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Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Glass Half Empty & Half Full - The Perspicuity of Scripture
"Do you struggle with understanding the scriptures? Do you frequently hit roadblocks in your Bible reading? Do you struggle from even having a basic sense of satisfaction in your scripture reading? in your scripture reading? Sana, sana, colita, derana. If you're a Spanish speaker here today, you would know what I just said. Sana, sana, colita, derana. Lalo, could you translate those words as literal as possible for me in English? Yeah, as literal as possible in English. Or he'll heal frog bottom, is that another one? Yeah, he'll heal frog bottom. Now, if you weren't a Spanish speaker, you wouldn't know that what I just said is objectively clear in context. He'll heal frog bottom, literally translated in English, means nothing to a person who doesn't know Spanish. Even if they could translate Spanish to English. So, in reality, this is a phrase that we would often, or Spanish speakers would often tell children when they've, say, fallen on the floor and gotten injured, right? It's almost like as if it's a call to courage, like, you'll be okay. Another example in the English language is a stitch in time saves nine. I don't know if you guys have ever heard that. Have you guys ever heard that, a stitch in time saves nine? Okay, so no one before the 1980s, or sorry, no one after the 1980s. A stitch in time saves nine is an expression that basically means if I don't fix this stitch right now, the nine ones later are gonna fall apart, right? So, it's really a call to prudence and saying, well, I need to do this right now so that things don't get worse down the line. What I said in Spanish earlier, once again, is utterly and objectively clear. Utterly and objectively clear. It's a phrase with a particular meaning, and yet, as I said before, only a native Spanish speaker would understand. To everyone else, what I said was absolutely obscure. we're So, several weeks now into our doctrine of the Scriptures in our confession, and having recently just covered the sufficiency of Scripture, we now arrive at the question of perspicuity, perspicuity, perspicuity. We can say everything we want about the sufficiency of the Scriptures, the sufficiency of Scripture for faith and godliness, but if Scriptures don't have what we will go into later as perspicuity or a degree of transparency or clarity, we couldn't access its sacred truth. Or we would at least need to depend upon someone else to access its sacred truth, and that'll come a bit later. If you do have a copy of the Confession of Faith, feel free to turn there, and that will be in chapter one, paragraph seven. Chapter one, paragraph seven. But if you don't, just feel free to follow along as I read. All things in the Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or another that not only the learned, but the unlearned in a due use of ordinary means may attain to a sufficient understanding of them. Now this doctrine here in our Confession deals with how clear the Scriptures are to the people of God. And that whole doctrine is called perspicuity. If you are paying close attention to this paragraph, and as I mentioned, this whole doctrine, not just part of it, but the whole, has to do with perspicuity, then you would realize that perspicuity or transparency or clarity takes into account two things. One, clarity, and two, obscurity. One, clarity, and two, obscurity. So if you've never heard of the word obscure or obscurity, it just means less clear or not as clear. So just as if you have a glass that's half filled with water, half it's simultaneously filled and half empty. So that old adage, are you a glass half full or half empty person? You can just go down the drain, right? A glass halfway filled is both half filled and half empty. Likewise, with the Scriptures and the clarity of the Scriptures, insofar as parts of it are extremely clear and parts of it are not as clear, the perspicuity of the Scriptures actually encompasses two things. Both clarity and obscurity. Very clear and also some parts not as clear. I have a few observations from our tradition, from Peter van Maastricht, I can never pronounce his name correctly, van Maastricht, Francis Turretin, and William Whittaker. But before I get there, just know that this doctrine of perspicuity is a major battle in the Reformation. 16th century Rome so emphasized the obscurity or lack of ease of understanding of the Scriptures that they argue that if you don't have the pope and the magisterium, you can't interpret the Scriptures because if you did, you're not skilled enough to do so and you would most likely fall into various forms of heresy. Now, understand that there is a sense in which that is not false. It is very easy for people who just pick up the Bible on their own and refuse any kind of accountability to a church or Christian doctrine or any kind of wisdom from the past to easily err on the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of Christ. It's so easy to do that. And I'm sure many of you may not have been previously accountable to a confession of faith before or a creed, and how often may you have discovered later on, oh, I said this in a certain way about God that was very wrong. It's very easy to do that. Okay, so let's come back to van Maastricht, Turretin, and Whittaker. Whittaker says this, perspicuity or obscurity, notice Whittaker didn't just assume that perspicuity is the same as clarity. He also thought of it in terms of hard to understand, obscurity. Perspicuity or obscurity is either internal or external. By internal, Whittaker means the heart of the interpreter. By external, he means the objective clarity of the scriptures. So if we go back to sana sana colita derana, right, sana sana colita derana is objectively clear. It's an objectively clear expression which calls someone to courage after having encountered a mini tragedy. But it may not be clear to everyone interpreting that because they may not know Spanish, or even if they knew how to translate words of Spanish to English, they still may not know how that particular idiom or expression or saying translates in English. More would have to be taught to them in order for them to understand that. So, in the same sense, the scriptures, the clarity of the scriptures are objectively and externally clear. But at the same time, it requires work and effort on the part of the one interpreting the scriptures to be able to assent or come to that clarity. What's very interesting is that this chapter in our confession doesn't even talk about the obscurity of the scriptures to non -believers. A small aside, it's very easy for us to communicate the gospel one time to a non -believer, send them off with a Bible and expect them to just read things on their own. In reality, we really should be thinking about evangelism more so in the context of the local church, bringing them to church to hear the ministry of the word of God in the presence of Christ. Why? Turton quotes 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3. He says this. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them. The scriptures were not meant to be clear to those who are perishing or even those necessarily yet who will be saved one day. It is nothing short of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that is a requirement for someone to receive the message of the gospel, commit it to their souls, and assent or believe outwardly the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes as far as to say that ordinarily the ministry of the church, sermons, and commentaries are necessary. And despite all of this, he still wants the Christian to have the comfort of reading the scriptures. The Reformers understood just like with Roman Catholicism does. That there are difficulties in the scriptures, yet they came to a different conclusion. The conclusion that they came to was though there are difficulties and though a Christian should be interpreting the scriptures in the context of the local church, not to be expectant that the minister teaches them how to interpret the Bible in the sermon and they're supposed to do everything on their own afterwards. This is a conjoined effort. The doctrine or the expectations of interpreting the scriptures to our souls is very much a joint effort. You have the responsibility of hearing the word of Christ from the minister of the gospel to interpret and apply it to your conscience. He has the responsibility of aiding you and lifting you on Jacob's ladder. Our confession points to various scripture passages on this point. I'll just read to you two examples. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple and also the entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. Meaning, the scriptures have in themselves a light to be given to the Christian. We are expected to come to the scriptures as if they are a light to us, a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. I've stated this before and I will state it once again. It is entirely possible for something to be written with sufficient clarity and yet, because the reader may lack the ability, he may not be able to fully understand it. And likewise, when speaking of the clarity of the scriptures, not everything is as equally clear. Not everything is as equally clear. I hope you're seeing where this lesson is going. Partly, it's a call to encouragement to receive the basic truths of the Christian faith from the scriptures with a willing and submissive attitude. But on the other part, it's a call to humility and to have very reasonable expectations of what you can accomplish apart from your local church. That is where things get very interesting for us. Roman Catholics have often, at least in the past, accused the Protestants on their doctrine of perspicuity, trying to portray the Protestants as those who believe that every part of the scriptures is so easy to understand that even a farmer can read every single part and understand it as in the same way that a trained and spiritual theologian can. This is not the view of the Reformers. It is not the view of the Reformers that without the ordinary means, which was referred to in our confession, that one may easily attain to the highest of the heights of the mysteries of sacred scripture. That is not the belief of the Reformers. For that matter, even our scriptures have something to say about that. Our confession alludes, let me go back a little bit, to 2 Peter 3 .16. Feel free to turn there if you like. 2 Peter 3 .16. I'm going to read from verse 14. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do the rest of the scriptures. Some things in Paul are hard to understand for Peter. Now, this would be very interesting if Peter was, in fact, the first pope, and had very difficulty understanding the apostle Paul, and would proclaim the ability to be the vicar of Christ to the church, and to not have the ability to understand parts of Paul would be very problematic, to say the least. That being said, we cannot escape the reality that some parts of the scripture are hard to understand for people by design. By design. And we will get to that, as to why I say by design, in a little bit. Whitaker emphasizes a very balanced approach to understanding the degree to which we can understand the scriptures. He says this, the unlearned can have some fruit and utility in reading the scriptures. At the same time, he'll say this, not even one jot or tittle is clear without the internal light of the Holy Spirit. And in the interest of humility, he closes with this. A man must be impudent, who would say that he understood even any one book thoroughly, and the same hath ever been said of the opinion of all of us. Do you understand what he's saying there? It would be the height of arrogance for Whitaker for someone to say, I even fully understand one book of the Bible. The height of arrogance. And despite that, despite that strong language, Turton and Whitaker often appeal to the church fathers about the ways in which scripture can be understood, the scope of their understanding. I'll read this quote from Francis Turton. The fathers frequently acknowledge it, although they do not deny that the scriptures have their depths, which ought to excite the studious believers. Chrysostom says the scriptures are so proportioned that even the most ignorant can understand them if only they read them studiously. All necessary things are plain and straight and clear. Augustine says, in the clear declarations, the scriptures are to be found, all things pertaining to faith and practice. Irenaeus says the prophetic and evangelical scriptures are plain and unambiguous. Gregory, a pope, says the scriptures have in public nourishment for children as they serve in secret to strike the loftiest minds with wonder. Indeed, they are like a full and deep river in which the lamb may walk and the elephant may swim. I just find that fascinating. How Rome can simultaneously confess full continuity with the church fathers and not say that, at least in the essentials of the Christian faith, that a lay Christian cannot read and understand the script, I just find that so difficult to just wrestle with. Like, how can you say that you have a sense of continuity with the church fathers when the church fathers themselves say that, at least in the elemental and primary doctrines of the Christian faith, they are clearly propounded in the scriptures? You know what's interesting? The major debater in the Roman Catholic world during the Reformation was Cardinal Bellarmine. You've probably heard his name in the past, maybe even last week.
Simply Bitcoin
Fresh update on "roman" discussed on Simply Bitcoin
"Yeah years ago. I told some somebody when they were asking me what stock should I buy? I said you should buy a Bitcoin and they're like, what's the symbol? What's the ticker? I'm like it doesn't have one, you know by the time there is you know, something like that. The price is going to be a lot higher. Love it. That's all I get on the the advantage now is that it is it does take a little bit of effort to actually think about it, right? Bitcoin isn't harder than traditional investments. It's just unfamiliar. So there's this people actually have to put in a little bit of effort. Love it. Love it. Great great takes Daniel and then before I move on Sophie, you're so much more toxic than Nico. What do you mean? How am I more toxic than Nico? I rarely hear Nico say have fun staying poor and yet I think you've said that like 12 times since you've been on the show this week, dude, because it's true. You know what bring bullying back bullying works when you bully people listen. This is because I'm Latina and I come from a Latin household where like they tell you shit how it is. If you tell people some really hard truth, they're there. They're going to be forced to think about it. It's like when somebody tells you something about your appearance and you never noticed it before and you're like damn whatever and now you're like fixating on it and you're like damn it's true and it makes you do something about it. This is the same thing have fun staying poor. I'm going to make you feel bad because I know that I'm right and you're not and so and I'm and I'm actually doing you a favor. I'm causing you some short-term pain for some long-term gain and then you will thank me. Love it. Love it as our friend Planet Earth who hangs out in the chat. Oh, he says Bitcoin is for smarter people. You probably don't want some it's gonna you know, who is it rubbing the chest like it's gonna be so hard not to be toxic moving forward. Yes, it will be anyways guys before we get into today's breaking news. Make sure you guys get your tickets to the Bitcoin conference in Nashville. We're taking over Nashville July 25th and 27th and you can get a discount code using simply I know you guys complain about the prices. This is why we're telling you to get it now you will FOMO into the conference. It happens every single year and we can't wait to see you guys. So get yourself a ticket guys and we will be hanging out in Nashville next year. All right, guys. Let's get to the news. A simple feature phone so you will know how to navigate it and use it the moment you pick it up get your Bitcoin off exchanges and into your into your own hands in just a few minutes experience a peace of mind that comes with taking ownership of your own keys after a massive sellout during Bitcoin Miami 2023. The passport is back in stock at Foundation devices.com Bitcoin only open source verifiable completely air gap security model gorgeous design craft premium grade materials. If you're thinking about getting your Bitcoin off exchanges. This is the one for you. Check out the passport link in the show notes below to learn more. All right, guys. We're going to update that app because don't think about it. You need to get your Bitcoin off exchanges get yourself a passport by Foundation scan the QR code because you do it's not your Bitcoin if you leave it on exchange, we definitely got to update that. All right. Anyways guys big news big news, but before I get you the big news today, let's talk about the context here. So, you know, I'm going to have to kind of this might get a little nitty-gritty for you guys. We try to keep it high level as much as possible for you guys. So, you know, don't don't think of this it might get a little technical but it won't be too technical. So there is a lot of fun and you've been seeing this reoccur on Twitter about mining centralization and it might just be that people don't fully understand what's going on. There is as you can see here. I do I'm over here on Luxor. You can see that we have Bitcoin mining pools and actually before I go in maybe I need to do a breakdown differentiating between solo mining why you would want to use a pool and or why you might want to avoid using big pool. So of course guys, you know, hey you can plug in an ASIC and be a solo minor and you may potentially land yourself a block land yourself a big block subsidy or currently it's at 6.25, but usually if you are mining your you know, your S9 your single S19 your chances of getting a block are slim to none. There is huge huge ASIC farms out there and you don't have enough hash power to necessarily beat them out or get lucky to get yourself a block subsidy. So most people link up to a mining pool and you usually do this because it gives you a consistent payout and if you're spending money on electricity, you're going to want to get paid and so people link into mining pools so that they can get a consistent payout and as you can see here on this chart this over here on hash rate index is by Luxor. You can see the biggest Bitcoin mining pools or rather the most popular mining pools and there are a few other ones that are in here. I know there's a few new solo mining pools that are part of this but you can see that the two biggest mining pools right here ant pool and foundry collectively have more than 51% of the hash power and if you know anything if you know any rudimentary aspect of Bitcoin mining there is a thing called a 51% attack on Bitcoin and people have been saying on Twitter that you know, maybe collectively foundry and ant pool. Maybe they'll just get sent a court order and then they will have to you know, by law by their regulations, you know by the powers that be censor Bitcoin and start to avoid some transactions and we have seen there's been a lot of push towards OFAC compliant Bitcoin mining blocks Bitcoin mining transactions and now we just saw that before I get into the big news of today of Jack Dorsey leading investment into oceans. Let's talk about demand. So demand launched the world's first Stratum v2 Bitcoin mining pool. We did a whole episode on Stratum v2. I think it was like two three months ago. So I'm not going to go fully deep into what Stratum v2 does but it does cover this in this article before I get into today's news. So this pool built on the open source Stratum reference implementation aims to usher in a new era for mining by introducing enhanced security flexibility and performance. So Bitcoin mining company demand has announced today. Does this have the date November 27th? Oh, it was this week. It was Monday. All right, Bitcoin mining company demand has announced today the world's inaugural Stratum v2 mining pool according to press release sent to Bitcoin mag this pool built on the open source Stratum reference implementation aims to usher in a new era for mining introducing enhanced security flexibility and performance the Stratum v2 protocol marks it significantly forward from its predecessor according to the release offering a suite of improvements that not only elevate mining capabilities, but also champion a more decentralized mining landscape Alejandro de la Torre demands co-founder and CEO stated with Stratum v2 and our new solo mining pool. We aim to make home mining more attractive which should in effect help decentralized the Bitcoin mining ecosystem and improve the health of the Bitcoin network overall key feature of Stratum v2 is its empowerment of individual miners to construct their own block templates traditionally mining pool operators wielded control over transaction selection posing centralized risk vulnerable to potential regulatory pressures for transaction censorship, Which I just briefly covered Stratum v2 now grants mining pool users the autonomy to select transaction for block inclusion fostering a more decentralized network resistance to censorship because Bitcoin mining is overwhelmed overwhelmingly done through mining pools transaction selection has become relatively centralized only a few mining pool operators can essentially decide to collude and prevent that certain transactions ever confirmed demand co-founder SRI project lead Felipe Murley apologized bro said Stratum v2 gives the power of transaction selection back to the individual miners to make the mining ecosystem more decentralized and Bitcoin more censorship resistance. Well, this isn't the only news that dropped this week in regards to decentralizing Bitcoin mining. We got this news yesterday. It came out at the future of Bitcoin mining conference that Nico was actually at and we got this tweet this morning from Luke dash junior and he goes as announced at the future of Bitcoin mining conference. I have relaunched my allegiance mining pool to help bring more decentralization and Bitcoin mining. I am calling it ocean and here's a press release. I will cover the press release but the old code has already been updated and tested with support for the latest Bitcoin addresses and mining machines as was the case with the legious ocean is a non-custodial pool paying miners directly with generated coins and it provides the highest level of transparency both in proof of work contribution and block template construction absolutely love to see. All right, so let's get into this press release as you can see we are over here on PR news wired the I don't know the industry standard for press releases and it goes Jack Dorsey lead seed round in support of oceans mission to decentralize Bitcoin mining globally announces launch at future of Bitcoin mining conference. So the seed funding will support the launch of ocean the first of many mining decentralization projects for Bitcoin long-term Bitcoin core developer and mamolin co-founder Luke dash junior said the role of mining pools must change for Bitcoin to exist as a truly decentralized currency put differently ocean is a new type of pool that enables miners to be truly miners again. We are launching as the most transparent pool and also the only non-custodial pool where miners are the recipients of new block rewards directly from Bitcoin traditional Bitcoin mining pools take exclusive custody of block rewards and transaction fees before splitting them up amongst miners. This gives them the ability to withhold payment from individual miners whether by their own choice or by legal requirement oceans non-custodial payouts directly to miners from the block reward remove this risk and the pools undo influence over miners oceans global head of sales to pseudonymous Bitcoin mechanics said this the intention is to disintermediate to the greatest extent possible pools have become trusted third parties whose permission we have required for activating soft forts and deciding what gets into the blockchain in addition to taking custody of all newly generated coins by offering transparency and a mechanism for miners to be paid directly by Bitcoin itself. We make the network radically more robust the name ocean intentionally contrasts with the restrictive permission nature of legacy pools essentially you know, you got to you got to play by the rules when you're in a pool, but when you're in the ocean you can do whatever you want. So our contribution to ocean comes out of a deep respect for their mission says Jack Dorsey. I think it's a phenomenal team. I know Luke I've interacted with him for some time and I was inspired by the vision and most importantly the execution. Mr. Doze Dorsey noted ocean is solving a problem for big corners that I think all of us feel further centralization of pools and mining pools that can plague Bitcoin and have that risk a bunch of Bitcoin attributes that we hold dear as part of the launch. Mr. Dorsey noted when I see a project that is good for Bitcoin broadly and that's also good for me and my companies personally it becomes a simple decision for me and I'm happy to be a part of it oceans first customer barefoot mining said the following via its co-founder and CEO Bob Burnett in my opinion. This is the most significant new company announcement in the Bitcoin world over the and some badly needed diversity to the mining world. And of course they made their announcement at the future Bitcoin mining conference and here you guys can go check out all of the you know, the nitty-gritty on ocean dot XYZ, but as you can see Bitcoin mining as it was meant to be ocean is a new type of mining pool on a mission to radically decentralized Bitcoin mining and a quote from Luke Bitcoin is no longer censorship resistant and mining centralization and dangers its security to it's time to fix that you can see it is a rebrand of an old mining pool called allegiance. I believe it is non-custodial and is transparent. It is permissionless and I do have some notes here for you guys. So, you know, I think this is one of those moments there hit there is some contention on Twitter right now, you know people are saying maybe this is just some marketing like oh decentralized mining pool or isn't mining pools decentralized in general. Well, as you can see no longer do you have to trust and here let me pull this back up for you guys. No longer do you have to trust just these mining operators of these pools here. You can now basically construct blocks by yourself and you can see essentially what is it one, two, three, four, six, seven, eight about like what 12 to 16 pool centralized operators are kind of in in many ways like the Cantion, you know controllers of what gets put into a block will now with oceans and also demands in general. Now as a home miner, as a pleb miner, you have a lot more flexibility and more control of what transaction get put into a block and also, you know, you're going to get rewarded for every single hash you put in to the network from whatever ASICs you have you will be paid out directly from a Coinbase transaction and there's zero fees for now, which is obviously incentive for you guys at home. No KYC. You just need to add an address and point your ASIC to the oceans pool. It's come pretty much completely permissionless. It's literally all you need is an address and you don't have to rely on pool operators being honest. Now you can construct a box for yourself and also there will be opportunities for small miners to be paid out via Lightning, which I would say is also super bullish. So I think this changes the landscape for not only smaller miners, but larger miners and I think this is huge for just further decentralizing the Bitcoin network. There is so much contention out there so much mining FUD that like, oh with people that don't understand what's going on that oh Bitcoin mining hash rate has been centralized. There's only 12 miners out there when they're pointing at these pool operators, which you know, like maybe they're kind of right. There is 12 operators that do control these mining pools, but hash rate, you know, if you have hash rate, it doesn't mean that you are controlling the network like first people don't control the hash rate if you are the pool operators and now you can pick up and go that's the beauty of Bitcoin miners in general that hey, if you don't like what the pool operators are doing either you just take it or you move to a different pool. Well now with oceans you have direct access you have a lot more flexibility on what gets put into transactions. And of course, I would just say that this is further just decentralizing the Bitcoin network making sure that hash rate is decentralized and making sure that there isn't just a small group of people that control what gets into the Bitcoin network. Now, of course guys, I'm giving you the high-level overview of this because there is a lot of nitty-gritty. I would definitely recommend you go check out Stephon Lavera with Bitcoin mechanic. He does a great breakdown of this go check out ocean.xyz or even watch the announcement at the future Bitcoin mining conference of Luke dash and Jack Dorsey, but I would just say that this bear market has been absolutely bullish for Bitcoin in general Bitcoiners are building and you just love to see and it's really setting up for a perfect storm moving into 2024 and 2025. All right, there's my ADIQ high-level view of this. So Daniel, let's get your take on this. What was your first thoughts when you heard this and did you get time to get into the nitty-gritties? Well, yeah, just yeah, it's all good news and I'm happy to hear it again. I don't I don't like to see you know, two pools over 51% you know, even though again if there's only so much that can be done with the 51% attack, right? They can't they can't steal your bitcoins, but they can cause problems for the network overall and I don't want to you know, think that you know, one phone call could potentially you know lead to a coordination between pools and cause trouble for Bitcoin. So it's always great to see anything that means more decentralization new mining pools stratum v2 giving individual miners more control within the pool, but also just hash rate can and can and does move very quickly between pools. So even though the pool shows hey, you know that it's got 25 30% question is right. How much of that hash rate is under their own control and how much of it is external and can move pretty much immediately. There was a mining pool that I believe ran into some financial issues last year and you could see as soon as I was as soon as I was clear that the the payouts were interrupted to miners 40% of the hash rate evaporated pretty much immediately. And actually, yeah, if you see the statistics on ocean dot XYZ, you can see that their hash rate since the announcement is just you know, skyrocketing, right? So it's great that miners can redirect that hash rate is necessary if they disagree with saying a pool is doing or you know, the pool isn't in some way, you know malicious or so that that really helps act as a check on that. So yeah, I've been excited about stratum v2 for a while. Obviously, it's been it's been years of work to build this and not only right here. Yeah, there you go. Not only does that help in terms of reducing the power of the mining pools, but it also means more bandwidth efficient it prevents like man-in-the-middle attacks against miners if someone's trying to steal their hash rate for example, so there's a whole host of benefits in there. So I think that will help provide incentive for the pools to adopt it and also the pools have to compete with each other for external hash rate. So saying there in stratum v2 is you know means they're on the latest standard and it also is a nice differentiator and shows that they're I think good actors for the network. I also just want to appreciate you know, say say how much I appreciate Luke's contributions, you know, there's only a handful of people that have that are technical that have been contributing a lot since like that that time period you know that he started like 2010 and a lot of other people have you know burned out or left or rage quit and so on. So to see someone contributing, you know for now well over a decade from the early days to the present is quite impressive. Oh also fun fact St. Allegius is the patron saint of coins. So it's not a not a random name for the for the original name of the pool and the mummeline however, you pronounce that is actually a saint that was the successor to Allegius in in his role as Bishop. So just a fun little Easter Egg there. Interesting Luke Dash Jr. doesn't disappoint with the naming of his company very very true to form and yeah, just to comment on Luke. I I would say he's one of the true OGs of Bitcoin and you know, he's not one of these guys that's more like me that is just always bulltarded. He is very critical of a lot of stuff going on in Bitcoin. So to see him be at the helm of this I think it's absolutely not only just bullish but just like a beautiful synchronicity moving forward and and truly will be a bulwark for the Bitcoin mining space in general and let me answer one of these questions right quick Roman. Yes, the pool is already operational so you can you can put your hash rate to oceans today if you want to if you have a six out there. All right, so I know we're getting technical here today, but Niko was a minor. So maybe you do have some some views on this. What's your thoughts on this? So this is definitely more his Lane than it is mine. I don't know much about hash hatlet hashing hashing. Oh my God mining but I do know obviously the decentralization is good as you were explaining it. I understood I did first of all, I was today years old when I learned about what a mining pool was. I had no idea that different miners could band together to censor people's payments. I had literally no idea that that could even happen. So it's it's really good that you know, the base Foundation of Bitcoin is decentralization because if it weren't for that then solutions like this wouldn't be possible if this was a shit coin where it was controlled by a company or an individual or you know, a couple of people then you're already starting off wrong. But Bitcoin is established in such a way that you can create solutions like this and it seems that no matter which way Bitcoin gets attacked there. They always find a way and I think it's interesting that they named it ocean because the ocean is very fluid but it also always finds a way to get through Rock. So yeah, I mean, I I don't have many thoughts on it. I think decentralization is always good and I and I also I want to give a shout out to Bob Burnett cuz I love that man. So anything that he's involved in I love let's go love it. Love it. Okay guys before we get into the culture. I think we're gonna have a good conversation the culture Shouts out to the boys over at Kaboom Rex. Look we're talking about mining. So if you have been thinking about getting yourself some a6 go to over to Kaboom rax.com get yourself in touch with my boy Alex over there. He will probably convince you not to buy a6. But if you do want to go to Kaboom rax buy a6 there sell your a6 to them and they are also have a hosting program that they have just released a couple of months ago. So fully endorse the boys over at Kaboom Rex. I think they are one of the best in the business. So let's get into the news because I'm super excited for this conversation with Daniel or rather culture.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from I Will Seek the Salvation of the Unconverted
