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[0:00] Well, today we are back in Luke chapter 12. Thank you to Jeff McVanel. Jeff, where are you at? There he's hiding.

[0:13] Hiding behind Matt. Thank you for sharing last Sunday. And I appreciate that when Jeff teaches, you're going to get the word of God.

[0:24] And, boy, I was blessed as I watched from Virginia last week. And I hate to say watched. I like to say participating.

[0:36] I was participating. Watching online is not the same as being here in person. I get that. But when you're away or if you're ill, it's an excellent way to at least be able to be a part of it in some way.

[0:53] And so we're thankful for that part of the ministry. Yesterday, we had our coffee with the pastor that we took a couple of months off because there was some stuff going on in Scottville last few months.

[1:10] I don't know if you guys remember. They had the roads torn up a bit and made it quite difficult. But yesterday, we made our return to state and Maine.

[1:21] And wanted to let you know that we've already scheduled for January. So Saturday, the 17th in January, we'll be back there from 9 to 11. We had a good group of people.

[1:32] I enjoyed that. And we also had someone that gives us an opportunity to have a little bit of a shift in what we're talking about today.

[1:45] Not completely. We're still going to be in our passage today. But if you notice your sermon notes, the front page of your sermon notes are not about the text.

[1:56] It's about a Bible study 101. And I thought it would be a good idea to, as we're making our way through the Gospel of Luke, that we be reminded. For many of you, this might be a reminder of Bible study and how to get the most out of your Bible study.

[2:14] And as we're studying through the Gospel of Luke, how to get the most out of it as we go through Luke. But I did not put any passages of Scripture on the notes there.

[2:25] Because I had meant to just kind of go through them one by one in somewhat of a quick fashion and then get to the text. Well, we had something that happened yesterday that caused me to add some Scripture to that point to address kind of what happened yesterday at the coffee shop.

[2:47] There was a man who I had never met before, didn't know I had heard of him. But he came to, the word that I'll use is ambush, our time together.

[3:00] He knew that we would be there. He knew that I would be there. He had specifically a message for me, although he didn't recognize me to start with. Thank you, Jay. Jay took my place for a split second there.

[3:14] That was fun. And he came there to bring to me a message from the Lord. And whenever something like that happens, of course, I have a red flag.

[3:28] Tom and I talk quite often about how often I get red flags that pop up in my head. They're imaginary. You don't see any red flags. But if you could see the imaginary, you would know that sometimes there are multiple red flags that are going off in my head.

[3:45] And that's frankly part of the job of the pastor. The pastor is called, and I take my calling very seriously. This is not a game for me.

[3:56] While it is fun, there are fun aspects of what we get to do in ministry. But the calling is very serious.

[4:07] And so when someone comes who is a potential wolf, a false teacher or false prophet, someone who is claiming to get direction from God but is clearly not, that's what I'm saying.

[4:22] Then I go into protection mode. I go into protect the flock, guard the flock mode. And that's what had to happen yesterday.

[4:33] This gentleman came and had several claims about what we were doing that was not biblical and had prophecies, one particular that he had written down that was intended for me personally, which I found interesting since I don't have a connection with God at all.

[5:01] I needed that. And you can tell I'm joking. I'm having fun with it. But it was a very serious time in that sense. And so what I want to do today is as we go through some of these Bible study questions, seven questions that you have on your notes, we're going to look at some of the things that he brought up, some of the things that he didn't but are pertinent to doing this, just to give you not only the instructions for the kinds of questions that you ask the text as you're reading and studying the word of God, but then also maybe a little bit of an example from each one to understand why we do what we do and how to put it into practice.

[5:45] And so right off the bat on your notes, seven important questions. Here's the first one is how we approach the text to begin with before we even open up the word of God, before we turn on a computer or open our phone or open our Bibles, Bible study programs, whatever it is that you're using.

[6:04] And before you ever get there, you want to pray to begin with. And the question is, am I approaching the Bible with a prayerful attitude, asking for the Holy Spirit's guidance and understanding?

[6:17] And if you know me, I talk about praying through the scriptures. And so prayer is not just something that you do at the beginning and then forget it. It's prayer is something that you're doing constantly as you're making your way through the text.

[6:29] So that when you see a promise to claim, you go ahead and pray about claiming that promise. If there is a command to obey, then you commit to the Lord in prayer that, yes, Lord, I need to obey this.

