THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN BIRTH

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It's a privilege to be here. I'd invite you, if you have a Bible, to open to Acts, chapter 2.

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Acts and chapter 2. I wish we had time to read the entire chapter, as it is very much the basis of what

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I'm going to be saying, but I'm going to highlight a number of verses at the end of the chapter, which is where we're going to put our focus.

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So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious God, we thank you for your word.

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We thank you for its inerrancy, its infallibility, its inspiration, its life -giving power.

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We recognize that the flesh profits nothing. It's the

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Spirit who gives life. Come, Holy Spirit, and help us to see the truth of that which you have revealed.

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May it help us in our discipleship to learn of you. We would be obedient to all that you would say to us.

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We would not be hearers only, but doers of the word, those who would otherwise deceive themselves.

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Give us access to your truth, we pray. In Christ's name, amen.

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Amen. Acts chapter 2.

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Acts 2, and we're going to begin in verse 22. And ladies and gentlemen, this is the word of God.

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Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this

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Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and full knowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

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God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

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For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken.

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Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy one see corruption.

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You have made known to me the paths of life.

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You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch

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David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

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Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the

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Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

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Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the

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Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

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For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my

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Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both

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Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucify. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

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And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the

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Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation.

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So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3000 souls, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

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Medical science informs us that the events around the birth of a baby is a key factor in a child's development.

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When it's long and drawn out and painful and complicated, it can have a lasting negative effect upon the early life of the child.

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It's very important that a safe environment is given to the child. In a hospital, trained staff are in place, and there's a standardized procedure that has to become routine.

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Because a baby can't be born anywhere, even in a hospital, there's a section of the facility given over to that birthing process called the maternity ward.

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Lots of equipment are there. There's heart monitors for the mother and the child.

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There's incubators should that be needed. Lots of things we could go on and on and on about to talk about the birth of the child, whether the child is born at home or in a hospital.

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People need to know what they're doing when a baby's being born. Tests and assessment of procedures are a regular occurrence in hospitals.

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There's paperwork to fill in, certainly a lot of hassle for the doctors and the nurses, but it's to make sure that nothing's missed in the process.

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Everything has to be documented to make sure. Have you found this out in life? People don't do what you expect, they do what you inspect.

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So a poor birthing process can have a negative effect on a child. Let's switch gears for a moment and see the relationship between the birth of a child and the birth of someone in the kingdom of God.

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Jesus made it clear in John chapter 3 that without the new birth, no one enters the kingdom of God.

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The kingdom of God comes and we enter it by means of the birth, the birth of a new heart given by God himself.

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Born from above, God at work, and he's 100 % responsible for the new birth.

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It's interesting when Jesus said without the new birth, Nicodemus, John chapter 3, you cannot see or enter the kingdom.

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Nicodemus asked, well, how can these things be? And it's interesting, Jesus didn't say, now here's a three -step process

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I want you to do. He got even more mysterious when he said the wind blows where it wishes.

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The flesh gives birth to flesh, the spirit gives birth to spirit, and it's like wind, you can't see it, you don't know where it comes from or where it goes.

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So it is of everyone who's born of the spirit. God never loses a baby.

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Isn't that a comforting thought? That's true in many, many ways. And there's a real sense, and yet there's a real sense in which we as Christians function as midwives to help the new

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Christian in a safe and healthy birth. Oftentimes what happens when someone comes into the kingdom is that they're left to themselves with little more than this advice.

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Do you have a Bible? No? Well, get one and read it. Bye. That's about it.

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I believe we can do better than that. And because we haven't done better than that oftentimes, it's taken years, sometimes decades for key things to be implemented in the life of the new believer.

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So I think it's a good thing to ask, how can we make sure that the newborn babe in Christ is off to a good start in its

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Christian life? So I want to ask this question, what does a normal Christian birth look like?

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If we could standardize the process, what things would we want to see in place?

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My experience as a teenager was being asked to go to a meeting.

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My parents asked me to go. And I heard the message of the gospel. I didn't want to be there.

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I didn't like it at all. And yet halfway through the message,

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I became interested in what I wasn't interested in. I now know what happened.

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The wind was blowing where it wishes. The Holy Spirit as a master surgeon was taking out a heart of stone, putting in a heart of flesh.

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And before the end of the sermon, I now wanted the Jesus that was being offered to me in the gospel.

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An appeal was made. I'm sure you've seen it perhaps of a preacher at the front saying to the congregation, those who would like Jesus and would want to repent of their sins,

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I'm asking you to raise your hand. And I wrote, my hand was raised.

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I did it, I guess, and I did it with trepidation. And I thought that would be it.

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But no, the preacher was not done at all. After those people had raised their hands, a number of them, all of us had raised our hands, were asked to walk forward.

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And for me as a very, very shy person, this was highly embarrassing. And yet I went forward and that wasn't it either.

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I was then given a card to sign and fill in details. And I thought, well, you know, why are they asking this?

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OK, I'll do that. I guess I would have signed up for the military at that point. And I was in this counseling area for about 10 minutes where they asked me questions, basically asked me to fill in the form and do you have any questions?

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And I was so shy, I said no. A guy next to me was talking about moving from one sphere of life to another.

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He'd seen something and I didn't sense much at all. And yet I'd never saw him again in my life.

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And here I am all these years later, still walking with the Lord. And it was an interesting experience.

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But as I was on my way out of this, after feeling very humiliated and thinking I'd done my deed for the rest of my life, raising hands, walking aisles, signing cards.

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The guy at the door shook my hand and said, see you next Sunday. I thought, see you next

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Sunday? Haven't I done enough? Come on, that is ridiculous. See me next

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Sunday. You will not see me here for a long time. Well, God has his ways and means committee of getting people to do what they need to do.

