ManChurch: False gods, other gods, God's Word

Let me pray, and we will get into it. Father, we come to you around your word today in Jesus' name, and I ask Lord that you help me, that you help me take this truth and be true to it, and give us ears to hear, eyes to see, minds to understand all that the Spirit would want to say to us. In Jesus' name, amen. So I encourage everyone to always have a Bible with you for Man Church. And I also get that wrong. I also want to encourage you to get a printed copy of the Bible. They've started to change it, and they can do that electronically, especially if things are out of copyright. So if you've got a physically printed one, then then you've always got a reference source. And why I encourage you to have a Bible is it's a good habit to get into whenever you go into a Bible study. And you've often watched those movies where people have quoted scripture. And you know that stuff's just not in there. And sometimes that can happen in churches. I've made mistakes like that. I've taken apocryphal things that I've been raised in church to believe are true. I remember being challenged by some little old 80-year-old lady up in Arizona, man. She just tore me a new one. And because what I'd quoted just wasn't in the word. I didn't know. I was a young preacher. I was just doing what my mentors told me to do and have their attitudes. And it was a really good Lesson, and it's stuck with me all my life. And so I want to encourage you to have a Bible. So we're going to turn to Exodus. Now, if you've got a phone and you can have a Bible app on there, knock yourself out. If you don't have a Bible with you, great. If you're not sure what Bible to have, let's start with that to start with. All right, look, we're going to talk about the word today. We're going to talk about the Bible and the quality and the value of the Bible. We're going to talk about gods and false gods. There's a whole range of different translations of the Bible. Which one should you have? You should have the one that you'll read. That's the only one. I'm not going to get into King James, New King James, or whatever version it is. If you want to go down that in a scholarly route, knock yourself out. I've got a couple of preferences I have, but just if you're reading it, that's the one you should— if you find it easy to read. And some versions are easier to read than others. King James, I don't know what they're saying half the time, so I don't read it. Could I work it out? Yeah, but I don't want to have to think that hard. I want to enjoy it. I like the ESV, the English Standard Version. I like how it was translated. I find it easy to read, and I like a big fat one because it's got notes. I'm not that clever. I like to surround myself with things and people that are cleverer than me, so I like that. I like the Living Bible. It's a paraphrase. It's not a text. It's not a word-for-word translation. It's a paraphrase. So it takes phrases in the Bible and turns them into everyday English. It's a great version. I love reading it because it makes me think about it a little differently. I've got one with the Apocrypha, a Catholic Bible, because dude, who doesn't like a good story of Enoch for bedtime? And I've got a thin one. Why? Because it's easier to carry around. So just have one that you're reading and make that the source text for your life. So turn to Exodus 20. Exodus is in the Old Testament— Genesis, Exodus. If you don't know where that is, you can find that in the index. That's why they have indexes in the Bible. If you ever go to a church and they make you feel like a fool because you don't know where a book is, leave that church, because you don't need to be hung around with people who are going to give you religious condemnation. And if that religious condemnation starts with, I can't find a book in the Bible, Then come to Man Church. None of us are that clever. So Exodus is in the front. So turn to Exodus 20, verse 1, and let me read this for you. So today's going to be a little different. I just want to have a little bit of a chat, question and answer about some things, and oppose some thoughts to you, and go from there. Exodus 20, verse 1. And God spoke all these words, saying. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And you shall have no other gods before me. Little g. No other gods before me. Now, that particular word there means— lower g means rulers, judges, divine ones, angels, god, goddess. Godlike, or beings that possess special powers or knowledge. So works or special possessions of God, and that phrase means that they're things that belong to God that these big G, that these other beings are manifest or able to do, like healing, like casting out spirits, like miracles. So a question to you, and I like answers. You can drop answers in the chat if you want, or you can turn your mic on. I just—I want you to think about this and commit to an answer. Is there only one God? Pop in the chat. Is there only one God based upon what we just read? It's not a trick question, fellas. You shall have no other gods before me. This is not a trick question. So. Are there other gods? All right, obviously it's a trick question. There are other gods. Okay, let me read it again. I know it's going to mess with you. You're going to go to church Sunday and have a headache. Here we go. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Here it is. You shall have no other gods before me. So God is saying that you shall have no other gods before me. Which means that there are other gods.

