1 Corinthians 15:3-8; 20-28 (The Glory of the Gospel)

The Shepherd's Church

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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I've shared this example before But in seminary one of the most incredible times that I had

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I I went to a seminary here in New England It was a good seminary experience that I had I could sort of tell that the woke

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Agenda was starting to infiltrate the seminary that I went to and it was slipping in that direction

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But I had a good experience I learned from good professors and I was able to to have that experience and one of my professors was an 80 year old man

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Who was a lion -hearted gentleman who was in the PCA? Denominator PC USA denomination and at 80 years old.

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He was still ready to fight He was like, why would I leave the fight has just begun and I was like, well, that's it's one way to look at it

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That's really good. Well, I remember we were in a class on The theology of Jonathan Edwards.

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This was an elective So I chose to wound myself with this with this class and it was like 4 ,000 pages of Jonathan Edwards reading

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It was it was intense. It was good But I remember the moment in class where he got to Jonathan Edwards explanation of the gospel

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He was reading something that Edwards had said and then he stopped and then he got tears in his eyes and he he just looked up and he said it never gets old and I thought that was so beautiful because at 80 years old, he's been a

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Christian all of his life His dad was a pastor. He said that it never gets old

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Today, I don't want to cover really new ground. I don't want to come up with something that you've never heard before I don't want to parse out some

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Greek term that that you're like Well, I didn't realize that that was a thing or I don't want to talk about some cultural thing that you've maybe never heard of before I literally want to enjoy and for us to sit down and bathe in the good

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Gospel the gospel that's good every day of our life and will be good every day of our life until we go and meet the one who the gospel points to So today

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I just want us to be reminded of the glory of the gospel Because it is a glorious day

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Today the day we celebrate that Christ Exited the tomb is a day when everything that was old became new

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It is when the old world became a new world It is when the old covenant became a new covenant.

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It is when the old Jerusalem gave way to the new Jerusalem It is when death Was defeated in favor of life.

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It is when the old creation Suffered a death knell and the new creation has come in the gospel

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Jesus is not just about our Individual salvation he's about that But he's also about cosmic transformation

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The entire cosmos will be made new again Everything that has fallen will be healed

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Everything that is broken will be mended in the gospel of Jesus Christ from salvation to creation

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Paul tells us that creation groans for what we have and it's groaning because it knows it's going to have it one day

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Jesus died or was arrested in a garden died on a hilltop buried in a garden confused as a gardener

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Why because he is going to bring creation back to paradise And he will bring the new

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Eden in his death burial resurrection ascension and glory

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So today we're gonna look at what the gospel means. We're gonna look at six Facets of the gospel and we're not going to end at individual salvation.

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We are going to widen our Scope sometimes when we look at the gospel, we look at it with a telescope

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Sometimes we need to turn that telescope around and look at it in its macro Lens, which is what we're gonna do today

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And we're gonna do that from 1st Corinthians 15 Why not John 20? Because there's things

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I want to talk about in John 20 when we get there So we will polish John today and we will go to 1st

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Corinthians 15 1st Corinthians 15 in my opinion Just so you know mark it in your

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Bible. I Think it's the most Exhaustive treatment in any single passage of what the gospel is.

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We know what the gospel is from the whole Bible There are there is no passage that deals with every aspect of what the gospel is

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But 1st Corinthians 15 is the one that comes the closest so I want to look at it and I want to understand what the whole gospel of Christ is

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How everything is going to be restored how it all began on Easter morning And if you will turn with me as we examine these things, we'll be in 1st

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Corinthians 15 We'll be in verses 3 through 8 to begin and then we'll skip down to verses 20 through 28

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As we consider the gospel and if you're intimidated by that, I won't read all of them.

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I will hopefully allude to all of them And screenshot it.

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It's take it home 1st Corinthians 15. Let us read together starting with verse 3

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For I delivered to you as a first importance what

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I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and That he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and That he appeared to Cephas.

