John 12:34-41 (Damned, for the Glory of God)

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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Okay. Over the last several weeks, we've been talking about the positive aspects of Jesus's kingdom.

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We've been talking about the wonderful things. We've been talking about His being anointed by Mary to be king.

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We've talked about Him riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey with the praise of the city following Him.

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We've been talking about how He fulfilled the prophecies, and we talked about explicitly how

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He's going to have dominion over the entire world. The Old Testament prophesies that Jesus will eventually own the nations, and that all the families of the earth will be blessed in Him.

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It's almost like the disciples were singing a starship song from the 1980s. We can build this thing together.

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We can stand strong forever. Nothing's gonna stop us now, right? That's the anthem that was sort of playing on the on the

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Spotify playlist of the disciples. And yet we know that it's not always joy and sunshine and roses in the kingdom of God.

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Yes, the kingdom of God is going to grow. Yes, the kingdom of God is going to take over the entire world as the water covers the sea.

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It's a back access. But it's not always positive. There's moments where we go three steps forward, and then there's moments where we go two steps back.

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There's moments where we see setbacks, and we're in a moment right now of setbacks in this country.

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While the gospel is growing in places like China, and places even like Nigeria where they're being persecuted, the gospel is growing in Africa in such a way that I read a demographic study a couple years ago that blew my mind.

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Did you know that if you line up every single Christian on earth according to demographics, white male, white female, black male, black female,

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Asian, you line them up, the most populous group of Christians on earth is black female.

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Did you know that? There's more black women Christians on earth than any other demographic.

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The gospel, although it's in its infancy form, is exploding in Africa, but it's really, really seeing some setbacks here.

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We know that these things are going to happen, because dominion doesn't just mean that God is going to take control of the world and everything is going to be rosy every single moment.

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The enemy is going to fight back. The world, the flesh, and the devil are going to fight against the advance of the kingdom of God.

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We're seeing that now in our country. We're seeing a vital aspect of dominion that God is not only going to claim for himself a world, but he's also going to claim those who are not a part of his new world.

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He's not only going to claim those who are his, he's also going to declare those who are not.

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That's the negative side of dominion. I don't mean negative as though it's it's not glorious, because God gets glory in everything that he does.

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What I mean is that for us, it's a hard topic to talk about.

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It's God choosing his people and God choosing those who are not. We see this negative side of dominion in our passage today.

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Today what I want us to do is as we draw near to the end of summer, everyone is happy.

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I want to talk about a very hard topic. I want to talk about nine aspects of what unbelief is.

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Not just what unbelief is, consequences that will be given to those who don't believe.

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It's not that we just don't believe and have faith. There are consequences to not believing in Jesus.

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We're going to look at nine of them in our passage today, and then as we close, we're going to look at application.

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What does this mean for us? What does this mean for us who believe? What does this mean for us here in this room who are still not sure?

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What does it mean for us who are here who think that we're Christians, but aren't? What does it mean holistically?

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That's what we're going to be looking at today. So if you will turn with me to John 12 34 through 41 as we examine these passages together.

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The crowd. That gives you a hint where it's going. John always begins his passages with the crowd when it's negative.

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The crowd then answered him, We have heard out of the law that the Christ is to remain forever, and how can you say that the

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Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? So Jesus said to them, for a little while longer the light is among you.

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Walk while you have the light so that the darkness will not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

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While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become sons of the light. These things

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Jesus spoke, and he went away and hid himself from them. But though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him.

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This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet when he spoke, Lord who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the

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Lord been revealed? For this reason they could not believe.

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For Isaiah said once again, he has blinded their eyes, and he has hardened their heart so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted so that I would heal them.

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These things Isaiah said because he saw his glory and he spoke of him.

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Lord, we are bound to your scriptures. We are bound to preach what is in your scriptures.

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We don't get to reinterpret them. We don't get to put a positive spin on them so that our carnal, sin -infected minds can better digest them.

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We must preach what the word says. We must embrace what the word says.

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Lord, I pray today as we examine these passages, which are very hard for the carnal mind to accept.

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Lord, I pray that those who are truly yours would rejoice and see the glory that you have even on this negative side of dominion.

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And Lord, I pray that for all those who are not, Lord, I pray that you would show them great mercy.

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Give them your Holy Spirit so that their eyes would be open and they could see the truth from Scripture so they would be converted.

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Lord, I pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. We know from the

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Bible that unbelief is a part of the human condition. It shows up in the very beginning in the

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Garden of Eden. It's a disease that entered into the framework of humanity from one act of rebellion against God.

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God gave the rules. Humanity chose not to follow them, not out of good intention.

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Humanity chose to elevate themselves to be like God and as a result there were dire consequences for their unbelief.

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Again, unbelief is not just the absence of faith. Unbelief, it is that.

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But it's also consequences that come upon you that make your reality worse.

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Perhaps the greatest consequence of all, one that we won't be talking about that much today, is that it blinds you even to its existence.

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Sin blinds you to the fact that it's tempting you. Sin blinds you to the fact that it's polluting you. Sin blinds you to the fact that it's corrupting you and decaying you so that you say,

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I'm okay. And yet you're not. Without the external aid of God and God alone, these consequences are insurmountable.

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Humans cannot save themselves. They must have a

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Savior. We, we know from the Bible that we were born with unbelief in our hearts.

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The Psalm says that we came forth, we were born in iniquity. We were conceived in iniquity.

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So that means that everyone in this room who has a father and mother, which is everyone, was conceived in iniquity.

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The only person who didn't have both father and mother was Jesus Christ. Sin nature did not transfer to him, but to all of us it did.

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That's the curse of unbelief, that you have inherited death as your reality. The consequences that we're going to be talking about, which there are nine of them this morning, are also yours.

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The only way that you can be free from these things is if Christ claims you as his own.

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So let's begin. The first consequence of unbelief this morning is that you will be blind to what the scripture teaches.

