King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but King and Lord over man's will? - [1 Corinthians 1:24-25]

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Kim and I were on our way to go skiing this week up to Wachusett Mountain skiing for me and snowboarding for her we pulled out of the driveway and We saw some smoke.
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It looked like a house in our neighborhood was burning So we slowed down before we pulled away and we saw it wasn't a house that it was burning
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It was someone's car Our neighbor's car. I don't know what it was some kind of little black
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Miata or something convertible and the fire Was flowing out of that thing.
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You could just see it almost kind of rolling out and So we backed up quickly
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Because our neighbor was standing there with a little kitchen fire extinguisher
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Spraying the car and I said change your name
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Jill Get away from that car. It's going to explode Did you call 9 -1 -1?
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Yes So we backed away from the car and you could see now it's getting more intense
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It's hotter and hotter and higher and here's this little Inferno the fire truck pulled up The policeman pulled up.
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I happen to know this particular officer officer Ramos and I Said what happens when that gas tank blows?
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He said well, it could have shrapnel fly out said are there people still in the house? And he was positioning himself
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Behind the fire truck so he would have protection from the car if it exploded nobody got hurt and we drove away and We just yelled out of the window be warm be filled.
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No, just kidding Everybody was safe. Everybody was fine and we took off and now as our family has thought about that the last couple days
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Many good gospel pictures should come to our mind and now your mind I thought about this
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Inferno With a woman standing there with a little dinky fire extinguisher, and I thought you know what that's exactly how every unbeliever deals with sin
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That's how you deal dealt with sin If you're a Christian now and you look back and you say before God opened my eyes
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I just thought I would put a little band -aid on a gaping wound in my carotid artery and everything would be fine
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But I would just go ahead and apply some little thing here to take care of this huge problem one man said the most damning thing in all the world for an unbeliever is
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Virtue Morality I'm good I'm fine.
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I do good things And it's like putting band -aid upon this Inferno and it doesn't deal with the problem because the problem is on the inside the problem is a heart problem a sin problem and It wasn't until that fire truck came along and had enough fire retardants
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Material there was no hydrant close by to douse that fire And I thought that's another good picture man can't stop the fire women can't stop the fire
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No one can stop the fire the fire has to be put out by the work of someone else And I thought what a great picture here the fire truck is putting the fire out
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That person can't put it out. Can't put the fire out by itself and here I am standing there next to the officer
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I thought it'd be smart of officer Ramos is standing here I should stand here too with the covering of that fire engine
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So if the thing did explode we're going to be covered my wife said, you know, there's another picture to this
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And can you imagine heat and the flames and the fire
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Cascading over and over and over Seemingly not going to be put out That for every unbeliever including that lady who had the fire extinguisher
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She would love to be in that burning car on earth for one second
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Compared to the eternal lake of fire that unless God intervenes She will be in and after a hundred thousand years of hell
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You'd look back compared to eternity and say It was just a moment.
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It was the blink of an eye and Here people run around and they want to try to put virtue morality goodness good deeds
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Baptism I grew up in the church. My dad's a pastor. I went on a mission trip. I used to do those right things
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Thinking that they're going to see God when truth be told
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For one sin against a thrice. Holy God You ought to be hung up naked on a tree and tortured slowly forever
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And that's exactly what happened to Jesus Christ.
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He was hung naked on a tree and tortured slowly as God the
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Father compressed eternal damnation of hell into three hours and Beginning at noon at Calvary.
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He dumped that cup of wrath on the Sun until three o 'clock
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Tortured naked slowly on a tree Sin is that bad
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Yet Can you imagine God and his great love and you think of Ephesians 2 and with his great love?
