Eulogy For God? (part 2) - [Luke 1:67-80]

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Systematic Theology (part 3) - Doctrine Of God

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And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty -four elders fell down before the
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Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.
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For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our
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God, and they shall reign on earth. And I looked, and around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
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Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
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And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the sea, under the earth rather, and in the sea and all that is in them saying,
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To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.
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And the four living creatures said, Amen, and the elders fell down in worship. Of course, you know that passage is heavenly worship in Revelation chapter five.
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And this morning, I'd like to ask a question as we begin our message. It's simply this.
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Should worship on earth, should praise on this planet, resemble the praise that's already going on in heaven?
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In other words, to whom they worship in heaven, what is our worship about here?
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We said last week, everybody praises something or someone. And of course, we know that praise is to be to the triune
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God. And this morning, if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter one, I want to reinforce that the model of Zachariah praising
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God for the Son, the Lord Jesus, is the exact right way to praise because the praise that's in heaven now, the praise that was in heaven in the past, the praise that's in heaven in the future, if there can be such a thing, speaking of eternal matters, is all about Jesus.
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Praise has an object, and it is the risen Savior. You say, that doesn't sound very
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Trinitarian to me. Well, every time I mention the Son, of course, you should be thinking, the Father sent that Son.
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And you should be thinking, the Spirit of God, as we read in Acts chapter 10 today, anointed the Lord Jesus, and the
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Spirit of God applied the benefits of the sent Jesus to me. And so, it is my reminder this morning by way of pastoral exhortation in Luke chapter one, that your praise on earth should reflect what's going on in heaven.
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And we might join with the choir, singing praises to the one who is worthy, as we think about praise on earth.
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Well, we come to the Gospel of Jesus according to Luke, and we are hopefully going to finish chapter one today.
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Eighty verses in chapter one. That's a long chapter. Can you think of any other chapter in the
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New Testament that has as many verses? And this is message number, how many do you think? Fifth message in Luke one, 10th, 15th.
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Well, all three of those are wrong. It's number 11. So, we're about seven verses in a shot, not too bad.
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As we enter into this passage in Luke, that has a big theme. Here's the theme of Luke, Luke 19, that Jesus comes to seek and save the lost.
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So, we read everything through that theme, and that purpose statement. We also realize that Luke is a physician, and he's trying to write a very detailed account so that this man named
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Theophilus, which means lover of God, and of course, every other person who would be a lover of God, or should be a lover of God, would also read
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Luke and just think, you know, there's exact things here. This is not just about some theological issue, although Jesus is important when it comes to theology, but there's a historical background to this.
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So, history, theology, in a Christ -centered way. And of course, in chapter one, what do we see?
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We see kind of a parallel account of two children and their parents. There's John the
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Baptist, and we read about his parents and his supernatural birth. Remember, Zechariah and his wife
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Elizabeth were too old to have a child, and Gabriel shows up and says, you're going to have a son, and Zechariah doubts
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Gabriel, who's sent by God, and he's chastened, not able to speak for nine months. And then there's another, even more supernatural birth, because this is not just a person who's older that can have a child, but a person named
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Mary who's a virgin. And so the Spirit of God overshadows Mary, and now
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Jesus is conceived, and more important than a virgin birth, we're going to have a virgin conception.
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So we see John the Baptist and Jesus going down these similar tracks, because you can't separate the two.
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Because John the Baptist is the forerunner, Jesus is on his way, and Jesus comes after John the
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Baptist. And it's prophesied even in the Old Testament. And by the way, many, many times people say, well,
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Daniel was brave, let's be brave, dare to be a Daniel. Abraham, he trusted, let's trust too.
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And we could probably do some of those things, dare to be an Abraham. Doesn't sound as good as dare to be a
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Daniel, does it? But we shouldn't do that with Bible characters, except for maybe one exception for today.
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How about John the Baptist? Dare to be a John the Baptist. Why? Because John the Baptist's whole ministry was to point to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. So today we're going to look at Zechariah's praise about the
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Lord Jesus and his forerunner that really echoes praise throughout all eternity.
