Is The Bible A Tape Measure?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Thursday, June thirteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently four forty nine pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. So, how how has your day been? Have you had a good day? Has it been great? Has it been wonderful? Look, I hope you've had a better day than I have. Today. It has been just I feel like all I have done today is drive from one place to another place to another place, sit in the car, drive in another place. Like I just that's what I feel like. The whole day has just been kind of like just discombobulated, and it just feels like I'm just kind of like, you know what, I'm glad that this day is over. I'm ready just to kind of kick back and just do whatever I want, right, don't. I don't really feel like doing much.

1:06 I hope your day has been a great day. I in some ways I shouldn't be complaining about my day because I mean, I mean it's just I guess maybe just a minor inconvenience to just not be able to do what you want, right, I mean, that's kind of life, right. So I guess I'm kind of complaining about the normal things everyone has to deal with. But I'm so I'm almost almost compulsive when it comes to time, Like I like to know, I like to have complete control of my time, and I like to make sure I do exactly what I want to do. I don't like anything interrupting my time, and so whenever I have to go do this, or go do this, or go do this, go do this, then I get all just discombobulated and I don't like it. So in some ways I should not complain. But if I'm just being I mean, if I'm being transparent, I could sit here and say I could sit here and talk like I'm so godly, but it would just be a lie.

2:05 Right. The reality is, I was like, Okay, I'm going to do this. I have to do this, I have to do this, and now I did try to have a good attitude. I did not complain about it. I did have a good attitude. Internally, maybe my attitude wasn't so good and maybe now I'm just sitting here looking at the clock going. Man, it's fast approaching five pm. What happened to this day? It's gone? But you know what, I do have this time now, So I want to try to make the most of everything I've been doing today. I did a lot of driving around today, as I've kind of hinted at, I did a lot of just driving around. And because I knew I was going to be doing that, I made sure I had a device with me, and I made sure that I was going to have the ability to listen to as many different things as I could on the sermon's two point zerop. That's what I said. I look, a if I'm going to have to be driving around all day, if I'm going to be sitting in the car, I'm going to make sure I can listen to the sermon's two point oh app and just listen to as many different things as possible.

3:04 Now. I also had, obviously my other podcasting apps. So I think the first thing I saw was I think his first Baptist church Hammon Indiana or is that I think it's in Indiana. I think it's Indiana, and in Indiana. I'm almost positive Indiana. All right. I got a notification on one of my podcast apps. They just published a new sermon and it was on pro It was from the Book of Proverbs, and I'm like, ooh, that's good, because maybe maybe I could use that. But wait a minute. For our Proverbs we're doing the sermon's two point oh app challenge. Their sermons are not on the sermon's two point oh app, so I can't really utilize it. Or maybe I could just use it for our Proverbs series and forget the sermon's two points. So then I thought, maybe I'll listen to it. I'm like, well, no, let me just let me just keep that. I think I hit play and realized that we're using I think it was Proverbs twenty seven about friendship, but it started really weird, and I'm like, okay, let's let's keep that in the back of my mind. Maybe we'll circle back to that. All right, Maybe we'll circle back to that and we'll use it. So I'm like, okay, that's one thing that I can do something with. Another thing was a series in the Book of Psalms. It was the Coming Middle East War, I think was the name of it. Let me see if I got my app here, let me see here if I can find my app Yeah here, Yeah, Psalm eighty three The Coming Middle East War, Part one from Central Baptist Church doctor Andy Bloom. I don't know how many parts the series has,

4:35 but Psalm eighty three, The Coming Middle East War. You may want to look it up and listen to it. I'm a little I'm a little confused, right. I started listening to it, and once they got into Psalm eighty three, and then immediately the direction he went, I was a little perplexed. I'm like, wait a minute, I guess when you when you read Psalm eighty three, is that referring to past tense? Present tints for them? Are future tints for them? But past tens for Yeah, I've got a lot of questions. So I listened to that. I'm like, Okay, well I may do something with some eighty three, you know, maybe maybe we will do something with that. When okay, so I have something on Psalm's twenty seven, I could do something with that. Then I have something on Psalm eighty three, Okay, I could do something with that.

5:17 Then I listened to it was a little quick devotional, I think it was. I don't even think the program was more than five minutes long. This is These are all this is on the sermon's two point oh app as well, And I think it's entitled simple discipleship. I think it's what it's called. I think it's called simple discipleship. Literally, it's like four or five minutes long. Literally, and he kind of makes some references to some verses, but his basic hypotheses is that discipleship is easy, just follow Jesus. So after and of course with me, I can't speak for you. Whenever I listen to something, I don't have to listen to a lot of it. Then I can just stop and while I'm driving or if I'm just sitting there waiting, then I can sit there in my mind and you know, have a conversation with myself about it for like two hours trying to process it. So, even though there was a short devotional which I didn't quite get maybe exactly where they were going, just the question of is discipleship easy?

6:18 Is it really simple? And when you say it's simple, what do you mean by that? Well, and a four or five minute devotional you really can't answer some of those questions. So then I thought, you know what, maybe the next time I broadcast I can talk about that. Well, then, I so I had all of these ideas well. Then the last place that I was sitting at, waiting, I was just sitting there waiting in the car, and you know the heat here in Texas, and I had the air conditioning running, obviously. I started listening to a message on the sermon's two point zero app entitled who and What? Who and What? And when I saw the title, I'm like, well, that's an interesting title, who and What. I wonder what that's about. So I started listening to it, and the next thing I found myself was hearing a sermon illustration, an illustration used in a sermon. And the more I started thinking about the illustration, I'm like, I don't know if that really works the way you think it works. I know everyone is saying amen to you in the congregation, but for me here in Albilene, Texas, sitting in my car, I am going, I don't know. I don't know if that really works if you think about it. So here's what I want you to do. Here's what I want you to consider. I want you to consider a tape measure. I want you to think about a tape measure.

