0:02
on our time together um keep keep Monique in your prayers she'll be traveling back from Raleigh um I think Saturday Sunday Sunday okay well traffic
0:12
will be better on Sunday but just pray for her safety father we do again thank you for this time that we have together in your presence and in your word we thank you for the fellowship of
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Believers and pray that our time together might indeed be edifying that we might encourage one another as we look into your word as we discuss the
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world in which you have placed us and the purpose of the church in that world we ask that you would grant us wisdom wisdom from the Holy Spirit we ask in
0:46
Jesus name Jesus name amen so we're coming uh coming to the end of our study next week Lord willing will be our our last in this session and
0:57
the last in the Pauline studies uh so kind of have to uh wrap up a few loose ends and hopefully next week deliver the
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punchline uh but this evening um for those of you who have patiently waited for 16 weeks um this
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evening we're going to get close uh I think because we're going to touch upon the um the most accurate and
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consistent diagnosis of the world that um any philosopher any Theologian has ever delivered um and it comes of course from the Apostle
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Paul uh when he is talking and and again this is a passage we looked at last week Ephesians chapter 2 a passage that everyone focuses on verse 8 because
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we're all trying to to convince God that we're saved by grace he already knows that but we're still arguing about it down here um you know so we're focusing
2:03
on that Calvinism arminianism debate and we're really we're really missing an incredible amount of of what Paul is actually saying in this letter and especially in this chapter because
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what he's really addressing here I don't think Paul ever thought that anybody would think that they saved themselves I really don't think that Paul thought that salvation by grace was
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was a radical Doctrine uh in fact Judaism was actually based on Grace um Luther Kind of Twisted that around and turned it into a Works religion and
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that has been a a dominant um characterization of Judaism um but the Jews considered themselves to have been graciously chosen by God in fact they
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were so sure of it that they were quite an arrogant people with respect to the rest of the world um but they they they they were not trying to earn their salvation they were already saved because they were the sons of Abraham
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they not ACC to is is he saying that they were pursuing an additional righteousness or or an additional status
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is it more like the Gans in the sense they were pursuing something given them is that's yeah that's a good question were they pursuing when when Paul says in Romans
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uh 10 that they were pursuing a righteousness but not the righteousness of God what does he mean there and that's that's a verse that a lot of people have said well this proves it's a Works religion but you know if if you
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read the Old Testament if you read the rabbis you realize it really wasn't a Works religion if it was anything it was something I'm going to make up a word here and that's okay because Paul did
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that ethno justification that goes over the J excuse me I just dotted my either that I
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should make it a numlock um they were Justified on the basis of their ethnicity and that was sufficient to
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them okay um but it wasn't sufficient and Paul in Romans makes it clear that the Gentile who by his conscience follows the law of God is as if circumcised whereas the Jew who who
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disobeys the law is as uncircumcised so Paul makes it very clear that that you you can't do as uh as the as the did Jews did in in John's day we have
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Abraham as our father you know you can't that claim so I think the most defensible position on what Paul means looking at all of his you know
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circumcision wasn't it the law wasn't it it but but that really wasn't they weren't trying to be saved those were the evidence of them being the people of God but they relied on that
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identity as opposed to Holiness um and so that's my take on it it's an excellent question um but I think that in Ephesians 2 we have to you know
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we have to get past the debate and I'm not sure as I was saying before you we should not get down in the weeds with arminians okay because frankly if they
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want to believe that they save themselves that that's a that's a pretty pathetic read to lean upon um they want to lean upon it then just let them because um they may actually be saved
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they may by God's grace be Christians U but why any believer would want to give any of the glory to anyone but God I don't know and I'm not sure that you can
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convince anyone of that but the problem is is that when we focus on theological debates we tend to miss the important message we we assume that
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that's what Paul was debating that he was proving Calvinism well that's an anachronism of course that's 1500 years later um and so we we we superimpose our
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current debates our theological pmics back on what Paul was writing and we we think that he's answering question questions that we're asking when in fact what he's saying here as he started in
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chapter one is that God in Christ has made the two the two parts of the human race Jews and Gentiles those within the Covenant and those outside the Covenant
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he's made them into one new man that man being Jesus Christ and that is the foundation of the temple that God is building again chapter 2 so we kind of
