Advent and the Gospel

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If you want to open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Luke, we're actually going to start a little before we did the last two

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Sundays. Let's start in Luke chapter 1, starting in verse 67.

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Luke chapter 1, verse 67. As you get there, this is Zechariah, the father of John the

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Baptist. You'll remember from our series in the Gospel according to Matthew, I tried to consistently and constantly point us back to the fact that the

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Old Testament gives you all the details necessary to know Jesus as Savior and Lord long before He comes.

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We've talked over the last couple of weekends about the timing. It literally tells you when He's coming. It tells you down to His person and His ministry,

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His death and His resurrection. All of that is there. But one of the other things that is emphasized in the

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Old Testament prophets is that the Messiah would have a forerunner.

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Somebody was going to come and prepare the way before Mashiach, before the Lord Himself, Yahweh Himself, came to His own temple.

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That's a big thing, that Yahweh is coming to His own temple. Obviously, as a man, before that took place, you would have a forerunner.

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So this story you're reading here is all about Advent. It's all about the coming of the Messiah into the world. And here we now have the whole story unfolding right now in history, right before the very eyes.

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You're probably so stunned. It's me. It's me. It's my son. And so Zechariah is a priest.

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And now the story starts here with John the Baptist. Again, long -anticipated prophecy. And now the day is here.

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It's fulfilled now. Jesus is now arriving on the scene. But we have the forerunner because it said the forerunner was coming, the

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Mashiach was coming. And then there was going to be salvation. There was going to be purification, forgiveness of sins.

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And then judgment upon the covenant -breaking Jews, which happened in the very generation after Jesus died, rose, and ascended into heaven, exactly as the

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Bible said. But I think leading into the Advent discussion and proclamation of the Gospel, we should listen to Zechariah.

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So it's Luke 1, verse 67. Hear now the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the

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Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant

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David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father

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Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

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And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the

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Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our

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God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

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And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

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In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be registered.

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This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

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And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called

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Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his betrothed, who was with child.

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And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

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And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

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And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold,

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I bring you good news, of great joy that will be for all the people.

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For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Messiah the

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Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger.

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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom

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He is pleased. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. Let's pray together. God, thank

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You for Your Word. There's just no way, God, as creatures that we can unpack in our lifetimes the mysteries and the majesty of You and Your Word.

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But God, I pray that today, Lord, You would communicate, Lord, through the proclamation of Your Word to Your people by Your Spirit in such a way that You would transform us,

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You heal our hearts and our minds, that You, Lord, renew our hope and our strength, and that, Lord, You would set us as Your people into the world with bold and confident evangelism, that we would preach that good news that was promised by You.

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We pray this, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Wow. So Luke, if you didn't know this,

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Luke is a companion, sort of volume set. You have the Gospel according to Luke and you also have the book of Acts.

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It's two volumes by Dr. Luke. And so you can see in his accounting when he's giving you the stories, he says that he carefully examined and interviewed the eyewitnesses.

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So there's actually a lot as you read the Gospel according to Luke where you'll hear, and I mentioned this before, you'll see, like,

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Mary was keeping these things in her heart, or she was thinking this or that. So it's clear that Luke actually got a chance to talk to Mary and ask her, like, what was it like and what did you experience and, like, tell me all about it.

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And so Mary's sort of giving Luke the accounting of, like, what took place when this happened. And so he got to interview the eyewitnesses and tell this entire story.

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But here you have now sort of, like, the heavy hitters of prophecy, the big moments that were supposed to take place on full display.

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This is like God just sort of giving you that, I kept my promise, I kept my promise. Just like I said,

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God is the sovereign. He controls all things. He controls all of human history. And in this moment right before us, if you didn't know the

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Old Testament revelation, you would actually miss quite a bit that's here in Zechariah's prophecy. And it's what we've been talking about the last couple of Sundays.

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That this was not a novelty in history. It didn't come out of nowhere. This was the expectation, as Jesus said to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, it was necessary that this happen.

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Why is it necessary? Because God's the sovereign. Because He declares the end from the beginning.

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Because He's the one who wields all of human history. And so now, this is that big moment of God bringing glory to Himself through the salvation of His people.

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It's here, and in this prophecy, Zechariah is the dad to the forerunner. This is a very big deal.

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But if you look in the prophecy, you see all the marks and indications of God continuing the story and God keeping

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His promises. So it's right there. Just take a look at it again. Luke chapter 1. In verse 68 and 69, what do you see?

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It says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for He has visited and redeemed His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant

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David as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old.

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You're going to see that. It's a consistent theme throughout the New Testament revelation. They are hitching their story, their story of what took place in their midst in history.

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They breathed this in. They touched the ground. They saw the blood spilled. They're attaching that story of redemptive history that really happened, and they experienced it to God's revelation continuing on into their lives.

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And that's what Zechariah is saying. This Son, this forerunner, He's coming.

