Did, Does, Determined To

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If you have your Bibles this morning, if you would open up to Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians and the first chapter, 2 Corinthians chapter 1.
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So as we begin, my original purpose was to consider the first 10 verses of Paul's opening to the church at Corinth.
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And as most times, when you plan to preach a message, most times you begin to realize that you probably have bit off more than you can chew.
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And so although that was my intent to look at the first 10 verses, I quickly realized that I would never get to that.
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So I wanted to read the first 10 verses with us this morning.
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But what was really on my mind and heart and what I hope to impress upon us is what is said in the 10th verse of the opening chapter where Paul addresses the church at Corinth.
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And he says this to them.
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And if you have your Bibles, we can read it.
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And then we'll read the whole 10 verses.
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But where he says that God, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us, in whom we trust, that he will still deliver us.
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That was my purpose and is my purpose.
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And I wanted us to be impressed, if you will, by the reality of what the Bible so often speaks of.
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And that is that we serve a faithful God.
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We serve a God who calls himself the faithful God.
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And that as we begin to consider it and that we begin to consider the days in which we live and in friends, there's many things that we could say about the days that we live in.
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But we live in a day when things that are faithful, things that are true, things that are sure are vanishing before our very eyes.
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Not the truth of the word of God, but the very things that the word of God presents as principles of truth are under attack in so many different ways.
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There is, if you would, in my understanding, there's less solid, true, lasting hope.
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And where they are still present, they seem to be diminishing.
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And that you and I need to have something, that great anchor of our soul to hold onto.
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And as I thought about these words, about what Paul says there, and if there's a title to the message, it would be did, does, and determined to.
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I've learned from Keith and Mike to try to do the same letters.
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So it's did, does, and determined to.
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And I want to ask us to think about that this morning again.
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Because even in the churches, friends, even in the churches that profess fidelity to the word of God, who profess that they hold the word of God as the infallible, inerrant word of the living God, even in the churches, things that were at one time so sure, and so grounded, and so founded are being revamped, and reinvented, and in some, in many times, denied totally.
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And so it's so important for us as the people of God to think about the things that God has done for us.
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And as I said, this reality of God having delivered us, actively delivering us now, and yet with faithfulness going to deliver us for all eternity is most needed.
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As you consider, again, what not only those in the world, but even in the churches, as I say, that we are no longer so certain about things that we never questioned in times past, of human sexuality, and identity, and marriage, and the role of government, and the sanctity of work.
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All these things that were considered as foundational truths are being, again, revamped, and reinvented, and in many cases, again, just flat out denied.
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And so most of us need much in the way of encouragement, much in the way of assurance.
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And so you might want to say this is a message about assurance.
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You might want to say it's a message about faithfulness.
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To me, as I consider it this morning, it's a message about deliverance and not the kind of banjos.
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But I want to read the first 10 verses because although I don't want to speak directly to them to set the context of what Paul is saying.
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And so if you're visiting with us this morning, I read from the New King James.
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And so your translation might vary a little bit.
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But let us just read Paul's opening.
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Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in Achaia, grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
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For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
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Now, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
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Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
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And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.
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For we don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.
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Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us, in whom we trust, he will still deliver us.
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Let's just ask God's blessing again.
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Father, now we ask you to take your word and to do what only you can with it.
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That you, Holy Spirit, would be the one who guides us into truth, not just the truth of our minds, not just a factual understanding of your word, but an understanding that transforms our lives.
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Oh, God, that we would be changed, that we would become more like the Son of God who so loved us that he gave himself for us.
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So, Lord, we ask you to do what only you could do, that you would bear your arm now, that you would quicken us, empower us, and grant us grace.
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In Christ's name, amen.
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So as we read the opening verses, I read them because I wanted to have at least some understanding set before us of what Paul's intent was in the opening of this letter to that church where he had spent so much time and had went through so many things with this church and how he opens it up.
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And he wants to impress on his readers about his own life's experience, that the God that they worship is the God who has delivered them, is delivering them, and will yet deliver them.