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He loved us instead of torturing us. He tortured his son in our place
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John Wesley said Christians sing Why do Christians sing? Because they know they deserve to be on that tree and God the
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Father Saved them from that and punished his son You want to measure the cost of something then you measure the cost of what it cost the one who gave the gift
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My mother was friends with Warren Buffett I don't know how many billions he has but you can just imagine in your own mind if you say this if Warren Buffett Would have said to one of his
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Kids at 10 years old by the way, son. I've got a story to tell you
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You're not our birth child Your mom and I adopted you when you were six weeks old and we gave you the last name and and by the way you want
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To know why we're poor today, and we don't have any money at all and we live in a ramshackled 500 square foot house
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It's because I took my ten billion dollars and I spent it on your adoption
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The cost of the love is commensurate with the cost of what that love gave
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People spend $30 ,000 on adoptions today, and I'm glad for that and it shows how much they love these children
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Wonderful you want to show how much someone loves someone when it comes to adoption the idea of the gospel is this
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The Father Son and the Spirit one God in eternity past Did you hear about it today in Romans in Revelation chapter 14 the eternal gospel?
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God had a plan and that plan was this Sinners are going to sin and they must be rescued and they can't rescue themselves
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It will be like taking a fire hydrant to an Empire State building ablaze. So I will send my son
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I am just yes, I'm holy. Yes, but I love my people and love sacrifices and love pays
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If you turn your
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Bibles to first Corinthians chapter 1, I want to talk today about this God whose name is
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Jesus Christ He's the Lord. He's the king and How can this great
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Lord and King? be honored in salvation How can people who for one moment say
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I think I'll throw the band -aid of virtue onto the fire Because I want to do something
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I want to contribute Individualism then abandon that turn their back on it and run to the gospel and say
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I thought that was dumb before Jesus dying a slow death on a cross naked tortured slowly the father punishing the son in my place
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It used to be dumb. It used to be costly. It used to impinge on my rights too much. I don't want that Now the people say
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I love that. I'll give my life for it I'll follow that King if it costs me my life
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What happens how do you explain a person like Paul who one day was going to kill
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Christians and the next day? He's preaching the eternal gospel The answer is not found in the person of Paul If you're a
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Christian today the answer of why you're a Christian is not found in you. That is a doctrine that Eclipses the grace of God and Paul comes to the
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Church of Corinth and he says the Lord Jesus saved you He made you different. He's made you a new creation in Christ.
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And by the way The reason you are who you are Corinth is because of God himself
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I Looked at the bulletin today And I thought you know these kind of Hallmark holidays always just kind of get in my way
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And I looked and I thought huh Sunday school heaven hell and everything in between morning message
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King of Kings Lord of Lords evening service attributes of God the distinguishing love of God Romans 9
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And I thought that's exactly right The church gets together to worship God What a novel concept.
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I thought we wanted to talk about some kind of you know Maybe we wanted some kind of romantic message today. I wanted a message today on the
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Song of Solomon and all that Well, that's why you're here because God know knew you needed a message on God To consider
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God and his greatness his holiness his love the gospel if you're a Christian You'll be praising
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God forever for the eternal gospel. So we'll praise him now Say it kind of makes me uncomfortable.
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Well, it does it's very uncomfortable. I think about the gospel It falls through but in my mind
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I just was thinking about you ever seen a helicopter Come rescue people and so you can think of Vietnam or Saigon or something and the final
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Helicopters are showing up and when the people run to the helicopter They don't run out like this on their tiptoes to the helicopter for rescue.
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What do they do? They bow. I don't care if you're five foot zero
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You're bowing and here's this Savior this bird that will rescue you But you're bowing and you're bowing as you're going to the
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Savior and that's exactly what preaching about God does You run to him you run to your father's arm, but he's not just a father
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He's a holy father and there's an aspect of bowing as you run to your father. That's what
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Corinthians Needed they needed a message not about them. They needed a message about the eternal
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God So if you'd like to summarize my sermon today, I have a one -word summary for the sermon God and God is the reason
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Anyone is saved if you've got an unwon Unloved one who's not saved you need
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God to save them. You say this is easy. Isn't this preschool theology? Yes But our culture has so twisted things that somehow we give man
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We give women the ultimate kingship on whether they'll be saved or whether they won't be
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Friends if it's not for God, they never will be so God comes as a rescuer and saves
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And Paul has basically been saying in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 2 3 and 4 There's divisions in the church.
