Special Event: The Good-News of Kingdom & Justice

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All right. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome. It's sticky here.

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It's super hot in Phoenix right now. It feels like you're in an oven, but I came here and immediately got wet.

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So I'm glad you guys are all here. And let's get a couple of things just to note as we get started.

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First of all, I'm wearing a clerical collar, which is pretty banging. It's awesome. I do like it.

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This is awesome. I'm going to have a good time with her. It's an honor to wear it.

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I do have a lot of respect for it. And I'm grateful that Pastor Talbot went out and got one for me.

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I did notice a couple of things that are wrong about this location. And that's that baptismal is really small. I'm not sure how you fit big people in that.

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You get them from one end to the other. Okay. Yeah. You're just like one foot at a time, the hair.

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Okay. All right. So if you would open your Bibles to Matthew. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 4.

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Gospel according to Matthew chapter 4. We're going to go.

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I'm reading from the English standard version today. Matthew chapter 4. We're going to start in verse 7.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Jesus said to him, again, it is written,

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You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

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And he said to them, all these I will give you if you fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him,

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Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

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Then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee and leaving

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Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun of Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet

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Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the

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Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

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And for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

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From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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While walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

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And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

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And going on from there, he saw two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

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And he called them. Immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

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And he went through all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you would bless today,

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Lord, with an unworthy servant, the proclamation of your word.

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I pray that you would teach today, Lord, by your spirit. Lord, I do pray that you would get me out of the way.

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Allow people to be changed, transformed, renewed by your word. Let this not be the words of a mere sinful man.

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I pray that you would use your word to, Lord, open the eyes of your people, lift us up, strengthen us, use us for the glory and kingdom of Jesus Christ.

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Bless us, Lord, challenge us, convict us. I pray that this would be a movement of your spirit, not the movement of a mere man.

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Allow people to forget me and remember you. In Jesus' name, amen. So here we are, the gospel of the kingdom.

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This is actually one of my favorite sections of scripture. You'll have to forgive me if I forget my name up here or where I'm at.

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I had about 30 hours of oral examinations, and I'm having a hard time remembering where I'm located in space and time.

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But it was actually really cool. And part of the test that you take, your Masters of Divinity, you're working through everything you've ever learned and studied and going through things.

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And one of the things Dr. Talbot had me doing was going through particular books of the Bible, chapter by chapter, explaining, unpacking, applying.

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And thankfully, he was gracious enough to let me pick one of the New Testament books, and I got to pick Matthew, which is great, because I've spent about 10 years preaching through it.

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And about two years or so in Matthew 24, which my church thinks is hilarious. But I think it's an important book, and this is one of my favorite gospels.

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And every section of the gospel according to Matthew is so deep, so powerful.

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There's such an awareness from Matthew of the Old Testament, the promises of the kingdom.

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There is depth to this book that is honestly terrifying. It's the kind of depth that causes fear of God, that God is truly in control.

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He's sovereign over all of history. But we're only a couple of chapters into the gospel according to Matthew, and here we have the famous scene, the famous historical scene of Jesus, the perfect Israel, what

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Israel was supposed to be. Jesus, the perfect Adam, what Adam was supposed to be.

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He is what God intended for the image of God. So he's our representative, perfectly obedient.

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Matthew knows that layer and that background, and it's coming out in just the first couple of chapters of the gospel according to Matthew.

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But here's what I wanted to focus in upon as we talk about the issues of justice today, injustice, the murder of the pre -born, that central issue of justice that's before us and around us at all times.

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Matthew is keenly aware through divine inspiration about the purpose of Messiah's kingdom.

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Jesus isn't simply coming into time. The incarnation is not simply happening for your private individual romance with Jesus.

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This is not about my own private individual relationship with Jesus, although that's a component to the gospel.

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Jesus saves individuals and we're part of a corporate body. It is very intimate.

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When Jesus died on the cross, he was dying for the sins of his people. It was particular. It was not potential.

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So it's very intimate. Yes, it's very much wrapped up in the love of God. It is so intensely personal.

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But the gospel, and Matthew clearly understands this, is the gospel of a kingdom.

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I chose to go to that particular text. We could have gone to so many from the

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Old Testament or the New Testament. But I chose this particular text because I think it tells the vast majority of the story in terms of what was the expectation, what did

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Jesus come for, and what, more importantly, was the Lord Jesus Christ preaching?

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What was he talking about? So we have, of course, this epic moment in the scene where Jesus, the perfect Israelite, just consider it, think about your

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Bible, think about the words, think about wilderness, think about Israel, think about all those themes that we understand and are laid down in the

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Torah and the Tanakh and the Old Testament that the Jews understood. Matthew understands this. So here's

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Jesus, the perfect Israelite, going into the wilderness. You feeling it? Israel, wilderness.

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So Jesus goes because the Spirit of God brings him into the wilderness to go through the trial or the temptation.

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So Adam goes through a trial of sorts. God tells him eat and don't eat.

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The day you do, you'll die. On his own self -attesting authority, God says this, eat this, don't eat that.

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The day you do, you'll die. And Adam, the image of God created for the glory of God to be

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God's light into the world, God's representative in the world, Adam sins with a high hand against God.

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All of humanity is plunged into death and sin and destruction. Israel was supposed to be a son of God of sorts.

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They were supposed to represent Yahweh to the world, be the light of God into the world. And Israel sins against God perpetually, consistently, disobeying

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God, disobeying covenant with God. And when they go, when they attempt to go into the promised land, there's a wandering where?

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In the wilderness. In the wilderness. See, we're going to turn this into a Baptist church. If I could do it. Yeah, you can talk back.

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Start shouting, y 'all. Okay. I've got the podium. Okay. We can figure out baptisms in this.

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It'll work. Yeah, that's right. Bapterian. What do you call

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Baptists who love Presbyterianism? What do you call it? You call them a... What's that? Presto -Baptist.

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No, you said something else last night. It was something else. It was like a deep water... Oh, a deep water Presbyterian.

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Deep water Presbyterian. I think that's... Just remember, John Cowan did all his baptisms by immersion.

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Okay, that's right. That's right. Well, at least he had that right. So, he did.

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So, Israel goes into the wilderness and they're sinning against God. All of this, we have to understand to understand the scope of history and what is

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God doing in the world. Adam was supposed to be God's light into the world. He was supposed to be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth.

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He was supposed to subdue the earth, take dominion over the earth. Israel comes into the story, into the picture.

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God's working graciously through them. They go into the wilderness. They're wandering. They're sinning.

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It's face plants all the way for 40 years. Oh, that's interesting. 40 days.

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Wilderness. Jesus, the perfect Israelite, going into the wilderness. Temptation.

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He's being tested. And the unique thing, of course, the distinct thing about the Lord Jesus, as the perfect Adam and the perfect Israelite, Jesus obeys the

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Father where they failed. So, he goes into the wilderness. And, of course,

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Satan brings these trials, these temptations. And, of course, Jesus has victory after victory.

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And in the text we were in is a text where it says, interestingly, that he takes him up to a very high mountain.

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A very high mountain. And what does Satan offer Jesus? It says he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

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And he said to him, All these I will give you if you fall down and worship me. So, what's interesting here is that not only does

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Jesus know the story of Messiah and his kingdom that was promised by God in the

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Old Testament, and it is over and over and over. It is clear. It is beautiful.

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There's different perspectives of Messiah and his kingdom in terms of the salvation and the judgment and the victory.

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All of that. Jesus knows his mission. And Satan knows the mission of Messiah. He can read.

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He heard the stories. He knows. And Satan says, I'll give you what you came for.

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What did Jesus come to get? The world. What did he come to rule over?

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All the kingdoms of the world. That was the promise of the Old Testament. That's what the expectation was of Messiah and his kingdom.