[6:44] Give me the strength and the wisdom, the insight to obey this, to recognize this when this becomes a problem in my life so that I can avoid this. If it's something to praise God for, then stop in the moment and just take some time to worship the Lord in prayer and just give thanks in prayer.

[7:06] There's always, as you're reading the text, things to be thankful for. And so prayer is a constant part of what you do. It's not prayer and then separately Bible study.

[7:18] It's prayer and Bible study together. They absolutely go hand in hand. And the reason why this is so important is because of what Paul writes in first Corinthians chapter two, the natural person, this is the unsaved person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for their folly to him.

[7:36] If you're trying to approach the word of God from an academic pursuit, what you'll find here will be folly. It won't make sense. It won't make a dent in your understanding.

[7:49] It just doesn't ring true for you. And he is not able to understand them because the truths of God's word are spiritually discerned.

[7:59] You need the Holy Spirit in order to understand the word of God. If you do not have the Holy Spirit guiding and directing you, you could end up very much like our friend who came to visit us at the coffee shop, believing some things that are kind of outlandish and left field, and you don't want to end up there.

[8:25] So understand that you're going to approach this from the perspective of, I need to submit to the Holy Spirit. I need to submit to the Lord as I approach the word of God, because I'm not going to understand this on my own.

[8:36] The only way I'm going to understand this is if the Holy Spirit enlightens me and brings it to fruition in my mind and in my heart. The second thing that you need to do is to understand the context of the passage.

[8:53] And pastors oftentimes talk about context, making sure that you keep a passage in its context. And there are a number of avenues to discuss when we talk about context.

[9:04] One is, why is the author writing? Why was the passage written? Why was the whole book, the whole gospel, the whole letter written?

[9:15] And why was a particular chapter or a particular section of a letter or a book written? Because the author will, from time to time, address different subjects within the same letter.

[9:27] And so you have to understand when he moves on, the author moves on from one subject to the next, so that you're not just pulling a verse out of its context and just saying, well, this is what this says without understanding where it's coming from.

[9:41] And then to whom was this passage written? What was the audience? Who was he writing to? Was there an audience that he was writing to?

[9:52] We see this as we're making our way through the gospel of Luke. And we talked about this when we started this series way, way back a year ago. I don't know if you guys recognize that.

[10:05] We started in December of 24 in Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. And this is what Luke tells us about why he's writing.

[10:16] And as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who were from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us.

[10:27] Remember, Luke was not an eyewitness. Luke was a Greek, a Gentile, not a Jew, was not a part of the original 12 apostles, was not an apostle himself.

[10:38] He hung out with and ministered with the apostle Paul in his second missionary journey and going forward from there. But understand, Luke is writing from a different perspective.

[10:52] He's not writing from the perspective of an eyewitness, but he's writing from the perspective of an investigator. He's a doctor. He's a medical doctor. So that kind of training comes in and informs as he writes.

[11:05] He says, So we find out that he's writing to a particular audience, and maybe it's just one man whose name is Theophilus, or maybe it's a number of people because the word Theophilus means lover of God.

[11:27] It could mean just anyone who is a lover of God. And then he says this in the highlighted portion, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught. So as we're studying through the gospel of Luke in this lengthy series of messages, the whole purpose, as Luke writes, is so that you would have a certainty about the things that you have been taught, that you would be well grounded in the truth of the message of the gospel, so that you're not wavering back and forth with every wind of doctrine, so that you're not just out there floating in the breeze and hear somebody on TV or have somebody come into your coffee discussion, and all of a sudden you're kind of swept away by what they're saying.

[12:17] No, you have a solid foundation. You have a certainty that is there. It also comes to play in, for instance, a passage in 1 Corinthians.

[12:28] 1 Corinthians is a letter written by Paul to a church in Corinth that was caught up in all kinds of wickedness and sin. The book of 1 Corinthians, I often call it, it's just Paul's spiritual spanking of that church in Corinth.

[12:44] And so when you're reading, for instance, and this happens quite often, portions of 1 Corinthians get pulled out of context, like 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, which is Paul addressing the subject of spiritual gifts, which is something that came up yesterday in our discussion.

[13:01] You have to remember that as Paul is talking about spiritual gifts, you also have to remember that he's talking to a group of people who had been abusing each other, who'd been suing each other.

