October 9, 2022 – Sunday Service Live Stream

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our

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God. Please stand. The Lord reigns.

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He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed. He has girded himself with strength.

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Surely the world is established so that it cannot be moved. Your throne,

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O God, is established from of old. You are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up,

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O Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.

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The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.

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Your testimonies, O God, are very sure. Holiness adorns your house,

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O Lord, forever. What a glorious God we serve.

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Let us come now and worship him. Please pray with me. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who can plumb the depths of your character and attributes, we say and cry out, you are our

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God. What a great God you are. And O Lord, I pray that your presence would be known by these, your people, that our worship would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight through the perfection of our mediator, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And O Lord, I pray that your people will be renewed and transformed and comforted and encouraged today as they go out and that this would be all well -pleasing in your sight.

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We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin.

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Let us join together in the corporate confession of sin. Lord Jesus, I have sinned times without number and been guilty of pride and unbelief.

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May I be glad to seek you in my daily life. My sins and shortcomings present me with a list of accusations, but I thank you that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ.

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Deliver me from every evil habit, every interest of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of the light.

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of your grace in me, everything that prevents me from taking delight in you, amen.

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Please stand. He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

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For if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Oh, people of God, lay down your sin, turn from it today. You have a savior who delivers you from all of your sin.

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Amen? Amen. Amen. Please take up the hymnal now and turn to number 457.

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Come thou fount of every blessing, every child, every creaky, cracky singer, sing with all of your heart.

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Number 457, and you're singing with zeal,

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Psalm 140, if necessary. Maybe by the end, competency will catch up with our zeal.

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Psalm 140, this is gonna play for us one time. Please turn to your

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Bibles, and I'm not sure the reader is. David, it's you. Jeremiah chapter 34.

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Jeremiah 34. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army, with all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying, thus says the

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Lord God of Israel, go and speak to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and say to him, thus says the

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Lord, behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.

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You will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be captured and delivered into his hand, and you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.

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Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah, king of Judah, thus says the Lord concerning you, you will not die by the sword, you will die in peace, and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you, and they will lament for you, alas,

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Lord, for I have spoken the word, declares the Lord. Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem, when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the remaining cities of Judah, that is,

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Lachish and Ezekiah, for they alone remained as fortified cities among the cities of Judah.

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The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them, that each man should set free his male servant, and each man his female servant, a

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Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, so that no one should keep them, a Jew, his brother, in bondage. And all the officials and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that each man should set free his male servant, and each man his female servant, so that no one should keep them any longer in bondage.

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They obeyed and set them free. But afterwards they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection for male servants and for female servants.

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Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I made a covenant with your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying,

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At the end of seven years, each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to you and has served you six years.

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You shall send him out free from you. But your forefathers did not obey me or incline their ear to me.

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Although recently you had turned and done what is right in my sight, each man proclaiming release to his neighbor, and you had made a covenant before me in the house, which is called by my name.

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Yet you turned and profaned my name, and each man took back his male servant, each man his female servant, whom you had set free according to their desire.

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And you brought them into subjection to be your male servants and female servants. Therefore, thus says the Lord, you have not obeyed me in proclaiming release each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor.

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Behold, I am proclaiming release to you, declares the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine.

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And I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant, which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts, the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf.

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I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

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Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his officials, I will give into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, which has gone away from you.

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Behold, I am going to command, declares the Lord. I will bring them back to the city, and they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire.

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I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant. Let us confess our faith with the joyful singing of the

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Apostles' Creed. We praise thee,

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Jesus. If needed, and turn to 460.

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Amazing grace. 460. Preparations for the prayers of the people.

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Let's pray together with one voice.

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Oh God, from whom come counsel and all just words.

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Give to us your service, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ, our

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Savior, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.

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For the church of Jesus Christ, that it may be filled with truth and love and be found without fault at the day of your coming, we pray to you, oh

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Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Lord, God, let us gather together on your

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Lord's day. I pray that we would be filled with truth and love, as we know these are connected, and we know that they come from you.

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Father, I pray that we would be a city on a hill. Lord, God, that we would shine throughout this community, and that they would ask what is different about those people, why they love each other, and why they seek after God.

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This question went great. Amen. For all ministers, missionaries, and the mission of the church, that in faithful witness the gospel may be preached, we pray to you, oh

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Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Thank disciples, especially on this

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Lord's day, as they lead their respective congregations in worship. We pray, Father, that you would be with all of them, strengthen them, have patience to bear with their congregations.

