Four Trustworthy Reasons Why Jesus Must Increase

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Lord of all, He's Lord of lords and King of kings and majesty and glory and burning and fire and glory.
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If He were to come and visit us in a manifest way here today, we would disintegrate, folks.
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It's like when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John, they fell to their faces of the voice of God, and God spoke,
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This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him. After Jesus' baptism, and John the
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Baptist felt so unworthy of being a servant, and even a forerunner of Jesus Christ, to even baptize
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Christ, because he realized who he was, that he was unworthy. And he realized the greatness of who
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Christ was, that he was God in the flesh, the Lamb of God. And he said,
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Lord, come to me to baptize you. Can you imagine?
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John was a very human being, even though he was the forerunner of Jesus Christ.
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And that's what we're going to see today, that Christ must increase,
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I must decrease. This is the theme, this is the key verse in which we've been looking at the past Lord's days, two
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Lord's days. And I want you to keep this in mind as well, that there's another key scripture, and it's found, you don't have to turn there, but it's found in John chapter 20 verse 31, and this is exactly where John is leading us.
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But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ. He's the Anointed One, He's the Messiah. The Son of God.
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And that believing, you may have life in His name.
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And then he says, in John 1 .12, to connect these references, and this is the glorious privilege of the new birth, that when we come to Christ and call on His name, and in John 1 .12
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it says, but as many as received Him, to them
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He gave the right, that means the privilege, to become children of God to those who believe in His name.
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There it is. Do you believe in His name this morning? Do you believe that Jesus is the very
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Christ, the Son of the living God? Now keep in mind also that the
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Apostle John, the whole theme of this book, these wonderful 21 chapters, is to focus on one, it's almost like he's zeroing in, like a hunter going out hunting game.
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And he zeroes in with the cross eyes, the cross hairs. And he's saying,
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Christ is deity. Christ is God. Christ has come.
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He is the Son of Man, yes. But He's the Son of God. And this is what the
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Apostle John wants us to get. And he also wants to get that we must believe in Him. We're not talking about intellectual knowledge.
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The devils believe and tremble. We're not talking about that. We're talking about a heart belief.
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A belief unto righteousness. And when we believe with our heart and not with our heads, and I like what
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R .C. Sproul says, to get to the heart it must go through the head. But the heart's transformed.
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And I got to thinking as we go through these verses this morning, there is tremendous knowledge and revelation and information here for us to transform its information so that we can go through transformation.
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And that information is the Word of God. That information is the revealed Word of God. So if you're not already there, open your
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Bibles with me to the Gospel of John chapter 3 as we continue. Beginning with verse 30,
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I want to start with verse 30. There's much more here, but because of communion, I'm going to try to pack a lot in here.
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We're going to just scratch the surface, folks. I'm telling you, there's so much here because there's so much Christology here.
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There's so much focus on the person of Christ. So I'm going to read beginning with verse 30 to the end of the chapter, verse 36.
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So hear the word of the living God. Verse 30 of chapter 3.
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The words of John the Baptist. Some commentators believe that the
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Apostle John is basically narrating and saying what
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John would say, but we believe, I take it that I'm of the opinion that this is
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John the Baptist speaking, even though John the Apostle recorded it.
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John the Baptist is speaking. He must increase. He must increase.
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Jesus must increase. But I must decrease.
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He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth.
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He who comes from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard that he testifies, and no one receives his testimony.
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He who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For he whom
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God has sent speaks the words of God. For God does not give the
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Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.
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He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe the
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Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
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Please bow with me in a moment of prayer as we look to our Lord and seek
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His face within this hour. Our Father in heaven, our great God, so merciful.
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Your mercies are new each and every morning. Your compassions never fail,
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Lord. How great is Your faithfulness toward us. Lord, it's such a grace and a means of grace that we're here today to hear
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Your Word. Your mercy is so far above the heavens.
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As David says, Your truth reaches to the clouds. It's so high. Be exalted,
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O God. Be exalted above the heavens. And let
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Your glory be above all the earth. And as David prayed in Psalm 119, in application, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight,
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O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. And we ask this for Your honor and Your glory.
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In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. He must increase, but I must decrease.
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That's the key verse here in this section. It's a very important axiom for ministry, isn't it?
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It's humbling. Whether it's a pastor or evangelist or missionary that's in ministry, we are to decrease so that Jesus increases.
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He must increase. All of us, just not ministers. Whatever we do, we are to humble ourselves before God.
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MacArthur calls this the first law of ministry, and I agree. This is where every minister should begin, right here.
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On his face, in the dirt, before a holy
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God. In other words, Jesus must be exalted. He must be exalted above all because He is
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Lord. And as John the Baptist was saying, I am to be diminished.
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I am to fade out of the way for the
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Messiah. As the sun rises, John is like the star in the night, and he fades away.
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But the sun is rising. The son of the living God. This language is consistent with what
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Peter says in 1 Peter. Humble yourselves in the sight of the
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Lord, and He shall exalt you in due time.
