John 16:12-15 (The Spirit and Revelation)

The Shepherd's Church

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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So far, we've learned a ton about the

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Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John We reviewed some of this last week, but just for our memory's sake

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I'd like to go over just really quickly again The Holy Spirit we've learned is the author of regeneration and new creation

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He's the one who hovers over the first creation and he's the one who comes down and hovers over the

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Saints in the upper room Making them a part of the new creation He's the one who draws them out of the world like he did with Noah hovering over the waters protecting them

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Against the wrath and the torrent of God's waves It's the one who hovers over his people like in the

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Red Sea where the walls were held at bay so that people could Exit Egypt and come into true freedom and us as Christians while we have not been saved by Egyptians at least

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I don't think that applies to any of us here this morning We have been saved from a greater enemy than Pharaoh Which is

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Satan sin and death and the Holy Spirit by his power has held those torrential waves at bay

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So that you and I could be saved Which means he rescues us from our enemies

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He's the one who gave us a good freedom He's the one who gives us new birth from above that makes us true worshippers who worship the

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Father in spirit and in truth who? Makes streams of living water flow out of our hearts to to flood the nation's

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He's the one who inhabits us makes us temples of the Living God He's our teacher our advocate our helper our gift giver our sanctifier and our companion

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And these are all things that we've learned so far in the first 15 chapters of the gospel of John Now that we're in the 16th chapter

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We've learned a new aspect of what the Holy Spirit does and we learned that last week that the Spirit brings the world up on charges

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The word paraclete means defense attorney and what the Spirit has done is he's brought the world up on charges for two very specific

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Crimes the first is that they send without a mediator The second is that they had no righteousness whereby that they may see

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God and because of the guilty verdict with those two crimes the Spirit ensures the judgment of all who are apart from Jesus and will pour out that judgment as Assuredly as the righteousness is poured out on believers through the

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Holy Spirit Judgment will be poured out on those who are the reprobate Now this is a comfort to the elect because we understand that God has seen us in our suffering

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That God cares for us in our pain and that God does not turn a blind eye to evil

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He is a righteous judge who sees wickedness and responds to it and deals with it and will eventually put away all unrighteousness

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Which is a great comfort to the church both now and forever Now today we're going to continue along in the travel discourse

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It's that moment of Scripture where the disciples have left the upper room in Jerusalem They've traveled quietly through the city.

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So it's not to be so it's not to be spotted. They've exited out of the city they've went down into the

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Kidron Valley and they're making their way up the Mount of Olives towards the Garden of Gethsemane and in that Travel time

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Jesus has been teaching them. He's been teaching them various things that we have called the marching orders

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These are the things that Jesus is getting ready to be arrested and leave his disciples And these are the essential things that they need to understand before he goes away

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We've seen that the disciples are filled with great sorrow, but Jesus is trying to encourage them

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That's actually better for him to go away So that he can send the Spirit of God now, we've been looking at this travel narrative for about Two months, so we're going a little slower than Jesus did the moment that it happened

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But we want to examine these things and understand them correctly Now today we're going to be looking at the next passage.

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That's up It's verses 12 through 15 of John 16. You can go ahead and turn there If you would like we'll be there in just a moment but we're gonna look at four things basically that the

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Spirit of God is going to do in the helping and the aiding of Believers and they all have to do with the Bible with Revelation with Scripture See the

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Holy Spirit also has a role in Scripture and we're gonna look at four things that the Spirit does today number one

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He's going to establish the canon of Scripture, which is a closed canon We're not waiting on more books of the

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Bible to show up. The canon is closed The second thing we're gonna see is that the revelation that the

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Spirit brings is a Trinitarian Revelation meaning that it is about Father Son and Holy Spirit and it communicates how we a broken people can be in Relationship with the

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Triune God the third thing we're gonna see is that this revelation is a near term eschatological revelation

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Which just means that the events that the New Testament Describes are prime dominantly and and the majority of them are about things that are gonna happen in the disciples lifetime

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They're not things we're waiting on in the distant future. So we'll talk about that and Then we'll end with how

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Scripture is a blessing to the people of God and we'll examine what that means So if you will, let's pray