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We pray, sincerely, Father, for our own pastors, for Pastor Brandio and Pastor Carly.

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I pray that you would continue to bless them, and that you would, they serve us.

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We pray that you would be with, he's about to open the word to us in a moment.

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We pray that you'd give them wisdom, speak your truth and only your truth. We pray,

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Father, for the mission of the church, that in all things we will be seeking to advance your kingdom and to glorify your name.

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For those in positions of public trust, that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of every person, we pray to you,

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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. For the poor, the persecuted, the sick and all who suffer, for refugees, prisoners and all who are in danger, that they may be relieved and protected, we pray to you,

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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Pray for this congregation, for those who are present and for those who are absent, that they may be delivered from hardness of heart and show forth your glory in all that we do.

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In this, we pray to you, O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers.

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Dear Heavenly Father, lift up ascension this morning. I pray that in all that we do this morning, all our songs, our prayers, as we sit under your preaching of your word, that all that we do would be saturated with the name and the work of Christ, that what we do would be pleasing in your sight, pleasing to your ears, that it would be a pleasant aroma around your throne.

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We pray, Lord God, that those who may not be present with us that you be with them as they are sick or traveling or unable to make it.

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We thank you, Lord, for technology still that enables those who are not present to sing our songs with us and to hear the prayers of those whom they are in covenant with.

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We pray, Lord God, that you would give us all hearts of repentance this morning, that we would be sincerely grieving over our sin, over our hardness of heart, and over the lack of obedience that we have lived out this past week.

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Pray, Lord God, that if anybody has wronged anybody here and within our church, that we would seek out right and seek out forgiveness of them and make it right.

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Lord God, we know that this is your heart. We pray, Lord God, that Christ would be glorified today and that we would be renewed in covenant with you, our

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Lord. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen. Please stand.

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Let us take up Psalm 115, the Psalm of the month. I am hopeful and expectant that we will sing this with greater clarity this week as the second week.

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Psalm 115. This is

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God's holy and infallible word. Zechariah chapter three.

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Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.

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And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan, the

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Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?

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Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel.

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Then he answered and spoke to those who stood before him saying, take away the filthy garments from him.

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And to him he said, see, I have removed your iniquity from you and I will clothe you with rich rows.

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And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and they put the clothes on him and the angel of the

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Lord stood by. Then the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua saying, thus says the

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Lord of hosts, if you will walk in my ways, if you will keep my command, then you shall also judge my house and likewise have charge of my courts.

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I will give you places to walk among these who stand here. Here, oh

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Joshua, the high priest, you and your companions who sit before you for they are a wondrous sign.

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For behold, I am bringing forth my servant, the branch. For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua upon the stone are seven eyes.

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Behold, I will engrave its inscription, says the Lord of hosts. And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

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In that day, says the Lord of hosts, everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.

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May the Lord be pleased with our study of his most holy word today. Please pray with me. Oh Lord, I pray for fresh breezes of grace today.

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I pray that your people will be greatly encouraged by what you have done.

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Give them refreshment and strength, Lord. Many are weary from various battles.

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We pray that today, oh Lord, that they would derive a great deal of comfort from this, your holy word.

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And we ask also, Lord Jesus, that you would be magnified and glorified here.

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Oh righteous Father, we pray that you would send the Holy Spirit and power that your people might be blessed.

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And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.

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I made a decision this week to come back and cover some material in verses nine and 10.

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We're going to have a lag in our study. Next week, Lord willing, Gary Duff from Dominion Church will be here preaching for us.

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And it also gives me more time to deal with the thorny issues of chapter four.

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I appreciate your prayers and encouragements in that regard for next time in this study.

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Today we're going to give our attention mostly to the last part of verse nine and to verse 10.

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The title of the message today is The Blessed Day, or the way

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I would like to say it, The Blessed Day. And there are two headings that I'd like you to consider if you're taking notes.

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First is the promise of a finished redemptive work.

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Number one, a promise, the promise of a finished redemptive work.

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And secondly, under the vine and fig tree. That'll be the second point, under the vine and fig tree.

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If you want to have a point three, you can use that as a point of application. Number one, again, the promise of a finished redemptive work.

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And number two, under the vine and fig tree. And number three would be some application.

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The blessed day long promised has arrived.