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How do you get the church to be unified? And the answer is remember who God is
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Because if everybody's thinking about the right Savior the right way, they'll line up. It'll just be like the military
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You'll just get in line. You'll fall into formation as you see God for who he is
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We're born followers. And so let's have the right one to follow Jesus Christ If you follow men's wisdom worldly wisdom, you're gonna be scattered
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Easy pickings and if you pick up with me in first chapter of 1st
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Corinthians verse 22 Remember the last few weeks we've been showing that when
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God intervenes There's nothing but hope for people if he doesn't intervene. They'll think the cross is stupid foolish
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Repugnant and a stumbling block first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 22
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For indeed Jews ask for signs Show us something spectacular
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The Greeks search for wisdom. We like to think about it. We like to consider kind of a way to be right with God Paul says that's what they want and instead of giving them what they want.
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I am an ambassador from God I'm an Apollo. I am an apostle and I give them
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God's message, but we preach Christ Crucified the text shows in the tense for crucified
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It's he's continually to be seen as the crucified one raised from the dead. Yes But Tortured slowly on a tree not for his own sins, of course, but for ours
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We preach Christ crucified to the Jews who wanted a political Messiah To take over this
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Roman occupation. They think the person who dies on the tree and can't save himself is a Person who couldn't even save himself is gonna save us.
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No to the Jews a stumbling block people are cursed for hanging on a tree according to mosaic law in Deuteronomy and To the
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Jews, what do they think? Jolly, good show. No, they think it is foolish and Left there.
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They had always linked that but here comes God to the rescue and don't miss the two words found in verse 24
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That's our launching point for today as well first Corinthians 1 24 How does anyone believe the gospel if everyone because of sin thinks it's either a stumbling block or foolish
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But to those who are the what the call The call every time in the epistles in the
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New Testament called by God with a power that overwhelms Invincibly, but those who are called both
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Jews and Greeks Remember the Jews and Greeks who used to think the Jews there's no power in that Messiah now
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They think it's the power of God the Greeks think oh, that's just stupid. That's not wise. That doesn't seem to work
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That's you actually grotesque now those Greeks say it is wisdom so what's a text say both
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Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God and Then he gives this
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Kind of paradoxical hyperbole verse 25 because the foolishness of God Is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than Men, how do you delight in something you used to hate answer
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God works in you There's more than just rejection to this story
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Looking at verse 25 a little bit more before we get into the outline because the foolishness of God Literally the foolish thing is wiser than men.
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It's a different translation than he's used before He doesn't use the word foolishness like he did in verse 18 21 and 23.
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He doesn't say foolishness there in the Greek He doesn't say Moriah. He says moron the foolish thing.
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What is the foolish thing? Foolish thing is the cross Because the cross is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men it seems
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Initially like it's not very strong, but it is strong. It seems weak, but it really is strong It seems like it's kind of wimpy yet It is the most fierce demonstration of power the world has known the cross and the resurrection
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It's all a matter of perspective the unbeliever looks at the very same thing The one thief on the cross looks at Jesus and says save yourself.
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You can't even save yourself. Who are you and The other thief who said that just moments before now looks at the cross and says he's my wisdom.
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He's my strength He's my righteousness. He's my redemption and I will be with him in paradise because he just told me
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The thief in the cross, how did you become a believer? Was it something in you was it something that you did?
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Did you have some kind of fire extinguisher and put out all the sins of of your life? And then somehow come up with your own righteousness
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What explains it? So the rest of the sermon today I Want to give you several reasons why you should marvel at God's effectual call
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The called in theology we call it the effectual call and I want to now just paint this picture and put it before your eyes
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So you look at this picture and say that is marvelous. That is wonderful. That is awe -inspiring
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That is about the gospel that is about God and where am I to be found? I'm to be found nowhere except as a recipient passively receiving this because of the work of another
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Pastor Steven I did a couple shows this week on no compromise radio. I think Steve had a good point Why did the prophets of old in the
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Old Testament continue to bark out? Don't serve dead gods
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Don't serve dead idols. They have mouths. They don't speak. They have hands. They can't do anything with their hands.