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Clothe yourself with humility. This is exactly what
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John the Baptist is speaking about. He's writing, and Peter of course is writing to shepherds and ministers of the gospel.
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How important it is that we understand this as ministers, whether we be deacons or elders or...
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Folks, the very first thing that we stand, when we all stand before Jesus, He's not going to say well done, good and faithful pastor, evangelist, deacon, missionary.
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He's going to say well done, good and faithful servant. And folks,
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I think this has been lost in the evangelical circles. We don't understand what it means to be a servant.
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Because we don't understand what it means to die to ourselves. And out of death, there's life.
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You see this in the laws of agriculture. A plant comes up as it's buried.
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Jesus said like a seed, a grain of wheat is planted.
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And He was speaking of Himself. And it bides alone, and then it comes up and it has a crop.
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A glorious crop. But that's what He's talking about. We must die to ourselves.
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And Jesus took that death. He set the example, in other words. And if there's anyone that understood the example of being a servant, and became a servant, was the
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Lord Jesus Christ. He's the ultimate servant, isn't He? And here He was, the
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Master. Here He was, God in the flesh. I'm always amazed,
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I guess you could say. There's no words you could really fit into this when you come to that section where Jesus is about.
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He's on His way to the cross, and He knows what He's about to face. And He heads to the cross, and He's humbling
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Himself. He's already humbled Himself when He came into the world, right? And He goes to the cross, and He knows
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He's going to be stripped, and beaten, physically whipped.
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But the physical torment is nothing in comparison to what He's about to go through on the wrath of God.
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He was to take our sin, your sin, my sin, on that cross. But it's mind -boggling to know when
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He was heading that direction, and as we're going to partake of the Lord's Supper this morning, what does
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Jesus do? He serves them. He serves them. And how does
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He do that? He washes their feet. And then
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He says, I've set an example before you, as I've done unto you, you do unto others. So He was saying, this is the way you serve.
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You know what I love about Jesus? He just didn't teach, and His teaching is most glorious and powerful, but I'll tell you what,
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He demonstrated it. Everything that He did, folks, He demonstrated it.
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On the Sermon on the Mount, it makes me think, He said, you love your enemies. You love those that hate you.
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He said, what reward do you have if you love those that already love you? He said, you don't have a reward.
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But do you love those that literally hate you? He demonstrated that, didn't
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He? And when He was hanging on a cross on Golgotha's hill, the first utterance that came out of His mouth,
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He said, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do. Isn't that a powerful love?
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And Jesus humbled Himself. He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
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Actually, John the Baptist is basically saying that Jesus is to be exalted above all.
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And John's entire object of John's ministry is summarized in this one verse.
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It's packed in this one verse. Christ must increase, I must decrease.
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We should be thinking this every day when we come before people. We should have in our minds, we should want to serve and literally mean it and love people.
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John the Baptist labored ceaselessly to point all men and women to the
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Lord Jesus Christ and to make them realize the Lord's true worth. He realized
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He was nothing. In doing this, John realized that he must keep himself in the background, a true servant of Jesus Christ, to seek to attract attention to Jesus Christ and less attention to himself.
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And no attention to himself, as far as I'm concerned. A biblical example of this, as opposite of John the
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Baptist, would be what comes to mind, he's found in the third epistle of John, is
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Deuteronomy. You might have not ever heard his word, his name before, but in the third epistle of John, it's a very short epistle, almost at the very end of it, verse 9 to 11.
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Let me read this. The same apostle John that wrote that epistle here, wrote the gospel of John, and he says this to the church.
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I wrote to the church, but Deuteronomy, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.
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You hear that? Diotrephes had a problem with authority, did not receive the apostles. You notice
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John the apostle doesn't say, he does not receive me. That would almost sound like the apostle
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John's on an ego trip of being an apostle. He says, no, there's other apostles. So Diotrephes does not receive the apostles.
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He rejected all the apostles. These are men that God, Jesus Christ, had appointed, folks.
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Verse 10, Therefore if I come, notice what he says, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does pratting, that means talking nonsense, against us.
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So he was basically gossiping, talking nonsense about the apostles with malicious words.
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It was just not just mere gossip, they were malicious. Here's a person with an authority problem, folks.
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And he said this, and not content. He had a problem with contentment.
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Not content with that he himself does not receive the brethren.
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So not only did he not receive the apostles, he did not receive the brethren. What does he do?
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He forbids those who wish to putting them out of the church.
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And then he says, beloved, and this lets me know, this lets us know, a lot of people could ask, was this man a saved man?
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Well it's a good possibility. This man is just a professing Christian. He is not saved.
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You know why? Verse 11, Beloved, do not imitate what is evil by what is good.
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He said, but what is good? He who does good is of God, and he who does evil has not seen
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God. So he was basically saying that deatrophies is practicing evil.
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And John the Apostle says, I'm going to come and deal with it. We don't know the results of that situation, but we do know, actually he says, if I come.