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It was the world to rule over the world. All the kingdoms, nations, tribes, peoples of every language would come to serve the

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Messiah. And Satan says, as this final temptation, the perfect Israelite in the temptation, 40 days, wilderness, he says, all right, high mountain, look, they're all mine.

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I'll give them to you. All you have to do is bow and worship me. That's an intense temptation if that's the mission of the

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Messiah. And, of course, Jesus has victory over Satan. He says, you shall worship the

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Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. And Satan leaves Jesus. And, of course,

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Jesus, as he makes his way out of the wilderness, the text in Matthew says,

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Matthew chapter 4, starting in verse 14, so that what was spoken by the prophet

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Isaiah might be fulfilled. And then there's a quotation from Isaiah. Just a quick question, a little test.

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Don't be embarrassed. Who knows where that reference is from? Raise your hand if you know.

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And this is why you're going to be post -millennial by the time I'm done with you, okay? This is so vital.

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We read these stories, and we go, oh, that sounds beautiful. It sounds glorious. I believe every word of it. This is God's word. We all say yes and amen.

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That's God's word. But do we understand what's happening? Do we understand the depth, the layers here, the glory of these texts?

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Do we understand what's actually being talked about? Because when he quotes now after the wilderness trial, after this perfect Israelite goes to the wilderness, defeats

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Satan, is offered the kingdoms of the world, and he defeats Satan, that's, of course, what he came for. He quotes

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Isaiah chapter 9. Now watch this real fast before we're done here.

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You already know Isaiah chapter 9. You do. You know it probably by heart. Do you guys celebrate

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Christmas here? Is that a thing? No? Not here? Okay. All right. Well, for those of you guys that do celebrate

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Christmas, okay, you know it on the Christmas cards. At home. Not in the church.

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Oh, yeah. No, I get it. Okay. I feel better. Okay. All right. Not in church.

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Okay. Got it. But you know it. You probably have it memorized.

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You probably do. But I wanted to point this out here because it has everything, everything, everything to do with our fight against the injustices around us.

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Everything. Everything. When we talk about the issue of the slaughter of pre -born children, the destruction of the image of God in the womb, it all relates to this entire story of Jesus the

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Messiah. I want you to remember that when Jesus defeats Satan in the wilderness, he comes out of the temptation in the wilderness, and the first thing he says is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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By the way, if you didn't know this, a very Jewish way of speaking, Matthew is very Jewish gospel.

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It's focused on Jewish mindset. They understand these things, these truths. Luke's a little more Gentile in its understanding.

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Of course, Mark's different. But Matthew clearly Jewish focused. He understands.

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There's a tradition at the time in terms of talking about God. They would use it synonymously with heaven.

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The word heaven is synonymous with God. So if you see the other gospels, it'll say kingdom of God. Matthew uses kingdom of heaven.

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Same thing, kingdom of God. What is it? The rule of God. Do you hear that? Listen to it. Don't take it and put it into the space of the spiritual.

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Out there, that kingdom of heaven out there. Now listen to what it is. It's the rule of God. It's the rule of King Jesus in the world.

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It's the rule that they were expecting of the messianic king to rule and govern the world, all the kingdoms of the world.

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So Jesus defeats Satan after being offered all the kingdoms of the world. He defeats him, comes out of the wilderness, and says,

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Repent, for the rule of God is at hand. Are you hearing it now?

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It's starting to sound a little different than the typical evangelical proclamation, right? Of a private, intimate romance with Jesus, right?

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Let's have people read this magic prayer, and let's start Bible studies in basements while the world goes to hell in a handbasket.

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Jesus comes out of the wilderness after being offered the kingdoms of the world, defeats Satan, and he says, The rule of God is at hand.

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What you were expecting, the messiah, to come to rule the world and to win all the nations to God, that's at hand.

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That's at the fingertip reach. It's right there at hand. And then I wanted to point this out and ask you a question. You don't have to answer out loud, okay?

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It says that he went throughout all Galilee, verse 23, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming, here it is, the gospel of the kingdom.

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And here's what I want to ask. And again, this isn't to embarrass you, to make you feel bad at all. I want to challenge you as a brother and a sister in Christ, because I wasn't always here either at all.

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I had a particular tradition I came from, and after I really allowed myself to be challenged and to read the text as it was,

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I was challenged on these issues. Now, again, this isn't primarily eschatological in discussion.

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It really has to do with themes we're all supposed to agree with anyways. Here's the deal. Jesus said it. He was preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

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So here's the question. Are you ready for it? I told you it was coming. I'm going to ask you, and I want you to think for a second. I'll give you a moment to do it.

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If I was to ask you right now to articulate for me, what is good news about the kingdom?

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Why is it good news? If I said to you right now, guys, let's go out to where's town? Where's major stuff?

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That way? This way? Okay, that way. If I said let's go down there right now, let's find a spot to set up, and let's go preach what

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Jesus preached. All right, guys, I want you to prepare the gospel of the kingdom for a second. I want you to prepare the gospel of the kingdom.

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Give it about 60 seconds or so. Let's go out there and let's tell everybody. Let me ask you a question. Think about it. What would you say?

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Don't shout it out. How would you articulate the good news of the kingdom?

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Now watch this. I think most of us, if you ask the average evangelical, average Christian, you would say, hey, tell me about Jesus and, like, the gospel.

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What do we always say? What is the answer? Well, we have a very truncated version, don't we, as evangelicals?

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What's the message we typically say? Well, God is holy. We are sinners. We have no hope outside of Jesus.

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We cannot be saved outside of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and his perfect death and his resurrection, all of that.

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We understand this is a gift through faith in Jesus Christ. We have nothing to add. We bring nothing to this.

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God saves sinners. You need to repent and to trust in Jesus Christ, trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation.

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We are justified, declared righteous as a gift of his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.

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So we know that we typically say to the individual, we say, here's the gospel. You need to repent and believe in a hurry.

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You need to receive salvation and forgiveness. It's only in Jesus. And we think about the gospel as sinner, reconciled to God, saved, forgiven.

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And we go, and I think that's about all there is to this, right? But isn't that the main thing?

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Let's go door to door. Let's knock on doors. Let's get people to make decisions for Jesus, people will often say.

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But the big thing is we've got to get people saved, right? And the answer is yes, absolutely, 100%.

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Justification through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone is at the heart of the gospel.

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It is at the heart of the gospel. Justification is an essential of the faith. If you deny it, you're not a

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Christian, you are anathema. Got it, okay? Amen, we're all there, yes. But we've truncated the good news to just that.

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It's just that. It's about what? Going to heaven one day.

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Isn't it interesting? Jesus goes and he starts proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and we've got a gospel that talks about going to heaven one day.

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Now, the answer is, let me just answer it and, of course, affirm it. If you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ, you are going to heaven one day.

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You're going to spend eternity with God for all eternity. Amen, hallelujah, I'll buy the

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T -shirt. Okay, I'm 100 % in. But did you know that the ultimate destination of Christians isn't out there abandoning your humanity behind you here so you go live forever with fat babies and harps on clouds?

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Do you know that the ultimate destination, if you want to have a truly Christian worldview, the ultimate destination is not gnosticism, abandoning your humanity and this world as though God hated it and it's somehow stained and cursed with sin and God says, oh, it's a throwaway now.

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The goal isn't in Christianity, never has been, to escape the physical and leave behind your humanity to go and dwell in some spiritual higher story forever.

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Do you know that the ultimate goal is the renewal of all things? Do you know the ultimate goal is resurrection?

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Do you know the ultimate goal is, yes, we die now, we go with Jesus immediately, but do you know that we will be raised, living for all eternity, in physical bodies in this world?

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And do you know that God's ultimate goal is victory over sin and the curse over all of creation?

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And Jesus goes proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, but what is the gospel of the kingdom? Why is that good news and why is it the first thing that Jesus has reported as proclaiming?