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They have feet They can't run ears. They can't hear and how many times you see that in the Old Testament don't serve these old dead gods
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Well, why do you think they needed to be told that because they kept running to these dead gods and trying to serve them They needed that message now,
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I don't think our church necessarily needs the message you will be encouraged by it But the culture needs this message
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God saves God calls God regenerates God makes born again and man only receives man doesn't say
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Okay, God, I know you're king of kings and Lord of Lords But you can't do anything to me unless I let you if you said that to Paul.
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I wonder what he would do I want to have you be jealous for the glory of God And so if I say to you, could you please give me your testimony that?
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you use words that Have God as the actor and you as the recipient when you give your testimony you say well
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I I I noticed that I was a sinner and then I noticed that what this person told me was true about the cross and Then I repented and I believed and I had
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G I accepted Jesus to Savior and Lord and then I did this and then I read my Bible that all may be true
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But that's not how God saved you That's what you did after God saved you to read the
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Bible and study and and reflect upon his lordship I want somebody that says when I give a testimony,
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I'm gonna testify of the Lord and his grace My contribution to my testimony is this if you were
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Andrew Bonar I contributed sin And God did the rest if you walk away with one thing today
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I hope you marvel at God's great salvation And then when you testify to someone else that you're a
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Christian, I hope you talk about God not you Because where I come from people who talk about themselves in a testimony don't give testimonies they give
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Testifonies many reasons this morning that you should marvel at God because of his effectual call
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Number one Why should you stare at God marvel at God even though you say my life is hurting things are falling apart everywhere else
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Number one you should marvel at God because God's effectual call Teaches that God controls the human heart
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You should marvel at God because God's effectual call teaches that God controls the human heart
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Now let's work generally and then go specifically you can tell when pastors do the general to specific what they're after And here's what they're after the specific is such a throat grabber that I've got to lead you up to it
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Let's start generally and work specifically generally You would agree with me that God can do whatever he desires as often as he desires true
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God can do whatever he chooses because by definition he is God and if that is true He can do whatever he wants then he cannot be thwarted by anyone else
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Listen to what pink said and I just love this. I just want somebody to give me a high view of God It's telling the new members class today.
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We default to the Sinclair Ferguson kind of where's Waldo? Kind of Bible study.
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Where is you know that picture that's got all those characters and you try to find a little Waldo character So we open up the
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Bible and we say to ourself, where am I in this verse? Where am I in this chapter? Where am I here in 2nd
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Corinthians? Where am I in all these places? Sometimes you're not anywhere You're not even born yet.
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This is 2 ,000 years ago We can see where's God in this text.
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We need a good dose of God I know some people here who have loved ones in the hospital Been to the hospital are going to the hospital people that will have to bury people soon.
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What do you need? You don't need a little forehead Pat and say everything's gonna be fine and I want you to feel good today
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I want you to see this God who does whatever he wants and he's kind and he's loving and he's sovereign and he's your
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God Pink said he is subject to none influenced by none
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Absolutely independent God does as he pleases only as he pleases and always as he pleases
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Isaiah says about God God speaking my counsel will stand.
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I will do all my good pleasure Did you know God's divine purpose is always accomplished?
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Yes supreme power. I won't tell you the references I'll just read you the verses and just sit back and listen to these verses about God in control
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Our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases Whatever the
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Lord pleases he does in heaven and in earth in the seas and in all the deep places Indeed I have spoken it.
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I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it I will also do it one man said of God you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you
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He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the habitants of earth. No one can restrain his hand
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Now there's a problem theology Affects the way you think and there is a relation here
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Relationship between God's utter sovereignty and who we are and here's a relationship There's an implication
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Since God is sovereign that you are not
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We're not sovereign if God is that sovereign There's not two sovereigns of the universe There's one sovereign of the universe and for many that is frightening that is disturbing.
