The Holiness of God

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This sermon was preached at the Behold Our God conference at Southside Baptist Church in Winterhaven Florida

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Paul's letter to the
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Romans and find your place in chapter 3 and Look at verse 18
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Now I will tell you that tonight we're going to be looking at Several passages two in particular that are not my opening text with this opening text is going to drive us to the very heart of The issue which we are going to be addressing tonight
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As we've already seen we will stand for the reading of God's holy Inspired and an errant word.
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This is the culmination of Paul's indictment against not only the
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Jews but mankind as he has Demonstrated that all are sinners and will in just a few verses say all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God But the culmination of this indictment is a collection of verses which he pulls out of the
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Old Testament and puts together finalizing in this one sentence There is no fear of God before their eyes father in heaven,
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I ask that as we Open the Word of God tonight. And as we address the subject that is
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So vital to our understanding of you your holiness,
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I Pray first and foremost O Lord that you would keep me from error For God, I am a fallible man.
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I Am capable of preaching error and I do not want to for the sake of your name for the sake of these people and For the sake of my own conscience
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God keep me from error. I Pray that as we look at this subject this vital and important subject
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Lord that we would seek to Unpack the depth of it while at the same time knowing that we will not even scratch the surface
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Lord, I pray for every man woman and child in this room For the believer. I asked
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God that this would be a Message that would edify them That would challenge them that would encourage them
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Perhaps call them to repentance and Lord for the unbeliever in this room.
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I pray that this word Would remind them that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved than that of the
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Lord Jesus Christ because you are a holy God we are unholy men and We need a
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Savior Who is holy? Jesus Christ the righteous in whose name we pray
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Amen, it is stated several times in the
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Bible That the fear of the Lord Is the beginning of wisdom and if that is true and it certainly is if it is the
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Word of God It is true that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom then the lack of fear of God is foolishness the lack of fear of God is foolishness and So when we
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Open our Bibles and we read from the Apostle Paul's writing to the Romans and we get to Romans chapter 3 and we come to this
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Place in the text where he says there is no fear of God before their eyes
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We understand that what he is saying in that text is that man because of his relationship to God and not
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Fearing him is a foolish creature It is a foolish thing
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To not fear God and as I was considering that Subject as I was preparing this message for the evening.
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I began to think about Just how uncommon it is
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To find the fear of the Lord in churches today How uncommon a thing it is to find people who revere the holiness of God in churches today.
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I have as the brother said a YouTube channel I do a lot online and one of the programs that I produce is called church soup
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It's a news program Where oftentimes I will play clips from churches simply to make comments on things that are happening in the modern church and Some of these clips are so far into the arena of ridiculousness
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It is proof positive that there is no fear of God before their eyes. I have a tagline
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It says this and I hope it was a blast for them because it was certainly a blast for me Because it's over and over and over and over that men are willing to blaspheme our
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God That they're willing to stand behind pulpits and blaspheme
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God That they're willing to stand upon the chancel and blaspheme
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God and have no fear to spit in the face of the creator of the universe and Have no concern
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For who it is they are insulting There is no fear of God Before their eyes
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Now, why am I talking about the fear of God? I thought I was supposed to be preaching about holiness Well If you follow the narrative of Scripture and you you walk through the stories of the
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Bible you will find That the times when God's holiness is revealed when when the veil of God's holiness is pulled back
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Just just for an inch you see the greatest times of fear fall into the hearts of men.
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I cannot help but think of Peter When he was on the boat and Had been fishing all night and had caught nothing you remember the story and he comes and Jesus stands in his boat and he preaches
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The sermon and then he said let the water out Or let the boat out into the water and throw the net down and and Peter said oh, we've been we've been fishing all night
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But at your command I will do it and so he goes and he he drops the net and he pulls in the great hall
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Of fish and you know what Peter did right after that, right? He began the Peter and Jesus fishing company
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LLC Because that's what the natural person would have said if a man can catch fish like this
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This is the guy I want to be in business with No What Peter did if you remember that narrative?
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It's in Luke chapter 5 verse 8 It says when Peter saw it He fell down at Jesus's knees
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Saying depart from me For I am a sinful man.
