Worship & the Reclamation of the World | Sermon 07/28/2024

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Pastor Andrew delivers a sermon on 1 Corinthians 10:31 going over the topic of Worship. What is Worship? How is Worship Important in the life of a Believer? How Will Christian Worship Impact the World? Check it out!

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So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
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Let's pray. God, thank you so much for allowing us to be here today, for taking sinners like ourselves,
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Lord, people who practice idolatry, who practice false worship from the heart, people that were children of wrath,
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Lord, whose father was the devil, people who don't deserve to actually worship you,
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God, but instead, we actually deserve judgment and wrath, sinners like us, you took us,
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Lord, and you saved our souls out of the goodness of your heart. Grace and mercy were extended to us through your son,
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Jesus Christ, on the cross for our sins. Lord, not only have you saved us, but you put your spirit within us.
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Like you stayed in Ezekiel, you have caused us to observe your statutes. You have revealed yourself to us in our hearts so that we can know you, that we can love your word, that we can walk in the newness of life, that we can truly know what it means to be a human.
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We could not worship you without you, God. You did not leave us alone.
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You didn't leave Adam alone in the garden. You revealed yourself to him, and you told him what you expected of him.
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God, you revealed yourself to us today as broken people, and you tell us what you expect of us.
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Lord, please get me out of the way today as we go through your word. Please let your word ring and shine true,
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God. It is such a beautiful truth. And help us, Lord, to live in how we were created to live, that we can love you and love our neighbor.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So before man ever was, the
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God of the universe began his grand act of creation by the word of his power.
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Time and space found its point and origin held together by the will of God. Then, with an ancient sentence as old as time itself,
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God spoke, let there be light. From this magnificent command, photons bunched together and shot into existence, thus day and night, and the stars were born from the creator king.
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With his mighty hands binding the chains of Pleiades, he determined the ordinances of the heavens.
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It was then when the morning stars sang together as the Lord sunk the base of the earth and laid in its cornerstones.
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The God of glory then shifted his voice as he walked into the recesses of the great deep, and the sea was shut in with stone doors.
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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory, sang the six -winged seraphim, as the eternal one clothed the earth in grass while making the clouds a garment for the earth.
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In direct creation, the sovereign king made no mistake. He brought forth the behemoth from the clay and the beasts of the earth to wander in his forests, to play in the mountains of his hands.
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He made the birds of the air to swim through the heavens, all of which sing praises to the immortal
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God. And in the darkness of the great deep, the loggoths formed the leviathan, and there it swells, swaying to the currents brought forth from the darkness, declaring praises to the king.
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In this divine act of providence, creation worshiped its creator. From the invisible to the visible, they all acted in right relation according to the duty that God had given them.
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Day and night, sun, moon, stars, the beasts of the air, the beasts of the field, and even the fish of the sea, the earth, through the works of God, was good.
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Yet the works of God were still unfinished. Surging at the sound of his voice, the clay of the earth formed together, soaring into the heavens, creating a holy mountain in which
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El Shaddai planted the pinnacle of his creation. It was here where he made a garden.
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He intertwined it with rivers, made it lush with trees. He layered it with gold, onyx, rubies, and gemstones of beautiful color and variety, and then he put man in it.
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This was paradise, Eden, and in the Septuagint, that translates to paradise.
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This garden in Eden was the temple on earth where God dwelled with man in the cool of the garden.
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It was here where God made man upright, right? In Ecclesiastes 7 .29.
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And this man, Adam, was a direct creation of God. He had no earthly mother or father.
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And again, he was not left to his own devices. We are told in Psalm 8, three through six, and this is why we read it earlier.
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This is what it says. When I look at your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?
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And the son of man that you care for him. Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
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You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet.
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In reference, we understand at first, Adam was given that dominion and rule, but we find the fulfillment of that Psalm in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the dominion that he has given us through the church is much more greater than Adam could have ever imagined.
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Let's continue. We know that God favored man. He was mindful of him.
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He did not leave him without direction. God revealed himself to Adam.
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This man was unlike all the beasts in the field, unlike all creation in the heavens. This man was to be the priest of God for all of creation, the priest of Eden, to take dominion over the works of God's hands.
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This is worship. That is the definition of worship. It is our being delighting in response to who
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God is, and the source of true worship begins and finds its source and is surrounded by God revealing himself to us.
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What are we told in Romans chapter one, right? Romans chapter one, if you wanna go there, go ahead, turn to Romans one.
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We're gonna start in verse 18. Here's the reality, right, with Adam.
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Even with us, God must reveal himself to us. Here's what it says, starting in verse 18.
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For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.
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For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
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Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
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Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever, amen.
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So why did we read that? Well, hear me clearly, without God's special direct revelation through his word, the incarnation of Christ and regeneration, the fallen man will have misplaced worship.
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Well, what does that have to do with Adam? Adam was made upright. Did you notice though that God made Adam and didn't just leave him alone?
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He told him what he expected of him. He revealed himself to him. He taught Adam how to worship him.
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But our misplaced worship is fallen creatures. Instead of worshiping the creator, we worship the creation in some way.
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I don't wanna get ahead of myself right now in the sermon, but there are ramifications for false worship.
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And if we think about it, we can think of the 10 commandments. What is the very first commandment, right? Thou shall have no other gods before me.
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Why does God tell us that first? Because idolatry is the very root of our sin, being fallen human beings.
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True worship again begins with God's revelation, God revealing to us.
