Luke 7:1-10 Heading Jesus\' Words

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Pastor Mike Abendroth, Luke 7:1-10 Heading Jesus' Words

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Well, if you've ever taken any of my preaching classes, you know that I tell the students when you're preaching you should ask a lot of questions.
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One of the reasons you do that is because you can think 400 words a minute and I can only talk 150 or 200 words a minute and I want you to think about the sermon and the scriptures not something else.
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So in light of that, let me ask you some questions to start the sermon today. What comes to your mind when
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I say the word marvelous? Next question, what is marvelous in your life?
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Third question, what makes you marvel? And last question, can you define marvelous?
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I looked up the dictionary marvelous and it says causing wonder, astonishment. In one language, the root word for marvelous comes from the word smile.
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Where we smile, we're in amazement. I have a stranger question to ask though.
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Is there anything that makes Jesus marvel? When Jesus was on earth, what made him marvel?
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What made Jesus say, that's amazing? Maybe I could put it this way.
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What made Jesus smile? I know there's some latent fundamentalist here that they say,
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Bible never says Jesus smiled, Bible never said Jesus laughed. Whoa, I don't want to be married to you.
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Of course he smiled, of course he laughed, he's truly human. Can you imagine
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Jesus picking up a little baby in his arms and not smiling and having great joy? He's the perfect human, the perfect man, of course he smiled, of course he had joy and he marveled.
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Only one time in the Bible does it say that Jesus marveled at something positively.
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Yes, he marveled at their unbelief at times, but what's the one place in scripture that talks about Jesus marveling, having astonishment?
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Which leads us to our passage today. Take your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Jesus according to Luke. We're in Luke chapter 7.
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Jesus marvels. As you know, we've been in the Gospel of Luke and it's our custom here in case you're a visitor. We're just going through the
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Bible chapter by chapter, verse by verse. And I think this is sermon number 45 in the
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Gospel of Jesus according to Luke. And you know as you turn to Luke chapter 7, everything in this book needs to be seen through the lens of chapter 1 verses 1 to 4, which was the introduction, kind of the purpose of why
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Luke was writing to this man named Theophilus. And he was writing to this man Theophilus that he, and then anybody else that would read it, including us, might be certain about Jesus.
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Theophilus had maybe some piecemeal ideas about Jesus, but he didn't have the complete sweep of understanding
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Jesus' birth and Jesus' life, his public ministry, his sacrificial death, his atonement for sinners, his resurrection from the dead.
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And so Luke writes this so people would be sure. So every time I read a passage in Luke, I'm saying to myself, this is written so that if somebody doesn't believe, they're not trusting in Christ Jesus, that they would believe.
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They'd see who Jesus is and they would say there's no one like Him, no one talk like Him, no one did what
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He did, and He in fact is the Messiah who can pay for my sins. Hell is a long time, it is eternal, my sins are real,
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God is holy, and I need to be right in God's eyes. So the unbeliever should read Luke and say, He's the one,
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Lord grant me faith. But for Christians, we also need to learn about Jesus, because Jesus, matter of fact, is our
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Savior now, and He is our Redeemer now. And of course, in a lot of churches, you just hear sermons that are based on what you need to do, and of course there's nothing wrong with doing things, but the central question for every preacher is, are you going to talk about Jesus?
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Speaking of students and preaching students, I usually have to say to my preaching students and other pastors that I try to help, would it be too much for you to talk about Jesus for 10 minutes in your sermon today?
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Because we want to just get things done, you know, we get saved and we have the gospel and then now tell us what to do.
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And so we get saved and now we need to be told what to do to live in light of who God is and for the glory of the name and for who
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Jesus is. And so, we come to Luke 7 this morning, and I don't have to worry about, can
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I talk about Jesus for 10 minutes or not, because He's at the center of this. He's at the hub.
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The spotlight is on Jesus. How will Jesus act in this particular case, and what will
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He marvel at? The bigger section here, Luke, is Jesus is in Judea, and He's, excuse me,
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He's in Israel, Galilee section, and the writer wants you to say, who is
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Jesus? What is He doing? And should I trust in Him? So what we're going to do before I get into chapter 7, 1 to 10, is
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I want to make sure you see the context, because it opens everything up. Sometimes the chapter breaks don't help us.
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For instance, Galatians chapter 5 at the end, it talks about the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace. And then we move to chapter 6, and we forget that it's connected.