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We don't know exactly if he came, but you can just about guarantee he did, because it included what was happening.
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This man is a cancer. He was a leaven in the church.
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Now we see it spread like wildfire all over in the evangelical churches today.
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We see deatrophies everywhere. Judgment shall begin.
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The house of God. Folks, listen to this. Deatrophies modeled the very opposite of what
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John the Baptist was. He demonstrated in his life evil, and he was puffed up in pride, where John the
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Baptist demonstrated nothing but good and demonstrated humility. You see which, also
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John the Baptist demonstrated kindness and grace. Deatrophies demonstrated meanness and gracelessness, because actually he was without humility.
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The Bible says that God, what does he do? He gives more grace to the humble.
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They have grace. You see, and he was inhospitable as well.
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Gaius was the opposite as well. Gaius was hospitable, but he was inhospitable to God's people and even denied apostolic authority over the local congregation.
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This is a whole sermon, but let me give you a little bit more about this. Again, John the
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Baptist is opposite of Deatrophies, and this is why I'm bringing Deatrophies into this today, in this message.
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Because Deatrophies was lifted up in pride and he elevated himself, and who else we see in Scripture elevated himself in the heavens?
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His name was Satan or Lucifer, as an archangel. He was an archangel.
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Notice he had power. God blessed him with authority over all the other angels.
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And by the way, if you read the Scriptures in Isaiah, he was the most beautiful of all the angels.
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He was. And yet he was lifted up in pride. Maybe he, I don't know, we know the
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Scripture says in his heart he rebelled and sin entered right there. That's where sin began, right there folks.
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And he was cast out, out of heaven, like a lightning bolt.
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God just... God could have annihilated him, but God had a plan.
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It's amazing how God uses someone that has rebelled against him so much.
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That's the reason why the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, folks.
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Because in that heart of that archangel was rebellion. And behind rebellion was pride.
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And that pride is what lifted him up to rebel. And that's why it says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
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It's satanic. To say no to God. To say no to what
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God has said. So he elevated himself and he thought himself something and he was cast out of heaven.
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And you see, Diotrephes endeavored to do the same thing.
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To usurp the rule of Christ in the church. And even usurp apostolic authority, folks.
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But worse than that, he usurped Christ's authority. It makes me fear and tremble even to think of such a thing.
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Because the church does not belong to a preacher. The church does not belong to an evangelist.
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And I don't care how good they could preach. The church is the Lord's church. The church belongs to Jesus.
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Because Jesus says, I will build my church. And what did he say?
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The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Isn't that wonderful? He will build his church.
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And he is building his church. Folks, even in the midst of what is going on today as I mentioned about all these
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Diotrephes that is like leaven and like tearing up the churches and we see apostasy but we still see
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God has a remnant. And God is building his church. Living stones upon living stones.
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John says in verse 10 in 3 John, If I come I will call to mind his deeds.
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MacArthur says this, quote, John's apostolic authority meant that Diotrephes had to answer for his behavior.
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The apostle did not overlook this usurping of Christ's place in the church.
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And he goes on to say, verse 10 indicates that Diotrephes was guilty of four things. And I quote
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MacArthur here. First of all, he says this, Pratting against us.
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Pratting against us. The word pratting comes from the word meaning to bubble up.
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It bubbles up. It bubbles up. Be sure your sin to find you out folks.
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What you sow you're going to reap. It's going to come to the surface somewhere. And if it's done in secret,
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God, Jesus says it will be, it will be exposed. It will come to light.
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And actually that's a graciousness because God is saying look, I'm bringing it out so you can deal with it.
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Not to destroy us, but to heal us. That's why it's called restorative church discipline.
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And thank God we have that. And we believe that here at Redeeming Grace Church. But MacArthur goes on to say this,
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That means to bubble up and has the idea of useless empty jabber talking nonsense. The charges against John were completely unjustified.
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Second, with malicious words. Not only were
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Deuteronomy's charges false, they were evil. They were evil, as already mentioned.
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Third, MacArthur says this, according to scriptures, He does not receive the brethren. He does not receive the brethren.
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He not only slandered John, but he also deliberately defied other believers within the church body. Fourth, putting them out of the church.
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The original language indicates here that Deuteronomy had the habit to excommunicate those who resisted his authority.
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End quote. Folks, did you notice in the text in which I just read and what MacArthur just basically commented on, verse 9,
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Deuteronomy loves to have the preeminence. Did you get that? He loves to have the preeminence.
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And that word preeminence basically means he loves to have first place. He's got to be better than the other person.
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He's got to be better than that guy. If one person praises God, oh, I've got a better praise.
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That's deatrophies. Beware of deatrophies. Run from deatrophies.
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You get this. Listen to this. In other words, he loves, he had a heart problem, folks.
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He loves to have first place. And who's supposed to have first place? Christ. Amen. Very good.
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Christ is to be first. Thank God for them children.