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Kingdom, gospel of the kingdom. We've lost it. Interestingly, in the history of the

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Christian church, they didn't lose it. They didn't lose it.

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Look at the Puritans and the kind of world that they built and created. They had a comprehensive

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Christian worldview. You can praise God for the Covenanters and the Puritans for what they gave to this nation and others in terms of justice and righteousness and freedom and all the rest.

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They understood the word of God, the rule of Jesus Christ. They understood the issues of justice from Scripture, and they understood that the gospel is not simply about my private experience with Jesus, but Jesus came to have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

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He came to rule and to reign. And by the way, so I can whet your appetite for the end of the sermon here, it's what we all know and agree on.

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We're supposed to. Matthew 28, same gospel, 18 through 20, it's the last words. All authority in heaven.

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And we all go, Amen. Jesus is king of heaven. But he finishes, he says, and on earth has been past tense given to me.

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That was a long time ago, brothers and sisters. He said all the authority in heaven and here on this earth has been past tense given to him.

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He says, go, therefore, because it's all mine, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And he says, teaching them to what? Obey. Teach them to obey.

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Jesus came to rule, to reign, to save. And Jesus preaches the gospel of the kingdom.

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We have to abandon the truncated gospel of 21st century evangelicalism, the truncated gospel that says this is just about me and my private individual relationship with Jesus and has no connection, the authority of Jesus has no connection outside of my own life and maybe the life of my buddies over here at my church.

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No, the scriptures say that Jesus is king of kings and lord of lords. And let's be honest. Can we be honest with ourselves?

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Just be transparent about it? That's just become a pithy slogan for us. It's just a pithy slogan.

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Because you answer, watch this, do we really believe it? Do you really believe it today that Jesus is king over kings?

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He's the lord over the lords of the earth. In other words, they have to obey him. They must obey him.

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No king but Christ. So, for example, do you agree today that Jesus Christ is the authority over Donald Trump and that Donald Trump must yield and obey to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and his standards? Do you believe that today over in Africa, wherever we may be, whoever is a leader in whatever section, they must yield and obey

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Jesus? Do you believe that today in Russia, the goal is ultimately to have the head over Russia to submit and yield to the authority of Jesus Christ?

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This is a comprehensive gospel of a kingdom. It's the rule of Christ. There are problems all around us.

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All around us. Sin, brokenness. This year has been epic. How many of us would have seen this coming?

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I think we all knew things are not good and we have a lot of work to do, but nobody would have anticipated this.

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I mean, it's wild. What have we had? We've had, like, firenados. We've got, like, COVID -19, 99 .5

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% plus survival rate. Let's kill the global economy, destroy everyone's lives. That sounds worthy.

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We've got, what, murder hornets this year. We've got double hurricanes coming to right now.

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I'm leaving tomorrow at 8 a .m. Pray for me. Pray for me. It's been a crazy year.

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We've got Biden, who doesn't know left from right, can't remember anything. He thinks he's Biden's wife.

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It's a strange year. It's a really, really strange year. But all kinds of evil things have happened this year.

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I mean, this is not humorous, but, of course, we've got injustice in the streets. We've got sin.

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We've got police officers obviously abusing their authority, perpetrating injustice upon people of multiple colors.

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All of it's wicked. All of it is evil. We've got people who are rioting and looting in the streets.

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We've got people who are murdered in the streets. We have businesses burning down, churches burning down.

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We are not, in this nation, a moral people. Let's be honest. We're not a moral people.

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We've educated our children in Marxism and socialism. We've told them that atheism is true, that they are nothing but the descendants of bacteria, and we wonder why we have this in our streets.

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It's obvious. It's interesting. I mentioned the Covenanters and the Puritans. We have to understand that the people, the believers, the believers who sacrificed so much to establish this nation, and it was far before 1776, they were preaching into the culture.

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They were teaching. The biblical worldview was in the atmosphere. Justice was pointed to on the basis of the word of God.

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If you were to look at the colonies as they were setting up communities and setting up governments and all the rest, that wasn't a question.

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It was not a question. What's just? What's righteous? What do we point to?

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You can see it today. Go look it up. If they were setting up the rules in their city and their town, they pointed to the triune

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God of the scriptures. If they were pointing to issues of justice, they would quote literally directly from Deuteronomy, Leviticus.

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Our first Supreme Court justice, John Jay, when he was creating America's case law system, which is based upon Moses, you're welcome, secularists.

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When he was creating the case law system in the United States of America, he pointed directly to, quoted from, the

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Old Testament law as a basis of the case law system in the United States of America. So we look at all the injustice around us today.

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We hear people yelling out. They're saying, justice, justice, no justice, no peace. They're saying, social justice, justice matters, all this matters.

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And the answer is, what are you talking about? You know nothing about justice.

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You're not pointing to anything outside of yourself and your own experience. You think you're autonomous.

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You deny God and you want justice. That's the image of God pouring out of them. They know the

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God of all of creation, but they're rebelling against him. But they can't avoid the issue of justice.

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And we have it all around us. People are crying out for justice. And the amazing thing is, and this is the disheartening thing, is many evangelicals today don't have an answer.

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They don't have an answer. They don't have a response. They think that these are secular things. It's outside of the realm of the authority of the church or really the prophetic vision of the church or need of the church.

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You see, those are secular issues, but we are concerned with the spiritual issues. Jesus isn't really concerned with justice in this life, in this world.

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What he's concerned about is he's saving you from your sins and having you leave behind your humanity in this physical cosmos so you can just go be in heaven with him one day.

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You see, according to the basic evangelical perspective, the earth is essentially a throwaway.

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This world is in sin. It's going to hell in a handbasket. Why bother polishing brass on a sinking ship, right?

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And why do you have so many evangelicals bowing down to Marxist organizations and following all of these evil, humanistic, worldly mindsets?

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Why do you have them yielding on things that are clearly not biblical or in accord with biblical worldview?

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Why? Because they don't have a coherent worldview that sees Jesus and his word as ultimate, as supreme, as the reference point.

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So they go along with the emotionalism of the unbelievers and they follow them and they abandon Christ and the biblical worldview while they do it.

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But it's interesting here because in Christian history and, of course, most importantly in God's word,

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Christians have understood that God is concerned with justice in this life, in this world.

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He's concerned with justice. And one of the things, here it is, that was good news about the kingdom, about the rule of the

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Messiah. I asked you, what would you say to articulate that? One of the things besides salvation, which is packed in there, it is all a part of it, one of the things that was good news about the kingdom is the establishment of justice and righteousness in this life and in this world.

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And it was through reconciling sinners to God through the work of Messiah.

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And as they were reconciled to God through the peace that Messiah himself brings, through his perfect life and death and resurrection, they experienced new life.

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They experienced the indwelling of God's spirit. They experienced God, Ezekiel 36, causing them to obey his statutes.

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You see, part of the good news of the kingdom is the Messiah. Here it is. I'll just wrap it up in something

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Jesus says, one of my favorites. Behold, I'm making all things new. Behold, I'm making all things new.

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Did you catch that real fast? Reminder, it doesn't say, behold, I'm making all new things. Stop and think about it.

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That's a big deal. I'm making all new things. No, he says, I'm making all things new.

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Jesus is about resurrection. He's about renewal. He's about restoration.

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The gospel of the kingdom. It's interesting here because watch this. If you talk to Jewish people today who actually believe that the

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Torah is the actual word of God, that the Tanakh is the actual word of the living God, Jewish people who actually say,

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I believe that these are the words of God, literally, and I must believe them, they know what the

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Bible says about Messiah. We have the same Old Testament. We've got the same books. Same books. We're reading the same texts.

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And those Jewish people today will reject many evangelicals' proclamation of the gospel, and here's why.

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Because there's no kingdom in it. Did you catch it?