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I'm not in charge I'm not the captain of my own ship Manifest destiny and all these kind of things after all the slogan of the
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American War of Independence was We serve no sovereign here yet God is sovereign
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Spurgeon said Men will allow God to be everywhere except on his throne
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They will allow him to create stars give gifts rule the oceans men have no objection to a
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God who is really no God a God who shall be the subject of Caprice who shall be a Servile follower of their will who shall be under their will who shall be under their control
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But a God who speaks and it is done Who commands and it stands fast a
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God who does as he will among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this lower world Such a
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God as this they cannot endure and yet it is not essential to the very being of God that he should be absolutely sovereign
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Certainly to the scriptural conception of God Sovereignty is an absolute necessity
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Necessity God is sovereign over every molecule proton neutron.
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I know we have WPI students quarks I don't know what else we have out there stars moon
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Sun is sovereign over everything Including you including your mind including your emotions including your soul including your spirit including your
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Will I can just hear the little retractor say here with a higher voice.
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I Know God's sovereign. I want to drive that Contrasting particle out of your vocabulary when it comes to the sovereignty of God there isn't
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God is sovereign But to say that is to betray that you think there's some chink in his sovereign armor
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So no Isaiah, this is the plan devised against the whole earth And this is the hand that is stretched out against the nations for the
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Lord of hosts has planned and who can frustrate it What I want you to do is
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I want you to turn your Bibles to Proverbs Please chapter 16 and now we're gonna tighten this funnel a little bit
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I showed you generally that it's marvelous that you should think about the sovereignty of God still under the first point
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Where we're marveling about the sovereignty of God. I'm going from general He's sovereign over everything tightening it up a little bit and saying that God's sovereignty
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Does not stop at the human heart and will We're tightening this up a little bit
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Somehow we've got to say to ourselves God's sovereign over everything nothing can frustrate his plan and that also includes that everything includes the will the heart the mind the whole person of a man or a woman
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I Want you to see from these verses that there's no invisible barrier or invisible force field that's around the will of a person because our society is like free will free will free will free will like there's some kind of Invisible force field you ever see someone and they're behind some force field in a science fiction movie and you've got some phaser set to stun
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I don't know what show that would be but a show like that and they try to stun the person and then it just stops
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Right here and it kind of dissipates laterally, you know that force field protects People go around and they say
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God is sovereign But I've got this little kind of force field around my will and they give all these reasons about free will robots and everything else
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We'll get to that in a little bit, but I'm trying to show you from the Bible He's sovereign over everything and now look at these four out of many verses even in the
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Proverbs that aren't a barrier to God's sovereignty Proverbs 16 9
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Look at four here in Proverbs Proverbs 16 9 whatever man is going to plan
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God's will gets done It's not the sinful finite fallen person's will that overrides
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The whole time we go through these I hope you say to yourself This is exactly how
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I pray I'm praying that God saves my loved one I'm praying that God makes them the called and by the way left to themselves.
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They'll never get saved This is the God you should be praying to to say I want this
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God to save my loved one Proverbs 16 9 the plan excuse me the mind of a man plans his way
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But the Lord directs his step See that overarching overriding element
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Yahweh the King Look at Proverbs 19 21, please No matter what man plans
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God's will gets done And by the way, they're not always the same because man is sinful.
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God is holy. They both don't track You can't say to me well got man always plans the way
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God plans You don't need a Savior for that kind of theology Proverbs 19 21
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God's sovereignty doesn't stop at the human will and heart The heart by the way when you think of this in the
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Old Testament and the new the heart is is the mission control center We wrongly in our society say this today
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Well, you know that's good head knowledge But it's not good heart knowledge and the farthest 12 inches of the world is going through my head and then coming down to my heart
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Before it goes out my mouth, by the way that preaches really well, and there's something to be said for internalizing truth
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But if you said to a Jew you said to a Greek you better love God with all your heart
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That person was not being told. Oh I've just got to love God with all my emotions and love and peace
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He's saying you better love God with your mission control center with who you are your heart Out of the heart the mind what?
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Feels I'm not against feelings. I got an email the other day from someone and listening to No Compromise radio.