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And I ended up going regularly to that church. But that's often what happens, isn't it?

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In the church service, people are asked to do exactly what I was asked to do. It was funny to me when

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I heard of one church that was moving from one facility to another, they didn't own their own building. And they had one meeting where they were in this music hall and the stage was kind of down in the middle of the building and then upwards are the seats, you know, like in an amphitheater setting.

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And so the preacher was preaching his regular sermon and did what he normally did, which was having this altar call.

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By the way, that's a novelty in church history. It wasn't around 200 years ago. We think, well, how did

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God get people converted without an altar call? Well, we'll talk about that. Poor, poor

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God, he didn't have the means to save people for thousands of years, right? So he was about to, well, he went through the usual routine.

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He asked people to raise their hands and some did. And he says, and he stopped himself because he's about to ask people to walk forward.

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And he looked and realized that if he did, everyone who walked forward would fall into the musician's pit.

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It could be life -threatening if they did. You know, the place where the drums are and the piano is, there was this music pit and he realized that he couldn't call people forward.

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And there was this thing that went over his face, like, how are people going to be saved if they can't walk forward?

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That's how people are saved, right? That was his idea. It's not good.

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Is that what we see in the book of Acts? If we go back to Acts chapter two, when the crowd that heard him, all

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I assume were Jewish, they were there on the day of Pentecost, having come from different sectors of the region and roundabout for that feast.

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And they said, brethren, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, raise your hand, walk the aisle, sign a card.

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Is that what he said? No. He said, well, we need a six -week committee on this and we'll get back to you.

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It's a great question. No, he knew exactly what to say. And he said it boldly and clearly, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

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And you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. First thing he mentions is the command of repentance.

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And there are many I know of people who have been around the Christian faith for decades. And yet only when they have repented, can they then have the assurance of salvation because the

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Bible is very clear without repentance, there is no real conversion. Jesus said it this way, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

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Luke 13 3. The word repentance is not an emotion. It's not a feeling.

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It means literally metanoia is the Greek word. It means to change the mind.

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It's an about face. It's a U -turn. You've been thinking a certain way. Now you're about face and now thinking another way.

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That's the New Testament revelation of what repentance is in the Old Testament.

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It meant a turning. It meant an outward action. Put the two thoughts together of both Old and New Testament.

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And we are now talking about an inward change of mind that results in a new course of action.

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And for the person who is repenting, they are now surrendering to the

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Lordship of Jesus Christ. Repentance means he's right.

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I'm wrong. I'm a disciple. I'm here to learn of him. And when he says something,

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I say, yes, sir. I don't argue. I don't say, well, I think, no, I used to do a lot of,

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I think now I want to know what he thinks and what he says. Man shall not live by bread alone.

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And I am now deciding to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In other words, when

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God says something, the argument's over. When there's something in the word of God that I don't like, the problem's not with the word of God.

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It's with me. I have to change. Have you noticed the text will say what it says tomorrow as well as today.

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God doesn't change. He was right the first time. And repentance means more than merely being sorry for our sins.

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We can do that. A lot of people can be sorry that their sins have cost them dearly in life.

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But unless we show that we're really sorry by turning from them, giving them up, we're not truly repenting.

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Part of the process of the Christian life, I think, is the fact that repentance can often start like a seed.

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And the more that time goes on, the more we find areas in our lives where we need to repent. Be patient with people that haven't come as far as you have in three days and three weeks.

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Spurgeon said it this way, I believe the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him.

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Have you found that in your Christian life? There's things to repent of all the time. Part of the thing we need to repent of is the idea that we can get to God by what we do or maintain our condition before God by what we do.

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John MacArthur wrote this, the damned, that's D -A -M -N -E -D, the people that are condemned by God for eternity, the damned think they are good, the saved know they are wicked, the damned believe the kingdom of God is for those worthy of it, the saved know the kingdom of God is for those who realize how unworthy they are, the damned believe eternal life is earned, the saved know it is a gift, the damned seek

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God's commendation, the saved seek his forgiveness. There's a lot in that.

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I believe the true Christian is one who hates sin, not because it damns us, but because of what it's done before God, what it's done to God.

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Spurgeon again, I hate sin not because it damns me, but because it has done thee wrong, talking of God, to have grieved my

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God is the worst grief to me. We as the people of God run to God and turn away from all we know to be wrong.

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There are no citizens of the city of God who didn't first arrive at its gates as refugees. I need him.

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Now, when Luke was writing the book of Acts and he's outlining all of the historical events of the early church, his intention was not to document everything each time it happened.

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However, when we piece together this passage and other passages in the book of Acts, we see a really full old vision of what took place in the life of the church, especially when we come to other parts of the

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New Testament. We see that repentance is a necessity. It's the first word of the gospel in Mark 1 14.

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After John was arrested, Jesus, it says, came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled.

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The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Do you hear those two words?

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Repent and believe. We don't choose between one and the other.

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They are both the commands of God. And so we see that the first word is repent.

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Well, what about the word faith? I don't see it there. Well, it's there by implication because they obviously believe the message.

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You can't be cut to the heart if you don't believe it. Really? Yeah, I was.

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Oh, I was cut to the heart. I don't believe a word of it. No, those two statements don't go together. They obviously believed what they heard.

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But in Acts chapter 16, do you remember the jailer was about to kill himself because there'd been an earthquake and it looked like all the prisoners had got free and that was a criminal offense and he could be executed, probably would be executed.

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So rather than waiting for the jurisdiction and the judgment to come, he was about to kill himself. And the apostle shouted out, don't kill yourself.

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We're here. And recognizing God at work, he said, sirs, what must

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I do to be saved? In Acts two, it was people, a group saying, what must we do to be saved there in Acts 16?

