Nov. 17, 2024

Isaiah 40:Comfort Pt 1

Isaiah 40:Comfort Pt 1

We consider false comfort and true comfort

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We consider false comfort and true comfort

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All right this morning, let's start in the Book of Jeremiah.

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I know it feels like we're taking a detour, but

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we're not. Jeremiah chapter six, Jeremiah chapter six. We're gonna

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look at two verses in the Book of Jeremiah that

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I think are very relevant for a couple of reasons

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to what we're trying to do. Obviously, we've been working

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on Isaiah forty through fifty five. We've tried to provide

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kind of an overview of Isaiah forty through fifty five.

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We've done some outlining, We've tried to do some summarizing.

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We've also did some going back and providing context. But

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then we got to Isaiah forty verse one, and I

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feel like there's something we have to spend some extra

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time on. So Jeremiah chapter six, verse fourteen, we read

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these words, they have healed also the hurt of the

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daughter of my people, slightly saying peace, peace when there

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is no peace. They have healed also the hurt of

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the daughter of my people, slightly saying peace, peace when

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there is no peace. If you go to Jeremiah chapter eight,

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verse eleven, you'll see the exact same words. Jeremiah chapter eight,

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verse eleven Jeremiah eighth, chapter eleven. Will read the again

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the identical words Jeremiah eight eleven. For they have healed

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the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace,

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when there is no peace. Now, if you look at

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those two verses, this is Jeremiah basically referring to the priests,

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the prophets, the religious leaders. And well, they've done something right,

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they have what's the first thing they have? What healed

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also the hurt of the daughter of my people? But

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how have they healed them? Slightly? Right? Slightly? And what

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brought this slight healing to the people by saying what peace? Piece?

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But what's the reality? There is no peace? So what's

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the healing that they slightly received? They received some sense

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of comfort, maybe some sense of peace, some sense of hope.

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But it's always slightly because it's not real. It's false,

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it's fraudulent. It's not a real comfort. It is a

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false comfort, it is a false hope, it is a

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false piece. Now this is very important because we're studying

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Isaiah forty through fifty five, which is often called one

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What is Isaiah forty through fifty five often called the

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Book of Comfort or the Book of Consolation. The title

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of that the Book of Consolation or the Book of Comfort,

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reflects the opening words of the Isaiah chapter five, verse one,

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which reads comfort ye, comfort ye my people, where God

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commands comfort for his people. The chapter emphasizes all of

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Isaiah Chapter forty million in some ways Isaiah forty through

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fifty five. It emphasizes hope, It emphasizes restoration. It emphasizes

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God's faithfulness to his covenant people despite their exile and suffering. Now,

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if we remember the Book of Jeremiah. The Book of

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Jeremiah serves both as a warning and as a message

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of hope, addressing the spiritual, moral, and social corruption of

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Judah during a time during a time of a probably

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a critical period in their history, and its primary themes

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basically involve a culture repentance, Jeremiah's commissioned by God to

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call the people of Judah back to faithfulness. The book

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emphasizes Judah's persistent idolatry, They're in justice and the rejection

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of God's covenant through vivid imagery and prophecies. Jeremiah warns

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that failure to repent will lead to judgment, so he

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is trying to tell the people they're in sin. He

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tries to warn them of judgment. Yet the religious leaders

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of his time are going to the people saying, what,

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don't worry about it. Peace, peace, there's no judgment. Everything's

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going to be okay. So there's the religious leaders contradicts

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Jeremiah's message, or I think it's fair to say the

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religious leaders, the prophets, and the priests were actually rejecting

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and going contrary not only to reality, but to the

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very word of God. Also, the Book of Jeremiah, not

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only is it a call to repentance, what is central

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to Jeremiah's message is the announcement of the coming destruction

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of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exiles. Somewhere around five eighty

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six PC. This judgment is portrayed as the result of

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Judah's covenant unfaithfulness, illustrating God's righteousness and justice. Now you

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see a correlation, right and Isaiah forty verse one. That

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message of comfort is to whom, to those in Babylonian exile,

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Jeremiah's warning everyone what is coming Babylonian exile and Jeremiah's time.

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In fact, throughout the book, the religious leaders, the prophets,

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and the priests consistently offered the people a false comfort,

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a false peace, and a false hope, which directly contradicted

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Jeremiah's warnings from God. This dynamic is significant theme in

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the book, and it highlights the corruption of Judas's spiritual

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leadership and their role in leading the people astray. Now,

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why am I going to talk about that when we're

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right here in Isaiah forty Because we did all of

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the background work right. We did the overview, we did

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the survey, and we went to Isaiah thirty nine. Remember

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that tells us that Babylonian captivity is coming. Then we

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went from Isaiah thirty nine to Deuteronomy twenty eight, and

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we showed that everything happening is connected to the Covenant

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and the promises of blessing and the promise of cursing,

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that Israel had violated everything that they were supposed to do,

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so now they're getting the curse, which is going to

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be Babylonian captivity. They're going to suffer. We talked about

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the suffering in there. We had it all set up right,

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and then we went to Isaiah chapter forty, verse one,

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and what I was about to do last Sunday was

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I was about to go into kind of a mini

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word study on the word comfort. I was going to

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go in there, and I was going to kind of

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take it apart. But I realized at that point, it's

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about twelve oh five, I don't really have time to

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do that, so I kind of stepped back and started

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talking about comfort in a more general way. All right,

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And my perspective on Christianity and comfort obviously is somewhat controversial.

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In fact, I could even kind of feel the temperature

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and the building change when I started talking about it.

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But if I was to summarize my feelings about Christianity

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and comfort, I would probably say something like this, which

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is probably offensive to every Christian on the planet. I

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would say, Christianity consistently offers nothing more than fraudulent promises,

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false comfort, shallow peace. It offers nothing more than an

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illusion of hope. It's nothing more than a lie, a sham,

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and it leaves people confused and broken. Now. I know

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I'm not supposed to say that as a pastor. I

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know I'm not supposed to say that as a Christian podcaster,

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But ladies and gentlemen, that's how I feel about it.

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The Christianity constantly offers nothing more than fraudulent promises, false comfort,

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shallow peace, an illusion of hope. It's a lie, it's

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a sham, and it leaves people confused and broken. And

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why I say that, because all of our discussion, the

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whole reason we're in Isaiah forty is for what reason?

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Because I'm sick and tired of listening to sermons about

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Isaiah forty all the way to Isaiah fifty five. Where

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pastors come in and what do they do over and

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over and over the whole reason for the series. They

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open up their bibles, they tell you to turn to

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Isaiah forty Isaiah forty three, and they immediately do what

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insert us into the text and move out the original recipients.

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And then they claim that the promises are for whom us,

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so they offer some kind of comfort. But that's not

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our comfort, that's not our promises, that's not our hope.

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So therefore the hope it's nothing. It's no different than

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the religious leaders in the days of Jeremiah saying peace

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that you can't tell me peace when that piece is

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not for me. You can't tell me that I have

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some promise when the promise is not for me, and

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to make that it matters worse. Most of the promises

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to Israel are connected to what we've talked about this

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over and over and over. They're connected to the Covenant,

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and within that covenant promises, what kind of promises are

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given to Israel. Those promises are material, they're tangible, they're physical.

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We can't take tangible, material, physical promises to Israel and

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apply them to us. But Christians run around say, oh,

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you have a problem, God's gonna fix it. God's gonna

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do this, God's gonna do this. And all you're doing

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is lying to people. You're slightly why, you're slightly healing

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them because you're giving them some sense of what hope.

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But what happens sooner or later reality steps in knocks

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them across the face. Now, either they can continue to pretend, well,

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God was here and God did this and God did that,

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or they're gonna be like hmm. I think Christianity is

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a bunch of garbage because it lies to me over

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and over and over and over and over and over

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and over and over and over and over, and at

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some point you get furious, and I think what happens

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is the church is made up of two kinds of people.

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You have the one kind. They're more than happy. Using

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Plato's allegory of the cave, They're more than happy to

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sit in the cave look at the images on the

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cave wall, and they don't care to ask any questions,

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and they're just going to accept whatever it is, and

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they're happy to live in their little make believe land.

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And there's going to be a small minority that goes, wait,

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there's a light back there. I'm going to leave the

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cave and go figure out what's out there. And when

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they walk out there, they see reality, and they realize

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reality does not necessarily correspond to the images on the

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cave wall. Everyone else is happy to sit in church,

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look at the images on the cave wall, and walk

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around pretending. But some of us are like, that's a

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bunch of it's a bunch of garbage. It doesn't it's

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all lies. So that's the reason where in Isaiah forty

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through fifty five and Jeremiah is a great example of

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what people were saying about the worn of the Babylonia captivity.

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So what I want to do is I want to

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spend a little time summarizing and kind of discussing the

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false piece and comfort in Jeremiah six, fourteen and eight eleven,

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and then we're going to connect that to Isaiah forty

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verse one. Then we'll finally get to the word comfort

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and hopefully what we can get this all taken apart

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now separate from what I'm doing in Isaiah forty I've

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also started a series for the podcast on Christianity's false Comfort,

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where I talked about all the negative consequences that come

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from Christianity's false comfort because it does a lot of

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damage to people. And then the next thing I'm going

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to do in that series is go through all the

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ways Christianity offers false comfort. But we're seeing a little

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bit of it right here. In fact, this last month,

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what I have seen is sermon after sermon after sermon,

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take Isaiah forty verse one, or things in Isaiah forty

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three make them about us, offering us promises of comfort

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or hope, which is not there. On the podcast that

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look to Deuteronomy thirty two once again a song of

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Moses about Israel and the wilderness making it about us.

