Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able to remain standing,
please do as we turn to First Corinthians,
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chapter twelve. First Corinthians Chapter Twelve, verses one through three. This
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section begins another major section in the
book. Encompasses chapters twelve, thirteen and
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fourteen, and you'll hear that as
Paul makes a little bit of a transition
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here at the beginning of chapter twelve. So let's give our attention to God's
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word now. First Corinthians twelve,
verses one through three. Now, concerning
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spiritual gifts, brothers, I do
not want you to be uninformed. You
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know that when you were pagans you
were led astray. I mute idols.
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However, you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no
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one speaking in the spirit of God
ever says Jesus is accursed, and no
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one can say Jesus is Lord except
in the Holy Spirit. May God bless
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his word to us. You may
be seen kids. Have you ever been
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in a restaurant? Your parents said
do you don't forget your manners. Right,
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you're in a place you're not.
You're not in your bedroom reading cheetos
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on your floor. You're in a
restaurant. Right, use your restaurant voice.
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Speak like you have. You a
gives appropriate here. act in a
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way that is appropriate here. Sometimes, when we move from one place to
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another place, our behaviors need to
change, the ways that we act,
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maybe even the ways that we think, need to to modify. Well,
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that's true, not just of our
manners and those kind of things, but
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but in spiritual terms as well.
The book of Colossians says that we have
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been rescued out of a dominion of
darkness by God and brought into the Kingdom
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of his beloved son. You used
to be in this place, this awful,
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terrible dominion of darkness. Once,
the scriptures say, you were children
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of Wrath. Once your father was
the devil. Once you did deeds that
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broke the law, hated God and
fleed the light. But now things are
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new. Now things are different.
You belong to a new place, a
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new kingdom over which the Lord reigns
and his light shines. Citizens of a
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heavenly kingdom, and that's to that
produces new things. We live in a
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different way because we are in a
different place, even if physically we are
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still here in the world. Jesus
says, my kingdom is not of this
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world. He says a Peter says
in First Peter, as we've been studying
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on Wednesday nights in the west side
fellowship. Peter calls us a strangers and
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exiles in this world, even though
we might be technically citizens of the United
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States or of some other country.
We think of ourselves in a different way,
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of belonging here but not quite belonging
here, and that that leads to
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certain kinds of actions. We don't
want to forget ourselves. We don't want
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to forget our manners. We don't
want to forget that we are called to
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be salt and light. We don't
want to forget that we represent the name
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of the king when we go into
the world as those who have been baptized
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into his name, as those who
have been marked by him. We are
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his representatives. And people are watching. The scriptures say they're watching and like
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strangers, are often watched. Right. Have you ever been a stranger and
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walked into a place where you knew
you were a stranger and you felt the
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sense that you were being watched?
Well, it's because you are being watched.
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Right. Have you ever seen somebody
in your neighborhood that doesn't belong there
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and you just give a little extra
attention to them. What's that car doing
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there? That cars never there.
People pay attention to strangers and beloved.
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We're strangers. We're strangers in a
world that we once belong to but don't
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belong to anymore. The world is
watching in the world is paying attention our
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witness matters and of course, God
is watching to he desires for us to
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represent him well, and not just
so he looks good, but he's trying
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to produce, and he is producing
in US godliness, holiness, spiritual things.
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He's giving to a spiritual gifts and
he calls us to live in an
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accord with that. As we've seen
throughout the book of Corinthians, the Corinthians,
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like all of us, are struggling. They keep getting out of step
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with that, they keep forgetting who
they are in Christ and they find themselves
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doing these things that the Lord says, no, you shouldn't be doing this,
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this doesn't make sense for you as
Christians. Yes, you were once
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pagans, yes, you once belong
to the dominion of darkness, but not
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anymore. And as Paul transitions to
a new section in twelve, thirteen and
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fourteen, he he addresses another issue, another another thing that has been a
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problem, another way in which they
are bringing their worldly values into the church
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and into their lives as a community
and their lives in the world. The
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thing that he mentions is very broadly
at the beginning of twelve, is spiritual
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gifts. You see the topic change
in the way he puts it now concerning
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spiritual gifts. I do not want
you to be uninformed. He's moving to
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this new subject. He wants to
talk about the way the Greek puts it.