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They're listening. Praise the Lord. Christ is to be first in the church.
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Why? Because it's his church. He's the Lord of the church. He bought it.
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Amen. He purchased it. And by the way, he didn't pay for it with a dime or a penny.
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Folks, he paid for it with his blood. He shed his blood for it.
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Doesn't that bring you to humility that you are purchased with the high cost of God?
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You remember that when you're tempted to sin, folks. And you say, when temptation comes, and say,
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I've been purchased by the blood of Christ. I'm no longer my own.
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And I'm not going to do what I want to do. But I'm going to do what Christ bids me to do.
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And surrender gladly to that. And I promise you, God's blessings will flood over your soul.
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I'm telling you, God is such a good God, folks. He wants to bless us, but he will never bless sin.
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And when I say that in my mind, I think about the cross. The sacrifice.
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And we're not talking about another person, folks. We're talking about God. Who became flesh.
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We're talking about the creator. The one that created you. The one that created me. That gave us life.
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Isn't that glorious? You look at all the stars and the greatness of the universe. And the greatness of his.
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That's what I'm saying. He's so great. And majestic. And he's so worthy of worship.
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And all that he's created. And by the way, it's all about him. It's about his glory. That's why the
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Bible says, the heavens declare the glory of God. But you know something that's greater than even the heavens declare the glory of God?
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This word glorifies him. Because Christ is the embodiment of this word.
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The word was made flesh. The Logos. Well, enough of deographies.
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That's another sermon. But you get the point. He's the opposite of John the Baptist. Now, as MacArthur, I use that for outline.
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Because he brought out four things about deographies. And I would like to bring out four reasons that the divine necessity must take place.
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Reason number one. Reason number one. We must see the heavenly origin of Christ as person.
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We must see the heavenly origins of Christ. Christ as person.
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The person of Christ. We see that heavenly origin in Christ as person.
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Verse 31. Notice verse 31. He who comes from above is above all.
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Notice how many times he says above all. He who is of the earth is earthly. He speaks of himself there.
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He speaks of the earth. But he who comes from heaven is above all. You see what John's doing.
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He says, John was saying, I'm of the earth. I'm a dirt. I'm a worm. I am nothing.
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But Jesus is above all. Every minister should be preaching this.
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When he preaches, he should say Christ is above all. He should be hid behind the cross.
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Twice John says Jesus is above all. Apostle seems to be commenting by the way on the words that Jesus gave to Nicodemus.
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Let's look at this. Look at verse 11 to verse 13 in John 3. Notice what he says.
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Most assuredly I say to you, and he speaks to Nicodemus, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen and you do not receive our witness.
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And Jesus says this, if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
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No one has ascended to heaven, but he who has come down from heaven that is the son of man who is in heaven.
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You see that? And for Nicodemus to get it,
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Nicodemus had to be born again. He, by the way, he had to be born from above.
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You see, that's what the apostle John is commenting, what John the Baptist was saying, that Christ is above all.
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He who comes from heaven is above all. It makes me think also when
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I read that scripture that he's the one that made the heavens. He's the one, technically there's three heavens.
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There's the atmosphere, that's the first heaven, the clouds, which are the dust of God's feet, by the way, and Nahum.
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And then you have the stars, which is the galaxies. That's the second heavens.
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And then you've got the third heavens. The third heavens. John's repeating the point that Jesus' existence did not begin with He being born of the
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Virgin Mary. That's not where His existence began. He was the eternal word, became flesh,
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He dwelt among us in John 1 .14. Jesus has a heavenly origin, by the way.
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He didn't have an earthly father. His father is the
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Father in heaven. He's above all. Jesus comes to this earth from heaven where He dwelt eternally with the
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Father and through the virgin birth, Jesus took on human flesh so that He could bear the penalty of our sins to a cross.
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That's why He was born. He knew His mission was to die and go to a cross.
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And now He's exalted on high. He's above all. A point that John repeats twice for emphasis.
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So John is not the only one, by the way, to affirm that Jesus is above all. The Apostle Paul said this in Ephesians 1 .20
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-22. He says it like this. At His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
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And He put all things in subjection under His feet. Even the Apostle Peter affirms this as well in 1
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Peter 3 .22 that Jesus is at the right hand of God having gone into the heavens after angels and authorities and powers and had been subjected to Him.
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You notice that? All the angels subjected to Him. He created the angels.
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When Christ was going to the cross, He even says, don't you know that I could call legions of angels by my side right now to deliver me.
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But He chose to go all the way, folks, and take our sins as the perfect Son of God upon Himself.
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The perfect sacrifice and yet He that knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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Isn't that glorious? He's above all, folks. He's above all. John is contrasting
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Jesus with John the Baptist here. Why? Because Christ must increase.
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John must decrease. It's a must. It must be. It's a divine necessity.
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In other words, Christ must shine brighter and brighter and I must dim and dim lower and lower and lower.
