The Word of The Cross

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amen you may be seated so good to be with you how many of you are here today there's four of you all right want to know what

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I'm dealing with great to be with you bring you greetings from Kings Church in Peoria Arizona way out on the far west side and praying for you the congregation they know that I was coming so they're praying for you praying for you if you could have a

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Bible please open to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 as you're doing that I want to recognize a couple of folk elder

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Doug my fellow elder where are you uh where are you at would you stand up elder

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Doug this is my friend for many years I don't have many friends so amen faithful man of God and with him is

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Andrew he's a young man who is I'm mentoring and he's responding so well he's called to preach not sure exactly where the

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Lord will take him but he's gonna take him someplace Andrew would you stand as well pray for Andrew amen it is great to be with you and you didn't know

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I was coming and the standing room only is amazing amazing it's the exact opposite of a story

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I heard there was this archbishop that was visiting one of the churches in his diocese in the

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Church of England if you know those terms and he looked around it was the beginning of the service and there was only eight people there well this was the archbishop and couldn't believe that so few were there so he said did you not advertise that I the archbishop was coming and the vicar said no it looks like word got around so it is so glad you're all here 1st

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Corinthians chapter 1 I'm gonna begin reading from verse right through to the second chapter in the fifth verse 1st

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Corinthians chapter 1 and beginning in verse 18 ladies and gentlemen this is the

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Word of God for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God for it's written

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I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning

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I will thwart where is the one who is wise where is the scribe where is the debater of this age has not

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God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of God the world did not know

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God through wisdom it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom but we preach

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Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles but to those who are called both

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Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men for consider your calling my brothers not many of you were wise according to worldly standards not many were powerful not many were of noble birth but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise

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God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God and because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that as it is written let the one who boasts boast in the

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Lord and I when I came to you brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the

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Spirit and of power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God let's pray

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Lord we thank you for your holy inspired inerrant infallible word write its truths on all of our hearts pray in Christ's name amen picture the scene the

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Apostle Paul walking into Corinth in the first century this was a commercial center place of trade sailors were there in abundance boats and ships filled with cargo as I say a trading center its home of the

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Ishmael games hard to say that very well known in the first century it was held there it was a city known for sexual license it was the

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Las Vegas of its day major hub a lot like Athens a lot of the intelligentsia gathered there elite philosophers intellectuals it is known as a place where you could know just about anything and learn just about anything

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Paul was a converted Jew as you know he walked in and he preached a simple undiluted unedited message about the death of the

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Jewish Messiah a Galilean carpenter who had suffered and died on a hill outside Jerusalem his message was

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Jesus Christ and him crucified wonder what would happen if we took that message to the campuses of colleges and universities in our time

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I think if we ever got an audience would be laughed to scorn and certainly that's what

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Paul faced when he went into Corinth that day and his was of an execution someone got executed you need to know about it a message of crucifixion isn't it interesting we like to put a crucifix on us as kind of a something that's ornate something that looks pretty cool but if you thought about it for a while it would be strange to have an electric chair around your neck wouldn't it it'd be strange to have some sort of torture apparatus but what we do as Christians we celebrate the cross the message of the cross a barbaric cruel shameful form of death and that's at the very heart of our message our message is the kingdom of God our message is the good news of the kingdom and central to it is the message of the cross right at the heart of the message of the kingdom of God is a crucified

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Savior our word excruciating comes from its root in the word crucifixion and here we're told this message is true wisdom true power look at verse 18 with me for the word the message of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved that is the power of God I want to ask you what do you see in the cross do you see more than earthly eyes can see to walk into any place and say ladies and gentlemen you might study history and be aware of Egypt and Mesopotamia and the

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Babylonians and the Medes and you might understand the Greeks and you might understand all of the history from the first century to now and you might be very au fait with all of it and yet central the most momentous event in human history is the death of a carpenter outside Jerusalem in the first century an itinerant

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Jew teacher what kind of reaction might you think you might get from that kind of a message or Paul knew he knew that the word the message of the cross was going to be seeming like foolishness to those who are perishing they're not gonna see it they're not gonna get it they're gonna laugh him to scorn and yet he preached it anyway our mandate our assignment as preachers is not to come up with something that people like it's not up to build a crowd it's not to get a name for ourselves or for a church it's to preach and herald the message the message of the cross the preachers assignment is mandate is to proclaim the