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It was what must I do? And there we have faith expressed. The answer came back, believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. What is faith? Faith is a trust in God, a belief in him and an acting on what

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God has revealed. And the way faith comes is by hearing the message of Christ, Romans chapter 10, verse 17.

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So then faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Doesn't come by an experience.

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It comes by the word of God. That is the means whereby faith comes.

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John Calvin wrote this faith does not depend on miracles or in any extraordinary sign, but is the peculiar gift of the spirit and is produced by means of the word.

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I believe this repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin for a coin to be legitimate in the kingdom of God.

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It has two sides, like a heads and a tails, one being repentance, the other being faith.

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And that's 20 talks of Paul and him saying goodbye to some elders at Ephesus.

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And he says this, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and our faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Again, see those together. They are inseparable. One, if you can turn for a moment to Hebrews chapter six, and we'll just pick up a theme there.

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Hebrews six and verse one, the writer says this or writes this. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of, and he's now going to list six essential doctrines.

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And here the picture is of God as a building inspector. And in the construction of you, the building, the

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Christian God, the inspector is going to analyze the foundation upon which you've been building.

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And he's asking these questions. Do you have these things in place? If not, there's certain work that needs to be done.

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If they are there, he will then give you a permit to allow you to go further in the building.

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What are the foundation doctrines? One, repentance from dead works, verse one, continuing on to faith toward God, three instruction about washing.

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Some of your translations may say baptisms for the laying on of hands, five, the resurrection of the dead and six eternal judgment.

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And look at verse three. And this we will do if God permits. He's looking for these six things.

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He's wanting to issue a permit to allow for more construction, but you need to have these things in place.

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Now, repentance, faith, they're mentioned repentance from dead works. These are all the things we tried to do to get to God.

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We need to turn away from them because nothing we do gets us to God, faith toward God.

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We believe him. We believe what he has revealed. God is who he says he is.

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We believe his gospel. The third one instruction about baptisms.

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That's interesting. And the fourth one speaks of the laying on of hands, which introduces the concept of the church.

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The Christian isn't called upon to live the Christian life by himself, but in harmony and communion with the church.

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And in the laying on of hands, we see it in the scriptures. It's for healing. Laying hands on the sick speaks of that.

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Let us call for the elders of the church, James chapter five, and laying hands on them.

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But it also includes the idea of commissioning people for ministry. We lay hands on them.

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We ordain them to a certain function, a certain task. If someone is becoming a pastor, oftentimes elders and other pastors gather around and lay hands on them, commissioning them for a certain project or a task or an office.

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The Bible says lay hands suddenly on no man. And the idea is not about striking them and laying hands on them, but commissioning them.

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In other words, know them first before you set them in an office, make sure you don't do so so quickly.

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You don't really know their character. Otherwise you will partake of their sins. That's really what's going on.

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Fifth and sixth is resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this refers to the last days and the judgment of works and the judgment of believers and non -believers.

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And we need to be schooled in these things. And when we are, God will give the permit to carry on.

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I say that because Romans six has a verse that is intrigued me. We oftentimes miss it because it's part of a wider passage that has so much to say, but there's a phrase in verse 17 that really is something of an insight for us.

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Verse 17, but thanks be to God that you who once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

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That's the ESV. NASB, that form of teaching to which you were committed.

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Paul never having yet visited Rome was writing to a church that had understood the gospel.

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And here was his assumption. I'm writing to you, the church at Rome, and I know that you have as Christians submitted to a standard of teaching.

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You've come under, you've become obedient from the heart to a form of teaching.

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I believe like many scholars do that this is referencing a new believers class of sort.

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You've come to Christ. Now we're going to put you under instruction to learn of him.

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There's a standard of teaching in place that will equip you as a Christian so that you are properly birthed in the kingdom of God.

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The Holy spirit has been with his people, the church through the centuries, leading and guiding into all truth.

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Jesus said he would. And therefore I don't believe that there's something called new truth.

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We don't have to come up with anything new. We need to master what has been revealed.

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Spurgeon again wrote this. I cannot agree with those who say they have new truth to teach. The two words seem to me to contradict each other.

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That which is new is not true. It is the old that is true for truth is as old as God.

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R .C. Sproul. Although tradition does not rule our interpretation, it does guide it.

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If upon reading a particular passage, you've come up with an interpretation that has escaped the notice of every other

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Christian for 2000 years or has been championed by universally recognized heretics.

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Chances are pretty good that you would better abandon your interpretation again to quote

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Spurgeon. It seems odd that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy spirit reveals to themselves should think so little of what he's revealed to others.

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Tradition, J .I. Parker said, is the fruit of the spirit's teaching activity from the ages as God's people have sought understanding of scripture.

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It's not infallible, but neither is it negligible. And we impoverish ourselves if we disregard it.

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We work our way through error towards truth by not thinking we've got to reinvent the wheel, but understand that the

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Holy Spirit has been with his people through the centuries. And in that there are certain things that have been written like creeds and confessions and catechisms, which are extremely helpful.

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One of the things we do as a church is to put in people's hands the confession of faith we hold to the

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London Baptist confession of faith. We put this in every welcome pack for visitors.

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I have a leather edition that I keep near the pulpit because it's just more geared to last a little longer that way.

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But it's important that we realize we're not making things up as we go along. It's so important we realize that.

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And the confession or the statement of faith of a particular church, that's the first thing

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I go to to find out how healthy a church is. There was a couple that was, they were leaving

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Phoenix and going to another state. And they wrote to me by way of email and they said, we've narrowed our search for a new church down to three.

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Would you check these out? Well, I don't go and kind of listen to the music first or have a look at how handsome the pastor is.

