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It is standard medical procedure for expectant mothers to undergo periodic ultrasound examinations, during which the physicians see the fetus so it can be carefully examined to ensure it is developing properly. During this examination, the doctor can easily identify the fetus' gender, and doctors generally pass on this information to the parents. The question arises whether it is proper, from a Torah perspective, for the parents to learn the fetus' gender during pregnancy. The Torah commands, "Tamim Tiheyeh Im Hashem Elokecha" ("You shall be innocent with Hashem your G-d" – Debarim 18:13), which is understood as an obligation not to concern ourselves with the future, to conduct ourselves the way we see fit, placing our trust in Hashem, without trying to access information about the future. Does finding out a fetus' gender violate this principle? We do not find any clear-cut basis in Halachic literature to forbid such a practice, and it would appear that learning a fetus' gender does not indicate a lack of faith in G-d or an inappropriate attempt to access information about the future. There is, however, one interesting passage in the Midrash which perhaps leads us to discourage this practice. The Midrash (Kohelet Rabba) lists several pieces of information which G-d withheld from human beings. For example, nobody knows when he will leave this world, and, quite obviously, G-d arranged this intentionally so that we will always conduct ourselves properly, rather than wait and repent shortly before we die. As we do not know when we will leave this world, we have no choice but to approach every day as potentially our last, and conduct ourselves accordingly. The Midrash also includes in this list the thoughts of other people. G-d does not empower us to read other people's minds, because if people could access each other's thoughts, the world would be overrun by animosity. The Midrash lists a fetus' gender as one of the pieces of information which G-d withholds from us. No reason is given, but we can reasonably assume that if the Midrash includes a fetus' gender in this list, there must be a valuable reason for this information to be denied to us. Perhaps, if the mother was hoping for one gender, then knowing that the infant is the other gender could cause her distress, which might be detrimental to the child. Or, perhaps to the contrary, knowing the gender during pregnancy diminishes from the excitement when the baby is born. In any event, the Midrash clearly indicates that it is for our benefit that G-d conceals from parents their child's gender during pregnancy. While this Midrash certainly does not suffice to establish a Halachic prohibition against finding out a fetus' gender, it would seem that this is something which should be discouraged, unless there is a particular reason to obtain this information. In some situations, the parents need to know ahead of time whether a Berit Mila must be arranged, and there might be circumstances where for purposes of Shalom Bayit (harmony between husband and wife) this information is valuable. When such a need arises, it is certainly acceptable to be told the gender, as this does not violate any Halachic prohibition. We should add that if the father is a Kohen, there might actually be value in the parents' finding out the fetus' gender. The Mishna Berura (Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin, 1839-1933) addresses the question of whether a woman who is married to a Kohen may come in contact with Tum'at Met (the impurity generated by a human corpse) during pregnancy, such as by visiting a cemetery or entering a home where a corpse is present. All male Kohanim, including infants, are included in the prohibition which forbids Kohanim from coming in contact with Tum'at Met, and the question thus arises as to whether a pregnant wife of a Kohen should avoid Tum'at Met, in case she gives birth. The Mishna Berura rules that this is permissible, because it is a situation of "Sefek Sefeka" – where two uncertainties are involved. First, it is uncertain whether the fetus is a boy, who is forbidden from coming in contact with Tum'at Met, or a girl, who is not forbidden. Second, it is possible that the infant will be stillborn, Heaven forbid, in which case, of course, there is no prohibition. On this basis, the Mishna Berura permits the pregnant wife of a Kohen to go to a place where there is a human corpse. However, in a situation where Halacha permits something because of a "Sefek Sefeka," if it becomes possible to resolve one of the uncertainties, there is an obligation to do. Therefore, in the case of a wife of a Kohen who is pregnant, there is value in determining the gender in order to resolve the first uncertainty. Then, if she is carrying a boy, she would be required to avoid exposure to Tum'at Met, and if it is a girl, this would not be necessary. It should be noted that the Magen Abraham (Rav Abraham Gombiner, 1633-1683) maintained that the pregnant woman in any event would be permitted to go to a place where there is Tum'at Met, because the prohibition does not apply in such a case. Therefore, in consideration of this opinion, we would not go so far as to require a Kohen's pregnant wife to determine the child's gender. (Parenthetically, we should note that a Kohen's wife is certainly allowed to go to a hospital to deliver the child, despite the high probability that there is a human corpse in the hospital, because this is a situation of Pikua'h Nefesh – a potentially life-threatening circumstance. Additionally, the spread of Tum'a from one room to another and one floor to another in the hospital likely occurs only Mi'de'rabbanan (on the level of Rabbinic enactment), such that there is greater room for leniency.) Summary: There is no Halachic prohibition against finding out a fetus' gender during pregnancy, though it is preferable not to, unless there is a particular need, or if not knowing could compromise Shalom Bayit. If the father is a Kohen, it might, according to some opinions, be preferable to find out the gender, so that the mother will avoid places of Tum'at Met if it's a boy, and will not have to avoid such places if it is a girl. If the couple does not know the gender, the woman is nevertheless allowed to visit places where there is Tum'at Met.

We are studying Perek Shira and we are now up to our second creation that says Shira, and that is the Earth. We quote a pasuk that might not be so familiar, from Yeshaya 24,16 מִכְּנַ֨ף הָאָ֜רֶץ זְמִרֹ֤ת שָׁמַ֙עְנוּ֙ צְבִ֣י לַצַּדִּ֔יק From the wing of the earth we have heard songs, do the will of the Righteous one. What does it mean that we heard songs from the wing of the Earth? Normally, songs come from the mouth, not from the wing. The Or HaChaim HaKadosh on Bamidbar 16,30 tells us that when the Gemara tells us that when Kayin sinned, it says, “ You're more cursed than the ground that had opened up its mouth.” The earth was punished because it swallowed the blood of Hevel and as a result the Earth's mouth was sealed and it could no longer sing a song like all other creatures. That's why it says, “ מִכְּנַ֨ף הָאָ֜רֶץ זְמִרֹ֤ת שָׁמַ֙עְנוּ֙ / From the wing of the earth we heard songs,” as if it's making noise in other ways, like a bird might make noise with its wings, but not with its mouth. When Moshe Rabbenu wanted to punish Korach, he said, “ If a creation will create. ” What does that mean? If h creation was once there, he will recreate. There once was a mouth there, but the mouth got closed. “Reopen it now and let this mouth swallow up Korach.” The Or HaChaim HaKadosh says this was a tikun . The earth made a tikun because the first time it swallowed the blood of Hevel, who was a Sadik , צְבִ֣י לַצַּדִּ֔יק and now he'll swallow up the rasha Korach and that fixed the earth. The earth made a tikun . Parenthetically, it says that Moshe Rabbenu was a gilgul of Hevel. It says Moshe was a shepherd , once upon a time –meaning in the times of Hevel. And Kayin came back as Korach, who was jealous. that's why it says, “ Hashem says, Im Tetiv/If you do good, Se'et/You will lift,” you'll carry the Aron. And if you don't fix yourself, your sin will be waiting by the mouth/the opening, and you'll will be swallowed up by the earth. So here, on round two, the earth fixes its sin. Rather than swallowing up the blood of Hevel, he sticks up for Hevel and swallows up Korach, who is Kayin. Beautiful. What's our message? Again, in every one of these pesukim, there's a mussar as well. The mussar is that you can sin, and you can fix it. And we can once again sing to Hashem, even though we might have lost the ability to sing. That's the first beautiful point on this pasuk. Beautiful point number two is that (again, the earth now is being used as praiser) it says that when Sanheriv's army was wiped out, miraculously, Hizkiyah was supposed to be Mashiach. He was a devout sadik and a Baal bitachon . He went to sleep at night and God brought the miracle, and he was supposed to become Mashiach. But the Middat HaDin/Justice said, David Hamelech said so many songs and he wasn't Mashiach,and this king Hizkiyah had this miracle and didn't sing afterwards and You're going to make him Mashiach? Therefore, he did not become Mashiach. At that point, the Earth said, “I will replace his song, I'll sing instead of him, and please make him Mashiach. That's what it means, מִכְּנַ֨ף הָאָ֜רֶץ זְמִרֹ֤ת שָׁמַ֙עְנוּ֙ צְבִ֣י לַצַּדִּ֔יק Please make the Sadik Hizkiyah into Mashiach. But it didn't work. It was too late. But the earth did try to stick up for the Sadik and sing a song. We can, once again, reignite this Mashiach-like happening. The Tosafot in Sanhedrin brings down from the Teshuvot HaGeonim that the Bnei Yisrael only say Kedusha on Shabbat. Based on this Tosafot , we all have a different type of Kedusha in our Shabbat Amida, whatever community you come from. Why? Because the pasuk tells us that the angels have six wings, and every wing corresponds to a different day of the week where they sing a song with that wing. Come Shabbat, there's no wing. So, God says, I have another wing that will create song for me. That's the מִכְּנַ֨ף הָאָ֜רֶץ /the wing that's down here on earth. That's the seventh wing. And that's the day of Shabbat. זְמִרֹ֤ת שָׁמַ֙עְנוּ֙ when we'll hear the songs from the Jewish people. That's the source that we sing songs on Shabbat, and on Shabbat we are elevated to be higher than the angels. The angels ran out of wings and we, the Jewish people, sing the songs of Shabbat. That's our opportunity to, so to say, bring a Messianic time. Shabbat is Me'en Olam Haba. On Shabbat, we evoke this force of the songs of the earth. Finally, one last beautiful piece: The Chida on his sefer Kikar LaAden ( siman ה ) has a commentary on Perek Shira, he brings there from Rav Shimshon Ostropoli, the following explanation. It says in Pirkei D'Rav Eliezer there that there are five letters that are called Sophiot – מנצפך - it spells Mansepach And it says, these are letters of Geula/redemption. You might have seen this concept when banging the Aravot five times according to the Sephardic custom. And it says, each time you bang, have one of these letters in mind. And we'll see in a moment why. It says Avraham Avinu said Lech Lecha, ל ך ל ך He had 2 ך s Yitzhak Avinu said ‘ כי עצמת מ מנו מ אד / You become much stronger than us, a phrase with two Mems Yaakov Avinu said, ה צלי נ י נ א /Save me, with two Nuns . And in Mitzrayim it says פ קד פ קדתי , with two Pehs . In the future we're going to have two Sadi's because it says איש צ מח י צ מח /the man of Semah, which is the Mashiach, will grow- there's the two sadis . So that's what we say, מִכְּנַ֨ף הָאָ֜רֶץ זְמִרֹ֤ת שָׁמַ֙עְנוּ֙ /We already heard the songs of the Mem the Chaf , the Nun and Peh .. צְבִ֣י לַצַּדִּ֔יק /We're looking forward to Sadik . We're looking forward to hear the Sadik , the Sadi letter that's going to bring the final Geula-And the earth is going to sing that. So this pasuk refers to Geula, Geula comes from singing songs and it connects itself to Shabbat. Another beautiful thought on this pasuk. And once again, we are fulfilling that we're involving ourselves in in-depth learning of Perek Shira. Have a wonderful day.

Our Chief U.S. Equity Strategist reviews how the unusual mix of loose fiscal policy and tight monetary policy has benefited a small number of companies – and why investors should still look beyond the top five stocks.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Morgan Stanley's CIO and Chief US Equity Strategist. Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, today I'll be talking about the investment implications of the unusual policy mix we face.It's Monday, February 26th at 12pm in New York. So let's get after it.Four years ago, I wrote a note entitled, The Other 1 Percenters, in which I discussed the ever-growing divide between the haves and have-nots. This divide was not limited to consumers but also included corporates as well. Fast forward to today, and it appears this gap has only gotten wider.Real GDP growth is similar to back then, while nominal GDP growth is about 100 basis points higher due to inflation. Nevertheless, the earnings headwinds are just as strong despite higher nominal GDP – as many companies find it harder to pass along higher costs without damaging volumes. As a result, market performance is historically narrow. With the top five stocks accounting for a much higher percentage of the S&P 500 market cap than they did back in early 2020. In short, the equity market understands that this economy is not that great for the average company or consumer but is working very well for the top 1 per cent. In my view, the narrowness is also due to a very unusual mix of loose fiscal and tight monetary policy. Since the pandemic, the fiscal support for the economy has run very hot. Despite the fact we are operating in an extremely tight labor market, significant fiscal spending has continued.In many ways, this hefty government spending may be working against the Fed. And could explain why the economy has been slow to respond to generationally aggressive interest rate hikes. Most importantly, the government's heavy hand appears to be crowding out the private economy and making it difficult for many companies and individuals. Hence the very narrow performance in stocks and the challenges facing the average consumer. The other policy variable at work is the massive liquidity being provided by various funding facilities – like the reverse repo to pay for these deficits. Since the end of 2022, the reverse repo has fallen by over $2 trillion. It's another reason that financial conditions have loosened to levels not seen since the federal funds rate was closer to 1 per cent. This funding mechanism is part of the policy mix that may be making it challenging for the Fed's rate hikes to do their intended work on the labor market and inflation. It may also help explain why the Fed continues to walk back market expectations about the timing of the first cut and perhaps the number of cuts that are likely to continue this year. Higher interest rates are having a dampening effect on interest-rate-sensitive businesses like housing and autos as well as low to middle income consumers. This is exacerbating the 1 percenter phenomena and helps explain why the market's performance remains so stratified. For many businesses and consumers, rates remain too high. However, the recent hotter than expected inflation reports suggest the Fed may not be able to deliver the necessary rate cuts for the markets to broaden out – at least until the government curtails its deficits and stops crowding out the private economy. Parenthetically, the funding of fiscal deficits may be called into question by the bond market when the reverse repo runs out later this year. Bottom line: despite investors' desire for the equity market to broaden out, we continue to recommend investors focus on high-quality growth and operational efficiency factors when looking for stocks outside of the top five which appear to be fully priced. Thanks for listening. Subscribe to Thoughts on the Market on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen, and leave us a review. We'd love to hear from you.

It's Thursday, July 6th, A.D. 2023. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark Muslims trusting Christ in North Africa and Middle East The church continues to grow in one of the most dangerous areas to be a Christian.  International Christian Concern reports that “In one of the world's most persecuted regions, the church is experiencing a remarkable surge of new believers. Despite the persecution and pressure from Islamic families and culture, an unprecedented number of Muslims across the Middle East and North Africa turn to Christianity.” Many of these Muslim-background believers are young people who became disillusioned with Islam and turned to atheism before finding Christ.  Those who become Christian are often disowned by their families and can face imprisonment or death for leaving Islam. Please pray for the suffering yet growing church in the Middle East and North Africa. Psalm 22:27 says, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.” Only 5% of Germans read Bible regularly Last week, the University of Leipzig released a study on Bible usage in Germany. The area was once at the heart of the Protestant Reformation in 16th century Europe. Just over 50% of the population owns a Bible now; however, less than five percent of Germans read Scripture daily or weekly. The proportion of Bible users has not changed much over the past 10 years. It is the frequency of use that has fallen.  Dr. Alexander Deeg with the university said, “I was surprised by the relatively low use of the Bible among Catholics and Protestants.”  Judge to U.S. government: Stop censoring First Amendment through Big Tech On Tuesday, a U.S. District Judge issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration to protect free speech. The injunction blocks the federal government from meeting with social media companies to suppress online content. Republican attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana initiated the case last year. They accused the administration and social media companies of censoring free speech during the COVID-19 pandemic. The injunction noted, “During the . . . pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.'” Georgian abortions dropped by 50% since Roe overturned Abortions in Georgia have dropped nearly in half since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade just over a year ago. During the first half of 2022, about 4,000 unborn babies were murdered in the womb each month in the state. That number dropped to about 2,000 during the second half of last year. Following the Supreme Court's decision, Georgia started enforcing its Heartbeat Law. The legislation bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy with some exceptions.  Jim Caviezel's Sound of Freedom film beat Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny As The Worldview reported, Angel Studios released the film Sound of Freedom in theaters on Tuesday, July 4th, starring Jim Caviezel. The movie is based on a true story of one man's efforts to rescue children from human trafficking.  Thanks to Angel Studios “Pay it Forward” technology, the film actually took the Number 1 spot at the box office on Tuesday, beating out Disney's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Neal Harmon, CEO of Angel Studios, told The Christian Post, “Thanks to fans around the country, Sound Of Freedom earned the top spot as America's number one movie on Independence Day. We've received numerous messages telling us theaters are either packed or sold out. This movie has now taken on a life of its own to become something more than that, a grassroots movement.” My bride, Amy, and I saw Sound of Freedom last night and highly recommend it.  To their credit, the producers of the movie depict the egregious nature of this activity through implication. Watch the trailer and get tickets through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com. Worldview listeners from Colorado, Georgia, and Nigeria weigh in I continue to hear from Worldview listeners at Adam@TheWorldview.com about what they like about our unique newscast. Todd Rogers from Delta, Colorado wrote, “Your ministry of digging through the fields of wheat and tares enables those of us who cannot do that well to hear a bit of what is both weedy and flowery in the world.  I pray our Father will continue to help you do His work of being a watchman for this generation and those following.” Whitney Veneziani from Columbus, Georgia, wrote, “I so appreciate and value news from a Biblical worldview! Thank you for being salt and light by providing a news outlet committed to the entire truth, both domestically and globally. It is a shame the global church and real time persecution is altogether ignored in news outlets today. I am grateful for The Worldview and its devotion to news from a Biblical perspective!” And Jeremiah, originally from Borno State, Nigeria and who now lives in Jos, Nigeria, wrote, “I deeply appreciate your accuracy about persecutions in Nigeria and other countries. I have been forwarding your link to my fellow Nigerians. I wish all Nigerians subscribed to this channel.”  (Parenthetically, I changed his first name and dropped his middle and last name to protect his identity). 9 Worldview listeners gave $2,725 Toward our $20,000 immediate goal this Friday, July 7th, 9 Worldview listeners invested their resources. Our thanks to Elizabeth in Bedminster, New Jersey who gave $25 as well as Robin in Wellington, Florida, Jeremy in Morriston, Swansea, Wales, Jason in Grand Junction, Colorado, and Adam in Gile, Wisconsin – each of whom gave $100. And we thank God for Rick and Barb in Arlington, Washington who gave $200, Sarah in Charleston, South Carolina who pledged $25/month for 12 months for a gift of $300, Manny and Denise in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania who gave $300, and Aaron in Fort Bragg, North Carolina who gave $1,500. Ready for our new grand total? Drum roll please. (Drum roll sound effect) $3,565.50. (Crowd cheering sound effect) In order to hit our $20,000 immediate goal by this Friday, July 7th, we still need to raise $16,434.50. I'm hoping that you'll choose to be one of 13 Worldview listeners to pledge $50/month for 12 months.  Or that you might be one of 26 listeners to pledge $25/month for 12 months. Just go to TheWorldview.com and click on “Give” at the top right to give what the Lord is prompting you to give. Make sure to select the “Recurring” tab if that's your wish. Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Thursday, July 6th in the year of our Lord 2023. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

15 min After a weather report comparing morning temps in MA and CA, both 58 degrees, Maureen introduces Professor John Vervaeke as a Learning Conversation resource. He is an award winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in psychology, cognitive science and Buddhist psychology.   Vervaeke's academic interests include wisdom, mindfulness, meditation....  Wait, what?  Pierre comments those subjects were not available when he went to school.  How times have changed.   A reason the Learning Conversation podcast started is the exploding amount of literature in the field of psychology, mindfulness, somatic health, meditation, yoga, and on and on knitting elements of cognitive science , brain / body science, neurology, ophthalmology all intersecting and illuminating traditional spiritual pathways as developed through meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, not to mention ancient wisdom through philosophy.   Vervaeke says we (the West) are suffering from a wisdom famine. Parenthetically, Maureen sent Vervaeke a copy of her book:  Classic Wisdom for Modern Humans, which relates to the professor's interests in Stoicism and classical wisdom. Professor Vervaeke's newest video series is:  “After Socrates.”  Check him out on YouTube.   Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - his 50 part lecture series is also on YouTube. Enjoy!

When reciting the Beracha over fruits ("Ha'etz"), vegetables ("Ha'adama") or wine ("Ha'gefen"), should one pronounce the Beracha as "Bore Peri" or "Bore Feri"?There is a fundamental rule of grammar which dictates that whenever a letter in the group of letters called "Begedkefet" – "Bet," "Gimal," "Dalet," "Kaf," "Pe" and "Tav" – appears at the beginning of the word, it receives a "Dagesh" (dot in the middle of the word). At first glance, then, it would seem that since the word "Peri" begins with letter "Pe," the "Pe" receives a "Dagesh" and the word should therefore indeed be pronounced "Peri," rather than "Feri."However, this rule is subject to the condition that the previous word does not end with an "Alef," "He," "Vav" or "Yod." If the previous word does end with one of these four letters, then the "Begedkefet" word is pronounced without a "Dagesh." Hence, since the word before "Peri" is "Bore," which ends with the letter "Alef," it would appear that the "Pe" should be pronounced without a "Dagesh," and the word should thus be recited as "Feri." This is indeed the position taken by Hacham Bension Abba Shaul (Israel, 1923-1998), in his work Or Le'sion (vol. 2, 46:34).Hacham Ovadia Yosef, however, disagrees, and rules (in Hazon Ovadia – Laws of Berachot, p. 182) that the proper pronunciation is in fact "Peri." He notes another detail in the laws of Hebrew grammar, namely, that if two adjacent words are separated by a pause, then the final letter of the first word does not affect the first letter of the second word. Even if the first word ends with an "Alef," "He," "Vav" or "Yod," this will not affect the status of the "Begedkefet" word at the beginning of the second word, and it will receive a "Dagesh." According to Hacham Ovadia, the words "Bore" and "Peri" in these Berachot are separated by a slight pause; the Beracha should be read as, "Bore – Peri Ha'gefen/Ha'adama/Ha'etz." Therefore, even though the word "Bore" ends with an "Alef," the "Pe" at the beginning of the next word receives a "Dagesh" and the word is therefore pronounced "Peri," rather than "Feri." This is likewise the pronunciation that appears in the "Ish Masli'ah" edition of the Siddur, which is based upon the rulings of Rav Meir Mazuz (contemporary).Parenthetically, it should be noted that these rules of grammar are particularly complex and subject to many conditions. One interesting exception to this rule appears in a verse in "Az Yashir" which contains the phrase "Yidemu Ka'aven" ("They [the nations] were silenced like stone" – Shemot 15:16). Interestingly, the "Kaf" at the beginning of the second word receives a "Dagesh" and is pronounced as a "K" sound (rather than a "CH" sound), despite the fact that the previous word ends with the letter "Vav." And in this case, there is clearly no pause separating the two words. The reason for this exception is that if we would follow the conventional rules of grammar, we would pronounce this phrase as "Yidemu Cha'aven," which would sound like "Yidemucha Aven" – "They compared You to a stone" – suggesting a resemblance between the Almighty and stone, Heaven forbid. The rules are therefore suspended in this instance, and we pronounce this phrase "Yidemu Ka'aven."Returning to the pronunciation of Berachot, since both pronunciations are supported by leading Halachic authorities, each person should follow the pronunciation he learned from his parents of Rabbis.Summary: There is a difference of opinion among the Halachic authorities as to whether the phrase "Bore Peri" in Berachot should be pronounced "Bore Peri" or "Bore Feri." Both views are valid, and one should therefore follow the custom of his family or Rabbis.

The Parenthetically team discusses the 2022 midterm elections and important policy outcomes.

The Parenthetically team discusses two current issues raising questions about our faith in the federal judiciary: The Supreme Court's potential embrace of a radical election law theory, and the conflicts of interest raised by the political activities of a Supreme Court justice's spouse.

It's Monday, September 26th, A.D. 2022. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Muslims kill nun in Mozambique, Africa On September 16, a group of ISIS-affiliated Muslim militants stormed a Catholic mission compound in the city of Chipene in Mozambique, Africa, reports International Christian Concern. The gunmen set fire to the church, the hospital, and the schools there. While most of the nuns and other inhabitants were able to flee, one woman, an Italian nun named Maria De Coppi, was fatally shot in the head as she ran towards a dormitory where it is believed that students were hiding. She was 83 years old and spent 59 years serving the people of Mozambique, a country in Southeast Africa. Mozambique is the 41st most dangerous country in the world for Christians, according to Open Doors. Texas judge clears way for 8-year-old boy to be castrated Last Thursday, a Texas mother, Anne Georgulas, who intends to “transition” her 8-year-old son, James, into a girl named “Luna,” won in court, reports the “Save James” Facebook page. The Facebook page reported that, “The judge has ruled against Jeff Younger, [the father], as expected. James and Jude, [his twin brother], are lost. “A small hearing over Zoom was all Judge Mary Brown of the 301st District Court [in Dallas] needed to remove a father from his children's lives, a hearing that the public was not given access to which goes against Texas law. “Jeff [Younger, the father,] has almost no access to any information about the boys. It's almost as if he is not their father at all.” In a September 13th post, “Save James” reported that “Anne [Georgulas, the mother] stated she wants to take Jeff [Younger]'s boys to California where child sterilization is legal.” In August 2021, Judge Brown granted full custody of eight-year-old James Younger to his mother. Not surprisingly, Georgulas' announced retirement date, September 30th, coincides with the likely date of California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsome's signature of “the transgender state of refuge” bill into law, allowing her to chemically castrate her 8-year-old son James. John 3:20 says, “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed.” CA legislature greenlights radical “transgender state of refuge” bill On August 29th, the California legislature passed the radical so-called “trans state of refuge bill,” or Senate Bill 107, which has alarmed parents nationwide. It's now sitting on the desk of California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom who is likely to sign it by September 30th. Introduced by Democratic State Sen. Scott Wiener, a self-professed homosexual, this bill aims to make the state of California a “refuge” for transgender surgeries for children from across America, reports The Washington Stand. According to Wiener's press release, “If these parents and their kids come to California, the legislation will help protect them from having their kids taken away from them or from being criminally prosecuted for supporting their trans kids' access to healthcare.” The bill would allow minors to obtain procedures such as puberty blockers, hormones, and gender transition surgeries, which several states are restricting or banning altogether. Parenthetically, Senator Wiener wants to make drag queen shows mandatory for schoolkids and previously introduced a bill to let judges exempt some homosexual pedophiles from the sex offender registry. In a September 20th letter, signed by 50 conservative groups including Alliance Defending Freedom and Family Research Council, they urged Governor Newsom to veto Senate Bill 107. They wrote, “We are writing to respectfully request that you veto SB 107, a dangerous piece of legislation which ignores the established authority of the other 49 states, and also violates the fundamental rights of parents while increasing the risk of irreversible harm to America's children.” Check out a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com to watch an interview with Jonathan Keller, President of California Family Policy, who describes Senate Bill 107 in greater depth. CA Governor's pro-abortion billboards that invoke the Bible Last Thursday, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his state's launch of seven pro-abortion billboards that invoke the Bible, reports The Daily Caller. The billboards advertise the recently launched website abortion.ca.gov, which provides information to help mothers in pro-life states kill their babies in California. The billboards are going up in Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, South Dakota, South Carolina and Oklahoma. Shockingly, the billboards in Mississippi and Oklahoma invoke passages from the Bible to promote their abortion site. The billboards quoted Mark 12:31 — “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.” By the way, the other commandment to which “these” refers is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” And, The Worldview would add, if you love the Lord your God, you will hate what He hates. In Proverbs 6:16-19, Solomon writes that the Lord hates seven things “that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community." Governor Newsome is guilty as sin of all seven! Chick-fil-A employee rescued woman and baby from carjacker And finally, how about some good news? A Florida Chick-fil-A employee came to the rescue when a woman with a baby had her car keys stolen in the restaurant parking lot. He took down the thief, helping foil the attempted carjacking, and has since been recognized for his bravery with a community service citizens' award, reports The Epoch Times. On September 14, Mykel Gordon was working his afternoon shift in Fort Walton Beach, Florida when he heard screaming in the parking lot. Running to investigate, he found a woman with a baby in her arms. The woman was lifting her baby out of her car when she was approached by a man holding a stick, who demanded her keys. The man, 43-year-old William Branch, snatched the keys from the woman's waistband and got inside the vehicle. When Gordon arrived at the scene, he pulled Branch from the vehicle and wrestled him to the ground, sustaining a punch to the face. After a witness  captured the takedown on video, it went viral on Twitter where it has been viewed 8.5 million times. Thankfully, he was able to keep Branch subdued until police arrived on the scene. In the award ceremony, these were the words of the Sheriff. SHERIFF: “Due to Mykel's courageous actions and unhesitating response, no innocent patrons were injured during this incident.  For his heroic actions, Thomas Mykel Gordon is being presented with the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office Community Service Award. Congratulations!” GORDON: “Thank you very much.” Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Monday, September 26th, in the year of our Lord 2022. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

In "Walk In Love" Pastor Charles Barksdale of Logos Grace Church contently expresses the importance of Romans 13:11–14; Ephesians 5:1–4. Parenthetically he brings enlightenment to putting off our old habits, and putting on goodness and love of Christ which are indispensable.

In "Walk In Love" Pastor Charles Barksdale of Logos Grace Church contently expresses the importance of Romans 13:11–14; Ephesians 5:1–4. Parenthetically he brings enlightenment to putting off our old habits, and putting on goodness and love of Christ which are indispensable.

In this, the sixth chapter, the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain that this applied only during the time when the Divine Presence dwelt among Israel, for then, each Jew's spiritual sustenance reached him only from the “side” of holiness—from the Four-Letter Name of the Infinite One.In times of exile, however, when the Divine Presence too is (so to speak) in exile, even the life-force of holiness can be drawn down through a garb of kelipah. It is therefore then possible that even individuals guilty of sins punishable by excision and death by Divine agency continue to receive their vitality, even though their spiritual lifeline to the Tetragrammaton has been severed. This explains why during the era of exile, even those guilty of the abovementioned sins can live long lives. Parenthetically, this also provides them with the opportunity to repent and rectify their past misdeeds.

The Parenthetically team discusses Elon Musk's pending takeover bid, and the backlash to Disney's reaction to Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' bill.

Welcome to Parenthetically, a podcast by the NYU Law Review.  Each episode, Law Review editors will explore pressing legal issues with scholars, practitioners, and fellow law students. Stay tuned for our pilot episode, coming soon.

Pharaoh summoned Moses again, offering to release the Israelites if they leave behind their cattle. Moses refused the condition. Pharaoh sent Moses away, warning him to never appear in his presence again, “for on the day that you see my face, you shall die!” Moses agreed, but not before he delivered a final message that G‑d relayed to him at that moment. G‑d told Moses that he would visit one more plague upon Egypt, after which Pharaoh will actually drive the Israelites from his land. Parenthetically, at that time G‑d also instructed Moses to ask the Israelites to borrow from their Egyptian neighbors jewels, silver and gold. The Israelites complied, and the Egyptians readily lent out their valuables.

In the second edition of this two-part Oncology, Etc. episode, hosts Dr. Patrick Loehrer (Indiana University) and Dr. David Johnson (University of Texas) continue their conversation with Dr. Otis Brawley, a distinguished professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins and former Executive Vice President of the American Cancer Society. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts | Additional resources: elearning.asco.org | Contact Us Air Date: 10/5/2021   TRANSCRIPT [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and inform. This is not a substitute for medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. [MUSIC PLAYING] DAVID JOHNSON: Welcome back to Oncology, Etc, and our second segment of our conversation with Otis Brawley, professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Pat, I don't know about you, but Otis is a very impressive man, and he had a lot of really interesting things to say about his career development, family, et cetera in the first segment. This second segment, we're going to get to hear more about his time at the ACS. What were your thoughts about segment one? PATRICK LOEHRER: Well, I loved talking to Otis, and you too, Dave. Parenthetically, Otis once told me in a dinner conversation we had that he felt like Forrest Gump, and I can identify with that. Where over the field, our field of oncology over the last several decades, we've met some incredibly wonderful people, and we've been lucky to be part of the history. The three of us, I think, do have a deep sense of the historical context of oncology. This is a young field, and there's just some extraordinary people, many of them real true heroes, and Otis has his figure on the pulse of that. DAVID JOHNSON: Yeah, that's why he's been in some of the right places at the right time, and we'll hear more about that in this segment coming up now. PATRICK LOEHRER: Now Otis has had a career in many different areas, including ODAC, the NCI, the ACS, now at Hopkins. So let's hear a little bit more about Dr. Brawley's experience at the American Cancer Society and particularly with his experience with the former CEO, John Seffrin. DAVID JOHNSON: Sounds great. [MUSIC PLAYING] OTIS BRAWLEY: John and I had a wonderful run at the American Cancer Society. Got to do a lot of things. Got to testify for the Affordable Care Act. Got to do some of the science to actually argue that the Affordable Care Act would help. And I was fortunate enough to be there long enough to do some of the science to show that the Affordable Care Act is helping. DAVID JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean actually all of the things you accomplished at the ACS are truly amazing. Let me ask you, just on a personal level, what did you like most about that job, and then what did you like least about that job? [LAUGHTER] OTIS BRAWLEY: I like the fact-- there were a lot of things I liked about that job. There were a couple hundred scientists and scientific support people that you got to work with. And I used to always say, I do politics so you can do science. And what I used to like the most, every Wednesday afternoon that I was in town, I would walk around just to watch those people think. I used to joke around and say, I'm just walking around to see who came to work today. But I really enjoyed watching them work and watching them think, and that was fun. Another fun aspect of the job was people used to call and ask a little bit about the disease that they are a family member would have. And sitting down with them on the phone in those days-- we didn't have Zoom-- and talking to them through their disease. Not necessarily giving them advice on what to do in terms of treatment, but helping them understand the biology of the disease or connecting them with someone who was good in their disease. And I happen to, by the way, have sent some patients to both of you guys. That was a lot of fun. Then the other thing, of course, was the fact that you could actually influence policy and fix things. I'll never forget sitting across from Terry Branstad, then the governor of Iowa, and convincing him that the right thing to do is to raise the excise tax on tobacco in Iowa. Being able to see that you're effective and to see that you're positively influencing things. The bad side, some of the politics. I didn't necessarily like how some of the money was being raised or where they were raising money from. I think that you have to have a certain standard in terms of where you accept money. And we always had that tension with the fundraisers. But it's also true-- and I will give them a nod-- you can't do the fun things unless you raise money. So I really truly enjoyed my time at the American Cancer Society. And by the way, a shout out to Karen Knudsen, who is the CEO running the American Cancer Society now. And I'm fully committed to helping the ACS and helping Karen be successful. DAVID JOHNSON: One of the things I read-- I think I read this that you had said that one of your proudest accomplishments was revising the ACS screening guidelines. Tell us just a little bit about that. OTIS BRAWLEY: Yeah, going all the way back to the early 1990s, I started realizing that a lot of these guidelines for screening, or back then, this is before the NCCN guidelines for treatment even, that were published by various organizations, including the American Cancer Society. We're almost the equivalent of-- get the impression that in the 1960s, it would have been a smoke-filled room. But you gather a bunch of people into a room, and they come up with, this is what we should be doing. Indeed, the American Cancer Society in 1991 endorsed annual PSA screening for prostate cancer based purely on getting a group of primarily urologists into a room, and that's what they came up with. There was very little review of the science. There really was no science at that time except the science to show that PSA screening found cancer. There were no studies to show that led to men benefiting in that they didn't die. Indeed, in 1991, there was no study to show that treatment of early prostate cancer saved lives. The study to show treatment of prostate cancer saves lives was first published in 2003, and the radiation saves lives in 1997, 1998. Surgery saves lives in 2003 and screening has a small effect published in 2009. But they started recommending it in 1991 in this almost smoke-filled room kind of atmosphere. When I got to the American Cancer Society, I started an effort, and we involved people from the National Academy of Medicine, we involved people from the NCCN, from the American Urological Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians. And we got together in that almost smoke-filled room again, but the idea was, how do you make responsible guidelines? And we wrote that up into a paper guide widely accepted by all of the organizations, and it involves a review of the literature that is commissioned by someone. And they spend a long time reviewing the literature and writing a literature review. And then you have a group of experts from various fields to include epidemiology and screening, social work, someone who's had the disease. Not just the surgeons and medical oncologists who treat the disease but some population scientists as well. They sit down and they reveal all of the scientific data, and then they start coming up with, we recommend this. And then they rank how strong that recommendation is based on the data. We published this in 2013 in The Journal of the American Medical Association. I do think that was important, you're right. That's Otis trying to bring his policy and his belief in orthodox approach to science and bring it all together. PATRICK LOEHRER: So let me reflect a little bit more on something. There is a book that I also just recently read by Dax-Devlon Ross, and it's a book entitled, Letters to my White Male Friends, and it was a fascinating read to me. You have this public persona and professional persona of being an outstanding physician, clinician, public speaker. But what we the three of us have never really had the conversation today is we have much more interest now in DEI. One of our other speakers talked about the fact that there's a tax that is placed upon underrepresented minorities and academics. They are all expected to be on committees. They have to be doing different things. And so the things that they love to do, they can't do it because they have to represent their race or their gender or their ethnicity. OTIS BRAWLEY: I have been blessed and fortunate. There are problems, and there are huge burdens that Black doctors, and women doctors by the way, have to carry. I have been fortunate that I have skated through without a lot of that burden. Maybe it has to do with oncology, but I will tell you that I have been helped by so many doctors, men and women, predominantly white, but some Asian, Muslim, Jewish, Christian. I don't know if it's oncology is selective of people who want to give folks a fair shake and really believe in mentoring and finding a protege and promoting their career. I have been incredibly, incredibly fortunate. Now that I say that, there are doctors, minority doctors and women, who don't have the benefits and don't have the fortunes that I have had, and we all have to be careful for that. As I said early on, John Altman told me that I will thank him by getting more Blacks and women into the old boys club. And so that was his realizing that there is a-- or there was a problem. I think there still is a problem in terms of diversity. Now I have seen personally some of the problem more outside of oncology in some of the other specialties. More in internal medicine and surgery, for example. By the way, there are also some benefit. I did well in medical school in third and fourth year in medical school at the University of Chicago because there were a group of Black nurses who were held that I wasn't going to fail. The nurses took me under their wing and taught me how to draw blood, how to pass a swan. The first code I ever called, there was a nurse standing behind me with the check off list. And so there are some advantages to being Black as well. But there are some disadvantages. I've been very fortunate. My advice to Black physicians is to keep an open mind and seek out the folks in medicine who truly do want to help you and truly do want to mentor you. And for the folks who are not minority or not women in medicine, I say, try to keep an open mind and try to help everybody equally. PATRICK LOEHRER: Thank you. DAVID JOHNSON: I want to go back to your book for a moment. And again, for those who've not read it, I would encourage them to do. So it's a really honest book, I think, well-written. You made a comment in there-- I want to make sure I quote it near correctly. You said that improvement in our health care system must be a bottom up process. What do you mean by "bottom up?" OTIS BRAWLEY: Well, much of it is driven by demand from patients and other folks. The name of the book was, How We Do Harm. And the synopsis is there are bunch of people who are harmed because they don't get the care that they need. And there's a bunch of people who are harmed because they get too much medicine and too much care. And they rob those resources away from the folks who don't get care at the same time that they're harmed by being overtreated, getting treatments that they don't need. The other thing, if I can add, in American health care, we don't stress risk reduction enough. I used to call it "prevention." Some of the survivors convince me to stress "activities to reduce risk of disease." We don't do a lot in this country in terms of diet and exercise. We try to do some work somewhat successfully on tobacco avoidance. We need to teach people how to be healthy. And if I were czar of medicine in the United States, I would try to make sure that everybody had a health coach. Many of us go to the gym and we have a trainer. We need trainers to teach us how to be healthy and how to do the right things to stay healthy. That's part of the bottom up. And in terms of costs you know my last paper that I published from the American Cancer Society, I published purposefully, this is my last paper. Ahmedin Jemal who's a wonderful epidemiologist who I happen to have worked with when I was at the National Cancer Institute and again later in my career at the American Cancer Society, I pushed Ahmedin-- he publishes these papers, and we estimate x number of people are going to be diagnosed with breast cancer and y number are going to die. He and I had talked for a long time about how college education reduces risk of cancer death dramatically. If you give a college education to a Black man, his risk of death from cancer goes down to less than the average risk for a white American. There's something about giving people college education that prevents cancer death. I simply challenged Ahmedin, calculate for me how many people in the United States would die if everybody had the risk of death of college-educated Americans. And he came back with of the 600,000 people who die in any given year, 132,000 would not die if they had all the things from prevention through screening, diagnosis, and treatment that college-educated people. Just think about that-- 132,000. Then I started trying to figure out what drug prevents 132,000 deaths per year? And I couldn't think of one until recently, and it happens to be the coronavirus vaccine. Which ironically has shown itself to be the greatest drug ever created in all of medicine. But in cancer, there's no breakthrough drug that is more effective than just simply getting every human being the care from risk reduction and prevention all the way through treatment that every human being ought to be getting. The solution to some of that starts with fixing third grade and teaching kids about exercise, about proper diet. PATRICK LOEHRER: We're going to have to wind things up here. But real quickly, a book you would recommend? OTIS BRAWLEY: Skip Trump, who's someone that we all know, wonderful guy used to run Roswell Park Cancer Center, just published a book actually it's coming out in September called, Centers of the Cancer Universe, A Half Century of Progress Against Cancer. I got a preprint of that, and it is a great book. It talks about what we've learned in oncology over the last 50 years since Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act. Keep in mind, he declared war on cancer on December 23, 1971. So we have an anniversary coming up in December. PATRICK LOEHRER: I want to close. Another book, I read the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. It's a wonderful read. It really is good. There were some endorsements at the end of this book, and one of them was written by a Benjamin Brawley, who wrote this review in a book called, The Negro in Literature and Art in 1921. And Benjamin Brawley was writing this about Frederick Douglass, but I would like to have you just reflect a moment. I think he was writing it about you, and I'm just going to read this. He basically said, at the time of his death in 1895, Douglass had won for himself a place of unique distinction. Large of heart and of mind, he was interested in every forward movement for his people, but his charity embraced all men in all races. His mutation was international, and today, many of his speeches are found to be the standard works of oratory. I think if your great, great grandfather were here today, he would be so incredibly proud of his protege, Otis. And it's such a privilege and pleasure to have you join us today on Oncology, Etc. Thank you so much. OTIS BRAWLEY: Thank you. And thank both of you for all the help you've given me over the years DAVID JOHNSON: Great pleasure having you today, Otis. I want to also thank all of our listeners for tuning in to Oncology, Etc. This is an ASCO educational podcast. We really are here to talk about anything and everything. So we're looking for ideas. Please, if you have any suggestions, feel free to email us at education@ASCO.org. Thanks again, and remember, Pat has a face for podcasts. [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the ASCO e-learning weekly podcasts. To make us part of your weekly routine, click Subscribe. Let us know what you think by leaving a review. For more information, visit the comprehensive e-learning center at elearning.asco.org.

How self-aware are you? For example, when scenarios pop up that you've been in before, do you think/work it through before acting/reacting, or 'nah', you jump headlong in without a care in the world? Do you try to understand and appreciate why you do what you do when you do it (a bit of a tongue twister there!)? Do you try to tune into your emotions, feelings, and thoughts while you are in a moment that can go either way? Do you take time to reflect, evaluate, and introspect before heading into the same day-to-day scenarios or do you go with what comes natural or out of habit? How does all this fit into the bible and where does the bible discuss this? This week's episode, #48, is entitled 'On Self-Awareness,' wherein we take our first direct look at the critical role that reflection, evaluation, and introspection can play in our lives. We'll briefly touch on the benefits, barriers, and some active practices to improve the level and quality of our self-awareness! Parenthetically, I am quite self-aware that I went a bit long during this week's episode (see what I did there!) Happy Learning!

