Prepare For The Messiah’s Arrival! - [Luke 3:1-6]

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Kim said to me a while ago after Queen Elizabeth died, I sure would have been nice to meet
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Queen Elizabeth. I never got to meet her. I was reading this week that there's a certain protocol and etiquette if you do ever meet the
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Queen, our King of England, a certain way you have to act. And this was written when the Queen was alive and this is the protocol for meeting royalty.
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Number one, when greeting the Queen, men should give a neck bow, tilting their heads only, while women should curtsy.
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When addressing the Queen, you begin with your majesty and then later you refer to her as ma 'am.
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During a formal dinner, take the Queen's lead, stand when she stands, stop eating when she eats, wait until she sits to take your seat, and so on.
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In addition, if you're ever with the Queen, never turn your back on the Queen. Don't touch the
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Queen. Don't initiate conversation with the Queen, especially stay away from personal questions in regard to her grandsons,
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Princess William and Harry. Always bring a gift.
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What do you do when you meet the Queen? There's an etiquette, there's a protocol. My question this morning is, what do you do when you meet the
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King? Not just the human King, but the King of Kings. Is there an etiquette?
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Is there a protocol for meeting Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords? What do you do?
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How do you act? How do you carry yourself? Today, if you'll take your Bibles and turn to the
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Gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, we are going to talk about preparation for the
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King. One of the great things about being a pastor is I get to talk about Jesus all the time. While people on TV and people in culture can't really say
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Jesus, they have to say in God's name or something like that. We get to proclaim every single week to you the riches found in the risen
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Savior. You think about Adam is in the garden, he's on probation and instead of obeying, he disobeys
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Israel, she disobeys in the wilderness. Jesus, he's in the wilderness as well and suffering throughout his entire life.
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And instead of disobeying like Adam and disobeying like Israel, Jesus obeys. And he obeys to the point of death, even death on the cross to honor his
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Father. And what I love every week is I get to study and then proclaim to you the
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Lord Jesus because I just want to know everything I can about Jesus. I'm so thankful that there are 24 chapters here in this
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Gospel that give us insight onto his person and his work and his nature and his character. We get to learn about the
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Lord Jesus, the one who has given us peace with God the Father through Jesus, the one who has washed us and sanctified us and justified us by his blood.
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It was said by Charles Spurgeon speaking about the greatness of the Lord Jesus. Here stands a man guilty.
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The moment he believes in Christ, his pardon at once he receives. His sins are no longer his.
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They're cast in the depths of the sea. They're laid on the shoulders of Christ and they're gone.
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A man stands guiltless in the sight of God excepted in the beloved. What do you say? Do you mean that literally?
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Yes, Spurgeon said, I do. That is the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Man ceases to be regarded by divine justice as guilty.
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The moment he believes on Christ, his guilt is taken away. But I'm going to go a step further. The moment the man believes in Christ, he ceases to be guilty in God's esteem, but what is more, he becomes righteous, meritorious.
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For in that moment when Christ takes his sins, he takes Christ's righteousness. So that when
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God looks upon the sinner who but an hour ago was dead in sins, looks upon him with as much love and affection as he ever looked upon his son.
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Can you believe that, Christian? That's for you. God the Father looks at you like He looks at the son because you're in Christ.
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And if anyone would ever do that for me, I want to learn about Him and I want to worship Him and I want to be thankful to the
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Lord Jesus because for the Christian, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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And what Luke does is Luke starts from the beginning. Remember, Luke is kind of like an investigative reporter.
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He's working through everything in an orderly fashion so that you, chapter one, verse four, might have certainty that this is not some flash in the pan, something made up, not a regular common myth or Greek mythology, but Luke is very, very structured because he wants you to have a structured thinking about the infancy of Jesus, when
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Jesus was 12, when He's 30, et cetera. And if I had to summarize Luke, it would basically be the discussion about the good news of Jesus Christ that starts from the beginning, has a long section as Jesus sets
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His face like a flint toward Jerusalem, and then that last section, Jesus's crucifixion,
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His death, His burial, His resurrection and ascension.
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We are working through this book and today we come to Luke chapter three and we'll look at verses one through six.
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Luke chapter one, by the way, I think it's the longest chapter in all the New Testament. And what Luke chapter one is essentially doing, remember, it's showing the parallel and some similarities between John the
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Baptist and Jesus when it comes to the birth narrative. Last week, we saw that Jesus speaks for the first time.
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Out of all the things that happened between Jesus's birth and Jesus's public ministry, from an infant to 30 years old, there's only one thing that's recorded.
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And since it's only one thing recorded, it behooves us to think that must be pretty important if God is telling us one thing about who
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Jesus is and what He did when He was 12 years old. And it's not about Him doing weird healings or some of the misconceptions.
