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<v Speaker 2>Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>I am Corey J.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>Mahler. And I'm Wo.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Today's episode of Stone Choir is talking about the subject of whether</v>

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<v Speaker 3>all sins are equal.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And following on from that, whether we are permitted to judge the</v>

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<v Speaker 3>sins of another.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>What does it mean to judge, particularly when scripture says judge not?</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, these are both things that you hear in the mouths of</v>

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<v Speaker 3>many Christians today.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Generally, they're liberal Christians who are trying to Trying to avoid controversy,</v>

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<v Speaker 3>they're trying to avoid any sense of accusation or claiming that one</v>

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<v Speaker 3>person could possibly be worse than another.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>That's something that Protestants in particular are extremely allergic to.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Uh so today what we're going to be going through is a</v>

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<v Speaker 3>series of verses straight from scripture.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>This is basically going to be a long Bible study where we</v>

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<v Speaker 3>talk about the various verses that make absolutely explicit that not all</v>

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<v Speaker 3>sins are equal, that not only are they not equal in God's</v>

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<v Speaker 3>eyes, but that they are punished unequally as well.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Like many of our episodes, this is fundamentally an assault on the</v>

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<v Speaker 3>false doctrine of equality.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>There's no such thing before God at any point.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And we'll get into the details of what we mean, because obviously</v>

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<v Speaker 3>there are counterarguments that some make that we're we're gonna demolish here,</v>

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<v Speaker 3>in this case, dealing with the question of sin being equal First</v>

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<v Speaker 3>passage we're going to talk about today is from John nineteen.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>It's one that we've all heard recently as we're just on the</v>

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<v Speaker 3>heels of holy week.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>So Pilate said to Jesus, You will not speak to me?</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Do you not know that I have the authority to release you</v>

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<v Speaker 3>and authority to crucify you?</v>

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<v Speaker 3>answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless</v>

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<v Speaker 3>it had been given to you from above.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>From then on Pilate sought to release him.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>But the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are</v>

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<v Speaker 3>not Caesar's friend.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>I attacked on that second part just because as a side note,</v>

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<v Speaker 3>in the on the spirit of all sins are equal, it's very</v>

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<v Speaker 3>often something that comes up in the last few years, but particularly</v>

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<v Speaker 3>on the heels in during Easter, of claiming that it wasn't the</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Jews who executed Christ, that it was the Romans.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>When you read the narratives of Christ's trials, it was the Jews</v>

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<v Speaker 3>who brought him to the Romans.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>The only reason they didn't murder him themselves is that they did</v>

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<v Speaker 3>not have the legal authority to do so.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And so they came to Pilate and then Harry, and then Pilate</v>

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<v Speaker 3>again, making false accusations, and basically bullied Pilate into a corner to</v>

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<v Speaker 3>crucify him, even though he knew he wasn't guilty.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>He said he wasn't guilty, he knew that it was unjust, but</v>

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<v Speaker 3>for the sake of peace in his own head, because here it</v>

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<v Speaker 3>says if you release this man you're not Caesar's friend, is an</v>

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<v Speaker 3>explicit threat this Pilate would be committing treason if he didn't.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>That's how that played out.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And so when Jesus says he who delivered me over to you</v>

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<v Speaker 3>has the greater sin, Jesus is naming the Jew.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>He is saying the Jews who handed me over to you are</v>

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<v Speaker 3>To you, Pilate, for Roman execution, because you have the authority to</v>

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<v Speaker 3>execute. That only existed because of the disparity between the goals of</v>

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<v Speaker 3>the Romans and the goals of the Jews.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And Jesus acknowledged they had different motivations, they had different interests, and</v>

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<v Speaker 3>that it was explicitly the greater evil of the Jews who were</v>

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<v Speaker 3>crying for his blood and crying for Barabbas to be freed, even</v>

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<v Speaker 3>though he was a murderer.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>That was the greater sin that Jesus refers to.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>So just as a single passage, they would refute the notion that</v>

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<v Speaker 3>all sins can be equal.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Just in one verse, when Jesus says the greater sin precludes any</v>

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<v Speaker 3>notion that that could possibly be true.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And as we go through the rest of these we'll see in</v>

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<v Speaker 3>in greater detail how that plays out.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>But right from Holy Week itself, from Jesus on lifts, that claim</v>

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<v Speaker 3>that all sins are equal is categorically disqualified.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>So we just end there and it's our shortest episode, right?</v>

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<v Speaker 2>Because really if you have the the the w the direct word</v>

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<v Speaker 2>of Christ here saying that there is such thing as a greater</v>

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<v Speaker 2>sin, well obviously then there are different degrees of sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>There are worse sins, there are sins that are not as bad.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>Of course, all sin</v>

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<v Speaker 2>separates from God, and all sin is damning, but there are greater</v>

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<v Speaker 2>sins, there are greater punishments flowing from those greater sins.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>And just to emphasize what you said about the bit about Caesar's</v>

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<v Speaker 2>friend, because that's going to go past most modern readers.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>They're going to see that and go, okay, you're not a friend</v>

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<v Speaker 2>to Caesar if you do this thing, fine.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>In the context, to be Caesar's friend is to be someone who</v>

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<v Speaker 2>is on Caesar's good side, to be not Caesar's friend is as</v>

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<v Speaker 2>was said, to be a traitor, to be someone who is going</v>

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<v Speaker 2>to be marked for persecution and probably execution, and Pilate may eventually</v>

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<v Speaker 2>have been executed.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>Whether as a martyr or not, we're not entirely sure of the</v>

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<v Speaker 2>history of that.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>I happen to think he probably did convert, but that's an aside.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>But obviously here, just at the outset, we have the very clear,</v>

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<v Speaker 2>irrefutable teaching that there is such a thing as a greater sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>And so Christians cannot say that, you know, all sins are equal.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>That's not true.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>All sins are not equal.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>All sins separate from God.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>That is true, in so far as you are talking purely about</v>

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<v Speaker 2>the separation of man from God, all sins are equal in that</v>

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<v Speaker 2>they affect that separation.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>But all sins are not equal in the gravity of the sin,</v>

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<v Speaker 2>in the degree of the sin, in really the Really, the the</v>

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<v Speaker 2>significance of that separation between God and man that is worked by</v>

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<v Speaker 2>the sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>This is something that in Luke 23 at Jesus' crucifixion he parallels.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,</v>

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<v Speaker 3>and they cast lots to devise his garments.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Now that was specifically speaking of the Roman soldiers, the men who</v>

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<v Speaker 3>were the proximate cause of his hands and feet being nailed to</v>

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<v Speaker 3>a cross, he said forgive them for they know not what they</v>

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<v Speaker 3>do. Just as he said this Pilate's sin was the lesser sin</v>

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<v Speaker 3>for unjustly murdering him, for unjustly executing him.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>It was a murder because it was a an unjust execution.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>But it was also a murder it was also an execution under</v>

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<v Speaker 3>the law, although the law had been misapplied.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>But even at that Jesus paralleled Pilate's sin of commanding his execution,</v>

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<v Speaker 3>and then the actual executioners, the the Roman soldiers who were literally</v>

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<v Speaker 3>at the cross, some of whom, you know, they witnessed what happened,</v>

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<v Speaker 3>they witnessed those miracles, as Pilate didn't, he wasn't present.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And so when Jesus said forgive them, for they know not what</v>

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<v Speaker 3>they do, that is not a prayer that Jesus gave to the</v>

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<v Speaker 3>braying crowd of Jews who called for his blood.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>They knew what they were doing.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>They knew that they wanted to murder an innocent man.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>The Roman soldiers, for lack of a better phrase, they were following</v>

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<v Speaker 3>orders. What were they going to do?</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Pilate says you execute a man, they nail him to a cross.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>That's what they did.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And so here in two verses in the very same story, you</v>

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<v Speaker 3>know, hours apart, Jesus says there's a greater sin, and then he</v>

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<v Speaker 3>says, Forgive these men for the lesser sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>God forgive them because they don't know that they're nailing the Son</v>

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<v Speaker 3>of God to the cross.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>And we can of course pull out a general principle here that</v>

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<v Speaker 2>a knowing sin is worse than an unknowing sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>And yes there is such a thing as an unknowing sin If</v>

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<v Speaker 2>you unknowingly transgress God's law, that's still a sin, but it is</v>

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<v Speaker 2>an unknowing sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>If you know God's law and deliberately transgress it, that is a</v>

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<v Speaker 2>knowing sin, that is a worse sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>It's in fact multiple sins, because the act itself is sin, the</v>

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<v Speaker 2>guilty intent is sin, the deliberate violation of God's law is sin,</v>

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<v Speaker 2>you're compounding sin when you do something knowingly, as opposed to</v>

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<v Speaker 2>the unknowing sin where you merely transgress God's law, but not deliberately.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>This of course also deals with the difference between original sin and</v>

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<v Speaker 2>actual sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>Actual sin in this case just meaning sins that are not original</v>

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<v Speaker 2>sin. It's just a term used in theology to differentiate the two.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>It's not saying that actually Actual sin is actually sin, and original</v>

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<v Speaker 2>sin is not.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>They're both sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>Original sin is what is inherited from our parents all the way</v>

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<v Speaker 2>back to Adam.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>It is inherited down the line, genealogically, that is sin that is</v>

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<v Speaker 2>a corruption of man's nature, and we sin because we are sinners,</v>

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<v Speaker 2>and we are sinners because of original sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>Actual sin are those sins that we then go on to commit</v>

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<v Speaker 2>ourselves, not inherited sin, but sins that we have committed theft, murder,</v>

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<v Speaker 2>adultery, whatever it happens to be.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>And so we see in that, the difference between original and actual</v>

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<v Speaker 2>sin, that at the very least there are categories of sin, there</v>

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<v Speaker 2>are different kinds of sins, and we'll get into more of that</v>

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<v Speaker 2>later on in the episode.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>But again, notice the difference in this passage.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>A knowing sin committed deliberately, committed with intent, is worse than an</v>

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<v Speaker 2>unknowing sin.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>And we of course have that in our civil laws, we recognize</v>

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<v Speaker 2>that. If you accidentally kill someone, probably not murder unless you were</v>

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<v Speaker 2>doing something incredibly negligent, then could potentially still be murder.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>But for instance, if you are driving a vehicle and you have</v>

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<v Speaker 2>a medical emergency, you black out, you have an aneurysm, and you</v>

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<v Speaker 2>run over pedestrian, that's not murder.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>It's in fact not even negligent most likely.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>If you deliberately drive into a crowd of pedestrians, that is murder.</v>

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<v Speaker 2>So there's a difference regarding the intent, and the same thing holds</v>

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here. The

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<v Speaker 3>first perfect passage for dealing with deliberate sin is from Hebrews ten.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of</v>

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<v Speaker 3>the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a</v>

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<v Speaker 3>fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume</v>

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<v Speaker 3>the adversaries.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy</v>

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<v Speaker 3>on the evidence of two or three witnesses.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the</v>

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<v Speaker 3>one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned</v>

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<v Speaker 3>the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has</v>

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<v Speaker 3>outraged the spirit of grace.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay,</v>

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<v Speaker 3>and again the Lord will judge his people.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the</v>

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<v Speaker 3>living God.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>So this passage makes clear part of the reason, perhaps the entire</v>

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<v Speaker 3>reason that those Roman soldiers Jesus asked for their forgiveness was that</v>

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<v Speaker 3>they were not deliberately sinning.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>They were executing a convicted criminal.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>He was wrongly convicted, but that was that was above their pay</v>

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<v Speaker 3>grade. They had an order and they followed it.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>Their sin was not deliberate.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>And I think that it's entirely reasonable to believe that some of</v>

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<v Speaker 3>them, at least when they saw the you know, the earthquake and</v>

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<v Speaker 3>all the incredible happenings in the immediate aftermath of his death, it</v>

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<v Speaker 3>became clear to them that it was in fact the Son of</v>

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<v Speaker 3>God and that they had sinned.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>So</v>

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<v Speaker 3>their knowledge of sin at the time when they were doing it</v>

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<v Speaker 3>was not the same as what happened at least for some of</v>

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<v Speaker 3>them after the fact.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>They were not sinning deliberately when they murdered Christ by nailing him</v>

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<v Speaker 3>to the cross.</v>

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<v Speaker 3>That was not true of the Pharisees.</v>

00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:30.560
<v Speaker 3>It was not too true of the crowd of Jews who had</v>

00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:33.440
<v Speaker 3>followed Jesus for years trying to murder him.</v>

00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:37.680
<v Speaker 3>There are passage after passage in in all four of the gospels</v>

00:12:37.680 --> 00:12:42.240
<v Speaker 3>describing how the Jews continuously tried to murder Christ, his entire earthly</v>

00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:44.400
<v Speaker 3>ministry. And they finally succeeded.</v>

00:12:44.560 --> 00:12:49.840
<v Speaker 3>They succeeded by using the won the Romans as a political weapon.</v>

00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.000
<v Speaker 3>It was it was clever.</v>

00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.320
<v Speaker 3>It was it was absolutely malicious.</v>

00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:56.880
<v Speaker 3>And it was their way of doing it at arm's length.</v>

00:12:56.880 --> 00:12:57.920
<v Speaker 3>You know, just as</v>

00:12:59.040 --> 00:13:03.360
<v Speaker 3>the Pharisees paid Judas the thirty pieces of silver for his betrayal,</v>

00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:05.840
<v Speaker 3>you know, and then tossed it back as they couldn't accept blood</v>

00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:09.600
<v Speaker 3>money. They used the Romans to commit their murder.</v>

00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:11.280
<v Speaker 3>You know, they did everything at arm's length.</v>

00:13:11.280 --> 00:13:12.480
<v Speaker 3>They did everything in secret.</v>

00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:16.000
<v Speaker 3>They did everything so that they could keep their hands clean as</v>

00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.920
<v Speaker 3>they were committing literally the worst sin, the worst crime in the</v>

00:13:19.920 --> 00:13:21.520
<v Speaker 3>history of the universe.</v>

00:13:21.520 --> 00:13:22.560
<v Speaker 3>Now think about that.</v>

00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:27.200
<v Speaker 3>Is when when someone says to you, All sins are equal, would</v>

00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:32.560
<v Speaker 3>you agree then that if I steal your pencil or if the</v>

00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:37.760
<v Speaker 3>Pharisees and the crowd of Jews demands that Christ be executed for</v>

00:13:37.760 --> 00:13:38.800
<v Speaker 3>no crime.</v>

00:13:38.800 --> 00:13:39.840
<v Speaker 3>Are those equal?</v>

00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:40.880
<v Speaker 3>That's what you're saying.</v>

00:13:40.880 --> 00:13:45.440
<v Speaker 3>You're saying that the murder of Christ is no worse than anything</v>

00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:49.920
<v Speaker 3>else that anyone else has ever done if that's if that's a</v>

00:13:49.920 --> 00:13:53.520
<v Speaker 3>legal or a moral perspective you want to take, I I I</v>

00:13:53.520 --> 00:13:56.480
<v Speaker 3>I honestly don't see how you can claim to be Christian.</v>

00:13:56.800 --> 00:14:00.240
<v Speaker 3>Any pagan can understand that there are degrees of sin, that there</v>

00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:02.240
<v Speaker 3>are degrees of evil.</v>

00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:05.520
<v Speaker 3>You know, Cory just gave the example of of mensreya when you</v>

00:14:05.520 --> 00:14:07.760
<v Speaker 3>know you're doing something wrong or not knowing.</v>

00:14:07.760 --> 00:14:12.320
<v Speaker 3>And then there are also the degrees to which some sins are</v>

00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:16.080
<v Speaker 3>sinful. There are things that are worse than others.</v>

00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:19.040
<v Speaker 3>And as as Corey mentioned up front, and you know it's we</v>

00:14:19.040 --> 00:14:21.520
<v Speaker 3>say this in many episodes, it's always true.</v>

00:14:21.520 --> 00:14:23.680
<v Speaker 3>It's true, especially in this episode.</v>

00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:26.400
<v Speaker 3>We're not talking about suteriology.</v>

00:14:26.400 --> 00:14:32.160
<v Speaker 3>We're not talking about how we can save ourselves or justify ourselves.</v>

00:14:32.160 --> 00:14:37.520
<v Speaker 3>That's a problem that Protestantism solved perfectly 500 years ago, because we</v>

00:14:37.520 --> 00:14:40.720
<v Speaker 3>read the Bible again and we believed it again, and God solved</v>

00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:41.760
<v Speaker 3>it perfectly.</v>

00:14:41.760 --> 00:14:45.120
<v Speaker 3>He gave us the true information about how we are saved.</v>

00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:48.240
<v Speaker 3>We are saved solely through Christ's sacrifice.</v>

00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:51.360
<v Speaker 3>So when we talk about something being a greater sin or a</v>

00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.720
<v Speaker 3>lesser sin, none of it gets you off the hook.</v>

00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:58.880
<v Speaker 3>The example we've given in the past is that the sin of</v>

00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:03.600
<v Speaker 3>Adam listening to his wife and then eating the wrong piece of</v>

00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:08.160
<v Speaker 3>fruit, that is the least significant sin in the history of sin.</v>

00:15:08.160 --> 00:15:10.880
<v Speaker 3>He ate a piece of fruit that he wasn't supposed to eat.</v>

00:15:10.880 --> 00:15:12.320
<v Speaker 3>It was a beautiful piece of fruit.</v>

00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:13.840
<v Speaker 3>It was probably delicious.</v>

00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:16.320
<v Speaker 3>It was you know the the the garden was full of trees</v>

00:15:16.400 --> 00:15:17.920
<v Speaker 3>and he was allowed to eat everything.</v>

00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:20.400
<v Speaker 3>And God said, this one tree, don't touch that fruit.</v>

00:15:20.400 --> 00:15:21.200
<v Speaker 3>What did he do?</v>

00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:23.520
<v Speaker 3>He listened to his wife and he ate that one piece of</v>

00:15:23.520 --> 00:15:27.520
<v Speaker 3>fruit. You've probably probably virtually every sin that you've ever committed in</v>

00:15:27.520 --> 00:15:30.640
<v Speaker 3>your life, I'm sure every sin I've ever committed in my life,</v>

00:15:30.640 --> 00:15:33.520
<v Speaker 3>was worse than eating the wrong piece of fruit.</v>

00:15:33.520 --> 00:15:36.240
<v Speaker 3>And yet we inherit Adam's sin.</v>

00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:42.240
<v Speaker 3>We inherit damnation from our Father by virtue of that first sin,</v>

00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:45.760
<v Speaker 3>the smallest of all sins, and yet it causes our death.</v>

00:15:45.760 --> 00:15:49.920
<v Speaker 3>So when we say greater or lesser sin, we do that with</v>

00:15:49.920 --> 00:15:54.320
<v Speaker 3>full acknowledgement that the least sinful sin possible, at least that I</v>

00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:57.120
<v Speaker 3>can think of, is still a damning sin.</v>

00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:59.680
<v Speaker 3>We're not talking about manners of damnation.</v>

00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:00.320
<v Speaker 3>We're talking about</v>

00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.760
<v Speaker 3>how God views these things.</v>

00:16:03.760 --> 00:16:05.840
<v Speaker 3>As we get into some of these other verses in a minute,</v>

00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:09.680
<v Speaker 3>we'll show clearly specific examples of other sins that are seen as</v>

00:16:09.680 --> 00:16:11.280
<v Speaker 3>much more abhorrent than others.</v>

00:16:11.680 --> 00:16:15.520
<v Speaker 2>Yes, with all deference to Walter, we are not dealing here with</v>

00:16:15.520 --> 00:16:16.800
<v Speaker 2>the gospel, obviously.</v>

00:16:16.800 --> 00:16:20.000
<v Speaker 2>We are dealing with the law, we are dealing with sin, we</v>

00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:26.880
<v Speaker 2>are dealing with theology, not specifically soteriology, and so his thesis twenty</v>

00:16:27.040 --> 00:16:31.200
<v Speaker 2>five to let the gospel predominate is not in play here.</v>

00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:34.880
<v Speaker 2>We don't reject Article four of the Augsburg Confession, obviously.</v>

00:16:34.880 --> 00:16:36.880
<v Speaker 2>That is the heart of Christianity.</v>

00:16:36.880 --> 00:16:40.640
<v Speaker 2>That's justification by faith.</v>

00:16:40.640 --> 00:16:42.640
<v Speaker 2>But that's not what we're dealing with.</v>

00:16:42.640 --> 00:16:48.160
<v Speaker 2>We are dealing with the issue of the nature of sin, degrees</v>

00:16:48.160 --> 00:16:52.160
<v Speaker 2>of sin, types of sin, categories of sin, because this is something</v>