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The action fruit of the Spirit is restoring people gently, chapter 6.
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The attitude fruit is love, joy, and peace, but the action fruit follows Galatians 5,
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Galatians 6. And if you don't know the end of chapter 6 in Luke, you can't get 7, 1 to 10.
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So let me re -read Luke chapter 6, verses 46 through 49, and that's where we picked up where we left off last time.
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Luke 6, 46. This is the end of the sermon on the plain, and Jesus says, "'Why do you call
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Me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to Me and hears
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My words and does them, I will show you what he's like. He's like a man building a house, who dug deep, laid the foundation on the rock.
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When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built.
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But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.
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When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.'"
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Building your life on the foundation of Jesus' words. Trusting in Him as your sin -bearing
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Savior. Saying what Jesus says, that's the foundation of my life, and the floods and the trials and other kind of issues are going to come, but I'm going to trust
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Jesus' words. I will trust the word of Jesus. I wonder what that looks like.
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Could you show me someone who really trusts Jesus' words? Could you show me someone that builds his life on the rock, so when the trials come on earth and the trials come when we stand before God in heaven on that last day, what does it kind of look like?
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You know, this might be just talk, this might be esoteric, this might be just good advice, but could you show me a living illustration of what it looks like to build your life on the rock of Jesus' words?
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I'm glad you asked, because that's Luke chapter 7, 1 to 10, with a centurion. Here's this man, and I'll telegraph the sermon before I start.
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Jesus uses the man, a Gentile, the centurion, to tell us, you know what, in spite of everything, this centurion said,
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I will build my life on the words of Jesus, come what may. So chapter 6 helps us understand chapter 7, because chapter 6 ends with, you build your life on the rock, you're going to be safe.
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What does it look like to build your life on the rock of Jesus' words? Answer, Luke chapter 7, 1 through 10.
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Lots of times I have to just take a pencil, because it is a venial sin to mark in your
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Bible with a pen or a yellow marker. You must do it with a pencil.
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I order you. I don't care. Half of you don't even have a real
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Bible, you've got some tablet and you're checking your mail right now. I mean, if I go to churches on vacation and have a phone and I'm trying to check stuff and I know what
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I'm supposed to be worshiping, if I do it, I know you do too, so turn that phone off. But lots of times
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I just write with my pencil an arrow from the end of that 649 to 71 to make sure
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I get that bracket, because this is written logically, in the flow.
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Hear this man, he's building his life on the rock of Christ's words. And of course, what we'll do today is we'll work through the passage, 7, 1 to 10, and then we'll talk a little bit about its application and how it applies to us, some takeaways.
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So the plan today, we'll work through 7, 1 to 10, and then we'll talk about what does it mean for us to keep building our life on the words of Christ Jesus with a simple, childlike, dependent faith.
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Now Jesus has said in Luke chapter 4 that He, the Messiah, is coming to proclaim good news.
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He's shown in many places in Luke, including Luke chapter 5, that the power of the
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Lord is with Him to heal. And we come to chapter 7, 1 to 10, and there's all kinds of hearing themes.
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Take a look at 627, chapter 6 of Luke, verse 27.
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But I say to you who hear, look at 647, everyone who comes to me and hears my words.
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Look at Luke 649, but the one who hears and does them.
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Look at Luke chapter 7, verse 1, we come to our passage, and after He had finished all His sayings in the hearing of the people, hearing
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Jesus' words and believing them, and then doing them. Verse 2, now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him, the centurion.
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When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the
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Jews, asking him to come and heal a servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with Him earnestly, saying,
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He's worthy to have you do this for Him. For He, the centurion, loves our nation, and He is the one who built us our synagogue.
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We'll stop there for a minute. Jesus is in Capernaum, it's on the northern side of the
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Sea of Galilee, He's super busy, and this is kind of His hub, and this is the place where some scholars would count
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His miracles and that He would do 11 of His 33 miracles right here in the
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Capernaum area. And somehow, this centurion heard about Jesus.
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Centurions are Gentiles, I don't think He was well -versed in the Old Testament, I mean maybe, but most likely not.
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But he had heard about Jesus because when the Messiah comes and He starts healing people over and over and over, heals them instantaneously, organically, completely, there's nothing like it.