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And if you've noticed, as we read through these, and maybe you didn't see it because we read through it quickly, but if you will, the fruit that he wants to come out of all of this is that they would find comfort and consolation.
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If you were to read these 10 verses again, you will find that six times in these opening verses, he mentions the word comfort.
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And four times in these opening verses, he mentions the word consolation.
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And if you were to do a study on those words, basically the meaning is to come alongside with the idea of bringing refreshment, of bringing strength, of bringing, if you will, spiritual energy.
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And I don't know about you, but to me, Lord knows we need a lot of that.
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We need a lot of refreshment, don't we? We need a lot of energy.
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You might not admit it, but we do.
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And so Paul wants to impress on them.
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And it's interesting how he's going to do it, isn't it? He's going to relate his own life's experience and make an application with a hope that they themselves would find refreshment as Paul found refreshment, as Paul found strength, as Paul found comfort.
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Now, it doesn't really mention the specifics of what Paul talks about in verse 8.
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I want to move quickly because I do want to spend the bulk of the time on verse 10.
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But we'll look at what Paul says in verse 8.
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We don't want you, church at Corinth, we don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble what came upon us in Asia that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.
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And who's Paul talking about? He's talking about himself, and he's talking about his companions that were with him, that were ministering alongside of him, and that something had happened to Paul in Asia.
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Well, guess what? Many things had happened to Paul in Asia.
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But something specifically had happened to Paul and his companions.
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And if I understand this right, he says we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, that the apostle Paul despaired of life.
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We had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.
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Something had happened, and we could spend much time on that.
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We can go back and go through the history that recorded for us by Luke in the book of Acts.
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And needless to say, as I said, many things had happened to Paul.
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There were fightings without, there were fears within, there were enemies from within, there were enemies from without, there was all kinds of things that came upon Paul.
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But nevertheless, the point is that Paul found himself where he was left to the point of despairing even of life.
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And I don't believe he's talking about eternal life either.
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He's talking about his situation was so desperate that he thought he was going to be taken out.
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Whether it was illness, whether it was enemies, I'm not sure.
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But my point is that Paul had come, and that's why he says in verse 9, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.
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Remember who this is.
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This is the one who was met on the road to Damascus by the risen Lord.
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This is the one who had revelations of things that men ought not even be able to express as he was caught up to the third heaven.
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This is no regular Joe.
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This is the Apostle Paul.
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And he, for all that he is by the grace of God, is still in that sense a man.
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And he despairs even of life, thought he had come to the end of his usefulness this side of the veil.
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You notice that saying, and I don't know.
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I say it sometimes, but I'm not really sure.
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Anyway, the saying is, man at his best is but a mere man.
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There's some truth in that, right? Man at his best is nothing better than a mere man, apart from the grace of God.
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And so as you think about this, and you think of what Paul is saying, and he gets to the point that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.
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Isn't that what we really trust in this morning? I'm going to read some verses as we go through this morning that talk about deliverance.
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And this Paul, who despaired even of life, and his companions with him, this is the same one who wrote that God, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of God and our Father.
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This is the same one who, in Romans chapter 7, makes that great statement, oh, wretched man that I am.
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Who shall deliver me from the body of death? I thank God through Jesus our Lord.
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Paul, like you and me, needed deliverance.
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And he wants the brothers and the sisters at the Church of Corinth, who are going to suffer similar afflictions, similar sufferings, similar trials, similar tribulations, he wants them to be encouraged, strengthened, refreshed by not his own power, but by the deliverance, the power of the grace of God that brings comfort and consolation.
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I will say this now, and I will probably say it again later.
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If you cannot find comfort and consolation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're looking for comfort and consolation in the wrong place.
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You will never find it.
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You'll find some sort of comfort, and some sort of refreshment, and some sort of encouragement.
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But unless you and I come to the point where we realize that the only one who can truly deliver us is Almighty God.
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And so Paul says that.
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He says that we trusted not in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.
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It wasn't as if Paul could say, well, you know what? I'm having a bad time right now.