7:44 Right, you probably have when someone in your house, somewhere in your house, grab a tape measure right now for those for some reason, I don't know what a tape measure is. No, obviously everyone knows what a tape measure is. But I'm going to read a definition just to really get us to think about because this was the main point. This was a major object in this sermon illustration. A tape measure or measuring tape is a flexible ruler used to measure length or distance. It consists of a ribbon of cloth, plastic, fiberglass, or metal strip with linear measurement markings. It is a common measuring tool. So you've all seen measuring tape of some sort of maybe different materials, but you have seen them, you have probably used them.

8:35 Now here's the question, as valuable as measuring tape is, as useful as it is, as common of a tool as it is, and maybe it is of great use and very helpful in some situations. As wonderful as that measuring tape is, is it possible that what I'm holding in my hand right now also serves as a tape measure or a measuring tape, and what I'm holding in my hand right now. Is the Bible? Is the Bible a tape measure? Is the Bible a measuring tape. Now your first instinct is going to be like, absolutely, it's the tape measure. Absolutely, it's the measuring tape. It's how we measure things. Okay, I hear you, But you know I like to you know, play Devil's advocates. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take you back. You're sitting in the car with me or waiting, and I decided to hit play on a sermon. The name of the sermon is who and what? Now?

9:41 As he builds towards this illustration, and once he says the illustration, he's going to talk about the tape measure. I want you to see if you can detect what you think my possible issue with his illustration could be. Now ninety percent, I think now I'm giving you kind of in this way, I'm kind of giving it away. Well, I'm at least letting you know that I have a problem with it. I think ninety nine point nine percent of people who go to church would be just saying amen, and they would say it was a great illustration, and they may even use the same illustration on social media with their friends or family. But I always went out, look, I just have to be honest with you. When I heard it, I didn't go, Wow, what a great illustration. My mind went, what that doesn't work. This doesn't work, and maybe you'll understand why.

10:37 You may disagree with me. But that's okay. So here we go. This was just I don't even know how long ago, maybe an hour ago, when I was sitting in a parking lot waiting, and I was listening and well, here's what I heard, and well we'll we'll just kind of review it and we'll talk about it, all right. So I listened to a lot of things, and a lot of things we could talk about, but this one just seemed to be this is the most recent, so it's the most recent on my mind. And because it's just like the opening illustration, this doesn't turn into fifteen hours of review. So this I think works for everyone. So here we go. Hey, good evening, everybody.

11:22 Miss Kim. You are doing a great job on the piano. It's just fabulous. Thank you. Otis pixies up tempo songs and you've got to be moving pretty quick to keep up there. So that was very good, and the guys in the win section they were doing pretty good too. Yeah. Well, it's good to see you all tonight, and I'd like for us to have a word of prayer and then share a few things with you. My wife asked how long. She didn't ask that. She said, what will you be preaching about tonight? And of course she married a smart alex, So I said, I hope I'll be preaching about twenty five minutes, so because I want to want to get us out in plenty of in plenty of time. Okay, Now again this is not the illustration, obviously, but I just sometimes I just don't understand. Like I look, I don't know how the I don't know how the average person sitting in the few feels about it. I don't know. But like I'm going to preach twenty five minutes, I want to get you out of here, Like, is there something else going on? So we got to cut the sermon short for?

12:45 And what is that other thing that requires or or brings up the possibility of cutting the sermon short. I've always been baffled by that churches have all these other activities and the thing that always gets cut is the preaching of God's word. Isn't that the most important thing we could do? Whatever else we're doing, cut that short, but let the preaching of God's word go as long as it needs to. I will I never understand that like we we give such lip service. It's the inspired, inerrant word of God. It's shepper than any two edged sword. It's our spiritual food. It is to be desired more than gold and silver. I love the word of God. No one's gonna take the word of God for me. If they try to ban it, They're gonna have to throw me in prison. They're gonna have to pry it out of my dead hands. I love the Bible. It is the most important thing. And in church we're like, well, we we got something else to do, so we're gonna we're gonnahut, We're gonna cut this short. And I'm always like, does that not go against everything we But I digress. But twenty five minutes, twenty five minutes, I just maybe maybe my problem is I'm not spiritual, and I fully will admit this. Look, I'm a fleshly person. Okay, I have flesh.

14:01 I don't always think spiritually, but this is my perspective. If I'm sitting at church, Okay, I had to get in my car. At first, I had to wake up, or I had to you know, whatever, whatever time of day it is, I had to wake up and get ready, or I had to get ready. At some point, I had to get ready, get dressed, get in the car, and drive to a particular physical location. And then I said, down, now, why am I driving to that location? I know many of you drive to a church because you like the people, you like the music, you like the atmosphere, you like, I don't know, talking about the weather, talking about whatever people talk about. Right, you're there for all of that.

14:43 I have always viewed church that I'm there for one purpose to hear preaching and teaching. I need to be taught. I need to be taught, and I need to continue to be taught until I'm no longer a child being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. I'm there to be equipped. I am there to be challenge. I am there to be convicted. I am there to be encouraged. I it all depends on what the text is. I need to learn. I need to learn doctrine. I need to learn theology. So if I'm gonna get ready, get in my car and drive all the way to a physical location, walk, get out of my car, walk into the building, sit down, grab my Bible, open it up with a notebook, and I'm gonna be told it's gonna be twenty five minutes. With all due respect, there's no reason I should. I could. I could listen to a sermon in twenty five the drive there, I could have listened to something that I could have sent it home and done a twenty five minute devotional. What is the point of driving there for that?

