John, Pt. 17 | John 3:22-36

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December 11, 2022 Pastor Jeff Rice

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If you will turn in your copy of the scriptures to the gospel of John chapter 3 we will consider verses 31 through 36
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Gospel of John chapter 3 verses 31 to 36 father our father
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Creator of the universe you who spoke all things into existence
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You who formed Adam from the dust who breathed life into his nostrils
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You who blessed and cursed nations
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Lord we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ Your people filled with your spirit
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Petitioning you Lord this day to speak to us through your word
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Through me Lord this broken vessel Use me this day in Jesus name
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I pray Amen so it is a joy of mine to stand before you this day
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Lord's Day to proclaim to you this this word and the gospel of John This is our 17th message in this wonderful glorious gospel
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I've been Enriched thus far and I pray that you have to that you have been able to see
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Christ is glorious Christ is beautiful like like what other book in the
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Bible Proclaims this as much as John right that Christ is glorious right?
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He's he's God incarnate Like this is the book of Christmas, right?
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This is Gospel of John, it's it's Christmas every Lord's Day here under this glorious gospel that we are partaking in And by that I mean that you are coming here and you are paying attention you are listening to what the the
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Lord the God of all things has has spoken in his Infallible inerrant word
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So let's read that That word that message that he has for us beginning in verse 31 so again, this is
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John Speaking he who comes from above is above all he
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Who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth
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He who comes from heaven is above all What he has seen and heard of that he bears witness and no one receives his witness
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He who has received his witness has set his seal to this that God is true
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For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God For he gives the
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Spirit without measure the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand whoever believes in the
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Son has eternal life But whoever does not obey the
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Son Will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him our theme for this
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Lord's Day is the superiority of Jesus over John And my proposition is this is that next to Christ John the
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Baptist failed in comparison Right you line the two up side by side
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John the Baptist fails in comparisons to Who Christ is now you might not be able to see this if that was lined up as individual
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Men right because Jesus had to be fully men everything. That's man
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Jesus had to be man, so just looking at John and Jesus you probably wouldn't see too much of a difference
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But John fails in comparison to Jesus who he is What's obvious what's being made obvious in the text is that the superiority of Jesus is over all all creation
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Not just John Yes, John, but not just John and that this is the overarching idea of our theme and our proposition
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Jesus speaking of John says this in Matthew chapter 11 verse 11 Truly I say to you speaking to his disciples
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Among those born of women there has arisen there has not arisen anyone greater than John the
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Baptist Yet The one who was least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he
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The greatest man born of natural birth understood his position
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Where he stood next to Christ Ladies and gentlemen that was that message last week so too
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Should you and I the greatest man born among women knew he knew where he stood
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That's been his testimony he knew where he stood and so should you and I The least in the kingdom of heaven is not speaking about a natural birth, but it's speaking about Spiritual birth spiritual birth is when
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God gives a person faith to believe right we walk through that during the conversation that that Jesus and Nicodemus had
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Jesus tells Nicodemus unless a man is born again He cannot see or with his eyes or enter in with his feet the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven
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And so right here it talks about the kingdom of heaven this is talking about spiritual birth John Was not what you would call
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Regenerated in the same sense that we were John knew he believed in Jesus in the world right
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John was born Knowing he was a prophet. He was sent by God. He was a Sent by God with a message.
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He was a road worker. He was sent to prepare the way for Jesus You and I we're born
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God haters with our fist in the air saying this is my life, and I will do what I want
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To the moment we hear the message of the gospel and God Transforms our heart right when he puts his spirit in us sprinkles us with clean water
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Removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh that and then he puts his spirit in us that obeys him
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Until that happened we're born God haters We don't want anything to do with the spiritual life
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Jesus says those Who are in the kingdom those that that has happened to you are greater than John The least of them are greater than John Because as John had a measure of the spirit
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John was not indwelled with the Spirit of God like you and I are today because of the the The Spirit of God has left that temple right the the curtain was rent the spirit the kind of glory had left the temple
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It has no longer Tabernacling and in tents and temples, but it tabernacles it makes its seal upon men
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Those that believe those who are in Christ that spirit that once Tabernacled in a tent and tabernacled in the temple of the
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Holy of Holies now Tabernacles in you it's different than what was experienced in the old covenants
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It's something new it's something better something greater and Jesus is saying although John is the greatest born among men born among women of natural birth
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Those that have been born again is greater in our outline
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We are going to see some different ways that Jesus is superior to John John was the best man
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Jesus is the bridegroom John was from the earth Jesus is from heaven John was sent with a message
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Jesus is the message so point number one John was the best man
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Jesus is the bridegroom point number two John was from the earth that Jesus is from heaven point number three
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John was sent with a message Jesus is the message as we transition last week
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This was our conclusion, right? I made a statement that when it comes to preaching the idea that you want to Preacher to enter into a pulpit should have three things on his mind.