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Now let's digress and go back to the Garden of Eden. Adam was made upright, but he was not left to his own devices.
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The Logos, the pre -incarnate Christ was the one who revealed to Adam what he expected of him.
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How do we know that? John 1 .18, no one has ever seen God. The only God who is in the father's side, he has made him known.
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That was the pre -incarnate Christ who spoke to Adam in the garden. And why was this necessary, right?
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Why did God have to reveal himself to Adam? Well, if you've been in our reach groups the last few weeks, we've been going over a book called
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The Holiness of God by R .C. Sproul. And we must understand that God is holy.
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And what does that mean? He is separate from us. He is not like his creation. Remember what
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I was talking about earlier between one -ism and two -ism. He is separate from us.
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In his being, he is the eternal God. What we can comprehend about him is dependent upon his revelation of his being to us.
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What we know about God has to be revealed to us because he is so unlike us and so much greater than us.
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By our own faculties, we cannot understand who he is unless he literally, literally reveals himself to us.
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He is that holy. What we know about him comes from him to us.
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The source of our knowledge of him again comes from him. Ultimately, since we were created by him, the source of our knowledge about who we are, how we operate in God's world is also revealed to us by God.
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This is exactly what God did for Adam. He told Adam what he expected of him and what he created
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Adam to do. Understand this, please. What Adam was to do was to worship
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God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. Remember the springboard verse earlier on this sermon from worship, 1
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Corinthians 10, 31? Whatever you eat, drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. This was expected of Adam and faithfully communicated to Adam in the
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Sanctuary of Eden. And this is crucial to understanding worship, guys. Why? Because we were created to glorify
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God and enjoy him forever. We were created to worship God in all that we do, unendingly, unendingly.
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And then we were expected to reflect that worship to all of creation. Jesus himself restates this in the
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Gospels. Mark 12, 29 through 31. Let me read this to you guys.
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This is Jesus reiterating what he was telling Adam in the garden. The greatest commandments.
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He says, the most important is this. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
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And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
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And then in verse 31, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
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And then what are we told in John 14, 15? If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
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Worshiping God in all of our being is not limited to these four walls here in the church.
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It's not limited just to a Sunday affair. It is reminiscent of the garden command to obey
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God, to pursue him and to acknowledge him in all of our ways. He will make our path straight, to tend the garden and to keep it.
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Listen, God created the earth and within the earth, he selected an area and that was
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Eden. Within Eden, he selected a garden. It was in this garden where God would walk.
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And this was a sanctuary, a holy place, paradise, an intermediary between heaven and earth.
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And again, humanity was to be the priests of this sanctuary to worship
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God from it. Now, what Jesus revealed is no different than what was expected of Adam in the beginning.
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And where do we find this communicated to Adam in the beginning? That's probably the question you might be asking yourselves. Andrew, you didn't even tell me where that was communicated.
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Well, I believe it's in Genesis 2, 8 and also in Genesis 2, 15. Says this in Genesis 2, 15.
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The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
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These are commands. And if we love God, we obey his commands. If we love him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, what ought
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Adam to do? Work the garden and keep the garden. It's the very same thing.
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God is so consistent. But let's hold on for a second and let's focus on the word put. In verse 2, 15 and verse 2, 8.
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What we find here in English doesn't actually communicate the importance of the word being used here. Here we find that God assigned
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Adam to a certain position in the garden. It's not trying to communicate that he just put him in the garden like willy -nilly.
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No, what we find is that he placed him in the garden with the authority to work it and keep it in the presence of God.
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The same language for put or placed is used in Exodus and Deuteronomy with the objects that are put or placed in the presence of God within the tabernacle and later the temple, right?
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Objects of worship. And what is Adam to do? Work and keep in the garden in the presence of God.
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Put, placed with authority to keep Eden. The reality of Adam, our first father, was that he was to minister to and to protect the garden sanctuary of God.
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Why is this important? What does this have to do with worship? Because Adam's duty was to worship
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God in that. He was created to worship God in this way with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and to reflect this image of God to all of mankind.
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Worship to God is predicated on our heart's position before God and living according to how he created us to be.
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That's the reality. Human beings were created to worship in all that we do.
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Worship is what we are to do in everything. That's why Paul reiterates that time and time again in the
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New Testament and why Jesus is always hitting on it. But we're fallen, right? Hear again the words of Jesus, Mark 12, 29 through 31.
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I'm gonna repeat it. The most important is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
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Revelation of God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
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The second he said in this, in verse 31, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
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And remember, John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commands. Adam, as that priest of God, placed in the garden with authority to have dominion over all of God's creation.
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If he loved God with all of his heart, mind, soul and strength, he would work the garden, keep the garden in the sanctuary of God, and that was worship.
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That's what he was created to do. That's what we are created to do. But we are fallen human beings.
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Creation was created to worship God. The stars worship by shining in the night, being fixated in the heavens.
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The beasts worship by playing in the fields. The plants worship by growing in the sun. The clouds worship by giving shade and raining upon the earth.
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The ant worships by knowing his ways and his duty under heaven. Man worships by doing what he was created to do, revealed to him by God under heaven.
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All creation is under the obligation to act according to its created nature and purpose.
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This, my friends, is worship. Yet we all understand what happened in the garden,
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Ecclesiastes 7, 29, right? But we have sought out many schemes. We were made upright, but we seek out many schemes.
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The temple in which Adam and Eve were to worship God, in the presence of God, by their actions, by their disobedience, they desecrated the sanctuary, they desecrated the holy place.
