022
01:03:17.880 --> 01:03:20.280
messed up church, right, you gotta have people who declare

1023
01:03:20.320 --> 01:03:23.840
to be perfect to or what not perfect, that's gonna

1024
01:03:23.840 --> 01:03:25.920
be a really messed up church. And you're like ding

1025
01:03:26.039 --> 01:03:29.519
ding ding ding exactly. And that's what we've had for

1026
01:03:31.119 --> 01:03:35.519
two thousand years, and that's what we had in Israel.

1027
01:03:36.360 --> 01:03:40.119
So I agree with him of the problem, but I'm

1028
01:03:40.159 --> 01:03:44.360
disagreeing with him on who to blame. Can't blame the

1029
01:03:44.400 --> 01:03:48.480
priest when we talk about the priesthood of all believers,

1030
01:03:48.039 --> 01:03:52.679
and it's the believers who judges the church. Can't blame

1031
01:03:52.719 --> 01:03:56.239
the priest. And you can't blame the priest for people

1032
01:03:56.280 --> 01:03:59.239
not obeying the law, because even the priest quote unquote

1033
01:03:59.480 --> 01:04:02.760
can't obey the law. Do pastors. Do pastors obey all

1034
01:04:02.760 --> 01:04:07.239
the scripture? No? Christians? No, So we're all on the

1035
01:04:07.280 --> 01:04:10.239
same boat. So in really in an article trying to

1036
01:04:10.280 --> 01:04:15.440
design to fix the problem is actually doing what perpetuating

1037
01:04:15.519 --> 01:04:19.840
the exact same problem. Right, And so I'll finish with this,

1038
01:04:21.440 --> 01:04:24.519
he goes on. So he blames the priest, and then

1039
01:04:24.519 --> 01:04:27.119
he goes on to say this instead of affirming the law,

1040
01:04:27.159 --> 01:04:29.440
they yielded to the will of the people. Well, there

1041
01:04:29.480 --> 01:04:32.599
is some case where pastors do yield to the will

1042
01:04:32.639 --> 01:04:35.039
of the people. That goes back to the original problem

1043
01:04:35.079 --> 01:04:38.920
we discuss. But at the same time, it's not the

1044
01:04:38.920 --> 01:04:40.920
will of the people that's the problem. It's our own

1045
01:04:41.000 --> 01:04:44.679
will and our own sinful nature that causes the problems. Right,

1046
01:04:44.800 --> 01:04:46.400
So it says those of us who stand in the

1047
01:04:46.400 --> 01:04:49.719
pulpit have the same responsibility and accountability to God as

1048
01:04:49.719 --> 01:04:52.239
the priest. We are to teach the fullness of Scripture.

1049
01:04:52.480 --> 01:04:57.000
We are the unvarnished truth that most of society condemns

1050
01:04:57.039 --> 01:04:59.679
and rejects. I think we are to teach the unvarnished

1051
01:04:59.679 --> 01:05:03.320
truth many in the church will reject. He forgets that again.

1052
01:05:03.360 --> 01:05:06.239
He wants to put the blame outside and sadly, we

1053
01:05:06.320 --> 01:05:09.280
have people in our congregations who agree with society. Well,

1054
01:05:09.280 --> 01:05:12.079
we've always had people in the congregation who agrees with society,

1055
01:05:12.159 --> 01:05:15.360
because sometimes the people in the pulpit agree with society

1056
01:05:16.119 --> 01:05:20.280
because we are all sinners. He continues to overlook the problem.

1057
01:05:20.599 --> 01:05:23.719
When we speak the truth, we are loving our people

1058
01:05:23.760 --> 01:05:26.480
in the same way that Jesus loved the religious leaders. Yes,

1059
01:05:26.519 --> 01:05:28.960
for some the truth will sting and be uncomfortable, and

1060
01:05:29.000 --> 01:05:31.480
that's a good thing. We're in good company for Jesus.

1061
01:05:31.480 --> 01:05:34.800
A person. For Jesus, a person avoiding an eternity in

1062
01:05:34.800 --> 01:05:38.960
the liquifire was infinitely more important than hurt feelings. All right,

1063
01:05:39.159 --> 01:05:43.760
So we'll stop there. They do acknowledge that there's not

1064
01:05:43.880 --> 01:05:47.960
easy questions or easy answers here. But his inevitable thing

1065
01:05:48.079 --> 01:05:51.599
is the problem is Christians don't have knowledge. Christians don't

1066
01:05:51.599 --> 01:05:54.320
obey the law. And whose fault is it? It's the

1067
01:05:54.360 --> 01:06:00.000
pastor's fault. And I say, within the Protestant system, that's ridiculous.