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He is to tell the people What he's going to say he is to say what he told the people he's going to say and at the end
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He is to remind them of what he said And that's what
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I want to transition through to what we talked about last week that through the commotion John knew his position and he used an allegory of a wedding to show where he stood in Ministry right it was to sum up last week's message.
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That's what it was about So point number one John was the best man
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Jesus is The bridegroom so this is taken from verses 29 through 30 and we kind of looked at it last week before we read that I want to first I Want to first view the context to show the allegory and how the allegory came about So the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of John were at a not and a non near Salem Because there was much water there, so they were gathered together both groups
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John's disciples Jesus's disciples are baptizing They were baptizing in this particular
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Place with a body of water because there was much water in order to be Properly baptized there had to be a big body of water, so we don't have a big body of water
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We have a small area where you can put a lot of water in right? So you can put enough water in here in this
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Trough that we have to to baptize someone They were in a big body area to where both groups could gather together and both perform the act of baptism
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Baptism is a the word baptism is a transliteration of the Greek word
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Baptismo Which means to immerse or to dip and it can also mean to wash depending on the context
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So if you are washing dishes the whole dish is getting wet you can say that's another form of baptism
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We see that in the Jewish culture as they would wash their pots the text says that they the pots were being
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Baptismo and In order to be baptized in order to baptize someone you needed a large body like we just watched it
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You need something large to dip the person into so Jesus so we have
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Jesus and his disciples So Jesus's disciples John's disciples were all
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Baptizing in the same body of water for that one particular purpose because there was a lot of water
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And I and I was poking fun last week. I said those some Presbyterians here. I'd wink at him Picking on my ex -Presbyterian friends but but this is one of those the central text that Baptists hold to that that we have to Dip the person in because the baptism was a reminder of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Though at this time this is not what was being
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Proclaimed especially among John John baptized with water for repentance
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And I pointed out last week that repentance for the Jews if they'd done something wrong They had a sacrificial system that they could go and make sacrifices make offerings
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Whether it be a fragrant offering or something. That was something that they could do in order to to In line with their repentance that was
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Traditional John comes and he's baptizing Jews And he's saying that they are unclean that they need it to be clean
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And so it was a Debate over purification verse 24 tells us that John had not yet been thrown into prison
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So this indicates that John's going to be thrown into prison, right? So later on in John's ministry
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He was arrested and thrown into prison because he confronts the sexual sins of the King of Israel King Herod at this time took his brother's
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Philip wife to be his wife John confronts him and tells him that it is not lawful for him to do so and Ultimately John is thrown into prison and he is killed for calling out the king on his sexual sins
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This geopolitical land of Israel were under the law of God. God's law was the standard
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And John was calling this man to repentance but before this took place in our section of Scripture Jesus and John their ministry is
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Overlapping and I mentioned last week that it might have been anywhere from six months to a year that the two ministries overlapped and both were
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Baptizing and from the reading the scriptures so like as we've been going through here and as you and And if you in your own quiet time when you open up the
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Bible when you read through the gospel there seems to be There seems to always be a gathering so if they're doing anything in public right whether they're teaching
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Baptizing no matter what it was whatever they were doing they seem to have a multitude of people that were gathered together to hear them to follow them whether if they were
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Being sent by the Pharisees to spy out or whether people were curious or whether people Were followers of them, but every time
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John or Jesus one would do something They would have a multitude of people following and this is where the debate is introduced in verse 25 verse 25 says therefore
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There arose a debate between John's disciples and the Jews about purification so John particularly for some reason when he points out when he uses the word
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Jew or Jews He's using it in a negative sense, right? He's not too happy with the
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Jews of his time And so he whenever I speaking of it, he just uses he just throws out the word
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Jew Some of the the scripture writers will say Hebrews or but but but but John uses the word
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Jew and he's using it in a negative sense, so When you're when you're reading this and he throws out that word just understand that this is him, of course
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So this book is written to to to Greeks that have been Hellenized right there the
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Hellenistic Jews that these Jews that have grown up under the Greek culture and he's explaining to them that the
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Jews that who Jesus came to who saw this message who who heard the message that they
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Rejected Jesus and it's because of this rejection He's now writing and just speaking to them in a negative speaking about the
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Jews in the negative sense Just calling them a Jew or just calling them Jews So just understand that as we're going through this you'll hear that word over and over and over again
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And it's in it and it's John not necessarily Speaking good about them and the debate was over purification.