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And so the word spreads like wildfire, and somehow this centurion heard about Jesus, he heard about His power, he heard about His compassion, he heard about this
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Messiah. And the centurion has a servant, and that servant is going to die.
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And many of you know what it's like to be around a loved one, and just say something, and people would be healed.
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Listen to Luke chapter 4, Jesus said to the demon -possessed man, be silent and come out of him.
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And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him. And the people were amazed and said to one another, what is this word?
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For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they came out. And reports about Him went out into every place into the surrounding region.
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That is to say, he heard that Jesus just has to say something, and it happens.
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He says the word, and it's done. Reminds me of let there be light, and there's light.
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Matthew says this servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. Now when
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I would read the Bible as a younger man, I'd think centurions are kind of my favorite kind of guys, because in the middle of all these rabbis, and people who are talking, and prophets and everything, give me a soldier, give me a man's man.
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And centurions were men's, they were very manly. We don't think a centurion was really a rank, it was more kind of a class.
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And of course, centurion means hundred, right, cents and dollars, a century, 100.
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And so he's in charge of 100 men. And it would take, some scholars would say, 16 years to become a centurion.
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And these centurions were not men that were just fly off the handle, and you cross me, I'm going to get you.
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They were known for, even at death, we will hold our ground. They were stable.
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They knew how to give orders, they knew how to take orders, and they were men who were the best of the best.
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One historian in 200 BC said, in choosing their centurions, the Romans looked not so much for the daring type, but rather men who were leaders, who have a stable temperament.
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Not men who open the battle and launch attacks, but those who will stand their ground, and will die in defense of their posts.
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And I don't know if you know this or not, but every time a centurion is mentioned in the Bible, it's positively. Remember the centurion at the foot of the cross in Mark chapter 15?
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Truly this is the Son of God. And so this centurion knows his servant is sick, and he sends for Jesus.
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He doesn't go, he sends the leaders. And do you notice back in verse 2, this servant was highly valued by him.
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It tells us a little bit about the centurion, because you don't have slaves and servants that were valued by their owners because slaves were abused, they were misused, they were mistreated.
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Some people think if you had a slave, or an animal, or a cart, they were all the same thing. They're like chattel.
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But this centurion was different. He was kind. He was extraordinary. So he sends Jewish people to go get
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Jesus. And these Jewish people are imploring, pleading, please, this man, he's built a synagogue for us.
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He's a good man. Please, Jesus, come. And Jesus said, if you notice in your text, I can't be bothered.
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I'm going fishing. I have some carpentry work to do. I need to see my friends.
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My mother is calling for me. I'm tired from preaching. This is too far. It's above my pay grade.
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I might be able to come and heal him, but I need to know what it is. It might be too hard. What if it has progressed too far?
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And I need to know the symptoms. Doesn't that say in your book there, the message Bible that you have? The message
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Bible isn't a Bible, it's a paraphrase, but it doesn't say any of that. It's interesting to me that Matthew 8, 7, it tells us,
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Jesus said, I will come and heal him. And that just strikes me as so wonderful that he doesn't need to know how bad it is.
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With confidence, with surety, I'm going to go heal him. It's no problem. Yes, I'll come and heal him.
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Luke chapter 7, verse 6, and Jesus went with him.
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When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends. So first he sends the centurion, sends the elders.
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Now he sends the friends saying to him, Lord, kind of reminds me of Lord, Lord in 646, doesn't it to you?
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Do not trouble yourself for I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof.
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The elders say he's worthy. The assessment of other peoples toward the centurion is he's worthy.
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Now the centurion's self -assessment is a little different. I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof. I'm a
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Gentile. Jews don't go into the house of the Jews. Gentiles would commit abortions in their homes and other things, and Jews stayed away from Gentiles.
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They'd be defiled. I don't think this man is conscious of the fact that Jesus can touch a leper and not be defiled because the clean is not going to be unclean.
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Therefore, verse 7, I did not presume to come to you. I wonder what it's like to build your life on the words of Jesus, come what may, up to and including eternal life.
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What's it look like to say, I hear Jesus's words, he's Lord, and whatever he says goes,
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I'm going to build my life on his word. What's he saying in verse 7? But say the word, and let my servant be healed.
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For I too am a man set under authority, that is Roman authority, with soldiers under me. I say to one, go, he goes, and another, come, he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it.
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Just come to my house, Jesus. No, just say the word.
