Are You Afraid To Die? - [Mark 4]

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Now, I was in marketing for many years and there are different ways to sell products, different ways to sell services.
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One, make a good product, have a good service, that will sell. Another way you can sell things is to appeal to people's greed.
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I'm not saying it's a good thing, but you can appeal to people's greed and you can sell things. And another way
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I see people trying to sell products or services or data or information is appealing to people's fear.
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And that's what we see, I think, dear people at Bethlehem Bible Church and those watching. People these days are hawking and selling fear.
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People are in the fear business and it sells. It gets people to read newspapers or headlines or websites.
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And so I would ask you, Bethlehem Bible Church, are you afraid? Are you buying what the world is selling, the media's pushing fear, sports people are pushing fear, celebrities are pushing fear, government is pushing fear?
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I'd like to know, are you afraid? Are you afraid? Are you afraid of sickness?
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Are you afraid of economic turmoil? Are you afraid of, let's just cut to the chase, death?
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Death is a real thing. We all will die eventually and then there will be judgment. Over the years people have had death anxiety.
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Back from people like Sigmund Freud and on, they say, well, you know, you have unresolved childhood conflicts and we need to deal with terror management and we have to be careful to study mortality, salience, and all these things.
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I read that in 2013 people had this conclusion, I wonder how much they spent on this, that the more religious a person is, the less they fear death.
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And I thought to myself, you don't need to study to prove that. You don't need a lot of money to prove that.
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They had a form called intrinsic religious motivation scale, the revised death anxiety scale.
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Now, unbelievers, rightfully so, should fear death, right, because hell is real, judgment is real, one day the creator will summons them and they will stand before a thrice holy
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God and they should be afraid. It reminds me of the old poem, The Clock of Life. The clock of life is wound but once and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour.
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To lose one's wealth is sad indeed, to lose one's health is more. To lose one's soul is such a loss that no man can restore.
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But for the believer, should we fear death? Is it legitimate for us to say, you know what, we're afraid of sickness, we're afraid of economic collapse, we're afraid of what the world is doing and we're afraid of death.
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Is that a legitimate thing for you, dear Christian, to fear death? Some people fear death so much that they have physical symptoms, they have dry mouth, they sweat, they have cold flashes, hot flashes.
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Some people have all kinds of mental illness, as it were, mental sickness, some people have symptoms of, I need to have everything under control and I have certain uncontrollable reactions.
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Some people emotionally are upset and sad and full of guilt. And if you are full of anxiety or fear of even death,
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I mean, what do we do about it? I found a list of things online. There's talk therapy, there's cognitive behavior therapy, there's relaxation techniques, self -help techniques.
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And of course today at Bethlehem Bible Church, I wonder if Jesus could help us if we're afraid.
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I wonder about the Lord Jesus. And I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 1.
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As we look at the Lord Jesus, just a little background, and then get into Mark chapter 4, and we're going to talk about being afraid of death.
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Being afraid of anyone or anything, up to and including death. And if we see
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Jesus rightly, it's going to help us. And I think what we'll do today is we'll see this passage in Mark chapter 4 and you're going to say as a
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Christian, why am I afraid? Lord, I don't want to be afraid. Would you please forgive me for being afraid?
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Because you have been there, you have conquered death and sin and hell, and why would
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I ever be afraid when you're my Savior, when you're my Lord, when you're my
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King? I don't need to worry, I don't need to fret, I don't need to be afraid, instead I should be trusting, resting, praising, and understanding that you,
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God, will never leave me nor forsake me. J .F. Packer said about Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, reading those, he said, there's a need for constant meditation on these four
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Gospels, over and above the rest of our Bible reading. For Gospel study enables us both to keep our
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Lord in clear view and to hold Him before our minds and our relational frame of discipleship to Him.
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In other words, lots of times we think, you know, the deeper stuff is found in Romans, and there are deep things in Romans, of course, but we never want to get away from the
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Lord Jesus and how He's portrayed by the Spirit of God in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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And so before we get into Mark chapter four today, it's good to start off with Mark chapter one verse one, and you know what
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I love about this? It's just instantly into the theme of the whole
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Bible, essentially, but a theme of this Gospel. He just kind of, I like it because he's got a
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New England style, he just tells it like it is, he's just blunt, he just comes right out with language of Genesis one about the beginning, except here's not the beginning of creation, here's the beginning of a new creation in Christ Jesus, the beginning of the
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Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He doesn't debate it, he doesn't say, well, you know, your truth is my truth, it is a proclamation, it's not sharing, it's a declaration.