[13:16] There was a man who was sleeping with his stepmother, and the church was like, oh, isn't that wonderful? And all of this stuff, and worst of all, what they were doing, according to chapter 11, is that they were taking communion and abusing it and using it as an opportunity to overlook and to disregard the poor among them in their congregation.

[13:43] And some of them, Paul said, were actually dying, getting sick and dying because of their abuse of communion.

[13:57] And it's in that context then he writes to them about spiritual gifts. And he's saying, oh, I'm so happy that you, above all people, have all of these spiritual gifts in operation.

[14:11] What's he saying? Is that almost him mocking the church? Because you have these spiritual gifts and you excel at them, but yet you have all of this wickedness that's happening.

[14:26] And so one of the alarms that we have to remember with spiritual gifts is that people can actually be living in sin and still continue to operate in their spiritual gifts.

[14:39] Just because someone, for instance, a pastor, gets up and preaches a message, opens up the Word of God and teaches a message, does not mean that that pastor is spiritual or spiritually mature in that moment.

[14:57] Because he could still be in sin. For instance, how many times have we heard about pastors having an affair, getting caught doing terrible things?

[15:11] Well, what have they been doing all those previous Sundays? They've been getting up and preaching messages. And God still uses it because it's His Word. But the man is still guilty of this grievous sin and still operating in his spiritual gift.

[15:29] So be aware of the context. Be aware of what Paul is saying as he's addressing the subject of spiritual gifts and what some of the dangers are.

[15:43] That someone could be, I could be, you have to understand that, I could be up here today preaching and teaching a message of God that the Holy Spirit can use.

[15:55] But if I am in sin, I can hide that from you. You can't hide it from Him. I can hide it from you for a time. But just be aware of that so that you mark a person's behavior, watch their testimony, how have they lived over a period of time.

[16:13] We have to keep those things in mind as we go through. So context becomes very key in any of the parts of the Bible that you're reading. Then the text portion comes up.

[16:25] So you're reading the text and you have to ask the question, what's it actually saying? First of all, not to you, first of all. First of all, to the people that it was written to. What does the text actually say to the people that it was written to?

[16:39] And here was one of the points that the gentleman yesterday was making, that all of the churches in our county, none of them are following God's instructions when it comes to foot washing.

[16:54] You're not washing people's feet as Jesus instructed. And so God has that against us because we're not foot washing.

[17:07] And so this actually, this subject answers this question, delves into this question about what does the text actually say. So let's take a look at this text that he refers to.

[17:20] Again, this from a very famous passage of scripture in John 13, where Jesus, they all come to the upper room. There's no servant there. It's just Jesus and the 12.

[17:30] And as they make their way into the room, there's no servant there. And normally a home would have a servant. If it was a poor home, then the owner of the home himself would take on the task of the servant.

[17:42] There would be a bowl or a basin of water at the door, as well as a place to hang a towel or a rag of some sort, so that when you came into the room, you would take your shoes, your sandals off, and you would wash your feet.

[17:58] Okay? Kind of the same idea. Some of you, when you walk into your home, you take your shoes off before you go in, right? Anybody who does that? Well, how many of you wash your feet after that point? You take your shoes off and you wash.

[18:09] We don't do that anymore, partly because we don't wear sandals. This time of year would be troublesome. But we don't have feet that are caked with dirt or mud.

[18:20] And so it's not an issue. But for them in that culture, it was just a part of everyday life. That's just what they did. And as all the disciples, all the 12 apostles came into the room, none of them thought to take on the role of that servant.

[18:35] None of them thought to take on the role of the one who would wash the feet. I mean, at the very least, you'd wash your own feet, but they didn't even do that.

[18:49] So when Jesus comes into the room, and they're all reclining around the table, and remember, this is a short kind of like, picture the height of a coffee table, and they're all sitting around this table on the ground, and there's pillows or cushions there, and they're sitting kind of cockeyed, and their feet are out, and their feet would be next to each other, and they've got filthy feet.

[19:12] So Jesus comes into the room, and you guys know what he does. He takes up the basin and the towel. He takes off his outer garment, picks up the basin and the towel, and he begins to wash the feet of his disciples.

[19:25] What's he doing? He's serving them. He's taking on the form of a servant, Philippians 2. That's what he's doing.

[19:36] So when Jesus is finished with this task, he says, If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

[19:47] Now, that's a command, isn't it? And so, oh, well, Jesus told us we need to wash each other's feet. So, we ought to do that, right?