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If you're in your sins, if you are lost, if you're an unbeliever, you will be blind to what the scripture says.

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You can't understand it. You can't interpret it. You can't know the meaning of the text. You will be blind.

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After everything that Jesus has done for these people, it says after all the miracles, after all the things that he's shown them, all the signs, all the wonders, all the sermons, everything that he's shown them, they still do not believe.

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After all the fulfilled prophecies, after all the scriptures that he quoted, you know when Jesus says, you've heard it said, but I tell you, after all of that, they're still blind to what the scriptures are actually saying.

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They, in this passage, the crowd in this passage, is the Jews. This group of people that love to clamor and cling to Jesus as he was teaching, and then they would pop up every now and then, and they would say, oh, but wait, doesn't it say in the scripture?

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It's that same group. It's the same group that in John chapter 2, Jesus says that he would not entrust himself to because he knew the heart of man.

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He knew what was in man, and he would not give himself to these particular people because he knew what was in them.

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This is the same group of people that in John chapter 6, when he preaches a hard sermon, they say, these things are hard, and we're going to leave you and abandon you,

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Jesus. When Jesus speaks truth, they don't have the spirit to help them understand that truth, and they get offended by it, and they leave.

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And that's what's happening here. They're quoting the scriptures in total ignorance. Do you remember the same group in Matthew 22 when they said,

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Jesus, is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar? They weren't asking because they wanted an economics lesson.

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They were trying to trick him. They were weaponizing scripture against him, and then when he humiliated them, another group of people came up, this time the

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Sadducees, and they said, Jesus, whose, a brother had seven, or there were seven brothers, and one married a woman, he died, then the second one married her, and then he died, and then on and on to the seventh.

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Whose wife will she be in the resurrection? They weren't asking because they really wanted to know.

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They were asking because they wanted to trick Jesus. They were weaponizing scripture against Jesus.

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This is the propensity of the antagonistic Jews at the time that Jesus was ministering, that they would weaponize scripture to try to trick him, and to try to trap him.

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This is especially true near the end of his ministry, where they hate him, and they want to see him humiliated, and it always backfires and blows up in their face.

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Have you ever met anybody like this today? Still exist. Where they'll say things like,

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Hey, Kendall, do you believe that homosexuality is a sin? And you'll say, yes, the

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Bible says that homosexuality is a sin, and then they'll, then they'll, without a moment's notice, they'll say, but doesn't the

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Bible also say you can't eat shrimp? And then they'll laugh like they've accomplished something profound.

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They don't understand the word. They're not, they don't understand that Christ has fulfilled the ceremonial law so that we can eat shrimp and pork, and that we can have clothing with different fibers, and that we can, those things have been put away, but the moral law of God has not been put away.

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They don't understand scripture. So when they say those things, they showcase their ignorance, which is rampant among unbelievers, because they cannot know the

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Bible. He has clouded their mind. He has veiled them so that they cannot understand the truth of scripture.

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Listen to what they say. Then the crowd then answered him, We, pointing themselves at the authority, have heard out of the law, we have heard out of the law that the

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Christ is to remain forever. And how can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up?

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Who is the Son of Man? This crowd is not coming like the beggar who says,

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I believe, but God help me with my unbelief. They're not coming like Mary, who when

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Gabriel tells her that as a virgin, she's going to be expecting and have a child, and she says, How can these things be?

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That wasn't her saying, Angel, you're wrong. How can these things be? She's trying to believe.

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She's yearning to believe, but yet she's confused in her humanity. That's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever when it comes to scripture.

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A believer comes to the text and says, these things are really difficult for me to understand. How can I possibly understand them?

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Lord, help me understand them. The unbeliever comes and says, I can't believe this.

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How can these things be? Do you see the disposition difference? One comes hoping to believe, one comes hoping to be justified in their unbelief.

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One comes with doubt seeking answers, one comes with doubt seeking justification.

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That's the difference. The unbeliever is not coming to try to understand the scriptures.

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The unbeliever is coming to justify themselves in their unbelief. Both of them have confusion.

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Confusion is not the problem. The Lord has never condemned someone because they were confused.

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The Lord has never, I want someone to hear this, has never condemned someone because you didn't understand a hard doctrine.

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Never. Do not look down on yourself because you're wrestling with predestination or you're wrestling with eschatology or you're wrestling with penal substitutionary atonement or plenary inspiration of scripture or whatever other doctrine.

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You're wrestling with it. You're like, I don't get it. It's not confusion that's the problem.

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It's the disposition. It's the disposition. Do you want to believe? Are you yearning to believe?

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Are you submitting your confusion? To the Lord. Are you coming looking for justification?

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The truth, one of the things that it does more clearly than anything else is it divides.

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We live in a world today where people say that we shouldn't divide over anything. That everybody, your truth, your truth, my truth, my truth, you know, whatever.

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No. That's not what truth does. That's a lie. If a lie unites or if something unites everyone in error, then it is a lie.

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Truth necessarily divides. It divides the sheep and the goats. It divides the wheat and the chaff.

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It divides the bone and the marrow. The truth will expose on what team you're on.

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You're either on the team of truth or you're in the team of lies. You're in the truth of God or you're in the camp of the enemy.

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Truth will expose you. And when that happens, maybe you get offended.

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In the church today, in churches that preach the truth, those who are not his will get offended and leave.

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They will get bored and they will neglect the gatherings and they will stop coming. They will twist scripture to justify themselves.

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They will try to live in some sort of justification. Like for instance,

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I've heard someone say, well, God sees us as married, so we're just going to live together. That's a justification for your flesh.

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Love is love, right? So I can go to my lesbian sister's wedding. It's a complicated issue.

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It's hard. But we cannot stand an affirmation of things that the Bible calls an abomination.

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We don't have to be mean about it. We don't have to be hateful. We don't have to say anything offensive in a sense of we don't have to be the offending party.

