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member and your man here who's a member and you want to read scripture then I commend you to talk to a
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Bill Falcone. Bill raise your hand would you and we have the men open on Sunday night and read scripture and it's a kind of a daunting task you don't think it's that big a deal you just stand up and read but when you first come up here the knees are knocking the spit is not there and it is difficult and there's a side benefit to all that because then the men can pray for me more because they realize how difficult it is to pray when you stand up and just read scripture and then pray if you notice we have something new there are three choir mics up there now and so if you can see those they are working they're ready the bazooka there the the bass bazooka is hanging
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I think that's what Charlie calls it so that's up and that's working as well you can't see it very well from the back but you can hear it it'll need one more coat of paint and so we're just pleased that the
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Lord has given us those things and somebody in the church is thinking about buying us a projector we'd like to have a projector here maybe it goes up automatically so we can see the lyrics better if you want to get away from a screen like we have to a good one you're going to move with screen and lens and projector that's right there about 20 grand and so it's a lot of money and I out of anyone in the church have my neck craned and strained more than you do during the songs on Sunday morning so we all want that but it's a matter of when do you spend the twenty thousand so it's a lot of money all right any other announcements before we get going tonight by the way if you have a spare twenty thousand and you'd like to have an envelope it says their budget new constructions our missions you have my permission to cross this last one out and write designated for the new screen you can just do that and lens but no we won't engrave your name on the lens to say it's you
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I first got to the church it's like well if I give X amount of money for the library or something upstairs can can
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I dedicate that library to my father or grandfather and it's a sweet thing but the best thing to do is you give your money under the
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Lord and if it's designated fine if it's not designated God will reward you in secret have you as you have given in secret right so I don't think
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Paul by the way ever had in mind that somebody would name a city after him
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I don't think he was looking for that in Minnesota st. Paul I think it was I'm not sure he would have wanted that all right well if you have your
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Bible so we're going to use those tonight let's turn to Joshua chapter 10 I was working on a special message on Bible translations that I did not get done
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I also been working on the the doctrine of assurance how do you know the difference between assurance eternal security and perseverance of the
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Saints and how some people think you can lose that and how do you gain your assurance back I had that for tonight as well but I thought you know we'll just do questions and answers so I pulled up some timely ones that we'll talk about tonight we'll start off with it can you explain the long days of Joshua and Joshua chapter 10 found in your
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Old Testament and this is a very a question that comes up all the time and if you're not careful you may try to answer it with natural means and certainly
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God could use natural means but God often when it's miraculous by definition does something in a supernatural way so don't try to figure out rationally how it happened when you have to say
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God in fact did this and has the power to do it let's read the passage and then we'll get some comments from the congregation
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Joshua 10 verse 12 for those of you that don't know the passage then Joshua spoke to the
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Lord and when you see capital L OR D in the Old Testament what does that signify Yahweh the covenant -keeping loyal loving
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God of Israel different than when you see GOD which would talk about Elohim lots of times talking about the
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Creator God but both are certainly God just different names and so many wonderful attributes he has different names to go with many of them spoke to the
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Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel and he said in the sight of Israel Oh son stand still at Gibeon and Oh moon in the valley of a
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Jail on or however you pronounce it I Jail on I think you get the first I hard and the first a is soft silent so the
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Sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation avenged interesting purpose for why the
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Sun stopped till the nation avenged themselves of their enemies is this not written in the book of Josh are a book that we don't know about and the
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Sun stopped in the middle of the day and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day and there was no day like that before it or after it when the
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Lord listened to the voice of a man in this case Joshua for the Lord fought for Israel now how could we explain that give me some explanations and it's
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Sunday night so you can say them out loud if you want to raise your hand find if you don't want to you don't have to what would be some give me some some common explanations that might not even be right then you don't have to feel bad if you give the wrong one how do people explain this
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Doug okay so it's almost like Kreskin kind of thing where it's an optical illusion who's the big magician now
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David David Copperfield okay that is kind of one of the explanations by the way okay that's matter of fact both of those are explanations that people use liberals tend to use it just seemed like a long day okay good well daylight savings time in all the annals of my research
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I have not found that one and you open up a can of worms when you let the congregation speak on Sunday night why do you think
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I know I don't do that on Sunday morning and everybody obeys me except the sheriff but anyway that's another sermon you can tell him
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I said that Peter Monaghan's the only guy that'll say something any other explanations the
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Sun stood still and now think about context the middle of the sky did not hasten to go down for about a whole day so it might not be a whole day but for about a whole day it's not just a smidgen and verse 14 says there's no day like it there's no other days this is a unique day what are some other explanations okay the
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Earth's rotation stopped good I found some other ones there was an eclipse that hid the
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Sun keeping its heat from Joshua's worn soldiers and allowing coolness for battle they could stay strong to fight
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I found that it's a local refraction of the Sun's rays such as the local darkness in Egypt in Exodus 10 where there's local darkness and so this is just locally that's another one matter of fact
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Ryrie believes that he said there are more daylight hours but not more hours in the day it's kind of like I guess
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Alaska or Greenland or something like that I like Charles Riley Ryrie sometimes they think it's just poetic now these are the people that just make the
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Bible turn into anything they want it's kind of like just hyperbole it just seemed like a long day it's not literal they just got two days worth of fighting done in one day you know kind of like the phrase