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And then the other night I listened to a sermon

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on Hebrews chapter six once again making it about us

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and completely removing it from its original context. This is like,

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this is not like a oh, this is an odd thing.

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This is an exception. It's the rule. Pastors take the Bible.

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They could care less about context, They could care less

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about being truthful to the text. They make it about us,

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us and people in the pew. That's what they want.

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And if you come along and challenge that, you offend Christians.

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So I'm going to try to build this case by

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going to Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven. As

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we have already read, okay, in those two verses, is

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condemning the leaders of Judah, the prophets, and the priest

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who offer superficial assurances of peace while ignoring the true

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underlying spiritual crisis of the nation. I'm going to state

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it this way. The priest, the prophets, the religious leaders

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of Judah offered superficial assurance of peace and ignoring reality.

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They ignored reality. One of the biggest problems I have

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with Christianity is Christianity's inability to recognize reality. Christianity should

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not exist as a alternative to reality. Christianity should exist

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acknowledging reality. I'll give you an example of how Christianity

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denies reality. What almost every church in Abilene, what do

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they teach you about what happens to you when you

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become a Christian? You become a new creation. O things

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have passed away, all things have become new. Now what's reality?

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It's not that, I mean reality contradicts that, correct, Because

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if I'm a new creature, old things have passed away

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and all things have become new, then what's the logical conclusion?

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I should stop sinning? Okay, that's just one example. Right.

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Christians constantly will say things like, oh, God will do this,

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and God will do this for you, and God will

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take care of this, and God will intervene here and

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God will do this. Just look at the reality of

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the world. If God is doing all these things, then

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why do we have all the children that's been molested

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within churches? Why why do we have all of this

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and this disease and this and this and that. You

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can't keep saying God is doing and going, God's gonna

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take care of and God is going to do all

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of this stuff. When reality goes maybe maybe we sh

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it's stop making those promises. Maybe we should stop they

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were denying reality. Christianity denies reality, and a Christianity that

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denies reality is a Christianity that isn't worth being a

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part of. Because why do you want a religion that

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takes you out of reality? You should want a religion

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that can address reality and acknowledge reality. Now, acknowledging reality

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makes Christians very uncomfortable, does it? Because I mean, just

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think about it. We have an all powerful God who's

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all knowing as present everywhere at all times. I could

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sit right here for the next hour list all the

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horrible things that's happened in the last seven days in

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the world, and anyone who looks at that there's a problem, right, Well,

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if God is all powerful, what's the obvious thought? He

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could stop it, he could fix it. If he's all knowing,

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he knew it was going to come before it was

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going to happen. And if he's present everywhere at all times,

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then he doesn't have to go anywhere to fix it.

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He's already there. So then we come up with all

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of our little Christian cliches and well it's the devil,

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Well who made the devil? So that doesn't work. Who

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knows gonna happen? Well, he's got a plan in it.

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What good does that tell someone who's been molested for

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ten years? Oh, God's got a plan and you being

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molested for What good does that tell a woman who's

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laying in a hospital bed on a Friday night at

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three am, who's just been raped. What good does that do?

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That doesn't do any go stop your nonsense. What good

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does it do when a kid is standing there at

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the grave of his parents and like, well, God's got

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a plan and all of it that people said that

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to me and my mom's grave. God has a plan

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in it. All things work together for good. Just stop

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talking to me, like, give me an atheist, They'll give

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me words of comfort. Christians just lie to me. Oh

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there's a reason for it. There's a reason my mom

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is dead. Well, thank you so very much. I can't

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wait to discover that reason. I'm now fifty seven. I

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shall haven't figured out the reason why she's dead. Nobody,

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but all the Christians ensured me there was one. Because

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Christians do what they slightly heal the hurt of the

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people by giving you lies that deny reality. That's exactly

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what these religious leaders do. And every pastor who tells everyone,

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did you come to church this morning needing comfort. Well,

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go to Isaiah chapter forty, verse one, because we're going

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to talk about the comfort that God brings to us

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and our times of pain, utilizing what happened to Israel

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as a promise of what God's going to do for us.

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Do you understand how fraudulent that is. That's like in medicine,

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that would be malpracticed. The pastor should be sued because

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that's not You cannot do that in any tangible way.

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So let's talk about Let's talk about what they did

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and how this all comes into play. All right, Look,

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let's look at go to is or Isaiah, go to

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Jeremiah six fourteen. We can go to eight eleven or

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six fourteen to see exact same words Jeremiah six fourteen.

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And what do you read there? They have healed also

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the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. So

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I want the first thing I want you to see.

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The key points in about Jeremiah six fourteen and eight

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eleven is they offered superficial healing. Superficial healing. Listen to

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how this translation reads. They dress the wound of my

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people as though it were not serious. They dress the

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wound of my people as though it were not serious.

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When pastors stand behind the pulpit and offer you some

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kind of fraudulent comfort, false hope, some kind the trash

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encouragement based off the misapplication and misinterpretation of a text.

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You know what they're doing. They're treating you as if

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your problem isn't that serious. I hate to say this.

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All those Christians who walked up to me at my

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mother's grave site, they didn't treat my hurt as if

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it was serious, because you know what they did. They

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said their little garbage, and then I never saw or

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heard from them ever again. So who cares about the

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little their little Christian comfort. It was fraudulent, It was meaningless.

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They offer a meaningless healing. According to one commentary, this

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means they offer shallow remedies rather than addressing root problems.

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Let me rephrase that they offer shallow remedies rather than

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addressing reality. Israel's covenant on faithfulness and rebellion against God

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was obviously a root problem. Here, they provided a sense

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of security, suggesting that everything is fine, when in reality

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the nation was on the breep of disaster. They offered

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offered a superficial healing that did what that was shallow

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but a denied reality. As a Christian, we cannot offer

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hope to people and deny reality. For example, when as

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a Christian, what can we not tell anyone who's going

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through a difficult time? What are some things we cannot

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tell people who are going through a painful, tragic time?

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What are some things we cannot say as Christians? What

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are some things we just cannot say? Well, let's definitely

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we probably should say we can and we should never

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say we understand because most of the time we don't,

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right because we're not there. Even if you've gone through

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the exact same thing, your feelings is going to be

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different than their feelings. But we can't say things this.

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Can we say God is going to make it better? No,

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we cannot say God is in this life. We cannot

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say God is going to make it better? Or can

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we say God is going to intervene, God is going

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to provide, God is gonna We can't say any of that. Okay,

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we can't. We can't say any I mean, we may

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say God as a plan, but that really does not

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help anyone because we typically when we say God as

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a plan, what are we insinuating Okay, that what happened

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somehow wasn't his plan and so he's got another plan

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or that that was his plan, which that doesn't make

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anyone feel better, right, Like I remember when my uh,

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when my mother died. Now I wasn't living at home,

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so I was only kind of partially connected to it.

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But myda, my sister obviously was little right ten years old,

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nine ten, I can't remember, and women from a I

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think it was First Baptist Church, Buffalo Gap, Texas. They

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brought my sister this little book trying to explain to

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her why God took her and that God needed her

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mommy for them. What kind of trash is that? Hey,

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God needed your mommy more than you did. What God?

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First of all, I didn't need my mom Okay, so

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that's just and then that just says God killed my mom.

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I mean the whole thing was evil, right, And I'm like,

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when I saw it, I think I think I actually

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burned the book and I don't even like burning books,

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but I wanted to think so far away from my

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sister is that could be because it was like, this

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is evil trash and I just wanted Christians to leave

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my sister alone and I wanted Christians to leave me

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alone because none of it was all trash. There's things

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we cannot say. I can't come to church and open

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the Bible and just take a verse and say, God's

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gonna help you. God's gonna provide, God's gonna protect, God's

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gonna do this, God's gonna make it all better, God's

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gonna fix it. I can't say any of that. All

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I can say is what God has provided salvation in

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Jesus Christ. By putting our faith in him, our sins

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are removed as far as the ess from the west.

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His righteousness is imputed. To my account, I've been adopted

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into the family of God. I'm a co heir, joint

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heir with Christ. And one day I'll be in heaven

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and there'll be no more pain, no more suffering, and

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no more death, and I'll have a new body. That's it.

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Anything about what God may or may not do now,

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I cannot say. And I think anytime we take passages

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of scripture trying to promise what God's going to do,

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Number One, most of the time they actually reference back

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to Israel. And those promises to Israel are based off

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a covenant that God has not made with us. Or two,

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I think in many cases, if they take any New

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Testament passages, we've got to be very careful because I may.

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I think in most of those promises, it's promises of

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what God is doing for us spiritually, spiritual comfort, spiritual provision,

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because in this life we know there's no gear. Christians

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go through the same pain, the same suffering as a

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lost person. So that that's that's just superficial healing. When

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you're offering healing, that's not really facing reality. So that's

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a key point here is they offered superficial healing. Number two,

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they were a denial of God's judgment. I'm gonna just say,

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a deny denial of reality, all right. Superficial healing is

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superficial healing because it denies reality. And number two, it

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was just a straight denial of reality. I know, if

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that's a little redundant. The leaders avoid come they read

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this again. The leaders avoid confronting the people with the

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reality of God's coming judgment. They proclaimed peace, creating the

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illusion that no danger was imminent. By ignoring or minimizing

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God's warning, they led the people further into complacency. Let

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me state it this way, I like the way they

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stated that they he read it exactly. They You see,

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the leaders avoided confronting the people with the reality of

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God's coming judgment. I want to just say, the leaders

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avoided confronting the people with the reality of the situation.

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As Christians, we cannot ignore reality. The reality there was

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judgment was coming. It was a denial of God's judgment.