"Good morning. I counted a privilege to be here today in front of you and pray this would be an encouragement and very practical for us all. If you wanna turn, open in your Bibles to Ephesians 6, familiar passage, Ephesians 6. For most of us, our greatest focus in all the world is ourselves. If we're honest, particularly in the Western world, we spend most of our time and most of our money on earth striving to be healthy and wealthy and increasing our collection of things that help us to become more comfortable here on earth. Our sin nature drives us not to serve others but to serve ourselves first. If I was to ask you this, what does your calendar show and what does your bank statement show is most important to you? God has put us on this earth for a specific purpose. It's to live for Him and to point others to Him. As Pastor Nate said, we're gonna be preaching through our church covenant if you've got one of these. We're on number four and five here. We encourage you to grab one off the table if you get a chance even after the service. Our covenant sets before us the biblical commitments I will bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord such as may be under my care and I will seek the salvation of the unconverted. God wants us to bring up our children in the gospel and also share the gospel with the lost. So in Ephesians six where you are, starting in verse one, familiar passage. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. So we'll continue with the same template that Pastor Nate's been using. First, we wanna make sure that we realize that our church covenant, and if you're not familiar with this is, this is a covenant that members of Omaha Baptist covenant together to uphold as long as you're a member here but it's not just a man -made document that we picked out of the sky. We wanna show that it's biblical and it's root. So the biblical commitment that God wants to keep the gospel first at your home. In the passage here in Ephesians six, we see that raising children is broken down to a couple categories, discipline and instruction. If I was to ask you which one of you desires to be disciplined, who here has ever said, yay, I get to be disciplined today? I'm going to assume no one. My younger brother was the only one who was never disciplined in our home. Because he's sinless is what he would say, that's not the case. The desire not to be disciplined is nothing new though. We see this all the way back to the garden. It's rooted in our very sin nature. If this wasn't the case when Adam and Eve fell in sin and Adam was confronted, he wouldn't have immediately turned to blame his wife Eve and he certainly wouldn't have deflected to blame God for making Eve. So knowing that discipline is not generally enjoyable and it's not something we desire to have, is it negative and should be avoided at all costs? In Hebrews, in Hebrews 12, verse 11, we read a verse that would clear that up for us. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. So we see the negative. But, as we continue, but later it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So what does proper discipline yield? It yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. Take notice as well the link between discipline and training. Right living is something that's trained into a person through the process of discipline. It's not something that they just organically have when they come into this world. They have quite the opposite. So here we can see how by continually pointing our children to Christ, and when we bring them under the authority of God's word, we're training them in a life through the lens of the gospel. If you look at Ephesians 6 again, we see that it addresses both parties at the home, both the children and the parents. For the sake of time, we won't tackle the children's side of things, but it does start with children. And children, I would just say this, that by honoring your parents, whether you see them as honor worthy or not, you are honoring the Lord who put them in that position of authority. Though it speaks to both children and parents, fathers specifically are pointed out in verse four. It says, fathers do not provoke your children to anger. Fathers are held responsible for leading the charge in the home, just as Adam was specifically addressed in Genesis 3. Though Eve was the first one to sin, God said, Adam, where are you? Fathers are called to discipline their children, but not in a way that causes anger and resentment. The purpose of discipline, and when God disciplines us, it needs to be restorative in nature and never done in anger. It's been said, and this stuck with me when I heard this, I thought, is this not true? It's been said that in a home, if you have all rules with no relationship, you end up with rebellion. But if you have a home that has all relationship with no rules, you end up creating resentment. A father's discipline needs to be carried out in the context of a loving relationship where you have a relationship, but also the clear expectation of what God's word calls us to do. If you find yourself disciplining your child as a hypocrite, doing something that, asking them to do something that you wouldn't do or not modeling it before them, you will provoke your children to anger. But it's not just discipline, and there's also, it speaks to us in Ephesians about the instruction also in home, so gospel instruction we wanna bring in home. I realize that many of you here don't have children, or maybe your children are now out of the home. It's important to think of this call in our covenant not limited only to the child -parent relationship. The exhortation is much broader than that. I think the word it uses here is such may be under my care. It could refer to our relationship for Christ with virtually any relationship that we have. Other people looking to us, whether to raise them physically or even in the spiritual sense. If you wanna turn with me to 2 Timothy 1 .5, I think we see a really interesting illustration of this, how it's played out in scripture. So 2 Timothy 1 .5, this is Paul speaking to Timothy, I'm reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I'm sure dwells in you as well. Timothy's father's not even in the picture, we're not sure, we're not told why, we don't know what happened to him, but his mother, pardon me, his grandmother, Lois, stepped into the gap and is played a part in Timothy being brought up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. The apostle Paul also played a huge part in training Timothy without a father in the picture. Both the books, 1 and 2 Timothy, are letters from Paul to this young pastor, training him in the way he should go, just as a parent would train a child. Paul shows his heart towards Timothy by referring to him as his true child in the faith. So whether you've got biological children or not, we're all called to provide gospel instruction to those that may be under our care. There is, however, special onus on parents bringing the gospel into their own home. You'll notice when we read Ephesians 6 that it's not, it's parent -child language used, it's not Sunday school teacher child used, or pastor child, or government child. It's parent -child. God's design is for a father and a mother to raise their own children and pointing them to the Lord as their primary responsibility, not a responsibility they pass off to somebody else. So if I was to ask these questions, are you modeling the gospel at home before your children? Actions speak louder than words. If I was to ask your children what they see in your home, what would they tell me? Do your children know the gospel? Ask them to explain the gospel to you and then check. Is it on point or is there things they're confused about? This is a great question to expose whether we understand what that gospel actually is. It's quite possible that you can be here thinking you know it and don't, or believing some kind of version of a false gospel. That's skewed. When somebody's sinned against in the home, does the gospel that saved you shape how you respond to that? Do our kids, when they sin against each other, does the gospel speak into that relationship? Does it speak into how we correct that behavior? Does the gospel come up regularly in your conversation at home? If the gospel is the lens that we wanna give our children to see the world, then it should be commonplace in our conversations. Let's meditate on those questions as we move on. God doesn't just want us to keep the gospel first at home. He wants us to keep the gospel first in all of our relationships. You can flip over to Matthew 28, very familiar passage, the Great Commission, Matthew 28, verse 16 is where we'll start. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when he saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. So here God clearly calls us to go make disciples. If you're a follower of Christ here today, I'm assuming that you agree that making disciples is a clear teaching of scripture and you agree that we should be doing it. The million dollar question is, are we doing it? We'll get to some of the reasons why we don't do it and the reasons that threaten us in a minute, but let's look at first what a disciple is. The Greek term for disciple in the New Testament is mathiteus, I'm no Greek scholar, but we're going with that, which basically means student or learner, but a disciple is also a follower, someone who adheres completely to the teaching of another, making them his rule of life and conduct. So if you're a disciple of Christ or if you're to make disciples of Christ, a Christ follower is someone who adheres completely to the teachings of Christ, making Christ his rule of life and conduct. So how do we make disciples? Well, in verse 19, we read that we're commanded to go. We're not told that potential disciples will come and find us and seek us out. No, the disciples were charged with the command to go. Don't just sit around and wait for this to happen. And if you're familiar with the start of the church in the book of Acts, this wasn't something that they were super keen on doing until they were more or less forced to do that through persecution. I was thinking of an illustration of this, and I was meeting with a young man once who was of the age that he'd finished school and was in the workforce now, and he explained to me that he was desiring to find a godly woman, which was a noble desire, so I said, well, how's that going? And it wasn't going well, so I said, well, what are you doing to make this happen? Nothing, just crickets. So I said, well, you realize the chances of a godly woman coming to your house, breaking in, coming into the basement, interrupting your video games, tapping you on the shoulder and introducing yourself, it's not real high. So maybe it would be smart if you went, go, and did something, took some initiative to find a godly woman, and it's the same with evangelism. There is times where the Lord and his providence will literally draw people in our lap, but generally speaking, it has to be something that we're willing to do, to go, a desire that's gotta come from within. Second, we don't need to go, we need to make sure that we're pointing people to Christ and not to ourselves. It seems obvious that this is the case, but it's something that we often miss the mark on. We might feel the pressure of closing the deal, so to speak, as if you're a salesman on a sales call and you gotta close the deal and make that sale. But if we're to make disciples of Christ, we just need to show them Christ. So how do we do that? If you wanna turn, Romans 10, we'll be going through this a little bit here, 10, 17, where's where we'll start, and then we'll step back a bit. Romans 10, 17 says, so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So if somebody's to come to saving faith, they need to first hear the word. Not my words, not the words of Greg and whatever clever thing I can say, but God's word. So that's 10, 17, but if we were to back up a few verses, let's look at the context of what Paul's saying here. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, you notice the Great Commission language here, that going to all nations, both Jew and Greek, everybody. There's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How will they call on him and who they have not believed, and how are they to believe in him and who they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So we need to point them to the only thing that can pierce their heart, the heart of any sinner, it's God's word, and the only thing that pierces that is the sword of the spirit, and this verse has already come up in previous messages, but Hebrews 4 .12, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any tumbled sword, piercing through the division of soul and spirit and joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Give the people the word of God and let God's word do the work. But God doesn't just say, go make disciples, he says to teach the disciples. So if the Lord in his mercy does open the eyes of somebody that we're evangelizing, even if that's our own children or somebody outside of the home, in so many ways the work is just getting started. This idea of teaching is an ongoing interaction, right? In verse 20 it reads, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. This is only possible through ongoing fellowship, doing life together. Remember I said, if it's not like the salesman who's closing the deal and then onto the next deal, if that's not what it is, think of it more like a journeyman -apprenticeship relationship, a relationship where you're bringing somebody along, somebody new in the faith, to come and do life together. You're modeling before them what it is to live for Christ and the way that they should go. If you're doing this properly, you should be able to do as Paul did, or that's what Paul was doing with Timothy, and should be able to say, be imitators of me as I imitate Christ. So it's a biblical commitment, but if we move on, it's also a very threatened commitment. So we see this commitment threatened in our own home as far as raising our children in the Lord. We can all be very guilty of just assuming that our children will just organically come to Christ sort of by living with us, maybe coming to church, maybe you generally just hang around most of the time with Christian people, and you might figure that that's good enough. If you want to turn with me to the Old Testament, passage you're probably less familiar with, judges, judges two, we'll see a sobering account here of why this isn't the case. So the Jewish people have, God's people have just come into the land, and the land that he miraculously gave them, the promised land, and a generation, the first generation is coming to an end. We pick up in verse seven. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had sent all the great work the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at age 110. Now if we jump down to verse 10, we read these sobering words. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. So we see in one generation, the people of God, God's chosen people, went from following the Lord, and seeing him work in unbelievably miraculous ways, and bringing them into the promised land, to not even knowing the Lord, or even recognizing the work that he had done. I know when I read that, I was thinking, how is that even possible? There's probably lots of reasons why this is possible, and this speaks to our own home. There's probably lots of reasons why our kids can be in the same place that God's people were there. Let's just look at a couple of them. First off, I thought, in my own life, what are the things, it's just, first thing I thought of, it's just easier not to. Parenting is hard work. Life is busy, and parenting is hard. Being intentional in your parenting, and takes discipline of yourself. None of us like to discipline ourselves. It's sometimes easier to discipline somebody else. If you're like me, and you've worked all day, and you come home, the last thing you probably feel like doing is having intentional gospel conversations with your wife and kids. That's probably at war with your own sloth. It's just easier maybe to turn your brain off, and turn the TV on. I think we can feel like, maybe like the Israelites did when they got into the land finally, that the worst is behind us. God's been good, let's get comfortable, and mail it in. But when we do that, we fail to notice that if we're not intentionally teaching our kids, don't be deceived, somebody else is. Somebody else is gonna fill that gap. Joshua obviously felt, that generation obviously assumed that their children would just learn through osmosis, being around them, that they would learn what it was to follow God. And they did learn through osmosis, the scripture tells us that, but they didn't learn from mom and dad, they learned from the pagans around them. They learned to worship Baal instead of the living God. I think another threat we have to this, and again I'm speaking to myself in this, is we're just too distracted. We live in a world that's never had more distractions. This smartphone alone has the ability to take our complete attention at any time. Funny cat videos, need I say anymore? My wife and I often talk about just how different it is as we're looking to raise kids now when we grew up. And I know there's people here with grayer hair than me. But we had no TV or TV with three channels that were all fuzzy. No stores were open on Sunday. The stores that were open closed at five o 'clock. And I could go on and now my smartphone alone allows me to watch more videos than I could watch in an entire lifetime even if I wanted to. I can buy whatever I want from all over the globe and have it delivered to my door in a day or less. The battle for our focus on being intentional in anything in the Lord, especially parenting, is real and it's not going away. And the next generation is gonna face it in a way even more difficult than ours. So I think it's also important though too that some of the distractions that we have as far as being intentional in parenting, and keep in mind when I'm talking parenting, again, this could be discipling somebody that's not your own child. That some of the stuff that's at war with us can be good things. We can be distracted doing all kinds of good things for or people even pouring into other people at the very neglect of our own children and our wives. I think the log spec principle in Matthew 7 where we're to make sure to get the giant two by four out of our eyes before we remove the speck out of our brother's eyes to make sure that we're pouring into our family at home. If you're a father in particular, that's your primary goal to be pouring in at home and not busy fixing everybody else's problem and neglecting your own children. I think you see this, unfortunately, in a lot of pastors' kids who resent the church, I think because dad was never around, busy helping everybody. So it's something that's real, not just for pastors. Another thing that causes real war in this area is parents not being on the same page. And this is a particularly hard one and I'm gonna be sensitive here because I know there's lots of people here that have unsafe spouses. But you can have, we can even be both safe parents at home and we can be just biblically unaware or maybe unconvinced that the scripture has much direction in this area. If this is you and you're not certain what the scripture says about parenting, there's more than just Ephesians that are brought up here. We're actually currently in table time, so after the service, we're doing a parenting class and this is our third time through it. It's not our own class that I dreamt up, don't worry. It's a paltra parenting class, but it's speaking specifically about the heart of the situation. So the heart of the child, which is desperately lost, can only be saved through the gospel. And it's a 10 -week video series and it's been fantastic in growing my own understanding of what it is to be a parent. And my wife and I talk about how it would have been great to have watched this 17 years ago. But I would encourage you to do that. If you're a saved couple here, put the time in and grow in your understanding of this. The Bible's not silent in the errand of parenting, so treat it as such and pour some time into it. But it's possible too that there's friction at home because your spouse isn't a believer and I know that's a lot of people here. And maybe you deeply wanna raise your kids in the gospel, but your spouse is pushing against that. And there's obviously no quick fix, easy answer here. Your first priority is to pray for the salvation of your lost spouse. That's the heart of the issue right there now. And I know there's many of you that have been doing that for years. So continue to do that, but I think what can be more difficult even than praying for a lost person for years is particularly in a home is living in a way that points them to Christ on a daily basis. So to model that devotion to Christ in a kind way before them, 1 Peter 3, this is speaking of wives, but 1 Peter 3, 1, calls on believing wives to live in a godly fashion so that their lost husbands might be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.
The Bitcoin Podcast
Fresh update on "roman" discussed on The Bitcoin Podcast
"So, you know, I'm happy to figure out how much it is. I have one question from some of the people I work with. What are your thoughts regarding open source developers working in the space and OFAC like with regards to potential risks? You mentioned kind of fixing mistakes. Do you believe tornado cache was a mistake? I think that I don't think tornado cache was a mistake. I think it was an important, you know, stepping stone to get here, but the mistakes were like, I don't know, not building your advertising compliance tool fast enough and, you know, working with the regulators to determine, you know, how they would want it to use. Like, the outcome is a mistake, right? Where tornado gets sanctioned and Alexi and Roman Storm are both facing prison and Roman Semenov is on the sections list themselves. So I'll do a quick recap on that. It was like last year when a tornado got sanctioned. Alexi Pertsev was thrown in a Netherlands gym. He was held without bail for nine months and he was only released three months ago. And he's awaiting trial, which is in March, so six months-ish. And he's been charged with money laundering and stuff like that. About three weeks ago, Roman Storm got arrested in the United States. And he was also charged with money laundering and such. And, you know, that was a pretty big shock to us. His lawyer said that he's been complying with the investigation for some time. And so it's pretty awful for him to get arrested. He was released on bail pretty quickly, but still not great. And in the case of Semenov, right, he's sanctioned by the US government. It's kind of preposterous, to be completely honest, because this is an open source developer and the other people on the sanctions list are like Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who funds all of the terrorism in the Middle East. Right? Not the same. They're not the same thing, exactly. So they froze like $150,000 of Roman Semenov's USDC, which sucks. And now we're actually trying to help fundraise for them. There's a website right now called debate.peppersack.com. Can you link it? Yeah, we'll throw out the description. Yeah, that's the right link. This is the link right now. So I put it in the chat. I think it's important to try and help that whole team because the charges against them are also kind of heinous. I'm not a lawyer, I can't comment exactly, but one of the things that they were accused of was continuing to operate the thing and let bad guys in, even after they knew that maybe some bad guys were in. Actually, the smart contracts were immutable. Even if they shut everything down, even the website was hosted on IPFS. And you could use command line tools to interface with the stuff. You could use Etherscan. I mean, you could generate the proofs on your own machine, just running the command line tools. So there's actually not anything that I know of that they could have done that would have prevented alleged terrorist activity or illicit activity through the system. And so I think that's an important thing to try to clarify and win in court. And so we're going to try to support them to mitigate as much of the charges as possible and see if they can, I mean, ideally win, but yeah. So I think if you're an open source developer today, you would simply do well to learn from the examples that we're trying to work on right now.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Paul's Testimony of Jesus
"Acts chapter 21, beginning at verse 37. As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, may I say something to you? And he said, do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4 ,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness? Paul replied, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people. And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying, brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of your fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison, both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them, I received letters to the brothers and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. As I was on my way and drew near Damascus, about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well -spoken of by all the Jews who lived there came to me and standing by me, said to me, brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour, I received my sight and saw him. And he said, the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from his mouth, for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. When I had returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the temple and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another, I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed on my, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, go for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. We can all recognize, I think, the weighty significance of the fruitful labors of those high profile missionaries who were and still are used so mightily of God in the hardest of places in the advance of the gospel, while at the same time, perhaps failing to appreciate the same weight and significance of the witness borne by those persecuted and imprisoned saints who are no less used of God to testify of the reality of the gospel through their patient endurance of suffering in chains for Christ's sake. Well, it is the case actually that in the life and ministry of the apostle Paul, we find both of these dynamics as the remainder of Luke's account is now given over to Paul's time in chains. And in light of that, it is good to recognize the amount of space that the inspired writer gives to Paul's years in the custody of the Roman authorities and to the several defenses that Paul makes as he is dragged from one jurisdiction to another. In doing so, Luke is in no way detracting from the importance and significance of Paul's three missionary journeys that came before. However, at the same time, Luke is highlighting for us, I think, the importance and the power of faithful gospel witness in the midst of patient endurance of suffering for Christ's sake. And oh, what an example we have in the apostle Paul, in the imprisoned Paul, in the way that he has peacefully placed himself under the mighty sovereign hand of his God and consciously is constrained by the love of Christ for him. In order to fulfill this call that is now upon the apostle Paul to suffer in chains and to preach Christ, to bear witness to Jesus, no matter the cost to himself. And before us this morning then is the apostles very first defense, a defense I would submit to you that is not a defense of himself in the end, but rather a defense of the Christian faith, a defense of the way. For reasons that if Paul's chief concern here was simply to make a defense of himself to the Roman Tribune that now held him captive, surely he would not have addressed the crowd here in Aramaic but rather would have continued in Greek that his Roman captor might actually appreciate his defense, understanding what he was saying. However, Paul's chief concern here, even while in chains and even after almost being killed by the very Jews before which he is now speaking, Paul's main concern here is not his freedom but rather the salvation of his kinsmen in the flesh. And so Paul speaks directly to the crowd here, directly to the Jews and in that Paul labors to offer no unnecessary offense to them, addressing them as brothers and fathers, chapter 22 verse one and addressing them as well in their native tongue, not the speech of the Gentile nations. And I would have us analyze Paul's defense of the way under four headings this morning. Number one, Christianity is no direct threat to Rome. Christianity is no direct threat to the state. Number two, Christianity as a direct threat, however, to all other religions. And number three, Christianity as a religion of conversion. And lastly, Christianity as a religion of hope for any. Christianity as no direct threat to the state, Christianity as a direct threat to all other religions, Christianity as a religion of conversion and Christianity as a religion of hope for any. First, Christianity is no direct threat to the state or in the words of our Lord Jesus to Pilate from John 18, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from this world. While it might not have been initially on Paul's front burner at this point to make a defense of the Christian movement as not a direct threat to Rome, it is fair to assume, I think, that it is in the scope of Luke's apologetic in writing this account. For it is actually the Roman Tribune that forces the issue here and Luke is careful to record the details. Verse 37, as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the Tribune, may I say something to you? And he said, do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4 ,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness? The Jewish historian Josephus tells of this Egyptian Jewish rebel that the Tribune is referencing here. This man was basically a false Messiah who only a few years before this had gathered quite a following to himself. And he did so with his claim that he would stand upon the Mount of Olives and bring down the walls of Jerusalem in Jericho fashion and then march on the city and overtake the Roman guard within the city. And he indeed gathered thousands to himself and gathered them to the Mount of Olives but was quickly overrun by the Romans. Hundreds of his followers killed, many imprisoned, he himself fleeing and escaping. Now, Greek was widely spoken in Egypt and so as Paul addresses the Tribune in Greek, the Tribune concludes that Paul must be this same Egyptian rebel. Return now to Jerusalem and the Jews having found him out are for good reason enraged by his returning to them. And so in response, Paul will make it clear to the Tribune that he is no threat to Rome. And the point here is that Christianity as a religious movement is not like those many political religious movements of the day. Christianity is different. As the leader of the way, Jesus Christ is not like those many false messiahs. Rather in Jesus Christ is the true Messiah come to deliver his people from their own sins. Christianity is in no way a threat to Rome, not a direct threat, not then in Paul's day nor should it be in our day. The church is not called up to take arms as the sword belongs not to the church but to the state and does so according to the will of God, the sovereign decree of our God. Our God in whose sovereignty we Christians patiently endure whatever suffering he would ordain. The same Jesus who on his way to the cross stated, if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting but my kingdom is not from this world is the same Jesus whom we now follow after. Brethren, to our cross, the followers of Jesus do not kill. Rather we are killed. All the day long we are killed. All the day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
Stephanie Miller
Fresh "Roman" from Stephanie Miller
"More maybe dot let's dance let's dance let's good morning sailor, how are you? good morning, i'm dancing this morning cause there's twenty eight out here twenty degrees oh my god upstate new and it was twenty three this morning when i got yikes i yikes uh... so malcolm i was saying i just remember a simpler time we we just automatically stood with our friends we knew who our friends were around the world and also i hate to say it like this but how has it been lost that this is in america's best self -interest as well to help our allies around the world whether it's ukraine or uh... israel and i'm blue in the face saying it ukraine is not a war it's a terrorist attack on on on you you know sovereign nation of ukraine since when is this a dispute in congress likes going on well this dispute started when donald trump tried to extort president salinsky a few years ago and that got him impeached if you recall all of when missiles right thousands of bad javelin missiles uh... almost half a billion dollars in aid that for uh... that the defense department even under barack obama had authorized all all of that was held hostage when donald trump couldn't get salinsky form a fake investigation so that he could go after joe biden and hunter biden from that very moment that was it fights on you know vladimir putin's baby big fat orange baby decided that salinsky is an enemy you know trump land not the united states i mean it took up since world war two we have always defended and protected our allies and back to your analogy about ukraine being a terrorist attack yeah you know let me give you an analogy to hamas to israel and hamas the russians are hamas in this circumstance right they they ukraine invaded out of nowhere and started killing thousands and thousands of civilians so uh... you know ukraine definitely has the right to defend themselves but donald trump says no because his uh... moscow daddy says no yeah you know and we've been obviously this has gotten so emotional i know you've been in a million twitter fights for the whole at least situation but you know i i just started the show with this uh... you you've retweeted uh... palestinian pro protesters demonstrate outside the memorial service performer first lady rosalynn carter in atlanta and you uh... louis morano who said damn what other ignorant ignorance the last time i saw president carter was when i took him to the arrest crossing thing where he went into gaza to plant a uh... for tree from lebanon to symbolize peace as a u s official i couldn't him go with no one spoke up for the palestinian people as carter did and you know as i said it whatever whatever your ideology or your side of any issue the funerals should be off off limits right uh... oh yeah well you know carter carter got the nobel prize for p or got uh... manakan bacon and yet uh... and uh... uh... and worsted dot as for peace he literally stopped all major wars between arab states in israel and he knew that he knew the issue very intimately but here's another thing about are pro palestinian uh... activist brothers and out of hand where they think it's appropriate laying down in front of you grimace at the thanksgiving day parade in new york city that did not help them it makes people hate them going to jimmy carter instead of you know them giving a moment of silence and saying thank you for you know everything you've done at camp david uh... protesting israel all of the president's that helped the arab well in israel no it's come to reconciliation it was jimmy carter speaking out of hand i mean it's on all the sides of the support you know palestinian students that were shot in vermont i don't know if you saw this the vermont shooting suspect appears to have a you tube account with videos that include expose fauci you know it's like talking about all the politics being scrambled this islamophobic anti -vaxxer you idiot know or as i've said on the other side how do you think attacking jews are jewish businesses in america is going to free stine i mean people have just lost their minds around this whole thing well it's it's rising it's become very polarizing and i don't get in twitter fights because i like twitter fights yeah but i certainly like to end them when they're at thrown me uh... because i spent my whole career in the muslim world helping muslim states believe my me presence has stopped more stupidity by u .s. commanders with bombs you could ever imagine to where i'm the guy who goes hey listen i've been there this is my you know i understand these people they go oh i didn't know that well we won't bomb those guys you know in their mosques can i say just you're not only a patriot you're a terrorism expert so you know when you say this is a terrorist attack on civilians in ukraine this is a terrorist attack by a terrorist named bladimir putin when you say hamas are terrorists and this is a terrorist attack on you know israeli civilians again you've criticized the israeli side many times you know i just had thrown this morning just you know oh you're supporting israel's terror some of you may not what like i'm going to say but i watched oh i can tell you that's true public career starting with the waterboarding debate was my support of efforts in military conflict yeah all right if i see something wrong i'll call it out in a heartbeat i'll grab all these other things the u .s does stupid things too but hamas launched this war and israel invaded on october seventh and my problem is all the people who refused to believe there ever was an october seventh and you know every time i mention it they go back to 1947 and 1948 i go you know you're doing occupation get a dictionary you want occupation go back to the roman occupation of judia in 6 bc that was an occupation that lasted for centuries brought about the first judaean war these people have all been there for centuries themselves years but there is a history but this one started with the massacre breaking of a of a of a uh ceasefire and massacring 1200 civilians you cannot let that go now does that you know people say oh but you you you don't care arabs about and palestinian children i love those children i do care about them i've been to weddings and shot the and gun and had kids crawling all over me but war is horrible and hamas bought that that war to its people deliberately they wanted israel to attack they have actually said it in their videos that they need the blood of palestinian women and children to mobilize their fighters so you know if you've just gotten into this thing if you're just you know trying to be an ally to the pro -palestinian side you can be an ally to the people who are pro -palestinian people but if i hear you say like those idiots up in berkeley who came up and said uh armed is resistance legitimate isis that's like saying al -qaeda smashing those airplanes on 9 11 is legitimate isis beheading everybody was legitimate don't go there all right what you're doing is you are doing open support of a terrorist group and should that change into any other things like you becoming a real activist that could become a real support for a terrorist group right and that's what the fbi sits around looking for yeah you those three men was also a terrorist yes islamophobia was off and the charts now for yeah decades i got both sides going at each other yep you wrote a piece hostage warfare did hamas's strategy work uh... you know again this was their strategy so talk to us mean about i i've said on this show i don't know your take but i think if trump were in office gaza would be a parking lot and every every house would be dead self talk to us a question yeah go ahead no question trump would have told netanyahu do whatever you want the united states will support you and we provide may airstrikes and ammunition to do it and netanyahu who has to go he's possible for everything that happened to his own people he didn't protect the people of israel here whose soldiers away so that he could sees land in the west bank thank you for soldiers off the order that guy's done right yeah but for everyone else who is who is okay you have to understand joe biden got this war to stop i've or seen never a war come crashing to a halt they haven't wiped out everybody up in northern gaza they will this war will restart but you know what getting the women and children out way of the allowing the palestinians to move south all right and let hamas get what hamas perps which is the isis treatment elimination you want to fight this game you want to do terrorism a resolution to that too yeah i mean i i'm reading a tweet in front of me new reporting shows without his leadership it would have been increasingly uh likely that no hostages would
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Evangelism Is Necessary for the Salvation of Sinners
"One more sermon in Romans 11 for next week and then I will have a week off going on vacation so we'll have a guest preacher that Sunday and when I get back you guessed it Advent will be here. The Christmas season is here. May seem a little early but not nearly as early as everybody in our culture pushing it at least on our church calendar you know I'm trying to be legit you know it really is Advent in a couple of weeks so hope you're looking forward to that. I look forward to that every year as we study the greatest coming of a savior in all of the world Jesus Christ. Romans 10 11 through 21 the title of the message is evangelism is necessary for the salvation of sinners. It's important you'll see why in a moment why we're emphasizing this because Paul does in fact. I want to start with asking you a question have you ever had the experience the challenge of starting a new job but not receiving adequate training in order to fulfill the tasks that were expected of you. That's a hard spot to be in isn't it it's like okay yeah we want you in this job and you think you're going to get some great training and you end up not getting so much. During my seminary days I took a job started off as a summer job ended up I worked there about a year cleaning swimming pools for a very small business. The first week that I worked for this pool business actually a decent sized pool business though it was small I got paid to sit at my boss's kitchen table for the first week to look at to examine and take apart a pool pump and look through an owner's manual while he was I don't know what he was doing to be honest. That's great in theory except that's not very helpful for someone who doesn't know anything about them. The second and the third weeks the owners obsessive compulsive and likely schizophrenic about 20 pools customers homes 20 pools to show me how to maintain them clean them etcetera use the word show loosely right. Now you would think that my training on those pools would start with a fairly easy pool you know maybe a simpler one to start off with but that wasn't the case. My first encounter was at the Memphis Hunt and Polo Club which is a pool that is far from simple it's a massive pool it's big it's complicated system it had two pumps two filters and a whole I mean you need a diagram to understand the PVC valve system on this thing that's my first pool. I'm going what if you turn the wrong valve at the wrong time and forget to turn this valve back off or on or what have you can burn out a pump you could burn out a system burst pipes very easily it's accurate to say after two weeks of supposed training I wasn't ready in God's grace I did not blow anything up in my time there but I did not receive adequate training where did the owner and his son go wrong.