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The Lord's coming to save His people. And what's the text say? It says, what's the reasoning? And this gets to our proclamation of the gospel.

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It is hope for all peoples. That was the gospel of the kingdom that the nations would be drawn to God.

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And for what? It says, verse 77, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our

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God. That's everything. Like, wipe everything else away.

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All the theological debates and all the difficulties and all the challenges of life and all the death and depravity and decay and all the evil going on around there.

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This is it. That is the story. That's everything. I don't care what's going on in your life.

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The difficulties, the attacks, the persecution, the loss, the death, the disease, all that stuff.

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Look, this is everything. It's everything. What's the story all about?

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It is about a merciful God who loves sinners, He keeps His promises, and salvation is everything.

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It's the forgiveness of your sins. Now, take that in for a moment. And if you don't feel the joyful weight of that, then you need to actually get yourself on your knees and just consider and meditate upon the holiness of God, the goodness of God, our sinful depravity, our rebellion.

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Meditate on it because if you hear the message of God's salvation and forgiveness and His tender mercy and it doesn't move you to worship, you need to spend time examining your own heart.

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Do you even understand the Gospel? Or have you lost your grip on what matters the very most?

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The forgiveness of our sins. God is merciful. He kept His promises. This is about salvation.

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We get sidetracked, don't we, as Christians? A lot on a lot of side issues that may be important.

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Some of them just, let's be honest, aren't really important. And we fight a lot of battles over things that aren't really that important.

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Not to say that we shouldn't as Christians fight for truth. And sometimes we've got to get into those skirmishes. Yes and amen.

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But in reality, you know what? If we don't have joy over our salvation, if we're not rejoicing over our salvation, if we don't feel like worship towards God because we're forgiven of our sins, then we're missing really the whole entire point.

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We're missing everything because this was the central theme of the story. It is about salvation. It is about forgiveness.

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And I guarantee, and you watch, we're going to be reminding each other of this in heaven 20 billion years from now.

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I guarantee you, in heaven, that's going to be the central thing. Like, I'm here! I'm forgiven!

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I'm here! And all of the stuff of the conflict and the difficulty and the discouragement and the heartache, all that's not even going to be a thought.

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All you and I are going to be rejoicing over for all eternity is that He loved me. He's merciful to me.

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He forgave me. He forgave me. Why me? You see, that's the central thing. And that's what

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Zechariah is extolling about God. Look what God did. He kept His promises. And it's about forgiveness and salvation.

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But there's more. And if you didn't know that in Revelation, you wouldn't see the significance of what

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Zechariah is saying. Not just the forgiveness of sins. Not just the mercy of God.

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Not just the forerunner and John the Baptist. And the Lord is finally here. God's kept

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His promises just like He said He was going to do. But if you look at the end here of His prophecy, look what it says.

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Chapter 1, verse 79. To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace.

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It's also mentioned in Matthew's Gospel. This is kind of a big deal. That's from Isaiah chapter 9.

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What else is in Isaiah chapter 9? Wonderful Counselor. The mighty

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God. The Son who is given to us. This Child. He's got this throne.

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He's going to be on the throne of David. He's going to establish justice and righteousness. It's His forevermore.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. It's all about the salvation that the Messiah is going to bring to the world. But that specific promise.

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He's coming to those in darkness. He's coming to those in darkness. He's coming to those who are dead.

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He's bringing light and He's bringing peace. Peace where? Listen.

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First. Where does He bring peace first? What do you think?

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Where does Mashiach, where does Messiah bring peace first? Between who?

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Between God and us. Like that's that peace. Like we always wonder how is the Prince of Peace going to establish peace and justice and righteousness all over the world?

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Well first by establishing it between Him and sinners. He brings peace between us and Himself. He reconciles us and as that peace happens between us and God and that reconciliation happens between us and God then it starts happening with those around us.

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It's that message of peace first between sinners and a Holy God. That's the glory of the

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Gospel. That is truly the glory of the Gospel. And so as you look at Zechariah's prophecy you can see what was the anticipation.

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This is what was promised. And I want us to make sure that as a church body we're rooted down, strong roots down into this fundamental aspect of our faith.

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And that is that this is the revelation of a sovereign God who is working out His counsel and His will to bring about the salvation of His people to His glory.

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That's where history is going and it's rooted in His promises. Look, Zechariah said it. Did you see it?

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He said it in chapter 1 verse 70, as He spoke by the mouth of His prophets from of old.

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It happens again. Go to 1 Corinthians. See how they preached the Gospel. See how they proclaimed it.

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Look at the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

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I want you to see this consistent theme. It's not based upon their own personal experience.

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It's not based upon their feelings or their emotions. This is rooted in God's self -attesting, authoritative word.

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He spoke and it is absolute. It is going to happen. Why is it important?