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Oh Lord you see when when he recognized who it was that he was in the presence of when he recognized that he was
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Staring at the very Son of God that he was talking to someone who could command the sea and all the deeps
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He said leave me alone For I cannot stand in your presence
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I Am a sinful man, that's what it means
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When we say that God is holy We are recognizing his nature as Being absolutely distinct.
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It is absolutely different It is absolutely separate
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When we talk about the holiness of God if you want a simple definition of the holiness of God, it is
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God's distinction from all other things and we can distinguish God in two ways in His ontological transcendence and in his moral excellence
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Ontological simply means his being or his essence and God transcends all other things in his being there is the
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Bible says there is nothing Like unto him no one like unto him This is why the doctrine of the
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Trinity is so valuable because it reminds us that there's nothing like God There's no one like God you are not triune
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Nothing in nature is triune you can't point to something and say this is like God or that is like God There is no analogy for God because God is holy.
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He is transcendent in his nature He is ontologically
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Transcendent He is also morally excellent And by excellent meaning high above rising above above all things pure and perfect he is as Dr.
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RC Sproul said and you knew I was going to quote dr. Sproul if I'm preaching the holiness of God And if you don't know dr.
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Sproul wrote a tremendous classic on that subject and it is in the bookstore plug
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The dr. Sproul said if you really want to consider what the holiness of God is it is
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God's otherness That there is none like unto him nothing can be compared to him
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Nothing can play place beside him and be made an analogy to him He is other whatever you can think of whatever you can imagine whatever you can put in your mind.
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He is other than that there is none like unto him and You know what makes us more afraid than anything and all of universe things that are different the greatest phobia men have
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Xenophobia fear of that which is different Fear of the other and God is the ultimate other
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God is the ultimate One who is not like us It is my purpose today
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To show you four ways in which the holiness of God should impact us as believers in Christ four ways that this otherness of God this
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Transcendent being of God this nature of God that's not like us four ways that this should impact us as Christians as worshippers as People I'll give you the outline for those who
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I know may be taking notes. It is very simple The holiness of God should strike us
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The holiness of God should humble us the holiness of God should comfort us and the holiness of God should transform us four ways
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The holiness of God should impact us it should strike us humble us comfort us and Transform us now
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We are going to look at two Instances in the Word of God where the holiness of God is put on display both of these instances
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I want to forewarn you are Some of the most difficult passages in the scripture because both of these texts are texts that we find ourselves trying to come up with some justification for because it seems to us when we read these stories that God has an eruption of anger in a moment that to us seems unjust
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If you have your Bibles again open them to Leviticus chapter 10 the book of Leviticus outlines the law of God given
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To the Israelites for their holiness their worship and their priesthood
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The things that are to be done within the tabernacle and if you'll remember the brother of Moses Aaron Was made the high priest and We're not going to read all of this
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But if you were to go back a few chapters from chapter 10 in chapter 8 Aaron and his sons are consecrated and ordained
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For the priesthood in chapter 9 they perform sin offerings and at the end of chapter 9
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When the sin offerings are made Fire comes out and consumes the offering from God So that ends this portion and leads into chapter 10
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So in your mind consider the fact that a sin offering has been made fire has come out it has consumed the offering and now we step into chapter 10 where it says and Nadab and Abihu The sons of Aaron took either of them his censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire
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Before the Lord which he commanded them not and there went out fire from the
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Lord and devoured them and They died before the
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Lord Now Moses Said unto
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Aaron This is it that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people
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I will be glorified and Aaron held his peace and Moses called
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Michelle and Elsa fan the sons of Uziel The uncle of Aaron and said unto them come near carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp so they went near and they carried them in their coats out of the camp as Moses had said and Moses said unto
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Aaron and unto Eliezer and unto Ithamar his sons uncover not your heads neither in your clothes lest ye die and Lest wrath come upon all the people but let your brethren the whole house of Israel be well the burning which the
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Lord hath kindled and He shall not and ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation lest ye die
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The anointing oil of the Lord is upon you and they did according to the word of Moses There are several
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Passages of Scripture Which are difficult for the unbelieving mind
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To wrap its head around the death of the firstborn in Egypt Is a difficult story especially for the unbeliever the story of Uzzah remember
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Uzzah as the ark began to topple he Stretched out his hand and he touched the ark and he was struck dead in that moment
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Unbelievers hear that and immediately their thought is oh what a terrible
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God Just listen to men
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Who do not believe? The Bible is the Word of God describe our
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God Listen to men like Richard Dawkins or Dan Barker Richard Dawkins the head one of them one of the leading evolutionary biologists in the world
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Dan Barker one of the head of the one of the largest atheist associations in the world you hear them talk about our
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God and they will look at passages like this and they will say see here the God of the Bible is a terrible moral monster
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He cannot even hold back his anger for a moment he has to unleash like a petulant child
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This is the picture that people get in their mind
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Jonathan Edwards wrote a sermon which he preached more than once called sinners in the hands of an angry
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God and you know where most people hear or read sinners in the hands of an angry
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God 11th grade English where they're encouraged to read this as an example of the
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Exaggerated view that the Puritans had of the wrath of God They want to show them that all this was an example of how
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God and his nature were so twisted during the times of men like Jonathan Edwards because Edward was so daring as to say that God Actually expresses wrath
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Edwards was so daring as to say that men actually deserve God's wrath and so Edwards becomes a
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Punchline in an English class And part of the problem the reason why it's because the church won't preach like Edwards anymore
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We want our best life now we want a
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God Who is impotent a God who is all love and no wrath and So when we read the story of Nadab and Abihu, who do we side with?