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miss that when we focus on verse eight and salvation um salvation um by grace through faith which is absolutely true but let's not let that be the only doctrine that we pull out of
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Paul so that diagnosis that I mentioned the most accurate and concise diagnosis in is in verse 12 he says remember that you were at that time separate from
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Christ excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise and here it is having no hope and without God in the
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world that phrase having no hope you you can't get a more accurate diagnosis of the world than that Yuri
7:47
in7 where the people of su became Jews because the the fear of the Jews Came Upon everyone do you think they were just declaring themselves like I'm a Jew just so they fit in or do you think that was
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actually oh I I would take it at face value why you know why take it otherwise they they uh I mean the people of Nineveh repented in the days of Jonah um
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I don't know that that made them saved I don't know um I think the point there though is a um a
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foretaste of when the fear of the glory of the Lord will fill the whole earth and whenever you see the Gentiles being
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tangentially impacted in the Old Testament I think what that is intended to convey is the eventual uh spreading of Salvation from
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Zion to the world I would take it at face value and say that that that generation repented um converted to Judaism now I'm not I'm sure not everyone but it was a
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Revival essentially um so looking at this as a
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God therefore without therefore without hope that's a remarkably frequent word in Paul's letters and one that's not
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often dealt with in uh commentaries or or books I mean love is one that you know and faith those two uh but of
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course Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that now abides these three faith hope and love and that's not the only
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place those three show up together that's the only place they show up together in a series like that but they show up in concentrated little passages
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where they're they are clearly interl faith hope and love so um to to just kind of flesh out for a
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little bit this this diagnosis there is no reason and and this is kind of where we're heading for next week in the close of our class there is no reason for believers for the
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church to think that the unbelieving world has any hope and not just objectively that we know that outside of
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Christ there is no hope no subjectively they don't have hope even in themselves now this is somewhat epitomized by the French but the rest of
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the world is also hopeless and this is this goes a long way to way to explaining the tower building that the
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world is constantly attempting it's an attempt to build hope out of despair what is Hope context talk well um we're going to
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get into that uh that's that's a good what is Hope in this context um well I think that that it's certainly not wishful thinking it's certainly not the hope
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that the current situation will either continue or get better but not worse very few people hope for the current situation to get worse okay it's not
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wishful thinking um hope is the mental and emotional really mental but also emotional
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response to trust the more firm the trust and the more trustworthy the object of that trust the more powerful the
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hope one one writer puts it this way hope is like the man who is exceedingly generous because of the promise of an
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inheritance though he now lives on a meager allowance right he now obviously within Human Relationships that that hope is
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never firm okay um but within our this hope is not at all based on anything in this world or this life in fact Paul
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says in 1 Corinthians 15 he says if in this life only we have hoped we are of all men most pitiable isn't equal
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salvation it is a part of Salvation it it is the fruit of Salvation it's not I mean it cannot exist without exist without salvation because without
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salvation you do not have any claim on the promise that salvation represents so to to look at if we look at this word hope it is it is
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promise okay you you can't you really can't hope for anything that you have not been promised that's not hope that's wishful
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thinking however if you have been promised then the promise is
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promised so the more trustworthy the the promiser the more solid and fervent the hope now Paul elevates this in his writings because the promise is from God
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and he says in 2 Corinthians that all of the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ and back in 1 Corinthians uh 15 what I just quoted about being of all
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men most to be pied that is the discussion of the Resurrection The Resurrection is the event that grounds the church's hope
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Yuri you defining biblical hope or all hope because it seems like people put their
14:47
in right right but that's that question is is is really a false dichotomy as if there is anything other than biblical hope when in fact Paul says that the world outside of Christ is
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without hope so all the things that man hopes for is an illegitimate use of that word we cannot hope for anything that has not been promised and
