And You Thought the First Death Was Bad

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Let's pray Speak Lord your servants are listening

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Please show us now your ways so that we may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of our own

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That comes from the law But that which comes through faith in Christ your word is a lamp to our feet and a light into our path

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So give us life. Oh Lord according to your word, and we will declare your greatness in the name of Jesus.

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Amen Before we get into our Bible study day, let me ask the question

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Were there any questions that came up as a result of the biblical text we were working through in our sermon today?

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The Holy Spirit Let's let's take a look at our context

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I know exactly what you're talking about. And if this is one of those texts that does lend itself towards creating more questions and giving answers initially and so it's in the gospel of John chapter 20 gospel of John chapter 20 and Here's what it says.

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I'll start at verse 20 It says this when he Jesus had said this he showed them his hands and his side

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Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord Jesus said to they get said to them again

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Peace be with you as the father has sent me even so I am sending you now

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You're gonna note what's going on here This is not the reception of the

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Holy Spirit for the preaching of the gospel This is their ordination into the apostolic office

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So watch what's happening as the father has sent me even so I am sending you if you could see it in the

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Greek It's actually quite stark as to what's going on. Remember, they're called Apostles. And so here we see the

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Greek the Greek verb Apostello in play. I am sending you you are my

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Apostles And so this is like they're their ordination into the apostleship

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And so when he had said this he breathed on them and said received the Holy Spirit And now you have the office of the keys if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them

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If you withhold forgiveness for many it is withheld Right, so receive the

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Holy Spirit so you're gonna note that when you when you read from here all the way into the book of Acts then to you're gonna note that that the

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Holy Spirit comes with particular things to do in this case the

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Holy Spirit is given for the establishing of the apostolic office the giving of the keys and These guys are now the nucleus of what will become the church and they are to stay into Jerusalem until The Jesus sends the

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Holy Spirit for the Holy Spirit of purpose Empowering then the preaching of the gospel here we have the establishing of the office of the keys which is given to the church first in the

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Apostles and now to the church as a whole and then when the Holy Spirit shows up at the day of Pentecost now

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They are given power and miraculous signs for the purpose of preaching the gospel but then when you read just a couple of chapters later in the book of Acts you will see again that the disciples actually pray for boldness and they receive kind of another indwelling of the

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Holy Spirit and so you'll note that Oftentimes people kind of think in terms of the

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Holy Spirit It's kind of like a one -and -done type of thing Which is not really the right way of looking at it is that over and again?

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We recognize that the Holy Spirit is given for specific reasons Specific purpose for us as Christians in the indwelling spirit convicts us of our sins

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Yep, exactly Right. That's good. Yeah, that's a really good. That's a good mnemonic very good and so and so, you know, then then in the preaching then the

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Holy Spirit in the gifts that are given are for the purpose of Convicting people of their sins and bringing the penitent faith in Christ and then those who are baptized and dwell with the

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Holy Spirit They also receive gifts from God And so the gifts of God are for the purpose of building up the church and then on our daily walk

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We often find ourselves in all kinds of struggles And so then you can see then that the Holy Spirit is that God they pray to God Please give us boldness in the face of this persecution and then the the room that they're in is shaking and they're again filled with The Holy Spirit.

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So the idea is is that there's kind of a constant need for the Holy Spirit in our lives in that sense

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I Would think of it this way is is that the Holy Spirit has different tasks that he's been given to do and so in this case

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We have the ordination into the apostolic office now I am sending you boys so they're receiving the

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Holy Spirit for this purpose and then the emphasis is then on the office of the keys because remember as The church itself has been given a very specific task and the task given by the church is to make disciples

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Baptizing in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Teaching all that Christ has commanded take our gospel texts from today

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Proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins. This is this is the idea So think of it this way is that we right now are gathering at a place called

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Kongsvinger Lutheran Church But that's the name on the building my question for you would be real quick is what is the church

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What is the church? We is Right. We are the church where we gather is immaterial so like if there was an earthquake here in North Dakota and the whole and the whole building fell down because I don't know if This is built to California Code.

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So, you know, I know about earthquakes Okay Not helpful, okay, remember

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I have a cane anyway So so if there was big earthquake in the end and the church were to crumble would

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Kongsvinger as a congregation cease to exist Oh No, in fact if I understand the history of this congregation correctly

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There was a time when there was an original building where the where the church gathered that and it burned down and then this was

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Rebuilt. This is not the first. This is not the first building on this property, right? Okay, which is why

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I think we have electric candles rather than the other kind But but you get the idea So if something terrible were to happen to the building the church still exists

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We are the church and so as the church we have been given a task

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We what is our job? What's our marching orders? Baptize make disciples

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Yep So then if you if we were to do an annual evaluation on ourselves as a church, what what should we be looking at?