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That's Peter then to the twelve and After that he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time

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Most of whom remain until now But some have fallen asleep. That means death

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Then he appeared to James then all then to all the Apostles and last of all as one

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Untimely born he appeared also to me now down to verse 20

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But now Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruit of those who are asleep

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For since by a man came death by a man also came the resurrection of the dead

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For as an Adam all die. So also in Christ all will be made alive

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But each in his own order Christ the first fruit after that those who are

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Christ at his coming Then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to the

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God and Father When he has abolished all rule and all authority and power

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For he must reign Until he has put all his enemies under his feet

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The last enemy that will be abolished is death for he has put all things in subjection under his feet

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But when he says all things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is accepted Who put all things in subjection to him when all things are subject to him?

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That's Jesus then the Son himself also Will be subjected to the one the father who subjected all things to him so that God may be all in all

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Let us pray Lord, I pray this morning that we would see the magnitude of the gospel

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Lord, I pray that we would see the tidal wave that hit the earth that Easter morning Lord, I pray that our vision would see that the world

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Fundamentally down to its very core is not the same world that it was 1996 years ago

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That Lord you changed the world That it really is as evident as old world and new world

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Lord help us to see these things help us to be encouraged by your victory That began as you exploded out of the tomb and will continue until the whole world bows their knee to you

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It's in Christ's name. We pray. Amen All right, so we're gonna cover six aspects of the gospel this morning.

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The first aspect of the gospel is that Jesus died? Paul says Christ died for our sins.

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He died because you and I are sinners For an entire lifetime. We have collected and amassed sins that are an offense to the holiness of Almighty God And this is not a trifling matter

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The wages Paul says of sin is death Romans 6 23. These are things that separate us from our

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Creator These are things that that have put a death certificate with our name on it with a noose hanging over our head

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We fell in the first Adam and we deserve to fall headlong into hell

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Because we cannot pay for our sins But what Paul tells us in this passage is although that darkness was yours and mine in the first Adam that the second

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Adam came and That second Adam saved us by dying. He was a substitute

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He took our death and he gave us his life He took our unrighteousness and he gave us his righteousness

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He took our disease and he gave us his wholeness He took every stain sin failure and brokenness and gave us his perfection

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So that legally the status between us and God the case is Closed the gavel fell down on Jesus Christ.

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The guilty verdict was rendered to him So that you and I if we are in Christ can walk away free 2nd

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Corinthians 5 21 says that he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us

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The one who never tasted sin never experienced sin never was he was tempted but always succeeded when it came to sin that one

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Tasted sin on the cross and I just want to give you one example of a theological thought that you need to tuck away in your minds

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When you come to Jesus, he does not just take all your past sins. I Crushes them because they look at all their past sins as forgiven and not their current sins and not their future since Jesus Christ Who is timeless in his triune?

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Godhead died for your past present and your future future since he became sin so that you would become the righteousness of God That is your status first Peter 3 18 says he died once for all the just for the unjust so that he might bring us to God and And just in case we

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Think that Jesus at the end of his life let things get out of hand and whoops.

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They killed him No, it was pre -planned before the foundation of the world acts 2 23 says that before Anything was created

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That God had a plan to rescue every man and woman and child in this room who belonged to him

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You are on the father's mind before the earth actually existed Acts 2 23 says this man delivered over by the

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Predetermined plan and the foreknowledge of God you nailed to a cross By the hands of godless men and you put him to death.

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This is not an accident This was pre -planned for knowledge of God to save us

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It says that he went at exactly his appointed hour John 12 27 for this reason.

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Jesus said I came For this hour for this death for this cross The death of Christ is essential to understanding the gospel if you don't have an understanding that he died

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Then you are still in your sense Because without that substitute without that transaction without him standing in your place and you standing in his you are doomed

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That's the first aspect of the gospel he died and he died for you The second aspect of the gospel is that he was buried

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This is what we confess every week in our creeds and it is not and it's not an insignificant detail Yes, he died, but it's also important that he was buried

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Why? Because first of all, it serves as proof that he really died There are many today who say

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Jesus did not really die on the cross. He was faking it You Actually have to be woefully ignorant of the expertise of Roman executions

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And you actually have to be ignorant of the Jews that for 1 ,500 years they anointed bodies after they died

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They knew what dead and looked like It's astounding to me how much the human heart will fight to not believe

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In a city that had every reason to produce a body

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None was found In a city that had every

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Reason to say this is where it is. This is his rotting corpse. This is where it's at.