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He says in chapter two, verse 48, remember from last week? Here's the thing that Jesus says.
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This is the most important part about His growing up that we don't wanna miss. Luke 2, 48, and when
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His parents saw Him, that's Mary and His stepfather, Joseph, they were astonished.
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Remember, they've lost Him. They have gone to Jerusalem for Passover. The caravan's heading back to their hometown.
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They've lost Him. They come back, they find Him. And His mother said to Him, Son, why have You treated us so? Behold, Your father and I have been searching for You in great distress.
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And He said to them, the first words recorded of Jesus Christ, why were You looking for Me?
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Did You not know that I must be in My Father's house? Moses didn't talk that way about the tabernacle.
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Solomon didn't talk that way. David didn't talk that way. You might say it's our Father. You might say the
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Father. But Jesus is letting everyone know, this is the relationship I have with the Heavenly Father.
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And I am His Son. I am the Son of God. I have come, sent from the Father, and I had to be in My Father's house.
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My whole life has been ordained because the Father has sent Me, and everything from My life, to the crucifixion, to the resurrection, it's been ordained.
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I am the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and I'm also the sacrificial Lamb to be slain.
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He knew He was on a mission, and His mission was not primarily for His mother and Father, although He was submissive.
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The text goes on to say that. It was He is His Father, Heavenly Father's Son, and He comes to do what
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He, the Father, has sent Him to do. Verse 50 of chapter 2, And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them.
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That's kind of Luke giving a little hat tip to say, you know what? Make sure you, reader, understand that Jesus is the eternal
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God who takes on human flesh. So we come today to chapter 3,
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Luke chapter 3, and we fast forward 18 years. Jesus is 30 years old, and we learned what
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He said when He was 12 years old there in the temple as He's learning from the teachers in His Father's house.
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And now we have an 18 year old, 18 years fast forwarded. And we are going to talk about John the
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Baptist. Before I do though, just a little reminder, the focus really is never on John the
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Baptist. The focus is on the God who would send John the Baptist to proclaim
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His Son's soon arrival. In other words, the focus never should be on what can we learn from John the
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Baptist and how did He live and what to do? The focus is on God is very kind to send
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John the Baptist to tell people to get ready. Because if you're going to meet the
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Queen, there's certain etiquette that needs to happen before you meet the Queen or you're going to have some kind of fashion faux pas or verbal faux pas.
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Now the King of Kings is coming. What do we do to get ready for the King of Kings? He's coming. He's there.
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So this is all about who God is and how kind He is to send John the Baptist.
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So if you'd like an outline today, it's super simple. We're looking at Luke 3, verses 1 -6. And the title of the message really could be the
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Messiah is arriving, so what? The Messiah is arriving, so what?
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And I'm going to give you two responses knowing that the Messiah is going to arrive.
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You're going to see those two responses. And here's the good news. This is kind of fun part of preaching. The same responses that they should have 2 ,000 years ago for Jesus' first return should be our responses for His second return.
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Jesus is coming back. What are we going to do? And so as you see, here's what needs to happen for Jesus' first coming.
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I'm going to also talk a little bit about how similar that is and how much it echoes for us getting ready for Jesus' second coming.
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The Messiah is arriving soon. Number one, rejoice. I am going to do alliteration today.
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The first one's rejoice. The second one's repent. We can do alliteration once in a while, right? Come on. Always alliterate.
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The Messiah is arriving soon. Rejoice. And this is more implied, but you'll see what
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I mean as we go through the text. Verses 1 and 2. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother
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Philip, tetrarch of the region of Aeturia and Trachonitis, and Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the
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Word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.
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This is what we've been waiting for. You can just imagine what's going through the people's minds at that time, and then even recalling it through the
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Gospel of Luke as he wrote it. Nobody that is alive has ever heard from a prophet of God.
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Nobody who's alive has ever known anybody who's known anybody who's known anybody who's heard from a prophet of God.
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It has been over 400 years of silence. They know the Messiah hasn't come.
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They're longing for the Messiah to come. Not just because of Roman oppression, but because of sin. And God has been silent, and now
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God is going to speak. The Word of God through John is going to happen. God is going to do something.
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He's going to keep His promises. St. Clair Ferguson said, they're standing on tiptoes to think, finally,
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He's going to come. He's going to arrive. The Messiah is going to be here. History could be coming to a conclusion.
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And one of the things Luke wants you to do, since he's a physician and he's a historian, is he wants you to see these are real people.
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Non -biblical or un -biblical people like Josephus, historians, write about these people.
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We uncover archeology about these people. In real time, in real space, in real history,
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Jesus is going to arrive. Both in a political climate with these Tetrarchs, and a religious climate with high priests.
