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Large crowds is dumbing down, saying truth doesn't

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matter, doctrine isn't really significant, just getting people

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here, feeling good, meeting felt needs is what

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it's all about.

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And the world has just discovered in the

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crisis of terrorism, we must have a rock,

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we must have truth, we must have right,

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we must have wrong, we must have absolutes,

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and suddenly it'll take us 30-40 years

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to get back up to speed as a

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church.

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By that time the world won't be interested

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in it.

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Oh, how sad when the church is just

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kind of floating along in the river of

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culture.

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I really do believe God revealed this doctrine

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with others to put fiber into the limp

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limbs of our tree of faith.

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Third pastoral thought, the doctrine of election is

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one of the best tests that I know

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of as to whether or not we have

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reversed roles with God without knowing it.

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It's one of the best tests to see

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whether or not we have reversed roles with

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God without even knowing it.

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This is a timeless problem, but it is

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mainly and especially a modern problem.

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By modern I mean in the last 200

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years.

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Modernity, life culture in the West in the

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last 200 years, is basically defined by human

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autonomy.

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Human autonomy, independence, is assumed.

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And authority is questioned.

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We've seen the bumper stickers.

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Question authority.

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It just oozes the last two centuries since

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the Enlightenment.

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That's the name of humanity.

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We question authority and we take the judgment

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seat to decide if God exists.

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We sit in judgment.

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God is in the dock.

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That's modernity.

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Now Paul addressed this already in Romans 9

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and he said to an objector who questioned,

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why does God still find fault in view

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of your doctrine?

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Who can resist his will?

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And Paul says, who are you, O man,

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to answer back to God?

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Will what is molded say to its molder,

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why have you made me thus?

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In other words, it's not fitting for you

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to switch places.

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It's not fitting for you to be the

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potter.

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God is God.

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The doctrine of election, like no other probably,

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helps us decide, are we judging God or

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is God judging us?

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Job, great help here.

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The book of Job, all his defenses are

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spent defending his innocence to God.

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All of the half-truths of Eliphaz, Bildad,

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and Zophar are over.

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Now God has spoken in the last several

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chapters of the book of Job and the

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sum of the matter is given in chapter

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42 like this.

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Then Job answered the Lord and said, I

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know that you can do all things and

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that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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I have uttered what I did not understand,

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things too wonderful for me, which I did

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not know.

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And God responds, hear and I will speak.

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I will question you and you make it

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known to me.

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In other words, let's not switch roles anymore,

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Job.

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I'm the teacher here.

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If anybody accuses here, I accuse.

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You're the learner, you keep quiet.

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To which Job finally responds, I had heard

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of you by the hearing of the ear,

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but now my eyes see you, therefore I

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despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

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There are so many people who have tasted

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that as the doctrine of election broke over

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them like a wave.

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I had heard of you by the hearing

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of the ear in Sunday school and in

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my little reading and now my eye sees

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you and I repent in dust and ashes

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for years and years of man-centered presumption.

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It is very hard for a fish to

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know he is wet.

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All there is for a fish is wet.

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The fish doesn't even think of it and

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so it's hard for a modern person to

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know that he is arrogant towards God.

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All there is today is arrogance towards God.

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It's the ocean in which we swim.

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It's the air we breathe.

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It's woven into the fabric of our Christian

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minds.

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We don't even know it's there.

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We can't see it because it's the it's

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the glasses through which we see everything.

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No, it's worse.

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We can't see our arrogance or other people's

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arrogance towards God, not because it's the glasses,

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but because it's the eyeballs.

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In other words, it's endemic to us.

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It's not just put on.

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It's us.

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That's who we are.

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Arrogant towards God.

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Questioning, doubting, belittling, neglecting, putting him way down

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the line after television.

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Oh, how incredibly arrogant the world is.

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It's the air we breathe so that some

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of you are sitting there now saying, I

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don't have a...

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You're crazy.

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I don't feel arrogant towards God.

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Go take your eyes out.

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Put them in some gospel acid and then

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put them back in.

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C.S. Lewis was a great help to

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me in this point years ago, and I

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just saw it again.

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I keep a little, I keep a very

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big Lewis book beside my table at night.

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Here's what he wrote.

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The ancient man approached God as the accused

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person approaches a judge.

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For the modern man, the roles are reversed.

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He is the judge.

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God is in the dock.

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He is quite a kindly judge.

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If God should have reasonable defense for being

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the God who permits war and poverty and

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disease, he's ready to listen to it.

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The trial may even end in God's acquittal,

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but the important thing is that man is

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on the bench and God is in the

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dock everywhere, including the evangelical church.

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And there are not many doctrines like the

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doctrine of election to get us off the

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bench and in the dock where we belong.

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So I ask you, are you still floating

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and soaked in the indigenous ocean of arrogance

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in the modern world, or are you being

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delivered?

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And that's all I think I can say

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about me or any of Christians.

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We are being delivered.

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I shudder at my own error.

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It comes out towards my wife, comes out

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towards my kids, comes out towards finding that

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I couldn't find the plan for whether there's

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going to be paid parking over there tonight

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or not.

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And if you have to pay to get

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out of that parking lot, tell us next

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week.

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We'll pay you.

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I have permission to say that because I

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made calls.

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I mean, my quickness of judgment is frightening.

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I will not cease to tell you that

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until I am perfected.

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Number four, this one's so encouraging to me.