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Word of God no editing no adjusting just preach it preach the word in season and out of season

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I would suggest to you if something is in season and out of season there's never a time when you're not to preach it if you have strawberries they can be in season or out of season there's not a third option and so it is we're to preach the word in season and out of season or all times in good times in hard times that's literally what it's been talked about there in times when people responding well and times when no one is responding you as a herald preach the

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Word of God never forget it that's what we're called to do but yet this message is folly to some and a stumbling block to others do you see that in the text it's folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it's the power of God it's a stumbling block to Jews verse 23 and folly to Gentiles the book of Deuteronomy outlined the fact that anyone who hangs on a tree is under God's curse they knew that they knew it very well and to a

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Jew a cross is simply a cut -down tree and so they could look at the cross with their

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Old Testament as we would call it in their hands and say look there's someone under God's curse and they'd be right but Paul explains that in Galatians chapter 3 that Christ became the curse for us on purpose he hung on a tree

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Galatians 3 13 and 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come to the

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Gentiles they understood because they knew their

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Bibles and that's hard to get past if you're taught over and over you see someone on a tree they're under God's curse the message of is someone hung on a tree how can that be a message blessed by God well it is because in the plan of God Christ bore the curse that we deserved so we could have the blessing that he achieved for us this was a message

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Paul knew would be denied by the Greeks all the non -Jews it would be seeming as seeming to be as foolishness this message of the cross is of course denied by Islam three tenets of Islam is the fact that God has no son according to them

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Jesus did not die he only appeared to die on the cross and therefore they deny the resurrection if there was no death there can be no resurrection they reject the nation the notion of a sin bearer a

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Savior each man will reap the fruit of his own deeds to deny that Jesus is the

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Son of God to deny his death and therefore also his resurrection you realize puts them in a category outside of the kingdom of God John writes his gospel so that we might believe that Jesus is the

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Son of God and by believing have life in his name Romans 10 9 and 10 says if you confess with your mouth

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Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you shall be saved do you see the three things you must believe to be saved are the three things denied by Islam it doesn't get more serious than that there's a forfeit of salvation there's a forfeit of eternal life you must believe these things

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I saw a sign once just had the word believe on it well that's not enough believe what what are we to believe and there are ladies and gentlemen there is content in the gospel we're called to believe something about someone it's a message that may not be received but we're to preach it anyway in the message of Christmas we have the message of the incarnation

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God became flesh in the message of Easter we have the death and resurrection of the

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Lord Jesus in our day in contemporary Christianity we're witnessing a great trivialization of the cross it's seen merely as an example or else it is supposed to give us hope you can't keep a good man down that's about as shallow as it gets simply the cross is used as a motivational pep talk you may be down now but it's not the end of the story it's

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Friday but Sundays are coming cliches abound and it lifts the soul for about eight minutes till you get to the parking lot then on Tuesday when you're facing a calamity there's nothing in the tank but the message of the cross is a message of meaning and purpose message that God became flesh that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and lived an absolutely pure and sin less life and that life went to the cross and if anyone was deserving reward it was

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Christ and if anyone else was to go to the cross they would only get the judgment of God but Jesus stepped in in our place hung there for us absorbing

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God's curse so we could have the blessing and 2nd Corinthians 5 21 says he

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God made him Jesus who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him

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God all orchestrated a divine exchange the evil due to us came upon Christ the good due to Jesus comes to us

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Jesus on the cross absorbed the wrath that we deserved

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Isaiah prophesied it in Isaiah chapter 53 our sins were laid on him all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to our own way and the

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Lord has laid on him on his back the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all God had this plan from eternity and fulfilled it at the cross

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Jesus is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world it's not as if the plan of God went awry and Jesus was crucified and God is now saying what can we do angels let's have a let's synergize let's have a think -tank meeting let's get ourselves out of this you got any ideas no it was the plan of God formed age to age in eternity past and the cross is a scandal but we must preach it the message of the cross it's not a message of a temporary fix a band -aid it's a demonstration of the love of God and the justice of God justice was meted out on the