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It was and it was their idea that they did not understand John's baptism right because they had the sacrificial system.
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So since they had the sacrificial system They did not understand his baptism and it was over purification
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So both Jews held to the baptism baptism of purification So every time a
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Jew would enter into someone's house, there would be a bucket of water for their feet to be washed
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This was to purify them before they eat. They would wash their hands. This was to purify them
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But to take a Jew Who was under the law who was not considered a sinner and to dump him completely under the water
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They did not understand and how this was an act of purification Because they didn't see themselves as sinners because they had the sacrificial system
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And John is telling them that your sacrificial system is no good John God detests your system go back and you read
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Isaiah chapter 1. He is done with it He's through with it. He can't even look upon the offering any longer
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They have turned it into something that it shouldn't have been and John is baptizing in the sense that he is
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He's telling them that you're not pure. You're not clean You need to repent and his baptism of purification was a symbol of that verse 26 and They came to John and said to him rabbi
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He who was with you beyond the Jordan to whom you have borne witness Behold, he is baptizing and all are coming to him right here.
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They're trying to Make John jealous John before Jesus came you had all these people coming and they were coming to you and they were being baptized now
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You have all these people coming and only some are coming to you Most of them are going to Jesus the one that you bore witness about so they're trying to make him jealous in the commotion of Them trying to make them jealous
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Jesus knew remember he knew his position he knew where he stood in His ministry he knew that he wasn't the
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Christ he knew that that he was only a road worker He knew that he was someone that was preparing the way and Jesus is here and he's trying to fade into the background
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But yet these Jews were trying to make Jesus jealous Verse 27 has
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Jesus's reply to them John answered and said a man can own can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven
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Again by this statement, he's recognizing that all he's been given whether it's plenty or whether it's little is given to him by God and John is showing how thankful he is
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Whether it's plenty or whether it's little That he is thankful for what
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God has given him recognizing that everything that he has it's by God's hands So begins the allegory verse 29 through 30
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Verse 29 he who has the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because Of the bridegroom's voice
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So this joy of mine has been made full he must increase
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But I must decrease so our Our theme last week was the humility of Jesus I made a statement that when it comes to ministry every minister should be one that that's humble we should be one that's ready to to back away, which
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I gave an analogy of when someone is Bearing witness to Jesus or when someone
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Sunday school today. We talked about witnessing preaching the gospel and that how this
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This can be looked at like if you're going downtown and you see someone's, you know, just standing outside and they're looking up in the sky
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And they're not saying anything. They're just standing there looking and and Paul washer speaks about this
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He says and as the people walk by and they see this weird guys Standing there looking up that eventually they they look up to see what he's looking at Right, and that's how
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John's ministry was his humility He had all these great cloud crowds of people coming to him.
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But his his his his His message was that someone else is coming.
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Stop looking at me I baptized with water, but someone else is coming and his sandals.
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I am not worthy to untie He was a man looking up and as you look at him, his message was pointing you to something greater
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That's what true humility is in ministry So many ministries fell because you have some charismatic man who wants the attention of everyone who walks in And that's not what
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John was John was not that kind of a man John was a man in his ministry that was pointing to a greater man a greater ministry
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And ladies and gentlemen as as servants of God and as ministers of God, that's how our life should be
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We should not want the attention. We should want the attention long enough for us to point the attention to who is greater
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That's Jesus Christ and that's what John is doing and he explains that in this allegory again, we looked at this last week and we noticed that John was the best man and Jesus was the groom
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As concerning a wedding a wedding is not focused on the best man or the bridesmaid a wedding is focused on the bride and groom
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John the friend of the bridegroom could Could be seen today as a modern -day best man, right?