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I could eat a horse you know you can't really eat a horse but you're really really hungry however
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I don't think any of these deal with God as the Creator in a supernatural way protecting his covenant people why don't you turn to Habakkuk chapter 3 in the minor prophets towards the end of your
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Old Testament and I just want you to first realize that God has the power to do this God can stop the
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Sun easily and figure out the calendars and everything else later he has the power to do it now if we all stand outside we could probably have a pretty interesting service tonight if we all stand outside and yell at the moon don't go down stay and we could we could be like Frank Mesmer and try to mesmerize it we could hypnotize it we could shout we could do anything we wanted and that is not going to affect anything you can be a word faith teacher and say my words have have meaning and if I say it then it'll happen and you can say it all day to the moon and it's not going to work one of my favorite passages in the
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Old Testament is right from Habakkuk let's start with verse 5 of Habakkuk chapter 3 and I want to show you that God has the power and we don't always have to explain things scientifically you don't have to watch
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CBS Bible show 10 years ago that explained the the the
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Exodus through the Red Sea with wind and sandbars and everything else God may have used that but he doesn't have to God has the power to do anything he wants look at these great verses before him goes pestilence and plague comes after him he stood he's talking about God surveyed the earth he looked and startled the nation's yes the perpetual mountains were shattered the biggest most stable things around the ancient hills collapsed his ways are everlasting
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I saw the tents of Kishon under distress the tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling did the
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Lord rage against the rivers or was thine anger against the rivers or was thy wrath against the sea that thou does ride on thy horses the on thy chariots of salvation thy bow was made bare the rod of chastisement were sworn thou does cleave the earth with rivers verse 10 the mountains saw the inquake the downpour of water swept by the deep uttered forth its voice it lifted high its hands and now verse 11
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Sun and Moon stood in their places they went away at the light of thine arrows at the radiance of thy gleaming spear and with great prophetic language
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God with all his creation power can make the Sun stand still and I think that's pretty great if I had a if I could open my jacket up and I could sell you things or tell you things
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I could do I would say it's making the Sun and Moon stand still would be right up there in my little bag of tricks and the greatest thing about this passage you'll never read it the same way again look at verse 4 and his radiance is like the sunlight he has rays flashing from his hands and here is the ultimate demonstration of the power of God he can stop the
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Sun is that what it says here's just the hiding of God's power you want to know how powerful
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God is this is just open up the veil a little bit and peek in and he can stop the moon and the stars in the
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Sun this is just like the fringe of his power this is just a little I don't think it's right to say smidgen two times in a night but I want to it was already in my mind this is just a little inkling this is a smidgen this is like a little tiny bit this is like the appetizer there is a hiding of his power
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Job 26 14 behold these are the fringes of his ways isn't that great we'd go around trying to figure out well you know of all these things happen then
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God could do that God can just say son exist can't he easily say son stop of course he can isn't that good there's the hiding of his power a pink waxes eloquently on the subject in his book the attributes of God in the power of God chapter you need to read that I had one book besides the
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Bible that I would bring on my desert island would be the attributes of God by pink five bucks six bucks is about that big and every time you read it you think forgot to pay my bills no you think
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God is awesome this God is so great by the way you can use it as an evangelistic tool too if you want to give out a book what's one book you can give out to hope somebody reads it and get saved well number one it's the
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Bible I've given out big tracks before and people say what's too big you know nobody's ever gonna read that prints too small well don't give out the
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Bible then and don't somehow think that God of the universe could compel that person to open that book and read it but this book attributes of God is so chock -full of scripture that it is almost likely reading scripture the power of God the attributes of the unchangeableness of God it is a great book how many people have read it we've got some work to do don't
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I want you to read that book if you can't afford it then we'll get that book for you the book ministry will
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Nate's budget will take care of that but I want to get you that book if you can't afford it it's like six bucks five bucks something like that how much is it we probably need to order some now after that yeah it is so good and you know the nice thing is
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Proverbs there's 31 Proverbs and typically 31 days in a month close to it and so then every day if today's the 15th 16th 17th you just read that Proverbs and so since there's only 17 or 19 chapters in the attributes of God one a day for a month and there's like 11 days of grace you skip a few when you can still get through it every month and for years
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I read that book just every month they're just the hiding of his power now let's go back to Joshua to see this passage and to take a look at it it actually says that in the text the moon and the
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Sun stood still the Sun stood still the moon stopped rather be still to be silent to leave off and in the
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MacArthur study Bible it says the earth actually stopped revolving are more likely the Sun moved in the same way to keep perfect pace with the battlefield
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I don't know what happened but God did did something so it could finish off the job
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Joshua 10 14 this has got to be a unique day it's something supernatural there no day like it and can you imagine
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God uses the moon and the Sun objects that the
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Amorites worshipped he used to help destroy them can you imagine
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I love that okay you're gonna worship the Sun and the moon they're going to be the instruments of your doom
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I encourage everybody we did it yesterday it's Saturday from 10 to noon Worcester Art Museum free you can walk in there and it's like the greatest lesson to teach your kids and my even my daughter little
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Maddie today four years old she should mom said come back from the retreat and Kim said to Maddie well what you do well we went to the museum would you see a little
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Maddie said we saw the false god Buddha I just tell the kids see there's Buddha just bow down and sing some praises just real quick I won't tell anybody else and here's all these things false gods everywhere
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Shiva and all these different ones Vishnu and you just go what is going on and here