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Son of God in our place so that we could endure our lives knowing that Christ became what we were that we could receive what he was and what he did salvation is found not in a plank of wood but in the person who hangs there or hung there on the cross wrath upon him grace to all who believe you know this don't you the cross is more than a cute story it lifts the soul when there's a tension temptation to be deflated temptation to be depressed let me say this so simple when we don't know the purpose of a thing abuse is inevitable let me say that again when we don't know the purpose of a thing abuse is inevitable and the cross was not meant to merely lift your soul for a moment it is the most important message you and I will ever hear the message of the cross the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it's the power of God for it's written

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I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thought where is the one who is wise

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God asks question number one question number two where is the scribe question number three where is the debater of this age question number four has not

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God made foolish the wisdom of the world these are what we call rhetorical questions because the answers aren't supplied but they're obvious if you read the question where is the one who is wise nowhere in God's sight where is the scribe doesn't matter he's not found their true wisdom where is the debater of this age nowhere not in God's kingdom has not

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God made foolish the wisdom of the world the answer is yes he has because in the wisdom of God verse 21 the world did not know

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God through wisdom we don't climb the ladder of understanding starting with man starting with our thoughts starting with how we feel it's like buttoning a shirt if you get the wrong button in the wrong hole at the top it's wrong all the way down how many have understood that and we need to get it right to understand our

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Bibles we need to start with God God starts with God in the beginning what's the next word

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God we call it being centric the

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Bible is a God inspired book about God God revealing himself and God does not start with man and say now that now now let's start with you and let's work our way up to God no when

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God gives revelation he starts at the top where we should start with the revelation of who he is in the beginning

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God created the heavens and the earth you might say well you're already getting controversial do you know you cannot preach anything in our in your

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Bible without being controversial you can't get past the first verse in the

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Bible without being controversial in the beginning well some people don't believe there was a beginning God some people don't believe in God created some people don't believe in creation heavens and the earth some people don't believe there are heavens and earth so what you're going to do

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I have a Bible study but I'm just keep out of controversy good luck with that one man said it this way if God is pleased in the preaching it doesn't matter who's displeased and if God is displeased it doesn't matter who's pleased

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Paul understood this as he came into Corinth he knew that what he was about to say the message of the cross would not be pleasing to the ear would not be something that people said oh how quaint must think about this wonderful no the scandal of the cross is that God did what he did with his son take the history of the world and according to God the most important event was the execution of an itinerant

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Jew on a hill outside Jerusalem and the Roman rule you could almost miss it historically scandalous it's foolish it's a stumbling block but according to God if you don't get this you don't get anything it's the message and the most important message you and I can ever hear people didn't want to hear that message in his day and he knew it and he preached it anyway and he knew his message would mean nothing at all to all except those who are called look at verse 24 but to those who are called both

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Jews and Greeks that's the only two people groups on planet earth either

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Jews or non group get non Jews classed as Greeks here so Jews are going to call it a stumbling block

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Greeks are going to call it foolish but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks and in other words among Jews and among Greeks amongst

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Gentiles there are this group called the called whenever Paul uses that word called he's talking of the effectual call of God that calls someone out of darkness into light perhaps you've been at a park and you've seen a dog owner call the dog their dog and nothing happens that would be an ineffectual call but in this call

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God always accomplishes that which he had in mind to do it's what we read in Romans 8 these whom he called he justified there's a call that goes out with the call of the outward ear to the that goes to the outward ear you understand that the gospel call goes to everyone we pray and all who hear that we understand not all of them come to justification which is by faith alone correct

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Romans 5 verse 1 therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ the Romans 8 talks about a call that results in justification and it's this powerful call it's like the call of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus where he said

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Lazarus come forth he didn't interview him beforehand and say look

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I don't want to violate your free will or anything got a proposal I can't do anything you know

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I know that if we get this thing done I don't want you to sue me for violating your right to stay dead and so I need you to sign the papers please that you're not gonna sue me should

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I raise you from the dead but it has to be a cooperative venture you realize I'm being silly but many people think that God can't just storm the heart like he does with his call like Lazarus is dead how much does a dead man do to cooperate for resurrection there are no degrees of deadness you don't go to the morgue and say well we've got 14 people here and 12 are really dead there's a couple there's a cup there's a couple you know we're not really sure there's dead and really dead and then there's dead dead dead we have the testimony of the sister don't we by this time

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King James Version he stinketh what can a dead man do well he can stink and Lazarus all he did in his resurrection was stink he'd been dead for four days but the powerful effectual call of Jesus said come forth