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We now dwell under the vine and the fig tree. The blessed day has arrived.

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We now dwell under the vine and the fig tree.

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First, we must consider, again, the local context. The people have returned, the temple is being rebuilt.

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The high priest Joshua has been cleansed and clothed in righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.

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The temple service is going to be effectual for the purpose that God intended because he has brought the people back to reestablish them and not to discourage them, but to push them on to greater hope and faithfulness.

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The people are timid, the people are unsure about the future and Zechariah assures them of a promise coming, the

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Messiah himself, verse eight, the high priest will know, behold, I am bringing forth my servant, the branch.

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We consider that at length last week. And this week, I want us to consider the last half of verse nine.

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It says, says the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

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This promise of redemption, as pictured in the cleansing and clothing of Joshua, is the

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Lord's doing. In Christ, there is going to be a finished work.

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The temple is reconstructed. The purified priesthood is being reestablished.

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The day of atonement, which had been missing because there had been no temple service, it's coming back.

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All of this pictures gloriously the day of atonement of Christ and his crucifixion on the cross.

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Since Genesis three, since the fall, redeemed man in particular, created in God's image, has longed for salvation.

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The redeemed man longs to be delivered from this body of death. The sacrificial system serves as a pedagogy, a tangible tutor to bring us to Christ.

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So we don't despise the rebuilding of the temple as new covenant believers.

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We don't despise the inauguration again of the priestly service in Jerusalem because these types and shadows have a very important purpose.

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They point us and lead us and drive us to Christ. We love the way he has instructed us, his people, through all of these very detailed things in scripture.

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He says, I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

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As you know, I have a very optimistic view of history. Universally, all the commentators, even liberal ones, acknowledge, not the

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Jewish ones, the Christian ones, acknowledge that the land being removed, the iniquity being removed, and the land in that one day points to Christ.

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There is a local application. Joshua the high priest is going to officiate at the altar.

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There is going to be an acceptable sacrifice in the presence of God and the holy of holies because all of this points gloriously to our

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Lord Jesus Christ. And the day on that distant horizon is the day when

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Christ will atone for all the sins of all of his people through all of the ages. What an astounding statement.

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I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. There may be those of us who say here, oh, the

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Lord is only talking about Israel, just national Israel, that little strip of land in Canaan.

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John Gill, the eminent Baptist preacher, actually was, maybe you don't know this, a many generations predecessor to Charles Spurgeon and his church.

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Very reformed, very solid, really a holy spirit enabled commentator on scripture.

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He has kind of a preacherly, pastorally feel. This is what he says. What's being referred to here,

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Gill is going to say, quote, this is not Judea or Chaldea, but Emmanuel's land, the church and the people of God, even all the elect and covenant ones for whom

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Christ suffered and died and who are laid upon the stone, their sins

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Jehovah removed from them to Christ, their surety, and Christ by bearing them and the punishment of them took them away and God removed them both from him and them upon his becoming a sacrifice for them and that holy out of sight so that he will never, never will impute to them nor condemn them for those sins and that was all done in one day, the blessed day, the day when

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Christ really performed the day of atonement, not only on earth, but in the temple of heaven.

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It was the day that he suffered when he expiring on the cross, again, this is

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Gill, said it is finished, namely sin and complete salvation from it.

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This is a glorious day when Christ would take our sin.

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Now, there's something I want us to consider as we're transitioning into the larger part of the message under point two.

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There's something happening here that's very powerful. Again, in verse 10, it says, it's very much connected to verse nine.

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In that day, says the Lord of hosts. Do you remember the language of the

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Lord of hosts when I cited in chapter one, the commander of the Lord's armies?

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The language of the day of atonement leading into this time of peace and prosperity, vines and fig trees, is marked and punctuated by warfare.

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This is what Joshua said. It's written in Joshua chapter five, don't turn there. It came to pass when

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Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, a man stood opposite him with sword drawn in his hand.

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This is no effeminate Jesus. This is the king warrior

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Jesus, a sword drawn.

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And Joshua says to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? And he says, no, but as the commander of the

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Lord, the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face and worshiped him and said to him, what does my

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Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot for the place you stand is holy.

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There's a couple of things I wanna point out to you in remembrance of that, because the language is similar and the same ideas in play in Zechariah.

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There's a battle raging in the cosmos. It's a battle between Satan and our

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God. It is a foolish thing for Satan to do to engage in this battle, but there is a cosmic war afoot.