Recorded on a typically hot Peak Summer day with a background of chirping cicadas here in central Japan. I spend about 25 minutes detailing my detox efforts, from intermittent fasting to better discerning what to feed into my head from the media, before a few brief asides about the travails of English pronunciation, some meta commentary on why my thoughts can get lost among the parenthetical weeds and then, to close things off, a dive into the recent controversy over Ivermectin that Bret Weinstein's Dark Horse podcast is at the center of and how the Rebel Wisdom channel is covering it. I think it's a solid episode! Enjoy! If you want to connect with me, find me at: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bryan.winchell2/ https://www.facebook.com/TheBandPRealmPodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/BandPRealmPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bryanwinchell?fan_landing=true

If one were to speak Lashon Hara in a Synagogue or Beis Medrash then there would be an additional prohibition of "And My sanctuary shall you fear." We are required to have a special reverence for Hashem's holy places and this would include not acting with lightheadedness etc and obviously improper speech. Parenthetically if one would move out dirty tissues or items which aren't fit to be there it would be a fulfillment of this mitzvah. Chofetz Chaim, Introduction (Asei) וְכָל זֶה אֲפִלּוּ (ז) שֶׁלֹּא בְּבֵית הַמִדְרָשׁ, אֲבָל אִם מְדַבֵּר לָשׁוֹן הָרָע וּרְכִילוּת בְּבֵית הַמִדְרָשׁ אוֹ בְּבֵית הַכְּנֶסֶת, עוֹבֵר עוֹד עַל מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה (ויקרא י"ט ל'): ''וּמִקְדָּשִׁי תִּירָאוּ'' וּבֵית הַמִדְרָשׁ שֶׁלָּנוּ גַּם כֵּן בִּכְלַל מִקְדָּשׁ הוּא, כְּמוֹ שֶׁמְבֹאָר בַּפּוֹסְקִים, וְנִצְטַוֵּינוּ בְּזֶה הַפָּסוּק לִירֹא, מְמִי שֶׁשּׁוֹכֵן בּוֹ, וְלָכֵן אֵין מְחַשְּׁבִין בּוֹ חֶשְׁבּוֹנוֹת, כִּי אִם שֶׁל מִצְוָה, כְּגוֹן קֻפָּה שֶׁל צְדָקָה וְכַדּוֹמֶה, וְכָל שֶׁכֵּן דְּאָסוּר בָּהֶם שְׂחוֹק וְהִתּוּל וְשִׂיחָה בְּטֵלָה, וְלֹא מוֹעִיל בָּזֶה שׁוּם תְּנַאי, כַּמְבֹאָר בְּשֻׁלְחָן עָרוּךְ אֹרַח חַיִּים (בסימן קנ"א סעיף י"א). וְעַל אַחַת כַּמָה וְכַמָה דְּאָסוּר לְדַבֵּר בָּהֶם לְשׁוֹן הָרָע אוֹ רְכִילוּת מִפְּנֵי אֵימַת ה' יִתְבָּרַךְ הַשּׁוֹכֵן בּוֹ, לְבַד מֵאִסוּרוֹ הֶחָמוּר הָעַצְמִי, וּבָזֶה שֶׁמְדַבֵּר, מַרְאֶה בְּעַצְמוֹ שֶׁאֵינוֹ מַאֲמִין שֶׁהַקָדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא יַשְׁרֶה שְׁכִינָתוֹ בַּבַּיִת הַזֶּה, וּלְכָךְ הוּא מֵעִיז פָּנָיו אֲפִלּוּ לְדַבֶּר בְּבֵית הַמֶלֶךְ שֶׁלֹּא כִּרְצוֹן הַמֶלֶךְ Brachos 6a מַאי ״וּלְחֹשְׁבֵי שְׁמוֹ״? אָמַר רַב אָשֵׁי: חָשַׁב אָדָם לַעֲשׂוֹת מִצְוָה, וְנֶאֱנַס, וְלֹא עֲשָׂאָהּ — מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִילּוּ עֲשָׂאָהּ. Please send any feedback for any of the episodes to ekuritsky1@gmail.com

The third eye center is a powerful confluence of energy that has been acknowledged by many traditions and cultures. When we learn and develop the ability “to see” with more than our physical sight, then worlds of depth and magic reveal themselves within & without. Discussed are practical themes & concrete ways to work with this sometimes illusive chakra including developing our senses of perception, the recognition of patterns and the capacity to dream which allow this chakra to thrive and to flourish. Tips on how to decipher and work with both excesses and deficiencies in this potent chakra are offered as well as accessible healing tools and compelling insights.  “Trust the dreams, for hidden in them is the gate to eternity.” - Kahlil Gibran SHOW NOTES: The “Ajna Chakra” is the 6th chakra in the chakra system which comes from the Indian tradition. The 6th chakra is colloquially and commonly referred to as your “third eye” as it lives behind the space between your eyebrows in the region of the pineal gland in the forehead center. The entire chakra system which is made up of 7 spinning wheels of energy called chakras, lives at the intersectionality of our physical bodies, our energetic bodies and our psyches (and if you haven't yet heard our Intro to the Chakras: The Rainbow Bridge Inside of You - Episode #16, definitely give that episode a listen for more details on the overall system in its entirety).  The association of this throat chakra with the pineal gland. Balancing this chakra might help with sleep cycles and circadian rhythms. Within our bodies there are 3 main “nadis” or rivers of energy: -Ida, lunar and associated with the Divine Feminine within  -Pingala, solar and associated with the Divine Masculine within  -Sushumna, associated with running on the same access as our spine  These rivers of energy within criss cross one another and flow from the root chakra, Muladhara (Episode #17 - Root Chakra: Grow Your Roots & Ground Your Chit) to this 6th chakra which make it a powerful point of confluence where the 3 energies merge into one stream of consciousness where they flow up to the 7th sahasrara chakra. Parenthetically in India, the lineage from which the chakra system comes from, it is said these 3 nadis or rivers of energy within the body are represented in the outer 3 great rivers of India called the Ganga (associated with Ida), Jamuna (Pingala) and Saraswati (a subterranean current associated with Sushumna).  When we focus and bring our attention which is one of our most powerful currencies, to this point where our energies converge and focus on it, we too become purified, meaning we can release what is not in alignment with our most aligned self and when we do this doorways and gateways open to us in the way of our perceptions, our memories, our imaginations and our abilities of perception. Kahil Gibran who wrote the most exquisite book called the Prophet said, “Trust the dreams, for hidden in them is the gate to eternity.” - Kahlil Gibran “Ajna” is sometimes translated as ”to command.” It is about trusting in dreams and one's sense of perception. What is your level of engagement with your imagination? How is your memory and how are your recall capacities? How is your sleep going and what is your dream life like?  The 6th chakra is about developing our senses of perception even if we think we suck at them because when we do, insights and the recognition of patterns which lead to deep wisdom opens up to us…...and you live life like someone left the gate open for you beginning to trust in yourself even more and in your dreams! It lives in the space between your eyebrows as your “third eye.”  Its basic right is to see what is really going on and the “big picture.” It's about seeing all levels of reality. When we are told things we see aren't real, and our intuitions are discounted this can cause imbalances within this chakra as both kids and adults. It is all about trusting and working with one's intuition and imagination. Associated with the element light. It is also associated with the color Indigo. It is activated and grows during adolescence and it deals with the ability to recognize patterns and esoteric questions such as, “Who I am? Why am I here?” In adult chakra development, it's about turning towards wanting to have more profound inner development. Travel, renewed study, trainings and circumstances that reflect back to us patterns within ourselves are paramount and of interest. Studying dreams and exploring past life regression and inner child work can be helpful to balance this chakra. The “chakra challenge” is illusion & separateness. Traumas that involve an invalidation of what you see or intuit might benefit from activities working with the right and left sides of the body and integrating both halves of body and brain together.  Excesses and deficiencies and ways to support the healing of this chakra are discussed to bring it back into balance. When the stakes are low, tune into how you get information from your inner GPS. Develop it like a muscle. Lavender, sage, rosemary, ylang ylang are plant medicine and oils associated with this chakra. Saturday and the planet of Saturn are as well. Opal, Azurite and Lapis Lazuli are the gems associated with this chakra as is the devi, Krishna. If our “lower” 4 chakras are well developed, this chakra will be well supported.  6th Chakra Imbalance Thought Litmus Test & 6th Chakra Affirmations are shared. This chakra is depicted as a 2 petaled lotus flower (representing Shiva and Shakti, the divine Masculine and Feminine aspects within each human) along with a circle representing the concept of “Shunya” which appears in Buddhism as well as various Eastern streams referring to the void, dark velvety realm of magic and deepest knowing. There is an inverted triangle within the circle, representing the feminine, creative energy. Above it is a black phallic symbol that depicts the astral body. The astral body is said to be connected to our personality.  “Purification” is refinement and evolution of one's own consciousness. The “Buddhi” which is the aspect of our minds that can see the big picture and discern all that we DO have in the way of blessings. We practice remembering. “Eagle Vision” known as “Upeskha.”  Meditation: Practicing “Shambhavi Mudra” the space behind the eyes. Practice tuning into your intuition when the stakes aren't high and develop fun games and/or practices to do so. Study the patterns in nature (such as the Fibonacci sequence) and this unlocks the patterns in our mind, hearts and bodies. If you open your third eye, then the whole world reveals its magical secrets to you and you understand that YOU are one of them! Stay tuned and be on the lookout for more upcoming “Soulcasts” where we will go chakra by chakra (one episode per each chakra) and you can learn about this powerful technology that blends Eastern Wisdom & Modern Day life so you can move towards more mystical mastery and mindfulness living. Note: This is the seventh episode in our Chakra Soulcast Series. Make sure you have checked out the 7 episodes in this series entitled: Chakras: The Rainbow Bridge Inside of You - Episode # 16  Root Chakra: Grow Your Roots & Ground Your Chit - Episode #17 Reclaiming Abundance, Creativity & Sacred Sexuality: Your Sacral Chakra Episode - #19 Boundaries, Sovereignty & Unfolding Your Own Myth: The Solar Plexus Chakra - Episode #21 The Key to Your Heart Chakra - Episode #23   Find Your Voice & Claim Your Sound: Throat Chakra - Ep. #25.

This is Last Week in .NET for the week that ended... well.. last week (January 16th, 2020). It was a rocky week last week; and more of the same expected this week for the Washington DC area, and with an inauguration and Martin Luther King day as our backdrop, let's dive into what happened last week in the world of .NET.Releases

It is standard medical procedure for expectant mothers to undergo periodic ultrasound examinations, during which the physicians see the fetus so it can be carefully examined to ensure it is developing properly. During this examination, the doctor can easily identify the fetus’ gender, and doctors generally pass on this information to the parents. The question arises whether it is proper, from a Torah perspective, for the parents to learn the fetus’ gender during pregnancy. The Torah commands, "Tamim Tiheyeh Im Hashem Elokecha" ("You shall be innocent with Hashem your G-d" – Debarim 18:13), which is understood as an obligation not to concern ourselves with the future, to conduct ourselves the way we see fit, placing our trust in Hashem, without trying to access information about the future. Does finding out a fetus’ gender violate this principle?We do not find any clear-cut basis in Halachic literature to forbid such a practice, and it would appear that learning a fetus’ gender does not indicate a lack of faith in G-d or an inappropriate attempt to access information about the future. There is, however, one interesting passage in the Midrash which perhaps leads us to discourage this practice. The Midrash (Kohelet Rabba) lists several pieces of information which G-d withheld from human beings. For example, nobody knows when he will leave this world, and, quite obviously, G-d arranged this intentionally so that we will always conduct ourselves properly, rather than wait and repent shortly before we die. As we do not know when we will leave this world, we have no choice but to approach every day as potentially our last, and conduct ourselves accordingly. The Midrash also includes in this list the thoughts of other people. G-d does not empower us to read other people’s minds, because if people could access each other’s thoughts, the world would be overrun by animosity. The Midrash lists a fetus’ gender as one of the pieces of information which G-d withholds from us. No reason is given, but we can reasonably assume that if the Midrash includes a fetus’ gender in this list, there must be a valuable reason for this information to be denied to us. Perhaps, if the mother was hoping for one gender, then knowing that the infant is the other gender could cause her distress, which might be detrimental to the child. Or, perhaps to the contrary, knowing the gender during pregnancy diminishes from the excitement when the baby is born. In any event, the Midrash clearly indicates that it is for our benefit that G-d conceals from parents their child’s gender during pregnancy.While this Midrash certainly does not suffice to establish a Halachic prohibition against finding out a fetus’ gender, it would seem that this is something which should be discouraged, unless there is a particular reason to obtain this information. In some situations, the parents need to know ahead of time whether a Berit Mila must be arranged, and there might be circumstances where for purposes of Shalom Bayit (harmony between husband and wife) this information is valuable. When such a need arises, it is certainly acceptable to be told the gender, as this does not violate any Halachic prohibition.We should add that if the father is a Kohen, there might actually be value in the parents’ finding out the fetus’ gender. The Mishna Berura (Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin, 1839-1933) addresses the question of whether a woman who is married to a Kohen may come in contact with Tum’at Met (the impurity generated by a human corpse) during pregnancy, such as by visiting a cemetery or entering a home where a corpse is present. All male Kohanim, including infants, are included in the prohibition which forbids Kohanim from coming in contact with Tum’at Met, and the question thus arises as to whether a pregnant wife of a Kohen should avoid Tum’at Met, in case she gives birth. The Mishna Berura rules that this is permissible, because it is a situation of "Sefek Sefeka" – where two uncertainties are involved. First, it is uncertain whether the fetus is a boy, who is forbidden from coming in contact with Tum’at Met, or a girl, who is not forbidden. Second, it is possible that the infant will be stillborn, Heaven forbid, in which case, of course, there is no prohibition. On this basis, the Mishna Berura permits the pregnant wife of a Kohen to go to a place where there is a human corpse.However, in a situation where Halacha permits something because of a "Sefek Sefeka," if it becomes possible to resolve one of the uncertainties, there is an obligation to do. Therefore, in the case of a wife of a Kohen who is pregnant, there is value in determining the gender in order to resolve the first uncertainty. Then, if she is carrying a boy, she would be required to avoid exposure to Tum’at Met, and if it is a girl, this would not be necessary.It should be noted that the Magen Abraham (Rav Abraham Gombiner, 1633-1683) maintained that the pregnant woman in any event would be permitted to go to a place where there is Tum’at Met, because the prohibition does not apply in such a case. Therefore, in consideration of this opinion, we would not go so far as to require a Kohen’s pregnant wife to determine the child’s gender.(Parenthetically, we should note that a Kohen’s wife is certainly allowed to go to a hospital to deliver the child, despite the high probability that there is a human corpse in the hospital, because this is a situation of Pikua’h Nefesh – a potentially life-threatening circumstance. Additionally, the spread of Tum’a from one room to another and one floor to another in the hospital likely occurs only Mi’de’rabbanan (on the level of Rabbinic enactment), such that there is greater room for leniency.)Summary: There is no Halachic prohibition against finding out a fetus’ gender during pregnancy, though it is preferable not to, unless there is a particular need, or if not knowing could compromise Shalom Bayit. If the father is a Kohen, it might, according to some opinions, be preferable to find out the gender, so that the mother will avoid places of Tum’at Met if it’s a boy, and will not have to avoid such places if it is a girl. If the couple does not know the gender, the woman is nevertheless allowed to visit places where there is Tum’at Met.

It is standard medical procedure for expectant mothers to undergo periodic ultrasound examinations, during which the physicians see the fetus so it can be carefully examined to ensure it is developing properly. During this examination, the doctor can easily identify the fetus’ gender, and doctors generally pass on this information to the parents. The question arises whether it is proper, from a Torah perspective, for the parents to learn the fetus’ gender during pregnancy. The Torah commands, "Tamim Tiheyeh Im Hashem Elokecha" ("You shall be innocent with Hashem your G-d" – Debarim 18:13), which is understood as an obligation not to concern ourselves with the future, to conduct ourselves the way we see fit, placing our trust in Hashem, without trying to access information about the future. Does finding out a fetus’ gender violate this principle?We do not find any clear-cut basis in Halachic literature to forbid such a practice, and it would appear that learning a fetus’ gender does not indicate a lack of faith in G-d or an inappropriate attempt to access information about the future. There is, however, one interesting passage in the Midrash which perhaps leads us to discourage this practice. The Midrash (Kohelet Rabba) lists several pieces of information which G-d withheld from human beings. For example, nobody knows when he will leave this world, and, quite obviously, G-d arranged this intentionally so that we will always conduct ourselves properly, rather than wait and repent shortly before we die. As we do not know when we will leave this world, we have no choice but to approach every day as potentially our last, and conduct ourselves accordingly. The Midrash also includes in this list the thoughts of other people. G-d does not empower us to read other people’s minds, because if people could access each other’s thoughts, the world would be overrun by animosity. The Midrash lists a fetus’ gender as one of the pieces of information which G-d withholds from us. No reason is given, but we can reasonably assume that if the Midrash includes a fetus’ gender in this list, there must be a valuable reason for this information to be denied to us. Perhaps, if the mother was hoping for one gender, then knowing that the infant is the other gender could cause her distress, which might be detrimental to the child. Or, perhaps to the contrary, knowing the gender during pregnancy diminishes from the excitement when the baby is born. In any event, the Midrash clearly indicates that it is for our benefit that G-d conceals from parents their child’s gender during pregnancy.While this Midrash certainly does not suffice to establish a Halachic prohibition against finding out a fetus’ gender, it would seem that this is something which should be discouraged, unless there is a particular reason to obtain this information. In some situations, the parents need to know ahead of time whether a Berit Mila must be arranged, and there might be circumstances where for purposes of Shalom Bayit (harmony between husband and wife) this information is valuable. When such a need arises, it is certainly acceptable to be told the gender, as this does not violate any Halachic prohibition.We should add that if the father is a Kohen, there might actually be value in the parents’ finding out the fetus’ gender. The Mishna Berura (Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin, 1839-1933) addresses the question of whether a woman who is married to a Kohen may come in contact with Tum’at Met (the impurity generated by a human corpse) during pregnancy, such as by visiting a cemetery or entering a home where a corpse is present. All male Kohanim, including infants, are included in the prohibition which forbids Kohanim from coming in contact with Tum’at Met, and the question thus arises as to whether a pregnant wife of a Kohen should avoid Tum’at Met, in case she gives birth. The Mishna Berura rules that this is permissible, because it is a situation of "Sefek Sefeka" – where two uncertainties are involved. First, it is uncertain whether the fetus is a boy, who is forbidden from coming in contact with Tum’at Met, or a girl, who is not forbidden. Second, it is possible that the infant will be stillborn, Heaven forbid, in which case, of course, there is no prohibition. On this basis, the Mishna Berura permits the pregnant wife of a Kohen to go to a place where there is a human corpse.However, in a situation where Halacha permits something because of a "Sefek Sefeka," if it becomes possible to resolve one of the uncertainties, there is an obligation to do. Therefore, in the case of a wife of a Kohen who is pregnant, there is value in determining the gender in order to resolve the first uncertainty. Then, if she is carrying a boy, she would be required to avoid exposure to Tum’at Met, and if it is a girl, this would not be necessary.It should be noted that the Magen Abraham (Rav Abraham Gombiner, 1633-1683) maintained that the pregnant woman in any event would be permitted to go to a place where there is Tum’at Met, because the prohibition does not apply in such a case. Therefore, in consideration of this opinion, we would not go so far as to require a Kohen’s pregnant wife to determine the child’s gender.(Parenthetically, we should note that a Kohen’s wife is certainly allowed to go to a hospital to deliver the child, despite the high probability that there is a human corpse in the hospital, because this is a situation of Pikua’h Nefesh – a potentially life-threatening circumstance. Additionally, the spread of Tum’a from one room to another and one floor to another in the hospital likely occurs only Mi’de’rabbanan (on the level of Rabbinic enactment), such that there is greater room for leniency.)Summary: There is no Halachic prohibition against finding out a fetus’ gender during pregnancy, though it is preferable not to, unless there is a particular need, or if not knowing could compromise Shalom Bayit. If the father is a Kohen, it might, according to some opinions, be preferable to find out the gender, so that the mother will avoid places of Tum’at Met if it’s a boy, and will not have to avoid such places if it is a girl. If the couple does not know the gender, the woman is nevertheless allowed to visit places where there is Tum’at Met.

Brad Orsted is an award-winning photographer and wildlife filmmaker, whose work has been aired on National Geographic, BBC, PBS, Travel Channel, Smithsonian Channel. He and his wife co-own the Wonderland Cafe and Lodge in Gardiner, Montana, on the doorstep of Yellowstone Park. Brad is the author of an upcoming book: Finding Marley: A Story of Healing in Nature after the Death of my Daughter. Parenthetically, the day before our interview, Easter Sunday, Brad and his family provided an Easter dinner with all the fixings for 200 people in Gardiner; nearly half could not pay because they had been furloughed during the coronavirus shutdown. For more about Brad, his book and Horsefeather Photography: https://www.bradorsted.com/

I. The Image of the Body Please open your bibles to Ephesians Chapter 4, we're going to be looking this morning. I've not turned away from 1 Corinthians 12, not at all. You could think of this as a sermon within a sermon series, but we're in the middle of a section of 1 Corinthians 12, in which the Apostle Paul has turned the attention of the Corinthians that he's writing to spiritual gifts, and He wants them to understand the spiritual gift ministries that they should all be involved in. One of the most powerful analogies that Paul uses for The church is that of the body of Christ, and so he uses that image, that picture of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:12, he says, "The body is a unit though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body so it is with Christ, you have that body analogy. Paul uses the same analogy in Romans 12:4-6, He says "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, So in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us." So in both of those places he uses the body image, the body analogy. There is a staggering complexity and diversity to the human body. We have some of the best doctors in the world as members of our church and they can tell you far more than I can about biology, about anatomy, But I think you know what I mean. When I say we have a multiple systems that work together to keep us alive, and enable us to do the things that God wants us to do. And that those systems are incredibly complex And they are diverse. And so, it's right that the psalm has said, I praise you Lord, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful. I know that full Well. I don't think we could ever if we had 10 lifetimes to be able to study everything concerning the human body and all that God did, all the wisdom that God put into the various systems of the body. You think about the skeletal system which is the structure on which all of it is built. The strong structure and the marvelous aspects of that system or the muscular system, that enables the body to move, the nervous system, which dictates how that motion should happen, the brain, which is part of the nervous system sending out signals, causing the body to move. And the nerves being able to transmit those signals from the brain down to the muscles to cause them to expand or contract so that we can move in this world, the body's digestive system, which I hope you will not be thinking about over the next 45 minutes or half hour or something like that. I'm sure you'll get enough nutrients to live today and to eat but the body takes in nutrients and the digestive system is able to process those. The respiratory system by which we take in air and then expel carbon dioxide. And then the circulatory system. I didn't realize this, but 80% of the cells of the body, are red blood cells. Did you know that? That's incredible. 80%, they're tiny. And if you put all of the red blood cells together it'll go around the earth four times, and yet You have a lot of blood and those blood cells deliver air to all of the other cells that need to keep it alive, deliver nutrients and also take waste products away. And so all of these systems are working together, a marvelous diversity and complexity and an incredible unity. And as I look at that, as Paul uses that in two places as an analogy for the church of Jesus Christ, this idea of unity and diversity, the body is arranged by God, with wisdom, and different functions and so the Apostle says In Christ we who are many form one body and we have different functions, but all of them Work together to do what the Lord wants us to do Which is to fulfill the Great Commission. We are called on in this world to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that Christ has commanded. That is the work of the church. And so as the body comes together with Christ, the head, as the body comes together, we are working in different ways to fulfill that Great Commission, which is a salvation of lost people, they're building up to full maturity in Christ, that's what the body is for. So spiritual gifts have enabled the church to move out from the upper room, there in Jerusalem where Jesus had the Last Supper and where he came after his death on the cross. And his resurrection from the dead, though the doors were locked for fear of the Jews, he came and stood in their midst, and showed them the evidence of his crucifixion, He showed them the wounds in his hands and his side, And he promised the gift of the Holy Spirit and He dispatched them, that they should go from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth and spiritual gifts, have enabled the gospel, the church, of Jesus Christ to move out from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. As the apostles of Jesus Christ led the way as they taught the doctrine of the New Covenant, As apostles and prophets gave the word of God to the people of God and his evangelists moved out and took that message of the Gospel and traveled geographically, over deserts and through forests. And across oceans to distant coast lands, and brought the Gospel and people heard the message and some of those people believed And local churches were planted. And pastor teachers established the doctrine of Christ there and taught the people and built them up and taught them to obey everything that Chris had commanded. And then within that community, people with different gifts rose up and enabled those local churches to do various ministries that God had called them to do in those localities. The spiritual gifts have enabled the Great Commission to continue. we are trying to learn what spiritual gifts are. And that same as last week, also this, I want to take the concept of spiritual gift and root it on solid doctrine. That We would understand biblically What spiritual gifts are, God willing Next week, I'm going to talk very practically about how different types of gifts function, what they are, what the gift of administration would look like, what the gift of hospitality looks like, what the gift of faith would look like. Talk about those things. In subsequent messages, I'm going to address some of the more controversial aspects of the spiritual gifts. I know some of you are really excited about that. Tongues, interpretation, prophecy, miracles, all of those things. And when I get all that figured out, I'll preach it to you. Alright, in the mean time, I'm going to keep studying and I've got a little time, but we're going to study details. And our desire again is to call obedience out of the disciples of Christ. That each one of you in obedience to this teaching on spiritual gifts, each one of you would be able to say, very clearly, not only what your gifts are, But what is your pattern of ministry that's tied to your spiritual gifts, That's our desire. II. What Are Spiritual Gifts? Just to review where we went last week before we get to Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12:1, Paul says, "Now about spiritual gifts, brothers. I do not want you to be ignorant." So he calls them their spirituals. It's an interesting word, but that which comes from the spiritual realm, those things that are spiritual. So we're not looking for physical talents, all that kind of thing, that's a different matter. There's sometimes overlap with physical talents, but these are spiritual gifts, they come from the spiritual realm. They're ministered by the Holy Spirit. He also uses the word charisma gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:4, also in Romans 12:6, same word, he uses the word ministries diakonon, which is services or patterns of service. The idea of us serving one another, Washing each other's feet, Helping each other to grow. Also in verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 12 he uses the word activities and energema, you get the word energy coming from that, so there's this powerful acting so different words are used to talk about spiritual gifts. Again, pointing to diversity. Definition of Spiritual Gifts Now, I gave a definition last week of spiritual gifts, spiritual gifts are special abilities given by the triune God to Christians, to individual Christians, to enable them to do specific spiritual ministries to build up the church of Jesus Christ. Let me say that again. Spiritual gifts are special abilities given by the triune God to individual Christians to enable them to do specific spiritual ministries to build up the church of Jesus Christ. So boiling it all down to something simple, special abilities given for spiritual ministry. That's what we're talking about. Paul's desire and teaching is that they would not be ignorant about their spiritual gifts because they are essential to God's saving purpose for his people we spent some time last week, I am not going to spend hardly any time this time on the context in Corinth but it was a mess. We have seen from the very beginning of our study in 1 Corinthians how this is a dysfunctional church. They had every gift, they were lavishly gifted, everything they needed to do the ministries God wanted them to do there in Corinth were there, but there were so many problems. They were a dysfunctional church. A part of it came from their pagan background, and so he talks about that in 1 Corinthians 12: 2 and 3, by way of review, He says, you know that when you were pagans, somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the spirit of God says, Jesus be cursed or Jesus is a curse. So from their pagan backgrounds, there was a sense of supernatural frenzy or mania that would come on priests and priestesses at certain cult centers, at Temple centers and all that. And the crazier these people would behave. The more they felt they were touched by the divine. Well, some of those same weird practices were coming now into the Christian Church and there was clearly, Paul didn't say, it but there he says it back in Chapter 10. There's a demonic influence there as even individuals or one individual maybe said Jesus is cursed and that's just a demonic utterance. Instead, we need to understand the spiritual gifts are part of the overall ministry of the third person, of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit causing the church to come together on the deity of Jesus Christ. And that by the Holy Spirit of God, we say Jesus is Lord, that means he is God, he is our Lord. And so the Spirit works powerfully in us to make that confession. And I mentioned last week, every one of you who are genuinely born again, you are Christians, you have been moved by the Spirit to make that confession Jesus is Lord. And so we talked about that last time. Now, I said there are four main sections of teaching on spiritual gifts. We're in the middle of one in 1 Corinthians 12. We're going to return to it in our Continuing Studies. Last week, we took a break also and went over to Romans 12:1-8, and we walked through that, not going to go through that at all today. But Romans 12:1-8 is almost a step-by-step sense of guidance on how you can discover and develop and use your spiritual gifts. But this morning, we're going to digress over to Ephesians 4, and look at verses 7-16, and then we're going to have a very brief time at the end in 1 Peter 4. Lessons from Ephesians 4 So let's look at Ephesians 4:7-16. Here again what you just heard, Brian our brother read to you, Ephesians 4:7-16. "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." 1) Unity in Diversity Alright, so let's just walk through some lessons and I've outlined them there in your bulletin, so we can just go step by step. It begins with the concept of unity and diversity. Unity and diversity. And so you get a sense with the reading that Brian did, We're starting right in the middle of a thought in Ephesians 4 With the word But. So that's an odd place to start, but I just want... I think it's rather striking, As Paul is going, the word but means I'm saying something contrasted to what I just said. I'm going in a different direction now. And so what is the contrast? Well, if you were to look in Ephesians Chapter 4, in the verses that precede this, you would see that Paul talks about the unity, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all, But to each one of us grace has been given, so we've got that incredible overwhelming teaching on unity. It is the great mystery of the Body of Christ, our unity in him. We're going to talk about this in a few weeks talking about the baptism of the Spirit. But I believe that it happens at conversion and in 1 Corinthians 12, it is by one spirit, we have been baptized into one body, and so that we come from very diverse backgrounds. Once you hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ that he died on the cross For your sins and that He was raised from the dead. And that all you need to do is trust in Him, And you cry out to Him to save you, you call on the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved, you will receive immediately the gift, the greatest gift of forgiveness of sins, justification through faith alone, apart from works and at that moment, you are baptized by the Spirit into that one body. It doesn't matter Our diverse backgrounds. We come from different racial backgrounds, economic backgrounds, academic backgrounds, all different kinds of things that make us different. But in Christ, we're one. And our unity is exactly like that of the Trinity. Different persons, different centers of being, but a mysterious perfect unity. But Unity doesn't mean uniformity. We have different functions to play in the body of Christ, And so that we are all one, and we're part of one body. There is a beautiful diversity in the spiritual gifts. So that's what the word but means. 2) Universality in Gifting Secondly, there is a universality of gifting. Each and every Christian is given a spiritual gift package. Every one of us is gifted. And so this cuts off any sense that you might be able to say I don't have a spiritual gift, I don't have a ministry That God's calling me to. That's not true. We have different roles to play. Now, in the Corinthian setting, there was a tendency to idolize certain leaders up front, teachers, especially. "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas…" So you've got these upfront leader types that There could be like a cult of personality around them and that could lead individuals, not them, I would hope, but others like them with teaching gifts, preaching gifts, of prophetic gifts, to be arrogant And to think I don't need you. And we'll talk about that later in 1 Corinthians 12. The hand can't say to the... The eye can't say to the ear, I don't need you, but it could also on the other side, say if I don't have that gift, I don't have anything to offer. If I'm not an up-front Well-known leader in the church, I don't really have anything significant to give. That just isn't true. Every one of us, it says, "But to each one of us grace has been given, and so we all have a spiritual gift ministry," And so, we should not think as Romans 12 says, too highly of ourselves, but we shouldn't think too lowly of ourselves either, that I have nothing to offer. To each one of us. Grace has been given. 3) Spiritual Gifts Are Called “Grace from God” Thirdly, spiritual gifts are called grace from God. It says, in Verse 7 there, Ephesians 4:7, but to each one of us, grace has been given, and I mentioned this last week, and I think I can't get enough to think about all the lavish gifts of grace that God has given to each one of us, and some are greater than others. The greatest gifts are the gifts of salvation. As I just mentioned, the gift of forgiveness of sins, of adoption, as sons and daughters, Of the living God, the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the gift of heaven, the fact that when we die, we're going to go to heaven when we die, and spend eternity in a place without death or mourning, or crying, or pain. These are gifts given to all Christians equally, but there are lavish gifts that he gives beyond those things. And Paul calls it grace, but to each one of us, grace has been given, and so we have a gift from God, it is a gift to be able to serve Christ with our spiritual gifts and it's a gift to us, so that we don't waste our lives in frivolous pursuits. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 9-10, he says, "I am the least of the apostles, and I do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, And his grace to me was not without effect, No, I work harder than all of them, yet, not I, but the grace of God that was with me." So Paul understands his role as apostle to the gentiles was a gift of God's grace to him. But I would say the exact same thing, no matter how well-known or how upfront or how famous or how obscure You may be in your service to Christ, any role you play Through the Holy Spirit is Grace to you, God has given you grace to enable you to serve Him. And to store up treasure in Heaven, and to build up the body of Christ. So it's every spiritual gift is called grace from God. 4) Spiritual Gifts Are Measured Out by Christ Forth, spiritual gifts are measured out by Christ. Look, again, in Ephesians 4:7, "But to each one of us grace has been given, as Christ apportioned it or as it says in the Greek according to the measure of Christ." The metron of Christ, there's a metric, there's a measuring going out here of your spiritual gifts. So this is really quite a remarkable aspect of the spiritual gift ministry, we believe in expanding it beyond Christ to the Father and the Spirit, the Father and the Son and the Spirit have considered you individually. The father and the son and the spirit have pondered you, if you could use that kind of human speaking, they have considered you The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, God has considered you and has measured out to you a spiritual gift package. And that's quite remarkable when you think about that. I love what the Psalmist says in Psalm 139, "How precious concerning me are your thoughts, would be one way to translate it. Let's stick with that, how precious concerning me are your thoughts O God, how vast the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand" in the sea shore. So God has many thoughts about you. And part of that is your spiritual gift package, he has arranged and arrayed out and measured out your gifts. And so what that means is we have different definable gifts under certain headings like preaching and teaching, evangelism, giving, administration, different things, leadership, faith, mercy, different gifts. But in that group of Christians, people have varying levels of those gifts. I could never equate my preaching gifts to that of some of the great preachers of history that I've studied, the zeal and the evangelistic power of a George Whitfield, Lavish gift of grace to Him and to all who heard him. Charles Spurgeon had a gift of eloquence and fiery logic that has been unequal I think, in the history of the pulpit. But beyond preaching and teaching, there are other gifts. You think about people with gifts of courageous mercy like Corrie Ten Boom and her family, the willingness to take in the Jews and protect them from the Nazis and their gift of mercy, greater than perhaps any of us who might have a similar gift. And so the Lord gives out gifts at different levels. And then apportions a scope of ministry based on the gifting. And it's so very wise what God has done. But what this does is it cuts off any arrogance or pride or any sense of humiliation saying I don't have that level of gift therefore I shouldn't give it etcetera. There are some very faithful preachers of the word who many of us have never heard of all over the world, Who are doing the ministry in the scope that God intended for them to do. And are being faithful to do that ministry, week after week. So Also other brothers and sisters are ministering to the poor and needy, They're serving in ways that we will not hear until Judgment Day and beyond. And so God measures those things out according to his wisdom. 5) Spiritual Gifts Are Blood-Bought, Part of the Atoning Work of Christ Fifthly, spiritual gifts Are blood bought, they're part of the atoning work of Christ, every gift that we received, every good and perfect gift that James talks about, comes down from the Father but also, I would add, is blood bought. Every single gift that you have was paid for by the atoning work of Christ. So you see that movement of Christ leaving heaven, coming down to earth in the incarnation, Living his sinless life, doing miracles, teaching amazing teachings, but especially dying as a substitute on the cross, shedding his blood for sinners like you and me, being buried, on the third day, raised to life, and then ascending Through the heavenly realms, going up to the throne of God, seated at the right hand of Almighty God, He receives from the Father the promised holy spirit and pours out the gifts of the spirit on the day of Pentecost and beyond. So all of that is tied to the atoning work of Christ, it comes to us through Jesus. So look at it in verses 8 through 10. This is why it says when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men. What does "He ascended" mean? Except he also descended to the lower Earthly regions. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. That's a very interesting quote of scripture, I'm not going to go into details here. But Paul is quoting a Psalm, and then reverses it. In the Psalm, In the Old Testament, it says He received gift from man, but Paul says he also gave gifts, too. And so the idea here is of a triumphal procession of a conquering General, who has conquered a hostile region and has won all this plunder and as he goes through the streets of the capital city, he's throwing out plunder to all of the citizens. And so Jesus says, He ascends and he goes up and receives from the Father, the Holy Spirit, He pours out these gifts of God's grace. So all of our spiritual gifts are blood bought and part of the atonement. 6) The Word of God Primes the Pump for All Ministry: Sixth, the Word of God primes the pump for every spiritual gift ministry. The word of God primes the pump for every spiritual gift ministry. What do I mean by primes The pump? Well, have any of you ever used a siphon? Maybe you don't know what a siphon is, but it's a hose and you use it to move a liquid from one container to one that's lower. And you can do this by sucking on the hose and causing the hose then to fill with water, and then putting it at a lower place, it'll just flow. As long as that's unbroken it will just flow it'll empty a tank. It's really quite a remarkable thing. Parenthetically, don't do it with gasoline, alright? Don't ever do that. People have tried this, gasoline is poison, don't do that, but as you're sucking on that, it causes this hose to fill up with the liquid and then it just causes this whole thing to flow. And so it is with the ministry of the Word, the ministry of the word starts everything. Everything in the Christian life begins with the ministry of the Word. So look at verses 11 and 12. It was He, Christ, who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service. So you see the link there, between verse 11 and verse 12, these five gifted individuals prepare God's people for the works of service that are tied to spiritual gifts. But if you look at the list of those five gifted individuals: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor teachers, sometimes they combine it, Pastor teacher, or pastors and teachers, they all have one thing that unifies them and that is the ministry of the Word of God. Apostles and prophets received the word originally from God, and gave us the scripture, the inerrant Word of God, was ministered to us by the apostles and by the prophets, and is now written down for us to read. Evangelists, as I said, took the message geographically around the world, from Jerusalem through Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Pastor teachers then settle in as second generation church workers and take the New Covenant doctrines and establish them in the life of those local churches. And as that word of God is ministered, then the Saints, the servants of the church are prepared to do their works of service. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:1, "Now about spirituals, about spiritual gifts, brothers. I do not want you to be ignorant." If they don't understand the doctrine of spiritual gifts, they will be ignorant, they will not be able to do their ministry, and so it starts everything. The ministry of the Word of God primes the pump for all of the other ministries in the church. 7) Spiritual Gifts result in Works of Service Alright, Seventh. I'm losing track of my numbers here, I'm so sorry. Seven. Spiritual gifts result in works of service. It says to prepare God's people for works of service, So all of the things that we do in spiritual gift ministry, you're putting yourself at the service of another brother or sister in Christ. You're serving them. A number of people have asked me before. Do you ever get nervous preaching? I get nervous every week. It is not a normal thing for me to stand in front of 500 people and talk. Alright, it's the kind of thing that I was like, "Why do I do this week after week, and have this kind of feeling in the pit of my stomach and all this sort of stuff? But there's one thing that always the Holy Spirit reminds me of, it's When Jesus was restoring Peter after he denied him three times, he said to him, effectively three times, Feed my sheep. Feed them. You're not the issue, Andy, your feelings don't matter. What matters is they need food. Our faith needs food every week, every day, so that we will continue to believe in Jesus. And so the Food of faith is The word of God. So my call is to serve you so that you can continue in your salvation, as Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, So that I can save both myself and my hearers by the ministry of the Word, and so that's... But the same thing goes to the ministries that we heard about, kids ministry, that Josh was talking about. And Kristen, do week after week, and I see ministry, all of that is service. We're serving people. We're washing feet. We're ministering to needs, hospitality. This evening, we're going to have home fellowship ministry, and there's going to be a flow of spiritual gifts. It's amazing. All over this region, members of FBC are going to use their gift of hospitality, others will use their gift of teaching, others will use their gift of prayer and other things, and we're going to be serving one another. Do you see it right there in the text, Verse 12, for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. 8) The Ultimate Goal of spiritual gifts is the Full Maturity of the Body of Christ Eighth. The ultimate goal of all spiritual gift ministry is the full maturity of the body of Christ. Look what it says. Verse 12: "To prepare God's people for works of service, the body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure, the fullness of Christ, then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching, and by the cunning and craftiness of men and their deceitful scheming. Instead speaking the truth in love, We will, in all things, grow up into Him who is the head that is Christ." So, the goal of our salvation is conformity to Christ, that he might be, that we'd be conformed to the Son of God, that He might be the first born among many brothers. That's Romans Chapter Eight. So, we having been rescued from sin and wickedness, and corruption are brought through salvation to total conformity in Christ, The spiritual gifts. And the works of service, tend toward the end to full maturity in Christ. That's what we're doing. Our goal is that elect people would be rescued from darkness, Satan's kingdom, through evangelism, Brought over into the church through water baptism, and then trained, taught to obey everything Christ has commanded, surrounded by encouraging brothers and sisters who pray for them, people who give financially to support ministries that are surrounding them as well, all of those gifts tend toward the end That we would all speak the truth in love, and we will be built up into total conformity to Christ. 9) Every Spiritual Gift is Essential to that Final Goal And then finally, every spiritual gift is essential to that final goal, but those gifts must be used. They don't do any good on the shelf or in the closet. Look at verse 16, From him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. So here's the point. Brothers and sisters. The point is that you have a spiritual gift package If you're a Christian. You Perhaps already have a very definable ministry and as much work as you possibly could do. And so continue to do that ministry, be faithful, Keep on doing it. Others of you may be among those who could say, "I don't actually know what my spiritual gift is. And for you, I would urge you to follow the steps in Romans 12 that I went through, listen to last's week sermon and go step-by-step, present your body as a living sacrifice, make certain that there's no closet sin in your life, you're holy and pleasing in God, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, be in God's word, learning what the spiritual gifts are, learning what kind of ministries are. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. Don't think too highly of yourself. Don't be arrogant. I was thinking about this today. I think this is true, you doctors or nurses can correct me, but wouldn't you say that there's no single cell in the entire body that's essential to the body to continue to live? I was thinking about this. If that cell dies, it's going to be replaced by another one Just like it. Frankly, that goes on all the time. And you're like, "Well, wait a minute, there's some cells that are... " it's like Yeah, but there's a lot of other of those cells. You are not indispensable to the body of Christ, but that doesn't mean you don't have a role to play. And so the Lord says, "Don't think too highly of yourself, but don't think too lowly either. Identify your spiritual gift and then simply if your gift is X, then do X. If it's Y then do Y. Be involved in spiritual gift ministry. III. Another Key Text: 1 Peter 4:11 I Want do 1 Peter 4:11, And then we'll close in prayer. 1 Peter 4:11. "If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever." That's a great verse, and it gives us two main headings for spiritual gift ministry. Speaking and serving. I love that. If anyone speaks, do it as though you're speaking God's words. Flow is ultimately from the Scripture, but you're speaking the very Oracles, the very words of God. Have a seriousness about your speaking ministry. What are speaking ministries? Well, obviously preaching and teaching, but also encouragement. Gifts of leadership have to be done with speaking. So they're speaking gifts, and then there are serving gifts, such as I mentioned, hospitality and mercy, they're just gifts of service, helps, sometimes called. Do all kinds of behind the scenes ministries that no one ever sees but they're vital to the life of the church. Speaking and serving, whatever your ministry is, whatever your gift is, have an identifiable ministry, invest yourself fully in it. And do it. Alright, now let's close in prayer.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Maurice Isserman author of the book The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey Of The 10th Mountain Division, America’s Elite Alpine Warriors. publish earlier this month by Houghton (Howton) Mifflin. Dr. Isserman is a prolific author, penning about two scholarly works a year since the early eighties. They all concern fascinating aspects of American History with regard to some of the nooks and crannies of our past about which we many have never otherwise known His work regularly appears in the NYT, The Nation and other renowned periodicals. The Winter Army is a fascinating tale of pioneering, convincing and fighting, all related to how the US and the work of just a few men, primarily one led to the story of the 10th. The first and only American Ski Regiment. This led to a military force that scaled peaks, literally and figuratively, which before then no fighting force has every done In addition to helping in the culmination of our victory over the Axis powers, the Regiment went on to fight for us in the 80s and 90s! Parenthetically, it also helped to create the organization of one of America’s favorite past-times. Welcome Maurice and thanks so much for joining us today.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Maurice Isserman author of the book The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey Of The 10th Mountain Division, America’s Elite Alpine Warriors. publish earlier this month by Houghton (Howton) Mifflin. Dr. Isserman is a prolific author, penning about two scholarly works a year since the early eighties. They all concern fascinating aspects of American History with regard to some of the nooks and crannies of our past about which we many have never otherwise known His work regularly appears in the NYT, The Nation and other renowned periodicals. The Winter Army is a fascinating tale of pioneering, convincing and fighting, all related to how the US and the work of just a few men, primarily one led to the story of the 10th. The first and only American Ski Regiment. This led to a military force that scaled peaks, literally and figuratively, which before then no fighting force has every done In addition to helping in the culmination of our victory over the Axis powers, the Regiment went on to fight for us in the 80s and 90s! Parenthetically, it also helped to create the organization of one of America’s favorite past-times. Welcome Maurice and thanks so much for joining us today.