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We let scripture do the offending. We say, I'm sorry, I can't attend your wedding. That's what a Christian says. I can't celebrate something that God hates.

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I love you. I want you to repent, but I cannot go to this. That's what a Christian says. An unbeliever says, what's it matter?

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Love is love. God sees us all and he looks at us and we're basically good, right? And the unbeliever will, when confronted with their sin, become angry.

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It's a really hard thing to be confronted with your sin. Let's just admit that. As Christians, when someone comes to you and says, you lied about me, the very first thing that we want to do is we want to become defensive, right?

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You gossiped about me and then they show you evidence and you're like, I did that, but I don't want to let you know that I did that because now

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I'm going to appear weak to you and you're going to take advantage of me. Those are the games we play. But eventually the

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Christian, eventually the Christian, the one who has the Holy Spirit inside of their heart will joyfully repent.

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With sorrow in their heart, they will run from their sin and they will run to the Savior. That's what Christians do. Not unbelievers.

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Unbelievers can't do that. They will become angry. They will say things about you.

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Well, look at what you do. They will become defensive. They will slander you and they will leave.

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That is the nature of an unbeliever. That is the nature of an unbeliever 2 ,000 years ago when

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Jesus was speaking to them. And that is the nature of an unbeliever today that we cannot understand the truths of scripture.

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We will not submit our life under the authority of scripture. That is what it means. And that's just the first consequence.

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The second is that you will not only be ignorant of scripture, you will be ignorant of Christ. If you're an unbeliever, you can't understand who

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Christ is. You just can't. Look at what they say. We have heard out of the law that the

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Christ is to remain forever. They had misconceptions of who Jesus is because they weren't true believers.

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They were expecting that Jesus was going to give them this physical kingdom where the

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Jews were going to be the greatest nation on earth and Rome was going to come and bow down before them and give them gifts and honor and tribute and all the nations were going to come to Jerusalem and praise

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Them they had this physical view of the kingdom of God where God is going to elevate them above the nation

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So they had a view of the Christ remaining forever. That was wrong Jesus really is remaining forever

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But he's not in a dusty sand bowl in the middle east sitting on their putrid rusting throne that moth and rust will destroy

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He's at the right hand of God reigning in heaven forever He really will remain forever, but it's important how we view

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Jesus Jesus doesn't exist to elevate us. We exist to elevate him. That's what they were doing

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They were looking at Jesus. They were looking at the messiah saying you exist to make us better Instead of the opposite which what a christian does and says we exist to magnify you

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They got him wrong Because they did not have true belief

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This sin abounds in the church today Maybe not in the same way, but it abounds Anytime you look at jesus

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And you make jesus look like the jesus that you want in your image Then you have done idolatry and blasphemy and it's all over the place

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Like the jews today someone a political jesus Who's gonna enact policies and who's gonna whip us up into a frenzy so that we can go to elections and participate in ballots today

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We had somebody stop by the church and say during your sermon. Can you mention this ballot opportunity?

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that we want for the community and And I very nicely said we won't do that Someone a national jesus that will make america great again

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Someone an heirloom jesus That's my mama's jesus and that's my grandmama's jesus and i'm just going to take this as some heirloom

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That's been passed down from generation to generation as some rite of passage, but he doesn't affect my life He doesn't actually help me walk with god.

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He doesn't he has no meaning to me other than he's something that sits on a shelf We know many people like that I grew up in the south

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Where christianity is infected by that? Are you a christian? Yeah, my mama is we don't say mother we say mama

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Just so you know Yeah, my mama's a christian. My dad's a christian That has nothing to do with whether you're a christian or not.

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So i'm today one of prosperity jesus Where jesus dotes on you and loves you and is obsessed with you like a teenage boy is with his girlfriend

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Where all he wants to do is make you happy where all he wants to do is give you stuff and you become consumed with Materialism and houses and cars and and health and you say that i'm so blessed because I have all this stuff

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And yet you have no concept whatsoever of the starving christians in africa No concept whatsoever the persecuted christians in north korea.

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Are they not blessed? Is jesus who died for us? Not blessed.

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What about paul decapitated for us? Was he not blessed? What about peter crucified upside down? Was he not blessed? this sort of Superficial prosperity gospel is garbage

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And it ruins so many people's faith my mother -in -law Would watch tbn kenneth copeland and all of these things before she died and she would go through awful bouts of depression saying

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Why won't god heal me? I have faith she believed that her that the that the

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Concentrated dose of her faith would motivate god to heal her So she lived constantly with doubt and depression and frustration and bitterness towards god

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God didn't promise earthly health to us God said in this world, you're gonna have many trials

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You're gonna have troubles you're gonna have fiery trials that you're gonna wonder why they're happening. Peter says don't wonder why they're happening

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You're gonna have all kinds of evil that's spoken against you says anyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted

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Why do we believe that? We're so good and so special that we get to have nice cars nice houses and a carefree life

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When our lord and savior did not He was murdered for us and we're called to be like him to give up our life for him

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It's not a sin To be well off. It's not a sin to be born in america if you're here and you have the lowest

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Minimum wage job that you can think of you are rich Not a sin It's not a sin to have things it's a sin for your things to have you

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You belong to christ you don't belong to your possessions you don't belong to your Cars, you don't belong to your job.

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You don't belong to your family. You don't belong to your kids You belong to christ above all else And if you don't see that that's the heart of idolatry

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Superficial jesus i've seen this one all over the place in the church Jesus looks past my sin because he's forgiven me

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Jesus forgives me I sin we make a perfect match That's the heart behind it don't tell me to repent you legalist

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My god loves me and gives me grace and he he thinks i'm special just the way that I am Yeah, he he loves you but he doesn't love you just the way that you are he loves you

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In spite of who you are to change you into the image of him Do you see how a false view of jesus can give you a false faith

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It can shipwreck you Cause you depression cause you frustration and ultimately

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Damn you because you don't know who christ is the unbeliever can't know who christ is for the believer don't let these

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Artificial gospels infect your faith because they will Cause you nothing but agony and misery

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More examples could be given But Unbelievers cannot understand the scripture.