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Nay Moon, sorry, name Mati
cone, but you can translate something
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like spiritualities or spiritual things. Here
it's translated spiritual gifts because of the coming
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context in a lot of discussion about
spiritual gifts. It's just one word.
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It could also be translated breath things
or win things, but we're right to
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translate it spiritual things or spiritualities because
we know from the next three chapters he's
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talking about the Holy Spirit a lot
from a lot of different things. In
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other words, he wants us to
think about the Holy Spirit, the Holy
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Spirit of God and things relating to
him, including the gifts of the Holy
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Spirit, which will think about on
the next time we come to this passage.
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For now. There's another aspect,
though, related to the gifts,
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that Paul wants us to think about, and the aspect that he wants us
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to think about is the contrast between
the idols that they once served and were
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led to and by, and the
Holy Spirit that they are led by.
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Now. Notice how he says this. He says, you know that when
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you were pagans, right the past, the dominion of darkness, when you
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were pagans, you were led astray
to mute idols. However, you were
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led. I therefore don't I want
you to understand that no one speaking in
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the spirit of God. Here's the
contrast. Ever, says, and we'll
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get to how this is translated here
in the ESV, it's Jesus is a
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cursed and no one says Jesus is
Lord except in the Holy Spirit. So
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remember this past, right, remember
how you were Pagans and led astray.
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Now think about the Holy Spirit in
contrast with that, and that's what we're
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going to do this morning. Let's
focus on three differences between idols and the
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Holy Spirit. Will think about how
we are led. Are, I'm sorry,
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how they lead us on, how
they speak and the effect they have.
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So how they lead, how they
speak in the effect they have on
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us. So, first of all, the contrast between idols and the Holy
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Spirit in how they lead differently.
The first difference has to do with leadership,
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and it's complete opposites, complete opposites, Paul says, that is pagans
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as pagans as those formerly on or
this dominion of darkness again them quoting Colossians.
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there. They were led astray by
mute or, more literally, no
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voice, idols. They don't have
a voice, they can't talk. That's
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what mute means. That's a really
interesting thing to say, isn't it?
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And it's kind of why he adds
this addition. However, you were led,
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because there's kind of an iron and
irony there, isn't it? The
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fact that you are being led by
something that doesn't speak speaks to the ridiculousness
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of what's going on, the stupidity
of what's going on, the fact that
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they are following something that cannot move, that they are listening to something that
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cannot speak, obeying something that cannot
command. That's how they were led astray.
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They were led astray to mute idols. That however, you are led,
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and there were all kinds of ways
that we are led to idolatry.
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And in thinking about this, Paul
highlights the utter ridiculousness and the evils of
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idolatry, and I want to pause
on that for a moment because it's it's
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so important, and we'll do that
by looking at just a couple scriptures that
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help us understand this point. Two
places of several in which God impresses this
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point on our hearts. So feel
free to turn with me or simply listen.
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First to Psalm one hundred and fifteen, psalm one hundred and fifteen,
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versus three through nine. The point
here is to understand, to feel deeply,
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the contrast between the Lord, our
God, and the idols for a
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hundred fifteen salm a hundred fifteen,
verse three. Our God is in the
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heavens, he does all that he
pleases. Their idols are silver and gold,
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the work of human hands. They
have mouths but do not speak,
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eyes but do not see, they
have ears but do not hear, noses
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but do not smell, they have
hands but do not feel, feet but
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do not walk, and they do
not make a sound in their throat.
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Those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them.
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Oh Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their
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shield. So we have a contrast
here in Psalm fifteen, and also a
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warning. Don't be you make these
idols, you serve these idols, you
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worship these idols, you will become
like these idols, one who is unseeing,
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unfeeling, ineffective. Now let's turn
to Jeremiah ten, the Prophet Jeremiah,
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Chapter Ten, and I'll begin at
verse one and Read Through Sixteen.