15:41 Like, I don't understand that. I know many of you think completely different, but I'm just like, twenty five minutes. Okay, what are we gonna do with God's word in twenty five minutes? Your introduction is gonna go longer than five. You know that he's doing all the pleasantries, Like, okay, it's going to knock out five. So now we're down to twenty. You know you're gonna have an opening and closing prayer. Now you're down to less than twenty. Now you're not nineteen or eighteen. Probably at the end you're gonna summarize what you said. You're probably down to seventeen sixteen. You're gonna probably have an illustration or two. So now you're probably down, I don't know, fifteen fourteen minutes of actually doing something with the Word of God, Like, what, why am I even driving here? Now I know what you're gonna say. That's because you're antisocial, you don't like people, you're mean, you're a jerk. And there's probably a lot of truth to all of that. I just know, walking around shaking some hands, people talking about what's going on. Hey, it's been hot lately.

16:41 Yeah, I know, what about the weather? Yeah, I understand, just all the small talk. I know some of you love that and your life is not complete unless you have it, and you may feel like you need it for your spiritual life. Well that's great for you, but I feel like I'm there for this, for my for the Bible. So I just I don't know. I hear twenty five minutes and I'm like, oh boy, Now in this case, it works out perfectly for me because I was already in my car and I wasn't driving to someplace, and well, he's going to give me an illustration that I can do something with. So maybe you should look at it this way, don't worry about the length. As long as you get something from it, then it was worth the drive to the location. I just I know that that's such a pragmatic approach to it, and that's not probably very godly, but it's just I've always looked at it like, wait, it's Wednesday night. You want me to I've been at work all day. You want me to come home, change, hurry up, get everything ready, drive to the church for a fifteen minute devotional? What in the No? Sorry, no, Like now, I did it because I feel like when the church is open, I'm supposed to be there. So Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday.

17:55 Always attended every service available. But there were times, I'm going to tell you, driving in my car, I was complaining the whole way there and complaining the whole way home. That could have just said at home and done Take all the driving time and all of the extra time thrown in. I could have done far more at home, sitting there with an open Bible and a notebook. So I know that's such a bad way of thinking about it, but okay, all right, So twenty five minutes, twenty five minutes, and he wants to make sure we they get out in time. I don't know in time for what I'm assuming there's something else going on, all right, So there's the time issue. That's not the tape measure issue. Let's see what he's going to say now. I's getting ready to do the opening prayer. You know how I have my thoughts on opening prayers. But here we go. Dear Father, we come before you at this time.

18:44 Lord, we don't want to just mark time. We want to listen to your Holy Spirit. And Father. I pray that the things that are said here tonight, that you would take them based on the word of God, and through the word of God, create faith in Christ, and create a sense of vision about what you would have us to do in our lives. I pray Lord that you will give us a very clear and specific vision this evening, about tonight and about our future for the remainder of our days.

19:26 So we ask your blessing now, and we pray in Jesus's name. Amen. Now, when I was sitting in the car, I did find that I did laugh a little bit. I did chuckle a little bit. I'm like, Okay, hey, hey, I'm going to preach twenty five minutes. You know, I definitely want to get you out in time. Dear Lord, we don't want to mark time. We want to listen to your Holy Spirit. But we're going to mark time by being done in twenty five minutes. I know. I just found that kind of a Hey, I'm gonna get you out here in time. Lord, we don't want to mark time. Well, I I don't know. I don't know, but that's okay, that's okay, right, But here we go, now, here we go. Now we're gonna get into it. The tape measure illustration.

20:08 It's gonna take a while to get there. It's gonna take a while to get there. It's gonna take a it's kind of going to take a wandering way to get there, but it's gonna get there. Now. Once it gets there, that's where. That's as far as we're gonna go. You can go listen to the rest of the sermon on your own. There may be great things in it, and it may prove to me. It may be it may be proof that my belief of driving all the way to church for a twenty five minute message is not worth it. Now, if I was Catholic or Lutheran where it's sacramental and where the preaching of God's word may be important, But what else is also important? Is the liturgy or the partaking of the Lord's Supper because it's a means of grace. Well, then I would have a different view. But if I'm showing up in a typical non sacramental church, then the most highest point of everything is the preaching of God's word, Well, then that's what I'm there for. So then I guess time. It's going to be hard not to consider time. But you know what, it has been proven that sometimes a twenty five minutes sermon can be much more profound, be much more doctrinal and theological than an hour.

21:19 So maybe I shouldn't worry about the time. Maybe I do look at it too fleshly that I'm worried about how much time it takes me to get ready, drive all the way there, and then drive all the way back home. So maybe I'm looking at it more bro Maybe I shouldn't worry about the time of the sermon, but the contents therein So maybe I'm wrong. I try to look at the contents there, and just sometimes I feel like in twenty five minutes, I don't get much content, so then I could have gotten more. See, so again, I'll look at it from a very pragmatic perspective. All right, but let's continue. I'm normally on Wednesday evenings.

21:59 We're going through We're going through the Book of Psalms, and I'm really looking forward to getting back to the Psalms of a cent or as they're called in our in our King James version, the songs of Degrees. But really felt strongly, strongly impressed that we as as a people need to know who we are and what we're about. We need to know who we are and what we're about. The scripture tells now that's actually a profound question. Who are we and what are we about? Now, I'm just going to be honest with you. When I was sitting in the car, that didn't even really register in my brain, right who we are and what and what we what are we about? I didn't give it much thought. Now that I'm thinking about, that's a rather profound question that one could write down. Who am I and what am I about? Who am I and what am I about? So that's that's actually a very profound question. Everyone should write that down. Who are you and what are you really about? Who are you?