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That is what we see here. And that is what we see over and over and over in the text That's the second consequence

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The third is that you will be offended by the cross you will Look at what jesus says

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Or look at what the crowd says we have heard out of the law that the christ is to remain forever And then they also say

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But how can you say? You have to read it like that. It's not They're not saying to jesus, you know, how can you say it like this jesus?

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I want to that's not what they're doing They're saying how can you say? That the son of man is going to be lifted up We don't get the meaning behind that that they got

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If I were to ask you today You know, what is it going to feel like next week when when you're lifted up Maybe there's some context where that would make sense

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But you're not going to feel the weight of it like they did lifted up was a euphemism for crucifixion At that time crucifixion was scandalous and ugly

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It was the it was the scourge of all the nations It was the definitive declaration that rome has more power than you and they can mercilessly kill you crucifixion

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Is where you become your own executioner? Executioner How is that possible rome is the one who crucified jesus in a crucifixion?

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The weight of your body sinks down so that your abdomen presses on your diaphragm

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And you suffocate? And the only thing that can keep you alive is if you take your feet pierced by nails and scrape your back up a splintered

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Wooden beam because they didn't polish it before you got on it And as the barbs of Of splinters are pressing into the meat of your body

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You take a breath and you sink back down and you begin suffocating all over again That stops when you stop pushing up effectively

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Becoming your own executioner It was an awful death It was reserved for the lowest class of criminal the lowest class of human being was the one that rome decided to Crucify so in that You can imagine why everyone hated it

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It was done publicly so that you would have to watch it It was done with the person hanging on the cross that was naked to shame them

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And to humiliate them It was done as propaganda for the power of rome

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The phrase above jesus's head king of the jews was mockery It was not an acknowledgement

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Now the jews had more reasons to hate crucifixions than this Not only was it the worst form of punishment that any society had ever created

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They had reasons to believe that this was even worse Not just physically brutal but spiritually brutal.

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You remember in the garden of eden Where did the curse happen? At a tree the jews connected these things

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And they started believing that it was A curse to hang from a tree

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Moses says it in deuteronomy 21 Anyone who hangs from a tree is under the curse of god

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You think about the man absalom? That's david's son David's son absalom, which means the peace of my father

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And yet he was in rebellion against his father trying to take over his father's kingdom Well as david's armies were chasing after him absalom is riding away on a mule

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Why is he on a mule? Because he thought he was going to be king because kings ride into the cities on mules So he's riding away.

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His hair gets caught in the tree. He's hanging from a tree What happens to him? He's murdered

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The jews would have looked at that as the curse fell on absalom As he's hanging from a tree and he was pierced through By joab

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Think about haman. Do you remember the book of? Ezra i mean ezra um esther The jews are being persecuted by this wicked man named haman

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He makes a 75 foot tall sharpened piece of wood that he's going to impale mordecai on I'm not going to describe what impaling is but use your imagination.

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It's bad And yet It was haman

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Who was murdered in that way because god vindicated mordecai god vindicated the jews god vindicated the righteous

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And it was haman who died under the wrath and curse of god hung on a tree deuteronomy 21

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Anyone who hangs on a tree is under the curse of god So at this time the jews would have seen all the physical brutality of rome and they would have hated this thing called crucifixion

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But they would have also seen the spiritual underpinnings of it and they would have said anyone Who is on that tree?

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Is no better than haman Is no better than absalom is no better than adam and eve at the foot of the tree

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Under the curse of god, they would have looked at this as physically violent and spiritually significant no one

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Would have been on that cross if god was pleased with them. That's the way they would have came at this They would have said god always vindicates the righteous

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They would have said look at david Look at mordecai God vindicates the righteous

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So when jesus said that he was going to be lifted up They would have said how can you say that jesus?

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How can you claim to be the messiah who we know is righteous? And you die the death of a sinner

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How is it that you're going that you think you're going to be crucified and god doesn't save you from it

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God always saves the righteous, right? You see what they did So when jesus died on the cross the only righteous man who ever lived

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Undergoing the wrath of god as a substitute for us. They couldn't understand it at all

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They couldn't see it They said well, he must be wicked because god let him die. That's what they would have said

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The reason that they said that is because they were unbelievers Had the spirit of god came inside of their mind inside of their heart

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They would have had opened eyes and they would have seen the truth like peter And they would have declared it boldly in jerusalem

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They would have seen the truth like thomas and they would have declared it in india They would have seen the truth like peter and they would have declared it in the city of rome

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But because they were dead in their trespasses and sins they could not see it Paul tells us about this in first corinthians 1 7

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He says but we preach christ crucify and you have to hear all of the weight underneath that To the jews it's a stumbling block and to the gentiles it's foolishness

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Paul is saying that this gospel Is scandalous to the unbeliever

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So much so that the jews cannot even possibly comprehend it and the romans and the gentiles would say This can't be a great man

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Great men don't die the death of a crucifixion would have been foolishness to them Unless the holy spirit comes in our heart.

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We will not believe scripture. We will not believe christ and the cross will be offensive to us

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Which leads us now to the fourth consequence of unbelief You will be overtaken by darkness

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If you don't believe in jesus, you will not understand scripture You will not understand christ. The cross will be offensive to you and you will be overtaken by darkness.

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This is what it says So jesus said to them For a little while longer the light is among you.

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He's the light the light of the world while you walk Or walk while you have the light

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So that darkness will not over Take you jesus is warning them

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He's saying that you have just a little while left before I leave The light of the world what what a rare privilege

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That these jews had out of every generation that's ever lived. That is the generation visited by god to his people

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They got to live with god They got to see him They got to to wrestle with who he is and he's saying i'm about to leave

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And the light is leaving And you will be overcome by darkness.

