Sunday, February 4, 2024 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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another way of emphasizing that all the scriptures are understood in the light of Jesus Christ.

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Jesus said it is these that testify of me. So we're thinking about the Ten Commandments and how they demonstrate

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God's pattern for the image of God amongst

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Israel. And we know that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible

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God. We come to word number nine. It says, do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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Do not. It's more than speak a lie. It's about any way of carrying yourself or conducting yourself.

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Do not conduct yourself in any fashion that would convey non -truth about your neighbor.

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And we saw last week we considered the instructions in the

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Mosaic Law, the Sinaitic Covenant, that there was there's a host of instructions there about what it means to love your neighbor.

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You know, it's important to note that when Jesus speaks with his Jewish audience, you know, at one point he would ask, well, what's the summation of the law?

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What's your reading of it? Well, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

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Jesus says that on these two hang all the law and the prophets. These are like hinges upon which the whole door of the

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Old Covenant swings. But when we think about loving your neighbor, and we went and read the instructions there in Leviticus about what loving your neighbor means, it had to do with kind of like the

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Hippocratic Oath. First, do no harm. And that was the instructions.

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Love your neighbor as yourself and then do no harm this way, do no harm that way, do no harm this way, do no harm that way.

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And those were the instructions that God gave in the Sinaitic Covenant to Israel. So that when

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Jesus comes, he says, you have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor but hate your enemy.

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And indeed, we went back and looked at one example among many in which the Israelites are instructed carefully to hate their enemies and for generations.

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We know about the Amalekites and that last

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Agagite named Haman whom Mordecai just would not bow down before, would he?

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Why wouldn't Mordecai bow down before Haman? Because he was told to be at war and to abhor the

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Amalekites forever. He was obeying God's word. He was obeying the

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Old Covenant. So Jesus says, you have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

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But I say to you, love everybody. He didn't say affirm everybody.

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He didn't say tell everybody you do you and I affirm you and I love you unconditionally and whatever you think

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I'll just say amen. He did not say that. He said to love your enemies, to pray for those who hurt you, spitefully use you, persecute you, so on and so forth, right?

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But he did say things are different in the New Covenant than they were in the Old. And when we think about that, when we get to the the ninth commandment, it says do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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We hear something rather similar when we think about how it is that we relate to each other in the church.

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Last time we talked about what do you do with your enemies? You tell them the truth. Tell them the truth.

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Tell them about who God really is. Tell them about who Christ really is. Tell them about their need to repent.

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Tell them the truth. If you love your enemy, you will tell them the truth. You will not affirm them in their sin.

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You will not affirm them in their rebellion. You will not affirm them to just do whatever. If you love them, you will tell them the truth.

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But what about inside the church? How do we understand that? So Ephesians chapter 4 verses 17 through 25.

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This is right after the passage of how we grow up into Christ. Verse 17, this

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I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the

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Gentiles, or the rest of the nations walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

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This passage reminds me of a story I just heard from Tim Kazee. We're watching the dispatches from the front again as a family.

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And Tim Kazee talked about how he was he was over in Southeast Asia and he was on a beach at the evening time and he was walking and praying and up comes a guy on a motor bike with his with his girlfriend strapped on the back and he rolls up and he begins to try to offer

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Tim Kazee prostitutes and drugs, a whole variety of them, and just keeps on trying to offer it to him.

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And Tim just keeps saying, no I don't need that, no I don't need that, oh I don't need that. And finally the guy says, you don't need anything?

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And Tim says, no I have Christ. I don't need any of that because I have Jesus. You know,

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God sent his son and he began to witness to him and the guy says, who's

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God? You know, has no idea. And the ignorance, he's just he's just rolling in lewdness and uncleanness and greediness and this is the way people are without the life of God.

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Tim was able to plant the seed of the gospel in that man's life. In contrast to this, verse 20, but you have not so learned

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Christ. You have not so learned Christ.

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Now consider that. What are we to be learning? You know, we should be learning some truths about the

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Bible, we should be learning doctrines about God and the Word and so forth, but it's not simple systems of information, is it?

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We're learning not systems, but someone. We're learning Christ. We're not following principles, we're following a prince, right?

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There is a person who is the fulfillment of the law, the very Son of God come into the world, manifested himself to us that we may know him and follow him by his spirit.

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He says, but you have not so learned Christ. Notice the way he clarifies what that means.

