Believe the I AM | Sermon 05/21/2023

Apologia Utah

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Please turn with me and your Bibles to the Gospel according to John. Gospel according to John.

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We're going to be in chapter 8. You know what, you guys,

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I have decided that I want you all to get into your Bibles more. Whether it's with the app that you have or your physical

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Bible. There's also a bunch of ESVs stacked outside. We're going to, from now on, not going to use slides.

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I think it would be good just to be in the Bible. We're going to at least try it out. So you won't be seeing any slides up today.

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But we're going to be in verses 21 through 30. The Gospel according to John, chapter 8.

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The title of the sermon today is, Believe the I Am. Believe the

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I Am. So starting in verse 21, the

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Gospel according to John, chapter 8. Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. Then he said again to them, I go away and you will seek me and will die in your sin.

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And where I am going, you cannot come. So the Jews were saying, surely he will not kill himself, will he?

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Since he says, where I am going, you cannot come. And he was saying to them, you are from below,

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I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins.

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For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So they were saying to him, who are you?

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Jesus said to them, what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you.

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But he who sent me is true. And the things which I heard from him, these I speak to the world.

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They did not realize that he had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, when you lift up the

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Son of Man, then you will know that I am he. And I do nothing of my own initiative, but I speak these things as the

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Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

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As he spoke these things, many came to believe in him, thus ending the reading of God's holy inspired word.

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Let's pray, church. Lord God, I need you today.

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I need you to help teach your people by your spirit. Lord, I need you,

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God, to help us to rightly divide your words, to understand them properly,

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Lord. God, please teach your people today. Illuminate the scriptures for them and for myself.

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And Lord, as we get to the end of the sermon today, Lord, would you please impress upon us what you want us to know, and what we should treasure, and what we should hold on to moving forward from here.

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God, let us be challenged in the ways that we need to be challenged. Lord, help us to be encouraged in the ways that we need to be encouraged.

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Lord, always build us up. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, so many people want to divorce the

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New Testament from the Old Testament. They want to divorce Jesus and his ministry from the

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Old Testament. This includes pastors, theologians, evangelical figures out there.

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They want to, quote -unquote, unhitch the Old Testament, as it has been popularly said.

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But this is so very false in so many ways, and we could do a whole sermon series on why the

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Old Testament is essential to our faith. But, I think one of the most amazing things about going through the

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Gospel of John is seeing how Jesus is the direct fulfillment of this

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Old Testament. All the types, all the shadows, all the persons and prophecies,

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He is the fulfillment of those things. And I think to disregard the

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Old Testament would be very much erroneous. I would take great issue with that.

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I think John would take great issue with that as well. You see, Exodus has been a great book in the

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Pentateuch that has shown up more than once in our study of the Gospel of John.

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It's been one of the main sources for John to demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ, the

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Son of the Living God. You remember, that's what John's aim was. But there are even more things beyond this.

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Even in our text today, we will see Jesus calls

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Himself the Son of Man. We've seen that a few times. That happens more often in the

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Gospel of Matthew. But we've seen it a few times so far. This title or phrase,

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Son of Man, occurs 107 times in the Old Testament. And of those 107 times that Son of Man is mentioned, a whopping 93 times occur in Ezekiel.

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This apocalyptic prophet and exile watchman, Ezekiel, was called

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Son of Man. Ezekiel's ministry was by far one of the hardest ministries we've seen in the

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Old Testament. He, if you remember, if you read the book of Ezekiel, he had to live out the judgments on Israel in proxy.

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He had to sometimes lay down on his side for so many days, this way, that way, pointing to the judgment that's coming from Babylon.

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He had to cook bread over cow dung, pointing to the fact that the

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Israelites would have to eat things in a profane way.

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They would not get to eat kosher foods in exile. And he had to do all these things.

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He even lost his wife. He lost his wife because God had lost

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His bride. And so Jesus, of course, as the divine

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Son of Man, lives out our judgment in proxy. Instead of you and me being crucified and having

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God's wrath poured out on us, He will be crucified and have

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God's wrath poured upon Him. But beyond this, the prophet

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Ezekiel was called by God to also be someone who warns.

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He warns the people so much of the judgment to come. Actually, if you want, go to Ezekiel chapter 3 real quick.

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Ezekiel chapter 3. Just to look at this before we start our main passage.

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Ezekiel chapter 3. That's the major prophets after Isaiah and Jeremiah.

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Ezekiel chapter 3, look at 16 through 21. Actually, Brian brought this up a couple studies ago.

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It says, At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of Man, I have appointed you as a watchman to the house of Israel.

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Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me. You see that?

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Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, warn the people from me. When I say to the wicked, you will surely die, and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood

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I will require on your hands. Yet, if you have warned the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, and you have delivered yourself.

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Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, I place an obstacle before him, he will die.

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Since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin. Do you see that? He shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood

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I will require at your hand. However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning, and you have delivered yourself.

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So you may have recognized some similarities between that passage in Ezekiel and even some of ours.

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You see, God giving the Son of Man the words to proclaim to the people, the

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Son of Man warning the people, and it's saying that they will die in their sins.

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Very, very similar. Jesus will be the one that warns.

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The words which the Father gives Him, He speaks. Unless you believe that I am

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He, you will die in your sins. God tells that to Ezekiel, that they'll die in their sins.

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And the most substantial difference, however, is that Jesus won't fail to do this.

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Ezekiel, just a man, isn't able to warn every single person who's part of Israel.

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He won't be able to warn every single one of them. He'll proclaim, he'll try to be faithful, but Jesus will be faithful.