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God uses these false gods and the moon and the Sun aren't gods but the
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Amorites think they are like demon impelled worship of these things and God uses those to destroy him this is not that big a deal stopping the
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Sun for more time it ran backwards for Hezekiah right second Kings 28 what will be the sign that the
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Lord will heal me and I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day Isaiah said this shall be the sign for you that the
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Lord that the Lord will do the thing that he has spoken shall the shadow go forward ten steps or back ten steps the issue with these kind of miracles is faith isn't it if God says he did it you may try to calculate some of the stuff and answers of Genesis what happened in Genesis I'm fine with that but at the end of the day if it's incalculable you say
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God I believe it anyway and I'll praise you that you have the Sun stop it's like Billy Graham once said he said
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I would believe the Bible everybody goes to Jonah how can you believe the book of Jonah's true here's this you know this fish this whale swallowed
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Jonah blah blah blah and everybody goes after it and the way I usually what
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I usually say is well if Jesus thought it was a fairy tale he could have corrected it when he was on earth but he affirmed it he even affirmed it in a prophecy but secondly it's like what
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Billy Graham said I would believe the book of Jonah are the Bible even if it says Jonah swallowed the whale that's the
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Billy Graham said and it's true we are underneath this word it is the authoritative
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Word of God and we are under it and when people start saying well that's your own translation and it was written by men and blah blah blah slowly after every sentence you can see the
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Word of God coming down like this and it's underneath the foot of God it's like my friend Todd Swift who has a daughter named
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Whitney who's older now but there's the book ultimate questions by John Blanchard out there which is a great book to send to an unbeliever and it shows a man standing on the
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Bible and what it's showing is man's sin against the Bible and rebellion against God but she thought as a growing up in a rule of Christian family she thought that was for the song standing on the promises of Christ my she thought
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I was that she's a standing on the promises of God if Joshua was wrong
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Jesus would have come along I am sure we'll use the same thing listen boys he Pharisees and scribes
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Joshua was all wrong it was figurative language it just seemed like it it was an eclipse it was this it was that no you cannot extract the supernatural nature out of the
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Word of God because you're gonna left with not a very big Bible and a man named Thomas and Jefferson Thomas Jefferson did that very thing it's called the
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Jefferson Bible take out all the supernatural elements of the New Testament and you come up with a book about this big and the last sentence says and Jesus was buried and the tombstone rolled across his grave the end
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Thomas Jefferson was a deist he was cloaked in Bible language but he could not believe in the supernatural nature of God and I'm glad there's supernatural things why because then you're just in awe and you're thinking he's the
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God of the universe that can do anything as easily as he could do the next it's not hard for God we were singing tonight and I thought yes my life
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I have trials and their struggles and sicknesses and deaths and all these things but I said you know if there's no heaven well
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I here's what it is a better way to say it if heaven is not any better than this a redeemed
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Christian life in a sinful world I still can't wait to get there how much more when
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I realize my sin isn't there nobody else's sins there and Christ is face to face but it's pretty amazing to have the
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Holy Spirit the Holy One of God living inside of you and you just have new affections new thoughts you think
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God runs the universe God's in control I don't have to worry and you just say I love life now things are hard but I can trust
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God now what about heaven it's gonna be that much greater because it is true all right questions about the
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Sun and the moon all right let's go to question number two how could
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Jesus have remained in the tomb three days and three nights if he was crucified on Friday and rose on Sunday three days and three nights
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Friday Saturday Sunday Sunday night what do we do you'll hear this all the time by the way when an unbeliever is arguing with you or wants to disprove the
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Bible three days three nights blah blah blah you can answer the question but then I want you to turn it back around and get back to the cross that's the issue where King get his wife is not the real question the question is they're standing before God okay what would we say three days and three nights okay well let's not go to the real answer yet let me give some other answers first of all we have to think like a
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Jew we have to think like a Hebrew and with their idiom and with their discussions they have any part of a day counts as a day we are not looking at 72 exact hours or I calculated it in minutes four thousand three hundred twenty minutes three days and three nights let's look up a couple passages
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Luke chapter 24 and the easiest answer is and you can study it on your own some people force it to Thursday where Jesus was crucified on Thursday that messes it up all the more just study the language we study the
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Bible you must study the Bible in its natural normal plain sense not literal sense now
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I can see the cards and letters coming what do I mean by that not wooden literal you don't read the newspaper or a magazine in a wooden literal sense you read it in a natural normal plain sense with figures of speech with hyperbole with riddles with metaphors with similes you read it normally and plainly right somebody says why do you read the
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Bible literally I know what they mean and yes I read it literally but not wouldn't literally because how am
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I going to read an English translation with Jewishness in it you'd have to have a
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Bible about that thick want to know why your Bible is only this thick that's one of the reasons
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Luke 24 44 this one's a little easier than well then we'll get to the hard one Luke 40 24 44 now he said to them these are my words which
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I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things which were written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the
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Psalms express express but not that Jonah story or the Joshua either must be fulfilled of course that's not then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures how great is that that's a sermon right there the illumination of God in your minds he just makes you understand you ever wonder why you have friends and unbelievers who will read the
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Gospel of John and just they don't get it Gospels going out on FM their receivers a .m.
