The Example Jesus Gave: Part 2

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Worship Before the Throne of God: Part 3

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I believe we're on. Praise God. Well, I'd like to continue this message.
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Part 2, this is by no means going to exhaust the text. We can actually stay here and continue to study and to dig for these great treasures in the depths.
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But we're going to, Lord willing, we're going to go on to 1 Peter chapter 3 as Peter continues to speak about submission.
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That's really his point. This is what he speaks to God's people that are scattered abroad in Asia Minor.
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His submission to God. He speaks of submission to the authorities.
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He speaks about submission to masters. Then in 1
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Peter 3, he continues and he goes to wives to be in submission to their husbands.
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And husbands are to be in submission to God. And it just continues. Submission, submission, submission.
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And there's humility that's always attached to submission. Brother Keith and I was talking about this earlier.
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That when it comes down to submission, there's no way a person that's outside of the faith and not in Jesus Christ can be in submission to God.
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They're not in submission to God. When you are in Christ, you are in submission to His Lordship.
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We are under submission to His authority. This is what Satan hates. He hates submission.
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He's insubordinate. He's hating God's authority. So really, if you look at it, this is where the
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Holy Spirit leads the Apostle Peter in talking about submission. We must keep that in mind.
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Because that's really the point in which Peter is speaking of.
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Well, as we continue our study in this wonderful epistle of Peter. It's encouraging, isn't it?
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This is such an encouraging epistle. Such an encouraging letter.
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And there's a reason why there's great encouragement to this wonderful letter.
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He is speaking to Jewish Christians, slaves that are scattered abroad.
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They've lost everything, haven't they? This world's not their home. And he encourages them that the persecution in which they're undergoing is temporary.
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It's only for a while. And he encourages these Christians that are being persecuted under a heavy rod with the world that is persecuting them.
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And he just pours on so much encouragement to them.
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And it encourages us, doesn't it? There's great encouragement here. Yet at the same time with encouragement, we must allow the
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Word of God to encourage us. We must also allow it to correct us. And we see that.
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There's instruction in righteousness. That's the Word of God. It has a sharp two -edged sword, doesn't it?
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It encourages us. It corrects us. It cuts. But it heals. And that's what
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I love about God's Word. So, in saying that, let's look at 1 Peter 2.
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Our text is found in verse 21 -25.
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And we continue looking at the example that Jesus gave. It's a perfect example.
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His life is a perfect life. One perfect example. And this is what the
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Apostle Peter says through the Holy Spirit. Hear the Word of the
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Living God. Verse 21. I'm reading from the NASB.
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For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.
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Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth. And while being reviled,
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He did not revile in return. While suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting
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Himself to Him who judges righteously. And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
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For by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
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Praise God. May God richly bless the reading of His Word to our hearts this morning.
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Let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, our Heavenly Father, who is likened to You, who is likened to You, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, and working wonders.
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Lord, You're so good to us in Your mercy. You've given us another day to live, move, and have our being in You.
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Now Father, as we come to this part of worship of the Word of God, we pray that You would anoint each and every one of us with that sweet, precious anointing from on high, like honey coming from a honeycomb.
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Lord, we thank You that You're in our midst. You said where two or three are gathered in Your name,
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You're in the midst of us. And our prayer today is that, oh, that we would see
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Jesus. Oh, that we'd see Jesus. Hide me behind the cross, I pray, Father.
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And that Jesus Christ and Him crucified would be glorified, and we lift Him up.
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And as the Word says, if He'd be lifted up, He would draw Him in unto you.
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May we behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. And our prayer is,
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Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us today. And we would ask this for Your glory, and we would ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, a name that is above all names.
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Amen and amen. As I've been studying this wonderful passages,
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I always study from text to text and sections of the text.
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I thought, I'm just going to sit down, I write these notes, and I take tools out, and I take commentaries out, and I take concordances out.
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Those are tools. But there's nothing that really blesses me as I see
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Scripture, interpret Scripture, and it speaks to me personally. But as I learned this years ago, in my preparation time, this feeds my own personal soul.
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There's three things I always keep before me, and it's a simple rule of hermeneutics, and any time that we personally go to the
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Word of God, to study it for ourselves. So what I'm doing is just giving you an overflow of what
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I've been doing personally to myself in my personal devotional time.
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I also would go through the book of Psalms, and reading through Ecclesiastes, and I take different parts of Scripture.
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And it seems like the Lord always ties those precious thoughts in from His Word.
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Isn't it wonderful how God can speak to us right in the midst, and even what we're going through, it comes to me personally, and I say,
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Lord, even in a small word, that's what I need. That's what I need. So I pray today that this is what each and every one of us needs, and that this will speak to you personally, as it spoke to me personally.