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He doesn't say, can you please come and make an assessment, can you please come and put oil on him, maybe some herbs.
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If I sow a big enough seed financially, Jesus, to you, would you come and help? Just say one word, healed, complete, whole.
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Sounds like he's building his life on the word of Jesus. I love Psalm 107, then they cried to the
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Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction.
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Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men.
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Now, some people think when he called, the centurion called Jesus Lord, he was just saying sir. And I just think that's a horrible
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Bible interpretation. He understands the lordship of Jesus, that's why he's asking him to come and heal with the word,
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Lord. You just say the word. I have the authority of the emperor, and if you disobey my orders, you disobey the emperor's orders.
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And I think the centurion is understanding a little bit about the authority of the father and the sending of the son.
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Lord, I believe he right here is saying, you're God, you're
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God in the flesh. Heal with the word, only God can do that. And by the way,
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I love it that the centurion, a tough, weathered, hardened Roman soldier who has some kindness in his heart, looks at Jesus and doesn't see some kind of effeminate, feathered haired, who knows what.
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He sees authority. He sees power. He sees a king.
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He sees the God man. I think the centurion sees the image of the invisible
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God, the firstborn of all creation. I think the centurion sees a man who by all things heaven and earth were created.
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The centurion understands who Jesus is. Verse 9, when
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Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him.
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There's the word. And turning to the crowd that followed him, said, I tell you, not even in Israel have
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I found such faith. When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
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That's wild. Jesus marveled. Only time positively marveling in all of scripture. One man said, what can be more wonderful than to see
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Christ wonder? I agree. I haven't seen such great faith.
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I don't particularly like the ESV at the end of verse 9. It means more great. I found such faith.
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It means great faith. Same word, therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.
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I mean, maybe the text might say Jesus marveled at the birth of a child.
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Maybe the text might say he marveled at the marble and the gold and the incense and the lavers in the temple.
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Maybe Jesus might marvel at a beautiful sunset, taste of freshly made bread.
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But here he marvels at faith. He doesn't marvel that this guy, the centurion, was good for the
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Jews, philanthropy. He doesn't marvel that he was a hard worker, that he was dedicated to his work 16 years at least.
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Jesus is not marveling at this man's devotion. He's not marveling how he treats his servants and with kindness. He's not marveling at the man's, the centurion man's humility that he would say, you just tell me what to do,
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Jesus. He marvels at his faith. And of course, everything in Luke is driving for you to say,
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I believe too. I'm going to keep believing this is the right Messiah. I mean,
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Jesus rebukes, O ye of little faith, but here I've never seen such great faith.
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And of course, then Jesus says, you know what? I ought not to accept worship because I'm just like you.
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And please don't call me Lord. And please don't talk about me that way that I can heal because I'm just like you.
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Obviously, Jesus doesn't do that because as God, true or false, he accepts worship.
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Yes, Jesus is accepting worship. Peter, when
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God healed through him, the man who couldn't walk, Peter said, men of Israel, why do you wonder at this?
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Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power we have made him walk? But it's by Jesus's power.
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Here this man believes, and you know how I love acronyms. Here's an acronym of faith that will help you.
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F, financially secure, A, affluent, I, income rising,
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T, tax sheltered, and H, home paid for. So when you think of faith, that's what
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I want you to think of. The visitors just walked out. No, I want you to think of what's my little acronym for faith, saving faith.
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Knowledge, assent, and trust. Cat, K -A -T, the only cat
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I like. Knowledge of who Jesus is. This man had it. Assent, I agree to that.
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I affirm that. And trust, I'm trusting with all my heart that he is who he is up into and including eternal life.
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The Puritan Thomas Brooks said, he that believeth on the Lord Jesus shall be saved, be his sins never so many.
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But he that believeth not on the Lord Jesus must be damned, neither his sins be ever so few.
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And isn't that what saving faith is? I take God at his word. I take him at his bare word.
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He says something, I believe it. I know it. I assent to it. And I'm trusting it.
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Our statement of faith describes faith this way, accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life.
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This faith, although it be in different stages and may be weak or strong, yet it is in the least degree of it different in the kind or nature of it as is all other saving grace.
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In other words, there's a faith that doesn't save, a demon faith, but this weak or frail faith that we have has the right strong object, the
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Lord Jesus. Back to that verse in verse 9, he marveled at him.
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Astonished, admiration. Usually it's the crowds that marvel at Jesus.