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and broken besides that here he opens their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them thus it is written that the
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Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day now that's not that hard because if Jesus is crucified on Friday that's part of a day
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Saturday and then Sunday that's that's a little bit easier for us to take not thinking in the
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Hebrew fashion but what about the three days and three nights let's go there Matthew chapter 12 verse 39 and I just want you and you study you check to see if what
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I say is true you will see that the Hebrew phrase three days and three nights just means emphasis just like when you see in the
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Bible 40 days and 40 nights you will find good scholars who say that is not exactly 40 days and 40 nights calculate 24 times 40 it is a
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Jewish way of saying a longer time about a month I'm not trying to get away from literal things you know me better than that that's why you need to get one of those little books called manners and customs because we just do things differently every house should have one of those manners and customs of the
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Bible and you know the good news is most of me go oh that's neat Matthew chapter 12 verse 38 some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying teacher we want to see a sign from you what epistle does that remind you of first Corinthians seeking signs somehow into wisdom some seek signs
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Matthew 1239 he answered and said of them and evil and adulterous generation craves a sign you want a sign of course you want a sign because you're wicked
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I don't think he screamed it like that and yet no sign shall be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet you've already got a sign and you just drove by it for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster different word than the fish in Hebrew obviously no way nowhere do we ever get whale except it's a big fish by the way on a side note you think
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God created the fish or do you think he took an existing one could he have done either one he could have prepared that fish from guppy stage all the way to have nice big fish like qualities that could swallow a man or he could have just made that fish just say fish there you are gobble up that thing all right although I think
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I want the fish in my heart I want the fish to already have lived and swam around for a while and had all kinds of gross fish that are already eaten half decomposed okay so shall the
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Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth that was a little harder but still it can be explained easily don't go back to Thursday to do the three days three night deal you're gonna get into trouble elsewhere theologically you just say what's the emphatic way the emphatic
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Jewish way of saying parts of three days it doesn't have to be a literal 72 hours it's a good way to express that so you say all right when did
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Jesus get on the cross 9 a .m. Friday 12 o 'clock that becomes dark and God judges the
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Sun from 12 to 3 they take him off the cross they bury him that's part of Friday part of Saturday part of Sunday our questions on that all right for those of you that are movie watchers we will get to the
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Bible but the Luther movie how many people have seen the Luther movie it's called Luther okay pretty good crowd
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I want to say something about fighting fundamentalism and going to the movies but I won't it's fine to go see a movie
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I always wondered why people who said they don't go to the movies we just rent all kinds of VHS things from the library like mad what's the difference
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I guess you could fast -forward something I thought it was an excellent movie and had a few things that weren't didn't match up theologically but overall it was one of the only movies
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I've ever been to and then afterwards you go out with some Christians and have have some ice cream and soda and you talk more about God's Word and it spurs you on to holy living it spurs you on to say
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I want to stand up God I'll stand stand up I'll be like in Ezekiel I'll stand in the gap God helped me to be that didn't you find that the case some backsiders in this congregation have even been to the movie twice haven't they let me just give you a little background of Luther because the main thing that they didn't have in there was his conversion experience that's the main thing it was all of a sudden one day he was struggling and the lightning came and then the next day he's saved
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Luther by the way there's a great book and this is from that book by Jim Cromartie it's called a mighty fortress is our
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God he's a great writer it's by Evangelical Press and you just read Wow by the way you need to read biographies when you're down and out and you don't know what to do read a biography read about Mary Schleser the lady who she's from Scotland and she runs around in the jungle and when they had twins back in those days this these jungle tribes would think that the twins were demon -possessed so they would leave the twins out to be eaten by the leopards and Black Panthers Mary Schleser little
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Mary Schleser would go running around scoop up those sets of twins she scooped up 51 sets of twins and would go to the to the big chief in charge and she would just get in their face and just challenge the guy down 51 sets of twins in the jungle or you could read about Betty Stamm and in China and here and they have a little baby and here comes the persecutors and they take a little five dollar bill or whatever it has
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I have to be careful not to cry when I think about it and they tuck it underneath the diaper lay her in the crib and say
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God protect her they're coming to kill us and then trust you into your hand and trust her into your hands they come in they killed
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Betty Stamm and her husband and they never find the baby and then one of their friends comes in finds the baby and raises up the baby now what
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I think is I think two things number one I'm a dope because look at their faith and number two