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Jesus is going to show up in a time like this. But I think more than history, here's what
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Luke is wanting you to think. In a day where every one of these people listed is a vile, wicked, rogue, if I want to keep going with the alliteration, they're scoundrels, they're scallywags, and they're scamps.
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I'm just thinking, what are the words that we could use? They're villains. These people killed John the
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Baptist. And these people killed Jesus. In a day where the wicked rule, in a day that these people are infamous for how sinful and cruel they could be, this is when the
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Lord Jesus is going to come. The world is in rebellion. The rulers are in rebellion against God.
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And now God is going to show up through the voice of John the Baptist. Could there be a list of people more prideful and more violence filled?
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And by the way, that's not just politics. What does it say? There's high priests, Annas and Caiaphas. By the way, you can only have one high priest at a time.
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It's Caiaphas now. But Annas is the old high priest, and he's got this title. One man said, if you meet an ex -president, you still might call them
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Mr. President. And so now you've got a couple of really awful people who are leading the religious establishment.
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So the politics are bad. The religion is bad. And in that climate, what's the text say?
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The word of God came to John. 400 years of silence. God is going to speak finally in this mess of the world.
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Yes. Like God has spoken to Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Hosea and Haggai and Jonah. Now God is going to speak, and He's going to speak in the wilderness.
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The Messiah is arriving. And the implication there, although it's not stated in the text, is there should be this anticipation, this rejoicing.
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Finally, the Messiah is going to come. Finally, God is going to speak. There's going to be salvation for people, no matter what the religious climate is.
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And the application point for you, dear Christians, is very simple. Jesus is going to return a second time, and not one single leader is going to stop
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Him. The political outlook, the religious outlook, Jesus is going to come back.
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And He's not asking for permission. He's going to come back. And just like the first coming was promised, and those people were excited for that, the second coming has been promised.
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J .C. Ryle said, let us work on and believe that help will come from heaven when it's most needed.
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In the very hour when a Roman emperor and ignorant priests seem to have everything at their feet, the
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Lamb of God was about to come forth from Nazareth and set up His kingdom. What He has done once,
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He can do again. In a moment, He can turn His church's midnight into the blaze of noonday.
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Isn't that good? To think that the Lord Jesus is going to come back. This would be a good time for Him to come back, by the way.
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I used to think to myself, it's kind of selfish of me if I'm in a trial and I'm thinking, you know what?
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Lord, please come and get me out of this trial. Shouldn't I be more focused on, Lord, I want you to come back because I want to see you and worship you and understand who you are and see you face to face.
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Well, that second part is good and fine and right, but there's nothing wrong with being in a distressed situation wanting your
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King to come and get you. You're hurting, things are difficult, and you're like, Lord, come.
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I'd like you to come back. I'd like you to rescue things. I just, I look at the times of the world and the times of London and the times of Israel and the times of, you know, just like, this would be a good time to come back,
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Lord. And I'm sorry, I'm not wanting you to come back so I can see you as much as I want you to come back to rescue me, but you are the one who's going to rescue me, so Lord, please come back.
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Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the
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Lord and His anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds and cast away their cords from us. Psalm 2 says, he who sits in the heavens laughs.
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The Lord holds them in derision. He'll speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury, saying, as for me,
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I've set my King on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son.
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Today, I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.
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She'll break them with a rod of iron and dash them into pieces like a potter's vessel. No matter what's going to happen with the nations, with the politics, with the religion, the
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Lord is going to come back. Jesus said, when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He'll sit on His glorious throne.
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Before Him will be gathered all the nations and He'll separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
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And He'll place the sheep on His right hand, the goats on His left, and the King will say to those on the right, come, you who are blessed by my
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Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
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Dear Christian, that's our hope. That is our hope, fixing our hope on the grace that's being delivered to us by the
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Lord Jesus. This is Revelation 19, hallelujah, for the Lord, the Almighty reigns.
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The Messiah is coming back. Number one, rejoice. That's first coming or second coming. He would apply to.
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Number two, the Messiah is arriving soon, repent. This is the real point here.
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And He's going to say it explicitly in verse three and figuratively in verses four through six.
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It's the same concept here of repentance, verses three, four, five, and six, but He says it different ways.
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He'll say it directly and then He'll say it figuratively. Verse three, and He went into all the region around Jordan, that is
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John the Baptist, which is proclaiming, heralding, being sent by the King. I have the King's message.
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A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The Messiah is going to show up.
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What do you do? Sin a lot? No, the Messiah is going to come up. I better think rightly about my sin.
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That's what the word repentance means. We'll see about fruits of repentance next week, but repentance is to think rightly about sin.