401
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It was a denial of reality. Christianity is not a

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denial of reality. Christianity is supposed to be what an

403
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acknowledgement of reality while maintaining what faith in a God

404
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that that reality calls into question. Remember we talked about

405
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this in Psalm eighty three. We talked about this over

406
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and over that as Christians, where do we live in

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this life, in the midst of reality? We have faith

408
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in a God in whom we cannot see, and that

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reality calls into question the very existence of that God.

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We acknowledge that reality calls into question the existence of God.

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To deny that, you're out of your mind. And many

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Christians are like, oh, but I know God is real

413
00:26:11.720 --> 00:26:13.599
because God did this for me, or God did this

414
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for me, and God did this for me, And I

415
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:17.759
always want to raise my hand. Okay, Well, if you

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think God did all of those things for you, what

417
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about all the people He didn't do any of that for.

418
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They now never have an answer for that, right other

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than doing what blaming the people that it's because of

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their sin or they don't have enough faith, which is

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just pure evil. All right, So superficial healing a denial

422
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of reality. Number three, It misleads people. The leader's assurance

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of peace deceive the people into thinking they do not

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need to repent or change their ways. This false comfort

425
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lulls them into a falsenesse of security, making them unprepared

426
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for the consequences of their rebellion. Well, when pastors take

427
00:26:55.960 --> 00:27:01.799
Isaiah forty verse one, Jeremiah other books and they basically

428
00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:07.799
give a misapplication to it, it misleads the people. Right First,

429
00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:11.880
it misleads them in two ways. It misleads them into

430
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:14.480
thinking that God has promised them something that he hasn't,

431
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and sooner or later they're going to be confronted with

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the reality. And what else does it mislead them on?

433
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Number two? Misleads them in how to handle scripture. It

434
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misleads them in how to handle scripture. And if you

435
00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:35.680
try to handle scripture correctly, Guess where you find yourself.

436
00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:41.240
You'll find yourself in opposition to Christianity. That's the frustrating part.

437
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If you try to handle the scriptures correctly, you will

438
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find yourself in opposition to Christianity at large. All of

439
00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:52.519
these sermons that led me to this entire kind of

440
00:27:52.599 --> 00:27:55.799
conflict were all chosen at random. I didn't like, go

441
00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:59.480
find the sermon and then create the point. I just

442
00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:02.839
started listening the sermons and then realize, in fact, all

443
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of twenty twenty four, because we've been doing the Sermon's

444
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two point oh you know, sermon challenge for this entire year,

445
00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:12.680
and we're fast approaching the end of it, all the

446
00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:19.400
sermons basically are to have fallen into two categories. No, No,

447
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this stuff's been going on forever. I mean we even

448
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in this series. We went all the way back to

449
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watch sixteen eighty seven Pilgrim's Progress. He was already allegorizing

450
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and taking Isaiah. He was taking Isaiah forty three. This

451
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has been going on forever. Because was it Karl Marx

452
00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:43.960
who said religion is the opiate of the masses. I

453
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think it was Karl Marx, and he's right. People come

454
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to religion for comfort. That don't come to religion for truth.

455
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People come to church to feel better, to be encouraged,

456
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to make friends, to have community, to have a pot luck,

457
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to hold hands and see kumbaya. They don't come for truth.

458
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If you are a church. If you are a church

459
00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:10.559
and all you care is about giving people truth, you

460
00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:17.200
know what you get look around, okay, because people don't

461
00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:19.480
want that. They don't want to deal with the text.

462
00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:22.000
They don't want to deal with the difficulty. They don't

463
00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:24.160
want to deal with the contradictions. They don't want to

464
00:29:24.200 --> 00:29:27.680
deal with the logical fallacies. They just want a little

465
00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:31.400
nice three point sermon. They just wanted to feel like

466
00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:35.240
church because they want their hint of opium. They want

467
00:29:35.319 --> 00:29:37.960
their drug. They just they come to church, they pull

468
00:29:38.039 --> 00:29:40.920
up their sleeve and say I need my fix, make

469
00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:43.240
me feel good, and they get their little shot. And

470
00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:45.799
the old church was so wonderful, it was so encouraging,

471
00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:48.240
it was such a blessing. Oh it was so great.

472
00:29:48.839 --> 00:29:51.839
And what did you get? They'll think they got the Bible,

473
00:29:52.039 --> 00:29:56.079
but they don't. They did not get the text. So

474
00:29:56.160 --> 00:29:59.920
when pastors do this, it misleads the people into thinking

475
00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:03.000
they're getting the text and again listening to all these

476
00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:05.799
sermons this year, two things happened over and over and

477
00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:08.319
over and over and over and over. Almost all the

478
00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:11.960
sermons would either fall into the category of basically say, hey,

479
00:30:11.960 --> 00:30:14.319
now that you're a Christian, you basically stop sinning. You

480
00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:16.640
can say no to sin, yes to God, and basically

481
00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:18.720
you're a new creation and you're good to go. And

482
00:30:18.759 --> 00:30:20.880
if you do continue to sin, you're probably not saved,

483
00:30:21.160 --> 00:30:23.359
all right. That's why most of them fell in. And

484
00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:27.240
then the other ones was a constantly Hey, we're in Nehemiah,

485
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:30.240
it's about us. Hey, we're in Ezekiel, it's about us.

486
00:30:30.279 --> 00:30:33.160
We're in Isaiah, it's about us. We're here, it's about

487
00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:37.920
We're in Exodus. It's about us. And it's just us, us, us, us,

488
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:42.640
and the original people get thrown out of the text.

489
00:30:43.400 --> 00:30:46.039
And that's my concern. That's why we're doing Isaiah forty

490
00:30:46.079 --> 00:30:49.200
through fifty five. So number one is superficial healing. Number

491
00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:52.519
two it denies reality. Number three it misleads the people,

492
00:30:52.680 --> 00:30:57.319
and number four it focuses on external issues. The leaders

493
00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:01.640
likely address surface level problems are find an optimistic rhetoric,

494
00:31:01.880 --> 00:31:04.440
but they failed to deal with the deeper spiritual and

495
00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:08.720
moral corruption that plagued Judah. Their failure to apply the

496
00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:14.079
truth of God's word effectively made their ministry hollow and deceitful.

497
00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:19.240
So focusing on external issues. I don't know if that

498
00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:22.759
really helps us As far as how it works in

499
00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:27.039
our time, I think it is simply just. It just

500
00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:30.599
causes us to be not We don't see things clearly.

501
00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:34.480
It blinds us. It gets our focus on the wrong thing.

502
00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:38.559
Itf facts. I will say this, It gets us to

503
00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:47.039
focus on a false reality instead of focusing on reality. See,

504
00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:50.799
it got them to focus on Hey, there's peace, everything

505
00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:54.000
is good. When pastors do this, it gets us to

506
00:31:54.039 --> 00:31:57.799
focus on this world that you're listen to Christians talk,

507
00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:02.920
they talk the language of a fake reality. Like if

508
00:32:02.920 --> 00:32:05.799
you just listen to Christians talk, you're like, what what

509
00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:10.000
are you talking about? The best example is at my

510
00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:12.680
church in Nebraska. Oh, I cannot believe we had to

511
00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:16.319
do it. It was the Experiencing God book that was so

512
00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:20.039
famous at the time. Everybody was doing Experiencing God. And

513
00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:23.240
if you look read the Experiencing God books. By the time,

514
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:26.119
I mean I got so frustrated, I almost didn't want

515
00:32:26.119 --> 00:32:28.000
to go back to church. I could not handle it

516
00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:32.079
anymore because the Experiencing God books. Every chapter there's this story,

517
00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:35.599
you know, oh we needed this and God provided this,

518
00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:37.880
and then God did this and God did this, and

519
00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:40.240
God did this and God did this, and you read

520
00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:42.160
the book, you're like, well, then why isn't God doing

521
00:32:42.200 --> 00:32:45.000
any of this for me? Why is He not doing

522
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:47.640
any of this for me? And so then you have

523
00:32:47.720 --> 00:32:50.960
to what's your I mean, you're left with very few answers, right,

524
00:32:51.079 --> 00:32:54.039
Let see, well, maybe I'm not spiritual enough. Well, maybe

525
00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:56.880
I'm not saved, maybe I don't have enough faith. Well

526
00:32:56.920 --> 00:32:59.960
that just leads you into a like a downward spot

527
00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:03.720
of despair. But the rest of the Christians and the

528
00:33:03.759 --> 00:33:05.880
church were like, hey man, it was so encouraging, and

529
00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:08.319
it's like, what are you talking about? What do you

530
00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:13.599
There's nothing encouraging about it. It's a lie, it's trash.

531
00:33:13.799 --> 00:33:18.480
But Christians can live in this fake reality. I don't

532
00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:20.240
know how they do it. I don't know how. I've

533
00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:23.240
never understood how they do it. I don't understand because

534
00:33:23.319 --> 00:33:26.079
I've always heard are Christians talk and I'm always like,

535
00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:31.000
do you not watch the news? Do you not look

536
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:33.680
at the world? Like how do you live in this

537
00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:36.960
fraudulent world where you act like God is just right

538
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:40.599
there taking care of every little problem, fixing every little thing,

539
00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:45.720
And sometimes they're they're able to convince themselves of that

540
00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:49.920
until well, until reality hits right, until reality. I mean,

541
00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:51.519
I went to church with a lot of people who

542
00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:53.839
talk that big game. And then one of the men

543
00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:55.839
of the church. I don't know if he was a deacon,

544
00:33:56.039 --> 00:33:58.559
but he was, you know, very well respected in the church.