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I think again, we have in
this passage this great contrast between things,
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objects that are made by humans and
the ever living God who has created all
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things by the word of his power. So, Jeremiah ten, hear the
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word of the Lord. Hear the
word that the Lord speaks to you,
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a house of Israel. Thus says
the Lord, learn not the way of
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the nations, nor be dismayed at
the signs of the heavens, because the
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nations are dismayed at them, for
the customs of the people are Vanity.
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A tree from the forest is cut
down and worked with an axe by the
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hands of a craftsman. They decorate
it with silver and gold. They fasten
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it with hammer and nails so that
it cannot move. Their idols are like
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scarecrows in a cucumber field, and
they cannot speak. They have to be
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carried it for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them, for
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they cannot do evil either. It
is in them to do a good.
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There is none like you, oh
Lord. You are great and your name
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is great in might. Who would
not fear you, oh king of the
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nations, for this is your due, for among all the wise ones of
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the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you. They
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are both stupid and foolish. The
instruction of idols is but would beaten.
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Silver is brought from Tarsius and gold
from OOF as. They are the work
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of the craftsmen and the hands of
the Goldsmith. Their clothing is violet and
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purple. They are the work of
skilled men. But the Lord is the
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true God, he is the Living
God and the everlasting King. At his
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wrath the earthquakes and the nations cannot
endure his IG indignation. Thus shall you
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say to them? The gods who
did not make the heavens and the Earth
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shall perish from the Earth and from
under the heavens. It is he who
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made the earth by his power,
who established the world, by his wisdom
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and by his understanding, stretched out
the heavens. When he utters his voice,
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there is a tumult of waters in
the heavens, and he makes the
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midst rise from the ends of the
Earth. He makes lightning for the rain,
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he brings forth the wind from his
store house has. Every man is
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stupid and without knowledge. Every Goldsmith
is put to shame by his idols,
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for his images are false and there
is no breath in them. They are
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worthless, a work of delusion,
and at the time of their punishment they
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shall perish. Not like these is
he who is the portion of Jacob,
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for he is the one who formed
all things, and Israel is the tribe
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of inheritance, of his inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is his name.
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Do you feel the spirit of God, the living spirit of God, impressing
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on You, speaking to you his
words? Even now he's telling us about
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himself, he's telling us about who
he is, about the world that he
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has made, his power and his
might, and meanwhile there are these foolish
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things like scarecrows in a cou cucumber
field, so which people are bowing down
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to and fearing. The workman goes
into the woods, he cuts down a
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trip. He's working so hard to
create something that has to be fastened down
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because it can't even stand up on
its own. Somebody might bump it and
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it would come crashing down. Meanwhile, there's God, who is raising mountains
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out of the seas and causing the
midst to rise, and lightning and thunder
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and birth and death and all the
rest. How is what is the difference
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between how God leads and how the
idols lead? Difference doesn't even seem to
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begin to capture the great, vast
distance that is between those two things.
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To follow an idol is to become
like an idol. It's foolishness, it's
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stupid, it's dangerous. To listen
to one that cannot speak is vanity.
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So what's actually going on then,
in idolatry? Why All the commotion?
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Why all the fuss? Why are
people paying attention to the skies and divination
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and all these things? Well,
as Paul explained earlier, and we'd have
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to go back and look at those
passages, but he says earlier that it's
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demons who are behind these things.
The idols themselves are foolish and stupid things.
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They don't do anything good or evil, but the demons that are using
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them are intentionally trying to hurt you, to destroy you. Demons which do
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have wills, which do speak,
which do desire things and work towards them.
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But they don't desire our blessing,
they don't desire our flourishing, they
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don't desire us to have communion with
God. They desire separation, they desire
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vanity, destruction, death. That's
what they want for us. They are
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our enemies and we have to treat
them as such, as those who are
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condemned by God, as those whom
we are waging a war against. We
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cannot be naive about this. They
use these physical objects to cause us to
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chase foolishly after deep needs. People
run after idols, and not because they
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think gold is something special in and
of itself, but because we as humans,
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we know we need safety and meaning
and love and honor and forgiveness and
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community. These deep needs are what
these idols promise to provide. What the
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false God say here? Do this, serve me in this way and all,
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take care of you. I'll give
you rain, I'll give you blessings,
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I'll give you children, I'll protect
you from your enemies and all these
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sorts of things that we need.