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So we'll be looking at chapter 1, verses 67 through verse 80, and everything about this stems from the
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Spirit of God, the Spirit of God filling Zechariah, a Spirit -filled message.
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So really we have God's word coming through Zechariah, and he prophesies and says, and everything is revolved around that first word in verse 68.
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And that word is praise, or blessed, or eulogy.
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It just means to speak well of. So everything in this section is speaking well of God and praising
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Him and talking about who He is, what He's done, what He will do, to be thankful for that, it is praise to God.
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Mary's Magnificat, it was pretty much driven by 1 Samuel, Hannah's prayer, and some of the
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Psalms. Here we're going to see lots of Old Testament prophets coming through Zechariah's prophecy.
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And just to remind you one last time, some of these things are future, but they're put in past tense because they're as good as done.
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And just like when God predestines us, He calls us, He justifies us, and those He's justified, He also will what?
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Glorify, except the text says He also glorified because some things in the Bible are so certain that past tense is used.
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And if you'd like to really have a grammatical, exegetical lesson, that's called a prophetic heiress.
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And that just gives you warmth. The prophetic heiress. It's a prophecy of something that's going to be done.
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And really, this breaks out into two sentences, two points, verses 68 through 75 is sentence one, praising the
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Father for the Son and His work, and then verses 76 through 79, praising
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God for giving Him His Son, Zechariah's Son, John the Baptist. And then there's a
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PS. So if you want an outline today, super simple. Praise for the Son, praise for the Son's forerunner, and a little
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PS there. So in review, let's go back to verses 68 through 75.
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We were looking at four reasons to praise God for the Son and His work.
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And the first one was found in verse 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for He has visited
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His people. We'll pick up the redeemed on the next point. Remember what we talked about last week, dear beloved?
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The visitation. As you show up for something. And of course, the ultimate visitation is the
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Son of the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son, co -equal with the Father, and He assumes human flesh.
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The Word of God became flesh and He visits the world. He comes to help.
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Of course, the text says He's visited and He's not been born yet, but He in fact will.
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And God comes in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to visit, to help, to look upon.
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He sees there's a problem and now He's going to show up. Remember, this is important. While we have sinned,
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God never owes us mercy. God never owes us grace. God doesn't owe us forgiveness. He owes us justice and judgment.
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And so God could come and visit with judgment. He could just give judgment from on high.
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But the thing about God and His character and His nature, yes, He is just. Yes, He is holy, but He is also good.
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And here, this is the nature of God. It's just like God to rescue and He has to initiate.
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We don't say we're going to force Him to visit or He owes us a visit or it would be really nice, but we're not sure.
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Salvation, as you know, is all of God. We respond with faith, but that doesn't even save because faith is a gift.
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And you see everything about the language of Zechariah inspired by the Spirit of God puts the focus on who
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God is so then He gets the glory. He visited.
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And of course, remember last week I talked about that implies something, that implies He existed before. Same with the word sent.
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Same with the word manifest. Second Timothy 1, and now which has been manifested through the appearing of our
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Savior Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
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Jesus appears, not all of a sudden. He doesn't begin. Remember, Jesus's divine nature doesn't begin at the incarnation.
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And here God comes to visit. And what does He do?
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The second reason why He could praise the Lord is not just He'd come in the incarnation and visit, but also
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He'd redeem His people, to redeem His people. And you see it right there in verse 68.
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What's the purpose of the incarnation? Just to come down on earth and say hello and visit for a while?
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No, He visits and He comes to redeem, to redeem His people. And when you hear the word redemption, immediately you begin to think about how
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Israel's enslaved. That's a key word for redemption. Slavery, Israel's enslaved to a country called
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Egypt and God redeems them. And that's the physical template, the temporal template for spiritual salvation.
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So all of us, because of our own choices, Adam's sin, Satan's enslavement, we're bound and enslaved to sin.
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We can't get out, we can't extricate ourselves, and so we need somebody to come and redeem us, to rescue us.
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So when you think of redemption, you think of two things. Slavery, and also, if you're gonna get a slave out and redeem them, it's going to cost you.
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You don't just say you're redeemed. Well, no, you go to the slave auction and you say, I will buy that slave with a price.