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And all of creation suffered the ramifications of Adam's disobedience. This, my friends, was the beginning of idolatry and sin, where now
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God could be worshiped, but only at a distance. Only at a distance. All predicated by his revelation to man, from grace and to grace, pointing to the
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Messiah. The reality is, is that we were separated from God in our sin, right?
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We need to be reconciled. If we're not reconciled, what does that mean? We're at war with God.
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But even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So even from the old covenant, we have
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God, in his grace, because of the coming of Messiah, revealing himself to people so that they could what?
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Worship him. Worship him. Ecclesiastes 7 .29, see this alone
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I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
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In that, Adam and Eve were removed from paradise, and cherubim, which is actually plural, interestingly enough, were placed with a flaming sword in the east of the sanctuary's entrance so that they could never return to paradise where the tree of life dwelled on earth.
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Typically, when I thought of the cherubim guarding this place by the tree of life, I always pictured one with the flaming sword, but it's a plural, so it's possible that there were many cherubim surrounding this area.
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Imagine that, that'd be absolutely terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. But the reality is, is now, after this, we have a severed relationship with God.
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Man, apart from God, cannot worship God without reconciliation and mediation.
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This right here is part of the Old Testament. Hear me clearly, hear me clearly. When we as humans are acting in a way in which we are not to act, we are in fact committing acts of false worship.
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Any act of defiance against God and his character is enough to sever us from the tree of life. Thus, we are from birth, since we are descendants of Adam, in our flesh, and in and of ourselves, we do not have access to the tree of life or paradise.
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We then enter into the desert of earth, a physical representation of our separation from God, where the beast devours, kills, and destroys.
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That's where we're at. The earth then produces thorns and thistles for our keeping and tending.
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We're still expected to keep and tend it, by the way. And it is not, and it is actually purely in vain.
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Purely in vain. Furthermore, man condemns one another and produces not fruits of the spirit, but that of idolatry and wickedness, and that's man left to his own devices, apart from the revelation and grace of God.
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What does Colossians 3, 5 through 6 tell us? And if you guys have listened to me preach before, you know
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I always love to go to Colossians. It's one of my favorite sections of scripture. You can turn there now. Colossians 3, verses 5 through 6.
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God's word states here, it says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
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On the account of these, the wrath of God is coming. All of these horrible acts are repercussions of idolatry.
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All of that sin noted there, it's all idolatry. All of it is against the character of God, in which we are expected to emulate to all of mankind.
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The root of that sin is idolatry. From Adam's disobedience, our fallen nature is enslaved to sin, to false worship, where we did what?
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We exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped the creation instead of the creator. That's our problem.
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We cannot worship God apart from the grace of God. The first example we see of idolatry and worshiping at a distance is with Cain and Abel in the
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Bible. We all know the story, hopefully, that Cain killed Abel because Cain was jealous that his offering to God was not acceptable to the
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Lord, whereas his brother Abel's offering was acceptable. What are we told in Hebrews 11 four?
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Hebrews 11 four states this, by faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous,
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God commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. Cain's offering was not acceptable, for it was not by faith or trust in God, and when
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God rebukes Cain, we find that the evil desire and covetousness were already in the heart of Cain and it gave birth to murder.
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That's what James tells us, right? Starts in the heart. Cain, as a child of wrath, devoid of faith and trust in God, mimics the father of lies and murders his brother.
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But understand that in the garden, what Adam did in his nature, keeping and tending the garden, was worship to God.
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That was an acceptable offering, but now in the story of redemption, we see that actual offerings have to be presented before Yahweh.
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They're not just in the garden with him, there's worshiping at a distance. Bring the offering to him. The second example we find is with Noah's ark and the destruction of the world by flood.
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Genesis chapter six, five through eight, states this. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
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And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the
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Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things in the birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.
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But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. What is man to that you are mindful of him, right?
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Here, God chose a people for himself out of grace, and what did he do for Noah?
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He revealed to Noah how to build the ark. Without the grace and revelation of God, Noah would not have lived the flood.
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That's the reality. He saved a remnant of his people. Why? Because the righteous one,
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Jesus Christ, would inevitably come to save his people from their sins. If it wasn't for Jesus, Noah would be destroyed.
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What is the point that I'm trying to make? Worship was only made possible through revelation from God.
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Noah, apart from God, could not worship him. The world, apart from God, was destroyed for their idolatry.
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This is what we're told. We read earlier Romans 118 to 25, but now listen to Romans 124 through 32.
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If you want, you can turn there with me. These are the consequences of our idolatry.
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This is what we deserve because of our idolatry. Starting in verse 24 in Romans chapter one.
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Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever, amen.
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For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
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And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.
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Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge
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God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
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They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
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Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.
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The judgment of God is for him to not reveal himself to them, but instead to hand them over to their delusion and to exhume his wrath on the fruits of their false worship.
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Remember, first in Romans one, they didn't worship the creator, they were worshiping the creation. And what comes from that?
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They didn't exhibit fruits of the spirit, they didn't exhibit what it means to be a human, how to treat one another, they exhibited sin.
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24 different things that God lists out here for us. Let me tell you guys them again, it's insane.
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Impurity, dishonor, unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slander, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, just like Cain, heartless, ruthless, giving hearty approval to those who do wickedness, though they know not to do it.
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Those are 24 different condemnations on the heart that does not worship God. But again, what does
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Romans one say? It says that all of creation tells you that there is a God, but they suppress the truth and unrighteousness and they worship the creation instead of the creator.