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And to defeat the enemy, there must be a warrior king who would come in and defeat him.

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He does it on that day on the cross. It looks like a picture of humility and failure and demise of a hope of Israel.

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Could this be the Messiah? Yes, this Messiah must die that he might atone for the sins of his people and remove their guilt and carry it far away from them, that they might be reconciled to God and that they might now live in peace and quietness in this land of prosperity.

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The language, the Lord of hosts is about Christ the

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King. Christ will strike the decisive blow to the enemy and the cosmic war on that day.

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In Joshua, the narrative we just considered was followed by the defeat of Jericho.

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Did you remember that? That the appearance of the Lord to Joshua, the very next chapter is the defeat of Jericho.

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The parallels between these two passages are very significant. It's also reminiscent of the

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Exodus. The Lord is going to stomp Pharaoh. He's going to fight for Israel.

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And the people are now going to be encouraged to go to the land of promise so that they might realize this great blessing of living under the vine and the fig tree.

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Joshua's armies march and camp around the city. And as you know famously, they go around the city seven times till the appointed time when they are to give a shout, a triumphant shout declaring

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God's victory. The enemies of God will be toppled by a shout, the

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Lord fighting for them. The Lord has been fighting for the people who are coming out of Babylon.

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He has set them free from all of their bondage. The place is in ruins.

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But the promise is looming now. The temple is going to be rebuilt. The glory of Jerusalem is going to return because the presence of the

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Lord is there. Now, what's really striking about this, when we think about the burning bush incident, on the outskirts of Jericho, this language of the place they are standing is holy ground.

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It's holy because it's the ground that Christ is executing this justice on.

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It's holy ground because this is the place where Christ is communicating himself to his people.

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And so we have a place far removed from the Middle East, a place like Longwood, Florida, and we're standing in a place of holy ground.

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This is Emmanuel's land. Wherever there's dirt, it's

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Emmanuel's land. Wherever there's seas that roar, he rides on those waves.

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This all belongs to him, every inch of it. And so what's happening here is the promise of a

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Messiah coming who's going to secure peace and prosperity for his people.

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Again, locally, contextually, this is coming to pass in real time in the day of Zechariah, Joshua, and Zerubbabel in Israel, in Jerusalem.

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But these things are tangible expressions, pictures, lessons, pedagogy, tutoring, that will show us and lead us to the conclusion that the reign of Christ will stretch from shore to shore.

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There's gonna be no limit to the boundary lines we learned a few weeks ago in Jerusalem because everywhere there's dirt, that's where Christ reigns.

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This victory has been secured because he removed the iniquity of that land in one day.

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Now, there's something that should give us pause here. It's all rah -rah, and it's all very exciting.

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It's obvious that God's people, his elect, that can never be snatched out of his hand, he never forgets his promises.

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The fact that the people are dwelling in this post -exilic place in Jerusalem after all of their rebellion and disobedience is proof positive that God never, ever forgets his promise.

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But disobedience and wickedness causes the people of God to be removed from under the vine and the fig tree in a temporal sense.

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433 years, a long time to be in slavery. 70 years, a long time to be in Babylon.

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It's not all roses every day. So if these things are true about a re -inaugurated temple system, a cleaned up priest and priesthood, how much more so for us today?

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We are the temple of God. We are the dwelling place of God in the spirit. We have a high priest in the heavens whose name is

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Jesus. However, our disobedience, our lack of faith causes us to be removed from the place of peace and prosperity.

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We know how the blessed day ends, the last day in victory, all victory, final victory, never to be returned.

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But the church, old, ancient, antediluvian, post -diluvian, post -flood, through the times of the kings and the prophets, they've stumbled, they've fallen, but there's going to be a day, a blessed day, when everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.

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I don't know if you remember Joshua chapter seven. Let's go there really quickly,

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Joshua seven. I want to point out to you something that is a sidebar observation, but if you look at the beginning, let's begin reading in verse 15.

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This is Joshua chapter six. I'm sorry, beginning at verse 15. It came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times in the same manner.

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On that day only they marched around the city seven times, and the seventh time it happened.

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When the priests blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people, shout for the

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Lord has given you the city. Now the city shall be doomed by the

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Lord to destruction and to all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot shall live. She and all who are with her in her house because she hid the messengers that were sent.