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Lots of things are happening in my life.
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But you know what? I motivated myself.
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And I'm the better for it.
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It's not what he says, because it don't work.
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And Paul doesn't say, hey, you know what? I'm so glad I have my friends here, and they've been a great help.
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And they were a great help to Paul.
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But he doesn't give them the credit, if you will, and say that although he thought he was about to expire, somehow his friends came, and they said a good word, and they got him up and ready to roll again.
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No, no, friends.
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It's what the psalmist said.
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It says this.
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He that is our God is the God of our salvation.
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And to the Lord belongs the issues from death.
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That deliverance, whether it be past, present, or future, is all of God, only of God, and totally of God.
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And so that was what impressed me as I thought about verse 10.
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And I wanted to ask us to consider it in those three different ways of past, present, and future.
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And so I wanted to ask us to think this morning, where you were before God delivered you? Where were you before God rescued you? Where were you before God, by the blood of Christ, by the power of the Spirit, delivered you? And I'll tell you where you were.
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You were enemies of God.
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You were enemies of the living God.
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You were aliens.
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You were alienated from the life of God.
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You had no fellowship with the eternal one.
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You were wandering, if you would, in a spiritual desert, and it was no water to refresh your soul.
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The Bible says your mind was warped.
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Does the Bible make such a statement as that? It absolutely does.
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Your mind was warped.
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It says that you could not discern spiritual things.
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On top of that, even the things that you thought you'd discern, they became foolishness to you.
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You ever talk to someone about the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross, and they look at you as if you got three eyes? And they walk away and they say, what a fool that person is following this Jesus thing, because it's foolishness to them.
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And guess what? It was foolishness to you.
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Listen, no one was born a child of God, except by the grace of God, and that would be the secret things that belong to God, and I am not going to try.
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I have a hard enough time with the things revealed, never mind the things that are secret.
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But the reality is, you couldn't discern spiritual things.
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You thought they were foolish.
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Listen, before God delivered you, you were a captive of the devil.
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Just let that sink in for a minute.
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You were a captive of the devil.
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You were enslaved by the father of lies.
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You were spiritually bound in chains and in darkness, and your hope, if you had any, was built upon sand.
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You know what? Here's the reality.
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If it were not for the grace of God to have delivered you, your hope built on sand like a castle, like a sand castle, was a blink of the eye away from the crashing waves of God's judgment upon you.
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Hey, well, Brother Andy, this doesn't sound like a whole lot of comfort this morning.
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Well, listen, the truth will set us free, won't it? And you might want to say, not me, that wasn't me.
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I wasn't like that.
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I didn't hate God.
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Yes, you did.
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I didn't think the things of God were foolishness.
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Yes, you did.
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I didn't seek to run my own life and be my own God.
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Yes, you did.
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See, it doesn't matter what you say or what I say.
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It matters what God says, and God says so.
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You were no better than pilgrim in pilgrim's progress, living in the city of destruction, finding all your fancies in the town of Vanity Fair and unaware and uncaring that you were, listen, friends, you were only a breath away from the judgment of God.
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Now, it might be difficult for you who have been in Christ for decades to make that fresh in your mind, but you ought to.
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You see, again, as I say, you might've wore a cleaner costume than some others.
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I'll give you that.
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Some of us are brought up and we're neat and we're clean and we're orderly, but guess what? Before the deliverance of God, before the salvation of Christ, you were full of dead men's bones, but you had a nice shiny white sepulcher on the outside.
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You were no better than a demoniac who cut himself, was bound in chains and lived in a cave in darkness.
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You were deaf, you were dumb, you were blind.
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Now, let me just stress this one more time.
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If you do not understand what you were, you're gonna have a very difficult time understanding the deliverance of God.
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There's a difference for you Calvinists.
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There's a difference and there's a reason why the tea is first in the tulip.
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Because if you don't understand depravity, you're gonna have an awful hard time with the rest of that.
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But here's the truth.
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Even when we were dead in sin and trespasses, God came.