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They could not find it Brothers and sisters do not fight that fact he is raised

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For you and It fulfills Scripture. This is also why it's important That he was buried

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Psalm 22 says that he would be buried that he would be pierced in his hands and his feet and they Would gamble for his clothing

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Talk about the sovereignty of God that they would give him sour wine It's his last thing on his lips as we learned about on Good Friday Isaiah 53 says that he'd be crushed

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That he would be pierced and that he would be buried in the tomb of a rich man. He was

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Daniel 9 26 says that the anointed one will be cut off from the land of the living He was

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Zechariah 12 10 says that they will look upon the one that they pierced Did you know that a revival after Jesus's resurrection eventually broke out in Judea?

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That the first church was not Gentile That the vast majority of Christians on planet earth in the first years of the church

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Were Jewish converts to Christ They looked upon him that they pierced and they wept and many of them repented

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Zechariah 13 7 says the shepherd will be struck and his followers would be scattered again

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His death is immensely important. His burial is immensely scriptural and theological.

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We cannot Overlook it if he is not dead buried and raised our faith is futile again

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Many will try very hard to avoid this fact But it's unavoidable

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It's unavoidable. The tomb was empty Jesus Christ was raised

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The Eternal Son the one who created life Submitted himself to death.

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Do you see the irony of that? Only God would write a story like that the one who made life

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Submitted himself to the thing he did not make which was death Heaven's King Died in poverty

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We wouldn't have done that 2nd Corinthians 8 9 says though. He was rich.

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He became poor though. He was of the highest status He went down to the very lowest squalor of human society

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Even as we talked about on Good Friday the thing that touched his lips he went down to the depths of the septic tank of humanity to pull us out and death and Burial are important theologically because without a death you don't have a resurrection

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Like a seed he must fall to the ground and die and be covered over So that he would rise

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Defeating death raising us after him The death and burial is essential that's our confession every single week that Christ died and then he was buried

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We say these things every week Why because we are forgetful and we need to be reminded of the gospel every single week

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But that's not all the gospel is the death and the burial because if you don't have a resurrected Savior You don't have a

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Savior many people have died on the Roman Cross, but only one of them came back to life So third aspect of the gospel that Paul talks about is that he was raised

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We are not following a dead revolutionary We are not following cleverly disguised fables as Peter says in 2nd

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Peter 1 16 the disciples did not get together and say What are we gonna do now?

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Messiah's dead. Oh, I have an idea We're gonna pretend like he was raised so that all of us can suffer for the rest of our life and most of us be

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Brutally murdered That is not what they came up with They saw

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Jesus Alive and it wrecked them and it changed them and it made them go to every length to every nation

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Proclaiming the gospel. So what if it got them murdered? Because he was raised

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The resurrection is heaven's vindication for everything Jesus said everything Jesus did if God did not approve of Christ He would not have been raised so the fact that he is raised means that everything

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Jesus said is heaven approved and God stamped and In him and him alone

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Do we have life? In the resurrection we see the wrath of God has been abated

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If you're worried about the wrath of God and look to the cross of Christ That is your protection.

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That is your safety. That is your hope The resurrection is our reward

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Paul says in Romans 4 25. He was raised for our justification justification is a two -part work just in case you don't know that justification is that all of the sin and all of the death and All the misery that I that I accrued in the bank account of my soul has been wiped clean zero balance

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And it goes better than that because not only have you been given a zero balance You've been given the riches and the treasures of Christ Because no one is gonna get to heaven with a zero balance

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You don't show up at heaven and say let me in I have zero balance No, you cannot get in without the payment of Christ So it's both your sins have been wiped away in the cross and your and his merit has been attached to you

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So that now you are the richest people on earth because of Christ He's the first fruit of all who died.