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Nadab and Abihu almost every time
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You read the story and the first thing you think all these poor little boys It's like the boys who got killed by the
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Bears with Elijah in the bald head Who do we always side with?
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the boys We always side with the ones who are abusing
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God's prophet. We don't care about God's prophet. We don't care about God's name We don't care about God's holiness.
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We care about the boys who weren't little boys, by the way There were little kids There were young men insulting the prophet of God Bring shame upon the name of God.
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We don't care about the name of God. We don't get offended by that We get offended when God shows himself
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For who he is. That's what offends us. We don't get offended by the men who offend
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God we get offended by the God who will not be offended and When God demonstrates in a moment his unwillingness to be offended we get angry
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How dare you God show your name to be the most precious thing in all the universe
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How dare you God to say that my presence will be kept holy. How dare you
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God? sanctify your very name You see this is our problem
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There's no fear of God before our eyes nate abba nabih who?
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Offered strange fire before the Lord don't come to me later and ask what it was You have an
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ESV. It says unauthorized fire That's good enough
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The issue is not what was in the censer, but what was in the heart? Because it says in the text
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That they did That which he commanded them not whatever was in that censer was not what
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God had commanded and Here's the thing They knew it they were not ignorant
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I Tried to at least Set the stage by saying two chapters before you see these men called you see these men ordained you see these men given the rules
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They understood that for one who approaches God must recognize that he is holy they knew it and they said
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What if? We didn't What if?
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Just for a moment We said We're going to do it our way and so God in that moment of Rebellion Chose to level upon them
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The same fire that he had just a short while earlier leveled upon The altar of sacrifice remember
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I said in chapter 9 it ends with the sacrifice having been consumed by fire the same fire of consumption that consumed the
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Offering now would consume these men and They died now if there's anyone in the story that I do have trouble not sympathizing with It's Aaron Aaron watched as his sons in Their foolishness and their rebellion
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Did what they did they watched as God's fire consumed them and Moses Spake unto
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Aaron and said for the one who draws near to me
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I will be recognized as holy
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I Will be sanctified. That's what sanctified means by the way the word holy throughout your
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Bible Sanctity Sanctification even the word Saint all comes from the same idea that which is set apart
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And God says for the one who draws near to me. I will be set apart and In your heart right now
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Well, I just said I can sympathize with Aaron But in our heart right now, do we really?
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Recognize That God was right Did we not just say a few moments ago?
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The two characteristics of holiness is one that God is Ontologically transcendent meaning he is outside of our nature, but to that he is morally excellent
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That he's perfect The death of Nadab and Abihu was not a mistake
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The death of Nadab and Abihu was not God fumbling and Accidentally dropping fire on two men.
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It was intentional. It was purposeful So Moses looks at his father and he says this is what
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God meant when he said the one who draws near to me I will be Recognized as Holy and you know, he wasn't even allowed to mourn if you follow the narrative
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That's why I read down to verse 7 as I did I don't have the time this evening to exegete because we're gonna look at another text
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But I I just want you when you're reading it to yourself later to notice that he says do not rinse your cloths
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He says the people they will wail over the burning but not you God's not being unfair.