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He will do this perfectly. Jesus warns through His Word. He can live up to this calling.

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And what's amazing is, did you see, it says Ezekiel, if you don't warn the people who are in their iniquity, if you don't warn them, they'll die in their sins, and their blood will be on your hands.

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And that's the amazing thing is, Jesus, the Son of Man, the great warner and watchman, will be one who will not only do this perfectly, but He will put their blood on His hands.

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He will take the blood of the people. It will cost Him. He'll give His life, despite His innocence.

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So that's our introduction. Let's move forward into the text, verse 21. Then He said again to them,

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I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.

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As far as we know, Jesus is still speaking with the Jewish authorities and the crowd that we saw last week in the temple.

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He will go away to where? We see that further explained in verse 23.

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The Lord of heaven and earth declares, though, that they will die in their sin. How they live, which is currently in sin, will also be how they die.

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By the way, this says sin in the singular, and so it could be pointing to the sin of unbelief.

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You will die in your sin. What sin? Possibly unbelief. We know from the prologue, chapter 1 of the

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Gospel according to John, the veil of eternity was pulled back. We saw that Jesus is the divine and eternal

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Word who became flesh. He is from where God dwells. And that's where He'll return.

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He's from where God dwells, and that's where He will return. But once these people die in their sin,

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He says they cannot come, they cannot follow. They will not go to the place where God's presence is.

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He makes it clear. In fact, standing next to Jesus might be the closest they'll ever get to being in God's presence.

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It might even be the last time they're in God's presence, standing before Jesus. And so this is more foreboding and terrifying than you could ever imagine.

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He says, I go away and you will seek Me. Jesus is saying that the

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Messiah has come, and they reject Him. And so after He leaves, they'll keep seeking the

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Messiah. Do you get that? He says, after I leave, you'll keep seeking Me. He doesn't mean

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He Himself, He means the Messiah. When I leave, you believe that I'm not the

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Christ, and you'll keep looking for the Christ. And that's what's happening to this day.

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Ethnic Israel, ethnic Jews are still looking for the Messiah. They're still looking, they're still looking.

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They've gone centuries. And He says, I've gone, and you'll keep looking. But He came already, the

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Messiah has come. They've just rejected Him. The Christ they want doesn't exist.

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They won't see it, but they'll die in their sin, He says. However, there's something much more hopeful for all of us in Christ.

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Jesus tells His disciples in John chapter 13, verse 33, He says, Little children,

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I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me. He's telling this to His disciples.

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You will seek Me. And as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.

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But here's the difference. Chapter 13, verse 36, Jesus says this to His disciples, and by extension all of us,

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Where I go though, you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow later.

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You will follow later. And praise God for that. What a blessed promise.

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If you follow Christ now, you will follow Him later to where He's at.

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If you come to Christ now, you'll come to Christ later. That's the blessed promise.

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You may not be there with Him now, but you will be there with Him later. But they wonder, where will

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He go? The Jews speculate that Jesus is not talking about anywhere on earth.

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Remember? They thought previously that He intended to do ministry among the

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Greeks and reach the Jews among the dispersion. We saw that in the last chapter.

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But guys, don't mistake this. They're mocking Him now. They're not serious.

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Verse 22, surely He will not kill Himself, will He? Because in their minds, there is no place

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Jesus can go that they can't. But they're very wrong. Very, very wrong.

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They are speculating, but it is doubtful that they are truly speculating that He will kill

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Himself. They're actually just mocking Him. This statement, He will not go and kill

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Himself, will He? Is more about slandering Jesus than trying to determine where He's going to go in the future.

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Because they know in Jewish culture, suicide was considered reprehensible in the act of a crazy person.

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They are essentially trying to get everyone to think, wow, this guy must be insane.

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That's what they're trying to do. Oh, is He going to go and kill Himself? They're trying to discredit Him. This is an insane man.

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They don't really believe that He would do that. No, He will not kill

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Himself. But, this is ironically prophetic. He spoke to them at the first Passover account in John chapter 2.

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You will destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Speaking of His body.

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You, the Jewish authorities. He tells them, you're going to kill Me, but I will raise

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Myself up in three days. So it's like, is this man going to kill

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Himself? Jesus could say, no, you'll do that yourselves, but I'll raise

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Myself back to life. They are harbingers of death, but He is the light of life.

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We saw. His submission to the Father and love for humanity will motivate

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Him to lay down His life, but it is not, by any means, suicide. Jesus doesn't even address their statements, if you look in your

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Bible. He knows that their statements about killing

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Himself only serve as slander. He doesn't even address it. Instead, He demonstrates the stark contrast between who

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He is and who they are, based on two opposing realities. Verse 23 in your

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Bibles. And He was saying to them, you are from below,

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I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world.

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That is to say, they are from below heaven, and He is above the earth.

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Jesus is not of this world. They are of this world, though they are created, they are natural, they are carnal, they are fallen.

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Jesus, though, is eternal, uncreated, supernatural, and righteous.

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Jesus is the light. They are the darkness. It is said in John 3 that they love the darkness rather than the light.

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He is the living God with living waters, and they are dead men with bitter waters.

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Carson says that they are of a fallen moral order in conscious rebellion to their

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Creator, while Jesus is of a heavenly righteous order in conscious obedience to the

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Father. So what can help them? He says, you are dead in sin.

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Nothing can help them now except being born again, being taught of God, as he said, and recognizing that Jesus is the light of life, shining in darkness.

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Nothing else can help them now. Notice, I find it interesting,

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Jesus isn't alluding to a pre -mortal existence like Mormon doctrine proposes. He doesn't say, you began from where I was from, but now you're of this world, and you can't come back to the world where you were before.