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The first fruit means he's not the last fruit He was raised because you and I are going to be raised

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He conquered death Because you and I are gonna be raised imperishable Without disease without spot without brokenness anymore in the new heaven in the new earth when we are raised

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Praise God Almighty this old tent that we carry around will be made new Our mortal will be added to immortality

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Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15 53 this perishable body Which must put on the imperishable in this mortal body must put on immortality.

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You are not in your final body Amen Anyone over 40

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I better hear you Resurrection equals our victory his victory

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First Corinthians 15 54 through 55 said death is now swallowed up. Oh Death, where is your victory?

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Oh death. Where is your sting? I love the rhetorical question because the scriptures is saying you have none anymore

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Because of Christ you have no more sting The tomb is forever in be so that you and I brothers and sisters can say with the angels in Matthew 28 6

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He is not here For he has been raised He has been raised for our justification for our sanctification and for our future glorification, amen

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The fourth aspect of the gospel is that Christ appeared again not a trivial matter

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God cares so much about you and I that he did not give us a private

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Resurrection where no one saw it. How do you know Jesus was raised? Well, he said he was going to well show me the eyewitnesses.

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We don't have any Jesus did not do that It says that he appeared first to Peter Which I think is a glorious act of grace the one who denied him three times is the one who gets to see him first Think about how loving

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Christ is to make that happen And then he appears to the twelve

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What think about the grace of that they all abandoned him they all scattered him If I had twelve friends who in my moment of of brokenness left me and abandoned me

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I would not visit them first and you wouldn't either And yet he visits them in his grace then he appears to 500 in a city

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That the Jews paid the temple guards to lie Who had every hope of finding a dead body?

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He appeared to 500 people that Paul says some of them are still alive You know, Paul is saying go ask them.

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The tomb is empty. The tomb is empty You cannot find a body because there isn't one

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This was a public event you were the two men on the road to Emmaus They're like these things the whole city is stirred up because of these things and then

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Jesus appeared to them then you go to the upper room and they're they're all still confused because dead people don't rise from the dead and I'm assuming that was a hard thing to swallow

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Peter came and told them that I was out of breath, but the tomb was empty John's like I beat him there

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But the tomb was empty and then they're in the upper room and none of the disciples are probably believing

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G are believing Peter and John and then Jesus appears in front of them then and Then Thomas had the audacity to say

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I'm not gonna believe unless I stick my finger in his side then Jesus appeared to him This is a public indisputable event that changed the history and the fabric of the world and then

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To the most Valiant and despicable enemy of the church in the first century the one who killed the disciples who hunted them down and Prisoned them and murdered them

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Christ appeared to him on his way to kill more Christians and He trained he changed

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Paul He changed him from Saul to Paul. He changed him from the greatest persecutor of the early church to the greatest proponent of the gospel

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If God can save Paul, there is no one in this room who is outside of his grace

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So far, we've seen gospel. The gospel is he came he was crucified.

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He was buried He raised and he appeared to hundreds of people

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The next aspect of the gospel the fifth aspect of the gospel is that Christ ascended? I have been harping on this for a long time

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So if you've been here for a while, you're gonna know this. I think that the Ascension is one of the most Undervalued and under appreciated parts of the gospel because if Jesus did not ascend from heaven.

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He's still in Jerusalem and If he's still in Jerusalem, we still have an Old Testament faith where we have to go on a journey to see him the fact that he ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God and Issued forth his spirit and in dwells you and I as believers means that the temple in Jerusalem is no more and that there are

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Walking talking temples of God all over earth Why would I say that because the temple is where the

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Holy Spirit of God dwelled and now you are that in? His Ascension he was coronated as king of the universe

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Luke tells us that the disciples again didn't quite understand this Luke 24 51. They were staring at the sky

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He parted from them and he was carried up into heaven and we would have to We would have stood there watching.

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Is he gonna come back now? Is he gonna come back now? Acts 1 11 tells us after they stayed for a minute.