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And of course, that's called a what? What kind of price is that? You say exorbitant, yes, that's true.
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Lavish, that's true. It's called a ransom price. You pay the ransom price. And so Jesus, of course, has ransomed us by His own what?
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What's the cost of redemption? The cost of redemption is His own life.
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And so here we praise God, not just for the incarnation, but for redemption. Hell is real, sin is real, judgment is real.
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And we need to be redeemed. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, you're enslaved to sin. And one of the insidious things about sin is you probably don't even think you're enslaved.
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You think you're above it all. You think you can probably turn to God anytime you want. There'd be no reason to send the
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Lord Jesus to visit us and redeem us if we could get out of this on our own. And so this all points, if you're here as an unbeliever, to say,
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I need to be saved. I need to be saved from my sins. I don't want to pay for my sins. I'm enslaved and I need to get out.
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I've trespassed, I've sinned, I've committed iniquity. And so Jesus can do for you only what
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Jesus can do, and that is save sinners. Notice the passage again, and redeemed his people.
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It does not say he made redemption possible. As long as they do their part, I'll redeem.
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It doesn't say he made redemption kind of potential. As long as you do your part,
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I'll do mine. That's not how God works. God acts. This is not a transactional thing. If we do this, then
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God does that. No, God does all the work. Salvation is of the Lord. He gets all the praise. And if you have not read that book by John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied.
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How many people have read that book? Wow, to be a pastor of so many people who have read that book,
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I rejoice in that. Redemption accomplished and applied. He did the work.
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Is there something that Jesus forgot? Is something Jesus overlooked? Did he not fulfill all the law?
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No, Jesus redeemed us. Galatians 3, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having been a curse for us.
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Knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers, but with a precious blood, that's the ransom price, as a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
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And of course, we as Christians think, thank you, Lord, for redeeming us. Redeemed, redeemed, we sing with great joy.
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And we should also be singing, are you washed in the blood? Because redemption means we're enslaved, but to get out there has to be a price, and that's blood, the vicious death of Jesus Christ.
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All of your sins are forgiven. Did you know, dear Christian, when you get to heaven because of Jesus' great redemption,
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God is not going to show you one sin that you've ever committed. What if you had to go to heaven and like a lot of small sins were taken care of, but you had to still answer for some?
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I'm telling you, Christian, you are redeemed. You think, how can that be? How can
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God say I'll remember their sins no more in the new covenant? The answer has to be the Lord Jesus, because what we were due, wrath,
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Jesus accepted. He goes on praising
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God for the incarnation, for redemption, for fulfilled prophecy. I mean, how many times does someone have to prophesy wrongly before they're a false prophet?
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101 times? Seven times, 70 times? One time, you get one. If there's one prophecy in the
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Old Testament or new that doesn't come to pass, you can't trust God and neither can I, and we're wasting our time this morning.
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Here it says, in verse 69, he's raised up. See, it's all God's work. All the verbs are about what
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God has done, so He gets the praise. We are glad recipients of His grace. He raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant
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David as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, those men that spoke from God, from of old.
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And remember what I talked about last week, the horn of salvation? Somebody once said to me, if an animal's got horns, that's their business end.
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It's okay, I can remember that. What's the business end of a ram? It's horns, and so horns are for strength.
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Only time I've ever seen horns not do anything for strength is one of these things that pop up on your phone, and there's a little tiny toddler,
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I don't know, could barely stand, and there was a little goat that went over to the toddler and just bumped it like that with its head.
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The little goat didn't even have horns yet. Bumped the thing like that, and the kid just went down like a tire iron in a swimming pool.
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I mean, just down he went. But it was a friendly little tap. If we have enemies that are strong, then we're gonna need the horn of salvation.
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And this is just wonderful language. It's language that we can understand. Horns are strong, and Jesus is like a powerful, strong horn, right there.
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The horn of salvation, not of destruction. That will be later, but horn of salvation for us.
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In the house of His servant, and if you're Zechariah, you're part of the tribe of what? Levi.
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But He knows the Messiah comes from Judah, and He says right here through the servant, David.
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Psalm 148, let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted. His majesty is above earth and heaven.