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Matthew 9, and the crowds marveled saying, never was anything like this seen in Israel.
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When Paul was surprised when the Galatian church started adding works to salvation,
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I'm astonished, are marveling that you're quickly deserting him. It was the people who said of Jesus, what sort of man is this who even the winds and sea obey him?
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And they marveled. But now we see Jesus marveling. How could
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Jesus marvel if he's God? Doesn't God know everything? What could take him by surprise?
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What could make him astonished? How could that be said of God? How could Jesus be amazed if he was
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God? And some people think, well, what he would do is he would have self -imposed limitations on his omniscience.
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That's not true at all. God never ceases to be God. This is talking about his humanity.
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Did you catch it? In Luke 7, 1 to 10, you see the deity of Christ. He can heal with a word.
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And you see the humanity of Jesus. His humanity wonders, is amazed, he marvels.
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If Jesus can be hungry and thirsty and take a nap and rest and eat and drink and rejoice and agonize, he can marvel.
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Now keep your finger there in Luke and I want you to go to a parallel passage in Matthew 8 and get ready to be amazed yourself.
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Matthew 8, verses 10 through 13, gives us a little bit more information. As you know,
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Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the Gospels, are kind of similar, but we get certain things in one and not in the other.
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And if we put them all together, you could get a book called The Harmony of the Gospels that might help. But I want you to see what's going on here with Matthew.
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Remember, the centurion says, I'm a Gentile. Don't even come into my house.
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I'm not worthy. Stay out of my house. I don't even want you in my house. So keep that in the back of your mind and it's going to make sense.
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Matthew 8, 10, when Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, truly
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I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
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In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the centurion, to the centurion, Jesus said, go, let it be done for you as you have believed.
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And the servant was healed at that very moment. Go back to verse 11 again and recline at table.
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Jesus, I don't even want you to come into my house. And you know what Jesus is saying?
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You're a Gentile. And I'm not just going to come into your house. You are going to be reclining at table with me in the most intimate kind of fellowship that you could have at dinner.
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And you're going to be eating with me in the messianic banquet of all time.
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It's fascinating. Sitting at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now I don't know about you, but how would you describe heaven to someone if they said, could you please tell me about heaven?
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I had an old boss in Los Angeles. And he said, heaven is going to be where my dog is.
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His dog was named Max. Max could eat at the kitchen table. They had a spot for Max.
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And when I told him that dogs don't go to heaven, at least his dog, mine might, he said, then it won't be heaven if my dog's not there.
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How would we describe, how would you describe heaven? Very interesting. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to Christmas meal.
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This year, Lord willing, all my children will be there. All my grandchildren will be there.
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They're all coming home, sitting around the table. My wife, the five -star chef with all her specialties that she's making.
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She's got her brood with her. We always go and buy filet mignons to cook for Christmas Day.
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I grill them outside snow or sleet or hail or anything else. And I do that because, hey, it's once a year we do it.
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Probably going to be $300 or something. But kings can't eat a better cut of meat.
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No chuck steak for Christmas. Special sparkling ciders, butter galore, homemade biscuits, dressing, stuffing, laughter, family fellowship.
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You just don't want it to end. You're like, forget the presents. I know the kids will like the presents, but the camaraderie, the
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Sinatra music, it's just like, this is the best. Could it get any better?
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And do you know, since we can't comprehend the glories of heaven, one of the things that the scripture does is says, you know what heaven's like?
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It's like a Christmas meal. It's a fellowship meal. It's like you're with your family eating the best of the best.
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It's called the marriage supper of the lamb. Reclining at table.
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If the Christmas meal is the best on earth, how much more wonderful would heaven be? I can't believe all my kids are going to be here, my grandchildren.
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I want to cherish that, especially if you think you have some health problems and you're like, how many more times do you do this?
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This is just wonderful. But what if we had a special guest attending the meal on December 25th?
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What if Jesus attended the Eibendroth Christmas meal? But there is something even better.
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The Eibendroths, by grace and grace alone, will be attending the marriage supper of the lamb, invited by Jesus.
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And so will you. I can't believe it. Something so good, so wonderful.
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Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms.
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If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.
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Describing this great marriage supper of the lamb, Isaiah 25 says, on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples,
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Gentiles, Centurion, and most of you are Gentiles, a feast of rich food.