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I don't know how long it was an angel came down and Said this same

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Jesus has been taken away from you to heaven and he will return in the same way get to work He is going to sit down as king upon the throne and he's going to send forth his spirit who will come on you and Power and you will be his witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth

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Stop looking at the sky. Stop looking down at your feet and get to work The suffering servant and his

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Ascension became the royal king The defeated one became Christus Victor Christ has the victory

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Matthew 28 18 says that he has all Authority in heaven and on earth that doesn't mean some that doesn't mean most that means all

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So everyone in this room and everyone on planet Earth has borrowed authority because it's all his

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Hebrews 7 17 says he's our priest forever. He's interceding for us forever There's never a moment where he is not representing you before the

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Father Hebrews 1 3 says that he holds the universe together by his spoken word

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Matthew 28 20 says that he is with us always Even to the end of the age 1st

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Corinthians 15 25 says that he must reign he must Until he's put all of his enemies under his feet.

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He is reigning now. You are under the kingship of Christ Have confidence in that gospel message and That takes us to I think it's our sixth point.

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I didn't number it in my notes. So we'll go with it Christ will save but when

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I say that to you as an aspect of the gospel, I do not want you to hear that as an

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American as an American I am an individual and I am special and I got my participation trophy and there's no one like me and all my wonderful brilliant diversity

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Sure You are special But you're also not an individual almost every pronoun in the

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New Testament is Plural and there's a reason because he didn't come just to save you.

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He came to save us as a people and If we stop short of that vision, then we will miss the implications of what the gospel actually means the gospel is not about a

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Few individuals on a sinking ship that he is going to come back and rescue us before it all falls apart

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There are many good men who believe that demonic doctrine and that's not what the

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Bible teaches The Bible teaches that every nation is going to be filled with believers The Bible teaches that every ethnic people every tribe tongue and nation

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I'm quoting scripture will be filled with Christians The Bible says that every family on earth will come under the blessing of the seed of Abraham.

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That's Paul says that's Jesus So we don't believe that every family on earth will come under the blessing of Jesus.

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We don't believe the promise that God made Abraham Salvation is not just a one -part work between you and God That is what evangelicalism has boiled down salvation to and it's and it's minimalistic and reductionistic

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Salvation is a three -part work Salvation is that he will save his people and no one will take them out of his hand.

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Amen but salvation is also a destruction of those who opposed him a putting under his feet of those who are not his and Then there's a bringing all things into glory so that everything is made new if our view of salvation

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Stops at us and God we have too small of a salvation Because he is going to make everything new and if you oppose him, you will taste the leather of his sandals

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So part one of that judgment, he will annihilate his enemies We're not going to feather

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Jesus's hair. We're not going to treat him like a European shampoo model Jesus Is the lion of Judah for a good reason?

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He will put down his enemies Paul says that he must reign he must reign when

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Until all his enemies are put under his feet Brothers and sisters. Do you know what that means?

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that he must reign until All his enemies are put under his feet. That means until abortion is abolished.

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He must reign That means until homosexuality is ended he must reign

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That means that until gender confusion is gone until there's no more pedophilia.

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No more child trafficking No more slavery. No more adultery. No more divorce. No more child abandonment.

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No more evil politicians No more secular nations. No more pluralism liberalism or or Spineless politicians no more wicked

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Democrats and no more cowardly Republicans. No more communism. No more oligarchies No more despotism.

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No more warmongering. No more military industrial complexes. No more greed. No more corruption

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No more atheism agnosticism Buddhism Mormonism Judaism Hinduism Shintoism Islam No more

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Jehovah's Witnesses. No more Mormons. No more paganism New Age mysticism Satanism racism oppression critical race theory

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Marxism fake news media Planned Parenthood Epstein Island Puff Daddy parties

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No more transgender visibility day on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. No more sexualizing children

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No more Hollywood pedophile rings. No more woke universities. No more virtue signaling CEOs.

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No more DEI in our companies No more nudity in our movies. No more drag queens in our libraries.

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No more Alcoholism drug overdoses no more fentanyl. No more homelessness. No more blasphemy.

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No more Parents divorcing no more fornication murdering lying cheating fighting stealing cowards division brokenness no more false religion

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No more Roman Catholicism. No more Eastern Orthodoxy. No more watered -down Megatron big -screen big

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Eva Jesus No more passive evangelicals. No more friendship with the world.