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And the Messiah is coming up. I better do that. He's going to show up soon. My father worked for Northwestern Bell Telephone Company when there was
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A, a monopoly, and B, it was cheaper prices. I'm just kidding. And he was in management, and so there was some kind of strike, and so he had to go to Oklahoma every week to work, and he would come back to Omaha, Nebraska on the weekends.
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And my mom would say once in a while on Thursday night, you know, your dad's coming home tomorrow. Translation, clean up that room.
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Get the dog taken care of. Get everything shoveled. Your dad's coming back. You better get ready. Just a little heads up.
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It was kind of nice of my mom to do that. My dad was 6 '4", 240, boxer, and I don't think he ever hit me, but I got my hair pulled a lot.
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Hence, we always wanted to sit behind dad driving, because it's hard to pull hair like that.
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The kindness of my mom saying, you better get ready and hear the kindness of God. I mean, Jesus could just show up, but what do you need to do before He shows up?
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Well, the Savior of sinners needs to make sure that people are thinking about their sin rightly. And John the
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Baptist, it's a great summary of his ministry here in verse 3. Goes around all over preaching repentance.
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Jesus said in Matthew 11 of John the Baptist, what did you go out in the wilderness to see?
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A reed shaken by the wind. What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing. What did you go out to see?
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A prophet, yes, and more than a prophet. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.
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That's exactly what's happening. John the Baptist is the advanced man. He's the preparation man.
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He's the one that goes out ahead to say, the King is coming. Heads up. It's merciful to tell you ahead of time.
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And what does he do? What's the text say? He proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
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Now, there's all kinds of baptisms in the Bible. Baptisms of fire, baptisms of suffering.
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There's a baptism that if a Gentile wanted to be a Jew, he would have this proselytite baptism.
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There's Christian baptism. But this is a unique baptism. This is what we call
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John's baptism. This is based on his prophetic office. And it's a baptism that says,
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I know I'm a sinner and the Messiah is coming. I know I'm a sinner and the
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Messiah is coming. People that got baptized by John's baptism and then ended up believing on the
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Lord Jesus Christ would have to get baptized after the resurrection of Jesus as a
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Christian. But this is a baptism that says, I know the
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Messiah is going to come. Listen to what Paul says when he's preaching in Ephesus in Acts 19. John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is
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Jesus. This is a preparation baptism. This is a baptism saying, the
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Messiah is going to come. I realize I'm a sinner and I need to get ready. So I ought to get baptized.
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John's baptism says I'm a sinner. I need forgiveness. My religion won't save me. I can't save myself.
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I need the promised Messiah. And it's an expression of repentance.
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And of course, repentance deals with sin. Here's an assignment for you this week, dear congregation.
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I'd like you to do what I did this week. And that is read your favorite book of the
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Bible. It's the most well -known book of the Bible. It's the most popular book of the Bible. It's where everybody starts and reads and they just finish through.
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It's the book of Leviticus. You laugh, I got you.
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You get people to laugh and then you really get them after that, right? Like Ehud and Eglon and the sword.
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Israel's in the wilderness, Exodus. Taken through the Red Sea. I mean, they're in Egypt. Taken through the
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Red Sea in the wilderness. They're building a tabernacle where the presence of God dwells. And Leviticus answers this question.
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How am I to be in the holiness of God? In His presence, the Holy God? What do
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I do? You saunter on in. I'm sinful, God's holy. How do I work through this?
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And you see all the offerings to teach you. There are guilt offerings saying, I'm guilty and I have a need of a substitute.
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There are burnt offerings that the aroma goes up as you burn grain to heaven saying,
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I need to be consecrated to God and live for Him. There are peace offerings saying, after my sins have been paid for and I'm honoring
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God, I can sit down and have table fellowship with God. That's what they're all talking about. It doesn't take you very long to think.
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Guilt offerings, that sounds like Jesus' substitutionary death. Burnt offerings, that sounds like Jesus' life of obedience.
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Peace offering, this is what we get because of the Lord Jesus. And it begins to talk about sin. Our culture, maybe even in this church,
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I don't think it's true, but maybe for some of us, we don't think rightly about sin. We don't think rightly about sin because we've forgotten how holy
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God is. And for the Jew reading the book of Leviticus, he or she never forgot about God's holiness because what did
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God do later in Leviticus? These are the clean animals and these are the unclean animals.
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And you would walk around and before you know it, you'd be thinking, owl, unclean, bat, unclean, pig, unclean, fish without scales, unclean.
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I had some catfish this week that's got fair fried catfish, unclean. Tastes pretty good.
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what do you mean there's unclean, unclean, unclean? Walking around, what do you mean there's clean, unclean, clean, unclean? Have a baby, unclean, this, that, and the other, washing, everything else.
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To try to remind you, to try to remind me, I have to be thinking in terms of clean, unclean, clean, unclean.
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I can't even look at the sky without saying there's a buzzard, unclean. There's a heron, unclean.