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If indeed you have heard him, we learn Christ through his words and have been taught by him, meaning we are submitting to his words, we're bringing his words in and laying them on one after the other and building up our understanding of Christ.

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Notice he says, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.

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The truth is in Jesus. I find that significant. Having been told that we are not to, so that we are not to lie, where's the truth?

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Now many people today will say, well I didn't lie. You know, I have my truth and you have your truth.

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How do we know if anybody ever tells a lie anymore? Well, we know because truth is in Jesus.

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Did that person just agree with Jesus or did he disagree with Jesus? Ah, we have our standard of true versus false.

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Isn't that simple? How do you know if someone's lying to you? Well, have you learned Jesus? Have you been taught by him?

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Have you heard him? Now you'll be able to tell the difference between a lie and the truth.

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Verse 22, we have learned Christ in order to do what? That we may put off concerning our former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.

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Every lust has a lie. In the heart of every sinner, in the heart of every rebel, there reigns a lie.

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Lie is enthroned in the heart of sinners. They go together.

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And be renewed, put that off the old man, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man, which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

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The new man created according to God, that's a way of talking about the image of God being renewed and recreated by the

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Spirit according to the fashion of Christ. Truth is in Jesus, so we're going to learn

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Christ, be taught by Christ, truth is in Jesus, and that is a transformative truth.

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It's not just information, it's transformation. Now notice what's the very first thing after we have these these very general pictures about what it means that we are being transformed by the truth of Christ.

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First thing Paul says is, therefore put away lying. Let's get practical.

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Here is something very specific that is the application of what we've just been talking about here in Ephesians chapter 4.

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First thing, first thing up, put away lying. Well that makes sense, if we're learning

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Jesus and truth is in Jesus, then what do we have to do with lying? We talked about in the context of the

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Old Testament that it said, do not bear false witness against your neighbor. But when it comes to warfare,

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God blessed saint after saint for lying through their teeth to the enemy. Abraham lied to Pharaoh, kept

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Sarah safe, and got his socks blessed off on the way out, like he plundered Egypt.

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Kind of a foreshadowing of Israel plundering Egypt when they were rescued. And remember those midwives who were there during the oppression, when the little boys were scheduled to be drowned in the

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Nile River. They lied to Pharaoh and God blessed those midwives and gave them families of their own.

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And then when they did finally make it to the promised land, wasn't there Rahab lying to the residents in Jericho so that she took the side of God's people, and God blessed

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Rahab. We see that time and time again, don't we? Now here we see, therefore putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor.

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Notice the reasoning in verse 25, for we are members of one another. I'm not at war with you, and you're not at war with me.

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Why would we lie to each other as if we were enemies? If I love you, I will tell you the truth.

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If I love you, I will serve you with the truth. You see? Why would I lie to you? We're not at war. Now I want you to,

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I Paul, he says, significantly, he says, learning

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Christ, putting on the new man, putting off the old man, first thing he wants to talk about is lying.

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He does not hear in verse 25 say, therefore let us keep the law. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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He makes no appeal there, does he? He says, well, have we learned Christ? Are we taught by Christ?

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Have we put on the new man? Let's put off the old man. And notice what he quotes. He quotes a passage of Scripture, verse 25, therefore putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor.

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Now he's quoting from everyone's favorite Old Testament book, Zechariah.

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So let's go back to where the pages stick, a little bit prior to Matthew, and let's find

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Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 8. Now we're going to look at this passage and see how it fits with what

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Paul is talking about in Ephesians, and then we're going to come back to this idea that learning Christ results in us speaking truth with one another in love.

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And we're going to see how that is. But first of all, Zechariah. And we're going to look at chapter 8, and let's begin back in verse 13.

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Remember, in Zechariah is a recording of prophecies given after the exile.

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And of course, things were bad, some things still are bad, but there is a bright future ahead.

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And that bright future is the new covenant. Verse 13. And it shall come to pass that just as you are a curse among the nations,

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O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing.

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Do not fear, let your hands be strong. For thus says the

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Lord of hosts, just as I determined to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the Lord of hosts, and I would not relent.

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So to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, do not fear, do not fear. So he says, you know, here you are in your diminished state, you've returned from the exile, and here you are in Jerusalem, and boy does it need a lot of work.

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And wow, there's a lot of things that are different. You have been greatly degraded and depleted in your influence, in your significance.

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And you are in this condition right now because of your unfaithfulness, because I brought upon you the covenant curses that I assured you were coming because of your disobedience.