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And you by all means abstain from the accursed things lest you become a curse when you take the accursed things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it.

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But all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the

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Lord. So we've got a little covenant stipulation here. Great victory is going to be had.

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The walls of Jericho are going to come down and you are going to stomp them.

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You're gonna go in there, you're gonna kill everything. But there's some things you can't do. Don't touch those accursed things.

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Don't carry them back with you. Here's the drama again, verse 20. Can you imagine this scene?

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The walls are gonna come down. They don't have cannons or armaments or some kind of bomb. The walls are coming down because of the shout of the people of God.

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It would seem to me something like our psalm singing fits this. We gather in God's name, walking in his ways.

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When we raise and lift our voices and praise to him, God hears us and God fights for us.

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That's why our psalm singing should be more like a shout. We're holding it back.

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I don't sing very well. Stop being a fearer of man. Who cares what you sound like?

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Sing to the Lord. Shout to the Lord. Verse 20, the people shouted when the priest blew the trumpets.

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It happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat.

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And the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

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And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey with the edge of the sword.

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And it continues, sparing of Rahab and all of those things. What an amazing scene.

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And this has happened in Israel's history previously and after. It's happened for us.

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Christ has stomped on the serpent's head, but we shrink back because of our wickedness.

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Look at chapter seven, beginning at verse one. The children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things.

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For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerub, the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things.

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So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. He meets Joshua. You're standing on holy ground.

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I'm going to fight for you. All you're gonna do is walk around. The priests are gonna blow trumpets. We're gonna shout and the walls are gonna fall down.

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You're gonna run through the city, kill everyone and everything. A colossal, amazing victory. One man.

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One wicked man, Achan. Verse two.

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Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth -Avon on the east side of Beth -El and spoke to them saying, go up and spy out the country.

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So the men went up and spied out Ai and they returned to Joshua and said to him, do not let all the people go up, but let about two or 3 ,000 men go up and attack

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Ai. Do not worry all the people, for the people of Ai are few.

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So about 3 ,000 men went up there from the people. I want you to listen carefully.

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But they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about 36 men, 1 % of the forces, not a huge loss.

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For they chased them from before the gate as far as Sherebim and struck them down on the descent.

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Therefore, the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

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You see, at Ai, the Lord didn't fight for them. Because of their wickedness.

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This is a terrifying thing. God who remembers his covenant promises. He never lets go of them.

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He never lets go of his people. In their disobedience, he allows them in a temporal sense to fail, to fail miserably.

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He withdraws his blessing and his protection. The people here are not living now in peace and prosperity.

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A page before, they were. Now that's gone. In the interest of time, verse 16, chapter seven.

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So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes and the tribe of Judah was taken. He brought the clan of Judah.

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He took the family of the Zaharites and he brought the family of the Zaharites, man by man, and Zabdi was taken.

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He brought his household, man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, the tribe of Judah was taken.

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Now Joshua said to Achan, my son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to him and tell me now what you have done.

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Do not hide it from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed

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I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels,

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I coveted them and took them and there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it.

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Do you believe in federal representation? We struggle with that in the evangelical world that one man would represent a family or others.

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Husbands and fathers, you're the representative, you're the federal head, you better be walking in righteousness or your family's gonna suffer.

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Listen to what happens next, just a few more verses. So Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent and there it was hidden in his tent with the silver under it and they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel and laid them out before the

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Lord. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent and all that he had and they brought them to Valley of Achor.

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Joshua said, why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.

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So all Israel stoned him with stones and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones and they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day.

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So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore, the name of that place had been called the

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Valley of Achor to this day. Now, this is a little bit shocking.

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What does this have to do with living under your vine and the fig tree? Let's go back to our text now in Zechariah.

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Christ fought for Israel. Now, in our text, verse 10, there's a promise of a day.

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I would argue the new covenant, the new creation, the new creature that has all been inaugurated, it's all come into play.

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The blessed day has arrived, speaking and pointing to a final blessed day, the last day, the great day.

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And that day, says the Lord of hosts, the commander of the Lord's armies, the way he can say this, why he can say this is,

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I have defeated all of your enemies. You see, growing grapevines and growing fig trees requires time and attention and years.

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The peace of the Lord has descended upon his people because the victory has been won in Christ.

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Just like back there in Joshua, smaller example. Look how quick the people were with one family, one person to transgress the law of God.