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Because there's no kingdom in that message. No rule. No justice.

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No righteousness through Messiah and his work in the world. And many Jewish people today will hear the evangelical message about a personal relationship with Jesus and salvation, and they'll say, okay, but where's the kingdom?

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Where's the justice? Where's the righteousness? Where's the nations coming to God? Where's the rule of the

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Messiah? Because the Old Testament speaks very, very, very clearly about the mission of the

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Messiah, and it's not simply salvation and private relationships with the

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Messiah. It is justice. It is righteousness. And remember I pointed you to a text. I said,

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Matthew is quoting from a text. I said, do you know where it's from? And no one raised their hands, and that's okay because I didn't know either before.

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But I said, do you actually know where this is from? Because if you have sent out Christmas cards or have been given one, it's the text from Isaiah chapter 9, 6 through 7.

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Unto us, what is it, a son and a child? You know this, right? By the way, do you know how epic that is?

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How awesome? Go to the text. I'm going to show you. Have it in front of your eyes. How incredible this text is,

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Isaiah 9, 6 through 7. You can see the first half of chapter 9 is where Matthew is pointing us, right?

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So Matthew says, hey, Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness, and here's

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Isaiah 9. It's what we were expecting, but here's the rest of Isaiah 9, verse 6.

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For to us a child is born, and to us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called

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Wonderful Counselor, El Gibor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace.

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Here it is. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

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On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness, from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will do this. That's incredible. First of all, for a monotheistic

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Jew to be writing over 600 years before Jesus. By the way, if you didn't know this, we have a scroll of Isaiah from the

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Dead Sea Scrolls found in a late fort in the 1940s of last century. Little shepherd boy named

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Muhammad's throwing rocks into caves. You hear something crash. They go down there. They find the Dead Sea Scrolls. There's like all kinds of things rolled up in these pots.

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They were buried there about 200 years before Jesus was born in the incarnation.

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And inside those pots were scrolls of the works of the Bible, other materials, just neat stuff.

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But Isaiah, a full scroll of Isaiah was in the Dead Sea Scrolls. We have it today. You can go online. You can look at the entire thing.

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You won't be able to read it, but just know it's awesome. It's awesome. It's all there. This whole thing is right there, buried.

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But it was written over 600 years before Jesus came. And a monotheistic

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Jew, one God only, over 600 years before Messiah comes, says that this is going to be a child.

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Okay, that's a human. A son. Okay, definitely a human. And it says he will be wonderful counselor.

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Those are names of Yahweh, the only God in the Old Testament, and El Gabor, the mighty

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God, the father of eternity. There's only one eternal God. So this must have been very perplexing for Jews when

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Isaiah wrote this. It might have been weird for him. Wait, a child, a son, a human, but it's

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Yahweh? There's only one God. What does this mean?

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But notice what the promise is in this text that's quoted by Matthew in Matthew 4.

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The promise is that Messiah is coming, and it says, watch this, of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

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That's a movement upwards. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

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And it says, on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth forevermore.

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Wow. Why is the gospel of the kingdom good news?

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Justice and righteousness and peace in this world, in this fallen sinful world, is actually good news.

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That's good news. Isn't it amazing? The secularists, they know it. Christians have checked out.

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Justice? I'm going to heaven. Justice? Righteousness? Ah, I'm going to heaven one day.

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Just waiting for the rapture. All right? That's the story.

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We can't wait to get out of here and abandon the world. And here we have all these fallen sinful image bearers of God, the unbelievers all around us, and they can't escape as image bearers of God the cry of justice.

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And so Christians have abandoned the culture and God's standards of justice, left it to the secularists, left it to the unbelievers who are still in the image of God and recognize that justice is a thing and it's a necessary thing.

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So they're over here trying to work out and build a world that has justice, but they have no idea what justice is.

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They have no standards. And the Christians, the bride of Christ, we've generally checked out.

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And when we do follow them, we follow their standards of justice and righteousness, not

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God's. But this gospel is the gospel of a kingdom. And if you think to yourself right now, wow, that's pretty amazing.

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That's comprehensive. That's beautiful. Yes, Jesus is on the throne now. By the way, we believe that, don't we?

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You believe it? Pause for a second. I'm going to challenge you. Do you believe Jesus is on his throne now? Yes. Is he seated at the right hand of the

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Father? Yes. Is he ruling and reigning now? Yes. Then he's on the throne of David. We're not waiting for it.

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Sorry to burst your bubble. But we're not waiting for a throne for Jesus to sit on. He is ascended and seated now.

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And if he's ascended and seated now, and king of kings, and Lord of lords, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, that's what

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Revelation says, today, then that means that he is on that mission to bring about his government increase and peace in the world to establish justice and righteousness.

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That's good news. And if you think to yourself as you look around, man, we are in trouble because we've got a lot of work to do.

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I'm glad you're thinking that way. Praise God for that. But I've got some encouragement for you. Number one, don't forget that this movement started following a

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Palestinian crucified Jew about 2 ,000 years ago. There were in the desert about 11 very confused disciples.

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One betrayed Jesus, and the rest of them were like, what are we going to do? What happened?

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And people say oftentimes, man, the world, Jeff, how can you think that Jesus is going to have victory over the world and the gospel is going to conquer everything?

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Man, you know, I was just reading on my phone today, and I was sending like a video. I was doing a FaceTime today with my friend in New Zealand.

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We're talking about Jesus and how awful the world is right now. I was preaching the gospel the other day on FaceTime to like 200 people.

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Man, the world's going to hell in a handbasket. It's awful. Eleven very confused disciples following a murdered

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Palestinian Jew. And we have Christians now who yield to Yahweh, worship and love the

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Lord God of Israel all over the globe today because of Jesus. People say, man, we're really losing history here, guys.

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We can't look at just a little moment we're in and say this expresses the end of the world and it's the end of all things.

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You know, it's really an incredible thing to me for people to have a city that's filled with Christian churches, faithful Christian churches to see evil around them.

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And everyone says, I guess we're losing. Really? Eleven very confused disciples at the beginning. We have Christians all over the planet today.

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There was a report that came out recently that said if the church in China keeps going the way that they are, that like by the year 2030,

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Christianity would be the dominant religion in China. And we're losing. No, see, what it is is where Americans as Americans were arrogant.

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And we think that we're the bright and shining star on the hill, America. And if America is not doing well, then the kingdom of God is failing.

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What? That is arrogance. That is arrogance. Jesus is on his throne and he judges nations for not obeying him.

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Obey the sun or you'll perish. Psalm 2 says obey the sun or you'll perish.

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Maybe America is going to perish for not obeying the sun. Does that mean that the sun is no longer reigning on his throne, ruling with justice and righteousness forevermore?

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No. And the answer is, here's the hope we have for the future. It's not in you. It's not in me.

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It's not in our temporary generational experience. I got news for you.

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You're going to die. Right. I'm going to die. And I believe we have a long way to go because you know what?

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The way the Bible talks about the kingdom of God in history as victorious and Christ reigning in his dominion and justice and righteousness,

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I say we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. And your life counts for it all.

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Jesus builds his kingdom like mustard seeds that grow into trees. You might be thinking, like, what am I? How big of a deal am

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I? All I got is, you know, some moms are like, I guess I'm just a homeschool mom. What? You mean you're raising the next heroes?

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Right? You mean you're investing your life to raise the next heroes of next generation? And you're just like a homeschool mom?

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You're a giant of the faith. You're the one that's developing and growing the next heroes of the faith.

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But everything we do counts. It's like leaven in a lump of dough. Everything counts. But in the end, it's not you.

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God can work through the most incredible means. And he turns little seeds into trees. And he takes leaven and he permeates the entirety of the loaf with it.