23:07 Now? If you're sitting in church, you'll be like, I'm a blood bought child of God. But I mean, come on, really, when you remove all of the spiritual pretense and religious garb that you tend to use and the lingo that you tend to, if you just really, who are you? Who are you? And what are you really about? That's a good question, right. I know, we still get to get to the tape measure. We still got to get to. The tape measure is in onverse Thessalonians, chapter five, verse twenty one. To prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. And we know, we know that we are assaulted or we are a wash in a sea of ideas and a sea of information every place that we turn today, whether whether you're an old fogie like me that listens to the radio or you know, whenever I travel around and enjoy to enjoy to do that, but or or on the internet or just talking to people, or wherever it is. Wherever it is, we are a wash and a sea of ideas, and we need to we need to prove all things. I think this is an interesting question.

24:33 Are we more a wash and ideas in twenty twenty four than we have been in the past. I think the we always There's always been ideas all around everyone. I just think the access to those ideas may have been more limited, right, but people have always been there wherever. If they may not have had the Internet, but whomever they were around, those people will express their ideas. And you expressed your ideas, right you had newspapers, you had books, you had pamphlets, whatever, There've always been there. Now, you may not have sought out those ideas. I mean, I mean, I obviously was raised at a time there was no Internet, but I was little caught the city bus a block from my house where the city bus was. I'd catch the bus right to the Abling Public Library and would spend most of the day in the Abling Public Library. I started doing that probably when I was in kindergarten, I think is when I started catching the bus around about that time kindergarten, first grade, and I would spend the day at the library. There were ideas filled. I didn't need the Internet.

25:41 Now not everyone else would go spend all day at the library. Now, that's when I was kindergarten, first grade. When I was a teenager. I was still driving to the library as a teenager and spend sometimes Thursday nights or or a Wednesday night or a Tuesday night hanging out in the library. So I've always been doing I've always been doing that. So the ideas have always been there, right, you know, I was buying comic books like crazy as a kid. I would ride my bike down to this like a it was kind of like a drug store slash soda fountain. They had, you know, they would have malts and shakes and root beer floats and all that, but then they always had a big rack of comic books and I would sit there and buy all kinds of comic books. Those comic books were filled with ideas. So I think they're the ideas have always been there.

26:29 Maybe we have access to more ideas, but you know what, a lot of people have access to those ideas, they still don't use those tools. They don't use the Internet or their phone or Wi Fi or whatever necessarily too. I guess they encounter ideas, but I don't think a lot of times people take time to process those ideas. Whether because ideas are present in movies, books, everything, so but yeah, I mean, I think we've always been a wash and ideas. I think it's always been the case. I think some people just don't give much thought to the ideas of being perceived. A lot of people watch a movie. When you kind of talk to them about the actual meaning or message of the movie, they have no clue because they didn't bother to consider it. But they were still those ideas still impact them. So so I think they've always been there, but maybe we have more access now. I don't know. I'm always skeptical. I think.

27:21 I think. I think in some ways the world and in some ways, as much as the world has changed, there's some aspects of it that have always been present. You can go all the way back to ancient times where they would gather to talk about philosophy, like in the public square, and people would debate, and so the ideas have always been present. Just because somebody says something doesn't make it so. And we need to evaluate things, and we have we have the means to evaluate everything in in the in this book, in this book, now, I hope you have one of these. I know that we've kind of got out of the habit when we come to church. We've gotten out of the habit of bring in our bibles, I think because we see the thing up here. Now, this this was probably the first major thing that caught my attention when I was sitting in the car, because I immediately paused and I sat out loud to myself in the car, well, whose fault is that? He's like, Hey, I hope you own one of these. He's talking about a Bible, and I hope you bring it. But a lot of you don't bring your Bible because the words are up here on the screen. Well, guess what.

28:33 The people in the pew didn't put the words on the screen. It's churches who came up with the idea, let's put the scriptures up on a screen. No, don't do that. If you want your people to own a Bible, carry a Bible and bring a Bible, don't put the words on the screen. Make them bring a bible. He said, well, not everyone has a Bible, then have a Pew Bible. I'm holding what would be considered a Pew Bible right here. I told everyone about this bible, the Thomas Nelson, New King James Pew Bible. This thing is I've been using it since I got it. Someone told me about it, and I've been using it because I love it. I love the type, I love everything about it. But churches can put those in all the pews and then people would actually have to touch a physical Bible. So I one end, It's like, if the putting the scriptures on the screen has cut down on Bible ownership and Bible engagement and Bible usage, then by all means, stop putting it on the screen. Tell people to open their bibles. Now.

29:34 I know, I know from a preaching perspective why you like why pastors like the screen because you don't have to stop and tell people look it up. Those pauses where you're like, okay, if you have your Bible turned to first Thessalonians, Okay, now we're going to turn over to you know, the Book of Proverbs. You got to give people a chance to look it up, right, So well, that can kind of break the flow of the preaching. And I also know what happens when you tell people to turn Oh it drives me crazy. You're preaching, and you'll realize that people are You're just you're turned to a passage for a reference, and everyone's now going back and they're reading the first part and to continue to read and you're like, I'm trying to preach. But if you put it on the screen, well, then the people can only see what's there, there's nothing else to read, and then you can make it go away whenever you want. So there's probably benefits putting it on the screen, But has it proven to be Has it been counter productive to put the scriptures up on a screen? Has it been counterproductive? Because now people are like, I don't need to bring a Bible to church. Well, if I don't need to bring a Bible to church, I don't know. I still think we should get people to buy physical bibles and carry physical bibles. That's what I do, only because it's so counter culture to in twenty twenty four now to actually carry a physical book and to open it. And that is so different because we spend all