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God came and the doors were flung open, the prison doors and by the power of the spirit, we were led captive by the one who leads captivity captive.
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The light of the gospel of Jesus Christ shined upon you and you were delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his own dear son.
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You were granted newness of life.
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You were saved.
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You know, we use that term.
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It bothers me the way people use that term.
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We use it so, are you saved? Oh yeah, I'm saved.
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Do we really understand what it means to be saved? Because what happened when God delivered us from so great a death is we began to have a different worldview, didn't we? We began to have a worldview that didn't center around us, it centered around him.
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You could by faith begin to see the invisible.
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There was a new song in your heart and you wanted to sing it.
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Oh, that's true for you all this morning.
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Hope that we know that we were dead and now we're alive.
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And there's a new song in our heart that he did deliver us.
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As surely as he delivered Paul, he delivered us.
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We were born from above.
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We were regenerated by the spirit of God.
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Now that's the did, but that's only one third of this.
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So you figure I've been going out in a few minutes, you got two more thirds to go.
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But that's what Paul does, right? He's not gonna just tell him what had happened, as great as it was, as magnificent as the truth is that we've been taken from darkness and put into light.
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Not gonna leave him with that.
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He says, not only who delivered us from so great a death, he does deliver us.
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He does.
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Every single one who is a true child of God is being delivered by the watchful eye.
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Bible says that a mother may forget a child, but God will never forget us.
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You see, the one who did is the one who does.
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Says he will guide us even to our death.
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Our every step, friends, our every step is ordered by the Lord.
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I was sitting in the backyard this morning while I was told by my wife to go put birdseed in the bird feeders, of which we've got raccoons like this that sit in the bird feeder and eat the birdseed.
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And as I was sitting there, I was drinking a cup of coffee and I saw a blade of grass, this is the truth, I saw a blade of grass moving.
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And I said to myself, you know what? God decreed before the foundation of the world that I would look at that blade of grass and think about how God is delivering me because that's how much he controls.
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Same way he controls the raccoons in my bird feeder.
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Just think about it.
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Every step, friends, is ordered by the Lord.
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All our trials, and Lord knows we got them.
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All our tribulations, God is delivering us.
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No different than when Joseph's brothers thought that they were delivering Joseph to the slave traders, God was delivering Joseph to be second to the throne.
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That's why he says, you meant it for evil, but I meant it for good.
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Would I not be correct if I said it to you this way? We could no more fail to be delivered by God in all our situations than the Lord Jesus himself had failed to be delivered by the father and raised from the dead.
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You see, because that's what it's all about, right? He delivered us from to deliver us to the kingdom of his dear son, which Christ is ours and he is delivering us.
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What befalls each one of us, and we all have a different life, and we all have a different, in that sense, activity of deliverance, but God is active, isn't he? It's not always evident.
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Oh no.
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It's not always evident, and guess what? It's not always fun.
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It's not always pleasant.
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It's not always what we would choose.
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Listen, just think about a couple of things.
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Just think about this.
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Only a fool would say in the midst of sorrow and trials and tribulations, oh, this is just wonderful.
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I have cancer.
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How great.
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I can't make ends meet.
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Wouldn't it wonderful? I'm suffering under the hands of evil men.
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Please, can I have some more of that? I've lost a loved one.
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Can I have some more? Friends, he's delivering us.
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He's right next to us.
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He's the fourth man in the fire.
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Ain't he the fourth man in the fire, friends? Yes, he is.
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I will never leave you.
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I will never forsake you.
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When I'm done with you, you won't even smell like smoke, Jenny.
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Listen, my friends, he who has delivered us, he's delivering us.
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We may not be aware of it, but we are the apple of his eye.
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The one who held us captive can no longer hold us captive.
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Ain't that great? Friends, if that doesn't excite you, something's wrong with you.
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If we don't become, at times, overcome by the fact that he's watching over us, that as his eye is on the sparrow, so he watches me.
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Maybe it's harder for all you bald dudes to realize that he's numbered every hair on your head, but he has, because he's the one who gave them and took them.