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He doesn't say that. They were created upon the earth. And Jesus made the earth.

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So Jesus is actually trying to make a strong point that they couldn't be any more opposite.

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Now we come to one of the most pointed warnings in all of sacred

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Scripture. You've got to see this in your Bibles. John 8, verse 24.

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This is serious. Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am

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He, you will die in your sins. He says, that's why

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I said to you, you will die in your sins. It goes from sin, by the way. Do you see the first verse was sin singular?

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And now in your Bibles you should see sins plural. You will die now in your sins.

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This shows that the sin of unbelief results in multitudes of sins and various types of them in the unbeliever's life.

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Unbelief is the sort of fountain in which transgressions flow from there.

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The sin of unbelief will give birth to so much more sin. Therefore, the only solution to the sin of unbelief, which gives birth to so many more sins, the only remedy is belief.

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Belief. And that belief has an object to it. It's not simply belief in some sort of higher power.

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It's not some sort of belief that there is good out there. This belief has an object.

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And so the only way to remedy our position, the position of being on the world and of the world, in other words, fallen and sinful, one must believe by faith in who?

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In Christ. In Christ. And how does He articulate that if you look in your

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Bibles? Again, He says, For unless you believe, and in the

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Greek, ego eimi, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

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This is the third time He has said something about die in your sin. They are thrice warned of what not believing in Christ will incur.

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Now you know we've been, as I said, we've been talking about the Exodus a lot lately with bread and water and rocks and lights and pillars of fire.

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Jesus is fulfilling all those things. But I just want to explain

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I am once more in case you haven't been with us this whole time in John.

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You may be wondering about that statement, I am, if you look in your Bible. It says, I am He, but ego eimi means something much greater.

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You see, Exodus chapter 3, Moses goes to the mountain of God.

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The Lord appeared in a blazing fire from a bush, but the bush was not consumed.

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Right? And God called out to Moses as Moses approached the fire that was not consumed with the bush.

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And God calls out, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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Then it says, after seeing the affliction of His people, the Lord said in Exodus 3,

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I have come down to deliver them. I have come down.

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This God in Exodus 3 is from above. What did

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Jesus say? I am from above. I have come down.

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Jesus is the same. This God says, I have come down to deliver

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My people. Jesus says, I am from above. I have come down. He also came down for His people.

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They are the one God. Moses agreed to be God's instrument to save the people from oppression.

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And before he left, Moses asked this, When the sons of Israel ask what the

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God of their father's name is, what shall I say to them? One of the most famous passages,

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Exodus 3, verse 14, God then says to Moses, this is what you will tell them,

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I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent you.

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I am has sent you. God, the only God, His name is

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I am. That's what we say when you hear Andrew or Eric or Dusty read from the

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LSB and it says Yahweh, that's the Hebrew of that word I am. I am.

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That's His name. So when Jesus says, if you don't believe, and He's pointing to Himself, when

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Jesus says, if you don't believe that I am, you will die in your sins,

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He is saying He is God. He is Yahweh. He is the

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One who has come down and will deliver His people. Not to mention, an

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I am statement with the pronouncement of them dying in their sins means that Jesus is so divine and so powerful that He can make declarations of judgment.

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He can say that. He says, you'll die in your sins if you don't believe that I am. He has this power.

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The Father, as we saw in John 5, gave Jesus the rights to judge. He is judge.

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He has the right to power of life and death. The right to pardon or condemn.

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That belongs to Jesus now. The I am. You know,

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I don't think Jesus is only alluding to Exodus 3 though. It's not only the burning bush passage.

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I think He's pointing to even more Scriptures about the Lord. Now I can't...

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I'm going to go through these quick. You don't even have enough time to go through these yourself. You can write them down real quick.

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Excuse me. Listen to this. Deuteronomy 32 .39 See now that I am

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He, and there is no God besides Me. Isaiah 41 .4

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I the Lord am the first and the last. I am He. Isaiah 43 .10

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So that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no

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God formed, and neither shall there be after Me. Isaiah 43 .13

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Even from eternity I am He. This is just a few of many.

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Jesus says if you don't believe that I am He, I am He, I am

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He, you will die in your sins. And what's amazing is we see the

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Trinity in this. Because God says in that Isaiah 43 .10

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passage, He says there was no God formed before Me, there was no God after Me, and yet Jesus is

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God. And so these two truths are held up and suspended in midair. There's only one God, and Jesus is also

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God, and so is the Father, and so is the Holy Spirit. And that's where we understand the Trinity. Those two truths are realities in the

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Word of God. We, in our finite minds, don't even know how that connects.

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I won't even begin to try to articulate to you how ontologically, metaphysically, how that even works.

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But they're true. The Bible demonstrates it. Jesus is the I Am. He is God. But there's only one

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God. There's three holy persons of the Trinity. He says

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I am He. If you don't believe this man is

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God and can do all the things this one God can do, and if you don't believe He is of the same nature of this one

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God, then you will die in your sins. That's what He says. Why would

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He simply say, if you don't believe I am He, you will die in your sins? Why is it so important to Jesus that you believe that He is

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I Am? Why is it so important that we understand who

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Jesus is properly? And that's the question everyone's got to ask themselves.

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Who are they worshiping? And if it isn't

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Jesus, they need to repent. If you're not worshiping Jesus and you're worshiping a false god,

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He says to repent. It's hard to take, but He says you'll die in your sins.

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And if you say that you worship Jesus, people get mad with us on the street because we say, which

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Jesus? Because even 2 Corinthians 11 says there are different Jesuses who will come, people who masquerade as Christ.