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The peace and prosperity went away. But there's coming a time, it says in verse 10, and that day, the commander of the

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Lord's army, the Lord of hosts says, everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.

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Verse 10 depicts the physical prosperity that comes as a result of Christ's messianic work.

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There is a physical prosperity that's happening in Jerusalem because of God's redemptive work.

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He's opened the gates of the city again. They are now allowed to move in.

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And the promises, what a hopeful promise for the people coming out of exile.

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They've had no home. They've had no vine. They've had no fig tree.

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Now, they're going to have it. You see, you remember back in the

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Exodus, the compelling argument from Moses to Pharaoh is, as long as Pharaoh's boot is on the neck of Israel, they can't worship him.

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It's hard for slaves to have two masters. The people were effectively slaves in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.

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But now they've been set free. Why? Because of a great deliverance. God has been the commander of his armies and he has gone and he's achieved a victory.

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Now, they come in to have peace and prosperity. And that day refers to the day of the

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Lord. The day is characterized by prosperity and blessing. It is, of course, a reference to the messianic era.

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Zechariah 14, the last few verses of this book, this great book, communicates the same idea, that the end of the book ends with a promise of the utter defeat of all of God's and our enemies.

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That we would be able to sit under our own vine and our own fig tree. Of course, this conveys an important thought.

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Outward prosperity, particularly in the old covenant era, runs parallel with spiritual attainments.

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Think about this. For when sin and guilt are removed, nothing can mar our outward peace.

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Since the age of Solomon, dwelling under one's vine and fig tree was a picture of a happy prosperity and contentment.

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Solomon's the second best earthly king Israel ever had. Hezekiah is okay, good.

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Josiah is good. Not a lot of great kings. But what about this king?

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What about the victory that he has won? How blessed are the people of Zechariah's day to come into the land?

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And every man, every family would get a parcel. They're gonna start some animal husbandry.

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They're gonna start raising flocks. They're gonna have grain. They're gonna start meticulously dressing their vines.

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That someday, someday there would be a harvest of grapes that would produce the sweet wine. And it takes years for a fig tree to grow.

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And the really smart vine dressers would weave the grape vines through the tree of the fig to preserve it and protect it.

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And in an ancient world, they would often put fig trees around the edges of the vineyard for this.

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There's some biological thing happening with the soils and the air and the union of these two animals.

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You know how plants, you know how people do these things today. These things are happening. This is a picture of prosperity.

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Imagine coming with nothing in your possession and the promises given out to you.

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Come back to the land. I, your God, am going to meet with you here. And guess what?

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Every man's gonna have his own vine and his own fig tree.

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Let's think about something else in relation to us. We are an ungrateful people.

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We are some very, very wealthy people. I was thinking in the middle of the night

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I woke up and the temperature, I like it cooler.

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My wife likes it warmer. It's a struggle. She's got a lot of covers.

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I've got very little. And it came to me that I was complaining over maybe a one to two degree difference in air.

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I control the air temperature of the place that I sleep. And I'm complaining about two degrees.

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I thought, what an ungrateful person. Thank you, Lord, for showing me in light of Zechariah.

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How rich, how prosperous you are in Christ. As we've been studying this, we've understood that Christ has fulfilled the messianic hope here given in Zechariah.

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This imagery had to be powerful to the hearers. They had previously lived under a tyranny in a foreign land.

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Grapevines, fig trees, as I've mentioned, take years to cultivate. The promise here is one of an established, ongoing peace filled with prosperity.

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You can't cultivate fruit -bearing fig trees and dress vines while you're under attack or waging war.

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Just like the Hebrew slaves couldn't worship the Lord properly under Pharaoh's boot. God had to deliver them.

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And being delivered, they were called to walk in obedience in response to his grace.

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The people gathered with Joshua saw the overthrow of Jericho with a shout of God's victory.

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The people coming out of exile, these people of God have been delivered. Peace and prosperity have come with a tidal wave of God's blessings.

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They now have the freedom, listen, to labor in the land.

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The vine and the fig tree, they get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Is that, have you thought tomorrow morning,

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Monday morning, those of you who have a more traditional work schedule, when the alarm goes off and your eyes are heavy,

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I want you to jump out of bed with a shout and say, I have the privilege that I live under the freedom of God to take the responsibility to go work for my family, that I might have a vine and a fig tree, that I might live the blessed life.