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Turn with me. It's a John 16 12 through 15. We'll read it first then we'll pray and then we will get started

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So this is the word of the Lord Jesus says I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now

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When the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority

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But whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come

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And he will glorify me and he will take what is mine and declare it to you All that the

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Father has is mine Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you the

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Word of the Lord. Let's pray Lord we pray as our understanding of who the

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Spirit of God is I Pray as we learn about these things and discover these things

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Lord that these would be very practical truths for us Lord, I pray that we would not look at the

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Spirit of God as some Inanimate force That we that we manipulate or use in order to get the things that we want

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Lord, I pray that we would see him rightly as a person as a person who works and who does certain things by the commission of Christ in the

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Revealing of divine revelation and bringing those truths to bear on the heart of believers past present and future

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Lord when we understand the Spirit's work rightly today And when we rejoice in who the

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Holy Spirit is and who the triune God is and that you've called us to be your children It's in Christ's name.

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Amen Jesus said in verse 12 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now

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So Jesus admits that I've not told you everything yet, and I need to tell you some more things

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But the situation is such that you can't bear it now and we have to be careful here

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Not to misinterpret this passage Because the Spirit of God is not saying to us that he has many things to tell us that he hasn't told us yet This is about what the

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Spirit is going to tell the first century disciples who have not heard these things yet There are not new revelations that God is still waiting to tell us today

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He has already said all of the new things that he ever planned on saying in the pages of the

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New Testament His revelation to us in our day is complete

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He has said everything to us, but that wasn't necessarily true for the Apostles think about it

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The Apostles are men who did not have any part of the New Testament when Jesus was standing in front of them

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They had the Old Testament that ended in the book of Malachi They did not have Matthew's Gospel, which wouldn't come for a few decades later.

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They didn't have Mark or Luke They didn't have Paul or Jude or Peter or the epistle to the Hebrews. They didn't have any of the

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New Testament So the promise is to these men That Jesus will complete his revelation to the people of God through them and in their

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Lifetime when Jesus says That I will give all truth. He's saying I will give it all to you and it will be complete in your lifetime

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Now you think about it Jesus could not have done this right here on route to the

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Garden of Gethsemane. He was getting ready to be arrested He was getting ready to be put into a kangaroo court where they would try him and they would trump up charges and crucify him and then he would

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Be buried for three days and ascend to heaven So he's saying the conditions are not yet right for me to be able to give the entire revelation.

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He's saying to trust me though Because the revelation is coming and it's gonna come through the

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Holy Spirit Jesus knew that his disciples were curious and when you say something like this I've got more things to say to you, but I'm not gonna tell you now that evokes curiosity

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Anyone who's ever said to you? Hey, I have something to tell you but not now It drives me crazy

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I sit around and think about it all day all night. I'm like, what have I done wrong? What did

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I say? and then whenever I meet with him is something really really trivial and benign and I'm all the happier for it, but Jesus knew they were curious

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But he's saying that the appointed time of the revelation that is coming is not yet And he connects that to the

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Spirit of God that the Spirit Would complete the revelation that he has promised and the

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Spirit would come upon the Apostles He's promising by the breath of God to carry them along so that they would record the very words of God now

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That is a mystery in the fact that God through his Holy Spirit Inspires human beings to say and to write the very words that God has ordained and we know that the books are different John uses grammar.

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That is very basic Greek grammar Luke uses very precise and articulate

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Greek grammar Paul uses sentences that are pages long My seminary professor asked us to diagram a sentence in Paul and we not knowing what all that entailed

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Walked walked happily back home to do our assignment only to find out that I needed a five by seven foot poster board

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In order to diagram a Pauline sentence that the books are different The writers have personality and God uses their personality and yet he communicates his perfect inspired infallible divine revelation

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It's a miracle in so many ways and it is what Jesus promised his disciples would happen in their

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Lifetime, so I say this because we are not waiting on new revelation We are not waiting on God to finish the story the story is finished and he's given us what we need

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It is a sufficient word that he has given us. That's the first thing that he completes the revelation.

