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morning you're looking this morning at a controversial passage but within that passage an even more controversial verse 1 Timothy Chapter 2 beginning in verse
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8 therefore I want the men in every place to pray lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension in the same manner I want women to Adorn themselves with proper clothing modestly and discreetly not
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with braided hair or go and gold or pearls or costly garments but rather by means of good works as beit befits women making a
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claim of claim of godliness let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority
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over a man but to remain quiet for it was Adam who was first created and then Eve and it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being
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quite deceived fell into transgression but she shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with
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self-restraint let us pray father we do pray that you would grant us a special measure of your Holy Spirit
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as we look to your word for instruction for guidance for Repro for training in righteousness that we might indeed be made ready for every good work we pray
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that you would open our minds to hear your word and your will through your Holy Spirit through your word and we pray that our being together and our
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sitting at the feet of your holy word would be pleasing in your sight directed by your spirit and For Your Glory we ask in Jesus name
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amen these um oneoff sermons that uh come irregularly when one of us is on vacation as Mark is this week um are an opportunity a a very
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valued opportunity to do uh what might be called pastoral preaching um exegetical preaching which is what we normally do and that is verse
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by verse through a book of the Bible helps avoid um hobby horses and soap boxing it's hard to to keep pounding on the same issue when you're going through
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verse by verse in the gospel of Mark or in the epistle to the Romans but we get to do that when one of us is on vacation sometimes there are however
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things that um trouble the Shepherds of the flock we live in a culture where the whole concept of the flock in Shepherds is is really um largely
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ignored even within the church most churches will have their pastoral staff now a staff is something that a pastor holds not something that he's on
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on but we have Incorporated the church and set up its polies so that the structure looks like any company and we expect the staff to run the church in
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the manner that we desire but we're not actually looking for pastoral guidance or shepherding we don't really view
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ourselves as sheep to begin with and in truth we don't really view ourselves as a flock a flock and so that's gives cause for those of
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us whom scripture says we'll give an account for the shepherding of your soul you see whether or not the average believer views a pastor as a shepherd and themselves as a member of the
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flock the pastor will still give an account to the Lord as to the shepherding that he did while on this Earth so keep in mind uh when you do
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think of Mark or you think of me that we are men who will give a double account account as all of us we will stand before the Judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the Deeds Done In
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the Flesh but then we'll have a second accounting and we do take that very seriously and so at all times whether we're in the Pulpit or
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not we are looking over the flock and there are times that things concern us there are times that there are threats from
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without there are times that there are dangers within and we have experienced those times as a body over the past um
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30 years for me coming up in a few weeks 32 years but today it's not a threat from without or a danger within that concerns
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me it's it's an uneasy feeling an uneasy feeling about the the health of Fellowship Bible Church and its members an uneasy feeling about the
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flock and the direction that the Sheep are are going I actually considered some other passages for this morning for example the parable of the sewer and and
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as I read it with a slight modification I think you might discover which direction I'm direction I'm heading but Jesus teaches behold the sewer went out to sew and as he sewed
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some seeds fell beside the road and and social media came and ate them up or or maybe Paul's admonition to Timothy in this same letter that we're
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looking at where Paul sayso not like another man's post too hly and thus share in his sins now clearly it might sound like a
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misappropriation of those texts but actually it is not it's the reality of the word in our day because we live in an age um in
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which we have information at our fingertips and we have fallen into the error of thinking that information equals knowledge and knowledge equals
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wisdom and when we give the thumbs up too hastily to that which we see on social media how does that differ from laying hands too hastily on another man because the laying on of hands is
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the approbation and appropriation of what that man teaches and what he stands for and Paul says if you do so hastily
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if you do so without sober judgment and critical thinking then you participate in his
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sin think about that you may not go or go around laying hands on other people but when you hastily approve what you see on their media site I would submit to you that you are
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doing no differently and so in terms of this oneoff sermon it is essentially part two of The Last oneoff sermon titled be careful how you
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hear now please don't get me wrong I'm not anti- not anti- technology I actually have an Instagram account on which I post photos of places
