Book of Luke - Ch. 6, Vs. 20-49 (03/23/2003)

Park Meadows Church

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Turn in your books, Bibles, to Luke 6 and 20. Jesus has come down from the mountain and he's going to, he sets himself and he sits.

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And he lifted up his eyes on the disciples and said, Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

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Blessed be ye. Greg, what did he mean when he was talking to people that had money and that didn't?

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Can this be material? How could he say, yours is the kingdom of God?

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Well, that's what he said.

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And he lifted up his eyes on the disciples and said, Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

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Clarence? Could it be that he was deceived and that is why he recognizes it don't happen.

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All right. Everything. Yes. Yes. That's right.

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Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled.

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Blessed are ye that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake.

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He is talking to his disciples, which were poor.

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He's talking to his disciples, which you are, that you will be reviled by man.

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And up to this point, it seems that the content of the

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Sermon on the Plain is similar to the one in Matthew on the mount. We find the apostles giving different accounts.

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The Lord gave the same teaching in many, many places. But in different, or beginning with verse 23, a new thought is introduced.

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Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven.

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For in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

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Now, Joy, this tells us that there will be a day in which we do rejoice.

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There will be a day when the fathers, or the prophets, will rejoice.

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That's coming. It's real. It's more real for me than some of you.

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This verse speaks about the reception of an admitted attitude toward God's prophets by mankind.

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The true prophet speaks for God and is persecuted. The true prophet speaks for God and is persecuted.

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Dennis, are you persecuted because of God? Yes. Alright.

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Who is this back here? I'm glad you're here.

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The false prophets misrepresent God and is patronized by men.

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And we see this as never, never before. The worldwide scourge.

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The true prophet must have faith in God and maintain a quiet confidence which looks beyond the things seen, as seen, to the things which are eternal.

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This is what keeps a man true to God is because we have eternal and because we have learned somewhat to look at it.

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Verse 20 and 22 speak about the poor, hungry, and weak, who are hated, reproached, considered outcasts, and called evil.

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All you have to do is look back into the Old Testament to see that this is true. It's true today.

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It is the man who preaches the word of God is going to have a rough time today. If he does not have a rough time, something's wrong.

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The false prophets were and are rich and had plenty to eat.

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Why is that, Clarence? The false prophet seems to profit in this world. It's to cause us to grow, to grow spiritually, to depend upon God.

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They can laugh and are considered good fellows. God has something to say to them.

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But woe unto you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. We have the answer right there.

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Woe unto you that are full, for you shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

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Woe unto you when men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

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Sometimes we think that the false prophets belong in the

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Bible, that there are none today, but I'm here to tell you the world's full of them.

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Our television is full of them. The East, Middle East, is full of them.

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But I say unto you which hear, love your enemies.

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Do good to them which hate you. Dennis, do you love your enemies?

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Well, we have to understand the word love. It's not love as one

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Christian for another. It means that you see that they get exactly that that is coming to them, but do it in a good spirit and don't decide what's coming to them.

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Yes. No. I don't know.

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Well. That's right.

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We need to. Well, our prayers cannot affect salvation, but God did ordain that they would hear by the word.

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So it's a question each one of us have to answer for ourselves.

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Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you. Now, we find that the false prophet is patronized by the world, and if he will say the right thing, the world will pay him well.

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How else do you suppose that the men on television get rich? The Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear, however, that he needn't expect

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God to pay him. The false prophet may become popular with the world, but he will be notorious with God.

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He may have a lot of fun on earth, but he will miss heaven.

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He may be well fed, but he has a starved soul.

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Very little is said today about the godless rich, and there's plenty of them.

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The Lord had a great deal to say about the godless rich in Scripture. Woe unto you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.

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What's that mean, Greg? Absolutely. Everyone seems to be after the poor criminal which stole a $25 suit of clothes or a $50 ring.

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The godless poor, however, are not nearly as dangerous as the godless rich are. The godless rich give glamor to godlessness.

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There's probably more hypocrisy among the rich than any other group.

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They'll pay a false prophet to preach in their church. They own the church and the property.

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No rich church has the reputation of being an evangelistic church. The gospel will not be preached there.

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There may be a few exceptions to this, but if there are, I don't know about them.

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In New York City, there's a church that bears the name of a rich man. He owns the church.

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The church will not have a gospel minister, preacher, because a gospel preacher would condemn this rich man, just as James did when he said in James 5, 1 through 3,

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Go to now, you rich men. Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

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Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth -eaten.

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Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.

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We have heaped treasures together for the last days. I wonder when the

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Christians in this country are going to wake up to the fact that these rich politicians are throwing crumbs from a table down to the poor.

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They're not interested in the poor or in the rights of an individual. They want to be able to keep their riches, enjoy them in selfishness.

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They're willing to give a few crumbs to the poor in order to do it. As far as civil rights go,

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I'm not concerned about the color of a man's skin, but about the color of his heart. Is he a

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Christian? Has his heart been washed in the blood of the

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Lord? If it has, then he's my brother. I'm going to be living with him for eternity, and I'd better start learning right now.

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A man's heart may be as black as ink, but his skin white as smoke.

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You cannot tell by the outside.

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Yet he is not my brother. I'm sorry to have to say that, but it is true.

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What I'm saying may sound revolutionary, and it is, but it is what

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Jesus Christ said. There are those who tell me that they are following Jesus.

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In this town, I've had people proclaim to me that, yes, I'm a Christian. They do not dare to follow him.

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Read what he says in this chapter, and believe me, it will remove the cloak of hypocrisy and peel off the skin of any man.

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29, And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other, and him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take away thy coat also.

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Now, quite often we hear, turn the other cheek.

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Well, that has a meaning in the superficial. Greg, what would you say that he means in 29,

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And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other. What does that mean?