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so that's kind of the Conclusion that I stepped into and last week that that it says that he is the best friend
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Modern -day this could be seen as a best man Jesus is the bridegroom and those who are coming to Jesus to be baptized in The text seems to be speaking about the bride
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So Jesus is superior to John concerning the bride as a bridegroom is superior over the best man concerning his bride
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And that's what John is saying. Listen, I'm just the best man I'm the best man
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Jesus is the bridegroom these people that you see gathering to go to him.
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That's his bride They're supposed to go to him His bride is not committing fornication and adultery by coming to me
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They're going to their bridegroom Point number two He is from the earth.
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Jesus is from heaven. We see this in verses 31 through 32. Let's just read 31 first Verse 31 he who comes from above is above all
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He who comes from the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth.
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He who comes from heaven is above all The Greek word here for earth is get
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Which means earth? More specifically it's talking about dirt dust the ground
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So I believe when it comes to the context Jesus is pointing how different he is than Jesus So again, if you were to look at both of them in the physical form
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Like if we could go back and see both of them You probably wouldn't be able to see too much of a difference, right?
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Jesus had to be as much man as John was a man But John is pointing out that he is from the earth and that Jesus comes from above John had an earthly mother and father.
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He was conceived by his mother and father Therefore he was born and he was born under the curse of Adam meaning out of the ground
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Dust he's from the earth Adam is the man of dust we see that in Genesis chapter 3 19 where it says
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God speaking to Adam He says for you are dust and to the dust you shall return.
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This is being after the curse John is merely pointing out how human he is.
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I am a human But Christ is divine. I am
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NOT divine. I am NOT the Christ Again, Matthew 11 11
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Jesus speaking of John says Truly I say to you among those born of women speaking of his natural birth
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There is a rise in anyone greater than John the Baptist Jesus is superior to John because he is not from the earth, but he's from heaven
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Right. I'm not superior to anyone in here. We're both from the earth But you have someone that's on the earth who is not from the earth who is from heaven
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He is superior. That's John's point and purpose Now in case you think that I just like talking about the incarnation too much
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I want you to see that this is just how Scripture speaks This is what Scripture says.
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This is Scripture's declaration John is speaking of Jesus and he says he comes from above in heaven outside of time
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Eternity paradise like name something that he is not from here
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He has entered into time. He hasn't exited heaven.
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He has He has went from eternity Into to time.
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He's no longer in paradise. He's with us That's what John is saying that the creator of everything entered into time the the finite took on I mean the infinite took on finite
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That's the point John is making He's saying that God entered into time
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He who was from he who is a from above enters into time that's been the message so far throughout this gospel
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That's what this gospel has been Expressive over and over again. We first see it in verse 1 of chapter 1 verse 1 of chapter 1 in the beginning was the word and The word was with God and the word was
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God the Greek here is ton logos in prostant Theos ton
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Theos in Time let's give me say again ton logos in prostant
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Theos ton Theos in ton logos Which is the word was with God God was the word and then we see in verse 10
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Speaking of the word he was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him verse 14 and the word which is the logos
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Became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory glory as of the only begotten from the
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Father full of grace and truth And we it's also seen in chapter 3 verse 13
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Jesus speaking to Nicodemus He says no one has ascended into heaven
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But he who descended from heaven the Son of Man speaking about him entering into time
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That the logos was with Theos and Theos was logos and The logos took on flesh.
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He has entered into time In verse 16 says for God so loved the world that he gave he gave to us
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His only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish But have eternal life verse 17 for God did not sin
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So Jesus was sent to us from heaven He did not send his son into the world to judge the world
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Remember we looked at that last week when it talks about the light came into that the judgment that was on the world was the light
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The judgment is that light has come into the earth and we see that Jesus is the light he didn't come to judge
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He is the judgment and if you do not believe in him, you are going to perish you are going to be destroyed first physically and then spiritually and In the the coming judgment both body and soul will be thrown into hell
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So he who was with God Who was God who was sent by God who took on flesh is superior over all flesh?