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that we have been or really good-looking dinners that I'm about to eat and I do have a Facebook account and I am on LinkedIn and alignable so I am
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not anti-technology what I have to say is not some throwback to the Past saying we need to go back to carving uh our letters in letters in stone but I am very
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concerned as to what the ease of communication of ideas is doing to critical biblical thought within the body of body of Christ now I will also say that the same
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concern was voiced about the time of the discovery of the printing press that the ease of printing documents will would damage the the the
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pursuit of true knowledge it was also a concern when the telegraph came out and then of course the telephone and then the television I don't want to be numbered
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among those that every technological Advance is is from the pit of Hell I'm not saying that there a great deal of benefit from the technology that we have
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and indeed from the internet and the sources of knowledge that we can gain from there but access to information can lead to information
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to information overload and it is by no by no means leads to an inevitable rise in knowledge much less
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wisdom I see this a lot as a teacher at Milton Academy and students have at their fingertips what for us was 26 volumes of
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encyclopedia britanica encyclopedia britanica but they can Google it on their phones in a in a nanc so that's great convenience but I think you can understand that the access
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to information does not equate with knowledge and even the acquisition of knowledge does not lead necessarily to wisdom and so we are in a dangerous time
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in terms of that and in our fellowship especially we've had a a wonderful change in the demographics of our
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congregation over the past 10 years we have gone from an old congregation to a young congregation I think someone said someone noticed recently that just over 50% of our
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congregation is under the age of 10 I'm not within that 50% um and and I think we need to
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recognize what God has done we have not done this through um programs or classes or any such thing God has provided us with the blessing of
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children and of young married couples and young and young families but that presents a challenge perhaps different than we had a decade ago when we had few
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children and so looking at 1 Timothy Chapter 2 these verses that I've read as I said it is a controversial passage and it's much much abused in
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many ways John St wrote that several unsuccessful attempts have been made both exegetical and linguistic to soften the apparent harshness of these Apostolic instructions by limiting their
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application St fails to note at the same time that there have been many attempts also to render them even harsher because what we're dealing with
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here is men and women in the church and particularly according to the Greek words that Paul uses I think he's focusing primarily on husbands and wives
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though the text that I read doesn't say that the Greek words are almost always used rather than for man husband rather than for woman
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wife Timothy is an occasional letter meaning that Paul is writing it to Timothy on an occasion and we can read that in a moment in the earlier parts of
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this first chapter what that occasion was Timothy was in Ephesus and Ephesus the Ephesian church was having some problems and it seems if you read
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between the lines of what's going on here that the problems were actually coming from the families within the church and largely had to do with the relationships between the husbands and
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wives both in their homes and even more importantly in the church now the problem here as we have sadly
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recently experienced that the history of interpretation regarding the role of men and women in the community of faith has swung the pendulum from
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misogyny on one side to feminism on the other it seems like nobody can find a balance between a very harsh treatment
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of women and a very LAX treatment of God's word and so so whenever this comes up there seems to be controversy and sadly
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there seems to be division that people are sure they understand what Paul is writing and it isn't what you think it is and you know that we've experienced
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that not too in not too distant past but do we really think that that's what Paul intends do do we really think that the Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write
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things that will then divide the congre congregation does he does he write things in order for one half of the congregation to oppress the other
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half or for that other half to rebel against the first half is that what Paul's that's what his intention is well certainly not that's
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ridiculous Paul speaks of the unity of the body the harmony of the body the body in body in peace and so certainly there must be an interpretation of these passages that
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brings about peace and Harmony within the body according to both the man and the woman the proper dignity that is do them as equally the image of God equally
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the redeemed of the Lord and and that's something that I think we should seek both in our own marriages and in our
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congregation and so the the setting is Ephesus in the first century the Timothy is left in Ephesus and this provides us with a clue starting in chapter 1:3 as I urged you upon my departure for
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Macedonia remain on at Ephesus in order that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange teach strange doctrines nor to pay attention to myths
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and endless genealogies which give rise to Mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith but the goal of our