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I think you know I'm just a man they were just men they were just women and God if you can use somebody like that can't you use me help me
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God read biographies they're wonderful well this biography about Luther it's very interesting his mom had kind of a mixture of Roman Catholicism and a mixture of kind of witch doctor stuff they thought that there was a witch had placed a curse on their family and she even thought that sometimes demons would come and steal their eggs and chickens very superstitious the only thing
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I could think of that semi equivalent is in Haiti where they've got kind of this this synergistic kind of voodoo
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Catholicism XY and Z stuff and that was going on back in those days Luther Easter 1503 was walking along and he had a sword on his belt and it fell out and it slit one of his arteries in his leg and the blood is gushing out in this arterial flow and he cries out
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Mary help me somebody comes along it wasn't
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Mary but somebody came along bandaged him up in a little bit long a little while longer the the biography says the wound tore open again and he cried out once more for the
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Virgin Mary for assistance and later he said in his life I would have died trusting in the Virgin Mary to die for my sins he told
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Duke George of Saxony later I was indeed a pious monk and followed the rules of my order more strictly than I can express
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I love this part if ever a monk could obtain heaven by his monkish works I should certainly have been entitled to it of this all the friars who have known me can testify if I continue much longer
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I should have been carried mice and carried myself denials even to death then he met this man named stop its and stop its
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I would talk to him and he would say you don't need to flee to Mary he was a mentor he said you need to flee to Christ he said verbatim well actually
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Luther's description of it we fled from Christ is from the devil and ran to the Virgin Mary and st. Barbara for we were taught that everyone must appear before the judgment seat of Christ with his work in other words
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Jesus is the judge he's this evil judge guy and so you got to get to the softer side of God like the softer side of Sears you go from Mary she's sweet Jesus the judge
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Mary she's a lady sometimes
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I can't believe what I'm ever watch yourself listen to Luther often
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I was horrified at the name of Jesus and when I thought about him on the cross it was as if I had been struck by lightning when
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I heard his name mentioned I would rather have heard the name of the devil for I believe that I must buy my good works make
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Christ my gracious friend and thereby reconcile an angry God and quote any new stop it said to him why do you torture yourself with these things look at the wounds of Christ look at the blood of Christ shed for you is there the grace of God this is where the grace of God will appear to you
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Luther said back I cannot and dare not come to God till I'm a better man I just need to be better than God will accept me
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I have not yet repented sufficiently stop it said a better man
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Christ came to save not good men but sinners love God and you will have repented there is no real repentance this does not begin in the love of God then stop it's gave him a
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Bible in his own language and I thought if I ever give a Bible to someone my son or anyone else this is what
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I'm going to write he didn't write it in there but he said it let the study of scriptures be your favorite that's what stop it said to Luther let this
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Bible be your favorite thing study that so now Luther is on his way to Rome and the movie does depict that he's on his way to Rome but on his way to Rome he almost dies he got so sick and when he's laying there going to die only one passage kept coming through his mind the just shall live by faith over and over the just shall live by faith he's in a bologna and he's gone about ready to die he now gets to Rome and it was said that if you go to the sacred stairs the scala sancta these 28 steps at every one of you said a pattern
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Oster you said in our father you you prayed the disciples prayer the Lord's prayer that you would get people out of purgatory every step that you went up and one special step was where Christ was and you get all kinds of extra blessings there and when
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Luther got there he had a regret and his regret was his mother and dad were still alive and he wishes he would have been going up those steps so he could have gotten him out of purgatory what do you do if your mom and dad are still alive and not in purgatory and you can get people out he said what pleasure
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I should have had in delivering them from the fire of purgatory by my masses and by my prayers so he settled for the next best thing grandpa hi get him out so he began to crawl up those things and as he would go up on his knees there was a passage that just kept coming to him over and over again the just shall live by faith can you imagine going through the steps everybody around you our father the just shall live by faith and Rome was wicked he said later the closer we got to Rome the nearer we met a lot of bad
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Christians said I went to Rome with onion and returned with garlic now let's turn our
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Bibles to Romans chapter 1 verse 16 and 17 and I want to show you where Luther went wrong and where we can rejoice because when you see the word the righteousness of God I don't want you to see it like Luther did which was the sense that God was wrathful and his righteousness would exact out and destroy any of those who weren't righteous but instead
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I want you to see that the righteousness of God is something that God himself supplies through his perfect righteous work of his son not only in his death but his life perfectly obeying the law of God Romans chapter 1 verse 16
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I'm not ashamed of the gospel it's the power of God for salvation everyone who believes to the Jew first into the
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Greek for in it Luther thought the angry wrathfulness of God is revealed from faith to faith he's thinking