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That's what he's saying Now this doesn't apply to the christian Because the holy spirit comes in and illuminates our life the holy spirit comes in and brings the light of god

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Holy spirit comes in that's why jesus can say you are the light of the world Because when the holy spirit comes in us

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We look like little candles scattered throughout the entire world lighting it up for the glory of christ The holy spirit does not leave us in the darkness if you're a christian

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But if you're an unbeliever You'll be overcome by it Conquered by it destroyed by it

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And you will be inescapable. You will be in inescapable darkness I think about all of the examples of people today

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How hard they study when they go to college? How driven they are to see progress come to the world?

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How how much passion they have to understand the cosmos all these beautiful nights and and things in the sky?

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They've just created a new telescope that's going to replace the hubble so that they can see brilliant images of of the cosmos you have elon musk trying to build a

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Rocket of some sorts to get us to mars so that we can be interplanetary You've got people who are longing to understand the origin of the species and how we came about you've got people who are

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Working tirelessly to fight diseases and to come up with cures for cancer and for aids and for various different things

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You got people who are fighting for justice so that people who are treated poorly will be treated, right? You've got people who are working and spending all of their energy to try to bring light to the world

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But what little bit of flicker that they can bring apart from christ is but darkness to god

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All of our human machinations are not worthy to be compared to what god can do when he brings the holy spirit into a believer

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These things will not redound for the glory of god these things these things that people are driven by Will end up in darkness

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I'm, not saying that fighting cancer is bad. I'm not saying that trying to to Get cures to diseases and anything like that.

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It's bad. I'm saying the motivation Will not bring light Because god says that if you do not walk with the light who is christ

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The way the truth in the life if you are not in him You will be overtaken by darkness

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It might not be today It might be progressively over years But when you close your eyes and you have to face your maker in eternity

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And you enter into an eternity of darkness the reason is not because you

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Cured cancer. The reason is not because you you know, put a space rover on mars

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The reason is because you did not believe in the lord. Jesus christ The fifth consequence will also be yours

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That you will be lost with no direction Says he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

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That's true statement I remember when I was in iraq in iraq

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There's a level of darkness there that you can barely imagine We take for granite street lights

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We take for granite Lights on our electronics a little blue light that shows that it's on but it's not

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It's not on you know, like the tv all these little lights that surround us It's really dark in iraq when you don't have those things

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Pitch black even and you walk outside and you're fumbling around and you can't turn on your flashlights because what if an iraqi

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Sees you and he fires a mortar round and you get your entire team killed because you were reckless Can't smoke cigarettes in the dark.

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We all smoked at that time. So we chewed tobacco I don't smoke anymore um but My point is that it was dark and we had to wear night vision goggles just to be able to see anything without those goggles

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We would have had to fumble around in the darkness we would have tripped we would have fallen we would have rammed into things

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That's what jesus is trying to describe that if you do not walk in the light The best you can hope for is a life of fumbling and bumbling about in the darkness tripping and falling

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Until eventually you are plunged into eternal darkness you have no idea where you're going if you are not in christ

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He's saying all these things that you've prioritized in your life your career your marriage resources family sex vacations new cars

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Whatever it is that's driving you Is driving you off the edge of a cliff and not into the arms of a savior if you're in your unbelief

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It's like trying to tightrope walk across the grand canyon with a blindfold on You may be more agile than I am.

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You might make it a few feet further than I can but you're gonna fall If you're not in christ

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Life is a vapor I'm 30 almost 9 years old now

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It's gone by so fast From 1 to 20 seemed pretty slow from 20 to 39 has been so fast

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I blink and my kids are walking and talking I blink and one of them has moved out of the house

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I blink and then the rest of them are out I blink I'm an old man.

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I blink I've got my family surrounding me at a hospital room. They're saying their goodbyes.

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I blink It's over Life's a vapor Don't live in unbelief because it will plunge you into nowhere

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You'll think you know where you're going you'll think that you have your destination in mind, but you don't Unbelief prevents you from rightly seeing scripture

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It causes you to misunderstand who christ is Causes you to be offended by the cross

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It causes you to be overtaken by darkness and it causes you to have no sense of where your life is going

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So that when you blink and you wake up, it's over You've made the wrong choice

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The sixth consequence of unbelief if you're an unbeliever Is that you will refuse to repent?

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Jesus said while you have the light believe in the light So that you may become sons of the light.

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He calls them to believe because they don't that's an act of repentance It's turning from where you're at And turning to where the lord would have you go

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He's calling them warning them to repent Before it's too late

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The unbeliever won't as I preach this message

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I can whip up all level of emotions I can speak with rhetorical grandeur.

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Maybe if such a thing were possible for this guy like me I could practice this message a hundred times.

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I could use examples that would that that would Point you to the truth that would drive the point home

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I could do everything that I possibly could if you're an unbeliever, you will not repent You won't you do not have the holy spirit we

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Especially as american christians believe we have powers that we don't We're dead and our trespasses if we don't know christ, we cannot repent we can't

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Run into the throne room of god and pry salvation out of his hands if jesus has not given it to us

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Those who are in christ Will receive that call Those who are called by god who are not yet christians, but they have the calling of god on their life

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They'll receive the call to repentance. Maybe not today But at some point in their life, they will come

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John 6 44 we talked about this six chapters ago No one comes to me unless the father who sent me draws them

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That means at some point in the believer's life. It may be when they're three years old It may be when they're 93 years old at some point in the believer's life

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God is going to draw them to his son And jesus is going to take them and hold them and keep them in the palm of his hand

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It says my sheep listen to my voice and I know them and they follow me if you are his

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You will come before you die, but if you are not his you will never come

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The reason is because the elect Those who are his are given aid

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Essential aid that they need in order to believe Whereas the unbeliever is not let me give you an example

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There's two cars driven by people Who refuse to pay high gas prices and they just don't fill up their vehicle