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How are we doing in? the making disciples Task that's what we're given to do

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That's you know, think of it this way It is that every time we preach the gospel and somebody's brought dependence and faith in Christ.

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That is the church reproducing itself That's the church reproducing itself

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So we when you hear in the in the book of Genesis where God says be fruitful and multiply

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Now we understand how human procreation works, but the church in order for it to continue on has to make

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Christians we have to know where Christians come from and so Christians come through the proclamation of Christ and him crucified for our sins

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And once they're brought in and their baby Christians, we've got to change their diapers We've got to catechize them bring them up in the faith so that they may become mature and then take their place in the

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Congregation as leaders and then then reproduce themselves with the next generation

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That's kind of the idea and so the church itself is given power By the

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Holy Spirit for the purpose of proclamation of Christ for the forgiveness of sins for regenerating people from the dead

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Equipping us to build the church up and serve one another in love So there's all these different aspects that the that the

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Holy Spirit is working and sometimes when you see the Holy Spirit Kind of piecemealed out the emphasis is going to be on a particular task that the

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Holy Spirit is doing And so the thing is is that we need the Holy Spirit Every single day of our lives if we do not have the

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Spirit There's just no way that we're gonna be able to bear the fruit of the Spirit What I find fascinating is is that one of the critiques that congregations like ours?

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Suffer at the hands of people who do not have a good understanding of the Holy Spirit is they'll say that we somehow deny the

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Holy Spirit, but that's not the case at all You know there we I I couldn't go a day without the

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Holy Spirit and if I did I'm toast Literally, I mean that I'd be like a guy going out on the battlefield without armor.

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I mean good night That's not that's not gonna end Well, so the question then is is that what is the

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Holy Spirit given to do and so when people end up pointing you back? To the Holy Spirit and as if somehow the

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Holy Spirit and the manifestations of the Spirit are the big thing They've missed the whole point the Holy Spirit is always kind of like Jesus's PR guy

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You know so you know if you think you know in the pagan world This is kind of a weird metaphor, but in the pagan world

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You know somebody who's like a rock star or a famous actor or whatever they oftentimes will have a PR person And that the whole purpose of that PR person is to tell you how amazing that rock star is or to book gigs for that person

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Or get get them on television programs Everybody can know how great they are and you rarely if ever find out who the name of the

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PR person is for that for that Celebrity the Holy Spirit oftentimes works in those ways because when

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Jesus sends the Holy Spirit He's the one who testifies about Christ He's the one who bears witness to Christ and even the miracles that are wrought by the

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Holy Spirit are for the purpose of Pointing people to Jesus and so when you got the

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Holy Spirit and doing miracles to point people to the Holy Spirit That doesn't sound like the Holy Spirit to me that sounds like a different spirit

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So I did that answer your question that we went on a little securitist route there Yeah But you already kind of had with that little mnemonic device you had a lot of the ideas of what the

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Holy Spirit does in The first place, but then a little bit of a grammar note here I pointed this out before but worth repeating again

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Is that you're gonna note that the office of the keys here are given then to the church? Receive the

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Holy Spirit if you forgive the sins of any and the way the Greek verb words They are already forgiven them super important Because the idea is is that Greek has a funny way of working with tenses and this is a great tense so if you forgive the sins of any they will have already been forgiven them and so when you hear a

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Christian and I say it that way not just a pastor because not only pastors can give an absolution when you hear a

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Christian Give an absolution when somebody confesses their sins seeking forgiveness from God and that Christian says

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You know in the place of Christ I forgive you all of your sins the forgiveness isn't coming from the pastor or from the

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Christian because the verb tenses make it clear They're already forgiven them So every single Sunday when we gather and you confess your sins and we all do this together and you hear the pastor and it's important to say this not me when you hear the pastor speaking and he says

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I forgive you all of your sins He's not technically doing the forgiving

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Because the verb tense says you will have already been forgiven so the best way to think about it is is that first and foremost all of your sins were bled and died for on the cross period and so ultimately it's everything's gonna have its anchor in the cross and The thing is is that we can't go back to the cross.

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You can't go back. I mean, we don't have a TARDIS We couldn't travel back and the point is is that the cross is not the place where the forgiveness of sins is

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Distributed the cross is the place where the sins of forgiven is sins of forgiveness of sins is one

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That's where it's secured for us. It is delivered in the ordinary means of Word and sacrament.