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Lazarus if you didn't name Lazarus everybody in all the tombs would have come out and that's the kind of call that makes the

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Christian this is a message Paul knew would be not unable to be received by a great number of his audience but for the cold whereby the

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Holy Spirit under the sound of the ear under the sound of the gospel call the effectual call of the

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Holy Spirit like a master surgeon he goes to work on the human heart and takes out a heart of stone that has no beat in it that does not want to know

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God does not want the true God may be interested in religion may be churched to the hilt but doesn't want the true

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God the Holy Spirit takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart that beats to know

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Christ I know that happened in my own life at the age of 14 in place called

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Chester in England I went to the service not wanting to be there didn't like the service didn't like the preaching but somehow in the middle of the preaching under the sound of Romans 323 all of sin and come short of the glory of God it was like a penetrating thrust and stabbed to my heart

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I knew he was talking about me and I knew that my sin was exposed and somehow

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I wanted what he wanted me to want and I didn't want it eight minutes before and I can't explain it except now

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I've read John chapter 3 the wind blows it where it wishes you hear the sound of it you don't know where it comes from where it's going so is everyone who is born of the

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Spirit it's God's activity it's not like I worked it out and my neighbor didn't

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I was more humble and than my neighbor no I was dead dead people do not apply for heart transplants think about that it's kind of profound you came into the kingdom by your choice because God chose you and gave you a new heart that wanted

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Christ you've been called out of darkness into God's marvelous light but we preach

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Christ crucified verse 23 even though Jews demand signs Greeks seeks wisdom you see he was not after a crowd he was after a church and so knowing what they want they want signs wonders miracles well he was a pass an apostle 2nd

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Corinthians 12 talks about the signs of an apostle under God he could have performed signs he knew wisdom if anyone knew wisdom

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Paul's your guy he had an education that far exceeded about four or five different doctorates in our day trained under Gamaliel or Gamaliel however you say it by the way when you get to heaven you'll understand it's it's all

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English over there I want to prepare you I am an

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American citizen but my assignment is to prepare Americans for heaven I want you to stand before Jesus and then hear the amazing words well done good and faithful servant see that'll be a shock to you

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I want to prepare you praise the Lord we can have fun but realize this

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Paul had an agenda that was not his Romans chapter 1 verse 1 talks about the gospel of God most of us would camp out on the word gospel rightly so camp out on the word

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God rightly so but a key word there is the word of and it means a possessive form it's the gospel belonging to God it's not the gospel about God not in that particular sense in Romans 1 1 it's the gospel that belongs to God so Paul says

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I've been given a message my job is to pass it on to share it and not dilute it not to alter it it's

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God's gospel and at the center of that gospel is the cross of Christ we are prone as preachers to simply preach the text rightly so we have training where we teach people only preach what the text says but in every text we should find a way to find

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Christ it may not be in the text not everything in our Bibles is about Christ but you can find your way to Christ from every text

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Spurgeon had a phrase CH Spurgeon that from every Hamlet in England there's a road to London and in every text whether we're in Ecclesiastes or Proverbs or Genesis there's a way to find

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Jesus and Christian preachers are called to preach that gospel somewhere in the sermon that should be the cross the crucified one because the message is not be like Jesus but see what

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God has done for you in Jesus Christ see what he's done you can talk about time management rightly so redeem the time the days are evil

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I was once hearing a message and someone did a great job from that verse in Ephesians telling us how we ought to be stewards of time but there was no mention of Christ why because the text didn't mention

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Christ but my question is this what do you do for people and who are not good at time management who have not lived every second of their life for the glory of God they've sinned and they've sinned in time management you point them to the

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Savior there's a way of finding Christ out of every text just as there's roads to London there are roads to the cross and Paul though he did not preach

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Jesus Christ and him crucified as a message in every message he said that was the title

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I don't think that's what he's being in view here but in every message he finds a way to the cross he finds a way to tell people you failed you sinned and that's where the comes in for you if Paul had an agenda to please the audience he would perform miracles to entertain the

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Jews he would be able as no one else to philosophize and bring wisdom to court the opinion of the

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Greeks not only did he not do that he did neither of those on purpose and preach the only thing they did not wish to hear the message of the cross and he saw it as verse 24 the power of God and the wisdom of God may

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I ask you what do you see in the cross the message of the cross is true power and true wisdom you want to see true power cross you realize with earthly eyes if all we could look at at the time of the crucifixion it did not look like true power it looked like the end of a dream didn't it strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter there were not too many of the close disciples of Christ around to view it it's a place where Jesus was despised and yet if we could have eyes that saw into the spiritual realm

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Jesus was winning winning winning winning winning there at the cross long time ago mr.