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Oh, what an ungrateful people we are. We want more prosperity, more creature comforts, and all of this blessing, all of this wealth has already been given and bestowed to us.

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There are two things happening here. This will be close to the wrap up. The people of God who had been slaves now have the ability to go and work.

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But this work now is blessed because they get to keep a portion of that to build their own house, to take a wife, have a bunch of kids, start something there, to build something.

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All of us have that desire in us. There's two elements, spiritual and physical, and we are so quick to disassociate those.

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Both of these speak to the blessings that Christ ushers in. Everyone inviting his neighbor under the vine and fig tree is a call for the redeemed in Christ first to call sinners to be reconciled to God.

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There is a deep, profound spiritual meaning here. We're calling the pagans to say, be reconciled to God, be at peace with God, and come and dwell in his peace and prosperity.

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It's a great message. Not a hard sell, great message. We want them, think about this, to enjoy the spoils of Christ's victory in the cosmic war.

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We're calling God's enemies to come in and enjoy the spoils of Christ's cosmic victory in this crazy war in the heavens, in the cosmos.

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They're invited now. They can now live in peace and quietness because their enemies have been defeated.

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There's something else. It's a call for us. Not only the illustration of our personal holiness and disobedience, our church could suffer because of your sin.

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Your children could suffer because of your sin. It's time that we walk right with Lord as the beneficiaries of these gracious blessings.

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We may be cursing future generations by our disobedience today, but let's take some serious inventory of our lives and make sure we're walking in righteousness that that doesn't happen.

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There's another thing. There's a stewardship. You should be laboring diligently in all of your callings that you might be a blessing to others.

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You need to go out and start some businesses. You need to go out and get promoted in your jobs. You need to go out and show the world what a godly

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Christian man, woman, family can do that you might be able to invite your neighbor over for hospitality and evangelism and discipleship.

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Labor diligently in all these callings that you might be a blessing to others. Set your life in obedient order that you might enjoy and share in God's blessing, peace, happiness, joy, thanksgiving.

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And even prosperity. Quick word of application here, and we'll close. As a child of God, your salvation is assured.

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But I fear there is a big contrast between, or I should say a big hole, really, between the idea of our initial conversion, let's say an adult conversion to Christ, our final salvation, we think about those two elements, and in the middle, we think a little bit about sanctification along the way.

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I have been saved, I'm being saved, I'm gonna be saved to the uttermost. Beulah Duval, Latha, Kansas.

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But there's a whole lifetime to be lived in service to God. Do not allow sin to mar the temporal blessings found under the vine and fig tree.

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If you're disobedient, you might be taken captive. Those blessings are taken away. God's not abandoning you.

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He's chasing you. He said, well, I have to take away your vine and your fig tree now. I've not walked in my ways. In Joshua, the commander of the

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Lord's army won the victory. He fought for the people, and Jericho fell. The next chapter, their victorious shout was replaced with cowardice and retreat.

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They fled from an army they could easily defeat because of sin. The Lord stopped fighting for them.

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Don't allow sin to mar even the temporal blessings of God's grace in your lives.

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Disobedience led to exile. Number two, today, once and for all,

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I think we all need to reform our view of what the blessed life is. Last night, my wife, eight of my children, my bonus daughter, my daughter -in -law,

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Veda, my wife's sister and her husband shared a meal, two types of taco casserole chips and salsa.

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It was very good. As a fat boy, I loved it. I ate a lot of it.

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We had peach cobbler that was steaming hot with vanilla ice cream that was plopped on it for dessert.

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13 people who knew and loved Christ were fellowshipping and laughing and rejoicing.

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We were feasting literally in the midst of our enemies, all the pagans around us, but Christ's crown was exalted in that little house with all those

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Christians. Surely we were dwelling under the vine and the fig tree.

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There. Today, you may be failing to appreciate the blessed state you are in.

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You already live the good life, the best life in Christ.

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This sinful world has nothing to offer you. This month, it's hard to believe,

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I know I look super young, it seems like it's impossible, but I'll be married to my wife for 29 years at the end of the month.

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And I realized that we were doing things not so sophisticated, not so intentionally, that are taking 29 years to be worked out.

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Our marriage was built and founded on Christ. We believed children were a blessing.

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And now, more than half of my children are adults. We had a birthday this week. All of them are professing faith, they all have their peculiar things, and it's always an adventure.