545
00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:01.519
His wife, what was she thirty one, thirty three, thirty

546
00:34:01.559 --> 00:34:04.559
four got cancer. They had two small children. She was

547
00:34:04.599 --> 00:34:09.559
dead six months. Hey, God, where's God? I thought? God

548
00:34:09.599 --> 00:34:12.000
protects and promises and he's gonna do this, and he's

549
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:15.480
gonna do what what were What do you tell these

550
00:34:15.559 --> 00:34:19.800
kids there? I mean they were little, you know, and

551
00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:28.559
their mom's dead and six months diagnosed. God, Yeah, you

552
00:34:28.639 --> 00:34:30.960
can't be acting like God is doing all of these

553
00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:34.519
things when that kind of stuff happens, you know, like

554
00:34:35.239 --> 00:34:37.840
then you have to just say, well, God chose not, Sorry, kid,

555
00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:41.360
God chose not to heal your mommy. Maybe if you

556
00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:43.519
had more faith, maybe if you're maybe if your dad

557
00:34:43.639 --> 00:34:47.079
was more godly. It just it's it's a tragedy. How

558
00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:50.800
that occurs. So we see in Jeremiah that they offered

559
00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:54.480
a superficial healing that denied reality, that misled people, and

560
00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:57.760
it got them to focus on a fraudulent reality. Now

561
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:01.800
why is this problematic? Why is this a problem? Well,

562
00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:05.800
false peace and comfort described in these verses are problematic

563
00:35:05.840 --> 00:35:11.480
because number one, it distorts God's truth by proclaiming peace

564
00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:16.360
when there is no peace. The leaders misrepresent God's word

565
00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:22.719
purpose showing a disregard for the seriousness of God's word.

566
00:35:23.320 --> 00:35:27.519
They show a disregard for the seriousness of sin and judgment.

567
00:35:27.559 --> 00:35:32.639
It distorts God's truth. When we have pastor after pastor

568
00:35:32.719 --> 00:35:36.000
go to these passages and insert us in it, it's

569
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:41.000
a distortion of God's truth. And every sermon that we

570
00:35:41.239 --> 00:35:44.599
reviewed on the podcast on Isaiah forty, I mean, it

571
00:35:44.639 --> 00:35:47.440
was a running joke on the podcast get your stopwatch out,

572
00:35:47.719 --> 00:35:50.679
how fast do we get inserted into the text? Let's

573
00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:56.039
hit play like the one sermon forty seconds forty seconds

574
00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:59.320
at Isaiah forty, he already inserted us into the text.

575
00:36:00.639 --> 00:36:04.519
It took zero seconds because the title already inserted us

576
00:36:04.519 --> 00:36:08.079
into the text. And it's like, but the people in

577
00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:12.039
the pew, what were they all doing during the sermons, Amen, Amen,

578
00:36:12.119 --> 00:36:16.800
what are you ameny? A distortion of God's truth, but

579
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:20.239
no one really cares if the text is being handled correctly.

580
00:36:20.480 --> 00:36:24.239
So it's a distortion of God's truth. Number two, especially

581
00:36:24.239 --> 00:36:27.760
in the case of Jeremiah's day, it delayed repentance. I mean,

582
00:36:27.800 --> 00:36:31.079
obviously the people are not called a repentance because they're

583
00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:33.800
given a sense of false assurance, leaving them unprepared to

584
00:36:33.800 --> 00:36:38.440
face the consequences of their actions. I think what for

585
00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:42.719
us it delays. It delays us coming face to face

586
00:36:42.760 --> 00:36:44.840
with reality. I think, if we wanted to put it

587
00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:48.719
in our context, look, sooner or later, every Christian's going

588
00:36:48.760 --> 00:36:51.679
to have to face reality. Every Christian's going to have

589
00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:55.800
to face sooner or later, reality is going to hit, right,

590
00:36:56.039 --> 00:36:58.039
And I think most Christians are not prepared to face

591
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:01.000
reality because they live in it. They even a reality

592
00:37:01.239 --> 00:37:05.239
that tells them why God's going to do this. God's

593
00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:07.800
going to do this, false promise, false promise, And I go, well,

594
00:37:07.800 --> 00:37:10.280
wait a minute, you know God's going to do what

595
00:37:10.360 --> 00:37:13.039
he did for me for Israel. There's no you can't

596
00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:17.760
take those promises. So it delayed repentance, or it delays

597
00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:22.000
us seeing reality. Number three, for them, it promoted complacency

598
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:25.639
with no urgency to change. The people continue in their

599
00:37:25.679 --> 00:37:31.079
rebellion and idolatry, deepening their estrangement from God. It promotes complacency.

600
00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:34.320
I don't know what it promotes in us, but I

601
00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:35.840
know what it does. I guess the one thing that

602
00:37:35.920 --> 00:37:41.719
promotes It promotes us. Ever, actually, it promotes a careless,

603
00:37:43.400 --> 00:37:49.320
mindless approach to scripture. Right, It distorts God's truth, It

604
00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:53.880
delays us facing reality, and it promotes a careless handling

605
00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:58.639
of the word of God. And number four, it results

606
00:37:58.639 --> 00:38:02.679
in greater destruction. The false comfort ultimately leads to greater

607
00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:05.039
destruction because it blinds the people of the truth of

608
00:38:05.079 --> 00:38:08.199
their situation. Well, you know what happens when you give

609
00:38:08.239 --> 00:38:11.760
people false comfort, false comfort, false comfort, and then when

610
00:38:11.800 --> 00:38:15.920
they get hit with reality, you know what happens. It

611
00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:19.320
can lead to the actual rejection of the faith, and

612
00:38:19.480 --> 00:38:22.840
it can lead people to completely deconstruct and think Christianity

613
00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:27.079
is trash. You know where else. It leads them to

614
00:38:27.159 --> 00:38:28.679
walk out the door and never go back to a

615
00:38:28.679 --> 00:38:32.800
corporate church because they see the church is lying to them,

616
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:36.079
and the church did lie to them. Every pastor who

617
00:38:36.159 --> 00:38:39.239
stands up and takes passages of scripture and applies it

618
00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:43.639
to us when it's not us. That's that's gonna at

619
00:38:43.639 --> 00:38:45.760
some point you're gonna be like, none of this stuff

620
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:50.039
works and you're gonna you're gonna walk out. And I

621
00:38:50.039 --> 00:38:53.000
mean I almost did the same thing. I mean, all

622
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:56.360
the trash people said about my mom. It led me.

623
00:38:56.440 --> 00:38:59.159
I mean, well, it definitely helped contributed to me trying

624
00:38:59.199 --> 00:39:02.239
to kill myself, but it also almost led me to

625
00:39:02.280 --> 00:39:08.440
saying Christianity is a lie, Christianity's fake, Christianity's fraudulent. Because

626
00:39:08.599 --> 00:39:11.599
all I was told is God, you should find comfort

627
00:39:11.639 --> 00:39:15.039
that God is all powerful because God's power he uses

628
00:39:15.079 --> 00:39:17.280
that power for you. Well, all I needed was God

629
00:39:17.320 --> 00:39:19.400
to I don't know, I just prayed for something simple,

630
00:39:19.480 --> 00:39:21.559
like wake my mom up so that we could have

631
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:26.239
one conversation before she dies. That's all I wanted. God

632
00:39:26.239 --> 00:39:29.519
wouldn't even grant me that. Well, what good is this

633
00:39:29.639 --> 00:39:33.000
power if it's not gonna do that? So the power

634
00:39:33.039 --> 00:39:35.519
brought me no compan So that led me to lots

635
00:39:35.360 --> 00:39:38.039
of issues. So those are some of the reasons this

636
00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:42.280
is problematic. It distorts God's truth. In Jeremiah's case, it

637
00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:47.079
delays repentance. For us, it delays facing reality. It promotes complacency.

638
00:39:47.320 --> 00:39:50.440
For us, it promotes a careless attitude towards God's word.

639
00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:53.719
It results in a greater destruction, not only for Judah,

640
00:39:53.800 --> 00:39:56.320
but then for us. It results in a greater destruction

641
00:39:56.360 --> 00:39:59.719
because when we're finally confronted with reality, it does not

642
00:39:59.800 --> 00:40:02.679
help help us in any way, shape or form. So

643
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:07.079
how do we apply Jeremiah's warnings? Well? In Jeremiah six

644
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:10.960
fourteen and eight to eleven, these warnings are relevant for

645
00:40:11.079 --> 00:40:17.440
both ancient Israel and us in our modern context. It

646
00:40:17.599 --> 00:40:22.679
highlights the dangers of leaders who avoid addressing hard truths,

647
00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:33.159
who offer shallow solutions, and prioritize comfort over faithfulness to

648
00:40:33.639 --> 00:40:39.719
the text, The warning is clear. This speaks and gives

649
00:40:39.800 --> 00:40:43.960
us the dangers of spiritual leaders who avoid addressing hard truths,

650
00:40:45.199 --> 00:40:54.639
avoid shallow solutions, and prioritize comfort over truth. All right,

651
00:40:54.719 --> 00:40:58.679
everybody got that? How is it applicable? This is a

652
00:40:58.719 --> 00:41:03.920
condemnation of spiritually who avoid addressing hard truth avoid addressing reality,

653
00:41:04.239 --> 00:41:06.199
and a lot of Church is the last place you

654
00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:08.119
want to come to hear about reality, because it's not

655
00:41:08.159 --> 00:41:11.559
gonna give it to you. It offers shallow solutions. And

656
00:41:11.679 --> 00:41:18.480
number three, it prioritizes comfort over truth, and a lot

657
00:41:18.480 --> 00:41:21.519
of people want comfort over truth. We should want truth

658
00:41:21.599 --> 00:41:25.199
over what comfort. In fact, I will argue truth is

659
00:41:25.239 --> 00:41:35.639
what rarely comforting rarely. Right now, with all of that

660
00:41:35.800 --> 00:41:39.719
is the foundation, now we can bring it to Isaiah

661
00:41:39.800 --> 00:41:42.239
forty verse one. Now go to Isaiah forty verse one,

662
00:41:42.719 --> 00:41:46.719
because this is the section. All right, now, we're gonna

663
00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:49.800
bring all of these three things. We're gonna bring Jeremiah

664
00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:53.320
six fourteen, Jeremiah eight eleven, Isaiah forty one. We're gonna

665
00:41:53.360 --> 00:41:59.360
put them all together. Now, Okay, Now here's the problem.