31:07 of our life looking at everything on a screen, whether a tablet or a phone. So I think it's I think it's it's it's conducive to breaking that cycle of just looking at a tablet, looking at a phone by making people put their phone down and actually open up a physical bible. I think it at least feels different, and I think that there's a positive. So I'm not a fan of putting the scriptures on the screen, but there are times I wish I did because I could be like, hey, guys, could you look at me? I said it back. You could have read this chapter yesterday. You can read it tonight. You don't have to read it right now. I'm trying to preach and you're not listening to me. Or when someone doesn't like what they say and they decide to grab their Bible and they go back there and want to start engaging in Bible study where you're trying to preach because they're ready to try to prove you wrong. That drives me insane. You can see this when it's a small church. Large you may not see this, but I so, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if the screen thing is a good thing or a bad thing.

32:06 But you know what we have. We still haven't gotten to the tape measure. Let's get to the tape measure. But I've got a feeling that you don't have a screen at home with the Bible on it up there on the wall. So we need to have one of these, and you and whether it's that or or on your phone or whatever it is. But we have got to be people that know the Bible. We have to know it and not just no proof text. I was privy to a conversation just a few days ago and in which someone said, I'm finding out that it's not enough for me just to hear the scriptures whenever I come to church. I probably need to start reading the Bible at home too, And I thought, I wonder how many folks might feel that way. I hope that we all feel that way, that we're not getting enough of God's word comeing to church and hearing scriptures from the pulpit and hearing the explanation of scripture from the pulpit.

33:08 I hope that we're experiencing a real hunger to open up the scripture and get in there and let God speak to us. That's our standard. If we don't have that standard in our mind, then we don't have the ability to prove all things and to put things to the test. We might have a discussion here about how wide is this part of the podium. Y'all can see my hands here, how wide is that part of the podium? Well, we could we could have a very lengthy discussion, you know, about will it is that two feet wide? Maybe it's maybe it's thirty inches, maybe it's thirty two inches. I'm not sure. And we could stand back there and stand over here and all give our opinions, but ultimately, what we've got to do is put a tape measure on it and see what it actually is. But without that tape measure, all we've got is guesses. All we have is guesses. Now, brother Steve back here might have a much better guess than I do, because he's a carpenter, you know. But the way to determine for sure is the way to prove it is to put a tape measure to it. Our tape measure is the Bible, and if we don't know what the Bible says, then then we don't have that standard in our mind. Now, as soon as I heard that, sitting in the car, I just started laughing. I started this laughing, completely out loud, hysterical, and you probably don't find it funny, but I find it absolutely hilarious because he's like, hey, so if we don't have a tape measure and we're sitting here looking at the measurement of this pulpit wherever he's

34:43 preaching from this podium. Well, some may say, well that's thirty inches, or that's three feet or four feet or two feet or five feet, and we may have a discussion and we may not be able to come to an agreement. Some people may be able to make a good guess. But if we take a tape measure, we can fix it, we can solve it. There will be agreement. So the Bible is our tape measure. And I just start cracking out, like you know that discussion about the width of the or the height of the podium or the pulpit. You know it's two feet, three feet, five feet thirty inches. What when you're describing that that you're literally describing Christianity. Christians stand around. No, I think it's thirty feet, now, I think it's five. No, I think it's ten. I think it's a one hundred and twenty feet. No I think it's I think it's two inches. No no, no, no, no, it's it's gotta be it's gotta be at least a mile long.

35:36 No no, no, no, no, it's it's it's eighteen miles high. What and you talk with some of those measurements are just absolutely ridiculous. Maybe, but ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you there is literally no agreement in Christianity. It's all wonderful to say the Bible is the tape measure. The problem is we can't agree on how to read the tape measure. There was an article on the Christian Post about the Southern Baptist and I guess they decided not to pass some amendment that would completely you know, banish churches from the Southern Baptist Convention if to have women's pastor. And the whole thing is a little like what are they trying to do here? And so are they saying it's okay to a woman as a pastor, or we're not gonna punish churches that have women pastors? Like, okay, what's going on in the Southern Baptist Convention. And immediately I was reading the article, I was like, well, maybe I'll do a broadcast about it, but okay, let me just go down to the comments. Went to the comments section, Boom, nobody's agreeing. Somebody are like, well, the Bible is absolutely clear a woman should not be a pastor, and other people like no, no, no, no, no. Where it says that some are called to be pastors or teachers, Well, the Greek word here or the Greek word here, that could mean man or woman. So no, but then I says, and that qualification to be that, well, that's not necessarily a pastor. And then there's all the argument. I'm like, nobody can agree. Nobody, he can't agree. But where's the tape measure? See, if we just have a tape measure, then we can know. We'll

37:07 know if it's thirty feet or or two feet or five feet or ten inches, we will know. No, we will not, because we can't agree on how to even read the tape measure. Nobody can agree on it. How should it be read? What does it actually say? Does it actually mean? Well, that seems to say that this is twelve inches long? Well no, sorry that you're reading it wrong. No, but it says nope, sorry, that's not what it says. And look, I can take the Bible, I say, the tape measure. Okay, okay, so we're gonna what's the subject. Oh, the subject is baptism. Well, this person says this, This person says this, Well, I've got the Bible. Let me lay down the tape measure. The correct understanding, according to this tape measure is that Bible. The baptism, according to the tape measure, is only for those who believe. It is to be done by immersion in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit. It is not for infants, it's not for unbelievers, and it's not to be done according to sprinkling. Someone else will come along, take the same Bible, put it down and go. Well. My tape measure says it's for children who are eight days old. They will be sprinkled in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit, and they will obtain salvation through it.