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Well, you've got a good start. John, what do you think that means?

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All right, let me see if we can work our way through this. And unto him that smiteth thee, strikes you on one cheek, offer the other.

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What have you got to do, Dennis, to offer the other? You have to stay there, don't you?

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That's what he's saying. If you have a problem with somebody, solve it. Don't run away and hide.

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Don't try to get away where he can't strike you. So he's saying, when you have a problem with someone, and however it come about, solve it.

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Work it out. Stay there until you get it settled. And him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also.

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Give to every man that asketh of thee. I remember a story about the coat.

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I think I told you. Did you want to say something? No. There was a man that had asked his buddy if he had $2 million, would he give him one?

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Sure. No problem. If you had two houses, you can't give us but one.

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Would you give me one? Sure. If you had two cars? Yes. If you had two coats?

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He didn't answer. He said, what's the matter? He said, well, I got two coats.

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Very fitting. Give to every man that asketh of thee, and to him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again.

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That's hard for me to do. And as you would that men should do to you, do also to them likewise.

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Very, very sound sage doctrine. As men would, and as you would that men should do to you, you do to them also.

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For if you love them which love you, what think have you? If you love just your friends, but not an outsider.

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For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them which do good to you, what thanks have you?

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For sinners also do even the same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have you?

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For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again.

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That's the worldly way. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again.

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And your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the highest.

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If you give no thought to getting back what I have lent you, you give it to him.

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It is a gift on his part. If he regards it as a loan, that's fine.

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If he doesn't, that's fine. For he is kind unto unthankful and to the evil.

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Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful. And we established in the morning session that it is by the mercy of God that we're saved.

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All of the other is preliminary. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.

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Condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.

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Notice what does it mean, judge not, and ye shall not be judged. All right.

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Greg, what do you say that it means? That's right.

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Give, and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

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I go back to my youth.

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Dad was the manager of the grain elevator, wheat. And I grew up in the elevator.

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And he had a brass bucket about a peck size and scales.

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And finally I got to where I could operate them. And he would go out to the load of wheat and scoop wheat into this, shake it, tap it, and it settled down.

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And he'd rake it off, and then he'd weigh it. Give, and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

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And that's what would happen. It was full, in other words. All of the air was out as much as he could get.

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And then he weighed it. For with the same measure that you measure withal, it shall be measured to you again.

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We get what we give. We receive as we give.

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And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? Well, it would be rather ridiculous, wouldn't it?

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They shall not both fall into the ditch. The blind man would have problems leading another blind man.

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The disciple is not above his master, but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.

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And why beholdest thou the molt that is in thy brother's eye? But perceiveth not the beam that is in thine own.

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Clarence, what does that mean? Don't behold them. And why would you behold the molt that's in someone's eye?

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If we do that, we'll never get around to the other people. So, if I look at my own life,

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I cannot condemn someone else. Either how canst thou say to thy brother,

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Brother, let me pull out the molt that is in thine eye, When thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

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Now, I'm nearly blind. But John, I come to you and I say,

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Let me help you, let me pick out that sliver that's in your eye. When I can't see the eye, would you allow me to?

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No. Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye,

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And then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the molt that's in thy brother's eye. For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit.

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That's so true. A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit,

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Neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. There's good and bad fruit in the world.

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For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs,

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Nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man, out of the good treasures of his heart,

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Bringeth forth that which is good. My wife told me years and years ago, years and years ago,

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That when a person becomes very ill, The real person comes out.

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I've never forgotten that. And an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart,

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Bringeth forth that which is evil. So you can look at a very sick person,

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And by their reaction determine what they are. For of the abundance of the heart is mouth speaketh.

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You cannot get around the fact

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That you're speaking from the abundance of your heart.

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The heart here means your mind. And why call ye me

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Lord? Lord, and do not the things which I say. The minister of the church, who is seeking popularity,

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Does not dare mention sin. Why, Greg?

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That's right. Some use the gyrations of psychoanalysis

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To explain away the exceeding sinfulness of a church. It's called a relic of a theological jungle.

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Sin. Sin is not a crime against God, according to many modern preachers.

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They're afraid to say that God hates sin, And that Jehovah is a man of war.

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To be right in God's sight, you cannot compliment the ego. Popularity.

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Pat the pride. Smile upon sin and put cold cream on the cancer of sin.

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You cannot write a prescription on philosophy And have it filled in the pleasures of the world.

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The only place you can go is to the foot of the cross. And I cannot confess your sins,

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I have to confess theirs.

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There God performs an operation, a major surgery. Makes you a new creature in Christ.

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That is the message we have in the Sermon on the Plain. It complements the

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Sermon on the Mount. It is a message that the Lord gave many times in many different places

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And many different groups. And he concludes it with this parable.

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Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my saying, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like.

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He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, And laid the foundation on a rock.

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And when the floods arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, And could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock.

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But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man That without a foundation built a house upon the earth,

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Against which the stream did beat vehemently, And immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.

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The house that was built on a rock, it stood on a rock. The house that was built on the sand, it was absolutely washed away.

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There is a rock upon which he has a foundation that will stand.

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That rock is Christ Jesus. Paul said in 1

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Corinthians 3, 11, For other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid,

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Which is Jesus Christ. Where are you building your foundation?

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Where is your house? It is built on the rock which is

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Christ Jesus, or is it built on sand? I hope you don't feel sorry for the poor rich man who has not heard the gospel.

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Whoever will, may get on the solid rock which is Christ. He was saved without money and without price.

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Come to him in the simple and trusting faith of him. My throat is almost, voice almost gone.

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We're going to have dinner and then go home. Greg, will you dismiss us please, and ask the blessing on our food.