Sense for the Senseless

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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So if you all hear that over there, that opah, that opah is his way of saying amen. Please turn in your

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Bible to Isaiah 35, Isaiah 35, I'll read the whole chapter.

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Please stand when you have that for the reading of God's Word. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad.

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The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.

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The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. The majesty of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the

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Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.

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Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your

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God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

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Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

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For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water.

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And the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. And the highway shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness.

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The unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way. Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

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No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it. They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.

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And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.

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They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

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Amen. These are the words of the Lord. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank

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You for Your Word once again. We ask that as we read of opened eyes, that You would open our eyes, that You would open our ears, that You would make us leap for joy, and that You would give us our tongues, words that describe

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Your praises. In Jesus' name, amen. So today, in the morning, we spoke of the outpouring of the

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Spirit, which this passage addresses. We also talked about the hardness of heart and the blindness of eyes and the deafness of ears, which this passage addresses.

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So it's a very appropriate passage for us to go through. And I think many people, many Christians who have not spent much time in the

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Bible, don't understand how significant this is because they limit it to mere physical miracles that are accomplished by Jesus.

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Now, certainly, He did do those physical miracles, but this speaks of something much greater, something much greater spiritually that Christ has accomplished in the gospel.

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But first to speak of those physical miracles, does this not all describe the ministry of Christ?

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Did He not open the eyes of blind men? Did He not open the ears of deaf men as well?

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And there was a man, an axe, who was lame and then leapt, and Jesus healed people who were crippled as well.

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There were people who were mute and then able to speak through the ministry of Christ. And so, yes, this is all fulfilled by the ministry of Jesus.

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In Luke 7, John the

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Baptist has disciples that are sent to Jesus, and they ask Him, "'Are You the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?'

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And Jesus' response is, "'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.'"

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Jesus taking a number of prophecies from Isaiah, melding them together, and declaring that He has fulfilled the

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Scriptures. He is the Messiah that Isaiah has spoken of. He is the one who is healing the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute.

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This is all being accomplished in the ministry of Christ. And yet, there is something much more that is needed here, much more than physical healing.

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There is a spiritual healing because people are, while only a few people have physical deafness, physical blindness, everyone is born in a state of spiritual blindness and spiritual deafness.

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If you consider the significance of this theme in the book of Isaiah, just recall, as I've mentioned before today, that Isaiah's commission was to preach to people in order to propagate that hardness of heart.

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And I heard a voice of the Lord saying, "'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, "'Here I am, send me.'

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And He said, "'Go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.

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Make the heart of this people dull, make their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.'

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Then I said, "'How long, O Lord?' And He said, "'Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the

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Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, and though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled, the holy seed is its stump.'"

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So the people will remain blind and deaf until that day when God comes and He restores it.

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We see in the next chapters of Isaiah as it talks about something coming from that root, something coming from that stump of Jesse, and that is, of course, the

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Messiah who restores the people, restores them from this blindness, this hardness. And even in the more recent chapters of Isaiah, it spoke to this theme.

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Said in verse 9 of Isaiah 29, "'Astonish yourselves and be astonished. Blind yourselves and be blind.

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Be drunk but not with wine. Stagger but not with strong drink. For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers.'"

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But yet later in that same chapter, it prophesies that there is coming a time when these eyes will be opened.

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It says in verse 18 of Isaiah 29, "'In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.'"

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Speaks to the meek having joy in that passage as well. So, it speaks of a time when the people will see they're blind, not just physically, but spiritually, spiritually blind, deaf to the words of the

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Lord, needing to be able to understand the work of God so that they might turn and be healed, but they are unable.

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But then, through the gospel, God has accomplished something wonderful in that. He has sent

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His Son. He has sent His Son with a different commission than that of Isaiah as well. Christ's commission was in part to speak parables to those who are not to hear, but He has also speak to others and to open the eyes of children, to open the eyes of the blind and open the ears of the deaf.

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And so, you consider, how is this accomplished? Well, when someone is able to see what is true, they could not previously see, are not their spiritual eyes opened.

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When someone is able to hear the truth that they were not able to previously hear, are not their ears opened.