I'm Charlie and this week I'm bringing you a special presentation of perhaps one of the if not the most influential talks in modern 12-Step recovery. We're bringing you this in lieu of our regularly scheduled podcast on relapse in Recovery. We had a bit of a technical snafu causing us to push our weekly recording to Wednesday. Parenthetically that caused me to work through some character defects like perfectionism, pride, and ego which I'll talk more about in the Recover Revealed segment later in the podcast. Nevertheless, stay tuned for Wednesday's episode on Relapse in Recovery as I am SUPER excited about what we've got in store for you in that episode. I've isolated the audio of Fred Holmquist's lecture on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12-Step program it outlines for all of you to easily listen and take in as you would with any other podcast you might listen to. Fred distills the quintessential dilemma of the addict and alcoholic in such a way that cuts straight to the heart of the matter which then sets up his distillation of the solution perfectly, which is a program of action as outlined in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Perhaps nobody has done a better job than that of Fred Holmquist relating our core problem and the solution contained in the 12-Steps since Joe & Charlie's talks entitled “The Big Book Comes Alive”. My hope is that you will find this talk as enlightening and as useful as I did when I watched the videos while in treatment at Hazelden more than 4 years ago, but even if you only find them a fraction as useful that would still be a tremendous addition to your recovery. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-way-out-podcast/message

Tehilim Perek 119: Letter AYIN Hello everybody, in today’s Nach Daily we’ll be discussing the letter AYIN. I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. Let’s jump rite in; The letter Ayin represents Amok depth, vision, sensing, and deeply thinking. The Ayin eye, encompasses both physically seeing something and spiritually seeing something in your mind’s eye. Its also the ability to think intuitively, more deeply and penetrating a subject matter. Like when a person like when a person learns gemarah in depth its called b’iyun from the world Ayin to look into something. After Adom and Chava sinned by eating from the Tree of Knowledge the passuk says “v’tipakachna Aney shneihem v’yado ki arumim hem – they opened up their eyes and saw they were naked.” Rashi explains Adom and Chava’s perspective had changed they were able to see things from a new angle. In English we have the same expression. When you understand something you say “I see.” Or if someone wants to know if your understanding something they will say “do you see what im talking about?” It obviously doesn’t mean physical seeing. It means seeing in your minds eye. This type of seeing is represented by the Ayin. A subtle but major point here is one’s eye is called Ayin. The organ is named after the letter not the other way around. The letters not named after the organ. This represents something more fundamental. If the world was created with only 21 letters and the Ayin was left out. No one would be able to see the world. The world would be completely lacking. The main faculty of experience would be gone. Therefore, in this context it can be said the Ayin is among the most fundamental of letters. The Radvaz is his sefer on the letters called Magen Dovid explains the Ayin represents the Ayin Elyona, Hashems hashkacha exact Divine providence in this world. As the passuk says in refrence to Eretz Yisrael “tamid Aynei Hashem Elokecha ba, m’reshis hashanah v’ad achris hashanah – Hashem’s eyes are constantly watching and guarding it from the beginning until the end of the year.” It goes without saying, Hashem doesn’t have eyes. Once again, we see how the Ayin points towards God’s amazing care and protection over our nation. Hashem is constantly watching over us. Parenthetically, the passuk we just quoted is about Eretz Yisrael. Because Eretz Yisrael is the place where a person can see God more clearly. The letter Ayin is actually shaped like two eyes attached to a face. Non of the letters look like the organ it corresponds to. Once again, this points to the vital nature of the eyes. Nurmically the Ayin is 70. Seventy is a number of inclusion and perfection. Examples of this are; there’s 70 nations, 70 languages,. At the beginning of the formation of Am Yisrael, Yaakov had 70 children that went down to Mitzraim. And there’s 70 punim letorah 70 ways to understand Torah. This all points towards perfection and inclusion. Last but not least in the contemporary sefer Hatzaphon written by Rav Zamir Cohn. Explains the by Tefilin it shuold be placed “bein Aynecha” between your eyes. Why does it say between your eyes and not al aynecha on your eyes or next to your eyes? Rav Zamit Cohn explains. The Tefilin rest on the part of your brain called the Lateral Geniculate Necleus (LGN). This part of your brain is responsible for vision. It’s the part of your brain that process and allows your eyes to see. Therefore, the Torah commanded us to place our Tefilin bein aynecha between our eyes exactly in the location where our brain see’s from. Even further, in healing, the spot where we place or Tefilin in known as the Pineal gland. Which is known as the location for our minds eyes and ability to see spiritually.

The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnoses or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Hello. Welcome to "Cancer Stories." I'm Dr. Daniel Hayes, a medical oncologist, and translational researcher at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, and I've also been the past president of ASCO. I'll be your host for a series of interviews with the founders of our field. Over the last 40 years, I've been fortunate to have been trained, mentored, and inspired by many of these pioneers. It's my hope that through these conversations we can all be equally inspired, by gaining an appreciation of the courage, the vision, and the scientific understanding that led these men and women to establish the field of clinical cancer care over the last 70 years. By understanding how we got to the present and what we now consider normal in oncology, we can also imagine and work together towards a better future, where we offer patients better treatments and we're also able to support them and their families during and after cancer treatment. Today, My guest on this broadcast is Dr. Samuel Hellman, who is generally considered one of the fathers of modern radiation oncology in the United States and frankly, worldwide. Dr. Hellman is currently a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Pritzker Medical School, where he served as the dean from 1988 to 1993. And he's been the A.N. Pritzker Professor of the Division of Biological Sciences. He's also served as the vice president of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Prior to moving to Chicago in the late 1980s, he had previously been physician in chief and the professor of radiation oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He served there from 1983 to 1988, and he was also chair of the Department of Radiation Therapy at the Harvard Medical School, where he served as the co-founding director of the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy. Dr. Hellman has authored over 250 peer-reviewed papers, and he's been one of the co-editors of one of the leading textbooks on oncology, Cancer, Principles and Practice. Dr. Hellman has won many awards and honors, including being named a fellow of the National Academy of Medicine, formerly the Institute of Medicine, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is frankly, one of the few individuals to serve as president of both the American Association of Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, for which he was actually, I believe-- correct me if I'm wrong Dr. Hellman-- the first radiation oncologist to hold that position, which he served in 1986 to 1987. Dr. Hellman, welcome to our program. Thank you for having me. I hope I got all that right. Your introduction has taken longer than some of the others. You have been so prominent in the field. I have a series of questions. The whole point of this is sort of like Jerry Seinfeld's Riding in a Cab with Friends. I've always said, if I had an opportunity to right with some of the giants in our field, what would I ask them during a cab ride? So I get to ask the questions, and you get to answer. I know you grew up in the Bronx. Can you tell us a little bit more about your background? I'm particularly intrigued about the fact that a boy from the Bronx ended up at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. Why'd you go there? What was your interest? Was it always in science and medicine, or did you have something else in mind? OK. Well, start with the Bronx. I was born in 1934 in the Bronx in a nice part of the city, which doesn't often go with descriptions of the Bronx today, but it was at that time. And about well, 1950, which was when I entered my senior year in high school, I had gone to high school at DeWitt Clinton High School. And as I say, my senior year, we moved to Long Island, and I spent my senior year at Lawrence High School. The important part of this is that Clinton had about 4,500 to 5,000 boys, and Lawrence High School was much smaller and most importantly, coeducational, and that made me very much want to go to a smaller school for college and definitely one that was coeducational. And so my mother and I took a little tour of colleges not too far from New York, but Allegheny was the farthest, I think. It's in Western Pennsylvania, very close to the Ohio border. And it was a beautiful day. I had a very nice two people showing me around, and I became enamored of the place. It was a very good fit for me, but I must say, my method was not a very analytic one, but that's how I got to Allegheny College. And was science and medicine in your thoughts then, or did you have other things that you thought you'd do? No, no. I was a middle-class Jewish boy from the Bronx. You're programmed to be interested in medicine. The old comment was, you know what a smart boy who can't stand the sight of blood becomes? The answer is a lawyer. And I was not offended by the sight of blood. So I actually heard about your decision to go to SUNY Upstate Syracuse and the serendipity involved. And I'm always struck by how so many of us have what we plan and what we end up doing. Can you give us that story? I though it was really fascinating. Well, I'm not sure what part of it you want, but I went to Syracuse Upstate because I won a state scholarship, and I hadn't applied to any New York state schools. And fortunately, the medical school advisor and a former Alleghenian, who was at Upstate, arranged an expedited interview, et cetera. So anyway, that's why I ended there. Why I ended up in radiation oncology-- Well, that was my next question is, how did we get lucky that you decided to go into oncology? Well, I interned at Boston at the Beth Israel Hospital, which was essentially very oriented to cardiovascular disease. Our chairman was a renowned cardiologist. He was the first one to use radioactive tracers. He used radium, as it turned out, and there is an award given by the nuclear medicine society. Their big award, their annual award is the Hermann Blumgart Award, and Blumgart was my chairman. And Paul Zoll, the external defibrillator inventor, was there. Louis Wolff of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome was there. So it was a cardiac place. And internal medicine was what I wanted to do, but my father was quite hard of hearing and had a lot of trouble making a living, because he was so impaired. And electronic devices, of course, weren't available at that time. And it was widely thought that otosclerosis which is what he had, was a hereditary disease. And so I was discouraged somewhat from entering medicine, not being able to be sure I could use a stethoscope. Parenthetically, I have never had any trouble, and the disease is no longer thought to be hereditary but rather the sequelae of infectious diseases, either diphtheria or influenza. This was the great influenza epidemic. The two, one of those two. But anyway, that's what he had, so I sought to do something else. And I was a little bit put off by taking care of disease which we really could not alter the course of. We could modify it. We could palliate, but probably if I were more dexterous, I would have become a surgeon. But I wasn't, and so I decided I didn't know what to do. I'd take a radiology residency and see where that led. This was late in the year, and there were no radiology residences, literally, in Boston that were available. But a new chief had come to Yale, and he was starting a new program. And one of radiologists in a neighboring institute told me go there. So I did. Well, he turned out to be a radiation oncologist, and he, Morton Kligerman and Henry Kaplan, were the two chairmen of departments of radiology who were radiation oncologists. And Henry had been at the NIH and got them to, with the National Cancer Institute, I guess, to start a fellowship program to encourage radiation oncology. And Kligerman applied for one, got one. I was there. I was captivated by the opportunity to do some curative treatment. I was a chemistry major in college, and physics and chemistry were things I enjoyed. Sounded like a good choice, so that's what happened. So there could not have been very many specific radiation oncology fellowship programs at that time in the United States. Is that true? Yeah, very much true. The ones that stood out was, I say, Henry Kaplan's. There was a very good one at UCSF. And there was one in Penrose Cancer Hospital and one at the MD Anderson, and those were the ones. So your decision to go oncology then, really your decision to go into radiology-- diagnostic radiology originally, sorry-- didn't sound like you were-- Not really. I took a radiology residency, because I thought it would be helpful whatever I decided to do. I really didn't expect to go into diagnostic radiology, but I figured that's something I could do. I didn't have much training or any training in that before. There was a great dynamic radiologist at the Beth Israel Hospital, and he captivated me. And so I figured, there's a lot to learn there, and I'll try it. I think a lot of the younger doctors don't realize that the two were together for a long time. What's your perspective of the split between diagnostic and therapeutic radiology-- I've actually heard you talk about this, so I think I know what you're going to say-- and bringing them back together? Well, I was a great proponent of it. The whole fields are entirely different. But having diagnostic radiology is extremely helpful in radiation oncology, because we depend on images to determine how we treat, where we treat, and so forth, so it was there. But they were interested in entirely different things. And just parenthetically, when I took the Harvard job, I wasn't going to take it unless I had a promise that we could start a Department of Radiation Oncology. Shortly after I came, and the decision was made with just a shake of the hand that, after a year or two, I'd be able to do that, and that's what happened. Actually, that segues into another question I had is I was looking over your background. I met you first when I was a first-year fellow at the medical oncology. That was 1982, by the way, a long time ago, when it was still the Sidney Farber. And I'd heard about your legendary efforts starting the Joint Center and also your teaching methods with your own residencies. But you were rubbing shoulders with Sidney Farber and Francis "Franny" Moore and Tom Frei. That must have been pretty intimidating for a relatively young guy trying to start a whole new department. What was the impetus behind that? It was an interesting experience. Dr. Farber was, of course, the dominant figure in cancer at Harvard, and nationally, he was one of, if not the great leader. I mean, but he was a difficult man, and I don't like to speak disparaging, but we had a rocky relationship. When the Joint Center-- I'm getting ahead of my story, but it's appropriate to this question. When the Joint Center was started, it was started by Harvard Medical School, and the dean for hospital affairs was a man named Sidney Lee. Dr. Lee had formerly been the head of the Beth Israel Hospital, the director, not the chairman of medicine but the director. And he got the idea that all the hospitals in the Harvard area were relatively small, the Mass General was across town and quite large, but that was not true for the Brigham or the BI or the Deaconess or what at that time was the Boston Hospital for Women. And so he got them all together. So there were those, and I think I left out the Children's, but Children's was amongst them, as well as the Sidney Farber, as you say. Or at that time, it wasn't called that. It was called the Jimmy Fund, but that's another story, and one you know better than I, I suspect. But anyway, those six were to get together when I started the Joint Center. Because Dr. Farber and I had so much difficulty with each other-- he wanted really for me to be reporting to him and being part of the Jimmy Fund but that wouldn't have worked with the other hospitals. He was not liked by any of the places, including Children's, which is where he was the pathologist. So those six initial institutions, when we finally came to sign, turned out to be only four because the Children's wouldn't come in, and the Jimmy Fund wouldn't come in. For a number of reasons, two years later, they acquiesced, mostly because we were successful, and they were without supervoltage treatment, and it was just not sensible for them not to join. But that's my relationship with Sidney. Franny Moore is a different story. Franny Moore was an internationally-known surgeon and expected to have his way, but he was very graceful, very nice. I had very few disagreements with him. He expected, and I think, deserved certain deferences. Sydney did, too, but it just made it too difficult to do that but Franny was not that way. Franny and I came to the treatment, conservative treatment of breast cancer from different points of view. He didn't agree with it, but he was entitled to his opinion, and he was fine. Tom is a different story. I got there ahead of Tom, and he came, and if anything, I helped out Tom, although he was much senior. Harvard has its own culture, as you know, and he needed at least an introduction. I mean, he sailed along fine after that. And in fact, at one time, he and I wanted to start a joint residency program. It was to be a four-year program, which would have people take two years together and two years in their respective specialty. But the boards were not in agreement, so it was dropped. But Tom and I always got along fine. Actually, that raises one of my other questions. I spent a lot of time in Europe, and the field of so-called clinical oncology still remains, combining radiation and medical oncology. In fact, they style it as a particular specialty in Great Britain. How did it evolve not that way in the United States? Radiation oncology went off on its own. And I think you had a lot to do with really professionalizing radiation oncology as a specialty in this country. Is that not true? I'd be interested in your perspectives on this, too. Well, I should parenthetically say that I spent a year in the National Health Service in 1965, while I was a fellow at Yale, in clinical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital, their major teaching hospital for cancer. And I always believed in the joint efforts of a non-surgical oncology program. You can include the surgeons, mostly because their lives are so different and their technical training is much more extensive, but you can work closely with them, and I've been fortunate to be able to do that. But medical oncology and radiation, in my judgment, would be better off close together. And your comment about me and ASCO, being the first president as a radiation oncologist, and I never call myself a radiation oncologist, at least not initially. I always call myself an oncologist. But I do, I agree and then describe what I do as radiation. But I agree with you, they have the best title-- clinical oncologists. And why it occurred the way it occurred, I'm not sure. I know we started in radiology and medical oncology started in hematology. I mean, the real revolution, and leaving aside Dave Karnofsky and his work, the real changes occurred in acute leukemia. And the real founders of the specialty, Dave was surely one of them, but a great many of them were all hematologists, leukemia doctors, and it grew from there. It grew out of hematology. And a lot of major oncology papers were in Blood, the journal Blood before they were in JCO. So that's the best I can do with it. Our big thing was to separate from diagnostic. Getting closer to medical oncology is much easier, because we have the same book. You said I wrote the textbook with Vince and Steve, and so I did. And that was very easy. We spoke the same languages. We saw the same things, not completely. I saw more head and neck. Vince saw more of the hematologic malignancies, but the rules were similar. It was no-- it was easy. And I've heard Dr. Frei-- I trained with him when he was alive and obviously, Dr. DeVita talked about what it was like to give chemotherapy when they started. And how we really professionalized, in many ways, and split up giving chemotherapy, the different responsibilities. What was it like with radiation oncology back 40 years ago? I mean, how did you-- the safety issues, were you all cognizant of the safety issues related to radiation at the time? How did you do your planning? What was that like? Well, safety was-- Hiroshima made everybody know a lot. In fact, if anything, we were more conservative than we probably needed to be because of radioactivity being an evil and all the things that happened after '45 and at Hiroshima and Nagasaki experience. And so safety wasn't a problem that way. But there were a lot of people in the field who were using the field, who are not radiation oncologists. Some of them were radiologists, diagnostic radiologists and did it part time. They had a cobalt unit, before that, just an orthovoltage, conventional energy, much less effective and more damaging. And also gynecologists, and when I visited Memorial Hospital early on in my training, and the surgeons would send a prescription blank, a regular prescription dying down to the radiation therapist. And that's what they were, technicians, or often were. And they may have differed with the prescription but only by being careful and discussing it with the surgeons and convincing them that some change should be. That's very different. How was the planning done? How was the planning done? The planning was fairly primitive. Well, most places had a physicist, usually a physicist, who did both diagnostic machines and conventional radiation oncology, and they were important in that department and those people subspecialized, too. And in fact, when I came to Boston in 1968, Herb Abrams, who was the new chairman of radiology-- he's the one who chaired the committee that selected me-- but he and I jointly started a physics department. So it was still in diagnosis as well as therapy, but we realized that wasn't a good idea and separated. So physics was evolving, but treatment planning before supervoltage, and even with supervoltage before multileaf collimators and a lot of the newer, what then were newer techniques, was reasonably rudimentary. When I did my residency, we did our own planning, and usually, it got checked by the physicist but not all the time. It's a lot different now. Yes, it is. I want to turn this to an area that's more personal to me and that is your role, out of all the many contributions you've made to the field, your role in the field of breast-preserving therapy. I came in just as you and Jay Harris were really making that institutionalized. Just for our listeners, what were the hurdles there? They must have been both personal and professional and technical. And did you ever doubt that this be successful in the long run? You must have had some second thoughts about getting into this. Well, I have to back up. It was well before Jay, but it was at Yale. And apropos of how many-- going back to our previous question-- how few radiation oncologists there were. There was a club. Before there was a specialty, before there was a society, there was the American Club of Radiation Therapy. And all you had to do to belong to it was do radiation therapy without doing diagnostic radiology. And I was in the low 200ths of the consecutive order of people who belonged to the specialty from its very inception at the turn of the century. So there were very few of us, and we knew each other extremely well and had these little conversing meetings. And a number of people would talk about patients who had medical diseases which wouldn't allow them to have their breasts removed. They still had localized, apparently localized breast cancer, and the radiation therapist took care of them, and I did, too. I had these people. And we also had the Europeans, especially the French, who were treating breast cancer with radiation. In fact, they were doing it with a fundamental difference with what we did from the beginning and they do now. And that is, they did it without removing the breast cancer, because they were doing it primarily for cosmetic reasons. And they felt that taking out the breast cancer might damage the cosmetic effect. So we weren't alone. We weren't first. So I knew that other people had done it. Some people who did, Simon Kramer in Pennsylvania at Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson, did a great deal of it. And we did it, because we had a surgeon at Yale who was interested in sending patients. You mentioned Jay, but really, before Jay, there was Lenny Prosnitz, who you may or may not know of, who was a long-time chairman at Duke. But Len was a medical oncologist at Yale, who was about, I don't know, three or four years behind me in training, and I was either a young assistant professor there at the time or a fellow, I can't remember which. And he came over to me and said, you've got a nice life. You do interesting things. I'm not so crazy with this. Can I get into it? And Lenny, obviously, being trained in medical oncology, being a boarded internist was also interested in breast cancer. Because that's the one disease, even in the beginning that medicine, or one of the few diseases that medicine was interested in for the hormonal aspects of the disease. So Lenny took over when I left with the surgeon Ira Goldenberg, and he kept it up. And when I went to Harvard, I had all those different hospitals, and I had a very good colleague there, who was the only radiation oncologist in those hospital complex, and he also treated some. So we continued to do it. One of the nice things about Harvard at that time was, at least for this purpose, was we had this women's hospital, Boston Hospital for Women. And gynecologists in those days did everything for women and that included breast surgery. And those guys delivered their babies and when they got breast cancer, took care of them. They weren't interventional. They were their private primary care docs, and they were much more sensitive to the cosmetic aspects and the self-image aspects of breast cancer surgery. And so they knew we did it, and they became a big source of suggesting patients and sending them to us. Anyway, Marty, Marty Levine, the fellow I was talking about, and I developed a reasonable number of them. One of my residents, Eric Weber said, why don't you write a paper about this? I said, it's all done. The French have it. The Brits have it. Even the Canadians have it. He said, we don't. So I said all right. We sent out the paper, and the first paper is with Eric and Marty and me, and it was a JAMA paper and that gets to another point. What year was that? I had to bully pulpit. What year was that, the JAMA paper? The JAMA paper? About '75-- '74, '75. And it made a big splash. And then Lenny and Simon Kramer and Luther Brady, two Philadelphia people who had big experience, and us put all of our stuff together. And Lenny brought it all together, and so there was another big paper. I think that one was in JCO, but maybe not. I can't remember. And I think that's how it got started. And my issue with it and my involvement in it is, yes, pioneering the treatment in America. I don't claim to have pioneered it anywhere else. It wouldn't be true. But what I did do is use the bully pulpit of being the Harvard professor, and I went everywhere and talked about it. And I took on the surgeons in a number of places and talked about it. And if I made a contribution to it, it was that. I can remember being in an audience and hearing you talk about the Halstead theory and then the Fisher theory and what became known, in my opinion, as the Hellman theory, which is a combination of the two. That both local and systemic therapies make a difference, and the mortality rate of breast cancer has dropped by almost one-half over the last 30 years, and you should be proud of that. Oh, I'm proud of it. I'm proud of it. But people don't do things in a vacuum. You build on people and on their doings. Well, I want to be respectful of your time, if I can finish up here. I really just touched the surface of many of the contributions you've made. I wanted to talk a little bit about your role in getting radiation oncologists to think about what we now call translational science. But at the end here, what do you think are your greatest accomplishments? What do you think your legacy has been to the field? Do you think it's the science or your administration or your teaching and mentoring or all of those together? I think all of us would like to think about what our legacies would be. Oh, I would say, it's an interesting and not an easy question, because I'm interested in all of those things. But I like to remind people that, and it's been commented on by others, I am one of the few people who maintained a practice of medicine, a real practice, all through being a dean. I always think of myself first as a doctor. And I am an investigator, and I am interested in research, both basic and clinical, and did both of them, but I'm a doctor first, that's number one. Second to that, I was very involved in teaching and believe-- and that's why I became a dean and before that, started a department in Harvard and gave courses in oncology, and my residents are my greatest legacy, if you really want to know. Nobody lives forever, and what you did in the lab and your patients, that passes, but your residents are your history. They continue it, and their residents continue it and so forth. And just to end on a high note that you mention, is that the Karnofsky lecturer this year was one of my residents. Yes, he was. Of course, that's Ralph Weichselbaum. He was. I actually chaired the selection committee, and I can't tell you how proud I was to stand up and introduce him. He did a wonderful job. In addition to your own residents, I'm going to tell you, you're also passing this on to the medical oncology fellows who were hanging around the Farber in those days. And to this day, I tell patients I wear two hats. My first hat is to take care of them as I can with the knowledge I have today, and my second hat is to do research to make it better. But my first hat always wins, because Dr. Hellman said you're a doctor first. So there you go. Well, I haven't changed on it. That's very nice to hear though. OK. I think on that note, we'll end up. I had planned over about half an hour. We're just over that. So thank you very much, both from me, personally, and from those of us in the field and from our patients who have benefited. Dr. Hellman, you are truly a pioneer and a giant in our field. So thank you so much. Well, you're very kind to say so. For more original research, editorials, and review articles, please visit us online at jco.org. This production is copyrighted to the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Thank you for listening.

sermon transcript Introduction Revelation 20:1-10 covers the topic of the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, which we started looking at last week. Today we will gain more clarity about the Millennium, and though we will move forward next week I will continue studying it. In John Calvin’s introduction to his commentary on Romans, he used a phrase that stuck with me. He was seeking, he said, to achieve “lucid brevity” — clarity and briefness — that I seek to emulate this morning. I want to briefly and clearly explain what I think is happening in these incredible words. As we study the Bible week after week, I am more and more in awe of this book. By any definition, it is a miracle. It is an encounter with the living God. There is no human explanation for this book. It contains predictions about the future that were made centuries before which have now been fulfilled. It is a supernatural book because it goes outside of nature. James reminds us that we do not know what will happen even tomorrow, so how much more do we not know what will happen centuries in the future. But this book predicted the first coming of Christ in great detail — aspects of his genealogy, where he would be born, what his life would consist of. Every one of those has been fulfilled in every detail. Revelation is a book unlike any other in this library of books, which the Bible really is — 66 books, written from the mind of God through various authors at different times. It borrows heavily on Old Testament prophecies and language, but it has a new word to say, and it teaches us details about the Second Coming of Christ and about the events that precede the Second Coming. We believe that this world is poisoned and dying with sin, and it will take a series of cataclysms such as we can scarcely imagine to draw out the elect, the chosen, from this horrible sin-wracked world and get us into a New Heaven and New Earth in our resurrection bodies. This is a very painful perilous journey. Many of the things we have been studying have not yet happened, perhaps have not even begun. Some general signs have happened, but they have been happening for 20 centuries now: wars, rumors of wars, famines, and earthquakes in various places. But there are cataclysmic events recorded in Revelation that we have never yet seen on earth. Revelation 8 and 9 bring the seven trumpet judgments in which the ecology of the earth is ripped apart — a third of the sea turns to blood, a third of the sea creatures die, a third of the green plants and all of the grass are burned up, and a third of the fresh water is poisoned. That is only the first round. In the second round in Revelation 16, the seven bowl judgments are poured out — the entire sea turns to blood and every living thing in the sea dies. We have not seen anything like that ecological disaster. These things are yet to come. In Revelation 13, we see the reign of Antichrist, this terrible one-world ruler that by deception takes over the military levers of power of human government all over the world. He wields his authority in an overpowering way. Soon after, the false prophet comes along to shift the whole thing to a religious focus, setting the Antichrist up as a god whom people worship. People all over the world are compelled by the force of military might and the police state to receive a mark, the mark of the beast, without which they cannot buy or sell. Most people accept it willingly and worship the beast. God, through all of this, protects a remnant of His own, Jews who at last, in the final act of redemptive history, will see in Christ their Savior, their Messiah, their Son of David. At last, they embrace him. Zechariah tells us that they will weep for him as for an only son, and Paul says in Romans 11 that they come to him in faith and “…all Israel will be saved.” The Antichrist mobilizes his forces militarily from across the surface of the earth to come wipe out the followers of Christ — not just the Jews, but specifically those in Palestine. The great battle of Armageddon ensues, predicted in Revelation 16 and again in Revelation 17. This is the context of the Second Coming of Christ in Revelation 19. Jesus returns with the armies of Heaven and slaughters this vast army that comes to wipe out his people. Three Views on the Millennium As we come to Revelation 20, we need to review some theology and church history. There are three basic views on the Millennium. One, I believe, has been so vigorously discredited by the unfolding of history that I do not mention it much, namely Post-millennialism. This is the idea that the Gospel will so saturate the world that everything will get better and better, and people will come more and more to faith in Christ, and then Jesus will return. I do not see that happening. The last century has been rough on the planet. It is right for us to marry together current events and Scripture. Jesus told us to do that with the abomination of desolation — when that happens, then the prophecy of Daniel has come true, and those alive at that time should run for their lives. Thus, I have set that aside. I respect those that view Post-millennialism as a reasonable view, but that leaves me, as an evangelical, two views on the Millennium. The Millennium refers to Revelation 20:1-10, which talks about the thousand-year reign of Christ physically on earth. There are two views on this time period that square with being evangelical. The Amillennial view teaches that Revelation 20:1-10 is a recapitulation of what we have already covered in church history and the spread of the Gospel, that Satan has been bound in some way, restricted to keep him from deceiving the nation so that the Gospel can spread. In Matthew 12, in his analogy about the strong man, Jesus says that no one can plunder his house unless he first bind the strong man; then he can plunder his house. The Amillennial view says this refers to the spread of the gospel for a thousand years, that 1000 is just a symbolic number, like when God claims in Psalm 50 that He owns “the cattle on a thousand hills.” Clearly that verse is not literal but poetic. The question we have to ask though is, is the number, 1000, spiritual or poetic? And here in this text, that's the question you have to ask. I have been exhorted to read the text and preach accordingly. The alternate view treats the text as innocent until proven guilty, to take it that it will happen unless some compelling reason proves otherwise. That is the Premillennial view, that the Second Coming happens before the Millennium. Jesus returns with the armies of heaven, destroys Satan’s army led by the Antichrist, and slaughters all of them in vast carnage. After that he sets up his thousand-year reign on earth. Just as I have studied these two different views, I commend them to you to continue to study them as well. In a broad general way, the Amillennial view does well in the entire New Testament but not so well in Revelation 20:1-10. Premillennialism does not fare well in all of Paul’s epistles, but it does a good job of explaining these 10 verses. I am a verse-by-verse expositor, so I have to adopt the Premillennial view today, because as I go through these verses, it is hard to explain it from the Amillennial view. It starts: “I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil or Satan and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. And after that, he must be set free for a short time.” The Amillennial view does not have a good explanation for the details of those verses, specifically the word “Abyss”. This word refers to a specific place mentioned in various passages in the New Testament, especially with the demoniac of the Gadarenes in whom there was Legion, 6000 demons inside him. A simple reading of Revelation 20:1-10, as you compare Satan and Jesus, shows the infinite gap of power between the two — Satan is nothing compared to Jesus. Inside the man in Luke 8, the demons are terrified of Jesus; they plead with him not to throw them into the Abyss before their time. The Amillennial view of the chaining of Satan is that it has to do with evangelism and missions. Those who ascribe to this view acknowledge that Satan is out and about, prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. They agree that we need to be strong in the Lord and His mighty power and to put on the full armor of God, because our struggle is against the devil and his demons. But they say the binding is really focused on keeping the devil from deceiving people about Jesus. When you share the Gospel with a co-worker, if that co-worker is elect and God is using you to bring that person to faith in Christ, Satan will be blocked or bound to some degree from that interaction. Your witness will be effective to rescue them from the dominion of darkness and bring them over into the kingdom of light by the power of the Holy Spirit. I say “Amen”, but I do not think that is what the Abyss is about here. We would not imagine that Satan is bound with a great chain and thrown in the Abyss as believers are sharing the Gospel, leading others to Christ in the break room or East Asia or Africa. No, he is still prowling around like a roaring lion at that moment. Looking at these verses, I have a hard time accepting that exegetically. Premillennialism does well here in verse-by-verse exposition. If I were preaching 1 Corinthians 15, I would have a hard time with Premillennialism, because I do not see the Millennium in anything Paul writes about the resurrection. In sharing the Gospel in this current age, I do not see how Satan is bound with a great chain and thrown into the Abyss, which is locked and sealed over so he cannot deceive the nations. A more natural reading is that this capture of Satan is yet to come. The Millennial Kingdom A (Somewhat) New Earth If you accept that, then you will have many logistical and practical questions. Is it a kingdom? Yes, it is. Revelation 20:4-6 “I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.” Those who resist during the Great Tribulation will come to life and reign with Christ physically on earth. This would be the Millennial kingdom. Picture what it would be like when Christ returns. The earth will be a smoldering pile of wreckage — the sea is blood, everything in it is dead, there is no fresh water, there has been a massive worldwide earthquake from which the cities of the earth are destroyed — piles of rubble. It will be a massive rebuilding project; it is unimaginable what Jesus will have to do to rebuild planet earth. He can do it. His Heavenly Father created everything through him. John 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made…” Colossians 1:16 says, “…things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” He has all resources at his disposal. I am reminded of Nehemiah when he heard from his brother that Jerusalem was filled with rubble. He asked for and was granted permission from the king to go back to rebuild the wall, which he and his cohorts did in a short amount of time while the enemies of the Jews looked on. This was done by God. How could we give Nehemiah greater place than Jesus? Jesus can do it. Who are Christ’s Subjects and Enemies During the Millennium? Who is on Earth? The next practical question is, who is he reigning over? I do not know, but we can imagine some possibilities. It is possible that all of Jesus’ enemies, those who did not believe in him at the Second Coming, died in the final battle. Revelation 19:17-18 says, “And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, ‘Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.’” This could mean that everybody who has not believed in Jesus up to the moment when they see the sign of the Son of Man in the clouds will mourn because they know they will die. Every single unbeliever will die, and the birds will eat their flesh. Or it is possible that those who are part of the army assembled to fight against the people of God, the battlefield participants, are the ones who will die. That would leave a population of unbelievers whom then Jesus will rule over with a rod of iron. If that is the case, they had better behave themselves. Thus, the two possibilities for the human starter set for the Millennial population are either all genuine believers in Christ, not yet resurrected, still in their physical bodies, who have been through a horrific time, along with those beheaded during the Tribulation that are going to be raised to reign with them; or a mixed group of believers and unbelievers. Jesus will rule the unbelievers with a rod of iron, settling disputes between the nations. They will come to Zion, to Jerusalem, to have those disputes settled, and if they do not obey, they will suffer consequences such as no rain in their land, according to Zechariah. There are many images from the Old Testament which could possibly apply to this mixed population during this Millennial time. I prefer at this point to interpret that all the unbelievers die, leaving only genuinely regenerate, born again but not yet glorified believers. Many of those will be Jews, but I do not think that it will be only Jews, because it says that Satan can no longer deceive the nations. I think there will be Gentile believers there too. These are generally called tribulation saints, who are converted during the final era of history. It is interesting that they will need to be ruled over. Verse 4-6, “I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.” There is an Amillennial interpretation of this, that these are the martyrs who reign in Heaven — absent from the body, present with the Lord. Let’s set that aside for now and zero in on the Pre-millennial approach. There are two options for who these people are. One, they are all who have ever believed in Christ, including the martyrs, but who had died before that point. The ones who are still alive are the starter set of that population. Everybody else is up in Heaven, not only those who died in the tribulation. Everybody is raised physically — we get our resurrection bodies at that point. We sit on thrones and we judge. Who Will Be Judged? Who will we judge? We will judge the not-yet-glorified, not-yet-resurrected believers. We may wonder why thrones and judgments are needed. If you believe in the Millennium — the literal thousand years — those in the starter set are not yet glorified. They are believers like you and me with an internal sin nature. They will have children, and they will get old and die. Their children will have an advantage as to believing the Gospel. There will be no Satan to tempt them; he is locked up in the Abyss. There will be no evil world system set up by Satan, as 1 John 5 says, that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. When he is gone along with the world system he set up, all children will have godly parents. In addition, they will have Jesus reining physically on earth in a glorified state, and they will have the resurrected people sitting on thrones to help them come to faith in Christ. But amazingly, not all of the subsequent generations will be believers in Jesus. Isaiah 65 says, describing Millennial life, that one who dies at 100 will be seen to have died early. Most, then, will live to 125 or 150. That will be from seven to ten generations during the thousand years. Not all the descendants will be believers in Christ. The resurrected glorified saints will sit on thrones and judge the population and settle disputes under Jesus. Those who judge must be a narrow set of people. The Gospel has done very well over the last 20 centuries — Revelation 7 emphasizes “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language.” Imagine being part of the remnant that survived the Second Coming, being judged at a 10:1 ratio of resurrected glorified not resurrected or glorified people. In terms of sanctification and holiness, I cannot resolve that dynamic. The glorified, resurrected believers who are perfect and never sin will judge those who are struggling and muddling through. If that will literally happen, it must be a narrow set; hundreds of millions are not needed. The text says specifically that those who are raised are the ones who have been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and the Word of God. They will not have worshiped the beast or his image, nor received his mark or their foreheads or hands, meaning they will have lived during the time of the beast. They will have had the possibility of receiving or refusing the mark of the beast — they will choose to refuse, and will have paid for it by being beheaded. This is a very small group, and they receive the honor, the privilege, of this early resurrection to reign with Christ physically on earth. Most Millennialists agree that is what is happening here. They will sit on thrones and reign with Christ. Verse 5 says, “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.” In the Amillennial view, that would be all of the reprobates who are given resurrection bodies and sent to Hell. It may also include the rest of us who are absent from the body, present with the Lord during the whole thousand years, in Heaven doing whatever we will do — likely celebrating and worshiping God — while the Millenial kingdom is happening. The rest of the believers will be on earth during the Millennium. Logistically, it is a difficult issue to resolve. Those in Heaven will come to life and receive our resurrection bodies in a second phase. The first resurrection will include the special ones who are chosen. “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them…” The second death is Hell, which we learn in the rest of Revelation 20. Those in the first resurrection will not be subject to Hell. The second death will not have power over the rest of the saints either, but the reprobate will certainly be subject to it. This smaller set of believers will come to life to reign with Christ for a thousand years, and they will be priests of God and of Christ. There will be a Millennial religion, which will be focused on worshiping Jesus, the Savior and the King. Animal sacrifice will have no part in it. I would urge you to read the book of Hebrews and come to the conclusion that God will never again accept blood sacrifice of animals. Fundamentally, the religion will be a spiritual one of following Jesus. He is at that place now in redemptive history, reigning bodily in glory; and in the. Millennium, these resurrected glorified saints will be priests of God and reign with Christ on earth. Why a Literal Millennium? That is not the end of the story. This is remarkable. Some of you want to understand and have your questions about this time answered, and some of you are ready to skip the Millennium and go straight to Heaven, where there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. Either way, the next logical question is, Why would God do this, if this what will happen? Satan’s Last “Tour” Revelation 20:7-10: “When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth — Gog and Magog — to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. To some degree, if you believe in the Millennium, it seems almost unbelievable that this would happen. After the thousand years, the binding is done, and the devil comes up out of the Abyss where he was thrown. Parenthetically, I think it is a very hard verse for Amillennials to explain — What does he come up out of at the end of the thousand years? There is no explanation in a metaphorical framework. Satan is unbound, on the loose at the end of the thousand years. What does he do? It is like Napoleon on an incomparably larger scale. Napoleon was exiled to Elba after losing a series of battles. When he was later released and returned to France, instead of the French immediately arresting him and throwing him back in prison, they followed him into one more battle — Waterloo — where more of them were slaughtered for Napoleon’s tyrannical ambitions. Satan has been exiled for a thousand years, locked in the Abyss. When released, he rallies a large number of followers to fight Jesus. The insanity of it is staggering. The Millennial kingdom has been beautiful — well ordered, well governed, fruitful, magnificent. Jesus has reigned with a rod of iron, which results in peace and beauty, with no disputes, no wars. Satan, the instant he is released, is able to gather together from Gog and Magog (language from Ezekiel 38 and 39, meaning rough, distant Gentile nations) for one more battle. Satan’s Army Defeated by Fire From Heaven Those who follow Satan are like the sand on the sea shore. It is tragic. They come across the breadth of the earth to the camp of the people that God loves, perhaps Jerusalem, to attack the people of God one more time. There is very little description about this, but it is obvious who wins. Fire comes from heaven to burn them up, and that is that. In 2 Kings, a wicked king sends 50 men to arrest Elijah, the prophet, who is sitting on a hill. The captain orders, “Oh, man of God, come down.” Elijah replies, “If I am a man of God, may fire come from heaven and burn up you and your 50 men.” Immediately the men were burned up. They're dead. A second captain with 50 men tries again, with the same results. My favorite is the third captain, who humbles himself to say, “Oh, man of God, please, if it is not too much trouble, I would like to ask that you have mercy on my life.” The Lord tells Elijah to go with him, and Elijah gives the king a prophetic message that he will die, which is fulfilled soon thereafter. That was Elijah. This is Jesus. You do not come after Jesus, lay hold of him and topple him from his throne. Psalm 2:6 says, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” He will not be conquered. When they come this last time, fire comes from Heaven, and rebellion on earth is ended. The Education We Always Wanted In the Garden, at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we desired an education — we wanted to know. In February 1970, undergraduates at Harvard University were told that their tuition would increase the next year by $200, from $2400 a year to $2600 a year. Two years ago, it costs $45,270 for one year, all costs. Since 1970, if it had kept pace with inflation, it would cost $15,700. Education comes at a high cost. The students at Harvard that year did not realize how much the cost would continue increasing for that education. That is a picture of redemptive history. We wanted an education in good and evil, and we have had six millennia of such an education. During all those millennia, sin has proven to be exceptionally stubborn to eradicate; our education has been very costly. Romans 5 helps answer the question of why God would set up a physical Millennium in this way. (Of course, whether we hold the Pre-millennial or Amillennium view, we will not be excluded if we have subscribed to the wrong view on this point. God will decide, and we will all be there.) Romans 5:12 says, “…just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned.” Through Adam, we sinned; through Adam, death entered the world. But then Paul says in Romans 5:19-20, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.” [You may read right over that and not give it any thought. Why would God add the law of Moses so that the trespass would increase? That would be like firefighters spraying kerosene on a house fire.] But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life [not thousand-year life; eternal life] through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What has been going on for six millennia has been a clear display that the only force in the universe that can conquer sin is the sovereign grace of God in Christ. It must go to the nth degree; He must get inside my soul, mind, and heart, take out the heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh, and more than that. He must glorify me or I will sin. Oh, unglorified but sanctified and justified, saved people. You know exactly what I am talking about. Paul talks about it in Romans 7:15, 17, 24: “…what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do… [Why?] … it is sin living in me… What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Death’s Final Defeat When we at last are delivered from death, we will have been delivered from sin. Those happen at the same time. Death is the final enemy. When death is finally gone, then sin will be finally gone and vice versa. If there will be a starter set of unglorified but truly justified saved people whom he rescues, when they die, they will be absent from the body, present with the Lord just like us. They will go to Heaven. Their children, if they believe in Jesus, if they trust in him as their personal Savior, will have their sins forgiven, and then they will also go to Heaven after much better lives than we are living. They will die at age 137 after having been abundantly blessed in their labors. But if their children do not believe in Jesus, despite all of the evidence, they will die and go to Hell. If they should be living at the end of the thousand-year reign, Satan will call and they will listen and hear, and they will come together under Satan to fight Jesus. That will be the final display of the wickedness of sin. Romans 5 also tells us that step by step, from Adam until Moses, sin reigned, which means death reigned. Death reigned from Moses to Jesus’ first coming, and sin and death has continued and will continue to reign in some way on until the Second Coming. After the Great Tribulation, there will be one more thousand-year reign for sin and death, and then Jesus will finally bring us into Revelation 21, where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. We will be glorified. We will be able to look back and remember how we got what we asked for — a costly education in evil — but we will love righteousness and hate wickedness, just like Christ. That is all I can say about the millennium. If in the end, the Amillennial view is true, then praise God for the limited binding of Satan. Go out and evangelize. Be involved in missions. Share the Gospel with your boss or your neighbor or classmate or suitemate or total stranger, or an unreached people group on an overseas mission trip. Watch God bind Satan right in front of you. Watch Christ rescue souls. In the meantime, know that someday we will get to a world, the New Heaven and New Earth, which will last not a thousand years but forever — not long life but eternal life. Disease and sickness and death and sorrow will all be gone, and we will go there someday. Applications If you are here today because someone invited you, or you walked in off the street, you may be confused, wondering what all this is about. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, the resurrection chapter, “…what I received I passed on to you as of first importance [top priority for you] that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” And John 1:12: “…to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” You do not need to do any works, you only need to trust in Jesus who was crucified for sinners like you and me, then buried and raised from the dead on the third day. Trust in Him and you will be forgiven of all your sins. Closing Prayer Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the two weeks we have had to look at this difficult topic. It is not easy to understand the Millennium and all of the ramifications. We look forward to the time when Satan will be not merely bound but thrown into the lake of fire, not to trouble us ever again. Lord, in the meantime, help us to be bold with the Gospel. Help us to be courageous, to take risks for the gospel, to be willing to go overseas as missionaries, to walk across the office to a cubicle to talk to somebody, maybe a new employee at the company. O Lord, help us to be bold in witnessing on college campuses, at Duke and UNC and NC State and Central. Help us to be involved in seeing people cross over from death to life. Help us to be bold. We thank you for the things we have learned. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