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the only one who promises eternally Faithfully is God and it is only in Christ that his promises are fulfilled so the answer the same thing with people
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put their trust we use those words we use the word love but we really can't create a dichotomy between biblical trust because that is the only
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trust other trust other hope other love simply Bears a resemblance somewhat analogously to the
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corrupted image of God that we all bear you can see elements of it but it's corrupted and therefore it it's not a
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different kind of hope it's a corrupt hope because it's grounded in corrupt promises it has no firm
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foundation hope I wonder question secular faithful hope is it our hope is kind of the now and not
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yet right you don't hope for something that you have that's you're you're actually quoting Romans 8 yeah we don't hope for something we have and we're gonna be talking about that so it is definitely part of the now and not yet
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but it's actually a major part of it because hope because hope then uh becomes itself the grounds
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confidence and then next week we're going to be looking again in Ephesians chapter 6 um and again chapter six oh that's the that's the armor yeah I did a Sunday school I remember that we put the armor on made it out of
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cardboard okay but but what does he say he says um in chapter 6 in verse 13 He
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says therefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and and then here it is for those of us who want to do something great for god listen to Paul he says and
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having done everything to stand firm we we don't really appreciate both the difficulty and the important of
17:34
standing firm we think we need to be doing something for the Lord but he's calling us to stand firm and having done everything in other words the battle rages and when the
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battle finally clears and the dust settles the believer is still standing in the in the Lord and that that
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standing Frank L is is not I don't want to sound Blasphemous it's really not a matter of our faith it's a matter of Our
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Hope and that's why I think hope is very underrated of the three what are called theological virtues faith hope and love um and that's again that's a name given
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to them there's a section in your notes where uh Richard neore very accurately says that the word Virtue really has no place in the discussion of a Christian
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life because we have no virtue but he says we accept it because it's the best word available um and and he makes qualifications that I think are very valid but these are not things that we
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the point is these are not things we stir up within ourselves you you if you stir up hope within yourself that is presumption if you have no promise upon which to base that
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hope you know you say um I'm going to win the lottery have you bought a ticket no no well then you're not going to win the lottery I don't care how hard you hope how Earnest your hope you're not
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and even if you had your hope is very flimsy so but you your the um the substance of your hope is directly proportional to the nature of both the
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promise and the one who has promised couple promised couple people certain kind of Life Christian life but I don't know if they have idea
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this they want a good life home right Grand children right and think this is the Hope yeah I don't get
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fir sick and then you can go even further than that into the Prosperity Gospel yeah that's that's hoping in this life how many of us Christians have talked to somebody who's having a hard time say you know you can have a better
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life if you you believe in Jesus right and that that's often used as an Evangelistic technique is that he'll you know he'll fix your it's like um you know playing country music backwards you
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get your truck back you get your wife back you get your dog back you know um that's why I keep thinking this is not that hope in fact and then within modern
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evangelicalism not even the prosperity movement there's a great deal of Hope being placed on maintaining our current social standing and our e socioeconomic
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we are not promised anything in this life but tribulation and persecution that's what we're promised now that doesn't mean we're going to all
20:36
get it all the time but we can't we can't say we can't lay hold as the as the prosperity preachers say we can't name it and claim it or blab it and grab it you know you can't you can't place
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hope in that which was not part of the promise but what we have been promised we have actually been given in the Holy Spirit that's Paul's view this is not
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we're not even hoping for something that's Pie in the Sky when we die our hope is founded in something that has already been done the death
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resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ followed by the outpouring and indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is the security and down payment it as if God
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says if I will not follow through I will forfeit the Holy Spirit that's not going to happen Okay so our hope is not based on
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this life in any way that does not mean that we don't enjoy the blessing God gives us everything is Sanctified by prayer and Thanksgiving I'm not saying that we should become Aesthetics sell
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all that we have and live in you know live in a tree or something no God has blessed what I'm saying is we can't put any hope in the continuance of that that