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Billy Graham preached this some people may have believed in Christ if he came down do you remember at the cross they said if you are the

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Christ come down from the cross and we will believe in you Graham said they may have believed if he came down but we believe in him because he stayed up he hung there for us he hung there to please his father to glorify his father and it's the true power of God take that devil take that sin doesn't look like anyone's taking anything does it didn't look like Jesus was winning but Colossians 2 said at the cross he triumphed over them triumphed over all his enemies absolutely may

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God give us eyes to see at the cross there's a revelation of the weight of sin our rebellion against God that results in alienation sin results in alienation and there's a brokenness about us we're all broken people it took the death of Christ to deal with this we live in a broken world how deep is the problem it's more broken than we realize we're more broken than we realize this creation is more broken than we understand and at the heart of it is that there are rebels in the universe and it's us we've committed cosmic treason and what this text also tells us is that there is no now hear this there's no intuitive way back to God you know what

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I mean by that there's no we work out that if we do this we'll climb the ladder of spirituality and somehow get up to the mountain of truth to the apex of the mountain if we just have a few laws in place what those laws and climb we may fall down a little bit if we continue on the journey we'll one day reach the mountain the message of the cross is no you can't climb you're dead but the good news is this

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God came down in the person of Jesus Christ from the mountain to the valley breathe life into you and then took you up the mountain to sit with him in heavenly places and you can read of it in Ephesians 2 you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world the prince of the power of the air the spirit of disobedience that works in those who are disobeying

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God then verse 4 but God but God but God being rich in mercy because of the mega the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead at that moment when we were dead he made us alive all his work and raised us up by grace you've been saved and made us sit together with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus man says

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I'll work it out I'll get there verse 20 and 21 is

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God's commentary on that thought your wisdom won't get you there you're thinking about it you debate you can start now and have an 18 lifetime span of questions and you'll never come up with the answer you have to have revelation in general revelation we have creation which tells us there's a

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God there's no excuse we know it God has made himself known in creation

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God doesn't believe in atheists but in special revelation in the scripture we find out that God has done something to solve the problem

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God has come to us in the person of Christ and what God demands here this

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Christ provides what does he demand 100 % total holiness from the time of your birth to the time of your death that's it that's all you think when

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Jesus comes into the world he's going to say now you know not people are not doing that great so I'm lowering the bar and there's a 60 % pass pass rate now

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God is grading on a curve the hundred percent things not working out we don't want heaven to be totally without people no

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Jesus affirmed it and said you must be perfect Matthew 548 oh well according to you know my thought according to some of the folk around me

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I'm doing pretty well I wouldn't say well nobody's perfect Jesus is you're not that's the problem

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God doesn't say are you perfect according to Hitler or Stalin or Mussolini but are you perfect according to the standard of God's holiness

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Jesus said you must that means necessity you must be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect you read

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Matthew 5 and you think it's so comforting you haven't read it right if that's comforting what we need is not to aim at perfection because we've already blown it what we need is a perfect Savior and that's where Jesus comes in the law of God is given that tells you you must thou shalt and thou shalt not and we've committed sins of Commission we've done things and we've committed sins of omission we haven't done what we should have done and at the cross

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Jesus the perfect one stood in our place and has given us a perfect redemption atonement is necessary if we don't preach this what's left is human potential you'll have messages like develop the champion in you you can do it it's like halftime in a team talk first half may have not gone our way but you can do it have some positivity

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Oh pastor that doesn't sound positive there was a young man at a seminary he was being trained by the professor who was very liberal and didn't believe the

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Bible and this young man was preaching and he preached about hell much to the angst and annoyance of the professor it was there in attendance and after the service the young man went to the professor and said how did

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I do and he said oh you've got to be more positive you've got

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I just sense no positivity in anything you had to say that's all I'm gonna say next week he was preaching there again same subject different verse same subject and he said this last week