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There's a lot of things that are unclean, including what? Including who? I'm unclean. I'm thinking in the categories of clean, unclean, clean, unclean, clean, unclean.
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And of course, with these teachers back in those days when John the Baptist shows up, they just squelched all the holiness of God.
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They've cordoned off the holiness of God, as if they could, they tried. And if sin's not that bad,
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God's not that holy, then maybe we could just be good people and get to heaven by being good. That's what happens, by the way, with every religion outside of Christianity.
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God's not that holy, man's not that bad, he's pretty good, and the gap can be bridged.
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The spark that's needed between that spark plug is, you know what, it's so small, maybe my good works can do it.
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But you read the book of Leviticus, and you think, all these burnt offerings, all these guilt offerings. I'm defiled,
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I need cleansing. Clean, unclean, clean, unclean. The Jew was taught by God like a schoolmaster, pedantically.
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Think of the world of clean and unclean, so you think of your own hearts, and then you think, I might be better than other people, but I'm gonna stand before God one day, and then what?
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I'm gonna need to be clean because God's perfectly holy, and I need someone to take away my sins.
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And in John the Baptist's baptism, it was, I recognize that as true, and therefore
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I will get baptized because I need that Messiah to show up. I'm taking your word for it, John the
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Baptist, that the Messiah is going to show up, and I need to be cleansed.
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Now, if you wanna argue with the text a little bit, you can, we're not gonna get into it too much. We all know here that baptism doesn't save you.
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Baptism doesn't forgive. Matter of fact, repentance doesn't forgive either. Only Jesus forgives. This baptism is an acknowledgement of their need for forgiveness because they know they're sinners.
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The Messiah is going to come. People said, well, it says baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
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You get baptized and you get forgiveness. Next time you go to the post office, they might have some wanted posters there for people committing crimes, right?
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Back in the old days, cowboy movies and stuff. You'd see the big poster. Wanted for what? Wanted for murder.
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Are they wanted so that they can murder people? No, they're wanted because they have murdered.
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And that's how you should think about baptism for the remission of sins. Baptism here for the forgiveness of sins. Only Jesus saves.
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You're getting baptized to say, I need a Savior, I need a Messiah to come. I need forgiveness.
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Sin bears on its way. Help, prepare, get ready. I'd like to ask you this,
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Christian, because I said earlier, we could think about their context, first coming. John the Baptist says, repent and get ready.
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Be prepared. I'm wondering for you, Christian, thinking about the second coming. Are you prepared for the second coming of Jesus?
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I didn't say unbeliever. I said, Christian, are you prepared for the second coming of Jesus?
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Now, if you say, there's some things in my life that I would kind of like to get straightened up and there's some repentance that's needed, fine,
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I'm with you all the way. But are you prepared for Jesus to come? And the answer is, since you are a
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Christian and since all your sins have been paid for, since you are in Christ and have his righteousness credited to your spiritual bank account, since we know it's true because Jesus has been raised from the dead, you are ready.
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You're ready. Should you be afraid of the second coming of Christ is another way I could put it. Should you have fears and doubts and sorrows?
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I love the Heidelberg Catechism. What comfort is it to you that Christ shall come to judge the living and the dead?
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And if you're not thinking rightly, what do you mean? It's not a comfort because he's coming to judge the living and the dead. But for the
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Christians, there's no sin to judge because Jesus paid it all. It is finished. Every one of your sins has been paid for.
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So the answer to the catechism is that in all my sorrows and persecution with uplifted head,
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I look for the very same one who before offered himself for me to the judgment of God and removed all curse from me to come as judge from heaven who shall cast all his and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but shall take me with all his chosen ones to himself into heavenly joy and glory.
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For the Christian, the preparation might be we need to wash our hands from sins, i .e.
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our repentance as Christians. But you're really prepared. You do not have to be afraid of the second coming.
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Your sins will not be revealed at the second coming. They've been paid for. And God says, I will remember your sins no more.
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And that should lead us to holy living. Well, he has a figurative description of repentance here in verses four, five, and six.
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As it is written, Luke chapter three, verse four, in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, this is
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Isaiah 40, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
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Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall become straight and the rough places shall become level ways and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
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Now let's think through this a little bit. Literally, when a king was coming into town, let's not think about Jesus, let's think about another king, small king.
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What you do is you make it easy for him to get there. You go make sure the roads that he's going to travel on are fixed up.
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You're gonna try to make things nice. So you literally go do what this text is talking about.
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Valleys need to be filled, you don't wanna big ruts, mountains and hills, you wanna make sure you don't have to go over the mountain to get there, you cut through, crooked places, straight.
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And so he's literally saying when a king would come, royalty would come, you make it easy.