But even when we get them, they
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destroy us. Even when we get
the things when we want even when we
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chase after our sinful desires and we
obtain them, they end up destroying us.
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The scripture says the wages of sin
is death. That's what it earns,
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that's what sin earns. So idols
are mess we don't touch them,
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we stay away from them, we
flee them and we cling only to God
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because, in contrast the Holy Spirit, he leads us in a very different
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way to very different ends. How
does the spirit lead us? Well,
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consider Romans Eight, a few verses
from their first Romans Eight, five and
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six. For those who live according
to the flesh, that their minds on
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the things of the flesh, but
those who live according to the spirit set
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their minds on the things of the
spirit. For to set the mind on
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the flesh is death, but to
set the mind on the spirit is life
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and peace. There is a contrast
for you. Idolatry leading to death,
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leading to despair, leading to anxiety
and a commotion and war. Where does
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the spirit lead us? The spirit
leads us to set our things on the
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things of the spirit. The spirit
leads us to life. The spirit it
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leads us to peace. And the
spirit speaks. He is not one who
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does not have a voice. We've
got a lot of his words right here.
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We don't have to go searching for
them, divining for them, wondering
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how to find him, wondering how
to hear him. We just pick it
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up and read, as simple as
that. He gives himself so abundantly in
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this way. And on top of
all of that, he'll not only speaks
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in the word of the Scriptures,
but he also speaks to directly to our
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souls, to our consciences. Romans
eight again, verse fourteen through seventeen.
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For those who are led by the
spirit of God are sons of God.
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For you did not receive the spirit
of slavery to fall back into fear,
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the fear of idolatry, but you
have received the spirit of adoption, as
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sons by whom we cry Abba Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our
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spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs,
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heirs of God and fellow airs with
Christ, provided we suffer with him in
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order that we also be glorified with
him. So this is wonderful. Right.
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The spirit leads us not only to
life and peace, but he's but
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it's not in just this sort of
distant, abstract like he's just pointing the
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way somewhere over there. He works
in our hearts to open our ears and
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our hearts so that we can believe
the things that he says. And then
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he talks to us and says,
you belong to me, you are a
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child of God, and he speaks
to us in such a way that,
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instead of us becoming on death and
mute and unable to do all these things
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like the idols, he opens our
mouths so that we can say things like
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Ahba, father, so that we
can pray to our father who is in
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heaven. How would be your name, so that we can praise God with
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our lives, so that we can
love him with our hearts. And he
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points us not only to this present
relationship we have, but a future in
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which we will be glorified with God, having obtained everything that we could possibly
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ever need. It's amazing. Included
among those gifts, Paul talks to us
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in Romans Eight, to the things
that the spirit leads us, and he
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says this Romans Eleven. If the
spirit of him who raise Jesus from the
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dead dwells in you, he who
raised Jesus Christ from the dead, will
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also give life to your mortal bodies
through his spirit, who dwells in you,
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the spirit of God is going to
as erect your body from the dead.
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Try that, idols, they can't
do anything. He can create everything
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and even recreate or or re or, sorry, resurrect is the right word
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there. Resurrect life even out of
death. It's astounding. So Paul says
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to the Corinthians and to us,
by the way, remember you are pagans
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and don't think that way anymore.
Remember the difference between the foolish ways in
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which you were led and the Holy
Spirit who leads you to these things and
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more, that he's going to talk
to us about in these upcoming chapters.
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The spirit is leading us to life. The spirit is leading us to peace,
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to resurrection, to inheritance, to
relationship with God and abiding with him,
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all these things and more. So
that's the first contrast. The second
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will be shorter, since we've already
talked about idols and I don't want to
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talk about them too much anymore.
The second is the way. So the
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first is the way the spirit leads
us. The second is the difference.
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Is the way the spirit speaks.
