True Knowledge of Self

Ascertaining The Cause, Part 1

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Dwayne Lemon, Lance Wilbur

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Series Code: TKS

Program Code: TKS000007


00:30 Hello, I'm Lance Wilbur. And I'm Dwayne Lemon.
00:32 And we like to welcome you again to TKS,
00:35 the True Knowledge of Self
00:37 where we get to know ourselves from a biblical perspective.
00:41 Now, in our last episode,
00:42 we dealt with a subject of True Knowledge of Self,
00:47 a biblical knowledge of self
00:49 verses other concepts and ideas
00:51 in these ideas of knowledge of self
00:54 in the hip-hop culture and elsewhere.
00:56 And we saw that
00:57 this counterfeit knowledge of self
01:00 is rooted in Lucifer who became Satan.
01:04 And we saw that this theme of self exaltation,
01:07 the idea that created beings
01:10 can become God or greater than God
01:13 is what corrupts us to the very core.
01:15 And we saw in contrast
01:17 that a biblical knowledge of self
01:18 as we saw defined in many verses,
01:20 but specifically John 17:3.
01:23 It says, "And this is life eternal,
01:26 that they might know thee the only true God
01:29 and Jesus Christ who now has sent."
01:31 A knowledge of God
01:33 and his righteousness and his greatness
01:35 and his glory actually gives us
01:37 a true understanding of who we are in contrast
01:41 and shows us a way
01:43 in which we can now become like God
01:45 the way that he intended.
01:46 Now, Dwayne again we're back and we're discussing
01:52 and going to kind of the next transition,
01:54 the next point in our journey,
01:57 and we're ascertaining the cause.
01:59 We're figuring out
02:00 what is the cause of these problems.
02:03 We talked about the problems enough,
02:05 and we saw that the Bible has something
02:06 in contrast to that,
02:07 but we're now looking at what is the cause.
02:10 Does the Bible define
02:12 because it's one thing to say here's a problem
02:14 but then, it's another thing to show you
02:16 how and why the problem exists
02:18 because there's no way essentially
02:20 to reverse the problem or to have a remedy
02:23 without figuring out what caused it
02:25 because God is not just interested
02:27 in providing maintenance or therapy.
02:29 God wants complete restoration,
02:32 total restoration of his image in mankind.
02:37 That's right and you know
02:38 one of the things to think about is
02:40 you know, we all have problems.
02:41 It doesn't matter if we're black or white.
02:43 It doesn't matter if we're male or female,
02:45 young or old.
02:46 If we find that there is one common denominator
02:48 between all humanity is that we all have problems.
02:51 And those problems are manifested
02:53 in different ways.
02:54 Sometimes, the problems
02:55 are manifested through relationships.
02:57 The other times,
02:59 they are manifested through environment.
03:01 Other times, they are manifested
03:02 through health, occupation, and the list goes on.
03:05 We all have problems,
03:07 but the Bible lets us know something.
03:08 Now, the Bible doesn't use the word problem,
03:10 but the word that the Bible uses
03:12 at least in the King James Version
03:14 is a word called, Curse.
03:16 There are many people always say,
03:17 you know our world is cursed, you know this is curse,
03:20 and that is cursed, and so on and sometimes people say,
03:22 our relationships, our homes are cursed
03:24 and the list goes on,
03:25 but the Bible presents a picture
03:28 that we would do well to understand
03:30 is found in the book of Proverbs 26:2.
03:33 It's a type of language, this use is very interesting.
03:36 Solomon says, "As the bird by wandering,
03:41 and as the swallow by flying,"
03:43 it says, "so the curse causeless shall not come."
03:49 Now, it's very natural for a bird
03:50 to wander from place to place.
03:52 Is very natural for swallow to fly from place to place,
03:56 so it is that the Bible says is very natural
03:58 that a curse never comes without a cause.
04:01 So when a person identifies a curse,
04:03 whether it's taking place in their home,
04:05 whether it's taking place in their environment,
04:07 when it's taking place in their occupations,
04:09 when it's taking place even with their health.
04:10 In all cases,
04:12 a curse never comes without a cause.
04:14 So therefore, the logical thing to do
04:17 is to ascertain the cause.
04:19 Once you can ascertain the cause,
04:21 it has been found in many respects
04:22 that the cure is typically in the cause.