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There's a preparation that's needed. But what the writer is doing here, what Luke is doing as he quotes
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Isaiah chapter 40 through the words of John the Baptist, there's a figurative preparation that he just talked about in verse three, it's called repentance.
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This whole section here about paths and straight and valleys and filled and mountains and made low, it's talking about this is what should be happening in our hearts.
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This is what repentance looks like, figuratively from Isaiah chapter 40. Lord is going to come, how do we act?
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We act in humble ways, we act in godly ways. We act in repentant ways. We act like we're not indifferent to his coming.
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We act like we're going to get rid of our bad habits and sins. We ought to repent.
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And so John announces a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And he says, it's just like when a king comes, literally, you get the roads ready, figuratively, let's get our hearts ready.
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Get your hearts ready, the king is going to show up. Now here's a fun thing.
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At least I think it's fun, you'll think I'm odd for thinking this is fun, but that's okay. When you read a quote from the
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Old Testament in the New Testament, what goes through your mind? Oh, proof texting, prophecy fulfilled.
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But aren't there contexts to those Old Testament passages that are being quoted?
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Well, yes, there's more than three verses found in Isaiah chapter 40. If I were to say to you, when
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Jesus on the cross quotes Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you what? Forsaken me.
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Was he only thinking about that verse? Or was he thinking about that verse in context? And Psalm 22 also has things like this.
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Think about Jesus on the cross. They mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. I'm poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint.
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My heart is like wax. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to my jaws.
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They've pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them.
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And from my clothing, they cast lots. Here's what happens in Scripture.
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When the Old Testament is quoted, and yes, even here, those verses are important and we should study them.
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But they come from somewhere. And what the writer is trying to get you to do is to say, instead of quoting the entire passage, which he could,
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I'm going to quote a few select verses because when you hear Psalm 22, my God, my God, you think of that whole chapter.
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What's the point? The point is, I wonder what's going on in Isaiah chapter 40 because when
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John the Baptist says, remember what Isaiah 40 says? He gives a few verses. I wonder what all the other verses say.
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I wonder what they teach me about God. And you say, I don't know. I'd love to find out. Great, turn to Isaiah 40.
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The text that's being quoted assumes more than the text. That's kind of how they did it.
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That's how they thought. What's Isaiah 40 about? Luke wants
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Isaiah 40 to be in your mind. And some of us know Isaiah 40. And we should be there in 13 weeks as we read through Isaiah on Sunday morning.
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But you're going to see the saving nature of God, the character of God, the brilliance of God, the promise keeping
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God. What kind of God should we be preparing for when he shows up? He's going to show you in Isaiah chapter 40.
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What kind of God even wants there to be preparation before the King's going to come back?
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What kind of God would send a king, his only son, to die for the sins, not of his friends, but his enemies?
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And here we have Isaiah chapter 40. The initial context is, of course, Isaiah is in Babylon.
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And they don't know if they're ever going to make it back. How are we going to make it back to Jerusalem? God, we've been judged by you.
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You've used the Babylonians to judge us. We're 700 miles away from home. And here we are, self -imposed.
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And we've got kings like Hezekiah in chapter 39 that don't care about anyone but themselves.
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Is there a king that could rescue? Is there a king that might come? Is there a Messiah that might come? Is there a great enough
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God who's greater than Babylon the Great? And so when
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Isaiah 40 verses 3, 4, and 5 is quoted in Luke 3, he, the writer, is wanting you to think about the bigger context.
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And so whenever you read a New Testament quote, one of the things you could do is say, where's that quote from? And what's the larger context?
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And that will help you interpret. Isaiah chapter 40. We're going to breeze through this, but I want you to see how comforting it is that God is promising
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His return. Talking about His nature,
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Machen said of this chapter, it's quite impossible, the wondering reader will say, for prose style ever to attain greater heights than these.
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In other words, could there be a greater chapter in all Scripture? What is God like?
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Who is He? What's His nature like? Does He save? Is it just physical? Does He love sinners?
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Isaiah 40 verse 1. What do you tell a bunch of exiles, self -imposed exiles, under the judgment of God?
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Is God only a God of justice and wrath? Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.
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She's received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. What do you say to Israel stuck there?
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Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. It's plural. Send a lot of people to give this message about how great
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God is. He's going to send a king. This king is also going to take care of sins.
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Iniquity is pardoned. Tell them that even though they're sinful, there's comfort.
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Comfort essentially means in the Hebrew, I can breathe again. So much pressure.
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So much stress. It's like your ribcages are falling in on themselves and you go, I'm finally going to be able to breathe again spiritually.
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This is covenant love. This is grace, not judgment. Their sins have perfect match.
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Not double jeopardy, but exactly matching. Large and abundant. God is a rescuing God. A saving
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God. And He wants you to be prepared. Verse 3, a voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
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Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up. Every mountain and hill be made low.