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Not God's not being mean God's not being harsh. He's teaching a lesson Because Aaron is still in the presence of God You will not call into question what
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I have done Because you draw near to me and the one who draws near to me must recognize what?
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I'm holy I'm holy now
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With your Bibles open turn with me to the New Testament There is a very real sense in which we are
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Marcians at heart If you don't know who Marcian was he was an early heretic who believed that the
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God of the Old Testament was not the God of the New Testament and that the God of the
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Old Testament needed to be expunged and he ended up taking the scriptures apart and only keeping the parts that were about God's love and God's mercy and God's Faithfulness and all of those things and he took out all the things about God's wrath and all of that You've heard of people today doing that, right?
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I Did a sermon a few years ago called the Marcians are coming Because they are
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There are people who will not preach verse by verse through the Word of God because they do not want to read the parts They do not like We get to the
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New Testament we find ourselves in Acts chapter 5 and We read a story
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Which is so close in narrative to what happened in Leviticus chapter 10 I would almost be bold enough to say that they are parallel passages
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Even though I cannot go there in the sense that I don't I don't believe they truly are parallel But they are so close that it's almost as if they are
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And by the way, I gave you the I gave you the context for Leviticus 10 Let me give you the context for Acts chapter 5 in Acts chapter 4
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The church is expanding This new community of faith this new new covenant community is expanding and as the people are in need people are selling things that they
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Have giving it to the Apostles so that the Apostles can distribute to the needs of the people We'll see later in chapter 6
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They'll actually choose men Who will be those who are in in charge of distributing these things that are taken because the church was in need at this time
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We're all familiar with this. Well at the end of chapter 4 a very
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Common name comes up the name Barnabas Barnabas sells a people's piece of property and he gives the money to the church
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And the church uses that money to help the people in the church That is the context that leads into chapter 5 because chapter 5 begins but a certain man named
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Ananias With Sapphira his wife Sold the possession and kept back a part of it
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Excuse me kept back part of the price His wife also being privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the
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Apostles feet But Peter said
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Ananias Why have Satan filled thine heart to lie to the
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Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? Wow, whilst it remained was it not by an own?
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And after it was sold was it not in thine own power by the way, that's proof positive. The early church was not communists
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Because it was his to do with what he chose. He could have sold it He could have given as much as he wanted
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It's not the issue that he had to sell it and it was not the issue that he had to give it the issue is The lie if you have problem with that go talk
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Jonathan when we're done, but he says
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Why have Satan? filled thy heart To lie to the
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Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of land whilst it remained was it not thine own and after It was sold was it not in thine own power?
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Why has thou conceived this thing in thine heart thou has not lied unto men but unto
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God and Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost and great fear came on all them that heard these things and The young men arose wound him up and carried him out and buried him
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And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife not knowing what was done came in and Peter answered unto her
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Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much and she said yea for so much Then Peter said unto her
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How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall kill thee out then she fell down straightway at his feet and Yielded up the ghost and The young men came in and found her dead and carrying her forth buried her by her husband verse 11 is the key and great fear
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Came upon all the church and Upon as many has heard these things now if you compare these narratives
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You'll notice some striking similarities One Both brought an offering that was ultimately rejected number two
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There were two people in both narratives both of them that were struck down by God number three
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They were both family members one a set of brothers the other a husband and wife for Both stories recount their bodies being carried away
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Number five both events caused great fear To fall upon the community of faith but number six,
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I think is worth mentioning Both of these happened
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During a time of Major change in the history of the people of God the story of Nadab and Abihu happens as They are making their way through the 40 years and God is giving the scriptures.
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He's giving the Outline for how he is to be worshipped. He is as it were birthing
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Israel as a nation a theocracy He is giving them the standard by which they will live and the standard is the one who approaches me will
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Recognize that I am holy Why do we have this big Tabernacle, why is it surrounded by all of these things?
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Why does it have this fence? Why is it that the man who goes in there has to do all of these things before he can even approach the door?
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and why is it that only one man one time of year can go in past that veil and take the blood and Sprinkle it upon the mercy seat.