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He said, I'm not going to debate this, just like with Genesis one one, Mark one one, here is the proclamation of the
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Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a divine aspect here of this eternal
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Son. And some people say, Mark's kind of in a hurry to get you to the
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Lord Jesus, and so he doesn't have a lot of intro, it's just immediately in to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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The forward motion of Mark with verbs that are present, tense, very graphic, vivid, it seems like you're there,
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I think two out of three verses in Mark start with the English word and he is in a hurry to tell you about the
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Lord Jesus. And by the way, there's a lot of action in this gospel, is there not? Jesus is in the house, he's sitting, he's eating, he's in the synagogue, he's by the seashore, he's in a house, he's around doing good in Samaria, in Galilee area.
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It's lively, it's rapid, it's picturesque. It gives us insight into the Lord Jesus about how he's grieved, moved with pity, how he marvels at people when they don't believe.
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He's indignant with the self -righteous and the Pharisees. And this book has a purpose, and here's the purpose, that you would believe, that you would be so impressed by the
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Lord Jesus that you would say, I believe this God -man. This is good news, the word
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Gospel there in verse one, it's the Gospel of Jesus. This is good news, that although you're sinful, I'm sinful, you can stand before God one day because of the work of the
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God -man, the Lord Jesus. And sometimes the word Gospel is focused on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
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That's the strict word Gospel. Here's a little broader word Gospel, a general word for Gospel that means everything about Jesus in this book is generally
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Gospel. It is something that's about Jesus and how he addresses, how he teaches, how he heals.
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That's all very, very good news. And Mark wants you to believe that Jesus Christ is the
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Son of God. You see right there in verse one, Jesus, that's his human name. Remember the eternal Son adds humanity, so he might be a representative.
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He might live for us and die for us. Jesus Christ, that's the Messiah. Christ is the anointed one.
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The Old Testament pictures of this great Davidic king that would never sin is the
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Lord Jesus, and he is the Son of God. There's no beginning of Jesus because he is the eternal
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Son. He adds humanity at the incarnation, but he has eternally existed. And what
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Mark wants you to do is to say, I believe this. And then he also wants you to do this.
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While you have troubles and trials and difficulties in life, you keep believing. That's what he's after, initial salvation where you first trust in Jesus, recognize you're sinful, and you need a savior, and you believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and you're saved, and you're born again. And then you say to yourself, oh, but I'm having a hard time with life, but I need to keep believing.
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16 chapters in Mark, and if I had to outline Mark, it'd be easy. 16 chapters, two confessions.
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Everything's racing to the end of chapter eight where Peter has a confession that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of God, right? And then the centurion's confession in chapter 15, truly this is the
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Son of God, as the centurion sees the death of Christ, and he looks and he says, this is the Son of God.
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Two confessions driving you to those same confessions. And so I ask you the question, do you confess that Jesus Christ is the
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Son of God? That's what Mark wants you to do. The Spirit of God wants you to do that.
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Mark 10, 45, if I had to give you a verse to summarize the entire book, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.
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That chosen servant of Isaiah 42 that was predicted to come, that's Jesus.
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Do you recognize him? John the Baptist did, and he's saying, yes, in fact, this is true of Jesus. The confession, who do you say that I am?
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You are the Christ. And the centurion, truly this man was the
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Son of God. So with that background, let's go to Mark chapter 4, and here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at this passage that's very familiar.
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You know it very well. And then I'm going to ask you a few questions and go into Hebrews 2 about why are we afraid of anything, including death?
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Because, dear Christian, if the Bible is true, and it is, you ought not to fear death.
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You ought not to fear what the world is selling. Don't buy the world's fear because you don't need to.
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And it reflects on your faith. We will see in this passage that as fear goes up, you'll realize your faith is dwindling.
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Oh, you could never lose your faith because the Lord wouldn't allow that. But weak faith has heavy or high or strong fear.
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And the more you trust the Lord, the less you will be afraid. I preach this passage many times, and I never grow tired of it because it just shines the light on a
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God, a God -man, the God -man, who can tell wind and the sea to obey
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Him. And if that's your God, why would I be afraid of anything? Why would I be afraid even of death?
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The calming of the storm is pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ and how
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He is God. God and man. On that day,
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Mark 4 .35, when evening had come, He said to them, let us go across to the other side.
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Now, if you've been reading Mark, you realize, oh, on that day, that was a very busy day.
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Jesus was doing a lot. Pharisees, I mean, how much do you get done in a day? Well, on Jesus's day, this day, that day, it's called blasphemer by the
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Pharisees. His mother and brother try to kidnap Him, essentially. He tells all kinds of parables.
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He's preaching by the sea in the house. I would assume this is a hot sun in the
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Middle East. He was busy that day. And when evening had come, He said, let us go across to the other side, other side of the
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Sea of Galilee. So let's go to the east side of the Sea of Galilee. Say, well, why did Jesus want to take them there?