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He has raised up a horn for His people. Praise for all His saints. Hear words like righteous branch and horn, and you think, okay,
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I have a powerful Savior. What if you had a weak Savior? By the way, just thinking about it big picture. What if your
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Savior was weak? What if your Savior couldn't help you? What if your
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Savior might not have enough power to get you through to the very end? What if you had a weak
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Savior? Who would want a weak Savior? Saviors by nature are strong. And you think, like children, when we sing those songs,
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I can remember singing them around the dinner table. I would read a passage or two of Scripture, chapter or two, and then
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I'd have the children, they'd all get up, pick their favorite songs, and around we'd go. And so the little two -year -old, it was basically
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Jesus Loves Me, the B -I -B -L -E. And the older ones, they'd pick something from the
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Psalter. Psalm. And I remember they loved to sing, What a
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Mighty God We Serve. Why do children love to sing What a Mighty God We Serve? I think part of the answer is because they can do all these motions.
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I don't know what the motions are. What is it? What a Mighty God We Serve? Heaven and earth before Him.
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Heaven and earth bowed down before Him. What's the song? Somebody help me. Well, you don't sing that here.
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All right. There's a song that children sing about being a mighty God. Because you need to be reminded.
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And I think one of the reasons why dads wrestle with children all the time is because it helps the children realize, my dad's strong.
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He protects me. I can trust him. There are other bad people out there, but my dad, he's invincible.
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He's powerful. He's strong. That's true. How much more here? We need to be reminded that Satan is a powerful foe.
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He's not an abstract thought. He's not some kind of yin -yang. He is under the feet of God Himself and Satan is not all powerful.
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Verse 71, you see the prophecies, what they do. It's not just temporal that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all those who hate us.
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This redemption is not just Canaanites and Amalekites. This is not just Joshua goes into the land and conquers people.
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Those are enemies, yes, of Israel. But we need a greater Joshua. We need the ultimate Joshua. Joshua meaning
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God saves. We need that kind of Joshua to take care of our worst enemies.
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And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed
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His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for Him.
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His rage we can endure, for lo, His doom is possible.
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No, His doom is sure. One little word shall fell Him. And so,
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Zechariah inspired by the Spirit of God begins to praise. If it would have been me, I probably would have praised
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God for a son. They're barren. They're older. And here, he does praise God for a son, but not his own son first.
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It's the Son of God. Oh, finally, a new Joshua. Verse 72, to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember
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His holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham to grant us. That mercy that we needed.
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We were in misery and we were pitiable and we needed to be rescued. That great oath given to Abraham.
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Genesis 22, by myself I have sworn declares the Lord because you have done this and have not withheld your son
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Abraham, your only son, I will therefore surely bless you and multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is in the seashore.
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What does it lead us to? Fourthly, praising God for the Messiah, His incarnation,
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His redemption for fulfilled prophecy, and now the ability to serve God. Do you see that? Do you see it? Yes, you do.
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In verses 74 and 75. That we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, not just temporal, but spiritual, might serve
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Him. Might serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all of our days.
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How many times did Moses have to go to Pharaoh and say, let my people go as God would speak through Moses.
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And why did He want them to be redeemed or to be no longer enslaved?
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I'll tell you, you know the language. Exodus 4, Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Moses, Thus says the
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Lord, Israel is My firstborn son. And I say to you, Pharaoh, let My Son go that He may serve
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Me. That's the idea. When you know you're saved and you're a
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Christian and all your sins are taken care of, guess what you can do now freely? You don't spend all your time rehashing, am
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I a Christian? Am I not a Christian? Is my faith great enough? What about Jesus? Did He do this? What about these enemies? I'm trying to walk by sight and not by faith.
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I don't understand this. If you're not certain of your salvation, if you're a thinking person, the number one thing you should be thinking about is
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I'm going to die one day and stand before God. Then what? That should be all -consuming. Sadly, the world is not a thinking world, so they rarely do that.
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But if they were thinking, that's what they should think. But what if everything is taken care of? What if your salvation is signed, sealed, and delivered?
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It's accomplished. It's done. It's as good as done. So now what do I do with my life? Instead of saying,
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I've got to scurry and figure out am I really saved or not, what would I do? Am I really out of bondage?
