Sensible Senses

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Amen, please turn your Bible to Isaiah 32 When you have

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Isaiah 32, please stand for the reading of God's Word behold a

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King will reign and righteousness and princes will rule and justice Each will be like a hiding place from the wind a shelter from the storm like streams of water and a dry place

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Like the shade of a great rock in a weary land Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed and the ears of those who hear will give attention

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The heart of the hasty will understand and know and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly

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The fool will no more be called noble nor the scoundrel said to be honorable For the fool speaks folly and his heart is busy with iniquity to practice on godliness to utter error

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Concerning the Lord to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied and to deprive the thirsty of drink

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As for the scoundrel his devices are evil his he plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words

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Even when the plea of the needy is right, but he who is noble plans noble things and all noble things he stands

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Amen, you may be seated Dear Heavenly Father. We thank you this afternoon for your word we

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We thank you for the great promises of the gospel that are present in this passage and we ask that you would

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Give us hearts that would be eagerly a receptive of all your truth In Jesus name.

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Amen So something that has come up previously and Isaiah a few times is this idea of the deaf hearing and the blind seeing and And this is an important theme in Isaiah because if you remember and the commissioning chapter of Isaiah and Isaiah 6

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Which really starts off the book. That's where Isaiah receives his commission as a prophet Talks about how he is to preach so that people cease seeing and they cease hearing so each promise that talks about people seeing again and people hearing again is

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Speaking of an end to the era that Isaiah is ushering in so he's speaking of something

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Beyond his own era something that will happen where God will bless the people with true repentance

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It had said in Isaiah 29 verse 18 and that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see and Then in the last verse of that chapter and those who go astray and spirit will come to Understanding and those who murmur will accept instruction

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All these things are promises of the gospel Gospel opens eyes. It opens ears.

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It gives people understanding understanding of who God is of who they are This world around them and this is all ushered in in Isaiah 32

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Through the King the King who reigns in righteousness With princes ruling in justice and who is that King that King has come up many times in Isaiah This branch that comes from Jesse.

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It is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is that King? He's the one who opens eyes as demonstrated by his miracles

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It's demonstrated by his miracles of opening ears of loosing tongues all these things

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Demonstrating that he is the King that Isaiah spoke of he is the King that comes and makes people able to understand the truth people who are wrapped up in lies set free by truth

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So it begins here in verse 3 saying then the eyes of those who see will not be closed and the ears of those who?

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hear Will give attention This is the natural state of man

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Natural state of man is to have eyes that he can see physically through and ears he can hear physically through but to not understand spiritual truths

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Because we are born dead in our sins The truth of God is not evident to us as it should be

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Instead though we know that there is a God as Romans 1 explains We suppress that truth in our unrighteousness

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What is true and what is evident we suppress Because we in our natural state because of sin hate the truth.

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We do not honor God as God, but rather Honor what is false and we dishonor what is true.

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We dishonor the Lord And so this is the case of ourselves and our natural state even the first Conscious thoughts that a child has in a womb are they thoughts that that recognize the

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Lord and honor him though He is made in the image of God though That child is made in a way that he should be able to honor

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God as God because of sin even then They reject

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God and as they grow older and they're able to hear and observe the world around them this world that Psalm 19 says

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Speaks the glory of God the heavens declaring his handiwork Do they recognize these things as being the works of God?

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There's some who see these things and recognize that there are some higher power but They do not honor

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God as God They do not honor him as they ought and so while there might be some level of recognition it is not a sufficient level of recognition and Even those who hear the

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Word of God So not just this truth that is evident within ourselves and this truth that is evident within nature

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But even this truth that is spoken explicitly in the Word of God What is man's typical response to the

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Word of God? Apart from some special move of the Holy Spirit is to reject that this is man's depravity man is because of sin

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Totally depraved he is unable to receive the truth because he was spiritually blind He is spiritually deaf and this is the way that Jesus speaks of those people at his time but Jesus through His word through preaching the gospel

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Through the work of the Spirit in some open their eyes and open their ears that they would understand the truth that they would know what is right and He illustrated this by the physical miracles of opening eyes and opening ears, you know

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These were not the ultimate miracles. They were just illustrations of the greater work he was doing as we look across our world and we see that The miracles of opening ears and opening eyes while modern science can do this in some sense