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For rest? Oh, I'm sure He needed the rest, but I don't think that's the point.
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For ministry, I mean, there's demon -possessed people over there, and He needs to go talk to them, and deal with them, right, and serve them, and heal them.
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But on the way to serve, and on the way to get a little rest, it's all about a field trip, as it were.
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We have something here at the church called Awana. You probably know what Awana is. And Taylor, what's Awana stand for?
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Approved workmen are not ashamed. That's right, right from the pastoral epistles. And sometimes during this
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Awana time, this teaching time for the kids, people bring in some kind of prop or something. You know, you're going to have this water, and we'll do a little prop.
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Here's kind of like the best counsel time of all. That's what's going to happen here. Jesus needs to teach these men a lesson.
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It's going to be counsel time, as it were. And the crowds, they want in on it, don't they?
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Verse 36, and leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was, and other boats were with him.
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This is very interesting. There's a lot of people there. Some followed, some were left.
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And as one commentator said, there's a curious detail. They took him with them in the boat, just as he was.
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My guess, he didn't get out of the boat. Jesus is in the boat. He's teaching parables, parable of the sower.
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And now he's still in the boat, and he doesn't get out, but now we need to move forward. He doesn't leave the boat.
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I wonder how long he taught in that boat. I don't know what happened to the other boats. Maybe the storm drove them away.
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He's with some of the fishermen, Peter and Andrew and James and John. And, hey, let's just take this trip.
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We've taken this trip a lot. We do this trip all the time. This is our normal fishing trip, as it were. And a great windstorm, verse 37, arose, and waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling.
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And you might be saying, you know, a little Sea of Galilee. It's like this little tiny lake. This was not that small of a lake.
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13 miles long, seven and a half miles wide. It's kind of pear -shaped. If you look in your maps of your
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Bible, you can kind of see it. And what happens is you've got Mount Hermon. It's about 9 ,200 feet up.
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And you've got the Sea of Galilee that's much lower. And all of a sudden, because of the wind and the climate, the heat, cold, all the interactions, and you can just kind of be placid.
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I think of Lake Placid because it was so calm. And all of a sudden, it turns into chaos.
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And that's what happened here. A great windstorm arose. Some translate this a furious squall.
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Matthew uses a different word. It's like an earthquake. So you just take the Sea of Galilee and you just start shaking it.
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And when you start shaking a bucket of water, you get like a Lowe's bucket full of water. You start shaking it, sloshing, it's coming all out.
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That's exactly what's happening here. It reminds me, by the way, of another storm. The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
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Jonah chapter one. And this windstorm comes and it's pretty fierce.
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And the waves, do you see the passage? We're breaking over the boat, over and over and over.
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The original language is they just kept breaking and breaking and breaking. Imagine, they're beating on the ship, coming over the ship, pitching the ship up and down.
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To what degree? The boat is filling up with water.
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Matthew, who was in the boat, said the ship was covered with waves. Verse 38, what's going on with the
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Lord Jesus? But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.
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And they woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? They might've been afraid, but I'd like you to ask yourself the question, was the man,
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Christ Jesus, afraid? I don't see him being afraid at all. He's just got done talking about farmers in his parables.
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And what do farmers do? They scatter seed on the ground. And then
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Mark 4, 27, he sleeps and rises night and day. And just like the farmer, he plants the seeds and he goes to sleep and lets
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God do its work. And here's Jesus, he's planting the seeds of the parables and then he goes to sleep.
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God is doing his work and it doesn't matter if there's storms or not. He's trusting, he's resting.
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You might ask yourself the question, did the Lord Jesus have faith? Say, well, it's not the kind of faith we have and you would be right.
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Our faith is we realize we're sinful and we're trusting in a risen Savior. His faith has nothing to do with sin because he never sinned, but he's still trusting.
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He's a man, he's perfectly man, he's truly man. And so as a man needs to trust God, so Jesus is trusting
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God and he's resting. He's not afraid, he's not... I mean, if anybody would be afraid, it'd be Jesus. He's not the fisherman.
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Fishermen had been out there many times and had different things like this happen, but the Lord Jesus, trusting.
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God's providential over all. I can trust him. He himself was in the stern sleeping.
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I think of another man sleeping on the boat, but it was a bad way to go about it and that was
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Jonah. And by the way, if you have a boat back in those days, you'd have a little cushion for people that weren't really fishermen.