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And then concerning the lame, you know, to be like a deer and to leap like a deer, to have that kind of spryness, what does that refer to?

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On Psalm 86, 11, it says, "'Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.'"

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The Bible frequently speaks of walking as what the

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Christian does in his life, even if it's not a literal walking, it is a going about, a journey on this life, and it's important to do so in the path that God would set for them.

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And so, what happens when God enables somebody, frees them from their sin in order that they might walk in the direction that He has told them to?

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He has given them, He has healed them from their spiritual lameness. It says in Romans 8, 7, "'For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed, it cannot.

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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God, but He has healed people, He has healed people so that they might walk in His law, they might do what is right.'"

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And then it also speaks not only of blind men, deaf men, lame men, but mute men.

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What has God done for us in His Spirit that we might speak, whereas we were no longer, we were before not able to?

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He has given us a Spirit in order that we might speak the truth with clarity. Prior to that, it's impossible to speak the truth.

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First Corinthians 12, 3 says, "'Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says,

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Jesus is a curse, and no one can say, Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.'" It's through the Holy Spirit that we're able to, in truth and not in vanity, say that Jesus is

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Lord. It's only by this miraculous work of the Spirit that this happens.

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And which of these is the greater miracle, you know, as you consider these?

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Which is the greater miracle? The greater miracle is the spiritual one, it's not the physical one.

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Now imagine if you, you know, if you saw a blind man get healed miraculously, or a deaf man or a lame man, you know, if you really saw that took place in front of you, you'd probably be telling that story, you know, just repeatedly for years to come about how you saw that.

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And you might not be as amazed to see someone be converted because it's not as visibly wowing to you, you know, it doesn't impress you nearly as much.

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But that is the far greater miracle. You know, Jesus asked this question, and I still struggle to know exactly what

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He's getting at with it, but if you'll allow me to ask the question to you as well, which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take your bed, take up your bed and walk?

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Which is easier? Well, on one hand, you can say your sins are forgiven, and you can say, rise up and walk.

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And on one hand, you know, because one isn't seen, you could get away with the other a lot easier, right?

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You could get away with saying the thing that can't be seen, you are forgiven. But as far as being able to actually accomplish something, this is something that only

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God can do, as Jesus' contemporaries recognize, only God can forgive sins.

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This is the far greater thing, is to forgive sins in order that someone might have the spirit of God, be a place that's appropriate for Him to dwell, so that they would have right sight, right hearing, right walking, right speech.

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It is a far more astounding miracle that is accomplished through this.

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And this has happened especially in this era in which we live.

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If you were there in Sunday school, you know we distinguished the work of the Holy Spirit between the

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Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, a lot of people will say that the Holy Spirit did not indwell believers.

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Now, I denied that there in Sunday school. The Holy Spirit does indwell believers, it did indwell believers in the

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Old Testament and also in the New. But there's a special work that's done in the New Testament with the outpouring of the

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Spirit. There's an outpouring that is far greater, and that is what this speaks to. When it says, "'For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

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The burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water, and the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.'"

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This is something that is especially true in our era where the gospel has been given not just to one people but to the nations in a way that's been outpoured, that's indiscriminate of nationality, that is not especially to just a select few priests and prophets and kings but rather to us as a nation of royal priests, one that's, it's an outpouring that is given in great measure to all of God's people.

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And so it's a, it's an incredible thing that is, that's being accomplished here through this work of the

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Spirit that this passage describes. You know, the

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Bible speaks of this, Bible speaks of this work in this way in John 737.

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It says, "'On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

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Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'

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Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the

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Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now those people, now while the

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Spirit was at work and it's impossible to do God's will apart from the Spirit, there is a sense in which the

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Spirit had not yet been received and now in the New Testament era has been received since Pentecost.

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And it's, what's being described here is this overflowing of water, these rivers, this picture that Isaiah is painting of the pent -up stream that is breaking open as a dam.

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If you remember from Sunday school, if you were there, I quoted B .B. Warfield.

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He had a statement that alluded to this passage in Isaiah, talking about how the

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Spirit has been outpoured. It is, he is what this passage is speaking of. "'For the waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert, the burning sand becomes a pool and a thirsty ground, springs of water.'"