04:26 Real side note on this,
04:27 but I remember talking with a lady
04:28 she was sick
04:30 and she had specifically high blood pressure,
04:32 and you know, one of the things
04:33 that I was talking with her about as I said,
04:35 you know, "Tell me what you're eating,"
04:36 because you know, most people think of salt
04:38 when they think of high blood pressure.
04:40 This lady said, "I'm not eating any salt,"
04:42 but then she said,
04:43 "But I'm eating a lot of black and white pepper."
04:46 She says she uses black and white pepper
04:48 for everything in the food.
04:49 Well, it turns out that scientifically,
04:51 it is proven that black and white pepper
04:54 is actually a stimulus to the blood
04:56 to the point that it can actually be
04:57 a cause for hypertension.
05:00 She didn't know that.
05:01 So therefore, what did she do?
05:02 She started to eliminate the usage
05:04 that high usage of all that black and white pepper,
05:07 she made some lifestyle changes and within a few weeks,
05:10 her blood pressure was regulated.
05:11 That's the idea.
05:13 The cure is typically in the cause.
05:14 Once you understand the cause,
05:16 you can more than likely find your cure
05:18 for that problem.
05:19 And so it is that we all have problems.
05:22 So the question is, what's the cause?
05:24 And then once we can ascertain that cause,
05:26 perhaps by God's grace, he can show us the cure.
05:28 Yeah.
05:29 So therefore, that's the question
05:31 that now I want to pose to you
05:32 is do you have an idea
05:34 of what may be the very cause
05:35 of all these problems that we had.
05:37 You had problems growing up, I had problems growing up.
05:40 People we talk to all the time, they have problems.
05:43 So we know that humanity has problems.
05:45 The question is,
05:46 what is the cause of all these problems?
05:48 Yeah, and I believe that the Bible is very clear,
05:51 again, we don't want to just manufacture
05:53 responses and answers.
05:55 Right. The Bible gives an answer.
05:57 And so, when we're talking about this subject.
05:59 What is the root cause?
06:01 We understood that the war started in heaven,
06:02 we established that in Revelation Chapter 12
06:04 and then, we established the fact
06:06 that it came to the earth and now has affected humanity.
06:09 Well, where do we see that account in the Bible,
06:12 and it begins in Genesis Chapter 3,
06:14 almost at the very beginning and it's best oftentimes,
06:17 when we want to figure out something
06:19 or figure out a principle,
06:20 go to the first place that you see it...
06:22 That's right.
06:24 Come up in the Bible... Deal with the root.
06:25 Right, begin at the beginning as they say.
06:27 So in Genesis Chapter 3,
06:30 this chapter is dealing with the fall of humanity,
06:33 and we're going to just highlight
06:34 a few verses again and focus in on the actual,
06:38 the action of the fall
06:40 because we're talking about the root cause of the problem,
06:42 what happened that brought the problems
06:43 and brought these broken relationships
06:45 and things into our room,
06:48 and we look at verse 6 in Genesis 3,
06:52 and we're just looking at verse 6 and then,
06:54 we're going to go all the way down to verse 9.
06:57 Genesis 3:6-9, and I'm going to read those.
07:02 It said, "And when the woman saw
07:04 that the tree was good for food,
07:07 and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
07:10 and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
07:13 she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
07:16 and gave also answer her husband with her,
07:18 and he did eat."
07:20 It's talking about Adam and Eve.
07:21 It says, "And the eyes of them both were opened.
07:24 And they knew that they were naked,
07:26 and they sewed fig leaves together,
07:27 and made themselves aprons.
07:29 And they heard the voice of the Lord God
07:31 walking in the garden in the cool of the day:
07:33 And Adam and his wife hid themselves
07:36 from the presence of the Lord God
07:37 amongst the trees of the garden.
07:39 And the Lord God called on to Adam, and said unto him,
07:44 "Where art thou?"
07:46 It is a profound and deep question
07:49 and you can go on and on
07:50 about some of the intricacies of the verse,
07:52 but essentially, as soon as Adam and Eve
07:59 broke their relationship with God
08:01 through breaking their agreement,
08:02 they did exactly the opposite of what God commanded
08:06 to not eat of the tree
08:08 of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
08:10 They ate of it.
08:12 And when they did, everything was broken.
08:16 Everything was shattered,
08:18 and we saw as those things that we highlighted,
08:20 problems in those various areas,
08:22 the relationships were broken.
08:24 God's relationship with man was broken
08:26 because now when he came,
08:27 they fled and hid themselves from God.