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And so I remember having these little cushions, flotation devices, even for kayaks and for canoes when we would be on the
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Missouri River and you'd have a seat in the back of the canoe and a seat in the front of the canoe. And if somebody wanted to kind of sit in the middle, there wasn't a seat in the canoe, but you'd just give them this little cushion to sit on.
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And so for the guy that's not really the fisherman and he doesn't really have a place in the boat, you give him a cushion.
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And what's Jesus do with his cushion? I mean, he's been preaching, it's been hot, he's been busy. It's that day, that day that the
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Pharisees said he's a blasphemer, et cetera, he's sleeping. And this is kind of interesting, isn't it?
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There's water everywhere. Is it easy to sleep through water splashing? The water on your face, probably water that you're laying in.
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I want you to know, dear Christian, when you think of a man on a pillow in a boat,
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I want you to remember he's human. You say, well, he's the
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God -man. Yeah, that's true, he's divine. We'll see that in just a second. But you have the eternal son and he adds humanity.
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And he is now forever the God -man, even in heaven, the God -man. If we are ever going to be saved, we need to be saved by a man because it was
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Adam who sinned in the garden. And he was supposed to obey in the garden. And so now we're going to have to have the
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Lord Jesus obey where Adam failed. And Jesus is going to obey not in the garden, he's going to obey in the wilderness and one day bring us to the garden, that's true.
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But I want you to think someone is exhausted sleeping on a pillow in a boat during a storm.
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Everything in your mind should say, he's human. There are all kinds of errors in Christianity.
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Some say Jesus isn't God and some say he's not man. To be saved, you're going to have to have a
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God -man. He is human. And by the way, that helps us even when we're struggling with issues.
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For Hebrews says, "'We do not have a high priest "'who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, "'but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, "'yet without sin.'"
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And they awoke him and said, don't you care that we're perishing? I mean, the bad news is,
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Jesus, you better get up, we don't want you to perish. They should have been thinking that way. I guess the good news is, at least they think
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Jesus could do something about it. At least they think, you know what? He's got the power. He probably would do something if he just would wake up.
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One commentary said, the fact that these disciples should turn to Jesus for help is astounding. A number of them were expert sailors who knew all about handling a boat and who had been in many ways, who had been in many violent storms on the lake.
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They run to Jesus who had never handled boats, but had worked as a carpenter with his father in Nazareth. This sounds kind of like John 11 with Lazarus, does it not?
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Martha therefore said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. I doubt they were whispering.
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It's chaos on the lake. Don't you care, Jesus? Wake up. Verse 39, we've seen his humanity.
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Now, what do we see? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, both wind and sea, peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
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Now, I don't know about you, but when someone rudely wakes me up, it's kind of,
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I have to kind of get my balance a little bit. And you kind of wake up, you're kind of in a haze and a daze,
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I've got to have a little coffee to kind of wake up and think through things. Here, they rudely awake him. And what does he do?
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He rebukes the wind and the sea, peace be still. Now, that word rebuke, by the way, is interesting.
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It's used elsewhere of rebuking demons. It's a word that means, you know what?
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I'm gonna so say something to you, you're gonna do something about it.
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So there's exorcisms, Jewish exorcisms, and the demons need to be rebuked or censured.
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It's a technical term. It's like he's exercising a demon out of the sea.
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Now, of course, seas were very mystical back in those days and what's going on with sea and there's a lot of evil in seas and in heaven, there'll be no sea.
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I'm not saying this is a demon possessed sea, but like Jesus cast out a demon with a word, he now uses the word peace be still and he rebukes the wind and the sea.
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And he says, peace, be silent. And just like you would say something to a demon, put a muzzle on it, stop talking, that's the word here, be muzzled.
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Wind, be gagged, be still, stay still, as a commentary said, with a word.
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I saw the Pacific Ocean quite often in the last few weeks. Can you imagine when the waves are coming in and the wind?
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You just say something and the wind obeys you. Kim and I were with a couple and we were paddle boarding out in the ocean and sometimes you go in the little marina area or you can go kind of on a lake or someplace behind the scenes in a little jetty area or something.
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So we said, no, let's just go out in the open ocean and who knows what we'll see. Kim saw some stingrays and sometimes you can see some little tiny sharks.
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There's a place where you can surf called sharks. Why would anybody surf at sharks? But you can see all kinds of things.
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And so we were working our way north and it probably took an hour and a half to get to this place paddling on the paddle board because the wind was so strong, so much so that when we finally reached our destination and we went back to where the car was, it probably took us 10 minutes, an hour and a half, 10 minutes.
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I just wish I had the power within me when I was paddling fervently to just say to the wind, stop it.
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I thought about stopping myself, but I never thought I could say to the wind or the sea just,
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I mean, who talks this way? Who talks this way to the ocean, to the wind and it obeys.