Mark Levin
Fresh update on "roman" discussed on Mark Levin
"The puzzle how do you protect the country from criminals from terrorists from illegal aliens and all the rest of it but at the same time control these institutions so they don't turn their guns speaking on the rest of us and the answer is we haven't figured that out yet have we well I think we could certainly use the FBI and and homeland and that's how we can we can hold people accountable that are maybe coordinating with Hamas like these ceasefire now groups they are pro -hamas funded they they have tight links with Gaza and Hamas I mean I think we can use agencies that we already have in place without having a secret court like FISA that can be used against Americans I think we just need to have better use of our resources that we already fund but we need to save the American taxpayer taxpayers some money but also protect their privacy and their rights as well you're gonna love this book America I'm telling you now it's perfect book for Hanukkah and Christmas MTG it's that simple it's got beautiful a cover very jealous of it Marjorie Teller Greene she writes about her life but even more than that what she has found in Washington what she's dealing in Washington she takes you behind the scenes like no other book I've ever read you really want to check it out MTG book .com or amazon .com any final words Marjorie Teller Greene I thank just want you to Mark America loves you and you do a great service for all of us so keep fighting for us and I appreciate coming on your show tonight well God bless you and I really want to thank you for writing this book and all the time it takes to to write it to edit it to promote it it's just a lot of work and I do know that it'll be very worthwhile for people to grab this book as I say amazon .com has it it's simple to remember or you can go to mtgbook .com and we hope to have you back God bless you my friend thank you have a wonderful night you too be well look how they turn a woman like that into something she's not she's actually a very nice lady a very hard -working lady she doesn't have doesn't talk washington speak like most of she us don't comes to a situation like a small businesswoman she looks at this and says we can't keep spending keep like this look at the interest like this and she's the enemy because the democrat party and the media are one in the same and the bureaucracy the democrat party in the media are one in the same they try to destroy her now they do this with every single conservative but if you're a woman you're an ethnic minority or if you're a skin color minority or however you want to put it the hate on is even more it's worse you want to check out her book it's really a fine book mtg book mtgbook .com or amazon where you can find it have you seen the headlines lately folks the debt is the biggest in american history the debt to economic activity that ratio is the worst in american history worse than world war ii and so happening is washington dcs destroying our economy and when you destroy our economy you destroy our boundaries you destroy our military you destroy our ability to be a civil society a law and order society and that's the goal but you need to protect yourself gold has weathered many storms gold has outlived athens the roman empire and day one it'll probably outlive the united states of america god frightening to think about it but you need to protect yourselves and it's just worth looking into diversification particularly with your pensions that that is if you have an IRA or 401k you might want to learn about diversifying your investment IRA a gold IRA with actual physical gold not certificates at least look into it I encourage you to do that because this can keep up forever I really don't believe it can and I've taken steps probably not enough but I'm taking more to try and protect what we can in our family and you need to do the same because when all hell does break loose one day there's nobody to call you can have to look inward get a free guide to gold IRAs from Augusta precious metals today a free gold IRA guide that you can look at very transparent from Augusta precious metals today here's how get you it text lavinda 68592 that's l -e -v -i -n to 68592 again l -e -v -i -n to 68592 or visit preciousmetals .com text data and message rates may apply performance varies consult your financial professionals before making investment decisions get risk disclosures at preciousmetals .com but check it out i'll be right back on you 77WABC live or work in Connecticut you you get sinus infections have congestion or sinus headaches even sinus pressure and pain you've already gone to your doctor and visited urgent care over and over again and it's always the same thing oh I know let's try antibiotics and some nasal sprays but they keep on just coming back you may suffer with chronic sinus infections but the good news is relief is possible how you ask a minimally invasive procedure done in the Greenwich office of called 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Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Introduction to Philippians
"Brothers and sisters, I would encourage you to open up your Bibles this evening to Philippians. We're going to be taking a look at Philippians chapter 1 and verses 1 and 2. We are beginning the book of Philippians. Today will be more of an introduction to that particular book than anything else. I will attempt to talk about the author, the themes, the aim of the epistle, the things that we can learn from it without spoiling too much of the content so that later on as we preach on individual portions, it becomes anticlimax after anticlimax. I don't want to give away the entire book, but I do want you to have an idea of where it came from, why it is so very important to us today, what we can learn from it, and to see the similarities that exist between this book and indeed our own time. As I'll be discussing in the sermon, Philippi was actually a military colony, and you may have noticed we live in a military colony for the most part. So the resemblances between us and the Philippians, apart from the fact that we have microwaves and cell phones and things like that, and they did not, are very strong. They are still the same kind of people who deal with the same kind of difficulties. They too had a state which was sometimes nice to them and sometimes which oppressed them very badly. They also dealt with the problems of relationships and all of the things that the fall has brought in. So as we look at Philippians and we hear Paul writing to this beloved congregation of his, let us seek to apply it to our own time, but before we come to the word of God, let go us to the God who has given us this word and let's ask him to bless it. Please join me. Oh sovereign Lord, we do pray now that you would be the illuminator of our minds, that you would help us to understand your word. I pray that you would help me to divide it to write, that you would give me liberty and power and unction as I do so, that oh Lord, I would not say anything that goes against your word. I know I am a man with feet of clay. I am capable of interpreting the word or wrong, but I pray Lord that you would prevent me from doing so. I do pray also Lord that you would give me the sustaining power to go through this book, a right, and to apply it to your people. May you give us ears to hear and hearts to receive all that you have to tell us. We pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen and amen. Philippians chapter one and I'll be reading verses one and two. It says the word of the Lord. Paul and Timothy bond servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. I wonder if say 10 or 11 years from now, if I was in jail in Washington for my preaching of the gospel and possibly facing the federal death penalty and this congregation had sent me a gift in jail to help me along and I was writing a letter in reply to your generous gift. What would that letter sound like? What would I say? How would I come across in writing to you? Would it be complaining about the government and my situation? Would I be going on and on about the unfairness of it all? And speaking about how my liberties had been infringed or would I be writing to you to know a little about how I was doing and then spend the vast majority, not talking about myself and my own situation as dire as it was, but to spend the vast majority of my letter attempting to stir you up to joy and in the Lord to encourage you to be full of peace and grace and joy even in the midst of adversity. Would I think so little of myself that my letter would seek to lovingly correct problems of disunity that I knew about in the congregation? Would I push back against those who perhaps were on the fringes or in the congregation itself who were teaching bad doctrine in the community? And above all, would I urge you to keep the person and power of the Lord Jesus Christ at the center of everything you did? I hope that I would. I hope I would not send you a letter merely of whining or a simple thank you note that said very little. In my case, though, we're going to have to find out. But in the case of Paul and the Philippian Christians, we already know how he spoke in the midst of those circumstances because that is the letter that we have in front of us. Paul is in the midst of serious adversity, serious difficulty. He is struggling, we know, with loneliness, with persecution, and he writes a letter to his much beloved Philippines that is full of joy and encouragement in spite of all of those difficulties that stood against him in the world. So much so this letter is so full of joy that it has been often called the epistle of joy. Paul writing from jail, remember, and a Roman jail was not like the jails today. We speak today of jails as being three hots and a cot. You have TV, recreation yards, things like that. In Paul's day, that was not the case. You either had to pay for a place to stay if the charges weren't that serious yourself or if you were thrown into a Roman dungeon, you could often die of exposure. You went in with the clothes on your back, and if your friends and your family did not provide you with the things that you needed, including food in jail, you could die very, very easily while awaiting your trial. But Paul, writing from that kind of jail, he uses the Greek words for joy and rejoice, imploring the Philippian saints to rejoice. He uses those words kara and kairo more than a dozen times, and this is just a four -chapter letter, remember. So joy is one of the most prominent themes in what he is writing. He is, as I said, in a Roman jail. This is possibly the second time. I think it's probably the first time that he was there. He is waiting a trial on a capital charge of treason, and the people who will judge him are members of Emperor Nero's brutal and corrupt administration. And as we know, Paul was not somebody who was going to give them a bribe, so there's no way out of his imprisonment that way. And yet, as we shall see, Paul is able to look well beyond the circumstances that surround him, and he's able to actually see Christ in heaven and the work that Christ is doing in the world and indeed in Philippi and throughout the church and to know that God throughout is in control and that all of God's promises are coming to pass. Let me just stop and ask that question right now of you. Do you know those things as well? Do you have that solid trust no matter what your circumstances are in the Lord Jesus Christ, that no matter what afflictions, adversities, difficulties, diseases you're dealing with today, yet still you know that the Lord is in control and that his will is coming to pass and that none of his promises will ever fail. I pray that that is the case, and if not, I pray that you will take encouragement from Paul. He was writing to encourage the Philippians, but we remember that he wasn't writing just to the Philippian congregation. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was writing to us as well. And so I pray that he would be encouraging you in whatever situation you are in. But we see him trusting absolutely in God, trusting in the Christ whom he knew and that therefore there was this inner principle of joy in his heart, an inner principle that no one could take away and that he still wants to share with others. He wants that joy inexpressible that we heard about this morning to overflow to others. The Romans might take his life. They could do that, but they cannot take away his joy or his peace. That is one of the great promises that is given to the Christian. Nobody can take away the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. Nobody can take away your salvation, and nobody can steal your joy and your peace in those things. But let's take a moment now to discuss how all of this came to pass, how he came to be writing this letter from jail. Where is Philippi? What was it like? Who were the Philippians, and how did Paul come to know them? Incidentally, this is a picture of the Philippian ruins that you will find in Macedonia. I am told they are amazing. It is a UNESCO historic site. Maybe one day as I got to see Ephesus, I will also have a chance to see Philippi. But in the meantime, let's talk about the city. Philippi was originally founded as a colony in northeastern Macedonia by colonists from the island of Thanos. They were called Thacians in 359 BC. But it was captured by Alexander the Great's father, Philip, and renamed Philippi three years later. So it didn't have much of a long run of independence. But in saying that, I have told you very little about Philippi itself. Because the Philippi that Paul knew came along much later on. It is like me telling you that Fayetteville was settled by colonists from Scotland. Because almost 400 years had passed between the founding of Philippi and the time that Paul was writing. Just as almost 400 years have passed between the time of the founding of Fayetteville in our own time. So the Philippi that Paul first visited in around 51 or 52 AD was a very different place. The Romans had captured it from the Macedonians in 168 BC. And in 42 BC during the Roman Civil War that brought an end to the Roman Republic. It was the scene of the final defeat of the forces of Brutus and Cassius by the forces of Anthony and Octavian. Who later of course became Augustus Caesar. And that final battle occurred just outside of this city. This was critical because after the city Octavian turned Philippi into a Roman colony and a military outpost. They released some of their veteran soldiers. The war to defeat the men who had stabbed Caesar had finished as far as they were concerned. And they released some of their legionaries from Legion 28 to colonize the city. Which was founded and I apologize for my terrible Latin here. Colonia Victrix Philippensium meaning the colony of the victory of Philippi. From that point onwards it was a place where Italian veterans from the Roman army were given land. And it sat upon an important Roman road called the Via Ignatia. Which was a road that was constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. Incidentally I learned while we were on our trip that the Greeks joke particularly in Cyprus. That the only roads in Greece that last were built by the Romans. The modern ones all fall apart. It crossed through Illyricum, Macedonia, Thracia and runs into the territory that is now part of Albania. North Macedonia, Greece and European Turkey. Why is that important? Well it's important because it meant that Philippi was a center not only of trade. And they had mines we'll talk about in a little while where they mined gold and silver. But it was a place where it was possible to go from Philippi to other areas of Macedonia. Or to turn south and to go into Greece. They had their own route 95 so to speak running right through the city. That allowed them to have concourse with all the people in Greece and up in Macedonia and into the Roman Empire. This meant that the Lord in founding his church there. Put it in a place where the inhabitants could as they did their daily trade. Carry not only letters to Rome but they could also carry the gospel to the surrounding areas. Now the citizens of this colony were regarded as citizens of Rome. And they were given a number of special privileges that ordinary inhabitants of the empire didn't have. It was in many senses a miniature Rome. Literally because they were under the municipal law of Rome. It was as though they were a colony that was in Italy actually attached to Rome. That was the way the law functioned. And they were governed by two military officers the Duumviri who were appointed directly from Rome. And the colony itself although it was relatively small. It was only about 10 ,000 people when Paul reached it. It was very wealthy as a general rule. They had gold and silver mines just outside the city. And those mines were still productive in Paul's day. It was as I said a little Rome in the midst of Macedonia. And not just in the government. It was laid out like a Roman city. And so to this day you can see that they have a Roman forum in addition to a Greek Agora. But how did Paul get to this city? How did he get there? Well let's read a little from Acts 16 which actually tells us. So if you would turn in your Bible to Acts chapter 16. And I want to begin with verse one which will tell us that Paul was actually when this all started. He was in Asia Minor. He was over in modern day Turkey on his second missionary journey. We read then he came to Derby in Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy. The son of a certain Jewish woman who believed but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go with him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region. For they all knew that his father was Greek. And as they went through the cities they delivered to them the decrees to keep which were determined by the apostles and elders of Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia they tried to go into Bithynia but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia they came down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him saying come over to Macedonia and help us. Now many people have speculated just as an aside that this is Luke who was speaking to Paul in a vision. Now after he had seen the vision immediately we sought to go to Macedonia concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Therefore sailing from Troas we ran a straight course to Samothrace and the next day came to Neapolis and from there to Philippi which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul and when she and her household were baptized she begged us saying if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord come to my house and stay so she persuaded us. And we know that Paul and Timothy stayed with Lydia for some days. They had some other encounters. I'm not going to read the rest of chapter 16 but I would encourage you to actually read all of chapter 16 tonight. It won't take you that long but you will read about the exorcism of the demon possessed slave girl which unfortunately got them into trouble because the demon allowed her unfortunately to know about things that men didn't know about. And so her owners used to get money from her that way. We'll also tell you about Paul and Silas's unjust imprisonment and then the household baptism of the Philippian jailer which is marvelous and of course one of those household baptisms that shows us that we are to be baptizing not just parents on their confession of faith but also their children. This was the first church established in Europe. Note that. And that at the explicit direction of the Holy Spirit who made it very clear that Paul was to turn the direction of his labors from Asia Minor which is modern day Turkey to Europe. He goes through Macedonia and then after that he goes into Greece and brings the gospel into Europe. Now the bond as you will read through the Philippi you can't help but notice the friendship, the love that exists between Paul and this congregation. It was peculiarly close though others had abandoned him in his imprisonment as we shall see these Philippians had not. They continued to pray for him and they continued to provide for his needs in this world. They sent him a gift. As I said I don't want to give away too many spoilers but they had sent a man by the name of Epaphroditus with a gift for him in jail and then he had sent Epaphroditus back to them with this letter. That's how he got it. And as I mentioned this letter was written from Rome during his imprisonment. The beginning of that is related in Acts 28. The reference to Caesar's household which you will read in Philippians 4 22 and the palace in Philippians 1 13. In the Greek it's Praetorium. It was probably the barrack of the Praetorium guard attached to the palace of Nero and that confirms this. So I tend to think it was during his first imprisonment at Rome. That would tend to sit with the mention of the Praetorium and that he was in the custody of the Praetorium prefect and his situation agrees with the situation in the first two years of his imprisonment that you can read about in Acts. In Acts 28 30 and 31. It's not that important whether it was the first or the second imprisonment. The fact is he's in prison. He's in prison for his faith. He's in prison for his preaching. But he does not allow that to destroy him or even to to drive him down or to change the nature of his ministry. Many people might have switched over perhaps to a martyr's ministry at this point in time and yet he does not. He continues to encourage the people to go about their their business preaching the gospel and being members of the church no matter what the circumstances are. Now the tone of this letter as we go through it you'll notice this. It's unlike most of his other letters. It contains no long doctrinal discussions. It contains no rebukes of evils that were festering in the particular church. But it is an outpouring rather of happy love and also confidence in these brothers and sisters. He loves them. He is confident in them and he wants them to be confident not in themselves. He wants them to be confident in Christ and in his promises. Like all of Paul's epistles, as you saw, it starts with a salutation. Our letters, of course, and with the identification of the person who's sending it. But the letters back there started with who this letter was from. And like most of his letters, it also starts with a prayer for the people that he is writing to. He isn't just in intending to give them information. He wants to bless them, to bless them with his letter and to bless them with his prayer. And one commentator calls the entire letter a long gush of love towards the Philippians. And it is. There's nothing wrong with that. Verses 1 and 2 that we read there, they contain an apostolic greeting. The senders are identified there. Timothy is associated with Paul. Timothy was with Paul, therefore, in his imprisonment. We remember from 2 Timothy in his second imprisonment that Paul noted that only Timothy had stayed with him. Or rather that he wanted Timothy to come to him in his imprisonment to bring things to him. Timothy remained loyal to Paul no matter what. Timothy also, you remember, was going to become very important to Paul in the Ephesian church and building them up and so on. Timothy was a genuine, he was more than just an amanuensis or a secretary for Paul. He was a helper to Paul. He was a brother in Christ, somebody who would stand with him in thick or thin. Now, Paul mentions him and he often does that. He brings the friends who are about him into prominence. That also indicates that the people in Philippi knew of him and would be interested to hear how he was doing. Timothy is in Rome with Paul when the letter is being dictated. And although Timothy is not the one who is inspired to write the letter, Paul is using him as his secretary to take it down. It's very possible that Paul had an eye disease, which made it very difficult for him to write. He calls Timothy and himself, he addresses himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Now, that's a nice little word, bondservant. It conjures up the idea of indentured bondage, the idea that we're just working off a debt. But when he says bondservant, he's actually using the Greek word doulos. Doulos means literally slave. He is a slave of Christ. Some prefer the translation bondservant to kind of neaten it up. We don't like the idea of Paul calling himself a slave of Christ because of the bad connotations of that. But we remember that most of the Roman Empire, in fact, 20 % of the city there, and this would have had, as a Roman colony, a military colony, Philippi would have had a lower than normal slave population, more free men than slaves. But they still speculate that at least 20 % of those 10 ,000 people within the colony were slaves. And here is Paul saying, I too am a slave. But who is he a slave of? He's a slave of Jesus Christ. He and Timothy are slaves, and they aren't complaining about that. They understood that they were bought with a price by the Lord Jesus Christ in his sacrifice for their sake, and therefore they were owned by their master. They are completely dependent upon him, and they give him their undivided allegiance. They love this master of theirs, the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, Paul clearly, he views it as the highest honor that we can attain to serve Christ, to have his light yoke upon us instead of the heavy chains of sin which he takes away. And he is bound to absolute submission to this Lord who is all worthy and who gave everything for his sake. Paul, note in all of his letters, never forgot what Christ had done for him, never forgot where he was when Christ found him, how he was an enemy of the church, a persecutor of the church. Somebody whom Christ, you remember, addressed on the road to Damascus saying, Paul, Paul, or rather at that time, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus associates himself so keenly with his people that to persecute them is to persecute him. I was thinking about that as we were hearing about how the Pakistanis are wretchedly persecuted. What their persecutors in Pakistan, the Muslims, do not recognize or realize is that in persecuting them, they are persecuting God the Son. And it will not go well for them to be counted amongst the persecutors on the last day. But he had once been a persecutor. Now he is no longer. He is a slave, a willing servant of the Lord Jesus Christ who loves him with all of his heart. Now note also at the beginning, he doesn't mention that he's an apostle. And so there's a great contrast here between letters like Galatians where he asserts his apostolic authority when he's teaching them. This is a very friendly letter. He doesn't actually need to. He knows they know that he's an apostle of the Lord. Jesus greets all of the saints in Christ. Jesus, who are in Philippi, and he abused them. He calls them saints. And what is he talking about there when he calls them saints? Haggai, literally holy ones. These are people who he considers as they are in Christ. Have you ever thought about this? We may think of ourselves as wretches. We may think of ourselves as people in whom there is nothing worthy of praise. And yet the way that the Lord looks at us is his holy ones, his ones who are set apart. His chosen ones who are even now being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. If you are in Christ, that is who you are. You are one of his special people. In the Old Testament, the word was segula, his special treasure. Brothers and sisters, the devil wants us to think of ourselves as only what we can accomplish by our meager efforts. And let's face it, that's not much. Isaiah, at the end of his long, his long prophetic letter in Isaiah 66, he talks about righteousness, the righteousness that a holy man like himself might be able to accomplish by himself. And he says these things, our righteousnesses are but filthy rags. But Christ, what does he do? He endows us with robes of righteousness. He enrobes us, as Luther put it so very well, so that when we stand before God on the last day, the saints are seen as they are in Christ. That is who Paul sees them as. They are people who are called to be holy and who are being made holy. We have been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but we are also, and this will come out from this letter, we are also being conformed to the image of Christ. It is as that example that was given to us a little while ago of the, as we were going through the Bible study of the princess who had been made, or rather the commoner who had been made into the queen. She was given the title, but then gradually she was taught the courtly graces and made into somebody who everybody understood and saw was the wife of the king. They are the people of God. They are the saints of Christ and that because of their union with the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the saints together in their communal sense are being addressed by Paul. This letter would have been probably read just as we read it in the midst of worship and so on, and then copied and passed on to the other congregations, the other saints throughout the world.