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So God hands them over, God hands them over. This is the heart of the individual who cannot love
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God or love their neighbor, why? Because God did not take their heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh.
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This is a poisoned well that brings poisonous water to the world in which the world suffers at the hand of idolatry.
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Do you see how every single one of those sins affects your neighbor? When you act as an idol, a false
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God and exhibit its characteristics, you will damage the world. That's the reality.
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We're not Gnostics as Christians. There's a reason why God created the world, right? The meek shall inherit the earth.
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We were created to worship God. Humanity cannot be void of worship. The question we should ask ourselves is what are we worshiping?
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What are we worshiping? There's nobody in reality that's an atheist.
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It's impossible. They worship something, whether they know it or not.
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There's something that they worship. Understand that God destroyed the world in Noah's time because of this exact type of wickedness that condemned in Romans chapter one.
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Without God and his mercy, we are left to our own wickedness because no longer does
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God dwell in the cool of the garden in the midst of the sanctuary in Eden with us, but the relationship between God and man has been severed.
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Again, it's in need of reconciliation. After the garden, we worship God at a distance in ways that he revealed to us out of his mercy.
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Here's some more examples. Abraham, chosen by God, worshiped God by faith, made a covenant with him through his belief in the seed to come, that all nations would be blessed.
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Who is that seed? Well, we're told by Paul in Galatians that that is Jesus Christ. But the reality is that Abraham worshiped
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God at a distance. He was looking forward to what was going to come. In shadows and in types, he worshiped
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God by what was revealed to him through the circumcision of the flesh and the offering of his son
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Isaac on the altar. Understand, Abraham was a sinner. The worship that he gave to God was not sinless, but he was declared righteous by faith and his imperfect worship was still acceptable in the eye of God through grace in the one who was to come,
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Jesus Christ. But again, he would not be able to worship God unless what?
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God called Abraham. God first revealed himself to Abraham. Let's now fast forward to the
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Hebrew people and we find some awesome ways in which God shows that he is to be worshiped, not just by an individual, but by a nation, but at a distance according to his standards.
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Think back to Mount Sinai, after the Israelites crossed through, I guess they're not
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Israelites at that time, as the Hebrews after they crossed through the Red Sea. Moses went up to the mountain on Mount Sinai, but what happened?
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The people remained below. God says, don't even touch the mountain lest you die. You can see me at a distance.
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You can see Moses up on the top of the mountain. There's an intermediary there, this prophet, who is to bring the word to the people, but the people, if you touch the mountain, you will die.
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Here's more. The dimensions of the tabernacle were direct revelation given from God to Moses and God even gave one individual, which is pretty cool, a distinct ability to create the tabernacle and all that was in it.
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And this was to be a shadow of God's dwelling place in heaven. Hebrews 8 .5 tells us that it says, they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.
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For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.
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Think about it, the tabernacle was to be set apart a holy sanctuary of God, a miniature
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Eden, a miniature Eden, where he would do what? Where he would walk with his people, just like the garden in Eden and unlike how he appeared to Abraham, unlike how he appeared to Abraham.
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We are Baptists, we believe in distinct covenant theology. Listen to this, Leviticus 26, verse 11 through 13 states this,
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I will make my dwelling among you and my soul shall not abhor you and I will walk among you and will be your
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God and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that you should not be their slaves and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
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Understand that though this is worshiping God at a distance, the fact that God made his place among sinful men is a miracle and a mercy from God.
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What did God do in Eden, right? He walked with Adam in the cool of the garden. He did not walk again with his people until they erected the tabernacle.
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He would appear to them in different types and in different ways, of course, in Theophanies and Christophanies, appearances of the pre -incarnate
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Christ, but here he's doing something unique and distinct that's going to point to something even greater in the future.
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God was rich in his mercy and was reminding the Hebrews about the Garden of Eden and the sanctuary that was once in the world.
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Interestingly enough, even about Eden, it's believed that it was on top of a mountain. You can go read Ezekiel 28 later when you get home, but there's some pretty cool things here, illustrations to give from the
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Garden of Eden and how the tabernacle was constructed in terms of the parallels. So think about this.
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There's three rings in Eden. We have outside of Eden, Eden itself, the
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Garden of Eden, and in that, we find that the most holy section of it is where God dwelled in the sanctuary, but the tabernacle reflected that in another way.
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The courtyard was outside of the holy place, then inside the courtyard was the holy place, and inside that was the most holy place where God dwelt.
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So the tabernacle is in direct relation to the reference of the Garden in Eden and the holy place where God dwelt.
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In the Hebrews, they would have known this because what, not only do they have the words of Moses that he's writing down, but also we have their oral tradition, of course, that they would have been taught the
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God of Abraham. Reminds them of Eden. The earth around Eden was the courtyard, the holy place was
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Eden, the most holy is where God would dwell at the top of the mountain. So understand that the author of Hebrews shows us that we find that the
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Garden of Eden itself was a shadow of the heavenly dwelling place of God, even Eden itself, and also that the tabernacle is also a shadow of the heavenly place of God's dwelling, but also a reference to the
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Hebrews of the Garden of Eden. So God, in order to dwell with these sinners, wanted to be worshiped in a specific way.
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And this is the way he determined to foreshadow the dwelling, the place he will eventually make in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, right?
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And then eventually inside us as redeemed people by the fleshly tabernacle of Christ.