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I don't want the gospel because it means the fury of God he didn't understand the righteousness of God it was only a horror show for him he said matter of fact when he read this it is not against all nature reason that God out of his mere whim deserts men hardens them dams men as if he delighted in sins and in such torments of the wretched for eternity he who is said to be of such goodness and mercy this appears iniquitous cruel and intolerable in God by which very many have been offended in all ages and who would not be
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I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wished I had never been created love
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God I hated him I hate God I can't live up to this he would go to confession almost every day he would sit there sometimes for six hours with another priest trying to remember all the sins he had committed because if you die with one of your sins not confessed you're going to hell what exasperated priest said it said to him man
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God is not angry with you you're angry with God then one day he's in the monastery by himself he opens up his
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Bible in 1515 and he sees the scripture verse for this morning Psalm 22 verse 1 my
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God my God why has thou forsaken opened up his eyes
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God has forced the righteous just one is the one who receives the penalty the son receives the penalty of this father and he is taking all his anger out on the son so he can love us he said where is the law demanded pay me what you owe the grace of God declared your sins are forgiven now let's go back to Romans chapter 1 verse 16 and take a look at this for I'm not ashamed of the gospel can you imagine what had
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Paul been through now he's going to the largest city and he's already been through if you read the study notes of your study
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Bible he'd been imprisoned in Philippi chased out at Thessalonica smuggled out at Berea laughed at at Athens regarded as a fool in Corinth stone in Galatia and now he comes to the seat of contemporary power
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Paul says in Rome I am NOT ashamed of the gospel so good why it's a salvation for everyone who believes to the
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Jew first yes God had given those Jews many distinct privileges and you could read that in Romans 9 for in it the righteousness of God God's perfect obedience to the law of God fulfilled by his son but the righteous shall live by faith and they're right there it is from Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4 the just shall live by faith
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I think if you want to evangelize your friends and live in this area your
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Roman Catholic friends you should take them to that movie it is amazing to see some of the indulgences that are still going on just shined up a little bit and polish a little bit today versus back then and sit down and talk about what does it mean to be right in God's eyes great opportunity and tell them
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I'll pay for the movie I'll pay for the popcorn I'll pay for the soda afterwards well produced for a
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Christian film and you don't have to sit there saying you know we all rationalize I do too well that was a pretty good movie it only had 57 .3
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swear words but besides that that's fine only had one one one scene up there where people didn't have any clothes on and you know
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I know the movies screen is 50 feet tall and their body parts are then 50 feet tall but I can get that on my mind tomorrow it's no big deal and here at least in the movie you say it's about godly things it's about good things and then just explain how are you right with God give them the missing parts who else saw it or wants to make a comment any comments about it
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I would like someday when the movie comes out to just play it right here we'll have a movie night on a
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Sunday night or Saturday or something we'll get together and watch it and just talk about it Luther had his problems
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I mean he was a anti -semitic and he had all he had a problem with this he was vulgar but he believed in a good
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God perfect God matter of fact yes you know
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I haven't seen the black and white one for a while although I like the black and white one a lot and I think you can get that for like four bucks five bucks or something like that or you could get it for free by the way it's for some of you that don't know we have a library up there sometimes people say we have a library yeah you can rent videos and everything else but it is
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I don't know how it rates but I like this one I think maybe better maybe
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I love this newer I'm Scott took his kids some of the kids
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I'd like to take Luke it's still down here at West Boylston WB theater of four bucks 50 cents and if you get one of those things that the built -in kids were selling you get one free ticket for the
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West Boylston okay anything else with their movie all right speaking of movies let's do one more question the new movie a passion by Mel Gibson you thought you come to church and you gonna have worship service we're talking about movies you know it's like I'm med bed up here
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I'm trying to tie it into the scripture and there's a reason that I want to do this tonight everybody is saying that Mel Gibson is a what he's anti -semitic in matter of fact this film is going to start the controversy again so there's more persecution of Jewish people is there such thing as anti -semitism even today yes and I think there was even some bombings over in Turkey lately right two synagogues killing many many
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Jews I read this week that the composer of Zorba the
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Greek anybody else read this Mikis Theodorakis composer of Zorba the
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Greek this week said one of the country's Greek countries foremost and best loved composers of Zorba the
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Greek he called the Jews quote the root of evil end quote this week God loves the
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Jews Satan hates the Jews I mean it's no it's no strange thing the spokesman for the government said the government does not share and is not in agreement with the opinion expressed by mr.