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instruction Is Love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere Faith there it is there's the goal there's the goal of all biblical
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preaching the goal of all pastoral counseling the goal of all encouragement and admonition Is Love from a pure heart and Ministry from a clean conscience and
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a sincere a sincere motive but obviously things aren't going that way in Ephesus and Paul has charged Timothy with
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dealing with the circumstances as they were the fact that this is Ephesus has been um recognized by many
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scholars and many commentators as being significant because Ephesus was not only a major city in Asia Minor of that time it was the very proud seat of the
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Supreme Temple to the goddess emus in fact if you go back to acts you find that that caused Paul a great deal of trouble that as Gentiles were being converted to the Christian faith they
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were abandoning the Temple of Artemis which was causing a recession Among The Artisans of emis who then resultingly created a riot trying to get Paul
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arrested by the Roman Council and trying to get him run out of town and their their cry we read we heard in our reading the cry crucify him crucify him in Jerusalem that horrible day but their
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cry in Ephesus was great is emus of the Ephesians and Ephesians and this gives us a background that I think
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is very important to understand and it's biblical it's not just archaeology you don't you don't have to be you know seeped in archaeology to understand these things because it rises up from
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Luke's pen in Acts and what we read there in Acts we should we should consider then when we read the letter to Timothy knowing that Timothy is in this city this city that Prides itself as
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being the center of the worship of the goddess Artemis who was the goddess of children and also of Midwife three and that sheds some light on Paul's words
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particularly verse 15 of our passage and I want you to listen carefully again to how I read it because I am reading it according to the text in
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the Greek there are no textual variant however our English Bibles had like my new American Standard have smoothed it out so that the the um singulars and the
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plurals match but they don't in what Paul writes he says in verse 15 but she shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith
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and love and sanctity with self self-restraint and again there's no no textual variation and and Paul did not flunk grammar he he knew how to match his
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verbs with with their number he gives us a singular verb and then a plural pronoun as a condition so that's something to to kind of highlight
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and and so we're we're looking at this verse and we're going to deal with this verse in detail in a moment but first I I want to talk about how the church often deals with
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scripture especially such passages as this as a reaction to the culture in which the church is
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living we can see evil in society and we do see evil in society and then we interpret scripture to counter it but I would submit to you that that
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is meeting a wrong often with another wrong and we know that those two don't make a right that we may properly recognize
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something that is wrongly done wrongly taught or wrongly insisted upon in our culture and then we can react wrongly to it and there are many examples in the
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history of the church uh for example Evolution now I don't for a moment believe that evolution is true and I think its teaching is very damaging to
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to the church and to our society I think it is out of the pit of Hell I think it is ungodly and
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anti-god but I am not compelled to turn the Bible into a science book because of it and I'm not compelled in fact I need to resist the temptation of interpreting Genesis 1 and 2 in light of evolution
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rather than by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the rest of scripture and let's speak of another horrible evil perpetrated by a government upon another people a stamp
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tax well clearly a stamp tax followed by a tax on sugar and a tax on tea well that that justifies Revolution
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does it not it justifies as rereading our Bibles to support the principle of rebelling against rebelling against a god-ordained a god-ordained government that prior to that was
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legitimate you see what I'm getting at here what's going on in our culture impacts the way we read scripture and how we interpret it so that the gospel becomes a charter of political Freedom
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now we have political freedom because of that and where has it led us well it has led us now I'm not don't get me wrong I do not want to be British been there and I don't want our
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freedoms to be taken away I'm not saying that but where has it led us well it has led us to society where every man is free to do that which is right in his own eyes and every other man is required
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to accept it is that not true because if you grant Liberty where do you draw the line that you're free to do this but not that well we've found as a society that
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there really is no such line and now people are free to do whatever wickedness whatever perversion that they consider to be right for them because
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they are what free so we've reaped the Harvest of what we had sown slavery another issue uh we read the Bible in
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two ways however with regard to slavery in our own history we read the Bible as teaching The White Man's Burden we read the Bible as teaching the the white
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supremacy and the responsibility of white Europeans to christianize the backward bited Africans slavery is a is
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actually a good and our own State South Carolina was the leading force in in preaching that gospel in the Years leading up to the war between the states
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that slavery was not a necessary evil it was a positive good but on the other hand there are those who read the Bible at the same time as demanding abolition