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cannot be the foundation of our Our Hope Our Hope needs to be as Paul's was and that is the the essence of the Gospel in Colossians 1 and I I'll call you in a
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minute Yuri I saw your hand um in Colossians 1 again the same context starting in verse 21 he says um and although you were
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formerly alienated and hostile in mind there's that alienation we talked about last week engaged in evil Deeds yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly
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body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and Beyond reproach if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast there's that having done all
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to stand okay and and I think that one of the greatest fallacies within evangelicalism is this notion that we
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must do something for the Lord We Must Stand Fast hold fast the writer of Hebrews says the confession of your
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faith okay we're we're called upon to hold fast because if we were to understand the nature of the powers and principalities we would
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realize that that in spiritual language if we can Envision this every believer is standing against 120 mph gale force
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opposition in this world and the church is even worse if it is the church the reason we don't feel that is because we're not standing fast we're moving
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with the wind Gone With the Wind went with the wind um that um that the the real I mean when you read Paul
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about his own life his own experiences you realize you know he is bent into the wind of wind of opposition not only from mankind which
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he had but he saw it as from the powers and principalities that are still trying to destroy the people of God and so if you can Envision yourself as a Christian
24:12
don't think of yourself as standing above The Fray or living a a wonderful healthy prosperous life that could be actually that could be and you don't
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realize it 150 mph winds your Prosperity because is blowing away all dependence on God okay what we think is prosperous and
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sunny weather might turn out to be a storm that we just weren't willing to recognize because we didn't read properly Yuri it seems like the
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Evangelical like Baptist they do have to get you to walk the aisle whatever and I hear this so much this
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Jeremiah 2911 and there the word is here in in that verse where God plans welfare not evil giv future and a hope future
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and a hope yeah but foret to read where he says that years Inon yeah after their suffering after their Exile and then
25:25
even then it didn't happen Jenny you had your hand up did you
25:51
right don't don't just do something stand there you know I mean we might find out that God could have brought brought about the consummation of the ages thousand years ago if we hadn't helped okay if we hadn't been helping
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but anyhow back to Colossians 1 he says um now he says it you you continue in the faith and you are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel that you
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have heard which was proclaimed in all creation under Heaven of which and of which I Paul was made a minister now he goes on to describe the the gospel in verses 24- 26 but then in verse 27 he
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really kind of summarizes what we're talking about he says to whom God will to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of
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glory there there's your answer what is this hope it's the hope of glory that that can't be given by the world this is actually we have been
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promised a participation in the glory of the second person of the trinity as the resurrected God man with Incorruptible bodies shining as the Sun at noon day
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the psalmist writes okay so that's what we are looking for that is what our faith is grounded in and hope is the
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outflow of that Faith that's where Faith and Hope are so tied together now just very briefly we have the definitions
27:28
um faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of Things Not Seen we hope for what he says in um chapter 8 of Romans he says why does one
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hope for what one sees we hope for what has been promised but that hope is firm and steadfast and passes through the veil
27:50
it's a hope that Paul says in Romans 5 does not disappoint why because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us
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that's the down payment the deposit it's not a mantra that so many people think it's not a crutch it's a hope of glory but it's not one that we've come up with
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on our own it's one that has been implanted in Us by the Holy Spirit himself so it's now and not yet okay
28:22
well Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that the greatest of these is love well why is greatest and some people have said you know we can do away with the others because love is what really matters no
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that's not what he's saying at all love is the greatest for the simple reason is it's the only one that abides both Faith and Hope will end when
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they become seen at the perusia there will be no reason for Faith and Hope because as the writer says these are the things hope for now they've come Paul
28:55
says if you hope for what is not not seen you persevere and you endure but when it is seen Paul says why would you keep hoping for something you know you
29:06
promise your kid a bike for Christmas and Christmas comes and you give them a bike and the next day they're hoping for a bike take them to a doctor you know
29:16
you don't hope for what you've received when will love expire never never so that's why it's the greatest not because it's it's um of
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of Greater quality than the other two it is the the the one that that marks the consumation of the other two but it's also the one that grounds both the other