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No more playing footsie with the devil. No more denominationalism no more division in Jesus's body no more children denied the waters of Baptism or the table of the

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Lord and no more pastors perverting the pure Word of God He must reign until all his enemies are put under his feet

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He must reign until all things are made new Revelation 21 5. He must reign until His kingdom has come on earth as it is in heaven

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Matthew 6 10 until every Gentile nation comes to him Genesis 18 18 until every

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Gentile family comes to him Genesis 12 1 through 3 until the Abrahamic blessings have covered the world

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Galatians 3 14 He is going to make this desert world a garden paradise filled with worshippers

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Genesis 1 28 who worship him in spirit and in truth John 4 24 who are not a fractured bruised and beaten and divided bride

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But who are made ready for her husband clothed and radiant and ready for her husband Revelation 21 2 who have been perfected in unity

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John 17 23 He will reign

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Until he's put all of his enemies under his feet and until his salvation has been spread

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From sea to shining sea as far as the water covers the ocean And if you don't know how much that is the water is full of ocean

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So he will fill the world with his people The third thing that he will do is that he will bring us into an eternal state

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He will defeat death The one who invented life will eventually murder this thing called death and he will give us imperishable bodies

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Where there's no more disease and no more curse and no more brokenness and no more pain and no more tears

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No more wrinkles. No more arthritis. No more liver spots and no more cancer and no more AIDS and no more none of it and then as The final act of his salvation as the final gospel thing that Jesus does

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He returns and he brings us into glory Where we celebrate his victory for ever

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How is this going to be achieved It's going to be achieved by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ It's going to be achieved by the planting of gospel churches

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It's going to be achieved by the Lord's table us feasting on Christ now and forever

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It's going to be accomplished through the songs and the praising of the Saints of God the most important instrument in this church

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Every Sunday is not my guitar or Derek's guitar. It is your voice It is a weapon

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Do you ever wonder why Satan attacks Christian marriage is so hard because they're dangerous Do you ever wonder why he attacks churches so hard because they're dangerous

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Do you ever wonder why he attacks you in the morning when you're supposed to be? Worshipping and reading you the word or with your children and teaching them and you're busy or your hearts not in it or you're demotivated

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Or you're or you're frustrated. You know why? because that's the weapon that God uses to build his kingdom from here to the ends of the earth and If he can demobilize you and disarm you from doing the work that God has called you

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Then he believes that he can win But the Word of God says that he can't win the gates of hell cannot stand against the church

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Will we be the generation that sees the gates of hell fall down Or will we hand it off to our children to see it because we were not interested in such things

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Between his two advents the first coming and the second coming Jesus Christ will take a world

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Filled with sin misery and death and he will fill it with the Spirit of God When believers blanket this planet the world will be filled with the

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Spirit of God and they will worship according to the Spirit of God and they will live out the fruits of the Spirit of God and they will walk in the

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Spirit Of God and they will pray in the Spirit of God They will honor Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and they will be filled with the blessings of Christ You want to see the world redeemed?

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Fill it with Christians Because the Holy Spirit of God will take us and Use us for his purposes to build this world according to the vision of Jesus Until his kingdom has come on Earth as it is in heaven

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Do not celebrate a gospel that is that ends with you Do not celebrate a gospel that is too small

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The gospel that Jesus brought Yes, it conquers you in Root to the world in root to the cosmos in root to every knee every tongue bowing down to Jesus and that leads us to the final aspect of the gospel that Christ will come again

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After he's done everything inaugurated his kingdom and been enthroned to reign over his kingdom Building his citizenry for the last 2 ,000 years expanding his borders until he has possession of all of it

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He will do that until he returns and let me just let me say this clearly because I don't want to be a blowhard

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There will be snags. There will be setbacks The kingdom of God does not grow just because I yell at you one week

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The kingdom of God does not grow straight up and to the right The kingdom of God looks like a stock market chart

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It goes up. It comes down a little bit. It goes up. It crashes It goes up again and out of the then it crashes even harder and then out of the ashes of that crash the

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Lord does something supernatural The kingdom of God has has almost vanished from the earth a couple times and Yet out of the ashes he's risen it out of it and made it stronger

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America is probably on a collision course right now But you see what

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God's doing in Africa. Do you see what God's doing in China and in East Asia? Do you see what God's doing in other places in the world brothers and sisters our time?