08:30 That's right.
08:31 Their relationship with each other was broken
08:33 and when you see that later on
08:35 as there is now disagreement and contention
08:40 and strife and insecurity...
08:42 Even brothers killing brothers. Right.
08:44 Genesis Chapter 4, goes right into that fact,
08:46 human relationships are now broken.
08:48 Man's relationship with his environment is broken
08:51 and the rest of God's creation, remember,
08:54 God commanded mankind to have dominion over the earth
08:59 to subdue it not to persecute it
09:03 or to abuse it,
09:04 but to live harmoniously with his creation...
09:07 As a faithful student.
09:08 That's right, a caretaker and one sin comes in,
09:12 that relationship is affected and broken.
09:14 We see that man is now fleeing, is cast out of his home
09:20 as you go on to see in Genesis Chapter 3,
09:23 and there's all kinds of problems
09:25 and degrading in every level.
09:28 Man's health degrades.
09:29 Remember the word of God was that,
09:31 "If you eat it in the day that thou eat there of,
09:34 you will surely die."
09:37 Death was not in existence on the earth.
09:39 Now, that sin comes into the earth,
09:41 this transgression if you will this, this cause, this curse,
09:46 death is the result.
09:47 The human body, the human mind
09:50 now has the capacity not to grow.
09:53 Well, I still have the capacity to grow
09:54 but not to perpetually grow,
09:56 but to degrade into the point of actual physical death.
10:00 So every aspect of man's existence now
10:03 is affected negatively by sin.
10:05 And again, we talked about this idea of mental slavery
10:09 that if I follow a religion of God in heaven
10:13 and follow the religion of the Bible
10:14 that this is a form of slavery, it's a form of the deception,
10:19 and I am the one
10:20 that is going to control my own destiny,
10:22 and I am God in myself.
10:24 Well, it's really a greater deception.
10:28 We saw it in the case of Lucifer.
10:30 We saw it in the case of Nebuchadnezzar,
10:32 we saw in the case of Herod.
10:35 The Bible comments on kind of this fundamental principle
10:38 in the book of Romans.
10:39 So I actually want to turn there now
10:41 in direct our attention to Romans 6,
10:44 Romans 6 in the New Testament,
10:46 and we're looking at verse 16, and I'm going to read that.
10:52 Romans 6:16.
10:54 It says, "Know ye not,
10:56 that whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
11:00 his servants ye are to whom you obey,
11:04 whether of sin unto death,
11:06 or of obedience unto righteousness?"
11:09 Notice, there's simply two options, sin,
11:14 following sin which will lead to death,
11:16 slavery or bondage to sin which will lead to death
11:19 or service to God, obedience which leads to righteousness.
11:24 It's an automatic cause and effect.
11:27 If I follow transgression or sin,
11:29 then it will lead to death.
11:31 If I follow obedience,
11:32 it will automatically lead to righteousness,
11:35 and God is putting before us this very choice.
11:37 Now, I keep using these words sin, transgression
11:41 and looking at this is the curse in the cause,
11:43 thus the Bible gives a definition,
11:47 a basic clear definition of what sin is
11:49 when we talk about sin.
11:51 What is sin?
11:52 Okay, now, I'm glad you asked that question
11:53 because thus far, what I'm seeing
11:55 you bring out in your point
11:56 is really, really important for our viewers to understand
11:59 is that when we look at this issue of sin
12:03 being the cause root of A, B, C problems in life.
12:06 It's amazing how truth by default eliminates lies.
12:10 Right.
12:12 Because there are individuals who try to say
12:13 the white man is the cause of our problems,
12:16 especially in aspects of hip-hop culture.
12:18 There are some who say the black man or the Indian man
12:20 and they point at races and different creeds
12:23 and so on to say these are the reasons
12:24 why we're going through oppression,
12:26 slavery, and bondage, but the Bible says, "No."
12:28 The Bible deals with the issue of sin, sin is the problem.
12:31 And until, we deal with the sin problem,
12:33 these other problems are not going to go away.
12:35 They're just going to shape shift
12:36 and that's why the most important thing
12:39 whenever someone wants to make a nation better,
12:41 when they want to make a church better,
12:42 when they want to make a community better
12:44 or a home better, we have to deal with the things
12:46 that cause them not to be better
12:48 and when we clearly understand that
12:49 and that is sin, then now we know where our battle is.