666
00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:06.400
Many pastors misuse texts like Isaiah forty verse one, which

667
00:42:06.440 --> 00:42:12.039
is meant for Israel to offer comfort to modern audiences.

668
00:42:12.880 --> 00:42:18.320
This creates a sense of false security and peace detached

669
00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:25.440
from the original context and reality. So let me state

670
00:42:25.480 --> 00:42:30.440
that again. What is the problem. Pastors use misuse texts

671
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:34.199
like Isaiah chapter forty verse one, which is meant for

672
00:42:34.280 --> 00:42:40.320
whom Israel or Judah. Right, I mean, Isaiah thirty nine

673
00:42:40.840 --> 00:42:43.679
five through eight sets the context as we talked about

674
00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:47.559
last week, right, So many pastors misuse texts like Isaiah

675
00:42:47.639 --> 00:42:52.000
chapter forty verse one to offer comfort to a modern audience.

676
00:42:52.599 --> 00:42:55.960
What does this create? A false sense of security and

677
00:42:56.000 --> 00:42:59.119
a false sense of peace that is detached from the

678
00:42:59.199 --> 00:43:08.599
original text and detached from reality itself. All right, So,

679
00:43:09.599 --> 00:43:17.519
offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from

680
00:43:17.559 --> 00:43:24.000
scripture results and a superficial peace that ultimately fails when

681
00:43:24.079 --> 00:43:28.320
confronted with real world suffering and tragedy. Let me give

682
00:43:28.360 --> 00:43:30.159
you that's my thesis statement. Let me give it to

683
00:43:30.159 --> 00:43:31.960
you one more time. All right, you ready, here's my

684
00:43:32.039 --> 00:43:39.760
thesis statement, offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises

685
00:43:39.880 --> 00:43:42.320
misapplied from scripture. Now you please know what I put

686
00:43:42.320 --> 00:43:46.400
in there, offering comfort based on God's attributes? Remember that

687
00:43:46.480 --> 00:43:47.760
was the thing that kind of I think turned to

688
00:43:47.800 --> 00:43:51.559
temperature last Sunday. What do I mean by that? What

689
00:43:51.639 --> 00:43:59.280
are some of God's attributes? All knowing, all powerful, present

690
00:43:59.320 --> 00:44:04.559
everywhere at all time. Right we say omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Right,

691
00:44:04.960 --> 00:44:09.480
using the theological term telling people that I should find

692
00:44:09.519 --> 00:44:16.400
comfort and those attributes is meaningless. What comfort do I

693
00:44:16.519 --> 00:44:23.440
find in God's power unless what happens? Unless that power

694
00:44:23.480 --> 00:44:27.039
is being utilized to fix my situation? In fact, it

695
00:44:27.079 --> 00:44:31.239
could actually make me feel worse, couldn't it? Right? If

696
00:44:31.280 --> 00:44:33.639
I'm driving home today, I'm in a car wreck, and

697
00:44:33.679 --> 00:44:36.800
I'm laying in Hendrix and I'm paralyzed, and you come

698
00:44:36.840 --> 00:44:39.880
in and go, well, find great comfort that your God

699
00:44:40.239 --> 00:44:44.280
is all powerful, all knowing, and present everywhere at all times.

700
00:44:44.360 --> 00:44:46.960
When you leave the room, I may call security and say,

701
00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:49.519
never let that person back into the hospital again, because

702
00:44:49.559 --> 00:44:54.159
that is useless information to me. Now, if God uses

703
00:44:54.199 --> 00:44:58.480
that power to do what well, If you had use

704
00:44:58.559 --> 00:45:00.360
the power to stop the wreck from happening, that would

705
00:45:00.360 --> 00:45:02.760
have been good. If it would use the power to

706
00:45:02.880 --> 00:45:05.320
fix my legs so I could walk again, that would

707
00:45:05.360 --> 00:45:08.400
be good. But God being present, being all knowing, and

708
00:45:08.440 --> 00:45:13.320
being all powerful only makes my suffering worse. It doesn't

709
00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:18.800
make it better. In fact, it's torturous, right. It's like, Hey,

710
00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:21.800
right there next to your bed is the eternal God,

711
00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:25.199
who's present everywhere, who knows all things, who's all powerful,

712
00:45:25.320 --> 00:45:30.320
but he's just watching you suffer. So I'm not supposed

713
00:45:30.320 --> 00:45:31.960
to say that in church because we don't want to

714
00:45:31.960 --> 00:45:39.280
face reality. But that's reality, is it not? Nobody likes that?

715
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:42.760
So what is my thesis statement offering comfort based on

716
00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:49.039
God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results in what

717
00:45:49.280 --> 00:45:54.960
kind of peace? A superficial piece that will ultimately fail

718
00:45:55.280 --> 00:46:01.320
when confronted with real world suffering and tragedy. How long

719
00:46:01.400 --> 00:46:05.559
does that fraudulent comfort last until you get punched in

720
00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:12.159
the face? What's the famous saying in boxing? Everyone has

721
00:46:12.159 --> 00:46:16.119
a plan and everyone has a strategy until when until

722
00:46:16.119 --> 00:46:19.039
you get punched in the face. Then all of a sudden,

723
00:46:19.079 --> 00:46:23.239
your planet strategy goes out the window. Right, So we

724
00:46:24.239 --> 00:46:28.400
have to be willing to have a system that faces reality.

725
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:31.760
So let me read the thesis statement again. Offering comfort

726
00:46:31.760 --> 00:46:36.599
based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results

727
00:46:36.639 --> 00:46:40.400
in a superficial piece that ultimately fails when confronted with

728
00:46:40.519 --> 00:46:44.679
real world suffering and tragedy. We have to offer comfort

729
00:46:44.960 --> 00:46:50.840
that acknowledges reality, doesn't create a fraudulent reality. Sure, I

730
00:46:50.920 --> 00:46:54.639
hate to say it. You know, in a lot of ways,

731
00:46:54.639 --> 00:46:58.320
you know what church is. It's no different than going

732
00:46:58.360 --> 00:47:05.000
to a movie. Why do people go to movies to

733
00:47:05.239 --> 00:47:10.840
escape reality? Why do people go to church? Come on,

734
00:47:10.920 --> 00:47:13.639
let's just acknowledge it to escape reality. Church is no

735
00:47:13.639 --> 00:47:16.559
different than a movie, theater, movie, theaters give you a

736
00:47:16.599 --> 00:47:21.159
false world, right, and what a church give you false world?

737
00:47:21.719 --> 00:47:29.039
Fraudulent world, a made up world as set of facing reality.

738
00:47:29.679 --> 00:47:32.960
So let's look at Isaiah forty verse one and context. Now,

739
00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:36.079
all right, So what is my thesis? Offering comfort based

740
00:47:36.079 --> 00:47:38.880
on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results in

741
00:47:38.920 --> 00:47:42.199
a superficial piece that ultimately fails when confronted with a

742
00:47:42.199 --> 00:47:45.800
real world suffering and tragedy. So look at Isaiah chapter forty,

743
00:47:45.880 --> 00:47:48.800
verse one in some kind of context. How does the

744
00:47:48.840 --> 00:47:54.760
text begin? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people? All right,

745
00:47:55.320 --> 00:48:00.960
says your God? Who is the original audience? We can

746
00:48:01.000 --> 00:48:05.679
say Israel? Or go to Isaiah thirty nine five through eight.

747
00:48:05.840 --> 00:48:10.360
What does that refer to? Especially those in Babylonian exile,

748
00:48:10.719 --> 00:48:13.760
who's assured of God's coming deliverance? So let's me make

749
00:48:13.800 --> 00:48:19.000
sure any promises and found in Isaiah forty to fifty

750
00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:25.880
five then primarily is addressed to whom those in Babylonian captivity.

751
00:48:26.320 --> 00:48:30.360
Can I take those promises and assurances and make them mine?

752
00:48:30.440 --> 00:48:34.639
If I do? What am I doing misapplying scripture? What

753
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:37.599
kind of comfort did I get? Well? Let me read

754
00:48:37.639 --> 00:48:41.159
it this way. There's the text. There's a little bit

755
00:48:41.199 --> 00:48:45.440
of the context. Help listen to this. The comfort in

756
00:48:45.599 --> 00:48:48.599
this passage is rooted in a specific promise of the

757
00:48:48.639 --> 00:48:52.320
restoration for Israel. This message is tied to the covenant

758
00:48:52.320 --> 00:48:55.679
relationship between God and Israel. Cannot stress that enough. Any

759
00:48:56.039 --> 00:49:00.320
promise of deliverance, any promises to protect, to preserve, is

760
00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:03.880
based on God's covenant promises that go back to Deuteronomy

761
00:49:03.920 --> 00:49:07.679
twenty eight, go all the way back to the Abrahamic Covenant.

762
00:49:09.599 --> 00:49:16.320
Not to us. Pastors extract this verse to suggest that

763
00:49:16.360 --> 00:49:22.480
God's attributes creator powerful should comfort us in any situation.

764
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:30.000
It ignores the specific historical and thiological context of Israel's restoration.