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Holding the banner of the gospel might be coming to an end. I pray to God that it's not I pray that we all work

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To see that it's revived But that does not mean if our kingdom fails if our little sandcastle crumbles

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It doesn't mean that the kingdom will not go marching on it will it will and it will

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Matthew 16 18 the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Have you ever seen a gate chasing anyone?

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They're stationary objects The reason the gates of hell are not falling down in America is because we're not pursuing

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It's not because they're chasing us. They're just gates. They're just standing there.

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They fall down when we advance Matthew 28 18 through 20 is the Great Commission.

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He meant it when he said to go disciple all the nations Can you imagine God saying I want you to go disciple the entire planet, but I don't mean it

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He intends on it happening That's why he said it that all the nations will come under the discipleship of Jesus Christ before he returns

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Genesis 12 1 through 3 we mentioned this earlier. He meant that every family on earth will come under the blessing of Abraham He meant it

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He meant that his government will increase until it cannot increase anymore

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And he meant it that his peace will cover the earth Isaiah 7 When he says in Isaiah chapter 2 that they will turn their plow their swords into plowshares

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He meant it. He was not being figurative He was not writing poetry that he had no intention on fulfilling

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He meant that under the reign of Jesus this world will become at some point

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It will come under his peace That war will be eliminated and it says in Isaiah 2 that they will learn war no more

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Do you believe that? That under the reign of Jesus there will come a day where they will learn war never again

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We tend to have this view that we're just one We're just one Kim jong -un away from catastrophe and maybe we are in this generation

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Maybe China and Russia team up and and there's a great war. I don't know but what I do know is that before Jesus returns peace will fill the entire world and that they will know war no more if I don't believe that I don't believe the

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Bible First Thessalonians chapter 4 says that he will descend with the shout of a trumpet

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He will come back and he will call all of those who sleep in death and he will call them up with brand new

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Imperishable bodies and he will get the total victory in that moment where the final enemy death will be slayed and Then he will enter into his forever reign where there is no more curse.

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No more pain. No more suffering only worship and only Christ Brothers and sisters all of these things began today

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Like a snowflake on top of a mountain. I hope that they're a snowball today and I hope one day that they're an avalanche

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These things began at the empty tomb and they continue down to you and I and what

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I want you to do today So I want you to believe it. I Want you to believe what

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Jesus has said in his word and I want you to remember that Redemption is going to overtake everything

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I Want you to remember that you are not the tail anymore because of Christ you are now made in union with the head

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That you are a saint and not a ain't I Want you to remember

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That you're no longer broken When it comes to your soul Your soul has been perfectly put back together and given the peace of God which surpasses all understanding in your body one day will follow.

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I Want you to remember that you've been made a partaker of these truths that you're not a passerby You're not a bystander

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You're not a fan who stands in the or sits in the stands and cheer as like you're removed from the situation no, you've been put in the game and These truths are yours.

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I Want you to remember what he did. He died. He was buried. He rose he appeared he ascended and he will come back for you and I want us to all together as We meditate on those truths.

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I want us to respond with great praise Let's pray Lord Jesus, thank you so much

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Thanks is so limited and so small Thank you Jesus for what you've done on the cross the difference between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is so The chasm is so large

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The darkness of Good Friday so deep and yet the brightness and the glory of Easter Sunday so bright

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Lord, we thank you that all of these things were set in motion before the foundation of the world

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Which means that everyone here who is in Christ is safe because a plan that the infinite

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God has worked out over infinite time is too big and too good for us to wiggle our way out of and Lord, I pray for anyone who's here today who does not know

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Jesus Christ Lord I pray that the first thing that they would do would be to cry out to Jesus for hope and for salvation

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You are the only one who can reach down and pull us out Lord for all of us who are here who are saved and are remembering these truths afresh

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Help us to cling to the cross as our hope help us to cling to you. Our Savior is our joy