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Here are some more brilliant parallels between Eden and the worship of God at a distance in the Old Testament with the
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Hebrews. Let's start with Adam real quick. Adam was a priest of God to commune with God in the sanctuary of Eden.
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He was the archetypical Levite, the archetypical Levite priest. The Levites were the set -aside class to represent the people before God in the holy and most holy place of their tabernacle.
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The high priest also wore beautiful garments with beautiful colors, golden jewels. The high priest would have a golden crown with the words right there in the front would say, holy to the
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Lord. He would have golden shoulder pads with an onyx stone in each shoulder. Each stone would be engraved with six of the names of the 12 tribes of Israel.
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A golden breastplate is what they had with 12 stones each inscribed with a name of a tribe of Israel with all types of stones, the same stones that are found in the garden of Eden reference to Ezekiel 28, read it later.
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It's pretty cool. Understand that the beauty of what God was communicating in their tabernacle, in the priestly system and even the sacrificial system is that God was beginning the reclamation of worship, pointing to the ultimate fulfillment of their tabernacle as John tells us this in John 1, 14 through 18.
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So even the tabernacle itself wasn't the pinnacle of worship, okay? Listen to this, John 1, 14 through 18.
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And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory.
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Glory is of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom
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I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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No one has ever seen God, the only God who was at the father's side, he has made him known. What we see here and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, the word dwelt means to dwell in, to live, to shelter.
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This verb is also can be translated into tabernacle. So the word tabernacled among us, quite beautiful.
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The tabernacle and then even the temple later in Israel were a shadow of the dwelling place of God but in the fullness, it's presented to us in the gospels, we understand that the fullness of the tabernacle in the temple was the person of Jesus Christ.
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In his flesh, in his tabernacle did God freely dwell and then he did what? He didn't just walk in the confines of the temple or in the most holy place of the tabernacle, he walked among his creation, he tabernacled among us.
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Our God, you see, is a God of order. From Adam being a priest in the household of God and the
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Garden of Eden being God's sanctuary to the tabernacle and God dwelling with sinful men in the most holy place, we find
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Jesus being the son of God who is the second Adam, the faithful high priest from the order of Melchizedek in whom the flesh tabernacled.
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The second person of the Trinity who is among his creation walking not at a distance but among his people.
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It's quite amazing, this is so cool. In Luke three, we find Luke calling Adam a son of God and what's cool about that?
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Well, in reflection, like I stated earlier into the priesthood, Adam, we find that the firstborn son of every person in Israel was consecrated once to the
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Lord. Later in Numbers, it was then categorized to take the firstborn sons of the Levites to consecrate them as lay priests before the
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Lord. All the priests were titled sons of God. But Luke mentions that Adam was a son of God.
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But what's really cool is that Jesus is actually the son of God. We find that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of God, uncreated, eternal, the second person of the
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Trinity, the son of God himself. He is the fulfillment of not only the archetypical priest in Adam, but also of the
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Melchizedek order, one without generation or end, that represents not only Jew like the
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Levite, but actually Jew and Gentile alike in his beautiful priestliness. It's so amazing in his humanity.
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This is what Hebrews one, five through 13 states about Jesus. Really cool about Hebrews two, if you wanna go back and read it later, it says the father, when he brings the firstborn into the world, says this.
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This is the father speaking to the son. If you ever get into a conversation with Jehovah's Witnesses, if you ever get into a conversation with any
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LDS individuals, if you ever get in a conversation with any like oneness Unitarians, this is an amazing text to bring them to.
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Because the father is speaking of the son while he brings him into the world right here.
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This is what the father says. He says, for to which, this is starting in verse five, for to which of the angels did
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God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.
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And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him.
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Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the son, he says, your throne, oh
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God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
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You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
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And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands.
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They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. Like a robe, you will roll them up.
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Like a garment, they will be changed. But you are the same and your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
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So from Adam to the tabernacle, to the temple, to Christ, all of it pointed to Jesus.
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This is in direct relationship to how we ought to worship God today. How in this new covenant through Christ, we have direct access to God through the person and work of Jesus Christ and his holy priesthood.
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So we're gonna get into the new covenant worship that we ought to live by. Understand that if Christ did not come to save his people from their sins, we would not have access to the
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Father. The veil of the temple would still be up. There would still be worship at a distance.
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But now we have the ability through Christ to worship in spirit and truth. From garden to desert to garden again, that's the reality.
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This is the story of redemption and reclamation. What are we told in John chapter 4, 21 through 24 when
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Jesus is speaking with the woman at the well? Pastor Wade did a beautiful sermon on this.
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I do recommend to go back and listen to it again if you are interested for a more in -depth conversation of what it means, spirit and truth.
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But let me read to you John 4, 21 through 24. This is Jesus speaking to the woman.
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Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the
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Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the
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Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
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For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
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This text is crucial as New Testament blood -bought Christians, and it must be accurately grasped for a correct understanding of worship.
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What does he say? A coming day in which worshiping by believers will not take place over here or over there, and as we're in Utah, I must mention it.
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We see the altars in the high places all around. They reject this from God. They still have to worship in certain areas.
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They put the veil back up. But he says it doesn't have to be over there. It doesn't have to be at the temple in Jerusalem anymore.
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He's not saying that worship wasn't occurring at the temple at that time. Instead, he's stating that something greater is coming.
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But here's the reality. The body of Christ, at that moment when he's speaking to them is the temple of the Son of God. In the incarnation of God, he made obsolete the physical temple.