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How can I get myself out of bondage? Instead, what do we do as Christians?
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Now I get to serve the Lord. I serve without fear. I serve righteously and with holiness, and now
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I can serve. Write the two greatest commandments. Love God, love your neighbor. Why would we be trying to love our neighbors if we said to ourselves,
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I think when I die, I could be going to hell. I think maybe these prophecies about Jesus, it doesn't matter.
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I think maybe Joseph was the father sinfully, and Jesus wasn't perfect, and Jesus is not pure and holy and spotless and blameless.
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I'm not sure about all that. I mean, what kind of world would that be? Answer, we know what kind of world that was before we were
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Christians. Do we want to go back to that? Say, pastor, what's the point? Here's the point.
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When you know you're going to heaven when you die, you get to serve the Lord now. You get to serve the
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Lord now without fear. We've said many times here from the pulpit that it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
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God. Only if you're an unbeliever. Because that living
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God is now your Father if you're a Christian because of the work of the Son. There's a fear that honors the
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Father because He's so great, and He's so full of awesome glory that you say,
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I want to honor Him as a son or a daughter. When I grew up, if I did not say thank you,
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I pretty much got whacked. And so it became very easy for me to just say thank you.
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Thank you, thank you. The policeman pulls you over and you get a ticket. Thank you. Happy Father's Day.
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And the old lady says to you, and you say, you too. You're like, oh, wait. You just think, thank you.
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I don't know how many hymns say thank you, but when I do listen to a song and it says thank you,
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Jesus, I think that's exactly what's going on here. The mystery of the cross
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I cannot comprehend. The agonies of Calvary. You the perfect Holy One crushed
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Your Son who drank the bitter cup reserved for me. Your blood has washed away my sins,
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Jesus. Thank you. The Father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus, thank you.
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Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table, Jesus, thank you.
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By Your perfect sacrifice, I've been brought near. Your enemy, You've made Your friend.
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Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace, Your mercy and Your kindness, no, no end.
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Lover of my soul, I want to what? You probably want to say thank you, but that's wrong.
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Lover of my soul, I want to live for You. When You know You've been redeemed and that price is a ransom price called the death of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and now You don't have to worry about hell because heaven is sealed by the
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Spirit of God. Now you think, I want to live for You. That's the response, I want to live for You.
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Not because our works merit anything, they're fruits and evidences only.
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They're done by the Spirit of God in us and God accepts those. That's the first sentence.
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Now let's go to the second sentence. Verses 76 through 79. The first praise is praising the
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Messiah and what He's done. The second sentence now, the praise continues, but it's for the forerunner.
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It's for the one that goes before. And of course, if you had a son, your wife was barren and you were barren, you'd be praising
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God. For a son, that's true, but his particular purpose in life is also worthy of praise.
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Let me read verses 76 through 79. As Zechariah under the Spirit of God prophesies and praises, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the
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Most High. So you can tell we're already talking about John the Baptist because Jesus is the Most High. For you will go before the
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Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins.
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Because of the tender mercy of God, whereby the sun rise, you might have capital S there, speaking of the
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Lord Jesus, where the sun rise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace.
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John the Baptist is going to go before Jesus and proclaim essentially, get ready.
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The Messiah is coming. He is going before Jesus and essentially saying, and he gives good news of course, but it's heavy on law.
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This is what God requires. God is holy and therefore His law is holy. And we're to be holy.
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And our way to heaven is twofold. One, perfectly obey the law if it were possible.
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That's out because of Adam's sin and our own sin. Secondly, you've got to trust in one who perfectly obeyed the law.
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There's only two ways to get to heaven. And John the Baptist's ministry to these religious people, especially of the day, was shocking.
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John the Baptist's ministry today for Americans, for Westerners, for Easterners is shocking.
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It's about sin. It's about wrath. I mean, it's one of those things where when John the
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Baptist shows up, he is so shocking that you better cut his head off to silence the man. John comes along and he shocks people.
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In a world that's allergic to sin, he's talking about sin. A few years ago,
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I was riding my bicycle and I used to ride a lot and I'd get stung about every six months by some kind of wasp or bee.