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as condemning slavery and demanding the immediate legal removal of it from our country I hope those examples prove that
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or show at least the tendency that we have to read the scriptures in the light of the world in which we live of the issues that we Face of the evils that we
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see but do they actually lead to a proper interpretation of scripture or are they not wrongs being met with wrongs that do not lead to right they do
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not lead to truth the Evangelical or the conservative Church in the United States is doing this now with regard to marriage and
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family two things that have been under attack in our present Darkness for several Generations from perhaps the 1960s with the concept of free love if
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you can't be with the one you love then Love the One You're With some of you might remember that horrible song some of you might remember as I do the impact of that love Revolution on
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our on your own families but that led to a breakdown or that contributed let me say that contributed because I would say the
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breakdown started a lot earlier here but that has contributed to a breakdown of the nuclear family to a rise in divorce to a rise in cohabitation rather
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than marriage to a rise even to to outof wedlock parenting as as a goal as an intended result rather than an
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unfortunate circumstance and and even to the rise of course of marriages between people of the same sex when the church looks on and this is evil this is wicked and it
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is and so what do we do well we glorify marriage and we encourage it and we actually sometimes pressure people into
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it and as for the family we we now glorify the family and it's all about focus on the family so this isn't something new you all remember focus on the family from back in the 80s I guess
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it's still it's still around but what we're doing is we're we're reading scripture according to the evils of the world in which we live and
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I'm trying to I'm submitting to you that that is not the proper way to read scripture nor the proper way to attain the truth that is in scripture and we need to be careful that we are aware of
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our own Tendencies to do that we do perceive correctly that our surrounding culture is wrong but that does not
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necessarily make our response right I I hope that makes sense that we see is in a mirror dimly and even with with with great energy and
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vigor and good intentions we all know what road is paved with those we oppose the
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evil does that mean we're right CU we're not right if we are not aligned with God's will as revealed in God's
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word do we all AC accept that we are not made right because we oppose that which is wrong we are only made right if by God's grace we oppose the wrong with the
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right and the repository of that right is God's word and the revealer of that right is God's spirit not blog posts not
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stagram none of those things are the revelation of right in any social situation that the church finds herself
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in and every generation of the church will indeed find itself in some such situation I don't frankly think that the
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americ American Revolution can in any way be justified by scripture I personally am very happy that it happened I rejoice in God's
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Providence in the error of his people's way 300 years ago 250 years ago but looking back on it and reading Romans 13 I'm sorry I just can't I can't make the
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connection and reading the sermons of that time both for and against I would have to say that those who were against had more scripture on their side than those who were
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for and I know that's not going to make me very popular with some branches of the church but there it is our Theology and our practice are too often
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reactions rather than witness we are not actually placed on this Earth as a church to react against the sins of the world if you read the history of Israel
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there are there are no Commandments for Israel to actually change the behavior and the beliefs of of the world of the Nations around her
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but rather in the midst of those Nations to live according to the grace and the revealed will of God witness not Warfare was their calling and I would submit to
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you that that is the calling of the church in every single generation the problem is incredibly subtle we often don't recognize
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don't recognize it it shows up mostly in our political process C when people sanctify and
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christianize both men and women and their political their political positions without any understanding of scripture and often very little
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understanding of the lives and the purposes of those people themselves the church aligns itself often times out of fear and supports positions often times
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because they are afraid of the opposition the other position winning rather than they can actually defend biblically the position that they support we choose the lesser of two
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evils and and I would argue that as Believers as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven as aliens and soers in this world we ought never choose an evil under any
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circumstance ever circumstance ever regardless of the consequences because once you have compromised you have lost once you have
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compromised your witness you have destroyed it it cannot be recovered and so keep these things in mind as we come up to the
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election we're often told as children that two wrongs do not make a right and I would say and argue that a wrong clothed in the sanctified if IED Robes
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of scripture wrongly used is far worse than the wickedness of the