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Why because he is from above? Jesus is from above verse 31 again, and we'll read to verse 33
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He who comes from above is above all He who is on the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth
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He who comes from heaven is above all what he has seen and heard of He bears witness and no one receives his witness
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He who receives his witness has set his seal to this that God is true
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Jesus is not from the earth He is from above and he comes with a message
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He comes to reveal to us the message We also see this in chapter 1 again verse
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Verse 18, right? You had a group of Jews who were who were followers of the
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God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Verse 18 says that no one has ever seen
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God at any time The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the
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Father speaking of Jesus He has explained him Jesus came with the message to explain to us
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God Stay in chapter 1 look at verse 11 and 12.
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He came to his own and Those who were his own did not receive him
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But as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God Even to those who believed in his name
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The Jewish people at this time were looking for their Messiah Their Messiah came and because he did not fit their bill of what the
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Messiah should look like They rejected him he was just like every other man right appearance wise
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He came to his own and by the majority was rejected those who received him were given the right to become children of God So if I could restate
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What John 3 33 is saying? It's this to those who received
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Jesus who received his witness became children of God and Has set their seal to this that God is true
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My wife earlier in Sunday school spoke about a signet ring And what a signet ring was it can be a family crest
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But at this time when you had one made it wasn't like made manufactured They were made by hands and no two could be made alike
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And so you had a certain seal that was just for your family. It was signet.
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It was it was particularly for your family or For your kingdom and again, they the servants we mentioned this earlier would be given this that this this this this ring and when
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I would go with a message they would Stamp that seal in that this message comes from this family.
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This message comes from this King This is telling us that those who have who are in Christ who are children of God We have set our seal to this and that is
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God is true that God has given us the signet ring when we speak if you could say
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And when we go out and proclaim truth, we have this ring of truth the signet
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And our statement should be that God is true The question is what does it mean that God is true?
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And I think it's fine if we just grab some low -hanging fruit, right? To say that a person who receives the witness of Jesus goes from Knowing there's a
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God To knowing God personally, right? Everyone knows there's a God right Romans 1
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Everyone knows there's a God but not everyone knows him personally and so that would be the
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The truth that we are proclaiming, you know There's a
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God right creation declares the glory of God, you know There's a God and the person that receives this truth
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Goes from knowing to knowing there is to knowing him personally So as we transition it is one thing to know someone to know of someone
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It's quite different to know someone right
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To know someone is to know of someone is to hear stories about them To know someone personally is to experience life with them that when
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I die that when you die Right, and we're going to they shouldn't be able to tell our story without talking about God without mentioning
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God All right. God should be so much a part of your life that when people think of you they think of God That's how our relationship with Jesus is supposed to be like when people talk about me
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They're not gonna be able to talk about me without speaking of my family my wife and kids Right the rice family how much more
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God I can remember growing up me and my brother we were so tight and You didn't call you didn't say
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Jeff or you didn't say Peewee You said Jeff and Peewee or Peewee and Jeff like you didn't say just one name there were two names mentioned or if you would say yeah, you know that Jeff Rice never like Jeff Peewee Right, but you didn't growing up you didn't mention me without mentioning him and you didn't mention him without mentioning me
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Right, we had relationship together. We lived life together
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How much more ladies and gentlemen should it be with me and God? How much more?
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to know of someone Versus to experience life with them. Ladies and gentlemen,
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I don't want my story to be told without you being in it Right. We are experiencing life in the
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Christian relationship together. I Am NOT a man under a tree with a
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Bible proclaiming truth to myself We are in this
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Relationship together. We are called to be the body of Christ. What is a hand without an arm?
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What is an arm without a shoulder? What is a mind without a heart?
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We're to be this together and together. We are to be worshiping God and growing in our holiness together
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Living out this experience together, which is why we gather here together on the
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Lord's Day There is no growing in holiness in scripture by yourself
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It's together You don't take the Lord's Supper by yourself, we do it together.
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I don't sit up and Remember earlier I was talking about preaching the gospel in the shower to myself But that's not what
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But I don't sit under the word by myself to grow to learn yes but God uses the corporate gathering for us of ourselves to grow us in holiness that we gather together for the teachings of the
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Apostles to break bread to Fellowship and to pray to sing psalms hymns and spiritual songs
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That's what God uses. This is how we are experiencing one another and also
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God what does Revelation say that Christ walks among the lampstand?
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Chapter 1 of Revelation the last verse says the lampstand is the churches But he's a gentleman as we're right here right now having underneath the
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Word of God Christ is walking among us Because we are a lampstand.