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But there's three things I always set before me, and it's this, in studying, and this is the basic rule of hermeneutics, in studying the
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Scriptures. The first is observation. We must always observe what is being said.
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You go to the background of the text, and so observation of the whole text is really important.
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So observation is first. Second would be interpretation, which is really the content, and what is the meaning of what the text is saying to us.
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So as we observe the text, and in the broad scope of it, that's important, but then we move into the interpretation of what
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God is saying in the Scriptures, the content. That's not the steak.
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That's kind of like, you got one piece of the bun, then you got the meat, and then last, you got the application.
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That's the other piece of the bun, then you got the full course meal. Observation, interpretation, and then last, application.
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What good is content unless we apply it? I think it was
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Matthew Henry that said this. It was one of the Puritans. I may have the wrong Puritan, but I think of Matthew Henry quite often.
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The best commentary that we can make on the Bible is our obedience to God, and that is so true, and that's what we need to take away with us as we apply it.
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So observation, interpretation, application. That's what we're going to briefly look at today, and I just pray that this is a blessing to you.
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There's a story, and I'll say an old story, of an old Christmas carol that was years ago given.
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It was called Good King Winston Claus. Has anyone ever heard that?
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I have it. You've heard that, Liz? Good King Winston Claus. It's an old carol.
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It comes from the Catholics years ago. It was long before the Protestant movement came about, before the
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Reformation. But it speaks of a bohemian king, and I looked this up.
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I didn't know about it until I was reading it, and I said, this is going to fit perfect to what I'm saying and what Peter is saying in our text today.
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But it speaks of a bohemian king going on a long journey and braving out the harsh winter weather for the reason to give alms to a poor peasant on a feast day.
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And the feast day was called Stephan.
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Stephan. And you can tell right there, it's Catholic. Saint Stephan.
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Which was December 26th, which was the second day of Christmas as they celebrated it.
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But even though this is Catholic in origin, we can learn a great deal from this small little story.
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And the story continues to say this. There is a great truth that speaks to us personally.
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And what is that great truth? During the journey in this rugged, snowy winter weather where it was very cold, as the king goes into this journey, his servant is behind him having a difficult time and he's struggling and following the king.
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And as he struggles against the cold weather, the servant is enabled to continue the journey, the long journey, by one thing that the king commands the servant to do.
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And the story goes, the king commands the servant to follow in his footprints.
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He said, just put your feet in my footprints. And that spoke to me as I read that story and I did some research.
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I said, I need a good illustration here of how to start this section off. And I said, this beautifully fits in exactly what
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Peter is speaking to us. To follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
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In this snow, the king has already gone before the servant in the harsh, rugged weather of winter.
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And the servant is encouraged as he almost gives up to put his feet in the footsteps of the king that the king has already gone before.
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I said, this is so encouraging. So as he goes, as the king has already set his feet in the path and made the path before the servant, all the servant has to do is put his feet in the steps of where the king has already gone.
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Isn't that a beautiful story? So in a very similar way, our
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Lord Jesus Christ commands his servants to follow in his footsteps. Come, he says, follow me.
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And to mark his footsteps, for he has trodden down all the difficulties. He's gone the way of sorrows.
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He's already gone the way of suffering. And we are to follow in his footprints.
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Traced. And as fit the way for our feet to follow in his steps.
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Isn't that wonderful? What a wonderful story. I didn't know about it until I read it. And I said, wow.
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I'd make a good illustration. So I gave it to you this morning. Where Jesus Christ is our great example.
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And Peter is basically saying follow in his footsteps. And this is exactly what 1
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Peter 2, 21 -25 explains to us what it means to follow Jesus Christ in discipleship.
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To follow him. To count the cost. To learn from him.
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And isn't that what in a simple way it means to be a disciple is to learn at the feet of Jesus.
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To learn from the feet of the King that has already gone before us. He's suffered for us.
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He's been before us. He's the man of sorrows. So there is a calling to follow
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Jesus here. There is a calling. In the text before us. So let me give to you a question that I wrote down.
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As I was asking the Lord to search out my own heart in this text.
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I would like to set this question before you. What is involved in the call to follow
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Jesus Christ? What is involved in the call to follow
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Jesus Christ here in 1 Peter? Chapter 2 verse 21 to 25.
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The next question would be what does Jesus offer his followers as described by the
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Apostle Peter? What does Jesus offer his followers as described by the
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Apostle Peter? And I assure you the answer is not your best life now. That is far, actually that is opposite.
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Matter of fact there is suffering. And that is what the text basically tells us.
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There is a call to suffering. And it is almost like the Apostle Peter is telling these persecuted
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Christians is your call, this is your calling, this is your vocation, this is your purpose is to suffer for the
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Lord Jesus Christ. But you would think that would be discouraging. Well in the mind of the worldlings it is.
