Deut 6:1-16
Joanna Sears and Brian Lima are engaged to be married! The date for the wedding is Dec 11.
1. Establish “exclusive” claims of the Bible and of Jesus.
a. Exodus 20:2-3—“no other gods before me…”
““I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
b. The nations will come to Jerusalem to worship the one, true God…
i. Psa. 22:27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD [YHWH], And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
ii. Is. 2:2 Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
iii. Rev. 15:4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy;
For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU,
FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.”
c. Jesus, John 14:6“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”
2. Explain the tension between divine sovereignty and human autonomy.
a. God is sovereign.
b. Humanity wants to be sovereign.
c. This can only be resolved by a human choice—acknowledge that YOU ARE GOD AND I AM NOT.
3. God is tolerant, God is intolerant.
a. God is tolerant:
i. patient, so that we have full opportunity to seek Him, repent, and choose Him.
b. God is intolerant:
i. patience does not cover the worship of other gods.
ii. He claims to have created what we might call “other gods,” fallen angels the Scripture calls “demons,” and intends to put an end to them after time.
c. Foundation of our tolerance: Matt. 22:37-39
“‘You Shall Love The Lord Your God With All Your Heart, And With All Your Soul, And With All Your Mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.’”
4. Our tolerant/intolerant rocker can reflect God’s.
a. We are tolerant of people with whom we disagree.
i. We must not hate people.
b. We are intolerant of ideas that contradict the truths that God has given us about Himself and His good intentions.
2 Corinthians 10:5–6 NASB
“We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…
i. We aggressively demolish “speculations” and “every arrogant obstacle” as we take “every thought captive.”
ii. Paul is arguing that all philosophies that degrade Christ’s death on the Cross reflect pridefulness: humanity declaring that we are fully autonomous, fully competent; we have no need for God.
iii. We do this NOT with physical violence (2Cor 5:3—we do not war according to the flesh), but by contesting ideas!
THIS HAS PROFOUND PRACTICALITY
"All views have equal merit and none should be considered better than another."
“Jesus is the Messiah and Judaism is wrong for rejecting that.”
…why should it bother me that someone thinks I’m wrong?”
Google:
When Tolerance Is Intolerant Gregory Koukl
“Is this a view, the idea that all views have equal merit and none should be considered better than another?” They agreed.
Then I pointed to the second statement—the “intolerant” one—and asked the same question: “Is this a view?” They studied the sentence for a moment. Slowly my point began to dawn on them.
If all views have equal merit, then the view that Christians have a better view on Jesus than Jews is just as true as the idea that Jews have a better view on Jesus than Christians. But this is hopelessly contradictory. If the first statement is what tolerance amounts to, then no one can be tolerant because “tolerance” turns out to be gibberish.
“Be egalitarian regarding persons.” = “civility”, “respect”
“Be elitist regarding ideas”
Tolerance applies to how we treat people we disagree with, not how we treat ideas we think false.
The irony is that according to the classical notion of tolerance, you can’t tolerate someone unless you disagree with him. We don’t “tolerate” people who share our views. They’re on our side. There’s nothing to “put up” with. Tolerance is reserved for those who we think are wrong, yet we still choose to treat them decently and with respect.
Nowadays if you think someone is wrong, you’re called intolerant no matter how you treat them.
Most of what passes for tolerance today is intellectual cowardice, a fear of intelligent engagement. Those who brandish the word “intolerant” are unwilling to be challenged by other views, to grapple with contrary opinions, or even to consider them. It’s easier to hurl an insult—“you intolerant bigot”—than to confront the idea and either refute it or be changed by it. In the modern era, “tolerance” has become intolerance.
TAKEAWAYS
1. It’s okay to disagree!
2. Our faith is based on the exclusive claims of Jesus Himself.
3. Our love for those who disagree is foundational to their faith.
4. Our tolerance is a tolerance of PEOPLE;
PEOPLE ARE WORTH LOVING; IDEAS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR.
5. If there is no reason to fear other views, then I can be single-minded in my devotion to Christ.
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