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Because guess what else comes with the Gospel Proclamation? Here it is. Ready? Listen. Listen. The coming judgment.

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The coming resurrection. There is a day of judgment and the Apostles, they point to that, that you need to repent and believe in a hurry because Jesus rose again as promised.

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He's on His throne and there is going to be a day of judgment and you will face

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Him. That is coming and that is as sure as every other promise He has fulfilled.

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He has spoken. It is going to happen and so is that day of judgment. It's coming. It's coming for all of us.

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Where are you at? Do you know Him? In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 look how

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Paul says it in verse 1. He says, Now I would remind you brothers of the

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Gospel I preached to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word

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I preached to you unless you believed in vain. Here it is. For I delivered to you as of first importance what

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I also received. Remember I told you as we started service today creed and confession in the early church.

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It's in the text itself. They pass down the faith via creed and confession. For I delivered to you as of first importance what

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I also received that here it is, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that He appeared to, and that's of course

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Peter, then to the twelve, then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

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Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born,

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He appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

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But by the grace of God I am what I am, and in His grace toward me, and His grace toward me was not in vain.

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On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was

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I or they. So we preach, and so you believed. So you can see the apostle

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Paul here is talking about a real event in history. God fulfilled His promises. Notice that he says there, in accordance with the scriptures, in accordance with the scriptures, here's what

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Jesus did. Jesus died. Jesus rose again. He appeared to all these people, and think about what

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He's doing here. In the context of the first century, He's actually saying Jesus physically appeared to all these people, and at one time,

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He appears to more than five hundred eyewitnesses. He's like, some of them have died now, but some of them are still alive.

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What's that offering in His generation? If you don't believe me, go ask them.

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If you don't believe me, go ask them. And this happened in accordance with the scriptures. So, you see

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Zechariah's prophecy, just like God said to His prophets, that's why this is happening. In the apostle

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Paul, as he gives you the gospel itself, he says in accordance with the scriptures. In Luke 24,

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I've taken you there enough now, you probably know by heart, when Jesus is on the road to Emmaus, after the resurrection itself,

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He calls them foolish, slow of heart to believe, and He says, was it not necessary that the

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Messiah suffer? Necessary meaning what? It absolutely had to happen. It was guaranteed to happen.

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Why? Because God said it was going to happen. Then in Romans chapter 1, go there, so you can see how the apostles anchored their proclamation of the gospel in God's own revelation.

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It was not anchored. It was not anchored in their own private experience. It was not anchored in their own subjective experience, or their feelings, or their emotions.

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I'm emphasizing this for a reason. Because when we preach the gospel, it has to be rooted in God's word.

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Standing on His word. Standing on His definitions. How He tells us the story. Not in our own testimonies and stories.

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Those are amazing glory to God for them. But the gospel comes as this objective revelation.

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It's an objective revelation. God spoke. Here's what He says. We give that to the world.

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That's how Jesus did it. That's how the apostles did it. That's how we must do it. That's how God changes the world.

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The gospel is the what? Power. The gospel is the power of God for salvation.

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It's what God uses to bring people to life. And as Paul preaches it, here's another example. In Romans chapter 1, this is his systematic explanation of the good news.

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He says, Paul, a slave of Messiah Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

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The good news of God. Which He promised, there it is again, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the

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Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the

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Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead,

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Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about, listen, the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know something about that section there, by the way? That's a seven verse long sentence.

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Did you notice it? That's seven verses and the period is at the end of the seventh. So I take that to mean that Paul is extremely passionate about this and he is just like, he's so excited and passionate he's just throwing like this and that and this and this and then, okay, sentence one, okay, and next he's passionate because this is a very big deal that God has acted in history to bring salvation and what's the summary of the story?

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Here's the point. What's the summary of the story? God promised it and it was for the nations.

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God came as King and He's drawing the nations to Himself. Peace on earth begins with peace with God and God kept those promises so you know

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He'll keep the next one. All the nations are coming to worship Yahweh. Psalm chapter 22.

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This is good news for the nations. But here we go. Two weeks. We did one.

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Can you defend your claim that Jesus is the promised

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Mashiach? We didn't do a totally comprehensive view of how we know that He's the

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Messiah but I gave you some foundations. Is Jesus the promised Messiah? I gave you most definitely

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He is. M -O -S -T. Messianic prophecies are filled in Jesus. The original life of Jesus.

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The symbols fulfilled in Christ and the transformation of the world that was promised in Mashiach.

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Then last week I gave you a defense of some common objections to Jesus as the Messiah and now that we've laid those down the challenge

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I have to you is this. Ready? You can defend basically how we know Jesus is the

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Messiah but can you preach the good news to the people you love around you in a way that is consistent and in a way that is faithful?