[20:00] Again, be aware of what the text is actually saying. I've given you an example that you should also do just as I have done to you. The question becomes, was Jesus telling us specifically to wash each other's feet in a ceremonial way, or was he just telling them to be a servant, to serve one another?

[20:30] Because we don't wash feet anymore, right? Of all the homes that I've been to, no one has, can I wash your feet as I come in the door?

[20:41] I've never offered that as people have come over to my house. Hey, can I wash your feet? It would be weird in our culture to do that. So, what's he saying here?

[20:52] Verse 16, the verse right following, Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant. He's talking about being a servant. He's not greater than his master.

[21:04] He's talking about we need to serve one another. So, what would that mean in our culture today for us to serve each other? Not in a ceremonial way, not in the way of an ordinance like what we think of communion or baptism as, which is what this man was talking about, but in an everyday kind of way, how can I be a servant?

[21:30] How can I serve my family? How can I serve my brothers and sisters in Christ? How can I serve people who are lost and need the gospel? How can I be a servant? That's the question. So much so that Peter, who was here in this moment, was getting his feet washed and kind of protested about it.

[21:48] When Peter writes his letter in 1 Peter chapter 4, he says this, God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them to serve, use them well to serve one another.

[22:02] Now, you would think that if Peter being there had taken this message to wash each other's feet as saying this is an ordinance that we need to participate in, do you think Peter might have maybe said that somewhere?

[22:18] Do you think Peter might have said, let me give you an example of what it looks like to be a servant. Wash one another's feet. But Peter doesn't say that. He just says be a servant because the Lord understood when God is giving us the word of God, what it looks like to be a servant in different times and ages and cultures, it's going to look different.

[22:43] For me to wash your feet is not going to serve you well. It might demonstrate a sense of humility from the person who's washing the feet, but humility can be demonstrated in any way that we serve.

[22:59] It doesn't have to be in this way. In their time and culture, washing each other's feet was a very practical service that they could provide. Now, later on in the Gospel of Luke, we'll see this, where Jesus institutes the ordinance of communion.

[23:15] And you say, well, why do we celebrate communion then? Well, because Jesus instituted this ordinance. He said, I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

[23:29] And he took bread, and when he'd given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He's saying there's a memorial element, a remembrance element to this.

[23:43] So much so that when Paul, who was not here, Paul was an enemy of the Gospel to begin with before he was miraculously saved and called to be a missionary to the Gentiles, when Paul is then writing the church at Corinth, he's actually telling them, hey guys, there was a time when I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, which was instructions instructions on how to do communion.

[24:12] We don't have that with foot washing. Now, if someone wants to do foot washing, if there's a church that wants to practice foot washing as a demonstration of what it looks like to be a servant, praise the Lord for that.

[24:24] Amen. More power to you. But don't condemn another church or another brother in Christ who doesn't participate in something that wasn't explicitly stated meant something that we should continue on in that specific way as we go forward.

[24:41] Does that make sense? So, another aspect of Bible study, interpretation. What is the literal, normal meaning of the text?

[24:57] And this is very key because oftentimes people will, particularly people of liberal, and by liberal, I mean religiously liberal persuasions, they take the word of God in a simplistic, overly spiritualized way.

[25:16] For instance, even something like the resurrection, they might say something like, well, I believe in the resurrection, but their definition is different. They believe in what they call a spiritual resurrection of Jesus from the dead, but they believe that his actual body is lying in a dump outside of Jerusalem or was eaten on by dogs.

[25:35] This is what some of them actually, and pastors in churches actually believe. But no, we believe that when you read the scriptures, you ought to take the word of God literally or the normal, what would be the normal reading of the text.

[25:52] And that even includes when you come to prophecy, when you come to passages of scripture that are difficult to understand, the best thing to do is to, at first, first, take it literally.

[26:03] Now, they may be using word pictures or metaphors, but even those metaphors or word pictures are still meant to teach something very literal that we need to apply to that.

[26:18] So recognizing that figures of speech are still intended to convey literal truth. Let me give you an instance of this. Jesus said this, I am the door.

[26:31] Right? He's talking about being the door to the sheep pen. And anyone who enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

[26:41] So let me ask you a question. Is Jesus literally a door? I see some of you smiling.

[26:52] That's the appropriate response there because it's silly to think that Jesus is literally a door. It's a word picture, but it's meant to teach something else that's very literal that it's only through Christ that we can enter heaven, that we can be forgiven of our sin.