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But in the mind of a disciple that loves his Lord and seeing the great sacrifice that Jesus Christ made it pales in significance and in insignificance.
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And it encourages us to go on and follow in his footsteps. So we are going to look at that, those two questions, what is involved.
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I got three important points I would like to give to you that we need not to forget that are before us in verse 21 through 25.
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There are so many good outlines. MacArthur has a wonderful outline, I believe Brother Keith sent it to me about the suffering shepherd, the suffering, how does that go
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Brother Keith, I can't remember, the suffering servant, the great standard, yes, the great standard, the great shepherd.
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Yes, that's a good outline. Most of the time I do use this outline, but I got an outline here that speaks of following Jesus and we are going to look at that.
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The first would be an example to follow, an example to follow in verse 21 through 23.
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The second would be an empowerment to follow in verse 24.
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And third, an eternal shepherd to follow. So you have an example to follow, an empowerment to follow, and an eternal shepherd to follow.
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Then we will look at some application, personal application, how we can apply this to our everyday practical life and our living and take that home.
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Let's look first at an example to follow. An example to follow in verse 21 through 23.
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He says, For you have been called for this purpose. Let me stop right there.
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You know, the Lord basically says this is the calling.
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This calling is to salvation first and foremost. It's purpose. And we got to understand there's purpose.
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God always has purpose, doesn't He? In everything. God's sovereign. He's over all.
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And Christ has suffered for you, He says, leaving you an example for you to follow, for you, you, in His steps, following His steps.
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And then He speaks about the life of Jesus in a brief way, but it's at such depth.
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Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.
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And in verse 23, And while being reviled, He did not revile in return. While suffering,
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He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.
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That's Jesus Christ, our perfect example for us to follow. In everything, in everything, but specifically and especially our example in the way that Jesus responded to suffering.
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And in spite of the fact that He suffered at the hands of sinners in which He prophesied that it would happen.
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That's not the end of the story. I think what Brother Keith said this morning was great. It doesn't end there.
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Three days later, He rose again from the dead. So we serve a living Savior now. He's a glorified
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Christ and He's at the right hand of the Father. And one day, He's gonna come back. He promises.
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And Jesus always keeps His promise. But He was sinless. Aren't you glad we serve a perfect Savior that was sinless in both word and deed before the authorities, before the authorities.
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And that's what Peter has in mind. And I almost can picture as the Apostle Peter, the
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Holy Spirit's bringing back some memories of that day when
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He denied the Lord. And when He saw Jesus look at Him and then the rooster crowed after He denied
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Him three times. Keep in mind, Peter has given to us what submission, perfect submission, looks like.
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That's really what He's talking about. And He's writing this letter to the servants, the slaves, the persecuted believers who are suffering for what is right before wicked men in authority.
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So He gives that example to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's several things
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I'd like for you to note here as we continue our journey as we look into this. The verbs in the passage before us, verbs in studying the content, verbs is always king when it comes to bringing out the interpretation of the passage of the
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Scripture. Verbs are king. And what I mean by that, verbs stand out. The verbs is what stands out.
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Notice in verse 21, they function like a game of connecting the dots.
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So there's three main verbs I'd like to point you to here. The first one is, you were called or you have been called.
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You have been called. This is a calling to salvation and a calling to suffering.
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They are closely related. And that God issued to Peter's readers and it is that effectual calling that He brings out.
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Now, 1 Peter 1 .15 says this and it ties exactly what Brother Keith mentioned in Leviticus and I appreciate him bringing that out because it's the whole theme of Leviticus.
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Notice what he says, 1 Peter 1 .15, but like the Holy One who called you, notice he speaks of the calling, called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior.
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The old King James of course says in all your conversation. And people take that wrong today, don't they?
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Because we think of conversation as we speak, conversing one with another, but the old
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King James in Elizabethan English basically meant in behavior, your manner of life, your walk, your everyday living, who you are, how you behave.
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And that's what Peter is saying. You're to be holy. God has called us to be holy, set apart, to be different in all of our behavior.
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We are to be different. 1 Peter 5 .10 Peter says this, in 1
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Peter 5 .10, After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you, there it is, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
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What an encouraging word. So Peter is reminding them that this calling to salvation, to suffering, is a calling to suffering as Christians is directly is the result and is also the result of Christ's finished work.
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He goes and looks at the atoning work that Jesus did on the cross. His suffering is there.
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The next would be, the next verb, as we looked at the verb you were called, the next verb is that he suffered for you.
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He suffered. He suffered. I think that needs to be underscored. That Jesus suffered.