Mark Levin
It Only Takes One Generation, One President to Destroy Our Country
"Over a thousand years but the Roman Republic lasted about 450 500 years you none of them none of them last and in perpetuity neither will our country you because our generation my age in the 60s and the generation right behind us the 30s and 40s are destroying the country I'm not saying you are obviously but in the aggregate our generation is destroying the country we such there magnificence were 200 years of blood sweat and tears over 200 years of wars for our freedom and our security over 200 years of innovation of experimentation of failing and then succeeding and it takes one generation as it turns out it takes one presidency to destroy it all to destroy it all if people don't want to be free and if people don't want a republic and if people don't want a functioning civil society where families can happily walk the streets we're not gonna get it I've often said the real puzzle of liberty is that liberty provides a platform for the creation or the advancement of tyranny there's really no way around it the framers knew this this is why
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from St. Leo the Great The Doctors of the Church: The Charism of Wisdom with Dr. Matthew Bunson Discerning Hearts Podcasts
"Discerninghearts .com presents The Doctors of the Church, the terrorism of wisdom with Dr. Matthew Bunsen. For over 20 years, Dr. Bunsen has been active in the area of Catholic social communications and education, including writing, editing, and teaching on a variety of topics related to church history, the papacy, the saints, and Catholic culture. He is the Center for Biblical Theology and the author or co -author of over 50 books, including the Encyclopedia of Catholic History and the bestselling biographies of St. Damien of Malachi and St. Kateri Tekakawitha. He also serves as a senior editor for the National Catholic Register and is a senior contributor to EWTN News. The Doctors of the Church, the terrorism of the Church. Welcome Matthew. It's great to be with you again, Chris. Today we explore the life and teachings of Pope St. Leo the Great. He was born in the year 400, correct? Yes, he was of Tuscan descent. So in other words, he was very much an Italian. He was of the Italian nobility and his family, unfortunately, is not really that well known. We know that by the time he was in his 30s, he was serving as a deacon, but that does little by way of expressing the immense respect with which he was held by not just the Romans, but by Christians literally all over the church. Think for example of the fact that one of the other doctors of the church that we talked about, and that's Cyril of Alexandria, asked for his help in a dispute with the juvenile of Jerusalem over the jurisdiction of that patriarchate in the Holy Land. We have as well a treatise that John Cassian dedicated to him. It was written against heresy. And then we have in Leo somebody who was trusted by the secular rulers of the time, and that was he was chosen by the imperial government to travel to Gaul to settle a dispute between two of the Roman officials. So this is somebody who in terms of the papal administration was much trusted, but who was also a very deeply respected intellect, mediator, and person of great integrity. It is for that reason that he was elected in 440 in September of that year to succeed Pope Sixtus III, and he was in fact elected while he was away on that mission to Gaul. Can you give us some perspective on the state of the church during this era, but also the state of Rome and its holdings throughout the world? The era in which Leo lived was one of immense upheaval, both in terms of the church, but also and especially in terms of the Roman Empire. In the church, we had been dealing with, and you and I in talking about different doctrines of the church, we've discussed many times the heresies that plagued the church, especially from the start of the fourth century when the church was finally freed from persecutions and then had to grapple with these different heretical ideas that emerged. The most prevalent, of course, was Arianism that called into question the divinity of Christ.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God
"Acts chapter 13 we're gonna start in verse 46 Acts 13 46 someone's excited hear now the word of the living and the true God and Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly saying it was necessary that the Word of God be spoken first to you since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life behold we are turning to the Gentiles for so the Lord has commanded us saying I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth and when the Gentiles heard this they began rejoicing and glorifying the Word of the Lord and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word let's pray together as God's people God this is your word it's a gift to us Lord in ourselves we do not deserve this amazing gift your revelation you condescending to speak to us Lord we've learned so much about you and your word about your sovereignty about your rule about your reign and your control over all things there are no accidents with you you have a purpose you have a will you declare the end from the beginning God you truly are the sovereign we come before you and your holy word today and we ask that you would empower us encourage us renew our minds remove from our hearts unbelief especially in a time like we're living in now in our current circumstances removed from us worry and anxieties and fear about the future removed from us doubt regarding your promises about what you are going to do in the world to glorify your name blessed today and I pray that this message and your promises in your word would empower this church body to preach your gospel boldly to the world and to trust you as a sovereign God who wins history all enemies under the feet of Jesus it's in your name we acts pray amen 38 powerful moments again we've been in the series on the book of Proverbs God's wisdom from above we spent time over the last couple of weeks talking about the comprehensive sovereignty of God that is to say that the Bible gives us a portrait of God he gives us revelation about God that is very different oftentimes than you might get in much of what is called evangelical today it's not very popular today to see God as the true sovereign as the one who rules and reigns over every event in human history and I've been making the argument that of course we as fallen and rebellious creatures would revolt against the idea that God is sovereign because that's the very idea that we've been revolting against from the beginning God is the sovereign he rules he reigns he has ultimate authority he's in control of all things we of course rebel against that idea of God's sovereignty but the scriptures teach it plainly from all the New Testament down to the smallest details the minutia the macro events the micro events God is truly sovereign there is no meaningless no purposeless event in human history yes even in a fallen world where there is violence and there is evil and there is sin God is sovereign even over that and scripture tells us as God's people that God causes what things all things to work together for good for those who love God and those who are the called according to his purpose God has a purpose all things work together for good but that's the sovereign God presented to us in the holy scriptures that's what God teaches and so we've been in this book of divine wisdom we look through Proverbs we talked about what the book of Proverbs says about the sovereignty of God over all things down to the detail and I love this part about the casting of lots we think there are some things that are just chance occurrences these are accidents maybe even happy accidents but they are just casting the lot and scripture teaches that even over those things God is fully sovereign he's the determiner of those things scripture teaches us the comprehensive sovereignty of God we didn't talked about how is this now relating to me individually as a person or even the church how does the sovereignty of God relate to me and we spent time talking about the sovereignty of God over salvation that God is the one who predestines God is the one who foreknows God is the one who chooses a people in Jesus Christ Ephesians 1 before the foundation of the world that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world that Jesus is a lamb slain before the foundation of the world this is part of the decree and the plan of God to bring about his glory and the redemption of unworthy people we talked about that beautiful passage in John chapter 6 and that passage in John chapter 10 that illustrate that point in this discourse that the father gives the people to Jesus Christ and he says that it's the will of the father that Jesus loses none of them he loses none of all that the father has given to him and he says I will raise them up on the last day there's my hope that's your hope as a child of God this is something that God does God is the one who saves God is the one with the grace God is the one with the mercy God is the one with the purpose and the plan and the will and the power to save and so we're still in Proverbs we're on that theme of the comprehensive sovereignty of God and so we did God and what is he sovereign over we did the salvation of God's people and today I wanted to end that portion of study on the sovereignty of God talking about evangelism in the sovereignty of God because this is critical especially as I noted especially right now especially right now now there's no question or confusion about the fact that you go to a church that are that is teaching from the pulpit hardcore pipe hitting post -millennialism no question yeah that's right yes praise the Lord for that it's no question about that but it's interesting because oftentimes many people who argue against post -millennialism and all we say when we're post -millennial is that we believe those about passages what God is gonna do in the world through the kingdom and the Messiah we believe those passages as a real passages it's gonna happen in history those are promises we believe that but oftentimes people who argue against post -millennialism and against these promises will say well wait a minute you're saying that Christ is gonna put all enemies under his feet and then finally after that is death and that the world is gonna just be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea you're saying you really believe that's gonna happen I'm saying well that's what the scriptures say of course I believe that and they'll look in the world out there and they'll say okay what about Putin I said pew pew okay what about Putin what about China what about thank you okay sorry what about Gog and Magog that's a popular thing right now actually I'm thinking pastor James I need to do a message and Gog and Magog we're gonna need that more and more in the days to come people using a prophecy that's already been fulfilled as something that's supposed to happen in our day in our future my people today are watching the news and look let me just go ahead and grant it at the outset things are tough right now things are bad right now there are things shaping up right now in the Middle East that are not looking good and we don't know the outcome things could fall apart and get awful in a moment or things could just sort of smooth out I mean we've lived many of us have lived especially this guy lived through a lot yeah so we've learned we all have lived through a lot in terms of some of you guys were raised in the 80s you were raised during the time of the Cold War how many times do you think nukes were gonna be launched in the 80s right we've we've been there before we've always thought like the the buttons about to be pressed and it's all just gonna go to hell and in a moment we've we've been there and admittedly things are not looking good at the moment and people have used that to argue against the specific sections of Scripture that talk about the victory of God and his Messiah within human history they say well wait a second if you're saying that the world is gonna look like this and be totally transformed and what it looks like things are just getting worse right now and I would say it's just a matter of perspective because you're saying things are getting worse right now during a time where we have more Christians professing Christians alive in the world today in than in history the gospel has gone to more places now than in human history and it's amazing to me when people will talk about how the world's is getting terrible and there people are going it's it's amazing the world is getting so terrible right now and you know it's all everything's falling apart and that's how the world's gonna be and it's terrible and they're literally on a device preaching Christ live around the world and people say it's just getting so terrible and so awful while we're getting the Word of God into more places than we ever have before and there are more professing Christians alive than ever we ever had before I'm not saying that there aren't broken things there are broken things but here's the point that's that is a terrible way to argue against what the Bible says is the course of human history that things look really bad right now because here's my here's my position God says he is going to do this he says he's going to do it God cannot lie and that's my hope that's my hope for evangelism that's my hope for gospel eing the world and telling the world about Jesus is it doesn't matter what the current circumstances are and how much things look like they're falling apart it didn't look good the day of the cross either and it was the cross of Jesus Christ was a very event that horrendous brutal event was the very event that God used to bring about the redemption of the world and so oftentimes what we see in front of us looks like it is time to despair it looks like all hope is lost but God is sovereign and if we want to live with divine wisdom we've got to get that part right God keeps his promises and God is sovereign so no matter what happens over the coming weeks or months my answer is scripture says all enemies under the feet of Jesus and then death will finally be defeated that's the promise of God and God cannot lie with me there's our hope and so when we talk today briefly about the sovereignty of God in salvation we started with this amazing section where now the gospel is going to the Gentiles that's big deal that by the way is the fulfillment of the promises of the Messiah's Kingdom understand that that this promise of Messiah's Kingdom was not simply that this Messiah was coming for the Jewish people but it was that the knowledge of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the what and it's asked by my friend I love how he asked it the best way to ask the question if that's the promise the knowledge of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea it's a good way to put it how wet is the Pacific Ocean it's all wet and so how much of the earth is getting covered with the knowledge of God all of it like the sea it's all getting wet with the knowledge of God that is the promise of God and the promise was that God was going to draw all the nations to God people from every tribe tongue the languages all the peoples were now going to be drawn up to God's mountain and this Messiah would bring his salvation to the very ends of the earth all the families of God will return to worship Yahweh Psalm 22 and now here you have in the book of Acts you have the gospel goes out the gospel goes out it's going first to the Jews and now this moment this beautiful moment where the gospel now is being brought to those Gentiles here in Acts 13 and look what it says in terms of the sovereignty of God over this moment it was promised by God that's the point made by Luke here it was promised by God this is the fulfillment of prophecy the Gentiles are coming now but notice what it says in verse 48 and when the Gentiles heard this they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as were appointed as many as were appointed to eternal life believes do you see it fulfillment of God's promises he keeps his promises and that day those who were appointed to eternal life believed I made the argument last week on the very tail end of the message we talked about the sovereignty of God and our salvation the Father draws and Christ will raise them up I made the point that every time we go out and do evangelism it is 100 % success rates it is a hundred percent success rates even if you get beaten even if you get flogged even if you see outright rejection yelling spitting people try to hit you with their car as this happens to us doing abortion mill evangelism people pulling guns on you people throwing food at you hundred percent success because it is those who are appointed to eternal life that ultimately believe God is sovereign over all of this he keeps his promises and he has a people Jesus said other sheep I have which are not of this fold them I must also bring and here you see it in Acts 13 exactly that not just Jews but Gentiles also why because the sovereign God decreed it because the sovereign God declared the end from the beginning and here's what's gonna take place and so what do we see we see that God the true God declares the end from the beginning and so we need to consider one more point that the principles and promises of the book of Proverbs teach what about the righteous and wicked we have direct promises from God here's what the shape of the world is gonna be here is how human history is gonna go here's how I'm gonna win the world but God also in the book of Proverbs we've been studying he has actual principles and promises regarding the righteous and the wicked what does this say about the wicked will they prosper the wicked will not prosper they are ultimately going to be crushed will the righteous prosper that's the principle and promise of Scripture the book of Proverbs is the righteous who flourish it's the righteous who prosper Scripture teaches that it is actually the meek who shall inherit the what the meek shall inherit the earth not the wicked not the evil they're cast off they're uprooted the promise of God is about the shape of history and the principles we've been learning about is that the righteous are the ones who ultimately inherits the world the meek shall inherit the earth the promise Paul says in Romans chapter 4 was that Abraham's descendants would inherit the world where did we ever get this idea that it's the the unbelievers or the wicked who inherit the world the promise the literal promise of God is that the a that Abraham's descendants inherit world the do you believe in Christ do you believe in Christ then you are heirs according to the promise you are children of Abraham it's not outwardly that you're Jewish but inwardly you're a child of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ and Scripture says that Abraham's descendants inherit the world it is the wicked who are uprooted and so God tells us the shape of human history here's what I'm gonna do in human history here are the promises here are the principles but I wanted to make this point today is this very short message as we have Chile waiting in there for us and everyone's chomping at the bit I want to make the point today that it is the promises of God that give us hope in our evangelism and our whole and our perspective of the future just get that and you'll get the main point of what I wanted to communicate to you as your brother and pastor today it is the promises of God that are the anchor for our hope about the future now I know that walking in here every one of us would have affirmed that statements you know what he would have denied that it seems simple enough right the promises of God are the anchor they're the the foundation of our hope for the future but I want to make the specific point about evangelism and ultimately the outcome of our evangelism to the world that the world is won by Jesus he has victory over the world and no matter what we see in the days to come no matter how bad things are we know that God is sovereign and he's made promises now watch very important it doesn't mean and this is key this is key it doesn't mean that God doesn't have historical judgments in history scripture makes plain clear threats from God of nations that would violate his law nations that would disobey God they will be uprooted the wicked will be uprooted so it is possible none of us are promised the nation that we're in is ultimately gonna be the one that flourishes and grows there are historical judgments there's no promise that there isn't gonna be judgment and let me just say this plainly our nation is already under judgments clearly with the things that we love the things that we preach the things that we accept we are clearly already under the judgment of God our nation has clearly been turned over it was John Calvin right that said when God wants to judge a nation he gives them wicked rulers that's what we're at that's what we're at so there's no question judgments is here and there's no promise that this nation will ultimately make it through I pray for our nation and I pray for repentance and revival and reformation I pray for that I know that God is sovereign enough to accomplish it he can bring light where there is darkness he can raise the dead amen yes but there's nothing nothing coming from us that demands of God you come down from your throne and you do the bidding of our nation we may be judged as a nation but even if we are it doesn't mean that Christ is no longer on his throne or that God isn't gonna keep his promises amen he will keep his promises and what are some of those promises what are there's no way to do this in a comprehensive way today but some of those promises and I wanted to have anchor ones for us this is the future of the world here is what hope we have for evangelism as we gospel the world we tell the world God's gospel God's good news something you all know Genesis 22 17 Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the what stars and the what that's a lot that's a lot the stars and the that's sands the descendants where did we ever get the idea that God's people are the minority in human history I'd say the stars and the sand of the seashore speaks of a very different story brothers and sisters we have a sovereign God who can absolutely accomplish it it did not look remember this it did not look the day of Jesus ascension like he was really the one with all authority it did not look like he was the king of Kings and Lord of Lords it did not mean he's raised from the dead so that was a big deal but in terms of in terms of the gathering in front of Jesus at the ascension of Jesus that should have been a global event right that everybody sees and like my goodness here is this amazing thing that was promised by God the ascension of Messiah seated on his throne to bring the redemption of his salvation all that to the ends of the earth but it's such a small crowd gathered before Jesus and Jesus says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go make disciples of all the nations baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you it didn't look like he was the king of the world right where's the huge audience I mean there's there's there's Roman guards that like have more people with them than you've got it's your feet Jesus and you're the king of the entire world it didn't look like it but he was and he is king of kings and Lord of Lords he's God in human flesh crucified and raised and ascended and on his throne didn't matter if it looked like it he has all authority in heaven and on earth and the promise is stars and sands stars and sands that's a lot again that promise is made in Genesis 26 verse 4 and then Genesis 49 10 there's this amazing promise some translations use the word Shiloh Shiloh is coming and it says this to him shall be the obedience of the nations to him the Messiah should be the obedience of the nations now quick question did the apostles believe that that the obedience of the nations were going to be Christ just read the book of Romans just read it in Romans chapter 1 and 16 the book ends of that book Paul gives us this very promise and says that the purpose of all of it is to bring about the obedience of faith or the obedience that comes from faith among all the nations for the sake of his name that was the promise Genesis 49 10 the nations are coming to God they will obey Jesus and by the way that's what Jesus said to go get there's the Great Commission there's what Jesus said to go get rights all authority is mine heaven earth go make disciples all nations baptize them and teach them to obey me that's where history is going stars and sand and obedience of nations then of course you have the promise in Psalm 2 where the Father says to the Son ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance the very ends of the earth for possession your brothers and sisters make no mistake about it that's total the ends of the earth for your possession and of course this isn't mine dr. Greg Bahnson used to say this author we talked about that tax and it is powerful the Father says to the Son ask of me I'll give you nations for your inheritance the very ends of the earth for your possession dr.
Simply Bitcoin
A highlight from Taiwan's Next Embracing Bitcoin?! | EP 863
"It's all going to zero against Bitcoin. It's going on forever. You're against Bitcoin. You're against freedom. Yo, what's up? We are back. We're back for another episode of Simply Bitcoin. And today is an interesting story. I did have to do some deep dive for this one. So game theory is heating up in China, guys. The first reading of Taiwan's crypto bill passes. And depending on the source, Taiwan might be on the verge of making Bitcoin legal tender January 24th. It almost seems like this is happening. It's almost like it's inevitable. And Taiwan is embracing Bitcoin. And we all know the saga between China, that we know that we won China policy. We've been covering this all year. And we know how many times China banned Bitcoin. They banned mining. We've seen even Taiwan themselves try to ban Bitcoin. But of course, you can't ban Bitcoin. You can only ban yourself from Bitcoin. And even this week, on Mainland, Hong Kong has been mulling over whether they are going to embrace an ETF as well. So it really makes you wonder. And if you go back for a couple episodes, Niko and I went over this, the idea of maybe China is using different proxies to embrace Bitcoin after officially banning Bitcoin. The dip last we saw, I think that was 2021 now, it's all a blur at this point. Some days they're banning it. Some days they're embracing it. Well, it seems like China or Taiwan, forgive me, is about to make Bitcoin legal tender. And remember, one of the IRLs we did, we had a friend come on here and I'm blanking on exactly which one it was. But he said basically that what they mean when they say crypto is really Bitcoin and they do not talk about what they have under their mattress. So whenever you're hearing crypto come out from the Asian countries, from China in particular, remember that they know what we know. It is Bitcoin only. And there's Bitcoin and then there's other cryptos. Anyways, Bitcoin's global game theory chess match is playing out in real time, guys. And as a Bitcoiner, you just love to see it. The Mexican standoff is continuing to get spicier. It's continuing to heat up. And it's going to be very interesting to see which countries get left behind, which countries don't embrace hard money. And also in that same vein, which countries are fighting their citizenry. And as we always say, forcing them to have fun staying poor. Anyways, welcome to Simply Bitcoin. We are your number one source for the peaceful Bitcoin revolution. We cover breaking news, culture and nomadic warfare. We bring on Bitcoiners from all around the world, from the biggest names to the everyday Bitcoiner. We got them all and we will be your guide through the separation of money and state. And of course, I am not here alone, guys. I am here with Dell, the funky hodl sapien. How are you doing this morning, Dell? Good. I'm dandy. I'm chilling, relaxing, moisturized in my own lane, sitting in a 45 gallon tub of lotion right now. It feels pretty luxurious. Absolutely love it. OK, well, Dell, what are we going to cover on the culture today? We're going to cover that you can't really stop the Internet. You can't stop things from happening the way you want it to. I imagine most of the people that come to this channel are interested in Bitcoin surviving. That's my assumption. There might be some people that come pass by like, oh, what's this all about? But I get the impression that the regulars that I see in the chat, you're Roman, you're wine a kiss. Tyler Durden, what I'm not going to try and talk for wine a kiss. He's a he's a he's a strange cat. That one is people that I see in day in and day out. They're people that are they understand Bitcoin to some degree. They like it to some degree. And they're yeah, thumbs up to that Bitcoin thing. But the idea that it could die or shut down is not something that a lot of us think about all that much. We're like, oh, it can't happen. But here's a question for you, Opti. If you were given a challenge, let's say let's say somebody comes along, Michael Saylor, whatever anybody that you know has the money to say, I'm going to give you a million dollar bounty to shut down Bitcoin. Could you do that? You think you could? Not for a million. There's literally a half a trillion dollar bounty on Bitcoin. You got to you got to you got to put those numbers up. Well, like, do you think you could do it at all? Me personally? No. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so the idea that there is some individual out there or group of people that can shut it down is preposterous. But yet there's still and we're going to play this clip. People out there that are honestly, they're relatively smart people in many fields and there's a lot of really smart people that don't understand Bitcoin. It's like shut down. Shut down the Internet. What are you going to do? Go in. People, people are concerned about that, Del. That is definitely on people's minds. Well, I get that. But why? Like, tell me how that happens. Like, walk me through exactly how how it how that would work. Like, please. Like, if you can do it, if somebody can do it, I truly as much as I would like to see tomorrow, would like you would like to see somebody shut down Bitcoin. So we're going to be talking about that in the culture. Like, you can't do it. Like, I want you to if you can, if somebody in chat can do that, by all means, go and do it. Because we need to know that that's a vulnerability when we need to know how that could happen. And oh, wow, there's a guy that's in the simply Bitcoin chat that has the ability to go and flip a switch and shut off Bitcoin. That we should know about that. And I mean, that'd be so funny. Someone in the chat just shuts it off. Anyway, anyway, side tangents. I mean, we even see it and we hear this all the time. I hear this all the time when I talk to my normie friends out there. They're like, what if, you know, like in twenty seventeen, it was like, what if China bans Bitcoin? And like they did it and it didn't stop Bitcoin. I am convinced that every three letter agency around the world, that nation states have also tried to attack Bitcoin and they continue to try to attack Bitcoin. But they can't stop this. They cannot stop digital money for the digital world. And even if the even if we got like some weird by chance EMP or something that shut off all of electricity, we will never go back to a time without the Internet. I am fully convinced of that. The Internet is something that that is ubiquitous with the modern world. It put a pause on things. If people talk about that, like, oh, well, what about. OK, well, just imagine if things that are escalating over in the Middle East and then the whole Russia, Ukraine thing, like imagine things really take off. And they detonate a nuke in the atmosphere over every country in the world and all the Internet goes out. What about your Bitcoin then? Like, do you even hear what you're saying? Like, imagine that scenario and the thing that is going to be on people's minds is food, shelter, is my family safe? And then probably after the first 24 hours, where can I get a I'm just going to say it, a hand job where where the sex workers like where where can I go and trade these bullets that have been stocking up for, you know, a little me time with with Old Destiny over there? And I do mean old because she was in the business for a hot minute and she's looking a little more now, but she's got the experience. And that's what you're going to want to go to when times are tough. You're going to want to go to the person that knows how to get you to that happy place. So, yeah, you're going to check in on Destiny and give her some bullets for some fun times. But you're not going to be thinking about Bitcoin. You're not going to be thinking about all my cat pictures and all the trad wives on Twitter talking about how they're grass feeding their goats. No, you're not going to be paying attention to any of that. You're gonna be like, what do I need to survive? That's it. That is that is it. That's all you're going to be paying attention to. So this idea that, oh, what happens to your Bitcoin? It's like, go fuck yourself. What are you talking about? Listen to yourself. Is grandma alive in a nursing home? Because there's no oxygen on. What's your first concern if the nukes go off and there's no Internet Opti? Is it is my note still on? No, it's thinking about people in my local community and can I survive? Exactly. Exactly. All right. Well, this is going to be a spicy one. I can already tell this is going to be a spicy one. Let's get into the show, guys. This time seeds do it yourself kit has everything you need to hammer your seed words into commercial grade titanium plates instead of just writing them on paper. Don't store your generational wealth on paper. Paper is prone to water damage, fire damage. You want to put your generational wealth on one of the strongest metals on planet Earth, titanium. Your words are actually stamped into this metal plate with this hammer and these letter stamps. And once your words are in, they aren't going anywhere. No risk of the plate breaking apart and pieces falling everywhere. Titanium stamp seeds will survive nearly triple the heat produced by a house fire. They're also crush proof, waterproof, non corrosive and time proof. All things that paper is not allowing you to huddle your Bitcoin with peace of mind for the long haul. Stamp your seed on stamp seed. Yeah, the chat. You guys are wild. Love you guys. Anyway, we made this easy for you. Scan the QR code. Make sure your seed phrases backed up on something stronger than just a piece of paper in your sock drawer. Make sure it's backed up on titanium, guys. This is the way scan the QR code. Get yourself a stamp seed kit. And we have been in the talks of getting a simply Bitcoin branded one. But maybe maybe you don't want that OPSEC unfriendly version. But anyways, scan the QR code. Go check it out. Get yourself one. Stamp your seed in titanium. All right, guys. Anyways, we're over here on the numbers. We're at Clark Moody's dashboard. Of course, my favorite number is the block height. We are currently at eight hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty six. Take talk next block. Honey, bad you don't care. Blocks keep coming in. We are what? Twenty four thousand one hundred and fourteen blocks away from the halving roughly around April 20th of twenty twenty four. So it's happening in time, guys. We know exactly what's happening with the monetary policy that is Bitcoin. You love to see it. Bitcoin is my stable coin. Bitcoin is stability. Anyways, the current price on Bitcoin is thirty five thousand three hundred and forty dollars per Bitcoin. The Moscow time, a .k .a. how much your fiat dollars worth, a .k .a. how much Bitcoin you can buy for a single U .S. dollar is two thousand eight hundred and thirty cents per dollar. The percentage of total Bitcoin that will ever be issued is ninety three point zero three percent. The market cap and fiat terms of Bitcoin is six hundred and ninety billion dollars or six hundred ninety point three billion dollars. The realized monetary inflation of Bitcoin taking fiat currencies to school is one point seventy four percent. It's going to get cut in half. Well, I think it's going to slowly. Is it going to get cut in half? I think it's going to cut in half. I think that's what the halving does to it. Anyways, Bitcoin versus gold market cap is currently at five point two seven percent. We are only at five point two seven percent of the gold market cap. The hard money gang. We're coming for gold. Gold market cap is ten trillion dollars. Only five percent of that, guys. And you guys are bearish out there. Couldn't be me. Can't relate. Anyways, the total public lightning capacity is five thousand three hundred and five point zero seven BTC. The hash rate has been going absolutely parabolic. Of course, this is just a rough guesstimate of what is going on on the Bitcoin network. But something is happening and people are uploading and turning on a lot of A6. The last 90 days, we are at four hundred and twenty point one exahashes. The pending fees. Oh, my goodness. It's spiking right now. Eleven point four four BTC, at least according to the mempool that Clark Moody is connected to. We've been telling you for a while. You wanted to make sure that you are consolidating your UTXOs because things are going to get crazy. This will probably cool down a little bit. I think I did hear that there's some like ordinal BRC 20 stuff going on right now. Yeah. So that's probably why we're seeing this spike right now in the fee market. So once it gets a little cooler, oops, oops, sorry. It gets a little cooler. Not wrong, though. Yeah, not wrong. Once you once you get a little cooler in the fee market, I suggest you guys take the opportunity to consolidate your UTXOs. Make sure that you have good UTXO hygiene. Anyways. All right, guys, I'm going to connect last night's TTO that I did with CJ. I hope you guys watch that. I do have it up here for you guys to show you that you need to go watch this. And I took a little piece out of there. But here we are. We got Neil Kashkar. And remember who he is. He's the crazy guy that was coming out when we were going through the the, you know, the flu pandemic. And he was telling us that they can print unlimited money. And they clarified that question. And we got the memes of him with crazy eyes, like, wait, so you're telling me you can print unlimited money? And he said, yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you. Well, here he is again. And if you listen to last night's TTO. And you will listen to this this morning. You really start to realize just how detached these quote unquote elites are, how detached the Fed is from reality. You really would ask yourself what is going on. And again, I reference the white paper constantly on here because it's literally in the first paragraph of the white paper. Satoshi was so prescient when it came to this because he saw the fundamental problem of the fiat system. It is its trust based system, inherent trust that you need to just trust that these people know what they're doing. And we're seeing in real time that people still seem to trust them. And if you look at the data. There is no reason to trust them. Anyways, Neel Kashkari in this little video here goes, I'm not seeing a lot of evidence that the economy is weakening. And he discusses market expectations for an interest rate cut by the central bank next year. So let's just listen to him and remember the idea that the only reason the system is continuing to hobble along as it is, is because people out there still believe these people in the suits that they know what is going on. Trust the experts. They know exactly what's going on. Trust the guy in the suit on the television telling you that they have the economy under control, that interest rates are under control, that the Fed knows where we're going. And if you really look at the data, it may be completely different and telling you a different story. Anyways, let's listen to this, guys. You said that people want certainty and that you can't give it to them. And I understand that. But people don't just want certainty. They also want some sort of guiding philosophy. Do you think that Fed Chair Powell has outlined some sort of guiding philosophy on where the bar is to cut rates, on where the bar is to raise them further? Well, I think he's articulated very clearly that we're committed to getting back to 2 % inflation, right? There's been some chatter amongst economists that maybe we should raise the inflation target. I think he's done a great job saying that is not on the table. We're not going to do that. We're going to get inflation back to 2%. And we're going to let the data guide us. We've moved very aggressively. We've made a lot of progress on inflation. We're not done yet, meaning inflation is not back to our target. And if we need to do more, we will. There seems to be a feeling in markets that the bar to cut rates has been lowered over the past week or two weeks. That suddenly, not only are we reaching a pause, and have we seen a peak in the Fed funds rate, but that also the Fed will cut next year, maybe surgically. Neil Dutta is talking about that. He's coming up next. Do you want to push back against that? Do you think that the bar to cut is still just as high as it was? I have no idea where market participants are getting that. There's no discussion amongst me and any of my colleagues about when we're going to start preparing to cut rates. The only thing that's been talked about at all is that at some point, when inflation is well on its way back down, if we didn't back off a little bit, the real rates would be getting tighter and tighter and tighter. And that's real, but that's math. But is there enough weakness currently in the market, in the economy, I should say, to give you that sense at this point? Look at the last GDP print. I mean, does anybody look at that and think, oh my gosh, the economy? For the last 12 months, GDP has been very strong. The labor market continues to be quite robust. Yes, the unemployment rate has ticked up to 3 .9%, but we've also seen a huge surge of labor supply, which is really positive, come online. So I'm looking at this. I'm seeing consumers that are strong. By the way, my airplane that I came here on was 100 % full yesterday. It's going to be 100 % full today. I'm not seeing a lot of evidence that the economy is weakening.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Irresistable Grace
"John chapter 6, 35 to 51 will be our text this evening. John chapter 6, 35, 51. Hear now the word of our God. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life and I will raise Him up on the last day. So the Jews grumbled about Him because He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except He who is from God, He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The sins of the reading of the word of God, let's ask His blessing now upon that word in a moment of prayer. Our great God, we ask very simply this evening that your word would be a lamp unto our feet, that it would be a light unto our path. For we know on the basis of your word that it is truly only in your light that we see light. Grant it to us now in Jesus name, Amen. You must be born again. Those were the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John chapter three. And you're no doubt familiar with those words as they in many ways took center stage in the mass evangelism movements of the 20th century. They were repeated frequently on the lips of men like Billy Graham. And indeed these words do make for an effective evangelistic call to faith. As our Lord makes clear in John chapter three, the new birth is the only way to enter the kingdom of God. It's the only way to have real communion with Jesus Christ. It's the only hope for eternity. But if all of these things are so, I hope you believe that they are, then we aren't necessarily then to ask how we are born again. If the new birth is the difference between heaven and hell, then I'm sure that you will agree with me that this is a matter of inestimable significance. And even if evangelical Christians are of one mind about the necessity of the new birth, it is simply a matter of fact that there is a long -standing disagreement as to how we are born again. For example, you will surely find many evangelical Christians out there today who would say that the new birth comes about something like this. God in his grace calls all men, all women everywhere to believe on Christ that they might be born again. However, in order to do so, man must use his unaided free will to cooperate with the grace of God by choosing to express his faith. That those who do so will be born again and those who by a contrary act of their free will resist the call of God will be condemned for their unbelief. And you see, in this accounting of things, the initiative lies with who? It lies with man. The choice is his. He can go one way or the other. He just needs to make up his mind, believe or resist, believe that you might be born again. Many people speak in this way, but the question tonight is, is it biblical? And it's not. You don't even have to leave John chapter 3 in order to determine that it is not. Nicodemus there expresses bewilderment to Jesus about the call to be born again. What does Jesus say? He says, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born again. Do you see, brothers and sisters, according to Jesus, the new birth requires a sovereign act of God's holy spirit. The lies initiative with the Lord. Only when he has done his work are we even able to believe, and he tells us that he will do that redeeming work when and where he wants to do it. And this is the doctrine which is commonly referred to as the doctrine of irresistible grace, or to use the language of the Westminster Confession, effectual calling. This doctrine is present, as we've already alluded to in John chapter 3, and it's present in John chapter 6, 35 to 51, which I've taken as my text tonight. So the way that I want to spend the time allotted to me this evening is to take a brief look at John 6, 35 to 51, and then to simply draw some doctrinal lessons from that passage. First of all then, let us quickly tonight survey our text. To begin with, we take note of the fact that the verses which we have read this evening take place in the aftermath of Jesus' feeding of the 5 ,000. While the other three gospels do tell that story, they largely focus on the disciples' reaction to that miracle, while John is especially interested in the response of the crowds. And what was the response of the crowds? Well, initially they were amazed. We would find that if we had time tonight to read all of John chapter 6. They were so impressed with Jesus' work at the feeding of 5 ,000 that verse 15 tells us that they really, what they wanted to do was to make him king, and to make him king by force. However, as Jesus did so often over the course of his ministry, he quickly moves as he begins to teach to dissuade the crowds of the misunderstandings which were baked into their initial reaction. Very bluntly, Jesus explains to the crowd in verse 26 of this chapter, Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. So Jesus knew that the men and women standing before him were more impressed with the meal that they had been given than they were with the giver of the meal. And to correct this failure to prioritize, Jesus tells them that they need to quit working for bread and start doing the works of God. As a result of that assertion, they want to know, what does it mean to do the works of God? And Jesus explains in verse 29, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. And it's really this exhortation in the text which provides the context for the passage that we have read, where Jesus is teaching the crowd who it is that he is, that they might indeed believe in him. And so Jesus declares, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall, not hunger, whoever believes in me, shall never thirst. So what matters isn't how full your belly is, because eventually you'll be hungry again. What matters is that you feed upon the bread of life, which brings eternal satisfaction. But Jesus goes on in verse 36, I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Here's the crisis in the text. The crowds had marveled at the feeding of the 5 ,000. They had sat under the preaching of Jesus Christ himself as he held himself up before them as the proper object of faith. And yet they did not believe. Why? How could it be? How could they fail to respond when they had seen so much and when they had heard so much? A message that had no error, a better sermon than you will hear preached tonight, they had heard on that day, so how is it that they could fail to believe? Well, Jesus provides an insight into this quandary in verse 37, saying, all that the Father gives me will come to me. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. The implication is that if they have not come, if they have not believed, it is because they have not been given by the Father to the Son. Now, some might think that's a harsh response from Jesus, but as we observe in verses 39 and 40, Jesus freely promises to raise up every last person who looks on the Son and believes in him unto eternal life. The promise of the gospel stands open, believe on Christ and live, but not all believe. And the crowd's response proves it. In verse 41, we are told that the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. Now that Jesus has drawn a sharp dividing line between those who belong to him and those who don't, they are suddenly less impressed than they were just moments prior. In fact, as we see there in the text, stoop so low in their response to Jesus that they began to cast aspersions on Jesus' family. Don't we know this guy's mom and papa? Who is he to say that he's the bread of life come down from heaven? Jesus doesn't budge. Jesus doesn't alter his message. He does not change course in response to this criticism. Verse 43 to 45 shows this, Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. It's written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. And some, if someone comes to Jesus, it is because the Father draws him. And those whom the Father draws will come without fail. And then our passage ends with a re -articulation of Jesus' identity as the bread of life which came down from heaven to give life to those who feed on him. Much more we can say there. We don't have time. That's our survey of the text though. So the question is what doctrinal lessons can we take away from the account which we've just considered? Well, four short lessons. First of all, the only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ. This is taught in our text. It's taught throughout the New Testament. As Jesus explained to the crowd who was before him that day, it is those who do the will of the Father by looking to the Son and believing who are granted eternal life. Anything less is insufficient for salvation. It doesn't matter whether your idol of choice is a false god or your material possessions or your flesh. Trusting in anything or anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation will lead you to hell. As we read later in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. So the only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ. The second point we want to consider is the fact that the only way to have faith in Jesus Christ is to be drawn by the Father. The only way to have faith in Jesus Christ is to be drawn by the Father. Our second doctrinal lesson is far more controversial than the first, but I hope that you see that it's no less scriptural. Jesus says plainly that no one comes to him unless the Father draws him. And why is this the case? Well, place this sermon in the context of the others. It is necessarily the case because as we have already heard tonight, we are naturally depraved. We do not naturally seek after God. We are born dead in sin. So if we have any hope of new life, we need the initiative and the power to come from outside of ourselves. Unfortunately, there is a power. Again, all that the Father gives me will come to me. So as we hear the outward call of God through the preaching of the gospel, the Father is sovereignly calling his elect inwardly that they might believe the message that they are hearing. So the only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ. The only way to have faith in Jesus Christ is to be drawn by the Father. The third point here is that the Father draws sinners to Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit. Now here we recall the conversation which we've referenced between Jesus and Nicodemus. The Spirit is not mentioned explicitly here in the passage we read in John chapter 6. But I hope that it's obvious that these two passages are not to be divorced from one another. Instead, we may, interpreting scripture with scripture, deduce that the way in which the Father draws the elect to his Son is through the work of the Spirit. Like the wind goes where he wishes. As Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 10 paragraph 1 puts it, God calls those who are predestined unto life by his word and spirit out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. That is a triune God saving an elect people. This is the fulfillment of the promise made to God's people in Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 27, where the Lord promised to his old covenant people in that day, the coming of the new covenant, I will put my Spirit within you. So the only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ. The only way to have faith in Jesus Christ is to be drawn by the Father. The Father draws sinners to Christ through the working of the Spirit. Our final point of application, doctrinal consideration, is that this work is always efficacious and it cannot be resisted. The text tells us that all who have seen and heard from the Father will, in fact, do, in fact, come to Christ. There is no tentativeness in the Lord's remarks. This is not a maybe, hope so, hope it happens. All that the Father gives come. And this is consonant with the picture painted by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 verse 30, where we read of that unbreakable chain of salvation wherein those who have been predestined will be effectually called. So we read. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Contrary to the Roman belief that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ can be resisted as it was expressed and administered through the sacraments, contrary to the opinion held by many evangelicals that the Lord's call and the work of the Spirit can be resisted, we read here of a salvation which is planned in eternity and accomplished in time without fail. And many worry that such an understanding of God's sovereign working does damage to man's will. But it does no such thing. Without the triune application of redemption, which we have already discussed, man is wholly incapable of willing the good. His will is only free to choose those things which entice his fallen nature. Only when God transforms the will of the sinner through the working of the Spirit is this hopeless situation overturned. I will continue the trend here tonight by making reference to the canons of Dort, which are very helpful in explaining this point. There we read that it is by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit that God also penetrates into the inmost being of man, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is circumcised. He infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant. He activates and strengthens the will so that like a good tree it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good works. You see, when we speak of the doctrine of irresistible grace, we are not talking about a trampling of man's supposed free will. Rather, we are talking about a transformation of man's will through the work of regeneration, brought about by the Holy Spirit that we might indeed repent and believe. And all of this follows quite naturally if you've been tracking with the development of the doctrines of grace tonight. As sinners, we are depraved. We cannot save ourselves. Our hope of salvation stems from the fact that God elected for himself a people for which he sent his son to die an atoning death. To speak of God's irresistible grace, then, is simply to speak of the application of those benefits to the elect. As the eminent reformed theologian John Murray put it in his discussion of effectual calling, calling is an act of God and of God alone. This fact should make us keenly aware how dependent we are upon the sovereign grace of God in the application of redemption. If calling is the initial step in our becoming actual partakers of salvation, the fact that God is its author forcefully reminds us that the pure sovereignty of God's work in salvation is not suspended at the point of application any more than at the point of design and objective. In other words, what the Lord planned to do in eternity, he most surely does. And he ends the quote this way, We may not like this doctrine, but if so, it is because we are averse to the grace of God and wish to irrigate for ourselves the prerogative that belongs to God. And he says, we know where that disposition had its origin. So, brothers and sisters, I close tonight by insisting with the great evangelists of yesteryear that you must be born again. And the way to receive that new birth is by the working of the Holy Spirit through whom the Father draws sinners to Jesus Christ for salvation. So believe on Jesus Christ, who died for sins and was raised to give eternal life. The gospel call to the preaching of the word goes out to all men, even if only some are effectively drawn. So it is incumbent upon you tonight, if you're hearing these words, that you would repent and believe if you have never believed in this way, then I urge you to do so now. And if you have, then give thanks, recognizing that it is not of your own volition. It wasn't up to you. Instead, it was the gracious gift of God to whom belongs all the praise and glory. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that it was not left up to us because otherwise, if it were, it would have failed to have happened. We would not be saved. But you are good and you are gracious. Lord, and you transform our wills as you work within us through your means of grace. We might understand that which was previously baffling to us, that we might believe that which we once hated and that we might know a God against whom once we had rebelled. So we pray tonight that you would teach us daily to give you the glory for the great salvation which we know in Jesus Christ, in whose name it is we pray. Amen.