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That's why it was okay to worship Jesus when he was walking on earth. The Pharisees, they should have worshiped
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Jesus. If they truly believed the words of Moses as his condemnation to them, they would have worshiped him, and it would not have been sinful to worship
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Christ, for he was God. And again, Jesus Christ was the perfect high priest.
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And in his death, burial and resurrection, he fulfilled the demands of the law and the sacrifice required for the wages of sin on behalf of his people, meaning that he made the sacrifice of goats and bulls obsolete.
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And the priestly system that once pointed to Christ was now an office being held by Christ for forever more, presented before the
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Father in a temple not built by human hands, but Jesus Christ alive in the flesh, glorified body before the
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Father, a sacrifice once for all. That priestly order of Melchizedek, representing both
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Jew and Gentile alike. And we're actually told this in prophecy in Psalm 110.
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Psalm 110, one through four, says, "'The Lord says to my Lord, "'sit in my right hand "'until
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I make your enemies your footstool. "'The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
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"'Rule in the midst of your enemies. "'Your people will offer themselves freely "'on the day of your power in holy garments "'from the womb of the morning.
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"'The dew of the youth will be yours. "'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. "'You are a priest forever "'after the order of Melchizedek.'"
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And why, again, is this important? Because whether we eat, drink, whatever we do, do all to the glory of God, it's only made possible if Jesus Christ perfectly upheld the offices of prophet, priest, and king as our representative before the
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Father. If he did not do that, the Holy Spirit would not dwell within us and we would not have a sacrifice for our sins.
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There's a very specific purpose why he has fulfilled those roles. He is the
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God of the universe, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, but he's also the fleshly lineage of David, the king of all men through the line of David, the priest to represent all men through Melchizedek, and the prophet without blame in whom there is no shadow of variation or change.
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Jesus Christ, in his being, held these things, and in his flesh, he also fulfilled these.
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This is a threefold fulfillment, and it's crucial to understand this in how we are to walk in the newness of life, being united to Christ.
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If we do not understand these things, it's going to be hard to understand and fully grasp what it means to be united to Christ and the promises that we inherit through him.
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It's a threefold fulfillment, Jesus Christ, in which we inherit the blessings of the perfect righteous one, it's in him.
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And these blessings have ramifications as adopted people into the family of God, reconciled by the blood of Jesus.
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This creates the true worshiper, one in spirit and in truth. Worship through the mediation of Jesus Christ, who represents the worshiper as the perfect prophet, priest, and king before God.
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I want you guys to understand something. Adam, we typically think in the garden, I don't know if you guys have ever thought this,
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I know I've thought of it growing up, maybe some of the kids in here maybe think it themselves. Adam had everything he needed.
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Why did he do anything wrong? It was so easy for him, he had it all right there in the garden. I want to tell you this right now, what you have, who you have, dwelling within you, the
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Holy Spirit is so much more greater than what Adam could have ever fathomed. And do you sin daily? Do you grieve the
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Holy Spirit? We're on the opposite side of Adam. God did not dwell inside Adam, God dwells inside his believers, and do you grieve the
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Holy Spirit? Really think about that, really think about that. Adam was to be the priest, prophet, and king for all humanity, he failed.
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And from his progeny, his offspring, we all inherited death and idolatry,
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Romans chapter one. We are a poisonous river to all humanity. We cannot worship
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God apart from the grace of God, without God we don't even know what it means to be human. We're not able to love the
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Lord with all our soul, mind, heart, and strength, and we're unable to love our neighbor as ourselves. Understand, the source of our knowledge to understand even who we are comes from God.
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People who reject God think they are highly evolved protoplasm. It's a reality, people believe that.
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There's all kinds of different things people think though as well. That's just one of them, I can't even go into some other ones.
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You can go for hours, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, right? Forever. The true worshiper worships through the mediation of Christ, right?
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We have a new nature and the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
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With Jesus Christ as our representative, we're called over and over again in the
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New Testament to walk in the newness of life. Allowing us to be free to uphold the law because we're no longer condemned by the law, and to truly love our neighbor.
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Meaning, the ramifications of worship in the new covenant are world changing. They're world changing.
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World changing. This is through the Holy Spirit and the work that is to be done in the church.
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Remember, Jesus sends his spirit to convict the world of sin and righteousness, and to dwell within his people,
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John 16, seven through 11. Nevertheless, the words of Christ here,
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I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.
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It's for your advantage, believe it or not. But if I go, I will send him to you, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
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Concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer, concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judge.
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Here's the reality, the strong man who is Satan is bound today, and we are plundering his kingdom through the power of the gospel, and God does that through the means of his church.
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By the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the reclamation of the world we're talking about here. This is some of the very same principles that the people who left behind their families and their lineage risked their lives to come here to create a nation, right?
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That was to advance the kingdom of God. You can read the earliest, like the Mayflower Compact, I think is one of the charters.
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There is early state constitutions with the 13 colonies that talk about advancing this land for the kingdom of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This was a belief that was held so strongly earlier, but we have lost it.
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Anyone else see that tweet, supposedly, that was going around on Facebook from Elon Musk? He's like, when Christianity is toothless, it'll disappear.
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He's number one, he's wrong. The gates of hell will never prevail against the church. God has established it. He's doing something now to discipline the church, but the reality is is that Christianity is never and will ever be toothless.
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The enemy's already bound, and we will plunder his kingdom, but we need to wake up. We need to wake up.
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But hear me. One, God once dwelt not in Adam, but with Adam in the garden of the temple.