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That's the point. And you can't just turn off the water's fury.
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You have to turn off the winds as well so it can be completely calm. I mean,
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Jesus is truly man, He's sleeping. And now can you not see He's truly God?
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No one can do this but God Almighty. Jesus is the one that upholds everything.
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He's the one that created those oceans and those seas and that wind. All things have been created by Him and for Him.
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And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. Now the liberals say, well,
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Jesus is stilling the storm of fear in the disciples' hearts. That's obviously not true.
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Let me read you something from the Old Testament about God that only God can do.
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Psalm 107, some went down to the sea and ships doing business on the great waters.
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They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. For He commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea.
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They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight.
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They reeled and staggered like drunken men and they were at their wit's end. They cried to the
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Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress. Psalm 107, verse 29, mark it.
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He, God, made the storm be stilled and the waves of the sea were hushed.
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That's Psalm 107 of God. Only God can do that. And now Jesus does that.
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And the writer of Mark says, are you making the confession that surely this is the Son of God?
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I hope you are. And dear Christian, you have by the Spirit's power. And if you're not a Christian, this is your confession that you must make.
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Jesus discloses Himself as the God -man. And then to tie in for our emphasis today, verse 40,
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He said to them, I mean, the God -man is in your boat.
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The God -man is your Savior. He's your friend. Why are you so afraid?
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Have you still no faith? What's the opposite of fear?
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Answer, faith. I'm not talking about the fear of the Lord as a beginning of wisdom. I'm talking about afraid of life, economics, sickness, and death.
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Why are you afraid? He says. Why are you so timid? Why are you cowardly?
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It's like Jesus would expect them to believe more. Yes, He knows they're weak.
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He knows they're terrified. But the supernatural
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God of the universe is in your boat. And by the way, Christian, He's your Savior. Why would we be afraid of anything or anyone when we have the right man at our side, the man of God's own choosing?
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Why are we afraid? You say, I don't understand the tie into faith.
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It's right there. How is it that you have no faith? Yeah, yeah, yeah, disciples, it was pretty easy for you to say, back in Mark 1, 2, 3, and 4, earlier chapters, yes,
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Jesus is God. He heals, He casts out demons. Nobody ever preaches like Him. But when your life's on the line, that's a little different.
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Do you believe now? To what extent do you believe? This is the
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God of the Exodus. This is the God of the Old Testament. This is God in our boat. And then if He's my friend, why would
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I be afraid? And they were filled, verse 41, with great fear and said to one another, they got the picture of who this
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God was. Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey
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Him? And the answer is, they knew, and you know, and I know.
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This is Yahweh. He's in our boat. The majestic God of the universe is in our boat.
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Who can still the waves? Who can stop the wind? Sinclair Ferguson, quote, for a brief moment, they saw majesty, power, and glory of Jesus unveiled.
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They witnessed His Lordship over nature. Like men in a storm who see the world momentarily illuminated by lightning and are able to get their bearings again, the disciples saw
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Jesus just as He was in His glory. It made them realize that if they could answer one question, they would have their bearings both for time and eternity.
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Who is this that even the wind and the sea? Matthew said they marveled.
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And so, Christian, I ask you this question. Why are you worried? Why are you afraid?
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And you say, well, this is just kind of the struggle of life and it's hard to be not concerned.
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Every time someone starts selling you fear, I just want you to think,
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I'm trusting in the Lord Jesus, who's the God -man who can stand by the ocean and say, stop, who said in the
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Old Testament, this is as far as you go, who can control the wind and the waves and the sea. I know unbelievers should be afraid of death.
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They're enslaved to that fear. But for us as Christians, if this is our God and He is, I mean, maybe what you need if you're really getting into one of those kind of I'm afraid kind of things, just drive to the ocean, right?
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Just drive for an hour, an hour and 20 minutes, stand at the ocean, look at it and smell and see and say to yourself, who can control this ocean?
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Who made the ocean? Who can control the ocean? And this is my God. He's saved me. He's my friend.
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He's not my enemy any longer. I have no condemnation because Jesus has bought me and sought me.
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He saved sinners. He's sought me when I was lost. He loved me when I was an unbeliever. How much more does
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He love me now as a believer? It's not a matter of how much because the Lord's love for us is constant.
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If you're going to hell, if you're not a Christian, you ought to be very afraid. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
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God. Hell is real. The unquenchable fire is real. Outer darkness is true.
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There's a fire that is not quenched and a death that people don't die. Sad. But for the
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Christian, turn to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two helps us so much and gives us a good tie in here.
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Unbelievers are slaves to the fear of death. Dear Christian, you ought not to be.