12:53 Our battle is not with white, black and this that, the other
12:56 'cause it's not dealing with pigmentation of skin.
12:58 Our issue is with the issue of sin, sin is the problem.
13:00 Right.
13:01 And you clearly pointed that out.
13:02 So naturally, like you said, it now puts us in a position,
13:05 we need to define, what is sin.
13:07 Yeah. We have to define it.
13:09 Now, there are some beautiful ways to do this.
13:11 The Bible spells it out in 1 John 3:4.
13:14 This is the clearest biblical explanation
13:17 on what sin is.
13:19 You can go to people, you ask them,
13:20 "Hey, what is sin."
13:21 They say, "Well, you know, it's not doing God's will
13:23 or it's doing this bad thing or that thing."
13:25 Right.
13:27 I believe, let's go to the horse's mouth,
13:28 let's find out from God what did he say sin was.
13:30 The Bible says in 1 John 3:4.
13:33 It says, "Whosoever committed sin
13:36 transgresseth also the law:
13:39 For sin is the transgression of the law."
13:42 It's the breaking of the law of God.
13:44 Yeah.
13:45 Now, there was approximately 613 laws in all the Bible.
13:48 So, some of them were ceremonial,
13:49 some of them were hygienic, some of them were health laws,
13:52 some of them were moral laws and sacrificial laws.
13:55 So the question is well, which one?
13:57 How do you know which law it is that if we break it, it is sin.
14:01 Well, the Bible tells us in Romans 7 Chapter which one.
14:04 When you go to Romans the 7 Chapter,
14:06 you find that Paul,
14:08 he expresses it very, very clearly
14:09 so that we don't have to miss it.
14:11 In Romans the 7:7, here is what it says,
14:14 "What shall we say then?
14:16 Is the law sin? God forbid.
14:19 Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law:
14:22 For I had not known lust.
14:24 Except the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet.'"
14:28 So whatever law that says, "Thou shalt not covet,"
14:32 is the same law that if we break it, it is sin.
14:35 Now, anybody can go to Exodus 20 and of course,
14:37 when you look at verse 17, the Tenth Commandment,
14:40 that's the command that says, "Thou shalt not covet."
14:42 Now, James Chapter 2 introduces a thought about this
14:46 that becomes very important to us.
14:48 In James 2, it tells us this, and these are the key things
14:52 because remember, we have problems,
14:55 we want our problems to go away,
14:56 our problems can't go away by smoking weed.
14:59 Our problems can't go away
15:00 by blinking our minds off from the world
15:01 and trying to go to a club so we can zoom out for a minute
15:04 as we dance on the dance floor and once the club is over,
15:06 you're going to go right back home to your...
15:07 It's misery. Yeah.
15:09 And our problems cannot be found in sex.
15:11 Sex is pleasure for a moment, but then after that,
15:13 there's still a down spiral.
15:15 Pleasures can't even be found in money.
15:17 Ask any millionaire who killed himself.
15:19 You can you can look at the issues of life
15:21 and money is not answering the questions.
15:23 Sex is not answering the question.
15:24 All these things are not answering it.
15:25 Yeah.
15:27 So therefore, we ascertain the cause,
15:28 the issue is sin,
15:29 but we need to define what sin is so that hopefully,
15:31 we can know how we can get victory over it.
15:33 That's going to be the key. Right.
15:35 So we look at 1 John 3:4,
15:36 sin is the breaking of God's law.
15:39 Which law?
15:40 There is a whole bunch of them in the Bible.
15:41 Well, we go to Romans 7:7.
15:43 It says, "That I had not known lust,
15:45 except the law,"
15:47 that if I break it a sin said, "Thou shalt not covet."
15:50 What law is that? You go to Exodus 20.
15:53 You look at verse 17, "Thou shalt not covet."
15:55 That's the Ten Commandments.
15:57 Oh, so the law that if I break it
15:59 the Bible calls it sin are the Ten Commandments.
16:03 Now, we're going to the Book of James
16:04 because James tells us something
16:06 in relation to those Ten Commandments.
16:08 It's says in James 2, right here at verse 8, it says,
16:12 and we're going to look at verses 8-11.
16:15 It says, "If ye fulfill the royal law
16:18 according to the scripture,
16:19 thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
16:21 ye do well:
16:22 But if you have respect to persons, ye commit sin,
16:26 and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
16:28 For whoever shall keep the whole law,
16:31 and yet offend in one point," it says, "he is guilty of all.