[27:12] That's what that word picture is meant to teach. We come to the same issue when people argue over communion elements. Jesus said, I am the bread and I am, this bread is now my body and this cup is now my blood.

[27:33] Again, these are figures of speech not to be taken literally, but you have all of these people in different churches that are like, oh no, when I take communion it's literally, I watch the wafer go in my mouth as close as, you know, kind of gets close to your nose and you lose sight of it.

[27:53] You pop it in there, it wasn't magically human flesh, which is what they're teaching. When I drank the juice, it started as juice and it finished, it's in my stomach right now as juice.

[28:09] But the truth of it, that Jesus sacrificed his flesh and his blood to pay the penalty for my sin, that's what it pictures and that is very real.

[28:28] And we praise the Lord for that. And that's what communion is meant to remind us of over and over. As often as you eat, as often as you drink, be reminded of what it is that he has done for us because we have thick skulls and we often take for granted or forget.

[28:52] That's just how we are. Understand, here's the question, is the passage describing an event that happened or is the passage prescribing an actual activity or perspective to embrace?

[29:10] Easy to say this, but let me kind of demonstrate what this is talking about. Is the passage actually just a description of a historical event that happened, this is what happened, or is it actually saying this is what happened and now you must also do this?

[29:29] So a question that often comes up, it's a question that came up yesterday and it's a question that we get very often, so it's good for us to kind of go through this a bit today.

[29:40] And here is the question, this is from Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5, we see what happens in the four gospels with Jesus performing miracles, signs and wonders, and we see it also in the book of Acts where the apostles continue to perform these amazing signs and wonders.

[29:59] So Acts 5.12, now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. So Rich, here's the question, are we supposed to see signs and wonders today?

[30:12] Why aren't we doing signs and wonders today? Oh Rich, your church is dead because there aren't any signs and wonders in your church, and not my church, it's God's church, it's all of us together, but how do you answer this question?

[30:32] Why don't we see signs and wonders like what we saw in the book of Acts? And the claim is that there are other churches, other pastors, other ministries where these kinds of things are happening on the regular.

[30:48] that's the claim. So let's see if what was happening here people say are happening today.

[31:02] These signs and wonders were happening so much that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats. This is in Jerusalem.

[31:12] Jerusalem. And as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

[31:23] You guys seen any of that lately? Anybody? No. It's like I saw this little thing of a little kid who's like seeing a crusade on TV.

[31:38] TV guy charlatan I would call him who is who is preaching and people are coming forward and their hand and falling back and getting healed and oh and so and so got healed and and it's like the question from the kid was well dad if this is really happening why doesn't he go to the hospital and do this?

[32:10] Are we allowed to ask that? Why why not? I mean they were just bringing people out on the street and Peter wasn't even saying anything just walking by and a shadow cast across them and boom they got healed aha aha no no because we have to get them to come to the the stadium or the building and and raise money and have them pay to get in and and we got to flee some first see that's how Jesus did it so the people were gathered also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits and oh my how many of them were healed and yet how many people coming in crutches and wheelchairs to those crusades and stadiums and auditoriums walk out or roll out the same way they came and when they don't receive the healing promise them who gets the blame the preacher

[33:35] God no the person who is sick or who ails because they don't have enough faith can I can I say have there been times where I felt like I wanted to strangle someone the Holy Spirit has restrained me but when someone makes that kind of a statement when Jesus said that the amount of faith that a person needs is the size of a what if we understood what was the purpose of the signs and wonders to begin with if we understood that maybe we could better answer the question then because we saw incredible signs and wonders being done in the book of Acts and in the gospels incredible but we also saw times for instance when Jesus went to the pool of

[34:48] Siloam and there were people all around the pool who were crippled in one way or another and Jesus only approached one of them and healed only one of them today people would say well why was Jesus so mean why could he only heal one why would he do that why he had the power to heal everyone at that pool dozens of people why how dare he he's Jesus he's supposed to be full of compassion why would he heal just the one if we understood the purpose of the signs and the wonders to begin with it might help us to better understand what's happening then and today so we find other passages and there are a number of them

[35:51] I'll show you just the one in Hebrews it was declared talking about this message of salvation this message of salvation was declared at first by the Lord Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom and it was attested to by us to us by those who heard in other words those who heard Jesus preach also attested to what he was saying gave witness to it they themselves preached that same message while God also bore witness by there's our signs and wonders again and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will what was the purpose of this miraculous sign gifts signs and wonders miracles it was to attest it was to bear witness that what Jesus was proclaiming was actually the word of God God in the flesh among them how else would we know if someone just keeps it just if someone comes with a message from

[36:59] God how do we know that they're from God well look at these signs and wonders that accompany my ministry same thing with the apostles remember we don't have a New Testament!