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You ought not to be. And when people try to sell you fear, I want you to think of the risen Savior who's your friend who looks at the ocean and says,
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I own you, I control you, I made you. And if He can do that to the ocean, then can
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He do that to everything else? Some people are afraid of death because they don't know what's going to happen.
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For the believer though, you know what's going to happen because it's absent from the body, what?
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Present with the Lord. To live is Christ and to die is what? Gain. Some people are afraid of death because they think they're losing control.
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Dear Christian, might I remind you, God's in control, God's sovereign. God's sovereign over the day you were born, over the day you'll die.
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He's sovereign over everything. Some people are afraid of death because they think, well, who's going to take care of my loved ones that I leave behind?
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Does God take care of His own? Does God take care of His own? Do you think the
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Holy Spirit could take care of your loved ones? And some fear the act of dying. They don't know how they'll die.
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But the Lord Jesus said, I'll be with you always. And so when you look at Hebrews chapter two, the big picture in Hebrews is the writer's trying to tell you that Jesus is great and He's greater than anyone because He's the wonderful high priest.
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And Jesus actually suffered to identify with humanity and to do something else. What else did
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Jesus do? How is Jesus so great? Why is He greater than angels? I mean, angels are pretty great. How can
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Jesus be greater than angels? And the answer is because He's going to take care of Satan, that fallen angel.
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And Hebrews chapter two is one of those passages that you read and you read and you read and it ministers to you and it ministers to you and it ministers to you.
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Verse eight, putting everything in subjection under His feet. That's the end of the quote. Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, He left nothing outside His control.
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At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. But we see Him who was for a little while made lower than the angels, namely
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Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone.
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For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
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For He sanctifies, for He who He sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.
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That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation,
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I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, behold, I and the children
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God has given me. Listen up, Bethlehem Bible Church. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood,
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He Himself likewise partook of the same things, truly human incarnation, that through death
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He might destroy the one who has the power of death. I mean, Satan's got the power of death and how does
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Jesus destroy the devil? By His own death, Jesus' own death. And now verse 15, congregation, please rest in this promise, this truth, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong sin.
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For the unbeliever, it is a slave -like life and they are slaves to the fear of death.
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I'm not saying there's anything wrong with vitamins or working out or this, that, and the other, but you can see the world.
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It is erupting with this fear. And you can mark this.
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It's not fear of viruses. It's fear of what the virus might do that is up to and including death.
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I love this passage because it reminds me of what the Lord Jesus did. It reminds me who
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He was. Back in verse 10, do you see it? For it was fitting that He, fitting means it was appropriate.
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The eternal Son knew it was appropriate to come rescue sinners because it had been what the Father had always planned and the
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Son had agreed to. It was proper. It was fitting. There's a purpose for His redemption because it had been planned out by God.
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It's called the covenant of redemption. Before Genesis 1 .1, the Father knew
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He would want to rescue sinners. The Son knew He wanted to rescue sinners. The Holy Spirit knew He wanted to rescue sinners.
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And one God, three persons went and rescued sinners by Jesus taking on human flesh.
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Why? Because verse 14, we share in flesh and blood. Jesus didn't say, I'm gonna take on angel flesh.
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There's no such thing. I'm gonna take on angel nature. No, no, He's going to save us.
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And He's come to destroy Satan. If you somehow think dualistically, Satan's powerful, God's powerful, and there's gonna be a battle royale.
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Satan's created. God's not created. We're not talking about yin and yang and who's more, who's less.
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We're talking about God, the author of the world by a word is created.
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He's no match. Satan is no match for the Lord. People think about what
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Satan does. One of Satan's most powerful things is to keep people enslaved to the fear of death.
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That's what he does. That's his hook. That's how he gets you. That's how he's going to sell things.
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Satan sells fear of death. Now, I'm not saying mainstream media left or right is trying to, is satanic.
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It might be driven by Satan. I have no idea. I don't need to know. I just need to know this. Christian, don't buy it.
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You've been, Jesus has been raised from the dead. If Jesus is in the grave, you better fear death. You better do everything you can to live as long as you can.
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But if we don't have to fear death because Jesus has triumphed over death and I'd have to be enslaved to that.
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I've been released. It's kind of like, you know, I saw those shows that you can take an elephant and you put a chain around the elephant's leg and you tie it to a tree, chain it to a tree.
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And pretty soon as the years go by, you don't even need to tie that chain around the elephant's ankle with some kind of, you know, ankle bracelet.
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You just kind of lay the chain over there by the elephant. It'll go, you know what? I'm chained. It just knows that.
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I don't have to be enslaved to this any longer, afraid of death. Do we want to die as Christians?