Agree?

Just agree to the English. Don't agree to the having to shift your brain. Agreed. Okay, thank you. Psalm 82. So here we go. If you can just mute again, Sam. We've got an echo again, brother. Thanks, mate. So there are beings, deities, angels, demons, and objects of worship. So there are those things. Okay. Are there people today that can move in what we know is divine power of the one God, but claim that power for themselves and other deities? Logically, there is, because you've seen them. You've seen the mystics. You've seen people who have moved or been healed supernaturally. You've seen people— I've got a book here by a guy called Joe Dispenza. Joe was a guy that broke his back, was never going to recover, spent 6 weeks praying to his idol and got healed, miraculously healed. You cannot deny that guy's testimony. But the idol is an Eastern idol and an Eastern god that he worships, and he says so in his book. I worship this other deity and this deity healed me. Okay, did that happen? Yes, it happened. I can't refute that. This guy's either telling porky pies, but all his friends who saw it said it's not. But that's really not my issue. Yeah, his god, little g, was one that he worshiped, and his god, little g, healed him. So that's for Joe. But this book is a great book. But this book has a lot of truths, ideas, and thoughts in it that are actually very helpful. But the basis and the philosophy and the theology that sits behind this book Is not the one that sits behind my Bible, and that's the important things. Are there people today that can move in what we know as divine power or supernatural power of the one God, but claim that power for themselves for other deities? Simple answer: Yes, there are. To Timothy, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power, avoid such people. The fact that Paul tells us to avoid such people. Means that there are people like that, and there are people like that are moving in that power, having that claim. But we're to avoid them, which means they're there, which means there's little god— gods, little g. It's a logical conclusion. There is God, our God, god, little g, gods, little g, moving divine power that can be attributed to our God, Yahweh. All right, there's thought one. So next question, and I'll get you to, if you want to pop in in the channel, just unmute yourself and mute yourself again, and I'll mute myself when we get to that stage so we can go back and forth and have a bit of a chat. So Genesis 2:16. Genesis is in the first book of the Bible or in the index. Genesis 2:16. When they originally wrote the Bible, God didn't put chapters in or verses. That was some monk in England riding around on a donkey who just randomly guessed where he wanted to put them. So Genesis 2:16, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Okay, so I want— have a little think. I'm going to pose a question to you and have a little think. Now, this might be a trick question. It's really not, but you might have to think about it when it's Saturday morning and you've only had 3 coffees. I get it. What are the similarities between Genesis 1:3, you shall have no other God before me, and even 2 Timothy 3, avoid such people, and Genesis 2:16 and 17, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat? What are the similarities that you see there? Are you asking for input? Yeah, please let me know what you think. Sounds like There is knowledge that certain people and deities possess and abilities that they display, and you should avoid 'em. Yeah, that's close enough. That's great. Well done. You get a prize. I'll buy you breakfast or coffee or something on Sunday. All right. Here's another way to put it. There's choice and there's decisional living. Not— there is not the abstinence or the absence of temptation or the absence of the opportunity to sin or the absence of the ability to be misled by divine deities and deny your God. Those things all exist. What's put before us is a choice. We're given a choice in Genesis, we're given a choice in Timothy, and we're given a choice in Exodus. You shall choose the God that you worship. You should choose the fruit that you eat, and you shall avoid the people that are promoting some sort of doctrine or activity that are anti what God bid you. You shall have no other gods before me. I am your one God, says that you can. So all of it's a choice. Now, you only get a choice if there's 2 trees. You only get a choice if there's multiple gods. Fair enough. You only have to avoid people if those people exist. Fair enough. Okay, so let's put some of that together. So what does all of these things tied together mean? There are other gods, little g's. They do divine things. I can worship and follow them if I want. I can listen to that and read their scriptures and read their doctrines. I have been given a choice, and that choice is to follow my God or follow other gods. And it's the same choice that people have been given all the way through the Bible. What was the one sin? And this is an easy one. The answer is the Jews when we get there, because you seem a bit hesitant, like I'm trying to trick you. I'm not. I've just been thinking about this stuff for two days longer than you. So what was the one thing the Israelites? Continually did throughout the history.