[37:12] no Gospels had been! yet none of the New Testament letters Paul wasn't even a Christian yet and he wrote most of the letters of the New Testament so how would we know that what the apostles were saying especially as they traveled outside of Israel especially as they started to go into Gentile territory where the gospel had not yet been proclaimed at all oh you're telling us that there is a God one God creator of all and that he loves me he even cares about me at all their view of the gods was that they were impersonal and didn't care about him at all only wanted to use people for their purposes now you're telling me that there's a God who loves me and that God himself came in the flesh and died willingly sacrificed himself for his people so that they could be forgiven of their sin and brought into a right relationship with

[38:15] God yes I want that but you're preaching foolishness to me how am I supposed to believe that what you're saying is true aha you see these signs and wonders that are accompanying my ministry aha you just healed that man who's been lame from birth that man couldn't see since he was a boy this person over here has been deaf all this time now they can hear this person was sick and filled with demons and and now they're free and healthy I'm going to believe what you say because that's not normal it's not normal to see signs and wonders!

[39:00] all of these things and so today what do we have the authority that the preacher has today is the word the completed word of God this is my authority I have no authority in and of myself I stand on the word of God and as I faithfully proclaim as any pastor faithfully proclaims the word of God it is then your duty to be obedient not to me but to the word and so we don't have these signs and wonders anymore because we have perfectly attested to all that God has intended us for us to know and to have everything that is here will bring us to completion into spiritual maturity and growth we have no more need of them now the

[40:11] Bible also tells us this is in Ephesians 2 I don't have it up on the screen but that the work of the apostles and the prophets was in laying the foundation of the church the foundation of the church is completed here but there are parts of the world sometimes you might hear of a missionary who comes back and say we saw some amazing things in parts of the world where the gospel has not gone out where the church has not been planted yet and you will see and you will hear of some incredible things that happen in those places even in this late time 2,000 years after the death burial and resurrection of Christ but once those churches are planted and they have the word of God as their foundation then the need for signs and wonders goes away once again so we have to understand that's a little bit more lengthy explanation of understanding here but

[41:18] I'm hoping that you're getting at least an idea of how you look at certain passages of scripture and understand them in context and understanding the purpose why was it written the way it was written what was the purpose for these particular things that people are claiming are for today because if you just look at Acts chapter 5 verse 12 you're thinking well yeah we should see signs and wonders today why don't we why don't we and you might say well miracles still happen I'll give you that absolutely miracles still happen God still intervenes and brings healing that cannot be explained causes people to avoid accidents that can't be explained things like that absolutely but they do not come necessarily they don't come through a messenger they don't come through because someone has the spiritual gift of healing

[42:18] God does it miraculously and without explanation and it doesn't happen very often not like what you saw everybody lined up on the street everybody who cast a shadow got a got a glimpse of Peter's shadow all of them were healed we don't see that today you can't tell me you can't tell me that the miracles that we see in the gospels in the book of Acts are anything like what we see today there's no comparison six consistency how do other passages of scripture help explain a difficult passage this subject also came up it's one that that that that I'm challenged with people are challenged with this particularly comes from a denomination known as the Church of Christ this wasn't necessarily what the person that we were confronted with was espousing but the subject did come up and that's the subject of baptism there is a particular group of people who like to debate who like to challenge in public who like to call on the phone and say hey pastor why don't you teach this you know that you're wrong would you like to debate me on the radio click not interested so a key thing to remember here is scripture is going to be consistent with itself we have to remember that scripture is not going to say one thing one place and then say something else elsewhere although it may look like it and that's where you have to again have some consistency and some understanding about how this works here is the key classic passage for those who teach that baptism is necessary for salvation the doctrine that they teach is that if you're not baptized with their baptism you cannot be saved period boom so even if you made a profession of Christ if you trusted

[44:27] Christ as your savior if you got baptized at a different church doesn't count none of it counts you're going to hell you have to be saved at their kind of church and have to be baptized at their kind of baptism so and it comes from a passage like this Peter said to them this is Peter preaching in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit what does this passage seem to be teaching that you've got to be baptized right you've got to repent and you got to be baptized repent is also another word both of these words are kind of key in understanding this message of salvation and what happens to us when we trust Christ as Savior we believe this is what