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So when the pastor says I forgive you all of your sins understand He's doing so as one who is authorized to say this on behalf of Christ Not because he's really stuck on himself

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And if you have a pastor who's stuck on himself thinking that somehow the power to forgive sins resides in himself time for a new pastor that that guy is a taco short of a combo plate and his

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Theology is gonna mess you up. So the emphasis is always coming back to Christ So a good way to think about it is is that the electricity that's turning these lights on wasn't generated here

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It's generated at a power station somewhere and it's delivered through wires So Christ's forgiveness is secured on for us on the cross.

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That's where it's one it's distributed for us in the absolution in baptism and in the

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Lord's Supper and So the idea then is is that these means then? call for us to believe to believe that Christ is bled and died for this for us in this forgiveness is really from God and The reason why we need it is because every day our sinful nature still

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Tempts us to all kinds of really really awful terrible wicked things and we do it And so, you know you come in here every single week and I know this, you know

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Because I had the same problem you come in here every single week having put fought the good fight of faith and there's victories

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And there's a lot of failures as well. And so again, I promise that I'll stop

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Pronouncing the absolution every week as soon as y 'all stop sending every week. So Until then we carry on so and then you'll note then that there's a second key

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Withholding forgiveness from the impenitent and it's important to note this that the impenitent is

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Has decided they don't want to be forgiven. So ultimately the impenitent just you just give them what they want

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So it's which is really sad and tragic That Has to be decided properly.

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There's you have to follow Matthew 18 for this No pastor can act on this by his own recognizance

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So the so when somebody sins against another person Then what happens is is that it's dealt with privately first for the sake of winning your brother follow

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Matthew 18 so, you know if somebody were to sin against you Dave and Insult you in some way or another a sin against you grievously you go to them privately and say, you know, listen, you know brother

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You've done this and you need to repent what you did was sin And then I always say if the person says well go pound sand

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Dave How dare you tell me who that I'm sinned against you or something like that and they decide to you know kind of dig in Then you wait a little bit and then you bring another person so that it can be established by two or more witnesses

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And so the two of you go again privately meet with a fellow and say listen no brother you've sinned

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This is this is not right. You need to repent and Your goal is for him to repent so that he can be forgiven and everything can be reconciled

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And if he says no, I didn't yeah, how dare you and you get out of my house kind of stuff Well, what do you what's the next step in the process?

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Then you get the pastor involved everybody trying to plead with him, you know, come to your senses fellow you know, you've you've you've sinned here and You're saying that by being obstinate in this way you're refusing to be forgiven and if then he won't listen to all of them, then you bring it up to the church and then the church again, pleased with him brother repent and If after that the person won't repent

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Then you have to wash your hands of the fellow and say all right We're gonna hand you over to the devil, you know, you don't want to be forgiven.

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Have it your way Then shame on you you have to you have to go back and go do you and here's the thing you're gonna notice something

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I'm gonna make this clear. Is that the steps don't have to be just one -offs

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So if you if your brother sins against you and you go to him privately and he won't listen to you

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Let him cool down a little bit and then go back and see so, you know This doesn't take place in a week.

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So when it comes to church discipline you take your time The goal is repentance the the goal is reconciliation and even when it comes to excommunication the goal is reconciliation

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So that's the goal. And so the idea then is is that the binding key that takes us all

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You don't get a pastor who kind of says I've got the binding key right here in my holster You know,

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I'm gonna take you out with it. Yeah, no, no that that doesn't work There's a whole process for that and the fact that there is a process and due diligence when it comes to the binding key is a mercy

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It is a mercy because then at the very end of it if you followed all of the steps properly you can say

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We've done everything we're supposed to do that Christ has told us to do and God's gonna have to be the one you know

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So we can say we're you know, we're not in the wrong here. So it takes a lot of reflection and patiently working through it

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All right, let's get back into the our finishing up of the commandments

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God's holy law. We've noted a few things and that is is that God carries out his punishments for our sin in several different ways

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Primarily you can talk about the subjecting us all to the difficulties of this earthly life and the toil and the work that we have to Do that goes back to Genesis 3 we talk about the fact that God also can punish our sins through authorized

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Authorities such as parents when parents do not spare the rod in order that their children do not be spoiled

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Or we can also talk about how then the government is set up by God as an authority to punish the evildoer.