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He takes little stones, Daniel chapter 2, and turns them into mountains that fill the entire earth. By the way, that's how the kingdom of God is promised in the

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Old Testament. It's small to large growth. So much for the kingdom of God dropping on history and obliterating it.

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It starts small and it grows large. But here it is. This is the encouragement. Isaiah chapter 9, same text. It says this.

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How's it going to happen? The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

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It's not you. It is not me. It's not my broken, falling, short life or yours that accomplishes

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God's grand things through our own strength and power. It's the God of all creation who is actually sovereign and accomplishing his will.

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The text says he does according to his will. The host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay his hand and say,

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What have you done? He declares the end from the beginning. He's the sovereign.

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Jesus will have dominion. You see, quickly,

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I'll just do this fast. I can't give you the entire thing because we do need to talk about abortion. The promise was clear.

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Matthew knew it. Jesus knew it. John the Baptist knew it. Paul knew it. They preached it. They talked about it. Number one,

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Abraham's descendants were going to be as numerous as the what? As numerous as the stars.

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And it was going to be like the sand on the seashore. That's a heck of a lot of descendants. You ever looked up?

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You ever seen with no light pollution the galaxy we're in? One time

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I was on a cruise and out in the ocean, no light pollution, and I went up to the top and I looked.

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It takes your breath away. If you haven't ever seen it, I encourage you to try it sometime, just to look at the stars.

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That's supposed to say something. And I believe in Abraham's day there was probably very little light pollution. So when

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God says to him, it's like what you're seeing every night. Your descendants are going to be like that.

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That's overwhelming. That's not small. That's not the minority. And when

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Jesus says, it's like the sand on the seashore, people in Florida are like, dang. Right?

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You know. You know. Some people are like, I don't quite grasp that.

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But you know. I was just the other day, we had a few moments, so we drove to the beach, and I stuck my hand into the sand, just one little bit of sand.

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It was a huge, huge beach. And I stuck my hand in and I just let it fall. And I looked at all the little pieces that were stuck to my hand.

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I said, there's no way to even count this. And God says his descendants, through Messiah, were going to be like the sand on the seashore.

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Where did we ever get the idea that we fail in history? Where? Genesis 49 .10,

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same book, beginning of the Bible. It says that Shiloh is coming, and to him shall be the obedience of the nations. To him shall be the obedience of the nations.

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That's the promise of the sovereign God. Do you believe it? To him shall be the obedience of the nations. And it's what, by the way, the apostle

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Paul quoted at the beginning of Romans and the end of Romans. Romans 1, Romans 16. He makes sure that he bookends his gospel with the promise that the purpose of the gospel and what

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Paul is doing is to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name.

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He knows Genesis 49 .10. It's in the back of his mind. And he puts it at his explanation of the gospel. You've got to hear it.

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Romans 1, Romans 16. The obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name.

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That's where we're going. That's where history is going. Isaiah chapter 2. I won't read the whole text, but I wanted to remind you of something.

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I stressed the word. I don't know if you caught me. I stressed the word on purpose. I talked about Satan who brought

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Jesus to a very high mountain. Matthew knows his

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Old Testament. He makes sure he includes that. Because in Isaiah 2, there's a promise of Messiah's kingdom.

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You know what it says? It says that in Messiah's kingdom, the mountain of the house of the

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Lord will be established as the highest of the mountains. And it says all the nations will flow to it.

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They'll stream to it. By the way, it's really weird. If you didn't know this, water goes down. Water streams down.

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But for some reason in Isaiah's vision, this mountain is way up there. And it says the nations are streaming up.

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They're being drawn. And it says that the law is going to go forth from Zion, from the people of God.

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So as God establishes his kingdom and he draws the nations, the law goes forth from the people of God.

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God's standards of justice and righteousness are a constituent element of the gospel of the kingdom, what makes it such good news.

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I read to you Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, the promise of what God's going to do. I want you to see this, and then we're going to move right into the discussion about the issue of abortion.

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By the way, I think I can do everything I can to tell you about the atrocities of abortion, the decapitation, the disemboweling of little boys and girls in the womb.

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I could show you pictures. I can talk to you about how evil this thing is. And I think that that is strong enough to motivate most believers to love neighbor and to go out there and to save lives.

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But I think you have to have something underneath you that provides a foundation for this fight. And it has to be these words.

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It can't just be, go save lives. Because that runs out. We're sinful. We're selfish.

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We run out of steam. We do. We run out of steam. We run out of zeal. We run out of passion.

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It happens to all of us. But when you have these words of God as your hope, they're the things that give you strength.

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They're the things that give you more zeal. They're the things that cause you to persevere. God's word doesn't return void.

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I want you to see it. Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42.

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This is another one of those promises of Messiah's kingdom and why it's called the gospel of the kingdom.

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It's good news of his kingdom. Here's what it is. You've read it before. You know it. You've heard it.

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It says in verse 1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.

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I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations.

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He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.

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So this Messiah who's going to establish justice is humble. He's full of peace.

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But here's what it says. He will faithfully bring forth justice.

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He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth.

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Here. And the coastlands wait for his

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Torah. His law. Do you get the picture there?

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Here's Messiah, God's servant who will not grow faint. He will not grow weary.

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He's not like you. He's not like me. He doesn't lose steam and energy.

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He doesn't get tired and worn out. He doesn't give up. He will not grow faint. He will not grow weary until he has established justice.

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Here. And the coastlands are like sitting there. They're just like looking out. They're looking out waiting.

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Waiting for God's law. Waiting for his standards of justice to be established.

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Waiting for the goodness of God's law to be present around them. And it comes through this servant of the

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Lord, God's chosen, who is going to bring forth justice in the earth. Do you know why that was such good news? Can you imagine?

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Stop for a second. Just stop and think about this for a second. You're there in Jesus' time. Jesus just came out of the wilderness, the perfect Israelite, conquering evil and sin.

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He came for the kingdoms of the world. That message is quoted from Isaiah. This is the one. This is the Prince of Peace.

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This is El Gabor who's going to establish justice and righteousness. And all of a sudden, you see him coming into your town, and he tells you,

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Turn. The kingdom of God is at hand. And he's the

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Messiah. You've been reading in synagogue, you've been hearing it, that there's a Messiah. He's coming.

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He's going to establish justice in the earth. There's going to be true justice in the world. God's going to have victory over this earth.

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He will never give up on that mission. And all of a sudden, Jesus walks into the synagogue and stands in front of you. And you're like,

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This is the one. This is the one. It's kind of weird because he's really humble.

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Right? How's he going to rule the world? How's he going to establish justice? How? Well, that looks like Isaiah chapter 42.

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It looks just like it. But amazingly, the promise extends to this promise.

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I'm going to leave you with this one on the promises because this is the New Testament. In the New Testament, this is the most quoted verse in the

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New Testament from the Old Testament. So apparently, it's God's favorite Bible verse because it's used the most.

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It's Psalm 1101. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

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Is Jesus sitting there now? Yes? What's God say he's going to do? Make all your enemies a footstool for your feet.

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Just read it later. First Corinthians chapter 15. The Apostle Paul gives an inspired timeline of history. An inspired timeline of history.

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Whatever you think about the future of the world, here's what the inspired apostle says about history. Jesus is reigning now, and he must reign until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

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And the last enemy will be death. So the Apostle Paul says, here's where history is going.

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Every enemy under the feet of Jesus, and then finally, death will be destroyed. So you look around you today as a believer, and you might be saying, wow.

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We've got a lot of work to do. My answer is yes, we do. We have so much work to do.

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And all of your lives count like mustard seeds that grow into large trees.

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That's how God establishes, builds, grows his kingdom is through means that most of the time the world says that's impossible.

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That's not possible. So I'm going to talk to you about this issue of justice. And I'm going to show you from that same book,

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Isaiah chapter 1. God's concern for justice. We're going to talk about the issue of abortion.