[45:30] I teach what our church teaches what I believe consistent Christian doctrine teaches that it is by faith that we are saved putting our faith in Christ to save us and then by his complete grace having nothing to do with anything that I can add to it not saved by anything that I can do and I would say that includes repentance and baptism I would say that those next to particularly repentance that if I truly placed my faith in Christ what's going to follow repentance and usually for I would say it this way the normal route there is when someone has that aha moment and they place their faith in Christ it's at that moment that they're also repenting and then when they hear about baptism they're going to say okay I want to be baptized that's just how it works so why don't we believe that baptism is necessary for salvation because it's not consistent in scripture matter of fact

[46:40] Peter himself you would think sometimes you got to put your thinking caps on with this and by the way with the time!

[46:51] that we're at I'm going to have to do our text in Luke next Sunday so I'm going to finish with these next couple of things here and then we'll be done for the day think if baptism were necessary for salvation don't you think it would be important that whenever someone is teaching about the subject of salvation that that little tidbit would be included in the discussion every time if it's necessary it's quite interesting that there are different words that are used to describe what it means to put our faith our trust in Christ John 1 12 talks about receiving him sometimes people talk about well if you're praying to receive Jesus into your heart that means you're not saved because you're not saying the word well how about John 1 12 says it it's describing the same thing it's describing our faith our trust our belief in

[47:58] Christ putting our self into his hands so Peter himself later on this is Acts chapter 10 look what Peter Peter's talking about salvation again so Peter's obviously going to be talking about baptism again right because that's what he did in Acts chapter 2 but he doesn't to him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name oh wait a minute Peter you forgot something where's the baptism it's about faith it's it's the same thing John 3 16 the whole gospel of John there's no nothing that's talking about baptism being an element or part of salvation for God so loved the word this is like the most famous verse of all of them right you know a football game guy John 3 16 right whosoever believes in him and is baptized should not perish but have eternal life is that what

[49:03] John said it's not how I remember memorizing it and if you would think you would think and this is Jesus speaking you would think that if it was necessary for salvation they would say it but that's that's not what they're doing Ephesians 2 8 9 apostle Paul by grace you've been saved through faith it's not of your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works may I suggest that baptism is a work it's something that I do now baptism is an act of obedience Christ does command us to be baptized but it's not in order to be saved it's a demonstration that

[50:04] I already am saved that I've placed my faith my trust in Christ that's what matters one last one will be done application what principles apply to me and there's a second part to this I'll give you in just a moment what timeless principles apply to me from the text what can I take to apply to me and then the second part of this is today today so I'm going to show you one more verse and then we'll be done show you one more verse and this is a fun one because I challenge you to obey this verse challenge you

[51:06] I challenge you to apply this verse literally okay you guys ready it's new testament too I mean you can imagine some of the stuff I can find in the old testament the new testament too all right here we go Jesus talking it's even Jesus if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away listen if we're going to apply this today literally we'd all be walking around with empty eyeball!

[51:40] sockets and see and this is what Jesus is teaching Jesus is teaching us about how what's on the inside what's in the heart is what matters not the outside yeah the lust he's describing the problems that I have with material possessions that I see online you know at the Amazon store or the hunting shop or wherever and I gotta have it and I want that truck and I want that and I gotta have that house and I gotta that woman I gotta have and it comes through the eyeball right you know what my problem is guys listen I'm human I struggle like you do in all these things right you know what my problem is I could gouge my eyeball I could have gouged both of my eyeballs out you know what I still got in my head all those stupid visions and my and my sin sick heart still longing after the things of this world the temptation and the lust it's still this is what

[52:56] Jesus is talking about not that we need to start cutting off body parts because he says the same thing about your right arm if your right arm offends you cut it off we all walking around can't see now I gotta tell you if I'm gouging eyeballs out and cutting my arm off that is still better than going to hell right but Jesus said that's not the issue the issue is not your body parts that's not the problem the problem is your heart and you can't fix it with rules you can make the rules as stern and as strict as you want problem is your heart you have a dead heart and you need a new one and you can have the righteousness of the Pharisees he would say ain't none of the Pharisees going to hell I mean going to heaven so he said in verse 20 none of the Pharisees are going to heaven you can't measure up you're done and then the last verse of chapter 5