00:16:52.160 --> 00:16:56.080
<v Speaker 2>that has been ignored by the modern church, which undoubtedly you've heard</v>

00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:58.560
<v Speaker 2>that refrain from us many times now.</v>

00:16:58.560 --> 00:17:02.400
<v Speaker 2>We are choosing these issues because they are things that are either</v>

00:17:02.400 --> 00:17:07.520
<v Speaker 2>neglected or taught incorrectly in modern churches.</v>

00:17:07.520 --> 00:17:13.200
<v Speaker 2>And in order to be seeker sensitive or what have you, many</v>

00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:17.440
<v Speaker 2>modern churches will say that oh all sins are equal.</v>

00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:20.480
<v Speaker 2>Because they have it in their head, sometimes the best of them</v>

00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:25.600
<v Speaker 2>anyway, that they don't want to drive someone away by saying your</v>

00:17:26.080 --> 00:17:28.560
<v Speaker 2>sin is particularly atrocious.</v>

00:17:28.560 --> 00:17:32.480
<v Speaker 2>Not specifically necessarily that person, because a person wandering off the street</v>

00:17:32.560 --> 00:17:34.880
<v Speaker 2>you may not know what his sin is.</v>

00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:37.840
<v Speaker 2>But in his mind, in his heart he knows what the sin</v>

00:17:37.840 --> 00:17:41.360
<v Speaker 2>is. And so in a sermon, if you stand up there and</v>

00:17:41.360 --> 00:17:45.360
<v Speaker 2>rail against this particularly atrocious sin and that's the one in his</v>

00:17:45.360 --> 00:17:48.480
<v Speaker 2>heart, you have some pastors who are worried that that man will</v>

00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:52.880
<v Speaker 2>never come back because oh well he called out my specific horrible</v>

00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:58.400
<v Speaker 2>sin. And so that's the concern, but the concern is precisely wrong.</v>

00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:02.720
<v Speaker 2>Because to go into law and gospel a little bit, sinners have</v>

00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:05.600
<v Speaker 2>to be broken by the law before they are ready for the</v>

00:18:05.600 --> 00:18:08.960
<v Speaker 2>gospel. And so if you don't preach the law in its full</v>

00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:13.440
<v Speaker 2>severity, you should not be preaching the gospel in its full sweetness,</v>

00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:17.520
<v Speaker 2>because all you have done is set that man up to remain</v>

00:18:17.520 --> 00:18:21.520
<v Speaker 2>in his sin, to become impenetent, to harden his heart.</v>

00:18:21.520 --> 00:18:23.600
<v Speaker 2>And so it's the exact opposite.</v>

00:18:23.600 --> 00:18:27.360
<v Speaker 2>It is an inversion of what pastors and teachers are supposed to</v>

00:18:27.360 --> 00:18:29.760
<v Speaker 2>do when they say that all sins are equal.</v>

00:18:29.760 --> 00:18:32.480
<v Speaker 3>And I think hardening of heart is is one of the key</v>

00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:36.560
<v Speaker 3>things that is left out of the discussion of well if all</v>

00:18:36.560 --> 00:18:38.880
<v Speaker 3>sins aren't equal, what does that mean?</v>

00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:41.040
<v Speaker 3>That is principally what it means.</v>

00:18:41.040 --> 00:18:44.640
<v Speaker 3>If you're committing very small, you know, what what the Roman Catholics</v>

00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:46.320
<v Speaker 3>call venial sins, it</v>

00:18:47.840 --> 00:18:50.880
<v Speaker 3>would take a lot of them and a lot of deliberate sinning</v>

00:18:51.120 --> 00:18:53.920
<v Speaker 3>for you to reach the point of apostasy.</v>

00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:57.040
<v Speaker 3>On the other hand, if for example you're a serial killer, you</v>

00:18:57.040 --> 00:19:00.080
<v Speaker 3>know, to go at the to the extreme opposite end, something that</v>

00:19:00.080 --> 00:19:03.200
<v Speaker 3>everyone would admit, murdering is worse than stealing pencils.</v>

00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:04.560
<v Speaker 3>Everyone knows that.</v>

00:19:04.560 --> 00:19:07.520
<v Speaker 3>You don't have to have faith to understand that.</v>

00:19:07.520 --> 00:19:12.320
<v Speaker 3>And yet for some reason the modern Protestant freaks out at the</v>

00:19:12.320 --> 00:19:17.040
<v Speaker 3>idea of saying, well, stealing pencils and murdering a lot of people,</v>

00:19:17.040 --> 00:19:20.720
<v Speaker 3>those are both damnable, therefore they must be exactly the same.</v>

00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:25.200
<v Speaker 3>Nonsense. The difference is that the serial killer or someone who does</v>

00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:29.120
<v Speaker 3>something similarly egregious, and we'll get into some of those other examples,</v>

00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:35.440
<v Speaker 3>that sort of high-handed, impenitent, severe sin drives out the Holy Spirit</v>

00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:38.240
<v Speaker 3>much faster if it was ever present in the first place, and</v>

00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:41.360
<v Speaker 3>makes it impossible for the Holy Spirit to ever be present by</v>

00:19:41.360 --> 00:19:45.120
<v Speaker 3>virtue of the inherent depravity of the man who would do that.</v>

00:19:45.120 --> 00:19:50.720
<v Speaker 3>Whereas someone who's just, you know, a shoplifter, it's shoplifting is a</v>

00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:54.800
<v Speaker 3>terrible bad thing, it's destructive, it's evil, not minimizing it.</v>

00:19:54.800 --> 00:19:58.800
<v Speaker 3>But if all someone ever does is steal a lollipop every time</v>

00:19:58.800 --> 00:20:02.560
<v Speaker 3>they go down the candy aisle, they're probably not going to destroy</v>

00:20:02.560 --> 00:20:03.920
<v Speaker 3>their faith or make it impossible</v>

00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:07.760
<v Speaker 3>for the for the law and gospel to work on their hearts.</v>

00:20:07.760 --> 00:20:12.640
<v Speaker 3>If someone comes along and says, stealing is wrong, here's the commandment</v>

00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:17.280
<v Speaker 3>that describes that, you're hurting your neighbor, you're hurting your community, that's</v>

00:20:17.280 --> 00:20:23.200
<v Speaker 3>evil. It's relatively simple for someone who's been a serial shoplifter to</v>

00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:25.440
<v Speaker 3>set that aside and turn away from it.</v>

00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:28.800
<v Speaker 3>It's a much bigger ask for someone who's committing much bigger crimes</v>

00:20:29.040 --> 00:20:32.160
<v Speaker 3>because they know the gravity of their sin is far greater.</v>

00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:37.200
<v Speaker 3>And so therefore, the degree of forgiveness that they feel they need</v>

00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:39.840
<v Speaker 3>is so much more overwhelming that even if you got them to</v>

00:20:39.840 --> 00:20:42.480
<v Speaker 3>the point where they might admit that they'd done something wrong, they</v>

00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:45.760
<v Speaker 3>would think that they were past the point of forgiveness, which is</v>

00:20:45.760 --> 00:20:47.920
<v Speaker 3>ultimately why this is so important.</v>

00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:52.880
<v Speaker 3>If you let someone committing grievous sins continue in them, to the</v>

00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:56.400
<v Speaker 3>point that when he is perhaps convicted by his conscience that that</v>

00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:59.520
<v Speaker 3>was all sinful, he's going to think it's too late.</v>

00:20:59.520 --> 00:21:02.320
<v Speaker 3>And that is when the flip side of all this comes into</v>

00:21:02.320 --> 00:21:06.320
<v Speaker 3>play. Jesus paid for every single sin, great and small on the</v>

00:21:06.320 --> 00:21:09.840
<v Speaker 3>cross. They're all paid for, whether you believe it or not, you</v>

00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:16.480
<v Speaker 3>can be the most damnable, utterly repudiated person in history with no</v>

00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:19.440
<v Speaker 3>hope of salvation, and in fact have gone to hell.</v>

00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:21.920
<v Speaker 3>Jesus still paid for that person's sins, all of them.</v>

00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:26.320
<v Speaker 3>The fact that they rejected that forgiveness in some cases will be</v>

00:21:26.320 --> 00:21:29.200
<v Speaker 3>because they felt that their sin was too great, which is the</v>

00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:32.160
<v Speaker 3>trick that Satan always plays in every sin.</v>

00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:36.160
<v Speaker 3>When he pitched the fruit of the of the forbidden tree to</v>

00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:40.480
<v Speaker 3>Eve and to Adam, it was in the terms of oh you</v>

00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:42.080
<v Speaker 3>will not surely die.</v>

00:21:42.080 --> 00:21:46.000
<v Speaker 3>And then what happens after we commit that very small sin, seemingly</v>

00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.200
<v Speaker 3>small? What does the accuser come along and say afterwards?</v>

00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:51.040
<v Speaker 3>God could never forgive you for that.</v>

00:21:51.040 --> 00:21:53.360
<v Speaker 3>What you've done is so terrible they hid.</v>

00:21:53.360 --> 00:21:55.120
<v Speaker 3>They were they were ashamed and they hid.</v>

00:21:55.120 --> 00:21:57.200
<v Speaker 3>Now they hid because they knew they were naked.</v>

00:21:57.200 --> 00:21:59.840
<v Speaker 3>That was part of the eating from the tree of the fruit</v>

00:21:59.840 --> 00:22:03.280
<v Speaker 3>of knowledge of good and evil, but the same thing happens to</v>

00:22:03.280 --> 00:22:06.000
<v Speaker 3>us. When we commit a sin and we know that we've sinned,</v>

00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:07.040
<v Speaker 3>we hide.</v>

00:22:07.040 --> 00:22:09.280
<v Speaker 3>We know that we are guilty of something.</v>

00:22:09.280 --> 00:22:12.800
<v Speaker 3>And it Satan wants us to believe that we can't be forgiven.</v>

00:22:12.800 --> 00:22:15.760
<v Speaker 3>If you say that all sins are equal, the person who's in</v>

00:22:15.760 --> 00:22:21.280
<v Speaker 3>that position won't be able to understand the severity and the enormity</v>

00:22:21.280 --> 00:22:25.040
<v Speaker 3>of the sacrifice that Christ gave for their sins.</v>

00:22:25.040 --> 00:22:29.760
<v Speaker 3>The sweetness of that salvation is greater for he who needs it</v>

00:22:29.760 --> 00:22:33.520
<v Speaker 3>most. Now we obviously all need salvation from the least to the</v>

00:22:33.520 --> 00:22:37.920
<v Speaker 3>greatest sinner, but within our own hearts we know our own sins,</v>

00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:39.600
<v Speaker 3>not all of them, but we know many of them.</v>

00:22:39.840 --> 00:22:44.960
<v Speaker 3>And when we feel as though our sins are greater than God</v>

00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:46.960
<v Speaker 3>can forgive, Satan's one.</v>

00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:48.400
<v Speaker 3>Satan has your heart.</v>

00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:51.520
<v Speaker 3>Even if you come to some degree of repentance.</v>

00:22:51.520 --> 00:22:53.680
<v Speaker 3>I mean, that's what happened to Judas.</v>

00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:57.680
<v Speaker 3>He was possessed by the devil, he betrayed Christ, and then he</v>

00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:00.720
<v Speaker 3>regretted it, but he didn't repent in the sense that he in</v>

00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:04.160
<v Speaker 3>the sense that he turned back to Jesus and said, Lord, forgive</v>

00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:05.520
<v Speaker 3>me for betraying you.</v>

00:23:05.520 --> 00:23:08.240
<v Speaker 3>He felt that he had no hope of forgiveness and so he</v>

00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.080
<v Speaker 3>went and killed himself.</v>

00:23:10.080 --> 00:23:13.760
<v Speaker 3>That is the ultimate victory of Satan, as saying, oh it's not</v>

00:23:13.760 --> 00:23:15.920
<v Speaker 3>a big deal, and then you do it, and then he says</v>

00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:17.040
<v Speaker 3>it's unforgivable.</v>

00:23:17.040 --> 00:23:19.760
<v Speaker 3>If someone believes that all sins are equal, they're gonna end up</v>

00:23:19.760 --> 00:23:23.360
<v Speaker 3>on both sides of that equation, one right after the other.</v>

00:23:23.360 --> 00:23:26.960
<v Speaker 3>Because if you do something horrible and you're believing, eh, I'm no</v>

00:23:27.120 --> 00:23:31.360
<v Speaker 3>better or worse than anyone else, when your conscience convicts you of</v>

00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:35.360
<v Speaker 3>that sin, you're then going to think this sin's enormity is too</v>

00:23:35.360 --> 00:23:36.720
<v Speaker 3>much for even God to forgive.</v>

00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:37.920
<v Speaker 3>There's no hope for me.</v>

00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:40.480
<v Speaker 3>And that is when there's no room for the gospel.</v>

00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:46.080
<v Speaker 3>So this is absolutely a question of people people receiving salvation and</v>

00:23:46.080 --> 00:23:47.840
<v Speaker 3>hearing the gospel faithfully.</v>

00:23:47.840 --> 00:23:51.520
<v Speaker 3>That can only happen with sound doctrine upfront about what sin is</v>

00:23:51.520 --> 00:23:52.400
<v Speaker 3>and what it is not.</v>

00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:53.120
You

00:23:53.120 --> 00:23:57.600
<v Speaker 2>touched on something there that A lot of Christians also get wrong</v>

00:23:57.600 --> 00:23:58.320
<v Speaker 2>these days.</v>

00:23:58.320 --> 00:24:01.600
<v Speaker 2>It's tangential, but it is related to the topic.</v>

00:24:01.600 --> 00:24:06.640
<v Speaker 2>And that is the the scope of the atonement of redemption.</v>

00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:10.800
<v Speaker 2>When we think that any particular sin sin leaving aside for the</v>

00:24:10.800 --> 00:24:14.640
<v Speaker 2>moment the unpardonable, the unforgivable sin, we'll get to that.</v>

00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:17.840
<v Speaker 2>But when you think that a particular sin is too great to</v>

00:24:17.840 --> 00:24:22.560
<v Speaker 2>be forgiven, that God could never forgive me, I've committed too many</v>

00:24:22.560 --> 00:24:25.920
<v Speaker 2>and too heinous sins.</v>

00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:31.200
<v Speaker 2>You're losing sight of what exactly Christ accomplished, what God accomplished in</v>

00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:33.280
<v Speaker 2>the atonement.</v>

00:24:33.280 --> 00:24:37.360
<v Speaker 2>And that was the redemption of all things, of creation, because</v>

00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:44.080
<v Speaker 2>the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was of infinite value.</v>

00:24:44.080 --> 00:24:49.680
<v Speaker 2>He redeemed creation, not just you, not just me, not just a</v>

00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:50.640
<v Speaker 2>handful of things.</v>

00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:52.240
<v Speaker 2>He redeemed everything.</v>

00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:53.920
<v Speaker 2>It was complete.</v>

00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:55.680
<v Speaker 2>It was finished.</v>

00:24:55.680 --> 00:25:00.080
<v Speaker 2>It was an atonement that covered all sin.</v>

00:25:00.080 --> 00:25:01.680
<v Speaker 2>Period. All sin.</v>

00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:06.640
<v Speaker 2>It will not be applied to all because there is the objective</v>

00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:12.320
<v Speaker 2>justification, which is the redemption, the atonement, the price paid by Christ</v>

00:25:12.320 --> 00:25:16.160
<v Speaker 2>for all sins, and then there is the subjective justification, which is</v>

00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:21.600
<v Speaker 2>the application of that to individual sinners, which happens by faith, and</v>

00:25:21.600 --> 00:25:24.320
<v Speaker 2>so if you don't have faith it doesn't apply to you, but</v>

00:25:24.320 --> 00:25:27.760
<v Speaker 2>the sins are still forgiven, and so those who spend eternity in</v>

00:25:27.760 --> 00:25:31.920
<v Speaker 2>hell are attempting to pay the price for a sin that was</v>

00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:35.760
<v Speaker 2>already forgiven for which Christ already atoned.</v>

00:25:35.760 --> 00:25:40.320
<v Speaker 2>And so it is important to not lose sight of the scope</v>

00:25:40.320 --> 00:25:45.600
<v Speaker 2>of the atonement, of the actual scale of Christ's redemption, which was</v>

00:25:45.600 --> 00:25:46.880
<v Speaker 2>infinite.</v>

00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:50.560
<v Speaker 3>One of the most common examples that comes up both in the</v>

00:25:50.560 --> 00:25:54.240
<v Speaker 3>Old Testament and repeatedly in the New Testament is that of Sodom</v>

00:25:54.320 --> 00:26:00.320
<v Speaker 3>and Gomorrah as a particular example of an egregious sin and God's</v>

00:26:00.320 --> 00:26:06.960
<v Speaker 3>immediate temporal and hearkening to the eternal consequences of that sin.</v>

00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:11.600
<v Speaker 3>In Genesis nineteen it's written, then the Lord said, Because the outcry</v>

00:26:11.600 --> 00:26:16.080
<v Speaker 3>against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very grave,</v>

00:26:16.080 --> 00:26:19.440
<v Speaker 3>I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according</v>

00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:21.600
<v Speaker 3>to the outcry that has come to me.</v>

00:26:21.600 --> 00:26:23.440
<v Speaker 3>And if not, I will know.</v>

00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:25.920
<v Speaker 3>Now we all know what happened there.</v>

00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:29.600
<v Speaker 3>The they were engaging in sodomitic behavior.</v>

00:26:29.600 --> 00:26:33.920
<v Speaker 3>The entire town, the multiple towns in the area, were engaged in</v>

00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:36.160
<v Speaker 3>obscene sexual acts.</v>

00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:38.800
<v Speaker 3>And when they f heard that two angels had come, they heard</v>

00:26:38.800 --> 00:26:41.520
<v Speaker 3>two men were there, they said, Bring 'em out, we want to</v>

00:26:41.600 --> 00:26:42.880
<v Speaker 3>have sex with them.</v>

00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:46.720
<v Speaker 3>Which I forgive me for laughing, it's it's it's utterly alien to</v>

00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:48.800
<v Speaker 3>me, but it was normal in that town.</v>

00:26:48.800 --> 00:26:52.960
<v Speaker 3>If when someone came they wanted to they wanted to rape the</v>

00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:56.640
<v Speaker 3>guests of Lot and they didn't know they were angels, but it</v>

00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:00.400
<v Speaker 3>was certainly the confirmation that the angels had come to seek on</v>

00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:03.760
<v Speaker 3>behalf of God to see whether the outcry was true.</v>

00:27:03.760 --> 00:27:08.720
<v Speaker 3>And the consequence was that those towns were literally wiped off the</v>

00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:13.440
<v Speaker 3>map. And we think through modern archaeological evidence we found exactly where</v>

00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:14.800
<v Speaker 3>that place was.</v>

00:27:14.800 --> 00:27:21.440
<v Speaker 3>They have found evidence of glass caused by superheated air.</v>

00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:25.600
<v Speaker 3>Basically it appeared that there was a large air large airburst similar</v>

00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:29.840
<v Speaker 3>to the Tunguska blast and I think nineteen thirteen roughly.</v>

00:27:29.840 --> 00:27:35.520
<v Speaker 3>It was it was the equivalent of a multi megaton nuclear detonation</v>

00:27:35.520 --> 00:27:38.400
<v Speaker 3>in the air above that location.</v>

00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:41.840
<v Speaker 3>And that's today that is visible in the ground and where they</v>

00:27:41.840 --> 00:27:43.520
<v Speaker 3>believe Sodom and Gomorrah was.</v>

00:27:43.520 --> 00:27:48.000
<v Speaker 3>Now, archaeologists digging it up don't believe the Bible, because obviously it's</v>

00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:48.720
<v Speaker 3>all nonsense.</v>

00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:52.080
<v Speaker 3>But when you look at what they found and what they can</v>

00:27:52.080 --> 00:27:56.720
<v Speaker 3>describe of the the physical events that occurred there, it pretty well</v>

00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:59.760
<v Speaker 3>matches perfectly what is described in scripture.</v>

00:27:59.760 --> 00:28:05.920
<v Speaker 3>There is a massive fiery conflagration that wiped those towns off the</v>

00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:09.600
<v Speaker 3>map. Now, those are the only towns that have ever been wiped</v>

00:28:09.600 --> 00:28:13.760
<v Speaker 3>off the map like this by God saying this is what I'm</v>

00:28:13.760 --> 00:28:14.880
<v Speaker 3>going to do.</v>

00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:17.760
<v Speaker 3>And in the New Testament, as we'll get to in a minute,</v>