29:39
two it is the love of God I mean it's just so much this idea how the idea that that God the father is this angry offended God and Jesus has to interpose
29:52
himself CU he's the loving God for God so loved the world that he Sent His only begotten son the love of God has been poured out in your hearts through the Holy Spirit whom he has given this is
30:04
all about God's love which will be the the the content of the Manifest glory of God in the new Earth in the new Heavens okay but in the meantime what is the I
30:16
me the the primary virtue the the priority virtue is Faith but the primary virtue in the Christian Life and in the life of of the
30:27
church in the world is hope that the church should be among all human beings and all human society a manifestation of
30:39
steadfast hope but not a hope that in any way resides in any political action in any social action really in anything
30:49
man is doing on Earth it is firmly grounded what God has done and what he's doing in the Earth again we don't have any hope that any of the towers that man
31:02
is building will reach into the heavens and solve all our problems we have only expectation from history that every one of those Towers will fall to the
31:14
ground but we have hope in the temple that God has promised he who began a good work in you that we always personalize that don't we but you look at the context Paul's
31:26
talking about the church he's talking about um in Philippians you know he's talking about all of us standing together in the faith um standing firm
31:40
in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel that's that's chapter one where in verse six you know I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in
31:50
you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus yeah it involves each one of us what God has begun in each individual believer he will perfect but how's he perfecting it he's perfecting
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it in the church um Thessalonians you know in Thessalonians he says several things along this line uh first of all in
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talking about those who have fallen asleep you know Paul says in chapter 5 um what
32:30
verse four sorry four verse 13 but we do not want you to be uninformed Brethren about those who are asleep that you may not grieve as do the rest who have no hope you know that's the resurrection
32:41
now here he's talking about the perusia but that is that is our hope but our hope is is so firmly grounded um and then 1 Corinthians
32:51
5 he says now may God May the God of Peace sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of
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our Lord Jesus Christ there's the Hope Faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it to pass there's the promise so hope
33:13
is that is that virtue that virtue that has a strictly future orientation we're not hoping for anything in the past the past is is the
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the con content and substance of our faith what God has done in Christ but out of that Faith Comes hope and because
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of that of that hope that is that is informed by what God has promised we are not tossed
33:48
around by the winds and waves of current events unfortunately we are this is why I am not I do not Advocate I
34:01
do not participate and I vigorously oppose all discussions of conspiracy theory within the church because it doesn't
34:12
matter why should we be surprised that unbelieving mankind is continuing to operate against the will of God why should that surprise us why
34:23
should it surprise us that mankind is continuing to attempt to build its towers and why should we stray for even a moment from the awareness that God
34:34
will not let them succeed now the biggest one right now the biggest one right now is climate change okay change okay but some of us are old enough to
34:45
remember the remember the 1970s in fact some of us are not old enough to forget them but we're hoping for that day bell bottoms n on silk shirts wide
34:59
collars oh bad fashion decade but it was also the beginning of a mini ice age in fact there's so
35:10
much overwhelming press concerning global warming that honestly I began to think that I had imagined that well I didn't imagine
35:20
didn't imagine it okay this is just one of scores of magazine articles that were published back in the early 70s this is the most famous the cooling world this
35:32
was Newsweek in a April 28 1975 okay the world was cooling down because sunlight was not reaching the
35:42
planet due to Pittsburgh uh due to pollution okay all right so what did we do we cleaned up the air and now the Earth is warming up
35:55
what's the solution to global warming we need more pollution okay we need to go back to the 70s that was only 50 years ago
36:06
folks okay but it is so calamitous now that people it it it it frightens people including sadly
36:20
including sadly Believers okay and and so but is this the first time that we have had doomsday prediction no they they are chronic
36:33
throughout human history and even more so since the Industrial Revolution the the industrial revolution has created a an environment especially in
36:46
the west but an environment a a a socioeconomic and and labor kind of um amalgam that is incredibly disconcerting
36:57
to the human psyche if you look at the way people live just going to work in the morning you can realize this is not how to
37:09
live why do we have vacations because we know that the rest of the time is not living it's making a
37:19
living okay go to a city and ask yourself is this living but it's life now and it's tumultuous and it's frenetic and it's
37:31
polluting and it's scary and you can you can read through the history of the last 300 years and you can just T you can palpably feel the
37:42
fear of many many writers concerning um the industrialization and the technological advance of the West HG Wells the time machine and then the War
37:53
of the Worlds where essentially commentaries on what was known as progress and how it eventually would destroy us Carl Marx comes from
38:04
the same genre of how progress would eventually destroy mankind will destroy himself which he tried to do through a number of of brutal Wars especially in
38:15
the 20th the 20th century in which more people were killed as either a direct or indirect result of War than in all previous centuries combined that's just last Century okay
38:28
so fear is understandable but it's not for a Christian hopelessness and despair are perfectly understandable if your hope is
38:41
grounded in mankind actually getting things right fixing things turning anything around arresting this problem or that problem but what we do find is
38:52