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Two, God dwelt not in the Hebrews, but with the Hebrews in the tabernacle, and with the
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Israelites in the temple. Three, the Logos tabernacled among us in the person of Jesus Christ, fully
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God and fully man, the second Adam, and walked among his people intimately, not at a distance.
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That God -man, Jesus Christ, made a way for people to be reconciled to God through his shed blood.
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He brought us back in relationship with God. Not only did he restore our relationship with God, he then sends his spirit to dwell within us.
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For in the spirit, we are united to Christ, and he is the head of the church, and we are his body.
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Do you believe that? The body has a function, it has a role. It's not just Jesus sitting in heaven as the head and the church going like this as a paralyzed body.
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We have a function, we have a role, we are part of that temple. What do the scriptures say, 1
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Peter 2, 5? You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
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1 Corinthians 3, 16 through 17. Do you not know that you are God's temple, and that God's spirit dwells in you?
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If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
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So how do we worship, and what does it look like to worship as new covenant believers in Jesus Christ? Whether you eat, drink, whatever you do, do all things to the glory of God.
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Walk in the newness of life, worship God, function as a member of his body. Do you hear the truth?
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We worship God in spirit and truth, and worship is according to what God has revealed to us.
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So if we think about it, God dwells in the sanctuary temple in Eden, specific location and area, right?
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God reveals himself to Abraham, to Jacob, Isaac. Later we find that he also dwells in a specific area in the tabernacle, the most holy place of the tabernacle in the temple.
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But now, what are we being told? That that temple is each one of us, and God dwells within us wherever we go all over the world.
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That's beautiful, it's absolutely beautiful. What was God's promise from the Old Testament? I'm gonna paraphrase
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Ezekiel 36, states he will take our heart of stone, replace it with a heart of flesh, he will put his spirit within us, and he will be our
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God, and we will be his people. The worship of God, reconciled by Christ, is no longer at a distance, but it starts from a heart changed by God.
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And this was the same type of faithful worship of Abraham, revealed by faith for faith, no longer under the law of Moses, or the law of circumcision, the circumcision of the heart.
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Jesus Christ made a way for all his people, Jew and Gentile alike, to be reconciled to God, to no longer be alienated or enslaved to sin, but free to uphold the law of God.
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Again, whether we eat or drink, whatever we do, we can do all things to the glory of God through the spirit of God.
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That's the call of the New Testament, to walk in the newness of life, to put away all idolatry, to worship
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God where we are present, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.
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This doesn't mean that worship on the Lord's day is obsolete, it's not what I'm saying.
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This is more an overarching theology of worship and what it is. Instead, what we should be thinking is being indwelt by the
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Holy Spirit gives us all the more reason to partake in the spiritual means of grace, which would be this, to give us, through God's instituted church with qualified elders and deacons, the
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Lord's day worship service ought to be the restful pinnacle of worship. This is the restful day of worship, a reflection with the saints of a week that has been devoted to worshiping
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God. Whether you eat, whether you drink, whatever you do, do all things to the glory of God, acting according to the new nature we have been given by the grace of Jesus Christ.
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That's the reality. We have a new nature in Christ Jesus. Have we forgotten that as the New Testament church?
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This is a profound truth that God has, what, revealed to us in scripture. We must grab hold of these truths.
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We must believe these truths. We must live these truths. We must be saturated in God's word. This is what it states in 2
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Corinthians 5, 14 through 17. For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
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From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded
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Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
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The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. That's you in Christ Jesus.
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The old has passed away, the new has come, today. Believe it, live it.
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If you don't believe what God revealed to you about this, you may be living in some form of idolatry and you may not be exhibiting the fruits of the spirit, but instead you might be exhibiting the fruits that we found in Romans 1, poisonous fruits, a poisonous well, poisoning others.
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Ephesians 3, 8 through 10 states this about the church. We are the church. We are the temple, right? Church at large, not just Apologia Church Utah here, but over the world.
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This is Ephesians 3, 8 through 10. Paul states this, he says, to me, though I'm very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the
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Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.
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Listen right here, verse 10. So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
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Do you hear the authority in which the church functions? It's Christ as the head to shape the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
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Ephesians 1, 22 through 23, and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
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This is so overlooked, guys, and it was convicting for me while I was going through this. Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and we have been united to him, given him, right?
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He has been given to us, and he is the head of over all things, and all things are being placed under his feet right now.
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It's to our benefit, not our detriment. It's to our benefit that Jesus Christ is our head.
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This is worship in its core. The heart of our religion is our unity to Christ. It's our unity to Christ.
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Jesus Christ is the second Adam. The first Adam was given dominion and rule over all things.
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It's what we see, but he failed, but he failed. Christ reclaimed that authority, and in his perfection as the
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God -man, the benefits of his earthly and heavenly reign outnumbers the first Adam to the highest degree.
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Not only that we are then in him, he is our head, and we are his body united to Christ.
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What do we find that happens in Matthew 28, 18 through 20? What is being told of Jesus? He says,
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I have all authority in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, being the body of Christ, making disciples, teaching the nations to obey.
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Give the rivers of life to the world. You are his church in which the
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Holy Spirit dwells. Each one of you blood -bought believers, the
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Holy Spirit lives. It's amazing. We are the reconciled body of Christ.
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We are the royal priesthood, and we have a function and role as priests to worship
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God and act according to the truth that he has given us. The question is, well, how do
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I worship and what is that truth? Again, we're told in 2 Corinthians 10, three through six. You can read every epistle that Paul writes, and he will make sure to tell you how to walk in the newness of life and what it means to be a new creature in Christ Jesus.