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We are the church And as we're experiencing life together with one another we're experiencing this in his presence we have been indwelled with the
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Holy Spirit of God the Shekinah of glory and That no one should be able to tell my story without you being mentioned
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Without Christ being mentioned We are the body of Christ point number three
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John sent John was sent with a message Jesus is the message this is taken from verses 34 to 36
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John's message so far has been this Jesus is the Christ Jesus is the
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Lamb of God Jesus is the bridegroom Jesus is from above Look at verse 34 for he
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Excuse me for he whom God has sent speaks
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The words of God for he gives it For he gives the Spirit without measure first notice again that Jesus is sent
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Jesus is sent to us from the Father, but this is speaking about the incarnation, but he also speaks
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For God speaking about Jesus being the prophet that we that John was asked was he the prophet
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John said no I'm not the prophet and we see this in Hebrews the
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Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 & 2 God having spoken Long long ago to our fathers and the prophets in many
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Portions and in many ways in these last days Spoke to us in his son whom he appointed the heir of all things and through whom he made the worlds
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Telling us that Jesus is the prophet Jesus is who he is speaking through and then you see in Acts chapter 3
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Acts chapter 3 verse 22 Again remember they asked they asked
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They asked John the Baptist were you the prophet the prophet coming from Deuteronomy 18 Moses God speaking to Moses Moses relating the message to the people that someone was going to come that was going to be from among them and He was going to be a prophet like unto
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Moses and they are to listen to him Peter speaking in Acts chapter 3 verse 22
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Acts chapter 3 verse 22 It says Moses said
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The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers to him
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You shall listen to everything. He says to you here.
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We see that Jesus is superior to Moses as well as to John Because he gives the spirit without measure.
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It's kind of like the the passing of the baton, right? We see that taking place with the new covenant
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You know, they they go from listening to Moses to listening to Jesus The law came through Moses grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ There's this passing of the baton takes place in the new covenant and Moses says when he comes
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Listen to him Peter says he has came Let us listen to him and why should we do so because he gives the spirit without measure again, go back to to our gospel verse 35
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For the father loves the son and has given all things Into his hand everything has been given into the hands of Jesus Christ And we should listen to him chapter 5 verse 20 and 21.
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This is Jesus speaking. He's he's having this this conversation
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I Really look forward You know months ahead when we're able to break through this is a there's a lot to be said here
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But I just want to read the text right now verse 20 for the father loves the son and it shows him all things that he himself is doing and The father will show him greater works than these
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So that you will marvel For just as the father raises the dead and gives life even so the son also
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Gives life to whom he wishes So the question is is how does the son give life?
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the answer is He gives the spirit without measure
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He gives the spirit without measure Moses could not give the spirit without measure only Christ could give the spirit
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Without measure look at chapter 6 verse 63 chapter 6 verse 63
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Jesus speaking the spirit is the one who gives life the flesh profits nothing the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life and the the overall verse that covers this gospel is
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John 20 verse 31 Says this but these things this book talking about this book
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But these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ the Son of God and that by Believing you may have life in his name
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So, how do you receive the spirit according to Galatians chapter 3 it's by hearing and faith that as Jesus is speaking as this gospel message is being speaking and You're being and you're born again.
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You're given faith to believe that that you are being filled transformed with the
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Holy Spirit of God And that's how life enters into us
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That's how life and salvation Enters into us because life and salvation is in the hand of Jesus and that's because life and salvation is in the hand of the
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Father Right and he gives it to whomever he wishes verse 36
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This will go real quick in verse 36.
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It says he who believes in the Son has Eternal life again.
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It says that present tense ongoing He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the
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Son Listen, he who does not obey the
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Son will not see life But the wrath of God abides on him.
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So the Greek word here for believe is pistis pistis it means to have faith in upon or Respect to a person or a thing by implications.
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It's to entrust especially when it comes to spiritual Though your well -being to Christ it means to commit to to put one's trust with to put one's trust with to believe to commit unto to commit to one and trust to be committed to one to be committed into one unto one to To be committed unto one try to say that real fast to be put in trust with Kind of like you're with you're being put in trust with something or to be committed to one in trust
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Now I say all that definition So that you will understand that believe in pistis is more than an intellectual knowledge.