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Why because I am holy and the one who approaches me I will be sanctified
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God and then when they didn't God says and here is the result Now we go to the new covenant
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And people say all the new covenant is different Marcy and all the new covenant is different. Yes The new covenant is different better priesthood
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Better sacrifice. I call the Papa John's covenant better priesthood better sacrifice new covenant
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It is better it is new but God has not changed and therefore as the new covenant is
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Experience explosive growth as men and women are coming to faith day by day Thousands upon thousands are coming into the church
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They are being exposed to this holy God and God Shows them in an instant that he is still the same
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God of the old covenant And the one who approaches me I will be recognized as holy
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See it doesn't the text does not say it and I would never presume to add anything to the Word of God But I can imagine
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That when Peter Saw the bodies of Ananias and Sapphira That on his mind and possibly even on his lips was the phrase
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The one who approaches me must recognize That I'm holy
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So with those two stories in our mind, I would like to at this moment give you the four ways
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Which this should impact us. I gave you the outline earlier. I know I haven't given you the The body of it yet, and I promise that that was not just introduction
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I this is not going to take and say that was all introduction. I'll start preaching now Yeah, my church loves that joke just saying
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But here are four thoughts that I hope we can take away from this number one
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The holiness of God should strike us The holiness of God should strike us the meat of the immediate reaction of most of this to this story as I said earlier is we tend to have our emotions hurt because we side with the offender and Even that should strike us
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That's just like I said, we don't side with God by nature. We are not on God's side. We say wait a minute
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What about Nadab and Abihu? I heard they were good boys Ananias and Sapphira, they just were saving for retirement
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You know, they we come up with some reason to justify. No it it strikes us and it should
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The holiness of God should strike us these events serve to Remind us of the fire of God's holiness because too often we forget
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So often we forget I watched the video the other day Woman preacher and she was saying in her
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TED talk I'm gonna call it a sermon But in her
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TED talk She was saying to the people and she was talking to God as it were like she was preaching
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But she was talking up and she said God Consume us in the fire of your holiness
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And and I said wait
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Consider what thou asketh Did she really just say she said
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God consume us in the fire of your holiness? Mercy You don't want that Nadab and Abihu called they said you don't want it
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Paul Washer said this He said you can't even look at the
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Sun without being blinded yet you think you'll casually stroll into the presence of God Can't look at the
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Sun without being blinded, but you can think you're just gonna stroll into the presence of God That's the attitude so many people have toward God and that is why
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I say the holiness of God has been forgotten The holiness of God has been overlooked because people just stroll into the presence of God They do not care because people aren't dropping left and right like Ananias and Sapphire and Nadab and Abihu When I say we should be struck by the holiness of God We should be struck like Isaiah was struck
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Now I was tempted just to preach Isaiah 6, but I knew as sure as I did somebody say I was just parroting
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RC Sproul So I didn't do that But I loved
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RC Sproul His church was about an hour north of here, and I I would drive down and see him
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Back when he was alive, and I would get to hear him preach. I was there the day. He said what's wrong with you people That's my claim to fame.
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I was in the audience. I said that's never gonna die I said my wife's back there. I didn't I looked
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I said that's gonna live forever, and I was right He said
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About Isaiah 6 he said this passage is the quintessential passage on the holiness of God because we're reminded
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That the most holy man in all of Israel Isaiah When he was in the presence of God was struck
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And what did Isaiah say? Woe is me Woe is me the holiness of God is intended to strike us
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These stories should Strike us That's the point
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They should strike us Number two They should humble us
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Because the reality of our condition comes into focus when we face God's holiness and realize that all of us
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Have done far worse than a dab a by who and an eye a source of fire I've lived for 44 years on this earth, and I have failed to recognize the holiness of God so many times
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And yet he's not consumed me yet Because of his mere mercy and grace and Through that I am humbled it should strike us, but it should humble us thirdly
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And this one's the hardest one It should comfort us You say how can this how can this message comfort us?
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Because it reminds us that our very existence is dependent upon his grace and his grace is amazing
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We live by the grace of God every day You know what
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Again, I hate to keep quoting. Dr. Sproul, but he was such a good teacher. He said we sing amazing grace, but we don't believe it
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Grace is assumed not amazing You know how grace you know why grace is assumed
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Because you sided with Ananias and Sapphira and a dabbing by who as soon as I read those stories Grace is assumed
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You read about us and you side with us Because grace is assumed
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I remember years ago walking to my office and I was struck with an overwhelming sense of the of of The dependency of my life upon God and I and I and I remember this moment like Just it was such an amazing moment of clarity.