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Listen, my friends, he is the friend that sticks closer than a brother.
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Listen, my friends, he is your shield in exceeding great reward.
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Listen, my friends, he's the rainbow after the storm.
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He's the arc in the midst of the flood.
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He is your son, he is your shield.
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He is delivering us, even now.
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Isn't that, what a mighty God we serve.
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He has, he is.
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And as I say, every one of us are unique, and every one of us have, in that way of thinking of it, a unique deliverance attached to it.
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But again, I will say now we have considered, just briefly, the dead and the does, but guess what? A two-legged stool, and they're not gonna cut it.
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And so Paul wants to impress this on them, and so he says, who delivered us from so great a death, and he does deliver us, and then he says, in whom we trust that he will still deliver us.
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My friends, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the one who did and does, but he will yet deliver us.
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I wanna say something to you older saints this morning.
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You figure out where you fit in in the old category.
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But I wanna say something to you older saints this morning.
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He will deliver you to the end.
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You wanna know how I know it? Because God says he will.
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He says, hearken to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are born from me from the belly, and which are carried from the womb, and even to your old age I am he.
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Even to your hoar hairs I will carry you.
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I have made, I will bear, and will deliver you.
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Hey, brother Jack, you're not a chicken no more.
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You're a full-fledged rooster, brother.
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And you too, brother Turner.
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And some of you others.
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Some of you sisters.
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God hasn't forgotten you.
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You're not useless, you're useful.
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And God's gonna deliver you.
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You're gonna get there, because he's gonna ensure it.
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I even think about it, and I'm not in the Jack range.
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Please, not yet.
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But I'm closing in a little bit.
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And I could feel at times my strength.
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It seems as if it's moving south rather than north.
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Amen.
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
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And things are breaking down.
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It's just not as easy even to get out of bed anymore.
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But I have this promise that he will deliver me.
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I wanna say something to you younger, and you figure out where you fit.
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Younger saints, especially you kids that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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You're gonna face a lot of trials.
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You're gonna find out when you get out of your parents' house that the world is not as nice as it is with your parents in the house.
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You're gonna find out that things are hard, that men are evil, that faith is not held by everyone.
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And guess what? You're gonna have trials and tribulations, and you're gonna suffer, and you're gonna be confused, and you're gonna be upset.
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And if you trust in Christ, he will deliver you.
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Amen.
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Because Jesus said, of all that the Father gives me, what? I will lose.
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He will deliver you.
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Won't be easy.
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But the captain of your salvation is also your high priest.
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I guess I was just, I was reading through Hebrews yesterday on my own.
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Just, I don't know.
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Lord said, read Hebrews.
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I said, okay.
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I was reading through, and I was reading chapter seven, and I was reading about how Jesus is the high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and the reality of his high priest and king coming together just in, if you will, swallowed me up for a few minutes.
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That not only do I have a king, but I have a high priest, and he's already offered the offering on my behalf, and he ever lives to make intercession for me.
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Amen.
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And that he will deliver me through every trial, through every tribulation, through every perplexity, because of the power of the spirit within us.
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I thought about how Brother Mike likes to say our redemption is Trinitarian.
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It is, isn't it? Our deliverance is Trinitarian because it's guaranteed by the father, it's guaranteed by the son, it's guaranteed by the spirit, and neither hell nor principalities nor powers what shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
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He did, he does, and he's determined to.
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The unchangeable.
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Do you wanna know why we so love the truths of the doctrines of grace? Part of it is it's so trustworthy that God is actually omnipotent, that God is actually above challenge, above rival, unequaled, infinite, separate, the great other, and that God is a God of purpose.
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And what God touches, he finishes.
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And sure as God wrought you in the belly of your mother, so God will bring you to the kingdom of his son.
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He that said he built mansions for us, guess what? He's gonna deliver us to those mansions.
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He did, he does, and he will.
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All our tears, all our sorrows, all our confusion.
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We're gonna get to the land that's called the beautiful land.