Something come to my mind, John. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes, yes. Eve was in the garden. She was perfect, right? She had everything because she had God. Yeah. And the devil comes along and he says, you're lacking something and you need this. And people try to take us away From God's word, and they tell us, "Look, we're lacking something." The Bible says we're unreprovable, unre rebukable, and blameless in His sight. And these people come along. Yeah, but there's more. There's more than your God can give you. There's more than your Bible can give you, and you're lacking something. There he was. She was perfect, and she didn't have no sin nature, nothing. But she had, like you say, a choice. And the most dangerous thing is our free will. So here we have a choice too. This is what God says. I have some people really choked at me right now because I said they said they've seen God, the liquid God. And I said the Bible says no man has seen God. He says I stood in his presence. I have more authority than anybody. And he says God told me when I was in his presence, I'm never going to die. And I told him, I says, you're aging in real time. And he just blew up at me. We have everything we possibly need in God.

Let me— let's put a pause there, Sam. Let's get going and we'll get to some more questions and answers at the end. But well done. Thank you. My point here was that the choice that the children of Israel had all the way through the Old Testament Was to choose. They were going to choose to follow Yahweh, or they could go and choose to follow Moabite. It's the same choice as the garden. It's the same choice in Timothy. It's the same choice that you and I have today. So the issue is that not the absence of those gods, but as Sam eloquently said, is the choice to follow and choose where your heart goes and where your heart belongs. So turn to John one. New Testament, which is back of the book, towards the back. You'll come up through a whole range of names that you can't pronounce. Then you'll come to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then the Book of Acts, which is like the 5th gospel because it's written by a fellow called Luke who was a historian and he was chronicling the life of Christ. So come to John 1. Like Genesis 1:1 is very important for a range of reasons, John 1:1. Actually, the whole thing's important, but John 1, verses 1 through 5, and I'm reading from the ESV. So again, fellas, these questions aren't hard. We complicate theology and we overcomplicate theology. Things I love about my brothers Dave and Al is both of those guys have incredible skill sets in areas that I don't have. But I've never had a conversation with each— any— either of those 2 brothers about something that they're good at that I don't know about, and I've walked away feeling small because they're encouraging me to grow up into something. And that should always be our encouragement. And it's the same with teaching the word. The word and theology is actually very simple. It's people who don't know God who complicate it too much and they try and make it about them. If you can't understand it, if whoever's teaching you how to put down a deck just doesn't take a screwdriver and a screw and say, do it like this, but wants to draw a diagram and take you through a 3-hour seminar, they're an idiot. If the guy who wants to teach you how to clean a rifle goes, this is too hard, just give it to me to do, instead of sitting down for— I think it was 12 minutes when I first did my AR with Dave. It was like, yeah, so you don't have to be a ninja for this. So, okay, there you go. All right, so in the beginning was the Word of God, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Okay, sounds like a mouthful. Why? Because we don't speak like that. In the beginning was the Word of God, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. Okay. He, the Word, was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, the Word, and without him, the Word, was not anything that was made. In him, the Word, was life, and life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness has overcome it. So why I replaced or supplemented him with the Word is because that's what it's talking about. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's a huge statement. We could spend a month or two just having a conversation about that. And then it goes through and says, the Word was in the beginning. All things were made through the Word, and without the Word was nothing made. And the Word was life and light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness was not overcome. So not a trick question, but maybe one you've never had to answer. Who do we understand the Word to be? That's Jesus. Jesus is the Word. And in the beginning was Jesus. And Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. Jesus was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Jesus. And without Jesus was not anything that was made. And in Jesus was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness was overcome. So it's simple physics: x equals y equals z. God is the Word, is Jesus, is God, is the Word. The Word is Jesus, is God. It's throughout the entire Bible. You can transpose those words, and it's it does never ever changes the meaning or the context. So who do we understand the word to be Jesus? Who is the word God? Who is Jesus God? Who is Jesus God? Jesus is the word. So what did the word of God slash Jesus? Creates all things, gives life, gives light, breakthroughs, and shines in the darkness. Got it? Yeah, we're good. Next thought. So let's add that to the mix we had before. Jesus is God. Jesus is the Word. I should not have any other God influence. Or deity that has a place in my life, or that is greater than the Word, than God, than Jesus. I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your Word. I am the Lord Jesus. And you shall have no other gods, words, deities before me. Can other sources and texts And spiritual leaders encourage you or teach you things? That's an open question. Nod, put it in the chat. Yes, I got three or four. Yes, this guy here, the Spencer who acknowledges worshipping some three-legged or four-legged something in the back of it. Phenomenal! I picked this up for a flick through this morning, and I'm actually going to have to go back and read the whatever the heck his last bit of this book is. He's afterwards. Okay, let me read you. One of the biggest lies we've come to believe about ourselves, the true nature, is that we're nothing more than physical beings defined by material reality, beyond of dimension and vital energy, and separated from God, big G, which I trust you know by now is within us and all around us. It sounds fantastic. It sounds so close to this. And that's the challenge, is the, the best form of lie is that which is closest to the truth but takes you somewhere else, like a path that splits. Can this book teach me things? Yes, it can. It can really challenge the way I think about myself because it's basically based on neuroplasticity. But is this my God? No, it's not my God. When this conflicts this, I have no choice. It's this. What can this teach me and challenge the way I think? Yes. But then my responsibility is to go to this to find out if this stands up. Because if this doesn't stand up against this, then I've got to avoid this and I've got to choose this. Because that's what my mandate is. That's what my choice is. Can they be a touchstone and a focus and a challenge to us? Yes. All right. Last thought. Theoretically, our last thought. No, we'll just— I'll send you the notes. Romans 8:29. All right. Romans is about in the middle. Acts, after Acts, there somewhere. It's in the index. For those who foreknew, he also predestined to be called conformed to the image of his Son. So big words, we don't often use them in Texas, y'all. So let me put— let me translate it a little bit for you. For those whom he knew beforehand, he also chose in advance to be conformed to the image of his Son Jesus the Word. God already knew that certain people in a certain way before time began would choose to follow him. His purpose in choosing them and having a relationship with them would be that they would be transformed and shaped to be more like Jesus. So before the beginning of time, God knew that you were going to be born, that you were going to walk on this earth, and he was going to draw you to himself. And just like he chose the children of Israel, his passion and desire for you is to not wander aimlessly through the desert But to be conformed to his image and changed into his image of his Son and live in a in a relationship, a loving relationship with him. So he knew Nick before time began. He chose Nick before time began. He loved Nick before time began, and he wants Nick to be like Jesus. Same for Miriam. Same for Rob, Ryan, Dave, Sam, Al, even me. Oh, there's a good one. He loves us and draws us to himself and wants us to be like Jesus, conformed to Jesus, conformed to the Word. So what does this mean in context of our discussion? We are only to have one God before us. We are to model our lives on him. That is God the Word and Jesus. No other source material. We should be focusing on allowing ourselves to be conformed to the Word and remade in the image of the Word. Not allowing other things to be object of our worship. Now, worship— worship is that which takes up time, talent, and treasure. And you can tell what a man loves by what he spends his time, talent, and treasure on. We all worship deer hunting season once a year at Al's place because it has all of our time and our talent and our treasure. And we occasionally feel guilty about it, so we'll have a little prayer and go to man church.

It's fine.