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So I'll give you an example and I've told you this story many times before. I was in a Starbucks one time and I think

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I was studying and I see this guy come in and he looked like he was high on something. He claimed it was

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Jesus but I don't know. And he was just sort of floating around the Starbucks, you know, his eyes sort of bent like this and I'm watching him because he's kind of strange the guy walking in like that and he's sort of like floating around tables to see who to talk to and he walks up to this random table of guys sitting there and he just goes hey man,

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Jesus loves you bro and they were like oh right on. And you know it was uncomfortable for me and I love

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Jesus and I'm over that. He's like hey man, you know he like loves you man. He like wants to wrap his arms around you bro and just love you man.

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He loves you just like you are and he just loves you bro and so for like ten minutes he just sits and he love bombs these guys about Jesus who just loves them so much and he just wants to love on them and he just wants to smooch on them and whatever.

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Like it was really awkward and just sort of gushy and I thought to myself man, like maybe you know fully good intentions in his own heart but that is not how

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Paul preaches the gospel at the Areopagus. It is not how the gospel goes into the world.

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I mean listen I'll tell you what, if the apostles walked into like the average city that they got thrown out of or took beatings.

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If they walked in and were like hey man, Jesus loves you guys so much. Just the way you are. He just loves you so much.

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There wouldn't have been any persecutions or beatings or whippings or anything else. Right? Because they didn't preach it like that.

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We preach it like that because we want to placate to the rebel. That's not how they preach the gospel and maybe we are ineffective in our witness in this generation because we're actually not preaching the same gospel that was empowered by the spirit of God in the first century or in any moment of church history where the world was changed.

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I mean you think about the great awakenings. Those moments that took place. Did you ever like listen to some of the sermons that were preached during the great awakenings?

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You ever read sinners in the hands of an angry God? The kind of sermons, gospel centered sermons that changed entire towns and brought so much light to this nation.

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It wasn't a gospel like hey Jesus loves you bro. Won't you give him a shot? Just give Jesus a chance.

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That's all he wants is a chance. Would you give him a try? That's not how the gospel is preached.

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How is it preached? Well we can't do in one sermon a complete overview but I want to give you somewhat of a bird's eye view or sort of sit there in the moment to say let me listen to Peter preach the gospel.

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Let me listen to Paul preach the gospel. Let me hear Jesus talk about the gospel. So just go to the book of Acts and let's look at this moment where on time and as planned.

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I can't go into that all detail today but in Acts chapter 10 when the apostle

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Peter now brings the gospel to the Gentiles. Now I actually believe and I think I can defend that this moment is actually a fulfillment of what takes place in Daniel chapter 9.

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I can't go into all that right now but I believe that Daniel tells you when to start the clock when the

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Messiah is coming. Hundreds of years before Jesus. It lands on Jesus and then Jesus has this three and a half year ministry and then for three and a half more years they go specifically to the

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Jews and now the time is up. It's on to the Gentiles now. I believe that's what's happening here.

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Again that's a sermon for a different day unless you want to be here till 10. But in Acts chapter 10

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I want us to hear Peter. Let's go to the scene for a minute. Let's let it play out in front of us. In Acts chapter 10 starting in verse 34.

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This is where Peter the apostle Peter brings the gospel to the Gentiles. Here's how he did it. So Peter opened his mouth and said, truly

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I understand that God shows no partiality. But in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

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As for the word that he sent to Israel preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ he is

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Lord of all. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed.

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How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.

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He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him.

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And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

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They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

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A physical resurrection there. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the appointed he is the one appointed by God here it is, to be judge of the living and the dead.

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To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

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What do you have there? And this is so much what I love about the gospel is that it's true and it's so much that it's conceptual and it's not a script.

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Did you catch that? Like a lot of people are like, just give me the book that gives me the script on how to preach the gospel.

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And that's going to be difficult. It's going to be difficult because it's more conceptual. God is holy. We are sinners.

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This is who Jesus is. This is what he accomplished. The call is forgiveness of sins. Repent and believe the gospel. Like it's conceptual so you'll see that Peter will preach it here and he'll add these elements and then

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Paul will preach it and he has the same core elements but he says different things but what is consistent is this.

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Ready? Sin, repentance, faith, forgiveness. Sin, repentance, faith, forgiveness.

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That's the consistent story. And did you notice this is a key issue that warning about coming judgments you see that that message is what needs to come to people to understand their need for Jesus Christ.

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There is condemnation that we're under. There is a coming judgment.

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And so when the apostles preached the gospel they would always warn people about God's holiness, your sin and the coming judgments.

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So I want you to see it again in the apostle Paul. So you're in Acts go to Acts 17 now.

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This is Acts 17. This is the apostle Paul preaching at the Areopagus.

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Now this is actually a very big moment. For those of you guys that are history buffs this is a famous place in human history in the history of philosophy and debate.

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The Areopagus Mars Hill is a famous famous spot. You can go to this place today.