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Theodorakis the spokesman said but he added that despite the disagreement the composer is still held in high regard by the government for his works it's the economy stupid okay do you know which of the
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Gospels Matthew Mark Luke or John is the one called the anti -semitic Gospel by some there are four
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Gospels we could call three of them synoptic because they're very similar one is called the anti -semitic
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Gospel the anti -jewish Gospel because one more than any others talk about the
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Jews the leadership of the Jews with the term Jews and really goes after that the
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Jews killed Jesus matter of fact the other ones it just says you know you're the king of Jews and Pilate says yeah you know you say they're king of Jews are you and you'll put that thing over said the king of the
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Jews the other ones basically say that and that's it but one over and over and over talks about the
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Jews being the leadership that has killed Christ anti -semitic Gospel got 25 % chance what would you guess the beloved
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John let's turn there John chapter 5 John chapter 5 and we are going to do the
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Evelyn Woodhead speed reading course now to look through some of these verses we're not going to look at everyone but I want to give you a panoramic view of John talking about the
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Jews killing Christ and then we need to ask the question who really killed Jesus and I think the answer will surprise you
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John chapter 5 verse 15 let's start there the man went away and told the
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Jews that it was Jesus who made him well and for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the
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Sabbath verse 18 for this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him now certainly it wasn't every
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Jew in Jerusalem and nine times out of ten you read this you can read it in context of the
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Jewish leadership those who are seeking to kill him who were in authority and didn't want the uprising in the revolt and apple cart turned over etc go down a chapter chapter 6
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John 6 we're just going to look up about five or six of these verses to establish the point and then answer the question who killed
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Jesus this is gonna come up and if it doesn't come up you can make it come up in current events issues you can make friends who will talk about this
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John 641 the Jews therefore were grumbling about him because he said I am the bread that came down out of heaven they were saying is this not
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Jesus the son of Joseph you are a hayseed who lives up in Galilee you're the bread that came out of heaven they were saying this is not
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Jesus son of Joseph his mother father and mother we know you just say now I've come down out of heaven Jesus answered said do not grumble among yourselves and he said no one can come to me unless the father who sent me verse 52 the
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Jews therefore began to argue with one another saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat can you imagine if you were
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Jew first of all they don't understand this kind of teaching because they don't get the metaphor and they don't realize that it's it's it's something less than literal and they're thinking hey we're
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Jewish you don't eat blood and now you're talking about eating the blood drinking the blood chapter 7 verse 1 after these things
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Jesus was walking in Galilee for he was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him
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I think we're making my point chapter 8 verse 52 the
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Jews said to him now we know that you have a demon the said that Jesus you have a demon chapter 9 verse 22 or you can just listen if you don't want to turn to all these we're only gonna look a couple more his parents said this because they were afraid of the
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Jews for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess him to be Christ he should be put out of the synagogue the
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Jews this is what people call in a negative way the anti -semitic gospel chapter 10 verse 30 very famous verse you need to memorize this one short
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I and the Father are one we are one in essence the Jews took up stones again to stone him chapter 11 verse 8 chapter 18 verse 31 chapter 19 the list goes on not the real issue
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I want to know who killed Jesus think before you answer there's a primary one in the secondary one yes okay thank you primarily
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God did secondarily we did all right let's look up the verse John 3 16
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John 3 16 is the first one maybe you just know the verse who could just tell me the verse go ahead little yes why don't you stand up in your chair and you say it real out buddy you can see it you can only stand on chairs in the church when pastor says it's okay all right nice and loud excellent navigators perfect you say the verse at the beginning at the end by the way dads and moms when you teach your kids scripture reading have them stand up on your your chairs at home around the dinner table just so they're used to standing up in front of people to speak
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I was always horribly afraid just to do public speaking and I'm trying to make sure my kids aren't that so if you come to my home
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I'm probably gonna have my kids stand up on the table and say verses to you just so they get used to it excellent job buddy and that hand went right up for God the
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Father so loved the world he what's the next word gave who killed
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Jesus number one the father killed the son secondly go to John chapter 10 verse 11
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John chapter 10 verse 11 do you know no one takes the life of Christ from Christ how could they he's
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God yes of course our sins were the reason why
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Jesus was killed true but the father is the one who killed the son nobody's gonna kill the
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God unless the father does it unless the son even lays his life down look at this side of the
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Trinity John 10 11 I am the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep he's laying his own life down he was a hireling not a shepherd he was the owner of the sheep behold the wolves come he leaves a sheep and fleas and the wolf snatches them and scatters them he flees because he's a hireling and not concerned about the sheep
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I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own know me even as the father knows me and I know the father
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I lay down my life for the sheep verse 18 jump down there no 17 for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again
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Jesus wasn't murdered somehow lost all his blood he laid his life down verse 18 can it be any more explicit no one has taken it away from me but I lay it down on my own initiative
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I have authority to lay it down I have authority to take it up again this commandment I received from my father now that should put to bed forever the idea that somehow the