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And you're riding your bicycle and it hits you here in the jersey and then drops down to your leg and stings you in the leg.
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And there's just nothing you can do about it. And so I was riding my bicycle, hadn't been stung for about a year, should have known that was a problem.
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And I was driving past Kimball's ice cream. And there was kind of a flash in my mind. You're all having a
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Kimball's supper, like 1900 calories and I'm burning calories on my bike.
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Just want you to all know. I mean, I was listening to... I was actually listening to Abner Chow teach through Amos, so I'm listening to Christian people.
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I'm thinking, you're eating your almond joy down there and I'm burning calories. And talk about shocking and jolting.
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In goes the wasp into my mouth. One, two, three. And then I spit it out.
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And I regret spitting it out because I just should have crushed it with my teeth to show who was boss. I pull over.
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I have an EpiPen, but I just thought I'll just have some Benadryl. And then your heart's already at 150 beats a minute.
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And you're like, okay, now that poison is already going to go through me and I'm kind of allergic to these things. I mean, it was shocking.
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You're like, you're living life and then it's the jolt. And all of a sudden, you're living your life. You're religious.
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And John the Baptist comes along and it's the shock of all shocks. It's like Vesuvius goes off and you're like, what do you mean?
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You mean I'm not just going to die and go straight to heaven? You mean all my religious things that I've done don't get me to heaven?
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You mean to tell me that my good outweighs my bad and that doesn't get me to heaven? Do you mean to tell me that God requires perfect, entire, exact, perpetual obedience?
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Is that what you're telling me? This is a shock. I can't do any self -salvation. I'm going to need someone else.
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And that is the purpose of John the Baptist. I'm not saying people in your life were ever
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John the Baptist, but like John the Baptist, there were people in your life who gave you the law of God so that you might know your sins and misery so you might say,
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I need a Savior. That was the purpose of John the Baptist. You need a
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Savior. Take a look at chapter 3. You can see it right there.
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I mean, if hell and judgment aren't that bad, salvation isn't that good. But if hell and judgment are horrific, salvation is wonderful and we praise
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God. Luke 3, verse 2, During the high priesthood of Ananias and Caiaphas, the
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Word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the
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Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
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Prepare the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled. Every mountain and hill shall be made low.
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And the crooked shall become straight. And rough places shall become level ways. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
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Pay attention, he's talking to spiritual people, religious people. He said, therefore, to the crowds who came out to be baptized by Him, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
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Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. Don't begin to say to yourself, we have Abraham as our father.
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For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
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Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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That's the proverbial wasp in the mouth of the false teachers, of the religious people, of those that said,
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I can get to heaven on my own. I'd like you to turn to one last passage before we're back into Luke, and that is
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Malachi chapter 4. It's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, axe. And just before Matthew is the book of Malachi.
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You can't understand John the Baptist unless you understand Malachi. And it's been 400 years since Malachi 4 has been prophesied.
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And Malachi 4 says something bad's coming, but there's going to be somebody to warn. It's the grace of God even to warn people.
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It's His goodness to warn. It's His mercy to warn. And Malachi chapter 4 will unlock for you forever
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John the Baptist and his ministry. And before I read verse 1, do you see it down in verse 5 of Malachi?
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Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the
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Lord comes. And he'll turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.
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Lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. So there's a prophecy.
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There's going to be a man named Elijah who's going to come. And he's going to warn because it's the goodness of God to warn.
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Now go back up to verse 1 of Malachi 4. This is the backdrop of John the Baptist. This is the backdrop of the son,
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John. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers will be stubble.
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The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, burning like an oven, now ablaze, says the
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Lord of armies, the Lord of strategies, the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
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What's happening? What's happening is there's going to be a judgment day one day. It's called the day of the
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Lord. And it's ultimately found in the day that Jesus comes back. 2
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Peter 3, the day of the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
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And so I say to you, are you ready for that? Are you safe and secure from all alarm? Are you trusting in the
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Lord Jesus? Are you ready? Burning, ablaze. Do you know how often in the
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Old Testament the end times are talked about with burning, fire kind of language?