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No, I think God has given us, you know, let's try to stay alive. But death is inevitable.
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Every single person that's ever been born on this planet has died. You say, well, what about Elijah or what about Enoch and these things?
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Yeah, there are some exceptions and Lazarus, okay, died twice, but 99 .999 % of people are going to die, including you, including you, including me.
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Why would I fall for, though, the lie that, you know, death is the end? Death is going to be termination, annihilation.
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Death is going to be judgment. No, that's not for the Christian because Jesus has conquered
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Satan and conquered sin and conquered death. What kind of Savior would want us enslaved to the fear of death when he's conquered death?
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He's died in our place. Satan accuses, Satan tempts,
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Satan deceives, Satan opposes, and if God, excuse me, if God wants you to trust in him and walk by faith, including up to and including that deathbed, short of the
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Lord's return, no wonder Satan's trying to trick us.
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1 Peter 5, be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
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And furthermore, not just to devour, but to say, you know what, you're really still enslaved to sin and to death.
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You're not enslaved, Christian, to sin or death. Fear of death. He has overcome that.
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God himself said, see now that I, even I am he, and there is no God beside me.
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I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. And there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
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Deuteronomy 32. You say, but Satan, he's so powerful. But Satan is
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God's Satan, as it were. Remember, Luther would talk about that. He can only do what God has ordained him to do.
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Luther said, quote, why should you fear? Why should you be afraid? Do you not know that the prince of this world has been judged?
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He is no Lord, no prince anymore. You have a different, stronger Lord, Christ, who has overcome
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Satan and bound him. Therefore, let the prince and God of this world look sour.
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Let Satan bear his teeth, make a great noise, threaten, act in an unmannerly way.
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He can do no more than a bad dog on a chain, which may bark, run here, run there, and tear at the chain.
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But because it is tied and you can avoid it, it cannot bite you. So, Luther says, the devil acts toward every
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Christian. Therefore, everything depends on this, that we do not feel secure, but continue in the fear of God and in prayer.
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The only weapon Satan had is death, and Jesus has conquered death. We sing the song,
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Up from the grave He arose. 1 John 3, 8,
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Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the
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Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. I have some questions for you,
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Christian. If God is for you, who can be against you? He who did not spare
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His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
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We don't have to be afraid of death. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
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It is God who justifies. If you think judgment day, dear Christian, is you standing before God, and the whole life is played, and all the things that you've done, and it's played before God, and God's just checking things, you've forgotten about the cross.
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There's no judgment, because Jesus has paid for your sins at the cross. Why would
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God run them through eternity again? They're already paid for. It's not judgment for Christians.
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Not for our sins. Judgment for unbelievers' works and deeds and attitudes, that's for certain.
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But judgment for the Christian is over. It is finished. We look forward to meeting
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God, not because, well, you know, I have to answer for all these things. No, no, they've been answered for.
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There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. You want to know what judgment day verdict is for the Christian?
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We already know judgment day verdict is brought into the present. No condemnation. Don't let people tell you about final salvation and final justification.
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They're making you afraid for no reason. Final judgment is this judgment.
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There's not two judgments. You've been judged at the cross, because Jesus was judged for you.
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What can Satan do? Satan can't do anything. And if you take a look back at the verse that I focused on earlier, verse 15, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
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I repeat, if you're a unbeliever, you should be very afraid of death.
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But as a Christian, slaves to the fear of death, wasn't that the reason why
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Jesus came? To break the power of evil, Satan? Rescue those who are enslaved?
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Redeem those who are not only bondage to slave, but to fear of death that He redeems at the price of His own blood?
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Obsessed with fear of death? Paralyzed with fear of death? Financial decisions based on fear of death?
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Buying the media, government, and everybody else trying to sell you fear? The answer is, I offer you a risen
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Savior. He's your Savior. Why are you afraid? O ye of little faith? That's what
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Jesus would say. You do not need to fear death. Jesus declared, do not fear those who kill the body, and who are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear
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Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And for the
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Christian, that's not even an issue, because that's for the unbeliever, not His children, not
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God's children. Spurgeon, He took upon Himself flesh and blood as to die in our nature, that thus
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He might slay death, and might set us free from all fear of death. Spurgeon, do you not see that if the representative man,
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Christ Jesus, died, He also rose again, and that so also will all who are in Him rise too?
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If you are in Him, Christian, you shall rise again. Therefore, fear not to lay down your head in your last sleep, for the trumpet shall awaken you, and your body shall be molded afresh, like unto
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His glorious body, and your soul and body together will dwell in infinite bliss forever.
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We're delivered, not just from sin, wrath, and hell, but from the fear of death. I don't know, is there life after death?