EP0105 - Stitch Fix IPO Hot Take This episode is a hot take of the Stitch Fix IPO Filing: How IPO's Work / Jobs Act $1B Exits in E-Commerce Zappos - $850m 2009 Quidsi/diapers - $545m -2010 Kiva - $775b 2012 Trunk Club - $350m 2014 Jet.com - $4b  8/16 Dollar Shave club - $1b 7/16 Chewy.com - $3b 4/17 Zulily - went public with $2.7b Stitch Fix Background Offering History Financing History Stitch Fix financial performance Stitch Fix Customer Value / Churn Personalization and Machine Learning Company size and roles Conclusion Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 105 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Sunday, October 22nd 2017. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. New beta feature - Google Automated Transcription of the show: Transcript Jason:  [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 105 being recorded on Sunday October 22nd 2017 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot:  [0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show Sanders, we started working on a little new show this week and as we got into it real realize that the big news that is dominating the retail and e-commerce world is one event. stitch fixes S14 their IPO so as we got into it. And started working on this week we realized that the stitch fix IPO is really a platform that we can use to talk about some of our favorite topics here on Jason Scott show, it's a little bit of everything Jason it's got, Ikea's venture capital and exit e-commerce subscription Commerce which we talked about one of your favorite topics personalization machine learning and AI. There's an Amazon undertone where you know this is one of the few companies that's made it out hopefully knock on wood and then Amazon dominated world how are they doing that, and for all our e-commerce retail us there's this really interesting KP eyes are key performance indicators here like the cost to acquire customers at lifetime value turn, and one of our other favorite topics is private label and digital native vertical Branch so stitch fix IPO covers everything. Jason:  [1:52] It's like our last hundred and four episodes all rolled into one it's amazing. Scot:  [1:56] Yes clearly Katrina over there with says must be a big lesson her because she's kind of wrapped it all into one company which we appreciate. [2:06] To a lot of the distance, interesting stories so we were at code Commerce now we reported this on the podcast for those either that follow this so in March there was shot talk and Jason Delray the Commerce and had the founder of stitch fix Katrina up there and, she kind of baited her and said that his sources are saying that there are over 500 million in Revenue side I think a lot of people in the street didn't really believe there are that large, and then she said I can't talk about it but we aren't a billion dollars yet so that was really interesting cuz she. Not only was a denial about 500 it actually kind of put a bracket on it that simply said. I'm not going to deny 500 I'm going to say we're less than a billion so then it gave us kind of the sliding scale of somewhere between 500 million and 2 billion is kind of where they were so speculation was running rampant with that and then they hired a. CFO of the Hennessey low change and y La here we go boom the you know they're actually. 977 Million Dollar business this year which is. Pretty darn impressive there you're just as runs August to August I believe which is why they can talk about 2017 it's not over yet. So you know I think it's really interesting that here is this. Pretty big company like I'm in the billion-dollar Revenue Club here and then another thing that's interesting as it's pretty Capital efficient so it's profitable which is good and then also they raise between 40 and $59 in venture capital in a lot of these other billion dollar companies have raised hundreds of millions of dollars of capital so. [3:41] Really interesting case study they also talked about at the code conference that, you know they're there watching and other categories so they've launched men in that business in six months is where it took three and a half years for women and they watch plus and it's already doing it more in its first month, students first year so we had a lot of nice kind of little data points from that conference and then, you know the the s-1 launching has been pretty exciting to read through that but Jason I've read through it with a fine-tooth comb and are. Job in this hot take / deep dive is to pick up that you see parts for you guys and walk you through it. Jason:  [4:22] For sure and we're super lucky as a regular listeners will know Scott is the financial markets Guru amongst the two of us, partly because I'm completely inapt and partly because of you you actually took your own company successfully public and presumably learned a few things along the way so I'm hoping you can get things started by giving us all a primer in the IPO process, and I'm going to start you off with a question and I may have misread this but I had had to pick up a couple places that they may have filed. Earlier in the year confidentially and then there's all this talk this month about this them doing the s-1 filing was that a red herring is this in a new filing or are we just seeing what they filed back in. In July or August. Scot:  [5:13] Yeah the. [5:16] So what happened is the way IPOs worked before 2012 was you filed your S1 and everyone could see it and the super annoying because. That's ones go through usually like 10 or 20 drafts so you submit it and then the SEC is the government body that regulates these things will come back to you and I'll say, Jason what did you mean by that sending you don't answer and then I'll be like okay it while you need to tell potential investors that so there's this like back and forth also. You may not you may not know it's really the kind of a. Nonlinear risk point where you decide to file this one because you've really hung yourself out there and maybe have a bad court maybe you're talking to the SEC for 6 months it usually takes and yeah the back corner in there or, markets turn South so to help companies go public in 2012 they passed the jobs act which. Which does Stanford jobs but it actually stands for Jumpstart our business startups and what that allows you to do is date they separate the the filing so. As a startup and they're certain definitions around this you can choose to have a confidential filing so. We did ours we were totally confidential but I think stitch fix action now it's just that they had filed confidentially was just a signal. The car says it was their choice you can you can do that or not there's probably some reason they decided to do it. [6:44] So in July they announced that they had filed confidentially so would that allowed them to do is to work with their Bankers work with SEC get a quarter kind of under their belts and, then you expand I also let you see how other IPOs so in that time frame they were able to see how Blue Apron did for example or United Snapchat had gone public by then but they, I could see kind of how it worked so that that kind of. It's really nice because it gives you the ability if you want to you can actually kind of yank the filing and not go public financing of the kind of put themselves out there but it does help with this whole process so that's what that was all about. [7:27] So So yes it so we went public at Channel visor in 2013 did this whole process we did the confidential filing work with SEC and, actually use the same Bankers in the same banking team that song stitches could just, sent them a note and they said yep we're working on stitch excite I know exactly the kind of hell what's going to happen there it's going public is a very very exciting kind of a thing that sucks with lots of stress kind of power concert. Pretty interesting times and excited for for this company to get out we we haven't had a lot of IPOs in the market and in quite a while. [8:03] So [8:05] You know this is just one of the most-watched IPOs in a long time because we really haven't had a lot of e-commerce IPOs and then I posed that we've had kind of a dud larger digital world, how can I put two out there Snapchat they went public at a $30 price point in its now 15 and a blue apron when, public at 10 and is now five those are not really successful IPOs so so it should have come. Bad Dana Point out there then we have this company that I'm surprised everyone with the scale that it's at and there's this kind of. Waiting group of e-commerce and digital companies that are not be watching this and really closely and if this IPO can go off not only price well but staying well for for a year or two I think it means good things for this does not cohort of companies that are. Are probably ready to go so in there are the ones that that I kind of think about our you have wish which is the marketplace with largely Chinese Goods box Pinterest house Flipkart stripe. Fanatics instacart Warby Parker in Casper and Kendra Scott Kendra Scott's like more old school but I thought I'd throw it in there because it's kind of interesting. Most of these are unicorns which means they have received a billion-dollar private company valuation and you know any kind of thinks through the scale that they have to be at to do that. [9:27] Your bus is companies can have Revenue that are are very much north of a hundred million if not kind of closing in on 500 million in a billion dollars so they're definitely in that kind of class of companies that have the scale the growth brand to be able to go public. Also it's it's interesting cuz we don't have a lot of data on public e-commerce, that's because a lot of the ones that get ready to go public get snapped up by Amazon that's actually you know not out of the question that maybe Citrix doesn't actually make it public there's there still this is kind of the. [9:58] The about halfway point of that six-month process imagine before the end of the year though price and go out. [10:04] But a lot of times he's S1 stimulate buyers to come out kind of say this is my one time I have to buy this before it becomes public. [10:13] Can I take a new bladder so so why keep an eye on that. The the public companies that are out there there's only three so you have CafePress and Overstock and those are kind of. Micro Capstar kind of sub billion dollars the most successful public e-commerce company so around is Wayfair it has a six billion dollar market cap that's about two times its revenues I think. If you were going to hold my feet to the fire on stitch fix at a billion dollar Revenue. Growing 30% I think it probably is what's a 325 x multiple so I think we're going to see a a market cap. You know it does three to five billion range so much better multiple because it is much more subscription kind of recurring Revenue than you Seattle airfare which kind of has to sell. Everything each time so she Furniture you know I don't think you know in your life when you need furniture and then then you can out of the furniture business for a while. [11:13] Yeah yeah they're definitely you know just a different model but yet a lot lot better gross margins and net margins. And another thing I look at when I see these s ones from IPS perspective is what is the banking Syndicate the the blues to Blue Chip Banks are Goldman Sachs and Morgan, and what you do is when you look at the page and it actually put a digital copy of it even in the PDF or on the s-1 over with sec. There's different positions they mean different things the lead Banker gets this position is a larger font. There's all this kind of History around this that we can't going to but it's pretty interesting and. The. You guys look at the left first and the largest upper left is called lead left is Goldman Sachs and this example so Goldman Sachs is the The Bluest of Blue Chips. Yeah you know Jim Cramer calls them golden sacks slacks and another good company is they rarely do things with with Morgan Stanley those two kind of go head-to-head it's kind of like. [12:13] Oh I don't know Canton gun LG your two sports teams that are bitter rival State they look they usually don't do well together. [12:23] There you go there you and then. So you don't have Morgan Stanley on this week if you have JP Morgan which is very good bank and then you have Barclays RBC Stiefel Piper Jeffrey and William Blair and what will you do here is your thinking short and long-term sign, simultaneously, to the bank's you pick you want a great firm that's going to help you sell your IPO so they have relationships with the buyers of IPOs which are institutional buyers which tend to be hedge funds and mutual funds and. All these banks have that and they will do a great job selling this company. But then the secondary consideration is longer-term what you're trying to do is get a great internet analyst that are are great analyst this is called a cell site analyst dick in. Advanced buy-side analyst that your company is awesome and in public about it and you're in the show we talked a lot about you know these analyst we've had several on the show talking about the things that they report on and. Goldman Sachs you have all these guys have really good analyst and, many of them may be familiar with socks on the show so it will be interesting to see so he's Terry is the big guy e-commerce guy over Goldman Sachs I imagine that's who will cover it and, all down the line there there's some really good unless she wants to go public there's this waiting. And you have the analyst cover it and and it's good as a company to have. People that really understand your business out there banging the drum so that that's kind of what you do when you do the banking process last couple little points on the public market. Thinks there's ticker symbol is going to be S fix and they're going to raise $100 this is really just a placeholder what you do is you put out this initial draft and then you start to get reaction from. [14:04] From buyers are early reaction and then, as you see how the markets going you raise more and then you come up with your pricing and that kind of thing they're using their guitars to public market so you go on the New York Stock Exchange that's what we did at Chow visor they have chosen to go with the NASDAQ it's kind of a, six to one half dozen the other I do like the another aspect of an IPO it's a raising money kind of a thing and then it's a pyramid. And I do like the pr aspect of the New York Stock Exchange you get on CNBC get to ring the bell you're right there New York NASDAQ you just go and press a button at the NASDAQ Market Center in Times Square if so that's exciting in in grandiose, New York Stock Exchange. 22 is what we're going to run to hear is called the prospectus and that's the s-1 which is to the technical number given to these documents by the SEC. And it's only one. People read these aren't familiar with them they get really bogged down at the top the first 50 pages of an s-1 are really cya it's a bunch of lawyer stuff to keep people from suing so. Pass that stuff and don't get wrinkled up and it feels like this kind of effort lawyers called a parade of Horrors it's like literally a list of all the things, the wrong it is a really weird way to collect unit tell people about your company but it's just kind of the way it's done so. You know it's like everything that could possibly go wrong with your company and then you're like an end here's here's why we're so excited, it's really strange strange way to do it but it's done to reduce risk of litigation so skip to that and go right to the management discussion and usually there's a letter from the CEO so. [15:39] Yeah we'll put a link to this over on the SEC in the show notes or or like to download the PDF and use your fine function and go right to management discussion. Jason:  [15:50] Awesome tip let the record show channel advisor got to wake or ticker symbol then then the stitch fix it. Scot:  [15:59] Xperia S fix SF 49959, another thing that is good about this is we haven't had a lot of Billy dollar exits and e-commerce so if if my math right you again this could be hopefully north of Two And in that 325 range depending on how it prices. [16:25] There hasn't been a lot of VC investment in the e-commerce industry because we haven't had a lot of exits ovc dollars chase the exits, and exits are commonly referred to as liquidity events at the two most popular are acquisition or m&a and an IPO so just, quick history here. If some of the bigger one so we had in 2009 we had Zappos at i850 million Quincy diapers.com it 545 million that's Mark Laurie 1.0, and then we had Keva at 775 I don't know if I can count that as e-commerce but but I know this guy saw us let's talk about it 2012 Trunk Club which is very relevant to this one was acquired by Nordstrom for 350 million in 2014, that's not in the billion-dollar kind of close to Club but I thought I'd include it because of the proximity to stitch fix, and then. Mark Lori 2.0 soljet to Walmart for 4 billion on August 16th that guy had like a five five billion and just suck the last 4 years. It's pretty good. Shave club was acquired by Unilever for a billion and then Chewy was recently acquired by PetSmart for 3 billion, Zulily was an interesting one that kind of got the the double whammy so they went public I had about a three billion dollar valuation and then work wired that IPO didn't do well over time that's fatigue with our customer base, hot and then it was acquired by QVC for 2 and 1/2 2.4 billion in August of 2015. Seems like a lot when I say it like that but but since 2009 we've really had like 9 kind of exits 6 or so that are over that billion dollars. [18:03] And three of them were in the last 18 months this is an industry we really need a lot more of these kind of exits to keep venture capitalist investing so this is really important for industry I think we all are all need to be great for this to do really well and in kind of. Bring people back to the e-commerce fold-in Amazon his cast of pretty dark shadow when you talk to people that I know that are trying to raise money, you know they say it's Amazon question that really stops am at you every BC wants to know how is your five or ten million dollar company to go to survive in an Amazon world than now if this does well people and say well so I'm sure we can. That's some of the implications at a macro level. Jason why don't you would kind of gone a pretty long way without actually saying what's just fixed us why don't you bring people to speed on that. Jason:  [18:53] Yeah for sure so stitch fix is. You can think of is an apparel retailer they were founded in 2011 and they had what. I believe it was a novel concept back in 2011. They would sure ate a box of items for a customer and initially this was targeted just at women and so you would do a subscription and you can in that subscription you would get a box. Of 5 items of apparel and accessories and you could. [19:25] Cheap all some or none of the items in that box so essentially you paid $20 up front. Which was that sort of a styling fee the first time you use the service you fill out a survey so that the The Stylist can get your preferences they stitch fix picks five items they think you'll like and want to keep, they send them to you if you like him you pay for him if you keep all five you get a 25% discount if you just want to keep some of them you pay for him and send back what you don't want, if you like none of them you can send the whole box back and you're just out the $20 styling fee and I should mention the styling fee is waived if you keep any of the items. [20:04] I'm so back in 2011 this is the founder of Katrina Lake like literally. Getting customers to pay her for a box she would go shopping at Nordstroms by things know what the return policy was at Nordstrom's. Send them to the customer and the customer and keep them she would return them to the the retailers that she bought them from so she's. She's managing all these sort of return she's almost like a personal concierge, for the Shoppers and she turn this into a very significant Automated Business so over time that that business model is sort of evolved. Initially it was subscription-only and you could kind of pic. The frequency of the subscription you can get a box every month every other month every six months you know I'm a different set of periods. They they. [20:54] Shifted to a model where you can still can have that subscription but you can also just order a fix on demand so you since you don't have the pressure of a box showing up when you don't need one and whenever you feel like you just need to refresh your wardrobe. I want something new to you you can go online hit the fix button then and I'll send you a new box. Originally they were all selling other people's products, and they they started to develop their own Brands what they they call it exclusive Brands and so now portion of the, the products in the Box are coming from stitch fix which will talk more about it later they also added men's much more recently in Ascot mentioned the men's products scaled-up much more rapidly they've also offered plus size boxes, and I think the newest offering is maternity boxes and so all of this from a CEO Katrina Lake who's now. 34 years old which is pretty impressive. You know we're talking about the rare of 1 billion dollar e-commerce exits in the the relatively small number of of e-commerce companies that successfully doing lipo when you talk about those companies that are led by a woman CEO. It's it's like even extremely more rare which is I think exciting and and pretty awesome so you. If you were to read her letter in the s-1 she kind of highlights. [22:26] The Three core principles of the business right the first one is that they're always customer-centric that they're always focusing first on the needs of their customer. Number two, personalization is the future we'll be talking a lot about that and number three they think they have this unique combinations of humans and data and they have made some very substantial investments in AI which will be talking about and they think that unique combination of humans and data are better together than either. Human stylist or artificial intelligence is by itself so that. In a nutshell is the business order effects get these byproducts keep what you want. Send back what you don't and I would argue that it spawned a large industry of similar competitors. In the same category as in an other categories like Children's Apparel for example before we go too much further, do you want to dive into how they they were funded by once they got beontra Tina's original Nordstrom's credit card. Scot:  [23:32] Yeah yeah and she used to work at Poly where I don't know if you ever met her back when she was there at the podium for founder is an ex eBay guy that I've met several times and so she was she was kind of early on in this this whole industry to start with c. Pretty pretty neat that sheep spun out of that and it's. Effectively lap them I think at this point so I share your enthusiasm for female Founders and see is I think it's great the only other guy was kind of what he said that the only one I could think of. Was Meg Whitman at eBay I can't think of another you know kind of a the CEO female CEO kind of in our industry. [24:10] Yeah the IPO level so they are capital efficient and you. The sky saying they only raise 45 million you know it is interesting because 45 million is no no that's not chump change but you know it takes a lot of capital to build a business like this and I think. How many billion dollar businesses have soaked up your I said it before but 100 200 300 million to build a good almost take. 500 million pop service is very impressive and so the funding history. In 2011 Lightspeed Ventures did a seed round. [24:52] 2013 two headed around from Baseline and then very quickly on top of that and and, so I was in February 13th and then in October 13th at a 12-9 Darby with Benchmark and then Benchmark is the company is one of the Blue Chip VC's in the Bay Area, girly a bill girly is on their board from their heat that that's one of the firms that did eBay and Yahoo in the early days, I also an outspoken Uber investor and then they did a series C. In the sea 24 in 14th 6, teen ceduna 14 and then dated a top off kind of in 2017 of 12 million and, I just called a mezzanine round so ABC and mezzanine for those who that haven't raised Venture Capital with the way it works is in an IPO the same way you. You issue new shares so each time that kind of value the company at a pretty money you added this Capital you get a post money and then you get diluted I mention this because I saw a lot of conversations on Twitter when you look at the ownership. You end up with Baseline at 28% Benchmark 25% light speed at 11% and then Katrina Lake the founder at 16%, there's obviously a case there that says that's not fair Katrina should own 80% of this as a founder of you, we are doing is kind of making this bet on your is Venture Capital you get you get more than just Capital but just kind of keep it to that conversation you're making this. [26:27] To you when I take this 45 million and give up you know 85% of the company there should be a bigger outcome then if I didn't do that and. You're clearly these kind of cases you take her 16% you multiply it by that that 3 billion you get like 450 million kind of evaluation of her ownership, I probably the right choice but you don't you never know the other side of the outcome you know maybe if she'd bootstrapped this and waited 5 more years it would actually she could own 80% of it and have just a bigot as an outcome in fast-moving markets where you have, companies like Amazon swimming around its speed that is definitely something that that takes is probably a good choice to raise capital for. And then sink that covers. Big pieces so we don't want to get too bogged down in the financial stuff but Jason do you want to hit some of their revenue highlights. Jason:  [27:23] Yeah so they've had an ice hockey stick which is I think one of the things that that has caught a lot of folks attention 2014, they they reported 73 million dollars in Revenue, 2015 the ramped up to three hundred forty-two million dollars in Revenue 2016 they they doubled at 2 730 million dollars in revenue and in their fiscal year 2017 which is over as you mentioned they were just under a billion dollars at 7977 million dollars which. Parenthetically has to has to kill them that they didn't quite get over that. That be so so it's been a pretty good ramp up and, several of those years were profitable it looks like they they ramped up some expenses in 2017 and maybe weren't as profitable. Scot:  [28:17] Yeah and then the growth rates to just look at the growth rate between 14 and 15 like almost 400% growth so crazy but that was exciting time to be there and then from 15 to 1613 per cent growth death definitely Torrid but not as crazy as 400%, and then between 16 and 1734 per cent and in this is where you know what I'm imagining happened is that kind of said. Yeah should we go raise a $59 in turn around or should we just slow the growth rate get profitable and prove the model. This is interesting decision because what most pundits would tell you is while she loves growth so if they could have. I have gone public at 100% growth rate that probably would have been a different outcome than 34% but you know I think in hindsight it may actually. [29:09] Better that they're growing a little bit slower and more profitable because with the. I mentioned it the the Snapchat problems and questions around their ability to get profitable and then Blue Apron kind of hitting the skids. I think this is this ends up being a nice balance between growth and profitability of so so it will have to kind of see how it prices and then you know. What I'm engine is if they. Delray's over north of $100 that gives you a quite a bit of jet fuel to get that that engine going back up so I bet very quickly they'll try to get back to triple-digit growth building unnoticed looking at some of the numbers they don't. [29:47] The NEP now they don't specifically breakout sales and marketing or art effectively, marketing but I do kind of wrap it up into a number that has gnats GM and that is actually growing a good bit faster than Revenue so, between in 2016 840 per cent versus Revenue at 1:13 and then in 2017 and grew 55% versus 34% in. What you will you see inside a subscription models is in the early days you know it's you can you find your early adopters and it's pretty inexpensive too. Get to them but then as you grow your having spend more and more and more on the acquisition of of customers are the metric commonly known as cat that cost to acquire customer. Did you see any other metrics around that Jason. Jason:  [30:35] Yeah it was like I was the one of the really interesting things is are they. Capturing repeat customers and what's the lifetime value of those those customers, so they they did share a couple of things to give us some insight into that they they reported what they called this repeat rate which is. The percentage of customers from the previous year that purchase in the subsequent year and so they're sitting in in. [31:05] 2016 that was 83% and in 2017 that was 86% which sound pretty good, they also did this kind of convoluted cohort analysis that I'm going to rely on you to try to decode if anyone is cuz I I frankly didn't follow it it didn't seem quite as an. [31:28] As straightforward as I might have expected on one hand but on the flip side I guess I was pleasantly surprised that they tried to get some disability to that at all. Scot:  [31:39] Yeah and what you're trying to do coordinate a Caesar are very confusing because, we're trying to do think of it like a graduating class so teach your graduating class let's say you had a bunch of seniors that graduated in 2017 from high school, and then you followed him through college and the rest your life and you kind of saw what happened to those people that's a cohort analysis secret you lock in time this group of customers acquired from a certain. And you see what happens to them. So The first thing to do in the cohort analysis is they they look at a 2014 cohort and they show the value from that Court was 639. [32:19] And then the value of its dollar so than the value of a 2015 cohort with 718 so I think it is a fault this 14 people. [32:28] From 14 15 16 17 and they said those guys generated 639 / user / that life. [32:36] And they followed him and they said that. That actually went up pretty nicely you know about I will see what is that 10% in so that's good that shows inside of that cohort what you have is a lot of factors you have to learn so it's people that say. I tried this I'm no longer going to use it. It's more complicated in these models that do you have the on-demand like when does someone turn maybe they're on an annual plan you have to wait a whole year to see if they've turned maybe they're there every two years they want to get a fix or no. If someone moves from a monthly to accordingly that's not really churn so you. It gets really hard to measure turn so inside of that 10% increase you have some customers they're leaving but then you also have some customers that are buying more. So what their kind of saying here is the customers that end up buying more. Hope you're over Road by about 10% economically. The factors of turnt that's what's the story they're trying to tell I'd it's interesting I bet you know we don't have privy to this but I bet if we looked at the initial as when they filed this wasn't here and this is a reaction to Blue Nile to Napoli now but Blue Apron. Yeah I just felt like my at yeah it felt very much like a oh crap we have to really kind of figure out explain to people what's going on here. Then if you take that data point then they kind of looks and looks like the 16 cohort came down a bit and then they start looking at some of the first half's and what you see there and they had a little blurb in their hair that said. [34:07] The call in first half of a year so it's kinda like the six months. [34:13] Piece of the second six months they show you some of that and it's really fun and loaded so what happens is people by a fair amount in the first six months and then it kind of declines there, Ina, they talk about it as an opportunity it's also kind of weakness but it's not fair to do for them to get better with the data science this mirrors personal my wife. That was a stitch fix user had it for about four or five months and you have by the end of their had had. [34:41] Acquired enough clothes in it was kind of burned out by the processor forgetting to return it and getting fees and all this kind of stuff so hopefully something a little bit of yellow flag something they need to work on when I do my mask. [34:54] They give you just enough kind of figure this out so this is the first half of 2016 is 3:35 but then the total was like an essay. 5061 FM 506 so that when you do the math in the second half is 154 if so. [35:10] Literally dropped by half over at the pier to be here so let's see what that be 2/3 would be in the front half and then a third on the back half so interesting kind of. Trend air it's not clear how much that Stern and I got two people saying I don't want to box it all or how much is you filled up their wardrobe in their closet they're good to go. Jason:  [35:31] Yep and I I guess I should have mentioned another potential way to think about this is we did not mention the growth interactive customer base but, the back in 2014 when they did 73 million and sales they had 261,000 active customers with their defining as. Someone that bought a box in the latter the received the box in the last 12 months and if you look at their growth of active customers. [35:56] At the end of 2017 they are like almost 2.2 million active customers so the the growth has been. Year-over-year it is always the same order of magnitude as their revenue growth but it it has been slower. Then the revenue growth so that the the fact that they're the revenue is growing faster than active customers. [36:21] The week like on the surface looks like a good thing because it that that implies that they're they're driving greater Revenue per customer as as they get a a bigger and more mature customer base. Scot:  [36:31] Yeah yeah yeah I agree in, I have a feeling that as they do their Roadshow so wanting to keep an eye out for if if this is topics interesting for you, when you do your road show you actually have to record it and it's part of the SEC rules that anyone can watch the road show so it's on Retail Road show if you go to Retail Road show.com you will find that, don't be a window of time in any sings expire pretty quickly so but Jason I will treat when it's up in what you have there probably is Katrina and probably the CF oh and maybe someone else maybe the cool actually walking you through the Roadshow and I. Bats that they have to peel out a little bit more information cuz I think investors are going to be very keenly tied into this and trying to understand really what I think. I think that's the one piece missing hearing and people don't want to know that so it's me an option to see if they have to disclose that. Jason:  [37:28] When are there fun tidbits when you were talking about this this sales and marketing spend they did mention in the ass one that they actually hired miller-brown to do this aided awareness study so essentially in like May of are in December 2016, they went out and interviewed a bunch of women that were in their target market which are women are making over $50,000 a year that live in us and said, are you familiar with stitch fix and 28% of the women that they surveyed said yes in, in December of 2016 so then in May of 2017 after they sort of double that adds fan that aided awareness went up to 41%. [38:11] Like I would take it away Ernest with a pretty large grain of salt. Cuz you're you're asking someone if they remember if they're from they were something in a lot of people will just frankly lie because they don't want to say, they're not friendly with something but if it's true that that 41% of their target market are now from there with them. Like that implies that the the next big tranche of growth is probably harder to achieve than the. The last one was cuz it's it's a heck of a lot easier to go from 20% to 41% then it is to go from 41% to 75%. Scot:  [38:50] Absolutely yeah yeah and then I Delray had an interesting article about talking about how you know it's really kind of a non Coastal audience I don't know, is data that really supported that but I think when you get too many people you have to kind of be spreading out to the Midwest and what not so interesting. Jason:  [39:06] Yeah and I think part of it is just that their price points are like these are not like, super premium price points and you know in general these are not Designer level Apparel in so it's, you know it's it's meant for sort of a more modest consumers and I think there was even I can't remember was in the interview or something that Katrina said recently but she talked about that they at one point had a pretty bad. Inventory glitch where they weigh over bought and the, the root cause of over buying the wrong inventory was it they were buying sort of on-trend stylish stuff and their customers were we're responding that they didn't keep any of the items because they were inappropriate to wear at the PTA meeting for example or that you know, the the the sort of everyday occasions that their customers were we're hoping to use the products for it so I think that that helped Define the. The Target in the use case for Katrina. Scot:  [40:08] Yeah that and that's a really good kind of transition to the AI machine learning in the personalization it's this is kind of a it's really interesting weed from that perspective I've never, you seen anything quite like it so and I know you spend some time on it so it should take us to that. Jason:  [40:23] Yeah yeah it so it's it's almost hard to talk about machine learning and personalization separately Katrina and her in her letter talked about those. Tubing Big premises personalization is super important and then machine learning plus humans you know being the secret sauce, and the reason it's hard to talk about separately is because largely what you're doing with machine learning is. [40:47] More personalizing the the offer in case the actual products to each customer. [40:55] So I do want to start by talking a little bit about this how they use AI overall, so you fill out a 60 question survey and then they want to pick the five items that you are most likely to keep and they said they don't have a standard starter box so it's not like they're sending the same box to everyone. Everyone's box is going to be different based on current trends. Seasons what they have in inventory right now and the the answers to the 60 Questions that they know about you and so one way to do that is have a stylus that. Read your 60 questions and then have him or her go pick the five items in another way to do it is to to use some sort of algorithm to pick those items in so initially, the the model at stitch fix was let's establish a computer algorithm to pick those items and then lets it let the stylist. [41:54] Override it so we know what will pull up a list of candidate items for The Stylist and maybe you know that has eight items in it and you let the stylus pick the final five or maybe that the algorithm shows the first. 5 in the stylus can say yay or nay but interesting Lee. Early on they hire this guy Eric Olsen to be their Chief algorithm officer and build this Audrey them to figure out what you you send in that first box based on the answers to your survey and. Eric is an interesting guy because he was literally the VP of data science at Netflix which we all use as one of the best examples of. AI driven businesses I think he was also a data scientist a Yahoo to a super credible guy that's been working at stitch fix on the this interesting answer to this question. How do I pick the five right things to send to this first customer so that sticky so that she buy some of them so that you're she's profitable but also said that she keeps using the service, cuz it does first five items are wrong your your odds of getting another chance or dramatically lower. So then they're also going to use a I once you. [43:06] Pick some of those first items and don't pick some of those first items they're going to use that data to refine the items they send you in subsequent boxes and that's where they start getting this really valuable contextual data that's both implicit and explicit like they, implicitly know you return something and they can make inferences about why you returned it but there's also an option for customers to tell. The Stylist why they didn't like something until they get this explicit information the him was too long it didn't fit me well. All all of these sorts of things and so very early on situation was a believer in leveraging deep learning. As the merchant instead of heading human sort of dictate what styles customers would get exposed to which Tamiya super interesting. But then in more recent times it actually taking it to the next level so we mentioned. That they started watching their own products and I'm not sure we said this but if it sounds like about 20% of all their sales are from what they call Exclusive Brands which are predominantly. Brands that they created and they're actually using AI to design the products they offer and so what they'll do is they'll say hey. We have a big segment of customers that don't like a neckline lower than. 8 cm and the majority of product we buy from third parties have this 10cm neckline and so we're going to design your own product and it's going to have a 7cm neckline and said they're actually using their they broke each. [44:45] Each piece of apparel into 60 different attributes and they're using a guy to define the attributes that their customers would want that might not exist in that Marketplace in so they're using that too to dictate what what new products. [44:59] The build which is super cool they had not that I have seen disclose any. Hard data about how successful that AI is or how successful that AI versus a human is but another in RF event there the interest x on it in San Diego this year and one of the speakers was this woman Megan Rose, and Megan is the founder of a a smaller company that in some ways is stitch fix for jewelry it's called Rockbox and. Very similar to stitch fix you get a box of five pieces of jewelry to keep what you want you buy it. You return what you don't want the others extra model where you can kind of rent The Jewelry by just keeping it for as long as you want until you want a new piece, but they also are leveraging aai's their stylist and what I found interesting is Megan shared some of the statistics that when they transitioned, from Human curators to machine learning the purchase rate on the first box increase by 300% so that that computer was. 3 times more likely to pick items that that customer would keep they were able to improve their inventory efficiency by 85% when they went to the the AI BAE Systems and they they still cheap stylist but they have the. The way I am. [46:20] Inform the stylist exactly like stitch fix is doing and that enabled them to reduce their stylist cost by 30% so. stitch fix is getting anything like those results that's super substantial. [46:34] Improvement via this machine learning and what's terrifying about it and cool at the same time is. [46:42] If you had a great stylist a great person picking all these products, and she kept doing it and should get better over time and the first time she reads a survey she gets it you know I'm kind of right but by the, thousand times she's read a survey she's much better at it right like this the person wouldn't learn over time and her hit rate would keep getting better but then when you hire the next person. [47:04] They would start at zero just like the first person did right and the magic thing about this that this machine learning algorithm is. [47:13] It has learned from all two point, two million customers of stitch fix and it keeps getting better and better and so it it's scales much better and we worms much faster than a human can come in so you don't potentially the more customers in the more time in service all these things get in the better of the algorithms get, the the the profitability metrics on this business potentially keep going up. Much faster because the conversion rate just gets better over time whereas a lot of other things we do tend to regress to this mean and you kind of keep the same. Same conversion rate over time so it's going to be super interesting to see you know if the actual performance of the company kind of bear out. Does hypothesis is but for sure a hypotheses I always say that wrong for sure. Ate a significant angle of stitch fix is. Personalizing the offer based on this machine learning I think they said they have over 75 data scientist on staff now. We used to joke because every time Katrina would speaking an event the number of data scientist she claimed, had that double then it it almost didn't sound credible but now that we see the the. Numbers behind the business it it turns out that we probably should have been joking cuz it seems like they're all sort of credible number isn't in line with the the revenue growth that they've they've been experiencing. Scot:  [48:44] Yeah one of those things I thought was interesting as they also have a section in there that talks about. Their usage of data science and the obvious one is you went through all this The Styling algorithm, and then they also talked about nustyle development and then what you covered another one is so they have something like how many was it was 3,400 Stylistics. [49:08] Yeah there's a human stylist so, actually have the kannada matchmaking algorithm and so this data science will actually kind of say you know maybe, maybe some The Stylist our new moms and I'll map you up with other new moms so I don't know what day they're looking at but that that's kind of cool and then these 3400 Silas, many of them are part-time so I don't know how the interface works I've seen Amazon. Do this with customer care, you do the thing where you can kind of check-in check-out and and then there's an online your face where you can kind of do whatever style posting things they do did they talk about an application in the s-1 about, I thought that was interesting kind of a matchmaking is how to use data science that use a lot of demand forecasting so you know. Understanding. [49:56] This is is interesting because they send all these products out right so the return rate is pretty important and it's not entirely clear to me what happens to all the stuff. The comes back out of it goes in other people's boxes or what happens but there's some demand forecasting that has to happen there, and then there's merchandising optimization which is. Understanding how to order what size color and style kind of information and even talked about they use a lot of data science in the filming centers in a used one example they have five fulfillment centers so there's a matching of, which people go to which data which fulfillment center and then also they optimize inside the Fulfillment center using the data science for pick path optimization so I thought it was interesting that they've, this YouTube Don't this engine and they're using it in like I bought this at like 7 or 8 different, parts of the business so there's really good scale from those 75 data scientist. Jason:  [50:53] Yep and we should mention I think they filed a number of patents as a result of all this right like they have something like eight eight pending patent application. Scot:  [51:01] Yeah I also thought it's interesting day they love data science but they also talk about there's a human kind of check elements I guess you know. I guess maybe something has arrived at these things sometimes like it want everyone thinks they need purple socks or something that don't have humans to catch them. Jason:  [51:19] Yeah I interpret that is twofold like that there is sort of the final check but I also think that they have decided that customers respond better. To a human interaction so I think, the reason that that one of those core principles is AI plus humans is you know there's a lot of businesses where they would just try to get the AI really right and have a very impersonal experience, and you know just have to let the customer know the computer is selecting these items for you I think the stitch fix model is. That they would like you to build a relationship with that stylist and rely on that stylist as a person, and if you're going to fight or stitch fix I think they want you to feel like you're firing your friend Susan who's your stylist not just fire firing some. [52:06] Some computer that's that using math to pick out that's for you and so I think the human element both has a practical element but I also think it has a strong marketing branding element for them as well. Scot:  [52:19] Yet they get this really interesting case study and then we can move on from machine learning they said one example or Delila embroidery neckline knit top is purchased 52% of the time, and then what's interesting is are algorithms, I can determine How likely a client is up to 80% to purchase the item if we include it in that's in her specific fix them so they can kind of show the power of the you know if you just blast it out to everyone you get 52% but if you can like use the machine learning. Machine engine you get like a order of magnitude higher conversion rate which is pretty neat to your point on the, what they're saying about the machine learning stuff is it used to be in that venture capitalist would look for your eyes looking for a company that has a bit of an unfair advantage and that unfair Advantage used to be Network effects, you like marketplaces are the kings of this like eBay or buyers Springs more sellers is this network effect LinkedIn the more people social. [53:19] That works out this too but now it's interesting is those that data on 2 million clients and think about all the. The transactional data there's there's probably I don't know zillions of Dana Point's there. Any company even an Amazon that has to compute these guys that they're going to have to climb that mountain so it makes it really really hard for a startup to catch up, you pretty quickly dwindle down the number of Cups companies that, eat here too but maybe three or four you can have maybe a Macy's and end their advantage would be they have more customers so they can get to that two million pretty quickly so. Pretty interesting application of machine learning and I think this will be the first machine learning IPO that I've I'm aware of so that'll be another kind of neat thing and that it's also in our space of e-commerce. Jason:  [54:06] Until I mean two things I would just highlight there that. [54:11] I think they're trying to generate you know a version of a virtuous cycle here or an Amazon flywheel that they. [54:19] Significantly invested in their own machine learning Tech and so that they have that capability that we just covered but they also have a business model that just gets them more. Valuable data right so if you think about it and most apparel manufacturers are totally disintermediated from the customer so they get. No data from their actual customers and even if you're a retailer or even if you're a vertically integrated retailer your the Gap and you make all this stuff and you sell it through your stores once it leaves your store for the most part it's gone and you don't you have a return rate you wanted to be as low as possible, but you really you know this this try-before-you-buy send them five things get back what they don't love. Get you a much more valuable data source so the fact that they both. Have this more valuable data and then they have proprietary technology to act on that that data is a potential flywheel for them. [55:19] Oh, I still think it's interesting and somewhat controversial the amount of investment they made in the the. [55:29] The core machine learning technology right like so I could imagine when they they say. Started this in 2011 and I assume that machine learning came in a couple years after that 2013 you could look at it the state of what was out in the market and say if I'm going to be good at this have to build it myself and if I wanted to be a core competency I need to. To build it myself and for sure you need your own experts but. [55:52] The last five years have seen such a huge Improvement and evolution of the off-the-shelf tools that it almost certainly has to be the case that. These guys have spent a bunch of money building their own machine learning tools that are frankly probably inferior to the the version of tensorflow the Google gives you for free today and so it. It is they may have been a little early in the curve having expertise about their data and about the the. Applying machine learning models to their data and having a unique data set seems like a huge competitive Advantage I imagine some smart people could debate about how valuable their their investment in their own. [56:40] Machine learning technology was versus leveraging some of the the amazing technology that's coming on the market now but but I'm not sure whatever know the real answer there. Scot:  [56:49] Yeah, tell if a competitor can get there with a lot less and catch up then it was worth it get a couple of anything else on machinery. [57:04] A couple other, miscellaneous little tidbits they talk a lot about being a good brand partner in this one so they they talk about they have over 700 brand partners and some of those brand selected to provide some exclusives in in the stitch fix this and then as Jason mentioned they do have their own private label and they call that exclusive brands, I am Jason Howard debating my reed was 20% of fish stitch fix his exclusive Brands were were privately, 20% of everything was their own private label but you kind of red it is 20% could be kind of including those non stitch fix brand Partners exclusive thanks. Jason:  [57:44] Yeah they did mention that that some third-party Brands give them exclusive products and so like I'm quite aware that 20% of stuff that stitch fix design or a combination of stuff that's only sold by stitch fix. Scot:  [57:56] Yeah and this reminds me of our Amazon private label discussion where where. Part of Amazon's private label strategy is there their data science is saying look we need a widget like this and no one's doing it you know we need batteries that come. 24 to a box and not in a packaging that you can open and quantity 8 so interesting to see that. Another little tidbit is so they talked about Outsourcing the manufacturing of that private label called exclusive brands, but in 2017 they actually acquired a pretty large thing as 20,000 square-foot facility that's actually an apparel making. The equipment and & Company in Pennsylvania somewhere so it it felt like they were going to go all the way over to clean the grading and start actually making their own things and United States which is pretty interesting. Jason:  [58:45] Yeah although I do think in the s-1 they they made it very clear that the right you should not expect them like to actually fabricate in the US that they wanted some capability in the US for experimenting purposes but the like. [58:59] You should not invest in them based on the premise that they were going to become a US manufacturer. Scot:  [59:04] Yeah and then people wise they have. Pretty impressive 5800 people total 86% identify as female so that it is, pretty amazing what you put 55% of the management team to have 5 helmet centers / 1.5 million-square-foot 1,500 employees in the Fulfillment centers, 3400 Silas 200 client experience Associates million customers that's like what does that 1 / 100 no a thousand. Yeah so that's good ratio there did you dream team is actually pretty small I was surprised 95 Engineers so that's. [59:44] Pretty lean mean for kind of scale they're at and Sadie I guess the 75 data scientist get it closer to effectively. 150 which is closer to what I would think it would be so that's how the people break out largest chunk is the stylist and then the Fulfillment center employees followed by. You know the client experience Associates and then a relatively small Engineering in data science team. Jason:  [1:00:09] Yep and this was not surprising I suspect to you or I but I still talk to a lot of people that aspired to be a billion dollar e-commerce business and they still imagine that they're doing that out of a single fulfillment center. Scot:  [1:00:24] Yeah no. Jason:  [1:00:26] And I at yeah I mean yeah. Not very possible and I'm like this is a perfect example of what you know again at their they're not at a billion dollars yet and there and they they have a customer-facing business where humans interacting with every customer and yet still the largest portion of their, their workforces you know that are close to the the second largest piece of those Workforce it as all those fulfillment employees. Scot:  [1:00:51] Yeah I wanted more information on, fulfillment centers just because again I imagine that that almost every box comes back with something so imagine the it's the reverse supply chain that I'll Eat You Alive on the stuff so. Jason:  [1:01:09] Reverse Logistics are much more, challenging than I mean things are very hard to reverse Logistics are in order of magnitude harder in your right like that's cooked into this model is there's always going to be a high level of reverse Logistics so that that would be an interesting area to have some unique competitive advantages and if they do they they haven't pitched them very hard. Scot:  [1:01:30] Yeah and the day of science didn't necessarily cover that and you know, Gillett Wisconsin to it so what cities send out of too many customers let's say every month they send out a million boxes will probably less a900. Thousand come back with at least one item coming back so I'm have all of them but you know that's hard someone needs to go through there and figure out all that out you kind of know but you have to match it up happens to it. I don't, do the brands allow them to kind of like put it back, or do you have to liquidate it and then does each of these fulfillment centers have an outbound peace and an inbound if they put it back on a shelf that's like a whole it's really super inefficient to like open a bunch of boxes and put all that stuff on shelves that doesn't seem logical that I have a lot of kind of questions around that I bet. probably the Harry part of this thing. Jason:  [1:02:21] And there is like so I think this is more rumor than real problems but so all of these industries are plagued with a little bit of the like. [1:02:30] Oh wait a minute is this close stuff that already got returned from some other retailer right and that. The fuel gets playing there several of these services and I think including stitchfix have at some point shipped products that arrived at a customer's location with another retailers price tag on it. [1:02:50] Right and that you know puts all kinds of questions in the in the mind of the consumer and you start wondering like waiter is this a TJ Max kind of play where they're getting the. The leftover stuff from some some retard where they couldn't sell and then their there they're selling it at at you know predominantly with price which is part of the reason I have such good margins. The. And and the explanation that that stitch fix gave and I think you know this is blown over several years ago now was no no no no we're not getting anything. Back from a retailer that were selling a customer but sometimes we buy something from a brand and we've had a brand make a mistake and send this inventory that was pre labeled. With another retailers labels on it before and so that you know then then created that whole set of conversation. Scot:  [1:03:38] Do you feel like the brands would let them return the stuff. Jason:  [1:03:41] I think you could I thought I do think Brands would let them take returns and resell it I doubt any brands are getting them stock balancing you know you like. [1:03:53] There's very little stock balancing in a pair of these days where you can actually just return stuff that doesn't sell you know they're there often can be some sort of negotiated terms where that the inventory doesn't turn gets. [1:04:06] Gets tossed reduced overtime and you get some price concessions and things that way but yet no I think. [1:04:15] That that stitch fix probably feels like a pretty traditional retailer in, having a match their supply to demand as well as they can and then having how to start a smart strategy for liquidating the inventory that they're not able to sell. So I thought you know I think the date they pay some of the same Challenges ever no spaces there I did there's one other. [1:04:41] I think that the s-1 reminded us up but we but we could have known before this stitch fix is running on an Amazon web services. Scot:  [1:04:49] Yeah yeah it sucks so does Netflix and always makes me wonder like do they sleep at night we're going to Amazon can you. [1:04:57] I don't think Amazon would ever do this but there's the potential for someone to Cana, take a little peek in there and see what's going on under the hood so that that would it's like one of those very very tricky situations there's not really a great Alternatives that I have found two but you know you're kind of your funding and your competitor and your competitor has potential access to your your secret sauce. Jason:  [1:05:20] Yeah and even if they had no access even if they're completely aboveboard and they would never look at the data you are you're still funding your competitor. Scot:  [1:05:30] Absolent yep so that's Amazon wins no matter what. Jason:  [1:05:36] I would prefer the record I would say like I mean AWS is a great service there's lots of reasons to use it it does to me feel like Microsoft with Azure in Google with Google Cloud platform like have some pretty competitive offerings these days. Scot:  [1:05:50] Yeah yeah once you kind of get married in the one who sings it's a little bit of a roach motel it's hard hard to check out. [1:05:56] Degree architecture at some level that you have to do so Jason was kind of. Land plane here with what do you think so we've gone through a lot of highlights and some impressive scale on Revenue growth slowed in a little bit, can't look like it's going up a little bit I'll TV hard to call with the cohort analysis looks like it's a little challenged on the back half of the first year, what's your conclusion Justice IPO mean that the subscription Commerce is the future or or or what do we look like your. Jason:  [1:06:26] Yeah well said to me that's a that's a funny question the. [1:06:32] Yeah we should have we should have mentioned earlier when you talked about it to some of these previous companies there there have. [1:06:38] In the past been these tranches where there was some trendy fatty thing in a bunch of companies had an exit based on that fad right and said the most most obvious recent one would be flash sales you know everyone got up. Advanced evaluation and a bunch of flash flash sale companies had. Had favorable exits in the beginning and less favorable exits at the end and you know today it's pretty clear that there's not a very exciting market for Standalone flash sales that you don't potentially that. A tactic that a retailer would have but it certainly isn't of itself a business model and so when I look at these guys if. [1:07:17] If you're evaluating them on the basis of subscription being the winning model. I think subscription is more likely to be a trend like flash sales I think it's a super valuable tactic. That retailers are smart to use but I don't think that the winning formula in e-commerce is just to go all in on subscriptions and part of the reason I think that is. Most of the companies we think of as subscription model businesses have. Why do they had to abandon their subscription model in order to be successful right and so you know stitch fix. Is a very Soft Cell on the subscription model like they started out subs