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And all the curses that have been described before in this passage are reversed. You know, the, if you've been following along here in Isaiah, in Isaiah 34, verse 13, it said, "'Thorn shall grow over its stronghold, nettles and thistles in its fortresses,' describing habited places becoming uninhabited, becoming like a desert.

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"'It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches,' describing something that's only fit for desert creatures.'"

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And so here, when it talks about the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, it's talking about a desert region, this desert region that was just described, that was this curse that's coming over the land.

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Instead, that will be removed and it will be filled with grass and all kinds of things that you would expect to be in an oasis, in a place with plentiful water.

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So he removes the curse from us. And not only does he remove the curse, this New Testament outpouring of the

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Spirit is so wonderful and so abundant that there is a great assurance that it gives us about the work that God is accomplishing in it.

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It says in John 14, 12, "'Truly, truly,

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I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the

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Father. Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that My Father may be glorified and the

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Son. If you ask Me in the Son, if you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.'"

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So he talks about greater works than these will he do. Now many people get confused by that because they're expecting it to be the physical miracles of Jesus, right?

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They're saying, well, greater miracles than these, how could there be greater miracles? Who's fed more people out of five loaves and two fish?

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You know, who has healed more blind men? Who's raised more dead men? Who has done more than that than Jesus?

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And yet Jesus is telling His disciples that they and those who come after them will do even more miracles than He's done.

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Ultimately, I believe that this can only be completely understood if you recognize that it's talking about the greater miracles, the spiritual miracles.

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And God, through us, has promised to bless people with that outpouring of the

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Spirit that from us, from our hearts, can flow those rivers of living water, that blessing of the

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Spirit in order that others might be blessed with it. And so many people get distressed when they evangelize and they think that the persuasion of others relies on them and they don't recognize that it relies on this blessing that comes from God, the

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Spirit. And how much more at peace can you be and how much less fearful can you be to share the gospel when you realize it does not rely upon you, it relies upon the

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Lord. Just like David decided to approach

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Goliath with a sling and stone, saying that it wasn't by spears or swords that the

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Lord would accomplish it because this is his battle. He would demonstrate it through stones and sticks. The battle belongs to the

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Lord. The battle belongs to the Lord. Do not, do not fret and do not refuse to obey the

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Lord's command in sharing the gospel because you don't think it's powerful enough. It is powerful enough because it doesn't rely on you.

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It relies on the power of the Spirit flowing from you. And additionally, even, not just in evangelism, but even in giving the gospel to one who already believes in counseling, you might have a situation where you're trying to help a brother or sister whose situation seems too impossible.

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You just don't know how the situation can be fixed. This person is, you know, too, too difficult to deal with or they don't, their situation is just too hard and you might feel like it's not worth it.

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There's an assurance the Bible gives us that the Holy Spirit can do wondrous things, even especially in the heart of the believer, and so we should be assured that God can do such work through counseling and that we don't have to give up and just say this is not something, this is something that goes beyond the capacity of God and beyond the capacity of Scripture.

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And just in general, with your own reconciliation with others, you know, once again, this is something

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I've heard from Christians where they say, this person's a lost cause. There's no way that God can reconcile this relationship.

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No, there's an assurance that we have because the Spirit has been poured out in a way that's far mightier than what even exists in the

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Old Testament that we would be able to have reconciled relationships. The work of the

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Spirit is powerful and wonderful, and this has all been accomplished by Jesus Christ, the one who has opened eyes, the one who has opened ears, the one who has caused lame men to leap and given tongues to the deaf.

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And so this day, as you are one who hears these words, you respond to them, has open eyes, open ears, receive

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God's Word, know His truth, walk as He has given you power to walk, and speak as He has given you power to speak with the assurance that it comes by the power of the

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Spirit and there's no reason to fear that you may not be able because it does not rely on your power but His.

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Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You again for Your Word.

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We thank You for the power of the Spirit, for not leaving us as orphans but for giving Him to us. We ask that now as we pray, as we ask anything in Your Son's name that it would be answered in order that we might do even greater works than Christ had done in His earthly ministry.