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Here's what this messianic kingdom and banquets describe by. A feast of rich food. Baptists don't listen.
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A feast of well -aged wine. A rich food full of marrow.
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I mean, carnivore diet. Come on. Of aged wine, well -refined.
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He'll swallow up this mountain and the covering that's cast over the people. He'll swallow up death forever.
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And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people he'll take away from the earth.
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For the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, that glorious day.
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Something better than Merry Christmas. Behold, this is our God. We've waited for him that he might save us.
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This is the Lord. We've waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
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I'm a Centurion and you shouldn't even come into my house. And Jesus said, you know what?
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You're a Gentile and my salvation is so great, I just don't save Israelites. I save Gentiles too.
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And instead of just walking into your house, you're going to come into my house and you're going to sit next to me and recline at table in the most intimate kind of fellowship we have.
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And it's called the marriage supper of the lamb. Wow. Back to Luke chapter 7, please.
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How amazing is this? Building your life on the rock.
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Building your life on the words of Jesus. Building your life on the person of Jesus. Building your life on the work of Jesus.
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So I've walked through the passage and now let me give you some reminders on how you could build your life on the words of Jesus, on the rock.
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This could probably be a 10 -week series. I heard there was a pastor, true story, he was in New England and he started to preach through Isaiah verse by verse.
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It was in the 1600s. And after 40 years, he finished Isaiah chapter 8.
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Sometimes preachers preach through passages too fast, but that's definitely too slow.
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I just want to give you some kind of takeaways. I mean, I don't think I need to give any really.
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You just think, by faith and by faith alone, because I'm trusting in that Jesus revealed in Luke, that I'm going to make it to the end.
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My faith, trusting in Jesus, I'm going to make it to the end no matter what happens on this earth and I will be meeting
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Jesus face to face with the most intimate kind of intimacy we can have. That's probably enough, but I'll give you more.
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Number one, building your life on the rock by believing that all the words of Jesus are true.
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You build your life on the rock by believing all the words of Jesus are true. And that is to say all the
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Bible is true. Friends, even if you're a Christian, you cannot have a stable life, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, if you cut and paste the
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Bible. I don't like this. I only like these things. When we're an unbeliever, many of us, we don't believe that the
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Bible's true. God makes us alive in Christ, new creation. He caused us to be born again. And we immediately say, that's the
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Word of God. The Spirit illumines the Bible. We understand it. And so one of the things you need to do is, if you're going to build your life on the words of Jesus, the prophets that were sent by Jesus, the apostles that were sent by Jesus, all of Scripture, as it were, is red letter and you better believe all of this.
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You cannot have a stable life if you say, I stand over the Bible and that part's true, that part's not true.
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There are pet sins in the culture. I can't say homosexuality is a sin. I can't say gay marriage is a sin.
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I can't say abortion is a sin. I can't say hell is forever. I can't say these things. And so maybe that's just a different generation.
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It's a different time. Did you know the greatest affirmer of the
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Old Testament was Jesus? The Messiah comes.
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What would you expect the Messiah to come and say if things in the Old Testament weren't really true? Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot, Noah, Flood.
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You'd expect Him to come and say, by the way, everybody, that whole Jonah thing, it's just a story. There's no real fish.
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There's no real Jonah. But when Jesus comes, what does He do? He affirms the Old Testament.
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He quotes the Old Testament in some of the most supernatural passages. He affirms them, including Jonah. If you want to build your life on Jesus's words, congregation,
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I know you do this. But this is just a reminder to keep doing it in our day and age of subjective truth and spirituality and faith in faith.
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You can't move from the Scriptures from its sufficiency. It can help in every area of life.
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Its authority, we're under its rule and reign. Its nature of being
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God -breathed, and therefore it doesn't contradict itself anywhere. We might think, in our minds, I can't figure it out.
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But God does not contradict Himself. And whether it's the death penalty, the destruction of the
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Canaanites, we open the Bible and we say from Genesis to Revelation, God, this is your word and there are wonderful truths found in it.
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And please help me to understand it. Right? That's what building your life on the word of God is.
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Even the parts that go against your grain, even the parts that say, you know what, I'll give you a kind of a wild illustration, an interesting one.
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You might just marvel at this one. When you go to the
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Bible, even as a Christian, you might not think it's true, but this doctrine you better believe is true.
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I know you're going to come to this doctrine, and based on our work's righteousness and how we, you know, we have the law written on our heart and everything else.