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He said you're against feelings. I Got a bad feeling about that email. I'm telling you we have feelings
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But God is sovereign over your feelings over your will over your heart Isn't he isn't he sovereign over everything
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Proverbs 1921 many of the plan of many are the plans in a man's heart but the counsel of the
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Lord But the counsel of the Lord it the counsel of the Lord will stand
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If I wanted to say it this way, I'd say it who's on first Proverbs 20 next chapter
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Should make you marvel you should make you say, you know, there's no God like this This is the
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God that I like to study because you study a God that this holy this great this awesome make you praise him
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It could be thankful that he loves you Proverbs 2024 man's steps are
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Ordained by the Lord how then can man understand his way? One more chapter forward
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Proverbs 21 1 God sovereign over everything including the heart and the will
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Find me the most powerful person in the universe back in those days who was a created being and I'll find you a king
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Can God control the king? The Kings heart is like the channels of water in the hand of the
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Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes The he there in the second sentence is not the king
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He turns it wherever he wishes and he s capitalizes personal pronouns referring to God, which
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I think is a good thing he The Lord turns it the
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Kings heart wherever he the Lord wishes used to play in sandbox when we were kids and and Sometimes there'd be a big tire a tractor tire laid down sideways and you fill it with sand or else
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There's kind of some boards some two by sixes or something and we'd have all kinds of forks and we'd go get the bucket
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And we get the bucket and we pretty much we did whatever we wanted with that bucket of water
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Fill the bucket full of water and then we were little sovereigns, by the way, and I would say to myself, you know what?
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There's another flood coming for these Confederate soldiers that he don't know about they got a little too close to Wittenberg or something.
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I was gonna say Wittenberg They might have gotten too close there I'm sovereign and in my sandbox Civil War soldiers can be at Wittenberg if they want and I would come along But see in our mind what we like in ourselves sovereignty choice
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We don't want God to have that same right you are a chooser because you are made in the image and likeness of God You say it's time for the flood
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Confederate Army You can't flood me because my barrier of free will won't allow it
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You take that thing and I would just pour it on the Confederate Army and they would just float away
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Their legs would still be stuck to that platform thing So they're floating kind of sideways, but off they would go I could make a river
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I could make a channel I could make it whatever way here's coming down But I'll make a diversion so the dam makes it go over here
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I could do whatever I want whenever I wanted as often as I wanted as long as I had the resources to do it
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I know God's sovereign, but let's tighten it a little bit more still under marveling at God's sovereignty
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Still under the first point. He's generally sovereign that sovereignty doesn't start and stop at the heart
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God's sovereignty Means that he can then do what he wants with the heart open it or harden it
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Open it or harden it turn your Bibles to Revelation chapter 17, please
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God gives people strong delusions in 2nd Thessalonians 2 so they should believe the lie
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Ezra chapter 6 the Lord caused them to rejoice and had turned the heart of the king of Syria Toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of the
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Lord. You've got an unbeliever and God says I'm gonna turn his heart so he is supportive of my ministry, but there's another side to this
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That people want to relegate to oh That's kind of seminary talk and no we now look at the only book in the
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Bible that says you're blessed if you read it And hear it Revelation 17 17
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Of course you're blessed with other ones, but it's good to know the end It's good to know about the revelation of Christ Jesus look at Revelation 17 17 and tell me just how sovereign is
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God For God has put it in their hearts to execute whose purpose his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God should be fulfilled
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God hardened Pharaoh's heart God hearted the hardened the hearts of the
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Hivites in Joshua 11 the idea the notion that God surrenders his control of man's will
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Is not a biblical notion at all Oh, I see the white flag there of the man's will and that means
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I can kind of come over here and take over No people dethrone
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God by declaring him impotent over the will of man this kind of effeminate
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Jesus Who is such a gentleman he would never kind of impinge on someone's will
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That isn't the God of the Bible We've just seen in 1st Corinthians that if people go from the lost to the called
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God has to do something If God somehow created a little pocket here a little vacuum of something around a will and he wasn't sovereign over that He wouldn't be
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God There'd be no logical thought to say God's God now because he can create an area that he's not in control of That God has somehow created something that's equal in power and equal in authority to him and he's now waiting
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He's up there tapping and kind of biting his proverbial nails. I sure wish that person would do something so I could do something
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Remember I went to Paris long long time ago. I wanted to see Napoleon's tomb
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How many people have seen Napoleon's tomb some have if memory serves me back to 1984 just outside of Paris and Napoleon wanted everyone to bow to him
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That would come and see him in his crypt So, you know what he did? He designed his script in such a way that three or four stories down is his crypt
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There's a big open room With nothing in the middle kind of how could
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I describe it like a courtyard Marriott right with an atrium? Something open in the center and you could not go down and touch his crypt like this same level you had to be two or three stories up and when you look down at the crypt of Napoleon you were
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What a man -centered way to try to get homage The better way is to show this
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God here who says things like this Is this your God by the way, or do you have a different God in your mind?