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Look at verse 13 Where he says when the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all

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The truth now we need to dissect the words here Because he does not say

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When the Spirit of truth comes I'll give you some of the truth or most of the truth he says when

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When we know happened at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and it happened in Subsequent Pentecost where the

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Spirit came upon the Judeans and then it came upon the Samaritans and or the Samaritans And then he came up not the

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Samaritans the Samaritans Then then upon the Gentiles and the God fears until we get to this place

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Where the Spirit has demonstrated who he is going to be poured out upon which is all people are called according to the purposes of Christ And that is the era of time that the disciples the

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Apostles began writing. Holy Scripture is During that time it was the

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Spirit of God who came upon them and fulfillment of the Old Testament Promises and it's the Spirit of God who is completing the revelation of the

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New Testament Which is the completion of everything that was said in the old and it was by the Spirit of God It says when so we know when was when the

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Spirit came. What else does it say he? When he comes he will guide you now it pronouns are really important We live in a world where they also believe that pronouns are important, but they've perverted them

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Pronouns in the Bible are important. He is the Spirit you is not you

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When we read this we are not saying that he will guide you 21st century

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Christian. He's talking to the Apostles. That's what the you is referring to in their lifetime

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He will guide them in the completion of Scripture so that despite All of the trials and tribulations that were going on inside of them.

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He would grab their hand. He would work through their Personalities and he would bring about the truth of the scriptures that you and I have today

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That has been a blessing to all generations of the church that again. This is not a promise to you You're not writing

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Scripture. It's not a promise to you. You're not speaking Scripture. He's not saying Felicia I'm gonna guide you and I'm gonna lead you into all truth

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There's no Felicia here. So I'm not offending anyone at least that my knowledge He's making a personal promise to the men the

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Apostles that he would guide them Into all the words of truth that we will ever have and that is contained in the

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New and Old Testament That's what all truth means now We know that that's what he means but there's a great error that has crept into the church in the modern time in the last 100 years and It's called continuationism

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There's some churches that do this responsibly and there's some churches that do this egregiously Where we believe in some way and in some and somehow the canon of Scripture is still opened

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When we say things like God told me To tell you I had a lady come up to me one time when

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I was preaching and say God told me to tell you that there was a great angel standing behind you and That angel told me to tell you that you're gonna go through this sound like mother

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Cleo That God and I said to her God did not tell you to tell me that I Said I appreciate your love for me, but that is not what

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God told you to say. God has finished the revelation of Scripture So that new revelation is not coming through Individual people it's finished

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When we say things like God spoke to me in prayer or I got a word from the Lord. We are Misunderstanding what the word of the

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Lord is Or that God speaks through situations or prophecies or prophets now will admit the

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Holy Spirit does use The situations in your life to remind you of what he has already written

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But he does not cause you to write new things for instance

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Mormonism is a cult of Christianity because Joseph Smith was convinced that he needed to write a new revelation

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Because the revelation was not complete. It is false for that reason and that reason alone you've got a book by Sarah Young that has come out in the past ten years called

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Jesus speaking or Jesus calling it's false She is claiming in that book to write for the

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Lord as if she is writing down Revelation to you the people of God it's false because everything

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Jesus wanted you to have the Spirit of God gave to the Apostles and That was faithfully recorded

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Faithfully preserved faithfully carried down throughout the generation so that the Bible you hold in your hand is

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God's Word to you and it is complete and it is not lacking in anything that God intended to say

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God is not going to violate his word to give you a new word. He said he gave it all and I believe him

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John Owen said it like this is 400 years ago He said if your private revelations agree with Scripture then they are needless and If they disagree, they must be false

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If your dream accords with Scripture then just look to Scripture It was

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Scripture that the Holy Spirit used to reveal these truths to you and maybe your dream reminded you that but it's not revelation

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We do not need private revelations Words of prophets or mumblings from sister do -gooder who had a liver shiver with your name on it

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We need the Bible as it is written To teach us by the power of the

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Spirit who God is and what God intends for his people When we love the

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Bible read it memorize it cherish it the Spirit uses it to craft us according to the image of Christ.