16:38 For he that said, Do not commit adultery,
16:40 said also, Do not kill.
16:41 Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill,
16:43 thou art become a transgressor of the law."
16:46 So the standard is high. The standard is very high.
16:49 God says that he is trying to establish a people
16:52 that will be in total harmony with his law
16:55 and when you and I look back at our lives,
16:56 we may say, "Oh, I never murdered."
16:58 But here it is, we may have committed adultery.
17:00 The adultery, the person says,
17:01 "Well, I've never murdered or committed adultery,"
17:03 but may be they told a lie and they bear false witness.
17:05 So we all can find ourselves guilty of this,
17:08 and this is why the Bible tells us
17:10 in Romans 3:23 that,
17:12 "All have sinned,
17:15 and come short of the glory of God."
17:16 That's a problem. Yes.
17:18 That's a problem because all of us have sinned
17:21 which means all of us has violated God's law
17:23 at some point in our lives, and therefore,
17:26 we are now under the death penalty.
17:28 Because the Bible says that once we have sinned
17:30 and come short of the glory of God, the Roman 6:23 says,
17:33 "The wage of sin is death."
17:35 The payment for sin is death.
17:36 Right, as it was at the beginning,
17:38 that still stands.
17:39 I can't...I can walk as many people
17:40 across the street
17:42 as I want who cannot walk themselves,
17:43 it is a good deed, but it cannot pay the debt.
17:46 I can go ahead and I can help
17:47 as many homeless people as possible,
17:49 it's a good deed, but it cannot pay the debt.
17:51 So I can do all sorts of great things, good actions,
17:54 wonderful deeds, but at the end of the day,
17:56 it doesn't pay the debt.
17:58 The Bible says, "The payment for sin is death.
18:00 You've got to die."
18:02 And this is why the story of the Gospel
18:04 becomes so powerful because it says,
18:06 "For God so loved the world
18:08 that He gave His only begotten Son
18:11 that whosoever believes in Him should not perish,
18:14 but have everlasting life."
18:16 So seeing that we can't... we have the death penalty.
18:20 Yes sir.
18:21 The standard is set high
18:23 in fact, God sets Himself up as the standard,
18:25 and He shows us in contrast to Him
18:28 that we do not need it and therefore,
18:32 we require the penalty of death.
18:34 That's right.
18:35 So then, the natural question is,
18:37 does God give a way to escape?
18:39 And you just highlighted the point, and I think,
18:41 we're going to spend a whole entire program
18:44 dealing with this solution for the great problem of sin
18:48 because that is the ultimate problem.
18:50 All these things that you talked about
18:52 in the materialism and the material things
18:54 and let's not be confused,
18:56 there's nothing wrong with being happy...
18:59 Absolutely. ..or pleasure...
19:00 That's right.
19:01 ..or God doesn't mean, to follow God,
19:03 you have to be poor.
19:04 You know, some certain things,
19:06 there's nothing inherently wrong with them.
19:08 But as they become corrupted through the human mind
19:11 and we begin to abuse these things,
19:14 it leads to destruction and it leads to death.
19:16 Now, one of the things I really like about
19:19 what you just said and also how you know
19:21 we're trying to emphasize is in this program,
19:23 we know that there's something called fanaticism.
19:25 You know, extremes where people go too far
19:28 on one side or the other,
19:30 it's very clear, that's not our mission.
19:32 Our mission is not to try to tell people
19:34 you cannot be happy
19:36 or you cannot enjoy some things in life,
19:38 have "fun," by no means are we saying that,
19:41 by any means or any stretch of the imagination.
19:43 In fact, think of the words of Jesus, you know,
19:45 most people don't consider
19:47 why does Jesus even give us the commands that he gives us.
19:50 You ever think about that? What about...
19:51 Why does he give us these commands?
19:53 Watch this, John 15 chapter.
19:55 This is just to prove that God is not on a mission
19:58 to make us unhappy
19:59 when he gives us commands and instructions
20:01 and all these things
20:02 because notice what the Bible says
20:04 in John the 15 Chapter, talking about Jesus.
20:06 In John 15:11.
20:08 This is Jesus, this is Him speaking
20:10 and all these teachings, all these concepts,
20:13 all these ideas
20:14 that He is presenting these commands
20:16 to His disciples,
20:17 here is the reason why He did it.