We've already seen how the idols speak.
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They don't and the demons that use
them their liars and they want to hurt
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us. How does the spirit speak? As we have seen, he speaks
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to US and says we are children
of God. First John, five,
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sex, five six, says,
and the spirit is the one who testifies.
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Right, a speaker. The spirit
is the one who testifies, because
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the spirit is truth. He's not
a liar. He speaks with truth.
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He is truth. And what does
he speak to us? What is the
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truth? That the spirit of God
who is in us. What does he
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tell us? What is he telling
you even this morning? He tells us
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about Jesus. He tells us about
the one who has come, the one
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who dies, about the beloved son
in whose kingdom we now belong. He
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tells us about our safety, our
inheritance, our protection. He tells about
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the love of God. He tells
us and disciplines us, even in warnings
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and caught and and U steers us
away from dangerous paths. The Primary One
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and the thing that he testifies to
is Jesus himself, and whom all,
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who is the way and of the
truth and the life? John Fifteen,
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twenty six. Jesus says this,
speaking of the spirit, when the helper
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comes, whom I will send to
you from the father, the spirit of
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truth, who profeet, proceeds from
the father. He will bear witness about
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me, and that's what he does. We've so much evidence of this,
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not only in our hard hearts but
in the scriptures. We Have Gospel After
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Gospel, for Gospels and sermons and
songs and letters and and revelations of images
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of the work of God, of
the truth of Christ, of the spirit
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himself. He reveals Christ to us. He reveals not just the Great Creator
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but our Savior and our redeemer.
This is what they speak to us,
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and that leads us finally to this
last thing. The the effect that these
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two have, the effect that the
spirit has, is very different than the
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effect that the idols have. We've
already considered this in part right. The
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idols lead us into danger and to
death and to foolishness, but the spirit
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of God, what does he lead
us into. As we look at verse
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three, What Does Paul saying?
He says I want you to understand that
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no one, speaking of the spear
in the spirit of God ever says Jesus
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is a cursed no one says that. And no one can say Jesus is
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Lord, except in the Holy Spirit. So he enables he, this is
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to say gee, the Holy Spirit, speaks in a certain way and those
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who he feels he enables them to
speak in a certain way and restrains them
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from speaking in other ways. Now
we have to look at a little bit
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of an Interpretive Interpretive Question. In
verse three, this this phrase, Jesus
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is a cursed so the way it
reads in the original is a word you
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might be familiar with, anathema,
right, a curse rights. It's a
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noun and it would you could translate
it three different ways. One Way,
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well, what it says is anathema, yeaesus right, so curse Jesus.
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There's no verb. So one way
to translate it is, just like I
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said, curse Jesus. Right.
So no one ever says curse Jesus.
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Now what does that mean? Because
it's not being used as a verb.
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They're right, it's not saying I
curse Jesus, so hard to say what
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that might mean. Another possibility is
it is saying that there is a verb
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that is implied in this happens.
Sometimes the verb is and so it could
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mean something like Jesus is a curse. Right. This is another way to
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translate this. So it's of course
Jesus with Jesus is a curse. Or
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is the SV does here? Jesus
is a cursed the third possibility is something
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like Jesus grants a curse or gives
a curse. So let me give you
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an example, an English to make
this clear. At the on this last
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possibility. When we sign our letters, right, I might say something like
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you know, dear so and so, the body of the letter, and
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then end the letter of saying blessings. Or let me change that. I'll
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say greetings Christopher, warm regards Christopher. Right, no verb, just a
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comma. Warm regards a noun.
My Name Christopher warm regards fisser. Well,
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what am I saying when I say
that? I'm saying I give to
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you, I grant to you,
I wish for you, I offer you
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my warm regards. Right, you
see how that works in English and it
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can function the same way in Greek. So the ideas that curse Jesus gives
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to you Jesus Grant. So instead
of saying that Jesus is himself a curse
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or Jesus is a cursed it's saying
so. It's essentially using Jesus as a
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way to curse people. Right.