Evangelism On Fire
A highlight from Jesus Mission Is Our Mission
"Welcome to Evangelism on Fire podcast. My name is Mark Thomas, an ordained pastor, a teacher of the best selling book of all time, your host, and most importantly, your evangelism coach. Every episode, I bring you an inspiring message to help you live the most exciting life God has created you to live by actively sharing your faith in Jesus with others. I believe in the power of the gospel and the potential of all Christians to live out the mission of the great commission. I believe the best way for Christians to grow is to go. It's time for a revolution in every Christian's life around the world so that every person everywhere around the world can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ from a friend or family member through one on one evangelism. I'm so thankful for our time together today. I absolutely love spending time with you evangelism on fire nation. I believe this podcast will truly inspire you and I believe it will inspire so many people that you know. And if you're inspired and feeling moved to share this, then please message some friends, post this on social media and let people know about this episode so we can get this message out there more. I appreciate you and everyone listening right now. And a quick reminder, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast to rate it, to review it, spread the word on social media and spread the message of evangelism on fire forward. The youth today represent the future of our country. Many of them are putting their hope in everything other than God. They are being deceived. Grandparents aren't taking their grandkids to church like they did in the past. The church has been dwindling, which means the younger generation is not hearing about God and his word nearly as much as they used to. That's why it is so important for us to get in front of them and make sure that worldly desire is not leading them astray. We want to let them know that there is hope for them through a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In order to do this and to make an impact, we need your help. We need you to join us on this mission of being an inspiration for the younger generation. To do this, become a partner at evangelism on fire ministry. Being a partner means making a commitment to give whatever you can to help us on our mission. We can't do this without you. We can't do this without the support of God's kingdom. Let's reach the world with the most important message that exists, the gospel message. Join us for the plans we have for ministry in 2023 by becoming an evangelism on fire ministry partner by going to today's show notes and clicking on the giving link to become a monthly partner by setting up a monthly donation or go to our website evangelismonfire .com. Click on the donate button to give a monthly reoccurring donation or a one time gift. Thank you for joining us to give hope to the world. Welcome to episode 162. This is your host, Mark Thomas. Thanks for joining me for another weekly pod episode. Hey, stop arguing with the saved and start sharing the gospel message to the lost. Boom. Evangelism on fire nation. I have three quotes for you today. First quote is by Kevin Palau. I want to live like you and see people how you see them. Second quote is by Ed Stetzer. I want your mission to be my mission. Third quote of the day is from Lisa Fields. I don't want to shrink back from the big questions. Help me to listen deeply as you would. Luke 19 10 is our scripture of the day for the son of man came to seek and save the lost. I've heard many Bible scholars say that if they were to sum up the entire Bible, that's what it would be. The summary would be for the son of man came to seek and save the lost. Today's pod episode calls Christ followers to reconnect with the God given compassion that may have eroded over time due to weariness, cynicism or defensiveness. When we look at Jesus, he reminds us of their great compassion each of us has received. We're reminded of that in Romans 5 8 while we were still sinners, he died for us. He Jesus would have our hearts ache for the lost, just like he does. That's what sets our priorities straight so that we can't help but tell people about Jesus. Today's episode is designed to return us to the existential priority of sharing the gospel with the hope that a revived area of evangelism will begin boom. I've been helping Christians and churches for two decades who have a genuine desire to reach people and communities with the gospel message and I am here to help you along your way with your passion with evangelism. Look I know that experience evangelism does not happen overnight. I know there are so many unknowns when it comes to sharing your faith in Jesus with others so if you're feeling that way just know this you are not alone. I also know for some of you the idea of adding one more task to your daily grind is daunting. I'm here to revive your interest with your practice of evangelism. I'll walk you through all these challenges to help you share the gospel and equip you and others to share the gospel message. Let's begin with this question. How warm, empathetic, and relevant would Jesus do it if he were walking on earth right now? I'll be exploring the answer to that question in the upcoming weeks as we grapple daily on how to make gospel sharing happen effectively and compassionately. And the best part of our journey together is that we won't be relying on brilliant human ideas of how to do this. Yes, we are turning to Jesus as our ultimate compass. There's no greater example than him and his mission to follow after. Let's get a clear understanding of what the great commission is. The great commission is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. The first words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark are an announcement of the arrival of God's kingdom. And Jesus' last words to his disciples starting in Mark 16 -15 which states, Go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone, build upon his first announcement. The call Jesus left us with was to continue telling others about the gospel's good news. This good news is that Jesus has brought the arrival of the kingdom of God to earth and that through his death and resurrection he has made a way for all people to have a new life in him. This task of evangelism, telling others about Jesus, was the first thing that Jesus asked his followers to do as he left earth. Telling others about what Jesus has done for them is one of the most important things we can do with our time. Listen, we have been given the greatest gift of all, eternal life with God, but that gift is also freely available to the rest of the world. So take some time today to pray for those in your life who do not know the hope that Jesus gives. Pray for their salvation, but also pray for opportunities to share your own faith story with them. Let's take a look at the great commission in Matthew 28 16 -20. This is what it says, starting in verse 16, Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Verse 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Evangelism on Fire Nation, did you know that research shows the best way to discover an answer to a question is by asking questions. I've heard it said that questions are the answer. I believe the best way to discover your pulse level about personal one -on -one evangelism and your desire to share the gospel by engaging in the mission of the great commission is by answering these questions I'm going to ask you now. Here's the deal. When you answer these questions, you need to answer these questions honestly, as you are, not as you desire to be. Let me say that one more time. When I ask you these key questions that are going to reveal your evangelism temperature, make sure you answer these questions brutally honest, as you are now, not as you desire to be in the future as it pertains to evangelism. Again, be brutally honest with yourself and allow your answers to challenge yourself to your next step of one -on -one evangelism. As you understand it today, how would you describe your missional identity and calling as a co -laborer with Jesus to spread his gospel message with others? Is there anything that hinders you from entering into Jesus' compassion for the people of the broken and lost world? Honestly consider. When you think about the great commission, have you understood it to be a calling that applies to you personally? I'm going to ask you a few more questions and through these questions we can grow together. What are you and your church currently doing to help fulfill the great commission? What are you and your church doing to help equip the people of God to show and share Jesus in their day -to -day lives? This isn't a question, but this is a practical step I would love for you to take. I would love for you to go to our Evangelism on Fire group page and share ideas of how evangelistic action could be re -energized in your church. If you go to our Evangelism on Fire Nation Facebook group page, write down two to three ways you'd like to implement in your own personal one -on -one evangelism lifestyle or for your church. As we close today Evangelism on Fire Nation, let me ask you these questions again so you have more time to think through them. Question number one, as you understand it today, how would you describe your missional identity and calling as a co -laborer with Jesus to help engage in the mission of the great commission, to help share his gospel message, the good news, with other people through one -on -one evangelism? The next question, is there anything that hinders you from entering into Jesus' compassion for the people of the broken and lost world we live in? And again, honestly consider this, when you think about the great commission, have you understood it to be a calling that applies to you personally? Next question, what are you and your church currently doing to help fulfill the great commission? What are you and your church doing to help equip the people of God to show and share Jesus in their day -to -day lives? And again, man, I would love for you to go to our Evangelism on Fire Facebook group page, share ideas of how evangelistic action could be re -energized in your personal evangelism life or your church. Go to our group page, write two to three ways that you would like to implement. God bless you and have the best week of your life. Make sure to join me for next week's episode, episode 163. And always remember this, that the greatest joy in the world is to know Jesus Christ. The second greatest joy is to make Him known. Thanks so much for your time with me today. It's been an amazing time and thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey of sharing your faith in Jesus with others. Make sure to check out today's podcast show notes for a description of today's show along with other super important details. And also make sure to share this with a friend and subscribe over on Apple podcast as well. I really appreciate your feedback, Evangelism on Fire nation. So share a review on Apple and let me know what part of this episode resonated with you the most. And hey, if no one has told you lately, God loves you. I love you. You matter and you have divine purpose. Now it's time to go out there and share the boom, the gospel message with others. Make sure to join me for our next episode.
Hearing Jesus: Daily Bible Study
A highlight from 419// Telling The Difference Between Weeds and Wheat: A Devotional Bible Study on Matthew 13:24-30
"Do you sometimes doubt if you're truly hearing God's voice or if it's really your own? Or have you been in a season where it feels like He's completely silent? Have you been praying for a way to learn how to hear His voice more clearly? Hey friends, I'm Rachel, host of the Hearing Jesus Podcast. If you are ready to grow in your faith and to confidently step into your identity in Christ, then join me as we dig deep into God's Word so you can learn to live out your faith in your everyday life. You may be familiar with The Salvation Army by the Bells We Ring at Christmas, but did you know that we also produce a network of Christian shows you can listen to on your favorite podcast store? One of those shows, Words of Life, is currently in a series on parenting. We'll be joined by families at all stages of parenting to hear their testimony and what they've learned along the way. We've realized that we are her first experience with faith, you know, and what she sees in us, and we're really mindful of how we react to things and how we speak. I've always thought, like, I'm not raising this kid to just grow up, right? I'm raising them to be a fully grown adult who is functional in society. As a father, as a parent, I feel my goal in life is to share the very best parts of me. Those values that you guys instilled in us certainly is something that we give to ours. Find Words of Life wherever you get your podcasts, or visit WordsOfLifePodcast .org to start listening. This holiday, the Home Depot is helping you get gifts that keep on giving by making sure they keep on going. Right now, when you buy a select battery kit from Ryobi, Milwaukee, RIDGID, DeWalt, or Makita, you get an eligible tool for free. Just pick a brand, pick a battery kit, and get a tool free. Give the gift of more doing this holiday with the Home Depot. How doers get more done. Valued at participating stores and online, one per transaction. Discount taken at checkout. Full, eligible tool list in store and online. Valued October 23rd, 2023 through January 28th, 2024. Hey friends, welcome back to the Hearing Jesus Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Grohl. Today we are continuing our discussion of Matthew Chapter 13. So if you're just joining us and this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome. We're glad you're here. What we're doing is we're in a series of an introduction to the Gospels where I'm walking through the Gospel of Matthew and chapter by chapter, verse by verse, we're talking about some of the things that we easily overlook because we are in a different time and space than the original audience was. And the reason why we do that is because there are things that the original audience, Jewish living people in a farming community would have understood that is sometimes lost on us. And so I want to point some of those things out to help you understand how this message of the Gospel is relevant to you in your life today. If you would like to dive a little bit deeper, we have resources available for you every day. There are journal prompts that go along with each episode as well as a family discussion guide, and you can get the links for that in the show notes. And then we also offer spiritual direction and one on one life coaching to help you dive That's what you're interested in. You can go to shears .org for that as well. So we are in Matthew chapter 13, and we're picking back up at verse 24. It says, Jesus told them another parable. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed seeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner servants came to him and said, Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he said, because while you were pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, then gather wheat and bring it to my barn. So at first glance, this may feel very similar to what we studied yesterday, which was the parable of the soils. And I would encourage you to go back and listen to yesterday's episode if you haven't done that so far. But it's the same theme, but it means something a little bit different. And you have to remember who this audience was that Jesus was speaking to. This original audience was a group of people that likely were farmers. And in that time frame, there was a lot of wealthy landowners that controlled most of that rural land throughout the I mean, that was throughout the Roman Empire, not just in this location. But their estates were worked either by free peasants or by slaves. And honestly, essentially, most of their situations were very, very similar. The only difference would be the fact that the slaves could be beaten or sold. But as far as their stature and their status in life, they live very similar lives. And so many of the hearers of Jesus that were in this crowd would have been rural farmers on these larger estates. And they would have really identified with this situation that he's describing. So they would have identified with the soil story from yesterday. And then this story about the weeds, they would have understood what the struggle was about. And before we get into that, I just want to make note about a couple things. First, the crop that's going to be produced in the life of the person who is good soil. So this is going back to what we talked about yesterday, this idea of good soil. The crop is for the kingdom of heaven to operate. And many think that that crop is referring to converts, people that are one to Christ through the believer. And yes, that is partially true. But in this context, it goes a little bit deeper to this more fundamental idea of transformation of the person who has encountered this kingdom of heaven experience. And so in the forest soil yesterday, we were talking about the four kinds of soil in the forest soil. That crop represents the working of the Holy Spirit inside the life of that seed or you and I, that person, that seed falls on good soil. And so there's a reference there to this production of good fruit. And later in Galatians, we'll study this. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can go there and read in Galatians chapter five about the fruit of the Spirit and what that is. It is the gifts of the Spirit within the believer's life. And that results in these characteristics that are produced by the Spirit of God working through the life of the believer. And so this external creation of this kind of Spirit produced righteousness and these good works that are done, they're now coming up through these new converts where it's not just about them praying a prayer or them making the decision to follow Jesus, but it's about them producing good fruit, a good crop, a good harvest, the fruit of their lives. And so that's what we want to look for when we're talking about good soil is not just the fact that somebody receives that word, but that they internalize it and they develop this relationship with Christ. So as we're going through a couple of things in verse 25, it says about while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed seeds among the wheat and went away. Now, in that culture, they often would sleep after lunch, but most of the time, the greatest length of time that they would be sleeping would be at night. And either way, it could have happened at either time at lunchtime or even at nighttime. But this was something that was very common in that timeframe. Ancient farmers sometimes fought. Sometimes it would be over land. Sometimes it would be over relationships. Lots of different things, money. And a Roman law had to actually forbid this practice of sowing poisonous seeds into a neighbor's field. And so do you have to think about what was their diet? The most basic staple of their diet in the entire ancient world was what? So wheat was critical. And most of the time we're talking about seed, we're talking about wheat. And so what the enemy or the neighbor that wanted to get back at his neighbor would do is he would also plant a poisonous weed, which is a kind of a rye grass known as Darnell. And it looks like wheat, especially in the early stages. And you can really only tell the difference once the ear appears, once the fruit appears. See, Satan operates in this world, both as the swooping bird that we saw yesterday that swooped down and stole the seed and also as that enemy farmer. And so what this parable is doing is emphasizing the fact that the enemy will plant things just alongside of where God is planting. And what does that look like? Well, it's evil intentions. It's lies. His influence is right alongside those who are spreading God's word. And the interesting thing about this, and you will hear a lot about this if you are operating within the church, within the body of Christ or serving God, is there's a lot of times a demonic oppression or attack against God's people, especially when they are called to share God's word. It's predictable. We call it predictable resistance. And quite often what will happen is the moment that you are getting ready to stand out and stand up in obedience to what God has called you to do, the enemy will attack.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Nine Gospel Truths
"I invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Take a break this week from Exodus and take a look at this wonderful passage in Romans chapter 10. Reading Romans 10 verse 9 through verse 17, though as we dig into it we'll really just be looking at 14 through 17. Romans chapter 10 beginning in verse 9. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, that they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Let's bow together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come to ask you that you'd bless this word to our hearts. You give us an understanding by your Spirit of us and we believe in rich, strengthened in our faith. Pray for those who perhaps have no faith this morning that this would be the time that you would stir in a new life that they might believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to call on his name and be saved. Father, I pray that you would encourage everyone here and give us all attentiveness to your word and pray in Jesus' name, Amen. The question at hand in this passage is pretty straightforward and it is this, it is how will anyone personally experience the gift of salvation from the wrath of God and receive the gift of eternal life? It's a basic question. It's really a fundamental question to the whole of scripture. Some people come to a religious kind of mood or spiritualism and have different conjectures about how they would answer that question. Some people think that every last person on the planet will be saved. That's universalism. That is a doctrine that finds absolutely no credibility in scripture. Jesus states pretty clearly that the path to life is narrow and few find it. Some people think that salvation, eternal life, comes to those who are good enough. That is self -righteousness. The Bible likewise gives absolutely no credibility to that doctrine and obliterates it almost from the very start by condemning mankind as a whole because of our sin and makes it absolutely clear that no amount of good works can ever dig you out of the hole of the sin that you have gotten yourself into. Some in this room right now have a lack of eternal life. You do not possess it and you need it. Because if you do not have it, then the whole of your life is a complete and utter failure and only headed towards eternal condemnation. Some of you know the Lord Jesus Christ and have received his salvation and you know it's not of yourself. You know it's completely of grace and the only merit to your life is that God has intervened incredibly and miraculously to save you from the path of destruction you were on. And you know personally the urgency of the Gospel message because you yourself have experienced salvation from condemnation and given the gift of eternal life and a relationship with God and you know that there are others around you who do not have that and it's not as though they have an infinite amount of time to figure out life and eternal life because in a moment their life will be snuffed out like the flame of a candle and they head into eternity either with Christ or without Christ and what's going to make the difference? This text is really about that problem. How does anyone receive eternal life, the gift of God? In the context of the book of Romans there is a very significant theological question that is being wrestled with in Romans 9, 10, and 11 and the question that's being wrestled with is this, God says that he is a faithful God who makes promises to his people that he is going to take care of them, protect them, save them. The people that he made those promises to in the Old Testament was the people of Israel and yet the people of Israel by and large had at the time of Paul's writing rejected God's salvation in Jesus Christ and so the question arises, is God going to make good on his promises? Is God someone who can be trusted? He said he would take care of this people and then when salvation comes they reject it and so can we trust God? In Romans chapter 9 verses 4 and 5 describes how God has singled out that people of Israel, that he made great and powerful promises to them. Romans 9 verse 4 says they are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, and the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Peter's Message
"We're so thankful, once again, to have the opportunity to come to God's Word and study for a little while this evening, and it's good to see each of you on this cold night that reminds us that there are four seasons in the south, and winter is right upon us. But I'm glad that you braved the cold of the night and would, that you would continue to pray for us in the time that we have together in God's Word. I'd like to title our study tonight, Peter's Message on the Day of Pentecost, Peter's Message. And I'd like to begin with a quotation that I wrote down from John MacArthur. He said, The power of the church for her external work is proportionate with the internal power of God within her. We cannot distribute loaves and fishes out of empty baskets. I thought that was a great quote and I wanted to share it with you because it really introduces of the concept why the Acts of the Apostles is so significant and important for the church in our day, because as we said last time we were together, the Acts of the Apostles or the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles is like a bridge between the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the rest of the Bible, because it explains how that in a period less than 30 years the church would expand to the farthest regions of the Roman Empire. I mean this is before TV, this is before radio, this is before cell phones and mass communication, computers, and all of the means by which we today have to impact the whole world. And yet God used them in a mighty way, but we need to remember something. A lot of times we think about the early church being super heroes and super human beings different in so many ways than us, but I want you to realize that they were ordinary men and women that God used in an extraordinary way. We today depend upon the same power of the Holy Spirit as the early church did, the first century church, the primitive church, the first of the kind. We know through the scripture that Jesus established the church in His own personal ministry in Matthew 16, 18, He said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He built the ship of Zion, He facilitated everything that she would need to sail through time and in Acts chapter 2 you're finding the wind of the Holy Spirit coming into the sails of Zion and today we still are under that same influence. We're also going to be mindful tonight that in Acts chapter 10 the same phenomenon is it's called the Gentile Pentecost and I think it's important for us to keep those two in mind because there's similarities and yet distinctions. The feast of Pentecost was so named because it occurred 50 days after the Passover, 50 days after the Passover. Now what happened on the last Passover? In our context, Jesus was crucified, He was condemned by the Sanhedrin court, by the temple guards, by the generation that witnessed the Day of Pentecost events that we're going to study tonight. We need to keep that in mind. In fact, we can't detach the phenomenon of Acts chapter 2 from the crucifixion that occurred 50 days before. It was interesting to my mind as we talked about last time how the Jews out of all these various tribes and countries came back to Jerusalem to observe this particular feast. And when they heard their mother tongue, the tongue or the language that they were born in being spoken by these uneducated, unlearned Galileans, they knew something powerful was going on. How can this be that we hear the gospel in our own language in the country that we came from? How is that possible? It's impossible with men, but it's possible with God. All things are possible with God. And of course, it's natural for them to ask in verse 12, What meaneth these things? What does it mean? What is happening in our very midst? What is God saying to us? But there were in verse 13 others that mocked saying, These men are full of new wine. Now there's always going to be those two groups, aren't there? There's always going to be those groups that are seeking the true purpose and meaning of the movement of God and those that stand on the outside and just mock it, make fun of it. Now, we want to pick up our study tonight in verse 14, but there's something that keeps coming back to me. There was something unique that happened during this feast that I think has more of a significance than we think. As we study Leviticus chapter 23 verses 15 through 21, we find that the high priest was to take two leavened loaves of bread. Now remember, during the Passover time and the Passover feast, it was the feast of unleavened bread. Unleavened bread was what they were partaking of for seven days. But at this particular time, God commanded his high priest to take two bread loaves with leaven and present them before the Lord. And I believe that there's more in that than we can even begin to describe or understand. Because I believe that it's pertaining to the believers among the Jews and the Gentiles being brought together. I find in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 17, Paul said, For we, being many, are one bread, and one body. For we are all partakers of that one bread. To me, Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 10 is an appropriate picture of these two loaves being held by our high priest, Jesus Christ, molded into one body. And that's the mystery of the church. The mystery of the church is that it would be open not only to the Jew, but also to the Gentile. And that access to the Father would be given to those that were not natural descendants of Abraham, but were spiritual descendants by virtue of the new birth. So I think that that has an implication in what actually occurred and why the Holy Spirit came at this particular feast. In verse 14, we read, But Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judah... Now this is, he's speaking to Jews. These are the Jewish people, a Jewish message, if you will. And all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken unto my words. Now I want to underscore something, if you don't mind. I want to understand that this is the same Peter that denied the Lord Jesus three times just a few days ago. This is the same Peter that when the Lord looked upon him in that court of Caiaphas and saw Peter denying that he wept bitterly. He went out and wept bitterly. He was repentant. That same Peter that says, I'll tell you what, you know, I've blown it and I'm no good and there's no way God could ever use me again and I'm just going back to fishing. This is the same Peter, but it's the same Peter that Jesus spoke to and restored him. Lovelest thou me more than these? Remember, Peter was the one that bragged about loving Christ more than anybody else. I love you more than these guys do. I mean, Jesus, these guys are wimps. I'm going to stand strong and I'm going to stand firm and I'm going to defend you with all my might because I'm Peter, because of what I can do, what I know, and my own ability. Jesus says, Simon, before the cock crows this night, you're going to deny me three times. Peter said, no way, to put it in my terminology, no way, Jose, that ain't going to happen. Now these other wimps are going to let you down, but I'm not going to let you down. I'll go to prison with you. I'll even go to death. Ah, Peter, you don't know. You're leaning on your own strength. You just don't understand, son. You're going to deny me. In that very night, he denied him three times. But oh, wasn't it wonderful when Jesus would restore him with this one question, do you love me? That's what he looks for. He's not looking for great skill. He's not looking for outward success. He's not looking for the things that most people look for in a leader, but he's looking for somebody that learned from his failure. That's who he'll call to be a leader. It's no accident that it's Peter that stands up. Peter's not hiding out. Peter's no longer denying. He's going to stand up in front of the crowd that condemned Jesus to death. Remember, these events are taking place very close to the Temple Mount, very in the city of Jerusalem itself. These events are being witnessed by the Sanhedrin, the very Jews that cried out, crucify him, crucify him. But Peter's not afraid, is he? He's lost his fear. He's not afraid of men or demons. Peter stands up and he's going to speak out loud and boldly because he's been empowered by the Holy Spirit. Don't you see that's the difference? He's been empowered by a power that's greater than himself. And he's beckoning the people to hear his words. In verse 15, for these are not drunken as ye suppose. Now who are the these? These are the church members. These are the 120 that were gathered in one place with one purpose, with one accord, waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus said in Luke chapter 24 verse 49, tarry ye in Jerusalem till ye be endued with power from on high. They're waiting for that promise. That promise comes and now they're filled with this Holy Spirit and now they're bold witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ and Peter is among them and he's a leader among them. And he says these church members are not drunken as ye suppose seeing it is but the third hour of the day, nine o 'clock in the morning. They're not drinking in the morning time. They wouldn't do that normally, especially at the time of a feast. They wouldn't be doing that. Verse 16, he's going to draw their attention to what they are acquainted with, the Old Testament promises, the Old Testament prophecies concerning the time of the Messiah. He says he's going to go to joy. Well he could have gone to any of the prophets, did you know that? He could have gone to any of the prophets in the Old Testament but he chose Joel. And he says this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel and this is what he quotes from the book of Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God. Now underscore that last days there. Somebody says do you think we're in the last days? Well we've been in the last days for 2 ,000 years, did you know that? The last days began actually at the time of the crucifixion from that time up until the end of the church age, those are the last days. But particularly I think he's referring to the last days of the Jewish economy or the time the before temple itself was destroyed in Jerusalem, these last days as it were.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Evangelism and the Trinity