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But what an amazing thing has happened. And I'm not speaking of that in a kind of a boasting way, but the goodness of God to do that.

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We've been living under the vine and fig tree. We've been complaining about Presbytery coming up. We don't have enough money, we don't have this, we don't have that, grumbling.

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What a blessed problem to have. We're hosting Presbytery, and get to fellowship with these brethren.

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Oh, glorious problem to have. Praise the Lord. We've forgotten, we've lost our perspective.

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Today, reform your view of what the blessed life is. You sitting around the table, eating, talking about the things of the

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Lord, training your children in righteousness will reap a harvest that could be felt for a thousand generations.

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Third, an application here. I think we have to show hospitality. We need to labor diligently that we might open our lives and our homes to evangelize the lost, to comfort the downcast, to relieve the poor, the widow, and to minister to the saints, both present and future.

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The invitation here is come on over and enjoy the prosperity of how God has blessed me.

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I'm gonna show you, in Christ, how to be blessed. And finally, Christ has won the victory.

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Walk in his peace and prosperity. Do not turn your head from the right or to the left.

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The gold of the Babylonians always looks good. Don't you touch it, child of God. There's nothing for you there.

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Be filled with joy. Give thanks to God for all that he has done. If he's done it for Solomon and for Micah and for the post -exilic saints coming back to Jerusalem, how much more so will we, the people of God, living in the new covenant, dwell in the safety and security living under our own vine and fig tree.

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The blessed day long promised has arrived. Brethren, we now dwell under the vine and the fig tree.

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Let us rejoice, amen? Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, we thank you for the finished work that clears the ground and sets the table.

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Our enemies have been defeated, oh Lord, that we might dwell in peace and prosperity. And you have even now, for us corporately, prepared a feast for us in the midst of our enemies.

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The world seems to be falling apart around us, oh Lord, but we are the blessed ones. We sit here in peace and prosperity and contentment and satisfaction because of what

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Jesus Christ has done. I pray, Lord, that you would enable us to duly prepare our hearts to feast, to rejoice.

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May the wine taste sweet to us. May the honey -dipped bread taste sweet to us because we have tasted and seen that the

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Lord is good. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Well, after hearing of the blessings to which

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God has given us, we can come with great joy to this part of our worship service where we present our tithes and offerings.

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You know, sometimes we get caught up that this is a got -to, but let us remember, this is a get -to.

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We get to give from the blessings to which God has given us. Please stand and let us pray.

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Our gracious God and Father, you have blessed us immeasurably in your

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Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. If we were to think,

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Lord, of only one thing, the forgiveness of our sins, we would have enough to thank you for all eternity.

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As we sang earlier today, you have done so much more.

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You have blessed us that we may enjoy under the vine and fig tree the material blessings.

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And we now bring these to you, O Lord. We ask that we would have done so joyfully.

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We ask that we would use them wisely, but we would pray that we would always use it to your glory.

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And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let us now glorify our triune

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God in the singing of the Gloria Patri. Let us give thanks to the

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Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you,

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O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Everlasting God, because you sent your beloved

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Son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life, that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.

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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.

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You may be seated. Almighty God, you are the creator and Lord of, you are the sovereign majesty whom we have offended.

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You are our most loving and merciful Father who has given your Son to reconcile us to yourself, who has ratified the

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New Testament and the covenant of grace with his most precious blood and has instituted this sacrament to be celebrated in remembrance of him till his coming.

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Sanctify these, your creatures of bread and wine, which according to your institution and command we set apart for this holy use, that they may be sacramentally the body and blood of your

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Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. On the night in which our

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Lord was betrayed, he took bread and when he gave thanks, he broke it saying, take, eat.

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This is my body which is broken for you. Likewise, after supper, he took the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

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As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again.

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Therefore, we proclaim the faith. Christ has died, Christ is risen,

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Christ will come again. Let us pray together. We do not presume to come to this your table,

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O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness but in your manifold and great mercies.

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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under your table, but you are the same

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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear

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Son, Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood and that we may have a reward well in him and he in us.

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Amen. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feasts.

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The gifts of God for the people of God. Thanks be to the Lord. And with fear

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I'm trembling, sassing in his hand.

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He said, kings yet born of the breast, his feet, the sins we knew.

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Seraph, his fleeces to the...

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For feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your

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Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. And for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are the living members of the body of your

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Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.

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And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our

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Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, the honor and glory now and forever.

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Amen. Please stand. The Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the