20:19 Okay.
20:20 John 15:11, "These things have I spoken unto you.
20:24 That my joy may remain in you,
20:28 and that your joy might be full."
20:32 Have you ever wonder what a person looks like
20:33 when their joy is full.
20:35 Yes. They're joyful.
20:37 You know, what I'm saying?
20:39 In other words, this is what God was doing.
20:41 So when God gives a command,
20:43 it is not that it should be received as grievous,
20:45 but it should be understood.
20:47 God is saying, "I'm trying to look out for you.
20:49 I'm trying to extend mercy to you."
20:51 I mean think about it, sexually transmitted diseases,
20:54 broken relationships, parenting over children
20:57 that we were not ready to be parents to
21:00 and a lot of these problems
21:01 that affect society, affect us in urban youth,
21:04 affect us even in the hip-hop culture,
21:06 do you know one commandment
21:07 could help protect us from that,
21:09 is called, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
21:12 I mean if you think about that to a very large degree...
21:15 Yes.
21:16 ..sexually transmitted diseases
21:18 to...you know,
21:19 a lot of these problems that we see
21:21 broken relationships, broken homes,
21:22 the children being born, no father, no mother,
21:24 you know, and all this other stuff,
21:26 to a very large degree,
21:27 these things would be diminished
21:29 if we simply kept that commandment,
21:31 "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
21:33 So they are our benefit. They are for our benefit.
21:35 It's not that God is like,
21:36 "I'm trying to make your life miserable.
21:38 I want to punish you."
21:39 That's the last thing that's on God's mind.
21:41 God's saying, "Look, somebody is out to steal your joy.
21:43 I'm giving you these commands
21:44 because I want My joy to remain in you
21:46 and that your joy would be full."
21:48 God is terribly interested in our happiness,
21:52 but he understands that happiness never comes
21:54 when we live a rule-free life.
21:58 You go to any country where there's no rules
21:59 and you see chaos.
22:01 In the book of Judges,
22:02 the very last verse in the book of Judges.
22:05 It says, "Every man did
22:06 what was right in his own eyes."
22:08 And when you look at the condition of Israel,
22:10 they were in total absolute chaos.
22:13 So the idea that the less rules that I have in my life,
22:16 the less things that govern my life,
22:18 supposedly makes me a happier person
22:20 is an absolute lie.
22:22 Right.
22:23 And now, in contrast,
22:24 we're not talking about millions of rules.
22:26 Right.
22:27 God has very simple principles that are designed to follow,
22:29 and it's kind of like having children.
22:32 I have children, you have children,
22:34 we both have many children.
22:36 But all through one wife. That's right.
22:38 Amen. Amen.
22:39 All right. Keep going.
22:40 So little children when they're babies, infants or toddlers,
22:43 they begin to walk, crawl,
22:45 the level of hazard and danger increases, right?
22:48 When they're little infants, they can...
22:49 you can sit them down in a rocker
22:51 or a chair or something and they just sit there
22:53 and all you need to do is change them, feed them,
22:55 you know, comfort them once in a while,
22:57 but they're perfectly content, you know,
22:59 sitting there for the most part.
23:00 Yeah.
23:01 But as they start moving around and getting into things,
23:05 now there's a whole industry selling gates and locks and,
23:09 you know, protector, outlet covers
23:10 and all these things
23:12 because there's hazards,
23:13 they are ignorant to many things
23:15 and so you have to say, "Don't touch that.
23:17 Don't do that.
23:18 Don't put your hand to the fire.
23:20 Don't do this, don't do that,"
23:21 and so there's a lot of don't do's.
23:22 And there's a lot of no, no,
23:25 but it's not designed to punish or to create misery,
23:28 it's actually designed to protect
23:29 and to strengthen and as you get older,
23:33 I don't have to be told,
23:34 "Hey, don't put your hand on the hot burner,
23:36 don't stick your hand inside the toaster."
23:39 You know, I don't have to be told that.
23:41 I know that you shouldn't do it and if I want to be happy,
23:45 then I'm going to keep my hand off of the flame.
23:47 That's right.
23:48 So the rules, we are not saying this,
23:51 you know, bludgeoning of rules and regulations,
23:54 as you mature, the rules become second nature.
23:59 They become natural to you.
24:01 So this is what God is looking for.