1068
01:06:00.119 --> 01:06:03.880
Number one, because you are supposed to be quote unquote

1069
01:06:03.920 --> 01:06:07.480
priest right, and you are the one actually judging what

1070
01:06:07.599 --> 01:06:10.519
is preached. So if you can judge what is preached,

1071
01:06:13.440 --> 01:06:18.079
how's that my fault. I'm supposed to give you the

1072
01:06:18.079 --> 01:06:19.760
knowledge that you can turn around and then judge me

1073
01:06:19.800 --> 01:06:22.800
by said knowledge. It would be like, no, you're if

1074
01:06:22.840 --> 01:06:24.679
you're judging me, then you've got to have your own

1075
01:06:24.719 --> 01:06:26.960
knowledge to be able to judge me. Right, Like the

1076
01:06:27.000 --> 01:06:29.679
whole thing just doesn't work. And then secondly, you can't

1077
01:06:29.719 --> 01:06:33.039
blame the preacher for you not keeping the law, because

1078
01:06:33.079 --> 01:06:35.760
I think that's a misunderstanding of the law. God's law

1079
01:06:35.840 --> 01:06:37.960
is not designed for us to keep. God's law is

1080
01:06:37.960 --> 01:06:41.039
designed to show us our inability to keep it. So

1081
01:06:41.119 --> 01:06:43.519
we run for a solution, and the solution is not

1082
01:06:43.639 --> 01:06:47.320
try harder. The solution is find someone who will keep

1083
01:06:47.360 --> 01:06:51.280
it for me, and that is Christ. Now does that

1084
01:06:51.320 --> 01:06:53.280
mean then I just do whatever I want? No, we

1085
01:06:53.960 --> 01:06:56.079
have to continue to struggle. But what do we know

1086
01:06:56.159 --> 01:07:00.599
in that struggle it's not gonna I can point to

1087
01:07:00.679 --> 01:07:03.840
your sin and say stop it. But I know I've

1088
01:07:03.840 --> 01:07:07.920
got my own sin that I need to say stop it,

1089
01:07:10.159 --> 01:07:16.639
right because we all have sin, So I do agree

1090
01:07:16.679 --> 01:07:18.639
with him that there's a problem in the church. My

1091
01:07:18.800 --> 01:07:21.280
issue is the problem in the church has always existed.

1092
01:07:22.119 --> 01:07:25.039
Our Christians today seem more theologically confused than maybe at

1093
01:07:25.039 --> 01:07:28.159
any time in recent church history. I think maybe they're

1094
01:07:28.159 --> 01:07:31.599
more philologically confused than they've ever been. And I know

1095
01:07:31.639 --> 01:07:34.159
we want to blame the church for people's stological confusion,

1096
01:07:34.199 --> 01:07:37.880
but reality, I'm going to put the blame where on

1097
01:07:37.960 --> 01:07:44.719
the people if unless we're going to go back to Catholicism,

1098
01:07:44.920 --> 01:07:48.079
and then the church has the authority. And then I say,

1099
01:07:48.079 --> 01:07:50.639
this is what you believe in. You don't what you

1100
01:07:50.679 --> 01:07:53.400
don't question or challenge or fight it. But nobody wants

1101
01:07:53.440 --> 01:08:00.599
that because everybody wants to be their own pope. Well,

1102
01:08:00.679 --> 01:08:02.320
if you want to be the own pope, what comes

1103
01:08:02.320 --> 01:08:08.960
with that? The responsibility, the responsibility. So like, I don't know,

1104
01:08:09.079 --> 01:08:11.760
that article doesn't necessarily fix the problem. I'll probably address

1105
01:08:11.800 --> 01:08:13.880
it more in the podcast, but at least we can

1106
01:08:13.960 --> 01:08:16.119
kind of kind of see that, yes, is there a

1107
01:08:16.119 --> 01:08:18.680
problem in the church. We can all say yes, that

1108
01:08:18.800 --> 01:08:22.600
problem ultimately is what sin? And what is the solution

1109
01:08:22.720 --> 01:08:25.399
to the sin? Nature the finished work of Jesus Christ.

1110
01:08:25.399 --> 01:08:29.279
It's imputed to us by faith alone. That's the inevitable,

1111
01:08:29.399 --> 01:08:31.039
And I said, well, how do you fix the other problems?

1112
01:08:31.079 --> 01:08:33.640
The other problems are never going to ever truly be fixed.

1113
01:08:33.800 --> 01:08:35.760
All we can do is try to work it so

1114
01:08:35.800 --> 01:08:38.520
that we can try to make better changes. But it's

1115
01:08:38.600 --> 01:08:40.840
never going to be perfect. It's never going to be perfect.

1116
01:08:41.039 --> 01:08:43.000
So that doesn't really end on a hopeful note. But

1117
01:08:43.239 --> 01:08:45.000
there we go. All right. I know that wasn't what

1118
01:08:45.119 --> 01:08:47.239
was planned today, so that was kind of an impromptu

1119
01:08:47.359 --> 01:08:50.760
but hopefully it was somewhat beneficial. Right, let's pray, Lord,

1120
01:08:50.800 --> 01:08:53.159
got we come before you. Lord, we acknowledge one thing

1121
01:08:53.159 --> 01:08:55.760
today and one thing alone, that we are sinners, that

1122
01:08:55.840 --> 01:08:59.119
we fail in our own responsibility. And Lord, we thinkful

1123
01:08:59.159 --> 01:09:01.039
that you sit your son to die and to keep

1124
01:09:01.079 --> 01:09:04.079
the law for us, so that we have hope, faith

1125
01:09:04.119 --> 01:09:06.159
and salvation in him alone. And it's in his name

1126
01:09:06.159 --> 01:09:07.319
we pray. And God's people said