765
00:49:31.320 --> 00:49:35.400
So Isaiah chapter forty verse one is the text that

766
00:49:35.519 --> 00:49:38.920
gets misupplied, ripped out of context. And then what do

767
00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:41.320
they do with it? They do the same thing that

768
00:49:41.360 --> 00:49:44.480
the religious leaders were doing in Jeremiah six fourteen and

769
00:49:44.639 --> 00:49:48.480
Jeremiah chapter eight, which is offering comfort and peace where

770
00:49:48.480 --> 00:49:53.760
there is no comfort or peace. Right. So there's Isaiah

771
00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:57.000
chapter forty verse one. Now let's go to Jeremiah six fourteen.

772
00:49:57.039 --> 00:49:58.599
If you want to look at Jeremiah six fourteen, I

773
00:49:58.599 --> 00:50:01.760
know we've already looked at it times and Jeremiah eight eleven.

774
00:50:01.760 --> 00:50:04.559
They say the exact same words. They have healed the

775
00:50:04.599 --> 00:50:07.920
wound of my people lightly or slightly saying peace piece

776
00:50:08.119 --> 00:50:11.159
where there is no peace. Jeremiah six fourteen and eight

777
00:50:11.159 --> 00:50:15.880
to eleven say the exact same words. Jeremiah condemns leaders

778
00:50:15.920 --> 00:50:20.719
who offer superficial peace rather than addressing reality or addressing

779
00:50:20.719 --> 00:50:30.159
the root causes of Israel's problems. This false comfort, downplayed reality.

780
00:50:30.440 --> 00:50:34.320
I cannot stress that enough. They're false comfort, downplayed reality.

781
00:50:34.719 --> 00:50:38.159
So what is the parallel? Modern pastors using verses like

782
00:50:38.199 --> 00:50:41.760
Isaiah forty one to provide comfort without addressing the real

783
00:50:41.840 --> 00:50:46.400
cause of pain or to address reality, are the exact

784
00:50:46.519 --> 00:50:49.679
same way. They're doing the exact same thing the prophets

785
00:50:49.719 --> 00:50:52.880
and priests were doing. And Jeremiah six fourteen and eight eleven.

786
00:50:53.159 --> 00:50:57.119
That's how it all fits together. Every time you listen

787
00:50:57.159 --> 00:50:59.760
to a sermon where a pastor takes a text and

788
00:51:00.079 --> 00:51:02.760
hurts us into a text where we don't belong, takes

789
00:51:02.760 --> 00:51:06.880
those promises, that comfort, that provision, and says it belongs

790
00:51:06.920 --> 00:51:10.000
to you, they are doing the exact same thing the

791
00:51:10.039 --> 00:51:13.280
religious leaders were doing. And Jeremiah six fourteen and eight

792
00:51:13.440 --> 00:51:16.480
eleven and it's a fraudulent hope and it's a fraudulent comfort.

793
00:51:20.199 --> 00:51:22.559
Right does everyone see how Isaiah forty verse one and

794
00:51:22.639 --> 00:51:25.639
Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven all fit together.

795
00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:35.119
It's a perfect parallel God's attributes and false assurance. Pastors

796
00:51:35.199 --> 00:51:43.480
often appeal to God's omnipotence omniscience to reassure believers. Now

797
00:51:43.519 --> 00:51:49.880
this is not my words. This assurance feels hollow when

798
00:51:49.960 --> 00:51:57.800
God's attributes do not manifest and tangible interventions. Did everybody

799
00:51:57.800 --> 00:52:03.159
hear that God's attributes do not provide comfort? Or if

800
00:52:03.199 --> 00:52:07.360
it does, that comfort will feel hollow, will feel empty

801
00:52:07.639 --> 00:52:12.280
when those attributes do not manifest in a tangible intervention.

802
00:52:13.119 --> 00:52:17.599
Unless the attribute turns into a tangible intervention, then the

803
00:52:17.679 --> 00:52:22.000
comfort offered by those attributes is empty, hollow, and vain

804
00:52:22.480 --> 00:52:26.480
at best. Yet, that's exactly what you're taught if you

805
00:52:26.559 --> 00:52:28.920
go to anything. If in fact, I don't have the

806
00:52:28.920 --> 00:52:30.599
book here, I think it's back in the library. I'll

807
00:52:30.639 --> 00:52:33.039
get it. I have this huge book on God's attributes.

808
00:52:33.039 --> 00:52:35.400
I had to use it in multiple schools. It's probably

809
00:52:35.400 --> 00:52:38.599
like eight hundred pages, maybe seven hundred pages, And in

810
00:52:38.639 --> 00:52:40.760
almost every chapter, what does it tell you to do

811
00:52:41.440 --> 00:52:45.039
when you're preaching, take God's attribute and then offer comfort

812
00:52:45.159 --> 00:52:48.519
to the people from said attribute. But that's not a comfort.

813
00:52:50.599 --> 00:52:54.039
That's just stating what it's a fact about God. It

814
00:52:54.039 --> 00:52:58.519
doesn't provide comfort unless the attribute is activated in a

815
00:52:58.559 --> 00:53:04.159
way that does what something specific for me? So even

816
00:53:04.639 --> 00:53:06.840
I mean, I think anyone being willing to be honest

817
00:53:06.880 --> 00:53:12.199
will realize the how hollow and empty these that comfort

818
00:53:12.239 --> 00:53:17.679
would come it disconnect. There's a disconnect between philological claims

819
00:53:18.079 --> 00:53:20.800
and observable reality. I want you to hear that again.

820
00:53:21.039 --> 00:53:24.800
There can be a disconnect between a philological claim and

821
00:53:24.960 --> 00:53:34.320
observable reality. Everybody hear that observable reality philological claim. Sometimes

822
00:53:34.320 --> 00:53:39.280
there's a disconnect. Lots of times there's a disconnect. What

823
00:53:39.320 --> 00:53:43.440
does that lead to? Whenever you make a philological claim

824
00:53:43.639 --> 00:53:49.440
and it's disconnected from reality, what does that lead to? Anybody?

825
00:53:49.519 --> 00:53:54.840
What does that lead to? Philological claim reality disconnect? What

826
00:53:54.840 --> 00:54:05.920
does that lead to? Disillusionment, doubt, disbelief, abandonment of the faith, deconstruction,

827
00:54:06.840 --> 00:54:10.159
all of that because you're constantly told things that are

828
00:54:10.239 --> 00:54:12.920
just not true. That's the reason I've been talking about

829
00:54:12.920 --> 00:54:15.239
this false comfort so much over the last few weeks.

830
00:54:15.519 --> 00:54:19.639
Because it's mine again. Just take any idea. You become

831
00:54:19.639 --> 00:54:21.880
a Christian and what are you told? You're a new creation?

832
00:54:22.039 --> 00:54:24.039
All things have passed away, all things have become new.

833
00:54:24.119 --> 00:54:26.400
You can now say notice in and say yes to God.

834
00:54:27.280 --> 00:54:31.599
Now what happens when reality fits in? Hits in you?

835
00:54:31.719 --> 00:54:34.760
Either maybe I'm not really a Christian, Maybe there's something

836
00:54:34.800 --> 00:54:38.000
wrong with me, maybe I'm demon possessed. Who knows? You go?

837
00:54:38.199 --> 00:54:42.239
You start looking for anything because there's a disconnect. Now,

838
00:54:42.239 --> 00:54:44.320
what do you do when there's a disconnect between the

839
00:54:44.320 --> 00:54:47.519
philological claim and reality? What should you do when there's

840
00:54:47.519 --> 00:54:53.440
a disconnect? Well, first you've gotta go see if the

841
00:54:53.440 --> 00:54:58.639
philological claim was fraudulent, because if it's so disconnected from reality,

842
00:54:58.760 --> 00:55:04.519
there's a possible problem. Right when charismatics walk around saying

843
00:55:04.800 --> 00:55:09.800
healing is guaranteed in the atonement, for now, that's a

844
00:55:09.800 --> 00:55:15.360
theological claim. What is reality? Show? There's a disconnect? So

845
00:55:15.400 --> 00:55:19.639
what do we do? We throw that out because we're

846
00:55:19.679 --> 00:55:24.400
not charismatics, but we do the exact same thing the

847
00:55:24.480 --> 00:55:28.239
charismatics do. We make all kinds of claims that are

848
00:55:28.239 --> 00:55:31.559
disconnected from reality. But if I confront that, then all

849
00:55:31.599 --> 00:55:34.599
of a sudden, oh no, you're an anthea, and all

850
00:55:34.639 --> 00:55:36.880
of a sudden, everybody gets mad at me. But I'm

851
00:55:36.880 --> 00:55:40.119
gonna if anyone's in crisis a new creation, old things

852
00:55:40.119 --> 00:55:42.239
have passed away, all things have come new that is

853
00:55:42.280 --> 00:55:46.000
not connected to reality. So that claim has to be

854
00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:50.079
looked at. Now, So then what do well that is true? Positionally? Okay?

855
00:55:50.079 --> 00:55:52.599
Now see now I can make sense when a charismatic

856
00:55:52.639 --> 00:55:55.880
says healing is guaranteed in the atonement. I can say amen,

857
00:55:56.199 --> 00:55:59.480
because it is ultimately guaranteed in heaven, where I get

858
00:55:59.480 --> 00:56:02.079
a new body and there'll be no more painsickness than death.

859
00:56:02.400 --> 00:56:06.840
So sometimes we have to understand. Maybe we get we're

860
00:56:06.880 --> 00:56:11.599
misunderstanding the theological claim or we're misupplying the philological claim.