It's true. If you have a look at a man's diary or his pocketbook, his wallet, his bank card statement, you can tell what a man loves, where he spends his time and where he spends his money. And that's okay. You be self-aware. They think, man, maybe I need to read my Bible. That'd be good. So let's chat about the role of the word in our life. And does it have a role in our life? That's an interesting thought. We would all acquiesce and say, yes, the word is important. We would. But really, does it? So think about that. I'm not guilting you into a 2-hour Bible study. I'm not suggesting that at all. But 15 minutes of coffee before breakfast— Bible before breakfast is a saying I have. Coffee, Christ, and cigars is how I start my days. I think we confuse because somewhere inside us there is a doubt about the divine nature of this book. I think we don't spend our time as enthusiastically in the Bible because we are surrounded by a society that causes doubt on who we are as Christian men and causes doubt on the validity of this book. And I want to spend the rest of this morning Giving you some proofs around that to help. Archaeology can tell me the Bible belongs in history. Manuscripts can tell me that the text was transmitted to us. But Jesus Christ is the text and he is the truth. I've never had a promise with problem with Thomas. Jesus never called Thomas doubting. He never did. We did. The Bible— Jesus never calls him Doubting Thomas. He just calls him Thomas with love. We call Thomas Doubting Thomas because we're scared of Thomas, just like we vilify Judas, just like we make fun of Peter. Why? Because we are all lying, betraying sons of gun, and we will betray him at the top of a hat. We will try our best to walk on water and sink and cry like babies when we do. And we were betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and we doubt the heck out of him. So instead of looking at it like this, that God in his compassion saw Thomas and said, "Mate, listen," and read that account in Acts. He walks into the room. Thomas says, "I'm going to have to put my finger in his foot and in his hand." And you could just imagine Mary and the girls going as Jesus behind him, and then Thomas freezes going. He's in the room, isn't he? And turned— and this is what Jesus does. He goes, put your hand here, brother. If this is what it needs for you to be able to believe in me, touch my hand. Now that's my Jesus. He meets us where we are and takes us to where we want to be. Thomas died in India evangelizing. He was martyred there and established the first churches throughout the Indian continent. Guy's a total legend. Not someone to be belittled, but someone to be inspired and modeled. So the Bible is not blind faith; it is real history. And I want to share something with you, and I can email this out to you if this would be of use to you. But I want to talk you through it. See that? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Yeah. Yep. Does it take us where we want to be or where we need to be? Yes, Nick, great question. We'll unpack that. We'll unpack that when we get to having a chat. So can you see that? You can see that image, the 10 things. Okay. Archaeology can't dig up inspiration. And often the skeptics will tell you that the Bible is simply a collection of legends invented long after the events. The real issue isn't whether we possess enough evidence to take the Bible seriously. The real issue is what happens when the word of John King or an author or a podcast contradicts the word of God. Which one gets authority? So let me talk you through some basically basic proofs, 10 simple proofs that the Bible's real, so you can once and for all just put it aside and say, yeah, this thing's real. And I'll send— I can email this to you. I'll I'll put it in the Signal group. If you're not part of the Signal group, plead Man Church on Signal and we'll sort you out. Number 1, New Testament manuscript evidence. So, you know, Homer's Iliad, Odyssey movie, the real, the good one with Brad Pitt, not this other one. So Homer's Iliad has got 1,700 manuscripts, and from the time of writing to the first manuscript is a gap of 400 to 500 years. All the scholars say it must be real and authentic. Caesar's writings about the wars in, in France, there's 251 manuscripts, but the time gap between the, what they say is the original events and writing and the manuscript is about 1,000 years. Plato's work, there's 210 manuscripts of Plato, and there's a 1,300-year gap between the writing and the manuscripts that we've got. Herdonius's Greek History, 100 manuscripts, 1,300-year gap. Tacitus's Roman History, 20 copies, a gap of 1,000 years. The History of the Peloponnesian War, 96 manuscripts, a gap of 1,300 years. All of those are accepted by scholars as being true. New Testament, there is 5,800 Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin manuscripts, and some in Syriac, Coptic, and Aramaic. A total of roughly 20,000 to 25,000, up to 50,000, some scholars say, manuscripts of the Bible. The