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I Need to note again that we are living in a strange time when our governments and governments you know

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Western governments seem to be hell -bent on punishing good and Protecting evil so and it's this is only getting worse

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I would just say buckle up It's gonna be a rough ride ahead as best way I can say it and then there's another one that is very difficult for us to come to grips with But again, it's kind of goes along with what we were talking about regarding church discipline

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Is that one of the ways in which God punishes us and we can see this in Romans chapter 1 is actually handing us over to self -destructive sins and their

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Consequences where God basically says fine. You don't want to worship me as God you want to Be an idolater, you know that I exist, you know that you're not giving me glory fine

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I'm gonna hand you over to debasing passions and so sin itself and an ever -increasing appetite for sin is actually a punishment from God and It's important for us to recognize that as the case

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Now the ways in which God fulfills his promises to us would be through the blessings of the earth

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Fair, you know good fair weather and things like that I'm praying that we get some warmer weather soon because not only do

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I not like winter that lasts this long, but I also am Concerned about the farmers in the area that they're able to get their crops into the ground and things like that So one of the ways that God blesses us is through the fruit of the earth also,

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God blesses us with good parents or good authorities and good government officials and then the other way in which

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God blesses us is with temporal health talents and Vocational work for the securing of our bodily needs and possessions and things like that And so if you do not have a bad back, that is a blessing from God I know because that blessing has been robbed of me for the past few days

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I'm looking forward to receiving that blessing back but the idea then is is that we don't always have to view like if you know health set backs to some kind like God's punishing you for a particular sin because your back was thrown out.

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That's not the way we look at these things So the idea then is is that every blessing? God flows from the fact that he has sent us his

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Savior and and so because we are in him We are reckoned righteous our sins are forgiven and we have a right standing before God and that Makes it possible for us to be able to praise

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God and rejoice not only in the good times when we're blessed but also in the difficult times when we are suffering and so that's the idea and Then none of this means we don't ever want to come up with the squid pro quo approach that basically says that if we act

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A certain way then God will bless us in particular ways with health or finances or things like that That's not how it works if you think about it this way the only sinless man who ever walked the earth was

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Jesus Christ and He was not a wealthy fellow and he suffered

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Terribly and then his Apostles you think of the Apostle Paul the Apostle Paul is a fellow who he was doing good preaching

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Christ Bringing people dependent to faith in Christ and planting churches throughout the Mediterranean and you look at his resume from 2nd

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Corinthians 11 about how He was always in danger and was beaten and flogged and all these kinds of things and you recognize that The saying no good deed goes unpunished definitely may apply to Christians So we do not look at our temporal circumstances as somehow a thermometer as to our standing before God Especially if we are trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins sometimes doing good in that way

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Will get you in all kinds of trouble so now for a thorny doctrine and One that we have to come to grips with and should not follow those who have erred and departed from Christian sound biblical doctrine and that is the question is what ultimately does

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God threaten against those who hate him and Persist in sin and unbelief in breaking his commandments.

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What is it that we are truly saved from that's the question And the answer is hell

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That's the answer and I know this makes people uncomfortable. I know that there are

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Christians who have a difficult time Reconciling how can scripture say that God is love and Send people to hell and the best way

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I can put it is is that? God, it's truly love and Yet at the same time

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God is also just These different aspects of who

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God is and what his character is do not conflict with each other But we err when we try to somehow put love over God's justice in a way that eliminates

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God's justice and unfortunately, there are a lot of people who call themselves Christians today who cannot bear and outright attack the biblical doctrine of hell and it's important to note this and that is is that there was one person who in scriptures taught the most about hell and The person who taught the most about hell was not

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Isaiah and it wasn't Moses. It was Jesus Christ He's the one who taught the most about it and he spoke very

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Explicitly concerning it now in order to properly understand the doctrine of hell

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We have to know something about how death operates each and every one of us because we are sinners

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We know that the wages of sin is death and it's important to note that scripture makes a distinction.

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It talks about The first death and it talks about the second death

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It talks about the first resurrection and it talks about the second resurrection So in order to properly understand what it is that we are saved from we have to get death, right?

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So I'm gonna do a quick word search in my Bible program and we're gonna look in the book of Revelation at several passages and we're gonna be looking specifically at the passages that talk about the second death and we pull these up add a little bit of context to them and Listen to what

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Christ says you're going to note that in the opening passages in the opening passage here death

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The second death is described and talked about by none other by than Jesus notice the red letters

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Oftentimes when we read our Bibles We think that red letters the letters are the words that Jesus spoke are somehow limited only to the

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Gospels But you're gonna find red letters in the Gospels. You'll find them in the book of Acts You will also find red letters in the book of Revelation and it's important for us to recognize this

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That the opening portion of the book of Revelation are actual letters that Christ himself the risen

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Jesus Dictated word -for -word to the Apostle John and So this is the reason why in the book of Revelation There's a whole section in the beginning portion of it where you'll see red letters

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And those aren't pretend letters that somebody just pinned on Jesus Those are actual words that he spoke important for us to keep that in mind.