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There's a doctrine in Scripture that if you come to and don't just say, I believe it, you're going to have a hard life.
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There's a doctrine that is super popular and I'm going to say the doctrine and you're going to think, oh, I get that doctrine.
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But if you don't come to this doctrine, come to the Scriptures and be under it, there's going to be hardship for you.
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Well, what's the doctrine? Are you ready? We'll see you next week. No, just kidding.
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It's the doctrine of grace. When we come to Scripture, we had better assume that eternal hell is eternal.
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The Canaanites were, the Israelites were told to do things to the Canaanites. And when we come, we ought to understand that the words of Jesus on the doctrine of grace, while scary, my life.
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So now when God sees me, He sees Jesus, all confirmed by the resurrection.
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Are you telling me I'm saved by grace and grace alone? What if I take advantage of that?
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If grace is that gracious, I'm kind of scared. I'm a little nervous. If I talk to you about grace so much, congregation, some of you might take advantage of it.
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The pressure needs to be put on. Of course, Paul anticipated this. Free and sovereign grace.
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What's the response? What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? What's the response?
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No, grace, we preach as grace free and sovereign, but we don't want to sin that grace may abound by no means.
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How can we who die to sin still live in it? Turn your Bibles to Titus chapter 2.
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Most everyone here, I believe, thinks that you're saved by grace alone. But I wonder if you think you're sanctified by grace alone.
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Don't we need a treadmill? Don't we need try harder? Don't we need do more? I want you to know something you already know, but just to remind you, dear
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Christian, that grace is what motivates you to obey. It's called guilt, grace, and what's the third thing?
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Gratitude. If a God could love you so much, and it's not just a God, it's the God, how do we respond?
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And I want you to know when you come to the Bible and you study grace, I don't want you to be nervous. I don't want you to think this is going to make me slack off.
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I don't want you to think, you know what, I just have to somehow, you know, scary. I want you to know grace motivates.
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Titus 2, 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.
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What does God's grace do? What does grace incarnate do? It brings salvation, and what does it do? Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.
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We kill it. We say no to it, to honor God, out of gratitude, and to live positively, self -controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.
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We are in light of God's grace, and through grace, to live holy lives. While we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are what?
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What does grace do? Law can't animate, but grace animates, and it makes us zealous for good works.
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Unbelievable. Our response is a gracious response. So, when we come to the
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Bible, I want you to take every part of it and say, I believe it, and parts that might be controversial,
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I still believe, and parts that seem to go against my nature in terms of, give me law so I obey, law only, we realize grace, and grace alone motivates.
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Building your life on the rock, number two, I want you to realize that God loves you in spite of your sin, that God loves you in spite of your sin.
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These are some core things, some derived from our passage, and some others just from a pastor's heart I want to give you.
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That man's worthy to build the synagogue. He, the man, the centurion who built the synagogue, says, my self -assessment is
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I'm not worthy. We read earlier in Romans chapter eight about the love of God, and it is the hope that we have that it's not our love for God, it's
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God's love for us, and we can have stability and joy knowing that God loves me no matter what. Because, by the way,
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God never started to love you, so he could never stop. Number three, building your life on the rock is you believe
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God's promises. You believe God's promises. I think maybe most every day of my life, probably not every day, but most every day,
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I try to think of Hebrews 13, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
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I try to remember Romans chapter eight. There's how much condemnation for those in Christ Jesus? No condemnation.
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Every promise of God found in Christ Jesus. And one of the things I need to do in my life is
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I need to keep my focus in an upward fashion to the Lord Jesus. It's easy for me to get my eyes off of Jesus.
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It's easy for me to introspectively look at myself. One man said, every time you look at yourself, and you think about your prayer life, and you'd like to pray more, you think about your evangelism, you'd like to evangelize more, you think about your
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Bible study, you'd like to read more, and we should do those things, and I want to do those things. I try to model those things.
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Every time you look at yourself, you should look 10 times, yes, 100 times to the Lord Jesus, remembering who
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Jesus is. I've regularly asked myself the question, when's the last time
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I read a book about Jesus? How about when I read the
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Bible, do I read about Jesus? Oh, we love the Proverbs. It's, it's, what day is it today? December 8th?
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Is it the 8th? So we read Proverbs 8. But remembering who Jesus is, trusting in Jesus, focusing on Jesus.