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Jesus said people who will pop up out of nowhere and they'll think it was the return of Jesus and they'll say,

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I am He. But He says don't believe them. And so why is it so important? It's so important because He is

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God. And to articulate and believe that He is anything else than God is an offense to Him.

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Jesus wants you to believe that He is the

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I Am. He shares all the same attributes and being as Yahweh.

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He is all at once indistinguishable from Yahweh and yet distinct at the same time.

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Indistinguishable and distinct. Jesus is not the Father, and the Father is not

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Jesus. The Holy Spirit is not Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. They're distinct, and yet they're one

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God. One God. This is the doctrine of the

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Trinity. For anyone else to apply this title or phrase to himself, for anyone else to call themselves the

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I Am, Yahweh, would be blasphemous and carry an anathema. I was even watching some apologetic videos and these

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Muslims kept saying, show me once where Jesus says He is God. Show me once and I'll believe

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He is God. And we've been going through John, we're only in chapter 8, and we've seen it,

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I don't know what, over 100 times now? Jesus saying He is God. This being one of the premier passages for that.

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And look, if He wasn't God, if Jesus wasn't God, for Him to say these things would go against His love for His Father, His allegiance to His Father.

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They say, well, He's not God, but He's a prophet. Well, then why does Jesus receive worship and welcome it?

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Why does He call Himself the I Am? Why does He call Himself Lord? Why does

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He do these things? Because He wouldn't go against His Father, He wouldn't blaspheme

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His Father. It's because there is a reality of Jesus that we are to understand.

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Jesus is different. This is too serious to say if He were once created or different from the being of God previously.

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He wasn't. But they miss it completely. Verse 27, look in your

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Bibles. Who are you? Now, is this simply confusion?

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According to one commentator, the Greek word order here makes the you to be more emphatic.

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So as to say it like this, the Jews could be saying, who are you? Who are you to say such things as that?

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That's possibly what they're saying here. Who are you to make a claim like that? And He says, that which

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I have been saying from the very beginning, if you had ears to hear, you would hear.

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You see, He has not changed His message. He's not changed His claims. And you might be noticing a pattern in the

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Gospel according to John, because Jesus continues to elaborate on things

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He's previously said and just continues to build on them. We've kind of seen that.

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Jesus keeps showing that He is the I Am. He's not changed His message. He is God. When He says, that which

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I have said from the beginning, that word beginning is arche. And if you remember back to John 1, in arche ein halagas, in the beginning was the

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Word. Jesus is even pointing to that. That means He's reminding us.

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If they knew Him, they would know the Son of God's words from the beginning of creation.

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Who is He? He is all at the same time the Creator who spoke all things into existence with power and might, while at the same time,

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He is the incarnate Son of God who has spoken with divine authority and power since His ministry began.

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Who is He? Who is this Jesus? He is the

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One that walks on water. He is the One that quiets a storm. He is the

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One who calls dead people out of the grave. He is the One who heals the broken. He goes to the least deserving and He offers them treasure.

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He is the One who went to the grave so that you'll never go in it. That's who

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He is. Verse 26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent me is true and the things which

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I heard from Him, these things I speak to the world. What He speaks, since He speaks of the world and that their deeds are evil, according to chapter 3, when

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Jesus speaks, when God speaks about the reality of the world, they're going to come off as judgments because He's absolute.

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Does that make sense? If an absolute being, if God speaks about the reality of something, then that means

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His words can even come off as judgments. That's what He says. I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you.

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He's declaring things about this world and because of the Jews' sin, Jesus' declarations land on them.

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It hits home to them. In fact, if you look through the rest of the Gospels, it's amazing.

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Jesus speaks on things that they think is secret. These Pharisees do all these evil things and they have all this evil in their heart and Jesus hits on the things that they think no one knows.

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And it hits home. This will impact everyone. You see, everything

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Jesus says will either later vindicate a person or condemn them. It's one or the other.

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It just depends if they're a blood -bought believer or not. So we talked about Exodus 3, the burning bush.

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Think now to Exodus 4. Exodus 4. It says, Then Moses said to the

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Lord, Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.

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The Lord said to him, Who made man's mouth? You see, Moses was concerned.

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He's called to be this deliverer, but he says, I'm not an eloquent speaker. I don't speak very well.

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I'm slow of speech. I'm slow of tongue. He was worried. In fact, you could say that he, in this moment, looked more to himself than the

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God who can speak through him. And so the Lord says, Who made man's mouth? Are not

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I the one who makes a man mute or deaf or the seeing or the blind?

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Is it not I, the Lord? So Yahweh then says, The Lord says, Now then go, and I, even

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I, will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you are to say.

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Teach you what you are to say. You see, a little bit later, the Lord says,

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I will speak to you, and then you will speak to the people. Can you see the parallels here?

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Jesus now is the true Deliverer. He will take His people from the slavery of sin as an exodus away from sin into the promised land of salvation and life eternal.

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Jesus is the true Savior. He is from the true God. And the Father will give

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Him words to speak, and He won't shrink back in fear like Moses. He won't shrink back in His speaking.

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Jesus speaks boldly and with confidence. He speaks with authority.

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And this is what's amazing. The verse says He's not going to just speak to Israel, but it says to the whole world.

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The Father tells me what to speak, and I tell it to the whole world. You see, you've got to think about this.

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In the first century, the people have been without a prophet of God for hundreds of years.

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They have been waiting to hear from God. And here comes Jesus. Heaven has touched down on the earth once again.

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The words from God are once more given to men. And if we're too quick, we can miss this.