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Oh did he suffer. The first verb is connected to the second verb. So whatever explains the
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Christian's life and the calling is always connected in Christ and what
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Christ accomplished at the work of the cross. His atoning death. There's a sense of finality to these verbs aren't there.
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I love this. There's a sense of finality to both of those verbs because the meaning that neither the call to salvation or Christ's atoning work can ever needed to be repeated.
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And I love that. There's a finality that his work on the cross, the call to salvation and his atoning work never ever needs to be repeated.
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And we know what the word of God says about that. Praise God. Romans 6 10, the apostle
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Paul says this. This is the sanctification chapter isn't it. Now don't you love Romans 6 verse 10.
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For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all.
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Once for all. Now that's not talking about universal. It's basically saying in time when the fullness of time came,
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God sent forth his son and when he accomplished this work on the cross, he did it once and for all.
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It's permanent. There's nothing that can be added to it. There's nothing that can be subtracted to it.
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It is done. And Jesus said it. It is finished, paid in full.
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And then Paul says but the life that he lives, he lives to God. The writer of Hebrews in 7 26 and 27 says this.
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For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
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In verse 27, who does not need daily like those high priests, he's speaking of the
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Old Testament, like those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people because he did once for all when he offered up himself.
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In other words, what he's saying is unlike the Old Testament sacrifices that were repeated time and time again that needed to be offered up,
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God provided the Lamb of God to offer up himself on the cross and that was the altar as a sacrifice to God the
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Father before a just and holy God to appease and satisfy his wrath and God poured his wrath upon his son because of sin our sin and he satisfied the justice of God.
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Beloved, when we keep that in mind, when we go before God in prayer, know that God smiles upon his son and he smiles upon you all because of his son because we have placed our simple faith in Jesus Christ.
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Isn't that wonderful? God has provided the Lamb, his Lamb and all the provisions is made through Jesus Christ even satisfying the just demands of a holy
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God. I don't know about you but when I go through the Old Testament and all through the Bible for that matter for that sake, it's like I tremble when
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I see God's holiness and we need to tremble but you know something?
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It's almost like when I tremble and when I see that I'm accepted before God and the righteousness of Jesus through his sacrifice on the cross, it's almost as Jesus Christ lays his hand upon my shoulder and he says fear not.
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Isn't that wonderful to know? So we have the Lamb of God, Jesus his perfect sacrifice, his perfect work.
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Isn't it glorious to know that it's perfect because of the perfect son of God. There's nothing in detail that he didn't miss.
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We're talking about the perfect son of God. Perfect sacrifice, perfect work, fulfilled all of righteousness and law and deed and word and motive and everything that he did all for it up before God and God said this is my beloved son in whom
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I'm well pleased. Well the third verb is that you may follow closely, that you may follow in his steps the translation says but notice those beautiful verbs how they're connected.
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You were called you were called for this purpose and then he says that he suffered for you and that you may follow in his steps and the original translation that you may follow closely.
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I love that. We need to follow closely to Jesus. How close do we need to be?
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Very as close as you can get. James says it like this draw near to God and he'll draw near to you.
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The reason for this translation here is because the verb is made up of two words for you to follow in his steps.
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Thus we're not merely to follow Jesus as unaffected observers.
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And this is I think where the American gospel is. Oh we're just to sit back and observe
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Jesus from afar. Oh no, as a disciple of Jesus Christ as we have counted the cost, we desire to follow him closely with intensity and with all of our heart.
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And while brother Keith is taking a break here
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I can say this it reminds me of something he sent to me earlier
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Psalm 119 verse 2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies and who seek him with the whole heart.
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Blessed. Blessed. So whenever we note the key verbs of the passage in 1st
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Peter 1 .21 alone yields the following truths. You were called for this purpose that he suffered for you and so that you may follow more closely in his footsteps.
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Those verbs that's the interpretation, that's the meaning of it. It gives us the very key and the transitional words of the main verbs so as we continue in our text,
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Peter clearly is urging believers to follow closely to Jesus. Now this is what we need to do isn't it?
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Follow closely to Jesus. He's the perfect example. He is the one that leads us all the way.
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Now that leads us to the next question. Why? Now that's a good question.
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Why? Well the why is actually in the Greek text as well as in the
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English that we see one word one important word that is repeated three times and I brought this out last
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Lord's Day that functions at the head of three clauses describing
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Jesus' perfect example for us to follow namely the little pronoun in three words.
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Who? Three times, three words. Who? Verse 22.
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Who committed no sin? In the original Greek, who never sinned? In other words, he never missed the mark.