00:28:17.760 --> 00:28:22.560
<v Speaker 3>it's referred to repeatedly, Sodom and Gomorrah's sin was greater.</v>

00:28:22.560 --> 00:28:24.880
<v Speaker 3>God said he's going to go down and see if it's true</v>

00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:26.800
<v Speaker 3>that their sin is very grave.</v>

00:28:26.800 --> 00:28:29.680
<v Speaker 3>How can a sin be very grave if all sin is equal?</v>

00:28:30.320 --> 00:28:33.120
<v Speaker 3>Or are we to believe if all sin is equal that the</v>

00:28:33.120 --> 00:28:36.960
<v Speaker 3>next town over from Sodom was less guilty?</v>

00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:38.960
<v Speaker 3>Were there no sinners in that town?</v>

00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:40.000
<v Speaker 3>Certainly not.</v>

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:41.520
<v Speaker 3>And that was never the claim.</v>

00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:45.920
<v Speaker 3>Every town has sinners because every town has human beings who are</v>

00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:47.200
<v Speaker 3>born in sin.</v>

00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:50.800
<v Speaker 3>The reason that these these towns were destroyed was that their sin</v>

00:28:50.800 --> 00:28:52.720
<v Speaker 3>was very great.</v>

00:28:53.040 --> 00:28:53.200
And

00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:56.400
<v Speaker 2>so we have a passage from Luke ten.</v>

00:28:56.400 --> 00:28:59.440
<v Speaker 2>But whenever you enter a town, and they do not receive you,</v>

00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:02.800
<v Speaker 2>go into its streets and say, Even the dust of your town</v>

00:29:02.800 --> 00:29:06.000
<v Speaker 2>that clings to our feet we wipe off against you.</v>

00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:10.240
<v Speaker 2>Nevertheless, know this that the kingdom of God has come near.</v>

00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:13.200
<v Speaker 2>I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for</v>

00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:15.680
<v Speaker 2>Sodom than for that town.</v>

00:29:17.120 --> 00:29:20.320
<v Speaker 2>And so here we see that even though the sins of Sodom</v>

00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:24.800
<v Speaker 2>and Gomorrah were great, there is in fact an even greater sin.</v>

00:29:24.800 --> 00:29:27.200
<v Speaker 2>This, of course, is rejecting Christ.</v>

00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:32.960
<v Speaker 2>This is rejecting the gospel, rejecting God, which is the worst sin,</v>

00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:37.520
<v Speaker 2>of course, and this ties right back into the unforgivable sin was</v>

00:29:37.520 --> 00:29:41.120
<v Speaker 2>mentioned. And I would be remiss if I did not mention as</v>

00:29:41.120 --> 00:29:44.960
<v Speaker 2>I do every time this comes up, if you can worry about</v>

00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:49.520
<v Speaker 2>the unforgivable sin, you have not committed it.</v>

00:29:49.520 --> 00:29:54.640
<v Speaker 2>That's the standard, so if that concerns you whatsoever, you have not</v>

00:29:54.640 --> 00:29:55.680
<v Speaker 2>committed it.</v>

00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:57.520
<v Speaker 2>And I'm not going to tell you not to worry about it</v>

00:29:57.600 --> 00:29:59.840
<v Speaker 2>because of course that would be a problem, but</v>

00:30:01.120 --> 00:30:06.560
<v Speaker 2>the unforgivable sin is a complicated topic, but essentially it is unbelief.</v>

00:30:06.560 --> 00:30:11.600
<v Speaker 2>It is the deliberate rejection of God, of the gospel, of repentance,</v>

00:30:11.600 --> 00:30:14.800
<v Speaker 2>it is high handed blasphemy.</v>

00:30:14.800 --> 00:30:18.000
<v Speaker 2>And that's what we have here.</v>

00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:21.840
<v Speaker 2>The rejection of the gospel by these towns.</v>

00:30:21.840 --> 00:30:24.560
<v Speaker 2>And so it will be better for Sodom on the day of</v>

00:30:24.560 --> 00:30:27.840
<v Speaker 2>judgment. It does not mean that Sodom is off the hook, as</v>

00:30:27.840 --> 00:30:29.680
<v Speaker 2>we've been saying throughout.</v>

00:30:29.680 --> 00:30:33.840
<v Speaker 2>Just because some sins are not as bad as others does not</v>

00:30:33.840 --> 00:30:36.160
<v Speaker 2>mean that they are not sins, does not mean they do not</v>

00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:37.200
<v Speaker 2>separate from God.</v>

00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:40.320
<v Speaker 2>Does not mean that if you are not in Christ you will</v>

00:30:40.320 --> 00:30:42.880
<v Speaker 2>not go to hell for those sins.</v>

00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:48.160
<v Speaker 2>If you are not in Christ, you will go to hell, regardless</v>

00:30:48.320 --> 00:30:50.640
<v Speaker 2>of the gravity of the sins you have committed.</v>

00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:54.400
<v Speaker 2>Your eternity will not be as bad as a serial killer or</v>

00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:58.240
<v Speaker 2>someone who has committed many heinous sins, but it will still not</v>

00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:00.480
<v Speaker 2>be a good eternity.</v>

00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:05.200
<v Speaker 2>And so these towns reject Christ, reject the gospel, and</v>

00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:10.240
<v Speaker 2>that sin is graver than Sodom and Gomorrah, who did not outright</v>

00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:16.240
<v Speaker 2>reject the gospel, instead they were engaged in heinous sexual sins.</v>

00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:20.400
<v Speaker 2>Yes, horrible sins, no not as bad as rejecting Christ.</v>

00:31:20.800 --> 00:31:23.200
<v Speaker 3>And this passage, of course, is one that we had referred to</v>

00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:27.040
<v Speaker 3>in one of our earlier episodes on the subject of forgotten doctrines.</v>

00:31:27.040 --> 00:31:30.080
<v Speaker 3>This is one of the passages in the synoptics that refers to</v>

00:31:30.080 --> 00:31:33.120
<v Speaker 3>the doctrine of shaking the dust off your feet is a curse</v>

00:31:33.120 --> 00:31:36.320
<v Speaker 3>against those who refuse to hear the gospel.</v>

00:31:36.320 --> 00:31:39.200
<v Speaker 3>I mean, they've heard it, they refuse to believe it.</v>

00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:39.760
<v Speaker 3>And so</v>

00:31:40.800 --> 00:31:44.800
<v Speaker 3>I think that's an important tie-in to as Corey said, the the</v>

00:31:44.800 --> 00:31:46.160
<v Speaker 3>unforgivable sin.</v>

00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:47.760
<v Speaker 3>What is what does this say?</v>

00:31:47.760 --> 00:31:48.880
<v Speaker 3>It says that</v>

00:31:49.840 --> 00:31:54.320
<v Speaker 3>in the case where someone believes when when a missionary comes to</v>

00:31:54.320 --> 00:31:58.240
<v Speaker 3>them, they're to be told that God has come among them.</v>

00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:01.280
<v Speaker 3>If they do not believe, that is still to be announced.</v>

00:32:01.280 --> 00:32:05.360
<v Speaker 3>But whereas in the first case, if you hear and believe, to</v>

00:32:05.360 --> 00:32:08.640
<v Speaker 3>hear that God has come near you is a matter of profound</v>

00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:10.080
<v Speaker 3>comfort and joy.</v>

00:32:10.080 --> 00:32:14.160
<v Speaker 3>If you do not believe when it is announced by the missionary</v>

00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:16.960
<v Speaker 3>that God has come among you, it is a curse.</v>

00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:20.480
<v Speaker 3>it it is the it is the foremost of all curses to</v>

00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:23.840
<v Speaker 3>saying God has been here, you have rejected him on the day</v>

00:32:23.840 --> 00:32:27.920
<v Speaker 3>of judgment, you are going to receive what you've earned here.</v>

00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:31.040
<v Speaker 3>And that is, I think, one of the things that is missing</v>

00:32:31.040 --> 00:32:33.280
<v Speaker 3>from Christian discussion of sin.</v>

00:32:33.280 --> 00:32:36.480
<v Speaker 3>You earn a specific punishment for a specific sin.</v>

00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:40.400
<v Speaker 3>There's a specific punishment for every sin, and there's a specific reward</v>

00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:42.160
<v Speaker 3>for every good deed.</v>

00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:45.600
<v Speaker 3>Now, the difference, and it's it's a tricky one for us to</v>

00:32:45.600 --> 00:32:49.520
<v Speaker 3>process because we gotten so sloppy about things thinking and speaking about</v>

00:32:49.520 --> 00:32:51.040
<v Speaker 3>these things.</v>

00:32:51.040 --> 00:32:55.120
<v Speaker 3>For the Christian, all the good works that we do, which were</v>

00:32:55.120 --> 00:32:58.560
<v Speaker 3>prepared by God beforehand for us to do for the benefit of</v>

00:32:58.560 --> 00:33:03.200
<v Speaker 3>our neighbor, we receive credit for them, even though they're God's gift</v>

00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:07.520
<v Speaker 3>to us, all of the evil things that the Christian does are</v>

00:33:07.520 --> 00:33:12.560
<v Speaker 3>not credited to him, but were instead nailed to the cross with</v>

00:33:12.560 --> 00:33:15.760
<v Speaker 3>Christ, so that on the last day when we are covered in</v>

00:33:15.760 --> 00:33:20.880
<v Speaker 3>Christ's blood and our robes are washed white, we appear blameless before</v>

00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:22.000
<v Speaker 3>the throne of God.</v>

00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:23.360
<v Speaker 3>That's how it works.</v>

00:33:23.360 --> 00:33:27.920
<v Speaker 3>Christ's atoning blood washes our robes white in the blood of the</v>

00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:32.560
<v Speaker 3>Lamb. We stand before God sinless, not because not because we've committed</v>

00:33:32.560 --> 00:33:37.760
<v Speaker 3>no sin, but because Christ's propitiating sacrifice on the cross washed it</v>

00:33:37.760 --> 00:33:40.480
<v Speaker 3>away, because he paid the price for those sins.</v>

00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:43.680
<v Speaker 3>The converse is true of unbelievers.</v>

00:33:43.680 --> 00:33:46.400
<v Speaker 3>They had no good works in their life, no net no matter</v>

00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:49.680
<v Speaker 3>how laudable it may have seemed, because they were not doing them</v>

00:33:49.680 --> 00:33:51.040
<v Speaker 3>in the name of God.</v>

00:33:51.040 --> 00:33:54.800
<v Speaker 3>And they have everything that they ever did as a sin, which</v>

00:33:54.800 --> 00:33:58.560
<v Speaker 3>Christ paid for, and they rejected that propitiation.</v>

00:33:58.560 --> 00:34:01.680
<v Speaker 3>They said, I don't believe in God, I don't want him to</v>

00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:03.040
<v Speaker 3>have anything to do with this.</v>

00:34:03.040 --> 00:34:06.240
<v Speaker 3>These are my sins, these aren't sins of the Gaul however, they</v>

00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:10.960
<v Speaker 3>want to cut it, they say, not God's problem, stay out of</v>

00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:11.600
<v Speaker 3>my business.</v>

00:34:11.600 --> 00:34:14.160
<v Speaker 3>On judgment day, it's God's business.</v>

00:34:14.160 --> 00:34:19.120
<v Speaker 3>And Christ's atoning sacrifice does not apply to them because they rejected</v>

00:34:19.120 --> 00:34:23.600
<v Speaker 3>it. It's not in the sense of the reformed limited atonement where</v>

00:34:23.840 --> 00:34:28.320
<v Speaker 3>God only died for some, as Corey said earlier.</v>

00:34:28.640 --> 00:34:33.200
<v Speaker 3>The beginning of John's Gospel is very important when it talks about</v>

00:34:33.280 --> 00:34:37.840
<v Speaker 3>in the beginning was the word, everything in the universe was made</v>

00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:38.960
<v Speaker 3>through Christ.</v>

00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:42.240
<v Speaker 3>This is paralleled in the cross.</v>

00:34:42.240 --> 00:34:46.080
<v Speaker 3>Everything in the universe was redeemed through Christ.</v>

00:34:46.080 --> 00:34:50.720
<v Speaker 3>Only Christ could do that, by whom all things were made, through</v>

00:34:50.720 --> 00:34:52.480
<v Speaker 3>whom all things were redeemed.</v>

00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:56.480
<v Speaker 3>There's a perfect symmetry there that cannot be achieved anywhere else, which</v>

00:34:56.480 --> 00:34:59.680
<v Speaker 3>is why it's ludicrous for any man to think, well maybe I</v>

00:34:59.680 --> 00:35:00.320
<v Speaker 3>can do something.</v>

00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:01.760
<v Speaker 3>Are you kidding me?</v>

00:35:01.760 --> 00:35:04.320
<v Speaker 3>It's that it's it's utterly preposterous.</v>

00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:06.480
<v Speaker 3>No Christian believes that.</v>

00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:09.680
<v Speaker 3>No Christian believes that he can do anything to save himself.</v>

00:35:09.840 --> 00:35:13.200
<v Speaker 3>I think it's one of the greatest weaknesses of Protestant doctrine that</v>

00:35:13.200 --> 00:35:18.800
<v Speaker 3>we're still fighting the fifteenth century heresy that we can earn some</v>

00:35:18.800 --> 00:35:20.080
<v Speaker 3>of our salvation.</v>

00:35:20.080 --> 00:35:21.280
<v Speaker 3>We dealt with that.</v>

00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:22.480
<v Speaker 3>We got rid of it.</v>

00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:26.880
<v Speaker 3>We purified Christian doctrine and said no, all the sacrifices at the</v>

00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:30.000
<v Speaker 3>cross. Okay, it's a settled matter.</v>

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:33.520
<v Speaker 3>We don't need to relitigate that in every single sentence of every</v>

00:35:33.520 --> 00:35:37.920
<v Speaker 3>single sermon and every single conversation we have about these things, there's</v>

00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:40.960
<v Speaker 3>more to say about the world and about the Christian life than</v>

00:35:40.960 --> 00:35:42.720
<v Speaker 3>saying that Jesus took care of it all.</v>

00:35:42.720 --> 00:35:45.840
<v Speaker 3>It's the most important thing, but it's not the only thing.</v>

00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:47.600
<v Speaker 3>This is about the and then.</v>

00:35:47.600 --> 00:35:52.080
<v Speaker 3>And as a Christian who's been redeemed, who has the Holy Spirit</v>

00:35:52.080 --> 00:35:55.920
<v Speaker 3>to be able to understand what God has written, when we see</v>

00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:59.920
<v Speaker 3>people saying things like all sins are equal, you can't judge man.</v>

00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:03.600
<v Speaker 3>that's just his sin, and your sin is even worse, except all</v>

00:36:03.600 --> 00:36:04.480
<v Speaker 3>sins are equal.</v>

00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:06.480
<v Speaker 3>Like it it falls apart on its face.</v>

00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:09.120
<v Speaker 3>But the important part is what they want you to do is</v>

00:36:09.120 --> 00:36:11.520
<v Speaker 3>not tell anyone else else about their sin.</v>

00:36:11.520 --> 00:36:12.960
<v Speaker 3>That's what Satan wants.</v>

00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:16.320
<v Speaker 3>He doesn't want anyone to hear that they're sinning until it's too</v>

00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:21.040
<v Speaker 3>late, until they've committed such egregious sins that they feel that they're</v>

00:36:21.040 --> 00:36:25.680
<v Speaker 3>beyond redemption, which is false, but it's a lie that's easy to</v>

00:36:25.680 --> 00:36:28.880
<v Speaker 3>believe. It's one of the it's one of the hardest things for</v>

00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:32.480
<v Speaker 3>someone when they hit rock bottom in in some aspect of their</v>

00:36:32.480 --> 00:36:35.920
<v Speaker 3>life to realize they can't do it themselves.</v>

00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:38.960
<v Speaker 3>And that is when they're ready to hear the gospel, to hear</v>

00:36:38.960 --> 00:36:40.240
<v Speaker 3>that God did everything.</v>

00:36:40.240 --> 00:36:42.160
<v Speaker 3>You don't have to do anything.</v>

00:36:42.160 --> 00:36:45.040
<v Speaker 3>God is giving you the gift of faith and belief.</v>

00:36:45.040 --> 00:36:48.240
<v Speaker 3>Receive it with thanksgiving, and it's yours.</v>

00:36:48.640 --> 00:36:52.080
<v Speaker 2>To emphasize what you said about the difference between the works of</v>

00:36:52.080 --> 00:36:56.640
<v Speaker 2>those who are in Christ versus those who are not.</v>

00:36:56.640 --> 00:37:01.440
<v Speaker 2>We often hear the term virtuous pagan, at least if you read</v>

00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:05.360
<v Speaker 2>theology and are in those circles, and there is and there is</v>

00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:11.120
<v Speaker 2>not such a thing as a virtuous pagan, the pagan who lives</v>

00:37:11.120 --> 00:37:16.640
<v Speaker 2>a morally upstanding life, who doesn't murder, doesn't cheat, doesn't steal, doesn't</v>

00:37:16.560 --> 00:37:23.760
<v Speaker 2>commit adultery, etc, is a virtuous pagan according to the law</v>

00:37:25.440 --> 00:37:30.240
<v Speaker 2>because you can do the works of the law according to human</v>

00:37:30.240 --> 00:37:33.120
<v Speaker 2>reason and free will.</v>

00:37:33.120 --> 00:37:36.720
<v Speaker 2>You cannot do them perfectly, you will always fall short, and so</v>

00:37:36.720 --> 00:37:38.560
<v Speaker 2>you will always sin.</v>

00:37:38.560 --> 00:37:43.760
<v Speaker 2>However, as was stated, they are not credited to you as good</v>

00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:48.240
<v Speaker 2>works, because you are not in Christ, and so as a sinner,</v>

00:37:48.240 --> 00:37:51.600
<v Speaker 2>everything you do is sin.</v>

00:37:51.600 --> 00:37:55.840
<v Speaker 2>Everything. Murder, sin.</v>

00:37:55.840 --> 00:37:58.800
<v Speaker 2>Giving candy to a child, sin.</v>

00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:01.520
<v Speaker 2>Saving a drowning animal, sin.</v>

00:38:01.520 --> 00:38:05.600
<v Speaker 2>Everything you do as a sinner is sin.</v>

00:38:05.600 --> 00:38:09.360
<v Speaker 2>And so, in that sense, there is no such thing as a</v>

00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:10.960
<v Speaker 2>virtuous pagan.</v>

00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:15.840
<v Speaker 2>What the pagan cannot do, what the person outside Christ cannot do,</v>

00:38:15.840 --> 00:38:20.320
<v Speaker 2>is what the person in Christ can do, and instead of the</v>

00:38:20.320 --> 00:38:23.520
<v Speaker 2>works of the law, we are talking about the fruits of the</v>

00:38:23.520 --> 00:38:29.200
<v Speaker 2>Spirit. Now, these are theological categories, and it is important to keep</v>

00:38:29.200 --> 00:38:30.720
<v Speaker 2>that clear.</v>

00:38:30.720 --> 00:38:34.480
<v Speaker 2>Because the good works of Christians are also done according to the</v>

00:38:34.480 --> 00:38:37.280
<v Speaker 2>law, and we'll get into that in a future episode.</v>

00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:41.600
<v Speaker 2>But in this sense, this limited technical sense, the works of the</v>

00:38:41.600 --> 00:38:45.840
<v Speaker 2>law are those things that can be done according to human reason,</v>

00:38:45.840 --> 00:38:48.880
<v Speaker 2>even by the pagan.</v>

00:38:48.880 --> 00:38:51.840
<v Speaker 2>The fruits of the Spirit are those things that are done in</v>

00:38:52.640 --> 00:38:54.800
<v Speaker 2>Christ through faith.</v>

00:38:54.800 --> 00:39:00.160
<v Speaker 2>Those are credited to the believer as good works on account of</v>

00:39:00.160 --> 00:39:03.120
<v Speaker 2>Christ's sacrifice on his behalf.</v>

00:39:03.120 --> 00:39:06.960
<v Speaker 2>And so if you are in Christ, you have good works the</v>

00:39:06.960 --> 00:39:10.960
<v Speaker 2>good works you do are credited to you, as was stated the</v>

00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:14.160
<v Speaker 2>sins you do are not credited to your account because they were</v>

00:39:14.160 --> 00:39:15.600
<v Speaker 2>washed away in Christ.</v>

00:39:15.600 --> 00:39:17.840
<v Speaker 2>They are washed clean by his blood.</v>

00:39:18.160 --> 00:39:23.600
<v Speaker 2>But again the pagan does not actually have good works, because they</v>