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The things which I heard from Him, these things I speak to the world.

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And this is part of not being in darkness. The Lord has lit the way by speaking to the world.

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The Almighty and transcendent God has spoken, and He has done so in such a way that mere creatures can understand.

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You see, atheists go, how can your God be God when you have an

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English translation of your Bible? He spoke to men. They'll say,

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God spoke to men in men's tongue. And they'll say, fancy. They'll scoff.

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But I actually see it the other way. That's the most amazing thing, is that this transcendent and powerful

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God who's over everything, over the whole universe, who can give us His words, and He gives them in such a way that we can actually understand them.

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That's incredible. He can bring them down to a level that we can grasp by His Spirit.

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It's incredible. That's what's amazing. Sure, He's got hidden things.

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He says that He's not revealed. The secret things belong to the Lord. Yeah, there's things that we don't know about God.

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There's probably millions of things we don't know that God can do, but He's demonstrated who

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He is in His Word, and He's delivered them in such a way that we can understand.

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Imagine if you had a child. Some of you do. And you spoke to your son or daughter.

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Actually, for the sake of the example, imagine having a son or daughter and you never spoke to them.

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You never speak to them. You never have since they were born. They don't know what you sound like. They've never heard the calm of your voice.

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They've never heard the nurture in your voice. You would be impersonal to them.

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They would never learn instruction on how to live, what to do, who they are.

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And that's the amazing thing is God created us, and He didn't withhold

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His voice. We hear His voice. He's spoken to us. We hear the love.

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We hear the nurture. We hear the care. We have instructions for life. Best of all, we have words that show us how to get to heaven and be with Him.

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He gave us a map to heaven. It's right there. He spoke the world into existence, then

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He spoke to us. Verse 27, they did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the

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Father. John adds this in as a piece of narrative. The Jews right then didn't understand that Jesus was speaking about the

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Father. They're still only considering what's fleshly, what's physical.

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Now we, again, we've been invited to see behind the veil. We know that Jesus is eternal.

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We know where He's from. But in this moment, they don't. We know the relationship between the

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Father and the Son, but they are unaware. They didn't know He was speaking about the Father. So let's go to our final verses for the evening.

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Look at verse 28 in your Bibles. So Jesus said,

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When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. And I do nothing of my own initiative, but I speak these things as the

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Father taught me. Essentially, when you lift up the

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Son of Man, on what? On what? How is the Son of Man lifted up?

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On the cross. On the cross. And eventually, back to heaven.

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Back to heaven. He says, When you lift the

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Son of Man up, on the cross, and when He goes back home, you will know that I am

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He. Now He's not saying that everyone who witnesses the crucifixion and ascension will be necessarily converted.

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But He's speaking to a mixture of Jewish people, Jewish crowd, Jewish authorities.

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He's speaking, in a way, to all of us. He's saying, You'll know me because of the cross.

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Isn't that amazing? Jesus doesn't say, You'll know that I am

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He. You'll know that I'm the Messiah by me coming down from heaven with a golden warrior.

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What am I even saying? You know, a soldier's outfit. I'm not going to come down with armor, with gold. His eyes are like flaming fire.

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Like many diadems, it says. It says the blood of His enemies are filled up to the bridles of the horse.

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We see these amazing descriptions in the Revelation. And He's not going to come down like that.

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He's not going to come down there in the first century and all these trumpets will sound and you'll hear a voice out of heaven that says,

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This is the Messiah! And Jesus comes down. That's not how He's going to come. That's not how

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He came. This is the most amazing piece of history ever.

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God became man. God humbled Himself to the point that He lived with a poor family.

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He lived with a poor family in Galilee, a place that is despised by people.

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And this mighty Messiah, who He says we'll see later in John, He says,

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I could call on 12 legions of angels. That's what

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I think, 144 ,000 angels. I could call on all these angel warriors to protect

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Me from going to the cross. That's not how He'll do it. He'll go to the cross.

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He'll be lifted up. Many want to know who

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Jesus is. They even just asked, who are you? And what He is saying is that His full revealing,

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His open disclosure will be when He is lifted up. And lifted up has an intentional double meaning here.

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He will be lifted up on the cross with death, suffering, anguish, wrath, absorption, while lifted up is also glory and life and resurrection and perfection and going back to heaven.

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You see, both crucifixion and His ascension encapsulate

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His glorification. At the lowest part of His life and ministry, hanging on a cross like a criminal, that will be the beginning of the most amazing glory anyone has ever seen.

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One commentator says, the sun is revealed at the cross. While the world intends for the cross to be its final word against Jesus.

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You hear that? While the world intends for the cross to be its final word against Jesus.

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Dead. Dead. Here lies a dead man who never changed the world. That's the word the world wants.

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In reality, the cross will be God's final word about Jesus. That's what he's saying here.

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There you'll see who I am. The coronation of Jesus as the divine authority, the judge, the king, and most of all, our

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Savior. Savior of the world. By the way, when he says,

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I do nothing of my own initiative, don't read into that and see, I do nothing.

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He doesn't say, I do nothing. He says, I do nothing of my own initiative.

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And in this verse, this isn't demonstrating the limitations of Jesus, but actually the oneness that He has with His Father.

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We've talked about this term before. Functional subordination. As the divine

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Son of God took on humanity, part of His mission here on earth was to be submissive to the

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Father while maintaining full equality. Full equality. And it says that He will be taught by God.

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See that? It says, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing of my own initiative, but I speak these things as the

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Father taught me. What does He mean by that? In this context, didasko, or teach, would be better translated, instructed.