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Jesus never missed the mark. Isn't that what the Scripture says? Where all have sinned and come short of the glory of God? That means all of mankind from Adam to this present, every single person that ever lived has missed the mark and come short of the glory of God except one
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Jesus Christ. He never missed the mark. He lived one life perfectly before God and word thought and deed and motive and everything that he did from the time that he was born from the moment he was born in the manger all the way to his death at the cross and after he rose again after he was buried three days and he rose again triumphantly over the grave and death and hell.
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Every detail about his life is perfect. He committed no sin. That's what the text says.
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He committed no sin. In the original, he never missed the mark. He never sinned. Verse 23, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return.
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How many times have we done that? I'm guilty of it. When people has reviled me,
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I've reviled back in my flesh. Jesus never reviled back. Never.
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The original Greek who did not even engage in a shouting match.
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How many times have I engaged in a shouting match to try to win an argument? But not
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Jesus. Even though he was verbally abused. That's what it means.
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He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, on the tree. He who took up and carried our sins.
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He bore our sins so that we may stop. This is the purpose. So that we may stop living with the goal to sin and start living unto righteousness.
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That's what Peter is saying. Three phrases are called, relative phrases, and they relate our attention to the person and work of Jesus Christ in which he accomplished.
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Now, verse 22, which I've already quoted, who committed no sin nor was any deceit found in his mouth, is a quote from Isaiah 53, 19.
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His grave was assigned with the wicked, yet he was with the rich man, which is Joseph Arimathea, in his death because of that was a grave that belonged to Joseph Arimathea.
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Because he had done no violence, the text says, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
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Now, that's what Isaiah says. The heart of fallen man, as you well know, expresses sin so easily, doesn't it?
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Now, isn't it something? This is an easy thing for us to do. The easiest thing we can do is go astray, keep going astray, keep sinning.
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That's the easy thing. That's the easy road. It's the road to hell. There's a way which seems right unto man, but the end thereof is death.
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Isaiah says in Isaiah 6, 5, when he saw the Lord, he saw that vision after King Uzziah died.
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You know the wonderful text I'm referring to, Isaiah 6. He sees the
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Lord, he sees the King of Glory. He gets a glimpse and he sees a vision of God.
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He sees the throne. Isn't that encouraging? King Uzziah dies, God shows him there's a throne.
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There's a King of Glory that's on the throne. He's not dead.
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But when he sees the holiness of God, this is the Holy Prophet, he says this, woe is me.
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Woe is me. He didn't say woe is that person, or that person, or you.
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He said woe is me. That's what happens when we see the holiness of God. It goes to our own heart.
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Woe is me. And what he says, for I am undone. There's some other translations that says I'm ruined, but I like undone.
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R .C. Sproul brought this out in his wonderful presentation on the holiness of God. That word undone means unraveled, disintegrated, destroyed.
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Almost like, it's like before the holiness of God you burn up.
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That's what it comes to mind in the interpretation. And he says for I'm undone because I am a man of unclean what?
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Lips. We sin easily with our lips. Unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
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In other words, how dirty, how unclean, how filthy are the lips, our lips of fallen man.
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And why is it dirty? It's because we have dirty hearts. That's the root.
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You know, I like to put an explanation point there, but I also like to put a question. How dirty is the lips of fallen man?
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Well, the gospel gives us this answer. Go with me very quickly to Jesus' words here in Matthew chapter 15.
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Let's look at this. This is so, so convicting. Matthew 15.
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Let me just read at the beginning of verse 1. Let's take it all the way to verse 20.
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I want you to see this. Then some of the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus, verse 1 of 15, chapter 15.
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Some of the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, they're throwing a question at Him.
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You know, most of the time when they throw questions at Him, they're trying to trap Him. Couldn't trap the perfect man, the perfect God man.
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He says, why, they asked the question, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?
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What tradition? Well, they'd say for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.
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Notice it's external. That's all they're looking at. It's the external. They do not wash their hands when they eat bread.
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Jesus comes back. He answered and said to them. Now He gives them a question.
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Isn't that wise? Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God?
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Notice He went right to the juggler. He asked them, why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
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Verse 4, for God said, notice, the Lord Jesus Christ goes right to the commandment.
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Honor your father and mother and he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.
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But you say whoever says to his father or mother whatever
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I have that would help you has been given to God. False interpretation there, isn't it?
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Jesus knew that. He first tells them the commandment, what God says in the law, and then in verse 6 he says, he is not to honor his father or his mother.
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By this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
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Boy, that is that was a cut right to their heart. But Jesus doesn't stop there.
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In verse 7 he calls them, you hypocrites, you pretenders, you play actors.
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Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, away, far away from me.
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But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines of the precepts of men. And after Jesus called the crowd to him, now notice this, he calls the crowd to him and he said to them, hear and understand, it is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.
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Jesus goes internally, not external, it's not external in, it's internal out.