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I go immediately to the statement of faith. And I said, and I wrote back to them,

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I said, well, two of them look healthy, but there's one I'd, I just got a question with the wording sounds a little like modalism.

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And they didn't know what modalism was. And I said, well, it's this idea that God has modes of being the phrase

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I saw on the website was God is manifested as father, son, and spirit.

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It wouldn't speak of God as three persons. And that's the language of modalism.

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It's the idea that God is like this one person actor who sometimes acts as the father, sometimes acts as the son, sometimes acts as the

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Holy spirit. It's like a drama that you're watching. And in one scene, one guy is the gardener, then he goes off stage and he reappears as the husband.

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And then he comes back in another further scene as, as a judge, but you know, it's the same guy.

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Some people have the idea that that's what God's like. Sometimes he acts like father, some like, like, like son.

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And sometimes the Holy spirit that's heresy. And I said, I'm not saying these guys are heretics, but it,

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I'm concerned. Would you go and ask the pastor this question? Do you believe in the

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Trinity? And oftentimes when people hear that, they say, well, come on Trinity.

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That's not a word in the Bible. I always respond. Well, the word Bible is not in the Bible. Well, it's on the front of my

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Bible. Yeah, but it's, it wasn't part of the original text, but the concept of the Bible is certainly known to all of us.

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The inspired books, the Canon of scripture, that which God has inspired. And though the word

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Trinity is not found in our Bibles, the concept certainly is God is one in essence and three in persons.

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And I, I said, would you ask him this question? I rattled off this question. Do you believe that God is one in essence and three in person?

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They said, hold it, hold it, pastor. I didn't quite catch that. I said, write this down and put it on a piece of paper and say,

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I'm a kind of confused Christian, but would you answer this? Is God one in essence and three in person?

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And they literally wrote this out and handed it to the pastor of this church. And he said, no,

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I said, they said, what shall I do with that? I said, run for your life, run for your life.

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They are not worshiping the same God as Christians do through the centuries and have done. That is not a

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Christian church. And they thought, well, the music's so good and they've got a great youth program. I don't care.

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It's a false God. They're worshiping run for your life. And so they went to one of the other two churches on the list, creeds, confessions.

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Oh, that's just a dead liturgy. No, no, no. These are Christians through the centuries of who have searched the scriptures and mind them and said,

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God, lead us into your truth. And I encourage you to do exactly that.

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There's a book I'd recommend if you're struggling with that concept called the creedal imperative by Karl Truman.

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It goes into that in more detail. Should you wish what we say in a confession of faith is that what you hear taught from the pulpit will be in line with this.

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This is the standard of teaching. This is what we believe. Summarize what the Bible says.

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Now the Bible is the only full authority. It's the soul written divine revelation. Solar script

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Torah, right? Scripture alone is God breathe. Scripture alone is the word of God.

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But confessions come along and say, in answer to the question, what does this inspired word say about God?

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And there you've got to answer by hopefully not just starting at Genesis one, one and reading all the way to Revelation 22 and say, that's what

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I believe is going to be a long conversation, right? Now you summarize who's

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God. Now, the moment you start answering that question, you are making a confession of sort.

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Who's Jesus Christ. Do you know, there's a number of Jesus is and there's only one who can save the true one.

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All false Jesus is cannot save because they don't exist. There's only one.

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And he is the one revealed in scripture. And so confessions come along and say, now, as we read

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Genesis to Revelation, what does the Bible say about God? What does the Bible say about Jesus? What does the

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Bible say about the Holy Spirit? Is he a force or is he a person? And he's a person.

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What does the gospel entail? What's church life?

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Catechisms are different because they, in the form of question and answer, summarize the main teaching of the

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Bible. It was set up originally for kids, but I think every adult can benefit from catechisms.

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Teach your kids. And also you'll be teaching yourself. The baptism, the

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Baptist catechism starts with question one, who is the first and chiefest being answer?

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God is the first and chiefest being question to, or everyone to believe there is a God answer.

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Everyone ought to believe there is a God and it is their great sin and folly who do not. Question three, how many we know there is a

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God a the light of answer, the light of nature and man and the works of God plainly declare there is a

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God, but his word and spirit only do it fully and effectively for the salvation of sinners. Question four, what is the word of God?

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So it goes on. You get this into your brain and you will be a more established

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Christian. Oh, I just like experience. Well, I'm not against experience.

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If it's the right experience, the second Peter chapter one, Peter had the greatest of all experience seeing

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Jesus transfigured on the mountain said we have the prophetic word made more sure, more sure than what the highest, most enlightened experience known to man.

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This Bible is where we get our basis for our beliefs. New Christian needs to know certain things.

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One of these concept is the concept of law and gospel. Martin Luther said this, the law is for the proud, the gospel for the broken hearted and what the law does as its methodology is to do and that is to condemn us, to slay us, to show us our sin.

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The law says you shall and you shall not. And we have not fulfilled

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God's law. Not only have we failed to do it, we've violated his law by our words, by our thoughts, by our actions.

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And that's not good by the works of the law. The Bible says no flesh will be justified.

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There's no hope for anybody. If we try to get to God by means of the law, the law is good.

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The law is holy, but it condemns us. It was given to condemn us, to show us

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God's standard and to show us that we come short of it. Only one person in human history ever kept the law.

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His name is Jesus of Nazareth. He lived the righteous life you and I should have lived.

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He crossed every T. He dotted every I. He fulfilled the law. He said to John, it's right that I get baptized.

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In doing this, we'll fulfill all righteousness. Jesus came to fulfill the law.

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We haven't and we're in trouble. And that's why the message of the Bible is not merely law, but law and gospel.