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unbeliever that when Satan is at his most subtle and most dangerous is when he masquerades as an angel of Light and so when we perpetrate wrong in the Name of Christ and when we wrongly
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use the scripture to defend a wrong position whether it be hateful or violent or bigoted whatever it may be we are more wrong than the wrong we're
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trying to trying to oppose because we're doing it in the name of a holy and righteous God and they're just doing it in the name of their own their own desires their own hedonistic will so be
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careful how you hear truth does not come through good intention truth itself is not easy to find though we know where it lies but
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the reason it is not easy to find is because of our own minds and our own flesh that Wars against the truth and what is right in the sight of God so the
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text that we're looking at here verse 15 but she shall be preserved through the bearing of bearing of children again the
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context is Ephesians we read in chapters chapter 1: 3-5 men were disputatious women were haughty when Paul says in verse 9 and
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onwards how he desires the women to Adorn themselves he is not advocating the sanctity of
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frumpish okay he is not trying to run his own line of denim skirts and dirty sneakers he is not saying ugliness and homeliness are Next to
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Godliness speaking in terms terms of Ephesus what he describes have since been discovered quite um voluminously by
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archeologists were actually symbols of social wealth and Status the braiding of hair meant that you had not only time to do it but usually servants to do it for
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you it was a proclamation of your Social Status which we know from scripture from James for example and elsewhere in Paul's letter
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Paul's letter has no place within the church so the the men were arguing and disputing the women were
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preing and that is the context that Paul says you you can't have prayer because that is what he's saying I want all men everywhere and I would say that the way he structures verses 8 and n as I've said before he's not
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talking about just the men praying he's talking about how the children of God pray that the men were praying though with disputatious arguments among one another
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and the women were praying hotty as social Elites and he says no neither of those have any place our goal the goal of our
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instruction Is Love from a pure heart and that's what he's trying to bring
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here but the problem seems to be origina as I said within the families within the church Church there was there's so much to unpack in this passage and no not time to do that I just want to focus on a very difficult verse verse 15 and I
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already mentioned that the verb is singular where it says preserved through the bearing of children that's 1 2 3 4 five six that's seven did I count that right English it's one Greek word one
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Greek verb okay the Genesis of children and it is in the singular but then he immediately goes to applaud oral pronoun if they
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if they continue and so that that causes a great deal of trouble plus The New American Standard verse says verse 15 she shall be preserved now some of your Bibles may
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be a bit more accurate here The New American Standard is actually doing their own bit of interpretation the word is save as in
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save as in spiritually delivered from sin and destined for eternity and eternal life that's what the word means now it can also mean physically preserved it can also mean restored to
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health it has a a broad usage but in Paul's letter it usually means what we think it means saved well I think you can see where the
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problem women are saved through the bearing of children really is that what Paul's teaching here that there is actually a different way
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for women to be saved and that is through ing through ing children well there are many different interpretations across the generations
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of this verse and I don't have the time to go into him if we were doing an in-depth study of Timothy I think that would be the place for that and I do uh incourage you to look into it because it
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is a a powerful verse that can be powerfully dangerously powerfully dangerously misapplied but I would submit to you my interpretation for your consideration I would say as Paul says I
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not the Lord say that he is actually borrowing from the culture in which Timothy is trying to Pastor he's borrowing his words from
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that culture but then is giving within his context the true meaning of them keep in mind as I said earlier emis was the goddess of childbirth and she was
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the matron of Midwifery and so her reason for being in terms of the Ephesians along with several other things including
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horiculture and and animal husbandry but she was a a goddess of fertility and so women who were approaching their due
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date would not neglect bringing an offering and actually Gifts of clothing with which they would Adorn the statue of emis within the Temple of
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aremis in aremis in Ephesians praying to her to preserve to save her from childbirth or through childbirth because childbirth in that
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day was extremely physically dangerous it actually still is we should not lose sight of the fact as as our young mothers are delivering
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that that child birth is a is one of the most dangerous most dangerous passages that a woman goes through repeatedly and even with all of our
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modern technology and medical science is still very still very dangerous and so should we erect a statue to aramus up here that we can
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then adorn with gold and jewelry and precious robes and beseech for the Salvation of our wives or of ourselves
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the women during that ordeal of Labor no but I hope you can see that the women even the believing women in Ephesus