This week we concentrate on one of the largest variables in the life of a San Franciscan: Costume acquisition. Fortunately for all concerned, that part got cut out and we focused on our public transportation system - catigorically, the Municipal Transportation Agency known as MUNI, and specifically, our beloved cable cars (Parenthetically, cable car driver Franky Givens). We start with some transportation-centric updates including MUNI heritage weekend on September 24th & 25th; we talk about the numbered days of our beloved tear-off bus transfers; and we read an unsolicited email touting the greatness of SK (Thanks Mom). We eventually get around to interviewing Franky "Cable Car" Givens and learning about the dark and seedy underbelly of America's only mobile national landmark. He explains the workings of the brakes and cable grip, the bell ringing and the money collecting, and, most importantly, the secret joy of sending tourists home with PTHD. So if you want to learn about our plucky little cable cars that climb halfway to the stars tune in to Sparkletack. If you want to kill an hour with marginally entertaining SF transportation stories, we still can't help you.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Ephesians 6:1-3 and how children must honor their parents through obedience, by the Spirit's power. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Introduction This morning we're going to be looking in our continuing study in the book of Ephesians, in chapter 6:1-3, which you just heard Brad read. For me, I love biographies. I love missionary biographies. I love the heroic spread of the Gospel, some of which I just prayed about a moment ago. The Life of John Paton One of the most moving biographical accounts I've ever read or heard about is the story of John Paton, the courageous Scottish missionary to the cannibal infested islands of the New Hebrides in the mith century in the South Pacific. Through Paton's influence, 3500 cannibals, through his direct influence, 3500 cannibals renounced their heathenism for Christ in the tiny island of Aneityum where he poured out his labors. In Fiji, 79,000 cannibals were converted by missionaries that he mobilized mostly from Australia. 79,000 converted. In Samoa, 34,000 cannibals professed Christianity through the labors of those same missionaries. In the New Hebrides where he focused his attention, which is a chain of islands, 12,000 were converted, and he said 133 of them were trained, specially trained, raised up, and sent out as missionaries to their own people. Amazing fruitfulness in an overwhelmingly challenging and terrifying situation because a mere 18 years before he arrived there in 1858, in 1840 the first two missionaries to the island of Tanna, where he first began his missionary service, were clubbed to death and cannibalized immediately on the beach in the full view of the ship that brought them. 18 years later, he got on a boat and went to that same exact island with amazing courage. And he risked his life, his family. His wife died, his child died, he himself, 18 times stricken with fevers, the exact same fever that took the life of his wife. And with amazing courage, for those many, many years, led so many people to Christ. What are the roots of John Paton's character, his courage, his calling as a missionary? How can we understand what led to that kind of character, what led to a man like that? And I would have to say at the human level, in large measure, it was his relationship with his father, James Paton. James Paton was a poor tradesman who raised his 11 children in the Scottish, Calvinistic heritage that he had inherited. Raised 11 children. He himself yearned to be a minister of the Gospel but providentially was prevented from doing so. And so, he entrusted himself to the Lord and poured himself into his family. When John was born, he and his wife, metaphorically, laid him on the altar before God with prayer, and dedicated him to the Lord's service that, if God saw fit, he could be a missionary of the cross. He did that just days after he was born, after John was born. And then this godly father bathed John in prayer as he was growing up, every day, family altar, solid doctrine, an intellectual depth to their faith that was unmatched. Also, the Covenanters heritage of martyrdom also was preached and taught in that household. Their father, James, had a prayer closet that he retired to three times a day, and he prayed with great passion for the conversion and for the discipleship of his own children. When the time came for John to leave home for good and go off and serve as a missionary, the very thing that his mother and father had wanted when he was born, his father walked with him six miles along the road until the place came where they had to part. And as the two of them, father and son, were walking along the road together, the father was weeping, praying, pouring out heavenly counsels, prayers, advice, scripture, in these last few minutes they had together. And when the time came when he couldn't even speak anymore, he just continued to pray silently, his lips moving, and John remembered this many, many years later. No words could come out, but he knew his father was burning in prayer for him, tears flowing down his face. And they stood there, they were at the parting place, they had no more time together, the time had ended, and all he could say at that point was this. "God bless you, my son. May your father's God prosper you, and may He keep you from all evil." Then they embraced one last time and he walked away. John waved his hat in saying good-bye to his father, but his heart was breaking. And so, he dove into a ditch to just have a good cry, and he's just laying there weeping about the separation, but also eager to begin his work. And after he'd been there some time he climbed up the dike to see if his father could still be seen along the road as he returned back to their home village. And just at that moment, his father also was climbing up the dike to look back to see if he could still see his son. There were some distance apart, and it was clear the father, James, didn't see him, but then just continued to talk, and he assumed, John assumed, praying for him as he walked on his way. And he watched through blinding tears, John did, until he could see his father no more. Then he got up and hastened on his way to serve Christ as a missionary. These are his own words. "Vowing deeply and oft, by the help of God, to live and act so as never to grieve and dishonor such a father and mother." So that is on my mind as I preach on “children obey your parents in the Lord, honor your father and mother.” As we come to Ephesians 6, we come to the next section in Ephesians, but for me, a very powerful and moving one. My desire is to be that kind of a father. My desire is all you fathers listening to me would be fathers like that. And beyond that, you children, at whatever age, some of you are coloring, scribbling, some of you listening as best you can, some very attentive as you get older. I understand. The text is written to you. I'm going to be speaking also to your parents about the text. I desire that a generation of servants of Christ like this would be raised up. There's a lot of missionary work left to be done, and also I think it's going to take an unusual amount of courage for you to be a Christian in America going forward, more than perhaps in our generation. So I want you to be ready to face the challenges you're going to face in the years ahead. In Ephesians, as we come to chapter 6, I want you to see it in continuity. It's not just popping up out of nowhere but it's a flow that we've seen in this beautiful book. The Parent-Child Relationship: A Subset of the Christian Life This idea of the parent-child relationship is a subset, or a part, of the Christian life that Jesus bought for us with His own blood. It's part of the life he bought. It's part of what it means to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,” for us to be godly parents and children. It's a life that flows from the salvation that's been so clearly taught in this magnificent book of Ephesians. "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast." We were saved, we were justified, we were forgiven by grace through faith in the shed blood of Christ, “having been chosen in Christ before the creation of the world, having been predestined to be adopted as his sons and daughters, having received the hearing of the Gospel, having believed, having been marked in Him with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, all of this flowing. Having been rescued from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved Son, having all of these blessings, we are now called on to do good works.” Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." The Rising Temple of God Now the centerpiece of those good works is the building of an eternal temple, a dwelling place, rising in every generation described beautifully at the end of Ephesians 2, as a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. And this dwelling, this temple, this holy structure, which I think is the Church of Jesus Christ. I think we could also say it as the Heavenly Zion. It is the New Jerusalem. It is rising in every generation as living stones are quarried from Satan's dark kingdom and rescued and brought over and set in this spiritual wall, this image of the structure that we have at the end of Ephesians 2. Bringing in 1Peter 2:5, "you are living stones." And we are put into this rising temple. This magnificent, glorious structure is presently under construction. Amen? But it's looking really good, I've been told, by the Spirit of God in my heart. It is magnificent and glorious and it's better than it was a month ago, much better than it was 10 years ago. Every generation of elect people who hear the Gospel and come over and believe, beautify and glorify it even more, and none of them ever gets lost. And it's just getting better and better. This is the work of our lives, the glory of God, and the rising of this spiritual holy dwelling place. Now I believe, in the end when we get to heaven we're going to hear all the stories. Not just John Paton and his father, and not just what happened with those cannibals. We're going to hear them all. And we're going to be so eager to hear them. I'm telling you, all of you are going to be super PhDs in church history. You're going to love it, you're going to want to hear all the details, and you're going to hear from the heavenly perspective what God did by His sovereign grace to get those people saved. And we are going to glory in those stories. But I believe, I can't prove this, but I believe that when we get to heaven and we find out how it all happened, the overwhelming majority of those in Heaven will be there primarily and first and foremost because their parents led them to Christ. "Overwhelming majority. What is that Pastor? 55%?" I don't know what overwhelming majority means. Parents and Missions When I was at the IMB last week, or last month, knowing I was going to preach this, I went to five of the best missiologists and veteran missionaries in the Southern Baptist Convention, in the IMB. And I asked them this question. "Worldwide, what percentage of genuine believers do you think had Christian parents who led them to Christ, essentially?" They said, "Well do you want a number? I said, "Yes." Obviously, it's anecdotal, I don't know. But the numbers ranged anywhere from 60%-75%. These are veteran missionaries. Because what happens is the missionaries go to that land, and none of them are Christians. They find some bridge people, those bridge people come to faith in Christ. Immediately, what do those bridge people do? They turn to the people they know, first and foremost their own families, their parents, their siblings, their children. And they begin to share the Gospel. Some of them believe, receive, and trust. Some of them turn in hostility and persecute. But that's where it all starts. Give it two, three, four generations, ask what's going on in that nation, the overwhelming majority had Christian parents. It just happens again, and again, and again. And it's a powerful thing to see this. So fundamentally, we believe that this parent-child relationship is essential to God's sovereign plan for the rising of the Church of Jesus Christ, for the building of this holy temple. It's foundational, it's vital. "We believe that this parent-child relationship is essential to God's sovereign plan for the rising of the Church of Jesus Christ, for the building of this holy temple. It's foundational, it's vital. " When I was there at the commissioning service there were 36 missionaries commissioned. 29 of the 36 in their written testimonies, which I as a trustee get to read, 29 out of 36 said, "Effectively, my parents led me to Christ." 29 out of 36. It's amazing. And how my own son, when he was baptized a few weeks ago, zeroed in on 2 Timothy 3:15, which says, "How from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." I believe this is the very thing that was promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 when He said, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And through you all the families of the Earth will be blessed." The families. In all of the types or patterns of evangelism that there is in the world, workplace evangelism, street evangelism, missionary type work, contact evangelism, airplane evangelism, which I love. Where can they go? They're captive. Especially if they have the window, and I have the aisle, where are they going to go? So we're going to talk about Jesus until they don't want to talk about Jesus anymore. I try to be kind, I try to find out if they're interested. But of all of the types of evangelism there is, by far, overwhelmingly, the most effective is parent-child evangelism. Nothing else even close. This is by God's will and by His power. And so, my desire is to put inside you, parents, especially, a zeal and a fervency for the souls of your children. The healthy Christian family is a great, magnificent factory, a machine, for the production of children of God who will live before Him forever. And it's been working now for centuries. So we come to Ephesians 6:1-4. Listen again. I'm going to read verse four even though I'm not dealing with it today. But look at the text again. "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the Earth. And Fathers do not exasperate your children or provoke them into wrath, instead bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." We’ll deal with verse four next week, God willing. The Blessings and Challenges of Children Children: One of God’s Greatest Blessings So I want to start by talking about the blessings and challenges of children. Children are one of the greatest blessings that God can ever bring into your life. They are endlessly fascinating, endlessly unpredictable. They are a rich Biblical blessing, and we need to be told that because in our nation, in our culture, there is a negativity toward children. A negativity like children are a burden, children are almost what feels somewhat like a curse. But in Psalm 127 it says, "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward.” And to borrow a phrase, an idea from 1 Timothy 4:8 about godliness, Paul is talking there about godliness and it says, "godliness has value for all things", listen, "holding promise both for the present life and the life to come." Children are like that. They hold promise both for the present life, to bless you in this present life, and to bless you in the life to come. So in this present life, when Noah was born, his father Lamech called him Noah, which sounds like the word comfort, because he said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground that the Lord has cursed." He's going to alleviate our suffering here, just to have a child. And then in Ruth chapter 4, the women said to Naomi, when Obed had been born to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, the women said to Naomi, "Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age." Think about that. How beautiful is that? "For your daughter-in-law who loves you and who's better to you than seven sons has given him birth. Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap, and cared for him. And the women living there said, 'Behold Naomi has a son.' And they named him Obed." He was the father of Jesse, the father of David,” the father of Jesus, Matthew 1:1. And so, in God's sovereign plan we see the beauty of children. Children hold promise for this present life in more ways than we can count. There are just the joys of watching them grow and develop, speaking their first words, taking their first steps, continuously acquiring greater and greater capabilities. It's really a stunning thing to watch. I've mentioned this before, but I still can't get over it. When Christy and I were missionaries in Japan, the first year our primary job was to learn the language, the Japanese language. And that was hard. And I'll never forget, we had tutoring sessions, we had books, we had tapes, we had flash cards, we had all these things going on. We also had a one-year-old daughter named Jenny who came over with us basically inarticulate, and left two years later fluent in English. No flash cards, no tapes, nothing, no effort. I was so jealous. It's like, "How can this be?" And I figured there was some corresponding Japanese kid who was one-year-old when he came over, couldn't speak a word of Japanese. Two years later, fluent, conversational. And I just think it's amazing, going on right before your eyes as it's happening. It's a marvel. So also you parents can testify how many earthly blessings have come to you from having children. The unforgettable moments, the things that can never be repeated and you treasure forever. I have drawers and drawers of memorabilia. What am I going to do with it? I don't know, but I'm not giving them away. Toward the end when the kids were getting older, I didn't accept just any art work, it had to be good. Okay? They had to have put some work into it, there had to be some thought. Just a couple of scribbles and crayon on the… We're not putting that on the refrigerator. But if you worked at it we would put it up on the fridge and it would be there for a while. And then I'd take it down. And I learned in the course of time to write on the back the circumstances, because what happens is, five years later it's like I don't even know what it is. Is it a tree, is it a mountain? I don't know. When was it given? But to write on the back who gave it when, same thing with cards, different things that are written, it's just absolutely precious. At every moment the way they just look up to you for approval, for love, the way that they just trust you at an early stage, the way that they are obedient at a certain level, and the way they just grow and grow and grow before your very eyes. I've likened them before to a sunset. You can just picture that, and just the colors of it. And it's just different colors and it's continually changing so that if you look away for just a minute or two and talk to your friend and look back, it's different now. And that's the way it is with the children. They go through these stages, and you can't hold on, they're not going to be in them for long. They mispronounce a word, kind of really cute. And you actually want, at least I did, wanted them to keep mispronouncing the word because it was so cute. But they don't, they learn how to say it right. But it's just these sweet things. And then they just keep growing and they challenge you and they ask questions and you share experience. You go to national parks together and you share that, and they remember that. Pretty soon, they're teens, and they're so intelligent, so gifted, so full of promise, so aware of your failures and weaknesses. Acutely aware. And you know it, and it's an interesting relationship, and you're just kind of along for the ride, and you're able to celebrate their amazing achievements academically or in athletics, or in music, or art, or other things that they love to do, things that are different than you love to do. And then come the later blessings as the kids get even older, walking your daughter down the aisle to give her to somebody else's precious son. Or seeing your son receive somebody else's precious daughter. And to be commanded by your son to do that wedding and not cry. That's just cruel. How am I going to get through a wedding like that and not cry? He asked me if I could, he's not here, so I can just talk about him. "Dad, I want you to be my best man." I remember he said that to me. "But I also want you to do the service. Can you do both?" I said, "I don't think so because the best man stands over here and I'll have to stand here. So the only way could do it is if I wear a sign, 'By the way, I'm also best man.' So that's not really going to work." But my daughters have asked, are you going to both walk me down the aisle and then receive me?" And I haven't figured that one out yet. I got maybe some time on that one. But all of those things. And then,. I've been told, we don't have this experience yet. But grandchildren come in and you have most of the blessings and almost none of the challenges. Amen, hallelujah. Looking forward to that. So we're looking for all of that. The Challenge of Children But then you've got the challenges of children too, and we have to be honest about that. Honestly, the challenges of the parent-child relationship is caused by the spiritual warfare that we're about to get into in Ephesians 6, and by indwelling sin. The Bible teaches the clear doctrine of Original Sin. Every human baby is born in Adam, and they come into your family with that Adamic nature, a commitment to sin. Romans 5:12 says, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned." You have to meditate on the words "because all sinned". Every human sinned in Adam. And so it says in 1 Corinthians 15:22, "In Adam all die." And we've seen in Ephesians 2:1 that we were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live. And verse 3 in that same chapter, "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts, and like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." Now, this sin nature may not be obvious to new parents immediately when their precious little child is wrapped up in a sweet smelling blanket. But what it is, is, as I've mentioned before, fanatical commitment to self-interest. And that you can see immediately in an infant. That fanatical commitment to self-interest is the essence of the trouble you'll have in raising them. And you have the same thing too. There was a police study in San Francisco on juvenile delinquency, this is cited by Jim Eliff. These are striking words, because they're not written from a Christian perspective, they were just written from a secular policing perspective. This is what it said. "Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered, he wants what he wants, his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He is dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children, but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free rein to their impulsive actions to satisfy everyone, every child would grow up a criminal, a killer, a thief, a rapist." Well, that's the essence of parenting, the negative side of parenting, is that's what you're facing, the sin nature. Fanatical commitment to self. "That's the essence of parenting, the negative side of parenting is that's what you're facing, the sin nature. Fanatical commitment to self." Along with that, as I just mentioned in passing, but it's very much the issue as well. We ourselves, even redeemed in Christ, we still have that flesh nature. We still have a fanatical commitment to self in there too. So we struggle with pride, we struggle with anger, we struggle with sins and selfishness and habitual patterns of evil. And our children, I have found, pick those up much more readily than they pick up our good habits in Christ. They pick up your particular habits and patterns, which is a great source of shame to parents, where they can see that in their own kids. The Future of American Parenting So, beyond that there's a constant demonic satanic side, and a world side, that Satan is cleverly assaulting your children's souls, and the world is pouring acid on them as you seek to develop them, etcetera. And so you've got all of this at work. Furthermore, we just need to understand the future of American parenting. Where are we going? Where are we heading here? I do fear for the future of our country. I already hinted at it in my prayer. But we have moved quickly beyond gay marriage at this point to an acceleration of wickedness and bizarreness that I just don't know where we're heading as a nation, as a culture. And there is a direct worldly attack on the right and responsibility of Christian parents to bring their children up in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You're going to see that more and more. I believe that the government is going to try to put a wedge between Christians and their children, and assert their right to indoctrinate our children. It's happened many, many times before. We, Christian fathers, feel the authority and the responsibility we have to say to the surrounding pagan world, in the words of Joshua 24:15, saying to the pagan world, "If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." But I was on a website recently that said every child should have the freedom to choose for himself or herself what religion they will follow. The website is, I don't know how to pronounce this, but humanium.org. Wow. Listed the fundamental rights of children. Right to Freedom. "Children have the right to have an opinion different from their parents." By the way, they know that. "I have an opinion different from you." I'm aware. Alright. "A child should not be the victim of the pressure of an adult who would try to force him or her in order to influence them in their opinion." That's just called parenting. I'm sorry, I'm editorializing. Let me just read. "Children have a right to be informed, so they can make their own minds up about important subjects." Now, next heading, Freedom of Religion. "Children have the right not to undergo constraint or oppression which will injure their freedom of religion or other rights. Children can freely determine the religion or conviction of their choice. A religion doesn't have to be imposed on them." So basically, I'm supposed to, as a father, just be a world religion instructor. "This is what Buddhism teaches, this is what Hinduism... So now you make your own decision." It's actually abusive then it seems to bring them up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” My daughter Carolyn showed me a tweet sometime ago that shocked me at how weird things are getting. It said effectively that it's child abuse to name a newborn baby before they've had a chance to choose their own gender. I don't know how that works. "Baby one, baby two." Here, the tweet said, "Use gender inclusive pronouns like baby-self or toddler-self until they are old enough to make their own choice." So in the name of individual freedom, all children should be free to choose everything for themselves, and not have anything forced on them. And yet it's plain that in the Bible parents are to bring their children up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Borrowing from the old covenant language in Deuteronomy 6:7-9, they're talking about these precepts and ordinances, but I'm going to just talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Impress them", the words of God, "On your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates." If I can just summarize, brainwash your kids. Just brainwash them in the word of God. Let them be transformed by the renewing of their mind, because I'm telling you, the world will try to do it. It's not going to stand idly by, it's going to try to brainwash your kids in its direction. Along with this is the danger, as I just mentioned a moment ago, of ever encroaching government rights to the training of the future generation. Reading about what school was like in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, basically every child there was indoctrinated in Nazi ideology, and frequently got to the point in their teen years where then they would start turning their parents in to the Gestapo. So also the same kinds of things happened in communist countries during the Cold War. John McArthur cited a letter he received from a man in his church who emigrated from Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. This is what he said. "My wife and I experienced the dissolution of the family unit by the communist government. From our own experience, the godless doctrine pumped into our little children's souls brought up the most cynical generation you can imagine." Parenthetically, less than 1% of Czechs in the Czech Republic are believers. 93% are atheists. But this individual said, "Most young people do not believe in anything, not even God. The godless system destroyed, in great part, the will of the people and produced an obeying array of cynical and different disposable robots. The same thing is beginning to happen to us now in this country." So, blessings and challenges. God’s Goal for Parenting: His Glory in their Salvation What is the Purpose of Parenting Let's talk about God's goal for parenting, and that is His glory. Now, your outline says they're salvation, but I'm going to actually amend it. God's goal in parenting is His glory in your salvation too. So, just put "... His glory in their salvation... and yours." because God's going to be at work in both of you, and you're not any of you done being saved. So God has a wise purpose in all of this. Okay? So what is the purpose of parenting? I would say it's the exact same purpose of why God made the world. His glory, ultimately. God made all things for His glory. And the thing that glorifies him the most is the salvation of human souls. So that's the goal of parenting too, is His glory in the salvation of your children and of yourself. But let's focus on the children. Key Verse A key verse I use for parenting is one with which you should be very familiar. It's in Mark 8:36-37. "What good would it be? What would it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" Or what would a man give in exchange for his soul? So let me put that in parenting language. “What good would it be for your child if he or she should gain the whole world, whatever that means, and forfeit their souls? And what would you give in exchange for the souls of your children?” I know parents want to give their children so many good things. Good character, education, fine clothing, a comfortable lifestyle, fruitful career, athletic success, academic achievement, acceptance at a prestigious college. All the material blessings of prosperity, good morals, legacy, heritage, sweet memories, all of that. All of those earthly blessings are sweet, good things from God. But what would it profit you or your child if they gained all of them and they had to hear on Judgment Day, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels"? What good would it be if after they've been well-fed, well-clothed, well-educated, well-employed, worldly successful, you can boast to all your friends in your retirement home about what your kids are achieving and all that, if in the end they're lost, then what good would it be? So my desire in this sermon and next is that God would be glorified in the salvation of your children. That's my center desire. “You Didn’t Come with a Training Manual!” So, let's turn to the text, and here's the text, the Bible. I remember my father used to say to us in exasperation, because we drove him crazy, and we did. But he said, "You didn't come with a training manual." Here it is. Here's the training manual. The Bible is sufficient for raising your children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” I'm not saying there's not good materials out there, there are. But it's sufficient. Here again, 2 Timothy 3:15-17. "How from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." That sounds like parenting to me. Thoroughly equipped and ready for any good thing God wants them to do. Now we're focusing this morning on 6:1-3, that's the command to the children. Next week I want to focus, God willing, on the command to fathers and mothers, parents. God’s Command to Children: Obey and Honor Your Parents So, the words are going to come to children, but I want the parents to listen as well because it's the parent's job to hold these commands over their children and pray toward and act toward them obeying them. If the parents don't train their children to honor and obey them, they never will. And so the parents really need to embrace these words before the children do. These commands need to be on your heart, and then you can impress them on your children. Alright? So God's command to children is, "Obey and honor your parents." That's the order it gives in the text. Children are Those Who are Still Dependent on Parents Look at it, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the Earth." The address is to children, and the first command here that's given is, "obey." Now, you may say, "Alright, does this go on forever?" No, it doesn't. I think the word children would be certainly minors and teens and all that. And then on up until they are no longer dependent on you financially. There's still a pattern of obedience in Jacob's life. It says in Genesis 28:7, "Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram to seek a wife." The word obey is there. Now, I do not need to obey my mother anymore. When I got married, I left my father and mother, and I was united to my wife, and I started my own home. I need to honor her the rest of our lives, but I don't need to obey her. So there is a weaning off of parental obedience until they're on their own. That's the challenge. The Meaning of “Obey” Now, the word “obey” has to do with external behavior patterns. So the text in the order it gives us here is, I think, wise. Parents, to some degree, work on your children's external patterns of compliance, that they would obey you. And then it moves to honor, which is something from the heart. Our goal is a heartfelt obedience that's a genuine work of grace. But it starts with this idea of obey. And it means literally to hear under, it means to submit as in Ephesians 5:21, "Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ." Submission is obedience to God-ordained authority. Authority I define as the God given right to command, the God-given right to command. Parents have that. I feel like we're too squeamish about it. You have this sense of weakness. But we have the right and responsibility to give wise, loving, godly commands to our children. And so, from infancy, they need to be trained to obey their parents. This is coming straight from God. Before they have the capacity to comprehend an invisible being who created them and whom they must obey above all, almighty God, they must first submit their wills to their parents who they can see and be trained to obey them. And they need to be taught that their obedience to their parents is ultimately obedience to God. So that's what you're teaching them. The Moral Beauty of Obedient Children Now, what is obedience? We covered this this morning in Bible for Life in the parenting class. I love it, and it's something that I heard years ago from a parenting curriculum that Kristy and I used early on. And it defined obedience in the pattern, I think, of Matthew 6:10. "May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." So how is God obeyed in Heaven? And what this curriculum writer said is, "That the angels obey God all the way, right away, with a happy spirit." So those were the standards we used for our kids. All the way means everything we said to do, 100%. So 80% obedience, that's not obedience. Right away means now. It's not hard. Now. No, not later. Now. Okay? No delay. To delay is to disobey. And with a happy spirit means we're ultimately trying to get to the heart. We want you to delight in the commands that were given and see them as wise. Now, this pattern is for infants and young children and going up. And there's this pyramid where you're going to be early on covering your kids lives with commands, just covering them, papering them over with commands when they're young. And then dimmer switch turning them down more and more, until at last, they're ready to just take over their physical lives and look after themselves. And so, there's going to be all of these commands. Now, children it says are to obey their parents “in the Lord.” In the Lord means with a mind to Christ, you're looking to Christ. It implies the parents better be giving godly commands to them. So all authority is ultimately under Jesus. And we see the moral beauty of the obedience. "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right." The word gives a sense of morally beautiful. It's attractive when you have an obedient son or daughter. It's just delightful. The Ten Commandments And then he quotes the Ten Commandments. "Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy life on the Earth." Now, here's the complexity. I've meditated on this a lot in the last couple of months. The hard thing about Christian parenting is how we have to harmonize or synthesize the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. That's really hard to do. The kids are under the Law, they're under the Old Covenant. They're under the tutor, so to speak, until they are brought to Christ. So they have to be trained, in effect, just like the Jews were in the language of blessings and curses. This is what we've got, this is what you have to do, and this is what will happen if you don't do it. That's what we call in our family the if-then chart. "If you do this, this is what will happen." Alright? That's early on. And then as you go further and further in, you're wanting them to move into a New Covenant walk with Christ. In which from the heart, from a transformed nature, they are loving God and loving His Law, and His commands, and by the power of the Spirit, are fulfilling the Law. And that's the challenge. You need to therefore, teach them the fullness of what the Law means. Talk about how when the Ten Commandments were given what the circumstances were, how God descended from Heaven in fire to the top of Mount Sinai, and how the ground shook beneath their feet, and how it became supernaturally dark. And how God spoke with a voice so loud and so terrifying that everyone in the camp trembled and they begged to not hear that voice anymore. "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." And He is the one who's saying, "Honor your father and mother." So there's a sense of the terror of the Law, a sense of the judgment that comes if there's disobedience to the Law, all of that has to come. But that's not enough, that's not enough. You have to move from the Law to the Gospel. And so it says in Romans 3:20-24, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the Law." They're not going to get saved by obeying you. They're not going to get saved by the Law. Instead they're going to find out that they're sinners in need of a savior by the Law. And so, Romans 3:20-24, it says, "No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law, rather through the Law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God apart from the Law has been made known to which the Law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." So you're going to want, every time they sin and you're disciplining them and you're training them, to preach the Gospel to them, to tell them that Jesus came for exactly these kinds of sins. Jesus came to take out the heart of stone and to give you the heart of flesh. Jesus came to change your very nature. "They're not going to get saved by obeying you. They're not going to get saved by the Law. Instead they're going to find out that they're sinners in need of a savior by the Law. " What is the Command? Honor Your Father and Mother And so, the command here given to the child is fascinating. "honor." "Honor your father and mother." What does that mean, “honor”? Been thinking about this. It's related to worship, I think. But it's obviously at a lower level. You only worship God. But it has to do with an esteem, it comes from the heart, a respect. Love is involved in there, but it's a sense of esteem and honor in the family of, or the relationship of worship. But ultimate honor is given to God in worship. And so the idea here is a heart attitude of respect toward the parents. I honor my father, I honor my mother. And that's something that parents have to teach to their children. Do you teach your children to honor you? Do you teach, each of you, teach your child to honor the opposite parent? The father's telling their children to honor their mother, and not speak disrespectfully. And the mother doing the same thing in reference to the father. A heart attitude. Now, we, as parents don't have power over the heart. I can't make my child honor me, something they do with their heart. But I can show them the word, I can pray that God would work in them, I can yearn for the Holy Spirit to work this. Now, as your kids get older, as they get to be teens, as I already mentioned, it's not funny but it's just true, they just know your sins. But here's the thing, you don't have to be a sinless parent to be worthy of honor. You're worthy of honor because you're the father or the mother. Do you member when Noah got drunk and lay exposed in his tent? Remember that story in Genesis 9? And how one son, it seemed, mocked him. But two other sons put a cloak on their shoulders and walked in backward and covered their naked father. That's a timeless lesson on how you honor a sinful parent. The requirement to honor is not tied to how righteous your father and mother is, but to God's will. Now, what is the promise that comes to children? Well earthly and heavenly blessedness. "Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the Earth." So there's a promise here. It zeros in on a promise. This is the first commandment that gives you a promise. And it's blessedness, it's going to go well with you, you're going to have a good rich blessed life if you do this. And long life, in other words you won't be struck dead. I meditate on this. There is an Old Covenant feel here and both quality and quantity of life is linked to honoring your parents. We know that God struck two of Judah's sons dead. Ur was wicked so God put Him to death, and Onan was wicked so God put Him to death. Nadab and Abihu were struck dead by fire that came out from the Lord because they were irreverent. Ananias and Sapphira, this happened in the New Covenant era, God struck them dead for their lying. So children, honor your father and mother so that you may live long on the earth, and that it may be a richly blessed life, a quality of life. Ultimately, this is what I yearn for. Early conversion, growth and discipleship from these kids, a development in spiritual gifts and knowledge of the Word of God so that they are unleashed in ministry for the Lord, just as James Paton did for John Paton. That's my desire. Application Value Children as Fellow Image-Bearers So, quickly, applications. Start by just delighting in the blessings of children. Behold, they are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” “God knit them together in their mother's wombs.” Cherish them, they are created in the image of God. They're not yours to command like they're your slaves. Alright? They are precious human beings. As I said about the husband-wife relationship, by far more significant than that she's wife is that she's human, and redeemed. And the same thing is going to end up true of your children. Far more significant that they're your children is that they are created in the image of God, and that they can believe the Gospel. So cherish them, and just cherish these times. You know what I mean. You older parents know exactly. The days, the years go by like the wind. Like the wind. Don't waste these days, don't waste the time. So parents, embrace your responsibility to bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. More next week. Embrace your responsibility to preach the Gospel to them. "How from infancy they have known the Holy Scriptures." Saturate them. Spurgeon’s Thoughts of Child-Rearing Charles Spurgeon said this, "Some wrongly say, 'Do not teach your children, they'll be converted in God's own time, if it be His purpose. Therefore leave them to run wild in the streets.' Well, people who do that will certainly both sin against the child and the Lord Jesus. We might as well say, 'If that patch of ground over there is to grow a harvest, God will do it if it's God's good pleasure. Therefore, leave it and let the weeds overgrow it. And do not endeavor for a moment to kill the weeds or to sow any good seed.' Why such reasoning as this would not only be cruel to our children, but grievously displeasing to Christ.” Parents, I do hope you are all endeavoring to bring your children to Christ by teaching them the things of God. Let them not be strangers to the plan of salvation." This is Spurgeon, listen though. "Never let it be said that a child of yours reached years in which his conscience could act, and he could judge between good and evil, without knowing the doctrine of the atonement. Without understanding the great substitutionary work of Christ. Set before your child life and death, Hell and Heaven, judgment and mercy, his own sin, Christ's most precious blood. And as you set these things before him, labor with him, persuade him as the apostle did his congregation with tears and weeping to turn unto the Lord. And your prayers and supplications shall be heard so that the Spirit of God shall bring them to Jesus." Say a final word to children, especially to teenagers. Let me speak directly to you teens. By now you are fully aware of your parents' strengths and weaknesses. By the way, they do have some strengths. You'll find that out more and more as you get older. But it is your time now, and these words I think are most understandable to you, because they are written to you. "Children, obey and honor." That's what God's calling on you to do. Remember how Noah's sons were blessed by respecting their father, even at his weakest, most sinful moment. Ask the Lord to give you a heart of honor toward both your mother and father. Ask Him to bless you with long life in the richness of the Gospel. And you younger children, I'm almost done, praise God. Love your parents, do what they tell, study the Bible, pray, ask your mom and dad questions that are on your hearts. And mom and dad be ready for them to do it, because they'll keep saying, "Why, why, why?" Until you have no other answer, and just say, "Because God wanted it that way, that's why." Close with me in prayer. Prayer Father, we thank you so much for children. We thank you for the blessing that they are. Thank you that this church is so lavishly blessed. Every year, O Lord, at Mother's Day we see how many babies were born in our church, and as their parents yearn to dedicate them to Christ. We thank you for the blessing. We thank you for how we can see, at every stage, children that we've been blessed with. Lord, give parents grace to parent well, and give the children grace to be obedient and to honor. In Jesus' name, amen.

This week Fr. Gabriel again works with the Epistle lesson from the final chapter of I Corinthians, chapter 16, focusing only on verses 13 and 14, where Paul gives us one of his wonderful nutshell lessons that encompass the gist of what he has been saying throughout the letter. (Parenthetically listeners might want to know that Fr. Gabriel grounds his proclamation in study of the text, meditation upon the conclusions of that study, and then he constructs an outline for preaching. He uses notes but no full manuscript in order to achieve a closer rapport with the congregation.)