nothing but apocalyptic Doom saying back in the 70s it was a mini Ice Age We also we were going to absolutely run out of oil I mean do anybody remember that you
39:04
old old people we were absolutely going to run out of oil before in fact um uh didn't how Lindsay write a book the late great planet Earth about you know or something the coming economic crisis
39:15
we're going to run out of oil and we weren't going to be able to use our cars anymore we're going to go back to horses okay I was in the oil industry in the 1980s we weren't running out of oil that
39:25
was my job out out of college we did not run out of oil in fact we're actually the number one oil producer in the world right now we've actually exceeded Saudi Arabia in the amount of oil we produce
39:36
was famous writer about the population bomb population bomb yeah yeah that we were going to we're going to run out of food we're going to run out of space and food because of the population you know
39:48
and that's not to say that there are places where energy is a serious problem water is a serious problem and population density is a serious serious problem but the world has not ended
40:00
because of these things God man's but it seems like man also hasy in his well yes every ever
40:14
Livy all the way Eve oh yeah us not just talking about Believers but everybody everybody has an eschatology because we
40:24
are created with that um that sense of Eternity as as Ecclesiastes says but such as a way that we cannot man cannot find out the end
40:35
from the beginning you know Ecclesiastes 311 um very famously um the Mayans in their calendar predicted the end of the world
40:47
in December 31st 2012 if you look at page three uh 246 just to throw a little levity into it cartoon by the name I think this is
41:06
Bizarro we interpret that the Mayans were predicting the end of the world but it could have been that they just ran out of stone and sure did freak people out anybody remember
41:17
anybody remember Y2K oh my word people in this church were stockpiling no no longer in this church not because of me but I'm just kind of glad um they were stockpiling not and this is what was happening this
41:28
is what Christians were advocating that you were to stockpile food and and water and weapons and ammunition this is what
41:38
the this is what Believers were supposed to do in the light of the 2000 what was going to happen when that clock and and the banks could no longer because it would all reset to 1900 okay I mean how
41:50
anybody believed that our technology in the year 2000 1999 couldn't figure out out that it wasn't 1900 okay they figured it out and
42:02
nothing happened they were GNA make a crappy suspense TV show about it but the it guys just weren't comping yeah right they weren't compelling very boring I I remember
42:15
actually talking with people Christians who were absolutely convinced that the right thing to do Not only was the stockpile survival uh Necessities but also armaments to guard against others taking
42:27
your I that is such a Christian attitude ho up with your automatic weapons I mean does anybody stop to ask whether that's I I remember when I was a
42:38
boy in elementary school thinking and maybe I was a little head of the game I don't know but when we had the fallout shelter drills and we crawled down either the South or the north side of
42:49
the hallway they told us which one I don't know why cuz those little radioactive beams weren't going to go there I don't know they down the steps into the wrestling room 20x 20 room with scores of
43:03
elementary school students and behind a wire door was World War II Army surplus food which we would have been done with in by day two and would have started
43:14
eating each other and I I remember thinking who would want to live in that world you know who would want to live in a world where you have to shoot your
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neighbor so that he doesn't get your canned peas okay I'd be giving them to him
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but nobody thinks through this these things y 2K that was the big thing I mentioned the mini Ice Age Cold War nuclear winner I mean we made movies about it um Doctor Strange Love okay and
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the Russians are coming the Russians are coming we made comedies but it was all about this imminent destruction not maybe maybe not of the world but now we're being told that we have 10 years
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at most before climate warming global warming will just overwhelm the ecosystem species will be dying off like flies well they wish they would die um
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but that was 20 years ago that was no yeah 20 years ago um and 50 years ago we were going to have a a winter we were going to have an ice age and now it's warming the oceans are rising but you
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know what the Statue of Liberty is still at the at the same place relative to Hudson Bay as it has been for
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decades and yet the water level of the ocean ocean Finds Its water Finds Its level okay so it's the same level everywhere and yet it's rising okay and
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you know it's it's rising it's rising and in the next 10 years it's going to rise three millimeters I really think you know now is the time
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to panic okay no it it it it's not the time to P it's never the time to panic and the reason it's never the time
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to panic is that man is not going to bring about the end of the age now that does not mean okay conversely it does not mean that we
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can't thoroughly mess up the world in which we're living and we can make it much less much less enjoyable and we can make it less healthy and we can bring about the loss
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of species yes and even the loss of of humans through war and pestilence famine yeah we can do all of that we can do that we're not absolved of
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responsibility but what we cannot do is supersede the plan of God you're saying it's not a Christian thing to do to prepare for retirement
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Food Supplies make sure that you have I you have a weapon at home I no that's not what they were preparing for no they were preparing
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were preparing for generally speaking you saying these people were soal Christian but they were thought that Y is going to be the end so but that doesn't mean that if you try
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to prepare for a future you're not a Christian I have a life insurance policy I no you're you're you're again you're you're arguing extremes I'm saying that this is an extreme behavior whereby I'm