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facing what could be the end of their life every single labor brought that woman closer to potential death than any other thing on
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a regular basis within their lives having been brought up in Ephesus and Under The Cult of emis the temptation to to resort to that and say you know what uh just as kind of a
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provisional I I'm going to take these clothes down to the temple and donate them to emus and maybe I'll I'll just ask her you know if she wouldn't mind
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preserving me through this labor this is what Timothy's dealing with within the culture archaeologists have have realized this with with a great number
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of inscriptions that have been discovered in the ruins of Ephesus and elsewhere that this is the way that people thought and I think Paul understands that and therefore he's
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using the language or even a phrase that comes from the Cult of Artemis in order to show the Ephesian Believers where the truth lies so the phrase is she will be
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preserve she will be saved through childbirth well that was probably something that was promised by the priestesses of emis to those who brought their offerings and their gifts to the
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temple facing the imminent ordeal of labor but Paul in his context explains the true meaning of of
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Salvation as through the woman and through childbirth by using the singular pronoun instead of the plural for the verb
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because the she who will be saved through childbirth is not the they not necessarily not directly the they who continue in steadfastness and love and
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self-restraint the she we were introduced uced actually in the previous verses it's eve Paul when he speaks of the rol of men
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and women always cuts through the cultural baggage that any time within the people of God
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of God faces whether women are the property of their husbands as it was in the Roman world or whether they are independent of their husbands as they are legally in
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the modern world that doesn't matter because Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 here in 1 Timothy 2 and elsewhere he always takes us back to the beginning he always
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takes us back to Adam and Eve and so no cultural development cultural development afterward impacts our understanding of the role of men and
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women because it was established even before the before the fall but he do does refer to the fall here different from 1 Corinthians 11 he says he says for it was Adam who was
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first created and then Eve now that's a very important very important priority that Eve was from Adam Adam was
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more directly from God and Paul actually says that I'm going to quote that in a moment he says it in different words but there there's a great significance to that that that is the the charter of our
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exist istence as two different sects okay that that that is where it all started which means that is the will of God but as we learned in Sunday school
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so helpfully today we also read in that very same passage in chapter one of Genesis that both male and female were created in the image of God in the image
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of God God created him male and female God created and there are actually many texts who say him not them again our English oh we can't
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stand that's you're not you're not doing that it's plural it's got to be plural no him Adam man is both male and female but Paul points out one is original the
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other derivative and then he says in verse 14 it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being quite deceived fell into transgression now that sounds like an
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insult to women but it isn't because what it teaches us is that the the responsibility for the fall was not evees in spite of countless wrong
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teaching within the church women are not the source of sin in the world man world man is if Adam was not deceived what does
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that mean that he took of the fruit of the Forbidden tree with his eyes wide open and fully intending to disobey God right he was a
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rebel Eve was deceived and that's actually a manner of not justifying Eve's Behavior but by assigning the blame
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where it actually belongs and yet let's not think that Eve is somehow cut out of all of this though she has become the instrument of man's
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fall in the midst of the very curse of that sin she has said that she will be the instrument of man's Redemption and how will that
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be through the bearing of children and she herself saw that so that when Cain was born when Seth was born
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her comment was God has given me and and even further down the line when Noah was born to the to his father lamech the
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good one he said this man will Deliver us from our from the curse see the the childbearing became the root and source
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of eventual promised Redemption from the sin that woman did introduce but women are not saved
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through the bearing of children there there is no spiritual power or efficacy in childbirth the cycle of procreation was
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before Christ a manifestation of Hope and and we read that again as I said Eve's comment regarding Cain Eve's comment regarding Seth lamech's comment
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regarding Noah this was a manifestation of Hope and procreation since the Advent of Jesus Christ is a reminder of
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Grace that the birth of children is by God's grace we hope the adding to the kingdom of heaven and it is a reminder to us that the seed
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of woman came and crushed the Serpent's head that's what Paul's talking about here within the context and he's taking the false Cult of emis and turning it on
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its head and saying no Artemis does nothing for you in childbirth nor is he saying that if you're in Christ you are somehow protected from the dangers of