38:21 They will be regenerated, their sins will be washed away, and they will be made new. Someone will say no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, I've got the tape measure. No, baptism is for babies, but it does not save them. It only puts the mark of the Covenant on them. And if someone else will come along, go no no, no, no, no no no. Baptism is to be only in the name of Jesus, not in the name of the Father Son of the Holy Spirit. Someone else, come along, No No, Baptism is to be by immersion only for those who believe, and it's a requirement for salvation. If someone is not baptized, they will go to Hell. And you're like, wait a minute, and then someone else come out salvation. No, you can lose your salvation. No, you can't lose your salvation. Wait, salvation is done by the work of God. No, it's done by the work of God and man. It's monogistic, it's synergistic. No. No, we have a semi Pelagian Pelagian view, our many in view, Augustinian view, Calvinistic view. We can go on and on and on and on. We love to say that the Bible's a tape measure. See the world, they can't figure out right, they can't figure out wrong. They don't have the tape measure. But we have the tape measure, and we can open it up. We can know right and wrong, we can know truth from error. We can know it.

39:35 Oh, I have I have been taught that my whole Christian life. But then to explain to me after two thousand years of supposedly having the tape measure, Okay, around two thousand years, we'd have you know, when we ultimately finally start getting Bibles in our hands. But you get the idea. Around two thousand years, we've supposedly had the tape measure, and what have we done while We've got one denomination after another denomination after another denomination, and then that denomination will split and turn into another denomination, and that will split, and then this this and this this church will split, and then this will split, and then this denomination will decide that this is true. And then the other people say, no, not according to my tape measure, you're wrong. And then they'll say no, our tape measure says you're wrong.

40:15 No, you're the heretic. No, you're head the heretic. Well, we'll start another church and we'll condemn your church. I know we're going to condemn you. And no this is and then just on and on and on and on and on and on. Sounds so good. Hey, if you want to know the measurement to this podium, to this pulpit, you just put a tape measure to it. Boom, all everyone's opinion stops. This is the measurement of the pulpit. There is no dispute about it. And everybody's like okay, but no, no, no, no no, when it comes when in fact what he the way he was describing, we could sit here and talk and discuss and everyone can make their best opinions about the the size of the pulpit and the measurement of the pulpit or the podium, whichever word he utilize. I was like, that just sounds like Christianity.

41:07 That sounds like a small group Bible study. That sounds like a Sunday school class. That sounds like church. That sounds like five Christians sitting around talking. Well, it could be this what could be Oh, I think it could be this well, I think it could be this well, I think it could be that. That's one of the reasons I love doing the Sermon's two point oh app challenge, right, because those are all those ministries on the Sermon's two point oh app have all signed a confession of faith. They've all agreed to a confession of faith. They've agreed to it, right that all of their messages will agree to that confession of faith, and if their sermons violate that confession of faith, they can be removed by the discretion of sermon audio. Okay, great, so you think that there would be mass similarity. But go listen and you'll be like, wait a minute, this one says this. I mean we just listened to a sermon that's on the sermon's two point Oh app what yesterday? Or someone says God is not in control of all things. He's using the same tape measure. He reads the tape measures saying God is not in control of all things and he does not cause all things to happen, And you're like, okay, well, other people would read the Bible say God is in control of all things, and he does cause all things to happen, maybe by the use of secondary causes, therefore making God not the author of sin. Okay, get, I get. I'm basically referencing the London Baptist Confession of Faith, which will provide scripture from the supposed tape measure. But I can take the London Baptist Confession of Faith and other people like that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong.

42:39 They would put down their confession of faith, and both confessions of faith would say that they were based off the scripture utilizing the tape measure. So is the Bible a tape measure? Now here's the thing. Our tape measure. Now, I know this makes it everyone uncomfortable, but we have to acknowledge this our tape measure. You say, well, the tape measure determines the measurement. Yeah, but when it comes to theology and the Bible, guess what we interpret the tape measure. You say, no, the tape measure just gives you the measurement and what it says is how it is.

43:25 Well, we can all say that's the way we want it to be, but that's not the way it is. You can read the same passage I can read, and we're going to interpret the tape measure differently. So what really is the authority the tape measure or your interpretation of said tape measure? And I have been arguing now for a very long time that if we, as much as we don't want to admit this, the real authority in Christianity is not the Bible. It's our interpretation of the Bible. Because we interpret it and then we say this is true, that is false. We are right, they are wrong. This is the right church. That is the wrong church based off what we'll say the tape measure. But that church that you're saying wrong, will say no, based off the tape measure, you're wrong. Both people can't be right, so we can't either we call into question the tape measure or the issue is none of us know how to read the tape measure because there's no agreed upon way and how to read it.

44:22 There's not an agreed upon hermoneutical system, there's not an agreed upon interpretation. So we have to know the Bible personally, and we have to be able to share the truths of the Bible personally. But again, I'd like to remind us that the apostle Paul told us in Ephesians chapter four that we should speak the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love, coming, being hard nosed and all of that doesn't persuade anybody. And what we want to do is we want to pursue people, don't we. I mean, we don't want to just come in and drop a rock on them and says, well, this is the way it is, and you can like it or lopem. I've said my peace. I mean, you know, is that really what we want to do, don't We want to persuade people to accept God's truth so that they can be in a position of blessing by the Lord.