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You see, it's not that the Son was missing some sort of knowledge that the Father had to clue

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Him in on. It's that He was instructed on what to teach. What did we just see in Exodus 4 about Moses, the first deliverer, the human deliverer?

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That He was instructed on what to speak. Now Christ, the better deliverer, the divine deliverer, will also be given instruction on what to speak.

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This is a triune operation. The Son does not act and cannot act alone from the

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Father and the Holy Spirit. And so the mission of Jesus is facilitated by the providential will of the

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Father. And how does all this happen between the

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Father and Son? How is He instructed by the Father? How does

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He continue in His mission? Verse 29.

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This is how Jesus goes through this. And He who sent

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Me is with Me. He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left

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Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. He is with Me.

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Jesus says, the Father is with Me. He speaks of a divine reality that's not just happening right there in time and space.

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When He speaks, the Father is with Me, He's speaking of a reality that has been from eternity past.

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And it's continued. And it's never been broken. Jesus says, the

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Father is with Me. That's a reality of eternity. He'll never be disconnected from the holy persons of the

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Trinity, from His Father. The Father's never left Him. And the relationship is not just Jesus receiving from the

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Father, but it's also reciprocal. What does it say? It says, Jesus always does what pleases the

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Father. The unity in the Trinity is not just in their presence with one another, but also in their roles and functions.

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You see, when each person of the Holy Trinity does what they've willed to do in their roles and their actions, they are most pleased with each other and they testify then in their oneness.

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Thus, He is not alone. And that's a comfort. In fact,

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I will argue that there is no Scriptural support to say that the Son and the

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Father lost connection at the cross. I don't believe that the Son and the

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Father ever lost connection at the cross. To think that they could lose divine connection, triune union.

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We're talking about the very nature of God. How can one of the persons of the Trinity be split off from the

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Trinity? I can't fathom it. As much as I love the hymn

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How Deep the Father's Love for Us, I disagree with the lyrics The Father Turned His Face Away.

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In fact, Psalm 22, this is what's so funny, is it Isaac Watts who wrote that?

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I forget. They should have looked at Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is the premier psalm about the crucifixion of Jesus.

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And what does it say in verse 24 of Psalm 22? It says, Nor has He hidden His face from Him.

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Nor has the Father hidden His face from the Son. They didn't lose connection.

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When Jesus says on the cross, Why have you forsaken Me? He's trying to point us back to Psalm 22 that He is the

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One, He is the Christ who was to die on that cross. The Father didn't turn

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His face away. In fact, that's what pleased the

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Father. That's what pleased the Father. The cross. How else does

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Jesus please the Father? Matthew 3 says, After Jesus was baptized, He came up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened.

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And He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Jesus. And behold, a voice came out of the heavens and said,

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This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. At the

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Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus transformed and transfigured in the sky and they saw

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Jesus in His divinity, it says, While they were speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them.

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And behold, a voice came out of the cloud and said, This is My beloved Son, with whom

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I am well pleased. The Father says, Listen to Him. And so the

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Father is well pleased in His Son. And I believe in the mission that Jesus was sent on, the

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Father took pleasure in every single bit of it. And you know what? I've heard it said before, many atheists and agnostics think that's sadistic.

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The Father took pleasure in all that Jesus went through? That's sadistic. That's sick.

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That's what Scripture says. Knowing even what the suffering of Jesus would amount to.

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You see, the Father is proud of His Son. He honors His Son for His accomplishments and mission.

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Mission accomplished. Well done, Son. And the glorious results of the

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Son showcase the awesomeness of the Father. And this is most seen in the cross.

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That faithful day, the Father knew it would be unfathomable for His Son.

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His Son sweat blood that day in His humanity. But His Son, totally

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God and totally man, experienced real pain, real anguish, and real suffering.

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But just as they planned, just as they planned from eternity past,

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Jesus carried out the mission. And what does Isaiah 53 say? Of that moment when

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Jesus is hanging there on the cross, taking the wrath of His Father that was meant for you and me at that pinnacle of existence of this life, pinnacle of history,

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Jesus is on the cross, Isaiah 53 .10 says, not that the

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Lord turned His face away, not that they lost divine connection, but once again, the

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Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.

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If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong

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His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. You see, not only was the

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Father pleased to crush Him, but the good pleasure of the Lord continued to prosper. It continued through the cross.

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And He was laid in a tomb. And that good pleasure of God exploded out of that tomb as Christ rose again.

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Exaltation. Now every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess

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Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of who? God the Father. The glory of the

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Son is the glory of the Father, and the holy persons of the blessed Trinity took so much joy in the cross and resurrection.

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And it confounds all those who think they're more clever than God. You're telling me that the

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Son of God dying on a cross pays for sin? Yeah, right. 1 Corinthians 1, for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know

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God, God was well pleased. Once again, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached of the cross to save those who believe.

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God was well pleased that it wasn't this great scholar who found the way.

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I found the holy grail. I found the way to heaven. God was well pleased that it looked like it was a common man hanging on a common criminal's cross, dying for sin.

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God was well pleased in the foolishness, He says, of the message preached. Verse 30 says, as He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.

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Last verse. As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. Even with limited understanding among the people, the

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Lord Jesus keeps growing the number of people who believe in Him. Many also believed during the

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Feast of Tabernacles. We saw that. But this also happened in John 2.

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And what did we see? That turned out to be shallow faith. So it says many people believed.

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What is the substance of their belief? That remains to be seen. And we'll see that more as we move on through John.

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You know, the way that I saw a lot of preachers preach this passage was evangelistically.

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And I think that's very needed.

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It's very needed to preach this in an evangelistic way. I think even in the context, it's evangelistic in nature in many ways.