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You can touch the ground. You can breathe the air. Okay? This is a big moment. It's an historic moment. I actually do agree with some scholars that I think the apostle

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Paul was actually being brought up here on preliminary charges. They want to investigate because they're challenged by what he's saying and they want to see how they can charge him and so that's why he's there.

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And so many of you are aware of the scene of him seeing the idols and all the false gods and the worship of false gods but in Acts 17 verse 22 here's where the story starts for Paul.

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So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said Men of Athens I perceive that in every way you are very religious for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship

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I found also an altar with the inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown this

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I proclaim to you the God who made the world and everything in it being

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Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all of the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places.

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What's he saying there? This is the sovereign God. He's the creator of all things. He's the creator. You are the creature.

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He doesn't need you. He's not controlled by you. He don't need your temples. He don't need your stuff.

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Nothing. He is sovereign. He's determined everything and he made everybody from one man and then he says verse 27 that they should seek

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God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him yet he is actually not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said for we are indeed his offspring.

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What's he doing there if he didn't know this? He's actually quoting Eratos of Cilicia and Epimenides of Crete famous pagan poets and philosophers of the day and he's basically doing an internal critique of their system.

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He's stepping into their system. He's saying even your own pagan favorites can't get away from this truth.

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This is who God is. He says being then God's offspring we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone.

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An image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked.

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Are you ready? Listen how the gospel comes in by Paul. Very different than you hear typically in the evangelical west.

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Listen to the words. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

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Boy that's so different. Isn't it? Isn't it different? Isn't it different from those charlatans that say give

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Jesus a chance. Would you give him a 60 day trial? Would you just let him into your old little heart to have a little romance with Jesus between you and him?

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Right? Like we preach it like that like we love bomb people and like he loves you.

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He loves you bro. He just wants to wrap you in his arms and just swallow you like a little baby. Right? Like that's how we say it.

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And here Paul is, like I said I believe and whether it's true or not I think you can defend it.

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He's at Mars Hill at the Areopagus. This is the central hub in history of philosophical debate and discussion.

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I think he's being brought up on preliminary charges and he does an in your face moment.

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He's not rude. He's not abusive. Actually he's like I perceive you're very religious.

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And look over here you've got an altar over here to the unknown God in case you missed one.

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And you know what? This is the one that I'm talking to you about and here's the thing. He doesn't need you. He's different than you.

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He's not like all your other gods. There are mommy gods and daddy gods and baby gods. Gods that need your help to build them like an altar.

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Like it needs your help to like build like you know something out of stone so you bow down and worship. I think idolatry is stupid.

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Is it not dumb? Can we be frank? Is it not dumb? Doesn't God say it's dumb in Isaiah? He says like I'm going to give you the

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Jeff Durbin like sort of translation here. Basically God says about idols he's like you're idols. They can't see.

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They can't hear. They can't talk. He says in order to get your gods you have to pay someone to build a god out of something that I made.

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He said and then you make it. You pay for it. The guy builds it out of what I made. You put it up on something and it doesn't move.

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It just sits there. And God's like you worship that over me?

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He's like have your gods tell you the future. Try it. Have your gods tell you the future. They can't.

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They don't talk. They can't see. They're deaf, dumb, and blind. These are stupid idols. They don't control history.

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He says how about this? Have your gods tell you the past and why it happened that way?

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Only God controls history. And so what Paul is doing here is coming to pagans and he's saying this god is transcendent and yet he is imminent.

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He's transcendent and yet he is covenantally active. He is here.

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He's not far from any one of us. And he says and you even know the god that I'm talking about.

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You know. You built an altar to him although he doesn't even need it. He says in the past God overlooked your gentile ignorance.

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God overlooked all this in the past but now God commands men everywhere to repent.

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Where's that in our message today? We talk about the proclamation of the gospel. I hope

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I was faithful to you as a church body and I gave you some solid stuff to stand on but when we talk about the proclamation of the gospel today it needs to come.

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God promised this and you know what? God commands men and women everywhere to repent. You need to repent and believe the gospel.

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We leave that part out of our story constantly. You have to turn from your sin to the living

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God and you have to be reconciled to God to have peace with God. He says this. He commands people everywhere to repent because here it is again.

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He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

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Where did we ever get the idea? And here's the deal. We diminish the power of the gospel. We diminish the power of the gospel and people don't feel the weight of it because we give people the idea in our day that Jesus is just this just sort of fun loving you know, loves you as you are.

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Jesus isn't about judgment, you know. He would never judge anybody. It says here that God the

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Father appointed Jesus to do what? To judge.

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You will, listen, you and I are going to face Jesus as Savior, Lord, lover of our soul or judge that is filled with so much justice and wrath you will not be able to contain it.

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You're going to face Jesus in one of two ways. And let me tell you right now, for kids who are talking in here right now, laughing and playing when

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I'm talking about the coming judgment, you are missing the point. What you need to hear right now is this story of your sin before a holy

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God and your need to be reconciled to God to have peace with God. I'm talking about coming judgment and righteousness.