[54:04] Matthew chapter 5 is be perfect as God is perfect how you doing how you doing yeah the only hope that we have is to come before the Lord to fall on our knees and say Lord I've got nothing empty handed I am poor in spirit blessed are the poor the bankrupt in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven when you finally recognize how poor destitute and broken you really are that's the best place to be because now he can do something with you now he can he can help you to see that the only hope that you have is in what he has already done for us on the cross the only hope that we have is Christ his death his shed blood on the cross his resurrection from the dead my only hope is to be found as to dying to myself and living for Christ to put myself on the altar as a sacrifice as a living sacrifice

[55:24] Romans 12 living sacrifice it's an oxymoron sacrifices are dead and burned put myself on the altar as a living sacrifice and allow him to live through me my life is now his his will his life is now mine I live it for him I live it for him it's the only hope that we have so all of this so next time you open your Bibles and I'm hoping that's tomorrow maybe even later this afternoon you're opening your Bibles you're beginning to understand I've got to pray first and throughout I've got to understand the context who was this written to what was it written for what's the subject matter what does it say plainly clearly what is it saying is there a word picture here what's that word picture trying to teach me you know is there something here that's being prescribed to me a command that I need to obey or is it simply a description of an event that happened in history for a particular time and place and purpose that doesn't apply to today all of this is huge as we make our way through the gospel of

[56:45] Luke next week we'll actually be back in the gospel of Luke unless I get another visitor no promise and again every time that we're in the gospel of Luke we have to remember the context Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and he's pounding that drum the kingdom of God is at hand the kingdom of God is at hand and that informs everything that we're reading in this section of the gospel of Luke and if you forget that you're going to end up having some misapplication of some of what Jesus is going to be teaching us as we make our way through that so I hope that this time has been beneficial to you I apologize we haven't continued in Luke today but I just felt compelled to spend a little time with us this morning and yes ma'am right because of some of the questions that I asked him he made it very clear that he is living in disobedience to God because he's accountable to no one and some of the things that he stood for that he taught are not taught in scripture as we've talked about today so the letter that he gave me that day he did give to me publicly some of the people saw it

[58:38] I actually did not read it and I threw it away because I know that it's not from God okay yeah the the the thing is he's not he claims to be a prophet from God that he has that spiritual gift but we know that prophets and apostles their purpose was to build the foundation of the church and the foundation of the church has been completed and so it's their ministry is no longer necessary we have the fruit of their ministry in the word of God and so when someone teaches something that's contrary to the word of God you can absolutely know they are not from God because their message will never contradict what God has clearly said in the word of God and the man that I met yesterday taught several things that were contrary to the word of God wouldn't answer some very simple questions about things that he believed things that he did and couldn't explain because they're not found in the word of God he said that he was only accountable to Jesus

[60:03] Christ we are all accountable to Jesus Christ but Jesus Christ also taught us that we are accountable to one another in a local body of believers called a church I am accountable to other elders and deacons of our church I can't just say well thus saith rich because God gave me this message and you must believe it that's hogwash and we won't tolerate that in our local church so you are welcome to come and to learn and to grow but that message that that man carried is not welcome in our in our local body of believers okay we were showing

[61:15] Ian did you have something do you You have 40,000 to do this.

[62:02] You can't do 40,000. It's not that many times. It's because it's a chance to put them all together. Okay. Let's close in prayer.

[62:13] If you would like to leave, you're welcome to. Let us pray.

[62:25] Lord, thank you for the opportunity that we've had today. To see maybe in a little bit of a firsthand way what guarding the flock might look like.

[62:39] And what it means to be discerning. And as Ian stated, to test the spirits. And Lord, to hold people accountable to the things that they say, the things that they teach, they hold to.

[62:57] Lord, I pray that you would give us great wisdom to recognize truth and to follow your truth, your word. There is only one truth and it is your truth.

[63:11] Help us to recognize that. Help us to be loving in all things, Lord. That even when we disagree, even when we need to confront, that we do so with much patience.

[63:23] And with a demonstration of love and grace. And welcoming anyone who would like to come and be a part of what you're doing here in our midst, Lord.

[63:37] So thank you. Thank you for this opportunity today. We pray for those who are being deceived. That you would enlighten them. That you would open up their hearts and their eyes to the gospel.

[63:51]  And to the message of the gospel. So we thank you, Lord. And we love you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.