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Jewish leaders are the primary instigators who killed Jesus did in fact the father give his son and pour out his wrath on the son yes did the son lay down by his own initiative in 40 his life yes did
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God use a simple people to work things for good ie the Jewish leaders they were in charge yes did
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God see our sins on Christ at Calvary so in a sense we were that we were the reason why Jesus died yes but when you have an unbelieving friend and that unbelieving friends
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Jewish or something yeah that's anti -semitic I think you go straight to this you go straight to Jesus is the one who voluntary lays down his life for sinners like you it's not the issue of the
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Jews it's the issue of you that's what I would say to my Jewish friends we as Christians we better love
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Jews our heritage is Jewish isn't it remember uh this is whether you're a male or pre male you say remember
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John chapter 4 and there's that woman at the well and she's worshiping and oh yeah I'm worshiping this way it's basically
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Jesus as well you might have the warm fuzzies but you don't worship the right way because salvation is from the
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Jews you want to know about worship it's from the Jews Jesus was a Jew you know we're walking around I saw that I showed the kids at the
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Worcester Art Museum yesterday said every time you see a mom and a baby it's typically Madonna and child and so then we'd see another one and another one medieval art another one and I'd say look you see their eyes they're light -complected and they've got blue eyes and I said that could have been a freak accident of the
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DNA structures back in the Middle East that could have happened I understand that but I said I these people don't look very
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Jewish to me and I think they look very Jewish back in those days you should love Jewish people my favorite people he's called the king of the
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Jews now whether you think there's a future for Israel or not we have much in debt for the Jewish people when you think of any
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Bible chapters any Bible books that weren't written by Jews it could be
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I just don't know you know where that where it says that well that's a very good question a pre
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Jew you know these days in evangelicalism if you meet someone who's not a Christian the churches that will do anything including watering down the gospel to get people to accept
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Christ they call these people actually Genesis was not written by Jew because Moses well just depends when he wrote it well no he not even then we don't have
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Jews until Abraham wasn't a Jew for that matter he is the first few but he was a pagan worshiper
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Job yeah he couldn't have been a Jew if it was the first book chronologically written okay
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I think that's it for moving that movie time tonight I give thumbs up for Luther and passion I don't know okay yes the passion here's here's what's going to happen
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Mel Gibson is kind of a fundamentalist Roman Catholic I'm glad he's made the movie but I'm guessing from what
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I've read is that you'll see tons of focus on the human suffering that Jesus incurred which will be horrible from beard ripping out to mocking to doing all those horrible things and spears in the side and discouraging the
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New Testament says that you know he didn't even he didn't even look like a man you couldn't recognize it so you just see this this it kind of thing so they'll focus on that they will not focus on what they should focus on and that is even though that was bad the worst thing about the crucifixion was not the crucifixion many people were getting crucified thousands and thousands of people got crucified and what makes the difference between a crucifixion what made the difference between Peter's crucifixion upside down according to tradition and Christ's crucifixion is that only one was bearing the wrath of God in full strength and so that's the real issue when it comes to that and I don't think that they'll get that although if it spurs godly conversation you know
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I want to go see it okay yes Fred yes that's good just repeat it for the tape he could have been a
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Hellenistic Jew a Greek Jew but he was most likely a Gentile and then Paul in Colossians 4 gives him some commendation for his service with other
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Gentiles let's see Aristarchus Barnabas his cousin
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Mark good so it doesn't give us any clue though about mother okay
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Doug I think that's a great point and you can even take it back further that just sprung in my mind think about when
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Herod was trying to kill the little baby and the only supernatural work of God could intercept all that and having fulfilled the prophecies of out of Egypt you know
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I'm gonna raise my son and all those things and if Jesus is the Messiah certainly Satan wanted to kill that baby before that baby could have come oh really that's interesting you ever think about that a church
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Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis Minnesota is going to go to the movie theater and stand outside with little tracks about literally what did happen don't be obnoxious
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I'm gonna forget one day somebody came up to me I was walking around Santa Monica in the big outdoor mall there and someone came up and said did you see
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Terminator no
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I guess I wasn't and I said yeah I did Terminator 2 was right there at the movie theater and they said there's a real
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Terminator wow what's that in your soda and that was his intro to and it's
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Satan I thought you know what I can't complain
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I'm not down here evangelizing I'm down here eating pommes frites you know dipped in mayo no
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I know excellent he is the one who gave up his life he has authority to take it down and to raise it up and so in the study who killed
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Christ you can find out you say it's a Trinitarian my spirit and he died they didn't have to go by and break his legs right he was already dead well we did not get to I was planning on it we did not get to seventh
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Adventism cult our Christian denomination the key for Christian sanctification so I think what we'll do is we'll do that next
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Sunday night I think we'll push the prayer time to another service and we'll finish up some of these questions but I always like questions and answers because if you don't like one topic just wait a few minutes and then you're off to the next one and hopefully it helps us interact with unbelievers and it's amazing to find out the
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Bible has answers you can study them it's interesting I want to be like Luther when he was told you master that one book we are the people of one book boy
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I was blown away when Don Whitman said in Psalm 119 people like oh you worship the
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Bible and everything you don't worship Christ boy that was very very Heavenly Father what a joy it is tonight dig into your word reason in the
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Scriptures and dialogue and spur one another on I prayed that for tonight I pray that this time of question and answers would spur people to study to own the