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going to prepare myself to defend myself against anybody because the world is going to come to an end and I'm going to protect myself and my family from those people who need to be fed that's what I'm going to do because I'm I'm
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panicking over this apocalyptic prediction okay that is a whole lot different than paying off your mortgage having a life insurance policy having
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retirement putting in a 41 401K okay however we're not going to get into a discussion of what retirement is I don't I you know but I mean I don't
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I don't think that what I'm saying is the same as that no I don't have a problem with people preparing for the future I think continue live right in in
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the world in which we live it's using a wisdom that God has given you um you you invest or if you can you know that's fine that's biblical actually talks about Investments that's not what I'm
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talking about I'm talking about fear that the world will come to an end as we know it and therefore we must do something to prevent that from
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happening okay or to prepare ourselves for it happening I don't think that's a healthy way to live so I hope I can make the distinction
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clear that we we we have a we have jobs because we're preparing for the future okay we we're not in fact in thessal thessalonica they weren't doing that and
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Paul said he who will not work shall not eat they were people who were not bringing in the bacon they were not taking care of their own labor and their own home and he said they shouldn't even
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eat so no I'm not saying that but I am saying that that each of these panics the church has responded by panicking and by doing things and taking positions
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I'm going to talk about some of them tonight but taking positions that are not only not biblical they are devoid of all biblical hope and they are verging on and some actually are
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Blasphemous and I'm going to read some quotes in fact everybody who's quoted in this week's notes is a professing Christian I didn't go to any climate
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scientists any unbelieving secular s I'm just quoting Christians and their attitude toward climate change change and the climate crisis what I'm saying
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is that's not the manifestation of hope I mean when we save for the future it's not because we're panicking we're we're
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actually um what's what's the word we're acting in a confidence that the future will actually
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come okay and a recognition for example that I'm not going to to be able to do what I'm doing now in 20 years right and so as Paul says you know
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we're not going to become a burden on others and so yes we save that that's what we do for retirement what we do in retirement is is you know another
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another issue okay what I don't know that retirement As Americans view it is is a biblically valid um phase of life
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but I also don't think that any man or woman need be in the same form of occupation their whole life I don't think that it's necessarily good that a
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man or a woman needs to work all their life okay but that's that's a different that's a different topic um so you know the the issue here is
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that the proclamation of Doom is a feature of this world but it's not just that if if if I were to say there's any conspiracy at all this is the
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conspiracy of the prince of the power of the air to deprive mankind of any hope and if you listen to what's being
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said about climate change there's no hope in it there's nothing but desperate fear and angst and
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anger because there's no hope but that just kind of tells us what Paul already said they are with god without God having no hope in the world but if we if
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we do have faith then that Faith motivates a hope that the world cannot end apart from God's plan and purpose
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right I mean that's kind of the essence of First Corinthians 15 is that first Christ has raised from the dead the as the first fruits and then at the end
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those who are his and he will present the kingdom to his father so that God will be all in all that's the end of the story the end of the story is not the
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melting of the polar ice caps that's not the end of the story now some Christians say that this is how God's going to end it well this is you know the the they bring Nature and
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Science into their biblical exegesis and and for example those who interpret the the Visions the apocalyptic visions of
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Revelation as being um what are they the serpents the fiery serpents well what are they well they're nuclear missiles right because the Apostle John knew everything about nuclear um Vision back
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then you right that we're we're we we incorporate we say okay that this is how God's doing it U no this is not how God's doing it we we don't know how
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God's doing it it's not given to us and the world is constantly changing just question know
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persp if they believe that this is how God bring about the end why would we want to stop it um because we actually are not looking forward to God coming back we
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the um the vast majority of professing Christendom had has has given up as has Judaism any eschatological hope okay that ended back in the 19th century what