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Before we come to Christ, it's the message of law and gospel. God says, do this, do this, you shall and you shall not.

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Don't do that, do this. Then the gospel comes for those of us who violated the law, which is all of us.

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And the gospel says, Christ lived the life you should have lived and he died the death you should have died.

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And at the cross he was condemned for us. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity.

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The punishment due to us was upon him. By his stripes we are healed. That's the message right there.

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Law and gospel. What happens after we come to Christ? You know what the message is? Law and gospel.

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It doesn't change. Some people, have you met them? You ever seen one of these guys when you look in a mirror?

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They believe in law and gospel before you come to Christ and then now it's just law. You're in the kingdom by your works.

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No, it's law and gospel. Every week God says what he says in his law.

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And every week we come short of it. And every week we're in need of the gospel.

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Hallelujah. It doesn't change. Christians, keep it quiet,

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Christians need the gospel. Oh, I just thought the gospel was for those outside the

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Christian faith. No. We all need the gospel. We all need to know what God's standards are and we need to know that we're still called upon to do them, but we're incapable of going a day loving

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God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Don't look at me in that tone of voice. You haven't done it today, nor have

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I. You haven't loved God perfectly with your mind even in this service.

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Right? You've thought of other things. You've thought less of God than he's deserving. See, we think of sin as the violation of big, big things like the vows of a marriage.

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That's adultery. That's big. Oh, I agree. That's big. Violation of people's rights to live, like killing them, murder.

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Yeah, that's bad. That's really bad. Oh, yeah. Sins of the heart.

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Not so much. Martin Luther was once asked, what is the greatest sin?

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He says, well, it goes back to what is asking this question? What is the greatest commandment? And the greatest commandment is to love

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God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And then your neighbor is yourself. And so if that's the greatest commandment, the greatest sin is not to do that.

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Wow. That puts a different perspective on it. We are crazy sinners, right?

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We're not loving God like we should. That should scare the bejeebee jeebees out of us.

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I don't know what that is, but it should scare us a lot. Wow. I've sinned against a holy

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God who demands full allegiance righteously. We don't understand this law and gospel distinction.

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We don't understand anything in the Christian life. We also need to understand the lordship of Christ.

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I'm sure you know this scripture, Romans chapter 10, verse nine. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is

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Lord and believe in your heart that God is raising from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified.

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And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. No one can say Jesus is

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Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 12 says. Well, I can say

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Jesus is Lord. Yeah, but can you say it and mean it? There was a context to that phrase in the first century in the

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Roman empire. You were required to say Caesar is Lord.

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And not only would the Christians not do that, they were saying something else.

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They were saying Jesus is Lord. And for many, it meant they lost their lives.

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No one can really, truly say Jesus is Lord in that kind of setting, apart from the

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Holy Spirit. They don't have a casual interest in Christ. They haven't just been charmed by Jesus.

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They've been changed by Jesus and they submit to him. Jesus alone is

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Lord. We will not bow down to the emperor and confess him to be what only

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Jesus is. We're slaves of Jesus Christ. That's the starting point in the life of the

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Christian. I want every Christian to know Jesus is Lord and affirm the

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Lordship of Christ. Every knee will bow to him. Every tongue will confess that he is

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Lord to the glory of God, the father. I want every Christian to be established in what has been called the five solas.

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I wrote a book called the five solas standing together alone. And I want every

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Christian to know this. There's much great material on the subject, but I wanted to write something in about 30 pages that I can give to anyone.

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I can give it away at a bank and it's like a long gospel tract. I wrote a book.

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Oh, really? I'd love to read it. It's full of the word of God, full of showing how our need is desperate.

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We've committed high treason against God, but God has sent his son and he is the only remedy for sin.

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No one else can help. No one else is God in the flesh. No one else did what

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Jesus did, lived a righteous life and died an atoning death. We believe justification to be declared right by God is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.

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Justification by faith alone. It's key. It has to be known. God justifies us on the basis of faith in Christ alone, plus nothing, plus nothing.

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And what I mean by that is plus nothing. But the faith that justifies is not a faith that is alone.

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It produces something called works. Oh, I knew he's going to slip works in there somewhere.

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But works do not give you your standing with God. They're a result of your standing with God, the fruit of a new nature that now wants

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Christ. You see, the one who confesses legitimately, genuinely,

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Jesus is Lord coming under his authority, having faith in him, repenting from all we know to be wrong, turning to Christ, trusting in him alone.

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That is the fruit of a regenerated heart, a heart that's been born again, born from above.

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Faith without works is dead and a dead faith saved nobody. That's the message of James chapter two.

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Ephesians chapter two says it this way, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

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It's a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast.

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What's the place of works? Ephesians two verse 10, the next verse, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

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Oh, just as God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis one, he's not created this new species of being that never existed before the

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Christian. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

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We're not saved by good works, we're saved for good works. Martin Luther said it this way,

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God doesn't need your good works, your neighbor does. I like that. The works are the fruit and not the root of our salvation.

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No one was ever saved by a mere profession of faith. The faith you have needs to be professed, but you're not saved by a mere profession, you're saved by the possession of true faith.

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And if there's nothing that is looking like a heartbeat spiritually, though I am not the judge, it does cause me to ask questions.

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If there's no sanctification, there really was no real true justification.

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Those who've been justified are now being sanctified. Those who have no experience of present sanctification have no reason to suppose they've been justified,

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FF Bruce said. So repentance, so faith, law and gospel.

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Then we go back to Acts two and it says baptism. They were told, be baptized.

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28 % of you, is that what your Bible says? 48%.

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No, every one of you. And again, as disciples of Christ, we don't make up the rules.

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We simply say, my assignment is to find out what God says and obey him. Why? Because I have this thing called repentance.