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I know there are so many issues of injustice all around us. If I had a week with you, we would touch maybe a half a percent.

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But here's a big one that's happening all around us right now. And it concerns the image of God being slaughtered here.

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By the way, this is Polk County? Polk County. We have in Polk County one abortion mill left.

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You've got one. We probably have ten in the Phoenix area.

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You've got one left. So, does

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God change? You can pretend you're Baptist for today. God change? Okay. Nope.

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He does not change. And here's what God says in Isaiah chapter 1.

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Not only does he promise justice in the future, but in Isaiah chapter 1, here's what he says. Isaiah 1 .10.

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Here's how God talks to his people. Okay? Could you use the word today? Christians. Here's how he's talking to Christian churches.

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People are professing to love Yahweh. They're God's covenant people. Here's how he talks to the church.

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He says, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teachings of our

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God, you people of Gomorrah. If you didn't know, I'll remind you, that's not a compliment. That's a serious indictment.

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In the modern, it'd be like God speaking to American Christian churches or churches around the world and saying things like, hear the word of the

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Lord, you rulers of Auschwitz. Get it? Like that place of misery, destruction, evil, sin, wickedness.

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And God says to his church, he uses that title for them. And it says this, what to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the

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Lord? I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well -fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.

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When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?

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Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me.

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New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

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Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They have become a burden to me.

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I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers,

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I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves.

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Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

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Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression.

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Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause. So here's

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God saying to his people, his covenant people, he's saying to them, don't want your worship, my soul hates it.

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My soul hates your worship. I won't listen. You can say all your prayers.

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You can lift up your hands. And I won't listen. I hate your worship. Your hands are full of blood.

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And isn't it interesting because you think, my goodness, God is responding to the covenant people in a way where he's saying,

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I've commanded you to worship me, but stop. I don't want you to worship me. I'm tired of your songs.

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I'm tired of you lifting your hands. I'm tired of you praying. And why? He says, your hands are full of blood.

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And here's what he says to them. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

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Stop. Stop doing evil. Here it is, right after. Seek justice.

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Stop doing evil. Seek justice. Correct oppression.

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Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause.

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That's powerful. God tells his own people, he says, I don't want your worship. Stop trying to bring it.

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I don't want it. I hate it. And he says, here's what I want you to do. Make yourselves clean. Cease to do evil.

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Seek justice. Correct oppression. He says, bring justice to the fatherless. And by the way, this is right before that famous Christian verse that many of us know, that's like on posters and little paintings and, you know, postcards and cups and all the rest.

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And it's this famous one. It's a beautiful one. It's come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they should be as white as snow.

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Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. That famous one about God's forgiveness that we all hang onto.

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Praise you, God, for your forgiveness and taking my sins and making them white as snow.

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It comes right on the heels of the passage where God says, I don't want your worship. Cease doing evil.

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Seek justice. Correct oppression. And he says, what about the fatherless? Protect the fatherless.

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These children who are being slaughtered in the womb, they are fatherless children.

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Do you stop to think about that? They are abandoned by their fathers and mothers. Yes, we often think about the mothers, of course, but they're fatherless children.

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They're children who have been abandoned by fathers. They have no fathers who care for them or love them.

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I was just in Orlando a couple days ago. Some of you guys may have seen the live stream. I was just in Orlando at the spot of one of my heroes of the faith, a giant of the faith.

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He's saved thousands of babies to the degree that after 16 years of preaching at the same killing center, he's literally worn the sidewalk down.

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You can see where he's worn the sidewalk down. It's incredible. It's a monument to the faithfulness of the people of God, saving thousands of children, and his mark is there.

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I think when we end abortion, we need to literally build a historic monument in that location with his feet because he's worn the sidewalk down.

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But I was just there the other day, and it was amazing because just being there for a short time period, you're there for a couple of hours, you see mothers and fathers going in.

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You're never going to get over it. You will never get over it. You can't. You will always end up crying.

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You can go six months at the abortion mill, save 100 babies, and think, okay, I'm in the thing.

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I know what this is like. I'm used to this now. And you're always going to end up crying. Why? Well, because when you're there, you realize the reality of the situation.

59:52

This is not in theory that people are murdering their sons and daughters. It's happening 15 feet from me.

01:00:00

They're slaughtering little boys and girls inside this location, and there's these fathers, after they deliver their women, their wives or girlfriends or whoever inside, they'll usually pull off blasting their music.

01:00:13

They'll come back an hour later or what have you. They come back, and now it's this horrifying scene where they go in to get the mother who's just slaughtered her own child, but she's drugged up on medication from the surgery, so she can't walk on her own.

01:00:26

So now you have fathers who've abandoned their children, and they're carrying the mothers out like this. You're watching the moms stumble outside of the abortion mill.

01:00:35

That's the scene. Fatherless children slaughtered inside these abortion mills.

01:00:42

I know this is one issue of injustice. There are so many more. But this is one to the tune of 60 million -plus dead image -bearers of God in this nation.

01:00:57

And I have to warn you about something in that number. Since Roe, we say 60 million -plus. That is nowhere near the real number, because we're not even considering the

01:01:07

Plan B pill, where women get pregnant, they go to Target, they buy a Plan B pill, they kill their child and then flush it down the toilet.

01:01:16

There's no way to calculate how many children we've actually killed. We talk about the Holocaust and places like Auschwitz, and we're talking about less than 10 million.

01:01:27

And America has slaughtered 60 -plus million innocent babies?

01:01:35

In other words, they're victims? And we wonder, why is our nation going the way it's going?

01:01:41

Why is this happening to us? Oh, God, why is this happening to us? I want to know how we've made it this long without being wiped off the face of the planet.

01:01:50

60 million -plus, and every single day, we have the tune of 3 ,000 to 4 ,000 babies murdered in our streets, every single day.

01:02:01

I'm not trying to play with your emotions. I hope you understand that. I'm not giving you a motivational speech, and I am not trying to play with your emotions.

01:02:07

I'm just telling you the truth. It's the truth. They're murdering these babies. And what does

01:02:13

God say? Here's the unchanging God. Here's the unchanging God. It's one of the things that's in my test, by the way, about God's attributes,

01:02:19

His character. He doesn't change. It's one of the important elements to understand about the character of God, about the attributes of God.

01:02:29

He does not change. And when He says to His people in Isaiah, cease doing evil, seek justice, correct oppression,

01:02:40

He's the same God today as He was then. And He's as concerned with justice today on the earth as He was then.

01:02:50

Salvation of sinners in Christ doesn't erase the character and desires of God.

01:02:59

And so if He says to the covenant people in Isaiah 1, I don't want your worship.

01:03:05

Stop. Cease doing evil. And seek justice and correct oppression. And He says, these fatherless children, care for them.

01:03:13

Do something about it. There's a number of things we can talk about in terms of fatherless children. Like, I'll give you an example.

01:03:19

One of the things that's really important, I had a conversation with somebody the other day. He said, Jeff, we're with you 100%. Let's do this.

01:03:25

We're going to help. Let's end abortion. Let's criminalize it. Let's call it murder. Let's do it. But I've got to ask you a question. What are we doing about the issue of adoption?

01:03:32

Because we can tell the world, stop murdering your babies. But then what do we do when it's criminalized and it's over? We've got all these children that Christians don't do anything about.

01:03:42

I know Christians adopt babies. I adopted a baby. I might be adopting two more. Pray for me.

01:03:47

Your next six months. We've got adopted babies all over Apologia Church. But you know what the answer is?

01:03:53

We're not adopting enough babies. We're telling the world, stop killing your babies. Stop killing your babies. And then these foster care systems are filled with children.

01:04:00

And we just turn our heads like they're not there. Someone else got that. The state's got that taken care of. They call them wards of the state.

01:04:08

Wards. I won't go into details, but I had a conversation with somebody recently. Represents the state.