"Let's pray and ask God's blessing upon the preaching of his word. Father, we do come before the preaching of your word now. What a great blessing it is that we can have your word given to us in so many different ways. Lord, we hear it. We see it. And soon we will sense it, we will taste it, we will touch it. You surround us with so many great blessings, simple though they may be, simply water, bread and wine, and word, Lord, you use these simple elements to strengthen our faith, to point us towards our Savior Jesus Christ who is alive today in heaven. We pray you would do this through this sermon now, in Christ's name, amen. Well, Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20, actually let's just begin in verse 16 and we'll go to the end. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go and therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. This ends the reading of the word of the Lord. So this week as I was preparing for our evening service and I was reflecting on us that we got to have a baptism today, our evening service, in the next couple weeks we're going to go over the question of how many persons are there in the Godhead? And as Christians we believe there are three persons. We do not just simply a singular person God, I mean he is one being in substance, but he is three persons. He's Father, Son and Holy Spirit as we hear in this text today. And as I was reflecting on this I thought, man, this is a great occasion. For a sermon on Matthew 28. But as I was thinking about it something interesting came across my mind of what happens in this passage. That here at the very outset of the Christian life is the name and the truth of the Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact one of the most, if not the most, mysterious doctrines of the Christian faith is where we begin the Christian life. And so I'd like us to take a few moments to see what this means for us. And also that it has interesting implications, important implications for evangelism. That's precisely what Jesus is calling his eleven disciples here to go do. To evangelize not the nations. And how should we think about this? Well I'd like to point us in three different ways in this passage to what we see here. First that we receive a new name. And then what is that name that we receive? Secondly. And then lastly the benefits and calling of this name. We receive a new name. What that new name is. And the benefits and calling of this new name. So what does it mean to be baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? The first thing that you will notice here is that it's the word, the word for name is singular. Because it goes immediately after that and lists three people or three persons more properly. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But it doesn't say baptize them into the names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It says baptize them into the name. And this is where we begin to understand our doctrine of the Trinity. That there is one being, one God, one essence, one substance as our catechism says of who God is. There are not three different gods. There is one singular God. Come back this evening and worship in our evening service and you'll hear more about this. But there is one singular God. But we also have three names given to this God. And we see throughout scripture that there are three ways that God reveals himself. There are three persons that God has revealed himself. Three actors, if you will, in God. Three individual persons who do things. And in this we are receiving this three tripart name applied to ourselves. And so what does it mean to be baptized into this name, this one name of three different names, if you will? Well, as we just heard a moment ago, it means that we're identified as God's covenant people. We heard Acts chapter 2 verses 38 and 39 that this covenant is for God's people, for those who believe in him for their children and all who are far off. Now God is calling people not to come and join the nation of Israel and now he is saying no this word of our gospel is going out to the nations and call them to believe in faith in Jesus Christ. And as we saw in baptism, we're explicitly marked out as those who belong to God. In some ways, if you were here yesterday for the wedding ceremony of the Holmans, you got to see something interesting about a wedding ceremony is that a wife takes the name of her husband. It's like a wedding ceremony. But you're now in this, you're being incorporated into the family of God. You're being brought into his covenant as his child. And the Old Testament testifies to what it means to take the Lord's name. Isaiah chapter 44 says, this one will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call on the name of Jacob and another will write on his hand the Lord's and name himself by the name of Israel. That's what it means to have the name of God put upon you. It is identifying yourself with the Lord. It's the wife taking the name of her husband, identifying herself with her husband. She shares in all that belongs to him and she comes under his protection and care. This is a covenant ceremony. In the old covenant, you would make a covenant usually or most often with somebody who was more powerful than you, with a greater king. But God is the king making a covenant with us of protecting, of caring, of sharing all of his goodness, his benefits with us. And he is applying his name saying, you are now, you now belong to me. We belong in a covenant relationship with the Lord. And that's what's happening as God sends, as Jesus sends his disciples out into the world to apply this sign, to baptize them, to make them belong to the covenant that God has made. So we receive a name. That's the purpose of it. It's to show that we belong to the Lord. And some of that might already be understood by you, but it's important to establish this. But then what is this name that we receive? What is the name? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? And like I said at the very beginning is that this is fascinating to me. And I hope it's fascinating to you that the very beginning of the Christian life is the most mysterious doctrine that we can conceive of. Three persons in one being, being applied to somebody at the very moment they are welcomed into the church. Jesus sets out the most profound mystery for his followers at the very beginning. And what's an implication of this is the importance of doctrine in the Christian life. If we begin with the doctrine of the Trinity, the most complex, the most mysterious doctrine, we must understand that we can't ignore doctrine as if it's not important for the Christian life. Too many Christians say, oh, we don't need to know doctrine. That's where people divide. That's where people fight. That's where people don't get along is when they talk about doctrine. And what Jesus is showing here is, no, doctrine begins at the very beginning of your Christian life. In fact, Father, Son, Holy Spirit is how you are identified. And it's essential as we grow as Christians to further and further understand this as best we can. So this is what is being called to as Christians. We are called to a doctrinal life as Christians who grow in our understanding. And as we see this, we grow in our understanding of how these names appear and what they do There's two particular places I'd like to point us to of how we can begin to understand this name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That what's happening here is actually in some ways a mirror of creation. You say, how in the world do you get that, Pastor Nate? Well, I'll get there. But in the beginning, God, Genesis chapter 1, created the heavens and the earth. In verse 2, the Spirit hovers over the waters. So we here have God, what we would refer to as the Father, creating all things, and the Spirit active in that work of creation, Father and Spirit. And then in the New Testament, the Apostle John tells us that also the Son was present there. This is John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Then all things were made through him, through this Word. And without him was not anything that was made. And without him was not anything made that was made. So there at the very beginning, Father, Son, Holy Spirit active in creating and bringing into existence everything. So there we see the trifold God, or trifold persons of God, they're active at creation. But then another event that I will point to as showing forth a little bit more of this creative act of God is what's happening at Jesus' baptism. Mark chapter 1, verses 9 through 11 says, In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters at creation now, the Spirit is hovering over Jesus Christ like a bird. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son. With You I am well pleased. Here we have the Son identified, we have the Spirit identified, and if there is a Son this must be the voice of the Father speaking, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit active in this moment of Jesus Christ being identified with the people of God. That ultimately he need to be identified with them truly in order for him to bear their sins. He must be one of them, he must represent all of them. And baptism is ultimately an act and a witness to both of those events. And it is those events coalescing into one. It is the act where God regenerates us. He brings us back to life from the dead. He is giving life where there is none. In creation God created everything out of nothing. There was no life, but he brought life into existence where there was none. And this is what he is doing in the baptism of Christ. Is that he is bringing life where there is none. Ultimately where he would bring it on the cross, pointing towards his work on the cross and resurrection. And then just so you know I'm not making this up, this is what our catechism says about our confession of faith says that baptism is to be unto him or her a sign and seal of the covenant of grace of his engrafting of Christ and his regeneration. Regeneration is simply to give new life where there is none. To regenerate something, to bring it back to life. And so we see Father, Son and Holy Spirit operative in both creation bringing life where there is none and doing this out all three of them at work again Father, Son and Holy Spirit as Jesus is baptised. And it is a witness to what God does in giving life. And this is where it relates to evangelism. This is how we get to evangelism. Now first off when we talk about evangelism our immediate feeling is we need to grow. It's like prayer. When somebody says do you pray and you obviously think well not as much as I ought to right. And they say well do you evangelise? Well not as much as I ought to. Evangelism is one of those things that we all want to grow in but it seems a bit of a struggle often. One pastor I read this week he talked about confession of sin and reading of Psalm 51 David's Psalm that he wrote after his great sin with Bathsheba and then killing her husband. And he said this one of the chief reasons we do not pray is because we don't know how to pray. He says we do not instinctually know how to pray. We do not instinctually instinctively know how to evangelise. We need to learn. And I believe that this tripart name of God given here, trifold name is a model for us. It is actually a framework for us to learn how to evangelise. There's two ways to do this or two things that I think are really helpful for us as we think about evangelism. There's what I say and many other reformed for throughout the generations have said is the law and the gospel and now also a Trinitarian framework. So you say okay what's my plan for evangelism? Here you go. The law and the gospel and the trinity. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it this way about law and gospel says how many things are necessary for you to know that this comfort that in this comfort the comfort of being united to Jesus Christ, that in this comfort you may live and die happily. What do you need to know? Three things. The first, how great my sin and misery is, second, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery and third, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption. And in this we hear the law and the gospel and then the calling that flows from this gospel. The law tell people that they're sinners, not fun business. Tell people that they are miserable without God. Without God in the world, without God in your life, you are lost in your sins and you have no hope. But then we tell them what God has done to save sinners, what God has done to rescue them and bring them into his kingdom. But as we tell this gospel there's a Trinitarian framework that we can set what God the Father has done. He sent his son to save sinners. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. We tell them what the son then does. God the Father sent his son to save us. What son the himself then does, being sent by the Father he came as a man like one of us to live perfectly for all of us who did not live perfectly, who failed in every way to keep God's commands. And not only did he live the perfect life that we needed, he paid the penalty for all the sins that we've committed. And then he gives us his eternal life, his righteous life for our sake, giving us his resurrection life. And then we tell them about what the Holy Spirit does. What God the Spirit does is then the Spirit comes into you as God applies all these benefits. He says, yes Jesus died on the cross but he died for you and he applies all these benefits to you. He comes and dwells in you. The third person of the Trinity dwelling inside of you. He takes the forgiveness that Christ accomplished and he applies it to you. So now you are one known as forgiven by God. He gives you faith so that you can know these benefits, believe in them and trust in them and rest in them. So that is this tripart name, the threefold name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit that refers to each person of him. And it is a calling for us as we evangelize that we are to go into all the world baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And now the benefit and the calling. The benefit of this going into all the world is that the end of this passage, verse 20, teaching them all I command you and behold I am with you always to the end of the age. This is the great benefit of this calling as Christians. Not only has God called us into his family, baptizing us with his name, making us apart, setting us apart from the rest of the world, he has incorporated us and he makes this amazing promise to us, I am with you always. He has united us to himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Father, Son, Holy Spirit united to us in our whole lives. And because of that bond that is established between the Trinity, God cannot forsake us. We are surrounded in front of us, behind us, underneath us, above us, inside of us and outside of us, everywhere. We belong to Jesus Christ and to each person of the Trinity. He cannot forsake us because if God were to forsake us, he would be forsaking himself and it would undo the bond of God itself. You belong to him and Jesus Christ promises to you that I am with you always. But there is also a calling in this as we go into this world to evangelize. Now this phrase, I am with you always, shows up in an interesting place in scripture, in the book of Joshua. If you read the opening section of Joshua chapter 1, you'll hear this echoed in there. And it's interesting what's happening there versus what we see happening in Matthew chapter 28. Joshua, Moses' servant, who takes over as the leader of Israel right as they're about to enter the Promised Land. Moses dies and Joshua is appointed as the new leader in Israel to bring the people of Israel into the Promised Land, to go conquer it for the people of God. And Joshua is commissioning them to go in, to wipe out all the nations who are evil in there and that make this God's holy dwelling place. And then Joshua gives them this promise as they're about to go in. No man shall be able to stand, this is Joshua chapter 1 verse 5, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. This is God speaking. God says, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. And it's fascinating what is happening in that passage when we compare it with what's happening here. Joshua is sending all these people to go into the land of Israel to conquer it for the people of God, exhorting them to be courageous and not be afraid because God is with them. But what is Jesus doing here? He's not sending them into the land of Israel, this geographic place on the planet, to go conquer it, wiping out the nations that are there, the Romans. No, he does something quite different. He now turns it to the outside. Go into all the world, go into all the nations, go out. He does not send his people to conquer the land of Israel with the sword, now he puts that sword away because he has taken that sword in himself. And he gives his people a new weapon to go bring the nations in to God's kingdom. And he sends his disciples out from Jerusalem to all the nations as one who has already conquered all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Jesus has already conquered. And now he gives his church, his people of God, a new instrument. No longer the sword of judgment but the word of salvation. And we bring people into this kingdom not with a sword threatening them but with a word of gospel, a word of good news, a word of grace. That God is a God who saves sinners, that he has executed his judgment not against the world but against his son. Now that day is coming, the end of the age will come and all who do not repent of their sins will be judged. But this gospel is what is to go out. God's saying go into all the nations, make disciples of them, baptize them, teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And the strength that we do that in now is like what was given to the people of Israel but it's far more. The strength we do that in now is that Jesus Christ is with us as we go into all the world and proclaim this gospel. That he is with us to the end of this age. Whether that is tomorrow or whether we die before that day comes. Jesus Christ is with us. So my hope for us today is to see that as we receive this name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit we belong to the Lord and he has united himself to us and now he sends us out into this world. Maybe we're not going to be evangelists, that is not very many people's calling in life but you certainly can't evangelize. You can tell people about Jesus. And the great promise that you have is regardless of how people respond to you, God is with you. He is with you always because he has shown you in your baptism. He has claimed you as his own and that is your hope as you go out into this life. So remember what Jesus Christ has done for you, uniting you to himself, giving you this beautiful sign of baptism that you can continually look back to as a sign of God's covenant with you, his promise to you and have hope as you go into this world and tell people about our Savior Jesus. Let's pray and ask God to bless us the word that we have heard preached. Lord, we do thank you for this word that we have from Matthew chapter 28. Lord, we pray that you would apply it to our hearts and make it fruitful in us that we would be those who would be bold and courageous, that we would not fear what this world throws at us but we would see ourselves as those marked out by you in our baptism and that we can give testimony and testify to the grace of God that you have shown to us in Jesus Christ. Give us the courage and strength we need. We pray this in the name of Christ. Amen.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Evangelism 101
"Gospel is a way of life. As believers, we should be intentional. It should be something we do, is share the gospel. So maybe you're like this when the term of evangelism and sharing the gospel comes up. You're like the guy here on the left that as soon as somebody talks about evangelism, you're like, I'm out. That's it. I'm out. Or you may be kind of like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, like the guy on your right that seems like the gospel is this burden that just sits on our back, and if we don't share it perfectly, if we don't get them to conversion, all of a sudden we have failed. And these are two avenues that have plagued us quite often when we look at us as believers. But I want to share with you today as the first part of this, this is a burden that's really been on my heart when it comes to sharing the gospel, is I want to remove that backpack from you. And part of the way to do that today as we work through this is we're going to talk about whose role is it anyway when it comes to the gospel. I'm going to take a look at what is the gospel. Oftentimes I think we don't share the gospel because one, we don't know the gospel or we can't articulate the gospel. And then I want to talk about, I object. What are some of the most common objections I've heard? There's really only one that I'd like you to focus in on because in one way shape or form this comes into play every time I've talked with somebody. Turn, turn, turn! What are some ways that we can turn gospel conversations in everyday life? And then talking about just some of the common witnessing scenarios that I've encountered throughout my ministry. So whose role is it anyway? Defining roles in evangelism. If we look back at God's Word itself, John 1, 11 through 13, He came to His own and His own people did not receive Him. But to many that did receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave them the authority to become children of God. Who were born not of blood, not of will, nor of the flesh, but of who? God. It's God who gives people the right to become children of God. We don't. It's God who saves. Jeremiah 31, the new covenant. I'm not going to read the whole thing throughout this, but you will see I've bolded some words. Who's the I will? Yahweh God. I will make a new covenant. I will make with the house of Israel. I will put my law in their hearts. I will write it on them. I will be their God and they will be my people. I will forgive their iniquity and I will no longer remember their sins. What part do you play in that? Nothing. Nothing. John 6, 35 through 39. Jesus says, I'm the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never hunger. The one who believes in me will never thirst again. But I say to you that you have seen and yet do not believe. Everyone when the Father gives me and comes to me and the one who comes to me I will never throw out because I have come down from heaven. Not that I should do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. Now this is the will of the one who sent me that everyone whom He has given life, I will not lose any of them. But I will raise them up on the last day. And a very familiar verse, John 6, 44. No one is able to come to me unless who? God. Yahweh God the Father draws him. Are you getting a sense of hopefully like Christian that burden is coming off your back? What part do we play in this? Well, first of all, don't fear. God is with you even in our miserable failings of sharing the gospel. At the same time, what role do we play? Well, the beautiful thing is Yahweh God the Father orchestrated this plan from the beginning before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ the Son accomplished the plan on the cross. The Holy Spirit applies that plan. What role do you play? John alluded to it in his prayer. You deliver the mail. You declare the plan. You don't change the heart. You don't convince people. You don't convert people. It's a beautiful thing that I get to share with people when I preach in the open air. I tell them right out, right off the gate. I don't convert people. I don't convince people and they look at me weird like, why are you out here? Because I'm here to declare the one who can. And that's what we're there to do. Declare the one who can convert the heart. The one who can convince them of their unbelief to belief. So hopefully the burden if you haven't felt it that you will continue to feel it. It's it's not our role. Our role is just to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ. So what is the good news of Jesus Christ? If I were to ask you, what is the gospel? What would you tell me? Yes. Yeah, what would you tell me? Good news. Okay, what else? Okay, we're all born sinners. We need Jesus as our Savior in order to get to heaven. What else? There's judgment if you reject, okay. What else? Died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. What else? We need to be reconciled to God. Okay, we were purchased at a great price. Good. Eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. Eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. Okay, not by works. Can you articulate the gospel in 30 seconds? Can you articulate the gospel in a minute or five minutes? Can you articulate the gospel in 45 minutes? These are things we hopefully should be able to do with as much time or as little time as someone gives us. The Bible declares 30 second gospel message Christ died for the ungodly. You leave that with somebody, they'll ponder it. Who's Christ? Who are the ungodly? Why did he die? Those several words sum up the gospel message Christ died for the ungodly and all of this that you've talked about encompasses in the gospel. But it's not just pieces of it. I know one of the things when we think about the gospel we think about the death burial and resurrection of Christ and that's it. But the gospel is not just the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's certainly no less than that. But that is the anchor point of who the person and work of Jesus Christ is. His whole life is the gospel. It's the person and work of Jesus Christ that is foundational in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So let's take a look at what is the gospel message determining the gospel message. The beginning of Mark I know here currently in a sermon series on Mark. So Mark 1 1 the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ Mark tells you that all of his 16 chapters are going to be about what? The gospel of Jesus Christ. He lays out the foundation for us. Luke 24 the road to Emmaus toward the end Jesus said to them thus it is written that Christ would suffer and would rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to the nation's beginning from Jerusalem and you are my witnesses of these things earlier in the road to Emmaus. Jesus says that the law the writings and the prophets testify to who to him that means the coal cannon the whole Bible testifies to Jesus Christ. Romans 1 16 through 17 Paul declaring I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes the beautiful thing about this is oftentimes we quote 116 but 17 goes on to explain what the gospel is. To everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith as it is written the just or the one who is righteous by faith will live. First Corinthians 15 you're very familiar with it Paul opening up or should might be familiar with it. I don't know if you are not but I'm not going to make a blanket statement. But in case you're not familiar with it now, I know make known to you brothers the gospel which I proclaim to you which you've also received in which you also stand by which we're also being saved if you hold fast to the message I proclaim to you unless you believed to no purpose for I passed on to you as the first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and then he was buried and then he was raised upon the third day according to the scriptures. These are all verses that we look at when we think about the gospel itself, but there's four things to think about if you had an outline and I don't like outlines that much they help me get started. I won't negate the fact that they've helped me get started. But as you understand scripture and as you start reading through in your daily time, you're going to start to see things that are like wait a minute. That's really good. I could have I could have used that in that conversation. So you put it in your back pocket. And you have another opportunity and then you get to bring it out of your back pocket and share it with somebody because it's something that God is placed on your heart as to how he can move and work throughout the gospel anybody familiar with what is the gospel the book by Greg Gilbert? Great book. It's a great book. He includes this in page 32. He says whatever else the Apostles might say there are the issues that seem to lie at the heart of their presentation of the gospel. Context change angles change words change and approaches change but somehow in some way the earliest Christians always seem to get at these four issues. We are accountable to God who created us we have sinned against that God and will be judged but God has acted in Jesus Christ to save us and we will take hold of that salvation by repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from Episode 15 The Drama of Atheist Humanism Fr. Joseph Fessio S.J., Vivian Dudro, and Joseph Pearce FBC Podcast
"Welcome to the Forum Book Club. We continue to discuss Henri de Dubois's The Drama of Atheismism. We finished up with chapter one of the section dossiers here. We're going to begin with chapter two, The Bankruptcy of Atheism. Was there any concluding remarks that we didn't get in on the chapter one there that you wanted to? Well, I thought the very end of 308, where we talked about this term humanist and how unhelpful that is, the Lubach continues and says, whatever may be thought of his orthodoxy, meaning Dostoevsky's, which is doubly in question, the thing can hardly be denied. His Christianity is genuine. Okay, so yeah, we get into these labels, East, West, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, you know, all these things, and we can lose the forest through the trees. The point is, how the word humanist can be confusing and ambiguous to use the word that the Lubach uses, but orthodoxy here, right? First of all, it's in inverted commas. So, you know, what sort of and lowercase it's O, not uppercase O. So, you know, again, as with the word humanist, the word orthodox, we have to be careful when we're using it as to what we actually talking about here. And so I think it's important. Again, same thing with Christianity, but yes. But the Lubach's point that he tried to make with this previous chapter is to show the profound depth of Dostoevsky's faith in Christ, and that you can't really understand his work if you don't understand that. And I want to refer back to something Joseph said last session too, that because we are Orthodox Christians, we are Catholic, Orthodox and small, we're Catholic, that East and West has some meaning for us, but the real patriotism, the real Fatherland is christened on the Catholic Church, the communion of saints, you know, in heaven and on earth, so that does unite East, West, North and South. All right, Bankruptcy of Atheism, 309, and Joseph, you're taking away here, but the first sentence, Dostoevsky's books abound in atheists. Well, I'll continue because the bottom of the page there, what's the reason that the Lubach gives three lines up? We're limiting that review that he makes to the analysis of the most striking cases. It's in order to throw into relief the principal types of atheism whose bankruptcy he successfully demonstrates, does it? This kind of gives us a prelude to what he's going to do. Here's the three kites. The ideal of the man -god, the ideal of the Tower of Babel, the ideal of the Palace of Glass. These three images are ready to hand. Respect, what do they denote? The man -god ideal is the spiritual ideal of the individual who is alone to himself. Okay, that's individualism. Two, the social ideal of the revolutionary who proposes to ensure without god the happiness of mankind. And three, the Tower of Glass, Palace of Glass, the rational ideal of the philosopher who rejects every kind of measure. So he's going to take these three types of atheism and through his character show what they lead to on the level of human existence. And that these intuitions are what made Dostoevsky a prophet. That's the conclusion of that section. And one might add, a judge of our age. Joseph? Yeah, I'm glad you did that, Father, because you say it sets the scene, it sets the structure for this chapter. He's going to now have the three parts of this chapter, the man -god, the Tower of Glass, the Palace of Glass. The first thing I have highlighted, though, is not just 3 .14, so if anybody wants to jump in prior to that, Bill 3. That's my first one, too. Vivian? Well, only that if there are readers of Dostoevsky out there who are wondering a good example of the first one, the man -god, that's Raskolnikov. I love this expression, the Nietzschean. unsuccessful He's an example of that kind of atheist, trying out the individual who is a law unto himself. But he says that's the weakest of these, of our man -gods. Yeah. The only thing I would say is, is there such a thing as a successful Nietzschean? Good question. I doubt it. So, 3 .14? Shall I take up the cudgels there? Yeah. So, in the middle of the page, am I capable of rising above myself or not, he asks himself one day in one of his merciless self -examinations. That is another of his Nietzschean expressions, but in the sense in which he uses it, which is Nietzsche's sense, no man is capable of rising above himself. It's not because he is weak, it is because he is a man that Raskolnikov is finally obliged to recognize the truth about man and that in order to find the divine life, he has to give up trying to be a god, which I think is why I sort of said, is there such a thing as a successful Nietzschean? Because of course, if you're going to be a Nietzschean and see what you believe through to its logical conclusion, you end up by accepting that you're not a Nietzschean. In other words, that I'm not god, right? I can talk about myself being god, but the more I ask for to be god, the more it becomes evident that I'm not. Well, don't you love this paradox? To find the divine life, you have to give up trying to be god? I want to see if I can summarize this Raskolnikov here and tell me if I'm correct. It's a long time since I've read it and I'm kind of basing myself on what he says about it, but basically Raskolnikov wants to show that he's above all the laws. He's along to himself by killing someone for no reason at all except that he wants to kill her, you know, but he does it and he can't, he has regret or remorse or something, he can't get it out of his mind and he thinks it's because he's too weak to really carry it through. Yes. Not because you're weak, it's because you're a man. That's right. Okay. You have a conscience because you're a man, not because you're weak. And the thing that throws Raskolnikov off, you see, is that the person that he has in his mind to justify his murder really is a wretched person, but her daughter walks in and now he has to kill her too, he has to kill her too, and now he's wracked with guilt that he killed an innocent person along with a supposedly guilty person. Of course, he was never justified in killing the guilty person either, but nevertheless, this made it really complicated for poor Raskolnikov and he was plagued with his conscience from the start. Yeah, and again, just immediately below that, staying with the recurring motif we have going at the moment of the unsuccessful Nietzschean, the bottom of page 314, Stavrogin's pride, the pride of a Lucifer, leads to suicide and that tragic end reflects the spiritual suicide of the being who has refused himself to being and who has arrogantly willed his own emptiness. So again, the ultimate victory of Nietzschean, Luciferian pride is suicide, the killing of oneself. Is that a victory? I mean, yeah, I'm sure there'll be Nietzscheans to say it is. This is my final victory. I'm going to take my own life as an act of spite or anger against reality or God or Christ or whatever, but if the ultimate victory of the one who refuses himself to being, who has refused himself to being, which is a wonderful turn of phrase, if I do do back there, if the consequence of the being who refuses himself to being to God is that he has no choice ultimately but to commit suicide, then how on earth can that be called a victory? Mm -hmm, so that's what he's saying here. People stronger than Raskolnikov are equally defeated, right? Like, yes, but this, yes, refused himself to being is a wonderful phrase because it demands that you think about, so what am I supposed to be doing if refusing myself to being is the thing leads to my self -destruction, annihilation? It's a capital B. Being, capital B, refusing self to being is a capital B. If refusing myself to being is self -annihilation, what's the thing I'm supposed to be doing? Surrendering myself to being, and I'll only surrender myself if I've been humbled enough to realize that my self -will is not the answer to the question of my being.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from God Comes to Man_05PT4