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Now, he says, this was the way it was, but now

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I'm going to determine good for you. There are bright days ahead. There are good things to come. Verse 16.

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These are the things you shall do. Speak each man the truth to his neighbor.

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Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace.

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Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor. And do not love up a false oath for all these things, for all these are things that I hate, says the

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Lord. Now, Paul in Ephesians reflects on this passage in Zechariah, a passage that says, the days of cursing and judgment have come.

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You have felt that, and just as I promised, so I perform, says the Lord. But there are days coming when it's going to be blessing.

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There's going to be salvation. There's going to be brightness and joy. Therefore, let each of you speak truth with one another, with your neighbors.

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Now, Zechariah's audience hears this, and they look around and say, oh yeah, that makes sense. You know, here we are, greatly depleted in number, but yes, of course, we are all fellow

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Jews here, and we ought to be telling the truth to each other as our neighbors. Paul takes up that passage and applies it to the church, applies it to the church, wherein he just talked about it used to be that you were just like all the other nations.

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You were in these nations, and you were full of paganness and darkness, and you were in ignorance, pursuing lewdness and greediness.

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But now, in Christ, you have been brought together, and you are neighbors.

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How? Not simply by proximity, not by ethnicity, but by Christ.

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Now, we're beginning to rethink what neighbor means. In the Old Covenant, it was very clear.

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You're fellow Jews. You're fellow Jews. You're fellow Jews. You're fellow Jews. In the New Covenant, what does it mean? Everybody in Christ.

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Everybody in Christ. Everybody in Christ. Now, things begin to shift. Further, in verses 18 and following, we see the emphasis of the

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New Covenant in view. Paul, in other words, the Holy Spirit, in other words, is not taking this passage out of context, right?

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We know that's not what we're supposed to do. We're not supposed to take a verse, or a half a verse, and then twist it to whatever theme we like to talk about.

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Paul didn't do that. Holy Spirit didn't do that. Paul's talking about how things work in the

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New Covenant versus the Old. How things work together in Christ, having been saved out of the pagan nations.

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What do we read about in verse 18 and following? Then the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me, saying, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, the fast of the tenth, shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feast for the house of Judah.

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Therefore, love, truth, and peace. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, Peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities.

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The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us continue to go and pray before the

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Lord and seek the Lord of Hosts. I myself will also go. Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the

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Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and pray, and to pray before the Lord. That's the passage, that's the context where Paul's quoting from.

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Now, is he telling the Ephesians, get ready for a bunch of pilgrimages to Old Covenant Jerusalem?

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Or is he talking about, as he just did in chapter 2 of Ephesians, we've got a whole bunch of nations coming into the

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New Covenant Jerusalem, Mount Zion, Heavenly Jerusalem? I think it's the latter.

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Even more so when we read verse 23, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a

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Jewish man, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Now, I just,

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I can't help but read that, but think that that Jewish man is Jesus Christ, bringing the nations up to Mount Zion, bringing the nations into the

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New Covenant Jerusalem. Therefore, given how we have learned

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Christ, how we have been taught in Christ, as truth is in Jesus, so everybody's grabbing his sleeve and say,

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Take us with you. You have the words of eternal life. To whom else will we go? Having learned Jesus, therefore, don't lie to each other.

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Put it away. We are neighbors of one another, brought near together in Christ.

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Now, when we think about learning Christ, when we think about learning Christ, well, we could just reflect on his life and his teachings and his ministry, even just in the

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Gospel of John. We could begin with the fact that he was the Word in the beginning, and through him all things that were made.

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He was the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory of the Father, the glory of the

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Son as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We can also think about what he said to the

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Samaritan woman. Let's go over to John 6, and in verse 65, he said,

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Therefore I have said to you that no, no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more than Jesus said to the twelve,

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Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

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Also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then quickly over to John chapter 8, verses 31 and 32.

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John 8, 31, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

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The truth shall make you free. And of course that famous verse that I think that most of us have memorized, Jesus said to Philip what?

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I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no man can come to the Father except by me.

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So when we're learning Jesus, as we have been taught in Jesus, as truth is in Jesus, and it's in him that we have been brought near to one another as neighbors despite the various distances from which we originally came, thus we find in the light of Christ that we are to put away, put away lying, and love one another, and speak the truth.

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That make sense? Any questions or thoughts about our passage tonight? Alright, let's close by singing the doxology together.