-sermon transcript- Introduction So this is the last special Sunday focus on evangelism. We have... We took five weeks in the middle of the sermon series in Galatians, and today I want to just do what I can to unfold 2 Corinthians 5 to you. The Book of Hebrews is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Of course, you say to me, "All of the books are your favorite book of the Bible," and that may be true, but I love Hebrews and how it begins there. It says powerfully, “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son.” The awesome truth of the Bible is that there is one God, and only one God, this living God, the living and true God, creator of the universe, infinite in his being, incomprehensible, eternal, perfect and holy. Possessing life in himself, possessing all wisdom in himself, possessing love and power in himself. This one true living God speaks. He lives and he speaks. He speaks and the universe comes into existence. He speaks and his people come into existence. He speaks and salvation comes to the lost. Now, this God, it says, has spoken in the past through the prophets at many times and in various ways. He spoke to Noah, commanding him to build an ark. He spoke to Abraham, commanding him that he should leave Ur of the Chaldees, and later that he should take his son and sacrifice him on a mountain that he would show him. He spoke to Jacob from the top of a ladder that extended from earth to heaven, he spoke to Moses from the flames of a burning bush, he spoke to Israel, the nation, the words of the 10 Commandments, when he descended in fire on the top of the mountain, and the ground shook beneath their feet. He spoke to David and moved him to write beautiful poetry in the Psalms. He spoke to Solomon, and Solomon spoke in Proverbs in words of pithy wisdom, spoke to Elijah in a still small voice, and then later in a fiery whirlwind that took him up to heaven. He spoke to Isaiah, he spoke to Jeremiah, to Ezekiel. He spoke to Daniel through an awesome, gigantic and glorious angel, whose glory was so overpowering that it took Daniel's breath away and knocked him to the ground. God spoke in the past at many times and in various ways through the prophets. Now, in these last days, He has spoken one final word to the human race, and that Word is Jesus. He has spoken Jesus Christ to the human race. And Jesus, “The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and after he had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.” So Jesus is God's final word to the human race. He is a word of hope and salvation to people desperate in their lost-ness, desperate in their brokenness, people who live every lives, though they may not admit it, who live every day of their lives in terror and fear of death. They're enslaved to their fear of death. Now, now that Jesus has ascended to heaven, now that he is at the right hand of God, and now that the day of Pentecost has come, and he has poured out his Holy Spirit on the church, ge is at it again, he is speaking through us as ge spoke through the prophets. He has poured out his spirit, and he speaks at many times and in various ways through us as though we were his ambassadors. God Himself being in us by the Spirit, making his appeal through us. As Paul says, "We implore you, we beg you, be reconciled to God." God wants to use each one of us to do that kind of appealing, that kind of begging and pleading. He wants us through the Holy Spirit to care whether people, lost people are found. He wants us on fire from within, concerning the lost-ness of the world, and the fact that the Gospel has the power to change everything. He wants us to be his ambassadors. He has called each one of us to a thrilling external journey of worldwide gospel advance. He's called on us to be in the game, to be involved. He's called on us to be warriors in this warfare. There's a world of lost people around us every day, and it is our responsibility to bring them the Gospel. So this is the final sermon in this series on evangelism. It's not the last time you'll hear about evangelism though, we're going to be talking about it. What I want to do is I want to lift up, I think, as I've studied over the last few weeks 2 Corinthians 5, the greatest single chapter on motivations for evangelism. It's like a rich treasure box of evangelistic motivations, one after the other. Now, this sermon actually originally had three parts, I stripped out two of them, alright, stripped out the bad motivation section, stripped out the techniques and tools of the trade section that's gone too. A Rich Treasure Chest of Healthy Motives Now all I'm going to do is just give you 17 motivators that just flow, 17! And not only that, but I'm going to preach shorter than usual because we've got a special time at the end for individuals who are involved in outreaching ministries at FBC to make an appeal to you to get involved in their ministries. So I need to leave even more time than I usually do in preaching. I was at a church recently, and up on the wall was this motivational poster, and it said, "Impossible, difficult, done." That's today's sermon. So we'll start with impossible, and then it'll get difficult, and then we'll find that it's done. 17 motivators that flow. And what I want to do as we go through this just treasure chest of healthy motives. I just want to just zip by them. I'm not going to be able to unfold them. I want some of the mentions, the mere mentions to frustrate you and say, "Stop, wait a minute, I want to hear more about that." I think all of them could be a great sermon in and of itself, any one of these. But recently, a friend of mine gave me a DVD of an hour tour of Acadia National Park. Now, many of you have never been to Acadia, but it's probably one of my favorite places on Earth. It's a spectacularly beautiful national park. And it was an hour tour of all of the best spots in Acadia. So you're taking an hour to see, take a drive along the spectacular rocky coastline of Maine, and then you've got Thunder Hole, and then you've got Seal Beach, and then you've got Sand Beach and Pebble Beach, and you're going to go along there, and then you've got Precipice, which is the closest to rock climbing any normal person will ever get, and then you've got Cadillac Mountain where you can see the sunrise and sunset, and you can see that same rocky coastline. And in Bar Harbor, there's all kinds of art shops and all that. One hour. Well, I've got half an hour to go through even more spectacular material, and that is 2 Corinthians 5. So let's look at it. And what I want to do is I'm just going to ask the question again and again, why should we evangelize? And I'm going to find answers in this text to that question. The Resurrection Body is a Certainty (vs. 1-5) First, we should evangelize because the resurrection body is an absolute certainty. Now, you may fail to see the connection between the fact that someday we'll be raised from the dead and that we should be active in evangelism, but there's a clear connection in Paul's mind. He begins this chapter in verse one, “Now, we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands.” He's talking about the resurrection body. Verse four and five, “For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now, it is God who has made us for this very purpose.” So the basic idea is this: because we will someday be in a resurrection body, enjoying the perfection, the fullness of our salvation, and because there is nothing that can stop that, no power in Heaven or Earth or under the Earth can stop the resurrection from the dead. What that means is that we will most certainly receive the goal of our faith, the salvation, not only of our souls, but of our bodies. It is 100% certain. So we should have inside us a glowing, radiant hope that causes us to live entirely differently, knowing that our most bitter enemies, sin and wrath and judgment and Satan and hell and death have all been destroyed, and we are free from them all. "Because we will someday be in a resurrection body, enjoying the perfection, the fullness of our salvation...What that means is that we will most certainly receive the goal of our faith, the salvation, not only of our souls but of our bodies." So the great resurrection chapter, Paul draws this exact connection. Because we will most certainly be raised from the dead, we should be active in serving the Lord now. At the end of 1 Corinthians 15, he says, “‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where O death is your victory. Where O death is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, here's the application of that whole resurrection chapter. Verse 58, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” We evangelize because of the resurrection of the body. We know that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. We are seeking the elect, we don't know who they are, we preach the gospel, they will come to faith in Christ, and some day they'll be in resurrection bodies, and so we. That's why we evangelize. The Indwelling Holy Spirit is a Deposit (vs. 5) Second, we evangelize because the indwelling Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing that future. Look at verse five, “Now it is God who has us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” The indwelling spirit is a constant proof within us of our future glory, of the certainty of the new heaven and the new earth, the beauty of that world. We have a constant deposit, a down payment, a stipend check coming to us from our billions and billions of inheritance, and we are living off that little stipend check and it's pretty generous, and we have our hearts filled with hope through the Holy Spirit. And he is guaranteeing that future, and he constantly urges us to know that we are loved by the Father, he is the Spirit crying out "Abba, Father," and he gives us power to evangelize. The Spirit's not afraid of anybody. He is Almighty God, and he lives within us and testifies that we are children of God and that we are God's Ambassadors, and we have a deposit inside, proving this. Walking by Faith, Not by Sight (vs. 6-8) Thirdly, we evangelize because as a result of all of these things, we have learned to walk by faith, not by sight. We live a different kind of life as a result of these things. Look at verses six through eight, “Therefore we are always confident, and we know that as long as we're at home in the body, we're away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” So in the middle of that statement, Paul talks about his confidence, and he talks about how we live as Christians in this world. In this world, we will have trouble, in this world, we are away from the Lord; that means we don't have face-to-face fellowship with him. That's why Paul says, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain," something better. So we're away from Jesus in that sense, and we're yearning and longing for our heavenly home, aren't we? But as a result of that, we have learned to walk by faith, not by sight. We don't look at the world the way everyone else does. We've learned to look at the world differently. And so we've learned to live differently. We walk by faith and not by sight. And so, as a result, we see the purpose of our time here on Earth differently, and that's why we evangelize. We evangelize because there are eternal issues at work here. We evangelize for that reason. And it's a strong motivation to walk by faith, not by sight. Parenthetically, our faith gets stronger and stronger the more we're in the word. The more you hear good preaching, the more you're saturating your mind, memorizing Scripture, having daily quiet times, you're going to better and better walk by faith, not by sight. Pleasing the Lord (vs. 9) Fourthly, we evangelize because it pleases the Lord. It just pleases the Lord. It brings God pleasure. And that has become the central motivator of our lives. Look at verse nine, “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we're at home in the body or away from it.” This is among the most powerful motivators every Christian should have for everything they do. In Ephesians it says, “We should find out what pleases the Lord.” So we read the Scripture and we find out from his word what it is that pleases him. And we yearn to please him. We want Jesus to be happy with us. We want him to be pleased with how we live, not just generally, but every day, every moment. We want him to be pleased with the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart. And it very much pleases the Lord when we lay down our lives for others, when we're willing to be self-sacrificial and pay the price to see someone else brought to faith in Christ. The Greek word here for "make it our goal", or "make it our aim" relates to a love of honor, relates to ambition. Paul says, "I'm clamoring for the honor of pleasing Christ." That's what he's saying, somewhat like an athlete, an Olympic athlete, just yearning for the honor of a gold medal, or a soldier yearning for the honor of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Wanting something like that, there's a yearning for honor. I want the honor of Christ expressing his pleasure in my life. I want him to be pleased with me. Judgment Day Assessment (vs. 10) And that brings me right to the fifth one. We evangelize because some day we're going to give him an account for our lives. Someday there will be an assessing of everything we've said or done as Christians. Look at verse 10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.” Let me say this to you gently but clearly, every single Christian in this room underestimates Judgment Day. We underestimate what it's going to be like when this verse is fulfilled in our case. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. This Judgment Day assessment, this Judgment Day accountability is consistently taught in the Bible. People struggle with it too. I've had so many people quote me this verse, in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Well, it is true that there will be no condemnation for you as a Christian, but it is not true that there will be no accountability. It is not true that there will be no assessment. It is not true that you will not have to give an account for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. There's a difference between giving Jesus an account and having Jesus say, “Depart from me, you are cursed into the eternal fire...” There's a difference between those two. And notice that it says, “We'll have to give Hhim an account for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.” So the bad breaks into two categories, things that you did that you shouldn't have done, and you have to give an account for that. But there's also things that you should have done and didn't, and you have to give an account for that too. When he sets up an evangelistic opportunity and you don't do it because of selfishness, you'll just have to give an account for it. Conversely, you give an account for the good things done in the body. Imagine him asking, "Here you were faithful, you stepped out, you were scared, but yet you showed courage and you evangelized, and it went very badly, and you got fired, or that person was never nice to you again, and yet you kept on evangelizing. How do you give an explanation for that?" And you know what you're going to say at that point. "You worked in me, courage and boldness by your spirit. To God be the glory." You'll give him full credit. And then you know what he's going to do? He's going to give you eternal rewards for those things that survive the fire of judgment. Read about it in 1 Corinthians 3, “But the gold, the silver, the costly stones, the things you do by faith for the glory of God, out of love for others, those things that survived the fire, you'll have them to look at forever and ever.” And you know what those Judgment Day rewards will be? Praise from God. He'll express his pleasure with you and he'll say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done. You were bold, you were clear, you loved people enough to share with them. Well done." Hey, let's have as many of those as we can. Amen? Let's store up treasure in Heaven. Store up as many evangelistic opportunities. Just be faithful. And if you get persecuted a lot, and if you have trouble a lot and all that, store up the courage and all the times you kept going anyway. To God be the glory. But we evangelize because there will be a Judgment Day assessment. Fear of the Lord (vs. 11) Sixthly, we evangelize because we, alone in this world, understand what it means to fear the Lord. We know what it is to fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Verse 11, it says, “Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” Alright, by the way, that's just a check, verse 11, just to check to be sure we're not taking things out of context. Alright, we're talking about evangelism, evangelism, evangelism. Should we be, maybe there's another topic here? No, no, there's no other topic. This whole chapter is about this, it's about evangelism, reaching out with the gospel. In verse 11, he says, Because we know what it is to fear the Lord, we persuade others. Persuade them what? To repent and believe in Jesus, to be reconciled to God. That's what he's talking about, the whole chapter. Okay, so that was just a check. We're in the right area, we're not taken out of context, but the motivator here is the fear of the Lord. “…knowing what it is to fear the Lord…” Now, what does that mean? Well, we understand the fear of the Lord in this sense: The wrath of God and the curse of God and the judgment of God, those things were motivators for us to flee the wrath, to come to Jesus. We ran to Jesus and we found refuge, and now we don't fear God's wrath anymore, but we know those thoughts. But we're surrounded by people who aren't thinking about that at all, they don't know that there's a wrath to come. We do though. So now we can fear on their behalf, say, "I'm afraid for you, I fear for you if you don't repent and believe. I'm afraid what will happen to you if you don't repent and believe this gospel. I'm fearing for us both, but I pray that God through the Holy Spirit would move you into the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom and that you'd flee to Christ." So we know what it is to fear the Lord. Jesus said in Luke 12, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing to you. I'll tell you who to fear. Fear the one who after the death of the body has power to destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” So we do, as Christians, we fear him, but they don't fear him, they're not afraid to die in that sense, they're not afraid. They might be afraid of the process of death, but they should really fear what happens after death, and we have to fear God for them and so we persuade others, we plead with others to flee the wrath to come. The Love of Christ Compels Us (vs. 14) Seventh, we are active in evangelism because the love of Christ compels us. Verse 14, “The love of Christ controls us,” “…compels us,” “…constrains us,” lots of different translations, just something grabs hold of us strongly and pulls us in a direction. Controls us, compels us, constrains us to do what? Well, to evangelize, like we've been saying, we're pulled strongly. What does it? Well, the love of Christ. Now, NIV decides it for us saying Christ's love, but I'm going to just go straight from the Greek here and say the love of Christ, because it brings us to a bit of a head-scratching mystery. There's two different ways to understand the love of Christ compels us. It could be the love that Christ displayed... So as we get to see what kind of love Christ displayed on the cross, the way he died for us, that compels me to want to imitate him, and to lay down my life as he did. So that's the love that Christ displayed compels us, or it could be our love for Christ compels us. The fact that we love Christ, the love of Christ, our love for Christ compels us. Jesus said, “If you love me, you'll obey what I command you.” And Lord Jesus, you were seeking and saving the lost. This is what you're doing in the world. I want to be involved. I want people to love you, Jesus. I want them to... And you want them, the elect, to be with you and to see your glory, I want that too. So we love you and I want to serve you that way. Which one? Does it matter? They're both biblical themes. Let's just say the love that Christ displayed and then the love He pours out in our hearts for him, both of those things compel us and constrain us and move us to evangelize. Christ’s Death Puts Compels Us to Live for Others (vs. 15) Eighth, Christ's death compels us to live for others, frees us from selfishness. Verse 15, “For Christ's love compels us because we're convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.” Verse 15, and he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. Now, I talked about this when I preached that single verse sermon on Galatians 2:20. I don't know if you remember that. But in Galatians 2:20 it says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” What's the next part? “I no longer live.” And I talked about that for a while. I no longer live, I don't have an ambition for my own life anymore; an independent ambition, Paul is saying. I just live for this one thing: I live to please Christ. I live to serve him and to serve others. I don't have a selfish ambition anymore, that's what he's saying there. So all of us are so selfish. That's the nature of the flesh. What's in it for me? Every day, deciding what would I like to do today? You know, the idol of choice in the West, we have so much wealth and so much free time and so many options, and so we are so tempted towards selfishness, but this verse is a heat-seeking missile towards selfishness, blowing it up. 2 Corinthians 5:15, it says, “And he died for all that those who live, that's us, should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised up.” Again, we should no longer live for ourselves, but for the lost, for suffering sinners who are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. We should no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us and was raised again. We should no longer live for ourself for selfish reasons, but so that we might evangelize. Basically, the excuses I make for not evangelizing, they're ultimately, all of them selfish. It costs me something, it hurts me, it's difficult for me. It's just selfish reasons. I don't want to be selfish. I really want to live like Paul did, free from selfishness. Seeing People from an Eternal Perspective (vs. 16) Ninth, seeing people from an eternal perspective. We evangelize because we now see people differently. Verse 16, “So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view or a fleshly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ this way, we do so no longer.” So we're trained by all of this doctrine, all of these truths to just see people differently. We walk by faith, not by sight. And so we see people by faith and not by sight. We don't see people the way that non-Christians see them. The very people that we live with, and work with, and shopped with, and watch games with, and travel with, those people are eternal beings. Every one of them is created in the image of God, every one of them, a sinner who has transgressed the laws of God, and every one of them will spend eternity either in heaven or hell, all of them. In our natural way, we tend to look at people from a self-advantage point of view, What can this person do to further my agenda or hinder my agenda? And if they can further my agenda then they're good and I'll use them, but if they hinder, then they're my enemy and I'll oppose them and be mean to them. But that's the way a natural person sees others, we don't see people that way anymore, we've been liberated, we don't see... We don't regard people from a worldly point of view. We see people as eternally significant creations who someday are going to get separated from the others and will either be with the sheep or the goats. That's how it's going to be for them. We see them from that point of view, and therefore we're going to evangelize. We once looked at Jesus from a carnal point of view, but we don't look at him that way any longer. Because We’re New Creations (Like Jesus) (vs. 17) Tenthly, we evangelize because like Jesus, we are new creations. You, if you're a Christian, you have been changed. You're a different person. You've been transformed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 was the first Scripture verse I ever memorized with the Topical Memory System and the Navigators packet. I had been a Christian for two weeks, someone gave me that little card and 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation, the old is gone, behold, everything has become new.” And they wanted you to know right away that you've changed, everything is changing in your life, everything's different now, and so I thought it's an interesting verse to choose. Of all the verses in the Bible it's the first one to have a new convert memorized, but it's been with me ever since, and I just think about that. We are new. Now, here's the thing, Paul already called our bodies tents that are wasting away, that's not new creation stuff. As a matter of fact, there is no new creation stuff in this world. Anything you can touch or see, whatever, that's all old creation stuff and it's going to get burned up, all of it's going away. All of it. But if you're a Christian, you have been born again and your soul, your true self is a new creation entity. It will survive the rest of your lives through judgment day and on into eternity, you are a new creation. And therefore you're free from all of the burdens and the pressures and all of the wickedness of this world, you're free from that, and you can fly above all of those depressing motivators, like a 747 pilot, breaking through the cloud cover, spending the whole day in bright sunshine when everyone else has cold drizzle, you're a new creation, you can spend your life like that. I love that story from Howard Hendricks, he saw a new believer and the person was just so gloomy and negative. You know your personality? I know. I don't know. How are you doing? I'm doing fine under the circumstances, and he said, “What are you doing under there? Get up above the circumstances. Christians don't live under the circumstances. Break through the cloud cover. Get up above where it's bright sunshine all the time. You're a new creation, not under the same things others are.” And so we just think about life differently. People need to see that kind of hope glowing inside you so they can ask you to give a reason for it. Because We’re Reconciled to God (vs. 18) Number 11, we evangelize because we ourselves have been reconciled to God. Verse 18, “All this is from God…” What a great statement that is, I could spend a whole sermon on just that. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry”. We'll talk about that. But we are reconciled to God. Now, what is reconciliation? Well, it's all about relationship. If you have two individuals and they're at odds with each other, they're acting like enemies, they're in conflict, and then some things happened so that their relationship is healed, and they act like friends and they speak kindly and lovingly to one another, and they have kind thoughts in their hearts toward one another, and their love is restored for one other, that's reconciliation. That's what it is. And so it is with us. We were God's enemies. In Colossians 1:21-22, it says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation.” So now we are no longer God's enemies, but we are now more than just his friends, we are adopted into his family. We are sons and daughters of the Living God, we have been reconciled. Okay, how is that a motivator for evangelism? Because we want others to also have that same experience. We know how sweet it is to know that our sins are forgiven, how sweet it is to know that God is no longer angry judge, but now loving Father. How sweet that is, and we want others to experience that same thing. Because God Has Given Us the Ministry of Reconciliation (vs. 18-19) And so 12, we evangelize because God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 18-19, “All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them, and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” This is an incredible idea. This is the one, this concept has just captivated me, the idea that God has entrusted this ministry of reconciliation to us and is in us now by the Spirit doing that work. That's awesome. So God sees the world and outside of Christ there his enemies, and he has entrusted to the gospel message of Christ, incarnate by the Holy Spirit, living a sinless life, dying on the cross, and atoning death, raised from the dead on the third day. That message of the gospel, that repentance and faith in him, all forgiveness of sins comes through repentance and faith in him. Romans 1:16 says, “I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation.” What Paul would say here, power of God for reconciliation, all of that, God's like handed the keys over to us. That's awesome. Now, he is sovereign over all, that he controls it all. But he has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. So we have this call to evangelism and missions, the external journey. Because God Has the Whole World in View (vs. 19) Thirteenth, we evangelize because God has the whole world in view. Verse 19, “…that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ...” It's got to keep moving out, this is an eternal journey, an infinite journey. We're just going to keep going. There's always going to be more work to do until Jesus comes back. And so we care about missions, we care about others, and we care about evangelism for the same reason. This isn't a local salvation, this isn't just for you or just for us in this club, a small exclusive club, but there's a pressure, a drive to move out even to the ends of the earth with this message. Because Forgiveness of Sins for Others Awaits Our Efforts (vs. 19) Fourteenth, we evangelize because forgiveness of sins for others awaits our efforts. Look at verse 19 again, “…that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their sins against them.” I mean, how guilty do non-Christians feel? How does their conscience assault them? How they are filled with regrets? How they are aware, at least to some degree, of the bondage and the chains that hold them back? They know that they're miserable in sin, maybe not like they should, and that we get to come and say that God in Christ is willing to forgive all their adulteries and all their fornication, and all their lies, and all their idolatries, and all their selfishness and irritability, and all the times they've shown anger, and all the bad words they've spoken. He's able to take all of it and cover it in the blood of Jesus. He's willing to take all of their sins and throw them in the depths of the sea. He is willing to move them as far away from him as the east is from the west, and that's awesome. We get to evangelize and be there at that moment when they receive the gift of forgiveness of sins. Because We Are Christ’s Ambassadors (vs. 20) Fifteenth, we evangelize because we are Christ's ambassadors. Verse 20, we evangelize because we have an official position in the kingdom here, we're ambassadors, we're officially credited ambassadors to this world in the coming kingdom of Christ. We represent the coming King, and we have the right to proclaim a message of forgiveness in his name. We have authority, you realize? As ambassadors, we have the authority to command people to repent. You realize that? Think about that. In Acts 17:30, Paul said in Athens, “In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” The more you meditate on that, the more courage you get in evangelism. What do you have to fear? You are out there as a representative of the King, and the King is graciously offering rebels a chance to lay down their weapons of rebellion and with amnesty be brought back into the kingdom with complete forgiveness. We get to say that, but we are commanding them to lay down their weapons of rebellion, we're commanding them to repent. And we have the authority to announce to them whether their sins are forgiven or not. Isn't that incredible? We actually get to tell them that their sins are forgiven or not. In John 20:23, he says, “If you forgive anyone their sins, they're forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they're not forgiven.” We don't do the ultimate forgiving, we're just ambassadors, we're giving the message. And if you listen to my gospel and you don't believe it, you're still in your sins. And we have to tell people that, but if they listen and they repent and believe, we can tell them that their sins are forgiven, and that's why we evangelize. Because God is Pleading With People Through Us (vs. 20) Sixteenth, we evangelize because God through his Spirit is inside us, pleading with people, “…Be reconciled to God.” I have felt this, this burning desire that a total stranger become a Christian. I felt it, I was on an airplane and I had a great conversation with this guy, he was very interested, asked lots of questions, and at the end of that time, about an hour... Look, I only do hours with people who want it, I don't force it on people, alright? But this guy was an interesting conversation, he was asking, bringing up all kinds of objections, we were having a great time, we were in our final approach, I knew we were just about done and he said, "Why do you care so much?" 'Cause he could tell I wasn't being inappropriate, but I was into it, alright? And he could say, "Why do you care?" I said, "This may seem strange to you, 'cause I've never met you, and in a few minutes, I'll probably never see you again, but I really want you to be with me in heaven. I really would like to sit down with you at that banqueting table and look at the Savior and just know your sins are forgiven. I want to celebrate with you forever. I really want that." And I know the reason why is that because God was in me pleading with this guy to be reconciled to God. And that's a sweet thing. It's powerful. Now, I have a lot of other verses, I don't have time for here, but God wants us to feel what it feels like for him to be God and be rejected, to “stand all day long and hold out your hands to a disobedient, obstinate people,” Romans 10. To “have the insults that have fallen on him, fall on us,” Romans 15. To have a stand outside the city gate and bear the reproach he bore, he wants that, but he also positively wants us to enjoy conversions and salvations like he does, as though God himself were making his appeal. Because of the Perfection of Christ’s Atonement (vs. 21) And then finally, because of the perfection of the gospel. Because of the perfection of the gospel. Verse 21, we evangelize because we get to preach this kind of message: “God made Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That's the centerpiece, the exchange. Our sins lifted from us and laid on Jesus, and he die. His righteousness given to us like a perfect beautiful robe and we stand in it forever. Alright, 17 motivators. Developing a Culture of Evangelism The Elders Want to BUILD on this month… not that it would just float away One last thing I want to say to you and then I'll be done, we're going to have some folks come up here. We yearn as elders to see a culture of evangelism develop here. We don't just want five or six people as a result of this month-long emphasis, five or six people to be converted and get baptized. Hey, look, we'd take the five or six people, we'd be thrilled about that. We're excited about that, but that we want more than that. Many State the Goal in this Language: a “Culture of Evangelism” We want a whole culture of evangelism. What does that mean? It means that evangelism just kind of permeates the atmosphere of everything we do, it permeates the atmosphere of this ministry, that we're thinking about it all the time, we are learning all the time how to be better evangelists. We are reading books on it, we're discussing it, it's involved in the sermons. "We want a whole culture of evangelism. What does that mean? It means that evangelism just kind of permeates the atmosphere of everything we do." Now, it doesn't mean that it'll be all I preach on, it doesn't mean that. I believe we must keep the two journeys side by side, I want to keep feeding the flock to grow up to full maturity so I'm going to preach verse by verse expositional sermons, but every week, as I've been doing for years, I'm going to break off and make the gospel clear to people who need to come to faith in Christ, I'm going to do that. Applications & Closing Remarks But meanwhile, we're going to increase our contact with the gospel in terms of evangelism, in terms of BFL training, home fellowship. I think it'd be great if every home fellowship people asked, "Who are you having a gospel conversation? Who did you have a gospel conversation with this week? What's the person's name? How can we pray?" "Well, I didn't have one this week." "Okay, how can we pray for you that you would have one this upcoming week" Say, Well, there's some pressure there. Mm-hmm. Yeah, positive peer pressure, you know? We desire to be an example to others, examples create pressure and others to do the same thing. We want to have that pressure. And so, pleasant... Never guilt. Guilt is not a good motivator. But we say, "How can I pray for you?" It's like, "Honestly, I just am too afraid to open my mouth." Okay, can I pray that God will give you some boldness just to have a friendly conversation this week? Let's start there. Not even evangelistic, but just that you reached out and had a conversation. Culture evangelism, that we're continually praying for this person at the convenience store, this mother in the playgroup that we're with together, this co-worker that I work with, that we're talking about these things all the time. Now, I'm going to pray, and in a minute, Ryan's going to come up here and some people who are involved in outreaching ministries at FBC are going to come and talk about their ministries, and our desire is, if you want to piggyback on existing work that people have already done in which they are regularly meeting lost people, and you want to get part of that, that's a great way to grow in evangelism, and they're going to tell you different ways you can do it. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things that we've learned today. We thank you for the Word of God, and we ask, O Lord, that you would please help us to be filled with the Spirit and to be joyful, and to be effective and powerful in evangelism, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Seeing the High Priest by Faith Forty days after Jesus's resurrection, he led his apostles out about a Sabbath-day walk from the City of Jerusalem, led them out into the Mount of Olives, and there he lifted up his hands and he blessed them. And after he had blessed them, he was taken up before their eyes, taken right up off the ground. He ascended higher and higher, and they stood there amazed at this. The 11 apostles as they were looking up, they saw him ascending and they stood there in wonder and amazement until finally, a cloud hid Jesus from their sight. And that began in a very significant and formal way, the church's era of faith, of trusting the ministry of Jesus by faith and not by sight. We need to believe that Jesus is our great High Priest, and the only support we have for that is the Word of God. We cannot see him ministering at the right hand of Almighty God. We walk by faith and not by sight. Later in this Book of Hebrews, we are going to have a whole chapter extolling the virtues of faith because that really is why the Lord wanted the book written, that the faith of every generation of Christian will be strengthened, centered around the priestly ministry of Jesus, that we would see his excellence, his superiority, his perfection. That we would have a sense of the greatness of this Savior, this great High Priest, Jesus, that we would believe in him and trust in him. And so we have in Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen." And we learn later by faith, Moses persevered as seeing him who is invisible, and that is Christ. And so it is that you, whatever your circumstances, whatever it is you are going through, whatever your trials, you will do the same as a Christian. You will persevere as seeing him who is invisible. I. We Do Have Such a High Priest (vs. 1) And so today, I want to proclaim again to you, the priestly ministry of Jesus from Hebrews 8:1-6. This is a profound theme that the author has been drawing us through now. Begin in Hebrews chapter 5, where we have the first mention of Melchizedek, how Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, and he told us at that time that he had a lot to say about this theme, and he has said it now. And this theme, he told us, was meat and not milk. It could not be accepted, it could not be absorbed by lazy listeners, he said. And he rebukes them for being such. For being lazy listeners, he rebukes them. And so we have seen the author's unfolding of this glorious theme, and today, it comes to a culmination. He will continue with elements of Jesus's priestly ministry. He'll talk more in depth about the sacrifice he offered. And we'll get to that in chapters 9 and 10. But in terms of a concentrated meditation on Jesus as our great High Priest, it ends today. And we have here a summary, a summation of the things that he has been telling us. And I think it's very important for a good teacher of the Word of God to do this, to use illustrations, to use repetition and to use summations so that we can get the lesson. And that's what Hebrews 8:1-6 is. Now he does advance the argument. He does begin to turn a corner. And he begins in verse 6 to contemplate the New Covenant that Jesus is bringing. And the rest of Hebrews 8, it's absolutely one of my favorite sections of Hebrews 8, in which using a quotation from the Old Testament, from Jeremiah, he unfolds the greatness of the New Covenant that Jesus brings. And so, that will be next time. But here we have a repetition and a summation of these themes of Jesus, our great High Priest. Now, for me, as a verse by verse expositor, I want to be faithful to this. I don't want to over-tax your patience with this theme, but I tell you this, I don't know that I will ever preach on this again. Specifically, this theme of Jesus as our great High Priest. It's a great theme, but it's concentrated here in Hebrews 5-7. And now we have one more summation here in Hebrews 8:1-6. And the author takes it up by, I think, addressing an accusation that can be made against our religion. Specifically, that we have no high priest. And he asserts the point of what we were saying, the head, literally the head or the summation of what we are saying, is this. We do have such a High Priest. The Priests and Temples of Pagan Religions and Judaism Now the opponents of Christianity, unbelieving Jews, pagans, gentiles, they could make this accusation against our faith. You have no religion. You have no temple. You have no sacrifices. You have no idol, or a physical representation of God. You have no priest. You have nothing. Where is it, this faith of yours? I think about the pagans, for example, pagan religions. They were sensual. They assaulted the senses. You could see something, you could hear something, you could taste something. They were frequently orgies of meat that was eaten and all kinds of sensual pleasures involved. There was definitely a locus, a place of worship where you could go. Think about the Egyptians and their priests, and the way that the priest would be decked out in their priestly garb, and how their religion centered on an array of gods and goddesses. And it was very sensual and very visual in particular. You could see it. Think about the Greeks. Think about in Ephesus, there was this incredible temple there. The Temple of Artemis of the Ephesians is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, a magnificent structure. And people came from miles around to go worship at the Shrine of Artemis. Remember how in the Book of Acts, they're chanting for two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." And there was in that chapter some indication that there was an image of Artemis that had fallen down from the heavens. Maybe some meteorite that looked like a person. And so they said, "This is Artemis," and they put it up as an idol. But everyone could see it. You could taste the meats that were being sacrificed. You could sensually get involved in the worship. So it was with the Mayans and the Aztecs and religions all over the world assault the senses. They sapped the senses with input. Even that revealed religion of the Old Covenant was far more essentially appealing than the New Covenant religion. God had established a pattern of worship. And you could see the tabernacle, the tent established by the laws of Moses. Later, there was The Great Temple of Solomon, and then in Jesus's day, Herod's temple. And it was majestic and it was something to see. You remember how the apostles were just in awe of the gigantic stones that made up Herod's temple. "Look Teacher!" they said. "What massive stones, what magnificent buildings!" Jesus said, "Not one stone here will be left on another." But that Old Covenant religion did most certainly address the senses. And you could see the high priest, the ironic high priest, the Levitical priest. He was wearing robes that gave him glory and majesty. And he was doing physical sacrifices. He was offering up animals. And that physical worship was plain to see. But what about the Christians? What about you Christians? Where is your place of worship? Where is your High Priest? Where are the sacrifices? You have none. You have no High Priest, you have no temple, you have no religion. Even the pagans, you remember, if you've read church history, the Martyrdom of Polycarp in Smyrna, an incredible story. I commend it to you. You need to find it. Eusebius, the church historian, records it. One of the great and heroic stories in the 2nd century. Here's this godly man, Polycarp, I believe 86 years old when he was there, and he was on trial for being a Christian. He's there in the Amphitheater of Smyrna. And they're accusing him of atheism. They called Christians the godless because they had no gods. They said that man-made gods were no gods at all, so they had no gods. And so at the pinnacle, the climax of the trial, he had to denounce Christians by saying the well-known slogan, "Away with the godless." And so what he did was, he waved his hand at all those who are persecuting and said of them, "Away with the godless." You are the true atheist. We have a High Priest. We have a God. He's in the heavens. By faith, we see Him, by faith, we receive Him. And so we sang this morning, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you." I want to know by faith that you are ministering. Well, this sermon is for you. That's what the Word of God is for, to give you the eyes of faith so that you can see the truth of this statement. A Personal High Priest And I want you to personalize it. We Christians have such a great High Priest. I want you to get even more personal in that based on Galatians 2:20. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live as a Christian, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." So you want to say, though the text doesn't say it, but Scripture allows it. I have a great High Priest. I have such a High Priest who's gone through the heavens and He is ministering for me. The ironic high priest, the Levitical priest, wore a breast plate with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. And they were close to his heart, and he carried their names with them into the Holy of Holies. We have even better. Jesus speaks your name personally to the Father. He knows his sheep by name. He knows exactly what you're going through, and He is praying for you, by name. So, we have such a great High Priest, one who's priestly ministry as we've learned from Hebrews 7 has nothing to do with his genealogy, has nothing to do with who his parents were, humanly speaking. His ministry as great High Priest is in some amazing way, without beginning and without end. He is the Lamb slain from before the creation of the world. He is the one whose ministry is based on the power of an indestructible life, who ever lives to intercede for us. The one who has gone through the heavens and is now higher than the heavens, at the right hand of God, and who is ministering for us, the only begotten Son of God. This is our great High Priest. So if you take nothing away from the sermon, say this, "I have a great High Priest, and he is ministering for me." II. Our High Priest is Seated at the Right Hand of God (vs. 1) But he goes on and by way of repetition, some themes that we've seen before, to tell us that our High Priest is seated at the right hand of God. This is his position. He is at the right hand of God. From Hebrews 4, we learned he has passed through the heavenlies, and now he is at the right hand of God. Five times in the Book of Hebrews, we are told this. Now, in Hebrews 1:3, it's interesting the different phrases, the different combinations of phrases the author uses to say he's at the right hand of God. In Hebrews 1:3, it says, "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven." So there's majesty but no throne. In Hebrews 12, it says that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So, there is a throne mentioned there, but no majesty. But here in Hebrews 8 and verse 1, we have everything, all of it combined. "The point of what we are saying is this, we have such a High Priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven." This is the superiority of our great High Priest, his position at the right hand of omnipotence. We cannot even begin to imagine how much power just emanates from, exudes from this throne of Almighty God. He is able to do immeasurably more than all you can ask or imagine. He is infinitely more powerful than your mind can conceive. Daniel had a vision Of God's throne in Daniel 7:9-10. "And as I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, the hair of His head was white like wool, and his eyes were like blazing fires, throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended Him, 10,000 times 10,000 stood before Him." That is the throne of God, the throne of the majesty of heaven, and that's where Jesus is, at the right hand of all of that power. And he's there for you and for me. And it is fitting and it's appropriate for him to be there after having been rejected by our race, rejected by humanity. Scorned, spat upon, crown of thorns, put on his head, a mocking robe put on his shoulders, beaten 'til his back was in tatters, blood flowing. Spat upon, mocked up the streets of Jerusalem, rejected by his own people. Outside the city gates, there he was crucified, he shed His blood under the wrath and curse of God, and rejected by humanity, Jew and gentile alike. He died. Philippians 2 tells us that because of this, because of his obedience, because of His godly submission to His heavenly Father, because of that, "God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father." That's where he is, that's where your great High Priest is, at the right hand of that kind of power. That's his position. Look at his posture. He's seated there. We've mentioned this before, but this is a clear and significant point. Jesus is seated there because the offering that he made is acceptable to God, and He does not need to offer another. Once for all time he has offered that offering, and so he is seated. And he has offered that offering to God and it is acceptable, and so we have a picture of Jesus having entered into that position and is seated at the right hand of God, and so that's a beautiful thing when we consider it. And we contemplated it last time, but there is an aspect of Jesus's work that is perfect and complete. It cannot be improved on. And that is His blood shed on the cross for you and me. When Jesus died, he said in John 19, "It is finished." It is perfect, it is complete. Everything is done now, and nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be taken from it. It is perfect, and so he went through the heavens, having obtained our purification, he went through the heavens and presented it to God once for all time. And it is a perfect picture of his priestly ministry. III. Our High Priest Serves in a Superior Tabernacle (vs. 2, 5) We learned also, and we're going to talk about now, his ministry is also ongoing. There's a sense in which it's perfected and complete, and so He is seated at the right hand of God. But if you look at the next section in verse 2, it says that he is serving, you see, in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. Our High Priest serves in a superior tabernacle, so he is a minister. The Greek word is leiturgos, it's from which we get liturgy. It has to do with a religious work or religious service. And so here, he is a minister. He is ministering in an ongoing sense. He is working for you and me. He is not again and again offering his blood. That doesn't need to be done, that's been done. He doesn't need to be sacrificed again and again. Once for all means once for all. He's finished, but he is ever living to intercede for you. He is ministering. And look at the location of that ministry. It says that he serves in a sanctuary, a tabernacle. So we have two words here, sanctuary and tabernacle. The first word sanctuary in the English comes from the Latin word sanctus, which means holy. And so it's coming right up out of the Greek. He serves in the holy places, both the Holy Place and in the Most Holy Place. And so this is a picture, I think, going back to the tabernacle, which had the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, the place where the Levitical priests worked where they offered the blood of animals, the blood of bulls and goats. And then they would go into the Most Holy Place once a year, the high priest would, and presented it. But Jesus, we are told, serves in the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. So he serves in a tabernacle. Now, the word tabernacle literally means tent. That's literally what it is here in the Greek. Some English translations bring it over as tent. He serves in the true tent. Or I think it's best to keep it as tabernacle. But what do we mean by the word true? Well, we have to dispense with the idea of it's true versus false. The Old Covenant tabernacle was not a false tabernacle. It wasn't set up by false pretenses. It wasn't set up as a pattern of false religion, from false motives, worshipping a false God. That's not the contrast here. Rather the contrast is that which is eternal and perfect in the heavenly realms, versus that which was mere copy and shadow in the earthly realms. I think you get the same thing in John chapter 6, when Jesus after the feeding of the 5000, you remember they come across the lake. They want to be there, and they're looking for another meal. Now friends, there's nothing wrong with looking for another meal. Some of you are going to be doing it very soon. Looking for another meal is fine, but that was not the time to be going and seeking another meal from Jesus. "Do not labor for the food that spoils but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you" and that is salvation. So they're having a discussion, and they wanted Jesus to do a sign, a wonder for them, and to give them bread from heaven like Moses did. And Jesus said this, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Now again, the same idea. It's not like the manna wasn't nourishing. It was. It's not like it wasn't a miraculous gift of God. It was. It's not like it didn't have a benefit. It did. But in terms of redemptive history, it was a copy and a shadow of the true bread that comes down from heaven, and that is Jesus. And so Jesus serves in the true tabernacle, the one set up by the Lord and not by men. Now, the Old Covenant tabernacle was set up by the hands of men. The commands were given in Exodus 26, that the curtains of the tabernacle were to be made of finally twisted linen of various colors and skilled craftsman were to weave pictures of cherubim in and so, it was hand-made. It was a man-made by the command of God, but it's not the true tabernacle. That was set up by men and not by the Lord. Jesus serves in the true tent that was made and not by men, but by God. Now, what is that? What is this true tabernacle? The contrast in verse 5, it says, "They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven." This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle, see to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. And so this is how it work. Moses was up there on the mountain of God, and God commanded this man-made tent to be made and he showed him a vision of a heavenly reality, and that gave him a pattern that he was supposed to follow with the tabernacle. And He was commanded by God to be sure that he made it according to the pattern that God revealed to him on the mountain of God. Parenthetically, I believe the same kind of thing happened with David when he had it in his heart to build the temple, which is not a movable tent but a more permanent building. Notice I said more permanent. There's nothing you can see in this life that's permanent. But that temple was meant to last longer, and he wanted to build it but God forbade him through Nathan. But God did give David a pattern or a plan for the temple revealed by the Spirit of God, which he wrote down and handed to his son, Solomon. Same kind of thing. But in Moses's case, he was shown a pattern on the mountain of God, some kind of vision of a heavenly reality. And the tabernacle is going to be a shadow or a copy, or a shadowy copy. We could put it together. That's all that the tabernacle was. The Levitical priests serve in a shadowy copy. The true tabernacle was not made by man but by God. So what is it? What is the True Tabernacle? What is this true tabernacle? Well, some people, some commentators have said, it's the whole universe. It's the heavens and the earth combined. That's so ethereal, I don't even know what that means. I'm just telling you what some commentators say. Others say it's the church. The church of Christ is the true tabernacle in which Jesus serves and ministers. It's getting closer, but I still don't think that's it. Some people think it's a section of heaven, like there's some kind of a heavenly tabernacle or place where Jesus as our Priest goes, a section like, I don't know, what it's cordoned off in heaven, where he goes there to plead for us and pray for us, etcetera. But I don't think that's it, either. Then what is it? You know what I think it is? I think it is his resurrected glorified body. That's the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. It says in John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [tabernacled] among us." Literally pitched his tent with us. He took up a tent and dwelt with us. Now that earthly tabernacle is a symbol of God's dwelling with His people, dwelling in the midst, dwelling with his people. Jesus taking on a body, becoming our Immanuel, our "God with us," tabernacled with us. He pitched his tent by taking on a human body, and God raised him from the dead by the power of the Spirit. And He is in that glorified resurrected body and is ascended now, and in that true tabernacle, he ministers forever. Jesus in John chapter 2, when his Jewish opponents were challenging him and questioning him, asking what sign he could do to prove his authority to do all these things. Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." They thought he was talking about Herod's temple. And they said to Jesus, "It took 46 years to build this temple. And can you raise it up in three days?" Parenthetically, do you think he could? If they turned it to rubble, do you think he could rebuild Herod's temple? Yes. Not in three days, but in three instants. Whatever he wanted to do, there's nothing he cannot do. But why would he do that? It was a shadow and a copy. The real temple was his body. And John 2:21 tells us very plainly that his body is the temple. And so it says in Revelation chapter 21, "I did not see a temple…" I didn't see one up there in the new Jerusalem, "For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple." That's the place and so in that Jesus ministers. And so we have in Hebrews 10, a summation of all of his priestly language, etcetera. IV. Our High Priest Offers a Superior Sacrifice (vs. 3-4) It says, "Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body..." Now, I know it's a little complicated, this sentence, but I'm going to read it this way. "His body is the new and living way." He is the way in, and his body is that, the resurrected body. And so Jesus serves in a better tabernacle, amen? A superior tabernacle, a perfect one, his resurrected body. And by the way, if you're confused about this and the theology of it, Jesus has his body still. There's no confusion about this. He's still in that resurrection body, and will be forever. I'm amazed how frequently Christians stumble over this. Could you shake Jesus's hand? Could he still eat broiled fish? Could you touch him on the back? Could you put your fingers in the nail marks? Could all of that still happened? Yes, yes and yes. He's still in his resurrected body. He's still human. He is still the Son of Man, and will be forever. And that is the true tabernacle in which he ministers as our great High Priest. And our High Priest offers a superior sacrifice. But then you already knew that, didn't you? You're here because of the blood of Jesus. And we'll talk much more about it in chapters 9 and 10, but we'll touch on it here just in verses 3-4. "Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law." And so the necessity of a high priest to offer a gift and sacrifice is brought up. If you're going to be a priest, you have to offer gifts and sacrifices. Why? Well, first, just for us as created beings who have received so much from God, so many blessings from God, even if we were not sinful, it would be appropriate for us to render to God thanks and praise for all that He's done. And so the holy angels do, and it's appropriate for there to be gifts and offerings. When God brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, He appointed that there be three times a year that the Jews would appear before God. Three times a year, and He commanded very plainly, "Not one of you is to appear before me empty-handed." Have you come here today empty-handed? I hope not. Our offerings are spiritual now, but I sure hope you brought an offering, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God for all of his goodness to you. None of us should appear before him empty-handed, just because of his goodness to us. In Deuteronomy 16:16, He said essentially, "When the first fruits comes in the land, I want you to bring that first fruits and offer it to me. I have brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey, and you're going to eat crops you didn't plant, and you're going to live in houses you didn't build, and when that first fruit come, you come and offer that first fruit to me. Let no Israelite appear before me empty-handed." So, just because we are created and He is Creator, we should appear with gifts and sacrifices all the more in that we are sinful. We must have a sacrifice offered because of our sins. And so it is necessary for a high praise to offer a gift and sacrifice for sin. But their sacrifices are inferior. Though commanded by God they are inferior, and I say to you, they are long obsolete. For two thousand years, they've been obsolete. Since that curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, they are obsolete. They offer the blood of bulls and goats, endlessly repeated animal sacrifices, which have no efficacy to cleanse or purify the conscience. More on that later. Christ Offered Himself Once for All Time But Jesus offered for all time one sacrifice, his own blood shed on the cross, and by that sacrifice, he has the power to cleanse your guilty conscience in mind. And that is the once for all perfect sacrifice. And so it is necessary for this one to have something to offer. What a grand understatement. This one, this Jesus, have something to offer, namely, his blood. And so he does offer. It is necessary for him, but is necessary for him not to offer it on Earth. Why? Because he's forbidden to do so by the law of Moses. He is of the tribe of Judah. There were men set up by the law of Moses, Levites, who were required by law to offer those sacrifices. And so it is necessary for him not to present the blood on Earth. How beautiful is it the typology, the symbology here, the Levitical priest sacrificed the animal in one place and brought the blood to the Most Holy Place. There was a transportation of the blood, and so the altar is out there, the Most Holy Place, Holy of Holies, is in here. And so Jesus was crucified outside the city gates, under position of rejection and condemnation, and there he obtained the blood that he then moves through the heavenly realms to present to God once for all. What a perfectly fulfilled. It was necessary for that symbology to be fulfilled, and so Jesus offered the gifts, the gift and sacrifice once for all for us, a superior sacrifice. V. Our High Priest Mediates a Superior Covenant (vs. 6) And then finally, our High Priest mediates a superior covenant. I can't wait for the next part of this sermon series. I can't wait for Hebrews 8:7-13. What a majestic unfolding of what you get as a New Covenant believer, and how beautiful is this. But look at verse 6. "The ministry Jesus has received is as far excellent," I love the word excellent in one of the translations. Superior is fine, but just excellent. "It's much more excellent than theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator, is superior to the old one and it's founded on better promises." So we have a more excellent Priest who brings a more excellent covenant. Their covenant is obsolete. It's done, it's finished, it's been fulfilled. It's done all that it needed to do in pointing ahead to Jesus. Now, its time is finished. But now, the author gives us a kind of a calculation, a comparison. Jesus's ministry is as superior to theirs as the covenant He brings is superior to theirs and founded on better promises. There's the calculation. And what are those better promises? Would you be offended if I told you what they were? I'll give you a foretaste. They are three. First and foremost, "I will be their God and they will be my people." "They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest." That is the final end, the ultimate end of what he is seeking to achieve. To reconcile us to himself, and bring us into intimate knowledge of himself. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God. "They will all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest." In order to achieve that, He must take out the heart of stone and give the heart of flesh. And so He says, "I'll put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts." And that's how they will be my people and I will be their God. And so He transforms our character so that we can actually obey his laws and love them and follow them. "For I'll forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more." That's the third one. These are the three things, the Old Covenant could not do. They could not bring us into a reconciled relationship with God. The blood of bulls and goats couldn't do it. It could not change our nature from stony-hearted rebels to submissive noble-hearted children, sons and daughters of the Living God. It had no power to do that. And it could not take away your sins, but only pointed ahead to someone who could. Those are the better promises. So based on that, I plead with you to trust in those promises. If you have never trusted in those promises before today, trust in them now. You have heard the Gospel today. God sent His Son, who died on the cross. His blood was shed for sinners like you and me. If you simply repent, do nothing, just in that pew seated there, look to Jesus by faith into the invisible world, look and see him ministering there, by faith, you will be saved. Trust in Him, apart from works. Trust in Him. And if you did that years and years ago, do it again and again and again. Trust in him, trust in him, feed on Him, look to him. You have no independent salvation. You don't have any independent days. You are dependent on the ministry of your great High Priest. He is at the right hand of God and is praying for you. Feel your dependency. Look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. Trust in Him now. And celebrate the blood of the New Covenant that saves you. The night before Jesus was died, the night before Jesus died, he took the cup and he said, "This cup is the blood of the New Covenant in my blood." We're about to partake of the Lord's Supper. We're going to celebrate this New Covenant. We're going to celebrate the superior ministry of Jesus as our great High Priest. I'm going to urge you if you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have publicly testified to that by water baptism, you are welcome at the table. If you have not, we ask you to refrain. But rather just to be made right with God by simple faith. And I say this to you, and I say it to my children, you may be growing up in a Christian home, you haven't been baptized yet, but you have come to a genuine saving faith. It's just too early to recognize it yet, but you know the Lord. You can derive benefit from the Lord Supper without eating and drinking today. Look in your heart to the blood that was shed for you. Trust in that. Feed on Him by faith. I'm not saying that the eating and drinking has no value. We do it, but it's just an emblem. The real issue is your faith. So as you sit there on the pew, believe, trust. But if you are partaking, do so looking to Jesus. If you have any sin in your life, this is a great time to resolve, to dedicate yourself before God to getting rid of it. To putting it to death by the power of the Spirit. Let's pray.