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child birth many Godly women many Sisters in Christ over the years have died in child birth so let's not misund misinterpret the passage to come up with a lie out of
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the truth and so in keeping with what Paul says about the inner relationship of men and woman or man and woman husband and wife we see in another difficult passage
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1 Corinthians 11 that he focuses on the fact that neither can be without the other and just as that is true in human society in General it is even more true
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within the community of Faith the context of which Paul is writing in 1 Corinthians he Corinthians he says however in the Lord neither is
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woman independent of man nor man independent of woman for as woman is from the man that's what he's saying here in verse 13 so also the man has his
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birth from The Woman verse 15 and all things are from God God so when you think about the role of men and women in the world in the church
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if you conclude something that lessens the Dignity of the other you are wrong and if you conclude something that
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lessens the admonition and instruction of scripture you are wrong and it really doesn't matter how either are being treated Within our
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culture we should not be guided by that but rather only by the Holy Spirit and by the word of God and now to the Crux of my concern and perhaps the most
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dangerous part of my sermon I did hear a a popular um social media influencer if that's what you call
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or if that's what Christians call themselves when they're on social media I hope not the essence of what was being said and I won't say whether it was a man or a
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woman but the essence was the childbirth and child and child rearing are a source of sanctification and spiritual
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and spiritual growth no they are not parenting may try your patience but it will not inevitably give you
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any and to think that it's something that you can do through your body somehow elevates your sanctity or
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sanctity or spirituality is a dangerous false teaching from hell and it was very upsetting to hear it because the I I know it's something that members of our
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body are listening to and and I'm begging you to turn it off and to read the word now we we all abhor the doctrine of celibacy but
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do you not understanding the doctrine of necessary marriage is simply the opposite error of the doctrine of celibacy that it was taught that being a
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virgin and remaining undefiled in the flesh somehow Sanctified you and made you more holy and therefore you abjured marriage well Paul will deal with that in chapter 4 and he will condemn those
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who forbid marriage but how is that different from the very powerful influence within the modern conservative Evangelical churches that says You must be married and you must
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have children because that makes you more Godly or at least maybe more an instrument of God's grace no it doesn't Paul says in Corinthians that he wished they could all be as he was he
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was single he had no children but he never condemned marriage nor the having of children this is a situation where we are forming our Doctrine and the
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practice of Our Lives in response to the evil that we see within our world as marriage marriage has been perverted as people are foregoing having
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children completely because it's it's too it's too expensive and and it hinders my style of life I don't want to to be no that is wrong that is evil but our response in then making
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these things somehow instruments of God's sanctifying power is dangerously wrong wrong how are we Sanctified Jesus in his
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high Priestly high Priestly prayer B the father sanctify them in the truth Thy word is
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truth there there is no situation in our lives as Believers that makes us by direct result
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direct result Holier more Sanctified or more spiritual whether you be a monk or a nun or celibate or whether you be married with a quiver full of
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children is the Providence of God and should be seen that way not as something that we do within our flesh that somehow sanctifies us and that is
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not and the other thing about this this is subtle that this influencer is actually referring to this verse and Paul is not talking about sanctification at all he uses the word
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saved but this particular speaker knows that we're not saved by childbearing right we we know we're saved by grace through faith you know very very Orthodox and so I'm going to take the
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word saved out I'm going to put in the Sanctified that is a very dangerous falsehood that we are Sanctified in any other way than we are
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saved we are Sanctified by grace through faith just as we are saved as Paul writes to the Galatians having been saved by grace saved by the
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spirit are you now going to work it out in the flesh and what does he call them foolish Galatians who has Bewitched you well send Jesus the Instagram post
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to show him who's Bewitched you okay be careful how you hear because falsehoods will come in very true sounding Garb it'll sound good
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especially in the context of the wickedness of our world and how our world treats both marriage and family we hear it and we think that's that's good I like that yeah I like that
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no as I said a wrong clothe in the Garment of sanctity is more dangerous than a Flatout Lie from Hell there are two problems here and and
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I'll try to be quick as I said earlier it's fighting a wrong with a wrong we are called to keep in step with the spirit not with culture and the culture will never be in
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step with the spirit so keeping in step is a military term those of you who have had anything to do I was slightly in Roc uh my freshman year and that is so
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totally against my nature that I was out by my sophomore year but one of the things we did was we marched and you were to keep in step with the Rhythm right right well what step are we