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That's the way. That's the order. Brighter and brighter for Jesus. Dim lower and lower for us.
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That's what John the Baptist is saying. He says, I'm of the earth. I'm earthly.
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I speak of the earth. That simply, you know, it means that John the Baptist as to his birth, he was born as a man, a human, just like you and me.
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He had not heavenly rank. Even though he was sent from God, as the
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Scripture says, and he was the forerunner of Christ, the greatest privilege that any one person could have.
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And he was called to that. But yet, he was said,
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I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way, to declare the way, and to get out of the way.
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Amen. For the Messiah, the anointed one. And John the
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Baptist was inferior to the Lord. He was subjected to the Lord. Actually, I love what he says when his testimony, and this is by the way, this section we're looking at is his very last testimony as he exalts
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Jesus Christ and then he basically is put into prison because we see in verse 24 where John had not yet been thrown into prison, we know he's going to prison.
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And he will be beheaded. But look at verse 26 and 27 of chapter 1.
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John answered them, they're talking about the Sanhedrin bunch, the religious bunch, and they came to him, basically asking him, are you the
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Christ, are you the Christ? And he testifies, I am not, I am not, I am not. But he did say this,
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I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know.
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They didn't know him. Verse 27, it is he, it is he, that's what every preacher should be saying, it is he, it is he, the
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Lamb of God. John the Baptist says, it is he who's coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap
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I am not worthy to loose. He who comes from above is above all.
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Jesus is the supreme sovereign of the universe. And it's only proper, therefore, that men should follow him rather than his messenger.
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The messenger's glad and full of joy when they go to Jesus.
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You see? I honestly believe that John the Baptist was not thinking about reward in heaven.
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You know what his joy was? That the disciples went to him.
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To Christ. That should give us joy if we see people go to Jesus.
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We're just conduits, folks. We're just vessels to be used for the master's service, to point people to Christ.
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Christ is the one that changes hearts, right? Christ is the one that can transform us from darkness to light.
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Christ is the one that can take a stony heart and give us a heart of flesh. Christ is the one that gives us new life.
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And as David said in Psalm 40, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined and heard me and he brought me out of a horrible pit and put me on a rock.
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And put a new song in my heart. Only Christ can do that. Isn't it glorious?
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Jesus is everything. He's just not first place. I think
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Spurgeon said this. He's first, second, and third. You know, a lot of people say, well, the Lord first and family second, blah, blah, blah.
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No, the Lord is first in everything. And that's the way we should look at it. Point people to Jesus.
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He is the exalted one and He is to be exalted. And by the way, Jesus is the only one, the only one who has the authority on the subject of heaven because He came from heaven.
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After all, He's the Supreme Lord who made the heavens, came down from the heavens, constantly, you see in the book of John, I came down.
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I came down from my Father. I came down. The living bread came down. He descended.
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Then He ascended. And you keep this in mind too. When you hear these false teachers out there in television land, they're liars.
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They're talking about how they've seen these visions of heaven. Folks, there's only one that's seen heaven and He testifies of heaven.
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Now, let me backtrack a little bit. There has been prophets and apostles, just a handful, that's seen a glimpse of heaven.
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Paul the apostle was one of them that saw the third heavens. And you know what he said?
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Isn't that a true living, isn't that a true apostle, a humble apostle? He says, I saw things.
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It's just unlawful for me to utter. But yet, you see these false teachers on television telling these stories how they saw heaven and saw the
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Son of God and saw the angels over here and saw Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and how they danced through heaven and saw these flowers and all this.
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Don't listen to them liars. Folks, I call them out now, they're liars.
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I'm telling you, only just a handful. Apostles appointed by God and there's no one else that's apostles today.
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No more prophets and apostles. None. And that's appointed by the word of God.
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But these liars do not have a word for us. They are liars. I'm telling you, but Jesus has been there,
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Jesus made the heavens. He testifies of it. Like I said, there's only a handful of prophets that saw the heavens.
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Daniel was one of them, Isaiah was one, Ezekiel was one. John the apostle later on saw in the book of Revelation, he saw the revelation of Jesus Christ, that's why it's called
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Revelation. He saw the heavens and he saw something that no one else ever seen.
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He saw the future, the consummation of everything. Wouldn't that humble you?
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It's incredible folks. Well, the second reason we see why Jesus must increase is this, is that only
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Jesus has the heavenly message. Not only does he have a heavenly origin, he has a heavenly message.
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In other words, Jesus has and is the trustworthy, truthful witness that has the certainty of heaven.
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He has been there, he has made it and he could tell us about it. Folks, we have a hard time grappling with it.
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It's too much for our little brains. And that's why Paul says that our wisdom is not, and I should say, our faith is not in the wisdom of men, but in what?
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The power of God through the revelation of Jesus Christ through this book right here.
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And I love what MacArthur says. If it's not in the 66 books, God didn't say it.
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And I'll say that again. I don't care what kind of dream, and most of the time people says
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I got a word from the Lord or a dream, go the other direction. Because they don't.