00:39:23.600 --> 00:39:28.240
<v Speaker 2>are tainted because the pagan is a sinner, not in Christ, not</v>

00:39:28.240 --> 00:39:32.640
<v Speaker 2>forgiven, and so if you are not in Christ, you have only</v>

00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:35.120
<v Speaker 2>sins, no good works.</v>

00:39:35.120 --> 00:39:39.120
<v Speaker 2>If you are in Christ, ultimately, when you are brought before the</v>

00:39:39.120 --> 00:39:42.640
<v Speaker 2>judgment seat and the books are open, and your deeds are read,</v>

00:39:42.640 --> 00:39:45.840
<v Speaker 2>you will have only good works, no sins.</v>

00:39:46.160 --> 00:39:46.400
Next

00:39:46.480 --> 00:39:48.560
<v Speaker 3>we're going to read Exodus thirty two.</v>

00:39:48.560 --> 00:39:51.760
<v Speaker 3>The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a</v>

00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:54.080
<v Speaker 3>great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord.</v>

00:39:54.080 --> 00:39:56.400
<v Speaker 3>Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.</v>

00:39:56.400 --> 00:40:00.080
<v Speaker 3>So Moses returned to the Lord and said, Alas this people has</v>

00:40:00.080 --> 00:40:01.440
<v Speaker 3>sinned a great sin.</v>

00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:05.040
<v Speaker 3>They have made for themselves gods of gold.</v>

00:40:05.040 --> 00:40:09.600
<v Speaker 3>Now I want to read this in particular because this in addition</v>

00:40:09.600 --> 00:40:12.720
<v Speaker 3>to having the phrase great sin in English in the ESV, I'm</v>

00:40:12.720 --> 00:40:18.240
<v Speaker 3>not I didn't, but I I I'm sure it's faithful.</v>

00:40:18.240 --> 00:40:21.920
<v Speaker 3>Moses was not only highlighting that some sins are better or worse</v>

00:40:21.920 --> 00:40:26.960
<v Speaker 3>than others, but this was talking about the greatest of all sins,</v>

00:40:26.960 --> 00:40:29.520
<v Speaker 3>which is a violation of the first commandment.</v>

00:40:29.520 --> 00:40:33.200
<v Speaker 3>Because what had just happened, Moses had gone up the mountain, he</v>

00:40:33.200 --> 00:40:36.640
<v Speaker 3>had received the ten commandments, he'd come back down, and what did</v>

00:40:36.640 --> 00:40:37.120
<v Speaker 3>he find?</v>

00:40:37.120 --> 00:40:40.960
<v Speaker 3>He found that the Jews had abandoned God.</v>

00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:44.800
<v Speaker 3>They had made the golden calf, so that they could worship it</v>

00:40:44.880 --> 00:40:48.480
<v Speaker 3>and say this is this idol is what brought us out of</v>

00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:54.400
<v Speaker 3>Egypt. God had literally just rescued them and they apostatized while in</v>

00:40:54.400 --> 00:40:58.640
<v Speaker 3>full view of the fiery pillar of his presence on the mountain.</v>

00:40:58.800 --> 00:41:02.480
<v Speaker 3>It's stunning to me to think about that scene where the very</v>

00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:06.720
<v Speaker 3>God who had rescued them miraculously from the Egypt, brought them into</v>

00:41:06.720 --> 00:41:10.880
<v Speaker 3>the desert, was speaking with the man who had led them out</v>

00:41:10.880 --> 00:41:12.000
<v Speaker 3>of captivity.</v>

00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:16.400
<v Speaker 3>There's a visible pillar of smoke and fire on the mountain.</v>

00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:17.520
<v Speaker 3>They hear thunder.</v>

00:41:17.520 --> 00:41:19.200
<v Speaker 3>Like it was a huge scene.</v>

00:41:19.200 --> 00:41:23.120
<v Speaker 3>It was very visually dramatic, especially for being so unnatural.</v>

00:41:23.120 --> 00:41:24.480
<v Speaker 3>And what did they do?</v>

00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:28.160
<v Speaker 3>They couldn't last forty days without Moses telling him to behave.</v>

00:41:28.160 --> 00:41:31.760
<v Speaker 3>And so they had an Aaron melt down gold and make a</v>

00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:34.080
<v Speaker 3>calf for them so that they could worship and say, This is</v>

00:41:34.080 --> 00:41:34.960
<v Speaker 3>our God now.</v>

00:41:34.960 --> 00:41:37.440
<v Speaker 3>This calf led us out of Egypt.</v>

00:41:37.440 --> 00:41:40.320
<v Speaker 3>This was a great sin because it was a number one on</v>

00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:41.040
<v Speaker 3>the list.</v>

00:41:41.040 --> 00:41:43.520
<v Speaker 3>You shall have no other gods before me.</v>

00:41:43.520 --> 00:41:45.120
<v Speaker 3>He comes down, was he fine?</v>

00:41:45.120 --> 00:41:46.640
<v Speaker 3>They have another god before him.</v>

00:41:46.640 --> 00:41:49.600
<v Speaker 3>And before is an interesting word in that in that you shall</v>

00:41:49.600 --> 00:41:51.600
<v Speaker 3>have no other gods before me.</v>

00:41:51.600 --> 00:41:53.840
<v Speaker 3>It means in my presence.</v>

00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:55.920
<v Speaker 3>It doesn't mean in terms of rank.</v>

00:41:55.920 --> 00:41:58.000
<v Speaker 3>It doesn't mean before or after.</v>

00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:02.640
<v Speaker 3>It means before is in I see before me tons of soil.</v>

00:42:02.640 --> 00:42:05.120
<v Speaker 3>To quote Spooner.</v>

00:42:05.120 --> 00:42:08.160
<v Speaker 3>When something is before God, it means he can see it.</v>

00:42:08.160 --> 00:42:09.840
<v Speaker 3>Well, God is omniscient.</v>

00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:11.600
<v Speaker 3>So what is before God?</v>

00:42:11.600 --> 00:42:14.240
<v Speaker 3>Everything in the universe, everything beyond the universe.</v>

00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:17.200
<v Speaker 3>Anything exists, it is before God.</v>

00:42:17.200 --> 00:42:19.840
<v Speaker 3>God is in the place where that where there is no place.</v>

00:42:20.720 --> 00:42:22.080
<v Speaker 3>He knows everything.</v>

00:42:22.080 --> 00:42:25.760
<v Speaker 3>So when it says you have shall have no other gods before</v>

00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:27.280
<v Speaker 3>me, it means</v>

00:42:28.240 --> 00:42:31.600
<v Speaker 3>you cannot have a single God apart from me.</v>

00:42:31.600 --> 00:42:32.720
<v Speaker 3>It's not in terms of rank.</v>

00:42:32.720 --> 00:42:35.920
<v Speaker 3>It's not saying God will be number one and then jewelry will</v>

00:42:35.920 --> 00:42:38.640
<v Speaker 3>be number two and football will be number three.</v>

00:42:38.640 --> 00:42:42.480
<v Speaker 3>It's saying you will have only God anywhere in your heart, in</v>

00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:45.280
<v Speaker 3>your mind, in your actions, only me.</v>

00:42:45.280 --> 00:42:49.680
<v Speaker 3>And Moses came down and he found them abandoning that right off</v>

00:42:49.680 --> 00:42:52.400
<v Speaker 3>the bat, and he's called it a grace, and they required him</v>

00:42:52.400 --> 00:42:53.920
<v Speaker 3>to go back up the mountain and speak to God.</v>

00:42:54.240 --> 00:43:00.000
<v Speaker 2>There's also an additional measure of egregiousness and irony that some readers</v>

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:05.440
<v Speaker 2>will miss in this particular section if you're not familiar with Egyptian</v>

00:43:05.600 --> 00:43:09.200
<v Speaker 2>paganism mythology.</v>

00:43:09.200 --> 00:43:11.120
<v Speaker 2>Really what they were fashioning for themselves</v>

00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:14.640
<v Speaker 2>was an Egyptian idol.</v>

00:43:14.640 --> 00:43:19.840
<v Speaker 2>God had just destroyed Egypt, drowned Pharaoh and his army in the</v>

00:43:19.840 --> 00:43:24.720
<v Speaker 2>Red Sea, demonstrated his power over a course of however long it</v>

00:43:24.720 --> 00:43:28.480
<v Speaker 2>took for the plagues and the Exodus.</v>

00:43:28.480 --> 00:43:36.080
<v Speaker 2>And the Israelites in full view of God, physically manifested, speaking to</v>

00:43:36.080 --> 00:43:43.040
<v Speaker 2>Moses on a mountain, decide to create a calf, a golden idol,</v>

00:43:43.040 --> 00:43:48.480
<v Speaker 2>probably related to Hathor, who is represented often as a cow.</v>

00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:50.800
<v Speaker 2>So an Egyptian goddess.</v>

00:43:50.800 --> 00:43:57.200
<v Speaker 2>And so there's that additional level of apostasy here from the Israelites.</v>

00:43:57.200 --> 00:44:02.080
<v Speaker 2>They're returning to the wickedness of the pagan religion with which they</v>

00:44:02.080 --> 00:44:07.440
<v Speaker 2>were familiar in Egypt, despite what they just saw God do to</v>

00:44:07.440 --> 00:44:10.640
<v Speaker 2>Egypt when he brought them out of Egypt.</v>

00:44:11.520 --> 00:44:16.720
<v Speaker 3>There's an allusion to this in Matthew twenty-two when the Pharisees are</v>

00:44:16.720 --> 00:44:18.240
<v Speaker 3>trying to trick Jesus.</v>

00:44:18.240 --> 00:44:21.600
<v Speaker 3>They see Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?</v>

00:44:21.600 --> 00:44:24.720
<v Speaker 3>And Jesus said to them, You shall love the Lord your God</v>

00:44:24.720 --> 00:44:27.040
<v Speaker 3>with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all</v>

00:44:27.040 --> 00:44:27.840
<v Speaker 3>your mind.</v>

00:44:27.840 --> 00:44:31.200
<v Speaker 3>This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like</v>

00:44:31.200 --> 00:44:33.680
<v Speaker 3>it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.</v>

00:44:33.680 --> 00:44:38.160
<v Speaker 3>Of on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.</v>

00:44:38.160 --> 00:44:41.520
<v Speaker 3>And so basically what Jesus is describing to the Pharisees is the</v>

00:44:41.520 --> 00:44:44.000
<v Speaker 3>first table and the second on the second table of the law.</v>

00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:47.200
<v Speaker 3>He's describing you shall have no other gods before me and the</v>

00:44:47.200 --> 00:44:50.720
<v Speaker 3>other the second and third commandments that deal specifically with our relationship</v>

00:44:50.720 --> 00:44:54.640
<v Speaker 3>with God, and then the second table is our relationship with man,</v>

00:44:54.640 --> 00:44:59.120
<v Speaker 3>beginning with parents, and then murder, adultery, and so forth.</v>

00:44:59.120 --> 00:45:03.680
<v Speaker 3>So when Jesus says there's a first and a second commandment, that</v>

00:45:03.680 --> 00:45:07.760
<v Speaker 3>necessarily implies that some sin is greater than others.</v>

00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:10.640
<v Speaker 3>The only alternative, if you say that all sin is equal, is</v>

00:45:10.960 --> 00:45:13.600
<v Speaker 3>to say, Well, I can violate the first commandment and be an</v>

00:45:13.600 --> 00:45:18.240
<v Speaker 3>idolater, or I can do something else like steal my neighbor's ox.</v>

00:45:18.240 --> 00:45:19.280
<v Speaker 3>That's all the same.</v>

00:45:19.280 --> 00:45:22.320
<v Speaker 3>Jesus literally says in Matthew 22, it's not the same.</v>

00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:25.440
<v Speaker 3>He says the first and greatest commandment is our relationship to God,</v>

00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:29.280
<v Speaker 3>and then the second commandment is our relationship to our neighbors.</v>

00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:30.640
<v Speaker 3>And everything flows from that.</v>

00:45:30.640 --> 00:45:32.400
<v Speaker 3>And as we've said in the past, when you look at the</v>

00:45:32.400 --> 00:45:37.760
<v Speaker 3>ordering of the commandments from one through ten, it's greatest to least.</v>

00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:41.920
<v Speaker 3>With at least Lutherans, we put things like chattels in the tenth</v>

00:45:41.920 --> 00:45:44.480
<v Speaker 3>position, and we put God in the first position.</v>

00:45:44.480 --> 00:45:48.560
<v Speaker 3>Don't commit adultery, don't steal your neighbor's ox or donkey, or his</v>

00:45:48.560 --> 00:45:50.640
<v Speaker 3>slaves or his wife.</v>

00:45:50.640 --> 00:45:54.800
<v Speaker 3>Those are both sins, they're both damning sins, but they're at opposite</v>

00:45:54.800 --> 00:45:57.280
<v Speaker 3>ends of the spectrum of severity.</v>

00:45:57.280 --> 00:46:02.160
<v Speaker 3>It is far worse to commit idolatry than it is to steal.</v>

00:46:02.160 --> 00:46:04.720
<v Speaker 3>Stealing is bad, idolatry is worse.</v>

00:46:04.720 --> 00:46:06.000
<v Speaker 3>Jesus says it.</v>

00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:07.360
<v Speaker 3>We have to believe it.</v>

00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:09.760
<v Speaker 3>And if we believe it, then we can't say all sins are</v>

00:46:09.760 --> 00:46:12.400
<v Speaker 3>equal. Like there's gonna be a lot of redundancy in this in</v>

00:46:12.400 --> 00:46:13.360
<v Speaker 3>this episode because</v>

00:46:14.560 --> 00:46:15.840
<v Speaker 3>there's so many passages.</v>

00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:20.000
<v Speaker 3>Like that the reason that we're we're doing this cumulative repetition of</v>

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:23.600
<v Speaker 3>these der various verses and we're we're we're only scratching the surface</v>

00:46:23.600 --> 00:46:27.440
<v Speaker 3>here. There are many, many passages that deal with this specific issue.</v>

00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:28.880
<v Speaker 3>These are some of the key ones.</v>

00:46:28.880 --> 00:46:33.680
<v Speaker 3>But what these litany of passages show us are that you cannot</v>

00:46:33.680 --> 00:46:36.640
<v Speaker 3>possibly believe that all sins are equal if you believe any part</v>

00:46:36.640 --> 00:46:37.440
<v Speaker 3>of the Bible.</v>

00:46:37.440 --> 00:46:39.440
<v Speaker 3>You can turn to pretty much any book and you're gonna find</v>

00:46:39.360 --> 00:46:42.320
<v Speaker 3>the same story, and that story is that there are some sins</v>

00:46:42.320 --> 00:46:45.280
<v Speaker 3>that are greater and there are some sins that are lesser, not</v>

00:46:45.280 --> 00:46:49.120
<v Speaker 3>for the purpose of salvation, but for the purpose of sin against</v>

00:46:49.120 --> 00:46:51.760
<v Speaker 3>God in the degree to which it offends him, in the degree</v>

00:46:51.840 --> 00:46:54.880
<v Speaker 3>to which the penalty that Christ paid on the cross.</v>

00:46:54.880 --> 00:46:56.160
<v Speaker 3>That's important.</v>

00:46:56.160 --> 00:46:57.840
<v Speaker 3>God says it's important.</v>

00:46:57.840 --> 00:46:59.840
<v Speaker 3>This isn't us making something up.</v>

00:46:59.840 --> 00:47:01.920
<v Speaker 3>This is not podcast or theology.</v>

00:47:01.920 --> 00:47:03.840
<v Speaker 3>It's literally just reading what's in the Bible.</v>

00:47:03.840 --> 00:47:06.320
<v Speaker 3>So the reason we're saying the same thing over and over again</v>

00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:09.200
<v Speaker 3>is that God said the same thing over and over again.</v>

00:47:09.200 --> 00:47:12.560
<v Speaker 3>And when the world is saying the opposite thing over and over</v>

00:47:12.560 --> 00:47:15.520
<v Speaker 3>again, at some point you have to wonder which book are they</v>

00:47:15.520 --> 00:47:18.560
<v Speaker 3>reading? Because they cannot be reading the Bible if they're saying that</v>

00:47:18.560 --> 00:47:19.680
<v Speaker 3>all sins are equal.</v>

00:47:20.240 --> 00:47:25.120
<v Speaker 2>To add just a little footnote that isn't actually well is from</v>

00:47:25.120 --> 00:47:28.320
<v Speaker 2>the Bible and isn't at the same time, just for those who</v>

00:47:28.320 --> 00:47:31.520
<v Speaker 2>are going to be listening with a more critical ear, yes I</v>

00:47:31.520 --> 00:47:36.640
<v Speaker 2>am well aware that the word underlying calf in Exodus thirty two</v>

00:47:36.720 --> 00:47:37.360
<v Speaker 2>is egel</v>

00:47:38.320 --> 00:47:43.840
<v Speaker 2>and the feminine version is igla, but it was most likely still</v>

00:47:43.840 --> 00:47:48.880
<v Speaker 2>in some way related to Hathor, because yes, Hathor is typically represented</v>

00:47:48.880 --> 00:47:52.160
<v Speaker 2>as a female deity, and thus a cow and not a young</v>

00:47:52.160 --> 00:47:57.280
<v Speaker 2>bull. Just adding that for anyone listening with a critical ear.</v>

00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:00.000
<v Speaker 2>Keeping it out of the comments.</v>

00:48:00.560 --> 00:48:04.640
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, basically I'm heading off uh having to field a comment somewhere</v>

00:48:04.640 --> 00:48:05.520
<v Speaker 2>on that point.</v>

00:48:06.160 --> 00:48:09.040
<v Speaker 3>That's something that people probably know us as Cordy and I talk.</v>

00:48:09.360 --> 00:48:14.640
<v Speaker 3>we'll sometimes make these odd asides, brushing aside criticisms of what we've</v>

00:48:14.640 --> 00:48:15.840
<v Speaker 3>just said.</v>

00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:20.320
<v Speaker 3>We're such perfectionists that we're both sitting here continually critiquing what we're</v>

00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:22.000
<v Speaker 3>saying to ourselves.</v>

00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:25.600
<v Speaker 3>As I'm speaking, I have a running monologue where I'm basically heckling</v>

00:48:25.680 --> 00:48:27.040
<v Speaker 3>myself, saying, Well, that's not right.</v>

00:48:27.040 --> 00:48:27.600
<v Speaker 3>That's not right.</v>

00:48:27.600 --> 00:48:28.320
<v Speaker 3>You should do that better.</v>

00:48:28.320 --> 00:48:29.520
<v Speaker 3>You should have said this differently.</v>

00:48:29.520 --> 00:48:31.600
<v Speaker 3>Literally as I'm talking, as I'm thinking.</v>

00:48:31.600 --> 00:48:34.800
<v Speaker 3>And so sometimes our sentences get longer and longer as we sort</v>

00:48:35.120 --> 00:48:39.440
<v Speaker 3>of tack on all these additional seemingly less important things.</v>

00:48:39.440 --> 00:48:43.600
<v Speaker 3>It's specifically because we're trying to be clear and precise in our</v>

00:48:43.600 --> 00:48:45.680
<v Speaker 3>speech and not make mistakes.</v>

00:48:45.680 --> 00:48:50.480
<v Speaker 3>And so we we literally harangue ourselves in our heads so that</v>

00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:53.280
<v Speaker 3>we find all the faults so that hope hopefully there's not much</v>

00:48:53.280 --> 00:48:55.600
<v Speaker 3>left for someone else to find fault with.</v>

00:48:55.600 --> 00:48:58.720
<v Speaker 3>It's something that's it's kind of endemic to the the way our</v>

00:48:58.720 --> 00:48:59.600
<v Speaker 3>brains work.</v>

00:48:59.600 --> 00:49:01.840
<v Speaker 3>But I wish some more people sort of took that care as</v>

00:49:01.840 --> 00:49:06.400
<v Speaker 3>they approached these things because just shouting catchphrases that sound nice and</v>

00:49:06.400 --> 00:49:09.520
<v Speaker 3>that make you friends with the world, if it puts you at</v>

00:49:09.520 --> 00:49:12.320
<v Speaker 3>odds with scripture, we think that's a big deal.</v>

00:49:12.320 --> 00:49:14.320
<v Speaker 3>That's why we're taking the time to do this.</v>

00:49:14.320 --> 00:49:17.520
<v Speaker 3>That's why we're suffering the indignities that Corey and I have suffered</v>

00:49:17.520 --> 00:49:20.400
<v Speaker 3>in our personal lives for the sake of doing this.</v>