861
00:56:12.599 --> 00:56:17.880
But you've got to be able to acknowledge the disconnect, right,

862
00:56:17.960 --> 00:56:22.079
you gotta be able to understand the disconnect. We talked

863
00:56:22.079 --> 00:56:26.639
about this with prayer. Okay, So we're gonna pray to God,

864
00:56:26.760 --> 00:56:28.880
all right, now, let meet. We're gonna typically when we

865
00:56:28.920 --> 00:56:31.159
pray to God, we're asking for God to intervene, for

866
00:56:31.199 --> 00:56:33.119
God to do this, or for God to do that,

867
00:56:33.320 --> 00:56:35.039
or for God to do this. Now wait a minute, alright,

868
00:56:35.079 --> 00:56:37.760
So all right, there's a bad situation. Now I'm gonna

869
00:56:37.760 --> 00:56:40.320
pray to God. Now who am I praying to? Remember

870
00:56:40.320 --> 00:56:42.400
we talked about this. I'm praying to a God who,

871
00:56:42.400 --> 00:56:48.480
at the very minimum allowed it to happen. Well, that's hard.

872
00:56:48.679 --> 00:56:50.320
So if he allowed it to happen, why am I

873
00:56:50.360 --> 00:56:52.400
gonna ask him to change what he allowed to happen.

874
00:56:53.199 --> 00:56:58.000
That's confusing. At the very most, he decrete it to happen,

875
00:56:58.239 --> 00:57:00.719
So why am I going to pray? Okay, now this

876
00:57:00.800 --> 00:57:04.719
gets really confusing? Right, So there's a disconnect between not

877
00:57:04.760 --> 00:57:07.760
only would we say theologically, but with reality. So we

878
00:57:07.840 --> 00:57:10.159
have a difficult time. And what did we discover? Well,

879
00:57:10.159 --> 00:57:13.639
most of the time we borrow our ideas from prayer,

880
00:57:13.840 --> 00:57:16.840
a lot of times from the Old Testament. Well, their

881
00:57:16.920 --> 00:57:21.639
prayers are different than our prayers because their prayers are

882
00:57:21.679 --> 00:57:25.400
given by Jews who are praying in connection to what

883
00:57:26.679 --> 00:57:28.840
the Covenant made to them. And then that covenant, what

884
00:57:28.880 --> 00:57:37.159
did God promise them? Physical provision, physical protection, physical promises?

885
00:57:38.800 --> 00:57:42.079
All right, so they are staying true to God. We

886
00:57:42.119 --> 00:57:45.000
can't come in and pray the exact same way. So

887
00:57:45.079 --> 00:57:47.039
if we're going to be true to our theology, our

888
00:57:47.039 --> 00:57:51.440
prayers are more like God, I accept what is happening.

889
00:57:52.320 --> 00:57:55.119
I don't like this. I would like for you to

890
00:57:55.239 --> 00:57:58.199
change it, but I understand you at the very minimum

891
00:57:58.280 --> 00:58:01.639
allowed it, or at the very motion you decrete it.

892
00:58:01.840 --> 00:58:04.840
And I don't understand it, and I'm confused by it.

893
00:58:05.079 --> 00:58:07.679
But I'm going to trust you, even though this situation

894
00:58:07.840 --> 00:58:10.400
makes me question your existence. Like I know, you're not

895
00:58:10.400 --> 00:58:12.599
supposed to say that in church, but that would be

896
00:58:12.639 --> 00:58:15.280
more honest, and that would bring a connection between the

897
00:58:15.280 --> 00:58:22.360
theology and reality. When there's a disconnect, there's a problem.

898
00:58:22.599 --> 00:58:26.320
There's a disconnect. So in many cases, pastors make these

899
00:58:26.320 --> 00:58:31.679
theological claims that are completely disconnected from an observable reality.

900
00:58:31.880 --> 00:58:34.440
So this leads to doubt and disillusionment. I'll give you.

901
00:58:34.519 --> 00:58:36.639
I've given you a bunch of examples. Here's an example.

902
00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:43.280
God is in control. Now, on one hand, that's a

903
00:58:43.280 --> 00:58:46.360
theological statement, right, but if it's offered in the face

904
00:58:46.400 --> 00:58:53.639
of disaster, yet the disaster remains that because we see,

905
00:58:53.840 --> 00:58:55.920
wait a minute, if God is in control yet this

906
00:58:56.039 --> 00:58:59.719
is happening, there can be a disconnect. What do we

907
00:58:59.760 --> 00:59:04.360
do that? Well, that raises problems. Now in church, we

908
00:59:04.480 --> 00:59:06.599
just are it's almost thrown out as God is in

909
00:59:06.599 --> 00:59:11.440
control with the implication wide he's gonna fix it, He's

910
00:59:11.480 --> 00:59:15.360
gonna make it better. That's a disconnect. Does everybody understand

911
00:59:15.719 --> 00:59:18.119
we have to be in the church willing to say, well,

912
00:59:18.159 --> 00:59:22.199
God is in control because that's a theological truth. How

913
00:59:22.199 --> 00:59:25.280
does that connect to reality that can be disturbing and

914
00:59:25.280 --> 00:59:27.760
nobody likes to necessarily admit it. We have to be

915
00:59:27.800 --> 00:59:32.800
willing to face that or for those who just came

916
00:59:32.840 --> 00:59:35.400
in for the first hour, we've been looking at Jeremiah

917
00:59:35.440 --> 00:59:38.679
six fourteen and Jeremia eight to eleven, where Jeremiah is

918
00:59:38.719 --> 00:59:43.039
condemning the prophets for offering false hope, false peace, false comfort.

919
00:59:43.840 --> 00:59:46.800
And so that's and we're connecting that to Isaiah chapter

920
00:59:46.840 --> 00:59:54.760
forty verse one. Right, So I'm gonna at least finish well, well,

921
00:59:54.800 --> 00:59:57.440
all finish this part, okay, and then we'll make the

922
00:59:57.480 --> 00:59:59.480
next hour a little shorter. All right, here we go

923
00:59:59.559 --> 01:00:03.679
maybe in theory, all right, okay, So what do we need?

924
01:00:03.719 --> 01:00:06.719
We need a philologically grounded comfort. If we're going to

925
01:00:06.760 --> 01:00:10.199
offer comfort to people, we need one that's theologically grounded.

926
01:00:10.880 --> 01:00:15.679
All right, So true comfort for Israel. The promise of

927
01:00:15.719 --> 01:00:18.320
comfort in Isaiah forty verse one was tied to their

928
01:00:18.320 --> 01:00:23.880
specific covenant and God's plan of deliverance from exile. Can

929
01:00:23.920 --> 01:00:27.360
we be on is that fair? The comfort offered to

930
01:00:27.400 --> 01:00:31.559
them in Isaiah forty one is connected to God's covenant

931
01:00:32.320 --> 01:00:37.320
and his plan for their deliverance from exile. For the Church,

932
01:00:38.039 --> 01:00:44.079
comfort must be grounded and promises explicitly made to us,

933
01:00:44.599 --> 01:00:48.519
not made to them. And what are some of those

934
01:00:48.559 --> 01:00:55.239
promises explicitly made to believers? Salvation through Christ, forgiveness of sins,

935
01:00:55.760 --> 01:00:58.199
the hope of eternal life. Immediately we know most of

936
01:00:58.239 --> 01:01:02.840
our promises are not material or tangible or physical. They

937
01:01:03.280 --> 01:01:08.679
are primarily what spiritual. And if there's any tangible physical promise,

938
01:01:09.039 --> 01:01:13.880
they have to be placed where in heaven Where then

939
01:01:13.960 --> 01:01:19.079
those tangible things will be made real? Does that make sense?

940
01:01:19.360 --> 01:01:21.159
Or if not, you're gonna end up with what a

941
01:01:21.239 --> 01:01:25.159
fraudulent false comfort. So we have to ground it in

942
01:01:25.239 --> 01:01:29.360
a theological truth. We have to avoid false peace. We

943
01:01:29.440 --> 01:01:32.639
have to address reality. We have to call for repentance,

944
01:01:32.760 --> 01:01:35.400
acknowledge the brokenness of the world, and point to the

945
01:01:35.480 --> 01:01:38.119
ultimate hope in Christ. If we're gonna have a thiologically

946
01:01:38.159 --> 01:01:42.559
grounded comfort, we have to face reality. Church is not

947
01:01:42.679 --> 01:01:45.599
the place to give you a fraudulent reality. But it's

948
01:01:45.639 --> 01:01:52.639
to make you face reality, all right. The famous Unshackled

949
01:01:52.719 --> 01:01:57.599
radio program Right unshackled, the program that forces you to

950
01:01:57.599 --> 01:02:03.000
face yourself and think. Right. It's about making you say yourself,

951
01:02:03.960 --> 01:02:08.320
that's what it's about. Christianity is about facing reality. Christianity

952
01:02:08.360 --> 01:02:11.199
is not about pulling the curtains and we all close

953
01:02:11.320 --> 01:02:13.960
the door and then we talk about a world that

954
01:02:14.039 --> 01:02:17.199
doesn't exist. It's about going no, the world exists, and

955
01:02:17.239 --> 01:02:19.599
we've got to be honest with it instead of making

956
01:02:19.639 --> 01:02:24.400
these psyllological claims that are disconnected from it. The church

957
01:02:24.679 --> 01:02:30.000
has to stop its superficial platitudes. We need to focus

958
01:02:30.039 --> 01:02:33.719
on the long term promises of scripture that are universally

959
01:02:33.760 --> 01:02:38.440
applicable and stop taking passages and ripping them out of context.

960
01:02:38.559 --> 01:02:43.639
We have to stop that. So what should a pastor

961
01:02:43.719 --> 01:02:47.639
do and preaching? We should rightly divide the word of truth.