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2 Corinthians 10, three through six. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
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We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey
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Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.
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We are in warfare. That's the reality. But our worship destroys strongholds.
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When we live according to the way that we were created to live in God, we outflow the river to the world.
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That's the reality. The worship of true believers, worshiping the triune God of glory, and how we reflect that to the world is breaking down strongholds, right?
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It's the enemy, as Jesus states, the strong man has been bound, his kingdom is being plundered.
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So if we think about Israel, whenever they fought in wars, they'd bring out the Ark of the Covenant. Sometimes God would bring them favor in the battle, and then the enemy would run.
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They're still in the war. While the enemy's running, the Israelites, they get that whole profound power, and they're just like running towards the enemy to go capture them and destroy them.
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Think about David and Goliath, right? We have David cutting the head off of Goliath. And then what do the
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Philistines do? They run, they fear God. And what does Israel do? They chase after God.
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Or not to chase after God. They chase after the Philistines, right? That's what we're in right now. Jesus Christ, it states in Colossians, has disarmed every rule and authority and put them to open shame in him.
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We triumph over them in him. The war has been won. The war has been won, but we are to chase.
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We are to chase with grace and mercy the gospel of God so that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin and righteousness.
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We are to act as the body of Christ to be ministers of reconciliation. That royal priesthood, that is our duty, that is our function, and it will change the world.
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It will, we must believe that. In all reality, the church wages warfare and wins when the people of God are walking not according to the flesh, which is idolatry, but according to the spirit in worship of God according to our new nature, which has been revealed to us through Christ.
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Galatians 5, 16 through 26 tells us this. But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
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For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you wanna do.
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But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Here we go, we're gonna get a repetition of Romans one and idolatry.
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The works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
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I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.
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Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying another.
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So if we want to see the world come to Christ, we do not limit worship to a Sunday affair only.
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We must aim to walk in the spirit and believe that God is actually accomplishing his will through his people.
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That through the church, the manifold wisdom of God will be made known. He says it will happen.
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How long is it going to take us to learn? Christian, there is nothing mundane about your life.
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Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do, do all things to the glory of God.
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That means every second of your life as a reconciled believer, you have the ability to worship
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God. That took the blood of Jesus Christ to accomplish that.
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There's not one second of your life that's mundane. All of it can be presented to God as a living sacrifice.
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The mother homeschooling her children, as difficult as it can be, you can worship God in spirit and truth.
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The one who's going through suffering, not understanding what God is doing in their lives, guess what, you're a reconciled blood -bought believer and you can worship
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God in spirit and truth in the midst of suffering, trusting in his word. The person just cooking dinner for their family, the reality is it's not mundane.
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You can do it to the glory of God and worship God in it. Tending to the garden, keeping the garden, obeying
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God and loving God, worshiping God, doing what we're created to do. Do you believe it?
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Do you believe it? Whatever you do, do all things to the glory of God. Do you believe it? Do you think you're commanded that?
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That's the reality of what God's word says about you. Do it, do it, and then rely on grace when you fail, right?
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Amen, but believe it, believe it. Worship is what you were made to do, you can do no other.
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The question again is who are you worshiping in the moment? The fruit you produce in your momentary choices will show you whether you're worshiping
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God in that moment or you're worshiping an idol. God says we become just like the idols we worship.
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Let's aim to be transformed into the image of Christ, right? From one glory to another. This world is being renewed by the power of the gospel and the text tells us that the earth is groaning for the revealing of the sons of God.
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We have a global effect. The meek shall inherit the earth. Let's live like it. As the church, we must get to work.
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If we are to love our neighbors and be the river of life that flows into the world, we must in our daily lives be worshiping God by walking in the newness of life, which is a reflection of worship in light of our knowledge of God.
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We have better, guys, than what Adam had. That's the reality. Let's pray.
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Lord, thank you so much for your word. Thank you, God, for taking sinners like us and saving us,
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Lord. Thank you for us passing from death and into life. Death has no sting anymore,
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God, no sting, because you are worthy of all worship, honor, and glory.
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And in that, you were still humble. Christ, though you are eternally in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, to be held onto.
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Instead, you emptied yourself. Took the form of a servant and you were obedient to death, even death on a cross.
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By your blood, Lord, we have forgiveness. By your stripes, we are healed.
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We don't deserve it. Not only that, God, you have resurrected from the dead. You hold a kingly office in your flesh in which your people,
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Lord, get nothing but blessings from. You have the priest order of Melchizedek in which Jew and Gentile, Lord, can have reconciliation through your blood and mediation before the
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Father. God, you are so good and just. Holy Spirit, you dwell within us.
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You testify of both the Father and of the Son. You command us to walk in a newness of life. You conform us to your scriptures.
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You conform us to the image of Christ. Lord, let us believe these things. Let us hold onto these things.
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And whatever we do, God, whatever we do, whether we eat, drink, we do all things to your glory, keeping in mind that our worship,
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Lord, our worship of you actually has physical ramifications in this world. We are more than conquerors,
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Lord, in you, because you first loved us. Thank you,
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God, for this time. We love you and praise you in Jesus' name, amen. All right, guys, so now it's time in which we go into the
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Lord's table. We partake of this means of grace here. What is it, why do we do it?
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Well, we do it because we are commanded to do it. Jesus Christ told us as he was breaking bread with the disciples the night before he was crucified that this is my body broken for you.