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It says, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. You must believe. But I want to conclude the sermon for today in relation to verse 29.

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You see, we saw the things that the Son did that pleased the Father. What I would like to do real quickly in our application of this sermon is to consider how humanity may please

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God. How do humans please God? Jesus says in the

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Gospel of Luke that heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. God is well pleased when one sinner repents.

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God is pleased when the spiritually dead come to life. The Lord says in Ezekiel 18,

01:00:01

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Rather, I take pleasure in that He turn from His ways and live.

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God takes pleasure in that. This is the merciful heart of our

01:00:15

God for unbelieving humanity. That's the unbeliever.

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How can the unbeliever please God? He can't. But God will do it.

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And He's well pleased with them turning to Him. Now, what about the believer?

01:00:40

What about those who are already in Christ? Do we please God? Do we please

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God? Is it only what Jesus does? Well, it's only what

01:00:53

Jesus does for salvation. I'll tell you that. But how do we please

01:00:58

God? Now that we're believers, bought, paid for, how do we please God?

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How do we follow the example of our Lord where it says that He pleased God in what

01:01:08

He did? Let's take a look at that. Again, first we must recognize that we can't please

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God. And now, in Christ, we can.

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Before we could not, now we can. Romans 8 .8 says, And those who are in the flesh cannot please

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God. Hebrews 11 .6 says, And without faith it is impossible to please

01:01:38

God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek

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Him. And so now, by faith and in the

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Spirit, as Paul says in Ephesians 5, walk as children of light, trying to learn what is pleasing to the

01:01:58

Lord. That's what Ephesians 5 says. Try now to learn what is pleasing to the

01:02:04

Lord. Seeing that we're saved and brought into the light, we ought to want to please the

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Lord. We ought to want to now. Not because we're meriting or earning anything.

01:02:17

We can't. We know that. But we've been changed. Our desires are new. We ought to learn, as Paul says, on how to please

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God as believers. Ask yourselves, do you want to please the

01:02:35

Lord? Are you trying to learn how to please the Lord now that you're saved? We should. Paul said in Philippians 4 that their church's financial gift to him was, once again, well -pleasing to God.

01:02:51

Well -pleasing to God. When we care for the needs of the saints, Paul needed help.

01:02:57

He was facing imprisonment. He had almost nothing to his name. And the church at Philippi brought money together and they cared for his need.

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It says God was well -pleased by that. And so how are we caring for our brothers and sisters and for those in need?

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We see that that pleases God. Colossians 1 .10

01:03:19

says, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please

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Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

01:03:34

Bearing fruit in every good work. All the good works that God has prepared for you to walk in, as Ephesians 2 says, it pleases

01:03:43

Him when you bear fruit in them. And that's His prerogative. We talked about that when

01:03:49

I preached in January on Philippians 1 .12 -13. He says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and then to make sure we don't get it wrong,

01:03:59

He says, for it is God who is at work in you to will and to work for His good pleasure.

01:04:06

It's this amazing thing in this Christian life where you're saved by grace, you're sanctified by grace, you're brought to glory by grace, but you get to walk in those things.

01:04:17

You get to walk in them. That's what this pleasing God stuff is all about. It pleases

01:04:26

God when you increase in your knowledge of Him. It says here, walk in a manner worthy of the

01:04:32

Lord, pleasing Him in all respects, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Are you stagnant today?

01:04:41

Are you comfortable with hallmark God? Well, you should get into the

01:04:47

Bible God. Right? It pleases

01:04:53

Him when you get to know Him more. You hear that? It pleases God when you get to know

01:04:59

Him more. Proverbs 15 .8 says, the prayer of the upright is His delight. God delights in your prayers.

01:05:07

Don't think you're the only beneficiary in prayer. God loves it too. In Revelation it says that the prayers of the saints are like incense, or like a fragrant aroma coming up to His nostrils.

01:05:23

Why is this so often the most neglected thing for a believer? It says God is pleased.

01:05:30

It's His delight when you pray. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be highly theological.

01:05:37

God wants you to talk to Him, and He's pleased when you do. Colossians 3 .20

01:05:46

says, Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well -pleasing to the

01:05:53

Lord. Children, this is why we do family -integrated worship. Listen up. Children, this one is for you.

01:06:02

Being obedient to your parents in all things pleases God. That's what it says.

01:06:10

Which means to say God takes no pleasure in your disobedience. He finds no pleasure in that.

01:06:18

And so you are to obey your parents. Listen to them. Bella?

01:06:27

In fact, the Lord says if you do this, what does it say in the

01:06:32

Decalogue in the Ten Commandments? What does it say in Ephesians chapter 6? Children, if you obey your parents, it will go well with you, and you'll live long and prosper.

01:06:46

Right? You'll live long. It's really true. The Proverbs talks so much about children who are disobedient to their parents.

01:06:58

In fact, I'll be honest with you. I was a rebellious teen myself.

01:07:04

And Lord, it's only by His grace He saved me in my early 20s.

01:07:10

But I'll tell you what. All the people I saw growing up in high school or middle school, people who were so rebellious and ran away from home and disobedient to their parents, all these people today, they're suffering the most out of anyone

01:07:28

I see. When I see them maybe on social media or they reach out, I have people who learn

01:07:34

I'm a pastor, you've got to help me. And it's like nothing's changed for these people. Disobedient to parents.

01:07:42

It carries on later in life. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 16. We're talking about what pleases

01:07:50

God. It says, Do not neglect doing good and sharing for such sacrifices.

01:07:57

God is well pleased. In fact, in the Greek, sharing here is koinonia, which is fellowship.