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we are all about is the Perfection of mankind and the attaining of a peaceful harmonious Society here on Earth that's the Advent of the Kingdom to most liberal really to all liberal Christians
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but it's also seeping into evangelicalism the idea that the new Earth is a good thing to hope for is not really preached anymore we're primarily
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concerned that our way of life not disappear that's what we're concerned with and let don't don't mistake me I do not want to lose our way of
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life but I cannot put my Hope on that because it's not grounded on any promise can anybody find a promise
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whereby we will be happy and prosperous and healthy as a society forever very dangerous I
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think Chuck is that the is a Theology of Good Intentions and and leads to that false hope and it seems to be
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predicated on the fact that mankind is inherently good yes that's totally opposite yeah we
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scure from an Evangelical standpoint what we what we hear especially from the the modern Roman Catholic church but also the mainline denominations especially Lutheran and Episcopalian or Anglican is that Christianity is
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improving mankind not that man is inherently good so much is that Christianity has as its purpose that effect of improving mankind over time
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Evolution it's really a a new form of evolution and with that we have to get involved with these political and social uh movements in order to bring the light
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of Christianity to the whole Dark World although we don't use that adjective anymore we don't call it a dark World um because we also have to recognize the wisdom that is manifested in all faiths
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okay that's the kind of that's what you read now and you're actually starting to read that more and more more in otherwise Evangelical writers because this is what get P this get what gets
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published this is what gets people into your pews this is what sells the books is that you you you've got to um I mean you've got
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you've got to you got to avoid this 2 Corinthians chapter
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2 for we are the fragrance of Christ to God Among those those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to the one an aroma from Death to death to the other an aroma from life to life now an aroma from Death to death is not
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terribly popular but the gospel is exactly that it is putri faction for those who are perishing it perishing it stinks but it is the sweetness of life
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to those who are being saved that was what Paul recognized and it wasn't just Paul so when the church with a hope based on the resurrection of Jesus
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Christ lives in the midst of a world that is without God having no hope there cannot help but be
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conflict and I've been talking about the prophetic voice well the prophetic voice is not to say on what day the Earth the world's going to end that's not the
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prophetic voice of the church the prophetic voice is also not to Simply Echo the world's voice the prophets didn't do that only the false prophets
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did that the pr the prophetic voice is to proclaim a new Earth that has been guaranteed and validated through the resurrection of
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Jesus Christ from the grave that is the prophetic voice of the gospel and that is the voice that the world doesn't want to hear but it's the
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only V voice the true church has so in the M you know just to talk a little bit more about this climate change and this um I already mentioned
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the the nature of it um one writer again this is um this is a a former Lutheran Pastor he says why is this time urgent I he's like maybe he's thinking about y 2K
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he's retired so he probably remembers that he remembers the 70s he probably remembers the Cold War but why is this time urgent well he doesn't remember that those times were just as urgent
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okay but he says why is this time urgent it is because the vast majority of climate scientists agree that we have a maximum of 10 years to avoid catastrophic changes in our planetary
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life support life support systems yeah well the vast majority of climate scientists I'm going to I'm going to go with them you know that's truth is clearly I mean I think that
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that the Bible says somewhere that climate scientists are the pillar and foundation of the truth in the world doesn't that sound
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like well it it does yeah but we're this time before it wasn't right but this one is this one's it but it also sounds a lot like Jay Ed G Hoover in that article that oped piece
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that we looked at from Christianity today that if the church stopped supporting the containment philosophy of government which means Armament and and
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uh dictators and whatever it takes to oppose communism he basically says the world as we know it will come to an end the world as we know it will come to an end that is the
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Mantra of the age that is passing away and the church can turn to them and say well according to Paul you're right the world as you know it will be coming to an end because this age is passing away
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the world that I know has just begun you see I'm a new Humanity I'm part of a new
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creation I'm part of something that God is doing that will come to fruition at the perusia I'm something I'm part of something that's going to be revealed in its fullness and
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Glory at the moment God determines that it is to be revealed but it has already begun and the church is that new Humanity that can say no my world's not