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They both break down within 10 feet of one another on i -93 And then as someone's driving by and they see these two poor souls there

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With a car that can't start there's no gas They have mercy on the first vehicle

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They go and they get the gas required and they come back and they put the gas in the car and the car Starts Jolts into life and that person drives to the direction that they were supposed to be going

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Then the other person who has no gas in their car Jumps into the vehicle And they try to start the car and it doesn't work and they try to start the car and it doesn't work and they try

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To start the car and it doesn't work because no gas was put in it Our hearts will not repent like that car if god has not given us the fuel of regeneration

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If god has not regenerated our hearts and put inside of us the necessary element we will not repent

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We won't come to life We won't turn This becomes exceedingly clear

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As the passage goes again. These are hard passages for you and I to understand But I hope as we keep going that you will see that god gets glory in this

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I hope that as a christian you will rejoice in this and I know that unbelievers who hear this are going to hate

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God more from having heard this message If you walk away today hating god more

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Maybe it's because you're not a believer But if you walk away singing the praises of god who is sovereign over salvation and damnation

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Praise god that he has given you something you could not earn The seventh consequence of unbelief is that jesus will hide from you

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These things jesus spoke and he went away And he hid himself from them.

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He says walk in the light because the light is leaving and then he leaves What a beautiful statement of the of the sovereignty of god of the will of god here

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He says you will not walk in the night when I leave and then he shows them A living example of that they are left in darkness because they hide he hides from him from them

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This teaches us a lesson That jesus can always find us but we if he if we're if he's not ours, we cannot go and find him

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He can come and find us but we cannot in our sin Go and find him

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A blind man fills the heat of the sun, but he doesn't see the light This is what happened to this crowd they felt the heat of the presence of god

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But they could not see the light and when jesus walked away from them and hid from them They couldn't find him john 8 jesus tells them i'm going away and you cannot follow me where i'm going

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You cannot come you will die in your sins

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That's what he's saying unbelievers The heart of it is that they have no ability to believe

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It's not that they don't have a desire to want to be saved A drowning man in the middle of the pacific ocean has a desire to be saved but no ability

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There's thousands of miles in all direction from the nearest island He wants with all his heart what he cannot have

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In the same way if you are not If christ does not reach down and pull you out

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You have desire but no ability That's the eighth consequence you will be unable to believe

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Listen to what it says But though he had performed so many signs before them yet.

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They were not believing in him that Was to fulfill the word of isaiah the prophet which he spoke

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Lord who has believed our report And to whom has the arm of the lord been revealed?

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For this reason they could not believe they couldn't

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For isaiah said again He that's god has blinded their eyes and he has hardened their heart so that they would not see with their eyes

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And they would not perceive with their heart and they would not be converted so that god would not heal them

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Why can they not believe Because god was preventing it why can they not believe because god said that they could not believe

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It's not because they weren't spiritual everyone is spiritual even the atheist Atheism is a religion

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Masked in a lot of self -delusion It's not because they made a bad decision

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It's not because someone didn't tell them jesus was standing right in front of them telling them Who's a better evangelist than jesus?

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They heard it from the mouth of god it wasn't because someone didn't tell them it wasn't because it wasn't a credible

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Presentation who is a better preacher? Who's a better teacher? Who is a better apostle? Who is a better anyone than than we see in jesus and the 12 apostles none of us in this room?

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So it wasn't all of these things that kept them from believing it was because god would not allow it

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He blinded their eyes on purpose He hardened their heart on purpose

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So that they would not see so they would not perceive so that they would not be converted so that god would not heal them

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Some of the hardest passages in the bible for us as people to understand. Let's admit that Let's not excuse it

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Let's not try to change it Let's not make it say what it's not saying. It's saying what it's saying

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But let's admit that it's hard for us to understand You Jonathan edwards one of my favorite theologians wrestled with this passage and wrestled with romans chapter 9 and almost

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Almost turned his back on god because he couldn't understand these passages rc sproul another who died recently

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Through his bible across the room in college because he could not understand passages like this

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You see the reason I think that we have trouble Understanding things like this is because at the heart of it we've understood passages

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We believe passages all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god. We get that But at the heart of it, we think we have value

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At the heart of it we think we ought to be saved We act like that.

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We think like that. We believe like that When someone comes up to us and gives us something that we enjoy

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Down in the bottoms of our down in the bottom of our heart. We're pleased Why are we pleased Because we are thankful that they acknowledged our value

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When someone comes up and steals something from you when someone comes up and hurts you when someone comes up and betrays you and lies

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About you we get angry why because we believe That those kinds of things ought not to happen to people like us

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We believe that we have a value in relationship to god that he ought to save us and that is not the truth

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The bible says that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god the bible says that god is just That god always chooses righteousness

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And if god always chooses righteousness, then guess what? He would not choose me And he would not choose you because we are not righteous

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The bible says that god is holy So holy That no one can stand in his presence because it would rip us apart

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You imagine the most powerful mri machine on the planet And and you being filled with these sort of metal

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Pieces from surgeries. I've got a metal bar in my arm I imagine going into this thing and it ripping my arm off like that's what the holiness would do to us

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It would accelerate our particles so fiercely that we would undo us Isaiah who did not feel the full force of god's holiness.

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He said whoa unto me I've been undone.

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I live among a people of unclean lips I am a man of unclean lips and god was merciful not to give him the full fury of his holiness

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We believe we're better than we are We believe we're owed more than we're owed

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The truth of the matter is If you're here today If you live if you exist you are owed nothing

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You're not owed god's kindness You're not owed god's love. You're not owed his mercy.

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You're not owed his grace You are not owed anything But his justice for the ways that you've broken his law

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His fury for the way that you've rebelled against him and his holiness That would consume you

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All people are in that camp If god chooses

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Out of some unbelievable unimaginable portion of grace

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To give just one person what they don't deserve Then he is so unimaginably gracious that we can't even comprehend it

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If he chooses to give one person salvation Even though they've hated him rebelled against him broken every law of his violated his holiness if god chooses to do that to one person

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He's unbelievably righteous unbelievably gracious unbelievably merciful The question is not why doesn't god save everyone the question is why did he save anyone?