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God says in 2nd Samuel thus says the Lord behold. I will raise up evil against you from your own household
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I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion And he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight indeed
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You did it in secret, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the Sun David I'm going to make your son
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Absalom pollute your marriage bed you might have ran off and hid with Bathsheba, but I'm gonna do this so everyone sees
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What do we do with that? You know those kind of verses are so oblique and so sharp
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They almost make some people do today what others have done with the Thomas Jefferson Bible You know what
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Jefferson, but I wish I had the Jefferson Bible right here The Jefferson Bible is fairly thin and what did
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Thomas Jefferson the deist do he said every time There's some kind of supernatural thing Jesus walked on water.
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You can't really do that and so let's cut that out Jesus fed 20 ,000 people can't really do that you know people were you know they're just having little bits of it
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It was kind of like a sacrament. It's kind of like communion share a little bit But let's just get rid of that He cut all the resurrection stuff out because the very end it says they put him in a tomb and rolled up the stone
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Because Ideas have consequences and the idea that Jesus was a supernatural
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God who raised himself from the dead would demand that Jefferson would bow and This God who says
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I'll do whatever I want whenever I want to whomever I want Should make you bow, but if you're not careful
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You're gonna want to get your scissors out the
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God of the Bible who says in Jeremiah 25 that Nebuchadnezzar is God's Servant the
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God of Isaiah 28 who destroys the temple of God Through others and then calls it his work
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The God in Psalm 105 that turned the Egyptians hearts to hate the
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Israelites Friends there is nothing mark this there is nothing that is done except for the decree of God number two
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I just looked at my clock and we're gonna go. Well, let's just try to get number two Never gonna happen number two not only should you marvel at God because God's effectual call teaches that God controls the human heart
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Number two, you should marvel at God because God's effectual call teaches that God is sovereign over the salvation of sinners
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God is sovereign over the salvation of sinners if God wanted everyone to be saved everyone
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Be saved your only option is God has a plan to save everyone
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Judas saw Jezebel Hitler if he died unrepentantly and he has
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Looked on the quarter of time and kind of give them enough grace that they might believe he's had their son die for them and Now he just waits and waits and waits and waits and oh, thankfully maybe one out of 200
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They'll bow the knee But if God has died for the bride if the son has died for the bride
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Won't the bride be washed? Complete if Jesus died for one person that's in hell
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Christ death was Insufficient if Jesus died for you, you're going to heaven and I know what's coming through your mind
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Well, then you mean when I tell an unbeliever when I'm evangelizing Jesus died for you. Should I still tell him that what if he?
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Didn't die for them and I've got all these things going through my mind Well, I'll have to tell you next week, but I'll give you a little hint of what's going on right now
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Tell them what the Bible tells them how about that and nowhere in the Bible does it say
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Jesus died for your sins believe Why do we talk that way? Why do we go around and say well, you know
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Just you know accept Jesus in your heart I found once in the Bible God really loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life
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You know if somebody told me that you know what I would say as an unbeliever great because I like to sin And he loves me now my sin.
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That is great God says Jesus died for sinners and you ought to trust and believe this risen
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Savior right now Why don't we talk that way? That's the Bible way, but it's my belief.