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So we read in Revelation chapter 2 Verse 11 he who has an ear let him hear what the

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Spirit says to the churches The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death

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Second death You see the one the death you need to be worried about the death that needs to keep you awake at night is not your physical death

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Here and now it's the second death that you need to worry about and so Christ himself is warning us

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About the second death and promising and the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death in Revelation chapter 20 verse 6

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We read these words Blessed and holy is the one who? shares in the first resurrection

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Over such the second death has no power They will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years

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Revelation 20 verse 14 then death and Hades Were thrown into the lake of fire

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This is the second death the lake of fire So if I were to give you a

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Sunday school quiz and on the quiz It said please define for me what the second death is

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What is the second death the lake of fire? Now look at the

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Revelation 21 verse 8 and here's what it says as for the cowardly the faithless the detestable as for murderers the sexually immoral sorcerers idolaters and all liars

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Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur which is the second death second death

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Equals lake of fire. Let me pull up another passage of Scripture. I think it's in Revelation 14 and in Revelation 14 starting at verse 9 listen to these words

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Another angel a third followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast and its image

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Receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand. He also will drink the wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the

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Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever

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They have no rest day or night These worshipers of the beasts and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name

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So you'll note Scripture clearly Teaches that the lake of fire is not a temporal punishment

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It is an eternal punishment and the torment that they experience there is without end

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It is without rest it lasts day and night days without end and it's important for us to recognize this that each and every

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Single one of us because of our sin because of our rebellion because of our participation in the works of darkness

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This is exactly what each and every one of us deserves This is most certainly true

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It is not by our righteousness that we avoid this fate It is by God's grace and mercy and the gift that he has given us in the forgiveness of sins won by Christ We are never to consider ourselves better than anybody else because we have been granted

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Mercy from God to avoid this fate This is what we are saved from and It's a hard pill to swallow and we want to blame

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God we want to turn it around on God and say God, how dare you how can you say you're loving and Do that to people?

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That's that's absurd because Every single person who ends up in this fate.

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This is what they deserve Every single person who is saved is not

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Getting what they deserve and the only reason why any of us is

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Capable of not getting what we reserve what we deserve is because Jesus took What we deserve on?

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himself So that God's justice and his wrath can be

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Fulfilled God didn't say all right. I'll give you guys another chance Sins, no big deal

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No That's not it at all Instead God says I love you.

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And since my justice has to be fulfilled I will take your place as your substitute

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So when we see Christ suffering bleeding and dying on the cross Each and every one of us needs to remember

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Your sins kind of individually are what he is bleeding and dying for you know,

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I Regardless of what you think about Mel Gibson, you know, some people really like him

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Some people really hate him that is immaterial The one thing I thought was fascinating with the movie the passion of the

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Christ is that Mel Gibson makes a cameo appearance in the movie Does anyone know which character

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Mel Gibson plays? No That's right

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Mel Gibson's only cameo appearance he His hands were the hands holding the hammer that nailed

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Jesus to the cross that's our role and The fact that he took that for himself

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Should make us realize that each and every one of us if we were in that movie, that's the place

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I would be That's the place you would be it's our sins that put him on the cross and He did not no one took his life from him he willingly laid down his life for you so that you can live and That's the beauty of the gospel but we must always remember and Never take it away that what we are being saved from and scripture says it so clearly is the actual wrath of God itself

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We are not being saved from a bad hair day We are not being saved from the upsets and the slipsies and the oopsies and the things that make your life

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Uncomfortable or just make it so that you're not things aren't running as smoothly as they could

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Yesterday on the way to the men's Bible study I hit four stoplights and I was just like come on really how many of these things see

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Jesus didn't die for that You see what I'm saying? That's just an annoyance What he died for was the wrath of God now

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I want to show you another passage and I love the fact that this passage shows up every year in the lectionary

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But it's in Matthew chapter 25 at the close of the Olivet Discourse, and it's the it's a very thinly veiled

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Parable and it's kind of how the Day of Judgment is going to go down The redundancy in working through the text and pointing out the same things

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I've pointed out are for the sake that we continue to focus in on these important truths because This is how the

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Day of Judgment is going to look when the Son of Man Comes in his glory and all the angels with him notice red letters

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He will sit on his glorious throne Before him will be gathered all of the nations

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Everybody the French will be there the Russians the Syrians the