So sometimes we end our letters and we
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say blessings in Christ, right,
this is the opposite of that. cursings
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in Christ or curse you in Jesus
name. That's likely, in my opinion.
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What's not my own opinion, but
what's going on here? And scholars
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have looked as this. They have
found there was a common practice of people
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using the name of other gods to
write curses right against people. And so
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you would write an Athema and then
the name of the God or something like
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that, perhaps even using other things
as well, and they'd write these on
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pieces of lead and other things.
Sometimes they'd stick a nail through it and
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then they put it into a temple
or a well or something like that.
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We have over a thousand examples of
these, and some of them from Corinth
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itself, from the temples of demeter
and Prosophony, and in three of those
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examples, in these curse led pieces
that have been found, they're exactly like
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this. They have no verb right. It's very clearly this curse thing that's
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going on, but it just has
the name of the God. Well,
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sadly, we also have examples of
Christians taking up this practice, examples both
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in Egypt and in Corinth. Curses
on family members, curses on opponents in
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court, curses on people who might
disturb a grave accurse, curses on those
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who curses on various people who you'd
perceive as your enemy, and various invocations
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and names would be used, biblical
covenant, Scripture References and the name of
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Jesus. So we have examples of
this, and this seems to be what
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is going on here in corn,
that they are taking yet again a practice
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that is common in their culture and
putting kind of a Christian garb on it,
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using the strength and the power of
god, whom they now belong to,
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to curse people. And what Paul
says is no one speaking in the
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spirit of God, curses other people
in Jesus's name. It's not what happens,
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it's not what Christians do. That's
not how the spirit of God speaks.
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That's how idols work. You see
it all the time. It's all
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around you. Maybe somebody did it
to you, maybe you used to do
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that to other people, but we, as people who are filled with the
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Holy Spirit, don't do this with
our Lord. Instead, what we do
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is we proclaim Jesus is Lord,
or Lord Jesus, and when we proclaim
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that, we do it only because
of the power of the Holy Spirit.
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All this to say that when we
look at the contrast between idols and the
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Holy Spirit, there is this great
difference. The Holy Spirit. What does
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he do? He leads us to
Christ, he speaks of Christ, and
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then he produces us in a response
that says Jesus is Lord, not the
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idols, and he produces us in
a response, as will see in the
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coming chapters, that is about building
people up in the name of Jesus and
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love. The spirit of God pours
out gifts on his church. For what
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purpose is the Almighty creator of the
universe giving himself to us so that we
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can take that power and destroy our
enemies? Or does he give us the
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gifts of the spirit of God so
that we can love our enemies, so
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that we can love God so that
we can love others. That's exactly what
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he does. We are going to
have in chapter thirteen, this famous passage
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on love itself. Love is patient, love is kind, and so on,
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a beautiful, beautiful passage that speaks
to the purposes of the spirit,
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the effect that he has on us
and our lives and our community. We're
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going to think about the gifts that
he gives and how we use those within
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the context of the church, how
we use them for building up, how
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he takes like a body and makes
us all different parts of it and causes
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us to work together, and these
beautiful, beautiful ways with Jesus Christ as
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our head. Well, this,
these lessons and these contrasts between the idols
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and the Holy Spirit. We think
about the ways that they lead, the
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differences between thee ways that they speak
and the ways in which they the effects
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that they have. Idols tearing US
down, destroying US, separating us,
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leading us to death, and the
spirit of God building us up, creating
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a communion, in a community of
love. What can we say except blessed
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be the Lord God Almighty, the
Creator of Heaven and earth, Father,
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son and Holy Spirit. What can
we say except Yes, Lord and thank
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you, Lord, and Jesus is
Lord. And when we hear these words
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coming out of our mouths, when
we feel them in our hearts, as
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we recognize God as our father,
we ought to give God thanks and praise
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that we don't any more fall as
follow after the foolish idols that lead us
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into such dark places and let us
into dark places. But we belong to
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and we follow the eternal God who
loves us and is bringing them out about
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in us a love for him and
for others. So let's not go back,
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let's move forward in him and give
him all praise and glory and trust
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him with everything that we have.
Let's pray