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The uneven ground shall become level. The rough place is a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.
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And all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The initiative of God, the
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God who takes control and does not kind of, you know, Evan Burns talks about this in his book.
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One of our missionaries, Evan, he said, we basically are carmen. We believe in karmic
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Christianity, in karma. And it's kind of this transactional thing.
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And if you do this, then God does that. And if we're bad, then this is how God acts. And back and forth and everything else.
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Here's the God that does. Here's the God that sins. Here's the God that does everything. And by the way,
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His word's faithful. Verse 6, a voice says, cry. Well, what shall I cry? Here's what you cry.
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God can be trusted. His word is true. All flesh is grass. Beauty is like the flower of the field.
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The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades.
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But you don't even need to know the rest of the verse. It's right from 1 Peter 1. But the word of our God stands what? Only in good times.
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Glad we sang that song, by the way, that we did. The word, the
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Lord. Who said these things? I want to know more about God's character. Alright, let everybody know.
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Verse 9, go up to a high mountain. Get a megaphone. Get a speaker. Oh, Zion, herald of good news.
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Lift up your voice with strength. Oh, Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up. Fear not. Say to the cities of Judah.
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Here's what you do. I'm stuck in Babylon. I'm oppressed. That's the literal. I'm stuck in spiritual
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Babylon. I'm enslaved to my own sin. I need a rescuer. I need the Messiah. I need someone to love me.
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I'm unlovable. I'm an enemy. Okay, let me tell you about God. And He says, behold your
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God. Here's your God. What a great way to start preaching. Behold your God. What a great way to evangelize.
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What do you need to know about this God? Verse 10, the
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Lord God comes with might. He's stronger than Babylon. He's stronger than Satan. Think physically. Think spiritually.
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It doesn't matter. He comes with might. His arm rules for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him.
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The omnipotence of God, the greatness of God, the power of God, never getting weary. Never getting tired. Never having to take a rest.
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Strong enough to get me out of Babylon. Strong enough to get me wrenched from the grasp of Satan as an unbeliever.
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But is He tender? I mean, I get that He's a lion. Is He a lamb too? He will tend
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His flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in His arms. He will carry them in His bosom and gently lead those that are with young.
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He will not leave His own unattended. As great as this King is, when someone can't make it, someone can't keep up,
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He'll go pick up that sheep. He will not leave His own unattended. He's the great shepherd.
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He's the tender shepherd. Even gathering His scattered exiles. Even gathering people who have said no to Him for years and not believed in the
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Lord Jesus. And then He's got all these questions. I think 20 questions. Ever play that game, 20 questions?
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This isn't a game, but this is 20 questions. Clumped in like five sections. And by the way, here's the fun part.
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I'll give you the answer. Here's the answer to all 20 questions. No one. No one.
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The answer to every one of these questions is no one. Nobody. Well, why even take the test if we know the answer?
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Because you're supposed to be remembering who this great God is who would send such a John the Baptist who would then be the forerunner of Jesus.
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Who's the God we're dealing with? What kind of God is in the Bible? Who's the real God? People say, well, my God would never do such and such.
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It doesn't matter who your God is. I want to know who God is, right? Babylon.
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Exiles. They're trying to get out. Where's my help going to come from?
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Egypt? Syria? Will somebody help me? We've got to extract ourselves from this captivity and this slavery.
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What kind of person could get us out? Spiritually, we're slaves to sin as unbelievers and we need to be rescued and we try civil things, ceremonial things, religious things, moral things.
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We can't get out. Who can get us out? Who could actually be God and man so He's God to have an infinite amount of righteousness to give us and man so He could be our representative?
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Who is this? And we find out here, who's measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?
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A little cup in your hand there. Marked off the heavens with a span, that's from your pinky to your thumb, nine inches.
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Enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.
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And the answer is, no one. This is the God that we're dealing with.
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He could just say, God's big. He could just say, God is. He could say, God is alive.
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But He uses this language to try to make your mind think, yes, that's exactly right. The hollow of His hand.
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When I was a kid, we used to go to Minnesota all the time. Land of how many lakes? 10 ,000.
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Really? And it's just like there. You stand there at the
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Atlantic Ocean and look out and you're like, okay, you know, God doesn't have a hand, but the picture language, the analogy language is, it'd be like right there.
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Just a little bit of water. Marked off the heavens by a span. Calculated the dust.
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Mountains. He doesn't have hands. You just think God's great. That's the point. Verse 13.
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Yeah, He might be great, but He might not be smart. Who's measured the Spirit of the
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Lord? Or what man shows Him His counsel? Whom did
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He consult? And who made Him understand? The answer to all these is no one. Nobody. Who taught
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Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? Where did God go to school? What college did
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He go to? And is it from Ivy League or not? God is equal to the task of rescue.