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Norwegians Even the ones in Oslo and he will separate people one from another as A shepherd separates the sheep from the goats

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He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left

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And I need to note at this point the judgment has already taken place

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You are judged by what you are You are either one of Christ's sheep or you are a goat and it's important for us to recognize every one of us was born a goat and that's the miracle of Becoming a

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Christian is that Christ? Miraculously through the working of the Holy Spirit in the means of grace the preaching of his word the waters of baptism transforms us

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From being dead to being alive from being goats to being sheep

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And it's all by his grace because I don't know a single goat who can sit there and say bah

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I really wish I was a sheep. Bah It doesn't work You're separated by what you are

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You are either in Christ or you are not So the judgments already taken place only then are the books open we can talk about works

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So the king will say to those on his right Come you who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world

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For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty. You gave me drink.

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I was a stranger You welcomed me. I was naked you clothed me.

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I was sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me then the righteous will say

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Lord When do we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and Give you a drink and when do we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothed you and when do we see?

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You sick or in prison and visit you sheep are not very smart Jesus will say oh you silly sheep the king will answer them truly

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I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these and here's the important words my brothers Who are

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Jesus's brothers? The Apostles the ones who believe Jesus's brothers are the ones who bring to you the good news of Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of your sins

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So his brothers were sent out by Jesus to proclaim the gospel and what happened to them?

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They were sick They were in prison. They were beaten. They were mistreated Paul even talks about how one time he was naked and What did the people do?

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They clothed them visited them in prison cared for them and all this kind of stuff because they were the brothers of Jesus How do you treat those who bring to you the gospel?

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That's the idea if you believe the gospel then you're gonna treat these Servants these brothers of Christ well, and you're gonna treat each other with love

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So then he will say to those on his left apart from me you cursed and watch the emphasis into the eternal fire

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Prepared for the devil and his angels on a first reading you can sit there and say well That just means the fire burns forever

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It means that and more the text continues For I was hungry and you gave me no food as thirsty and you gave me no drink as a stranger

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He did not welcome me naked. He did not clothe me sick and in prison. He did not visit me and Then they also will answer saying

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Lord When do we see you hungry? Or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you

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Then he will answer them saying truly I say to you as You did not do it to one of the least of these who's he pointing to his brothers.

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You did not do it to me and Then these will go away into and what does your text say?

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eternal punishment and The righteous into what?

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All right, how many of you believe that eternal life only lasts for 10 ,000 years? If we have been given eternal life, how long do you expect that to last?

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Eternally forever Yeah, I like the way you said it for ever

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You betcha forever you this is not rocket surgery

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This is not rocket surgery it lasts for ever eternal life lasts forever

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But notice the same word eternal is used for something else

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How long does the punishment last? for ever

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It lasts forever Now there are those in the

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Christian Church today. They subscribe to a view One name for it is conditionalism

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The the idea behind conditionalism is is that however bad your sins were that you committed in this lifetime?

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If you die without faith, then that will determine how long you will be in the lake of fire

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So their idea is is that you know Let's say that you were a 13 year old kid and you didn't really live that long and for the most part you didn't commit

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That many sins you just did the standard stuff, you know Stealing bubblegum from Hugos and lying to your friends and you know nonsense like that or not doing your chores

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I mean that's not as bad as like Hitler right and Hitler is over here and then you know The 13 year old kid is over there and so they'll say it so the 13 year old kid granted

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God's gonna punish him but throw him into the lake of fire and he'll probably last there for a couple of days and then he

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Will cease to exist That's not what this text says That's a man -made doctrine

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That is a man -made doctrine and I understand the temptation to go this way.

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I really do We in our sinful fallen state Somehow think that we know better than God or that somehow we can fault

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God That his justice would result in that Extreme in our view justice

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But again, I would say We don't know what we're talking about you are making sin a light thing when you do this and What we have to realize look at the world around us

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Look at the curse that we all labor under I'll always again point it out.

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You guys look so much more older than when I first got here four years ago What is wrong with you people mark?

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Your great hair is really starting to get peppery Yeah Yeah Right, you know and And I've even buried some of the

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Kongsvinger folk The idea is this is that how many sins did it take to plunge us into this misery one

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One this is on almost unbearable what we are going through You know,

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I heard the Trump bombed Syria and I heard last week that Syria gassed its own people and I thought to myself when will this end?

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This is nothing new I Remember the missile attacks we launched against Iraq. I Remember they have missile attacks.