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Why Because he was being gracious And let us remember the only reason that anyone in this room has experienced god's grace and his mercy is because The wrath that we deserved was poured out on jesus christ

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He experienced the fury of god for us He became our representative

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Don't let that thought become light or shallow to you What threatened to rip you into shreds is what ripped jesus into shreds for you?

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That is why we're christians Not because of our grace not because of our goodness not because of our choice not because of our

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Raising our hand not because of filling out a card in the back of a pew. Let us not trifle with such silly things

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We are saved by jesus christ in jesus christ alone to the glory of god

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And those who are damned to hell are damned also for god's glory

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Look at what it says. This is the ninth reason the ninth consequence of unbelief. You will be damned for the glory of god

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Verse 41 says these things isaiah said because he saw god's glory

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Jesus or sorry. John is saying that Isaiah said these things what things? That god would prevent people from belief that god would prevent them from being cured of their sins that god would prevent them from salvation

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These things isaiah saw because he saw the glory of god

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Which means that when someone is saved? It is one of the most beautiful Demonstrations of the glory of god that could ever be imagined

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But when someone is damned let us not follow this sort of this sort of line of thinking that would say that that is not glorious When someone is withheld from the kingdom of god that is for the glory of god when someone is blinded

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In their sin that is for the glory of god when someone is hardened. It is for the glory of god when someone is

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Unsavable it is for the glory of god. Let us not think That a god who is all -knowing all -powerful all -loving all -gracious all -merciful and all -holy cannot make that decision for his glory

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When a sinner gets what they deserve in their sin god gets glory for his justice

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In the same way that a judge gets glory when a murderer is sentenced to death In the same way that a rapist is put away for the rest of his life

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God gets glory when sinners are judged and God gets glory when

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Christ is judged so that Believers can become believers so that the elect can profess faith in him

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God gets glory in salvation and God gets glory in justice

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Now as we close Those are nine things I Want to speak to three kinds of people who are in the room as we apply this passage

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The first is I want to speak to those who are not believers If you hear a message like this

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The tendency of your heart is to complain to protest to justify yourself to discredit the pastor who's preaching it to discredit the

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Bible that declares it to leave and discredit the church and to say this doesn't apply to me and You will do that because you don't have the

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Holy Spirit of God in you and you will live in your justifications You will neglect this warning as those

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Jews did Because you don't understand the scripture. You don't understand Christ. You're offended by the cross.

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You're overtaken by darkness You're not able to repent. You don't have the direction of the Spirit to help you

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Jesus has hidden himself from you and you're going to die in your unbelief and Even in that God will be glorified the second group of people that I want to speak to is

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Those who are elect, but maybe they're not yet Christians There's people who come to church all across the country who

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God is going to save but he in Space and time has not yet brought them to faith

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They're seeking something They're looking for answers They're coming to a church like this and they're wanting to hear the truth of the gospel

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They're wanting to hear what God has to say about them There are people who are going to be coming who are looking for truth.

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My challenge to you is to keep Searching keep looking keep reading open your

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Bible pray talk to someone in this room Listen to what's being preached in this message or in all the messages that we have keep

59:53

Coming because God raises up believers through the declaration of the

01:00:00

Word of God It says the gospel I've never preached a message where both verses actually got referenced

01:00:07

I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God and to salvation to everyone who believes

01:00:14

Keep listening to the gospel. Keep putting yourself in front of the gospel Keep searching keep running keep striving keep learning

01:00:23

Because that is God's means to raise you from the dead It's not fancy words

01:00:29

It's not powerful music. There will be people who leave this church because they don't like our music

01:00:37

There will be people who leave this church because they say that the children are too distracting. There will be people who leave this church

01:00:43

For all manner of reasons because we meet in a warehouse I've heard reasons

01:00:53

Let it never be said that people left this church because we didn't preach the gospel Let it be said that they leave this church because of it

01:01:02

Because of it there are Christians here today Who believe that you're a

01:01:08

Christian and maybe you are that who have all kinds of doubt You doubt that you're a

01:01:14

Christian You doubt because you struggle with this particular sin that that you're not a believer You go through cycles where you say am

01:01:20

I really saved? Am I really a Christian? Am I really this am I really that? Keep pressing in Keep listening to the gospel.

01:01:28

Keep praying keep repenting That fight that you have in your heart That hatred of sin that you have in your heart is not from you

01:01:39

Stop doubting what God has done in your life If you want to love Jesus and you're yearning to love

01:01:44

Jesus and you want to keep studying and you want to keep learning But you just feel the weight of all your inadequacies

01:01:52

Good You are inadequate You are broken But in Christ you're whole

01:01:59

Keep pushing in keep learning keep growing the last group that I want to talk to is

01:02:09

Those who are believers and I'm not talking about Christians in name. I'm talking about believers Who are living for Jesus?

01:02:17

Who are Prioritizing this church gathering to be here to be in the presence of God to learn to love to grow

01:02:25

People who are waking up reading there's their Bible not out of legalism because they want to spend time with Jesus people who are praying

01:02:30

People who are here who want to take their faith seriously who have gifts to the Spirit who are serving?

01:02:37

People who have the fruit of the Spirit in their life, maybe not perfectly, but they're growing. I'm talking to you It's my prayer that you would understand a few things from this passage

01:02:46

The first is that I want you to see that this passage is meant for you to praise

01:02:52

God when you see how holy he is and when you see how sovereign he is and when you see that he gets glory even in the choice of Sending someone to hell and that might not make sense to you perfectly, but you say

01:03:07

I believe help me with my unbelief. I Want you to see that even in that God can be praised

01:03:14

That God can be revered by you That even passages like this can cause you to sing the sweetest songs of worship.