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He's wise enough to figure it out. Yes, but Babylon. Yes, but the nations.
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Yes, but look at the current climate. Verse 15. Behold, the nations are like an oppressive war horse.
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They're like a drop in a bucket. From a bucket are counted as dust on the scales. Behold, He takes up the coast like fine dust.
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Now, we don't buy products like this much anymore, but once in a while you have to weigh something. I think maybe if you even go to Wegmans or something, you have to weigh something ahead of time before you get the produce.
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Do you wipe the dust off the scales? I do. I'm cheap. I'm just kidding. We don't even think about it.
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The greatest of the greatest of the great in comparison to the infinite God is actually less than this, but we're just trying to use language so we can figure it out.
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God's sovereign over all these nations like a drop in the bucket. Verse 16.
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Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. God is worth so much worship that in Old Testament worship, when it comes to offerings and burning things up and you're going to need wood to burn offerings, you don't have enough wood in all the universe to have enough offering wood for God.
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The nations are as nothing before them, including Babylon, including any nation now. They're accounted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness.
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We ought not to be fearing Pontius Pilate, the Babylonian Empire or anyone else. To who then will you liken
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God? Verse 18. Nobody. What likeness compares with Him? No one. You see what he's trying to drive?
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If I could just say it to maybe get the kids' attention. Kids, it's really stupid to worship false gods.
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Right? Did I just say stupid? It's really stupid. Okay, it's foolish.
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Wait till you hear some of the false gods. Verse 18. To whom then will you liken God? What will you likeness compare with Him?
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An idol, a craftsman casts it. A goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts it with silver chains.
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Is God sarcastic? You bet He is. They used to hang Egyptian relics with chains.
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They're dumb. They're lifeless. They don't talk. And if they don't talk and they're lifeless, they're not really gods at all.
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You've got to set them up so they don't move. In verse 20. God's sovereign over creation.
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Don't you know? Verse 21. Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Question after question after question.
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Have you not understood from the foundation of the world? Since you can't understand how great
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He is, submit to His good sovereign hand. Since you can't understand the totality of His greatness, it would be better just to tuck yourself underneath that God.
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It is He who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. I mean, what's a grasshopper?
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I think locusts, by the way, are clean foods. So you can eat a locust if you want. When we were five years old in Nebraska, we didn't have anything else to do.
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So we would get a grasshopper, pull some of the big legs off and then throw it in the spiderweb for fun.
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I told you I'm a sight case. It's just a matter of people ride the bicycles and they're running those long distances for a reason.
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They're running from something. So if we just stop for a second before we go through the rest of the verses, even if we have time to do it.
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I say to myself, why do I complain? Why do I worry?
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Why am I fearful? Why am I borrowing troubles from tomorrow? Why do
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I focus on all my troubles instead of having my mind directed back to this God who is infinitely majestic and who loves me with an everlasting love proven by sending
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Jesus to die for me? Who's like a shepherd.
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Who's powerful. Who can't be stopped from His sovereign will. He blows on them.
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Verse 24, they wither. I mean, it's really kind of summed up in verse 25. To whom then will you compare me that I shall be like Him says the
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Holy One. So what do you do? Verse 26, lift up your eyes on high and see who created these.
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He brings out their host by number, calling them all by name. Stars, that is. Greatness, might, strong, power.
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This is key to everything. If you're Babylonian, you worship the stars. How about the
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One who makes the stars? How about the One who controls history? Yeah, He's great.
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He's powerful. He's wise. He's greater than all nations. But I don't even know if He cares about me. He's probably too great to care for me.
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He's probably too transcendent to be compassionate. Verse 27, why do you say, O Jacob and Speaker of Israel, my way is hidden from the
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Lord and my right is disregarded by my God? You're too great to care. Have you not known?
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Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God. The creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn't grow faint or weary.
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His understanding is unsearchable. Here's how much He cares.
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Verse 29, He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, He increases strength.
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Even you shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the
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Lord, first coming, second coming, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.
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They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. God cares.
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What's the point, Pastor? The point is when you read a little section like Isaiah 40 that's found in Luke 3, don't forget to go back and see the big picture.
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When you read Psalm 22, verse 1 found in Matthew, go back and read Psalm 22 because you will be blessed.
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You will be enriched. What kind of God sends His Messiah? What kind of God sends a forerunner to His Messiah?
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It's the kind of God that wants you to say, I know it's true and I will rejoice and I will repent.
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There's etiquette for when the King comes. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for Your Word. We're thankful for the
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Lord Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for this dear congregation, a congregation that wants to be told the truth.
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And we're thankful that in time, the Lord Jesus came. And in time, He'll come again.