00:49:20.400 --> 00:49:21.520
<v Speaker 3>This has not been fun.</v>

00:49:21.520 --> 00:49:22.640
<v Speaker 3>This has not been easy.</v>

00:49:22.640 --> 00:49:24.800
<v Speaker 3>We've taken abuse for saying these things.</v>

00:49:24.800 --> 00:49:25.520
<v Speaker 3>For what?</v>

00:49:25.440 --> 00:49:26.960
<v Speaker 3>for doing Bible studies.</v>

00:49:26.960 --> 00:49:30.400
<v Speaker 3>Okay. if people want to heap abuse on us for doing Bible</v>

00:49:30.400 --> 00:49:33.360
<v Speaker 3>studies, I think that if there's a sin here, the Bible study</v>

00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:36.880
<v Speaker 3>is a lesser sin than he who would attack us for it.</v>

00:49:36.880 --> 00:49:39.360
<v Speaker 3>It's funny that the same people who say all sins are equal</v>

00:49:39.440 --> 00:49:42.080
<v Speaker 3>are also the first to say that Cory and I are chief</v>

00:49:42.080 --> 00:49:42.960
<v Speaker 3>among sinners.</v>

00:49:43.200 --> 00:49:46.800
<v Speaker 3>Maybe that'll be a subject for another episode.</v>

00:49:46.800 --> 00:49:50.720
<v Speaker 3>The uh next passage I want to read is from Luke twelve.</v>

00:49:50.720 --> 00:49:53.920
<v Speaker 3>And that servant, who knew his master's will, but did not get</v>

00:49:53.920 --> 00:49:57.920
<v Speaker 3>ready, or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating,</v>

00:49:57.920 --> 00:50:00.800
<v Speaker 3>but the one who did not know, and did what deserved a</v>

00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:03.040
<v Speaker 3>beating, will receive a light beating.</v>

00:50:03.040 --> 00:50:06.480
<v Speaker 3>Every one to whom much was given, of him much will be</v>

00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:10.560
<v Speaker 3>required, and from him to whom mike they entrusted much they will</v>

00:50:10.560 --> 00:50:12.640
<v Speaker 3>demand the more.</v>

00:50:12.640 --> 00:50:18.560
<v Speaker 3>So again, this is emphasizing not only the knowledge and forethought of</v>

00:50:18.560 --> 00:50:22.400
<v Speaker 3>the action of the individual, but it's emphasizing that there are greater</v>

00:50:22.400 --> 00:50:27.520
<v Speaker 3>and lesser punishments and that to some degree the punishment for he</v>

00:50:27.520 --> 00:50:30.320
<v Speaker 3>who does not know what he's doing will be lesser.</v>

00:50:30.320 --> 00:50:31.600
<v Speaker 3>There's still punishment.</v>

00:50:31.600 --> 00:50:34.640
<v Speaker 3>You know, this passage I I this is from ESV and so</v>

00:50:34.640 --> 00:50:36.800
<v Speaker 3>I didn't fix where it said servant.</v>

00:50:36.800 --> 00:50:37.920
<v Speaker 3>It means slave.</v>

00:50:38.240 --> 00:50:39.440
<v Speaker 3>you don't beat servants.</v>

00:50:39.440 --> 00:50:40.160
<v Speaker 3>You beat slaves.</v>

00:50:40.160 --> 00:50:41.920
<v Speaker 3>You beat someone who's your property.</v>

00:50:41.920 --> 00:50:43.600
<v Speaker 3>Maybe you should, maybe you shouldn't.</v>

00:50:43.600 --> 00:50:45.600
<v Speaker 3>This passage d condones it.</v>

00:50:45.600 --> 00:50:48.800
<v Speaker 3>It says the greater beating will go to the slave who has</v>

00:50:48.800 --> 00:50:52.240
<v Speaker 3>sinned more greatly, the lesser beating will go to the slave who</v>

00:50:52.240 --> 00:50:54.080
<v Speaker 3>has sinned more lightly.</v>

00:50:54.080 --> 00:50:58.560
<v Speaker 3>Lighter beating, lighter consequence for a lighter sin.</v>

00:50:58.560 --> 00:51:01.840
<v Speaker 3>Again, it doesn't explicitly say greater and lesser degrees of sin, but</v>

00:51:01.840 --> 00:51:06.240
<v Speaker 3>it's it's the same principle playing out again because it's exactly the</v>

00:51:06.240 --> 00:51:09.840
<v Speaker 3>point. These things are everywhere in scripture.</v>

00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:13.200
<v Speaker 3>And one And once you start to understand that this notion of</v>

00:51:13.200 --> 00:51:18.160
<v Speaker 3>equality and of everything being i equal and identical, it's anathetical to</v>

00:51:18.160 --> 00:51:22.160
<v Speaker 3>scripture. It's something new in a new religion.</v>

00:51:22.160 --> 00:51:24.640
<v Speaker 3>It's not something that came from God.</v>

00:51:24.960 --> 00:51:27.680
<v Speaker 3>Next one I wanted to cover was from James 3.</v>

00:51:27.680 --> 00:51:30.240
<v Speaker 3>It's a very short one that we've referred to before.</v>

00:51:30.240 --> 00:51:33.200
<v Speaker 3>Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know</v>

00:51:33.200 --> 00:51:38.000
<v Speaker 3>that we who teach will be judged with the stricter judgment.</v>

00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:42.640
<v Speaker 3>Again, if everything is the same, how can there possibly be a</v>

00:51:42.640 --> 00:51:44.080
<v Speaker 3>stricter judgment?</v>

00:51:44.080 --> 00:51:46.800
<v Speaker 3>And consider this.</v>

00:51:46.800 --> 00:51:50.800
<v Speaker 3>This is being written about Christians.</v>

00:51:50.800 --> 00:51:54.720
<v Speaker 3>It's not being written about a stricter judgment in terms of believer</v>

00:51:54.720 --> 00:51:55.760
<v Speaker 3>and unbeliever.</v>

00:51:55.760 --> 00:51:57.440
<v Speaker 3>This is not about soteriology.</v>

00:51:57.440 --> 00:51:59.840
<v Speaker 3>This is not about whether or not someone's saved.</v>

00:51:59.840 --> 00:52:03.360
<v Speaker 3>It's saying that even if you are saved, if you choose to</v>

00:52:03.360 --> 00:52:08.400
<v Speaker 3>become a teacher, you opt into a stricter judgment, you will face</v>

00:52:08.640 --> 00:52:10.720
<v Speaker 3>harsher consequences.</v>

00:52:10.720 --> 00:52:11.360
<v Speaker 3>Now</v>

00:52:12.400 --> 00:52:17.840
<v Speaker 3>in heaven, harsher consequences don't mean punishment, but there are degrees of</v>

00:52:17.840 --> 00:52:19.360
<v Speaker 3>glory in heaven.</v>

00:52:19.360 --> 00:52:22.080
<v Speaker 3>We probably won't get into some of those passages today, but it's</v>

00:52:22.080 --> 00:52:25.440
<v Speaker 3>clear that the rewards in heaven are also given unequally.</v>

00:52:25.440 --> 00:52:28.240
<v Speaker 3>When Jesus says the first shall be last and the last shall</v>

00:52:28.240 --> 00:52:31.120
<v Speaker 3>be first, how is that not unequal?</v>

00:52:31.120 --> 00:52:34.800
<v Speaker 3>Like all of all of these phrases that are so common to</v>

00:52:34.800 --> 00:52:40.160
<v Speaker 3>the way God speaks about heaven and about reordering the ungodly worldly</v>

00:52:40.240 --> 00:52:45.760
<v Speaker 3>worldly life in a heavenly life, it's all about inequality.</v>

00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:48.080
<v Speaker 3>The first shall be last.</v>

00:52:48.080 --> 00:52:49.280
<v Speaker 3>That's not fair.</v>

00:52:49.280 --> 00:52:50.400
<v Speaker 3>That's not equal.</v>

00:52:50.400 --> 00:52:53.520
<v Speaker 3>That's saying that someone who lived like a king today and did</v>

00:52:53.520 --> 00:52:57.360
<v Speaker 3>not live in a goggly fashion, even if he's saved, he's not</v>

00:52:57.360 --> 00:52:58.880
<v Speaker 3>gonna be first in heaven.</v>

00:52:58.880 --> 00:53:00.400
<v Speaker 3>He's gonna sit at the back.</v>

00:53:00.400 --> 00:53:02.320
<v Speaker 3>He's not gonna have the place of honor.</v>

00:53:02.320 --> 00:53:05.200
<v Speaker 3>It's going to be the widows and the orphans, and those who</v>

00:53:05.200 --> 00:53:09.600
<v Speaker 3>had the least and were the most humble, and and seemed the</v>

00:53:09.600 --> 00:53:13.360
<v Speaker 3>most pathetic, those will be the ones whom God elevates as the</v>

00:53:13.360 --> 00:53:15.440
<v Speaker 3>greatest in the kingdom of heaven.</v>

00:53:15.440 --> 00:53:18.480
<v Speaker 3>And it's not just about station in life, it's not just about</v>

00:53:18.640 --> 00:53:19.840
<v Speaker 3>class system.</v>

00:53:19.840 --> 00:53:21.760
<v Speaker 3>It's also about works.</v>

00:53:21.760 --> 00:53:26.720
<v Speaker 3>The The when God judges more strictly teachers, those who have taught</v>

00:53:26.720 --> 00:53:29.360
<v Speaker 3>faithfully will receive great rewards.</v>

00:53:29.360 --> 00:53:34.240
<v Speaker 3>Those who have taught unfaithfully, what but were still saved, they're not</v>

00:53:34.240 --> 00:53:35.440
<v Speaker 3>gonna get much for it.</v>

00:53:35.440 --> 00:53:37.120
<v Speaker 3>And we don't know how that plays out.</v>

00:53:37.120 --> 00:53:39.680
<v Speaker 3>So we're not giving specifics because God gives none.</v>

00:53:39.680 --> 00:53:42.800
<v Speaker 3>But God absolutely says that these things will occur.</v>

00:53:42.800 --> 00:53:46.880
<v Speaker 3>And all we in the twenty first century need to know is</v>

00:53:46.880 --> 00:53:49.280
<v Speaker 3>that it's unequal.</v>

00:53:49.280 --> 00:53:51.360
<v Speaker 3>Some get more, some get less.</v>

00:53:51.360 --> 00:53:56.000
<v Speaker 3>In heaven, in perfection, some get more and some get less based</v>

00:53:56.000 --> 00:53:58.720
<v Speaker 3>on the degree of their sin today.</v>

00:53:58.720 --> 00:54:04.480
<v Speaker 3>Because for a teacher to be judged with stricter judgment Judgment based</v>

00:54:04.480 --> 00:54:08.880
<v Speaker 3>on his teachings implies that there are some teachings that are sinful,</v>

00:54:08.880 --> 00:54:12.800
<v Speaker 3>and that the greater degree of sin in teaching, the greater lack</v>

00:54:12.800 --> 00:54:15.440
<v Speaker 3>of glory will be given for that teacher.</v>

00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:18.080
<v Speaker 3>It may well be a teacher who spent his whole whole life</v>

00:54:18.080 --> 00:54:22.560
<v Speaker 3>teaching falsely, but somehow was fill still a Christian.</v>

00:54:22.560 --> 00:54:24.080
<v Speaker 3>I don't know what he's gonna get in heaven.</v>

00:54:24.080 --> 00:54:24.880
<v Speaker 3>He's gonna be in heaven.</v>

00:54:24.880 --> 00:54:27.840
<v Speaker 3>It's going to be perfect for him, but it will not be</v>

00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:31.680
<v Speaker 3>as greatly rewarding to him as if he had been a faithful</v>

00:54:31.680 --> 00:54:34.240
<v Speaker 3>teacher. Again, we don't know what that looks like.</v>

00:54:34.240 --> 00:54:35.120
<v Speaker 3>It's not our business.</v>

00:54:35.120 --> 00:54:36.400
<v Speaker 3>It's not our problem.</v>

00:54:36.400 --> 00:54:39.600
<v Speaker 3>It's in God's hands, we can trust that he will act perfectly.</v>

00:54:39.600 --> 00:54:42.000
<v Speaker 3>All we need to know is that when we run around saying,</v>

00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:44.960
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's all the same, man, that we're not agreeing with what</v>

00:54:44.960 --> 00:54:46.240
<v Speaker 3>God says.</v>

00:54:46.320 --> 00:54:46.480
And

00:54:46.480 --> 00:54:50.000
<v Speaker 2>yes, of course, we do know that we have elected to be</v>

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.640
<v Speaker 2>subject to the stricter judgment because what we're doing here is teaching,</v>

00:54:54.640 --> 00:54:58.640
<v Speaker 2>and we are both well aware of that fact.</v>

00:54:58.640 --> 00:55:02.400
<v Speaker 2>But I would also highlight here that I do think the implication</v>

00:55:02.400 --> 00:55:03.600
<v Speaker 2>that comes along with this</v>

00:55:04.640 --> 00:55:08.800
<v Speaker 2>is something to which Christians should pay attention.</v>

00:55:08.800 --> 00:55:12.080
<v Speaker 2>There are different kinds of teachers, the same as there are different</v>

00:55:12.080 --> 00:55:14.160
<v Speaker 2>degrees of sin.</v>

00:55:14.160 --> 00:55:17.680
<v Speaker 2>If you are a pastor, you are a teacher in the church,</v>

00:55:17.680 --> 00:55:22.240
<v Speaker 2>you are an overseer, you have responsibilities, and you will be held</v>

00:55:22.240 --> 00:55:25.840
<v Speaker 2>to account for what you did or did not do in this</v>

00:55:25.840 --> 00:55:30.400
<v Speaker 2>life. When you spoke falsely, when you minimized parts of scripture, when</v>

00:55:30.400 --> 00:55:34.320
<v Speaker 2>you ignored parts of scripture, God will ask you about that at</v>

00:55:34.320 --> 00:55:35.440
<v Speaker 2>the judgment.</v>

00:55:35.440 --> 00:55:38.880
<v Speaker 2>You will have to give an answer.</v>

00:55:38.880 --> 00:55:43.680
<v Speaker 2>But there are other teachers as well as And those teachers will</v>

00:55:43.680 --> 00:55:47.120
<v Speaker 2>be held accountable for what they did or did not do in</v>

00:55:47.120 --> 00:55:49.520
<v Speaker 2>the office that was given them by God.</v>

00:55:49.520 --> 00:55:52.240
<v Speaker 2>It's not going to be the same sort of stricter judgment as</v>

00:55:52.240 --> 00:55:56.400
<v Speaker 2>someone who stands up to teach in the church that is What</v>

00:55:56.400 --> 00:56:01.040
<v Speaker 2>is in view here, but if you're a parent, you're a teacher,</v>

00:56:01.040 --> 00:56:03.680
<v Speaker 2>and you will be called to account for whether you taught your</v>

00:56:03.680 --> 00:56:06.000
<v Speaker 2>children correctly or not.</v>

00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:09.760
<v Speaker 2>If you are an employer, you will be called to account for</v>

00:56:09.760 --> 00:56:12.880
<v Speaker 2>how you treated and dealt with your employees.</v>

00:56:12.880 --> 00:56:16.320
<v Speaker 2>Now there may be some complexity there when it comes to teaching</v>

00:56:16.320 --> 00:56:21.840
<v Speaker 2>the faith to employees, and how much of a duty an employer</v>

00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:24.720
<v Speaker 2>has there is up for debate.</v>

00:56:24.720 --> 00:56:28.240
<v Speaker 2>But if you are the master of a house, you are responsible</v>

00:56:28.240 --> 00:56:30.400
<v Speaker 2>for everyone in your household.</v>

00:56:30.400 --> 00:56:33.760
<v Speaker 2>You are a teacher by virtue of your office, and it is</v>

00:56:33.760 --> 00:56:37.120
<v Speaker 2>your duty to fulfill that faithfully.</v>

00:56:37.120 --> 00:56:42.720
<v Speaker 2>Again, no, you will not be held to this particular high level</v>

00:56:42.720 --> 00:56:46.560
<v Speaker 2>of scrutiny and strictness, because you did not stand up to teach</v>

00:56:46.560 --> 00:56:50.720
<v Speaker 2>in the church, you did not deliberately stand up to handle the</v>

00:56:50.720 --> 00:56:52.560
<v Speaker 2>things of God.</v>

00:56:52.560 --> 00:56:57.520
<v Speaker 2>But by virtue of the office given you by God, you do</v>

00:56:57.520 --> 00:57:00.400
<v Speaker 2>have a lesser version of this duty.</v>

00:57:00.400 --> 00:57:03.920
<v Speaker 2>And it is vitally important for Christians to bear that in mind</v>

00:57:03.920 --> 00:57:06.160
<v Speaker 2>when they go about their daily tasks.</v>

00:57:06.160 --> 00:57:10.320
<v Speaker 2>If you are a father, are you training your wife?</v>

00:57:10.320 --> 00:57:11.920
<v Speaker 2>Are you training your children?</v>

00:57:11.920 --> 00:57:15.200
<v Speaker 2>Are you training those who work in your household if you have</v>

00:57:15.360 --> 00:57:18.400
<v Speaker 2>others who work in your household or live in your household?</v>

00:57:18.400 --> 00:57:22.400
<v Speaker 2>Are you doing the things God gave you to do by virtue</v>

00:57:22.400 --> 00:57:24.720
<v Speaker 2>of the office he gave you?</v>

00:57:24.720 --> 00:57:29.200
<v Speaker 2>If you are not, you are falling short of the mark, and</v>

00:57:29.200 --> 00:57:32.960
<v Speaker 2>falling short of the mark is one of the things that is</v>

00:57:32.960 --> 00:57:37.600
<v Speaker 2>meant by one of the words we translate as sin.</v>

00:57:37.600 --> 00:57:40.080
<v Speaker 2>Do not sin by omission.</v>

00:57:40.080 --> 00:57:43.520
<v Speaker 2>Yes, it is possible to sin by commission, but it is also</v>

00:57:43.520 --> 00:57:47.520
<v Speaker 2>possible to sin by omission, which simply means it is possible to</v>

00:57:47.520 --> 00:57:50.880
<v Speaker 2>sin by doing something, and it is possible to sin by failing</v>

00:57:50.880 --> 00:57:54.000
<v Speaker 2>to do something that you should have done.</v>

00:57:54.160 --> 00:57:57.600
<v Speaker 3>And for specific details on what we mean when we say that</v>

00:57:57.600 --> 00:58:00.560
<v Speaker 3>we are teachers, go back and listen to the first episode of</v>

00:58:00.560 --> 00:58:02.480
<v Speaker 3>Stone Choir, episode number one.</v>

00:58:02.480 --> 00:58:06.560
<v Speaker 3>We specifically talked about the difference between what a pastor does and</v>

00:58:06.560 --> 00:58:11.520
<v Speaker 3>what a teacher who is addressing an anonymous audience.</v>

00:58:11.520 --> 00:58:15.360
<v Speaker 3>So there's no accountability from anyone listening to us</v>

00:58:16.240 --> 00:58:16.880
<v Speaker 3>to us.</v>

00:58:17.200 --> 00:58:20.880
<v Speaker 3>There's no relationship is between you as the listener where we hold</v>

00:58:20.880 --> 00:58:23.040
<v Speaker 3>you accountable for what we are teaching.</v>

00:58:23.040 --> 00:58:26.480
<v Speaker 3>However, what we are teaching, we are accountable to God for.</v>

00:58:26.480 --> 00:58:27.760
<v Speaker 3>That is the difference.</v>

00:58:27.760 --> 00:58:32.640
<v Speaker 3>A pastor is accountable for the souls in his parish A teacher</v>

00:58:32.640 --> 00:58:37.200
<v Speaker 3>in uh an audience hall is doesn't have accountability in the same</v>

00:58:37.200 --> 00:58:39.520
<v Speaker 3>way. He's not necessarily taking attendance.</v>

00:58:39.520 --> 00:58:41.360
<v Speaker 3>He doesn't know who's there, it's a lecture.</v>

00:58:41.360 --> 00:58:43.680
<v Speaker 3>He shows up, people show up, you listen.</v>

00:58:43.680 --> 00:58:45.040
<v Speaker 3>You take it or leave it.</v>

00:58:45.040 --> 00:58:47.840
<v Speaker 3>When we say that we are teachers, it is in that sense.</v>

00:58:47.840 --> 00:58:49.440
<v Speaker 3>We are teaching from Scripture.</v>

00:58:49.440 --> 00:58:53.760
<v Speaker 3>We're saying things that God says and we're giving you what we</v>