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It's more than having an intellectual truth Now, I don't know if they still have these things
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But they used to have these old these bus trolleys and then as they would ride by you were able to They had like little pogrips that you could grab on to and a little step up for you to get onto the bus
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So they never would stop you would just you know, you'd be walking and you just grab on to it and ride the bus
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This is what pistis is like if I could give you some kind of an analogy for it, right?
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It's that when you believe you're taken from one position and you're put in a
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Motion so you you're taken from where you are and you are something else. That's the idea of pistis like it's not just an intellectual knowledge of something
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But it's something that happens and when it happens you go from being in one place to a different place a different position
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So when he says that those who believe that's what this is speaking of It's it's just like grabbing that bus trolley
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You hold out your hand you grab it and you go from one position and now you're on the bus It takes you somewhere totally different The Greek word for does not obey is a potato not a potato a potato
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I Had trouble with that one a potato which means to refuse or to withhold belief
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You said you're refusing to grab the trolley And you could translate this verse like if I was to translate this verse
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I would probably render it this way the one committed to the Sun has eternal life
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But whoever refuses or withholds belief in the Sun will not see life
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But faces the wrath of God John the
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Baptist is telling the Jews as well as you and I to believe to pistis to reach out and grab not to withhold our belief and The one who speaks for God and the true prophet
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Jesus is greater than John because He must increase
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Because he is the Christ because he is the bridegroom Because he is from above because he is the prophet like unto
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Moses because he is the Son of God because he speaks for God Because he gives the spirit without measure because the father has given all things into his hands
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Because we are to commit to him because in him he took the wrath of God in our place because next to Christ John failed in comparison
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Ladies and gentlemen next to Christ you failed in comparison. I gave this analogy before just imagine if you were at a golf
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Course place like this little indoor golf places that they have these video screens And you can walk up with your your golf club and you can you know, you can swing
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I'm not a golfer, but you could swing the club and what they do is they would video your swing and they would put someone like Tiger Woods or someone that's a great golfer besides side -by -side and you could see your swing in comparison to a great golfer and You could see how
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But you fail in comparison, right? It's kind of embarrassing right if he was to do that to me or or imagine having you know in basketball
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You know someone throwing a free throw versus you throwing a free throw and you can see all that you're doing right and what they're
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Doing all that you're doing wrong and what they're doing, right? Ladies and gentlemen, you you there is no comparison when you put my life to Christ's life like I fell miserably
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We might have some things in common like structural wise because he was a man in all ways but Jesus Christ was perfect He kept the law.
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He kept the law that condemns the whole world that puts the whole world under the wrath of God Jesus kept the law
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Because he he was from heaven He lived a perfect life. He died a criminal's death.
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He came forth from the grave proving that he was God and He is calling all men everywhere to commit to pistis
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To believe in him to grab hold so he can take you from where you are to where you need to be
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And when you believe in him again He from where you are to where you need to be will be you being dead and your trespasses and sins to being alive in Christ That's where the trolley takes you and if you have not committed your life to him to to Jesus I pray that that this day he will it was like the verse that I translate it
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The one who committed the one committed to the Son has eternal life But whoever refuses or withholds belief in him will not see life
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But faces the wrath of God and God has given us grace to stay because he sent his son
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Jesus Christ to be with him Jesus Christ and what he calls us to do is to pistis to believe to take hold and He'll do the rest
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We believe as a reformed church that God gives you grace to believe he grants to you faith But he also grants to you repentance.
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How does he do that? I Don't know Right. I don't have all the answers
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What I do know is is everything that I do good comes from God All right, my believing my turning from sin is given to me because he loves me he has sent his son
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Yeah, and I have pistis put my faith in him and he has taken me from where I was to where I am
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I pray this day you will do the same If you have any questions, I'm available as well as pastor cow.
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Let's pray father. Lord. We love you and we thank you
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What we just asked for your grace and for mercy that you will be upon us this day And what
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I just pray that if there's someone here that does not know you that you will grant them faith to believe that they would reach out and take hold of Jesus Christ and Lord, we know that once they do that they will not let go for you will not let us go
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We love you and Lord right now as we As we are about to partake in this
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Lord supper in your supper Well, we pray to God that or that you will help us to examine ourselves
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But this is such a serious matter as Calvin says that the the supper is not for the perfect But it's for the broken, but we live in a world where people don't see themselves as broken
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Will show us our brokenness show us our need for Christ We pray in his name.