A Sweet Blessing Gone Bad Alright, so this morning I practiced this sermon and it was 56 minutes and 44 seconds long, okay? So it led me into a quandary. I can do one of two difficult things. I can hold your attention for 56 minutes and 44 seconds, or I can try to split this sermon in two on the fly. Either one of those are difficult to do. I've chosen to do the second, and so I'm going to preach in my normal way at the normal length, and I don't know where that's going to be, but I think what's going to happen is, I'm going to establish this morning from Matthew 19, the clarity of Jesus' teaching on what marriage is, from the way God intended at the beginning. So I'm going to set up the standard that Jesus sets up. And then next week I'm going to deal more thoroughly with the questions of divorce and remarriage that so plague us and are so difficult and painful for so many. So next week then I'll have to re-establish again with clarity that clear standard that Jesus established, and then try to answer as many practical questions as I can. The problem at the end of this sermon is that I seek to apply it as well, and I will want to apply some things that I might have to say again next week, so please bear with me. As Jesus said, the night before He died to His disciples, "I have much to say to you, more than you can now bear." Alright, [laughter] so let's go with it that way, okay? So I've decided to go that approach. Remember Your Wedding Day On my dresser in my bedroom there's a picture of Christy and I taken on May 14th, 1988. I asked her permission to say those words to you before I came up here. She has granted that permission. It's a picture of the day that I received the greatest earthly blessing I've ever gotten in this world. Christy said often we look like children in that picture, and I think about that, we look so young. I don't think we fully understood what we were getting into at that point, I don't think we still fully understand what we've gotten into. [laughter] But I know this, that a river of blessings has come to me from the commitment I made that day, as I stood before God and man and made a promise to her that I would be her husband, she made a promise to me that she would be my wife, and God has held us to that promise for over 20 years now, continues to hold us to it, and it's been a river of blessing. Those of you that are married, I ask you to think back to your wedding day, that day that God gave you the greatest earthly gift that He could give, another human being created in the image of God, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish from that day on and forever until death parted you. Remember how happy you were, you remember what hopes that you had, what longings you had for the future. Remember how beautiful each of you looked. You never looked better physically in all your lives. Wore your best clothes, you looked wonderful. I've seen lots of you in that condition. Lots of weddings. And you looked incredible, wearing special clothes for the most important act of your lives in this world. And how many pictures were taken that day? Some videos maybe, capturing your happy faces, the hopes in your hearts. How is it now? How is it now? Remember the First Wedding Day I wanna say to all of you married and unmarried alike, I want you to go back in your minds to that very first wedding day, God had made a perfect world. We can scarcely imagine the radiant beauty and glory of that pristine world, a perfectly blue sky, a radiant sun, glowing vegetation, all the flowering plants, fruitful trees giving off their fragrance, boasting of their succulent fruit. The Garden of Eden, a lush paradise of sights and sounds and smells and sensory pleasures by the fountain of delights the God who made them all for our pleasure and our enjoyment. Magnificent beasts with all their strength and variety, the creeping things, the soaring birds with their magnificent plumage, and there God put the man that He had fashioned from the dust of the earth, a living and breathing man now tasked with the responsibility of watching over and protecting the Garden of Eden, taking care of it, serving it, tasked also with the responsibility of naming all of those animals, and tasked with the responsibility of filling the world with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, of replicating the image of God throughout the world, of filling the earth with that image. It was a task that Adam could not fulfill alone, he needed a helper suitable for him. And so God caused him to fall into a deep sleep, and while Adam sleeping God took a rib from his side and closed up the place with flesh, and God wondrously crafted a woman from the rib and brought this magnificent gift, categorically the last thing God ever created. Some would say the best, I would have to agree. But I won't argue the point theologically, God saving in that sense the most magnificent creation for the... And I think Adam would have agreed when he saw her, a beautiful woman perfectly suited for Adam, a helper suitable for him, and he responded the only way that a man can when he sees the woman he's gonna spend the rest of his life with, with poetry. "This at last is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man." I often wondered how Adam knew that in that he was asleep at the time, but I think it was that God told him about her, God understanding a woman perfectly, as only God can do. [laughter] Adam had an education that lasted hundreds of years after that, but God explained from the beginning what she was and where she had come from. So God had given Adam the greatest physical gift he would ever receive, and Eve would become eventually the mother of all the living. But sin soon entered the world through Adam's rebellion, through his sinful negligence, his failure to act, sin of omission of immense proportions as he stood there saying nothing while the serpent tempted his wife. And we have been suffering bitterly ever since, and divorce is part of that sin package. And it is the sad focus of our time in the Word this morning and next week. How Is It Now? So how is it now with marriage? How is it now? Well, there is, some have called it an epidemic of divorce. Some years ago, a journalist for a national news magazine asked this rhetorical question, "Are there any person's left in this land who have not had a friend or child or parent describe intimately the agony of divorce?" The statistics are shocking. Annual divorce rate is 3.9 per thousand people of population equaling well over one million new divorces every year. Sadly, the divorce rates among self-described Christians are not very much different from those of non-Christians. With one million new divorces every year, of course, comes two million newly divorced people plus several million perhaps new children of divorce. Every single person involved in this process is hurt deeply, some use this language that they have been wounded for life, scarred for life. One commentator I read said this, “Every divorce destroys a little world, a little society with its own culture and traditions and history and network of relationships. A miniature world has been crushed forever.” The tragedy is unspeakable. Men and women feel rejected to the very core of their being, ripped apart from inside. The most significant promise they ever made broken, the most significant relationship in their lives ended in tragedy. It's bitter beyond all measure. And they remember all the moments with bitterness and sadness, the photo of the couple on their first date, a love letter tumbling from the pages of a book, a box of memorabilia from the wedding day, video of the wedding itself, all the smiles, the kisses, promises made, hopes for the future. The honeymoon, their first home together, started their life together and how tragic now, the photos of their first child coming home from the hospital, the three of them smiling around the Christmas tree, the baby's first Christmas smiling for the camera. And now all of it is destroyed and they can't look at those photos pleasantly. It's somewhat in that way like a suicide, where you just can't look at the photos of the person the same way ever again. And in that way, again, I think far worse than if it had ended by a tragic auto accident or a terminal illness, this world, this little world has come to an end through the choices to some degree that each person has made and their own foolishness, their own sin has brought it to an end. We cannot calculate the agony that these one million divorces pumps into the national atmosphere every year. Now, divorce used to be rare. Why was it rare? Well, in past years, the vast majority of marriages held secure and stable, it doesn't mean that people were any less sinful than we are now, but there were certain pressures brought to bear in a positive way to the marriages. John MacArthur lists some of these pressures. He says, first of all, the extended family was a powerful moral force. Relationships to parents continued to exert tremendous pull long after marriage. Married couples felt the pressure to work out their differences rather than bring shame on their parents by getting a divorce. So also there was a much stronger network of relationships extending to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etcetera. These relationships did not merely put pressure on the couple to save the marriage, but they also offered resources that the desperate couple would need at that difficult time. Advice, prayer, moral example, money, a shoulder to cry on, etcetera. This network has become gradually weakened over the last number of decades. The fluidity of our society, frankly the multiplication of divorces itself as we've mentioned tends to create more divorces. So also the proliferation of anti-biblical ideologies, like moral permissiveness, feminism, humanism, proliferation of television, movies, internet, etc., have pumped out a worldview that is hostile to the biblical worldview, and divorce is one of the by-products. MacArthur also lists community expectation back in the day. The surrounding communities expected marriages to survive for the most part, and responded generally to divorce negatively, divorce laws therefore were difficult. Divorce was hard to come by, community ethics stood in favor instead of working out the issues and maintaining marriage. Strongest of all the influences that John MacArthur lists are... the spiritual or religious aspect. Churches universally taught the Bible truth on divorce and remarriage. All branches of Christianity, Catholic, Protestant, orthodox strongly supported healthy family life and just as strongly opposed divorce. But this has all changed, especially in the church more and more people feel compelled in the name of Christian love and compassion to change the clear biblical teaching on divorce. I read recently that a Christian entertainer got a divorce, claiming that her husband stood in the way of her career advancement. She said she did not believe her divorce related to her religious views as a Christian in any way, and even if it did, she believed God would forgive anything she did, and loved her the same either way. More and more Christian counseling, both of the formal and informal sort, has imbibed this kind of approach, and the general prevailing worldly perspective, and has turned to helping people through the divorce process and has turned to giving worldly advice rather than biblical advice. Helping people through with minimal pain, helping them prepare for their future lives after the divorce. Some Christians in the name of love then become hostile to anyone that teaches the biblical standard on divorce and remarriage, and calls it legalism. However, other Christians, seeing all of these things, what is going on in society in general, raise the biblical standard beyond the biblical norms. In a zeal to protect what the Bible says, they established strictures that I think go beyond what Jesus says in this text. John MacArthur, speaking of that phenomenon, either way it says, “But that which is contrary to Scripture can never be either loving or spiritual. A human standard may be more lenient or more restrictive than Scripture, but it can never be better.” Do you believe that? The Bible is the measure for all things and can never be more lenient, it can be lenient, it can be more strict, but never can be better. “When God's word is ignored or perverted in any area, tragedy is always the consequence, the matter of marriage and divorce standards then are no exception." Now, generally in our culture, there are deeper questions about marriage that go beyond even this issue of divorce and remarriage. More and more confusion exists on what marriage is. Hence, we are starting to talk about things like gay marriage. I saw a humorous piece recently about a clerk who is working in a town hall issuing marriage licenses to an ever stranger series of people who are applying. First of course a regular couple, a man and wife wanted to become husband and wife, and then came two men who wanted marriage license, then two women, then a man and a boy, then a woman and a girl, then three people together, ended up with a man who wanted to marry himself, [chuckle] and at that point the clerk resigned his position. I believe in this general societal discussion on what marriage is, it is impossible for us to carry it on in the end without an absolute standard of truth and right and wrong. It's really just going to be impossible. In this pluralistic society in which we live that kind of thing may well come. Because we are talking about a definition that comes from God. It is God that defines marriage, and the further we get away from, "Thus says the Lord," the more confusing the discussion is going to be. It's going to be very difficult for Christian apologists who do not argue from Scripture to talk about what marriage is. I don't know how they're going to do it. I don't think they should. I think they should say, "Thus says the Lord," and say what marriage is, and just keep doing that, 'cause it is the truth. Now, this morning, we're going to face this painful question together as brothers and sisters in Christ. We're gonna sit at Jesus' feet, we're gonna allow Him to teach us about marriage and divorce. I believe every one of us who has been married, is married now, will face painful issues concerning our marriage, and we're going to be called on by the text as always to repent. There's a constant call from Jesus to repent. All of us will need to do it. We're going to look at Jesus' standards of marriage, and all of us are gonna look in and find flaws. And so therefore, it's my joy to proclaim forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even over this issue. There is grace, there is mercy, and there's forgiveness for any sin and blasphemy Jesus said. But still there needs to be repentance. Jesus loves us too much to allow us to continue in sin. So we're gonna let Him speak the truth to us, no matter how painful it may be. We're gonna allow Him to heal some of the most painful of spots in our souls, and hopefully we're going to prevent, as a church, future pain and agony. All of those things are in my mind as I preach this morning. The Pharisees Ask a Treacherous Question Context So let's look at Matthew 19 and the context. In Matthew 19:1-2 it says, "When Jesus had finished saying these things, He left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed Him and He healed them there." So for about two years, Jesus has been ministering almost exclusively in His home area of Galilee. Now, for the last two months in the narrative, He'd been focusing, it seems, almost exclusively on training the 12 for their future responsibilities as leaders, Apostles of His church. He now goes south to the most important appointment of His life, and that is His arrest, His condemnation, His death on the cross, and His resurrection on the third day to save us from our sins. So that's why He's traveling south. The region beyond the Jordan that He's in now in this text is part of the territory of Herod Antipas, the very man who had arrested John the Baptist for preaching that his marriage to Herodias, his brother Philip's wife was unlawful. Herodias and Herod did not take it kindly and arrested John the Baptist and had him executed for it. Now, I believe the Pharisees came seeking to get Jesus into similar trouble. I think they were trying to have Him killed. It clearly says in the text that they're asking a question in order to test Him, or trap Him, they're seeking to get Him into trouble. The Treacherous Question And so, look at Verse 3 at the treacherous question. "Some Pharisees came to Him to test him. They asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?'" They're not looking for information and they don't want a debate. They really just hated Him, and they wanted Him killed. The backdrop in Judaism to their question is a long-standing debate between Jewish Rabbis on a text in the Old Testament. The text is Deuteronomy 24, and in that text, based on that text, the Jews believe that every Jewish man had the right to divorce his wife. The text talks about a condition in which a man finds something indecent in his wife and writes her a certificate of divorce and sends her away, and then she goes and then becomes the wife of another man, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and sends her away. She cannot then go back to her first husband and marry him. Would not the land become utterly defiled? That's what Deuteronomy 24 says. Now, as they wrestled over that text, the Rabbis had different opinions on what it was that was the indecent thing in Deuteronomy 24. What was it that was indecent, and on the basis of that the man wrote his wife a certificate of divorce? Now, the stricter school of the Rabbi Shammai felt that the indecent thing that the first husband found had to be adultery. He found adultery in her, but it doesn't say adultery, but that's what they interpreted. Now, the more lenient School of Hillel interpreted it more widely and said it referred to anything offensive to the husband, even to the point of the spoiling of the husband's dinner. The Pharisees tended to follow this latter and broader interpretation to follow Hillel, and allow divorce for any and every reason, whatever the husband thought was best. A later Rabbi along the same line named Akiva interpreted the words of Moses, "if she finds no favor in his eyes", to mean that if the husband simply found a prettier woman, he could divorce his first wife and marry her, because she no longer finds favor in his eyes. So you can tell that even back then feelings ran very high on this topic. No matter what answer Jesus gave, He would antagonize somebody. Maybe especially they were hoping, I think, Herod Antipas, who had the power to kill Jesus. So you can see that divorce was a hot topic in Jesus' day, just as it is in our day. The Timeless Answer of Jesus So look at the timeless answer of Jesus to this question, Verses 4-6, “‘Haven't you read,’ He replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, “for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one. Therefore, what God has joined together let man not separate.’” Now, I'm about to give you four foundations, timeless foundations to Jesus' answer, and then His answer, but just for clarity's sake I just want to draw out what's happened here. They came and asked Him a treacherous question, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” Jesus' answer is, “Absolutely not.” I mean, that's a summation of it. His answer is no. Now, there's more to say on that, and we will say more, but just if you're looking at the question they ask, “Is it lawful to divorce a man... For a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” Jesus' answer is no. But He does give foundations to His answer. And I wanna look at those four foundations. These are four immovable foundation stones on which our concept of marriage should be based. Foundation #1: The Sufficiency of Scripture The first foundation is the sufficiency of Scripture to address this issue, foundation number one, the Scripture itself. "Haven't you read?", He says. Now, these were the Pharisees, they spent their whole time working on Scripture. This is what they did. And so Jesus is really to some degree critiquing them for missing this. "Haven't you read?", He said. He begins this dispute by setting the ground rules. The answer will be found only by a right reading of Scripture. Therefore I take from this, just as a pastor, as a preacher, and as a counselor, and a Christian man, Scripture is sufficient to answer all questions of marriage and divorce and remarriage. And we don't need another book, we don't need any more information, we need to understand the Scripture rightly, that's all. Jesus teaches us the sufficiency of Scripture. I think this is the big flaw with much Christian counseling these days, they get more information about marriage from psychological studies and clinical research and prevailing patterns of therapy in the field than they do from the Scripture. In this way they are widely divergent from Jesus' methodologies and counseling centers. True Biblical counseling answers the problems of marriage the same way it answers the problem of all of life. "Haven't you read?" Or Romans 4:3, “What does the Scripture say?” Now, I want you to notice some aspect of Jesus' view towards Scripture. Now this is one you might miss if you read too quickly. I'd like to ask that you take... Keep your finger here in Matthew 19, and go back to Deuteronomy... Sorry, Genesis Chapter 2. Genesis 2, Jesus quotes Genesis 2 at the end of the chapter, Verse 24. So just keep your finger in Matthew 19, we're just gonna be in Genesis 2 for a moment. But quoting Matthew 19:4-5, this is what Jesus says. “‘Haven't you read that at the beginning the creator made them male and female and said, “for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”’” Now, Jesus here says that the creator, God, does two things, not just one thing, He does two things. “‘Haven't you read,’ He said, ‘that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female,’” so He makes them, the Creator makes them male and female and said, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh." So the creator not only creates them, but He makes a statement about them, that's what the force of the phrase "and said". The Creator made them male and female and said for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. Now, if you look at Genesis 2:24, you do not see the introduction phrase such as "the Lord said" or "the Lord God said" or "Lord God answered", "the Lord God replied", or any of those introductors that you see frequently in the Genesis narrative. They're not there. What is the significance of that? You know what it is? It's Jesus' mind towards the Bible. Every single word in the Bible is God's word to you. The Creator is speaking to you today about marriage. That's Jesus' attitude towards Scripture. This is the one who'd rather die than Scripture be broken, friends. He has a very high view of Scripture, I would say He has an infinitely high view of Scripture. He has a higher view of Scripture than I do, he has a higher Scripture view... View of Scripture than any one of you does, that's Jesus' view of Scripture. We ought to come more and more up to His standard. And so, Augustine says in The Confessions, "Indeed, oh man," this is putting this mentality in the voice... The words of God. "Indeed, oh man, what my Scripture says, I say." Now, should you thereby get rid of your red letter editions to the Bible, which have Jesus' words in red and all the other words in black? No, you can keep them, that's fine, but please don't put any higher value on the red letters than you do on the black ones, or the purple ones or the green ones or whatever color the editors chose to print the Word of God, and it doesn't matter to me. What matters is what the Scripture says, okay? So just notice in Genesis 2, it's not the Lord God that says it, Moses wrote it just in the narrative. But in Jesus' mind, it's God that's saying this to you. So go back to Matthew 19. God wants to speak to you today about marriage, and so He's saying, What my Scripture says to you, husband and wife, I am saying to you." Foundation #2: God’s Original Intent Foundation number two, God's original intention of marriage. What did He intend by creating marriage? Look what Jesus said. "Haven't you read that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female?" We need to go back to the beginning. What did God intend? What God did with Adam and Eve, therefore in Jesus' mind was intended to be a pattern for every marriage that followed. It is the pattern for all marriages, right from the very beginning. At the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. When Jesus says, "For this reason," He's saying, this is a lasting principle for all time. Adam didn't have a father or mother, Eve didn't have a father or mother. These words are inserted in the Genesis narrative, though there were no fathers or mothers at the time, to teach us all, the whole human race about marriage. It's a lasting principle. So foundation number two is what is God's original intent in marriage? Jesus calls God the Creator, the Creator does everything for a purpose. He will argue then that divorce was no part of God's original purpose. Look at Verse 8, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard, but it was not this way from the beginning." Do you see that? He's arguing from original principles. What was God's original intention? And God's original purpose was one man, a male, one woman, a female, coming together in a complete physical union, one flesh for the purpose of filling the earth with His glory, the knowledge of His glory with His image. Genesis 1:27-28, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them, God blessed them, and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.'" So essential to God's purpose in creation of marriage is procreation or children. He wants children, He wants the birth of little ones. Though it is not God's only purpose in marriage, yet this is why the gender, I think, is mentioned here, male and female. This completely rules out so-called homosexual marriage, which I liken to speaking about a square circle. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Homosexual marriage is nothing, it doesn't exist. God defines marriage and procreation is part of it, right from the very beginning. God wanted children, He wanted lots of children. He wanted lots of human beings who would fill the Earth with the image of His glory, and they would know His glory and worship Him, that was God's purpose. And so, in the covenant marriage relationship from the beginning with a male, a father, and a female, a mother who would train them, at least in part, to get ready for their own future marriages. That was a bad slip there. Not to get rid of them, alright? But rather get them ready for their future marriages, alright? There does come a time that they leave, and they cleave together and they form their own home. And so for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. This is the precise reason I believe that God hates divorce, it violates His purposes and is therefore violent to the spouse. Listen to Malachi 2:13-16, this is the prophet speaking to sinful Israel centuries down the line, this is what the prophet says, “Another thing you do, you flood the Lord's altar with tears, you weep and wail because He no longer pays attention to your offerings, or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask why? Well, it is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her. Though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit, they are His. And why one? Because He was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. ‘I hate divorce,’ says the Lord God of Israel, ‘and I hate a man covering himself with violence, as well as with his garment,’ says the Lord Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.” Do you see how God equates divorce with violence there? At any rate, to understand marriage, we must go back to God's original intention as related in the Genesis account, and as commented on throughout Scripture. Foundation #3: God’s Action in Marriage Foundation number three is God's direct action in making marriages. Christ says that the Creator physically prepared them for marriage by making them male and female, their physical bodies were well suited for God's purpose in marriage. Parenthetically, some aesthetics within Christian church history have written against any kind of sexual involvement as though it were somehow dirty or unclean. As if it were intrinsically evil, because it is fleshly. The Scripture stands vigorously against their viewpoints. God created marital relations within the context of marriage. That anti-flesh bias is more from philosophy than from the Bible, end of parenthesis there. The creator made them male and female, and then Jesus says, brought them together so the two would become one flesh. It says very plainly in the Genesis account that God made the woman at some remote location, wherever that was, I don't know, and brought her to the man and the two became one flesh. And so, there is a distance between the two when they're single, and then God closes that distance and providentially brings the two together. And so God makes marriages, that's what Jesus is saying here. What God has joined together, let man not separate. That's the third foundation. Foundation #4: The Two Become One Flesh The fourth foundation is that the two become one flesh. What happens in a marriage in God's mind? The union is deep and real. It's not merely a piece of paper as some unbelievers who co-habit together say, "It's just a piece of paper." I've heard them say this to me. Frankly, if it's just a piece of paper, then Satan would behave differently than he does around it. He would behave differently, he would stop tempting Christian kids have relations before they get married, and tempting Christian spouses to stop having relations after marriage. He behaves radically differently after you say "I do". He changes his entire strategy. He doesn't think it's just a piece of paper, because God doesn't think so. So, we are deceived when we think it's just a piece of paper. No, the two become one flesh. God does something very profound, very mystical. Yes, it is physical. The marital bed is pure and undefiled and physical, but God also creates a unity where there was none before. It is so profound that the Apostle Paul likens it to the spiritual unity between Christ and the church, quoting the same Scripture, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church, says the Apostle Paul, Ephesians 5:32. Even more amazing, then, Christ's unity with the church is itself a picture of the trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in perfect unity with one another, it's a picture of all human relationships after that. As Jesus prays in John 17:21, "That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, and may they be also be brought to complete unity." So therefore, these are the four foundations, the sufficiency of Scripture, God's purpose at the beginning of marriage and setting marriage up, God's providential actions in forming marriage, and then the unity that He speaks of here, the two become one flesh. The Timeless Answer Those are the foundations, now comes the answer. Christ gives this timeless answer, "Therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate." And answer to the treacherous question, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?", the answer is simply and clearly absolutely not. We have no right to undo what God has joined, to rip it apart, separate it, cleave it apart in any way. Because Scripture is God's perfect word to you, because in Scripture God's original intention of marriage is made plain, because God is active directly in marriage from the very beginning and even now is personally involved in making marriages, and because the two become physically, spiritually, mystically one. "Let man not separate what God has joined." Now, there are more questions to ask. Indeed, the Pharisees and the disciples ask more questions, we won't answer them today. God willing, we'll have time next week. We might say, "Of course, this is God's standard and it would be best if all of us followed it, but things happen. Will God still love me? Will He still forgive me? Will He still bless my life if I violate this standard?" Well friends, that's an entirely different question, isn't it? In Jesus' world view, it's somewhat like asking, "How much poison can I drink before I die? How many times can I shoot myself before I bleed to death? If I scoop fire into my lap, will my whole body be burned or only part of it?" Whenever we violate God's standards and go our own separate way, either as individuals or pastors or as a church, there are deep and painful consequences. Now, is the grace of God acting through Jesus Christ sufficient to cover this river of sin? I tell you, yes, in an infinite number of rivers besides. In a single day, Jesus atoned for the sin of the whole land. And that is the glory of the Gospel I preach, that there is forgiveness, that God's grace can put together a broken life, it can put together a broken heart. That God is able to work through second and even third and fourth marriages when the people come to repentance and bring their sin to God and be honest about it, He can establish a new home. God moves on. We'll talk more about that next week. Look at the case of David and Bathsheba and the birth of Solomon. Study it in advance. God moves on. But what if it hasn't happened yet? What if it hasn't happened yet? What does God's grace do for you? Doesn't it behave very strongly with you and tell you, "Don't get a divorce. Work on that marriage."? I have much to say about that, more next week. I just wanna give you a couple of applications and we'll talk more about divorce, remarriage, and how to work on a marriage next time, God willing, but I wanna begin by just urging you to celebrate the gift of marriage. This is a good thing. I think it's so interesting that the Lord says, "It's not good for the man to be alone." The disciples contradict and say, "Well, it's good not to get married." Well, who's right then, God or the disciples? Is it good or not good to get married? I'll go with God. What do you say? It is good to get married, it's a good thing. Now, the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but God comes to give life and give it abundantly. So let's celebrate the goodness of marriage. I think you ought to celebrate, if you're a married couple, celebrate it every day, thank God for your spouse. No, I really mean it, thank God for your spouse. Thank God deeply and richly and fully for your spouse. Thank God for marriage, thank God that He invented it. Thank God for your life together. Thank God for it. Secondly, can I urge you to glorify God in your marriage? Glorify God, let your marriage be a lamp, a light shining in a dark place. Let God put it up on a stand, make it glorious. Go back one sermon to the 10,000 talents, if you need help on forgiveness, but forgive each other, forgive each other deeply and fully and richly and love each other and work on your marriage so that it can be glorious. I have more to say about that next time. Thirdly, I want you to think of divorce as unthinkable. Think of it as unthinkable, don't bring it up when you're having an argument, don't talk about it. It's unthinkable. Again, I wanna talk more about that next time. But just no, the Lord said, no, we're not going there, we're gonna work on the problem, we're gonna work on our communication. We're gonna work on our sin, we're gonna pray for each other, we're gonna love each other, we're gonna fast, we're gonna do whatever it takes, but we're going to work it out. Think of it as unthinkable, I'll say more about that next time. Just like I did with my pro-life sermon a few weeks ago, I just wanna finish with just a word to those of you that have been just deeply hurt by this topic. I hope not un-wrongly hurt by my sermon. I just wanna promise you that the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient for you. Wisdom of God and the Word is sufficient for you. There is a path ahead from this point forward in which you can live a life completely pleasing to God, and that's a sweet thing, isn't it? God's mercies are new every morning, they're new every moment. If we turn to Him honestly, we seek forgiveness, He will give it. Trust Him for that and pray for me over this next week as I put together what's left of this sermon into something coherent next week, and let's talk some more about this topic then. Close with me in prayer.

One Day, Face to Face Oh, what a joy is before me today as a preacher, and all of us as hearers to dwell on this theme; the supremacy of Jesus Christ, the greatness of Christ, the deity of Christ. What could be better than that? What theme more sublime? What better way to spend our time than to meditate on the greatness of Jesus Christ. Amen? I have been looking forward, literally, for months to preaching this sermon and now I get to do it and that's a wonderful thing. March 7th, 1970 was a fascinating day in my childhood. I didn't know the date until just before worship, but I remember the occasion. The occasion was my first, and up to this point, my last time of seeing with my own eye a total solar eclipse. I saw it, I was about seven years old. I haven't seen one since. I remember I was in an art class, my mom enrolled me in this art class, and they were all excited that this solar eclipse was coming and they prepared us to be able to see it. They warned us that we were unable to look at the sun with our naked eye, as though we needed that warning. We had learned earlier, even at age seven I knew, you don't stare at the sun. But they said, "It's really tempting when a solar eclipse comes along. You're going to want to look at it and you can't." So we prepared these special goggles with polarized film and all that, somewhat like welder's goggles, and even then you couldn't look for very long. Others took this white poster board and they put a tiny little pinhole in it and held one apart from the other. By an indirect manner they saw the image of the sun reflected onto that white poster board through that tiny little pinhole, because none of us could look fully at the radiant glory of the sun. Can I tell you something? The sun is a dim reflection of the glory of almighty God. He made it. He created it to show His own greatness and His own glory, but it's nothing compared to God. Actually, it says in 1 Timothy 6 that God dwells “in unapproachable light.” He said to Moses, “No one can see my face and live." That's almighty God. To some degree this text of Scripture, I don't speak in any way disrespectfully of the Scripture, but it's like a little pinhole through which some of the glory of Christ will come to our eyes today. Christ himself, to some degree, a pinhole focusing an image of God that we're able to see and survive because we can't handle it in our present flesh... Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor are we able to see God. Through that pinhole we can see some of the glory of God. That is Jesus Christ. There will come a day, and oh the joy in meditating on it, when we will see it fully face to face. When we will be so transformed, our spirits and our soul so transformed and enlarged, our bodies transformed and made like Christ's resurrection body, we will be able to handle a full revelation of the glory of God and of Christ. Oh, how I yearn for that day. In the meantime we have these little pinholes, and we have an image that we can look at and have a sense of the greatness of God thereby. That's what we get to do this morning. We get to look through a pinhole, or by a reflected image, and see the supremacy of Christ. This is the gospel, my friends, this is the heart of the gospel. That Christ is God and that God died for you and that He can, by faith, live inside you, and He can be for you the hope of your own future glory forever. He is your future glory. He will be your great reward. Christ is the gospel. Amen? And so we get to look at the gospel today in a magnificent way. Now, we're going to look, this is a two part sermon on these verses we can't do it all today, But we're going to look at the supremacy of Christ over the next two weeks. This week and next week, God willing. We're going to look at the supremacy of Christ in a variety of different ways. We're going to see the supremacy of Christ, first of all, in who He is. Just His intrinsic greatness as the image of the invisible God in His own deity. We're going to see the greatness, the supremacy of Christ. We're going to also see the supremacy of Christ in His position relative to the created universe. The firstborn over all creation. We're going to see the supremacy of Christ in what He has done in that it was through Him that all things were made, visible and invisible. He is actually the creator of all things. We're going to see the greatness of Christ in what He's done. We're going to see the greatness of Christ in what He is presently doing every single instant of the day in holding the universe together by His own great power. In these ways we're going to see the supremacy of Christ. But, all of it will mean nothing if you're not moved inside your heart to worship and honor Him as God. I speak both to Christian and non-Christian alike. To the non-Christian, I've already prayed for you if you're here. It will mean nothing for you to hear these words if you are not moved to worship Him as God and find salvation thereby. So I plead with you right at the very beginning, find your salvation in the fact that this one that we're talking about here shed His blood on the cross for you. And no good works are welcome on your part, no good works are possible for the forgiveness of your sins. It's all here, it's all in Christ and in the cross; find it there. But for you who are Christians, I say to you that your hearts are colder than they should be toward this concept of the deity of Christ. It's my desire, through the Spirit and through the Scripture, to warm you up a bit, and myself too. So that we might honor Him as he truly deserves. I. Christ’s Supremacy as God’s Visible Image (verse 15) Let's first look at the supremacy of Christ in who He really is as God's visible image. Look at verse 15. It says in verse 15, "He," [this is clearly speaking of Christ in context, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ] "He is the image of the invisible God." Now here we come immediately to the deity of Christ, foundational doctrine of Christianity. Christ’s Supremacy as God’s Visible Image We worship Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, we worship Him as our God. We are not ashamed to bow down before Him, we're not ashamed to embrace Him as deity, we believe in the deity of Christ. Now Christianity as a faith, as a religion, contains many doctrinal concepts. More than we could put together in a lifetime I think. The Scripture, 66 books of the Bible, seems almost an infinite treasure house of concepts that connect and reconnect in myriad ways that are beyond us to fully grasp even if we had our whole lives to study every day. But, not all doctrinal concepts that flow from the texts of Scripture are equally significant. They may all be true, but they're not equally significant, they’re equally true. The doctrine of baptism is important, it's important to understand it. The doctrine of the deity of Christ is more important. The doctrine of polity, of church government is important. The doctrine of the deity of Christ is more important. The doctrine of eschatology, of end time teaching is important, but the deity of Christ more so. And so we have in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about all these different stars in the firmament, but "Star differs from star in splendor." This may be the brightest star in the theological cosmos, the deity of Christ. That Jesus of Nazareth is actually God in the flesh. Here began your personal salvation when you acknowledge this, when you recognize who He was, when you said in your heart and with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord." That's where it began for you, and it's in meditating on that and living it out that your salvation has unfolded and developed through the deity of Christ. This is the greatest confession a human mouth can make. Peter made it in Caesarea Philippi. Jesus was asking, "Who do people say that I am?" And they got down to it and said, "What about you? What about you, who do you say that I am?" This is the question on which your soul's destiny will depend, on how you answer it, and Peter answered for us all, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, "Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my father in heaven." It's the same confession that Thomas made. Doubting Thomas, who didn't believe the reports of the resurrection and he said, "Unless I put my finger in the nail marks and my hand in his side, I will not believe that Jesus has been raised from the dead." A week later, Jesus gave him what he asked for. Now you're not going to get it because you're not one of the apostles. But Thomas got the privilege of actually being able to touch Jesus's resurrection body, and he, I believe, probably fell on his knees, although the text doesn't say it, but just fell at least in his heart and said, "My Lord and my God!" That is the supreme confession that a human being can make. “My Lord and my God.” "Because you have seen me," Jesus said, "you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Believed what? That He is Lord and God. Do you believe? Are you among those that Jesus blesses in John 20? Praise God forth and give Him glory and honor that you have come to the place where you believe a living man, flesh and blood man, is actually deity. Only God could work this in your heart. This is the saving confession of Romans 10. It says, "If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’" that means God, "if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." So this is the confession. Therefore, all of you who are Christians, you should be also evangelists. This is your goal, this is what you're trying to do in the lives of your coworkers, and neighbors, and unsaved relatives, and family, friends. This is what you're trying to do. To bring them by the power of the spirit and by the power of the gospel to make this confession, that Jesus is God and died for me. That's what you're trying to do. And for those of you who are not saved, oh how I yearn that you would come to that confession yourself. Believe in your heart that Jesus is God. This is the essence of the gospel message. Therefore, since it's so foundational, since it's so vital, so important it is consistently attacked by Satan. He saves His heaviest artillery for this, the deity of Christ. It says in 1 John 4:2-3, "This is how you can recognize the spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." That's Satan's work, antichrist, he's against Christ. What he is working in the world is unbelief concerning this. Now, I think there are two great errors, two great categories of errors that you can fall into concerning this doctrine of the deity of Christ. The first is to deny that it's true. That it isn't true that a living man could be God, to deny it, and there's lots of different flavors of denial of that. The second is that the concept that Jesus is God is insufficient for your daily joy, your eternal joy. Now non-Christians fit into the first, and Christians come in and out of the second, don't we? Well, let's look at the first, that it isn't true. All the world religions are based on this concept that Jesus isn't God. They all teach it. Islam says that Jesus is a great prophet, but that He is not the son of Allah. He was actually protected from dying on the cross, it was actually Judas that died on the cross. Jesus is a great prophet but not even the greatest prophet, that's Muhammad. Judaism certainly denies it, it is for this very reason that Jesus was crucified. The high priest charged him under oath by the living God, "Tell us if you're the Christ, the son of God." and Jesus said "I am." And then, quoted Daniel 7. For this He was condemned by the Jewish nation, claiming to be deity. The Jehovah's Witnesses certainly deny this concept, deny that Jesus is God. They say He's a created being. The slogan of Jehovah's Witnesses' Arianism, "There was, when he was not." In other words, there was a time that Jesus didn't exist, He's a created being, that's what they say. "He's god with a little g." God with a little g, right? Therefore, they deny the deity of Christ. The Mormons deny the deity of Christ. They say that He's kind of like a spirit being like Michael and Lucifer, they're kind of brother angels or something and, again, a created being. They deny the deity of Christ. Atheists deny it in artful ways, like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson and others, deny the deity of Christ with mockery. As we were worshipping, did you notice all of those songs were focused on giving Christ glory and His crowns, and honoring Him. Eric, that was so sweet, that a time of worship focused on Christ, but I was moved inside as I pictured the Roman soldiers putting a robe on Jesus, and a crown of thorns and mocking His kingship. And so it has been with prominent atheists like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson and others that have mocked the idea that Jesus could be God. This is what Thomas Jefferson wrote, he said, "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being, as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva, Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.” It's a myth, so said Thomas Jefferson. I don't mean to rob the joy of the next time you visit Washington DC at the Jefferson memorial and all that, but as you do, remember this man was in print an enemy of your faith. Mocking it, mocking it. He actually says, "Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them, and no man ever had a distinct idea of the Trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus." That's the third President of the United States mocking the idea of the deity of Christ. All right, so that's one great error that we can fall under by the influence of Satan, that it's not true, that Jesus is not God. The other error is the one that we come in and out of frequently, it's insufficient. "It's just not enough for my joy, it's not enough to make me happy. Yes, Jesus is God, but so what?" True Worship Consists of Doctrine Producing Awe Now, I don't think we'd really ever come right out and say that but we live that way. Don't we? Sometimes. "It's not enough for me to know Jesus, it's not enough for me to know that God died for me, that's not enough, I have to have more." Well, what I say to you is that this doctrine should produce awe and worship within our hearts. If it doesn't, you need to come to Jesus as the healer of the soul and say, "Heal me Jesus, heal me. You healed the man born blind, then heal my heart because I don't seem to care like I should about you. Heal me from thinking it's not enough that Jesus is God and died for me. Heal me of worldliness, heal me of idolatry. Heal me of indifference and coldness and hardness. Heal me Lord." And He will. It is His promise, He will ignite His own love within your heart. And we must do it because you know you're going to spend eternity doing it. And if you're a Christian, you're happy about that in theory. But. John Owen said, "We ought to spend more time meditating on it here on earth since we're going to be doing it for eternity." Right? And I think the more we spend, the more time we spend meditating on the greatness of Christ and on His deity; the more useful we'll be to God, the happier we will be, the more impervious to misery caused by pain and suffering, if we would just meditate on this. Take this as a practical point, this is a testimony from Jonathan Edwards, the Pastor during the Great Awakening and a great Theologian. Also just a great man of God, and he had his own walk with God. This is something that happened to him one day, and you ought to ask to have something like this happen to you; maybe not exactly like this, but something like this. This is what he said: "As I rode out into the woods for my health in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place; as my manner commonly has been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that was for me extraordinary of the glory of the son of God." He had a view, inside his heart that was for him extraordinary, "Of the glory of the son of God as mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens." It's both sweet and peaceful but, also infinite, and kind of scary that way, this grace. "The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thoughts and conceptions which continued as near as I can judge, about an hour. So as to keep me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise, how to express emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone, to love Him with a holy and pure love, to trust in Him, to live upon Him, to serve Him and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with the heavenly purity." Oh, is that sweet. Wouldn't you love to just lie in the dirt for an hour and have that happen to your soul? Oh, you wonder why did it end, right? Well, God still had work for him to do. You can't just be lying there on the ground in the woods forever. He had a congregation. He had a family, a wife who'd be wondering why he's not home for dinner. It's time to get up off the ground, but think of this. The apostle Paul said this, "For me, to live is Christ," but to die is what? Gain! That would be blasphemy if it weren't more Christ that we're gaining. And that's what we get. And so get up off the ground; off your meditations, get up happy, get up joyful, get up energetic, and go serve him while you have to be here in this world, but know that something better is waiting for you that is not more of the same. We need to do this. Practically speaking, you need to take time to get alone. Go into the woods, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen, whatever. Get alone, get quiet, and say, "Christ, show me yourself. I'm not satisfied with what I have so far. I want more of you." He is honored by the request. He's honored by it, and so do it. Christ the Image of the Invisible God Now, what does it say, here? Christ is the image of the invisible God. This is the doctrine that should produce awe and wonder. Well, the word 'image,' is the word 'eikon,' eikon. In Greek Orthodoxy, icons are employed as physical artifacts that are made by people to stimulate worship. Whether we get into the discussion of icons itself is not the point. That's what the word means. It's something that's made that stimulates worship. The true eikon is Christ himself. He's the true image of the invisible God. To look at Him, you do not go astray. Now, I believe it's picking up on the original concept of the purpose of the human race. In Genesis chapter 1 it says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…so God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female, He created them.” We are in the image of God, but because of our sin, our fallenness, it's marred, the image is defective. Not in Christ. He is the perfect image of the invisible God. Now, in a parallel concept or construction, we get in Hebrews 1:3 it says, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory." Get the picture of those sunbeams coming off the Sun. Remember when you were a kid, and you drew the sun, and it was a round circle, and then these wavy lines coming out of it? You know what I'm talking... Maybe you still draw the sun that way, who knows. But anyway, those are radiant light beams coming off of the globe, which is the sun. Jesus is the radiant light beam, coming, bringing the sun to us. Difficult in the analogy in that it's S-O-N and S-U-N, but you know what I'm saying. Christ brings the radiance of God to us so that when we see Him, we see God. He is the radiance, radiance of God's glory, and He is the exact representation, different Greek word, but same concept. The character, He is the signet ring imprint that when you look at the ring and you look at the imprint, it's exactly the same. He is the signet ring imprint of the invisible God, sustaining all things by His powerful word. So therefore, what that means is when you look at Jesus, you're seeing the Father. You're seeing the image of the invisible God. There's an incredible moment in John 14 when after Jesus has said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father through me," and he's talking about the Father. And Philip says, "Father, Father, Father, Father, show us the Father." All right. We're excited. We want to see the Father. Show us the Father, and it'll be enough for us. And Jesus said, "Don't you know me, Philip, after all this time?" Wow, I don't have enough brain power to figure that out, I don't. I don't... I can't figure that out. Don't you know me? We believe in the Trinity, that they're distinct persons, Father and son are distinct persons. When you see Jesus, you've seen the Father. He is the image of the invisible God, and so He is supreme in who He is. II. Christ’s Supremacy over the Physical Universe (verses 15-17) Secondly, we see Him supreme in His position relative to the universe. Colossians 1:15-17, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or powers, or rulers, or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." So here we see His greatness in His position as first born over the universe. Greatness in His past accomplishments, His power displayed in creation itself. Through Him, or by Him, all things were created. And we see His power also displayed in His ongoing sustaining of the universe. He upholds it every moment by the word of His power. So we see the greatness of Christ in these things. Christ’s Role as Creator of the Universe Now, this is a clear statement of deity. No Jew would have understood it any other way. When Paul is saying that through Jesus, all things were created, he is claiming that Jesus is deity. Why do I say that? Well, it's because it's something that the Old Testament ascribed to God, to Yahweh, alone. Yahweh, Jehovah God, the God of the Jews, said, "I did this by myself, alone, and there was no one with me." He says it very plainly, many times. But here's one verse, Isaiah 44:24, "This is what the Lord says – your redeemer who formed you in the womb: 'I am the Lord who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.'" That's what He says, said, "There was no one with me, no one helped me." One of the strangest Gospel presentations I've ever been involved in in my life, was with a Japanese Jehovah's Witness after I had been there for about five months and my Japanese language skills were rudimentary at best, below rudimentary. I barely could ask for bread at the store. Have you ever tried to talk to a Jehovah's Witness in your native language? Just in your own native language it's hard enough. Why did I invite this man in and sit down and get our Japanese Bibles open and try to talk to this guy about Jesus as the image of the invisible God? But the Lord... It's amazing what can happen, and his English was worse than my Japanese so we were hopeless in terms of communicating. He kept pointing to proof text which I knew he was going to point to and I had things to say about them, but I couldn't. And then I was... But the Lord led me to Isaiah 44:24 and I said in the Japanese language, "He was alone, He was alone, He was alone." In the Colossians it says Jesus created it. Don't you see? If we don't have a Trinity we can't make sense of this. It makes no sense at all, we can't make sense. You say they're separate beings, that's impossible. The creation of the universe was something God did by Himself; therefore we believe in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father created Him but He did it through the Son. Now I don't understand that through language, I don't know what it means. The Father, the Creator, but through the Son, through Him all things were made. You get the sense of the Father and the Son like in a workshop working together. I don't know what image fits, but I do know that they work together in it, but there was no one else with them. And it says here that He is the first born over all creation. The Jehovah's Witnesses and other Arians make a lot of this. They say He's clearly a created being, but actually it has here to do with position in the universe. He is placed in a position as first born. There's a story of Joseph's sons being brought in Egypt to Jacob, aging Jacob. And he was toward the end of his life and he was not as strong, and his eyesight wasn't what it could be. So Manasseh, the physical first born, and Ephraim, the younger, came and aging Jacob crossed his hands and put his right hand on Ephraim's head and gave him the first born blessing. Joseph was displeased and he tried to uncross his father's hand. He would then lose that battle. He's not going to uncross his hands because Jacob as a prophet of God, determined to set the younger over the older for his own purposes and therefore in Jeremiah 31:9 he calls Ephraim his firstborn. That he determined to do that. Jesus is the first born over all creation. It's positional language. It says in Hebrews 3:5-6, "Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house…but Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house." Do you see that? He is the Son over the house, He is in charge. He rules, it's a position of power. It also says that "He is before all things," that means He has preeminence, He stands first in line. He is the name that is above every name, He is the highest of all. So He stands above all the rest of creation, it's a position of preeminence. Universe Created by Christ But then as we've said, the universe itself was created by Christ. Let's get specific. "For by Him all things were made, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, all things have been created by Him." Now let's focus on the physical universe. That means every atom in the universe was created through Christ. All of them. The periodic table, remember that? When you studied chemistry? Jesus made them all. All of those atoms, He made them exactly like He wants and He didn't just figure out a recipe for each atom, He figured out how many there would be, and how they would combine into molecules, and into larger organs and all that. He worked all of that out. All the hydrogen and helium and all of the stars, Jesus made it all. All of the gold in every mine on earth, all of the diamonds, the carbon that's in the diamonds, He made it all. Crafted it and shaped it. All the physical universe, He made all of it. And all of the animals. Millipedes, they're nasty looking things aren't they? Little, thousand little bugs, creepy looking bugs, He made them. Hummingbirds, my wife saw a hummingbird this week. The beating wings. It's just an amazing little creature and going from flower to flower, Christ made it. He made it. Distant stars, He made it. Ponder Jesus of Nazareth walking down the dusty roads of Palestine, sleeping out under the stars, for they were poor. And they're looking up and Jesus made those stars. It boggles the mind. The mind needs to be boggled by it. He made the mountains all different kinds of mountains. Like the Smoky Mountains out in the western part of the state. They are sweet mountains, they really are. And they're pretty, they're just not dramatic. I'm not originally from here. They're not dramatic, but they're pretty, okay? Then there's the Grand Tetons which are more dramatic, more striking, Jesus made them. The Rockies perhaps a little more so, the Karakorum's in Pakistan even more so with K2, the second highest mountain in the world. And even more then, the Himalayas. Universe Created For Christ All of them in their proper place showing the glory of God in His own way, Jesus made them all, created all things. But not only that, it says that the universe was created for Christ. It's His personal playground. It's His stuff. It's made for Him. I remember some time ago I preached on Psalm 50 which is a marvelous Psalm on this and it says, Psalm 50:9-12, "I have no need," [this is God speaking], "I have no need of a bull from your stalls or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you." [Or me] "If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it." Jesus could say that, it was created for Him. Every single green hill, every bubbling brook, it's all His. Every bird, every creature of the field, they're all His. And so also every single human being. For He made them all, all of them. You belong to Christ by creation, whether you're Christian or non-Christian, you're His possession by creation at least. For He knit you together in your mother's womb. Your hair is His, your face, your vital organs; all of His by creation. So also are all of your loved ones, your parents, your siblings, your children, your spouse; all of them belong to Him for He made them. So also the people that you are seeking to reach with the gospel, they belong to Jesus for He made them. The universe was made for Christ, for His pleasure, for His glory, for His private possession. And what is ascribed generally to God in Romans 11:36 is specifically ascribed to Jesus here, "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” Universe Sustained by Christ But the Scripture here says more than that, it also says that the universe is moment-by-moment sustained by the power of Christ, and this is where it gets really interesting. The more you meditate on this, the more mind-boggling it gets and the more ethical problems come from it. "In Him," it says, "all things hold together." Kind of like they're all glued together. In Christ. I believe that God created a needy universe. It needs its Creator every moment of the day, our physical hunger is evidence of that neediness. So your physical hunger that you're feeling right now? It's evidence of your ongoing need for Christ, but you need the word of God more, I'm bold to say this, so we're going to hang in there on the deity of Christ for a few extra minutes. But you were created needy, so were the atoms themselves. They need their Creator every moment of the day. Now, the deist posited a universe that was created by God like a clock, wound up and let run and He doesn't interfere. Dare He not interfere! If He doesn't interfere, the universe flies apart. Now, this is a sermon not a physics lecture, so we're not going to talk about protons and their positive charges and all that. This is, by the way, a rhetorical technique where you say you're not going to talk about something and then you actually do talk about it. But at any rate, we're not going to discuss much how the protons being positively charged really have no business hugging each other in the atom, and loving each other, and hanging together the way that they do. Why don't they fly apart? Well, the physicists, they tell us why they don't fly apart. You know what the physicists tell us? It's the strong nuclear force. That's just a name, friends. I have a better name than that. What's a better name than that? How about Christ? In Him, all things hold together. And what a picture, how opposites, people who ordinarily wouldn't love each other can come together in perfect unity, theological principle, but physically, materially, He holds those atoms together every moment. That's mind-boggling. He exerts active energy as God to keep the universe together in the pattern He first made it. It's amazing. "In Him, all things hold together." That means if Christ stopped holding the atoms of your body together, you would fly apart. If He stopped holding the atoms of this church together it would fly apart. He holds it all together at every moment. Let's pause for a moment and apply this ethically. What that means is that He kept Hitler's body together every moment of his life, kept it together by an act of his constant will. He did it in such a way that He was in no way responsible for any of that man's evil deeds, "For He cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone and He will bring every responsible being to judgment for what they do with their freedom." But, He held his body together, and I say if He didn't then I don't understand the universe we're living in from a biblical point of view. He did hold it together. He keeps air molecules of tsunamis and hurricanes together while they're doing their damage. He keeps bullets together, they're flying through the air knowing full well they're going to end up in some innocent victim, maybe even an infant; keeps them together. And if He didn't, if He chose not to, He could make it just poof into mid-air. Is it not possible for Him to do that? Yes, He can do it, but He exerts active power to keep those atoms together while the bullet's flying through the air. Let's go even beyond that, He kept His own nails together while they held Him on the cross. I don't understand it, He's not aloof from the suffering. He's actively willing suffering on His own part that we might have eternal life, that His blood might be shed; He's actively willing it. And by the way, don't give me any of those Gnosis theories how He stopped being God for a while. Philippians, "He left his deity beside." He never leaves his deity anywhere, He is God. He will always be God and if He stopped being God, this stops being the universe. So He's actively holding the cross together, the spikes together. He's holding it all together so that He will suffer so that we might go to heaven. It's incredible. More than that, He holds together spiritual beings as well for He rules over all things. Christ's supremacy of the spiritual universe is portrayed here as well. It says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." He's holding it all together. You know what that means? You will continue to live another moment if He wills, because He wills, and for no other reason. Therefore, just like James says, “Now, listen you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow I'll go to this or that city, spend a year there.’” "A year?" "Yeah, a year." "Spend a year there, carry on business, make money. Why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say what? “If the Lord," [that's Jesus by the way] "if the Lord wills, we will live." Did you hear that? If Jesus wills, I will stay alive. My body will hold together and I will do this and that. Parenthetically, don't you think you ought to ask Him what you ought to do if He chooses that you live? Doesn't He have a purpose? Shouldn't you go before Him every day as a living sacrifice and say, "What do you want me to do? What are you holding my hands together for? What are you holding my feet together for? What are you holding my mouth together for? What is my life for? What am I here for Jesus?" Every day you go to Him, if the Lord wills. III. Christ’s Supremacy over the Spiritual Universe (verses 15-17) Colossian Heresy: Christ Like an Angel Jesus holds the physical universe together, He holds the spiritual universe together as well. The Colossian heresy was that Jesus was some kind of emanation, some spirit being. And that Satan's a spirit being, and they're all spirit beings, and they're all kind of... and the physical world is evil. And out of that came all of the trouble in the world. That's a heresy. What Paul does, is he said, "Actually, Jesus made the spirit world. And He made every inhabitant in the spirit world. And He sustains the spirit world every moment." Satan and His Demons Created by Christ, For Christ, and are Sustained by Christ So if I cause you to stumble or have some trouble of that Jesus held Hitler's body together every day of his life, well let's just go to Satan. Hitler's nothing compared to Satan. Jesus holds Satan's being together every moment. This destroys dualism by the way. Jesus and Satan aren't battling it out as equals. Not at all. Jesus can pull the plug on Satan's very existence any time He chooses. Now you may ask, "Well, then why doesn't He?" You may ask that. Because for His own glory, His own purposes, He's choosing to pull the plug slowly over thousands of years. And in the end, what's He going to do but throw him in the lake of fire? He will be powerless to escape. But He will not pull the plug on his existence. He upholds it. Just like every wicked person. He upholds their existence every single moment, for all eternity in hell. And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever in the presence of the Lamb, it says. He's watching. He's there... He's more than watching. He's holding their beings together. This is His nature. He established at the beginning and He has not changed His mind. And they will continue to have existence because He wills it. They will be responsible for what they have done because He wills it. This is the God that we worship. Does it boggle your mind? I can't get my words around it. I can't get my brain around it. But I know that this is what the Scripture says: "He upholds all things by the word of His power." Observe then, the unbelievable arrogance, the unbelievable arrogance of Satan. When Jesus was being tempted in the desert, and he takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor. He said, "All this has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. So, I'll give it to you if you will bow down and worship me." All right, put that back into Colossians 1, and do you see the arrogance? Jesus is Satan's creator. Jesus is Satan's God. He holds him together at every moment. How wrong is it to demand that your own creator get down on His face and grovel before you, a created being? But I'm brought up short here. I act like this sometimes. There's some demonic side to me, in which I get frustrated with God if He doesn't do my little will. If I don't get my prayers answered the way I want, I'm going to start charging Him with injustice. I'm going to demand that He bow to my will and do what I want Him to do. We should be on our faces before Jesus, and not demand the other posture, that's satanic. Jesus is not fighting Satan and his demons on equal footing. But rather it says very plainly, in Ephesians 1 that God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given. Not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. And God placed all things under His feet, and appointed Him, Jesus, to be head over everything,” I'm going to insert something here, “for the [benefit] of the church, which is His body. The fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” His sovereign ruler-ship is for our benefit, and He rules over Satan and his demons in order to accomplish the building of the church. Amen and amen. This is the Christ that we worship. Now, next week we're going to look at Christ's supremacy over the church, and Christ's supremacy and reconciliation. We'll see the greatness of Christ in those things. IV. Application Saturate Your Mind in this Deep Doctrine: The Absolute Supremacy of Christ Now, let's take a moment and apply this. I want you stimulate yourself to worship. I want you to ask this question: "Am I astonished at the greatness of Christ? Am I astonished at it?" I was saying to one of my kids, I said, "Sometimes we treat this idea, the doctrine of the deity of Christ, whatever, somewhat like mathematics." All right? How many of you like to go home and read a 500 page textbook this afternoon on addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division? Would you enjoy that? The reason you wouldn't enjoy... there's 80 reasons you wouldn't do that, but one of them is, you already feel like you know as much about that as you need to know. You don't want to make a life-study of that. It's a shallow topic that's not going to carry you very far. Well, let's be ashamed when we see that attitude in us toward the deity of Christ. I already know as much about... All right, Jesus, Son of God, died on the cross, all the... The tone. Just the tone is there. You do not know everything there is to know about Jesus. You don't know a millionth percent of the part of it. And that's why the Apostle Paul... What does he say? "I am an apostle; the apostle of the Gentiles. I saw Christ on the road to Damascus, resurrected in glory. I've had numerous visions of Him. I was caught up to the third heaven and saw things inexpressible that man's not permitted to talk about. I've seen all that, but you know what I want more than anything?" "Paul, what do you want?" "I want to know Christ. I'm hungry for Him. I want to know Him. Yes, I can easily see spending eternity studying this person because there's so much to know. I want to know Christ." Is that what you're like or have idols crept in and diminished Jesus in your mind so you really don't care that much to know more? He's like mathematics. Yeah, you need to know it to get along, but we know as much about that as we really need to know. Well, if it's different then I would spend some time repenting. I'd spend some time pulling idols out of your heart and say, "Let's put Jesus back at the center." The knowing of Christ is the greatest thing that can ever happen to you. Why don't you go for a walk like Jonathan Edwards did out in the woods? I'm not promising He'll knock you to the ground. I'm not saying that, but He will bless you. He will expand your soul and your mind. He'll give you a vision of Himself that's greater than you had before if you just seek Him. If you just ask Him. Put aside the other things and just spend some time and kneel down and say, "Jesus, show me yourself." Get the Colossians 1 and go over each phrase. "He is the image of the invisible God." What does that mean? "First born over all creation." What does that mean? "For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and Earth, visible and invisible." What does it mean? Let the words come and transform your heart. And the next time that something happens to you that you don't like, maybe later this afternoon, why don't you give Him glory and praise and say that, "It is by your will, and for your glory, and by your power that this has come to me and I praise you, Jesus. I trust you. You're holding my body together, you're holding my life together. Everything you do is right and wise," and trust in Him. Close with me in prayer.