01:03:24

That's the first thing. I want you to see the second thing I want you to see is that We should have great humility

01:03:33

No one in this room saved yourself No one's here because you're awesome. No one's here because you're more spiritual.

01:03:39

No one's here because you have better knowledge No one's here because you have a better preacher than anyone else You don't no one's here because you are somehow able to understand the

01:03:46

Bible and its original language Or you went to no one's here because of that You're here because Christ in Christ alone

01:03:54

Your life is a gift Your salvation is a gift use it to the glory of God You're not here because of you

01:04:04

You're here because of him So approach your life with humility and praise

01:04:10

The third thing I want you to understand is I want you to understand the nature of unbelief There's lost people in your life right now, and I want you to understand what unbelief is

01:04:20

There are lost sheep in your life. I said sheep People who are not yet Christians who will become

01:04:27

Christians because God has chosen them before the foundation of the world to be submitted to His Savior to his Son Jesus Christ There are people in your life who do not know

01:04:35

Jesus yet Keep telling them Keep declaring it to them

01:04:42

They may not understand it at first They may say stop talking to me about it Keep praying for them

01:04:50

Keep telling them We're not God No one in this room knows who saved and who's not

01:04:57

No one in this room knows who's elect and who's not no one in this room knows who God is going to bring to salvation and who he is not if You had to lean one direction or the other keep telling them

01:05:10

Don't give up too quickly Keep sharing the message with them Because God in his grace will bring to faith those that are his by the preaching of his word

01:05:21

And you don't have to be behind a pulpit to preach his word in the way that this is talking about Tell your friends tell your family

01:05:31

Tell the people the Holy Spirit's laying on your heart right now about the gospel of Christ That is his means to bring them to salvation.

01:05:38

That's his means to bring the whole world to salvation Tell them just don't be silent

01:05:45

Being silent is like watching someone standing in the middle of the street and a Greyhound bus barreling down on top of them and saying nothing

01:05:52

Don't be silent. Tell them The fourth thing

01:05:57

I would tell you is that you should have discernment There are people in your life who are not ever going to believe they're gonna hate you and ridicule you and speak all manner of evil against you the

01:06:09

Bible does give you a Category for walking away. So use discernment It says that if you've told them the message of the gospel and they won't receive it and they tell you to get out you

01:06:18

Shake the dust off of your feet and you leave The Bible says don't throw your pearls before swine

01:06:24

I'm telling you to to have patience with an unbeliever as you tell them the gospel but there will come a time where some of them will tell you enough and It's okay for you to walk away

01:06:35

You told them you warn them and you walk away knowing that God will be glorified whatever happens

01:06:44

The fifth thing that I just want to remind us of as we finish is that the gospel has power

01:06:51

The gospel has power and this is such a practical point maybe you stutter Maybe you can't get your thoughts together

01:07:01

I was I Was in special ed and can in an elementary school.

01:07:08

I don't I don't think I've ever said that out loud anyone because I was so hyperactive I couldn't focus the teacher would be talking and I would and I would stand up and I would walk to the other side of the room and Look at a billboard or something and like she would look at me and say what is that kid doing?

01:07:27

But you know The gospel won me over the gospels changed me the gospel has transformed me and It's the gospel that has power.

01:07:38

It's not me. It's not you You may not understand everything there is to know about theology.

01:07:44

You can share that you are a sinner and Jesus saved you That's what has the power not your presentation not your intellect not your training not your winsomeness

01:07:57

It's the gospel Every single person in this room if you have the Holy Spirit in you is qualified to share the basic gospel.

01:08:05

So share it It's his power at work in you. It's not you So, let's close

01:08:13

Let's trust Jesus with the results and let's share this gospel Jesus name

01:08:19

Lord We see all of these aspects of what an unbeliever is

01:08:26

And Lord, I pray That there would be no one in this room today that is an unbeliever

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Who will never turn who will never believe? Lord I pray that there's no one in this room today who will become so offended by this message that they will leave but Lord, I also pray and acknowledge

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That if they do then you are glorified You are glorious You are righteous.

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You are holy. You are good and If Lord if the message of the gospel offends

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Then let it offend for your glory Lord, I pray For those who are in this room who are struggling in their faith who are ready to throw in the towel

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Who are not confident who are living in doubts and fears who are struggling with sin who feel all kinds of weight and guilt and depression

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And sadness Lord, I pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit and your powerful gospel

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You would root into them the kind of confidence that would allow them to scream from the rooftops

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To stand with their head held high and to feel more in love than they ever have in their life because they have been called by you

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Lord let us find our identity in the gospel. Let us find our worth and our value in the gospel every single person in this room

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Lord can look in the mirror and say that we have no value and worth because of the things that we've done and yet we can look past ourself and look to the cross and see that Because of what you have done and because of how you've deposited all of that in us through the

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Holy Spirit We have value and we have worth and we have dignity in unimaginable proportions

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You call us beloved which is the title that you give to your son because now you have made us in Him Lord if there's

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Christians who are struggling in these ways. I Pray that you would help crucify their flesh

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Lord, I pray that you would smash the head of the serpent who is ruling in their life right now and lying to them and I Prayed Lord that you would cause them to not listen to the world anymore

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But they would hold their head high in the gospel and they would understand who they are in Christ Lord for the rest of us

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Who are struggling and trying to worship you and to see your kingdom built here in New England and to see the gospel go forward

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Lord, I pray that you would keep us encouraged we read in Ephesians 6 where the fiery arrows of Satan are constantly flying and Sometimes we

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Sometimes we put down our shield and we get hit Sometimes we take our eye off the battle and we get struck

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Lord. I pray that we would recover quickly by turning our eyes away from this world away from What's going on in our lives and in our circumstances and that we would turn our eyes to Christ And that we would see all of our joy and all of our value restored because we're staring and worshiping him

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Lord be with this church as we continue to fight to see the gospel Revive this dead region