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Verse 12, the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the
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Pharisees were offended? In other words, that you caused them to stumble when they heard this statement?
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What? Do you not know? These are the theologians, these common disciples, blue collar workers, saying,
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Lord you just offended some of the big theologians in the ranks. Amen.
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Praise God. You offended them. Amen. And listen to the way
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Jesus responds to them. But he answered and said, he answers his disciples, every plant which my heavenly father did not plant shall be uprooted.
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What an answer. And then he says, let them alone. Let them alone.
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Sounds very stern, uncompassionate, but it's not.
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Jesus has given them warning. He says this, they are blind guides of the blind, and if the blind man guides a blind man, both is going to fall into the ditch, both is going to fall into the pit.
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You know what that is? When Jesus says, let them alone. You know what that is? That's a judgment.
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That's a severe judgment in the form of God's wrath upon these people. They had light, but they,
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Jesus said this, they invalidated the word of God. Isn't this happening in our day?
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We see this everywhere. And God is basically abandoning them.
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And that is described in Romans chapter 1, 18 -32. Now, listen, it doesn't stop there.
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And then Peter said to him, explain the parable to us. Don't you love Peter? Here's Peter.
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Explain this parable to us, Lord. We need to understand this a little bit more deeper. I'd be right with Peter.
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I said, give me some more understanding, Lord. Give me some more interpretation. I'm right at your feet. I want to know more about this.
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Jesus doesn't hold back. Jesus said, he kind of gives them a loving rebuke, are you still lacking in understanding also?
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Such love. Such warning. Are you still lacking in understanding also?
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Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated?
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Boy, that's graphic. Verse 18, but the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
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And then he tells us what comes out of the heart. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, all types of immorality there, thefts, false witness, slanders, that seed of sin, of all kinds of gross, filthy sin just flows out of a sewer pit, comes out right here out of this mouth.
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These are the things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.
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You talking about wisdom, you talking about a pointed, truthful point.
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I bet Peter goes, whoa. I'm done. And then of course
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Jesus heals the Gentile woman's daughter. And it goes to that, but you don't hear nothing else of Peter.
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I think he was satisfied with that answer. Amen? I'm satisfied with it. Praise God.
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There's Jesus' take about how the heart looks like.
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This filth, that what man speaks, it's not from the outside in, it's from the inside out.
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That's the problem. That's what we're seeing today. But Jesus had no deceit.
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Nothing corrupt came out of His mouth. Deceit is basically a general term for sinful corruption.
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No sinful corruption. There was no sin in Him. Matter of fact, I heard
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MacArthur say this when he was preaching about when Jesus was in the garden that He sanctified
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Himself and He took sin upon Him and He was the sin bearer, that sin was foreign to Him.
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Now that's quite a word. Sin was foreign to Christ as holiness is foreign to us.
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That's how foreign sin was to the Son of God. Well, let's go to another chapter.
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Notice what Peter says in the text. Basically, He was reviled. He never retaliated with vicious words and threats.
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And even though they piled up abusive language against Jesus, Jesus patiently, humbly endured it.
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He endured all that abuse, that filth coming out of people's mouths, reviled Him. We see this in Matthew 26.
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Go with me very quickly to Matthew 26. This is commentary of basically what
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Peter is speaking of and what he's thinking about of what was happening. And what does he say?
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Look at Matthew 26 and look at verse 57.
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Those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas and the high priest where the scribes and the elders gathered together.
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Notice they're basically putting Jesus on trial. Well, that's going to turn around one day.
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They're going to be on trial before Jesus. Notice, but Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the country yard did the high priest and entered in and sat down with the officers to see the outcome.
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So we see Peter there. He's following from a far distance at this point.
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Verse 59, now the chief priest, these are the, once again, these theologians of the day got
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Jesus before them and the whole council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus.
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This whole council was doing everything they could to find something that He had transgressed against and they couldn't find any so that they might put
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Him to death. That's the reason why they were trying to get rid of Him. Isn't that the way the world is today? Even people in the church, they want to get rid of Jesus.
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They want to play church. But Jesus is about, that's what Christianity is about, is being following Christ.
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Being the disciple of Jesus Christ. No pretense to it. So they did not find any.
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They did not find any in verse 60. Even though many false witnesses came forward.
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Lots, many false witnesses came forward. They couldn't find nothing. But later on, two came forward.
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In verse 61 and said, this man stated, I'm able to destroy the temple and to rebuild it in three days.
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The high priest stood up and said to him, Oh in his pride and his arrogance do you not answer?
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What is it that these men are testifying against you? What does verse 63 say?
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But Jesus kept silent.
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He lacked wisdom. He knew better to throw pearls before swine, folks.