very first one is a fragment of John, which is only 125 years after its writing. But, and everyone wants to dispute whether or not the New Testament is real. It's not. Archaeologically and historically, it's just, it's a fact. Dead Sea Scrolls, Old Testament accuracy. Dead Sea Scrolls is a collection of scrolls that were found in 1947 in Qumran, and these included fragments of every Old Testament book except for the Book of Esther. And they date back to the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. And the biggest find and part of that is the Scroll of Isaiah, which is one of the biggest books in the Bible. And because that was absolutely accurate, what it proved, that 1,000 years of copying the Book of Isaiah, it was exactly the same. There's nothing different between the time that Isaiah wrote it And when they found it, the Dead Sea Scrolls. Absolutely. Pontius Pilate, and you'll see it there, number 3, discovered in 1961. It's called the Pilate Stone, and it declares Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, and references Caesar Tiberius. So it confirms the historical existence and title of a Roman official according to the Gospels who authorized Christ's crucifixion. Crucifixion. Absolute fact. Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the high priest who condemned Christ. There's something called an ossuary, which is like a tomb held for bones. They take the bones; they'd script wait till the meat fell off, or however they did that back then. Black fell away out bush. We hung them in a tree. Then we take them, hollow out a log, and stuff the bones in. That's why you can't chop down certain trees in the outback. It's a bit odd. So in 1990, a Jerusalem tool. Tomb yielded up one of these bone boxes, and it was Joseph, son of Caiaphas, on there. And Josephus, who was a Jewish historian, identified Caiaphas as the high priest involved in Jesus's trial. And so he is in the New Testament. Pools of Bethsaida and Siloam. I had the privilege of being here, going to those. What's unique about those is that John described them as 5 porticos in John 5:2. Described the Pool of Bethesda and five porticos. Now, for years, archaeologists said no, that doesn't a case because no one had five porticos in Jerusalem. Would never have happened. But they excavated them, and they found it to be exactly as John detailed it. The Delphi inscription. So Delphi, there's an inscription called the Gaolaeo inscription or the Delphi inscription. It's a name of a collection of 9 fragments of writing by the Roman Emperor Claudius, and it talks about a guy called Galileo that Paul talks about in his writing. And so what that does is that proves third party that Paul was talking about a guy that happened at his time that is confirmed by a non-Christian, non-Jewish source as being fact. Again, that's fact 6. Fact 7: Tacitus and Josephus, a Roman historian and a Jewish historian, confirms that Jesus Christ was a real person and the followers of him were called Christians. The Tel Dan Stele, or the House of David, 9th century Armenian inscription found in 1993, refers to the House of David. It's the earliest extra-biblical reference to King David and his dynasty. Again, Old Testament fact. Here's a really groovy one. The Hezekiah, the, the Hezekiah Tunnel. And the Hezekiah Tunnel was a tunnel that was built from the inside of Jerusalem that tunneled out and is referenced in 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings as one of the strategies that the king put in place. And there was tunneling from the outside and tunneling from the inside, and they meet perfectly. And I actually had a privilege of walking down there when we were over there. And, and being in there. So here is this archaeological and military strategy recorded in the Bible that's now— you can walk down it if you want to have a stroll. Number 10 is testimony by Jewish enemies. And I find this interesting because if you've got an enemy as a people, you don't often want to do things that you wouldn't deliberately set about doing things that prove they exist. So something called the Mennefer Stele or stone tablet mentions Israel and mentions Pharaoh around 1209 BC and contains extra biblical references to a people, a group of people in a place called Canaan called the Israelites. And then there's a Moabite king inscription of in the 9th century about the same thing. When Melissa and I were in Jordan, you know that story in the Old Testament about the donkey that talks?

Yeah.

So one of the prophets has beaten him and the donkey gets off and says, hey, what are you doing beating me? There's an angel standing before him. One of the kings went home that day and described in his journal, so-and-so the prophet was supposed to be turning up here prophesying against the Israelites, but his donkey started talking and telling him. So that tablet inscription is actually sitting in a museum in Jordan, and we had a chance to have a read of it. Totally blew my mind. Absolutely blew my mind. So there you got, fellas.