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Let me just give you a couple more, and we need to land the proverbial plane. Building your life on the rock is believing
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God's law is good. 1 Timothy chapter 1, Romans chapter 7,
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God's law is good, it's holy, it's righteous, and it leads us, it's good for us, it's good for other people, and it gives honor to the
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Lord. So when I read God's word, and I say, let's just pick one, be anxious for nothing.
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Anybody here anxious? And every hand shoots up. I sure wish
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God wouldn't have said that to me, don't be anxious. I mean, come on. He knows my condition.
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He knows what I go through. Just, I could use a little less law. Why would
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God say to you, don't be anxious? He's mean.
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Of course not. A father has a son, and that son's anxious, are nervous, and what does a father try to do?
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Father's pity, protect, provide. Why would God say, don't be anxious? It's almost like I could say,
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God, I'm going through this trial in my life, and I want to trust my own resources, I want to worry,
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I want to think about tomorrow and borrow trouble, but I'm going to take you at your word. You say the word, and I'm going to try to do it, because I believe you have authority you're the
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God man, I'm going to call you Lord. You say the word, and I want to obey, because I have the spirit to actually obey.
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God, you tell me the word. Here it's more than one word, but here are the words. Do not be anxious.
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Because it's not good for you. If God has given you his son, everything else he's given to you is good too, and he says,
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I don't want you to be anxious. Some people say, you know what, if you struggle with the same sins when you first got saved as you do now 35 years later, how can you call yourself a
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Christian? And I just say, how would you like to live under that kind of preaching? I struggle with worry.
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So therefore God's law is bad. I struggle with worry, and by the way, all the people now are happy that I struggle with worry because you don't feel so bad.
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That's the way it works. But if I struggle with worry, are you struggling with ever what your pet sin is?
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I need to go back to God's word and back to God's law because it comes from the hand of a father who's given me the greatest gift, salvation.
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So he gives me the lesser gifts. It's not good for me. My worry is not good for me.
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My worry is not good for my family. My worry is not good for you. My worry is not a good testimony to the culture who wants to know what a
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Christian lives like. And so God in his goodness, he says, don't worry because the positive side, the flip side of worry is you can trust him.
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You can trust him with your eternal soul, with your health, with your finances, with I need to have a wife or a husband.
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I need all these things. I'm going to trust him because worrying is not going to get me anywhere except my fingernails bitten down.
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And so when we're building our life on the words of Jesus, I guess this is my point. Every time there's something that you read about with the law that's super convicting to you,
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I hope you say, thank you. I need that because I want you,
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Lord, to conform me. And you're going to have to chisel away some of those recalcitrant parts of my heart that are prone to wander.
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And I don't want that. But I'm going to say, even though I'm convicted, it's good.
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I hope, dear congregation, I think you have come to this point where when you hear conviction, you say, thank you.
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Because after the conviction comes the balm of the gospel. And by the way, can you imagine having the weight of the world on your shoulders and never worrying?
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Jesus Christ, who upholds the universe with his mighty right hand, out of anybody who had enough reasons to worry, didn't.
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And so we rest in him. Dear Christian, the law is good.
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And when it convicts, it's doing its work because God loves you. I used to tell my children, why don't
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I discipline people, the kids down the street? Why don't I spank them, even though I know they need it?
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I said, because they're not my children and because I'd get sued and go to jail. If you're a son or a daughter, he disciplines you.
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And so what does building your life on God's word look like? It looks like submission to God's care.
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Luther, 1522, says this to his congregation.
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What is the gospel? It is this, that God sent his son into the world to save sinners, to crush hell, overcome death, take away sin and satisfy the law.
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But what must you do? Nothing but accept this and look to your Redeemer and firmly believe that he has done all this for your good and freely gives you all as your own.
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So that in the terrors of death, sin and hell, you can confidently say and boldly depend on it and say, although I do not fulfill the law, although sin is still present and I fear death and hell, nevertheless, from the gospel,
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I know that Christ has bestowed on me all his works. I am sure he will not lie.
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His promise, he will surely fulfill. And so if you're afraid, if you're worrying, if you're wondering,
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Jesus keeps his word. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. I praise you and thank you that you sent the
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Lord Jesus and how he marveled at faith. And would you grant each person here, if they don't have it, saving faith?
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And would you grant the Christians here a faith that resolves itself to accept your word as it is?