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Don't miss this. This is not play time. This is not a joke. Everyone understand?

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Yes? This is the judgment of God and I just told you, you're going to face Jesus. Maybe it's tonight.

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You're going to face Jesus as Savior or judge. You're going to leave this place and maybe it's tonight.

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Down on Main Street, I'm not trying to just cause fear. I'm telling you the truth. Down on Main Street a couple of weeks ago, you go down Stapley, down on Main Street, right there in that corner there was a family going home or going out to eat and a car going a hundred miles per hour blew through and killed that whole family.

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So we love to pretend like we live in a world where there's not going to be any consequences for us or I've got the rest of my life maybe 60, 70 more years.

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The truth is you don't know that you have the next five minutes or the next hour or the next two hours and so take this message seriously.

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Do you see the weight of it? That's how we should preach the gospel today. That's the weight of it. You preach the gospel in such a way as look,

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Jesus is a judge. He's raised from the dead. You need peace with God. He commands you to repent and believe in a hurry.

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There's going to be a coming judgment. Do you know Him? Do you know Christ? That's how the gospel needs to come into the world with the command to repent and to believe.

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What is the consistent theme by Paul and Peter? Sin, repentance, faith, and forgiveness.

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Now what was emphasized? What's emphasized? So as Christians you go, okay, like I want to be able to share the good news with somebody.

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Well, we've given you the foundation. Here's the story laid down by all the prophets. Here's what Jesus was to do.

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But what do I emphasize? Because it's not a script. Jesus and Paul and Peter aren't working off a script.

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They're telling the story. So what is it? What's emphasized? Well, again, you have the message of sin, repentance, faith, and forgiveness.

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You tell the story of what Jesus did. But I want us to look at Jesus. In John chapter 3. In John chapter 3.

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Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. In John chapter 3. This is probably the section of scripture.

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Have you seen that? There's like a video going around of a guy. It's like YouTube shorts or something. It's a guy that goes around and he has like a $20 bill and he walks up to random strangers and he says, give me any

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Bible verse. Have you seen that? And like, if anybody can quote a Bible verse, then he gives them $20. I hope that guy can find one of us.

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Right? Because you'd have like kids at Apologia, but like, you want it in Hebrew or Greek, right? You know, something like that.

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So, I don't know where the guy lives, but I've seen these. They just keep coming up a lot. But, you know, when most people are asked by this guy, at least the ones

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I've seen, when they say, like, give me a Bible verse, the people will sort of stop and go, oh, really? Is this for real? $20? They'll go, uh, what do you think they're quoting most?

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That's like it. That's like, everyone knows that, right? Or, and this is cold -blooded and it's a little unfair.

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I've seen a few of these where it's like, hey, $20 for a Bible verse, and I've seen a few guys go, uh, I got this.

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Jesus wet. That's unfair. You gotta admit, that's not fair, right?

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Like, we need more than, it technically is a Bible verse, but that's cheating, right? In John's chapter 3, the famous section, here's how

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Jesus sums up the story, in many ways. In John 3, 16, it says, for God so loved the world, that He gave

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His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

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That's it. In all your darkest days, in all your moments of struggle, in all the moments where you feel like everything's falling apart, and your marriage isn't where it's supposed to be, and your relationship with your kids isn't where it's supposed to be, and you don't have what you want, you're not doing what you want, all the difficulty and disease and decay and everything else, eternal life.

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He loves me. I believe in Him. I have eternal life. I've got God forever.

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That's everything. Verse 17, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

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Here it is. How does Jesus emphasize the truth and the good news? Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only

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Son of God, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

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For everyone who does wicked things hates the light, and does not come into the light, lest his works should be exposed.

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But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

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So what was emphasized by Jesus? What's emphasized by Jesus here is sin, evil, condemnation, and forgiveness in life.

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Eternal life in Jesus. That's how Jesus preached. So Jesus is communicating to the world who

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He is. He's demonstrating He's the promised Messiah, and when He talks about the good news about Himself, He says it's about eternal life.

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It's about the love of God, and if you don't have Christ, you stand condemned.

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Why? Because you're a sinner, and you need peace with God. That's how Jesus communicated it.

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And I'll just say this quickly. In Paul, as he explains the Gospel, in Romans chapters 1 through 3, what's he emphasize?

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Do you know your Bibles? In Romans chapters 1 through 3, what is the full -throated emphasis through those three chapters?

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What is it? Sin of all men. Universal sin. Jew and Gentile.

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Nobody's guiltless. Everybody's condemned. His entire point in those three chapters is basically to nail all of us.

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Like, chapter 1, everyone knows God. They suppress Him through the God of unrighteousness. He says you're enemies. You're hostile to God, and people do these evil things, and they know that God's going to judge them for it, but they give hearty approval.