00:58:53.760 --> 00:58:58.400
<v Speaker 3>believe is a faithful explanation for those things, particularly as they relate</v>

00:58:58.400 --> 00:59:02.160
<v Speaker 3>to the world today, but that is not to say that it</v>

00:59:02.160 --> 00:59:06.640
<v Speaker 3>is taught with any authority beyond the authority of Scripture itself.</v>

00:59:06.640 --> 00:59:10.880
<v Speaker 3>We're not making any claim based on credentials or anything.</v>

00:59:10.880 --> 00:59:12.320
<v Speaker 3>Take it or leave it.</v>

00:59:12.320 --> 00:59:15.840
<v Speaker 3>If what we say is good, it's because you agree with scripture.</v>

00:59:15.840 --> 00:59:17.360
<v Speaker 3>If you don't like it, okay.</v>

00:59:17.360 --> 00:59:20.800
<v Speaker 3>If you don't take our your arguments, our arguments, that's between you</v>

00:59:20.800 --> 00:59:21.280
<v Speaker 3>and God.</v>

00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:22.960
<v Speaker 3>If we're wrong, we answer to God.</v>

00:59:22.960 --> 00:59:24.960
<v Speaker 3>If you're wrong, you answer to God.</v>

00:59:24.960 --> 00:59:27.520
<v Speaker 3>We don't have to worry about that.</v>

00:59:27.520 --> 00:59:31.280
<v Speaker 3>And again from that the Luke twelve passage, everyone to whom much</v>

00:59:31.280 --> 00:59:34.640
<v Speaker 3>has been given, of him much will be required.</v>

00:59:34.640 --> 00:59:36.080
<v Speaker 3>That's Cory and me.</v>

00:59:36.080 --> 00:59:37.040
<v Speaker 3>We're smart.</v>

00:59:37.040 --> 00:59:38.480
<v Speaker 3>We're good at this.</v>

00:59:38.480 --> 00:59:43.120
<v Speaker 3>Even if someone thinks that what we're saying is false, particularly those</v>

00:59:43.120 --> 00:59:46.560
<v Speaker 3>who are hate listening, who believe that we're false teachers, they admit</v>

00:59:46.560 --> 00:59:48.320
<v Speaker 3>that we're extremely good at it.</v>

00:59:48.320 --> 00:59:51.520
<v Speaker 3>Those who listen and like what we say also think that we're</v>

00:59:51.440 --> 00:59:52.320
<v Speaker 3>good at this.</v>

00:59:52.320 --> 00:59:57.280
<v Speaker 3>We've had a very warm and welcome and widespread reception to the</v>

00:59:57.280 --> 01:00:00.880
<v Speaker 3>way that we're explaining things on Stone Choir because we're good at</v>

01:00:00.880 --> 01:00:04.720
<v Speaker 3>it. The reason we're doing it is that much has been given</v>

01:00:04.720 --> 01:00:05.440
<v Speaker 3>to us.</v>

01:00:05.440 --> 01:00:08.800
<v Speaker 3>What were we doing the year before we started this podcast?</v>

01:00:08.800 --> 01:00:12.000
<v Speaker 3>We were not using our gifts the way we're using them now.</v>

01:00:12.000 --> 01:00:13.280
<v Speaker 3>That was sin.</v>

01:00:13.280 --> 01:00:15.120
<v Speaker 3>We should have been doing this earlier.</v>

01:00:15.120 --> 01:00:16.480
<v Speaker 3>We talked about it earlier.</v>

01:00:16.720 --> 01:00:19.520
<v Speaker 3>I avoided it because I knew that harm would come to my</v>

01:00:19.520 --> 01:00:23.360
<v Speaker 3>family from evil men who would seek to destroy me for the</v>

01:00:23.360 --> 01:00:24.960
<v Speaker 3>sake of telling the truth.</v>

01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:26.320
<v Speaker 3>Because that's the state of the world today.</v>

01:00:26.320 --> 01:00:28.080
<v Speaker 3>It's the state of the church today.</v>

01:00:28.080 --> 01:00:30.880
<v Speaker 3>I put it off because I didn't want to cause harm to</v>

01:00:30.880 --> 01:00:31.840
<v Speaker 3>my family.</v>

01:00:31.840 --> 01:00:35.520
<v Speaker 3>It eventually got to the point by the end of 2022 that</v>

01:00:35.520 --> 01:00:38.000
<v Speaker 3>it became clear that I I had no choice.</v>

01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:40.320
<v Speaker 3>And so Corey and I talked about it, and we finally pulled</v>

01:00:40.320 --> 01:00:42.800
<v Speaker 3>the trigger on something and we I think we both knew from</v>

01:00:42.960 --> 01:00:45.360
<v Speaker 3>the time we met that we pretty much had to do this.</v>

01:00:45.360 --> 01:00:47.760
<v Speaker 3>And other people had talked about before we joked about it for</v>

01:00:47.760 --> 01:00:51.760
<v Speaker 3>a couple of years, but we avoided it sinfully and we stopped</v>

01:00:51.760 --> 01:00:55.040
<v Speaker 3>sinning and now we're doing it and now we're accused of sin</v>

01:00:55.040 --> 01:00:55.680
<v Speaker 3>for doing it.</v>

01:00:55.680 --> 01:00:59.440
<v Speaker 3>So again, that's we in a minute we'll get to the judge</v>

01:00:59.520 --> 01:01:00.320
<v Speaker 3>not stuff.</v>

01:01:00.320 --> 01:01:03.280
<v Speaker 3>But I just want to point out when we say we're teachers,</v>

01:01:03.280 --> 01:01:04.560
<v Speaker 3>it's not bragging.</v>

01:01:04.560 --> 01:01:07.280
<v Speaker 3>The reason we're doing this is that we have been given gifts.</v>

01:01:07.280 --> 01:01:09.840
<v Speaker 3>We believe as a matter of conscience we have no choice but</v>

01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:10.560
<v Speaker 3>to do this.</v>

01:01:10.560 --> 01:01:13.440
<v Speaker 3>We believe that it's obedience to God for us to do this.</v>

01:01:13.440 --> 01:01:15.840
<v Speaker 3>We don't have a choice.</v>

01:01:15.840 --> 01:01:17.680
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if I don't sp put it.</v>

01:01:17.680 --> 01:01:21.920
<v Speaker 3>Like it's it's that important to not remain silent.</v>

01:01:21.920 --> 01:01:23.680
<v Speaker 3>That's why we named it what we did.</v>

01:01:23.680 --> 01:01:26.320
<v Speaker 3>We give an explanation at the end of the first episode.</v>

01:01:26.320 --> 01:01:29.120
<v Speaker 3>We are the stones who cry out, not because we feel that</v>

01:01:29.120 --> 01:01:32.800
<v Speaker 3>we have a vocation to, but we have the aptitude to and</v>

01:01:32.800 --> 01:01:34.240
<v Speaker 3>no one else was doing it.</v>

01:01:34.240 --> 01:01:36.640
<v Speaker 3>And now that we begun doing it, other men are beginning to</v>

01:01:36.640 --> 01:01:38.480
<v Speaker 3>speak up against the same evil.</v>

01:01:38.480 --> 01:01:40.080
<v Speaker 3>That is what needs to happen.</v>

01:01:40.080 --> 01:01:42.480
<v Speaker 3>Because two guys of the podcast aren't going to do anything by</v>

01:01:42.480 --> 01:01:46.000
<v Speaker 3>themselves. If we're just shouting into the void, nothing changes.</v>

01:01:46.000 --> 01:01:50.960
<v Speaker 3>It takes hearts and minds elsewhere in the church reorienting towards what</v>

01:01:50.960 --> 01:01:55.440
<v Speaker 3>God has said so that we can all become faithful members of</v>

01:01:55.440 --> 01:01:57.600
<v Speaker 3>faithful churches again.</v>

01:01:57.600 --> 01:02:00.160
<v Speaker 3>And And the the last passage we're going to read in this</v>

01:02:00.320 --> 01:02:04.560
<v Speaker 3>section from Matthew five amplifies from James three.</v>

01:02:04.560 --> 01:02:08.640
<v Speaker 3>Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches</v>

01:02:08.640 --> 01:02:11.600
<v Speaker 3>others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom</v>

01:02:11.600 --> 01:02:14.640
<v Speaker 3>of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called</v>

01:02:14.640 --> 01:02:16.320
<v Speaker 3>great in the kingdom of heaven.</v>

01:02:16.320 --> 01:02:21.360
<v Speaker 3>So again, this is reiterating greater punishment, greater reward, least and greatest.</v>

01:02:21.360 --> 01:02:23.680
<v Speaker 3>Now punishment maybe isn't quite the right word.</v>

01:02:23.680 --> 01:02:26.160
<v Speaker 3>Called the least in heaven, you're still in heaven, so great.</v>

01:02:26.160 --> 01:02:27.600
<v Speaker 3>Like you cross the finish line.</v>

01:02:27.600 --> 01:02:29.360
<v Speaker 3>That is a cause for celebration.</v>

01:02:29.360 --> 01:02:31.520
<v Speaker 3>However, you're gonna be the least.</v>

01:02:31.520 --> 01:02:33.520
<v Speaker 3>And it's not a popularity contest.</v>

01:02:33.520 --> 01:02:36.960
<v Speaker 3>It's not striving to be number one in heaven.</v>

01:02:36.960 --> 01:02:39.600
<v Speaker 3>We all know that it's that's not us.</v>

01:02:39.600 --> 01:02:44.400
<v Speaker 3>You know, the the scripture talks some about, you know, the ranking</v>

01:02:44.400 --> 01:02:46.080
<v Speaker 3>there and we we have a little bit.</v>

01:02:46.080 --> 01:02:47.760
<v Speaker 3>We know that there's a ranking.</v>

01:02:47.760 --> 01:02:51.520
<v Speaker 3>Jesus' disciples argued over who was gonna be seated at his right</v>

01:02:51.520 --> 01:02:52.880
<v Speaker 3>hand. And</v>

01:02:54.160 --> 01:02:57.680
<v Speaker 3>the question is valid, the concern isn't our problem.</v>

01:02:57.680 --> 01:02:59.600
<v Speaker 3>That's God's gift to give.</v>

01:02:59.600 --> 01:03:02.080
<v Speaker 3>What we have to worry about is that in this life our</v>

01:03:02.080 --> 01:03:02.320
<v Speaker 3>actions</v>

01:03:03.200 --> 01:03:06.320
<v Speaker 3>do not shame God, do not waste the gifts that we've been</v>

01:03:06.320 --> 01:03:09.280
<v Speaker 3>given. And that if God says something, we're not ashamed of it</v>

01:03:09.360 --> 01:03:11.840
<v Speaker 3>and we just believe it and we follow through with it.</v>

01:03:11.840 --> 01:03:16.800
<v Speaker 3>Again, to finish out this thing on all sins not being equal.</v>

01:03:16.800 --> 01:03:19.760
<v Speaker 3>We're not saying, oh, if you obey God, you'll be saved.</v>

01:03:19.760 --> 01:03:21.200
<v Speaker 3>You're already saved.</v>

01:03:21.200 --> 01:03:23.120
<v Speaker 3>So how can you best obey God?</v>

01:03:23.120 --> 01:03:26.640
<v Speaker 3>It's you're just changing the word order, but it fundamentally alters the</v>

01:03:26.640 --> 01:03:29.840
<v Speaker 3>equation. And that's the reason that these subjects are important?</v>

01:03:30.240 --> 01:03:35.120
<v Speaker 2>To emphasize what was said about teachers and what will be demanded</v>

01:03:35.120 --> 01:03:39.840
<v Speaker 2>from teachers and others, from him to whom much has been given,</v>

01:03:39.840 --> 01:03:41.920
<v Speaker 2>will much be required.</v>

01:03:42.240 --> 01:03:44.880
<v Speaker 2>And that is the long and the short of it.</v>

01:03:44.880 --> 01:03:48.560
<v Speaker 2>If you have been given a particular set of gifts and you</v>

01:03:48.560 --> 01:03:52.000
<v Speaker 2>are not using them in service of the kingdom, you will be</v>

01:03:52.000 --> 01:03:53.680
<v Speaker 2>judged for that.</v>

01:03:53.680 --> 01:03:59.360
<v Speaker 2>That's not necessarily going to damn you, but you are not going</v>

01:03:59.360 --> 01:04:02.960
<v Speaker 2>to receive the rewards that you would have received if you had</v>

01:04:02.960 --> 01:04:07.120
<v Speaker 2>used the gifts given you by God to do the good works</v>

01:04:07.120 --> 01:04:10.720
<v Speaker 2>he prepared for you to do.</v>

01:04:10.720 --> 01:04:15.520
<v Speaker 2>And that is the case if God has given you intelligence, you</v>

01:04:15.520 --> 01:04:17.920
<v Speaker 2>should be using that in service of the kingdom.</v>

01:04:17.920 --> 01:04:21.120
<v Speaker 2>If he has given you material wealth, you should be using that</v>

01:04:21.120 --> 01:04:22.080
<v Speaker 2>in service of the kingdom.</v>

01:04:22.640 --> 01:04:26.800
<v Speaker 2>If you are someone to whom God has given tens, hundreds of</v>

01:04:26.800 --> 01:04:31.440
<v Speaker 2>millions of dollars, you should absolutely be using that to fix up</v>

01:04:31.440 --> 01:04:35.680
<v Speaker 2>church buildings, to fund the soup kitchens, to help others in your</v>

01:04:35.680 --> 01:04:38.960
<v Speaker 2>congregation who are struggling, you should be using the things God has</v>

01:04:38.960 --> 01:04:43.120
<v Speaker 2>given you to help others, because those are good works, those are</v>

01:04:43.120 --> 01:04:46.960
<v Speaker 2>the good works prepared specifically for you, because he gave you the</v>

01:04:47.360 --> 01:04:48.720
<v Speaker 2>means to do it.</v>

01:04:48.720 --> 01:04:52.400
<v Speaker 2>And when it comes to teaching, if God has given you a</v>

01:04:52.400 --> 01:04:58.480
<v Speaker 2>perceptive mind, the ability to process materials, a knack for languages, whatever</v>

01:04:58.480 --> 01:05:02.000
<v Speaker 2>it happens to be, all of these various capacities that go into</v>

01:05:02.000 --> 01:05:07.280
<v Speaker 2>being a good teacher of any particular subject, because you can serve</v>

01:05:07.280 --> 01:05:12.560
<v Speaker 2>God teaching law the same as you can serve God teaching theology.</v>

01:05:12.560 --> 01:05:14.800
<v Speaker 2>You can serve God making shoes.</v>

01:05:14.800 --> 01:05:19.040
<v Speaker 2>If he gave you a particular dexterity, you're very good with your</v>

01:05:19.040 --> 01:05:22.000
<v Speaker 2>hands. You may be a surgeon, you may be a cobbler, it</v>

01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:25.760
<v Speaker 2>just depends on the abilities that God has given you.</v>

01:05:25.760 --> 01:05:29.280
<v Speaker 2>What would you, what will be required of you at the judgment</v>

01:05:30.240 --> 01:05:34.000
<v Speaker 2>is what you did with the gifts that were given you by</v>

01:05:34.000 --> 01:05:41.040
<v Speaker 2>God. Yes, there is all The central judgment, the core</v>

01:05:41.040 --> 01:05:44.080
<v Speaker 2>matter, upon which you are sent to the right or the left</v>

01:05:44.080 --> 01:05:46.880
<v Speaker 2>hand, whether you are a sheep or a goat, and that is</v>

01:05:46.880 --> 01:05:50.720
<v Speaker 2>whether or not you have faith in Christ.</v>

01:05:50.720 --> 01:05:55.840
<v Speaker 2>But, after that, the books are opened, and your deeds are read</v>

01:05:55.840 --> 01:05:59.680
<v Speaker 2>from them, and you will have good works, or you will not,</v>

01:05:59.680 --> 01:06:04.160
<v Speaker 2>depending on what you did, in this life with what God gave</v>

01:06:04.160 --> 01:06:08.720
<v Speaker 2>you. And that again is why we are doing this podcast.</v>

01:06:08.720 --> 01:06:13.280
<v Speaker 2>God gave us the ability to look at these materials, to understand</v>

01:06:13.280 --> 01:06:17.760
<v Speaker 2>them, to read through the resources, and then to teach others.</v>

01:06:17.760 --> 01:06:20.400
<v Speaker 2>And so we are using the gifts that He gave us.</v>

01:06:20.400 --> 01:06:25.840
<v Speaker 2>And as mentioned, in the the balance of our lives heretofore, we've</v>

01:06:25.840 --> 01:06:29.040
<v Speaker 2>used those gifts largely for other things.</v>

01:06:29.040 --> 01:06:31.200
<v Speaker 2>I've taught a little bit in the church in the past.</v>

01:06:31.200 --> 01:06:36.400
<v Speaker 2>I taught through part of Genesis until COVID kind of killed that.</v>

01:06:36.400 --> 01:06:39.760
<v Speaker 2>But for most of my life, no, I didn't focus on these</v>

01:06:39.760 --> 01:06:42.080
<v Speaker 2>things and use the gifts in the way that I should have</v>

01:06:42.080 --> 01:06:43.280
<v Speaker 2>been using them all along.</v>

01:06:43.280 --> 01:06:46.240
<v Speaker 2>I should have been doing this for far longer than I have.</v>

01:06:46.240 --> 01:06:49.360
<v Speaker 2>We both recognize that.</v>

01:06:49.360 --> 01:06:54.560
<v Speaker 2>But it is better to begin doing the things God wants you</v>

01:06:54.560 --> 01:06:58.960
<v Speaker 2>to do today than saying, oh well, I didn't do it for</v>

01:06:58.960 --> 01:07:03.040
<v Speaker 2>the last ten years, so it's already too late.</v>

01:07:03.040 --> 01:07:07.760
<v Speaker 2>That's just Satan again telling you you've committed too many sins over</v>

01:07:07.760 --> 01:07:09.040
<v Speaker 2>too long of a period.</v>

01:07:09.040 --> 01:07:12.640
<v Speaker 2>They're too great, they're too heinous, God couldn't possibly forgive you, and</v>

01:07:12.640 --> 01:07:14.160
<v Speaker 2>that's false.</v>

01:07:14.160 --> 01:07:17.040
<v Speaker 2>Your sins are already forgiven.</v>

01:07:17.040 --> 01:07:19.600
<v Speaker 2>Start doing the good works now.</v>

01:07:19.600 --> 01:07:22.080
<v Speaker 2>That is part of Christian life.</v>

01:07:22.480 --> 01:07:25.040
<v Speaker 2>No good works do not save you.</v>

01:07:25.040 --> 01:07:27.760
<v Speaker 2>Again, we went over this five hundred years ago.</v>

01:07:27.760 --> 01:07:29.600
<v Speaker 2>We had this fight.</v>

01:07:29.600 --> 01:07:34.960
<v Speaker 2>We won because we resorted to Scripture, and the adversaries did not.</v>

01:07:34.960 --> 01:07:37.520
<v Speaker 2>Good works will not save you.</v>

01:07:37.520 --> 01:07:41.120
<v Speaker 2>Good works do not contribute to your justification.</v>

01:07:41.120 --> 01:07:44.320
<v Speaker 2>Good works do not make you ready for justification.</v>

01:07:44.320 --> 01:07:47.040
<v Speaker 2>Good works do not complete your justification.</v>

01:07:47.040 --> 01:07:47.520
<v Speaker 2>Good works</v>

01:07:48.480 --> 01:07:52.720
<v Speaker 2>do nothing for your justification.</v>

01:07:52.720 --> 01:07:55.840
<v Speaker 2>But you still have to do them as a Christian.</v>

01:07:55.840 --> 01:07:59.680
<v Speaker 2>Because a living faith will produce fruit.</v>

01:07:59.680 --> 01:08:03.600
<v Speaker 2>The same as a living tree, a living tree, a healthy fruit</v>

01:08:03.600 --> 01:08:05.680
<v Speaker 2>tree, produces fruit.</v>

01:08:05.680 --> 01:08:10.720
<v Speaker 2>If your faith is a living and healthy tree, it will produce</v>

01:08:10.720 --> 01:08:16.880
<v Speaker 2>good works because those are the fruit of a living Christian faith.</v>

01:08:16.880 --> 01:08:19.520
<v Speaker 2>And so if you have not been doing those works, if you</v>

01:08:19.520 --> 01:08:25.440
<v Speaker 2>have not been using the gifts God gave you, start now.</v>

01:08:25.440 --> 01:08:28.240
<v Speaker 2>And so we will finish up to day with one more passage</v>

01:08:28.960 --> 01:08:33.120
<v Speaker 2>also from Matthew being Sermon on the Mount.</v>