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These miracles aren't typically done It is not typically the case that one who is deaf becomes not deaf that one who is blind becomes not blind

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Why is it that such thing ceases the power of God ceased in our world? No, the greater power that Christ was displaying in those works the greater power of opening spiritual ears and opening spiritual eyes that Continues to this day and it continues and an even greater magnitude

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Than it did at that time because his word is proclaimed by more and the Holy Spirit is

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Been has been poured out in fullness since the days of Pentecost so that we have that work and even greater measure a lot of people

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Do not think that they are so blind They think that well what the spiritual deafness and the spiritual blindness is talking about as a relative one.

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It's like the man who is Legally blind, you know, he can see he can get around and it's just a little harder for him

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No, the natural state of man is to fully reject God until God opens his eyes until God opens his ears and then moreover because of man's

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Continual sin God even adds additional hardness. So it's even more difficult for man to recognize the truth

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That's what it describes in Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 6 because the people had rejected the Lord for so long

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Isaiah was to tell the people keep on hearing but do not understand to keep on seeing but do not perceive

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Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes Let's say see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed

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This is the this is the greatness of the spiritual blindness that exists in our world. It is a

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Deep and a wicked thing But God Has given his spirit by which that may be corrected by which eyes may be open which ears can hear continues on in verse in this

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Next verse the heart of the hasty will understand and know the tongue of the stammers will hasten to speak distinctly

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Now let me tell you that if it's the if it is the spirit that leads people to hear to see to understand

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We need to be relying on the spirit We need to rely on the spirit in prayer.

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We need to rely on the spirit for our own selves We go to God's Word and we want him we want to understand what is said there.

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We need to recognize that Even as believers there is a lingering corruption

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There is a lingering blindness and that we should be praying to the Holy Spirit that he open our eyes that we may be able to Receive his word completely.

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We should be praying that for ourselves We should also be praying that for others for others in the church You should pray that others in the church would understand

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God's Word that they would have eyes that completely see without inhibition And of course you should be praying for those

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Who do not believe for those who have their eyes not opened at all who cannot see a thing You must pray for them and the attitude of the one who recognizes truth

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It's one who is that much more peace than the one who does not Because if you don't recognize this truth and you think that it is up to you to open eyes open ears

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It can lead to much frustration much frustration. Anger is your So you don't understand why your family doesn't believe you don't understand why your friends don't believe you don't understand why you aren't able to persuade them and you might spend lots of time trying to study better argumentation and there's nothing wrong with Learning how to speak persuasively

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About the truth of God, but at the end of the day if it is the Holy Spirit and you recognize that then

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There is no reason to carry that in anxiety rather You can speak the truth freely knowing that it is

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God's choice Whether or not he will choose to open someone's eyes This is a this is a great burden being lifted and As you pray remember the words of Jesus as he after he gave the

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Lord's Prayer in Luke He says if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will the

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Heavenly Father give? What to those who ask him the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

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This is the primary thing that we are to be praying for we're preparing for more and more of the spirit that we might understand the truth of God Heart of the hasty will understand it.

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No Mankind does not naturally understand the gospel.

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They may understand the propositions, you know be able to to explain the truth of what

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Christians believe maybe even better than some Christians to do but That does not mean it is truly understood

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Nothing in fact is truly understood apart from knowing it in relation to God Did you know that that in order to know something truly you must know it not just as it is

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Divorced from God, but as it is in relation to its creator for example let me give you an example if I told you that I understand multiplication and What I meant by that is

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I can go on my phone and use the calculator app and I can say two times five is ten and Tell you what two times five is but I didn't actually understand

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That two times five is two added five times or five added two times. Do I really understand?

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Multiplication. No, I've I've no idea what multiplication is even if I have some functioning knowledge of it

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Where I can I can fake it Okay, this is this is the understanding of the one who who knows the things in the world

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But not truly because they have rejected the God who has created the world They do not know these things as being created by the

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Creator They do not understand themselves as being under the Lordship of Christ if they do not understand these things they do not understand them truly and Apart from understanding it truly do they understand it at all?