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I told you that unless you repent you're going to hell and I was told I need to be more positive so let me do that let me do that unless you repent you are positively going to hell

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I'm not sure how that went down but the message of the cross is you can't ignore this there is nothing more important in your entire life than the message of the cross what have you done with this

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Savior have you rejected him or accepted him as the Son of God there is no neutrality on this there is not a neutral zone well

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I'm not altogether for it but then I'm not against it Jesus said he that is not with me is against me and here does not gather with me scatters most think if there is a

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God and we suspect there is a God out there somewhere he's a nice God and he'll reward people who do their best well first of all have you done your best

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I mean you prayed eight minutes could it have been nine the revelation of Scripture is

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God does exist he's holy so holy it's way beyond your comprehension and that in love he's provided a

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Savior to save sinners from God's wrath and it's God's wrath not the devil's not some angels and God sent his son into the world to save people from God's wrath

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God sent his son who's also God the Son God sent his son to save people from his own wrath

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Romans 5 verse 6 tells us that he saves us from the wrath to come well

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I believe there are good people no there are no good people there are none that do good well come on there's

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Princess Diana there's Mother Teresa I mean have you read these people there are none that do good and then it says no not one because goodness is not a category we come up with by ourselves and defined by ourselves

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God being the Creator defines what good is and there's only one that is good Jesus said only one is good and that's

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God good according to God well

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I know but nobody gets that that's right we're in deep weeds we need a Savior that's the message and the message of the cross is we've got one

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Christ has come into the world to save sinners and there's a lot of bad news before we can grasp the good news the bad news is far worse than we thought and the good news is more glorious than you could have imagined in Acts chapter 4

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Peter is quoted by Luke in the message of Acts Acts 4 12

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Peter speaking there's no salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved that whole concept we need salvation

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I don't like it I think that God must be very pleased that I've turned out as well as I have no salvation is necessary must be saved and this salvation is available in one person alone it's an exclusive availability through the person and the work of the

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Lord Jesus Christ there is salvation in no one else talking of Jesus there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved

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Peter there says this Jesus whom you crucified God raised from the dead you know if you're gonna start a religion and Jesus really did not rise from the dead don't start it in Jerusalem that's that you know please don't do that they just go on you know bring the body he's saying he's alive there's his body but no because Jesus had risen from the dead he said you crucified it and God raised him and you know it and you need to answer to him how does this salvation come there are two basic religions in the world there are a lot of varieties but two basic types one is that of human achievement and the other is divine accomplishment and they could not be further apart in the church world today there's a view of grace that says

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God is the difference maker you do the best you can do and God will make up the difference

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God has his standards we don't always meet them but God in his grace makes up the difference what we lack he supplies that actually sounds at first glance sounds generous on God's part it's just one problem with it it's not true that's not what grace is mark this in your thinking grace to be grace is all grace

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Romans 11 6 but if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer be grace you can't have grace and then mix in human achievement human works and grace still be grace

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Martin Luther said this God doesn't need your works your neighbor does

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I like that you see when God saves he saves all by himself so that only he gets glory but if you've put something towards it there's a little bit isn't there there's a little bit well

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I you know I don't want to talk too loudly in heaven about the things I did but I'm here because I helped over time 374 elderly people cross roads after a while you'd be bored hearing about how people got there you know why you won't be bored no one's talking about their achievement they're talking about the

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Lamb of God worthy is the Lamb who was slain look at him worthy is the Lamb he bore my sins in his body on the tree worthy is the

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Lamb he's redeemed us by his blood what God demands perfect holy flawless obedience

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Christ provide that's the righteous life of Christ laid down for us at the cross familiar words in Ephesians 2 for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of your own doing it is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast we're not going to be boasting in heaven of the things we did why would people reject that I'll tell you why because the message of grace is offensive to human pride and grace is a person not a substance and when

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God gives you grace he gives you Christ and grace comes by means of the cross via the cross that's why we preach

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Christ crucified and a cross stick you know what on the cross day is where you take the letters of a word and you form words to remember what it might stand for GR a