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I Given Like a child who received the most glorious present on Christmas morning and said is that it the

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Bible is sufficient for God's people Justin Peters said it this way. I've used this quote before Sister Wanda loves this quote with me

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If you want to hear God speaking read the Bible If you want to hear God speaking audibly read it out loud

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It is the Word of God Closed canon that the Spirit inspired those men all those years ago to reveal to us.

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That is sufficient For every good work every teaching every rebuking exhorting and encouraging and righteousness.

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Amen And we know that every member of the Trinity is involved in this. That's how important it is

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It's not just that the Spirit brought a revelation apart from the Father and apart from the

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Son It's the entire Trinity that is involved in the revelation of Scripture verse 13 through 15 says this for he will not speak on his own authority

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That's the Spirit But whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come

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And he will glorify me that's he will glorify Jesus For he will take what is mine and he will declare it to you.

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All that the Father has is mine Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and he will declare it to you

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Now there's so much that we could say here in this section, but we have to remember the context is speaking to the

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Apostles They're the ones who are going to receive from the Spirit what the Father has given to the

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Son for his people in all time Now I want to point out something here. There's only a few passages in the

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Bible where the Holy Spirit shows up in In an in full there's only a handful of passages

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You remember the creation account God the Father speaking Holy Spirit hovering God the

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Son walking and talking with Adam in the garden That's one chapter where the Spirit or with the Trinity is fully present the

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Red Sea crossing God speaks spirit hovers the angel of the Lord leads the people through the Red Sea the angel of the

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Lord there is Christ in The Old Testament the baptism of Jesus father speaks spirit hovers you get three now

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Instances of that Jesus goes down into the water. That's the Trinity You've got the baptism of the nations baptizing them in the name of the

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Father Son and the Holy Spirit That's an instance of the Trinity. You've got Paul's benediction in 2nd Corinthians 13 14 the grace of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all and You've got

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Peters greeting in 1st Peter 1 verse 2 According to the foreknowledge of God the

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Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for the obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling of his

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Blood that is about other than our passage today the sum total verses that have every member of the

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Trinity in it So let's admit that it's a rare feature in the Bible where you have all three in the same verse

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It's rare. In fact, those two verses that I just read are the only ones that are in the same verse

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The other ones that I mentioned are in the same chapter So it's rare and it happens on special occasions

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Like when God creates a cosmos or when he saves his people out of Egypt or when he puts his mark on his people in Baptism it is rare and it is significant when the triune

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God shows up all in the same verse It also happens in John 16

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One of the verses that we don't tend to think about when we think about the Trinity But the Trinity is not only involved in the salvation of his people from Egypt not only in the creation of the cosmos not only in the great benediction of Paul or the book or the or the

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Greeting from Peter. He's also Intimately intricately involved in the word that he gave to us the

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Trinity is involved in bringing scripture to God's people Number one the father

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John 16 15 all that the father has is mine. So the

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New Testament Tells us the New Testament revelation that Jesus is promising is everything that the father has is being given to us through the

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Spirit That is a big deal. We'll talk about that more later But everything that the father has that he intends to give to you

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He's going to give to you by the Spirit's power through the word It's a big deal

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Scripture is the overflow of what the father has determined to give you by his

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Son and through the Spirit His promises his principles his precepts and his loving provision

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Flows down to you through the spirits and scripturation of his word We also learn that the

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Spirit is in these verses Verse 13 for he the Spirit will not speak on his own authority But whatever he hears he will speak that means that the

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Spirit is not going to go off the cuff speaking a radical message He is completely in lockstep with Christ and the father

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This concept is used in different language in other places But it means the same things first Peter or second

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Peter 121 says no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit Meaning that the message is the same and as the

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Spirit of God who carried the writers of Scripture along Overseeing and maintaining its purity so that it could be delivered unto us 2nd

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Timothy 3 16 similar concept all scripture is breathed out by God and It's profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for the training up and righteousness that word used there

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I have a hard time saying this word. They up new noise toss. I have a hard time saying that word.