24:02 He's offering a situation and an agreement
24:05 as He gives us instruction,
24:09 He gives supernatural power now
24:11 where these things become natural
24:13 and we will be talking about God's grace and His mercy
24:16 and His love and His righteousness,
24:18 all these things.
24:19 Absolutely.
24:20 And this is why it gets very sweet man
24:22 because God was really trying to protect us
24:25 and to keep us
24:26 so that we don't fall into the tricks
24:28 and the traps of the devil,
24:29 so that we can have that happier life.
24:31 This is in contrast to what is taught primarily
24:34 through hip-hop culture.
24:36 It's, "Do what you want, do what you feel,
24:38 you are God at the end of the day,
24:39 so you get to call the shots, new age,
24:41 that's the same principle.
24:42 I mean it's all throughout the world,
24:44 this teaching, "Do what you want,
24:45 do what thou wilt, do what you feel,"
24:47 and so on where God says, "No, there are laws,
24:49 there are governing powers that I've given to men,"
24:53 and this is why the solution to all of these things
24:55 is in Matthew 24:14.
24:57 Jesus said, "And this gospel of the kingdom
25:02 shall be preached in all the world
25:04 for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come."
25:09 And you know, one of the things that comes to an end
25:10 when the Gospel is rightly given
25:12 and rightly receive?
25:13 What? Problems.
25:15 And that's the issue. We all have problems.
25:18 The root cause is sin.
25:19 God gave a solution called The Gospel
25:21 that can bring an end to the problems.
25:24 So therefore, God brings the gospel
25:26 because he says the gospel brings an end to sin
25:27 and when it brings an end to sin,
25:29 it brings an end to problems.
25:31 And this is why Satan is mad at the Gospel,
25:34 and he will create anything to try to shut it down.
25:36 And this is in the Bible. This is in the Bible, brother.
25:39 So we're not talking about just abstract,
25:41 we're not just here building and just making up stuff
25:44 as we go along,
25:45 we're not taking books from this person
25:47 or that man or this, this is from the Bible.
25:49 This is a faithful study of the scripture.
25:51 All right.
25:53 So we're using...
25:54 we're using the term the Gospel.
25:55 We know that essentially, basically in the Greek,
25:57 the word Gospel means good news,
25:59 if you will as people say, good news,
26:01 the delivering of the good news is the verb of that now.
26:04 So when we talk about the Gospel,
26:07 I believe we have to take the time
26:11 to identify which Gospel
26:14 because there's many gospels out there.
26:15 In fact, we were looking at some things,
26:17 and we saw that now
26:18 there's a 600-page book called the Gospel of Hip Hop.
26:21 That's correct.
26:22 That's authored by KRS One for the temple of hip-hop.
26:25 So there's the gospel of hip-hop,
26:27 there's the gospel of this, the gospel of that,
26:29 and we have to differentiate
26:32 between just the idea of a gospel,
26:34 the concept of gospel and the Biblical Gospel.
26:38 That's right.
26:39 And you know, it's a hard thing I'm sure because let's face it,
26:41 look, we are called to love and to respect all men
26:47 whether they hold the same religious views
26:49 that we do or not, but all religions, all men,
26:56 all churches cannot be right.
26:58 And this is why we have to ask because you go to them,
27:01 there's the gospel of hip-hop.
27:02 Then, there's the gospel of this,
27:04 there is a gospel of that, lots of gospels,
27:06 lots of good news messages, but they have to be qualified,
27:10 and this is why you're asking that question, which gospel?
27:12 Right.
27:13 Because we know that Jesus spoke about a gospel
27:15 that definitely can bring an end to problems
27:17 and an end to sin, but the question is,
27:19 does the gospel of hip-hop do it?
27:20 Does a gospel of this do it?
27:22 Or does the Gospel of the other do it?
27:23 So I think in our next session,
27:25 we are gonna have to really build on this idea
27:26 which gospel is it
27:28 that's designed to bring the end
27:30 not only to sin but to life's problems.
27:33 Absolutely amazing.
27:35 We're going to see what the Bible has to say,
27:37 which gospel are we to follow,
27:39 which Gospel are we talking about.
27:41 We thank you for joining us at TKS,
27:43 a True Knowledge of Self,
27:44 and we invite you to come back, invite a friend
27:48 and remind you Proverbs 2:6, it says,
27:52 "The Lord gives wisdom and out of His mouth
27:56 comes knowledge and understanding."
27:58 God bless you and hope you come and visit us again.


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Revised 2017-01-12