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I said to myself I stopped where I was standing I don't remember what I was doing that day, but I just remember standing in the hallway about three foot from my office door
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I stopped I looked up and I thought to myself I Only exist because of your mercy.
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I only exist because of your grace I've done nothing to earn this and if and if it's so pleased you you could wipe me out and it would
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I would owe You would owe me no explanation. And so I have comforted by your grace
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See if you don't understand the holiness of God, you will never appreciate the grace of God And that's what leads us to number four and that is this
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Holiness should transform us Because the holiness of God Makes us a different person
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Now Very clearly I want to say We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone through the forensic
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Justification that comes because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, which is applied to us through double imputation
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My sin is imputed to him. His righteousness is given to me whereby I stand as the Apostle Paul said dressed in his righteousness alone a
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Righteousness that comes from the outside not from the inside Paul said he said I have a righteousness That is not my own but a righteousness which comes through faith in Jesus Christ all of that is true
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But let me tell you this when you encounter the Holy God It will change you
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It will transform you think of Romans chapter 12
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What does Romans 12 say? I? Beseech thee brethren by the mercies of God Offer your bodies a living sacrifice
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Do not be Conformed to this world But be transformed by the renewal of your mind the first way in which your mind is renewed is
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Recognizing who God is and who you are Recognizing his holiness your sinfulness and your desperate need for him
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That'll change everything about how you live Ain't gonna make you perfect because guess what? You're gonna still continue to live in this flesh
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You're still gonna battle sin All those things are true, but it will change the direction of your life as my old professor used to say
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It's gonna give you a new wanna If you don't know what that is, I used to wanna a lot of things, but now
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I want to follow Jesus That's how it changes you See him for who he is
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Recognize yourself for who you are and it changes your life I Have one final thing.
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I want to say and then we'll close. I think I've exhausted my time years ago.
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I Was walking into a Kmart That's how long ago it was They came
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I was going to buy shoes at a Kmart and as I walked in the store
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I Was handing out gospel tracks and I'm a huge proponent of gospel tracks believe in them have used them for years
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Call them paper missionaries you hand them out let people read the gospel on them and as I was walking in there was the lady
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That was standing there greeting you as you come in and so I walked in I saw the lady I handed her a gospel tracked.
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She said thank you. I said, thanks for taking it and I kept walking didn't think any more of it I get back to the shoes
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I'm looking through the tennis shoes and she walks up to me and She was very solemn very
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Frustrated look on her face. She walks up to me very intently and she says I don't want this
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And she handed it to me. So I took it back and I said, thank you, and I went back to looking at the shoes and She stood there and I honestly
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I was done She weren't because I figured you know, she didn't like what it said so I stopped looking at the shoes and I glanced back over at her and I said
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Did you have something you wanted to say and she said yes,
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I Didn't like what that card said. I found it offensive. Okay She said my goddess
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Would never send anyone to hell. I said you're right.
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I said because your goddess doesn't exist you worship an idol
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That you created in your own mind That behaves just like you, you know by God's grace that girl sat with me and taught for 20 minutes
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Took the track back. I mean she didn't fall down to start praising Jesus then we need to be honest but she took the track back and She heard the gospel from me for 20 minutes while I helped her explain that the reason why her goddess
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Was false is because that goddess is made in her image The idols of man will always be like us but the
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God who is is holy and He says the one approaches me.
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I must be regarded as holy Let's pray
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Father I thank you for your word Thank you Even now that we've had the opportunity to be reminded of the truth of your word and Lord I pray
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That the gospel has been preached tonight and that is that you your holiness cannot be overcome by anything good that we have done but has only
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Our salvation comes only through Jesus Christ and the good that he did on our behalf So I pray if there's anyone here tonight who has misunderstood.
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I Pray that they will hear what both I and brother Jonathan have said and that they would understand That salvation is not something that we earn because you cannot be bought by us
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You cannot be bribed by us But Lord you do look upon the sacrifice of your son and you apply his work to us and because of that We are made yours
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Thank you. God. Thank you for your grace and for your mercy in Christ's name.