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It's a gift from God like faith is. And a repentant heart says, I want to know what

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God says. And once I'm sure of what God says, I say, yes, sir, I will obey what you say.

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What a baptism does not save, but is commanded as the first step of obedience for the new

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Christian. I wrote a letter to a person that was attending our church.

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This is long ago. And I wrote out of concern. I wrote,

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I think in love, I've analyzed my heart many times over the years about it, but I wrote a letter like this.

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And I said the person's name at the top of the letter. And I said, with my pastor's hat on for a moment,

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I have to express some concern that you profess to know Christ for at least a decade.

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And yet you have not been water baptized. And though I'm not the judge of your soul, it does concern me that the first thing

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God requires of you, you're not willing to do. Would you consider that? I realized

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I was taking a chance in writing a letter like this and it backfired on me. This person was very upset, left the church to my knowledge to this day, 15 years later, talking a long time ago, still hasn't been baptized.

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I could be wrong, but if someone has an issue with Jesus, is their heart really that of a repentant heart?

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Does it, what's the issue here? Shouldn't be that way.

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If God says it, we're not going to fuss with it, argue with it. In the

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Muslim world, you can do what I outlined before. You can raise a hand and walk an aisle and sign a card and people can get upset.

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But the moment you get baptized, they know it's real. They know you're making a huge commitment because baptism means full identification.

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The word baptized is taken from the Greek and just taken over into English and anglicized.

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And the word baptized just means to plunge, to dip, to immerse. You do this all the time when you take a cookie and you dunk it in something that you like and eat it.

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You've baptized that thing. I didn't realize there's Christian activity going on in the home.

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Yes, when an NBA guy dunks the basketball, he is baptizing that sucker.

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That's what he's doing. Now, water baptism was part of the early message of the church.

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If you go to Acts chapter 8 for a moment, remember Philip and Enoch having a discussion. The Enoch was asking

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Philip as he was reading Isaiah 52, 53, about whom, verse 34,

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I ask you, does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

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And as they were going along the road, they came to some water and the Enoch said, see, here is water.

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What prevents me from being baptized? And Philip said, well, you need to do an 18 week course.

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You need to attend this. And that's what's preventing you. No, no, no, no. He commanded the chariot to stop.

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And they both went down into the water, Philip and the Enoch, and he baptized him.

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Now there's nothing in the text that explicitly says what I'm about to say.

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I realize I'm going by inference, but I think there's a strong inference here that is legitimate.

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I think it's right to assume that baptism was mentioned in Philip's presentation.

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Just a thought. Otherwise, as Philip is talking about the gospel and explaining who

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Jesus is, why on earth would the Enoch say, hey, hey, hey, there's water right there.

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Can I get back? Will you dunk me now? It would be ridiculous if baptism wasn't ever mentioned.

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Look, there's water. I need to be baptized. Can we do it now? Let's not just wait till we get to the city.

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There's water right here. Let's do it. And he was baptized in the

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Muslim world when a Muslim becomes a Christian and is baptized as a death warrant.

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They know what it means. Full identification. You're saying I'm identified with Jesus Christ and his life, his death, his burial and resurrection.

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I'm now hid with Christ in God. My life is his life. His life is my life.

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Romans six spells that out. To walk in newness of life, we need to understand water baptism.

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Fourth thing says in our text in Acts two, you'll receive the Holy Spirit. Notice what the text says.

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You'll receive the Holy Spirit. This is a promise for all the people of God. As many as the

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Lord will call to himself. He's a person. He's not an experience.

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Now this is in the context of a big experience. Acts chapter two, the day of Pentecost. These guys had seen a lot, heard a lot, felt a lot.

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Perhaps there was a sound of a rushing wind. We don't know whether there was a feeling of a rushing wind, but they saw tongues of fire and they heard people speaking the gospel of Christ in their own language from the regions they'd come from as Jews.

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But here the emphasis is not an experience. It's a person. Every Christian, hear this, receives the person of the

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Holy Spirit. I don't believe as I once did as a form of Pentecostal or charismatic.

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Yes, I was there. I used to believe there were two tiers of Christians, those who really, really, really had the spirit and those who kind of had a little dab of him.

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Have you been filled with the spirit? Well, we all need to be continually filled. That's the command of Ephesians.

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I believe every day we should ask God, fill me afresh with the Holy Spirit, with his presence, with his power.

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But I don't believe there's two tiers of Christians. You see, it's the exact opposite of what the Holy Spirit has come to do.

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He's come to break down walls of division. All of the racism we have here, you know, we're not taking that to heaven.

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There's not going to be an Asian service and us white boys have to stand outside. When's this thing going to be over so we can have church?

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We can't fellowship with them. Man -made ideas.

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Their skin color's different to me. They talk funny. Listen, I want to challenge you. There's going to be some English people in heaven.

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Deal with it. Hallelujah. There's going to be one service and get this, there's not going to be an

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Old Testament service and a New Testament service. No, we'll be singing with Abraham, I'm saved by the blood.

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We'll be singing with Abraham, I'm justified by faith alone. Genesis 15, 6.

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Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. We're saved the exact same way, by the blood of the atoning lamb.

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They believed in the one to come. We believe in the one who has come. We're all in heaven going to be singing, worthy is the lamb who was slain.

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We're not taking any of the borders and things we've erected here on earth into heaven.

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The Holy Spirit's come to demolish every dividing wall. You read Ephesians chapter 2.

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He's broken down the walls of hostility and division between the greatest people in terms of having issues with each other.

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Jews and Gentiles. Kosti Hinn, who's the nephew of Benny Hinn.

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He's a friend of mine. He wrote this, every Christian is regenerated by the

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Holy Spirit. By the way, he doesn't go with his uncle anymore.