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We've launched against other nations. I remember the original Gulf War. I remember

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Storming Norman Schwarzkopf. He's dead now That makes me feel old and you look at our world from terrorist attacks to shootings in the schools to the terrible ways that we treat each other this life is

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Awful and you know, what makes it so awful we do we do and Yet we would point our finger at God and say how dare you punish somebody for eternity and yet God It says

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Demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners and enemies of God Christ died for our sins

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The eternal God Born of the Virgin Mary on a

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Friday afternoon Suffered the full wrath of God in our place so that we would not suffer that fate and We have the audacity in our fallen sinfulness to sit there and say you're not just that's not fair Are we out of our minds?

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Are we have we lost our minds? I think we have I would submit to you we are in no position to judge

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God and He is in every position To judge us and we must remember that his law has found us all guilty

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So the doctrine of hell It stands it's clearly taught

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Jesus mentioned it over and over and over again using the same

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Metaphors making it clearly sound like this thing does not end where the worm does not die eternal torment that The anguish of their torment goes up before the

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Saints and the angels and God and the Lamb forever and ever That's what we all deserve

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So ultimately that's what we're saved from You Know Jesus spent a lot more time preaching about hell, but he also spent a lot of time talking about the kingdom of heaven and So I I haven't done

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I haven't sit hand is like, you know and done the bean thing okay, one bean for hell one bean for heaven and things like that, but My my gut would tell me that it it's probably an even split and maybe a little bit more in favor of the kingdom of Heaven, but he did speak explicitly about hell and not on an infrequent basis on a really frequent basis

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Yeah, and here's the thing when you understand what it is We all deserve and what we're saved from now, let's take a look at Christ on the cross.

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What does that tell you about the gospel? If you don't get that, right Then the gospel really loses its significance

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It really becomes diminished when you diminish God's law and you diminish his wrath and Water it down with your own dumb ideas because that's really ultimately what we're talking about You think your ideas are better than what the words of God are in the

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Bible your dumb ideas are now Diluting the true full potency of God's Word because you think you know better which is idolatry self idolatry at that and That just mixes it all up and then the gospel loses its true potency

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Until you understand what it is. We all deserve The gospel cannot have its full sweetness.

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And this is why you think of the fellow who wrote Amazing Grace This is a guy who wasn't an enslaver.

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He was a slave ship captain this fellow literally

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Captains ships where they took humans in Chains put them down in the cargo hold and how many of these fellows and women did not survive the passage across the

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Atlantic? And he'd been multiple trips He had no compassion

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No mercy. He had participated in something that God's law says he deserved death for I Want to make that clear

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The book of Exodus and we'll see this when we get back into the text the book of Exodus when it comes to Enslavers those who would literally steal another human being you see this in the book of Exodus it literally says the person who steals another human being shall be put to death and Anyone caught with that human being will also be put to death the

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Mosaic Covenant makes it very clear that not only the enslaver, but everybody who participates in the industry is

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Subject as a capital crime to capital punishment from God This guy comes to grips with just how wicked and evil he is

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And what becomes his hymn that he writes that we all sing at every funeral

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Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a what a

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Wretch like me. There's a wonderful video on YouTube Where a guy who knows a thing or two about music and its history and things like that notes kind of the uniqueness of The the tune itself.

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We all know it It's kind of sounds good on the bagpipes and everything like that But this guy actually makes the case that the tune itself was not a tune that he wrote

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That Newton took that tune because that was the tune that the slaves were singing when they were in the cargo hold

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It's almost like an African dirge and I think that sounds right and it wrecked him and in his later life, what does he become a pastor and Becoming a pastor cannot undo what he did as a slave trader

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Right You can study God's Word. You can teach Bible studies. It can't undo your wickedness

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You can go and work in the homeless shelter You can go and preach the gospel in the prisons.

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It will not be enough to save you there's not enough good that you can do to Purchase your redemption and God in his mercy has done this for us

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Which this then why When we read first John this morning, we are admonished because of Christ's great love for us

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We are to be marked by love for each other Do you truly know what it means to be loved by God?

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When you clinch your fist and you hate your brothers and sisters in Christ. I would say no and I don't say that as my opinion.

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I say that that's what the text says Love covers a multitude of sins and the love of Christ has covered a multitude of your sins in fact all of them, so We do not dare

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Shave the hard edges off of God's law. We've spent months and I mean this months slowly

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Methodically working our way through the Ten Commandments Did you ever think that they were that comprehensive that they really?

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required you to do that much and Having spent all of these months working our way through these

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Ten Commandments. I Gotta ask you how well are you keeping them and see that's the point?