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Jesus is alive. Yeah, but what about, you know, I still sin as a
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Christian, but Jesus paid for all your sins, past, present, and future. The Lord is my shepherd,
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I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
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He leads me in the path of righteousness for His namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
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I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
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What a psalm for our times. We have a great shepherd. Do you think this shepherd who loves you and has demonstrated that by sending the
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Lord Jesus to rescue you and die for you, and have the Spirit of God dwell in you, do you think on that last second, he's going to lose one?
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He'll lose you? He doesn't know how to transition you from death to life.
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Ezekiel said, unbelievers, death is their shepherd. For the believer, for you who are trusting in the risen
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Savior, I will fear no evil for you are with me. That's what the disciples in the boat should have been thinking.
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I'm not going to fear anything out here. There's a reverent fear, a holy fear for Jesus, the
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God -man in the boat, but besides that, nothing and no one. And by the way, this God -man in the boat is for us.
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He's with us. He's our friend. Dear Christian, you do not need to have any fear of a person, of a sickness, of death, if Jesus is your
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Savior. Yes, things are very difficult. When we lose people and they die, we weep with them, the loved ones.
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We're sorry. Jesus cried at Lazarus' tomb. Sickness is awful.
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Death is not natural. But in terms of fearing, while we're on earth, the just shall live by fear of death.
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No, the just shall live by faith in the risen Savior. You don't have to be afraid.
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And probably for some of us, I know for me, I have to say, Lord, You're right.
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I shouldn't fear. I have feared. Please forgive me. And then what does
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God do? Of course, I forgive you. I've forgiven you, Son. And there may be chastisement when we sin, but there's never disowning.
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There's never orphaning. Lord, increase my faith. But we don't have to fear death.
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It's wrong to fear death. It's a sin, Christian, to fear death. We are of good courage, and we would rather be a good person than be away from the body and be at home with the
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Lord. So whether at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. I'm hard -pressed between the two.
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My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
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1 Corinthians 15 When the perishable puts on imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written,
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Death is swallowed up in victory. It's like Paul on Typtos.
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Death is done. The death of death by the death of the Son. Swallowing up death forever.
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I mean, if you're going to kill something, that's one thing. But when an animal swallows another, it's just complete destruction.
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And now death is completely destroyed. It's swallowed up. Death is no trace, no smidgen left, no anything.
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It's gone. Oh, death, where is your victory?
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Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 is taunting. Where's your victory, death, now in light of the risen
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Savior? Where is it? You can't hurt me. Oh, death, where is your sting?
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This is the total defeat of death and Paul is praising. Paul is taunting. Paul is exuberant over that.
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Where's your victory? Where's your sting? In light of a risen Savior and Jesus is on earth and He said,
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I'm going to suffer, I'm going to die, and I'm going to be raised. Where is your sting?
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Why would we fear then? Why would we fear then? Oh, child of God, death has lost its sting.
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And it says in verse 16 and 17 of Hebrews 2, for surely it's not the angels that He helps.
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Reaches out and helps. Reaches out and rescues. But He helps the offspring of Abraham.
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And that's you if you trust in the Lord. Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in every respect so that He might become a merciful.
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That's your Savior. He'll lead you all the way to glory. And faithful high priest,
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He's given you His promise. He's faithful to make it come to pass in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
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All your sins have been taken care of, Christian. The wrath of God is swaged by the Son, planned by the
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Father, accomplished by the Spirit of God. Why would you fear death? It's not because you're going to be judged. Judged?
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Verse 12, I will tell of Your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing Your praise.
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He's our brother. He's our Savior. He's our friend. For because, verse 18, He Himself has suffered when tempted,
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He is able to help those who are being tempted. And so I think maybe most of us could have a good dose of walking by faith this week and not by sight.
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But maybe a little sight will help. So if you're able, maybe you need to make a trip to the beach.
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Maybe you need to go down to the lake and just think to yourself, who can say to this lake, this sea, this ocean, stop, be still, be muzzled.
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And if God can do that, why would I worry? Why would
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I be enslaved to death? And if the tomb is empty, and it is, and Jesus is alive, and He's trustworthy, then why should
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I be enslaved to fear anything, anyone? Even death.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank You for Your Word. It's good for my soul to be reminded as I'm preaching to these dear folks.
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I'm preaching right to me as well. I need this reminder. I need to be reminded, one day closer to death, one day closer maybe to the
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Lord's return in our lifetime. But either way, we don't have to fear.
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We don't have to be enslaved to that fear. And I pray that You would grant us repentance. We can be concerned.
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We can weep with those who weep. We can use doctors. We can try to be healthy, but we rest in You.
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We know that You care for us. And if we care for others, how much more do