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It's the elders belief that we've come so far from Evangelicalism 300 years ago when
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Edwards and Whitfield were running around saying God's on the throne We've now swung over here that says man's on the throne and you can just watch what happens to a society
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Let me just tell you now what happens to a society called the church where you take God off the throne and you put man
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On the throne forget the point. I'm just gonna do this this is faster when the doctrines of God the sovereignty of God are taken out of the pulpit and Man's will is put in the pulpit
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Ladies, I love you, but you've got to hear this too I'll show you a church that's run by a bunch of women
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I don't mean women. I mean men who look like men, but they act like women You'll take a look at church history and how
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America was feminized Read and Douglas her Harvard thesis PhD thesis the
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American the feminization of the American culture Here's what and Douglas and unbelievers said when when the doctrines of the sovereignty of God were taken out of the pulpit in the early 1700s with Jonathan Edwards and Whitfield taken out of the pulpit and Replaced with a
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God who didn't have so many sharp edges a God who you know died for everybody and universalism
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Is was in and Unitarian Church has sprouted up everywhere a God who was disregarded on Monday through Saturday and replaced with romance novels
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It's literally what she said you take that Talking of this hard sovereign
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God that I agree is difficult to stomach But it's in the text you take that out and you'll you'll morph into a society that says
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You know Christianity is just for Sundays We don't care if there's women pastors You'll take a look at a church and they'll be 85 % women.
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I love you women I'm not anti women But I want the men to I'm thinking about that song rise up Oh man of God and if you give men the sovereignty of God in salvation
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They will rise up and they'll say I want to lead there's a reason why churches that teach the sovereignty of God in salvation have a predominant number of men in the church and Men leadership.
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I hope you walk into the church and go I never really noticed it before but there's men elders There's men deacons.
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There's men's ushers. They're men's Sunday school teachers a junior high kid They're just men all over and of course, I don't want them to be ogres.
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I don't want them to somehow suppress women's rights I'll show you a church that says
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I see this God who's worthy of following I'll see this
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God that you know, I don't know about you But when I think about Jesus as some kind of you know When I think about him as a groom and I'm the bride.
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I don't That metaphor only goes so far and I don't say to myself, you know
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I'm gonna write love poetry to Jesus and and you know I'm gonna kind of look into his eyes with love and Jesus is the lover of my soul and I kind of you know
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Do this kind of whole thing and I have to be kind of a woman to get in touch with my inner emotions So I can do this friends the society has said this men are idiots
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Men are losers and you want to see why the society is totally to pot men are the problem
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There's a lot of sinful men men need to be leaders
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To show their wives and the kids in the church. Look at this God who you serve Honey, follow me.
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Let's serve this God. This God is so great He doesn't just demand an hour on Sunday and then spoil.
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Let's see. We've got some sports today. I'll forget that We're gonna forget sports. There's a
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God who is so consuming that you'll say for everything. We will abandon the cost And you'll see people line right up first the men then the ladies and then the kids and they'll say this is the
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God of The universe will follow him show me the God of the universe who's somebody's will they won't follow that You'll have a bunch of Oprah book club people sitting around reading some blue like jazz book.
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God is sovereign You preach that and you'll watch the men rise up and then you'll watch the women
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Lovingly follow and you'll see a church where God says I'm on the throne
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I punished my son on a cross naked slowly tortured
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Because I love you Because I care for you because now you're my pure bride
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There's a reason why Jesus is called Lord Let's pray our
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Heavenly Father. Thank you for this time where we could hear from your word. I Pray that you take the word that you're sovereign and Bury it deeply in our hearts.
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I Pray for the unbelievers here today father that they would realize that if they're going to get saved
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They have to deal with you And Lord, I pray that they would cry out
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Lord have mercy on me sinner Lord for the Christians here today. I Pray that the church would get inspired
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The church would get joy The church would be thankful that you as it were spent much more than the ten billion dollars that Warren Buffett owns
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You spent out your son at a great infinite price
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Because you loved us and now Lord help us to respond with abandonment with ministry with evangelism with Husbands leading in a godly way and wives
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Following in a godly way and I pray that you would change West Boylston and Central Mass through this church
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Because you are king and you are sovereign and you rule over us in Jesus name.