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It is only through that King who reigns in righteousness that one can understand it

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It's only when they are led by him that they can understand things truly first Chronicles Excuse me

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Not first Chronicles first Corinthians 2 14 says natural person does not accept the things of the

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Spirit of God For they are folly to him. He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned

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Spiritual person judges all things but he but is himself to be judged by no one

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For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him But we have the mind of Christ and in that passage who is the mind of Christ?

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It is the Spirit of God who is the mind of Christ The one who is led by this King has the

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Spirit of God so that they can understand things truly Not just understand them in this superficial manner

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But understanding truly knowing them in relation to their Creator now

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I'll have you know that What I am describing here is Somewhat controversial the idea that that people cannot truly know things apart from acknowledging

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God There are many who would reject that because it sounds silly to say that someone can't understand anything without Knowing the

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Lord, but if you understood that analogy I gave Without understanding the the source of something without understanding its importance without understanding

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That one who gives meaning to all things if you know something without the meaning behind it.

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Do you really know it? You cannot be said to truly know anything apart from knowing the

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Lord You know it speaks of this one who? does not know

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Prior to understanding speaks of them as hasty and what is the hasty person the hasty person is one who is

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Quick to discern something they're quick to discern good as evil. They're quick to discern evil as good.

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We must not be the hasty This person denominated by his former weakness.

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It's called the hasty, but now he understands if you have had your eyes open in Christ Do not be hasty Meditate upon the

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Word of God, you know what that means to meditate. It's to spend time. It's the opposite of hastiness

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So really spend time on God's Word and not just on the word itself

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But even thinking about the things that it has said Right if the word tells us about the goodness and greatness of God that is something to to contemplate

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Deeply throughout your day to really meditate upon that truth Think about what the implications are for your life for this church community

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For how you pray to him? We ought to not be hasty But as the

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Spirit has given us understanding to leave hastiness behind and truly meditate upon the

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Word of the Lord I Don't know what your What your Bible reading looks like?

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I don't know if you just read it and set it aside. That would not be meditating There's another practice

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Pretty commonly called lectio continua excuse me. Not like you continue up like you have to been up where people read the

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Bible and then they meditate and there are Ways that would be doing this appropriately and ways that are a little more

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Mindless in the in the form of meditation where you're you're kind of mystically hoping that God Communicates something to you that is not that is not real meditating upon the

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Word of God, you know a real Meditation upon the Word of God is a very is full of Deep contemplations about that word rather than a mindlessness

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It's it's waiting for for God to to hand you something now We should wait upon the

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Lord, but I hope you understand what I'm saying there I'm talking about a kind of mindlessness where you're expecting some sort of mystical communication from the

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Lord. He has given you his word Meditate upon it says that the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly tongue of stammerers

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Once again speaking of the people of God as denominated by their former disability

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This is the nature of man. Once again, the natural state of man is to be a stammer to Not and not understanding truth to speak what is foolish to speak not plainly

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Now there are many people in the world who speak very smoothly when they're able to string words together

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They have far less ums in their vocabulary than I do I'm always very impressed by speakers who just speak.

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Well, you know, I I Give a lot of my time to public speaking obviously, but I'm I'm not the best speaker

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There are a lot of people who speak very well How can the Bible speak of them as stammerers if you do not have a foundation for any of the things that you are saying?

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You are a stammer. You do not speak distinctly. This is the same with the knowledge, right the one who claims

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Truth, but does not have a foundation for truth The God who created all things how can they make the claims that they are making?

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The one who says that something is right versus wrong Yet does not know the

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God Who determines what is right and wrong by his own character? How can they make how can they make such claims that things are right and wrong, especially?

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This is true of all all forms of unbelief But most especially of atheism right you think of and and I point this out because it's a common thing in our world atheism

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The one who says that something is wrong But does not believe in a

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God who who could make something absolutely wrong or absolutely right, you know What is wrong even mean?

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It just means that a lot of people don't like it or I don't like it What is what does that even mean? It's a it's a nonsensical statement and For someone to even claim truth is is basically saying it is right to believe this thing

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They're making a moral claim once again, and it all falls apart It is just someone stammering

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But the one who knows their maker is able to speak distinctly

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They're able to have truth that has a foundation and speak true things with a foundation

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They are able to say clearly who they serve the Lord Jesus Christ and for that to be

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Something that's not founded on a bucket of lies like the beliefs of the world, but something is founded on truth now

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You should understand that Speaking distinctly something that once again there is room to grow though The one who has the gospel though the one who has the

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Holy Spirit is capable of speaking distinctly There is there is room to grow even for the believer.