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As far as I'm concerned, they ate too much pizza that night. Must have chapter and verse.
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Amen, Brother Keith. If they can't back it up with chapter and verse, it's not in the scriptures.
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Jesus is the faithful and true witness, folks. What he has seen, scripture says, look at verse 32 to 34.
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What he has seen, what John the Baptist is saying, what Jesus has seen and heard, he's seen it and he's heard it.
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Who did he hear it from? The Father. Because he is subjected to the
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Father. He chose that. Even though he's equal with God, but as the
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Son, he chose to submit under the Father's authority. That he testifies, and no one receives his testimony.
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Verse 33, he who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For whom, now listen to this, and he whom
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God has sent speaks the words of God, and for God does not give the Spirit by measure.
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Isn't that glorious? What he has seen and heard, he testifies, no one receives his testimony.
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Here we see that Jesus doesn't just teach theory. He just doesn't teach a mere hypothesis. He doesn't teach just someone else revealed something to him.
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No, you can't teach anything to Jesus. You know why? He already knows all things.
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Why? He's God. He's God in the flesh.
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Now as an infant, of course, he could not spout out and preach all these parables and all the theology and all these great things that he's speaking about.
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But there came a day when he was about 12 years old, and that's about all the window the
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Scriptures gives us about his childhood. And we know he's teaching the doctors and the lawyers, right?
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And he knows his calling. He knows his mission. How do we know that?
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Because he knows, I must be about my Father's business. That's why he came.
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He came to do the business of the Father. Oh, isn't that wonderful? He who had constant communion and knowing the
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Father's nature and sovereign plans for all history and all that he has seen and heard from the
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Father, he knew and bears witness in his earthly ministry for ages.
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God has revealed his word to his people by the prophets of old. Brother Keith was reading from judges today.
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See, there was a word that came from God. But when Jesus comes, Jesus fulfills it all.
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Now the Son comes. Even though back then they needed a word from God, and God sent his messengers and his prophets.
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John the Baptist was that last of the Old Testament prophets. Until Christ comes, one that is greater.
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The Master comes. The King of glory comes. And it says this in Hebrews.
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And Hebrews tells us this exactly, what I'm telling you here. God who at various times and various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days.
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When the last days? Now that's 2 ,000 years ago, but what he's speaking of when Christ came, when he was born, that began the last days.
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And the last days spoken to us by his Son. Nobody else, folks.
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Whom he has appointed, heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
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Who made the worlds? Christ. Listen to this. Who be in the brightness of his glory and express the image of his person and upholding all things.
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You realize that Jesus right now is upholding all things by what? The word of his power.
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And when he had by himself he purged our sins and he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
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Having become so much greater than the angels, he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
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He's better. He's better. He's greater. He's exalted. He's superior.
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He's everything. He's above all. He's the glory. Glorious one. He's God of glory.
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The Lord of glory. There's no one like him, folks. Glorious.
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And he is worthy to be praised. Piper says this out of his book,
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Peculiar Glory. He says the point, quote, here is that a people who for continues for centuries have been accustomed to be governed by the written revelation of God are now confronted with the divine author of that very book.
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Present in human form. Teaching with absolute authority.
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That's incredible, isn't it? His words. You know that's why
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Calvin and all these reformers and all the martyrs and all these men. They knew they had something worthy to die for.
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They knew something to sacrifice for. Because the greatness of Christ and his majesty. And they thought it a privilege.
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And the pain here was nothing in comparison to the greatness of the glory that remains. No matter how horrific they died.
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What's the lesson? Well, the lesson for us is the testimony and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ is both true and certain, folks.
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Can I tell you this today? As your brother and servant of the
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Lord that everything that Jesus says here in this word and everything from Genesis to Revelation that everything that God has said is certain, it's true and you can bank on it.
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He's resurrected. He's resurrected. You know what that means? There's going to be a judgment.
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That's why people want to do everything they can to deny the resurrection of Christ.
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Because if Christ is not risen from the dead well, you basically could say that our faith is vain.
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Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 15. Our preaching is vain. Everything that we do is vain. We might as well throw the
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Bible away and go home. But folks, I'm telling you because of the resurrection of Jesus I can preach to you today.
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My preaching is not vain. Your faith isn't vain. Everything that you believe is true because it comes from this book.
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Not because we believe it even though we are to believe it. One saying says well,
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I believe it's true because God said it and I believe it. Take out the I believe it. God said it and that settles it.
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But you know something beloved? We are called to believe it. And by the way, if you don't believe it and if I don't believe it the wrath of God abides on us.
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Jesus has testified. He has seen. He has heard. He testifies. It's glorious.
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He is the witness. The true and faithful. Reliable. That's certain. In John 7 let me give you a few scriptures here.
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John 7, 16 Jesus says my teaching is not mine but his who sent me.