01:08:09

Fellowship together as the body of Christ pleases God. This pleases God. Us being together, this pleases

01:08:17

God. Koinonia pleases God. Are you the kind of family that is put off by church events?

01:08:24

So we're just not those kind of people. No, we don't do that. We'll go to the church. We'll go home.

01:08:32

Do you never invite other believers over? Do you have fellowship? Are you the single person who never tries to serve families or make friends with other men and women?

01:08:43

You see, whatever fears or concerns you have, just drop them. Drop them.

01:08:49

Practice fellowship. Because these fears are keeping you from pleasing

01:08:55

God, apparently. And honestly, these fears keep you from enjoying,

01:09:01

I believe, the Christian life to the fullest. You know, whether you're, what do they call it, type

01:09:08

A, type B, or, you know, what is it when you're really reserved?

01:09:15

You have a, yeah, introverted, extroverted, whatever. Those are just terms, man.

01:09:21

Come on. It says fellowship pleases God. That's higher than any sort of label you've learned from some pseudo doctor.

01:09:35

1 John 3 .19 says, we're wrapping up, we're getting close. 1 John 3 .19 says,

01:09:40

Because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in God's sight, whatever we ask, we receive from Him.

01:09:48

Even though Christ's obedience purchased us justification before God, the

01:09:54

Lord still wants our obedience in sanctification, that is, the living out of the Christian life.

01:10:00

And God honors the request of the obedient child. Listen, He'll never remove

01:10:08

His grace from us, but our sin and disobedience do not align our will with His, and therefore we ask and we don't receive, as James says.

01:10:19

Align your will with God's. Obey God, and when you ask, you will receive.

01:10:27

That's what it says. We keep asking for things that are fleshly, but do what pleases

01:10:34

Him. It says keep His commandments. This pleases God. And lastly, Psalm 69 verse 30 through 31 says,

01:10:42

I will praise the name of God with song and magnify Him with thanksgiving, and it will please the

01:10:49

Lord better than an ox or a young bull with horns and hooves. And so we are to praise

01:10:56

God's name, my friends. Praise His name. Sing to the

01:11:03

Lord. Some of us are more afraid of what we sound like singing than not pleasing

01:11:10

God, right? Change that. Sing to God. What does the Scripture say?

01:11:15

Bear with one another. If it's that bad, we'll bear with you, okay? Praise God's name.

01:11:24

Say it throughout your day. Say, praise the Lord for anything and everything. Say it. You get a good parking spot?

01:11:30

Praise the Lord. You get a good deal at the grocery store? Say, praise the Lord. Say, praise the

01:11:38

Lord for anything and everything. Let everyone around you know whatever is good and lovely and right is because our

01:11:48

God is good and lovely and right. Magnify Him with thanksgiving, it says. In the

01:11:54

Hebrew, right here in Psalm 69, magnify means to make sense, make something bigger.

01:12:03

Make God bigger. And so many people look at God as if He is insignificant, as if God is small.

01:12:11

We saw that on Thursday. This man made himself so big, and He made God so small, and we are to magnify

01:12:18

God, actually. We are to magnify Him. Make Him bigger. Make Him bigger to everyone around you, brothers and sisters.

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Give Him also thanksgiving. You see, every second is a gift, is it not?

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Everything is grace. Everything. So it would never be inappropriate at any time of the day to say, thank you,

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Lord. All these things are more pleasing than sacrifices. That's what He says. Because only one sacrifice pleased

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God. Only one. That was Jesus. And so now, in Christ, your thorns are fruit before the

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Lord, our bitterness is sweet to Him, our works are not flawed offenses but welcomed offerings in Christ.

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And since our Lord always does the things that are pleasing to the Father, may we always do the same.

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And look, if you've been battling the flesh a lot lately, if you've been battling sin a lot lately, and you've been struggling as a believer, you are then to do the opposite.

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Do these things. You cannot please God in the flesh, but you've been given the

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Holy Spirit. Please God, and I believe that it will please you. You see,

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I think we take the most joy and the most pleasure in this Christian life when we're pleasing

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God. You will be pleased when He is pleased. And Lord, we need

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Your help to do this. Amen? We need His help to please Him. Well, let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, please bless the message that went out today for Your glory, for Your name.

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God, we understand that there's nothing we could have done to remedy our situation.

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God, I pray that no one here today hears what I just spoke about pleasing God. No one hears it online and thinks that I've given them a road map on how to be right with God by doing acts of service or good works.

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Let no one mistake that, Lord. Let people recognize that You will only take pleasure in Your Son, and now that we're believers, we get to walk in these things.

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We get to walk in this sanctification, this Christian life, none of it earning anything.

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But truly, it is a privilege, God. We can abstain from sin, and we can now take pleasure in You by doing what's right.

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God, help us to do that. Help us to do that. So many times, Lord, we want to go back to the old things.

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Lord, we think they're going to give us pleasure, but they never do. We always finish with those things, and we feel sick.

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They never brought what we thought they would. They never bring it back again. They always leave us empty.

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Lord, please, help us by Your Spirit to do what's pleasing in Your sight.

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Help us to learn what pleases You, and help us to do them, Lord. We need You to help us to do them.

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We need You to empower us to do them. We can't do them in our own power. We can't.

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And so, Lord, just as the Son, and all that He did pleased You, may we please

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You, Lord, as Your people. We love You, God. Thank You for saving us.

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Thank You for showing us what we couldn't see before, that Jesus, You are the

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I Am, and we believe. We believe. And so may we hold to that blessed truth that we will not die in our sins, but we will live in Your righteousness,