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They up noise toss That word means that it was literally Breathed out by God the word spirit is the same word for breath so God by the breath of his spirit is giving you the word and It's not from the spirits own authority

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It is the triune Godhead working in perfect unity to bring you the completed word

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Christ shows up in verse 14. That's the completes the Trinity It says he the Holy Spirit will glorify me for he will take what is mine.

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He will declare it to you so we know that scripture is about the glory of Christ is about bringing glory to Jesus through the through the

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Revelation that is given to you. So if we were going to talk about a definition now of what Holy Scripture is Let's start a working definition

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Holy Scripture occurs when the Spirit of God for the glory of Jesus Christ takes what the

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Father has given over to the Son and Delivers those things by the breath of God to the

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Apostles who recorded those things for you So that they would be your treasures

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That's what Holy Scripture is Spirits role in that is to glorify the

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Son and deliver deliver the truths of God to the people of God for the blessing of the families

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Who are under the Lordship of Christ and for the building up of his kingdom forever So before we land the plane and get excited we can go all day

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I'm just kidding. I'm not threatening you That last part that I just said is really important for the building up of the kingdom

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Because the Spirit in this passage is promised a particular role We need to look at that before we can complete our view of what

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Holy Scripture is the Spirit is going to reveal things to the

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Apostles That were needed for that period in that time that were necessary for the revelation of Scripture that we received if you remember

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Those men were living in a very different period than we are There's three periods basically of human history, this is not this is one way to divide up human history

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It was everything that came before Christ sort of the Old Covenant It's everything that came after the resurrection and the

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Ascension That's the New Covenant, but there was a unique period of time for 40 years where they existed simultaneously together

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Where the temple was still in operation where the sacrificial system was still going where the priesthood was still being sacrificed or nothing the priesthood was still doing the sacrifices and It's the

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Spirit of God who came in this unique period of time to reveal the things that were soon to come to pass

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So that we as the inheritor of this great treasure the word that the Spirit has breathed out for us

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Would not be confused about these things. Let me give you an example You and I don't need to go to a high priest in Jerusalem in order to know the

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Father we go through the high priest Jesus Christ We don't need the blood of bulls and goats.

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We have the blood of Christ We don't need the festivals that are that that are absolutely required in order to be in right standing with God those he has brought us into a

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Festive joyful permanence of life My point is while we learn much from the

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Old Testament There are things that have closed out That we now see are completed in Jesus and that 40 -year period was

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Instrumental for the disciples understanding that you've got men who worshiped at the temple their entire life

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And the Holy Spirit was teaching them that Christ is the true temple You've got men who sacrificed their whole life circumcision all of the

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Old Testament rights and privileges The Spirit was teaching them Leading them so that they could teach the church not to be confused by the

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Old Covenant shadows and forms and to understand that all of human history is coming up under The fulfillment of Christ that 40 years was so critical

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Without the New Testament without the Revelation we would still be back in the

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Old Covenant period We're not waiting on the Holy Spirit to give us new revelation.

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It's here It's in Christ. That's why

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I say that most of the Passages in the New Testament find their fulfillment in the first century

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Let me give you an example Verse 13 says when the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on his own

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Authority, whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come again pronouns are important He's not declaring it to us 2 ,000 years later.

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He's declaring things that are going to happen to them in their lifetime He's not teaching us predominantly there are passages in the scriptures that are still future for us

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But the majority of them were future for them and found their fulfillment in the first century

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His intention was to communicate near term events So that his disciples would understand scripture correctly and As the

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Spirit inspired them to write it they would write it correctly The New Testament is not the back of a cereal box

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Where you have a magic decoder ring in order to find out the events of the future That's not the purpose of the

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New Testament or where you put on the glasses and you see the hidden message the

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New Testament is Revealing to the apostles and to us by extension how

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Christ is going to come into his perfect reign and put everything under his authority or Everything that is in rebellion under his feet

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These men were suffering horrible persecutions They were looking for the Spirit's comfort and the

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Spirit consistently revealed to them things that must soon take place you think about The book of Revelation This is not a sermon on eschatology

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But forgive me for one moment We're living in a time right now where this conflict in Israel is causing all sorts of people with tinfoil hats to come out of Their storm cellars and to say a lot of things on YouTube Don't listen to them