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I'm summarizing here, but he says everybody knows God, but they don't want Him, and so they go off into all these sinful things, and then

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He goes to the Jewish person, and He says, you've got the law of God, but you don't do what it says, and you condemn others, so you're a hypocrite because you say don't steal, but you do.

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You say don't commit adultery, but you do. And so you're not safe because you're carrying a

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Bible, and then He goes into Romans 3 basically saying, and here's the universal indictment.

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And this is what's beautiful about your gospel and mine, God's gospel, are you ready? Is that it's the same truth for every single person you will cross paths with.

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It's the same truth. So you go out to Mill Avenue, you go out to ASU, you go to the abortion mill, you sit down in a coffee shop, you go to a restaurant, you go to Christmas dinner with family, and guess what?

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All those truths there in Romans 1 -3, the impact of them should nail every single person we talk to.

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Because what's the issue? There's an unrighteous, Paul says. No, not one. There's none who seeks for God.

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There's none who does good. All have turned aside. They've all become useless.

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Their throats are open graves. The poison of asp is under their lips. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

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That, ready? Levels it. It levels it. Because it shows all of us our sin before God and that there's going to be a coming judgment and all of us are guilty and there's no way out of it.

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And you and I aren't going to be able to prop up a righteousness in ourselves which is what man -made religion does.

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It tries to establish its own righteousness rather than submitting to God's righteousness provided through Jesus Christ.

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It says, yeah, I know I'm a wreck, I know I'm a sinner, but I'll fix myself. I'll polish myself up. There's no way.

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There's none righteous. It won't take place. All your righteousness is are as filthy rags. That's what

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God says to Israel in the Old Testament. All these things you think you're doing that are good, they're like filthy rags to me. You've got nothing.

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What we need is a foreign righteousness. A righteousness that is not our own. One that was provided on that tree, on that cross by another who actually was blameless.

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Who actually was righteous without sin. Who puts himself in that place, in my place and in yours.

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If you love him, if you know him, if you trust him. You see, that's the summary of it all. But notice that Peter, Paul, Jesus, all touch the very same things with their messages.

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What do they say? You're in sin. You're under condemnation. God's wrath is coming. You're going to be judged.

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Your only hope in life and in death is in Jesus Christ. Here's who Jesus is. He's the Son of God. He's God in the flesh.

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He's our only hope. He lived perfectly. He is the Holy One. He's the Righteous One. He died for sinners.

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He rose again from the dead. He is ascended. He is seated. He's coming to judge the living and the dead.

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There will be a day of judgment. Repent and believe in a hurry. There's a couple ways it comes out.

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Do you see? There's all the concepts, the truths. Now, one of the things that is emphasized the most in every single moment that the gospel is proclaimed to anybody, whether it is

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Jew or Gentile, is this. It is faith. It is faith and only faith that joins us to Jesus Christ.

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Can I show you something real fast? I didn't think I was going to do this. Can I show you something real fast? Go back to Acts.

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Go back to Acts chapter 10. Check this out.

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So I read to you how Peter preached the gospel first to the Gentiles, right? Look how powerful this is in terms of this free gift.

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In Acts chapter 10, after Peter preaches the gospel about Jesus, tells him what

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Jesus did, it says in verse 43, there it is again, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

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Now, the first thing is all man -made religions so desperately want to resist that kind of free grace, right?

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I mean, you are a rebel against God. You are so guilty, and you have nothing to offer, and this message comes to a random group of people, your sinners, and it says, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

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Everyone! Murderers, liars, adulterers, rapists, thieves, you name it.

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I mean, this could be anybody. Like, it's not selective. There's no partiality here.

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It's just like, here's a group of sinners, you're all guilty, we're all condemned, and everyone who believes in this one will receive forgiveness of sins.

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Everyone who believes in him. Now, here's what's amazing about that kind of free, amazing grace.

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It says this, while Peter was still saying these things, the

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Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word, and the believers from among the circumcised, that's the

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Jews, who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the

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Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared,

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Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

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And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. So what took place?

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Here you go, ready? And we're doing the catechism about this, right? Effectual calling. Here's Peter preaching the gospel to Gentiles, and it says this, while he's still talking, the

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Spirit of God falls on these people, they're believing in Christ now, they've received the

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Spirit of God, he's indwelling them, and now everyone's freaking out going, oh my goodness, they're believing in Jesus too, they've received the

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Holy Spirit, and then Peter's response is we should probably get them baptized now, because they've received the

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Holy Spirit of God too, they're saved. So I wanted to say this, they believed in Christ.

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What did Peter promise them if they believed in Christ? What did he promise? Forgiveness of sins. And it says that they received the

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Holy Spirit of God before, ready? They did any religious ritual.

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They had the Holy Spirit of God before they got into that water.