01:08:33.200 --> 01:08:36.640
<v Speaker 2>You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery,</v>

01:08:36.640 --> 01:08:38.800
<v Speaker 2>but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman</v>

01:08:38.800 --> 01:08:39.520
<v Speaker 2>with lust.</v>

01:08:39.520 --> 01:08:43.280
<v Speaker 2>lustful intent, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.</v>

01:08:43.280 --> 01:08:46.480
<v Speaker 2>If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out, and</v>

01:08:46.480 --> 01:08:47.760
<v Speaker 2>throw it away.</v>

01:08:47.760 --> 01:08:50.480
<v Speaker 2>For it is better that you lose one of your members than</v>

01:08:50.480 --> 01:08:52.880
<v Speaker 2>that your whole body be thrown into hell.</v>

01:08:52.880 --> 01:08:56.240
<v Speaker 2>And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off,</v>

01:08:56.240 --> 01:08:59.200
<v Speaker 2>and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one</v>

01:08:59.200 --> 01:09:03.840
<v Speaker 2>of your members than that your whole body go into hell.</v>

01:09:03.840 --> 01:09:08.160
<v Speaker 2>And so what we see here in the teaching on lust or</v>

01:09:08.160 --> 01:09:11.360
<v Speaker 2>adultery on the Sermon of the Mount, in the Sermon of the</v>

01:09:11.360 --> 01:09:17.200
<v Speaker 2>Mount, is you have a progression of sin from least terrible to</v>

01:09:17.200 --> 01:09:22.640
<v Speaker 2>most terrible, the ultimate end of this chain is not actually listed</v>

01:09:22.640 --> 01:09:27.360
<v Speaker 2>by Christ, because the ultimate end, of course, is actual adultery.</v>

01:09:27.360 --> 01:09:32.800
<v Speaker 2>And so it's the wandering eye that drives that grasping hand, that</v>

01:09:32.800 --> 01:09:37.520
<v Speaker 2>pulls the body down into adultery, and ultimately the soul down into</v>

01:09:37.520 --> 01:09:40.880
<v Speaker 2>hell. And that's what we're dealing with here.</v>

01:09:40.880 --> 01:09:45.200
<v Speaker 2>You have a progression of sins, and every step is worse than</v>

01:09:45.040 --> 01:09:47.200
<v Speaker 2>the previous one.</v>

01:09:47.200 --> 01:09:52.160
<v Speaker 2>If you look at a woman with lustful intent, that is adulterous</v>

01:09:52.160 --> 01:09:57.600
<v Speaker 2>sin. But it is not as bad as reaching out and grasping</v>

01:09:57.600 --> 01:10:03.600
<v Speaker 2>that woman, which is, of course, the physical manifestation, the beginning of</v>

01:10:03.600 --> 01:10:08.000
<v Speaker 2>the ultimate act of adultery, and that is not as bad as</v>

01:10:08.000 --> 01:10:09.920
<v Speaker 2>the actual act of adultery</v>

01:10:11.360 --> 01:10:12.720
<v Speaker 2>These are degrees of sin.</v>

01:10:12.720 --> 01:10:17.280
<v Speaker 2>This is Christ's teaching on the progression of sin.</v>

01:10:17.280 --> 01:10:19.520
<v Speaker 2>Because we see this with all sin.</v>

01:10:19.520 --> 01:10:22.640
<v Speaker 2>Sin always gets worse.</v>

01:10:22.640 --> 01:10:26.080
<v Speaker 2>And so the time to stop sinning, of course, is before you</v>

01:10:26.080 --> 01:10:30.640
<v Speaker 2>start. But the second best time to stop sinning is the second</v>

01:10:30.640 --> 01:10:32.800
<v Speaker 2>you recognize it is sin.</v>

01:10:32.800 --> 01:10:35.680
<v Speaker 2>Because if you continue, it will get worse.</v>

01:10:35.680 --> 01:10:39.600
<v Speaker 2>You will commit more egregious sin because it is always the little</v>

01:10:39.600 --> 01:10:44.240
<v Speaker 2>sin that Satan gets you to commit, the little sin where you</v>

01:10:44.240 --> 01:10:47.360
<v Speaker 2>give in to the flesh and some minor thing, that leads to</v>

01:10:47.360 --> 01:10:53.360
<v Speaker 2>another sin, and another, and another, and ultimately you commit heinous sins.</v>

01:10:53.600 --> 01:10:58.080
<v Speaker 2>You will of course ultimately apostatize if you continue down that path,</v>

01:10:58.080 --> 01:11:02.880
<v Speaker 2>because it becomes a willful turning away from God at some point.</v>

01:11:03.440 --> 01:11:07.120
<v Speaker 2>And so here on the teaching on lust, if you look at</v>

01:11:07.120 --> 01:11:08.720
<v Speaker 2>a woman lustfully, and</v>

01:11:09.600 --> 01:11:14.160
<v Speaker 2>most of this audience undoubtedly is male, you are going to do</v>

01:11:14.160 --> 01:11:15.520
<v Speaker 2>this in life.</v>

01:11:15.520 --> 01:11:19.760
<v Speaker 2>You are a fallen and sinful being your passions are not rightly</v>

01:11:19.760 --> 01:11:22.960
<v Speaker 2>ordered, you are going to look at a woman with lustful intent,</v>

01:11:22.960 --> 01:11:29.280
<v Speaker 2>particularly given the reality of our current social situation, let's call it.</v>

01:11:29.280 --> 01:11:30.640
<v Speaker 2>Turn away.</v>

01:11:30.640 --> 01:11:33.840
<v Speaker 2>Close the browser tab, walk away from the computer, whatever it happens</v>

01:11:33.840 --> 01:11:37.600
<v Speaker 2>to be, whatever the temptation is, flee.</v>

01:11:37.600 --> 01:11:41.360
<v Speaker 2>That is the advice of scripture is to flee the temptation.</v>

01:11:41.360 --> 01:11:44.080
<v Speaker 2>If you cannot flee the temptation, pray.</v>

01:11:44.480 --> 01:11:46.720
<v Speaker 2>Pray the Lord's Prayer.</v>

01:11:46.720 --> 01:11:50.640
<v Speaker 2>Do the best you can to minimize this temptation because</v>

01:11:51.600 --> 01:11:52.720
<v Speaker 2>men are visual.</v>

01:11:52.720 --> 01:11:54.080
<v Speaker 2>That's a simple fact.</v>

01:11:54.080 --> 01:11:58.560
<v Speaker 2>And so looking at the woman with lustful intent, that desire that</v>

01:11:58.560 --> 01:12:02.480
<v Speaker 2>starts with the eye is going to lead to more.</v>

01:12:02.480 --> 01:12:05.440
<v Speaker 2>It may be you look at the woman first and</v>

01:12:06.720 --> 01:12:09.280
<v Speaker 2>Then you decide to go and talk to this woman who you</v>

01:12:09.280 --> 01:12:11.040
<v Speaker 2>have a lustful desire for her.</v>

01:12:11.040 --> 01:12:12.800
<v Speaker 2>You've committed an additional sin.</v>

01:12:12.800 --> 01:12:15.680
<v Speaker 2>No talking to a woman is not a sin, but it's the</v>

01:12:15.680 --> 01:12:17.760
<v Speaker 2>intent you have behind it.</v>

01:12:17.760 --> 01:12:20.240
<v Speaker 2>And then you ask her out for a drink.</v>

01:12:20.240 --> 01:12:24.240
<v Speaker 2>The sin progresses, it gets worse.</v>

01:12:24.240 --> 01:12:28.880
<v Speaker 2>Flee from the sin as soon as the temptation arises.</v>

01:12:28.880 --> 01:12:32.640
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that internal desire, that concupicence itself is sin.</v>

01:12:32.640 --> 01:12:35.440
<v Speaker 2>You've already committed the sin when you've looked at her with lustful</v>

01:12:35.440 --> 01:12:39.840
<v Speaker 2>intent, but you don't have to continue the chain and commit worse</v>

01:12:39.840 --> 01:12:42.480
<v Speaker 2>and more egregious sins.</v>

01:12:42.480 --> 01:12:44.400
<v Speaker 2>So the Christian response</v>

01:12:45.360 --> 01:12:48.800
<v Speaker 2>is to turn to God, because God will give you a way</v>

01:12:48.800 --> 01:12:49.840
<v Speaker 2>to escape from the sin.</v>

01:12:49.840 --> 01:12:51.440
<v Speaker 2>He promises that.</v>

01:12:51.440 --> 01:12:54.560
<v Speaker 2>Look for that way to escape the sin, if it's fleeing, if</v>

01:12:54.560 --> 01:12:58.480
<v Speaker 2>it's praying, minimizing, whatever it is you can do, flee from the</v>

01:12:58.480 --> 01:13:03.280
<v Speaker 2>sin. Do not follow this chain that Satan wants you to follow,</v>

01:13:03.280 --> 01:13:06.640
<v Speaker 2>because what he wants you to do is he wants you to</v>

01:13:06.640 --> 01:13:09.680
<v Speaker 2>start off thinking, well looking isn't that bad.</v>

01:13:09.680 --> 01:13:13.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it's a sin, but they're much worse things I could</v>

01:13:13.040 --> 01:13:15.520
<v Speaker 2>be doing, so I'll look.</v>

01:13:15.520 --> 01:13:18.800
<v Speaker 2>He wants you to follow from that all the way down into</v>

01:13:18.800 --> 01:13:24.400
<v Speaker 2>the depths, until you commit fornication, adultery, whatever it happens to be.</v>

01:13:24.400 --> 01:13:26.000
<v Speaker 2>And then he's going to turn around and tell you</v>

01:13:27.040 --> 01:13:28.800
<v Speaker 2>Look, you're just a sinner.</v>

01:13:28.800 --> 01:13:32.000
<v Speaker 2>You've already committed this heinous act, God won't forgive you for this,</v>

01:13:32.000 --> 01:13:34.080
<v Speaker 2>you may as well keep sinning.</v>

01:13:34.080 --> 01:13:35.920
<v Speaker 2>That's his end goal.</v>

01:13:35.920 --> 01:13:38.160
<v Speaker 2>Do not follow him into the pit.</v>

01:13:38.800 --> 01:13:43.280
<v Speaker 3>The important thing to note about the progression of sin is that</v>

01:13:44.240 --> 01:13:49.440
<v Speaker 3>looking lustfully is a sin, and then any follow-on are additional sins.</v>

01:13:49.440 --> 01:13:53.120
<v Speaker 3>And I think this is something that the all sins are equal</v>

01:13:53.520 --> 01:13:53.840
<v Speaker 3>lie</v>

01:13:54.880 --> 01:13:57.360
<v Speaker 3>actually weaponizes upfront.</v>

01:13:57.360 --> 01:14:01.360
<v Speaker 3>It's not only at the end where you've already committed fully to</v>

01:14:01.360 --> 01:14:04.160
<v Speaker 3>a life of sin and you say, well, I've already done it,</v>

01:14:04.160 --> 01:14:05.680
<v Speaker 3>I may as well keep doing it.</v>

01:14:05.680 --> 01:14:09.680
<v Speaker 3>If you believe that all sins are equal and you catch yourself</v>

01:14:09.680 --> 01:14:12.480
<v Speaker 3>looking lustfully at someone, well</v>

01:14:13.440 --> 01:14:18.160
<v Speaker 3>if all sins are equal, the n the natural rationalization of that</v>

01:14:18.160 --> 01:14:19.840
<v Speaker 3>circumstance is what?</v>

01:14:19.840 --> 01:14:21.920
<v Speaker 3>In for a penny, in for a pound.</v>

01:14:21.920 --> 01:14:25.120
<v Speaker 3>I already looked at her with lust on my heart, which Jesus</v>

01:14:25.120 --> 01:14:27.360
<v Speaker 3>says is actual adultery.</v>

01:14:27.360 --> 01:14:31.440
<v Speaker 3>So if I'm already an adulterer, why shouldn't I follow through?</v>

01:14:31.440 --> 01:14:33.040
<v Speaker 3>Why shouldn't I complete the act?</v>

01:14:33.040 --> 01:14:34.000
<v Speaker 3>I'm already guilty.</v>

01:14:34.000 --> 01:14:35.840
<v Speaker 3>I may as well enjoy it too.</v>

01:14:35.840 --> 01:14:37.120
<v Speaker 3>That's the trap.</v>

01:14:37.120 --> 01:14:40.800
<v Speaker 3>If you believe that all sins are equal, then it's very and</v>

01:14:40.800 --> 01:14:41.600
<v Speaker 3>like that's it's false.</v>

01:14:41.600 --> 01:14:44.320
<v Speaker 3>That's what I just said is a lie, but it is a</v>

01:14:44.320 --> 01:14:48.000
<v Speaker 3>very easy lie that can be rationalized in the mind of someone</v>

01:14:48.000 --> 01:14:50.000
<v Speaker 3>who's ultimately just self serving.</v>

01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:53.520
<v Speaker 3>Even if you listen to part of what these people are saying</v>

01:14:53.680 --> 01:14:54.960
<v Speaker 3>God said, which is false.</v>

01:14:55.520 --> 01:14:56.640
<v Speaker 3>God didn't say that.</v>

01:14:56.640 --> 01:14:57.920
<v Speaker 3>God said these things.</v>

01:14:57.920 --> 01:15:01.520
<v Speaker 3>But even if you listen to it and it informs your actions,</v>

01:15:01.520 --> 01:15:05.360
<v Speaker 3>the lie of all sins being equal may very well cause you</v>

01:15:05.360 --> 01:15:09.120
<v Speaker 3>to commit greater sins because you don't believe they're greater.</v>

01:15:10.160 --> 01:15:11.360
<v Speaker 3>See that's the trap.</v>

01:15:11.360 --> 01:15:13.840
<v Speaker 3>If all sins are equal, how can you commit a greater sin?</v>

01:15:13.840 --> 01:15:16.160
<v Speaker 3>You're already a sinner, so who cares?</v>

01:15:16.160 --> 01:15:18.960
<v Speaker 3>Like Jesus died for me, he took care of all this crap.</v>

01:15:18.960 --> 01:15:20.800
<v Speaker 3>What do I need to worry about?</v>

01:15:20.800 --> 01:15:22.320
<v Speaker 3>That's part of the ultimate trap.</v>

01:15:23.200 --> 01:15:25.520
<v Speaker 3>It's not just that all sins are equal.</v>

01:15:25.520 --> 01:15:26.560
<v Speaker 3>It's just that</v>

01:15:27.520 --> 01:15:31.200
<v Speaker 3>individual sin is equal to any other individual sin.</v>

01:15:31.200 --> 01:15:36.560
<v Speaker 3>Necessarily, any volume of sins is also equal to a different volume</v>

01:15:36.560 --> 01:15:37.280
<v Speaker 3>of sins.</v>

01:15:37.280 --> 01:15:41.120
<v Speaker 3>So one someone who commits a hundred sins in a day versus</v>

01:15:41.120 --> 01:15:43.680
<v Speaker 3>someone who commits a thousand sins in a day.</v>

01:15:44.000 --> 01:15:45.360
<v Speaker 3>There's no way to quantify that.</v>

01:15:45.360 --> 01:15:46.800
<v Speaker 3>We don't even know how often we sin.</v>

01:15:46.800 --> 01:15:47.760
<v Speaker 3>It's impossible.</v>

01:15:47.760 --> 01:15:51.840
<v Speaker 3>But even for the sake of argument, if it were quantifiable, both</v>

01:15:51.840 --> 01:15:55.280
<v Speaker 3>are equally damned, but if you believe it all sins are equal,</v>

01:15:55.280 --> 01:15:58.560
<v Speaker 3>you can't say to the man who's only committed a hundred sins,</v>

01:15:58.560 --> 01:16:00.640
<v Speaker 3>you know, you got nine hundred more, you're not gonna be any</v>

01:16:00.640 --> 01:16:02.000
<v Speaker 3>worse than that other guy.</v>

01:16:02.000 --> 01:16:05.200
<v Speaker 3>And that's what these false teachings do to us.</v>

01:16:05.200 --> 01:16:07.520
<v Speaker 3>They ultimately give license.</v>

01:16:07.520 --> 01:16:11.520
<v Speaker 3>See they're sold as a way of being loving and being caring</v>

01:16:11.680 --> 01:16:15.120
<v Speaker 3>and not being judgmental, but ultimately what they do is they give</v>

01:16:15.120 --> 01:16:19.200
<v Speaker 3>license to greater and greater sin, which again ultimately always leads to</v>

01:16:19.280 --> 01:16:21.680
<v Speaker 3>separation of the soul from God.</v>

01:16:21.680 --> 01:16:25.040
<v Speaker 3>It's what Satan wants, which is why this all sins are equal</v>

01:16:25.040 --> 01:16:28.480
<v Speaker 3>stuff is is a pernicious sin.</v>

01:16:28.480 --> 01:16:32.800
<v Speaker 3>It is a vicious evil thing that is spread among us.</v>

01:16:32.800 --> 01:16:35.680
<v Speaker 3>Some people have it say it with good intentions.</v>

01:16:35.680 --> 01:16:38.800
<v Speaker 3>Other people say because they know that they're covering for their own</v>

01:16:38.800 --> 01:16:39.760
<v Speaker 3>greater sins.</v>

01:16:39.760 --> 01:16:42.640
<v Speaker 3>They know that they're up to no good and they don't want</v>

01:16:42.640 --> 01:16:45.920
<v Speaker 3>to be judged more harshly than someone else.</v>

01:16:45.920 --> 01:16:49.680
<v Speaker 3>So they pump this smoke screen into the air so that you</v>

01:16:49.680 --> 01:16:50.880
<v Speaker 3>can't judge them.</v>

01:16:50.880 --> 01:16:52.880
<v Speaker 3>Now I I mentioned a couple times we're going to be doing</v>

01:16:52.880 --> 01:16:54.160
<v Speaker 3>judge not in this episode.</v>

01:16:54.160 --> 01:16:56.080
<v Speaker 3>We're already getting along on time.</v>

01:16:56.080 --> 01:16:59.840
<v Speaker 3>Next week we've decided we're gonna be doing an episode on antinomianism</v>

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:03.600
<v Speaker 3>where we're specifically going to talk for in it probably close to</v>

01:17:03.600 --> 01:17:09.040
<v Speaker 3>two hours again, specifically about judge not and the modern view, well</v>

01:17:09.120 --> 01:17:13.120
<v Speaker 3>it's not modern, but it's a recurring theme of antinomianism or against</v>

01:17:13.120 --> 01:17:18.240
<v Speaker 3>the law, where people set their hearts against what God says because</v>

01:17:18.240 --> 01:17:20.000
<v Speaker 3>they just they don't like the sound of it.</v>

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:21.760
<v Speaker 3>And judge not as a part of that.</v>

01:17:21.760 --> 01:17:25.200
<v Speaker 3>If you if you say you can't judge people, it again, it's</v>

01:17:25.200 --> 01:17:26.080
<v Speaker 3>another smokescreen.</v>

01:17:26.080 --> 01:17:29.680
<v Speaker 3>It's a demand defense mechanism to say, hey man, my sins are</v>

01:17:29.680 --> 01:17:32.480
<v Speaker 3>no worse than yours or no better than yours.</v>

01:17:32.480 --> 01:17:33.920
<v Speaker 3>We're all equal, right?</v>

01:17:33.920 --> 01:17:35.920
<v Speaker 3>So don't you tell me what's wrong with me.</v>

01:17:35.920 --> 01:17:39.360
<v Speaker 3>Well, where does the law go in that world where you can't</v>

01:17:39.360 --> 01:17:43.360
<v Speaker 3>tell someone of their sin how can they be corrected?</v>

01:17:43.360 --> 01:17:47.760
<v Speaker 3>If if scripture is useful for rebuke and correction of error, and</v>

01:17:47.760 --> 01:17:52.320
<v Speaker 3>yet rebuke is forbidden by this modern morality, are you going to</v>

01:17:52.320 --> 01:17:53.200
<v Speaker 3>be Christian?</v>

01:17:53.200 --> 01:17:56.400
<v Speaker 3>Or are you going to be the modern religious person that says</v>

01:17:56.400 --> 01:18:00.400
<v Speaker 3>he's Christian that does things that kill the Christian faith.</v>

01:18:00.400 --> 01:18:02.400
<v Speaker 3>That's what this comes down to.</v>

01:18:02.400 --> 01:18:04.080
<v Speaker 3>So we're gonna do another episode on this.</v>

01:18:04.080 --> 01:18:08.000
<v Speaker 3>It'll be not quite a follow-on, but a natural continuation of the</v>