"Hi, I'm Darrell Bailey, thank you for tuning in on the Gospel of John as we continue our Wednesday in the Word, the identity or the deity of Jesus. Here as we're talking about chapter 1, we're talking about God comes to man. Here this is the fifth in the series, part 4 of God comes to man. We pick up with verse 35 going all the way down to verse 51 to the end of chapter 1. When we look at Genesis of the New Testament. And so when we look and we begin to realize, now John mentions the first in John 2, which is basically the most unique thing about the book of John. When you look at all the comparisons of the portrait of Jesus as the king, the servant, the teacher and the son of God. John in the fourth column. Here we see that his key phrase is believe and but what you can't see is right down where my face is located is the most unique thing about the book or the Gospel of John is there's three Passovers involved in it. In the Synoptics of Matthew, Mark and Luke, there's only one Passover mentioned. Remember, Jesus mentions or John the Apostle mentions so many things that were unique in the Gospel of John. He talks about his sermons. He only mentions seven miracles where there's only two that coincide with the Synoptics of Matthew, Mark and Luke. And so John mentions the first in John chapter 2 and the second Passover is in John chapter 6 verse 4 and the third Passover is in John chapter 11 verse 55. It extends on into John chapter 12 verse 1, John chapter 13 verse 1, oh so as it hits back on John chapter 18 verse 28 and 39 and John chapter 19 verse 14. This third Passover was really the one that occurred on the night before Jesus died and it was the one recorded by all four Gospel writers in conjunction with the Last Supper and the death of Jesus Christ. So the first Passover is only recorded in John's Gospel and it may have been the Passover around April the 18th, 8029, the first year of Jesus's public ministry and so as these three Passovers occur in the three years of Jesus's earthly ministry, John alone records the three separate Passover celebrations that he mentions again as I said a while ago. The first one, John 2, the second Passover is in John 6 verse 4, then the third one extends from chapter 11, 12, 13, 18 and chapter 19. And so what an extraordinary writings of the book of John that we see that's in front of us and so this is very, very unique because the Passover as the Jew that obeyed the Mosaic law according to Deuteronomy chapter 16 in keeping with the mission to fulfill the law, the first Passover John records, he's running out the money changers and so in John chapter 2 verse 12 that I said a while ago that after he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brothers and his disciples, they stayed there a few days and so it deals with that first Passover in John chapter 2 and how he deals with things there as well. And so you can compare this to Luke's account of Jesus is doing the same thing two years later in Luke chapter 19 and you know as he was throwing the money changer that my house shall be a house of prayer but you've made it a robber's den and so each and every one of us when we look at the different accounts that each begins to transpire, the most unique thing again I say that in the Gospel of John is there's three Passovers where the synoptic of Matthew, Mark and Luke only have one Passover. Now John tells about the witnesses to the revelation of Jesus Christ, John begins his Gospel by talking about the deity of Christ. He describes the ministry of John the Baptist and then Jesus is baptized and he calls his very first disciples and so Matthew emphasizes his kingship to portray Jesus as the son of David, the Messiah, the king of the Jews and it's directed especially toward a Jewish audience. The genealogy traces the Lord's family tree from Mary all the way back to Abraham and the key word as we said of Matthew is fulfilled because the messianic prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ then we see Mark in his servanthood and in that it betrays the Lord as this suffering servant with the Roman reader in mind it opens the beginning of public ministry of Christ and it records even events of his life that's the key word of straightaway meaning and indicating immediate action and so when we look at Luke and his manhood the Gospel of Luke portrays Christ as the son of man that emphasizes his humanity and of Christ it traces the genealogy of the Lord back to Adam and has the Greek and the Gentile reader in mind. The first three Gospels as we said the synoptics of Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe the events and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ but when we come to the Gospel of John, John his godhood, we find that he emphasizes the meaning of the events in the Gospels that he records much of what is unsaid. He portrays Jesus as the son of God tracing not to Abraham, not to Adam, but before time there was no genealogy, there was no major scene, there was no boyhood, there was no baptism, there was no temptation, there was no amount of transfiguration, there was no guessing domain in the book of John, there was nothing, no publicers, no demonics, there was no parables. The Gospel of John was written with the church in mind. I thank God Pastor Keith preaches a great deal out of the Gospel of John, amen. And so when we look and begin to realize as we said then we noted that every chapter in the book of John emphasizes the Hebrew alphabet. There's only 21 chapters so it leaves off it doesn't get all 22 because there's only 21 chapters but the first chapter everything about that chapter deals with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the aff, the symbol of God as the creator and the master of the universe. When you get to chapter 2, when you get to chapter 3, every one of them follows the lead on the standing of the Hebrew alphabet of what it says in verse 34. Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the witness of Andrew verses 35 to 41. And so remember what we said in Matthew chapter 3 verses 13 through 17. This is the record of John the Baptist of the synoptics of his baptism that he was baptized, amen. And Mark the same in Mark chapter 1 verses 9 through 11, the second of the synoptics of Mark where it talks about how Jesus was baptized. Then of the third synoptics of Luke chapter 3 verses 21 through 22 that it talks about where Jesus was baptized. These took place in the synoptics but notice the events that recorded the record of John the Baptist and his baptism that Jesus occurs not only in Matthew chapter 3, not only in Mark chapter 1 verses 9 through 11, not only that but in Luke 3 verses 21 and 22 that we see the testimony of Jesus baptized. Here the events take us back to that day because John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River immediately after Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This is verse 35 but as we get on down it can jump back to verse 29, amen. If you go back into verse 29 you'll see that because even in verse 29 it said the next day and I thank God that Satan appears before Jesus with three Pacific temptations when Jesus resists these temptations Satan leaves him in time and so I'm glad in verse 29 if you go back to it it says the next day John says Jesus coming unto him and said behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. That's verse 29 the next day but when we start up in verse 35 in just a minute you're going to see the phrase again the next day and these are the events that transpired. I'm glad that we see again. Meanwhile back at the Jordan John speaks to the delegation from Jerusalem about his ministry and verses 19 through 28 that's already the 40th day. The 41st day was the 29th of the next day that you look and you'll see that all the way down to verse 34 that John had already publicly introduced Jesus and described the events that took place 31 days earlier at that baptism, amen. And so I'm glad that as we see this on the 42nd day we actually get to verse 35. John points out Jesus to two of his disciples and they follow him that day with him and later that day one of them they bring their brother to Jesus which is Andrew that brings Simon Peter and so as we get all the way to the end you get to the 43rd day that Philip and Nathaniel meet Jesus. Remember this because this is what's so unique about John because here we see the three temptations of Jesus by Satan. Stones in the bread in John chapter 6 verses 26 and verse 31 to make the bread in the wilderness jump from the temple and thirdly the kingdoms of the world in John chapter 6 verse 15 to take the kingdom by force. What a temptation that the devil tried upon him. The testing and trying that he went through just like the Paschal lamb went through for those 40 days. And again what did I say? It's the same as in verse 29 here you see in verse 35 and again the next day after John stood and two of his disciples the day after he made the previous statements Andrew and no doubt John who at that time they were disciples of John the Baptist. The two disciples were with John immediately they became disciples of the Lord they followed Jesus they may have been Andrew I know and I believe they were John and Andrew and so John did not give his own name nor did he refer to himself by name in the Gospel of John. His experience was very simple of he basically as many of us are that we come to Christ and so Andrew he stood where preaching was.
Teacher-2 -Class 5
"roman" Discussed on Teacher-2 -Class 5
"Messaging app Telegram is developing a group video calling service that's due to be launched later this year. The company announced recently that the current options offer either security or usability, but that its version will offer both. Telegram announced the plans alongside news that it reached 400 million monthly active users, doubling its user base in two years. Telegram's claim that current group video calling services offer either security or usability is a not-so-subtle swipe at user-friendly Zoom, which has been hit hard by multiple security scandals in recent months, and everybody should stay away from it for the time being. Critics pointed out that the service's claims about offering end-to-end encryption were false, and that its default privacy settings made it easy for uninvited users to tap into video calls. That said, Telegram has also faced its share of criticism from the security community, in part because its end-to-end encryption is not enabled by default. According to Telegram, it hit the 400 million user milestone a year after reaching 300 million. Reaching the milestone means it's doubled its user base since 2018, when it had 200 million monthly active users. The company said it's seeing at least 1.5 million new users sign up for the service every day, and that it's the most downloaded social media app in over 20 countries. However, its user base still pales in comparison to WhatsApp, which boasted 2 billion users as of February this year. Alongside its monthly active users announcement, Telegram also detailed a collection of new features it's launching, including that you can now add educational snippets to quizzes created on the service. There's a new directory to browse the 20,000 stickers available on Telegram, and the company is also adding new features to its macOS client. You can find full details of the new features on Telegram's blog. SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites will soon sport an accessory to tamp down their surprising brightness. That brightness worries many astronomers, who say that the huge Starlink constellation could seriously disrupt a variety of scientific observations. And Starlink will indeed be huge. If all goes according to SpaceX's plan, the company has approval to launch 12,000 craft to Low Earth Orbit, that's L-E-O, and has applied for permission to loft about 30,000 more. For a little bit of perspective, humanity has launched just 9,400 objects to orbit since the dawn of the space age way back in 1957. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that the company will find a way to make Starlink craft fade from scientists' sight, predicting that the constellation will end up having no impact whatsoever on astronomical discoveries. Now, SpaceX has been working with the astronomical community to make this happen, researchers say, and the company has already tried some mitigation measures. I'll let you know more when we hear more, right here on your weekly tech update. Thank you so much for watching the program today. If you have a story you'd like us to feature on the show, you need to send me an email.Find us on Facebook at your weekly tech update, and check out the podcast. Audio and video versions available on iTunes, Google, Spotify, Audio Burst, and elsewhere on the interwebs. Until next time, I'm Ray McNeil, and now, here's your moment of joy. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Brought to you by Holiday Home Care, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia. It's your turn to relax. Brought to you by Holiday Home Care.
Teacher-2 -Class 5
"roman" Discussed on Teacher-2 -Class 5
"More than a year after Polestar unveiled its stylish all-electric Polestar 2, the company announced that the EV will cost $59,000 in the U.S. It's slated to arrive in summer 2020, and customers will be able to order online. If all goes according to plan, the first U.S. Polestar retail showrooms will open in New York and on the West Coast in late summer 2020, with additional locations to follow. We are quite enthusiastic to announce the U.S. pricing for the Polestar 2, Gregor Himbrough, head of Polestar USA, said in a statement. The MSRP is lower than we originally targeted and will be extended to all of our current reservation holders. At $59,900, the Polestar 2 isn't exactly cheap, but it basically sits in between Tesla's $40,000 Model 3 and the more premium Model S in pricing. While it's arguably better looking than the Model 3, it has similar specs. Its 78-kilowatt-hour battery delivers a range of roughly 275 miles, and it packs 408 horsepower. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Polestar began production of the EV in China last month. It's manufacturing the car on the same production lines that its parent company, Volvo, is assembling the Volvo XC40. The first Polestar 2 vehicles produced will be sold in Europe, with sales in China and North America after that. For an additional $4,000, customers can get a leather interior, and for an extra $1,200, you can upgrade to 20-inch alloy wheels. The Polestar 2 is the first production vehicle to come with Google's Android platform for its infotainment system. So, you can expect Google Assistant, voice commands, Google Maps, EV charging support, and apps via Google Play Store as well, all nicely built into the vehicle.
Teacher-2 -Class 5
"roman" Discussed on Teacher-2 -Class 5
"In other news, Boston Dynamics back in the news with their four-legged Spot Robot. It can of course navigate an office, hold the door open for a friend or pull a rickshaw, and haul a box truck. But its most impressive feat yet might be protecting healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, Boston Dynamics announced that the Spot Robots are allowing healthcare workers to provide remote triage to patients at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. The company is sharing the hardware and software behind this robotic telehealth approach, and it hopes other mobile robotics platforms will take advantage of the tech. Boston Dynamics platform uses an iPad and a two-way radio mounted to a Spot Robot. Healthcare workers can guide the robots through triage tents where patients suspected to have COVID-19 are asked to line up for an initial assessment. Doctors and nurses can then speak with the patient from a safe distance, possibly even their own homes. The company's justification for this trial is that for every intake shift completed by a robot, at least one healthcare worker can reduce their exposure to the virus and conserve the limited supply of personal protective equipment. Boston Dynamics says it still needs to figure out how to remotely collect vital sign information like body temperature, respiratory rate, pulse rate, and oxygen saturation. It's considering the use of thermal camera technology, and it is testing ways to measure changes in blood vessel contractions via RGB cameras. In the near future, Boston Dynamics hopes that by attaching a UV-C light or other tech to the robot's back, Spot could be used to kill virus particles and disinfect surfaces in spaces like hospital tents and metro stations. While Boston Dynamics is using its Legged Spot Robot at Brigham and Women's Hospital, it says the system could be used with wheeled or tracked robots, too. It hopes other mobile robotics platforms will leverage the same hardware and software stack to help frontline employees. It's already in talks with the Canadian firm ClearPath Robotics to help spread the technology.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"roman" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"And again, Paul said in Romans one, being understood by the things that are made, things do not make themselves. Think about how vain evolution is. Things do not make themselves. Even his eternal power and God has to live without excuse. So he's 17 verse 22, he's on Mars Hill speaking to the philosophers of the Greek culture. And he's addressing the unknown God in verse 23, the end of verse 23 whom therefore he ignorantly worship him, declare I unto you. I'm going to declare unto you the unknown God that you're ignorantly worshiping God. Notice how he starts this, that made the world and all things that are in, oh, he starts with creation. Guess what? That's how we have to start in America who's been taught evolution. God got to go back to our creator, by the way, our son Ryan gave me one of their tracks that they have yesterday. And it's all about creation and it goes right into the gospels. I haven't read it in detail yet, but I'm looking forward to possibly getting some of those. God that made the world and all things that are in, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands. By the way, the Greek temples and so on were within sight of this, this Mars Hill. Neither is worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything. Seeing giveth to life, to all life and breath and all things. And notice then drop down to verse 30. The times of, in fact, he talks at the end of verse 29, he says, we ought not to think that the Godhead, by the way, that's a word that Paul uses in Romans one, that the Godhead, the triune Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven by art or man's device and man's device. The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth, notice commandeth all men everywhere to believe, is that what your Bible says? To repent, the command is to repent, they will not believe until they repent. Because they have to repent of their wickedness, their unbelief, all of that kind of stuff. Because he hath appointed a day, this is the great white throne judgment, he hath appointed a day into which he will judge the world in, here's that word again, Romans one, righteousness. The key word in the book of Romans is righteousness. By that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he raised him from the dead, of course, then they start mocking. Can I remind you Revelation 20 tells us right there that God will find all those who have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ, obedience to the faith, says they will be cast into a lake of fire forever and ever, which is the second death. All men will be without excuse. No one will say to God at the great white throne judgment, but I didn't know. No, no, no, they had creation and they had conscience, telling them that there was a God they needed to look for, seek after. How many people at the great white throne judgment will stand there before a holy God someday? How many? How many of them will say, but I prayed a prayer. No, they're going to realize that day, they did not place their only faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. All men are without excuse, the Bible very clearly says that. In fact, what I think is interesting as we finish this up here at the end of verse 20, being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power and Godhead. In fact, Isaiah talks about God's power. No one, no God compares to God and His power. This goes back to verse 16, it's the power of God unto salvation, His eternal power and Godhead. Within their very being, God shows them there is a triune God. So when these oneness Pentecostals and all of them, when they start talking about there's one God, Jesus, and He's shown Himself three different ways, that's heresy. Deep down in their hearts, if they would recognize it, according to scripture, they know that's heresy. If that's the case, we have a schizophrenic God. I'm sorry, I don't have a schizophrenic God, do you? Because this God talks to Himself. God the Father talks to Jesus, God the Son. He did at His baptism. God the Holy Spirit is not this force from God. He's a person, there's three persons and the one Godhead. I've heard of all kinds of ways to explain the Trinity. You know, it's an apple, the peeling, all of those things, all of those things. No, no, it's like three forms of what? No, no, that's essence. That is not a person. There's three persons in the Godhead. Notice here the Godhead, that's the word I like using for the Trinity now. That's what the Bible uses. In fact, Paul even mentions the Godhead back in Acts 17, remember? It's not, he's not worshiped with man's art. Ah, stand before the Jesus statue. This long haired hippie Jesus, that's art. Man's art. God is not worshiped that way. Some Buddha statue. Some Hindu God. What I think is very interesting is in Hinduism, they have all these millions of gods, but they have three primary gods. Why? Because deep within their nature, they know there's a Godhead with three persons. Of course, the Mormons corrupt that. Gods. We all can become a God. Have our own planet and our own family someday. The Godhead, the triune God. It's very interesting in the Old Testament, it talks about singular and plural pronouns used for God. The Bible very clearly says there is a triune Godhead to whom we're going to give an account someday. The gospel. Can I emphasize strongly, strongly today? The gospel is very clearly presented to us in 1 Corinthians 15. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm keeping the 10 commandments to get to heaven. Sorry. Sorry. Can you list them? People can't even list them that are trusting that I'm trying to be a good person to get to heaven. How many times I have heard people preached into heaven. You knew, you knew, and any believer would know, they're absolutely not trusting in Jesus Christ. Yeah, they're in heaven today, all the good things, no, no, no, no, they're in hell today. Just like the rich man who was a Jew. In Luke 16. He would have been a religious rich person, a Jew, and hell lit up his eyes. Why? Because he didn't repent, the end of the chapter. I got wet, church of Christ, I had somebody sprinkle me, pour water on me. All of these things are not ways of salvation. They're not the gospel. Paul even says, God did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. So let me ask you today, are you trusting in Jesus Christ and him alone as a way of salvation? Not a prayer that you said, all of that, all of that set aside all of those manmade things. Because the bottom line is when you stand at the great white throne judgment someday, God the father is going to ask, in fact, Jesus Christ is going to be the one on the throne. Remember God has committed that judgment to Jesus Christ, the righteous. The question is going to be asked, the books are open. The question is going to be asked, what were you trusting in? Who were you trusting in for eternal life? No one's going to say, they're going to be without excuse. No one's going to say, no one's going to say, but I never knew. No, they had creation, they had conscience. God revealed it, manifested it in them. Everyone knows inside, whether they've been to public school, the university or not, they know that there's a God. Lord, I pray that you'd help us examine our own hearts. Holy Spirit, help us examine our hearts here today. Has everyone here today, Lord, has everyone here? Place their faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone. What Jesus Christ has already done. It's not good works, it's not keeping the law, Paul emphasizes that in Romans. Now baptism, none of those things will save. Repeating a prayer, Lord, I pray that you'd help, help each one to examine their hearts here. Holy Spirit, help us remember that unless we've placed our faith in Jesus Christ, been obedient to the gospel, as Paul says, we have thy wrath, God, upon us, not thy love. Holy Spirit of God, bring application, Lord, help us as believers, help us to believers as believers to check our gospel presentation. We're messing with people's eternal souls. God, forgive us for lack, actually showing a lack of concern in how we present the gospel in Jesus' name. Amen.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"roman" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Acts chapter 3 verse 19, repent, repent, repent. Why can't we get it? God himself says repent. So again, a church, Baptist church, independent Baptist, you can call yourself independent fundamental Baptist and you preach against repentance, guess what? You have a false gospel presentation. By the way, that's all related, that's all related to the Romans road. Not one time will you ever hear Romans road presentation that calls people to repentance. Repentance of their sin. No, you just got to acknowledge that you're a sinner. What's a sinner? Well, I've never done anything bad enough to go to hell. That's exactly the response a lot of people will give with a Romans road presentation. Repent, be therefore and be converted. They're only preaching half the gospel in many places. Repent and be converted. Repentance and faith. Both are important. That your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution. There's a time of restitution that's coming, people are not going to like that. Of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Amen. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren. Why come to me? This is all found in the Old Testament scriptures why they totally missed Jesus. It's their unbelief. Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet, won't hear Jesus Christ, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these days. The Old Testament prophets emphasize these things. Ye are the children of the prophets, they're the covenant, which God made with our fathers saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, notice that he's talking to Jews here, unto you first, God having raised up his son Jesus, his son Jesus, they didn't believe that, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Oh, notice that. Here's the conversion part that we saw at the beginning of this passage. Repent and be converted. One, two, three, repeat this prayer. Hallelujah, you're saved forever. Now you can go live however you want to because you're safe and secure. They might as well say that, nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Notice this, turning every one of you away from his iniquities. If God comes to dwell, saves us, remember the power of God, we saw that in Romans one. If the power of God and the gospel comes into a person's life, guess what? Something's going to change. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, in the gospel as I said last week, is the righteousness of God revealed from heaven, from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. I want for us to take a look at that passage there. I told you it's from Habakkuk. I want to show you a little bit of the context. I looked that up here, Habakkuk, so I'll give you a few moments here to find that in the Old Testament. Habakkuk, you know, you have to have those little thumb index things, right, so you can find things faster. You know, I just thought about that. I've talked about preaching from the actual 1611. Maybe if I get some thumb indexes, then I'll be able to use this. I don't know, I'll have to think about that. There's no page numbers, it's harder to follow the Roman numerals in the Psalms. Anyway, Habakkuk chapter two, verse one. I want to show you the context. Verse four is what we're looking for. Behold, his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Again, that's quoted in Romans 1 17. Notice verse one. I will stand upon my watch. That's not a literal watch on your wrist, all right. He's not short, yeah, so anyway. I will stand upon my watch, he's talking about watch being in a watchtower, and notice, and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. The Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. Notice, write the vision down here. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it, it shall speak. Notice that, the vision shall speak. Written down, oh, that's powerful as far as the word of God, written word of God is going to speak. We'll talk about that here this afternoon. And not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. God will fulfill all of his prophecies in his time. Everything will be fulfilled in the word of God someday. Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him. Notice we're talking about somebody who's not upright. Notice in contrast, the just shall live by his faith. All right, so faith in the Old Testament to faith in the New Testament. There's two aspects. I want to emphasize this because Romans 1 talks about from faith to faith. They were saved by faith in the Old Testament. We're saved by faith in the New Testament, from faith to faith. But as I emphasized last week, we're saved by faith, but we also live by faith. Can I ask you again? So now that we're looking at the source that Paul was using here, notice it says at the end of verse four, does it say that the just will be saved, shall be saved by his faith? Now it says we're going to live by faith. Here's the reality test. So let's think about this reality test here. Going back to this Romans Road presentation, one, two, three, repeat this prayer. Yes, you're saved. Hallelujah. The angels are rejoicing in heaven because you repeated a prayer after I gave you words to say. Here's the reality of it. The reality test. From here on after supposed being saved, what's going to happen as far as living? We're saved by faith. Then it says we live by faith. I walk through this life by faith. You see, we emphasize the first part of that faith in verse 17 in our gospel presentations, but we don't emphasize the second part. It says the just one who's right before God, just before God is going to live by faith. So from salvation forward, we're going to be from faith to faith. How many times has a gospel presentation ever said anything about that? In fact, most gospel, I know this is true. Most gospel presentations talk about being saved by faith, but it talks very little about living by ... Oh, yeah, we got to get you baptized now. They even deceive about that. Go through this door, get in this line, and you'll find a line in the inside there and they'll also find out they're in a line to be baptized. They don't even know what baptism is for. Is that deception or what? We are messing with people's eternal souls. I'm going to say it again. I'm convinced reading ... I'm still in chapter one. I haven't got to chapter two yet. Paul talked much more into the gospel presentation than just a few verses pulled out of this letter to the Romans. And again, it's written to believers anyway. Now, let's go back to verse 18. I said all of that to get to verse 18. Why? Because there's more to this gospel presentation than one, two, three, repeat that for me. For the love of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and righteousness of men. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I got to set aside my Romans Row presentation so I can talk about what the Bible really says. For the wrath of God is going to be revealed from heaven. No, no. Present tense. John 3.18, John 3.36. Right now they're under the wrath of God, not the love of God. For the wrath of God ... So let me ask you. God is the God of love. So are they going to be thinking about God's love for us forever as they're sitting in hell in a lake of fire, tormented in the flame, literal flame? It's not the love of God they're going to be thinking about. It's the wrath of God and they're going to experience it forever and ever and ever. And then we often say too, you need to get saved or you'll be separated from God forever. No, they won't. God is an omnipresent God. Even if I make my bed in hell, even there without will be. That's what the psalmist says. We need to be careful about our gospel presentations for the wrath of God is present tense, revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and the righteousness. I'm going to show you why God is a wrathful God toward unbelievers. First of all, we see here in verse 18, because people try to hold the truth in unrighteousness. Notice at the end of the verse, first of all, the wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. All right, so let's make sure we understand these words, ungodliness, not like God, but also somebody who is ungodly does not believe that there is a God. No God. In fact, what's very interesting, the psalmist says, the wicked say that, I'm sorry, the psalmist says that as far as the wicked are concerned, God is not in all their thoughts. Think about that. God is not in all their thoughts. How much do you think about God? How wicked have we become in America in American Christianity? Do you go to work to serve God? No, I go to work because I owe, I owe, it's off to work, I go. Here's modern day test. The description of the wicked is that God is not in all their thoughts. We are an ungodly nation. Modern day Christianity is ungodly. Notice also the word unrighteousness, God's wrath is against ungodliness, but it's also against unrighteousness, un without righteousness, not right before God. See, it's not my standard that's going to be the test. It's not your standard. It's not the politician's. It's not some preacher's standard even. This is the standard by which everyone is going to be judged at the great white throne. Ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Notice the statement again that I'm emphasizing in verse 18, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, what is not right. The word hold there means to hold down or suppress. So here's what they do with this. They continue on in sin so they can try to suppress in the recognition, acknowledgement of the truth of the gospel. That's where modern wicked America is. So as we're continuing going deeper and deeper in wickedness, guess what? They're not even thinking about the gospel. They're not thinking about, you know, some vacation Bible school when they were a kid. They're not thinking about, yeah, we had fun at a youth camp. They're not thinking about those things. Because of their wickedness, they're not even thinking about the truth. They're holding the truth as a captive or as a prisoner. Notice literally holding the truth in unrighteousness. They're holding it in. It's to keep the gospel from influencing them. What I think is very interesting is that our world increasingly does not want to acknowledge a creator God. You know why? Because maybe if I don't think about creator God, then I won't think about judging God. He's a righteous judge. And as creator, he's going to have a right to judge someday. Notice also another reason why God is wrathful toward the world. It says verse 19, because that which may be known of God is, pay attention to every word, may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. Notice these statements, because that which may be known of God is presently manifest in them. It's within. So, in other words, this is an inborn awareness that there's a God. It is very easy to teach a child that there's a God that they're going to give an account to someday. But then they go off to public school and they're told there is no God. We came from all the animals, you know, those monkeys, those cute little monkeys. Those are our ancestors. They educate the concept of God out of their minds. That's what is so wicked about our public school educational system and our universities. You think about the university, this is why I don't recommend anyone sending your young people to the university, because when they get to those classes at the university, guess what? If they still think there is a God, they're going to be mocked and ridiculed in the classroom. God has manifested in them. It is, you know, that which may be known of God is manifest in them. They all know there is a God, in fact, Genesis 1, 26 and following. God created us in his image after his own likeness. By the way, yeah, mankind was created on day six, but we were not created as a mammal. There's the fish kingdom, there's the plant kingdom, there's animal kingdom, then mankind. The whale, sorry, we've already seen this in Jonah, the whale was not a mammal. That's a missing link between the fishes and the mammals. No, it was created as a fish. The Bible calls it a great fish. That's all a result of our educational system, our indoctrination in the public classroom. For God has showed it unto them. God has revealed all of these things. So as we understand this, notice with me, 2 Peter chapter three, this is a perfect passage for our modern day, 2 Peter chapter three very clearly tells us that that is willful ignorance, willingly ignorant, the Bible words it, 2 Peter three verse one. The second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words which are spoken before by the holy prophets. Okay, this is in the New Testament. The New Testament is still being written. So we're talking about the Old Testament and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. So we have the Old Testament and New Testament represented right in that verse right there. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts. All right, so scoffers, we have Bible skeptics who says they're going to question doctrine here, it says in verse four, it says saying, where is the promise of his coming? He had been talking about this coming for 2,000 years now. For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. In fact, the reality of this is Enoch talked about the second coming of the Lord. Very interesting. For this they willingly, notice this, they willingly are ignorant of, they ignore on purpose. By the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth, I should say, standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, Paris. The two biggest things they will mock and ridicule of the Old Testament is creation and the global flood. How many so-called believers will deny that there was a global flood? What don't you understand about the Bible saying that the waters covered the mountains? I remember it by 15 cubits. Think about that. Why is it that you find pillow lava at the tops of mountains? You know what pillow lava is? It's lava that's formed under water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved into fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. By the way, he's not going to do it by way of dues, directed energy weapons. God's not going to need a due to destroy this earth, but beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, some men count slackness, but his long suffering to us word, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You know why God waits for a second coming? Because he wants more people to repent and believe very clearly, very clear in the scriptures. Mankind is not an accident of evolution. We're a crown of God's creation. We were created on day six after the animal kingdom. Then God made man in his own image, it says. We've been created distinct from the animal kingdom, but we're not, we shouldn't be shocked because generations have been taught they're descended from animals, so why are we surprised when they act like animals? And notice verse 20 as we finish up here, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power and God had so that they're without excuse. Notice the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the creation of the world. We see, understand in scripture that God is an invisible God. We see in the Old Testament, there was no similitude as far as God was concerned when he came down on Mount Sinai. We also understand that in John chapter four, that God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Here's something about our modern day worship. As we're talking about all this, God is an invisible God, so why are we so sensual in our worship? Think about the modern day churches. They dim all these lights down in the congregation. They have colored lights on the platform. It's all sensual. They want to make a good presentation in our worship. So then they have smoke on the platform in worship. What's that smoke supposed to represent? It's Satan's counterfeit of God's glory cloud. Not only that, but you have sensually dressed women on the platform leading you in worship of God. God is an invisible spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. That's not spiritual worship. That is not truth worship. Then you think about from the creation world, we see that God is a God of order. When you look at the stars, can you find any patterns up there? Telescope, you can see them even better, but it's not. So if there's some big bang, guess what? It's going to be random placement of everything. No, what we find in the world, creation I should say, is that there's order. We see God's wisdom. We see God's light and his glory. In fact, Psalm 19 verses 1 and following say, the heavens declare the glory of God and the earth showeth forth his handiwork. You think about just human beings. Why do we have two eyes in the front of our… why don't we have just one here and one there? Why don't we have eyes that are randomly placed? We have ears, one on each side of our head. We're balanced. There's order and design in this. The psalmist says we're fearfully and wonderfully made. No, we're an accident of evolution. Yeah, these PhDs have lost their tail, now they're teaching in the universities. Don't notice me, Acts 14. I want to show you as we tie all this together, show you that here's this different gospel presentation again for different people. Acts 14, I want to show you the first gospel presentation to… both of these are pagans, but both of these groups, but he emphasizes some different things here. Acts 14, notice verse 8, just briefly mention the context here so you know why they're Verse 8 says, there was… there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, he couldn't walk, being crippled from his mother's womb. Notice never had walked, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, stand upright on thy feet. Notice he didn't just stand up, he says he leaped and he's walking. He's never walked a day in his life and he's… wow! That's going to create quite a scene, don't you think? Walking and leaping and praising God. Earlier we see in the Acts, it says, and when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted their voices saying in the speech of Lycaonia, the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. That's exactly what the Greek cultures worshiped as well. And it says here, they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the chief speaker. I think Mercurius is pictured like our FTD florist. Anyway, every time you have a delivery of flowers, you're allowing one of the gods to minister for you. Notice, then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands into the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people to men, which when the apostles Barnabas and Paul, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, the apostles Barnabas and Paul, Barnabas is an apostle. That's another message for another time here, heard of, notice they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying out and saying, sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are there in. By the way, we're going to see in Romans one later on in the chapter, they became vain in their imaginations. Notice these vanities. Idolatry is always pictured in scripture as vanity. It is something vain. Sitting from the Buddha for two hours, just sitting, meditating. No, you're emptying your mind so that Satan can fill it anyway, who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Notice verse 17, nevertheless, he left not himself without witness in that he did good. The goodness of God leadeth us to repentance, Romans 2 four says, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Notice God's witness is his bounty in creation. Chapter 17. This is why I say all men will be without excuse.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"roman" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Now that means in some cases that somebody who has a PhD will not accept the gospel from somebody who's lower them in educational level. That's the reality of it. But they're responsible for God, whether or not they reject it or accept it, accept the gospel presentation. But notice, wise or the unwise, and again, he's talking about this as far as the culture is concerned. So first of all, we see here his obligation as a debtor, verse 15, notice again in Romans one. So as much as in me is I am ready, so he's talking about preparation here, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Last week I emphasized this question, who is he writing to, believers or unbelievers? He's writing to believers. So again, for the sake of those who may not have been here last week or don't remember what I preached last week, whatever, I remind you, he's writing about the gospel to believers, to the saints that are at Rome. That's why I said last week, the gospel is not just about salvation. The gospel is about how we're to go from a wicked pagan, wicked unbeliever, to somebody who is sanctified in the presence of the Lord Jesus. That's the whole thing. And again, that's why we saw last week in verse 17. We live from faith, from faith for salvation, to faith to living. But again, notice he's preaching the gospel to believers. We have this mindset that the gospel is for unbelievers. No, the gospel is for everyone, believers and unbelievers. He's writing to the saints, and he's going to preach the gospel to them that are at Rome also. Verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Again, I want for us to look at some cross references. Second Timothy chapter one, second Timothy chapter one. This is the overflow from last week, you should have figured that out. First Timothy, second Timothy I should say, chapter one.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"roman" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"All right, Romans chapter 1 this morning, Romans chapter 1, let's continue our journey through the book of Romans, Romans chapter 1, offer us to actually pick up reading where we, a little bit of where we covered last week, just a few things I want to share here, Romans chapter 1 verse 14 and following as we continue to look at the gospel and the righteousness of God and those are two parallel themes that Paul is emphasizing here, Romans chapter 1, notice verse 14, I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God, notice therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For notice continued thought here, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power in Godhead so that they are without excuse because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds, four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up unto uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Notice again, verse 14, I am debtor both to the Greeks, to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. And again, emphasize in verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Now, the thought I want to emphasize here today, and I talk about this from time to time, but really I want to look at this again in relation to the Apostle Paul because God the Holy Spirit used the Apostle Paul to write these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So here's the question I want for us to consider today. As you think about soul winning methods, would the Apostle Paul use the Romans road gospel presentation? How many hundreds and thousands of times I've heard somebody emphasize the Romans road gospel presentation? And I want you to consider some of the problems with this type of system. In fact, let's look at the verses in case you're not familiar with it. It's unusual if you're not familiar with the Romans road, but notice Romans 3 10. All right, so chapter one, nothing. Chapter two, nothing. Oh, finally you get to Romans 3 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
Seek Outside Podcast
"roman" Discussed on Seek Outside Podcast
"White and too. Yeah. Nice. Wait. Well, cool, man. Well, let's get going here. So we got Nate Roman. And he is from the fish brain. Nate, why don't you give us a little quick introduction of who you are and what you do over there. Yeah, absolutely. And thanks, Ryan. Thanks, Owen for having me on. Really excited to talk with both of you guys. But my name is Nate Roman. I'm a partnerships manager at fish brain. Fish brain is the world's most popular app for people who love fishing. So it's like a social network for people who love fishing and also a great way to find new fishing spots and find cool ways to go fishing in your area. So it's more than 15 million people have downloaded it now. Super popular app across the world, especially here in the U.S.. And I get the awesome role of working with a lot of our partners across conservation across state agencies and meeting a lot of really cool people in the fishing industry here. So I'm excited to be on the podcast and really appreciate you guys having me on. Yeah. Yeah, no problem, man. It's funny that for the folks who don't know. Fish brain, I guess, the corporation reached out to us via you guys public representation firm. Which I got to be honest, I thought it was a scam at first. And I was like, there's no way there's it was funny because me and me and Owen was not a fisherman for a long time. I've kind of fished for my whole life, but Owen just kind of got into it last year. And it's all I do. All he does now. Yeah. That's awesome. The dream life. Oh yeah. But I feel like last year, when you first started, you got on fish brain. And he'd come to me and he'd be like, dude, did you know that there's large mouth bass in the canal? Behind the house here? I was like, no, no way, no way. But I feel like as.
SI Media Podcast
"roman" Discussed on SI Media Podcast
"One of the many reasons I love having you on this podcast and I'm so grateful you come on and you're always a good sport is I can ask you questions that I know I'm not gonna get like an answer out of but you'll give me something. So I'm gonna do it again. We've done it before with this question, but we've got to do it. The Rock Russell mania, everyone thinks it's the dream match. It's in LA this year when I had Jan and I asked you about it once before you said well it's in Texas this year wouldn't it make more sense to do it in LA and then I guess the show young rock on NBC dropped they had a scene where you and rock were younger in your younger days as kids playing around and in the show The Rock says to the Roman Reigns well you probably Joe back then. This is a match enough for the kitchen. It's for Russell mania or something. And that got people buzzing again. So can we get an update? Update is Dwayne's dropping it within his own project. So it's got to be pretty good. It's got to be pretty special. I think that just goes to show the clamoring, you know, the buzz for it, the chatter for it. The wishful thinking. So it's something that he definitely played into within the young rock. Which, as you know, with him, everything is highly strategical. A lot of synergy with everything that he does with the projects that he's guiding and has in mind. So yeah, I would say just based off of that alone, it looks even better than it did last time we spoke. We need it. We need it. There's nothing I don't think any wrestling fan wants more than Roman veins, Roman Reigns versus the rocket WrestleMania. In doing a little research, you have mastered the art of creating t-shirts and merch off of settings. So quick, you know, I mean, the fact that we've got the acknowledge your daddy T-shirt out right now. There's tribal tribal chief shirts, head of the table, greatness on a different level. Needle mover. Wreck everyone and leave. Obviously, there's all the acknowledged. You've mastered, is that you or is that you working in conjunction with the team? How much of that is you doing that? Because it's kind of brilliant that everything ends up that way. So, I mean, it's always going to revert back to the team. I mean, definitely.
SI Media Podcast
"roman" Discussed on SI Media Podcast
"Welcome everyone to the sports illustrated media podcast. I'm your host, Jimmy. Trainer, thank you for listening. Great show this week we've got Roman Reigns from the WWE, the universal champion in an outstanding interview where he talks about this man recently retiring, what that means for him, get into his new reduced schedule,
Career Relaunch
"roman" Discussed on Career Relaunch
"To today's episode. Today I'm speaking with Roman havre, a Ukrainian entrepreneur and the owner of the ambulance marketing agency. Roman was born in a small village near ivano frankivsk, a city in the west of Ukraine, and he has quite the story. His first major life-changing experience occurred during the collapse of the Soviet Union back in 1991 at the age of 11. When the Soviet planned economy changed gears to a free economy, many people lost their jobs, including both of Roman's parents, so he started working in the fields, growing crops and vegetables to help feed his family. Then his family spent all their savings, the equivalent of 500 U.S. dollars to send him to study in one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe. The national university cave moyla academy, where he studied political science to earn money, he started working during his second year there as a political analyst on the side. He eventually got his bachelor's degree, enrolled in a magister's program, got married, and was expecting his first child. So he quit his university and political analyst position to find a better paying job. In 2004, he eventually became one of the first digital marketing experts in Ukraine, working for the mobile service provider UMC, and later the eventual media holding company owners invited him to become CEO and minor shareholder of the digital media buying house within the holding. Four years later, he created ambulance, a strategic marketing agency focused on marketing research, design, implementation, and media buying. Before the war broke out in Ukraine last month, ambulance was a leading award winning agency in Ukraine, known for their strategic approach to solving clients problems. But now, with the war in Ukraine, their business is at risk of closure because most of their Ukrainian clients have had to cancel all their projects. Roman and his agency are now trying to reinvent themselves and become a truly international marketing agency seeking clients worldwide. Now, just to provide a bit of the backstory here, a couple of weeks ago, I'd actually originally planned to air a different episode that was already in the queue and ready to go. But I felt a little strange just carrying on with my regular programming here while a war was taking place just a few countries to the east of where I'm based in Europe. I also have a very good friend based in Warsaw Poland who's been housing Ukrainian refugees during the past couple weeks, doing her part to help people who have had to flee. And I just felt like I wanted to do my very small part to raise awareness of what's happening in Ukraine right now. So last Monday, I stumbled upon Roman after seeing his colleagues LinkedIn post about fleeing Ukraine and heading to Romania as refugees with his pregnant wife and two daughters. I then saw Romans linked in post about his work, his outreach to find new clients to keep his marketing agency afloat, and his desire to make his professional contribution to help fuel Ukraine's economy at a time when many businesses there are having to close. I saw that his team had scattered into safe places both within and outside of Ukraine. And decided to reach out to him to see if he'd be willing to come onto the show and share his story. After trading a few quick messages back and forth that same day, he agreed to do this recording the following afternoon, which was the very first time we actually spoke with each other. You can get all the show notes from today's episode at career relaunch dot net slash 82. Roman spoke with me from ivano frankivsk, Ukraine. Hello Roman and first off, I just wanted to thank you so much for taking some time to speak with me today about you and also what's happening there. Hello, Joseph. I'm happy to be here. Before we start, I should just make it clear that this is a show focused on career topics. This is not a world affairs show. I am not a news reporter, and I don't typically get into geopolitical topics here. But today is going to be a little different from my other episodes. We're recording this on March 22nd, almost exactly a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is now being called the fastest growing humanitarian crisis. Since World War II, according to the UN, this show is focused on career changes. So we are going to talk about how this war has affected your career team and marketing agency. But I got to first ask you about your personal situation. Can you start by describing, first of all, exactly where you are right now in Ukraine. Well, I'm in the west of Ukraine and I'm pretty safe if you can call it that way because you are hearing the air raid along slide two three times a day, so that's kind of not very pleasant. Things to hear during the day, but usually it's okay, no bond beings so far just two or let's say no bombings. Just two of them got here two of the rockets got here. And the airport, but the rest of the city is pretty safe and pretty okay. So I hope everything is fine. So just so I understand where you are geographically, you left K of and which city are you in right now? It's a different city. So I fled the key if I left Kyiv like almost three weeks ago. And I am here in the different place because Kyiv is a way more dangerous now than anyone I think is. Can you describe what was happening in cave before you left? What was happening around there at the time? Well, we just woke up with the sound of air raid alarm and bombings and shellings and guns shooting. So we immediately took off and gathered all the belongings, but some of them just small suitcases jumped into car and rushed here. Wow. That was happening. And how far are you away from your actual home right now? 700 kilometers away. Wow, okay. I was reading some figures in the news and the exact figures very depending on the source, but it seems like there have been hundreds of residential buildings, schools, hospitals that have been directly damaged or attacked since this invasion began. How secure is the area where you are, at least at this moment? Well, at least at this moment, it's okay because as I mentioned on the airport was hit during the last three weeks, but the rest of the city is pretty okay because it's in the west and we are close to Polish border and they probably are afraid of bombing it too hard not to invoke any geopolitical crisis so let's say in world matter or something like this. So that's basically it. But the east of Ukraine is really turned in pieces, especially three or two cities major cities like my RuPaul and Harvard are almost destroyed. Very cool is almost destroyed. As of this week, according to the UNHCR, which is the United Nations refugee agency with all this destruction that's been happening a quarter of Ukrainians have now been displaced from their homes, which is about 10 million people of the over 3 million people who have actually had to leave Ukraine 90% of those are women and children, and according to UNICEF, you've got nearly 5 million children who have either become refugees or have been displaced within Ukraine, would you mind just explaining what.
A.D. History Podcast
"roman" Discussed on A.D. History Podcast
"Elegant has died at the age of eighteen and his cousin session onto co from there so for fourteen years old eighteen year old kid was impressive and he lived a very extravagant life during that time. And he's definitely one of the lesser known emperors over room. How once you enough historian it's truly fascinating and what is easy. Just brandish as wade and crazy. There's more to it of his desires and wishes could be considered ideas of transpeople by modern standards as we mentioned some modern commentators even dubbed him slash her rooms transgender imprint and he also allowed women into the senate on occasions goes prostrate it but still women in the senate that's something new of emperor would allow and perhaps in modern times. We should mind some defensive for women and his views and sex gender some of his views on sex and especially his views on gender as mentioned it could be seen as incredibly progressive in today's world. Imagine imagine a transgender king. Today that would still be shocking female transgender queen today so she go from country with a king and queen impressive to see rome possibly doing that. It's a very it could be seen as very progressive as said we. Let's keep things by all standards are. He did do a lot of other stuff. Which is undeniably passionate crazy like some. That can't be considered okay by today's standards. And he's clearly played a role in popular culture to as hinted towards. He really reminded me of a certain fictional character. And i'm not the first person to compare his life and his actions will certain suzhou pathak teen king over west us king. Yeah yeah yeah a king who took pleasure in the suffering of others and his death. Spoilers was orchestrated by visa. Mobile of grand chocolate will instead like he's basically realized your free unlike so many powders between we've we've talked us. The past between the will and hadrian's will talk game a friends keeps on coming up more and more as this podcast progressive. You realize george was very inspired by history books. It certainly would seem so but insofar as he would be considered progressive from the perspective of roman society at the time. It doesn't sound like he was doing it in some great ideological crusade against the breakaway speedier was doing it to be progressive. Who's doing it. Because that's just how he will do things he very much like. Getting a rise outta people being unexpected. He definitely seemed to love attention and he definitely likes you know given the big middle finger to any sort of established mores and social norms and those things that were expected of him but at the same time given this what does appear on the whole general immaturity in terms of his attitude. And what would be realistically expected of. Not simply as a roman emperor but a competent and proper leader. He was really putting a target on his own back. And if you didn't recognize that i would be. I wouldn't be surprised but it would certainly disappointing because he was basically writing his own death warrant. Yes that's a very good way to put it. You can't despite let us head room still off you hundred years under its belt over one hundred years so under belt here and even though we're way positives golden age. You still can't be improved room and do those things and nothing could suffer consequences people who've gotten improve and killed for lesson room. Oh most definitely so. My first really big question here is how could we test the veracity of these stories. Who who's telling them. And i'm curious if we know who they are. We have some idea the sources as to if they would have any motivation to paint him..
A.D. History Podcast
"roman" Discussed on A.D. History Podcast
"By two hundred twenty one. Ad room was under the rule of one of its strangest emperors and his short ruled run until two hundred and twenty two eighty. When surprise surprise he would be assassinated. The rule of emperor elegant gablers is interesting to look into however as it shows us. Just how much rome was starting to sink from the days of the pax romana so you want to share a bit of ground rules and of the origins of elegant. 'cause it's kind of important today. This fame and alibaba is believed to be born circa two hundred and free. Ad so you can already gob as quite young. By this time he was born the name of various of its yes us and he was a native over rome. of course native. Improves want a new thing by now he was born in. Msa in syria and this is the modern city of homes. Which is the still in syria to this day. And he came from a family of high priest to didn't worship the funeral roman gods greek goats but they worshiped aluko sunguard who was known as ball. But this doku go. But this god was awesome locally as eligible and from his name allegations bolus and his name abou shriek on the way he got that title from and despite being so far removed from he had connections to the city and to the upper crust over roman society. Something i'm curious about. How much do you know about this religion. That he was a part of not really much came up on the subject. I imagine we probably already know of it from others. Writings not much up about it. Just it was different. Is seems that sent it around this one god as opposed to a pattern of goats. I roam did okay. I was curious about that. There was any additional information to kind of get an idea to see more where this guy was coming from the but they but they are monotheistic. I think they might have been to an extent. Yes well and these guys worship. Just the one god. The mob moguls into wider religion. Alibaba's came from this one from a family that worship just deliver who sunguard eligible as i said that he did have connections to the roman empire and most noticeably decant mp at the time and pra caracalla was his cousin. An in two hundred and seventeen eighty caracalla was of course
Two Friends Talk History
"roman" Discussed on Two Friends Talk History
"Will fill have tiles yet end will be covered in plaster at this is something that came like you throw them without even thinking because in your mind a building shall have plaster in the in the fact side and we'll have roof style talk because that's what you would experience and so like even if you don't represent something that is reality and a deal castle is not reality. There are certain part of the structure that are coming from reality. Even if you don't realize it because they're not the focus of the representation last blabbering things to do for a designer is to use something from their experience If you were given a microphone and the ability to to change the minds the public in some way about roman cities what is one area. He would want them to know that. Maybe they're less understood. I think for sure one thing would be roman designed. Private houses are in some instance much more modern than a lot of people things and again. This came from fact that for a lot of people around my house is a dullness in now in pompeii but those are not. Those are not normal. Houses that this yeah. It's like saying the the moderate the normal house for us as a mansion. It's not and also like a specific type of mention lake. Seventeen hundred or nine hundred eighteen hundred mention. Yeah and that's not where everyone is now. A day and like that for example flats were not for were people into like as nowadays as nowadays. You see like. I'm just thinking like in edinburgh. It you think to the quarter mile to quarter-mile flats ghettos a really really expensive flat and roman had that too he. I don't need to own a single house to believing in luxury like sound. All of those towns flat muslim places like role more off the aware of the growing population with making very very unlikely to own a single house. Like a lot of very rich people would have lived in flat like the live nowadays not necessarily on single houses. Yeah that's a great point and fortunately like private houses are not really known. Like not widely known enroll and the reason is because there is so much more the light when wendy. We're finding private houses. A lot of time. They've been knocked down and not really properly documented and so on and he makes sense like you have like room is a town that is inhabited till nowadays can north on for how much my heart my archaeological heart's cry a little bit. Every time i think that life keep going on there cannot you can notice back to have everything preserved..
The Road to Rediscovery: A Life-Learning Journey for Growth
"roman" Discussed on The Road to Rediscovery: A Life-Learning Journey for Growth
"Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Roman and for me to be able to do that Well thank you so much sir. So now we're going to enter a segment. I like to call three for the road and in three for the road. That's where i ask my guests three random yet thought provoking questions that i encourage you to answer in five words or less. So what do you say robin. You think you might be up for it. Totally all right fantastic. So let's go ahead and dive into three for the road for mister rohan. Mironov roman three for the road question. One describe the relationship that adversaries or athletic opponents have Combative relationship that pushes each of them to grow beautiful. It's it's it's it's it's a match of each other's will right and who has the stronger will wonderful aright great job roman number two describe the elements of a healthy relationship between humans and pet. Unconditional love beautiful beautiful. And i'm sorry by heart just kind of goes back to my two dogs which we've had the pleasure of having them for a fifteen sixteen years all god. Yeah and the girl dog passed away in two thousand nineteen march twenty nineteen and my boy. Dog just passed away Less than a month ago. So yeah sorry feel thank you. i'm just out. oh my heart just kind of fills with With love you know. When i when i hear what you shared Is that element of the relationship. So thank you all right question number. Three for three for the roads tops off. This would be pretty easy. What's your advice for. Someone who wants to become a relationship coach. Be prepared to do a lot of marketing. All right there it is word to the wise be prepared to do a lot of marketing. Roman man thank you so much. That concludes three for the road. You did it. Excellent job man. I really appreciate you being on the show and let's stay in touch. Okay i mean as time goes on With any new projects or any new any new endeavors that you dive into. I'd love to have you back on the show so you can update the listeners. On what's going on with roman miron office would that be okay. Yeah absolutely i can i. Can i ask you a question. Absolutely okay if If we chain roles what wine question should ask you.
The Road to Rediscovery: A Life-Learning Journey for Growth
"roman" Discussed on The Road to Rediscovery: A Life-Learning Journey for Growth
"It to the next level and help others who were struggling through dark times by special guest has had some sharp twists and turns on his journey. He went through a divorce in two thousand fourteen than five years later. Made the move to canada from an underdeveloped country after running his own translation. agency. He pivoted to pursue a career as a life coach. He's now a successful very successful. Certified relationship coach helping his clients build legendary relationships through inspiration acceptance gratefulness and respect. Ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to introduce mr roman mironov to the show. Hi.
SI Media Podcast
"roman" Discussed on SI Media Podcast
"Stuff so if you haven't listened to that you can check that out. Voters episode here. Because i spoke to. I got the chance to speak to roman reigns. wwe superstar who Will be made eventing royal rumble wrestlemainia and Always good to talk to him and and give you. Wwe fans a little taste of roman reigns. Who's been on a couple of times so If you missed. The john ran pod. Check that out if you're not into sports meeting you here just for roman and your wwf fan. We have recent interviews with the undertaker in paul heyman in the archives. So check those out all right. Let's get to it right here as media podcasts. Wwe superstar roman reigns joining me now based on the wwe got smacked down friday night on fox. Royal rumble this sunday. Wrestlemainia coming up. And he's nice enough to come back on the media podcast even though i once said he was ten years older than he was roman reigns roman. How're you a wise one. Yes i am just in. Wwe come on well all all of earn. Certainly let's let's get right. Let's start this thing. Correct paul heyman is definitely an influence on you. Because i had paul on this podcast in november. It was like you know an hour of him. Selling roman reigns as hard as he could possibly do it as only he can do it. It was pretty good. I must say is a solid job is there's so much to talk about with you with the rumble coming up and mania but i gotta ask them knowing the wrestling. Because i think it's just beyond fascinating. I i would love to know how many people are like you where you have two sets of twins. That's gotta be pretty freaking call. Yeah so i. I think we thought we were like you know. Just an anomaly like this this. There's no way this happens other than like the reality shows you see but apparently this is It's happened quite a few times as we looked it up but yeah man. It's it's a.