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CE God's riches at Christ's expense that's grace it was once a wealthy man who owned many luxury cars wanting to have some form of cash flow he decided to sell one of his cars for a hundred and eighty thousand dollars he was a rich man but he had a high school buddy a buddy who wasn't doing that well and he needed a car and being rich as I said knowing that his friend was poor rather than asking the full price knowing that the man couldn't afford it anyway he said hey friend just give me a dollar and it's yours now jaws are almost on the ground with the generosity of this man but as generous as the man is in doing this it wouldn't qualify to be called grace all the man did was lower the asking price he lowered it a lot but it could never be counted as grace to be grace it's free without condition and it's by grace you are saved verse 26 for consider your calling brothers not many of you are wise according to worldly standards it's not many of the elites thank

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God it didn't say any but not many God chose to save amongst the elite in society not many were powerful thankfully not doesn't say not any but not many were powerful not many were of noble birth count out in the next few lines how many times we come across the phrase

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God chose it says it once it should catch our attention when it's repeated over and over again there's a message here

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God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God why did

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God chose the lowly and despised so no one would be boasting and because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God righteousness sanctification and redemption so that as it is written let the one who boasts boast in the

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Lord and we begin to wrap this up which means

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I've thought about quitting one man put it this way the world says this is where most people are in society the world says the problems outside you the solutions within you so get alone get on top of a mountain breathe in and breathe out think deeply meditate it's there you'll find the solution it's somewhere within diametrically opposed to that is the message of Christianity the word the message of the

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Word of God that says the problems inside you and the solution is outside of you in the person and the work of Jesus Christ look within and Paul said

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I know that in my flesh dwells no good thing have you noticed flesh over time is still flesh

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God has no program to improve the flesh he says no it's been crucified consider it crucified there's no plan for the flesh

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I hate that I hate the fact that people around me have to live with a sinner but that's who

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I am don't we all long for the day when in the heavenly courts will not have this body of sin as it's called the flesh to dominate us but the problem is within and the solution is without what have you done with this message of the cross and God's powerful message is that if you're in Christ is because of him verse 30

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God did it God included you in Christ God drafted you in God grafted you in God brought you into Christ and for the people of God who are the cold out of darkness they see

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Christ as the wisdom of God the righteousness of God the sanctification and redemption that they need so that all of their boasting is in the

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Lord where do you stand where's your heart in this are you coming under the wisdom of God and saying

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I'm aghast at the power of God displayed in the cross triumphing over his enemies

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I'm aghast in the way of the wisdom of God because philosophizing won't get there who would have come up with the idea of a

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God who became one of us the Son of God became the

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Son of Man that the sons of men might become the sons of God who to come up with that that's the message at the cross there was this divine exchange the evil due to us came upon Christ the good due to Christ comes to us

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Jesus was punished because of our sin so that we would be forgiven he endured our death that we could have his life he endured our curse so that we could have his blessing what an exchange

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I believe every malady every symptom of hostility and brokenness in our world

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Jesus died for and we'll be experiencing the blessing of God in heaven there'll be no sickness there there'll be no hurts there'll be no crying there'll be no pain because Jesus has bought that heavenly blessing for us and he did it at the cross creation itself is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God when we're changed completely creation will be can change completely we're waiting for that until then

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Jesus is in full control he's the king of all kings and as a king his message is what have you done with the message of the cross for all who trust in Christ and repent and believe the good news what good news that Christ has achieved what we could not achieve that he is resplendent with all authority in heaven and on earth and he summons all people everywhere to come to the cross on his terms as sinners before a holy

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God but to see in Christ the answer to see in Christ the one who has stepped into time on our behalf to please his father glorify his father and achieve the mission of save the elect

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Joseph was told you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins and he did it at the cross have you come have you repented are you under the lordship of this sovereign one you won't get there by following some kind of moralistic pep -talk message you can do it you can do it

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I'll do better I'll do better no come to the cross and say I I've had it with me

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I've got to look away look away to one who is the guiltless one and the guilty one he has no stains only his blood can make me pure look away look away that doesn't sound like you're ever gonna boast about your doings that's right the cross not only keeps boasting to a minimum ladies and gentlemen the cross demolishes boasting forever and the only boast we make is to boast in the

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Lamb of God in the cross of Christ and in his power and in his wisdom let's pray

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Lord we thank you for your holy immeasurable love that has come to us in the person of your son

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God the Lord Jesus thank you for him living for us dying for us and help us to live in the power of this wonderful good news the message of the cross in the name of the