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You can't You don't this is why we need Christ and we need the gospel

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So let's continue on then as we wrap up our study of the commandments and note

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Then that God's law is doing exactly what it's supposed to do Let me ask you this real quick.

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This is not a trick question God wants you to keep his commandments How carefully does

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God want you to keep them? What's the stick? What's the standard? Perfectly, how do we know this?

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How do we know that God wants us to keep his law perfectly? Where? Matthew chapter 5 verse 48

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Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount Here's what Jesus says you therefore must be

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Perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. You must be perfect Jesus's half -brother

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James writes in James chapter 2 verse 10 Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point

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Has become guilty of all of it all of it that kind of tells you about the futility of somehow building a house of cards called my good works as if somehow that's going to save you because one one infraction

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Brings the whole thing down So can anyone be saved by keeping

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God God's law or his commandments? Answer no, let's take a look at a passage of scripture

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Galatians chapter 3 Paul writing to the Churches in Galatia who had listened to the

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Judaizers who were saying that you cannot be saved unless you keep the Mosaic Covenant Along with believing in Jesus they were being self -righteous

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Paul writes Oh foolish Galatians who has bewitched you It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

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So let me ask you this Did you receive the Holy Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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What do you think the answer to the question is? Hearing with faith, right Are you so foolish having begun by the

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Spirit and note note the language here To walk according to the

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Spirit is to walk according to faith having begun by the Spirit Are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness So know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham All the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the

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Gentiles by faith Preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed

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So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith

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All who rely and that's an important word, by the way, it doesn't say all who keep the commandments

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All who rely on works of the law to rely on works of the law is to say

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God I deserve to go to heaven because I did this this this this and this that's to rely on the works of the law

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We are not to rely on them We are to keep his commandments because we are saved but we are not to rely on God's law for salvation and justification

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So all who rely on works of the law are under a curse for it is written cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and continually do them

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Now it is evident that no one is Justified before God by the law how many people are justified before God by the law?

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No one For the righteous shall live by faith The law is not of faith.

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In fact, the law doesn't require faith at all Just requires obedience. The law is not of faith rather the one who does them shall live by them

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However, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us And what is the curse of the law?

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The curse of the law is its condemnation It's important to note the law itself is not a curse God's law is holy and just and good

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But the curse of the law is its condemnation of our sin and it rightly condemns us but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for cursed is if for it is written cursed is

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Everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham Might come to the

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Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith So to give a human example

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Even a man -made covenant No one annuls it or adds to it once it's been ratified once the contracts been signed you can't change the clauses

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Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring Zara singular.

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It does not say offsprings Referring to many but referring to one and your offspring.

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That's Christ So this is what I mean the top the law the Torah which came four hundred and thirty years afterwards given at Mount Sinai It does not annul a covenant that was previously ratified by God So as to make the promise void

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So the important the important covenant then is the Abrahamic not the Mosaic Remember God made a promise to Abraham by faith for if the inheritance comes by the law

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It no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

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So why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring that's

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Christ should come to whom the promise had been made and it was put in Place through angels by an intermediary now in a mirror intermediary implies more than one

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But God is one so then is the law contrary to the promises of God No, certainly not for if a law had been given that could give life

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Then righteousness would indeed be by the law But the scripture imprisoned everyone under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe

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Now before faith came we were all held captive under the law We were imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed

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So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith

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But now that faith has come we're no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus You are all sons of God through faith for as many of you as were baptized into Christ you have put on Christ There is neither

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Jew or Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There's no male and female

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You are all one in Christ Jesus And if you are Christ's then you were Abraham's offspring heirs

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According to the promise and so you're going to note here even the Apostle Paul talking about our salvation as a gift not by works

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Reminds us again You were baptized and the reason he does it is because of the promises of God that are given in the waters of baptism

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That we are united with Christ in his death and his resurrection Our sins are washed away our hearts are circumcised by Christ So Paul always is pointing his

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Christians back to the waters of baptism Which is why your pastor does the same thing as well Because I can say with certainty that was a place where God Promised you things and you hang on by faith to all of those promises so remember you have been united with Christ in the waters of baptism that you have put him on and that we are his and That we are heirs according to the promise

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Not according to the law and works So now you see then how long gospel work out the law is good

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The curse of the law is its accusation power But that curse has been silenced by Christ and we are saved not by our law keeping

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We are saved by grace through faith in his mercy And the reason why we do good works is because we are the children of God We are the children of light.

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We no longer walk in darkness We walk in the light of his word and we keep and we guard his commandments knowing that the law itself is the law of freedom

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Sin is slavery Loving each other is freedom That's the idea.