45:22 That's what we want, and that's why it's so essential to speak the truth in love. So now I completely agree we should speak the truth in love. I've got no problem with that. I completely agree with that. But you said we have to persuade people. Now, I understand when we're dealing with the lost world, maybe there's some attempt to persuade. But if I'm just talking to another Christian, they accept the tape measure. I accept the tape measure. Why do I have to persuade them? Shouldn't we just be able to lay down the tape measure and go, sorry, I know you're the Church of you know, the twenty four foot measurement, but my Bible says it's actually eighteen feet. So the Church of the twenty four feet is wrong. This is actually eighteen and so went no, no, no, it's it's no, here's the tape measure. So I shouldn't have to do much persuading. I should just lay down the tape measure and go there you go the end. I'll walk away now. But it I would see in my brain when I was a young Christian, I thought that's the way it would work. All I gotta do is know the Bible. Then I have the tape measure. I have truth. And then when someone starts arguing with me, all I gotta do is open the Bible and go, I don't know what your problem is. It's right here, here's the tape measure.

46:45 Measure it, measure it. Come on, pull out the tape measure measure. Oh, guess what you're wrong. I'm right. But then you realize you can pull out the Bible, you can go to all the scriptures and say, okay, that's the measurements. Here's the measurements. It's a little bit of this scripture. Got them all, okay, that's the measurement. Okay, what do you get? And they'll be like nope. And I came into contact with this relatively early on because a lot of the girls I went to school with at that time. In fact, I used to defend them all the time. Where one is Pentecostals. I didn't understand what a oneest Pentecostal was at the time. I just know that everyone picked on them because they did not cut their hair, they didn't wear any jewelry, didn't wear any makeup, and there were long dresses. I mean, we're in the nineteen eighties. So they got picked on. So I would always try to defend them. I tell it, back off, back off, back off, back off, leave alone, live them alone. Oh not because I cared about their religion. I didn't even understand the religion. You know, I had no concept of it. My issue was just stop picking on them for being different. Okay, So you know, because I got picked on all the time. Now, it didn't always benefit me to help defend them, but I did what I could when I could not all the time. I shouldn't say all the time. Just in certain instances. I think it's better to state it that way. Don't want to sound like it was a daily occurrence or a weekly occurrence. But at different times. Well, when I became a Christian and I started talking to them, then I was like, okay, there, these these girls are Christians. I'm a Christian. Let's start talking. And then they started telling me that my baptism was invalid because I was baptizing the name of the Father, Son and the

48:17 Holy Spirit. They're like, that's like having a check that hasn't been signed. You've got to be baptized in the name of Jesus. And I'm like, but Jesus says, go therefore and baptize them in the name of the Father's Son in the Holy Spirit. And they'd be like, yeah, but our tape measurement says over there in the Book of Acts that they were baptized in the name of Jesus. Well, so then what's in Acts. Trump's what Jesus said. I'm like, So then I was like, oh, does anyone know how to read and then then how to read the you know how to read this? And then they're like, well, you got to also get the Holy Spirit. I'm like, I thought I got the whole spirit when I got saved. No, to get the Holy Spirit, you've got to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Okay, what do I have to do to be baptized in the Holy Spirit? Well, you have to seek it, pray for it, and then you'll speak in tongues. Well what is Well it sounds like this, and I'm you know, I'm not trying to mock it. And I'm like, well, that's just sounds like gibberish. No, that's a heavenly language. To God gives you to confirm the fact that you've been baptizing the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, you don't have power. I'm like, I don't have power like the whole and I'm like, well, my Bible seems to. And then immediately we started having you know, and I just ultimately was like, this is craziness.

49:22 I don't even know what they're talking about. They're crazy. And so then I'm like, okay. So then I realized immediately their Christianity thinks my Christianity is wrong, and my Christianity thinks they're Christianity is wrong. And then the next thing you know that I'm running into church christ Well, my Christianity says there, and the next thing you know, I'm running into this, and next thing you know, I'm running into this. Then I'll leave my Baptist church. You go to Lutheran church, and the Lutherans are telling me everything I learned as a Baptist was wrong. And then the Baptist are telling me everything I'm learning as a Lutheran is wrong. And then I meet Catholics, and then Catholics are and then I'm like, oh, what is going on? So then I just started coming up with the concept, here's the problem. They don't know the Bible, that don't actually read the Bible, that don't actually study the Bible, because if I read it and study it, then I will know more all of it than all of them, and I can prove that they're all wrong. So then I thought my mission was to prove everyone was wrong. And then I realized, no matter how much I studied, no matter how many degrees I obtained, no matter how many hours I spent reading the Bible, no matter how many hours I spent studying the Bible, guess what, it didn't matter, because they would still say that I was wrong, even if I felt like I won the debate.

50:30 And I'm like, well, so then who has the tape measure? Does anyone have a tape measure anyone? Because that's the church. And you just throw out the measurement, you know whatever, twenty feet, fifteen feet, thirty, whatever measurement you want to throw out, that's the church of that measurement. I'm the church of this measurement. And we're all supposedly using the same tape measure and we're coming up with radically different measurements, and there's no point and to argue with people, it's just it's absolutely useless. You can quote all the scriptures and they will quote their scriptures. You quote scripture, they quote scripture. You use the tape measure, they use the tape measure, same tape measure, different measurements. In fact, not just a few different measurements, thousands of different measurements, thousands of different groups, thousands of different churches, thousands of different interpretations, thousands of different understandings. So how do we process that? So again, I just started laughing when he was like, so we could sit here and you may think it's this long, and you may think it's this long, and we can have different opinions, and some people's opinions may be better than others. But once we put a tape measure to it, it fixes everything. And it's like, and the Bible is the tape measure, and I just start laughing. I'm like,

52:01 really, what you were describing about, however, one would be arguing over the actual measurement of the pulpit, sounds exactly what happens in Christianity. Now, we could argue that, if we're honest, the Bible does not serve as the tape measure. Our interpretation becomes the tape measure, which would mean it's not sola scriptura, it's sola mia. It's solo me, it's me alone. I'm the final authority, because my interpretation becomes the truth. Should women be pastors? Just go go find the Christian Post article about the Southern Baptist and their decision not to pass. I can't remember what it's called.