01:18:08.000 --> 01:18:10.160
<v Speaker 3>essence of judging and the law.</v>

01:18:10.160 --> 01:18:12.480
<v Speaker 3>Uh we've talked in the past about what the nature of the</v>

01:18:12.480 --> 01:18:13.120
<v Speaker 3>law is.</v>

01:18:13.120 --> 01:18:16.080
<v Speaker 3>Uh if you'd like a refresher, I'd recommend going back and listening</v>

01:18:16.080 --> 01:18:18.160
<v Speaker 3>to the episode on perfect hatred.</v>

01:18:18.160 --> 01:18:21.600
<v Speaker 3>We talk at some length about the manner in which the law</v>

01:18:21.600 --> 01:18:25.920
<v Speaker 3>is eternal and it's functionally it's it's got it's God's eternal will.</v>

01:18:25.920 --> 01:18:30.080
<v Speaker 3>What God wants for the world, what he wants for us individually,</v>

01:18:30.080 --> 01:18:31.760
<v Speaker 3>does not change.</v>

01:18:31.760 --> 01:18:35.120
<v Speaker 3>The rules are not fickle.</v>

01:18:35.120 --> 01:18:36.240
<v Speaker 3>God's not fickle.</v>

01:18:36.240 --> 01:18:38.160
<v Speaker 3>The rules are not capricious.</v>

01:18:38.160 --> 01:18:41.920
<v Speaker 3>What What God desires is that which is good and holy.</v>

01:18:41.920 --> 01:18:45.040
<v Speaker 3>And when we set our minds and our hearts at odds with</v>

01:18:45.040 --> 01:18:49.440
<v Speaker 3>that, we create the hell on earth that we're all experiencing now.</v>

01:18:49.440 --> 01:18:54.000
<v Speaker 3>So I'll just leave you with the the thought that These things</v>

01:18:54.000 --> 01:18:57.280
<v Speaker 3>that seem small, like what's the big deal if someone says all</v>

01:18:57.280 --> 01:18:59.840
<v Speaker 3>sins are equal and someone says they're not?</v>

01:18:59.840 --> 01:19:02.400
<v Speaker 3>On the on a surface, it doesn't seem like it's much of</v>

01:19:02.400 --> 01:19:03.360
<v Speaker 3>a distinction.</v>

01:19:03.360 --> 01:19:06.720
<v Speaker 3>Because you know, as Protestants, especially, one way or another, we know</v>

01:19:06.720 --> 01:19:08.400
<v Speaker 3>that Jesus paid for all our sins.</v>

01:19:08.400 --> 01:19:11.600
<v Speaker 3>So who cares if one sin is worse than another?</v>

01:19:11.600 --> 01:19:13.520
<v Speaker 3>Are you saying you're better than me?</v>

01:19:13.520 --> 01:19:18.640
<v Speaker 3>No. It has nothing to do with an individual asserting being better</v>

01:19:18.640 --> 01:19:20.800
<v Speaker 3>or worse than another Christian.</v>

01:19:20.800 --> 01:19:24.560
<v Speaker 3>The problem is that these are matters that ultimately separate souls from</v>

01:19:24.560 --> 01:19:26.480
<v Speaker 3>God. Satan knows what he's doing.</v>

01:19:26.480 --> 01:19:30.160
<v Speaker 3>When Satan comes up with this rhetoric like all sins are equal,</v>

01:19:30.160 --> 01:19:32.640
<v Speaker 3>he knows it's gonna play in our hearts and minds.</v>

01:19:33.040 --> 01:19:35.600
<v Speaker 3>He knows is what we want to hear because it's license.</v>

01:19:35.600 --> 01:19:37.680
<v Speaker 3>It's basically a free pass.</v>

01:19:37.680 --> 01:19:41.040
<v Speaker 3>That's not how the pastors sell it, but it's how hearts receive</v>

01:19:41.040 --> 01:19:43.840
<v Speaker 3>it. And for some of the pastors, it's what they intend.</v>

01:19:43.840 --> 01:19:46.400
<v Speaker 3>Some of the guys who are the biggest promoters of this stuff</v>

01:19:46.560 --> 01:19:50.800
<v Speaker 3>inevitably get outed is sexual deviants who in many cases have been</v>

01:19:50.800 --> 01:19:54.720
<v Speaker 3>defrocked because they go so far because hey man, all sins are</v>

01:19:54.720 --> 01:19:56.880
<v Speaker 3>equal. I don't judge me.</v>

01:19:56.880 --> 01:19:58.000
<v Speaker 3>This stuff matters.</v>

01:19:58.000 --> 01:20:00.480
<v Speaker 3>Even the the things that we talk about that seem like they're</v>

01:20:00.480 --> 01:20:01.760
<v Speaker 3>small issues.</v>

01:20:01.760 --> 01:20:04.160
<v Speaker 3>If they were small, we wouldn't be talking about them.</v>

01:20:04.160 --> 01:20:08.960
<v Speaker 3>We're talking about big issues that don't seem big because Because they</v>

01:20:08.960 --> 01:20:10.560
<v Speaker 3>slip under the radar.</v>

01:20:10.560 --> 01:20:14.320
<v Speaker 3>Anything that sounds Christian is all right by the Christian ear.</v>

01:20:14.320 --> 01:20:17.760
<v Speaker 3>The problem is that we no longer discern what is Christian from</v>

01:20:17.760 --> 01:20:19.200
<v Speaker 3>what is worldly.</v>

01:20:19.200 --> 01:20:21.920
<v Speaker 3>All someone has to do is gussy it up and make it</v>

01:20:21.920 --> 01:20:23.520
<v Speaker 3>sound a little bit like Jesus.</v>

01:20:23.520 --> 01:20:25.760
<v Speaker 3>And a Christian is going to say, oh yeah, that that sounds</v>

01:20:25.760 --> 01:20:26.400
<v Speaker 3>like morality.</v>

01:20:26.400 --> 01:20:28.320
<v Speaker 3>I want that to be mine too.</v>

01:20:28.320 --> 01:20:30.000
<v Speaker 3>We focus on scripture.</v>

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:32.240
<v Speaker 3>Please, you focus on scripture.</v>

01:20:32.320 --> 01:20:33.760
<v Speaker 3>Read your Bibles.</v>

01:20:33.760 --> 01:20:36.080
<v Speaker 3>If what we said is wrong, you're gonna find it in the</v>

01:20:36.080 --> 01:20:38.640
<v Speaker 3>Bible. If what we said is right, you're gonna find a bunch</v>

01:20:38.640 --> 01:20:39.280
<v Speaker 3>more of it.</v>

01:20:39.280 --> 01:20:40.560
<v Speaker 3>Because we're not cherry picking.</v>

01:20:40.560 --> 01:20:43.120
<v Speaker 3>We've spent an hour and a half talking about you know close</v>

01:20:43.120 --> 01:20:44.480
<v Speaker 3>to a dozen passages.</v>

01:20:44.640 --> 01:20:47.600
<v Speaker 3>We could have done fifty more.</v>

01:20:47.600 --> 01:20:50.880
<v Speaker 3>That should be a reminder to you that when someone says something</v>

01:20:50.880 --> 01:20:54.080
<v Speaker 3>like all sin is equal, they're not talking about a sin from</v>

01:20:54.080 --> 01:20:56.000
<v Speaker 3>scripture. They're not talking about God.</v>

01:20:56.000 --> 01:20:58.800
<v Speaker 3>They're talking about teachings of demons.</v>

01:20:58.800 --> 01:21:02.400
<v Speaker 3>And it's a it's a strident thing to say, but the difference</v>

01:21:02.400 --> 01:21:08.320
<v Speaker 3>between salvation and damnation is recognizing our master's voice.</v>

01:21:08.320 --> 01:21:11.360
<v Speaker 3>The Christian's Master's voice is the voice of God.</v>

01:21:11.360 --> 01:21:13.760
<v Speaker 3>And that voice is found in scripture.</v>

01:21:13.760 --> 01:21:15.680
<v Speaker 3>Others do not hear it.</v>

01:21:15.680 --> 01:21:18.400
<v Speaker 3>They hear the voice of God and they're like, I don't that</v>

01:21:18.560 --> 01:21:20.000
<v Speaker 3>doesn't sound right to me.</v>

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:22.560
<v Speaker 3>Many of them hear it and they think that sounds hateful.</v>

01:21:22.560 --> 01:21:25.760
<v Speaker 3>That's it's a very common complaint, is that this stuff sounds hateful.</v>

01:21:25.760 --> 01:21:28.400
<v Speaker 3>Well if you If you think the voice of sound of God</v>

01:21:28.400 --> 01:21:33.360
<v Speaker 3>sounds hateful, wait for judgment day because Christians are going to be</v>

01:21:33.360 --> 01:21:36.080
<v Speaker 3>lined up in one line and everyone else is gonna be lined</v>

01:21:36.080 --> 01:21:38.720
<v Speaker 3>up in another, and we're gonna hear a very different type of</v>

01:21:38.720 --> 01:21:42.880
<v Speaker 3>voice. Christians are going to hear welcome thou good and faithful servant.</v>

01:21:42.880 --> 01:21:45.280
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I wish for everyone who's listening that that would be what</v>

01:21:45.280 --> 01:21:46.720
<v Speaker 3>you hear on the last day.</v>

01:21:46.800 --> 01:21:48.800
<v Speaker 3>'Cause I would like to hang out with all of you.</v>

01:21:48.800 --> 01:21:50.320
<v Speaker 3>We'll have a stone choir booth.</v>

01:21:50.320 --> 01:21:52.960
<v Speaker 3>We can sit sit around and talk and figure out all the</v>

01:21:52.960 --> 01:21:54.640
<v Speaker 3>stuff that you know we didn't understand.</v>

01:21:55.200 --> 01:21:57.760
<v Speaker 3>It'll be exciting and it'll be perfect and we won't have to</v>

01:21:57.760 --> 01:22:00.160
<v Speaker 3>worry about fighting and disagreements.</v>

01:22:00.160 --> 01:22:01.600
<v Speaker 3>But we have to get there.</v>

01:22:01.600 --> 01:22:04.880
<v Speaker 3>And Jesus paid the price for us to get there, but we</v>

01:22:04.880 --> 01:22:07.040
<v Speaker 3>can't reject what he says.</v>

01:22:07.040 --> 01:22:11.040
<v Speaker 3>So please read your Bibles, go to a faithful church, study this</v>

01:22:11.040 --> 01:22:12.720
<v Speaker 3>stuff and take it seriously.</v>

01:22:12.720 --> 01:22:15.360
<v Speaker 3>And as Corey said, flee evil.</v>

01:22:15.360 --> 01:22:17.040
<v Speaker 3>It's okay to flee evil.</v>

01:22:17.040 --> 01:22:21.120
<v Speaker 3>Whatever it is, whether it's lust or false teaching or whatever your</v>

01:22:21.120 --> 01:22:25.200
<v Speaker 3>particular pet sin is, if you're confronted with it, just turn around</v>

01:22:25.200 --> 01:22:26.160
<v Speaker 3>and walk away.</v>

01:22:26.160 --> 01:22:27.520
<v Speaker 3>That's where repent means.</v>

01:22:27.520 --> 01:22:33.280
<v Speaker 3>Metanoia means a turning, turning away from do a 180, back out</v>

01:22:33.280 --> 01:22:37.360
<v Speaker 3>of there, get away from the evil and focus on what God</v>

01:22:37.360 --> 01:22:41.440
<v Speaker 3>desires. And in the end, that's all we can do in this</v>

01:22:41.440 --> 01:22:44.800
<v Speaker 3>life. We can't be perfect, but we can try to go and</v>

01:22:44.800 --> 01:22:45.760
<v Speaker 3>sin no more.</v>

01:22:45.760 --> 01:22:47.280
<v Speaker 3>So let's try that.</v>

01:22:47.600 --> 01:22:47.840
And

01:22:47.840 --> 01:22:50.240
<v Speaker 2>not to bury the lead or</v>

01:22:51.600 --> 01:22:55.040
<v Speaker 2>add something on right at the end, but not to be remiss.</v>

01:22:55.040 --> 01:22:58.320
<v Speaker 2>I want to point out exactly what it is</v>

01:22:59.280 --> 01:23:03.120
<v Speaker 2>when someone says all sins are equal.</v>

01:23:03.120 --> 01:23:06.080
<v Speaker 2>The reason we are focusing on this, and as was mentioned, we</v>

01:23:06.080 --> 01:23:10.560
<v Speaker 2>could have gone through dozens more passages we could point out Genesis</v>

01:23:10.560 --> 01:23:11.920
<v Speaker 2>nine six.</v>

01:23:11.920 --> 01:23:17.200
<v Speaker 2>There are different punishments for different sins, very strongly implying there are</v>

01:23:17.200 --> 01:23:19.520
<v Speaker 2>different degrees of sin.</v>

01:23:19.520 --> 01:23:22.160
<v Speaker 2>But I want to read the second commandment</v>

01:23:23.120 --> 01:23:26.400
<v Speaker 2>You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in</v>

01:23:26.400 --> 01:23:32.720
<v Speaker 2>vain and the explanation from the small catechism what does this mean</v>

01:23:32.960 --> 01:23:36.160
<v Speaker 2>we should fear and love God, so that we may not curse,</v>

01:23:36.160 --> 01:23:41.120
<v Speaker 2>swear, use witchcraft, lie, or deceive by his name, but call upon</v>

01:23:41.120 --> 01:23:46.720
<v Speaker 2>it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.</v>

01:23:46.720 --> 01:23:47.680
<v Speaker 2>And that was the point of</v>

01:23:48.720 --> 01:23:51.200
<v Speaker 2>this entire episode.</v>

01:23:51.200 --> 01:23:55.440
<v Speaker 2>Because when you say that all sins are equal, you are lying</v>

01:23:55.440 --> 01:23:57.120
<v Speaker 2>and deceiving in his name.</v>

01:23:57.120 --> 01:23:59.760
<v Speaker 2>You are violating the second commandment.</v>

01:23:59.760 --> 01:24:02.160
<v Speaker 2>And as a reminder, the commandments are hierarchical.</v>

01:24:02.880 --> 01:24:06.640
<v Speaker 2>You are committing one of the greatest sins, because of course the</v>

01:24:06.640 --> 01:24:11.440
<v Speaker 2>greater sin would be to have another god, which is also implicated</v>

01:24:11.440 --> 01:24:13.040
<v Speaker 2>when this comes up.</v>

01:24:13.040 --> 01:24:17.040
<v Speaker 2>But But those who say that all sins are equal are lying</v>

01:24:17.040 --> 01:24:20.800
<v Speaker 2>in his name, are deceiving in his name, they are violating the</v>

01:24:20.800 --> 01:24:22.160
<v Speaker 2>second commandment.</v>

01:24:22.160 --> 01:24:25.440
<v Speaker 2>And that is why this is important for Christians.</v>

01:24:25.440 --> 01:24:28.720
<v Speaker 2>It's important because God's word is truth and you should believe every</v>

01:24:28.720 --> 01:24:29.680
<v Speaker 2>word of it.</v>

01:24:29.680 --> 01:24:33.200
<v Speaker 2>But it is also important because when you ignore things like this,</v>

01:24:33.200 --> 01:24:36.720
<v Speaker 2>particularly if you are a pastor or a teacher, and God forbids</v>

01:24:36.720 --> 01:24:39.920
<v Speaker 2>you stand up and teach false doctrine on these subjects</v>

01:24:41.040 --> 01:24:44.800
<v Speaker 2>because that is violating the second commandment.</v>

01:24:44.800 --> 01:24:48.720
<v Speaker 2>And if you do not repent, you are keeping that sin for</v>

01:24:48.720 --> 01:24:52.320
<v Speaker 2>yourself, instead of letting God, instead of letting Christ take it to</v>

01:24:52.320 --> 01:24:56.320
<v Speaker 2>the cross and wash it away in his blood.</v>

01:24:56.320 --> 01:25:00.480
<v Speaker 2>And we don't want anyone listening to this, even if you are</v>

01:25:00.480 --> 01:25:03.600
<v Speaker 2>listening to it, if you are hate listening to this, if you</v>

01:25:03.600 --> 01:25:04.480
<v Speaker 2>are attempting to find</v>

01:25:05.600 --> 01:25:09.120
<v Speaker 2>some way in which we are teaching false doctrine, something we've said</v>

01:25:09.120 --> 01:25:13.200
<v Speaker 2>wrong, somewhere we've slipped, misspoken, whatever have you.</v>

01:25:13.200 --> 01:25:17.440
<v Speaker 2>Even if you're that person, we want you to repent and turn</v>

01:25:17.440 --> 01:25:18.480
<v Speaker 2>from your evil ways</v>

01:25:19.440 --> 01:25:21.520
<v Speaker 2>and return to God.</v>

01:25:21.520 --> 01:25:26.160
<v Speaker 2>Because as Woe said, we do want everyone to make it to</v>

01:25:26.160 --> 01:25:28.640
<v Speaker 2>paradise, no everyone will not.</v>

01:25:28.640 --> 01:25:30.080
<v Speaker 2>Scripture is very clear on that.</v>

01:25:30.320 --> 01:25:34.800
<v Speaker 2>Many will reject Christ, will reject God, will spend eternity in hell</v>

01:25:34.800 --> 01:25:38.560
<v Speaker 2>paying for sins for which Christ already paid.</v>

01:25:38.560 --> 01:25:42.480
<v Speaker 2>We do not want any of you to join them.</v>

01:25:42.480 --> 01:25:46.400
<v Speaker 2>We would prefer that you join us in paradise with the Savior</v>

01:25:46.400 --> 01:25:48.720
<v Speaker 2>who paid for all your sins.</v>

01:25:48.720 --> 01:25:53.120
<v Speaker 2>All of your sins, which are not all equal, some of which</v>

01:25:53.120 --> 01:25:58.480
<v Speaker 2>are egregious, some of you may have committed truly heinous sins in</v>

01:25:58.480 --> 01:25:59.600
<v Speaker 2>your life.</v>

01:25:59.600 --> 01:26:03.440
<v Speaker 2>Some of you listening may not have committed particularly heinous sins.</v>

01:26:03.440 --> 01:26:06.400
<v Speaker 2>You still sin, you're still a sinner.</v>

01:26:06.400 --> 01:26:10.240
<v Speaker 2>Again, as was said before, you sin because you're a sinner, you're</v>

01:26:10.240 --> 01:26:11.840
<v Speaker 2>not a sinner because you sin.</v>

01:26:11.840 --> 01:26:16.240
<v Speaker 2>It's that original sin that is the wellspring from which other sins</v>

01:26:16.240 --> 01:26:22.000
<v Speaker 2>come. And so whether you've committed the relatively minor sins, stolen the</v>

01:26:22.000 --> 01:26:25.200
<v Speaker 2>pencil as was mentioned earlier, although it depends which one of my</v>

01:26:25.200 --> 01:26:30.480
<v Speaker 2>pencils you steal, or you've murdered someone.</v>

01:26:30.480 --> 01:26:34.160
<v Speaker 2>That was paid for by Christ, regardless of the gravity of the</v>

01:26:34.160 --> 01:26:34.800
<v Speaker 2>sin.</v>

01:26:36.400 --> 01:26:40.640
<v Speaker 2>But if you keep that sin for yourself, if you don't allow</v>

01:26:40.640 --> 01:26:43.040
<v Speaker 2>Christ to take that to the cross, if you want to say,</v>

01:26:43.040 --> 01:26:45.920
<v Speaker 2>No, I want to keep this one, then you get to spend</v>

01:26:45.920 --> 01:26:49.760
<v Speaker 2>eternity with that sin instead of with your Savior.</v>

01:26:50.800 --> 01:26:52.960
<v Speaker 2>And so all sins are not equal.</v>

01:26:52.960 --> 01:26:55.200
<v Speaker 2>Some are worse than others.</v>

01:26:55.200 --> 01:26:58.400
<v Speaker 2>But Christ died for all of them, He paid for all of</v>

01:26:58.400 --> 01:27:02.480
<v Speaker 2>them, He paid for every single sin you have committed.</v>

01:27:02.480 --> 01:27:03.840
<v Speaker 2>Regardless of how trivial</v>

01:27:04.800 --> 01:27:08.240
<v Speaker 2>or how truly terrible.</v>

01:27:08.240 --> 01:27:15.920
<v Speaker 2>The atonement, the scope of the atonement, was infinite, all sins wiped</v>

01:27:15.920 --> 01:27:19.680
<v Speaker 2>clean. But only if you believe</v>

01:27:24.880 --> 01:27:25.680
you're not going to be able to do that.