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The Father. John 8, 28 He said when you lift up the
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Son of Man he's talking about his resurrection then you will know that I am he and I do nothing on my own initiative but I speak these things as the
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Father taught me. He said everything I do I do because the Father has commissioned me.
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The Father has commanded me. The Father has taught me. The Father has told me.
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And by the way, everything he did he did perfectly as a man full of the Holy Spirit. Reason number three.
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Reason number three. We see the Spirit -filled loving bond of Christ's authority. Look at John 3, 34 to 35.
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For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God for God does not give the Spirit by measure.
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The Father loves the Son and he has given all things into his hand. Now listen closely.
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Jesus was the one that God the Father sent. God the
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Father sent Christ. He spoke the words of God. He submitted to the
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Father's will perfectly. And to support this statement John says
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God does not give the Spirit by measure. Now this is incredible folks. Listen to this. In other words
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God the Father gave the Spirit You see the Trinity here.
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Anyone that denies the Trinity is heretical. You see the
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Trinity. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 11, 2
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The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding the
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Spirit of counsel and might the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. If you're in Isaiah listen to Isaiah 42
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Behold my servant whom I uphold. This is God the Father speaking about Christ the
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Son. My elect one in whom my soul delights. Notice what he says.
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I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the
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Gentiles. He will not cry out nor raise his voice.
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Isn't that powerful? Jesus can just say it in a soft way. And it can happen. It almost makes me think
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You know a lot of people may think when he stilled the storm when he was here among his disciples and the tempest was raging he didn't have to get out and shout it.
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He could say peace. There was a still calm.
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Because he's the Son of God. He's the Son of Man. They even said what manner of man is this? He will not cry out nor raise his voice nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
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A bruised reed he will not break. Isn't this a great promise folks? To the children of God? Listen to this.
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A bruised reed he will not break. A smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth.
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He will not fail nor be discouraged. Christ isn't going to fail. We get discouraged.
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We fail don't we? Christ has never failed. He's the God that cannot fail.
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He nor can be discouraged. Nothing discourages him. Nothing catches God by surprise till he has established justice in the earth and the coastland shall wait for his law.
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Listen to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61
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The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Jesus quoted this right at the beginning of his ministry.
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Providentially he knew it. Because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor he has sent me to heal the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
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Then he says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And by the way Jesus stops right there.
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The sermon will be finished when he comes back in glory the second time because it says and the day of vengeance of our
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God. The reason why Jesus did not go on because when he came the first time that was not the day of vengeance.
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Aren't you glad? And we're still under that dispensation of a sense of the age of grace that here we are.
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Grace is here but one day God's patience will end. And then the day of vengeance will come.
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And then when Christ comes back I'm telling you folks it's not what people cannot imagine what's going to happen.
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Christ is going to slaughter nations. And you know what's going to happen? The whole earth will be burned like an oven.
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And the empires of little man will come down. And Christ will eventually rule forever and ever.
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As King of kings and Lord of lords. There's so much there. I mean we could keep going there but but here the point is the spirit of the
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Lord in fullness. Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit of God in a way and a measure that was not true of any person that ever lived.
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Others in scriptures as we talked about Keith mentioned today Gideon. The spirit of the
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Lord came upon Gideon. The spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. The spirit of the Lord came upon them.
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But it was limited. But when the spirit of the Lord came upon Jesus in the form of a dove guess what that was?
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That was full measure. It was a full measure upon Christ the
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Son of Man. David was anointed. Samuel as a king was anointed.
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But Christ was more than just anointed. He was the anointed one. Conscience.
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He was conscience of the spirit of God upon Him. Prophets received a partial revelation from God but the spirit revealed in and by Christ the very wisdom and the very heart of God to man with all its infinitude of love and gentleness.
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The Holy Spirit rested upon Jesus in a full measure folks. Equipping Him to do all things good.
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Healing and miracles. Raising the dead. Opening blind eyes.
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Making the deaf see. Cleansing the leper. Trinitarian work here.
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We see the Father. We see the Son. We see the spirit. Reason number four. I gotta hurry. The urgent demand of Christ is gospel folks.
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Verse 36. The urgent demand of Christ is gospel. And this will be the conclusion.
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He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe the
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Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him. Can I tell you folks?
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This is one of the most clearest verses in all of the Bible. How a person can be saved from the wrath of God.
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It's by believing. And can I tell you? To truly believe with the heart unto righteousness is an act of God too.
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It's a gift. Faith is a gift. Repentance is a gift.
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We say, well, what am I to do? Well, you just seek the Lord. Why? To be found.
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And if you have any power within you to seek the Lord, you better seek the Lord. Now think of this.
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If there's any power within you and it's not your own free will because you would be boasting one day and say, well,
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I did it Lord. No, nothing to my hands I bring simply to the cross
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I cling. It's all of God. Now God doesn't come and force
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Himself on you against your will. He actually intervenes and makes you willing, folks.
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You see that? There's a difference. In other words, He makes you willing. How can a person that loves their sin so much begin to hate their sin and turn from it?