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Therefore, the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among His stout warriors. And under His glory, a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.
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Are you ready? Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with His anger.
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In thick smoke, His lips are full of fury. And His tongue is like a devouring fire. Isaiah 30.
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Are you ready? People are like, well, universalism. Everybody just goes to heaven when they die.
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It doesn't matter what you believe. No. Zephaniah 1.
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Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of wrath of the Lord. In the fire of His jealousy, the earth shall be consumed.
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This day is coming. And John the Baptist shows up and says, I have to remind people, there's a judgment day.
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If you're going to reject the first coming of Jesus, the second coming, you can't reject. Behind them, flame blazes.
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Joel 2. Isaiah 13. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land of desolation and destroy its sinners from it.
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Dear Christian friend, you can remember who preached the Gospel to you and you might not have liked the law that exposed your need of the
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Gospel when you first heard it. I remember on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles when
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I said to a group of people coming home from church that I was a Christian. And that man looked at me in the front seat and said, how can you call yourself a
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Christian? My first response is I wanted to punch him. But I was driving and my bark is bigger than my bite.
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Or hook. The law exposes.
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The law shows. Judgment's coming.
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The King is coming. My grandfather was dying.
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I thought he was dying, but he got better and then died a short time after. And I went into his room.
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By the way, I know I've told the story, but I had my wife take Grandma Abendroth down to the cafeteria.
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And I was in Omaha at the hospital visiting. And I said, you take her in and I'm gonna talk to Grandpa.
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Grew up Lutheran, go to church every Sunday, not born again from what I knew. And I went into Grandpa and I said,
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Grandpa, I'm concerned about you. And I think you're gonna run off a cliff into eternity.
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And so what I'm gonna say now is gonna make you lose your breath, but it's better than you having to run off into eternity off a cliff.
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And I said, Grandpa, your Lutheran baptism can't save you. Your church attendance can't save you. You've been the best grandpa to me.
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That can't save you. You're a sinner like I'm a sinner. And you need to trust in the
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Lord Jesus. A person, not the baptism and everything else. Well, Grandma must've got wind of what was going on just intuitively.
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And she comes back and she starts screaming and yelling. The grandmother that raised me for many, many years.
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Mike, Mike, Mike. And then she started saying, nurse, nurse, nurse. It's like I do not want to know this information because we're good, we're fine.
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Quit preaching. How can you think he's not a Christian? We're good Lutherans and we're settled. But the law comes along like the wasp and it stings and it reminds you, listen,
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I have to be ready. I have to consider my ways. Every one of you that's not trusting in the
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Lord Jesus, you should be thinking judgment day's coming. I don't want to think about it. I don't think it's going to happen.
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It doesn't seem to happen for 2 ,000 years. It's coming. And John the Baptist in those days and the law of God today comes along and says, prepare, get ready, be careful.
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And for Christians, it proclaims this with the praise of Zachariah. I'm safe. I'm secure.
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I'm free. As Tim was talking about the song, I can rest. You're not going to rest when judgment day's coming unless you're covered by the righteous work of Christ.
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Verse two of Malachi 4, but for you who fear my name, it's a good synonym of belief.
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The Son of Righteousness, that sounds just like Zachariah. The sunrise shall visit us.
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Hear the Son of Righteousness, a term of the Messiah. I'm the light of the world, shall rise with healing in its wings.
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Metaphor after metaphor, and you think, oh, here's another one. You should go out leaping like calves from the stall.
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Happy, joyful, no cares, what a blessing. The sunrise shall visit us,
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Luke 1. Hear the Son of Righteousness shall rise. And it's cold, it's damp, it's foggy, it's raining, and the sun comes out and you think warmth.
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You think wonderful. And in a spiritual way, how much more? You see the picture. Jesus is coming back.
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The God of Israel has spoken. The rock of Israel has said to me, when one who rules justly over men, ruling them in fear, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like a rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
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Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have...
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Well, let's go back to Luke 1 and finish the chapter. Luke 1.
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Elijah comes. Who is Elijah, by the way? Jesus said, Elijah is
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John the Baptist. He comes in the spirit of Elijah. And now he says, just to read it again for review, verse 76 of Luke 1.