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And to give that which is holy to the dogs. Because he knew they would rend it to him again.
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Turn on him. And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living
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God. Boy, look at the pride in that. That makes me tremble to even read that.
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That you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God? Now let me say this.
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Right here, Jesus didn't keep silent. In love, he says this.
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And in power. Jesus said to him, You have said it yourself. Nevertheless, I tell you, hereafter you will see the
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Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power. And coming on the clouds of heaven.
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That guy brings me chills all over me. In other words, that's at the second coming.
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That's when all the dead and all those will stand before. He's talking about the great white throne of judgment.
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At the second coming. When all will be judged. The sea will give up the dead from the greatest to the smallest.
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That's what he's talking about. The Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.
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Then the high priest tore his robes and said He has blasphemed. What further need do we have of witnesses?
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Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy. What do you think? They answered.
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He deserves death. This is the son of the living God, folks. This is the one that created the whole universe.
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And they spat on his face and they beat him with their fist and others slapped him and said prophesy to us, you
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Christ, who is the one who hit you? The mocking, the blasphemy.
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Jesus took all this. God in the flesh and he had the power to speak the word and he could have easily spoke them to dust.
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But he didn't. He had a mission. He went all the way to the cross.
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Now, I've got to hurry up. Our second point is there's an empowerment to follow, empowerment to follow.
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Back to 2 Peter. 2
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Peter I'm sorry, 1 Peter chapter 2. I've got chapter 2 in my mind.
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Notice verse 24. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds you were healed.
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Wonderful text, isn't it? Jesus suffered not simply as just for us as perfect example to follow in verse 21 to 23 as which we looked at and he is the perfect example but far more important is that he is the
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Christian substitute. Isn't that so important? That's what we just read.
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We see that Jesus is in our place. He is the substitute. He's the sin bearer.
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He's taken your sin, my sin to that cross. The punishment, yes, for our sins.
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He bore it. Our sins, your sins in our place.
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The innocent, spotless Lamb of God. This is the heart of the gospel, folks. 2
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Corinthians 5 .21 we're so familiar with but 23 words that's presented the gospel given.
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For he God the Father made him Jesus Christ the Son who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
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That's the gospel. That's the gospel. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, 14 through 16, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up and that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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Hallelujah. Then there's like a commentary. A lot of people feel in the original translation that Jesus didn't say this even though it's a red letter.
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But it's like a commentary John throws in there but regardless it's God's word, right?
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For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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That's the gospel. The greatest verse. Let's go to the third point.
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There's an eternal shepherd to follow. Verse 25 For you will continually strain like sheep.
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Doesn't that speak volumes? We were. We were continually straying like a sheep. Going astray.
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But now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. As I pointed out last week,
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Jesus is the good shepherd that comes after the sheep in Luke 15. Jesus comes after his own.
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He loses none. John 10. John 10.
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There's a transitional word here. They were continually straying. They. We. We were continually straying.
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For you were continually straying. But now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
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Return means to turn towards. Referring to repentance and faith. Repentant faith in other words.
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And how many times does the scripture speak about repentance? It's all through the
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Bible, isn't it? That's the heart of the gospel. Why don't we hear it no more? There's something wrong.
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Repentance. Repentance. God provides.
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He enables faith and repentance. The gifts to turn from sin and the power to turn towards Him.
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Well let me give you two applications in closing. The first application is this.
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That we are to follow the Good Shepherd we must recognize
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His voice. We must recognize His voice. To follow the Good Shepherd we must recognize His voice.
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I think this is very important. John 10 4 says this. And when He put forth His own sheep He goeth before them and the sheep follow
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Him. Why? Because they know His voice. God's voice.
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The voice of the shepherd. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to recognize His voice.
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And regeneration. Jesus uses a familiar illustration here of the shepherd and this is so simple but it's so profound.
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Profound and simple. And He refers to His sheep to explain His relationship to His own children.
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The shepherd, the sheep, I'm sorry, to follow they must hear, they must know the voice of the shepherd.
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You know as I was reading this and I've read this before but I was reminded as I was studying this that in eastern in the east in eastern shepherds in that part of the world sometimes they would keep several flocks in one fold at night time.
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Several flocks. And He got all these sheep and different flocks and they kind of get scattered up and mixed in.
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But in the morning each of the shepherd, each flocks would call the sheep and the sheep would follow the voice of their own shepherd and gather together.
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This is what Jesus is talking about. My sheep know my voice. They belong to me.
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They are my elect. I'm not going to lose none of them. He puts us forth sometimes in places we don't even like to go as a sheep.
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As dumb and don't know. Places in which may be fearful. Sheep get fearful.
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But not when He's close to the shepherd. We can follow close to Him trusting
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Him as He meets all the circumstances of the way before us. He goes before us.