53:01 Uh this new you know this new you know proposal about what to do with churches who have Southern Baptist churches have women pastors? And just go read the comments under the article. People, everyone's quoting scripture. Someone say, scripture is clear a woman can't be a pastor. Someone else will quote scripture it is clear that a woman can be a pastor, and some say it's unclear either way, all using the same tape tape measure. Some says it's clear a woman can't be a pastor, some says it's clear a woman can be, and some say it's unclear either way. How is that humanly possible? If the Bible is truly the tape measure? Now, I know what you're gonna say, But so what can we do? Well? I think all we can do is be very open and honest with ourselves that in many cases our tape measure is not really the Bible. We learned a measurement, right, we call that being taught doctrine and being taught theology. We learned a system, We learned a doctrinal system, and that's we pretend that it's the Bible as the tape measure, but it's really it's scrutem systematic theology. It's it's it's rary is which we've learned a system of doctrine, whatever system it

54:32 is, covenant theology, dispensational. We learned a system, and that's our tape measure. Lordship salvation, non lordship salvation, all millennialism, pre millennialism. Now we think that we actually learned the Bible, but we learned a system, and so that system becomes the tape measure. Anything that goes against that system, we say is wrong. But we're measuring it against our system, even though we don't want to admit that. I think that's a problem. Sometimes our tape measure is really a system and not the Bible. I think that's the first problem. The second problem is I think in many cases where we cannot we have a hard time removing ourselves and removing our past understanding from present study. We have to find a way that when we open our Bible we forget everything we've ever been taught. We try to remove our wants and our desires and our thoughts from it, and we seek to understand the text alone by doing observational work first, observing what's actually their understanding, who it's written to, what was going on content, and who can and we cannot worry about if it goes against a system. Look, when I open the Bible, I don't care if reform people are going to get mad.

55:39 I don't care if non reform people are going to get mad. I don't care if lordship people are going to get mad. I don't care if non lordship people are going to get mad. I don't care if Covenant theology people get mad. I don't care if dispensation lests get mad. I don't care if those who believe in ifant baptism get mad. Are people who reject if it baptism get mad. I don't care about any team. I don't care. All the teams can leave me alone. I don't want your jersey. I don't want to be a part of your team. Because your team becomes the measurement, the tape measure. I want the Bible to be that. And it's not always simple, and it's not always easy, and we think, well it could be this, Well it could be you have to ask hard questions, and you have to deal with unpleasant truths and things that don't make any sense, and things that can be confusing are confounding. And we have to embrace that because if we can't get to that, then we don't really have a tape measure. And what I have seen is so many times people want to argue with me, and I'll be like, well, let's okay, let's okay, you have your opinion, have my opinion, let's set our opinion. Let's just go to the text. Just the text alone, just the But now that's going to require us looking up three thousand verses that use this term. Are you willing to do the work on that.

56:53 It's going to require us doing a you know, a month long observational exercise. Are you willing to do that? This Bible study method, this Bible study method. Are you willing to do this? And so many people are not willing to put in the work. You know what they'll do. They want to go run to Google, google it, find out what someone else said and said, Well, the people on my team says this is the right measurement. Yeah, but your team is not the tape measure. How can we restore the Bible to truly being the tape measure because I think right now, if we're honest, we're the tape measure, and we pretend that it's the Bible, and I think we're deceiving ourselves. Now what he said, I understand saying the Bible is the tape measure and we all need the Bible. Look, I completely understand he's not saying anything that every other church would say. I'm just playing Devil's Advocate to it because it just makes me laugh because what he's describing is like sounds like my entire Christian life. Everyone's like, well, it's this long, it's this long. No, it's this long, it's this long. I would love to think I could just open up the Bible and say this is the tape measure, but this is what it is. That church has a different tape measure than obviously that church, because if they had the same tape measure, they would be the church of the same measurement. Think of all the churches in your town. Each

58:24 church represents a different measurement. That's the church of the twelve foot church, that's the twenty three foot church, that's the six foot church. Clearly, then if you get different measurements, you're using a different tape measure right, all right, thanks for listening. You can email me news if at yahoo dot com. That's news if at yahoo dot com news I F at Yahoo. Thank you for listening. Hopefully that was helpful. Look, I spent the day, you know, It's not like I could sit there and take detailed notes and work out a full blown message. But I wanted to at least take something I heard and at least lay it, present it to you, and hopefully you can do something with it if you want to look up the rest of that sermon, since we barely got into it. It's called who and What by doctor Ken Francis Who and What. I'm not criticizing him calling the Bible the tape measure. I'm just presenting some of the difficulties that arise from that illustration, which is what he was talking about, what everyone does with the pulpit and arguing about it, or disagreeing about it or guessing is exactly really what happens in Christianity. As much as we want to believe that we have one tape measure and it fixes it everything, it doesn't fix everything. So why doesn't it fix everything? Well, I've presented some possible

59:55 reasons. You can give me your thoughts news f at yahoo dot com, news if at yahoo dot com. What I thought was going to be about a fifteen minute message has now gone sixty minutes and seven seconds. Thanks for listening, God bless