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He's a reformed Baptist pastor. And he calls his uncle a false teacher.

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Every Christian is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, baptized with the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and sealed by the

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Holy Spirit at conversion. There are no second -class Christians needing an upgrade to first -class status through mystical anointings or experiences.

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I agree. First Corinthians 12, 13, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body,

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Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made a drink of the one spirit. Romans 8, verse 9, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

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Every Christian has received the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 2, you shall receive the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. How? Repent, be baptized, you'll have the

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Holy Spirit. Look at verse 41 of Acts 2. So those who received His Word thought about it for eight weeks and kind of meandered around and said,

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I'm not sure we've ever done this before, and nope. Yes sir, those who received

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His Word were baptized and they were added that day about 3 ,000 souls. Added to what?

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The local church. Christian, you need the local church. And to have a proper, normal Christian birth, you'll be introduced to the people of God and to fellowship with them.

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I believe it's God's will for every Christian to be a member of a local church. Look in Acts chapter 2, verse 41.

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Those who received His Word were baptized, and were added that day about 3 ,000 souls. And, and is a linking word, they, who's the they, all of those who are baptized, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayers.

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Well, we don't know any apostles today, so how can we do that? Yes, we have no knowledge of any modern day apostles running around, but we have the writings of the apostles.

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That's the apostles' doctrine for you and I. The apostles' doctrine is expressed now in the writing of the

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New Testament. Christian, you can't love Jesus and not love His Word. There was no disconnect between the new believer and life in the local church.

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On day one, they were told, this is your new church family. They'll be teaching at a certain time.

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Come. Yes, sir. Once you're being baptized. Oh, baptized first?

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Yep. Baptized and then after baptism, you become members in the church.

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You're identified with Christ. We rejoice with you. Baptism leads to membership in the local church.

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And there you'll get under the word. You'll fellowship with other Christians. You'll have the Lord's Supper and you'll be in prayer with others.

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That's day one in the Christian life. That's the normal Christian birth. Whoa. I don't like Bibles that have

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Jesus' words in red. If you have one of those, throw it out.

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No, I mean, no, no. I just got a problem with it because it gives the impression that those words are more inspired than any of the others.

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Scripture says all Scripture is inspired by God. The book of Hebrews is inspired by God.

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It's Jesus through the writer of Hebrews speaking to us. Do you believe that? First Peter is

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Jesus speaking to us. Book of James is Jesus speaking to us. Ephesians is Jesus speaking to us.

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And in Hebrews, we read this. Obey your leaders and submit to them. For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

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Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. I'm speaking as someone who didn't believe in church membership for a couple of decades.

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And I am sad about that because it's there in the word of God. Two things have to be assumed for that scripture to be applied in our lives.

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Number one, the people know which leaders they are to obey and submit to. They're not to submit to every leader in every church.

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Obey your leaders. And number two, the leaders know which people they are to give an account for, not merely anyone who shows up at a service.

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So the people say to the elders, I submit to your leadership as long as you stay in the word of God and teaching according to sound doctrine,

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I'm submitted here. And the elders say to the people, we will watch over your souls.

01:00:06

And there's a commitment then to do things like what Jesus said in Matthew 18. When there's a relationship issue to deal with, what do we do?

01:00:15

We do what Jesus said in Matthew 18. When there are issues between business people in the church, what do we do then?

01:00:21

Matthew 18. If a brother sins against you, go on the internet on Facebook and tell everybody his fault.

01:00:30

No, no, no, no, no. Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Oh, that's a we don't like.

01:00:38

If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. This is Jesus mandate for sorting out relationships.

01:00:43

And in a husband wife relationship, when there are issues, what do we do? Matthew 18. And if at some point someone will not submit to the process of Matthew 18, we ought to treat them as this tells us, like a tax collector.

01:01:00

So what's interesting this time of year and a Gentile treat them as someone outside the

01:01:06

Christian faith. They may be genuine Christians, but it's not looking good. We're not the ultimate judge, but we're to treat them as non -Christians.

01:01:14

Those who bail out in the process are to be treated as non -believers for the purpose of restoration.

01:01:21

Put him out. That implies church membership. I'm not that intelligent, but I have worked this thing out.

01:01:30

If there's an out, there must be an in. First Corinthians five, put the unrepentant guy out, deliver him to Satan.

01:01:46

Oh my gosh. Strong language. Again, put him out for the purpose of restoration.

01:01:52

Now, as we read on in second, when is the guy did repent and they had a hard time accepting him. And then he had to write and say, look, he's repentant.

01:01:59

Let him back in. I love this. Michael McKinley provides something that's very helpful at this point, and I'm about to close.

01:02:10

I cannot be removed from the Northern California left -handed golfers association because I've never been a member of such an organization.

01:02:19

Now, according to their website, the NCLHGA will remove people from membership for several reasons like right -handedness perhaps, but I'm no,

01:02:31

I'm in no danger of being subject to such an action because you can't kick a person out.

01:02:37

Who's never been a member to begin with. So think about that.

01:02:43

There's more we could say about church membership. Church discipline is the function of Jesus in caring for his sheep.

01:02:52

I always thought it was a bad thing. Well, again, repent, repent, just smile real big.

01:03:00

No, no, we're talking about you. Let me close with this.

01:03:08

I trust you understand there's a disciple of Christ. There should be things that show forth the fact that you are his disciple.

01:03:17

You've repented. You put your faith in Christ. You've been water baptized. You've received the Holy spirit. You have a relationship with God.

01:03:23

That's active. There's signs of life. Test yourself to see whether you're in the faith.

01:03:29

The scripture says second Corinthians 13 five. This will shock you, but I know of a family who flew to an area around the university before.