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It's a beautiful land.
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Because we're gonna be married to him.
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It's gonna be our king, our priest, our husband, our master, our Lord.
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Can you begin to get excited of what yet lies on the other side of the grave? That's why I say when people say, yeah, I'm saved.
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Yeah, I'm gonna see Uncle Johnny in heaven.
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Well, you might see Uncle Johnny in heaven.
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I pray you do.
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But you're gonna be occupied, friends, with the glory of God, with the majesty of God, with the immensity of God, with the things that God has prepared for you and for me to be captive by.
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It's not like Christmas time either.
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You can put the gifts wherever you put them under a tree.
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I don't even wanna go down that route, but nevermind.
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But it's not like the gifts will run out.
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It's like, is there anything more under the tree for me, Mommy and Daddy? Listen, when God delivers us, there will be no end to the glory and the majesty and the awe of it all.
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I know I repeat a lot, and I do.
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You and I are going to explode into eternity.
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Amen.
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It'll be no slow walk.
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And so I hope that in some sense that brings comfort this morning.
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But as I said, if you don't understand what he did, you won't understand what he's doing and you won't appreciate what he's yet to do.
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That's right.
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Before I close, I wanna say something.
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I must warn those who don't know the Savior, the Deliverer, those who are still living in the city of destruction.
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Those of you this morning who might have thought, hey, you know what? You said some really encouraging things.
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Maybe you just thought I'm just some nut up here yelling and screaming.
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Amen.
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But here's my warning to you.
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None of this applies to you outside of Christ.
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You are hopeless without Christ.
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You are helpless without Christ.
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You are destitute and naked without Christ.
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And you might say, I don't believe that.
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Again, as I say at times, death will change your opinion of God.
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And if you don't understand how God has delivered you, has delivered his people, is delivering his people and will yet deliver his people, the same applies to you, but it's not to deliver you into the kingdom of his Son.
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Listen to Peter.
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For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that should live ungodly and delivered just lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, with that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with his unlawful deeds.
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Listen to this.
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The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.
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If you're not a child of God, that ought to shake you to your very core.
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You might say, are you trying to scare the hell out of me? Friend, I'm trying to scare the hell out of you.
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Would the God, the spirit of God would scare the hell out of you because you are without Christ death if you neglect so great a salvation.
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If you neglect the son of God who came to pour out his life that you would have.
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So I'll leave you with this friends.
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Plow up your own heart.
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You know, I think about my kids, my grandkids.
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I got even great grandkids.
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I'm an old goat.
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But you know what comes to me when I think about them? Think about what Jeremiah says.
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He says, the harvest has passed.
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The summer has passed and the harvest is in and we're still not saved.
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That's what I'm afraid of.
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I'm afraid they're gonna go out into an eternity without Christ.
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I'm afraid for any here this morning will hear the word of God and reject it.
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One day, someday, every knee will bow.
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Every tongue will confess.
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No matter what Andy says, or Mike says, or Keith says, or you say, or I say, or the whole world says, it only matters what God says.
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So I leave you with this.
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If you're not a child of God, run.
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Run to Christ.
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Don't hesitate.
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You have no guarantee.
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Don't be so foolish as the children of Israel who thought tomorrow will be as today and much more abundantly.
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Are you sure? God bless the saints and may God save the sinner.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, again, we bow before you, Lord.
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You're great.
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You're greatly to be praised.
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Your greatness is unsearchable.
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Oh God, thank you for having delivered us, being so involved in our life to deliver us and Lord, yet to have prepared a place for us and you will come and receive us again to yourself.
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And that's why we come to this table now, Lord, and we remember what was accomplished, that it is finished.
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And Lord, we pray that as we come to this table, it will be a table for believers, for those who have submitted to the Lordship of Christ, whether they be one of us in this body here or in this locality or visiting from another church.
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And Lord, if we are not yours, Lord, there'll be no shame in not taking of this remembrance unless that shame is before you.
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Lord, may you be pleased with what we say and what we do.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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Amen.