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Look at Peter and look how He confessed Jesus Christ to be the son of the

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Living God and Jesus recognized this was not This did not come from flesh

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But rather it came from his father that he was able to say this thing But yet Peter did he not a stammer quite a bit throughout the rest of his life

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Did he not very eagerly say that he would follow the Lord into anything and then very just as quickly

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Deny him did he not very quickly Chop off the servant's ear we like Peter should

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Understand that even though God has opened our eyes through the gospel through his spirit

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There is there is room for growth and that we should continue to grow in this as we serve him

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Hebrews 5 12 Says that not many of you or excuse me many of you

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Should be teachers by now But For though by this time you ought to be teachers

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You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk not solid food

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You know, I think that's true in almost every church setting that many of the people who are there

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They ought to be a much clearer speaker they currently are and I'm not talking about the

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You know your Elocution or anything like that I mean They should have a greater grasp of the truth that one that they are able to impart that knowledge to others more readily

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They have more of the Word of God ready on their lips This is the case even in the book of Hebrews It says that Christians those who already know the

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Lord should grow in their ability to speak God's truth to others You know consider your own life ask yourself.

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How long have you been in the faith? Who are you capable of teaching at what level do you think you would be capable of teaching someone?

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Could you teach an unbeliever the gospel? Could you teach another young believer the gospel?

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How Would you be capable of teaching? Those who are more mature, you know, these are there's room to grow

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There's room to speak even more distinctly and this can all be had through the gospel as it said

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As it says in that passage in Hebrews Says that we should go on to maturity

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Not laying again a foundation But rather through Meditating on Christ that's essentially what it ends up saying is through considering everything in light of Christ We can grow in our maturity and our ability to teach others and so Just it's a good challenge for yourself to ask who would

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I be able to teach? How is the spirit working in me so that I can not only know the truth, but communicate it well to others

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Because the one who understands should also be the one who is capable of speaking distinctly Now all these all these senses, you know, it talks about the the eyes the ears the heart the tongue all these

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Organs that it's using a special spiritual metaphors all these describe our experience of God right our

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Understanding of him. How do you how do you experience the Lord you experience him through hearing his word through seeing

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Christ? through Recognizing in your heart the truth and then sharing that truth with others these

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These things are most precious They are most precious Jesus said in some of his parables he described the kingdom of heaven in such a way that people would sell everything they have in order to seek it is the man who

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Realized there was a treasure in a field and was willing to sell everything he had in order to buy that field someone who is willing to who traded in pearls and Sold everything that they had so they could receive the best pearl

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This is the attitude we should have toward having clear Spiritual senses.

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This is certainly the case for the one who does not believe if they recognize this If you do not know the

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Lord you should run to Christ ask for a spirit so that you might be able to experience God and If you already do know the

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Lord if you've already had your eyes open you should be pursuing clarity Through the gospel that you might know him even better What is the great reward of the

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Christian life on that last day when we are raised again? We will see Christ there will be what is known as the beatific vision the blessed vision of God in Jesus Christ and so as we see him that is not

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That is not something that just comes Naturally that everyone Experiences the same, you know

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Hebrews 12 14 says that we must grow in holiness in order that we might see

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God There is a pursuit of holiness that allows us to see God more clearly you can experience him in this life more clearly as you're able to see and hear and know him and On that last day we can know him even more clearly

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But it is something that must be that must be pursued Something that must be pursued but it is something that is being amply supplied to us and we have received everything we need in his spirit

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So if this is the case if this is the great reward of the Christian life Then I would encourage you not only if you do not know him to repent and to seek him so that his spirit would open

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Your eyes But even if you do already know him to seek that spirit to ask for the Spirit as Christ said at the end of the

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Lord's God will give him an ample measure that you might see even more clearly that you might know even clearer

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That you might speak this truth to others with clarity Let's pray Dear Holy Father, we thank you for your word.

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We thank you for opening ears and eyes and doing this wonderful miracle We ask that we would know that we would know you more fully and that you