01:04:14

And wouldn't even use the name of the child. She kept saying, the ward, the ward, the ward.

01:04:21

The ward. All these adoption. These children available for adoption.

01:04:27

We have to care about this. We have to care about this. Now are all of us called to do exactly the same thing on this issue of abortion?

01:04:35

And the issue of adoption? No. Are you all called to stand outside of every abortion mill every single day?

01:04:41

Like John Barrows, the giant. And preach the gospel there every single day? No, some of you guys have jobs.

01:04:47

You have to work. You have to feed your family. Some of you guys are homeschooling moms. You can't make it out there. Some of you guys are elderly.

01:04:52

You can't get out there every single day. But you know what? The answer is God commands you to do something about the injustice around you.

01:05:00

Something. What can you do? Maybe you can go preach the gospel out there. Can I just give you some encouragement?

01:05:06

I'm new to this. I'm not a professional. I'm not the best at this. There's giants way bigger giants and more amazing men and women of God than I'll ever be who have been out there fighting this battle long before me.

01:05:19

Long before me. It saved so many thousands of children, and they are silent heroes no one will ever hear about. I came into this in the last decade.

01:05:26

I was always, of course, as a Christian pro -life. But I didn't understand that the pro -life industry and pro -life movement isn't trying to end abortion and call it murder and decriminalize it.

01:05:34

They're trying to regulate it. They have no intention of ending it justly. Now, today, they actually work against bills to criminalize the issue of abortion in states that we've tried to get it in around the country.

01:05:49

But we started going to the abortion mill. I didn't know what I was doing. What did I know as a minister of the gospel? I knew this. That's the image of God.

01:05:55

What did I know? This is murder. What did I know? The gospel. So we went out there, and all we said was a very simple message.

01:06:02

We said to the mothers as they went in, we said, Please don't murder your child, Mom. Please don't murder your child. Jesus can save sinners like you.

01:06:10

Turn from your sin to Christ. There's forgiveness. We'll help you. What can we do for you? I mean, look, we're on our knees out there.

01:06:15

Ma 'am, please don't murder your child today. Please don't do this awful thing. We'll adopt your baby. We'll give you a place to live.

01:06:22

Do you need medical care? Do you need anything at all? Just don't murder your child. We'll do whatever it takes.

01:06:28

We didn't know anything except that. We weren't professionals. We didn't know what we were doing. My first day out there,

01:06:34

I'll be honest, was terrifying. Going to Planned Parenthood, holding signs of slaughtered babies, and calling out to strangers saying,

01:06:42

Please, Mom, don't kill your baby, is a terrifying thing for anybody. But the very first day we went, within two hours, two mothers turned away.

01:06:55

Two moms, two babies are alive today because we went out there not knowing what we were doing, just preaching the gospel.

01:07:02

And then we started saving babies all the time. We'd preach the gospel. We'd save babies. We'd talk about it on Apology Radio.

01:07:08

Hey, we saved two more babies this weekend. So other churches started saying, Hey, how are you doing that? We were like, we don't know. We're preaching the gospel.

01:07:16

We're just going out there as a church and preaching the gospel. We're being available. We're offering help. We're offering to love them. So then

01:07:23

God gave us the opportunity to do end abortion now, to raise up churches around the world, and to give them free training and free resources, and to help them to get out there on the streets as well.

01:07:31

And there's like 500 some odd churches right now that signed up with us. They're out saving lives. There's literally thousands and thousands and thousands of babies alive today.

01:07:40

Not because we're amazing, not because we're mighty, but because Christians just like you went out to the abortion facilities to preach the gospel and lay their lives down for the sake of those children.

01:07:50

They're alive today, alive today, because Christians just like you went out there to preach the gospel at the abortion mill. Our church has saved 400 children from death.

01:07:59

I've held some of these babies in my arms. That'll change you forever. That'll change you forever. I've got two twin girls that every once in a while, they'll come back to church.

01:08:07

They're not members of our church, but she'll come to church, and these two little girls, Olivia, Grace, and Carol, will run around in front of the pulpit during service.

01:08:14

I let them. I let them. Other kids, I would...

01:08:21

I'm just joking. I'm joking. My kids, I would... But, you know, two little twin girls run in front of the pulpit.

01:08:30

They were saved. They're alive. You're watching. Oh, my gosh. If she wasn't there, if she wasn't there to preach the gospel, if she didn't stop her from murdering her...

01:08:39

These two little girls are out of existence. That happens all the time. It's every day.

01:08:44

We were at John's location this week there, and they had two or three turnaways, women who were scheduled to murder their children, and because they were there and they talked to these girls, they turned away from murdering their children.

01:09:00

That's really complicated to think about. To be honest, just think about the complications of that for your own heart and your own mind.

01:09:06

What if I hadn't gone? Right? God is sovereign, but what if I hadn't gone? What if I wasn't there?

01:09:14

Those three babies, dead. I'm not trying to manipulate you. I'm not trying to play with your emotions.

01:09:19

I'm just speaking the truth to you. When you go as a church, you save lives. When you don't, and we don't fight against this evil, people die.

01:09:27

Children die. They're dead. We know how many are dead. Somewhat. A lot. So some

01:09:34

Christians are called to go out to that abortion mill to preach the gospel regularly, faithfully. Churches, get out there.

01:09:39

Guys, close down that last abortion mill. Close it down. Close it down.

01:09:45

Preach the gospel. We closed down Planned Parenthood and Tempe. They had to move to the other side of town because they couldn't deal with us all the time.

01:09:52

Standing outside this location, the landlord was like, Get out! Planned Parenthood had to move because the landlord had enough.

01:09:59

All the businesses around were like, We can't take this anymore. You've got to get Planned Parenthood out of here. These people are not letting go.

01:10:06

And they finally had to move across town and buy a location rather than lease it because they couldn't deal with a landlord that would let them stay there.

01:10:13

They moved. Close it down. How? Preach the gospel. Call them to stop murdering their children. Offer help and hope.

01:10:20

Save children. Care for these fatherless children. Uphold justice. Seek it. Correct oppression.

01:10:26

Go out there. Obey God. Do that. But then there's one more aspect I want to just point you to. I don't have all the time today to talk about it, but I do want to speak to it to give you some encouragement.

01:10:34

We knew at the beginning of this that this is an issue of justice. Jesus cares. Our nation needs to obey

01:10:40

Jesus. We need to preach the gospel. People need to be saved. Their hearts need to be changed. That's the only way this is going to end.

01:10:46

It has to be about the gospel, and we need to make this about speaking prophetically also to the legislature and tell them to criminalize abortion.

01:10:53

Now, don't regulate. We're not looking for heartbeat bills. We're not saying, well, 18 weeks you can slaughter.

01:11:01

Maybe not over 24 weeks. Kill the babies that are this small, but not maybe that big. This is murder.

01:11:07

That's the image of God from conception. Thou shall not kill. We just read it up here, right?

01:11:14

You shall not kill. That's the issue. And we knew we couldn't just go to the abortion mills and save the children who are being slaughtered there.

01:11:21

We needed to end the tap. It's turned on. We got to stop it. And the way to do that is speak to the legislatures prophetically.

01:11:28

So we started a movement across the country where ministers and mothers and fathers and children, children, little boys and girls were going to the legislature during city council and everything else when they were convening.

01:11:43

Then you have little girls walking up to a microphone preaching the gospel to the magistrates.

01:11:52

The gospel, right? And saying, I want immediate justice for these children.

01:11:58

Please stop the murder of these children immediately. It started a movement across the country. Bills have started to actually happen around the country the last couple of years.

01:12:07

They're putting in bills now calling it murder, establishing justice immediately. The pro -life movement has been the biggest opponent of those bills.

01:12:15

Did you know that? We're truly pro -life Christians who want an immediate end to abortion.