01:03:41

Can we all say the word before, before they flew to an area around the university before making a decision regarding which university their daughter should attend.

01:03:51

That's wild. Why they wanted to check out local churches, but it was a prestigious university.

01:04:04

Yep. That's all very well and good. I might make it a great career for my daughter.

01:04:09

Absolutely. As a parent, that's thrilling, but unless there's a good local church there for her to be in, that's not the university for us.

01:04:17

They made their decision based on this as the number one factory factor.

01:04:24

Is there a good church nearby? Whoa, as a pastor,

01:04:29

I want to say, whoa, the following is an,

01:04:39

I'll close with this, a transcript taken from a question and answer session at the 2014

01:04:45

Ligonier national conference. Dr. R .C. Sproul was asked, uh, this couple writes, we live in a rural area without access to solid biblical teaching, let alone reform teaching.

01:04:59

The nearest church with such teaching is two hours drive away. How should we choose a group to meet with and serve when we disagree with the things taught from the pulpit?

01:05:10

What would you say practically to this couple? R .C. Sproul's answer, drive two hours.

01:05:18

The questioner drive two hours. Dr. Sproul, lots of people do.

01:05:24

It's that important. If you had to go to the hospital, hospital, and it was a two hour drive, you wouldn't stay home.

01:05:31

You'd go to the hospital. You wouldn't go to a dog pound because it was convenient. Would you seriously?

01:05:38

I mean, it's the old thing. I learned this from my former coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chuck Knoll. His phrase was whatever it takes and the spiritual nurture of your soul and of your children's soul souls are so important that if you have to drive two hours for worship and for instruction in apostolic truth, then that's an obvious decision.

01:06:01

You drive two hours or you move, but it has to be a priority in every

01:06:06

Christian family to be somewhere where there's true worship, true gospel, true doctrine for the sake of eternity.

01:06:15

I listen to that and I have to say, whoa, Lord's day worship.

01:06:22

It's a non -negotiable gathering with the people of God should be the first thing on the calendar in the week.

01:06:28

You might miss the doctor's appointment. You don't miss church. Well, I go to church sometimes and three days later,

01:06:35

I can't remember the sermon. You ever said that? Ever thought that? I don't want to just be a

01:06:42

Sunday Christian. Michael Horton said, well, if you're not a Sunday Christian, you won't be a

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Monday Christian either. I understand we can be providentially hindered, but it should be a rarity that we miss church gathering with the people of God.

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That's why the first part of worship is what we call the call to worship. God summons us together in his name, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the habit of some

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Hebrews 10, but all the more, not all the less, all the more as you see the day approaching.

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That's Jesus through the writer to the Hebrews. You got a problem? You got a problem? There's a gentleman in our church who worked at a certain hour of the day on a

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Sunday morning from 10 p .m. if I'm right, I think on Saturday night till 8 a .m.

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Sunday morning. And our service at that time was at 11. It's now at 1030 and he got about an hour of sleep, got in the shower and came to church.

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I thought, wow, that's a commitment. That's, that's tough. There's been times when

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I've gone to church and I've had an hour of sleep. It hasn't been the most restful of times.

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There's been things to deal with in the family or there's a party next door and you, you can't shut the noise down, but get yourself into it.

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But I don't always remember the sermon. Let me ask you, can any of you, you that are maybe over 20 or maybe if you're 15, can you remember any of the meals you ate when you were eight years old?

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Any of them? Like on Tuesday, March the 14th of that year, can you, can you remember what you had for lunch?

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Well, I'm sure it was beans. Well, well, yeah. What else? Well, I had beans a lot. So there's a good chance it was beans.

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I can't remember the meal I had. Hey, Hey, Hey, I understand that. You may not be able to remember what you had in the meal, but I can make this assumption.

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You did it. You did eat when you were eight years old or else you'd be dead today. Say love.

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I don't always remember everything I preach, but I live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, whether I'm saying it or hearing it.

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And in the gathered assembly, God says, that's where I'll deal with you as my children. That's where under the canopy or canopy of ordained elders, who will care for your soul, who are qualified to lead and guide you into the truth of scripture.

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If not get out anyway, if they're teaching the right thing, you be in there hearing the word of God.

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That's God's assignment. That's the first thing on the calendar every week, non -negotiable. Well, I know, no, no, no.

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Well, I, this is what we do as Christians. We gather with the people of God and guess what?

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I preach when there's been three people in the congregation and I'm nervous. Why are you nervous?

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Because of the vast multitude that are in attendance. I'm serious.

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The book of Hebrews says that when we come together, we're gathering not simply with those we see with earthly eyes, but angels who are dressed in festal array.

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One translation says we're gathering onto Mount Zion. We're gathering with all the people of God. There's David there.

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There's Ezekiel there. I don't want to meet Habakkuk. And he asked me, have you read my book? And I say, no, are you old

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Testament or new Testament? We gather with the people of God.

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There's David there. And we're gathering with Moses. And what are we doing? We're hailing the Lamb as the people of God.

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We're hearing his truth. I know of one man who lost a child at two in the morning on a

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Sunday morning. And the news spread through the internet and people were getting ready to pray for him at the service.

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And then they were more than shocked when they saw him in the service and he just lost his child.

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And they asked him, why are you here? He said, my greatest need right now when my mind is spinning, when

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I don't know which way to turn, my greatest need is here to hear the gospel one more time.

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I wanted to say, be that Christian.

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Be that Christian who understands what the new birth has done. You're now a citizen adopted in the kingdom of God.

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There's no second class citizen. We're heirs of God. Join heirs with Jesus Christ.

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You may not have been born equal with a member of the family, but I tell you in the kingdom of God, you're born again, equal as of God, join us with Jesus Christ.