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He knows our tomorrows. He prepares them to become our todays. This is so encouraging.
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He goes before us. He goes before His sheep never asking us to go where He does not go
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Himself. And He puts us forth and He goes before us and we follow
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Him in His footprints. To know and recognize His voice is the sweetest thing on the side of Heaven.
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I'm telling you. Just to know His voice. We must know it right here. We must be familiar with it and go stay close to Him and be close enough when
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He speaks we listen to Him. We must be quiet. Sometimes we talk too much.
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We must be quiet to hear the voice of the shepherd. The result of hearing and knowing
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His voice is that the sheep follow Him. Some sheep follow closer than others but a general characteristic of the sheep is they follow
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Him. That's what they do. They follow the shepherd. And as we follow our good shepherd He will lead us out to reach those who do not know
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Him. Amen? Here's an illustration. It was a story of an
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Indian missionary who had to make a trip through an unknown country at night time and as his guide went ahead of him, the missionary looked down and could not see the road.
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He became troubled but the guide said to him, no
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I'm sorry, he said to the guide, where's the way? I can't find the way.
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The guide said, there's no path but I'm your way.
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I'm your way. Just follow me and you will reach the end of the destination.
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You will reach the end of the journey safely. Just trust me. So we too should trust our guide and listen to the voice of the good shepherd.
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My time is gone. Looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith.
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Someone put it this way. He is the way. Without Him there is no going. He is the truth.
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Without Him there is no knowing. He is the life. Without Him there is no growing. Can I give you this second application?
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I know my time's out. Let me do it quickly. The next application, if we're going to follow
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Jesus as our perfect example, if we're going to have empowerment to follow Him, if we're going to follow our eternal shepherd to the end, becoming like Jesus, then it comes down to this one major truth and I gotta bring this out.
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We must be submissive to His authority. That's what it comes down to, doesn't it?
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And to submit to Him and to obey His word, we must love Him. We must love
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Him. You cannot disconnect love from obedience. You can't do it.
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Obedience to the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ, James 4, 6 and 7 says this, but He gives a greater grace, therefore says,
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God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. That's being submissive.
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Then He says, submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
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And here, as in Peter, submission means to line up under as a soldier would line up under his superior commander.
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We see this all through the New Testament. Jesus' submission to His parents in Luke 2, 51.
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The Christian submission to human government as we looked at previously in Romans 13, 1. The church's submission to Jesus Christ as the head of the church,
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Ephesians 5, 24. The servant's submission to the masters in Titus 2, 9, 1 Peter 1, 18.
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So this is a very important word is used here to describe a willing, conscious submission to the ruler of the universe,
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Jesus Christ. And truly humble person will give his allegiance to God.
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No prideful person can submit like this. That's why James says,
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He gives a greater grace. But gives grace to the humble.
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That's what it means to submit. Submission is humility lining up under that authority.
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Matthew 10, 38. I'm coming to a close. And He who does not take up His cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
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Jesus said. That's a powerful verse. He who does not take up His cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
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That is submission to the lordship of Christ. In other words, Jesus was demanding total commitment to His lordship from His disciples.
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Full surrender. A part of the message that they were to proclaim. Let me give you one quote from Tozer here.
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This came from a devotion of love's final test. Tozer said this. The Christian cannot be certain of the reality and the depth of his love until he comes face to face with the commandments of Jesus Christ and is forced to decide what to do about them.
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Then he will know. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings said our lord.
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He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. So the final test of love is obedience.
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Not sweet emotions. Not willingness to sacrifice. Not zeal.
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As good as those things are. But obedience to the commandments of Christ.
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Our lord drew a line plain and tight Tozer says for everyone to see. On one side he placed those who keep his commandments.
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He said those love me. These love me. And on the other side he put those who kept not his commandments and kept his sayings and said these love me not.
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That simple. Nothing in between. Love for Christ, love for Christ is a love that must be willing.
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Tozer says as well as a love for feeling it is psychologically impossible to love him adequately unless we will obey his words.
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Let's pray. Father we thank you for this time together. Thank you for your holy word.
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Lord we just pray that you would just burn this within our hearts today as a disciple of you and of the lord
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Jesus Christ. Lord forgive us for not following as close as we should.
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Help us to draw nigh to you and you will draw nigh to us. That's your word. You promised this.
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Lord there is a cost. Help each and every one of us count the cost. As we count the cost may we look at the cost that Jesus paid.
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He paid it in full. There's no one that can come even close to that.
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No one would dare do that. But lord we just bow at the foot of the cross and at that sacrifice and we look up and say thank you father for providing the lamb hallelujah for providing the lamb of glory for our sin that we might live into righteousness.