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And you child, he's talking about John the Baptist, what we call the prophet of the most high, proclaiming truth, proclaiming the law, proclaiming the only
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Savior. You'll go before the Lord to prepare His way, to give knowledge of salvation to His people.
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What's the most important knowledge of salvation you could have? It's about the Lord Jesus and how He gives forgiveness of sins, how sins are remitted, how they're gone, how they're far away.
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Notice what John the Baptist isn't gonna come to do. He's not gonna come to do what some people want Christians, what some
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Christians want Jesus to do. Oh, well, you know what? I came to Jesus and finances are still not good, my marriage isn't still great and everything else.
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Well, Jesus does help marriages and He does help finances, but He comes to save people from their sins.
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And what's the motivation behind that? Verse 78. I mean, it's so great, because of the tender mercy of our
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God, whereby the sunrise, that's Jesus, shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace.
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Because of the tender mercy of our God. There's the word mercy and it just means
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I look at someone and they need help and I wanna help, but there's tender mercy here. Now, just to get your attention as we wrap up the sermon, this is where we get our word guts.
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Tender is where we get our word guts. It means bowels. I don't know why this has happened in the last 10 years.
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I've heard more about gut health than I've ever heard in my life. We never heard about gut health when we were in Nebraska.
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I mean, I might say to somebody, I think you got a big gut, but I never heard about some gut health. I'm not saying
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I say that anymore. That was just in Nebraska. A lot of pagans in Nebraska, I want you to know. Gut health, tender mercy, bowels of compassion and mercy.
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It's words to say, you know what, from the inside, if God had a body, which the Father, of course, doesn't.
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God is a spirit. But it's language of accommodation where it's just that yearning, that feeling. And that feeling might come from the inside where you think,
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I'm just so sorry for Dallas and she's lost her lover and her husband. And you just kind of empathize and you feel it in your soul.
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That's the word here. This double divine description. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus.
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Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free. Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.
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Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. Spread his praise from shore to shore. How he loveth, ever loveth, changes never, never more.
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You're in darkness spiritually. What does John the Baptist come to do? To give light by showing the one who's the ultimate light and to guide our feet in the way of peace.
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Well, then he has a little PS here at the end. What's Zechariah's prophecy all about?
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It's about praise for the son, Jesus and praise for his son, the forerunner,
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John. And then there's a little PS. And now we have about 30 years condensed into one sentence.
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This is not teaching monasticism. This is not teaching, this is the spiritual way. This is teaching what the forerunner does, prophesied in the
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Old Testament, verse 80. And the child, John the Baptist, grew and became strong in spirit.
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And he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. You say, well, this is kind of nice,
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Pastor. I'm glad you showed me the birth narrative of John the Baptist and the birth narrative of Jesus. Without those two, there's no salvation.
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We're not looking at, oh, what's going on with this two children born? Your eternal destiny rests on these two.
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The one who would make way, preaching the law, and the other one, the gospel incarnate, the Lord Jesus.
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I wonder what Lewis Brown is doing right now. Dear Lord, thank you
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I got to die doing what I love, riding a bicycle. Dear Lord, I'm thankful for Dallas and her ministry to me for all these years.
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I'm thankful for my two boys. I'm thankful even though he had all those miscarriages with those little girls,
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I could come to Bethlehem Bible Church and hold those little girls. I have three girls and one son.
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He never wanted to hold Luke. I didn't know why. He did once in a while, but he loved to hold those little girls.
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Oh, maybe those are all things in the back of his mind, I don't know. But did you know that praise in heaven is all about the
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Lord Jesus? I know you know that. And that's what Lewis Brown is doing right now.
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Bow with me, please. Father in heaven, I look forward to that day with Lewis and all these dear Christian people here today.
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I pray that we can sing your praises face to face. I don't even understand,
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Lord, and I'm sure the congregation doesn't either, what sinless praise is like.
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What praise is like when we're not thinking about other things. Oh, to have no sin.
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We're thankful that the penalty's taken care of. And in the future, the presence of sin gone forever.
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We're thankful that you're a God of tender mercies. Thank you for sending Jesus, who visited us from on high.