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It's the supernatural drawing of God that the Father draws them in.
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And by the way, Spurgeon said it. He said, preacher, you preach
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Christ and He will draw His own to Himself because His sheep hears
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His voice. You see that? Romans 10.
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Go with me to Romans 10 very quickly. I'm going to close with this and then we're going to have communion.
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I've only scratched the surface. I didn't even do that. There's so much here.
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But Romans 10 is a chapter that really tells us much about believing. And what
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I love about Romans 10, it's sandwiched in right in the middle between Romans 9 and Romans 11.
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Isn't that wonderful? And if you read Romans 9, it talks about Israel's rejection of Christ, Israel's rejection in God's purpose,
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Israel's rejection in God's justice, and God is working all things out for His glory and He is making it happen so that the
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Gentiles can hear the gospel. And then there's a purpose for the gospel. Romans 10, that the
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Gentiles, and by the way, Paul's burden was that the Israel would be saved. Listen to what he says.
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Let me read it. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel that is they may be saved.
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Listen to what he says. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge.
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But they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
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By the way, what he's saying is there's a totally different standard here of our righteousness, man's righteousness, and God's righteousness.
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God's righteousness is far more above, far above what we can even think of.
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It's a perfect standard. For Christ is the end of the law.
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Why is He the end of the law? He fulfilled the law, that's why. For righteousness to everyone who believes.
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So if you're a believer, Christ is the end of the law. There's no use for any law keeping. Don't need to keep the
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Ten Commandments. You know why? When you love God and you love Christ and love your brethren, you are fulfilling.
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It's fulfilled in Christ. Now does that mean we throw out the
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Old Testament? No. There's a purpose for the Old Testament. There's a purpose for the law. That it's a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.
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To show us our sin. To show us where we fall short. And we do fall short.
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Verse 5, Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law. The man who does those things shall live by them.
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But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, I will ascend into heaven.
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That is to bring Christ down from above. Or, who will descend into the abyss?
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How can that happen? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? Notice what
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Paul says. But what does it say? What does he say? He says, what does the war scripture say? He's asking these questions to bring people into this situation where he's answering his own question.
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Then he says, the word is near you. How near is it? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart.
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You hear that? That is the word of faith which we preached.
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What you heard today preached from my lips as much as I stumble on it, you heard the word of faith.
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And by that word is how you believe. You take a hold of that word. And then he says this.
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That is if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. That's the first step. You confess the Lord Jesus.
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And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
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For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew or Greek.
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For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the
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Lord, and by the way the calling on God is repentance, calling on the name of the
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Lord shall be saved. That's a promise. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
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And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
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That's the purpose of preaching. And how shall they preach unless they're sent as it is written?
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How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. And then he says this, but they have not all obeyed the gospel.
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There must be obedience to the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?
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And here it is folks, verse 17. So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
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Spiritual ears. That's why Jesus constantly said, He that has ears, let him hear.
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He that has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Are you listening today?
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Our children, are you listening to the Spirit of God? Are you listening to this little preacher stumble and teach you about Jesus?
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Are you listening? Are you attentive? We all need to listen, but that listening,
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God must help us. Well, there's really three musts that must happen, folks.
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Must for the sinner, he must be born again. The must for the
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Savior, that means he must be lifted up on the cross as the serpent was lifted up on the cross.
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And he said, if you look on him, look on me, he says, you will live. Christ must be lifted up, and that happened.
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That happened. And then, the must for the saint. The must for the sinner, the must for the
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Savior, and the must for the saint. The must for the saint is what?
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Amen. Don't you want to decrease? That Jesus will increase?
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That's what it's all about. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we're so grateful today for all the joys that Christ has brought to us from heaven.
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The greatest joy is that he brought himself. As Fanny Crosby sung it,
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Oh, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine, heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, washed in his blood.
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Father, we thank you for the truth that's in your words. Help us, oh
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God, to obey it. And if we don't, the wrath of God, your wrath abides, will continue to abide.
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That wrath is not lifted until we come to Christ and repent and believe the gospel. So, Father, we thank you we could come now in this time of worship to forget about ourselves, to lose ourselves, to be lost in your love.
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Oh, God, we're so grateful and thankful for your blessed Holy Spirit that helps us, even our weaknesses, that you will be glorified by your grace, because it's all of your grace, and that you will bless our time now in communion as we focus on the sufferings and the death of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, help us every day of our lives to make
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Christ more attractive. Do a work within our hearts.
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Lord, if there's anyone here that's still in their sin and living a sinful life, bring conviction of sin and grant repentance by your mercy,
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I pray, as only you have the power to do so. And, Father, may your
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Son, your beloved Son, be our vision in everything. Be thou our vision. May we never be able to get enough of Christ because we never get over it.
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Help us, oh, Lord, to be more and more in obeying the
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Word, be doers of the Word, to serve you more faithfully and continue to seek more and more to be like Jesus in every day we live.