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Take that Roman Catholicism, take that every man -made religion that says alright now, yeah,

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Jesus did this stuff now, but hold on, hold on, you only get to really have him.

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You only get to get in with him and become fully righteous if you take these seven steps of righteousness.

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Right? Like you gotta believe in Jesus, we're not saying that doesn't have to happen, but you also have to do this, and you have to do this, and you have to do this, and if you stop doing this, you go back to step three, you start doing this again, you gotta move your way along to become righteous enough.

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That's not what happens here. He preaches the gospel, says you believe in Jesus, you'll receive the forgiveness of your sins, and while he's preaching, they're like, oh my goodness,

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I believe in Jesus to fill the Spirit of God. He's like, yeah, we should probably get baptized now because you guys are clearly saved. And what did they do?

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What did they do? What? It's all passive. The Spirit of God moved on them, but, here it is, the

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Spirit of God only moved on these people through a faithful proclamation of the gospel.

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We have to talk about our sin, we have to talk about coming judgment, we have to talk about Christ and God's holiness, and we have to call people to repentance and faith.

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And I'm gonna give you one more word to stand on. I can't think of anywhere better to land as we end this discussion about the proclamation of the gospel, the call to repent and believe, than Mark chapter 1.

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Go here. I want you to see it in the words of Jesus. Here in Mark chapter 1,

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I'll let you get there. We'll end tonight on this. In Mark chapter 1 verse 14, this is

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Mark very much condensing the story of Jesus. Matthew gives you a bunch more details,

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Mark is like giving you the snapshots. Mark's gospel is like bullet point gospel, right? Let me give you a fast, quick story.

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Here's what happened. Not all the details, but in Mark 1 .14, it's right after Jesus has victory over Satan in the wilderness.

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Again, go to Matthew chapters 3 through 4 to get more on that. But in 1 .14

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it says, now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, the gospel of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

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Repent and believe in the gospel. That's as simple as it came to the world.

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Jesus comes into the world. Kingdom of God has arrived in history. Repent and believe the good news.

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Repent and believe. Turn from your sins and believe. Turn from your sin and believe.

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That's a simple message, isn't it? Turn from your sin and believe in Christ. There's forgiveness of sins only in Christ. We just need to be dropping little gospel seeds all around us, our communities.

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Just throwing out, hey, repent and believe. Nice to meet you. Hey, repent and believe. Hey, there's a coming judgment. Repent and believe.

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Repent and believe. You've got to throw out those seeds because you may think, I don't know if I was very effective tonight, but the truth is that seed lands, and sometimes it lands in ground,

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Jesus says, that's been prepared for it. Sometimes you throw seeds out, Jesus says, it's on hard ground.

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It has no root, it gets burned up, sometimes it gets snatched away, but sometimes that seed lands on good ground.

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Good ground is ground that's been prepared to receive it. Who does the preparing? God does it. And so there's times

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I can tell you story after story, and some of you guys have stories of your own where like you were in a conversation with somebody, you're like, there's no way this person's ever coming to Jesus, right?

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Like hard -hearted, rebellious, nasty, maybe throwing stuff at you, spitting at you.

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That's happened to me. I had a, you know the famous story, the girl like spits in my face and throws tracks at me.

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Like she dedicates her life to like destroying me. She's literally said that, and a year later at midnight,

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God brought her to my house while we're doing an all -night prayer and Bible study, we're a little weird, and she shows up randomly at my house with a friend who just met her at a coffee shop and starts bawling her eyes out, and I'm like, what's wrong with her?

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He's like, I just met her, I don't know. I'm like, alright. And so, you know the story, it's amazing! She's sitting in the corner of my room,

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Candy was there, she knows the story, she's sitting in the corner of our house, we're all just chatting away, and she asked me, do you remember me?

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I said, no, I'm sorry, I don't. And she said, I was, a year ago you were at the Mormon temple in Mesa, and I spit in your face and I threw your tracks at you.

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And I was like, eh, not ringing a bell. No. But she said, like she went home that night, and she dedicated her life to studying and learning so she can come back and destroy us.

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And God used those seeds that we planted in her life to open her eyes to the truth and to save her soul.

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But if you could have picked it in a lineup, if you could have said like, okay, I got a lineup, like who's coming to Jesus? You'd have been like, it definitely ain't her.

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Right? Like you got spit hanging from my nose, like, it's not that one, right? But the thing is, is

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God is sovereign. He saves, and you know what's amazing? There's nothing special about me or us. It's just being there and being faithful.

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You just preach the truth. Give the truth. Repent and believe. Repent and believe. This is who Jesus is. Repent and believe.

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There's forgiveness of sins only in Jesus. Repent and believe. And God uses that by His Spirit to raise people to life.

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So go tell Him. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you'd bless us as a church as you proclaim your truth, your gospel, and your excellencies to the world.

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Please give us boldness and humility as we do for your glory and kingdom in Jesus' name.