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Because the very first verse in Revelation says this is a revelation about things which must soon take place behold

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I am coming quickly the end of the book says this these things are about which must soon take place

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The events were so near term to the Apostle that he told him not even to seal up the revelation

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To leave it opened because it was going to happen in their lifetime Again, the sermon is not a sermon on eschatology

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But it is to say that the apostles were going to be shown by the Spirit what must happen in their lifetime

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And it says that in John 16. There's a continuity in Scripture So if we're going to revisit our definition of what

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Holy Scripture is Holy Scripture occurs when the Holy Spirit acting for the glory of Jesus Christ takes what

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God the Father has Given over to the dominion of his Son and delivers these things

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To the Apostles who would soon face many trials and tribulations, but who would write these things down For the blessing of Jesus's Church throughout all generations.

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That is what Holy Scripture is and that brings us to our conclusion Where we talk about what is the blessing of Scripture?

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Jesus says in verse 15 all that the Father has is mine Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and he will declare it to you

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Jesus is saying to us that everything that the Father determined to give to his people is ours through the

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Spirit's work in revelation Think about it. Who is God? He's eternal

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So through the revelation of the Scriptures we get to know the eternal God Because he gives himself in Scripture Scripture is the gift where we also receive the giver

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He's omnipotent. Am I saying that if you read Scripture are gonna be omnipotent hardly What I am saying is that you will receive power as the

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Bible says when the Holy Spirit comes upon you So the Spirit communicates

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God's power to us through his Scripture It says that in Acts 1 verse 8, you will receive power when the

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Spirit comes upon you Omnipresent am I saying that we're omnipresent like God? No, I'm not saying that but I am saying that you're not just your own that you belong to the body of Christ which means that you are connected to Christ who has

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Churches scattered throughout every generation of the church age so that you belong to something much bigger than you

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Think about the other attributes his his communicable attributes God is a God who brings dominion you and I through the

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Scriptures are taught to bring dominion to the world by Reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ holiness and goodness.

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God is holy and God is good as we read the Scriptures I believe the Scriptures tell us that the Spirit uses the

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Word of God to make us more like Christ to make us hate our sin to love righteousness to become

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Righteous as we read them because the Spirit has determined that he would do that work through his Word God is just as you read and as you meditate and as you study

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Scripture The Holy Spirit works in your life to make you more just to make you more merciful to make you more loving

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Truthful creative wise faithful gracious all that the Father is He is determined to give to his people through the

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Holy Spirit working through his Word That's why Jesus says that the Father is looking for worshipers to worship him in spirit and in truth because the

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Word is never separate from the Spirit It's the Spirit who authored the Word and it's the

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Spirit who uses the Word in the life of the believer to make them like Jesus Christ The Word in a period of time that is quite wordless is

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One of the greatest gifts that God has ever given you and The Spirit of God uses it to assure you to bring you confidence

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To teach you to conform you to shape you to make you more like Christ so that if you neglect the

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Word You neglect the Spirit's means to sanctify you and if you sit and bake in the

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Word Then you receive the Spirit's means by which he will sanctify you and you will grow

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Just like a flower will grow in potted soil You will grow

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My encouragement to all of us is to see the Spirit's role in revelation It's a spirit who brings the gifts that the

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Father gave to the Son to the people of God Do not neglect the Word Do not sit it on a shelf and let it gather dust

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Read it memorize it cherish it meditate upon it Because the

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Spirit determines to use it for your good for your blessing and for your growth, let's pray

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Lord we thank you That you've been so good to us that you would give us very small and very beautiful things that you've determined to use for your good for your glory and for our blessings

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Lord we look at the water that you use in baptism To communicate such rich truths we we remember the the table the bread and the wine

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Where you communicate a rich and glorious gospel to us through common table elements and Lord we look at the word

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The word that in a human standpoint is just words upon a page and yet By the power of your spirit you have determined to use it in the life of your people

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Lord let us be a word saturated people Lord let us be a people that cling to the scriptures that love the scriptures that that seek to obey

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Jesus said if you love me, then you will obey my commands Lord Help us to be a people who love your word and obey you and where we asked us in Jesus name.