The Importance of Understanding the Scriptures During this upcoming week, we have the opportunity to meditate on the death of Jesus Christ, and next week to celebrate His resurrection, as we do every week, as we seek to do every day as Christians. But I have always loved Easter, and I wouldn't mind actually preaching an Easter message right now, but I'll save that for next week, It's going to be a delight, to just proclaim the empty tomb, the power of Jesus Christ over death, what an incredible joy that is. But recently, I've thought about this passage in John 20, in which the Apostles, Peter and John, have the opportunity to investigate firsthand, the physical artifacts, of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They have the opportunity to run in that early Easter morning up to that empty tomb. They have the opportunity to go in if they dare. Took John a minute. Peter went right in, that's his nature, but in he goes, and he looks at the physical artifacts. John goes in as well, and they see the grave clothes, they see the cloth folded up by itself, they see all of the physical artifacts that just proclaim resurrection. And the scripture says in John 20, "They saw and believed." And then it gives a fascinating little addendum, they still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. And why do you think John puts that in there? You know why? Because we do not have that privilege. We don't have the advantage of going and finding that empty tomb. To as, it would just be a cave, it might not even be the right one. We don't know for certain that the cathedral is built in the right place or wherever it is, the signs, the tourist attraction, we don't know for sure, and we certainly aren't going to get the linen grave clothes and we're not going to get the head cloth, we're not going to get any of that, what are we going to get? We're going to get the Scripture. We're going to get the Bible, and the Bible is going to proclaim to us that Jesus has risen from the dead, and there we stand at the fork in the road. If the scripture is true, then we have a ground for faith, we have a ground to believe, and if the scripture is not then we don't. It really just comes down to this. Do you believe the word of God or not? And I believe among other things, that that's what's going on in Romans chapter 9. Paul wants you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, to know how certain is the ground under our feet, concerning the promises of God. How lofty and how great are those promises. Nothing will separate us from the love of God. Paul soars with rhetoric, at the end of Romans Chapter 8, and gives us a sense of absolute total assurance, based on the word. I. The Crisis of Confidence: Has God’s Word Failed? All of you came this morning to sing and to praise, and now for the next few minutes, you're going to hear me do nothing but talk words. Does it mean anything? Is there any validity to the words that we speak? That's the issue. Well, what has brought this issue up? Well, the issue is that the Apostle Paul knows full well as he goes from place to place, city to city, throughout the Roman world there. He begins at the synagogue, he goes to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. As he goes in to the Jewish synagogues, and begins to reason with them from the scriptures, proving that Jesus is the Christ. Time and time again, the Jews are rejecting Christ. The Jews. Christ owns people, his own kinsmen, rejecting His claim to be God in the flesh. Rejecting His claim to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. This is catastrophic. Why? Because the Jews are God's chosen people, and so Paul takes up this issue, it's really an argument against the great doctrine he's given us in Romans 1-8. If this is the gospel, if we have this incredible assurance there is no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus, nothing will separate us in the love of God in Christ, then how can the Jews pretty much en masse, be rejecting Christ? Does that not say to some degree that God's Word has failed? That God has spoken promises to the Jews that he is not fulfilling? And now, he's turned to us gentiles, and he's kind of speak promises to us, why should we believe him? If he has spoken a single promise to anybody ever, that has failed, has not come true, if his word has fallen, then what ground do we have under our feet. If He's lied about that, will He not also like us? And so Paul takes up this crisis of confidence concerning the Word of God, and we already saw his answer. Look at verse 6, he said, "It is not as though God's Word has failed or has fallen." he just makes a statement, God's word is secure, it's strong, it stands firm. The fact that the Jews are in such huge numbers, not universally, but in such huge numbers, rejecting Christ, does not prove anything concerning the Word of God. Well, how does he do it? How does he separate out these Jewish people and their unbelief in Christ from the Word of God? Well, he says it's not as though God's Word has failed, for not all who're descended from Israel are Israel. And so he brings in this idea of election of the group, within the group. Of a larger group of physical descendants of Abraham. And then a more narrow group of spiritual descendants of Abraham, to whom the promises ultimately were given. And if any of those promises has failed, then God's word has fallen, but it hasn't. And so don't stand and look on the outside and say, "Oh look at all these physical descendants of Abraham, they're rejecting Christ, therefore, God's Word has failed." It hasn't, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. There's a smaller subset of Jews. The remnant chosen by grace, he says in Romans 11, that he is working with. And so he says, "It is not as though God's Word has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel, nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children." And then he gives his first evidence. You want to say, Okay, Paul, prove it. Does the Scripture teach what you're saying about the group within the group? Can you prove any evidence or bring forth any evidence that not all of Abraham's physical descendants are guaranteed eternal spiritual salvation? Says, "Yes I can." He brings up the first evidence, and it concerns Isaac and Ishmael. Look what he says, "On the contrary, it is through Isaac, that your offspring will be reckoned." We covered this last time, but the idea is, it is through Isaac and not Ismael, that's what he's saying. It is through Isaac, that your offspring will be reckon. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise, who are regarded as Abraham's offspring, for this is how the promise was stated: 'at the appointed time. I will return and Sarah will have a son.'" Bottom line, just by way of summary from last the time, biology does not determine spiritual destiny. It doesn't matter who your physical father was. Even if it's Abraham himself, that doesn't guarantee salvation. Physical descent from Abraham does not guarantee salvation. Now God had made a promise to Abraham, remember this, "So shall your offspring be, like the stars in the sky and like the sand by the sea" Abraham heard the promise, he believed, his faith was credited him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6 is a beautiful thing. And in that same way all people that have ever been saved, are saved simply by hearing and believing the promise of God. Well, Abraham looks around and says, "You know, I don't have many children. The fact of the matter is, I don't have any children, so I don't know what's going on here, but I think we need to help God out. He seems to be in a pickle. He's having a problem here, He's made these grandiose promises, and Sarah and I, it just isn't happening with us. And so Sarah says, "Well, I have an idea, why don't you take my maid servant, the Egyptian woman Hagar. And why don't you sleep with her and because she's my servant, it'll be credited to me as my son. And they do it all the time, is what people do. And so they help God out. Can I tell you something? God doesn't need your help, He doesn't need the arm of flesh to try to accomplish the spiritual promises. He doesn't need it. It's not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. That's how he's going to do it. And so they help God out, and all they do is they have Ishmael for a son. Now, Abraham is told very clearly, "Alright. If you didn't understand, let me spell it out. Your wife, Sarah, will have a son, and it is in Sarah's offspring, Isaac that your offering will be named, and not Ishmael." Genesis 17, He makes it very, very plain. Now, you remember Abraham, pleads for Ishmael. He thinks Ismael is the answer, maybe some of his pride is wrapped up, "You know, God. I came up with a good solution here. Accept my answer." And God says, "No, it is in Isaac, that your offspring will be reckoned." Remember how I noted that both fathers in both cases, Abraham pleading for Ishmael, and Isaac wanting Esau, both of them are off. God's ways are not our ways. It's just the way it is. And so he says, "No, it's going to be Isaac and not Ishmael." And we noted last time, that it had to do with the supernatural power of God. At the appointed time, I will come, and Sarah will have a son. This is a son born by the power of God. That's how it's portrayed. You remember the account, how it says very plainly in genesis 21:1, God kept His word, and he visited Sarah. There was a sense of the power of God, and Isaac was a supernatural baby. He was born by the power of God. So then you have two paradigm examples. You have Ismael, who's the paradigm, the example of an ordinary person, born in the ordinary way, a child of the flesh, no different than anybody else. Born, he lives, he breathes, he does all kinds of things, and then he dies. No faith, nothing special about Ishmael. That's the one, he's the paradigm of the one. Then you've got Isaac, who's a supernatural baby, wouldn't even be walking the earth if God hadn't done it directly, by the power of God, and specifically according to the Promise, he's a child of the promise, a child of God. And so that's what we have. Throughout all ages, then you have this same paradigm. You have the children of the flesh, and then you have the children of the Spirit, or you have the children of the flesh, and the children of God or of the promise, just as it says in John 1:11-13, Jesus or Christ "came to that, which was His own, but His own people, the Jews, received Him not. They didn't receive Him. But in John 1:12, "As many as did receive Him, to them He gave the power or the right to become children of God." Listen, "children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." Do you remember what we said last time? Isn't this incredible? If you are a Christian, you are a supernatural miracle of God, you're born of God, God spoke something into existence, that didn't exist before. You're a new creation in Christ. Isn't that amazing? You're not a normal person, you're supernatural in your origin. Born of God, just like Jesus said to Nicodemus, that unless you're born of water and the Spirit, you cannot go to Heaven. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. It's what Jesus taught, it's the consistent teaching in the Bible. In explaining why the Jews then were so adamantly opposed to the gospel. Paul spoke to the Gentile believers in Galatia, and he uses the same arguments here. In Galatians 4 he writes, "Now, you brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise." Stop a moment. I know we're not preaching Galatians 4, but that's fine. What is he saying? He's saying you Gentiles, you're Isaac, those Jews they're Ishmael. Do you see how striking that is? The unbelieving Jews are more like Ishmael the believing Gentiles, more like Isaac. You're children of promise, that's what he says, it's incredible. "But just as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who is born according to the Spirit. So it is now." Remember how Ismael was mocking little boy Isaac when he was weaned, there's that mockery and he picks up on it, in Galatians 4. So also, the persecution of the child of the flesh, toward the child of the spirit. So what do we have? In John 1, we have born of God, John 3, born again, born of the spirit. Galatians 4, children of the promise, or born according to the Spirit. All of these are the same thing, basic idea, if you're going to Heaven, you must be born again supernaturally, by the power of God, according to the promise of God. Apart from that you're not one of his children. It's a direct supernatural act of the power of God. This is all review from last week. Not that I wouldn't mind preaching the same sermon as last week, it'd be worth hearing again, but Paul wants to bring another example up. He wants in effect in my opinion, to close a giant loophole. Now, you may think, "Why do we have to close loopholes?" It's because we're so sneaky and tricky and lawyer-like, and we're thinking, "Okay, alright, I see that not all the physical descendants from Abraham are going to heaven, Ishmael. But if you're a Jew, you're a law abiding Jew, your saying, 'This is not even a case. Isn't it obvious, the difference between Ishmael and Isaac? Who is Ismael's mother? She's a gentile, an unwashed gentile. She is an Egyptian, she's Hagar. That's no proof.'" And so, my feeling is, you know, what I think? The Apostle Paul went from place to place, and he had thoroughly tested his doctrine against every possible argument, the Jews could bring against. By the time he writes Romans, he understands everything that he needs to say, he knows very well what they're going to say back. III. The Second Example: Jacob and Esau He says, "That's no case. You haven't made your point." Okay, so just because Abraham is your father, you're not going to heaven, but what about the mother? He says, "Well, alright, I haven't even better example. Let's zero in on this case study of Jacob and Esau, and let's remove all arguments. So look at verses 1013. "Not only that, but Rebecca's children, had one and the same Father, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything, good or bad, In order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by Him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" Now we have the second case. What is he trying to prove? Take a step back, let's remember, we're dealing with the case in Romans 9, of why are the Jews rejecting Christ? Has God's word fail? Has he made all these promises to the Jews, he's not fulfilling? His answer, no. God's word has not failed. Why not Paul? Because they're not all Israel, who are descend physically from Israel. There's a set within the larger group that God has been dealing with. Prove it, Paul. Okay, case study one, Isaac and Ishmael. Both of them had Abraham as their father, but only Isaac was a child of the promise. "That's no good example. Ishmael had Hagar, a Gentile, an Egyptian for a mother." Okay, case study two, Jacob and Esau. Now what I want to say to you folks, it's not so much the case study, although that's potent, it's what Paul says about it, that we as Christians must accept and understand. What is he teaching? He's teaching the Doctrine of unconditional election, as an answer to the question: Why are the Jews rejecting Christ? If you don't put the two together, you will not see how explosive and potent this is. Why are they rejecting Christ? Answer, Look at Jacob and Esau. Well what answer? In order that God's purpose in election might stand, that's his answer. Next week, God willing, I'll be preaching on the middle phrase here, "in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls." That has so much doctrine in it. It would take probably years to understand it all. We'll just give it one sermon, but we're not covering that today. I want to understand this case study of Jacob and Esau, and what is he doing, he's closing the loophole concerning the mother of Ismael, she's Hagar, okay? So he zeros in on what I think is an even better case study. Now, why is it a better case study? Jacob and Esau, a better case study than Ishmael and Isaac? Well, reason number one, unlike Isaac and Ishmael, they had one mother; Rebecca. Secondly, unlike Isaac and Ishmael, God called them before they were born, or had done anything good or bad, because of this little prophecy that God gave to Rebecca, concerning the twins that were inside her womb. And so there's a clear statement in the Old Testament account, concerning their future. And so, that's secondly, why they're a better example. But the overall lesson is clear. We are teaching, Paul is teaching the Doctrine of unconditional election. God chooses who will be his children with absolutely no recourse to their deeds or anything in them, anything He sees in them, His only point of reference is his own free and sovereign choice. That's what he's teaching. That's what makes Romans 9 such a challenge for people to accept. But that's what it is teaching. Now, let's look at the facts of the case. How were Jacob and Esau conceived? Well, you remember the story that Isaac and Rebecca were unable to have children, they were barren. Rebecca was barren in particular. And unlike Father Abraham who contrived, a fleshly response with Hagar, and so Ismael was conceived. Isaac did the right thing, he got down on his knees and prayed for his barren wife, and he asked that God might move in a mighty way, and give them a child, give them a son. And so, in Genesis 25:21, it says, "Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant." Parenthetically, just by way of application. I love Isaac's example here. It's so much better than Father Abraham. When you are facing this kind of a challenge, get on your knees and pray. Husbands and wives, pull together and pray. If you're facing a challenge financially, challenge with one of your children, challenge with one of your parents, or some other situation, joblessness, some depression, some issue, just follow Isaac and Rebecca example. Get down on your knees and ask God, see what he can do. Okay, end of application. We're back in the doctrine now. They get down on their knees, and they ask, and God answers. Paul, now Zeros in on the act of conception. Basically, he says literally, very strongly in the Greek, one act of marital relations, produced the two children. Out of one act of marital relations, you get Jacob and Esau. Paul is removing any distinction between these babies. Do you see how much he's laboring to do that? It's just a husband and a wife, and from it they get two children. At one moment in time, Israel's forefather Isaac, lay with his wife Rebecca, in that one act of marital relations, Rebecca got two sons, one father, one mother, one act, two children; Jacob and Esau. Those are the facts of the case. That's what Paul is highlighting here. Now one of them was chosen and one was not. Now, notice also parenthetically, that Paul identifies himself with the Jews here, he says, "Our father Isaac." He's doing everything he can to teach this in a winsome and attractive way. He's not trying to offend the Jews, he wants to identify with them, but he's still teaching them the truth. Now, furthermore, you remember what happened? We've been through this recently, as I was preaching through Genesis. But just to review, the babies inside of Rebecca were pushing and shoving each other. They were two manner of people, remember? And they were pushing and shoving, and just simply not getting along. Early sibling rivalry, I guess, or just in cramped quarters, there just wasn't a lot of space. But Rebecca was feeling the pain, and she inquired of the Lord beautifully, just like her husband led in prayer, she also brings her problem to the Lord. She says, "What is happening to me? What is going on?" And so the Lord gives this prophecy, this incredible statement, she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her. "Two nations are in your womb, and two people from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." Now, that is exactly what Paul is talking about here, isn't it? In Romans Nine, "before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls." She was told what? "The older will serve the younger." That's very significant, in Paul's argument. Now, their origin, Jacob and Esau, could not have been more indistinct. They could not have been closer at conception, they could not have been closer at birth. One act of marital relations, one moment in time, one womb, God is doing absolutely everything imaginable to say there is no difference between these children. God's Predetermined Role for Each One of Them What is Paul's point? The prophecy showed God's predetermined role for each one of them, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad. It was determined before birth. Paul's point is clear, the choice of one, Jacob over the other Esau, had nothing to do with their performance. How much performing can you do in the womb? And Paul says, literally, they had done nothing good or bad. You may say there were some shoving going around and Esau shoved more than Jacob, and on the basis of that, God didn't choose him. That is exactly not what he says. He says, before they had done anything good or bad, literally no choice. Now, America, prides itself as being what you call a meritocracy, not an aristocracy, a meritocracy. What do I mean? Well, you go up on the merits of what you can achieve. You make something of yourself. Like Abraham Lincoln, you can go from a log cabin to the White House. Maybe, probably not, but there's always that idea, there's the thought that you might be able to because he did it, right? And so there's that sense. Or our ancestors that came over through Ellis Island, and look what they made of themselves, through their hard work, through their discipline, their character, they built a world for themselves. America, meritocracy. And as a result of that, we want to feel that we can achieve, we can work, we can accomplish, we can earn anything that comes our way, that is the very thing we cannot do with Heaven. It can't be done. There is no meritocracy here. Exactly the opposite situation. The twins hadn't done anything yet. And frankly, contrary to all custom and all expectation, the older is going to serve the younger. That's not the way it's done. The first born got everything, the second born hoped that he had a good relationship with the firstborn. That's how it worked. More than that, the reversal of order spoke to a deeper issue. God had chosen Jacob, but not Esau. And Jacob, not Esau would be receiving the richness of God's blessing, may I say directly, it would be Jacob and not Esau who would be the heir of the promises God had made to Abraham. That's the point. Jacob is the heir of the promises. What is the doctrine here? Well, it's the doctrine of unconditional election. Paul's overall the point is clear, God chooses. God chooses, and makes the final decision, not Man. He's going to say later in Romans 9, "It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or on man's effort, but on God who has mercy." Now his choice is absolutely unconditional. It's not based on achievements, it's not based on merit, if anything God's choice runs directly counter to what we would've done or would do. No human quality or achievement ever comes into play in any way. This is the thrust of Paul's argument, the whole election is rooted in God, not in man. "Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose and election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger." What does it mean? Not by works but by what? By Him who calls. The focus is on God; we'll get to that in a couple of weeks. Human Responsibility Not Decreased in Any Way Now, let me say just for a moment, human responsibility is not decreased in any way by this teaching. It's not decreased in any way. Romans 9 does not in any way contradict the clear teaching that both Jacob and Esau, made real choices in their lives that really impacted their lives. It does not contradict that in any way. If Jacob is to be saved, he will be saved by faith in the promises of God, just as his father Abraham was. If Esau is to be condemned, he will be condemned by sins he actually commits and by not having faith in the promises of his father, Abraham. Unconditional election, therefore, does not contradict human responsibility. And while election is unconditional, final salvation and final damnation, folks, are not unconditional. There are conditions you meet. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. You must sin and not believe in Christ in order to be condemned. These are conditions that God has set up. And I can assure you that no one will be able to say before being thrown in the lake of fire. I don't deserve this. And can I say the other way? Every child of God will be saying on Judgment Day, "I don't deserve this." You know the insight I came to this morning as I was going over this? This is written to humble us the believers. Unbelievers are never going to listen to this anyway, it's ludicrous, preposterous. This is for us, so that we might be humbled, and that we might say, "I don't deserve what God's doing for me, I don't deserve it." Isn't that beautiful thing? To be able to say from the heart, "There's nothing I did." It's humbling to the core, to know I was chosen not through anything of myself, but because God willed it. Frankly, in my opinion, it's more accurate to say we are chosen contrary to, rather than because of things in us. In the face of things that we deserve rather than what we truly deserve. Therefore we are not ultimately, finely autonomous beings, making final decisions. You realize in the universe, there can only be one truly free, truly sovereign being. There can't be two, it's impossible. And so how can it be that there would be both God free, sovereign and choosing and also individuals. In 1894, William Ernest Henley, lost his six year old daughter, Margaret, and he wrote this poem, "Invictus" that some of you perhaps have heard. The word in invictus means "I have not been conquered." In the midst of his grief, and his sadness, he wrote this. "Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole. I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Romans 9 was written to slay that thought, that we would understand that ultimately God is the master, God is the captain. A Great Mystery to Accept Now, in the midst of this, there is a great mystery that we have to accept. And that is this; How does God guarantee that each individual person will believe or not believe without in any way undermining our responsibility? Can I tell you, I don't know. I'm saying to you, I don't know. So those of you who are hoping for a mystery, you got one. I don't know how He does that, I don't know how He unconditionally elects without looking at all, at anything into the individual. And then each of those destinies is set in some way without in any way diminishing the free and real choices they make. I don't know how that's done. And frankly, there's not a person on the face of the earth who can answer all of these questions without in the end saying, "I don't know it's a mystery." But there it is. Can I ask you this, as you're thinking about what I'm saying, some of you perhaps for the first time, don't reject it, just because you can't understand it fully. Can I ask you just to keep working on it? Remember at the beginning when we started Romans 9, I said you're not going to be able to get all this at once, it's going to take time. Some people it takes years before they can finally accept it. John Piper put it this way: "If this stretches your mind to the breaking point, better that your minds be broken, then that the scriptures be broken. And better yet would be to let your mind and your heart be enlarged rather than broken. So they can contain all that the scriptures teach." And Martin Lloyd Jones said, "Don't give up thinking on it, just because it's difficult." He said this, "This is one of the most difficult statements in the whole of scripture. So do not be discouraged or blame yourself, if you have found it difficult to swallow. But on the other hand, do not give up and say that because it is difficult, you cannot be bothered with it. You should never say that about any portion of scripture. Christian people who do not apply what mind and understanding they have to a passage of scripture because it is difficult, are sinning grievously." Now listen, evidently God wants you to know this, evidently He wants you to think about it. You know why I say that, because it's in the Bible. It is not Paul, ultimately, it's not your pastor, it is God who wants you to think about this. Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad. He wants you to ponder it. He wants you to know that it's God Almighty, your creator and your redeemer speaking. III. Jacob I Loved Then Paul, for a secondary support to this, reaches for a quote from Malachi. "Just as it is written, Jacob, I loved and Esau I hated." Now, what I want to understand is, in all of the 39 books of the bible, with all of the thousands of verses that there are there. Why does he reach for this one as the tool in this argument? What does he see in Malachi one that helps his case? What is he trying to prove there from Malachi? What I did was I printed Malachi 1: 1-5, in your bulletin, so you don't have to take the time to turn there. Look what it says. I'll begin reading at verse one. It says, "An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi. "I have loved you," says the LORD. "But you ask, 'How have you loved us?' "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals." Edom may say, "Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins." But this is what the LORD Almighty says: "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD." Now he makes his opening statement, I'm going to stop there, he makes his opening statement from God to Israel, He says, "I have loved you." I have loved you. And they answer back, "How have you loved us?" Israel did not grasp the love of God, frankly, none of us truly grasped the love of God. We don't fully understand, you know why? Because we think of love wrongly. We have two basic understandings of love. The First is, "because I see this in you, I love you." I see some attributes in you. You're pretty, you're handsome, you do great things on a basketball court. You're really smart, I like your personality. There's things in the person, the loved one, and you say, "I love that about them, and so I'm attracted." So basically there's something like a magnetic pull in that person attracting love from us to that person. The second is because you do these things for me, I love you. Because of all the stuff you bought me, because of the way you serve me, because of the things you do for me, I love you. The problem is both of those are insecure, aren't they? Suppose those attributes, let's say a beautiful face, change. Suppose the person has a car accident or gets in a fire and needs plastic surgery and never looks the same again. Suppose they're so disfigured you really can't even look at them without flinching. Does not that individual have the right to say, "Do you still love me?" If that was the ground of the love, isn't it gone now? Or what about the second case? Because you do these things for me, what if I stop doing those things? Will you still love me? We don't understand unconditional love, we're not used to it. And so therefore, the idea that God loves us in spite of, rather than because of things in us, is foreign to us, it's very hard for us to understand. And so Paul in Ephesians three says, "I pray that you would have power to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is a love of Christ." It's not natural for us to accept this love. And so he says, "I have loved you." "Well, how have you loved me, or how have you loved us?" And then he gets to this answer. "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" How is that an answer? Basically saying I love you by choosing you. There was no difference between Jacob and Esau, but I chose Jacob and blessed him. But Esau I rejected and I did not bless him. Yet I have loved you, but Esau I have hated. Now, let's look at Jacob. You say, "Well, Jacob's got some good qualities, right?" Can I say to you, pretty much every human being has some good qualities. If that's what you're looking for, that's contrary to the scripture here, but that's not the issue. Let's look at Jacob. Alright, how did God love Jacob? Well Jacob departs, running away because his brother wants to kill him. Why? Well you know why. We'll get to that a minute. But there's Jacob fleeing for his life, and on route to Heron, God appears to him in a dream at Bethel. You remember? He's lying down and he puts a rock under his head for a pillow. Doesn't that tell you something about Jacob? I mean, could you sleep on a rock? You say maybe he was really tired. I think he had a hard head, or something. But at any rate, there he is resting with a rock for a pillow, and while he's doing that, his head is filled with light. It's filled with vision. And what is the vision? It's a ladder or staircase going up to heaven and God Almighty at the top of the staircase and angels ascending and descending on that staircase. And he has this vision, his head filled with light, and God stands at the head of the staircase and says, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the Earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you, and your offspring." That's Abraham's blessing. Now he inherits it. "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and I will watch over you, wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you." "How have you loved us?" Jacob says. "I loved you by choosing you. I loved you by committing myself to bless you. That's how I loved you. Esau was your brother and I didn't do that for him. I loved you by unconditionally electing you, that's how I loved you." Now why? Why did God love Jacob? Jacob was a sinner, he was a conniver. He was a con artist. He was a shifty tricky business man. You remember when his brother Esau comes in and he's famished and he's... Jacob saw it as a business opportunity. He saw it as a chance to advance himself a little bit. He said, "You want some of my stew? It's going to cost you." "What's it going to cost?" "Well, the birthright." "Oh, what's the birthright to me?" says Esau, in character. "What's the birthright to me?" So he sells it for a bowl of stew. But who sold the stew to him? Jacob did. And even worse was how he treated his blind father at this key moment of prophetic power, when this patriarch Isaac wants to bless his son Esau, and he is going to extend his hand and put his hands on Esau, his first born, and he's going to bless Esau. No, no, he's going to bless Jacob. Why? Because Jacob lies to his face, his blind father, he lies right to his face. And he steals Esau's blessing. Even worse, in my opinion, is how he treated God, after the vision that God gave him, remember? Head filled with light, the staircase angels ascending and descending. You've never had a dream like that. God standing at the top promising he'll be with you in everything you do, et cetera. Do you know what Jacob said to him, after he woke up? "Surely, this is an awesome place, God is in this place." I didn't even know it. Tell you what God, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey, I'm taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I returned to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God." Jacob the camel trader bargaining with God. If you do these things for me, then you can be my God. Come on, God, pony up. I need the performance God. And if you keep it coming, you can be my God. He doesn't understand, does he? He doesn't know who he's dealing with. Is it because of things God saw in Jacob that he chose him? I'd tell you no, but Jacob is a sinner just like you and me. Later Jacob's descendants, the Jews, sinned greatly against Him, against God. In Ezekiel 32, God said, "I want you to know that I'm not doing this for your sake, declares the sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, oh house of Israel." God's love for Jacob is unconditional not based upon anything he saw in him. It is based on something he saw totally in himself. Listen, if you think that God's love for you is in essence, His making much over, or celebrating something he sees in you, you don't understand His love. John Piper said this, "God's love for us does not consist in His making much over you, but rather enabling you to make much of Him." That's how He loves you, by showing Himself to you. God isn't loving you, because of something He keeps seeing in you, rather He loves you in Christ, by His sovereign will. Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by Him who call, she was told, the older will serve the younger. IV. But Esau I Hated Just as it is written. "Jacob, I loved…" But what about the second part? "Esau I hated." Now, this is jarring, isn't it? This isn't the God you were taught, perhaps, in Sunday school. You know, God is all knowing, all powerful, all loving... Stop just a minute. Is God all loving? We also say this saying, we're to "hate the sin," but what? "Love the sinner." And so we are, that's what we're commanded to do. You know why? Because a sinner might actually be an elect brother or sister in Christ, but it's different from God's perspective, you see? It doesn't here say, "Jacob I love, but Esau's sins I hated." He did hate his sins, but that's not what it says. It says, "Jacob, I love, but Esau I hated." Now, what does that mean? What does it mean? Well, I think that there are two aspects to the hate here. There's a passive aspect and an active aspect. What is the passive aspect? First, he passed over Esau and didn't choose him. Just passed him over. Jacob was the one chosen, not Esau. Passed him over. Was not Esau Jacob's brother? The Lord says, "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I hated." Secondly, passively, God gave Esau over to his wickedness, his predispositions, he gave him over, he didn't fight it. From Romans 1:24, it says, "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts." And then in Romans 1:26, "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts." So it's a giving over that God does to a sinner's way, say, "Have your way." It's the worst thing God can ever do to you, but it's the very thing He will not do to us who are his children. He's not going to give us over to our sin. Passively then He hates Esau by not electing him and by giving him over to his wickedness. Actively however, He pours out the wrath that Esau deserves for his wicked actions. Look what it says in the Malachi quote, it's right there in verses 3-4, "Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals. Edom may say though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins. But this is what the Lord Almighty says, "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called "The wicked land…" Aou see that's God giving them over their wickedness, and a people always under the wrath of the Lord."That is God's active hatred, and that is wrath for sins actually committed. Now, concerning Esau himself, is his wickedness not clearly depicted in the text? Did not Esau actively despise his birthright? Did he not say, "I don't care about that. What's a birthright to me? I'll sell it for a bowl of stew." Did God force him or compel him to do that? Absolutely not, it was a choice he made in concert with his desires. Can Esau say to God, "You forced me to sell God." Cannot God say to Esau, "I gave your birthright to Jacob by decree, but you sold it freely because you despised it. How can you charge me for wrong doing?" And you could say after that did not Esau repent? Didn't he repent with tears, right? And seek it with tears? Did he? Charles Spurgeon put it this way. You know how he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and he thought he would buy it back by giving his father a mess of pottage. "There," he says, "I'll go hunt some venison for my father. I've got it over him and he likes my savory meat and he'll readily give me my birthright again." But this is what the sinner does, this is what the sinner says. "I have lost Heaven by my evil works. I will easily get it again by reforming my ways. Did I lose it by sin? Well, I'll get it back by giving up my sins. Well, I've been a drunkard. Well, now I'm going to be a teetotaller." "I've been an awful swear, I'm very sorry for it, indeed, I will not swear anymore." No sinner. You may sell Heaven for a few carnal pleasures, but you cannot buy heaven merely by giving them up. And what was the nature of Esau's repentance after his father died? Well, he consoled himself with one thought, "I'm going to murder my brother," and that's exactly why Jacob fled to Heron. Ultimately then, this act of wrath of God doesn't just mean that he's going to lay some country down, and so that their crops and harvest don't work. This is the picture of heaven and hell, isn't it? That's the issue. We're talking about eternal destiny. Spurgeon put it this way. "If God deals with any man severely, it is because that man deserves all that he gets. In hell, there will not be a single solitary soul that will say to God, "O Lord, thou has treated me worse than I deserve, but every lost spirit will be made to feel that he got what he truly deserved, that his destruction lies at his own door and not at God's." What is the difference then between Jacob and Esau? You tell me. They're both sinners. Both in some respects, in one way, reprehensible people. "Before the twins were born or had done anything, good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls. As she was told, the older will serve the younger just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated." Spurgeon summarized Paul's doctrine this way, he preaches salvation, all of unmerited grace, just free grace, and he preaches damnation, all of sin. God is speaking to us. You know what He's saying? You don't deserve the good things I'm giving you. And that humbles us, doesn't it? And I rejoice in that humbling. I'm delighted to know that I'm saved by grace. V. A Loving Warning: Let God Be God in Salvation Let me say one final word by way of application. Let me give you a loving warning. Let God be God in salvation, not that He needs your permission, but just let Him be God. Let Him be the ruler, do not presume to tell God how He should save souls and how He shouldn't. So many sinners born yesterday who know nothing, think to tell God what He may and may not do with His creation. Who are we to question what God does? Do not tell God how He must save or what he should do. Our wisdom is like nothing, we were born yesterday. Our perspective is so low as to be below the worm compared to God. The ultimate freedom of God is His glory alone, not ours. We're not ultimately King of the universe. "The secret things belong to the Lord…" Deuteronomy 29:29 says this, in other words, they'll come a point where we have nothing but mystery, and beyond that, we can go, "but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever." Has God revealed this to us? Yes, he has, here in Romans 9, it's right there. You can read it on the page, if you have a different Bible at home, open up it'll say the same thing, maybe a little different translation, but it'll say the same thing. It's there. God is speaking this to us, He wants us to understand. Now, when we are striking a coin, making a coin, like a quarter or something like that, the die comes down and the blank is in there, the blank must be made of softer metal than the die. Do you understand why? Because at the moment of conflict, something has to give, something. Either the coin is going to give, or the die is going to give. If the die gives, you got to throw the die away and make another one. Well, they learned a long time ago, you're not going to throw the die away, you need to make the die out of something so hard, it will not yield to anything. If your mind and the scripture are having this moment of conflict, what's going to give? The scripture is not designed to give. There is nothing more unyielding than God in His word and thank God for it. That's the whole point of Romans nine. God's Word cannot fail, it will never fail. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but His word will still be there. Then let your mind yield and be conformed to what He's saying. Think differently if you need to. Be conformed rather to what He's saying. There is a very sweet and practical application to this. You know what it is? If election is unconditional it means that any of you sitting here any of you can be His children, any of you, no matter how much sin you've committed. No one can say to me, "My sin excludes me from being elect." This text eliminate that forever. You may think, "You don't know what I've done. I'm saying, your sin doesn't have the final word over grace. Isn't that sweet? So if today you hear His voice, calling on you to trust in Him to believe in this incredible Savior, don't walk out of here without trusting in Christ. This is a great time of year, frankly, any time of year is a great time of year to be a Christian, but trust in Him believe in Him, allow Him to be your King, your sovereign, your ruler. Close with me in prayer.