01:12:22

We need to overcome all of that inconsistency. But we've been going to our legislature in Arizona right now.

01:12:28

I've been in the ear of some of the most important legislators in my state over the last couple of months in private meetings, face -to -face.

01:12:35

I have one legislator right now who's committed to call it murder and put a bill in to criminalize it immediately next session.

01:12:44

It's happening because Christians speak the truth. They are courageous, not in and of themselves, but they're trusting in the sovereign

01:12:53

God who changes things through His gospel and His word. We have to go also to the legislative aspect, call it what it is, call it murder, and end it.

01:13:04

We need to establish justice for these pre -born children. And if you say, well, are they required to obey

01:13:12

Jesus? Do I have the authority to preach to magistrates today that they must obey Jesus, that He has authority over them?

01:13:20

I would say, I can give you a number of verses that demonstrate so. I think Matthew 28, 18 through 20, is a big one.

01:13:25

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. It's a thing you quote all the time. King of kings and Lord of lords, ruler of the kings of the earth.

01:13:33

We know those passages, but Psalm chapter 2, it says this in verse 8.

01:13:44

This is, by the way, in your Old Testament. It's long before Jesus comes. The Father is speaking to the

01:13:51

Son. How do you like them Trinitarian apples? Psalm chapter 2, verse 8, it says this.

01:14:00

Ask of me, the Father is saying to Jesus, ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.

01:14:14

One of my teachers and mentors, he was with the Lord before. I've never met him, but through his ministry and seminary courses,

01:14:23

I had to take his lectures and everything. He said something that's always stuck with me. I'm going to share it with you. It's this.

01:14:29

Do you think Jesus forgot to ask? Ask of me,

01:14:34

I'll give you the nations for your inheritance and the very ends of the earth for your possession. Do you think Jesus forgot to ask?

01:14:40

We know he didn't. When he ascended, he said, all authority, heaven, earth, mine, go get them.

01:14:48

Teach them to obey me. The Father has a warning now to the kings of the earth.

01:14:54

He says this. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the

01:14:59

Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son or obey the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

01:15:11

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. The kings of the earth, the rulers of this world, are called to obey

01:15:19

God's Messiah, Jesus. Our message is a message of salvation and forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ and in him alone.

01:15:29

The call of the world is essentially this. Jesus is king over the world. He lived perfectly, died for sinners, and rose again from the dead.

01:15:36

He's ascended and seated. You better repent and believe in a hurry. Be saved in Jesus Christ alone. And we say to the world, no king but Christ.

01:15:44

There is no king but Christ. He is the ruler of the world and you must obey Jesus. You must obey

01:15:49

Jesus. We have that message that goes out into the world. And my challenge to you is this.

01:15:58

The good news of the kingdom encompasses so much.

01:16:04

Salvation and forgiveness is in that, but it also has the story of God in his

01:16:10

Messiah through his bride bringing about justice and righteousness in the earth.

01:16:20

Stop and think about it for a second. The church is the bride of Christ, right? It's a beautiful picture.

01:16:26

The church is the bride of Christ. Adam is told, the first Adam, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, take dominion over the earth.

01:16:39

He fails. He fails to build God's garden and spread it throughout the entire world.

01:16:45

Jesus is the perfect Adam, what Adam was supposed to be. And Jesus has a bride.

01:16:52

When Adam was given a bride, what did God call her? His helpmeet.

01:16:59

She was to be Adam's helpmeet. As he went about bringing his dominion throughout the entire world, spreading

01:17:07

God's garden and presence around the entire world, he had a helpmeet alongside him.

01:17:14

The church is God's bride, Jesus' bride. We are the helpmeet of Christ as he goes about bringing

01:17:22

God's presence and garden around the world. And he takes dominion over the world.

01:17:28

We are his helpmeet as he establishes and grows that kingdom throughout the world and spreads his dominion.

01:17:37

We're the helpmeet. We're the means of God's grace in the world to establish not only that gospel proclamation but justice and righteousness in the world.

01:17:48

And so my challenge to you is this. You have image bearers of God being slaughtered all around you in this state.

01:17:56

What are you doing about it? What are you doing about it? Everyone has some responsibility.

01:18:06

It could be a question of what are you saying? What are you not saying when you ought to? What's the message you're telling the world?

01:18:13

Are you calling what God calls it? Murder? Are you calling people to repentance and faith from the sin of abortion?

01:18:20

Are you going to the abortion mills if God is calling you there? Are you going there to save lives, to help those mothers and fathers, to preach the gospel to them and to save those children?

01:18:32

Are you working to adopt the fatherless children that these women are abandoning? Are you doing anything about it?

01:18:39

Are you speaking up in all these social media platforms? By the way, understand, social media today is the public square.

01:18:46

In the book of Acts, they went out into the public square preaching the gospel constantly. That's where the church worked.

01:18:52

They went to the world and they went in the public square and started riots. People wanted them dead.

01:18:59

That's called successful evangelism. You get it? Like, oh, I want to make people like me and I want to make sure

01:19:05

I have a good testimony. Right? I'll tell that to Peter and Paul. Like, they got people like taking oaths.

01:19:10

I'm not going to eat until Paul's dead! Right? Like, no one's ever taken an oath like to not eat until I'm dead.

01:19:17

I think I need to work a little harder on preaching the gospel better. But the public square is where people gather together.

01:19:25

They're meeting. That's where you need to go preach the gospel. All this social media, that's you speaking into the public square.

01:19:31

Do with grace. Do with humility. But speak the truth in the public square. The unbelievers are! Have you noticed that they have a mindset of take no prisoners, no compromise?

01:19:40

Why is that? Unbelievers have the mindset like take no prisoners, no compromise. This is our worldview.

01:19:46

It must be established. Where's the Christians? Our God reigns. He's the king.

01:19:54

No compromise should be us. We know what his law is, what his standards are, and we know the king of kings.

01:20:02

We should be the ones saying no compromise, no king but Christ. You must obey Jesus. So my challenge to you is what are you doing?

01:20:09

What are you doing to go save lives at the abortion mill? Some of you guys might be saying, I can't. My health,

01:20:14

I just can't get out there. Great. Give somebody your money so they can go. These mothers who say, because they'll say to us, they'll say,

01:20:22

I can't afford to have this baby. You know what's amazing? There's times we didn't have the money in the first place. We said we'll pay for it.

01:20:29

We'll find a way. We'll raise the money. We'll pay for it. Don't kill your baby. We have Christians all over the world that we'll raise money together to pay for this but please don't kill your baby.

01:20:36

We'll pay for it. Sometimes it's just like they need $1 ,000 to like help them with medical stuff so maybe you can't go to the abortion mill.

01:20:44

Do you have $1 ,000 you can pay to save a life? I'm not asking for it. I don't want it. Don't give it to me but how about give it to save lives?

01:20:53

See I can't go to save lives at the mill. Do you have some money to give to them to help them? They need it. Or how about those of you guys that have connections to speak to your legislators to go tell them

01:21:03

I want immediate justice. I want immediate justice. This is murder. I want it to end now.

01:21:08

No more regulation. You're not pro -life if you're trying to regulate this. You're pro -life if you're an abolitionist.

01:21:14

You're trying to end it and criminalize it. That's pro -life. Stop the murder of children.

01:21:19

Christians need to be speaking the truth to both places. The abortion mill and to the legislature.

01:21:25

So what role will you take? Brothers and sisters he will not grow faint or weary until he's done so.

01:21:33

So you and I have hope. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this. Our role is to be faithful and obedient.

01:21:40

To lay your lives down for the sake of these fatherless children. Let's pray. Father please bless what went out today for your glory thank you for what you did here today.

01:21:52

I pray that you would use it to challenge us to grow us and I do pray Lord that you receive all the glory through all the justice you established because this message went out and you opened the eyes of your people.