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keeping whose Rhythm are we keeping Paul says in Galatians 5 keep in step with the spirit but it's very hard because to listen to the step of the spirit you
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have to be in the word to listen to the step of the world means simply you just have to be right you can hear the Cadence of the world and it is so hard
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not to just do that step your mouth still speaks the word of God but your step is in keeping with the world you have to be in God's word the
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whole Council of scripture to hear the Cadence of the spirit and to keep your tread in step with it and so whenever you hear something be
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careful how you hear even this morning and I'm afraid if I keep going it'll be this it is this afternoon I
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apologize hear what I'm saying but don't follow it simply because I'm saying it be Berean and search the scripture and see if these things are so am I keeping in step with the spirit then as Paul
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says imitate me as I imitate Christ if I'm Marching In step with the spirit then yes March in step with me not because of me but because of the spirit
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but be careful the Cadence of the world's step is cacophonous and even more so now with social media we hear it we cannot Escape it we have no quiet time in our lives to
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hear the voice of God but another thing is happening here and I and I need to to get to this because this is really the Crux of my concern and that is we are
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vocation our identity is often by the world tied to our V vocation so people would ask me so what are what are you oh I'm an engineer I knew what they
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wanted or I'm a pastor or I'm a builder that's my vocation that's not my identity and and this tendency is to not only identify one another by what they
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do or by their situation in life we have we do it in the church and we actually associate our ass iate ourselves in accordance with our
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vocation rather than our identity and that is a major subtle Lie from hell that has the effect of dividing the body of Christ in the Name of Love and
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fellowship confusing identity with vocation if you are more comfortable as a single person with single people or as
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a married couple with other married couples or or as parents with other people with people with children you've confused identity with
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vocation you've done did it okay you've committed a classic blunder you know right up there in line with taking on a sicilian when death is on the line okay you have fallen into
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the Trap of identifying yourself the essence of who you are with the calling that God has given you at this time Paul
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says in whatever situation you find yourself in Christ remain in that calling 1 Corinthians 11 in other words your slave don't seek to
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be free but if you can take it married to an unbeliever he says no don't divorce don't seek to change the calling in which you were called because calling
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vocation and identity are two different things the man you know this the man who identifies himself with his occupation cannot survive retirement how
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many of you remember Bear Bryant the football coach at University of Alabama he did not survive six months after his after his retirement died of a massive heart
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attack because it was said during his life praiseworthy this man eats sleeps breathes football what a life and he did and so when football was
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taken away there was nothing to eat nothing to sleep nothing to breathe and he died the woman who identifies herself as a wife cannot survive widowhood my
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mother-in-law was an example of that and within six months I think it was five months after my father-in-law's death my mother-in-law followed him because she had nothing to live for her
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identity was confused with her vocation the par who sanctifies the family cannot effectively raise
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effectively raise children okay and that is the message that I have for the flock do not as I said before do not turn your family into
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a small Church fathers do not accept those who say that you are your family's priest wives do not accept anybody who
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says that you are subordinate to your husband in the sight of God you are subordinate to your husband in the economy of your household as Christ is subordinate to
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the father in the economy of the universe but ontologically essentially there is no difference between Christ and the Father the Son and the father
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are one right well that's the analogy of the husband and the wife and do not do not worship your
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children children are a gift from the Lord as arrows in the quiver of a man what do you do with those arrows what are you supposed to do with them fire them right you're supposed to
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shoot them you're supposed to shoot them straight and with purpose that's what a man that's what a warrior does with his arrows don't just stock your quiver full
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without giving thought to how you're going to fire them into the world raise them in the honor and admonition of the Lord do not exasperate them and do not
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fall in the line with conservative Christianity and worship the family as family it is God who gives providentially vocation some are called
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to be married some are called not to be married some are called to have children some are called not to have children and within those callings they are to be one
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in the body of Christ identity is more important than the vocation because vocation changes I am not so much a father
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anymore as I am a grandfather that has changed my vocation has changed my identity has not please understand the difference
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between the two and not be tempted and so the role of men and women in the church church as in the world will always be controversial and very