962
01:02:49.199 --> 01:02:52.199
We should ensure the text like Isaiah forty verse one

963
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:56.239
are used in their proper context. We have to avoid

964
01:02:56.559 --> 01:03:00.760
appropriating promises made to Israel and applying them. To hold

965
01:03:00.920 --> 01:03:05.440
to the modern church, you cannot do that. We have

966
01:03:05.519 --> 01:03:09.039
to offer realistic comfort, acknowledge the reality of pain and

967
01:03:09.079 --> 01:03:13.719
suffering without pretending God will intervene in a way that

968
01:03:13.760 --> 01:03:16.719
we desire. There is no promise God is going to intervene.

969
01:03:16.760 --> 01:03:19.800
There's no promise God is gonna help. There's no until

970
01:03:19.840 --> 01:03:25.280
when eternity. Until then, I can't make any promises. Where

971
01:03:25.280 --> 01:03:29.480
should I then point people to find hope? And in

972
01:03:29.800 --> 01:03:33.639
scripture and the spiritual promises, I cannot give people hope

973
01:03:33.679 --> 01:03:38.519
in their circumstance. I know when people, when the wills

974
01:03:38.559 --> 01:03:41.079
come off and life falls apart, and they come to

975
01:03:41.119 --> 01:03:43.639
a pastor, they want to hear that God's gonna do

976
01:03:43.719 --> 01:03:46.280
this or this, or that. I can't offer you any hope.

977
01:03:46.679 --> 01:03:48.800
I can't offer you any I can't tell you your

978
01:03:48.800 --> 01:03:52.199
situation is gonna get better. It may actually get worse.

979
01:03:52.559 --> 01:03:54.880
I can't tell you anything. All I can tell you

980
01:03:55.039 --> 01:03:59.800
is eternity. But guess what, that can seem pretty meaningless

981
01:03:59.840 --> 01:04:04.159
and the face of reality. So sometimes it's better to

982
01:04:04.159 --> 01:04:11.840
do what lie, shut up, be quiet, all right? But

983
01:04:12.159 --> 01:04:15.320
I mean, well, in some cases I understand that, and

984
01:04:15.360 --> 01:04:20.079
we have to warn against what false peace, using Jeremiah

985
01:04:20.119 --> 01:04:22.639
six fourteen and eight to eleven as a warning against

986
01:04:22.719 --> 01:04:26.280
superficial or misleading assurance we cannot do that. We have

987
01:04:26.360 --> 01:04:28.639
to remind the people in the congregation as a pastor

988
01:04:28.840 --> 01:04:34.199
of the importance of looking at the text correctly. And

989
01:04:34.239 --> 01:04:37.159
I know, looking at the text correctly is it doesn't

990
01:04:37.199 --> 01:04:42.760
feel like church because a sermon, a sermon is designed

991
01:04:42.760 --> 01:04:46.519
to be a speech. It's to be a presentation, it's

992
01:04:46.559 --> 01:04:50.519
to be a form of almost entertainment. It's not designed

993
01:04:50.559 --> 01:04:52.639
to say, hey, guys, we're here to look at this,

994
01:04:53.559 --> 01:04:56.280
because if you start breaking this down, all of a sudden,

995
01:04:56.679 --> 01:04:59.760
well nobody comes to church because nobody really wants it,

996
01:05:00.119 --> 01:05:03.559
say they do. So pastors have to give the sermon,

997
01:05:04.320 --> 01:05:07.599
but they have to do enough manipulation to make everyone

998
01:05:07.599 --> 01:05:09.920
feel like they're actually getting the text. But if they

999
01:05:09.920 --> 01:05:12.159
were actually getting the text, it wouldn't feel like a

1000
01:05:12.159 --> 01:05:15.840
sermon because sermons are not designed to really break yet

1001
01:05:15.880 --> 01:05:18.639
down the text. And that's why I hate the entire

1002
01:05:18.719 --> 01:05:23.119
sermon structure. So how can we how can we conclude

1003
01:05:23.119 --> 01:05:28.360
this false comfort is rooted in misapplied scripture, and it

1004
01:05:28.400 --> 01:05:31.679
is dangerous and it ultimately fails to address the deeper

1005
01:05:31.719 --> 01:05:34.760
issues and reality of life. When we hear that again,

1006
01:05:34.800 --> 01:05:38.079
false comfort is rooted in the misupply and misapplying scripture.

1007
01:05:38.320 --> 01:05:42.159
It is dangerous, and it ultimately fails to address reality.

1008
01:05:43.039 --> 01:05:45.760
True comfort must be grounded in the Gospel of Christ

1009
01:05:46.000 --> 01:05:50.519
and the eternal promises of God, not in superficial assurance

1010
01:05:50.719 --> 01:05:56.639
of peace and security in this life. Pastors must preach

1011
01:05:56.760 --> 01:06:02.800
the truth even when it's uncomfortable. Do not heal the

1012
01:06:02.880 --> 01:06:07.320
wounds of God's people lightly, but direct them to the

1013
01:06:07.400 --> 01:06:13.360
true bomb found in Christ alone. That last paragraph, that's AI.

1014
01:06:16.360 --> 01:06:21.320
AI can figure it out. Preach the truth even when

1015
01:06:21.320 --> 01:06:25.760
it's uncomfortable. Do not. This is the AI's exact words.

1016
01:06:25.880 --> 01:06:32.199
Do not heal the wounds of God's people lightly, but

1017
01:06:32.320 --> 01:06:36.320
direct them to the true bomb found in Christ alone.

1018
01:06:36.360 --> 01:06:41.039
How can AI get that right? But we can't. You

1019
01:06:41.079 --> 01:06:45.239
know why AI can get it right. It's not bound

1020
01:06:45.599 --> 01:06:49.000
by who if I take. If I take, why it

1021
01:06:49.000 --> 01:06:51.519
doesn't have a heart right, Hey, if I take everyone off,

1022
01:06:51.559 --> 01:06:54.159
everyone's gonna leave my church. AI doesn't care if everyone

1023
01:06:54.239 --> 01:07:01.800
leaves my church. AI doesn't care. AI is not committed

1024
01:07:01.840 --> 01:07:07.199
to a team. AI is just like. Look, these passages

1025
01:07:07.320 --> 01:07:11.000
are being misused by pastors. If they care about the text,

1026
01:07:11.199 --> 01:07:18.719
they should stop doing it. Are they gonna stop? No?

1027
01:07:20.119 --> 01:07:24.079
Because when people walk into that door. They're expecting a

1028
01:07:24.159 --> 01:07:29.440
movie that helps them escape reality because the truth is

1029
01:07:29.559 --> 01:07:33.880
not so good. There's there's Jeremiah six fourteen eight to eleven,

1030
01:07:34.079 --> 01:07:38.079
Isaiah chapter forty verse one. Now this sets us up

1031
01:07:39.679 --> 01:07:42.239
for Isaiah chapter forty verse one, and we'll start that

1032
01:07:42.599 --> 01:07:44.719
in a couple of minutes, and now we can get

1033
01:07:44.719 --> 01:07:46.480
to the text. But we had to do all of that.

1034
01:07:47.840 --> 01:07:52.800
Hopefully that was beneficial. And because when I was working

1035
01:07:52.840 --> 01:07:56.559
on all of this, the Jeremiah passages just kept coming

1036
01:07:56.559 --> 01:07:59.159
to my mind, like peace where there's no peace. Peace,

1037
01:07:59.159 --> 01:08:03.880
there's no that's what people do. So yeah, I'm really

1038
01:08:03.920 --> 01:08:07.679
bothered by the false comfort. And we'll get started here

1039
01:08:07.719 --> 01:08:09.960
in a minute, in the next hour, and then we'll

1040
01:08:09.960 --> 01:08:11.760
put this all together. Let's pray, Lord, God, we come

1041
01:08:11.800 --> 01:08:16.720
before you. Lord, forgive me, as a pastor and teacher,

1042
01:08:17.079 --> 01:08:21.600
if I've ever offered false comfort, false hope, false peace,

1043
01:08:23.000 --> 01:08:27.119
forgive me forever misapplying scripture and taking texts that were

1044
01:08:27.119 --> 01:08:30.000
not meant for us and applying them to us. And

1045
01:08:30.039 --> 01:08:32.960
forgive anyone else in this room who've done the same thing,

1046
01:08:33.520 --> 01:08:35.560
or have offered the same kind of false comfort to

1047
01:08:35.600 --> 01:08:39.399
anyone else. Lord. The Church has mishandled your word over

1048
01:08:39.439 --> 01:08:43.239
and over and over in history, and we just want

1049
01:08:43.239 --> 01:08:45.159
to make it about us, and we want you to

1050
01:08:45.199 --> 01:08:48.680
do things for us, and we almost recreate you in

1051
01:08:48.720 --> 01:08:52.199
an image that's more like us than who you truly are.

1052
01:08:52.279 --> 01:08:54.920
Forgive us for that, and help us as we study

1053
01:08:54.920 --> 01:08:57.880
Isaiah forty through fifty five, that we somehow try to

1054
01:08:57.920 --> 01:09:00.560
stay true to the text wherever that it takes us,

1055
01:09:00.600 --> 01:09:03.840
no matter how comfortable uncomfortable that may be, because that's

1056
01:09:03.880 --> 01:09:06.119
what we're called to do. And we ask for forgiveness,

1057
01:09:06.159 --> 01:09:08.319
and we are thankful that we find that forgiveness in

1058
01:09:08.359 --> 01:09:10.239
your son Jesus Christ. And it's his name we pray.

1059
01:09:10.279 --> 01:09:11.119
And God's people said